This review provides a critical appraisal of Kubow and Min's paper. It teases out their conception of "liberalism" and argues that the classical notion of liberalism as a political theory that advocates individual liberty based on assumptions of the unencumbered autonomous individual has lost currency. This is because over the years…

This article is based on the findings of a qualitative exploration of factors influencing confidence levels among adult amateur choral singers. Three focus group interviews, involving 18 singers in total, and 16 individual interviews were carried out. These provided over 40 hours of recorded verbal data, which then underwent a process of…

Criticality is an important means to negotiate uncertainty, which has become a characteristic of teaching and learning conditions in postmodern times. This paper draws from an empirical comparative case study conducted in the uncertain discipline of fine art visual practice, where critical judgement and meta-cognition are important for…

Science journalists are mainly responsible for publicly communicating science, which, in turn, is a major indicator of the social development of democratic societies. The transmission of quality scientific information that is rigorously researched and understandable is therefore crucial, and demand for this kind of information from both…

Qualitative methods are not intrinsically progressive. Methods are simply tools to conduct research. Epistemology, the justification of knowledge, shapes methodology and methods, and thus is a vital starting point for a critical health equity research stance, regardless of whether the methods are qualitative, quantitative, or mixed. In line with…

Promoting community participation for people with intellectual disability through encounter with strangers is an integral part of the mission of disability support workers. This paper offers detailed micro-level analysis of the practices of support workers when they accompany a person with intellectual disability outside their home and explores…

As eco-criticism moves in the mainstream of film studies, questions remain about the relationship between ecological film representations and audience understanding. Addressing definitional tensions within eco-film research, this article argues that eco-criticism can be pragmatically grounded in terms of eco-film's pedagogical pertinence for…

Within the Canadian context, the physical activity levels of children and youth in the after school time period has become a source of public health concern. We argue that this concern is informed by broader public health crises, in particular the "global obesity epidemic" and the closely related "global pandemic of physical…

This article explores how school-aged Chinese youth make meaning of the civic roles of citizens in the context of a society with a powerful one-party government. We examined how 16 focus groups (N = 64) of adolescents from urban and rural schools in Shanghai and Nantong talked about the causes and solutions of social problems facing China. Our…

The present qualitative study sought to explore the relationship between English language learning and identity reconstruction from the viewpoints of Iranian language learners. The data were collected by means of focus-group interviews with forty-five male intermediate learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). To define the concept of…

This article explores student empowerment in a restructured urban Title I middle school. The study includes data from eight participants in an action research project that involved a critical inquiry unit in an eighth-grade language arts class that asked students, "How are you empowered and disempowered by school?" Findings reveal that…

Due to unsatisfactory number of researches investigating ELT post-graduate programs, and perceptions of academics and students in these programs regarding mediation theory of Feuerstein, this study attempted to investigate the aspects of this theory in doctorate and master programs in ELT department of a state university. Methodologically, this…

Many retailers argue that university students do not have the practical experience and skills required in the workplace when graduating. This paper reports on research undertaken to address this issue and to identify a model to guide development and implementation of a retail store, on a university campus, to be used for work-integrated learning.…

The catalyst for learning and change in transformative learning theory has mostly been explained in terms of a disorientation in a relatively stable life. This article explores a South African, nonformal adult learning program, as a source of "orienting dilemmas," which catalyze learning and change in lives that are regularly and…

In this article, we explore how youth audiences evaluate the quality of youth-produced films. Our interest stems from a dearth of ways to measure the quality of what youth produce in artistic production processes. As a result, making art in formal learning settings devolves into either romanticized creativity or instrumental work to improve skills…