Search Results (19)

This research presents a systems-thinking analysis of Green Internet implementation in Zimbabwe, integrating the Socioecological Model and Life Cycle Model to provide a multi-faceted understanding of the challenges involved. This study analytically investigates the multilevel socioecological factors and dynamics of the technology life cycle that influence the adoption of sustainable IT principles among institutional actors. Utilizing a hermeneutic phenomenographic approach and data from 102 in-depth interviews, this study reveals a significant lack of awareness, inconsistent implementation, and systemic constraints. A key analytical finding is the dominance of cost-driven procurement and a widespread “technological fetish”, which, combined with the absence of a national e-waste regulation, constitutes a permissive constraint that enables unsustainable practices in the country. The study identifies the lack of a formal e-waste recycling infrastructure and a “fear of disposal” as critical inhibitors in the end-of-life phase of the technology life cycle. Rather than viewing these issues in isolation, this research uses a systems lens to identify the establishment of a national e-waste law with mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as a crucial leverage point. This intervention is a strategic measure to overcome structural impediments and promote sustainable urban development in policy-fragile, low-resource contexts, providing valuable insights for policymakers and contributing to the broader discourse on sustainable ICT adoption in education. Full article

Previous research has shown that medical practitioners’ conceptions of their profession play a significant role in their practice. This study extends that research by investigating ways in which different conceptions of ‘being a doctor’ may act to expand or limit the potential for future development as a doctor. Based on previous research that identified different conceptions of ‘being a doctor’ and ‘developing as a doctor’, a chi-square test of association between the two sets of conceptions was undertaken and a statistically significant association found. More and less complex conceptions of being a doctor were associated with more and less complex conceptions of developing as a doctor, respectively. This raises the likelihood that conceptions of being a doctor that develop early in one’s career may act to limit the potential for future development. Consequently, the paper recommends that different conceptions of medical practice be addressed as part of medical education. To help with this, the paper describes an innovative educational design based on the ‘variation theory of learning’ proposed within a phenomenographic epistemology. The educational design is specifically intended to help trainees become aware of elements of practice and development that they have not previously discerned. Full article

The purpose of this study is to investigate Japanese preservice elementary science teachers’ perceptions of environmental education through the theme of biodiversity. The investigation interpreted the array of meanings pre-service teachers construct for environmental phenomena as part of a curriculum addressing the environment. Participants’ experiences, perceptual differences, and intellectual representations regarding environmental education were epistemologically disclosed by a phenomenographic approach. Research was implemented as part of a curriculum that combined environmental education and biodiversity themes with storytelling activities. The data from a structured questionnaire with open-ended questions were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. The results suggest that the multilayered nature of environmental education can be better understood through the lens of complex environmental issues, such as biodiversity. Findings indicate that preservice teachers highly valued cognitive and belief aspects of values, while having a less comprehensive understanding of both the social and civic engagement and the cultural dimensions of values. Full article

Background: Adolescent depression is a growing public health concern. Health promotion for this group requires an understanding of what health means in the context of depression. Given that parents play a central role in adolescents’ everyday lives, their perspectives on health for adolescents are important. The aim of this study was to describe parents’ perceptions of what health means for adolescents with depression. Methods: This qualitative study employed a phenomenographic approach. In-depth interviews were conducted with 28 parents of adolescents with depression. The analysis resulted in four categories, each comprising two sub-categories, reflecting variations in how health was perceived. Results: Parents described health for adolescents with depression in terms of taking initiative in everyday life and creating a daily structure through routines (navigating daily life with depression); experiencing belonging in supportive relationships and understanding one’s own value (building trust in self and others); having a positive outlook while facing struggles and finding pleasure in daily activities (experiencing joy despite depression); and balancing body and mind and maintaining healthy habits (supporting well-being despite depression). Conclusions: The findings provide new insights into how parents understand health for adolescents with depression. These perceptions may inform the development of supportive and health-promoting strategies tailored to adolescents’ and their families’ everyday challenges. Full article

This article examines the phenomenon whereby ‘professionalism’ is used as a concept in higher education (HE), specifically regarding HE’s relationships with professions in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). We examine the implications for human development arising from the influence of professionalism in HE, presenting the qualitative interpretations of second-career academics, a term we use to describe university teaching staff recruited for their prior industrial experience in STEM professions. Using a phenomenographic approach, we examine the conception of second-career academics and how professionalism influences educational policy and practice in HE. We present four successively inclusive conceptions of experiences, with professionalism expressed as making normative judgements of students’ interactions and behaviours, negotiating those interactions and behaviours with students, critiquing the professional applicability of curricula and activities, and changing those curricula and activities to suit the needs of STEM professions. These conceptions expose challenges related to policy and practice and the roles undertaken by second-career academics, including their enculturation of students into the normative expectations of STEM professions, their influence on the apparent correspondence between HE and work in STEM, and their marketing of STEM professions inside HE. Full article

