Accommodation Practices Research Articles

Role of an Agent in (un)Keeping the Multiethnic State Together: The Case of the Secession of Kosovo

This paper proposes an explanation for the Kosovo secession from Serbia/Yugoslavia. This is achieved by disaggregating the ‘reality’ of the state through the process tracing method, which compares the cases of the Tito and Milosevic triangles of accommodation practices. The focus is on the games of survival practiced at the middle levels of political life, around the local state policy implementer and the consequences of his removal. This paper examines not only why, but how the secession of Kosovo occurred when it did. It shows that the strength of authoritarianism or the regime-oppression capability is not what held the Serbia and Kosovo together; rather, it was the policies of accommodations which one leader did better than the other

Customer responses to intercultural communication accommodation strategies in hospitality service encounters

With the increasing pace of globalization, hospitality firms are serving more and more international customers from distinctively different cultural backgrounds. In order to enhance intercultural consumption experiences, some hospitality firms have implemented two types of communication accommodation strategies: (a) match the cultural background of the service provider and the customer and/or (b) use the customer's native language to facilitate communications. This study aims to examine how such intercultural communication accommodations influence customers’ service encounter experiences. A 4 (communication accommodation: language congruence, ethnic congruence, language and ethnic congruence, and no accommodation)×2 (focus of communication accommodation: intercultural vs. interpersonal) factorial between-subject experimental design was employed using videotaped hotel check-in scenarios as experimental stimuli. The findings suggest that consumers respond to communication accommodation strategies with increased felt pleasure, arousal, and dominance. Furthermore, accommodation strategies contributed to the perceived symbolic value of the service encounter, especially when employees expressed the intercultural focus of communication accommodation practices. The study results provide insights for hospitality practitioners in managing service encounters in today's highly global world.

Phenomenology and clinical correlates of family accommodation in pediatric anxiety disorders

Despite evidence documenting high prevalence of family accommodation in pediatric obsessive–compulsive disorder, examination in other pediatric anxiety disorders is limited. Preliminary evidence suggests that family accommodation is common amongst children with anxiety disorders; however, the impact on clinical presentation and functional impairment has not been addressed. This study assessed the nature and clinical correlates of family accommodation in pediatric anxiety, as well as validating a mechanistic model. Participants included 112 anxious youth and their parents who were administered a diagnostic clinical interview and measure of anxiety severity, as well as questionnaires assessing internalizing and externalizing symptoms, family accommodation and functional impairment. Some form of accommodation was present in all families. Family accommodation was associated with increased anxiety severity and externalizing behaviors, having a diagnosis of separation anxiety, and increased functional impairment. Family accommodation partially mediated the relationship between anxiety severity and functional impairment, as well as externalizing behaviors and functional impairment. Family accommodation is common in pediatric anxiety disorders, and is associated with more severe clinical presentations and functional impairment. These findings highlight the importance of parental involvement in treatment and the need to specifically target accommodation practices during interventions to mitigate negative outcomes in anxious youth. Further studies utilizing longitudinal data are needed to validate mechanistic models.

Teaching with Trauma: Disability Pedagogy, Feminism, and the Trigger Warnings Debate

Recently, a heated debate has risen in Academia following numerous student initiatives petitions for the formal incorporation of rigger warnings in course syllabi. When contextualized within the intersecting politics of disability and feminist pedagogies, a number of fundamental contentions within this debate become apparent. First, grave misunderstandings remain regarding about practices of accommodation and the possibility of establishing the classroom as a “safe space.” Second, resistance within the academy to understand trauma as a pedagogical issue illustrate a failure to consider experiences of and responses to trauma as issues of disability (in)justice. Through an exploration of these issues, it becomes evident that the conflicting approaches to trauma in the classroom demand the more integrated, collaborative praxis of a “Feminist Disability Studies Pedagogy” (FDSP). When approached through this hybrid pedagogy, the conversation shifts from whether we should use trigger warnings, to why trauma itself is an imperative social justice issue within our classrooms.

Interpreting the Impact of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test on Second Language Students Within an Argument-Based Validation Framework

This article draws on Kane’s (2006) argument-based validation framework to synthesize evidence derived from a large-scale, mixed-method explanatory study on the impact of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) on second language (L2) students. The purpose of the OSSLT is to ensure that students have acquired the essential reading and writing skills that apply to all subject areas in the Ontario provincial curriculum up to the end of Grade 9 in Canada. Kane’s framework is used both to specify the proposed interpretations and uses of the OSSLT results by laying out the network of inferences and assumptions involved in this test and to elaborate whether the proposed interpretations and uses have been supported by empirical evidence from the study. Findings from the study show that the results of the OSSLT, a test constructed and normed for first language English speakers, should be interpreted differently and with caution for second language students. By synthesizing the empirical evidence within an argument-based validation framework, we can fully understand the impact of the OSSLT in relation to test design, test accommodation, and literacy classroom practices in the Canadian context.

