Developing the critical intercultural class-space: theoretical implications and pragmatic applications of critical intercultural communication pedagogy

Teaching intercultural communication presents pedagogical challenges due to the breadth and depth of the discipline and its recent critical turn. Teaching it with a social justice mission, and guiding students to understand critical and postcolonial approaches to its practice, requires complex and multifaceted approaches so as not to oppress or misrepresent marginalised populations. This essay addresses critical intercultural communication pedagogy as a shared system of knowledge among teachers and students, all participants in the cyclical process of learning. Critical intercultural communication pedagogy is presented from a Freirean perspective, as shared ownership of knowledge, including didactic, experiential and reflexive approaches to learning, with educational outcomes that include empathy, connection and ethical responsibilities towards social justice globally and locally. First, several definitions and theoretical perspectives are traced. Next, three short case studies of critical intercultural communication pedagogy (CICP) present varying approaches to teaching critical intercultural issues across diverse populations. Each of the studies is analysed for how the application of different CICP and cosmopolitan pedagogical activities impacts educational outcomes and processes for intercultural students. Finally, several recommendations are given for future scholarship, along with a concluding remark that describes the work’s contribution to critical intercultural communication pedagogy and to the discipline as a whole.     

Posttraumatic stress disorder and older women

This article examines the literature related to the identification and treatment of post traumatic stress disorder in older women. From this review, several key findings emerge. Consistent in the research literature is the fact that American women are more at risk for PTSD than are men as a result of the high frequency of sexual and domestic physical abuse that women experience. Studies on older women and PTSD indicate that older women are underdiagnosed and are more typically perceived as suffering from depression, anxiety or poor physical health. It was found consistently that older women who present with age-related stressors may not be asked about earlier trauma history or it may not be understood within the context of trauma related variables. In several research studies, trauma history was often not identified either as a result of current assessment practice or because women from certain age cohorts did not disclose trauma-related data to health professionals. Key researchers emphasize the necessity of clinicians, staff and medical personnel to attend to the historical variables present in trauma histories of older women. Researchers underscore the importance of understanding the impact of early and repeated trauma, especially interpersonal trauma, on the physical health and social functioning of older women- even though a significant amount of time may have elapsed since exposure. These findings indicate that further study of PTSD in older women is warranted. The paper concludes with a discussion of assessment and treatment options.     

Self-Reported Satisfaction and the Economic Crisis of 2007–2010: Or How People in the UK and Germany Perceive a Severe Cyclical Downturn

Self-reported satisfaction measures respond to a great variety of socio-demographic characteristics as well as the job and living environment. In this paper we ask whether the recent financial market crisis has caused a deterioration of satisfaction not only for the unemployed but also for those out of the labour force and especially those in employment. The focus of our analyses is on the pattern of life, job and health satisfaction over time and the influence of unemployment rates, inflation rates and GDP growth. We compare the UK and Germany, two countries with different employment protection regulations and different consequences of the crisis for the labour market. For our analysis we use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Study for the period 1996–2010 and supplement this with annual information on macroeconomic indicators. We estimate Ordered Logit and OLS models, both with individual fixed effects. We find some limited psychological costs with respect to self-reported life satisfaction in the crisis years, and a considerable impact of regional and national unemployment rates. Looking at job and health satisfaction we get similar though somewhat weaker results.     

Girls’ friendships as habitus in an elite,middle-class secondary school in Ireland

This study examines gendered and classed friendships in a predominantly middle-class, girls' secondary school in the southern region of the Republic of Ireland. Bourdieu's (1977) concept of habitus, interactively, with Gidden's (1984) concept of practical consciousness, and Gambetta's (1987) intentional rational choice informed the conceptual framework for the study. Narrative sources yielded data about girls' friendships and peer interactions inside and outside of school. The social class and habitus of each of the girls mediated their friendship formation and friendship choice. Data sources highlight that the middle-class girls' friendships were situated in fluid and multiple cliques; given their hegemonic positionality within the school. Contrastingly, working-class girls' friendships were situated in a contained and single clique, often evidenced by their resistance to the institutional habitus. The ways in which these peer friendships operated as powerful shapers of the girls' actions and identities is discussed. This paper provides examples of the nuanced ways that girls' friendships are developed and maintained based on conformity or resistance to the school norms and expectations of academic success. Importantly, findings evidence the differentiated and instrumental use of friendships among the middle-class and working-class girls in a competitive, elite school setting.     

Gender Dynamics in Social Work Practice and Education: A Critical Literature Review

This paper offers a critical analysis of existing literature on historical and contemporary gender dynamics in Australian social work education and practice. Analyses of gender dynamics and inequalities have the potential to illuminate pathways for inclusive social work education and practice, for both practitioners and people who access social work services. This critical review of the literature demonstrates that Australian social work education and practice have been shaped by gendered discourses, structures, and power dynamics since its inception. In a contemporary sense, women constitute the majority of social work educators and practitioners, while men disproportionately dominate positions of power and prestige, although rigorous Australian data on the roles and representation of men and women are not readily available. Our findings point to the need for further engagement with gender as a unit of analysis in Australian social work research, including further engagement with inclusive and intersectional feminisms.

IMPLICATIONS

• Enhanced knowledge of Australian social work history, particularly in relation to gender, allows for a greater understanding of current gendered power relations in social work education and practice.

• Gender dynamics are underresearched in contemporary Australian social work education and practice.

• Up-to-date data on the status and representation of men, women, and nonbinary people in social work are needed as the foundation for transformative and inclusive social work education and practice.

     

In pursuit of social meaning

Meaning and Linguistic Variation: The Third Wave in Sociolinguistics is a collection of works published in a variety of edited collections, journals, and conference proceedings. It also includes one unpublished conference paper. The collection traces the (ongoing) development of the concept of social meaning in language variation in 11 different papers. These are contextualized with personal reflections on variationist sociolinguistics and the profession of linguistics that frame each paper. This review article highlights some of the key themes in the collection: As well as social meaning itself, issues with style, clustering of variables, peripheral and core members of communities, and agency are discussed. Eckert's innovative proposal that variables can be differentiated on the basis of their relative “interiority” is considered, as is the assertion that linguistics transcends the referential properties of language to include the expressive and moral.     

Response to Rosen et al. (2014) “Commentary on ‘Critical Flaws in the FSFI and IIEF’”

This is a response to the commentary by Rosen, Revicki, and Sand (2014 Rosen , R. C. , Revicki , D. A. , &; Sand , M. ( 2014 ). Commentary on “Critical flaws in the FSFI and the IIEF.” Journal of Sex Research , 51 , 492 – 497 . doi: 10.1080/00224499.2014.894491 [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) on our original article titled “Critical Flaws in the Female Sexual Function Index and the International Index of Erectile Function” (Forbes, Baillie, &; Schniering, 2014 Forbes , M. K. , Baillie , A. J. , &; Schniering , C. A. ( 2014 ). Critical flaws in the Female Sexual Function Index and the International Index of Erectile Function . Journal of Sex Research , 51 , 485 – 491 . doi: 10.1080/00224499.2013.876607 [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). We address his criticisms and clarify our points further using existing research. We conclude that there are a number of evident limitations to these popular measures, and suggest that researchers and clinicians familiarize themselves with the aim and scope of each measure before use.