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Times of (post) health crisis, global unrest, and political turmoil, a reliance on conventional methods, which potentially lack radical imagination and future orientation, experimentation, and open-endedness, might not be enough. Furthermore, within the discourses of conventional qualitative inquiry, methodological subjects are often seen as overly pre-determined, singular, and static. In this paper, we approach the conceptual and practical challenges of imagining and creating speculative methodological subjects by asking, how might speculative research, including processes of radical imagination and scenario building, shape qualitative scholars' relationships to the formation of methodological subjects and their politics. By sharing scenario-building examples and experimenting with speculative tasks, we explore methodological possibilities for 'subjects' and their entanglement with the lives of qualitative researchers. While collectively thinking about the methodological subject, we encountered relational, non-stable subjects that crossed bodies, sounds, affects and time-spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To examine how the sterilization techniques affect the structure, composition and diversity of gut bacterial communities, we used antibiotics and eggs disinfection approaches to generate aposymbiotic and axenic flies, respectively. Fruit flies often bear complex communities which are greatly reduced by such treatments. Here, we examine the effect of these procedures on the structure of the remaining bacterial communities of Bactrocera dorsalis. The antibiotics (Norfloxacin and Ceftazedime) were administered to 1 day old adult flies through sugar meal for seven days, and eggs were surface sterilized and dechorionated to produce axenic lines. The flies were starved from protein before they were offered full diets for their maintenance. Antibiotic treatments and eggs disinfection resulted in significant reduction of the vast majority of gut bacteria, especially Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. However, Actinobacteria, Cyanobacteria and Acidobacteria which were in minority in symbiotic flies increased in size after treatments. These results suggest that alterations of gut bacteria through the sterilization techniques used here are suitable for generating aposymbiotic and axenic flies for functional study of gut bacteria in fruit fly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The developing literature on strategic narratives has analysed their attempted use by great powers, particularly China, to influence less materially powerful states. While there has been some consideration of how less materially powerful states can exercise their agency to, in response, construct narratives about their relationship to Chinese power, there has been far less analysis of less materially powerful states that have created and deployed their own strategic narratives. In this article we analyse the Blue Pacific narrative adopted and deployed, via rhetorical action, by Pacific Island countries to seek to influence their more materially powerful partners. We analyse the discourse and policies of partner states and argue that they have accepted, and at times, been entrapped, by that rhetorical action. However, we also find that partner states have appropriated the Blue Pacific narrative in their own attempts to influence Pacific Island countries. Nevertheless, we conclude by arguing that the Blue Pacific narrative demonstrates how less materially powerful states can leverage geopolitical competition and use rhetorical action so that their strategic narratives can influence more materially powerful partners to advance their interests and priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We write as a collaborative mode of embodied writing that moves, tags, and re-sites us elsewhere, that mis/dis/aligns self-other, and permeates various stable body(boundaries). We write as a group of (un)bounded (virtual) bodies who aim to collectively create and tag arguments. We write as a collective body where materialities, ideas, discussions and writing become in the doing. Different relational collective practices shared here disturb, disperse, question, undo and undermine sole authorship and consider how tags work and what tags might produce when these objects/things shape our academic lives. While engaged in tagging we also considered how tags tug, how tags shape the ways we think, feel and experience our academic lives. How are we produced by tags? What do tags produce (in/on) us and in our embodied lives? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-Echo-Planar Diffusion Weighed Magnetic Resonance Imaging (non-EPI DW MRI) plays a role in the planning of cholesteatoma surgery. To outline the usage of Non-EPI DW MRI in cholesteatoma diagnostics and to determine its accuracy, using otosurgery diagnostics as reference standard. A retrospective descriptive study. All subjects operated, with suspicion of cholesteatoma as indication, that had a preceding examination with non-EPI DW MRI, between October 2010 and March 2019. Calculating sensitivity, specificity, predicative values, and likelihood ratios, using non-EPI DW MRI as index test and diagnosis from otosurgery as reference standard. Fifty-two subject episodes were included. Non-EPI DW MRI had a sensitivity of 0.50, specificity of 0.75, positive and negative predictive values of 0.74 and 0.52 and, positive and negative likelihood ratios of 2.0 and 0.67 respectively. There is a clear annual trend with increased numbers of executed examinations during the study period. The diagnostic accuracy of non-EPI DW MRI does not reach acceptable levels in the existing everyday routine practice conditions. The accuracy of the examination increases when interpreted by an experienced radiologist and when using the definition of cholesteatoma recommended by EAONO/JOS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

