Search results for: mutual expectations

Authors: Rajkumar Ghosh

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Jhakri Thrust (JT) coeval of Sarahan Thrust (ST) was later considered to be part of Chaura Thrust (CT). The Main Central Thrust (MCT) delimits the southern extreme of Higher Himalaya, whereas the northern boundary defines by South Tibetan Detachment System (STDS). STDS is parallel set of north dipping extensional faults. The activation timing of MCT and STDS. MCT activated in two parts (MCT-L during 15- 0.7 Ma, and MCT-U during 25-14 Ma). Similarly, STDS triggered in two parts (STDS-L during 24-12 Ma, and STDS-U during 19-14 Ma). The activation ages for MBT and MFT. Besides, the MBT occurred during 11-9 Ma, and MFT followed as <2.5 Ma. There are two mylonitised zones (zone of S-C fabric) found under the microscope. Dynamic and bulging recrystallization and sub-grain formation was documented under the optical microscope from samples collected from these zones. The varieties of crenulated schistosity are shown in photomicrographs. In a rare and uncommon case, crenulation cleavage and sigmoid Muscovite were found together side-by-side. Recrystallized quartzo-feldspathic grains exist in between crenulation cleavages. These thin-section studies allow three possible hypotheses for such variations in crenulation cleavages. S/SE verging meso- and micro-scale box folds around Chaura might be a manifestation of some structural upliftment. Near Chaura, kink folds are visible. Prominent asymmetric shear sense indicators in augen mylonite are missing in meso-scale but dominantly present under the microscope. The main foliation became steepest (range of dip ~ 65 – 80 º) at this place. The aim of this section is to characterize the box fold and its signature in the regional geology of Himachal Himalaya. Grain Boundary Migration (GBM) associated temperature range (400–750 ºC) from microstructural studies in grain scale along Jhakri-Wangtu transect documented. Oriented samples were collected from the Jhakri-Chaura transect at a regular interval of ~ 1km for strain analysis. The Higher Himalayan Out-of-Sequence Thrust (OOST) in Himachal Pradesh is documented a decade ago. The OOST in other parts of the Himalayas is represented as a line in between MCTL and MCTU. But In Himachal Pradesh area, OOST activated the MCTL as well as in between a zone located south of MCTU. The expectations for strain variation near the OOST are very obvious. But multiple sets of OOSTs may produce a zigzag pattern of strain accumulation for this area and figure out the overprinting structures for multiple sets of OOSTs.

Keywords: Chaura Thrust, out-of-sequence thrust, Main Central Thrust, Sarahan Thrust

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Authors: Daniel O. Kleinsman

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The 2019 terrorist attack on two masjidain in Christchurch, New Zealand, was a shocking demonstration of the harm that can be caused by hate crime. As legal and governmental responses to the attack struggle to provide effective remedies to its victims, restorative justice has emerged as a tool that can assist, in terms of both meeting victims’ needs and discharging the obligations of the state under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), arts 2(3), 26, 27. Restorative justice is a model that emphasizes the repair of harm caused or revealed by unjust behavior. It also prioritises the facilitation of dialogue, the restoration of equitable relationships, and the prevention of future harm. Returning to the case study, in the remarks of the sentencing judge, the terrorist’s actions were described as a hate crime of vicious malevolence that the Court was required to decisively reject, as anathema to the values of acceptance, tolerance and mutual respect upon which New Zealand’s inclusive society is based and which the country strives to maintain. This was one of the reasons for which the terrorist received a life sentence with no possibility of parole. However, in the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack, it was found that victims felt the attack occurred within the context of widespread racism, discrimination and Islamophobia, where hostile behaviors, including hate-based threats and attacks, were rarely recorded, analysed or acted on. It was also found that the Government had inappropriately concentrated intelligence resources on the risk of ‘Islamist’ terrorism and had failed to adequately respond to concerns raised about threats against the Muslim community. In this light, the remarks of the sentencing judge can be seen to reflect a criminal justice system that, in the absence of other remedies, denies systemic accountability and renders hate crime an isolated incident rather than an expression of more widespread discrimination and hate to be holistically addressed. One of the recommendations of the Royal Commission was to explore with victims the desirability and design of restorative justice processes. This presents an opportunity for victims to meet with state representatives and pursue effective remedies (ICCPR art 2(3)) not only for the harm caused by the terrorist but the harm revealed by a system that has exposed the minority Muslim community in New Zealand to hate in all forms, including but not limited to violent extremism. In this sense, restorative justice can also assist the state in discharging its wider obligations to protect all persons from discrimination (art 26) and allow ethnic and religious minorities to enjoy their own culture and profess and practice their own religion (art 27). It can also help give effect to the law and its purpose as a remedy to hate crime, as expressed in this case study by the sentencing judge.

Keywords: hate crime, restorative justice, minorities, victims' rights

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Authors: Young Ik Suh, Sanghak Lee, Tae Wook Chung

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In recent year, cultural diversity has acquired increasing attentions in our society due to the cultural pluralism and globalization. With the emphasis of diversity in our society, higher education has played a significant role in preparing people to be successful in a diverse world. A number of colleges and universities provide various diversity-related courses that enhance students to recognize the importance of diversity and multiculturalism. However, little research has been conducted with diversity environments in physical activity and sports-related courses to appreciate students’ attitudes toward multiculturalism. Physical activity courses can be regarded as an essential and complementary part of general education. As well, playing and watching certain sports plays a critical role to foster mutual understanding between different races and to help social integration for minority communities. Therefore, it is expected that the appropriate diverse environments in physical activity courses may have a positive impact to the understandings of different cultures and races. The primary purpose of this study is to examine attitudes toward cultural diversity in a physical activity course among undergraduate students. In building on the scholarly foundation in this area, this study applies the established survey scale (e.g., Pluralism and Diversity Attitude Assessment [PADAA]) developed by Stanley (1996) and previous literature related to cultural diversity. The PADAA includes 19 questions. The following two research hypotheses were proposed. H1: Students who take a diversity-related physical course (i.e., Taekwondo) will provide positive attitude changes toward their cultural diversity. H2: Students who take a general physical activity course (i.e., Weight Training) will provide no significant attitude changes toward their cultural diversity. To test the research hypotheses, subjects will be selected from the both Taekwondo and Weight Training class at University of West Georgia. In the Taekwondo class, students will learn the history, meaning, basic terminology, and physical skills, which is a Korean martial art and the national sport of Korea. In the Weight Training class, students will not be exposed to any cultural diversity topics. Regarding data analysis, Doubly Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (Doubly MANCOVA), 2 (time period: pre and after) X 2 (diversity-related content exposure: Taekwondo and Weight Training), will be conducted on attitudes toward the cultural diversity with control variables such as gender and age. The findings of this study will add to the body of literature in cultural diversity because this will be the first known attempt to explain the college students’ attitudes toward cultural diversity in a physical activity courses. The expected results will state that the physical activity course focusing on diversity issues will have a positive impact on college students’ attitude toward cultural diversity. This finding will indicate that Universities need to create diverse programs (e.g., study abroad, exchange program, second language courses) and environments so that students can have positive interactions with other groups of races and different cultures. It is also expected that the positive perceptions and attitudes toward cultural diversity will break down cultural barriers and make students be ready for meeting several challenges in a multicultural and global society.

Keywords: cultural diversity, physical activity course, attitude, Taekwondo

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Authors: Moen Torill, Rismark Marit, Astrid M. Solvberg

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In Norway, every municipality shall provide an educational psychological service, EPS, to support kindergartens and schools in their work with children and youths with special needs. The EPS focus its work on individuals, aiming to identify special needs and to give advice to teachers and parents when they ask for it. In addition, the service also give priority to prevention and system intervention in kindergartens and schools. To master these big tasks university courses are established to support EPS counsellors' continuous learning. There is, however, a need for more in-depth and systematic knowledge on how they experience the courses they attend. In this study, EPS counsellors’ reflection logs during a particular course are investigated. The research question is: what are the content and priorities of the reflections that are communicated in the logs produced by the educational psychological counsellors during a post-graduate course? The investigated course is a credit course organized over a one-year period in two one-semester modules. The altogether 55 students enrolled in the course work as EPS counsellors in various municipalities across Norway. At the end of each day throughout the course period, the participants wrote reflection logs about what they had experienced during the day. The data material consists of 165 pages of typed text. The collaborating researchers studied the data material to ascertain, differentiate and understand the meaning of the content in each log. The analysis also involved the search for similarity in content and development of analytical categories that described the focus and primary concerns in each of the written logs. This involved constant 'critical and sustained discussions' for mutual construction of meaning between the co-researchers in the developing categories. The process is inspired by Grounded Theory. This means that the concepts developed during the analysis derived from the data material and not chosen prior to the investigation. The analysis revealed that the concept 'Useful' frequently appeared in the participants’ reflections and, as such, 'Useful' serves as a core category. The core category is described through three major categories: (1) knowledge sharing (concerning direct and indirect work with students with special needs) with colleagues is useful, (2) reflections on models and theoretical concepts (concerning students with special needs) are useful, (3) reflection on the role as EPS counsellor is useful. In all the categories, the notion of useful occurs in the participants’ emphasis on and acknowledgement of the immediate and direct link between the university course content and their daily work practice. Even if each category has an importance and value of its own, it is crucial that they are understood in connection with one another and as interwoven. It is the connectedness that gives the core category an overarching explanatory power. The knowledge from this study may be a relevant contribution when it comes to designing new courses that support continuing professional development for EPS counsellors, whether for post-graduate university courses or local courses at the EPS offices or whether in Norway or other countries in the world.

