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In this article, the authors draw on feminist theorizations to examine ethnographic data, illustrating how femmephobia is enacted among boys in kindergarten. They also examine how teachers’ well-intended responses may inadvertently legitimize femmephobia when a femininity-affirmative orientation is not applied. The authors argue that intentional gender-affirming actions by education stakeholders are necessary for promoting and supporting fluid gender explorations in kindergarten, especially in terms of valuing and validating femininity among boys. Specifically, they consider the potentials of femininity-affirmative pedagogy as one approach to countering femmephobia and working towards gender inclusion and equality in early education.

Keywords: childhood, early education, feminist theory, gender-affirming, gender policing

Artificial intelligence (AI) has contributed to various facets of human lives for decades. Teachers and students must have competency in AI and AI-empowered applications, particularly when using online electronic platforms such as learning management systems (LMS). This study investigates the structural relationship between AI literacy, academic well-being, and educational attainment of Iranian undergraduate students. Using a convenience sampling approach, we selected 400 undergraduate students from virtual universities equipped with LMS platforms and facilities. We collected data using three instruments—an AI literacy scale, an academic well-being scale, and educational attainment scale—and analyzed the data using Smart-PLS3 software. Results showed that the hypothetical model had acceptable psychometrics (divergent and convergent validity, internal consistency, and composite reliability). Results also showed that the general model had goodness of fit. The study thus confirms the direct effect of AI on academic well-being and educational attainment. By measuring variables of academic well-being, we also show that AI literacy in China and Iran significantly affects educational attainment. These findings have implications for students, teachers, and educational administrators of universities and higher education institutes, providing knowledge about the educational uses of AI applications.

Keywords: AI, AI applications, academic well-being, AI literacy, educational attainment, undergraduate students

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers new possibilities for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners to enhance their learning outcomes, provided that they have access to AI applications. However, little is written about the factors that influence their intention to use AI in distributed EFL learning contexts. This mixed-methods study, based on the technology acceptance model (TAM), examined the determinants of behavioral intention to use AI among 464 Chinese EFL college learners. As to quantitative data, a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach using IBM SPSS Amos (Version 24) produced some important findings. First, it was revealed that perceived ease of use significantly and positively predicts perceived usefulness and attitude toward AI. Second, attitude toward AI significantly and positively predicts behavioral intention to use AI. However, contrary to the TAM assumptions, perceived usefulness does not significantly predict either attitude toward AI or behavioral intention to use AI. Third, mediation analyses suggest that perceived ease of use has a significant and positive impact on students’ behavioral intention to use AI through their attitude toward AI, rather than through perceived usefulness. As to qualitative data, semi-structured interviews with 15 learners, analyzed by the software MAXQDA 2022, provide a nuanced understanding of the statistical patterns. This study also discusses the theoretical and pedagogical implications and suggests directions for future research.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, AI, EFL college learner, behavioral intention, distributed learning

In this contribution, Research in Residence (RinR) co-facilitators Mary Elizabeth Luka and Robin Sokolsoki host a conversation with members of the RinR Funder Advisory, addressing the dynamics of collaboration, impact assessment, and applied research in the Canadian culture sector, using RinR as a case in point. While projects and operational approaches that incorporate partnerships and collaboration have been encouraged and funded for many decades through programs such as the Digital Strategy Fund at the Canada Council for the Arts, or by the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada through its suite of partnership grants, how funders collaborate or enable partnerships among themselves or more directly with sector organizations has been less supported or evident. Additionally, over the last decade, industry and scholarly researchers have repeatedly noted that the sector tends to depend on a narrow band of research practices to conduct impact assessments— primarily from financial or economic points of view—and thereby to inform future directions not just for the organizations but also for the sector. To respond to this situation, in 2020, Mass Culture convened a series of discussions that resulted in various levels of resource support as well as participation commitments from several funder organizations for what became the Research-in-Residence: Arts’ Civic Impact initiative in 2021-23. This article traces the snowball effect of bringing various levels of funders onboard for this project before turning to discussions of how the group worked together throughout the project, including key learnings shared across the funding ecosystem and into the sector.

