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The Life History Project at Denmark's Roskilde University is a 5-year research project that was initiated in 1998 to examine learning and participation in adult and continuing education from a life history perspective. The project was designed to build on a broad range of qualitative interview studies and case studies into learning processes. The research methodology designed for the project was grounded in the critical theory tradition and in the following premises: (1) the need to adopt a "holistic" approach that takes the learner's perspective; (2) the notion of experience and the specificity of the learning subject; (3) the need to move beyond conventional hermeneutics to "in-depth hermeneutics," which involves looking for meanings and implications going beyond the knowledge or intent of the acting, knowing, or speaking subject; and (4) the notion that a learning subject is a historical product of modernity and the need to relate it to a dynamic-utopian concept of a learning individual. (Contains 12 references.) (MN)

This paper discusses the importance of pilot studies in the development and implementation of a research project, focusing on the use of a pilot study to revise conceptual and methodological issues in dissertation research on higher education leadership. It examines the hermeneutic circle, as described by M. Heidegger, that stresses the importance of involvement and participation in practical activity as necessary to the development of understanding. The paper then describes the conceptual framework, research focus and goals, and methodology of a pilot study on inclusive higher education leadership models. Finally, it discusses how the pilot study helped to identify methodological changes in the dissertation research project, including the unit of analysis, data collection, the interview process, analysis, and interpretations. The paper illustrates the importance of grounding the research process in practical activity, highlights how reflection can help improve research practice, suggests the value of day-to-day experiences in shaping research, and emphasizes the importance of re-iterative studies and emergent research. (Contains 57 references.) (MDM)

This paper reports the autobiographical narrative of Mr. L., as case-in-point example of the thresholding moment and the process of transitioning into Academia. The role of the lecturer-mentor and the multi-logic space that facilitates the process are clarified. I use hermeneutic phenomenology and interpretivism as methodological tools. This ex post facto qualitative study was done to elucidate the concepts and iterative processes involved in transitioning. I conclude that the novice student needs a lecturer-mentor guiding him through this life-changing event. [For the complete Volume 14, Number 1 proceedings, see ED568088.]

