Meaningful Role Research Articles

Empowering emerging evaluators in evaluation project phases: Perspectives and recommendations

Background: Engaging emerging evaluators (EEs) in evaluation projects offers substantial benefits for both evaluators and organisations; however, effective guidance on empowering them is often limited.Objectives: This article provides actionable recommendations for empowering EEs across all phases of evaluation projects, drawing primarily on insights from EEs and their mentors. Leveraging the Eval4Action campaign’s standards for meaningful youth engagement, this article aims to enrich EEs’ learning experiences, foster their professional growth, and enhance evaluation quality and impact.Method: A qualitative and participatory approach was used, incorporating the author’s mentorship experiences, discussions with EEs and mentors, and consultations with established programmes such as the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association’s (SAMEA) EE initiative and the EvalYouth Global Network. A comprehensive literature review on youth engagement and partnerships further informs this study.Results: Findings indicate that effective EE engagement relies on well-defined roles, open communication, and genuine appreciation of EEs’ contributions. Despite these needs, many EEs reported being limited to data collection roles, which restricts their opportunities for growth and limits their developmental impact within evaluations.Conclusion: Adopting these recommendations can foster a culture of empowerment and inclusion, enhancing both the quality and effectiveness of evaluation projects.Contribution: This study underscores the importance of engaging EEs in meaningful roles throughout projects, advancing inclusivity and effectiveness in evaluations. Empowering EEs leads to more comprehensive assessments, providing deeper insights for policy and programme evaluation.

Enhancing Employee Outcomes Through Common Good Human Resource Management: Exploring the Role of Meaningfulness and Thriving

ABSTRACTIn the evolving landscape of human resource management (HRM), common good HRM (CG‐HRM) practices are increasingly recognized for their potential to align organizational goals with societal sustainability. Despite their importance, how CG‐HRM influences employee outcomes remain underexplored. Drawing on Conversation of Resources (COR) theory, this research explores the impact of CG‐HRM practices, conceptualized as critical organizational‐level resources, on employees' perception of meaningfulness of work. This perception significantly affects employee thriving, which in turn fosters innovative behavior. Employing a multi‐wave, multisource survey design, we collected data from 45 firms in China, involving 82 executives and 206 employees, to test our conceptual model. The findings from a multilevel path model reveal that organizational CG‐HRM practices contribute to employees' perceived meaningfulness of work, which promotes employee thriving and subsequently innovative behavior at the organizational level, while meaningfulness also contributes to thriving and, thus, innovative behavior at the employee level. Our research enriches the COR theory and contributes to the HRM, thriving, and innovation literature, offering insights for future research and practical implications for organizations striving to align their goals with societal and environmental sustainability while nurturing a thriving workforce.

AI 시대에 미술을 가르치는 사람 : 미술교사의 역할 재탐색

This study aims to deeply understand the transformation of art teachers' roles when actively utilizing AI technologies in art education within the context of the digital transition in education. By designing AI-centered lessons and conducting art creation sessions in gifted art education settings, the research seeks to capture and analyze the nuanced experiences of various practitioners involved in these classes. The study first theoretically examines the changes in art education and the roles of art teachers in the age of AI. It then analyzes a Focus Group Interview (FGI) with four art teachers to construct a discourse on the unique roles that only art teachers can fulfill in this age. The study identified three roles unique from art teachers in the age of AI: ‘facilitating moments of pause’, ‘posing questions’, and ‘respecting and adapting to differences’. This allowed for a reconsideration of the roles of art teachers within the context of the times, facilitating an exploration of the meaningful roles and professional expertise that art teachers can bring to an uncertain future society. The study has several implications. First, the process of creatively implementing new forms of lessons can lead to a reconsideration of art teachers' professional identity. This stems from fundamental questions about their essence as educators and provides an opportunity to reaffirm the unique roles and expertise of art teachers in the age of AI. Second, despite the transformative changes in educational environments brought about by AI, the intrinsic roles of art teachers remain constant and are evolving into more complex and multidimensional forms. As the role of teachers remains central to education amidst technological advancements, there is a need for ongoing discussions on how art teachers can reflect on and fulfill their roles in the age of AI.

