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In this paper, we examine the attitudes toward integrating work and family in a sample of 247 teachers in Switzerland and Israel. More particularly, we focus on the national context’s role in mediating the relations between professional and private spheres. The data were collected by a questionnaire implemented and administered in the two countries. The analysis reveals differences between Israeli and Swiss teachers regarding the importance of attribution to life roles and their attitudes toward conflict and facilitation. Findings suggest new insights into the consideration of cultural elements in shaping the teachers’ attitudes toward the integration of family and work.

Research related to the integration of the demands of work and family highlights the difficulties teachers experience in handling their careers and private lives. The goal of this study is to examine the arguments they use to explain what might make work-family integration easier for them. A questionnaire has been administered to 728 teachers in Israel and Switzerland, two countries dealing with teachers’ work-family relations. Through a qualitative analysis of the types of arguments advanced by teachers, the reconstruction of their reasoning (for the topical and endoxical components) has been performed. Results reveal that the support of family and institution are advanced as critical aspects in both countries. Implications in shaping teachers’ attitudes towards work-family integration are discussed. (DIPF/Orig.) In der Forschung zur Vereinbarung von Beruf und Familie wird häufig auf Schwierigkeiten von Lehrkräften hingewiesen. Ziel dieser Studie ist es, Argumente von Lehrpersonen zu untersuchen, die die Vorteile einer Vereinbarung dieser beiden Bereiche beschreiben. Hierfür wurde ein Fragebogen von 728 Lehrkräften aus Israel und der Schweiz ausgefüllt. Anhand einer qualitativen Analyse der vorgebrachten Argumente wurde die Rekonstruktion der Argumentation (für die thematischen und endoxischen Komponenten) durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Unterstützung durch die Familie und durch die Institution in beiden Ländern als wichtige Aspekte angeführt werden. Es wird diskutiert, welche Auswirkungen dies auf die Einstellung der Lehrer*innen zur Integration von Beruf und Familie hat. (DIPF/Orig.)

PurposeSmart Manufacturing (SM) lies at the core of Industry 4.0. Operations management research has identified several factors influencing firms’ ability to adopt SM. However, a clear understanding of capabilities needed to progress in SM is still missing. This paper aims to investigate how absorptive capacity (AC) allows firms to advance in SM and explore how managerial antecedents support the capacity to absorb SM-related knowledge at different stages of SM adoption.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts an exploratory approach through multiple case studies. Twelve firms, operating as part of the automotive supply chain and exhibiting different stages of SM adoption, constitute the sample.FindingsThe results suggest that advancement in SM requires firms to progressively reinforce their AC. Firms’ ability to acquire and assimilate SM knowledge is supported by managerial antecedents encompassing integrative capacities to bridge old and SM technologies, managerial cognition through the clear alignment of SM technologies with strategic goals and knowledge development capabilities through practices oriented to provide senior managers with SM competences.Originality/valueThe findings contribute to SM research by suggesting that AC is a crucial dynamic capability for SM adoption. The results also provide evidence-grounded recommendations to firms engaged in the digital transformation on the managerial capabilities needed to support AC and to progress from lower to higher stages of SM.

This study aims at exploring the role of middle managers’ leadership style in promoting work engagement in public administrations. Building on leadership theory, the work engagement literature and ...

In this paper, we reflect on teacher education and professionalization from the perspective of a socio-cultural approach. The goal is to have a greater understanding of some controversies, challenges and complexities related to the implementation of inclusion and to connect it to teacher education and professionalization. Firstly, we discuss key assumptions of a socio-cultural approach, as a theoretical framework for reflecting on teacher training and professionalization and the implementation of inclusive education. Next, we present some international principles and values that constitute the normative framework for inclusive education. This is used as a basis for defining competencies and practices that are necessary to ensure adequate learning and developmental opportunities at school. Finally, we present a specific model of teacher training to highlight the potential contribution of a socio-cultural approach in considering the status and role of inclusion and special needs education.

Industry 4.0 technologies play a crucial role in assisting the automotive sector maintain competitiveness. Industry 4.0 often finds uneven application among SME suppliers. As a consequence of the supplier's technological constraints, the digitalization efforts of customers may not achieve their full value creation potential. The aim of this paper is to shed light on strategic decisions that facilitate SME implementation of Industry 4.0 initiatives. We use two case studies of suppliers to a large component manufacturer operating in the automotive sector. Despite several similarities in terms of product range and markets, these firms are polar opposites when it comes to their digitalization status. Evidence points to three key factors for successful implementation of Industry 4.0: A proactive approach to innovation; development of long term partnerships with suppliers of Industry 4.0 technologies; and early involvement of workers in the process of technological change.

