Sociocultural Approach Research Articles

Digitalization of Higher Education During the Pandemic: Advantages and Risks

This research article presents the analysis and interpretation of the data of the authors’ study of the condition, problems and prospects of higher education digitalization at RSUH in comparison with the experience of leading foreign and Russian universities.The purpose of the article is to determine the level and features of the digitalization process of Russian higher education before, during and after the pandemic.The theoretical basis of the research is institutional and socio-cultural approaches that suggest considering the introduction of online education in the context of responding to the challenge of the formation of the digital economy and digital society. The empirical basis of the study is a survey conducted in April 2020 by the online questionnaire method, in which 327 people (representatives of the teaching staff, researchers, heads of educational departments (deans, heads of research centers), deputy heads of departments, as well as employees of deaneries, research centers and departments) took part in. Based on the generalization and interpretation of the data of the study, the authors showed that the digitalization of higher education at RSUH, as at other Russian universities, is based on the formation of an electronic information and educational environment. It appears that the evaluation of the level of access to this environment and the quality of services provided is high enough, while the effectiveness of the application needs to be improved. The introduction of electronic document management and meaningful communication with students remain the “pain points”.The causes and consequences of the impact of the pandemic on the digitalization of higher education are identified in the article. Among them: the need for new forms of student-teacher-administration communication; lack of specialized educational materials for online education; technical, methodological and psychological unpreparedness of teachers for distance education. The future belongs to mixed forms of equivalent and digital higher education. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the novelty of the comparative study of online education in Russian universities conducted by the authors (on the example of RSUH, MEPhI, NSU), as well as in the justification of the formation of hybrid (mixed) forms of higher education. Based on this study it is proposed to form a university management strategy and implement the restructuring of the educational process.

DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHING MATERIALS INTEGRATED WITH CULTURAL VALUES IN SMA KABUPATEN ACEH BESAR

Learning tools play an important role and become a reference for teachers in schools. In this case, the importance of developing teaching materials is equally important in the development of learning devices because teaching materials are part of learning devices so that teachers are required to have the ability to develop their own learning tools. The purpose of this study was to develop Islamic religious education teaching materials through a sociocultural approach to high school students in Aceh Besar. This research was conducted using a qualitative approach. Qualitative research is research that describes the data obtained in the field. Information that has been obtained in the field either through direct observation, interviews, document review, and official records at each school that is the object of research. The research results found that; The development of Islamic Religious Education (PAI) teaching materials is by integrating cultural values with Islamic Religious Education (PAI), starting with the search for cultural values which are then collected to understand the meaning contained in them through competent literatures and cultural figures. in the field; the development of PAI teaching materials based on social and cultural references is by looking at the local wisdom of the local culture. In this research, the local wisdom raised is about hadih maja; the development of Islamic Religious Education (PAI) teaching materials that accommodate socio-cultural values or local culture (local genius) is by combining the material in the RPP with local wisdom material in Aceh Besar.

A transactional methodology for analysing learning

ABSTRACT Investigating learning in ongoing classroom practices involves a number of methodological challenges. One main challenge, identified by scholars in sociocultural approaches, is how to take both the individual and the environment into consideration in analyses. Although the challenge we are addressing are methodological in character, the work of coming up with a transactional methodology requires philosophical and theoretical clarifications and here we use mainly the work of John Dewey. The main ambition of this article is to present and empirically illustrate a transactional research methodology – a package of analytical models and an analytical method – that fully recognize the dynamic relations between the individual and the environmental dimensions – how they interplay in the learning process and how certain learning outcomes result from that interplay. The three models we present concerns the trajectory of learning, how the influence of the individual and environmental dimensions on students learning can be understood and approached transactionally respectively the learning outcome in terms of what the person learn when (re)creating habits. The analytical method presented and illustrated is built upon a first person perspective on language use, which dissolves some of the methodological problems when investigating the individual dimension through in situ analyses.