This paper reports from a design-based research project seeking to reduce bullying, and so, contribute to the sustainability goal of improving (understanding of) justice. Goals such as this call for holistic and interdisciplinary ways of thinking that are quite at odds with the linear and reductionist epistemologies available with globally dominant ‘neoliberal’ discourses on education and educational decision making. To achieve goals such as improving justice, sustainable education and educators must explore and champion expansive ways of knowing that acknowledge and celebrate the complexity of everyday learning contexts. Responding to this need, this paper presents a case study of how we, as a group of educational designers and teacher educators, have explored how the arts-based pedagogy known as Creative Body-Based-Learning, when coupled with Engeström’s expansive theory of learning, can provide an alternative structure and methodology for teacher professional knowledge production. The paper will also outline the use of the research methodology of computer-aided phenomenography as a means of evaluating this kind of complex learning where simple testing and self-reporting are typically inadequate. Full article

The purpose of this study was to explore nurses’ care experiences for COVID-19 patients during the pandemic in Taiwan. The qualitative approach of phenomenography was used. Thirty-four nurses were recruited from two assigned hospitals in which COVID-19 patients were treated in Taiwan from July to May 2021. The method of data collection in the study involved a semi-structured interview and drawing. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Phenomenographic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. Four categories of description of experiences of caring for COVID-19 patients were identified: facing uncountable stresses from all sides, strict implementation of infection control interventions to provide safe care, confronting ethical dilemmas and making difficult decisions, and reflecting on the meaning of care in nursing. Professional accountability was the core theme found to represent the central meaning of nurses caring for COVID-19 patients. Nurses were under enormous stress while caring for COVID-19 patients during the pandemic and were negatively affected physically, psychologically, and socially. Professional accountability in caring for COVID-19 patients can be enhanced through adequate support from nursing managers and by in-service training designed to update knowledge and skills related to infection control intervention. Full article

Workplace learning (WPL) is a complex phenomenon involving the intertwined processes of working and learning. Recent studies have shown the importance of sustainable perspectives in WPL situations. In the literature, sustainable development is still predominantly referred to environmental, economic and social sustainability. In this study, sustainable perspectives denote the widespread use of previous knowledge, the rapid application of new knowledge and the effects of this knowledge on well-being, thus leaning on human sustainability. The purpose of this study is to examine conceptions of WPL among Finnish police supervisors and to reveal whether sustainable learning perspectives manifest. Eight thematic interviews were analysed using phenomenographic and theory-driven content analyses. The analysis produced six main categories of WPL, and sustainable learning perspectives manifested in all categories. This study confirms previous findings regarding WPL and presents similarities in sustainable learning perspectives to those found in previous research. Learning outcomes can be improved by understanding WPL conceptions and sustainable learning perspectives; thus, the findings of this study can help organisations, supervisors and human resources better plan and implement sustainable WPL possibilities for employees and their careers. Full article

Many older adults with complex illnesses are today cared for by their next of kin in their own homes and are often sent between different caregivers in public healthcare. Mobile Geriatric Teams (MGTs) are a healthcare initiative for older adults with extensive care needs living at home, coordinated between hospital, primary, and municipal care. The study aims to describe how next of kin experience care efforts from an MGT for their older adult family members. The study has a descriptive qualitative design and uses a phenomenographic approach. Fourteen next of kin to older adult family members who receive efforts from an MGT were interviewed. Two descriptive categories reflecting their experiences emerged: Professional care and No longer having the main responsibility. The study shows that the participants valued that the staff was very competent, that the physician made home visits and could make quick decisions, and that treatments were given at home. They feel that they receive support and experience security and that a burden is lifted from them. Our study shows that through the MGT, next of kin become involved in the care and are relieved of the burden of responsibility of caring for their older family member. Full article

Hospital admission is associated with a high risk of harm, particularly for older people, and family members play a critical role in providing care. The aim of this study was to explore family caregivers’ experiences in preventing harm to older people during hospitalization. The phenomenographic approach was applied. Thirty family caregivers were asked to describe their experiences of preventing harm to older people. Semi-structured interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Participants described preventing harm as “essential care”, “an important step toward recovery”, “a load off the mind”, “outcomes of collaboration among caregivers and health professionals”, and “improvement in the quality of life after discharge”. The core theme was to achieve the goal of integrated care for older people. The results can help improve caregiving processes and prevent harm to older people during hospitalizations. They can assist in developing strategies for the delivery of safe care for older people. Full article

