Theoretical Frame Research Articles

Involuntary Online Learners: Engaging Online Students Who Preferred F2F Science Classes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

AbstractIn this descriptive analysis, we consider the experiences of students who prefer face-to-face (F2F) classes but, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, had no alternative other than taking their introductory biology class online during the 2020–2021 academic year. We conducted focus group interviews with 12 college students who enrolled in an asynchronous online introductory biology course for non-majors. We interpret their experiences through the theoretical framing of student engagement, which generally centers students as the directors of their learning experiences. However, when reflecting on their online, technologically mediated experience, our participants regarded their instructors as the hub or convener of their interactions with content, technology, and other learners. We explore the implications of these findings for engaging other students who may find themselves involuntarily online, and make recommendations for pedagogy and communication around the culture of online learning.

Are Victims Virtuous or Vilified? The Stories We Tell Ourselves (and Each Other)

Derogation of the victim refers to the tendency of an observer to negatively evaluate someone hurt by the action of another. Victim derogation has been a core feature of social psychology for decades, but evidence suggests this phenomenon is weakening. It may even be reversing into a valorization of victims. Is this empirical pattern due to methodological changes and shifts in theoretical framing of victim studies, or have there been large-scale cultural changes in how we view victims? This review outlines the theoretical and methodological origins of the derogation effect. It then discusses contemporary research streams that show the malleability of victim perception in research that considers the entire harmful social interaction. These studies suggest that shifts in broader social, political, and cultural environments may have impacted the social psychological foundations of derogation.

One-to-one coaching and coachee personality trait change

Purpose A specific area of interest in the coaching literature is focused on exploring the intersection of personality and coaching; however, research has yet to explore whether coaching exerts reciprocal effects on personality traits (i.e. if personality trait change can accompany coaching). Utilizing the explanatory theoretical framing of the Demands-Affordances TrAnsactional framework (Woods et al., 2019), we propose that coaching may indirectly facilitate personality trait change by firstly enabling the coachee to reflect on their behaviors, second, implement desired behavioral changes which consequently facilitate personality trait change.Design/methodology/approachA quasi-experiment was conducted to explore coaching and personality trait change. Students participating in a demanding, work-based team simulation (N = 258), were assigned to either an intervention group (and received one-to-one coaching) or a control group (who received no intervention). Personality traits were measured before and after coaching and positioned as the dependent variable.FindingsResults indicate that participants in the coaching group exhibited significant changes in self-reported agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion and core self-evaluations, which all significantly decreased after coaching; however, no change was observed for the control group.Originality/valueWe provide the first exploration of coaching and personality trait change, contributing to both the coaching literature, by providing evidence regarding the efficacy of coaching to facilitate personality trait change in coachees, and the personality literature, by highlighting coaching as an important tool for those interested in personality trait change. Our research also has implications for other interventions such as mentoring, as we provide support for the notion that interventions can support personality trait change.

Mathematics Education Lecturers’ Experiences of a Virtual Writing Retreat and its Impact on Publication Output

Departmental writing retreats for academics in higher education are one of the strategies used to enhance publication outputs and information sharing as well as the development of research discourse. Using a collaborative autoethnographic reflexivity approach, the aims of this consolidative analysis were to identify the attributes that the participants (seven Mathematics Education researchers) regarded as effective in the online writing retreat and examine the components of the writing retreat that facilitated publication output. This paper employs Wenger’s Community of Practice as the theoretical frame to critically evaluate reflective experiences from the online writing retreats. Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis was used to analyse reflective experiences. The analysis unearthed many personal research needs and some of the key elements of the writing retreat that were regarded as conducive to fast tracking and advancing publication outputs. The elements I focus on in this paper are protected quality time and space to write; formation of a community of practice and attending to reviewers’ post-review comments. The contention is that researchers can achieve greater publication outputs for their departments and organisations during the writing retreats, particularly when provided with critical and formative feedback on their writing. Further research should be conducted to explore and examine researchers’ experiences of attending the writing retreats, especially using online platforms, as well as understanding the elements of writing retreats that advance the publication outcomes.

‘I’m pretty sure we did every idea’: teachers’ experiences with external coaches and their relation to transformative learning

ABSTRACT In this interview study, the authors examined the process of coaching in the context of a year-long professional development initiative designed to support teachers’ expertise in implementing culturally and linguistically responsive practices. Using transformative learning as a theoretical and analytical frame, they investigated 20 teachers’ experiences with external coaches and identified relational and resource aspects of coaching that supported or hindered teachers’ growth. In addition, data analysis showed how collaborative coaching relationships were related to teachers’ movement through the phases of transformative learning. This study has implications for how external coaches work with teachers as part of professional learning and illustrates the importance of rooting the coach–teacher relationship in a shared understanding of teachers’ context and lived experiences.

