Acosta-Enriquez, B. G., Arbulú Ballesteros, M. A., Arbulu Perez Vargas, C. G., Orellana Ulloa, M. N., Gutiérrez Ulloa, C. R., Pizarro Romero, J. M., Gutiérrez Jaramillo, N. D., Cuenca Orellana, H. U., Ayala Anzoátegui, D. X., & López Roca, C. (2024). Knowledge, attitudes, and perceived Ethics regarding the use of ChatGPT among generation Z university students. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-024-00157-4
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been integrated into higher education (HE), offering numerous benefits and transforming teaching and learning. Since its launch, ChatGPT has become the most popular learning model among Generation Z college students in HE. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, concerns, attitudes, and ethics of using ChatGPT among Generation Z college students in HE in Peru. An online survey was administered to 201 HE students with prior experience using the ChatGPT for academic activities. Two of the six proposed hypotheses were confirmed: Perceived Ethics (B = 0.856) and Student Concerns (B = 0.802). The findings suggest that HE students’ knowledge and positive attitudes toward ChatGPT do not guarantee its effective adoption and use. It is important to investigate how attitudes of optimism, skepticism, or apathy toward AI develop and how these attitudes influence the intention to use technologies such as the ChatGPT in HE settings. The dependence on ChatGPT raises ethical concerns that must be addressed with responsible use programs in HE. No sex or age differences were found in the relationship between the use of ChatGPTs and perceived ethics among HE students. However, further studies with diverse HE samples are needed to determine this relationship. To promote the ethical use of the ChatGPT in HE, institutions must develop comprehensive training programs, guidelines, and policies that address issues such as academic integrity, privacy, and misinformation. These initiatives should aim to educate students and university teachers on the responsible use of ChatGPT and other AI-based tools, fostering a culture of ethical adoption of AI to leverage its benefits and mitigate its potential risks, such as a lack of academic integrity.
Adloff, F. (2024). Trajectories of Post-Sustainability. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 37(4), 477–492. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-023-09463-0
Faced with climate change and other ecological crises, sustainability has become an inescapable normative framework for organizations and societies worldwide. However, it conceals very different practices and imaginaries of a sustainable future. Firstly, this article introduces the three imaginaries of modernization, transformation, and control and explores what chances of implementation these trajectories have. Modernization is the dominant path driven by governments and corporations, transformation efforts by civil society actors are marginalized, and control is currently becoming more influential as a trajectory in the wake of a renaissance of strong nation-states. Secondly, this article works out the idea that sustainability, in the sense of an open future, is no longer achievable. Too many ecological burdens already exist, or can no longer be averted, so much so that one should be speaking instead about the politics of post-sustainability. It is highly probable that catastrophes and social collapses can no longer be prevented, and a rapid decarbonization of economies and societies in the coming years is so unlikely that the question thus arises as to how positive visions of the future for living together can still be derived from this. Finally, using the example of the rights of nature, it is discussed how there can, nevertheless, be forms of conviviality that could (albeit slowly) grow out of the multiple social and ecological crises and which are based on an amalgam of modernization, transformation, and control.
Alexandre, F., Comte, M. H., Lagarrigue, A., & Viéville, T. (2024). Learning Artificial Intelligence Through Open Educational Resources. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3866, 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55272-4_3
This chapter discusses the creation and impact of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) titled ‘Artificial Intelligence with Intelligence (IAI)’ aimed at fostering a culture of AI understanding and participation in ethical debates. The chapter first addresses the rationale behind developing the MOOC and the importance of citizen training in AI, particularly concerning ethical considerations surrounding algorithmic decision-making. This chapter also emphasises the need to reevaluate human intelligence in the broader context of AI advancements and probes the transformative nature of AI across various domains of life. Three perspectives are considered concerning the integration of AI in education: adapting the learning experience, using AI as a scientific tool for studying human learning, and critically examining its problems. Citizen education is crucial to understanding the scientific and technical elements of AI, especially in the context of algorithmic decision-making ethics. The chapter’s focus on AI and citizen education is key. It emphasises the need for critical thinking to understand how AI technologies affect daily life. The chapter advocates AI training to help people understand how AI works and generate informed opinions about its potential and limitations.
Ali, A. (2022). Critically reflective practice in visual communication design teaching for higher education undergraduate program. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 32(2), 1063–1078. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-020-09626-6
The study explores the impact of critical reflection on visual communication design teaching for undergraduate programs in Pakistan. Critical reflection is a self-initiated thinking tool with practical implications to improve teaching and professional practices. The qualitative phenomenological research included teachers and practitioners from the private and public sector, art and design institutions to learn about reflective practices in their lived experiences. Participants shared their teaching processes, experiences, critical incidents, and personal and social influences to analyze the significance of the critically reflective practice. Four significant themes emerged from the data; participants’ perception of critically reflective practice, its methods, significance and challenges. Critically reflective practice is a collective process and the insights gained from this process help teachers and professionals to transform and break routinized practices. It is not limited in its process and methods, for most of the participants, a suitable time for reflection is between semesters. Students’ assessment and design project evaluation is also a good time to reflect on teaching and learning. Though challenges in critically reflective practice are multifaceted external factors play a vital role in the development of critically reflective practice culture in academic institutions. Within the given research settings the study holds ample opportunities to explore critical reflection in visual communication design education.
Astudillo Lizama, P. (2024). Find Your Face: The Case of Gender Sociocultural Transformations within the Art of Drag Queens in Chile. Sexuality and Culture, 28(6), 2484–2503. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-024-10238-8
The art of drag queens has been transformed over the last thirty years in Chile. The change in the material conditions of its production and the diversification of self-presentation channels has meant that male artists have stopped imitating ciswomen and have begun to construct a recognizable alter ego beyond each show. Using an ethnographical approach and from 24 semistructured interviews with performer artists, bar owners and producers of drag events in different Chilean cities, we can see how this art form is increasingly showing a new logic of individuation associated with gender. Currently, their work is not only performative but also narrative, where mastery of the handling of resources and implements to “act” the feminine is also combined with the artist’s ability to show coherence in the creation of an individuality that is oriented toward meeting the increasing demands of the contemporary economy of attention.
Behera, R. R., Parida, A. P., Rath, C. S., Acharya, A. K., & Dash, A. K. (2025). Empowering Narratives: Destigmatizing Condom Use, Feminist Discourse, and Social Change in Recent Bollywood Cinemas, Janhit Mein Jaari, Chhatriwali, and Helmet. Sexuality and Culture, 29(3), 1051–1077. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-024-10312-1
In the backdrop of a culture where sex and sexual health are often associated with taboo and stigma, this paper investigates the role of Indian cinema in addressing women’s sexual health concerns and in de-stigmatizing condoms through a critical analysis of three recent films: Janhit Mein Jaari, Chhatriwali, and Helmet. Employing Intersectional Feminist Theory and Rhetorical Discourse Analysis, the study examines how these films have the potential to contribute to de-stigmatization of condoms in the Indian context. It also explores the portrayal of gender dynamics and societal norms intersecting with sexual and reproductive health issues. Findings suggest that these films not only challenge pre-existing stigmas and taboos associated with condoms but also advocate for gender equality and mutual respect in sexual relationships. This research underscores the transformative potential of cinema in shaping societal attitudes and promoting sexual health awareness, including the de-stigmatization of condom use.
Biswas, D., & Chaudhuri, A. (2025). Happiness and Capital: Rethinking Minority Stress Theory Through Economic Class and Coming Out Status of Indian Gender and Sexual Minorities. Sexuality and Culture, 29(6), 2984–3005. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-025-10404-6
India witnessed a significant legal transformation with the partial decriminalization of IPC section 377 in September 2018, yet this shift did not automatically lead to widespread societal acceptance of non-heteronormative identities. Within this complex sociocultural terrain, individuals with non-heteronormative gender identities and sexual orientations often face uncertainty and stigma, particularly in predominantly heteronormative environments. Against this backdrop, the act of “coming out” to parents and peers emerges as a critical psychological event, raising questions about its impact on happiness, subjective well-being, and perceived meaning in life. This study investigates these dynamics among 200 lesbian and gay individuals, stratified by socio-economic class: upper to upper-middle (out = 50, closeted = 50) and lower to lower-middle (out = 50, closeted = 50). Using pathway analysis, this research explores the direct and indirect effects of socio-economic class and coming out status on psychological well-being. Results indicate that coming out significantly predicts happiness, well-being, and life regard. While socio-economic status significantly affects subjective well-being and meaning in life, it does not directly influence coming out likelihood or happiness, though it does have an indirect effect on happiness. These findings suggest that structural positioning shapes emotional experiences through mediated pathways. The study extends ‘Minority Stress Theory’ (in Indian context) by illustrating the indirect role of socio-economic status in shaping psychological well-being via meaning in life, advocating for a more structurally-informed framework of identity-related stress. It also challenges Western-centric models of coming out by emphasizing the importance of culturally and contextually grounded theories that reflect the specific realities of non-heteronormative life in post-377 India.
Bossér, U. (2024). Transformation of School Science Practices to Promote Functional Scientific Literacy. Research in Science Education, 54(2), 265–281. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-023-10138-1
The incorporation of socioscientific issues into science teaching to promote students’ scientific literacy may require that science teachers reconsider and transform their teaching practices. This study examines the knowledge and considerations involved when two teachers incorporated socioscientific issues into their teaching, with the aim of understanding conditions for developing teaching to promote functional scientific literacy. Data consisted of written records of teaching, field notes of classroom observations and transcripts of meetings between the teachers and a researcher, generated during a year-long professional development project. Data were analysed through the framework of didactics that understands teaching as framed by societal conditions, curricula, teaching traditions and teacher and student knowledge and intentions. The results show that the incorporation of socioscientific issues enabled student engagement with scientific content, the practice of evidence-based reasoning and the consideration of values and norms. The teachers strove to seize upon student questions in teaching, and the results show that this may require strategies to raise questions among students, as well as profound science content knowledge on the part of teachers. Moreover, the results indicate that tensions arose between students’ instrumental views of teaching and learning and the teachers’ promotion of an exploratory classroom culture. The teachers had to support student adaption to the new requirements, and in this process, mutual trust and clear expectations were considered important. Implications for teachers’ professional development in relation to the incorporation of socioscientific issues in science education are discussed.
Brynjolson, N. (2022). Ripple Effects: New Frameworks for Learning in Postcommodity’s Sound Art. Postdigital Science and Education (Netherlands), Part F3828, 247–260. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97262-2_13
This essay focuses on the art collective Postcommodity and examines several of the group’s site-specific public art projects involving sound. These works demonstrate key aspects of postdigital aesthetics through their investigation of networked infrastructures, algorithms, and big data in contemporary culture, and are created through collaborative, dialogical processes that propose ‘new frameworks for learning’. Many of Postcommodity’s projects can be considered in relation to Paulo Freire’s theories on popular education and ecopedagogy, through their critique of settler colonialism and their interest in experimenting with prefigurative action. Like other forms of ecopedagogy, these projects confront the extractive nature of capitalism and ask questions about the impact of climate change and the creation of sustainable communities. Postcommodity has described their approach to making these projects as emerging through a ‘shared Indigenous lens and voice’—a description that conveys the dual importance of the visual and the sonic in their work. Analyzing their sound art highlights productive alliances between postdigital practices, ecopedagogy, and decolonial aesthetics, and invites questions about how small-scale actions ripple outwards and produce larger transformations.
Canina, M., Bruno, C., & Glaveanu, V. P. (2023). Innovating in the Post-Anthropocene Era: A New Framework for Creativity. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3860, 439–460. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28206-5_17
The post-Anthropocene era profoundly influences human beings, who need to develop new competencies and skills, among which creativity is one of the most important. Creativity, as the ability to generate a new and original outcome, is required to face complex social and sustainability challenges specific for an uncertain future; it can also help move towards a just and inclusive digital and green transformation. However, along with digital advancement, creativity transforms as well, acquiring new forms, and through design future methods can be channelled to play the role of a guiding value. We should start to ask ourselves how to expand the definition of creativity to make it more inclusive to non-human agents and rethink the values and ethics involved in its process. What new skills, methods and approaches do we need today to design for a more-than-human world? This chapter presents a framework that redefines creativity in the post-Anthropocene era from the authors’ perspectives, and foregrounds four relevant dimensions to keep in a dynamic balance: Regenerative Creativity, Digital Creativity, Ethics and Futures Thinking.
Chang, M. W., Chen, C. C., & Chin, J. M. C. (2025). Navigating the dilemmas of educational reform: A case study of Montessori implementation in a Taiwanese public school. British Educational Research Journal, 51(6), 2758–2776. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.4208
This case study explores the transformation process and educational outcomes of a small rural public elementary school in Taiwan as it transitioned from a traditional school into a Montessori experimental school. Faced with challenges such as low student motivation and limited resources, the school adopted a bottom-up trial strategy to introduce child-centred pedagogy and gradually realised educational innovation within the institutional framework. The principal exhibited visionary leadership, emphasising accompaniment and trust, and fostered a cohesive teaching team. During the reform process, teachers reconstructed their professional identities—shifting from knowledge transmitters to learning facilitators—and established a culture of instructional autonomy. Students improved in learning motivation, concentration and interpersonal interactions, transitioning towards a learning mode characterised by autonomy, collaboration and enquiry. Despite institutional constraints, assessment systems and societal expectations, the school steadily advanced its reform through adaptive policy applications and external collaboration. This case demonstrates that with appropriate leadership, institutional flexibility and cultural support within the teaching team, alternative educational philosophies can yield tangible outcomes in public education systems and provide important insights for developing experimental education in Taiwan. Future research should consider multisite comparative studies across diverse educational and cultural contexts to explore how public Montessori reforms unfold under various systemic conditions. Incorporating student and parent perspectives through participatory methods can offer richer insights into the lived experiences of reform.
