Search results for "Agency"

Identity, agency and community: reconsidering the pedagogic responsibilities of teacher education

2014

This article presents a model for teacher education based on an ongoing action research project at a Finnish university. This model draws on the educational theory of Dewey and the pedagogical sensibility of Bakhtin to critically consider the concepts of teacher identity and agency and to highlight the role of community in teacher development. Our aim is to propose a model that supports the development of new directions in teacher education that would better prepare teachers to face the challenges in their future work by engaging with the educational community in the present. peerReviewed

Feedback on individual academic presentations: exploring Finnish university students’ experiences and preferences

2015

With an increasing emphasis on measuring the outcomes of learning in higher education, assessment is gaining an ever more prominent role in curriculum design and development as well as in instructional practices. In formative assessment, feedback is regarded as a powerful pedagogical tool driving student engagement and deep learning. The efficacy of feedback, however, depends on a multitude of factors. From a learning cultures perspective (James 2014), assessment strives for an appropriate balance between structural constraints and individual agency. To have a better grasp of how feedback functions in practice, it is useful to investigate students’ views and preferences as well as the immed…

Science in space vs space science: The European utilisation of spacelab∗

1999

Abstract Spacelab is the conventional name given to a manned laboratory to be carried onboard NASA's Space Shuttle, which was built in Europe under the aegis of the European Space Agency (ESA). This paper deals with the initiatives undertaken in Europe to establish a utilisation programme for Spacelab, in particular for its first flight, planned as a joint ESA/NASA demonstration mission. Two main factors will be discussed, which prevented ESA from establishing a sizeable Spacelab utilisation effort. Firstly, owing to the cost escalation of the Spacelab development programme and to NASA's charging policy for access to the Shuttle system, which did not foressee any preferential treatment to E…

Chinese Green Tea in Mali, Cultural Mobility and African Agency in the Global South

2020

Abstract The paper offers insights from ethnographic research that reach beyond general assumptions of the working of globalization, especially in the Global South. It examines the ways in which the arrival of products made in China, namely green tea, has influenced the everyday of people in Mali, modifying consumption practices and the business landscape. Chinese green tea, which is known in the Sahel countries of West Africa since the 19th century, has gradually found more and more consumers in Mali, so that from the 2000s onwards tons of green tea arrive every month in the country. Most Malians, the paper shows, consume green tea several times a day and identify with the beverage to such…

Do Homeric Heroes Make Real Decisions?

1990

Bruno Snell has made familiar a certain thesis about the Homeric poems, to the effect that these poems depict a primitive form of mindedness. The area of mindedness concerned is agency, and the content of the thesis is that Homeric agents are not agents in the fullest sense: they do not make choices in clear self-awareness of what they are doing; choices are madeforthem rather thanbythem; in some cases the instigators of action are gods, in other cases they are forces acting internally on the agent and over which he has no control. Homeric heroes act in the way Descartes thought an animal acts: agitur, non agit. Such agents ‘handeln nicht eigentlich (d.h. mil vollem Bewuβtsein eigenen Hande…

Women cross borders: economic migration in contemporary Italian and Polish graphic novels

2014

This article provides a comparative analysis of two European graphic novels of the past decade that focus on the theme of female economic migration, namely Sara Colaone’s Ciao ciao bambina (2010) and Agata Wawryniuk’s Rozmowki polsko-angielskie (2012). By exploring these two distinctive immigrant stories, which depict the Italian migration to Switzerland in the 1950s and the contemporary Polish migration to Britain, respectively, this article illustrates the shifting experiences of mobility in Europe across decades. While the Italian narrative presents the stay abroad as a chance to achieve independence and personal fulfilment, the Polish comic views it as a mere financial opportunity. This…

The Palestinian Refugee Camps In Jordan: Between National Identity and Socio-economic Integration

2004

At least 50 per cent of the population of Jordan is of Palestinian origin. Some 20 per cent of the registered refugees live in ten internationally organized camps, and another 20 per cent in four locally organized camps and numerous informal camps. The camps organized by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) play a major role in keeping Palestinian identity alive. That identity reflects the refugees' rich cultural traditions, political activities, as well as their collective memory, and the distinct character of each camp. Over the past two decades integration of the refugees within Jordanian society has increased. This paper analyses th…

Structure and agency in capabilities-enhancing homeless services: Housing first, housing quality and consumer choice

2021

The capabilities approach, a framework for understanding and measuring inequality, stipulates that equality is best understood as the freedom to do and be within a particular context. Homelessness has been referred to as a situation of ‘capabilities deprivation’, and the extent to which homeless services restore or enhance capabilities is of increasing interest. As part of a large, eight-country study of homelessness in Europe, we examined the extent to which adults with histories of perceived the services they receive as capabilities-enhancing. We collected data at two time points: baseline (nt1 = 565) and follow-up (nt2 = 399). Measures included perceived capabilities, choice and housing …

Ágencia és a változatosság kezelése Magyarországi iskolák nyelvi tájképében [Agency and the management of diversity in the linguistic landscape of Hu…

2016

Oral CorticoSteroid sparing with biologics in severe asthma: A remark of the Severe Asthma Network in Italy (SANI)

2020

According to the data derived from several national and international registries, including SANI (Severe Asthma Network Italy), and considering the strong impact that frequent or regular use of oral corticosteroid has on quality of life (QoL) of severe asthmatics, as well as on the costs for managing corticosteroid-related diseases, oral corticosteroid sparing up to withdrawal should be considered a primary outcome in the management of severe asthma. New biologics have clearly demonstrated that this effect is possible, with concomitant reduction in the rate of exacerbations and in symptom control. Then, there is no reason for using so frequently oral corticosteroid before having explored al…