Writing life narratives through art practice

This article shares some of my doctoral experiences in a practice-based PhD research in arts developed at the Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London. It locates art practice within the academic research realm and contributes to researchers working on autobiographical studies and practice-based research methods. By offering an overview on my research topic focusing on the relationship between language and place in the life of Brazilian women living in London, I reflect on the relevance of “not-knowing” as a fruitful space for researching autobiographical and situated life narratives through art practice. The article concludes that qualitative methods are relevant for building passages from the individual to the collective sphere of an art practice developed within geographical displacement and in the context of academic research.     

Video installation as a creative means of representing temporality in visual data

This paper describes the use of video installation as a creative means of engaging audiences in visual research. A detailed image-based overview of the project, 1247 Days on Whymark Avenue, is also presented. This interactive video installation offered viewers a level of phenomenological immersion in the compressed temporality and asynchronous dialogue captured by this visual research project. This film is part of a larger research project on the longitudinal photo-documentation of urban life (Hansen & Flynn 2015a). The project uses repeat photography to study street art and graffiti as visual dialogue.     

Women speaking through embroidery: using visual methods and poetry to narrate lived experiences

This article aims to highlight the ways in which visual methods can be used to narrate lived experiences. Additionally, I also draw from self-written poetry as a way to speak to the embroideries and using poems as a form of alternative analysis that assist in interpreting the embroideries. I embarked on a research project where I used embroidery as a visual methodological tool wherein participants could narrate their stories visually, as a way to shift from solely relying on text and the spoken language. The aim was to highlight various ways in which stories could be told and, commensurately, an acknowledgment of multiple forms of knowledge production is made manifest. The findings and various interpretations of the embroideries have been published elsewhere (see Segalo 2011, 2014, 2016; Segalo, Manoff & Fine 2015). On the basis of the foregoing, I argue that platforms need to be created wherein the academic space and ways in which information and knowledge are presented become open to multiple forms of representation.     

Feminist Relational Discourse Analysis: putting the personal in the political in feminist research

Discourse analysis is a useful and flexible method for exploring power and identity. While there are many forms of discourse analysis, all agree that discourse is the central site of identity construction. However, recent feminist concerns over power, agency, and resistance have drawn attention to the absence of participants’ first-hand experiences within broad discursive accounts (Lafrance &; McKenzie-Mohr 2014 Boonzaier, F 2014, ‘Talking against dominance: South African women resisting dominant discourse in narratives of violence’, in S McKenzie-Mohr &; MN Lafrance (eds.), Women voicing resistance: discursive and narrative explorations, Routledge, Hove, pp. 102–20.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Saukko 2008 Saukko, P 2008, The anorexic self: a personal, political analysis of a diagnostic discourse, State University of New York Press, Albany. [Google Scholar]). For those with an interest in power relations, such as feminist researchers, this is a problematic silence which renders the personal functions of discourse invisible. In this article, we argue that the “personal” and “political” are inextricable, and we make a case for putting the “personal” into broader discursive frameworks of understanding. Further, we assert that feminist research seeking to account for identity must more explicitly aim to capture this interplay. To this end, we argue that voice is the key site of meaning where this interplay can be captured, but that no clear analytical framework currently exists for producing such an account. In response, we propose Feminist Relational Discourse Analysis (FRDA) as a voice-centered analytical approach for engaging with experience and discourse in talk. We then set out clear guidance on how to do FRDA, as applied in the context of women working in U.K. policing. Finally, we conclude that by prioritizing voice, FRDA invites new and politicized feminist readings of power, agency, and resistance, where the voices of participants remain central to the discursive accounts of researchers.     

Clarifying Amateurism: A Logical Approach to Resolving the Exploitation of College Athletes Dilemma

In this paper we investigate the logical consequences of the common understanding of amateurism in the context of big-time US college athletics, and in so doing, illustrate a method based on linguistic analysis and logic. The initial thrust of the paper centres on the term ‘amateur’ as presupposed by the late Professor Brand in his attempt to justify the ‘business’ of NCAA-sponsored Division I sports by decoupling the ‘participants from the enterprise’. Next, we examine a more rigorous definition of the term ‘amateur’ in order to show more clearly the difficulties posed by the current situation in college athletics. Additionally, our use of linguistic analysis exposes a flaw in the NCAA's recent move to amend by-law 12.02 in an attempt to avoid the charge of exploitation. Lastly, we put forth a new proposal for better dealing with the central issues swirling around the NCAA as it strives to formulate sound policy at this ‘tectonic’ juncture of players, fans, college programmes and academic integrity.     

Inferences about which of J dependent groups has the largest robust measure of location

Recently, a multiple comparisons procedure was derived with the goal of determining whether it is reasonable to make a decision about which of J independent groups has the largest robust measure of location. This was done by testing hypotheses aimed at comparing the group with the largest estimate to the remaining J − 1 groups. It was demonstrated that for the goal of controlling the familywise error rate, meaning the probability of one or more Type I errors, well-known improvements on the Bonferroni method can perform poorly. A technique for dealing with this issue was suggested and found to perform well in simulations. However, when dealing with dependent groups, the method is unsatisfactory. This note suggests an alternative method that is designed for dependent groups.     

Bayesian factor analysis for multilevel binary observations

Multilevel covariance structure models have become increasingly popular in the psychometric literature in the past few years to account for population heterogeneity and complex study designs. We develop practical simulation based procedures for Bayesian inference of multilevel binary factor analysis models. We illustrate how Markov Chain Monte Carlo procedures such as Gibbs sampling and Metropolis-Hastings methods can be used to perform Bayesian inference, model checking and model comparison without the need for multidimensional numerical integration. We illustrate the proposed estimation methods using three simulation studies and an application involving student's achievement results in different areas of mathematics. The authors thank Ian Westbury, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign for kindly providing the SIMS data for the application.     

A Bayesian hierarchical model for the measurement of working memory capacity

Working memory is the memory system that allows for conscious storage and manipulation of information. The capacity of working memory is extremely limited. Measurements of this limit, and what affects it, are critical to understanding working memory. Cowan (2001) and Pashler (1988) suggested applying multinomial tree models to data from change detection paradigms in order to estimate working memory capacity. Both Pashler and Cowan suggested simple formulas for estimating capacity with these models. However, in many cases, these simple formulas are inadequate, and may lead to inefficient or biased estimation of working memory capacity. I propose a Bayesian hierarchical alternative to the Pashler and Cowan formulas, and show that the hierarchical model outperforms the traditional formulas. The models are easy to use and appropriate for a wide range of experimental designs. An easy-to-use graphical user interface for fitting the hierarchical model to data is available.     

受欢迎儿童的特点及研究方法

国外对受欢迎儿童的研究文献从1980年以来逐渐增多。主要的研究成果体现在两方面：影响儿童受欢迎的因素与受欢迎的研究方法。研究者从个体特征、互动水平、关系水平、群体水平研究了影响儿童受欢迎的因素及受欢迎儿童的特点。儿童受欢迎的研究方法从重视社会测量方法转向重视儿童对受欢迎的感知,避免消极提名,提出社交认知绘图方法。受欢迎儿童的研究能够为如何提高儿童的社会地位提供参考。.     

国外思维培育的理论与实践

本文从教育与心理学家的思维培育思想、思维培育的基本理论和思维培育的主要课程和方法三个方面,分析与介绍了国外思维培育的理论与实践。