I haven't changed bigots but … : reflections on the impact of teacher professional learning in sexuality education

This paper reports on aspects of an Australian study into the factors and conditions that make it possible for secondary school health education teachers to include and affirm gender and sexual diversity in their teaching. The study examined the impact of a two-day intervention designed to prepare teachers to use a major new government-funded teaching and learning resource called Talking Sexual Health. The study found that whilst there was a range of personal and structural barriers inhibiting change, professional development and access to teaching and learning resources could indeed impact positively on teachers' willingness and ability to include and affirm diverse sexualities in their health education programs.

The implied convenience yield of precious metals: safe haven versus industrial usage

During a financial crisis, investors find it convenient to hold gold (Gd) as a safe haven. But during good economic times, manufacturing firms find it convenient to stockpile platinum (Pl), palladium (Pd) and especially silver (Si), for industrial usages. We have three related objectives. First, we examine the nature of cross-market interactions among the convenience yields (cy_it) of {Gd, Pl, Pd, Si}, which are implied from cost-of-carry relations. Second, we test if the more influential cy_it of certain precious metals are also affecting the return, volatility and/or volume dynamics of other precious metals. Third, we analyze if the cy_it of gold is enhanced (diluted) during (after) the Asian and Global financial crises. We find, consistent with our propositions, that during crisis period, gold’s cy_it provides incremental information to the volatility series of {Gd, Pl, Pd, Si}. But during good economic times, it is silver’s cy_it that has the most influence on the return series across {Gd, Pl, Pd, Si}. This is not surprising given that Si has the largest proportion of industrial usage among the four metals.

The Gülen movement and the case of a secret agenda: putting the debate in perspective

The Gülen movement, a charity-based Turkish Muslim educational activist network, went global in the 1990s and has established approximately 1,000 secular educational institutions in more than 100 countries. The movement has an estimated worth of $25 billion, making it perhaps the largest faith-based transnational organization in the world today. However, in the wake of 9/11 and increased global anxiety about terrorism, mistrust regarding Muslims and Islam has grown. Suspicion is not only confined to stereotypes about jihadists, with some commentators arguing that Islam itself is the problem, and that any deeply religious Muslim should be viewed with distrust. The Gülen movement has not escaped this analysis and this outwardly secular educational organization has been accused of secretly proselytizing and indoctrinating students in its schools. This article analyses the popular discourse around the movement in Turkey and abroad and weighs the evidence for and against the allegations. It contends not only that they are baseless, and fail to furnish any evidence, but also that they appear to be part of a broader double standard vis-à-vis reporting and commentary on Christian missionary groups and their activities. In particular, the religious philosophy and activities of the Gülen movement are juxtaposed with those of World Vision.

The changing nature of Islamic mission: The cases of Tablighi Jama’at and the Gülen movement

David Tittensor, argues for the role of faith in development to be reconsidered in relation to the issue of bias in the provision of aid. In doing so, he draws on the works of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum that seek to expand conventional understandings of aid to include wellbeing, and cites the cases of both Tablighi Jamaat and the Gülen Movement – from India and Turkey respectively – and how their religious interventions are at times precisely what Muslims are looking for.

Islam's Modern Day Ibn Battutas: Gülen teachers journeying towards the divine

There is a longstanding debate on whether Muslims can be modern. Some argue that they can only be so if they forsake their traditions and embrace rationalism. In this article I argue that the Gülen Movement, a transnational Turkish Muslim educational activist network has found a middle ground by blending religious traditions with modern day realities. Drawing on interviews from the movement's teachers and graduates of its schools, from Turkey, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, I explore, through the prism of al-riḥla fī ṭalab al-ʿilm (travel in search of knowledge), their maintenance of the longstanding Islamic ritual of travel as a means of excelling both professionally and religiously. In turn, I demonstrate how the movement, on a number of levels, effectively reconciles the spiritual and the everyday through updating Islamic practices to better integrate themselves and other Muslims into a globalised world.

An examination of social support from an attachment theory perspective : the role of safe-haven and secure-base support in the giving and receiving of care

 This thesis examined attachment style differences in the provision and receipt of safe-haven and secure-base support in times of stress, and the functional outcomes of these types of support. Different patterns of social support provision and receipt were observed among anxious vs. avoidantly attached individuals.