Sociocultural Orientation Research Articles

The pain and pleasure of being what one is: Viewpoints of health professionals and patients about being overweight/obese

The objective of this article is to discuss the meanings that health professionals and patients in treatment attribute to obesity. The research consisted of a qualitative survey in health, based on in-depth interviews with patients and professionals at an out-patient clinic at the University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. Here, we discuss the concept of obesity, the meanings of diagnoses, the singularities involved in managing treatment, and the process of becoming ill, all in the light of the anthropology of health that has a sociocultural orientation. Obesity is usually seen by the professionals as a risk-factor disease. For patients, the incorporation of this rationality is procedural and is mixed in with other meanings attributed to being overweight/obese that have been gradually developed throughout life. A patient’s autonomy in choosing to be fat, or obese, and to adhere to treatment, is defined as a process that requires support in order to come to joint proposals in caring for these problems.

Globalisation, Diversity, and Education: A South African Perspective

In this article, literacy, which is conceived of as a set of cognitive skills, is juxtaposed with a sociocultural orientation that sees literacy as a set of social practices for the production of meaning. Cognitive, skills-based pedagogies treat literacy as universal, autonomous, and independent of context, whereas sociocultural literacy pedagogies focus on the production of socially situated meanings that are inclusive of diversity. I argue that current policy formulations of literacy in South African curriculum documents, which are based on deficit constructions of teachers and learners and organized around language and the communicative skills, is a pedagogy of despair. I offer a more hopeful, futures-oriented alternative.

Dancing on the edge: a self-study exploring postcritical possibilities in physical education

Seemingly comfortable in my physical education teacher education (PETE) role as a critical pedagogue, I was abruptly jolted into considering post-paradigmatic possibilities through participation in a collaborative project that explored shifting conceptualisations of knowledge and learning in initial teacher education (ITE). The project sought to examine twenty-first-century changes in understandings of knowledge and learning and to consider the implications for curriculum and pedagogical practices in New Zealand schools and in ITE. In this paper, I provide a description of the ontological shifting process I encountered through participation in a self-study research project. I argue that twenty-first-century conceptualisations of knowledge and learning offer unique possibilities for physical education (PE) and PETE contexts. In particular, I critique varying sociocultural orientations to PE and PETE (humanistic, critical and postcritical) and consider the possibilities and limitations inherent within each approach.

Differences Among Latino Students in Precollege Multicultural Exposure and the Transition Into an Elite Institution

This study examined the within-group differences in adjustment to college among Latino college students. Surveys measured participants for degree of precollege multicultural exposure, current concerns, minority student stress, social resources, and sociocultural orientation. The findings suggested that the transition into a predominately White, highly selective institution was different for Latino students based upon multicultural exposure in their high school context.

Sociocultural and Socioeconomic Influences on Type 2 Diabetes Risk in Overweight/Obese African-American and Latino-American Children and Adolescents

Purpose. It is unclear whether sociocultural and socioeconomic factors are directly linked to type 2 diabetes risk in overweight/obese ethnic minority children and adolescents. This study examines the relationships between sociocultural orientation, household social position, and type 2 diabetes risk in overweight/obese African-American (n = 43) and Latino-American (n = 113) children and adolescents. Methods. Sociocultural orientation was assessed using the Acculturation, Habits, and Interests Multicultural Scale for Adolescents (AHIMSA) questionnaire. Household social position was calculated using the Hollingshead Two-Factor Index of Social Position. Insulin sensitivity (SI), acute insulin response (AIRG) and disposition index (DI) were derived from a frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test (FSIGT). The relationships between AHIMSA subscales (i.e., integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization), household social position and FSIGT parameters were assessed using multiple linear regression. Results. For African-Americans, integration (integrating their family's culture with those of mainstream white-American culture) was positively associated with AIRG (β = 0.27 ± 0.09, r = 0.48, P < 0.01) and DI (β = 0.28 ± 0.09, r = 0.55, P < 0.01). For Latino-Americans, household social position was inversely associated with AIRG (β = −0.010 ± 0.004, r = −0.19, P = 0.02) and DI (β = −20.44 ± 7.50, r = −0.27, P < 0.01). Conclusions. Sociocultural orientation and household social position play distinct and opposing roles in shaping type 2 diabetes risk in African-American and Latino-American children and adolescents.

