Reflectivity, Reflection, and Counter-Education

This article sets forward a new concept of reflection, to be contrasted with more usual reading of the concept for which we use the term `reflectivity'. The contrast is related to a distinction between normalizing education and counter-education. We claim that within the framework of normalizing education there is no room for reflection, but only for reflectivity. In contrast to reflectivity, reflection manifests a struggle of the subject against the effects of power which govern the constitution of her conceptual apparatus, her knowledge, her consciousness and her limitations and possibilities for successful functioning. Reflectivity re-presents the hegemonic realm of self-evidence and the productive violence of social and cultural order. Reflection, by contrast, aims to challenge the supposedly self-evident and the present order of things. Reflection aims at transcendence and represents a moral commitment in respect of the otherness of the Other, which power relations in every realm of self-evidence oblige us to neglect, to destroy or consume. Transcendence is a concrete utopia, and so is the subject in her nonrepressive communication with the Other: they are part and parcel of our present possibilities, sometimes in microscopic arenas, struggled for, and from time to time even realized.     

An Investigation of Sound-Symbolism in the Context of Tactile Feeling

Sound symbolism suggests a non-arbitrary relationship between speech sounds and the concepts to which those sounds refer (Hinton, Nichols, &; Ohala, 2006 Hinton, L., Nichols, J., &; Ohala, J. J. (2006). Sound symbolism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]). Supporting evidence comes primarily from studies investigating how speech sounds relate to semantically compatible visual concepts. The present study therefore attempted to examine sound symbolism in the context of tactile perception. Contrary to the propositions of sound symbolism, participants in Experiment 1 did not consistently assign names with plosive consonant to objects with curved frames. Experiment 2, however, found that names with fricative consonants were more likely to be applied to materials with rough surfaces. The results suggested the existence of a direct relationship between speech sounds and their referent concepts that could be crucial in revealing the phenomenon of sound symbolism. A future study was also proposed to study the contributions of mouth shape and airflow to associations between speech sounds and tactile feelings. (161 words)     

Resistance to Pragmatic Tendencies in the World of Working in the Religious Finite Province of Meaning

This essay describes some of the basic pragmatic tendencies at work in the world of working and then shows how the finite provinces of meaning of theoretical contemplation and literature act against those pragmatic tendencies. This analysis prepares the way to see how the religious province of meaning in a similar but also distinctive way acts back against these pragmatic tendencies. These three finite provinces of meaning make it possible to see the world from another center of orientation than that of the ego agens and its proclivity to bring transcendences within reach, thereby freeing oneself to a degree from the fundamental anxiety and revealing the uniqueness of oneself and others, who are no longer subjected to working’s pragmatic imperatives.     

Teaching about Christianity: a configurative review of research in English schools

This article presents a systematic review of empirical research on teaching about Christianity in state schools in England between 1993 and 2013. First, I explain the background to this religion’s current place within English religious education. The value of a configurative review is set out, and inclusion criteria are outlined, leading to the selection of 58 publications. Then the article’s theoretical frame is explained, drawing on activity theory, and the analysis is set out under three broad organising principles: (1) Teachers’ professional and pedagogical intentions; (2) How teachers draw on different pedagogical strategies to enact these intentions, for example systematic or thematic approaches; and (3) How these intentions and strategies affect pupil learning, such as pupils’ conceptions of difficult topics. The implications for research in religious education are then drawn together, notably the need to consider the pedagogical issues for different religions individually.     

A Moment of Unconditional Validity? Schutz and the Habermas/Rorty Debate

Richard Rorty challenges Jurgen Habermas's belief that validity-claims raised within context-bound discussions contain a moment of universality validity. Rorty argues that immersion within contingent languages prohibits any neutral, context-independent ground, that one cannot predict the defense of one's assertions before any audience, and that philosophy can no more escape its contextual limitations than strategic counterparts. Alfred Schutz's phenomenological account of motivation, the reciprocity of perspectives, and the theoretical province of meaning can articulate Habermas's intuitions.Since any claim can be analyzed from an observer's perspective for its because-motives, it can always be shown to be context-related; but to the participant involved in the in-order-to project of establishing a claim's validity, the claim appears objectively valid until counter-evidence surfaces. Rorty, even when explaining what it is to make a truth claim, resorts to the observer perspective and omits reference to the in-order-to perspective, within which alone unconditional validity becomes visible. Furthermore, the expectation that one's claim is universally valid depends not on an empirical prediction that one's claim can survive hypothesized future possible audiences. Rather, because of the reciprocity of perspectives, making possible communication and a common life, theoreticians assume that others will recognize what they take to be objective or valid, independently of diverse biographical circumstances. Finally, within the theoretical province requiring relevances different from those of everyday life, philosophy articulates claims with a greater potential to arrive at universal validity than projects that aim less universally, in spite of the fact that its theoretical context is always susceptible to because motive analysis.     

Youth suicide: insights from 5 years of Arizona Child Fatality Review Team data

Data on 153 youth suicides in Arizona (1994-1999) were used to explore demographic, behavioral, and experiential factors that distinguish between firearm suicide and suicide by other means. In bivariate analyses, White youths were more likely than non-White youths to use a firearm to commit suicide as were youths who had not experienced a life crisis or expressed suicidal thoughts in the past, relationships that hold in multivariate analyses at the p < 0.2 level. Targeted suicide prevention activities should supplement interventions focused on restricting access to highly lethal means of suicide such as firearms.     

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Third Edition in an Australian clinical sample

A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III; D. Wechsler, 1991) with a sample of 579 Australian children referred for assessment because of academic difficulties in the classroom. The children were administered the WISC-III as part of the initial eligibility determination process for funding of special education services. The children were aged between 6 years and 16 years 7 months. One-, two-, three-, and four-factor models were tested. The four-factor model proposed in the WISC-III manual fit the data significantly better than all other models tested.     

A Developmental Approach to the Supervision of Therapists in Training

Supervision is considered essential to therapeutic effectiveness yet trainees frequently report negative supervisory experiences. Although such experiences may be due to inadequate or poor supervision, more often they result from differing needs or expectations among trainees. Thus, supervisors must struggle to determine how to best conduct supervision. We propose that many negative experiences result from a supervisors inattention to the trainees development as a mature individual. By examining the cognitive and emotional development of trainees supervisors are offered a framework from which to select interventions and strategies that encourage rather than discourage trainees.