Prevalent Discourse Research Articles

Do Muslim Women Have Choices? Reading Leila Aboulela’s Minaret and Shelina Zahra Janmohamed’s Love in a Headscarf

Muslim women are often represented as lacking freedom of choice and agency in literary and media discourses. This supposed lack in native Muslim societies is thought to be redeemed by Western interventions by championing ideals of freedom, equality, and liberty. This assumption is problematic as it is governed by the thought that Muslim women are not “agentic” and need external forces to speak for them. It also prioritises the West as the superior other creating a vast gap between them and the rest. This may be seen as an effect of the Eurocentric or Neo-orientalist school of thought that strives at “othering” Muslims and Islam. These discourses include not only the writings of some eminent Western scholars in line with the Orientalist school of thought but Muslim writers as well. However, contrary to the majoritarian discourse, some writers debunk and subvert these stereotypes linked to Islam, offering an alternative picture of Muslims in a more nuanced way to challenge the didactics of Western superiority. To the latter scholarship belongs Sudanese-British writer Leila Aboulela and second-generation immigrant author of mixed descent Shelina Zahra Janmohamed whose writings offer a more nuanced version of Muslim women’s writing. This article assesses the engagement of freedom and agency in Aboulela’s novel Minaret (2005) and Janmohamed’s chick-lit memoir Love in a Headscarf (2009). Contrary to the prevalent discourses on Islam and Muslims these narratives posit a resistance to conforming to the Western modes of thought and conventions. This article articulates how immigrant Muslim women deny stereotypes regarding them through the choices they make.

Identifying queer discourses and navigational strategies in mathematics for undergraduate STEM students

IntroductionWhile research has explored racialized and gendered discourses in mathematics, there is a gap in understanding the experiences of Queer students and the discourses related to sexual identity in mathematics. This study aims to identify the discourses about mathematics that Queer STEM students describe in relation to their Queer identity and how they navigate these discourses.MethodsUsing phenomenology, individual interviews were conducted with 17 Queer STEM students at four universities in the United States. The interviews explored their life histories, experiences in mathematics, and responses to vignettes depicting mathematical scenarios. Grounded theory was leveraged to analyze the interviews to build a framework for Queer discourses and navigational strategies.ResultsSeven Queer discourses in mathematics were identified with underlying notions of exclusion and irrelevancy. The most prevalent discourses cast Queer identity as being irrelevant (erasure), unseen (heteronormative), or discriminated against (marginalized) in mathematics. At the same time there were some beliefs that Queer identity acceptance was unknown (ambiguous) was treated equally (normalized) or was accepted and even valued in math. Key findings from the study help theory build an exclusion-irrelevancy space to network together mathematical discourses and highlight how Queer marginalization is acted upon based on notions of rightful presence and not mathematical success.DiscussionThis study highlights the need to recognize and address the marginalization of Queer students in mathematics. By understanding the discourses and navigational strategies employed by these students, educators can create more inclusive and equitable STEM environments. It is critical to recognize and build upon the unique strengths of Queer students in mathematics, rather than focusing only on the challenges they face.

Hindi Popular Cinema – Reading of the Representative Register of India’s Pre-liberalization Social History and Its Prevalent Discourse Since Post-independence Period

Hindi Popular Cinema – Reading of the Representative Register of India’s Pre-liberalization Social History and Its Prevalent Discourse Since Post-independence Period

Co-journeying with ChatGPT in tertiary education: identity transformation of EMI teachers in Taiwan

ABSTRACT This paper responds to the prevalent discourse on the ‘lack of English proficiency’ among EMI teachers in contexts where English is used as an additional language. It explores how AI-powered tools, particularly ChatGPT, enable EMI teachers in Taiwan to leverage their expertise and teach in English with more confidence. This study first describes the training of an EMI PD programme. Then it reports on the challenges and strategies, and the extended and innovative use by EMI teachers after the training. By reporting on the experiences of three EMI teachers, this study shows how collaborating with ChatGPT contributes to developing an empowered EMI teacher identity. This study fills a research gap, shedding light on the transformative potential of collaborating with ChatGPT to transform content teachers’ identities into an EMI teacher identity.

The Narrative Ploy of Double casting -Reincarnates of the Star Bodies in Hindi Films

This paper through a critical review of extant literature and analysis of prevalent discourse seeks to understand the narrative strategy of deploying stars in double casts or rules within a film. As a popular devise it has been recurrently deployed by successive generation of film makers from the early years of film making and to contemporary times. Apparently informed by the production logic of amplification of star value, this bricoleur ploy is embedded in mythical pantheon of plural incarnates of deities, in the anxiety and ambivalence of colonial and post- colonial experiences. It is unequivocally also an adaptation from Western literary paradigm and traditions.

