Learning and Innovation in Agriculture and Rural Development: The Use of the Concepts of Boundary Work and Boundary Objects

Abstract

Purpose: The paper explores the role of boundary work and boundary objects in enhancing learning and innovation processes in hybrid multi-actor networks for sustainable agriculture (LINSA).

Design/Methodology/Approach: Boundary work in LINSA is analysed on the basis of six case studies carried out in SOLINSA project under a common methodology. In developing typologies of boundary work and objects, a grounded approach is used.

Findings: LINSA analysis demonstrates the dynamic character, diverse forms and multiple functions of boundary work and objects in three domains: learning, innovation, and sustainability. Addressing specific types of goals and actors leads to specific types of boundary work and boundary objects. Context-appropriate boundary work allows aligning differing actor attitudes, gaining increased external support, and developing LINSA. The concepts of boundary work and boundary objects are relevant in a broad range of divergent LINSA settings. Boundary work has its limitations, but its facilitation supports reaching LINSA goals.

Practical Implications: The paper proposes recognising context-appropriate forms of boundary work and skilful use of emerging boundary objects to both promote internal consolidation of LINSA and effective external communication to foster learning and innovation for sustainability.

Originality/Value: The paper provides insights into the forms, dynamic and outcomes of boundary work in LINSA in three key domains: developing shared knowledge base, co-producing innovation and negotiating sustainability.     

Stimulating Prewriting Skills with the Help of Pictorial Images

Increasingly, children who start school have already acquired basic reading and writing skills provided by their parents or preschool teachers. However, even if we choose to accept the fact that by teaching preschool children how to read and write parents wish to help them integrate successfully into the school environment and methods of work, we still need to emphasize that certain activities are not in balance with the needs, abilities, and potentials of a preschool child. At the same time some other possibilities are not being used enough (e.g., visual art). The present research introduces this aspect and presents training prewriting skills based on visual art activities given that visual art represents one of the primary media that every child spontaneously uses in his or her preschool years.     

Emotion recognition in fathers and mothers at high-risk for child physical abuse

Objective

The present study was designed to determine whether parents at high risk for physical child abuse, in comparison with parents at low risk, show deficits in emotion recognition, as well as to examine the moderator effect of gender and stress on the relationship between risk for physical child abuse and emotion recognition.

Methods

Based on their scores on the Abuse Scale of the CAP Inventory (Milner, 1986), 64 parents at high risk (24 fathers and 40 mothers) and 80 parents at low risk (40 fathers and 40 mothers) for physical child abuse were selected. The Subtle Expression Training Tool/Micro Expression Training Tool ( [Ekman, 2004a] and [Ekman, 2004b]) and the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy II (Nowicki & Carton, 1993) were used to assess emotion recognition.

Results

As expected, parents at high risk, in contrast to parents at low risk, showed deficits in emotion recognition. However, differences between high- and low-risk participants were observed only for fathers, but not for mothers. Whereas fathers at high risk for physical child abuse made more errors than mothers at high risk, no differences between mothers at low risk and fathers at low risk were found. No interaction between stress, gender, and risk status was observed for errors in emotion recognition.

Conclusions and practice implications

The present findings, if confirmed with physical abusers, could be helpful to further our understanding of deficits in processing information of physically abusive parents and to develop treatment strategies specifically focused on emotion recognition. Moreover, if gender differences can be confirmed, the findings could be helpful to develop specific treatment programs for abusive fathers.     

Personality traits as a predictor of academic achievement in adolescents

The study examined the predictive value of adolescents’ personality trait ratings by different groups of informants in explaining academic achievement [grade point average (GPA)] while controlling for students’ sex and their mothers’ education. The Inventory of Child/Adolescent Individual Differences was employed as a measure of students’ personality traits at the end of elementary schooling (mean age = 14.7 years) and two years later when the participants attended secondary schools. The trait ratings were obtained through self‐, maternal and peer reports at both measurement occasions. They explained substantial portions of unique variance in the students’ GPA concurrently, and over time. Ratings by each of the three groups of informants had an incremental validity over one another in predicting school grades. Among personality variables, conscientiousness and low extraversion were consistently predictive of GPA.     

Negative school factors and their influence on math and science achievement in TIMSS 2003

The aim of the present study was to conduct an analysis of TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) 2003 database and to determine how negative school factors, such as aggression, are associated to the mathematical and science achievement of students. The analyses were conducted separately for national and international data. National analyses for Slovenia show significant associations between math and science achievement and the experience of aggressive behaviour. Students who experienced aggressive behaviour scored lower in math and science, both in the fourth and in the eighth grade. The results of the regression analysis show that negative factors, such as aggressive behaviour, are good predictors of educational achievement in Slovenia. International analyses for the selected countries (high‐ and low‐achieving countries from the whole TIMSS population) confirm that this type of finding is culturally impartial as well as valid for the level of achievement both in math and in science.     

Roles,practices and contexts for acting as agents of social justice – student teachers’ perspectives

ABSTRACT

Student teachers are oftentimes encouraged to apply theoretical principles of social justice to their professional practice. However, this can be problematic when theoretical knowledge is contested or if it is inconsistent with the practices in their future workplaces. Studies in this area often examine student teachers’ beliefs and understanding of their roles without taking account of how concrete working contexts shape what they see as possible in their practice. This study explored how students in two teacher education programmes based at the University of Edinburgh perceived their roles, practices and contexts for acting as agents of social justice. Mixed methods were used for data generation and triangulation including a questionnaire survey (n = 299) and scenario-based interviews (n = 9) to explore how students think about social justice issues in context. Student teachers generally saw agency for social justice as part of their role. Their understanding of the ways of addressing context-embedded issues of social justice focused on classroom practices while they raised concerns about how their practice depends on others in the system. We discuss the implications of these findings for teacher education.     

Testing Inequality Constrained Hypotheses in SEM Models

Researchers often have expectations that can be expressed in the form of inequality constraints among the parameters of a structural equation model. It is currently not possible to test these so-called informative hypotheses in structural equation modeling software. We offer a solution to this problem using Mplus. The hypotheses are evaluated using plug-in p values with a calibrated alpha level. The method is introduced and its utility is illustrated by means of an example.