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IntroductionThe purpose of this study was to provide an evidence base and conceptual framework to inform new guidelines for achieving a balance between sports and employment commitments (i.e., dual career, DC) of the employee-sportspersons. To shape a DC discourse in the workplace, the distinct and combined views of the employee-sportspersons (i.e., the Employee), the managers (i.e., the Employer) were considered.MethodsFollowing a concept mapping methodology, 257 international participants (25% employers and 75% employee-sportspersons) sorted and rated 50 potential statements associated with DC circumstances and supports in the workplace.ResultsSix distinct clusters emerged, with the combined employers-employee co-creation scenario assigning 6 statements to the micro dimension (Cluster 1 = Workplace Benefits), 4 statements to the meso dimension (Cluster 2 = Role of National Sports Governing Bodies), 19 statements to the macro dimension (Cluster 3 = Dual Career Policy Development), 4 and 5 statements to the organizational dimensions (Cluster 4 = Employee-Employer Collaboration and Responsibility; Cluster 5 = Sport Career Integration), and 12 statements to the policy (Cluster 6 = Workplace Strategies for Dual Career Support) dimension. With respect to the employers, the employee-sportspersons showed higher scores (p

This article reports on phenomenological research which explored meanings and understandings that were taken for granted within teachers self-selected best teaching experiences. The research occurred within a pre-service Early Childhood Education teacher education course. This research was designed to understand teacher's perceptions of their best teaching experience, having previously used Appreciative inquiry to ascertain students' perceptions of their best experiences within the course (Giles & Kung, 2014). In this inquiry, the research sought deeper ontological understandings of being in these 'best moments'. The analysis enabled four phenomenological themes to be identified: the preparation for relationships, the privileging of experiential pedagogies, the priority of experiences as foundational to teaching and the life of genuine engagement. Teacher's perceptions of their best experiences related to their preparation and readiness for teaching, along with an ongoing concern of aligning practice to a clearly articulated teaching approach.

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.

Dominant discourses on professional development for teachers internationally are increasingly geared to the priority of ensuring individual teachers are meeting prescribed standards-based performance benchmarks which we call "performativities" in this paper. While this intent is invariably played out in individualised performance management meetings and "fly by" professional development workshops, our research into a NZ primary school discovered a counter-movement at work rejecting imposed standards and preoccupations with instrumental performativites and replacing these with teacher co-constructed and contextualised capacity matrices immersed within an "open" and "seeing" professional learning culture of support. Within manifestations of a rich and enabling culture of professional development the ontological nature of professional development within the school offers understandings which show the experiential nature of "being in" and "feeling seen" in professional development with consequent implications for improved classroom practices. The purpose of this paper is to discuss these issues.

BackgroundMyelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG)-reactive T-helper (Th)1 cells induce conventional experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (cEAE), characterized by ascending paralysis and monocyte-predominant spinal cord infiltrates, in C57BL/6 wildtype (WT) hosts. The same T cells induce an atypical form of EAE (aEAE), characterized by ataxia and neutrophil-predominant brainstem infiltrates, in syngeneic IFNγ receptor (IFNγR)-deficient hosts. Production of ELR+ CXC chemokines within the CNS is required for the development of aEAE, but not cEAE. The cellular source(s) and localization of ELR+ CXC chemokines in the CNS and the IFNγ-dependent pathways that regulate their production remain to be elucidated.MethodsThe spatial distribution of inflammatory lesions and CNS expression of the ELR+ CXC chemokines, CXCL1 and CXCL2, were determined via immunohistochemistry and/or in situ hybridization. Levels of CXCL1 and CXCL2, and their cognate receptor CXCR2, were measured in/on leukocyte subsets by flow cytometric and quantitative PCR (qPCR) analysis. Bone marrow neutrophils and macrophages were cultured with inflammatory stimuli in vitro prior to measurement of CXCL2 and CXCR2 by qPCR or flow cytometry.ResultsCNS-infiltrating neutrophils and monocytes, and resident microglia, are a prominent source of CXCL2 in the brainstem of IFNγRKO adoptive transfer recipients during aEAE. In WT transfer recipients, IFNγ directly suppresses CXCL2 transcription in microglia and myeloid cells, and CXCR2 transcription in CNS-infiltrating neutrophils. Consequently, infiltration of the brainstem parenchyma from the adjacent meninges is blocked during cEAE. CXCL2 directly stimulates its own expression in cultured neutrophils, which is enhanced by IL-1 and suppressed by IFNγ.ConclusionsWe provide evidence for an IFNγ-regulated CXCR2/CXCL2 autocrine/paracrine feedback loop in innate immune cells that determines the location of CNS infiltrates during Th1-mediated EAE. When IFNγ signaling is impaired, myeloid cell production of CXCL2 increases, which promotes brainstem inflammation and results in clinical ataxia. IFNγ, produced within the CNS of WT recipients, suppresses myeloid cell CXCR2 and CXCL2 production, thereby skewing the location of neuroinflammatory infiltrates to the spinal cord and the clinical phenotype to an ascending paralysis. These data reveal a novel mechanism by which IFNγ and CXCL2 interact to direct regional recruitment of leukocytes in the CNS, resulting in distinct clinical presentations.

