Academic literature on the topic 'Narratives of professionalization'

Drawing upon eleven volumes of articles published between 1890 and 1990 in The Auk, journal of American ornithology, this study shows the path to professionalization through four phases of ornithological discourse history. In the science of ornithology, the interests of conservationists, science students, and scientists themselves were originally served by a single discourse form—the personal narrative of natural history. But, with professionalization, scientists increasingly associated such narratives with amateur performance. The resulting gap between professional science and public understanding of science was reinforced by the establishment of a university program of study in ornithology, by an emerging sense of a scientific community, and by the forces of environmentalism.

The goal of this article is to analyze if the portfolio in teacher education policies and in the Supervised Internship (SI) in Physical Education (PE) constitutes a formative device and to contributes to the professionalization of teaching. This qualitative, documentary research used content analysis of Curriculum Guidelines for Teacher Education and 12 portfolios produced by PE interns from a public university in Brazil. The results integrate narratives of the interns' portfolios, identified by axes: diagnostic evaluation and teaching learning. Policies are interpreted with attention to the portfolio that was treated as a technical artifact of controlled rational activity (tensioning the notion of professionalization). We concluded that the use of portfolios expanded and differed from that foreseen by the literature and the current teacher education policy. Portfolio in SI in PE emerges as a possible open and flexible training device, which is consistent with the professionalization of teaching.

It is with enthusiasm that we present this special issue of Stream devoted to the student conference proceedings from the 2017 Canadian Communication Association annual meeting during the Congress for Social Science and Humanities held at Ryerson University. As current graduate students, we understand and appreciate the challenges that graduate students face and having a medium like the annual CCA-ACC conference provides the kind of professionalization that graduate students need to continue a career as academics.

AbstractThe school environment of the 21st century is shaped by rapidly changing social and societal conditions that teachers need to adapt to, increasing linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity among other things. The development of attitudes to cope with these constant societal transformations is one of the main challenges of teacher professionalization today. In this chapter, we concentrate on the self-positioning and argumentation patterns of two Luxembourgish primary school teachers. We focus on the question how these teachers construct differences and homogeneity, what kind of categories and norms they rely on (e.g. performance, sociocultural background, and language) and in how far mechanisms of in- and exclusion become visible.With its trilingual tradition and school system (mainly Luxembourgish, French and German), and at the same time a highly diverse society with more than 170 nationalities, Luxembourg represents a particularly interesting case. As the recent PISA studies have repeatedly shown, the Luxembourgish school system (including its traditional trilingualism and strong orientation on language education) produces a high degree of inequality, and represents an important challenge especially for children of migration.With our study, which is based on in-depth interviews and which adopts an analytical approach combining elements of content and discourse analysis, we found a tendency towards a backward oriented idealized orientation of the past and a high degree of insecurity. We also show which ambivalences the teachers are confronted with and their efforts to deal with these ambivalences.We hope to contribute to a deeper understanding of how teachers position themselves vis a vis the existing diversity in schools, and which discourse and argumentation patterns they rely on. We see this study as part of research on teacher professionalization that will be useful for reflexive pre- and in-service teacher training.

The title of the book shows, based on a metaphor, the use of euphemism to refer to death. The reader can obtain a transversal vision of this subject: from traditional thought to the great change that took place in the 19th century with the professionalization of health and death, and finally, in the present time, the interweaving with technology. The result is the unfolding of a wide variety of discourses: from thinkers, health professionals, patient testimonies through their narratives, stories from the doctors themselves and writers of diverse genres.

Drawing on mediated framing theory, this article considers how the 19th-century Utah Woman’s Press Club used its opportunity to control its public image in the Utah-based suffrage periodical Woman’s Exponent. The Exponent was edited by the club’s founder, Emmeline B. Wells, and was an outlet for many of the area’s women writers. This article demonstrates how the group’s three primary themes—education and professionalization, politics, and faith—developed a gendered framing of 19th-century womanhood. This exploration considers how gender-specific publications can be a powerful outlet for women to challenge mainstream narratives about women’s abilities.

Using an institutional logics approach, this study investigates how the institutional logics of leaders of grassroots social service nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia changed over time and how these changes related to changes in organizational mission, people served, professionalization, and interactions with the government. Relying on interviews as well as other data gathered, this analysis of organizational leaders’ narratives reveals the identities and experiences that these leaders turn to in their sensemaking of significant events. The findings show that, on the one hand, social welfare NGOs continued to provide services, increased their advocacy efforts, and professionalized their staff. Volunteer organizations, on the other hand, discontinued provision of social services turning instead to the recruitment and development of volunteers. Theoretically, this empirical case illustrates how an interplay of factors at multiple levels can affect the expression of logics at the organizational level.