Keywords: constructing and circulating knowledge, educational-psychological counsellor, higher education, professional development

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Authors: Cherng-Jye Jeng, Ming-Feng Hou, Hsing-Yuan Liu, Chuan-Feng Chang, Lih-Rong Wang, Yen-Chin Lin

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Introduction: The incidence of breast cancer has gradually increased in Taiwan, and the characteristic of younger ages impact these women in their middle age, and may also cause challenges in terms of family, work, and illness. Breasts are symbols of femininity, as well as of sex. For women, breasts are important organs for the female identity and sexual expression. Losing breasts not only affects the female role, but would also affect sexual attraction and sexual desire. Thus, women with breast cancer who have need for mastectomies experience physical incompletion, which affects women’s self-confidence, physical image, and self-orientation. Purposes: 1. To understand the physical experience of women with breast cancer. 2. To explore the issue of sexual issues on the health effects of women with breast cancer. 3. To construct a domestic sex life issue group model for domestic women with breast cancer. 4. To explore the accompaniment experiences and sexual relationship adjustments of spouses when women have breast cancer. Method: After the research plan passes IRB review, participants will be recruited at breast surgery clinic in the affiliated hospital, to screen suitable subjects for entry into the group. Between March and May 2015, two sexual health and sex life consultation groups were conducted, which were (1) 10 in postoperative groups for women with cancer; (2) 4 married couples group for postoperative women with cancer. After sharing experiences and dialogue, women can achieve mutual support and growth. Data organization and analysis underwent descriptive analysis in qualitative research, and the group process was transcribed into transcripts for overall-content and category-content analysis. Results: Ten women with breast cancer believed that participating in group can help them exchange experiences, and elevate sexual health. The main issues include: (1) after breast cancer surgery, patients generally received chemotherapy or estrogen suppressants, causing early menopause; in particular, vaginal dryness can cause pain or bleeding in intercourse, reducing their desire for sexual activity; (2) breast cancer accentuates original spousal or family and friend relationships; some people have support and care from their family, and spouses emphasize health over the appearance of breasts; however, some people do not have acceptance and support from their family, and some even hear spousal sarcasm about loss of breasts; (3) women with breast cancer have polarized expressions of optimism and pessimism in regards to their emotions, beliefs, and body image regarding cancer; this is related to the women’s original personalities, attribution of causes of cancer, and extent of worry about relapse. Conclusion: The research results can be provided as a reference to medical institutions or breast cancer volunteer teams, to pay attention to maintaining the health of women with breast cancer.

Keywords: women with breast cancer, experiences of objectifying the body, quality of sex life, sexual health

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Authors: Elizabeth Patricia Beck

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Stepping into various English as foreign language classrooms, one will see some fundamental similarities. There will likely be groups of students working collaboratively, possibly sitting at tables together. They will be using a set coursebook or photocopies of materials developed by publishers or the teacher. The teacher will be carefully monitoring students’ behaviour and progress. The teacher will also likely be insisting that the students only speak English together, possibly having implemented a complex penalty and award systems to encourage this. This is communicative language teaching and it is commonly how foreign languages are taught around the world. Recently, there has been much interest in the codeswitching behaviour of learners in foreign or second language classrooms. It is a significant topic as it relates to second language acquisition theory, language teaching training and policy, and student expectations and classroom practice. Generally in an English as a foreign language context, an ‘English Only’ policy is the norm. This is based on historical factors, socio-political influence and theories surrounding language learning. The trend, however, is shifting and, based on these same factors, a re-examination of language use in the foreign language classroom is taking place. This paper reports the findings of an examination into the codeswitching behaviour of learners with a shared native language in an English classroom. Specifically, it addresses the question of classroom code-switching by adult learners in the EFL classroom during student-to-student, spoken interaction. Three generic categories of code switching are proposed based on published research and classroom practice. Italian adult learners at three levels were observed and patterns of language use were identified, recorded and analysed using the proposed categories. After observations were completed, a questionnaire was distributed to the students focussing on attitudes and opinions around language choice in the EFL classroom, specifically, the usefulness of L1 for specific functions in the classroom. The paper then investigates the relationship between learners’ foreign language proficiency and the frequency and type of code-switching that they engaged in, and the relationship between learners’ attitudes to classroom code-switching and their behaviour. Results show that code switching patterns underwent changes as the students’ level of English language proficiency improved, and that students’ attitudes towards code-switching generally correlated with their behaviour with some exceptions, however. Finally, the discussion focusses on the details of the language produced in observation, possible influencing factors that may affect the frequency and type of code switching that took place, and additional influencing factors that may affect students’ attitudes towards code switching in the foreign language classroom. An evaluation of the limitations of this study is offered and some suggestions are made for future research in this field of study.

Keywords: code-switching, EFL, second language aquisition, adult learners

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Authors: Avadh Bihari

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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a global parameter to define corporates' ethical and responsible behaviour. It was a voluntary practice in India till 2013, driven by various guidelines, which has become a mandate since 2014 under the Companies Act, 2013. This has compelled the corporates to redesign their CSR strategies by bringing in structures, planning, accountability, and transparency in their processes with a mandate to 'comply or explain'. Based on the author's M.Phil. dissertation, this paper presents the changes in organisational practices and institutional mechanisms of third-sector organisations (TSOs) with the theoretical frameworks of institutionalism and co-optation. It became an interesting case as India is the only country to have a law on CSR, which is not only mandating the reporting but the spending too. The space of CSR in India is changing rapidly and affecting multiple institutions, in the context of the changing roles of the state, market, and TSOs. Several factors such as stringent regulation on foreign funding, mandatory CSR pushing corporates to look out for NGOs, and dependency of Indian NGOs on CSR funds have come to the fore almost simultaneously, which made it an important area of study. Further, the paper aims at addressing the gap in the literature on the effects of mandated CSR on the functioning of TSOs through the empirical and theoretical findings of this study. The author had adopted an interpretivist position in this study to explore changes in organisational practices from the participants' experiences. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with five corporate officials, eleven officials from six TSOs, and two academicians, located at Mumbai and Delhi, India. The findings of this study show the legislation has institutionalised CSR, and TSOs get co-opted in the process of implementing mandated CSR. Seventy percent of the corporates implement their CSR projects through TSOs in India; this has affected the organisational practices of TSOs to a large extent. They are compelled to recruit expert workforce, create new departments for monitoring & evaluation, communications, and adopt management practices of project implementation from corporates. These are attempts to institutionalise the TSOs so that they can produce calculated results as demanded by corporates. In this process, TSOs get co-opted in a struggle to secure funds and lose their autonomy. The normative, coercive, and mimetic isomorphisms of institutionalism come into play as corporates are mandated to take up CSR, thereby influencing the organisational practices of TSOs. These results suggest that corporates and TSOs require an understanding of each other's work culture to develop mutual respect and work towards the goal of sustainable development of the communities. Further, TSOs need to retain their autonomy and understanding of ground realities without which they become an extension of the corporate-funder. For a successful CSR project, engagement beyond funding is required from corporate, through their involvement and not interference. CSR-led community development can be structured by management practices to an extent, but cannot overshadow the knowledge and experience of TSOs.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, institutionalism, organisational practices, third-sector organisations

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Authors: Maria V. Mishatkina

