Narrow Perspective Research Articles

Student poverty in South African universities: Promoting the wellbeing and success of students

The fact that poverty has largely been conceptualised from a narrow financial perspective in South African higher education may have contributed to its perpetuation among students. There is limited research on the multidimensionality of poverty, particularly its wide-ranging effect on students in universities. Using the capabilities approach, this study explores the extent of poverty, as well as the way various dimensions of deprivation interplay to affect the wellbeing and success of students in universities. The study employs a sequential-mixed research design and gathers data at a university, initially using three focus group discussions followed by a survey questionnaire administered to 2306 students and 470 student voices and unfiltered stories. Both focus group discussion data and the short stories were coded and analysed using NVivo 12. The themes generated included basic needs, resources, psychological wellbeing, living conditions and participation. The findings of survey questionnaires, which were analysed using Stata, R, SPSS and Microsoft Excel, indicate a complex relationship between the dimensions of deprivations that affect students and the corrosive effect lack of finances has. While providing funding only does not sufficiently address student poverty, the study recommends that universities should consider devising robust measures to identify those financially deprived and provide them with adequate funding. Concurrently, universities should address other forms of deprivations, using mentorship programmes, for instance, to prevent and reduce psychological stress, shame, stigma and loss of dignity among poor students.

MEDICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF LEARNING LATIN IN MODERN MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

The article has an interdisciplinary character related to the influence of the integration of medicine and pedagogy on the possibilities of studying Latin by medical students.
 The aim of the work is to analyze the transformation of the traditional principles of learning Latin in a medical university in the context of modernizing modern education. Concerning the methods of the study, the researchers relied on the principles of dialectics, general scientific methods of generalization, analysis and systematization, as well as questionnaires. SWOT-analysis was used for the first time in the work to achieve this goal.
 Results. The study showed that the traditional principles and methods of teaching Latin at a medical university are not able to fully ensure the formation of the necessary competencies, primarily general cultural ones. The advantages of traditional principles were highlighted: providing a rich terminological stock and knowledge of grammatical norms. The identified disadvantages include insufficient development of students’ horizons, a narrow professional perspective and a large amount of memorized material and low educational motivation. It is described that many innovative technologies are quite applicable here, but little in demand. The threat to slowing down their use is an increase in the load on the teacher, uncontrolled independent work of students and a decrease in the school’s general cultural base of future students.

L’interculturalité: Perspectives d’une approche d’enseignement/apprentissage du FLE au Soudan

This article deals with problems of teaching/learning French in Sudan. In particular, we try to shed the light on the necessity of using an intercultural approach as a methodological base to rethink both French language teaching/learning objectives and the specific Sudanese context. Our method, in this paper, is basically applied in written texts used as a support in our classes of language, considering that texts are usually very culture-coded. This work is largely inspired by our field experience as French language teachers in Sudan. Besides, regarding the recent tendencies concerning the renewal of methods and approaches in teaching/learning foreign languages, the present paper is tended to be a humble contribution in the same direction. Our intention is thus to go beyond the narrower perspectives of a simple adoption of the ready-made methods that might not fit in specific Sudanese context.
 : d’une / du FLE au 
 

E-SC4R: Explaining Software Clustering for Remodularisation

Maintenance of existing software requires a large amount of time for comprehending the source code. The architecture of a software, however, may not be clear to maintainers if up-to-date documentations are not available. Software clustering is often used as a remodularisation and architecture recovery technique to help recover a semantic representation of the software design. Due to the diverse domains, structure, and behaviour of software systems, the suitability of different clustering algorithms for different software systems are not investigated thoroughly. Research that introduce new clustering techniques usually validate their approaches on a specific domain, which might limit its generalisability. If the chosen test subjects could only represent a narrow perspective of the whole picture, researchers might risk not being able to address the external validity of their findings. This work aims to fill this gap by introducing a new approach, Explaining Software Clustering for Remodularisation (E-SC4R), to evaluate the effectiveness of different software clustering approaches. This work focuses on hierarchical clustering and Bunch clustering algorithms and provides information about their suitability according to the features of the software, which as a consequence, enables the selection of the most suitable algorithm and configuration that can achieve the best MoJoFM value from our existing pool of choices for a particular software system. The E-SC4R framework is tested on 30 open-source software systems with varying sizes and domains, and demonstrates that it can characterise both the strengths and weaknesses of the analysed software clustering algorithms using software features extracted from the code. The proposed approach also provides a better understanding of the algorithms’ behaviour by showing a 2D representation of the effectiveness of clustering techniques on the feature space generated through the application of dimensionality reduction techniques.

