Identity Perspective Research Articles

Divided Village, Divided Identity? Exploring the Professional Identity of Teachers Amid the Geopolitical Configuration in Al-Ghajar.

This quantitative research is based on a validated research questionnaire. It presents a preliminary exploratory study examining perspectives of professional identity as reflected in self-reports of the teachers of Al-Ghajar, a village on Israel's northern border, given its unique geographical and geopolitical configuration. The current study is the first of its kind, clarifying the teachers' perception of their professional identity in the unique space in which they live and work via a questionnaire completed by 61 teachers of both genders from kindergarten through high school. The findings show that there are strong positive correlations: "love for the profession" and "self-fulfillment" have a very strong positive correlation (0.831). There is also a positive correlation (0.430) between the indicators of "professional skills" and "professional unity" suggesting that the teachers' perceptions of professional identity are holistic in all examined dimensions. These perceptions are motivated by a strong sense of mission that influences their profession and their sense of satisfaction. Al-Ghajar, as a unique enclave, has created a geopolitical configuration that contributes to the construction of the professional identity of teachers in the village. The research conclusion indicates that the ability to legitimize one's role has important implications for the quality of teaching, as it can help teachers form familiar, affiliated, and secure identities. These are key traits since a positive sense of professional self is a prerequisite for job satisfaction and resilience.

Coherent lives: Making sense of adoptees’ experiences in education through narrative identity

AbstractChildren adopted from care become part of a hidden, but no less vulnerable, group in the education system and may be overlooked for allocation of additional support and guidance. Adoption is a relatively unique experience and adds layers of complexity, difference and vulnerability to young people's lives that are poorly understood and under‐researched. Adopted adolescents face significant challenges in social, emotional and behavioural aspects of school life. An attainment gap persists throughout their educational career. Adoptees are strikingly absent from many conversations regarding care‐experienced young people yet their needs and challenges are comparable with those of their peers remaining in the care system. Assumptions are made about adoptees’ opportunity and capacity to recover, concealing challenges faced in adjusting to adoptive life, including education. The impact of adoptees’ early experiences could lead to complex identity formation processes during adolescence, with potential implications for education experience and performance. This paper explores the potential of applying a narrative adoptive identity perspective to answer questions about how adopted children and young people experience school as an adopted person, i.e. how does their lived experience as an adopted member of a school community impact on their engagement with school, schoolwork and peer networks? The concept of ‘communicative openness’ is used to illustrate the vital role the school community plays in enabling adopted children to transition into and thrive in school. Taking a narrative adoptive identity approach may enable teachers to better meet adoptees’ specific learning and teaching needs as dictated by their unique experiences and enhance opportunities for better educational progress.

Brand engagement on social media and its impact on brand equity in higher education: integrating the social identity perspective

PurposeThe rapid adoption of social media has resulted in a fundamental shift in the way communication and collaboration take place. While social media is recognized as an important marketing communication tool, it has become overlooked how social media marketing activities (user-generated and firm-generated content) influence brand equity creation in the higher education sector. Drawing from social identity theory, this study identifies how higher education institutions develop customer-based brand equity using social media marketing and social brand engagement, taking cross-comparison between high and low subjective norms.Design/methodology/approachA survey was used to collect data from a sample of 936 undergraduates of private higher education institutions in Sri Lanka and Vietnam. These data were gathered using purposive sampling, and in testing the hypothesis and structure among the variables, structural equation modeling was used to determine the relationship between the study variables.FindingsFor the conceptual framework, the authors found that the structural equation model complies with the empirical data. The structural equation model shows that social brand engagement mediates the relationship between user-generated content, firm-generated content and brand equity. Further, the subjective norms were found to moderate the relationship between user-generated content, firm-generated content and social brand engagement, highlighting that the lower the subjective norms the higher the influence on social brand engagement as students receive low pressure and influence from external parties.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted at private higher education institutes in Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Future research could benefit from the perceptions of undergraduates in public higher education institutes. Future researchers could widen the diversity of service settings in the sample and replicate this investigation to discover if the results are consistent across the whole services sector.Originality/valueThe current research contributes to the services marketing and branding literature in the higher education context. The paper presents the crucial elements in building brand equity for higher education institutes to fill the existing gaps in higher education branding literature. The findings of the current study provide strategies to improve the higher education sector.