This is a record of the proceedings of the 30th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA). The theme of the conference is "Mathematics: Essential research, essential practice." The theme draws attention to the importance of developing and maintaining links between research and practice and ties in with the joint day of presentations with the 21st biennial conference of the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers (AAMT). This special feature highlights the benefits of collaboration between researchers, practicing classroom teachers, and curriculum developers. Volume 1 contains the following papers: (1) The Beginnings of MERGA (Ken Clements); (2) Teaching and Learning by Example: The Annual Clements/Foyster Lecture (Helen L. Chick); (3) Introducing Students to Data Representation and Statistics (Richard Lehrer); (4) Studies in the Zone of Proximal Awareness (John Mason, Helen Drury and Liz Bills); (5) Empowered to Teach: A Practice-based Model of Teacher Education (Janette Bobi); (6) Communicating Students' Understanding of Undergraduate Mathematics using Concept Maps (Karoline Afamasaga-Fuata'i); (7) Primary Student Teachers' Diagnosed Mathematical Competence in Semester One of their Studies (Karoline Afamasaga-Fuata'i, Paul Meyer and Naomi Falo); (8) An Online Survey to Assess Student Anxiety and Attitude Response to Six Different Mathematical Problems (Vincent Anderson); (9) Mathematical Investigations: A Primary Teacher Educator's Narrative Journey of Professional Awareness (Judy Bailey); (10) Describing Mathematics Departments: The Strengths and Limitations of Complexity Theory and Activity Theory (Kim Beswick, Anne Watson and Els De Geest); (11) Three Student Tasks in a Study of Distribution in a "Best Practice" Statistics Classroom (Anthony Bill and Jane Watson); (12) Teacher Researchers Questioning their Practice (Linda Bonne & Ruth Pritchard); (13) Imagined Classrooms: Prospective Primary Teachers Visualise their Ideal Mathematics Classroom (Kathy Brady); (14) Early Notions of Functions in a Technology-Rich Teaching and Learning Environment (TRTLE) (Jill Brown); (15) Collective Argumentation and Modelling Mathematics Practices Outside the Classroom (Raymond Brown and Trevor Redmond); (16) Visual Perturbances in Digital Pedagogical Media (Nigel Calder); (17) Professional Experience in Learning to Teach Secondary Mathematics: Incorporating Pre-service Teachers into a Community of Practice (Michael Cavanagh and Anne Prescott); (18) Young Children's Accounts of their Mathematical Thinking (Jill Cheeseman and Barbara Clarke); (19) Mathematical Reform: What Does the Journey Entail for Teachers? (Linda Cheeseman); (20) Year Six Fraction Understanding: A Part of the Whole Story (Doug M. Clarke, Anne Roche and Annie Mitchell); (21) Teaching as Listening: Another Aspect of Teachers' Content Knowledge in the Numeracy Classroom (Ngaire Davies and Karen Walker); (22) Essential Differences between High and Low Performers' Thinking about Graphically-Oriented Numeracy Items (Carmel M. Diezmann, Tom J. Lowrie and Nahum Kozak); (23) High School Students' Use of Patterns and Generalizations (Jaguthsing Dindyal); (24) The Teacher, The Tasks: Their Role in Students' Mathematical Literacy (Katherine Doyle); (25) Informal Knowledge and Prior Learning: Student Strategies for Identifying and Locating Numbers on Scales (Michael Drake); (26) Documenting the Knowledge of Low-Attaining Third- and Fourth-Graders: Robyn's and Bel's Sequential Structure and Multidigit Addition and Subtraction (David Ellemor-Collins, Robert Wright and Gerard Lewis); (27) Interdisciplinary Modelling in the Primary Mathematics Curriculum (Lyn English); (28) Students' Tendency to Conjoin Terms: An Inhibition to Their Development of Algebra (Judith Falle); (29) Towards "Breaking the Cycle of Tradition" in Primary Mathematics (Sandra Frid and Len Sparrow); (30) Exploring the Number Knowledge of Children to Inform the Development of a Professional Learning Plan for Teachers in the Ballarat Diocese as a Means of Building Community Capacity (Ann Gervasoni, Teresa Hadden and Kathie Turkenburg); (31) Technology-Enriched Teaching of Secondary Mathematics: Factors Influencing Innovative Practice (Merrilyn Goos and Anne Bennison); (32) Supporting an Investigative Approach to Teaching Secondary School Mathematics: A Professional Development Model (Merrilyn Goos, Shelley Dole, and Katie Makar); (33) Identity and Mathematics: Towards a Theory of Agency in Coming to Learn Mathematics (Peter Grootenboer and Robyn Zevenbergen); (34) Categorisation of Mental Computation Strategies to Support Teaching and to Encourage Classroom Dialogue (Judy Hartnett); (35) Student Experiences of VCE Further Mathematics (Sue Helme and Stephen Lamb); (36) Video Evidence: What Gestures Tell Us About Students' Understanding of Rate of Change (Sandra Herbert and Robyn Pierce); (37) The Role of Dynamic Interactive Technological Tools in Preschoolers' Mathematical Patterning (Kate Highfield and Joanne Mulligan); (38) Students Representing Mathematical Knowledge through Digital Filmmaking (Geoff Hilton); (39) What Does it Mean for an Instructional Task to be Effective? (Lynn Hodge, Jana Visnovska, Qing Zhao and Paul Cobb); (40) A School-Community Model for Enhancing Aboriginal Students' Mathematical Learning (Peter Howard and Bob Perry); (41) Benchmarking Preservice Teachers' Perceptions of their Mentoring for Developing Mathematics Teaching Practices (Peter Hudson); (42) Relational or Calculational Thinking: Students Solving Open Number Equivalence Problems (Jodie Hunter); (43) Scaffolding Small Group Interactions (Roberta Hunter); (44) Numeracy in Action: Students Connecting Mathematical Knowledge to a Range of Contexts (Chris Hurst); and (45) A Story of a Student Fulfilling a Role in the Mathematics Classroom (Naomi Ingram). Volume 2 contains the following papers: (1) Secondary-Tertiary Transition: What Mathematics Skills Can and Should We Expect This Decade? (Nicolas Jourdan, Patricia Cretchley and Tim Passmore); (2) The Power of Writing for all Pre-service Mathematics Teachers (Keith McNaught); (3) "Connection Levers:" Developing Teachers' Expertise with Mathematical Inquiry (Katie Makar); (4) Acquiring the Mathematics Register in te reo Maori (Tamsin Meaney, Uenuku Fairhall and Tony Trinick); (5) Teaching Ratio and Rates for Abstraction (Mike Mitchelmore, Paul White and Heather McMaster); (6) Setting a Good Example: Teachers' Choice of Examples and their Contribution to Effective Teaching of Numeracy (Tracey Muir); (7) Developing the Concept of Place Value (Mala Saraswathy Nataraj and Michael O. J. Thomas); (8) Interdisciplinary Learning: Development of Mathematical Confidence, Value, and the Interconnectedness of Mathematics Scales (Dawn Kit Ee Ng and Gloria Stillman); (9) Mathematical Methods and Mathematical Methods Computer Algebra System (CAS) 2006--Concurrent Implementation with a Common Technology Free Examination (Pam Norton, David Leigh-Lancaster, Peter Jones and Michael Evans); (10) A Concrete Approach to Teaching Symbolic Algebra (Stephen Norton and Jane Irvin); (11) Developing Positive Attitudes towards Algebra (Stephen Norton and Jane Irvin); (12) Changing Our Perspective on Measurement: A Cultural Case Study (Kay Owens and Wilfred Kaleva); (13) Enhancing Student Achievement in Mathematics: Identifying the Needs of Rural and Regional Teachers in Australia (Debra Panizzon and John Pegg); (14) The Growth of Early Mathematical Patterning: An Intervention Study (Marina Papic and Joanne Mulligan); (15) Whole Number Knowledge and Number Lines Help to Develop Fraction Concepts (Catherine Pearn and Max Stephens); (16) Identifying and Analysing Processes in NSW Public Schooling Producing Outstanding Educational Outcomes in Mathematics (John Pegg, Debra Panizzon and Trevor Lynch); (17) Teachers Research their Practice: Developing