GaeltechVR: Measuring the Impact of an Immersive Virtual Environment to Promote Situated Identity in Irish Language Learning

This study investigates how a design-based research methodology is best suited to measuring the impact of a designed virtual reality experience to improve situated identity in Irish learners focusing on their attitudes, motivation, and confidence as Irish language learners. This paper describes the design of GaeltechVR: an immersive Irish language VR experience designed for the VIVE Pro. It also gives the results of a mixed-methods study to measure the impact in a local adult Irish language learner context. A questionnaire on situated attitudes and motivation to language learning (Ushioda & Dörnyei, 2009) was adapted for the Irish context to investigate a small scale sample of the local context’s attitudes to Irish language learning. The participant’s gameplay was recorded for analysis along with questionnaires on presence (Witmer & Singer, 1998), simulator sickness and an adapted questionnaire on their attitudes after the intervention.Using best practice in design-based research experiments (Nelson, Ketelhut, Clarke, Bowman, & Dede, 2013) the study had two main goals: To investigate the usability of the design of GaeltechVR and to measure the impact of the intervention on attitudes, identity and motivation in the local Irish language learning context.

Analysing the ways of participating in interview settings: young people’s identity performances and social class in focus groups

Critical discussions on the focus group method have highlighted the importance of considering the forms of interaction generated in groups. In this empirical paper we argue that these forms of interaction are intimately linked to the ways participants interpret the study setting, and these interpretations are likely to differ significantly depending on participants’ social backgrounds. In the light of our data consisting of 18 focus groups with 15-year-old school pupils from both affluent and deprived neighbourhoods of Helsinki discussing film clips about young people drinking alcohol, we ask what kinds of modes of participation are mobilised in focus group discussions in order to mark the social position of participants. We further analyse these modes in relation to situated identity performances, arguing that contextual factors of the study setting become especially important to consider when researching vulnerable groups and heterogeneous populations. The analysis yields three modes of participation: these are active/engaged, resistant/passive and dominant/transformative. We argue that these modes can be viewed as actively taken positions that reveal what kinds of identities and competences participants are able and willing to mobilise in the study setting, and that recognising these modes is important in all interview settings.

Perceived Accent Discrimination: Psychosocial Consequences and Perceived Legitimacy

Prior research has documented that nonstandard ways of speaking can be subject to discrimination, and that nonstandard speakers are aware of the biases toward their accents. However, few studies have investigated the consequences of this for the stigmatized speaker. The objectives of this study are to explore how perceived legitimacy of discrimination moderates the relationship between perceived accent discrimination and the following two variables: (a) situated francophone identity and (b) French language confidence. Participants were nonnative ( n = 113) and native ( n = 225) speakers of French who completed questionnaires assessing the above constructs. Moderated regression analyses revealed that language discrimination is significantly and negatively related to language confidence. For native speakers from a high vitality region, legitimacy was found to moderate the relation between language discrimination and identity. When discrimination was perceived to be less legitimate, the relation between perceived discrimination and situated identity was positive.

Introducing Phenomenological Research Methodology in Sustainable Consumption Literature: Illustrations From India

In this age of rising consumerism, it is evident that we need to move toward a more environmentally sustainable and socially just form of consumption patterns by surpassing the impasse currently faced by various sustainable consumption policies. Without any further delay, we need to embrace an apt methodological orientation to gain a better socioculturally situated conceptual understanding of consumers and a means to obtain empirical insights into drivers of socioenvironmentally impactful consumption patterns to be able to proceed toward efficacious sustainable consumption policies. This article proposes a phenomenological research methodology–based conceptual framing and a step-by-step methodological approach based on that framing to gain an in-depth understanding of how consumers being socioculturally situated identity projects–driven subjects embed consumer goods as integral parts of their life narratives and how that in turn acts as the drivers of their consumption. The elaborated steps of interpreting collected consumer narratives are presented with examples from an empirical research conducted in a few Indian cities. Critical reflections on diverse issues that may arise while employing this methodology in similar contexts like India are then discussed. The conclusion highlights how this understanding of consumer could make a novel contribution to sustainable consumption literature.

Overseas trained teachers (OTTs) in England

The recruitment of overseas trained teachers (OTTs) in England has seemingly disappeared from the policy radar despite their large numbers, continuing impact on primary and secondary education, and the ongoing second wave of teacher migration that started in 2014. OTTs continue to contribute to stability and continuity of provision in primary and secondary schools. From a qualitative study on ‘A day in the life of an overseas trained teacher’, this article examines (a) strategies used by OTTs to cope in their daily working lives and (b) teaching experience of OTTs in England compared with their teaching experiences in their countries of origin. The findings suggest that whereas all OTTs are ‘surviving and coping’ with the demands of their jobs, they do not appear to be ‘thriving and flourishing’. This is against the background of a racialized education and migration policy context that grants exclusions from undertaking UK Qualified Teacher Status to teachers from White, industrialized countries, but not for OTTs from non-White, non-industrialized countries. Through personal agency and a strong sense of self (or their ‘situated identity’), OTTs navigate complex institutional and regulatory hurdles in order to survive and cope. The article concludes that the education system, school governors and school leaders can do more to ensure all teachers thrive and flourish, and not just some.

One English Language Arts Teacher’s Journey as a Secondary Teacher-Mentor: Life in the Hyphen

This article shares the results of a case study that explored Annie’s socially situated identity as a secondary English Language Arts teacher-mentor over 5 years at an urban school. Annie’s identities as a teacher-mentor occupied the space of the hyphen—sometimes a teacher, sometimes a mentor, sometimes both. Using discourse analysis, we describe how Annie positioned herself and was positioned as a mentor and a teacher. We explore Annie’s transformations informed by figured worlds associated with the Discourses of Mentor and Teacher at College Prep. Annie’s teacher-mentor identity shifted, evolved, and overlapped in this space as she interacted at College Prep and was influenced by institutional and societal Discourses, including students’ home Discourses. The study points to the need for more and perhaps different kinds of support for mentor-teacher/teacher-mentors who work in urban school environments to prepare them to negotiate potential conflicts in their identities.