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Finding him: a symbolic interactionist perspective of romantic and queer love
No full textWhile being firmly rooted in and committed to the Western context, within which this piece is located, the discussions are not generalized since the aim of this paper is to offer a critical and theoretical appraisal of romantic and queer love. The theoretical lens applied here is symbolic interactionism. The examples of gay love that are examined include the following: gay open relationships; queer monogamy; and gay love in gay friendships. The added dimensions of sexuality and gender are noticeable when making links between gender and sexual relations
Self-directed flourishing: a conceptual meta-framework for dealing with the challenges of 21st-century learning and education
Get PDFPurpose:-
This paper aims to address the concern that humans are experiencing unprecedented, rapidly changing conditions, in part exacerbated by a recent pandemic, digitization and ongoing wartime.
Design/methodology/approach:-
A paper that seeks to address what the authors are calling the “Educational Malaise”. The authors achieve this through a conceptual and theoretical exploration of the social nature of human beings and learning in the context of readings of human nature, and moral and rational powers.
Findings:-
It is proposed that education should be designed to empower learners to meet the demands of rapidly changing conditions. The ability to adapt is of primary importance for meeting the demands of the changing world, and the “Self-Directed Flourishing” meta-framework can help educators to meet this challenge.
Originality/value:-
Using conceptual and theoretical lenses, in this paper, the authors identify some core problems with traditional pedagogies in formal education and advance a person-centred, humanistic approach to pedagogy. The authors advocate for a new meta-framework for educators: “Self-Directed Flourishing”. The authors propose placing co-creation, courage and conceptual insight at the heart of educational policies and practices, which the authors suggest will nurture a dynamic, adaptable and ethical microculture for human flourishing in 21st-century education and beyond
Creating good young patriots: Russian youth leaders on Telegram and the war against Ukraine
Get PDFThis article investigates the role of two state youth group leaders in disseminating patriotic discourses to young Russians on Telegram in the first six months after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The authors argue that these leaders use social media influencer (SMI) techniques to “launder” and propagate narratives that align with the Kremlin’s agenda. The methodological approach involved a comprehensive critical discourse analysis of six months of posts from the Telegram accounts of Nikita Nagornyy, leader of Iunarmiia [Youth Army], and Olga Zanko, leader of Volontery Pobedy [Victory Volunteers]. By cataloguing and comparing the thematic and rhetorical elements of these posts, the study identifies key strategies used to disseminate discourses around patriotic behavior and active engagement with state politics. “Good patriots” were deemed to be those who aided other Russians, took part in the perpetuation of memory politics, and engaged in militarized activities. “Good patriots” were able to participate equally in physical or virtual activities. Feed followers were given the impression of choice and active participation in the construction and dissemination of state discourses.
Choices were, however, limited to state-approved activities. The findings reveal a coordinated effort to amplify state-approved messages, leveraging the personal appeal and wide reach of these influencers to legitimize and normalize the official stance on the war. This research contributes to the understanding of digital propaganda and the instrumentalization of social media in modern warfare, highlighting the critical role of influencers in the information landscape of conflict
Pupils as silent composers: experiences of multimodal learning and computer-based composition in the music classroom
No full textThe thesis explores the multimodality of silence by seeking the significance of non-verbal communication in two pupils' computer-based composition during music lessons in a
UK state secondary school. My study takes a multimodal social semiotic perspective on
'silence', meaning the absence of the mode of speech, and recognises other modes of
communication beyond language. The study is positioned at the intersection of the
fields of multimodal communication and music education.
During computer-based music compositional lessons, and from the perspective of a
researcher and secondary school music teacher, we may not hear the pupils' computer-generated sounds because they wear headphones. In addition, pupils' facial
expressions, gazes and gestures can be obscured by computer screens and further
complicated by the rear-view teachers may have of their pupils. These partial
representations challenge researchers and teachers in accessing a multimodal social
semiotic account of the pupil's work and understanding their non-verbal
communication.
