How to support a colleague under attack

Mobbing and courage to stand with colleagues

Equity Mathematics Education

(Paraphrased from Grollman’s Inside Hire Ed article, “Scholars Under Attack”)

Individual-Level Strategies

• Assume that the targeted scholar is already aware of the attack against them.  Do not tagging the targeted scholar on social media if and when you share links from the attack or stories about the attack.
• Offer to take over keeping up with what is written about the targeted scholar so that they do not have to.
• Make an informed decision about whether to point out the attack to others.
• If you decide to raise awareness about an attack, be mindful that some colleagues (especially department colleagues and administrators at the targeted scholar’s institution) may be prompted to act in a way that harms the targeted scholar.
• Ask what they need and extend an offer of support.
• Say something more helpful or useful than “you must be doing something right!”
• Counter the attack with supportive notes and…

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Examining the Examiner: Investigating the assessment literacy of external examiners

assessing assessors…..

srhe

By Dr Emma Medland

Quality assurance in higher education has become increasingly dominant worldwide, but has recently been subject to mounting criticism. Research has highlighted challenges to comparability of academic standards and regulatory frameworks. The external examining system is a form of professional self-regulation involving an independent peer reviewer from another HE institution, whose role is to provide quality assurance in relation to identified modules/programmes/qualifications etc. This system has been a distinctive feature of UK higher education for nearly 200 years and is considered best practice internationally, being evident in various forms across the world.

External examiners are perceived as a vital means of maintaining comparable standards across higher education and yet this comparability is being questioned. Despite high esteem for the external examiner system, growing criticisms have resulted in a cautious downgrading of the role. One critique focuses on developing standardised procedures that emphasise consistency and equivalency in an…

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Employee Participation in the Workplace and Political Participation in Civil Society

worth pondering

SAGE Business and Management INK

[We’re pleased to welcome authors John W. Budd of the University of Minnesota, Ryan Lamare of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Andrew R. Timming of the University of Western Australia.  Dr. Lamare recently published an article in theILR Reviewentitled “Learning About Democracy at Work: Cross-National Evidence on the Effects of Employee Participation in Workplace Decision-Making on Political Participation in Civil Society,” which is currently free to read for a limited time. Below, Dr. Ryan Lamare reflects on the inspiration for conducting this research:]

Very early observers of modern work were very concerned that what happens at work doesn’t always stay at work. Adam Smith and Karl Marx, for example, feared that mind-numbing factory work would squash workers’ ability and drive to be active, deliberative members of their community. In recent years, the potential linkage between workplace conditions and political participation has been framed in more…

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TJ, the Singapore Sentencing Conference, and Beyond

insight into therapeutic jurisprudence

The ISTJ Blog

Professor David B. Wexler writes…

As we enter the year 2018, it is exciting to look back over the last year to see the important therapeutic jurisprudence activities and developments in various locales across the globe—including Prague, where , in July, the International Society for Therapeutic Jurisprudence was launched; and meaningful conferences in which I was privileged to participate in Australia, Argentina, Japan, and, most recently, in Singapore.

Australia has long been a TJ leader (and held a major conference in April 2017), and we are now seeing other nations improving their justice systems via the use of a TJ perspective.

In Argentina, for example, in May, three meetings were held and a full-fledged chapter of the Iberoamerican Association of Therapeutic Jurisprudence was established.

In September, Japan held a well-attended conference, and boasted a Therapeutic Jurisprudence Institute at the Seijo University Law School (I blogged about…

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Historians Activate!: The Year in Activist History

activist historians

The Activist History Review

On the day Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45^th President of the United States, The Activist History Review published its first article. The timing wasn’t a coincidence. In the first week following the 2016 election, we began discussing the possibility of creating an online journal devoted to exploring the relationship between history and social change. The events surrounding Donald Trump’s rise demonstrate more clearly than ever the urgency of understanding that relationship.

Trump’s campaign was built on appeals to the fears of white voters who perceived a black president and woman candidate as threats to their influence and comfort in society. Those fears do not exist in a vacuum. They are ever-present reminders that the centuries of accumulated power relations that defined our past continue to define our present. At its founding, the United States was home to a society that empowered wealthy, white men over all…

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The Blind Historian, and Other Fables

history and activism’s debts

The Activist History Review

I wouldn’t be a historian if it weren’t for my disability.

