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In the twilight of and right after World War II millions of Germans were expelled from areas initially called the Recovered Territories, and later – the Western and Northern Lands in Poland. This article focuses on the property left behind by Germans. It investigates the experiences of the Poles who directly and actively took part in the practices of appropriation of German objects. The analysis is based on memoirs submitted to the contest for diaries by settlers in the Recovered Territories that was organised by the Western Institute in Poznań in December 1956. Through the analysis of the testimonies, this paper aims to explore the constellation of meanings attributed to taking over of German property by actors who directly participated in those practices, and the meanings according to which looting functioned in daily experience after the war. It argues that the internal resistance against loot is weaker than against ordinary theft because the objects are taken out of the context of the social relations in which they functioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diary methods have long been used as pedagogic tools in learning, and as part of reflective practice in teacher education, but less often as data collection instruments in educational research. This is in part due to implementation challenges emerging from the time and literacy demands they place on participants. To illustrate the use of diary methods in educational research, we juxtapose two diary studies to reflect on how to use diaries as data collection tools against a backdrop of researcher positionality. In the first example, the teacher-researcher embedded diaries in a curriculum to collect data from language learners in Japan. While learner engagement with the diaries was high, the prescriptive approach led students to tell 'the teacher what they wanted to read'. In the second example, the researcher used the diaries to collect data on out-of-class learning among language students in Germany. Engagement with the diaries was initially low but improved substantially after daily reminders were sent via mobile phone. Nonetheless, results revealed a possible self-selection bias. Both examples highlight the value in making adaptations to diary methods as the research context necessitates, so that researchers can take into account issues that might distort or produce misleading data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the diary shares common qualities with other life writing texts, I consider it as a particular kind of memory-text and witness. I therefore propose to study the way in which it mediates memory for readers and how it is later mediated to reach a wider audience. In analyzing Hélène Berr's Journal, I explore materiality and immediacy and show how the reader can experience the mediated memory of the diarist through these elements. I further explore how mediators shape, digitize, and distribute the diary in a way that emphasizes the materiality of the original and attempts to preserve authenticity.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay comprises multiple sets of dialogues between us as colleagues and friends as we revisit the question of the status of English as a global language. Through the metaphor 'multiple classrooms of life', we share reflections and narratives arising out of our experiences with English that are embedded in our professional work, scholarship, pedagogy and creative interests. Our discussion encompasses a range of artefacts, including excerpts from our diaries, poems, vignettes, visuals, letters, songs and anecdotes. This amalgam of materials represents our personal engagement with English, as distinct from treating the spread of English simply as a metanarrative played out at a remove from personal experience. We reconstruct 'sparkle moments' arising from personal encounters and social interactions that have caused us to reflect on the role of English in our lives. We thus focus on ideology as personally felt and lived from within and through inter-personal interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks back on the use of reflective diaries as an assessment tool in a feminist geography module over several years. It considers the ways in which reflection on practice and the valuing of the everyday could be seen as a specifically feminist pedagogic practice. It considers the alignment of module content with assessment format. The paper includes discussion of extended examples of student reflective writing and considers the practical and ethical drawbacks of using subjective modes of assessment with undergraduate geographers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective – To describe and analyse communication following the use of an illness diary method in consultations with patients suffering from longstanding illness without clinical findings. Design – Action research in own practice with qualitative formative evaluation of material provided by the use of the diary method. Analysis followed a procedure modified from phenomenologically-based methodology. Setting – The practice of the main author. Subjects – 36 consultations with 16 patients where the illness diary method was applied. Result – Communication following illness diary utilisation could be summarised as: 1) illness diaries as medical documentation, 2) making access to the insight of the patient, 3) exploring internal dialogues and locked voices, and 4) adding meaning to a spoken message through writing (creative distance). By changing the frames of conversation through illness diary utilisation towards one or more of these four levels of communication, the patient may become a more equal consultation partner. Conclusion – Illness diaries can provide clinically relevant information and may emphasise the patient's input and significance in medical dialogues on longstanding symptoms without clinical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]