Swati Anand, Kushendra Mishra, Vishal Verma and Taruna Taruna
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become a global humanitarian challenge. This scourge has impacted people from all walks of life as well as every economic…
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become a global humanitarian challenge. This scourge has impacted people from all walks of life as well as every economic sector and activity, from travel to automotives, hotels to banking, and supply chain to retail. The pandemic has affected not only physical and mental health but also financial health. Studies have examined the pandemic's economic impact, but very few have examined its impact on personal finances. Efforts to contain the pandemic's spread, such as lockdowns, have resulted in suspended business operations throughout the world that have intensified joblessness. To prepare and protect people from such unforeseen situations, financial education and planning are necessary. We attempt to expand the evidence on this issue by applying a structural equation modelling approach to identify the mediating role of financial literacy programs in preparing and protecting household wealth against sudden worldwide setbacks. The research design is descriptive and exploratory using snowball sampling technique. The data was collected through an internet survey. In total, 400 survey responses were obtained. After testing the measurement model for key validity dimensions, the hypothesised causal relationships are examined in several path models. The results indicated that coronavirus awareness exerts a direct or indirect influence on the financial health of individuals through financial literacy. We conclude that financial literacy has a full mediating effect on the personal finance of individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings not only contributed to the need and understanding of financial literacy but also have managerial implications. Financial literacy programs provide investment advice and suggestions which are actionable and also work to help individuals to come out stronger in terms of knowledge and skill set when the COVID-19 crisis passes.
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Rida Afrilyasanti, Yazid Basthomi and Evynurul Laily Zen
This study aims to examine the effect of critical media literacy integration in the context of English language teaching (ELT) in Indonesian high school students on improving…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effect of critical media literacy integration in the context of English language teaching (ELT) in Indonesian high school students on improving students’ creativity and essential literacy skills.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was conducted in an Indonesian ELT class consisting of 32 high school students. The methodology involved instructing students to analyze various media sources and articles to demonstrate their critical reading abilities before writing creative argumentative essays. Data collection instruments included students’ argumentative essays, teaching observations and students’ self-reflections on their learning experiences.
Findings
The study revealed that students were capable of creating creative and well-structured argumentative essays. However, their conclusions were often unclear and lacked sound judgments. This indicates that Indonesian EFL students require more practice in forming well-rounded judgments. Media analysis and discussion sessions were found to be significantly beneficial for enhancing critical literacy instruction.
Research limitations/implications
One limitation of the study is its focus on a single class of 32 students, which may not be representative of all Indonesian high school students. Future studies should consider expanding the sample size and incorporating diverse educational contexts.
Practical implications
The findings show that integrating critical media literacy (CML) into ELT not only boosts students’ creativity and critical thinking but also helps them tackle real-world challenges, like identifying misinformation in Indonesia’s digital landscape. To make this approach more practical, the study highlights the importance of teacher-led strategies, such as using guiding questions during discussions and modeling how to create media context. These methods align well with Indonesia’s Merdeka Belajar policy, which encourages flexible, student-centered learning. This research provides valuable insights for educators, policymakers and curriculum designers looking to adapt media literacy to the needs of 21st-century learners across Indonesia’s diverse educational settings.
Social implications
The study highlights the importance of critical media literacy in fostering a more critically aware and socially responsible youth. By enhancing students’ ability to analyze media and creatively develop well-structured arguments critically, critical media literacy integration can contribute to a more informed and engaged citizenry. This is particularly relevant in today’s media-saturated environment, where the ability to discern and evaluate information critically is crucial for democratic participation and social cohesion.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the limited research on the role of media literacy integration in enhancing students’ creativity and critical literacy within ELT. It highlights the importance of teacher-led discussions in fostering critical thinking skills, providing valuable insights for teachers, practitioners and policymakers aiming to improve media literacy instruction in similar contexts.