Social Death through HIV and AIDS Stigmatization and Discrimination in Ghana: A Case Study of the Central Regional Hospital, Cape Coast, Ghana

Stigmatization of and discrimination against People Living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (PLHIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) are increasingly recognized as the single greatest challenge to slowing the spread of HIV and partly the cause of the increased death rate particularly in Africa and Ghana to be specific. The purpose of the study was to identify the causes and effects of stigmatization of and discrimination against PLHIV visiting the Central Regional Hospital of Ghana for treatment and care. The research was conducted with a sample size of 120. Purposive and convenient/accidental sampling techniques were used to select respondents for the study. The study revealed that some people in Ghana stigmatize PLHIV because of the misconceptions they have about the modes of HIV transmission, the myths surrounding HIV and AIDS as well as their socio-cultural backgrounds and orientations. These stigmatizing behaviors towards PLHIV have serious health, social and psychological effects on them in particular and the society at large. Based on the results of the study, it is recommended that there should be an intensification of education on HIV and AIDS through the media. This would make the population in Ghana more knowledgeable about the disease, which may help to reduce stigmatization of and discrimination against persons living with HIV.

USING ACTIVITY THEORY TO MODEL THE TAIWAN ATAYAL STUDENTS’ CLASSROOM MATHEMATICAL ACTIVITY

From the sociocultural perspective, this research utilized activity theory as the theoretical framework to analyze the influences of cultural factors for Taiwanese Atayal junior high school students’ study in mathematics. The research methodology adopted grounded theory, theoretical and methodological approaches which are illustrated through episodes from a study of the mathematics teaching and learning in a year-13 class, where Atayal students were considered as “lower achievers” in their year group. We show a way to address complexity in the activity of learning and its development based on recognition of central cultural factors in mathematics teaching–learning by the use of the activity system. Analysis through this systematic network can reveal the factors influencing Atayal students’ learning of mathematics under their cultural background. The tension between Atayal culture’s speech representation system and Chinese culture’s literal representation system causes Atayal students difficulties in carrying out the transformation of representations. Tension formed between Atayal students’ holistic thinking style and the analytic thinking style presented in teaching material and teaching activities is unfavorable to their understanding of mathematical concepts. From a teaching practice perspective, Atayal students can be more actively involved in mathematics learning activities when the tension between the teaching/learning systems is considered. As for the theoretical structure, the analysis structure of classroom activity and the design of teaching activities developed from a sociocultural orientation and activity theory can indeed improve Atayal students’ mathematical learning within the cultural stream.

The Influence of Socio-cultural Variables on Consumers’ Perception of Halal Food Products: A Case of Masvingo Urban, Zimbabwe

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of socio-cultural variables on consumers’ perception onhalal food products (food prepared according to Islamic dietary laws). We assume that a number of socio-culturalfactors affect consumers’ purchase of food products especially education, religion, occupation and socialstratification. As the Halal principles are taken from the Syariah law (Law of Islam), how do consumers inMasvingo, Zimbabwe view the food products that are prepared under Islamic dietary laws? This study wasrekindled by the contention that Zimbabwe is largely a Christian country and may prefer to be guided byChristian values founded on Biblical laws. We had four hypotheses which were tested using Spearman’s rankcorrelation coefficient. The results revealed that indeed socio-cultural factors have little or no influence on anindividual consumer’s perception on consumption of halal certified food products. However, it was found outthat the Islamic consumers and other religious groups other than protestant, catholic, baptist and apostolic arehighly sensitive to their socio-cultural orientations.

Voice Construction, Assessment, and Extra-Textual Identity

The concept of voice has long attracted the attention of teachers, but more recently has also been the focus of a growing body of research aiming to understand voice as self-representation in writing. Adopting a socio-cultural orientation to voice, studies have revealed much about how textual choices are used by readers to build images of text-authors; however, such research has been limited to contexts in which the author’s actual identity is unknown by the reader. Research has offered limited insight into how an author’s embodied self figures into readers’ voice construction, or how voice construction is connected to readers’ assessments of text—with or without knowledge of the author’s identity apart from the text. This article takes up these issues by exploring how readers’ exposure to videos of two second language (L2) student-authors influenced voice construction and evaluation of the students’ papers. Through primarily qualitative and intertextual analysis, the study concludes that voice construction, extra-textual identity, and assessment are related and interacting constructs, though these relationships are neither straightforward nor predictable. Methodological, pedagogical, and theoretical implications of this conclusion are discussed

Developing a sociocultural orientation to variation in language

This article aims to develop a sociocultural orientation to variation in language. It engages with Eckert’s recent reconceptualization of variationist sociolinguistic theory as an enterprise that privileges social meaning and communicative activity over language structure. Four concepts are presented. (1) Language structure is emergent and, therefore, structural regularity and variation arises from more frequent ways of using language. (2) Language and activity types are mutually contingent so that language recognized as allowable is determined by the activity in progress and, recursively, activities are recognized by the actions that constitute them. (3) Meaning is contingent upon the dialectics of micro-social and macro-social frames. (4) Speakers make use of collaboratively constructed conventions to design their own meanings in concrete communicative activity.

