Collaborative research in contexts of inequality: the role of social reflexivity

This article reports on the role and value of social reflexivity in collaborative research in contexts of extreme inequality. Social reflexivity mediates the enablements and constraints generated by the internal and external contextual conditions impinging on the research collaboration. It fosters the ability of participants in a collaborative project to align their interests and collectively extend their agency towards a common purpose. It influences the productivity and quality of learning outcomes of the research collaboration. The article is written by fourteen members of a larger research team, which comprised 18 individuals working within the academic development environment in eight South African universities. The overarching research project investigated the participation of academics in professional development activities, and how contextual, i.e. structural and cultural, and agential conditions, influence this participation. For this sub-study on the experience of the collaboration by fourteen of the researchers, we wrote reflective pieces on our own experience of participating in the project towards the end of the third year of its duration. We discuss the structural and cultural conditions external to and internal to the project, and how the social reflexivity of the participants mediated these conditions. We conclude with the observation that policy injunctions and support from funding agencies for collaborative research, as well as support from participants’ home institutions are necessary for the flourishing of collaborative research, but that the commitment by individual participants to participate, learn and share, is also necessary.     

Narratives and activity theory as reflective tools in action research

Narratives and activity theory are useful as socially constructed data collection tools that allow a researcher access to the social, cultural and historical meanings that research participants place on events in their lives. This case study shows how these tools were used to promote reflection within a cultural–historical activity theoretically shaped research project on multi-professional collaborative practice. The tools are shown to individually and jointly aid insight, understanding and action. The participants generated data through narratives and analysed the data with an activity theoretical framework. These were then interpreted as cultural historical artefacts by the researcher. The socially constructed paradigm within which they are situated, their participative use, and their creation of insight, understanding and action make them ideal as action research tools.     

Video-stimulated recall in cross-cultural research in education: a case study in Vietnam

This paper examines incorporating video-stimulated recall (VSR) as a data collection technique in cross-cultural research. With VSR, participants are invited to watch video-recordings of particular events that they are involved in; they then recall their thoughts in relation to their observations of their behaviour in relation to the event. The research draws on a larger Ph.D. project completed at an Australian university that explored Vietnamese lecturers’ beliefs about learner autonomy. In cross-cultural research, using the VSR technique provided significant challenges including time constraints of participants, misunderstandings of the VSR protocol and the possibility of participants’ losing face when reflecting on their teaching episodes. Adaptations to the VSR technique were required to meet the cultural challenges specific to this population, indicating a need for flexibility and awareness of the cultural context for research.     

Addressing the Language and Cultural Problems of Overseas Students in the Context of Mathematics Classes

This paper describes a project in which instruction in mathematical language and strategies for adapting to the Australian university environment were integrated into mathematics classes. The classes were part of a program which enables overseas students to meet the entry requirements of Australian business faculties. The project used the action research methodology in which observations of the students' reactions motivated further activities. The outcomes of the project are described using the diary entries made by students, teacher and observer. These show that students developed an awareness of the need to improve their language skills and to make cultural adjustments and made some progress in these directions.     

农村体育公共产品供给中的政府公共服务职能————以泉州市“农民体育健身工程”建设为例

采用文献调研、问卷调查、访谈调查、实地调查、逻辑分析等研究方法,根据泉州市农民体育健身工程建设总体数量和分布,抽取30个受赠单位中的12个行政村,就健身工程建设和政府职能等对175名文体局干部、村干部、村民进行调查研究．结果表明：农民体育健身工程是政府为农村提供体育公共产品职能的体现,得到了广大村民的认同;权责划分不清,多元协同机制缺失,基层职能部门弱化和缺乏服务意识等,是农民健身工程建设中政府公共服务职能存在主要问题．提出应明确各级政府公共服务职责,建立农民体育健身工程联动机制和领导机制,构建农村体育公共产品供给的多元社会支持机制及农村体育公共产品需求的表达机制,是政府在实施农民体育健身工程中的主要公共服务职能。     

Benefits,Challenges, and Opportunities of Conducting a Collaborative Research Course in an International University Partnership: A Study Case Between Kansas State University and Tallinn University of Technology

A globalized world requires research to transcend geographical boundaries; this includes training students in international collaborative research. The purpose of this project was to identify the benefits, opportunities, and challenges of students from two universities (Kansas State Univ. and Tallin Univ. of Technology) working on an international research project together. For this purpose, six graduate students from the Center for Sensory Analysis and Consumer Behavior, Kansas State Univ., partnered with 20 Food Science major students from a Product Development class at Tallinn Univ. of Technology. Students worked together by distance in a partnership developing a rye bread sensory lexicon for systematically understanding the sensory properties of this product category, conducting Landscape analysis by using sensory mapping techniques on rye bread products from Northeast Europe for capturing the market complexity and to identify opportunity for new product development and new products concepts. Students from Kansas then went to Estonia for further meetings. After the trip, students and professors were asked for their feedback. Results showed that students identify learning food trends from another country as the main benefit of their international collaboration, followed by intercultural skills and knowledge transfer. Language and difference in time zones, as well as educational backgrounds, were identified by students as the main challenges of the collaboration. When US students were asked to rate the learning outcomes stated in the syllabus, understanding the cultural characteristics of Estonia was the one scored highest. Professors mentioned this opportunity is unique because it gives a cultural component programs usually not only an offer and a chance to develop time management skills by working across divergent time zones, but also to practice options for managing language barriers. This project shows that it is possible to setup a partnership between students across different countries and have a positive outcome that includes unique learning experiences for students; especially in terms of time and project management.     

