Participants In Dialogue Research Articles

The transformation of the curriculum in the Linking Worlds Dialogic Pedagogy

Dialogic Pedagogy of the "Linking Worlds" is characterized by forming community classrooms incorporating a diversity of community agents who join to transform the official school curriculum in Chilean public schools. The participatory action research we report in this article was developed in two of these classrooms, one in the cultural context of a mining community and the other in a rural cultural context. The action research project aimed to make their local cultures visible in the school curriculum. Our objective was to systematize the knowledge and practices of the people who are part of community classrooms and determine whether these contributions managed to challenge the official curriculum structure. We achieved our objective in a four-year study involving 76 participants in dialogical conversations and collective dialogues. Throughout the study, we collected audiovisual records. We identified two areas of knowledge and practices that transform the official curriculum: the corporeality-affectivity and community areas. In addition, it was possible to verify that although the themes nominally coincided, the curricular transformations differed depending on the local characteristics of each classroom. These local curricular transformations promote the advancement of dialogic pedagogy because in such decisions and through egalitarian dialogue, debates, disputes, etc., different participants’ voices are heard in each community classroom. In addition, these transformations keep the debate and interpretation of school curricular contents open.

Conditions for the effective use of dialogue and discussion teaching technologies in higher education

The purpose of the article is to analyze and characterize the conditions that provide for the effective use of dialogue and discussion technologies to ensure quality learning outcomes for modern students studying in higher education. The article proves that the effectiveness of introducing dialogue and discussion technologies into the educational process of a modern higher education institution is closely related to the level of general and professional competencies of teachers who conduct classes. Among such competences are the following: the ability to search for supporting motives or issues of concern to modern higher education students; educational and scientific problems that can help to form the personal meaning of the material being studied. The list of necessary competences that guarantee the ability to effectively use dialogue and discussion technologies also includes the ability of the teacher to ensure that the student is motivated to actively interact with all participants in the educational process, to create situations for them in which they feel their own success, intellectual capacity, etc. Important and necessary conditions also include: the teacher’s ability to manage the dialogue, his or her ability to program various options for the development of dialogue storylines; design different ways of interaction between dialogue participants, foresee and distribute their possible roles; simultaneously monitor and timely adjust the purpose, time, results (analysis of successes or faiures) of mutual learning activities, etc. A promising area for further research is the analysis and characterization of the conditions associated with a higher education student’s readiness to actively participate in dialogue.

HARDER THAN SAID: GETTING PAST «WAR OF ALL AGAINST ALL» IN THE NEGOTIATION LEARNING

The purpose of the article was to study students' stereotypes regarding the negotiation process. The use of projective methods helped understand whether students taking specialized courses on negotiations tended to adhere to classical economic provisions and how prevalent this mindset was. The study's results confirmed the frequent presence of simplified ideas about the roles of participants in negotiations, the nature of the process itself, and the perception of other participants, among other aspects. Interestingly, even the newest concepts, presented through textual and multimodal representations, often fell victim to traditional logic in students' interpretations. Most notably, negotiations were still predominantly associated with money conversations, rather than considering the interests of all participants. The dynamic visual images chosen by students as representations of real negotiations demonstrated the persistent influence of stereotypes over innovation in the negotiation context. Particularly, the stereotype regarding the rationality of negotiations was clearly evident. Addressing this challenge in specialized teaching and learning, the authors proposed a realistic approach that incorporates practical experience.