Introduction Balint group discussions provide learning opportunities for many of the competencies and milestones put forward by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The current literature is mixed concerning the effect of Balint groups on communication skills and professionalism. Aim To map the content of the Balint discussion to the competencies and milestones put forward by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Methodology: A group who were both experts in Balint and members of the clinical competency committee of residency programs rated narratives that summarized Balint group discussions. Credentialed Leaders of the American Balint Society were invited via email to submit narratives (250 words) about Balint groups that they have led, or were leading, with residents. Results Only four narratives were submitted. Additional cases were recruited through literature review of published Balint discussion cases. A total of 25 cases were rated by the committee. There was agreement between three out of four raters on at least one core milestone in every case. The most frequent milestones were C1 (develops meaningful therapeutic relationships with patients and families), C2 (communicated effectively with patients, families, and public), Prof1 (completes a process of professionalization), and Prof3 (demonstrates humanism and cultural proficiency). Balint groups provided a learning opportunity for a subset of milestones in at least 36% of the cases. Conclusion This pilot research suggests that Balint groups and the discussions of complex and challenging cases provide learning opportunities for multiple family medicine milestones, mainly communication skills and professionalism. Further research is needed to refine the methodology and the rating system.

Abstract Most often depicted as the precursor to the much simpler and safer practice of Jennerian cowpox vaccination, the eighteenth-century practice of inoculating against smallpox with the live virus reveals much about the way in which pre-modern mothers and medics understood and made decisions about disease management in children. Examined from the perspective of those mothers who ultimately sanctioned its use and helped to advance the practice on English soil, despite a complex set of possible eventualities - from uncertain conferral of immunity to death - this article argues that provided an ‘English’ version of it was carried out in strict accordance with the age-old doctrines of humoral medicine, mothers deemed it an entirely rational act devoid of ‘risk’ in our modern sense. These findings run counter to established narratives asserting blanket professionalization and medicalization of childcare during this period, and they nuance the role Lady Mary Wortley Montagu played in introducing the practice she had encountered in Turkey.

Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo geral investigar como professores licenciados em outras áreas do conhecimento – Ploa se tornam professores de música na educação básica. Como objetivos específicos, busquei: compreender como esses professores se inseriram na Rede Municipal de Ensino de Sinop – Remes como professores de música; como ensinam música na escola e como se veem como professores de música na escola. O referencial teórico do trabalho está fundamentado em conceitos de profissionalização dos educadores Antonio Nóvoa e Betânia Ramalho, Isauro Núñez e Clermont Gauthier, e na perspectiva teórica – teoria ator-rede desenvolvida por Bruno Latour. Os princípios desenvolvidos por Bruno Latour complementam o conceito de profissionalização no que se refere ao aspecto do profissionismo. O método utilizado foi a abordagem biográfica, mais especificamente as narrativas. A estratégia de pesquisa utilizada foi a entrevista narrativa, denominada no trabalho como narrativas de profissionalização. O estudo foi realizado com dez professores que atuam na Remes. A análise indica que a profissionalização se constitui como uma narrativa. A narrativa de profissionalização é um processo de ações minúsculas praticadas pelos docentes no interior de seus contextos. Essas ações, que vão constituindo os professores em profissionais, são geradas pelas necessidades do contexto. Os professores constroem a sua profissionalização tecendo uma relação singular-plural com o contexto escolar. Os professores constroem modos distintos de ensinar música e criam estratégias de ação que lhes possibilitam arregimentar aliados para que continuem o seu processo de vir a ser professores de música na escola. A pesquisa contribui para que a área de educação musical possa ampliar os conceitos sobre a profissionalização de professores que atuam com o ensino de música nas escolas de educação básica. Dar visibilidade às práticas músico-educacionais vividas pelos professores no contexto escolar indica dimensões do vir a ser professor de música. Um dos caminhos que esta pesquisa aponta é que, para tornar-se professor de música na educação básica, é necessário tomar a profissionalização como uma narrativa.
This research aimed at investigating how teachers undergraduate in other areas of knowledge become music teachers in schools of basic education. More specifically, it aimed to understand how these teachers entered in the educational municipal system of the city of Sinop, Mato Grosso, mid-western Brazil; how they teach music at schools and how they see themselves as school music teachers. The theoretical framework was constituted by the concepts of professionalization elaborated by Antonio Nóvoa and Betânia Ramalho, Isauro Núñez and Clermont Gauthier and the theoretical perspective – actor-network theory developed by Bruno Latour, whose principles complement the concept of professionalization. The research adopted a biographical approach, specifically that of the narratives. The research technique used was the narrative interview, called as narratives of professionalization. The study was carried out with ten teachers of the municipal system of Sinop. The analysis indicates that the professionalization is constituted as a narrative. The narrative of professionalization is a process constituted by narrow actions carried out by the teachers in the contexts where they work. These actions, which constitute the teachers as professionals, are generated by the needs of the context. The teachers build their professionalization through weaving a singular-plural relationship with the school context. They elaborate distinct modes of teaching music and create strategies for action that allows them to gather allies to continue their process of becoming music teachers at school. The research contributes to the field of music education through broadening the concepts about the professionalization of teachers who work with music education in the schools. Furthermore, the process of making visible the practices of music education lived by the teachers in the school context indicates dimensions of how one comes to be a music teacher. The research concludes that, in order to become a music teacher in the school of basic education, it is necessary to conceive, and to live, the professionalization as a narrative.