Teologi Islam dan Fanatisme Perilaku Sosial Beragama

Fanatic is a term used to refer to a belief or a view of something positive or negative, which view does not have a theoretical backing or a foundation of reality, but is profoundly embraced so that it is difficult to straighten or change. The root problem of this discussion is the fanatical attitude of religious people, and the low level of understanding of religion, because they only see an event from a narrow perspective without seeing the consequences of what is caused. The weak self-confidence of adherents of religion to the teachings of religion that have been adopted since he was in a family environment, so easily influenced by the factors of fanaticism. As a believer in an individual religion must have a firm belief in the religion he has adopted and has been deemed correct according to the Act of government. The aim of the author to raise this phenomenon is to describe the mindset of an individual who is fanaticism-oriented, would this attitude undermine social interaction, or even fanaticism is a phenomenon that is mushrooming in the future.

LITERARY WORK IN THE SYSTEM OF CULTURE

The article considers a literary work in the context of the problem of preservation and development of cultural traditions, in particular the traditions of an author's literary and artistic creativity and reader`s co-creation. These traditions are characterized as fundamental to culture as a whole in the context of Yu. Lotman's ideas about the semiosphere as a semiotic space, which is both a prerequisite and a result of the functioning of culture. The intersection of dialogical-communicative, aesthetic-receptive, and ontological-hermeneutic understanding of a literary work presupposes a productive going beyond the narrow literary perspective on this phenomenon, requires the expansion of the theoretical scope of its subject. It is about realizing the special role of literature and, in particular, literary works representing it in the process of dialogical self-disclosure of creative individuals who need artistic expression to reconstruct the position of the other, necessary in the course of artistic cognition and self-knowing. Understanding and self-understanding, achieved in the process of dialogical interaction with the other in the space of a literary work, become a prerequisite for the fullness of life meeting the spiritual needs of personal development. Moreover, a literary work, potentially open to any person, becomes a crossroads of different cultures and eras, a mechanism for the formation and manifestation of the integrity of culture, the unity of mankind, the continuity of culture genesis.
 The need to return to the position of the author, to restore the idea of ​​the semantic center of the work outlined by the author is stated. By analogy with the concept of "Text", developed by R. Bart, it is proposed to use the concept of "Author", meaning a set of personal dialogic relationships of the author of a literary work with other authors and readers, open into the infinity of time perspective. This understanding of the author's position is aimed to prevent the simularization of a literary work, contribute to the preservation of it as a cultural value, an important tool of culture genesis.

Review: Verde, by Federico Rios Escobar

Review: <i>Verde</i>, by Federico Rios Escobar

Ideologi Media dan Framing Pada Pemberitaan Perusakan Rumah Ibadah di Kompas dan Republika

This study aims to find out how the framing in the news related to the destruction of the Musala in North Minahasa on the news of online media Kompas.com in the period 30 January to 13 February 2020 and Republika.co.id for the period 30 January 2020 to 12 February 2020. This study uses a qualitative method. descriptive analysis with framing analysis by Robert N. Entman with four elements, namely defining the problem, diagnosing the cause, making moral judgments, and recommending treatment. This study focuses on news about the destruction of the Musala that occurred in North Minahasa. The results show that the framing of the news presented by Kompas.com media is objectivity in reporting the case of the destruction of the Musala in North Minahasa, by not taking sides with certain groups, as well as in explaining that Kompas.com refrains from writing in a safe style, as well as a narrow news perspective. while Republika.co.id is more daring in conveying facts and news that are presented in depth and viewed from various perspectives so that it is possible to find the aspirations of Muslims to get the right to get a Musala as a place of worship. The difference in the frame of the two media is influenced by the ideological factors of each media. Even though they have different framing, these two media want the incident of vandalism of places of worship in North Minahasa to be resolved peacefully.

