Disco Culture and the Ritual Journey in the Soviet 1980s

This article traces a largely forgotten history of the 1980s Soviet disco craze by following the work of one of its pioneering figures, the Latvian DJ, musician, and performance artist Hardijs Lediņš (1955–2004). It documents how the movement coalesced amidst creative responses to the gradual opening of the USSR to Western popular culture on the one hand, and to the unique affordances of local political, social, and technological structures on the other. In Lediņš’s case, the response was also shaped by commitments to an ideal of Soviet socialism that persisted despite the grim realities of Brezhnev-era society. Drawing on archival research and oral history, I begin in the loosely monitored space of the Student Club at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, where Lediņš’s talents and ties to elites enabled him to found a wildly popular discotheque in the 1974–75 academic year, one of the first of its kind in the USSR. I follow his increasing investment in a distinctly Soviet form of experimentalist performance art in the early 1980s, in which—inspired in part by local readings of John Cage—the ritualized trek into the countryside became a vehicle for attaining spiritual enlightenment in communion with others. Finally, I consider ways in which his ritual journeys inflected his disco operation in subsequent years, when he reframed his events as experiments in communality—specifically, as means of experiencing, at least for an evening, the enlightening promise of Soviet socialism undelivered by the state itself.

Students’ interests and learning venues as enablers for school-based nutrition education among adolescents in Jakarta

Purpose This study aims to explore potential enablers for school-based nutrition education (SBNE) through adolescent students’ perceptions in Jakarta, Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach The study conducted 15 focus group discussions (FGDs) with 6–8 students per group to gather the main data, supported by six in-depth interviews with junior high school officials and content analysis of selected schoolbooks among five schools. The FGDs were conducted to explore students’ interest in nutrition information and their exposure to nutrition education and learning experiences. To analyze the FGD responses, three steps were used: coding, categorizing and determining themes. Findings Students’ interest in nutrition and potential learning venues for interactive nutrition education were potential enablers for SBNE. The students’ interest in nutrition information comprised eight topics, with some different patterns by gender. Nutrition information not represented in the school books included: food fads, women’s nutrition, halal-certified food establishments and cooking. To complement the nutrition information that was not provided in school books, student club activities and school special programs were suitable settings as potential learning venues for SBNE. Originality/value This study is the first study exploring SBNE facilitators from students’ perspectives among adolescents in Jakarta.

Continuous Program Evaluation to Foster an Environment that Leads to Student Engagement

This presentation explores aspects related to the Gerontology Health Certificate of Achievement program and the progression of their Enrollment Management Plan. It discusses how external forces have influenced changes to the plan during the last five years. Some of the strategies to be addressed are the incorporation of adult education courses to the career path; interdisciplinary collaborations with Health, Theater and Psychology Departments; partnerships with organizations such as American Association Family and Consumer Sciences; Association Gerontology in Higher Education, and private donors. The presenter also covers innovative teaching modalities such as laboratories, research, student club, and online teaching as an attempt to accommodate students’ needs. Lastly, it discusses the incorporation of workforce development data and how it is influenced by national and institutional policies and practices—ultimately creating a healthy environment to promote enrollment growth by strengthening student’s retention and completion. Part of a symposium sponsored by the Community College Interest Group.

The forms of educational process organization at the institution of secondary vocational education

