Practical Look Research Articles

The supervision of experienced secondary school‐based counsellors: A situational analysis constructivist grounded theory exploration of best practice

AbstractIntroduction and AimsSecondary school‐based counselling (SSBC) is used widely throughout the United Kingdom (UK) as an early mental health intervention, and clinical supervision is necessary for its safe and effective practice. Currently, there does not exist a body of research to inform best practice in this area of supervision. The purpose of this study was to explore the supervisory requirements of the experienced secondary school‐based counsellor and what best practice looks like.MethodThis study used situational analysis constructivist grounded theory methodology to explore and develop a grounded theory of best practice in supervising the experienced secondary school counsellor in the UK. The descriptions of best practice were examined from the interviews of 17 experienced secondary school counsellors and/or supervisors.FindingsFrom the data emerged one core category (‘a good fit’) which encapsulated four theoretical categories (‘the supervisory relationship’, ‘understanding the working context’, ‘safeguarding’ and ‘the shared supervisory journey’). The study indicates that the supervisor needs an understanding of the unique context of the secondary school as a therapist's working environment in order to support the supervisee with often complex work. There needs to be an awareness of how elements from within the school and/or counselling agency can impact on the supervision regarding boundaries, trust and containment so they do not impact the supervision in a detrimental way.ConclusionsSupervisor and supervisee need a shared understanding of the nature of supervision within this context for it to be a ‘good fit’ for both. This has implications for supervision training and the externality of supervision within this context.

The value of comparative research in an era of standards-based reforms

The impact of standards-based reforms on the professional practice of English teachers in Anglophone settings has been well documented. Such reforms typically foreground the importance of a particular form of English and standardised formulations of curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, which facilitate easy measurement and comparisons between educational settings. In Australia, the impact has intensified to such an extent that traditional framings of English teacher practice, which emphasize responsiveness to the cultural and linguistic diversity of students, begin to look like a discourse of a bygone era. From an historical perspective, how has this come about? And what does English teacher practice look like in the current policy environment? Can comparative inquiry into language education, such as has been conducted under the auspices of the International Mother Tongue Education Network (IMEN) over the past four decades, provide intellectual resources to resist relentless pressures towards standardisation and measurement? The collaborative inquiry into the professional practice of one author at the heart of this essay arises out of our attempts to explore the potential of IMEN protocols to render the familiar strange and to see her practice with new eyes. In this way we seek to resist the ways standards-based reforms are radically reshaping the praxis of English educators in Australia.

What Do Spiritual Formation Practices Look Like Among Graduate Theology Students? Implications for Faculty Teaching

What Do Spiritual Formation Practices Look Like Among Graduate Theology Students? Implications for Faculty Teaching

Student leadership in family-school partnerships

Thomas J. Capretta, Jingyang (Max) Zhang, Eric M. Anderman, and Barbara J. Boone revisit Joyce Epstein’s 1995 Kappan article on overlapping spheres of influence and family-school partnerships. They highlight one idea from the article that has been largely overlooked — the role of student voice and leadership. To refocus researchers’ and practitioners’ attention to the role of students in family and community partnership, they synthesize existing research to elaborate on Epstein’s original models and ideas. They provide three levels of research-based, practical recommendations for districts and schools to elevate student roles and cultivate student leadership in family-school engagement efforts. Finally, they illustrate what these practices look like in schools using an Ohio school district as an example.

Academic citizenship for a digimodern academy

In this essay, we are resituating the practices of academic citizenship within a digimodern academy. We propose that in a world of fragmented narratives surrounding higher education in America, academics should act as stewards of what ever positive higher education narratives they wish to promote and to align their academic citizenship practices accordingly. We argue that rather than having narratives imposed upon academics externally, there is power in creating and controlling our own narratives. This essay situates the academy in a digimodern context, and it explores the connection between power and narratives about higher education. This essay then examines academic citizenship in light of creating and maintaining higher education narratives and finally illustrates how it may look in practice.

