Disciplinary Cultures Research Articles

The complex chemistry of diversity and inclusion: a 30-year synthesis

Dr. Margaret-Ann Armour’s career as a research chemist, educator, and advocate spanned more than 40 years. Much of her work took place within a disciplinary culture ignorant of the scholarship supporting organizational change towards inclusive excellence. Her contributions are extensively covered in other articles in this special issue, and her achievements are all the more remarkable given that her colleague, Dr. Gordon Freeman, held gender-biased attitudes that he shared in a peer reviewed article in a national science journal. Three decades later, another Canadian chemist, Dr. Tomáš Hudlický, published a peer reviewed essay in an international chemistry journal that included his views on the negative impacts of diversity initiatives on organic synthesis research. Both articles were retracted, but clearly a faulty and pervasively biased peer review system enabled the distribution of prejudiced opinions that were neither informed by demonstrated expertise, nor supported by data. These two events are reflective of challenges that Dr. Armour faced in her efforts to diversify chemical sciences. We need to build on her critical work to increasing awareness about inclusive excellence in chemistry, as well as educating scientists on what constitutes an informed opinion. Here, we use Freeman and Hudlický incidents as case studies to indicate how pervasive bias can be superficially perceived as scientific scholarship. Furthermore, we use analogies of analytical processes to illustrate how talent gets systemically excluded. Finally, we provide recommendations to chemistry community members for improving outcomes in terms of synthesis of new knowledge, ideas, and solutions, toward leveraging all the available human talent and creating an environment that is both excellent and inclusive.

Peer Disruption and Learning: Links between Suspensions and the Educational Achievement of Non-Suspended Students

Abstract To evaluate the net effects of classroom disciplinary practices, policy makers and educators must understand not only their effects on disciplined students but also their effects on non-disciplined peers. In this study, we estimate the link between peer suspensions and non-suspended students’ learning trajectories in a California school district where middle and high school students took up to twelve basic skills tests in mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) over the course of the 2009–10, 2010–11, and 2011–12 school years. We find that Hispanic students, students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, English language learners, students enrolled in special education, and low-achieving students are disproportionately exposed to classmate suspensions. Analyses with student and classroom fixed effects show that student achievement in mathematics increases when their classmates receive suspensions, particularly suspensions attributed to disruptive behavior. We find no association between classmate suspension and ELA achievement. Because these results come from schools in which suspensions are relatively rare events, they may not generalize to settings with draconian disciplinary cultures. Nonetheless, our findings imply that suspensions, when used appropriately, can improve the academic achievement of non-suspended students, particularly for students from vulnerable populations.

Academic writing for publication: Putting the ‘international’ into context

There is a growing body of research on the impact of English-medium publication and associated higher education regimes on knowledge construction. However, not much is known about how academics outside the Global North make decisions about how and where to publish. Through a comparative case study, this article sets out to explore how academics in Ethiopia and Oman engage in writing for publication. Taking an academic literacies lens, the analysis reveals that their decisions were shaped by institutional values at the local level, as well as global hierarchies around knowledge construction. However, issues around identity, languages and disciplinary cultures also influenced how academics chose to position themselves in relation to local and international journals. The findings point to the need for new partnerships between journals in the Global North and South to prevent ‘publication drain’, and for universities to explore ways to address inequalities perpetuated through journal ranking and language hierarchies.