The aim of this paper is to analyze how fathers position themselves within their everyday discursive practices at home. We consider the shift from a traditional father figure, defined and perceived as a provider, to an emerging collaborative one in order to explore the discursive acts of fathers’ positioning through the observation of the everyday activities of eight middle-class Italian families. Adopting the positioning theory and the discursive approach as guiding analytical concepts, we discuss how fathers position themselves as representatives and as mediators of the family and of its everyday activities. We propose a qualitative analysis of discursive interactions in order to show how Italian fathers position themselves as active partners in different activities at home, ascribing meanings to what they do with the other family members and with the researchers.

This study aims to explore the interplay between parents' arguments, children's reactions and topics of disagreement during mealtime conversations. Within a data corpus constituted by 30 video-recorded meals of 10 Swiss and Italian families, a corpus of 132 argumentative discussions was selected for a qualitative analysis through the pragma-dialectical approach to argumentation. Findings indicate that both parents and children assume argument schemes related to the object of the disagreement: when the contested standpoints refer to food, arguments are based on a symptomatic relation; when they refer to the behavior of children, parents base their argumentation on a causal and analogy relation, while the children's reaction is typically an expression of further doubt or a mere opposition without providing any argument. The results of this study bring further light on the actual knowledge of argumentative interactions and the interplay between topics of disagreement and the argumentative strategies adopted by family members.

International audience; This article aims to investigate how university students perform agency inan online course and whether the collaborative nature of the course affectssuch expression. A total of 11 online web forums involving 18 students(N = 745 posts in total) were qualitatively analysed through the use of acodebook composed of five categories (individual, interpersonal, epistemic,transformative and collective) and several sub-categories purposelydeveloped for the sake of this research. The results show that each categoryfollows a specific path, although two events – the re-mixing of the groups andthe assumption of the peer-tutor role – particularly affected the evolution oftrends. Although this study needs further development, the authors believethat an in-depth understanding of the nature of agency, including how toanalyse it as well as empower it when implementing blended educationalactivities, engages relevant theoretical and pedagogical issues.

The chapter constitutes a synthetic note based on the empirical studies presented in the volume and provides a comprehensive discussion of selected theoretical and empirical issues at the forefront of research, by ensuring a view of how interpersonal argumentation in educational and professional contexts is presently questioned and investigated. The chapter highlights the common issues of the volume concerning the analysis of how people argue in different contexts, in order to identify similarities and differences in the modes and concepts related to specific fields, and to examine argumentative strategies that are suitable for learning, knowledge orientation, and decision-making processes. Two dimensions (argumentative stages, symmetric/asymmetric nature) are presented as crucial components, which help to give a comprehensive picture of the argumentative interactions occurring in different educational and professional contexts. The chapter claims that, taken together, the studies presented in the volume show the complexity of argumentative processes by taking into account, at different levels, the nature of the relationship among participants to the argumentative discussions.

This paper sets out to investigate the issues leading parents to engage in argumentative discussions with their children during mealtimes. Within a data corpus of 30 video-recorded meals of 10 middle to upper-middle-class Swiss and Italian families with a high socio-cultural level, 107 argumentative discussions between parents and children aged from 3 to 9 years old were selected. The approach for the analysis is based on the pragma-dialectical ideal model of a critical discussion. The results show that family argumentative discussions unfold around issues that are generated both by parental prescriptions and by children’s requests. The parental prescriptions largely concern context-bound activities such as having to eat a certain food or the teaching of correct table manners. The issues triggered by children’s requests refer to a wide range of activities, mainly related to the activity of mealtimes but also related to the children’s behavior outside the family context. These results indicate that argumentative interactions between parents and children are not mere conflictual episodes that must be avoided, but they essentially have a broader educational function.

International audience; This paper aims to investigate the “sense” of appropriation of the iPad use by teachers in a professional secondary school. As iPads are increasingly employed in the teaching process in classroom the authors intend to understand how the process of teachers' appropriation of iPad use is perceived as a learning tool. Through the analysis of focus groups with teachers, they intend to detect changes in the sense of appropriation of the iPad in classroom during a school year. The findings of their study allow to identify facilitating and hindering elements that support the process of teachers' appropriation of iPads and open further spaces to investigate the role of new technologies in teaching/learning contexts.

