In a culture of therapy, trauma talk is widespread. The incitement to speak, to articulate suffering is pervasive. Contemporary norms of disclosure encourage the expression – rather than the ...silencing – of traumatic experiences. In the Global North, trauma talk is not confined to individual self-expression; it has become institutionalised in the operation of the state through education, welfare, and criminal justice systems and is particularly evident in public inquiries into institutional and historical abuse. Against dominant accounts of therapeutic culture as privatising political concerns, this chapter offers an alternative interpretation by exploring the alignment of therapeutic culture and activism. The chapter focuses on a movement which has spread throughout the Global North and is slowly moving beyond: demands for justice for the historical abuse of children in institutional settings. Taking public inquiries as a focal point, the chapter explores how cultural narratives of childhood trauma and its ongoing impact offer a framework for making sense of long-term experiences of adversity and suffering. I argue that this has buttressed claims for justice for survivors of institutional child abuse and, importantly, has provided traction for social, legislative, and institutional reform to redress historical abuse and better protect children in the future.
This article considers current concerns with promoting student mental health and wellbeing against the backdrop of critiques of the 'therapeutic turn' in education. It begins by situating accounts of ...'therapeutic education' within broader theorisation of therapeutic culture. In doing so, the importance of this work is acknowledged, but key assumptions are questioned. The emergence of concerns about self-esteem and wellbeing are then examined through an analysis of changing educational aims in Australia. This enables consideration of the broader context for policy reforms and emergent ideas about the importance of fostering wellbeing and attending to the social and emotional aspects of learning. Finally, the article argues for the salience of historicising both educational policy and scholarly critiques of therapeutic education in order to: (1) situate the contemporary emphasis on student wellbeing within a longer history of educational reforms aimed at supporting young people; (2) unsettle taken-for-granted ways in which mental health and wellbeing are currently foregrounded in contemporary schooling; and (3) develop new perspectives on the therapeutic turn in education. Author abstract
In the UK, a decline in the Barn Owl population has been attributed to increased agricultural intensity and urbanization. Shifts in farming practices have resulted in a reduction of habitat diversity ...and homogenization of the UK's landscape, causing a reduction in the number and diversity of prey animals for predatory species. One species that has been affected by these ecological shifts is the Barn Owl. The expansion of road networks, to accommodate more vehicles on the road, has led to habitat fragmentation and ecological traps. The Barn Owl has shifted its feeding patterns due to the pressure of ecological traps caused by the expansion of road networks to accommodate more vehicles and are now the most frequent bird species encountered on road casualty surveys, with over half of known Barn Owl deaths being a result of wildlife-vehicle collisions. The objectives of this study were to investigate factors affecting diet and reproductive success in the Barn Owl, as well as to identify characteristics of Barn Owl road casualty hotspots. The study was conducted in Anglesey, north Wales. Diet was investigated through the morphological analysis of owl pellets; 377 pellets were collected from 26 nest/roost box locations during the Barn Owl breeding season and winter roosting season. Reproductive success was analyzed using data provided by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), and nest/roost box locations allowed habitat analysis to be performed using Arcmap GIS. Barn Owl road mortality hotspots were investigated using data provided from the North and Mid Trunk Road Agency in correspondence to Arcmap GIS and Google Earth, which allowed for habitat analysis. The date that the road mortality was reported to the North and Mid Trunk Road Agency was used for the seasonal analysis. Data provided by the BTO allowed the effects of population in relation to road casualties to be studied, using reproductive success as a proxy for population success. The results of the study found, 12 species of vertebrates form regurgitated Barn Owl pellets, with the three most abundant being the Field Vole (60.52%), Common Shrew (16.31%) and Wood Mouse (8.65%). The results of the study found that the mean field vole weight per pellet was higher outside the Barn Owl breeding season (64.65g) than during it (53.53g). The mean Wood Mouse weight per pellet was lower outside the breeding season (4.06g) when compared to inside (7.16g). The home range of the Barn Owl is typically within the 1km-4km radius around the nest site, which is compromised of a variety of habitats depending on location. The Barn Owl home range habitat composition on Anglesey varied from 14-99% agriculturally improved grassland, 0-43% arable horticulture and 0-9% fen marsh swamp. These habitats were found to have a negative association with the number of successful fledglings per nest, which could reflect prey availability and abundance within these habitats, as an owl which can provide more food will be able to raise more young. However, small mammal trapping would be needed to confirm the abundance and availability of prey in these habitats. There were 117 Barn Owl road casualties on the A55 Anglesey recorded by the North Trunk Road Agent between 2001 and 2017, this equates to 0.196 Barn Owls/year/km. The month of April incurred the most deaths (18) and the least August, with only 1 death being reported. No relationship was identified between the time of year and the number of Barn Owl road casualties. Additionally, no relationship was found between habitat and owl road mortalities. However, a relationship was found between the presence of grass slope verges at the side of the A55 and bi-monthly road mortality. For instance, the number of deaths of barn owls in areas with grass sloping verges were reported as 29 and those without grass slopes recorded as 87. In conclusion, the results from this study highlights that in areas of intense agriculture, maintaining species rich diverse habitats is important for the success of Barn Owls. The results of this study suggest conservation efforts should be focused on the restoration of varied habitats in order to provide rich biodiversity through ecological management. The conservation management of habitats of different levels - which contain a wider variety of vegetation - should allow predatory birds, such as the barn owl, to exploit habitats at different times of the year depending on food abundance. Additionally, measures have been suggested t prevent the occurrence of wildlife-vehicle collisions such as low flight barriers which would target low flying animals such as the Barn Owl. Many studies have outlined the importance of grass verges as foraging grounds for Barn Owls, (Taylor, 1994 and Bolger et al., 2001), which suggest instead of removing these key foraging grounds and introducing manmade structures, conservation efforts could focus on making these foraging grounds safer. For instance, the introduction of grass lope verges could be used as a wildlife-vehicle collision preventative measure in the future.
