Macro Contexts Research Articles

O conhecimento do contexto na formação inicial em Educação Física

Ao conhecimento pedagogico do conteudo (CPC) e atribuida a tarefa de transformar o conhecimento do conteudo dos professores em conhecimento ensinavel e compreensivel pelos alunos em distintos contextos de ensino e aprendizagem. Balizado por esse pressuposto, e apoiado nas proposicoes da literatura sobre o conhecimento do contexto e sobre o CPC, este ensaio teorico analisou como os conhecimentos sobre a sala de aula (microcontexto), a escola (mesocontexto) e a comunidade (macrocontexto) incidem na construcao do CPC dos futuros professores e nos cursos de formacao inicial em Educacao Fisica. A literatura e a estrutura dos cursos de formacao em Educacao Fisica sugerem que os conhecimentos sobre os meso e macrocontextos, embora importantes, nao tem participacao significativa na construcao do CPC dos futuros professores. Tal como os estudos analisados, sugere-se que os professores-formadores, durante a formacao inicial, estimulem a reflexao, a sensibilidade e a criticidade dos futuros professores sobre a influencia dos meso e macrocontextos no planejamento, na implementacao e na gestao de suas praticas pedagogicas, na interacao com e na aprendizagem e formacao dos alunos. Alem disso, que os cursos de formacao inicial em Educacao Fisica reconhecam a importância do conhecimento do contexto na construcao do CPC dos futuros professores, o abordem em diferentes disciplinas, sob varios ângulos e por meio de distintas estrategias, e nao apenas tragam alunos em idade escolar para a instituicao de ensino superior, mas levem os futuros professores para dentro das escolas de Educacao Basica desde o inicio do curso. Assim, podem ser ampliadas as possibilidades de construcao e desenvolvimento do conhecimento do contexto e, consequentemente, do CPC dos futuros professores de Educacao Fisica, qualificando sua formacao academica, docente e profissional.

The emotional dimension of teaching in a group of Portuguese teachers

The study of emotions within educational contexts congregates various perspectives, strategies and levels, and requires multidisciplinary approaches to clarify the impact of the emotional dimension of teachers in the classroom. This study aims at understanding through a multidisciplinary approach how teachers manage their emotions within the pedagogical objectives and in which classroom settings they experience emotions regarded as positive or negative. A detailed analysis of the answers of eight Portuguese teachers to an open-ended interview revealed that positive emotions were experienced in classroom contexts whereas negative emotions refer to meso and macro contexts. However, the description and understanding of emotions is centred in two basic categories: happiness and sadness. According to this data, the lack of discrimination of the teachers’ emotional states points to the need of training in this area, namely in what concerns the ability to discriminate and recognise emotions and situations that trigger them.

When is Strategy?

In competitive strategy, timing advantages are often discussed in relation to first mover and fast follower advantages, innovation cycles, imitation speed, time-based competition and hyper- competition. There is also research on the value of signalling strategic commitment in gaining strategic advantage. However, there has been little discussion about the timing, and relevance, of strategic communications in different institutional contexts. When should strategy be communicated to the wider market, and do different institutional contexts affect the impact of these communications? This discussion paper examines the timing of voluntary communications during Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) activity in the US and the UK in order to determine whether there are any differences in competitive advantage to communications timing in these contexts and whether modifiers, including actors in organisational fields, can make a difference. In addressing this question, a debate in the strategy-as-practice arena about the importance of strategy practices in macro contexts may shed light on how, in an accelerating world strategy, strategy practices might need to change to reflect shifts in the external environment.

Inequality and the political economy of education: An analysis of individual preferences in OECD countries

Scholarly interest in the study of education from the perspective of political science has increased rapidly in the last few years. However, the literature focuses on comparing education politics at the country level, neglecting the analysis of micro-level foundations of education policies in terms of individual preferences and their interaction with macro contexts. This paper provides a first step in addressing this research gap, engaging in a multilevel analysis of survey data for a large number of OECD countries. The core research question is how institutional contexts – in this case socio-economic and educational inequalities – shape the micro-level association between the individual income position and support for education spending. The core finding is that these different dimensions of inequality have different implications at the micro level. Higher levels of socio-economic inequality enhance the conflict between the rich and the poor over public investments in education. By contrast, when access to higher levels of education is effectively restricted, the rich are more likely to support public education spending. This is because higher levels of educational stratification ensure that further public investments in education benefit the rich relatively more than the poor, who in turn become less willing to support this kind of public spending.

