A Wellspring of African Philosophical Concepts? The What and Why Questions in the Context of Interculturality

2022 ◽  
pp. 17-38
Author(s):  
Ada Agada
Keyword(s):  
Why Questions

A Compact Embodiment of Pluralities and Denial of Origins: Atwood’s The Year of The Flood

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Rana Sağıroğlu
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
Narrative Techniques ◽  
Why Questions ◽  
Near Future

Margaret Atwood, one of the most spectacular authors of postmodern movement, achieved to unite debatable and in demand critical points of 21st century such as science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism in the novel The Year of The Flood written in 2009. The novel could be regarded as an ecocritical manifesto and a dystopic mirror against today’s degenerated world, tending to a superficial base to keep the already order in use, by moving away from the fundamental solution of all humanity: nature. Although Atwood does not want her works to be called science fiction, it is obvious that science fiction plays an introductory role and gives the novel a ground explaining all ‘why’ questions of the novel. However, Atwood is not unjust while claiming that her works are not science fiction because of the inevitable rapid change of 21st century world becoming addicted to technology, especially Internet. It is easily observed by the reader that what she fictionalises throughout the novel is quite close to possibility, and the world may witness in the near future what she creates in the novel as science fiction. Additionally, postmodernism serves to the novel as the answerer of ‘how’ questions: How the world embraces pluralities, how heterogeneous social order is needed, and how impossible to run the world by dichotomies of patriarchal social order anymore. And lastly, ecocriticism gives the answers of ‘why’ questions of the novel: Why humanity is in chaos, why humanity has organized the world according to its own needs as if there were no living creatures apart from humanity. Therefore, The Year of The Flood meets the reader as a compact embodiment of science fiction, postmodernism and ecocriticism not only with its theme, but also with its narrative techniques.

Ethnographic Approaches to Contentious Politics: The What, How, and Why

2021 ◽  
pp. 001041402110255
Author(s):  
Diana Fu ◽  
Erica S. Simmons
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Ethnographic Methods ◽  
Political Ethnography ◽  
Units Of Analysis ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
Methodological Tool ◽  
Why Questions

How should we study contentious politics in an era rife with new forms of contention, both in the United States and abroad? The introduction to this special issue draws attention to one particularly crucial methodological tool in the study of contention: political ethnography. It showcases the ways in which ethnographic approaches can contribute to the study of contentious politics. Specifically, it argues that “what,” “how,” and “why” questions are central to the study of contention and that ethnographic methods are particularly well-suited to answering them. It also demonstrates how ethnographic methods push scholars to both expand the objects of inquiry and rethink what the relevant units of analysis might be. By uncovering hidden processes, exploring social meanings, and giving voice to unheard stories, ethnography and “ethnography-plus” approaches contribute to the study of contention and to comparative politics, writ large.

Technical Perspective for

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-77
Author(s):  
Dan Suciu
Keyword(s):  
Online Monitoring ◽  
Data Analyst ◽  
Query Answer ◽  
Why Questions

When a data analyst runs some query to analyze her data, she often wants to ask some follow-up questions, about the result of the query. Why-questions take many shapes, and occur in many scenarios. Why is a particular tuple in the answer? Why is it not in the answer? Why is this graph decreasing? Why did we observe a sudden burst of error messages in online monitoring? Database researchers have noted the need for why-questions, and the literature contains several approaches, mostly tailored to specific applications. Despite the interest and the work in this area, there is currently no consensus of what an explanation to a query answer should be, and how one should compute it.

scholarly journals Learning with Friction—Students’ Gestures and Enactment in Relation to a GeoGebra Simulation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena Solvang ◽  
Jesper Haglund
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Digital Learning ◽  
School Students ◽  
Representational Competence ◽  
Physics Students ◽  
Digital Learning Environment ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Collaborative Learning Environment ◽  
Why Questions

