Search results

The Concept of Disillusionment Many of us will have suffered temporary disillusionment about an aspect of our life. When in love, for example, or when supporting a particular religious or political doctrine or party, one can readily become disillusioned if the focus of one's love or support brings about unwanted outcomes instead of promised ones. In the long run, the benefits of temporary disillusionment, in the form of “lessons” to guide subsequent projects, are often felt to outweigh the costs, in the form of emotional pain, even if these costs are high owing to the energy invested in the illusion. In contrast, chronic disillusionment appears to offer no benefits, since, for the sufferer whose life space is engulfed by hopelessness, change seems impossible and learning pointless.

Disillusionment among doctors is common. It is not uncommon for even highly successful doctors to say they wish they had gone into another field or that they would not encourage their children to go into medicine. In this chapter, I explore why this might be so. For many, medicine has become just another job dominated by technical skill and technology. I suggest that educating for professionalism as the remedy for this disillusionment is almost certain to fail as the issues are as much sociological as personal and professional. Perhaps disillusionment is a clue to a much more complex reality for modern medicine.

Beliefs about teaching influence practice and can play a powerful role in the day-to-day decision-making of teachers. Pre-service teachers commonly accrue their original set of beliefs on teaching from teacher preparation programs or personal experiences, but unlike teachers with more experience, new teachers are more susceptible to changing their beliefs on teaching once they become official teachers of record. If these beliefs change in a negative way, such as by adopting a set of beliefs that views students through a deficit lens, or capable of achieving less than their privileged counterparts, then schools will continue to foster tendencies for social reproduction instead of tendencies for social justice. In urban schools, this increase in negative perceptions of students is even more common as new teachers face challenges that are less likely to occur in non-urban schools. Findings suggest that new teachers do change their beliefs during their first year, and that these beliefs often reflect the beliefs of trusted and close colleagues within their social networks. While some teachers experienced positive changes in their beliefs and teaching practices, other teachers experienced negative changes in their beliefs that unfavorably affected students. Most teachers were unaware of their belief changes, but offered explanations for how and why their beliefs could have changed without their noticing over the course of the study. Implications and possible directions for future research are discussed.

American radical economists in the 1960s perceived China under Maoism as an important experiment in creating a new society, aspects of which they hoped could serve as a model for the developing world. But the knowledge of “actually existing Maoism” was very limited due to the mutual isolation between China and the US. This chapter analyses the First Friendship Delegation of American Radical Political Economists (FFDARPE) to the People’s Republic of China in 1972, consisting mainly of Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) members, which was the first visit of a group of American economists to China since 1949. Based on interviews with trip participants as well as archival and published material, this chapter studies what we can learn about the engagement with Maoism by American radical economists from their dialogues with Chinese hosts, from their on-the-ground observations, and their reflection upon return. We show how the visitors’ own ideas conflicted and intersected with their perception of the Maoist practice on gender relations, workers’ management, and life in the communes. We also shed light on the diverging conceptions of the role for economic expertise between URPE and late Maoism. As the first in-depth study on the FFDARPE, we provide rich empirical insights into an ice-breaking event in the larger process of normalization in the Sino-US relations, which ultimately led to the disillusionment of the Left with China.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the “mash‐up” of business strategy and corporate social responsibility (CSR). In popular music, a mash‐up is a file of digitally combined musical sources. Song A is played simultaneously with Song B, and in various other combinations. There are often elements of dissonance, and even cacophony, to the form – but the sum of the parts often surpasses the originals. CSR is a management innovation like the idea of business strategy itself. Each is also a metaphor representing alternative visions and approaches to corporate value creation. Business strategists are talking, writing, and meeting about CSR, and CSR is increasingly intersecting, integrating, converging, with business strategy. The trend is described within as a “mash‐up”. But what is the significance of this trend? How serious should companies be about it? Is CSR going to become a part of standard business theory and practice? How long will it take? What should organizations do to respond and participate?

This paper examines two propositions. First, that CSR is more than a set of ideas and processes; it is a metaphor for a different approach to business. Second, CSR is a management innovation like strategic planning itself. The paper concludes that the impact the two ideas will have on each other and society is fundamentally unpredictable, but it is likely that eventually the current CSR mania will subside and disillusionment will set in.

CSR is a highly significant trend, and well‐managed companies are already taking it very seriously. CSR may become a part of standard business theory and practice, but not without evolving through adoption patterns that will necessarily involve some disillusionment. Leaders will guide their company through this period by focusing on how to make CSR “real” for their organization by embracing the business strategy/CSR mash‐up and driving growth and innovation within the new parameters.

Familiarizes business strategists with CSR and CSR practitioners with points of connection and overlap with business strategy.

A lot of literature has been generated showing the high unemployment rate in Africa and especially among the youth aged between 18 and 35 years. This glaring state of unemployment among the youth, including many educated graduates, has led them, in the course of time to despair, disillusionment, and consequent susceptibility to their involvement in anti-social behaviour including crime. For instance, the infamous radicalisation of the youth and great insecurity threats that come with this as currently being experienced in Libya, Mali, Nigeria, the Lake Chad Basin, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo as advanced by Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and affiliates are all related to unemployment challenges. Additionally, the Arab Spring in North Africa experienced in 2010, as well as the xenophobic insurgences in South Africa, South Sudan, Nigeria, and in other countries across the continent, have all been attributed to youth unemployment and disillusionment. As a way of intervention, the African Union declared a decade of youth empowerment between 2008 and 2019 which set the tempo for countries, organisations, and agencies across the continent in coming up with mitigation measures. Motivated by this spirit of assisting the youth towards a mindset change to be job and wealth creators and not job-seekers, Mount Kenya University (MKU) established the Graduate Enterprise Academy (GEA) in 2013. This chapter showcases the double-pronged approach adopted by MKU, an ISO 9001:2015 certified university in East Africa, towards promotion of entrepreneurial mindset among the youth in Africa through the GEA. More specifically, in collaboration with leading indigenous institutions and agencies in Kenya, the GEA was established in MKU in 2013 with a clear mandate of promoting youth-driven enterprises throughout the country and across the continent. More recently, since 2017, in collaboration with the Kenya National Commission for UNESCO, Leuphana University of Germany, and other stakeholders, MKU has embraced the Students Training for Entrepreneurial Promotion (STEP). STEP has thus been rolled out by MKU as a co-curriculum activity for undergraduate students as well as for training youth outside universities at various counties in Kenya. The STEP and GEA initiatives at MKU are presented in this chapter as a case study in terms of their implementation, strengths, challenges, and recommendations for possible replication and up-scaling to cover the entire continent.

Disillusionment among novice teachers often sets in upon entering the teaching profession. Unfortunately, this disillusionment often leads to novice teachers leaving the profession at high rates, with underserved schools more adversely impacted by their departure. This chapter explores the sources of burnout via the lived experiences of three novice teachers and the impact that burnout had on their intent to remain in the profession. The “reality shock” teachers experience will be exposed through teachers' personal stories while examining the sources of support and strength teachers sought from both within their learning community and beyond, and how those served as a means to survive the novice years.