Introspective Analysis Research Articles

Using creative methodology to explore LGBTQ+ love and relationship experiences across the lifespan: Developing inclusive and healthy spaces through positive intergenerational exchange

IntroductionImportant lessons can be learned from the intergenerational sharing of lifetime love and relationship stories between multigenerational LGBTQ + people, to inform education, healthcare, and policy. However, such exploratory studies have been limited. The aim of this co-creation study was to explore younger and older peoples’ LGBTQ + love and relationship experiences using creative methodology. MethodsThree 2-h virtual fictional writing and storytelling workshops were conducted at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Edinburgh, Scotland. Participants included 2 middle-aged adults; 3 older adults aged 55+; and 5 youths who identified as either lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer. Participants’ stories were audio-recorded, transcribed and thematically-analyzed to capture understandings of intergenerational knowledge exchange and LGBTQ + love and relationships across sociocultural and environmental contexts. Diverse experiences were unpacked and shared through a self-reflexive creative writing process. FindingsParticipants identified the act of storytelling and fictional writing as particularly liberating, providing a platform for voice and reflexivity. The reflexive analysis highlighted the importance of reflexivity and the careful navigation of intersectionality and power within research contexts. Our introspective analysis resulted in valuable future directions for employing creative methodologies to further explore diverse experiences within LGBTQ + research. ConclusionsParticipants reported that being able to craft their stories was a freeing experience, enabling sense-making to occur. Using creative methodology was demonstrated as an effective way to facilitate intergenerational engagement, and bring to light the complexities of LGBTQ + love and relationships across generations in a safe environment.

Towards healthier, enabling environments for all: positioning the ‘runnability of cities’ as a spatial planning approach

ABSTRACT The interplay between urban design and public health is a critical concern in modern cities, with the COVID-19 pandemic underscoring the necessity of accessible, safe, and health-promoting urban environments. This paper aimed to unpack the concept of ‘runnability’ as a cornerstone of healthy urban environments, advocating for the integration of running-friendly spaces into city planning, in order to enhance border public health and well-being. The paper followed a reflective praxis methodology, combining academic research with introspective analysis of running experiences, and offers novel insights into the subjective dimensions of urban runnability. Our findings advocate for a global initiative to promote runnable cities through transdisciplinary collaboration, infrastructure development, policy reform, educational efforts, and design innovation. By positioning ‘runnable cities’ as a spatial planning approach, there could be global progress towards healthier, enabling environments for all.

The Presence of Symbols in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” (Comparative-introspective Analysis)

Key words: expressive means, “iceberg theory”, individual style of the author, translation equivalence, fisherman, nature, marlin, shark Ernest Hemingway, a prominent representative of American literature, is one of the distinguished figures of realistic prose, whose language style is characterized by a short, deep content with a minimalistic formulation. The author’s language stands out for its naturalness, directness and compositional clarity. The writer’s subject matter is profound, based on the literary technique he created. It is “The iceberg theory-principle”: a text-context relationship which is completely in harmony with the author’s individual-aesthetic approach. The main purpose of this study is to find out the symbols in the author’s novella “The old man and the sea” through a comparative and introspective analysis, which has been done on the base of the translated examples. The symbols observed as general, individual, emotional expressions, are freely used in the novella. They make the author’s speech more profound and resonant. Each image-symbol chosen in the text has a specific meaning and all of it speaks of the high aesthetic taste and deep philosophical thinking of realist writer Hemingway. All the symbols of the novella also speak of the author’s intense imagination, boundless love for living nature and the greatest human willpower.