Current situation and path of foreign minority language protection based on Internet of Things from the perspective of ethnic identity

Ethnic identity is an important reason for national unity. The formation of ethnic groups is mostly due to external and internal reasons, with a complex mechanism structure. When people’s environment is destroyed, this value identity will be stronger, national cohesion and solidarity will grow sharply, an unprecedented high. Minority languages are characterized by a wide variety, cultural generation, and dynamic evolution. The languages are complex and diverse, and are deeply influenced by their cultural heritage. This has led to the fact that for a long time, minority languages have been learned almost exclusively by people of their own ethnic group. This has led to a steady decline in the number of minority language speakers. However, the birth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has created an opportunity for the development of minority languages. Foreign minority languages have the following status (1) rapid decline (2) many endangered languages (3) low willingness to learn. In order to further investigate the current situation of minority language protection, the team conducted a survey in the minority cluster A. The results of the survey are as follows: most of the villagers are in love with the ethnic language and must inherit and promote the ethnic language, which is the wealth of a nation, but there are also a few residents who think that Mandarin should be used to replace the ethnic language. This reflects that most of the residents love the national language, but their young people as the inherited generation lose their love for the national language and are not willing to inherit and promote it. To solve this problem, an Internet of Things (IoT)-based ethnic language data system has been constructed so that the data system for ethnic minority language protection built through IoT technology can become the last line of defense for protecting ethnic languages, while allowing ethnic languages to be known and understood by more people through IoT technology, fostering the love and reverence of ethnic minority people for ethnic languages, and enhancing other ethnic groups’ sense of identity and support for ethnic languages. We propose to protect minority languages. Ultimately, we propose recommendations for the preservation of minority languages. (1) Increase publicity for minority language preservation. (2) Construct laws and regulations related to minority language protection. (3) Conduct in-depth research on minority language work and build an information base. (4) Promote minority language education.

A Sociolinguistic Study on the Word Features of Fandom Language from the Perspective of Social Identity—A Case Study of D&E Fans

The development of the Internet has promoted the rapid spread of Korean entertainment culture in China. The “fandom culture”, one of its representatives, has gradually aroused widespread discussion in China in recent years. On the one hand, as one of the important ways of communication between fans, the fandom language has been paid more attention by the vast number of netizens because of its uniqueness. On the other hand, fans in the fandom, as the main body of the creation, are also affected by it to a certain extent, thus forming a sense of identity and belonging to their own identity. This paper focuses on a specific fan group (D&E) and explore its word features and social identity reflected by language through the research method of online ethnography combined with corpus tools.

Collective Identity, Anglo-Saxon Bond and the Persistence of the Anglo-American Special Relationship

Abstract There have been many “end of affair” comments on the Anglo-American special relationship (AASR) in the post-Cold War era. Notwithstanding this, the AASR has managed to persist without losing its vitality up to the present. This article seeks to explain the persistence of the AASR from the perspective of collective identity. It argues that a strong Anglo-American collective identity has been an indispensable positive contributor to the persistence of the AASR after the end of the Cold War. The strong Anglo-American collective identity facilitates Anglo-American common threat perceptions, solidifies embedded trust between the UK and the USA, and prescribes norms of appropriate behaviour for these two countries.

Structural Identity Representation Learning for Blockchain-Enabled Metaverse Based on Complex Network Analysis

The metaverse and its underlying blockchain technology have attracted extensive attention in the past few years. How to mine, process, and analyze the tremendous data generated by the metaverse systems has posed a number of challenges. Aiming to address them, we mainly focus on modeling and understanding the blockchain transaction network from a structural identity perspective, which represents the entire network structure and reveals the relations among multiple entities. In this article, we analyze three metaverse-related systems: non-fungible token (NFT), Ethereum (ETH), and Bitcoin (BTC) from the structural-identity perspective. First, we conduct the complex network analysis of the metaverse network and obtain several new insights (i.e., power-law degree distribution, disconnection, disassortativity, preferential attachment, and non-rich-club effect). Secondly, based on such findings, we propose a novel representation learning method named structure-to-vector with random pace (SVRP) for learning both the latent representation and structural identity of the network. Thirdly, we conduct node classification and link prediction tasks with the integration of graph neural networks (GNNs). Empirical results on three real-world datasets demonstrate that our proposed SVRP outperforms other existing methods in multiple tasks. In particular, our SVRP achieves the highest node classification accuracy (Acc) (99.3 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\%$</tex-math> </inline-formula> ) and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$F$</tex-math> </inline-formula> 1-score (96.7 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\%$</tex-math> </inline-formula> ) while only requiring original non-attributed graphs.

