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Transitioning pedagogies:the role of developing the story during Higher Education psychology teaching
No full textThis theoretical paper will explore issues and benefits associated with adopting storytelling as a pedagogical approach within higher education. Adopting positions from Socio-cultural Theory and Self-determination Theory establishes potential theoretical underpinnings for this approach. Specifically, this paper will look at foundational underpinnings in storytelling, seeing both the teacher and student as producer of the story. The marketisation of the United Kingdom higher education landscape has resulted in multiple transition points for universities and students. These include an increased emphasis on recruiting students from under-represented groups, student retention and the role of higher education in preparing students for graduate level employment. These transitions have also resulted in key points for students. Students have been repositioned as consumers of higher education and are viewed as key evaluators of the quality of teaching and learning. Within this context, this paper affirms the case for storytelling in higher education and extends this to the Psychology classroom. Psychology students are tasked with exploring new theoretical positions and concepts presenting challenges to their imagination. As such, storytelling here represents an important tool for educators. Thus, indicating the importance of its use more widespread in areas such as Psychology. It is hoped that through this paper, storytelling will be viewed as an essential scaffolding technique to enable successful transition into, and within Higher Education. The paper sheds light on the importance of bridging the transitionary gap for students entering Higher Education in Psychology and highlights an important storytelling methodology to achieve this
Between knowledge and certainty:the grammatical duality in Wittgenstein's view of religious belief
Get PDFPichler and Sunday Grève have recently argued that Wittgenstein took a dual approach of cognitivism and moderate non-cognitivism towards religious belief. I reply that this does not fully capture Wittgenstein’s view because it overlooks his understanding of the grammar of truth and belief in religion. Wittgenstein thinks the meaning of truth and belief is relative to the language game and form of life in which they are found, and he distinguishes claims that can be doubted (knowledge) from those that are immune to doubt (certainties). I argue that the grammar of truth and belief differ for knowledge and certainty and that Wittgenstein classed religious belief as the latter. However, a statement that expresses knowledge in one context can express certainty in another, and it is not always obvious which context the statement is in nor whether the two can be separated. For this reason, the same statement can be read following either grammar and appears to have cognitive and non-cognitive qualities. I conclude that identifying the duality in Wittgenstein’s view as grammatical captures many of Pichler and Sunday Grève’s views while offering a more nuanced account of Wittgenstein’s
Hidden cost of circular economy in offsite housing projects
No full textStudies suggest that offsite construction can enhance sustainability performance by incorporating circular economy (CE) practices in housing delivery. However, it is understood that CE adoption for offsite housing projects (OHPs) could create an additional cost layer to housing delivery, even though its implications remain unclear. This paper provides awareness of CE cost activities, also known as circular cost drivers, with potential cost impacts on integrating CE strategies in OHP deliveries. It employs a qualitative approach to gathering OHP stakeholder opinions on circular-related cost drivers through a focus group discussion. From an OHP lifecycle and ecosystem perspective, the study identified seven strategic approaches (refuse, rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle, and remanufacture) critical for adopting CE strategies into OHPs. Based on these identified approaches, the study gathered circularity cost implications from participants. This was analyzed thematically, revealing thirty-four circularity cost drivers. These drivers were manually grouped under direct and indirect “circularity costs.” The study emphasizes the potential additional costs of executing circular OHPs to the overall project cost compared to conventional OHPs, which should be considered by clients, Offsite Housebuilders, and the project team. The interrelations between these circularity cost drivers can be further explored with respect to each CE strategy to aid effective cost and financial management of circular OHP profitability. The paper provides further insights to support policy developers in promoting the uptake of real-world CE projects with environmental benefits at reduced cost-related uncertaintie
Evaluating the role of offsite construction in achieving net zero building in Nigeria’s construction industry
