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1 – 10 of 76Christina Löfving, Anna-Lena Godhe and Johan Lundin
The paper aims to investigate and describe the complex and dynamic dilemmas teachers are facing connected to students' net-based out-of-school activities.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to investigate and describe the complex and dynamic dilemmas teachers are facing connected to students' net-based out-of-school activities.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw on the notion of dilemmatic spaces when thematically analyzing focus group interviews conducted with 41 teachers at three lower secondary schools in Sweden.
Findings
Two themes capture the teachers' dilemmas concerning their students´ net-based out-of-school activities: negotiations of content and negotiations of professional identity. When teachers take part in professional discussions where dilemmatic spaces are recognized, rather than focusing on either being for or against digitalization, they are enabled to express a multifaceted view of professional identity.
Research limitations/implications
This study is a starting point for further studies investigating how pedagogical and didactic decisions are made in a digital time.
Practical implications
The findings are expected to be helpful to policymakers in understanding teachers' work. Also, teachers can be empowered by taking the departure in the findings and discussing how to handle dilemmas fruitfully.
Originality/value
In a rapidly changing digital society, it is important to investigate what dilemmas teachers face in their work in order to learn from them. This study is a significant contribution.
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The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the often complex and contradictory argumentation of a spectrum of different Finnish public sector actors interviewed on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the often complex and contradictory argumentation of a spectrum of different Finnish public sector actors interviewed on the topical issue of Free/Libre Open Source (FLOSS) adoption.
Design/methodology/approach
The science and technology‐inspired critical discourse‐analytical approach combines insights from Billig et al. and Fairclough, with a special focus on dilemmatic aspects of socially embedded discourses. The vocabularies used to justify FLOSS implementation highlight power struggles on the level of speech.
Findings
The identified dilemmatic discourses express the continuing tension between the freedom to choose, use and develop one's desktop in the spirit of FLOSS on the one hand, and the striving for better desktop control and maintenance by it staff and user advocates on the other.
Research limitations/implications
The research acts as an opening for reframing common and axiomatic knowledge on FLOSS tools.
Practical implications
The asymmetry between the layperson (the ordinary user) and the expert (IT staff) manifests itself in discourse in a way that calls for critical re‐evaluation of the language used in information communication technology (ICT) implementation and support. It also questions the role of pilots in ICT implementation.
Originality/value
The paper critically examines the often taken‐for‐granted ideals of open source software and elaborates a methodological tool for spotting power struggles on the level of speech.
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Tal Litvak Hirsch, Alon Lazar and Kamal Abu Hadubah
The purpose of this study is to learn how minority peace educators grapple with dilemmas related to their involvement in peace programs.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to learn how minority peace educators grapple with dilemmas related to their involvement in peace programs.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 15 male teachers, members of the minority Bedouin community in Israel, all peace educators, provided their reactions to three dilemmas, addressing various facets of the strained relations of their community with the Jewish-Israeli majority, as influenced by the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Findings
The responses to these dilemmas suggest that when it comes to questions of the identity of these teachers as members of a marginalized community, their responses considerably diverge. This is not the case when it comes to their identity as peace educators.
Originality/value
This suggests that if the aim is to bring peace educators, members of minority groups in conflict zones, to harness their potential to bring about positive change, their peace activist identities must be strengthened.
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Camille Gaudy and Bertrand Malsch
This study aims to examine auditors’ search for meaningfulness in sustainability assurance (SA) work.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine auditors’ search for meaningfulness in sustainability assurance (SA) work.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected ethnographic data over a nine-month period from two small firms offering SA services in France between 2018 and 2019.
Findings
Auditors’ experiences of meaningfulness are facilitated by shared sustainability values among colleagues, social acknowledgement of like-minded profiles and the feeling that working in a “small firm” provides a more fulfilling and committed-to-sustainability environment than conventional assurance work in large accounting firms. The search for meaningfulness collapses when auditors realize not only the limits of their agentic and transformative capacities but also their unintended complicity in certifying the reports of companies with poor sustainability performance. Because they struggle to reconcile the assessment of their professional practice with their value system, the participants are tempted to disengage from their work by giving up a sustainability career and/or by reframing SA work as an advisory rather than a control function.
Originality/value
The authors approach SA not as an organizational project of professional expansion, through which accounting firms attempt to expand their scope of practice, but as an individual and reflexive search of aligning assurance work to their value system. Auditors’ search for meaningfulness is a strong counterpoint to the financial auditing literature, which portrays auditors as professionals with a low sense of purpose at work, but also to the literature criticizing accounting firms’ discursive processes of “depoliticization” (Malsch, 2013) and “de-emotionalization” (Rodrigue et al., 2022) of socio-environmental issues.
