By Context (by + context)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Stories of Schools/Teacher Stories: A Two-Part Invention on the Walls Theme

CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 1 2000
Cheryl J. Craig
Patterned in the style of a musical invention, this work adopts Clandinin and Connelly's metaphor of a professional knowledge landscape (1995), Olson's conceptualization of the narrative authority (1993, 1995) of teacher knowledge, and my idea that teachers develop their knowledge in knowledge communities (Craig 1992, 1995a, 1995b, 1998). The first invention outlines the stories of school (Clandinin & Connelly 1996) that Riverview School and Evergreen School were given and the changes that take place over time. The second invention features beginning teacher, Benita Dalton, and her narratives of experience lived and told in the two school contexts. Relating the teacher's stories to the narrative accounts of the two campuses illustrates the extent to which context shapes teachers' practices and bounds their knowing. The work sheds much light on the subtle complexities of teachers' professional knowledge landscapes and adds to the conceptual base of a line of inquiry that focuses on the shaping effect of context on teachers' knowledge developments. An invention, loosely defined, involves the creation, through thought and/or action, of something that did not exist before. Written in the style of a musical invention, this piece is composed of two parts featuring the stories of two schools played against the evolving stories of a teacher who worked in both contexts. While the two parts of the invention both develop the walls theme, each unfolds in a different manner. The two variations which constitute the first part of the invention center on the stories of school (Clandinin & Connelly 1996) that Riverview School and Evergreen School were given and examines how these stories changed over time. The two variations that comprise the second part of the invention highlight beginning teacher, Benita Dalton, her stories of experience (Connelly & Clandinin 1990) lived and told at the two schools, and shifts that took place in her knowledge development. Connecting the fine-grained accounts of an individual with the coarse-grained accounts of schools reveals the extent to which stories of school influence teachers' practices, set the horizons of what is available for teachers to come to know, and adds to the conceptual base of a line of research that examines the how teachers' knowledge developments are influenced by context. The work begins with introductions to Benita Dalton and me, the teacher and the researcher in the study. Discussions of the research method and the theoretical framework appear next. These preliminary sketches prepare the reader for the two-part invention that follows. They lay the methodological groundwork as well as provide lenses with which to view, and a language with which to describe, contextual experiences. The next segment of the piece is Part I of the Invention comprised of Variation I: A Narrative Account of Riverview School, Variation II: A Narrative Account of Evergreen School, and a reflective coda on stories of schools. These passages bring the first part of the invention to closure. Next comes Invention II, the second movement of the piece, featuring Variation I: A Story of Benita's Experience at Riverview and Variation II: A Story of Benita's Experience at Evergreen. As with the first part of the invention, a reflective coda appears at the end of Benita's stories of experience that concludes the second part of the invention. The article ends with a grand finale, where the parallel stories developed in the invention's two parts are intentionally brought together for practical and theoretical purposes. These closing passages specifically address the principle question, the simple melody around which this two-part inquiry/invention has been constructed/composed: How does context affect teachers' knowledge developments? [source]


Short-Term Reliability and Continuity of Emotional Availability in Mother,Child Dyads Across Contexts of Observation

INFANCY, Issue 1 2006
Marc H. Bornstein
Emotional availability (EA) is a prominent index of socioemotional adaptation in the parent,child dyad. Is EA affected by context? In this methodological study, 34 mothers and their 2-year-olds were observed in 2 different settings (home vs. laboratory) 1 week apart. Significant cross-context reliability and continuity in EA as measured with the Emotional Availability Scales emerged. Because EA is not affected by context, cross-context generalizations about EA status in the dyad may be warranted. This work further documents the adequate psychometric properties of emotional availability. [source]


The International Relations of Middle-earth: Learning from The Lord of the Rings

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES PERSPECTIVES, Issue 4 2008
Abigail E. Ruane
This article demonstrates how by using J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (LOTR) as a text in the classroom instructors can relay the international relations (IR) "Great Debates" and feminist "waves" to students through the framework of "where you stand depends on where you sit." It overviews how J.R.R. Tolkien's acclaimed trilogy is relevant to learning about IR and then presents a number of "cuts" into using LOTR to inform IR teaching of both problem solving and critical theory. It begins by parsing the three "Great Debates" of IR theory and three "waves" of feminist theory in terms of different worldviews by relating them to characters from the trilogy. Next, the paper suggests that a critical evaluation of this analysis conveys that concerns, goals, and understandings of problems and insecurities are influenced (although not determined) by context, such as gender, race, class, sexuality, and postcolonial position. It concludes by suggesting that further use of popular culture and the humanities can help IR teaching both illustrate and critically reflect on IR scholarship. [source]


Analysing Texts in Context: Current Practices and New Protocols for Critical Discourse Analysis in Organization Studies