Chappell, K. (2024). Creating Spaces for Ruptions and Provocations. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3864, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52973-3_1
This chapter lays the ground for how ethical, care-ful (Haraway, When species meet. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2008) educational futures might emerge through creative ruptions and how, individually and collectively, the authors are working with Facer’s (Literacy 53, 2019, p. 12) argument that:it is possible to begin to create educational spaces in which the surplus potential of the past, present and future are visible, in which new ideas are generated, in which the experience of living in complex material and planetary systems that decentre the human can be acknowledged.The chapter introduces the ways in which authors create meaningful and productive ruptions—disturbances or commotions—in practice and research thinking, in response to the anthropocentric challenges that we all, human and other-than-human, now face. It will draw the reader into diverse ruptive and provocative approaches that create spaces for emergent futures including the decolonial, new materialist and feminist. These operate creatively through a posthuman lens (e.g. Barad, Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Duke University Press, 2007; Burnard, The power of pluralising creativities: A posthumanist perspective. Brill-I-Sense Publishers, 2024, in production; Harris & Holman Jones, Qualitative Inquiry, 28(5), 522–530, 2022) and create an ethico-ontological stance for thinking and doing in relation to educational futures. The chapter culminates by describing the three core sections, Creating spaces for ruptions, Dialoguing and Resistings, which exemplify the key themes of the book and expand on their significance to educational futures. it is possible to begin to create educational spaces in which the surplus potential of the past, present and future are visible, in which new ideas are generated, in which the experience of living in complex material and planetary systems that decentre the human can be acknowledged.
Chen, C. C. (2024). Practice of leadership competencies by a principal: case study of a public experimental school in Taiwan. Asia Pacific Education Review, 25(1), 159–170. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-022-09813-1
Experimental education in Taiwan developed rapidly since the promulgation of the Three Acts Governing Experimental Education in 2014, after which public experimental schools were established in response to local educational needs. The majority of restructuring cases have involved small rural schools faced with high drop-out rates and staff retrenchment plus merger (SRM). Indigenous schools also initiated experimental education by introducing teaching modules on cultural responses to develop ethnic education that better reflects local culture. In metropolitan areas, experimental schools were established through restructuring for educational innovation or for coping with the pressure of competition from neighboring schools. The number of experimental schools and enrolled students has increased yearly, which reveals the expectations of parents about diversified education and their right to make educational choices. The school selected for this study is an elementary school in a metropolitan area that experienced an SRM crisis and was restructured as a public experimental school in 2019. The study examined the methods through which the principal transformed leadership competencies to leadership strategies. The school overcame the competition and SRM crises and even achieved full-capacity enrollment in Taipei city. Information was collected from the relevant literature and through interviews with the principal, a head of department, teachers, a parent, and an administrative official of the Bureau of Education. The study analyzed the leadership competencies and corresponding strategies of the principal and the future prospects of the school. The findings provided principals of experimental schools with a basis for sustained improvement in leadership competencies and recommendations for the future development of school affairs.
Christopher, A. M. (2025). From Silence to Canvas: The Role of Artivism in Transforming Gender and Sexuality Norms. Sexuality and Culture, 29(1), 97–121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-024-10256-6
This study delves into the uncharted scholarly intersection of art, LGBTQ + advocacy, and critical consciousness in India, to survey the current state of LGBTQ + artivism and explore how various artistic modalities operate their potential to transform gender and sexuality norms. It identifies LGBTQ + artivism as functioning primarily in two modes: the externalization of internal psychic states and the collective ingroup-outgroup engagement. The study observes that the transformative impacts of LGBTQ + artivism are often transient and rooted in affective responses; however, as possessing the potential to challenge normative ideologies and influence critical consciousness. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s framework, the study highlights that artivists function as ‘cultural intermediaries,’ employing various modalities that elicit different capacities for public involvement. Artworks that externalize internal psychic states, through mediums such as acrylic paintings and digital illustrations, are seen to facilitate the personal agency of LGBTQ + artists through the reimagination of the self amid societal discrimination of non-normativity. Additionally, collective and participatory artivism utilizes public platforms to foster dialogues that problematize the ‘us versus them’ dichotomy, both within and outside digital spaces. Through the lens of Bourdieu, the study also identifies digital LGBTQ + platforms as sites of ‘cultural consecration,’ offering inclusive alternatives to traditional gatekeeping in art production and dissemination.
Chui, D. L. T., & Chan, L. S. (2025). Boys’ Love as Conditional Resilience: How Gay and Bisexual Men from Hong Kong Consume Boys’ Love. Sexuality and Culture, 29(2), 988–1006. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-024-10309-w
Boys’ Love (BL) is a fictional genre that depicts homoerotic relationships between two men. As it is often regarded as created by women and for women, most BL-related studies have focused on its female participants. In recent decades, the BL subculture has transformed into a transnational cultural phenomenon. Although such popularity may suggest that more homoerotic media products are available to gay/bisexual men, the heteronormative nature of BL may drive away gay/bisexual audiences. This study investigates the experiences of consuming BL among gay/bisexual men in Hong Kong. The findings show that gay/bisexual audiences enjoy the aspects of BL that resonate with their personal experiences and fantasies. Through the process of queer reading, BL helps gay/bisexual audiences develop resilience to cope with the stresses that they encounter as sexual minorities in Hong Kong. However, due to the gap between what is depicted in BL and reality, such resilience is circumscribed, which means that BL only provides conditional resilience to its gay/bisexual audience in Hong Kong.
Çoğaltay, N., & Boz, A. (2023). Influence of school leadership on collective teacher efficacy: a cross-cultural meta-analysis. Asia Pacific Education Review, 24(3), 331–351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-022-09754-9
The existing literature provides compelling evidence on the effect of school leadership on the collective efficacy of teachers, which is highly correlated with teaching–learning outcomes. However, the results of studies that examined the relationship between these variables have not reached a consensus. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to determine the extent to which school leadership influences collective teacher efficacy through a meta-analysis. The study identified 47 research articles with a total of 25,645 respondents. The results suggest a large-level effect of school leadership behaviors on collective teacher efficacy. Moreover, three variables; leadership style, country culture, and school level, moderate the effect of school leadership on collective teacher efficacy. Especially, the impact of instructional leadership is stronger than those of transformational and other types of leadership. In addition, the magnitude impact of school leadership on collectivist culture is larger than that of individualistic culture. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the main effect size of school leadership on teacher collective efficacy in high schools is greater than those in other school levels. Lastly, the paper presents the implications and limitations of this study as well as recommendations for future research.
Cooper, G., & Tang, K. S. (2024). Pixels and Pedagogy: Examining Science Education Imagery by Generative Artificial Intelligence. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 33(4), 556–568. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-024-10104-0
The proliferation of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) means we are witnessing transformative change in education. While GenAI offers exciting possibilities for personalised learning and innovative teaching methodologies, its potential for reinforcing biases and perpetuating stereotypes poses ethical and pedagogical concerns. This article aims to critically examine the images produced by the integration of DALL-E 3 and ChatGPT, focusing on representations of science classrooms and educators. Applying a capital lens, we analyse how these images portray forms of culture (embodied, objectified and institutionalised) and explore if these depictions align with, or contest, stereotypical representations of science education. The science classroom imagery showcased a variety of settings, from what the GenAI described as vintage to contemporary. Our findings reveal the presence of stereotypical elements associated with science educators, including white-lab coats, goggles and beakers. While the images often align with stereotypical views, they also introduce elements of diversity. This article highlights the importance for ongoing vigilance about issues of equity, representation, bias and transparency in GenAI artefacts. This study contributes to broader discourses about the impact of GenAI in reinforcing or dismantling stereotypes associated with science education.
Coşkun, A. E., & Erturgut, R. (2025). Does institutionalization enhance logistics performance in international businesses? A moderated and mediated model. Operations Management Research, 18(3), 1045–1066. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-025-00542-3
The performance of interdependent international companies is required to be consistently high, leading to an increase in sectoral competition. Furthermore, they are endeavoring to establish an institutional structure in order to enhance their professional and distinctive commercial procedures while also maintaining their competitive advantages. This study aims to investigate the influence of institutionalization, which holds significant organizational and operational importance, on logistics performance, a key factor in gaining a competitive edge. Specifically, it investigates the moderating role of autonomy and the mediating role of logistics agility in this relationship, providing empirical insights through a model grounded in the Dynamic Capabilities View. By addressing the gap in literature where institutionalization and logistics performance have not been studied together, this research highlights how autonomy and agility can transform the effects of institutionalization on performance outcomes. The data collected through the questionnaire were empirically tested using path analysis in structural equation modeling. Data were collected from 390 employees by visiting 108 companies in Western Mediterranean region of Türkiye. The study concludes that formalization and cultural strength positively affect logistics performance, logistics agility positively partially mediates these interactions, and autonomy has a moderating effect on the effect of cultural strength on logistics performance. The findings provide a nuanced understanding of how formalization and cultural strength can synergistically enhance logistics performance, thereby offering actionable insights for practitioners. This study also emphasizes the critical importance of fostering a supportive culture that empowers employees through autonomy, which is essential for optimizing logistics operations in dynamic environments. It is expected that the results of the research will serve as a guide for organizations seeking to improve their logistics performance through institutionalization and will contribute to future studies by filling the gap in the literature.
Cropley, D. H., & Singh, C. (2023). Engineering Innovation: The Impact of Digital Transformation. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3860, 115–140. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28206-5_6
Engineering innovation concerns the development of both incrementally and radically new solutions to new problems arising from change. It is underpinned by an individual capacity for creativity. Over many hundreds of years, as our ability to respond to change with technological innovation has grown, so has the importance of the different dimensions of creativity, from a personal disposition to openness, to a capacity for deliberate creative ideation. As we move into the era of digital transformation, with new technologies increasingly able to replace humans in many tasks, it is soft skills—creativity in particular—that are growing in importance for engineering innovation. This chapter explores the driver of [engineering] innovation—change—and how this has increasingly redirected the work of engineers to problem solving. In parallel with this shift is the renewed emphasis on what skills and abilities are required to be a successful engineering innovator. There is now a growing recognition that engineers must be, first and foremost, equipped with a capability focus (CF) driven by creativity and other soft skills, complimented by traditional technology fluency (TF). This may be almost a reversal of the traditional focus on engineering development and is necessary to keep pace with the changes brought by digital transformation.
Dahlstedt, M., & Vesterberg, V. (2022). Politics of Makeover: Initiating Organisational Change and Positioning the Unemployed in a Swedish Reality TV Series. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 35(3), 391–409. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-021-09399-3
This article reports on a reality TV series, Sweden’s best employment service, broadcast on Swedish public service television in 2018. The purpose was to investigate ongoing political transformations in the Swedish welfare model. The series focuses not only on unemployment, the unemployed and their life situation but more specifically on the organisation of the Swedish Public Employment Service (PES) as reflected at a local PES office. Informed by a cultural studies approach to the politics of popular culture, the aim of this article is to examine how the makeover is staged in the series. The article focuses on how the unemployed are positioned in the series in a setting of organisational change initiated at the local PES office. The analysis provides insights into how the makeover is staged and initiated in reality TV and illustrates how the unemployed are positioned as willing and able to work and to actively seek opportunities. The unemployed are not the primary target for the makeover in the series. The makeover is primarily directed at the organisation of the PES and its managers. Consequently, unemployment is presented in the series as not only a concern for the individual citizen but also for society. Nine o’clock on channel sixGet the beer and get the chipsDeath is live upon the screenIt’s reality TV!Tankard, R.T.V., 1994
Damiani, J., & Ghazarian, P. (2023). At the borderlands of higher education in Japan and Korea: a duoethnography. Asia Pacific Education Review, 24(2), 251–264. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-022-09779-0
Internationalization in higher education can transform institutions by introducing individuals from new cultures that challenge and enrich administrative and academic life. This duoethnographic study highlights experiences of teaching, learning, and service work in the borderlands that exist between the global and local influences on higher education institutions in Japan and Korea. This project is rooted in the academic experiences of two scholars that emphasize the power of reflection as a tool for developing the work of emerging scholars working abroad at the undergraduate and graduate level in international settings with both local and foreign/international exchange students. More specifically, this research is designed to support international faculty with experiences and strategies that will help them acclimate and excel in their new foreign context. We advocate for a more localized, contextually relevant, and individualized approach to preparation for work abroad, and research that balances professors’ cultural identities, life stories, and experiences as sources of knowledge and development with the culture and practices of their host institutions.
Darakchi, S. (2023). “Coming Out To Yourself”: Reflections On Early-Years Sexual Identity Formation Among Different Generations of Bulgarian Non-Heterosexual Males. Sexuality and Culture, 27(3), 951–971. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-10049-9
During the past few years the so-called “anti-gender campaigns” in Bulgaria have revitalized the polemics surrounding the development of non-heterosexual identities claiming that these identities are “imported” by “Western” politics and discourses in order to “weaken” and transform national cultural and political models. Analyzing 63 semi-structured in-depth interviews with non-heterosexual males from different generations, this study aims to contribute to the theories of non-heterosexual identity development by providing data from Bulgarian context. The data from this study suggests that: (1) non-heterosexual male identities in Bulgaria have existed before the “global gay culture”; (2) the younger the participants the earlier they realize their non-heterosexual desires often within the “pre-sexuality stage” defined by the stage models and the youngest cohort self-label their same-sex attraction mainly through an “identity-centred” sequence, before engaging in sexual activities; (3) the greater awareness of role models, the wider access to information, and the involvement in the LGBTQI + communities have contributed to a more positive and self-respectful identity development; (4) physical contacts and observations as significant sources for the questioning of a non-heterosexual identity have been replaced by virtual observations and communication; (5) the Internet and social media have made non-heterosexual identity development more accessible regardless of social and economic background, and that (6) non-heterosexual identity development does not lead automatically to a culturally defined gay identity.