Disciplinary Culture and Effective Teaching: A Cultural Anthropological Study

During the last couple of decades, many researchers have been trying to explicate "effective teaching" in higher education. As a result, when one searches the term, a vast amount of papers and research reports pop up in the literature, involving lists of attributes and competencies of effective teachers. But the impressive point is that "effectiveness" has been viewed mostly from a technical vantage point and disciplinary differences have not received proportionate attention. At the same time, some sociologists of science began to view disciplines as tribes and territories who own their exclusive norms, rituals, and values. Hence, this research aims at investigating effective teaching in higher education within the framework of disciplinary culture. Methodologically, the research may be deemed as interpretive ethnography as it aims at representing emically how members of disciplinary cultures perceive and interpret effective teaching. Hence, based on Tony Becher classification of disciplines into civil and rural, two postgraduate classes were selected, namely from Pure Mathematics (involving 15 students to represent civil disciplines) and Education Studies (involving 18 students to represent rural disciplines). To collect data, the researcher deployed non-participant observation for a full semester and informal interviews were also conducted at regular intervals. The field notes and interview protocols were analyzed thematically to produce meaningful categories for results representation. As credibility was of great concern in the research, three strategies were used for this purpose namely member check, peer debriefing and prolonged engagement. Based on the interpretations, members of rural disciplines evaluate teaching as effective when it focuses on classic texts, cares about human and social issues, approaches laymen jargons, emphasizes understanding, appreciates variety of teaching strategies and learning styles, holds a critical stance towards cultural issues, and takes on a lenient approach in marking. On the other side, members of civil disciplines evaluate teaching as effective when it focuses on updated resources, is content-oriented, approaches professional terminology, emphasizes practicality, and takes on a tough stance on marking.

Integrating Cultural Perspectives into International Interdisciplinary Work

AbstractThere are well‐established methods for working in interdisciplinary natural resource management settings, but place‐based cultural differences are often poorly integrated into interdisciplinary projects. Intercultural adequacy is necessary to ensure that water management strategies are acceptable within the local contexts of water users. In this study we followed four cohorts of graduate students from Canada, Chile, Cuba, and the United States that participated in an international graduate‐level water resource management course hosted at the Universidad de Concepción in Chile. The North American students participated in post‐experience surveys and interviews to assess changes in their interdisciplinary and intercultural comfort levels. The interviews and survey identified factors that enhanced or detracted from their progress towards integrating disciplinary and cultural differences into their work. Though course material promoted interdisciplinary collaborations across various disciplinary cultures, participants noted that traditional methods of integrating did not adequately bridge differences in place‐based cultural worldviews. We propose a framework developed during the experience to integrate place‐based cultural differences into all phases of the interdisciplinary research and natural resource management processes.

Character Values in Palangkahan Tradition In The West Sumatra Community

This paper discusses the character values that were taken from the palangkahan tradition. The Palangkahan tradition that exists in West Sumatera society originates from the manuscript or texts obtained from the murshid or tarekat teachers. This tradition is still sustainable and carried out by the community, not only in the islands of West Sumatera, but also in the coastal areas of West Sumatera. Palangkahan tradition is the local wisdom of the people of West Sumatera which has been passed down from generation to generation, which is used before carrying out certain activities in their daily lives. The revealed character values can be used as guidelines for the development of Indonesian people with a strong religious understanding based on local wisdom. The character values contained in this tradition are mushawarah (consultation), discipline, positive thinking, and love of culture.

Disrupting Cultures of Harassment in Archaeology: Social-Environmental and Trauma-Informed Approaches to Disciplinary Transformation

This article is the second in a two-part series that analyzes current research on harassment in archaeology. Both qualitative and quantitative studies, along with activist narratives and survivor testimonials, have established that harassment is occurring in archaeology at epidemic rates. These studies have also identified key patterns in harassment in archaeology that point to potential interventions that may prevent harassment, support survivors, and hold perpetrators accountable. This article reviews five key obstacles to change in the disciplinary culture of archaeology: normalization, exclusionary practices, fraternization, gatekeeping, and obstacles to reporting. Two public health paradigms—the social-environmental model and trauma-informed approaches—are used to identify interventions that can be taken at all levels of archaeological practice: individual, relational, organizational, community, and societal.

