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In the broadest sense, social sciences encompass society, human behavior, and its influence on the world. Social sciences help understand how society works, ranging from the causes of unemployment, economic growth, what makes people happy, and so on. The information it provides is vital for governments and policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and local authorities.
Social Sciences and Law
Abstract
Social problem-solving skills are the individual's way for better social adaptation. Therefore, the study aimed to investigate the characteristics of Palestinian adolescents' social problem-solving (Positive orientation, negative orientation, rational style, impulsive style, and avoidance style) in connection to some demographic variables (i.e. gender, age, family composition, father's education, and mother's education). As an instrument, Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised (SPSI-R) was applied to 410 Palestinian adolescents whose ages (12, 15, and 18 years old). The results showed that the Palestinian adolescents had the highest level of positive orientation and the least level of negative problem orientation towards solving social-problems. In addition, the finding showed that there were no differences between girls and boys in positive orientation, rational style and impulsive style, while females had a tendency towards negative orientation and avoidance style. There were no differences attributed to age in negative orientation, rational style, impulsive style, and avoidance style. However, it was found that positive orientation was prominent in 18 years old. There was no difference in adolescents' family composition in their dealing with social problems. Also, there was no difference in solving social problems attributed to the father's education. However, there was no difference in negative orientation, positive orientation, rational style, and impulsive style attributed to mother's education. However, there was a relationship between the mother who has elementary school and avoidance style.
Abstract
This study is part of a larger research study that seeks to understand how employee-driven innovation (EDI) is initiated, enacted and sustained in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore. To date, most of the EDI studies are conducted in the Nordic context where management, employees and public authorities work closely with each other. In more hierarchical societies, such as those in Asia, employees may be given less discretion in exercising initiative to improve work processes and conditions. This study seeks to provide insights on factors that support employees initiating, enacting and sustaining innovations in Singapore SMEs through case studies. Besides interviews, data gathering was also undertaken through observations of the employees, supervisors/managers and owners at work and their interactions where possible. It is found that employees’ engagement in workplace learning contribute to initiation, enactment and sustenance of EDI in Singapore SMEs. The findings underline the significance of workplace learning in developing and strengthening employees’ innovation capacity.
Abstract
New Public Management (NPM)-inspired higher education (HE) governance has become increasingly topical in recent years. However, while existing research provides an overall understanding of relevant changes, it does not offer a complete analysis of complex governance and falls prey to deterministic and relatively narrow ideological impositions. Scholars are overwhelmingly oriented toward governance models or modes and the ideas of efficiency, effectiveness, and competition in NPM. They either promote these aspects as an approach to organizing HE governance or criticize them in addition to evaluating or comparing their outcomes. Therefore, based on a literature review and drawing on Foucauldian ideas of political rationality, this paper proposes a shift from the ideology-based problem-solving paradigm to a renewed approach. By calling for an increased focus on bottom–up initiatives that stem from below while studying NPM-inspired HE governance, this paper recommends conducting a discourse analysis of technical policy papers together with empirical-analytical studies to identify interpretive political rationalities and histories. Overall, the approach proposed in this paper would limit the deterministic mode of policy analysis and lead to more refined ways of understanding HE governance in certain fields, clarifying problematic situations, and effectively estimating future directions.
Abstract
Building on the findings of Cedefop’s research project ‘The changing nature and role of VET in Europe’ (2015–18), this article outlines the development and transformation of European VET over the last two decades. Exploring change from epistemological-pedagogical, institutional and socio-economic perspectives, the research not only illustrates the stability and path dependence of national VET systems (and how this sustains overall VET-diversity in Europe), it also demonstrates how the combination of incremental change and major societal and economic shocks shift the orientation of VET. This mapping and analysis of the past is used to outline possible scenarios for the future of vocational education and training in Europe. Three main scenarios - pluralistic, distinctive and special-purpose VET - illustrate the different directions VET can take in the next two decades and the challenges and opportunities involved in this. The final part of the article discusses the potential use of the scenario-approach and how this is taken forward in Cedefop’s follow-up project on the Future of VET (2019–2022).
