Academic Dialogue Research Articles

Dismantling Persistent Deficit Narratives About the Language and Literacy of Culturally and Linguistically Minoritized Children and Youth: Counter-Possibilities

Despite decades of efforts, deficit narratives regarding language development and use by children and students from historically marginalized backgrounds remain persistent in the United States. Examining selective literature, we discuss the ideologies that undergird two deficit narratives: the notion that some children have a “word gap” when compared to their White middle-class peers, and students must develop “academic language” to engage in rigorous content learning. The “word gap” concept came from a study wherein a group of young children in low-income families heard fewer words than those in middle-class families. It assumes that language can only be acquired in one way—vocabulary exchange from one parent to one child—and ignores decades of research on diverse pathways for language development. We highlight an alternative perspective that language development builds on children’s experience with cultural practices and the harm on minoritized children by privileging a specific form of vocabulary acquisition. The second deficit narrative concerns “academic language,” a concept championed by scholars aiming to address educational inequity. The construct runs the risk of undervaluing the potential of students from historically marginalized backgrounds to engage in learning using language that is “informal,” nonconventional, or “non-native like.” It also is sometimes used as a rationale to relegate students to special programs isolated from more rigorous academic discourse, thus ironically removing them from opportunities to develop the academic registers they are deemed to be missing. We explore alternative frameworks that shift the focus from linguistic features of academic talk and texts as prerequisites for academic work to the broad range of linguistic resources that students employ for academic purposes in the classroom. Finally, we turn to a positive approach to youths’ language development and use: translanguaging by multilingual learners and their teachers. Translanguaging demonstrates the power of a resource-oriented perspective that values students’ rich communicative repertoires and actively seeks to disrupt language hierarchies. We argue that this approach, however, must be considered in relation to the broader social context to meet its transformative aims. Together, our analysis suggests counter-possibilities to dismantle deficit-oriented narratives and points to promising directions for research and practices to reduce inequity in education.

Pathology Grand Rounds in a postpandemic world.

Virtual academic talks, including Grand Rounds lectures, became common during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. As pathology departments now consider adopting virtual Grand Rounds, they should be mindful of the potential unique benefits of in‐person visits for Pathology Grand Rounds.

What are Urban Planning Academics Talking About on Twitter?

The purpose of this analysis is to report on the topics being discussed by urban planning academics on Twitter. Analyzing the content of the tweets helps to understand the topics of conversation and in some sense, the reasons why planning academics use the platform professionally. In many cases the topics identified reflect the research interests of planning academics, while others extend beyond scholarly activities.

Narratives in the classroom: A tale of affordances and missed opportunities

Oral narratives are typically examined through the lens of identity performance. In contrast, in the current study narratives are investigated from a pedagogic angle, focusing on their role in meaning-making processes in the classroom and shedding light on pedagogic affordances and missed opportunities surrounding the narratives. Data are drawn from two different settings: classes of students identified as gifted (grades 5–8, US) and mainstream classes (grades 5–6, Israel). Quantitative analysis reveals different frequencies in the two corpora: x¯=8.06 narratives per hour in the US classes, and x¯=1.4 narratives per hour in the Israeli classes. Microanalysis reveals differences between spontaneously emerging vs. strategically elicited narratives. Whereas the former typically engender a cluster of narratives that are integrated into academic talk, the latter tend to remain within the confines of Initiation-Response-Feedback, as students attempt to align their voices with the authoritative voices of teacher or curriculum, and thus their pedagogic potential remains unrealized.

News production and intercultural communication at the crossroads of disciplines

ABSTRACT Over the past two decades, the interest in journalistic translation and, more specifically, news translation has produced an important bulk of publications. Although most of this research has originated within translation studies, scholars have conducted interdisciplinary studies drawing on concepts and theoretical frameworks from neighbouring disciplines such as sociology, communication and journalism, discourse analysis and images studies. The interdisciplinary nature of most of this research has highlighted the importance of academic dialogue across disciplines, as exemplified by the work of scholars who have brought to the fore the crucial role played by translation in news production, including those that have contributed to this special issue.

