Sociocultural Connections Research Articles

Building Science Teacher Leaders for Indigenous Schools: Lessons from a Science Professional Development Workshop in Nepal

This is a case study of a science professional development workshop in Nepal with 17 teacher participants from four public schools. These schools mainly served Indigenous students in elementary, middle, and high school (Grades 9 and 10). The workshop focused on educating and building science teacher leaders for culturally relevant teaching and antiracist pedagogy by valuing and integrating Indigenous leadership practices and local knowledge. The teachers participated in a 2-day workshop co-organized by the local district education office and the local high school and led by the high school principal and a U.S.-based university faculty. Data were collected during and after the workshop through field notes, audio/video recordings of some sections of the workshop, and focus group interviews with a select group of participating teachers. The analysis of the data showed (a) struggles and opportunities to prioritize Indigenous science knowledge and Tharu sociocultural connections, (b) teachers seeking affirmation from principals to be science teacher leaders modeled on Indigenous leadership values, and (c) greater willingness for culturally relevant pedagogy among female and Indigenous teachers. The hope is that this paper will contribute to the value of a science teacher leadership professional development program (PD) in building awareness among science teachers about the value of culturally appropriate antiracist pedagogy in science teacher leaders. In addition, the PD also shows that science teacher leaders in Indigenous schools would benefit from the Indigenous relational model of leadership in leading their peers and students in antiracist and culturally relevant science teaching and learning. Finally, the study seems to indicate that a successful science teacher leader always incorporates local Indigenous community values, knowledge, and practices.

From Sociocultural Theory (SCT) to Socially-Contextualized Pedagogy (SCP)

This quasi-experimental and empirical study explores the effectiveness of a socially-contextualized pedagogy in empowering English language learners. The participants included 100 English language learners from diverse linguistic backgrounds, randomly assigned to either the experimental group, which received socially-contextualized instruction, or the control group, which received traditional instruction. Data collection involved pre- and post-treatment surveys assessing participants' motivation, engagement, and perceived language proficiency, as well as qualitative interviews exploring their learning experiences. Results indicated that participants in the experimental group demonstrated significantly higher motivation, engagement, and perceived language proficiency compared to the control group. Qualitative analyses revealed themes related to enhanced socio-cultural connections, increased self-efficacy, and a more positive learning environment in the experimental group. These findings highlight the potential of socially-contextualized pedagogy in empowering English language learners and improving their educational outcomes.

Pesticide: A Contemporary Cultural Object

The article provides a narrative review of the social and cultural interpretation of pesticides in contemporary society. In so doing, it highlights the main fields of exploration investigated by social scientists concerning the perception and role played by these products among farmers and consumers. Following the WHO definition, pesticides are chemical compounds used to kill pests, including insects, rodents, fungi, and unwanted plants. They are contemporary cultural artefacts that social sciences explore in synergy with other disciplines to highlight their socio-cultural connections at both local and global levels. Specifically, the use of these products is connected with power relations, which are embedded in and reflect imbalances and inequalities in access to rights and resources, as well as specific articulation of the perception of risk arising from environmental contamination in terms of individual and collective psychophysical health. Furthermore, pesticides fit into various environmental conceptions and multiple local knowledge systems, representing the intersection of different cultural heritages, worldviews, and rationales that make the tradition–modernity dichotomy complex and dynamic. In this respect, therefore, pesticides can be understood not just as mere tools for agricultural practice but as vital windows through which to investigate multiple layers of meaning to support transitions towards sustainable pest management systems, both environmentally and socio-culturally.

Pets are family, keep them safe: a review of emergency animal management in remote First Nations communities

Planning for and considering animals is a growing area within emergency and disaster planning. As people adapt to the changing risks of disaster events that are increasing in magnitude and frequency, communities, particularly those in regional and remote areas of Australia, face challenges that are very different from other more populated areas. These communities are often home to pets, which pose unique challenges during evacuation, response and recovery phases of emergency management. Australian state and territory government emergency management plans give varied considerations to animal management. In the Northern Territory, the Territory Emergency Plan (Northern Territory Government 2022) serves as a base for animal management in disasters. However, significant reform is required to fill gaps in considerations of animals in remote communities, especially First Nations communities, given the strong socio-cultural connections within family structures and contributions to wellbeing under First Nations health worldviews and the human-animal bond. Such reform requires consultation and collaboration with First Nations Australians to promote ‘right-way’ science, build local capacity and support community resilience. Considerations of the interplay between people and their pets in disaster planning, response and recovery contributes to ongoing advances in the ‘One Health’ and ‘One Welfare’ paradigms.

