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This paper aims to examine tensions around play, performance and artmaking as becoming in the mix of expected and taken-for-granted discourses implicit in an after-school ceramics makerspace (Perry and Medina, 2011). The authors look closely at one adolescent girl’s embodied performance to see how it ruptures the scripts for compliant bodies in the after-school program. While these performances take place out-of-school and in an arts studio, the tensions and explorations also resonate with broader issues around student embodied, performative and becomings that run counter to normalized school expectations.

A contemporary approach to nexus analysis (Medina and Wohlwend, 2014; Wohlwend, 2021) unpacked two critical performative encounters (Medina and Perry, 2011) using concepts of historical bodies (Scollon and Scollon, 2004) informed by sociomaterial thing-power (Bennett, 2010).

Playing while painting pottery collides and converges with the tacitly desired and expected ways of embodying student in this after-school artspace. Emily’s outer-space alien persona ruptured expected discourses when her historical body and embodied performances threatened other children. While her embodied performances facilitated her becoming a fully present participant in the studio, she fractured the line between play and reality in violent ways.

As literacy researchers, the authors are in a moment of reckoning where student embodied performances and historical bodies can collide with all-too-real violent threats in daily lives and community locations. Situating these performances in the nexus of embodied literacies, unsanctioned play and thing-power can help educators respond to these moments as ruptures of tacit expectations for girlhoods in school-like spaces.

This research aimed to investigate how learning-centered leadership influences teachers’ self-efficacy, with a focus on the mediating role of teachers’ professional learning in Malaysian national secondary schools. Given the continuously evolving educational environment and the integration of technology, teachers’ self-efficacy is of utmost importance.

The data for this study were collected from a sample of 430 secondary school teachers in Malaysia, and the analysis was conducted using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The research revealed significant relationships between variables: learning-centered leadership positively related to teachers’ professional learning, which, in turn, positively influences teachers’ self-efficacy. Interestingly, the study found that the direct relationship between learning-centered leadership and teachers’ self-efficacy was not significant. These findings highlight the crucial mediating role of teachers’ professional learning in the relationship between learning-centered leadership and teachers’ self-efficacy.

These findings provide important insights into the factors that enhance teachers’ self-efficacy and competence, especially within the dynamic environment of schools.

This exploratory research intends to comprehend the perspectives of high school teachers toward incorporating technology in instruction.

Drawing upon Davis’s technology acceptance model as a theoretical framework, this study examines several aspects, including teachers’ access to and ease of using technology, as well as the support provided by educational institutions for the integration of technology in teaching. The quantitative data analysis (reliability tests, descriptive statistics, Mann–Whitney test) was computed via Statistical Package for the Social Science software. Furthermore, the study uses structural equation modeling to validate and substantiate the relationships (path analytical model) between the examined variables.

The key finding points to the fact that female teachers have statistically significant positive beliefs toward technology usage/integration in instruction than their counterparts (i.e. male teachers) (p < 0.01). Even though there exists no significant difference in computer usage/integration of teachers across age, nationality, grade, educational level and years of teaching experience, findings demonstrated the impulse of assisting and acclimating high school teachers to use technology in their education. Conclusively, the study culminates with future scope, considering the derived findings.

The study illustrates a validated framework (through path analytical modeling) for teachers’ technology integration in instructions. It highlights that the extent to which teachers use technology in the classroom is impacted by factors such as their accessibility to technology, comfort with its usage and the level of institutional support they receive for integration.

There have been great advances in our understanding of how universities effectively undertake community engagement, with research focused upon understanding community partner perspectives and outcomes (see Andrée et al., 2014; Srinivas et al., 2015; Sweatman & Warner, 2020), and democratic civic engagement (see Hall et al., 2013; Saltmarsh et al., 2009). This chapter builds on these studies to critically examine one university’s capacities to coordinate institutional-level change that supports and advances community-engagement scholarship. A small, rural, undergraduate university in Nova Scotia, Canada, called Acadia University was used as the case study site for this examination. Using an action research case study design, we gathered data from multiple sources within and outside of the University over a three-year period. Through this investigation Acadia’s community-engagement ethos was studied to understand if the University has the assets, resources, knowledge and motivation to create, implement and sustain democratic community engagement initiatives with community partners. From this data, key findings were categorized into three major themes: power and positionality of the University, institutional supports and barriers to engagement, and institutional assessment of community engagement initiatives. This chapter discusses these themes in depth using data from this study and current literature to unpack the practicalities and particularities of an institution committing to a deep, pervasive and integrated community engagement culture. Overall, this study found that Acadia’s community engagement ethos, as it moves towards democratic engagement while navigating systematic internal and external constraints, is diverse and complex. This study contributes to the legitimization of community engagement scholarship more broadly.

