Empowering Community Leadership and Learning for Immigrant Right: A Cultural-Historical Activity Theory Investigation of an Urban Korean American Community Organization

This study aims to understand how a Korean American community organization‘s activists engage in learning throughout their daily activities for community leadership. For this purpose, the study uses cultural-historical activity theory as a theoretical framework and critical ethnography as a research method. I identified a community leadership network that includes three activities for community leadership and contradictions in the network as (possible) obstructions and potential driving forces for community leadership and learning. By resolving contradictions, expansive learning including individual transformation occurs. Based on the findings, conclusions and implications are discussed. Keywords: Learning in the community, Community Leadership, Community organization, Cultural-historical activity theor

The Effect of Design Characteristics of Mobile Applications on User Retention: An Environmental Psychology Perspective

As many people have adopted mobile applications for their hand-held devices, mobile applications are becoming widely used in everyday life. Nonetheless, some applications are used only few times and then abandoned. Particular since many firms have launched mobile applications for communicating with and delivering their products or services to customers, user retentions toward mobile applications can be critical. To address this challenge, we identify how design characteristics of mobile application enhance user retention toward mobile applications, particularly in the context of cross-channel commerce. Drawing on an environmental psychology, we address that user beliefs stimulated by environmental cues (e.g., design characteristics) affect users’ cognitive and affective internal states, which in turn lead to their retention toward mobile applications. Contributions of this study include 1) theoretically, a suggested theoretical framework for effective mobile application design as an extension of website design, and (2) practically, helping practitioners to articulate effective mobile applications or the Internet strategy in mobile-based online markets

Pretzel links, mutation, and the slice-ribbon conjecture

Let p and q be distinct integers greater than one. We show that the 2-component pretzel link P(p,q,-p,-q) is not slice, even though it has a ribbon mutant, by using 3-fold branched covers and an obstruction based on Donaldson's diagonalization theorem. As a consequence, we prove the slice-ribbon conjecture for 4-stranded 2-component pretzel links.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, V2: Implements suggestions from a referee report. This version has been accepted for publication by MR

Gendered Stereotyping in Career and Technical Education: The Lived Experience of Female Students

This phenomenological study aims to explore the lived experience of gendered stereotyping in career and technical education from voices of female adult students

Identity Formation among North Korean Defectors in South Korea: Implications from a Socio-Cultural Learning Theoretical Lens

This paper aims to analyze the present situation of North Korean Defectors (NKDs)’ adaptation in South Korea from the relationship between social adjustment and identity construction. By using a socio-cultural learning theoretical lens, it reveals structural barriers and tacit differentiations to hinder NKDs’ participation and to disturb their identity formation

Adult E-Learning Issues in Middle East Educational Organizations Due to Covid-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Recommendations

This article reviews studies on the critical issues and challenges that adult e-learning faces in the educational sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lockdown of educational organizations has forced a shift to distance learning, requiring a radical change in instructional methods. The article examines the post-pandemic learning issues that educational organizations may encounter due to the enforced e-learning process and provides recommendations for Educational Human Resources Development practitioners to overcome these challenges. A systematic literature review was conducted and analyzed to identify factors that affect adult learning during the pandemic, and the article suggests interventions that EHRD practitioners can make to address these issues. The article concludes with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of the literature and suggests areas for future researc

Leadership for Sustainability: A Case Study of a University Research Center

Research centers provide benefits to an institution, but they struggle with funding. This paper presents how leaders and boards guide a university research center for sustainable organizational development

Basis of Learning in Urban Communities: Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and the Limits of Contemporary Adult Learning Theories

The purpose of this paper is to examine CHAT as an alternative approach to understanding learning in urban communities as a means to overcome the challenges of existing adult learning theories. The authors argue that CHAT provides a comprehensive theoretical view to understand learning in urban communities driven from activities within socio-cultural contexts