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Exemplary paternalism: a consideration of Confucian models of moral oversight
Get PDFIn this article we examine Classical Confucian political thinking through the lens of paternalism. We situate Confucianism amid contemporary models of paternalism to show that Confucianism can be understood as a soft form of paternalism regarding its method. Confucianism stresses cultivation of the people by moral exemplars to guide the people to act in ways that are in their own best interests. This is in contrast to use of law and punishment as a deterrent of unwanted behaviours of the people. We demonstrate that Confucian paternalism does not advocate for a static top-down structure of governance that is incapable of reform, underscoring its non-authoritarian ideal. We do this by stressing the vital upward momentum constituted in general cultivation of the wider population utilizing li (rituals). The picture that emerges from an examination of Confucian political thought through the lens of paternalism is what we name “exemplary paternalism.
Mutual enrichment between psychology and theology
No full textThe relationship between psychology and Christian theology has been one of the most important topics in the science and religion fields. Discussions, however, are too frequently one-sided. This book takes an alternative approach: following the lead of Fraser Watts, the contributions develop various aspects of the mutual enrichment of each discipline by the other. Moving beyond outdated models of conflict and independence, this book highlights areas of fruitful enhancement at the interface of Christian belief and practice with psychology.
Set out in four sections the book’s chapters first engage methodological and substantive issues in the interdisciplinarity raised by the dialogue between psychology and theology. Second, chapters explore a variety of areas in which psychology enriches theology, looking at both historical and contemporary themes such as psychoanalysis, embodiment and mindfulness. Chapters in the third section explore some of the theological enrichments of psychology, with topics including character strengths, wisdom and forgiveness. The final section engages aspects of mutual enrichment in religious life and pastoral care with an applied focus on mental health, meditation, prayer, spiritual direction and spirituality
Attending to experience: a narrative study of early career teachers of primary mathematics, and an early career researcher, in a process of becoming/continuing
No full textIn the following pages I explore the experiences of early career primary teachers who have an interest in mathematics education. My intention is to become more aware of what they do in their day-to-day mathematical school lives and what they consider significant to their development. In turn I question the role school-based mentors and mathematics teacher educators have in supporting their development.
I bring a narrative ontological and epistemological stance, shaped by postmodern thinking, to my work. I use a range of narrative structures to communicate my developing insights and celebrate the uncertainty of constructions of knowledge and reality.
My analysis, largely of interview data, offers a perspective usually obscured by dominant narratives of deficit and what works. I argue a shift in attention from a focus on the attainment of expertise as an end point, to the continuous processes of learning and change, may support the development of the primary mathematics specialists wished for in primary classrooms in England.
In keeping with the principles of narrative inquiry I recognise the blurring of the boundary between researcher and researched. I study my experiences as a beginning researcher alongside the experiences of the people I interview, establishing the how and the what of my methodology, as I develop my research practices. Staying with stories of development over time, and using approaches I come to describe as storying the small, writing as if and re-storying, in order that I might attend differently to the continuous nature of change, as beginners position themselves on new landscapes, are significant threads.
As a result of my work I seek to highlight methodological implications for working from a narrative position as I recognise connections between narrative inquiry, relational knowing and reflexivity and wonder at the possibilities being slow and knowing slow might offer in learning to attend to experience differently
A walking tour reflecting on botany, empire and deep time.
No full textScript for a walking tour in Sydney Gardens, Bath.
The walks were cancelled because of Covid.
The script was published on the Sydney Gardens Medium pages
The link between mental health, crime and violence
No full textResearch investigating the link between mental health, crime and violence often rely on populations that are at a high-risk of violent and criminal behaviour, such as prison inmates and psychiatric patients. As a result of this selection bias, the relationship between mental health, criminal and violent behaviour is significantly over-estimated, with mental health being incorrectly linked with violent and criminal behaviours. This study examines the relationship between mental health, violence and crime in a more representative community-based sample. One hundred and twenty-one individuals with and without a mental health disorder reported their involvement in crime and completed an aggression questionnaire. The results revealed that there is no statistically significant difference in terms of violence and crime involvement between individuals with a mental health diagnosis and those without. Moreover, the study did not find any statistically significant associations between specific mental health disorders and specific crime offences. The findings suggest that certain mental health disorders do not strongly contribute to crime violence and involvement. Limitations and implications are discussed in detail
Enacting the international vision of inclusive education: a UK case study of profound and multiple learning difficulties
Get PDFThis chapter explores the inclusive education debate as it relates to children with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD). It illuminates a fundamental tension between international policy which promotes inclusive education as a human right (UN, 2006), and the challenge of including learners with profound intellectual impairments in the current neoliberal education system (Tomlinson, 2017). This tension is examined through two interpretations of disability found in the field of Disability Studies: the medical model and the social model (Goodley 2011). A medical model interpretation holds that children with PMLD are excluded from the mainstream because they lack the intellectual ability to learn at the same pace as other children. A social model interpretation holds that children with PMLD are excluded because mainstream education has not been designed with the needs of children with PMLD in mind, resulting in a range of barriers that prevent children with PMLD from meaningful participation. Proponents of the social model of disability call for a radical reform of the education system to reflect the diverse needs of all learners, including children with PMLD (Baglieri and Shapiro, 2017; Greenstein 2016).