Private Practices, Promiscuous Archives

Abstract: This essay mobilizes critical archival studies and Tonia Sutherland’s notion of “the carceral archive” in dialogue with Asian American feminist praxis to propose the framework of promiscuous archives, which seeks to harness the power and resources of archives towards unconventional, liberatory aims directed by community need. I draw principally from the concrete archival practices employed by the “Private Practices: AAPI Artist and Sex Worker Collection” at the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive to ask: What can abolitionist knowledge practices look like? What can archives learn from sex workers? Weaving critique of carceral narratives around sex workers with interrogation of the logics of capture and surveillance that direct archival practice, the essay presents promiscuity as an exploratory strategy of collaboration, proliferation, and usurpation that radically expands the porosity of archives, challenging the temporality, affective charge, and social role of archival repositories.

Daylong egocentric recordings in small- and large-scale language communities: A practical introduction.

Daylong egocentric (i.e., participant-centered) recordings promise an unprecedented view into the experiences that drive early language learning, impacting both assumptions and theories about how learning happens. Thanks to recent advances in technology, collecting long-form audio, photo, and video recordings with child-worn devices is cheaper and more convenient than ever. These recording methods can be similarly deployed across small- and large-scale language communities around the world, opening up enormous possibilities for comparative research on early language development. However, building new high-quality naturalistic corpora is a massive investment of time and money. In this chapter, we provide a practical look into considerations relevant for developing and managing daylong egocentric recording projects: Is it possible to re-use existing data? How much time will manual annotation take? Can automated tools sufficiently tackle the questions at hand? We conclude by outlining two exciting directions for future naturalistic child language research.

Does Downward Accountability Work? An Assessment of Local Governance Practices in Nepal

The articulation of downward (social) accountability to the local government (LG) has been established by the new constitution of Nepal (2015) and further elaborated in the Local Government Operational Act (2017). LGs in Nepal have gained more autonomy, role, and responsibility for providing public services to local citizens following the state restructuring into federal Nepal. What does local governance practice look like today in terms of downward accountability? This paper examines the existing patterns of downward accountability, particularly in the same cases of local government in the Kailali district in the Sudurpaschim Province. Two separate field-based studies were conducted in different periods. Initially, the study assessed the compliance of social accountability tools in three local units (2019). The second attempt was a study focused on the practices of the monitoring mechanisms of four LG units (2021). The analysisused the observation check-list, key informant interview, and questionnaire schedule for data collection. The respondents to the study were the elected representatives, staff of LGs, and service-receiving citizens. This observation shows doubt about the practice of downward accountability at LG and its compliance, which appears to be ambiguous. LG elected representative's perception of downward accountability and the compliance mechanism must be clarified and specific. However, both elected representatives and the citizens have taken monitoring action in support of the downward accountability of LG. Effective service delivery has slowed due to a lack of a standardized downward accountability system.

AI for Evaluators: Opportunities and Risks

We are all familiar with how computers and smartphones have transformed work and productivity. We now stand at a new threshold with another technology that is predicted to further transform the way we work: Artificial Intelligence (AI). 
 In this article, we hope to take a sober and practical look at AI from the perspective of professional evaluators. We examine how we might use it, how it might transform the nature of our tasks, what threats it might pose to our field, and what evaluators might do to protect themselves and our society from potential adverse effects of this emerging technology.

Perfectionism, Decision-Making, and Life-Satisfaction among Working Professionals


 
 
 Perfectionism and decision-making have been receiving attention in workplaces for many years. Perfectionism is considered a positive attribute of an employee. However, there is another side of perfectionism also, which can lead to severe mental and physical health problems. In the same way, decision-making is routine organizational practice, which is considered an essential
 
 
 
 attribute of personality. Life satisfaction also indicates the apparent quality of life and indicates mental and physical health. It also shows how well people thrive. Working professionals can be described as individuals earning their living through employment. Such individuals generally value specific skills or degrees which help them perform specific tasks efficiently. Working professionals can be full-time, part-time, or self-employed. Some examples can be teachers, lawyers, doctors, designers, etc. The current study was intended to explore the relationship between perfectionism, decision-making, and life satisfaction among working professionals. The sample of this study is 40 working professionals between the age of 20-30 years. Standardized scales are used to measure perfectionism, decision-making, and life satisfaction. The results showed a significant positive correlation between life satisfaction and decision-making. Also, the study found a negative correlation between life satisfaction, decision-making & perfectionism. The outcomes of the current study will help employers and human resource management practices look for their employees' mental and physical health.
 