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The modelling of dialogical environment is an essential feature of modern education. The dialogue of cultures is a foundation and an important prerequisite for a formation of a human’s main moral qualities such as an ability to understand another person, which is manifested in such values as tolerance, respect, mutual assistance and mercy. A formation of a modern expert occurs in an educational environment that is significantly different from what we had several years ago. Nowadays university education has qualitatively new characteristics. They may be observed in Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), a top Russian higher education institution which unites representatives of more than 150 countries. The content of its educational strategies is not an adapted cultural experience but material between science and innovation. Besides, RUDN University’s profiles and specialization are not equal to the professional structures. People study not a profession in a strict sense but a basic scientific foundation of an activity in different socio-cultural areas (science, business and education). RUDN University also provides a considerable unit of professional education components. They are foreign languages skills, economic, political, ethnic, communication and computer culture, theory of information and basic management skills. Moreover, there is a rich social life (festive multicultural events, theme parties, journeys) and prospects concerning the inclusive approach to education (for example, a special course ‘Social Pedagogy: Issues of Tolerance’). In our research, we use such methods as analysis of modern and contemporary scientific literature, opinion poll (involving students, teachers and research workers) and comparative data analysis. We came to the conclusion that knowledge transfer of RUDN student in the activity happens through making goals, problems, issues, tasks and situations which simulate future innovative ambiguous environment that potentially prepares him/her to dialogical way of life. However, all these factors may not take effect if there is no ‘personal inspiration’ of students by communicative and dialogic values, their participation in a system of meanings and tools of learning activity that is represented by cooperation within the framework of scientific and pedagogical schools dialogue. We also found out that dominating strategies of ensuring the quality of education are those that put students in the position of the subject of their own education. Today these strategies and approaches should involve such approaches and methods as task, contextual, modelling, specialized, game-imitating and dialogical approaches, the method of practical situations, etc. Therefore, University in the modern sense is not only an educational institution, but also a generator of innovation, cooperation among nations and cultural progress. RUDN University has been performing exactly this mission for many decades.

Keywords: dialogical developing situation, dialogue of cultures, readiness for dialogue, university graduate

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Authors: Zakia Hammouni

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Healthcare professionals’ well-being is becoming a priority during this Covid-19 pandemic due to stress, fatigue, and workload. Well before this pandemic, contemporary hospitals are endowed with environmental attributes that contribute to achieving well-being within their environment with the emphasis on the patient. The patient-centered care approach has been followed by the patient-centered design approach. Studies that have focused on the physical environment in hospitals have dealt with the patient's recovery process and his well-being. Prior scientific literature has placed less emphasis on the healthcare professionals’ interactions within the physical environment and to guide hospital designers to make evidence-based design choices to meet the needs and expectations of hospital users by considering, in addition to patients, healthcare professionals. This paper examines these issues related to the daily stress of professionals who provide care in a hospital environment. In this exploratory study, the interest was to grasp the issues related to this environment and explores the current realities of newly built hospitals based on design approaches and what attributes of the physical setting support healthcare professional’s well-being. Within a constructivist approach, this study was conducted in two care units in a new hospital in a big city in Canada before the Covid-19 pandemic (august 2nd to November 2nd 2018). A spatial evaluation of these care units allowed us to understand the interaction of health professionals in their work environment, to understand the spatial behavior of these professionals, and the narratives from 44 interviews of various healthcare professionals. The mental images validated the salient components of the hospital environment as perceived by these healthcare professionals. Thematic analysis and triangulation of the data set were conducted. Among the key attributes promoting the healthcare professionals’ well-being as revealed by the healthcare professionals are the overall light-color atmosphere in the hospital and care unit, particularly in the corridors and public areas of the hospital, the maintenance and cleanliness. The presence of the art elements also brings well-being to the health professionals as well as panoramic views from the staff lounge and corridors of the care units or elevator lobbies. Despite the overall positive assessment of this environment, some attributes need to be improved to ensure the well-being of healthcare professionals and to provide them with a restructuring environment. These are the supply of natural light, softer colors, sufficient furniture, comfortable seating in the restroom, and views, which are important in allowing these healthcare professionals to recover from their work stress. Noise is another attribute that needs to be further improved in the hospital work environment, especially in the nursing workstations and consultant's room. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of providing healthcare professionals with work and rest areas that allow them to resist the stress they face, particularly during periods of extreme stress and fatigue such as a Covid-19 pandemic.

Keywords: healthcare facilities, healthcare professionals, physical environment, well-being

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Authors: Henry Okechukwu Onyeiwu, Arfah Ab. Majid

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To fully understand the critical role of marriage in society, it is important to view it as a social institution that provides some basic social needs for society. A ‘social institution’ is the network of shared meanings, norms, definitions, expectations, and understandings held by the members of society. It is what guides and governs how the members of the society are expected to act and interact, what is socially desirable and legitimate, what they should be striving for, and so on. One of the major social institutions is marriage. Marriage is and has often focused on children and what is best for them because the rising generation literally is the future of every society. However, according to the aforementioned definition, which notes that marriage may also be a union between two persons of the same sex with legal support, this study stands with the definitions that are based on marriage being a union between a man and woman that is the most appropriate in Igbo land and not the other way round. The issue to be evaluated concerns marriage as it associates with Igbo Catholic Christians in Nigeria. Pasts of Igbo culture should be better organized into the Christian faith. Igbo Christians actually convey a significant number of their customary thoughts, customs, and social qualities, particularly regarding marriage, in the aftermath of switching to Christianity. The analyst agrees that marriage among Igbo Christians warrants adequate evolution. This study, therefore, concentrates on the Igbo community’s interpretation of the concept of culture and religion and the religious implications of traditional marriage and Christian marriage ceremonies in Igbo. The research design of this study is a qualitative design that provides in-depth information on the dual religious identity of the Igbo people on the rite of marriage in Imo state. The study population was composed of both male and female members from each selected local government area in Imo State. Thematic analysis was used to elaborate on the result from the respondents. This survey found that reputation is a major concern for Ibo people. Parental discomfort can lead to the use of coping strategies such as displacement, in which parents pass on their own vulnerable sentiments to their children. Those who participate in marriage negotiations feel the pain of their parents because they are unable to communicate their own feelings. As a result, participants experience increased stress and a range of negative emotions related to their marriage, including worry, dissatisfaction, and ambivalence. It was concluded that when it comes to Igbo culture, marriage is seen as a need for the continuation of the family’s lineage of descent, according to the outcome. The Task at hand was to discover how the locals preparing to get married define the impending transition. Imo State is home to the practice of Igba-nkwu, where the woman is either inherited or taken in the place of another.

Keywords: Igbo, culture, Christianity, traditional marriage, Christian wedding

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Authors: Keith Schofield, Leigh Morland

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Storytelling is an established means of leadership and management development and is also considered a form of leadership of self and others in its own right. This study focuses on the utility of storytelling in the development of management narratives in an MBA programme; sources include programme participants as well as international recruiters, whose voices are often only heard in terms of economic contribution and globalisation. For many MBA candidates, the return to study requires the development of a new identity which complements their professional identity; each candidate has their own journey and expectations, the use of story can enable candidates to explore their aspirations and assumptions and give voice to previously unspoken ideas. For international recruitment, the story of market development and change must be captured if MBAs are to remain fit for purpose. If used effectively, story acts as a form of critical reflection that can inform the learning journeys of individuals, emerging identities as well as the ongoing design and development of programmes. The landscape of management education is shifting; the MBA begins to attract a different kind of candidate, some are younger than before, others are seeking validation for their existing work practices, yet more are entrepreneurial and wish to capitalise on an institutional experience to further their career. There is a shift in context, creating uncertainty and ambiguity for programme managers and recruiters, thus requiring institutions to create a new MBA narrative. This study utilises Lego SeriousPlay as the means to engaging programme participants and international agents in telling the story of their MBA. We asked MBA participants to tell the story of their leadership and management aspirations and compare these to stories of their development journeys, allowing for critical reflection of their respective development gaps. We asked international recruiters, who act as university agents and promote courses in the student’s country of origin, to explore their mental models of MBA candidates and their learning agenda. The purpose of this process was to explore the agent’s perception of the MBA programme and to articulate the student journey from a recruitment perspective. The paper’s unique contribution is in combining these stories in order to explore the assumptions that determine programme design. Data drawn from reflective statements together with images of Lego ‘builds’ created the opportunity for reflection between the mental models of these groups. Findings will inform the design of the MBA journey and experience; we review the extent to which the changing identities of learners are congruent with programme design. Data from international recruiters also determines the extent to which marketing and recruitment strategies identify with would be candidates.

