Reflexive Position Research Articles

Insider/Outsider: A Muslim Woman's Adventure Practicing ‘Alongside’ Narrative Therapy

The following paper centres on my unique experience as a white Australian therapist who is able to sympathise with a Western world view while being immersed in an Islamic world view. The goal is to share my journey as a Muslim Australian via an auto‐ethnography reflexive method. Using diaries, intentional reflexive positioning, and multiple modes of supervision, I contemplate an Islamic identity and value system while negotiating poststructural therapies such as solution‐focused collaborative, and in particular, narrative therapy as viable approaches to working with the Muslim community. There are two inquiries which are of interest. The first is to reflexively describe the experience of being a Muslim practitioner and wondering whether core differences in epistemological views between social constructionism and Islamic doctrine can be overcome. Secondly, this enquiry explores Quranic guidelines about how to perceive ‘problems’ in life, based on the premise that understanding how an Islamic world view addresses life's troubles may add to deeper conceptions of the role of difficulties. I propose that adherent Muslims have a natural metaphorical way of thinking that connects with some of the poststructural therapeutic skills and techniques and at the same time draw on past Quranic solutions for contemporary problems. Little has been written on narrative therapy as a suitable approach to working with Muslim clients. In the current paper I review my personal experience as a veiled Muslim therapist striving to implement narrative therapy alongside an Islamic epistemology.

Are the unken reflex and the aposematic colouration of Red-Bellied Toads efficient against bird predation?

Aposematic signals as well as body behaviours may be important anti-predator defences. Species of the genus Melanophryniscus are characterised by having toxic lipophilic alkaloids in the skin and for presenting a red ventral colouration, which can be observed when they perform the behaviour called the unken reflex. Both the reflex behaviour and the colouration pattern are described as defence mechanisms. However, there are currently no studies testing their effectiveness against predators. This study aimed to test experimentally if both ventral conspicuous colouration and the unken reflex in Melanophryniscus cambaraensis function as aposematic signals against visually oriented predators (birds). We simulated the species studied using three different clay toad models as follows: (a) in a normal position with green coloured bodies, (b) in the unken reflex position with green coloured body and extremities and (c) in the unken reflex position with a green body and red extremities. Models were distributed on a known M. cambaraensis breeding site and in the adjacent forest. More than half of the attacks on the models were from birds; however, there was no preference for any model type. Thus, just the presence of the red colour associated with the motionless unken reflex position does not seem to prevent attacks from potential predators. It is possible that the effective aposematic signal in Melanophryniscus is achieved through the unken reflex movement together with the subsequent exhibition of the warning colouration and the secretion of toxins.

Expedition (auto)ethnography: an adventurer-researcher’s journey

ABSTRACTAdventure expeditions are characterised by their unique temporal and spatial separateness from the quotidian and their exploratory and oft times risky nature. As such they offer a multitude of possibilities in research terms for the inquisitive investigator. Few studies however have considered the researcher’s experience of exploring such settings. Primarily methodological in focus, this paper examines the challenges and management of the adventure-researcher’s multiple roles during a sea kayaking expedition. An expedition observation framework is constructed as a tool to aid the conceptualisation of the field. In a candid and reflexive social commentary, the relative and fluid positioning of the researcher in insider-outsider terms is probed and despite their nuanced differences, the interplay of ethnography and autoethnography in achieving this. The concept of existential authenticity as a complementary theoretical framework is used to illustrate the marginality and liminal nature of the adventure scape and the researcher’s task within it.

Textos de identidad digitales: Una valiosa herramienta para el estudio de la construcción de la identidad y el aprendizaje lingüístico en ILE

The present study focuses on the analysis of identity in digital texts of identity produced by English as a foreign language (EFL) students. The general aim of this study is to promote the use of these texts as a strategy of the teaching for linguistic transfer and academic expertise approach (Cummins, 2001, 2005b, 2006) and the reinforcement of the family-school relationship (Coll & Falsafi, 2010). Identity texts enable students to build and evaluate their identities, so that they become aware of who they are as language learners, consolidating the different positions that shape their identities, establishing relationships with identities of competence they desire, and rejecting negative positions that silence them when communicating in the target language. This promotes the development of their cognitive and academic language proficiency skills (CALPS) and, in the case of digital texts of identity, their digital competence. For this study, a total of 51 digital texts of identity were collected and analyzed following a ‛positioning’ perspective (Davies & Harre, 1990) that was combined with thematic and dialogic/performative analysis (Block, 2010), and a descriptive quantitative approach. Results illustrate a balance in the presence of reflexive and interactive positioning in the texts, with the former emerging through different subject positions that were occasionally opposed, and were enacted through descriptive and justifying acts, and the latter adopting the form of direct and indirect interactions with the viewer.