While appreciative inquiry (AI) has its origins in organizational development, this article considers the application of AI within a course evaluation in higher education. An AI process was deemed appropriate given its concern for peak performance or life-centric experiences. Former students of a particular course, along with current students, engaged in the discovery and dream stages of the 4D process, after which the researchers engaged in the identification of perceived causes of success and emergent themes that led to the co-construction of a set of aspirational statements (known as provocative propositions) and an action plan for future teaching staff within the course. Engaged in the process, the students willingly wrote and spoke about their lived experiences of the course, constructing and co-constructing ideas that were professional in nature on one hand and deeply personal on the other. The process and outcomes affirmed the application and power of this strengths-based approach to uncover experiential and interpretive data pertinent to the ongoing development and sustainability of an academic course.

Research that seeks to understand the lived experience of the teacher-student relationship is not prevalent. This article reports on a phenomenological inquiry which explored the nature of this relationship in the context of teacher education. Participant's lived experiences were hermeneutically interpreted against the philosophical writings of Heidegger and Gadamer. In this way, the research focused on the teacher-student relationship as it is "experienced" by lecturers and student teachers in pre-service teacher education programs, rather than how it might be "theorised". The research found that relationships are essential and matter to the educational experience whether this is recognised or not. Similarly, a teacher's comportment was found to have a communicative aspect that is felt and sensed. Further, relationships are experienced as a play that is lived beyond the rules of engagement. Consistent with critical approaches to education, this research calls for the re-educating of educators towards essential understandings of relationship and the relational sensibilities that are integral to being in relationship.

This paper reports on findings from a hermeneutic phenomenological research inquiry which explored the nature of relational experiences in teacher education. Stories of the lived experience of relationships in an educational context were hermeneutically interpreted against the philosophical writings of Heidegger, Gadamer, Levinas, and Buber. The research found that relationships are essential to the experience of education whether they are recognised or not. While the relationship matters to the experience, the relationship lies out of sight and is largely taken for granted. On other occasions, the assumption that relationships matter is called into question. In these times, the relationship is a worry to the student and stressful for the teacher. In these moments, concern over the relationship foregrounds the teaching-learning experience for those involved. It is critically important that teacher educators, and teachers alike, become more attentive to how their relationship is with their students individually and collectively. Teacher educators, and teachers alike, need an attunement to notice how relationships are mattering in their immediate context.

This paper reports on findings from a phenomenological inquiry into the nature of the teacher-student relationship. Participants' stories showed that "who we are" and "how we are" is integral to our experiences in education. More specifically, a teacher and a student's way-of-being is essential to the nature of relational experiences. A teacher's comportment ("way-of-being") has been found to have a communicative aspect that is felt and sensed by others. Such comportment is embodied and integral to how teachers and students relate. In a primordial manner, the comportment of the other is felt in the act of relating. When the way a teacher comports is a matter of concern, students become increasingly attuned to the nature and movement of their relating. The outcomes of this research call into question technicist and instrumental models of teacher education that are presently underpinned by the dominant neoliberal ideology. Consistent with critical approaches to education, this research calls for the humanising of the educational experience through the educating and re-educating of teacher educators and teachers toward essential understandings of the influence of comportment on the relational experience we call education. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

This paper reports on a strategy for exploring the life-centric practice of a lecturer in Higher Education. The initiative for this inquiry arose out of the realisation that there did not appear to be positive, heart-lifting stories in a lecturer's current teaching experiences. Using an appreciative eye and supported by a critical friend, life-giving experiences were "stalked" from the past. The hope in this endeavour was to find greater meaning in the lecturer's best professional practice. Using an Appreciative Inquiry approach, this endeavour rejuvenated the lecturer's professional practice. As life-centric stories were recalled, provocative propositions were constructed that became the basis of a personalised action plan for future professional practice. This paper outlines the nature of the journey and the heartfelt discoveries.

Neoliberal ideologies influence both the content and pedagogical approach of educational leadership programmes. This article proposes an alternate pedagogy, one which privileges the experiential nature of the leadership and challenges students to critique prevailing ideologies within education. The authors describe the reshaping of a compulsory, foundational academic paper within a Masters of educational leadership programme to focus on the phenomenon of leadership more explicitly. They illustrate the use of student stories and hermeneutic interpretation to deepen the appreciation of the contextual nature of educational leadership practice. The authors suggest that the influence of this pedagogical approach resides in the sincerity of the pedagogical comportment of the teaching faculty and the elusiveness of the taken-for-granted nature of leadership. They conclude that pedagogical processes that maintain a centrality of concern for the humanity of leadership experiences are a matter of urgency in our present educational context.

