Sustained Dialogue Research Articles

Using student voice to examine teacher practices at a cyber charter high school

AbstractEfforts to identify K‐12 online instructional best practices and standards have been limited because they largely ignored students’ voice—the primary stakeholder in any educational context. In this case study, we conducted 20 interviews among 10 students enrolled in a cyber charter high school. Qualitative analysis of interviews found that students valued teachers’ efforts to nurture caring relationships, facilitate sustained dialogue, design and organize engaging learning activities, and provide personalized instruction. However, students found that teachers varied in their abilities to effectively perform these activities and provided recommendations to improve how courses were designed and how teachers interacted with students. Although findings from this case study should not be generalized, these findings may prove insightful to those in similar contexts. Research should continue to obtain and understand online students’ voices and assist cyber schools as they work to respond to students’ needs.

Whitman and Mathematics: An Introduction

[T]he anatomist chemist astronomer geologist phrenologist spiritualist mathematician historian and lexicographer are not poets, but they are the of poets and their construction underlies the structure of every perfect poem.-Whitman, Preface to Leaves of Grass1This special issue of WWQR anticipates a sustained dialogue about the long-neglected relationship between numbers and letters in Whitman's writings.2 Each featured essay proves in its own way that this dialogue is overdue: Whitman was well acquainted with mathematics in the schoolroom and thus in the growth of democracy; his poems bear witness to the historically specific and multi-faceted cultural role of mathematics in the mid-nineteenth-century United States. Just as importantly, the essays collected here demonstrate how the Digital Humanities have conditioned this new subject, bringing calculation and non-alphabetic notation to the attention of twenty-first-century literary historians. This era of digital galleries, data mining, and colorful charts and graphs may also help us explore how the alphabetical and the numerical-poetry and mathematics-divide and recombine at different points in cultural history.That said, the impetus for this special issue is neither technologically determined nor unprecedented. On the contrary, the relationship between Whitman and mathematics is particularly enticing for the fits and starts of attention it has received over the past three quarters of a century: Muriel Rukeyser's 1942 biography of mathematician Willard Gibbs, a prescient M.S. thesis written in 1965 by budding mathematician Kathryn Davies Lindsay, and a pair of close readings from 1989 and 1991 by Sister Charlotte Downey.3 With no sustained attempt to account for or to develop the approaches advanced in this minor corpus of secondary sources, research on Whitman and math- ematics has had little hope of thriving. Add to this the fact that as a influence on Whitman, mathematics has, understandably, been overshadowed by sciences that figure prominently in the poet's biography and the thematics of his writings, such as the medical4 and the natural sciences.5 But even contextual overviews of the impact nineteenth-century popular sciences, from phrenology to astronomy, had on Leaves of Grass ignore the influence of nineteenth-century mathematics.6 To date, general and particular accounts exclude mathematics from Whitman studies-all in spite of the fact that in his 1855 Preface Whitman himself names mathematicians among the scientific lawgivers of poets.The exception is Kathryn Davies Lindsay's M.S. thesis from 1965, which was significantly influenced by Muriel Rukeyser's consistent references to Whitman in her biography of mathematician Willard Gibbs, the co-inventor (with James Clerk Maxwell) of statistical mechanics and, independently, of vector calculus. In this brief introduction, I offer a backward glance over the relationship between Whitman and mathematics in the works of Lindsay and (more briefly) Rukeyser; I then provide context for and summary remarks on the essays in this special issue; lastly, I suggest possible routes of inquiry for further research on Whitman and mathematics.The Lost M.S. Thesis: Whitman and Set TheoryIn her lyric biography of Willard Gibbs, Muriel Rukeyser regularly alludes to Whitman, Gibbs's contemporary, to suggest correspondences between the poet's and the mathematician's modes of theoretical system building. Late in the biography, in a chapter that compares and contrasts the writings of Whitman, Melville, and Gibbs, Rukeyser explains the logic of these correspondences as follows: The single faces of Whitman's people, the faces of principle in Melville, the stars seen as the molecules of a great bubble of gas according to Gibbs, the furnaces pouring metal-these are linked (368). Linked, yes, but far from equivalent: for Rukeyser, Gibbs's mathematical discoveries complete the literary achievements of the American Renaissance. …

Teachers Explore How to Support Young Children’s Agency for Social Justice

This study reports findings from an exploratory research project that contributed to an OMEP World Project on the importance of equality in being able to achieve a sustainable world and a healthy society. The teachers and researchers came together because of their interest in social justice to explore how they could support young children’s sense of agency and make learning about social justice more visible to children and their families. The project was carried out with teachers of children aged from 3 to 5 years in early childhood contexts of Aotearoa New Zealand. Five early childhood teachers participated in the research group which met five times over a 4-month period. As the teachers in the study became more familiar with how to support young children’s agency, they were able to engage in more sustained dialogue with children about social justice. Picture books were used as a tool to support children to express their views, and teachers also made this learning more visible through documentation of Learning Stories. In the research group, teachers provided examples of their practices within the reflective discussion groups held with the other teachers and the researchers. Teachers recognised that they could have an important role in supporting children’s sense of agency and awareness of social justice issues.

