Liberty and the art of walking

I have chosen this text so as to recall the good memory of professor David Jarrett, the garden man, who inspired me to thinking about gardening, and especially about the English garden, not simply in terms of its undeniable aesthetic beauty, but also as a space which both masks and reflects social, political and epistemological conflicts. The paper reflects the hours (and miles) of walking and talking which David and I used to spend together in “England’s green and pleasant Land.

Fenomenología de la imagen. De Nietzsche a Husserl hasta los inicios del psicoanálisis

In the following paper we analyze the different contributions that, from Nietzsche and Husserl to Freud’s studies, have served to trace a genealogy of image. This will allow us to examine what were the approaches that have dealt with the image, the connection points between different theories and epistemological conflicts of each position.En el siguiente artículo analizamos las diferentes aportaciones que, desde Nietzsche y Husserl hasta los estudios de Freud, han servido para trazar una genealogía de la imagen. Ello nos permitirá examinar cuáles han sido los enfoques que se han ocupado de la imagen, los puntos de conexión entre diferentes teorías y los conflictos epistemológicos de cada posicionamiento.In the following paper we analyze the different contributions that, from Nietzsche and Husserl to Freud’s studies, have served to trace a genealogy of image. This will allow us to examine what were the approaches that have dealt with the image, the connection points between different theories and epistemological conflicts of each position

Decolonizing the Notion of Mental illness and Healing in Nigeria, West Africa

Mental illness or socially incongruent behaviours and normalcy are conceptualized in radically different ways by culturally diverse groups. These perspectives are informed by paradigms and cosmologies that situate the human person in storied relation to the self, the constructed world and others. However, an epistemological imbalance privileges Western-inspired conceptions of mental health over non-Western or indigenous perspectives. This hegemonic situation serves to propagate a single story about mental health and distress, thereby casting alternative traditions in inferior light. Bolstered by critical psychology’s critique of mainstream psychology and its decidedly postcolonial and social constructivist themes, I address this situation by interrogating the assumptions behind the modernist beliefs of universality and superiority that undergird orthodox clinical praxis. By exploring irreducibly diverse and rich impressions of mental healing, this submission espouses a socioparticipatory and multicultural clinical praxis, challenges positivistic ideas of therapeutic neutrality in Western psychotherapy, presents ‘evidence’ for the effectiveness of indigenous healing traditions and the notional integrity of culturebound ‘illnesses’, and recommends the legitimacy of attendant alleviative practices. Finally, I advocate a re-imagination of the therapeutic landscape – a rethink that addresses the marginalization of indigenous healing systems, and promotes a polyvocality of healing praxis in the Nigerian mental health terrai

'It was a real good show': the ultrasound scan, fathers and the power of visual knowledge

Drawing on an ethnographic study of the transition to contemporary British fatherhood, this paper discusses men's experiences of the ultrasound scan. Seeing the baby on the screen seemed to herald an escalation of their awareness of the baby, reinforcing its reality. Visual knowledge, as opposed to other forms of knowledge, therefore became a primary means of knowing the baby. In this paper I provide a theoretical analysis of men's empirical accounts of seeing the baby during the ultrasound scan. After a description of method, I set the context by presenting data to illustrate the significance of the ultrasound within men's pregnancy experience. The paper then sets up the theoretical foundations for an analysis of these accounts by first, examining the development of the primacy of vision within medicine and secondly, discussing the illumination of the body interior, initially by dissection but now via contemporary technologies of vision including ultrasound. The final section, draws upon further data and discusses how ultrasound can be constructed as simultaneously both a medical and a social event with the potential to generate epistemological conflicts

Educating Students With Learning Difficulties in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Identification of and services for students with learning disabilities share both similarities and differences across cultures, including the term(s) used to label and subsequently provide services for these students. Learning disabilities, in Arabic, translates to “learning difficulties.” This column provides a brief overview of the current educational system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia including the identification and services available for students with learning difficulties and concludes with future directions. Much opportunity remains for supporting the needs of students with learning difficulties in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Responding to the Religious Reasons of Others: Resonance and Non-Reducitve Religious Pluralism

Call a belief ”non-negotiable’ if one cannot abandon the belief without the abandonment of one’s religious perspective. Although non-negotiable beliefs can logically exclude other perspectives, a non-reductive approach to religious pluralism can help to create a space within which the non- negotiable beliefs of others that contradict one’s own non-negotiable beliefs can be appreciated and understood as playing a justificatory role for the other. The appreciation of these beliefs through cognitive resonance plays a crucial role to enable the understanding of those who hold other perspectives. epistemological and spiritual consequences of this claim are explored

