Exploring the Relationship Between Computer-Mediated Communication,Sexual Identity Commitment,and Well-Being Among Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Adolescents

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents are avid users of computer-mediated communication (CMC), but few empirical studies have investigated the function of CMC in the lives of LGB youth. Grounded in the media practice model, the present study explored the relationships among CMC, sexual identity commitment, and well-being by surveying LGB adolescents (N = 570). Results indicated that a positive relationship existed between time spent on social network sites and well-being that was mediated by sexual identity commitment. Time spent instant messaging, sending/receiving e-mail, or in chat rooms was not related to sexual identity commitment or well-being. Social network sites may aid LGB youth in understanding their sexual identities in ways that other CMC modalities cannot.     

The Communication Privacy Management of Adopted Individuals in Their Social Networks: Disclosure Decisions in Light of the Discourse of Biological Normativity

Although adoptees are often stigmatized for their nonnormative identity, adopted individuals must communicate with nonfamily members to integrate their adoptive identity into their definition of self. In the current study, adult adoptees (n = 25) were interviewed about their processes for disclosing their adoptive status in their social networks. Drawing upon communication privacy management (CPM) theory, inductive analyses demonstrated that adoptees created motivational and contextual criteria to enact privacy rules surrounding adoption. Adoptees maintained privacy to avoid messages of “difference,” insensitive comments, imperviousness, and negative opinions about adoption. Adoptees disclosed about their adoption to build relational closeness and to educate/advocate for adoption. These privacy decisions were undergirded by the societal assumption that families are biologically linked or the discourse of biological normativity (Suter et al., 2014).     

对中国传统文化的当代认同的几点思考

当代中国社会发展的时代定位是全球化背景下实现传统社会向现代社会的转变。在这个历史任务的完成过程中,具有超稳定结构的中国传统文化遭遇到了现代性的冲击和消解。如何构建当代中国人对传统文化的认同将是一个紧迫而又复杂的问题。     

Organizational Identification: A Mixed Methods Study Exploring Students’ Relationship with Their University

Organizational identification (OID) is the outcome of social construction processes in which individuals define themselves in terms of their organizational membership. Students’ identification with their university reflects value congruence with the institution and is reflected in communication. Drawing on social identity theory (SIT) and utilizing quantitative and qualitative data from students (n = 555), we found relationships between OID and construed external image of the university, trust in the university, satisfaction with the university, perceived interorganizational competition, and outcomes, including intended future involvement. Students were re-surveyed nine months later (n = 397, with 83 respondents matching Time 1 and Time 2) to assess their OID stability. Open-ended responses describe situations and events that strengthen/lessen OID. We offer implications for OID, SIT, and for organizational communication research and practice.     

Overseas students' intercultural adaptation as intercultural learning: a transformative framework

In the context of increasing recruitment of overseas students by British higher education (HE) institutions, there has been a growing need to understand the process of students' intercultural adaptation and the approaches that can be adopted by British academic institutions in order to facilitate and support these students' learning experience in the UK. Drawing upon one‐year of in‐depth qualitative research investigating the experience of a small cohort of Chinese postgraduate students' in a British university, I explore the three‐fold ‘stress‐adaptation‐growth’ intercultural learning process of these participants by focusing the discussions on the their lived experience in the UK. The key argument of this article is that intercultural adaptation is in itself a process of intercultural learning, which has the potential to bring about profound changes in overseas students themselves, transforming their understanding of the learning experience, self knowledge, awareness of the Other, and values and worldview.     

Women’s Learning in Contract Work: Practicing Contradictions in Boundaryless Conditions

The general rise in contractors, particularly among knowledge workers negotiating ‘boundaryless’ employment conditions, has generated interest in the nature and forms of contract work. This article explores the learning of contract workers as they negotiate these conditions, with a focus on women. Drawing from a qualitative study of women practicing nursing and education in Canada as self-employed contractors, the discussion focuses on the practices that they learn in order to manage their work activities and identities. In these practices, tensions abound – particularly around the recognition of knowledge in ways that establish the contractor’s identity, position within the organisation, and market value. For women, it is argued from the study findings, boundaryless contract work incurs particular gendered demands that embed contradictions that the contractor must learn to negotiate. This article describes five practices that women contractors learn within these contradictions: (1) being noticed while avoiding notice, (2) nailing down contracts without nailing the contractor, (3) performing a woman in control while hiding the chaos, (4) shape-shifting while ‘branding’ one shape, and (5) proving knowledge in a market of impressions. The article concludes with implications for education that might assist women contract workers.

Learning from childhood to mature adulthood: what makes people want ‘to learn to learn’ and keep on learning?

This article describes 35 individuals who have expressed an interest in taking university courses after retirement. Longitudinal data and individuals' own accounts are presented, in an effort to clarify the role that symbolic resources play in individuals' lives, for their capacity to construct their own identity, to function as social actors, and ‘to learn to learn’. It is argued that their lives provide grounds to consider a re‐conceptualisation of adult learning.     

“东亚病夫”再认识

"东亚病夫"一词,长期以来它被许多中国人认为是西方帝国主义者强加给中国以羞辱中国和中国人的侮辱性绰号,尤其是针对中国人的病弱身躯。然而,对此术语的理解充满了曲解。这个术语最先被西方政治评论用来描述19世纪末清帝国衰弱腐败的情况。然而,到了20世纪早期,这个术语的意义被中国的思想家们为了刺激人民的改革意愿而改造以增强民族危机意识。     

自我身份与文化：中国高校中“国际化”教学实践的人类学思考

"国际化"教学是目前中国高校中正在兴起的一大趋势.它不仅是跨国教育产业发展的结果,也是多元文化交流的表现.然而,在国际化教学实践中,却经常出现中国学生与外国学生不断两元化的问题.这不仅有悖"文化交流"的初衷,更阻碍了高校教育"国际化"的文化进程.本文通过四个教学案例,从三个方面对"国际化"教学进行讨论:首先,可以把中国教育界的"国际化"放置于"多元文化主义"的框架内研究,从而和欧美教育界相关问题接轨,以利于今后进一步深入交流;其次,课堂实践中的中国/外国学生身份认知反映了对自我、文化和代表的核心概念的认知问题,因此在身份认知的框架下讨论就能更好地阐释相关实践问题;最后,当代人类学方法论不仅提供了本文的田野研究方法,而且指导笔者进行国际化课堂的实践.本文意欲提倡在"跨国多元文化主义"框架内对"国际学生"身份的同一认知,以改变目前中国/外国两元身份认知的现状及其带来的不利影响.     

Adolescent Journeys: Finding Female Authority in <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Rain Catchers and The House on Mango Street</Emphasis>

This article compares the first-person narratives of two adolescent girls in the novels The Rain Catchers and The House on Mango Street. I propose that adolescent girls can use literacy to read the world around them as a text and therefore help them to form their own identities enough to ultimately find authority in telling their own stories. I use Judith Langer’s theory of envisionment-building as a primary lens through which to interpret the girls’ narrative work and further elucidate the feminist aspects involved through Belenky et al.’s famous work, Women’s Ways of Knowing.