The godly Protestants of sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England were seen by many in their society as Puritans, mere actors of Christianity, hypocritically performing their religion. This ...thesis asks to what extent the godly did in fact 'perform' their religion. The idea of performance is used to explore godly culture and identity in England in the period c.1580-1640. It is argued that the godly looked for signs of assurance of their faith, and performed to God, to themselves and to each other to receive reassurance. This study is based on two different urban communities, Banbury and Nottingham. The records of these towns are used comparatively to explore broader questions about the nature of godly culture and the creation of godly/ Puritan identity on different levels, incorporating the individual, the communal, the family, the private, the public, the domestic and the urban. Chapters focus on themes such as baptism name choice, preparations for death, non-conformity in church and iconoclasm to show how godly performance could be dramatic and distinctive within the communities in which they lived. They discuss how and why godly culture developed and changed in Banbury and Nottingham over the course of this period, considering the relative importance of the roles played by the clergy, local magistrates and wider personal and social networks.
Intergenerational practice (IP) is an increasingly popular community development tool which brings younger and older people together to participate in mutually beneficial activities. It aims to ...reduce negative attitudes and promote community cohesion. Previous research has examined the benefits of IP though much of this has focused on its potential to increase positive attitudes (and other individual level outcomes). In doing so, previous research has neglected broader social issues, the social nature of social change and the broader community and societal context within which IP takes place. As a result little was known about how IP works and its capacity for micro, meso and macro level social change. Within a social constructionist frame, this thesis argued that to understand the relationship between IP and social change, the role of different social agents in its production needed to be explored more critically. Social representations theory and mixed qualitative methods were used to explore how different social representations were engaged with, circulated or resisted in text, talk and action. Three studies examined practice guidelines, community facilitators and an intergenerational initiative. The latter study adopted an action research framework and aimed to both promote positive social change as well as explore the nature of this change. Mixed traditional and creative qualitative data were collected and analysed through thematic analysis. Findings revealed two competing systems of knowledge underpinned by themata individualism/collectivism and us/them. On the one hand, IP was characterised as an intervention targeted at problem individuals. On the other hand, IP was understood as a tool for collective action towards wider social issues. Between the push and pull of these systems of knowledge, IP was actualised in a middle ground, as a community mobilisation tool with the potential to foster community cohesion through the empowerment of older and younger people.
Middle school special education teachers are often concerned about challenging behavior. In recent years, school wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) has been shown to be effective in improving ...students' behavior. Class-wide Function-related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) is a SWPBS-based program designed to for implementation at the classroom level. CW-FIT utilizes an interdependent group contingency by utilizing social skills training, teacher praise, and positive reinforcement to improve students' behavior. Students are taught how to achieve specific social skills and then work in teams, using these social skills, to earn a group reward. CW-FIT has been effective in elementary general education classrooms. It has also worked well for small classrooms of students in elementary schools who have emotional and behavioral disorders, autism spectrum disorder, or other health impairment. CW-FIT has not yet been evaluated in a middle school special education setting. The present study examined the effects of CW-FIT implementation on teacher praise rates and student on-task behavior in a middle school self-contained classroom, where 12 of the students had severe disabilities and 11 were typically-developing peer tutors. A single-subject, reversal design was used to evaluate impact. Results indicate that CW-FIT increased teacher praise rates and student on-task behavior. Both teachers and students reported CW-FIT to be socially valid. The present study suggests promising results for the implementation of CW-FIT in a middle school self-contained classroom.