Abstract
There is a general consensus in mainstream education sciences and sociology that the Hungarian educational system has long been highly selective. 1 Although the majority of Hungarian society has high hopes that the educational system promotes social mobility, empirical studies show that the problem of selectivity has not been handled effectively, regardless of the multitude of changes in education policy in past decades. 2 It has become a very fashionable theme in the past few years to denounce the detrimental effects of neoliberalism on the educational system for this failing. 3 We, however, argue that neoliberalism has only played a secondary role in the controversial evolution of educational policy, while its chief causes may rather be found in ambiguous education legislation.
As a result of the aforementioned controversy, the impact of neoliberal economic policy on the institutional selectivity of education needs to be clarified. Accordingly, this paper aims to highlight the main patterns of how the neoliberal idea has affected education, as well as its side effects on social mobility.
Abstract
A common feature of the present-day constitutions of the Western Balkans is the effort to solve conflicts of ethnic character using predominantly legal tools, mostly in a parliamentarian way. However, the practice shows that most legal regimes based on instruments that give preference to the interests of one or more equally strong ethnic groups can be built mostly to the detriment of democratic states. Effective and functional state institutions and ethnic power-sharing in multi-ethnic states seem to be in conflict with each other. Rule-of-law-based models can only function properly if parties have mutual trust and can solve their internal conflicts through compromises among themselves. Political agreements based on mutual trust are more effective in the long term as legal instruments. There are examples of such arrangements in multi-ethnic states of Western Europe (Belgium, Northern Ireland, and Switzerland). Analysis of the solutions of the Western Balkans countries and their comparison with these Western examples shows clearly that hard legal tools (vetoes) do not soften but sharpen conflicts, while informal arrangements based on mutual trust are more productive.
Abstract
As the role that publicly owned and private think tanks play in evidence-based governance grows, several parameters that have a bearing on the agenda, schedule and timetable of the think tanks have already been studied. Here we look at the interplay between the funding model (public vs. private) and the analysis intention (the temporal outlook; ex-ante vs. ex-post approach), choosing Lithuanian education policy, system and agents as the study domain. Among other findings, we see that the funding model correlates with the temporal outlook: the investigated representative of private think tanks tends to engage in ex-ante work more intensively, while the publicly funded equivalent is exhibitive of both ex-ante (preparatory) and ex-post (evaluative) research tactic in almost equal measure. We conclude that the private sector may afford the luxury of being more focused and efficient in its information behavior mostly due to the clear and non-debatable ideological commitment. In a deliberative democracy this is rarely possible. It would be of great interest to check whether the same generalizations hold for jurisdictions that are free from the post-Soviet administrative tradition.
Abstract
The aim of the present study is to identify teachers' reading strategy use in L1 (mother tongue) and L2 (foreign language), and also to examine whether background variables such as gender, qualification, teaching experience, platform of teaching, reading habits, majors, L2 level and the number of L2s known make a difference in teachers' reading strategy use. Reading has been widely researched yet examining L1 and L2 reading strategy use simultaneously yielded contradicting results. Furthermore, there is little research on teachers' reading strategy use although their role in students' reading is vital. An online, anonymous questionnaire including background variables and items from MARSI was used, which was filled in by 256 teachers. Data analysis found that teachers use more reading strategies in L1 than in L2. No background variable had any significant relationship with L1 reading strategy use. Reading habits, L2 level, majors and L2s known, however, did make a difference in teachers' L2 reading strategy use. Thus it seems that L2 metalinguistic knowledge and reading habits might be important to consider when examining reading strategies.
Abstract
In today's globalized, multicultural and multilingual world, diverse social processes and macrocontextual factors are influencing people's motivation to learn a new language. According to OECD, the students' mobility to study abroad has increased more than two times during the past 2 decades, which plays a significant role in the world's future development. This paper aims to obtain a deeper understanding of international students' motivation for learning Hungarian in Budapest, Hungary. To achieve this aim, in-depth interviews were conducted with 17 international students who were awarded the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship and have achieved between A1 and B1 level in Hungarian as a foreign language. The interview guide was adapted from Dörney's L2 Motivational Self System and Taguchi, Magid, and Papi scales. The collected data was analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings revealed that international students have integrative and instrumental motivation for learning Hungarian. However, their integrative motivation purposes are more common than their instrumental motivation.