At the age of 12 I was diagnosed with a degenerative condition known as retinitis pigmentosa. Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited disorder caused by a gene mutation that makes the pigmented layer of cells in the retina malfunction so that dead rods and cones build up in the retina and keep new ones from taking their place. The result is gradual and largely unimpeded retinal cell death over the course of a person’s life. I may, at some unknown date in the future, be totally blind. But, retinitis pigmentosa is a highly individualized disorder that impacts everyone differently and proceeds at different paces depending on a nearly limitless variety of factors. In general terms, however, it always leads to the death of rod cells first. Because rod cells are largely responsible for peripheral and night vision, those abilities are…

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Re-considering the Question of “Why” in Qualitative Research

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Research Design Review

It is easy to fall into the trap of relying on the “why” question when conducting qualitative research. After all, the use of qualitative research is often supported with the claim that qualitative methods enable the researcher to reach beyond quantitative numerical data to grasp the meaning and motivations – that is, the why – associated with particular attitudes and behavior. And it is in this spirit that researchers frequently find themselves with interview and discussion guides full of “why” questions – Why do you say you are happy? Why do you prefer one political candidate over another? Why do you diet? Why do you believe in God? Why do you use a tablet rather than a laptop computer?

Yet “why” is rarely the question worth asking. In fact, asking “why” questions can actually have a negative effect on data collection (i.e., Credibility) and contribute bias to qualitative data…

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research a2

Research Design Review

Research Design Review currently includes 180 articles concerning quantitative and qualitative research design issues.  As in recent years, the articles published in 2017 generally revolved around qualitative research, addressing the many concerns in qualitative research design and ways to help the researcher achieve quality outcomes throughout the research process.

“Qualitative research design: A collection of articles from Research Design Review published in 2017″ is a compilation of the 20 articles in 2017 pertaining to a wide variety of qualitative research design issues:

• Quality & Quality Frameworks, such as “The ‘Quality’ in Qualitative Research Debate & the Total Quality Framework” and “The Three Dominant Qualities of Qualitative Research”
• Qualitative Data Gathering, such as “Re-considering the Question of ‘Why’ in Qualitative Research”
• Qualitative Data Transcripts & Analysis, such as “The Limitations of Transcripts: It is Time to Talk About the Elephant in the Room”
• Qualitative Reporting, such as “The Many Facets of…

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The Five Observer Roles in Ethnography

research! a1

Research Design Review

There are many variations of observational research, both off-and online, but central to the ethnographic approach is the role of the observer. This role has to do with both the physical as well as the psychological or emotional distance between the observer and the observed, and can range from remote off-site observation to complete immersion and participation in the study activities.

Broadly speaking, the observer is conducting either nonparticipant or participant observation. In nonparticipant observation, the observer may be either off- or onsite; and, in participant observation, the observer may be passive, a participant-observer, or a complete participant. Importantly, the observer may switch roles in the course of a study, e.g., moving from an on-site nonparticipant observer to a passive observer, then a participant-observer, and then a complete participant. These five observer roles are depicted below.

Nonparticipant Observation

As a nonparticipant, the observer is observing in an unobtrusive manner either…

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Call for Abstracts by 2/15: 35th Social Philosophy Conference

look

Feminist Philosophers

Thirty-Fifth International Social Philosophy Conference

Sponsored by the North American Society for Social Philosophy, with the Department of Philosophy, Oakland University, Rochester, MI

July 19-21, 2018

Proposals in all areas of social philosophy are welcome, but special attention will be devoted to:

Health, Well-being, and Society

We welcome submissions from both members and non-members, but we require that all presenters join the North American Society for Social Philosophy if their papers are accepted and if they present at the conference.

Submission Deadline:  February 15, 2018. Please submit a 300 word abstract at our website: http://www.northamericansocietyforsocialphilosophy.org/call-for-abstracts/

Questions? Email: contact [at] northamericansocietyforsocialphilosophy [dot] org.

The Program Committee:

Kathryn Norlock, Trent University (chair)

Geoff Karabin, Neumann University

Jennifer Szende, Trent University

Local host:  Mark Navin, Oakland University, Rochester, MI.

Members of the Program Committee may be reached at: program [at] northamericansocietyforsocialphilosophy [dot] org

NASSP Support for International Presenters

The NASSP will waive fees for…

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