For many years, Sweden has had a reputation for having a comprehensive and women friendly welfare state. However, as in many other European countries during the past few decades, the organization and governing of welfare has undergone profound changes. Through interviews with social workers and the application of theories of governmentality, this thesis analyzes the expressions and consequences of such current organization and governing. One result is that the introduction of meticulous documentation practices of social workers contact with clients, regulate their interaction and constitute a control over both client and social worker. Another result is that the current organization fragments labor and awards more authority to managers, which functions to produce loyalty to the organization and management, rather than clients. This is expressed in demands not to voice protest, as it is said to create a bad mood. It is also expressed in demands to spend as little as possible on clients; short duration of treatment, preference for outpatient treatment and by making it difficult to receive financial support. This austerity is legitimized through the intermeshing of different ideals; budget awareness, evidence that supports short and outpatient treatment and that clients in order to change their course of life should to be allowed or coerced into taking individual responsibility. Another important finding is that the current governing and organization of social work produce distance and detachment, and thus discourage caring subjects. This is a complex process in which an assemblage of different techniques and rationalities undermines the cultivation of a relationship between social worker and client. 1) The ideal of evidence-based practice favors rigid methods over a flexible and holistic approach. 2) Ideals of rationality, closely connected to notions of masculinity and professionalism, value objectivity and devalue and deter the surfacing of emotions. 3) Meticulous practices of documentation reduce the amount of time available to meet clients. 4) Ideals and particular methods designed to promote individual responsibility in clients legitimize social workers distancing themselves from clients’ dependency and needs. 5) A division of labor, in either assessment or treatment, reduces time spent with clients for those who work with assessment and ultimately engage in the rationing of resources. 6) Standardized digital templates, installed to aid in assessments, regulate and proceduralize interactions with the client. 7) Austerity, heavy workloads, individualized responsibility and stress further accentuate distance, as detachment becomes a means to cope with arduous working conditions. The transformation of social work described above produces alienation and a fragmentation of social workers’ collective subjects. Simultaneously, an ethos of caring makes some social workers work extra hard to provide for clients, which ultimately covers for flaws in the system. Although such an ethos of caring allows for the further exploitation of social workers, it is also understood as a means of resistance, which in turn also forms the basis for organized resistance.
Sverige har ett internationellt rykte för att ha en omfattande och kvinnovänlig välfärd. Även om riktigheten i en sådan uppfattning sedan länge ifrågasatts har på senare år, likt i många andra Europeiska länder, det svenska välfärdssystemet genomgått en omfattande förändring i avseende på dess räckvidd, men också dess organisering och styrning. Fokus för denna studie är just denna organisering och styrning, och mer specifikt, hur detta påverkar ett av välfärdens kanske mest centrala område: socialt arbete. Genom att intervjua socialarbetare undersöks i denna studie uttryck för och konsekvenser av en sådan förändring, bland annat genom att undersöka hur könsbundna föreställningar och förväntningar är sammanflätade med det sociala arbetets organisering och styrning. I studien konstateras att socialarbetare erfar att deras arbete genomgått omfattande förändringar, vilket kopplas ihop med både organiseringen och styrningen av det sociala arbetet. Detta uttrycks både i de ideal som kringgärdar arbetet men också i dominerande arbetssätt. En sådan förändring är införandet av  omfattande dokumentationsprocedurer av socialarbetarens arbete och kontakt med klienter, vilket medför att kontakten med klienterna blir ytligare. Dokumentationsprocedurerna utgör också en sorts kontroll av både klienterna och socialarbetarna själva. En annan förändring som konstateras är att nya organisationsmodeller och en förändrad ledarskapskultur skapar förväntningar på socialarbetarna att vara lojala med organisationen och ledningen snarare än klienterna. Bland annat utrycks detta genom förväntningar att inte protestera och skapa dålig stämning på arbetsplatsen, men också genom uttalade krav att spendera så lite resurser som möjligt på klienterna; korta behandlingstider, öppenvårdsalternativ och orimligt hårda krav för att få ekonomiskt bistånd. Detta legitimeras genom sammanväxningen av flera olika ideal; budgetmedvetenhet, att klienter inte mår bra av långa institutionsvistelser, men också att klienterna ska tillåtas eller bör tvingas att klara att sig själva. Ett av studiens huvudresultat är att den nuvarande organiseringen och styrningen av socialt arbete skapar avstånd och likgiltighet. Genom flera sammankopplade ideal och arbetssätt styrs dagens socialarbetare till att bry sig mindre om de klienter de möter. På så sätt undermineras förutsättningarna för framväxten av en djup relation mellan socialarbetare och klient; 1) Idealet och kravet att socialarbetare ska arbeta utifrån evidens, det vill säga metoder och förhållningssätt som i speciellt utformade utvärderingsmodeller visat sig ha effekt, gör att väl strukturerade och rigida metoder ges företräde. Denna instrumentalisering underminerar ett flexibelt, relationsorienterat och helhetsfokuserat sätt att arbeta. Dessutom gör evidensidealets fokus på enskilda individer och avgränsade utvärderingstider att mer samhällsinriktat kritiskt och långsiktigt inriktat arbete undermineras. 2) Ett rationalitetsideal, tätt sammanbundet med föreställningar om professionalitet och maskulinitet, värderar objektivitet och förmågan att frikoppla socialarbetarens egna känslor från sitt arbete. Detta maskuliniserade professionsideal innebär att empati och solidaritet med klienten undergrävs. 