Despite the abundance of decades of research into teacher leadership, uncertainty remains due to confusion around the notions of teacher leadership and the unity or at least the authenticity of definitions, and there is a need for a deeper understanding of this leadership process as the teacher works with students in the classroom. The existing definitions and descriptions of teacher leadership do not determine the connection between teacher leadership and student learning, and the subject remains empirically unsubstantiated. The aim of this study was to develop a set of categories of description derived from the teachers’ conceptions of their leadership in the classroom through learning interactions with students. The study was based on the phenomenographic research methodology. Data were collected by conducting semistructured interviews with 37 teachers. A phenomenographic analysis sought a description, analysis, and understanding of experiences with the focus on variation in the conceptions of the phenomenon, as experienced by teachers. Findings revealed that teachers discern their leadership through working with students at school in three stages represented by three categories of description—transferring knowledge, expanding learning capacity, and creating knowledge. All these stages are linked by teacher-student interaction which facilitates successful and meaningful learning for students within the classroom. The connections between the three stages demonstrate the need for teacher–student collaboration, teaching personalization, the professional expertise of the teacher, and learning cocreation. The findings of this study contribute to the expansion of the concept of teacher leadership not only as expert influence through the application of specific teaching methods, but as a coherent process from knowledge transfer to its creation through reciprocal teacher–student learning in the classroom. Full article

Ensuring that children have opportunities to be involved in decision-making regarding their own care is associated with quality improvement in pediatric rehabilitation. The aim of the study was to explore parents’ perceptions of the value of children’s participation in pediatric rehabilitation services. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 parents of children with disabilities who visited pediatric rehabilitation services. A phenomenographic analysis method was used. Three categories developed from the analysis describing how participation generated value in terms of empowerment, self-awareness, and independence. The outcome space describes a hierarchical relationship between the categories and their influence on each other. Independence achieved through participation was a core aspect and is at the highest level in the hierarchy since it includes and depends on the outcomes from both empowerment and self-awareness. Parents’ perceptions of the value of children’s participation in pediatric rehabilitation services include the possibility for the child to use their entire capacity through values created in terms of empowerment, self-awareness, and independence, in order to live the best life possible. Children with disabilities are diverse as a group, and further research to identify barriers and facilitators of participation is needed to adjust interventions within pediatric rehabilitation services to ensure that children with disabilities can be increasingly empowered, self-aware, and independent. Full article

This study explores teacher candidates’ experiences of grading in higher education. A phenomenographic approach was adopted and four qualitatively different categories were identified. Grading was experienced as: self-identification, motivation, personal interpretation and academic enculturation. The results indicate that teacher candidates accept existing grading systems but have difficulty interpreting and explaining them, illustrating areas of importance in teacher education and argues that if teacher candidates do not perceive genuine differences in the performance of assessing by grade descriptors, there is a risk that they may develop an insufficient understanding of grading practices. Full article

COVID-19 restrictions led to reduced levels of physical activity, increased screen usage, and declines in mental health in youth; however, in-depth understandings of the experiences of high school student-athletes have yet to be explored. To describe the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic on student-athletes’ physical activity, social connection, and mental health, 20 high school student-athletes living in Calgary, Alberta participated in semi-structured interviews, designed using phenomenography. Participants reported variations in physical activity, social connections, and mental health which were influenced by stay-at-home restrictions and weather. Access to resources, changes to routines, online classes, and social support all influenced engagement in physical activity. School and sports provided opportunities for in-person social connections, impacted by the onset of the pandemic. Participants reported their mental health was influenced by social connections, online classes, and physical activity. Findings from this study will inform the development of resources for high school student-athletes amidst COVID-19. Full article

Digital health technologies such as mobile health (mHealth) are considered to have the potential to support the needs of older adults with cognitive impairment. However, the evidence for improving health with the use of mHealth applications is of limited quality. Few studies have reported on the consequences of technology use concerning the older adults’ quality of life. The purpose of this study was to describe perceptions of mHealth and its impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among older adults with cognitive impairment. The study was conducted using a qualitative design with a phenomenographic approach. A total of 18 older participants with cognitive impairment were interviewed. The interviews were analyzed in order to apply phenomenography in a home-care context. The results showed variations in the older adults’ perceptions that were comprised within three categories of description; Require technology literacy, Maintain social interaction, and Facilitate independent living. In conclusion, the development and design of mHealth technologies need to be tailored based on older adults´ needs in order to be understood and perceived as useful in a home-care context. For mHealth to support HRQoL, healthcare should be provided in a way that encourages various forms of communication and interaction. Full article