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Listening to the voices of Religious Education professionals: the relationship between technology and Religious Education
No full textAcross Europe, more or less simultaneously, the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated (and stimulated) the use and development of technology in education settings, as new ways of teaching and learning had to be created in response to practical constraints introduced by temporary school closures. Although a sizeable body of research has examined this phenomenon from a range of perspectives in education, considerably less research has been conducted in the context of Religious Education. The current study aims to listen to 16 Religious Education professionals in Europe as they reflect upon and critically consider their experiences of technology during the pandemic and its implications for both present and future Religious Education. Content analyses identified eight inter-related areas of interest and concern for participants, which include technology and Religious Education, alongside wellbeing, life questions, understanding Religious Education, teachers’ situation, relationships, social aspects and wider context. Results show that the Religious Education professionals held strong views about the use of technology in Religious Education, including the challenges and opportunities presented in comparison with in-person teaching practices. Four areas of interest emerge, which are concerned with: effects on relationships; potential for teaching and learning; attitudes to online settings; and (un)changed understandings of RE
The Lived Experiences of BAME students on White Majority Campuses in the UK – Can You See Me?,
No full textThe population of the UK has been diverse for many years. As the populations of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups have increased so have the legal protections and other securities afforded to these groups. However, students from diverse backgrounds remain under-represented in HE and UK higher education and academia remains overwhelmingly White (Bhopal and Pitkin, 2019; Tate and Page, 2018). This White-centric perspective informs and determines the structures, policies and organisation of HE, that can produce outcomes including, for example, the ‘whitewashing’ and exclusion of minority students in predominantly White spaces or some groups being disadvantaged by the education system. Both Peart (2013) and Gilborn (2008) have argued that some inequalities are so structurally ingrained that failure and marginalisation of certain groups is almost inevitable - Black students appear to be one such group. While all universities openly state their support for diversity on campus, contrary to such claims some students from BAME backgrounds do not always feel included in university life and, significantly, believe they experience a range of adverse outcomes in comparison to their White peers. This article provides an exploration into the lived experiences of BAME students in a majority White university campus in the United Kingdo
Engaging in Structural Cultural Change
No full textEmbracing diversity and celebrating difference remains an elusive aspiration for some universities with history, tradition and normalised culture acting collectively to position minority groups at the fringes of the organization. As a consequence of the Macpherson Report (1999) Universities must provide an appropriate and professional service to people which should not be adversely influenced by their colour, culture, or ethnic origin. Universities must also uphold strengthened legal protections provided to minoritized ethnic populations. Specifically, the Equality Act 2010 requires publicly funded organizations to meet the distinctive cultural needs of minority groups and the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) obliges organizations to ‘improve society and promote equality in every aspect of their day-to-day business’ (Equality and Human Rights Commission 2022). All Universities are required to meet this obligation irrespective of the numbers of ethnic minority students who attend any given institution. The geographical location of the organization and racial demographic of leadership teams may create a monolithic approach to diversity, supporting colour-blindness and further exasperating inequality. Ray (2019: 12) suggests that organizations should assume they are ‘contributing to racial inequality unless the data shows otherwise’ and Rollock (2018: 315) states that in some learning environments ‘course content dismisses or subjugates their identity or history’ therefore, minority students are immediately and automatically disadvantaged through casual alienation processes. This research explored how a group of White staff experienced engaging in active cultural change designed to disrupt assumed narratives about race by scrutinising their responses to this development. Using ‘The Black History Month moment to launch’ (Bernard 2017: 387) conversations and to revisit current provision, this project investigated what it means to occupy a shared space which values diversity and celebrates difference
BOOK REVIEW: 'Boxing, Narrative and Culture: Critical Perspectives' edited by Sarah Crews & P. Solomon Lennox
No full textThe Republican House Divided: Civil War Memory, Civil Rights, and the Transformation of the GOP
No full textHow the Republican Party transformed from the Party of Lincoln to the Party of Lee
The Republican House Divided is the first comprehensive study of the relationships between the Republican Party and Civil War memory in the twentieth century. Tim Galsworthy reveals how rival Republicans deployed Civil War memory to support, oppose, and ultimately shape the GOP's transformation, during the civil rights era, into a racially conservative party. Drawing on extensive archival research, Galsworthy underlines how references to the past were vitally important to Republican Party politicians as they negotiated their party's positions toward African American civil rights and attempted to appeal to erstwhile white Southern Democrats. The Republican House Divided is a timely work, offering insight into how the "Party of Lincoln" started on the road to becoming the GOP of today