Is Norway on the pathway to green growth? Evidence on decoupling between GDP and environmental footprints

AbstractProponents of green growth argue that technological advancements and price signals can decouple economic growth from environmental impact through resource substitution and enhanced efficiency. In this research, we investigate the extent to which economic growth in Norway is decoupling from three key indicators of environmental pressure: energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and material consumption. Our findings show efficiency improvements across all of these indicators, but no absolute decoupling for any of them, and less so, a sufficient absolute decoupling to meet global sustainability targets. Despite the prevalent discourse surrounding a purported ‘green shift’, the overall environmental pressure within Norway is still on an upward trajectory. Mounting evidence regarding the absence of sufficient absolute decoupling suggests that the time may be ripe for high‐income nations like Norway to transcend policy focus on green growth and engage in transitions towards a post‐growth economy.

Reacting to Black Lives Matter on Social Media: Pedagogical Implications for Social Studies Education

This Q methodological study explored the ways preservice and in-service social studies teachers engaged with a collection of social media posts about the Black Lives Matter movement. The study asked participants to share their reactions to the posts as well as how they would determine which posts they might present to their students in the classroom. The analysis of the Q sorts identified three subject positions available to these social studies teachers—labeled the Context Provider, the Data Debater, and the Critical Confronter. Notably, each of these subject positions was underscored by a prevalent discourse of teachers working as a Guide on the Side. These findings suggest that social studies teachers’ pedagogical imaginings of engaging students with social media content and in the analysis of current social and political movements for justice are significantly informed by dominant discourses of teacher “neutrality.”

Adapting agroforestry to upland farming systems: narratives from smallholder farmers in Northwest Vietnam

Fruit tree–based agroforestry has been promoted as an alternative farming practice in upland Northwest Vietnam to replace monocultures of staple crops. Although many studies have focused on evaluating the performance of agroforestry systems at the plot level, research on how farmers perceive and evaluate agroforestry considering whole-farm contexts is limited. We explored the perceptions and reasoned management decisions of agroforestry farmers to uncover challenges that hinder the wider use of agroforestry, and we assessed farmers’ strategies for effective management of adoption challenges. We combined the Q methodology and the systems thinking approach. With the Q methodology, we explored prevalent discourses among the members of the farming community on the impact of agroforestry. Systems thinking elucidated a system-wide understanding of farmers’ adaptive decision-making processes. By combining the two approaches, we uncovered the dynamics that shape farmers’ perceptions and the rationale behind their management of the adoption process. Through the Q method, we identified three distinct discourses among participants. Two of these discourses are in favor of agroforestry, highlighting its beneficial impacts on livelihoods and the environment, e.g., through diversification of household income and through soil erosion control. We also generated a collective development pathway outlining how farmers navigated and adapted agroforestry practices to overcome adoption challenges through a whole-system approach to farm resource management. We identified structural barriers, such as unstable farm-gate prices, that may need high-level interventions. Our study adds a new dimension to the assessment of agroforestry through farmers’ perspectives and contributes to the existing body of research on knowledge systems in agroforestry. Considering farmers’ views and their ways of reasoning during innovation processes may allow tailoring appropriate innovations by accounting for unique farm situations and local farming systems. Such locally generated knowledge will have relevance for real-world contexts and therefore be useful for guiding actions.

LGBT In Criminal Code: A Dialeectics Of Morals And Human Rights From Prophetic Legal Perspective

The existence of LGBT individuals in Indonesia remains a contentious topic in society due to the perceived deviation from social norms in their orientation and behavior. Opinions on how to address LGBT individuals vary greatly, with some supporting their rights and others opposing them based on differing interpretations of human rights and moral and religious values. One prevalent discourse is to criminalize LGBT behavior as a violation of public decency in the reform of the Criminal Code. However, problems arise due to the lack of clarity in regulations and how to address the group from moral and human rights perspectives. This paper will discuss the ratio legis of LGBT regulation in national criminal law with human rights and morality variables, using the perspective of prophetic law. The data collection method is a library research model, and secondary data is used with descriptive-qualitative analysis techniques. The study found that the inclusion of LGBT elements in the national criminal law reform is a preventive measure taken by the state to curb the potential impact of LGBT on society. However, it is important to note that this reform is limited to criminal acts of decency and does not imply an implicit prohibition. It is crucial to maintain public morality without discriminating against any particular group. The principle of human rights and morals in Indonesia is based on Pancasila, which serves as the philosophical foundation and the ideals of national law. Therefore, LGBT sexual orientation and behavior are not accepted. The regulation of LGBT in the Criminal Code reaffirms the basic principles of the state built on the Almighty God and considers the legal system holistically, not limited to the principle of legal positivism, but also including morals as the substance of law.

