Family Well-Being in the 21st Century: Guest Editors’ Note

This special issue reveals pertinent academic discourses of several selected articles that had been presented in the Marital and Sexuality Counseling Seminar (MASEC 2021), organized by Counseling Programme, Faculty of Leadership and Management in collaboration with Sa’adah Counseling and Consultation Centre for Well-being (Sa’adah Centre), Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia.

English Language Literacies – Practices, Competencies vs Demands in Academic Discourses

The role and position of the English language within the higher education has increasingly plays a significant role as the leading language of academic publications, technologies as well as communication. The higher institutions in the country hold important responsibilities to educate and produce the younger generation of Malaysians as potential human resources that not only fulfil the needs of the local and international workforce in the attempt to achieve the national’s aspiration of a developed country. This study seeks to understand the undergraduate students’ English language literacies in relation to the demand of the literacy practices and competencies needed at the tertiary level. The literacy practices in this instance include academic literacies that encompasses not only knowledge of discrete language skills and appropriate language use in context, but it is to be holistically understood to include also competence in reading and writing. Subsequently, data were collected via questionnaires and focus groups with selected undergraduate from various disciplines to investigate whether their educational and environmental factors influence their existing level of English language competencies.. Findings of the study provides in-depth insights of the challenges faced, and the language literacy practices needed in meeting the expectations of potential employers of the required English language skills to be used at workplace. Peranan dan kedudukan Bahasa Inggeris di peringkat pengajian tinggi semakin meningkat kepentingannya dan telah menjadi antara bahasa utama didalam penerbitan ilmiah, bidang teknologi serta komunikasi. Institusi pengajian tinggi di negara ini memegang tanggungjawab yang utama didalam mendidik dan melahirkan generasi muda warga Malaysia yang berpontensi bagi memenuhi keperluan tenaga kerja yang berkemahiran tinggi di peringkat tempatan dan antarabangsa didalam usaha negara ini mencapai inspirasinya sebagai negara yang membangun. Kajian ini dijalankan untuk memahami keperluan penguasaan amalan literasi dan kecekapan Bahasa Inggeris yang diperlukan oleh pelajar di peringkat Sarjana Muda. Amalan-amalan literasi yang dimaksudkan merujuk kepada penguasaan literasi akademik yang merangkumi bukan saja pengetahuan kemahiran berbahasa serta penggunaan bahasa yang sesuai didalam konteks, malahan juga kecekapan didalam aspek membaca dan menulis. Oleh itu, dapatan data dilakukan melalui kaedah soal selidik secara bersasar kepada sekumpulan pelajar sarjana muda yang berlatar belakangkan pelbagai bidang di dalam mengenalpasti samada pengaruh persekitaran akademik mereka mempengaruhi tahap penguasaan Bahasa Inggeris sedia ada mereka. Hasil kajian memberikan gambaran yang jelas berkaitan cabaran serta amalan literasi bahasa yang diperlukan oleh pelajar sarjana muda didalam memenuhi tahap penguasaan bahasa Inggeris yang diharapkan oleh bakal majikan mereka berkaitan kemahiran Bahasa Inggeris yang diperlukan untuk digunakan di tempat kerja.

Culinary Transitions: Understanding the Kitchen Space through Advertisements

The kitchen is a ubiquitous space in the Indian domestic life. Yet there hasn’t been a lot of academic discourses around it possibly owing to its mundane nature. In this article, I aim to look into the gendered nature of the space through advertisements. Advertisements are digital documents of everyday life This article deliberates on the notion that the kitchen space in urban India is undergoing a change in representation and participation. This change is reflected in the advertisements, created keeping in mind the perception of its viewers. The gendered segregation of work done in the home space have been deliberated by a number of scholars. This article problematises those viewpoints and challenges DeVault’s notion of “womanly conduct” through the narrative of the advertisements.

The Parsi Dilemma: A New Zealand Perspective

<p>The Parsis of India are a very small but important ethnic group, traditionally living in Gujarat but in modern times mainly located in Bombay, where, under the British Raj, they established themselves as leading merchants, politicians and professional people with an influence far exceeding their numerical strength. Since Indian Independence in 1947, that influence has declined as has the total size of the Parsi community in India. Many members of the community have dispersed overseas and during the last twenty years, New Zealand has emerged as a growing destination of choice. Many reasons have been put forward both by academia and by members of the Parsi community itself for the steeply declining numbers ranging from religious and ethnic exclusivity to loss of fecundity and consequential fall in the birth-rate to below the sustainability level. In my initial research for this thesis, I became aware that one reason for the decline, which did not feature in academic discourses but which seemed to be important, was the significance of Parsi culture, in particular the traditional emphasis on individual achievement, at the expense of communal cohesion. In seeking to corroborate my hypothesis, along with whether or not the current drive to migrate from India to countries such as New Zealand is having a positive or negative influence on the long-term chances for Parsi survival, I have carried out in-depth interviews with a cross-section of Parsis now resident in New Zealand. The outcomes of these interviews, together with a careful study of Parsi history and an analysis of their very distinctive culture, form the basis for my study. These outcomes and analyses have created an overall picture, which has confirmed my belief that the most important contributing factor to demographic decline amongst the Indian Parsi community has been their traditional drive towards individual material success. They have also shown that individual choice has been the principle post-Independence migratory driving force. There are more negative than positive elements associated with this migratory drive with the future of both Parsi identity and Zoroastrianism under serious threat through increasing dispersal and religious, ethnic and cultural dilution. This deteriorating situation is further exacerbated by internal strife fuelled by passionate ethno-religious debate over the best way forward.</p>

