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In order to achieve success, there is little doubt that sport coaches must overcome a plethora of challenges beyond simply designing and implementing effective training schedules and competition strategies. The United States high school interscholastic sports environment is no different. The purpose of this short essay is to provide a personal coaching narrative from a United States high school boys and girls cross country coach as he discusses the challenges confronted in overcoming administrative obstacles to successfully prepare his student-athletes for competition. In particular, this paper chronicles how the coach successfully negotiated the political landscape of having his team being permitted to be dismissed from school in adequate time to arrive at away weekday cross country meets in order to adequately warm-up and prepare for competition. Oftentimes, these coaching stories exist, but are rarely recorded. It is the hope of the author that other coaches in similar situations may glean ideas on how to best handle these situations within their their own programs. This essay may be of interest to all coaches, but high school coaches in particular, as many of whom may be able to relate to the administrative issues that have to be negotiated for a sport program to thrive. Moreover, further commentary and discussion on this topic is invited.

Online and distance learning is becoming increasingly common. Some would say it has quickly become the preferred or "new normal" mode of study throughout the world. However, surprisingly little is known about what actually happens to first year distance students once they have enrolled in tertiary institutions; what motivates them and how they actually experience the transition to formal study by distance. This gap in the literature presents a challenge for distance education providers who, worldwide, are coming under increasing scrutiny in light of poor retention, progression, and completion rates. Against this backdrop, the purpose of the current study was to gather insights and seek a deeper understanding from first-time distance learners about the nature of their experiences. The study involved a mixed method approach over three phases. This paper focuses on the third phase, which was the major component of the study. The lived experiences of 20 first-time distance learners were gathered, in their own words, using weekly video diaries for data collection. Over 22 hours of video data was transcribed and thematically analysed, from which five themes have been reported. The discussion reflects on the ways that video diaries have provided a unique insight around the complexities of distance learning--as distinct from campus-based learning. The paper concludes that the new digital learning environment made possible by the Internet offers a number of exciting possibilities for distance learners; however, more needs to be done by institutions to change the "lone wolf" preconception of distance education and to avoid the "goulash approach" to supporting distance learners. The lives of first-time distance learners are not black and white; they are complex shades of grey and this need to be taken in to account when designing appropriate learning experiences and supports to ensure student success.

The Australian Government recognizes that the Arts are a critical part of formal school education and it should not be viewed as subordinate or extra. This paper forms part of a wider research project titled "Pre-service teacher attitudes and understandings of Music Education" that started in 2013. The focus of this paper investigates music teaching and learning in a core unit within the Bachelor of Education (Primary) course at Deakin University (Australia). Using questionnaire and interview data gathered in 2014, I employ Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to analyse and codify the data. Three themes are discussed in relation to: Why it is important to include music in the primary school? What was enjoyable and what aspects were challenging in the music workshops? What can students integrate as generalist teachers into their future classrooms? Though the findings focus on "we did the how to teach it", it also highlights some challenges and opportunities for students and staff. Tertiary educators are challenged to raise the capacity and status of music when preparing students to translate the music curriculum into their future classrooms.

This paper draws on an initiative where we experienced being new, radical, and, from some viewpoints, dangerously progressive at Unitec--a Polytechnic/Institute of Technology in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The initiative was driven by a need to improve student experiences of interdisciplinary learning and teaching, and to develop a common semester for students transitioning to a bachelor degree programme, as well as a new suite of interdisciplinary qualifications at postgraduate level. This discussion paper is situated within a self-study paradigm befitting educational contexts, by drawing on the reflective narratives of three participants who held a range of different roles--and, hence, perspectives within the change process. Interpretations and implications are discussed using the lens of the "Inclusive Framework," to illustrate personal, professional, and political elements. Our overall aim is to add to current understandings of change within the higher education sector. However, this is a study of our own experiences and we are not making claims that we are in the possession of "truth", but, rather, we seek to identify aspects that may have relevance in other contexts. We conclude that navigating the next phase of transformative change in our context will involve seeking resolutions to key emerging questions. This includes exploring notions of multiple innovators, creating agile development environments in education and exploring the concept of time as multifaceted.