Methodologies that Reflect Teachers' Perspectives (Ruth Pritchard and Linda Bonne); (18) Teacher Professional Learning in Mathematics: An Example of a Change Process (Pauline Rogers); (19) Seeking Evidence of Thinking and Mathematical Understandings in Students' Writing (Anne Scott); (20) Utilising the Rasch Model to Gain Insight into Students' Understandings of Class Inclusion Concepts in Geometry (Penelope Serow); (21) Exploring Teachers' Numeracy Pedagogies and Subsequent Student Learning across Five Dimensions of Numeracy (Jane Skalicky); (22) The Complexities for New Graduates Planning Mathematics Based on Student Need (Carole Steketee and Keith McNaught); (23) Students' Emerging Algebraic Thinking in the Middle School Years (Max Stephens); (24) A Framework for Success in Implementing Mathematical Modelling in the Secondary Classroom (Gloria Stillman, Peter Galbraith, Jill Brown and Ian Edwards); (25) Eliciting Positive Student Motivation for Learning Mathematics (Peter Sullivan and Andrea McDonough); (26) Learning from Children about their Learning with and without ICT using Video-Stimulated Reflective Dialogue (Howard Tanner and Sonia Jones); (27) Dependency and Objectification in a Year 7 Mathematics Classroom: Insights from Sociolinguistics (Steve Thornton); (28) Pedagogical Practices with Digital Technologies: Pre-service and Practicing Teachers (Colleen Vale); (29) Procedural Complexity and Mathematical Solving Processes in Year 8 Mathematics Textbook Questions (Jill Vincent and Kaye Stacey); (30) Designing Effective Professional Development: How do we Understand Teachers' Current Instructional Practices? (Jana Visnovska); (31) "Doing Maths:" Children Talk About Their Classroom Experiences (Fiona Walls); (32) The Role of Pedagogy in Classroom Discourse (Margaret Walshaw and Glenda Anthony); (33) Australian Indigenous Students: The Role of Oral Language and Representations in the Negotiation of Mathematical Understanding (Elizabeth Warren, Janelle Young and Eva deVries); (34) Student Change Associated with Teachers' Professional Learning (Jane Watson, Kim Beswick, Natalie Brown and Rosemary Callingham); (35) Choosing to Teach in the "STEM" Disciplines: Characteristics and Motivations of Science, ICT, and Mathematics Teachers (Helen M. G. Watt, Paul W. Richardson and James Pietsch); (36) Percentages as Part Whole Relationships (Paul White, Sue Wilson, Rhonda Faragher and Mike Mitchelmore); (37) My Struggle with Maths May Not Have Been a Lonely One: Bibliotherapy in a Teacher Education Number Theory Unit (Sue Wilson); (38) Students' Conceptual Understanding of Equivalent Fractions (Monica Wong and David Evans); (39) Statistics Teachers as Scientific Lawyers (Joanne Woodward and Maxine Pfannkuch); (40) Developing Pedagogical Tools for Intervention: Approach, Methodology, and an Experimental Framework (Robert Wright, David Ellemor-Collins and Gerard Lewis); (41) Pedagogy and Interactive Whiteboards: Using an Activity Theory Approach to Understand Tensions in Practice (Robyn Zevenbergen and Steve Lerman); (42) International Perspectives on Early Years Mathematics (Jillian Fox); (43) Early Childhood Mathematics Education Research: What is Needed Now? (Bob Perry and Sue Dockett); (44) Trimangles and Kittens: Mathematics Within Socio-dramatic Play in a New Zealand Early Childhood Setting (Shiree Lee); (45) Children's Number Knowledge in the Early Years of Schooling (Ann Gervasoni); (46) Listening to Students' Voices in Mathematics Education (Brian Doig, Susie Groves, Coral Campbell, Judith Mousley, and Gaye Williams); (47) Students' Pedagogical Knowledge: A Source of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Brian Doig and Susie Groves); (48) Research Enriched by the Student Voice (Gaye Williams); (49) Listening to Student Opinions about Group Assessment (Judith Mousley and Coral Campbell); (50) Profiles of Thinking Skills and Levels of Motivation in a Problem-Solving Task (Sarah Buckley, Mary Ainley and Pip Pattison); (51) An Investigation of Mathematics Strategies in Traditional School Contexts and Real-World Contexts (Julie Clark and Kathy Brady); (52) Maori Student's Perspective on Their Mathematical Journey Through Maori Medium (Leeana Herewini); (53) Some Methodological Considerations in the Estonian Study about Students' Beliefs in Mathematics: Is Triangulation Necessary? (Kirsti Kislenko); (54) Progress in Mathematics--Learning through Home School Partnership (Denise Smith and Gaynor Terrill); (55) Exploring Data Representation and Statistical Reasoning through Integrated Investigations in a Grade 2 Classroom (Karen Ahearn); (56) Reform and Assessment Practice: The Need for an Investigation (Julie Anderson); (57) Autobiographical Research and Mathematics Curriculum (Andy Begg); (58) Mathematically Gifted Students Managing School Transfer (Brenda Bicknell); (59) Improving Procedures for Effective Teaching (Murray Black, Farida Kachapova and Ilias Kachapov); (60) Using Counter-Examples and Paradoxes in Teaching Probability: Students' Attitudes (Murray Black, Farida Kachapova, Sergiy Klymchuk and Ilias Kachapov); (61) Using Cabri Geometry to Explore the Geometric Properties of Parallelograms in Year 7 Mathematics Classrooms (Sahar Bokosmaty); (62) Defining Teacher Knowledge Needed in the Teaching of Statistics at Primary School Level (Tim Burgess); (63) Year 12 Students' Participation in Higher Mathematics Courses (Mohan Chinnappan, Stephen Dinham, Tony Herrington and Dale Scott); (64) Pre-service Primary Teachers Developing Positive Attitudes towards Teaching Mathematics (Julie Clark); (65) Measuring the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Language-In-Use for Algebra Learning: A Multi-Level Nested Modelling and DEA Approach (Robert de la Serna); (66) Te Poutama Tau (TPT): An Indigenous Response to the Numeracy Development Project 2002-2006 (Wini Emery and Leeana Herewini); (67) "I Have a Fear of Maths and it Does Worry Me a Bit as a Future Teacher:" The Cycle of Maths Anxiety (Gillian Frankcom); (68) Using Electronic Handwriting and Tablet PCs to Enhance Distance Students' Understanding of First Year Mathematics at University (Linda Galligan, Birgit Loch, Janet Taylor and Christine McDonald); (69) Mathematical Modelling in CAS Clothing (Vince Geiger, Rhonda Faragher and Trevor Redmond); (70) The Cognitive and Pedagogical Affordances of Digital Learning Tools on Early Mathematical Development (Kristy Goodwin, Joanne Mulligan and John Hedberg); (71) Revisions and Extensions of a Pirie-Kieren-Based Teaching Model (Peter Hughes); (72) An Insight into Norwegian Students' Thoughts about Mathematics (Kirsti Kislenko); (73) The Impact of Didactical Contract on Students' Perceptions of their Intentional Learning Acts (Troels Lange and Tamsin Meaney); (74) The Impact of an Intervention on the Development of Mathematical Pattern and Structure in the First Year of Schooling (Joanne Mulligan, Mike Mitchelmore, Coral Kemp, Jennie Marston and Kate Highfield); (75) Activity Theory as a Framework to Analyse the Positive Influence of Formative Assessment on Student Learning (Trish O'Toole); (76) Teaching Geometry with CAS in the Junior Secondary Classroom: A Case Study (Warren Palmer); (77) Wanted: One Great Maths Teacher! (Pamela Perger); (78) Building Early Childhood Educators' Knowledge, Skills and Confidence in the Facilitation and Assessment of Young Children's Mathematical Learning (Bob Perry, Elspeth Harley and Sue Dockett); (79) CAS in the Middle Secondary Years: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (Robyn Pierce); (80) Myths and Positioning: Insights from Hermeneutics (Steve Thornton); (81) Misconceptions in Locating Negative Decimals on the Number Line (Wanty Widjaja, Kaye Stacey and Vicki Steinle); and (82) Proportional Reasoning: A Global or Localised Development? (Vince Wright). [Individual papers contain references, figures, tables, and appendices.

