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Doing documentary, becoming subjects: performance and performativity in contemporary nonfiction
No full textDoing Documentary, Becoming Subjects explores a range of contemporary nonfiction films, including autobiography, essay film and animated documentary, to understand how these films depict identities being constructed, altered and performed. By applying concepts such as performativity and Deleuze and Guattari’s metaphysics, this book aims to show how the self in documentary is in constant states of becoming at the same time as the films are themselves brought into existence
Barriers to embedding employability: are academics the problem?
No full textEmployability has long been a central, albeit often contested, concept within the discourse of Higher Education (HE) in the United Kingdom. Traditionally, discussions surrounding graduate outcomes have focused on a quartet of primary stakeholders: students; prospective employers; university policy; and government policy. While these groups undeniably play pivotal roles in shaping the landscape of graduate employment, this paper confronts a critical, often implicit, question: could academics pose a key barrier to the embedding of employability? We argue that academics, frequently perceived as a barrier and/or omitted from strategic institution-specific as well as sector-wide-policy discussions, are in fact integral and interconnected stakeholders whose active engagement is essential for robust integration of employability within the fabric of HE. This paper will offer a conceptual viewpoint in the evolving understanding of employability, explore persistent barriers to its effective integration, specifically examining the academic perspective, and offer forward-thinking case studies that champion a more holistic, interconnected, and culturally embedded approach, particularly emphasizing the vital contributions of academic and professional services colleagues
Dialectical search: a cognitively inspired framework for balancing solution quality and computational cost in global optimization
No full textThe field of global optimization faces the persistent challenge of developing metaheuristics that are both highly effective and computationally efficient. Motivated by the limitations of many nature-inspired algorithms, which are often susceptible to premature convergence, this research explores formal intellectual processes to create a more robust search mechanism. We propose and formalize the Dialectical Search (DS) framework, a metaheuristic inspired by the philosophical principle of Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis. The framework’s efficacy was validated in a comprehensive empirical study where two primary variants, DS-Original and DS-Hybrid, were benchmarked against a diverse suite of seven other classical and state-of-the-art algorithms on multiple real-world datasets. The benchmark revealed that the DS-Original variant consistently achieves a solution quality that is statistically indistinguishable from top-performing algorithms; for instance, on the Breast Cancer Wisconsin dataset, it achieved a cross-validation error of 0.02415, matching the performance of far slower methods. Critically, it delivers this state-of-the-art performance with exceptional computational efficiency, executing approximately 20% faster than the Genetic Algorithm and an order of magnitude faster—48.14 s versus 481.25 s—than the Firefly Algorithm. Furthermore, the simpler DS-Original’s superior practical performance over its more complex hybrid counterpart provides a valuable insight into the No Free Lunch (NFL) theorem. Therefore, we conclude that the Dialectical Search framework, particularly the DS-Original variant, represents a significant contribution to the field, offering a validated and highly advantageous balance of solution accuracy and computational efficiency for solving complex optimization problems
Danse mes playfellows – exploring French through musical theatre
Get PDFOutside. A group of Playful Learning delegates gather. The task is to devise a short piece of movement to the song Les sans papiers from the musical Notre Dame de Paris. Three groups engage with their local environment to influence their storytelling. Their reflections, together with interjections from the session facilitator, offer an insight into their process of using musical theatre to explore the French language
Evaluation of Birmingham Children’s Trust Supporting Families/Think Family Service: working with families where domestic violence and abuse is present
Get PDFIn the Executive Summary we summarise how the domestic violence and abuse service provided by Birmingham Children’s Trust (hereafter the Trust) meets (or does not meet) the evaluation criteria as laid out in the OECD Evaluation Framework (2022) and highlight issues of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. The service began under a government agenda originally known as Think Family and was later renamed as Supporting Families with an underlying approach focussed on meeting the various needs of families predominantly in the Early Help space. Grant funding came directly from central government and was/is based on the previous year utilising a “payment by results” or positive outcomes model. The Supporting Families grant is distributed across all types of need, including children in need, parental conflict, health needs, educational needs, substance use, neglect, etc. Some of the grant within the Trust is used for funding the specialist commissioned services for Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA); thus, the services being evaluated are those funded under the Supporting Families, for DVA provision rather than the service being a Think Family service. For simplicity and clarity throughout this report we will refer to the service as the Supporting Families/Think Family Service, as many respondents use the original terminology
