Academic Work Research Articles

Scholarly Productivity of School Psychology Faculty 2016–2020

ABSTRACTReviews of the scholarly productivity of school psychologists are useful for informing people who are in positions to review school psychology faculty member work. Normative data can serve as a benchmark to understand how productive school psychology faculty members are. The current research investigates faculty members at universities who have been identified as teaching future school psychology by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). Data were collected for a total of 921 faculty members regarding their research output between January of 2016 and December of 2020. Faculty members who were visiting, adjunct, or appeared not to have a requirement for research publication were removed from the analysis. Additionally, the 50 most productive scholars were listed to provide researchers an opportunity to understand high productivity. These study results represent the most comprehensive review of the field's publication output over the 5‐year period and may be useful to tenure, promotion, and hiring committees who are in situations where they need to evaluate school psychology faculty members' scholarly output.

DESENVOLVIMENTO DE SAAS NA NUVEM - IMPACTOS, BENEFÍCIOS E DESAFIOS SEGUNDO A LITERATURA

The development of Software as a Service (SaaS) in the cloud has been established as an essential technological solution for organizations seeking innovation, scalability, and operational efficiency. This study analyzed the main benefits and challenges related to SaaS, including security, performance, and customization issues, as well as future trends such as integration with artificial intelligence, serverless architectures, and edge computing. The objective was to provide a comprehensive view of the topic, highlighting the practical and theoretical impacts of SaaS in the current context. The methodology was based on a qualitative bibliographic review, with a critical analysis of academic works and case studies addressing SaaS development. Selection criteria prioritized recent and relevant sources, ensuring data reliability and up-to-date insights. The results analysis identified the main challenges faced by companies and institutions adopting SaaS, as well as the strategic benefits offered by its implementation. It is concluded that SaaS plays a central role in digital transformation but requires robust strategies to overcome barriers related to security, performance, and infrastructure. The research underscores the importance of further studies to explore emerging technologies and hybrid solutions that enhance SaaS benefits, contributing to its continuous development.

Educators’ perspective on parental involvement in homework at a rural primary school in Palala

Background: Educators have a very important job of moulding learners’ lives. However, they cannot do it alone, they need assistance from parents. Every child is different and learns differently and most of the information a child receives comes from their parents.Aim: The article seeks to find ways to help educators to work closely with parents to support their children in their academics for better achievement. This study forms part of a master’s project; however, this article focuses on educators’ perceptions of parental involvement towards learners’ academic work at a rural primary school.Setting: The research was conducted at a rural primary school in the Palala circuit located in Limpopo.Methods: This study was approached by means of a phenomenological research design. Phenomenology seeks to comprehend the phenomena from those who live in the setting under study. The article used questionnaires to collect the data, and convenient sampling was employed. For this research we interviewed Grade 6 and 7 educators.Results: It was found that most educators are concerned with the lack of parental involvement in learners’ academic work.Conclusion: The article recommends that illiterate parents be brought closer to the teachers and be assisted on how they could be actively involved in their children’s schoolwork. The school staff, including educators, need to be workshopped on how to address parents equally and with respect, to feel welcome.Contribution: This article therefore seeks to promote awareness and devise ways to enhance rural parental involvement in children’s schoolwork and school life.

Assessment of Ophthalmology Residency Training in Switzerland: A Trainee-Based Survey.

This study aimed to evaluate the current status of ophthalmology residency training in Switzerland and provide insights for enhancing training programs. The survey covered demographic data such as gender, age, workplace, and year of residency, as well as working conditions, current practical and diagnostic skills, interest in scientific work, and future plans. It consisted of 16 multiple choice questions (MCQ), 5 multiple select questions (MSQ), 8 free-text, 6 Net Promoter Score (NPS), and 4 Likert scale questions. All Young Swiss Ophthalmologists (YSO) members received an invitation to participate in the survey using an online form. All collected data were anonymized, and participants provided their consent for data collection, analysis, and publication. The survey assessed the perspectives of 63 Swiss ophthalmology residents on their training experiences. Respondents indicated the greatest interest in specializing in cataract and vitreoretinal surgery, followed by cornea, glaucoma, refractive surgery, and lid surgery. They also expressed a great need for improved supervision, structured curricula, and alignment of clinical and research duties. While pursuing additional surgical training and private practice autonomy, residents also expressed a preference for balanced workloads that emphasize patient care over full-time academic work. The survey indicates a need to standardize ophthalmology residency training in Switzerland to ensure comprehensive and uniform education. It also highlights specific areas for improvement, such as the absence of surgical training. Ongoing assessments are necessary to evaluate future developments.