Strategic Human Resource Management in Context: A Historical and Global Perspective

Executive Overview This symposium provides a new perspective for strategic human resource management (SHRM) scholarship by expanding the contexts in which this scholarship has typically been framed. In the first paper, Kaufman evaluates SHRM scholarship within the United States from a historical and cross-disciplinary context. The second paper, by Festing, discusses the concept and practice of SHRM in Germany, a dominant economic power among developed nations and Europe. Liang, Marler, and Cui focus on China and examine how strategic human resource management is unfolding in a turbulent but hugely influential emerging economy. In describing strategic human resource management practices across these broader macro contexts, the papers in this symposium provide new directions for future theoretical and empirical research on SHRM.

Sports context of the original families of three generations of national football team players

Background: Family context is considered to be an important phenomenon influencing life-span sports careers. In spite of this fact,the role of family as related to different historical changes is rarely investigated. The research concept of the study is based on the "theory of transition" (early sports socialization) and on the principle of "generation transfer" (parent-child interaction) within various micro (family) and macro (socio-economic) contexts. Objective: The aim of the presented study is to find out the relationship between family context and early sports socialization in families of national football team players in the Czech Republic in three different socio-economic periods. Methods: Three generations of national football team players were investigated. The research sample P (n = 69) was made up of subsamples: P1 (n = 23) - the current generation of national football team players from the year 1991, P2 (n = 23) - the generation playing in the years 1981-2001 and P3 (n = 23) - the generation playing in the years 1965-1987. Data were gained by means of semistructured interview oriented to family background in the period of the players' early sports socialization. Responses were analysed and classified on a categorical scale (5 domains per 4 categories), then processed using descriptive statistics. Comparisons of selected categories were processed using the non-parametric Chi-Square test at a significance level of p < 0.05. Results: The equal role of fathers was found in all three generations in equal categories (type of education, involvement in football, the motivation approach). The role of mothers became different related to the progress in women's emancipation, but was supportive for sports career development of the children. Conclusions: The results emphasized the importance of early sports socialization in the family, the importance of generation transfer, the function of the father, mother and siblings as motivators, regardless of participation in any of the three different generations.

A silent cry for leadership: Organizing for leading (in) clusters

Leadership research so far has neglected regional clusters as a particular context, while research on networks and clusters has hardly studied leadership issues. This paper fills this dual gap in the abundant research on leadership on the one hand and on networks/clusters on the other by investigating leadership in four prominent photonics clusters in England, Scotland, Germany and the United States. Apart from giving an insight into the variety and patterns of leadership practices observed in these clusters, the paper addresses the dilemma that regional innovation systems such as clusters usually have a critical need of some kind of leadership, but that neither individual nor organizational actors wish to be led. This dilemma or paradox can only be ‘managed’ by organizing for leading (in) clusters in a way that takes into account the tensions and contradictions surrounding leadership of and in clusters. The argument is based upon the idea of leading as reflexive structuration that has far-reaching implications for leadership research not only in this and other macro contexts but also in more traditional contexts.

Human Behavior in Response to Social Change

Social change is understood as a more or less rapid and comprehensive change of societal structures and institutions, including changes to the economic, technological, and cultural frameworks of a society (Calhoun, 1992). A case in point is the breakup or transformation of the former communist countries in Europe in the 1980s. The political transition to representative democracy included a profound change of the economic system to market capitalism, which was soon overlaid by the negative effects of globalization. Today, some 20 years after the event, we have a huge variation of political and economic transformations around the world. These transformations also include countries such as the United Kingdom or China that have undergone economic reforms without changes in the basics of the political system. Given that social change is evident at the macro level, it is also plausible to assume that such changes have an impact on individuals’ behavior and development. Until recently, however, such issues did not rank very high on the research agenda, at least not for psychology. This is the background to this Special Section, which brings together papers that investigate the effect of social change on the lives of individuals.

