Developing a Collaborative Qualitative Research Project Across Borders: Issues and Dilemmas

International collaborative research often refers to collaboration among the researchers and the participants. Few studies investigate the collaborative process among the researchers themselves. Assumptions about the qualitative research process, institutional requirements, and even epistemological orientations, are pervasive. Our experience conducting an empirical research study as a collaborative effort amongst a research team in Mexico and the United States challenged and transformed our assumptions about collaborative qualitative research in terms of organizational compatibility: (a) understanding research perspective and themes, (b) interpreting rules and regulations (c) physical travel between countries, and (d) how research products are counted. We address each assumption through a dialogue, including how our collaborative research diverged from the assumption and how this divergence has impacted our own practice

Defining a Practicum in Applied Linguistics through Duoethnography to Comply with the National Postgraduate Audit Culture in Mexico

In this article, we attempt to conciliate the issues of an audit culture that surround the postgraduate programs in Mexico through the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT) with highly flexible definition of the course using duoethnography. The goal being to satisfy national requirements yet retain freedom in applied research in English as a foreign language teaching. This is done through an intense process of data recycling with the student participants in a semester-long analysis. This analysis also involved a continuous editing and reediting process to try and connect all the participants’ autobiographical dots of the course to arrive at a definition

ESL writing in the University of Guanajuato : the struggle to enter a discourse community

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

De la retórica del contraste a las percepciones de identidad: escritura académica en inglés en México central.

This research looks at two students at the end of a four year period in academic writing as a second language using open interviews and textual analysis of academic papers. While the initial focus of the research was on the development of rhetorical features in academic texts, issues more oriented to identity construction emerged through the data analysis, implying that long term academic writing in a second language may be more akin to literacy development. The results seem to show that while the participants express a strong identity with English as writers, the actual writing is more in tune with conventions of Spanish. This suggests an apparent conflict of English as a tool for writing and Spanish as the language of the individual.Esta investigación estudia la redacción académica en una lengua extranjera de dos alumnos en un período de cuatro años, utilizando entrevistas abiertas y análisis de ensayos académicos. Aunque el enfoque inicial de la investigación era del desarrollo de herramientas retóricas en textos académicos, algunos problemas relacionados con la construcción identitaria emergieron a través del análisis de los datos, lo cual podría indicar que el desarrollo a largo plazo de redacción académica en una segunda lengua puede estar más vinculado con lecto-escritura. Los resultados parecen mostrar que mientras los participantes expresan una fuerte identificación con el inglés, su escritura está más en sintonía con las convenciones de español. Esto sugiere un aparente conflicto con el inglés como herramienta de redacción y el español como lengua de expresión del individuo

Hybrid identity in academic writing: “are there two of me?”

This paper explores the construction of identity in an academic learning environment in Central Mexico, and shows how identity may be linked to non-language factors such as emotions or family. These issues are associated with elements of hybrid identity. To analyze this we draw on language choice as a tool used for the construction of identity and for showcasing and defending identity through exploratory interviews with the bilingual students and teachers. The results draw our attention towards the role of non-linguistic variables and their relationship to emotional and contextual issues that influence how academic writing occurs within the school confines, where hybrid identities may be constructed for academic purposes.Este artículo explora la construcción de identidad en un medio de aprendizaje en el centro de México y muestra cómo la identidad puede estar relacionada con factores no lingüísticos, como las emociones o la familia. Estos factores están asociados con aspectos de identidad híbrida. Para analizar esto, nos basamos en la elección de lengua del usuario como una herramienta para la construcción de la identidad y para ilustrar y defender la identidad en entrevistas a fondo con alumnos y maestros bilingües. Los resultados atraen nuestra atención hacia el papel de variables no lingüísticas y su relación con factores emocionales y contextuales que influyen en la manera como ocurre la redacción en segunda lengua en la escuela, en donde las identidades híbridas pueden ser construidas para propósitos académicos

Teaching with Feminist Judgments: A Global Conversation

This conversational-style essay is an exchange among fourteen professors—representing thirteen universities across five countries—with experience teaching with feminist judgments. Feminist judgments are ‘shadow’ court decisions rewritten from a feminist perspective, using only the precedent in effect and the facts known at the time of the original decision. Scholars in Canada, England, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Ireland, India, and Mexico have published (or are currently producing) written collections of feminist judgments that demonstrate how feminist perspectives could have changed the legal reasoning or outcome (or both) in important legal cases. This essay begins to explore the vast pedagogical potential of feminist judgments. The contributors to this conversation describe how they use feminist judgments in the classroom; how students have responded to the judgments; how the professors achieve specific learning objectives through teaching with feminist judgments; and how working with feminist judgments—whether studying them, writing them, or both—can help students excavate the multiple social, political, economic, and even personal factors that influence the development of legal rules, structures, and institutions. The primary takeaway of the essay is that feminist judgments are a uniquely enriching pedagogical tool that can broaden the learning experience. Feminist judgments invite future lawyers, and indeed any reader, to re-imagine what the law is, what the law can be, and how to make the law more responsive to the needs of all people

Students and teachers’ reasons for using the first language within the foreign language classroom (french and english) in central mexico

The present study explores the use of the first language in a context of foreign language teaching. This qualitative research presents the classroom practice and points of view of French and English teachers and students within a public educational institute in central Mexico using the techniques of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results show that teachers and the majority of students perceive the use of the first language as positive and part of the teaching and learning process. A small number of students do not like the use of the first language in the classroom and prefer that their teachers use the target language only. La presente investigación explora el uso de la lengua materna en un contexto de enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. Esta investigación cualitativa presenta la práctica docente y los puntos de vista de maestros y alumnos de francés e inglés en el contexto de una universidad pública del centro de México, mediante el uso de las técnicas del cuestionario y la entrevista semiestructurada. Los resultados muestran que tanto los maestros como la mayoría de los alumnos perciben el uso de la lengua materna como algo positivo en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje. Un número reducido de estudiantes rechaza el uso de la lengua materna y prefiere que su clase de lengua extranjera sea dirigida exclusivamente en la lengua meta. Palabras clave: investigación cualitativa, puntos de vista de alumnos y maestros, uso de la lengua materna

pHLIP ICG for Delineation of Tumors and Blood Flow during Fluorescence-Guided Surgery

Fluorescence imaging has seen enduring use in blood flow visualization and is now finding a new range of applications in image-guided surgery. In this paper, we report a translational study of a new fluorescent agent for use in surgery, pHLIP ICG, where ICG (indocyanine green) is a surgical fluorescent dye used widely for imaging blood flow. We studied pHLIP ICG interaction with the cell membrane lipid bilayer, the pharmacology and toxicology in vitro and in vivo (mice and dogs), and the biodistribution and clearance of pHLIP ICG in mice. The pHLIP ICG tumor targeting and imaging efficacy studies were carried out in several murine and human mouse tumor models. Blood vessels were imaged in mice and pigs. Clinical Stryker imaging instruments for endoscopy and open surgery were used in the study. Intravenously administered pHLIP ICG exhibits a multi-hour circulation half-life, offering protracted delineation of vasculature. As it clears from the blood, pHLIP ICG targets tumors and tumor stroma, marking them for surgical removal. pHLIP ICG is non-toxic, marks blood flow for hours after injection, and effectively delineates tumors for improved resection on the day after administration