High School Principals' Resources, Knowledge, and Practices regarding the Returning Student with Concussion

To determine high school principals' self-reported resources, knowledge, and practices regarding the management of students returning to school following concussion. A cross-sectional survey of public high school principals in the state of Ohio assessed respondent and school demographics, respondent concussion training, school resources, and monitoring and accommodation practices for students with concussion. Of the 695 eligible high school principals, 465 (66.9%) completed the survey. Over one-third of principals (37.2%) had some form of concussion training in the past year. Those with training were more likely to promote training of other school faculty (57.4% vs 30.6%, P<.001). Principals were asked to identify school personnel who are designated as case managers for students with concussion. Schools without a designated case manager were less likely to have an athletic trainer (P<.001) and had fewer students (median 424.5 vs 599) than schools with a case manager. Principals could list at least 1 faculty designee who communicates with health professionals more often for student-athletes than for nonathletes (P<.001). Most principals were willing to provide students with short-term academic accommodations, but 30.1% required a health professional's note prior to making any academic changes. Only 32% of principals reported providing families with a written academic plan following concussion. Schools differ in their resources and management strategies for students returning to school after concussion. Understanding these differences can help health professionals to overcome potential barriers in managing their school-aged patients with concussion.

Exploring Gay Couples’ Experience With Sexual Dysfunction After Radical Prostatectomy: A Qualitative Study

This exploratory study examines the experience of three gay couples managing sexual dysfunction as a result of undergoing a radical prostatectomy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted as part of a larger study at an urban hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Interview transcripts were transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The authors clustered 18 subordinate themes under 3 superordinate themes: (a) acknowledging change in sexual experience (libido, erectile function, sexual activity, orgasmic function); (b) accommodating change in sexual experience (strategies: emphasizing intimacy, embracing plan B, focus on the other; barriers: side-effect concerns, loss of naturalness, communication breakdown, failure to initiate, trial and failure, partner confounds); and (c) accepting change in sexual experience (indicators: emphasizing health, age attributions, finding a new normal; barriers: uncertain outcomes, treatment regrets). Although gay couples and heterosexual couples share many similar challenges, we discovered that gay men have particular sexual roles and can engage in novel accommodation practices, such as open relationships, that have not been noted in heterosexual couples. All couples, regardless of their level of sexual functioning, highlighted the need for more extensive programming related to sexual rehabilitation. Equitable rehabilitative support is critical to assist homosexual couples manage distress associated with prostatectomy-related sexual dysfunction.

Freedom of religion and belief in the European workplace

In this concluding contribution to the special issue on practices of reasonable accommodation for religion or belief in the workplace, the striking differences and similarities between the six country studies dealing with England, the Netherlands, Denmark, Bulgaria, France and Turkey are discussed. An important observation that emerges from all six analyses, and gives reason for considerable optimism as regards the development of protection of religious freedom in Europe, is that reasonable accommodations are making headway on the ground, even if formal law has not given them binding force. This conclusion ends by addressing the role of European Union (EU) law in promoting labour market policies that can successfully reduce the impact of exclusions and promote the greatest possible inclusion with regard to religious affiliation and/or belief, and also proposes some specific avenues for EU initiative in this area.

Disability Accommodation in Nonstandard and Precarious Employment Arrangements

This study, based on data from a large nationally representative sample of Canadian workers with disabilities, examines the relationship between employment arrangements and the accommodation of disability in the workplace. We address whether workers with disabilities in nonstandard arrangements are more likely to have unmet accommodation needs and if other key dimensions of precarious employment mediate the relationship between nonstandard work and accommodation. Results from multivariate models suggest that despite disability legislation, practices of workplace disability accommodation parallel the unequal distribution of other labor market protections, with workers in more precarious arrangements (i.e. those in nonpermanent, low-wage, and nonunion jobs) at greater risk of having unmet needs.