Beyond relational work: a psycho-pragmatic analysis of impoliteness in Shakespeare’s King Lear

This paper offers a psycho-pragmatic analysis of impoliteness in Shakespeare’s King Lear at the intradiegetic level of communication. The paper’s main objective is to explore the extent to which impoliteness assessment is influenced by both the psychological traits of interlocutors motivated by their reality paradigms and the fictional participation of discourse participants, which targets a deeper understanding of the association between impoliteness, psychological dimensions of personality, and fictional participation in drama dialogue. The study is based on an eclectic framework by drawing inspiration from contributions in the field of impoliteness and relational work studies, with a special emphasis on Locher and Jucker’s (2021) list of the factors influencing relational work, together with reference to studies on the relationship between psychological dimensions of personality and language use, with a focus on Archer’s (2002) concept of reality paradigms. The paper has two main findings: first, psychological traits of interlocutors contribute significantly to the production, reception, and assessment of impoliteness and serve as antecedents of their verbal aggression; and, second, psychological impoliteness operates within a specific community of practice and has its own context-specific expectation frames.

Using the Multi-Theory Model (MTM) of Health Behavior Change to Explain the Seeking of Stool-Based Tests for Colorectal Cancer Screening.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide and is the second leading cause of cancer-associated deaths. While colorectal cancer is on the decline in the United States (US), disparities still exist, despite the non-invasive screening modalities, such as stool-based tests have shown themselves to be effective in the detection of colorectal cancer. Many of the existing stool-based test interventions lack the use of a contemporary theory-based approach. Given the paucity of theory-based interventions intended to promote stool-based tests, this cross-sectional study utilizes the multi-theory model (MTM) of health behavior change to explain the seeking of stool-based tests for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. An online 57-item questionnaire with an established psychometric validity was used to collect responses from the US-based sample (n = 640) of adults aged 45-75 years old. The data were analyzed using bivariate and multivariate statistical methods. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to test the construct validity of the survey instrument. In this nationwide sample, 39.2% (n = 251) of participants reported having received some form of a stool-based test. Among the participants who did not undergo stool-based CRC screening, the MTM subscales, including "participatory dialogue", "behavioral confidence", and "changes in the social environment", were significant predictors of initiating screening behavior and explained 48% of the variance in the initiation among this group (R2 = 0.579, F = 5.916, p < 0.001; adjusted R2 = 0.481). The MTM may be a useful framework with which to design educational, mass media, social media, and clinical interventions for the promotion of stool-based CRC screening among adults aged 45-75 years old.

Achieving Gender Equality through Women Empowerment in India: A Study in the Context of Sustainable Development.

According to UN data, women and girls constitutes 50% of the world’s population and therefore, half of mankind’s potential. The 5th Sustainable Development Goal is about achieving gender equality and empowering women. However, existing literature suggests that widespread gender inequality acts as a hinderance to sustainable development. This study aims at uncovering the role of women empowerment in achieving gender equality and thereby ensuring sustainable development in India. Qualitative methodology and secondary sources are employed to collect data. According to published studies, contribution of women work force towards economic development of the country is less compared to men work force. Similarly, in the political sphere men dominates and participation of women in decision making process is comparatively less. Women related violence and crime has increased manifolds in the past decade. Studies also state that women participation in climate change dialogue is also less in India. This study concludes that unless women are not empowered and gender equality is not achieved, women cannot play a significant role in economic, political, social, and environmental spheres. And to achieve sustainable development recognizing only men’s contributions will not suffice. Hence, this study tries to draw the attention of the policy makers to commit and work towards women empowerment and utilize the potential of the entire country to attain sustainable development.