Domingues, J. M., & Teixeira, M. A. (2024). The Social and Sociological Province of Climate Change: Introduction. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 37(4), 447–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-024-09502-4
Despite its importance and prominence in public debates, including in many social science-related disciplines such as political science, anthropology, geography, and history, climate change has been unevenly addressed within critical sociology. In the tradition of critical theories, a critical sociology approach could contribute to climate science by discussing, for instance, what it means for societies and individuals to live together in times of ecological crisis and how this interplays with other crises and challenges of our time. As we face various transformations caused by climate change, sociology can inquire about social relations in the Anthropocene, including the critique of this concept and its alternatives, such as Capitalocene. This introductory article explores the intersection of sociology and the climate crisis, examining the sociological significance of the latter. It also discusses the importance for sociology, at both theoretical and empirical levels, to climate-related debates. It highlights the need for pluralistic approaches that can contribute to framing and addressing climate change, encompassing diagnosis, alternatives, science, and politics. The papers in this special issue seek to engage with and contribute to the abovementioned debate by covering theoretical and empirical perspectives on climate crisis, drawing attention to themes such as the relationship between critical theory and climate change, theories of modernity, the notion of (post)sustainability, just transitions, the role of media systems in fostering sustainable transformations, and the contribution of social movements to socioecological transformation, with a particular focus on the “Global South”.
Fairchild, K. (2023). Understanding Street Harassment as Gendered Violence: Past, Present, and Future. Sexuality and Culture, 27(3), 1140–1159. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-09998-y
Street harassment is a form of gendered violence that is a common experience for women around the world. This review article chronicles the early research on street harassment exploring terminology and definitions. It overviews research from North America that shows that street harassment exacts a heavy toll on women. When women share their experiences of street harassment, they are often dismissed or trivialized. A common argument is that street harassment is merely compliments, but such “compliments” unduly burden the recipient with a need to ignore or respond to such breaches in civil inattention. The research shows that street harassment increases anxiety and depression, self-objectification, and victim blaming. Finally, the review concludes with a discussion of transformative justice and why, in the era of #MeToo, it is imperative to continue research on street harassment with a focus on issues of intersectionality and social justice.
Feybesse, C., Forthmann, B., Neto, F., Holling, H., & Hatfield, E. (2025). Measuring Love Around the World: A Cross-Cultural Reliability Generalization. Sexuality and Culture, 29(2), 561–588. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-024-10287-z
We collected international studies that have used the Passionate Love Scale, the Love Attitudes Scale and the Triangular Love Scale in order to check the stability of reliability estimates of these measures across different cultures until mid-2017. We used cultural dimensions to verify if the different love components of these scales could have some cultural effects on their reliabilities. We were able to gather 79 studies from 33 countries representing 32,867 participants. We used a variance stabilizing transformation to compare Cronbach’s alphas estimations, bivariate correlation analysis for confounding and moderator analysis to check for the reliability across demographic information and various test-characteristics. The results indicated that the love dimensions tended to be reliable across studies and countries and were relatively free of cultural influences. Participants across the world tended to evaluate their romantic feelings with similar consistency and these measures should be reliable worldwide.
Flegar, Ž. (2023). Mediating Girl Power: A Cognitive Approach to Enola Holmes on Page and Screen. Children’s Literature in Education, 54(4), 585–600. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-022-09506-8
Children’s mystery and detective fiction has often reflected cultural and societal changes, introducing the concept of “girl power” as early as the first half of the twentieth century. This article compares the “girl sleuth” narrative in Nancy Springer’s The Case of the Missing Marquess (2006) and the “super-sleuth” schema in the film adaptation Enola Holmes (2020). Relying on cognitive criticism, the analysis focuses on the conceptual properties of mystery and detective narratives as well as the strategies of detection employed by the girl sleuth to distinguish between the synchronous/inclusive models of empowerment found in children’s mysteries and the transient/exclusive ones in super-sleuth action-adventure adaptations. As a modern retelling of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, the Enola Holmes story transforms the central schema in the great detective script by depicting the neo-Victorian girl sleuth’s transgression into the public sphere and the attainment of the feminine ideal of girl power. However, in popular media culture, the synchronous models of empowerment are often replaced by transient models, which are characterized by hyper-transgressions, the objectification of knowledge and cognition, and the affective engagement of viewers. Accordingly, the super-sleuth schema is the product of media discourses of empowerment and hyper-textual practices that often forgo the integration of body, mind and context found in mystery and detective stories. By embodying the contemporary treatment of knowledge and power as ephemerally shared commodities, the super-sleuth does not let the viewer into the game to the same degree as the girl sleuth does, providing a less empowering experience for its intended audience.
Furman, C. E. (2023). An Ethos of Wander Time: Staying with the Trouble to Make Sense During Crises. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 42(1), 17–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-022-09859-z
Amidst a steady clamor about “learning loss” during the pandemic, a minority of educators have cautioned we must, in the words of Donna Haraway, “stay with the trouble,” giving children space to grieve, explore, and make sense of a new reality. In this paper I interrogate what it means to stay with trouble and specifically call for what I refer to as wander time to stay with trouble in schools. With the phrase wander time, I reference the 40 years the Ancient Israelites spent wandering the desert after they left Egypt as slaves and before they founded a nation in Israel. Taking a phenomenological approach, I then illustrate the practical implications and the potential of wander time through a study of my then preschool-age son’s yearlong self-directed and adult supported multimedia exploration of Transformers (vehicles in popular culture that transform into robots with human-like personalities). I document how through this exploration, my son articulated fears, stayed with, and made sense of troubles. I close by analyzing the pedagogy of wander time to suggest practical implications for schools.
Gaitanidis, I., & Shao-Kobayashi, S. (2022). Polarized agents of internationalization: an autoethnography of migrant faculty at a Japanese University. Higher Education, 83(1), 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00582-7
In recent years, government policies that target the rapid internationalization of Japanese higher education have provided new career opportunities especially for scholars with experience of studying and teaching abroad. This autoethnographic paper draws on such “migrant” faculty’s engagement in formal curriculum development to illustrate their active negotiations within the micro-level processes of internationalization of a Japanese University. More specifically, the analysis focuses first on the enactment of agencies to negotiate diverse understandings of “culture” and “discipline” in the process of building a “Japanese Studies” curriculum. The paper then draws on those negotiations to show how those agencies were transformative; namely how they impacted on and challenged the framing and the practice of the official framework of “Japanese Studies” at University X. This study aims, therefore, to shed light on the ways individual migrant faculty members of diverse backgrounds, may constructively contribute to internationalization processes of higher education when such faculty’s active interactions are carefully looked at and sought for, beyond established and often imagined cultural, disciplinary, and institutional boundaries.
Garcez, A., Silva, R., & Franco, M. (2022). Digital transformation shaping structural pillars for academic entrepreneurship: A framework proposal and research agenda. Education and Information Technologies, 27(1), 1159–1182. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10638-5
Digital technology always accelerates change, altering organisations culturally, socially and technically. These modifications are known as “digital transformation” (DT). On a much greater scale than DT, the world was changed in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic, which re-organised society in the way of thinking, acting, producing, consuming and creating new business. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were no different, since these institutions had to make changes to the student–lecturer interaction; teaching–learning, where DT had a relevant role, above all in academic entrepreneurship. Therefore, this study aims to propose a framework showing the structural pillars of the link between digital transformation (DT) and academic entrepreneurship (AC) (DT-AC Framework). This framework identifies the new patterns, methods, skills and other discoveries in aspects such as management, information systems and culture sciences. The intention is not to analyse how the COVID-19 pandemic imposed global structural changes, but because of it, lecturers and students found their DT accelerated and intensified, and so it is necessary to investigate the pillars supporting academic entrepreneurship. The results show that DT was already emerging as a basic element of academic entrepreneurship before the pandemic, but the process has speeded up. This bibliometric study indicates the structural pillars that support entrepreneurship following the Covid19 pandemic, as created from DT in universities, providing an extensive systematic review that indicates the cause and effect of the academic entrepreneurship process.
Ghemmour, R. (2024). Reimagining Research Methods Curriculum in Education Otherwise: A Decolonial Turn. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3864, 223–243. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52973-3_10
This chapter seeks to explore decolonisation as a creative orientation to problematise the politics of knowledge hierarchies of university curriculum (research methods in the case of this chapter) in order to respond to issues of epistemic violence and exclusion, and create transformative and radical ideas about the future of education. The critical discussions are the result of my interactions with different educators and students within the UK and beyond, my lived experience as an Algerian Kabyle who immigrated to the UK, and my doctoral research. The latter sought to explore the lived experiences of EFL (English as a foreign language) master’s (MA) students in studying research methodology and writing their dissertations in education fields at an Algerian university. I begin to discuss my own education journey in both Algeria and the UK which was grounded in Eurocentrism. The chapter then defines the concept of decolonisation in the context of educational research, and what this proposed orientation may mean for the future of education. I further explain the significance of using decolonisation as a creative approach to address exclusion and inequality, and invite readers to think of what it may mean in terms of their practices, pedagogies and creating new possible realities of educational futures. I also conclude with offering some practical ideas for change to decolonise educational research methods curriculum in a higher education (HE) context.
Glăveanu, V. P. (2023a). Perspective. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3861, 163–172. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41907-2_15
What are the differences between how you perceive the world as an adult and how you perceived it as a child? To start with, there certainly is a difference in size. As a child, tables and chairs are the same height as you, bookshelves look enormously tall and you have to reach up for the doorknob. If you want to look out of the window, you probably need to climb on a chair or a pile of books. And, as you looked out of the window, the world appears bigger than you see it as an adult; cars, trees, people all miraculously grow, and the pet dogs you know as small become the size of tiny horses. Now, this change of physical size is not the only transformation taking place. Seeing the world through the eyes of a child, you will probably find many things you don’t understand (such as how cars work), things that scare you (the dark corners of your room at night), and things that bring you an immense joy unexpectedly (such as mother agreeing to get you some ice-cream after a walk in the park). Most of all, you are probably curious about all things around you—the things that you now, being an adult, stopped questioning. New words begin to sound funny and strange and the question ‘Why?’ is often on your lips (Glăveanu, 2020a). You find grown-ups ready to answer and explain things to you, but also those annoyed by your questions and those who end up ignoring you. You also have friends to play with and imagine, during the game, that every one of you is someone or something else. You can easily become an animal by walking on all-fours or a doctor by placing the stethoscope around your neck. How strange and exciting is that? Imagining, as a child, that you are an adult!
Glăveanu, V. P. (2023b). Things. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3861, 251–260. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41907-2_23
We are born into a world of things: Something that is undeniable. Things surround us, they give our life stability, accumulate over time but also change and diversify. Arguably, the most simple definition of creativity would be the process leading to the creation of new things, material and symbolic (including, nowadays, virtual; see Chap. 7). In most cases, creative processes leave a ‘visible’ mark in the world, they generate or change things around us, but they can also take the shape of utterances or processes (see also Chap. 9). A dance performance can be a creative outcome despite the fact we would not commonly call it a ‘thing’ (although its recording might be considered one); same for a piece of writing (see also Chap. 26). Nonetheless, by and large, creativity involves a kind of externalisation or materialisation (Moran & John-Steiner, 2003). Individuals and their culture are connected to each other through things, in the constant dynamic between internalisation and externalisation, appropriation and transformation of the material world. But, of course, other people stand ‘between’ person and things (Vygotsky, 1997), those who make the things we use, who introduce them to us, who teach us or guide our action. It is virtually impossible—or, in any case, reductionist—to consider the relation between individuals and their material surroundings without taking into account the crucial part played by other people and by society at large (Harris, 2023; Pickering, 2023). In other words, without understanding how things become, through (inter)action, objects and, ultimately, artefacts.
Grigoropoulos, I., Daoultzis, K. C., & Kordoutis, P. (2023). Identifying Context-Related Socio-Cultural Predictors of Negative Attitudes Toward Polyamory. Sexuality and Culture, 27(4), 1264–1287. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-023-10062-6
There is scarce research regarding attitudes toward polyamory in different socio-cultural contexts. This study examines the role of socio-cultural variance and the situatedness of particular variables (i.e., attitudes toward monogamy, religiosity, political orientation, attitudes toward polyamorists’ parental competence, and concern for polyamorous children’s welfare) in predicting negative attitudes towards polyamory. Two hundred and fifty participants were recruited for this study. A between-subject, correlational design was employed. The findings of this study only partially support the role of context-related socio-cultural and social-psychological factors in determining participants’ attitudes toward polyamory. This study contributes to the literature and research in this field by reporting the transformative potential of context-related socio-cultural and social-psychological factors that affect commonly shared attitudes toward polyamory.
Gugliemi, J., & Reddy-Best, K. (2023). BDSM Women’s Dress Consumption: Experiences, Meanings, and Intersectional Identities. Sexuality and Culture, 27(2), 608–635. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-10030-6
BDSM is a subcultural group wherein individuals participate in consensual sexual practices and utilize various garments and accessories to enact these sexual performances and desires. In our work, we asked: how do BDSM women practitioners experience the consumption of BDSM gear, and what influences their experiences during these processes? and how do their salient historically marginalized identities influence their consumption experiences? Additionally, we consider the concept of feminist consumption in these interpretations and implications and how the market may be contributing to the philosophy of self-empowerment through commodities. We conducted 19 in-depth semi-structured wardrobe interviews. We identified that BDSM gear consumption is entangled with accessibility, practicality, communities, and emotions. These women navigate formal and informal economies to enact their BDSM desires, lifestyle, and interests. They sometimes engage in politically transformative critical making processes to write their own narratives through dress about the ways their bodies can and should engage with their desired sexual fantasies and fetishes in BDSM spaces with BDSM gear. In many ways, these consumption practices reflect feminist consumerism as these women recognize agency over their body via consuming these dress objects; but the women also reformulate dress objects through DIY informal economies, which in some ways complicates the notion of self-love via commodity consumption. These findings reinforce the importance of the self, others, consumption, and production in identity formation.
Guzmán-Valenzuela, C. (2025). Navigating public goods: Chilean public universities and their transformative role in Latin America. Higher Education, 89(1), 147–165. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-024-01298-8
This paper explores the complex relationship between higher education and the concept of public goods in Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, with a particular focus on Chile. Through an extensive literature review, the study examines the evolving meanings of public, public/common/global goods in Spanish culture in the context of higher education, highlighting the region’s unique historical and socio-political challenges. Using an interpretive methodology, the research captures the perceptions of 55 academics from two public universities in Chile. The findings reveal a multifaceted view of the role of public universities, intertwined with notions of public goods and global public goods. Despite the challenges posed by privatisation and market forces, the unwavering commitment of these institutions to the production of public goods and to social responsibility and societal transformation stands out. The research highlights the role of universities as local problem solvers and global change agents. It concludes that while Chilean public universities face market dynamics, government policies and fiscal constraints, their commitment to societal development remains resolute.
