University of Redlands

Decolonial, culturally responsive leadership practices are essential for humanizing urban educational contexts, particularly for African immigrant youth. Drawing on a 10-month qualitative case study with Ethiopian immigrant students, we analyze how Eurocentric schooling norms complicated racial identity construction and marginalize students’ cultural identity expressions. Despite academic success, we found that participants experienced racial othering, epistemic exclusion, and harmful treatment from peers and educators. Their narratives challenge dominant assumptions and reveal how traditional leadership models reinforce colonial logics. We propose decolonial extensions to culturally responsive school leadership that reimagine how urban education is led and lived today and into the future.

ABSTRACT Cancer cell-autonomous type 1 interferon (IFN-1) production and signaling is frequently activated in response to DNA damage and has been associated with the development of therapy resistance in several cancer types. However, its cell-autonomous role in driving resistance in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), a disease defined by near-universal exposure to genotoxic therapy as frontline treatment, remains unclear. Specifically, whether IFN-1 functions in HGSOC as only a response to genotoxic stress or can independently act in driving resistance phenotypes has not been studied. Utilizing a syngeneic patient-derived model of cisplatin-sensitive (SE) and -resistant (CR) HGSOC, we demonstrate that chronic cisplatin exposure is associated with enrichment of IFN-1 signaling and the interferon-related DNA damage resistance signature (IRDS). Acute cisplatin treatment elicited dynamic, temporal IFN-1 signaling and responses in both sensitive and resistant cells, indicating a conserved stress response in resistant cells. Chronic, low-level exposure to exogenous IFNβ, in the absence of a DNA-damaging agent, was sufficient to phenocopy several features of chronic cisplatin driven resistance, including reduced therapeutic sensitivity, cell cycle arrest, and decreased proliferation. Notably, IFNβ driven resistance occurred without sustained IRDS or canonical interferon stimulated gene (ISG) induction, revealing alternative mechanisms for IFN-1 mediated therapy resistance. Together, these findings identify IFNβ as a functional driver of the development of resistance-associated phenotypes and highlight cell-autonomous IFN-1 signaling as a potential biomarker for resistance and a therapeutic target in platinum-resistant disease.

• Nudging grounded in Evolutionary Psychology was applied to promote carbon neutrality. • The effects were analyzed using >15,000 responses from four countries. • Moderating perceived risks of climate change was successful in most cases. • Only Canada, recently hit by wildfires, showed a positive effect in willingness to pay. Climate change countermeasures require monetary investment for implementation through regulations, often in the form of public taxes. Therefore, public opinion on climate change is an important factor in achieving carbon neutrality (CN). How public perception is formed, leading to motivation to fund measures for CN, needs to be identified. This study aimed to identify the causal structures of attitude change leading to financial investment through two surveys in multiple countries using nudging messages emphasizing familial support (familial nudging), which is effective in promoting pro-environmental attitudes. Study 1 (2023) examined how familial nudging moderates risk-averse attitudes toward climate change. Despite successful overall nudging effects, no increase in willingness to pay for CN was observed. Causality analysis showed that willingness to pay for CN was influenced by perceived risks to oneself and future generations. Based on these findings, Study 2 (2024) introduced modified familial nudging, emphasizing milder climate risks for the current generation, but more severe climate risks for future generations, such as wildfires. The new nudging message unexpectedly increased the perceived risks to the current generation, and no positive impact on willingness to pay was observed. The exception was Canada, as respondents showed non-negative responses and significant increases compared to the other messages. The Canadian wildfire in 2023 may have influenced the perceived necessity of CN countermeasures. These findings highlight the challenge of nudging perceived impacts on current and future generations, separately simultaneously. Meanwhile, recent natural disasters may effectively moderate the decreased financial motivation for CN, regardless of familial support.

• Social media purposeful use and brand use regularly elevated in Chinese megacities. • Social media uses and brands varr over study period only for frequency and Douyin. • Spatial patterns of clustered social media uses, brands & Covid effects are studied. • Regressions find relation of social media with social, economic & innovation factors. • Results imply pandemic-related isolation increased selective uses of social media.