The Training of Italian Teachers in the Federal Republic of Germany: an alternative approach

Against a background of working with a cross‐cultural educational research project in the Federal Republic of Germany the author identifies a number of the factors which form a barrier to full professional achievement by Italian teachers working with pupils of their own nationality in that country. Obstacles are found to exist on both sides of the cultural divide. Some of the difficulties encountered are analysed for both their theoretical and their practical implications and the author suggests some of the directions which effective multicultural education must take.     

Use of Action Learning as a Vehicle for Capacity Building in China

This article describes the use of action learning and action research in the development of management training institutions and management development experts in China. A case study is reported here which was based on a technical cooperation project between Switzerland and China which took place from 1994 to1996. The aim of this project was to build up the Chinese Government's institutional capacity in support of its policy to modernize its public administration and to strengthen its management of public enterprises. Conclusions from this case analysis illustrate that it is possible to operationalize action learning and action research methodologies successfully in China and to bring about organizational, managerial, professional, and personal development. It also illustrates needed adaptations of applying these management development strategies in the context of an international transfer of know-how. Learning took place at two related domains, i.e., at the domain of Chinese organizers, trainers, and managers who participated in the project and at the domain where the two partner institutions of the project interacted. More work is needed to better understand how to accelerate the development of facilitators and to manage structural and cultural constraints when one applies action learning and action research methodologies to large and complex systems in transitional economies within an Asian cultural environment.     

A Preliminary Assessment of a New Arts Education Programme in Dutch Secondary Schools

In The Netherlands a new compulsory programme, Arts and Cultural Education, has been implemented since 1998 in order to stimulate the cultural interest and the cultural activities of young people. Attending cultural activities is at the core of this programme and these activities should be of ‘generally accepted quality’. A research project by Utrecht University describes and evaluates the introduction of this new programme. The results presented are based on questionnaires from 89 teachers, 1100 students between 14 and 17 years old. Analyses show that arts and cultural education students do participate more in traditional culture (theatre, museum and classical concerts) than other secondary school students. However there are substantial differences in the opinions of teachers as to which kind of cultural activities should be permitted for the new programme. Results also indicate that the majority of teachers are quite liberal in accepting the choices of their students. About half of the cultural activities of the new programme fall into the category of popular cultural activities (cinema, pop‐concerts, dj‐/vjevents). Students who do not (or not yet) follow the arts and cultural education programme visit these activities to the same extent.     

Social Justice in Sport and Exercise Psychology: A Position Statement

ABSTRACT

There are varied approaches that have been used in sport for development (SFD) projects. This article is focused on the move by sport and exercise psychology researchers toward community-based SFD projects where marginalized groups are centralized. The authors have chosen two of their projects to exemplify different approaches to SFD. An initial project with an Aboriginal community is critically examined to reveal cultural missteps that perpetuated cultural colonization–something antithetical to community capacity building. The second project is then considered because of its closer alignment with cultural praxis and community capacity building. This second project focuses on the initial developments of a YMCA physical activity project designed to meet the needs of forced immigrants (a self-titled name developed by the refugee community members) and the staff who work with them. We culminate with five postulates proposed for SFD project teams derived from our vantage in sport and exercise psychology, where community engagement and eventual self-governance are imperatives.     

广东高校学报地方文化栏目建设的调查研究

广东不同区域的地域文化研究成果不断涌现,广东高校学报应承担起弘扬和传播地方传统文化的重任,建设好地方文化这一类型的特色栏目。调查研究发现,当前广东高校学报地方文化栏目建设已经取得瞩目的成绩,但仍存在栏目论文比例偏低、栏目名称不固定、外稿比例偏低等问题。当前广东高校学报地方文化栏目建设的发展策略在于积极开展地方文化栏目的专题策划,适当提高栏目的兼容性,加强地方文化栏目的责任编辑队伍建设,邀请专家担任栏目主持人,同时还要打破校域界限,集中各校地方文化栏目的优势,在数字化平台上实现联合办栏。     

Women in Action: a community development project in Amazonas

This article is a report of a Community Development Project currently being run by the Centre for Studies and Development in Environmental Education (CEDEA), at the National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA) in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. The Centre was inaugurated 3 years ago as part of an attempt to change the Institute's direction, from that of carrying out research for the scientific community to one that integrates research with sustainable development and social needs. CEDEA's team members embarked on a participatory community project, INPA and Society, that was developed with a community near the Institute. This is an urban community with economic, social, cultural and environmental problems that the project aims to approach. INPA and Society is divided into several projects, one of which is Women in Action. This is a report about the challenges that Women in Action has produced for both the Institute and the Centre. It also discusses the results that are being achieved, while commenting on the difficulties that have been confronted and how these could possibly be avoided by other groups.     