Problem Statement: This paper focuses on assessment in Irish education, which, despite best intentions, shepherds students through the process to an extent that the individual is prone to undervalue her/his ability to trust in the self as a rational, self-thinking individual. In Ireland's assessment system lies the paradox whereby from childhood the learner develops the habit of depending on "authority" (teacher/examiner) to assess their work, with the expectation that the learner will graduate a self-reliant, achieving person. Purpose: This paper shows how a step away from the traditional form of assessment, beginning at elementary school, can help redress this incongruity. Self- and peer-assessment, in a study with 523 students and their teachers, is shown to be more congruent with developing skills, attitudes and behaviour necessary to help students graduate as self-reliant and self-directed individuals. Methods: These were from the post-positivist/ phenomenological/interpretive family. The study used Action Research from the emancipatory paradigm. Concerned with experience, phenomenological analysis emerged from the interpretive paradigm. Throughout, the quantitative element added a positivist dimension which was a constant aspect, strengthening the research. In accordance with phenomenological philosophy, attention was paid to minority viewpoints, ensuring the study was inclusive and culturally sensitive. Results and Findings: A sociological phenomenon, learning applies to all, and any theory of learning must embrace all learners, in accordance with social justice. During self- and peer-assessment, students developed skills as critical, creative thinkers, effective communicators, collaborative team workers, becoming more personally productive and effective. Their self-awareness and self-reflection increased significantly. All of these aspects are essential components of self-direction. Conclusions and Recommendations: Self- and peer-assessment, a culturally responsive student-teacher partnership approach, serves all ages in any learning context. It is a step toward redressing the balance from dependence on the teacher/examiner to self-direction. Self- and peer-assessment is a sustainable lifelong learning methodology and needs implementing urgently at all levels of the curriculum. This will lead to a reconstruction of boundaries as learners take more control of their assessment and learning. The focus is on "self", learning control and self-direction through the practice of assessing own and peer performance. Ultimately, this creative form of assessment influences, self, community and greater society.

Power has a great importance in organization life, which has intense social relations. People working organizations might play various political games in order to get power or maintain the control they have over other people. The purpose of this study is to elicit political games that academicians play in universities. In this study data were collected through semi structured interview method and analysed with descriptive and content analysis. One of the results is that academicians working in universities challenge to formal authorities from time to time. Especially they react to the authorities when the problem is about their rights and duties... [This paper was presented at the International Conference on New Horizons in Education, INTE 2014.]

By presenting perceptions of Nigerian students enrolled in the online international postgraduate programmes of the University of Liverpool regarding academic integrity, this paper aims to explore Western ideas, such as originality and plagiarism that are extraneous in the students' local cultures. Different historical and cultural circumstances may contribute to the construction of diverse meanings that online students attribute to these concepts. The multidisciplinary study follows phenomenological research design (van Manen, 1997; Creswell, 2007) and combines cultural anthropology (Hall, 1996, Hannerz, 2001; Coleman et al., 2010) as well as online education (Anderson, 2008) in the research. The paper promotes a non-judgmental and culturally aware approach when dealing with issues of academic integrity, intends to find ideological reasons in authentic cultural belief systems that may demonstrate that the common "non-understanding" concerning academic integrity is due to a culture-dependent meaning construction process, which leads to the ideological misinterpretation of these Western concepts.