The paper actualizes the problem of the effectiveness of educational process organization at the institution of secondary vocational education. Various aspects of education in the system of secondary vocational education are presented and special attention is focused on the forms of educational process organization. The author shares the experience of students education through the use of such forms of educational process organization as student self-government and student public association in the branch of Murmansk Arctic State University in Kirovsk. The principles on which student self-government in the branch is based (the principle of statehood, the principle of voluntariness, the principle of unification, the principle of autonomy, the principle of partnership, the principle of consistency, the principle of corporatism) are indicated and the characteristics of these principles are given. The value foundations of student self-government organization in the branch are presented: goodness, justice; mercy; honour; dignity; respect for the dignity of another person, equality, responsibility, etc. The types of student self-government are designated: student council; student union; student club for social design; student parliamentary club, etc. The educational possibilities of student public associations of the branch (civil-patriotic; sports and recreation; research; cultural and leisure; professionally oriented orientation) are considered. The goals, objectives and activities of student public associations Student patriot citizen, Ministry of Sports, Branch of Culture and Creativity are also considered. The author indicates the values to which students who take part in the activities of student public associations are attached. The conclusion is made about the effectiveness of student self-government and student public associations as forms of educational process organization in the branch for the improvement of such qualitative indicators of students education as partnership, mutual responsibility, moral interaction, social guidelines in project work, mobilization for important tasks solving.

Network Structure of Affective Communication and Shared Emotion in Teams

This paper identifies the relative effectiveness of two mechanisms of emotional contagion on shared emotion in teams: explicit mechanism (active spreading of one’s emotion) and implicit mechanism (passive mimicry of others’ emotion). Using social network analysis, this paper analyzes affective communication networks involving or excluding a focal person in the process of emotional contagion by disaggregating team emotional contagion into individual acts of sending or receiving emotion-laden responses. Through an experiment with 38 pre-existing work teams, including undergraduate or MBA project teams and teams of student club or co-op officers, we found that the explicit emotional contagion mechanism was a more stable channel for emotional contagion than the implicit emotional contagion mechanism. Active participation in affective communication, measured by outdegree centrality in affective communication networks, was positively and significantly associated with emotional contagion with other members. In contrast, a team member’s passive observation of humor, measured by ego network density, led to emotional divergence when all other members engaged in humor communication. Our study sheds light on the micro-level process of emotional contagion. The individual-level process of emotional convergence varies with the relational pattern of affective networks, and emotion contagion in teams depends on the interplay of the active expresser and the passive spectator in affective networks.

Law and Disorder: Ontario Catholic Bishops’ Opposition to Gay-Straight Alliances

Originating in the United States, a Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA) is an in-school student club whose focus is on making the school a safe space for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students and their straight allies by raising awareness about, and hopefully reducing, school-based homophobia. The ongoing struggle for GSAs in Canadian Catholic schools is one example of how clashes continue to be played out between Catholic canonical law and Canadian common law regarding sexual minorities. This paper draws upon Foucault’s Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, and The History of Sexuality Vol. 1: An Introduction to analyze one particularly influential curricular and policy document entitled Pastoral Guidelines to Assist Students of Same-Sex Orientation from the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops. This paper posits that Catholic doctrine about non-heterosexuality functions as a Foucaultian Panopticon enabling Catholic education leaders to observe and correct the behaviour of non-heterosexual teachers and students that they deem runs counter to the values of the Vatican. This paper argues that successful resistance to the powerful disciplining regime of the Catholic school is possible.

СОЦІОКУЛЬТУРНА ДІЯЛЬНІСТЬ СТУДЕНТСЬКОГО КЛУБУ В СИСТЕМІ ЗАКЛАДУ ВИЩОЇ ОСВІТИ

У статті обґрунтовано соціокультурна діяльність як систему дій, що відображає цілі і функції у сфері культури і дозвілля з метою задоволення і реалізації інтересів, потреб та розкриття творчого потенціалу студентської молоді. Охарактеризовано напрями та форми діяльності студентських клубів закладів вищої освіти. Запропоновано соціокультурну програму, яка полягає в соціалізації творчої особистості учасника, у виявленні активності студентів у різних напрямах діяльності студентського клубу. The article substantiates sociocultural activity as a system of actions, reflects the goals and functions of policies in the field of culture and leisure in order to satisfy and realize interests and needs, unlocking the creative potential of students. The directions and forms of activity of student clubs of higher educational institutions are characterized. A sociocultural program is proposed, which consists in the socialization of the personality of the participant, in the identification of student activity in various areas of the student club.