In his 2014 paper Potgieter presented a number of pertinent questions on education in a post-modern world. In this article I not only challenge some of the views informing these questions but also raise additional questions for debate and critical analysis. Two pertinent issues, both with religious undertones, are addressed, viz.: a) whether the construct, "evil", as employed by Potgieter in his argument, could be used as basis for the development of a theory on education; and b) whether a pedagogy of discernment could be used as a "primus inter pares." Using hermeneutic analysis, I argue that the religious embeddedness of these concepts as well as the relativity of claims made could be problematic in terms of a general theory on pedagogy meant to serve as a "primus inter pares." In contesting Potgieter's argument I therefore pose a number of counter claims for analysis and scrutiny. [For the complete Volume 13, Number 1 proceedings, see ED568595.]

When a University of Louisville Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) director, a team of graduate students, and an instructor designed a free summer computer camp program for disadvantaged middle schoolers, they imagined that the middle schoolers would respond to the first instruction as if the educators had restrained them in technological and epistemological straitjackets. Middle schoolers refused to behave as the teachers had imagined. The ways of writing the educators had planned were not the ways of writing middle schoolers envisioned. This paper argues that most of the divergence between middle schoolers' behavior and the graduate teachers' expectations were situated in the contact zone between class-bred class differences between Hip-Hop techno black culture and bourgeois values of the educators. The paper provides the following: an overview of the camp; its objectives; participant demographics; how the Hip Hop culturalization manifested itself in certain classroom practices; and what makes an effective good Hip Hop "gansta" writer who knows his or her audience or "posse." It also delineates a "hermenuetics of Hip Hop." The paper concludes that the middle schoolers "wrote across the curriculum" by writing with and about technology. They wrote in color and sound for themselves and their community, and through writing, the middle schoolers took power. Transcriptions from the computer camp are appended. (NKA)

This paper considers one researcher's challenge of marking his progress in reading/studying Jacques Derrida's "Aporias" (1993) by what he calls the continual hermeneutic of making meaning. The paper places the "Aporias" reading in the setting of a weekly research group whose research cycle was creating meaning in and out of the work being done and the continuing dialogues with(in) it. One of the paper's segments consists of an (inter)[texture]al performative to be read with an 11-minute video from a 1-hour studio/gallery session edited into approximately seven minutes with four minutes of visual contextual framing entitled, "(Re)searching Sculpted 'Aporia': (Re)learning (Subverted-Knowing) through Praxis." The paper details the researcher's notations from his research journal written before the video sequence at the end of the second week of the gallery exhibition in January 2000. It documents the researcher's difficulty in "holding the three hats of artist/researcher/teacher" to stay afloat--teaching three courses, doing research, and being in the "aporia" of his praxis. The paper concludes that, without the reflexive researcher role, the relationship of the praxis to teaching would be lost from the conscious equation, from the place where it really matters, from the why of the entire thing--what it is--how this triality artist/researcher/teacher connects. (BT)