But it may be the one which actually "scratches the itch" of the deeper spiritual realities of disillusionment, despair, doubt, and disappointment underlying the present crisis for Western Christian institutionalized culture of worship. 22 Anthony Ruff, OSB, "The Church is Shrinking: The Liturgy Helps Us Deal with That", I Worship i 94 (2020): 4-10. 23 Ruff, 8. 24 For a brilliant, long overdue, commonsense, and detailed critique of the popular idea that ritual worship (i.e., liturgy) is a play, see Christina M. Gschwandtner, "Is Liturgy Ludic? In North America, the simple basic fact that all Christian worship and theologizing about it takes place on generally unceded/stolen Indigenous land goes largely unnoticed and unmentioned in worship. Pastoral observations from a broad denominational spectrum also signal important shifts in how those who worship in and affiliate with various Christian traditions understand their participation and sense of belonging. [Extracted from the article]

Strategic links between Japan and Europe during the Cold War were limited. During this period the IISS helped bridge the gap between the two, exposing its membership base to the international affairs of Asia and Japan and providing Japanses scholars, strategists and diplomats with a platform from which to amplify their voices in the West. Analyses by these experts often appeared in IISS publications, but the Institute also gained key insights through its well-established conferences and lecture series. These initiatives illuminated Japanese strategic thinking and perspectives on contemporary critical issues in Japan's and Asia's foreign, security and defence policy. This Adelphi book, through its collection of earlier analysis, helps the reader to understand the evolution of Japanese strategic thought from the 1960s until today, and shines a light on the continuities and changes in this thinking. New, original analysis of the material seeks to identify areas where such thinking was prescient and remains relevant to the contemporary strategic environment, and other areas where predictions failed or assumptions were proved wrong. These new essays were also informed by interviews of Japanese senior scholars and diplomats who spent time with the IISS. This book seeks to frame, educate and guide strategic thinking on the most pressing issues of today, both in and outside Japan and Asia, and will be of great interest to analysts, practitioners and students of international affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study investigates how first-generation undergraduate students of Color at a historically white institution in the U.S. make sense and process the university's mission, especially in relation to the theoretical frameworks of intersectionality and post-subjectivity. U.S. universities are often structured on market-driven ideologies. They do not necessarily deeply take into account the experiences of their first-generation students of Color to the extent that could be observed in the institution's mission and goals. In this paper, we interacted with data while thinking with theory, philosophy, and concept as a method. Through these interactions, we gained insights about the lived experiences of first-generation undergraduate students of Color and how they perceive themselves to either be represented or not, within their institution's mission. Studies like this are needed because an institution's mission communicates central philosophies to stakeholders, and a clear mission statement is warranted to ensure that first-generation students of Color feel a sense of belongingness and affinity to their campuses. We also offer implications for future research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores educational trade fairs as part of the contemporary networked governance of public sector education. The focus is on the forms and functions of network governance in educational trade fairs and how different powers of private and public networking actors and ideas are played out, including the wider implications for education. Based on an event ethnographic case study of a Nordic educational technology fair, the study identifies three significant forms of how network governance powers are constituted: through consensual culture, blurred public-private actor roles, and market individualised addresses. Together this network governance has de-politicising effects that mask power imbalances and evoke democratic challenges for public sector education. The paper discusses how diffused market networking powers shape a national public education sector, and the forms of resistance and responsibilities within such governance. The merits of in-depth process-based event ethnography, which includes social media data, are raised and problematised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess and compare the risk of unintended pregnancy in NOMAC-E2 users with levonorgestrel-containing COC (COCLNG) users in clinical practice. In this observational study, new users1 of NOMAC-E2 and COCLNG were recruited in Europe, Australia, and Latin America and followed for up to 2 years. Unintended pregnancy was expressed by the Pearl Index (contraceptive failures per 100 women-years [WY]), crude hazard ratios (HRcrude) and adjusted hazard ratios (HRadj). Overall, 44,559 and 46,754 users were recruited to the NOMAC-E2 and COCLNG user cohorts, respectively. There were 64 unintended pregnancies in NOMAC-E2 users (0.15 per 100 WY; 95% CI, 0.11–0.19) and 200 in COCLNG users (0.41 per 100 WY; 95% CI, 0.35–0.47). The unintended pregnancy risk was statistically significantly lower in the NOMAC-E2 cohort (p<.0001) compared to the COCLNG user cohort. The HRadj of NOMAC-E2 vs COCLNG was 0.45 (95% CI, 0.34–0.60; adjusted for age, body mass index, gravidity, COC user status, education level). NOMAC-E2 demonstrated superior contraceptive effectiveness compared to COCLNG, likely due to the comparatively short hormone-free interval and possibly reinforced by the long half-life of NOMAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess and compare the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and arterial thromboembolism (ATE) in NOMAC-E2 users with levonorgestrel-containing combined oral contraceptive (COCLNG) users. This large, prospective, observational active surveillance