Educational research today: in search of legitimation

Current educational research must overcome serious epistemological conflicts that condition its development: incommensurability, difficulty of integration, relativism, among others. These questions arise because this research has justified its field and practice based on its own historicity. The presence of these problems has led to a task of seeking legitimacy; however, this legitimation continues to be based on the historicity of research and its productions. In this way, the research is enveloped in a circle from which it cannot leave unless the eyes of the researchers begin to transcend the field itself and its own practice

A ‘Gift’ of Neoliberalism: English as the Language of Instruction in the GCC

Barnawi’s Neoliberalism and English Language Education Policies in the Arabian Gulf (2018) addresses language of instruction policies in the six Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, U.A.E., Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Barnawi takes the reader through a comparison of national language policies throughout the Gulf. He presents the neoliberal Western ideological roots of these policies and the resulting clash with traditional Islamic worldviews. Further pointing out that Gulf countries seek to transform their economies from oil-based to knowledge-based economies and in doing so, English language skills have become commodified and serve as a means to guaranteed economic prosperity.  However, Barnawi does not offer an alternative vision to English medium instruction (EMI) for the reader to consider. Moreover, Barnawi has not successfully argued that the adoption of English language will by default lead to the adoption of Western cultural norms.  Missing from the analysis is an alternative framework that advocates for a culturally relevant education policy which addresses the needs of a citizenry who must be both globally competent and culturally grounded

Dissensus in Deaf Research: Scaffolding the Conflicts of Theory and Practice

Value conflicts surrounding deafness—disagreements about senses, cognition, language, and power—obscure research which connect them. The lack of empirical theory about how and why deaf educators teach constrains researchers and educators who seek to reform the field and exacerbates problems related to deaf learning. Researchers and pedagogues invested in deaf education are divided by conflicts of value. Axiological differences result in a nearly insurmountable gap between researchers and practitioners (Easterbrooks, 2017, p. 25 in Cawthon & Garberoglio, 2017). This presentation offers a critical synthesis of the literature on deaf education pedagogy research and focuses on synthesizing issues related to visual discourses and phenomena in teaching practice. Themes emerging from the study evince crucial ruptures in the values, ethics, and aesthetics of deaf research which preclude progress. Conflicts arise from diverse professional orientations, disciplinary foci, and paradigmatic variations but are united by the common problems of teaching deaf students and the promising potentiality of deaf-centric research on visual pedagogy. This study is primarily based on a critical literature review which preceded a two-year multi-method (grounded theory and case study) qualitative study (which is in progress at present). In the early 1900s, Vygotsky described deaf pedagogy as unsystematic and implored change. One hundred years later, Swanwick and Marschark (2010) call our work unsuccessful. Dissensus is manifest in theory’s obstruction; however, dissensus gives clarity relative to the agonistic problems of axiology—the ethics and aesthetics of power in deaf education. Deaf educational theorists need to develop ways to decipher the how and why of deaf visual pedagogy (Cawthon & Garberglio, 2017; p. ix). Deaf social theory enhances how researchers understand vision in learning; however, in spite of advancement, deaf pedagogy theory is underdeveloped (Lang, et al. 1993; Thoutenhoofd, 2010). By synthesizing the following concepts (deaf axiology, the biosocial paradigm, deaf visual pedagogy) I address the following problems: There is no contemporary theory to describe the unified deaf biosocial ecology, no extant theory to productively analyze conflict on vision, or foreground axiology in decision-making, or centralize vision as a strategy to transform power (Bauman & Murray, 2014; Beal-Alvarez, 2017; Fernandes & Myers, 2010; Friedner 2010). There is no systematic theory, no standard toolkit of analytic techniques, or generalized empirical approach. Cawthon and Garberoglio (2017) summarize: “without an adequate research base, there cannot be effective practice. Without an understanding of the needs in deaf education, there cannot be research that supports effective practice. (p. xii). This proposal directly works toward the year\u27s theme: Connecting the Dots. The project focuses on clarifying the issues that disconnect researchers from teachers and from deaf individuals and society more broadly. Introducing the concept of Deaf Axiology Deaf visual pedagogy and the biosocial paradigm of deaf research to the established corpus of deaf-centric philosophy on teaching (e.g. deaf epistemology and deaf ontology, deaf gains in research on teaching) allows for the development of new critical lexicon to productively address and resolve longstanding conflicts of our field. The ultimate goals of the project include opening trans-disciplinary conversations among stakeholders and enhancing the practices of deaf education teacher-educators