State-led Maritime Governance, Education and Training Nexus in South Africa

The maritime environment has a significant socio-economic impact on nations, regional and global economies. However, it also experiences many challenges related to safety, security, Education and Training (E & T) which stakeholders such as businesses and government through State institutions play a crucial role in addressing. In addition to high global labour demands, E & T challenges have related to the decreasing number of youth taking up maritime E & T. In addition, technological advancements affect costs, standards, and quality of maritime ET. The Republic of South Africa (RSA) has not been immune to these challenges. Public higher E & T institutions in RSA are the primary providers of tertiary maritime E & T but remain confronted by numerous challenges tied to organisational resources, State funding and the growing demand for increased internal and external capacity. This study’s objective was to examine maritime State-led interventions and challenges in selected public higher E & T institutions offering maritime studies in the coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), RSA. Guided by a Systems Thinking approach, this empirical study adopted a qualitative research methodology utilizing interviews with key knowledge holders and secondary data. It was found that there exists a consensual view that higher E & T institutions offering maritime studies in the province are well positioned to play a more meaningful role in addressing the country’s high unemployment rate. However, the current conditions in maritime E & T have undermined this and resulted in the pursuit of international partnerships to address local deficiencies. These findings are significant to stakeholders involved in maritime higher E & T, State-led maritime interventions, policymaking, governance, management, leadership and administration. The findings of the study also point to the need for a holistic understanding of maritime issues and challenges as maritime E & T is a complex global social space. This could eventually facilitate innovation, enhance leadership and contribute to meaningful and crucial partnerships between developed and more developing nations.

Sámi trust in hydropower governance: A survey study

The collaborative water governance literature, especially that concerned with trust, has paid scant attention to Indigenous Peoples. In this paper, we present the results from a survey targeting the Sámi population in Sweden, exploring trust in key state and industry actors in the governance of hydropower. The results demonstrate a widespread signal of low trust, which is correlated with a confluence of factors: a strong concern with negative impacts from hydropower on Sámi culture, experiences of limited opportunities to influence decisions, and a perceived low competence as well as limiting attitude from governance actors. Regarding the role of demographic variables, we report on some notable deviations from previous research about institutional trust. We discuss how collaborative governance initiatives often-times are launched to strengthen trust, but that design and implementation failures can, counter-productively, serve to erode trust among Indigenous constituencies. If Sámi trust is to be strengthened, then it will require state authorities and hydropower companies to genuinely engage with Sámi rights claims and ensure influence in decision-making. Our findings also have direct policy relevance, pointing to the need for a steep learning curve if the pending review of hydropower licenses, launched by the Swedish government, is to play a meaningful role in addressing past and ongoing impacts of hydropower on the Sámi People.

Challenging the "norm": a critical look at deaf-hearing comparison studies in research.

This study critically examines the biases and methodological shortcomings in studies comparing deaf and hearing populations, demonstrating their implications for both the reliability and ethics of research in deaf education. Upon reviewing the 20 most-cited deaf-hearing comparison studies, we identified recurring fallacies such as the presumption of hearing ideological biases, the use of heterogeneously small samples, and the misinterpretation of critical variables. Our research reveals a propensity to based conclusions based on the norms of white, hearing, monolingual English speakers. This dependence upholds eugenics ideas and scientific ableism, which reinforces current power dynamics that marginalize the epistemologies and lived experiences of deaf populations. Going forward, it will be imperative for deaf people to be included in meaningful roles in deaf-related research as active contributors who help define the whole research process. Without this shift, the research risks remaining detached from the very populations it seeks to understand.

