Search results for " Inquiry"
showing 10 items of 135 documents
Whose Narrative is it Anyway? Narratives of Social Innovation in Rural Areas – A Comparative Analysis of Community‐Led Initiatives in Scotland and Sp…
2020
Social innovation is a process in which local communities build social and cultural capital to address challenges and social needs. The diffusion of social innovation requires compelling narratives that encourage people to join them. Using qualitative techniques and a multiple case study methodology, this paper examines the content of narratives of social innovation in rural areas and how actors construct, spread and change them. We propose a narrative analytical framework comprising four key components: problematisation; solutions and goals; actors; and plot, which we apply to three initiatives in Scotland and Spain. Our findings suggest that marginalisation, the natural environment and co…
The first year of the “open discovery of stem laboratories” (ODL) project
2018
The Open Discovery of STEM Laboratories (ODL) project, co-funded by the European Community Erasmus+ KA2 program for 30 months, starting from November 2015, involves five countries: Spain, Italy, Greece, Estonia and Lithuania. It aims to implement teacher collaboration in creating and using μMOOCs (very short version of MOOCs-Massive Open Online Courses) for encouraging the use of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) remote/virtual laboratories into lessons. The challenge of the project is to impact on teaching process and inspire pedagogical innovation and modernization by means of open education resources, teaching/learning tools and best practices provided by European e…
The relevance of biographic narratives for social workers’ professional memory, reflexivity and identity
2020
The present article is about the use of biographic methods and oral history, and its contribution to developing processes of critical reflection and reflexivity. It is based on a set of oral data collected from Portuguese social workers who played an active role in the revolutionary phase during the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Portugal (following the 25th April 1974 military coup). The article explores how the use of biographic methods (integrated within a historical methodological framework), other than simply producing accounts of past experiences, allowed interviewees to re-capture, re-interpret and re-signify their own experiences in the light of changing professional …
Online Supportive Group as social intervention to face COVID lockdown. A qualitative study on psychotherapists, psychology trainees and students, and…
2021
Several psychological interventions have been activated to help people during the Coronavirus pandemic, and research highlights the crucial role of group interventions as a space for sharing and processing the psychological experiences linked to this emergency and the consequent changes in people’s lifestyles. In this context, psychologists are mostly providers of this kind of service more than users. This study aimed at investigating and comparing post-hoc the subjective experience of psychotherapists, psychology trainees & students, and individuals of the general population who participated in a psychodynamically-oriented supportive group intervention. Fifty-two subjects were enrolled…
Paternal masculinities in early fatherhood: dominant and counter narratives by Finnish first-time fathers
2013
In this article, we seek to extend understanding of the role of gender in early fatherhood by examining narratives of paternal masculinities, that is, the social and cultural constructions of gendered practices and conventions produced by men on their roles as male parents. The data comprised interviews with 44 Finnish first-time fathers (aged 20-42 years) living in a heterosexual relationship. The narrative of the “decent father,” was identified as the dominant narrative of paternal masculinity in early fatherhood. Although the narrative was characterized by some important gendered differences, it was also in line with the well-known concept of the “new father.” Two counter narratives, la…
Practical applications of naturalistic inquiry in intercultural education
2021
In recent years, the field of intercultural communication has seen a remarkable shift characterized by a growth in publications that distance themselves from the traditional, essentialist understanding of culture. In research, this shift is reflected in approaches that appreciate culture-in-action instead of taking culture for granted as a stable entity that pre-exists social interaction and predicts as well as explains human behavior. However, despite attempts to introduce differentiated views on culture and interculturality in education, concrete options for critical intercultural training are scarce and often remain abstract, which makes their application challenging. This article argues…
‘School, family and then hockey!’ Coaches’ views on dual career in ice hockey
2017
Despite the extensive research into coaches’ roles in supporting athletic development and motivation for sport, few studies have examined coaches’ attitudes and practices towards athletes’ dual careers. The present study extends European research into athletes’ dual careers by examining Finnish ice hockey coaches’ attitudes and practices surrounding players’ education. Ten male coaches aged 27–52 participated in semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed with an existential-narrative theoretical framework and with thematic and structural narrative analysis. Three composite vignettes were created entitled ‘supporting athletic development and players in reaching their own goals’, ‘enj…
Climbing for equality: overcoming social inequality through sport : a narrative inquiry into the sport lives of five visually disabled climbers in Me…
2016
This master thesis is a qualitative narrative inquiry that illustrates and explores the stories of five visually disabled participants who took up the practice of rock climbing and mountaineering as a means to overcome social inequality. The researcher’s role within the study was that of active participation by being the coach and mountain guide for the participants over a period of five years. This narrative analysis reconstructs the stories of the participants in a coherent thematic analysis from a Marxist historical perspective, explaining how inequality towards the participants was created, by using the concept of Cultural Hegemony from Antonio Gramsci. The mentioned methodology was cho…
Critical stance within a community of inquiry in an advanced mathematics course for pre-service teachers
2020
AbstractThis paper reports a study of university students’ experiences of learning mathematics in an introductory differential equations course that takes an inquiry approach to learning and teaching. The students are on a trajectory leading toward a bachelor’s degree in mathematics to be followed by a year-long teacher education credential program. The analysis of students’ end of course presentations and written portfolios is framed with community of practice theory, complemented with analytic categories from community of inquiry, including notions of inquiry stance and critical alignment. Our social theorization of university mathematics education adds a complementary perspective to the …
Fathers’ narratives on support and agency : a case study of fathers in a Finnish child welfare NGO
2017
In Finland, one of the Nordic countries, shared parenting is widely supported through, e.g. family policies and legislation. This is also evident in daily parental practices, as fathers’ share in childcare has increased notably since the late 1980s. Unfortunately, this is not the whole picture of Finnish and Nordic fatherhood: practitioners in child welfare also encounter many fathers with various problems in parenting and life management. In this article, we examine the narratives of fathers who have sought and received support from a Finnish nationwide child welfare NGO. Our research question is: What types of narratives on seeking and receiving support and on their agency do fathers prod…