Remote work in Ukraine: problems and prospects of improving its legal regulation

The article is devoted to the problems and prospects of legal regulation of remote work in Ukraine. Attention is paid to international and European standards dedicated to the features of remote work. Special attention is devoted to the study of the problems of limiting remote work for certain categories of workers under martial law. The conclusion is justified that the concept of “remote work” can be used to denote two phenomena that are different in their content. Firstly, remote work is a special mode of work that can be applied temporarily by the employer’s decision as a forced measure in the event of certain life-threatening circumstances or people’s health. Secondly, remote work as a special labour organization provides that teleworkers constantly perform work outside the employer’s location due to the specificity of their labour function. The use of an electronic digital signature in the interaction between the employer and the remote worker is a separate problem in the course of organizing remote work.The question arises about the financial costs of obtaining it (on whom they should rely)and the need to use such a signature when familiarizing the remote worker with the orders, job description, and local acts of the employer. Also, the possibility of bringing a teleworker to disciplinary responsibility remains an unsolved problem, in particular, in what way the disciplinary offenses of such a worker should be documented, and his guilt should be established if the improper performance of labor duties was due to technical reasons or other circumstances independent of the worker. The latter becomes especially relevant in the current conditions of a full-scale war with russia, given the difficult situation in the dilapidated energy system of Ukraine, constant power outages and lack of mobile or internet connection. Proposals regarding the need to improve the legal regulation of remote work in a separate section of the Labour Code are formulated. In particular with the regulation of the ways of interaction between the employer and the teleworker in the process of performing work (the order of protection and exchange of information, transfer of the employer’s tasks, control over their execution); access of teleworkers to opportunities for training and career growth; the mechanism for protecting the rights of teleworkers with the help of trade unions, their participation in collective negotiations and the resolution of collective labour disputes. Key words: remote work, special form of labour organization, labour contract on remote work, non-standard employment.

Examining the Gambling Behavior of University Students: A Cross-Sectional Survey Applying the Multi-Theory Model (MTM) of Health Behavior Change in a Single Institution.

Gambling among college students can start as a pastime activity. However, this pastime can lead to problem gambling and pathological gambling. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify and explain the initiation and sustenance of quitting gambling among university students who had participated in gambling during the past month and those who had not using a novel fourth-generation multi-theory model (MTM) of health behavior change. Data were collected from a sample of 1474 university students at a large southwestern university in the U.S. between January 2023 and February 2023, utilizing a validated 39-item survey. The statistical analyses employed in this study encompassed descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, and hierarchical regression modeling. Among students who had engaged in gambling in the past month, the constructs of participatory dialogue (β = 0.052; p < 0.05), behavioral confidence (β = 0.073; p < 0.0001), changes in the physical environment (β = 0.040; p = 0.0137), and demographic variables accounted for 27.7% of the variance in the likelihood of initiating the behavior change. Furthermore, the constructs of emotional transformation (β = 0.104; p = 0.0003) and practice for change (β = 0.060; p = 0.0368), and demographic variables accounted for 22.6% of the variance in the likelihood of sustaining quitting gambling behavior. The Multi-Theory Model (MTM) can be employed to design interventions aimed at reducing problem gambling among college students.

Philosophy and Intercultural Communication: The Phenomenon of a Human Being in the Confucian Tradition

Purpose. This paper aims to investigate the phenomenon of a human being within the Confucian tradition as well as its interpretations from intercultural perspective. Theoretical basis. One of the ways to understand the deepest level of the intercultural dialogue is to reveal the interpretations of a human being in philosophical traditions, since they refer to the formation of personality and identity within a given culture including interpersonal, intergroup, and intercultural relations. Humanism based on the unity of Human and Heaven runs like a red thread through the philosophical teachings of Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming defining the ideas of human nature, his/her duties, his/her place and roles in society that shaped the Chinese mentality. Originality. Quite often, Chinese concepts (for example, human dignity beyond the ideas of democracy and mass political participation, guanxi, mianzi) are incomprehensible to the representatives of the Western civilization, which leads to the challenges in intercultural communication. The interpretation of these ideas in the context of Confucianism allows to understand them from the perspective of Others and expand the set of patterns of cultural perception. This ultimately leads to the awareness that there are many social, political, cultural realities, which we perceive through the lens of our own concepts and attitudes. The participants of an intercultural dialogue realize that each of them has a unique experience, own way of posing a problem and resolving it, and no one is better or worse. Conclusions. Confucian philosophy shaped the worldview of Chinese people, defined values, goals, meanings, attitudes, communication models, which affected all spheres of Chinese life and culture. The study of the philosophical heritage of the great Chinese civilization enhances the cultural competence of the intercultural communicators and expands the field of dialogue to the level of global communication.

