“Small” Stories and Meganarratives: Accountability in Balance

2009 ◽  
Vol 111 (2) ◽  
pp. 547-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret R. Olson ◽  
Cheryl J. Craig

Background/Context Meganarratives, or “grand stories,” are composed of loosely held ideas about standardization, the rhetoric of education for all, the focus on individual success, and the appearance of representative diversity that rarely take into account human diversity embedded in deeply rooted value systems and authentically present in “the realm of face-to-face relationships.” Purpose/Objective/Research/Question/Focus of Study In this article, we offer atypical, noncanonical “small” stories as accounts of ways in which teachers and students live in small moments of diversity unseen and unheard within prevailing meganarratives of accountability. Setting This research took place in the mid-southern United States and eastern Canada. Population/Participants/Subjects Research participants included a preservice teacher candidate in Canada and an in-service teacher in the United States. Research Design Through using narrative inquiry as a human research method, we feature small storied nuggets of teachers and students breaking through “surface equilibriums and uniformities” to challenge educational orthodoxies that cast long shadows on their work and their relationships and add to the complexities of their lives. Conclusions/Recommendations In the final analysis, we argue for fluid back-and-forth movement between small stories and meganarratives in order to nurture dialectical relationships between and among theory, practice, and policy. Such an approach would create spaces for experiences of accountability to be lived and told, and relived and retold, in more balanced ways.

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta N. Lukacovic

This study analyzes securitized discourses and counter narratives that surround the COVID-19 pandemic. Controversial cases of security related political communication, salient media enunciations, and social media reframing are explored through the theoretical lenses of securitization and cascading activation of framing in the contexts of Slovakia, Russia, and the United States. The first research question explores whether and how the frame element of moral evaluation factors into the conversations on the securitization of the pandemic. The analysis tracks the framing process through elite, media, and public levels of communication. The second research question focused on fairly controversial actors— “rogue actors” —such as individuals linked to far-leaning political factions or militias. The proliferation of digital media provides various actors with opportunities to join publicly visible conversations. The analysis demonstrates that the widely differing national contexts offer different trends and degrees in securitization of the pandemic during spring and summer of 2020. The studied rogue actors usually have something to say about the pandemic, and frequently make some reframing attempts based on idiosyncratic evaluations of how normatively appropriate is their government's “war” on COVID-19. In Slovakia, the rogue elite actors at first failed to have an impact but eventually managed to partially contest the dominant frame. Powerful Russian media influencers enjoy some conspiracy theories but prudently avoid direct challenges to the government's frame, and so far only marginal rogue actors openly advance dissenting frames. The polarized political and media environment in the US has shown to create a particularly fertile ground for rogue grassroots movements that utilize online platforms and social media, at times going as far as encouragement of violent acts to oppose the government and its pandemic response policy.


Criminologie ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Alain

The professional smuggling of mass consumption products develops when demand for a product is not adequately fulfilled by the legitimate market. The difficulties encountered in supplying are, in most contemporary cases, caused by real rarity of the desired product. For other cases, however, the rarity is largely virtual in that government taxes aimed at the product in question lead to increasing the product's price to a prohibitive end. This was the case with cigarettes in Canada between 1985 and 1994. Before both, the federal and provincial, governments decided to drastically decrease cigarette taxes in February 1994, the price for a pack of cigarettes was five to six times higher than the same product in the United States. This article begins with a brief review of the contribution made by economists in regard to contemporary smuggling. Focus will be aimed at common characteristics of the smuggling phenomenon across the world. Elements which are more particular to the Canadian smuggling situation will be identified as well. While the difference in the price of cigarettes between Canada and the United States would seem to be the undeniable driving force behind the development of smuggling activities at the countries ' border, one key question remains unexplained. Why was the volume of contraband unequally distributed across Canada even though the price of cigarettes remained largely consistent throughout all provinces? The level of organization of smuggling networks was much higher in Eastern Canada, and particularly in Quebec, than it was in the western provinces. It is argued that the reasons for this are not only due to price, but to a series of political, historical, and geographical factors which allowed cigarette smugglers to function better in Quebec than in the rest of the country.


