Using the foundational lens of social exchange theory and communities of practice, proposes a three‐layer Web‐based architecture to facilitate knowledge integration in digital…
Abstract
Using the foundational lens of social exchange theory and communities of practice, proposes a three‐layer Web‐based architecture to facilitate knowledge integration in digital communities. Reviews the limitations of past collaborative filtering mechanisms and presents a prototype and the underlying mathematical model for the knowledge networking on the Web (KNOWeb) architecture. Further illustrates how real‐time active feedback and valuation mechanisms reinforce social exchange in such communities.
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Globalization, and more specifically international organizations, has had a major effect upon national education systems worldwide. Understandably, the academic literature…
Abstract
Purpose
Globalization, and more specifically international organizations, has had a major effect upon national education systems worldwide. Understandably, the academic literature covering this phenomenon has expanded at a prolific rate. This study contributes to this body of knowledge by examining how the international organizations affect global education policy, as seen via the lens of a Kuwaiti context.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed a qualitative data collection approach using semi-structured interviews with 27 key figures involved in policymaking at national educational institutions in Kuwait. Each interview was coded for recurring themes.
Findings
Three main themes emerged from data analysis: (1) policy adoption and reformulation, (2) curriculum and pedagogical changes and (3) evaluation and accountability mechanisms. This study’s findings demonstrated that globalization processes and international organizations have profoundly affected Kuwait’s national educational policies.
Originality/value
This research forms the foundation for further investigations into how international organizations have affected national and subnational educational decision-making and reforms.
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Tony Bush and Ashley Yoon Mooi Ng
The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the findings from research on the relationship between leadership theory and policy reform in Malaysia. Distributed leadership…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the findings from research on the relationship between leadership theory and policy reform in Malaysia. Distributed leadership is normatively preferred in the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB), the country’s major policy reform document. The research was conducted in two dissimilar Malaysian states (Selangor and Sarawak).
Design/methodology/approach
The research was a multiple case-study design, with 14 schools (seven in each state). Sampling was purposive, with schools selected from the different bands used to categorise school performance in Malaysia. Within each school, interviews were conducted with principals (secondary schools), headteachers (primary schools) and a range of teachers, middle leaders and senior leaders, to achieve respondent triangulation.
Findings
The findings confirm that the MEB prescribes distributed leadership as part of a strategy to move principals and head teachers away from their traditional administrative leadership styles. While there were some variations, most schools adopted a modified distributed leadership approach. Instead of the emergent model discussed and advocated in the literature, these schools embraced an allocative model, with principals sharing responsibilities with senior leaders in a manner that was often indistinguishable from delegation.
Research limitations/implications
A significant implication of the research is that policy prescriptions in major reform initiatives can lead to unintended consequences when applied in different cultural contexts. While distributed leadership is presented as “emergent” in the international (mostly western) literature, it has been captured and adapted for use in this highly centralised context, where structures and culture assume a top-down model of leadership. As a result, distributed leadership has taken on a different meaning, to fit the dominant culture.
Practical implications
The main practical implication is that principals and head teachers are more likely to enact leadership in ways which are congruent with their cultural backgrounds and assumptions than to embrace policy prescriptions, even when unproblematic adoption of policy might be expected, as in this centralised context.
Social implications
The main social implications are that policy change is dependent on socio-cultural considerations and that reform will not be whole-hearted and secure if it is not congruent with the values of institutions such as schools, and the wider society which they serve.
Originality/value
The paper is significant in exploring a popular leadership model in an unfamiliar context. Beyond its importance in Malaysia, it has wider resonance for other centralised systems which have also shown interest in distributed leadership but have been unable and/or unwilling to embrace it in the ways assumed in the literature. This leads to theoretical significance because it adds to the limited body of literature which shows that allocative distributed leadership has emerged as a device for accommodating this model within centralised contexts.
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Tony Bush, Suriani Abdul Hamid, Ashley Ng and Maria Kaparou
The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the Malaysian literature on three prominent leadership models (instructional, distributed and transformational)…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the Malaysian literature on three prominent leadership models (instructional, distributed and transformational), linked to a major educational reform initiative captured in the Ministry of Education’s Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB).
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is a systematic review of all relevant Malaysian literature, in English and Bahasa Malaysia, on instructional, distributed and transformational leadership and alternative terms linked to these models.
Findings
The findings show that there is an emerging literature on these leadership models and their prevalence in Malaysian schools but that they have been interpreted in ways that are distinctive to the highly centralised Malaysian context. For example, instructional leadership is prescribed, so there is some evidence of its practice, notably in respect of monitoring. Similarly, distributed leadership is allocative, rather than emergent, as suggested in western literature.
Research limitations/implications
The findings show that, while research on these models is emerging, much more research is required to establish whether and how leadership practice in Malaysia differs from that outlined in the normative western literature.
Practical implications
There is emerging evidence to suggest that instructional and distributed leadership, if enacted carefully, can have a positive impact on student outcomes.
Social implications
The leadership models were developed in western, mainly decentralised, contexts, and there are clear implications for how such models might apply in highly centralised cultures, such as that prevailing in Malaysia.
Originality/value
This is believed to be the first systematic review of the Malaysian literature on school leadership models, linked to the MEB. It is also distinctive in including both English language and Bahasa Malaysia sources.
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Albert J. Mills and Jean C. Helms Mills
This chapter presents a feminist poststructuralist account of the role of men and masculinity in the development of Air Canada, specifically in its early years and the development…
Abstract
This chapter presents a feminist poststructuralist account of the role of men and masculinity in the development of Air Canada, specifically in its early years and the development of the organization’s culture. It is argued that an understanding of the development of gendered practices (i.e., the development of male associated or dominated work) over time can help us to understand and identify how such practices develop, are maintained, and also change.
