Explore the vast range of titles available.

Disputing Discipline explores how global and local children’s rights activists’ efforts within the school systems of Zanzibar to eradicate corporal punishment are changing the archipelago’s moral and political landscape. Through an equal consideration of child and adult perspectives, Fay explores what child protection means for Zanzibari children who have to negotiate their lives at the intersections of universalized and local child protection aspirations while growing up to be pious and responsible adults. Through a visual and participatory ethnographic approach that foregrounds young people’s voices through their poetry, photographs, and drawings, paired with in-depth Swahili language analysis, Fay shows how children’s views and experiences can transform our understanding of child protection. This book demonstrates that to improve interventions, policy makers and practitioners need to understand child protection beyond a policy sense of the term and respond to the reality of children’s lives to avoid unintentionally compromising, rather than improving, young people’s well-being.  

This study investigates how dialogic pedagogy could potentially serve as a lever for equity in elementary classrooms in Indonesia with low socioeconomic status. Addressing concerns that inclusive education is often reduced to participation or classroom management, the study examines how inclusion is enacted, negotiated, and contested through everyday classroom dialogue. Drawing on a six-month ethnographic qualitative design, data were generated through prolonged classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with six teachers and twenty-one students, and detailed field notes. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted to interpret interactional practices within their social and institutional contexts. The findings identify five interrelated pedagogical strategies: dialogic learning, building personal closeness, providing personal guidance, confirming student understanding, and offering appreciation and rewards. Dialogic learning emerged as the central practice through which students’ contributions reshaped the trajectory of classroom activity, enabling moments of co-authorship, epistemic uncertainty, and ethical recognition. In these dialogic encounters, students were positioned not merely as participants but as co-authors of meaning whose lived experiences and disagreements reoriented collective inquiry. At the same time, the study reveals tensions in which some inclusive practices, particularly reward-based participation, constrained dialogic openness by reasserting evaluative authority. The study concludes that dialogic pedagogy functions not as a technical method but as an ethical and political practice through which equity is continually negotiated. It contributes to the scholarship on dialogic pedagogy by offering a context-sensitive analysis of how dialogic events emerge, fracture, and coexist with institutional demands in under-resourced classrooms.

An avalanche of recent newspapers, weekly newsmagazines, scholarly journals, and academic books has helped to spark a heated debate by publishing warnings of a \"boy crisis\" in which male students at all academic levels have begun falling behind their female peers. InLearning the Hard Way, Edward W. Morris explores and analyzes detailed ethnographic data on this purported gender gap between boys and girls in educational achievement at two low-income high schools-one rural and predominantly white, the other urban and mostly African American. Crucial questions arose from his study of gender at these two schools. Why did boys tend to show less interest in and more defiance toward school? Why did girls significantly outperform boys at both schools? Why did people at the schools still describe boys as especially \"smart\"? Morris examines these questions and, in the process, illuminates connections of gender to race, class, and place. This book is not simply about the educational troubles of boys, but the troubled and complex experience of gender in school. It reveals how particular race, class, and geographical experiences shape masculinity and femininity in ways that affect academic performance. His findings add a new perspective to the \"gender gap\" in achievement.

The nature of events demand uniqueness and memorability, but the specific elements of experience that produce these have not been deeply examined, particularly over the course of the event experience. Much of this relies heavily on event places and the social relations they facilitate. This research used the concept of temporary communitas and built on the event experience scale (EES) through an ethnographic study of an iconic multiday, spectator-driven sporting event. Solicited participant diaries of eight friends and family who traveled to attend the 2017 Boxing Day Ashes Test in Melbourne, Australia were collected pre-, during, and postevent to capture the event experience as it emerged over time. Qualitative analysis of the ethnographic accounts revealed four event experience themes ( competition , emotions and atmosphere, special experience, and interactions ), which collectively were connected to a strong sense of temporary communitas. These themes were evident across the event cycle, providing insight into the nuances of the event experience, and highlighting the importance of understanding the social relations generated in the event place pre- and postevent. Consequently, it is suggested that revision to the existing EES instrument is required to more comprehensively assess for temporary communitas as part of the event experience. Future studies could usefully test the factor structure of the EES with and without the suggested additional temporary communitas items and compare both models on the basis of their reliability and validity.

Quality assurance (QA) is considered a critical component in higher education institutions (HEIs) and their academic programmes in the twenty-first century. Despite significant investments to enhance QA in HEIs, contemporary research suggests that QA systems may not always meet the expectations of HEI stakeholders. The literature review suggests that differing interpretations of 'quality' in HE can impact the progress of QA and related issues. This study, therefore, aims to empirically investigate the reality of QA in HEIs, specifically how it is perceived and implemented in these institutions. Additionally, it seeks to identify challenges impacting the success of QA and propose practical solutions that may improve QA systems in HEIs. Applying a qualitative ethnographic approach, this research includes in-depth interviews with 53 participants, both participant and non-participant observations, and document analyses at three universities (two public and one private), as well as related QA agencies. The findings of this study offer a range of theoretical and practical insights. Most notably, they contribute to the existing literature on QA and HEIs by providing detailed evidence of the contentious aspects of QA and their implications, particularly regarding the understanding and implications of QA in HEIs from the perspective of relevant participants. Furthermore, the study provides QA policymakers (both external and internal), staff, and general members of HEIs with various challenges and practical solutions for enhancing awareness and engagement with QA issues. Finally, the conclusion and implications section outlines key areas for future research in different contexts of the world. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

