Core Text Research Articles

Gig Expectations: Literacy Practices, Events, and Texts in the Gig Economy

This article explores the writing and reading requirements of the literacy practices, events, and texts characteristic of work mediated by the online labor platforms of the gig economy, such as Airtasker and Freelancer, which bring together people needing a job done with those willing to do it. These emerging platform-based discourse communities and their associated literacies are a new domain of social activity. Based on an examination of seven gig economy platforms, the present article examines the core literacy event in the gig economy, the posting and bidding for tasks, together with the texts that enhance and support this process. While some tasks require written texts as the outcome or product, all tasks involve the creation of some form of written text as part of doing the work. These texts are both interactional and interpersonal. As well as being a part of negotiating and then getting a task done, they relate to the complexities of building the identities, knowledge, and relationships required of those working in a virtual work space rather than a traditional workplace. While most of these texts reflect familiar text types, the core text cycle is argued to be an “emergent” genre. Implications for education are presented.

Nature‐based Solutions to tackle climate change and restore biodiversity

Nature‐based Solutions to tackle climate change and restore biodiversity

Tradition Versus and Modernity in Laila al-Juhani’s The Waste Paradise: An Intertextual Approach

The aim of this paper is to investigate the issue of intertextuality in the novel Alfirdaws Alyabab (The Waste Paradise) by the female Saudi novelist and short story writer Laila al-Juhani. Intertextuality is a rhetoric and literary technique defined as a textual reference deliberate or subtle to some other texts with a view of drawing more significance to the core text; and hence it is employed by an author to communicate and discuss ideas in a critical style. The narrative structure of Alfirdaws Alyabab (The Waste Paradise) showcases references of religious, literary, historical, and folkloric intertextuality. In analyzing these references, the study follows the intertextual approach. In her novel The Waste Paradise, Laila al-Juhani portrays the suffering of Saudi women who are less tormented by social marginalization than by an inner conflict between openness to Western culture and conformity to cultural heritage. Intertextuality relates to words, texts, or discourses among each other. Moreover, the intertextual relations are subject to reader’s response to the text. The relation of one text with other texts or contexts never reduces the prestige of writing. Therefore, this study, does not diminish the status of the writer or the text; rather, it is in itself a kind of literary creativity. Finally, this paper aims to introduce Saudi writers in general and the female writers in particular to the world literature.

Introducing Critical Literacy to Pre-Service English Teachers through Fairy Tales

The need for a more critical approach to EFL teaching and learning is undeniable, yet little has been done to prepare teachers for teaching with this approach. This article reports one of the cycles on my action research study, involving a teacher educator and 35 pre-service English teachers. Together with the teacher educator, a unit on critical literacy was developed using fairy tales as the core text. In the unit, we introduced pre-service teachers to critical
 literacy through the critical reading, analysis, and rewriting of fairy tales for social transformation. They were assigned to rewrite a fairy tale as a form of social action and to reflect on the choices made in the rewriting process. The re-written fairy tales and the accompanying reflection essay were analysed using a rubric adapted from the four dimensions of critical literacy (Lewison et al., 2002). The re-written fairy tales and the reflections suggest the pre-service teachers’ growing understanding of the non-neutrality of text, ability to read from a different perspective and offer an alternative one, and ability to identify socio-political issues, such as stereotypes, and to subvert them.

Essential Reading for Bioethicists in the Anthropocene Era.

The multiple emergencies of global heating require bioethicists to embrace the dormant, comprehensive bioethics legacy of Van Rensselaer Potter, moving beyond the current narrower focus of the field on medicine and health care. We recommend readings that expand the core literature of bioethics to address key environmental issues. These are Jessica Pierce and Andrew Jameton's The Ethics of Environmentally Responsible Health Care; Dale Jamieson's Reason in a Dark Time; and David Wallace-Well's The Uninhabitable Earth. Because efforts to mitigate climate disasters are likely to be only partially successful, we also recommend the teachings of late Roman Stoicism and core texts of Buddhism, which provide ethical wisdom likely to be needed in the multiple crises of the Anthropocene.