Leaving the parental home in post-war Japan

Abstract Leaving home is a key life event in the transition to adulthood, but it has been relatively less explored in demographic studies of contemporary Japan. This paper examines the relationship between home-leaving intensities of young adults and the rapid social, economic, and demographic changes that took place in post-World War II Japan. By using event-history analysis, the study focuses on 1) family and socio-demographic characteristics, 2) stem-family norms, and 3) proximities of life events and leaving home as the main factors affecting the chances of leaving home. This study aims to explain cohort trends and sex differentials in home-leaving behaviors among young adults in post-war Japan. 1. Introduction Leaving the parental home has been extensively studied in Western countries2. It is often studied as a topic closely related to such issues as the independence of young adults (Goldscheider and Goldscheider 1987, Goldscheider and DaVanzo 1989, Goldscheider and Goldscheider 1993a), parent-adult child relationships (Goldscheider and Goldscheider 1989, 1993b, Jong Gierveld, Liefbroer, and Beekink 1991, Buck and Scott 1993), the changing roles of marriage as an adult status (Goldscheider and Goldscheider 1993a, Goldscheider and Goldscheider 1994), educational opportunities (Wagner 1990, Nilsson and Strandh 1999), increasing job insecurity among young adults (Keilmann 1987, Jacob and Kleinert 2008), and the availability of both the intra- and the extra-familial resources needed to establish a separate household (Avery, Goldscheider, and Alden 1992, Whittington and Peters 1996, Garasky, Haurin, and Haurin 2001). Some scholars have also argued that the patterns of leaving home reflect institutional settings inherent in the historical roots of the region, such as welfare regimes (Fussel and Gauthier 2004, Newman and Aptekar 2007), family ties (Reher 1998), and family systems (Kurosu 1996a, 1996b, van Poppel, Oris, and Lee 2004). In the field of demography, the emergence of non-traditional living arrangements, such as cohabitation and extramarital birth, are interpreted as a sign of the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) (van de Kaa 1987, 2001, Lesthaege 1995). Patterns of leaving home are compatible with such non-traditional family behaviors, and are considered to be important factors in explaining the regional divergence in the processes of the SDT (Lesthaege and Moors 2000). Therefore, leaving home, particularly its incidence before marriage, is one of the important indicators in understanding the current development of family behaviors. Over the last half of the 20th century, Japan became highly industrialized, and achieved one of the highest living standards in the world. At the same time, Japanese families underwent enormous social and demographic changes during the post-World War II period. Family size became smaller as fertility rapidly declined, the population became more concentrated in urban areas than in rural areas, and the center of gravity of the labor force shifted away from the manufacturing and agricultural sectors, and towards the service industry. As a result, compositions of family characteristics varied significantly by successive cohorts. Furthermore, each cohort faced different macro contexts as a consequence of economic fluctuations, institutional changes, and erosion of the traditional norms regarding family and household formations. As shown in this paper, these changes in macro contexts facilitated important changes in the transitions to adulthood in post-war Japan. For example, as in other industrialized countries, more young adults enrolled in tertiary education and more single women entered full-time employment, even as the employment of young adults became more insecure, and people began to marry later and less. There is, however, little research into how these social, economic, and demographic changes affected the living arrangements of young adults in post-war Japan. …

Not Just Seeing, But Really Seeing: A Practical Black Liberationist Spirituality for Re-interpreting Reality

One of the biggest challenges that confront Black people living in the UK is how to assess the veracity of the macro and micro contexts in which our lives are lived. In a country whose indices for what constitutes normality and acceptability are predicated on notions of "Whiteness," Black people have always needed to possess an armoury of experiential and psycho-social tools in order to discern how to live as a potent symbol of "otherness" within the body politic of the nation. This essay, which arises from engagement with a group of Black Methodists, seeks to demonstrate how the use of personal experience and the role of the spirit in Black life can lead to ways of being able to discern one's positionality within the broader world of White dominated Britain. The essay brings together reflections on Black theology, pneumatology and experiential learning in order to great a practical/participative Black theology for seeing and reinterpreting the reality of being Black in Britain.

