Narcissism and entrepreneurial intentions: The roles of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and environmental complexity

PurposeExploring factors that can influence employee's entrepreneurial intentions is critical to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial practice. This study is going to examine the effect of narcissism on entrepreneurial intentions. Moreover, the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in narcissism-entrepreneurial intentions link is also tested. Lastly, how environmental complexity moderates these relationships is explored.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 362 employees working in technology incubators and science parks of Saudi Arabia. These technology incubators and science parks were established by the Saudi government as a part of entrepreneurship ecosystem evolution strategy to encourage and support entrepreneurial innovations.FindingsThe results show that narcissistic employees display greater levels of entrepreneurial intentions, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy mediates the effect of narcissism on entrepreneurial intentions; and environmental complexity moderates the narcissism-entrepreneurial intentions link.OriginalityThe effect of narcissism on entrepreneurial intentions has not been examined before. This study extends knowledge on entrepreneurial innovations by linking narcissism with entrepreneurial intentions through mediation of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and moderation of environmental complexity.     

Parental Wealth and Children’s Cognitive Ability,Mental, and Physical Health: Evidence From the UK Millennium Cohort Study

This article investigates the influence of wealth, a frequently neglected aspect of the economic circumstances of families, on children’s development. Using the UK Millennium Cohort Study, it explores whether parental wealth (net total wealth, net housing wealth, net financial wealth, and house value) is associated with children’s cognitive ability, mental, and physical health at age 11 (N = 8,645), over and above parental socioeconomic status and economic resources, in particular permanent income. Housing wealth was associated with fewer emotional and behavioral problems, independent of the full set of controls. Children’s verbal cognition and general health were more strongly associated with family permanent income and socioeconomic characteristics than with wealth.     

What do we mean by school entry age? Conceptual ambiguity and its implications: the example of Indonesia

The age pattern of school entry reflects a complex social and empirical reality that is inadequately captured by a single number. Recognising these complexities in national and international research and policy discourse raises important but neglected questions around the identification of vulnerable groups, the relative value of pre-primary and primary education, as well as the normative powers and responsibilities of governments vis-à-vis parents, and the international educational community vis-à-vis both. This is illustrated by the example of Indonesia, where the official age norm for primary school entry is widely disregarded in practice, with a majority of children starting school one or even two years earlier. Crucially, it is the compliant children entering at the statutory age who tend to be from more disadvantaged households, and enjoy no benefit in educational outcomes from their greater maturity.     

Children’s interaction with cross-cultural and multilingual digital libraries. II. Information seeking,success, and affective experience

This paper reports the results of a study that investigated Arabic-speaking children’s interaction with the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL) to find Arabic books on four tasks. Children’s information seeking activities was captured by using HyperCam software. Children’s success was assessed based on a measure the researchers developed. Children’s perceptions of and affective experience in using the ICDL was gathered through group interviews. Findings revealed that children’s information seeking behavior was characterized by browsing using a single function; that is, looking under “Arabic” from the Simple interface pull-down menu. Children were more successful on the fully self-generated, open-ended task than on the assigned and semi-assigned tasks. Children made suggestions for improving the Arabic collection and the design of the ICDL. The findings have implications for practitioners, researchers, and system designers.     

The role of basic education in post-conflict recovery

The last decade has seen a growing recognition amongst international donors, development agencies, non-government organisations and academics of the vital role education can play in bringing about recovery following violent conflict, natural disaster and other crises. This has led to the development of increasingly targeted and sophisticated programme planning and management tools, for use by government ministries, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations in fragile contexts. Drawing on the 2010 independent study of UNICEF's Education in Emergencies and Post-Conflict Transition Programme, this paper explores the transformative role education can play in post-conflict recovery. It argues that while basic education assistance can have a catalytic role in helping states during the early stages of a transition out of violent conflict, there is the need for a better understanding of its role in building peace at the national, sub-national and community levels. The paper also argues for the development of a solid evidence base to inform policy and practice at all national, regional and community levels so as to demonstrate conclusively the important role played by education during and in the aftermath of conflict.     

Improving science teachers' conceptions of nature of science: a critical review of the literature

This paper aimed to review, and assess the 'effectiveness' of the attempts undertaken to improve prospective and practising science teachers' conceptions of nature of science (NOS). The reviewed attempts could be categorized into two general approches: implicit and explicit. Implicit attempts utilized science process-skills instruction or engagement in science-based inquiry activities to improve science teachers' conceptions of NOS. To achieve the same goal, explicit attempts used instruction geared towards various aspects of NOS and/or instruction that utilized elements from history and philosophy of science. To the extent that teachers' NOS conceptions were faithfully assessed by the instruments used in the reviewed studies, the explicit approach was relatively more effective in enhancing teachers' views. The relative ineffectiveness of the implicit approach could be attributed to two inherent assumptions. The first is that developing an understanding of NOS is an 'affective', as compared to a 'cognitive', learning outcome. The second ensuing assumption is that learners would necessarily develop understandings of NOS as a by-product of engaging in science-realated activities. However, despite the relative 'effectiveness' of the explicit approach, much is still required in terms of fostering among science teachers 'desired' understandings of NOS. The paper emphasizes that explicitness and reflectivness should be given prominence in any future attempts aimed at improving teachers' concepts of NOS.     

Creating supportive and subversive spaces as professional dyads enact culturally relevant teaching

Abstract

In 2013, several leaders of the Early Childhood Education Assembly (ECEA) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) developed a multi-year project called Professional Dyads and Culturally Relevant Teaching (PDCRT). Funded by NCTE, early childhood teacher/teacher-educator dyads from various locations across the United States work together for two years to investigate, generate, implement and document culturally relevant pedagogies in their respective early childhood contexts. This article outlines some of the work of two PDCRT dyads conducted from 2013 to 2015. The project was developed in response to the long-time need for culturally relevant early childhood education and teacher education reform by focusing on overturning inequitable practices that ignore, misrepresent or marginalize children and families of Color, emerging bi/multilinguals and children from low-income communities. We argue that the PDCRT dyad model is an innovative avenue for addressing inequitable educational realities in the Eurocentric educational system that persists in the US and for moving equity work forward.