Communication is an indispensable part of international cooperation and it requires managing different cultures. Being prepared to see and understand different values, trying to understand contrasting views in a consortium, can decrease the potential of misperception which otherwise may act as a real barrier to cooperation. This is why international cooperation necessitates negotiation across cultures. In the case of collaboration, parties come together for a joint work which itself may create common values/understanding, besides the set goals. This is because collaboration requires strong we-feeling and commitment. The purpose of this paper is to focus on cross-cultural communication and collaboration in the area of Open and Distance Learning (ODL), concentrating on the communication processes in project management. Cross-cultural studies point to different communicative behaviours of individuals in multinational work environments e.g. the cultural characteristics affect the preferences towards the use of the media. For the purposes of this paper, the authors make a phenomenological-oriented case study of project management based on interviews with partners of a multilateral Grundtvig (adult learning) project, affiliated with distance education institutions in eight different countries. The authors test their assumptions for constructive and cooperative communication in e-Learning projects; delineating the effects of different cultures as regards the expectations from (1) international projects and (2) communication media.

The youth media movement, which now has a place in countless venues, communities, and scholarly discourses, reflects an evolution of practices pioneered in the 1950s and 1960s as amateur filmmaking increasingly became a reality in American families and schools. In this paper, we examine the films of Robert J. Clark, Jr. as a representative early example of predominant modes of expression within the youth media community. We seek to identify the links between past and present in the continued popularization of youth media practices in schools, after-school learning environments, and camps as an issue of significant importance for archivists and historians, communities, and schools. This paper examines the historical development of a youth media practitioner who worked in both a school and an after-school learning environment for over 25 years, beginning in 1970 and continuing to 2005. We conducted a study of narrative feature-length films created by children ages 9-17 from a private archive of youth media work collected by the founder of Cinekyd, a for-profit youth media project developed in Philadelphia by Robert J. Clark, Jr. In this paper, we track the evolution of four films created between 1976-1982 as both historical film objects and as evidence of learning experiences. Though its amateurishness can often be strange, even off-putting, to wider audiences (one reason why much youth media is rarely showcased and often discarded upon completion), youth media and documentation of its creation also offer insights on the relationship between children and their adult mentors and between youth media authors and their presumed and real audiences.

The purpose of this study was to examine what it is to be a mother and a band director from the perspectives of 15 women. The researcher hoped to create a document which will be helpful to band directors who are or who someday may become mothers. According to statements made in the Band Director Group on Facebook, there is a need for a sense of community among those who are mothers and band directors. The fundamental question that drove this study was "What is the experience of being both a mother and a band director?" Within that question, the joys and challenges of being both a mother and a band director were identified along with resources that mother/band directors reported as helpful. Also included is advice these women would share with others about managing this life. This research is a qualitative, phenomenological study of the experiences of women who are both mothers and band directors, using a social constructivist interpretive framework. Data collection included surveys, text messages and email messages. The most common topic of discussion was balance: balance of time, balance of financial resources, balance of household duties, balance of childcare, and balance of emotional self. The first category, "Logistical Concerns," addressed such things as arranging childcare and caring for the home. The second category, "Time Management," addressed the time mother/band directors spend with and without their children. The third category is "Resources and Support." This category has the subtopics of "Supportive Husband," "Friends and Family," and "Discrimination." The fourth category, "Emotional Effects," has additional subtopics: "Advice Shared," "Beneficial Effects of Music on Children," and "Beneficial Effects of the Band Family on Children." It was found that much like other working mothers, mothers who direct bands must become excellent managers of their resources. Coordinating childcare for evening and weekend obligations is an idea which surfaced many times throughout the data collection and literature review phases of this study. Supportive husbands can have a powerful influence in this area, providing care for their children, assisting their wives with logistical details of running rehearsals and setting up for concerts, and sporting a positive attitude regarding job demands. Family and in-laws can also have a significant, positive impact on the function of the mother/band director's family by their involvement and support. [Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Texas Music Educators Association (San Antonio, TX, Feb 2014).]