Minoritized Scientists in the United States: An Identity Perspective to Science Communication

This study investigates how tenure-track faculty from historically marginalized groups in the environmental sciences approach science communication based on their self-identities. A thematic analysis of 28 in-depth interviews with U.S.-based participants using the Communication Theory of Identity and Border-Crossing Theory was conducted to explore the interrelation of layers of identity, the identity gaps participants experience, and their communication practices. The results show that communication merges fragments of identity not to form a fixed identity, but to create an evolving consciousness about who you are and how you communicate. Implications for science communication training are discussed.

Perceived organizational exploitation and organizational citizenship behavior: a social identity perspective

Perceived organizational exploitation and organizational citizenship behavior: a social identity perspective

Social identities, climate change denial, and efficacy beliefs as predictors of pro-environmental engagements

Climate change is a large-scale environmental crisis humanity faces. However, research shows that a considerable amount of people deny climate change. In this research, we suggest a social identity perspective on how climate change denial may exert its effects on pro-environmental engagements. To do so, we conducted a cross-sectional survey (N = 361) in which we assessed different (social) identities, efficacy beliefs, climate change denial, and pro-environmental actions. Results suggest that while environmentalist and global identities significantly predicted climate change denial, country identity did not. Environmentalist and country identities predicted collective efficacy, however, only environmentalist identity predicted participatory efficacy. Private pro-environmental behaviour was positively predicted by environmentalist and country identities; participation in collective action was positively predicted by environmentalist identity and negatively predicted by country identity. In addition, identification with environmentalist and global identities was positively associated with collective action through climate change denial and also participatory efficacy belief. These findings suggest that our consideration of climate change and behavioural choices might be shaped by our social environment.

The significance of football in an urban mosaic

PurposeThis study aims to add to the understanding of the significance of football in cities, where most major football clubs are located. Specifically, this study offers a distinctive perspective on what might be regarded as “football cities” by the study's mobilisation of theories of the urban mosaic, the calculable city and identity. This study contributes to the emergent field of popular culture (Jeacle, 2012) and, within this field of popular culture, the significance of soccer. The particular setting of this study is the city. This paper is a contribution to the established accounting literature on city studies but within the neglected study of football in cities.Design/methodology/approachThis paper's focus is on the significance of football clubs in one city. The theoretical approach adopted is a blending of studies of the urban mosaic (Timms, 1975), the calculable city (Lapsley et al., 2010) and the established trend of identification studies in accounting. This investigation was undertaken in the city of Edinburgh by observation of football in city life. This research is a form of participant observation in which the author lived in the city in this study. The researcher undertook interviews with key actors in both football clubs and city management, made use of local media and scrutinised publicly available documents on both the clubs and the city administrations.FindingsThis research reveals the importance of the city mosaic in explaining the limited significance of football in this city. This approach underlines the merits of contextual studies. However, the evidence presented also reveals the presence of strong identity relationships between football clubs and the clubs' fans. These results reveal an internal perspective on city management and the activities of football clubs and the clubs' host city. The presence of multiple football clubs in a single city offers more diffuse identity relationships, with football clubs fostering stronger identification with the club than with the city. There is also evidence of single, dual and multiple identity relationships in this study which contrasts with the single identity perspectives of prior accounting research.Research limitations/implicationsThe focus of this paper is on the research question posed in the Call for Papers - Is there a Soccer Society? The findings of this study offer only limited evidence of a soccer society.Practical implicationsThere is a need to study other cities with football clubs to determine those which are mosaics and those which are dominated by football.Social implicationsThis a study which embraces the importance of social context in finding meaning in accounting research. This paper introduces the novel concept of the city mosaic which is a novel way of understanding different city contexts.Originality/valuePrior research on football has examined fans' behaviour, financial crises at football clubs and governance structures. This paper extends these earlier analyses by addressing the social context of football clubs in the city. Whilst most accounting research revealed rapid changes in identity during reforms, this study reveals a more complex relationship which aims to build continuity and commitment of fans' identity with the bigger football clubs in this city.

Interviewing Female Teachers as a Male Researcher: A Field Reflection from a Patriarchal Society Perspective

This article examines the role of gender difference in a qualitative interview from the theoretical lenses of the sociocultural perspective of teachers' identity in a localized context of Ph.D. field research. The study blends the researcher's critical reflections during interviewing female teachers in exploring their teacher identity and existing literature on gender differences in a qualitative interview. In addition, a research diary is used as the data source to unpack the complexity of gender dynamics in a qualitative interview. To add to the discussion of gender difference in a qualitative interview, we argued that gender difference between the interviewer and the interviewee mediates and shapes the data collection in a qualitative interview. Thus, to understand the role of gender difference in a qualitative interview, it is necessary to do a comprehensive analysis of the complex dynamics of gender matching, the cultural background of the interviewee, and possible power relations between the researcher and participants. This study contributes to the dynamics in interviewing women by a man outside the Western cultural setting, particularly during a field research experience by a Ph.D. scholar.

