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1 – 10 of 13Ivonne Lujano Vilchis, Derek Thurber and Matt Romkey
Student-led journals have a long history, yet they have received little attention in academic publishing and higher education research. This study aims to fill this gap and enrich…
Abstract
Purpose
Student-led journals have a long history, yet they have received little attention in academic publishing and higher education research. This study aims to fill this gap and enrich the analysis of student-led publications from a novel point of view: the role of journals in shaping the academic identity of graduate students through a collaborative autoethnographic study.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors explore their personal experiences as student editors of Current Issues in Education (CIE) produced at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College (MLFTC) at Arizona State University (ASU). The data were collected by first writing a personal narrative about their experiences serving on CIE’s editorial board. To support their notes, they drew from their memories and informal conversations with other student editors and reviewers, as well as advisors. They also drew upon some of CIE’s internal documents, such as editorial meeting minutes.
Findings
This study aligns with Inouye and McAlpine's (2019) systematic review of academic identity development for doctoral students, highlighting editorial work’s relevance to developing academic identity, particularly related to reflective thinking, authorial identity, confidence and learning through critique. Participating in the publication landscape through academic journals allows students to develop their authorial voice and collective identity as academics.
Research limitations/implications
It is authors’ hope that this autoethnography provides a unique perspective for doctoral programs to consider how students can shape their scholarly identity outside of formal classroom learning. More pointedly, this study could be considered a useful resource for those institutions that run student-journals or plan to do so. The authors’ experiences could inform the policies that frame the day-to-day editorial practices, such as the peer review procedures.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates how student journals, as third spaces, provide opportunities for constructive interactions that contribute to the construction of academic identity and offer a platform for student engagement in scholarly publishing processes, ultimately boosting their confidence as writers and sense of belonging to academia.
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During World War I, more than 11,000,000 children, or over half of all schoolchildren in America, joined their local Junior Red Cross and engaged in volunteer war work. What these…
Abstract
During World War I, more than 11,000,000 children, or over half of all schoolchildren in America, joined their local Junior Red Cross and engaged in volunteer war work. What these children learned in school from their work with the Junior Red Cross, as well as those who did the same work outside of the organization, was an important part of the war work underway in the nation. While they may not have been working for wages, they were still an essential part of the war work economy. Across the nation, they made thousands of quilts, not just for the soldiers in the hospitals but also for the orphans of France, Belgium, and Armenia. Their colorful and warm quilts are the perfect example of youthful resistance against the pallid and cold realities of war. By focusing more on the journalism of the day, rather than the secondary sources related to the economics of the war, this chapter strives to tell their stories and return to the children the praise and admiration they got during the war for their dedication to their country that was, unfortunately, forgotten over time. By making these quilts, the children not only showed great patriotism and interest in the war, for they were responsible for providing comfort to the casualties of war and hope for the survivors of genocide, but they also served as valuable economic sources in the war economy. And as we all know, a good citizen contributes to the economy, and good citizens deserve recognition.
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Carlee Purdum, Benika Dixon and Amite Dominick
The impact of extreme heat on prisons and carceral facilities is becoming increasingly visible, yet remains overlooked by scholars, practitioners and policymakers. Prisons are a…
Abstract
Purpose
The impact of extreme heat on prisons and carceral facilities is becoming increasingly visible, yet remains overlooked by scholars, practitioners and policymakers. Prisons are a unique type of infrastructure designed to severely limit and control the movement of hundreds and even thousands of individuals as a form of punishment. This leads to many significant challenges to mitigating the risk of heat-related illness in prisons and other carceral spaces that have remained overlooked across many disciplines including emergency management, disasters, corrections and public health.
Design/methodology/approach
For this study, we analyzed 192 surveys from incarcerated persons in state prisons throughout Texas to understand how incarceration and the punitive prison environment create challenges to managing extreme heat in prisons.
Findings
We found that characteristics of modern incarceration, including communal distribution of resources, crowded conditions and a lack of agency for incarcerated people, create barriers to accessing resources during periods of extreme heat. Furthermore, the punitive nature of the prison environment as manifested in the relationship between staff and incarcerated persons and certain prison policies also create barriers to incarcerated persons accessing resources to reduce their risk of heat-related illness and death.