Feeding of the hungry by Jesus (Lk 9:10–17) as model for addressing the COVID-19 hunger challenge in Anambra State, Nigeria

Feeding of the hungry is a theologically significant miracle in the ministry of Jesus, little wonder it is recorded by all the gospel writers (Mathew, Mark, Luke and John). In Judaism, feeding the hungry and hearkening to the needs of the poor and vulnerable are core demands of the religion. In fact, such a service far outweighs any service that anyone could render to God. The hungry people, who Jesus attended to, are desperately hopeless and Jesus exemplified heightened selflessness, love and care. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) hunger is very peculiar and severe. The hunger is a result of the lockdown of commercial activities, which paralysed businesses and grounded economic activities to a halt, and placed both the rich and the poor in the same boat. The appalling situation that prompted this research is that, whilst food and monetary donations are being made by concerned philanthropists, hungry people still abound in the state because of ineffective strategies in the sharing of the palliatives. This research adopted a historical–critical method of analysis and the new method in New Testament interpretation in interpreting the pericope (Lk 9:10–17). Focus was placed on the core text; parallel passages are compared to bring out the original meaning of the text and how it can be pragmatised in Anambra State. Results showed that Jesus effectively satisfied both the physical and spiritual hunger of the crowds (hoi ochloi). He was able to draw the attention of his disciples to the need to cater for the hungry; there is surplus and no wastage. Additionally, compassion, love and selflessness are seen to be important virtues needed for equitable distribution of aid to the poor. If Jesus’ strategies are adopted where applicable, Anambra State can be hunger-free.

From Secular Muslim Feminisim to Islamic Feminism(s) and New Generation Islamic Feminists in Egypt, Iran and Turkey

In dominantly Muslim societies, there have been two major feminist paradigms referred to as “secular Muslim feminism” emerging at late nineteenth century and “Islamic feminism(s)” arising after the 4th women world congress in Beijing in 1995. They evolved in historical contexts where new subjects and identities were being re/fashioned out of shifting combinations of religious, class, ethnic, and national affiliations. On the one hand, secular Muslim feminism joined the western oriented first wave of liberal feminism including secular nationalists, Islamic modernists, humanitarian/human rightists, and democrats. Islamic feminism, on the other hand, is expressed in a single or dominantly religiously grounded discourse taking the Qur'an as its core text. In this article, I reflect on the roots of feminism in the Middle East with a particular emphasis on Egypt, Iran and Turkey. I discuss secular feminism and Islamic feminism, and what makes them distinct. Finally, I discuss whether a new wave of Islamic feminism has been formed with the criticisms of a new generation of Islamic feminists.

Mental health law in Algeria: new amendments, old concerns

Since 2018 Algeria has had a new mental health law intended to be more practical and in line with international standards for patients’ rights and supervision of coercive measures. Despite its simpler formulation compared with the previous law it remains far from what psychiatrists need and what patients hope for. Some chapters are confusing and difficult to grasp. Like previous mental health laws, it is unlikely that the current law will actually be applied, owing to the huge gap between the core text and the available services.

Vernacular Reactions to COVID-19 in Estonia: Crisis Folklore and Coping

The objective of the article is to give an overview of the vernacular reactions to the corona crisis in Estonia, based on COVID-19-related folklore collected from written, oral, and online sources from March to June 2020, i.e., during the emergency situation established due to the coronavirus. The methodological approach of the article was a context-dependent comparative content analysis studying the functioning of thematic texts in the wider trans- and multi-media communicative process. The similarities and modifications in the content, structure, format, and function of the subject matter as well as people’s attitudes, expressions, ways of information synthesis and narrative generation in the respective social context were placed under the microscope. By giving examples of thematic religious lore, memes, and proverbs, we point out how certain core motifs and core texts become actualised whenever a new epidemic occurs. We presume that the recycling of known and tested motifs in order to give meaning to the situation helps mitigate the unpredictability arising from the epidemic and determine the borders of danger and safety with the help of narrative, thereby increasing the sense of coping, although some folk motifs may also create or deepen fears and irrational behaviour.