Middle School Teachers' Assignment of Test Accommodations

Twenty middle school special education teachers from five states were interviewed in order to gain insight into their understanding of accommodation practices. Interview questions solicited information about teachers' understanding of test accommodations, the decision-making process they employed when choosing accommodations, and their reasons for assignment of specific accommodations to individual students. Interviews revealed a general lack of knowledge about the theoretical and empirical basis for making accommodation assignment decisions. Drawing on information gained from these interviews as well as previous research on teachers' and test accommodations, a list of professional development considerations is shared. Considerations are intended to provide a partial solution toward reducing the gap between research and practice in the appropriate assignment of test accommodations.

Food Waste Bins: Bridging Infrastructures and Practices

Recent years have seen an increasing number of councils begin separate food waste collections from domestic premises, a change that has resulted in householders having to sort food waste and keep it in separate bins until collection. Yet bins – of any kind – have been subject to little investigation, despite being a central element of the waste infrastructure. This paper attends to this omission by examining food bins. First of all, it explores the ways that bins have agency through an exploration of how their presence has affected waste practices. We find that their agency is three-fold: it is symbolic, relational and, importantly, material – an aspect which has been overlooked all too often in analyses of material culture and consumption. Secondly, we show how this material agency can be troubling: we explore how this agency is managed by households through practices of accommodation and resistance. Examining the food bin's agency and how it is consumed gives an insight into the implementation of, and engagement with, waste policy ‘on the ground’. This allows us to make some suggestions for how to improve the implementation of this policy. This paper also opens up two new areas of study: first, a more sustained and developed exploration of bins, giving some pointers as to other possible issues. Secondly, and more broadly, the paper examines the extent to which the objects that materialize policy can be useful in the implementation of that policy, especially if the policy seeks ‘behaviour change’.

Accommodation Practices for English Language Learners in States’ Mathematics Assessments

Background/Context Testing accommodations have been widely utilized as a way of increasing the validity of content assessments for English language learner (ELL) students. However, concerns have also arisen regarding the appropriateness of accommodation use, including the accessibility and fairness of accommodations. While many states have developed ELL-specific accommodation policies and guidelines, little research has been available on how the accommodation policies are carried out in practice. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The present study investigated two states’ accommodation policies, specifically for the states’ respective large-scale Grade 8 math assessments, and conducted a case study to examine teachers’ understanding of the policies and uses. The study aimed to identify issues to consider for an appropriate use of accommodations and provide useful information for policymakers to improve their accommodation policies. Research Design The study utilized a qualitative method employing teacher surveys and interviews. The survey and interview instruments were developed based on previous literature and experts’ feedback. The interview transcripts were coded by two researchers using a systematic coding scheme. Descriptive statistics of the responses were computed to observe trends across and within districts and schools. The results were also compared between states or between ELL and math teachers when applicable. Conclusions/Recommendations Despite the limitation of the small sample in this study, the findings of the study offer practical implications for policymakers and educators in the use of accommodations for ELL students. The study found considerable variation reported by teachers with regard to the perception of accommodation decision makers, selection criteria, and the types of accommodations allowed in each state's math assessment. This variation raised serious concerns regarding the adequacy of the accommodation uses and the comparability of accommodated test results across schools. In this paper, we discussed a number of possible reasons for teachers’ reported difficulty in keeping up with state policies: (a) lack of clear guidelines in making accommodation decisions and implementing accommodations in a standardized way, (b) lack of or limited opportunities in receiving information and communicating about accommodations among decision makers and teachers, and (c) limited resources and logistical difficulties. To support an appropriate use of accommodations for teachers, we recommend that states make efforts to provide comprehensive, operationalized guidelines for ELL accommodations, monitor the use of the guidelines, and hold regular professional meetings for ELL and content teachers.

GOPIKA SOLANKI, ADJUDICATION IN RELIGIOUS FAMILY LAWS: CULTURAL ACCOMMODATION, LEGAL PLURALISM, AND GENDER EQUALITY IN INDIA (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011)

