Policy, Practice, and Parenthood: A Study of Teacher Mothers

This phenomenological study extends the current research on working mothers to teacher mothers. Themes highlighted include work/life enrichment, support for motherhood role, challenge to find balance, challenging cultural norms, financial challenges, and strategies for managing multiple roles. Findings reveal and highlight challenges and opportunities that exist at the intersection of the field of education and motherhood. Also provided are suggestions for advocacy efforts for norms and policies that support teacher mothers. Implications of this work are particularly relevant in the contemporary era, wherein the roles of motherhood and teacher are intensified by "the shift to online learning" as a result of the pandemic.

TeleNGAGE: Enhancing Collaboration between Families and Schools

Findings in the literature strongly support the importance of family engagement in education. However, effective partnerships between families and schools are rare, especially in ethnically diverse communities where families may lack efficacy or face structural challenges for engagement. Additionally, educator perspectives toward engagement are often framed by White, middle-class paradigms. Educators often fail to acknowledge structural challenges faced by low-income families or the cultural contributions low-income and/or minoritized families can bring. To facilitate engagement between families and schools, a new ECHO® line, TeleNGAGE, was developed at Oklahoma State University, Educational Leadership program. ECHO®, traditionally used in the field of medicine, has utility for professional development for educators because it offers a platform for case-based learning where real problems are addressed in real-time. Additionally, didactic presentations provide professional development for collaborative learning. Through the lens of Communities of Practice (CoP), this qualitative case study explores how relationships between families and schools changed as a result of participation in TeleNGAGE. Tenets of CoP, negotiated meaning, mutual engagement, and a shared repertoire, support a collaborative approach to addressing complex problems. Findings suggest that a CoP has emerged through TeleNGAGE and has resulted in changes in perspectives across families and educational leaders about "what it means to be engaged," enhanced family efficacy for engagement, and changes in engagement practice as family voice has expanded through sharing of concerns/perspectives. These findings have important implications for equitable engagement in a convenient, cost-free environment where educators and families can communicate and develop mutually supportive understandings and practices.

Every Tool in the Toolbox: Pursuing Multilevel Institutional Change in the DeLTA Project

For decades, educators and policy makers have called for reform in higher education, yet now the urgency is palpable. The COVID-19 pandemic and heightened attention to systemic racism have highlighted the fact that outdated teaching practices can stunt student learning and trust of science, maintain systemic biases, and prevent equitable education. Promoting change to outdated teaching practices requires fundamental shifts at each level of a university--among faculty, departments, and the institution as a whole. The Departmental and Leadership Teams for Action (DeLTA) project at the University of Georgia pursues transformative shifts in policies and practices related to undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. This article provides examples of how DeLTA applies various change perspectives to shift thinking, practices, and policies related to evaluating teaching.

"Let Nature Be Your Teacher": An Ecocritical Analysis of Outdoor Play in Award-Winning Picturebooks in the United States

Access to green space has always been a social inequity, but the recent global pandemic has exacerbated this injustice for lower-income families even more. Environmental access strengthens mental health, encourages exercise and healthy social habits, and reduces pollution. Many have argued that children not only need play, but they need play in outdoor environments for physical, sociological, and social development. And yet, researchers have reported a dramatic decline in children's outdoor play over the past three decades. As the COVID-19 pandemic ravages the world, the author worries about children's access to outdoor spaces. Researchers have argued that people in urban and minoritized communities lack access to quality outdoor spaces near their homes. When gyms, schools, and parks are closed, who gets the privilege of exploring natural spaces? The author set out to determine if recently published children's books depicted outdoor play more frequently than she had found in books as a teacher. Thus, the research question for this study was this: How many award-winning and honor picturebooks published from 1995 to 2020 include depictions of outdoor play, and what does a critical multicultural analysis reveal about these portrayals? The author begins with an overview of critical multiculturalism and ecocriticism, as they undergirded her analysis of 189 award-winning and honor books, and describe some of the literature that supported this critical content analysis. Then, the author describes her process and findings, followed up with a discussion of future considerations for children's literature readers as they examine depictions of outdoor play

Do You Need 'The Machine'? Tipping in Canada Is Unconscious (Part I)

