Search results

This chapter offers an overview of Indigenous Entrepreneurship (IE) in the national Canadian context and aims to analyze how the diversity among the Aboriginal peoples of Canada in society is managed with regard to entrepreneurship.

Taking into account the scope of diversity, three major dimensions were identified for analysis – (1) the sociocultural dimension, in reference to the worldviews and values of indigenous peoples, (2) the institutional dimension, in reference to the political management of reservations and the Band Council system, and (3) the financial dimension, in reference to the financial opportunities available to indigenous entrepreneurs.

This chapter’s original contribution rests in its critical analysis of IE in Canada, taking into account the history, the process of colonization and the diversities within the diversity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceived challenges of attempting to integrate topics related to social and cultural issues into the coursework in graduate programs in Instructional Design and Technology (IDT).

An open‐ended online survey instrument was developed for this study for three reasons. First, the study aimed at investigating what is actually happening in IDT programs in terms of integration of social and cultural issues into coursework. Using an online questionnaire, data were collected from IDT instructors and instructional designers.

Findings of the study indicated that while there is a general agreement and interest in infusing content that addresses socio‐cultural perspectives challenges into courses, the challenges include the existence of a common framework for defining and prioritizing socio‐cultural issues, and difficulties in identifying the most important issues to address, and appropriate instructional approaches to address sensitive topics.

There were some limitations to this study. First, the data were collected primarily through a survey instrument as indicated above. Nonetheless, the qualitative data collected were rich and informative. Second, as noted earlier, a majority of the participants indicated they are based in the USA. Thus, study findings may be more specific to IDT programs in this context. Third, participation in the study was voluntary, hence demographics were not controlled for. However, this opened up opportunities for attaining multiple perspectives from the participants.

A recommendation that this study brings out is that while it is impossible practically to address all potential topics, a starting point may be to identify and address the most pertinent topics, such as those which may cause misunderstanding or reinforce the wrong ideas.

While instructional designers and instructors cannot be expected to be cultural experts in every single context or topic, there are certain content issues, such as authentic activities and design strategies that would warrant further attention. Of course this will vary by content and context and instructors and instructional designers should at least be prepared to recognize these unique issues.

The paper highlights some issues worth discussing: the complexity of directly incorporating socio‐cultural issues into IDT curricula; the broad elusive nature of the knowledge of socio‐cultural issues; and the difficulty in defining socio‐cultural content, including what to teach and how to teach it. These three issues address the role of coursework in professional preparation, and the structure of instructional design courses and curricula.

The purpose of this study is to examine the aspects of workplace environment and the experiences of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) employees in an Asian context; a subject that has hitherto been somewhat neglected. It responds to a call for more contextual research in the field of employment diversity in organizational management in general.

This is a mixed method study, which utilizes multiple sources of primary and secondary data and consists of in-depth personal interviews, a survey of LGBT employees, published data (including legislation and state policies), reports issued by social and media organizations, documentary evidence from Taiwanese companies and insights drawn from the existing literature.

It was found that there is an interplay between the macro, meso and micro levels in the multilevel relational framework applied to diversity of employment in Taiwan. Macrolevel factors, such as supportive legislation, mass media and social tolerance toward LGBT community positively affect mesolevel factors, such as stable and secure social networks among the LGBT community in the form of legal and social organizations (NGOs, social media, bars, restaurants, etc.) as well as many companies inclusion of sexual orientation in their definitions of diversity. However, this is opposed by macrolevel, cultural values related to family structure and intergenerational relationships that inhibit pro-active integration and equality of LGBT individuals at the meso organizational level. Companies headed by older-generation leadership can be slow to advocate, support and promote sexual-orientation diversity in their workplaces. In contrast, microlevel data shows that LGBT employees receive robust psychological support from their peer group, friends and the LGBT community, although gaining acceptance by family and coworkers remains a challenge.

Future studies need to focus on the dynamics of the meso- and microlevel factors by investigating how organizational structure, perspectives of leaders and HR managers, diversity management practices and attitudes and behaviors of LGBT employees and other coworkers affect development and integration of sexual-orientation diversity programs within organizations.

Managers, policy makers in organization as well as educators benefit from the context-sensitive findings and recommendations offered in this paper.

Understanding of LGBT individuals employment environment helps to facilitate or hinder the positive development of equal society and benefit both LGBT employees, their coworkers and managers.

Limited research exists on the LGBT employees experiences at work in Asia. This study makes unique contribution to the understanding of sexual orientation category of diversity at work in Taiwan context.

Sri Lanka’s diversity reflects its situation in the Indian Ocean and its trading potential. The existent diversity was further enhanced with the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century ad. The Portuguese were driven by the twin goals of trading and proselytising which led to territorial control and cultural flows. Historical narratives have centred around conflicts, wars, treaties, heroes, tensions and have omitted the day-to-day interactions and cultural flows. Recovering these narratives lead to creating new knowledge systems with more comprehensive pictures of the past which enable societies to understand the present better. Negative portrayals of the Portuguese have centred around the destruction to the religious philosophies in the island – Buddhism and Hinduism – and the loss of land to the Portuguese. These were further exacerbated by the ruthless and corrupt practices of colonisation. Documented historical narratives ignored the porosity and human interactions between the coloniser and colonised (De Silva Jayasuriya, 2008a). Concurrent occurrences of the official presence have not been separated from the unofficial that remain unrecognised. Alternative narratives of culture (material culture, artistic expressions, clothes, domestic lifestyles, etc.) relay the unrecognised. This chapter highlights sociocultural connections between communities in multiethnic pluricultural Sri Lanka which evolved during the colonial era. Histories built from the bottom up and alternative narratives which include culture contact mirror colonial encounters (de Silva, 2007). The impact of the Portuguese on Sri Lankan culture, economy and lifestyle has been explored. The degree to which colonial histories have influenced and informed new ways of knowing within Sri Lankan culture is considered. Drawing on the author’s critical self-reflections and her long-term interest in researching and writing about the Portuguese encounter and spillover effects in Sri Lanka, this chapter argues that a new historiography is called for in order to appreciate and acknowledge the Portuguese legacy in Sri Lanka and its contemporary relevance.

