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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.

Higher education and in particular Colleges of Education are viewed as falling behind in the use of technology for teaching and learning (Lederman & Niess, 2000). With today's student population identified as digital natives and the evening news discussing the potential of virtual worlds as new learning environments, an examination of the implications of digital games and virtual worlds by K-12 educators and Colleges of Education is warranted. This paper presents participant experiences in a graduate course in which Second Life was examined as a teaching and learning tool with a variety of educators. Participants in the graduate course ranged from K-12 teachers, state technology agents, higher education faculty and graduate students in instructional technology. The paper uses a case study to give voice to common concerns, unique participant experiences, and the understanding of virtual learning environments that developed from the interaction in a virtual world.

In this paper, I problematize the inextricable relationship between how I constitute knowledge and how I articulate knowledge. Through various narrative reflections I explore my own reckoning with dominant ways of articulating knowledge that reinforce ways of constituting knowledge that are inherently strange to me. I also outline my sojourns and departures into and from emergent modes of articulating knowledge such as personal narrative and autoethnography. Even though I acknowledge the emancipator nature of these modes, I show myself in tension with them in terms of their fit with my own geographies and topographies. I conclude with a discussion of a larger project I envision which implicates new modes of articulating knowledge that assume a much larger notion of self and personhood. I argue that a larger notion of self is vital to the making of a more expansive and inclusive definition of knowledge. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

This paper is primarily targeted at doctoral students and other researchers considering using hermeneutic phenomenology as a research strategy. We present interpretive paradigm research designed to investigate how experienced practitioners learn to communicate their clinical reasoning in professional practice. Twelve experienced physiotherapy practitioners participated in this research. Using hermeneutic phenomenology enabled access to a phenomenon that is often subconscious and provided a means of interpreting participants' experiences of personal learning journeys. Within the philosophy underpinning hermeneutic phenomenology, researchers need to design a research strategy that flows directly from the research question and goals of the research project. This paper explores such a strategy. (Contains 2 tables, 2 figures, and 2 footnotes.)

The idea of using poetry and literature as channels to contemporary architectural design dates back to the last years of the 1980s when the poetics of architecture was recognised as an academic discipline. In the West, the first publication on the subject was released in 1990. Concurrently, although independently, the studio-workshop bearing the same title of this discipline was set up by Shota Bostanashvili at the Technical University of Georgia. Paper architecture, a movement developed in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was the preferred medium utilised to teach architecture at the studio-workshop. This workshop, which is still run today by David Bostanashvili, introduced metacultural discourse in architecture. The Bostanashvilis’ poetics of architecture is based on a triad, namely Image-Name-House. For Shota Bostanashvili, poetics of architecture meant the relationship between ideas, words and things. For David Bostanashvili, it meant an interdisciplinary theoretical framework wherein the concept of Image refers to phenomenology, that of Name refers to semiotics, and House infers the philosophical reflections on architecture.

The proposed inclusion of Internet gaming disorder (IGD) into the upcoming ICD-11 has caused mixed reactions. Having a sound diagnostic framework for defining this new phenomenon has been applauded but concerns have risen regarding overpathologizing a mere pastime activity. The review by Aarseth et al. (2016) provides a fine but one-sided impression on IGD. What has been totally left out in the argumentation is the clinical perspective. Although the concerns depicted must not be ignored, the conclusion provided by the authors is reflecting quite subjective speculations while objectivity would rather be needful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of experiential learning in distance education is a dominant concern of all major stakeholders and the public at large. Institutions of higher learning which train school teachers at a distance are often blamed for the poor quality of teachers and teaching. The perception among some sections of the society is that teachers trained at a distance are of poor quality compared to those trained via the conventional face-to-face mode. While this perception can be disputed it gives distance education institutions food for thought. Debunking the wrong perception is to ensure quality in the training of teachers at a distance. Students of the University of South Africa (UNISA) are scattered all over the country and beyond and this makes effective and quality organization, managing, supervision, mentoring and evaluation of experiential learning quite daunting. Effective experiential learning cannot be organized and managed effectively without the involvement of key stakeholders. This paper used the qualitative research approach to explore the views of major stakeholders from two Provinces in South Africa on quality assurance of experiential learning for teacher trainees in distance education. The findings indicate that all the major stakeholders involved in providing experiential learning in the UNISA teacher training program support the idea of collaboration as the basis of quality teacher training.

