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Therese Ferguson, Dzintra Iliško, Carmel Roofe and Susan Hill
Therese Ferguson, Dzintra Iliško, Carmel Roofe and Susan Hill
Therese Ferguson, Dzintra Iliško, Carmel Roofe and Susan Hill
The author offers two challenges and four principles to teaching in the tertiary sector during this pandemic. While others may focus on the challenge of technical delivery, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The author offers two challenges and four principles to teaching in the tertiary sector during this pandemic. While others may focus on the challenge of technical delivery, the author notes the challenges of systemic student disengagement. The author attempts to correct for this in four ways. She argues that the challenges she identifies and the principles that can be deployed in response are applicable across a range of teaching contexts and can be adapted for a post-COVID-19 era.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on the author's phenomenological experience teaching in the context of COVID-19 and draws as well on the sociological literature of higher education teaching.
Findings
Four principles emerged from a year of successful teaching during COVID-19. First, the author embraces a pedagogy of care, which reflects a genuine concern for student well-being. Second, the author utilizes a variety of technological approaches to keep students engaged. Third, she retains a flexible approach to teaching. Fourth, she considers carefully the extent to which COVID-19 is included, and excluded, from topical discussions. On this point she argues that COVID-19 should neither be the center point of any material, nor should it be ignored completely.
Originality/value
Shocks to the tertiary education system will continue to recur, as will instances of systemic student disengagement. Effective correctives to such disengagement, drawn from both education theory and empirical experience, will continue to be of value.
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Rachel Palmén and Angela Wroblewski
This chapter provides some concluding reflections on the different experiences of structural change encountered by the TARGET partners. The various TARGET partners had different…
Abstract
This chapter provides some concluding reflections on the different experiences of structural change encountered by the TARGET partners. The various TARGET partners had different roles in the structural change processes: seven organisations designed, implemented and monitored gender equality plans (GEPs) for the first time, two organisations provided tailored support to implementing institutions and one organisation evaluated GEP implementation. This edited volume provides an account of these diverse experiences of engaging with and catalysing structural change in very different research organisations operating in extremely different contexts both within the EU and beyond. The volume thus contributes to the growing body of literature generated from structural change projects by offering a specific focus on the TARGET approach. The TARGET process of structural change – undertaken through the development and implementation of tailored, evidence-based GEPs – was found to be strengthened through formal top management commitment and by taking a reflexive approach that was powered by communities of practice and supported by financial resources, gender expertise as well as gender and organisational change competences. Engaged institutions thus managed to overcome unfavourable conditions and implement tailor-made, context-specific interventions, some of them in areas at the cutting edge of topics and issues linked to gender equality in research and innovation such as tackling sexual harassment, sustainability and integrating the gender dimension into research content and curricula.
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Susan Clark Muntean and Banu Ozkazanc-Pan
Guided by feminist perspectives, we critique existing approaches to the study of womenʼs entrepreneurship on epistemological grounds and suggest that the entrepreneurship field…
Abstract
Guided by feminist perspectives, we critique existing approaches to the study of womenʼs entrepreneurship on epistemological grounds and suggest that the entrepreneurship field needs to recognize gendered assumptions in theorizing. Deploying a feminist framework, we suggest that understanding the “gender gap” in entrepreneurship requires focus on institutional and structural barriers women entrepreneurs face. Existing studies of women entrepreneurs often compare women with men without considering how gender and gender relations impact the very concepts and ideas of entrepreneurship. We propose, therefore, a conceptualization of entrepreneurship that illuminates gender bias and calls attention to the interrelated individual, institutional, and structural barriers in the entrepreneurial process that arrive out of societal and cultural gender norms. Through praxis or engaged practice, we redirect scholarship in the entrepreneurship field, while proposing ways that can promote gender equality in entrepreneurial activities. In all, our gender integrative conceptualization of entrepreneurship contributes to the entrepreneurship field by recognizing and addressing a more expansive realm of influential factors within the entrepreneurial ecosystem that have previously been researched separately.
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Susan Erica Nace, John Tiernan, Donal Holland and Aisling Ni Annaidh
Most support surfaces in comfort applications and sporting equipment are made from pressure-relieving foam such as viscoelastic polyurethane. However, for some users, foam is not…
Abstract
Purpose
Most support surfaces in comfort applications and sporting equipment are made from pressure-relieving foam such as viscoelastic polyurethane. However, for some users, foam is not the best material as it acts as a thermal insulator and it may not offer adequate postural support. The additive manufacturing of such surfaces and equipment may alleviate these issues, but material and design investigation is needed to optimize the printing parameters for use in pressure relief applications. This study aims to assess the ability of an additive manufactured flexible polymer to perform similarly to a viscoelastic foam for use in comfort applications.
Design/methodology/approach
Three-dimensional (3D) printed samples of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) are tested in uniaxial compression with four different infill patterns and varying infill percentage. The behaviours of the samples are compared to a viscoelastic polyurethane foam used in various comfort applications.
Findings
Results indicate that TPU experiences an increase in strength with an increasing infill percentage. Findings from the study suggest that infill pattern impacts the compressive response of 3D printed material, with two-dimensional patterns inducing an elasto-plastic buckling of the cell walls in TPU depending on infill percentage. Such buckling may not be a beneficial property for comfort applications. Based on the results, the authors suggest printing from TPU with a low-density 3D infill, such as 5% gyroid.
Originality/value
Several common infill patterns are characterised in compression in this work, suggesting the importance of infill choices when 3D printing end-use products and design for manufacturing.