This paper calls for the inclusion of narrative, thematic, and metaphor analysis as organizational assessment or communication audit methods and discusses some practical means of integrating these symbolic interpretational devices. The paper begins by defining the notion of symbol as the message content important to the organizational member. It then discusses four assessment methodologies: (1) textual analysis, or hermeneutics; (2) symbolic interactionism, or examining roles within organizations; (3) ethnomethodology, which examines construction of knowledge through interaction; and (4) phenomenology, which explores conscious experience. The paper continues by emphasizing three basic methods: observation, questioning, and transcribing organizational text. The paper concludes that, by practicing these methods, researchers will provide more compelling and deeper assessments of organizations. (Contains 16 references.) (EF)

This paper argues that a hermeneutic perspective--the art of interpreting and understanding across differences--should be considered in any educational discussion about leadership. It explains that hermeneutics searches for understanding and creates meaning, not explanation. The paper goes on to examine the educational philosophy of John Dewey, noting that he regarded science and the scientific method as a matter of hermeneutics of shared interpreting and meaning-making. Dewey, instead of favoring narrow specialization, desired those qualities, such as initiative, inventiveness, and readaptability, that would enable education to be a life-long process of growth. It is concluded that hermeneutics and a Deweyan educational philosophy point toward a leadership paradigm in which work groups move toward a horizontal rather than vertical decision-making process, with collegiality--democratic cooperation--instead of a marked polarity between leaders and followers. Authority will be shared because meaning-making and inquiry are shared experiences, and leaders will emerge situationally in a community respectful of individual and communal growth. (Contains 27 references.) (MDM)

This paper claims that leadership, as a topic, has been disguised in behaviorism and obscured by organizational theory and management. The article examines the theories or metanarratives that have dominated educational administration and shows how they have covered and disguised leadership. It argues that the metanarratives--trait theory, behaviorism, structuralism, behavioral structuralism, broad fields, critical theory, and feminism--submerge leadership as other issues, such as management theory, are pursued. It asserts that all these metanarratives rest on the fallacy of an objectified self, which, even if influenced by language and culture, is believed to be benign so that the veil covering leadership can be lifted. Yet the record in this respect is paltry, and critical theory has not produced any expanded vision for the nature of leadership. The article focuses on the literature of feminism and the argument by postmodernists that one cannot think without prejudice, that is, all perspectives are grounded in certain pre-assumptions that actively shape perception. The article concludes with the work of Jacques Lacan and Howard Gardner and their critique of behavioral psychology, positing that Lacan and Gardner offer an alternative to the obscurantist view of leadership that has become prevalent. Contains 21 references. (RJM)

Making use of hermeneutic phenomenology and morality critique as methodological navigation points, this paper challenges the phantasmatic prestige and power of normative orders and the education systems that are designed to keep them alive. It is suggested that what education needs is not morals and ethics, but a pedagogy of discernment that will teach pupils to keep their eyes open and to recognise the tragic truth that normative systems maintain themselves at the cost of obliterating the onticity of singularisation, mortality and the non-normalisability of the human condition. [For the complete Volume 12 proceedings, see ED597979.]

This paper is an analysis of the ongoing work of philosopher Jacques Derrida and the immense body of work associated with him. Derrida's copious work is difficult to categorize since Derrida challenges the very concept that meaning can be grasped in its original moment or that meaning can be represented in the form of some proper, self-identical concept. Derrida's "deconstruction" requires reading, writing, and translating Derrida, an impossibility the author maintains cannot be done because translation involves transformation and the originality of the original only comes into view after it has been translated. The sections of the paper include: (1) "Preface: Reading Derrida, Writing after Derrida"; (2) "Curriculum Vitae"; (3) "(No) Philosophy"; (4) "The Myth of the Origin"; (5)"The Presence of the Voice"; (6) "The Ubiquity of Writing"; (7) "Difference and 'Differance'"; (8) "Deconstruction and the Other"; (9) "Education"; (10) "Education beyond Representation: Gregory Ulmer's 'Post(e)-pedagogy'"; and (11) "Afterword: Education as the Possibility of Justice." (EH)

This paper examines and compares the formation processes and structures of three types of integrative knowledge that in general represent natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. These three types can be observed, respectively, in the philosophies of Michael Polanyi, Jurgen Habermas, and Paul Ricoeur. These types of integrative knowledge are featured in this paper because practically all academic institutions of higher learning today have divisions of natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, and because these philosophers have greatly influenced interdisciplinary scholarship in the past few decades. The paper's premise is that a whole is greater than the sum of its parts, a notion that is the foundational principle for integrative knowledge. The examination of these three types of integrative knowledge leads to the conviction that what determines integrative studies is primarily the formation process for, not the content of, the structure of integrative knowledge. The act of integration is a dynamic process of achieving an ideal. Integrative studies are the future-oriented studies that examine primarily the dynamic aspects of the integrating process for achieving those ideals. (MAH)