The researchers shed light on the interaction of tenure track as higher education reform with the socio-cultural context of public universities in Pakistan. The paper postulates on the perception of leaders of central and provincial regulatory bodies on this intervention. The researchers adopt a qualitative research design, and the data were obtained through semi-structured interviews and relevant documents. All of the participants hold top leadership positions in regulatory bodies. The study revealed that there were many challenges before the implementation process of TTS began in public universities. The process remained slow due to a lack of alignment of TTS content with the structure and culture of public universities. Interviews were analyzed using the interpretive phenomenological analysis. The researchers utilized institutional and structural perspectives to explain the phenomenon of TTS content and process in the contextualised settings of HEIs in Pakistan. The research study found that the leaders of HEC, the content of policy guidelines of TTS, the culture of higher education institutions (HEIs), the administrative structure of HEC and implementing HEIs as major factors influencing the implementation of TTS. It suggests policy recommendations that the performance evaluation and eligibility criteria need to be determined according to the nature of the work of faculty members. Leaders of HEC should give autonomy to leadership of universities to decide matters of their faculty members, and they develop a mechanism of strong accountability for university leaders and managers for effective implementation of higher education policies.

This study aims to address the problems that teachers are facing in classroom management and to find solutions to these problems. This is a phenomenologically designed qualitative research study. 28 classroom teachers, who are working in the city of Malatya in 2017-2018 school year, easy to reach with the help of the convenience sampling, a purposive sampling method and who are working at different primary schools, made up the working group. A semi-structured interview form consisting of three open-ended questions had been used as the data collection tool. A total of 42 codes were determined for the issue of evaluation of views about the difficulties that classroom teachers encounter in classroom management. While interpreting each code, the relations between the findings were explained plus cause and effect relationships. As a result, classroom teachers determined the problems they have encountered in classroom management most as: parents' avoidance in taking responsibility of the students, inadequacy of the lesson materials and incompetency of the school's physical conditions. The classroom teachers evaluated themselves in classroom management which revealed that some teachers see themselves as having effective communication skills, they are more empathic towards their students, they set the rules and expectations together with students and are capable of keeping the students motivated; while other teachers see themselves as inexperienced, impatient towards students and some stated their inadequacy was due to their inability to guide their students in a proper way. This paper has identified some ideas such as being in touch with custodians, students renewing themselves and paying attention to personal differences of students which could bring better class management with remarkable outcomes.

The severity of the challenges made to traditionally and historically accepted understandings of truth, what is true, what is false and "fake," and even what is real, continues unabated in American public discourse. Nevertheless, the primary argument in this paper does not aim to identify the causes of the breakdown of representation (i.e. in the Trump administration, within the education reform movement) and the correspondence-based conceptions of truth. Instead, the focus is on discussing the hermeneutic phenomenology of Martin Heidegger and offering a conceptualization of truth as lived and experienced. Challenges to truth are to be understood not as an attack on the foundations of Western rationality, but as built into the presuppositions that inform the taken for granted representational understanding of truth. Democracy requires a space whereby a multitude of ideas can flourish alongside one another. Truth as "aletheia," a more pragmatic and phenomenologically-attuned conceptualization of truth, can serve as a way forward in honoring this key tenet of democracy. The results of this reflective analysis of truth as "aletheia" is a broadened description and tentative definition that can offer new insights for living into a more democratically-driven future than can reductive, correspondence-based conceptions of truth.

This study examines and explores PSTs' fears realised during the practicum period. In order to achieve an in-depth understanding, a phenomenological and holistic approach has been adopted. Data were collected from 22 preservice teachers via reports with open-ended questions on a weekly basis during the whole practicum period. 211 reports were analysed through inductive thematic coding. The analysis led to discrimination of twelve different yet interrelated sources of fear. It is argued that PSTs' fears are learnt and resulted from a perception of threat, uncertainties involved in situations, possibility of deteriorating conditions of the future events and/or anticipatory reflections. The paper also explicates on the protective feature of fear, which is discussed to have a potential to support PSTs' self-development and professional-preparation.