2021 ◽  
pp. 205789112110405
Author(s):  
Ikhsan Darmawan

Although the number of countries that have adopted e-voting has decreased lately, the number of academic publications on e-voting adoption has increased in the last two years. To date, there is no coherent narrative in the existing literature that explains the progress of the research on e-voting adoption. This article aims to answer the following research question: “How has research on the topic of e-voting adoption progressed over the last 15 years?” The article provides a semi-systematic review of 78 studies that were conducted from 2005 to 2020. In this article, I argue that although the studies on e-voting adoption are dominated by a single case study, by research in the United States, and by the positivist paradigm, scholars have employed the term “e-voting adoption” diversely and the research on e-voting adoption has evolved to address more specific research questions. Recommendations for the future agenda of research on e-voting adoption are also discussed.


Plant Disease ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 95 (7) ◽  
pp. 873-873 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. M. Kawchuk ◽  
R. J. Howard ◽  
R. D. Peters ◽  
K. I. Al-Mughrabi

Late blight is caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary and is one of the most devastating diseases of potato and tomato. Late blight occurs in all major potato- and tomato-growing regions of Canada. Its incidence in North America increased during 2009 and 2010 (2). Foliar disease symptoms appeared earlier than usual (June rather than July) and coincided with the identification of several new P. infestans genotypes in the United States, each with unique characteristics. Prior to 2007, isolates collected from potato and tomato crops were mainly US8 or US11 genotypes (1). However, P. infestans populations in the United States have recently experienced a major genetic evolution, producing isolates with unique genotypes and epidemiological characteristics in Florida and throughout the northeastern states (2). Recent discoveries of tomato transplants with late blight for sale at Canadian retail outlets prompted an examination of the genotypes inadvertently being distributed and causing disease in commercial production areas in Canada. Analysis of isolates of P. infestans from across Canada in 2010 identified the US23 genotype for the first time from each of the four western provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia) but not from eastern Canada. Allozyme banding patterns at the glucose phosphate isomerase (Gpi) locus indicated a 100/100 profile consistent with US6 and US23 genotypes (4). Mating type assays confirmed the isolates to be A1 and in vivo metalaxyl sensitivity was observed. Restriction fragment length polymorphic analysis of 50 isolates from western Canada with the multilocus RG57 sequence and EcoRI produced the DNA pattern 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 13, 14, 17, 20, 21, 24, 24a, 25 that was indicative of US23 (3). The recently described P. infestans genotype US23 appears to be more aggressive on tomato, and although isolates were recovered from both tomato and potato, disease symptoms were often more severe on tomato. Results indicate that movement and evolution of new P. infestans genotypes have contributed to the increased incidence of late blight and that movement of the pathogen on retail plantlets nationally and internationally may provide an additional early season source of inoculum. A major concern is that the introduced new A1 populations in western Canada have established a dichotomy with the endogenous A2 populations in eastern Canada, increasing the potential for sexual recombination producing oospores and additional genotypes should these populations merge. References: (1) Q. Chen et al. Am. J. Potato Res. 80:9, 2003. (2) K. Deahl. (Abstr.) Phytopathology 100(suppl.):S161, 2010. (3) S. B. Goodwin et al. Curr. Genet. 22:107, 1992. (4) S. B. Goodwin et al. Phytopathology 88:939, 2004.