Keywords: critical reflection, programme management, recruitment, storytelling

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Authors: Sundaram Chandrasekaran, Seung Hyun Hur

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Exploring strategies for oxygen vacancy engineering under mild conditions and understanding the relationship between dislocations and photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell performance are challenging issues for designing high performance PEC devices. Therefore, it is very important to understand that how the oxygen vacancies (VO) or other defect states affect the performance of the photocatalyst in photoelectric transfer. So far, it has been found that defects in nano or micro crystals can have two possible significances on the PEC performance. Firstly, an electron-hole pair produced at the interface of photoelectrode and electrolyte can recombine at the defect centers under illumination of light, thereby reducing the PEC performances. On the other hand, the defects could lead to a higher light absorption in the longer wavelength region and may act as energy centers for the water splitting reaction that can improve the PEC performances. Even if the dislocation growth of ZnO has been verified by the full density functional theory (DFT) calculations and local density approximation calculations (LDA), it requires further studies to correlate the structures of ZnO and PEC performances. Exploring the hybrid structures composed of graphene oxide (GO) and ZnO nanostructures offer not only the vision of how the complex structure form from a simple starting materials but also the tools to improve PEC performances by understanding the underlying mechanisms of mutual interactions. As there are few studies for the ZnO growth with other materials and the growth mechanism in those cases has not been clearly explored yet, it is very important to understand the fundamental growth process of nanomaterials with the specific materials, so that rational and controllable syntheses of efficient ZnO-based hybrid materials can be designed to prepare nanostructures that can exhibit significant PEC performances. Herein, we fabricated various ZnO nanostructures such as hollow sphere, bucky bowl, nanorod and triangle, investigated their pH dependent growth mechanism, and correlated the PEC performances with them. Especially, the origin of well-controlled dislocation-driven growth and its transformation mechanism of ZnO nanorods to triangles on the GO surface were discussed in detail. Surprisingly, the addition of GO during the synthesis process not only tunes the morphology of ZnO nanocrystals and also creates more oxygen vacancies (oxygen defects) in the lattice of ZnO, which obviously suggest that the oxygen vacancies be created by the redox reaction between GO and ZnO in which the surface oxygen is extracted from the surface of ZnO by the functional groups of GO. On the basis of our experimental and theoretical analysis, the detailed mechanism for the formation of specific structural shapes and oxygen vacancies via dislocation, and its impact in PEC performances are explored. In water splitting performance, the maximum photocurrent density of GO-ZnO triangles was 1.517mA/cm-2 (under UV light ~ 360 nm) vs. RHE with high incident photon to current conversion Efficiency (IPCE) of 10.41%, which is the highest among all samples fabricated in this study and also one of the highest IPCE reported so far obtained from GO-ZnO triangular shaped photocatalyst.

Keywords: dislocation driven growth, zinc oxide, graphene oxide, water splitting

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Authors: Tamir Michal

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The subject of Bedouin dispersion has accompanied the State of Israel from the day of its establishment. From a legal point of view, this subject has offered a launchpad for creative judicial decisions. Thus, for example, the first court decision in Israel to recognize affirmative action (Avitan), dealt with a petition submitted by a Jew appealing the refusal of the State to recognize the Petitioner’s entitlement to the long-term lease of a plot designated for Bedouins. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, holding that there existed a public interest in assisting Bedouin to establish permanent urban settlements, an interest which justifies giving them preference by selling them plots at subsidized prices. In another case (The Forum for Coexistence in the Negev) the Supreme Court extended equitable relief for the purpose of constructing a bridge, even though the construction infringed the Law, in order to allow the children of dispersed Bedouin to reach school. Against this background, the recent verdict, delivered during the Protective Edge military campaign, which dismissed a petition aimed at forcing the State to spread out Protective Structures in Bedouin villages in the Negev against the risk of being hit from missiles launched from Gaza (Abu Afash) is disappointing. Even if, in arguendo, no selective discrimination was involved in the State’s decision not to provide such protection, the decision, and its affirmation by the Court, is problematic when examined through the prism of the Theory of Recognition. The article analyses the issue by tools of theory of Recognition, according to which people develop their identities through mutual relations of recognition in different fields. In the social context, the path to recognition is cognitive respect, which is provided by means of legal rights. By seeing other participants in Society as bearers of rights and obligations, the individual develops an understanding of his legal condition as reflected in the attitude to others. Consequently, even if the Court’s decision may be justified on strict legal grounds, the fact that Jewish settlements were protected during the military operation, whereas Bedouin villages were not, is a setback in the struggle to make the Bedouin citizens with equal rights in Israeli society. As the Court held, ‘Beyond their protective function, the Migunit [Protective Structures] may make a moral and psychological contribution that should not be undervalued’. This contribution is one that the Bedouin did not receive in the Abu Afash verdict. The basic thesis is that the Court’s verdict analyzed above clearly demonstrates that the reliance on classical liberal instruments (e.g., equality) cannot secure full appreciation of all aspects of Bedouin life, and hence it can in fact prejudice them. Therefore, elements of the recognition theory should be added, in order to find the channel for cognitive dignity, thereby advancing the Bedouins’ ability to perceive themselves as equal human beings in the Israeli society.

Keywords: bedouin dispersion, cognitive respect, recognition theory, sustainable development

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Authors: Zainab Atia, Hongwei He, Panagiotis Sarantopoulos

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Over the past few years, firms have witnessed a massive increase in sophisticated algorithmic deployment, which has become quite pervasive in today’s modern society. With the wide availability of data for retailers, the ability to track consumers using algorithmic pricing has become an integral option in online platforms. As more companies are transforming their businesses and relying more on massive technological advancement, pricing algorithmic systems have brought attention and given rise to its wide adoption, with many accompanying benefits and challenges to be found within its usage. With the overall aim of increasing profits by organizations, algorithmic pricing is becoming a sound option by enabling suppliers to cut costs, allowing better services, improving efficiency and product availability, and enhancing overall consumer experiences. The adoption of algorithms in retail has been pioneered and widely used in literature across varied fields, including marketing, computer science, engineering, economics, and public policy. However, what is more, alarming today is the comprehensive understanding and focus of this technology and its associated ethical influence on consumers’ perceptions and behaviours. Indeed, due to algorithmic ethical concerns, consumers are found to be reluctant in some instances to share their personal data with retailers, which reduces their retention and leads to negative consumer outcomes in some instances. This, in its turn, raises the question of whether firms can still manifest the acceptance of such technologies by consumers while minimizing the ethical transgressions accompanied by their deployment. As recent modest research within the area of marketing and consumer behavior, the current research advances the literature on algorithmic pricing, pricing ethics, consumers’ perceptions, and price fairness literature. With its empirical focus, this paper aims to contribute to the literature by applying the distinction of the two common types of algorithmic pricing, dynamic and personalized, while measuring their relative effect on consumers’ behavioural outcomes. From a managerial perspective, this research offers significant implications that pertain to providing a better human-machine interactive environment (whether online or offline) to improve both businesses’ overall performance and consumers’ wellbeing. Therefore, by allowing more transparent pricing systems, businesses can harness their generated ethical strategies, which fosters consumers’ loyalty and extend their post-purchase behaviour. Thus, by defining the correct balance of pricing and right measures, whether using dynamic or personalized (or both), managers can hence approach consumers more ethically while taking their expectations and responses at a critical stance.

Keywords: algorithmic pricing, dynamic pricing, personalized pricing, price ethicality

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Authors: Anne Giles

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Humans naturally wish they could forget traumatic experiences. To help prevent future harm, however, the human brain has evolved to retain data about experiences of threat, alarm, or violation. When given compassionate support and assistance with thinking helpfully and realistically about traumatic events, most people can adjust to experiencing hardships, albeit with residual sad, unfortunate memories. Persistent, recurrent, intrusive memories, difficulty sleeping, emotion dysregulation, and avoidance of reminders, however, may be symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Brain scans show that PTSD affects brain functioning. We currently have no physical means of restoring the system of brain structures and functions involved with PTSD. Medications may ease some symptoms but not others. However, forms of "talk therapy" with cognitive components have been found by researchers to reduce, even resolve, a broad spectrum of trauma symptoms. Many cultures have taboos against talking about hardships. Individuals may present themselves to mental health care professionals with severe, disabling trauma symptoms but, because of cultural norms, be unable to speak about them. In China, for example, relationship expectations may include the belief, "Bad things happening in the family should stay in the family (jiāchǒu bùkě wàiyán 家丑不可外扬)." The concept of "family (jiā 家)" may include partnerships, close and extended families, communities, companies, and the nation itself. In contrast to many trauma therapies, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder asks its participants to focus not on "what" happened but on "why" they think the trauma(s) occurred. The question "why" activates and exercises cognitive functioning. Brain scans of individuals with PTSD reveal executive functioning portions of the brain inadequately active, with emotion centers overly active. CPT conceptualizes PTSD as a network of cognitive distortions that keep an individual "stuck" in this under-functioning and over-functioning dynamic. Through asking participants forms of the question "why," plus offering a protocol for examining answers and relinquishing unhelpful beliefs, CPT assists individuals in consciously reactivating the cognitive, executive functions of their brains, thus restoring normal functioning and reducing distressing trauma symptoms. The culturally sensitive components of CPT that allow people to "talk about it without talking about it" may offer the possibility for worldwide relief from symptoms of trauma.