Comparative Analytic Autoethnography: Situating The Doctoral Journey and The Hero’s Journey

This analytical autoethnography offers a comprehensive and insightful exploration of the researcher's academic odyssey by drawing parallels between their personal experiences and Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey archetype. Adopting Anderson's analytical autoethnographic approach, the researcher assumed the role of a complete member of the Doctor of Education (EdD) program, engaging in analytical reflexivity to develop a theoretical understanding of their academic journey. Through systematic data collection and introspective analysis, the study uncovers thematic threads and arcs of growth that resonate with the monomythic narrative archetype. The research incorporates a comparative examination with Campbell's Hero's Journey, providing a structured framework for organizing and analyzing the autoethnographic data. This framework reveals potential connections and emergent themes throughout the doctoral pursuit. Concurrent data analysis involving reflective journals, coursework materials, social media dialogues, and communications with cohort members allows for a comprehensive exploration of the researcher's personal experiences. The analytical layered-account autoethnographic data analysis illuminates the relationship between the researcher's academic journey and the theoretical framework, elucidating the significance and relevance of their experiences within the broader context of the monomythic narrative archetype. As a result, the autoethnographic account provides a comprehensive and thought-provoking narrative of the researcher's transformative doctoral odyssey.

Open Government in Spain: An Introspective Analysis

In recent years, there has been an increasing amount of research analyzing open government initiatives that enable access to the information held by public bodies, promoting accountability and the fight against corruption. As there are few studies on intermediate governments to date, this research focuses on this level of government in Spain, one of the most decentralized countries in the world. The autonomous communities in Spain manage over 35% of consolidated public spending and are responsible for providing most social services, including health, education, and social services. To achieve this goal, the perceptions of the seventeen heads of open government in Spain’s autonomous communities were collected through a questionnaire. This approach fills a research gap as individuals outside of public administration have made the previous assessments. By allowing for a comparison with the conclusions reached by prior research, this study contributes to the creation of new knowledge. The study’s results are consistent with previous research and suggest that the open government in Spain is positively regarded, not falling below the European or global averages, and has a promising future despite significant obstacles, such as a resistance to change. Transparency is the most developed aspect of open government, while citizen collaboration ranks last. The autonomous communities of the Basque Country, Aragon, Castile Leon, and Catalonia have been identified as the most advanced in terms of open government. The analysis did not reveal any gender-based differences in opinion. Still, it did show variations based on age, the size of the autonomous community, or membership to the most developed group. Therefore, it is evident that promoting open government in the autonomous communities of Spain should continue.

Использование машинного обучения для тематической разметки текстовых материалов корпуса устной речи

The research aims to determine the effectiveness of the thesaurus method for forming a list of topic classes when using machine learning for the topic classification of text materials of sociolinguistic interviews. The paper considers the potential of using machine learning in the topic annotation of linguistic corpus materials. The polytopical nature of the analyzed material is due to its genre belonging to dialogical speech. The hierarchical structure of the topics, identified as a result of a preliminary introspective analysis of the texts, can be described using a thesaurus. The results of using the unsupervised machine learning method are discussed involving two sets of topic class names: a list of topics used in manual text annotation and an extended list of micro-topics whose names were selected from a Russian language thesaurus. The paper is novel in that it is the first to propose the thesaurus method for selecting topic labels for the zero-shot classification of weakly structured Russian texts. The research findings show that using a more detailed lexical description for topic classes improves the classification result.

The impact of patient engagement on service quality and customer well-being: an introspective analysis from the healthcare providers’ perspective

The impact of patient engagement on service quality and customer well-being: an introspective analysis from the healthcare providers’ perspective

Time to Degree, Identity, and Grant Writing: Lessons Learned From a Mixed-Methods Longitudinal Case Study of Biosciences PhD Students

Time to degree completion is an important metric of academic progress and success for doctoral students. It is also a common way for educational stakeholders to compare programs even if the content of the degree programs varies. But what types of behaviors and experiences are associated with faster times to degree? In this study, we examine the relationship between receiving competitive research awards (e.g., grant writing) and time to degree for PhD students. We organize our analyses by student identities, specifically gender and underrepresented racial minority (URM) status, to examine differences in time to degree based on student demographics. Our dataset included students that graduated between academic years 2008 to 2009 through 2018 to 2019. We also interviewed students currently enrolled in these same programs. We find that underrepresented minority women who won competitive research awards graduate faster than all other students who also won awards but also report lower levels of advisor support. Underrepresented minority women and all underrepresented minority students who won research awards tended to graduate faster compared to other groups of students who did not win awards. Students who reported feeling supported by their advisors, most of which reflected hands-on guidance through the writing process, in the interviews were more likely to apply for grants. Combined, these results highlight that writing grants and specific types of advisor support may influence faster times to degree for biosciences PhD students. This study suggests similar introspective analyses at other institutions and databases are needed.