 
 
 
 

The recognition of prior learning (RPL) as pedagogical practice: tensions and affordances in assessment

ABSTRACT An effective system of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) requires assessment processes that are appropriate for the nature of the experiential learning being assessed. Otherwise, potential candidates may be discouraged from engaging in RPL applications and therefore not benefit from the lifelong learning opportunities available. It has been argued that foregrounding RPL as a specialised pedagogical practice, and not just as assessment, can help in this regard. This article draws on the conceptualisation of RPL as ‘pedagogical pragmatism’, as developed by Pokorny et al. (2017), and asks how this might look in practice and how might it help in creating assessment processes that reflect the epistemological particularity of prior experiential learning. A cohort RPL project that ran in ten Education and Training Boards (ETBs) in Ireland, in partnership with the Irish Defence Forces (DF) in 2018 to 2019, provides the basis for the research. A key theme in the results is the integrated nature of RPL assessment in its design and operation, and the way in which formative and summative assessment are brought into productive relation and understanding the affordances in assessment can help drive practice forward.

Instagrammable feminisms: Aesthetics and attention-seeking strategies on Portuguese feminist Instagram

This article presents an exploratory analysis of feminist practices on Portuguese Instagram, questioning how online feminisms are represented on Instagram, in light of its conventions, aesthetics, and popularity logics. Starting from a theme-oriented dataset – collected using the hashtags #feminismoportugal (feminism Portugal), #igualdadedegénero (gender equality), #naopartilhes (don’t share it), and #portugalmaisigual (a more equal Portugal) – this research analyses 294 posts, created by 101 users. Combining a qualitative close reading with the use of digital tools for visual analysis, this article explores how these Instagram feminist practices look like, what dynamics they encompass, and how they relate to the aesthetics and popularity logics of Instagram. Within this plural hashtag landscape, the aesthetics of online feminism goes beyond the dominant cultural imaginaries that link Instagram to photographic content, with long written text emerging as a key site for sharing feminist knowledge – both in captions and in graphic compositions. These graphic compositions have become part of the popular cultural imaginary of a feminist ‘genre’ on Instagram, combining Instagrammable aesthetics with educational content for accessible informal learning. Yet, feminist practices on Instagram are also subjected to the dominant social media logic of popularity, leading to a strategic mobilisation of attention to seek visibility and engagement, albeit to limited success.

A practical look at the concept of freedom with a philosophy approach for children in early childhood

Both social studies and preschool programs mention freedom as a value. However, in typical social studies curricula, the philosophical perspective is not included and no discussion takes place. In the preschool curriculum, freedom is an abstract concept, and the belief that children cannot understand abstract concepts prevails, while value studies are still limited to determining the frequency of values rather than interrogating them. As such, this study aims to explore young children's views on the concept of freedom, how these views changed after their participation in a philosophically oriented activity, and how, consequently, the concept of freedom might be addressed in social studies on a philosophical level. The researchers used an applied qualitative study design, in which 19 children (14 boys, 5 girls) aged 5-6 years were interviewed before and after the presentation of the well-known folk tale “Rapunzel,” along with the question, “… am I free?” An exercise taken from the Philosophy for Children curriculum, "Freedom is similar to…, because…” was used in both pre and post interviews. The study used semi-structured interviews and document analysis as data collection instruments. The data obtained were subjected to descriptive and content analysis. As a result of the study, it was found that before the activity, children tended to discuss the meaning of freedom in the context of its limits (e.g. permission, prohibition, rules), and, following the activity, in the context of positive freedoms (e.g. growth, being independent).

Gotta Sew Them All—A Case Study of Pokémon Legends: Arceus Trainer Costumes and Historical Plausibility

Abstract On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green in 2021, Pokémon Legends: Arceus was announced. A new take on the highly successful franchise, Arceus sees the player transported to a mysterious past set in the frontiers of the Hisui region. As in other games, players have Poké Ball to capture wild Pokémon, but in this game the creatures can inflict damage if they become frightened or aggressive. The technology and costuming are vaguely steam powered, hinting at a Victorian or Meiji (1868–1912) time period. Indeed, it is revealed that the setting for the game is Hokkaido around 1869, during the colonization of the northern island. In early 2022, Twitter was abuzz with news that the series would be headlined by Ainu characters. This article takes a practical look at the design of the costumes, reading them as historically plausible versions of the more standard 1990s/2000s Pokémon hero. It will offer a case study that looks at one of the many possible approaches to designing and creating a cosplay costume. It will also take into consideration other Pokémon trainer costumes, such as those featured in Pokémon GO (2016), and tie-in commercial patterns.