An Analysis of Maturation of Lifelong Learning under the Political, Economic, and Social Circumstances in China

This study analyzed the maturation process of lifelong learning in China. In particular, the study was to show how some specific political, economic and social circumstances went together with the whole process of lifelong education development in recent China. The notion of lifelong learning was first introduced into China in the late 1970s with the translation of the UNESCO report—Learning to Be: TheWorld of Education Today and Tomorrow. Since then, lifelong learning underwent a distinctive process of adjustment, rectification, reform, improvement, steady development and finally maturation. China’s current transition to market-oriented economy and industrialized country, together with the involvement in fierce global economic competition formed the macro contexts for developing lifelong learning. The big illiterate population and massive rural migrant labor forces raised great challenges and emergency to develop lifelong learning in China. The scope of period for the analysis is ranged from the foundation of People’s Republic of China in 1949 up to present. The corresponding political, economic and social situations in each period were the best indicators and explanations for the distinctive developing features from other countries.

An Unusual Clique of City‐Makers: Social Networks in the Production of a Neighborhood in Beirut (1950–75)

AbstractThis article documents the early development of an informal settlement in Beirut (Lebanon) through the trajectories of the developers who participated in its production, looking specifically at the role that social networks played in the process. Drawing primarily on the methodological approach developed by Pierre Bourdieu, my analysis reveals that social networks play a central role as conduits for developers to access the necessary housing ingredients and market securities they need to conduct their businesses. Social networks also function as accumulated capital, enabling developers to strengthen their hold over the production of housing in the neighborhood. My analysis also indicates that while some of these networks were inherited, many were built through patient investments deployed by these developers within the changing limitations of the micro (neighborhood) and macro (city‐wide) contexts. Finally, the changing distribution of social networks in this neighborhood determined when and how different social agents were able to participate as developers in the production and exchange of housing. These findings are important since they generate new insights into how (informal land) markets work, the practices of developers in this type of neighborhood, as well as the yet unstudied mechanisms of informal housing production in the Lebanese context.RésuméCet article, qui présente la création d’un quartier informel de Beyrouth (Liban) au travers des trajectoires adoptées par les promoteurs ayant pris part à sa production, s’intéresse au rôle des réseaux sociaux dans ce processus. Utilisant principalement l’approche méthodologique de Pierre Bourdieu, l’analyse révèle que les réseaux sociaux jouent un rôle central comme canaux permettant aux promoteurs d’accéder aux ressources et aux cautionnements du marché dont ils ont besoin pour mener leur activité. Par ailleurs, les réseaux sociaux sont accumulés telle une forme de capital, ce qui permet aux promoteurs d’accentuer leur mainmise sur la production d’habitations dans le quartier. De plus, il apparaît que, si certains de ces réseaux ont été hérités, d’autres sont le fruit de patients investissements de ces promoteurs malgré les conditions changeantes des environnements micro (quartier) et macro (ville). Pour finir, la répartition évolutive des réseaux sociaux dans ce quartier a déterminé quand et comment les différents agents sociaux ont été en mesure de participer à la production et à l’échange d’habitations en tant que promoteurs. Ces résultats sont importants puisqu’ils ouvrent de nouvelles perspectives sur les modes opératoires des marchés (fonciers informels), les pratiques des promoteurs dans ce type de quartier, ainsi que les mécanismes de production d’habitat informel dans le contexte libanais, mécanismes qui n’ont jamais étéétudiés.