Keywords: cognitive processing therapy (CPT), cultural norms, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma recovery

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Authors: Nadia K. Thalji

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The shamanic odyssey of Hushahu, a courageous indigenous woman from the Amazon, reverberates with profound significance, resonating far beyond the confines of her tribal boundaries. This abstract explores Hushahu's transformative journey, which serves as a beacon of empowerment for indigenous women across the Amazon region. Hushahu's narrative unfolds against the backdrop of entrenched gender norms and colonial legacies that have historically marginalized women from spiritual leadership and ritual practices. Despite societal expectations and entrenched traditions, Hushahu boldly embraces her calling as a shaman, defying cultural constraints and challenging prevailing gender norms. Her journey represents a symbolic uprising against centuries of patriarchal dominance, offering a glimpse into the resilience and strength of indigenous women. Drawing upon Jungian psychology, Hushahu's quest can be understood as a profound exploration of the symbolic dimensions of the psyche. Through Hushahu’s initiation rituals and visionary experiences, the initiate embarks on a transformative journey of self-discovery, encountering archetypal symbols and tapping into the collective unconscious. Symbolism permeates the path, guiding Hushahu through the depths of the rainforest and illuminating the hidden realms of consciousness. Central to Hushahu's narrative is the theme of empowerment—a theme that transcends individual experience to catalyze broader social change. As Hushahu finds a voice amidst the echoes of ancestral wisdom, the journey inspires a ripple effect of empowerment throughout indigenous communities. Other women within Hushahu's tribe and neighboring societies are emboldened to challenge traditional gender roles, stepping into leadership positions and reclaiming their rightful place in spiritual practices. The resonance of Hushahu's journey extends beyond the Amazon, reverberating across cultural boundaries and igniting conversations about gender equality and indigenous rights. Through courageous defiance of cultural norms, Hushahu emerges as a symbol of resilience and empowerment, offering hope and inspiration to marginalized women around the world. In conclusion, Hushahu's shamanic journey embodies the sacred echoes of empowerment, echoing across generations and landscapes. The story serves as a testament to the enduring power of the human spirit and the transformative potential of reclaiming one's voice in the face of adversity. As indigenous women continue to rise, Hushahu's legacy stands as a beacon of hope, illuminating the path towards a more equitable and inclusive world.

Keywords: shamanic leadership, indigenous empowerment, gender norms, cultural transformation

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Authors: Chux Gervase Iwu, Simon Nsengimane

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Entrepreneurship stimulates socio-economic development in many countries, if not all. It creates jobs and decreases unemployment and inequality. There are other benefits that are accruable from entrepreneurship, namely the empowerment of women and the promotion of better livelihoods. Innovation has become a weapon for business competition, growth, and sustainability. Paradoxically, it is a threat to businesses because products can be duplicated; new products may decrease the market share of existing ones or delete them from the market. This creates a constant competitive environment that calls for updates, innovation, and the invention of new products and services. Thus, the importance of higher education in instilling a good entrepreneurial mindset in students has become even more critical. It can be argued that the business environment is under enormous pressure from several factors, including the fourth industrial revolution, which calls for the adoption and use of information and communication technology, which is the catalyst for many innovations and organisational changes. Therefore, it is crucial that higher education students are equipped with relevant knowledge and skills to respond effectively to the needs of the business environment and create a vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem. In South Africa, entrepreneurship education or some form of it has been a privilege for economic and management fields of study, leaving behind other fields. Entrepreneurship should not be limited to business faculties but rather extended to other fields of study. This is perhaps the reason for low levels of entrepreneurship uptake among South African graduates if they are compared with the graduates in other countries. There may be other reasons for the low entrepreneurship uptake. Some of these have been documented in extant literature to include (1) not enough time was spent teaching entrepreneurship in the business faculties, (2) the skills components in the curricula are insufficient, and (3) the overall attitudes/mindsets necessary to establish and run sustainable enterprises seem absent. Therefore, four important areas are recognised as crucial for the effective implementation of entrepreneurship education: policy, private sector engagement, curriculum development, and teacher development. The purpose of this research is to better comprehend the views, aspirations, and expectations of students and faculty members to design an entrepreneurial teaching model for higher education institutions. A qualitative method will be used to conduct a purposive interview with undergraduate and graduate students in select higher institutions. Members of faculty will also be included in the sample as well as, where possible, two or more government personnel responsible for higher education policy development. At present, interpretative analysis is proposed for the analysis of the interviews with the support of Atlas Ti. It is hoped that an entrepreneurship education model in the South African context is realised through this study.

Keywords: entrepreneurship education, higher education institution, graduate unemployment, curriculum development

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Authors: Nan Yang, Hye Pae

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English as a second language (ESL) learners are often observed to have transferred traits of their first languages (L1) and habits of using their L1s to their use of English (second language, L2), and this phenomenon is coined as language transfer. In addition to the transfer of linguistic features (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, etc.), which are relatively easy to observe and quantify, many cross-cultural theorists emphasized on a much subtle and fundamental transfer existing on a higher conceptual level that is referred to as conceptual transfer. Although a growing body of literature in linguistics has demonstrated evidence of L1 transfer in various discourse genres, very limited studies address the underlying conceptual transfer that is happening along with the language transfer, especially with the extended form of spontaneous discourses such as personal narrative. To address this issue, this study situates itself in the context of Chinese ESL learners’ written narratives, examines evidence of L1 conceptual transfer in comparison with native English speakers’ narratives, and provides discussion from the perspective of the conceptual transfer. It is hypothesized that Chinese ESL learners’ English narrative strategies are heavily influenced by the strategies that they use in Chinese as a result of the conceptual transfer. Understanding language transfer cognitively is of great significance in the realm of SLA, as it helps address challenges that ESL learners around the world are facing; allow native English speakers to develop a better understanding about how and why learners’ English is different; and also shed light in ESL pedagogy by providing linguistic and cultural expectations in native English-speaking countries. To achieve the goals, 40 college students were recruited (20 Chinese ESL learners and 20 native English speakers) in the United States, and their written narratives on the prompt 'The most frightening experience' were collected for quantitative discourse analysis. 40 written narratives (20 in Chinese and 20 in English) were collected from Chinese ESL learners, and 20 written narratives were collected from native English speakers. All written narratives were coded according to the coding scheme developed by the authors prior to data collection. Statistical descriptive analyses were conducted, and the preliminary results revealed that native English speakers included more narrative elements such as events and explicit evaluation comparing to Chinese ESL students’ both English and Chinese writings; the English group also utilized more evaluation device (i.e., physical state expressions, indirectly reported speeches, delineation) than Chinese ESL students’ both English and Chinese writings. It was also observed that Chinese ESL students included more orientation elements (i.e., the introduction of time/place, the introduction of character) in their Chinese and English writings than the native English-speaking participants. The findings suggest that a similar narrative strategy was observed in Chinese ESL learners’ Chinese narratives and English narratives, which is considered as the evidence of conceptual transfer from Chinese (L1) to English (L2). The results also indicate that distinct narrative strategies were used by Chinese ESL learners and native English speakers as a result of cross-cultural differences.

Keywords: Chinese ESL learners, language transfer, thinking-for-speaking, written narratives

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Authors: Arul Aram, Vishnu Priya, Monicka Karunanithi

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In India, in particular, festivals are the occasions of celebrations. They create beautiful moments to cherish. Mostly, people pay a visit to their native places to celebrate with their loved ones. So are wedding celebrations. The Covid-19 pandemic came upon us unexpectedly, and to fight it, the festivals and weddings are celebrated unusually. Crowded places are deserted. Mass gatherings are avoided, changes and alterations are made in our rituals and celebrations. The warmth usually people have at their heart during any festival and wedding has disappeared. Some aspects of the celebrations become virtual/digital rather than real -- for instance, digital greetings/invitations, digital conduct of ceremonies by priests, YouTube worship, online/digital cash gifts, and digital audience for weddings. Each festival has different rituals which are followed with the divine nature in every family, but the pandemic warranted some compromises on the traditions. Likewise, a marriage is a beautiful bond between two families where a lot of traditional customs are followed. The wedding ceremonies are colorful and celebrations may extend for several days. People in India spend financial resources to prepare and celebrate weddings. The bride's and the groom's homes are fully decorated with colors, balloons and other decorations. The wedding rituals and celebrations vary by religion, region, preference and the resources of the groom, bride and their families. They can range from one day to multiple-days events. But the Covid-19 pandemic situation changes the mindset of people over ceremonies. This lockdown has affected those weddings and industries that support them and make the people postpone or at times advance without fanfare their 'big day.' People now adopt the protocols, guidelines and safety measures to reduce the risk and minimize the fear during celebrations. The study shall look into: how the pandemic shattered the expectations of people celebrating; problems faced economically by people/service providers who are benefited by the celebrations; and identify the alterations made in the rituals or the practices of our culture for the safety of families. The study shall employ questionnaires, interviews and visual ethnography to collect data. The study found that during a complete lockdown, people have not bought new clothes, sweets, or snacks, as they generally do before a pandemic. Almost all of them kept their celebrations low-key, and some did not celebrate at all. Digital media played a role in keeping the celebration alive, as people used it to wish their friends and families virtually. During partial unlock, the situation was under control, and people began to go out and see a few family and friends. They went shopping and bought new clothes and needs, but they did it while following safety precautions. There is also an equal percentage of people who shopped online. Although people continue to remain disappointed, they were less stressed up as life was returning to normal.