This paper contributes to the knowledge base for preparing pre-service teachers (PSTs) for contemporary multicultural classrooms. To do so, we refer to our ongoing project "See, Listen and Share: Exploring intercultural music education in a transnational experience" across three Higher Education sites (Australia and Spain). Drawing on our narrative, and PSTs' questionnaire data, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to analyze and code the PST data, we report on our initial experience and findings across the three sites and cultural contexts. Generalisations to other institutions cannot be made. We discuss what was taught and how it was taught in our three settings, highlighting some key highs in relation to enjoyment, and learning from culture bearers and some lows in relation to language and accompaniment. We contend that music education in teacher education courses may serve as an effective vehicle to explore cultural expressions, enabling positive attitudes towards cultural diversity.

The aim of this study is evaluating the curriculum of sports management department, which is offered by sports sciences faculties and schools of physical education and sports, by faculty members. With this study, which is constructed on qualitative research methods and a phenomenological pattern, instead of statistical generalizations, analytical generalizations were performed, a hypothesis was formed and hypothetical theorems were proposed. "Convenience Sampling", which is a form of purposive sampling, was chosen as the method of sampling. Semi-structured interview forms were used during data collection. Interview data were put down on paper and organized, and themes were created by determining meaningful data. In accordance with the themes, categories were formed and findings were extracted. In the light of obtained data, faculty members point out that the existing curriculum helps students' professional development with theoretical classes such as sports law, sports economy, administration, economics and sports management. In contrast, they also mentioned negative aspects of the curriculum such as scarcity of applied classes, inadequate sports facilities, lack of sectoral collaboration and inefficiency of sports management applications. It is envisioned that findings of this study will improve the preparation and organization processes of sports management curriculums of sports sciences faculties and schools of physical education and sports.

Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman characterizes this era as a time of "liquid modernity." Rather than settled meanings, categories, and frames of reference, Bauman contends that meaning is always in flux, open-ended rather than closed. This flux is in large part driven and exacerbated by a culture of consumerism. This phenomenology of the consumer is particularly troubling given the reputed aims of education. Whatever education is or ought to be (especially in a democracy), it should counter a culture that seeks to make us "impatient, impetuous, and restive." The battle against consumerism, or reining it in, the author takes as part of the normative charge as educators. Liberal education aims to be a positive force against excessive consumption, seeking to fashion autonomous selves who are able to resist the pressures of popular culture. In this address, the author explores how liberal education (the ways of thinking and the practices that it aims to instantiate) cultivates and buttresses an autonomous self who can withstand the distorting forces of unsustainable consumption. The author begins with an overview of liberal education, noting two dominant understandings or traditions that comprise it. The first tradition emphasizes critical thinking skills as the basis for securing autonomy. The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) is a strong proponent of this approach. The second tradition underscores the importance of cognitive or quasi-spiritual exercises as essential for battling the passions that can undermine autonomy. With this schematic overview in hand, the author then turns to David Foster Wallace's essay "This is Water." Wallace, a fiction author first and foremost, paints a compelling picture of how each approach plays out in the trenches of ordinary life. What emerges is the importance of both traditions for ensuring the telos of liberal education: the autonomous self. The author argues that his approach to liberal education is the best alternative for addressing consumerism. It incorporates not just the critical thinking and struggle with the passions, but also encompasses the habituation, practices, and community necessary for sustaining human freedom. This more robust version of liberal education is particularly necessary in light of the social media blitz that holds us, but especially students (I-generation), in its thrall. Human freedom is arguably more beleaguered than ever by the addictiveness of virtual media, and the forces that shape us to be mindless consumers. [For "The Academic 'Pharmakon': In Defense of Liberal Education. Response to the Presidential Address," see EJ1200863.]

This paper details a cross-cultural study of inclusive leadership practices within a basic education context in each of the following countries: Australia, Canada, and Colombia. Each school was selected after district educational leaders identified the school as being inclusive of students with diverse learning needs over an extended period of time. The researchers were particularly interested in the norms and assumptions that were evident within conversations because these were viewed as indicators of the nature of the embedded school culture within each context. School leaders and teachers were interviewed to determine the link between rhetoric and reality, and what inclusion 'looked like', 'felt like', and 'sounded like' at each site, and whether any discernible differences could be attributed to societal culture. A refractive phenomenological case study approach was used to capture the messages within each context and the lived experiences of the participants as they sought to cater for the needs of students. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with school leaders and teaching staff. Each researcher conducted environmental observations, documenting the impressions and insights gained from the more implicit messages communicated verbally, non-verbally, and experientially from school structures, visuals, and school ground interactions. Themes were collated from the various narratives that were recounted. Both similarities and distinct socio-cultural differences emerged.

