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Within the framework of studies concerning the importance of European manuscript collections for Ibadi history, this article aims at retracing the history of an archive put together by the French scholar Auguste Bossoutrot (1856-1937). This archive gathered a quantity of materials on the Arabic and Berber languages collected during his life. In particular, some of the manuscripts contain parts of a long religious work in Berber (Kitāb al-Barbariyya), discovered in the island of Djerba (Tunisia) among the Ibadi community of the island towards the end of the nineteenth century. This text was firstly discovered and reported to the scientific community by another French scholar, A. De Calassanti-Motylinski (1854-1907), but his untimely death prevented him from publishing it and the whereabouts of the manuscripts that contained it remained unknown until the discovery of Bossoutrot's papers, which contained the longest extant copy of the work (about 900 pages).

This paper examines two little-known elements of continuity in the transition from Late Roman to Early Byzantine vaulted architecture. The first of these elements is the use of vaults made of arched brick courses. Known from the dome of the Mausoleum of Diocletian in Spalato, this technique has been in use from the Roman to the Early Byzantine period. Re-examining the dome at Spalato and comparing it with examples from Asia Minor and Greece, this paper provides new insights into the slow evolution of this method and its influence on late antique vaulted construction. The second element of continuity concerns the use of architectural models in Imperial architectural programmes. To shed light on this, the paper investigates the possible role of the first vaulted church of St. John at Ephesos as the model of Justinian’s Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople. Comparing these two monuments helps to understand the flexible way in which Early Byzantine architects used architectural prototypes. By analysing an influential architectural model and a durable method of vaulting this article contextualises our understanding of two of the masterpieces of late antique Imperial architecture and invites us to view them within a broader architectural tradition that developed from the 2nd to the 6th c.

This paper examines two little-known elements of continuity in the transition from Late Roman to Early Byzantine vaulted architecture. The first of these elements is the use of vaults made of arched brick courses. Known from the dome of the Mausoleum of Diocletian in Spalato, this technique has been in use from the Roman to the Early Byzantine period. Re-examining the dome at Spalato and comparing it with examples from Asia Minor and Greece, this paper provides new insights into the slow evolution of this method and its influence on late antique vaulted construction. The second element of continuity concerns the use of architectural models in Imperial architectural programmes. To shed light on this, the paper investigates the possible role of the first vaulted church of St. John at Ephesos as the model of Justinian’s Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople. Comparing these two monuments helps to understand the flexible way in which Early Byzantine architects used architectural prototypes. By analysing an influential architectural model and a durable method of vaulting this article contextualises our understanding of two of the masterpieces of late antique Imperial architecture and invites us to view them within a broader architectural tradition that developed from the 2nd to the 6th c.

Agnostics as well as theists should answer evidential arguments from evil, at least when confronted with them. In this paper, I answer such an argument by appealing to sceptical agnosticism. A sceptical agnostic is not only undecided about the existence of a perfectly good and omnipotent God, but also believes that we cannot make any judgement about whether or not seemingly gratuitous evil probably is gratuitous. I argue that such agnosticism has several advantages compared with sceptical theism.

Agnostics as well as theists should answer evidential arguments from evil, at least when confronted with them. In this paper, I answer such an argument by appealing to sceptical agnosticism. A sceptical agnostic is not only undecided about the existence of a perfectly good and omnipotent God, but also believes that we cannot make any judgement about whether or not seemingly gratuitous evil probably is gratuitous. I argue that such agnosticism has several advantages compared with sceptical theism.

Agnostics as well as theists should answer evidential arguments from evil, at least when confronted with them. In this paper, I answer such an argument by appealing to sceptical agnosticism. A sceptical agnostic is not only undecided about the existence of a perfectly good and omnipotent God, but also believes that we cannot make any judgement about whether or not seemingly gratuitous evil probably is gratuitous. I argue that such agnosticism has several advantages compared with sceptical theism.