People in Quebec and elsewhere who have watched with fascination and trepidation the proceedings of the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences [CCAPRCD], or read its 2008 final report, 1 will this find this book refreshing and intellectually stimulating. Gopika Solanki, an assistant professor of political science at Carleton University, is a rare breed. Trained as a political scientist, she approaches her research question— “How do multireligious and multiethnic societies construct accommodative arrangements that can both facilitate cultural diversity and ensure women’s rights?” 2 through an “ethnography of legal adjudication of marriage and divorce across formal and informal arenas in Mumbai.” 3 While her book is being published as part of the Cambridge Studies in Law and Society, it could, arguably, easily have been published under another disciplinary imprint. While it is common sense to want to study family law through the lenses of state law and its formal court proceedings and decisions, in a country as multireligious and multiethnic as India any observer would miss the everyday life reality of adjudication, which occurs not only in courtrooms but also in a multitude of other sites such as religious communities, civic organizations and women’s groups; in fact family law in India is not based on legal centralism but instead on legal pluralism, meaning that the family is governed through a sharing of authority between the state and ethno-religious groups. Adjudication is thus shared—for instance, the state governs interreligious marriages, allows citizens to opt out of religious laws, but retains the authority to enforce the division of property—and because of that it allows diversity, dialogue and negotiations within and between religious and ethnic groups. It is the process of negotiation that ultimately defines the boundaries of the autonomy enjoyed by religious groups and how far the law of the state will reach. Of course, it is not because group claims can be accommodated and multicultural policies implemented that there will not be any conflicts, confrontations or contestations. The challenge is to avoid the latter problems, as Solanki makes clear, through the construction of “policies that can facilitate equality between and among diverse ethno-religious groups while ensuring gender equality within these groups in the matter of religious family

A practice‐based critique of English as a Lingua Franca

ABSTRACT: This paper identifies several key issues that have emerged through the debate over English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and suggests a practice‐based perspective—which treats language not as a fixed system but as an emergent product of speakers’ practices—as a guide for reconsidering some fundamental assumptions of the ELF research project. In particular, this paper suggests viewing ELF not as a variety, but as an activity type, where the goal of interaction involves the need to communicate in a situation where the participants do not share the same first language. It claims that such a reconceptualization can help us explore the accommodative practices of ELF speakers with greater sensitivity to issues of power, enrich our understanding of intelligibility and how it is mediated by language ideologies, and develop a pedagogy that emphasizes greater cross‐cultural awareness and sensitivity.

Emerging Powers in an Age of Disorder

Randall Schweller THE DRAMATIC RISE OF CHINA AND INDIA AMONG OTHERS HAS SET THE STAGE for a fundamental rethinking of world politics in an age of the waning dominance of US power as a force for remaking the world in its own image. While Pax Americana is not yet teetering on the edge of collapse, the consensus opinion is that the relative decline of the United States is probably irreversible and its unipolar moment will soon give way to something new. A to multi-polarity is one way of describing this shift. It tells us that several great powers will emerge to challenge US primacy. That is all. The more important question is: What sort of global order will emerge on the other side of the transition from unipolarity to multipolarity? Will it be one of peace and plenty or and scarcity? On this issue, experts are divided into two camps, pessimists and optimists. Pessimists believe that the coming multipolar world--like the one that held sway over international politics from 1648 to 1945--will be permeated by problems of insecurity, rivalry, arms races, nationalism, and fierce competition for scarce resources. (1) Embedding their arguments in examinations of historical power shifts, such as those provoked by the rise of Napoleonic France or the unification of Germany in 1871, they predict that the United States and China will soon engage in an intense security competition with considerable potential for war. This conflict forecast is grounded in the assumption that history unfolds in repeating cycles of global war that destroy the old international order and replace it with a new one. Consistent with the time's metaphor of history, time has no direction; apparent motions are merely stages of ever-present and never-changing cycles. The future, therefore, will resemble the past. In contrast, optimists see a smooth evolutionary transition from unipolarity to multipolarity, as the great powers, old and new, find ways to build and jointly manage a new global architecture that preserves the essential features of the existing liberal order. (2) For them, multipolarity implies multilateralism. Embracing principles and practices of restraint, accommodation, reciprocity, and cooperation, the great powers will work in concert to establish mutually acknowledged roles and responsibilities to comanage an evolving but stable international order that benefits all of them. The return of multipolarity will usher in a new age of liberal peace, prosperity, and progress built on the rule of law. Swords will be beaten into ploughshares, and a harmony of interests will reign among the states and peoples of the world. It is a vision of concert, grounded in the assumption that history moves forward in a progressive direction--one consistent with the time's arrow metaphor of historical direction. (3) I argue that the prediction of great-power is overly pessimistic, whereas the expectation of a great-power concert is too hopeful. Fears that China's rise will incite war with the United States are unwarranted. The destructiveness of nuclear weapons and the benefits of economic globalization have made war among the great powers unthinkable. The cycle of hegemonic war and change has been replaced by a perpetual peace, just as liberals claim. Ironically, this is precisely why optimists are too sanguine about the future. International order--particularly one that is legitimate, efficient, and dynamic--requires periodic global wars, roughly every 100 years or so. Otherwise, inertia and decay set in. Hegel pointed this out in 1821: War is not to be regarded as an absolute evil. Just as the blowing of the winds preserves the sea from foulness which would be the result of a long calm, so also corruption in nations would be the result of prolonged, let alone 'perpetual,' peace.4 Whether domestic or international, political systems undisturbed by war cannot cleanse and renew themselves; like still seas, they become foul. …