Forms of culture (Culture Coverage)

Forms of culture (Culture Coverage)

HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF THE FORMATION OF THE CHINESE ECONOMIC MODEL

The article analyzes the history of formation, main features, characteristics and stages of development of the Chinese economy, which has been demonstrating economic growth over the past decades. The country's economic success is updated by research on the historical origins, place and role of the Chinese economic model in global economic development. In the historical context, the origins of the Chinese model of economy are seen in the main features of the Asian mode of production, the constant presence of the state in the regulation of public life and in economic development. It is characterized that the formation of the Chinese model of the economy began with the economic reforms of 1978, the features of which were focused only on economic changes with an unchanged political system; the absence of any privatization and the creation of private enterprises from scratch during market reforms; the leading role state regulation and national economic plans in the development of the economy. The characteristic features of the modern Chinese model of the economy include: a strong state with a large-scale public sector of the economy; active state intervention in macroeconomic regulation, planning and forecasting of socio-economic development; a multi-layered economy, an effective combination of various forms of ownership, a combination of traditional and modern ways of life; the implementation of the Confucian model of a just state, which should create equal opportunities for self-development of everyone; the special role of national mentality, traditions and Customs; a high level of disciplinary culture and stable organization of society; the dominance of pragmatism and rationalism. It is investigated that the most important feature of the Chinese economic model is the development of the real sector of the economy, and the main tools of global competition are considered here new technologies and innovative industries that are supported by government programs.

AN ECLECTIC TREND IN PRODUCTS OF JOZEPH MARSHAK'S JEWELRY FACTORY ON EXAMPLE OF A SILVER TEA AND COFFEE SET, EXIBITED AT THE ALL-RUSSIAN EXIBITION IN KIEV IN 1913

The subject of research is the legacy of Joseph Abramovich Marshak – famous Kiev jeweler and owner of a jewelry enterprise, whose period of activity covers 1878–1918. Among the large number of jewelry made during the forty years of the factory's operation, it should be noted products that correspond to the stylistic trends of the era of historicism, in particular, the silver tea and coffee set, exhibited at the All-Russian Exhibition in Kiev in 1913. The main task of this work is to investigate artful language of eclecticism, expressiveness of which allowed artists of J. Marshak's era to combine decorative heritage and semantic interpretation from Antiquity to beginning of the 20th century. Methodology of this work is based on general scientific principles of historicism and an art history approach. They were realized through the use of following general scientific research methods: otnological, hermeneutic, semiotic, cultural, cross-cultural, iconographic, typologization and art history analysis. Scope of results application outlines teaching activities in specialized educational institutions in formation of plans for art and cultural disciplines, jewelry attribution by Kiev jewelers of marked period, writing scientific and popular scientific works, reference books, encyclopedias, textbooks. Main conclusion: features of jewelry artistic language, which were presented in the tea and coffee set, produced in eclectic style at the Joseph Marshak's factory are revealed. Importance of active exhibition activity and its connection with improvement of stylistic solutions in the jewelry production is displayed. It has been established that eclecticism was given priority in comparison with other stylistic directions at the basis of creative developments at J. Marshak's factory.Key words: jewelry, eclecticism, Joseph Marshak, late 19th – early 20th century.

Academics’ Societal Engagement in Cross-country Perspective: Large-n in Small-n Comparative Case Studies

This editorial article presents the conceptual approach to researching academics’ societal engagement (ASE) in the cross-country study “Academic Profession in Knowledge Societies (APIKS).” Methodologically, the APIKS survey (large-n) aims for the cross-country comparative study of academics’ work (research, teaching, ASE and (self-governance) of selected country cases (small-n). We define ASE broadly as social co-construction of knowledge (and technology) by academics and partners from outside academia. Conceptually, we amended the analytical framework by Perkmann et al. (Res Policy 42:423–442, 2013), for example, by adding a contextual factors box (e.g., network indicators). For the study of ASE, in a collaborative effort, we evaluated ASE-activities or types of ASE-activities and selected 17 ASE-activities, which are applicable in varying national higher education and sciences contexts. We find that concrete ASE-practices are strongly connected to the national higher education and science traditions of the respective countries and disciplinary cultures. The technical and commercial dimension of ASE is dominantly performed in STEM-fields, and knowledge dissemination activities and participation in external science organizations are more common in HSS-fields. We consider the APIKS study of ASE to be a further step toward establishing international knowledge about ASE-activities for cross-country comparison.