Emotional labor and absenteeism among early childhood educators: The mediating roles of negative affect and psychological meaningfulness

Teacher absenteeism is one of the key factors that has been fingered as the bane of quality early childhood education in low- and middle-income countries. Failing to report to school as scheduled is considered symptomatic of emotional dysregulation. However, limited research has explored emotional labor as a possible predictor of teacher absenteeism. Therefore, this study, using the conservation of resources theory, examines the influence of emotional labor (i.e., surface and deep acting) on absenteeism, and the mediating roles of negative affect and psychological meaningfulness. Our study used cross-sectional data from 574 preschool teachers in Ghana and structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypotheses. The results reveal that surface acting increases absenteeism. Further, negative affect and psychological meaningfulness partially mediated surface acting and absenteeism relationship, but psychological meaningfulness fully mediated deep acting and absenteeism relationship. This study supports the theoretical assumption that teacher absence from school is a resource-based process that is associated with surface acting directly and indirectly via negative affect and psychological meaningfulness. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

Peer support for borderline personality disorder: A critical review of its feasibility, acceptability, and alignment with concepts of recovery.

Many organizations have adopted peer support to increase service alignment with recovery-oriented principles. Yet, few studies have scrutinized borderline personality disorder (BPD)-specific concepts of "recovery" and "recovery-oriented practice," nor evaluated the extent to which existing peer support services (PSS) align with these concepts. We addressed these knowledge gaps in four phases: (a) a literature review to understand BPD-specific concepts of "recovery" and "recovery-oriented practice," (b) a literature review and open web search to describe the implementation, feasibility, or effectiveness of PSS for people with BPD, (c) a landscaping survey of program administrators regarding their BPD-PSS programs, and (d) a critical review of the extent to which current peer support for BPD aligns with "recovery" and "recovery-oriented practice." We identified 40 published sources that defined "recovery" or "recovery-oriented practice" as it pertains to BPD, and narratively summarize these results, nine sources that described PSS for people with BPD, and received survey responses from seven BPD-PSS program administrators. Our critical review highlighted the distinctive but overlapping concepts of "clinical recovery" versus "personal recovery" and underscored the alignment of BPD-PSS with personal recovery goals, including increased self-knowledge and -acceptance, hope, engagement in meaningful social roles and relationships, and self-determination. While peer support is experienced positively by service users, peer supporters, and clinicians, challenges include setting boundaries, minimizing dual roles, and ensuring adequate training, supervision, and personal support to reduce burnout. Peer support appears to be a feasible avenue for meeting the personal recovery goals of people with BPD; however, formal program evaluations are needed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

You make me feel like dancing: the effects of dance exposure on children’s cultural interests and social-emotional development

Stratification by race and socioeconomic status generates disparities in cultural exposure and consumption. Though public education can serve as a mechanism for addressing social inequalities, schools with high concentrations of low-income and minority students often lack the resources to provide enriching cultural experiences. Efforts to make cultural exposure and consumption more equitable remain stymied by school and neighborhood stratification, as well as by lingering questions about the value of cultural consumption for students. Employing a randomized research design, we analyze the effects of elementary students in under-resourced school participating in a collaborative dance program provided by a major ballet company. We find that participation increases students’ enthusiasm for dance and sense of self-efficacy. Students with prior lower levels of arts and culture exposure demonstrate the largest gains in self-efficacy and experience an increase in their sense of school connectedness. Male students, who were less enthusiastic about dance prior to the program, show the largest increase in dance enthusiasm. These findings demonstrate that targeted efforts by schools and arts organizations can play a meaningful role in students’ cultural capital acquisition, which in turn leads to higher student self-efficacy and sense of belonging, particularly for students with lower levels of arts and cultural learning experience.

Plugging in at school: Do schools nurture digital skills and narrow digital skills inequality?

