Search results

Higher education is uncertain which sustainability-related education targets should be sought and monitored. Accepting that something needs to be measurable to be systematically improved, the authors explored how measures relate to potential targets. This paper aims to focus on dispositions to think critically (active open-minded thinking and fair-minded thinking in appraising reasoning) as measures and explored how they related to sustainability concern as an indicative educational target.

This research included the development and testing of research instruments (scales) that explored dispositions to critical thinking and sustainability concern. Authors researched these instruments within their own correspondence groups and tested them with university students and staff in Pakistan, the USA, Austria, India and New Zealand. The authors also asked a range of contextualising questions.

Respondents’ disposition to aspects of active, open-minded thinking and fair-minded thinking do predict their concern about facets of sustainability but their strength of religious belief was an important factor in these relationships and in their measurement.

This research demonstrates the complexity of monitoring dispositions to think critically and sustainability concern in educational systems, particularly in circumstances where the roles of religious beliefs are of interest; and suggests ways to address this complexity.

This research integrates and expands discourses on ESD and on critical thinking in diverse disciplines and cultures. It investigates measurement approaches and targets that could help higher education institutions to educate for sustainable development and to monitor their progress, in ways that are compatible with their culture and values.

The purpose of this cross-cultural study was to investigate whether the embraced national culture was a distinguishing factor of preferred downward influence tactics and targeted goals by principals of different countries. The participants of the study were the public school principals in Turkey and the United States, two culturally distinct countries. The conceptual framework for the study incorporated the Cultural Dimensions (CDs) of Hofstede and the Profiles of Organizational Influence Strategies (POIS) of Kipnis and Schmidt; two pioneers in their respective fields. The findings of the study supported Hofstede's framework for three of the four dimensions for both countries. By employing a pseudoetic cross-cultural research methodology and a relational causal-comparative research design, the study first tested the reliability and construct validity of POIS (Form S) influence tactics scale, both in the Turkish context and in the public education contexts of the two countries. The findings partially supported the applicability of POIS in both countries by yielding a three-factor model for the Turkish context and a four-factor model for the public education context. The multivariate analyses strongly supported literature in regards to the culture-specific nature of leadership influence practices, and it identified national culture as a significantly distinguishing factor of both Turkish and American principals in their preferred influence tactics. Similarly, national culture was also a significantly distinguishing factor of groups in principals' targeted educational goals.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how a corporation with sustainability as its mission implements sustainability strategy and programmes to promote social responsible management. Special attention is paid to how internal and external value systems interact and influence the conception and implementation of sustainability.

As an educational charity and social enterprise, the Eden Project is examined, using a qualitative case study approach. Extant literature complements the discussion of how internal and external driving forces interact and influence sustainable management and practice. Method triangulation is adopted to increase the internal validity, comprising in‐depth interviews with key management informants, one major supplier, representatives of the staff, observation on site and a member check for the correctness of descriptions and the systematisation of the data.

The sustainability strategy of the Eden Project is divided in three interconnected strategies; operational practice, educational programmes and outreach initiatives that target young people, disengaged and unemployed people, and deprived communities around the world. The study points to possible interrelationships between different internal and external value systems, and how internal and external driving forces may influence the way corporations conceive and implement sustainability.

The business sustainability model at the Eden Project provides opportunities for the development of sustainability management, and suggestions for future research are presented.

The study illustrates how the carbon footprint on Earth can be reduced, and how social responsibility can be advanced.

This study is the first to examine a corporation that deploys resources to increase financial performance in order to support the main objectives concerning promoting sustainability management. Thus, the examination may provide new ideas to practitioners and researchers related to the advancement of social responsibility.

This study aims to systematize and critically analyse existing indices and frameworks on digital capabilities with the focus on consumers’ digital capabilities, identify opportunities for their further development and suggest agenda for future research.

A sample of 18 frameworks and indices of consumers’ digital capabilities were compared based on their purposes, stakeholders, scope and application areas.

The study concludes with propositions that generalise current views on conceptualisation, measurement and management of consumers’ digital capabilities. Each proposition is further investigated in terms of possible implications for research and practice.

The study indicates opportunities for businesses not only to consider consumers as recipients and adopters of digital technologies but also to aim to understand how to proactively involve consumers in value co-creation, help them be better educated and have a comprehensive understanding of potential outcomes of their participation in the digital economy.

Highlighting individual consumer perspective in existing indices and frameworks will help consider the interests of society and provide win-win opportunities for everyone involved in the digital marketplace through bottom-up engagement in addition to top-down regulation and monitoring.

This study contributes to the extant literature threefold: firstly, existing digital capability frameworks and indices are systematized and critically investigated using criteria of stakeholders, purpose and aims; secondly, consumers are identified as principal stakeholder group whose interests are insufficiently presented in existing indices; thirdly, an integrative approach is suggested for a crucial comparison of existing indices, frameworks and their methodology with the focus on consumers’ interests.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on parents of children with hearing disabilities from Romania and has three objectives. First, it assesses their characteristics regarding use of communication technology. Second, it investigates their opinions regarding the importance of school-based education for healthy lifestyle promotion among their children. Third, it evaluates the availability for their involvement in educational activities using face-to-face approach and communication technology dedicated to helping parents to promote healthy lifestyle among their children, as well as factors which influence this availability.