Mobile Pulmonary Rehabilitation: Feasibility of Delivery by a Mobile Phone-Based Program

Background: Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) has been proven effective but is not well accessed due to transport, time, cost, and physical limitations of patients. We have developed a mobile phone-based PR program (mPR) that could be offered as an alternative for those unable to attend in-person. This was developed following formative research with patients, their families and clinicians. mPR has a core text message program plus an app that includes an action plan, exercise videos, lung visualization, symptom score questionnaire and 1-min sit-to-stand test.Aims: To determine the feasibility of delivering pulmonary rehabilitation by mobile phone.Methods: A 9-week non-randomized (1-arm) pilot study was conducted. Participants were 26 adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease plus four family members, who were offered participation at first assessment or during group PR sessions. Outcomes included satisfaction, engagement with the program, and perceived impacts.Results: Eight people (31%) opted for text messages only, and 18 (69%) chose text messages plus the app. Three people stopped the program early, 20 said they would recommend it to others, 19 said it helped them to feel more supported, 17 said it helped them to change their behavior.Conclusion: It is feasible to deliver PR support via mobile phone, including exercise prescription and support. Our mPR program was appreciated by a small number of people with chronic respiratory disorders and family members. Suggestions for improvements are being used to inform the further development of the program, which will then be tested for effectiveness. Registered with the Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12619000884101 (www.anzctr.org.au).

Invention: The Art of Liberal Arts

Invention: The Art of Liberal Arts

Media Paratext and Constitutional Interpretation

In the fields of media studies and fan studies, the concept of paratext is an analytical paradigm for understanding how audiences consume and interpret media texts, such as a novel or movie. Amid today’s media-rich society, it is all but impossible to encounter a media text in isolation. Rather, we also invariably interact with a wide variety of associated paratexts, from official materials like trailers or marketing to unofficial materials like reviews or fan reactions, which play a role in shaping our interpretation of the core media text. This concept of media paratext provides a compelling analogy for constitutional interpretation. We likewise do not interpret the U.S. Constitution in isolation, but always in association with related texts that inform our understanding of its meaning, such as legal precedent, historical materials, and scholarly work in relevant disciplines. Moreover, in both instances the determination of the meaning of the core text readily can be a contestable and contested endeavor. Ultimately, the comparison between constitutional interpretation and media paratext refutes the proffered objective of originalism by demonstrating the impossibility of any aspiration to sever the interpretation of an iconic text from the full range of paratextual materials that inform our understanding of it.

