Search results

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on participation and time allocated to work from home (WFH) by ethnic/racial group.

The authors employ USA time-use data [American Time Use Survey (ATUS)] for the 2017–2020 period and a parametric approach in their analysis.

Estimates show that the time allocated to WFH increased during COVID-19, especially for women. This increase is likely driven by more workers shifting to WFH (higher participation) rather than by longer hours worked by those who already teleworked. The authors also find relevant differences in the impact of COVID-19 on WFH by ethnic/racial group. Among ethnic/racial groups, only Asians increased WFH compared to White Americans. Within this ethnic group, the authors find significant differences across genders. Asian men increased participation in WFH, whereas Asian women increased both participation and hours worked, compared to White American women. Differences in this racial/ethnic group could be explained by previous research, which demonstrates a higher ability of Asians to perform job tasks remotely. However, this finding could also be attributed to an increase in discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper contributes to the recent and limited literature exploring the heterogeneous impact of COVID-19 on participation and time allocated to WFH by ethnic/racial group. Understanding the mechanisms driving vulnerable populations' abilities to work during socioeconomic downturns is of high policy importance.

This paper aims to provide a historical overview of AA, its purpose and benefits, the legal rationale for the SCOTUS ruling and what it means for colleges and the workplace regarding equitable opportunities for minority groups (which include women, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and other low-income populations), as they aim for the “American dream”.

SCOTUS decision and rationale, along with literature.

The race-based affirmative action (AA) precedent was recently overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in the case of Students for Fair Admission (SFFA), Inc. vs President and Fellows of Harvard College/University of North Carolina. SCOTUS ruled that race cannot be a specific basis for college admission. In other words, public and private colleges and universities will no longer be able to consider “race” as a factor in deciding which qualified applicants should be admitted to enhance the diversity of their student body.

This is an original analysis.

This paper aims to trace how Asian American girls engaged with civic learning in a virtual out-of-school literacy community featuring a curriculum of diverse literary texts.

The researcher used practitioner inquiry to construct a virtual literacy education community dedicated to the civic learning of Asian American girls.

The paper explores how participants mobilized critical practices of textual consumption and production rooted in their intersectional identities and embodied experiences to make meaning of the civic constraints and affordances of marginalized identities and to read and (re)design author choices for civic purposes. These findings – examples of youths’ critical civic meaning-making – indicate how they claimed space for Asian American civic girlhoods in literacy education.

This paper foregrounds how Asian American girls mobilize critical processes of text consumption and production to assert civic identities in literacy education – a significantly under-examined topic in literacy studies. This work has implications for how literacy practitioners and scholars can prioritize Asian American civic girlhoods through pedagogy and research.

The outbreak of COVID-19 significantly disrupted educational activities and forced universities to rapidly transition from the traditional face-to-face (F2F) environment to online learning formats. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of self-directed learning (SDL) on three instructional modalities (F2F, online and HyFlex) among emerging adults. The authors propose that class interaction enjoyment serves as a channel to understand how SDL relates to students’ satisfaction and stress reduction.

An online survey was distributed to the emerging adults, aged 18–25, at six universities across five different US states. Construct validity and reliability were tested by using confirmatory factor analysis. The moderated mediation relationship was examined by calculating the indirect effects of each course delivery format.

The results show that the positive indirect effect of SDL on stress reduction via interaction enjoyment was stronger for F2F classes. In addition, the positive indirect effect of SDL on class satisfaction via interaction enjoyment was stronger for HyFlex classes.

This literature has shown contradictory results: the effects of SDL on student satisfaction and stress reduction prove to be sometimes positive, sometimes non-significant. To better understand this relationship, the authors aim at a mediating variable – enjoyment of class interaction – as a mechanism, and a moderating variable – the instructional modality – as a boundary condition. This research contributes to emerging adults learning literature by involving the interplay among SDL, enjoyment of class interaction and the instructional modality.

Racism occurs in many ways and varies across countries, evolving and adapting to sociocultural history, as well as contemporary economic, political and technological changes. This chapter discusses the multilevel dimensions of racism and its diverse manifestations across multiracial societies. It examines how different aspects of racism are mediated interpersonally, and embedded in institutions, social structures and processes, that produce and sustain racial inequities in power, resources and lived experiences. Furthermore, this chapter explores the direct and indirect ways racism is expressed in online and offline platforms and details its impacts on various groups based on their intersecting social and cultural identities. Targets of racism are those who primarily bear the adverse effects. However, racism also affects its perpetrators in many ways, including by limiting their social relations and attachments, and by imposing social and economic costs. This chapter thus analyses the many aspects of racism both from targets and perpetrators' perspectives.

This paper aims to explore the significance of videoconferencing in blended learning, using the technology acceptance model to investigate students’ perceptions and its impact on course engagement, student satisfaction and future technology use intention. In addition, it examines the role of teacher support in fostering interactive virtual learning experiences.