study used a non-inferiority design. New users of NOMAC-E2 and COCLNG were recruited in 12 countries in Australia, Europe, and Latin America. Women were followed up directly and self-reported outcomes of interest were validated via treating physicians. The main outcome of interest was VTE, specifically deep venous thrombosis of the lower extremities (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE). Secondary outcomes included all VTE and ATE. Data on confounders were captured and independent blinded adjudication assessed the classification of events. Incidence rates, crude (HRcrude), and adjusted (HRadj) hazard ratios were calculated. A total of 101,498 women (49,598 NOMAC-E2 users and 51,900 COCLNG users) were enrolled and followed for up to 2 years (144,901 WY of observation). NOMAC-E2 users had a higher mean age (31.0 ± 8.63 years) than COCLNG users (29.3 ± 8.53 years) but other baseline characteristics were similar between the cohorts. The main analysis comparing the risk of DVT of the lower extremities and PE in NOMAC-E2 users versus COCLNG users yielded an HRadj of 0.59 (95% CI, 0.25–1.35) (adjusted for age, BMI, family history of VTE, and current duration of use). The risk of all VTE and ATE was not higher in NOMAC-E2 users compared with COCLNG users. NOMAC-E2 use was not associated with a higher risk of VTE or ATE compared with COCLNG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper might not describe spatial writing or qualitative inquiry. This paper might not express or represent writing in well-defined space by clearly identified scholars or authors. This paper might not write and presented images might not speak. Instead, possibilities in this paper might be stimulated through the acts of reading, writing, thinking, and doing. Writescapes, as lived and discussed in this paper, have potential to create and produce other writings, becoming thinkings, and conceptual experimenting in relation to qualitative inquiry even at the times of continuously changing political apparatuses. As such writescapes produce often in very unexpected ways through their relationality and connectedness and they bring together writers, texts, spaces, and processes. In this article, we interact with spatialized texts and relational processes in very intimate ways acknowledging our scholarly and socio-political contexts but at the same time working against normative scholarship and linear scholarly thinking and writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the visibility of different languages within the landscapes of two capital cities, Suva (Fiji) and Port Vila (Vanuatu), as an exploration of symbolic constructions of national identity. Data from digital photographs is analysed from four different angles: the languages that appear to be used to serve and sell to the multilingual public of each city; the languages that are found on top-down official signage; the presence or absence of the indigenous languages of the land from which independent nations have been created; and the fusions of multiple linguistic resources together as signs of a national linguistic hybridity that is meaningful to all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the processes of the method of empathy-based stories (MEBS) and illustrates the ways in which MEBS facilitates storytelling and narration. In MEBS, the participants narrate stories based on the frames and prompts provided by the researcher, and two different versions of the frame story offer variations in the story elements. This variation enables the researcher to study how the stories change when one element is varied – an idea that imitates traditional experimental research. MEBS is well-suited for examining the informants' perceptions, reasoning, expectations, and values regarding a specific phenomenon or experience. Additionally, MEBS enables researchers to map out a research area, because the stories might provide new and unexpected insights into the topic. In this paper, we present the history of MEBS, outline how to design and implement MEBS research, discuss the advantages and limitations of the method, and conclude by exploring some methodological possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education policy increasingly takes place across borders and sectors, involving a variety of both human and nonhuman actors. This comparative policy paper traces the 'policy mobilities,' 'fast policy' processes and distributed 'policy assemblages' that have led to the introduction of new computer programming practices into schools and curricula in England, Sweden and Australia. Across the three contexts, government advisors and ministers, venture capital firms, think tanks and philanthropic foundations, non-profit organizations and commercial companies alike have promoted computer programming in schools according to a variety of purposes, aspirations, and commitments. This paper maps and traces the evolution of the organizational networks in each country in order to provide a comparative analysis of computing in schools as an exemplar of accelerated, transnationalizing policy mobility. The analysis demonstrates how computing in schools policy has been assembled through considerable effort to create alignments between diverse actors, the production and circulation of material objects, significant cross-border movement of ideas, people and devices, and the creation of strategic partnerships between government centres and commercial vendors. Computing in schools exemplifies how modern education policy and governance is accomplished through sprawling assemblages of actors, events, materials, money and technologies that move across social, governmental and geographical boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being present with clients has been suggested to be a necessary condition for the therapeutic relationship [Geller & Greenberg, 2012. Therapeutic presence: A mindfull approach to effective therapy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. doi:] and therefore for therapeutic effectiveness. In this article we describe the results of a qualitative investigation of how counsellors in training (CITs) describe