Agnostics as well as theists should answer evidential arguments from evil, at least when confronted with them. In this paper, I answer such an argument by appealing to sceptical agnosticism. A sceptical agnostic is not only undecided about the existence of a perfectly good and omnipotent God, but also believes that we cannot make any judgement about whether or not seemingly gratuitous evil probably is gratuitous. I argue that such agnosticism has several advantages compared with sceptical theism.

Agnostics as well as theists should answer evidential arguments from evil, at least when confronted with them. In this paper, I answer such an argument by appealing to sceptical agnosticism. A sceptical agnostic is not only undecided about the existence of a perfectly good and omnipotent God, but also believes that we cannot make any judgement about whether or not seemingly gratuitous evil probably is gratuitous. I argue that such agnosticism has several advantages compared with sceptical theism.

This paper proposes an empirical research agenda for investigating the practices of biosecuritization of wild animal threats in modern society. Previously mostly studied on the lofty biopolitical level of directives on combatting invasive species or culling pests, we outline the conceptual and methodological points of entry for bringing the on-the-ground work of culling out-of-place, unwanted, individual animals and populations. This means a focus on necropolitics as constituted by the norms, everyday professional practices, vernaculars of killing, and identity work by pest controllers in the city and hunters on the countryside. Borrowing from research in the domestic animal killing context, we nevertheless show how wild animal killing is imbued with more spontaneity, remorse, aesthetics, public stigma, and multispecies entanglements, requiring adapted research protocols.

This paper discusses the juridical interpretation of Hobbes's state of nature argument, which has been defended by commentators such as Georg Geismann, Dieter Huning or Peter Schroder. According to the juridical interpretation, the primary reason why the Hobbesian state of nature needs to be abandoned is not that everybody's self-preservation is constantly threatened. It is that, due to the universal right to all things, the jural order of the state of nature includes some kind of logical contradiction. The purpose of the paper is to show that the juridical interpretation does not do justice to Hobbes's actual argument and that it starts from a false presupposition: being a Hohfeldian 'liberty-right', the right to all things can consistently be granted to all individuals at the same time.

Studies on the ancient Egyptian administrative system(s) are usually based on analysis of the institutions and officials attached to them. The present paper focuses on the social settings of the four Middle Kingdom / Second Intermediate Period highest ranking officials, Le., treasurers. Starting with the traditional methodological approach, which focuses on collecting the prosopographic data, this paper further addresses the implementation of Social Network Analysis (sNA) tools for analyzing the obtained material. SNA is used to study people, or groups of people (nodes), linked together through social interaction, and relations or links between them (edges). SNA exemplifies various types of interaction through networks and analyzes them. By applying SNA methodology for studying the networks of the selected treasurers, it is possible to reconstruct more precisely their social setting (both private and institutional) and interrelations, which complement the traditional approach, but also provide new possibilities for research into ancient Egyptian administration.

This article maps out how (international) legal concepts and norms were employed during the inter-institutional struggle between the United Nations and the World Bank in the decolonization era. The first contribution is historiographical. Drawing on material from the Bank's (oral) archives, the article gives an original account of the ways in which the organization bypassed the universalist aspirations that were gaining a foothold in the UN's democratic bodies. Secondly, the paper retraces how this particular event gave rise to a clash between opposing imaginaries of international legal order, where axiological aspirations voiced by states from the Global South were ultimately frustrated by a functionalist understanding of international (institutional) law that justified the Bank's institutional insulation. Finally, the paper aims to provide a modest methodological contribution to the field of international institutional law – a doctrinal discipline that traditionally pays little empirical attention to the historical and sociological performativity of concrete legal interventions.

This paper discusses the juridical interpretation of Hobbes's state of nature argument, which has been defended by commentators such as Georg Geismann, Dieter Huning or Peter Schroder. According to the juridical interpretation, the primary reason why the Hobbesian state of nature needs to be abandoned is not that everybody's self-preservation is constantly threatened. It is that, due to the universal right to all things, the jural order of the state of nature includes some kind of logical contradiction. The purpose of the paper is to show that the juridical interpretation does not do justice to Hobbes's actual argument and that it starts from a false presupposition: being a Hohfeldian 'liberty-right', the right to all things can consistently be granted to all individuals at the same time.