This study focuses on a cohort of international students regarding blended courses amid the COVID-19 pandemic when the conventional face-to-face components were substituted with virtual classrooms through videoconferencing. It aims to investigate how to facilitate connectivity between Southeast Asian students and their professors located in a Southern state in the USA.

This study reveals that the perceived usefulness of videoconferencing predicts future intention to use, emphasizing the vital role of teacher support in engaging students in virtual classrooms and contributing to student satisfaction.

The small sample of international students in blended courses with an American university during the COVID-19 pandemic may limit the generalization of the findings.

Videoconferencing can be a valuable tool to enhance connectedness in digital learning post pandemic.

Videoconferencing in blended learning can bridge geographical barriers and provide access to diverse learners who might otherwise have limited educational opportunities.

This study supports the integration of videoconferencing as a mechanism for providing high-quality digital learning experiences.

This chapter on anti-racism struggles applies an anti-racist activist framing, both critically examining and recognising the milestones achieved through centuries of pro-justice and anti-racism struggles. It delves into the arduous journey that the global fight for racial equity has undergone and highlights the significant progress as well as setbacks experienced during this lengthy struggle. The earliest history of the fight against racial oppression and domination goes back to anti-slavery and anti-colonial movements. Scholars have analysed the emergence, development and state of global anti-racism struggles in a variety of ways. I approach this subject from a sociological perspective, highlighting the role of social structures, groups and institutions that have contributed to shaping the outcomes of anti-racist initiatives. While recognising the role of individuals and leading political activists, this chapter emphasises anti-racism as a collective social justice struggle. To do this, I explore various local and global anti-racism endeavours and examine how they may influence discussions on race, racism and racial equity and their evolving trajectories across different societies.

Research indicates a long historical connection between racism and nationalist ideologies. This connection has been highlighted in the resurgence of exclusionary nationalism in recent years, across many multicultural societies. This chapter discusses the notions of race, ethnicity and nation, and critically examines how racism shapes contemporary manifestations of nationalist discourse across the world. It explores the historical role of settler-colonialism, imperial expansions and the capitalist development in shaping the racial/ethnic aspect of nationalist development. Moreover, it provides an analysis of the interconnections between the racialisation of minorities, exclusionary ideologies and the consolidation of ethno-nationalist tropes. This chapter further considers the impact of demographic changes in reinforcing anti-migrant exclusionary sentiments. This is examined in connection with emerging nativist discourse, exploring how xenophobic racism has shaped and is shaped by nostalgic nationalism based on the sanitisation of the legacies of Empire and colonialism.

First-generation college students in the United States are a unique demographic that is often characterized by the institutions that serve them with a risk-laden and deficit-based model. However, our analysis of the transcripts of open-ended, semi-structured interviews with 22 “first-gen” respondents suggests they are actively deft, agentic, self-determining parties to processes of identity construction that are both externally imposed and potentially stigmatizing, as well as exemplars of survivance and determination. We deploy a grounded theory approach to an open-coding process, modeled after the extended case method, while viewing our data through a novel synthesis of the dual theoretical lenses of structural and radical/structural symbolic interactionism and intersectional/standpoint feminist traditions, in order to reveal the complex, unfolding, active strategies students used to make sense of their obstacles, successes, co-created identities, and distinctive institutional encounters. We find that contrary to the dictates of prevailing paradigms, identity-building among first-gens is an incremental and bidirectional process through which students actively perceive and engage existing power structures to persist and even thrive amid incredibly trying, challenging, distressing, and even traumatic circumstances. Our findings suggest that successful institutional interventional strategies designed to serve this functionally unique student population (and particularly those tailored to the COVID-moment) would do well to listen deeply to their voices, consider the secondary consequences of “protectionary” policies as potentially more harmful than helpful, and fundamentally, to reexamine the presumption that such students present just institutional risk and vulnerability, but also present a valuable addition to university environments, due to the unique perspective and broader scale of vision their experiences afford them.

With the growing concern for environmental and sustainability issues, especially in the aftermath of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, organizations feel compelled to pursue green sustainability in their operations. In this regard, the active involvement of employees in pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) is crucial for achieving organizational environmental sustainability goals (Saeed et al., 2019). To shed light on this important issue, this study aims to investigate the impact of interacting/engaging environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication strategy on employees' PEBs through the mediating effects of communal relationship and employee empowerment.

A total of 443 full-time USA employees working across various industries participated in an online survey.

The interacting/engaging environmental CSR communication strategy fosters employees' perceived communal relationship with their organizations and empowers them to support their organization's environmental initiatives, which, in turn, positively influences employees' PEBs at work.

This study advances CSR and internal communication literature through the lens of relationship management and self-determination theories. The findings theoretically suggest the effectiveness of the interacting/engaging environmental CSR communication strategy in nurturing favorable employee–organization relationships (EORs), employee empowerment and PEBs at work. The practical implications of CSR communication are also elaborated.