Metaphorical sense-making: visual-narrative language portraits of South African students

ABSTRACTThis article reflects on a creative visual-narrative approach to understanding South African students’ lived experiences of languages. Data were collected in two interviews: the first entailing a biographical history and the drawing of a linguistic portrait on a simple body outline and the second a narrative interview utilising the portrait generated in the first as a basis for talking about language and identity. Framing the research process in this creative visual mode shifts the focus of narrative talk, simultaneously grounding it in affective, embodied experience, and enabling a reflexive position from which to analyse the taken-for-granted role of language in the minutiae of everyday life. The theoretical lenses of identity and subjectivity are invigorated through these metaphorical representations, and new creative possibilities are released for analysing the role of language in mediating shifting power dynamics in post-apartheid and postcolonial South African life.

Ethnographical interview: field interviewer comments to the science play

The article is devoted to the field interviewer introspection to the ethnographical interview. The material for the introspection is the “science play” given by Dmitry Rogozin. As it is defined in the play, there are six methodological comments of the commentator-analyst. The author suggests his own perspective of the science play comments. Suggested comments refer to the structure of the play (the beginning of communication, communicative interaction), as well as to the strategies of the interviewer behavior (directive listening, asking qualifying questions, context management, reflexive position).

'If You Choose to Abort, You Have Acted As an Instrument of Satan': Zimbabwean Health Service Providers' Negative Constructions of Women Presenting for Post Abortion Care.

Health service providers play a crucial role in providing post abortion care in countries where abortion legislation is restrictive and abortion is stigmatised. Research in countries where these factors apply has shown that health service providers can be barriers to women accessing post abortion services. Much of this research draws from attitude theory. In this paper, we utilise positioning theory to show how the ways in which Zimbabwean health service providers' position women and themselves are rooted in cultural and social power relations. In light of recent efforts by the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health and foreign organisations to improve post abortion care, we explore the implications that these positionings have for post abortion care. As part of a larger study on abortion decision-making, the data featured in this article were collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews with six health service providers working in different facilities in Harare, Zimbabwe. Discursive and positioning thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Our analysis points to women who have abortions being positioned in negative terms, as transgressors of acceptable norms; irresponsible and manipulative; and ignorant. The health service providers drew from cultural, religious, gender and trauma discourses that portray abortion as evil and socially unacceptable. Reflexive positions taken up by the health service providers include positions as being experts, helpers and protectors of culture/religion, sympathisers and professional positions as health care providers. The continued strengthening of post abortion services should be conducted in conjunction with dialogical interventions that challenge health service providers to reflect on the power relations within which women who terminate pregnancies are located, that contest their negative positionings of these women and that present alternative narratives and subject positionings for both the women who have abortions and the health service providers.

Inclusive and exclusive uses of we in four American textbooks for multicultural teacher education

This study analyses four American multicultural teacher education textbooks for instances of inclusive and exclusive representations through the use of first person plural pronouns (i.e. we, us, our, ours). Positioning theory is used as a theoretical framework to examine the textbook authors’ uses of first person plural pronouns and to understand how these pronouns perform reflexive and interactive positioning and fluidly (re)negotiate and (re)delineate the borders between ‘self’ and ‘other.’ The findings suggest that first person plural pronouns are used extensively in the focal textbooks to refer to such groups as authors, Americans, humans, teachers, and teacher educators. Expressing differing levels of ambiguity in interpretation, these pronouns play significant roles in the discursive representations of inclusivity and exclusivity across topics of multicultural education. This study implicates that language teachers should use criticality and reflexivity when approaching exclusionary discourses and representations that neglect the particularities of individuals from different cultures.

