At the end of January 2015 I was given a research assignment formulated and sponsored by two professors of professorships (hereafter lectoraten) associated with the Academy for Social Studies (SASS), and the manager of Professionals and Bedrijven (hereafter P&B). At a later stage, the research was expanded by the sponsorship of the educational managers of the bachelor and master studies of SPH and MWD. It is a complex assignment with several research perspectives and aims. The main goal was to find out how to make better use of the products of the lectoraten for educational purposes. This umbrella goal included many subordinate aims. One aim concerned identifying the products and prioritizing them according to the educational demands of clients in the field and of teachers of the SASS educational programmes. Another aim was to demonstrate which skills the teachers who develop educational materials need to have and to identify steps necessary to adapt the products. Yet another aim consisted of finding better ways for knowledge to circulate between the lectoraten and the teaching staff of SASS. Finally advising the staff of P & B on marketing and communications in relation to the products of the lectoraten was aimed at. Overview of the reportAs stated, there are multiple assignment-givers (hereafter sponsors). In the first section the general societal context which triggered the assignment has been sketched but contextual aspects related to each of the sponsors have also been identified (in Appendix 1). The individual contexts of sponsors were important because, although they agreed on the broad aims of the assignment, they naturally have specific expectations of the results based on their particular situations. After the background sketch, seven sub-tasks given by the sponsors have been turned into subordinate - research and consultation questions. The second section describes the methods used and measures taken to obtain findings. This includes an identification of the inventory structure, actors involved both intramurally and extramurally (the stakeholders). Next, a Delphi method for developing a profile of learner needs and a list of topics of products is described.In the third section, findings are set out in relation to the 7 sub-research and consultation questions. Some discussion and concluding remarks are given for most of the seven questions. The findings are written in English but most of the quotations from respondents have not been translated so they appear in Dutch. Section four summarises these findings in a compact manner since there were conclusions throughout the findings. Section five offers recommendations in Dutch. Attention is given to the different emphases of the sponsors in the details of recommendations. Please note that many end notes and appendices are offered for further reading since some of the approaches mentioned in the text may be unfamiliar to some readers. A word about terms Both Dutch and English employ a variety of terms to identify the provision (aanbod) of learning for adults in working environments and to identify the learning activities or programmes. This can be confusing but is, unfortunately, unavoidable. In Dutch, the terms ‘deskundigheidsbevordering, nascholing, bijscholing’ and ‘trainingsaanbod’ or occasionally ‘professionalisering’ are all used to indicate what in English is called ‘professional development’ (often abbreviated to PD) or ‘staff development’ or, recently, ‘professionalisation’ The typical Dutch use of the term ‘training’ for almost all stypes of learning activities has a somewhat more restricted meaning in English. Educational activities are often referred to as ‘learning trajectories’; ‘ learning opportunities’ or ‘interventions’ as well as, less commonly, ‘training sessions’ or ‘workshops’. All of the English terms are employed throughout this report. The most commonly used are ‘professionalisation’ or ‘PD’ for the provision and ‘interventions’ to indicate specific educational programmes or activities.
Background: In the Netherlands, most of the academic curricula for teacher training in religious education (RE) focus on shortfalls of students, like a lack of knowledge about the plurality of worldviews and the diversity in interpretations of the Christian tradition. In our research project, the focus is not on the students, but on the university professors and lecturers who teach the subject of RE: professors and lecturers who train and educate students to teach RE. Aim: The main aim of the project was to gain a better insight into the inherent complexity of the professionalism of academics, that is, their own positionality in the plurality of the Roman Catholic traditions they adhere to in relation to their capabilities and commitment to the current curriculum – the ‘old’ one – and the new curriculum to be developed, in the context of the Dutch plural society. Setting: Respondents in this research were university professors and lecturers of the Teacher Training Institute of Tilburg University, located at Utrecht, the Netherlands. Methods: For this investigation, we used a research instrument based on the dialogical self theory and its self confrontation method for organisations to gain insight into professionals’ own and their colleagues’ positionality regarding teaching RE. Results: Preliminary results show that the self confrontation method for organisations has shown itself to be a challenging instrument to invite academics involved in the process of data construction and data analysis. Conclusion: Based on these results, we recommend to include the research population in a validation process to increase the sustainability of the results and to maximise engagement in the implementation phase of the new curriculum.
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In maart 2011 dreigde Muammer Gaddafi van Libya duizenden onschuldige burgers van de stad Benghazi uit hun huizen te halen om hen te vermoorden. De Veiligheidsraad van de Verenigde Naties verwees de situatie door naar het Internationaal Strafhof in Den Haag, dwong een no-flyzone af en gaf de NAVO een mandaat om burgers te beschermen with all necessary means, met de uitzondering van grondtroepen. Deze operatie was snel, robuust en effectief. Het principe van The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) -de verantwoordelijkheid van de internationale gemeenschap om genocide, misdaden tegen de menselijkheid, etnische zuivering en oorlogsmisdaden te voorkomen en te stoppen- werd voor het eerst volledig toegepast. Is R2P daarmee een norm geworden? Dit onderzoek plaatst de casus Libië in het model van de "Norm Life Cycle" (de levenscyclus van een norm) van de Constructivistische theoretici Finnemore en Sikkink (1998). Libië toont aan dat R2P nu een tipping point (omslagpunt) heeft bereikt, en zich van de fase norm emergence (opkomende norm) naar de fase norm cascade heeft verplaatst. Er is echter een spanning ontstaan: de terughoudendheid van de Veiligheidsraad om R2P toe te passen in Syrië (2012) wijst de andere kant uit. Er is dus nog een lange weg te gaan, voordat R2P als een internalised norm (vanzelfsprekende norm) kan worden beschouwd. ABSTRACT In March 2011, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya threatened to pull thousands of civilian protesters in the city of Benghazi out of their homes and kill them. The Security Council of the United Nations referred the crisis to the International Criminal Court, imposed a no-fly zone and provided NATO with a mandate to protect civilians by all necessary means, with the exception of ground troops. This operation was fast, robust and effective. It also marked the first time that the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle was fully implemented, being the responsibility of the international community to prevent and respond to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes if the state in question is not able or not willing to protect its citizens itself. Has R2P become a new norm? This study situates the case of Libya in the 'Norm Life Cycle' model of Constructivist theorists Finnemore and Sikkink (1998). It suggests that R2P has reached a tipping point and has moved from the stage of norm emergence to the stage of norm cascade. However, a certain tension still exists: the reluctance of the Security Council to implement R2P again in the crisis in Syria (2012)points in the opposite direction. This suggests there is still a long way to go before R2P becomes an internalised norm in the international community.