“Resetting” the Neighbourhood: Residents’ Resistance to Place Destruction in Gränby, Uppsala

ABSTRACT By following tenants who resist the destruction of their common yards in a post-renoviction neighbourhood of Uppsala (Sweden), this article examines how the local resistance by marginalized communities intersects with the effects of the financialization of housing. The article explores the concept of unhoming, as a violent, structural, and multi-scalar process that, in the name of urban renewal, destroys the places of marginalized communities in the capitalist city. For residents in a post-renoviction neighbourhood, the real-life experience of “creative destruction” entails navigating paradoxical and conflicting discourses, inflicting material, immaterial and emotional harm to the residents. The local resistance play out as a demand for housing justice, and as a forced balancing between patient dialogue and more confrontative action, in an increasingly authoritative context. Finally, the article suggests the use of a theoretical frame of place destruction in the analysis of contemporary urban struggles.

Management choices for better outcomes in oncologic screening programmes.

Improving screening programmes in terms of increasing screening participation and providing appropriate follow-up is a major challenge requiring great planning. This contribution discusses the effect of a major intra-organizational intervention on three population-based oncological screening programs (i.e., breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers) active in a large Italian Screening Centre. A review of the literature data on the key elements for high-quality healthcare was conducted. The PRECEDE-PROCEED model was retrospectively used as a theoretical frame for the improvement strategies adopted in the Centre. Classification of interventions to increase participation was performed according by target: individual, population, health workers, tests, and health service management. To assess the impact of the reorganization on the three screening programmes, the 'participation rate in the first-level screening tests' indicator was considered; the years 2018, 2019, and 2022 were analyzed.The main factors driven by the change were optimization of resources (human and financial), a stronger leadership, a higher collaboration level, stakeholders' engagement, positive work culture, and continuous staff learning. Reminders to non-responders (mobile phone text-message and letter), delivery of publicity by media, offering the self-sampling method for HPV testing, and increasing accessibility were implemented.A significant increase in screening participation was observed for all screening programmes when comparing the participation rates in 2022 to those in 2018 and 2019. In particular, focusing on 2019 (the last standard activity year before the COVID-19 emergency), an increase in participation rate of 3% for breast, 8.5% for cervical, and 4.6% for colorectal cancer screening was observed. This increase can plausibly be an effect of the improvement strategies implemented in the Centre.Performance measurements and internal and external feedback are regularly conducted to ensure ongoing improvement.

Use of concept cartoons within the conceptual change model to address students’ misconceptions in biology: a case study

ABSTRACT As some misconceptions remain persistent, comforting and highly resistant to change, it is imperative to use methods and strategies that are centred around students’ abilities, interests and needs to address those misconceptions. This study investigates the appropriateness of using ‘concept cartoons’ to address misconceptions held by forty grade 9 students on the topic ‘plant nutrition’. A mixed research methodology, using the ‘conceptual change model’ and ‘reflective teaching model’ as underpinning theoretical frames, was used to develop a methodological framework comprising key stages; namely (i) analysis of the literature to identify common misconceptions held by students on plant nutrition, (ii) implementation of a pre-test to identify the most prevalent misconceptions held by the sampled students, (iii) use of concept cartoons within the conceptual change model to clear the identified misconceptions, and (iv) capture of students’ perceptions on the use of a concept cartoon-based strategy to bring conceptual change. The findings showed that the most prevalent misconceptions held by the sampled students were related to photosynthetic pigments, leaf adaptation, definition, raw materials, and the equation of photosynthesis. With more than 80% remediation of misconceptions showcased in this study, the use of concept cartoons within the conceptual change model was found to be appropriate in addressing students’ misconceptions.

Mitigating Unemployment Stigma

Abstract The stigma faced by unemployed Americans places a toll on their wellbeing and decreases their life chances. While all unemployed Americans are subject to stigmatization, the stigma levied on Black Americans may be particularly potent due to racializing stereotypes that associate Blackness with the undeserving poor, including the inability to obtain employment. Given the social and economic challenges Black people face, research elucidating the racial complexities of unemployment stigma is needed. Through in-depth open format face-to-face interviews of unemployed individuals residing in urban and suburban areas, this study produces an alternative perspective on how impression management techniques are connected to both internalization and mitigation of unemployment stigma. This study contributes to employment, race, and stigma literature by providing a theoretical frame that synthesizes Du Boisian and dramaturgical concepts to conceptualize an “unemployed worker-self.” Through this framing, I find variations across race and community type in impression management techniques executed by unemployed people. I conclude with suggestions for future research and potential applications for the theoretical frame developed in this study.