Typological Characteristics of the Intercultural Humanitarian Educational Technologies

Abstract The core idea of this research is the creation of a complete picture of intercultural humanitarian educational technologies for the purpose of correction of pedagogical self-image and self-attitude of teachers and students in order to reach the goal of harmonization of individual and transpersonal communications in the sphere of education. During the analysis, the author discovered the transcultural humanitarian nature of the mentioned issues and summed up its essence in a number of points. The author highlighted a special quality of the humanitarian educational technologies, which is manifested in the cognitive human abilities to learn and to teach in cross-cultural circumstances. As for teachers, these human abilities are educational charisma, personal educational space, special vibrant energy and speech, developmental inspiration and aspiration, over-rational behavior and individual interactional system. For students that means the ability to consciously use their essential learning and creative powers in a daily ever-progressing nonstop developmental process. The author proved that a system of educational sources is formed by cross-cultural texts, which possess numberless shades of human existence. Such system is the key content in application of the intercultural humanitarian technologies. The subject of this study is, first, the issue of values, meanings, self-understanding, self-awareness, self-perception, self-cognition, self-development and the ways of interaction between people from a cross-cultural perspective. Based on the reflexive approach, the author developed an intercultural typology of the humanitarian educational technologies. The “subject-subject” and the “subject-object” models of educational interaction were chosen as the main characteristic and criterion for the creation of the typology. The author conducted an analysis of the “open” and “closed” models of educational interaction in order to describe their technological status based on the reflexive approach, and thus, proved the danger of forced educational rationing. In relation to the existing cross-cultural norms and conditions, the author identified the importance of the ability to get into the reflexive and dialogical positions both by teachers and students.

”Olenko minä niin eksoottinen?”: Pakolaistaustaisten naisten työelämään liittyvä identiteettityö

Artikkelimme käsittelee Suomeen muuttaneiden pakolaistaustaisten naisten identiteettien rakentumista työelämäpuheessa. Näkökulmamme on intersektionaalinen: olemme kiinnostuneita identiteettien rakentumisesta erilaisten sosiaalisten kategorioiden leikkauskohdissa (esim. Adib & Guerrier 2003; Essers & Benschop 2007). Työelämä-fokuksemme rikastuttaa Suomessa tehtyä maahanmuuttajia koskevaa tutkimusta, joka on usein keskittynyt yleisempiin kysymyksiin, esimerkiksi rasismin kohtaamiseen tai diasporassa elämiseen. Artikkelimme yhdistää etnologian ja organisaatioiden tutkimuksen näkökulmia. Artikkelin aineisto koostuu Työväenmuseo Werstaan hankkeissa 2006–2007 tuotetuista haastatteluista sekä haastatteluaineistojen perusteella kirjoitetuista, internetissä oppimateriaalina julkaistuista tarinoista. Tässä tutkimuksessa keskitymme Euroopan ulkopuolelta pakolaistaustalla Suomeen tulleiden naisten identiteettien rakentumiseen ja tällä perusteella olemme poimineet aineistosta viiden eri-ikäisen naisen haastattelut. Teoreettinen viitekehyksemme rakentuu identiteettityö ja intersektionaalisuus -käsitteiden leikkauskohtaan. Kartoitamme miten haastateltavien työelämään liittyviä intersektionaalisia identiteettejä rakennetaan monivaiheisesti. Tutkimusmenetelmä on kehittämämme intersektionaalinen tulkintatasojen analyysi, jonka avulla pureudumme identiteettityön kerroksellisuuteen systemaattisella tavalla. Keskeistä menetelmässä on tulkintatasojen, tulkitsijoiden sekä erilaisten tulkintojen identifioiminen ja refleksiivinen paikantaminen sekä merkitysten muokkaantuminen kontekstista toiseen siirryttäessä. Työelämän kannalta keskeisiä teemoja aineistossa ovat rajattu ja vaiettu työkokemus ja osaaminen, kieli mahdollisuuksien avaajana ja lokeroijana sekä vaietut kokemukset rasismista ja moniperustaisesta syrjinnästä. Aineistossa haastateltavat esitettiin vahvasti maahanmuuttajuuden kautta, mitä haastateltavat itse pyrkivät osittain vastustamaan. Kysymme millä tavoin pakolaistaustaiset naiset esitetään ja minkälaisista puolista vaietaan.

Конструктивные принципы педагогического сопровождения формирования рефлексивной позиции обучающихся раннего юношеского возраста

The article based on the analysis of pedagogical and
 psychological literature to identify early adolescence as a sensitive
 period for the development of basic sociogenic potencies of human.
 The results of ascertaining stage of the experiment to determine
 the level of reflection of first-year students are given. The author
 proves the necessity of pedagogical support of first-year students
 based on the analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature
 and empirical material. The author offers constructive principles
 for effective pedagogical support of the forming reflexive position
 of first-year students.

