The Wichita Teacher Inquiry Group (WTIG) Lessening Structural, Cultural, Indirect and Direct Forms of through Cultural Competence and Transformative Teaching and Learning

Bullying at school is an international phenomenon, and as a result there is a need for teachers to understand bullying behavior at its roots and beyond direct (hitting, kicking, choking) and indirect (gossiping, cyberbullying, silencing one’s voice) forms. If we are really going to lessen bullying at school overtime, we must talk about the unmentionable: Bullying at school is larger than one child pushing, hitting or kicking another. Literature suggests it is quite disappointing that to date there has been no significant impact on bullying at school in the United States (Juvonen, Graham, & Schuster, 2003; Berger, 2007). Literature also suggests there is little to no national conversation about how direct and indirect forms of bullying at school are connected to ideological beliefs, structural practices and cultural competence. This particular study explored the scholarly literature and educational practices of social justice guru, Paulo Freire and their implications for examining ideology, structural practices, cultural competence, and oppression, namely bullying at school. The teacher-participants in this study became known as the Wichita Teacher Inquiry Group. The six 5th grade teachers, diverse in race, gender and experience, were nominated by their principals to be a part of this year-long endeavor. Fifth grade was selected because bullying behavior is most extensive at the middle school level (Archer & Cote, 2005; Eslea & Rees, 2001; Espelage, Meban, & Swearer, 2004; Pellgegrini & Long, 2002). One of the goals of this study was to help 5th grade students learn an appropriate use of power before they transition to middle school. The principals used social justice oriented teaching as the criteria for nominating a teacher. Social justice teachers’ teaching practices are designed to pose thought-provoking problems for students to devise understandings for discussion. They address “key social justice issues locally and globally - regarding racism, class inequality, gender inequalities, planetary pollution and global warming, war and peace, etc., and seek to integrate such issues as themes into the disciplinary subject matters at hand rather than delivering free-standing lectures on them” (Shor, 2011, p. 1.). The nominated teachers who became the six teacher-participants responded to four surveys, participated in nine cultural circles (focused discussion), and were videotaped while teaching a lesson in their respective classrooms. The teacher-participants came to understand the connection between ideology, structure, culture and oppression in their school contexts as well as how all four can perpetuate direct and indirect bullying behavior. As a result of their experiences with this study, the teacher-participants were convinced that teaching from a social justice orientation, a Freirean perspective in particular, has the potential to lessen structural, cultural, indirect, and direct forms of bullying, because it poses thought-provoking questions and addresses power and inequities as it relates to race, social class, gender and the like. They were also convinced that teaching from a social justice perspective could help them to guard against becoming teacher bullies. This study was expected to allow those teachers who were very effective at teaching from a social justice orientation to share their teaching practices with those who had less experience. In the end, all social justice teachers, veteran and novice were expected to enhance their skills through this work. Future research should consider further investigation on how ideological beliefs, structural practices and cultural competence can perpetuate direct and indirect forms of bullying so that teacher education programs can address this before preservice teachers earn a license to teach

Beyond one size fits all? : an experimental study of the effects of stage-specific interventions to promote ecological online food shopping

Encouraging people to consume sustainably is more important than ever to tackle climate change. In the area of nutrition, we focused on understanding how social norm inspired treatments can effectively be applied to promote sustainable purchasing without restricting choice. Many intervention studies in this area have applied ‘one size fits all’-measures, ignoring the target group's context and psycho-social preconditions. To examine the effectiveness of tailored interventions, we tested the impact on purchasing decisions of four treatments. The treatments were developed based on the four stages of behavioural change that conceptualise behavioural change as a transition through a sequence of stages: predecision, preaction, action, and postaction. In an online experiment (N = 855), these treatments (shopping assistant, success story, commitment, and feedback) were integrated into a true-to-the-original online food shop and socio-psychological constructs were collected using a downstream questionnaire. The results of a regression analysis showed that there are differences in the effectiveness of the treatments on participants' purchasing decisions. The feedback treatment turned out to be a particularly effective measure for encouraging large numbers of people at different stages of behavioural change to select greener products. In line with theory, the impact of several socio-psychological variables designed to encourage more eco-friendly purchases increased from stage to stage. The results may motivate online food shop providers to create customer experiences that promote eco-friendly consumption. At the same time, it should also encourage other researchers working in this field to develop effective measures that support the achievement of sustainability goals

Lifetime extension of mobile internet-enabled devices: measures, challenges and environmental implications