Keywords: covid-19, digital, festivals, India, wedding

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Authors: Luay Jum'a

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Many challenges are facing third-party logistics (3PL) providers in the domestic and global markets which create a volatile decision making environment. All these challenges such as managing changes in consumer behaviour, demanding expectations from customers and time compressions have turned into complex problems for 3PL providers. Since the movement towards increased outsourcing outpaces movement towards insourcing, the need to achieve a competitive advantage over competitors in 3PL market increases. This trend continues to grow over the years and as a result, areas of strengths and improvements are highlighted through the analysis of the LSQ factors that lead to B2B customers’ satisfaction which become a priority for 3PL companies. Consequently, 3PL companies are increasingly focusing on the most important issues from the perspective of their customers and relying more on this value of information in making their managerial decisions. Therefore, this study is concerned with providing guidance for improving logistics service quality (LSQ) levels in the context of 3PL industry in Jordan. The study focused on the most important factors in LSQ and used a managerial tool that guides 3PL companies in making LSQ improvements based on a quadrant analysis of two main dimensions: LSQ declared importance and LSQ inferred importance. Although, a considerable amount of research has been conducted to investigate the relationship between logistics service quality (LSQ) and customer satisfaction, there remains a lack of developing managerial tools to aid in the process of LSQ improvement decision-making. Moreover, the main advantage for the companies to use 3PL service providers as a trend is due to the realised percentage of cost reduction on the total cost of logistics operations and the incremental improvement in customer service. In this regard, having a managerial tool that help 3PL service providers in managing the LSQ factors portfolio effectively and efficiently would be a great investment for service providers. One way of suggesting LSQ improvement actions for 3PL service providers is via the adoption of analysis tools that perform attribute categorisation such as Importance–Performance matrix. In mind of the above, it can be stated that the use of quadrant analysis will provide a valuable opportunity for 3PL service providers to identify improvement opportunities as customer service attributes or factors importance are identified in two different techniques that complete each other. Moreover, the data were collected through conducting a survey and 293 questionnaires were returned from business-to-business (B2B) customers of 3PL companies in Jordan. The results showed that the LSQ factors vary in their importance and 3PL companies should focus on some LSQ factors more than other factors. Moreover, ordering procedures, timeliness/responsiveness LSQ factors considered being crucial in 3PL businesses and therefore they need to have more focus and development by 3PL service providers in the Jordanian market.

Keywords: logistics service quality, managerial decisions, quadrant analysis, third party logistics service provider

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Authors: Moustafa Osman Mohammed

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This paper introduces Luhmann’s autopoietic social systems starting with the original concept of autopoiesis by biologists and scientists, including the modification of general systems based on socialized medicine. A specific type of autopoietic system is explained in the three existing groups of the ecological phenomena: interaction, social and medical sciences. This hypothesis model, nevertheless, has a nonlinear interaction with its natural environment ‘interactional cycle’ for the exchange of photon energy with molecular without any changes in topology. The external forces in the systems environment might be concomitant with the natural fluctuations’ influence (e.g. radioactive radiation, electromagnetic waves). The cantilever sensor deploys insights to the future chip processor for prevention of social metabolic systems. Thus, the circuits with resonant electric and optical properties are prototyped on board as an intra–chip inter–chip transmission for producing electromagnetic energy approximately ranges from 1.7 mA at 3.3 V to service the detection in locomotion with the least significant power losses. Nowadays, therapeutic systems are assimilated materials from embryonic stem cells to aggregate multiple functions of the vessels nature de-cellular structure for replenishment. While, the interior actuators deploy base-pair complementarity of nucleotides for the symmetric arrangement in particular bacterial nanonetworks of the sequence cycle creating double-stranded DNA strings. The DNA strands must be sequenced, assembled, and decoded in order to reconstruct the original source reliably. The design of exterior actuators have the ability in sensing different variations in the corresponding patterns regarding beat-to-beat heart rate variability (HRV) for spatial autocorrelation of molecular communication, which consists of human electromagnetic, piezoelectric, electrostatic and electrothermal energy to monitor and transfer the dynamic changes of all the cantilevers simultaneously in real-time workspace with high precision. A prototype-enabled dynamic energy sensor has been investigated in the laboratory for inclusion of nanoscale devices in the architecture with a fuzzy logic control for detection of thermal and electrostatic changes with optoelectronic devices to interpret uncertainty associated with signal interference. Ultimately, the controversial aspect of molecular frictional properties is adjusted to each other and forms its unique spatial structure modules for providing the environment mutual contribution in the investigation of mass temperature changes due to pathogenic archival architecture of clusters.

Keywords: autopoiesis, nanoparticles, quantum photonics, portable energy, photonic structure, photodynamic therapeutic system

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Authors: Hossein Rezaie

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Academic institutions, esp. universities, have been known as cradles of learning and teaching great thinkers while creating the type of knowledge that is supposed to be bereft of utilitarian motives. Nonetheless, it seems that such intellectual centers have entered into a competition with each other for attracting the attention of potential clients. The traditional values of (higher) education such as nurturing criticality and fostering intellectuality in students have been replaced with strategic planning, quality assurance, performance assessment, and academic audits. Not being immune from the whims and wishes of marketization, the system of higher education in the UK has been recalibrated by policy makers to address the demand and supply of student education, academic research and other university activities on the basis of monetary factors. As an immediate example in this vein, the Russell Group in the UK, which is comprised of 24 leading UK research universities, has explicitly expressed it policy on its official website as follows: ‘Russell Group universities are global businesses competing for staff, students and funding with the best in the world’. Furthermore, certain attempts have been made to corporatize the system of HE which have been manifested in remodeling of university governing bodies on corporate lines and developing measurement scales for indicating the performance of teaching practitioners. Nevertheless, it seems that such structural changes in policies toward the system of HE have bearing on the practices of practitioners and educators as well as the identity of students who are the customers of educational services. The effects of marketization have been examined mainly in terms of students’ perceptions and motivation, institutional policies and university management. However, the teaching practitioner side seems to be an under-studied area with regard to any changes in its expectations, satisfaction and perception of professional identity in the aftermath of introducing market-wise values into HE of the UK. As a result, this research aims to investigate the possible outcomes of market-driven values on the practitioner side of HE in the UK and finally seeks to address the following research questions: 1-How is the change in the mission of HE in the UK reflected in institutional documents? 1-A- How is the change of mission represented in job adverts? 1-B- How is the change of mission represented in university prospectuses? 2-How are teaching practitioners represented regarding their roles and obligations in the prospectuses and job ads published by UK HE institutions? In order to address these questions, the researcher will analyze 30 prospectuses and job ads published by Russel Group universities by taking Critical Discourse Analysis as his point of departure and the analytical methods of genre analysis and Systemic Functional Linguistics to probe into the generic features and representation of participants, in this case teaching practitioners, in the selected corpus.