Social implications
These issues are particularly relevant to the health and safety of incarcerated persons during periods of extreme temperatures but also speak broadly to the implications of incarceration, disaster risk, and the advancement of human rights for incarcerated people.
Originality/value
This article addresses a gap in the literature by including the perspectives of persons incarcerated in Texas prisons experiencing extreme heat and implicates the characteristics of incarceration and punishment in the production of disaster risk.
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Erica Gilbertson, Amy Murphy, Sonia Janis, Kathy Thompson and Michael Harris
The purpose of this action research study was to design, implement and evaluate interventions that enhanced the induction program for new teachers in a P-12 school district. At…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this action research study was to design, implement and evaluate interventions that enhanced the induction program for new teachers in a P-12 school district. At the outset, we hoped the study would provide new teacher support resulting in improved teaching practices, increased job satisfaction and/or increased teacher retention among the target population. With this in mind, our research question was: What structures and supports from a school-university partnership facilitate capacity-building among university teacher education faculty, school and district leaders, mentor teachers, and new teachers in the context of an induction program?
Design/methodology/approach
This study used an intervention-centered mode of action research methodology that aims to make systems-level change. This type of action research intends to solve real organizational problems with a focus on conducting “research in action” rather than “research about action” (Coghlan and Brannick, 2014, pp. 5–6). This approach necessitates that data collection and analysis are iterative processes, occurring throughout the research process, instead of solely at the end stages of the research process. Our action research process used Coghlan and Brannick’s (2014) action research cycle model. The cyclical four-step process includes constructing (verifying the problem in the local context), planning action, taking action and evaluating action. Facilitated by the interim director of a Professional development schools (PDS) partnership in the Southeastern United States, a team of co-researchers which included three university teacher education faculty and four school district administrators used action research methodology to create systemic change that enhanced the district’s induction program. We collected data through multiple qualitative methods, including surveys, focus groups, observations and interviews during the course of three action research cycles. These data and our theoretical framework (complex adaptive systems theory and social network theory) informed two major interventions that supported new teachers during the challenging first year of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Findings
The interventions and the research process were mutually beneficial for both institutions and contributed to professional learning and growth at the individual, group and system levels. The three major findings described include: (1) engaging in collaborative action research is mutually beneficial for both schools and universities; (2) induction programs benefit from university resources; (3) learning communities build all educators’ professional capacity.
Research limitations/implications
Our research recommendations are: (1) more research is needed on the benefits of school-university partnerships to induction programs; (2) school-university partnerships should leverage action research to improve systems; (3) within school-university partnerships, the connection between collaborative leadership and sustainability requires further research. One limitation was that this study was conducted in a single school-university partnership context involving a large public university and a mid-sized public school district that had a well-established partnership. More induction-centered research is needed in different types of school-university partnership contexts that have varying levels of longevity and partnership structures.
Practical implications
Our recommendations for practice include (1) school-university partnerships should leverage collaborative learning communities to catalyze individual, group and systems-level learning and change, and (2) school-university partnerships must prioritize induction support to strengthen the teaching profession.
Originality/value
Since Hunt’s (2014) literature review on induction support in PDS partnerships, very few empirical studies have been conducted in this research area. This study, which examined induction support in a PDS partnership over a two-year period, makes a significant contribution to the scholarly literature on induction teacher support in school-university partnership contexts. Facilitated by the interim director of a PDS partnership, a team of co-researchers, which included three university teacher education faculty and four school district administrators, used action research methodology to create systems-level supports that enhanced the district’s induction program.
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This study aims to identify the political alignment and political activity of the 11 Presidents of Britain’s most important scientific organisation, the Royal Society of London…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify the political alignment and political activity of the 11 Presidents of Britain’s most important scientific organisation, the Royal Society of London, in its early years 1662–1703, to determine whether or not the institution was politically aligned.
Design/methodology/approach
There is almost no information addressing the political alignment of the Royal Society or its Presidents available in the institution’s archives, or in the writings of historians specialising in its administration. Even reliable biographical sources, such as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography provide very limited information. However, as 10 Presidents were elected Member of Parliament (MP), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social and Local History provides a wealth of accurate, in-depth data, revealing the alignment of both.