Studies on the ancient Egyptian administrative system(s) are usually based on analysis of the institutions and officials attached to them. The present paper focuses on the social settings of the four Middle Kingdom / Second Intermediate Period highest ranking officials, Le., treasurers. Starting with the traditional methodological approach, which focuses on collecting the prosopographic data, this paper further addresses the implementation of Social Network Analysis (sNA) tools for analyzing the obtained material. SNA is used to study people, or groups of people (nodes), linked together through social interaction, and relations or links between them (edges). SNA exemplifies various types of interaction through networks and analyzes them. By applying SNA methodology for studying the networks of the selected treasurers, it is possible to reconstruct more precisely their social setting (both private and institutional) and interrelations, which complement the traditional approach, but also provide new possibilities for research into ancient Egyptian administration.

Hybridisation refers to the fusion of diverse cultural elements which generates new cultural forms that are distinct yet interconnected with one another. Previous studies affirmed that hybridisation has become part of an ongoing trend in transnational culture, emerging from a Third Space where diverse cultural elements enmesh. This study aims to explore how Mulan's cultural identity is hybridised when the folklore flows from China to America, becoming entangled within a conflict of Chinese-Western transcultural clashes. Using Jameson's cultural identity model, the paper analyses Mulan's cultural identity in three texts which are the original The Ballad of Mulan, Disney's animated movie Mulan (1998) and its subsequent life-action installment Mulan (2020). Components measuring the protagonist's cultural identity comprising vocation, class, geography, philosophy, language, biological traits with cultural aspects are compared. The findings show that the movies have particularly hybridise the protagonist's cultural identity from the aspects of geography, philosophy, and language. This results in a hybrid cultural identity with transnational markers in Mulan. The significance of the research thus lies in its contribution towards highlighting how Chinese figures are increasingly hybridised by Western influences as the Chinese culture continues to transcend transnational borders.

Hybridisation refers to the fusion of diverse cultural elements which generates new cultural forms that are distinct yet interconnected with one another. Previous studies affirmed that hybridisation has become part of an ongoing trend in transnational culture, emerging from a Third Space where diverse cultural elements enmesh. This study aims to explore how Mulan's cultural identity is hybridised when the folklore flows from China to America, becoming entangled within a conflict of Chinese-Western transcultural clashes. Using Jameson's cultural identity model, the paper analyses Mulan's cultural identity in three texts which are the original The Ballad of Mulan, Disney's animated movie Mulan (1998) and its subsequent life-action installment Mulan (2020). Components measuring the protagonist's cultural identity comprising vocation, class, geography, philosophy, language, biological traits with cultural aspects are compared. The findings show that the movies have particularly hybridise the protagonist's cultural identity from the aspects of geography, philosophy, and language. This results in a hybrid cultural identity with transnational markers in Mulan. The significance of the research thus lies in its contribution towards highlighting how Chinese figures are increasingly hybridised by Western influences as the Chinese culture continues to transcend transnational borders.

This paper draws on a qualitative case study conducted between 2018 and 2019 with 34 children aged 6–12 years in two designated child-friendly public spaces in Jakarta, known as Ruang Publik Terpadu Ramah Anak (RPTRA), in the communities of Cililitan and Rawa Badak Selatan (Rasela). This article illustrates ways in which children construct and embed their gender identities through play and within playground spaces. The findings of this study speak the geography and spatial organizations of the public playgrounds in Jakarta that nourish male hegemonic practices, which impacted girls’ participation in play. Interestingly, this hegemonic culture was also reinforced by both the physical features and social structures of the playgrounds. We argue it is time to design and inject gender-sensitive policy into public playgrounds, wherein all children can equally participate in play and access their playground spaces.