Why Won’t They Just Adopt Good Research Data Management Practices? An Exploration of Research Teams and Librarians’ Role in Facilitating RDM Adoption

Adoption of good research data management practices is increasingly important for research teams. Despite the work the research community has done to define best data management practices, these practices are still difficult to adopt for many research teams. Universities all around the world have been offering Research Data Services to help their research groups, and libraries are usually an important part of these services. A better understanding of the pressures and factors that affect research teams may help librarians serve these groups more effectively. The social interactions between the members of a research team are a key element that influences the likelihood of a research group successfully adopting best practices in data management. In this article we adapt the Unified Theory of the Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003) to explain the variables that can influence whether new and better, data management practices will be adopted by a research group. We describe six moderating variables: size of the team, disciplinary culture, group culture and leadership, team heterogeneity, funder, and dataset decisions. We also develop three research group personas as a way of navigating the UTAUT model, and as a tool Research Data Services practitioners can use to target interactions between librarians and research groups to make them more effective.

Peran Kepemimpinan Kepala Madrasah dalam Meningkatkan Budaya Disiplin Siswa di MAS Patra Mandiri Plaju Palembang

Discipline culture is a reflection of the quality of educational institutions. The low level of discipline is the main problem of every educational institution. The role of leadership is very much needed in overcoming this problem. This paper aims to describe the leadership role of madrasah principals in improving the disciplinary culture of students at MAS Patra Mandiri Plaju Palembang. This research uses a qualitative approach with a descriptive analytic study method. Data were collected using interview techniques, observation and documentation study. The results of this study indicate that the headmaster of MAS Patra Mandiri Plaju Palembang has played its role and function in improving the disciplinary culture of students in a fairly good category. This is supported by 2 factors, namely (1) the role models of madrasah principals in complying with school regulations; and (2) socialization of school discipline rules and sanctions for violations. The obstacles faced by madrasah principals are (1) there are still some teachers who do not exemplify student attitudes; and (2) there are still students who are not "deterred" to be given disciplinary violations.

The intertextual nature of embedded email communication for contract negotiation activities

Abstract Emails have become the institutionalised communication medium for many discourse activities in work contexts. Sociolinguistic research in this area has mainly focused on the textual and communicative conventions of emails, as defined by disciplinary cultures and practices. This study is the first to analyse the intertextual nature of email communication for commercial contract negotiation purposes, with a particular focus on the communicative function of embedded emails. This concept relates to a genre of email discourse, which embeds the meaning of a series of messages generated by different participants in response to the original email, hence the name ‘embedded emails’. This study uses discourse and genre analysis to examine how a geographically dispersed team of legal and business professionals in Europe exploited the dialogic nature of embedded emails to negotiate amendments to contracts pertaining to an international Merger & Acquisition (M&A) transaction in English. The findings of this study show that embedded emails facilitate transparent collaboration between the individual professionals, by enabling them to monitor the exchange of proposals and counter-proposals during the negotiation process. This documented ability to trace and participate in contract negotiation activities through intertextual chains of embedded email communication is a key feature of professional communicative competence.