3) Omfattande krav på olika former av dokumentation av det sociala arbetet gör att tiden som socialarbetaren har till sitt förfogande för att besöka och att ha möten med klienten blir knapp. 4) Ett allmänt samhällsideal kring individuellt ansvar och en särskild arbetsmetod (motiverande samtal) som många socialarbetare förväntas lära sig, framhäver klientens eget ansvar för och vilja till förändring. Detta legitimerar ett avståndstagande från klientens behov av hjälp och stöd enligt logiken  ”du måste klara detta själv”. 5) En vanligt förekommande uppdelning av socialarbetarnas arbetsuppgifter i en så kallad beställar-utförarmodell gör att vissa socialsekreterare arbetar med hjälp och stöd, medan andra arbetar med bedömningar av klienters behov. De senare, som också har inflytande över resurstilldelning, blir med en sådan organisering av arbetet alltmer frikopplade från den stödjande och hjälpande verksamheten och kontakten med klienten. 6) Standardiserade digitala bedömningsinstrument, skapade för att på ett likvärdigt sätt bedöma klienters behov och dokumentera det sociala arbetet, reglerar och instrumentaliserar kontakten med klienter. 7) Tunga arbetsbördor, individualiserat ansvar och stress, bidrar ytterligare till att skapa avstånd och likgiltighet eftersom det för vissa utgör ett sätt att genomleva en ohållbar arbetssituation. En allmän åtstramning av socialtjänstens resurstilldelning förstås som en viktig orsak till behovet av att skapa ovan distansmekanismer. Men distansen hänger också ihop med en tendens till ett återupplivande av en tidigare dominerande förståelse av marginalisering och sociala problem; där människors nöd ses som ett utslag av dålig karaktär och ett resultat av dåliga individuella val. De förändringar av det sociala arbetets premisser som beskrivits ovan gör att socialarbetarna alltmer görs främmande inför sitt arbete – de alieneras. Detta främmandegörande uttrycks genom att inte kunna identifiera sig med arbetet självt, sina kollegor eller med sig själv. Ett sådant främmandegörande underminerar, eller fragmentiserar, både relationen till klienten, men också en känsla av gemenskap med andra socialarbetare. En gemenskap som kan utgöra ett ”vi” och ligga till grund för att ställa krav, protestera och göra motstånd mot avhumaniserande ideal och reformer. På så vis är främmandegörandet inte bara en konsekvens av dagens organisering och styrning, utan också något som fyller en viktig funktion för en sådan styrning och organisering, och genomförandet av en allmän åtstramning i socialpolitiken. Samtidigt som dagens organisering och styrning av socialt arbete är främmandegörande, slår vissa socialarbetare knut på sig själva och arbetar extra hårt för att täcka upp för systemets brister och krympande resurser, för att trots det svåra läget ändå försöka ge det stöd som de upplever att klienten behöver. Ett sådant historiskt förankrat femininiserat omsorgsideal, dvs känslor av ansvar och empati inför behövande och en ilska inför oförrätter, utgör därmed på samma gång grund för en fördjupad exploatering av socialarbetarna, och ett vardagligt motstånd mot rådande system. I ett läge när flera upplever att kollegialiteten som grund för motstånd på arbetsplatserna underminerats, utgör ett sådant omsorgsideal samtidigt också grunden för organiserat motstånd utanför arbetsplatsen, bortom chefernas insyn, kontroll och härskartekniker. Medan nuvarande styrningssystem underminerar ett visst sorts motstånd, uppstår samtidigt grunden för nya.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo analisar o processo de profissionalização de atletas praticantes de Handebol de um time do Rio Grande do Sul considerando, sobretudo, suas narrativas acerca do que entendem sobre ser profissional do Handebol. Sua fundamentação teórico-metodológica está ancorada na História Oral cuja forma de captação de informações está centrada na realização de entrevistas com pessoas significativas ao contexto analisado. Considerando que o lócus da investigação foi a equipe APAHAND/UCS/Prefeitura de Caxias do Sul, sediada na cidade de Caxias do Sul, foram realizadas entrevistas com todas as atletas da equipe além de seu preparador físico. Com o objetivo de ampliar o quadro empírico também foram entrevistados quatro pessoas cuja história de vida está relacionada ao Handebol regional e nacional. A análise dessas entrevistas foi realizada considerando os objetivos da pesquisa e o referencia teórico que a fundamenta de onde emergiram dois eixos temáticos: como se dá o processo de profissionalização das atletas envolvendo suas narrativas sobre essa profissionalização e o esporte espetáculo no qual discuto aspectos relacionados à patrocínios, a relação com a mídia, a visibilidade da modalidade e a presença de público nos espaços de competição. A partir das análises foi possível verificar apesar do Brasil obter conquistas significativas e do Rio Grande do Sul apresentar uma equipe consolidada e reconhecida, o Handebol praticado por mulheres vive de uma pseudoprofissionalização cuja estrutura oferta condições ainda precárias para que as atletas possam viver do esporte.
This paper has as a goal to analyze the professionalization process of the handball female athletes in a team from Rio Grande do Sul, considering specially its issues about what is being a handball professional in their opinion. Its methodology is based in the oral history, that were collected by interviews with people who are connected to the context analyzed. Considering that the center of the investigation were the APAHAND/UCS/Prefeitura de Caxias do Sul team, located in Caxias do Sul city, the interviews were realized with all the team athletes, and their coach. To enrich the research, four more people - who their life stories are connected with the local and national handball history – were also interviewed. The analysis of the results considered the target of this study and the theoretical reference, that brings to light two issues: how the process of athletes professionalization happens, involving its narratives about the professionalization and the sport’s show, where I discuss aspects related to sponsors, the relation with media, the handball visibility and the audience during the competitions. With the analysis, it was possible to identify that despite Brazil’s team had good results, and Rio Grande do Sul had a recognized team, the Handball practiced for women lives a pseudo-professionalization, with conditions that don’t permit the female athletes have the sport as a way of live.

