Arts-based environmental education (AEE) denotes an emerging field of pedagogy wherein facilitated art practice intersects with and informs learning about our natural and cultural environments. In it, artmaking is appreciated as a form of coming to knowledge, of making meaning, in its own right, on par with other approaches such as inquiry-based learning in the science classroom. In this article, the author, himself a practitioner, foregrounds two different orientations in learning about nature through art that he considers both as being expressive of AEE. The first one, here called “artful empiricism”, is more established and has its footings in “the Goethean approach”. Participants investigate natural phenomena through direct observation and experience of the world. This is then complemented by intuitive perception. Yet, for the most part, they are absorbed in what Dewey would call a receptive sense of “undergoing”. Aesthetic sensibility is foregrounded, encouraging participants to fine-tune their senses in order to perceive the phenomenon in nature with “fresh eyes”. The second orientation is hardly articulated as an epistemology yet. Here it is called “improvising with emerging properties” and it features an element of working with unforeseen properties that emerge in and through an artmaking process that thematises natural phenomena. It is intrinsically open-ended and an active “acting upon” the world takes centre stage. Through artmaking, participants explore the relationships between themselves and their environs. In his discussion, the author analyses these approaches as two modalities both expressive of a Deweyan cycle of alternating between a receptive undergoing of and active acting upon the world, in different phases of a reflective experience.
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Aim: Participation of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder hardly occurs in settings outside of home and school. Little is known about how their participation is influenced by environmental factors. This study explored how and why adolescents with autism spectrum disorder perceive aspects of their environment as facilitators or barriers to their participation outside of home and school. Method: This explanatory case study explored the participation experiences of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (15–21 years) from Zurich and surroundings with in-depth interviews and photo-elicitation, using photos made by the participants during activities outside of home and school. Data was analysed with a 7-step procedure. Result: The presence of two main themes seemed necessary to facilitate participation outside of home and school: “environmental prerequisites to attend activities”, which consists of five subthemes, such as “the company of trusted persons” and “the provision of knowledge and information”, and “social interchange and engagement”, which consists of three subthemes and describes how actual involvement can be supported. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the influence of trusted persons on adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, and the need to extend the support network for these adolescents to other individuals, services and society so that their participation in activities can be encouraged.
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BackgroundWe report development of the SPQ (School Participation Questionnaire) a teacher-completed measure of participation related constructs for schools. The SPQ was developed to support participation-related assessment, interventions, and research in the inclusive school context.MethodsSeveral iterative steps were undertaken. An international panel of experts reviewed content validity. A 66-item pilot questionnaire was administered in schools. Mokken and Rasch model analysis were applied. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha. Analyses were conducted on associations with teacher and child demographic variables. Feedback was sourced from users. Participants were teachers of 101 children (5−12 years old) with a range of disabilities, including intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder and learning difficulties.ResultsFour participation-related dimensions of the SPQ were confirmed. Rasch person and item reliability were good, and 2–4 strata were confirmed per scale. Internal consistency was good (all scales, Cronbach α > 0.8). Mean administration time was 11.7 min. Mean SPQ scores were independent of teacher characteristics. A significant effect of school support level, eligibility for free school meals and gender was found. Through synthesising analytic results and feedback, a new 46-item tool was obtained.ConclusionThe results of this study provide evidence of acceptability, practicality and validity. The SPQ is the first tool developed to assess participation related constructs in schools, and it contains novel information not given by other assessments. The SPQ may be used by practitioners and researchers to understand and improve the participation of children with a range of disabilities in schools.
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This book seeks to communicate what we learned, what I learned, in the hope that readers (particularly musicians in training) can find ways to learn for themselves as they challenge themselves to try new, and different, things.
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This chapter offers an account of a workshop in arts-based learning called “Metamorphoses of Organic Forms”. This detailed description of a particular practice may inform a discussion of ways in which artful approaches, in general, may come to matter in STEAM education, with implications for both educational research and practice. Added to that, the chapter argues that such art-based practices can also be relevant more widely in the context of sustainability education, such as on the theme of climate change. Precisely because the content of the art workshop at hand is not prima facie linked to it, there is an unexpected potential to take up such a tangential theme in an unusual way. Typically, participants feel invigorated to enter new territory – both spatial and mental. On a meta-level, the session can also be seen as a practice in facing complexity, uncertainty, not knowing. The chapter suggests that such artful educational practices have intrinsic merit if we are to equip new generations with skills to live in and endure “post-normal times”. In the workshop “Metamorphoses of Organic Forms”, participants are invited to imagine how forms in nature might either evolve or disintegrate over time. The workshop lends itself to follow-up lessons in biology and natural history. The outcome is not given. Participants go through a shared process step by step, following a sequence that is outlined for them as they go along. They are encouraged to imagine how natural phenomena might grow or decay in time and they do this in a series of short sessions where they sculpt works in clay. Such a practice in art-based environmental education is arguably a form of “poor pedagogy”. This educational activity is primarily and fundamentally an open-ended process. Rather than requiring an extensive methodology, its practice requires participants to surrender themselves to a process that will be unique each time it is performed. Such a practice is an expression of a view on education that is not centred on the transmission of knowledge but rather looks at attention as education and the education of attention.
