Gaining Insight into Teaching: A Phenomenological Exploration of the Lived Experience of the Teachers of the Year

What qualities, skills, and knowledge produce quality teachers? Many stake-holders in education argue that teacher quality should be measured by student achievement. This qualitative study shows that good teachers are multi-dimensional; their effectiveness cannot be represented by students’ test scores alone. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain a deeper understanding of quality in teaching by examining the lived experiences of 10 winners or finalists of the Teacher of the Year (ToY) Award. Phenomenology describes individuals’ daily experiences of phenomena, examines how these experiences are structured, and focuses analysis on the perspectives of the persons having the experience (Moustakas, 1994). This inquiry asked two questions: (a) How is teaching experienced by recognized as outstanding Teachers of the Year? and (b) How do ToYs feelings and perceptions about being good teachers provide insight, if any, about concepts such as pedagogical tact, teacher selfhood, and professional dispositions? Ten participants formed the purposive sample; the major data collection tool was semi-structured interviews (Patton, 1990; Seidman, 2006). Sixty to 90-minute interviews were conducted with each participant. Data also included the participants’ ToY application essays. Data analysis included a three-phase process: description, reduction, interpretation. Findings revealed that the ToYs are dedicated, hard-working individuals. They exhibit behaviors, such as working beyond the school day, engaging in lifelong learning, and assisting colleagues to improve their practice. Working as teachers is their life’s compass, guiding and wrapping them into meaningful and purposeful lives. Pedagogical tact, teacher selfhood, and professional dispositions were shown to be relevant, offering important insights into good teaching. Results indicate that for these ToYs, good teaching is experienced by getting through to students using effective and moral means; they are emotionally open, have a sense of the sacred, and they operate from a sense of intentionality. The essence of the ToYs teaching experience was their being properly engaged in their craft, embodying logical, psychological, and moral realms. Findings challenge current teacher effectiveness process-product orthodoxy which makes a causal connection between effective teaching and student test scores, and which assumes that effective teaching arises solely from and because of the actions of the teacher.

What next for unions in Central and Eastern Europe? Invisibility, departure and the transformation of industrial relations

This article examines union revitalization in Central and Eastern Europe, focusing on two countries: Hungary and Latvia. Trade unions have not only had to cope with a declining membership base, but have also had to respond to austerity programmes and government cuts in public sector employment. We argue that the inability of unions to provide a strong voice for alternative policies to the current neoliberal orthodoxy has been driven by a declining membership base, but also by weakened social dialogue mechanisms, limited industrial representation and an ageing membership profile, exacerbated by net outward migration in recent years. However, we find that unions in Latvia and Hungary have responded differently to these issues.

La santidad compartida: la encrucijada del Islam y la ortodoxia cristiana en los Balcanes, reflejos en Bulgaria

In this doctoral thesis with the title: “The Shared Holiness: The crossroad of Islam and the Christian Orthodoxy in the Balkans, reflections in Bulgaria”, presented by VLADISLAVA SPASOVA ILIEVA, under the direction of Dr. MONTSERRAT ABUMALHAM MAS, and Dr. PEDRO BÁDENAS DE LA PEÑA, we reflect upon the crossroads between the populations in the Balkans, whose conversion into States was significantly influenced by their belonging to the Byzantine and the Ottoman Empires. Known as the crossroads of several cultures, the area was the destination of a massive influx of pagan Slaves, as well as the meeting point of Islam and Christianity. Considering the bidirectionality of the processes, we shall focus on the mutual enrichment brought about in the encounter between the religiosities of the Balkans, and we will discuss these points from different perspectives. In the common Balkan-Anatolian space, we turn our attention to the ancient hermits, with the aim of showing the complicity in the relations of coexistence, whether Islamic-Christian, Turkish-Byzantine, Turkish-Bulgarian, or Ottoman-Balkan, and a possible scheme, that could be valid for both social and spiritual growth of the person, as well as for the development of an ethnic or religious community, when sharing the same space with other populations, communities or ethnicities...

Inovação pedagógica e ortodoxia curricular

A partir de uma conceção de currículo em sentido lato, e tendo como referência acontecimentos recentes ocorridos em Portugal, o artigo discute a impossibilidade de o currículo poder constituir-se em fonte de transgressão, assumindo-se, pelo contrário, como fonte de mesmice e de ortodoxia. Além disso, rejeita também a possibilidade de inovação curricular e inovação pedagógica serem expressões sinónimas e de que a operacionalização do currículo na escola através das práticas (docentes) de desenvolvimento curricular possa equivaler ou conduzir a inovação curricular. Em oposição, relaciona inovação pedagógica e heterodoxia, cuja probabilidade é muito maior fora do espaço colonizado pelo currículo da escola.

The Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association

Annually, the association publishes a journal, The Proceedings, which consists of papers presented at the annual meeting. Wade Hampton and the Rise of One Party Radical Orthodoxy in South Carolina by Richard Mark Gergel Governor Chamberlain and the End of Reconstruction by Robert J. Moore The Calhoun Papers Project: One Editor’s Valedictory (An Address to the South Carolina Historical Association, April 2, 1977) by W. Edwin Hemphill The Laurens Paper — Half-Way by George C. Rodgers, Jr. Fateful Legacy: White Southerners and the Dilemma of Emancipation by Dan T. Carter The South Carolina Bangers: A Forgotten Loyalist Regiment by Robert D. Bass

Inovação pedagógica e ortodoxia curricular

A partir de uma conceção de currículo em sentido lato, e tendo como referência acontecimentos recentes ocorridos em Portugal, o artigo discute a impossibilidade de o currículo poder constituir-se em fonte de transgressão, assumindo-se, pelo contrário, como fonte de mesmice e de ortodoxia. Além disso, rejeita também a possibilidade de inovação curricular e inovação pedagógica serem expressões sinónimas e de que a operacionalização do currículo na escola através das práticas (docentes) de desenvolvimento curricular possa equivaler ou conduzir a inovação curricular. Em oposição, relaciona inovação pedagógica e heterodoxia, cuja probabilidade é muito maior fora do espaço colonizado pelo currículo da escola.

El legado de los flujos migratorios hacia la península de Crimea entre 1860 – 1991 en la crisis política de 2014

La presente investigación propone un análisis sobre la crisis política de Crimea en 2014 a partir del influjo que las migraciones desde Rusia han tenido en la historia reciente. Así, a partir de la evaluación de algunos de los momentos de inmigración más representativos en los últimos dos siglos (1860, 1928 y 1991) se vincula el proceso de construcción de la identidad de los inmigrantes -transversal en diferentes periodos históricos en Crimea- con el desarrollo de los eventos de 2014. Lo anterior permite identificar un cierto legado de la migración hacia Crimea en el desarrollo de la crisis, cuyo resultado principal ha sido la anexión de facto de Crimea a Rusia. Ésta no habría sido posible sin el particular ánimo de afinidad con la idea de Rusia –o Russianness- de la mayoría de los habitantes de la península, cuya presencia en la región se explica en parte, a través de los procesos migratorios antes descritos.

EL NOS-OTROS-ORIGINARIO: Sobre la posibilidad de respetar los derechos de el-otro

Este texto plantea la posibilidad de recuperar el nos-otros-originario como clave para la superación del «sufrimiento inútil» del sujeto; de este modo, muestra al nos-otros-originario como una zona de protección de los derechos de el-otro, hace una crítica en contra del nos-otros-caído como vulnerador de derechos fundamentales, y aborda la posibilidad de recuperar el nos-otros-originario a través de una consumación definitiva de la "justicia".