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Non-Binary Narration: The Potential of Point of View in Young Adult Novels with Genderqueer Characters
Full text linkNarratologist Susan S. Lanser argues ‘that questions of representation, and especially of queer representation, are as much questions of form as of content’ (2015, p. 24). As marginalised identities, such as those under the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, are increasingly represented in fiction for young audiences, the creative methods authors use to construct these representations warrant investigation. In this article, I examine how non-binary gender identity is depicted in a corpus of contemporary young adult (YA) novels, and how the authors of these texts use narrative voice and point of view (POV) to construct, confirm, and validate their characters’ non-binary identifications. First, I discuss the YA staple of first-person perspective and how this narration technique overlaps with Talia Bettcher’s concept of ‘first-person authority’ (2009). Second, I turn to the less-common close third-person narration, and what visible pronouns and names may offer to a narrative of gender affirmation. Third, and finally, I discuss the underexplored realm of omniscient third-person narration and its potential to affirm queer gender by using the mythic ‘voice of god’ (Fludernik 2009). These different voice techniques create different narrative effects and offer their own risks and benefits, making narration a valuable site for exploring the varied, evolving ways that queer gender identity is constructed in the storyworlds of contemporary YA
Rethinking Authenticity, Legitimacy, and Agency in the Context of the Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak Project
Full text linkThis discussion, stemming from our keynote address at 2022 ACLAR Biennial Conference, brings together researchers and emerging scholars from the Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak project, a community-driven research project that shares knowledge about Rocky Cree culture in northern Manitoba, Canada, through historical picture books, picture book apps, and teachers’ guides. Using this project as a case study, we reflect on the three themes of the 14th Biennial ACLAR Conference: legitimacy, authenticity, and agency. In particular, we trouble the concept of authenticity and question its usefulness for the kind of cross-cultural research that we are undertaking in the project. We document our processes for working with oral stories and translating these into written texts. We outline the community and scholarly research that grounds the textual, pictorial, and auditory representations of the picture books and apps we produce, and propose that the aspiration to historical, cultural, geographical, and linguistic accuracy at the centre of our project is a more enabling objective than a search for authenticity is. We also discuss how the curriculum materials we develop seek to connect young readers with Rocky Cree culture and use the concepts of agency and entanglement to think through these connections. The final part of this discussion considers a gathering on Rocky Cree culture that academic researchers and Rocky Cree community researchers and knowledge keepers organized collaboratively. Not only was our project initiated by Rocky Cree community members, but, as this gathering demonstrates, it also assumes an ongoing relationship with these communities
A Systematic Literature Review of Teaching Employability: A focus on soft skills
Full text linkEmployability skills are important to be successful in any job in the job market. Colleges and universities should focus on teaching these skills to students to prepare them for the world of work. There are an abundance of studies that have highlighted the skills gap. This paper aims to bring together the literature to review how these skills are best taught to students. Five Databases - SocIndex, Education Resources Information Centre, British Education Index, Education Abstracts, and Education Research Complete - were thoroughly reviewed. Papers on teaching, training or learning of soft, transferable, employability, life, leadership or management skills from the years 2015-2023 were gathered. Results showed that certain classroom activities and games can be used to teach certain skills to the students. Part-time or full-time employment, internships and volunteer work also lead to development of skills such as leadership, communication, and social skills. Higher educational institutions can hence employ the pedagogical methods and approaches mentioned in these studies to teach employability skills to students
Transdisciplinary employability practitioners: Engaging with skills for the future and redefining professional identity
Full text linkIn response to the need for graduates to tackle global, complex problems, higher education is increasing attention towards approaches that cross the boundaries of disciplinary thinking. However, while students can benefit from learning across disciplines, employability practitioners can also benefit. Transdisciplinary approaches can prompt practitioners to rethink career education, take charge of their professional development, and redefine their identity as borderless, ever-evolving transdisciplinary employability practitioners. Within this provocation, a transdisciplinary approach to learning is introduced and questions pertinent to the seven habits of a transdisciplinary mind are posed, intended to provoke converging perspectives on employability. By refocusing practitioners’ employability perspectives, higher education can enhance its capacity for career-led learning and transform the identities of those working within it
How discipline shapes the meaning of value creation in higher education; implications for enterprise, entrepreneurship and employability.
Full text linkThis paper sets out the importance of teaching contextualized understandings of value within different disciplinary contexts in order to enhance employability and to foster greater levels of engagement with enterprise and entrepreneurship education.