How faculty discipline and beliefs influence instructional uses of writing in STEM undergraduate courses at research-intensive universities

Efforts to accelerate the pace of adoption of writing-to-learn (WTL) practices in undergraduate STEM courses have been limited by a lack of theoretical and conceptual frameworks to systematically guide research and empirical evidence about the extent to which intrapersonal attributes and contextual factors, particularly faculty beliefs and disciplinary cultures, influence faculty use of writing assignments in their teaching. To address these gaps, we adopted an ecological systems perspective and conducted a national survey of faculty in STEM departments across 63 research-intensive universities in the United States. Overall, the findings indicated that 70% of faculty assigned writing. However, the assignment of writing differed by faculty demographics, discipline, and beliefs. More specifically, faculty demographics accounted for 5% of the variance in assignment of writing.  Faculty discipline accounted for an additional 6% increment in variance, and faculty epistemic beliefs and beliefs about effectiveness of WTL practices and contextual resources and constraints influencing the use of writing in their teaching together accounted for an additional 30% increment in variance. The findings point to faculty beliefs as salient intervention targets and highlight the importance of disciplinary specific approaches to the promotion of the adoption of WTL practices.

IMPLEMENTATION OF CHARACTER EDUCATION IN BUILDING SCHOOL CULTURE

This research aims to find out about the implementation of character education in building school culture. The research was conducted at elementary schools in Sambas Regency with representation of a number of elementary schools from several sub-districts in Sambas Regency. The data were collected by combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, with data collection techniques using interviews, FGDs and questionnaires. The qualitative data analysis used the interactive analysis technique of Miles and Huberman, while the quantitative data analysis used factor analysis and percentage. The results showed that in general the implementation of character education in building school culture in the Sambas Regency elementary schools in several dimensions was well implemented. However, in certain parts, especially in the dimensions of the program and evaluation, it has not been fully actualized as expected. Meanwhile, school culture as a whole has developed well, especially in the dimensions of disciplinary culture, exemplary culture and culture of order and cleanliness. These three dimensions of culture are the fundamental foundation of building school culture. In the disciplinary culture dimension, the biggest contribution is to hold the midday prayer in congregation, while in the dimension of order and cleanliness culture, the biggest contribution is to hold a school ceremony.Key words: Character Education, School Culture

Sistema de superación para profesionales que laboran en la cultura física profiláctica y terapéutica

In contemporary Cuban society, university plays a leading role, because within its substantive processes, pre and postgraduate education is an important social responsibility in the training and improvement of human resources. In the career of physical culture from the university-community imbrication, it has allowed carrying out different actions of overcoming in a participative way. Where the discipline of Prophylactic and Therapeutic Physical Culture has been used as a vehicle for this purpose, since it has potentialities due to its object of study. The results obtained were positive because it allowed to elevate the culture of the inhabitants of the implied communities, achieving a better life style for the prevention and rehabilitation of diseases, in order to achieve a better life from the university.

“Commenting on your work is a waste of time only!”: An appraisal-based study of evaluative language in supervisory feedback

Research on supervisory feedback on master’s theses, especially attitudinal stances conveyed in such feedback, is thin on the ground. Students’ construal of their supervisors’ attitudes, however, can have a profound impact on their engagement with supervisory feedback. Drawing on the appraisal framework, which characterizes attitudinal meanings in terms of affect (i.e., emotional responses), judgement (i.e., normative evaluation of human behaviors) and appreciation (i.e., aesthetically-/socially-based evaluation of objects and products), this study examined Nepalese supervisors’ attitudinal stances communicated in written comments on master’s thesis drafts (n = 76) submitted by English-as-a-foreign-language students and oral feedback on proposal and thesis defences (n = 89). Quantitative analyses revealed that while instances of appreciation dominated in the supervisors’ use of evaluative language, judgements were also frequent, with affective responses trailing far behind. In both the oral feedback and written comments, significant disciplinary variations were observed for certain types of judgment and appreciation. These findings are discussed in terms of disciplinary culture and the potential impact of the attitudinal stances on students’ learning. Implications are derived for the productive framing of supervisory feedback to facilitate students’ feedback uptake.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Literary and Cultural Theory by Jeffrey R. Di Leo