Little is known about the usage, adoption process and long-term effects of domestic service robots in people’s homes. We investigated the usage, acceptance and process of adoption of a vacuum cleaning robot in nine households by means of a six month ethnographic study. Our major goals were to explore how the robot was used and integrated into daily practices, whether it was adopted in a durable way, and how it impacted its environment. We studied people’s perception of the robot and how it evolved over time, kept track of daily routines, the usage patterns of cleaning tools, and social activities related to the robot. We integrated our results in an existing framework for domestic robot adoption and outlined similarities and differences to it. Finally, we identified several factors that promote or hinder the process of adopting a domestic service robot and make suggestions to further improve human-robot interactions and the design of functional home robots toward long-term acceptance.

To transition to a fully digital workflow, a pathology department in a German university hospital reorganized its processes, upgrading and integrating new technologies such as an updated laboratory information system and high-throughput scanners. While the visions of digital pathology follow a \"promissory rhetoric\" of improved patient care, studies name technological and professional challenges of digital pathology. We examined the experiences of the pathology staff with the digital transformation process from an occupational health perspective, focusing on the mutual influences between digital transformation and work-related psychosocial demands and resources. The purpose of this study was to explore the interactions between occupational health and digital transformation in the workplace based on a holistic analysis of an ongoing digital transformation process. We conducted participant observation, focus groups, qualitative interviews, and document analysis using an ethnographic research design. The pathology department had approximately 100 employees. More than 30 pathology staff members and supervisors from the diagnostics, laboratory, quality management, administration, and IT areas participated. Data were collected in 3 field phases between July 2022 and December 2023, representing different stages of the digital transformation. Data were analyzed using the reflexive thematic analysis method of Braun and Clarke. In addition, 2 member-checking workshops were conducted with the entire pathology team. We identified 2 key themes and 7 subthemes. The 2 key themes were (1) highly demanding work in a complex system that does not fit and (2) striving for steadiness in an open-ended process. What we found was that the pathology department under study experienced a digital transformation process with scarce human, time, and technological resources. The results showed that the process was at the expense of the people. Digital transformation remained a compromise and did not (yet) deliver on the promise of increased work efficiency and reduced workload. The demand-resource mismatch emerged as a major digital transformation stressor. However, the slower transformation was leveraged by the pathology staff to improve the organizational culture and (again) find creative workarounds. Digital transformation led to the renegotiation of work roles and identity. It also led to the creation of a new network of connections through the implementation of new technologies but also through the creation of new forms of team communication. The modernization of the health care system is necessary, but it risks taking place under inadequate working conditions. Increased work intensity and perceived psychosocial stress during the transformation process threaten to drive even more people out of the health care system. Therefore, protecting the occupational health of the people implementing digital transformation should be at the core of planning digital transformation projects.

Dancing for Their Lives explores the vibrant world of retired Chinese women known as \"dancing grannies\" who seek fulfillment and companionship amidst societal upheaval. These women, part of China's \"lost generation,\" gather in parks and public squares to reclaim their lives through dance in the wake of Chinese economic and cultural transformations. The book challenges prevailing narratives of aging societies, portraying old age as a site of social innovation rather than decline. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Chengdu, China, Dancing for Their Lives reveals how retirees learn to navigate shifting social norms and values while actively creating new models for growing older. The book's insights resonate beyond Chinese society, offering lessons on resilience and the pursuit of meaning in any aging population. Dancing for Their Lives underscores the human capacity to craft purposeful lives amid uncertainty, transcending geographical boundaries to illuminate the universal quest for fulfillment in later years.

Electronic prescription (EP) systems are supported by health authorities worldwide, and most European countries have started implementing or have fully implemented such systems. However, few studies have explored how EP systems affect the work of health care professionals (HCPs) across institutions and levels in health and care services. This study aims to explore changes in HCPs' roles, tasks, and responsibilities related to medication management by following a national EP system through different contexts and levels in health and care services. Through a qualitative study with an ethnographic approach, including participant observations and individual interviews, this study followed an EP technology in an intermediate unit, an emergency unit at a hospital, and a municipal home care service in Norway. Participant observations were conducted for 6 weeks in the intermediate unit, the emergency unit at the hospital, and the home care service. During the observations, 20 individual interviews with HCPs were conducted. For the analysis, we leaned on a stepwise-deductive inductive approach, using the concepts of delegation and enabler as theoretical tools to explore how roles, tasks, and responsibilities were being distributed within the sociotechnical system of which EP formed part. The results showed that physicians were overall satisfied with the Norwegian EP system and expressed satisfaction that some of their previous tasks were now delegated to the EP system, allowing a more efficient workflow on their side. In contrast, the home care service managing medication on their patients' behalf described several challenges and reported an increased workload related to medication management. Home care nurses often became mediators between the general practitioners and the pharmacies to ensure patient safety. The home care nurses also developed EP-based work-arounds to enable the Norwegian EP system to work. This study revealed that Norwegian the EP systems altered daily medication management routines, removing tasks from physicians and creating and delegating new roles, tasks, and responsibilities to home care nurses. Drawing on theoretical concepts (delegation and enabler), this study offers insights into the changing distribution of roles, tasks, and responsibilities following in the wake of implementing national EP systems.