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 6 2010
Shirley Leitch
abstract Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in organization studies would be strengthened by an increased focus on a central CDA tenet that texts should be analysed in context. Context has, for the most part, been afforded a taken-for-granted status that is misplaced because of the diverse ways in which it may be defined and applied. These generally unacknowledged differences relate to whether context is treated as space, time, practice, change, or frame. The result is a confusing array of studies claiming some degree of CDA status without core agreement , or acknowledgement of disagreements , about what is meant by context or how it should be linked to texts. To remedy this situation we identify in this Point article nine methodological protocols related to conceptual definitions, data selection, and data analysis which we argue benefit the consistency and rigour with which CDA in organization studies is applied. Use of these protocols may also serve as criteria against which the rigour of CDA research papers may be assessed. [source]


The Present and Future of MFT Doctoral Education in Research-Focused Universities

JOURNAL OF MARITAL AND FAMILY THERAPY, Issue 3 2010
Douglas H. Sprenkle
Doctoral education is greatly impacted by context, and the large majority of marital and family therapy (MFT) doctoral programs are PhD programs in research-focused universities. I believe their primary mission is to equip students to become scientist,practitioners and do original research that will advance the science of the discipline, whereas the mission of the typical master's program is to produce strong practitioners who are research informed. It is the emphasis on the scientific method, not the content specialty area, that should be the hallmark of PhD programs in research-focused contexts. I describe metrics for success that include not only research productivity but also the development of a supportive, open, flexible, and generous program culture. The research mission of these programs has been only modestly helped by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education process and the programs are largely not doing the programmatic intervention research that the field needs. As the universities that house these programs are also "raising the bar," the long-term viability of the programs themselves will likely hinge on success in this arena. [source]


Multilevel Models in Family Research: Some Conceptual and Methodological Issues

JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 2 2002
Jay Teachman
Examining the impact of context on individual-level outcomes has become an increasingly common undertaking in the social sciences. The growth in concern for identifying the effects of macrolevel characteristics has generated both theoretical and methodological advancements. In this issue of Journal of Marriage and Family, Butler (2002) researches whether the effect of welfare benefit levels on premarital childbearing varies by context, Hoffmann (2002) researches the effect of context on adolescent drug use, and Simons et al. (2002) examine how the relationship between parenting and child conduct varies by context. These articles are used as a background to discuss important theoretical and methodological issues surrounding the analysis of multilevel data. The authors present a simple analysis of data pertaining to age at first marriage taken from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and merged with census data to measure contextual effects as a pedagogical device for introducing readers to the benefits of multilevel modeling. [source]


Science versus Human Welfare?

JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 3 2009
Understanding Attitudes toward Animal Use
Scientists have been portrayed as having an uncaring attitude toward the use of animals and being inclined to reject the possibility of animal mind (Baldwin, 1993; Blumberg & Wasserman, 1995), yet there is little empirical research to support these claims. We examined why disparate attitudes toward animal use are held. Scientists, animal welfarists, and laypersons (N = 372) were compared on questionnaire responses that measured attitudes toward four types of animal use, and factors that might underlie these views (including belief in animal mind). As expected, scientists and animal welfarists held polarized views on all measures, whereas laypersons fell between the two. Animal welfarists were consistently opposed to all types of animal use, whereas scientists expressed support for the use of animals for medical research, but not for dissection, personal decoration, and entertainment. Animal welfarists showed high levels of belief in animal mind for 13 animal types, and scientists believed some of the 13 animals to have at least a moderate capacity for cognition and most to have at least a moderate capacity for sentience. Hence, the negative image of the science community that is often portrayed was not supported by our data. Findings were discussed in relation to external (group membership) and internal (belief systems) factors, and it is concluded that some people hold fixed attitudes toward animal use, whereas others are more influenced by context. [source]


GENOCIDAL MUTATION AND THE CHALLENGE OF DEFINITION

METAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 4 2010
HENRY C. THERIAULT
Abstract: The optimum definition of the term "genocide" has been hotly contested almost since the term was coined. Definitional boundaries determine which acts are covered and excluded and thus to a great extent which cases will benefit from international attention, intervention, prosecution, and reparation. The extensive legal, political, and scholarly discussions prior to this article have typically (1) assumed "genocide" to be a fixed social object and attempted to define it as precisely as possible or (2) assumed the need for a fixed convention and sought to stipulate the range of events that should be denoted by the term. Even if its meaning is a matter of convention, however, "genocide" is not a fixed object but varies by context and evolves in methods and forms over time. In fact, as relevant laws, legal interpretations, and political commitments develop, so do would-be perpetrators modify what genocide is in order to avoid political and legal consequences. This article advances an approach to a definition of "genocide" that allows even legal definitions to keep pace with this evolutionary process. [source]