J. Wentzel van Huyssteen: Refiguring Rationality in the Postmodern Age

In his three books J. Wentzel van Huyssteen develops a complex and helpful notion of rationality, avoiding the extremes of foundationalism and postmodern relativism and deconstruction. Drawing from several postmodern philosophers of science and evolutionary epistemologists who seek to devise a usable notion of rationality, he weaves together a view that allows for a genuine duet betweenscience and theology. In the process he challenges much contemporary nonfoundationalist theology as well as the philosophical naïveté of some cosmologists and sociobiologists.     

Reviews

Rottschaefer, William A. The Biology and Psychology of Moral Agency
Mccutcheon, Russell T. Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia
Drengson, Alan The Practice of Technology: Exploring Technology,Ecophilosophy, and Spiritual Disciplines for Vital Links
Burrell, David B. and Mcginn, Bernard (eds.) God and Creation: An Ecumenical Symposium     

The ‘thinking aloud’ process: a way forward in social work supervision

Within current neoliberal discourses, critical reflection provides opportunity for innovation in social work practice. This article describes a thinking aloud process used with supervisor–supervisee dyads in community-based child welfare social work to assist critical reflection via the use of open-ended questioning and inquiry. The strength of thinking aloud permitted a deeper appreciation of how the supervision session is utilised to reflect on practice and provided a learning tool within supervision. The feedback from the dyads concurred that thinking aloud assisted in stimulating reflection, developing solutions to the key issues discussed, and was transformative in recognising areas for future development. The process of thinking aloud supports the opportunity and space for the supervisor and supervisee to articulate meaning, critically develop insight, reconstruct, and transport this into future practice. Thinking aloud offers an example of how knowledge can be co-constructed by practitioners within practice and critical reflection captured within qualitative research approaches.     

Exploring the depths of the rainforest: a metaphor for teaching critical reflection

Many social welfare and social work students struggle to demonstrate competence in the complex process of critical reflection through to the stage of transformed thinking and action. Examples of how students learn critical reflection as an interpretive experience are scarce. This paper presents, as a case study, the process one of the authors experienced while critically reflecting on teaching critical reflection. The paper explores how this approach unlocked disturbing insights into how personally held values, views and knowledge influenced her performance relating to teaching critical reflection. Experiencing what she asks of her students raised questions regarding the duty of care that social welfare and social work educators have to ensure their students engage in critical, and transformative, self-discovery in safe and supportive ways. We propose that in the early stages of social welfare and social work degrees, rather than assessing students’ critical reflection of an event, educators examine students’ capacity to learn critical reflection in a different way. Drawing on critical hermeneutics, and a theory of visual thinking, the paper outlines the cognitive map of a process of critical reflection on teaching critical reflection. We present this as a metaphor of walking through a rainforest.     

Teaching Islam in contemporary America: Digital ethnography and the affective challenges of Islamic studies pedagogy

In this article we address the affective dimensions and challenges of teaching about Islam and Islamic studies in the current American political and cultural environment and make two related arguments. First, we explain how the impact of certain kinds of digital media in the past few years has heightened the association of Islam with violence in the minds of many Americans, leading to a classroom affective environment characterized by the “posttraumatic” experience of knowledge about Islam. Second, we argue that the pedagogical use of digital media as a tool for ethnographic and empathic engagement with individual Muslim lives can help meet this particular teaching challenge. We show how the pedagogical employment of digital ethnography can turn the affective power of digital media into a positive learning tool, and model its responsible social and intellectual use.     

Finding new ways to practise critically: applying a critical reflection model with Australian health promotion practitioners

Greater support is required in health promotion for practitioners to adopt critical approaches to their practice. Despite recognition of the role that critical reflection can play in supporting critical practice, it is underdeveloped in health promotion. This pilot study aimed to explore the use of critical reflection with health promotion practitioners. Critical postmodernism provided the theoretical perspective and critical reflection methodology guided the study. The data collection method involved the application of a critical reflection model via in-depth semi-structured interviews with two health promotion practitioners who were recruited using purposive sampling. Critical postmodernism and critical health promotion values and principles were the thematic frameworks used to analyse the data. Four types of assumptions were identified across both participants’ narratives: binary opposites and dichotomous thinking; identity and othering; professionalism; and power. Two key themes that evidenced these assumptions were conceptualising power as a commodity, and identity in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander context. Both traditional and critical health promotion practice approaches were evident in participants’ practice. The process of engaging in critical reflection resulted in positive outcomes for the practitioners, including the identification of new, more critical ways of practising. Critical reflection provides a process for developing critical health promotion practice. The designation of critical reflection as a core health promotion competency may enhance the development of critical health promotion. Further research is needed to develop and test a critical reflection model incorporating the values and principles of health promotion with a larger sample of practitioners.     

Stupidity in the analytic field: Vicissitudes of the detachment process in adolescence

This paper has the objective of broadening the understanding of technical aspects in working with adolescents who defend themselves against detachment from infantile aspects through defensive organizations. These organizations numb the adolescent toward both triangular reality and narcissistic defenses. The families of such young people may be part of the organization and the analyst can also be recruited to participate in it. But the analyst's perception can become blurry and this fact makes him appear stupid. Aspects of the myths of Narcissus and Oedipus are used here as models for studying stupidity. The analysis of a psychotic teenage girl who is symbiotic in relation to her family shows how the analytical field can be invaded by defensive configurations. Collusions of idealization and domination/submission involve the young person, her family and the analyst but the defensive organizations are only identified after their traumatic breakdown. The expansion of the symbolic network allows symbiotic transgenerational organizations to be identified, while models related to enactments prove helpful for understanding technical ups and downs. The paper ends with imaginative conjectures where Oedipus, as ‘patient’, is compared to the patient discussed here. These conjectures lead to reinterpretations of aspects of the Oedipus myth. The reinterpretations, together with the theoretical and clinical study, may serve as models for understanding the technical ups and downs in working with troubled teens.     

核移植技术应用的问题及前景

自从核移植产生第一头克隆羊多莉以来,对其应用一直存在争议。尽管核移植技术存在各方面的问题和不足,如伦理学方面的问题,技术方面的不成熟以及该技术对生物物种质量和生存能力的影响。但核移植技术正在不断被人们接受,并已用于治疗性克隆和动物实验研究。随着人们观念的改变和技术的不断完善,核移植技术的应用范围将不断扩大,具有广阔的应用前景。     

语篇阅读研究方法综述

语篇阅读已成为心理语言学的一个热点研究领域,本文在将语篇阅读研究方法分为延时测量法和即时测量法（启动技术、眼动分析法、按健反应法、探测技术与出声思考法等）两类的基础上,对语篇阅读的研究方法进行了分析与总结。