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The pandemic has presented many new challenges tasking teachers with meeting the various social-emotional, academic and logistical needs of students in the midst of an…
Abstract
Purpose
The pandemic has presented many new challenges tasking teachers with meeting the various social-emotional, academic and logistical needs of students in the midst of an ever-changing landscape. The onset of COVID-19 has drastically impacted schools and inevitably raised questions about nearly all aspects of teaching including but not limited to: how to deliver instruction, grade students, engage students, deliver materials to students, create equitable access to curriculum and assess students' mental and social health in the context of remote, hybrid and in-person instructional models. As such, this paper examines the role that the pandemic plays in deeply complexifying the already intricate decision-making processes that teachers undergo on a daily basis.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a participant research design (Wagner, 1993) to conduct a ground-level analysis of what two high school English Language arts teachers consider as they adapt curriculum and instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Findings
This study set out to fulfill two aims: (1) to examine teacher considerations during the process of adapting curriculum and instruction and (2) to document the challenges and opportunities teachers face during this process. Findings related to the first aim revolve around teacher considerations of dilemmas such as: individual conferences vs whole class curriculum progress, depth vs breadth in relation to academic progress, social emotional concerns for student well-being vs curricular progress, creating meaningful learning activities and assessments vs COVID-19 limitations, and flexibility and accountability. In addition to navigating these dilemmas, the extreme uncertainty of the situation also prompted findings related to the second aim: opportunities to experiment with new curricular ideas and the challenge of traversing a wide range of teacher emotions.
Originality/value
This paper's qualitative research design that draws on my identities of classroom teacher and doctoral student to provide an original perspective into what teachers experienced in terms of adapting curriculum and instruction during an unprecedented time. While much research, news and media, and policy has discussed the pandemic's impact on education, there is an urgent need for more teacher voices to inform understanding of what occurs on the ground level of classrooms.
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Ola J. Lindberg, Anders D. Olofsson and Göran Fransson
The purpose of this paper is to examine Swedish upper secondary school teachers’ and students’ views and use of ICT in education.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine Swedish upper secondary school teachers’ and students’ views and use of ICT in education.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 25 individual teachers and 39 students in small focus groups were interviewed. A qualitative content analysis was performed using NVivo11. The analysis was conducted in three steps: with each individual teacher, the student groups and the cohort of teachers and students. A comparative analysis was also conducted.
Findings
The teachers’ views and use of ICT are diverse. Teachers and students identify similar challenges when using ICT in education, e.g. time and subject, the shortcomings of a school’s learning management system (LMS) and teachers’ digital competence. Students report an extensive out-of-school use of smartphones and an extensive in-school use of laptops and LMS.
Research limitations/implications
The relatively small number of teachers and students in three schools make generalisations difficult. The examination of teachers’ and students’ views and use in the same context reveals new knowledge.
Practical implications
The study may influence teachers’ use of ICT in education, based on a better understanding of students’ use.
Social implications
The study may lead to a better understanding of teachers’ and students’ different perspectives and a more enhanced and sustainable in-school use of ICT.
Originality/value
The originality is that teachers’ and students’ views and use of ICT in education are examined at the same time. The paper contributes new knowledge about how teachers and students conceptualise and use ICT in upper secondary school practices.
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This research explores the perceptions and practice of principals in schools integrating migrant and refugee children into the Israeli formal education system. The aim is to offer…
Abstract
Purpose
This research explores the perceptions and practice of principals in schools integrating migrant and refugee children into the Israeli formal education system. The aim is to offer theoretical and methodological insights to the discourse on educational leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative (phenomenological) study used semi-structured interviews to attain a deeper understanding of the experiences of school principals as culturally relevant educational leaders.
Findings
The study corroborates previous findings regarding: the need for a holistic multidimensional approach; the focus on language and communication; and the complexities and dilemmas involved in the practice of educational leadership. The study analysis revealed three central dilemmas: applying equal-opportunity and cultural diversity policies; schools as protected spaces and serving the social reality beyond the school; and full assimilation and recognition of specific cultural identity.
Research limitations/implications
The research was conducted in a small number of schools and only with principals. A follow-up study could also include teachers, officials and representatives of the various organizations working with the migrants and refugees.
Practical implications
Beyond financial resources, school leaders need professional (culturally responsive) guidance to support the multifaceted and complex needs of students, in part by being adaptable and flexible, and aware of the aims and practice of education for an unknown future.