The Parsi Dilemma: A New Zealand Perspective

<p>The Parsis of India are a very small but important ethnic group, traditionally living in Gujarat but in modern times mainly located in Bombay, where, under the British Raj, they established themselves as leading merchants, politicians and professional people with an influence far exceeding their numerical strength. Since Indian Independence in 1947, that influence has declined as has the total size of the Parsi community in India. Many members of the community have dispersed overseas and during the last twenty years, New Zealand has emerged as a growing destination of choice. Many reasons have been put forward both by academia and by members of the Parsi community itself for the steeply declining numbers ranging from religious and ethnic exclusivity to loss of fecundity and consequential fall in the birth-rate to below the sustainability level. In my initial research for this thesis, I became aware that one reason for the decline, which did not feature in academic discourses but which seemed to be important, was the significance of Parsi culture, in particular the traditional emphasis on individual achievement, at the expense of communal cohesion. In seeking to corroborate my hypothesis, along with whether or not the current drive to migrate from India to countries such as New Zealand is having a positive or negative influence on the long-term chances for Parsi survival, I have carried out in-depth interviews with a cross-section of Parsis now resident in New Zealand. The outcomes of these interviews, together with a careful study of Parsi history and an analysis of their very distinctive culture, form the basis for my study. These outcomes and analyses have created an overall picture, which has confirmed my belief that the most important contributing factor to demographic decline amongst the Indian Parsi community has been their traditional drive towards individual material success. They have also shown that individual choice has been the principle post-Independence migratory driving force. There are more negative than positive elements associated with this migratory drive with the future of both Parsi identity and Zoroastrianism under serious threat through increasing dispersal and religious, ethnic and cultural dilution. This deteriorating situation is further exacerbated by internal strife fuelled by passionate ethno-religious debate over the best way forward.</p>

Yagan Heritage in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina): The Politics of Balance

This paper analyses the tangible and intangible Yagan heritage contents exhibited by the Museo del Fin del Mundo (MFM, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) and presented during its guided tour led by Yagan Community Counsellor Victor Vargas Filgueira. We show how the critical outlook of Fuegian history offered in the latter challenges the traditional past-only fossilized view of the Yagan, building past–present links and helping to overcome biased hegemonic discourses. We also discuss how employing a member of the Yagan Community at the MFM has been an efficient and low-budget strategy that helps to comply with some Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which are difficult to attain in developing countries. Significant outcomes of this process include: (a) providing a full-time formal job to a member of an Indigenous Community who has been traditionally dispossessed of/in their own territory; (b) acknowledging him as a knowledge holder and valuable member of society; (c) moving the role of Yagan People from subject to agent of the MFM. This process has fostered the dialogue between Yagan voices and academic discourses, challenging traditional Western dichotomies-ecology/economy, natural/cultural heritage, and so forth, and contributing to the discussion of key concepts on sustainability and engagement.

English as Eastern: Zhuang, Mongolian, Mandarin, and English in the linguistic orders of globalized China

Socially constructed and globally propagated East-West binaries have influenced language ideologies about English in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), but they are not hegemonic. This essay explores how East-West language ideologies are reformed in mergers with Mandarin-minority language ideologies. It discusses two separate but similar recent studies of minority language speakers and language ideologies in the PRC, respectively by Grey and Baioud. Each study reveals aspects of how Mandarin and English are being socially constructed as on the same side of a dichotomous and hierarchic linguistic and social order, in contradistinction to minority languages. The essay thus problematizes the construction of English as a Western language and Mandarin as an Eastern language; both in academic discourses and in wider social and political discourses. The essay uses Asif Agha’s theory of “enregisterment” to unify the points drawn from each study. It concludes that the language ideologies and practices/discourses under examination reproduce the displacement of a subaltern status; we describe this process as dynamic, internal Orientalism and “recursive” Orientalism, drawing on foundational theory of language ideologies. This essay paves the way for further studies of recursive Orientalism.

Luxury food tour: Perspectives and dilemmas on the "luxurification" of local culture in tourism product

This paper focuses on the Kras/Carso Food Tour to present the challenges of developing a luxury tourism product. The tour's design followed the current strategy of the Slovenian Tourist Board, which defines specific criteria for a luxury experience. Contextualized by the experiential trends in tourism, the paper juxtaposes the bottom-up and top-down perspectives on luxury experiences. The authors argue that mediation by experts familiar with academic discourses and local culture is beneficial for the development of a successful tourism product. The study contributes to the debates on luxury tourism, which have neglected bottom-up perceptions in tourist discourse and overlooked the dilemmas people face when "luxurifying" their traditions and heritage practices.

A Phenomenological Study of Sexuality among the People of Tutu Akuapem-Ghana: Implications for Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE)

Issues about human sexuality have generated serious discussion in both public and academic discourses. In Ghana, the recent frightening figures of teenage pregnancy and diverse reactions to homosexuality, gay, bisexual, and transgender in news outlets have heightened the exigency of sexuality deliberations among religious, political, human rights activists, and social commentators. Amid the controversies and difficulties surrounding sexuality matters, the question is how do Africans maintain their ‘Africanness’ in search of expanded understandings and pedagogies of sexuality? Which indigenous conventions and rites must be interrogated to have the 21stcentury African child well informed and equipped to deal with his/ her sexuality? Using the phenomenological approach, the researchers sought to examine indigenous sexuality rites and norms of the people of Tutu Akuapem Community in the Eastern region of Ghana, focusing on puberty and marriage rites of passage. The study argues for a carefully thought-out compromise between custodians of indigenous values of sexuality and modern theorists and activists for new(er) ways of conceiving, expressing, and teaching sexuality. It recommends that the content of the newly designed curriculum of sexuality education in our schools must be adapted to reflect African worldviews, values, and customs of sexuality. Keywords: Sexuality, Gender, Phenomenology, Comprehensive Sex Education, Rite of passage