Occupational branding for diversity: managing discursive contradictions

In line with recent efforts to increase the representation of women in the field of computing and information technology (I.T.), the National Center for Women and Information Technology has spearheaded an occupational branding campaign that seeks to encourage more women to enter this field. We use this campaign as a case study to investigate how representations of work in an occupational branding campaign (“official branding discourse”) compare with the ways in which practitioners represent this work (“unofficial branding discourse”). Through our analysis, we show that whereas the official branding discourse represents computing and I.T. as a field where women are valued, unofficial branding discourse represents this field as hostile to women. We then propose three avenues through which these contradictions can be managed: (1) acknowledging the challenges expressed by practitioners, while simultaneously discussing how to foster a more inclusive occupational culture, (2) changing the primary goal of the campaign from increasing the number of women in computing and I.T. to making the culture of computing and I.T. less hostile, and (3) committing fewer resources into organized branding campaigns and more resources into direct organizational interventions that seek to make work environments inclusive.     

Educating for Ecological Conversion: An Ecstatic Pedagogy for Christian Higher Education amid Climate Crisis

Abstract

Christian universities are obligated by their mission to confront the climate crisis as the pressing existential issue of our time. In his encyclical Laudato Si', Pope Francis calls for the ecological conversion of the church and all of humanity. Ecological conversion entails an existential shift from a relationship with the earth marked by possessive, wasteful consumption to one marked by delight in creation, concern for its suffering, and preservation of this divine gift. Following the work of Bernard Lonergan and Robert Doran on conversion, we propose pedagogical strategies of connectedness and encounter that emphasize the psychic dimension of ecological conversion.     

Las actividades de lecto-escritura compartida: principios y prácticas orientativas para la participación de los padres

El gusto por viajar y el deseo de conocer mundo es algo más que saber conducir. Igualmente un repertorio de usos de la escritura no es algo que se consiga con el simple aprendizaje del mecanismo de decodificación y hunde sus raíces en los entornos y actividades significativas del niño. El papel de los padres se convierte así en central para el desarrollo de la lecto-escritura. Los autores ofrecen en este artículo 8 principios a seguir para una mayor eficacia de las actividades de lecto-escritura compartida en familia y algunos métodos que puede emplear el maestro para transmitir estos principios a los padres.