The Postsecular Turn: Interrogating Postcolonialism after 9/11

Due to its complete reliance on western secular tradition, postcolonial theory has been accused of secular bias manifested in its negligence of spiritual and religious epistemologies. Having its methodological roots in forms of the secular – liberal humanism, Marxism, the western university – postcolonialism has largely ignored a spiritual dimension. Put differently, inspired and influenced by western ideologies such as Marxism, nationalism, postmodernism and secular humanism, as well as Edward Said’s concepts of secular criticism and the secular intellectual, postcolonialism has downplayed and rejected religion as a subject of concern in favour of secular thought, defining its intellectual and political project in opposition to the term “sacred”. However, owing to the global return of religion from “exile” (especially after the 9/11 attacks), postcolonial critics and theorists have started to engage with the question of religion and spirituality. They have recognized the significance of the religious and the spiritual as modes of postcolonial intervention. This essay attempts to highlight the postsecular turn within the field of postcolonial studies. My argument is that due to the contributions of non-western postcolonialists and their acknowledgement of religion as a postcolonial category of analysis, postcolonialism has become postsecular, furnishing a room for both the religious and the secular so that they may enter into an academic critical dialogue. This gradual process of change from a secular postcolonialism to a postsecular postcolonialism is reflected in postcolonial writers’ inclusion of spiritual and religious matters in their literary and theoretical narratives.

University Geography in China: History, opportunities, and challenges

AbstractThis Themed‐Intervention commentary provides a brief overview of the history of Geography as a modern academic discipline in China, its development in the reform era (1979–), and the distinctive conventions and norms that distinguish it from paradigms and practices of geography in the Anglophone academia. We identify two tensions: between sciences and social sciences orientations, and between applied knowledge and critical/reflexive knowlegde. These tensions are both internal to Geography in China, and exist between Chinese and Anglophone Geography, the latter as embodied in major international journals. Mindful of these tensions, this commentary develops reflections over geography education in China and the challenges faced by academic dialogues between Chinese and Anglophone geographers.

Editorial

Editorial

Uses of History During the First Nine Months of COVID

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, historians of medicine, disease, and health became frequent guests in academic talks and even in national media. These historians' expertise suddenly appeared relevant, particularly those who worked on two previous pandemics, the 14th-century Black Death and the 1918 influenza pandemic. This article examines how history was searched for possible insights and predictions about the present-day pandemic. The article then traces why assumptions about what COVID would do based on the past, such as COVID leading to a leveling of inequality, were faulty: these supposed lessons from the past flattened pandemics into one-size-fits-all approaches, which existed in neither the past nor the present. To understand the possibilities and limits of what pandemics do, we must ground the differing experiences of a pandemic in their specific times and places. In particular, framing pandemic responses in terms of resilience serves to center the market and the state, rather than individuals. The article concludes with thoughts on how to make changes during a pandemic that center people, not states or profits.

The Need for Synergy in Academic Policies: An Introduction to the Dialogue on Pre‐registration

There has been much debate on the need for preregistering experimental studies. Opinions differ with some people believing that “pre‐registration should be required—for us to believe the results of papers,” and others believing that “pre‐registration makes no difference to science and just adds work.” This research dialogue brings differing viewpoints together, in an open academic dialogue. Two target articles and two commentaries discuss what pre‐registration does for replicability of studies, and what cost it adds on authors and reviewers. Additionally, in my introduction to the research dialogue, I deliberate on the need for synergy between our journals, review teams, authors, and institutions, in order for any new policies on pre‐registration to be successfully adopted.

An intellectual plein air: a walk through the Rozanov places of Yelets

This paper is an original reconstruction of the Yelets text of the Russian religious philosopher Vasily Rozanov. The author draws up a map of Rozanov’s addresses in Yelets and conducts an intellectual plein air over them, inviting students to it. During an intellectual walk along provincial Yelets, an attempt is made to reconstruct Rozanov’s Yelets routes. Each place, marked during the plein air could be described by Rozanov in his texts. This form of academic dialogue is held for the first time and can serve as an alternative to traditional classroom forms of communication. The author sees the intellectual plein air as an attempt to capture and describe the images of the departing Yelets in the way the Russian philosopher might have seen it. Any timely fixation of the memory of Rozanov today turns out to be the correct tactical decision. The current Yelets is gradually giving in to the impulses of modernization. In addition to the intellectual temptations of new readings of Rozanov’s texts in the framework of this plein air, this form of academic dialogue, taken outside the framework of the university audience, solves another problem. The author considers new aesthetic horizons of the familiar ethnic landscape. Yelets expands anew, containing the memory of an outstanding representative of Russian culture, and becomes a part of world culture.

