Search results
1 – 10 of 522An increasingly sophisticated body of theory and practice has emerged over the past 20 years about the impact that strategy plays in driving corporate business success, as well as…
Abstract
An increasingly sophisticated body of theory and practice has emerged over the past 20 years about the impact that strategy plays in driving corporate business success, as well as the role that real estate plays in that strategy. In the context of three case studies, this paper will discuss the theory and application of the Strategy Alignment Model, which is a framework for directly linking real estate initiatives with core business strategy and for measuring results as organisational outcomes. Among a number of topics will be discussed the theoretical underpinnings of the model, as well as its application to such diverse yet interrelated issues as placing companies in locations that enhance recruitment and retention of the best people; building layouts that promote communication; communication; and workplace concepts, on and off site, that support new ways of working
Details
Keywords
This essay uses the author’s experience with teacher evaluation as a point of departure to consider how narrative methods might be used to complicate contemporary trends in…
Abstract
Purpose
This essay uses the author’s experience with teacher evaluation as a point of departure to consider how narrative methods might be used to complicate contemporary trends in teacher evaluation. Ultimately, this piece hopes to contribute to a discussion about how storytelling might be implemented as a model of teacher evaluation that could speak back to instrumentalist or technical practices in schools that undermine the complexity of the teaching profession.
Design/methodology/approach
This piece uses narrative inquiry to consider teacher evaluation.
Findings
This piece uses narrative inquiry to consider more complex implementations of teacher evaluation.
Originality/value
This piece is an original consideration of the potential forms of teacher evaluation.
Details
Keywords
Ying Ma and Ewan Wright
This study aims to interrogate and expand on the flexible citizenship framework by illuminating students' emergent identities and imagined future mobilities in China's expanding…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to interrogate and expand on the flexible citizenship framework by illuminating students' emergent identities and imagined future mobilities in China's expanding international school sector.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with international school students and their parents in Shenzhen, covering their motivations for overseas higher education, experience with international schooling, self-perceived identities and imagined futures.
Findings
The participants aspired to overseas higher education for both symbolic capital attainment and embodied cultural cultivation to thrive in a globalised world. They expressed confidence that international schooling experiences prepared students for mobility to Western higher education and cultivated globally-oriented identities while not undermining their Chinese roots. They imagined their futures in terms of considerable flexibility, with a rising China viewed as an attractive and feasible option for career development.
Research limitations/implications
This research provides an enriched understanding of a new generation of globally mobile Chinese students. The participants held distinctively different outlooks, aspirations and attitudes than depicted in the flexible citizenship framework, which emphasised a one-dimensional and instrumentalist portrayal of Chinese international students. This study discusses cross-generational changes in the desire for overseas education and a global-national outlook among young people in the context of significant social transformations in urban China.
Originality/value
The originality of this study is in expanding the flexible citizenship framework with reference to the emergent identities and pathways of students in the international schooling sector in China.
Details
Keywords
Justice has, of late, re‐emerged as an important area of professional concern for all economists. However, in that justice is a fundamentally normative, value‐laden concept it…
Abstract
Justice has, of late, re‐emerged as an important area of professional concern for all economists. However, in that justice is a fundamentally normative, value‐laden concept it proves troublesome to those who aspire to the strictures of “positive science”. This puts social economists in a position of distinct advantage in the consideration of justice issues for they are avowedly normative in their approach. The intention in this essay, implicit in the title, is to make some contribution to the explicit articulation of the justice criteria ensconced in the instrumentalist theory of value, and to suggest the affinity of this view with social economics.
Simon Collin and Périne Brotcorne
The purpose of this paper is to present a sociocritical approach and describe how it is relevant to the study of digital equity in education.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a sociocritical approach and describe how it is relevant to the study of digital equity in education.
Design/methodology/approach
The method is based on a synthesis of the literature regarding critical approaches to digital technology in education.
Findings
A sociocritical approach is an attempt to formulate a sociological perspective combined with a critical dimension. It provides a relevant theoretical basis for addressing digital (in)equity issues.
Originality/value
Little use has been made of critical theories in the study of digital technology in education. That may seem surprising insofar as the study of digital technology in education is related to other fields having a well-established critical tradition. The authors build on their work and tailor it to the case of digital technology in education.
Details
Keywords
In this chapter, I reflect on the past, present, and future of gender and education research, policy, and practice in the context of the field of comparative and international…
Abstract
In this chapter, I reflect on the past, present, and future of gender and education research, policy, and practice in the context of the field of comparative and international education. Points of discussion include who comprises the gender and education professional community, common challenges, shifting development paradigms and terminology (i.e., from Women in Development to Gender and Development), the historical roots and trajectory of the field in terms of research, policy and practice, and future directions, including new topics, approaches, and methods.
