Search results

The Victorian School of Languages began on the margins of the Victorian education system in 1935 as a “special experiment” supported by the Chief Inspector of Secondary Schools, J.A Seitz. The purpose of this paper is to present a historical analysis of the first 15 years of the “special experiment” and it reports on the school’s fragile beginnings.

The historical analysis draws on archival materials, oral sources and other primary documents from the first 15 years of the Saturday language classes, to explore its fragile role and status within the Victorian education system.

The Saturday language classes were experimental in nature and were initially intended to pilot niche subjects in the languages curriculum. Despite support from influential stakeholders, widespread interest and a promising response from teachers and students, the student enrolments dwindled, especially in the war years. As fate would have it, the two languages initially established (Japanese and Italian) faced a hostile war environment and only just survived. Questions about the continuing viability of the classes were raised, but they were championed by Seitz.

To date, this is one of few scholarly explorations of the origins of the Victorian School of Languages, a school which became a model for Australia’s other State Specialist Language Schools. This paper contributes to the literature about the VSL, a school that existed on the margins but played a pioneering role in the expansion of the language curriculum in Victoria.

While many studies investigate student leadership development in educational contexts or curriculum-based programs, little is known about the efficacy of leadership development programs that emerge in municipalities. This mixed methods case study explored the leadership development of participants in three nine-month youth leadership programs at a municipal-based prevention, treatment, and outreach center in the United States. Qualitative focus groups and quantitative surveys using the Student Leadership Practices Inventory (SLPI) were used to collect data at the beginning and end of the three programs along with a post-program evaluative survey. Findings from the qualitative and quantitative analyses are first presented individually and then expressed using a joint display table to visually represent the integrated results. Findings showed that the programs positively influenced participants’ perceptions, characteristics, and behaviors as youth leaders in their communities. Participants not only indicated improvements in their leadership practices according to the SLPI from pre- to post-program, but also demonstrated more complex understandings of leadership and what it means to be a leader in one’s community. These findings are useful for individuals and organizations planning student leadership development programs and should inform future research in the field.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the understanding that can be gained about employees' use of voice as a response to organisational change using qualitative research and, in particular, narrative analysis. Narrative analysis of voice can provide insight into why voice is used and how voice differs from resistance.

This paper uses a constructivist approach to study the interpretations of participants and explores the qualitative research interview as a method of data collection that enables participants to report experiences of organisational change. Thematic narrative analysis explores inductive themes that are embedded within participants' stories.

Findings suggest that qualitative research approaches are useful in exploring individual interpretations of voice, such as the forms in which voice is used, reasons why voice is used, and participant reports of management reactions to voice. Findings from the narrative analysis suggests that voice may be confused with resistance in the workplace and is likely to lead to negative reactions from management, even though both the literature and participants differentiate between intentions of voice and resistance to change.

The paper calls for further research concerning employee intentions surrounding the use of voice as well as management perceptions of employees' use of voice.

Qualitative studies can explore differences between voice and resistance through unlocking voices of employees who are marginalised in management literature. Such studies also derive feedback from staff about the effects of change programmes, thus providing managers with information from which communication/participation strategies could be tailored to individual organisations.

The modern economy of North America has been built on nearly five centuries of natural resource exploitation. Wetlands have been part of that pattern, with drainage and filling used to convert them to higher economic values. Ecological research and social value changes have been accumulating in the last half of the twentieth century, however, and suggest that such behaviour is becoming less acceptable. Whereas the social incentives for entrepreneurs used to be unmitigated in their encouragement of the elimination of wetlands, evolving values suggest a radical restructuring is under way. The dividing line between heroic entrepreneurial exploitation and vilification for ecosystem damage is best understood as a shifting zone of uncertain values. Prudent entrepreneurs will monitor those value shifts closely.

In this chapter, the authors build on the voluntary turnover model posited by Allen, Bryant, and Vardaman (2010) with reference to turnover and retention within the United Kingdom. After providing important contextual material about the United Kingdom, the authors explore turnover drivers such as work precarity, as well as the effect of Brexit, which compounds the political and economic uncertainty engendered by the pandemic. Reflecting on the role of external shocks in precipitating withdrawal processes, the authors go on to examine the extent to which job embeddedness impacts on employee turnover, and how alternative opportunities in a UK context may shape the decisions people make to stay with or leave their organizations. Central to our argument is that human resource (HR) practices as perceived by employees play a critical role in shaping attitudes such that people wish to stay in the organization. Cultural values posited by Hofstede and others are likely to significantly impact the way in which employees respond to the HR practices they perceive. Hence, leaders and HR specialists in the United Kingdom need to deploy HR practices which speak to cultural values that stand out in that context, considering that the United Kingdom is characterized by relatively low levels of power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, high individualism and higher than average indulgence.