their experience of being present and the meaning they make of that experience. The findings suggest that starting students down the pathway to becoming a master counsellor involves more than training in basic counselling skills and theories. Our findings add a new dimension to existing counsellor development models and have implications for counsellor training and supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we put the concepts of reset, aprosdoketon and minor gesture to work in the context of organizational narratives. In particular we engage with two iconic characters of the genre of organizational fiction, Don Draper in the context of Mad Men TV series and the copyist, who is the main character of Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville. Through a series of textual and performative writings we explore the possibility of setting and resetting organizational narratives/genre. Moreover, we explore what happens when fictional characters from a TV series and a novel (Bartleby and Don Draper) meet us - three scholars working in an array of different fields (literary, methodology, education and organization studies) and how this meeting and interaction shapes our understandings of work, culture, and organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technology is an expanding area of education policy. There is growing interest, therefore, in how networks of corporate and state policy actors implicit in the formation of (inter)national education technology agendas intersect with local school systems and teachers. In particular, this paper explores the significant policy work that takes place outside schools and classrooms through education trade shows. Based on an in-depth ‘event ethnography’ of one large Scandinavian educational technology show, the paper details how these events function as sites of policy interpretation - ‘sharing’ (or more accurately ‘selling’) global ideas and imperatives to local schools and teachers. These findings highlight the role of trade shows in consolidating policy networks, subsuming public education interests into corporate concerns, and differentiating teacher subjectivities and encouraging teacher entrepreneurship. The paper problematizes the ways in which teacher agency is shaped and controlled by the discursive, material and affective dimensions of such events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global reforming driven by neoliberal ideas is today reshaping educational systems. This study explores how a national policy incentive, aimed at changing teacher education in Sweden, is transformed and realized into educational practice and how pedagogic discourses are operating in and through the primary teachers’ examination practice in Sweden. The aim is also to explore which competencies are legitimized and thus form the knowledge base for primary teachers. The study is conducted through a qualitative and quantitative, theoretically based, analysis of all examination tasks (n = 322) in the primary teacher education at a teacher education department located at one of Sweden’s largest universities. The qualitative software package Nvivo was used for the qualitative analysis and the statistical software SPSS was used for the quantitative analysis. The result shows that most examinations involve the examination of methodological/didactical knowledge related to teachers work in the classroom (out of horizontal knowledge structures) and that students lack opportunities to practice and show analytical skills, with vertical knowledge structures, in their examinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Physical educators may be the responsible people for implementing comprehensive school physical activity programs (CSPAPs) in schools. However, it is unclear whether physical education teacher education (PETE) programs provide the relevant learning opportunities to preservice teachers for CSPAP implementation. The purpose of this study was to understand preservice teachers' perspectives and experiences of CSPAP preparation in their PETE programs.Method: Fourteen PETE students from 6 different universities participated and shared their experiences in PETE programs. Data were collected through a short survey, 1 formal interview, field images, document gathering, and an additional survey to follow up the interview. Descriptive statistics, constant comparison, and analytic induction techniques were used to analyze the data.Results: Participants' familiarity with CSPAPs was related to positive opinions about the role of physical educators in CSPAPs. Three common themes were revealed: (a) introducing CSPAP via courses, (b) the lack of programwide hands-on experiences for CSPAP, and (c) limited preparation for social skills with stakeholders. Participants' perceptions of the role of physical educators as physical activity leaders had been expanded during their training.Conclusion: The participating PETE programs integrated CSPAP components in the existing courses to introduce CSPAP, while there was a lack of sufficient practical opportunities to learn how to implement (aspects of) a CSPAP. Participants felt they were insufficiently prepared to promote and implement expanded physical activity programming beyond physical education classes in schools. The majority of the PETE preservice teachers wanted more practical CSPAP experiences in their programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strangers, Gods, and monsters are all names for the experience of alterity and otherness within and amongst us. We need monsters in our lives. In this paper we use philosophy as a method to explore language, developmental and cultural instabilities, and terrifying (and discursive) monstrosity located within children's literature and childhood contexts. Philosophy as a method serves as an engagement, an ethical relationship with monstrous thoughts, and as an opening to the philosophical thinking of everyday practices of childhood play (i.e., through objects, practices, language, text, and images). Alongside and through cute, creepy and sublime notions of monsters in children's literature children become monsters-monsters become