Overlooked No More: Empowering Youth Voices in Global Climate-Change Negotiations

Youth participation in climate change negotiations has increased over the last decade; however, youth voices are still underrepresented. The diversity of youth activists in the Americas and the sheer number of youth-led organizations belies any stereotypes about disinterested youth. Youth care about both the present and the future of our planet; are organizing; and have many voices. Yet, there are currently weak institutional mechanisms to integrate these voices into climate negotiations beyond showcasing experiences. Youth must be included in collaborative and transdisciplinary ways. We recommend opportunities that have had success in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), which help youth to engage in discussions with policymakers to inform climate negotiations. These recommendations include the following: 1) institutionalizing formal national and regional youth councils and committees to strengthen collaboration between young people and decision-makers; 2) creating and expanding training programs for youth on climate negotiations; 3) using science diplomacy as a key tool to enhance science-based, relevant, and collaborative efforts for youth engagement; and 4) developing strategies to navigate the diversity of expertise, scientific knowledge, and inclusion of youth to address equitable climate solutions.

Tangible User Interfaces for Enhancing User Experience of Virtual Reality Cultural Heritage Applications for Utilization in Educational Environment

Museums are traditionally considered learning environments and are ordinarily used for non-formal education. Physical museums, while being irreplaceable, are limited to a physical space, requiring mobility and physical presence. In addition, traditional exhibitions are not designed for interaction and physical exploration of artefacts. With the focus being shifted from museum exhibits to visitors’ experience, utilization of emerging technologies and co-creation of virtual museums not only helps in preservation of cultural heritage, but enhances the dissemination, engagement, and experience, while addressing the mobility and the plurality of voices and perspectives represented. In this work, we designed and developed the School House Virtual Museum with tangible user interfaces based on participatory, interdisciplinary, and co-creative methods with students and a larger community of researchers, artists, and practitioners working on heritage and memory. In a user study with 62 participants, usability and user experience were explored and the potential contribution of such virtual museums to learning, based on critical, cross-disciplinary, and participatory dialogue, both in cultural and educational institutions/programs has been investigated. The results have confirmed that the system has been well designed and developed, and the user experience was largely positive. The responses from educators and students confirmed that the application holds potential as a learning and education tool in either museums, schools, or when used independently.

From being ignored to engaging in dialogue: Young boys' narratives of children's participation in child–parent conflicts

AbstractThis paper examines children's opportunities to participate in everyday child–parent conflicts as revealed in young boys' fictional narratives. The data were collected from 19 boys aged 3–6 years using the Story Magician's Play Time method. Narrative analysis yielded four story types: ignored participation stories, parent‐directed participation stories, child‐directed participation stories and dialogical participation stories. The study illustrates that when considering children's participation in child–parent conflicts, differences between children in their opportunities to participate in resolving conflicts should be taken into account. The boys' stories draw attention to the importance of children's right to a voice and influence in child–parent conflicts.

THE IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC ON COLLECTIVE RELATIONS IN POLAND

The crisis caused by the outbreak and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the legislature to make numerous legal changes. The undertaken measures comprised labour law understood in the broadest sense. They were intended to protect the economy, including jobs, from the dramatic consequences of the spread of the virus and the associated danger. The extraordinary circumstances called for specific measures, focused on protecting work and workers. The drafting of protective regulations, under such special circumstances, could not take place without dialogue involving the labour. At the multi-company level, this was seeking concrete solutions to protect the employees. In turn, at the company level, the partners exercised the rights guaranteed by the anticrisis regulations. The article offers an analysis of the legal situation of participants in social dialogue – both the employees and the employers. In retrospect, it is possible to evaluate specific measures which have been adopted.