Keywords: higher education, job advertisements, marketization of higher education, prospectuses

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Authors: Zoltán Höhling, Sarah-Lu Oberschelp, Niklas Gilsdorf, Michael Wirsching, Andrea Kuhnert

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A majority of medical students at the University of Freiburg reported stress-related psychosomatic symptoms which are often associated with their studies. International research supports these findings, as medical students worldwide seem to be at special risk for mental health problems. In some countries and institutions, psychologically based interventions that assist medical students in coping with their stressors have been implemented. It turned out that anonymity is an important aspect here. Many students fear a potential damage of reputation when being associated with mental health problems, which may be due to a high level of competitiveness in classes. Therefore, we launched an online-platform where medical students could anonymously seek help and exchange their experiences with fellow students and experts. Medical students of all semesters have access to it through the university’s learning management system (called “ILIAS”). The informative part of the platform consists of exemplary videos showing medical students (actors) who act out scenes that demonstrate the antecedents of stress-related psychosomatic disorders. These videos are linked to different expert comments, describing the exhibited symptoms in an understandable and normalizing way. The (inter-)active part of the platform consists of self-help tools (such as meditation exercises or general tips for stress-coping) and an anonymous interactive forum where students can describe their stress-related problems and seek guidance from experts and/or share their experiences with fellow students. Besides creating an immediate proposal to help affected students, we expect that competitiveness between students might be diminished and bondage improved through mutual support between them. In the initial phase after the platform’s launch, it was accessed by a considerable number of medical students. On a closer look it appeared that platform sections like general information on psychosomatic-symptoms and self-treatment tools were accessed far more often than the online-forum during the first months after the platform launch. Although initial acceptance of the platform was relatively high, students showed a rather passive way of using our platform. While user statistics showed a clear demand for information on stress-related psychosomatic symptoms and its possible remedies, active engagement in the interactive online-forum was rare. We are currently advertising the platform intensively and trying to point out the assured anonymity of the platform and its interactive forum. Our plans, to assure students their anonymity through the use of an e-learning facility and promote active engagement in the online forum, did not (yet) turn out as expected. The reasons behind this may be manifold and based on either e-learning related issues or issues related to students’ individual needs. Students might, for example, question the assured anonymity due to a lack of trust in the technological functioning university’s learning management system. However, one may also conclude that reluctance to discuss stress-related psychosomatic symptoms with peer medical students may not be solely based on anonymity concerns, but could be rooted in more complex issues such as general mistrust between students.

Keywords: e-tutoring, stress-coping, student support, online forum

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Authors: Nurten Çelik

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Under the new developments in science, medicine, sociology, psychology and literary theories, body studies has gained huge importance and the body has become a debatable issue. There has emerged, among sociologists and literary theorists, an overwhelming consensus that body is socially, politically and culturally perceived and constructed and thus, the position of an individual in the society is determined in accordance with his/her body image. In this regard, the most complicated point is the theoretical views propounded upon disability studies, where the disabled body is considered to be a site upon which social and political restrictions as well as repressions are inscribed. There has been the widely-accepted view that no matter what kind of disability it is, those with physical, mental or learning impairments face varied social, political and environmental obstacles that prevent them from being an active citizen, worker, lover and even a family member. In parallel with these approaches, the matter of the sufferings of disabled individuals attains its place in cinema and literature as well as in theatre studies under the category of disability theatre. One of the prominent plays that deal with physical disability came from the contemporary British playwright Nina Raine. In her awarded play Tribes, which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 2010, Raine develops the social strata where her deaf protagonist, Billy, caught up between two tribes – namely his family and his lover Slyvia, a member of the deaf community– experiences personal and social hardships due to his hearing impairment. In the play, intransigent and self-opinionated family members foster no sense of empathy towards Billy, there are noisy talking and shouting, but no communication, love, compassion or mutual understanding, and language becomes just a tool for the expression of rage and oppression. In the disordered atmosphere of the family life, Billy experiences isolation and loneliness. Billy’s hopes for success and love are destroyed when Slyvia, troubled between hearing and deafness, rejects him because she does not utterly grasp what Billy is experiencing. Drawing upon the hardships, Billy undergoes in his relationships with his family and his girlfriend, Tribes problematizes the concept of deafness and explores to what extent a deaf person can find a place in the hearing world. Setting ‘the disabled’ bodies against ‘the abled’ bodies in a family, a microcosm of the society where bodies are socially shaped and constructed, Tribes dramatizes how the disabled bodies are disenfranchised, stigmatised, marginalized and othered on the grounds that they are socially misfit. Tribes, with a specific focus on the dysfunctional family, shows that the lack of communication and empathy numbs the characters to the feelings of each other and thereby, they become more disabled than Billy. In conclusion, this paper, with the reference to the embodiment of disability and social theories, aims to explore how disabled bodies are socially marked and segregated from family and society.

Keywords: body, deafness, disability, disability theatre, Nina Raine, tribes

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Authors: Zoe Boon Suan Loy

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An exploratory research undertaken in 2000 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic examined the changing roles of Singapore school leaders as they lead teachers in developing future-ready learners. While it is evident that ‘LEADER’ qualities epitomize the knowledge, competencies, and skills required, recent events in an increasing VUCA and BANI world characterized by massively disruptive Ukraine -Russian war, unabating tense US-Sino relations, issues related to sustainability, and rapid ageing will have an impact on school leadership. As an increasingly complex endeavour, this requires a relook as they lead teachers in nurturing holistically-developed future-ready students. Digitalisation, new technology, and the push for a green economy will be the key driving forces that will have an impact on job availability. Similarly, the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, including ChatGPT, will aggravate and add tremendous stress to the work of school leaders. This paper seeks to explore the key school leadership shifts required beyond the ‘LEADER’ qualities as school leaders respond to the changes, challenges, and opportunities in the 21st C new normal. The research findings for this paper are based on an exploratory qualitative study on the perceptions of 26 school leaders (vice-principals) who were attending a milestone educational leadership course at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. A structured questionnaire is designed to collect the data, which is then analysed using coding methodology. Broad themes on key competencies and skills of future-ready leaders in the Singapore education system are then identified. Key Findings: In undertaking their leadership roles as leaders of future-ready learners, school leaders need to demonstrate the ‘LEADER’ qualities. They need to have a long-term view, understand the educational imperatives, have a good awareness of self and the dispositions of a leader, be effective in optimizing external leverages and are clear about their role expectations. These ‘LEADER’ qualities are necessary and relevant in the post-Covid era. Beyond this, school leaders with ‘LEADER’ qualities are well supported by the Ministry of Education, which takes cognizance of emerging trends and continually review education policies to address related issues. Concluding Statement: Discussions within the education ecosystem and among other stakeholders on the implications of the use of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT on the school curriculum, including content knowledge, pedagogy, and assessment, are ongoing. This augurs well for school leaders as they undertake their responsibilities as leaders of future-ready learners.

Keywords: Singapore education system, ‘LEADER’ qualities, school leadership, future-ready leaders, future-ready learners

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Authors: Alejandro Adorjan

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Universities are motivated to understand the factor contributing to low retention of engineering undergraduates. While precollege students for engineering increases, the number of engineering graduates continues to decrease and attrition rates for engineering undergraduates remains high. Calculus 1 (C1) is the entry point of most undergraduate Engineering Science and often a prerequisite for Computing Curricula courses. Mathematics continues to be a major hurdle for engineering students and many students who drop out from engineering cite specifically Calculus as one of the most influential factors in that decision. In this context, creating course activities that increase retention and motivate students to obtain better final results is a challenge. In order to develop several competencies in our students of Software Engineering courses, Calculus 1 at Universidad ORT Uruguay focuses on developing several competencies such as capacity of synthesis, abstraction, and problem solving (based on the ACM/AIS/IEEE). Every semester we try to reflect on our practice and try to answer the following research question: What kind of teaching approach in Calculus 1 can we design to retain students and obtain better results? Since 2010, Universidad ORT Uruguay offers a six-week summer noncompulsory bridge course of preparatory math (to bridge the math gap between high school and university). Last semester was the first time the Department of Mathematics offered the course while students were enrolled in C1. Traditional lectures in this bridge course lead to just transcribe notes from blackboard. Last semester we proposed a Hands On Lab course using Geogebra (interactive geometry and Computer Algebra System (CAS) software) as a Math Driven Development Tool. Students worked in a computer laboratory class and developed most of the tasks and topics in Geogebra. As a result of this approach, several pros and cons were found. It was an excessive amount of weekly hours of mathematics for students and, as the course was non-compulsory; the attendance decreased with time. Nevertheless, this activity succeeds in improving final test results and most students expressed the pleasure of working with this methodology. This teaching technology oriented approach strengthens student math competencies needed for Calculus 1 and improves student performance, engagement, and self-confidence. It is important as a teacher to reflect on our practice, including innovative proposals with the objective of engaging students, increasing retention and obtaining better results. The high degree of motivation and engagement of participants with this methodology exceeded our initial expectations, so we plan to experiment with more groups during the summer so as to validate preliminary results.