According to international policy, one of the key outcomes of inclusive education is social cohesion (UNESCO, 2002) defined in this chapter in terms of a sense of belonging, shared identity, and social cooperation (Fonseca et al., 2019; Simmons 2020). If inclusive education is to be realised for children with PMLD, then any radical reform of the education system must begin with an understanding of how schools can foster social cohesion amongst pupils. This chapter presents research evidence that illuminates the possible conditions of social cohesion, which include specialist staff who perform a dual role of supporting the emerging communication skills of children with PMLD, whilst also providing mainstream school peers with expert knowledge about how each child with PMLD uniquely communicates. The findings also suggest that children benefit from protected time and space to experiment with communication strategies, play together, develop friendships, and share roles and responsibilities. The chapter concludes by suggesting that if inclusion is to be actualised for children with PMLD, then we need to move beyond narrow concepts of inclusion as assimilation into a neoliberal education system, and begin to reimagine inclusive education as a process of enacting the conditions that can lead to social belonging
State maternalism: rethinking anarchist readings of the Daodejing
Get PDFIn this paper we review Western discourse on the relationship between Daoism and anarchist political theory. In particular, we focus on the anarchist reading of Daoism given by Roger Ames, and the more recent contrasting argument against reading Daoism as an anarchism by Alex Feldt. Centring our discussion on the Daodejing
道德經, we argue that, on the one hand, Laozi’s 老子 political theory is less easily reconcilable with anarchist thinking than Ames suggests. On the other hand, we dispute Feldt’s argument that Laozi’s sage-ruler must, of necessity, maintain the capacity for coercive control. Counter to both Ames and Feldt, we suggest that Laozi’s sage-ruler is better framed as a maternal overseer, in contrast to other more paternalistic extrapolations of Daoist thinking, such as that offered in the Hanfeizi 韓非子 韓非子. In reading Laozi's thinking as a form of state “maternalism,” we aim to give a more distinctive voice to the nuances of early Daoist political theory
Supporting students’ development through collaborative reflection: interrogating cultural practices and perceptions of good practice in the context of a field trip
Get PDFThis study examines the perspectives of a group of 10 UK undergraduate students and one Master’s student on a residential field trip to four Danish forest kindergartens. Two dimensions are examined: the impact of collaborative reflection and co-construction of knowledge on student learning; and the influence of cultural assumptions on understandings of early childhood education and care in practice. The methodology was interpretive, and inductive approaches were employed to analyse qualitative data-sets. The study is framed by cultural-historical theory, acknowledging that learning and development takes place in social context and is shaped by cultural and societal values and practices. Findings suggest that students’ collaborative reflections enabled them to identify and question their own assumptions about good practice and to develop their understanding of the relationship between culture and pedagogy. The community of learning that developed afforded rich opportunities for drawing out meaningful relationships between practice and theory. Students emerged with greater understanding of the relevance of research and of their identity as researchers
Student-Led Improvement Science Projects: a praxiographic, actor-network theory study
Get PDFImprovement science methodology is promoted in the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland for implementing rapid change in hospital practices. Student-Led Improvement Science Projects (SLISPs) have been developed as a result of this, where medical students work with clinical teams to identify, implement and monitor quality improvements in the workplace. Working with improvement science in real-life working practices in a hospital environment presents opportunities for different ways to conceptualise learning, for both educators and students. This paper draws from ethnographic and praxiographic methods combined with the sociomaterial approach of actor-network theory (ANT) to investigate the pedagogies of improvement science. The research concludes with three implications for medical education and education in general: (1) conceptualising learning as a network effect can guide educators and students towards a broader range of pedagogies for improvement science; (2) treating human and non-human elements of the network equally can lead to noticing details of practice that might otherwise be overlooked; (3), instead of collapsing improvement science into a singular meaning, multiple worlds allows for different enactments of improvement science to co-exist
