Reaching into the basket of doom: Learning outcomes, discourse and information literacy

Learning outcomes form a type of arrangement that holds the practice of information literacy within higher education in place. This paper employs the theory of practice architectures and a discourse analytical approach to examine the learning goals of five recent English-language models of information literacy. Analysis suggests that the practice of information literacy within higher education is composed of 12 common dimensions, which can be grouped into two categories, Mapping and Applying. The Mapping category encompasses learning outcomes that introduce the learner to accepted ways of knowing or what is valued by and how things work within higher education. The Applying category encompasses learning outcomes that encourage the learner to implement or integrate ideas into their own practice, including to their own questions, to themselves or to their experience. Revealing what is prioritised as well as what is less valued within the field at the present time, these findings also raise questions about supposed epistemological differences between models, the influence of research, and the language employed within these documents. This paper represents the third and final piece of work in a research programme that is interrogating the epistemological premises and discourses of information literacy within higher education.

Interface between Education and Tourism around Panchmul Area of Aandhikhola Rural Municipality of Syangja District

This study explores the interface between education and tourism constructs through a qualitative approach and multiple case study research methods. The key objectives of the research were to look at the interface between informal education and tourism, to appraise the interface between non-formal education and tourism as well as to explore the interface between formal education and tourism development activities in the study area. In-depth interviews of 6 males and 3 females from the education program and another 6 males and 3 females from the tourism development program were undertaken by applying the purposive sampling principle. Likewise, 3 FGDs and participant observation techniques were also applied for developing multiple forms of genres, which were generated through re/productive socio-cultural and economic structures of Panchmul. The findings reveal that education plays a functional transformative role in tourism development that is supported by the theory of practice, capability approach, and sustainability approach. Based on the findings, this study has also developed a strategic interface model and strategic framework for tourism development that can be applied in the Panchmularea and other similar places. Hence, knowledge generated from this study is equally fruitful to readers, local development stakeholders, and policymakers and planners in central, provincial, and local levels of governments in Nepal.

A Postdigital Perspective on Service Work: Salespeople’s Service Encounters in the Connected Store

Covid-19 has disrupted global markets, accelerated the digital transformation of frontline service, and changed how service organisations, frontline service employees, and consumers interact. This article explores how digitalisation is changing retail service work from a postdigital perspective. The article draws on an ethnography of salespeople’s service encounters in speciality chain stores between July 2015 and August 2021. Using a practice theory framework (the theory of practice architectures), the article explores what conditions form salespeople’s service encounters in connected stores and how retail organisations’ digitalisation of frontline service changes salespeople’s practice of service encounters. The contributions of this article to the ongoing debate over the digitalisation of service work are twofold. On the theoretical plane, the article provides an alternative framework to labour process theory for exploring and describing service work organised around digital technologies. Secondly, it uncovers the conditions that are changing salespeople’s practice of service encounters, along with attributes associated with service work and emotional labour skills. The research shows that the connected service encounter is characterised by postdigital dialogue that involves new roles and skills in frontline service work. Overall, the findings contribute to a better understanding of how digitalisation changes action and interaction in service encounters from an employee perspective.

Speaking of business ethics: Bourdieu and market morality as a discursive practice

While communication of business ethics has increased in importance, it is often understood as being more of immaterial than material value. However, recent studies have demonstrated that language and communication can have important social consequences, changing institutional logics and daily practices in economic fields. This conceptual paper explores how sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice can help us understand how market morality as a discursive practice for value formation is subject not only to linguistic exchange but also market positioning and economic value. The paper offers an inter-disciplinary view of business ethics in combination with socio-linguistics, contributing with propositions for how moral language serves as a currency for business ethics, providing implications for future studies of business ethics as a socio-economic practice.