AbstractThe present study contributes to the understanding of physics students’ representational competence by examining specific bodily practices (e.g. gestures, enactment) of students’ interaction and constructions of representations in relation to a digital learning environment. We present and analyse video data of upper-secondary school students’ interaction with a GeoGebra simulation of friction. Our analysis is based on the assumption that, in a collaborative learning environment, students use their bodies as means of dealing with interpretational problems, and that exploring students’ gestures and enactment can be used to analyse their sensemaking processes. This study shows that specific features of the simulation—features connected with microscopic aspects of friction—triggered students to ask what-if and why questions and consequently, to learn about the representation. During this sense-making process, students improvised their own representations to make their ideas more explicit. The findings extend current research on students’ representational competence by bringing attention to the role of students’ generation of improvised representations in the processes of learning with and about representations.

scholarly journals Big knowledge from big data in functional genomics

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris P. Ponting
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Molecular Interactions ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Human Biology ◽  
Reverse Causation ◽  
Downstream Effects ◽  
Dna Variants ◽  
Cellular Phenotypes ◽  
Why Questions

With so much genomics data being produced, it might be wise to pause and consider what purpose this data can or should serve. Some improve annotations, others predict molecular interactions, but few add directly to existing knowledge. This is because sequence annotations do not always implicate function, and molecular interactions are often irrelevant to a cell's or organism's survival or propagation. Merely correlative relationships found in big data fail to provide answers to the Why questions of human biology. Instead, those answers are expected from methods that causally link DNA changes to downstream effects without being confounded by reverse causation. These approaches require the controlled measurement of the consequences of DNA variants, for example, either those introduced in single cells using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing or that are already present across the human population. Inferred causal relationships between genetic variation and cellular phenotypes or disease show promise to rapidly grow and underpin our knowledge base.

scholarly journals Levels of Reasons Why and Answers to Why Questions

2019 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-177
Author(s):  
Insa Lawler
Keyword(s):  
Why Questions

Is leadership a myth? A ‘new wave’ critical leadership-focused research agenda for recontouring the landscape of educational leadership

2021 ◽  
pp. 174114322110662
Author(s):  
Linda Evans
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Leadership Studies ◽  
Departure Point ◽  
Object A ◽  
Critical Leadership ◽  
Critical Leadership Studies ◽  
New Research ◽  
Why Questions

Intentionally provocative, this study identifies weaknesses in mainstream educational leadership scholarship, and draws upon ‘new wave’ critical leadership studies to propose a new, potentially paradigm-shifting, direction for the field. The central argument is that educational leadership researchers, in focusing predominantly on how institutional heads and other formal ‘leaders’ may best ‘do’ leadership, are addressing the wrong questions and setting off from the wrong departure point. The unit of analysis should shift, it is argued, from leadership to influence, within a new research agenda that replaces surface-level, causality-assumptive ‘how?’ and ‘why?’ questions that have shaped mainstream educational leadership research for over thirty years, with more fundamental ‘who? and ‘what?’ questions, aimed at identifying who is in fact doing the influencing. An aspect of such inquiry is leadership scepticism and agnosticism, which confronts the question: Does leadership exist, or is it a myth that we have reified? A highly original feature of the proposed new research agenda is the adoption of the author's theoretical notion of a singular unit of micro-level influence as an ‘epistemic object’ – a concept derived from STEMM research, denoting a vague and undefined potential focus of inquiry that may (or may not) turn out to be significant.

Cultural Intelligence

2021 ◽  
pp. 26-51
Author(s):  
Soon Ang
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
Cultural Intelligence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Cultural Comparison ◽  
Future Aspirations ◽  
Cross Cultural Comparison ◽  
Why Questions ◽  
The Impact

The concept of cultural intelligence marks a paradigm shift from a focus on cross-cultural comparison to intercultural capabilities. Cultural intelligence influences research in as many as twenty-three academic disciplines and shapes policies and practices in the private, public, education, and nonprofit sectors. The phrase “two bowls singing” symbolizes in this chapter the resonance of cultural intelligence with two audiences: scientists and practitioners. Scientists primarily address the “what” and “why” questions, while practitioners focus more on the “how.” Striking each bowl therefore requires distinct approaches. Importantly, the “resonance” of each bowl amplifies that of the other bowl, signifying evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence. For the two bowls to sing, they need to rest on a solid wooden base. The base symbolizes institution and community building to broaden the impact on science and practice. The chapter concludes with the author’s future aspirations for cultural intelligence.

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