Information and communication technology (ICT) have become indispensable in contemporary schools in post-industrialized countries. Whether schools have succeeded on vesting students with the needed digital skills important in today’s highly digitalized societal landscape however remains unclear. In this paper, we examine whether school resources in terms of ICT infrastructure, use of ICT in education, and availability of technical expertise are pertinent to students’ digital skillfulness. We also investigate whether such school ICT resources are unevenly distributed among students of different socioeconomic backgrounds, and whether students of different socioeconomic backgrounds unevenly benefit from these resources. In doing so, we illuminate school ICT resources’ role in the process of intergenerational transmission of inequalities. To test our expectations, we employ ICILS 2018 data on 14,183 students in 751 schools across seven OECD countries. Our findings indicate that schools indeed play a meaningful role in nurturing digital skills, namely through students’ use of ICT in educational tasks. We also find that students from more advantageous socioeconomic backgrounds more often attend well ICT-resourced schools, pointing at the uneven distribution of school ICT resources in a way that reflects social reproduction. Alongside that, the availability of technical expertise in schools seems particularly fruitful for low-SES students’ digital skills development. This evinces that schools compensate for limited ICT skills socialization in the family, pointing at social mobility processes.

The interplay of job embeddedness, collective efficacy, and work meaningfulness on teacher well-being: a mixed-methods study with digital ethnography in China.

This study examines the influence of teacher job embeddedness, collective efficacy, and work meaningfulness on the psychological well-being of Chinese teachers. The focus is on understanding how these constructs contribute to teacher well-being through a mixed-methods approach. A two-stage structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was conducted using quantitative data collected from 406 in-service Chinese teachers. The study also incorporated a qualitative phase involving digital ethnography within online teaching communities to provide deeper insights into teachers' experiences. The quantitative analysis revealed significant positive direct effects of job embeddedness, collective efficacy, and work meaningfulness on psychological well-being, with work meaningfulness showing the strongest effect. The mediating role of work meaningfulness partially explained the relationships between job embeddedness, collective efficacy, and teacher well-being. The qualitative findings supported and expanded upon these results, emphasizing the role of a supportive school community and strong administrative leadership. The results suggest that enhancing job embeddedness, collective efficacy, and work meaningfulness can significantly contribute to teachers' psychological well-being. These findings provide actionable insights for school leaders and policymakers in the Chinese educational system to foster environments that promote teacher well-being.

The Influence of Emotional Instability on Weight Fluctuations

This study examines the relationships between psychological factors, specifically mood fluctuations, short temper, and feelings of negativity, and their impact on weight gain or loss among individuals. The objective is to determine how these emotional states individually and collectively influence weight changes, focusing on understanding their predictive power. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was employed. The analysis involved correlation and multiple regression techniques to explore the relationships between the variables. Results revealed that moodiness has the strongest positive correlation with weight changes and is the most significant predictor, explaining a substantial portion of the variance. Short temper and feelings of negativity also contributed to body weight variations, though to a lesser extent. The model explained the variance in weight outcomes, highlighting the meaningful role of psychological factors in weight management. This study contributes to the growing body of research emphasizing the need to integrate mental health support in weight management programs and policy interventions, recognizing the critical role of mental well-being in influencing physical outcomes such as weight fluctuations. The findings have important implications for healthcare providers, policymakers, and wellness programs aiming to address health's psychological and physical aspects.

Analyzing the impact of work meaningfulness on turnover intentions and job satisfaction: A self-determination theory perspective

Abstract While employees actively seek out workplaces that offer meaningful work experiences, the concept of meaningful work remains notably underexplored within the turnover literature. The present study addresses this gap by examining the role of work meaningfulness among knowledge workers and its direct and indirect effects on turnover intentions and job satisfaction through the lens of self-determination theory. Our findings show significant effects on turnover intentions and job satisfaction, with work meaningfulness emerging as a stronger predictor of job satisfaction, while still contributing to reducing turnover intentions. Most extant literature focuses on sources and ways to enhance work meaningfulness. We contribute to more recent research on its relationship with its outcomes especially the link with turnover intentions, offering insight into a relationship that has produced few, but conflicting,results.