The Fabulous Journeys of Alice and Pinocchio: Exploring their Parallel Worlds

The Fabulous Journeys of Alice and Pinocchio: Exploring their Parallel Worlds

Children's Books and Curriculum Integration in K-12

Children's Books and Curriculum Integration in K-12 Antonio Causarano (bio) As a former special education teacher supporting students with disabilities in inclusive programs, and as a literacy instructor teaching literacy courses in an urban redesigned program, I have always seen picturebooks as paramount to designing an integrated literacy curriculum that can effectively support students' acquisition of foundational knowledge in content areas (Vučković). The importance of children's books as multimodal texts that scaffold reading comprehension by a balance between illustrations and narrative with content that presents cultural and racial variations is key to see student-centered instruction around the themes created by choosing quality children's books integrated across the curriculum (Zunshine). The overarching question here is how to create a student-centered curriculum using children's books across the curriculum that expose students to diversity in language, culture, and exceptionalities. One of the many possible answers is to see the learner at the center of the reading process and to provide teachers with the theory and the methodological tools to design effective curriculum integration using children's books as core texts in curriculum and instruction (Roger). The Reader at the Center of the Literacy Process Curriculum integration happens when students are placed at the center of the learning process by considering who they are in terms of culture, language, and exceptionalities. This means that the learner is the most important element that determines what texts will be used to design an integrated curriculum that will see students' diversity as the driving force to scaffold the literacy process across the curriculum. The theory that supports an integrated curriculum design is, in my experience, Rosenblatt's reader response theory (Literature; The Reader), which provides the theoretical framework to put the learner at the center of the reading process by choosing texts that mirror the learner's interests. Readers, according to reader response theory, come from different walks of life. The diversity and richness in the reader's background knowledge are key in looking at the processes that underlie the response to the same text and also, more importantly, indicate that the meaning is determined by the dynamic relationship between the reader and the text (Rosenblatt, Literature and The Reader). Reader response theory gives the learner a variety of possible ways in which he or she can contribute to the meaningmaking [End Page 83] process during the reading event. In turn, the reader is an active participant in literacy events across the curriculum, where the content of children's books acts as a cognitive stimulus to delve into the dynamics of the content of the text in relation to the learner's background knowledge. Rosenblatt's (Literature; The Reader) theory sees the reader, the text, and the context of reading as integrated. The three components cannot be separated in the meaning-making process and represent the blueprint for an effective design of integrated curriculum across content areas. The methodological processes that follow from reader response theory clearly point to assessing the background knowledge of the learners in a classroom to match the concepts of books to children and to create a virtuous cycle of learning where readers, texts, and contexts of learning are integrated across the curriculum. Assessment of children's background knowledge and interests represents the stepping stone for designing the curriculum from the bottom up (Columba et al.). I will lay out the components of effective assessment teachers can use to acquire a systematic knowledge of their learners and how to apply this knowledge to design integrated curriculum using children's books. Know Your Students in Depth The first step is to ask the crucial questions that drive your assessment design in an integrated curriculum using children's books. Columba et al. suggest the following questions to shape authentic assessment of learners' interest in the reading process and to differentiate texts to match them to each learner's ability and intrinsic motivation. (1) What is special about this student? (2) What is the student's background (sociocultural, economic, linguistic, etc.)? (3) What values does the learner hold (e.g., cultural or religious)? (4) What does the learner already know, and what can he or she do? (5...

Print Media and Global Pandemics: A Look at the News Reports in the Kenyan Press during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper sets out to gain insight into the reporting by print media during a period of a global pandemic. Print media has long been described as powerful based on its potential to bring about desirable change in our societies - especially by how it presents its news. However, even though various commentaries acknowledge this power, there are growing concerns that this news media is failing to meet this potential, more so during an event of a large-scale outbreak of an infectious disease. The core text of this paper explores these concerns based on the kind of reporting of the coronavirus pandemic in Kenya, by the country’s leading newspaper: The Daily Nation. It focuses on two copies of this newspaper which were published on July 16 and 19, 2020. These newspapers are selected based on having several news articles on the impact of this pandemic in the country. These articles are analysed by way of qualitative content analysis, where the theorisation of what media ought to be and how it should function, which forms a part of this paper’s core text, provides a vital backdrop for conducting it. This analysis establishes that these news articles tend to generate a lot of fear and uncertainty, and for this reason, are thought to be mostly sensationalist in their reports about the pandemic. These reports are by large developed from the government’s official statements on the pandemic and interviews with high ranking government officials and other prominent individuals in the civil society. It is proposed, in light of such findings, that Kenya’s print media should uphold objectivity in the presentation of its news, especially at a time of a global pandemic. This can be achieved, in part, when it organises frequent workshops where its journalists are trained in the area of health reporting. Its editorial team should also encourage its journalists to conduct extensive research in the build-up of news stories, which would mean avoiding overreliance on official statements and interviews with prominent individuals. It is assumed that insights from the not so prominent can also be illuminating, and should therefore be considered in the production of news at a time of a pandemic.

Artworks as illustrations in Hungarian high school Mathematics textbooks

Three different series of Hungarian Mathematics textbooks used in grade 9-12 education for the past 30 years have been analysed in this research. Our aim is to show and evaluate how the visual arts have been connected to mathematical ideas in these textbooks. We have applied the six dimensions of evaluation, which have recently been introduced in (Diego-Mantec on, Blanco, Búa Ares, & González Sequeiros, 2019) to categorise the illustrations of the three different series. We show examples for each dimension from the textbooks, and we find that even if the number of artistic illustrations in these coursebooks have significantly increased, in most cases these sporadic examples are not closely related to the mathematical context, mainly used for ornamental purposes to decorate the core text. Based on this classification we conclude that the number of artistic illustrations with underlying math concepts making students' participation more active could and should be significantly increased.
 Subject Classification: 97U20