Iglesias Urquízar, J. (2023). Chaperos, Rent Boys, and Sex Workers: Translating Attitudes Towards Male Sex Work in the Spanish Dubbing of the US TV Series Looking. Sexuality and Culture, 27(3), 823–842. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-10040-4
This article explores the Castilian Spanish dubbed version of the 2014 US gay-themed series Looking and its treatment of attitudes towards the male sex worker as a figure connected to the discursive construction of homosexuality. Based on the vision that translation represents an activity capable of calling into question predominant target culture meanings and drawing on appraisal theory, I focus on the lexico-grammatical choices made by the translation and dubbing team. These choices, I claim, transform some of the source text’s value orientations towards the male sex worker. More precisely, whereas the source text seems to mitigate a conventionally damaging portrayal of the male sex worker, the target text, in abusing of the slang and offensive chapero, reinstates those attributes towards the male sex worker which the source text seeks partly to reject. The use of chapero may thus reveal a salient stance in the target culture around unaccepted expressions of same-sex sexuality.
Jackson, B. S., Luria, S. R., & Kaufman, J. C. (2023). A Mirror to the World: Art, Creativity, and Racial Bias. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3860, 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28206-5_12
The fields of innovation, creativity, and aesthetics have long recognized that the arts are a mirror for society and culture for better or worse. Consistent cross-culturally, the better of the reflections is arts historical cataloging and celebration of people and societies; the worse is arts exposure of people’s aesthetic preference toward whiteness and the exclusion of ethnic representations in the creation of art. Thus, art is both a catalyst for cultural celebration and a product that reflects a culture’s internal values of bias and inequity. Here we explore how creativity, innovation, and art are influenced by culture, which in turn evolves through creative exploration in the form of art. We examine how art products are a litmus test of cultural value while they simultaneously advance local norms. The central idea presented in this chapter is that the worse of art’s reflection can be transformed into the better of its reflection, if used as a metric to examine the values and biases of societies. Art provides a modality by which people can actively engage in cultural value conversations and positively shift the arc of equity in both art representation and societal value systems.
Kang, H., & González-Howard, M. (2022). Beginning school–university partnerships for transformative social change in science education: Narratives from the field. Science Education, 106(5), 1178–1197. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21723
These narratives explore what it might entail to begin school–university partnerships towards the goal of transformative social changes through the voices of two women scholars of color. Using two school–university partnerships as focal cases, we unpack the complexity, tensions, and possibilities that arise through collaborations driven by the objective to promote new and more just forms of science learning within public schools. In this article, we use three key dimensions of participatory design research (namely, critical historicity, power, and relationality) as analytical lenses through which to reflect upon school–university partnerships that we are in the beginning stages of forming. Through this methodology, we shed light on: (a) the historical genealogies of equity-oriented work and (b) the tensions that we encountered as we strived for beginning partnerships with K-12 schools. These narratives unveil the dynamic and contentious nature of forming school–university partnerships that always occurs within a sociopolitical landscape impacted by intersecting and powered identity markers, including those around race, gender, language, culture, and status. We provide specific recommendations for supporting education researchers who aspire to transform the learning of sciences at schools through a collaborative and sustainable partnership. These recommendations include ideas around how to collectively generate goals with schools centered on transformative science learning; attention to the role of language and race in shaping partnership role-remediation; and creating infrastructure for developing school–university partnerships toward transformative social changes, including financial, human and relational resources, as well as new forms of recognition systems.
Kato, M., & Kobakhidze, M. N. (2024). Transnational juku: Japanese shadow education institutions in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. Asia Pacific Education Review, 25(4), 1083–1093. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-024-09946-5
Japan has a longstanding history of shadow education, which has evolved, transformed, and extended beyond its borders. Japanese shadow education institutions, known as juku, have expanded worldwide, including in Asia, the US, and Europe, offering offline and online tutoring services mainly for Japanese expatriates. This study examines the role and features of juku, specifically in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. It identifies 20 different juku, analyzes their types, and explains a different type of juku, the “Japanese cultural supplementary school,” that caters to expatriate parents aiming to nurture Japanese culture and traditions in their children. Although the Japanese juku phenomenon has previously attracted the attention of scholars, there is a gap in the literature when it comes to transnational juku and its operation outside Japan. This paper contributes to informing scholars, policymakers, and the public on the transnational movement of shadow education as a global phenomenon.
Kaur, M., Singh, M., & Saini, M. (2024). Analyzing the relation among different factors leading to Ph.D. dropout using numerical association rule mining. Education and Information Technologies, 29(1), 375–399. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-12260-z
Ph.D. dropout is a persistent and challenging issue in higher education, with significant implications for individual students, academic institutions, and the broader society. This research paper aims to explore the factors contributing to Ph.D. students’ decision to dropout and their interrelationships. For this purpose, we employed the hybrid topic modeling Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers – Latent Dirichlet Allocation (BERT-LDA) algorithm and Numerical Association Rule Mining (NARM) using a genetic algorithm in QuantMiner. We identified and analyzed individual, institutional, and social factors that affect Ph.D. students in leaving their current degrees. The results suggest that financial constraints, inadequate academic preparation, poor mentoring, social isolation, lack of social support, family responsibilities, and work-life balance are significant elements responsible for dropout. These findings also reveal that these factors are interrelated, and their effects can be mitigated by the academic institution’s policies and culture. The outcomes of the study have implications for academic institutions, policymakers, and researchers, who can use them to develop evidence-based strategies and interventions that enhance Ph.D. students’ retention and success.
Krabbe-Juelsbo, T. (2023). Rules. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3861, 207–218. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41907-2_19
In this chapter, I delve into the concept of rules and their role in fostering the creative process. Often perceived as restrictive elements that can stifle creative impulses, rules, whether self-imposed or externally dictated, can paradoxically serve as a platform upon which the creative process thrives. This phenomenon transforms perceived limitations into newfound opportunities. **Indeed, the crux of my argument is that rules are not anathema to creativity but rather, are integral components that can bolster it. The absence of a structure or framework within which to channel creative energies could lead to an absence of creativity itself; rules are therefore instrumental in defining these creative boundaries.
Kuzmina-Merlino, I. (2024). Managers’ readiness toward digital business transformation: the role of the universities. Entrepreneurship Education, 7(2), 173–185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41959-024-00116-7
Digital transformation refers to an organization’s or company’s shift to digital management techniques, which alter organizational behavior and corporate culture and need the introduction of new digital management tools. By the opinion of the author, the gap between present management education that based on the traditional schemes of organizations, cultures are constrained in vertical silos, and the needs of the new digital ecosystems, mainly horizontal, clients’ needs-driven, internationally, and interculturally integrated, is growing and should be rapidly changed. Digital transformation is changing the way how organizations interact with customers, suppliers, and partners. The article presents the author’s viewpoint on the interpretation and analysis of the approaches used in the field of business management education. Preparation of a new generation of leaders requires restructuring of business management education, considering the growing importance of information technologies and implementation of integrated and multidisciplinary approaches to management education and training programs. In this context, the author proposes a conceptual approach to the designing of a university curriculum in the field of business management education and training, which is aimed at meeting the needs of modern managers in knowledge and competencies toward the process of digital transformation.
Lahsen, M. (2024). Media Reform as Transformation Tool: A Hegemonic Gap in Environmental Research and Policy. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 37(4), 543–567. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-024-09473-6
Sustainability researchers are writing much about levers for transformations towards sustainability but too little about the most powerful means available for obstructing and activating them: mass-reaching media systems. How media systems are structured and governed form a profoundly important meta-level layer of decision-making that ought to be central in the study of environmental politics and in environmental policymaking. A politics- and media-focused account of the rise of Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency of Brazil illustrates the essential role of media systems and the need for new principles, structures, and policies for their governance if the interlinked goals of democracy, equity, and environmental protection are to be achieved. The pervasive inattention to this in environmental research reinforces hegemonic forces and needs to be widely discussed, understood, and overcome to achieve much needed just transformations towards sustainability.
Liyanage, I., & Walker, T. (2023). English teachers’ identity-agency and curriculum reform policies in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 22(3), 427–441. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10671-023-09343-6
Teachers receive increasing attention as change agents within education reform policy discourses positioning their professionalism, identity, and agency as critical to implementation of reforms. However, identities either claimed by teachers or assigned by reform policies involve serious (re)negotiations on the part of teachers as they make practicality judgements in contexts changed by reforms. Using a temporal perspective of language teacher agency and dialogic conceptions of teacher identity, we explore a group of English teachers’ (re)negotiation of claimed and assigned identities in attempts to transform traditional educational culture through implementation of the New English Syllabus of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The agency of teachers was clear in unfolding dialogic negotiation of tensions between a reform-driven identity of the effective English teacher, identities assigned by other interested groups and the community, teachers’ individual claimed identities, and the possibilities of projected imagined identities. We conclude that when curriculum reform policies disrupt cultural and structural settings of the work of English teachers, temporal dimensions of dialogic (re)negotiation of professional identities play a pivotal role in reform enactment, and that policy makers must acknowledge and respond to these processes of (re)negotiation of teachers’ professional identities.
Machin, A., & Ruser, A. (2023). Introduction: Sustainability, Democracy and the Dark Sides of Civil Society. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 36(3), 297–309. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-023-09445-2
Despite widespread acknowledgement of the value of sustainability, the transition towards more sustainable economies and societies remains a challenge around the world. Civil societies play an important role not only in supporting government efforts on sustainability by ‘filling gaps’ and raising social awareness, but also in pioneering new practices and disrupting particular governmental or corporate strategies, as well as engaging and empowering previously marginalised individuals and groups. Yet civil society is not always a champion of sustainability nor of democracy; these actors may of course also destabilise innovations, depoliticise sustainability issues by reifying certain concepts or approaches and reinforce social hierarchies and patterns of exclusion that can undermine any transformative potential and bolster the unsustainable status quo. This Special Issue is therefore dedicated to interrogating what we see as the ambiguous, yet critical, role played by civil societies in sustainability politics. This introductory paper intends not only to draw attention to some of the arguments, theories and challenges found in each of the individual papers collected here, but also to pull on the common threads that run through them, as well as to unpick some of the different uses of the key terminology that they employ. We aim, moreover, to highlight the inevitable tension between the ‘democratic side’ and the ‘dark side’ of civil society and its politics of sustainability.
Mangion, M. (2024). Creativity as a Skill for Lifelong Learning and How to Nurture it in the Workplace. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3957, 301–329. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-73393-2_12
In past research, a considerable effort was devoted to exploring the links between creativity and education within settings where younger students were concerned. From a lifelong learning perspective, there appears to be scope for exploration in the realm of adult education, more specifically by focusing on workplace learning. This chapter explores how situated learning in the workplace could provide areas where instances of creative education may be approached to create lifelong learning opportunities in these settings. Specifically, this will be considered by looking at workplace learning from a sociocultural perspective where actors, affordances, and audiences interact to transform artifacts through changing actions. The chapter will also delve into aspects of connected learning where the interactions between interests, relationships, and opportunities will be explored in the light of a typology of factors that may influence how situated learning is transferred to the workplace. The chapter goes on to explore how opportunities for deep learning may be created by actively seeking to transfer learning that is created in-situ. Through deep learning, opportunities for a creative and dynamic workplace may be created. The chapter concludes by considering a few ways in which these hubs of creative activity could be grown and nurtured.
Marshall, S. L., & Salter, A. O. (2022). Moving beyond the boilerplate: Reflections on equity-centered reviewing for granting organizations. Science Education, 106(5), 1264–1282. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21718
This essay centers on the voices of leading scholars in science and STEM education on how equity can and should be centered in reviewing proposals for granting organizations. As the decisions made as a result of the reviewing process significantly impact the future directions of the field, we recognize the urgency in considering how equity is considered in this process. Through their experiences, four researchers offer the science and STEM community a call to action. The scholars interviewed highlighted that equitable reviewing and funding research and professional development will require changes within the science education and STEM funding ecosystem. Three overarching themes include (1) changing the ideologies and culture of science and STEM education research funding will require centering the needs of the communities being served; (2) institutions and granting organizations should adopt equity-focused and holistic rubrics and models; and 3) we each have an individual responsibility to employ equity during the review process. Thus, this essay has the potential to both inspire and provide explicit examples of how we can all center equity as we strive to transform the future of science and STEM education.
Marzocchi, A. S., & Soto, R. C. (2023). From the Front lines of active learning: Lessons learned from those who are trying. International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, 9(2), 524–555. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40753-022-00176-x
Active learning is becoming more widely accepted in mathematics as a superior teaching method for student learning and, as a result, faculty are increasingly convinced of the benefits. Our study was designed to close a research gap by determining how to support mathematics faculty in transforming their instruction to active learning. We investigated actual challenges of faculty during the transition to more active pedagogy, then researched and tested solutions to reported challenges. To do so, we executed a participant observation study of six diverse faculty members from a mathematics department and followed typological analysis techniques of focus group and interview transcripts. Participants’ challenges include overcoming a dominant culture of teaching through lecture in the mathematics community, combatting a tendency to default to lecture, and acquiring specific skills and confidence to implement active learning. We suggest that specific characteristics of a robust department-wide professional development program could provide solutions to many challenges faced by faculty. This paper reports on the challenges for faculty, alongside proposed solutions through purposefully defined faculty professional development.