There is a secret to success: Linking customer experience management practices to profitability

Customer experience (CX) and customer experience management (CXM) are key tenets of the presently dominant marketing research and management strategy paradigm. Despite CXM's prevalence, very little research explores its practices and links to company performance. This study tackles a rather elusive challenge for practice and research: how to connect customer experience (management practices) to company profitability. Based on a dataset of over 273 companies with dedicated CX strategies, we explore four different clusters of how companies manage their CX programs. Interestingly, each form of practice leads to a different performance outcome. Thus, our work lays the foundation for linking CXM practices to company performance, emphasizing which practices are more rewarding than others. The present study lays the groundwork for research to further elaborate on the cause-effect relationship between CX and performance and what the next and best CXM practices look like.

Embracing Complexity Within Creative Approaches to Dementia Research: Ethics, Reflexivity, and Research Practices

In this paper, we present reflections from three research studies that have engaged with creative approaches to qualitative research with people living with dementia. Creative approaches to qualitative research are increasingly advocated within dementia research as they foreground alternative routes to expression and can facilitate flexible, meaningful participation. Such approaches are typically cited as illuminating people’s lived experiences as they often enable nuanced understandings around how people with dementia engage in the world around them. Yet creative approaches to research with people living with dementia involve specific complexities that require rigorous planning, generous timelines, and interdisciplinary research teams. It is important to examine the role of the researcher(s) in the development and application of creative approaches, as this impacts the extent to which the voices and experiences of people living with dementia are authentically heard and felt throughout the research. In this reflective article, we come together as three researchers who have used a range of creative and sensory approaches to understand the everyday lived experiences of people living with dementia in different contexts. We present examples taken from three doctoral research studies in which we navigated the creative research space to ensure the voices of people living with dementia are placed centrally and actively within the research process. We pay particular attention to the creative reflexive processes used in each example and explore what ethical research practices look and feel like in the context of creative research with people living with dementia. Our critical reflections lead us to discuss the opportunities that embracing creative approaches may afford in future research with people living with dementia.

Case for the CCB: A Defense of the Constitutionality of the Copyright Claims Board

Copyright litigation is expensive. Since copyright is federal law, disputes must be heard in federal court. Federal litigation can be prohibitively costly for creators bringing small claims, essentially leaving them with a right without a remedy against infringement of their work. Congress sought to alleviate this financial burden in 2020 when it passed the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforce (“CASE”) Act, thus creating the Copyright Claims Board (“CCB”) to adjudicate small copyright disputes.
 Opponents raised constitutional concerns about the CCB throughout the legislative process. The concerns included the fact that the CCB officers would wield unreviewable power and that Congress cannot set up non-Article III courts to hear cases involving public rights. Critics renewed their concerns in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s June 2021 decision in United States v. Arthrex, in which the Court found that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board administrative patent judges’ (“APJs”) wielded unreviewable authority that violated the appointments clause. Furthermore, a possible challenge to the constitutionality of the CCB could be forthcoming since the CCB is now operational.
 This Note analyzes the evolution of Appointments Clause and Article III jurisprudence and finds that the CCB is constitutionally constructed. While copyright is likely a private right, the CCB is still constitutionally permitted to hear these claims because the parties voluntarily consent to use the CCB. The voluntary nature of CCB proceedings plus the fact that these small cases are typically not heard by federal courts ease Article III and reviewability concerns.
 Part I provides background information to the passage of the CASE Act and explores arguments for the necessity of the CCB. Part II outlines the structure of the CCB. Parts III and IV respectively detail relevant Appointments Clause and Article III jurisprudence then apply it to the CCB. Parts V and VI discuss the possible arguments critics may lodge against the CCB in a constitutional challenge and how these invariably fall short. Finally, Part VII takes a practical look at how the Supreme Court as currently constructed might analyze the CCB’s constitutionality.

THE UKRAINIAN RUSSIAN STUDIES: WHAT SENSE THEY HAVE AND HAVE THEY ANY SENSE AT ALL?

