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Decolonising Outdoor Learning: Developing Connectedness Through Place-responsive Pedagogy Beyond the Early Years in England
No full textThis chapter explores connections between child development, culture and place-responsiveness in outdoor learning (OL). Theoretical influences are traced from historical to contemporary educational thinking. Expanding the conversation beyond the Early Years (EY – 0 – 5 years old), this chapter embraces connectedness to inform place-responsive pedagogy and places a lens on Indigenous and local knowledge in curricula in Wales and New Zealand. Our broader aim is to adopt a decolonised, global view of place-responsive OL. This entails considering how different knowledge and values can provide children with opportunities to ‘meet themselves in relation to the world’ (Biesta, 2021). The challenges of negotiating this ‘meeting’ relate to broader socio-cultural and socio-political and environmental structures which shape outdoor encounters. This chapter expands a socio-cultural analysis to propose that slow, place-responsive pedagogy should be valued beyond the EY in England
Sustainable Green Marketing Strategies for a Circular Economy African Realities and Imperatives
No full textProvides novel focus areas such as green marketing governance and sustainable green marketing as a business model.
Focuses on important issues in green marketing and sustainability transitions from an African perspective.
Addresses the challenges faced by African economies in achieving sustainable development goals
The Effectiveness of Partnerships With Commercial Actors to Improve Food Environments: A Systematic Review
Get PDFPartnerships with commercial actors have been proposed as a policy approach to create healthier food environments. We conducted a systematic review to assess their effectiveness for improving food environments and population health at state, national, or international levels. We searched in 14 databases and two websites for real‐world evaluations published between 2010 and 2020. Study quality was appraised using a modified Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. Data were synthesized narratively by outcome (human, food environment, policy content, and implementation progress), considering their effect direction. Seventeen studies reporting on seven PPPs in four countries were included. Most studies (n = 14) involved food reformulation, especially salt reduction. Three focused on specific settings (the eating out‐of‐home sector, schools, and convenience stores). There was mixed evidence that partnerships make people buy fewer calories or more school meals (n = 3 studies) or reduce product sodium content (n = 6). Some positive effects were described in one uncontrolled study each for decreasing trans‐fatty acid intake and for making healthier options more available in school cafeterias, but these studies had important limitations. Five document analyses highlighted shortcomings in the partnerships, including their limited scope, failure to add value to ongoing actions, varying participation levels, and lack of implementation, monitoring, and reporting. Alternative policy approaches should be considered. This systematic review is registered on PROSPERO as CRD42020170963
Leisure, Social Justice, Research, Praxis and Scholarship: A Bibliometric Analysis and Research Agenda
No full textIssues of social justice have become increasingly important as an area for academic research in recent decades. This has also been the case for researchers operating in disciplines such as leisure. The purpose of this bibliometric analysis is to review, analyze and synthesize the current state of research focusing on issues of social justice in leisure studies and, in doing so, draw together a more coherent understanding of the different strands of social justice research that are currently being undertaken. Through a quantitative process of bibliometric analysis, emergent and existing trends in research patterns, authorship, and article or journal performance were analyzed to generate greater understanding of the emergence, development and intellectual structure of social justice research over time within leisure studies. A quantitative process of bibliometric analysis was therefore undertaken to generate and analyze a nascent dataset of peer reviewed journal articles that have examined issues of social justice within leisure studies. Analysis of this dataset provided opportunities to outline recommendations for future research directions and research agendas linked to issues of social justice and leisure. This includes recommendations for expansion of research agendas within leisure studies in areas linked to: (a) ‘race’, gender and human rights; (b) a ‘broadening’ of social justice research into other socio-cultural areas of investigation; (c) initiation and/or expansion of research agendas relating to the global south; (d) business, organisations and social justice within the leisure industry; (e) issues of policy, politics and social justice in leisure
Building resilience during Uncertainty: Leadership from within
No full textCovid-19 provided a catalyst for the changing working environment, significantly impacting the way in which leaders come to the fore and how followers are encouraged and developed. This paper considers the importance of Place Leadership in working with community environments during periods of turbulence and instability. The research adopted a narrative approach to exploring the leadership dynamics among spontaneous volunteering activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. A case study methodology was adopted focusing on a singular group of volunteers that emerged in response to the emergency setting. Qualitative data was gathered allowing individuals to tell their story by interpreting events and happenings. The findings emphasise the importance of a leader who shares the values of the group, and demonstrate authentic behaviours and effective leadership approaches, whilst also embedding a community culture. The research recognises the importance of Place Leadership within the community setting as a means for the leader to demonstrate effectiveness and achieve results. Interestingly, no single leadership style is acknowledged per se, however the importance of authenticity, shared values and being embedded within the community is focal. The research will be of value and interest to a range of individuals and groups within academia and wider community settings, including those working within the Third Sector. The paper considers the situation faced during the pandemic and may not be easily repeated but is perhaps an opportunity for learning in response to disasters, crisis situations and community needs
Paradigms of Guitar Performance Practice and the Language of Metal Music