Mokwena, S., & Otieno, M. (2025). Barriers to Support-Seeking Among African Male Survivors of Sexual Trauma. Sexuality and Culture, 29(4), 1953–1970. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-025-10357-w
The experiences of African male survivors of sexual trauma reveal significant cultural, societal, and systemic barriers to disclosure and healing. Transcripts from online mental health support groups facilitated in Zimbabwe through the SIDINL Newsletters expose challenges faced by participants, young men aged 20 to 30. Survivors detailed the impact of societal pressures, including some rigid masculinity norms and stigma, alongside isolation and limited access to tailored resources. Key themes emerged through qualitative thematic analysis, such as reluctance to define experiences as sexual violence due to cultural stigmas, fears of emasculation, and systemic neglect. Despite these obstacles, some culturally sensitive, trauma-informed support systems showed transformative potential. Online groups offered safe spaces for survivors to share their stories and validate emotions, with useful cross-cultural exchanges between local and international psychotherapists enriching the recovery process. Addressing these challenges requires policies that ensure anonymity, improve accessibility, and incorporate culturally informed approaches. Recommendations include targeted education to challenge stereotypes, trauma-informed professional training, and inclusive frameworks to address the unique needs of male survivors of sexual violence in Africa.
Monforte, P., & Maestri, G. (2023). Between Charity and Protest. The Politicisation of Refugee Support Volunteers. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 36(1), 119–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-022-09419-w
This article examines how refugee support volunteers based in Britain and in France negotiate the boundaries between charity (or humanitarian) action and social activism since the 2015 ‘refugee crisis’. Scholarly literature has often separated charity and humanitarian action from social activism, as the former is seen as lacking the goal of social and political change that characterises the latter. The set of 147 in-depth interviews we conducted in different British and French refugee support charities and networks reveals the complex relationship between charity and protest. Through the focus on the moral dilemmas that participants encounter throughout their experience in the field, this article aims to highlight the ambivalences of their engagement as well as its transformative potential. Our analysis shows how participants develop new cognitive frames, emotions and interpersonal relations that transform their engagement and lead them to link charity/humanitarian action with broader objectives of social and political change. More generally, our analysis highlights the processes through which participants construct political narratives that aim to challenge state-driven policies and discourses of “migration management”. This article aims to contribute to the reflection about the informal character of the forms of participation analysed in this special issue, through the focus on the moral dilemmas and the “quiet” and “unexceptional” politics of volunteering.
Montali, L., Frigerio, A., Spina, F., & Zulato, E. (2023). The Discursive Construction of Polyamory: Legitimising an Alternative to Monogamy. Sexuality and Culture, 27(3), 894–915. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-10044-0
Polyamory is an umbrella term denoting the practice of having multiple romantic and intimate relationships with the consent of everyone involved. Within a mononormative culture, becoming polyamorous may be associated with uncertainty and a feeling of being suspended. Moreover, the preferential attitude towards monogamy marginalises polyamory as indecent and corrupt, creating feelings of shame and social isolation. Our research explored the discursive construction of polyamory in Italy by identifying the strategies used to deal with such identity construction and social recognition issues. We conducted 15 semistructured interviews with people who defined themselves as polyamorous. Our discourse analysis identified a narrative that overturns the dominant hegemonic perspective; this narrative presented monogamy as a practice generating difficulties and problems and polyamory as a thoroughly satisfying and adequate relational modality. This narrative was constructed using six discursive strategies, allowing participants to achieve three discursive purposes. By naturalising polyamory and constructing it as a stable trait, participants essentialised polyamory; by providing a normative definition of polyamory and identifying with the polyamorous community, they set up the boundaries of polyamory; finally, by moralising polyamory and attributing transformative power to it, they valorised polyamory. Overall, the definition of a polyamorous order allows for the integration of polyamory into one’s life, even if polyamorists remain a minority group trapped in the public liminality brought about by a mononormative culture.
Müller, J., Dreyer, A., Archer, E., & Couper, I. (2025). Exploring poems of intersectionality in the disorientation of interprofessional learning. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 30(5), 1599–1620. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-025-10428-5
Exploring students’ interprofessional education experiences highlights the occurrence of hierarchy as a barrier to collaborative practice. Individuals are however influenced by the multiple social identities of themselves and others and not just professional hierarchy. Intersectionality offers a useful lens through which to understand the complex influences of students’ learning experiences. Using poetic inquiry, this paper explores the influence of intersectionality on health professional students’ interprofessional learning experiences on two rural training platforms in South Africa. Sixteen individual interviews with final-year undergraduate students from five different healthcare professions were conducted in 2022. An inductive narrative analysis of the data was undertaken and represented using ‘found poems’. Reflexive analysis of the data presented in poems was conducted with student participants, co-authors, and an independent qualitative researcher. Themes related to the intersection of language and ethnicity, religion and profession, culture and profession as well as professional discipline and being a student were extracted from the data. Participants demonstrated disorienting learning experiences in both the clinical and social context. Using intersectionality as a lens, we have gained insight into the sometimes-disorienting influence of students’ intersecting social identities during interprofessional learning on two rural training platforms. A nuanced understanding of how multiple social identities intersect to influence experiences could help educators mitigate student and educator biases and understand structural power dynamics in training environments. Transformative learning may be a way to introduce intersectionality into both interprofessional education and health professions education in general.
Nag Chowdhuri, M. (2022). Exploring modes of engagement within reform-oriented primary mathematics textbooks in India. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 110(2), 331–351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-021-10135-z
In India, a curriculum reform inspired by critical perspectives has sought to transform primary mathematics teaching and learning. It is aimed at strengthening socio-cultural-political connections between school mathematics and students’ life experiences, thereby challenging traditional textbook culture. At the same time, this initiative has retained the textbook as a vehicle of reform while seeking to subvert many of its established conventions. Guided by Remillard’s idea of modes of engagement, this paper analyses the innovative Math-Magic textbooks associated with the Indian National Curriculum Framework. It investigates how these textbooks represent and communicate the framework ideas, focusing on key curricular elements and on the teacher as reader. Analysing the ‘voice’ and ‘structure’ of the textbooks as well as the ‘contexts’ used, it is revealed that they use a radically unique voice to introduce school mathematics while also attempting to use authentic and socially relevant contexts within their tasks. However, they have limited structural support to communicate these ideas clearly to the teacher-reader. The paper has implications for studying reformed textbooks in primary school mathematics in the Global South, where they remain the main teaching resource for teachers. Further, by focusing on ‘context’, the notion of modes of engagement within textbooks is extended through socio-cultural perspectives.
Nauffal, D., & Nader, J. (2022). Organizational cultures of higher education institutions operating amid turbulence and an unstable environment: the Lebanese case. Higher Education, 84(2), 343–371. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00771-y
This paper seeks to categorize and analyze the organizational culture and organizational culture components – leadership style, decision-making modes, standards of performance, evaluation strategies, perception of students, organizational unit, goal definition, and source of authority – in a predominantly private higher education sector. By examining the perceptions of faculty and senior academic administrators of the organizational culture of their respective universities, using a model that identifies cultures by dimensions of policy definition and operational control to produce the quadrants of collegium, bureaucracy, corporation, and enterprise, it provides insights on what organizational culture characteristics result in an effective institution able to respond to the ever-changing demands of the higher education landscape. It also seeks to explore whether the historical period of establishment of the institution influences its organizational culture and the features it comprises. Findings suggested that multiple organizational cultures co-exist at a time while some are predominant. The corporate culture was mostly prevailing within all universities established at any time period. It was permanently overlaid on bureaucracy so that many institutions operated in highly regulated environments with a mixture of both modes of governance. Emerging universities were found to be more entrepreneurial as per the loose-tight coupling defined in the model and the perceptions of participants. Despite the wealth of organizational culture literature on the benefits of less control-oriented cultures, private universities in Lebanon have not transformed significantly. Rather, they tend to adhere more to organizational cultures that emphasize stability amid turbulence, thus acting as a kind of security blanket or risk mitigate.
Navarro-Mantas, L., & Sáez-Lumbreras, A. (2025). Sexuality Construction, Pornography, and Gender Violence: A Qualitative Study with Spanish Adolescents. Sexuality and Culture, 29(3), 1339–1387. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-025-10326-3
Sexuality is a central aspect of human beings, and adolescence is a crucial period of transition from childhood to adulthood where sexual awakening occurs. As a critical aspect of life, adolescents should have quality sexual education to guide them through this transition. However, currently, educational institutions often lack structured and standardized sexual education programs that go beyond medicalized models focused on sexual and reproductive health and contraceptive use. A qualitative design using in-depth interviews with an ethnographic perspective to obtain detailed information considering the context. The Venegas model on sexual-affective education was referenced. This model identifies four significant areas: gender, sexuality, love/affection, and body. A qualitative design based on in-depth interviews was chosen to obtain detailed information about the issues mentioned. Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with adolescents aged 13 to 20 in two groups: students of compulsory secondary education and vocational training. Results showed boys tend to prioritize physical aspects of sexuality, such as masturbation and intercourse, whereas girls tend to focus more on emotional connections and concern about contraception. Pornography, patriarchal cultural patterns, sexism, and traditional gender roles shaped these initial experiences. Meanings and practices were revealed to be conditioned by a sexist model of attraction, body dissatisfaction, and learning through pornography, which was related to experiences of normalized control and sexual violence in relationships. Some positive advancements resulting from feminist achievements were also discovered, such as understanding the value of consent, empathy, and the appreciation of alternative models of masculinity by some girls. These results highlight the importance of developing sexual education programs from a psychosocial and feminist perspective. Such programs should aim to transform cultural norms and attitudes surrounding sexuality, promoting agency and healthier and more equitable relationships among adolescents.
Ndasi, D. M., Adusei-Asante, K., Van Ha, A. V., Grobbelaar, M., & Nunfam, V. F. (2025). Evaluation of the Sources of Sexual Knowledge and Information among Men in Kenya. Sexuality and Culture, 29(1), 210–231. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-024-10279-z
Sources of sexual knowledge and information among men have impact on quality of their sexual literacy and decision making. Sexual knowledge impacts on sexual attitudes, which underpin sexual behaviours and in turn impacts the sexual health outcomes of men. A cross-sectional quantitative survey was used to assess the sources of sexual knowledge and information among 484 Kenyan adult men aged 18–54. Data analysis was performed with STATA-16. Results showed that 79% of men learned about sex from school-based sex education, 75% and 72% from peers and mass media respectively while healthcare professionals (35%) and parents (28%) had the lowest influence on sexual knowledge and information. Understanding men’s sources of sexual knowledge and information that informs their sexual decision making can influence sexuality education planning and sexological practice policies targeted to out of school youths and older men. Hence, appraising formal peer educator’s knowledge could provide transformative sexual and reproductive health support services to men.
Nogueira, V. B., Teixeira, D. G., de Lima, I. A. C. N., Moreira, M. V. C., de Oliveira, B. S. C., Pedrosa, I. M. B., de Queiroz, J. W., & Jeronimo, S. M. B. (2022). Towards an inclusive digital literacy: An experimental intervention study in a rural area of Brazil. Education and Information Technologies, 27(2), 2807–2834. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10711-z
About half of the world’s population remains without access to internet in an era of digital transformation. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of implementing the use of logic and mathematics through digital literacy on a population of elementary school students in a town in Northeast Brazil. In a non-randomized experimental longitudinal intervention study, 5th-grade students were followed during one semester. They underwent observational testing during class with the use of scales to evaluate their activities in a digital environment, and they were evaluated with respect to their ability to use digital devices. A logic/math assessment was applied prior to and at the end of the course for intervention group and compared to a control group. Questionnaires were used to assess the educators’, legal guardians’ and students’ perceptions on digital habits and their respective sociodemographic features. The intervention consisted of a 16-h long course developed consisting of 8 2-h long classes which focused on digital technology, digital culture, and computational thinking. The students had a strong interest in the classes. Although some students did not have prior contact with computers, their development was outstanding. Digital literacy competencies and technology-use behavior increased throughout the semester independent of family income and use of digital devices at home. Students progressively improved their interaction with the computer (e.g. touchpad and typing skills) and their confidence in the digital environment. Students’ scores on the logic/math assessment showed significant improvement. This was not observed in the control group, demonstrating the importance of this type of intervention even with one provided by a 16-h course.
Pu, R., Dong, R. K., & Jiang, S. (2025). Toward the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): Digital leadership and knowledge-sharing behavior on the higher education institutional change. Education and Information Technologies, 30(8), 10567–10589. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-13247-0
This study explores the interplay between digital leadership, knowledge-sharing behavior, and institutional change in higher education institutions (HEIs) through the lens of the Institutional Theory of Leadership, with a focus on advancing higher education for sustainable development (ESD). We develop theoretical arguments and provide empirical evidence of the mediating effect of knowledge-sharing behavior among employees in the relationship between leaders’ digital leadership and institutional change within Chinese HEIs aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using a quantitative survey method, we collected data from 607 valid respondents affiliated with Chinese HEIs. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed for data analysis. The findings highlight the critical role of digital leadership in fostering institutional change, not only as a form of career capital for educational professionals but also as a catalyst for promoting innovative digitization practices among students and faculty through enhanced knowledge-sharing behavior. Specifically, the study confirms that digital leadership is positively associated with institutional change, with knowledge-sharing behavior serving as a mediator in this relationship. Additionally, the findings imply that digital leaders should actively advocate for higher education reforms and cultivate a culture of knowledge sharing. By doing so, HEIs can better adapt to the challenges posed by digital transformation and prepare educational leaders for the evolving demands of the future.
Purković, D., Kovačević, S., & Luttenberger, L. R. (2023). Attitudes of Croatian Pupils on the relationship of Environmental Issues and Sustainable Development with Technology and Engineering. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 33(4), 1285–1307. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-022-09779-6
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is becoming an important part of general education, based on a concept that includes three components: Environmental, Social and Economic. The sustainable development curriculum in Croatia is based on this concept, and activities in this area are mainly limited to environmental protection and ecological activities. At the same time, the technological and political context needed to take the right action and develop critical thinking and a systemic approach is lacking. In this context, a survey on pupils’ attitudes towards the relationship between technology and engineering with the themes of ecology and sustainable development was conducted to investigate the impact of this curriculum on students’ awareness. The research was conducted on a stratified sample of primary school pupils (N = 2205) from Croatia. The results show that pupils view technology as important for life and progress, but do not understand how it relates to sustainable development and environmental issues. This refers to issues of water conservation, construction of facilities, waste disposal, and understanding technology only as pollution. These results point to the need for “deeper” and transformative technology teaching that takes place in a real-world context. Only in this way can students understand the concept and meaning of sustainable development and the role and importance of technology in this context, and be educated to be responsible citizens.