Art-based leadership experiments have gained a foothold in leadership development research. However, few studies have investigated their effectiveness. These studies have included music, drama, art, and performance to develop the dimensions and mind of a leader. This paper describes an experience that measured the impact of an art-based intervention in four dimensions: (1) disorienting dilemma, (2) creative self-efficacy, (3) self-awareness, and (4) sense-making. The art-based experience highlighted participants' need for leadership development to unleash their creativity and increase their self-efficacy and self-awareness, and demonstrated the usefulness of the experience in the process of transforming the mind-set in the classroom, which may also translate to the workplace.

This paper bridges contemporary neuroscience theories and Hegelian philosophy, centering on Karl Friston's Free Energy Principle (FEP). Neuroscience models like the Bayesian brain hypothesis and predictive coding depict the brain as a predictive machine, echoing Hermann von Helmholtz's concept of unconscious inference, where perception is shaped by prior knowledge. The FEP, rooted in information theory and statistical physics, suggests organisms minimize sensory surprise through unconscious and active inference, providing a model for behavior and explaining the purposiveness of biological systems. Some scholars assert that Georg W. F. Hegel's view of living beings in his Philosophy of Nature aligns with the FEP, portraying them as purposive and enactive systems. This paper extends this idea, proposing that Hegel's 'System of Science' in the Phenomenology of Spirit functions as a free energy-minimizing system. It discusses predictive coding and the FEP, establishing criteria for a system that minimizes free energy, and applies these criteria to Hegel's work. The paper argues that the dialectical narrative in the Phenomenology operates as a reflective system driven to minimize logical or conceptual free energy, ultimately advancing the spirit towards absolute spirit. This Hegelian predictive model generates expectations essential for dialectical progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In everyday life, one encounters many experiences of affliction that, for whatever reason, nature (ours or others') cannot resolve. Yet, when nature's finite resources are exhausted and hope seems in vain, humans often experience extra-ordinary moments of renewal and resolution—breakthroughs, remissions, insights, and conversions. We experience these moments in our natural existence; yet, we feel they cannot originate, cannot be attributed to nature alone. Rather, these experiences, called "graces" in Christianity, are attributed to a divine power acting in us. How do we come to describe these experiences in this way? Is it possible to formulate a general theory of these experiences as "graces"? Is there an "experience" of grace in general, a "state of grace", which serves as ground and unifying experience for the "graces" we receive? Working from the Catholic theological point of view, this paper examines such experiences of affliction and renewal, as well as the basic Catholic framework schematizing them as found in the Bible and Catholic religious writings. In doing so, this paper highlights the theme of impossibility (absolutely or in context) underlying each experience, and broadly categorizes them as happening within three regions of human life: the external, ethical sphere, the interior self-relationship, and the vertical relationship to the Divine. In dialogue with theologians and phenomenological thinkers, general formulations of the experiences are placed within their respective spheres, and certain problems in the identification or interpretation of these experiences are identified. The paper then explores how the experience of a "New Creation" can serve not only as a label for the totality of these experiences, but also as a totalizing and overarching ground-experience of "grace" and an interpretive hermeneutic for graces in general. As a result, a graced moment of total personal "rebirth" or "recreation", prevenient with respect to any personal co-operation or experiences of grace as grace, is identified as a potential ground for all other graces considered. Finally, this paper considers some potential implications of this account of grace for both Catholic thought and Phenomenology more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formative assessment is a pedagogic practice that has been the subject of much research and debate, as to how it can be used most effectively to deliver enhanced student learning in the higher education setting. Often described as a complex concept it embraces activities that range from facilitating students understanding of assessment standards, to providing formative feedback on their work; from very informal opportunities of engaging in conversations, to the very formal process of submitting drafts of work. This study aims to show how cultural historical activity theory can be used as a qualitative analysis framework to explore the complexities of formative assessment as it is used in higher education. The original data for the research was collected in 2008 by semi structured interviews and analysed using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. For this present paper three selected transcripts were re-examined, using a case study approach that sought to understand and compare the perceptions of five academic staff, from three distinct subject areas taught within a UK university. It is proposed that using activity theory can provide insight into the complexity of such experiences, about what teachers do and why, and the influence of the community in which they are situated. Individually the cases from each subject area were analysed using activity theory exploring how the mediating artefacts of formative assessment were used; the often implicit rules that governed their use and the roles of teachers and students within the local subject community. The analysis also considered the influence each aspect of the unit of activity had on the other in understanding formative assessment practice. Subsequently the three subject cases were compared and contrasted. The findings illuminate a variety of practices, including how students and staff engage together in formative assessment activities and for some, how dialogue is used as one of the key tools to do this. In conclusion, activity theory is considered a useful methodological framework both from a research perspective, as in this paper, and one that can be used as a tool for the reflective practitioner to promote change in pedagogic practices. (Contains 2 figures.)