The State, the Rebel and the Chief: Public Authority and Land Disputes in Assam, India

ABSTRACTBased upon an ethnographic study of two land disputes in the rural Assamese district of Karbi Anglong (India), this article challenges the idea that the entry of new institutional players, with their multiple sets of rules, inevitably leads to open institutional conflict. Although a wide range of political actors are involved in the regulation of land tenure in Karbi Anglong, they cannot be regarded as institutional structures ready to undercut one another. As in other parts of Northeast India, none of the claimants of public power involved —‘the state’, ‘the rebel’ or ‘the chief’— attain full sovereignty, which forces them to exercise authority predominantly through practices of negotiation and accommodation, and only selective contestation. If open institutional conflict does occur, as in the Dhansiri forest and the Singhason plateau cases studied here, this is due to the fact that one of the institutional players has overstretched and attempted to exercise authority beyond its realm of power. This article thus argues for a more agency‐oriented method of analysis in the study of land relations. The focus on everyday interactions between ‘the state’, ‘the rebel’ and ‘the chief’ in Karbi Anglong is a first attempt in that regard.

La couverture médiatique des accommodements raisonnables dans la presse écrite québécoise : Vérification de l’hypothèse du tsunami médiatique

From March 2006 to May 2008, the province of Québec engaged in a contentious public debate on diversity and reasonable accommodation practices. This study examines the evolution of press coverage in eleven Québec dailies dedicated to the issue of reasonable accommodation over the intensive twelve-month period during which the concept entered the public agenda. We examine the “media tsunami” hypothesis, an expanded version of the media hype theory developed by Vasterman (2005). The hypothesis posits that the media, in dealing with an emergent social issue in a relatively short period of time, amplify the importance of the issue through successive waves of press coverage that gain in intensity and magnitude over time. In doing so, they can manufacture social “crises.”

Meta-analysis on the Effectiveness of Extra time as a Test Accommodation for Transitioning Adolescents With Learning Disabilities

The accommodation of students with learning disabilities (LD) on mandatory high stakes tests continues to heighten concern over the equity and effectiveness of current practices. As students transition from high school, they are required to complete timed graduation tests and postsecondary entrance examinations. The most common accommodation accessed by transitioning adolescents with LD is extended time. In order to inform test accommodation practices, a meta-analysis was conducted to address whether test scores from accommodated (i.e., extended time only) and standard test administrations are comparable for transitioning adolescents with LD as compared to their normally achieving peers. The results of the meta-analyses raised more questions than answers and highlighted the need for future research in this area.

The Bouchard-Taylor Report on Cultural and Religious Accommodation: Multiculturalism by Any Other Name?

In 2008, Gerard Bouchard and Charles Taylor released an important report as Co-Chairs of the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences. The Commission was set up by the Quebec government in response to public discontent concerning reasonable accommodation of religious and cultural practices. In the report, four delicate issues, among others, are examined: cultural integration, collective identity, church-state relations and the most appropriate procedures for handling cultural and religious harmonization requests. Altogether, the Co-Chairs’ positions propound a normative conception of sociocultural integration in a pluralist society. This conception, that may be called is conceived by the commissioners as an alternative to The text examines whether interculturalism, as conceived in the report, is anything but a version of multiculturalism. The contention is that it is a rose by any other name.

Change, Resistance, Accommodation and Engagement in Indigenous Contexts: A Comparative (Canada–Australia) Perspective

In Australia as in Canada, Indigenous contemporary realities can be approached as locally constituted responses to colonial history and to state policies and agendas. This paper compares the ways two Indigenous groups, former hunters and gatherers, have, since their ‘forced’ settlement, reproduced and transformed their identities and their worlds. The comparison is based on two selected topics: the politics of identity and identification; and local responses to the policies of self-determination/self-management. Considering both Indigenous kin-based socialities and their ontological differences provides clues to a better understanding of Indigenous people's complex practices of resistance and accommodation to, and engagement with, state agendas and the values of modernity and settler society. The two Indigenous groups selected are the Kukatja, an Aboriginal group in Australia's Western Desert, and the Atikamekw, an Indian Nation of north-central Quebec.