The study was performed in October–November 2015 in two schools deserving children with hearing disabilities from North-West part of Romania. Anonymous questionnaire were filled in by 182 parents.

The majority of parents recognize the importance of school-based health education and more than 77 per cent totally agree that it should include issues regarding healthy nutrition, promotion of physical activity and smoking prevention. In total, 80.2 per cent of the parents declared that they are interested to participate in educational activities organized periodically at school and 66.5 per cent declared their interest in educational activities developed through communication technology in order to help them to stimulate the adoption of healthy lifestyle among their children. The availability was influenced by residence, educational level, understanding the importance of parents’ involvement, characteristics regarding the use of communication technology.

This represents the first study from Romania investigating the opinions and availability for their involvement with regard to school health education among parents of children with hearing deficiencies. The results have several implications for health education among children with hearing deficiencies and their parents.

In this chapter the author outlines the educational situation for Roma in Norway, where there are two main groups of Romani-speaking people, referred to as Roma and Romani people, who have lived in Norway for centuries. Both have a status of national minorities. After describing the social situation of the Norwegian Roma minority, the author shows their culture and language. Then the author outlines the characteristics of the Norwegian education system and the educational attainment of Roma. After presenting the most important policies and support programmes for Roma Education, the author presents findings from her project ‘Educational Situation for Roma Pupils in Norway: Silenced Narratives on Schooling and Future’.

The migration of thousands of people who, every year escape conflict, repression and poor economic stability in their home country, attempt the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe. While some do make it, questions are being posed on the effectivity of the European Union to deal with migration and explore ways of integrating migrants into society, in particular through education. The need to address the educational development of migrant learners’ calls for contextualized school leadership processes aimed at spurring teachers to hone the cultural capital brought by migrant learners in their classrooms. The authors argue in favour of culturally responsive leadership processes which (1) endorse schools as influential on society and community development, (2) detach from a ‘one-size-fits-all philosophy’ of leadership, (3) believe in the cultural capital of migrant students, (4) embrace changes in leadership styles brought about by different cultural philosophies, (5) successfully transmit to teachers that learning cannot be placed in a monocultural context and (6) advocate towards the employment of teachers whose culture reflects the cultural composition of students in their school. This chapter aims to explore what Malta, a small island state, is doing to address this mammoth task in a context fraught with uncertainty and anxiety.

Marketing communication practitioners in higher education have not yet identified specific subgroups with similar characteristics within the prospective student (target) market, and do not always know which preferred sources learners consult when deciding on a tertiary institution for further or higher education. In addition, little is known about prospective students' information needs when deciding which institution to attend. As a result many tertiary institutions still use one message in one medium for all target markets. The aims of this paper are: to determine if sub‐groups exist within the student recruitment market that need tailor made persuasive messages; to determine the preferred sources of information gathering for prospective students that influences their choice of tertiary institution; and to determine the information needs of prospective students that influence their decisions to select an institution of higher education.

A stratified random sample of 19 schools was drawn, from which a total of 716 successfully completed questionnaires were used to conduct factor and cluster analyses to determine information needs and source preferences of these respondents.

Ten factors under the VARCLUS procedure with high eigen values were grouped together with the following labels: university, college, employability aspects, course content, student experience, sporting aspects, financial aspects, direct sources, media sources and social sources. Five sub‐groups clustered together with the K‐means analysis, labelled: have lots, aspiring have lots, little direction and new lifers.

A limited amount of literature is available on the current use of media and sources by the target market. Decisions on the choice of a tertiary institution for higher education are most probably influenced by socio‐economic circumstances in a developing context, like South Africa.

An integrated and well co‐ordinated media and message strategy for each of the various sub‐groups should be specified for an IMC plan to be successful.

This is one of the few research articles on media and source preferences of potential students in the Cape Metropolitan. The cluster analysis revealed five clusters of sub‐groups that have specific media and source needs to make the decision on furthering studies at tertiary level.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework of reflection that opens the way to a fuller understanding of what is meant by learning to be enterprising in schools, particularly during the basic schooling of students (at both the primary and secondary levels). Working from Dewey's philosophy of experience, the paper advances a new definition, in processual terms, of being enterprising and a related model of learning to be enterprising.

The backdrop of this theoretical article is enterprise education, currently associated with a broader view of entrepreneurship. The text begins with a critique of existing definitions of being enterprising, showing their limitations from an educational point of view. It then proposes an exploration of Dewey's philosophy of experience and its educational corollaries, all with a view to sketching out a model of learning to be enterprising.

John Dewey's philosophy of experience provides a basis for characterizing the notion of being enterprising in relation to two distinct phases – namely, charting a guiding direction for the action to be undertaken and putting the plan of action to the test in experience. Dewey also highlights the importance of reflexivity throughout this entire process. The coherent structuring of these elements lays the groundwork for a model of learning to be enterprising that simultaneously takes into account action and reflection in the classroom entrepreneurial experience.

Being enterprising is closely bound up with action, thus prompting many authors to set out a parallel between enterprise education and experiential learning, with most working from the model proposed by Kolb. The paper returns to the philosophical bases elaborated by Dewey and his vision of experiential learning, associated with his oft‐quoted maxim of “learning by doing.” The value of this conceptual effort consists in acquiring a more operational representation of learning to be enterprising in schools.