Constantly on the lookout for Canadian mathematics education matters, I recently experienced a major personal tipping point. The juxtaposition of two different customer service situations was simply too much for me to handle. Now through the looking glass, it was abundantly clear that tipping in Canada is unconscious, and the evidence was everywhere. The current state of financial literacy education in Canadian schools, the opportunity that COVID-19 has provided for us to renew Canada's implied gratuity guidelines, and an investigation into pre- and post-tax bill totals all supported my assertion that the tipping culture in Canada is a habit in many senses of the word. A look back at how tipping in Canada has evolved from parting with a few coins every once and a while, and a look at the evolution of the point of sale terminal, which I refer to as 'The Machine', helped me realize that I am unable to move on and start looking for other Canadian mathematics education matters just yet. After all, if Canadian mathematics education matters, then Canadian mathematics education matters. As such, Part II of this article follows in the next issue. Stay tuned.

Using "Positioning" Theory to Analyze a Female School Teacher's Experiences with Care Work during COVID-19 in India: Towards Decolonizing Feminist Research

The past few decades have been marked by growing awareness about the need to move beyond Anglocentric/Eurocentric epistemes, to instead engage in intellectual projects that effectively (re)present the voices and consciousness of marginalized populations (Manion & Shah, 2019). The term decolonizing research methodologies has thus come to acquire a central place within feminist research in the field of Comparative and International Education (CIE), with rallying calls to foreground the complexities and uniqueness of the lived realities of women through non-hierarchical and non-dichotomous modes of meaning-making (Lugones, 2010). However, methodological literature on decolonizing feminist research is largely linked to the data collection phase, with limited engagement with how to effectively analyze data once it is collected. This study demonstrates the use of positioning theory, a form of discourse analysis, as a decolonial analytical framework to investigate the micro details of a female school teacher's experiences with care work during COVID-19 in India. The analysis revealed the shifting, often contextual nature of the identities that the participant claimed for herself throughout the narrative, such as a pampered daughter, critical observer, adjusting daughter-in-law, guilty mother, and strategic choice maker. The study ends by making a case for the potential use of positioning theory towards decolonizing feminist research because of its ability to draw attention to the multiple and/or contradictory identities that participants claim for themselves throughout the discursive interaction.

Overcoming Barriers in Higher Education Mobility between Latin America, Canada and Asia: A Scoping Review

Latin America and Asia have been tied for hundreds of years through a transcontinental trade network, which has culminated in their current economic interdependence. This interdependence necessitates cooperation, which can be bolstered through cultural understanding between the two continents. International student mobility is one way to foster intercultural relations, which are currently quite low between these regions. Canada has faced a similar struggle as Latin America to attract students in the Americas when faced with competition from US universities, but has had some successes which Latin American countries could learn from. This study therefore completes a scoping review of the literature to categorize barriers and enablers to academic mobility between higher education institutions (HEIs) in Asia, Canada, and Latin America and synthesizes relevant suggestions. An integrative literature search of qualitative and quantitative studies was conducted using six different databases. After considering inclusion and exclusion criteria, 33 studies were selected and analyzed. The results were categorized into six themes: Cultural, Academic and Professional, Linguistic, Economic, Program Structure, and Political Climate. Each theme included factors which enabled or hindered student mobility between Asia and the Americas. The findings highlight the need for Latinamerican HEIs to emphasize relevant initiatives and qualities that go beyond rankings, boost the use of English among academics and staff, actively reach out to Asian partners, and collaborate to develop credit transfer policies compatible with Asian institutions. These considerations could be all the more timely considering students are currently more open to virtual international opportunities in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, generating possibilities of greater collaboration between these regions of the world.

Two Countries, One Goal: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Development of Study Abroad Sojourners' Cultural Identification in Japan and Korea

The number of students expanding their academic programs to include learning experiences abroad had been, prior to the recent outbreak of the Coronavirus, steadily increasing over the past two decades. This mixed-method study investigates the cultural identification of short-term study abroad participants and its influence on their acculturation process. Quantitative data from a widely-used acculturation scale were collected from participants before and after the program. In addition, qualitative data from participants' journals were examined, elucidating the role the study abroad experience played in their cultural identification. This investigation revealed statistically significant effects of cultural experiences on cultural identification, specifically decreases in cultural identification scores. This study supports the concept of cultural identification as a continuum rather than as a dichotomy. Implications suggest that a deeper understanding of students' cultural identifications can be helpful in developing study abroad programs that promote the goals of student awareness, cultural sensitivity, and global competence.

