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The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of culture on the sense of self-efficacy in teaching English as a Foreign Language of a group of university teachers in Vietnam. Research exploring the relationship between culture and self-efficacy is extremely rare despite the acknowledged importance of culture in the formation of self-efficacy beliefs.

This study took the form of qualitative research with diverse, data collection instruments: individual interviews, focus group discussions, observations and journaling.

Findings indicate that certain features of the Vietnamese cultural context impacted on the way the study teachers constructed their sense of self-efficacy. Specifically, under the influence of a Vietnamese sense of belonging, the study teachers tended to rely more on efficacy-building information from other people rather than from themselves. The perception of inequality in power may have heightened negative emotional arousal, thus contributing to a negative sense of self-efficacy among the teachers. The Vietnamese concept of face and the high status of teachers in the social hierarchy in part mediated teachers’ sense of self-efficacy.

The perceived burden of performing both parenting and teaching roles and responsibilities may have diminished the self-efficacy in teaching of female teachers.

The contribution and implications of the study are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to combine conceptual and documentary research.

Drawing on a range of New Zealand curriculum documents and on the history of English subject in the New Zealand context, it maps aspects of the contestation that has accompanied the development of various versions of the subject over time. It also explores ways in which the subject has always drawn on a range of primary disciplinary discourses through a process of recontextualization (Bernstein, 2000).

Based on this analysis, it problematizes the conventional location of literary study within the English curriculum, arguing that this arrangement disadvantages English as an additional language (EAL) students with an interest in literature. As another plank in the argument, it argues that literary study is itself currently disadvantaged by being linked to narrowly conceived notions of textual practice and the pervasive power of high-stake assessment technologies in constructing content and pedagogy.

A solution to both problems is offered, arguing a case for relocating literary study in an expanded Arts curriculum. The paper then goes on to draw on the concept of disciplinary literacy, to argue a case for the “reinvention” of the English teacher as a cross-disciplinary resource teaching a re-framed subject renamed “Disciplinary Rhetorics”. It concludes by discussing the implications of these two re-envisionments for English teacher identities and the construction of their professional content and pedagogical knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a personalised overview of the content of English Teaching: Practice and Critique for the years it was hosted at the Wilf Malcolm Institute for Educational Research (WMIER) at the University of Waikato (2002-2014).

It notes trends in relationship to the context of origin of 335 articles published in this period (excluding editorials), including significant increases in articles originating in the USA and Pacific Rim Asian nations, particularly South Korea and Taiwan. It comments on articles that relate to the original vision of the editors’ founders, especially their emphasis on practice, criticality and social justice.

Prevailing themes across 13 years are mapped and in some cases discussed.

A number of reflections are shared in relation to the future of the journal and some challenges currently facing subject English.

A hobby is any purposeful use of leisure time. Due in part to an increase in the amount of leisure time available to most Americans, the hobby and recreation industries have grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years. There are countless publications on hobbies ranging from genealogy to doll collecting, from painting to needlepoint. Obviously, a compilation such as this cannot include publications on every imaginable hobby, so rather than appear biased, this author has attempted to include primarily publications that discuss many different hobbies, or deal with one major group of hobbies.

The purpose of this paper is to determine which constructs (factors) will significantly predict and influence the intention to complete a health risk assessment (HRA) in a hospital employee population.

The authors used a cross-sectional design using the theory of planned behavior to design a questionnaire to determine the variables associated with intention to complete an HRA. From a sample of those who completed (n=17) and those who did not complete (n=16) the HRA, the authors used elicitation inquiry to determine the leading factors associated with the intention to complete an HRA. The authors used the responses from this inquiry to develop a questionnaire for a hospital population (n=1,550). A total of 503 hospital employees completed and returned this questionnaire. Using the returned questionnaire data, the authors used logistic regression analysis to determine the best fit model for predicting intention to complete an HRA.

The predictive model was statistically significant at the p < 0.001 level. Discriminant analysis correctly verified the predictive model classified intenders and non-intenders the majority (84 percent) of the time. These study results indicated that perceived behavioral control factors such as having time to complete the HRA, confidence in completing the HRA and trust that the information divulged in the HRA would be kept confidential had the strongest influence (OR=5.39) in predicting participation in taking an HRA.

Potential limitations of this study include; response and selection bias, homogeneity for age and sex and generalizability. These results help to identify key behavioral-related factors predicting hospital employee participation to complete an HRA.

Administrators of worksite health promotion programs can systematically explore means of addressing identified participation barriers for the purpose of increasing overall HRA participation success beyond financial incentives.

The HRA has become a widely accepted assessment tool used to help mitigate the rise in chronic disease. However, HRA completion rates are reported to be low to moderate with very limited research focussed on factors predicting HRA participation.

In order to appreciate recent practical and theoretical changes in the field of public administration, this article contrasts the ancient to the modern view of “politics”. These contrasting views of politics are used to explain and evaluate the ongoing debate in public administration scholarship between what the authors call the contemporary “communitarian” school and the new public management school. By placing these competing schools of thought in public administration in the larger context of the history of political thought, the authors reveal some of the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. They argue that in fact these two competing schools of thought capture the tension between the ancient and the modern views as they have developed in the history of Western political thought.

A distinction must be drawn between a dismissal on the one hand, and on the other a repudiation of a contract of employment as a result of a breach of a fundamental term of that contract. When such a repudiation has been accepted by the innocent party then a termination of employment takes place. Such termination does not constitute dismissal (see London v. James Laidlaw & Sons Ltd (1974) IRLR 136 and Gannon v. J. C. Firth (1976) IRLR 415 EAT).