Abstract Cultural-Historical Activity Theory has contributed significantly to studying and promoting educational change. Its distinctive concepts inform an approach to interventionist research called the Change Laboratory This paper reports on a Change Lab in an Australian secondary school resulting in major changes for students studying for the Higher School Certificate (HSC) in the final two years of high school. It reports on the key conflict between the HSC as a ticket to university admission (exchange value) and its importance for students’ broader development and future (use value). Expansive learning and systemic contradictions have been frequent reference points in reports of school-based Change Laboratories but more recent developments in theorising transformative agency by double stimulation have received less attention. Addressing this gap, this paper considers the construction and use of artefacts that helped participants understand the problem, and develop previously unknown solutions that resulted in a qualitative transformation of activity. Mirror materials comprising aggregate and individualised student data served as a first stimulus; four-field representations of collective zone of proximal development and germ models functioned as higher abstraction second stimuli, complemented by teacher-generated ideas and models. Changes made by the school transcended the central contradiction in the local activity system, providing valuable insights into the process of change amid widespread critiques of reductive measures of student outcomes at the end of secondary school.

This address explores the importance of generating concepts from non-Euro-American religious spaces to understand religions worldwide. As an example, it shows how the Navajo concept of hózhǭ highlights the socially transformative role of experience in religious settings — something that Euro-American sociologies typically fail to grasp. It then argues that such insights are of universal rather than of parochial importance. A truly post-colonial sociology needs to put treat insights from all societies, cultures, and civilizations as potential sources of understanding.

Strong listening proficiency underpins many aspects of foreign language learning. Yet the role of teacher-related factors in its development and their interaction with learner variables is unclear and underexplored, particularly compared to linguistic factors such as aural vocabulary knowledge (AVK). This study investigated how far the listening proficiency of 186 university English as a Foreign Language learners was predicted by key aspects of self-regulation, namely teacher self-efficacy for teaching listening, learner self-efficacy for listening and learner metacognition. The predictive role of AVK was also investigated alongside these variables, before and after a metacognition and strategy-based intervention implemented by Intervention Group teachers who had been trained prior to the intervention. Data were collected using teacher and learner questionnaires as well as learner listening tests. We show, through sequential multiple regression and mediation analysis, that even after controlling for AVK, both teacher and learner self-efficacy were significant predictors at post-test for the Intervention Group only, while they had an indirect effect through metacognition at pre-test for the sample as a whole. These findings illuminate the complexity of the relationship between teacher and learner self-efficacy, and learner outcomes, as well as the impact teacher professional development may have on that relationship. They thus offer a novel perspective through which to understand L2 listening proficiency and the role of the teacher in its development.

Summary Visual proofs are given for summing the geometric series with ratios of 1 / 4 , − 1 / 2 , and 1 / 2 using a trapezoidal rep-tile.

In this preliminary paper we investigate shifts among undergraduate students’ educational values and their motivations to pursue a college degree. As the academic community strives to overcome the effects COVID-19 pandemic, many educators search for ways to return to pre-pandemic norms. They often encounter relatively lower student engagement levels and lack of preparedness, which may have been exacerbated by the conditions of remote learning. We dig into the causes of these challenges, assessing existing literature on student motivation, preparation, and engagement. Our exploration highlights the need for adaptive strategies that acknowledge and respond to sometimes subtle shifts in norms and students’ educational priorities.

PurposeHistorically, most CEOs were promoted from within the organization. The internal candidates offer continuity, are well known to the Board, and have deep institutional knowledge. However, if the Board is seeking changes to the firm’s strategy, operations, or culture, they turn to outside candidates with proven track records. Shareholders react positively to the announcement of an external successor but the longer-term evidence on the performance front is mixed. Most empirical studies have tended to focus on a narrow aspect of the hiring choice, whereas we undertake a more holistic examination involving various elements.Design/methodology/approachWe consider the salience of the CEO hiring choice from several perspectives: educational background, gender, compensation, and firm performance. We use a propensity score matching approach to ensure comparability between internally promoted and externally hired CEOs. The observed covariates for the matching algorithm include firm size, CEO tenure, and industry sector.FindingsWe find that external CEOs are significantly more likely to have received their undergraduate degree from an elite institution, majored in a STEM discipline, and earned an MBA credential. They earn higher total compensation (with a higher proportion of equity-linked performance pay) but do not outperform in terms of the ROA or Tobin’s Q metrics. Gender does not appear to play a distinguishing role in the internal versus external hiring choice. We also do not detect significant differences in firm performance outcomes associated with educational pedigree, a STEM education, or an MBA credential, whether the CEO is internally promoted or hired externally.Originality/valueOur paper contributes by providing novel evidence on the impact of educational background on external CEO hiring decisions. Our findings carry implications for testing hypotheses stemming from signaling theory and exploring the significant role of social networks associated with elite educational institutions. Also, the finding that externally appointed CEOs do not outperform their internally promoted counterparts may be noteworthy for corporate boards' hiring committees, especially when reviewing candidates who are edge cases.