Critical reflections on teaching challenging content: do some students shoot the (white) messenger?

Racism is an enduring reality in Australian society for Indigenous Australians, reflecting the experiences of Indigenous peoples in colonized countries worldwide. While social work services delivered by Indigenous Australians might be the preferred option, the graduation rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from Australian social work training is low and non-Indigenous social workers provide most service delivery. As a non-Indigenous social work educator at an Australian university, I recognize that teaching culturally relevant curricula, in order to produce antiracist social work graduates who recognize racism and privilege, is crucial but challenging. The purpose of this article is to share my ongoing critical reflections, particularly with regard to student dissatisfaction and possible disengagement with difficult content, and my actions for improved teaching and learning, in order to graduate work-ready social workers.     

Critical Approaches to Education in the Work of Lorenzo Milani and Paulo Freire

Paulo Freire and Lorenzo Milani are considered as key figures in a number of Southern European countries for providing signposts for a critical approach to education. In this paper I will view their ideas and biographical trajectories comparatively to glean some important insights for a critical pedagogy. The common theme throughout this comparative analysis is that of education for social justice based on critical literacy. The paper also deals with such themes as the relationship between education and politics, the relationship between education and life, the collective dimension of learning and the ability to read as well as write the word and the world.

承认与蔑视——霍耐特的社会批判理论评析

在诊断和批判当代晚期资本主义社会的现实问题方面,哈贝马斯的交往行为理论曾发挥了重要的作用,但由于其缺乏现实性和社会性,难以适应时代变化和解释西方社会一些新运动的产生及其承认问题的实践需求,因而日趋走向保守和无力。面对这个困境,哈贝马斯的后继者阿克塞尔·霍耐特(AxelHonneth)重新回到黑格尔的主体间性理论,并以此为基础提出“为承认而斗争”的社会道德冲突模式,力图实现批判理论的“承认理论转向”。     

Playing Church: Toward Critically Creative Pastoral Practices

The author develops theory and practices that contribute to psychological health and well-being in pastoral ministry. Drawing on experiences in congregational ministry and clinical pastoral learning environments, the author argues for the benefit of a playful pastoral education method informed by the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire and the theological worldview of Jurgen Moltmann. Attention is given to explication of core principles and practical application that foster soul-filled creativity in pastoral ministry.     

Toward kuleana (responsibility): A case study of a contextually grounded intervention for Native Hawaiian youth and young adults

As a minority ethnic group, Native Hawaiian youth and young adults face an array of issues associated with colonization, such as persistent structural discrimination and the loss of land and indigenous ways of knowing. They are also at risk for a wide range of negative behaviors, including interpersonal violence, suicide, substance use, and juvenile delinquency. This article explores how community youth development, critical pedagogies, and Hawaiian epistemology can help Native Hawaiian young adults cope with such issues. It begins with a brief discussion of critiques on conventional youth violence prevention programs. To address these critiques, three bodies of literature are introduced: 1) community youth development, 2) critical pedagogy, and 3) community epistemology. Data were derived from a single case study of a community-based youth program. The program, located in an impoverished, rural community in Hawai'i, entailed running an organic farm. Seventeen participants were involved in the study. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Utilizing critical indigenous qualitative research, a content analysis of the interviews was conducted to build a working conceptual model. Preliminary findings suggest that a program with key processes of community youth development, critical pedagogies, and Hawaiian epistemology may serve as a vehicle for health and wellness, thus preventing a host of negative behaviors, such as violence. Based on the findings, a critical contextually based approach to violence prevention that focuses on providing opportunities for Native Hawaiian young adults to take an active participatory role in promoting health is proposed.     

Liberating and Empowering Effects of Critical Reflection on Collective Action in LGBT and Cisgender Heterosexual Individuals

Critical consciousness represents the transformation from a passive target of oppression to an active actor with an increased capacity to analyze and negotiate conditions of oppression. It is considered as an antidote for oppression that can liberate people from oppressive ideologies and empower them to resist social injustice. Building on the theory of critical consciousness and the Social Identity Model of Collective Action, this paper examined the liberating and empowering effects of critical reflection on collective action for minority rights. Results of a cross-sectional study in 1,050 LGBT individuals (Study 1) showed that critical reflection was associated with lower levels of internalized oppression and higher levels of collective efficacy, which in turn were associated with greater intentions to undertake collective action for LGBT rights. Findings from a prospective longitudinal study in 428 cisgender heterosexual individuals (Study 2) indicated that critical reflection was associated with lower levels of internalized domination and heightened levels of efficacious beliefs, which positively predicted actual participation in collective action at a subsequent wave. The findings supported the effects of critical reflection on collective action mobilization and offered leads for future research and praxis on how to orient different sectors of society to work toward social equity.     

部分日本室町写本《周易》的宋刻唐写融合特征

日本室町时代(1393—1573)部分写本《周易》既有宋刊本特征,又有唐写本的异文,是一种融合了宋刊本与唐写本的特殊文本。此类文本今时日本早稻田大学、内阁文库各有一本。杨守敬日本访书时亦曾据此类文本影抄一部。根据校勘,《七经孟子考文》记载的足利学校所藏三种古本《周易》与此类文本大体相似。江户时代(1603—1867),这类特殊的《周易》写本过渡到刊本形态,刊本当中包括《七经孟子考文》所引足利本《周易》,以及东洋文化研究所藏活字本《周易》。     

Navigating activism within the academy: Consciousness building and social justice identity formation

The academy can provide rich opportunities for the scholar activist through critical discourse within the classroom, consciousness building via community engagement, and leveraging diverse connections. However, the academy often upholds systemic roadblocks, at times enacting policies that further perpetuate inequities. This qualitative study takes a narrative approach to exploring the life course histories of 15 activists occupying diverse yet intersecting dimensions in the spectrum of privilege and oppression. Interviewees are uniquely connected to the academy engaging in a variety of roles and anti‐racist social justice efforts within the northwestern United States. Applying a critical consciousness framework, results highlight key functions of critical reflection and critical action as interviewees engage in critical consciousness raising (i.e., systemic root cause analysis), social justice identity formation (i.e., the politicization of one's identity), and adapting individual theories of social change. Barriers within the institution are also identified concerning the mainstreaming of service learning and university‐required diversity courses, limited structural supports for activists of color, and the institutionalized co‐opting of social change efforts. Lastly, implications for activism, scholarship, and critical pedagogy within the academy are discussed.     

Psychological refractory period in introverts and extraverts

The present study was designed to explore extraversion-related differences in the psychological refractory period (PRP). PRP refers to a bottleneck of information processing that becomes evident when participants are required to respond to two signals (S1 and S2) presented in rapid succession. If this capacity limit of premotor information processing is essential for differences in speed of information processing between introverts and extraverts, magnitude of the PRP effect should vary as a function of extraversion. Due to the failure of previous attempts to establish extraversion-related differences in the PRP effect, we also obtained lateralized readiness potentials (LRPs). For this purpose, 63 introverted and 63 extraverted female participants were tested with a standard PRP design. Extraverts responded faster to S2 and exhibited shorter stimulus-locked LRP latencies compared to introverts. Although a general PRP effect could be shown at the behavioral and psychophysiological level, there was no indication for any extraversion-related differences in PRP. Thus, extraversion-related differences in speed of information processing at the premotor level appear unlikely to originate from individual differences in the capacity limits underlying the PRP phenomenon. Furthermore, our findings provide converging evidence for the notion that extraversion-related individual differences in processing speed depend on specific task demands.