Search results

This chapter is focused on what we can learn from oppressive governance, in this case specifically relating to university governance in terms of vice chancellors and presidents, to the deputy vice chancellor and deputy president and down the ever-growing university hierarchy to deans and heads of schools and their deputies, from a Freirean perspective. Freire wrote at length about how leaders ‘controlled’ education and why they did so, but he also wrote at length about how governments control populations – himself being both a political prisoner and a person in exile to escape persecution. This chapter subsequently examines Freire's ideas around what techniques people employ to control populations and applies them to a higher education setting because the similarities are numerous and the tactics familiar.

Following the introduction of user fee for interpreting in Danish health care, a considerable decrease in interpreter services has been shown. This study aims to explore the experiences of language minority patients with health-care encounters when an interpreter was needed but not present.

Semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 13 language minority patients with limited Danish proficiency. All interviews were conducted with interpreters in the participants’ native language. Data were analyzed using an inductive thematic approach.

Most participants experienced communication difficulties and difficulties participating actively in their own health care. The experience of unresolved language barriers led to a high degree of uncertainty and left the participants with unanswered health concerns. Participants expressed a reluctance to seek health care, which consequently limited the utilization of health care services.

Although the findings only represent a small sample of patients, the results still reveal major challenges that minority-language patients encounter when seeking health care. Future studies should explore, if the intention of the law is met through the user fees.

Despite having the same entitlements as native Danish-speaking patients, minority-language patients experienced difficulties accessing and using health care services due to the user fee and unresolved language barriers. The study elucidates patient perspectives and points to important ways of improving the quality of health care.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no investigation into the communicative consequences of the introduction of the user fee for interpreting services exists. Thus, this study seeks to address that gap.

The previous coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has forced pre-service English teachers to conduct their teaching simulation virtually. In the context of online teaching, social presence is vital for effective learning. This skill is perceived as a way to humanize the online learning process. This article explores how social presence is represented in the pre-service teacher's synchronous online classroom and how the development of social presence enables the pre-service teachers to develop their students' well-being and thus humanize online classrooms.

The current study draws upon case study research. The data were collected from (1) synchronous online teaching simulation recordings of pre-service English teachers from the Language Classroom Management course and (2) interview transcripts from three participants. Both data sources were transcribed, coded and analyzed. A two-step coding scheme for pre-service English teachers' social presence was adapted from the Community of Inquiry (CoI) coding template.

This study reports that all the three social presence categories (i.e. cohesive, affective and interactive) emerged from their online teaching simulation. In addition, the development of social presence to humanize online classrooms from the pre-service teachers was found in these stages: (1) having a role model for teaching, (2) showing respect and being friendly and (3) adjusting the language of instructions to the students' level.

This study has been limited to the pre-service teachers in one university only. Therefore, this needs to be tested in wider settings and contexts.

Theoretically, this study has added students' well-being as the element that connects social presence to the humanizing online classroom. Meanwhile, practically, in relation to teacher education, this paper also recommends the teaching stages leading to a more humanized online learning.

Current studies tend to describe social presence in experienced teachers' asynchronous online classrooms. Rarely did the studies explore social presence as practiced by pre-service teachers in the context of synchronous videoconferencing class. Furthermore, there has also been limited research connecting social presence with humanized classrooms.

This study aimed to explore the underlying reasons for student silence in EMI classrooms and identify the coping strategies employed by students and teachers.

Employing qualitative case study methods, in-depth semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with both teachers and students. Thematic analysis was used for the findings.

Thematic analysis of the data revealed four primary reasons for student silence, and several effective coping strategies used by students and teachers to mitigate this challenge.

The findings provide a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of silence among Chinese undergraduate students in English as a medium of instruction classrooms and offer valuable insights to students and teachers to adapt and succeed in these challenging environments.

The originality of this study lies in the fact that this is among the few studies conducted on students from a foreign branch campus of an American university in China that explores the explores the phenomenon of silence of Chinese students in such universities.

In Australia, there are agencies funded by the government to provide support to Indigenous peoples wishing to start a business and to provide ongoing support for their businesses. In this chapter, we highlight the government-funded agencies mentioned by Indigenous small business owners and provide insights into their experiences. Informing this chapter are 36 interviews with 30 Indigenous small business owners and 6 Indigenous business stakeholders from urban, rural, and remote areas of Australia. We explore the practice of support from an axio-onto-epistemological perspective. We use the theory of practice architectures lens to analyse the data, identifying how the practice of support is enabling and constraining Indigenous small business owners. Next, we share how these government-funded agencies are understood to be used according to Indigenous stakeholders. Last, we recommend improvements that may further support and sustain Indigenous small businesses.