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Md Saharik Joy, Priyanka Jha, Pawan Kumar Yadav, Taruna Bansal, Pankaj Rawat and Shehnaz Begam
The presence of green spaces plays a vital role in promoting urban sustainability. Urban green parks (UGPs) help create sustainable cities while providing fundamental ecological…
Abstract
Purpose
The presence of green spaces plays a vital role in promoting urban sustainability. Urban green parks (UGPs) help create sustainable cities while providing fundamental ecological functions. However, rapid urbanization has destroyed crucial green areas in Ranchi City, endangering inhabitants’ health. This study aims to locate current UGPs and predict future UGP sites in Ranchi City, Jharkhand.
Design/methodology/approach
It uses geographic information system (GIS) and analytical hierarchical process (AHP) to evaluate potential UGP sites. It involves the active participation of urban communities to ensure that the UGPs are designed to meet dweller’s needs. The site suitability assessment is based on several parameters, including the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), land use and land cover (LULC), population distribution, PM 2.5 levels and the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. The integration of these factors enables an evaluation of potential UGP’s sites.
Findings
The findings of this research reveal that 54.39% of the evaluated areas are unsuitable, 15.55% are less suitable, 12.76% are moderately suitable, 11.52% are highly suitable and 5.78% are very highly suitable for UGPs site selection. These results emphasize that the middle and outer regions of Ranchi City are the most favorable locations for establishing UGPs. The NDVI is the most important element in UGP site appropriateness, followed by LULC, population distribution, PM 2.5 levels and the UHI effect.
Originality/value
This study improves the process of integrating AHP and GIS, and UGPs site selection maps help urban planners and decision-makers make better choices for Ranchi City’s sustainability and greenness.
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Farah Mulyasari and Rajib Shaw
The understanding of the term “civil society” has been given in many references. One reference is given by the London School of Economics Centre for Civil Society (2011), and its…
Abstract
The understanding of the term “civil society” has been given in many references. One reference is given by the London School of Economics Centre for Civil Society (2011), and its working definition is rather illustrative. Civil society, according to them, refers to the arena of collective action around shared interests, purposes, and values. The civil society commonly embraces a diversity of spaces, actors, and institutional forms, and varies in the degree of formality, autonomy, and power. Civil societies are often populated by organizations such as registered charities, development nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), professional associations, and community groups, such as women, youth, and faith-based or religious organizations. Those groups are seen as the nearest to the grassroots level and therefore could best accommodate their aspirations and needs. These groups are referred hereafter as Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).
Rida Afrilyasanti, Eko Suhartoyo and Utami Widiati
Through the action research study, this paper aims to examine how e-portfolios improve students’ critical, reflective and creative thinking as part of higher-order thinking skills…
Abstract
Purpose
Through the action research study, this paper aims to examine how e-portfolios improve students’ critical, reflective and creative thinking as part of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS). Besides, this paper also explores how e-portfolios enhance students’ speaking skills. The study is carried out to improve the current state by identifying and solving problems in specific contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
This investigation was designed to seek the improvement of the students’ higher-order thinking and speaking skills after the implementation of the e-portfolio. Action research was chosen because action research is suitable to bring change and improvement in the system or assume to bring progress in the system. This study was designed in two phases, featuring reflection and connection between previous and new data.
Findings
By completing this action research study, the authors assisted students in improving their higher-order thinking and speaking skills. The improvement was related to the indicators for learning success, which were explained in this research. The HOTS criteria include the capacity to analyze essential facts and arguments that the students presented in their spoken works logically and critically.
Research limitations/implications
HOTS encompasses critical, logical, creative and metacognitive thinking skills. Future research should go further into the usage of e-portfolios in the development of students’ metacognitive capacities. Moreover, because this investigation was carried out using action research methods, it is crucial to recognize that no generalizability can be offered for the findings.
Practical implications
The study’s findings should also benefit practitioners and instructors endeavoring to enhance students’ e-portfolios, critical thinking and digital skills in the classroom.