Performing the Future

Drama is a relatively unexplored tool in academic science education. This paper addresses in what way the use of drama may allow science students to deepen their understanding of recent developments in the emerging and controversial field of neuro-enhancement, by means of a case study approach. First, we emphasise the congruency between drama and science, notably the dramatic dimension of experimental research. Subsequently, we draw on educational literature to elaborate the potential of using drama as a teaching modality, specifically focusing on the ethical and moral dimensions of future techno-scientific innovations. Our case study consisted of a drama experiment as a module in a philosophy course on human enhancement. Twenty-two students from various science disciplines performed multiple roles, as authors, actors, audience and reviewers. Qualitative data were collected on the educational process and student performance during the course, i.e. observations and video recordings of class discussions, group work and plays, interviews and questionnaires. Our drama experiment proved to be effective in enabling students to explore and relate to a future life world affected by enhancement technologies. It allowed them to deepen their awareness of social and ethical implications of neuro-technologies and of the different viewpoints people may have on this issue in academic, professional or everyday settings. Moreover, drama allowed them to develop a reflexive position of their own in the neuro-enhancement debate by enacting a moral dilemma in front of an audience. Our results confirm the potential of drama as a tool for exploring techno-scientific futures in science education.

Pedagogical conditions of future primary school teachers’ culturological training

In the article is emphasized the topicality and importance of culturological training of the future teachers of primary school. The author tries to ground pedagogical conditions of this process on the base of results of current studies and analysis of scientific-pedagogical sources. The first condition is a guaranteeing of positive motivation of the future teachers of primary school. It is directed on overcoming of contradictions and negative stereotypes of culturological activity and formation of internal motivation for mastering the culturological knowledge and skills, development of cognitive activity and consciousness of the importance of reflexive position in personal and professional improvement. The second condition is a consciousness, understanding and mastering by the future teachers of the system of knowledge about culturological teaching and skills of its practical use in the context of modern requirements to the professional-pedagogical activity and personal qualities of teacher of the primary classes. The third condition is an involvement of the future teachers in active culturological activity. It is directed on the rational choice and combination of traditional and innovative methods and forms of culturological training of students, stimulation of their activity for mastering the structural components of culturological preparedness

Positioning in identifying narratives of/about pre-service mathematics teachers in field practice

Research on identity development in mathematics teacher education has only given limited attention to narrative processes like indexicality, local occasioning, positioning and categorisation. In this article, we investigate how two pre-service mathematics teachers position themselves, and how they are positioned by a mentor teacher in mentoring conversations. Focusing on how pre-service teachers are positioned by a mentor teacher adds to present research on narrative positioning among pre-service mathematics teachers, and we argue that an increased focus on reflexive and interactive positioning is useful for the further development of research on identifying narratives in mathematics teacher education.

Multidisciplinary graduate training in social research methodology and computer-assisted qualitative data analysis: a hands-on/hands-off course design

Drawing on the experience of training graduate students and researchers in qualitative and mixed-methods analysis since the mid-1990s, the authors reflect on the evolution of a multidisciplinary graduate course developed in a Canadian university since 2007. The hands-on/hands-off course design based on the use of NVivo was developed in parallel with a conceptual and reflexive position on methodology and multidisciplinarity in the context of an action research supported by their institution. This article exposes the four basic components of the course and the constructivist assessment model based on a term-long team analysis of original data created specifically for this purpose. The balance between collective and individual work, in-class and online exchanges, hands-on experience with the software and hands-off reflection is described and compared to recent pedagogical literature on the subject. The interest of this blended approach in fostering the development of the methodological expertise expected from researchers and graduate students, as well as the main issues and challenges facing this type of training in a research environment characterised by new approaches and tools, are discussed.

On Educational Practice Dissemination of Multidisciplinary University as a Regional Support Higher Educational Institution in Terms of Public-Private Partnership