In Australia, policy makers demand school leaders focus on raising student achievement levels when planning and implementing a school improvement (SI) plan. This paper explores the SI process for two Australian primary schools deemed to be underperforming and underwent a priority school support review (PSSR). In this study, 2 principals and members of their leadership team and 10 teachers across 2 schools were interviewed to explore how they experienced the PSSR process at different stages of the review process. Two assistant regional directors assigned to supporting the two schools during the PSSR process were also interviewed. The findings suggested that initially, school principals wondered how a PSSR would impact the morale of teaching staff already working hard to support student outcomes. However, as the schools progressed through the process, the principals’ perspectives shifted to see the PSSR as a valuable process for building leadership and teacher capacity and improving student outcomes.

School improvement reforms aimed at achieving improved student learning remain high on the agenda for leaders across the globe. The purpose of this paper is to understand the leadership attributes that enable school leaders to bring about positive change. This qualitative study is based on interviews with school leaders (school principals and their deputy principals) and focus groups of six teachers in two case study schools. A realist approach is used to understand how leadership attributes spark related social mechanisms that lead to improved outcomes. Data analysis generated four leadership attributes: (1) valuing diversity, (2) support for staff, (3) collaborative leadership style, and (4) valuing teachers’ professional learning. Each of these was found to have influenced decision-making and sentiment, which generated positive school improvement outcomes in the two case study schools. These findings have the potential to contribute to professional learning which can improve understanding of how leadership attributes in context bring about school improvement.

The paper considers K. Ajdukiewicz's approach to syntactic "connexity" and S. Leśnieski's theory of "semantic categories". Their relationship to Husserl's "pure logical grammar" is discussed and their influence on contemporary theoretical linguistics is investigated, where it is claimed that Bar-Hillel's "quasi-arithmetical notation" for syntactic description does not account for the non-linear character of the so-called "proper succession" which Ajdukiewicz takes up from J. Łukasiewicz. This non-linear feature can be found also in Haskell Curry's binary operation of application. Curry's ideas on grammatical structure and S. Shaumyan's semiotic theory of language make use of the application to represent natural language syntax. It is then reasonable to conclude that these unorthodox developments have profited from an original interpretation of some contributions of the Lvov-Warsaw School.

The aim of this paper is to develop educational theoretical concepts for analyses and descriptions of the teaching and learning traditions in children's human rights and to illustrate its diversity. The paper suggests viewing human rights as a subject field for research and education and using curriculum theory - particularly the concept of curriculum emphases - as a tool for the analyses. Drawing on the results of a previous international study (Brantefors and Quennerstedt, 2016), four teaching and learning traditions of rights are identified: (1) the participation emphasis; (2) the empowerment emphasis; (3) the awareness of rights emphasis; and (4) the right respecting emphasis. With the curriculum emphases concept it is possible to define the main motives for teaching and learning, and also to see what is emphasised in education. In the last section, the traditions are applied and tested on empirical examples. The conclusion is that the emphases concept is a fruitful analytical instrument that makes the different traditions of the teaching and learning of children's human rights visible.

Refugees and asylum seekers are considered by many social commentators to be the zeitgeist of our age, their statelessness and homelessness epitomising the radical unbelonging of all displaced peoples. The exponential rise in the numbers of refugees over the last decade, populations fleeing their homelands in the war torn Middle East or from famine and political crises in African nations, without papers and means of support, and the use of immigration centres for detention without legal recognition of their status and rights as refugees, have attracted widespread media attention and intense public concern. The scale of the migrant exodus and the universalising categories of labels used to discuss the humanitarian crisis means that refugees are inevitably homogenised and stereotyped, perceptions that are reinforced by saturating media images of what is now called the “Black Mediterranean” (Danewid): of desperate flight mainly from Libya, Morocco, and Senegal, upturned boats, drownings and bodies washed up on its shores. Political debate and controversy have raged about the granting of asylum in all European countries of reception, generating responses ranging from revulsion and dismissal, to heightened empathy and ethical concern, to xenophobic racist discourses and generalised fears about overcrowding and national security which cast some refugees in terms of terrorist threat.