A massive tsunami hit Aceh in December 26, 2004. It was one of the biggest natural disasters of the century. The tsunami’s unprecedented destruction of the area attracted the biggest influx ever of international aid and highlighted the nearly non-existent social service system at local levels. The abundance of international aid served as an impetus for the Indonesian government to review their social service system. This is the first time that resources from international aid in Indonesia were allocated for professionalization of social workers. This dissertation utilizes a qualitative narrative analysis to explore the questions: How do Indonesian social workers understand and express their experience of the social work professionalization process post-2004 tsunami? How do they interpret the process of professionalization? How do the systems available influence their professional interpretation of the experience and affect their strategies to gain public recognition and resources to claim professional jurisdiction in a society? Interviews were conducted of fifteen Indonesian social workers who were involved in the 2004 tsunami recovery efforts and are still active in the social work professionalization efforts today. The findings show that the international aid and 2004 tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia was the impetus for professionalization of social work in Indonesia. This study explores how Indonesian social workers understand and interpret their experience during the tsunami 2004 recovery efforts using Abbott’s system of professions concepts to frame the professionalization process as impacted by international aid during the 2004 tsunami. The findings revolve around formal public recognition, community sanction and a systematic knowledge base in Indonesia’s social work professionalization process.

The following analysis examines the trends and challenges that have come to define American Muslim religious leadership over the past forty years. By concentrating on personal narratives and institutional expectations of imams and chaplains, the objective is to present a picture of the new and evolving understanding of these leaders in the United States. Conceptually, this entails reimagining religious leadership and adapting the distinct but deeply interrelated notions of ‘ulama and clergy to an American Muslim context. Furthermore, although there is a direct, fluid, and organic connection between the titles of imam and chaplain, the importance of differentiating one profession from the other, in terms of the contexts in which they work and the responsibilities they carry out, cannot be overstated. Given the increasing importance of chaplains and imams, this process involves negotiating crucial issues related to the cohesion of the American Muslim community, such as ethics, law, and cultural practice. In addition it means the professionalization of leadership, creating standards that meet the multifaceted needs of the Muslim and non-Muslim communities. Last, the relationship between imams and chaplains speaks to the new and adaptive roles that Muslim women are playing as religious leaders in America and the strategies being employed as a result.