The Political Economy of Skill Formation in a Rentier State: The Case of Oman

Context: Against a backdrop of dwindling oil resources and increasing unemployment rates, the government of Oman has set out to diversify its industry and establish a knowledge-based economy. In this context, forming a highly-skilled Omani workforce is considered to be of crucial importance. Yet, the national TVET system suffers from low social status, poor quality, and limited labour market connectivity. This paper offers an analysis of Oman's TVET system in the socio-economic and cultural context of a rentier state. Approach: We draw on the political economy of skills and socio-cultural approaches that understand TVET systems and the broader skills regimes in which they are embedded as part and expression of particular patterns of the social organisation of work. This helps to locate TVET systems' strengths and weaknesses in the context of their underlying social relations instead of considering them as mere dysfunctionalities at the systemic level. This paper draws on an unpublished study on TVET for industrialisation commissioned by an Omani line ministry in cooperation with an international organisation. For this study, the authors carried out a literature review, undertook two field trips to Oman in 2018 and 2019 and conducted forty semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from government, private companies, business associations, and TVET and higher education institutions. Findings: Our analysis highlights how skill formation in Oman is shaped by the socio-economic and cultural context of the Omani rentier state. First, the availability of cheap expatriate labour and Omanis' traditional preference for public sector jobs culminate in poor incentives for employing Omani nationals in the private sector. Second, reluctant employer attitudes towards national skill formation deepen quality issues in the TVET system, especially with regard to work-based training. This reinforces negative perceptions of the local workforce, which in turn contribute to biased employment patterns. Both social processes mutually reinforce each other, eventually preventing the emergence of strong national skill formation dynamics. Conclusions: While immediate structural change appears challenging, it is evident that reforms of the TVET system alone will not lead to its sustainable improvement. More research into how skill formation relates to Oman's specific socio-economic structures, how employment dynamics relate to educational credentials and how cultural traditions shape educational and work practices is needed.

Теория и методология исследования культурной безопасности молодежи Юга России

The article aims at defining the concept of cultural security in the youth environment of the South of Russia and taking into account the specifics of the multicultural region. The methodology substantiates the multidimensional research construct, which is based on the actualized principles of socio-constructivist and socio-cultural approaches including the position of neo-institutionalism and social interactionism. The important result of the conducted research is the justification of cultural security in the youth environment of the South of Russia as the state of “unity in diversity”, the development of a common contour of youth action based on integrative cultural values, including permissible differences in the context of social and cultural risks. It is concluded, that the priority of cultural security is to achieve the synthesis of cultural tradition and cultural innovation in youth subcultures. The perspective of the research is the search for optimal ways of cultural security in the youth environment of the South of Russia based on the actualization of the model of cultural security presented in the study and as its consequences (implementations), the development of opportunities for cooperation between society, government structures and youth organizations in the direction of the stability of the cultural and spiritual sphere of the South of Russia.

Foreign language and forming the students’ (cadets’) socio-cultural competence

The article deals with the problem of forming the socio-cultural competence by means of a foreign language that is a very important aspect of a personality development, because exactly society and culture are the main and direct factor of their formation. It is stated that the socio-culturaldevelopment of a future specialist is worth to consider being the necessary element of their professional education. This process embraces a certain level of forming the valuables and valuable orientations which are the regulators of the personality life activity and behaviour. It is underlined that the social and communicative skills of the future specialists should include not only the pragmatic aspects, but the factor of a good command of the foreign language as a prestige component of general personal culture of a person, that makes it possible to define the foreign language communicative competence of the future specialists fuller. Without the good command of the foreign language and without the proper forming the socio-cultural competence the future specialist will not be able to carry out all the issues that will originate in their professional activity. The main issues of forming the foreign language socio-cultural competence which are researched by the scholars are outlined, among them are the general principles of developing the socio-cultural competence and the socio-cultural approaches to learning the foreign language, forming the socio-cultural competence in the different courses that are taught at the establishments of higher education. forming the socio-cultural competence of the students (cadets) of various specialities, etc.

Addressing food waste with a socio-cultural approach to social marketing

PurposeThe paper aims to elucidate the potential of a socio-cultural approach to social marketing. Drawing on a practice-theoretical understanding of change, the paper discusses how a socio-cultural approach can inform social marketing and enhance the possibilities of the field to address complex, multifaceted issues that require changes beyond the individual.Design/methodology/approachWhile the paper is conceptual in nature, it uses an illustrative example of food waste as the basis for an investigation of what a socio-cultural approach, rooted in practice-theoretical understanding of change, means for social marketing.FindingsThe paper is conceptual in nature but highlights new opportunities for social marketing connected to a socio-cultural approach foregrounding practice changes. The paper introduces potential roles that social marketers can adopt to initiate and support practice changes in the context of food waste.Practical implicationsThe paper emphasises the importance of focussing on the socio-culture and practices connected to the issue in question, both when scoping for insight and when developing the ways to address it.Originality/valueBy integrating a practice-theoretical understanding of change, social marketing and food waste literature, the paper offers novel insights about the potential of adopting a socio-cultural approach to social marketing. The paper discusses a socio-cultural approach to social marketing in context, emphasising the roles social marketers can play in practice changes.