Keywords: Culture Sector, Secteur culturel, Impact Assessment, évaluation d'impact, gouvernance en réseau, Network Governance, Knowledge Sharing, partage des connaissances

Every province and territory in Canada has the authority to oversee higher education policies. In recent provincial and federal policy reforms, neoliberalism and academic capitalism have been gaining influence in Canadian higher education. This particularly applies to the policy reform plan Alberta 2030: Building Skills for Jobs, which was issued to develop higher education in the province. This paper critically analyzes the recent 10-year plan to reform Alberta’s higher education by combining Bacchi’s (2009) ‘What is the Problem Represented’ (WPR) approach and Chou et al.’s (2017) multi-actor framework. The purpose of this analysis is to provide insight into the actors and agendas affected by market-driven ideologies (i.e., neoliberalism and academic capitalism) on higher education policy in Alberta, Canada, with a focus on the abovementioned reform plan. The analysis underscores that the shift toward a profit-oriented approach challenges the traditional notion of higher education as a public good. This paper also discusses the implications of the reform plan and recommendations for its application.

Keywords: academic capitalism, neoliberalism, Canadian higher education, policy reform

This essay explores the relative dominance of plot, character, and theme as core concepts in English Language Arts (ELA) and argues for a renewed focus on literary discourses and the teaching of interpretive procedures. Using Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses as a case study, it illustrates how instructional attention to narrative style, point of view, and form can reveal and nurture the processes of literary meaning making and better align high school ELA with disciplinary practices of reading.

Keywords: Literary discourse, interpretive practices, literature instruction, secondary English

This exploratory study analyzes the advocacy practices and outputs of three national associations representing libraries and organizations of various types: the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) / Association des bibliothèques de recherche du Canada (ABRC), the Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC) / Conseil des bibliothèques urbaines du Canada (CBUC), and the Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA) / Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques (FCAB). Data was collected from a variety of sources, including the associations’ websites, records of federal government consultations and lobbying activities. A thematic analysis was conducted using open coding and visual theme mapping, and the results analyzed using Schein’s model for understanding organizational culture. The results provide important insights into publicly available advocacy work by these associations since 2016. By providing the first step of examining advocacy work by Canadian library associations, this study lays the groundwork for further investigation to explore the impact of library association advocacy and to identify successful patterns and strategies for advocacy initiatives in the future.

Keywords: Canadian library associations, associations de bibliothèques canadiennes, défense des intérêts, advocacy, culture organisationnelle, organizational culture

The issues and experiences of work-integrated learning (WIL) accounting and financial planning academics across higher education (HE) institutions in developing innovative WIL programs are discussed by the authors. The authors reflect on their responsibilities and goals and how these aligned with student and institutional expectations for both work-based situations as well as classroom-based simulations. Cross-institutional collaboration on WIL approaches in undergraduate and postgraduate accounting courses reveal contrasting priorities and tensions when addressing the needs of stakeholders. Particularly noticeable are the institutional requirements for a technology-driven WIL curriculum, that meet with student, industry and institutional expectations. We contribute with insights on educator preparedness for delivering technology enhanced WIL programs and provide an in-depth analysis of academic engagement with WIL designs. Drawing on Activity Theory to analyse the constraints and confluences perceived in the design and teaching of WIL programs, this research contributes to our understanding of effective ways to manage this activity.

Keywords: WIL, Work-Integrated Learning, Design

Households are central to Henri Lefebvre’s 1940s-1980s critiques of everyday life. They are the first spaces of everyday modernity that he analyses and include an extended sociology of women’s contradictory roles in consumption and nurture. Households perpetuate archaic, patriarchal forms and are incompletely colonized by media and consumerism. On this basis, Lefebvre champions peasant households as repositories of alternative potential which could form the basis for a different socioeconomic order than capitalism. Feminist analysis of ‘the global intimate’ has seized on this promise but develop beyond Lefebvre’s heterosexist and romanticized view of post-World War II women as ambiguous, oppressed and deluded. This paper mines Lefebvre’s key texts for his treatment of heterosexual cis-women and men, violence, intimacy, patriarchy, feminism and gender. These dimensions of the household give a more precise understanding of Lefebvre’s romanticization of the patriarchal peasant household and community. He is a transitional figure from the Marxist tradition who prefigures feminist analyses of the global intimate. However, households hold promise as a ‘margin-within:’ an enclaved, nested, alternate spatialisation within the dominant order of social space. The everyday household emerges as a crucible and social form of differences and contradictions that could be extended into a ‘differential space’ that supports maximal diversity and opportunity with minimal organisation or regression to more oppressive intergenerational, kin and gender relations.

Keywords: Henri Lefebvre, household, feminism, patriarchy, everyday life, global intimate