Drawing on data from the Hyper Usage Guide of English (HUGE) database (Straaijer 2014), this chapter sets the context for the other chapters of the collection by exploring the usage guide as a genre since the earliest publication in 1770. While modern usage guides overlap in form and content with other genres of works about language, there are distinct characteristics that identify them as a separate genre. After this genre had slowly been evolving for 150 years, H. W. Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) became a model for future publications. However, the usage guide remains a strongly author-driven genre, resulting in much variation in form and content. After continued development and professionalization from the mid-twentieth century onwards, two subtypes within the genre seem to have emerged: one striving for comprehensiveness and the other offering entertaining narrative. This variety may account for the enduring popularity of the genre.

When the Nerds Go Marching In shows how digital technology has moved from the margins to the mainstream of campaign and election organization in contemporary democracies. Combining an extensive review of existing literature and comparative data sources with original survey evidence and web content analysis of digital campaign content across four nations—the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and the United States—the book maps the key shifts in the role and centrality of the internet in election campaigns over a twenty-year period. The chapters reveal how these countries have followed a four-phase model of digital campaign development which begins with experimentation, and is followed by a period of standardization and professionalization. Subsequent phases focus on increasingly strategic activities around the mobilization of activists and supporters, before switching to micro-targeted mobilizing of individual voters. The changes are mapped over time in each country from the perspective of both the campaigners (supply side), and that of voters (demand side), and the four nations are compared in terms of how far and fast they have moved through the developmental cycle. As well as providing the most comprehensive narrative charting the evolution of digital campaigning from its inception in the mid-1990s, the book also offers important insights into the national conditions that have been most conducive to its diffusion. Finally, based on the findings from the most recent phase of development, the book speculates on the future direction for political campaigns as they increasingly rely on digital tools and artificial intelligence for direction and decision-making during elections.

Despite ongoing polemical debates over the supposedly inherent opposition between science and religion, the current consensus in professional historical scholarship is that sweeping conflict narratives do not stand up to scrutiny. Where previous generations of historians of science and medicine often assumed intrinsic conflict, more recent investigations have instead demonstrated vast complexities. This chapter illustrates responses to exceptional or spiritual experiences from the Enlightenment to the professionalization of modern psychology. Noting recent clinical attention to spontaneous and psychedelically induced spiritual and mystical experiences, it concludes by considering the ongoing repercussions of outdated historical frameworks on scientific and medical practice and research.

