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An amateur boxer; A professional soldier turned indestructible zombie; A fast-driving heister; A combat pilot on another world; A taco truck driver with a heart of gold; A Smurf; Michelle Rodriguez, American actress, has played them all. As Leticia ‘Letty’ Ortiz, Rodriguez' most famous role offers both a sensitive portrayal of a tenacious woman living out a tough existence who exhibits as much courage, strength, moral standing and fibre as her male counterparts, whilst also revealing a softer, emotional side and one that focuses on family and ideals of accepting Motherhood. This is what makes Rodriguez such a fascinating contradiction. Whilst much praise is heaped on other actresses for their roles in action films, this chapter will offer, through both an overview of her action-hero career and in-depth look at Rodriguez's work in the Fast and Furious films, an insight into the importance of this actress to the growing canon of action hero(ine) characters and film stars.

In recent years, we have seen a paradox. No matter how much the government strives to incorporate technology into classrooms as a learning resource for students, both national and international reports prove that this is a difficult aim to achieve purpose. Training both preservice and in-service teachers is vitally important for technology to become part of everyday school life. But to achieve this, we must move away from the techno-centric focus of technology. This chapter analyzes the importance of focusing on implementing technologies in the learning activities that teacher-trainers design to prepare preservice teachers. We describe seven types of activities: assimilative, informative management, applicative, communicative, productive, experiential, and evaluation. All of these technology-based learning activities, organized in learning sequences, potentially help teachers to come to terms with technological knowledge in their pedagogical content area.

The growing displacement of theory and other forms of wide-ranging knowledge of social phenomena by empirical research methods in economics is widely noted by economists and historians of economic knowledge. Less attention has been devoted, however, to understand the materialization of such changes in the scientific practices. This article studies the recent transformations in the epistemological practices at CEDE, a research center in Colombia. I use a machine learning technique called Topic Modeling, interviews to CEDE researchers, and exegesis of papers to characterize a shift in the production of knowledge in microeconometrics at CEDE during the years 2000 and 2018. I explain this shift by characterizing two sets of epistemological practices that implies a recent tendency to disdain research that cannot make a “strong” causal inference.

In this second decade of the 21st century, Hispanic women in academia continue to lag behind their White counterparts; namely, U.S. Department of Education 2003 data revealed that 1.8% Hispanic women occupied administrative or executive posts at doctoral research universities in comparison with 3.7% of White women (Evans & Chun, 2007). Undoubtedly, Hispanic women administrators in higher education represent the faces of gender and ethnicity and, above all, they are instrumental in facilitating career paths for present and future generations of Hispanic students. Toward this end, this review of literature will provide a framework for the discussion of women's leadership practices and administrative roles, in relation to a number of salient factors, which include Hispanics as a group and prevailing ideologies surrounding this ethnic group; differences among the various Hispanic groups including trajectory and language; self-efficacy as a construct and its relationship to ethnicity and culture; women and the hidden curriculum phenomenon; Discourse theory and sociocultural mechanisms.

This chapter explores how the irruption of plastic materials in contemporary society, in the same way that it facilitated a wide range of human activities, eventually degenerated into a global danger through the contamination of rivers and seas, damaging the human food chain. In doing so, the historical background of this situation has been outlined. Moreover, the countries and areas at present that have polluting plastic substances and those that can be most easily recycled is highlighted. It should be noted that it is precisely in the area of recyclability where most hopes have been placed to counteract plastic contamination aimed at avoiding single-use plastic products. Subsequently, the different positions adopted by the members of society on this problem have been described and, by way of example, the state of the situation in a specific country, Spain, has been summarised.

The chapter analyzed the knowledge transfer processes of the Latin American academy to the actors in its environment, and the Science, Technology, and Innovation policy that facilitates or inhibits the processes of generation and use of this university knowledge. The cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico were analyzed to understand the practice of the university knowledge transfer model at different levels – strategic, organizational, and operational – and the complexities involved in the process. It was evidenced by the urgent demand for the transformation of the Latin American University through sustainability and digitalization approaches to be a catalyst for development in the region. The chapter closes with a critical analysis of the phenomenon, future lines of research, and implications of the praxis.