For decades, remedial education in math and English language coursework has been viewed as essential for social equity in US higher education, ensuring access to college for millions of students wh...

The scope of a heuristic decision making rule is a product of its fit to the context, the extension to which a heuristic can be applied successfully. To achieve effective outcomes, decision makers may use a few heuristics with large scopes or many with narrow scopes. Through a directed review of the literature combined with ethnographic research, this paper contributes to the debate on the problem of scope in three types of heuristics, namely, multipliers, thresholds, and calends. The scope of (...) heuristic rules can be explored from different aspects, including the field in which a heuristic rule is applied and specific parameters that are used in a heuristic decision making process. The three types of heuristic rules we analyze were encountered in our ethnographic research, that was based on phenomenological interviews and observations. For these heuristics we discuss their scopes in through to the following organizing structures: the exploration of the adaptive tool-box, the role of ethnographic methodologies, and the categorization of heuristics. (shrink)

Laboratory activities play a crucial role in the conceptual understanding of the theoretical aspects of physics. Traditional guided lab activities emphasize a teacher-centric pedagogical approach in which learners are merely passive recipients of the content knowledge as delivered by the teacher. The authors in their professional journey at engineering institutions were also guided by the traditional laboratory approach in the teaching and learning process inside the physics laboratory. During our professional journey at engineering institutions, we felt that students had difficulty (...) demonstrating the science process skills and employing the theoretical aspects in real-world situations. The primary objective of this research was to explore the lab activities inside the physics laboratory at diploma engineering institutions in the Kathmandu district of Nepal. For this purpose, an ethnographic method was employed in which multiple laboratory sessions were observed, and open-ended and unstructured interviews were conducted with the research participants at different locations through in-person and online processes. In addition, social constructivist learning theory was utilized in this research process. The findings lead to the conclusion that traditional guided laboratory activities prevailed inside the physics lab of those institutions under study. -/- . (shrink)

This is Not a Seminar is a multidisciplinary forum established in 2012 at Edith Cowan University in Australia to support practice-led and practice-based Higher Degree by Research students. The Faculty of Education and Arts at ECU includes cohorts of postgraduate research students in, for example, performance, design, writing and visual arts. We established the TINAS programme to assist postgraduate research students in connecting their creative practices to methodological, theoretical and conceptual approaches whilst fostering an atmosphere of rapport across creative disciplines. (...) The pilot programme conducted for six months in 2012 comprised dialogues with experienced creative researchers; critical reading sessions on practice-led theory; and workshops in journaling, ethics and copyright. This article is a reflection on the strengths and limitations of TINAS and future projections. More than an additional teaching and learning service, the programme has become a vital forum for creative dialogue. (shrink)

This commentary elaborates on the ideas and projects outlined in this special issue, from a specifically sociological perspective. Much recent work in sociology proposes ‘methods mashups’ of ethnography and digital data/computational tools in different and diverse ways. However, typically, these have taken the form of applying the principles of ethnography to new domains and data types, as if ethnography itself is stable and immutable; that it has a universal set of methodological principles that unify ethnographic practice. Returning to anthropology is, (...) therefore, a useful way to extend our methodological thinking to consider what ethnography is and how it operates, and from there think more clearly about how it may be effectively combined with digital data/computational tools in an emerging ‘Computational Anthropology’. (shrink)

This article adapts the ethnographic medium of the diary to develop a method for studying data and related data practices. The article focuses on the creation of one data diary, developed iteratively over three years in the context of a national centre for monitoring disasters and natural hazards in Brazil. We describe four points of focus involved in the creation of a data diary – spaces, interfaces, types and situations – before reflecting on the value of this method. We suggest (...) data diaries are able to capture the informal dimension of data-intensive organisations; enable empirical analysis of the specific ways that data intervene in the unfolding of situations; and as a document, data diaries can foster interdisciplinary and inter-expert dialogue by bridging different ways of knowing data. (shrink)

This paper presents a participant-centred virtue ethics approach, the Ọmọlúàbí moral-ethical framework, which moves beyond researcher-centred reflexivity to incorporate participants’ moral virtues...