Teacher and peer interaction in lower age novice-newcomer’s L2 learning and socialisation

ABSTRACT This study adopts a sociocultural approach to examine the language socialisation of a lower age novice-newcomer recently arrived in a Finnish open day care centre. A mixed method approach combining ethnographic analysis and quantitative analysis has been used to analyse video-recordings. The results suggest that when educators recognise language novice-newcomer’s diverse needs and deploy thereby multimodal socialising strategies (i.e. verbal, gestural), the novice-newcomer’s language and interactive competences could ameliorate across time. Different from adults, the local children seem unconscious of the diverse needs of peers from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, which sets out challenges for educators in balancing recognition of diversity with equality.

Bridging the gap between regional culture, curriculum and foreign language learning

Framed within the Sociocultural theory and following the principles of the action-research approach in the classroom, this work presents final results concerning the connection between the teaching and learning of English through the incorporation of regional culture contents. To do so, a set of contextualized culturally-based classes were carried out in a public elementary school located in a Colombian Caribbean town. The project was developed through three stages named diagnosis, action plan, and evaluation. The results revealed that regional culture provided a contextualized environment to work in the classroom. Students acquired new and better alternatives to learn a foreign language and to recover their culture isolated from the school. It can be stated that the sociocultural approach supports theoretical and methodological principles to acquire a foreign language, enabling the students to progressively reinforce their ability to create and transfer meaningful tasks to other real situations.

Preschool children learn physics, biology, chemistry and forensic science knowledge with integrated teaching approaches

ABSTRACT This study investigates children’s science learning in a nursery in Turkey. The participating children (aged 5 and 6) are from a socio-economically disadvantaged community. This is an ethnographic study that includes participant observations and audio recordings of classroom interactions based on a long-term basis. It takes a socio-cultural approach and uses the concept of speech genre [Bakhtin, M. M. 1986. Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin: University of Texas Press] to examine children’s science learning. The findings highlight the role of the teacher in learning scientific concepts. It shows that the experiments enable the children to test and investigate scientific concepts. It also problematises the role of the teacher in structuring science activities and classroom talk by suggesting that teachers need to be explicit when they introduce children to concepts, rather than leaving technical knowledge for children to make inferences.

Connecting Elementary Students Through Grid Pals to Develop Literacy Skills

AbstractThe article provides practical tips on using Flipgrid in elementary classrooms. The sociocultural approach to learning leverages global collaboration and inclusivity to honor student voices. Authentic instructional activities and cultural literacy practices are aligned with Literacy Common Core standards to promote children's literacy development.

‘Endorsing a dictatorship and getting paid for it’: Discursive struggles over intimacy and authenticity in the politicisation of influencer collaborations

Politically motivated criticism of influencer collaborations with certain brands or organisations is a recurring feature on social media today. This article is based on a case study of followers’ reactions to collaborations between two popular Swedish influencers and Visit Dubai, the governmental tourism agency of the United Arab Emirates. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, the article takes a sociocultural approach to influencer marketing and examines how and why politicisation happens in comments to sponsored posts. The analysis focuses on discursive struggles over the construction of political issues and the role of influencers, as well as expressions of perceived interconnectedness and authenticity work among followers. It offers a qualitative understanding of audience perceptions of influencers’ political power and responsibilities, and argues that this is connected to how the role of influencers is constructed – as a friend or as promotional professional.

Pengaruh Kompetensi Guru terhadap Pendidikan Karakter Di TPQ

The teacher is one of the important factors in the implementation of classroom learning, without a teacher the learning process cannot be carried out. The teacher has an important role in the learning process because the teacher not only delivers the subject matter, but the teacher also provides character education to students, namely educating students to become smart citizens and have a good personality. Teachers must know and be able to apply innovative and fun learning models and methods. This study aims to determine: 1) To determine the competence of TPQ teachers 2) to determine the character education of TPQ students 3) The effect of teacher competence on character education of students in TPQ.The most relevant approach to this research is the socio-cultural approach. The material taught may be a package from an institution that holds policy authority, but the way of delivering the material is the responsibility of the educator. The success of the packaged material is about how the methods of educators are to spread, transfer knowledge so that it can be fully accepted by students according to the level of education