INVESTIGANDO PROCESSOS DE RETOMADA DE CONHECIMENTOS DE FÍSICA POR INTERMÉDIO DO JOGO PERFÍSICA

O interesse pela questão do lúdico na sala de aula e em espaços não formais de educação parece cada vez mais crescente no Ensino de Ciências. Alinhado a essa tendência, o objetivo deste trabalho é investigar como ocorre a retomada de conhecimentos de Física durante a aplicação de um jogo previamente elaborado, denominado PerFísica. Ele consiste em um tabuleiro e em um conjunto de cartas, que apresentam, cada uma, algum conhecimento de Física e 12 dicas sobre ele. Os grupos de alunos devem tentar adivinhar o conhecimento de Física presente na carta por meio das dicas lidas pelo professor mediador do jogo. A elaboração do PerFísica e a análise dos dados da pesquisa têm como base a perspectiva histórico-cultural. Elementos mediadores já existentes na literatura foram usados como categorias de análise das retomadas de conhecimento científico escolar identificadas. O PerFísica foi aplicado em uma turma de Ensino Médio Integrado ao Ensino Técnico de uma instituição federal de ensino. Foram analisadas as gravações em áudio das conversas entre os grupos e a professora mediadora do jogo. Foram identificados diversos elementos mediadores utilizados pelos grupos ao tentarem adivinhar o conhecimento presente na carta: interação aluno-aluno, interação professor-aluno, nomes dos assuntos estudados, leis físicas, livro didático. Também foi observado um elemento mediador ainda não mapeado pela literatura: a interação aluno-jogo, que se refere ao uso dos conteúdos científicos das cartas do PerFísica para a retomada de assuntos já estudados e para a identificação do conhecimento presente na carta. Espera-se que o presente artigo contribua para a reflexão e o diálogo acadêmico sobre o papel do lúdico no Ensino de Ciências com base na análise de uma experiencia concreta de utilização de um jogo em contexto escolar.

Digital Dilemma 2018: Digital Presentations in Biological Anthropology and Bioarchaeology

<p class="page" title="Page 1" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><p class="layoutArea"><p class="column"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond;">In academia, funding for conference attendance is limited, and both students and early-career researchers are therefore only able to attend a limited number of conferences. This means that, typically, researchers need to choose between attending multiple local and, at times, more affordable conferences, or one or two large, expensive, international conferences. Local and less expensive conferences may be research-specific but will have a smaller audience and lower networking potential. In biological anthropology and bioarchaeology, the majority of these larger annual conferences are held in North America and Western Europe where travel and accommodation costs can be very high for those outside of these regions. These costs, in addition to visa restrictions, reduce the diversity of participants at academic conferences, skewing attendance to students and researchers from the host countries. Not only does this disadvantage individuals outside of the typical host-countries, but it also limits the breadth of academic dialogue, with inclusion in academic conferences determined all too often by financial resources rather than academic value. This paper discusses the demographics and lack of diversity at some of these large conferences and the factors that are known to limit international conference travel. It then presents the benefits of digital presentation methods using Digital Dilemma 2018 as a case study for how digital presentation methods can be combined with physical presentations at minimal cost and time. We hope that this will encourage more conferences to offer a digital presentation option in the future.</span>

Encountering precarity, uncertainty and everyday anxiety as part of the postgraduate research journey

Whilst there has been a recent rise in research within the social sciences which has sought to explore the topic of ‘precarity’, to date there has been very little discussion around the precarity inherent in the research process or in following an academic pathway, and its subsequent impact on the wellbeing and mental health of the researcher. Within this intervention piece, we expose some of the uncertainties and precarities experienced as part of the postgraduate research journey, in doing so, drawing upon our own personal experiences as doctoral researchers. These have included, for example, the potential of research to fail and perpetual anxieties around future academic careers, preservation and progression in the context of an unstable academy. Academia appears to have traditionally required a commitment to the silencing of emotions and feelings of uncertainty, with very few academics talking openly about the emotions involved in their everyday work. This piece calls for an environment which is more open, supportive and accommodating of both the emotions and mental health of postgraduate researchers.