Taken together, the model provides an overview of key internal and external factors that influence employees’ attitudes at work, their withdrawal behaviors and the ensuing turnover at the organizational-level. The authors conclude by highlighting key research questions raised by the analysis of the model within a UK context, considering where empirical research will add to understanding about turnover and retention in the United Kingdom.

A pressing educational concern is how to provide effective education for the growing population of dual language learners (DLL) in early childhood settings. Given the robust findings that family involvement promotes children’s academic success as well as recognition of parents’ “funds of knowledge,” one pathway to provide a culturally and linguistically responsive classroom environment for DLLs is to form collaborative relationships between parents and teachers of DLLs. The purpose of this chapter is to describe Project TAPP (Teachers and Parents as Partners), a community of practice (CoP) composed of parents and teachers of preschool dual language learners. The chapter describes the framework of Project TAPP, findings related to participation, and lessons learned.

The purpose of the paper is to introduce the themed issue about qualitative research in the business and management field

The paper considers some issues about how to define the term “qualitative research”, and then introduces each of the papers in the themed issue.

The contents of this themed issue demonstrate the insights that qualitative research can make into the management field.

A large amount of interest was generated in the themed issue. As a consequence, Emerald Publishing Group are launching a new journal which specifically focuses on qualitative research in this field.

This study aims to introduce the concept of communities of social media practice where more experienced users provide guidance to female novice users, enacting a form of legitimate peripheral participation to “onboard” newcomers.

Through surveys with 968 early adolescents (average age was 13), the authors quantitatively explored sources and types of guidance for young social media users, popularity of conversation themes related to this guidance and how these conversations are associated with positive social media engagement. The authors qualitatively documented a case study of how a summer workshop of 17 students promotes positive social media use through a community of practice.

Although early adolescent girls reported that they more frequently talked to their parents about a wider range of social media topics, same-age peers and younger family members (e.g., siblings, cousins) were also frequent sources. Surprisingly, the authors also found that the source most strongly associated with positive social media use was the peer group. This case study of an intentional community of practice demonstrated how peers go from “peripheral” to “centered” in socializing each other for more positive social media use.

Unlike most prior scholarship on mediating social technology use, this study focuses on a critical developmental period (e.g. early adolescents), sources of guidance other than exclusively parents, explore the specific conversation topics that offer guidance and document an informal community of practice for girls that provides the training ground for peers and adult facilitators to codesign more positive social media spaces.

This paper investigates the use of management controls when environmental uncertainty and hostility increase abruptly. Specifically, it explores this in the context of the 2008 financial crisis in six banks located in two countries.

The paper is based on 26 qualitative interviews with selected managers employed by the six banks. Eight interview guides were developed based on the typology of controls in Malmi and Brown (2008). Respondents explained which changes in management controls occurred after the crisis.

Both organic and mechanistic management controls were mobilized at the same time to deal with the change. The use of controls played three main roles: (1) guide and control behavior, (2) change internal and external perceptions and (3) discharge accountability. Finally, control use during a crisis evolves as individual managers design and implement controls. There is no “grand design” rationally guiding the design of the overall system of controls.

The use of management controls in dealing with an increase in uncertainty and hostility cannot be labeled either organic or mechanistic, but will depend on the specific type of change in environmental characteristics. Management controls evolve by interaction with outside actors, as well as internal techniques.

A survey was carried out in 1979 into the loan availability and provision of audiovisual materials in the United Kingdom, whether through the Regional Library Bureaux or through separate co‐operative arrangements such as the Greater London Audio Specialization Scheme. Interlending practices are seen in relation to basic audiovisual provision and demand in public and educational libraries. The effects of inadequate bibliographical control, copyright problems and the practical aspects of the inter/ending of audiovisual materials are discussed. The results of the enquiry indicate limited provision, small demand and a widespread lack of knowledge concerning the existence of audiovisual materials and their availability.