Ratner, Steven R. The Thin Justice of International Law: A Moral Reckoning of the Law of Nations.New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. 496. $85.00 (cloth).

Ratner, Steven R. <i>The Thin Justice of International Law: A Moral Reckoning of the Law of Nations</i>.New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. 496. $85.00 (cloth).

Urban Planning and Sustainable Development in The 21st Century, Conceptual and Management Issues

Urban areas in historic cities resemble a living organism that evolves in parallel to social transformation processes, shaping the material substrate that expresses identity and collective memory. In the twenty-first century, exponential population growth, globalization and the information society have resulted in many of these socio-economic processes accelerating, with consequences that we are not yet able to discern in their entirety. In this context, cities need to adapt to the general dynamics of urban development by incorporating the environmental, economic and social aspects of the "sustainability paradigm". With good planning, urban heritage is a key sustainable resource that needs promoting as part of the existing territorial competitiveness in a scenario marked by an increase in rivalry between cities. This requires the development of a conceptual framework that, based on a global, holistic and integrative approach, covers equity and social justice, respect for human rights, the gender perspective, public health and environmental quality, among other aspects. In this sense, the purpose of this paper is to study the concept of landscape applied to urban planning in greater depth, paying special attention to the analysis of the notion of Historic Urban Landscapes from a critical point of view, since the economic pressures arising from the reality of today's globalized world pose a serious threat that hinders their custody and protection, complicating this new comprehensive approach: how to bring this new systemic and transversal concept to the current regulatory framework in order to achieve real legal protection and effective governance models in urban areas? What should be the acceptable limits to ensure that "managing this change" does not result in public spaces being at the service of the interests of financial capitalism? These, along with many other questions, make the work of the professionals in charge of urban conservation more challenging in their aim to establish a sustainable dialogue to clear the complex equation between historical city and development. With a view to try to answer these and other questions, this paper sets out need to design comprehensive urban policy and legislative frameworks coordinated, and sets out proposals regarding the development of acceptable change limitation methods and indicators, and the application of the concept of buffer zones to the conservation of urban heritage that can become the basis for urban management policies and models.

Students as co-creators of technology-rich learning activities in higher education

This article describes an ongoing study that, ultimately, aims to help students become co-creators of their courses. It discusses methodologies to support student empowerment and engagement. It uses the Learner Centric Ecology of Resources perspective (Luckin 2006) to explore the experiences of teachers and students from two different universities as they participated in co-design processes for selecting digital resources during the design of the courses. The data presented in the study was collected during the design workshops with the participation of teachers and students. The Ecology of Resources Design Framework was identified by the participants as a good facilitator during the co-design process. However, time seems to be a critical factor. A sustained dialogue over time is required to generate the context of trust needed between students and teachers and to explore the different levels of expertise.

Wholesome Nutrition: an example for a sustainable diet.

'Wholesome Nutrition' is a concept of sustainable nutrition that was developed at the University of Giessen in the 1980s. In this concept, health and the ecologic, economic, social and cultural dimensions of nutrition are equally important. In 1992 at the UN-Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro the definition of 'Sustainable Development' comprised the dimensions environment, economy and society. Additionally to these three 'classical' dimensions of sustainability, we included 'health' as the fourth dimension because nutrition has far reaching effects on human health. The fifth dimension, 'culture', became part of the sustainability dialogue since many years; the respective cultural background influences food habits. Presently, mankind has to cope with huge global challenges such as poverty and food insecurity in low-income countries as well as climate change. Therefore the objective is to identify prospects for actions to respond to these global challenges. The concept of 'Sustainable Nutrition' analyses the food supply chain at all stages from input-production and primary production to processing, distribution, preparation, consumption and waste disposal. The present analysis leads to the following seven principles: preference of plant-based foods, organic foods, regional and seasonal products, preference of minimally processed foods, Fair Trade products, resource-saving housekeeping and enjoyable eating culture. This concept is based on holistic thinking and has the potential to reduce the global challenges in the field of nutrition. Scientists, stakeholders, multipliers and consumers are asked to consider environmental, economic, social and cultural aspects in addition to the biological (health) aspects.