Seeking Equity, Agility, and Sustainability in the Provision of Emergency Remote Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Center for Teaching and Learning Takes an Expanded Role

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to illuminate and assess the experiences and feelings of the staff of a center for teaching and learning at one South African university during the early months (April--June 2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns when it switched from face-to-face teaching to emergency remote teaching (ERT). It explores the practical, operational, ethical, cultural, and emotional questions that the staff of this center dealt with as they supported the university in ERT provision. Method: This paper draws on in-depth interviews with 23 staff members of the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) who revealed not only the logistical, technical, and administrative challenges faced during the ERT rollout period but the efforts they made to ensure that their efforts promoted equity (for students), agility (for the university), and psychological sustainability (for themselves). Findings: Using cultural historical activity theory as a lens to assess CILT staff activities, findings indicate that a number of contradictions and tensions emerged during this period--concerning exacerbated inequities, pedagogical compromises, cultural anxieties, and psychological pressures--that could not be fully resolved but only managed. Implications for Research: CILT staff are interested not only in providing logistical, technical, and practical support to a university but also in dealing effectively with the ethical, cultural, and emotional concerns that arise in times of crisis and transition, such as the current one. Understanding what happened during COVID-19 may offer insights into how other centers for teaching and learning can adjust to what will likely remain an unstable future in higher education. Conclusion: The pandemic ruptured the previously organic change and growth that characterized CILT development, transforming it as the staff responded to this South African university's need to provide support to academics and students engaging with ERT.

Understanding Cultural Influence on Perspectives Around Contact Tracing Strategies

Contact tracing, a major way to curb COVID-19 and other epidemics, has been employed worldwide, with human interviewing and proximity tracing technology as two major approaches. While previous research has contributed some understanding of people's perspectives on contact tracing technology, much of this is based in single countries or regions where technology has been deployed. To understand how culture influences people's perceptions toward human tracing and digital tracing, we replicated a mixed-methods survey study conducted in the U.S. in South Korea and compared participants' perspectives. South Korean participants preferred digital tracing to human tracing, contrasting with the U.S. context where no strong preference was observed. We discuss how observed differences in perspective align and contrast with the country's typical cultural dimensions, such as high power distance, informing the perspective that human tracing will have greater accuracy. We emphasize the need for culturally designing contact tracing technology to highlight personal benefits regardless of cultural dimensions, and leverage technology to support social interaction in human tracing. © 2022 Owner/Author.

A Social-Media Study of the Older Adults Coping with the COVID-19 Stress by Information and Communication Technologies

In this paper, we convey the results of our digital fieldwork within the current mediascape (English) by examining online reactions to an important source of cultural influence: the news media's depiction of older adult's stress, the proposals offered to older adults to assist them in coping with the stress of living in the COVID-19 pandemic, and finally, the responses of online commentators to these proposals. A quasi-automated social network analysis of 3390 valid comments in seven major international news outlets (Jan-June 2020), revealed how older adults were generally resourceful and able to cope with COVID-19 stress. For many in this technology-using sample, information and communication technologies (ICTs) were important for staying informed, busy, and connected, but they were not the primary resources for coping. Although teleconferencing tools were praised for facilitating new forms of intergenerational connection during the lockdowns, they were considered temporary and inadequate substitutes for connection to family. Importantly, older adults objected to uncritical and patronizing assumptions about their ability to deal with stress, and to the promotion of ICTs as the most important coping strategy. Our findings underline the necessity of a critical and media-ecological approach to studying the affordances of new ICTs for older adults, which considers changing needs and contextual preferences of aging populations in adoption of de-stressing technologies. © 2022, The Author(s).