In 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the statistic that 1 out of every 59 children had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Young children with ASD have unique needs specifically related to the characteristics that impact their communication and social emotional and behavioral development. These unique needs require early and intensive intervention to minimize their lifelong impact. It is important to identify and use evidence-based interventions to help parents support their children at home, and as a continuation of the skills they are being taught in other settings. This chapter will address the prevalence of young children with ASD, the impact and need for family involvement in intervention, and service provision and potential interventions.

This chapter will discuss diversity and discrimination within Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) (in employment and wider society) and critically assess the findings of the extant literature as it relates to such small island developing states. The chapter will examine race, sex, disability, and sexual orientation, specifically exploring current accepted practice and the effect of the recently enacted anti-discrimination legislation. This discussion is important as there is limited available literature as it relates to discrimination, diversity, inclusion and equality in the Caribbean region.

This chapter will rely on secondary data, primarily studies which focus on T&T, in the fields of management, psychology and sociology; as well as country reports published by international agencies including the United Nations and the World Health Organization; and T&T Equality Commission Reports.

Diversity exists within T&T, as does discrimination, within employment and wider society. This reflects an acceptance of the status quo as part of the culture of the twin island state, rather than challenging why it is still regarded as acceptable to treat some minority groups less favorably than others as a result of their immutable characteristics.

The use of secondary data may have limited the scope of the findings.

The development of the Equal Opportunity Act (2000) is a pivotal event in the trajectory towards equality; however, further action will be needed to reduce discrimination within society. The exclusion of sexual orientation from the Act and the criminalization of private sexual behavior must be addressed in order for Trinidadian society to become truly inclusive and diverse.

This discussion is important as there is limited available literature as it relates to discrimination, diversity, inclusion and equality in the Caribbean region and much of what is accepted as representative of reality is based on anecdotal evidence.

Many studies have discussed the pre-eminence of females in higher education in terms of numbers as well as academic performance. This global phenomenon has appeared in many countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The aim of this study is to identify the social, cultural and familial factors underlying this phenomenon in the UAE.

Although the study focuses on the university stage, the undergraduate student is the product of an educational process that begins at school age; therefore, some factors related to the schooling stage are also discussed. The study conceptualises gender differentiation as an outcome of both socialisation processes and rational choice factors.

Analysing data drawn from a total of 292 undergraduates and 18 experts using questionnaires, it finds that socialisation mechanisms at home and schools, rational choice motivations and other factors such as socially constructed, non-cognitive traits of females shape these differences. The implications of these results for policymakers and future research are discussed.

Increasing access of males to higher education is not merely the responsibility of family and schools but also requires commitment by policy-makers.

The paper presents a significant departure from the largely American and European literature on gender and education, by offering a broader knowledge of this phenomenon in another regional and national context.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how both producers and consumers of user-created music videos on YouTube communicate emotional information.

In total, 150 filmic documents containing fan-generated versions of U2’s “Song for Someone” were purposively collected. The author used discourse analysis to understand the types of videos created, the communication of emotional information from both the producers and the consumers, the social construction of emotion in the filmic documents, and elements of intertextuality that represented emotion.

Fans created videos containing cover versions, original versions of the song with new visual content, and tutorials about how to play the song. Producers of cover versions communicated emotional information, especially tenderness, through facial expression, their surroundings, and corresponding musical elements. Producers’ visual content expressed emotion through meaningful photographs and sad stories. Producers’ descriptions revealed emotion as well. Emotions were individually experienced and socially constructed. Consumers conveyed emotion through likes, dislikes, and expressive positive comments. Intertextuality communicated passion for U2 through tour references, paraphernalia displays, band photographs, imitating the band, and musical mashups.

Information science can work towards a new generation of multimedia information retrieval systems that incorporate emotion in order to help users discover documents in meaningful ways that move beyond keyword and bibliographic searches.

This is one of the earliest research papers in the area of emotional information retrieval (EmIR).