 Reviews excuse for otherwise respectable translators to talk dirty. A particularly interesting pattern emerges in the case of Ovid, whose popularity not only alternates with that of Virgil, but in different periods homes in either on the works dealing with exile or on those dealing with love and metamorphosis. ere will be few, if any, readers of this study who are familiar with all the twentieth- and twenty-first-century authors evoked here, and so a degree of summary is oen required, something that is more successful in the case of the poetic works than the more narrative texts, which require lengthier exposition, but the ground covered remains impressive. is is a rewarding study which inspires regret for the passing of the age of the classical education. S U D C e Bloomsbury Handbook of Literary and Cultural eory. Ed. by J R. D L. London: Bloomsbury. . xiii+ pp. £. ISBN ––– –. e Bloomsbury Handbook of Literary and Cultural eory is the latest in a long line of texts aiming to introduce students to the body of theoretical work that underpins contemporary literary and cultural studies. is has always been a difficult task, drawing as it does on so many other disciplines; any appraisal of scholarship relevant to the study of culture is necessarily commodious. is volume, edited by Jeffrey R. Di Leo, gamely takes on the task with a two-pronged approach: twentyseven essays devoted to different topics in theory, and an encyclopedia. is takes in well-known ‘major’ thinkers in the field (from eodor Adorno to Raymond Williams) as well as key concepts. Some of these concepts are well known and expected in such a context—intertextuality, negritude, patriarchy, and so on. At other moments, this handbook takes the opportunity to challenge more basic concepts that theory previously took for granted or erased, for example with an entry on the ‘Professor’ (founded, essentially, in the welcome addition of ‘University Studies’ to the roster of relevant subdisciplines). Di Leo also includes theory which has become widely popular only in the last ten or fieen years, such as Object-Oriented Ontology and Actor-Network eory. A close study of this book should certainly prepare students with the background knowledge generally required to rub along in even a graduate seminar in the literary and cultural disciplines. However, for all that it effectively maps the state of the art as it is widely perceived , the volume does miss other opportunities to shape the discourse of theory for the better, and remains relatively conservative in terms of the discussion it admits and what is therefore marked as important. Despite the protestations in the Introduction that there are new communities of theory which ‘may not go by recognizable names like the feminism, deconstruction, and psychoanalysis of the last century’ (p. ), there remains a great deal of work to be done on the ways we conceive of theory as a terrain. For instance, only one essay is set aside for ‘Race and Postcolonial Studies’; in an era of thriving decolonization movements, MLR, .,   and conversely of resurgent public displays of white supremacy both without the academy and within, it is disappointing that the editors have chosen to collapse a nuanced and vital field of study into a single chapter. Its author, Nicole Simek, takes on the Herculean task with aplomb, sweeping from the historical origins of race as a construct through the place of culture in resistance, and the role of neo-liberalism in suppressing liberation movements, finally ending with Édouard Glissant’s concept of the donner-avec. But there is only so much one essay can do, and to collapse generations of thought across the world into a few pages is a poor showing; a better volume would have seen chapters on ‘Black Radical ought’, ‘Decolonization’, ‘Whiteness’, and so on, and a greater integration of these ideas into the other chapters as well. While concepts key in critical race studies, such as thanatopolitics and diaspora, are covered in the encyclopedia section, one feels that they are relegated there, while the more prominently placed essays most oen do not examine their own whiteness and that of the field they are designed...

ВСЕМИРНАЯ ПРОМЫШЛЕННАЯ ВЫСТАВКА 1851 ГОДА В ВОСПРИЯТИИ РУССКИХ СОВРЕМЕННИКОВ

The article is devoted to the actual specifically-historical aspects of Great Britain perception in Rus-sia. The aim of the article is to analyze the specifics of the first world industrial exhibition perception by Rus-sian contemporaries. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that holding the Exhibition of 1851 was a grandiose international propaganda of Britain’s success. The presented expositions demonstrated its economic, scientific and technical superiority to the world. It is also noted that the detailed coverage of this event by domestic sources consolidated the traditional industrial and scientific-technical image of Britain in public consciousness of Russians. Particular results of the research can be used in the process of studying historical and cultural disciplines, as well as for further scientific development of the stated issues.