A comparative study of self-praise on English and Chinese social media: strategies, themes, and motivations.

The act of self-praise, a novel and prevalent discourse pattern on social media across different cultures, is still understudied. As such, this study delves into self-praise from linguistic and psychological perspectives by examining and comparing the strategies, themes, and motivations of self-praise on English and Chinese social media. A discourse-based analysis of the data comprising 200 posts from Twitter (English) users and 200 posts from Weibo (Chinese) users revealed that Twitter users favored more unmodified explicit self-praise strategies, while Weibo users opted for more implicit self-praise strategies. Both groups employed explicit self-praise equally, but with different sub-strategies. The most prevalent themes were appearance, competence/performance, skills, virtues, and self-encouragement. Appearance was more dominant among Twitter users, whereas skills and self-encouragement were more popular among Weibo users. Both groups valued competence/performance and virtues, but with different virtues. Twitter users valued cherishing friendship, bravery, and maturity, whereas Weibo users stressed kindness, cherishing kinship, and thoughtfulness. Two semi-structured interviews conducted with six Twitter participants and six Weibo participants indicated that the motivations for online self-praise in both groups were psychological needs such as self-flattery, self-presentation, and self-encouragement, while commercial profit was a motivation only for Weibo participants. This study also discusses the social and cultural factors that may account for these differences and provides implications for future research on online self-praise.

Storying student belonging in UK higher education

ABSTRACT This paper explores how storying can be used to uncover experiences of student belonging throughout their time in Higher Education. It adopts a framing of belonging that is fluid and which recognises shifting notions of belonging over time. A focus on storying is particularly useful for understanding belonging as it enables university staff to listen carefully and with empathy to what matters to students, what shapes their experiences, and how to communicate these in a way which invites positive action. Through storying with undergraduate student articulations gathered through a survey, interviews and focus groups at a university in the UK, the paper identifies the multifaceted and connected spaces of belonging, temporalities and relationships that come to affect student belonging. Ultimately the paper argues for the collective responsibility of staff and students to create a space of belonging for all, rather than the prevalent discourse which often puts the onus on an individual to “fit in”.

Deconstructing transphobic fallacies and unveiling the realities of transgender phenomenology in India: An empirical inquiry

The community of the trans-gendered or the gender diverse or the gender nonbinary has been the cause of many debates in recent times over their claim of equal rights of existence in India. While several first world countries have taken or are in the course of taking adequate steps to ensure their inclusion among the general masses, India despite its long history of accommodation and tolerance has fallen behind. This is largely in lieu of the prevalent discourse classifying any form of sexuality and gender that does not conform to the heteronormative gender binary as unnatural and a product of westernisation. This paper endeavours to elucidate and scrutinize the Queer and specifically Trans elements embedded within Indian Mythologies, as manifested in the Veda, Purana, Dharma-Shastra, Kama-shastra, Natyashastra, and numerous other sacred texts. By doing so, it attempts to subvert the prevailing narrative that enforces their exclusion. In addition to that, it provides a comprehensive survey of gender fluidity as depicted in Indian mythologies and ancient texts, thereby illuminating the obscured heritage of progressive advancements in gender studies within the Indian context. Moreover, it underscores the contrived essence and artificial construct of the gender binary, while emphasizing the futility of steadfastly adhering to its purported "naturalness".

On stone tools and the ‘prehistoric’: The value of Tasmanian Aboriginality at the Smithsonian

ABSTRACT This article examines the meaning of Indigenous objects in cultural institutions. The 2019 research at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History out of which it emerged started with the one Tasmanian Aboriginal item in the online database, a single stone tool, and ended with the more than 230 Tasmanian stone implements in the collection. In approaching the ‘museum as method’ (Thomas, Nicholas. 2010. “The Museum as Method.” Museum Anthropology 33 (1): 6–10), my deep engagement with the various stages of meaning and value creation that occurred before, during, and after these objects entered the collection clarifies this central discrepancy. These processes gain clarity in relation to Shryock and Smail’s insights into containers (Shryock, Andrew, and Daniel Lord Smail. 2018a. “On Containers: A Forum. Introduction.” History and Anthropology 29 (1): 1–6; Shryock, Andrew, and Daniel Lord Smail. 2018b. “On Containers. A Forum. Concluding Remarks.” History and Anthropology 29 (1): 49–51) and Morphy’s on museums and infinity (Morphy, Howard. 2020. Museums, Infinity and the Culture of Protocols. London: Routledge). Despite associations with prevalent discourses of extinction and primitivity these objects, by virtue of being contained, have stories left to tell.

RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE IN THE ARAB MEDIA

The goal of oral and written Arab media is to send a message both inside and outside the country, to correct a misconception, or to spread a negative opinion about a particular aspect of politics, society, or the economy for a variety of reasons. Under the guise of modernizing the religious discourse, condemning its past, emancipating itself from religion, or restricting itself to international norms, this discourse had a presence in the Arab media. On the other hand, a different discourse seeks to portray Islam as a religion of peace, rights, and responsibilities as well as an embrace of others free from prejudice. The 2011 attack contributed to the growth of Islamophobia, which necessitates an inclusive conversation for understanding. This study will examine the consequences of this prevalent discourse on social cohesion in the Arab world. For this purpose, many institutions and scholars try to clarify the issue to improve social and religious life.
 Keyword: religious discourse; Islam; Arab media; Islamophobia

‘I don’t want to see the foreign languages connected with our family disappear’: building and maintaining a multilingual family in the monolingual context of Vietnam

ABSTRACT At a meso level, families have shown an imperative role in language policy in general and language education in particular. Predicated on the theories of family language policy and a transdisciplinary framework for L2 development, this study was undertaken to explore what three generations of a family did with the foreign languages they had learned in order to build and maintain their multilingual family. Data was gathered through informal interviews with the family members as well as field notes taken by the principal researcher during each visit to the family. The findings indicate that the members conformed to the prevalent discourses of L2 learning in mainstream education. They had specific strategies to sustain ‘old-fashioned’ L2s while simultaneously demonstrating their complete openness to emergent L2s. Of acute significance in research results is their interaction with L2s in multiple ways of learning and the system of values and ideologies they associated with the L2s in the monolingual context of Vietnam. The study offers implications for family stakeholders’ engagement in the policy, research, and practice of language education.

Beliefs and Practices of Academic Reading and Writing in Researchers in Training

This study aimed to examine and explain teachers' and students' reading and writing practices and beliefs in a master's program at a public university in Mexico. We conducted qualitative cross-sectional research. A self-administered questionnaire with open-ended questions was used in the initial stage to examine two distinct beliefs of reading and writing and identify key actors. Six interviews with teachers and students were carried out during the second stage. The study corroborates that the different beliefs are not mutually exclusive but can simultaneously exist in the same person, though they may be weighted differently. Those who firmly hold transmissive beliefs understand that reading and writing are processes to obtain (decode) and transmit (encode) information. In practice, these people emphasize the importance of identifying main ideas, summarizing texts, writing following a structure and taking up ideas from other authors. On the contrary, those who mostly hold transactional beliefs think that reading and writing are creative, dialogic and meaning-construction processes. Some of their reading and writing practices focus on aspects such as: defining a standpoint regarding the text, investigating the context of the author or reader, and defining reading or writing purposes. The research highlights the possibility of reconceptualizing reading and writing in the academic context, valuing their epistemic function and transforming the prevalent discourse that conceives them as technical and universal skills, which can be improved by correctly applying grammatical rules or following effective formulas.

Quiet in class? Exploring discourses on verbal participation

ABSTRACT Background Verbal participation in the classroom is generally considered to contribute to positive student engagement and learning outcomes. Students are often required to demonstrate their learning in class by, for example, raising their hands and answering questions. However, there are students who remain quiet in the classroom, and are not responsive to invitations to participate. As quietness and low levels of verbal participation in class are often perceived and positioned as problematic in many educational systems and settings, more needs to be understood about the notion of students’ verbal participation and the implications for supporting all students’ learning journeys through school. Purpose The study sought to explore how students’ verbal participation was constructed and positioned in the narratives of parent-teacher conferences. Method A Swedish corpus of audio recordings and transcriptions of parent-teacher conferences with 24 students in years 5 and 6 (approximate student ages 10–12) across five schools was utilised as the basis for the investigation. Through an interactionally-oriented narrative approach, a collection of stories about verbal participation was identified. These stories were analysed using the concept of narrative positioning. Three stories from the collection were selected to demonstrate, in greater depth, aspects of how students’ verbal participation was constructed and how discourses unfolded. Findings The analysis demonstrated diversity in terms of how discourses were employed and how students were positioned in the narratives about verbal participation. Prevalent discourses drew on notions of learning, affect and assessment and were identified as pedagogical, psychological and performative discourses. Conclusions The study highlights how verbal participation tends to be constructed as an individual undertaking, with the implication being that students are assigned individual responsibility for this. As students are usually encouraged to make the most of their verbal participation in class, the study gives rise to important and complex questions in terms of challenging assumptions about how best to support student learning, particularly in the case of students who remain quiet in the classroom.

