Enseigner la culture de l’autre: la tentation culturaliste

The Didactics of culture and interculturality often follows a solid approach, ignoring the fundamental diversity of each culture. Lecturers are confronted with a dilemma: How to teach the ‘culture’ of the Other without falling into the trap of stereotyping? This contribution analyses the discourse of French lecturers in Malaysia, a multicultural and multilingual country, and questions their theoretical framework of culture. It appears that more teaching material which takes into account agreater sense of diversity is needed for the classroom

Doing legitimacy in talk: the production of leader–follower relationship in spiritual consultation interactions

Spiritual leaders achieve power over their followers through various means. Often overlooked is what happens in the interaction between spiritual leaders and their followers in the creation and legitimation of the leader’s power. In this study, we examined the discursive construction of leader–follower relationship in consultation interactions between a spiritual leader and his followers. Fifteen consultation sessions were analyzed using the discourse analytical approach. The analysis focused on legitimation and discursive strategies used by the leader to legitimize his power over his followers. The findings show that a set of strategies are relied on as standard procedure by the leader to reinforce his authority, used when interacting with a compliant followership. However, a different set of strategies are deployed in situations when the leader’s authority is challenged. The results reveal that the authority of the leader is not a natural given, but needs to be actively negotiated and defended in the ongoing process of interaction

Taiwanese students in Malaysia and interculturality: when national identities take primacy over individualities

Using a liquid approach, the authors analyze the intercultural discourse of Taiwanese students who had taken part in a short term exchange program with a Malaysian university. The four participants were graduating in Mandarin Chinese in their home institution and were following a Chinese program in multilingual Malaysia. Data were collected through focus groups held in Mandarin Chinese and focused on their experience in the host country. The authors analyze how participants talk about themselves, Malaysians, and their adaptation to the host country. The processes of essentialization and othering that occur and put in contrast the host and the home contexts are similar to those held in Asia-to-Europe mobility and very far from an “interculturality without culture” (Dervin, 2010). If we focus on the construction of discourses, this Asia-to-Asia mobility forces us to relativize the opposition of cultures as an explanation for difficulties encountered by mobile students

Interculturality and didactics of culture in undergraduate degree French programmes in two Malaysian universities

Many researchers refer to ‘intercultural’ as a macro phenomenon with a rather static approach to culture and neglect the importance of individual experience or subjectivity. As foreign language learners or instructors, one should not focus on solid culture, but regard liquid interculturality as the way for an individual to enter into a successful interpersonal communication with a speaker of another language. The standpoint of foreign language instructors on interculturality is very significant because they are the mediators between two languages (source and target languages) and the relationship between language instructors, learners and knowledge are interrelated. Therefore, the instructors’ representations play a very important role in moving from a solid intercultural approach to that of liquid interculturality. In this research I examine the representations of interculturality among native and non-native language lecturers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 lecturers teaching foreign languages in two local Malaysian universities. Participants were asked to define the interculturality and intercultural skills and how they plan to develop them among learners. The data show that there are no significant differences between the representations of interculturality between native and non-native language lecturers: they share the idea that a minimum knowledge is needed in order to communicate with native speakers. More differences can be noted in their definition of the concepts and on the way in which they attain their understanding of ‘interculturality’

Enseigner la culture de l’autre : la tentation culturaliste

The Didactics of culture and interculturality often follows a solid approach, ignoring the fundamental diversity of each culture. Lecturers are confronted with a dilemma : How to teach the ‘culture’ of the Other without falling into the trap of stereotyping ? This contribution analyzes the discourse of French lecturers in Malaysia, a multicultural and multilingual country, and questions their theoretical framework of culture. It appears that more teaching material which takes into account agreater sense of diversity is needed for the classroom

Nexus of Financing Constraints and Supply Chain Finance: Evidence from Listed SMEs in China

