This study investigates how pre-service Teachers of English in Bilingual Streams’ (TEBs) perceptions of plurilingualism are elicited through carrying out small-scale research with learners. It builds on previous studies showing positive relations between teacher education and shifts in pre-service teachers’ predispositions towards plurilingual education, particularly when opportunities for critical reflection on the interplay between course- and field work is emphasised. TEBs (N=6) were introduced to visual and spoken data collection methods consisting of language mapping and focus group interviews during coursework and administered these during fieldwork. Spoken and written research reports were analysed deductively using language ideologies adapted from Ricklefs (2023). Results show all participants have a positive disposition to plurilingualism on completion of the course and fieldwork, particularly in relation to valuing plurilingualism as a potential resource in CLIL. Implementing multimodal research methods makes linguistic variation visible and draws out learner experiences. This helps TEBs make connections between their own beliefs and experiences, and those articulated by their learners and in their placement schools. This approach builds on the dynamic nature of the interaction between teacher beliefs and practices and confirms that critical reflection can play a key role in shaping TEBs’ dispositions towards plurilingualism and plurilingual pedagogies.
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Studying images on social media introduces several challenges that relate to the size of datasets and the different meaning-making grammars of social visuality; or as aptly pointed out by others in the field, it means ‘studying the qualitative on a quantitative scale’. Although cultural analytics provides an automated process through which patterns can be detected in large numbers of images, this methodology doesn’t account for other modalities of the image than the image itself. However, images circulating social media can (and should) be analyzed on the level of their audience as the latter is co-creating the meaning of images. Bridging the study of platform affordances and affect theory, this paper presents a novel methodology that repurposes Facebook Reactions to infer collective attitudes and performative emotional expressions vis á vis images shared on the large Syrian Revolution Network public page (+2M). We found visual patterns that co-occur with certain collective combinations of buttons, displaying how socio-technical features shape the discursive frameworks of online publics.
MULTIFILE
An emerging body of research indicates that active arts engagement can enhance older adults’ health and experienced well‐being, but scientific evidence is still fragmented. There is a research gap in understanding arts engagement grounded in a multidimensional conceptualization of the value of health and well‐being from older participants’ perspectives. This Dutch nation‐wide study aimed to explore the broader value of arts engagement on older people’s perceived health and well‐being in 18 participatory arts‐based projects (dance, music, singing, theater, visual arts, video, and spoken word) for community‐dwelling older adults and those living in long term care facilities. In this study, we followed a participatory design with narrative‐ and arts‐based inquiry. We gathered micro‐narratives from older people and their (in)formal caregivers (n = 470). The findings demonstrate that arts engagement, according to participants, resulted in (1) positive feelings, (2) personal and artistic growth, and (3) increased meaningful social interactions. This study concludes that art‐based practices promote older people’s experienced well‐being and increase the quality of life of older people. This study emphasizes the intrinsic value of arts engagement and has implications for research and evaluation of arts engagement.
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