The reliability and validity of different methods for measuring countermovement jump height
Get PDFPrevious research indicates the importance of the countermovement jump (CMJ) test to monitor lower-limb power and neuromuscular fatigue. While jump height (JH) can be measured using various equipment, this study compared the JH obtained from the Just Jump System (JJS), OptoJump and the MyJump2 app against the Vald ForceDecks system using the impulse-momentum calculation method, which is regarded as the gold standard method to calculate JH. This study also assessed the one-week test-retest reliability of these pieces of equipment. The participants in this study were 20 (n = 12 male and n = 8 female) university sports students and staff (mean ± SD; age: 20.90 ± 2.63 years; stature: 1.76 ± 0.10 m; mass: 72.17 ± 11.07 kg). Participants completed a standardised warm-up and rested for three minutes before completing three CMJs on each piece of equipment in a randomised, counterbalanced order. The same protocols were used in the second session, with a different equipment testing order. Both MyJump and OptoJump have high agreement levels (Mean bias and 95% CI = 2.32 cm [1.57 – 3.09] and 1.92 cm [1.23 – 2.59], respectively) with the gold measurement standard (ForceDecks using IM). However, a high mean bias for the JJS (Mean bias = 9.88 cm [9.26 – 10.46]) was reported. This study also found that all methods are reliable for assessing JH (Mean bias and [95% CI]: ForceDecks = 0.24 cm [-0.47 – 0.92], JJS = 0.74 cm [0.08 -1.42], MyJump = 0.05 cm [-0.57 – 0.71] and Optojump = -0.14 cm [-0.77-0.49]). Overall, the equipment investigated in this study showed high levels of reliability, and only the JJS had low validity compared to the ForceDecks. Coaches should consider what data they want to collect, its validity and reliability, the purpose of the testing and the cost of the equipment when deciding which system to purchase
Building trustful relationships through intrapreneurship in Academic Development
Get PDFTrust between people who develop academics (Academic Developers) and academics is not always straightforward, and where trust does exist, it can often be limited to the individuals involved in the interaction, rather than extending to the wider institutional culture. This lack of trust can be attributed to a variety of factors, one of which is the perception that Academic Developers are merely a management tool focused on performance metrics rather than upholding quality standards. Academic Developers' cognitive authority can also be challenged by institutional and administrative authority, affecting trust between academics and developers. This reflection aims to explore barriers to the development of trust between Academic Developers and academics before proposing changes in practice to bridge the trust gap. The main focus of this reflection is to scale trust beyond individual relationships and promote a culture of trust within the institution. By doing so, we advocate for an approach that works towards building a more trusting environment in HE that fosters collaboration, creativity, and success, given that Academic Developers' role as a ‘broker’ between the institution and colleagues is becoming more prevalent. We argue, however, that efforts to achieve more robustly trustful relationships between Academic Developers and the communities they serve require investment, buy-in and championing by senior executive teams to ensure Academic Developers are themselves appropriately developed to fulfil their potential. As such, we propose a framework for building trust through integrating intrapreneurship in Academic Developer CPD activity
Alone in the crowd? Live music audiences and individual experience
Get PDFAcademic inquiries into the motivations and experiences of live music audiences have typically focused on the communal and social experience of concerts and festivals, whereas the experience of individual concertgoers has been relatively unexplored, especially in popular music contexts. In this article, qualitative interviews and focus groups were undertaken with self-declared progressive rock fans to understand their often-individualised engagement with the live music experience. The findings demonstrate the importance of live music performance and appreciation, attentive listening, and detailed personal evaluation of the musicians and their performances to these fans. The co-presence of others in the live music setting served to legitimise not only these fans’ tastes in music but also their individualised way of engaging with, experiencing, and enjoying the concert experience: their preference for the ‘text’ over ‘context’
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