Keywords: calculus, engineering education, PreCalculus, Summer Program

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Authors: Antonieta Heyden Megale

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With the advent of globalization, the social, cultural and linguistic situation of the whole world has changed. In this scenario, the teaching of English, in Brazil, has become a booming business and the belief that this language is essential to a successful life is played by the media that sees it as a commodity and spares no effort to sell it. In this context, it has become evident the growth of bilingual and international schools that have English and Portuguese as languages of instruction. According to federal legislation, all schools in the country must follow the Curriculum guidelines proposed by the Ministry of Education of Brazil. It is then mandatory that, in addition to the specific foreign curriculum an international school subscribes to, it must also teach all subjects of the official minimum curriculum and these subjects have to be taught in Portuguese. It is important to emphasize that, in these schools, English is the most prestigious language. Therefore, firstly, Brazilian teachers who teach Portuguese in such contexts find themselves in a situation in which they teach in a low-status language. Secondly, because such teachers’ actions are guided by a different cultural matrix, which differs considerably from Anglo-Saxon values and beliefs, they often experience intercultural conflict in their workplace. Taking it consideration, this research, focusing on the trajectories of a specific group of Brazilian teachers of Portuguese in international and bilingual schools located in the city of São Paulo, intends to analyze how they discursively represent their own professional identities and practices. More specifically the objectives of this research are to understand, from the perspective of the investigated teachers, how they (i) rebuilt narratively their professional careers and explain the factors that led them to an international or to an immersion bilingual school; (ii) position themselves with respect to their linguistic repertoire; (iii) interpret the intercultural practices they are involved with in school and (v) position themselves by foregrounding categories to determine their membership in the group of Portuguese teachers. We have worked with these teachers’ autobiographical narratives. The autobiographical approach assumes that the stories told by teachers are systems of meaning involved in the production of identities and subjectivities in the context of power relations. The teachers' narratives were elicited by the following trigger: "I would like you to tell me how you became a teacher in a bilingual/international school and what your impressions are about your work and about the context in which it is inserted". These narratives were produced orally, recorded, and transcribed for analysis. The teachers were also invited to draw their "linguistic portraits". The theoretical concepts of positioning and the indexical cues were taken into consideration in data analysis. The narratives produced by the teachers point to intercultural conflicts related to their expectations and representations of others, which are never neutral or objective truths but discursive constructions.

Keywords: bilingual schools, identity, interculturality, narrative

Procedia PDF Downloads 333

Authors: Eleni Maistrou, D. Kosmopoulos, Carolina Moretti, Amalia Konidi, Katerina Boulougoura

Abstract:

InterArch is an ongoing research project that has been running since September 2020. It aims to propose the design of a site-based digital application for archaeological sites and outdoor guided tours, supporting virtual and augmented reality technology. The research project is co‐financed by the European Union and Greek national funds, through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH - CREATE – INNOVATE (project code: Τ2ΕΔΚ-01659). It involves mutual collaboration between academic and cultural institutions and the contribution of an IT applications development company. The research will be completed by July 2023 and will run as a pilot project for the city of Ancient Messene, a place of outstanding natural beauty in the west of Peloponnese, which is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece. The applied research project integrates an interactive approach to the natural environment, aiming at a manifold sensory experience. It combines the physical space of the archaeological site with the digital space of archaeological and cultural data while at the same time, it embraces storytelling processes by engaging an interdisciplinary approach that familiarizes the user with multiple semantic interpretations. The mingling of the real-world environment with its digital and cultural components by using augmented reality techniques could potentially transform the visit on-site into an immersive multimodal sensory experience. To this purpose, an extensive spatial analysis along with a detailed evaluation of the existing digital and non-digital archives is proposed in our project, intending to correlate natural landscape morphology (including archaeological material remains and environmental characteristics) with the extensive historical records and cultural digital data. On-site research was carried out, during which visitors’ itineraries were monitored and tracked throughout the archaeological visit using GPS locators. The results provide our project with useful insight concerning the way visitors engage and interact with their surroundings, depending on the sequence of their itineraries and the duration of stay at each location. InterArch aims to propose the design of a site-based digital application for archaeological sites and outdoor guided tours, supporting virtual and augmented reality technology. Extensive spatial analysis, along with a detailed evaluation of the existing digital and non-digital archives, is used in our project, intending to correlate natural landscape morphology with the extensive historical records and cultural digital data. The results of the on-site research provide our project with useful insight concerning the way visitors engage and interact with their surroundings, depending on the sequence of their itineraries and the duration of stay at each location.

Keywords: archaeological site, digital space, semantic interpretations, cultural heritage

Procedia PDF Downloads 65

Authors: Moustafa Osman Mohammed

Abstract:

This paper introduces topological order in descried social systems starting with the original concept of autopoiesis by biologists and scientists, including the modification of general systems based on socialized medicine. Topological order is important in describing the physical systems for exploiting optical systems and improving photonic devices. The stats of topological order have some interesting properties of topological degeneracy and fractional statistics that reveal the entanglement origin of topological order, etc. Topological ideas in photonics form exciting developments in solid-state materials, that being; insulating in the bulk, conducting electricity on their surface without dissipation or back-scattering, even in the presence of large impurities. A specific type of autopoiesis system is interrelated to the main categories amongst existing groups of the ecological phenomena interaction social and medical sciences. The hypothesis, nevertheless, has a nonlinear interaction with its natural environment 'interactional cycle' for exchange photon energy with molecules without changes in topology. The engineering topology of a biosensor is based on the excitation boundary of surface electromagnetic waves in photonic band gap multilayer films. The device operation is similar to surface Plasmonic biosensors in which a photonic band gap film replaces metal film as the medium when surface electromagnetic waves are excited. The use of photonic band gap film offers sharper surface wave resonance leading to the potential of greatly enhanced sensitivity. So, the properties of the photonic band gap material are engineered to operate a sensor at any wavelength and conduct a surface wave resonance that ranges up to 470 nm. The wavelength is not generally accessible with surface Plasmon sensing. Lastly, the photonic band gap films have robust mechanical functions that offer new substrates for surface chemistry to understand the molecular design structure and create sensing chips surface with different concentrations of DNA sequences in the solution to observe and track the surface mode resonance under the influences of processes that take place in the spectroscopic environment. These processes led to the development of several advanced analytical technologies: which are; automated, real-time, reliable, reproducible, and cost-effective. This results in faster and more accurate monitoring and detection of biomolecules on refractive index sensing, antibody-antigen reactions with a DNA or protein binding. Ultimately, the controversial aspect of molecular frictional properties is adjusted to each other in order to form unique spatial structure and dynamics of biological molecules for providing the environment mutual contribution in investigation of changes due to the pathogenic archival architecture of cell clusters.

Keywords: autopoiesis, photonics systems, quantum topology, molecular structure, biosensing

Procedia PDF Downloads 83

Authors: Adnan Alhazmi

Abstract:

Background: UDL can be understood as a framework that holds the potential to elaborate the alternatives and platforms for the students with intellectual disabilities within general education settings and aims at offering flexible pathways that can support all the students in gaining a mastering over the goals of learning. This system of learning addresses the problem of the variability of the learner by delineating the diverse ways in which the individuals can understand, conceive, express and deal with the information. Goal: The aim of the proposed research is to examine the impact of the implementation of UDL in teaching practices for the students with intellectual disabilities in Saudi Arabian schools. Method: This research has used a combination of quantitative and qualitative designs. Survey questionnaires were used to gather the data for under this analytical descriptive method. The application of the qualitative interpretive approach was applied with the help of the interview to gather a detailed understanding on the aim of the research. For this purpose, the semi-structured interviews were conducted. Thus, the primary data will be gathered with the help of survey and interview to examine the impact of universal design learning implementation on teaching practices for intellectually disabled students in Saudi Arabian schools. The survey was conducted to examine the prevailing teaching practices for the students with intellectual disabilities in Saudi Arabia and evaluate if the teaching experience influences the current practices or not. The surveys were distributed to 50 teachers who teach the students with intellectual disabilities. However, the interviews were conducted to explore barriers of implementing UDL in Saudi Arabia and provide suggested guideline for the implementation of UDL in Saudi Arabia. The interviews, therefore, were with 10 teachers teaching the same subject. Findings: A key findings highlighted in this study revealed that the UDL framework serves as a crucial guide for teachers within inclusive settings to undertake meaningful planning for the individuals with intellectual disabilities so that they are able to access, participate, and grow within the general education curriculum. Other findings of the study highlighted the need to prepare the educators and all faculty members to understand the purpose and need for inclusion, the UDL framework so that better information about academic and social expectations for individuals with intellectual disabilities can be delivered. Conclusion: On the basis of the preliminary study undertaken on the subject of research, it could be suggested that UDL can serve to be an effective support for undertaking a meaningful inclusion of students with intellectual disability (ID) in general educational settings. It holds the potential role of working as an institutional design framework that could be used for designing curriculum for students with intellectual disabilities.

Keywords: intellectual disability, inclusion, universal design for learning, teaching practice

Procedia PDF Downloads 132