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Summary (English):Current planning policies place great expectations on citizen participation to resolve complex societal and spatial challenges such as urban renewal and housing development. This essay explores what transitions in citizen participation have taken place on this issue in the Netherlands and to what extent citizen participation in its current form can address the complex socio-spatial challenge of providing affordable housing in cities.The essay introduces a paradox of the transition in participation in housing development in the Netherlands as part of broader transformations in Dutch spatial planning and development: in spite of increased institutionalization of participation, the actual citizens seem to have been served less and less. There is potential for the inclusion of citizen participation in the planning processes to encourage acceptance where resource distribution creates conflicts (i.e. affordable housing markets and lack of supply) for more effective cooperation during implementation. However, giving citizens more say in small parcels of spatial development does not disguise and overrule the structural forces in policy and real estate market trends that have grown in the last decades and push out lower and middle income groups from the city.This essay reviews state-of-the-art literature on the evolution of citizen participation, co-creation, and decision-making structures and processes in spatial planning and housing, and discusses participation trajectories in urban developments with housing functions in Amsterdam (Havenstraatterrein, Marineterrein) and Groningen (Suikerunie, Ebbinge), and Almere (Oosterwold) to showcase the paradoxical transition.__Summary (Dutch):Participatie krijgt een steeds prominentere rol in het oplossen van complexe maatschappelijke en ruimtelijke uitdagingen, zoals stedelijke vernieuwing en de ontwikkeling van woningen. Dit essay verkent welke veranderingen zich hebben voorgedaan in de rol die burgers spelen in woningontwikkeling in Nederland en in hoeverre participatie in de huidige vorm helpt om voldoende betaalbare woonruimte te ontwikkelen in de stad.Het essay schetst een paradoxale transitie op het gebied van participatie in de woningbouw in Nederland. De transitie is onderdeel is van grotere veranderingen in ruimtelijke ordening en ruimtelijke ontwikkeling in Nederland. Ondanks toenemende aandacht voor en institutionalisering van participatie in plan- en ontwikkelingsprocessen, lijkt het erop dat de burger die het meest de hulp van de overheid nodig heeft om passende woonruimte te vinden, steeds meer het nakijken heeft gekregen. Burgers een grotere rol geven in de planprocesen en planuitvoering kan helpen de acceptatie van plannen waarin schaarse middelen worden verdeeld, te vergroten. Tot nu toe echter blijft de inspraak van burgers beperkt tot kleine, specifieke gebieden. Deze uitzonderingen bieden onvoldoende tegenwicht aan de structurele krachten in beleid, grond- en vastgoedmarkten die midden- en lagere inkomens de afgelopen jaren steeds verder de stad uit hebben gedreven.Dit essay schetst op basis van literatuurstudie de grote lijnen in de ontwikkeling van woningontwikkeling en participatie sinds de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Op basis daarvan beschouwt het essay de ontwikkeling van participatie, co-creatie en besluitvorming in gebiedsontwikkeling in Amsterdam (Havenstraatterrein, Marineterrein), Groningen (Suikerunie, Ebbinge) en Almere (Oosterwold) om de paradoxale transitie die plaatsvindt in participatie in gebiedsontwikkeling en woningbouw te illustreren.
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Given the recent economic crisis and the risen poverty rates, sports managers need to get insight in the effect of income and other socio-economic determinants on the household time and money that is spent on sports participation. By means of a Tobit regression, this study analyses the magnitude of the income effect for the thirteen most practiced sports by households in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium), which are soccer, swimming, dance, cycling, running, fitness, tennis, horse riding, winter sports, martial arts, volleyball, walking and basketball. The results demonstrate that income has a positive effect on both time and money expenditure on sports participation, although differences are found between the 13 sports activities. For example, the effect of income on time and money expenditure is relatively high for sports activities like running and winter sports, while it is lower for other sports such as fitness, horse riding, walking and swimming. Commercial enterprises can use the results of this study to identify which sports to focus on, and how they will organise their segmentation process. For government, the results demonstrate which barriers prevent people from taking part in specific sports activities, based upon which they should evaluate their policy decisions.
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Aim: Participation of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder hardly occurs in settings outside of home and school. Little is known about how their participation is influenced by environmental factors. This study explored how and why adolescents with autism spectrum disorder perceive aspects of their environment as facilitators or barriers to their participation outside of home and school. Method: This explanatory case study explored the participation experiences of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (15–21 years) from Zurich and surroundings with in-depth interviews and photo-elicitation, using photos made by the participants during activities outside of home and school. Data was analysed with a 7-step procedure. Result: The presence of two main themes seemed necessary to facilitate participation outside of home and school: “environmental prerequisites to attend activities”, which consists of five subthemes, such as “the company of trusted persons” and “the provision of knowledge and information”, and “social interchange and engagement”, which consists of three subthemes and describes how actual involvement can be supported. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the influence of trusted persons on adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, and the need to extend the support network for these adolescents to other individuals, services and society so that their participation in activities can be encouraged.
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Key words: labour relations, HRM, social theory, neoliberalism, participation, legitimation, precariatThe aim of this paper is to sketch a social-theoretical framework that can be applied to empirical research on labour market participation, its requirements and legitimation. All projects of the Amsterdam HRM-group deal with problems of the labour market, especially the required competences of the polarized (partly precarious, partly privileged) workforce and changing labour relations. Participation asks, among other things, for a narrative of legitimation which puts individual competences and projects in a broader, meaningful context.The research question is: Which theoretical concepts are necessary to discuss participation in and legitimation of changing labour relations, including the role of HRM? The following concepts will be discussed in their mutual coherence: (1) transitional labour market, (2) precariat as a substitute concept for social class, (3) human capital, differentiated in personal, cultural social, and economic capital as sources of competences, (4) new labour relations – shaped by portfolios of projects of the workforce - in the projective city; (5) economic and societal participation; (6) new labour relations: their flexibility (entrepreneurial individuals), liquidity, contingency, and reflexivity; (7) legitimation: the neoliberal spirit of capitalism; (8) life politics: optional and fragmented versus standard biographies.
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