The systemic influence of the neoliberal ideology, with its political and social business rationalities, appears to be having an impact on a teacher's way of being. In this context, the ontological nature of teachers' conversations is largely hidden and seemingly silent. This study reports on the findings of a hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry exploring teachers' ways of 'being in' conversations (Schubert, 2018). Everyday teacher experiences of being in conversation were described by participants and interpreted for powerful phenomenological themes against the backdrop of the philosophical writings of Heidegger. Conversations were shown to have a human condition of 'thrownness'. Yet conversations are imbued with linguistic meanings, interrupted in moments of unrest and uncertainty, which are felt by teachers. These moments glimpsed the nature of a teacher's ways of being a teacher. Teacher's ways of being notice, see, feel and act with intent. In their human capacity the teachers sought to question, what is good, and to act with intentionality toward the human wellbeing of others. In summary this research inquiry challenges the dominant ideology that labels quality teaching in managerial terms. It is a timely paper addressing the reductionism that occurs when humans are seen as merely products serving a system.

Educational discourse has often struggled to genuinely move beyond deficit-based language. Even action research, a predominant model for teacher development, starts with the identification of a problem (Cardno 2003). It would appear that the vocabulary for a hope-filled discourse which captures the imagination and influences our future educational activity seems to have escaped us. Moreover, we seem bereft of educational contexts where the experience for students is holistic and transformative. Appreciative inquiry is a research approach that seeks to facilitate change based on participants' actual experiences of best practice (Cady & Caster 2000, Cooperrider & Srivastva 1987, English, Fenwick & Parsons 2003, Hammond 1998, Hammond & Royal 1998). Based on assumptions that "in every organisation something works" and "if we are to carry anything of our past forward in our lives, it should be the good things", appreciative inquiry energises participants to reach for higher ideals (Hammond 1998, Hammond & Royal 1998). Rather than giving priority to the problems in our current practice, appreciative inquiry gives attention to evidence of successful practice. In this way, proponents describe it as "dream forming" and "destiny creating". This paper will outline an appreciative inquiry with adult students in the context of a tertiary bridging program. The inquiry was able to capture the students' stories of transformative learning experiences.

The two-parameter distribution known as the Kumaraswamy distribution is a very flexible alternative to the beta distribution with the same (0,1) support. Originally proposed in the field of hydrology, it has subsequently received a good deal of positive attention in both the theoretical and applied statistics literatures. Interestingly, the problem of testing formally for the appropriateness of the Kumaraswamy distribution appears to have received little or no attention to date. To fill this gap, in this paper, we apply a "biased transformation" methodology to several standard goodness-of-fit tests based on the empirical distribution function. A simulation study reveals that these (modified) tests perform well in the context of the Kumaraswamy distribution, in terms of both their low size distortion and respectable power. In particular, the "biased transformation" Anderson–Darling test dominates the other tests that are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the capabilities of a compact dual-wavelength depolarization lidar to assess the spatiotemporal variations in aerosol properties aboard moving vectors. Our approach involves coupling the lightweight Cimel CE376 lidar, which provides measurements at 532 and 808 nm and depolarization at 532 nm , with a photometer to monitor aerosol properties. The assessments, both algorithmic and instrumental, were conducted at ATOLL (ATmospheric Observatory of LiLle) platform operated by the Laboratoire d'Optique Atmosphérique (LOA), in Lille, France. An early version of the CE376 lidar co-located with the CE318-T photometer and with a multi-wavelength Raman lidar were considered for comparisons and validation. We developed a modified Klett inversion method for simultaneous two-wavelength elastic lidar and photometer measurements. Using this setup, we characterized aerosols during two distinct events of Saharan dust and dust smoke aerosols transported over Lille in spring 2021 and summer 2022. For validation purposes, comparisons against the Raman lidar were performed, demonstrating good agreement in aerosol properties with relative differences of up to 12 % in the depolarization measurements. Moreover, a first dataset of CE376 lidar and photometer performing on-road measurements was obtained during the FIREX-AQ (Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality) field campaign deployed in summer 2019 over the northwestern USA. By lidar and photometer mapping in 3D, we investigated the transport of released smoke from active fire spots at William Flats (northeast WA, USA). Despite extreme environmental conditions, our study enabled the investigation of aerosol optical properties near the fire source, distinguishing the influence of diffuse, convective, and residual smoke. Backscatter, extinction profiles, and column-integrated lidar ratios at 532 and 808 nm were derived for a quality-assured dataset. Additionally, the extinction Ångström exponent (EAE), color ratio (CR), attenuated color ratio (ACR), and particle linear depolarization ratio (PLDR) were derived. In this study, we discuss the capabilities (and limitations) of the CE376 lidar in bridging observational gaps in aerosol monitoring, providing valuable insights for future research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]