Contributors

Previous article FreeContributorsPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreJess Auerbach ([email protected]; [email protected]) is a senior lecturer in anthropology at North-West University, South Africa, a research affiliate at the Centre for Research on Higher Education at Nelson Mandela University, and an Iso Lomso Fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study. She writes extensively for both scholarly and popular audiences.Alexis Cherewka ([email protected]) is a PhD candidate in lifelong learning and adult education and comparative and international education at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on educators’ roles in adult literacy and language education policy and international adult literacy campaigns.Leslie Gautsch ([email protected]) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Education Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Her research engages the social and political dimensions of education politics and policymaking, particularly related to immigrant-origin students and multilingual learners.Maxie Gluckman ([email protected]) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Education Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Her research employs participatory methodologies as a means of co-construct knowledge with immigrant children and families and attends to issues of educational quality and inclusion across Latin America and the United States.Deborah Golden ([email protected]) is a social anthropologist and a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of Haifa. Her research focuses on the socialization of immigrants and children. She is coauthor of Mothering, Education and Culture: Russian, Palestinian and Jewish Middle-Class Mothers in Israeli Society (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).Megan Hopkins ([email protected]) is an associate professor in the Department of Education Studies at the University of California, San Diego. Her research examines whether and how national policies and practices support equity and civil rights for multilingual learners and students identified as English learners.Jonathan Jansen ([email protected]) is a distinguished professor of education at Stellenbosch University. He is president of the Academy of Science of South Africa and chairman of the Jakes Gerwel Fellowship, as well as author and coeditor of Schooling in South Africa: The Enigma of Inequality (Springer, 2019).Rachel Murphy ([email protected]) is professor of Chinese development and a fellow of St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. A sociologist, her research explores children’s education and lives in the context of large-scale internal migration in China. She is author of The Children of China’s Great Migration (Cambridge University Press, 2020).Esther Prins ([email protected]) is a professor in the Lifelong Learning and Adult Education Program at the Pennsylvania State University and codirector of the Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy and the Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy. Her research focuses on critical and sociocultural approaches to adult education, particularly adult and family literacy in the USA and internationally.Miranda Shemesh ([email protected]) is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology, University of Haifa, and a teaching assistant in anthropology and sociology introductory courses at Tel Hai College. Her current research centers on experiences of sleep and sleeping in families with young children, from the points of view of all family members.Cyrill Walters ([email protected]) is a postdoctoral fellow in higher education at Stellenbosch University. She also teaches in the MBA program at Stellenbosch University Business School. She is currently working on projects ranging from decolonization within South African universities to the intersection of race and gender in higher education, as well as on complexity theories within leadership. She is coauthor of a forthcoming book on the uptake of decolonization within South African universities (Cambridge University Press, 2022).Liping Wang ([email protected]) is associate professor of the Graduate School of Education at Peking University. Her research interests lie in the intersection of education and social theories, the sociology of education, and ethnic studies. Her publications appear in American Journal of Sociology, Theory and Society, and Comparative Studies in Society and History, among others.Wangbei Ye ([email protected]) is an associate professor in the moral-political education section, School of Teacher Education, Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai. Her teaching and research focus on China’s moral-political education curriculum and instruction and moral-political teacher education (grades 1–12). Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Comparative Education Review Volume 66, Number 1February 2022 Sponsored by the Comparative and International Education Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/718142 Views: 746Total views on this site © 2022 Comparative and International Education Society. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Effects of an SEL Program in a Diverse Population of Low Achieving Secondary Education Students

Adolescents’ social-emotional skills are associated with positive outcomes in psychosocial health and success in education and work. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of Skills4Life, a Social Emotional Learning program for preparatory vocational secondary education aimed at enhancing self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. Low-achieving students with additional educational needs participated in a quasi-experimental study, with an intervention (N = 465) and a control group (N = 274). We assessed the outcomes on social-emotional skills and psychosocial health using self-report questionnaires at pre-test (T0), after finishing the basic module (T1), and after finishing the internship module (T2). Multi-level regression analyses indicated no overall effects on the outcomes at T1 and T2. After completing the entire program at T2, students from non-western backgrounds had significantly unfavorable lower scores on social awareness and relationship skills. Positive effects were found on self-management and preparation for internships in students taught by experienced professional trainers compared to students taught by regular classroom teachers at T2. Alterations in the socio-cultural approach of the Skills4Life program and teacher training are needed to support all students in developing the social-emotional skills that they need for success at school and the workplace.

Towards the liberalization of the energy market: structural changes and implementation challenges of the 2013 Mexican energy reform insights in the energy nexus

Through the decades Mexico has gone through different transition stages in its national energy sector, aiming to adopt the best practices from Europe and North America. Since the 2013 energy reform implementation, strategic and structural changes have been made to strengthen the energy transition process. This research analyses the structural changes in the energy industry due to a reform that promotes a transition from a vertical scheme directed by a state monopoly to a liberalized scheme allowing private sector participation through new market mechanisms. In this way, a review of the legal and regulatory framework is presented where new bodies are created or assigned to manage and regularize the several agencies and actors in the sector. Additionally, a multiaxial analysis of the main challenges of implementing renewable energy mega-projects is proposed, considering a structural and socio-cultural approach based on case studies. This analysis reveals that these challenges have political, economic, socio-cultural, and environmental implications, which should generate mechanisms built by the wide variety of stakeholders engaging with the sustainable transition.