Questions represent a crucial tool of interaction between parents and children from a very early age. This study aims to investigate which function – argumentative or explanatory – most characterizes Why-questions asked by children to their parents in a natural setting such as mealtimes at home. Why-questions asked by 13 children – eight girls and five boys aged between three and seven years – coming from 10 middle- to upper-middle-class Swiss and Italian families with a high socio-cultural level were analyzed. In the corpus, the explanatory function largely characterizes children’s Why-questions. Questions we observed play fundamentally an educational role, since they favor the acquisition of new information and the transmission from parents to children of parental behavioral models (social behavior). The argumentative Why-questions, less frequently asked by children in our sample, are also important from an educational point of view. By these questions children challenge their parents to make clear the reasons behind their opinions, suggestions, rules and prescriptions, which are often largely implicit. Altogether, the results of this study indicate that both the explanatory and argumentative types of children’s Why-questions have a knowledge-seeking function, that is, children asking such questions are seeking knowledge of something.

The aim of this paper is to revise the development of the methodological thinking in psychology, underlying the central role of mixed methods. The article is based on a discussion on the main general aspects of mixed methods, in order to show that mixed methods does necessarily produce a new starting point in the mismatch between quantitative and qualitative methods. Through the discussion of these aspects, the paper highlights conditions in which mixed methods can become fruitful instruments of research.

This study aims to analyze how family members engage themselves in resolving differences of opinion during everyday interactions. In particular, we focus on the argumentative strategies used by parents during dinner conversations at home with their children. Within a data corpus based on video-recordings of family dinnertime interactions, two different excerpts of argumentative discussions among parents and children are presented and qualitatively analyzed. Our analytical approach includes the model of Critical Discussion as the general framework to investigate the family's strategies for conflict management and resolution in different cultures. The results show two specific argumentative strategies adopted by parents with their children: the use of ironic comments, and the admonition of the parent's authority. Besides, differences in the argumentative style between Italian and Swiss families are highlighted.

PurposeSmart Manufacturing (SM) lies at the core of Industry 4.0. Operations management research has investigated the determinants of SM advancement but there is still limited understanding of the linkages between SM and organizational factors and about whether both the technological and organizational subsystems for SM are guided by firms’ competitive priorities. To close these gaps, building on operations strategy theory, this paper aims to empirically test a model positing that competitive priorities drive SM advancement. The relation between competitive priorities and SM advancement is assumed to be mediated by organizational microfoundations.Design/methodology/approachUsing data from a single respondent survey with 234 firms in the automotive component industry, structural equation modeling is adopted to test the model hypotheses. Relevant constructs are measured with reference to the lead plant for SM.FindingsFindings highlight that SM advancement is driven by the need to simultaneously compete in terms of cost, quality and delivery, thus suggesting that manufacturers view SM as a mean to develop multiple manufacturing capabilities. Organizational microfoundations fully mediate the relation between competitive priorities and SM advancement.Originality/valueResults have implications for SM research, as they provide an understanding of the strategic priorities of firms engaging in SM. Findings also bear relevance for manufacturing executives engaged in the SM transformation, as they provide quantitative evidence that shaping an adequate organizational environment is a prerequisite for SM advancement.

With the rise of Internet-based technologies, new web-based communities of practice have emerged, that we term online epistemic communities, or “OECs”, whose raison d’etre is the co-creation of knowledge objects such as open-source programming languages or encyclopaedias (for example, Wikipedia). In this chapter we focus on the case of Wikipedia, where general public participation has recently grown very quickly, in part due to egalitarian principles that encourage free participation by everyone. However, widespread participation, coupled with the principle of neutrality of viewpoint, has led to “editing wars” (repeated text deletions and “reverts”, now largely controlled by “(ro)bots”). The nature of participation has tended to change over time, with a migration of conflicts to discussion pages, especially in the case of articles on contentious issues (e.g. “The Turin Shroud”). Our aim is to describe the characteristics of such OEC debates, in relation to their contexts and potential for effective knowledge elaboration. We describe an approach to studying argumentation practices in OECs based on articulating third-person (researcher) analyses, based on a pragma-dialectic model extended to include dimensions of knowledge elaboration and interpersonal relations, with a first-person (participant) perspective, where key contributors to controversial articles produced narratives on their ‘life cycles’. On the basis of two case-study discussions we show that although debates are mostly epistemic, concerning article content and structure, the possibilities of anonymity and completely open participation also lead to disputes on an interpersonal (ad hominem) level, concerning expertise. We conclude with prospects for rendering OEC debates more constructive and productive.