As opposed to developed markets, financing constraints are a more pressing issue among Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets. We explore the severity of financing constraints on SMEs, and examine the role of supply chain finance (SCF) in alleviating those constraints, with the focus on a large emerging market: China. Using the panel data of SMEs listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2014 to 2020, we employ robust estimations of panel-corrected standard errors (PCSEs) and robust fixed-effects methods to analyze the issue. Our cash–cash-flow sensitivity model points out that listed SMEs in China show significant cash–cash-flow sensitivity, and financing constraints are prevalent. We document that the development of SCF has a mitigation effect on the financing constraints on the SMEs. Our robustness test with Yohai’s MM-estimator is also supportive of the main finding. Our study indicates the importance of supply chain finance development in alleviating the financing constraints on SMEs and, subsequently, supporting their sustainability journey. Overall, our findings have important policy implications for the stakeholders involved in emerging markets, and there are lessons to be learned from the Chinese experience. There is still much to be explored in the nexus of SCF and the financing difficulties of SMEs in China at present, with much of the extant literature concentrating only on specific financing mechanisms. Thus, our study fills the gap by providing a broad and comprehensive analysis of the issue

New method to synthesize mesoporous titania by photodegradation of surfactant template

Mesoporous titania has been successfully synthesized by photodegradation removal of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as the surfactant, after slow hydrolyzation of titanium(IV) isopropoxide. Fourier transform infrared spectra proved that photodegradation has successfully decreased the peak areas of the alkyl groups from the template. The nitrogen adsorption analysis showed that the pore size and the specific surface area of the mesoporous titania were 3.7 nm and 203 m2 g-1, respectively, proving the mesoporosity of the titania obtained with the existence of the interparticle mesoporosity which was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. Based on X-ray diffraction results, the mesoporous titania obtained was in the form of crystalline anatase phase. Furthermore, results from the diffuse reflectance ultra violet-visible spectra showed that the composition of tetrahedral titanium(IV) was more than the octahedral titanium(IV). When the mesoporous titania obtained was used as a catalyst in the oxidation of styrene, an improvement in the conversion of styrene (38%) was observed when compared to those obtained using Degussa P25 TiO2 (14%) as the catalyst

The role of mentoring, supervision, coaching, teaching and instruction on professional identity formation: a systematic scoping review

Abstract Background Mentoring’s pivotal role in nurturing professional identity formation (PIF) owes much to its combined use with supervision, coaching, tutoring, instruction, and teaching. However the effects of this combination called the ‘mentoring umbrella’ remains poorly understood. This systematic scoping review thus aims to map current understanding. Methods A Systematic Evidence-Based Approach guided systematic scoping review seeks to map current understanding of the ‘mentoring umbrella’ and its effects on PIF on medical students and physicians in training. It is hoped that insights provided will guide structuring, support and oversight of the ‘mentoring umbrella’ in nurturing PIF. Articles published between 2000 and 2021 in PubMed, Scopus, ERIC and the Cochrane databases were scrutinised. The included articles were concurrently summarised and tabulated and concurrently analysed using content and thematic analysis and tabulated. The themes and categories identified were compared with the summaries of the included articles to create accountable and reproducible domains that guide the discussion. Results A total of 12201 abstracts were reviewed, 657 full text articles evaluated, and 207 articles included. The three domains identified were definitions; impact on PIF; and enablers and barriers. The mentoring umbrella shapes PIF in 3 stages and builds a cognitive base of essential knowledge, skills and professional attitudes. The cognitive base informs thinking, conduct and opinions in early supervised clinical exposure in Communities of practice (COP). The COPs’ individualised approach to the inculcation of desired professional characteristics, goals, values, principles and beliefs reshapes the individual’s identity whilst the socialisation process sees to their integration into current identities. Conclusion The mentoring umbrella’s provides personalised longitudinal support in the COP and socialisation process. Understanding it is key to addressing difficulties faced and ensuring holistic and timely support. </jats:sec