This paper aims to critically examine the paradigm of methodological dualism and explore whether methodologies in social science currently are appropriate for educational research. There are two primary methodologies for studying education: quantitative and qualitative methods. This is what we mean by "methodological dualism". Is methodological dualism appropriate for educational research? The answer is no. When we face new situations in a multicultural society, various types of research can be used according to nature of research. Quantitative and qualitative methods can be virtually integrated. The integration of quantitative and qualitative research can be achieved in the following ways: pragmatic integration, phenomenological integration, and integration in educational practice. We insist that integration in educational practice is the most viable way among the methods of methodological integration.

This paper reviews the impact of the rewards and recognition scheme on curriculum reform in higher vocational education (HVE) in China. In this scheme, teachers and students can win rewards and obtain recognition through curriculum competitions and student skill competitions conducted by the government. It has been used to encourage and to support colleges and teachers to implement HVE curriculum reform. The qualitative research project into HVE curriculum reform reported here identified both the facilitative and inhibitory effects of the scheme on curriculum reform. Discipline heads' perspectives of these influences were investigated through in-depth interviews. The scheme was seen as motivating just a slight majority of discipline heads to implement curriculum reform and as providing financial support in doing so. The discipline heads, though, also indicated that they were discouraged by the scheme's misleading guidelines, its inappropriate evaluations of their efforts and its contribution to funding inequalities.

An extensive amount of study in recent years has focused on the relationship between teaching and research among academic staff, with many concluding that an environment of increased scrutiny and assessment has tilted the priority towards research. Few studies have looked at how students perceive the teaching-research nexus, and this paper offers a new perspective on the issue by considering the perceptions of exchange students from the United States and the United Kingdom. Data was collected by conducting in-depth interviews with twelve multidisciplinary students representing eight universities in the two countries, and an analysis conducted according to established phenomenological principles. The results suggest that exchange students have a high opinion of research, and generally do not believe that academic staff prioritise their own research to the detriment of undergraduate students. Exceptions are more prevalent in the United Kingdom, where research is more prominently discussed in the classroom.

The research on methods used in graduate mathematics education courses is limited, however existing groundwork suggests that curriculum should provide students with experiences that align with the practices of mathematics education researchers. At the same time, calls to connect mathematics education research and classroom practice have been articulated both within and outside the literature on the preparation of mathematics education researchers. This study describes a process that we call learning about teaching through research and vice versa (LTR). Specifically, the process involved mathematics education graduate students (who already hold teacher certification) engaging in a mathematical task, reading a research paper about the same mathematical task, and then completing an assignment based on viewing video data from a school classroom where middle school students engaged with the same task. Phenomenography was used to analyse written survey data and report that graduate students experienced the process as teachers, researchers, and teacher-researchers. The results indicate that the implemented methodology 1) offered students an opportunity to experience practices similar to those in which mathematics education researchers engage while pursuing scholarly inquiries, and 2) provided a setting where students learned about teaching and mathematics education research. Finally, the results support the claim that the LTR methodology acts as an example where research and practice enhanced one another and thus connect research and practice.

Concerns about women educational leaders, their performance within primary schools, their approaches to leadership, including the hindrances experienced in the school headship have received few if any attention in Côte d'Ivoire. This paper analyses how women principals lead their schools and contribute to the schools' advancement in challenging situations that stand in their ways. The authors used a qualitative approach to collect data through in-depth semi-structural interviews with five female principals in Ivorian elementary schools. Findings showed that women influence directly teachers' commitment and indirectly students' learning process as well, particularly those who have learning difficulties. Data also revealed that these female used to create an environment and academic support that gives attention to children, as these learning conditions are similar to that of their actual life at home. Based on the findings, we assumed that women leadership could be a significant contribution to students' learning course, which in turn positively influence the school improvement. That is even consistent with the literature, which remains constant in the assertion that women leaders own some abilities, such as being caring, attentive, patient. In this regard, educational practitioners, policy makers and stakeholders should pay more attention to women primary school principals for empowering them to display their know-how, expertise and talent useful for the students' learning process. That seems a possible backup for Ivorian education system to reduce the low academic achievement and enhance schools' performance.

This paper reports on an investigation of Turkish English-medium university students' perceptions of the change in their language ability and the factors affecting this change. Results revealed that 1) when students are highly exposed to English and are expected to use it productively for their studies, they perceive that there is greater development in their language skills and abilities 2) students think that corrective feedback plays a crucial role in helping them focus their attention on the form 3) speaking is perceived to be the weakest and the least improved skill over the years. These findings suggest insightful implications for English-medium universities in Turkey and all around the world.