Cultural Influences on Chinese Citizens' Adoption of Digital Contact Tracing: A Human Infrastructure Perspective

Digital contact tracing is an ICT approach for controlling public health crises. It identifies users' risk of infection based on their healthcare and travel information. In the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries implemented digital contact tracing to contain the coronavirus outbreak. However, the adoption rates vary significantly across different countries. In this study, we investigate Chinese people's adoption of digital contact tracing. We aim at finding the influence of Chinese culture on people's attitudes and behaviors toward the technology. We interviewed 26 Chinese participants and used thematic analysis to interpret the data. Our findings showed that Chinese culture shaped citizens' interactions with the digital contact tracing at multiple levels;driven by the culture, Chinese citizens accepted digital contact tracing and contributed to making digital contact tracing a socio-technical infrastructure of people's daily lives. We also discuss such cultural influences with the growing literature of human infrastructure and crisis informatics. © 2022 ACM.

Latin American Professors' Research Culture in the Digital Age

The processes of social confinement caused by the global health crisis (COVID-19), have forced professors to assume new research competencies that allow them to improve science indicators and contribute to the research culture in the digital era for the Latin American region. This article analyzes the research culture of Latin American professors in 20 countries in the digital era, and their relationship with the production of scientific papers indexed in the Journal Citation Report (JCR) between 1996 and 2019. A questionnaire (with validity and reliability criteria) with a Likert-type scale was applied to 2,215 professors selected from five international scientific events. The main results show that 78% of the professors have less than 15 years of teaching experience, with ages under 44 years of age and 38.9% of them with an undergraduate academic level, 62.5% of whom responded that they have never published in indexed journals, and that they do not know the proper application of paradigms and research designs. On the other hand, 23.86% of the total citations are self-citations. Therefore, the results reflect a significant relationship between the research culture of professors and Latin American scientific production. Finally, Latin American professors have found themselves in economic, political and social circumstances that affect good research and scientific publication practices, leaving a training gap in research competencies in the new digital era.

Preservice EFL Teachers' Experiences in Their First Teaching Practicum: A Collaborative Autoethnography

This paper reports a collaborative autoethnography on a first teaching practicum at Universidad Surcolombiana. The study aimed at how we, as novice researchers and preservice English as a foreign language teachers, make sense of our teaching experiences in our first teaching practicum using collaborative autoethnography as a research method. The data were collected by reflective journals and ethnographic observations. Results show the meaning that we give to our experiences, before and during the covid-19 pandemic, by recognizing and analyzing our sociocultural context. Additionally, we were immersed in a virtual learning environment where we had the opportunity to confront unforeseen changes imposed by the pandemic, familiarize ourselves with possible issues that teachers grapple with, and imagine new ways to be ourselves.

Kalayaan, Katarungan, Karangalan and Kapwa: A Provisional Exploration of Children's Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic through Philippine Virtue Ethics

This article presents a qualitative study in which families recorded themselves reading a child-friendly book about a bear in lockdown and combines ethnographic and autoethnographic methods to examine the reactions of home educated and traditionally schooled children during Aotearoa New Zealand's COVID-19 lockdowns. This research theorizes data sourced from family reading sessions through the writings of Philippine psychologist Virgilio Enriquez and the indigenous Philippine concepts of "kalayaan" (relational autonomy), "katarungan" (justice), "karangalan" (self-respect) and "kapwa" (shared inner identity). This research considers how children's experiences of lockdown differed according to their investment in a primarily school-based identity. It argues that pedagogies of love and care, along with the prospect of supporting children as they cope with the pandemic, should entail a recentering of reciprocal modes of thinking, doing, and relating.

The Hanuju of "Writing Each Other" in Aotearoa during COVID-19 and the Coexisting Event(s) of the BLM (Black Lives Matter) Movement

Every poem has a creation talanoa: a story of how it was written. In a Rotuman context, 'talanoa' or story, can either be a 'rogrog/o' or 'hanuju'. From conception to final drafting, the creation hanuju can reveal the often-volatile relationship between a poet's internal self-talk and external historical and contemporary experiences. Memories (shaped by external experiences) will feed mulling, reliving, and reimagination (internal self-talk) and can consequently and impulsively set off the content, tone, form, and literary techniques of a poem into unanticipated directions. It is not uncommon for a poet to step away from a stanza and reflexively ask, 'How did I get here?!' Other external factors of poetic crafting are the social and political climate of the time of writing, the purpose and specifications of a commissioned task, and research. Research is necessary if a poem insists on wandering into ragged and unfamiliar territory. Of all these factors, current socio-political climate is perhaps the most influential in mobilising communities and individuals to engage in creative thinking and writing. This article is a one-way (because as a reader, you are not in the position to interrupt me) hanuju of my creative process of writing the poem "Writing each other" during COVID-19 and the concurrent event(s) of the BLM movement. This hanuju critically discusses the themes of remembering obedience, moving over in honour of disobedience, and conceding power that emerged as a vison for unity and kotahitanga. In essence, this hanuju is largely a story of disobedience: a celebration of my mapiga (grandmother) Lilly's gift of Rotuman language storytelling and the centring of the Rotuman language in a poem written for a predominantly mixed audience in the Waikato region of Aotearoa.