The digital direct-to-consumer (D2C) approach has seen widespread adoption across many industries, but its application to regional food products has been slower. This study aims to identify and rank the most significant challenges to the widespread use of digital D2C for regional food products.

A multi-criteria decision-making method called a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) was used to determine the order in which these obstacles were evaluated. Thirty-five barriers were identified and categorized into six categories named technological, operational, sociocultural, financial, market and institutional and regulatory barriers.

Market barriers ranked as the top barrier, and the technological barrier ranked the least significant amongst the main barrier categories for the adoption of digital D2C model for the regional food products. Lack of consumer awareness ranked number one globally, and lack of government subsidies ranked the least amongst the thirty-five identified barriers. Operational barriers came out to be second most significant barrier followed by institutional and regulatory barrier, sociocultural barrier, financial barrier and technological barrier.

The findings of this research were derived through a numerical examination of data gathered from the Indian setting. It follows that the technological, sociocultural, financial, market, operational and institutional constraints, among others, outlined here are all unique to India. Because of the unique nature of the Indian setting, the results of this study can only be used there and not elsewhere. It is possible that future research will broaden the aims of this one and refine its methodology. Digital D2C adoption for regional food products may be prioritized and ranked using quantitative and qualitative data sources like ANP and TOPSIS. It is possible that similar studies may be conducted in nations which have a different set of operational, technological, sociocultural market and financial and regulatory barriers. Conceptual framework can be formed by integrating TAM and TPB to understand the buying behavior of regional food products via digital D2C.

This research is the first to identify challenges to the widespread use of the digital D2C model for regional food products. Policymakers and other interested parties can use this information to better understand the difficulties of expanding the distribution of regional food products beyond their immediate regions.

The purpose of this article is to assess the state of affairs of intercultural bilingual education (IBE) policies in Argentina. IBE encompasses educational proposals designed to address the specific needs of ethnolinguistic minorities.

The article is divided into three parts and methodologically analyzes different types of materials (national legislation, bibliography and personal research experiences).

In the first section, the educational policies on cultural and linguistic diversity are contextualized historically. Later, IBE is defined considering five main characteristics (the neoliberal compensatory education policy, educational decentralization/regionalization, the educational category of the system, linguistic goals and teacher profiles). Finally, the conclusions list the challenges, goals that have yet to be achieved and the future perspectives of this educational policy.

This article contributes to the field of studies on diversity in the schooling of ethnically different groups.

The paper aims to investigate the effect of multicultural knowledgebase on attitudes and feelings of preparedness to teach children from diverse backgrounds among pre‐service teachers. Currently issues of multicultural education have been heightened by the academic achievement gap and emphasis on standardized test‐scores as the indicator of learning.

This descriptive study was conducted using surveys. A variety of data were collected through pre‐ and post‐tests. Questionnaires included Multicultural Content Test‐Educational (MCCT‐E), Multicultural Questionnaire (MC), and Preparedness Survey (PS). Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis.

Results indicated that a class in multicultural education significantly increased knowledge about diversity, attitudes towards multiculturalism, and levels of preparedness to teach children from diverse backgrounds. There was no correlation between multicultural knowledge and attitudes and between attitudes and preparedness to teach children from diverse backgrounds.

As teacher education evolves, there is need to rethink opportunities to learn how to teach children from diverse backgrounds beyond multicultural knowledgebase. More extensive and well integrated methods (direct experiences, mentorship, observing and working in authentic settings) are recommended. These methods enhance internalization of concepts, and ability to confront fears, misconceptions and misinformation during teacher preparation. This study suggested that teacher education programs should provide more sustained interaction with diversity issues and/or children of diverse backgrounds in order to transform the gain in multicultural attitudes into practice.

The study challenges the assumption in teacher preparation programs that knowledge transforms pre‐service teachers’ attitudes and preparedness to teach children from diverse backgrounds.

Igbo communities in diaspora are arguably some of the most innovative communities, in terms of business start-ups and engagements in entrepreneurial activities. Despite the lack of material resources, individuals within these communities have often started and engaged in new businesses, in environments considered extremely difficult. This chapter interrogates the sociocultural conditions behind such Igbo entrepreneurial incubation. Drawing largely on the experiences of selected Igbo individuals in a diasporan community (South Africa), it investigates how such Igbo business individuals’ start-up their businesses. A qualitative research method which allowed in-depth semi-structured interviews to collect data from the respondents was adopted. A simple thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The result showed pressure to succeed and pre-existing repertoire of business knowledge and skill-set as some of the conditions that stimulate entrepreneurial activities of the Igbo business individuals in diaspora. It also showed other conditions such as the untapped business-friendly South African market and the association with the Igbo business networks as important conditions responsible for creating the opportunities upon which such business start-ups and entrepreneurial activities thrive. Based on these findings, the study encourages economic policy makers in South Africa and other African countries to develop similar national business models, that draws from the indigenous practices within the ITBS model.