Search results for "301"
showing 10 items of 14241 documents
Stakeholder salience for small businesses : a social proximity perspective
2017
This paper advances stakeholder salience theory from the viewpoint of small businesses. It is argued that the stakeholder salience process for small businesses is influenced by their local embeddedness, captured by the idea of social proximity, and characterised by multiple relationships that the owner-manager and stakeholders share beyond the business context. It is further stated that the ethics of care is a valuable ethical lens through which to understand social proximity in small businesses. The contribution of the study conceptualises how the perceived social proximity between local stakeholders and small business owner-managers influences managerial considerations of the legitimacy, …
EFL Teacher Education in Finland : Manifestations of Professional Agency in Teacher Educators’ Work
2020
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher educators play a key role in the development of university-based teacher education and the preparation of preservice EFL teachers. However, the professional agency of EFL teacher educators in developing their work remains understudied. Employing a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical perspective, this research considers the individual and collective professional agency of eight EFL teacher educators at two Finnish universities. Findings demonstrate that individual professional agency is enacted in the expression of professional identity and the development of professional relationships, and in offering and receiving professional assistance. Findin…
Data practices and inequality in South African early childhood development policy: Technocratic management versus social transformation
2019
Background: In 1994, the African National Congress identified early childhood development as a potential strategy to redress the inequalities of apartheid, however, two and a half decades later, poverty still persists, and South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world. Aim: This article explores how policy texts based on and with the use of certain data practices establish ‘truths’ about childhoods and society, construct families and communities, and determine forms of provision to address inequality. Setting: In 2015, the South African government published the National Integrated Early Childhood Policy (NIECDP) to continue to address poverty and inequality. Its implementat…
Hierarchies of knowledge, incommensurabilities and silences in South African ECD policy: Whose knowledge counts?
2017
AbstractPolicy for young children in South Africa is now receiving high-level government support through the ANC’s renewed commitment to redress poverty and inequity and creating ‘a better life for all’ as promised before the 1994 election. In this article, I explore the power relations, knowledge hierarchies and discourses of childhood, family and society in National Curriculum Framework (NCF) as it relates to children’s everyday contexts. I throw light on how the curriculum’s discourses relate to the diverse South African settings, child rearing practices and world-views, and how they interact with normative discourses of South African policy and global early childhood frameworks. The NCF…
Revealing colonial power relations in early childhood policy making: An autoethnographic story on selective evidence
2021
The COVID-19 pandemic exposes uncertainty, instability and glaring inequality that requires urgent global policy decisions. Historically, bureaucrats regard uncertainty as the enemy and look for tested solutions (Stevens, 2011). In contrast, Fielding & Moss (2010) acknowledge an uncertain future and encourage shifting policy making towards the search for possibilities instead of replicating singular solutions. Escobar (2020) advocates for pluriversal politics, with many possibilities created through collective decision-making by autonomous interlinked networks. In this paper, I combine autoethnography with policy analysis drawing on my own experience in South African early childhood pol…
Service-learning in physical education teacher education: towards a critical and inclusive perspective
2020
The purpose of this study was to analyse the impact of service-learning (SL) in physical education teacher education students (PETEs). The PETEs (n = 169) completed one of the editions of a SL program carried out between 2015–2018. This program consisted of designing and leading motor game sessions to facilitate the inclusion of 116 children with special educational needs (SEN). The program was based on Kolb’s learning stages to promote reflection and critical thinking. Reflective journals were used as an instrument to gather information from their experiences. These data were analysed qualitatively through a multiphase approach, initial open-coding and axial coding, using NVivo (10) softwa…
The implications of teachers’ implicit theories for moral education: A case study from Finland
2017
Implicit theories concerning the malleability of human qualities are known to have a powerful impact on motivation and learning, but their role in moral education is an under-researched topic. In this qualitative case study, we examined the impact of implicit theories on four Finnish teachers’ practices of teaching morally and in teaching morality. The data include preliminary and stimulated recall interviews (STR) as well as classroom observations. Our results demonstrate the multiple ways in which teachers’ implicit beliefs are communicated to students and influence teacher’s interpretations and endeavors to educate the ethical capabilities of students. The study provides evidence for the…
STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF MUSICAL ACTIVITIES IN PRESCHOOL EDUCATION
2018
Aim. The aim of the study is to find out students’ perspectives on the necessity, readiness and disturbing factors of implementing musical activities in preschool. The theoretical part of the paper describes the particularity of preschool teachers’ work, the children’s interest in musical activities, and the benefits of implementing musical activities in preschool. 
 Method. The empirical study involved 168 students (N=168), of which 132 students (N=132) are already working as preschool teachers in parallel with their study at the university. The study identified three questions: why do preschool teachers use musical activities? What factors prevent a preschool teacher from using music…
Student experiences of project-based learning in an analytical chemistry laboratory course in higher education
2020
Abstract This study describes students’ experiences in project-based learning (PjBL) incorporated as part of a revised undergraduate analytical chemistry laboratory course. We examined which phases were the easiest as well as the most challenging and what student skills developed during the research project. The research data were collected between 2016 and 2018 via two questionnaires. They were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. One questionnaire focused on the whole course (in 2016–2018, n = 127) of which only the answers on the research project questions were analyzed. The other questionnaire focused on only the research project (in 2018, n = 42). Based on the results of our…
Enabling and constraining family: young women building their educational paths in Tanzania
2015
For an increasing number of African girls and women, upgrading the level of education has become a strategy for life improvement. This paper analyses the role that family plays in enabling women's education and contributes to understanding on the interconnectivity of education, work and family in women's lives in collective societies. The analysis focuses on how young Tanzanian women perceive the role of family and education in their ‘youth task’, of becoming adult. The analysis is based on interviews with seven young Tanzanian women enrolled in non-formal secondary education and nine professional women enrolled in higher education. The results show that the women were determined to pursue …