Qimei, Z. (2022). Cultural Authenticity Within Adaptation: Two Gesar Themed Children’s Books. Children’s Literature in Education, 53(4), 411–424. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-022-09487-8
Gesar (ge sar) is a warrior-like king in the realm of Ling (gling) and the protagonist of a voluminous folkloric poem that many Tibetan bards have performed for centuries. With Gesar’s increasing fame in modern times, the orature has become a quintessential representation of Tibetan culture. This paper compares two children’s books that draw on the Gesar tradition, Tibetan Heroic Epic: Gesar Children’s Literature Collection (gling ge sar sgrung gi byis pa’i rtsom rig dpe tshogs) and Gesar Epic: Hor-Ling Battle (ge sar rgyal po’i sgrung hor gling gyul ‘gyed). The two books approach the relationship between adaptation and authenticity differently, with Tibetan Heroic Epic adhering to textual renditions of the orature, while Gesar Epic significantly transforms the ancient tradition. The latter is more accessible for children. As much as the editors of Tibetan Heroic Epic aspire to present an authentic Tibetan tradition to children, their method of literal transcription is unappealing and unsuccessful. The problem of Tibetan Heroic Epic mainly lies in a flawed understanding of cultural authenticity. Culture, when alive and thriving, is mobile and fluid. Hence, the authenticity of culture is not about keeping a tradition unchanged from the past to the future. With Gesar’s adaptation in children’s literature as an example, the author argues that cultural authenticity is not an imagined reservoir of immutability. Instead, authenticity is generated from changes made by people who know and own that particular culture.
Ramanathan, G., Carter, D., & Wenner, J. (2022). A Framework for Scientific Inquiry in Preschool. Early Childhood Education Journal, 50(7), 1263–1277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01259-1
Preschool children have the capacity to engage in scientific practices and inquiry and develop understanding at a conceptual level. While engaging in inquiry with preschool students, teachers transition from being transmitters of knowledge to facilitators in the educational process as students take on an active role in this learner-centered approach. Although studies have explored how preschool students can engage in inquiry-based science, there is a dearth of research on what teachers need to do to ensure their students are engaging in meaningful, inquiry-based science. Considering the nature of preschool students’ play—curious exploration throughout the day—this study sought to review the literature on preschool scientific inquiry and report on significant themes. The purpose of this paper is to develop a research-based framework for inquiry-based science exploration in preschool settings that cuts across specific interventions, science concepts, or activities to provide teachers with strategies to build and sustain a culture of inquiry that permeates all aspects of their preschool program. To create this framework, 15 studies were analyzed, and five major themes were uncovered regarding how teachers engaged students in inquiry. With students’ curiosity, wonderings, and interests as an essential starting point, the framework outlines these five themes as teacher strategies to support scientific inquiry in preschool. These strategies, rather than implemented in isolation, blend together to assist teachers in transforming play and teacher-initiated or child-initiated activities into rigorous learning and support the creation of a culture of inquiry that is part of their classroom environment.
Rawlings, V. (2024). ‘I want to make a difference’: Students co-researching school cultures of gender and sexuality. Australian Educational Researcher, 51(3), 869–888. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00701-8
Research on violence in schools has been dominated by ‘bullying’ discourse and methodologies that place individualised pathos at the centre of problematic behaviours. This focus has resulted in the neglect of broader structures of power such as gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and class in the violence enacted and encountered by young people. As a result, institutional solutions to school violence have often failed to acknowledge and respond to the ways that gender and sexuality might operate in the lives of young people, instead offering simplistic strategies to reduce ubiquitous forms of ‘bullying’. Simultaneously, political discourses and research challenges further prohibit young people from contributing to targeted and critical interventions into the socio-cultural practices of gender- and sexuality-making in schools. As outsiders to these nuanced, complex, and dynamic spaces, university-based researchers often lack vocabulary and literacy, especially in relation to always-shifting meanings around gender and sexuality. In this paper, I argue for the need to actively include young people in research praxis to co-investigate school cultures of gender and sexuality using a Community-Led Research (CLR) approach. Reporting on work with ten student co-researchers that formed two groups in two schools in Australia, the paper details some of the ways that they impacted and benefitted the early phases of a three-year project, including through impacting methods, participant engagement, data analysis and the implementation of new strategies to improve school cultures of gender and sexuality. This article also illustrates some of the challenges and opportunities that CLR methodologies produce when working in less structured settings, including ethical and social challenges that emerge in iterative research praxis. Findings argue for the rights of young people to exert their hopes for their school cultures that relate to gender and sexuality, particularly through research-based empowerment. While often slower and more difficult, co-researching with young people can produce opportunities for transformation and change not only of research processes, but also of researchers and their communities.
Reinius, H., Hakkarainen, K., Juuti, K., & Korhonen, T. (2024). Teachers’ perceived opportunity to contribute to school culture transformation. Journal of Educational Change, 25(2), 369–391. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-023-09496-4
Teachers’ active role in school development has been recognized as important in school culture transformation. Leadership practices, such as distributed leadership and organizational support, aim to engage teachers and foster their participation and contribution opportunities. However, studies have shown that teachers’ earlier experiences and beliefs shape their participation activities. To facilitate school culture transformation and the development of pedagogical practices, it is important to understand how teachers position themselves as school developers. This interview study aims to explore what kinds of views teachers express regarding school development work and teacher collaboration, along with how these views influence their perceived opportunity to contribute to school culture transformation. Altogether, 35 teachers from three schools in Helsinki, Finland, were interviewed. The analysis revealed five teacher profiles and, thus, five different ways of approaching school culture transformation: (1) Visioner, (2) Responsibility Bearer, (3) Participating Observer, (4) Traditionalist, and (5) Stressed Withdrawer. Teachers’ orientation to school development work and received organizational support influenced teachers’ perceived contribution opportunities. Furthermore, the identified profiles experienced the needed organizational support for school development work differently; for some, it was mainly common time for collaboration, while for others, it meant reorganized structures. The results indicate that diverse support is needed to engage the whole teacher community in school culture transformation and that school leaders need to pay attention to how the distributed leadership model benefits all teachers, not just the visionary ones.
Rodney, T. K., & Lee-Johnson, Y. L. (2024). Pushing the Boundaries of White Colonial Epistemologies to Create Transformative Learning Experiences. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3957, 331–346. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-73393-2_13
We are yet again at a historical crossroads in how we understand and discuss race and conversations about the world’s colonial past. As the racist structures that exist in our society, and by extension the world, become more apparent having survived the eras and agency of the past, it is obvious that race and diverse representation are still issues that impact individuals and communities. In our ever-diverse world, race cannot be ignored. The field of creativity and creative education is no exception. As researchers and scholars, we seek to interrogate the power and role of epistemology in framing organizations, movements, and, ultimately, creative education and offer solutions of inclusion that will challenge the white epistemologies that link from our colonial past. In challenging these white epistemologies, we seek truly transformative learning experiences for all learners, including those creative learners who are nonwhite.
Romero, M., Frosig, T., Taylor-Beswick, A. M. L., Laru, J., Bernasco, B., Urmeneta, A., Strutynska, O., & Girard, M. A. (2024). Manifesto in Defence of Human-Centred Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3866, 157–178. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55272-4_12
This manifesto advocates for the thoughtful integration of AI in education, emphasising a human-centred approach amid the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI). The chapter explores the transformative potential of large language models (LLM) and generative AI (GenAI) in education, addressing both opportunities and concerns. While AI accelerates change in education, adapting to students’ diverse learning needs, it also poses challenges to traditional assessment paradigms. The manifesto stresses the importance of empowering teachers and students as decision-makers, highlighting the need for a balanced approach to AI integration. It emphasises human-centricity in AI use, promoting ethical considerations, responsible practices, and regulations. The right to choose and co-create is underscored, giving autonomy to educators and learners in selecting technologies aligned with their philosophies. Additionally, the manifesto introduces the concept of hybrid intelligence (HI), advocating collaboration between human and machine intelligence to enhance educational experiences. The manifesto encourages creative uses of AI in education, envisioning a harmonious partnership where AI and humans co-create transformative knowledge.
Romero, M., Galy, I., Camponovo, J., Tressols, F., & Urmeneta, A. (2024). International Initiatives and Regional Ecosystems for Supporting Artificial Intelligence Acculturation. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3866, 75–88. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55272-4_6
National and international initiatives to support AI education are discussed in this chapter. Following an examination of the various initiatives undertaken in OECD countries, the chapter highlights the House of Artificial Intelligence (MIA) activities supporting AI acculturation to the regional educational and industrial ecosystem in the French Rivera. The chapter delves into these achievements, detailing partnerships, educational outreach, entrepreneurship initiatives, and the nuanced approach to addressing gender biases in AI education. Through the different workshops, students are empowered to actively contribute to AI’s evolution, transforming from consumers to creators. Gender perspectives are explored, tackling stereotypes and biases. The chapter concludes with a spotlight on the Smart Hive project, an interdisciplinary initiative fostering sustainable development through AI, exemplifying the MIA’s role in creating a regional ecosystem for AI acculturation.
Rosen, D. (2023). Pornography and the Erotic Phantasmagoria. Sexuality and Culture, 27(1), 242–265. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-10011-9
Susan Sontag, in her classic 1967 essay, “The Pornographic Imagination,” argued: “Tamed as it may be, sexuality remains one of the demonic forces in human consciousness …. “In the last half-century, Sontag’s demonic force of sexuality has transformed pornography and the “pornographic imagination”—let along social relations between women and men. In this essay, I adopt Walter Benjamin’s concept of phantasmagoria—a magic-lantern show of optical illusions, rapidly changing size and blending into one another—as the metaphoric commodity form of postmodern capitalist society, fetishism-on-display. I examine the evolution of technological forms of pornographic representation over the last two centuries, including the magiclantern, daguerreotype, photography, stereoscope and film as well as the internet, erotic toys, electronic devises, VR and sex robots. These developments are set against a background of equally profound legal and cultural developments that have recast the sexuality of postmodern America. I argue that these (and other) developments have recast patriarchy and, in some important ways, the sexual relations between “consenting” adults. I conclude reflecting on the current intellectual and political debate about pornography between “pro-sex” and “anti-sex” feminists. With the enormous increase in the production and availability of pornography, I ask, perhaps “quantity” can give way to improved “quality”? I ask whether today’s sexual phantasmagoria can fashion a “new” feminist sexuality—and a more humane pornography?
Rukspollmuang, C. (2022). Transforming learning for sufficiency economy philosophy and sustainable development through the triangle of living learning lab. Asia Pacific Education Review, 23(4), 595–610. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-022-09804-2
With recognition to the importance of the royal initiative Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) as the guiding principle of national development and its role as a main driver to accomplish the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), Siam University decided to repositioning our institution, education program, and learning ecosystem accordingly. It was agreed that our students needed to learn more about how to apply SEP in practice and that they need to be nurtured and educated more about sustainable development. A research team was then appointed with 2 missions (1) to investigate students’ key competencies for sustainability in the 21st Century as needed by students and instructors and (2) to design and propose a model to transform general education program and learning for SEP and sustainable development (SD). A mixed methods approach, using document research, questionnaire, and focus group discussion, was employed. Five domains and 30 characteristics were identified as key competencies for sustainability in the 21st Century. Needs assessment questionnaire was distributed to 440 students and 160 instructors and analyzed by Modified Priority Needs Index (PNI Modified). It was found that both students and instructors ranked “appreciation, understanding, and commitment to apply the principle of sustainable development (SD) and Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) in daily life and global/social issues” as first priority (PNI Modified = 0.17, 0.36), “appreciation and preservation of Thai identity and Thai culture” as second (PNI Modified = 0.15, 0.34), and “concern, awareness and understanding global/social issues, and their impacts” as third (PNI Modified = 0.14, 0.28). Results of the study were then used as a basis in designing our general education program. The Triangle of Living Learning Lab model was then proposed as a model to transform GE program and learning for SEP and SD.
Sarsenova, A., Imanbayeva, S., Syzdykova, M., & Abdramanova, A. (2024). Features of Development of Sexual Culture of Youth in Kazakhstan. Sexuality and Culture, 28(5), 2191–2206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-024-10225-z
The research on the specifics of the sexual culture of young people in Kazakhstan is relevant due to the need for a holistic understanding of modern transformations of values, beliefs, standards, and behavioural patterns in this segment of public life in the country. The purpose of the research was to evaluate a fixation on the behavioural and value-normative characteristics of the sexuality of Kazakhstani youth. Such sociological approaches as structuralism and sociocultural analysis were used as the foundation of the theoretical and methodological research framework. To identify empirical indicators of the sexual culture of Kazakhstani youth, quantitative sociological research was conducted using the questionnaire survey method. As a result of theoretical work, it was identified that sexuality is a socio-cultural construct that includes the standards, values, and behavioural strategies of individuals in the intimate sphere. Within the framework of empirical reconnaissance on the example of Kazakhstani youth, specific substantive features were identified. Firstly, low involvement in sexual practices is recorded within the framework of behavioural patterns. The moderate role of sex in everyday life and average cognitive activity related to intimate experiences are recorded. It should be emphasised that when choosing a sexual partner, young Kazakhs put personal rather than status qualities in the first place. Secondly, in the structure of values, there is a special non-acceptance of abortion and homosexuality compared to European countries. The results of the research have practical significance for educational institutions to adapt and improve sexuality education in the country.