children. We draw from Derrida's notions of hospitality and hostility and Deleuze and Guattari's deterritorialization of minor literature as well as from literature on monsters, monstrosities, and ugliness. We argue that different representations of childhood monstrosity can help educators and other adults to see the 'productive' in childhood otherness, to consider the always present 'childhood undecidable' (simultaneous presence of cute and creepy) and the generative in infinitely unknown and unrecognizable childhood objects and discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/objective: Signals from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) and pre-clinical and human pancreata obtained from organ donors have suggested that incretin-based therapies used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus, such as glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, may increase the risk of acute pancreatitis (AP) and pancreatic cancer (PC). However, data from observational studies and randomized trials have been conflicting. We conducted a literature review to identify and summarize all observational data published assessing the pancreatic safety of incretins. Methods: Searches were conducted in MEDLINE via PubMed and Embase using the key terms for the time period of 1 January 2005, to 12 February 2014. A total of 180 articles were screened in abstract form and 49 were subsequently reviewed in full text for inclusion. Data from 12 articles are included in this report. Findings: Data from the FDA AERS database suggest increased risk of AP and PC with GLP-1 receptor agonist and DPP-4 inhibitor use. These findings are not supported by population-based observational studies for either AP or PC; however, studies assessing the relationship between PC and incretin-based therapies are limited. Conclusions: Current evidence is conflicting and inadequate to conclude whether use of incretin-based therapies increases the risk of AP and PC. Further studies, with the ability to provide long term follow-up, are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

System-based and collaborative teacher inquiry has unexplored potential that can impact educational policy in numerous ways. This impact can be increased when teacher inquiry builds momentum from classrooms and teaching practices and simultaneously addresses district, state, and national discourses and networks. In this conceptual paper, I encourage scholars and practitioners to consider ways to methodologically, theoretically, and collectively strengthen teacher research and inquiry to increase its impact on policy. I propose a methodological framework for policy-oriented teacher inquiry that highlights multilayered research approaches and collaborative inquiry. I situate my arguments and the proposed framework in the context of qualitative research and Marx’s dialectic method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Texts and articles that put epistemological theories and methodologies to work in the context of qualitative research can stimulate scholarship in various ways such as through methodological innovations, transferability of theories and methods, interdisciplinarity, and transformative reflections across traditions and frameworks. Such methodological practices are particularly of use for educational researchers concerned with thinking about practices of pedagogy and curriculum in new ways. However, such manuscripts are sometimes hard to find and can easily become sedimented by layers of discipline-specific findings and insights. It is our intention to call for authors to put their methodologies to work and make their methodological insights more fore-grounded and accessible to audiences and readers with an interest in such writings. Furthermore, we illustrate some possible strategies for those interested in developing such pieces while at the same time troubling the notions of essentialism and directionality that can accompany such strategies and pedagogical efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article draws from ethnographic data produced inside mathematics teacher education in Sweden. It explores and makes visible the ongoing process of education during workshops in information and communication technology (ICT) laboratory contexts in which student teachers were working with spreadsheet applications on the computer. The main finding is that, contrary to the intentions to renew and revitalise education, ICT in use seemed to operate as a relay in the reproduction of traditional ways of teaching and learning. However, the investigation is not one of the failures of education to make use of ICT but one that tries to distance itself from the traditional enthusiastic rhetoric, with the ambition to contribute to a more realistic discussion. Bernstein's concept of pedagogical discourse has been used. One education setting has been studied in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open-ended problem solving is a central skill in engineering practice; consequently, it is imperative for engineering students to develop expertise in solving these types of problems. The complexity of open-ended problems requires a unique set of skills. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the approaches used by engineering students when solving an open-ended engineering problem. A think-aloud method was used to collect data about the problem-solving approaches of eight materials engineering students. Through the use of script analysis three approaches to solving the problem were identified, which were consistent with the Reflective Judgment Model of epistemic development. Students who used a linear, systematic approach were most successful at solving the problem. Less successful students were overwhelmed by its open-endedness and/or became fixated on a single aspect of the problem. These results point to a need to develop open-ended problem-solving skills throughout the engineering curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two related ethnographic research projects on mathematics teacher education in Sweden are presented in this paper. They represent a response to