In this paper, I explore what shapes the identities of digital nomads (DNs), a class of remote workers who travel and work concurrently. Through extensive fieldwork and interviews with 50 digital nomads conducted in seven coworking hostels in Mexico in 2022, I construct a theory of DN identity. I base this upon the frequent transformations they undergo in their Circumstances, which regularly change their worker identity.

DNs relinquish traditional social determinants of identity, such as nationality and religion. They define their personal identities by their passions and interests, which are influenced by the people they meet. DNs exist in inherently transitive social spaces and, without rigid social roles to fulfil, they represent themselves authentically. They form close relationships with other long-term travellers to combat loneliness and homesickness. Digital nomads define their worker identities around their location independence. This study shows that DNs value their nomadic lifestyle above promotions and financial gain. They define themselves by productivity and professionalism to ensure the sustainability of their lifestyle. Furthermore, digital nomad coworking hubs serve focused, individual work, leaving workplace politics and strict ‘office image’ norms behind. Without fixed social and professional roles to play, digital nomads define themselves personally according to their ever-evolving passions and the sustainability of their nomadic life. Based on these findings, I present a cyclical framework for DN identity evolution which demonstrates how relational, logistical, and socio-personal flux evolves DN’s worker identities.

Customer service conversations are becoming increasingly digital and automated, leaving service encounters impersonal. The purpose of this paper is to identify how customer service agents and conversational artificial intelligence (AI) applications can provide a personal touch and improve the customer experience in customer service. The authors offer a conceptual framework delineating how text-based customer service communication should be designed to increase relational personalization.

This paper presents a systematic literature review on conversation styles of conversational AI and integrates the extant research to inform the development of the proposed conceptual framework. Using social information processing theory as a theoretical lens, the authors extend the concept of relational personalization for text-based customer service communication.

The conceptual framework identifies conversation styles, whose degree of expression needs to be personalized to provide a personal touch and improve the customer experience in service. The personalization of these conversation styles depends on available psychological and individual customer knowledge, contextual factors such as the interaction and service type, as well as the freedom of communication the conversational AI or customer service agent has.

The article is the first to conduct a systematic literature review on conversation styles of conversational AI in customer service and to conceptualize critical elements of text-based customer service communication required to provide a personal touch with conversational AI. Furthermore, the authors provide managerial implications to advance customer service conversations with three types of conversational AI applications used in collaboration with customer service agents, namely conversational analytics, conversational coaching and chatbots.

The interview traces the early discussions in the context of disasters as developmental failures.

The transcript and video was developed in the context of a United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) project on the history of DRR.

The interview traces the development of disaster risk reduction discussions in different contexts such as “LA RED” network in Latin America.

The interview clearly highlights the need to not forget the early thoughts on vulnerability and disaster risk.

The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of how the “seven steps of selling” are used within the modern international business environment and the degree to which international sales executives are able to identify and adapt to differences in global markets.

A phenomenological type of approach was used. In-depth interviews were conducted with international sales executives (based either in the USA or UK) that operated across multiple different regions of the world.

This study provides a holistic assessment of the international business-to-business sales process. This study outlines four key aspects of the sales process that differ from traditional domestic industrial selling. Then, the study suggests examining the international sales process as a stage-based approach, versus exclusively focusing on the sales process as a seven-step process. Third, the study focuses on differences between regions of the world.

From an academic standpoint, this study highlights a number of avenues to pursue. In addition, this study underscores the limited volume of research focused on international sales force management, especially the differences within the sales process. Limitations focus on issues pertaining to the sales executives examined within the study.

Firms looking to enter or expand their international market presence will be able to use the results of this study focusing on the international sales process. Firms can apply the results of this study to build both initial and continuous training programs.

This study identifies aspects that occur during each stage of the international sales process to provide a detailed account of the activities that international salespeople are engaged in. Further, this study suggests that the stages of the sales process differ between transactional exchanges and strategic relationships. However, this study offers more insight on the development of strategic long-term relationships, as the majority of the sales executives focused on the strategic relationship development during the interviews. As a last step within this study, seven country-specific issues are described.