Modular Bodies of Animated Characters and Posthumanist Connotations. Translation into Russian

This article discusses the molecularization of the body and the meanings pointed out via cyborg bodies in the context of animated characters. We analyze films of Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995), Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045- Sustainable War (Shinji Aramaki Michihito and Fujii Kenji Kamiyama, 2021), Gunnm (Hiroshi Fukutomi, 1993), and Alita: Battle Angel (Robert Rodriguez, 2019) in the context of related philosophical discussions. We carry out the discussion about the body on two axes. First, we examine forms of presenting the modular bodies and discuss their socio-cultural connections. In these narratives, the evolution of the body beyond organic boundaries transforms it into a space where the character reflects the subjectivity and a tool that offers a narcissistic experience of omnipotence regarding bodily strength and competence. However, it sometimes causes the characters to become alienated from their bodies and engage in existential inquiries. Thus, secondly, we examine the existential inquiries/crises of the characters arising from the modularization of their bodies and the philosophical connotations that these emphases indicate. If on this axis, posthumanist arguments that stand out with objections to Cartesian distinctions such as machine-human, mind-body, woman-man, and anthropocentric approaches constitute the focus of the discussions.

God is Life: A Sociolinguistic and Ethnopragmatic Conceptualization of Chi in Igbo Naming Practices

Personal naming culture among the Igbos in South-eastern Nigeria is ethnopragmatically conceived to contextualize their collective worldview which communicates their religious and sociocultural connections. This paper explores an aspect of Igbo naming practices which shows the diverse conceptualization of Chi (God) from an ethnopragmatic perspective that situate names and meanings within the language and religious interpretations. Data for the study were generated through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and informal interactions with 40 recruited participants as representative sample of the name-givers, bearers and users among Mbaise and Ngwa people in Aboh Mbaise and Aba North Local Government Areas in Imo and Abia States of Nigeria. Findings show that the personal names contextualize Igbo Christians’ conceptualization of Chi as supreme, virtuous, extolling and trustworthy, giver of wealth and a faithful promise keeper. We conclude that Chi has a deepened value in the Igbo sociocultural and religious beliefs nuanced in their naming practices that construct particular circumstance(s) of the name bearer, parents and community. The emerging orientations expand the ethnopragmatic functions of the personal names beyond linguistic and sociocultural identities to situate Igbo as a society with supreme attachment to Christian religion, reverence to, and propagation of the virtues and nature of God.

:Ausgrabungen in der frühbronzezeitlichen Siedlung im Heraion von Samos 1966

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Socio-Environmental Sustainability of Traditional Courtyard Houses of Lucknow and Varanasi

The courtyard houses have an important place in the history of architecture. They play a vital role in the social and environmental sustainability of that place. This paper aims to identify the significance of courtyards in composite climate by analyzing the associated space, function, courtyard configuration, and socio-cultural connections. Accordingly, eight courtyard houses of Lucknow and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh, India) were selected for analysis based on their heritage value (in terms of age) and placement in the courtyard. Drawings of these houses were prepared through a site survey. Illumination data in the courtyard and adjacent spaces was measured through a lux meter. Various parameters of the courtyard, such as placement, size (length, breadth, and height), and connection to adjacent spaces, were analyzed through the above-collected data. The analysis concluded that the courtyard houses with NS orientation with significant height have good thermal comfort and daylight in the adjacent spaces.

Women, Subalterns, and Ecologies in South and Southeast Asian Women’s Fiction. By Chitra Sankaran

The planetary ecological crisis has reached a magnitude beyond human comprehension. The acceleration of denuded ecological patterns and the lack of a sensitive, mutual relational sustenance between the personal and planetary remain pressing issues that demand immediate attention. While the emergent field of environmental humanities calls for a reimagining of alternative ecological futures, numerous impacted, but prolific voices still remain muffled in discussions of these critical global ecological issues. Chitra Sankaran’s Women, Subalterns, and Ecologies in South and Southeast Asian Women’s Fiction focuses on the diverse voices of South and Southeast Asian Women’s ecological fiction. A groundbreaking book, by and on women (and subalterns), Sankaran’s study compellingly foregrounds a powerful range of sociocultural connections between humans and nature. The book presents a vibrant corpus of more than thirty econarratives by women writers from twelve countries. Sankaran’s field-defining book provides a nuanced understanding of the ecofeminist consciousness of two significant regions of Asia.