Schiller-Merkens, S., & Machin, A. (2023). Knowing Food: Sustainability Politics, Food Policy Councils and the Co-Production of Knowledge. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 36(3), 311–328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-023-09446-1
As one of the major causes of climate change, there is an urgent need for a fundamental transformation of the food system. Calls for greater sustainability underscore the importance of integrating civil society and the local knowledge of citizens in this transformation process. One increasingly relevant organisation that can actively engage a plurality of actors from across civil society is the Food Policy Council (FPC). In this paper, we explore the potential role of FPCs in sustainability politics to create an alternative food system, with a focus on the co-production of knowledge for policy-making. We propose that the co-production of knowledge requires knowledge inclusion, exchange and transmission, and we focus on the challenges that can arise for FPCs. Our paper shows that bottom-up emerging FPCs constitute a new form of alternative food organisation that can integrate and support the critical capacity of civil society in food system transformation, but also face potential struggles in the co-production of knowledge for sustainable food policy-making. The paper further highlights that co-producing knowledge in and for sustainability transformation is fundamentally a political process, with politics broadly conceived. It not only has relevance for the institutions of formal politics, but emerges in and is intrinsically linked to the grassroots collective action of contentious and prefigurative politics in civil society. FPCs (re)politicise food by combining these various kinds of sustainability politics, which constitutes their transformative potential.
Sinclair, C. (2022). Competing Pedagogies for the Biodigital Imaginary: What Will Happen to Teachers? Postdigital Science and Education (Netherlands), Part F3827, 277–300. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95006-4_15
In the social imaginaries that impact on education at all levels, pedagogies compete for dominance. Within the associated narratives and myths, teachers range from fusty disciplinarians to creative and inspirational mavericks, or are even replaced by robots. One-to-one dialogue with an inspirational teacher has long been regarded as a pedagogical ideal, but is incompatible with democratic approaches to education, and the social imaginary looks to innovation and technology to make up the shortfall. When infiltrated by the neoliberal imaginary, the educational imaginary again foregrounds a desire for personalized learning, but provided by commercial organizations rather than teachers. The chapter reviews the workings of social imaginaries identified in academic literature, with particular attention to pedagogy and the agency of teachers and to what may be lost through the erosion of both. There are alternative imagined futures relevant to the themes of this book, both in academic theories and the wider culture, and a biodigital imaginary may be emerging. The chapter concludes with an argument for the necessary retention of teachers in our biodigital future, to navigate the tensions, contradictions and losses exposed in the analysis and to ensure that multiple pedagogies survive.
Soares, M. N., Pontes, A., Lima, M., Moreira, S., Machado, F., Ferreira, J., Azevedo, H., & Coelho, V. (2024). Creative Education and Psychology: Connecting Minds and Technologies for Educational Success. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3957, 15–43. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-73393-2_2
Creative education, supported by principles of educational psychology, has the potential to transform schools and classroom environments, leveraging innovative pedagogies and creating opportunities to enhance educators’ and students’ skills, such as creativity. In this chapter, we examine the application of integrated strategies such as project-based learning, arts integration, and technology-enhanced approaches, highlighting the potential of these practices to transform education, as well as teaching and learning processes. The integration of key theoretical frameworks informs innovative teaching practices aimed at fostering creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities among learners. In addition, we explore the symbiotic relationship between creative education and educational psychology and highlight how collaborative partnerships between educational institutions, stakeholders, and policymakers can be crucial in identifying and disseminating effective strategies for promoting creativity and innovation in education. This comprehensive analysis can provide valuable insights into the efficacy of creative teaching methods in promoting equitable access to quality education and fostering inclusive learning environments. By embracing interdisciplinary collaborations and evidence-based approaches, educators can leverage these findings to tailor their instructional strategies, implement culturally responsive teaching practices, and address the diverse needs of their students effectively.
Stuvøy, K. (2024). Urban Transformation and Experiences of ‘Becoming Marginal’ in Russia. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 37(3), 309–330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-023-09457-y
Urban transformation in the post-socialist city is connected to comprehensive debates. This paper steers the reader through these, emphasising three contentions that serve to clarify the approach to two interconnected questions: How do people give meaning to urban transformation? In which ways does an analysis of societal change in a peripheral city in pre-war Russia contribute to debates on global urbanism? The paper is structured in three main parts, beginning with the review of the post-socialist city literature. The focus in this study is on experiences, bringing a more human perspective on urban transformation in combination with analysis of structural dimensions impeding on the everyday. In the second part, Togliatti is introduced as a research site and details on data collection are provided. The paper contributes empirically with a study of urban transformation in the auto-town Togliatti in the Samara region southeast of Moscow, Russia. The third part is devoted to interlocutors’ perspectives and the emergence of the narrative of ‘becoming marginal’. In conclusion, becoming marginal is a narrative that gives meaning to the historical conjuncture and the grievances people reflect on as they reason about individual life trajectories. While place-specific, these experiences link to global (urban) discussions on marginality and precarity. The paper underscores that making sense of experiences means to reflect on these in context, and in a final discussion, it reflects how much more difficult such research has become after Russia’s military attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
Suarez, D., & Sawatsky, A. (2025). Navigating identity dissonance: subjectification to balance socialization. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 30(2), 571–578. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-024-10356-w
One of the main goals of medical education is to facilitate the development of a professional identity. As part of this effort, trainees are exposed to the values and cultures of the profession in a process known as socialization. Learners must then negotiate incongruent aspects between their preexisting identities and nascent professional identities. Individuals from historically underrepresented ethnic groups often undergo more significant changes due to their values and culture not being as prevalent within the dominant ideology of medicine. This transformative process can lead to identity dissonance and manifest as an internal discomfort resulting from perceived contradictions between one’s existing identity and the required professional identity. Identity dissonance may be traumatic and pose a threat to the academic performance and professional integration of trainees. These detrimental effects harm the medical workforce by depriving it of a group crucial in addressing health inequities. Educators tasked with facilitating the professional development of learners must consider their implicit expectations about professionalism, explore the distinct challenges experienced by individuals from underrepresented backgrounds in their professional development, and work to develop strategies to help trainees navigate identity dissonance. Subjectification, an education philosophy that focuses on compelling individuals to explore the new possibilities and responsibilities imparted to them by their education, provides a theoretical framework to help educators guide learners through identity dissonance.
Tandilashvili, N., & Tandilashvili, A. (2022). Academics’ perception of identity (re)construction: a value conflict created by performance orientation. Journal of Management and Governance, 26(2), 389–416. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10997-022-09627-8
University autonomy and performance orientation have been the central points of the French higher education modernisation reforms since the 1990s. These reforms have met with criticism and opposition from academics for introducing new values and professional norms that they argue are incompatible with the academic profession. The present research analyses the experience of French academics from three public universities of the new, performance-oriented management model. It explores academics’ perception of the effects of this evolution on their professional identity. Thirty-seven semi-structured interviews were analysed using NVivo software. The results show that the new governance model stressing managerialism with an empowered president, combined with the growing importance of performance measurement systems, has created tensions between traditional norms, values, and practices on the one hand and the objectives and culture of the emerging formal institutional structure and management on the other. The research sheds light on an important value conflict in the context of the transformation of academic identity as a result of the competitive and performance-oriented culture. This evolution has influenced (at least partially) the way academics perceive their profession and reduced the admiration they had before.
Teixeira, M. A., & Motta, R. (2024). Broadening the Climate Movement: The Marcha das Margaridas’ Agenda for the Climate (and Other) Crises. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 37(4), 513–541. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-023-09464-z
Climate movements led by students and the youth worldwide (and in particular, those in richer economies) have been recognized as having a formidable voice and making important contributions towards a more radical societal transformation to face the climate crisis. However, little is said about the contribution of popular sectors, who have been mobilizing for decades and demanding broader structural transformations—with proposals that tackle environmental issues more broadly and the climate crisis in particular—but who are not directly involved in climate politics arenas, such as the United Nations Climate Change conferences. Usually portrayed as vulnerable, as those most affected by climate events, as victims and receivers of adaptation strategies, or, as resilient, rarely do popular sectors appear as agents of transformation. Critical scholars have advocated for understanding the climate crisis as part of multiple crises, including the biodiversity crisis, a crisis of care, and a crisis of democracy. Situating our article within this scholarship, we argue that the scholarly and societal debate on climate change will further benefit from broadening the scope of which social subjects are considered as part of the climate movement. Based on our research with rural popular feminist movements in Brazil, and in particular, the coalition Marcha das Margaridas, we address the following questions: how are their diagnostics of, and proposals to, overcome the climate crisis embedded in their broader project of transformation? Additionally, how does their political identity within class, gender, and rural categories of inequality inform their positions?
Trakulkasemsuk, W., Thein, T., Pangestu, F. H., Vuong, K. T. M., Hidayati, S. P., & Aung, Y. M. M. (2025). “I Was Sad But Now I Am Gay”: Examining an English-Medium Thai Newspaper Narratives on LGBT Issues. Sexuality and Culture, 29(2), 589–609. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-024-10288-y
This study aims to investigate the representation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) individuals in Thai online newspaper articles. One hundred and seventy-three articles from the Bangkok Post, the major English-medium newspaper in Thailand, were collected from 2011 to 2022. The data were organized into three time periods: the first period from 2011 to 2014, the second period from 2015 to 2018, and the third period from 2019 to 2022. After this, two main approaches to data analysis have been adopted: thematic analysis and sentiment analysis. The results revealed a transforming journey of LGBT representation in Thai newspaper articles. ‘Rights and Equality’ is the major topic discussed in LGBT-related articles in all three periods. Fortunately, the sentiment analysis of the first-person pronoun ‘I’ informed a positive shift in LGBT situations in Thailand. Even though the status of LGBTs is not completely recognized in the Thai legal system, the findings from this study show a positive development of respect and acceptance of the public for LGBT members.
Valquaresma, A. (2024). Creativity, Agency and Meaning-Making: Unfolding Developmental Possibilities in Twenty-First-Century Learning Environments. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3957, 105–126. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-73393-2_5
In a day and age when the ability to accommodate uncertainty into one’s lifelong developmental processes has become critical to survival, creativity has garnered an indisputable place in education. Labelled as one of the critical skills of twenty-first-century education, creativity is, however, more than just a skill. It is an attribute of a socio-psychological structure that manifests itself in the continuous interaction between the self, the other and the World, capable of reconciling diverse perspectives and interpretations of the World and opening new meaning-making (and thus developmentally transformative) possibilities. In this chapter, I present a critical analysis of how creativity, as a construct, is approached in educational contexts, as well as the potential consequences for one’s psychological developmental process. Moreover, I emphasize the importance of worldmaking as a key component of educational experiences that, while embracing the uncertainty of contemporary living encourage students and teachers to collaborate in the process of combining old and new meaningful knowledge, critically positioning themselves in the face of individual and collective societal challenges. In this light, I discuss how approaching educational contexts as settings of re-constructive exploration can broaden the developmental possibilities of every person involved in the learning process, specifically by allowing them to question, explore, and actively construct their choices, with indelible consequences on their creativity, agency, and sociocognitive complexity. The psychological, pedagogical and political implications of this paradigm shift are addressed, aiming to contribute to the ongoing debate about how to cultivate creative-nurturing learning environments.
Valquaresma, A., de Paula, L. D., & Rodney, T. K. (2024). Enriching Creative Education Through Diverse Perspectives. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3957, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-73393-2_1
This chapter explores the intersection of creativity, learning, and education in the context of an increasingly complex and interconnected world where the myriad challenges faced by contemporary societies—such as social justice movements, climate crises, and rapid technological advancements—require a rethinking of educational practices to better support diverse perspectives and foster sustainable futures. Central to this discussion is the marginalization of non-Western epistemologies in education, which has historically limited the inclusion of diverse knowledge systems. Creativity, a critical skill for navigating the complexities of the modern workforce and educational environments, has also suffered from the biases of a Western, individualistic paradigm. Advocating, instead, for a sociocultural approach that considers the diverse lived experiences and practices of various communities we call for embracing multiple perspectives to enrich creative education, fostering a critical examination of whose voices are prioritized in learning environments. This chapter sets the stage for the broader volume by questioning the current status quo in education and creativity, challenging readers to consider how alternative perspectives can lead to more inclusive and effective educational practices. Therefore, it presents an overview of the chapters included in this work, and it calls for a paradigm shift in how creativity is conceptualized and integrated into learning environments, urging educators and stakeholders to move beyond standardized approaches and embrace the richness of global perspectives. By doing so, it aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse on creativity and learning, providing a foundation for the transformative potential of education in shaping equitable and sustainable futures.
Wang, C., Wang, S., & Gao, Y. (2023). Wenhua dacai (great cultural talent): paradoxical discourses and practices in the revival of Confucian classical education in contemporary China. Asia Pacific Education Review, 24(4), 695–704. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-023-09891-9
Cultivating wenhua dacai (great cultural talent) is a central goal of the ongoing dujing (classics reading) education movement, which is an integral part of the broad Confucian revival in contemporary China. Focusing on the concept of wenhua dacai, this article explores three interrelated issues. First, as a term used in the context of dujing education, wenhua dacai refers to an idealized Confucian subject shaped by an interweaving of nationalism and cosmopolitanism. Moreover, it is expected not only to revive Confucian/Chinese culture but also to contribute to human cultural exchange. Second, the tendency of students to embrace individualistic virtues in their experience of classics reading poses a challenge to the lofty and sacred ideal of wenhua dacai, which reinforces the need for rigid discipline in learners. Finally, contextualizing the idea of wenhua dacai into the general transformation of education in China can contribute to a more thorough understanding of it. This article concludes that the cultivation of wenhua dacai dreamed of by Confucian dujing education activists is constituted by paradoxical discourses and practices embedded in the ideological complexities of Chinese education.