Originality/value
The originality-value of the present study is threefold: it explores school principals in a relatively unexplored context (the Israeli formal education system); it applies two models for organizing and analyzing research findings; and it contributes new insights on the dilemmatic nature of educational leadership.
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Yevgen Bogodistov, Jürgen Moormann, Rainer Sibbel, Oleksandr P. Krupskyi and Olena Hromtseva
This study investigates the impact of the degree of process maturity on the degree of patient orientation in the context of radical process changes. The study is based on a sample…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the impact of the degree of process maturity on the degree of patient orientation in the context of radical process changes. The study is based on a sample of healthcare providers in Ukraine which experiences a fundamental transformation of its healthcare system.
Design/methodology/approach
The investigation was conducted among the full population of the chief physicians from 53 medical institutions (hospitals, general practitioners centers, dental clinics, and maternity clinics) in one of the largest cities in Ukraine. We investigated the maturity of the process of interaction with patients as perceived by these top managers. We applied variance-based structural equation modeling (SmartPLS3).
Findings
The study shows that each stage of process maturity predetermines the following one. With regard to the impact of each stage of process maturity on patient orientation, all stages show a positive and significant relationship toward patient orientation, i.e. even the lowest stage of maturity is critical for patient orientation. A further contradictory finding to extant literature is, that based on the set of indicators, the process appears to be in different stages at the same time. This speaks against the regular sequence-based approach toward process maturity.
Originality/value
Although it has been assumed that higher degrees of process maturity are associated with higher customer (patient) orientation, this work shows that the relationship holds also for each stage of process maturity separately. This research is based on a very unique sample – the almost complete set of chief physicians and their deputies of practically all medical institutions of a large city.
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Cheng-Kui Huang, Neil Chueh-An Lee and Wen-Chi Chen
Cryptocurrency, an important application of blockchain technology, has gradually circulated, and its use has become widespread. While cryptocurrency is growing rapidly, potential…
Abstract
Purpose
Cryptocurrency, an important application of blockchain technology, has gradually circulated, and its use has become widespread. While cryptocurrency is growing rapidly, potential risks are simultaneously emerging. Users thus may abandon their usage behavior of cryptocurrency, hindering the future development of cryptocurrency. While prior studies focus more on the intention to use cryptocurrency in the pre-adoption phase, less studies pay attention to discontinuance usage intention in the post-adoption phase. To fill this knowledge gap, this stfudy aims to explore factors that cause discontinuance usage intention regarding cryptocurrency.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the net valence framework theoretically grounded on the theory of reason action, a dilemmatic dual-factor model is proposed to figure out cryptocurrency users' discontinuance usage intention from the perceived risk and perceived benefit. This study identifies four potential risks and three potential benefits that affect perceived risk and benefit. The model with nine hypotheses were developed, and research data were collected by a survey method. A total of 343 valid responses were received, and PLS-SEM with SmartPLS was utilized to test the nine hypotheses, with seven hypotheses supported empirically.
Findings
Our findings demonstrate that financial, legal and operational risks are critical to increase users' perceived risk, and perceived usefulness and seamless transactions play important roles in enhancing users' perceived benefit. Moreover, while perceived risk can increase users' discontinuance usage intention to cryptocurrency, perceived benefit can mitigate such intention.
Originality/value
This study contributes nascent knowledge to the literature by examining factors that influence discontinuous usage intention in regard to cryptocurrencies, to firms that have issued or attempted to issue cryptocurrencies and to the potential users of cryptocurrencies by adjusting the mode of operation and investment strategies and reducing user costs, achieving a win-win situation for firms and users.
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The aim of this article is to examine the topic of mothers' consumption, particularly how mothers of young children as primary caregivers are involved in contemporary consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this article is to examine the topic of mothers' consumption, particularly how mothers of young children as primary caregivers are involved in contemporary consumer culture in Japan, by using the concepts of “caring consumption” and “ideological dilemmas”.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 mothers of young children aged between 1 and 5. Interviews were conducted either at their home or public facilities. The theoretical framework highlights a variability existing within ideology which creates a cultural space for mothering.
Findings
Mothers' caring consumption is a key means through which motherhood is constituted and how ideologies surrounding mothering are enforced and enacted. They negotiate for certain products and services on behalf of their children, in the name of love, care and devotion, and in consideration of wider social networks. Consumption is part of maternal responsibility and task where a mother not only provides material and emotional support for her child but also becomes a facilitator to connect him/her to a wider social network through her consumption practices.
Originality/value
This study contributes insight into how mothers of young children in Japan experience consumer culture in a specific sociocultural environment and how they construct cultural meanings of motherhood in interaction with surrounding people and a wider consumption-oriented world.
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