Who tells which story and why? Micro and macro contexts in narrative

AbstractThis article focuses on the inter-relations between storytelling and micro and macro contexts. It explores how narrative activity is shaped by and shapes in unique ways the local context of interaction in a community of practice, an Italian American card-playing club, but also illustrates how the storytelling events that take place within this local community relate to wider social processes. The analysis centers on a number of topically linked narratives to argue that these texts have a variety of functions linked to the roles and relationships negotiated by individuals within the club and to the construction of a collective identity for the community. However, the narrative activities that occur within the club also articulate aspects of the wider social context. It is argued that, in the case analyzed here, local meaning-making activities connect with macro social processes through the negotiation, within the constraints of local practices, of the position and roles of the ethnic group in the wider social space. In this sense, narrative activity can be seen as one of the many symbolic practices (Bourdieu 2002 [1977]) in which social groups engage to carry out struggles for legitimation and recognition in order to accumulate symbolic capital and greater social power.

Counter‐networks in standardization: a perspective of developing countries

Abstract. Present information systems studies focus on technology from developed countries. Little is known about the development and implementation of indigenous technology in the developing world. This paper investigates China's experience of developing and deploying wireless local‐area network (WLAN) standards. First, drawing upon actor‐network theory, I interpret WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure (WAPI) standardization as a process of the actor‐network formation. Specifically, different actors were enrolled into two counter‐networks, namely the defensive network and the challenging network. These actors and the two counter‐networks struggled to dominate the interest inscriptions in the strategy of WLAN standardization. China's WAPI initiative failed because it could not establish a strong defensive network. Furthermore, I analyse the social, institutional and technological elements that determined the process of WAPI standardization. This case study demonstrates that counter‐network is a useful concept to analyse the mechanism of actor‐network formation. My analytical model in which the macro contexts are connected with the micro network dynamics can be drawn upon by other actor‐network studies on technology design and implementation. Practical implications for developing countries to develop the indigenous technologies have been given.

Made in the (Multicultural) U.S.A.: Unpacking Tensions of Race, Culture, Gender, and Sexuality in Education

The author discusses the challenges of educating teachers to engage, rather than deny or repress, differences that emerge at the dynamic, context-specific intersections of race, culture, gender, and sexuality. Although multicultural education discourse is well established, stereotypic representations and repressive silences persist in the sphere of practice. Interweaving postcolonial and feminist theories with reflections emerging from her multicultural teacher education practice, the author highlights tensions of doing multicultural work. She discusses how silencing forces operate even in seemingly “open” micro and macro contexts. To illustrate these arguments, the author engages two areas that have received limited attention in multicultural discourse itself: representations of Asian Americans and differences of sexuality. She recommends that the multicultural teacher education classroom serve as a site for modeling critical, self-reflexive engagement with difference and democratic participation, even as she acknowledges the limits of individual efforts in the process of educational and social change.

Violent victimization and drug involvement among Mexican middle school students

To answer the following research questions: (a) is there an association between violent victimization and exposure to opportunities to use marijuana, inhalants and cocaine and (b) is there an association between violent victimization and actual drug use among youth with drug-using opportunities? Cross-sectional survey. Two middle schools located in the Historic Downtown area of Mexico City. The entire body of students (n = 767; mean age 13.8 years, 52% males). Qualitative research was used to develop questions on drug exposure opportunities and violent victimization. Standardized questions on life-time alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalant drugs and cocaine use were also included, as well as questions on violent victimization and other covariates. One-quarter (25%) of students had an opportunity to try marijuana, inhalant drugs or cocaine; 35% who had an opportunity actually used at least one drug. In this sample, 59% had been victimized violently. Youth who had been victimized had greater odds of opportunities to use drugs compared to those who had not been victimized [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 3.8; 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.4, 6.1]. Once exposure opportunity is taken into consideration, no association was evident between violent victimization and actual drug use (adjusted OR = 0.9; 95% CI, 0.4, 2.1). It is possible to trace back the association between violent victimization and drug use to differences in exposure to opportunities. Limitations considered, this study suggests interventions to improve micro and macro contexts, such as families, schools and communities, so young people can have better places to live and develop.