Power relations: a catalyst in the building of flood disaster resilience capacities in the orashi region of rivers state

Climate change-related disasters have in recent years become a global phenomenon with catastrophic consequences. Africa has had most of the consequences of climate change related disasters, resulting in monumental urban and rural flooding, widespread casualties, displacements, loss of property and sources of livelihood. Given the long-term implications of climate change, it is critically important to understand how vulnerable communities respond to the menace occasioned by flooding. The impact of the flooding is felt more in low-lying communities situated along the coastal fringes leaving inherently vulnerable communities to the vagaries of flooding. However, despite of their vulnerability to flooding disasters, some people displayed resilience capacities more than others because of their apparent access to resources and power within and outside their localities. The study investigated the issue, through the application of the qualitative approach that drew the Bourdieusian theory of practice, deploying the analytical concepts of fields, habitus and species of capital to gather useful information from relevant focus groups to understand how various forms of power was employed to capture resources that enhanced resilience capacities in the seasonal flood prone Orashi region of Rivers State of Nigeria. Following the outcome of the analysis of the information gathered from the focus group and a review of relevant literature, it was revealed that most of the vulnerable population displayed some ingrained disposition and the deployment of indigenous knowledge and social capital for adaptation to survive flood disasters. It is therefore concluded that dynamics of power is a key factor in the resilience capacities of the population of the study.

”Men nu fick man planera om och i den planeringen fick jag vara med!” Verksamhetsförlagt lärande i yrkeslärarutbildningen när undervisningen går över till distans

The article explores the effects of the transition to distance education due to the Covid19 pandemic on vocational teacher students’ workplace-based learning in a vocational teacher programme. Two practices are explored, that is, the instruction practices by prospective teachers and supervision. The theory of practice architecture is used to explain how the two practices interplay with one another in the common project of learning to become a vocational teacher. A web survey is utilised to gain both the students’ and the supervisors’ experiences. The main findings are 1) re-definition of pupil participation and activity as a touching base for supervision, and 2) expanded notion of supervision grounded in a more equal and complementary relationship between the student and the teacher supervisor. A call for an updated in-service supervision training as part of the vocational teacher programme and to strengthen vocational teacher education as a whole is put forth.

Moral cosmopolitanism, civic action and ethical consumption: Social differences in young Australians’ global citizenship

The relationship between global citizenship identity and actions remains an unsettled issue. In this article we use the PISA 2018 survey to explore whether global citizenship identity is associated with a greater likelihood of engaging in ‘globally minded’ practices among young Australians. Descriptive analysis reveals that self-reported global citizenship identity is associated with higher levels of moral cosmopolitanism, more so than with greater intercultural values or with more positive attitudes to immigrants. However, this self-declared identity does not necessarily translate into cosmopolitan action. Statistical modelling shows that, in the Australian context, global citizenship knowledge, values and identity account for a limited proportion of differences in self-reported cosmopolitan action. We argue that a sociological theory of practice helps explain these results. We conclude by highlighting future research opportunities to better understand the social determinants of global citizenship practices, including by exploring out-of-school socialisation and a broader range of cosmopolitan practices.

'It's either Maccas or uni': A Bourdieusian analysis of working-class youth in New Zealand

<p>School to work transitions is often presented as a binary choice. You either pursue a university education that is framed as a sure-fire pathway to both social and economic mobility, or you pursue a ‘lesser’ form of industrial and vocational training, with little of hope of advancement. However, this thesis argues that this assumption must be contested, as it obscures the complexity of all school to work transitions and the potential for social mobility in these ‘lesser’ forms of education. Through interviews with young men and women who are training as an apprentice or have recently completed their apprenticeship, this thesis hopes to provide a more complex snapshot of school to work transitions, focusing on how apprentices find and adapt to their new trade. My overall argument centres on Bourdieu’s theory of practice which is often discussed concerning the specific class-based outcomes of education for students from different class conditions (Bourdieu 1977). While this approach is useful to showing the complexity of school to work transitions from supposedly ‘lesser’ pathways, this approach is overly reliant on habitus, presenting a type of individual agency that is primarily reproductive and non-conducive to any potential transformation. Instead of focusing on just habitus in understanding this transition, a greater emphasis is placed on Bourdieu’s concept of ‘field’. Specifically, how field conditions can influence both the degree and the type of agency within a field, presenting a more complicated conception of agency that can be simultaneously reproductive and transformative.</p>