“We have limited time, so it's a zero-sum game”: Influence of secondary organizational socialization on the forms of physical education teacher education provided by European, Asian, and North American-based mid-career faculty members

The purpose of this study was to describe the influence of secondary organizational socialization on six mid-career faculty members’ provision of physical education teacher education (PETE). The specific research questions we sought to answer were: (a) what forms of PETE did mid-career faculty members provide for their preservice teachers? and (b) what factors aided or undermined mid-career faculty members’ provision of PETE? The faculty members worked in universities situated on three continents. The primary data source was a semi-structured interview with each faculty member. Optional supplementary data were supplied by three of the participants in the form of artifacts and film. Data were reduced to themes through analytic induction and constant comparison. Key findings were that faculty members provided two forms of PETE that were combinations of the critical-inquiry, traditional/craft, personalistic, and behavioristic orientations to teacher education. Three faculty members worked in what they perceived to be negative cultures, two in positive cultures, and one in a neutral culture. All six faculty members worked in what they perceived to be unfavorable conditions. Collectively, this situation made it difficult for faculty members to provide PETE as they intended. Faculty members dealt with adverse cultures and conditions by attempting to strategically redefine them or by strategically complying with them. The findings of the study may help to improve the culture and conditions in which sport pedagogy faculty members work, negate the effects of reality shock on neophyte faculty members, and promote faculty members’ thinking about the forms of PETE they provide.

Are low‐ability students mentally represented as low‐SES, academically incapable, and undeserving of support?

AbstractIn seven studies, this research demonstrates that both the general public and educators may hold culturally‐shared, class stereotype‐laden mental representations that they reflexively use both to subjectively identify particular students as being high or low in academic ability, and determine who should receive educational support. Using procedures designed to capture people's mental images of others, we first observed that both the general public and aspiring educators mentally represent low‐ability students as qualitatively and quantitatively distinct from high‐ability students. Furthermore, the representations of low (vs. high) ability students captured from the public and aspiring educators were more likely to be associated with negative class‐based academic stereotypes by separate samples of the public and educators, such that a student who “looks” low in ability was also more likely to be labeled as being low‐SES, and having poorer academic motivation and work ethic. As a result, the low (vs. high) ability student was more likely to be denied college admissions or scholarship support by members of the American public and to be exposed to unsupportive instructional practices by teachers. Implications for our understanding of teacher biases are discussed.

ENGENHARIA E POLÍTICAS AMBIENTAIS: ALINHAMENTO ÉTICO ENTRE PRÁTICAS DE ENGENHARIA E REGULAMENTAÇÕES

This academic work analyzes engineering practices and their potential for alignment with environmental policies. The objective of this article is to analyze engineering practices with the aim of minimizing operational challenges, identifying their causes and impacts. The methodology involves reviewing scientific articles, academic books and specialized magazines, with the aim of deepening the study. This research reveals that engineering practices often diverge from ethical standards and principles due to a lack of alignment with regulations, motivated, in many cases, by the desire to avoid additional costs and changes to projects.

Academic citizenship beyond the service role: views of academics in England and the Philippines

ABSTRACT The evolving nature of academic work in higher education invites a deep questioning of the conventional view of academic citizenship as the service role. Drawing insights from a multi-site case study of academics in England and the Philippines and taking a social psychological approach to citizenship, the paper reveals that for academics who work in highly performative contexts, academic citizenship means more than a ‘service’ role. It is perceived as a notion that integrates their activities, ideals and values as well as the ways they approach their work – how they see themselves as being academic citizens. Academic citizenship goes beyond the undertaking of activities with moral, altruistic and civic merits. This paper proposes the view of academic citizenship as a practice of enactment not simply a function of membership status. It encompasses the processes and means by which academics use freedoms and autonomy at their disposal, and the value they see as central to their membership in their academic communities.