No full textThis study explores the role of off-site construction in achieving net zero buildings in the Nigerian construction industry, which is a significant contributor to carbon emissions. Therefore, the research aims to evaluate Off-Site Construction's contribution to Nigeria's sustainability goals by evaluating the challenges of Off-site construction in achieving net zero. In addressing the aim of the study, a quantitative research approach was adopted; the questionnaire was distributed to Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) professionals across Nigeria's six geo-political zones, gathering data on the challenges and contribution of OSC in achieving net zero building in Nigeria construction industry. The key challenges hindering OSC from achieving net-zero results include quality control issues, technological integration, resistance to change, and high upfront costs. The results of the obstacles were analysed using Spearman’s correlation analysis to assess the direction and strength of the connection between two ranking variables. This method is beneficial when the data does not necessarily follow a normal distribution or when dealing with ordinal variables. The highlight of the study is the positive contribution of OSC, which includes enhanced energy efficiency, reduced carbon footprint, and alignment with Nigeria's green goals. Despite these challenges, OSC is a promising approach to achieving net zero building and promoting sustainability in Nigeria's construction industry. This study addresses a critical gap in understanding how OSC can contribute to achieving net zero in Nigeria's construction industry. The findings will guide policymakers, industry stakeholders, and investors in adopting sustainable construction practices, aligning Nigeria’s growing construction sector with environmental sustainability target
Understanding the impact of professional football club cultural climates on the experiences of women working in football
No full textSince the professionalization of English women’s football in 2018, it is now considered a viable career opportunity for women footballers. Nevertheless, little is known about women working within the culture of professional football clubs, the impact on their career experiences, and crucially, within the context of women’s sport. Utilizing Schein’s model of organizational culture as a theoretical framework and focusing on the professional tiers of English women’s football, we interviewed General Managers and Head Coaches for what they perceive to be the cultural features of their organizations that either constrain or support the recruitment, retention, and/or progression of female leaders. Through this, we identified cultural features that either constrain or support the recruitment, retention, and progression of female leaders. In doing so, this research advances existing literature by centering the specific dynamics of women’s sport organizations rather than extrapolating from men’s football and offers a gendered critique of cultural assumptions that continue to marginalize women. We also extend Schein’s framework by applying it to a gendered sporting context, highlighting how deeper cultural artefacts, espoused values, and underlying assumptions intersect with structural inequalities. Findings suggest that women continue to be appraised on the basis of gender rather than capability and that club cultures and practices are constraining the appointment of a gender-diverse workforce. We argue for a shift in focus toward systemic cultural change to address persistent gender inequalities in football leadership
Educational renewal in an era of polycrisis
No full textThere is a developing consensus that the world is now in the grips of a serious polycrisis (Lawrence et al., 2024), an era when multiple interdependent crises are causing disruption and damage to both the planet and to human civilisations. Climate change, biodiversity loss, the rise of nationalism and resultant wars, economic inequality and stagnation, and mass migration are just some of the worst problems facing the planet.And within this polycrisis what is the role of education? As a sector, many countries have continued to follow a tried and tested model of education, that defined and structured by neoliberalism (Sahlberg, 2011). Thus, education is characterised by simplistic processes of efficiency, competition, and ever more micro-managerialism, made worse by overbearing accountability systems, leading to enforced hyper-change. The consequences are clear, with ever worse recruitment and retention issues in many countries (Quickfall and Wood, 2024), rising problems with mental health issues amongst students and a growing uneasiness that education systems are no longer particularly relevant or effective in their sole duty of preparing children to enter adult life as confident, thoughtful individuals ready to play a role in making society better.In this chapter we begin by outlining the nature of both the global and educational polycrises and why we need to react to them if we are to have any chance of creating a long-term sustainable future for the human species. We then go on to argue that a specific problem which many education systems face is that caused by a stubborn adherence to the belief that the world is characterised by linear, ‘knowable’ processes which we can fully characterise and control. This leads to simplistic, managerialist organisations which are run through recourse to reductionism, strategic plans, quantitative data, structured notions of leaders and leadership and learning as a purely cognitive and simple process of transfer. We consider this model through the ‘thought experiment’ of the dissociative organisation, an archetype illustrative framework of the late neoliberal organisation. This organisation is made up of two main subsets, the ‘formal organisation’ of senior leaders who set change agendas, drive hyperaccountability systems and create dominant narratives about what is valued and what is seen as success. The organisational lifeworld, the part of the organisation which is populated by those who work with students, who offer pastoral care and who have to make the agendas of the formal organisation work, are constantly bereft of time, are under constant pressure with ever dwindling resources and struggle under the hyperaccountability and hyper-change agendas of the formal organisation. We discuss how this leads to dysfunctional organisations led by inappropriate forms of leadership.We then present what we see as a hopeful alternative which engages with the complexity of polycrisis and which acts as a way of creating positive, generative organisations which have at their heart the fostering of human capacity and the development of thoughtful individuals capable of playing positive roles in society. Using a different set