Is action research necessarily collaborative? Changing mutuality within a project

ABSTRACT

This article reports a study on collaboration within an action research project that was conducted by university researchers and elementary school teachers in the Azores, Portugal. More specifically, it examines how different kinds of participants worked together in different phases of the project. The notion of mutuality (i.e., the relative status of the participants and their ownership of the project) was especially critical for understanding changes in collaboration within the project. However, mutuality cannot be fully understood if important aspects of the geographical and cultural context in which a project of that kind takes place are not taken into consideration. In this particular case, it is important to consider the fact that local policy is devoid of incentives for elementary school teachers’ participation in research projects.     

Fremde Blicke, eigene Wahrnehmungen

Schools share comparable curricula and follow regional and national institutional guidelines. In their materiality, however, the living spaces of schools bring forth a constant interaction on the part of its members with a given, distinctive space. In the process, school members shape and traditionalize a unique and distinctive culture in every school. Within their ongoing project, the authors seek to grasp the interpersonal and spatial complex constituted within a school culture. To document and understand the cultural specificity of individual schools, they have further developed qualitative research methods from the methodological repertoire of educational and cultural anthropological research. Building on the component of strangeness as a key component of ethnographic experience and insight, two methods were designed to complement the overall toolkit deployed within the project: guided walks and short term visits by individuals socialized in another culture. These methodological approaches promise new insights for research in schools as well as for other organizational and institutional cultures.     

‘Fitting in’ and ‘standing out’: the peer group and young people’s development of reader identity

Abstract

The benefits of reading for pleasure and positive reader identities have been well established in previous research. However, much discussion regarding young people’s reading is underpinned by a discourse of deficit, placing emphasis on what young people should be reading. In an attempt to move away from this discourse, this article considers reading in the context of young people’s broader social and cultural worlds, exploring the role of the peer group in young people’s development of a reader identity. The article argues that the reading practices young people engage in are part of their broader social and cultural participation and, consequently, part of a broader project of identity formation. By highlighting the complexity of young people’s development of a reader identity and the meaning ascribed to specific reading practices, the findings challenge deficit models of young people’s reading lives, which underpin attempts to redistribute cultural capital through educational and cultural policy.     

Design and development of a cross-cultural disposition inventory

Advances in technology have increased the likelihood that engineers will have to work in a global, culturally diverse setting. Many schools of engineering are currently revising their curricula to help students to develop cultural competence. However, our ability to measure cultural dispositions can be a challenge. The purpose of this project was to develop and test an instrument that measures the various aspects of cultural disposition. The results of the validation process verified that the hypothesised model adequately represented the data. The refined instrument produced a four-factor model for the overall construct. The validation process for the instrument verified the existence of specific subcomponents that form the overall cultural disposition construct. There also seems to be a hierarchical relationship within the subcomponents of cultural disposition. Additional research is needed to explore which aspects of cultural disposition affect an individual's ability to work effectively in a culturally diverse engineering team.     

河南非物质文化遗产保护研究

河南这个承载了中华几千年文明的历史文化大省,其丰富多样的非物质文化遗产资源却在迅猛发展的市场化经济浪潮中濒临湮没。据调查结果显示,河南非物质文化遗产保护工作已经滞后于非物质文化遗产的发展需要。如何使非物质文化遗产资源得以更好地保护和传承,将成为河南文化建设和经济建设的重要课题。     

Individual differences in learning entrepreneurship and their implications for web-based instruction in e-business and e-commerce

This paper reports on outcomes from a White Rose Centre for Enterprise funded project Managing Innovation in the Digital Economy. This project aims to incorporate learning for enterprise into undergraduate and postgraduate curricula in information management and information systems. The paper presents results from a survey distributed to postgraduate information management and information systems students following completion of a module in E‐Business and E‐Commerce delivered by the Department of Information Studies at the University of Sheffield. The findings suggest that differences in levels of prior knowledge of business studies and in cultural background can impact on students’ acquisition of domain knowledge and intellectual and information research skills during collaborative development of a business plan. Implications of the results for web‐based instruction are addressed, by identifying teaching and learning strategies that support differential treatment of learners in terms of content and process. It is concluded that empirical investigation of individual differences within a student body can inform more effective methods for information systems and information management graduates to learn about and for entrepreneurship.