The spa narrative of long 19th century Europe as map and network

The resort network of modern Europe developed over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries. Emerging at different times (first in Great Britain, then in France, then in Germany and Russia), all national spa centers in one way or another reproduce a single, taken from the Roman tradition of the term (as a result of direct “inheritance” or — as in Russia — through a foreign national settler) type of organization of living space. Being subordinated to the “dual purpose of curing and entertaining the sick” (Guy de Maupassant), this space turns out to be correlated with the idea of an “other” (different from normative-socialized) life. Separate segments of this single European network space of codified deviancy, linked typologically and genetically, can in turn be represented as bundles of various socio-cultural connections arising around specific spa “characters” (as an example — the literary and writing network of Baden-Baden resort). Finally, another type of connections correlated with the European spa environment is its literary representations, the 19th century European spa narrative, the main features and agents of which are discussed in the article, using Mikhail Bakhtin’s category of genre memory and with the help of the SNA method. The research allowed to separate out two important clusters within the European fictional spa narrative, firstly the lineage of Tobias Smollett and secondly the lineage of Walter Scott. Finally, it is demonstrated how both lines come together outside the 19th century in the work of W.G. Sebald.

A CURRENT REVIEW ON THE DEATH PENALTY

Suç, ceza müeyyidesi bağlanmış fiiller olup suçlara yönelik olarak uygulanan en ağır yaptırım ölüm cezasıdır. Tarih boyunca yaygın olarak uygulanmış olan ölüm cezası konusundaki görüşler toplumların gelişimi ve ilerlemesi ile birlikte önemli bir değişim göstermiştir. Geçmişte birçok suç fiiline ölüm cezası yaptırımı uygulanırken günümüzde başta Avrupa ülkeleri olmak üzere birçok ülkede ölüm cezası yasalardan çıkartılmıştır. Ölüm cezası, yaşama hakkını ortadan kaldıran bir ceza olduğu için gerekliliği en çok tartışılan cezalardan birisidir. Ölüm cezasını savunanlar, bu cezanın caydırıcılığını ön plana çıkarırken karşıt görüşte olanlar ise öç almanın ilkelliğine ve yaşamın kutsallığına vurgu yapmaktadır. Bu araştırmanın amacı ölüm cezası hakkındaki farklı görüşleri incelemek ve Türkiye’de ölüm cezasının kaldırılma sürecini incelemektir. Bu çerçevede ölüm cezasının farklı kültür ve dinlerdeki yeri, ölüm cezasını savunan ve karşıt görüşler bir arada ele alınmıştır. Ayrıca ölüm cezasının ceza hukukunun yanında sosyo-kültürel bağlantıları açıklanmaya çalışılmıştır. Anahtar Kelimler: Yaşama hakkı, ölüm cezası, Türkiye’de ölüm cezası.

Transcultural capital and emergent identities among migrant youth

The everyday practices and socio-cultural identities of migrant youth have become a focal point of contemporary sociological research in Western countries of immigration. This article engages with the concept of transcultural capital to frame the possibilities and opportunities embodied in young migrants’ multi-layered identities and cross-cultural competencies in the context of an increasingly interconnected and diverse world. By re-conceptualising diversity and difference as agentic, transformational capitals to be valued, fostered and mobilised, this transcultural approach brings to the fore the multitude of skills, networks and knowledge that migrant youth access and develop through multiple cultural repertoires. Drawing on the narratives of migrant youth in Melbourne (Australia), this article argues that access to different – and not necessarily oppositional – cultural systems opens up a space for understanding the ability of migrant youth to instigate, negotiate and maintain valuable socio-cultural connections in ways that recognise, disrupt and transform social hierarchies.

Migration and social change in rural India

At both the macro and micro levels, migration is a driver for social change and development, as it opens places for interaction between migrants as individuals and communities of origin, transit, and destination as a whole. As a result, social structures, identities, attitudes, conventions, and behaviors all change in societies. Transnational’s – the process by which people establish and maintain socio-cultural connections across geopolitical. The transnational prism provides an angle of analysis for the larger challenges of migration and social change in both in rural and urban by concentrating on the links that migrants build. Present study is an attempt to know the role of migration in rural social change in India. which encourages individuals to take a stand against things they find wrong and work with other people to remove them from society. Social change is important as it can empower citizens so that they can make life better for future generations.

