Progress in Language, Literature and Education Research Vol. 3

This chapter focuses on stress, burnout, job dissatisfaction and turnover within the Ghanaian education sector, by investigating the impact of occupational stress and burnout on turnover intentions among senior high school teachers in the cape coast metropolis, Ghana. Job Stress is considered as a stimulator of turnover intentions among the employees of any organization. As the teachers belong to a noble profession i.e. profession of the Prophets, hence the researchers, in order to verify this supposition, conducted this descriptive, co-relational and cross-sectional study for determining the relationship between job stress and turnover intentions among different categories of teachers.

The study setting was Cape Coast Metropolis in the Central Region of Ghana. Cape Coast is the capital of the Central Region of Ghana and it is referred to as the citadel of education. The study employed the descriptive survey design and made use of both descriptive and inferential data analysis approaches.  Teachers from the fifteen senior high schools in the Ghanaian Central Region's Cape Coast city made up the population. A multi-stage sampling technique was used in the investigation. In order to incorporate all of the teachers from the ten schools that were chosen, the study also used a census method.

The study revealed that occupational stress and burn out had significant impact on turnover intention among Senior High School teachers in Cape Coast Metropolis. F (2, 517) = 9.898, p < 0.05. Also, the results of the study indicated that generally job dissatisfaction had statistically significant impact on turnover intention of the participants. F (1, 518) = 82.163 p < 0.05. The result of the study implies that as teachers continuously experience burnout, they develop coping strategies that help them to mitigate job stress and still carry on with their teaching job.

It was suggested that administrators of senior high schools should be able to plan efficient initiatives such staff professional development programs, motivational speeches, and workshops on stress management and instructor awareness-raising. Employers provide sufficient support for the well-being and working environment of teachers. Programs like workshops, in-service training, and a remunerating package should be continuously designed by schools to encourage and support teachers to remain in their positions despite the most difficult obstacles they may encounter.

Various problems in learning geometry and mastering geometry are faced by students at the school level and students in universities. The difficulty of learners in learning geometry can be overcome by providing proper scaffolding. The purpose of this study was to find scaffolding guidelines in the form of learning trajectories to improve students' geometric thinking levels. This qualitative research was conducted at the undergraduate student level, with a total of 527 students. The results showed that scaffolding guidelines gradually and precisely can help students go through the learning trajectory well and reach the optimal level of geometric thinking. Scaffolding guidelines in the form of learning trajectory to improve students' geometric thinking level starting from explanation and review followed by developing conceptual thinking. The development of conceptual thinking requires strategies in the form of developing representation tools, making relationships, and generating conceptual learning.

The paper offers psychological explanations for linguistic and educational issues that arise as a result of the accelerated loss of cultural and linguistic diversity in heterogeneous settings in Central-Eastern Europe, attributable mainly to the decline in the number of indigenous ethnic minorities. The aim is to analyze the psychological mechanisms of language and culture shift using knowledge from the psychology of learning (operant and classical conditioning) and motivation, seeking answers to the following research questions: 1) What are the possible psychological explanations of the decrease of minority language use, and linguistic and cultural shift?, and 2) What are the guiding principles that should be taken into consideration when choosing the medium of education/instruction for indigenous ethnolinguistic children in Central-Eastern Europe to mitigate this decrease? A systematic review conducted on sources from the field of the psychology of multilingualims running the SCOPUs database, and the applied behaviour analysis (ABA) on selected sources has shown that such a systematic analysis is missing. The context of the analysis is the debate between representatives of pluralistic conceptions and their opponents over language use,  cultural diversity and educational practice in heterogeneous regions. Analysing these views it turned out that the linguistic and cultural shift can be, at least partly, explained with the mechanisms of positive reinforcement, punishment, avoiding, and with the concepts of learned helplessness and culture shock. Regarding educational practice strong models of multilingual education offer ways to slow down the decrease of diversity. The Minority SafePack Initiative that calls for protection of European language minorities seems justifiable. It is concluded that further research is needed on interactions between decline of linguistic, cultural and ethnic diversity and several developmental processes in children.

Background: Students’ educational experiences have become increasingly important, as Higher education Institutions (HEIs) have attempted to become more student-centered learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the teaching and learning experience of first and third students in a selected University of Technology in South Africa.

Methodology: In this paper, an interpretive research paradigm was followed to explore the experiences of first- and third-year students on student-centered teaching and learning in a selected University of Technology, South Africa. The study incorporated semi-structured focus group interviews conducted with 20 students drawn from two selected departments. The collected data were transcribed and thematic analysis with the aid of Nvivo 12 software 2023.

Results: The study identified both satisfying and dissatisfying student experiences of the teaching and learning in the selected University of Technology. Students were satisfied with the caring attitude, empathic, and courteous behaviour of the staff.  Nevertheless, students were dissatisfied with the teaching abilities of the lecturers, incessant strike, overcrowding and state of the lecture venues, workloads and timetables, and lack of tutors to facilitate additional assistance and support, especially to struggling and at-risk students.

Conclusions: The study suggests that the learning environment is essential in the implementation of student-centered teaching and learning strategies.  As such, it is of critical importance for the selected university to improve the service quality of the teaching and learning for a satisfied student’s experience in their bid to achieving student centered teaching and learning.