An Embodied View on Collaboration in Early Childhood Education: Combining Microanalysis and Introspective Analysis of Experiences to Understand Meaning-Making Between Children With and Without Intellectual Disabilities

AbstractThis paper has a twofold aim. The first is to report a qualitative study exploring the construction of collaborative interactions between typically developing children and children with intellectual disabilities in early childhood education, shifting from a cognitivist toward an embodied account of social cognition. The study combined microanalysis of embodied engagements and a phenomenological method of systematic introspective analysis of experience (PRISMA) to investigate the emergence and maintenance of collaborative interactions. The second aim is to showcase the complementarity of the methods and their potential use as a tool for understanding intersubjectivity in children’s social interactions. Participants were twenty-four children aged 3–4: six with intellectual disabilities and eighteen typically developing children. Data consisted of eighteen video recordings of collaborative interactions in a semi-natural context in daycare centres. The results show how typically developing children start the interaction and lead it toward task completion through a scaffolding process of non-verbal regulations facilitated by abbreviations of communication and a combination of sequential actions. This process created bodily invitations for the peer’s engagement, notably stronger amongst preferable peers, corroborating previous research on the relevance of such relationships in this age group. The introspective analysis provided insights into how the desire to work together surpasses the need to complete the task—collaboration can emerge outside the pre-determined task and relies on joint actions rather than understanding tasks’ goals. Peer relations built during the interactions guided children’s behaviours and changed their engagement in the task. This result brings a new perspective to pedagogical planning in early childhood education, indicating the need for teachers to understand children’s intersubjective processes as well as elaborate on task instructions and organisation of space and materials. Results also suggest that previous individual embodied experiences can influence such collaborative efforts, which, although may be expected intuitively, is an underexplored perspective in education sciences. This insight underscores the importance of considering students’ backgrounds and relationships when designing pedagogical approaches. Understanding how prior experiences and peer dynamics affect collaboration can inform more effective teaching strategies in inclusive early childhood education and guide professional training in the field. The findings are critically discussed concerning the implications for professional education and training in inclusive early childhood education.

A Contemporary Atomistic Model of Art—A First-Person Introspection of the Artistic Process

In modern science and human activity, we increasingly refer to creative thinking that does not belong to the strict definition of art. Art studies and art theory should answer the questions that emerge in the complex interaction among diverse creative fields. Art experience may be considered as one of many different manifestations of creative thinking (general creativity). When we develop ideas involving heterogeneous nuclei, our thoughts aim to encompass or reflect upon the area in between their fusion. This paper proposes a method of implementing an introspective analysis that brings the artist to a new position—the position of an explorer of their own cognitive space.

An Introspective Analysis of Inclusive Growth in Africa, With an Eminence on the Influence of Governance and Financial Development Interaction

The study considered the relationship between the interaction of financial development with all six distinct governance indicators from the world development indicators, as well as a combination of them, and inclusive growth in 48 African economies from 2000 to 2019. The countries were classified into low-income countries and middle-income countries. The models were then estimated with Panel Quantile Regression with Fixed Effects estimations, and Dumitrescu & Hurlin causality tests after going through robust econometric tests. From the outcome, the interaction of financial development with corruption control is essential for inclusive growth in only middle-income countries. The interaction of financial development with political stability and the absence of violence/terrorism, and the interaction of financial development and governance in general are relevant to inclusive growth in Africa as a whole and middle-income countries. However, the interaction of financial development with voice and accountability, and the interaction of financial development with rule of law are relevant to inclusive growth in all country groupings. JEL: G20; F62; R50