Creating a new quality of higher education in Russia at the second phase provides a new structural policy towards the network of universities. As a result of the first stage of the higher education reform, federal, national research universities and other higher educational institutions were established. Since 2012 at the federal level the work is in progress aimed at consolidation of the higher education system, creation of a modern infrastructure for interlinkage of scientific, educational and productive activities1. Today, the higher education starts a new stage – the creation of multidisciplinary universities – regional support universities, whose main task is personnel training to meet the needs of the country real economy and being in-demand in the first place in the labor market of their region. The article uncovers the issues of creating the regional educational space of the support university and educational practice dissemination of the subject of teaching and professional activities. A reflexive position of management activities at university contributing to the improvement of high education quality gains significance in this process. Fundamental importance for the development of a multidisciplinary university as a support higher educational institution in the region suggests finding ways of interlinking the world of work and vocational education in new social and labor relations in education based on the legal documents: The National Qualifications Framework, occupational standards and federal state educational standards. The demand for highly qualified professionals meeting requirements of the regional economy, possessing competences aimed at generating new knowledge and creating new technologies provides changes in the scientific, educational and industrial component of the university’s educational practices. The expansion of the resource base of professional personnel training for the region actualizes public-private educational infrastructure.

Comparison between infants receiving traditional supplements (camel thorn, flix weed, and sugar water) and exclusively breast fed infants.

Although breast milk is considered the best nutritional option for neonates, use of traditional supplements such as sugar water, camel thorn, and flix weed in the first week of life of infants is quite common in Iran and many other countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether consuming such supplements has any impact on infant's breastfeeding behavior. Four hundred fifty four term infants who were referred to the neonatal clinic of Ghaem hospital were enrolled and divided into two groups. Control (exclusively breastfed infants, N=243) and case (breast milk feeding plus traditional remedies such as sugar water, camel thorn, and flix weed, N=211). Spss 19.5 was used for statistical analysis. T-test and Man-Whitney tests were used. A p-value of <0.05 was considered as significant. The two groups were similar in their baseline data. Regarding duration of breastfeeding and breastfeeding frequency, use of these supplements resulted in a reduction in both breastfeeding frequency and duration (p<0.05). Breastfeeding problems such as poor let-down reflex and incorrect breastfeeding position were more common among mothers feeding these supplements to their infants. Moreover, infants with delayed initiation of first breastfeeding were more likely to receive these supplements. Based on the results of this study, feeding infants with sugar water, camel's thorn, and flix weed is clearly associated with breast feeding problems such as poor let down reflex and incorrect breast feeding position. Use of these supplements resulted in a reduction in frequency and duration of breast feeding. Infants with delayed initiation of breast feeding are more likely to receive these supplementations. Therefore, any attempts to improve the community's culture would be of great benefit to the health and well being of our babies.

Polymotivation – incentive parameter of innovative-psychological climate

In the article it is grounded the third parameter of innovative-psychological climate (IPC) of modular-developing system of education – polymotivation and sphere of conditions of its deployment: cognitive motivation which confirmed through training-educational activity, volitional efforts etc.; practical motivation which actualized in particular activity, where experience of individuality is acquired; mental motivation that focused on the adoption and implementation of educational deed; self-improve motivation which determines its reflexive position concerning previous spheres of approval of polymotivation

Researching writing events: using mediated discourse analysis to explore how students write together

AbstractThis article addresses how mediated discourse theory and related analytical tools can be used to explore how students write together. Considered within a sociocultural framework that conceptualises writing as involving distributed, mediated and dialogic processes of invention, this article presents an investigation of how three high school students wrote together for a collaborative project. This article presents a writing event selected from a larger study that is used to explore the ways authorship is distributed among the students, the resources that mediate their writing, the shifting social contexts they establish when writing and the relational and reflexive social positioning they enact. Mediated discourse theory and its related analytical tools are introduced for heuristic and methodological purposes for analysing how the coordination of these complexities shapes students' writing. The purpose for doing so is to gain a better understanding of how and why students write in the ways they do.

Triangular Paradox in Subjection: The Case of a Small Consultancy (WITHDRAWN)

This article contributes to the debate about agency in the relation between organizational discourses and individual subjectivity by shedding light on the role played by the paradoxical demands put on individuals’ reflexive efforts to construct themselves as dignified individuals in Western modernity. To do so, this article explores how consultants in a small management consulting firm talk about their relation to a dominant organizational discourse. The analysis shows how consultants mobilize discursive resources in paradoxical ways, alternating between discursive moves – esoterizing and exoterizing – that paradoxically lead towards and away from the mutually contradictory demands of subjection, authenticity and autonomy. Based on these findings, I propose the concept of triangular paradox as a new kind of paradox of belonging at the heart of the process of producing organizational subjects. I contend that such triangular paradox entails a paradoxical set of reflexive subject positions – a paradoxical constellation of agencies – that stimulates cycling paradoxical discursive moves that prevent subjection from being fully achieved.