Corporate social responsibility needs base philosophy: An integrative multidimensional approach to hospitality employees’ green innovative behaviors

This study addresses a critical research gap in understanding the mechanisms through which corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences green innovative behaviors (GIBs) among hospitality industry employees. Despite increasing recognition of the importance of sustainability, little is known about how CSR initiatives can effectively motivate employees to engage in GIBs. This research aims to explore the conditions under which instrumental CSR (ICSR) and volunteer CSR (VCSR) foster GIBs, with a focus on the mediating roles of meaningfulness (MGF) and positive emotions (PE) and the moderating effect of perceived sustainability policy (PSP). Utilizing a survey method, data were collected from 430 hotel employees to test the proposed multi-level model. The findings reveal that MGF and PE partially mediate the impact of both ICSR and VCSR on GIBs. Furthermore, PSP was found to significantly enhance the effectiveness of CSR initiatives, particularly when initial levels of ICSR, VCSR, MGF, and PE were low. The study offers theoretical implications by integrating self-determination and need satisfaction theories with CSR research, and practical implications by providing a roadmap for hospitality organizations to strategically leverage CSR for sustainability. Future research should consider longitudinal studies and explore the role of cultural factors in CSR-GIB dynamics.

Towards a Meaningful Role for Medical Students in Healthcare: Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship at Witten/Herdecke University

Towards a Meaningful Role for Medical Students in Healthcare: Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship at Witten/Herdecke University

On Freedom-Loving Roosters and Beloved Goats: Animals, Humans, and Iraqi Narrative Prose 1948–1954

Abstract This article explores the relationships between humans and animals in Iraqi prose fiction from the 1940s and 1950s. It argues that Iraqi authors wrote about animals to underline not only the inhumane conditions in the nation’s rural regions but also the inhumanity of urban existence, which was associated with greed, deception, the absence of family and ethical values, and social death. More specifically, the article studies two short stories: ʿAbd al-Malik Nūrī’s (1921–1992) “The South Wind” (“Rīḥ al-janūb”), and Shalōm (Shālūm) Darwīsh’s (1913–1997) “A Convoy from the Countryside” (“Qāfilah min al-rīf”). Both stories suggest that animals have emotions, and in both, the act of urbanization involves a woman’s sacrifice of an animal. The pairing of these two stories accentuates the need for class-based, anti-sectarian and ecocritical readings of Iraqi narrative prose. Reading texts written by Iraqis of various religions liberates such texts from impositions created by nationalists and from their insistence on allegorical meanings. What determines the humans’ fate in these stories is not their religion but rather their environment, their dwelling in southern Iraq, their relation to capital (and lack thereof), their family relations, and the very meaningful roles animals play in their lives.

Characterization of rimegepant drug-drug interactions using the cytochrome P450 probe drugs, itraconazole, rifampin, fluconazole, and midazolam.

Reported here are the results of four rimegepant phase I studies, in healthy participants, aimed at determining the invivo potential of rimegepant (75 mg) for cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4-related drug-drug interactions (DDIs). Rimegepant orally disintegrating tablet (Pfizer Inc., New York, NY, USA) is a calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonist approved for acute treatment of migraine and preventive treatment of episodic migraine. People with migraine commonly use multiple drug treatments, with the potential for DDIs. Each study was an open-label, single-arm, single-sequence, crossover study. Rimegepant was tested as a victim drug by separate co-administration of itraconazole (a strong CYP3A4 inhibitor and P-glycoprotein inhibitor) in Study 1, rifampin (a strong CYP3A4 inducer and moderate CYP2C9 inducer) in Study 2, and fluconazole (a strong CYP2C9 inhibitor and moderate CYP3A4 inhibitor) in Study 3, and as a perpetrator drug by co-administration with midazolam (a CYP3A4 substrate) in Study 4. Mean values of single-dose rimegepant maximum concentration (Cmax) and area under the curve from time 0 to infinity (AUC0-inf) increased with itraconazole co-administration (n = 22) by 1.42-fold (90% confidence interval [CI] 1.25-1.61) and by 4.14-fold (90% CI 3.87-4.44), respectively, and decreased with rifampin co-administration (n = 21) to 36% (90% CI 31.2-41.4%) and to 19% (90% CI 16.3-21.4%), respectively. Co-administration with fluconazole (n = 23) increased rimegepant mean AUC0-inf by 1.80-fold (90% CI 1.68-1.93), with no impact on Cmax (1.04-fold; 90% CI 0.94-1.15). Co-administration of rimegepant single dose (300 mg; n = 14) or multiple doses (150 mg/day; n = 14) increased the mean Cmax of midazolam by 1.38-fold (90% CI 1.13-1.67) and 1.53-fold (90% CI 1.32-1.78), respectively, and the AUC0-inf of midazolam by 1.86-fold (90% CI 1.58-2.19) and 1.91-fold (90% CI 1.63-2.25), respectively. Based on the magnitude of DDIs, these studies indicate the following: co-administration of rimegepant with a strong CYP3A4 inhibitor should be avoided; during co-administration with a moderate CYP3A4 inhibitor, another dose of rimegepant within 48 h should be avoided; co-administration of rimegepant with a strong or moderate CYP3A4 inducer should be avoided; CYP2C9 does not play a meaningful role in rimegepant metabolism; and there is no clinically meaningful CYP3A4 inhibition by rimegepant.