Home Away from Home? Life on British Tactical Bases in Afghanistan
No full textWhen the UK Armed Forces deploy overseas, they operate out of static locations known as operational bases. Historically and through to the present day, troops on deployment engage with a range of ‘placemaking’ activities, including displaying photos, creating murals, and building furniture. The British military also provide troops abroad Deployed Welfare Package, including radio, TVs, and live entertainment. Previous research indicates that by creating a ‘home away from home’, tactical bases provide both a physical and mental sanctuary for American troops. Derwin Gregory shows that certain ‘home’ comforts can be detrimental to the operational efficiency of deployed British troops, whilst placemaking activities merely provided a goal-oriented activity to prevent boredom
A Labor of Love: WALL-E's Redemption
No full textInaugurated into the Criterion Collection in 2022 this paper re-examines some of the initial responses to the 2008 Disney-Pixar animated film, WALL-E. The movie received a mixed reception, largely celebrated (but occasionally viewed as “too leftist” by others) for its environmental, anti-capitalist message by many public critics, yet disparaged or dismissed as being superficially empty, shallow, and hollow in academic circles. Labor has been the focus of some academic criticism of the film, particularly as it relates to commoditisation, but this paper recontextualises labor not with capitalism, but with love. By viewing the film through the dynamic of labor and love, larger questions are raised on humanity’s relationship to both. As such, WALL-E the robot exhibits Biblical qualities: his relationship with labor and manual work is reminiscent of Adam, and his relationship with love reflects the salvific dimensions of redemption and sacrifice. Thus WALL-E the film and WALL-E the robot can be viewed Christologically
Who books the tickets for visitors to innovative installations and events in cathedrals? Exploring the psychological type profile of the gatekeepers
No full textPrevious research concerned with the psychographic segmentation of cathedral visitors, employing psychological type theory has drawn attention both to the psychological types under-represented among cathedral visitors and to the capacity of an innovative event to widen the psychographic appeal of cathedrals. This study tests the thesis that the requirement for advanced online booking to attend an innovative installation may nonetheless further delimit the psychographic appeal. This thesis was supported by 778 individuals booking online to attend a Luxmuralis installation in Liverpool Cathedral who completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales. Among this constituency there was under-representation of perceiving types and over-representation of the Epimethean temperament (SJ)
Introducing the New Indices of God Images (NIGI): Distinguishing between God of Grace and God of Law
No full textBuilding on a stream of research initiated by Benson and Spilka (1973) and drawing on insights afforded by empirical theology, the present study introduces the New Indices of God Images (NIGI) designed to distinguish between two divergent theological concepts of God, construed as God of Grace and God of Law, and each operationalised by brief three-item scales. Data provided by 5,269 students between the ages of 13 and 15 years who professed belief in God demonstrated good levels of internal consistency reliability for these two orthogonal measures. Construct validity for the two measures was established alongside measures of self-esteem (images of self) and of empathy (images of others). Higher scores on the Index of God of Grace were associated with higher self-esteem and higher empathy. Higher scores on the Index of God of Law were associated with lower self-esteem and lower empathy
Sarah Austin's Transnational Advocacy For National Education In Nineteenth-Century Europe
No full textThis article examines the pioneering work of the British writer Sarah Austin (née Taylor, 1793-1867) who, in the nineteenth century, asserted her intellectual and political agency as a translator. A highly acclaimed interpreter of innovative philosophical and scholarly texts originally produced in French and German, Austin ascertained the high-level competence and agency crucial to producing a text for monolingual readers and the significant role that translation plays in stimulating social, political, and cultural change. Notably, translation skills were at the basis of her enduring contribution to shaping the discourse on national education in nineteenth-century Britain, which started with her translation into English of Victor Cousin’s Rapport sur l’État de l’instruction publique dans quelques pays de l’Allemagne et particulièrement en Prusse (1833). This article reclaims her engagement with intellectual and political debates on compulsory education, as a transnational, plurilingual advocate for primary education, and demonstrates how translation activism sustains archival research that recovers women’s agency and revises historiographies of translation studies. It focuses on Austin’s Report on The State of Public Instruction in Prussia (1834) together with On National Education (1839) and Two Letters on Girls’ Schools and on the Training of Working Women (1857) to show how, in the nineteenth century, Austin understands that, in the words of Patricia Hill Collins, “honing skills of translation constitutes both an important intellectual challenge and a political necessity” (in Castro and Ergun 2017, p. xii). In Women and Education, 1800-1980 (2004), Jane Martin and Joyce Goodman claim a place for Austin in the British history of education. This article asserts her innovative contribution with her distinctive act of cross-cultural literary production to widen our understanding of her transnational legacy as an advocate of primary education by examining specifically her translation theory and practice along with her writing on national education and women’s education