Student retention in kindergarten is a common practice. Retention is the repetition of the kindergarten class so that students will obtain the necessary school preparation for elementary school. However, this practice is also used for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), without sufficient research data on the impacts of retention on this group of students. The current study examines the impacts of infants' retention on their social and cognitive domain. A sample of 102 pupils from kindergartens from all over Greece was taken and it was observed that the retention was advantageous, but only when it was performed under specific conditions and a supportive framework.

This chapter confirms the existence of an intersection between two important genres Feminist Literature and Prison Literature along with the approaches and aesthetic tools. The quest for freedom, revelation, unbosoming, revolution against persecution, and destruction of all the forms of authority constitute central points of intersection, which reach their burning point when the writer herself is the prisoner who lives the experience of imprisonment and she reveals her experience through writing a narrative text. Prison Literature is a revelation and a rebellion against suppressive authority, Feminist Literature is also a rebellion and a revolution against masculine norms, including breaking the political, social, and religious taboos. Prison literature is an outcome of real experiences, and its authors may have experienced a prison life or may heard about it through the experiences of others. Social and political reality has a connection with Prison literature. It also denounces the tactics of intellectual terror and political oppression, which violate citizen's rights, restrict their freedom, and deny them the ability to express their opinions freely.
This study suggests calling this type of literature written by such women writers as "Feminist Prison Literature" and seeks to clarify this interconnectivity and prove that the prison literature that the woman writes does not differ in its themes and features of its revolutionary content, its artistic devices and techniques from men's prison literature. This chapter has developed by reviewing a case study, the novel al-Sharnaqa/ the Cocoon by the Syrian woman writer, Hasiba 'Abd al-Rahman. The authors of the novel reveal the woman's exposure to repressive manifestations. In return, the study reveals the woman's attempts to rebel against these obstacles in her quest for freedom, and boldness to penetrate the forbidden trinity.   

This chapter investigates how district officials are empowered to implement Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement effectively in the Vhembe West District in South Africa. Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement is a document that guides or describes the teaching, learning, and assessment process in the South African Education System at both primary and post-primary phases of learning. A qualitative phenomenological design was used and produced a large amount of data that had to be analysed. The population in this study comprised all school principals and officials from the Vhembe West District in South Africa. Purposive sampling was used to select five school principals as they are curriculum managers and five officials from the district as monitors and managers of curriculum change implementation. The study used theories in change management to investigate how district officials are empowered to implement CAPS in the Vhembe West District in South Africa. On the basis of these theories, themes were developed in answering the research objectives. According to the study, district officials faced the following difficulties in carrying out their duties: a lack of funding to purchase teaching and learning support materials; insufficient infrastructure; a lack of district officials in particular disciplines; a lack of clarity regarding roles; a lack of collaboration; an unavailability of follow-up visits; a shortage of computers for district officials and teacher support materials; bribery and corruption in the sale of principalship positions; a slow filling of district official positions; and an inappropriate set of skills for school management and leadership. The chapter concluded that expedite curriculum delivery by filling vacancies as soon as possible and for district officials to get ongoing capacity building so they can tackle curriculum problems.

Strategic management education is vital for preparing professionals for real work involvement. This paper reviews the essential component theories of strategic thinking and how they influence strategic management educators and researchers to create knowledge useful in professional contexts.

Design/ Methodology/Approach: The conceptualized learning intervention model (LIM) is rooted in an analysis of strategy and organizational change using intervention theory and methods of behavioral science. It also draws from theories of adult learning and development with a focus on building a learning community environment. A case study in a business school environment was conducted with a learning intervention analysis method.

Findings: The research concludes that strategic management education draws from diverse theoretical perspectives and learning intervention methods constructed from contextual meaning-making of knowing within practice outlined as interventionist strategies of learning. The practitioner research paper provides evidence of LIM’s contexts of knowing and acting drawing on my professional experiences using coaching and facilitative roles in the educational case study of a strategic management course. More specifically, the case study reflects understanding the captured processes that supported the learning environments such as the analytical process, collective process, reactive process, and emerging learning process. Practice implications: The results of the research advance awareness of theories and methods that educational practitioners apply in coaching and supporting learners of strategic management education. It considers the importance of learning interventions by inviting strategic management practitioners to examine how they integrate the theory and practice of organizational change in creating better learning environments.

Originality/Value: The study adds value by incorporating learning and organizational change techniques that integrate theory and methodology that guide knowledge development processes through the use of LIM analysis tools. It finishes with the recommended practical utility of the LIM approach as an example of how creative teaching techniques for strategic management education can be built by educational practitioners. Future research implications of practitioner research models are encouraged.

This research study aimed to determine the factors influencing plagiarism amongst undergraduate students at an Institution of Higher Learning. A cross-sectional descriptive survey employing quantitative data collection methods, including questionnaires, was used. The study was conducted at the University of Technology, and the target population was undergraduate students from their first to their final year. The significant findings of this research paper show that accessibility, pride, and teaching factors influence plagiarism. In conclusion, there is a growing need for Intuitions of Higher Learning in South Africa to create comprehensive frameworks for dealing with student plagiarism that is based on prevention and supported by effective detection and sanctioning systems that are transparent and consistently applied.