«Les Écrivains francais et le mirage allemand. 1800–1940» by Jean-Marie Carré was not just an emotional reaction of the French Germanist and Comparativist to the World War II, but a critical study of «the German Idea» in the context of 19-20th cent. cultural heritage. The proposed article of the Ukrainian Rusist addresses «the Russian Idea» on the basis of Carré’s methodology. How does academic Russian Studies look in history, theory, and practice in the context of the Carré syndrome? What did it mean for Ukraine, what does it mean for Ukraine now and is it going to matter for Ukraine in future? When did Ukrainian intellectuals start to study the phenomenon of Russia and what system of stereotypes have they shaped?? These questions are bound to take us back to the 17th c. when the sense of national identity started superceding the religious identity of European communities. As to the Russian Empire, it was virually non-existent until mid-17th c., when Ukrainian and Belarussian clergy designed it and translated their design into life through making it known to the Russian tzar. As any artificial formation, Russian empire was badly in need of a myth about its historic mission and high origin. This myth featuring the Romanovs’ derivation from the Kyiv prince Volodymyr who baptized «the three fraternatal nations» justifying the Russians’ manifest destiny was provided to the Romanovs by the Kyiv school religious activists, and later writers, such as Hohol and Dostoyevsky. While Dostoyevsky’s contribution into «the Russian Idea» is generally acknowledged in cultural historiography, detailed studies remain scarce. In fact Hohol and Dostoyevsky were in many ways the interpreters of the spiritual heritage of Simeon Polotsky and Lazar Baranovich.Ukrainian Russian studies have accumulated invaluable expertise in studying the nation characterized by Pushkin as «devoid of common sense and mercy». To begin with, it is a unique source for European Russian Studies providing a specific angle of vision of its subject. Then, since it was Kyiv school thinkers of the 17th c. who invented a certain code bringing to life the Russian Empire, their descendants must be capable of deptiving this Golem on the feet of clay of its «magic» powers. Since this Golem has gotten out of control and began its destructive crusade, the time has come to show the world its rotten essence, making him eventually weaken, decline, and come to dust.

Professional Author's Training Methods Computer-Graphic Modeling for Participants of the Advanced Engineering School

The article presents a research view on the features of the organization of the process of teaching computer-graphic modeling for participants in the educational process within the framework of an advanced engineering school. It is shown that this direction is not innovative and the creative teams of university engineering schools have already gained some experience in quickly solving typical problems in the process of advanced training of a highly qualified specialist. At the same time, the authors of the article draw attention to circumstances that significantly limit the achievement of ambitious goals pursued in the implementation of pilot educational programs. The application of the participants of the advanced engineering school to bridge the gap between theory and practice looks especially declarative, given that the formation of even basic skills (spatial thinking) for many members of elite engineering training groups requires significant time costs. Today, in Russian universities, this problem is solved by traditional methodological methods as part of the teaching of the discipline "Engineering Geometry and Computer Graphics". The author's methods of teaching computer-graphic modeling outlined in the article are addressed to innovative teachers who realistically assess their capabilities when developing their own design educational products for students who have made a conscious choice in favor of an advanced engineering school. The article was written based on the results of approbation of the author's pedagogical initiatives in the educational process of the university (Perm Polytechnic University).

Normalizing Black Students/Youth and their Families' Digital andSTEAMLiteracies

AbstractDue to the paucity of research that focuses on the digital and STEAM literacy practices of Black students and youth and their families in home and community spaces, this article acts as a call for awareness to understand the already‐existing digital practices that acknowledges and honors their racial, cultural, and social lives. Lewis Ellison addresses four primary questions that K‐12 teachers must be aware of concerning Black parents, students and youth in digital and STEM spaces: Why are Black Students’/ Youth and Families’ Digital Literacy Practices important? What can we learn from Black Parents’ Narratives about their Children's Digital and STEAM Literacies? What do Black Students/Youth Wish their Teachers Knew about Them? What Should Digital and STEM Literacy Practices Look Like for Black Students/Youth? These questions are important when thinking about Black students’ and youth's digital literacy learning and proficiencies because as the education and political world keeps changing, they need digital literacy skills for every area of their lives. Once we understand the roles we play in centering their lives and practices, then we can advance teacher education, and then we can begin a discussion to normalize Black students and their families’ digital and STEAM literacies and practices.