Findings
All Presidents held senior government offices, the first was a Royalist aristocrat; of the remaining 10, 8 were Royalist or Tory MPs, 2 of whom were falsely imprisoned by the House of Commons, 2 were Whig MPs, while 4 were elevated to the Lords. The institution was Royalist aligned 1662–1680, Tory aligned 1680–1695 and Whig aligned 1695–1703, which reflects changes in Parliament and State.
Originality/value
This study establishes that the early Royal Society was not an apolitical institution and that the political alignment of Presidents and institution continued in later eras. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the election or appointment of an organisation’s most senior officer can be used to signal its political alignment with government and other organisations to serve various ends.
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This study aims to highlight the dimensions of the rivalry over the regional role between two regional powers in the Middle East, and the impact of local, regional and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to highlight the dimensions of the rivalry over the regional role between two regional powers in the Middle East, and the impact of local, regional and international pressures of the Syrian crisis on the role performance of the competing forces.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on using “the role approach” as an analytical frame to benefit by the application of the theory of role. This approach allows the possibility of linking various analytical levels, both in clarifying the relationship between internal and external factors and showing the interaction between elements of perception, abilities and behavior.
Findings
The international pressures shall remain governing the frame of competition among the roles of the regional powers, through determining the course of competition and its direct impact on its results.
Originality/value
This study examines the phenomenon of regional rivalry between two distinct and competing regional powers, in a turbulent environment in the wake of the Arab Spring crises, which created opportunities and challenges for regional powers, especially in Syria, where it intersected with the interests and policies of major and regional powers.
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Organizations remain a vital sociological topic, but organizational sociology, as a subfield, has evolved significantly since its inception. In this paper, I argue that…
Abstract
Organizations remain a vital sociological topic, but organizational sociology, as a subfield, has evolved significantly since its inception. In this paper, I argue that organization sociology is becoming increasingly disconnected from organizational theory, as currently conceived. The focus of sociological research on organizations has become more empirically grounded in the study of social problems and how organizations contribute to them. Sociologists continue to see organizations as important actors in society that play a role in shaping social order and as contexts in which social processes play out. I propose two main sociological approaches for organizational research, which I describe as “organizations within society” and “society within organizations.” The first approach examines the role of organizations as building blocks of social structure and as social actors in their own right. The second approach treats organizations as platforms and locations of social interactions and the building of community. These approaches are somewhat disconnected from the sort of grand theorizing that characterizes much of organizational theory. I argue that the problem-oriented sociology of these two approaches offers a vital way for organizational scholars to expand and theoretically revitalize the field.
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Drawing on institutionalism supplemented by a micro-political perspective, this study explores how a bilateral development agency’s (BDA’s) regional office manages institutional…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on institutionalism supplemented by a micro-political perspective, this study explores how a bilateral development agency’s (BDA’s) regional office manages institutional multiplicity, a situation where organisations are embedded into the institutional environments of their headquarters and multiple host countries.
Design/methodology/approach
I remotely conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 20 staff members of a BDA’s regional office in South-East Europe. Reflexive Thematic Analysis was used to analyse the interview data.
Findings
Two themes are developed. One is an institutional decomposition strategy. The subject office decomposes institutional multiplicity into more manageable multiple institutional dualities by deploying local representatives to host countries. The other is the division of duties to demonstrate legitimacy. The division designates who in the office demonstrate legitimacy in which institutional environment. These proactive actions by the office (i.e., the decomposition and the division) question the institutionalist assertion that external institutional conditions determine organisational behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
The findings may not directly apply to other public sector organisations because BDAs’ overseas offices are “donors” for their host countries. In addition, themes developed in the context of South-East Europe may not be generalisable to other regions.
Practical implications
BDA staff members should understand that institutional decomposition through the deployment of local representatives is a rational strategy to deal with complex conditions of institutional multiplicity. They should also understand that experienced local representatives are required to achieve this strategy.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical study to examine how a public sector organisation’s regional office manages complex institutional multiplicity from a micro-macro combined perspective.
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