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Visions of Damietta: St. Francis, Robert Grosseteste, and the Crusades, 1219-1253
No full textThis paper determines Bishop Robert Grosseteste's († 1253) attitude to the crusades of the early thirteenth century by contextualizing them in light of his knowledge of St. Francis at Damietta in 1219. By establishing Grosseteste’s knowledge of the Fifth Crusade, and St. Francis’s actions therein, through his own corpus and letters, it is possible to provide more clarity on his own attitude and response to subsequent crusading movements, particularly the Seventh Crusade. In addition to Franciscan ideals, this paper also charts Grosseteste's relationship with two knights in particular; Richard Siward, and Richard of Cornwall, brother of Henry III, and re-examines Grosseteste's defense of Siward in 1236. By chronologically charting Grosseteste's gradual disillusionment with the crusades this paper identifies a number of influencing factors that determined this disillusionment, from personal relationships with individual knights to overarching abuses of the Church and Crown
Quantitative evaluation of The Imagineerium education project by students: Introducing the Trowsdale Index of Confidence in Experiential Learning (TICEL)
No full textThe Imagineerium is an arts and engineering based curriculum project designed to enhance student confidence in learning. This study reports on the development of the Trowsdale Index of Confidence in Experiential Learning, an instrument designed to conceptualise and operationalise a four-component model of confidence in experiential learning appropriate for upper primary school students, embracing confidence in creativity, confidence in competence, confidence in collaboration, and confidence in learning. Data provided by 140 9- to 10-year-old students both before and after participating in the ten-week programme, demonstrated a significant increase in scores on this measurement at time two, although there was no increase in scores on a control variable hypothesised not to be influenced by the intervention
Predictors of perceived changes in psychological wellbeing among clergy in the USA serving in the Episcopal Church during the 2021 Covid-19 pandemic
No full textApplying the balanced affect model of clergy psychological wellbeing, as conceptualised by the Francis Burnout Inventory (FBI) and operationalised by The Index of Balanced Affect Change (TIBACh), this study explored the impact of seven sets of variables on individual differences in perceived changes in positive affect and negative affect among 737 clergy in the USA serving in the Episcopal Church during the Covid-19 pandemic. The seven sets of variables were: personal, psychological, contextual, ministry-related, church orientation, theological stance, and attitudinal. The data supported the balanced affect model of clergy psychological wellbeing by demonstrating how different variables predicted individual differences in negative affect and in positive affect. For example, clergywomen showed no differences from clergymen in terms of positive affect, but higher levels of negative affect; active self-supporting and retired clergy showed no differences from stipendiary clergy in terms of positive affect, but lower levels of negative affect; Evangelical clergy showed no differences in negative affect, but higher levels in positive affect. The balanced affect model provides insights into how clergy may be better supported during a pandemic
Grandad's Army: The North Scarle Signal's Platoon notebook
No full textA discussion of a notebook used by the North Scarle Home Guard in the Second World War
Intellectual freedom and social responsibility in library and information science: A reconciliation
No full textThis article presents a reconciliation of intellectual freedom and social responsibility in library and information science (LIS). The conflict between traditional intellectual freedom and social advocacy, integral to understanding a range of issues in LIS ethics, juxtaposes a laissez-faire freedom with social intervention. This study, by contrast, engages with conceptions of freedom within philosophical and LIS literatures, presenting a descriptive conceptualisation of both values through the common rubric of freedom. This method, influenced by the later philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, echoes Solove’s (2002) conceptualisation of privacy and provides a conceptual clarity lacking in existing LIS literature. This clarity, it is argued, suggests a path of reconciliation for both values. The argument unfolds in three stages. First, the prominent conception of intellectual freedom within LIS represents an “anti-censorship” conception. This conception, restricted to passive physical accessibility, conflicts with literature promoting social responsibility. Second, an analysis of freedom within philosophical literature picks out three conceptions: negative, positive and republican. These conceptions, it is argued, translate to LIS literature and represent a full spectrum of viewpoints within the “intellectual freedom vs social responsibility” debate. Five conceptions in LIS are identified: “negative conservative”, “negative progressive”, “content neutral”, “republican” and “freedom as moral action”. The conflict within the “intellectual freedom vs social responsibility” debate, therefore, represents conflict between conceptions of freedom. Third, this insight paves the way for a reconciliation that tempers and ameliorates the tension between both values. Dimova-Cookson’s (2003) “producer-recipient” model suggests how a negative intellectual freedom and a positive social responsibility may sit together in a symbiotic relationship. This understanding, illustrated by practical case studies, provides a fresh perspective on the complex interaction of both values within the LIS profession
Testing the Moral Foundations Questionnaire within a Muslim society: a study among young adults in Pakistan
No full textThis paper examines the psychometric properties of the 30-item Moral Foundations Questionnaire among a sample of 370 young adults between the ages of 18 and 26 years who were born in Punjab and who had lived there since their birth. Initial analyses did not support the internal consistency reliability of the five scales of moral predispositions proposed by this measure. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis identified two factors that distinguished not between areas of moral predisposition, but between the two styles of items (relevance and judgement), each of which included all five predispositions. Correlations with personal religiosity suggested that the scale comprising 12 judgement items (α = .88) was susceptible to religious sentiment, but that the scale comprising 12 relevance items (α = .89) was not. The scale of 12 relevance items is commended for further testing and application within Muslim societies
Rethinking – and maybe abolishing - graduations
No full textIf higher education is a kind of game, and graduation represents winning it, Sunny Dhillon argues that the rules of that game need to change
Touchscreens can promote infant object-interlocutor reference switching
No full textWe re-examine whether the type of object played with influences parent-infant joint attention. A within-participants comparison of 24 parent-9-month-old dyads, used head-mounted eye-tracking to measure parental naming and infant attention during play with touchscreen apps on a
touchscreen tablet or matched interactive toys. Infants engaged in sustained attention more to the toy than the tablet. Parents named objects less in toy play. Infants exhibited more gaze shifts between the object and their parent during tablet play. Contrasting previous studies, these findings suggest that joint tablet play can be more interactive than with toys, and raise questions about the recommendation that infants should not be exposed at all to such technology
Equality and Diversity and Inclusive Practice: Significance for Organisations and Individuals
No full textThrough examining selected pivotal events and using the lens of UK legislation, this chapter considers how historical events have highlighted specific inequalities, and how often grass-roots campaigns have pushed forward debates, forcing action. Taking three specific foci, disability, gender and race, the chapter explores how individuals and organisations can take ownership and challenge persistent inequalities to produce structural and material changes, governed by an ideology of universal fairness