Wang, J., Zhang, W., Zhao, M., Lai, X. F., Chang, L., & Wang, Z. (2024). Efficiency of higher education financial resource allocation from the perspective of ‘double first-class’ construction: A three-stage global super slacks-based measure analysis. Education and Information Technologies, 29(10), 12047–12075. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-12323-1
The allocation of financial resources in higher education has always been a hot topic of concern in academia and society. The measurement and evaluation of the allocation efficiency of higher education financial resources from the perspective of ‘Double first-class’ construction is the most important initiative to improve the quality of higher education development and promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. The author constructs a resource allocation efficiency evaluation index system, including two input factors: basic expenditure and project expenditure, and four primary indicators: personnel cultivation, scientific research, international repercussions and social contribution, in addition, ten secondary culture results, results Awarded, education of students abroad, achievement transformation.etc., are considered as output factors. The three-stage Global Super Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) model is applied to accurately measure and scientifically evaluate the allocation efficiency of financial resources in China’s higher education. Results show that:first, the true efficiency level can be revealed by eliminating the influence of external environmental factors and random noise. Only 2.82% of universities are located on the effective frontier, indicating that there is significant room for improvement in universities’ financial resource allocation capacity and fund utilization efficiency. Second, influenced by factors such as external dependence, R&D intensity, industrial structure and fiscal decentralization, the financial resources allocation efficiency is significantly overestimated, many universities rely heavily on external policy environments for financial resource allocation, and the support from the external environment for efficiency improvement in a few universities still needs to be strengthened. The third, promoting the classification evaluation of universities can meet the needs of ‘Double first-class’ construction and guarantee the development of university characteristics and diversification. The research shows that first-class universities, comprehensive universities, eastern universities have relatively mature management capabilities, and first-class universities, comprehensive universities and central universities are the most suitable for operation scale; while first-class disciplines, liberal arts universities and western universities have the most significant improvement in the efficiency. Additionall…
Wang, S., & Zhang, H. (2025). How does digital supply chain transformation determine environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance? Mediating role of firm integration and moderating effect of organizational digital culture. Operations Management Research, 18(3), 960–986. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-025-00561-0
Digital technology has substantial potential to enhance both internal and external integration and firms’ supply chains’ Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance. However, further exploration into these effects is needed. This study combines FTSE Russell’s ESG scores with data from 371 targeted questionnaire responses. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), Importance-Performance Map Analysis (IPMA), and Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), we discovered the following: 1) Digital supply chain transformation positively impacts various aspects of firm integration, including process synchronization and information sharing; 2) This transformation bolsters firm integration and later enhances ESG performance; 3) Organizational digital culture moderates the relationship between integration and ESG performance, indicating that a supportive digital culture amplifies these benefits. These insights can improve our understanding of digital supply chain transformation’s impact on ESG performance, offering firms actionable ESG management strategies and promoting sustainable development. Furthermore, this research provides valuable decision support for policymakers and relevant institutions in promoting sustainable digital supply chain transformation and ESG management practices.
Wang, T., & Jin, T. (2025). Parental gender role attitudes and children’s college major choices in STEM. Higher Education, 90(1), 109–129. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-024-01313-y
Despite notable progress in narrowing the global gender gap in education, women’s participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields remains disproportionately low. This study investigates the substantial impact of parental, particularly maternal, gender role attitudes on their children’s major choices in China. To address endogeneity concerns, this research adopts a culture-based instrumental variable approach using regional differences in exposure to Confucian culture based on parental birthplaces as instruments. The results show that mothers who hold traditional gender role attitudes significantly discourage their daughters from pursuing STEM majors, with this discouraging effect being particularly pronounced in urban areas and among vocational college students. Further analysis on the mechanisms indicates that traditional maternal gender role attitudes negatively affect daughters’ mathematical performance, self-esteem, and risk-taking, thereby limiting their inclination toward STEM fields. These findings highlight the imperative for policy interventions aimed at challenging and transforming parental stereotypes, which may serve as a crucial mechanism for reducing gender segregation in STEM education.
Watermeyer, R., Phipps, L., Lanclos, D., & Knight, C. (2024). Generative AI and the Automating of Academia. Postdigital Science and Education, 6(2), 446–466. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-023-00440-6
The neoliberal transformation of higher education in the UK and an intertwined focus on the productive efficiency and prestige value of universities has led to an epidemic of overwork and precarity among academics. Many are found to be struggling with lofty performance expectations and an insistence that all dimensions of their work consistently achieve positional gains despite ferocious competition and the omnipresent threat of failure. Working under the current audit culture present across education, academics are thus found to overwork or commit to accelerated labour as pre-emptive compensation for the habitual inclemency of peer-review and vagaries of student evaluation, in accommodating the copiousness of ‘invisible’ tasks, and in eluding the myriad crevasses of their precarious labour. The proliferation of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools and more specifically, large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, offers potential relief for academics and a means to offset intensive demands and discover more of a work-based equilibrium. Through a recent survey of n = 284 UK academics and their use of GAI, we discover, however, that the digitalisation of higher education through GAI tools no more alleviates than extends the dysfunctions of neoliberal logic and deepens academia’s malaise. Notwithstanding, we argue that the proliferating use of GAI tools by academics may be harnessed as a source of positive disruption to the industrialisation of their labour and catalyst of (re)engagement with scholarly craftsmanship.
Wegener, C. (2023). Upcycling. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3861, 273–282. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41907-2_25
Persistently, we take natural resources, turn them into valued products and, after a while, consider them trash and dispose of them. A sustainable alternative to this sequence is upcycling: the perfect mix between ‘upgrading’ and ‘recycling’. To upgrade is to add value and to recycle is to reuse. In the simplest terms, upcycling is the practice of taking something considered disposable or redundant and transforming it into something of greater value. Therefore, when we upcycle, we create something better out of what is already at hand. Upcycling counters the argument that an object has no value once it is disposed of, or that it must be destroyed before it can re-enter a new circle of production and value creation. In ‘Plastic bags: Living with rubbish’, Hawkins (2001) argues that disposal is the logic of mass production: “Mass production of objects and their consumption depends on the widespread acceptance of, even pleasure in, exchangeability; replacing the old, the broken, the out of fashion with the new. The capacity for serial replacement is also the capacity to throw away without concern” (cited in Emgin, 2012). The main idea of upcycling is to revitalize and revalidate old material by placing it into new configurations and by suggesting new ways of using or acknowledging it while, at the same time, displaying the transformation process as a main value-adding feature. Thus, upcycling poses a socio-material perspective on creativity as processes concerned with re-assessing and recombining as a route to novelty and value creation. An upcycling motto could be: Don’t throw anything away. There is no ‘away’.
Williams, M., Apkarian, N., Uhing, K., Martinez, A. E., Rasmussen, C., & Smith, W. M. (2022). In the Driver’s Seat: Course Coordinators as Change Agents for Active Learning in University Precalculus to Calculus 2. International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, 8(1), 121–148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40753-021-00153-w
Mounting evidence of the effectiveness of active learning strategies has prompted many mathematics departments to start engaging in transformational change efforts. Change, however, especially change in instructional practice, is a challenging endeavor. Some departments are using coordination of multi-section courses as a vehicle to enact changes and have designated or hired course coordinators to oversee efforts to transform instruction via active learning. This study explores the role of coordinators as instructional change agents for active learning using data collected from five university mathematics departments, all of which are successfully sustaining such efforts. We use Shadle et al.’s drivers for change as a framework for examining data from five retrospective case studies of change. Specifically, we investigate how these speculative drivers connect to coordinators’ roles as change agents in each story. We argue that coordinators are positioned to leverage three key drivers for change: providing materials and tools, encouraging collaboration and communication, and encouraging (and providing) professional development. Coordinators must also understand the local contexts and culture in order to engage in effective processes for supporting departmental change. To conclude, we discuss implications of this research for departments seeking to transform instruction.
Wise, K., MacDonald, A., Badham, M., Brown, N., & Rankin, S. (2022). Interdisciplinarity for social justice enterprise: intersecting education, industry and community arts perspectives. Australian Educational Researcher, 49(3), 595–615. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-022-00516-5
The role of interdisciplinarity in achieving authentic and transformative learning outcomes is both contested and complex. At the same time, traditional disciplinary ways of being, doing and knowing have been further tested by the impact of COVID-19 on students, schools and communities. In Tasmania, already experiencing amongst the lowest levels of educational attainment in Australia, the educational implications of COVID-19 have been polarising. Preliminary reports have employed interdisciplinary perspectives to understand how the situation is unfolding. Extremes of privilege and poverty have intensified, with accentuated disadvantage experienced by already vulnerable groups, whilst ingenuity, adaptability and innovation have flourished elsewhere. The spectrum and range of this polarisation yield compelling evidence for the inadequate address of complex societal problems through singular disciplines or institutions. This article explores storied data generated from the intersections of interdisciplinary strategy enacted across three settings: education, creative industries and community-based arts practice. The data derive from two Tasmanian case studies where interdisciplinary collaboration between the education sector, creative industries and community is well established. In subsequent discussion, the multidisciplinary authorship team make and offer meaning from participatory lived experiences of pursuing social justice outcomes prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. From this, we posit how lived experiences of interdisciplinarity impact social justice enterprise in times of increasingly complex socio-economic challenge. In addressing these concerns, we elucidate the role interdisciplinarity plays in both enabling and inhibiting social justice imperatives shared across education, creative industry and community-based arts practice immediately prior to and during a global pandemic. In so doing, we elicit the ways interdisciplinary practices, partnerships and priorities recalibrate in response to global challenges.
Wren, H. (2024). Journeying with Affective Embodied Empathy for an Ethical Understanding of Environmental Education. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, Part F3864, 95–121. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52973-3_5
The climate emergency necessitates addressing the ethical implications of the Anthropocene, emphasising the complex interplay between humans and the more-than-human. Traditionally, environmental education has focused on human perspectives, limiting a comprehensive understanding of these issues. Recent research advocates for a broader perspective, integrating human and more-than-human empathy to better grasp the Anthropocene’s challenges. This study redefines empathy as an affective, embodied phenomenon transcending human-centric views, focusing on the relational connections within shared environments. It proposes a new materialist framework, highlighting how empathy emerges through intra-actions, where affective forces shape relational dynamics and foster kinship and mutual care from sensory experiences. Methodologically, diffractive musing is used to explore affective, embodied empathy in a Norwegian Folke School. This lens facilitates attentiveness to the intra-actions between humans and the more-than-human, and as a reader, you are invited to join me on my journey to understand how subjectivity, agency, power relations, and understandings of time, space, and matter evolve. By taking part, I argue that you will appreciate the need to slow down, heighten sensory awareness, and focus on absences and placemaking to nurture affective, embodied empathy. By framing empathy as affective and embodied, the study contributes to posthuman/new materialist environmental education knowledge. It offers a new theorisation of empathy, positioning it as a transformative force capable of cultivating compassion and ethical responsibility towards the more-than-human world, ultimately driving positive social and environmental change.
Yassin, M., Mansour, Y., & El Antably, A. (2025). The pecking order: a Bourdieusian look at authority in virtual peer crits. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 35(1), 233–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-024-09891-9
Cultural capital having sway in establishing authority in educational fields, including architecture, has been prevalent in scholarly work discussing the traditional studio setup. With the growing use of multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) in architectural education, some studios, their occupants, and artifacts moved to the new medium. Such change places those studios in a precarious position vis-a-vis traditional architectural pedagogy, problematizing cultural capital and authority. This research examines the relationship between cultural capital and authority, focusing on MUVE-mediated studio peer crits. It adopts a quasi-experimental approach, where twenty-four participants with varying design proficiencies in diverse peer compositions completed a timed design task. The research employs linkography for analysis and Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical framework for interpretation. The findings suggest that MUVEs have a transformative effect on exogenous cultural capital, potentially disrupting previously established norms and hierarchies in architectural pedagogy and creating new hierarchical models, which add nuances to the existing models in the literature. A MUVE-mediated studio has the potential to present the studio as a new exploratory ground not weighed down by pre-established notions of studio culture “habitus.”
Zhang, Y., Adams, D., & Lee, K. C. S. (2024). Assessing academic staff’s ICT integration in higher education: instrument development and validation. Journal of Computers in Education, 11(1), 75–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40692-022-00248-6
The increasing utilization of educational technologies advances the information communication technology (ICT) integration process in higher education. The demand and standard of ICT integration are changing with the development of digital contexts, and while much attention has been placed on building an ICT-enabled teaching and learning environment, little has been given the effectiveness of technology transformation within an institution from a holistic perspective. It is thus difficult to assess a university’s ICT integration level and the outcomes of ICT integration. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to describe an ICT integration standard that can function as a reliable measurement or guide in the higher education context. The development consisted of three steps: first, through literature review, ICT integration into institutional policy, culture, infrastructure, training, teaching, and learning were established as six constructs of the model, and questionnaire items in this framework were adapted from existing instruments; second, a cross-sectional survey of the model was validated through a pilot study; and last, the final questionnaire survey was completed by 318 teachers in a case university, and the measurement items and structure were tested through exploratory factor analysis indicates and confirmatory factor analysis indicates. A six-dimensional, 28-item assessment instrument was empirically validated to examine the general condition and outcomes of institutional ICT integration, thereby contributing to an in-depth understanding of the necessary components and paths to achieve ICT integration for educators.
Zhu, Y., Shen, Y., & Yang, R. (2025). Transforming traditions into academic resources: a study of Chinese scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Higher Education, 89(6), 1619–1635. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-024-01297-9
The asymmetrical global higher education and knowledge systems ordered by Euro–American hegemony have been increasingly interrogated, especially by scholars in the humanities and social sciences (HSS). With gathering awareness, growing HSS scholars from non-Western backgrounds have called for global intellectual pluriversality. Responding to such a trend, this article sheds new light on the status quo of East Asian and other non-Euro–American intellectual traditions by taking Chinese intellectual traditions as a case. Since the nineteenth century, generations of Chinese intellectuals have strived to transform their intellectual traditions into modern resources. This historical mission has been carried on by contemporary scholars and become even more complex in the current global era. By unpacking the real perceptions and recent experiences of Chinese HSS scholars, this study demonstrates that Chinese intellectual traditions deeply influence today’s knowledge production and have been transformed into three kinds of academic resources: approaches, methodologies/paradigms, and theories. However, the transformation process has never been smooth. Domestically, the great endeavours of Chinese HSS scholars are often impeded by the dominant intellectual extraversion and coercive audit culture; internationally, they feel constrained by epistemic injustice. This article proposes an empirical approach to examining and presenting intellectual traditions in the individual experiences of scholars. It reveals the high complexities of navigating through asymmetrical globalisation to achieve intellectual pluriversality.
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