According to this document, the postmodern world needs a form of education which does not separate learning from its application to self, but encourages subjective experiencing of the world as self-encounter. The hermeneutical task is not a technical one, solved by logic, but is rather, an aesthetic journey of finding a sense of identity and personal meaning in experiences born in the midst of universal human struggles. The paper is organized in four sections. After an introductory section, the document presents: "Perspectives on Hermeneutics"; "Hermeneutics: A Phenomenological Aesthetic Investigation," which looks at five different approaches to hermeneutics; and "Aesthetics in Hermeneutics," in which phenomenological aesthetics for hermeneutics in education is advocated; the implication being that transformation and learning would be stimulated by a sense of connectedness and awareness of future possibilities. Contains 52 references. (MM)

There is a growing sense of frustration among members of the science education research community that results from the fact that the impact of research in science education on classroom practice has been disappointing. In this theoretical paper, the questions of relevance and accountability in science education research are first reviewed and then addressed via comparison of the two most prevalent research methodologies: causal empirical-analytic, and naturalistic-hermeneutic. Critical theory and action research are proposed as alternative paradigms. A study planned at Purdue University (Indiana) is discussed in terms of the three interpretations. (JRH)

This paper explores the question of interpreting complex texts, particularly scripts and multimedia presentations. The paper first reviews the literature on natural discourse, noting that although interpreting spoken natural language seems rather straightforward, many scholars have discussed what is required to make sense of discourse. The paper next discusses the discourse of novels, pointing out that writing and print fix language to a page and, in doing so, change an individual's relationship to language, and that the written text does not engage people in the same ways that natural discourse does. The paper cites the rise of hermeneutics, or textual interpretation, and notes that modern scholarship has subjected hermeneutics itself to a struggle for understanding, with outstanding scholars such as E. D. Hirsch and Hans-Georg Gadamer in opposing theoretical camps. The paper then discusses in detail the discourse of scripts, after defining them as "a set of instructions for actors so that they can recreate a human lifeworld." The paper concludes with a postscript about multimedia presentations, which cross the boundaries separating natural discourse, texts, and scripts. The paper concludes that the situation of multimedia throws all interpretation into relief and suggests the fusion of not just two, but multiple horizons. (Contains 23 references.) (NKA)

This paper presents findings of a critical ethnography that examined the relationship between gender and the definition of power, and its use in the politicized role of the superintendent. Based on Stewart Clegg's (1988) conceptualization of power relationships as "circuits of power," the ethnography was conducted in a larger metropolitan area headed by a female superintendent. Data were obtained from nonstandardized interviews with those in male circuits of power, those in female circuits of power, and those related to the superintendent either directly or indirectly. Other data sources included document analysis and nonparticipant and participant observation. Findings indicate that: (1) women define power differently than men; (2) when women operate according to the female concept of power (viewed as "power to" rather than as "power over"), their chances to acquire positions of power increase dramatically; (3) women who attain positions of power are most successful when they adopt female approaches to power that stress collaboration, inclusion, and consensus-building; (4) to become powerful, women must become culturally bilingual (speak the language of males while remaining feminine); and (5) women are normally excluded from the male circuit of power. Contains 70 references. (LMI)

This paper reports on how participation in a secondary school musical production, within a life skills education programme, may contribute curricularly and pedagogically towards equipping learners for meaningful, successful living in a rapidly transforming society. Using the life skills curriculum for the subject Life Orientation, and employing constructivist hermeneutic phenomenology, I compared the dialogic educative space offered by a musical production with that of an ordinary secondary school classroom context. This comparative study suggests that secondary school musicals, as holograms of life and reality may, curricularly as well as pedagogically, be understood as practice grounds for life skills attainment (including social justice), whereas traditional classroom practice perpetuates monologism. The musical provides a space for discovering and exercising human talents, social interaction, co-responsibility, mutual and reciprocal trust and knowledge and meaning-making whereas the traditional classroom no longer seems to be able to provide a nurturing and safe practice ground for life skills. [For complete volume, see ED567118.]