Window onto a world of waste: cultural aspects of work in South Africa

In the Western Cape a system has emerged in recent years where informal groupings of poor people make a living by recycling waste material in exchange for cash. There are several dynamic interfaces in this process and this short study highlights the relationships between the different actors—from the poor people who make a living by collecting waste through to the needs of the formal recycling organisation which increases its turnover and efficiency by accommodating informal collectors. The study explores the organising processes and cultural meaning systems that have emerged as the recycling activity has evolved and adapted to the needs of the various actors. It considers both local and macro contexts situating the recycling activity in the social reality of poverty and lack of formal employment opportunities. Essentially the study focuses on the underside of organisational life those adaptive but sometimes hidden and unofficial arrangements by which things get accomplished or ignored. Looking through the lens of symbols (words deeds and objects) the observer becomes aware of issues of identity (the positions of the players) culture (the rules of the play) and power (their playing strength). The observation of daily organisational work processes in which the stories find their roots offers the opportunity for unexpected insights into what happens in ‘a world of waste’

The LSI-R in an Australian Setting: Implications for Risk/Needs Decision-Making in Forensic Contexts

The Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) is an actuarial tool that was created and normed in Canadian forensic settings. The tool is also used in Australia to conduct a risk/needs analysis of inmates, so that appropriate service provision can be mapped onto individuals in such a way as to minimise offender recidivism in community settings. Given differences between the Australian and Canadian cultural, forensic and macro socio-political contexts, questions arise regarding the adequacy of Canadian LSI-R norms, as an appropriate standard of comparison for Australian contexts. This study compiled LSI-R data from 254 male and 77 female offenders from five prison locations and then explored how Australian samples compared to Canadian samples. Inter-country comparisons compared percentile ranks as well as the overall profile of LSI-R subscale correlations in Australian versus Canadian samples. Both male and female Australian offenders scored higher on the LSI-R than Canadian inmates. Australian female offenders scored notably higher on the LSI-R than Canadian females. The overall profile of LSI-R subscale correlations also varied in Australian versus Canadian settings. An intra-country analysis of Australian data in isolation revealed that the relationships between LSI-R subscales was different for males and females. The implications of findings are considered in lieu of the cultural, forensic and socio-political context of Australian and Canadian settings. Implications are also considered in lieu of the limitations of the current study, the most prominent of which were sources of sampling biases, and the smaller sample size of the Australian data set.

Explaining the race/ethnicity–violence relationship: Neighborhood context and social psychological processes

Blacks and Latinos have higher levels of offending than Whites for violent crimes. Researchers have examined a range of explanations that primarily focus on race and have only begun to consider how macro contexts influence individual levels of violence. This study contributes to this literature by including both race and ethnicity, and by examining the role of social psychological processes in mediating the impact of neighborhood contexts on violence. Using the Add Health data, I demonstrate the importance of the neighborhood context, socioeconomic status, and social psychological processes in explaining the relationship between race, ethnicity and violence. Having witnessed and been victimized by violence is by far the most important social psychological process in explaining this relationship.

Innovative science within and against a culture of “achievement”

AbstractAs science educators struggle to reform science education, we need a better understanding of the conundrums associated with the ways educators enact innovative science within and against the “academic,” “rigorous,” and “elite” sociohistorical constructions of science. I ethnographically investigated the meanings of an innovative, reform‐based curriculum (Active Physics) in various micro (classroom) and macro (school and community) contexts. I conducted the study in a high school serving primarily upper middle class students, the majority of whom (97%) planned to attend college. I explored how meanings of the curriculum transformed as the curriculum traveled across space and time. While certain aspects of the context enabled innovative science (e.g., support from the administration, pressure to serve a wider range of students), other aspects of the context constrained the potential of the curriculum (e.g., the need to establish for students, parents, and administrators the legitimacy of Active Physics as “real” and “rigorous” physics). Using practice theory to understand the influence of context and agency in shaping school science practice, this study demonstrates the potential for viewing meanings of science in local settings as partially fluid entities, sometimes reproducing and sometimes contesting sociohistorical legacies. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 87:307–328, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/sce.10071