Many services can assist autistic people, such as early intervention, vocational services, or support groups. Scholars and activists debate whether such services should be autism-specific or more general/inclusive/mainstream. This debate rests on not only clinical reasoning, but also ethical and social reasoning about values and practicalities of diversity and inclusion. This paper presents qualitative results from a mixed-methods study. An online survey asked autistic adults and parents of autistic people of any age in Canada, the United States, Italy, France, and (...) Germany what types of services they prefer (autism-specific, mixed-disability, or general/inclusive/mainstream). This paper presents the advantages and disadvantages of different service types, identified through inductive thematic coding and organized into higher-level themes focusing on clinical, structural, societal, interpersonal, and personal aspects of services. Autism-specific services were praised for addressing autism needs, helping clinically, and providing interpersonal benefits of others understanding autism; general services were praised for inclusion, helping clinically, community obligations and awareness, and social skills development. Looking at the interaction of these different aspects in respondent narratives nuances debates about autism-specificity, with a complex interplay between clinical, interpersonal, and societal aspects. Clinical and social perspectives are not necessarily separate and opposed, but intertwined based on different understandings of inclusion. Compared to parents, adults focused more on harm/safety issues, enjoyment, and stereotyping among other themes, attending to personal themes. These findings do not identify one best service type, but suggest that determining the right service in a given context may be informed by definitions of and goals about inclusion. (shrink)

Creativity has become an oft-used word in UK public policy, but perhaps it is also under-imagined. This paper contends that there is an instrumental tendency to narrowly frame creativity as innovation, implying a reproducible product, instead of more openly as improvisation, a situational, embodied and temporal process. This is not a simple dichotomy (innovation and improvisation, product and process, can be mutually informing concepts), nor is it specifically a question of definition; rather, it relates to an ontological orientation, and related (...) to that are issues of epistemological implications. In particular the paper is concerned with the value of the arts in public policy, as situated in the social, and therefore human, spaces of health and care; and more generally the arts in society. The paper brings together a broad discussion from across disciplines, not in an interdisciplinary attempt to solve a problem, or to be reductive in the analysis, but to begin to approach a reorienting of understandings of creativity and the human value and foundation of the arts in society. (shrink)

Sacred Harp singers the world over gather weekly to sing out ofThe Sacred Harp, a collection of shape-note songs first published in 1844. Their tradition is highly ritualized, and it plays an important role in the lives of many participants. Following the implementation of lockdown protocols to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, groups of Sacred Harp singers quickly and independently devised a variety of means by which to sing together online using Zoom, Jamulus, and Facebook Live. The rapidity and creativity with (...) which Sacred Harp singers developed ways to sustain their activities attests to the strength and significance of this community of practice, and in this article I describe each modality and provide an account of how it came to be developed and widely used. As a participant-observer, I completed extensive fieldwork across these digital sites and conducted semi-structured interviews with 22 other singers. I found that online singing practices have reshaped the Sacred Harp community. Many singers who did not previously have the opportunity to participate now have access, while others have lost access due to technological barriers or lack of interest in online activities. At the same time, geographical barriers have disintegrated, and singing organizers must make an effort to maintain local identity. A stable community of singers has emerged in the digital realm, but it is by no means identical to the community that predated the pandemic. I also identify the ways in which online singing has proven meaningful to participants by providing continuity in their personal and communal practice. Specifically, online singing allows participants to access and celebrate their collective memories of the Sacred Harp community, carry out significant rituals, and continue to grow as singers. While no single modality replicates the complete Sacred Harp singing experience, together they function “like pieces in a puzzle”, allowing individual participants to access many of the elements of Sacred Harp singing that are most meaningful to them. (shrink)