Introduction to the Special Issue

This special issue of the Journal of Benefit–Cost Analysis is dedicated to the memory of Jerry Ellig, a brilliant economist whose untimely death in 2021 cut short a productive and influential career in government and academia. Jerry was adept at applying economic concepts and empirical analysis to improve public policy, and he enjoyed not only studying real policy problems, but finding practical solutions to them. He was also a generous mentor, supporting and collaborating with graduate students and colleagues to publish prolifically in peer-reviewed economics, public administration, and political science journals, as well as law reviews and more popular outlets. He was a great communicator, able to take his academic work and translate it for different audiences, including through testimony, seminars, op-eds, short presentations, and classroom teaching. In addition to these immense talents, Jerry was genuinely kind and unpretentious; he wore Wal-Mart suits and garish ties. And he was laugh-out-loud funny, a master at diffusing difficult situations with a witty, but never mean, quip.

Theory and History of „Governmentality“ and Governmental Regimes in The Work of Michel Foucault

In this article we reconstruct and systematize the theoretical apparatus used by Michel Foucault in his research on the phenomenon of governance, as well as his investigations into specific governing regimes that have existed in the history of Western modernity. The aim of the article is to contribute to the resolution of conceptual confusion that has accompanied the governmentality studies since their emergence in the early 1990s and thereby facilitate the development and application of this perspective in future research. The article begins by situating Foucault’s research on governance within the broader context of his career and highlighting the socio-political conditions under which Foucault changed the direction of his academic work towards this field. We will then proceed with a systematic exposition of some of Foucault’s basic concepts like “practice”, “power” and “dispositive”. We will also highlight how the problematic of governance entered his work through the concepts of “pastorality” and “subjectivity”. In the next section we will reconstruct the theoretical apparatus Foucault used when researching government and governmental regimes. Here we will point out the specific meaning the notion of “governmentality” has in his research and how it is used to signify rationalities embodied in governmental regimes. Considering this theoretical apparatus, we will, in the second part of this section, reconstruct the history of governmental regimes in Foucault’s work starting from the regime of raison d’État in early modernity, through the liberal regime of governance in 18th and 19th centuries and concluding with the neoliberal regime. In conclusion, we will reflect on the advantages that the perspective of governmentality studies offers in researching the social world.

Financial Challenges Facing Higher Education and Ways to Address Them from the Perspective of Academic Leaders in Palestinian Universities (An-Najah National University Case Study)

The study aimed to identify the financial challenges facing higher education in Palestinian universities from the perspective of academic leaders at An-Najah National University. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher employed the descriptive-analytical method and used a questionnaire as the study tool for data collection. The study population consisted of all academic leaders at An-Najah University, totaling 750 individuals, with the study being applied to a random sample of 200 academic leaders. The results of the study indicated that the financial challenges facing higher education in Palestinian universities, from the perspective of academic leaders at An-Najah National University, were perceived as highly significant. Additionally, the study showed no statistically significant differences at the significance level (α≥0.05) regarding the financial challenges facing higher education in Palestinian universities based on the variables of gender, academic rank, and years of experience. The results also revealed that the solutions to address these financial challenges were perceived as highly effective, with no statistically significant differences at the significance level (α≥0.05) in the perceived solutions based on the variables of gender, academic rank, and years of experience. The study recommended the need for increased government support for universities from the state. What distinguishes this study is the vitality and importance of the topic in academic and educational work, as it addresses an issue related to university funding—an issue that cannot be overlooked in university policies, educational planning, and budget preparation. Without addressing it, university operations are likely to fail. Therefore, the researchers sought to shed light on the financial challenges faced by universities in Palestine.

Kings, clowns and trumps: Creative-exegetical irony in the creative writing HDR thesis

Bahktin argues that the novel subsumes elements of the medieval carnival, including the rehearsal and collapse of competing social discourses to generate new meaning. Williams’ performative exegesis (2016) and Krauth and Nash’s creative-exegetical (2019) are academic forms of the creativecritical genre that simultaneously perform exegetical and creative work. Historically within the academy, academic texts like exegeses are perceived as not only distinct from creative writing, but also better for creating and communicating research findings. However, by applying Bakhtin’s understanding of the carnivalised novel, performative exegeses and creative-exegetical texts can be seen to generate hybrid, ironic utterances that collapse this epistemological hierarchy and undermine the perceived distinctions between creative and academic exegetical writing. These utterances can be categorised into three kinds of creative-exegetical irony: king-clown utterances, where creative text does academic exegetical work; clown-king utterances, where “academic” exegetical text does creative work; and trump utterances, which are indistinguishably both creative and academic. Such utterances are a defining feature of the creativecritical genre’s capacity for innovation in form and meaning, particularly within creative writing higher degree by research (HDR) theses.