Differences in Fertility Patterns between East and West German Women. Disentangling the roles of cultural background and of the transformation process

The present study compares parity-specific fertility patterns of West and East German women (from birth cohorts 1970 and younger) after German re-unification using panel data from the GSOEP (waves 1990 through 2006). Whereas the transition rate for the birth of the first child tends to be higher in the East German than in the West German sub-sample, the likelihood of second births remains considerably higher among West German women across time. The analyses presented comprise a detailed comparative test of different intervening mechanisms, represented by sociocultural orientations and social inequalities resulting from the societal transformation process. Although the transition rate to first births among East German women is lowered by their higher education and work aspirations, their higher degree of family orientation promotes their propensity to start a family. Surprisingly, the higher proportion of persons without a denomination in East Germany promotes the transition to parenthood because it accelerates both the engagement in and the consolidation of intimate relationships. The lower transition rate to second births among East German women is partly accounted for by the higher work aspirations, by the lower religiosity and by the lower general life satisfaction in this subgroup.

RE-ENGAGING STUDENTS IN SCIENCE: ISSUES OF ASSESSMENT, FUNDS OF KNOWLEDGE AND SITES FOR LEARNING

International assessment data paints a complex picture of the engagement and achievement of New Zealand students in science. New Zealand was second only to Finland in the top achievers group in PISA 2006, but it also has one of the widest spreads in student achievement, particularly in relation to Mori and Pasifika students. Thus, the challenges faced by New Zealand students, teachers, schools and policy makers resonate with those from elsewhere. New Zealand has a strong research and development tradition around student ideas in science education, but recently, there has been increased recognition at the policy and practice level of the importance of both engagement and participation linked to student identity. A sociocultural orientation to identity has the potential to generate new ways of thinking about and responding to the challenge of engaging students in science. This orientation involves considering classrooms as sites for students working through the development and performance of science-related identities, or not. In this paper, three suggestions from long-term research studies are made for ways forward in addressing the challenge of increasing student engagement and participation through an expansion of the possibilities for students to express and develop science-related identities. These are reconceptualising assessment, the inclusion of student funds of knowledge and strategies for breaching the classroom walls.

Rethinking ‘disadvantage’ in higher education: a paradigmatic case study using narrative analysis

This article explores the use of narrative analysis to provide a methodology for student learning research with a sociocultural orientation. The narrative which is the primary focus of this article is drawn from a study in which a series of individual interviews was conducted with a class of senior engineering students. The interview with a particular student emerged as a ‘paradigmatic’ case, in that it represented a rich example of student success against a background of disadvantage. The analysis presented in the article leads to a questioning of some of the commonly held views on disadvantage in higher education. It is argued that the coping strategies developed in a ‘disadvantaged’ social background could form useful resources for succeeding in higher education, and that the construction of identity could be crucial for mobilising these resources. Questions are consequently raised about the extent to which these aspects of personal growth are supported by the formal curriculum and the professional workplace.

The Emergence of the Independent Self: Autobiographical Memory as a Mediator of False Belief Understanding and Sociocultural Motive Orientation in Cameroonian and German Preschoolers

Applying a preschooler version of an instrument measuring implicit motives (Operant Multimotive Test), the authors investigated the interrelations of autobiographical memory, theory of mind, and implicit motives in the preschool years. Four- to 6-year-old children from Bamenda (Cameroon, N = 30) and Osnabrück (Germany, N = 52) were tested using a location false belief task, and a second order task as measures for theory of mind and a version of Wang and Leichtman’s task on children’s narratives as a measure of autobiographical memory coded with the Cognitive Complexity Scoring Manual. Regression analyses for mediator effects while controlling for moderating effects of culture show that cognitive complexity of autobiographical memory mediates the relationship of mentalistic abilities and sociocultural orientation of implicit motivation. Results are discussed within the framework of the independent-interdependent construal of the self.

Language proficiency and socio-cultural orientation of Turkish and Moroccan youngsters in the Netherlands

In this study, data and discourses on immigrant minority groups and languages other than Dutch at home and at school are presented in order to contextualise the status of Turkish and Moroccan communities and their languages in the Netherland. Patterns of language use, choice and attitudes of Turkish (n = 63) and Moroccan (n = 64) youngsters in the Netherlands are documented and discussed. The findings of this study show that pride in one's socio-cultural and linguistic backgrounds is not coupled with maintenance of the community language. Arabic and Berber informants report high attachment to their cultural backgrounds but their actual community language use is very restricted compared to their Dutch language use. They clearly shift to Dutch in most domains of language use. Turkish youngsters, on the other hand, show strong language maintenance patterns and their socio-cultural orientation is congruent with their language behaviour. While Moroccan youngsters identify more strongly with Islamic practices, Turkish youngsters identify strongly with the Turkish language. This, in turn, suggests that strong religious attachment does not affect community language maintenance but a strong identification with the community language does contribute to language maintenance. Apparently, for Turkish youngsters, cultural self-awareness goes hand in hand with linguistic self-awareness.