In this paper we develop a new methodology for normative theorising, which we call Directed Reflective Equilibrium. Directed Reflective Equilibrium is based on a taxonomy that distinguishes between a number of different functions of hypothetical cases, including two dimensions that we call representation and elicitation. Like its predecessor, Directed Reflective Equilibrium accepts that neither intuitions nor basic principles are immune to revision and that our commitments on various levels of philosophical enquiry should be brought into equilibrium. However, it also offers guidance about how different types of cases ought to be sequenced to achieve this result. We argue that this ‘directional’ approach improves, in various ways, upon the non-directional approach of traditional Reflective Equilibrium.

The Granadan Morisco, physician, translator and forger Miguel de Luna was the author of the Historia verdadera del rey d. Rodrigo, first published in Granada in 1592 and 1600. The Historia verdadera was the pretended translation of an invented Arabic chronicle on the Muslim conquest of Spain in the eigth century. This paper analyzes the editorial success of this book through the study of its translations into French, Italian and English. The ambiguity of Luna’s book explains how it could be used, appropriated and understood in different political, cultural or historical contexts.

The military career of the Marquis of Távara, a less well-known historical figure among the nobility of Early Modern Spain, deserves attention because his life-experience progressed from his local roles in particular kingdoms to culmination in major duties such as President of the Council of Orders. His career advanced from mere adventurer to maestre de campo (field commander of a tercio), thereafter he held vice-regal office in Sicily and Navarre and the captaincies-general of Aragon, Galicia, Old Castile and Extremadura, and he was involved in the wars against the Portuguese and Catalans during the crisis of the 1640s. Also, he held responsibility for the Monarchy’s entire artillery, and he became an active member of the Council of War. Quite apart from his aristocratic origins, this paper explores how his meritorious military career in combination with his three strategic marriages assisted him in setting and shaping a strategy for military promotion.

This paper is intended as an epilogue and concludes the papers of this collection by analyzing their content from the specific vantage point of a comparison with parallel developments and phenomena in the Maghrib and particularly in Islamic Spain (al-Andalus). The issues studied in the collection are thus reviewed in a wider geographical and chronological context.

Peter Simons has been rather alone in the modern philosophy of mathematics to argue that the natural numbers should be regarded as properties of multitudes or collections. This paper, however, sides with Simons, but it modifies his property view by adding the notion of imposed collection boundaries and accepting fictional collections. Although partly inspired by the Husserl of Philosophy of Arithmetic, Simons dismisses Husserl's talk of psychological acts of collective combination, but this paper saves them by dressing them in modern cognitive clothes. Hereby, a reasonable partially constructivist notion of the natural numbers emerges.

From August 1994 until February 1995 I served as an Australian Defence Force legal officer with the Australian Medical Support Force which was a component of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda. During this deployment three duties I engaged with still stand out for me 25 years later: investigating the mass grave site at Ntarama, the use of force to defend the mandate and individual self-defence, and detention. This paper, in large part, engages with my reflections of these issues in the context of my military law practice, and academic research and writing. I conclude by making six observations from my experiences in Rwanda.

The idea that a simple unilateral promise, until it is accepted, is not binding according to natural law is defended by Grotius in his major work with an argumentation drawn directly from Lessius, an important source of inspiration for the Dutch jurist, who in turn solves the dispute rooted in the tradition of ius commune. This article aims to reconstruct, in its essential stages, an itinerary through the main positions of medieval and early modern civil and canon lawyers about this controversial issue. These sources constitute the background of early modern scholastics and Grotius as well. The paper analyses some of the principal texts of both bodies of law, highlighting arguments and adding new findings. Notably it is shown that Lessius's and Grotius's statements represent a turning point, as far as they react against the resumption of the theory of the binding force of simple unilateral promises in the sixteenth century. With Lessius and Grotius, on the other hand, acceptance became a necessary requirement for every transfer of rights and duties to be enforceable.

The concept of wicked problems has inspired researchers in a variety of research fields, but it has also led to various discussions on, for instance, conceptual confusion and ways to tackle such complex problems. Many contemporary problems can be characterized as wicked problems: their nature is complex and there is no one best possible way to solve them. During the last decades, many insights have been developed to define characteristics of wicked problems and ways to tackle them. At present, however, we need to examine the actionable knowledge accumulated in the literature to address the challenges that wicked problems create. Given the above, this introductory paper summarizes how wicked problems have evolved, what we have already learnt about them, and what scientific insights are needed to move forward. This systematic review can provide new knowledge that can lead to the development and subsequent evaluation of the wicked problems research area.