Iskustva sa tretmanom nasilnika u porodici u Srbiji - iz perspektive terapeuta

This paper deals with research into organisational difficulty and ethical dilemmas, as well as the efficiency of group therapy of men who were sent to group therapy treatments due to intimate partner relationship violence. This type of intervention has recently been recognised in Serbia as an important factor in the protection against domestic violence. Nevertheless, its use has remained sporadic and in order to be able to understand reasons for this, we have found helpful an analysis of the social context, but also the views of experts and the general public regarding domestic violence in our country. The public and experts alike have a firm position in terms of treating domestic violence perpetrators: batterers are almost as a rule male. The research question as the focal point of further analysis was the following: Whether or in which way such a discourse affects the work of practitioners and personal development of the clients - participants in group therapy? To obtain the answer, we have conducted an in-depth interview with one of practitioners in the Belgrade Marriage and Family Counselling Centre, who has been in charge of this programme since it was first launched (2012). As it turns out, both the practitioners and the clients are faced with multiple challenges. The practitioners are faced with their efforts being ignored by experts (by fellow practitioners and prosecutors and judges alike), the absence of systemic support and institutional networking, as well as with professional burnout. The clients often see themselves as victims of the system; they are the subject of a socially imposed ideological reshaping and, therefore, not infrequently they demonstrate resistance to efforts aimed at achieving their personal change and so they leave the programme before it is actually completed. Bearing in mind such outcomes, we believe that it is necessary to work on a change of the prevalent discourse relative to violence and possible ways of preventing violence, on recognising the significance of group therapy of batterers as a potentially important alternative route in working with victims and perpetrators of domestic violence and, finally, on initiating an interdisciplinary discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of sociotherapy treatment.

Representação discursiva e orientação argumentativa em enunciados proferidos em uma situação de modalidade de discurso polêmico: as imagens do machismo e da misoginia

Assuming that all discourse is ideological and marked by argumentation, this study aims to analyze the manifestations of machismo and misogyny in utterances involving a contro-versy stemming from a statement made by the Brazilian singer Zé Neto. On May 12, 2022, during a concert in the city of Sorriso, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, the singer, part of the sertanejo duo with Cristiano, delivered a speech in support of the then-president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, and against the Rouanet Law. From his speech, we highlight the following excerpt: "We don't need to tat-too our 'toba' to show whether we're doing well or not; we simply come here and sing." This directly references a tattoo that the Brazilian singer Anitta has on her body. This episode triggered a discus-sion on social media characterized by misogynistic statements, which is the focus of our analysis. From a theoretical perspective, our study is primarily grounded in the works of Amossy (2017, 2018, 2020), Cavalcante et al (2020), Adam (2011), and Chapanski (2020). The results indicate a persistently prevalent discourse of sexism and misogyny, which must be addressed, along with any form of hate speech, as it places women in a situation of severe social vulnerability.

Saving the World by Being Green with Fintech: Exploring the Contradictions Inherent in the Case of Ant Forest

ABSTRACT The conflict between climate change and economic growth is one of the most significant dilemmas of our era. Under the prevalent discourse of sustainable development and green economy, many believe that market-based approaches can address environmental problems under the current capitalist economic regime. This article aims to analyse Ant Forest, a gamified green initiative launched by the biggest fintech company in China, to combat climate change through cultivating users’ green lifestyles. Based on semi-structured interviews with the game-users, the paper argues that there is an inconsistency between the environmental value of Ant Forest and the real impact it has on the participants’ consumption behaviour. As a capitalist green initiative based on consumption and market forces, Ant Forest reflects the basic logic of competition and expansion. In addition, it enhances the users’ reliance on its related business entities and further alienates the users from the rest of nature by creating a knowledge gap that impedes its users from fully knowing the environmental implications of their consumption behaviour.