recent policy developments that reaffirm the value of authoritative subject studies content as the central and most important component in the professional knowledge base of would-be teachers and concomitant increases in the amount of subject studies in teacher education. These policy changes, in Sweden at least, lack scientific research support and the article argues that these policies need to be seriously rethought, as the increased emphasis on subject content may undermine the development of key professional skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates teachers' attitudes to and beliefs about using ICT in education and proposes a model of how different variables are related to teachers' use of ICT in classrooms. The model suggests that positive attitudes related specifically to ICT as a useful tool for teaching and learning and a strong sense of self-efficacy in using computers in education seem to influence the use of ICT the most. It is also suggested that positive attitudes to ICT generally do not seem to contribute very much to teachers' use of ICT in classrooms. This is a surprising finding. The distinction between the importance of specific and general attitudes to ICT use and the emphasis on self-efficacy contributes to contemporary research. Self-efficacy and attitudes are suggested to be mutually related to ICT use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws from data produced during subject theory lectures and in conversional interviews with students from an ongoing ethnographic study of mathematics teacher education at a Swedish University. Using Bernsteins’ language of description of the pedagogic device the article describes how the aims of teacher education to re-contextualise mathematical education towards greater student subject knowledge is thwarted by a strongly classified and framed practice that obstructs student teachers from developing a vertical knowledge structure in mathematics due to performative priorities. The mathematical knowledge to which students are subjected takes more the form of a horizontal discourse and this is problematic for their knowledge development. A horizontal discourse reduces student access to important forms of knowledge by which they can challenge tradition and consciously change their practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The development of participant driven methodologies, especially those involving research with teenagers about potentially stigmatizing and sensitive topics, can benefit from methodological reflections on participants' agency and disclosure in many ways. Not only will these reflections provide important insights about systems of power operating during data collection process, but they also will assist researchers in making stronger claims about participants' speaking positions, knowledge production, representativeness of participants' experiences, and trustworthiness of research findings. From a constructionist perspective, our purpose is twofold: 1) to develop a literature-based framework and methodological foci on how to analyze agency and disclosure in qualitative research projects, and 2) to share our methodological reflections of applying the framework to the context of two different qualitative data collection methods (experience sampling method and focus groups). We conclude that the participants' different forms of agency and self-disclosure can be useful indicators of active engagement and participant driven knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore some challenges and promises when the epistemological diversity embedded in qualitative research traditions is introduced to research communities with one dominant research paradigm, such as engineering education. Literature is used from other fields and empirical data are used from engineering education, including the practices of the European Journal of Engineering Education and the Journal of Engineering Education, with the expectation that the ideas that are presented are relevant to a broad range of education disciplines. A number of challenges are identified as the epistemological diversity of qualitative research is introduced to the primarily positivist field of engineering education. Ultimately, embracing epistemological diversity holds the promise of researchers being able to ask: 'What questions and answers become possible from these newly created positions and what can be learned from these alternative approaches?'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It can be argued that the environmental behaviors of conservation and natural resources professionals' may well serve as exemplars for the general public to emulate. Understanding the experiences and influences that shape the behaviors of individuals with contextual and empirical knowledge about desirable and beneficial conservation practices can help education managers when designing programs that target pro-environmental behaviors. This grounded theory study examined the discourses that shape pro-environmental behaviors among six graduate students pursuing degrees in conservation-related fields. Together, biophysical context, higher education, and personal costs were the main influences shaping the discourses that participants used to describe their pro-environmental behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'leadership' metaphorically embodies a gendered hierarchy of labour. In this study women deans' values were found to be incongruent with the masculine discourse creating inner conflicts and alternative discourses. Data collected from 10 women deans from both male-dominated and female-dominated colleges were used to deconstruct leadership using a feminist poststructuralist perspective. Unlike a critical perspective, poststructuralism questions hierarchical relationships between knowledge and power, thus enabling us to understand leadership in differently shaded terms. The data portrays the multidimensional qualities of power and how women use power consciously and unconsciously to move within academic discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this essay is to simultaneously work for and against