‘Homo Metricus’: The New Academic Worker. How Quantitative Research Evaluation Practices Reshape the Intellectual Capital Needed to Succeed in Contemporary Universities?

‘Homo Metricus’: The New Academic Worker. How Quantitative Research Evaluation Practices Reshape the Intellectual Capital Needed to Succeed in Contemporary Universities?

Resilience as a Concept for Convergence Across Health, Systems, and Well-Being: An AI-Augmented Mapping of 50 Years of Resilience Research

Resilience has become a focal point of academic research investigating the impact of adverse disruption to the well-being of people, systems, the built environment, ecosystems, and climate. However, the proliferation of this work has not been accompanied by increasing clarity about the core meaning of resilience as a singular construct, threatening its relevance and complicating its use in practice. To improve the application of resilience in cross-disciplinary and convergence approaches to sustainability and well-being research, this work synthesized resilience conceptualizations across disciplines with novel artificial intelligence (AI)-augmented approaches. Using open-source applications for text mining and machine-learning-based natural language processing algorithms for the examination of text-as-data, this work mapped the content of 50 years of academic resilience work (24,732 abstracts). Presented as thematic and statistical textual associations in a series of network maps and tables, the findings highlight how specific measurements, components, and terminologies of resilience relate to one another within and across disciplines, emphasizing what concepts can be used to bridge disciplinary boundaries. From this, a converged conceptualization is derived to answer theoretical questions about the nature of resilience and define it as a dynamic process of control through the stages of disruption and progression to an improved state thereafter. This conceptualization supports a cross-disciplinary meaning of resilience that can enhance its shared understanding among a variety of stakeholders, and ultimately, the rigor and uniformity of its application in addressing sustainability and well-being challenges across multiple domains.

Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński on Universities and Philosophy

The article discusses the writings and speeches of the Polish Primate, Blessed Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, on academic life. The article addresses the very idea of the university and academic work in service to the community. This topic has received scant attention so far.

HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL ASPECTS OF THE EVOLUTION OF TWO-PIANO MUSIC IN CHINA

Objective: This study aims to analyze the historical development and theoretical foundations of music for two pianos in China and to establish a periodization of its key stages. Special attention is devoted to the methodological issues related to performance techniques in this genre, as well as to the influence of Western musical traditions on the formation of Chinese two-piano music. The research seeks to identify the specific features of this genre as an important element of Chinese musical culture and to analyze its interaction with contemporary trends in musical art. Methodology: To achieve the research objectives, a historical-musicological approach has been applied, which allows for tracing the development of two-piano music in the context of cultural and social changes in China. A comparative method is also employed to analyze the interplay between Chinese and Western musical elements in two-piano compositions. The research is based on the analysis of musical scores, monographs, and academic works dedicated to Chinese musical traditions. Scientific novelty: For the first time, this study systematically examines the historical development of two-piano music in China, emphasizing the key stages of its formation and the influence of both national and Western musical traditions. It explores how Chinese composers have utilized this genre to express national identity, blending traditional Chinese elements with Western musical forms. Particular attention is given to analyzing the technical and performance innovations that have shaped the development of this genre in China. Conclusions: Music for two pianos in China reflects a unique synthesis of Chinese folk musical traditions and Western technical and harmonic approaches. It not only enriches the concert repertoire but also plays a significant role in shaping contemporary Chinese musical identity. Although this genre is still evolving, notable achievements in its development can already be observed, especially due to support from educational and performance initiatives. However, further expansion of the repertoire and improvement in performance standards require enhancing the system of musical education and actively incorporating new pedagogical approaches to two-piano ensemble training.

Nemzetközi Rendészeti Figyelő XV.