A Psychophysical Ordered Response Model of Time Perception and Service Quality: Application to Level of Service Analysis at Toll Plazas

This work attempts to bring to the fore the importance of explicitly modelling how time (or other physical quantities like distance) is perceived in the analyses of phenomena or behaviors where time (or other physical quantities) plays an important role. To do so the application area of level of service at toll plazas is chosen. Principles arising out of past work on the psychophysics of time perception are seamlessly incorporated into a novel unified model that accounts for both bias and random errors in perception. Multiplicative error terms arise naturally in this model. Results indicate that it is important to include both bias and random errors while modelling perception as ignoring the bias leads to high variance in the error term. Interestingly the pattern of bias in perception of time seems to remain steady across various waiting line situations from disparate contexts. Finally, the proposed model creates a framework that can be used to determine how time durations are perceived by humans when responses about perceptions are provided through categories like very small, small, etc. whose definitions are also concurrently identified. Such a framework can be used to study a wide range of situations both in transportation (such as route choice, mode choice, gap acceptance, and overtaking) and elsewhere. From a narrower perspective, this methodology can be used, as has been done here, to (i) determine level of service category definitions in terms of observable and “engineerable” variables (actual or measured delay faced by vehicles) even though it is the perceived value (a latent variable) that determines travelers’ responses on the quality of service, and (ii) identify parameters that define the systematic bias and randomness in perceptions.

Boardroom gender diversity and corporate environmental performance: a multi-theoretical perspective in the MENA region

PurposeDrawing on the multi-theoretical perspective, the primary purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the inextricably entwined nexus between board gender diversity and corporate environmental performance within cross-country context.Design/methodology/approachMultiple regression analysis on a cross-country panel data analysis was used. Further, the authors applied static panel data estimator ordinary least squares (OLS) as a baseline model with different proxies of gender diversity. In addition, to control for the potential endogeneity problem and providing robust findings, the authors run two-stage least squares (2SLS) and lagged independent variables.FindingsThe findings clearly unveiled that corporate environmental performance is positively and significantly affected by the level of gender diversity on board. This inextricable and intimate nexus is vastly attributed to the argument that female directors show greater concerns for eco-friendly activities.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study provide useful and fruitful insights for regulatory parties and policymakers to mandate gender quota in electing boardroom members to ameliorate corporate environmental performance.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, most of the prior studies have not yet provided a multi-theoretical analysis of the effect of board gender diversity on environmental performance. Thereby, this study handled this contemporary gap and went beyond the narrow perspectives by diving deep with cross-country analysis.

A Proposal for Assessing Digital Economy Spatial Readiness at Tourism Destinations

Information and communications technologies (ICT)—and more precisely, their use from fulltime connected mobile gadgets—offer valuable opportunities to interact with tourists using their own devices. In order to exploit these benefits, destinations should have appropriate digital infrastructure to allow for bidirectional smart communication with their visitors. However, the spatial distribution of such coverage, and the geographical concurrence of tourism activities and ICT infrastructure, have been poorly examined. This paper contributes to this analysis by quantifying digital accessibility with both a broader regional approach and a narrower local perspective. First, we propose a digital immersion index, and apply it to the Balearic Islands, Spain. Second, alternative Moran’s indices are used to study the spatial distribution and correlation of tourism and technological infrastructure for a local destination. The results are presented through easily interpretable maps, which can inform tourism policies, such as identifying and prioritizing ITC investments.

Лживость в современном обществе: способ адаптации или свойство личности?

The article presents a philosophical and psychological analysis of the psychodynamics of deceit, as a specific phenomenon determined by personal qualities. The results of the study are presented on the basis of a questionnaire developed by the authors to self-evaluate the admissibility of a lie. Students of both sexes participated (156 people between the age of 17-25). Three groups of subjects were identified, 30 people in each: group 1, with a negative attitude to lies; group 2: people who admit to lying in some cases, and group 3: people who admit to lying in all its manifestations. Personality factors in these groups were compared using the Kattel 16 PF questionnaire. People with different permissibility of lying and falsehood have different psychotypes. People who categorically deny and do not tolerate lies and deceit have high self-control of their behavior, severity and rigidity, while they are internally timid, aloof, tense, overly careful, avoid stress, and have a narrow life perspective. A person who admits falsehood in some cases and situations is conformal, dependent, not always confident in himself, often preoccupied with problems, emotionally unstable, often tense. There is a struggle between conscientiousness and falsehood; provoked by emotional instability and the lack of a “moral core” that does not allow the expression of one’s own opinion. Respondents representing the openly deceitful type reveal emotional balance, flexible intelligence, sociability, good memory and variable creative thinking. In the selected groups, there are different ways of resisting stress. It is shown that the adaptability of people from group 3 is higher than that of people from 1 and 2. The permissibility of lying is positively correlated with resilience to stress, and the inadmissibility of lying is associated with low stress tolerance. It follows from this that falsehood is embedded in the structure of the personality as an adaptive strategy. The authors state that falsehood is an adaptive phenomenon that facilitates survival in society.