democracy, 'Othering' and commonality, from the perspective of a teacher and qualitative methodologist working in a higher education setting. I describe examples of conceptual frameworks and my own pedagogical practices that are shaped by a multidimensional, incomplete, and fragmented vision of democracy. Furthermore, I discuss both the possibilities and impossibilities of learning and teaching within the context of changing, but specific historical and material pedagogical conditions. Specifically, I focus on how learners' rights, responsibilities, and various voices and the partially negotiated curriculum require the learning community to (re)consider the 'Other' - other learners, pedagogies, and ideologies, as well as other contexts and contents of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, framed by social constructionism, retrospectively examines how faculty mentoring influenced the transformations of 10 female graduate students’ relational selves and their professional identities as qualitative researchers and scholars. Participants reported that effective mentorships often resulted in collaboration on research projects, as well as shared decision‐ and meaning‐making. Effective mentoring also led to the development of the students’ research skills while simultaneously constructing their professional and academic selves. These situated mentorships were shaped by the diverse values, expectations, and hopes that the participants associated with mentoring. Additionally, the local practices, power structures, and relationships at the department or university level influenced, and possibly discouraged, active communication and ongoing dialogue regarding the individuals’ experience of mentoring. Ultimately, participants described how their experiences of mentoring welcomed them into the scholarly community and ensured their professional competence as researchers and academics, which, in turn, transformed the students’ broader sense of self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its original inception in the 1960s grounded theory has been widely used by many qualitative researchers. However, recently epistemologically different versions of grounded theory have been presented and this epistemological diversity among grounded theorists and the erosion of the method will be the major focus of this paper. The first section explores the question of what ‘erosion’ of grounded theory means for the practice of qualitative research and the epistemological assumptions embedded in different uses of grounded theory are discussed. Furthermore, three ways to use qualitative methods are conceptualized: epistemological, strategic and intuitive. Additionally, the first section describes the erosion that occurs when research methods are transferred from one epistemology to another. The second part of the paper raises the questions as to whether it is possible to transfer methods from one epistemological realm and theoretical stance to another one to do qualitative research situated therein and how the erosion of a method influences qualitative research. To elucidate these questions, examples will be drawn from grounded theory to illuminate the different uses of methods. Last, the authors ask why such a transfer would be attempted altogether. In this final part of the paper they discuss how grounded theory is used as a label, believing that much of the current popularization of grounded theory is based on power, privilege and authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clinical phenomenon described as the metabolic syndrome has received considerable attention both in the recent medical literature and popular press. Many of the sequelae of events attributable to newer atypical antipsychotics are consistent with the metabolic syndrome definition. This article describes and summarizes the information available on metabolic syndrome in the mental illness disease area and the proposed mechanisms for the increased prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a construction of academic work ethic among 16 gifted Finnish scientists. It highlights theoretical assumptions and practical implications of values and beliefs in the context of scientific work. Following the work of Kolhberg (1969, 1984) and Gilligan (1982), we build our theoretical pre-understandings on the ethics of justice and care. However, these orientations are insufficient to explain all the beliefs and values associated with academic work. Various forms and levels of negotiations help us to construct a new structural illustration of scientists' moral orientations, which include an additional, previously less recognized ethical component—the ethic of empowerment. Those negotiations between different data sets, existing theoretical frameworks and researchers' differing epistemological assumptions characterize our research process and guide the creation of an ethic of empowerment, which describes scientists' beliefs and values established and practiced by individual and independent academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualitative data can allow us to see multiple meanings and realities of human experiences. Sometimes the variations of realities makes interpretation challenging. This article provides examples of how metaphors, related to the life history context, "extend horizons of insight and create new possibilities" (Morgan, 1997, p. 351) to view the participants, the researcher, and the story of research as well as to add to the knowledge about Finnish scientists' creative processes. Metaphors connect different layers of text (academic story (normal font), personal story (bold font), and the meta-story) and tease out a story of research with multiple faces, changing stages, views, and alternative interpretations. I do not look for conclusions or a single definition of creativity. Rather, I ask questions and trouble the "category of creativity", addressing methodological issues of educational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on Sternberg's model of giftedness. Synthesis of wisdom, intelligence, and creativity in novel ways; Utilization of epistemologically diverse concepts.