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This study aims to examine a distinctive loan contract widely practiced in a Muslim society.

This research adopts a qualitative research approach. The study was divided into two main stages. Stage I research relied on documentary analysis of pagang gadai contracts. Hence, Stage II research was an in-depth study in a selected nagari, adopting an ethnography approach. The study was conducted in the district of Tanah Datar, West Sumatera, from 2020 to 2023.

The findings of this study show that the distinctive mode of contact breaks some basic rules of Islamic finance (the practice contains riba and gharar). The practice however is prevalent in the society studied due to the influence of the customary law namely the communal ownership of lands. The practice brings impacts on the society both positives and negatives.

This study focuses on the traditional mode of pagang gadai contract, which involves the transfer of right to cultivate productive agricultural lands for an exchange of loan measured in gold measurement system and excludes other modes of pagang gadai.

Revision(s) of the contract mode is an urgent matter if the society to be rescued from practicing this type of contract that contains element of exploitation and oppression.

The revision(s) is needed if the society wants to follow the teaching of Islam comprehensively, as claimed in the philosophy adopted.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study on pagang gadai that focuses on impacts of the practice on the society studied.

Introduction: Organisations all over the world are experiencing skill gaps. One of the key factors contributing to the shortage of competent workers is the inability to find candidates that fit the profile. Most of the time, the market does not offer what organisations require.

Purpose: This research focuses on skill shortages and labour market rigidity in the information technology (IT) sector. It discusses the impact of labour shortage and strategies to overcome these challenges.

Need of the Study: The study is required to reduce the skill shortage in the IT sector and inflexibility in the labour market.

Methodology: The data are collected from secondary sources, that is, books, journals and other internet sources.

Findings: The labour market volatility is impacted by several external factors leading to rigidity and talent shortages. Different forecasts within the IT industry, manufacturing, media and telecommunications indicate large-scale labour shortages. The growing influence of digitalisation further creates challenges for organisations during the hiring process as the identified skill gaps for IT professionals are also identified.

Practical Implications: Labour market rigidity affects the labour market. Shifts in labour supply and demand do not always impact wages. Methods are suggested on how to reduce the rigidity in the labour market and, in turn, decrease the skill gaps.

This paper explores the context within which experimental, pedagogically progressive schools were established in Australia during the first decades of the 20th century.

The paper presents a case study of the establishment of Rosbercon Girls’ Grammar School. It draws on educator accounts, archival documents and contemporary literature to provide a brief narrative of the events leading to the opening of the school; to sketch the family of educators who were pivotal in making it a reality; and to identify key aspects of the social and legislative context that made such an initiative possible.

Rosbercon was established at a time when a modest school could be established relatively easily by a small group of educators with a shared vision. The early 20th century was a moment of national optimism in Australia, where an appetite for new educational ideas created a climate in which innovative educators found fertile soil for their pedagogical experiments and adaptation of emerging ideas from around the world. Their efforts were facilitated by an emerging global network of personal interactions, professional learning, professional associations and educational literature.

This paper addresses the relative lack of scholarly examination of the origins of Rosbercon Girls’ Grammar School, an institution that previous authors have identified as Australia’s oldest experimental school. The case study also contributes to a broader appreciation of the trajectory of progressive education during the early 20th century.

City planning and construction have embraced circular economy principles, converting them into various indicators. Particularly in the European context, the question “what architecture for circularity?” is answered with policies focusing on techniques, materials and disassembling construction. This paper analyzes a new approach to sustainable design and explores the concept of Km0 architecture. The objective is to demonstrate the design strategies of a contemporary architecture based on local resources and knowledge, an architecture that works with the shortest possible loop in circularity, i.e. with the cycle that consumes the least amount of energy.

The paper presents two ways of understanding sustainability in architecture: the first as a result of policies and the second associated with the design and innovative-based New European Bauhaus initiative. Within the scope of this last understanding, the authors analyze three cases on the Spanish Mediterranean coast that have recently received media attention and prominence. The selection responds to a specific climate adaption through a certain typological and functional diversity of the works.

The studied cases exhibit a more equitable and cost-effective circularity based on the time factor, have long life-cycle designs and serve as repositories of cultural identity. Km0 architecture reduces emissions using local resources and mitigates environmental conditions by combining traditional and modern design strategies.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study the local understandings of the built environment that would ensure a more fair and inclusive European green transformation.