This paper was to report some of findings from a larger phenomenological study on the lived experience of Indonesian graduate students in a US higher education. Particularly, this paper was to discuss the Indonesian Muslim graduate students' religious life experiences attending an American graduate school. The primary data sources were a demographic survey and in-depth interviews. The demographic data were analyzed descriptively. The interviews were analyzed by using within-case and cross-case displays and analyses. The theoretical framework of acculturation stress model was used to guide this study. Utilizing the acculturation stress model to describe Indonesian Muslim graduate students' cross-culture experiences, we organized our analysis and discussion around their perspectives and the contexts in which challenges they encountered emerge. An analysis of the text revealed that major themes related to religious beliefs and life experiences were unanticipated praying difficulties, longer fasting days, no holiday for Ramadan (the holy month of Muslims) celebration, no taraweeh (Muslim prayer peculiar to the holy month of Ramadan) prayers in mosque during Ramadan, and rare halal food, and decreasing religious stressors. Future higher education research and policy implications are also discussed. (Contains 1 note.)

English Language Teaching (ELT) has undergone immense changes over the years in terms of using different methods, but none of the methods till this date have proved what they had proclaimed. The paper believes in the hypothesis that learning is "understanding" the linguistic components of a language, whereas mastering is the part of using them in a well structured way with perfection and ease. Viewing this dichotomy between learning and mastering, the paper examines a problematic discourse: "English in Eastern Ethiopia is often learnt; but not mastered". The broad concern of the paper is to draw the attention of the local and global ELT practitioners towards the dismal state of English in Eastern Ethiopia. In this pursuit, the paper set three prime objectives: (i) exploring global and local uses of ELT methods, (ii) exploring major linguistic and non-linguistic impediments in mastering English, and (iii) proposing an empirical approach to overcome the impediments from remedial perspective. Participant observation, unstructured Interview, and document analysis were employed to gather the data, whereas analytic induction was used to analyze the data. Under findings, seventeen linguistic and non-linguistic impediments were found as serious deterrents in mastering English. From remedial perspective, the paper proposes an empirical "Integrated Iconic Approach" to overcome the linguistic impediments followed by seventeen apposite recommendations to pave the path of quality English education in Eastern Ethiopia.

This paper reports part of a larger phenomenological study of 23 participants (eight pre-service teachers, eight university supervisors, and seven cooperating teachers) specifically focusing on pre-service teachers' issues in the relationship with cooperating teachers and their resolutions. Two questions were used to guide this paper: (1) What can be pre-service teachers' issue with the cooperating teacher? and (2) How can pre-service teachers resolve/avoid issues with the cooperating teacher? Each participant received two semi-in-depth interviews, with each lasting approximately 90 minutes. Using the applied thematic analysis and the constant comparative approach based on grounded theory resulted in five themes in the area of issues and four themes in the area of resolutions. The results of this study may be helpful to teacher educators, especially those who intend to establish rationale in selecting cooperating teachers and to consider providing training to cooperating teachers and pre-service teachers to enhance the field experience. (Contains 1 table and 1 footnote.)