Gaining a deeper insight into pupils' social semiotic work requires apt research methods.
The study uses video-based observations of two pupils continued compositional work,
over four lessons, to generate and frame the data. Sixteen instances of non-verbal
communication without speech were selected and analysed amidst many instances
identified within the overall semiotic work of the pupils. Applying multimodal social
semiotic theory, principles of recontextualization (Bezemer and Kress, 2016) and design
for learning (Kress and Selander, 2012) provides the most apt approach for making sense
of pupils' non-verbal ('silent') communication.
Isolating two pupils' semiotic work builds on multimodal research in which the analysis
of instances of non-verbal communication enables the identification of the signs of
learning in modes other than speech. The study found that pupils' semiotic work
evidenced learning through the specific choices they made to support their design for
learning and further provided visibility to the complexity and richness of the
multimodality of silence
The sex and relationship therapist will see you now: perimenopause, post-natal depression, and single motherhood in 'Sex Education' (2019–2023)
No full textExamining the ways in which mothers are depicted in the media is crucial to an understanding of both media and motherhood studies; after all, the ways in which motherhood and motherwork are presented have the power, scope, and reach to open up a dialogue around family comportment, gender roles, and pronatalist expectations. With this in mind, I am keen to explore popular maternal representations, with particular attention to a character who is seen to navigate marriage, infidelity, divorce, friendships, relationships, domestic responsibilities, work commitments, advanced maternal age, pregnancy risk, perimenopause, single motherhood, and postpartum depression, namely the sex and relationship therapist, Dr Jean Milburn/Gillian Anderson, of the contemporary teen dramedy, Sex Education (2019–2023). This chapter will interrogate the ways in which this figure speaks to contemporary maternal roles and responsibilities considering the potential opportunities for the character in question challenge the ideology of intensive mothering that continues to saturate much popular media culture in favour of a more complex and ostensibly contradictory maternal figure
Conclusion: stories of possibility and access for primary science education
No full textA conclusion to the edited volume 'Primary science learning for children, teachers, and communities: stories of practice and possibility for science educators', which showcases primary school science from 38 international authors
Feasibility and acceptability of safer gambling interventions (social norms and goal setting) delivered via text message for those at low-to-moderate risk of gambling harm: a four-arm randomised controlled feasibility study
Get PDFObjectives: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of three SMS-delivered safer gambling interventions (goal setting (GS), descriptive norms (DN), injunctive norms (IN)) aimed at reducing the transition from low or moderate risk of gambling harm to problematic gambling, and the feasibility of a full-scale randomised controlled trial evaluating their effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.
Design: Four-arm, parallel-group, pragmatic, randomised controlled feasibility study with a nested qualitative study.
Setting: The study was conducted in the UK. Participants were recruited online via UK-licensed gambling operators’ websites.
Participants: Adults aged ≥18 years, gambling online at least weekly, with low-to-moderate gambling risk levels.
Interventions: Participants were block randomised in equal proportions to a delayed intervention control group or one of three 6-week text message interventions delivered via the secure messaging app WIRE: (1) GS: weekly prompts to set gambling-related goals with personalised feedback; (2) DN: weekly messages challenging misperceptions about peer gambling behaviours and (3) IN: weekly messages addressing misperceptions about peer attitudes towards gambling.
Outcome measures: Feasibility was assessed through recruitment and retention rates, intervention adherence, data completeness and feasibility and acceptability of the interventions and study procedures. Secondary outcomes included gambling risk behaviours and cognitions, anxiety, depression, quality of life, healthcare use and productivity, measured at baseline, 7-weeks, and 3- and 6-months post-randomisation.
