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Public health programs facilitate access to resources that not only provide individuals’ options but also often foreclose individual preference through prescriptive requirements. This chapter takes two disparate cases from public health – vaccines and family planning –that reveal patterns of inequality in who has access to individual choice and who requires state support to exercise choice. Looking specifically at dynamics of funding and compulsion, this chapter elucidates how reliance on the rhetoric of individual choice as an expression of freedom rewards those with the greatest access to resources and fails to make sure that all members of the community have the resources to shape their own outcomes or to make sure collective health is protected.

Using gender schema theory, this study aims to explore how children’s graphic t-shirts from clothing retailers in the USA differed on gendered themes for graphic t-shirts targeting boys or girls, in addition to differences for shirts that were higher in cost.

This content analysis of children’s t-shirts included 866 child-targeted shirts taken from the online retail portals from 11 clothing retailers in the USA. Shirts were coded for gendered themes on the front torso part of the shirt and included traditional boy themes (e.g. aggression, instrumentality) and girl themes (e.g. compassion, passivity). In addition, the retail prices for each shirt were recorded at the time of data collection.

The results demonstrated that children’s graphic t-shirts starkly differentiate between femininity and masculinity based on their target. Boys’ shirts were significantly more likely to feature active themes, whereas girls’ shirts were more likely to focus on social belonging and interpersonal connection. Boys’ shirts were also more likely to display themes linked to dominance/aggression but not compassion. Girls’ shirts were more likely to tout both shyness and attention seeking. Finally, results generally showed that higher priced t-shirts were less likely to feature gender stereotypes than lower-priced t-shirts.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first known study that has looked at the marketing of children’s clothes in retail environments with a specific focus on gender and gender stereotyping.

The purpose of this paper is to uncover what the at-home educational environments of low-income Latine adolescents looked like during the COVID-19 pandemic and how these environments influenced students’ participation in their online classes. Additionally, the findings highlight students’ perspectives on their varied engagement in virtual instruction.

Data for this study were collected via an online survey that included both open and close-ended questions. Students were able to share about their behaviors and comfort in their online classes, as well as provide photos of the areas from which they joined their online classes. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods were used.

Many students in the sample expressed discomfort with themselves and their homes being seen on camera and shared having to juggle multiple responsibilities during online classes. Photos uploaded revealed that at-home educational environments often lacked the resources afforded by in-school instruction, with students joining classes from areas that may not be conducive to learning.

Research has highlighted the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated existing issues of educational equity, but the systemic reasons for these inequities remain understudied. The results from this study highlight the ways in which disparate at-home learning environments may help to explain unequal engagement in online classes.

The purpose of this paper is to address the role of social robots in the education industry, specifically within special developmental schools, as a part of an innovation technology portfolio. It identifies critical success factors (CSFs) arising from the development, adoption and implementation of social robots to educate students with special needs and assist their teachers.

The study engaged in longitudinal research over 12 months, tracking the role of the Matilda robot in providing educational services to students with special needs.

The results propose a three-faceted framework for social robot application in special education: development, adoption and implementation.

The study has shown the willingness of students and teachers to embrace social robot technology, and the CSF that arise from this adoption. It has also found that social robots achieve the greatest success within the development, adoption and implementation framework when championed by executive management, and peer teacher support.

This paper explores the implications of using Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs as a “paradigm case” of transformational leadership by comparing the practical metadiscourse of remembrances published at the time of his passing to the theoretical metadiscourse of transformational leadership. The authors report the frequency of transformational leadership characteristics that appeared in characterizations of Jobs in the months after his passing in October 2011. Results show that people do remember Jobs as a leader, and as one who possessed three key personal characteristics of a transformational leader: creative, passionate, and visionary. People also remembered Jobs as an innovator, which is not typically associated with transformational leadership but which does reflect the discourse of the consumer electronics industries upon which he had an impact. However, the results also show that two important interpersonal characteristics of a transformational leader were absent in the remembrance discourse: empowering and interactive. The authors discuss the implications of the two missing terms for pedagogy and theorizing, including how problematizing Jobs as a paradigm case might lead to fruitful discussions about the importance of a transformational leader’s engagement with followers.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a small-scale study to explore the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Irish primary teachers’ evolving identities.