Translating paratextual elements of online news texts from English into Ukrainian

The paratext is defined as textual and visual elements that surround and support the core text. It is also any material additional to, appended to or external to the content, which has functions of explaining, defining, instructing, supporting, or adding background information, the relevant opinions and attitudes of scholars, translators and reviewers. The article examines the significance of the paratext and its components in the translation of online news texts. The objective of the paper is to demarcate a theoretical framework based on literary criticism, media and translation studies, which can provide the ground for media translators and researchers. In particular, this paper determines the paratext and paratextual elements within the scope of news discourse; singles out the most potent paratextual elements in news translation; and presents the most frequent challenges of rendering paratextual elements in the translation of online news texts from English into Ukrainian. The research provides some insights brought by the notion of the paratext to translation studies, as well as the neighbouring disciplines of digital and media studies. The analysis highlights the complex paratextual elements, which have never ceased to challenge translators, mainly headlines, subheadings and leads of online news texts.

Print Media and Global Pandemics: A Look at the News Reports in the Kenyan Press during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper sets out to gain insight into the reporting by print media during a period of a global pandemic. Print media has long been described as powerful based on its potential to bring about desirable change in our societies - especially by how it presents its news. However, even though various commentaries acknowledge this power, there are growing concerns that this news media is failing to meet this potential, more so during an event of a large-scale outbreak of an infectious disease. The core text of this paper explores these concerns based on the kind of reporting of the coronavirus pandemic in Kenya, by the country's leading newspaper: The Daily Nation. It focuses on two copies of this newspaper which were published on July 16 and 19, 2020. These newspapers are selected based on having several news articles on the impact of this pandemic in the country. These articles are analysed by way of qualitative content analysis, where the theorization of what media ought to be and how it should function, which forms a part of this paper's core text, provides a vital backdrop for conducting it. This analysis establishes that these news articles tend to generate a lot of fear and uncertainty, and for this reason, are thought to be mostly sensationalist in their reports about the pandemic. These reports are by large developed from the government's official statements on the pandemic and interviews with high-ranking government officials and other prominent individuals in the civil society. It is proposed, in light of such findings, that Kenya's print media should uphold objectivity in the presentation of its news, especially at a time of a global pandemic. This can be achieved, in part, when it organizes frequent workshops where its journalists are trained in the area of health reporting. Its editorial team should also encourage its journalists to conduct extensive research in the build-up of news stories, which would mean avoiding overreliance on official statements and interviews with prominent individuals. It is assumed that insights from the not so prominent can also be illuminating, and should therefore be considered in the production of news at a time of a pandemic.

Kultuuripärand ja digitaalne lugemine: raamatu ja platvormi vahel / Cultural heritage and digital reading: between book and platform

Kultuuripärandi säilimine kultuurimälus, selle osalus kultuuriidentiteedi väärtustamises ja kultuuri kestlikkuse tagamises sõltub tema meelespidamise viisidest. Tänapäeval on nendeks viisideks transmeedialisus ja digitaalne lugemine. Pärandi vahendajatena ilmuvad raamatute kõrvale digitaalsed platvormid. Nende eesmärk on ühtlasi kultiveerida uusi kirjaoskusi, mis ei põhine üksnes verbaalsel emakeelel, sest kultuuris osalemine eeldab üha enam ka pildiliste ja helilis-pildiliste märgisüsteemide valdamist nii tõlgendamises kui eneseväljenduses. Artikkel põhineb TÜ transmeedia uurimisrühma kogemusel (humanitaar)hariduslike platvormide loomisel, tuues selle pinnalt välja mõned digitaalses keskkonnas eriti selgelt esile tulevad kultuurisemiootilised printsiibid.
 