Social implications
The discussion focuses on important development topics. Everyone, not just students, should be encouraged to participate in creating and developing our technological future. The analysis offers unique and essential perspectives into what to explore for such a substantial attempt as implementing digital technology, specifically to construct an e-portfolio.
Originality/value
Despite the widespread usage of e-portfolios in English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction, there is a lack of research on how e-portfolios can enhance EFL students’ HOTS and speaking abilities. Hence, this study addresses a deficiency in existing research by examining the potential of e-portfolios to enhance students’ HOTS and oral communication skills within the context of EFL.
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Mamta Sharma, Taruna Dubey and Hardeep Chahal
The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to examine the influence of the quality of online classes on student satisfaction and student loyalty; second, to explore the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to examine the influence of the quality of online classes on student satisfaction and student loyalty; second, to explore the mediating role of student participation between online classes and student satisfaction; third, to examine the mediating role of student satisfaction between online classes and student loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary data is collected from the postgraduate students in Jammu and Kashmir, India. A descriptive research design was applied to collect the primary data via Google questionnaire with the COVID-19 pandemic in mind to maintain social distance.
Findings
The result reveals that online classes and student participation positively affect student satisfaction. Student participation is a partial mediator between online classes and student satisfaction, with 0.393 Variance Accounted For (VAF). In comparison, it is a full mediator between online classes and student loyalty with 0.96 VAF.
Research limitations/implications
The current study was restricted to postgraduate students, while future research could include research scholars, graduate students, and others. Only government institutions in Jammu and Kashmir were employed for the present study. The study may eventually be expanded to include private universities and more states.
Practical implications
The suggested approach can help teachers, students, policymakers and administrators. The study emphasizes the crucial elements of student engagement and happiness, which must be prioritized to improve online teaching and learning effectiveness and win over students' loyalty.
Originality/value
The study tested the conceptual framework of an integrated approach connecting online classes, student participation, student satisfaction and student loyalty. The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period, as it was the need of the hour to come out of such a crisis in the future. The present study can also provide a roadmap for transformation from physical to virtual classrooms.
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Farah Mulyasari and Rajib Shaw
This chapter illustrates local responses to disaster and highlights the potential role of three community-based society organizations (CBSOs) – women’s groups, youth groups, and…
Abstract
This chapter illustrates local responses to disaster and highlights the potential role of three community-based society organizations (CBSOs) – women’s groups, youth groups, and religious groups – as risk communicators in Bandung, Indonesia. A framework is modeled for CBSOs’ risk communication process in bridging the gap between the local government and the community. A set of indicators in social, economic, and institutional resilience activities (SIERA), with a scope of 45 disaster risk reduction (DRR) activities covering three different disaster periods was developed to characterize the process of the delivery of risk information by these CBSOs through their activities at subdistrict and ward levels. The data were collected through a questionnaire survey method using the SIERA approach. Each CBSO leader in a ward was surveyed about their perceptions of these 45 ongoing SIERA activities and their risk information source and dissemination process. Statistical analysis was applied to determine the relationship between variables such as periods of disaster and types of SIERA activities and its attributing factors (location, population, and dynamic of organizations in their locale) in finding variations of risk communication activity that may function for communities. Five risk communication processes of the CBSOs are identified; when their perceptions and ongoing activities are compared, activities such as dissemination of disaster risk information, conveying early warnings to their peers, and involvement of the local government have been carried out by these CBSOs. This indicates that CBSOs’ activities already have a certain degree of risk communication embedded in the communities. The results confirm that these CBSOs, through their social networks, can become active agents of change and bridge the communication gap between government and community. Thus, CBSOs’ risk communication provides the opportunity to contribute to the overall resilience-building and disaster risk reduction as part of people-centered actions and local responses to disasters.
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Vranda Jain and Vinita Srivastava
Marketing Management and Economics.
Abstract
Subject area
Marketing Management and Economics.