공학 도구 기반의 보조 구성 도형 분석을 통한 논증 기하 학습 방법 탐색

This paper proposes proof methods for synthetic geometry problem by dividing it into a process of observing geometric properties of auxiliary constructions(auxiliary lines and auxiliary circles) drawn using technology tools without logical proof and a process of logically proving the observes geometric properties. Through this method, students can approach problems more easily and the utilization of technology tools is maximized, so each student can solve geometry problems that were difficult to solve using traditional methods. In addition, it can be expected that this method will play a meaningful role in improving students' logical thinking abilities by being able to solve problems with only basic geometry knowledge without using difficult geometric theorems.

Online collaborative PBL – The Bridge21 approach

Collaborative project-based learning is one pedagogical approach which has the potential to play a meaningful role in synchronous online teaching but its use at second level, or high school, is under-explored. This paper describes the use, in an online setting, of the Bridge21 pedagogical model for collaborative project-based learning with secondary school students. It compares the experiences of a group (N = 119) of students (aged 15–16) who, in an Emergency Remote Teaching offered during Covid, experienced the model in an online, synchronous modality with that of a group (N = 253) who participated face-to-face in the following year.Two related research questions are addressed. (RQ1) Are the Bridge to College collaborative project-based learning workshops as effective, in terms of enhancing secondary school student confidence in Transversal Skills, when delivered in a synchronous online modality as they were when delivered face-to-face? (RQ2) If so, then what are the elements of the workshops which contribute to their effectiveness?Data on improvement in student confidence in Transversal Skills show that the online experience was on a par with face-to-face offerings. Student feedback suggests that the focus on collaborative work, and the structured approach to PBL, were key factors in the success of the model in the online setting. The modifications needed to adapt the model for use online were minimal. Thus, the contribution of the paper is to provide a model for synchronous online learning, for secondary schools, which preserves the benefits arising from face-to-face collaborative PBL.

"Motherhood forced me to cope with my disability": identity intersection among mothers with physical disabilities.

Although motherhood plays a meaningful role in the formation of a woman's identity, most studies have focused on the process of identity transformation in the transition to motherhood among non-disabled women; less is known about this process among women with physical disabilities who become mothers. The present study aimed to understand and describe the subjective experiences of Israeli women with lifelong physical disabilities in their motherhood journey from the perspective of the intersection of their motherhood and disability identities, and from the disability studies approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 Israeli mothers with visible lifelong physical disabilities who live in the community and raise their children. Three themes emerged from the interviews: (1) the decision to become a mother: Coping with the disability identity for the first time; (2) The FIRST 3 years: Depending on others as limiting their motherhood identity; (3) after age three: Balancing the motherhood and disability identities. The transition to motherhood led to identity transformation among women with physical disabilities. Becoming a mother increased the tension between dependence and independence in the context of disability, which also influenced the intersection of their motherhood and disability identities and their wellbeing. Practitioners should provide emotional support to mothers with disabilities and help them embrace the positive aspects of each identity and strike a balance between them.