Il panorama culturale della scuola italiana, come in altri Paesi europei, si è diversificato in modo notevole negli ultimi decenni. Da un lato vi è stato l’ingresso delle seconde generazioni di immigrati, portatrici di patrimoni linguistici e tradizioni religiose diverse, dall’altro è cresciuto il pluralismo culturale (anche nel modo di vivere la religione, in famiglia e individualmente) che rende sempre più difficile ottenere una completa identificazione dei giovani con il messaggio veicolato dalla scuola. Il processo di secolarizzazione ha ridotto l’influenza della Chiesa sul mondo scolastico, ma anche - tra gli studenti di religione cattolica- è calato il livello di aspettative e di impegno riguardo alle scelte di fede, che sono sempre più personali e “private” (cattolicesimo flessibile, o occasionale). La presenza di studenti che espongono simboli o segni della propria professione di fede, o chiedono di comportarsi a scuola in modo diverso dagli altri a ragione dei propri precetti religiosi (tra le file degli immigrati), viene talvolta considerata un’ostentazione , quando non una provocazione. La prima domanda è quindi: quale rapporto può intrattenere, oggi, l’educazione come servizio pubblico con le religioni e i diversi modi di vivere la fede, presenti nella scuola plurale? Le scuole pubbliche sembrano oggi (non diversamente dal passato) luoghi dove la religione tende a neutralizzarsi, anche a causa della opzionalità dell’insegnamento IRC, ma non solo. Lo scenario multietnico e multireligioso suggerisce – soprattutto agli adulti – che per evitare scontri culturali, incidenti o fraintendimenti, sia conveniente nascondere la propria religione, così come ci si aspetta che lo facciano gli altri. E’ lecito chiedersi se in un ambiente “neutro” rispetto alle religioni, i giovani siano più liberi di esprimersi o lo siano di meno. E se ciò non significhi, forse, relegare la religione al ristretto ambito familiare, o della comunità di appartenenza (etnica, confessionale, Public schooling is traditionally neutral as far as religion is concerned, assuming that all students have the same opportunity to become educated beyond the religion or belief they have and what it is. With no doubt in Europe secularization and universalism of rights have reduced the public role of religion with the consequence of an increased pluralism of cultures and of religions among students (especially in public institutions), and the widening of the young people’s group who are not believers, agnostic or religious recusants (Garelli, 2016). Then, can it be stated that we are in an equal, undiscriminating, and peaceful educational landscape because of the disappearance of religion(s)? The difficult management of multi-ethnic classes and the high level of tensions among peers in those classes, often due to religious bullying (Bergamaschi, 2016; Colombo&Santagati, 2017), seem to disconfirm this statement. Even the recent recurrence of violence and radicalism within the second generation immigrants tell us the same (Gambetta, Hertog, 2016) although this violence does not always come out in the school, rather than outside. The persistence of the juvenile need to be identified (and distinguished) not only by name, family background, local and cultural roots, but also by the religious community the children/youngsters belong to, is a matter for a deep reflection for sociologists of education in a wide range of directions (Cipriani, Costa, 2015): from a) the side of student, b) that of parents/teachers, and c) that of the public/institutional perspective (Rowe, 2016). What kind of new educational setting is designed by the returning of religions into schooling? Which sort of new divides and conflicts will sort out? In this paper I present the main theoretical and methodological categories, that I set up for an empirical study to be carried out in Italy (a three-year program “Migration and Religious belonging 2016-18 – WP6 The religious dimension and inter-ethnic

This paper examines the state of Ashʿarī scholarship in Ifrīqiya between the seventh/thirteenth and eighth/fourteenth centuries. It studies intellectual influences in the works of several theologians from this era, including the continuous Juwaynian impact, the rising engagement with Aristotelian logic, and the early reception of al-Rāzī’s works in the Maghrib.