Our research using hermeneutic phenomenology positions a pre-service or graduate teacher's learning to be a teacher as a process of formation which involves relational sensibilities and ontological understandings that are often taken for granted and can be drawn from teacher's everyday experiences of 'being-in' their practice. We live in ideological times that are challenging the priorities, practices and discourses within pre-service teacher education programs. Critically important here are changes driven by an ideological 'evidence-based' priority for the 'measurement' of preservice teachers and graduate teachers' professional practice. In this paper, we share our concerns over this narrowing of educational outcomes toward behavioral practices occurring in the context of work-integrated learning (WIL). How have Initial Teacher Education Programs lost sight of the holistic, complex and contextual nature of their praxis? Not to mention the nuanced and experiential improvisation occurring within every relational engagement that constitutes WIL.

Research studies show a number of significant contributions of professional development programs towards teachers' teaching skills. This paper explores the views of eight (8) university lecturers in a university in Yangon, Myanmar with regards to the teacher capacity building and language enhancement training program they attended from 2014-2016. The interview data, which were subjected to qualitative content analysis were taken from the participants' personal knowledge and experience of the teacher training program. The data were read many times, coded, and assigned to different themes. Findings revealed two themes; appreciation and hardships. Although teacher participants were glad to be part of the training program, they also coped with some challenges. Some important implications for the enhancement of the teacher training programs and language education in Myanmar were discussed and future research directions were also offered.

Over the past two decades, Turkey has initiated a reform movement to change her classroom assessment system to accommodate performance-based alternative assessment methods in schools. However, research investigating the impact of assessment reform on learning and teaching in schools report that performance assessment approaches have not been implemented effectively. This study investigated the teacher related factors behind the adoption decisions of teachers of these changes introduced. Data for the study were collected through interviews with 53 biology teachers in 24 schools. According to the findings, teachers' lack of self-agency, superficial understanding of the ideas introduced, mistrust that the innovations will work in practice, skepticism about the need for a change and inadequate knowledge and abilities as a result of ineffective dissemination and professional guidance were the main factors affecting the success of the reform. Suggestions to overcome barriers to reform and implications of the findings in managing change are presented and discussed at the end of the paper.

The primary school Turkish program was basically built on three learning domains. These are the learning domains of verbal communication, reading and writing. The purpose of the present study is to determine primary school teachers' practices and difficulties related to students considered to have undiognosed verbal communication, reading and writing difficulties. The study used the phenomenological research design, one of the qualitative research designs. The sample of the study was composed of a total of 21 primary school teachers servicing in the province of Bayburt during the 2016-2017 educational year. The sample of the study was determined by using the maximum variation sampling method, one of the purposeful sampling methods. The study data was collected through using the semi-structured interview form. In the analysis of the data, the content analysis method was used. Based on the study results, it was concluded that the primary school teachers more frequently carried out the practices of "speaking in front the class about daily events" for the students having speaking difficulties, "using the smart board" for the students with listening difficulties, "one-to-one reading with the teacher" for the students with reading difficulties and "one-to-one dictation work" for the students with writing difficulties; they more frequently had problems related to the "timid behaviors" of the students with speaking difficulties, "losing attention" of the students with listening difficulties and the "poor time management skills" of the students with reading and writing difficulties; they also expected help from families in all the learning domains. [This study was presented as oral presentation in IX. International Education Research Congress.]

The root of the ecological crisis lies in an ethic of nature consumption. In order to reconstruct our cultural framework, it is necessary to cultivate another ethical approach, an ethic of care. It is the responsibility of school to encourage students to learn how to care for not only the human world, but also for the natural world. This paper is based on the hypothesis that it is possible to develop the ethical disposition to care for by practising an ethic of care in the first person. In the phenomenological-hermeneutic framework, however, it is not sufficient to practice care; students have to be engaged in pondering and interpreting their experience of caring for in order to construct for themselves the meaning of their lived experience. With this in mind, I organized a year long environmental education project for students aged 6 to 10 in a rural school which involved students not only in doing things but also in thinking about their experience. Working from a socio-constructivist perspective, I made use of discussions and reflective writing. This paper presents phenomenological research on this experience. (Contains 5 tables and 2 notes.)

In asking the provocative question: "What's wrong with ethnography?" Hammersley draws attention to what he sees as the conceptual and methodological confusion arising from two competing strands of practice: "naive realism" and "relativism". As a solution, he offers "subtle realism" to steer a path through and beyond the confusion. This paper presents an analysis of Hammersley's work, drawing attention to some of its shortcomings. These centre on two closely related issues. The first is Hammersley's conflation of ontology and epistemology. This results in a shallow realism that ignores the ontological status of structure and its relation to human practice. In contrast, Bhaskar's critical realism is offered as an appropriate under labourer to ethnographic theory and practice. The second is Hammersley's quick dismissal of orthodox Marxism as a viable theory for critical ethnography. Drawing on the critical realist ideas of stratification and emergence, the paper argues that Marxism is essential to any worthwhile critical ethnography. (Contains 1 table and 7 footnotes.)