‘Is that what we do?’ Using a conversation-analytic approach to highlight the contribution of dialogic reading strategies to educator–child interactions during storybook reading in two early childhood settings

In Australia, much emphasis in early childhood education is placed on the importance of supporting young children’s literacy development, and book-reading occurs frequently during typical early-childhood education and care programmes. Reading a story to a child presents an opportunity for rich language-learning through reciprocal and extended conversations that link the story to the child’s world, introduce new vocabulary and encourage extended thinking and articulation of this thinking. Dialogic reading is a particular approach to book-reading that encourages the child to engage actively with the story. This paper presents data in the form of excerpts from transcripts of two book-reading sessions with young children. A conversation-analytic approach was applied to reveal and deconstruct dialogic reading prompts that occur within the data, thus revealing the interactional phenomena underpinning the dialogic reading strategies observed in two different book-reading episodes. The implications for applying such strategies to support sustained dialogue during storybook-reading are discussed.

Strange encounters: a dialogue on cultural geography across the political divide

ABSTRACTDisagreement is a fundamental aspect of scholarly inquiry, yet it is exceedingly rare for scholars on opposite sides of the political spectrum to engage in a sustained dialogue across the political divide. This article seeks to contribute to precisely such a dialogue with specific reference to the field of cultural geography. The discussion featured herein consists of an encounter between “critical” and “conservative” approaches to cultural geography in the form of a back-and-forth exchange of arguments and counter-arguments by the interlocutors. The dialogue covers a wide range of issues, including the cultural politics of essentialism, white supremacy, racial segregation, patriarchy, traditional morality, secularism, justice, authority, friendship, difference-as-strangeness, and the very question of disagreement itself. The broader aim of this dialogical intervention is not to find some sort of common ground that will resolve all differences but rather to explore what those differences are with the hope of opening up a space for more constructive dialogue on cultural geography across the political divide.

Reflections on the theme issue outcomes

Purpose This paper aims to profile the Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes issue “What are the issues facing human capital development in the hotel industry in Nigeria and how might they be addressed?” with reference to the experiences of the theme editors, contributors from industry and academia and the theme issue outcomes. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses structured questions to enable the theme editors to reflect on the rationale for their theme issue question, the starting-point, the selection of the writing team and material and the editorial process. Findings Concerns have been raised about the absence of a strategic government policy for human capital development in Nigeria’s tourism sector, a task that individual businesses address in a fragmented and inefficient manner – and sometimes not at all. Likewise, a weak regulatory framework has given rise to imbalances in the employment relationship and business operations that do not create an enabling environment, a primary condition for developing knowledge, skills and attitude to acceptable service levels. Practical implications This paper reflects a sustained dialogue between leading Nigerian academics and senior industry practitioners about the barriers to workforce development and ways of unlocking the potential that exists for employment and professional development in hospitality and tourism. Originality/value This paper reports on the first comprehensive set of discussions between academics and practitioners about the human capital development challenges facing the hospitality and tourism industry in Nigeria. Specifically, the theme issue identifies key action steps needed to keep pace with industry development in Nigeria – the largest and fastest growing market in Africa.

Exploring project sustainability: using a multiperspectival, multidimensional approach to frame inquiry

ABSTRACTIn development studies, programme sustainability has gained significant attention in recent years. One challenge to sustainability is the range of stakeholders involved in international development projects, presenting multiple perspectives and priorities, not always in harmony, nor necessarily communicated. This article presents an approach to facilitating stakeholder sustainability dialogue, an analytic framework for programme sustainability inquiry comprising five dimensions: political; economic; institutional; ownership; and practice. To demonstrate this framework we describe inquiry into stakeholder perspectives in one Afghanistan education development project. The results indicate the value of multidimensional, multiperspectival inquiry in identifying areas of potential sustainability challenge and strength.

The Annotated Poe

The Annotated Poe

The Annotated Poe

The Annotated Poe

Values as a bridge between sustainability and institutional assessment

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that values-focused assessment can provide a useful lens for integrating sustainability and institutional performance assessment in universities.Design/methodology/approach– This study applies a values elicitation methodology for indicator development, through thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and a stakeholder workshop, in a pilot project at BOKU University, Vienna.Findings– This case highlights that many of the values held by university staff and students are pro-sustainability values. Starting from these values may be a useful way of engaging university stakeholders in sustainability dialogues. The paper illustrates how values-based indicators can be integrated into university performance assessments, providing a novel way of thinking about sustainability assessment in universities.Research limitations/implications– The exploratory pilot was carried out in a university with a focus on natural sciences. Further research could replicate and compare the results of this paper in other institutions.Originality/value– Creating a shared understanding of pro-sustainability values can help individuals to reconceptualise sustainability in relation to their own work and motivations. In doing so, it can highlight the inherent synergies between sustainability assessment and institutional performance assessment in the higher education sector, which are usually seen as separate domains.