The purpose of this study is to understand the meaning of the term well-being as conceptualised by parents, grandparents, principals and teachers in the Irish primary education system.

A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was adopted to understand the nature and meaning of the phenomenon of well-being. Interviews were carried out with 54 principals, teachers, parents and grandparents from a representative sample of primary schools in Ireland. Each participant was asked the same, open, question: “What does well-being mean to you?” Responses were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a combination of the principles of the hermeneutic circle and Braun and Clarke’s framework for thematic analysis.

Three conceptualisations of well-being were identified (1) well-being is about being happy, (2) well-being is about being healthy and safe and (3) well-being is something you “do”.

To the best of our knowledge this paper is the first of its kind to describe how well-being is conceptualised by adults in Irish primary school contexts. In particular it highlights how neoliberal conceptualisations of well-being as a “thing”, a commodity exchanged on assumptions of individualism, moralism and bio-economism, have crept into the education of our youngest citizens.

In Family Law Court decisions in Australia, following divorce, the female party is frequently disadvantaged financially in the long term. This paper provides a critical assessment of valuation evidence as a data source in research and discusses valuation accuracy, valuation variation and valuation bias, as well as the Australian family court system and the role of valuers as expert witnesses. In particular, valuation in family law, as it relates to gender inequality, is discussed. The study aims to determine whether the current system of valuation in the Family Law Courts disadvantages women. This paper was important to reveal information that stakeholders in family law cases use on a day-to-day basis.

A database of 658 cases was developed and analysed to examine the influence of valuations of the matrimonial home provided by both the male and female parties on the final decision of the court.

Findings showed that valuations from the female party had marginally more influence on the outcome. However, financial disadvantages for the female party persist despite this. This raises several questions for future research, regarding reasons for this persistent disadvantage.

Research limitations included a time-consuming process.

Further researchers can use the findings from this paper to further research.

Social implications include the ability of the research to impact on society. In this regard, it was the matrimonial home in relation to divorce proceedings.

The originality of this paper stems from the analysis of a database that was created from a large number of cases from Austlii database family law cases.

This paper aims to trace Tata Group’s role in responding to disability in the decades immediately following India’s independence until the preliberalization period of the Indian economy, i.e. from the 1950s to the 1990s.

This study’s methodology entailed a historiographical approach and archival engagement at Tata Archives (Pune, India) of the company documents. Materials and records of the Tata Company between 1942 and 1992.

Adopting the corporate culture lens, the study findings show that Tata Group demonstrated an active prosocial corporate approach toward disability. In a period governed by the ideology of a state-dominated developmental approach, Tata Group’s initiatives were related to medical interventions for a wide spectrum of disabilities, rehabilitation and efforts to ensure persons with disabilities (PWDS)’ livelihood.

Disability, in the neoliberalized economic landscape of India, is an emergent business issue for companies espousing workplace diversity. The historical understanding of business engagement with disability from postindependence to liberalization in India remains, however, limited. In postindependence India, the passive business response to disability emerged within an ethical and discretionary framework, with charity and philanthropy as the main modes of engagement. In this background, this paper explores Tata’s response to disability and PWDs, which was distinct.

Emotions are an important aspect of work performance but are often overlooked, especially amongst preschool teachers whose work environment is laden with emotional job demands. The present study aims to examine the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in the relationship between emotional labour and contextual performance.

Using a cross-sectional design, data were obtained from 288 preschool teachers in the Tema Metropolis in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. The study's hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling with maximum likelihood estimation in AMOS 21.0.

The structural equation modelling analyses revealed that deep acting had a direct positive relationship with contextual performance, whereas the direct relationship between surface acting and contextual performance was not statistically significant. Furthermore, deep acting and surface acting were indirectly related to contextual performance via emotional exhaustion.

The study's findings underscore the need for educational institutions and managers to create a supportive environment for teachers engaging in emotional labour, and to ensure that emotional labour is not overburdening teachers.

The study contributes to the literature on teachers' engagement in discretionary behaviours by elucidating emotional exhaustion as a linking mechanism between emotional labour and contextual performance in a non-Western context. This is one of the few studies to link emotional labour to contextual performance in the educational context.

