This is a hermeneutic study on experiences being gifted, teaching gifted students and/or raising gifted children. This study focuses on how our horizon, which is a result of our past experiences, has an impact on how we make sense of our world and influences our attitudes and actions. As became clear during the conduct of the research, gender was…

Some of the Gospel passages proposed for Disability Awareness Sunday raise challenges as well as opportunities for preachers. This paper reports findings from an educational exercise, drawing on insights from the SIFT approach to biblical hermeneutics, in which 23 Anglican clergy studied Mark 2: 1-12 and Mark 10: 46-52 in groups structured…

With this paper, we contribute to the complex field of assessment of student learning in work placements. The complexity includes the dual role of clinical educators as mentors and assessors, students as pre-accredited practitioners and the diverse purposes of assessment. A philosophical hermeneutic approach was adopted to explore the perceptions…

This study explores the lived experiences of Chinese teachers in American Chinese Schools. Max van Manen's methodology for hermeneutic phenomenological research provides a framework for the study, and the philosophical writings of Heidegger, Gadamer, and Derrida guide the textual interpretations. Pedagogical voices of Aoki, Pinar, and Greene,…

Namibia's cheetah population has predominantly been threatened by human conflict related to livestock farming and habitat loss. Cheetahs have been indiscriminately persecuted as a mortal threat to livestock, as well as suffered from human-caused land use change. The Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in Otjiwarongo, Namibia conducts cheetah research…

The paper describes and illustrates the potential of using pictorial artistic images in supporting teaching scientific concepts and the nature of science. In the first part, the case of Giotto's fresco of stigmatization of St. Francis is described within the interpretation of relationship between the figures as between an object and its…

Education is increasingly being framed by a competence mindset; the value of knowledge lies much more in competence performativity and innovation than in simply knowing. Reaching such competency in areas such as astronomy and physics has long been known to be challenging. The movement from everyday conceptions of the world around us to a…

In "Cinema Paradiso" (Tomatore, 1988), Salvatore's love of movies came from spending his earlier, young life inside a cinema with the fatherly projectionist Alfredo, now blind and bitter. Alfredo is right. Life is much harder, yes, yet still very much "like in the movies" filled with frustrated actions, performed inside blind…

Individual and family stories of homelessness that focus on the transition out of homelessness remain comparatively unexplored. Using hermeneutic inquiry and microstoria analysis to orient the inquiry and design the narrative, this case study involves the story of a woman overcoming homelessness with her family, and her participation in, and…

Researchers have largely ignored students' creative works as a source of insight into their everyday experiences. This study is a hermeneutic analysis of 23 works written by talented writers on the topic of academics. The findings include depictions of students as detached from their teachers and their curriculum. In these stories and poems,…

This was a hermeneutic-phenomenological study on homeless students' life-world in urban, postsecondary public educational institutions. The sample population comprised 10 male and female Hispanic, Black, and Caucasian homeless student participants enrolled in professional and academic programs in postsecondary public vocational institutions…

Past research has shown that students with disabilities (SWD) at the postsecondary level who use accommodations demonstrate greater academic achievement and higher graduation rates. Only limited research has been conducted to identify the barriers they face in using accommodations, and that research has not sampled a population specifically…

This study focused on understanding the factors of academic persistence for 10 undergraduate Hispanic nontraditional students enrolled at two Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) in the southeast, each in their last year of a baccalaureate degree program. Using a phenomenological design, findings indicated that family context, personal…

Research on service learning has demonstrated positive outcomes in several areas of student learning; however, there is a scarcity of research examining the lived experiences of students. This study consisted of seventeen students from two cohorts enrolled in a service learning class working in a rural town. The current study suggests the…

In this paper, we examine workplace educators' interpretations of their assessment practices. We draw on a critical practice lens to conceptualise assessment practice as a social, relational and situated practice that becomes critical through critique and emancipation. We conducted semi-structured interviews followed by roundtable discussions with…