 Traditionally, books have been considered as one of the most valuable elements of culture (Kroó 2019, Torop 2019). Mediating unique literary/artistic texts, they also appear as models of culture. The book as a model of culture represents readiness to understand culture as a whole and the same attitude is echoed within the digital book. The changes that digitalization has brought along do not concern merely shifts in formats or new types of texts. From the perspective of cultural heritage, new ways of communicating with literary texts and changes in reading practices matter most. Hereby we suggest that digital reading is reading, watching and listening a conceptualized whole on a platform, where primary and secondary texts (and/or their fragments), interpretations, intersemiotic translations and instructions for users exist together. This conceptual whole has a transmedial nature.
 Digital educational platforms may both undermine and facilitate accessibility of education as a common good. However, in the situation of the deluge of digital information, delimiting and systematizing information for educational needs is desperately needed and digital platforms offer a solution. Together with the Transmedia Research Group working at the department of semiotics at the University of Tartu, we have been developing the platform Education on Screen (Haridus Ekraanil) for secondary school students to help cultivate both cultural and digital literacies. In the present article we give an overview of the cultural semiotic principles that have been governing our work and that we suggest are especially relevant in the digital cultural space.
 The digital environment allows to overcome spatial limitations of the pre-digital media and highlight the heterogeneity and fluidity of literary experience. Providing almost unlimited storage capacities, it also brings into question the principles of selection and organization of the material, raising new theoretical problems for textual analysis, from the unit for textual analysis to the boundary between text and context etc (Bolin 2010, 74).
 We propose the distinction between crossmediality and transmediality as a methodological starting point. The crossmedia aspect hereby refers to the way the publishing of a literary text is increasingly accompanied by other (online) texts that together make up a relatively coordinated whole. In most cases these are compressed and fragmentary versions of the core text such as book trailers, book covers featuring a still frame from a cinematic adaptation, social media profiles etc. Thus, the crossmedia aspect consists in a pragmatic communicative strategy directed towards the receiver and the target text. The transmedia aspect concerns the spontaneous pulverisation of a text into a diversity of texts in different media. The spontaneity refers to the relative unpredictability of the artistic language of the authors of these new texts, which can appear over a very long period of time as we have seen in the continuing adaptations of canonical texts. This is in contrast with the coordinated manner in which most crossmedia texts enter culture over a much more limited time frame. Another distinction between the two is that the transmedia process is dominated by the source text as the individual parts are not coordinated mutually.
 Printed book represents the holistic dimension of culture by offering the possibility of complementing the core text with forewords, illustrations, comments etc. Digital book uses the same possibilities in a more dynamic manner, because its multimodality is much richer and audio, audiovisual as well as other modes can be integrated into the whole in an organic manner. While both printed book and digital book are still based on one core text, then digital platform allows for the synthesis of divergence and convergence and creation of a conceptual whole on the basis of a series of fragments and interpretations. Such transmedial whole reflects the value of the canonic literary text in culture and at the same time allows for the experience of analysis of its intersemiotic and multimodal interpretations.

Diamonds at the margin of empires: ‘baseball complex’ in the Japanese American internment and colonized Taiwan

ABSTRACT This article studies baseball played at ‘the margin of empires.’ It attends to the manifestations of ‘baseball complex’ – the persistent sociopsychological affective force for baseball that derives from personal experiences/memories and political/historical institutions – in two geohistorical contexts: Japanese American internment in the US during World War II and Taiwan around the 1930s under Japanese rule. Besides historical references, newspaper reports and critical scholarship, two films are taken as core texts of analysis: Desmond Nakano’s American Pastime (2007), which enacts a story of baseball in the Topaz Relocation Center in Utah, USA during the second World War, and Umin Boya’s Kano (2014), which tells the story of Kano baseball team emerging from Taiwan under Japanese colonization. My reading draws attention to the stratified power structure that characterizes the margin of empires and suggests to move beyond the binary comprehension of baseball as either a tool of acculturation and colonization (for the imperial and dominant) or a medium of social ascendancy and cultural assimilation (for the colonized and minoritized). I argue that baseball not only could be utilized by those holding power or those obviously minoritized/colonized, but could be needed urgently by those caught in-between the powerful and the disempowered, such as the marginalized whites assigned to guard over Japanese Americans on sites of the internment or the Japanese relegated to Japan’s colony in Taiwan. Moreover, by foregrounding baseball’s trans-Pacific trajectory and exploring baseball’s entanglement with the triangulated power processes between the US, Japan, and Taiwan, I challenge the static meaning of baseball while testing out cinema’s value in simulating historical situations and changes.