Kickstarting science? Crowdfunded research, public engagement, and the participatory condition

ABSTRACT Crowdfunding for science has been hailed both as an important means of funding early-career scholars and innovative research projects, and as a novel approach to communicating with and enabling participation by members of the public. The experiences of scientists who have sought crowdfunding and the opportunities and challenges that this entails are analyzed to critically examine claims (by platforms and in previous studies) about the democratizing potential of crowdfunding for ‘opening up’ research funding and ‘engaging’ members of the public in scientific research. Interview accounts of scientists indicate that crowdfunding can provide crucial support for under-resourced researchers as well as research projects, and that it offers a relatively unique opportunity for communicating science and enabling public participation in several aspects of the scientific research process. However, these accounts also reveal that seeking crowdfunding gives rise to several practical, social, and professional issues, such as increasing the burden of labour on already disadvantaged researchers, straining relationships with colleagues, tarnishing one’s professional status, and ultimately exacerbating inequalities among scientists. Moreover, the ostensible promise of crowdfunding for enhancing science communication and public engagement in science is undercut by the failure of both crowdfunding platforms and campaigners to take the potential non-monetary contributions or expertise of non-scientists seriously. Rather than acknowledging the potential for two-way dialogue and public participation that crowdfunding platforms can potentially provide, public input is formatted as a financial transaction, which reduces the ability of publics to influence crowdfunded projects in a meaningful manner and therefore greatly diminishes their democratic potential.

Measuring maternal improvement through multi-stakeholder engagement: Documenting developments in the dynamic programmatic context of the global COVID-19 pandemic through outcome harvesting.

To bolster country efforts towards meeting the targets and strategies laid out in WHO's report "Strategies toward ending preventable maternal mortality" (EPMM), a series of seven consultations, known as National Dialogues, were conducted to better understand national priority areas for the improvement of maternal health and to support the adoption and use of EPMM indicators at the national level. The last Dialogue was conducted in March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to have global impacts. We aimed to explore the circumstantial challenges and opportunities that countries have encountered in meeting the specific stakeholder commitments made in each country by National Dialogue participants during the COVID-19 pandemic. We based our study methodology on outcome harvesting, a qualitative approach that examines how incremental change contributes towards achieving a specified outcome. It collects evidence on what has changed and then works backwards to determine whether and how a programme or intervention led to the observed changes. We collected data from 20 participants in five countries (Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan) through key informant interviews and focus group discussions. We analysed the data through inductive coding focused on emergent themes. The onset of the global COVID pandemic overturned plans and upended health systems, bringing new opportunities in some countries and halting progress towards the agenda outlined in the National Dialogue elsewhere. Participants identified adaptations that facilitated continued progress, such as shifting the locus of advocacy and activity from national to sub-national focal areas, catalytic changes in response to the crisis (including the development and improvement of digital communication and data technology), and increased awareness of the importance of identified priorities (including a human rights approach to maternal health). Our data suggest that the priorities for maternal health system performance to drive improvement toward ending preventable maternal deaths and the advocacy commitments designed to increase the relevance of upstream policy and health system-level determinants of maternal health and survival have retained their urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conceptualising, evaluating and supporting the development of cosmopolitan values in internationalised higher education: A capabilities approach

Internationalised higher education literature draws attention to the tension between the economic returns of recruiting overseas students and the personal, social and cultural possibilities offered. This paper advances the idea that fostering cosmopolitan values might be an educational focus for internationalisation. However, it appears that the creation of higher education learning environments which promote such values, offering opportunities for students to become more interculturally aware is yet to be achieved. Drawing on the ‘capability approach’ of Amartya Senand Martha Nussbaum, an ‘intercultural capability set’ was constructed as a means of operationalising cosmopolitan values within higher education. Analysis of data from 44 interviews with undergraduate home and international pharmacy students through the lens of capability enabled the identification of factors within the academic environment which act to promote or inhibit the development of intercultural relationships, learning and more cosmopolitan selves. Curriculum, pedagogy and assessment should be therefore examined for their potential to enhance opportunities for intercultural engagement and capability expansion, with participatory dialogue, including staff, students, university departments and stakeholders, about valued outcomes for a university education. It is argued that the capability approach provides a sound basis for operationalising and evaluating efforts to develop students with cosmopolitan values for the present and contributing as future members of society.