Results: Recruitment took place between April 2021 and August 2022 with final follow-up in February 2023. 167 participants (mean age 51.5; 36% male) were randomised (GS=43; DN=41; IN=42; Control=41). Retention at 6-months was 95.2%, with >95% completion for all outcome measures. Intervention adherence was high, with >95% of DN and IN participants responding to ≥4 messages and 93% of GS participants setting ≥4 goals. Qualitative findings indicated broad acceptability of the interventions and study procedures.
Conclusions: The study was feasible to conduct, interventions and study procedures acceptable to participants, and predefined progression criteria met. Findings support proceeding to a full-scale randomised controlled trial of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, focusing on the social norms interventions
Belgium
No full textFor Mosley, Belgian animation ‘evolved’ into its own specific medium in the 1960s and 1970s, operating effectively as its own ‘national cinema’ through government subsidies (2001: 126-127). Belgian visual culture and animation has garnered a strong international and global recognition, from the Tin Tin graphic novels and cartoons such as The Smurfs (both of which are celebrated and recognised in the Belgian capital, Brussels) (Moins 1997; Heise 2014: 316). This ‘national’ cinema has, however, modified to operate at the intersection of the local and the global, i.e. as a transnational producer. Since 2001 and 2004, with the implementation of new film funding agreements, Belgian film production has increased through European co-productions (Steele 2019). Belgian animation falls between two categories, as international co-production partner and very low budget animations produced by student filmmakers from celebrated schools like La Cambre. This chapter captures this complexity, and its ‘transnational mode of production’ (Shaw 2013) for animation, recognising Belgian as centres of expertise for animation production, and as a key centre of young, emerging talent and animators
Playing with power: an ethnography by proxy study of de/colonial play habits in UK Froebelian early childhood environments
Get PDFThis paper presents findings from our project entitled ‘Diversity in Unity: Developing an anti-racist framework within Froebelian pedagogy’. We apply an ethnography by proxy approach informed by the work of Jones and Okun on colonial and decolonial habits. Drawing from two nursery settings in England and Scotland, we engage with the methodological practice of classification and wonder to propose more open-ended ways of attuning to the complexities of de/coloniality at play. Based on our data, we propose that these frameworks allow deeper engagement with the precursitivities of race/ism and may facilitate practitioner commitments and confidence to pay continuous attention to how play can liberate children from racialised ways of knowing and being known. Our research reveals how children, even in symbolic play, replicate and resist colonial habits such as exclusion, perfectionism and power hoarding. Through the lens of Froebelian pedagogy, which values free play as a space for the authentic expression of ideas, we explore how practitioners can attune to these precursivities of racialisation and exclusion. We argue that by being critically reflective of these often subtle dynamics, practitioners are better equipped to challenge ingrained colonial patterns and support more inclusive, liberatory play environments for children. Our study concludes by reflecting on the challenges and opportunities presented by such an approach, offering a roadmap for educators to engage in sustained anti-racist and decolonial practices in early years settings
Coop-science: a horizontal more inclusive approach to citizen science for rural communities in Kenya
Get PDFCitizen science aims to engage citizens in research projects to address everyday problems. However, it should not be assumed that citizen science promotes public participation per se. To bridge the gap between citizens and science, deliberate effort needs to be made. For example, finding ways to support citizens who have an interest in public participation but live under social and cultural conditions that constrain their ability to engage in science. We are interested in exploring how to tackle these inequalities in public knowledge co-creation. Thus, we propose an alternative to citizen science, thinking in terms of collectives, in particular cooperatives, instead of individuals/citizens. Engaging cooperatives in science could help expand our understanding of the collective dimension’s power in solving real-life problems. We refer to this approach as coop-science . It could be argued that when cooperatives are involved in science as a collective process, people see the advantages of working collectively to achieve scientific outcomes whilst caring for the common good. In times of polycrisis, particularly in the Global South where the consequences are devastating, cooperatives have the potential, we argue, to resist and flourish. Thus, we explore how coop-science can be articulated and implemented as an alternative to Western, more individualistic approaches to citizen science