No full textIt is not an overstatement to suggest that the guitar has been central to the evolution of the language of popular music since the 1950s, with developments in the latter often being directly attributable to the employment of the former as a medium of musical expression. In this regard the guitar is a framework whose unique characteristics afford particular strategies for harmonic and melodic design that come to constitute the essential building blocks of musical genres. Metal music is a particular case in point, a musical genre whose harmonic and melodic material owes much to the centrality of the guitar to its performance practice. Moreover, as guitar-led metal performance practices have changed, so too has the music’s harmonic and melodic language, the former thereby becoming implicated in questions of musical progressivism. To elucidate these ideas, this chapter surveys a range of examples of metal music from the early 1970s to the 1990s, with a view to highlighting the ways in which particular paradigms of metal guitar performance practice have at given moments shaped the genre’s musical identity. In addition to offering useful analytical perspectives on the evolution of metal’s guitar-led musical style per se, the chapter also aims to provoke consideration of the role that technological media in general terms play in conditioning compositional outcomes
Workload negotiations for early and mid-career researchers in an Athena Swan gold-awarded department
Get PDFn the UK academia, the Athena Swan (AS) Charter, established in 2005 is considered a significant innovation to improve women’s representation in senior positions. While several studies claim a measurable improvement in structural and cultural issues faced by women in AS-accredited universities, studies question the legitimacy of these claims considering persistent gender issues in academia. Using a grounded theory approach, the current study addressed this gap by investigating the impact of AS accreditation on the lived experience of early- and mid-career academics in UK Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subject areas. The findings show the performativity dimension for women who work in these spaces where women are required to undertake additional workload, which disrupts their more rewarding research activities. The added workload for women includes blood work associated with managing emotions, pain, and menstrual bodies in the science lab, as well as mothering responsibilities associated with cleaning and maintaining the lab spaces, and caring and nurturing work associated with pastoral care duties. This study argues that this added workload can have negative implications for women’s careers, which is not reflected in AS workload models
‘Pedagogical Perspectives to Ponder’: Engaging With Social Justice—An Integrative Pedagogy of Discomfort and Love in Psychotherapy
Get PDFBackground: The purpose of this perspective piece is to illuminate the urgency of focussing on pedagogical approaches that facilitate social justice and anti‐discriminatory practice. We propose novel experiential activities for the classroom, which can then be applied to the diverse contexts and communities where trainees live. Aim: The aim of this paper is to propose a pedagogical prime to be utilised by psychotherapeutic training educators, to help trainees to engage with the use of anti‐discriminatory and socially just practices early in a their academic training. Materials and Method: A pedagogical prime of experiential learning activities for social justice and anti‐discriminatory practice is proposed. Examples of engaging with an integrative pedagogy of discomfort and love in psychotherapy training are presented as a method for facilitating a depth of reflective practice. Results: The process of engaging with this pedagogical prime has a powerful impact on self‐awareness, reflective and reflexive practice. These facilitate the trainees' personal and professional development, and integration of theory and practice. The pedagogical prime activities also serve to develop culturally informed, anti‐oppressive and relational attributes as part of a firm commitment to social justice. Discussion: Attainment of these attributes in social justice and anti‐discriminatory practice enable trainees not only to develop into professional psychotherapeutic practitioners, but also into global citizens with an awareness of social justice. As educators, we have a responsibility to continue to work to decolonise the curriculum, starting at the grass‐roots level with how we engage pedagogically with anti‐discriminatory, socially just language in the classroom. As psychotherapeutic practitioners, we are also ethically required by law to engage in anti‐discriminatory practices whilst serving diverse populations, yet we often lag behind in training approaches which aspire towards social justice. Conclusion: This paper advocates for further research into the proposed pedagogic prime, utilising an integrated pedagogy of discomfort with a pedagogy of love. It also advocates for early lessons on language in psychotherapeutic and psychological training programmes, shifting the focus of social justice and anti‐discriminatory practice to the forefront of trainees’ consciousness from the start of training
Recent occurrence of pharmaceuticals in freshwater, emerging treatment technologies, and future considerations: A review
Get PDFPharmaceuticals represent an emerging class of pollutants raising significant environmental health concerns, with their presence in freshwater systems linked to adverse aquatic ecosystem impacts and acceleration of antibiotic resistance development. This narrative review examines recent (2019–2024) pharmaceutical occurrences in freshwater globally, analyzes contamination pathways, evaluates compound-specific degradability, and assesses treatment technologies.
Analysis revealed significant pharmaceutical contamination in freshwater sources across the six major continents, primarily entering through wastewater treatment plant effluents, groundwater recharge processes, and inadequate sanitation infrastructure/septic systems. Stark geographical disparities were observed, with regions lacking centralized treatment infrastructure showing multiple-fold higher concentrations, particularly in Africa and Latin America (exemplified by amoxicillin levels reaching 272,156 ng/L in Lagos, Nigeria). Pharmaceutical profiles reflected local healthcare patterns, with antimalarials and antiretrovirals prevalent in endemic regions. Globally prevalent compounds included caffeine, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, carbamazepine, sulfamethoxazole, amoxicillin, and diclofenac. While some compounds like caffeine showed relatively good removal in conventional treatment systems, their high usage rates overwhelmed treatment capacity. Others, particularly carbamazepine, demonstrated high recalcitrance to conventional treatment methods. Advanced oxidation processes and membrane technologies showed high removal efficiencies, while biochar-based systems emerged as promising, cost-effective alternatives using locally available resources.
The findings underscore the need for both centralized and decentralized treatment approaches. Point-of-use technologies emerge as crucial immediate interventions for regions with inadequate infrastructure, while advanced technologies show promise for large-scale applications. The review emphasizes that municipalities should conduct systematic screening to identify locally prevalent pharmaceuticals, as treatment requirements vary significantly with local usage patterns, making a one-size-fits-all approach ineffective