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Luis Hernan Contreras Pinochet, Cesar Alexandre de Souza, Adriana Backx Noronha Viana and Guillermo Rodríguez-Abitia
This research aims to propose the development of a model that identifies, in essential services, the determining factors affecting the technological advances offered by different…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to propose the development of a model that identifies, in essential services, the determining factors affecting the technological advances offered by different smart technologies in supermarket retail channels that influence citizens' quality of life, amidst the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected using a cross-sectional questionnaire survey (n = 469). The authors applied the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique to test the hypotheses, along with the partial least squares (PLS) method for estimating latent variables and combining with the necessary condition analysis (NCA) method.
Findings
According to the results of the NCA method, the results were adequate, and more attention should be paid to the quality of life construct after finding the bottleneck point of 50%. In this sense, adaptive resilience was characterized as the main necessary predictor construct for quality of life. In addition, Generation Z and Millennials have the highest frequency of use in all smart technologies, with “assisted purchase” being the most widely used.
Social implications
Finally, the effect of the pandemic changed the consumption routine with supermarkets, not being a mere option but a necessity in the context of a smart city.
Originality/value
As a result, the proposed model was consistent, showing that all direct and indirect SEM paths were validated, highlighting data security and privacy and resilience issues. In addition, the NCA method complemented the procedures performed in the SEM phase.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine how rural outlaws, known in the Australian context as bushrangers, impacted on the introduction of itinerant teaching in sparsely settled…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how rural outlaws, known in the Australian context as bushrangers, impacted on the introduction of itinerant teaching in sparsely settled areas under the Council of Education in the colony of New South Wales. In July 1867 the evolving process for establishing half-time schools was suddenly disrupted when itinerant teaching diverged down an unexpected and uncharted path. As a result the first two itinerant teachers were appointed and taught in an irregular manner that differed significantly from regulation and convention. The catalyst was a series of events arising from bushranging that was prevalent in the Braidwood area in the mid-1860s.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on archival sources, particularly sources within State Archives and Records NSW, further contemporary sources such as reports and newspapers; and on secondary sources.
Findings
The paper reveals the circumstances which led to the implementation of an unanticipated form of itinerant teaching in the “Jingeras”; the impact of rural banditry or bushranging, on the nature and conduct of these early half-time schools; and the processes of policy formation involved.
Originality/value
This study is the first to explore the causes behind the marked deviation from the intended form and conduct of half-time schools that occurred in the Braidwood area of 1860s New South Wales. It provides a detailed account of how schooling was employed to counter rural banditry, or bushranging, in the Jingeras and provided significant insight into the education policy formation processes of the time.
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Ashley Burrowes and Ann Hendricks
The aftermath of the Enron collapse included Congressional legislation known as the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX), which was rushed into law on July 29, 2002, by President Bush. This…
Abstract
The aftermath of the Enron collapse included Congressional legislation known as the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX), which was rushed into law on July 29, 2002, by President Bush. This legislation, aimed at restoring confidence in the financial markets, addresses many aspects of corporate governance. This article addresses the audit committee provisions of SOX, particularly the requirements for independent membership and financial expertise. The article outlines the legislative requirements and then discusses the possible effects of this ‘patch‐up’. Is it too little too late and how long will the patch last?
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Tiffany Y. Halsell and Dorinda J. Gallant
This chapter explores how the intersections of race, gender, and class combine to affect Black undergraduate women and their engagement with high impact practices (HIPs)…
Abstract
This chapter explores how the intersections of race, gender, and class combine to affect Black undergraduate women and their engagement with high impact practices (HIPs). Specifically, this chapter describes the extent to which Black undergraduate women engaged in HIPs of service-learning, research with faculty, and internships; describes factors that contributed to their engagement (or non-engagement) in the HIPs, while attending a PWI; and explores the role race, gender, and class had on engagement (or non-engagement) with these HIPs. This study used a two-phase sequential explanatory mixed methods approach, which consisted of an electronic survey (n = 190) and semi-structured interviews (n = 10). Survey items were taken from the National Survey of Student Engagement, The College Student Report. The study was conceptually grounded by intersectionality, which allowed an exploration of how social inequalities and power relations intersect to potentially influence the college experience of Black women. Findings indicate that Black women are engaging with HIPs. Factors contributing to engagement included positive faculty interactions, desire to make connections on campus and the need to acquire real world work experience. Factors contributing to non-engagement included lack of knowledge regarding HIPs and the impact of the campus climate on students' sense of belonging and occurrences of stereotype threat.
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Mike P. Cook, Ashley Boyd and Brandon Sams
The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers’ constructions of youth inform their text selections, particularly as they relate to a problematic author.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers’ constructions of youth inform their text selections, particularly as they relate to a problematic author.
Design/methodology/approach
As part of a larger, national study, the authors use interview data from 18 participants – 9 who still teach and 9 who no longer teach Alexie – to consider how teachers’ constructions of youth play roles in their decisions to teach or avoid complex and controversial authors and topics, specifically the work and life of Sherman Alexie in the #MeToo era.
Findings
Findings suggest teachers who constructed youth through asset-based frameworks – as complex and capable – were likely to keep teaching Alexie or have conversations about the #MeToo movement. Teachers who constructed students in deficit ways, as “not ready,” harkened back to Lesko’s (2012) critique, and were more likely to either remove Alexie from the curriculum entirely or engage students in conversations about the text only, leaving Alexie’s life out of the classroom.
Originality/value
Building on Lesko’s work on constructions of adolescence and its intersection with Petrone et al.’s youth lens and Critical Youth Studies (e.g., Petrone and Lewis, 2021), this study describes the ways in which teachers’ views of students served as rationales for their teaching decisions around whether, if or how to include the works and life of Sherman Alexie.