Details
Keywords
Quality has always been a central concern in education. Theexistent debate of educational quality has, however, shifted. Thecurrent discourse about educational quality is replete…
Abstract
Quality has always been a central concern in education. The existent debate of educational quality has, however, shifted. The current discourse about educational quality is replete with slogans like “standards”, “quality control”, “total quality management”, “consumer rights” and “appraisal”. Furthermore, the present debate about educational quality leaves many of the assumptions that underpin the utilization of the concept, quality, unexamined. In addition, recent discussions about educational quality presume, implicitly or explicitly, certain understandings of the practice of education. More importantly, the current discourse of educational quality is largely technicist. Argues that the current debate concerning educational quality is underpinned by technicist assumptions with respect to the practice of education. Moreover, further argues that the prevalent discourse of educational quality suppresses the argument regarding educational equality.
Details
Keywords
Augusto Riveros, Carolyne Verret and Wei Wei
The guiding question of this study is: how is the Ontario Leadership Framework (OLF) translated into practices in elementary and secondary schools in the province of Ontario? The…
Abstract
Purpose
The guiding question of this study is: how is the Ontario Leadership Framework (OLF) translated into practices in elementary and secondary schools in the province of Ontario? The purpose of this paper is to provide a contextual account of the processes by which school leadership standards are incorporated into the practices of school administrators in the province of Ontario, Canada.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative exploratory case study focusses on the incorporation of the OLF into the practices of school administrators in four secondary and five elementary schools in two large school boards. The data were collected through document analysis, observations registered in a field notes journal, and semi-structured interviews with principals and vice-principals. The data were coded into analytical categories and analyzed to identify emerging themes and patterns.
Findings
The analysis identified two emerging themes that illustrated how school leaders translate leadership standards into practices: the first theme, the school leader as an emergent identity, demonstrated the intersections between standards and professional identities. The analysis showed that standards contribute to the configuration of the leader as a political actor in the school. The second theme, standards, and the configuration of leadership practices, offered insights about the intersections and disconnections between standards and leadership practices in the participant schools.
Originality/value
This study aims to inform conversations between policy makers, practitioners, and scholars about leadership standards in schools. Given the saliency of the topic, this research aims to illuminate the often-unexplored nexus, policy-leadership, as well as to expand and enrich theoretical understandings of educational leadership by recasting leadership as a policy-bounded phenomenon.
Details
Keywords
Yasmine Chahed, Robert Charnock, Sabina Du Rietz Dahlström, Niels Joseph Lennon, Tommaso Palermo, Cristiana Parisi, Dane Pflueger, Andreas Sundström, Dorothy Toh and Lichen Yu
The purpose of this essay is to explore the opportunities and challenges that early-career researchers (ECRs) face when they seek to contribute to academic knowledge production…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this essay is to explore the opportunities and challenges that early-career researchers (ECRs) face when they seek to contribute to academic knowledge production through research activities “other than” those directly focused on making progress with their own, to-be-published, research papers in a context associated with the “publish or perish” (PoP) mentality.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing broadly on the notion of technologies of humility (Jasanoff, 2003), this reflective essay develops upon the experiences of the authors in organizing and participating in a series of nine workshops undertaken between June 2013 and April 2021, as well as the arduous process of writing this paper itself. Retrospective accounts, workshop materials, email exchanges and surveys of workshop participants provide the key data sources for the analysis presented in the paper.
Findings
The paper shows how the organization of the workshops is intertwined with the building of a small community of ECRs and exploration of how to address the perceived limitations of a “gap-spotting” approach to developing research ideas and questions. The analysis foregrounds how the workshops provide a seemingly valuable research experience that is not without contradictions. Workshop participation reveals tensions between engagement in activities “other than” working on papers for publication and institutionalized pressures to produce publication outputs, between the (weak) perceived status of ECRs in the field and the aspiration to make a scholarly contribution, and between the desire to develop a personally satisfying intellectual journey and the pressure to respond to requirements that allow access to a wider community of scholars.
Originality/value
Our analysis contributes to debates about the ways in which seemingly valuable outputs are produced in academia despite a pervasive “publish or perish” mentality. The analysis also shows how reflexive writing can help to better understand the opportunities and challenges of pursuing activities that might be considered “unproductive” because they are not directly related to to-be-published papers.
Details