SPECIAL ISSUE: The Healing of Vulvodynia from the Client's Perspective

The participant describes her experience with the year-long struggle with vulvodynia, or vulvar vestibulitis (chronic pain at the entrance to the vagina), focusing particularly on biofeedback techniques. Through an introspective analysis of her physical pain, surrounding environment, diet and supplements, and overall lifestyle, she identities factors that caused the pain to increase and decrease. She identifies six main catalysts for illness and nine main catalysts for relief, with an emphasis on biofeedback, meditation, visualization, and having a good holistic health coach. Through her written account of her personal experience with the syndrome, she offers a new perspective to provide hope and relief to other patients who suffer from vulvodynia, which is often misunderstood and underreported. Seven years later, she is still symptom free.

Who’s Laughing Now: Feminist Perspectives on Humour and Laughter

Who’s Laughing Now: Feminist Perspectives on Humour and Laughter

Driving factors to competitive sustainability of SMEs in the tourism sector: An introspective analysis

The services sector continues to play a major role in the transformation of economies. For instance, the tourism sub-sector, which is a key segment of the service sector has become one of the major contributors to economic transformation in developing economies. Given this prospect, stern competition has been created among tourism firms across the globe. However, the tourism sectors in most developing countries continue to grapple with competitive pressure challenging their competitive sustainability. Drawing on the theory of change, the purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that drive the competitive sustainability of small and medium enterprises in the tourism sector in Ghana. Data was collected from 310 SMEs in the tourism sector through the administration of a structured questionnaire and analyzed using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling. The results show that price sensitivity, site maintenance, and entrepreneurial competency have a positive and significant effect on the competitive sustainability of small and medium enterprises in the tourism sector. By implications, the paper provides managers of tourism facilities with an encompassing mechanism aimed at improving tourism sites, enhancing the entrepreneurial competencies of staff, and adopting pricing strategies to enhance the competitive sustainability of the tourism sector from a developing country’s perspective. The study advances theories on tourism competitive sustainability.

Applying the Higher Order Thinking Skills in Modern Islamic Boarding Schools in Indonesia: An Introspective Study of Programmed Educational Activities.

The Islamic Boarding School (Pesantren) was the oldest educational institution in Indonesia. From its ancient history, it is a community-based educational institution (community-based education which is established, organized and organized by society). After 1936, as a result of the development of Islamic boarding schools, it was divided into two parts: traditional, known as Salafism, and Modernism. Although Islamic boarding schools, known as "pesantren", are a well-established social reality in Indonesian society, they have not received much attention and government intervention to develop or empower them in government laws and regulations from its original inception to 1998. There are questions in this area: How does education in Islamic boarding schools look like? Has education applied contemporary educational methods and theories? Do the recently implemented Islamic boarding school teaching and learning processes apply higher thinking skills? How are higher thinking skills applied in Islamic boarding schools? The method in this research is a descriptive introspective analysis that will be discussed through inductive analysis on how to implement higher thinking skills by following the various activities carried out in Islamic boarding schools, from teaching and learning activities to the daily activities of students, through this discussion, the model of applying higher thinking skills in modern Islamic boarding schools and its advantages will be shown. Key words: Kiahi - Creative Thinking - Activities - Model - Acquisition - Salafism and Modernity

A Cognitive Semantic Study of Oxymoron in Nali’s Collection of Poems

This paper investigates oxymoron within cognitive semantic theory and attempts to find out how the meaning is conceptually constructed in oxymoron through combining two opposite lexical items, and what mental process activates this meaning construction. The study data is collected from Nali’s Collection of Poems who is one of the greatest Kurdish classic poets in terms of his language craftsmanship. The examples are analysed under Conceptual Blending Theory via Linguistic Introspection Analysis method. The study realises that the uses of oxymoron does imply the co-existing features of both constituting lexical items, but there is an accentuation to one of them depending on various factors like the whole verse or even the whole poem interpretation. The user purposefully profiles a particular construal in each oxymoron. The study concludes that in oxymoron meaning is constructed by a certain type of conceptual blending network that is double-scope network in which both input spaces have the same elements but different frames. Then compression happens to project the input spaces elements to the blended space as well as each input space frame makes central contribution to organize the frame of the blended space. An emergent structure rises in the blended spaces with a new frame, and that is the (new) meaning being constructed.