In Australia, academic workloads are increasing, and university funding is decreasing. Academics and university managers are engaging in risk adverse behavior and tending to focus on customer satisfaction and student retention, potentially at the expense of academic standards. Conventional approaches to pedagogy minimize adverse student feedback, but may not prepare graduates for the workplace (Savery, 2006). By contrast, PBL (problem-based learning) is generally thought to produce better student outcomes and performance, but can be more demanding in terms of academic workloads. PBL uses realistic scenarios which may not be well defined and the methods students use to solve the problems are often as important as their answers. PBL is grounded in constructivism (Ernest, 1993) and student-centered learning (Ally, 2004). This paper critically evaluates the claims made for PBL and provides arguments for its use in university teaching. Two research approaches were employed to inform this paper: the first is a meta-level review of PBL-oriented papers and the second is hermeneutic phenomenology in which the author gives an account of his experiences using PBL in university education and makes recommendations for its deployment. It is concluded that there are no academic or logistical grounds that support the use of PBL, but that it may still be regarded as a worthwhile exercise.

From Ponpoko: The Heisei Tanuki War (1994), through My Neighbours, the Yamadas (1999), and until The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013), the animation movies directed by the reputed animation director Takahata Isao (1935-2018) and released by Studio Ghibli since mid-1990s address the phenomenon of "life" as a meaningful endeavour towards attaining higher levels of human awareness. This occurs either by living in accordance with the flow of history, or by enjoying every moment as it comes, or, respectively, by delving into cosmic rhythms of imponderability: every single entity of existence delivers significance and comprehension, as displayed on multiple layers in the three animation works analyzed in this paper. Thus, in a phenomenological approach inspired by Julia Kristeva's monumental publication La Révolution du langage poétique (1974) which views cultural products as mirroring channels of repression (Verdrängung) and desire (Begehren), the analysis draws on an anthropological framework in which the researcher functions as a dynamic, self-reflexive interface mediating between the self-ness of the theoretical structure (here: life and the quest for its significance) and the other-ness of the representation medium (here: Japanese animated works). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integrative thinking essential to interdisciplinary inquiry requires not only critical reflection concerning the points of convergence and dissonance between disciplinary insights, but also something more personal and less predictable that this paper describes as "holding in relationship difference ways of knowing." Using the process of teaching a poem by Robert Hass as illustration and metaphor, this paper models its subject. Interdisciplinary "truth," the paper asserts, is phenomenological in nature, always partial and provisional, emergent as opposed to fixed. The paper gives readers an experience of a dialectical and nonlinear learning process, tolerance for confusion in the midst of complexity, and tolerance for the inherent challenges of holding different ways of knowing simultaneously in one's mind, all of which are essential characteristics of interdisciplinary thought. Both a celebration of interdisciplinary and skeptical of intimations for exclusivity, the paper makes the case that the essential qualities of interdisciplinary thought are characteristics of creative thinking in many disciplines.

What prompts the students to respond in online dialogic discussion? Why some students chose to fall out? This case study through the lens of phenomenography observation attempts to explain the five decision steps of students to respond in Meta-cognitive Learning in Free Online Groups (MetaL-FrOG) discussion. It presents a part of a research project by the name of Triarchy Perspective on Meta-cognitive Learning in Free Online Groups. The research setting was online learner community on the platform of Free Online Group web intended for post-graduate students enrolled for the paper Psychology of Learning in Faculty of Education, University Malaya, Malaysia. Preliminary study revealed three factors contributed to MetaL-FrOG success: Motivation, Cognitive Resources and Pro-learning Behaviors. This paper only presents a part of the findings under the Pro-Learning Behaviors Sub-theory. We found striking similarities between the model proposed by Latane & Darley (1971), Five Essential Steps to a Pro-social Response in an Emergency, and our research subject. The model which explains the course of a pro-social decision was borrowed and modified as surrogate theory to explain the online discussion response of the students. The insights help educators to better understand what holds students back from fruitful online peer diologic discussion. (Contains 3 figures.)