This paper summarizes the findings from the first phase of a three-part project which, overall, investigates what Aboriginal students perceive as the qualities and actions of effective teachers and subsequently seeks to determine the impact of the enactment of these identified qualities on educational outcomes. This first phase of the research was centered on gathering accounts of quality teachers and teaching practice from students, parents and their teachers from phenomenologically aligned interviews. Similar and contrasting themes among these three groups are presented, with the intention of exposing potential mismatch in perception of the construct of "quality" teaching. Finally, we present implications of this research in light of the more recent development of professional standards for Australian teachers that seek to define and evaluate high quality teaching.

This paper examines what goes on in an improvising jazz combo in a secondary school in Scotland, where teaching follows Rogoff's three-stage sociocultural process, moving from an initial apprenticeship model through one of guided participation to one of participatory appropriation. Using a case study research design and interpretative phenomenological analysis, and drawing on sociocultural perspectives, the music-making and participation of three participants is discussed and presented through narrative account. Three key themes emerged as perceived benefits: (1) personal effects, (2) social effects; and (3) jazz effects. The development of confidence was seen as the main outcome of learning in the jazz combo. This study suggests that learning in an active participatory jazz combo with pedagogy more appropriate to an informal learning style may help to foster the development of learner voice and help enable a creative disposition, in line with the philosophy of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).

Previous literature has examined teachers' motivations to teach in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic motives, personality dimensions, and teacher burnout. These findings have been cast in the rubric of differences between teachers and non-teachers and the linear relations between these measures among teachers. Utilizing a phenomenological approach (Giorgi, 1970) to analyze data generated in structured interviews with four tenured professors from small, liberal arts universities whose central mission is teaching, this paper presents the telic or project-ive horizons of teaching--those motives aimed at what is "not yet" (Heidegger, 1927/1962). Results revealed that teaching is understood by teachers to be a dialogical enterprise between a teacher and learners across dimensions of transformation, knowledge, and personhood. This dialogue entailed an abiding tension between self and other, activity and passivity, giving and receiving, preparation and spontaneity, instructing and learning, leading and following, asserting and withdrawing. It comprised an orientation to a teachers' vision for the possible future personhood of the teacher and their students and to the character of the world which teachers and learners inhabit together. These findings are discussed in terms of the reviewed literature and as a case in point for a vital complementarity of research approaches.

There is an emerging body of published research inquiring into distance education, yet the student experience is under-­represented. Berge and Mrozowski (2001) examined ten years (1990­-99) of dissertations and journal articles from four distance education journals. They reported that of 1,419 publications, 890 depicted research studies. They classified the research articles into ten different content themes. 31% of the articles addressed content themes regarding learners. Of these, 17% of the papers addressed learner characteristics, 8% redefining roles of key participants, and 6% learner support. The authors did not specify whether these papers incorporated experience from the perspective of the students although the labels of the content themes would suggest otherwise. This research review critiques two qualitative theses designed to explore the day-­to-­day experience of learners studying online. Both are written in the tradition of hermeneutic phenomenology, described by van Manen (1997) as "a "descriptive" methodology because it wants to be attentive to how things appear, it wants to let things speak for themselves" and as "an "interpretive" methodology because it claims that there are no such things as uninterpreted phenomena" (p.180). A commitment to learners and educators as active constructors of knowledge has implications for the research rationale, the questions asked, and the means of study. The reviewed research is motivated by a belief that improvements to distance education must be preceded by conversations with those invested in the experience, namely the students.

This paper invites you, the reader, to co-produce meaning around the possibilities and limitations of what Gadamerian philosophy and hermeneutic phenomenology holds for environmental education research. Gadamerian philosophy and hermeneutic phenomenology is founded on the idea that people make meaning (the hermeneutic aspect) of lived experiences (the phenomenological aspect) through dialogue from a perspective where cognition is a product of a particular time and place. As such, this philosophy provided a solid foundation for a study which researched how five high school teachers made sense of, and engaged with, critical environmental education. This study evolved out of my belief that teachers' perceptions and practices have been marginalized, excluded, or forgotten in theoretical narratives of critical environmental education. In this paper I will share my experiences engaging with Gadamerian philosophy and hermeneutic phenomenology and introduce what I found to be the nature, limitations and possibilities of this research frame.