Social Media Usage and SME Firms’ Sustainability: An Introspective Analysis from Ghana

Social media is gradually transforming diverse business ecosystems due to the limitless capabilities they offer. Given this, emerging businesses across the globe are leveraging this innovation to improve their operations. While the literature on the usage of social media by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is still emerging, the outcomes from existing research have not been coherent. Amid this, limited empirical evidence has been adduced on the affordance of the technology for the SME ecosystem in developing economies, particularly Ghana. Following this, this study aims to fill this research gap by investigating the impact of social media usage on the long-term sustainability of SMEs, specifically in Ghana. Using empirical data from 424 respondents who are representatives of manufacturing SMEs in Ghana, using SmartPLS techniques, the study confirmed that, generally, social media usage does not only have a positive impact on SMEs but drastically drives their motivations towards resilience and sustainability. The results further revealed a positive and significant effect of social media usage value creation, business connections and opportunities on SMEs’ sustainability. This study contributes to knowledge of social media usage and sustainability from a developing country’s perspective. This study offers several implications for theory and practice.

Review: The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education, by Nolan Higdon

Review: <i>The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education</i>, by Nolan Higdon

Inclusive growth and the sophisticated influence of carbon emissions, renewable energy, and financial development: An introspective analysis of Africa

ABSTRACT This study investigates how inclusive growth is affected by carbon emission, renewable energy, and the new financial development index using 48 African countries categorized into low-income countries (LIC) and middle-income countries (MIC) spanning from 2000 to 2018. Bearing in mind the presence of residual cross-sectional reliance and heterogeneity in a panel data settings, the study employed robust estimations econometric approaches which includes the Augmented Mean group (AMG), Driscoll-Kraay (DK) standard errors method together with the Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) technique. The study’s outcomes from the mentioned approaches showed that; carbon emission positively affects inclusive growth in aggregate African panel, and LIC but not in MIC panels correspondingly. Furthermore, renewable energy significantly mitigates inclusive growth in LIC group African nations, but not significant in Africa as a whole or in MIC country grouping. Financial development is homogeneously positive and significant, with inclusive growth across all panels of African economies. The outlined outcomes were also confirmed by the Generalized Method of Moments (System-GMM). Based on the outlined study preferably suggest that carbon emission in LIC must be focused on attracting investments with low carbon footprints. On renewable energy, it is further recommended that both LIC and MIC should sticks to the African Renewable Energy Initiative.

The Search for a Symphony: A Discourse on the Issue of Derivation, Revenue Allocation, and Fiscal Federalism in Nigeria

This paper joins the debate on the fiscal policy of the Nigerian government in terms of the revenue allocation formula of the federating units which has been a recurring theme in the country’s political existence. A review of revenue allocation formulas shows that the tools used as a measure to allocate and distribute revenue had been more of political gerrymandering, with each regime choosing which formula suits them without minding how the federating units react (Adedokun, 2002). An introspective analysis of the various Decrees enacted by the military regimes and the Acts between 1979 and 1983 shows that the southern part of the federation had been denied the right in maximizing the full potential of the resources in their territory. With all these, it portends that revenue allocation and distribution from 1968 to 1989 were not in line with true fiscal federalism as should be practiced. It is therefore recommended that the government and stakeholders at all levels should parley and do the needful by reviewing the current sharing formula with a view to correct the anomaly that has bedeviled revenue allocation and distribution over the years. Simply put, there should be decentralization in the generation, distribution, and allocation of revenue where states should manage their resources as it will reflect true fiscal federalism as practiced in civilized clime. The constitution remains silent on the cardinal issue of derivation and that is why today the question of who gets what, when, and how in terms of revenue allocation and sharing remains politicized and a recurrent issue in Nigeria till today.