What makes Chinese adolescents “trapped” in severe mental illness? An interactionist perspective on self and identity

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to explore the self and identity perspectives among Chinese adolescents with severe mental illness (SMI), with a focus on their illness experience and subjective meaning of a formal diagnosis. Thirty-one Chinese adolescents were interviewed and the interview data were analysed strictly according to principles suggested by the constructivist grounded theory approach. Five theoretical codes emerged in this study, including changes of personal values and beliefs, accumulated persistent developmental challenges and personal stresses, ineffective coping strategies and development, symptoms and development of mental illness, and changed perceptions and understandings of self. A proposed model of “The dynamic interactions of Chinese adolescents’ identity and mental illness”, was constructed and visualized. The results revealed that adolescents’ identity formation is a fluctuating and non-linear process, but tends to be predominantly negative. The negative self, as informed by long-term ineffective coping with accumulated persistent developmental challenges and stressful events, develops towards a more serious status of negative identity and contributes to relapse symptoms, although this impact occurs variably with perceived personal characteristics. Besides, some participants who had achieved a state of “Buddha-like numbness” made a conscious decision to live a seemingly normal life while coexisting with their illness. The study also highlighted the positive aspects of identity formation that can arise from the experience of illness, including an enhanced sense of realism and increased empathy. Our findings will imply much the need for person-centred treatment plan and services that take into account of individual situations.

Design Ritual into Modern Product: A Case Study of Chinese Bronze Ware

Bronze wares make up some of the most important bronze artifacts in ancient China’s Xia, Shang and Western Zhou dynasties. They carry rich historical, cultural and artistic information. In order to enable modern people to reflect on the ancient through products, an important research topic that must be considered is how to carry out innovative designs with bronze ware and how to add value to the development of cultural creative industries so as to promote sustainable cultural development. This study puts forward a research framework for the innovative design of bronze ware. Based on analysis of relevant cases, such as a purple copper antique wine vessel, the “Qing Niao” (“Blue Bird”) asking love wine cup and the HIBIKI ware wine glass, the study summarizes the innovative design strategy of modern transformation design of bronze ware. From the perspectives of functional attributes, cultural symbols, cultural identity and emotional resonance, the study finally proposes three design ideas: antiqued design, simplified design and reconstructed design. The study presents a research model which still needs to be verified in future studies. We hope that the model can integrate the principles of sustainability into the modern transformation design of cultural relics.

The Impact of Organizational Identification and Moral Identity Centrality on Organizational Engagement of Millennials: The Moderating Effect of Work Values

This study investigates the moderating impact of work values of Millennials on their organizational engagement from a social identity perspective. Organizational engagement which is conceptualized as a dimension of engagement has been rather overlooked in literature. The study of Millennials’ work values and their impact on workplace attitudes and behaviour of Millennials is of timely importance given that they are becoming the largest generational cohort in global workforces. Social identity perspective is contemporarily applied in terms of various dimensions of engagement. The survey was conducted involving 285 Millennial MBA students in two of the leading universities in Sri Lanka, using a structured questionnaire. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicated no support for the premise that the work values of Millennials moderated the relationships between organizational identification or moral identity centrality and organizational engagement of Millennials. This study addresses the knowledge gap pertaining to the organizational engagement of Millennials and provides valuable insights into the work values of Millennials, through a social identity perspective. The findings imply that Millennials may not be different from others in terms of the relationships among organizational identification or moral identity centrality and engagement.

A warrant for violence? An analysis of Donald Trump's speech before the US Capitol attack.

On January 6th, 2021, Donald Trump's speech during a 'Save America' rally was followed by mass violence, with Trump's supporters storming the U.S. Capitol to prevent the certification of Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election. In its wake, there was a great deal of debate around whether the speech contained direct instructions for the subsequent violence. In this paper, we use a social identity perspective on leadership (and more specifically, on toxic leadership) to analyse the speech and see how its overall argument relates to violence. We show that Trump's argument rests on the populist distinction between the American people and elites. He moralises these groups as good and evil respectively and proposes that the very existence of America is under threat if the election result stands. On this basis he proposes that all true Americans are obligated to act in order prevent Biden's certification and to ensure that the good prevails over evil. While Trump does not explicitly say what such action entails, he also removes normative and moral impediments to extreme action. In this way, taken as a whole, Trump's speech enables rather than demands violence and ultimately it provides a warrant for the violence that ensued.