Chapter 2 is the first of three chapters that explore the resilience of a biblical culture of antiquity and the scriptural framework that served to comprehend the Near Eastern past. Scriptural visions of Palestine and Transjordan (a part of the Palestine mandate) were given new lease of life during the First World War. The Bible, the oldest and longest surviving framework for interpreting the Holy Land and the territories bordering it, shaped modes of writing about and experiencing them, as well as offering a narrative of the past and a scriptural temporality. The chapter demonstrates that notwithstanding the professionalization of archaeology and its adoption of scientific practices, the Scriptures remained dominant in discussions of the ancient past, and that archaeological discovery of a material Near East served to illustrate and corroborate scriptural texts. However, biblical culture—including research, travel-writing, and tourism—was adapted to modern technologies of transport and tourism, particularly to railways, cars, and aviation. The chapter examines the modernization of biblical narratives and of the physical experience of scriptural landscapes by considering a broad repertoire of writing: guidebooks for tourists, manuals and timetables, popular writings by archaeologists, and visual and material representations of the biblical past in metropolitan colonial exhibitions and in Palestine’s Museum of Archaeology. The chapter demonstrates how the modernization of uses of the Bible suited the mandate’s own rationale and agenda of modernization and development, and was endorsed and sometimes sponsored by officials.

Health educators can be influenced by a multitude of learning factors that are shaped by informal, non-formal, and formal environments. The topic of breastfeeding provides an interesting context for this exploration, as it spans formal professionalization, on-the-job-training, and personal embodied experiences of women. This chapter links adult education theory to a research study that examined what, where, and how positive breastfeeding views were learned. Narrative inquiry with five women yielded stories that revealed how their perspectives were shaped by learning domains. Emergent themes indicate informal learning was pivotal in shaping both attitudes and knowledge. This suggests a need for health professionals to reflect on their experiences as these influence views and practices. Gaining a better understanding of breastfeeding advocates may equip us to address barriers, guide the professionalization of future practitioners, and support advocacy efforts for policies aimed at fostering supportive learning environments.

Imperial scientists have appeared in a number of our chapters: Cleghorn, protagonist of forest conservation in India; Willcocks, the self-critical dambuilder extraordinary in Egypt and India; Simpson, the plague doctor, and Bruce, who researched trypanosomiasis in southern Africa. The early centuries of empire preceded professionalization, but scientific interests were even then at its heart. Species transfers were, as we have suggested, a long-term preoccupation and closely related to scientific enterprise. The maritime empires that characterized the last half-millennium depended upon nautical technology and navigation science, and this distinguished them from preceding, more geographically restricted, land empires. Naval power and the expansion of shipping permitted a different social geography of empire, linking Europe to the Americas, the tropics, and the southern temperate zones, and partly bypassing the torrid task of conquest in Europe and the Muslim world. Shipping carried the freight of trading empires, literally and metaphorically. Especially from the mid-nineteenth century, scientists were central actors in imperial development. They helped to pioneer new technologies that facilitated discovery, and vastly more effective exploitation, of hidden natural resources, such as gold, oil, and rubber. A growing arms gap underpinned the European power bloc and conquest was so rapid and so widespread in the later decades of the nineteenth century not least because it was relatively easy and inexpensive. Constraints imposed by environment and disease were gradually driven back, by dams, boreholes, and the partial prophylaxis against malaria. Communications, based around steam and iron, telegraphs, railways, and roads were the ‘tentacles of progress’ in the new empire, opening up new routes for exploitation. They bound together increasingly modern, planned cities, zones of hydraulic imperialism, mining, and similar enterprises. Scientists and science in empire have received intense critical attention over the last couple of decades. This is especially so in African history and social sciences which, from their inception as self-conscious areas of academic enquiry, in the dying days of colonialism, tried to write from the vantage point of Africans and to decolonize European minds. From the late 1970s, when it was clear that African nationalist narratives and ambitions had been corrupted, Africanists tended to evince an unease with modernization and development, so closely linked to both the late colonial and nationalist projects.

In Chapter 6, Pauline Beaupoil-Hourdel presents multimodal and plurisemiotic analyses of storytelling activities in adult-child dyadic interactions at home in France and analyzes the extent to which this context can inform the professionalization of teachers in the 21st century. Findings show that spontaneous adult-child interactions during storytelling and shared book reading at home provide valuable insights for kindergarten and primary school teachers to teach an L2, as well as new multimodal perspectives on fostering linguistic, narrative, and communication skills in young children at school.