Harmonization in Multicultural Community Life

This study aims to define the interaction and tolerance of Hindus and Muslims in the life of a multicultural society. A socio-cultural approach related to local wisdom is used in this study. The application of qualitative methods with observation and in-depth interviews was used as a means of collecting data and information. Theories about multiculturalism were used to analyze the data. Azra (2007) states that multiculturalism is an understanding of life that puts forward togetherness on the principle of difference, whether religious, political, or ethnic differences. This study found that community life in Serangan Village, South Denpasar District, which consists of six banjars (village community organization) namely Banjar Ponjok, Banjar Tengah, Banjar Kaja, Banjar Peken, Banjar Kawan, and Banjar Dukuh, and an environment called Kampung Bugis Environment goes hand in hand in harmonious situation and condition. This research is expected to strengthen the understanding of multiculturalism for Indonesians who comes from hundreds of ethnicities with multi-variety languages, cultures, customs, traditions, and beliefs. The results of the research are also expected to have contributed to increasing the sense and value of nationalism towards the nation and the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.

Learning the Disciplines Through Linguistic Feedback: Contribution to the Development of a Discipline-Specific, Formative Evaluation of Students’ Assignments

Students write to learn. Besides, enculturation to the disciplinary discourse happens during writing. Feedback on the assignments from the students scaffolds students’ writing development and learning paths. However, knowledge about the relationship between language, including argumentation in the discipline, on one hand, and the content of the discipline, on the other, is needed. This article is based on a socio-cultural approach to writing in the disciplines, and theory on feedback, and focuses on the relationship between the meso-level of texts (sentences, clauses, word choice) and the content of the discipline. We discuss how insight into the meso-level of texts may be used to improve and to develop feedback and formative evaluation. Cases from an intervention project in a Danish upper secondary school are included, and indicate that teachers and students assign a lower priority to feedback on the meso-level. This article claims that providing feedback on the meso-level strengthens writing development and students’ learning processes. To illustrate how this may be accomplished two texts are analyzed: one from a history class and one from a biology class.

Language as context: A case of early literacy practices in New Zealand and Sweden

ABSTRACT Globally, there has been increasing adaptation of curricula frameworks in early childhood education, providing overarching principles of practice rather than subject specific templates for teaching and learning. While such a movement is to be commended as supporting a socio-cultural approach in meeting each child’s unique social and cultural needs, the implementation of frameworks is not straightforward (Bateman 2022). By applying an ethnomethodological approach to child–teacher interactions, this article explores how early childhood curricula frameworks in Sweden and New Zealand are implemented in everyday talk-in-interaction between children and teachers. We use an ethnomethodological (EM) approach (Garfinkel 2002) and conversation analysis (CA) (Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson 1974) approach (EMCA) to situate language as context. This approach offers a move away from the broader perspective of context being a static environmental space, to context as co-constructed by the participants through their immediate interactions (Goodwin and Duranti 1992). Contextual resources involve the concrete social situations, background cultural knowledge, language, activity and situation types, participants’ knowledge about topics talked about and about each other and their interactional biographies (Linell 2009, 17).

Соціально-психологічні особливості самореалізації молоді та її життєстійкості: інтернальний та екстернальний виміри

The article examines the socio-psychological features of youth self-realization and its sustainability in internal and external dimensions. The specifics and difficulties of studying the problem of self-realization of young people are determined by the growing mediation of the social realization of young people by socio-cultural factors. In this study of the problems of social and personal development of youth, it is appropriate to use a sociocultural approach, within which social processes are considered from the standpoint of their determination by elements of the cultural process (values, norms, models, beliefs, knowledge). It is the sociocultural approach that makes it possible to study the self-realization of youth through the analysis of the value orientations of the individual as the main motivational and meaningful mechanisms of self-affirmation that direct and regulate their life activities, which becomes especially relevant in the era of social changes and the complication of public life. The study of social and cultural factors affecting the process of self-realization of an individual creates opportunities for adequate generalization of disparate facts in the field of social development of youth and identification of trends in the implementation of social self-realization of modern young people. Realization of personal values is carried out in the process of life, the main spheres of which are educational and professional activity, socio-political activity, the sphere of family and household relations and leisure. Hierarchy of values-goals of the individual, concentrated in each of the spheres of life, determines the inequality of these spheres for its self-realization. The most significant spheres of self-realization of young people are the family-household and educational-professional spheres related to the vital needs of young people. Key words: youth, self-realization, hardiness.