A Comparative Analysis of the Novel and the Film of the Joy Luck Club from the Perspective of Postcolonial Feminism

The Chinese American female writer Amy Tan published the autobiographical novel The Joy Luck Club in 1989. After four years, the story was adapted into a film of the same name, written by Amy Tan and directed by Chinese American Wayne Wang. Afterward, Chinese and foreign scholars studied from the perspectives of feminism, Chinese identity, Chinese and Western cultural conflict and the mother-daughter relationship. In China, few scholars combine the theories of post-colonialism and feminism to study the original work and film adaptation of The Joy Luck Club. The research finds that although the film successfully restores the main plot and retains the spirit core of the novel, it also has the following problems: strong orientalist overtones, de-emphasizing female narrative voices, and ignoring Asian marginalization. Through a close reading of the novel and a deep interpretation of the film, this article makes a comparative study of the two from the perspective of Spivak's postcolonial feminist theory and explores the deficiencies after the film adaptation. It is found that these deficiencies occur because the director is influenced by postcolonial cultural background and traditional patriarchy. He falsifies the women's right to discourse in the third world, making them unable to speak for themselves independently.

Helping the organization but harming customers: a social identity perspective of unethical pro-organizational behavior

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate a special type of unethical behaviors among frontline service employees – unethical pro-organizational behaviors (UPB). Building on social identity theory, the paper examines how social identifications with the organization and customers interactively affect employees' engagement in UPB. The paper also explores the underlying psychological mechanisms that explain this effect.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a multistage, sequential research design to test the hypothesized model. Studies 1A and 1B use scenario-based experiments with a randomized between-subjects design. Study 2 uses a survey design to replicate and expand the findings from Study 1 by collecting survey data from frontline service employees in various service sectors.FindingsThe results across two studies reveal that high organizational identification will motivate employees to engage in UPB when the opportunity arises, while employees who also identify with customers will more likely abstain from committing UPB. Findings from the survey study also show that this interactive effect on UPB is achieved by devaluing customers as tools or placing fault upon them.Originality/valueThis research provides a deeper exploration of the UPB at the organizational frontline. From a social identity theoretical perspective, this research examines how identification with customers and with the organization jointly shape frontline employees' engagement in UPB. In doing so, this research provides insight into the contextual limitations of existing UPB research while also offering practically relevant implications for managing UPB in frontline service contexts.

How to enrich team research in healthcare by considering five theoretical perspectives.

The aim of this paper is to inspire team research to apply diverse and unconventional perspectives to study team dynamics and performance in healthcare settings. To illustrate that using multiple perspectives can yield valuable insights, we examine a segment of a team interaction during a heart-surgery, using five distinct interdisciplinary perspectives known from small group research: the psychodynamic, functional, conflict-power-status, temporal, and social identity perspectives. We briefly describe each theoretical perspective, discuss its application to study healthcare teams, and present possible research questions for the segment at hand using the respective perspective. We also highlight the benefits and challenges associated with employing these diverse approaches and explore how they can be integrated to analyze team processes in health care. Finally, we offer our own insights and opinions on the integration of these approaches, as well as the types of data required to conduct such analyses. We also point to further research avenues and highlight the benefits associated with employing these diverse approaches. Finally, we offer our own insights and opinions on the integration of these approaches, as well as the types of data required to conduct such analyses.

How Social Identity Affects Green Food Purchase Intention: The Serial Mediation Effect of Green Perceived Value and Psychological Distance.

As the global population continues to grow, the impact of environmental damage and resource depletion has been severely increased. In this context, green food gains tremendous potential as a sustainable solution. This study establishes a model framework around social identity, psychological distance, green perceived value, and purchase intention from the perspective of social identity to explore the impact the social group has on individual green food purchase intention. Data from 497 questionnaires collected in China were validated using SPSS26 and SmartPLS4. The results demonstrated that the model exhibited excellent explanatory power for psychological distance (R2 = 47.5%), green perceived value (R2 = 48.2%), and purchase intention of green food (R2 = 54.7%). Path analysis showed that social identity, psychological distance, and green perceived value significantly positively affected green food purchase intention. The results also show that social identity significantly positively affected psychological distance and green perceived value, while psychological distance has a significant positive influence on green perceived value. Additionally, it is concluded that psychological distance and green perceived value have significant mediating and serial mediating effects on social identity and green food purchase intention. These findings bridge the research gap concerning consumers' green food purchase intention from a group perspective, thereby offering great insights for the formulation of sustainable policies. Furthermore, the study provides both theoretical and practical implications for the expansion of the green food consumption market.