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2016, taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, from 30 of April to 2 of May, 2016. Psychology, nowadays, offers a large range of scientific fields where it can be applied. The goal of understanding individuals and groups (mental functions and behavioral standpoints), from this academic and practical scientific discipline, is aimed ultimately to benefit society. This International Conference seeks to provide some answers and explore the several areas within the Psychology field, new developments in studies and proposals for future scientific projects. The goal is to offer a worldwide connection between psychologists, researchers and lecturers, from a wide range of academic fields, interested in exploring and giving their contribution in psychological issues. The conference is a forum that connects and brings together academics, scholars, practitioners and others interested in a field that is fertile in new perspectives, ideas and knowledge. There is an extensive variety of contributors and presenters, which can supplement the view of the human essence and behavior, showing the impact of their different personal, academic and cultural experiences. This is, certainly, one of the reasons there are nationalities and cultures represented, inspiring multi-disciplinary collaborative links, fomenting intellectual encounter and development. InPACT 2016 received 332 submissions, from 37 different countries, reviewed by a double-blind process. Submissions were prepared to take form of Oral Presentations, Posters, Virtual Presentations and Workshops. It was accepted for presentation in the conference 96 submissions (29% acceptance rate). The conference also includes: (1) A keynote presentation from Prof. Dr. Richard Bentall (Institute of Psychology, Health & Society of the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom); (2) Three Special Talks, one from Emeritus Professor Carlos Amaral Dias (University of Coimbra, Director of Instituto Superior Miguel Torga, Vice-President of the Portuguese Association of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Private practitioner of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, Portugal) and Prof. Clara Pracana (Full and Training member of the Portuguese Association of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Portugal), another from Emeritus Professor Michael Wang (University of Leicester, United Kingdom), and a third one from Dr. Conceição Almeida (Founder of the Portuguese Association of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytical Psychotherapy, and Vice-President of the Board. Member of the Teaching Committee, Portugal); (3) An Invited Talk from Dr. Ana Vasconcelos (SAMS--Serviços de Assistência Médico-Social do Sindicato dos Bancários de Sul e Ilhas, founding member of the Portuguese Association of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and member of NPA-Neuropshycanalysis Association, Portugal). Thus, we would like to express our gratitude to all our invitees. This volume is composed by the abstracts of the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT 2016), organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.). This conference addresses different categories inside Applied Psychology area and papers fit broadly into one of the named themes and sub-themes. To develop the conference program six main broad-ranging categories had been chosen, which also cover different interest areas: (1) In CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY: Emotions and related psychological processes; Assessment; Psychotherapy and counseling; Addictive behaviors; Eating disorders; Personality disorders; Quality of life and mental health; Communication within relationships; Services of mental health; and Psychopathology. (2) In EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY: Language and cognitive processes; School environment and childhood disorders; Parenting and parenting related processes; Learning and technology; Psychology in schools; Intelligence and creativity; Motivation in classroom; Perspectives on teaching; Assessment and evaluation; and Individual differences in learning. (3) In SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: Cross-cultural dimensions of mental disorders; Employment issues and training; Organizational psychology; Psychology in politics and international issues; Social factors in adolescence and its development; Social anxiety and self-esteem; Immigration and social policy; Self-efficacy and identity development; Parenting and social support; and Addiction and stigmatization. (4) In LEGAL PSYCHOLOGY: Violence and trauma; Mass-media and aggression; Intra-familial violence; Juvenile delinquency; Aggressive behavior in childhood; Internet offending; Working with crime perpetrators; Forensic psychology; Violent risk assessment; and Law enforcement and stress. (5) In COGNITIVE AND EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: Perception, memory and attention; Decision making and problem-solving; Concept formation, reasoning and judgment; Language processing; Learning skills and education; Cognitive Neuroscience; Computer analogies and information processing (Artificial Intelligence and computer simulations); Social and cultural factors in the cognitive approach; Experimental methods, research and statistics; and Biopsychology. (6) In PSYCHOANALYSIS AND PSYCHOANALYTICAL PSYCHOTHERAPY: Psychoanalysis and psychology; The unconscious; The Oedipus complex; Psychoanalysis of children; Pathological mourning; Addictive personalities; Borderline organizations; Narcissistic personalities; Anxiety and phobias; Psychosis; Neuropsychoanalysis. The proceedings contain the results of the research and developments conducted by authors who focused on what they are passionate about: to promote growth in research methods intimately related to Psychology and its applications. It includes an extensive variety of contributors and presenters by sharing their different personal, academic and cultural experiences. Authors will be invited to publish extended contributions for a book to be published by inScience Press. We would like to express thanks to all the authors and participants, the members of the academic scientific committee, partners and, of course, to the organizing and administration team for making and putting this conference together. (Individual papers contain references.) [Abstract modified to meet ERIC guidelines.]

One of the most significant factors, determining effectiveness of any organization is an optimal management of the system, which is perceived as a social organization. Otherwise strategy errors in management potentially undermine the whole system of the organization. Assuming that management based on authoritarian relations may illusionary create an image of swift and effective management however, as it has been proved by definite studies, it actually stiffens the management however as it has been proved by definite studies, it actually stiffens the organization and drives it towards management and functional crisis (Staehle, 1994). On the other hand, management based on humanistic-democratic relations liberates human resources, fosters social self-expression in an individual and a group, awakens creative and inner motivated potential of an individual. Management of educational institutions, being in between management and education/pedagogy, is a specific for scientific research. It should be noted, that a definite input in research work on management of educational institutions on the background of definite organizations does exist. In spite of some positive input in the research on educational management (e.g. Lenz, 1991, Merkys, 2000; Wissinger, 1996; Hopkins, 1998; Zelvys, 1994, 1999) it has to be stated that one sphere of such research management diagnostics (including educational management diagnostics as well) has been neglected. Research problem: The following questions are the background of the research problem--Which theory, tradition should be prioritized in a concrete research of educational management? Which theory is optimal from the standpoint of educational management practice that helps to emancipate the management as a sphere of social practice? IS it possible to find the optimal theoretical priority by empirical way, using non-standardized questioning? Which management theory that is proven in the other cultural environment could be applied without limits in Lithuania? Aim: To test triangulation procedures of the methods and to assess explorative-heuristic effectiveness of these methods in the conditions of a definite diagnostics in educational management research. The background of the research, which is presented in a paper, illustrates one methodological standpoint point. While studying social attitudes and social behaviour of people (here of school heads) the deeper cognition is possible when there are attempts to combine the quantitative and qualitative methods. (Contains 4 tables.) [Abstract modified to meet ERIC guidelines.]

