Afterword : Beyond the naïve mantra of criticality in education (research)?

In this chapter Chen and Dervin suggest moving beyond a simplistic mantra of criticality, explaining that claiming and performing criticality does not mean one is really critical in (education) research. The authors start by referring to a group of Finnish students’ reflections about interculturality, for whom criticality meant: asking questions, questioning, reconsidering one’s assumptions, and unthinking. Chen and Dervin claim that, for other students, anywhere else in the world or from a different major at the same university, criticality might mean the same or something different. They thus advocate turning one’s attention to the question whose criticality can assess criticality? They also suggest an open-ended perspective whereby educators and researchers must accept contradictions, debates, and the symbolic violence of being questioned, of having their criticality critiqued. For the authors, this also means thinking for oneself to avoid being enslaved by pet theories, gurus and analytical stereotypes (amongst others) and to stop thinking that ‘one’s’ criticality is better than others’.Peer reviewe

Phase detection based on a single parity check code for low SNR applications

The improvement of carrier phase synchronization through the use of channel decoding information has been recently widely studied. However, an initial synchronization step is necessary prior to the first decoding iteration. When the phase to estimate is not constant (due to frequency error or phase noise), this first step is problematic on relatively long coded words. In this paper we propose to add a short single parity-check code to the transmission scheme for the synchronization purpose. The proposed phase detector is based on the soft symbol decoding of the additional code. Our simulation results show that the proposed synchronization scheme outperforms the classical non data-aided and decision directed algorithms for continuous transmissions with 8PSK modulation, in presence of phase noise. It allows indeed to reduce the phase jitter in considerable proportions. Requiring few additional complexity, it seems well adapted to satellite continuous transmissions.De nombreuses études ont récemment montré l'avantage que l'on peut tirer du décodage canal pour l'amélioration de la synchronisation de phase porteuse à faible rapport signal à bruit. Lorsque la phase à estimer varie au cours du temps (erreur de fréquence, bruit de phase), l'estimation de la phase avant la première étape de décodage pose toutefois problème lorsque les mots de code sont longs. Nous proposons ici un algorithme de synchronisation fondé sur l'introduction d'un code de parité simple et court. Nous montrons que pour une transmission continue et une modulation MDP8, le détecteur proposé permet de réduire sensiblement la gigue de phase à très faible point de fonctionnement et en présence de bruit de phase, par rapport aux algorithmes classiques. De faible complexité, il apparait notamment bien adapté au contexte des télécommunications par satellite

Adaptive Appointment Systems with Patient Preferences

Patients\u27 satisfaction with an appointment system when they attempt to book a nonurgent appointment is affected by their ability to book with a doctor of choice and to book an appointment at a convenient time of day. For medical conditions requiring urgent attention, patients want quick access to a familiar physician. For such instances, it is important for clinics to have open slots that allow same-day (urgent) access. A major challenge when designing outpatient appointment systems is the difficulty of matching randomly arriving patients\u27 booking requests with physicians\u27 available slots in a manner that maximizes patients\u27 satisfaction as well as clinics\u27 revenues. What makes this problem difficult is that booking preferences are not tracked, may differ from one patient to another, and may change over time. This paper describes a framework for the design of the next generation of appointment systems that dynamically learn and update patients\u27 preferences and use this information to improve booking decisions. Analytical results leading to a partial characterization of an optimal booking policy are presented. Examples show that heuristic decision rules, based on this characterization, perform well and reveal insights about trade-offs among a variety of performance metrics important to clinic managers

Intercultural ethics: questions of methods in language and intercultural communication

This paper explores how questions of ethics and questions of method are intertwined and unavoidable in any serious study of language and intercultural communication. It argues that the focus on difference and solution orientations to intercultural conflict has been a fundamental driver for theory, data collection and methods in the field. These approaches, the paper argues, have created a considerable consciousness raising industry, with methods, trainings and ‘critical incidents’, which ultimately focus intellectual energy in areas which may be productive in terms of courses and publications but which have a problematic basis in their ethical terrain. Dieser Artikel untersucht wie ethische und methodische Fragen nicht nur ineinander greifen, sondern in keiner ernstzunehmenden Studie ueber Sprache und interkulturelle Kommunikation ausgelassen werden duerfen. Es wird hier argumentiert, dass der Schwerpunkt auf Verschiedenheit und Problemorientierung im interkulturellen Konflikt einen wesentlichen Einfluss auf theoretische Entwicklungen, Datenerhebung und Methoden in diesem Bereich hatte. Dieser Artikel legt auch dar, wie diese Ansaetze eine betraechtliche ‘Bewusstseinsbildungs – Branche' erzeugt haben, mit Methoden, Trainings, und ‘kritischen Interaktionssituationen’, welche letztendlich allen intellektuellen Arbeitseifer auf Bereiche konzentriert hat, die zwar ertragreich sind in Bezug auf Kurse und Publikationen, jedoch eine problematische Grundlage im ethischen Bereich aufweisen

Chinese overseas doctoral student narratives of intercultural adaptation

This study aims to explore how Chinese overseas doctoral students adjust to a different academic, social and cultural environment, using Giddens’ theoretical framework of self-identity (1991). The findings indicate the participants proactively used various coping strategies in meeting challenges, and adapting to new social environments. Continuity and stability of self-identity were achieved either culturally or academically through self-reflexivity, autonomy, creativity, authenticity, and reliance on an ontological identity. The result is to challenge the grand narrative of essentialised “problematic Chinese learners”

Framing interculturality: a corpus-based analysis of on-line promotional discourse of higher education intercultural communication courses

This paper examines how intercultural communication (ICC) and the notion of culture are framed in on-line promotional discourse of higher education intercultural communication courses. It analyses a specialised corpus comprised of 14,842 words from 43 course websites of master’s programmes in intercultural communication in the UK and the US—internationally, the two largest providers of such programmes. Through combining corpus tools with a ‘situated meaning’ approach, the analysis reveals that while a small number of courses acknowledge cultural ‘complexity’, culture is still very often reduced to an essentialised and static notion, despite growing criticism against such an approach in ICC literature. Intercultural communication is valorised as a combination of desirable skills and knowledge conducive to effective communication of different cultural groups and for those working in international arenas. Significant differences between the UK and US courses are identified with regard to the extent of associations with diversity-related social categories. The lack of interpretive, critical and constructivist positions on culture in promotional discourse is discussed in the context of neoliberal discourse and the current thinking towards professional competences dominant in Britain, North America, and other parts of the world