An overview of the Open Scene of the Village and the World

What should a book about theater look like? How about the one about a category of theatrical performances in the ethnological dimension? Research project of the Institute of Romanian Philology B. P. Hasdeu stimulates research into socio-cultural contexts and European connections, and Eugeniu Coseriu urges us to open up universally - each with his own field of research. In the sub-theme National Folklore Corpus, the popular (folkloric) theater is my area of expertise and the Latin phrase Theatrum mundi = The spectacle of the world. The world seen as a spectacle it is the universal concept of theatricality. The definite sign of the theater is the character. In illo tempore, man invented an incredible, saving theater, modeling fictional characters from the most abundant matter - from what he did not know, out of ignorance. For phenomena that man could not explain in the beginning, he shaped ... spirits, supernatural beings, elves. The nebula of imaginary characters fell into two broad categories – the good and the evil ones. In order to understand the diversity of masks and clothing of modern times, it is imperative to accept a scaffolding of archetypal dichotomies, resulting from this modeling of beginnings: life - death, good - evil, beauty - ugly, God - Satan, love - hate , wealth - poverty, Christ - Herod, the wise – the stupid ... All the characters - not just from the theater of any kind - are derived from these archetypal dichotomies, and the triggering axial motives, in which it manifests itself in tension, are love, fertility, fecundity, disease, healing, death, resurrection. The Romanian folk theater is part of the same spectacle of the world, and the eternal scene is on the doorstep of the house with a spinster to be married. More important deduction - this is also the engine that sets the characters and the scene in motion: the love that moves the sky and ... the scene.

Renegotiating Identity and Agency in Everyday Oppression: Experiences of Forced Migrant Youth in Malaysia

This study explored how forced migrant youth in transit renegotiated their identity and agency after fleeing their homes and sociocultural connections, and while enduring ongoing precarity in a new, oppressive sociopolitical environment in Malaysia. As Malaysia is a non-signatory state that denies legal status to forced migrants, youth face significant structural barriers that constrain their capacities to participate in society and explore their identity. Using an innovative Peer Mediated Storyboard Narrative method (PMSN), thirteen adolescents visually depicted and then explained how their experiences of forced migration affected their sense of self, belonging, and future. Participants were receiving non-formal education and services from a migrant-serving agency in Malaysia while awaiting UNHCR adjudication of their application for resettlement. Youths’ transcribed narratives were the focus of analysis using constructivist grounded theory (CGT). Youth described a process whereby renegotiating identity was inextricably linked to (re)claiming agency, if only in situated ways, as they navigated oppression, discrimination, and rejection. Their renegotiation of identity involved (re)evaluating loss and opportunity, (re)constructing belonging, and working through prescribed identities. As youth renegotiated identities, they continuously sought to recreate agency, or a sense of ownership, over their experiences and stories. Their agency was situated within seemingly ordinary assertions of preserving and expanding their identities, forging spaces of belonging, and defining their own narratives rather than accepting prescribed identities. Perceived family support, duration of stay in Malaysia, and experiences as a girl or boy within their communities were key elements that shaped youths’ negotiation. Far from being passive recipients of circumstance, forced migrant youth strategically navigated systemic oppression and actively strove to reconstruct their identity and ownership over their experiences.

Eva Alram-Stern, Barbara Horejs (Edd.): Pottery Technologies and Sociocultural Connec-tions Between the Aegean and Anatolia During the 3rd Millennium BC.

As a critical journal for all classical studies, the GNOMON fosters the links between the distinct classical disciplines. It has thus an exceptional position among the classical review journals and allows familiarization with research and publications in neighbouring disciplines. The reviews address an international readership from all fields in classical studies. The GNOMON publishes reviews in German, English, French, Italian and Latin.

ПЪТЕШЕСТВИЕ В СВЕТА НА СТРАННОСТИТЕ И ЧУДАТОСТИТЕ С ГЕРОИТЕ НА ДЖЕРАЛД ДАРЪЛ – „МОЕТО СЕМЕЙСТВО И ДРУГИ ЖИВОТНИ“

The article presents an interdisciplinary approach within a lesson in the sixth grade on Gerald Durrell’s „My family and other animals“. It draws attention to the possibilities of interdisciplinary collaboration between subjects, such as literature, biology and sports. The lesson combines the objectives of education in order to turn the compulsory learning content into an experience full of positive emotions. The lesson realizes important goals in all three disciplines – to enrich students’ experience in extracting moral messages from the studied text, to strengthen the importance of the role of man and animals in environmental terms, and to motivate the students to explain the relationship between movements in sports and animals and to make demonstrations. The change in the methods of traditional teaching and the educational environment are a prerequisite for a fuller understanding and empathy of the artistic text. Additionally, the implementation of interdisciplinary and sociocultural connections assists students in mastering knowledge about the world. The development of cognitive activity is stimulated by working on multimedia presentations, role-playing games as basic conditions for stimulating active learning. Flexibility and creativity are achieved through the application of an interdisciplinary approach and a variety of language, creative and research tasks: Interdisciplinary approach, interdisciplinary links, active learning.