Transformative Experience, Conflict Resolution and Sustained Dialogue

Transformative Experience, Conflict Resolution and Sustained Dialogue

The global history of Latin America

AbstractThis article explains why historians of Latin America have been disinclined to engage with global history, and how global history has yet to successfully integrate Latin America into its debates. It analyses research patterns and identifies instances of parallel developments in the two fields, which have operated until recently in relative isolation from one another, shrouded and disconnected. It outlines a framework for engagement between Latin American history and global history, focusing particularly on the significant transformations of the understudied nineteenth century. It suggests that both global history and Latin American history will benefit from recognition of the existing work that has pioneered a path between the two, and from enhanced and sustained dialogue.

Communication, dialogue and project management

Purpose– Project communication is overwhelmingly viewed as the proper and timely delivery of pertinent project information. The view of communication in this way misses the constitutive nature of communication. Communication is more than message exchange but a way that project managers generate the grounds for a project. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the communicative practices of project managers creates a dialogue with stakeholders that ultimately impacts the content, direction and outcome of a project.Design/methodology/approach– Semi-structured interviews were performed with project managers from the Project Management Office of a large international bank. The project managers were responsible for their own projects of varying size with scopes that included everything from marketing initiatives to heavily oriented technology projects.Findings– Overall, the project managers interviewed for the current project do not subscribe to the belief that communication is part of a constitutive dialogue. Instead, when discussing their overall views of communication, 82 percent of the interviewees took a transmission approach to the action. To that end, they believe that the goal of communication is to send clear, unambiguous and complete information.Originality/value– Unlike other studies about communication within the field of project management, the current study looks to uncover how communication is part of a constitutive dialogue between a project manager and project stakeholders. The researchers did not look just to understand the micro-level exchanges between project managers and stakeholders but how those exchanges enabled a sustained dialogue that shapes the scope and trajectory of a project.

Re-thinking professional development and accountability: towards a more educational training practice

Abstract In this article, I discuss the contribution of theoretical resources to the transformation in my thinking about professional development and accountability, within an action research self-study of practice as a civil servant, in the context of participation on the Doctor in Education (Leadership) programme at Dublin City University (DCU) in the period 2008-2012. It is at the intersection of these subject positions, between theory and practice, that professional development was explored through the ‘leadership problem’ of encouraging trainer colleagues to investigate the educational potential of information and communications technologies (ICT) for the development of their practice. Ultimately, this constituted a critical space for sustained dialogue between the self and the social in exploring professional subjectivity. The resources discussed supported the interrogation of social, cultural and historical conditions influencing self-understanding and narrative reasoning (Tamboukou, 2008) and movement from strategic to communicative reasoning (Habermas, 1984). It is claimed that this has significance for the development of a more educational training practice, which expresses a concern for subjectivity and agency in the face of a growing ‘performativity’ in professional life (Ball, 2003).

Energy security in China–European Union relations: framing further efforts of collaboration

The aim of this article is to help frame the China–EU dialogue on energy security, formally established in 2012, yet in reality adding to decades of sustained dialogue and collaboration to address energy development and policy-making in China. The paper begins by noting that the lack of mutual energy dependence between the EU and China can place a limit to the attractiveness of the security dimension of energy as a topic for further dialogue. China's energy challenges require fast delivery of industry-level results, against ideational aspects associated with search for energy security on the global scale. Then, the article proceeds in four parts: (1) a review and analysis of European and Chinese energy security concepts; (2) an explanation of the rationale for EU–China energy security cooperation and policy coordination; (3) an overview of the past and current undertakings in the energy field between China and the EU; and (4) a set of ideas to consider in making this new layer of formal dialogue effectual.

Teacher education, InExclusion, and the implicit ideology of Separate but Equal: An invitation to a dialogue

In this analytic essay, we initiate a dialogue about the place of disability in a multicultural education framework, and the role of inclusive education in a democracy. Problematizing the common omission of the topic of disability oppression from anti-oppression pedagogies and from social justice education generally, we invite teacher educators concerned with educational equity to position themselves on the persistent issue of the segregation of large numbers of students labeled with disabilities in schools, and to consider how we might engage in sustained dialogue toward pursuing an agenda that is opposed to the systematic deployment of educational segregation in all its forms. In addition to opening this broad conversation, we have specifically invited dialogic interchange with three of our teacher educator colleagues whose responses are embedded within this manuscript.