Using a narrative methodological approach, the study was underpinned by Kelchtermans’ (2009) interpretive framework. Five Irish primary teachers participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews. The teachers’ narratives focused on what it meant to “be” a teacher during the pandemic, their overall experience of teaching and learning, their motivation during (and beyond) this time, lessons learned and their future perspectives.

The paper found that teachers’ identities shifted and evolved over the course of the pandemic, as they initially struggled to make sense of the significant challenges. However, the emergent self-image, as illustrated here, is characterised by commitment, altruistic motivation and personal and professional growth. The study also demonstrated a reconstruction of teachers’ identities, in line with reconfigured relationships with parents, a renewed commitment to space and time in teaching and learning and an attendance to pupil voice.

There is little specific research on how teachers’ identities have been redefined over the course of the pandemic. This admittedly small-scale study offers insights on how teachers viewed themselves during the pandemic, what it means to be a teacher at this tumultuous time and gives voice to the hard-learned lessons they take with them into a post-Covid era.

Officially, of course, the world is now post-imperial. The Q’ing and Ottoman empires fell on the eve of World War I, and the last Leviathans of Europe's imperial past, the Austro-Hungarian and Tsarist empires, lumbered into the grave soon after. Tocsins of liberation were sounded on all sides, in the name of democracy (Wilson) and socialism (Lenin). Later attempts to remake and proclaim empires – above all, Hitler's annunciation of a “Third Reich” – now seem surreal, aberrant, and dystopian. The Soviet Union, the heir to the Tsarist empire, found it prudent to call itself a “federation of socialist republics.” Mao's China followed suit. Now, only a truly perverse, contrarian regime would fail to deploy the rhetoric of democracy.

Much research regarding social media posts and relevancy has resulted in mixed findings. Furthermore, the mediating role of relevancy has not previously been examined. This paper aims to examine the correlating relationship between types of posts made by hotels and the resulting occupancy rates. Then, the mediating role of relevancy is examined and ways that posts can increase/decrease relevancy of the post to potential hotel users.

Within the context of the hotel industry, three studies were conducted – one including hotel occupancy data from a corporate chain – to examine the impact of social media posts on relevancy and intentions to stay at the hotel. Experimental studies were conducted to explain the results of the real-world hotel data.

The findings show that relevancy is an important mediator in linking social media posts to service performance. A locally (vs nationally) themed post can decrease both the relevancy of a post and the viewer’s intentions to stay at a hotel. This relationship, however, can be weakened if a picture is included with the post, as a visual may increase self-identification with a post.

These results have important theoretical and practical implications as social media managers attempt to find the best ways to communicate to their customers and followers. Specifically, there are lower and upper limits to how many times a hotel should be posting to social media. The data also show many hotels post about local events, such as school fundraisers or a job fair, that can be harmful to stay intentions, likely due to the irrelevant nature of local posts to customers who are likely to stay in a hotel. National posts are seen as more relevant and likely to increase stay intentions, and the inclusion of a picture can help local posts seem more relevant.

This paper explores integration experiences of immigrants in the Canadian workplace from the perspective of immigrants themselves, focusing on cultural capital and cultural judgments as factors influencing workplace entry, advancement and social integration in an increasingly diverse work environment.

An interpretive approach that involved thematic analysis of in-depth interview data was employed.

The findings reveal that the official two-way multiculturalism policy of Canada is not reflected in the Canadian workplace and that structural forces of assimilation are evident. Cultural judgments and immigrants' cultural capital create barriers for integration.

While highlighting important aspects of immigrant experiences within the Canadian workplace, the study findings cannot generate a fully representative theorization of immigrant employment experiences in Canada. Further studies with diverse migrant groups in different parts of the country would shed more light on the issues faced by immigrants.

The barriers to social integration identified by this study can be largely overcome by improving intercultural skills and cultural intelligence of employers and employees through training and incorporating values of diversity and inclusion into the corporate culture.

The factors that foster and hinder workplace integration identified by this study can inform workplace integration strategies and related policies.

Much of the literature concerning immigrants' position in Canada address the economic integration and economic well-being of immigrants, focusing on quantitative, macro level analyses of earnings disparity and labor market segmentation. There is a lack of qualitative research that explores the integration process through the lens of immigrants. Informed by the theories of cultural capital, cultural judgment and integration, the study sheds light on the everyday workplace experiences of skilled migrants and perceived barriers to workplace entry, advancement and social integration.