Lot's Daughters and Naomi and Ruth: Of “Moral Love” and National Myths

ABSTRACTThis essay argues that the book of Ruth's reopening of Israel's history and national mythology functions in such a way as to redeem, as it were, the plight of the subaltern Moabite—a plight begun with the daughters of Lot in Genesis 19. A parallel is then drawn with the 1619 Project, the recent journalistic project which posits the entire historical sweep of African slavery in North America since 1619 as the defining arc of the United States' founding. As theoretical frames, the essay draws on the work of literary critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (including her concept of “moral love”) and political philosopher Arash Abizadeh. In so doing, the essay illustrates how a “functionalist” approach to biblical ethics that balances the content of the biblical narrative with attention to how the text functions in its broader context can provide guidance for contemporary ethical application.

Fast and Curious: ‘The Swiss Development Puzzle’. The Institutional Roots of the Success of Industrialization

ABSTRACT The article investigates the institutional roots of the Swiss organized capitalism that contributed to the success of its industrialization and its subsequent economic growth during the second industrial revolution (1880–1913). Recent literature underlines the link between public and private actors and shows that the second industrial revolution in Switzerland owed its success to state-led organized capitalism. If the majority of studies analysed in detail one or more components of the Swiss organized capitalism, to our knowledge, there are no works seeking to explain the (institutional) construction of this organized capitalism by mobilizing a large number of factors in a single theoretical frame of reference. Using the Regulation Theory approach, this article sheds light on the institutional construction of the Swiss organized capitalism. We show that it rested on original institutional arrangements driven by the necessity to survive on external markets. We therefore demonstrate that these arrangements also enabled Switzerland to successfully deal with the production of essential public goods supporting both industrialization and national social bonds required to promote political unity.

A sustainable campus for an uncertain future. Two cases of infrastructural transformation at Norway’s largest university

PurposeThis study aims to convey lessons learned from two sustainability initiatives at Norway’s largest university. This contributes to knowledge-based discussions of how future, sustainable higher education institutions (HEIs) infrastructures should be envisioned and planned if the fundamental uncertainty of the future development of learning, researching and teaching is acknowledged.Design/methodology/approachThis study was submitted on 24 January 2023 and revised on 14 September 2023. HEIs, particularly when they are engaged in research activities, have a considerable environmental footprint. At the same time, HEIs are the main producers and disseminators of knowledge about environmental challenges and their employees have a high awareness of the urgent need to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. In this study, the gap between knowledge and environmental performance is addressed as a question of infrastructural change, which is explored in two case studies.FindingsThe first case study presents limitations of ambitious, top-down sustainability planning for HEI infrastructures: support from employees and political support are central for this strategy to succeed, but both could not be secured in the case presented leading to an abandonment of all sustainability ambitions. The second case study exposes important limitations of a circular approach: regulatory and legal barriers were found against a rapid and radical circular transformation, but also more fundamental factors such as the rationality of an institutional response to uncertainty by rapid cycles of discarding the old and investing in new equipment and facilities.Research limitations/implicationsBeing based on qualitative methods, the case studies do not claim representativity for HEIs worldwide or even in Norway. Many of the factors described are contingent on their specific context. The goal, instead, is to contribute to learning by presenting an in-depth and context-sensitive report on obstacles encountered in two major sustainability initiatives.Originality/valueResearch reporting on sustainability initiatives too often focuses descriptively on the plans or reports the successes while downplaying problems and failures. This study deviates from this widespread practice by analysing reasons for failure informed by a theoretical frame (infrastructural change). Moreover, the juxtaposition of two cases within the same context shows the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to infrastructural change particularly clearly.

Online compassion on the border: The case of Chinese undergraduates on social media in the first weave of COVID-19 pandemic

As a prosocial response towards others’ suffering exposed on social media, online compassion played a critical role in the pandemic crisis. Against the backdrop of the pandemic and the over-use of social media, it may be difficult to elicit and maintain online compassion. This study examines the unique challenges faced by online compassion towards social media news in the first weave of pandemic. The theoretical frame of cultural psychology of semiotic mediation was adopted to highlight online compassion as a fluid bordering process characterized by the mechanisms of distinction, affectivization and transformation. An empirical interview study with Chinese undergraduate students was also included to show the dynamic evolving process of online compassion from December, 2019 to June 2020. The results revealed a hierarchical semiotic regulation process integrating both the pre-reflective affective level and the higher cognitive level, leading to different paths of online compassion evolving into distress or acts in real life.