Aim: The international law enforcement literature focuses on the study of unlawful human behaviour that violates public order and threatens public security. Research focusing on the internal workings of law enforcement authorities and prosecution services is relatively rare. There are also few examples of academic work on crimes committed by law enforcement officials. The Observer now reports on such articles. Methodology: Attila Sümegh’s review gives an overview of the methods used by the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation in the fight against corruption. In addition to the traditional methods of detecting official and economic bribery, the Prosecutor’s Office also performs tasks that reveal the shortcomings of inadequate legislation that can significantly increase the risk of corruption. Ronett Radvánszki’s summary outlines a methodology for investigating so-called ‘police crime’ in the United States. She points out that police officers who cross the line of legality in the possession of a monopoly on legitimate violence may think that their status makes them less accountable. Findings: Gábor Bélai’s work is exceptionally wide-ranging and professional in its approach, and provides us with an insight into the criminalistic practices of the former GDR (German Democratic Republic) and the former FRG (Federal Republic of Germany) and the differences in the procedural order of law enforcement. While we can be convinced that the former GDR’s training in criminology was of a high professional standard, we must also understand that prosecutorial control of law enforcement in the former GDR still offers considerably more guarantees than in a conception that did not follow the criteria of the rule of law. Value: From a publication dedicated to the study of domestic violence, Bíborka Horváth highlights that ‘current legislation focuses primarily on violence in individual, public places and does not pay enough attention to those who are victims of multifaceted abuse by intimate partners or family members.’ This research also goes far beyond the criminal justice dimensions of domestic violence to report on the moral values that can be the source of the outcomes of individual and social inclusion. Aura Vörös provides information on a study of the legitimacy of the state’s monopoly on violence, with a special focus on the interpretation of the police monopoly on violence, an inescapable task for any democratically functioning constitutional power.

Analysis of balancing solutions for simple assembly lines

Purpose: Assembly Line Balancing (ALB) is critical to manufacturing efficiency and productivity. It involves assigning tasks to workstations to optimise performance while satisfying task priority and cycle time constraints. The Simple ALBP (SALBP) is a simplified version of the general problem that has received considerable research interest. Many academic works have been published on this topic, using a variety of methods, including exact, heuristic, and metaheuristic approaches. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to present a comprehensive evaluation of the literature on the methods used to solve the SALBP.Design/methodology/approach: A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify, select, analyse, and summarise 126 papers on SALBPs. The study started with the selection of relevant keywords. The selected papers were then narrowed down using various criteria.Findings: The analysis showed that SALBP-1 and SALBP-2 are the most common types, with metaheuristic approaches being the most widely used. Despite extensive research, there is a significant need for studies focusing on SALBPs for multi- and mixed-models, particularly in the context of U-shaped and two-sided lines.Originality/value: This literature review contributes to the identification of key areas for improvement in the SALBP and provides insight into potential directions for future research.

Research on Lacan's Theory of Desire

Abstract: Jacques Lacan was, inarguably one of the most important psychoanalysts to live during the 20Th Century and his ideas surely have reverberated throughout Psychology as well as Philosophy and Literature. Lacan thought of desire as being at the center of his academic work and even went on to say that "Desire is man's essence". This theory becomes especially important in postmodern society, where longing is a key element of consumer culture. Hailing from France, Jacques Lacan was born in 1901. He entered medical school and then psychiatry, after which he pursued a career as psychoanalyst. Lacan was largely influenced by Freud, but he also significantly re-read the theory of him through linguistic and structural interpretations. Lacan, who said that the human unconscious is structured like a language and desire leaves itself marks not only in our minds but also reproductions of culture and clinking symbols. According to Lacan, desire is the primary originating impulse from which all subsequent subjects are constructed; it's the motivational force of what runs a subject. Lacan also argues that like the Libido in Freud, desire is what motivates human behaviour and development of psyche.

Is Chinese IR Scholarship White? A Non-Dichotomous Critique of ‘The International as Singular, Enlightened and Sanitised’

Most Western IR theories – mainstream and critical alike – share an implicit Western-centric belief of the constitution and drivers for global development (towards modernity), whereas an emerging trend of literature criticizes such an assumption as epistemic whiteness. Examining global IR knowledge production beyond the Euro-American academia, this article proposes a non-dichotomous framework of critique. It centres around three interrelated conceptual modes of dichotomy, linearity and denialism, which correspond to three epistemological markers as the logics of existence, development and resistance. Mainland Chinese Sinophone International Relations (IR) scholarship on Sino-African relations is examined against this framework. The analysis demonstrates that, under the heavy influence of modernist worldviews, Sino-centric versions of dichotomy, linearity and denialism can be reproduced among academic works that are intentionally produced to resist epistemic whiteness. This poses critical questions on the applicability of epistemic whiteness as a term to capture the full dynamics. This article thus proposes an alternative term, the international as singular, enlightened and sanitized, to represent this problematic ontological imagination of the international. It calls for global IR scholars to exercise greater reflexivity towards an unproblematic acceptance and internalized appreciation of modernity as the endgame of history.