From 2000 to 2021, the Malaysian corruption perception index demonstrated a declining tendency, identifying Malaysia as a highly corrupt nation. Corruption in the nation has become a social cancer that has impacted the workplace and political climate. Using Dewey’s (1937) theory of education and social change, this paper argues that anti-corruption education is a tool for reforming the corruption culture of a nation. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to explore and understand the current anti-corruption education in Malaysian educational institutions.

The results of this study were derived from a qualitative content analysis of 20 Google News articles, an interview with the sole implementation agency, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and a literature assessment of MACC publications. Due to a dearth of preceding study and journal publications on the topic, this type of qualitative content analysis of news has been applied in prior studies.

The results indicate that anti-corruption education has been implemented in the primary, secondary and higher education institutions in Malaysia. Nonetheless, the concept and implementation are inadequate, superficial and insufficient. The analysis advises more inclusive techniques for delivering anti-corruption education for social transformation.

Prior research has focussed on laws and regulations to prosecute the corrupt, but has underrated the ability of education to alter the corruption culture. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first journal paper, written on anti-corruption education in Malaysia. This study sets the way for further anti-corruption education studies in the future. This line of research will provide insights for the nation’s policymaking, which aims to create a nation free of corruption and capable of sustaining itself.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how learners view peace and their role in peacebuilding. Peace is widely perceived as the absence of war and violence (Castro and Galace, 2010). The literature revealed that youths play an active role in peacebuilding. This study was designed to look into the journey of Grade 10 learners to becoming peacebuilders. Specifically, this sought answers to the following questions: What are the perceptions of the Grade 10 learners of peace? How do the Grade 10 learners contribute to peacebuilding? What are the learners’ dreams and aspirations for a culture of peace?

The research captured stories of the Grade 10 learners of a Filipino-Chinese school in Iloilo City who participated in the study voluntarily. The learners wrote an essay in one of their reflection sessions in social studies class completing the following phrases: Peace is …; I am a Peacebuilder …; My dreams and aspirations for a culture of peace …. The data gathered were analyzed following Creswell’s framework in data analysis in qualitative research which suggests a linear, hierarchical approach. The themes generated were interpreted as the final process of the data analysis.

Majority of the participants perceived peace positively rather than merely an absence of war. Peace means freedom. Moreover, peace improves society and brings in a new period of progress. Learners across cultures have common views of peace, and they believed that peacebuilding has to begin in themselves. Through positive action such as setting as a good example and influencing others to do the same, the learners contribute to peacebuilding. In times of conflict and misunderstanding, they act as agents of peace by being a mediator. During crisis in the community, they extended their helping hands to the needy wholeheartedly.

Consistent with the prevailing views of peace, learners perceived peace positively and negatively. It is interesting to note that most participants had a positive perception of peace, which demonstrated a more profound conception of the topic. Their broader perspectives on peace may have been influenced by the author, who taught the participants for two years and who began as a peace advocate and incorporated peace ideas into class discussions in some instances. The findings from this study might only be the tip of the iceberg and far from being definitive given the small number of participants and the researcher’s relationship with them, which may have impacted their responses and created some concerns about authenticity and anonymity.

This study upheld the claim of Gandhi that youths are agents of positive change (Del Felice and Wisler, 2007). Young people are potential peacebuilders. This study provided encouragement for the truth that we should not undervalue youth’s ability to effect change. This can prompt greater discussion among scholars about peace in general inside the group, which might be viewed as being ignored on peace studies.

The participants’ dreams and aspirations for a culture of peace went beyond just improving their own lives. They shared Gandhi and Rizal’s aspirations for a better world and a habitable Philippines. Their narratives exhibited that they wished for a common good, which was uplifting. Their expectations and aspirations might have varied because of their economic situation and cultural orientation.

Literatures revealed that youths play an active role in peacebuilding. In school, for instance, Jabor (2017) concluded that students are enablers and not only the prime recipients of peace process. In a bigger context, Del Felice and Wisler (2007) illustrated in their study how the youths spearheaded various organizations for the benefit of humanity. Despite the many attestations, the contributions of the youth to peacebuilding are still deemed understudied. Most of the studies were based on the dichotomous view of the youth: victims and perpetrators of violence (UNOY Peacebuilder, 2015).