This paper provides a corrected and updated inventory of Christoph Sand’s (1644–80) epistolary, including letters by or to Johannes Becius, Henry Oldenburg, Constantijn Huygens Sr., Johann Georg Graevius and Pierre-Daniel Huet. It also contains the first edition of Sand’s earliest preserved letter and points to previously unnoticed material related to his translation of the Philosophical Transactions. Sand is a relevant but neglected figure of the late seventeenth-century Republic of Letters. He was born in Königsberg, studied at the university of his native city and in Oxford, and then he established himself in Amsterdam as a proofreader and as independent writer of controversial books on theology and Church history.

In this paper we set out to consider the place of the English language in globalised communities. The hegemony, which English enjoys, has ramifications for how it is taught, how and why it is learned and how it is used. We argue that there is a need to consider more socio-cultural and individual factors in the learning and use of English as a lingua franca as these factors constitute crucial aids to successful cross-cultural interactions in professional environments. The latest research on lingua franca English (LFE) (Firth & Wagner, 1997; Kramsch, 2002; Larsen-Freeman, 2002; Block, 2003; House, 2003; Canagarajah, 2006a; Lantolf & Thorne, 2006; Atkinson, Churchill, Nishino & Okada, 2007) confirms our position since it reveals what has always been the experience of multilingual speakers, i.e., “Language learning and use succeed through performance strategies, situational resources, and social negotiations in fluid communicative contexts. Proficiency is therefore practice-based, adaptive, and emergent” (Canagarajah, 2007: 923)

The stops [p, b, k] often alternate with respective fricatives [f, v, chi] in Modern Hebrew (MH). This general pattern was designed to follow the spirantization process of Biblical Hebrew as it was depicted in the Masoretic orthography. While this orthography is retained in MH, its phonological infrastructure is very different from that of Biblical Hebrew, and it cannot support a phonological process of spirantization. This problematic state of affairs has been a source of confusion for many language users, as well as a source of interest for many language researchers. This paper overviews the current state of affairs with respect to the stop-fricative alternation in MH, emphasizing cases of systematic stability and instability. The apparent patterns seem to reflect speakers' limited yet impressive ability to recruit their native knowledge of morphology and orthography to generalize a pseudo-phonological rule.

It is well recognized amongst psychologists that individuals exhibit not one but multiple intelligences (Gardner 1993). Perhaps the most conspicuous of these, especially in interpersonal contexts, is emotional intelligence: that ability to understand and predict one’s own emotions, and those of others, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and behaviour (Mayer, Salovey and Caruso 2008). Although the Odyssean Odysseus is known for his ability to think his way out of difficult situations, his problem-solving ability is not his only distinguishing cognitive attribute. This paper begins with a brief discussion of emotional intelligence and its scope. I then observe how the poet, through his narrative, reveals this ability in Odysseus: his emotional intelligence serves the hero well in some social situations but (as happens to us all) fails him in others. I shall argue, with reference to a number of examples, that the poet has an implicit understanding of emotional intelligence; that he uses his hero’s uneven performance with respect to this ability as a motivating factor in his development of the plot; and that this attribute of Odysseus, along with his craftiness, is what makes this character—and ultimately this story—so engaging.

Many policy makers and educational researchers seem to be convinced that teaching matters. Unfortunately, such a case for teaching and teachers tends to rely on a rather one-dimensional view of what counts in education – namely the production of measurable learning outcomes – and a rather mechanistic view of what counts as education – namely teaching as an intervention that is aimed at producing particular effects. Such views about teaching and education more generally are also affecting programmes of teacher education. In this paper I raise some questions about such views about the significance of teaching, on the assumption that the future of teacher education needs to be informed by a different understanding of what teaching is and what it is for. I make a case for a multi-dimensional view of the purposes of education and for teaching as an act of communication and interpretation that always requires judgement about that ‘what’ and the ‘what for.’ Placing such judgement at the centre of teacher education suggests that the structure of the curriculum for teacher education should be spiral rather than linear-cumulative.