The ethics of technology innovation: a double-edged sword?

We discuss the dilemma that while AI is considered as one of the most powerful engines that exist today to drive innovation, at the same time, however, rapid application of AI also has the potential to further increase inequalities and societal harm. This makes that we are being confronted with the question whether today’s amazing tech innovations may ultimately not bring limited benefits to the weaker members of society who need this kind of innovation the most. As such, do we need to slow down tech innovation to ensure that not more (and possibly new) unethical outcomes emerge over time? We note that the pursuit of tech innovation has been advocated primarily to optimize productivity, and, hence, economic growth. This pursuit represents, however, a narrow perspective on the good that AI could produce. Therefore, we argue that we need to adopt a less narrow perspective on what optimization means using tech innovation in ways that optimizes a diversity of human interests. By adopting such broader perspective, we propose an integrative approach where we start from the idea that we need to continue pushing tech innovation, but in combination with regulating innovation efforts and installing a stronger sense of moral awareness and responsibility among those in charge of the tech innovation journey. We conclude with outlining recommendations that can help promote this integrative approach, including the combination of self- and government regulation, promoting training efforts to establish more responsible leadership, and encouraging efforts to bring AI faster to the people.

A Preliminary Cost-Utility Analysis of the Prosthetic Care Innovations: Basic Framework.

A preliminary cost-utility analysis (CUA) of prosthetic care innovations can provide timely information during the early stage of product development and clinical usage. Concepts of preliminary CUAs are emerging. However, several obstacles must be overcome before these analyses are performed routinely. Disparities of methods and high uncertainty make the outcomes of usual preliminary CUAs challenging to interpret, appraise and share. These shortcomings create opportunities for a basic framework of preliminary CUAs. First, I introduced a basic framework of a preliminary CUA built around a series of constructs and hands-on recommendations. Then, I appraised this framework considering the strengths and weaknesses, barriers and facilitators, and return on investment. The design of the basic framework was determined through the review of health economic and prosthetic-specific literature. A preliminary CUA comparing the costs and utilities between usual intervention and an innovation could be achieved through a 15-step iterative process focusing on feasibility, constructs, analysis, and interpretation of outcomes. This CUA provides sufficient evidence to identify knowledge gaps and improvement areas, educate about the design of subsequent full CUAs, and obtain fast-track approval from governing bodies. Like previous CUAs, the main limitations were inherent to the constructs (e.g., narrow perspective, plausible scenarios, mid-term time horizon, substantial assumptions, data mismatch, high uncertainty). Key facilitators potentially transferable across preliminary CUAs of prosthetic care innovations included choosing abided constructs, capitalizing on prior schedules of expenses, and benchmarking baseline or incremental utilities. This new approach with preliminary CUA can simplify the selection of methods, standardize outcomes, ease comparisons between innovations, and streamline pathways for adoption. Further collegial efforts toward validating standard preliminary CUAs will facilitate access to economic prosthetic care innovations, improving the lives of individuals suffering from limb loss worldwide.

Psychological discrepancy in message-induced belief change: Empirical evidence regarding four competing models

ABSTRACT Message discrepancy is the difference between the position of an advocated belief in a message and the position of a message receiver’s initial belief, and psychological discrepancy is how the message’s discrepancy is perceived by the receiver. The present study tested Fink et al.’s [(1983). Positional discrepancy, psychological discrepancy, and attitude change: Experimental tests of some mathematical models. Communication Monographs, 50(4), 413–430] psychological discrepancy model plus three other models to determine whether psychological discrepancy affects the weight of a message, the scale value of the message, neither, or both. These models were tested in an experiment that manipulated psychological discrepancy with a 3 (high vs. moderate vs. low message scale value) × 3 (wide vs. moderate vs. narrow perspective) between-subjects design (N = 448). The original Fink et al. model was the most supported. The results help explain how psychological processes bring about belief change.