of assumptions, based on process philosophy, complexity theories and feminist economics, we present a contrasting thought experiment, the promotive organisation. Based on the interdependent pillars of belonging, thriving, fulfilling and sustaining we offer an insight into a heterodox approach to organisation in education where leadership is understood to be embedded within relationships and those who are formal leaders have a role to support and enable interaction and change. Educational organisations are built to foster community and to help individuals find and expand their strengths as well as support their weaknesses. Centred on an ethic of care and a belief that only by engaging with the complexity of the world around us will we create more sustainable societies able to emerge positively from the current polycrisis, this thought experiment is an attempt to imagine education differently.We conclude by reflecting on what is stopping this transformation from occurring in the current system and why it is a crucial shift if we are to sustain both ourselves and the planet in the longer term. Lawrence M, Homer-Dixon T, Janzwood S, Rockstöm J, Renn O, Donges JF (2024). Global polycrisis: the causal mechanisms of crisis entanglement. Global Sustainability 7, e6, 1–16. https://doi.org/ 10.1017/sus.2024.1.Quickfall, A. & Wood, P. (2024) Transforming Teacher Work: Teacher Recruitment and Retention After the Pandemic. Emerald Publishing. Sahlberg, P. (2011) Finnish Lessons. Teachers’ College Press.<br/
The presence of the researcher in the research paper
No full textGuides to academic writing offer the Early Career Researcher a wealth of support in textual creation, for example in argument construction (Murray, 2019), grammar usage (Osmond, 2015), citation and referencing (Day, 2023), the achievement of cohesion and flow (Coleman, 2019), or the tackling of turgid prose (Thomson, 2022). But the ways in which a researcher might create and place themselves within these texts receives less attention, in spite of the fact that every writer must make nuanced decisions about the degree to which the figure of the researcher is foregrounded or effaced for readers. Reflecting on recent experiences of thesis writing, and touching on issues of identity, authority and subjectivity, this paper explores the differing ways in which that a textual self might be brought into being in writing by the developing researcher. Contrasting examples will be used to discuss the different ways in which that self might be made to appear or disappear, and to probe the implications of such choices for the researcher and their sense of their relationship with their projected reader. My interest in the development of researcher authority in textual forms stems from my work in schools and Universities. As a teacher of Secondary English, teacher educator at PGCE and Masters levels, and recent doctoral graduate, I draw on experience of textual analysis and construction and its teaching from a range of overlapping contexts and positions. My doctoral research involved a probing of the ways in which student authority in the literary essay is framed in the school classroom; my work with trainee English teachers includes exploration of the ways in which student identity can be overwritten or commuted in the school essay; at Masters’ level, I support teachers writing up research projects as they ‘systematically identify their subjectivity throughout the course of their research’ (Peshkin, 1988, 17).These experiences have led me to the belief that in teaching academic writing at all levels, the construction of a textual self should not be overlooked as if it were a by-product of textual production. It should instead be a central aspect of its negotiation. I make a case for greater attention to be paid to study of the researcher in the research text, in order to help new researchers recognise the range of approaches and devices available to them as they create and fortify themselves and their ideas in their work.ReferencesColeman, H. (2019) Polish your Academic Writing (Super Quick Skills). SAGEDay, T. (2023) Success in Academic Writing. 3rd edition. Bloomsbury AcademicMurray, R. (2019) Writing for Academic Journals. 4th edition. McGraw-Hill EducationNelson, C. D. (2005) “Crafting Researcher Subjectivity in ways that Enact Theory.” Journal of Language, Identity & Education. 2005, 4 (4), 315-320.Osmond, A. (2015) Academic writing and grammar for students. 2nd edition. SAGEPeshkin, A. (1988) In search of subjectivity – one’s own. Educational Researcher, October 1988, Vol. 17, 17-21.Thomson, P. (2022) Refining Your Academic Writing: Strategies for Reading, Revising and Rewriting (Insider Guides to Success in Academia). Routledge<br/
The impact of forensic delay:facilitating facial composite construction using an early-recall retrieval technique
No full textMemory for facial features deteriorates over time, diminishing one’s ability to construct an accurate visual likeness of a face (i.e. a facial composite). In Experiment 1, we investigated how retention interval impacts composite construction. Participants recalled an unfamiliar face during a Cognitive Interview (CI) and constructed a feature composite across four post-encoding retention intervals. Correct composite naming declined sharply after a 3-4 hour retention interval, remained stable at two days, and dropped to floor-level after one week. Experiments 2–4 examined how composite effectiveness was influenced by the incorporation of two factors: (a) a novel, self-administered written face-recall attempt, conducted 3-4 hours after encoding, and (b) a standard or modified holistic recall elicited immediately before construction. Participant-witnesses created more identifiable likenesses when early recall was invited, suggesting that this intervention consolidated and enhanced access to facial-feature information. The addition of a character-based interview further improved both feature and holistic composites