Search results

Using social dominance theory as a conceptual lens, this study explores how female managers and professionals strive to defy the perceived career stereotypes in traditionally male-dominated occupations.

The dataset comprises 30 interviews with female bank managers and senior engineers in Nigeria – a non-Western location and work group – a sample that is considered under-researched.

The qualitative analysis identifies how the interviewed women adopted three strategies in managing gender and career stereotypes, with some expressing concerns of experiencing emotional dissonance as they contend with occupational segregation based on gender.

The extent to which the findings can be generalised may be constrained by the study’s limited sample size. Nevertheless, the findings shed light on the underlying importance of disclosing how working women exert themselves in navigating the social dominance ideology in Nigeria that is notable for extreme gender role differentiation. This often results in an intensification of the efforts made by female professionals in confronting the endemic nature of male chauvinism in Nigerian organisations.

Research on gender and career constraints has, in the main, restricted our understanding of the barriers that Nigerian women face in their careers as a result of the masculine hegemony perpetuated by social dominance. The present study aims to challenge, however, proponents of social dominance by unveiling the mitigating strategies that women living in an inegalitarian society adopt to confront occupational male-group ascendency.

Within the umbrella of technology and vocational education (TVET), technology or technical education in higher institutions of learning is obligated to produce the required manpower needed in the industry. Thus, it is pertinent to explore the interaction between the industry and higher education students. Drawing on the tenets of theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study offers valuable insights into the nomological networks of work-integrated learning (WIL), perceived behavioral control (PBC), subjective norm (SBN), personal attitude (PAT) and job search intention (JSI).

The study applied a structurally hypothesized model that was drawn from the TPB to collect data for the constructs. Using a cross-sectional survey after the WIL experiences of the students, we collected data from technology education undergraduates (N = 214) in their final academic year from universities in Nigeria.

With structural equation modeling, the study found that WIL is directly associated with JSI, PBC, SBN and PAT. In line with the tenets of the TPB, simple mediation models were supported about the influence of WIL on JSI via PBC and PAT discretely but not via SBN. Further, the results support two paths of serial mediation models, indicating sequential indirect links between WIL and JSI via SBN and PBC, as well as via SBN and PAT.

Our findings have implications for higher education practitioners, industry experts and employers of labor.

Although extant literature has relatively shown that WIL impacts employability skills, this study has remarkably shown the WIL-JSI nexuses within the variables of TPB.

In the era of climate change, the need to ensure that buildings are energy efficient cannot be overemphasised. Studies have shown that building retrofitting can improve energy efficiency (EE) and sustainability. There may be hindrances to retrofitting for energy efficiency. Extant literature and policy documents on Zimbabwe suggest a better framework to help stakeholders manage their existing buildings by addressing challenges and policy inconsistencies. This study appraises and critically discusses the challenges facing retrofitting Zimbabwe’s buildings for energy efficiency.

The research adopted a quantitative research design using a questionnaire survey distributed to the respondents knowledgeable in building retrofitting and energy efficiency in Zimbabwe. The data were analysed through various statistical approaches (descriptive and inferential). The inferential tests include the Shapiro–Wilk test, Kruskal–Wallis H-test, exploratory factor analysis and heterotrait-monotrait ratio analysis to develop the structural equation model that validated the challenges for retrofitting buildings.

The results revealed the challenges of retrofitting buildings for EE in Zimbabwe, and a structural equation model was developed that clustered the key challenges into three main groups. This includes inadequate finance to invest in energy, outdated building by-laws and the unavailability of raw materials to achieve energy efficiency.

By appraising the challenges facing retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency in Zimbabwe, this study provides insights into the contextual factors that can enhance energy efficiency and sustainability in other developing countries. The study’s practical implications will positively impact the Green Building Council and other stakeholders interested in improving energy efficiency in the built environment.

Conversations around diversity, race and science fiction and fantasy films/television have sparked in response to recent casting decisions made in the upcoming live-action The Little Mermaid, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Star Wars' Obi-Wan Kenobi (Deggans, 2022; Romano, 2022). Backlash against casting of actors of Color in these genres highlights racial projects where a cultural memory of whiteness comes up against multicultural change. The authors of this paper feel that there is great potential in using current-day racial issues around fantasy films/television to explore these racial projects with students in social studies classes (Omi and Winant, 2014).

Using a qualitative textual analysis (Peräkylä, 2005), the authors examined online news media outlets addressing the casting of actors of Color in the aforementioned media pieces. After reviewing over twenty articles, the authors determined two major themes that would serve as the findings.

In this paper, themes of nostalgia for an imagined ‘way things were’ and future-based fears of how things will become emerged from the analysis, revealing a need for engaging students in the history of sci-fi and fantasy media, and the existing, diverse histories of storytelling featuring multiple races.

The authors argue that examining racial projects found in contemporary sci-fi and fantasy casting are chances for students to understand complex racial histories and how they blend into current-day cultural landscapes, and are opportunities to practice analysis of real-life racial histories and richly-imagined fantasy worlds, noticing how and why the two often collide when it comes to race.