The life-cycle of engagement: towards a divergent critical HR/pluralist conceptualization

ABSTRACT Since Kahn's (1990) pioneering work, the concept of engagement has attracted considerable interest globally. With expansion is a desire for conceptual convergence. Yet different disciplines (work psychology, HRM/D, industrial/employee relations), theoretical approaches (unitarism and pluralism) and research methods (positivist/quantitative and interpretivist/qualitative) create divergence. I consider the life-cycle of engagement, as an ‘umbrella’ construct, to make sense of convergence and divergence in HRD. Kahn advocated multi-level, case study research to better understand engagement yet this has been overshadowed by a dominant narrow, unitarist and quantitative perspective. To explore tensions between diverse conceptualisations, I conducted a narrative review. This identified theoretical, methodological and practical implications of unitarist and pluralist perspectives. I argue engagement needs to be conceptualised from a critical HR, pluralist perspective, and present a multi-level analytical framework to assist this endeavour. I propose a new direction for engagement research. This more situationally-sensitive, employee-centred approach recognises discretionary behaviours flow from the competency of HR(D) practitioners and line managers in balancing efficiency, equity and voice within the contested work context. Such a critical HR/pluralist approach might address some of the criticisms charged at HRD professionals of being removed from work-place realities.

“Conspiracy theory”: The case for being critically receptive

“Conspiracy theory”: The case for being critically receptive

Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions on Governmental Suggested English Curriculum in Rural Areas

&#x0D; The analysis of different perceptions allows us to build a general viewpoint to find common factors on a specific topic. This study focuses on pre-service teachers’ perceptions regarding the implementation and scope of the Suggested English Curriculum (SEC) in rural areas of Boyacá, Colombia. A qualitative case study was conducted through narrative interviews, open-ended questionnaires, and a focus group. Several points of view were collected and classified into three categories explored from a narrow perspective to generate a broader view of the object of the study along with its respective exploration and analysis. Overall, pre-service teachers perceive it is difficult to achieve most of the SEC objectives in rural areas, given its characteristics and the high expectations from the Colombian Ministry of National Education (MEN due to its acronym in Spanish). Finally, the authors explore pedagogical implications and determine the path for further research.

MAKᾹNAT AL-ADYᾹN GHAIR AL-ISLᾹMIYYAH MIN AL-MANẒŪR AL-QUR’ᾹNῙ

he problem is that not every religious believer is willing to live side by side with other people who are different. This phenomenon gives rise to clashes, hostility, and tensions between adherents of different religions. The main reason mostly refers to the interpretation with a narrow perspective on several religious texts, especially with the existence of verses that emphasize the exclusivity of eschatological happiness and the limitation of the right of exclusivity to certain groups. Through the contextual exegesis approach and the data analyzed by the thematic framework, this paper aims to present an idea of the response of the Quran to non-Islamic religions. The author also tries to interpret the verses of the Quran that show exclusivity and exclusive truth in a direction that is in accordance with other verses that call for tolerance and openness, starting with the contextual approach commonly used in the field of Quranic interpretation's studies today. The writer hopes that this paper will contribute academically to answer the stagnation of interpretation's phenomenon experienced by most religious communities in the modern era. Particularly, this contribution becomes an encouragement to build healthy relationships filled with love, compassion, to maintain humanity and respect for others, to safeguard rights, and to achieve shared human values and noble goals among others.

Effectiveness evaluation of freight subsidy policy from a broader clean production view – Case study of the Yiwu-Ningbo container freight corridor, China

The effectiveness of a specific freight subsidy policy is typically evaluated by a single indicator, i.e., decrease of road freight volume or emissions, from a civilian perspective. However, the approach from a narrow clean production perspective ignores the influences of the policy on other entities (e.g., shippers and consignees). This study proposes an evaluation framework based on cost-benefit analysis (CBA) from a broader view, i.e., more elements related to benefit and cost are incorporated in the CBA, to comprehensively and accurately assess the effectiveness of freight subsidy policies. Accordingly, the necessary and sufficient condition for an effective subsidy policy is derived. Then, this framework is employed for a case study of the Yiwu-Ningbo container freight corridor. The results indicate that, whether the subsidy policy is effective largely depends on the connotations of benefit and cost in the CBA. Moreover, the current subsidy policy of the Yiwu-Ningbo case is ineffective, unless time cost can be decreased by shortening the rail transportation chain time from the supply side, or by increasing the time upper threshold from the demand perspective. These results remind policy makers that when issuing or revising subsidy policies, they need to carefully consider the implementation background. Otherwise, these policies may lead to resource waste from a broader clean production view.