The Gift of Embracing Risk: Responsibility as Practice in Aerial Dance

ABSTRACT This article contributes to an emerging academic dialogue about teaching aerial dance. As aerial dance in higher education has become more widespread, institutions and instructors must evaluate both the risks and benefits of implementing these programs. Although the inherent risk of aerial dance may invite some skepticism, the authors propose that risk can be managed within a framework of best practices that are modeled and explicitly taught by a qualified instructor. In the well-managed aerial dance classroom, risk provides unique learning opportunities for students, namely the cultivation of responsibility. While this article is practical in nature, it is not a “how-to” for the implementation of an aerial arts program in a university setting. Rather, the authors seek to illuminate pedagogical benefits that they have witnessed through the inclusion of aerial dance curriculum in higher education dance programs and suggest that these concepts integrate into the larger context of students’ lives.

Microstructures and dynamic processes within the five-phase system: regarding COVID-19 as a complex system

The research uses the development of COVID-19 in the human body as an example to explore the microstructures and dynamic processes of a concise complex system from the lens of the five-phase system. Based on the structural balance theory and system dynamics, the research finds that transitive triads and cyclic triads in the five-phase system are both imbalanced. The integration of these differentiated triads comprises of a balanced intermediate form in the shape of quadrangular cycles. These cycles serve as microstructures of the five-phase system, due to the inherent balancing feedback mechanism, and support the generation of resultants. The alternation of quadrangular cycles drives the spiraling development of the whole system. By orderly and regular interweaving of signed directed links, the research provides a holistic, process-oriented demonstration for the development processes of COVID-19. It clarifies that the essence of the five-phase system is phase-transition processes with the quadrangular cycle as carrier and supporter, rather than the static aggregation of five elements. The research deepens the understanding of system nonlinearity by visualizing the circular causality and promotes the academic dialogue between the Western process theory and the Chinese inherited notion of the five-phase system.

Understanding the Darker Side to Organizational Behavior

The presentations in this symposium broadly look to explore the ‘darker’ constructs in organizational behavior in order to redress the prevalent focus on the positive side of organizational scholarship (Linstead, Marechal, & Griffin, 2014). Taking into consideration a rich body of research that demonstrates how negative events evoke greater physiological, affective, cognitive, and behavioral repercussion compared to neutral or positive events, it is all the more critical to spark future research through integration, extension, and development of new theoretical frameworks in this arena (Colquitt & Zapata-Phelan, 2007; Taylor, 1991). Collectively, the series of papers introduced in this symposium offers an avenue of discussion that will enrich current academic dialogue regarding the darker side of organizational behavior, particularly offering new ways of examining concepts that are typically deemed as negative in the workplace. Altogether, the present collection of studies included in this symposium, and the future research that may be inspired by it, can inform organizations on how better to organize, communicate, and create an ethical culture by addressing the dark side of organizational behavior. The Dark side of Affect Shifts: Linking Daily Emotional Trajectories to Bad Behavior Presenter: Emma Laier Frank; U. of Georgia Presenter: Fadel Khalil Matta; U. of Georgia Presenter: Tyler Sabey; Texas A&M U. Presenter: Jessica Beth Rodell; U. of Georgia What Makes Dirty Jokes Seem Rude? Examining Perceptions of Rudeness Through the Lens of Role Theory Presenter: Zhishuang Guan; U. of Maryland, College Park Presenter: Trevor Foulk; U. of Maryland Development and Validation of Workplace Impunity Scale Presenter: Min Young Lee; Georgia Institute of Technology Presenter: Katie Badura; Georgia Institute of Technology Presenter: Bradford Edward Baker; Georgia Institute of Technology An Examination of Daily Fluctuation in the Dark Triad Personality Presenter: Rebecca MacGowan; U. of Arizona Presenter: Allison S. Gabriel; U. of Arizona Presenter: Aleksander P.J. Ellis; U. of Arizona Presenter: Andrea Kim; Sungkyunkwan U. Presenter: Ke Michael Mai; National U. of Singapore Examining When and Why Narcissistic Leaders are Detrimental to Teams Presenter: Katie Badura; Georgia Institute of Technology Presenter: Emily Grijalva; Washington U. in St. Louis, Olin Business School