Memories of a Glorious or Difficult Past? Portugal, Padrão dos Descobrimentos and the (Lack of a) 21st Century Reckoning

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to analyse a particularly influential case of memory continuity in Portugal, that of Padrão dos Descobrimentos. Spaces of collective memory (such as public monuments) raise questions about what we celebrate, remember or rescue from oblivion, providing an opportunity to rethink the trauma. As such, care for public spaces is associated with ethical and cultural values. One of the difficulties with certain monuments has to do with the fact that they recall actions that today we see as traumatic acts. Thus, it is important to reflect on a critical use of memory. On August 8, 2021, Padrão dos Descobrimentos was the subject of a graffiti. One of the sides of the monument could read: “Blindly sailing for money, humanity is drowning in a scarlet sea”. A great controversy immediately arose around the meaning of this gesture, as well as the role played by a monument that, after being temporarily built in 1940 for the Portuguese World Exhibition, was, in its current version, inaugurated in 1960, on the occasion of the fifth centenary of the death of Infante D. Henrique. This episode reignited a deeper cleavage around the uses of history and memory, the Portuguese colonial past, and the role of the Padrão dos Descobrimentos as an instrument for the reproduction of nationalism. In this sense, and with the authors proposing a new theoretical frame of reference based on the thought of Arendt and Ricoeur, its critical reading becomes relevant.

The Urban Essential Solitude of the Hunger Character: A Blanchotian Reading of PAUL Auster’s Moon Palace

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to analyze Paul Auster’s Moon Palace through the lens of philosopher and critic Maurice Blanchot, whose literary theory provides a theoretical frame to study this novel as a fictionalization of the construction of the literary space. Paul Auster’s influence of Maurice Blanchot’s poetics starts with Auster’s experience as a translator of some of Blanchot’s texts, a job that contributes to the influence French literature has in Auster’s work. I argue that Paul Auster’s Moon Palace fictionalizes Maurice Blanchot’s literary theory by introducing a central character, Marco Fogg, who implicitly performs the role of character-author and progressively transforms himself and his own world into a fictional one. In order to accomplish this task, Auster leads his central character to different stages of inspiration and creation comparable to the ones defined by Blanchot in his theorization of the literary space. Whereas most of the critics point at isolation and hunger as a rebellious behavior provoked by the existential crisis of the character, I analyze them as creative stages in the protagonist’s fictional transformation. By introducing this creative process in his fiction, Auster creates a particular Austerian metafiction in which characters become the protagonists, creators and readers of their own urban fictional space.

Multiphrenic Identities and Cultural Theory in Post-Apartheid Literary Adaptations: Reflections on Ramadan Suleiman’s Film Version of Njabulo Simakhale Ndebele’s Fools

In both apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, literary texts have been important sites of cultural enquiry. They both historicise culture and allow new theoretical frames. However, they are also sites of fragmented, overpopulated, multisensorial memories and the difficulties of their articulation. This article focuses on Ramadan Suleiman’s, Fools, an adaptation of Njabulo Ndebele’s novel by the same title, as an important site for examining cultural theory occurring at the juncture of apartheid literature and post-apartheid literary criticism. We argue that while the film is a figurative cartographical sketch of the apartheid ‘world’ narrated in the novel, its protagonist functions as an avenue of ‘discharging’ specific ideas of identity crisis in the post-apartheid cultural world. It angles towards multiphrenia as a productive frame to theorise the protagonist’s jumbled identity, drawing from the existing critique of both the text and the film. We conclude that, through this overwhelmed identity, Fools offers a sui generis paradigm of new possibilities in post-apartheid cultural criticism that is usable in both literary and film criticism.

