Teacher’s ethnic teasing: Playing with ambiguity and exploiting in-group communication

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Artamonova
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Group Communication ◽  
Local Context ◽  
School Ethnography ◽  
Racist Discourse ◽  
Discriminatory Effect

This article discusses the issue of ethnic teasing used by a teacher and his students in a multiethnic classroom of a German middle school. The teacher and his students exploit the resources of the racist discourse for multiple in-group rituals. Based on a school ethnography and conversation analysis, this case study attempts to interpret the teasing practices, which are performed in a classroom where ethnicity matters greatly. The teasing interactions here, questioned in the local context, seem to be a part of a working consensus, helping to regulate interpersonal relations in class. These vague and risky practices infringe the politeness norms: they are based on a daily face-attack ritualization through which a partial weakening of the discriminatory effect might be achieved.

Successful leadership in a rural, high-poverty school: the case of County Line Middle School

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 422-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans W. Klar ◽  
Curtis A. Brewer
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Leadership Practices ◽  
Leadership Strategies ◽  
High Poverty ◽  
Content Type ◽  
School Principalship ◽  
Successful School

Purpose – In this paper, the authors present a case study of successful school leadership at County Line Middle School. The purpose of the paper is to identify how particular leadership practices and beliefs were adapted to increase student achievement in this rural, high-poverty school in the southeastern USA. Design/methodology/approach – After purposefully selecting this school, the authors adapted interview protocols, questionnaires, and analysis frameworks from the International Successful School Principalship Project to develop a multi-perspective case study of principal leadership practices at the school. Findings – The findings illustrate the practices which led to students at this school, previously the lowest-performing in the district, achieving significantly higher on state standardized tests, getting along “like a family,” and regularly participating in service learning activities and charity events. A particularly interesting finding was how the principal confronted the school's negative self-image and adapted common leadership practices to implement a school-wide reform that suited its unique context. Research limitations/implications – While the findings of the study explicate the specific ways the principal adapted leadership strategies to enhance student learning, this study also highlights the need to understand how principals become familiar with their community's needs, cultures, norms, and values, and exercise leadership in accordance with them. Practical implications – The case offers an example of the need for context-responsive leadership in schools. In particular, it illustrates how this principal enacted leadership strategies that successfully negotiated what Woods (2006) referred to as the changing politics of the rural. To realize this success, the principal utilized his understanding of this low income, rural community to guide his leadership practices. Critically, part of this understanding included the ways the community was connected to and isolated from dominant sub-urban and urban societies, and how to build enthusiasm and capacity through appeals to local values. Originality/value – While it is widely acknowledged that school leaders need to consider their school and community contexts when making leadership decisions, less research has focussed on understanding how this can be achieved. This case provides rich examples of how this was accomplished in a rural, high-poverty middle school.

scholarly journals Hospital managers’ perspectives with implementing quality improvement measures and a new regulatory framework: a qualitative case study

BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. e042847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sina Furnes Øyri ◽  
Geir Sverre Braut ◽  
Carl Macrae ◽  
Siri Wiig
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Quality And Safety ◽  
Hospital Practice ◽  
Hospital Managers ◽  
Safety Improvement

A new regulatory framework to support local quality and safety efforts in hospitals was introduced to the Norwegian healthcare system in 2017. This study aimed to investigate hospital managers’ perspectives on implementation efforts and the resulting work practices, to understand if, and how, the new Quality Improvement Regulation influenced quality and safety improvement activities.DesignThis article reports one study level (the perspectives of hospital managers), as part of a multilevel case study. Data were collected by interviews and analysed according to qualitative content analysis.SettingThree hospitals retrieved from two regional health trusts in Norway.Participants20 hospital managers or quality advisers selected from different levels of hospital organisations.ResultsFour themes were identified in response to the study aim: (1) adaptive capacity in hospital management and practice, (2) implementation efforts and challenges with quality improvement, (3) systemic changes and (4) the potential to learn. Recent structural and cultural changes to, and development of, quality improvement systems in hospitals were discovered (3). Participants however, revealed no change in their practice solely due to the new Quality Improvement Regulation (2). Findings indicated that hospital managers are legally responsible for quality improvement implementation and participants described several benefits with the new Quality Improvement Regulation (2). This related to adaptation and flexibility to local context, and clinical autonomy as an inevitable element in hospital practice (1). Trust and a safe work environment were described as key factors to achieve adverse event reporting and support learning processes (4).ConclusionsThis study suggests that a lack of time, competence and/or motivation, impacted hospitals’ implementation of quality improvement efforts. Hospital managers’ autonomy and adaptive capacity to tailor quality improvement efforts were key for the new Quality Improvement Regulation to have any relevant impact on hospital practice and for it to influence quality and safety improvement activities.

Using a Culturally Proficient Leadership Lens to Effectively Serve Refugee Students

2021 ◽  
pp. 155545892110124
Author(s):  
Corinne Brion
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Cultural Proficiency ◽  
Severe Trauma ◽  
Refugee Students ◽  
Cultural Wealth ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Culturally Proficient Leadership ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Culturally Proficient

This teaching case study takes place in an American middle school and tells the story of Dorah, a refugee student from the Republic of Congo who experienced severe trauma. At Lincoln Middle School, the principal and her teachers encounter difficulties serving their refugee students adequately because of their lack of cultural proficiency. This case aims to help leaders in diverse contexts understand how to embrace and advocate for different cultures, beliefs, and norms to increase the cultural wealth of their communities. To achieve this goal, I provide a cultural proficiency model and a trauma-invested framework.

scholarly journals Saving a species threatened by trade: a network study of Bali starling Leucopsar rothschildi conservation

Oryx ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 480-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul R. Jepson
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Conservation Policy ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Local Elites ◽  
Central Tenet ◽  
Regulatory Flexibility ◽  
Government Authority

AbstractSaving species from extinction is a central tenet of conservation, yet success in this endeavour remains unpredictable and elusive, especially where wildlife trade is involved. Influential conservation policy actors operating internationally advocate strong regulatory and enforcement approaches to governance of wildlife trade. However, a broad body of evidence suggests that in some situations positive incentives for sustainable use may achieve better conservation outcomes. This analysis of efforts over 3 decades to avoid the extinction of the Bali starling Leucopsar rothschildi draws on network perspectives from environmental governance and geography, and shows how an international project adopting traditional enforcement approaches generated a ‘prestige of ownership’ dynamic among local elites. This placed trade in Bali starlings above the enforcement competencies of the relevant government authority, leading to the demise of the species. Subsequently, two separate Indonesian initiatives created spaces of regulatory flexibility and embraced traits of the starling's phenotype to construct identities for the species suited to the local context. This enrolled a wider range of stakeholders in the conservation of the species, including bird-keeping elites, and led to significant successes in restoring captive and free-flying populations. This case study highlights the potential of conservation networks that involve non-establishment personnel and, while recognizing the appeal of generic enforcement approaches to politicians, funders and the urban public, it adds to an increasing body of evidence that suggests top-down prescriptive conservation frameworks may undermine the ability of situated conservationists to develop interventions appropriate to their political and cultural realities.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document