"Fakalukuluku": Conceptualising a Tongan Learning Approach in Tertiary Education

Given the current impact of COVID-19, the learning experiences of Pasifika students within tertiary education has implicated their social and emotional wellbeing. Engaging in a Tongan learning approach, such as "fakalukuluku," can present a viable learning practice for tertiary students' learning experiences. This paper presents the perspectives of four Tongan-born and raised researchers and educators who completed their tertiary education in Aotearoa New Zealand. Based on our experiences and reflections, we propose the Tongan concept of "fakalukuluku" as an approach to help elevate students' academic achievement in tertiary education. Our paper conceptualises and unfolds perspectives of "fakalukuluku," as a cultural practice that is appropriate, collaborative, and accorded learning stability because of its spiritual dimensions as being paramount to students' success. We propose that a strong family and community support, the utilising of university learning support and the students' spiritual beliefs can help Tongan students in tertiary education succeed.

The Relation of Paternalistic Leadership with Glass Ceiling Syndrome

Women are exposed to barriers in their work-life that are not stated clearly. Although these invisible barriers occur in many sectors, they are common in the education sector. So, this study aimed to reveal the relation between the paternalistic leadership displayed by principals in traditional collectivist cultures and the glass ceiling syndrome experienced by female teachers. For this reason, the correlation survey model was used in the research. Female teachers living in Istanbul were selected with the appropriate sampling method due to the COVID-19 outbreak. "The Paternal Leadership Behaviors Scale of School Principals" and "Glass Ceiling Syndrome Scale for Female Teachers" were applied to 358 female teachers. Applied t-test, correlation, ANOVA, and regression analysis. As a result of statistical analysis, it saw that the benevolent, moral, authoritarian, and exploitative leadership behaviors perceived by teachers significantly predicted the perceptions of glass ceiling syndrome. Although benevolent, moral, authoritarian, exploitative paternalistic leadership behaviors mainly indicated teachers' perception of the glass ceiling, they were even low. Especially authoritarian and exploitative paternalistic leadership behaviors explained 5% of the total variance in teachers' perception of the glass ceiling syndrome.

The Virtual "Faikava": Maintaining "Va" and Creating Online Learning Spaces during COVID-19

COVID-19 has had a major impact on collectivist cultures and their means of social interaction and maintaining contact with those in their wider community. This has particularly been the case for Pacific peoples living in diaspora, with COVID-19 preventing travel home and social distancing and forced lockdowns restricting the ability to gather. This has also impacted "va," the Pacific concept of 'relational space' critical to connectivity and maintaining relationships. This paper explains the creation of virtual "faikava";online meeting environments in which Pacific kava users meet, maintain "va," connect with those at home and in the wider diasporic community and learn, while consuming their traditional beverage kava.

"Imua": Reflections on "Imua," "Talanoa-va" and Leadership in the Ongoing Strategic Journey of a New Zealand University

The appointment of the University of Waikato's first Assistant Vice-Chancellor Pacific in February 2019 was an important milestone, not only recognising years of work and dedication by numerous Pacific and Maori staff, but triggering a new strategic direction for 'Pacific at Waikato'. This paper explains that journey, one that is underpinned by Pacific cultural legacies, strengths, values and identity;built on talanoa-va;informed by research, data analytics, student and community voice;combined with strategic thought and planning;and outworked in the pan-Pacific epithet, 'imua'. This is a story of resilience, determination, negotiating a pandemic, problem-solving and innovation in an environment that seeks a 'culture of belonging' and where Pacific learners are encouraged to be themselves in the pursuit of educational achievement. This paper will be of interest to education providers, stakeholders and policy makers.