Science Diplomacy from Pierre-Bruno Ruffini’s Point of View: the Concept and its Essence

The paper deals with the way that Pierre-Bruno Ruffini uses to conceptualize the science diplomacy in his books and articles since 2015. Pierre-Bruno Ruffini is a practitioner who has been directly involved in the implementing his country's foreign policy for a long time; at the same time, he is a prominent researcher that contributes to theoretical framing and mainstreamification of science diplomacy, its basic notions and key questions. P.-B. Ruffini’s articles of the last ten years make evident the evolution in this area even if the relate vocabulary emerged only recently. The paper shows the way P.-B. Ruffini completes the mainstream approach to science diplomacy (including the well-known typology “diplomacy for science”, “science for diplomacy”, and “science in diplomacy”) and considers such factors as national interests and the rationale of competition. The paper emphasizes the distinction that P.-B. Ruffini makes between science diplomacy and international scientific cooperation. At the same time the paper discusses the possibilities and eventual limits to the use of all these instruments in such traditional areas as the history of international relations, history of diplomacy, history of science. The specificity of every historical period makes relevant the danger of introducing modern meanings into the practices of the past. However, the due respect and the right estimation of these risks can turn the idea of science diplomacy such as P.-B. Ruffini conceptualizes it into the starting point for an interdisciplinary dialog and the integration point for various studies in history (from the traditional reconstitution of the bilateral relations and the case studies of some emblematic projects to the research based on documents of a personal nature and the witness’ memoirs).

A study on brand competitiveness: A comparative analysis of European and Korean auto brands in the Russian automotive industry

This study compares brand competitiveness of European and Korean auto brands in the Russian automotive market based on cross-sectional datasets for 42 auto brands in Russia of the year 2022. The econometric models (OLS, WLS, and Robust least squares) are constructed by employing a theoretical frame of Porter’s diamond model. The results of the regression analysis allowed us to get to the conclusion that product diversification, accessibility to dealers (or retail shop) and active social media marketing are critical factors to promote auto sales in the Russian market. Based on the comparison, we can draw two important conclusions. First, Korean auto brands are ahead of the European auto brands in value chain management as they have a huge pool of dealers and maximize contact with potential Russian customers. Secondly, the German auto brands lead when it comes to product diversification and social media marketing. However, Korean auto brands are not behind based on those criteria compared to the average European auto brand, and take an above average-middling position. From the outstanding performance of Korean auto brands in the Russian market especially, it seems that securing numerous retail channels is particularly crucial. The results of this study are helpful for national and international automotives companies to create business strategies in the Russian automotive industry.

The dry sky: future scenarios for humanity's modification of the atmospheric water cycle

Abstract Non-Technical Summary Human societies are changing where and how water flows through the atmosphere. However, these changes in the atmospheric water cycle are not being managed, nor is there any real sense of where these changes might be headed in the future. Thus, we develop a new economic theory of atmospheric water management, and explore this theory using creative story-based scenarios. These scenarios reveal surprising possibilities for the future of atmospheric water management, ranging from a stock market for transpiration to on-demand weather. We discuss these story-based futures in the context of research and policy priorities in the present day. Technical Summary Humanity is modifying the atmospheric water cycle, via land use, climate change, air pollution, and weather modification. Historically, atmospheric water was implicitly considered a ‘public good’ since it was neither actively consumed nor controlled. However, given anthropogenic changes, atmospheric water can become a ‘common-pool’ good (consumable) or a ‘club’ good (controllable). Moreover, advancements in weather modification presage water becoming a ‘private’ good, meaning both consumable and controllable. Given the implications, we designed a theoretical framing of atmospheric water as an economic good and used a combination of methods in order to explore possible future scenarios based on human modifications of the atmospheric water cycle. First, a systematic literature search of scholarly abstracts was used in a computational text analysis. Second, the output of the text analysis was matched to different parts of an existing economic goods framework. Then, a group of global water experts were trained and developed story-based scenarios. The resultant scenarios serve as creative investigations of the future of human modification of the atmospheric water cycle. We discuss how the scenarios can enhance anticipatory capacity in the context of both future research frontiers and potential policy pathways including transboundary governance, finance, and resource management. Social Media Summary Story-based scenarios reveal novel future pathways for the management of the atmospheric water cycle.

STABLE SCIENCE AND FICKLE BODIES: AN EXAMINATION OF TRUST AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF EXPERTISE ON R/SKINCAREADDICTION

While there is considerable research on the topic of trust when it comes to health information or news media, there is less work examining how trust and expertise are conceptualized for information that straddles both subjective and objective approaches to knowledge. “Skincare”, as it is engaged with on the subreddit r/SkincareAddiction, exists in such a space, occupying a liminal positioning between formalized bioscience and experiential/aesthetic knowledge. Depending on where a member places skin care on this spectrum influences who they view as credible experts, and in turn what information that member deems trustworthy. Using an STS/Feminist STS theoretical framing, this paper investigates how members of the subreddit r/SkincareAddiction identify, evaluate, and perform skincare expertise. These expressions of expertise provide valuable insight into how members negotiate community norms, personal experience, and scientific studies to not only discern skincare knowledge, but also construct an understanding of their own skin.