Traditional Healers’ Conceptions Of The Roles And Functions Of Selected Internal Body Organs

The article is based on the study that investigated the conceptions of traditional healers regarding the roles and functions of selected internal body organs, i.e. the brain, heart, spleen, kidneys, liver and lungs. It was a case study involving one-on-one interviews with the three traditional healers from the New Castle area of KwaZulu- Natal, South Africa. The findings showed that some of the respondents’ conceptions of the roles and functions of these selected body parts were in concord with Western science. Overall, however, the socio-cultural orientations of the participants had a telling influence on how they conceptualised the roles and functions of these internal organs. In particular, the findings indicated that the interplay between the physical and spiritual realms of human existence was a major platform from which the participants understood these roles and functions. These findings are discussed in the contexts of both possible future actions and further research.

Multiple goal orientations and foreign language anxiety

Abstract This investigation examines Thai college students’ motivational goals for learning the English language. Thai student volunteers (N = 1387) from two types of educational institutions participated in this survey study which combined measures of goal orientations based on two different goal constructs and motivation models. Results of two-step cluster analysis, correlation analysis, and analysis of variance of multiple goal orientations with gender and institution showed several significant findings. Females were significantly more “academic” oriented, more instrumental and less socio-cultural than males toward English language learning. Compared to university students, vocational college students were significantly more “superiority” oriented, more performance oriented toward the purpose of achievement and more identification oriented toward emulating an English speaking foreigner. “Academic” and “superiority” orientations were significantly and positively associated with foreign language anxiety whereas socio-cultural orientation was significantly and negatively associated with foreign language anxiety. Females indicated significantly higher levels of foreign language anxiety than males. Role socialization theory and self-esteem theory may explain the results of gender and institutional differences in the motivational orientations of Thai college students.

HRM: CONVERGENCE, DIVERGENCE, OR A MIDDLE OF THE ROAD (MOR) APPROACH?

The article discusses the theory and practice of human resource management (HRM). Two characteristic paradigms of HRM are compared. One is described as contextual/divergence, the other as universalistic/convergence. It is said that combining these bipolar paradigms into a more general view of organizations and socio-cultural orientations could improve the analysis of multi-level relationships. The interplay between organizational choices regarding HRM policies and the socio-cultural forces which constrain such choices is studied using Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM).

CAN'T BUY ME WHITENESS

AbstractA basic tenet of public health is that there is a robust relationship between socioeconomic status and health. Researchers widely accept that persons at average or median levels of socioeconomic status have better health compared to those at lower levels—with a detectable, if diminishing, gradient at even higher levels of socioeconomic status. The research on which this tenet is based, however, focuses largely on Whites, especially on White men. Yet according to the full range of extant findings, the magnitude and in some cases the direction of this relationship vary considerably for other demographic groups.I argue that the failure to clearly qualify study conclusions when they are restricted to the study of Whites impedes our understanding of the varying relationship between socioeconomic status and health for different demographic groups. Such an impediment is particularly harmful when considering health inequalities among populations defined by race and ethnicity. Frameworks and models based on traditional socioeconomic measures may mask heterogeneity, overestimate the benefits of material resources, underestimate psychosocial and physical health costs of resource acquisition for some groups, and overlook the value of alternative sociocultural orientations. These missed opportunities have grave consequences: large racial/ethnic health disparities persist while the health disadvantages of Black Americans continue to grow in key aspects. A new knowledge base is needed if racial/ethnic health disparities are to be eliminated, including new guiding theoretical frameworks, reinterpretations of existing research, and new empirical research. This article aims to initiate discussion on all three dimensions.

Bridging Cognition and Socioculturalism Within Conceptual Change Research: Unnecessary Foray or Unachievable Feat?

The articles in this special issue were analyzed in terms of their stance on the nature of knowledge (i.e., its source and location) and the perspective on conceptual change addressed. The analysis supported the argument that efforts to bridge the cognitive and sociocultural orientations toward conceptual change are either unnecessary or unachievable. Specifically, there are those theorists and researchers who do not give credence to the existence of concepts for the one or the collective, and those who do not see sociocultural influences as needed for concept formation or reformation. Attempts to bridge these two positions seem doomed to failure. Conversely, it is argued that the frameworks and models espoused by many researchers, including those contributing to this issue, cannot exist without recognition of the thoughts and reflection of the mind or without consideration of the sociocultural influences that exist in the world outside the mind.