Study level/applicability
Management courses (MBA level), Courses on Tourism
Case overview
When in India (WII) is a tour company serving the niche segment of Heritage tourism. WII was incorporated in 2011 with the aim to enable foreign and domestic tourists to experience the deeply embedded cultural ethos and heritage of Old Delhi. Their unique tourism product, “the Wonder Pedicabs”, provides leisure rickshaw rides through the Old Delhi lanes. This teaching case focuses on various managerial dimensions of the operations of WII. The case can be used in courses on Marketing as well as Economics. The case discusses the macro and micro environmental forces operating on WII. It deliberates on the economics of various tours offered by WII. It also educates the participants about the process of decision-making that goes into the selection of a tour operator and a tourism product. Hence, it appreciates the significance of need recognition, search for information, evaluation of alternatives and purchase decision as pillars in the process of decision-making process. The case also attempts to educate the participants about the Indian Tourism Sector.
Expected learning outcomes
Comprehend what constitutes a tourism product and types of tourism. Understand consumer decision-making for a tourism product. Highlight the importance of the tourism sector in the Indian economy. Discuss economic concepts pertaining to cost and volume, enabling managerial decision-making.
Supplementary materials
Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.
Subject code
CSS 12: Tourism and Hospitality.
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Taruna Gautam and Raveesh Agarwal
The purpose of this paper is to gain an insight about the strategy of diversification adopted by the company, Prime Technology, to increase its profits. The study is made so as to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to gain an insight about the strategy of diversification adopted by the company, Prime Technology, to increase its profits. The study is made so as to understand the essential aspects which any firm should consider before deciding to venture into a new business so that it may not end in failure.
Design/methodology/approach
The case is basically a narration of the business strategy adopted by Prime Technology and the aftermaths of the decisions taken in haste.
Findings
The paper showcases the experience of Prime Technology related to the correctness of the decisions taken related to the brand positioning and logistics involved with the import of a perishable commodity. It suggests that proper ground work while importing a product like chocolates plays a vital role in deciding the fate of an importer's fortune. Thus correct timing, packing and marketing are all close knit parameters for success.
Practical implications
The case provides traders with an insight in understanding the vitality of the decisions related to logistics and brand positioning while importing a product that is not very popular in the domestic country, and especially if it is a perishable commodity.
Originality/value
This case is an original attempt to illustrate the core drivers and capabilities for achieving success in a diverse field. The insights from the case demonstrate the value of proper planning, strategies to companies that are open to expand and recognize the need to focus the use of scarce value‐adding resources.
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Victoria Door and Clare Wilkinson
Dewey argues throughout Democracy and Education that schooling plays a powerful role in forming how we are disposed towards democracy. Disposition underlies and determines both…
Abstract
Dewey argues throughout Democracy and Education that schooling plays a powerful role in forming how we are disposed towards democracy. Disposition underlies and determines both thinking and activity. A disposition which operates habitually tends to maintain the moral, social and intellectual status quo. A humane democracy demands a disposition which both challenges existing conditions and is concerned to change them for social well-being. A student’s experience at school would ideally need to be one which supports the motivation and skills to foster such a democracy. Dewey claims that we dispose ourselves to think in particular ways. If our mental processes are habitual then teaching and pastoral care may be done in a way that might impose rigidity of thought on students. If the intelligent concern for social well-being is missing from our thinking, the educational experience we offer provides neither model nor means for the development of a humane democracy. Using vignettes from our own experience as educators, together with our interpretation of Dewey’s thinking in Democracy and Education and How We Think, we consider how our own mental processes as educators and dispositions which underlie them might impact for good or for ill on students’ day-to-day experience. We argue that the main responsibility for conditions of experience falls on policymakers, school leadership, management and teachers, who, we conclude with Dewey, should aim to be aware of their disposition and its manifestation in thinking and activity in order to create conditions which make schooling a truly democratic experience.