Key research has recognised the broader benefits of enterprise and entrepreneurship education, including that of developing graduate employability. Yet enterprise and entrepreneurship may not feel comfortable or relevant to students (EEUK, 2012; Henry, 2013). It has been identified that students can better relate to enterprise and entrepreneurship when it is contextualised in professions, sectors and communities of practice, moving away from a focus on venture creation and start up (Gibb, 2005). We argue that taking an approach which is explicitly based on value creation is a crucial driver of student engagement with enterprise and entrepreneurship education. This needs to be based in students’ individual values, embedded in their disciplines, and related to the communities of practice which as graduates they will go on to be part of. When grounded in the creation of value at an individual, disciplinary, and societal level, enterprise and entrepreneurship education can appeal to a wider constituency of students. In this paper, we discuss how value creation is understood in three diverse academic disciplines, Business, Biomedical Science and Music. Building on key research and drawing on our extensive practice as educators, we argue that explicitly foregrounding understandings of value within our different disciplinary contexts and developing appropriately contextualized, experiential forms of value creation-based pedagogy, is key to student engagement and enhances graduate employability
Acknowledgement of Country
Full text linkThis includes the front cover of the general issue, Acknowledgement of Country, ACTA Statement, and TESOL in Context editorial team details for the current issue 2024 Volume 33 Number 01 General Issue
Where is the leadership? Where is the imagination? Confronting a humanitarian system in crisis and resistant to change
Full text linkThe humanitarian ‘system’, however defined, has evolved considerably over the last decade. It has become more professional, standards are better understood and applied, there is greater professionalisation of the sector and humanitarians are better qualified and knowledgeable. The ‘system’ has also become very complex. There are more disasters, and they are more intricate and intractable. New initiatives appear to be set up almost every year to address these challenges, yet failures are often mentioned in passing rather than properly and honestly acknowledged. The sector makes agreements and promises to ensure more funding gets to communities affected by disasters, yet these promises are woefully unmet. In 2019, Matthew Clarke and Brett Parris proposed new humanitarian principles to tackle the increasing scale, intensity, complexity and intractability of humanitarian crises—equity, solidarity, compassion and diversity. However, given the circumstances outlined above, perhaps it is prudent to question not the principles but their application. In this paper, I reflect on these principles five years’ later and contend that they will only complement the original principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence if they help adjust the humanitarian architecture to be more inclusive and hold itself truly accountable. Rhetoric is no longer enough and requires action within the sector to address its structure, governance, inclusivity and diversity. It requires leadership, imagination and courage
Évaluation des projets humanitaires au Cameroun : quand les consultant.e.s locaux.ales essaient de redéfinir les asymétries Nord-Sud
Full text linkSince 2013, Cameroon has been a priority area for humanitarian action, and international expertise has long been used to evaluate and monitor humanitarian projects in this country. However, COVID-19 imposed restrictions on international mobility, causing access issues for outside experts, a process that had already begun prior to the pandemic. Indeed, COVID-19 merely exacerbated the immobility of international aid agencies that first started with the security crisis. So, while these agencies have long been reluctant to hand over the evaluation of humanitarian projects to local experts, the combination of security and health crisis has forced them to overcome this reluctance. Using the 'window of opportunity' model (Kingdon, 1984), this article shows how Cameroonian experts have benefited from the stagnation and immobility of international expertise in the country to take on the task of evaluating humanitarian projects. This repositioning in favour of local expertise has contributed to a redefinition of the power asymmetries between the Global North and South and of the relations of domination between national and international experts.Le Cameroun, depuis 2013, apparait comme un champ privilégié des interventions humanitaires. Celles-ci, en matière d’évaluation des projets, ont longtemps été effectuées par le recours à une expertise internationale. Mais les restrictions à la mobilité internationale imposées par le COVID-19 ont favorisé l’immobilisme de cette expertise, immobilisme qui existait déjà avant la pandémie. Le COVID-19 n’a fait qu’exacerber un processus déjà amorcé par des crises sécuritaires. Si les organisations de solidarité internationale ont longtemps hésité à transférer l’exécution des évaluations des projets humanitaires aux expert.e.s locaux.ales, la crise sécuritaire et sanitaire a permis de surmonter cette réticence. En s’appuyant sur les apports du modèle de la « fenêtre d’opportunité » (Kingdon, 1984), l’article démontre comment les expert.e.s camerounais.e.s ont bénéficié de l’absence d’expertise internationale (immobilisme) pour prendre en charge les missions d’évaluation des projets humanitaires. Ce repositionnement en faveur de l’expertise locale aurait contribué à une redéfinition des asymétries Nord-Sud et des rapports de domination entre expert.e.s nationaux.ales et internationaux.ales
Using image-reflections to support undergraduate students’ relational employability: A practitioner reflection
Full text linkThis practitioner reflection explores our integration of the Relational Employability Framework within the Health Research Project capstone unit of a Bachelor of Health Science degree. To address the historically low quality of student reflections, we incorporated image-based reflective activities to improve engagement and depth. These activities encouraged students to use visual media to examine their developing relational employability. We developed and implemented a series of tutorial activities designed to scaffold this process, aiming to foster deeper reflective practice and highlight its importance for career development and employability. Our reflections indicate that, while grades did not significantly increase, students showed enhanced critical thinking and engagement with reflective practice, suggesting the framework’s effectiveness in broadening awareness and enriching employability overall. We discuss the need for peer support among educators to sustain and enhance reflective practices in teaching-learning and conclude with thoughts on our ongoing efforts to embed and expand reflective practices in teaching approache