Prácticas altamente efectivas de tres programas bilingües de preparación de maestros en instituciones de servicio hispano en los Estados Unidos

Bilingual teacher preparation programs are opportunities for aspiring teachers or Bilingual Pre-Service Teachers (BPSTs) who have linguistic proficiency and cultural knowledge in two languages that are seen as assets to address the needs for bilingual and multilingual populations in the US. However, there is an evident shortage that has been documented to attest to the high need of hiring bilingual and dual language educators (USDE, 2015). In this article, three bilingual teacher preparation programs housed in Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) explore their practices and present highly effective examples for bilingual and dual language teacher preparation. The findings include the process of bilingual teacher identity formation that calls for critical consciousness that includes an awareness of the sociopolitical and sociocultural connections for learning. Other significant findings include support for highly effective pedagogical practices and attention to the socioemotional process that leads to advocacy and agency resulting in a social justice orientation and perspective. A cyclical model is presented as a framework for successful bilingual teacher preparation and the implications provide a future direction in exploring the cyclical model as a recruitment and retention strategy for successful bilingual teacher preparation.

Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] production in Japan: Present state, problems and prospects

Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott], a member of the family Araceae, is a vegetatively propagated crop with edible tubers (corms and cormels), petioles and leaf blades. Available evidence suggests that taro originated in South Central Asia, probably in the tropical region from India to Indonesia. The crop is considered to have reached Japan by the 10th century B. C.. In Japan, taro was a regional staple crop before the beginning of rice cultivation, but it is nowadays grown as a root vegetable. The corms and cormels of taro are an excellent source of carbohydrates and rich in essential minerals, vitamins and dietary fiber. Additionally, Japanese people have formed socio-cultural connections to the crop since olden times; taro has been served in traditional feasting and seasonal events. Despite having so much value, taro cultivation has shown declining trends in the past several decades. It should also be noted that little attention has been devoted to the genetic improvement of taro. In this review, an attempt is made to collect information about the commercial production and uses of Japanese taros as well as agronomic characteristics of leading cultivars, with the expectation that the synthesized information will aid in understanding the problems and prospects of taro cultivation in Japan.

Intercultural Dialogue as Rhetorical Means of Forming of Multilingual Personality

The state and conditions of functioning of the Ukrainian language and languages of national minorities in Ukraine have led us to think about finding ways to balance the complex sociolinguistic situation in the country. In this regard, it is no coincidence the direction of modern linguadidactics on communicative and functional learning of designated languages in establishments of secondary education with multiethnic contingent of students. The social role of dialogue, connected with change of socio-cultural connections and cultural codes is becoming more and more important. The forming of global human civilization, numerous transnational and interregional conflicts, need for mutual understanding, cooperation and partnership have determined the relevance of the dialogical form of communication, which has led to a deepening of dialogue not only human thinking but also its civilized existence. The dialogical thinking is necessary for overcoming ideological stereotypes, the monopoly of thought and one-sidedness of globalism, for the forming of a person who would be able to build his relationship on the basis of humanization, finding a reasonable compromise, mutual respect, and tolerance. In the context of conceptual positions of modern rhetoric, the phenomenon of rhetorical dialogue as a unit of rhetorical communication is singled out. It is worth considering the rhetorical dialogue in the prospection of a relativistic aspect of modern rhetoric, taking into account the pragmatic sense of the influence of communicators on each other in the process of harmonizing dialogue, effective and optimal communication. That's why the intercultural dialogue in the process of forming of multilingual personality is defined as rhetorical. In the giving article, the subject of the discussion is highlighting the relevance of the intercultural dialogue as rhetorical on language lessons at schools with polyethnic contingent of pupils, clarification of the main aspects of dialogic interaction of contacting cultures, analysis of groups of national and specific vocabulary for learning by pupils-polylinguals.