In this paper I seek to inquire upon audience's perceptions of creativity in online advertising--a heretofore poorly understood area. This paper initially outlines current academic understanding of creativity in online advertising, mainly derived from quantitative assessments. It then advances a qualitative methodology including diary-interviews and ethnographic online interviews across 41 participants. My starting point is a critique of the most comprehensive conceptual intervention in the area of advertising creativity--Smith and Yang's (2004) typology of "relevance" and "divergence". I assess to what extent this typology emerges from my participants' data. Two key features of relevance--contextual relevance and intrusiveness--are explored in depth, producing deeper insights into their nature as perceived by participants. (Contains 2 figures.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of first-generation college graduates in the USA, as they transitioned from higher education into employment in the private sector. First-generation college graduates are from families in which neither parent had a bachelor's degree. Design/methodology/approach: This paper used phenomenology to gain an understanding of the transition experiences of first-generation college graduates employed within the corporate sector. Findings: First-generation status influences the experiences of students beyond college and limits their awareness of and access to graduate employment. Lack of college education in the family affects the graduates' career decision-making, familiarity with corporate culture and expectations, preparedness for the corporate sector and restricted access to people with the ability to ease their entry into the sector. These translate into transition outcomes such as starting at entry-level positions not requiring a college degree, delayed access to graduate-level positions, having to engage intentionally in additional efforts to reach graduate-level positions and potential to be discriminated against during the recruitment process, albeit unintentionally. Research limitations/implications: Is first-generation status yet another structural contextual factor that influences career decision self-efficacy? Is the influence of FG status common across sectors? Longitudinal studies need to be conducted across sectors, regions and countries. Practical implications: There is a need to sensitize faculty and career service staff to career-related challenges of first-generation students and for programs and policies that increase awareness of these students regarding professional environments and expectations. There are social justice implications for recruitment strategies and overcoming discrimination. Originality/value: This paper explored first-generation college graduates' experiences, an issue hitherto not explored in depth.

Studies on physics identity are appearing more frequently and often responding to increased awareness of the underrepresentation of students of color in physics. In our broader research, we focus our efforts on understanding how racial identity and physics identity are negotiated throughout the experiences of Black physicists. In this paper, we present a Critical Physics Identity framework that can be used to examine racialized physics identity and demonstrate the utility of this framework by analyzing interviews with four physicists. Our framework draws from prior constructs of physics identity and racialized identity and provides operational definitions of six interacting dimensions. In this paper, we present the operationalized constructs, demonstrate how we use these constructs to code narrative data, as well as outline three methods of analysis that may be applied to study systems and structures and their influences on the experiences of Black students.

Background: In Higher Education, inclusion and the enhancement of equality of opportunities and practices appeal as imperative, in most Western societies' laws. Inclusive education literature, however, reveals that despite inclusion's strong advocacy, delivery remains problematic, as beyond the surface of institutional policy, the reality of university life for students with disabilities may be one of continued exclusion and barriers to learning. Furthermore, in many countries, including Greece, the voices of students with disabilities appear significantly under-represented, not only in policy-making processes and practices, but also in the area of research. Purpose: In the light of the above, this paper aims to explore the experiences and perspectives of 32 students with disabilities on: education in Higher Education Institutions in Greece, the impending transition to paid employment and future aspirations. Method: The paper is based on a qualitative study where data were collected through semi-structured interviews with university students with disabilities. Data were analysed according to the principles of interpretative phenomenological analysis. Findings: Complex and rich accounts divulged specific issues, such as physical access and access to academic knowledge, quality of available support, interactions with tutors and fellow students, as well as perceived factors that may hinder the transition into the labour market. The results of the study also confirmed that students with disabilities are capable of asserting their needs, challenging institutional discrimination issues and proposing more inclusive alternatives. Conclusion: The findings indicate the need for reconsidering and refining institutional policies and practices in relation to issues of disability and education.