“They were mostly sitting back and staying quiet”: a critical race discourse analysis of racial voyeurism in cross-racial intergroup dialogues

ABSTRACT This study utilises a critical race discourse analysis to understand how cross-racial intergroup dialogue (IGD) participants perceive racial voyeurism, a form of racism within their dialogue course. IGD is a face-to-face, co-facilitated interaction between two or more groups within a social identity-based conflict where participants form intergroup relationships, reflect critically and interpersonally, and build intergroup alliances. The discursive statements of participants analysed through critical race discourse analyses reveals how racism penetrates the IGD through race-evasiveness and the normalisation of Whiteness.

FEMALE SUPERINTENDENTS AND NEGOTIATIONS: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF GENDER IN THE MIDWEST

In this qualitative study, the researcher examined 11 female superintendents’ experiences of negotiations. Six themes emerged from the semi-structured interviews: I am a Woman in a Man’s World (Still), Negotiating for Myself is Uncomfortable, The School Board Holds the Cards, Experience and Salary Data are Key, Fairness is Important, and Female Leaders Need Support. Recommendations are provided to bolster support and preparation for women’s participation in negotiation. Recommendations are also provided for future research to continue the exploration of female superintendents’ experiences of negotiations.

Re-theorising the participation-security nexus in war-to-peace transitions

ABSTRACT War-to-peace transitions feature multiple insecurities not directly connected to armed conflict, seen clearly in violence associated with social and political participation by marginalised persons and communities. Understanding such violence requires re-theorisation of the relationship between citizen participation and security. Grounded theory research on sectoral and temporal patterns of violence in Colombia’s Cesar Department suggests it is utilised by societal elites in response to grassroots participation. I analyse electoral participation, intra- and inter-community participation, and participation in dialogue with authorities at multiple levels, finding that empowered citizen participation is a key means to ensure citizen security. This includes participatory peacebuilding mechanisms during 2011–2016 peace negotiations with FARC-EP, involvement in ongoing peace accord implementation, and elaboration of local development plans. Re-theorising the participation-security nexus challenges ‘security first’ analyses and calls on academics, practitioners, and policymakers to consider the motives, methods, and mechanisms through which violence is utilised to block empowered citizen participation.

Comparing Trends in Medicare Reimbursement and Inflation within Plastic Surgery Subspecialties.

Over the past decade across multiple surgical specialties, Medicare reimbursement rates have remained stagnant, failing to keep pace with inflation. An internal comparison of subspecialties within plastic surgery has not yet been attempted. The goal of this study was to investigate the trends in reimbursement from 2010 to 2020 and compare across the subspecialties of plastic surgery. The Physician/Supplier Procedure Summary was used to extract the annual case volume for the top 80% most-billed CPT codes within plastic surgery. Codes were defined into the following subspecialties: microsurgery, craniofacial surgery, breast surgery, hand surgery, and general plastic surgery. The Medicare physician reimbursement was weighted by case volume. The growth rate and compound annual growth rate were calculated and compared against an inflation-adjusted reimbursement value. On average, inflation-adjusted growth in reimbursement for the procedures analyzed in this study was -13.5%. The largest decrease in growth rate was within the field of microsurgery (-19.2%), followed by craniofacial surgery (-17.6%). These subspecialties also had the lowest compound annual growth rate (-2.11% and -1.91%, respectively). For case volumes, microsurgery increased case volumes by an average of 3% per year, whereas craniofacial surgery increased case volumes by an average of 5% per year. After adjusting for inflation, all subspecialties had a decrease in growth rate. This was particularly evident in the fields of craniofacial surgery and microsurgery. Consequently, practice patterns and patient access may be negatively affected. Further advocacy and physician participation in reimbursement rate negotiation may be essential to adjust for variance and inflation.