Assessment or Surveillance? Panopticism and Higher Education

In this paper, we explore Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon and consider its possible contribution to understanding more fully the impact of current assessment protocols and practices within higher education. More pointedly, we ask the following question: Are the plethora of assessment practices within higher education actually designed to improve student academic experience, or are they instead mechanisms of surveillance intended to control, dominate and invoke paranoia among university workers? In response to this question, we argue that the prevailing preoccupation with assessment in U.S. universities is motivated less by a genuine desire to enhance the actual academic experience of students than it is to offer hegemonic interests a psychological instrument of control to eliminate potential dissent over neo-liberal and managerial class imposed policies. To illustrate our central claim, we first review some general details of Bentham’s panopticon. Secondly, we briefly discuss Foucault’s analysis of the panopticon and consider his accompanying postulate on the tendency of individuals to self-regulate their behavior according to externally imposed and monitored expectations. We also examine in greater depth the relationship between the panopticon and the Lacanian gaze, with a focus on considering the latter’s psychological impact. Finally, we contend that the prevailing obsession with assessment in universities is a mechanism of institutional control that hinders rather than enhances the academic quality of contemporary higher education by limiting the scope of academic dialogue, social imagination and democratic structural critique.

Firearm Relinquishment within Civil Protection Orders: Processes and Observations from Delaware Family Court

Research and national data illustrate that female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) are more likely to be killed if their abuser has access to a firearm (Campbell et al. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 8(3), 246–69, 2007; Gwinn Evaluation Review, 30(3), 237–44, 2006; Sorenson Evaluation Review 30, 361, 2006). A crucial part of protecting victims lies with the state’s ability to successfully track and remove firearms from Civil Protection Orders (CPO). While recent research on the court’s responses to firearms and IPV is robust (Fleury-Steiner et al. Violence Against Women, 1-12, 2016; Stockl et al. Lancet, 382, 859–865. 2013; Logan and Walker Violence and Victims, 25, 332–348, 2010), there is a notable lack of practitioner voices within the academic dialogue focusing on concrete responses to firearms within IPV. The author uses their experience as an administrator within Delaware Family Court and their experience as a researcher to focus research into informed practices that will result in better court compliance with the firearms ban. The current paper outlines concrete practices followed by Delaware Family Court to address the firearms ban and lists considerations for other jurisdictions to engage with as they begin to improve their processes. The current paper aims to center practitioner experiences into the conversation to not only add to current academic research, but to provide other courts and legal practitioners with concrete practices that they can bring to their jurisdictions.

Peningkatan Keterampilan Guru Dalam Menyusun Rencana Pelaksanaan Pembelajaran Melalui Latihan dan Bimbingan

Teacher qualifications, even though they are bachelor, do not guarantee that each teacher is able to draw up a Learning Implementation Plan (RPP), as evidenced by the 8 teachers in SD Negeri Mojodanu II Ngombang District, Jombang, which are still 25% capable of preparing lesson plans independently, so supervision activities related to academic supervision in the preparation of the RPP . These conditions are influenced by: (1) teacher busyness, (2) lack of training and guidance as well as mentoring and (3) lack of socialization. Related to the above problems, there needs to be adequate handling assistance. In this case the effort made is to carry out training and guidance, which aims at improving teacher skills in the preparation of RPP according to SNP independently. Data analysis was carried out using qualitative descriptive analysis. The study was conducted in stages of the cycle, each cycle consisting of 4 (four) steps including: planning, implementation, observation and reflection. The results of this study, 8 teachers from schools that were the subjects of the study, all showed increased competency in accordance with established indicators of success. Suggestions proposed are: (1) it is necessary to intensify the improvement of teacher skills in preparing lesson plans through mentoring activities or the like (2) the need for means such as IHT, so that they can exchange experiences through academic dialogue