In the course of engaging with a Mathematics and Science Partnership (MSP) project, we planned a yearlong Leadership Academy that fit under the "train the trainers" model for professional development. Midway through, teacher leaders rejected a traditional conception of leadership based on expertise, individualism, and the transmission of knowledge. This proved to be a moment of critical mass wherein the project was democratically reinvented around a model of shared leadership where teacher leaders were positioned as ambassadors of a culture of inquiry. We were able to document three catalysts for this shift as well as the conditions that existed such that these catalysts could prove effective at producing change. We present here our findings on what happens when we allow teachers to take power and experience agency in a teacher leadership development program. [For the complete proceedings, see ED583989.]

Arguably the biggest "buzz word" of the current year has been "learning or knowledge object". To understand the learning object and why it should be such a highly desirable commodity, it is necessary to unpack not only this concept but more importantly revisit some contributing concepts and constructs (more buzz words) that support the building of truly pedagogically informed reusable objects (Boyle & Cook 2001). The words and relationships explored in this paper are: learning or knowledge objects--the desirable construct in today's E-learning environment; ontologies and ways of expressing them through topic maps as they allow users to define and describe the components of an entity; metadata and XML used to create categorize, label and communicate the value of these objects; and hermeneutics and phenomenology as they refer to the interpretation of experience and events and evaluation of learning events. (Contains 23 references.) (Author)

A study examined how the discourse of standards and ethics plays out in texts used in core human resource development (HRD) graduate courses. Its overarching purpose was to expand the continuing discussion of ethics through critical hermeneutic analyses of key literature within HRD. It used the recently developed document of the Academy of HRD, Standards on Ethics and Integrity, as a template. A purposeful sample of texts used in core graduate level courses at universities offering a graduate degree in HRD or a closely related field were analyzed. Research examined complexities involving the core, structure, and context of how academy standards are represented. These representations were hermeneutic because of the inseparability of understanding and interpretation. The most remarkable finding was the absence of discussions on ethics, values, and integrity except in the area of research processes and treatment of human subjects. (Contains 21 references.) (YLB)

The experiences of six vocational education teachers from several high schools in Chesapeake County, Maryland, who "lived under" the educational reforms of the past 2 decades were examined in a phenomenological study. The study, which used the approach designed by Van Manen in "Researching Lived Experience," included consideration of the researcher's personal experience; the experiential descriptions of others; open-ended and repeated conversations with teachers to generate themes and key words or phrases that open up the phenomenon; etymological tracings of words to reveal more about the phenomenon; and experiential descriptions found in literate and art to understand the phenomenon more fully. The teacher's experience under school reform was determined to be similar to the following stages of grief experienced by dying patients: (1) denial and isolation; (2) anger; (3) bargaining; (4) depression; and (5) acceptance. The stories collected during the study provided evidence that sharing their stories of "life under reform" helps vocational teachers feel less alone, enables them to begin imagining and talking about a better future under reform, and allows them to put their pain to good use by understanding how it has transformed them. The importance of school reform and teachers finding ways to draw strength from one another was emphasized. (Contains 24 references.) (MN)

Using the theoretical framework of hermeneutics and guided by the conceptual framework of Developmentally and Culturally Appropriate Practice, two studies examined how preschool teachers perceive young children's gender differences in relation to the pedagogical considerations. Participants in Study 1 were 121 early childhood educators attending workshops on gender differences in the classroom. The teachers produced 113 different words to describe preschool boys and 98 to describe preschool girls. A wider range of behaviors were described for boys than for girls and there was a higher level of agreement on the three most common descriptors for boys (active, loud, aggressive) than for girls (quiet, talkative, sensitive). Teachers perceived boys to have more of the qualities of constructivist learners than girls, and more initiative and capacity for independent learning. Study 2 examined the meaning attached to these descriptors by others. Thirty-one early childhood practitioners completed surveys regarding the positive/negative nature of each descriptor and perceptions of children described with the most common descriptors for boys or for girls. The findings suggest that the female teachers tend to be less appreciative of boys' ways of playing, and constructing and using knowledge than those of girls. While many constructivist learner qualities are identified more often for boys than girls, overall the teachers' perception of the boys' group was as less "teachable" and "easy to work with" than the girls' group. (Contains 45 references.) (Author/KB)

Drawing on writings by recent post-modernist thinkers and semioticians, this paper focuses on a combination of hermeneutic and semiotic viewpoints and applies them to defining the nature of interpretation in an educational setting (e.g., text interpretation), the interpreter, and the essence of the act of comprehension and interpretation. The main examples discussed come from English as a foreign language and blend aspects of Dewey's educational thinking with the hermeneutic approach. (Contains 15 references.) (CNP)

It seems as though the publication of "The Oxford handbook of philosophy of education" (Siegel, 2009) had evoked considerable discourse in the fields of philosophy and philosophy of education. The tensions and inconsistencies that were exposed between and within these fields prompted the question about the role of philosophy of education in the "practice" of education and teacher education. With a contingent exploration using hermeneutic phenomenology I have attempted to initiate a tentative resolution to this challenge--one that we may trust enough to base our actions upon. It reveals a conceptualisation of education and subsequently teacher education, which holistically encapsulates its quality imperative and its associated concerns like social justice and accountability. [For the complete Volume 13, Number 1 proceedings, see ED568595.]