Increasing the service lifetime of mobile Internet-enabled devices (MIEDs) such as smartphones, tablets and laptops is a promising strategy to reduce the number of devices that need to be produced and reduce environmental impacts associated with device production. A broad spectrum of lifetime-extending measures has been explored in literature and in industry practice. In this article, we present an overview of explored measures, discuss challenges in their implementation and environmental impacts of lifetime extension. We find that measures can be distinguished into measures aiming at (1) the improvement of the device design (e.g. modular or durable design of smartphones), (2) device retention (increasing the time a user keeps a device, e.g. by offering repair services or fostering emotional attachment to devices), and (3) recirculation (creating a second life with a different user and/or in a different context, e.g. by refurbishing and reselling devices). The implementation of measures is challenged by trade-offs faced by organizations in the MIED value chain, which specifically occur when revenues depend on the number of new devices produced and sold. Furthermore, measures are subject to rebound and induction effects (e.g. imperfect substitution, re-spending effects), which can compensate for the (theoretical) environmental gains from service lifetime extension. In particular, it is uncertain to what extent a measure actually leads to lifetime extension and eventually reduces primary production of devices (displacement rate). Thus, more systematic research is needed on the feasibility of measures and the conditions under which they effectively contribute to a net reduction of environmental impacts

Consumer-oriented interventions to extend smartphones’ service lifetime

A promising strategy to reduce smartphones' environmental footprint is to increase their service lifetime, thereby reducing the demand for resource-intensive production of new devices. Most of the existing literature focuses on production-oriented measures, such as improving repairability, but what remains missing is a systematic overview of consumer-oriented interventions to extend smartphones' service lifetime. In this study, we applied the consumer intervention mapping approach by systematically identifying consumer decision situations along the smartphone life cycle and interventions that encourage consumers to make smartphone lifetime-extending decisions. We identify two main mechanisms to achieve lifetime extension: retention by increasing the time during which a user keeps a device, and recirculation by passing on a device to an additional user. Altogether, we identified 26 different types of interventions to induce consumers to make smartphone lifetime-extending decisions and structure these according to consumer-influence techniques, e.g., informing consumers about retention/recirculation options and environmental impacts caused throughout device life cycles, persuading consumers by creating emotional attachment, nudging consumers through product labels for secondhand devices, simplifying execution of lifetime-extending decision options through take-back programs, and incentivizing lifetime-extension through buy-back programs. These interventions' success in achieving lifetime extensions and reducing environmental impacts in practice depends on the degree to which they actually extend smartphones' service lifetime and reduce production of new devices (displacement rate), induction and re-spending effects associated with the interventions, and the interventions’ implementation feasibility, which conflicts of interest in the smartphone ecosystem often challenge

Nutzen statt besitzen - die Psychologie hinter der Kreislaufwirtschaft : Vorlesung gehalten an der Volkshochschule Winterthur und Umgebung (VHS), 24. November 2021

«Nutzen statt besitzen» ist eine Grundannahme der Kreislaufwirtschaft. Wie lässt sich diese Idee hinter Sharing & Co psychologisch einordnen? Der ökologische Vorteil neuer Formen des Konsumierens wie Sharing, Leihen und Mieten leuchtet ein. Werden Gegenstände geteilt und gemeinsam genutzt, muss weniger produziert und es müssen weniger Ressourcen aufgewendet werden. Doch welche Auswirkungen kann es darauf haben, wie nachhaltig Menschen tatsächlich mit Gegenständen umgehen, wenn sie diese nicht mehr selbst besitzen? Wie kann die Psychologie erklären, ob nachhaltige Konsumformen und Geschäftsmodelle wirklich erfolgreich sind? Das Referat gibt Einblicke in die aktuelle psychologische Forschung zur Thematik und lädt zum Mitdenken darüber ein, welche Rolle jede/r von uns selbst spielt, dass der Übergang vom linearen zum zirkulären Wirtschaftsmodell gelingt

Nudging : gesundes und umweltfreundliches Verhalten im Alltag möglichst einfach und intuitiv gestalten

Nudges: Neues Wunderinstrument oder alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen? Seit einiger Zeit wird Nudging, ein Instrument aus der Verhaltensökonomie, von öffentlichen Verwaltungen eingesetzt, um Anstösse für Verhaltensänderungen zu geben. Dahinter steht ein Menschenbild, das der Sicht der rationalen Nutzenmaximierung widerspricht. Was die einen für eine Alternative zu Belohnungen und Verboten sehen, halten andere für einen fragwürdigen Ansatz mit einer Nähe zur Manipulation. Wie neu ist Nudging und welche Erfahrungen werden damit gemacht? Dieser Frage soll im Workshop erörtert werden