2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 989 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Patrono ◽  
Justin O Frosini

This article discusses the Constitution of the United Kingdom and then draws some comparisons between it and the Constitution of the United States of America. It touches on issues such as how the United Kingdom's commitment to parliamentary sovereignty has been affected by the country's relationship with the European Union.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaysh Nazzal Alshammri

This research aims to identify the differences between email negotiation and face-to-face negotiation with respect to negotiation process, negotiation flexibility, face-saving, level of collaboration, and appropriateness for cross-cultural negotiation. The survey questionnaire was distributed to the sales and customer service employees in many business organizations located in different regions of the United States of America. Data from 519 respondents (including both males and females) were analyzed using the one-sample t-test, two sample t-test, and Pearson Correlation. The findings reveal that the characteristics of face-to-face negotiation assist in smoothing the negotiation process more than that of email negotiation. Participants also tend to cooperate more in face-to-face negotiation than in email negotiation. However, participants prefer using email negotiation because they find it more flexible. They also feel that a face-threatening act is less likely to occur in an email negotiation than in a face-to-face negotiation. The findings also show that email negotiation could be more appropriate than face-to-face negotiation for the purpose of cross-cultural negotiation. This is because communicating via email minimizes the influence of culture on the negotiation process. Age and gender do not have any influence on the perspectives of participants regarding email negotiation versus face-to-face negotiation. The findings have significant implications for both business and dispute resolution. They contrast the differences between face-to-face negotiation and email negotiation and identify the situations in which each of these types could be most appropriate.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 94-102
Author(s):  
Lance E Mason

The present sociopolitical environment in the United States is perpetually mediated and beset with information from innumerable sources. This paper argues that Dewey’s conception of communication as a mutual act of meaning-making holds insights for explaining the connections between pervasive mediation and political polarization, in addition to understanding why political discourse has become more degrading in recent years. It also points the way toward viable solutions by arguing for the reorientation of schools toward valuable living experiences that are becoming less pronounced in the broader culture, such as sustained face to face engagement on matters of social import.


2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Sarah Gallo ◽  
Andrea Ortiz

Background/Context This article builds on U.S.-based research on undocumented status and schooling to examine how an elementary school teacher in Mexico successfully integrates transnational students’ experiences related to unauthorized (im)migration into the classroom. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Drawing on a politicized funds of knowledge framework, we focus on an exceptional fifth-grade teacher's curricular, pedagogical, and relational decisions to provide concrete examples of how educators on both sides of the border can carefully integrate students’ politicized experiences into their classrooms. Setting This research took place in a semirural fifth-grade classroom in Central Mexico during the 2016–2017 academic year, when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Population/Participants/Subjects This article focuses on the routine educational practices within a single fifth-grade classroom in a highly transnational Central Mexican town. Participants included a binational student who had recently relocated to Mexico because of U.S.-based immigration policies, her peers from transnational families with ties to the United States, and their fifth-grade teacher. Research Design This school-based ethnographic study involved weekly participant observation and video recording of routine activities in Profe Julio's fifth-grade classroom during the 2016–2017 academic year. Observations were triangulated with additional data sources such as interviews (with educators, binational students, and binational caregivers) and artifacts (such as homework assignments and student writing). Findings/Results Through a close examination of a fifth-grade classroom in Mexico, we illustrate how the teacher brought students’ (im)migration experiences into school by leveraging openings in the curriculum, developing interpersonal relationships of care, and engaging in a range of pedagogical moves. Conclusions/Recommendations We discuss how this teacher's educational practices could be carefully tailored to U.S. classrooms within the current anti-immigrant context. These practices include building relationships of care, looking for openings in the curriculum, providing academic distance, prioritizing teachers as learners, and working with school leadership for guidance on navigating politicized topics under the current U.S. administration.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Betts ◽  
Brian Delaney ◽  
Tamara Galoyan ◽  
William Lynch

In March 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted education worldwide. In the United States, the pandemic forced colleges and universities across the nation to adopt quickly emergency remote teaching and learning. The ability to pivot instruction seamlessly and effectively across learning formats (e.g., face-to-face, hybrid, online) while supporting student engagement, learning, and completion in an authentic and high-quality manner challenged higher education leaders. This historical review of the literature examines distance and online education from the 1700s to 2021 to identify how external and internal pressures and opportunities have impacted and influenced the evolution of educational formats pre-COVID-19, and how they will continue to evolve post pandemic. This historical review also explores how instructional design and pedagogy have been and continue to be influenced by technological advancements, emerging research from the Learning Sciences and Mind (psychology), Brain (neuroscience), and Education (pedagogy) science.


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