Search

This paper focuses on the challenges of transition experienced by local high school graduates of the Arabic school system in the Kingdom of Bahrain, in the Middle East, as they are shaped into the person of a professional nurse through a Western model of nursing education. It investigates the elements that comprise a Bahraini student's first-year nursing experience in transnational education, and considers how this experience is navigated by the student. Drawing on best international practice, it concludes with recommendations of how to better support Bahraini nursing students' first-year experience of transnational education, which may be usefully applied to other international contexts providing transnational nursing education.

Sri Lankan Tamil refugees (SLTRs) have lived in the United Kingdom in substantial numbers for about three decades. However, they remain under-represented in academic and public discourse, and little is known about their migration experiences. This study examined first-hand accounts of such experiences, with special attention paid to identity and acculturation. Data were collected through four semi-structured interviews and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The results suggest that SLTRs' experience of conflict as an imposed life disruption continues to shape their adaptation, identity, and meaning-making ("Afflicted life"). Changing social identities mediate protection from, as well as risk of, trauma. SLTRs try to remedy the socio-economic and emotional losses suffered in the conflict, but achieve only a partial compensation. Consequently their repair efforts are a source not only of positive emotions but also of dissatisfaction ("Living past"). Finally, participants' sense of belonging and quest for home represent a challenging socio-emotional process in which they continue to engage even decades after migration ("Continuing quest for home"). This nuanced analysis of how the past continues to shape lived experience, contributes to the under-developed literature on qualitative psychological investigations of acculturation, research on forced migration, and the establishment of IPA in social psychology., (© 2024 The Authors. British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.)

Learning a foreign language incorporates cognitive, communicative, emotional, and social aspects. Some of these aspects have to do with the structure of the language being studied; some others deal with social and psychological issues that influence the environment where the learning process takes place. This reflection paper addresses various emotional aspects that can bring up positive outcomes along the foreign language learning stages. Elements such as motivation, attitudes, levels of anxiety, acculturation, ethnicity, and personality are considered for this work. Readers should be able to find useful ideas for their ESL/EFL classes.

From its conception in Australia, subject 'English' has been considered central to the curriculum. The English literature strand in the curriculum does not stipulate specific texts but is more explicit regarding what should be considered as an appropriate 'literary text'. Curriculum documents emphasise the need for texts to have cultural and aesthetic value whilst suggesting that English teachers include texts that are chosen by students, texts from Asia, and texts by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors. Despite this, the influences of British colonisation manifests in Australian English teachers' text selection as they continue to choose texts from the 'canon'. This paper is framed by Rigney's principles of Indigenism and Indigenous Standpoint Theory (1999; 2017) and will draw on my own lived experience -- as an Aboriginal student, English teacher, and now researcher -- to examine the presence of colonialism in English and the consequent subordination of Indigenous perspectives. This paper will suggest some of the ramifications of prioritising colonial texts while teaching and learning on Aboriginal land and investigate how the construction of subject English could feel assimilative to Indigenous people. I will explore this by using my own experience of learning William Shakespeare's 'Othello' as a student and of teaching Doris Pilkington's 'Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence' as a teacher as examples.

This reflective paper shares the experiences of a higher education professional living and working abroad and the long-term impacts of those experiences on their self-authorship journey through reflection ten years later. The story of this reflection focuses on how cultural differences and community ties helped to facilitate growth and self-confidence through navigating the challenges and complexities of living abroad in a culture with differing conventions. The paper concludes by sharing how reflecting on self-authorship during and after international experiences can help develop personal identities both as an individual and within a collective.

By investigating Vietnamese English learners' perspectives on influential cultural factors and barriers these factors bring to the development of learner autonomy, this study seeks to draw attention to proper consideration of the host cultural values in importing and implementing Western educational theories. A phenomenological approach was employed, and qualitative data were collected from in-depth interviews with 15 English majored students from a public university in the Mekong Delta. Using Hofstede et al.'s (2010) six-dimensional model of cultural differences as a theoretical framework, the study reveals that all the six dimensions, at different levels, hinder the development of learner autonomy. The study also uncovers cultural assimilation - a state in which individuals perceive a certain cultural characteristic as their personality traits without any adjustment, corresponding to the Restraint factor. These results emphasize the significance of cultural analysis and imply the need for constructing a culturally appropriate pedagogy to promote learner autonomy. The paper concludes by discussing some possible directions for further research in the field.

Objectives: Having higher levels of mainstream cultural orientation (MCO), an important component of acculturation attitudes and behaviors, is beneficial for ethnic/racial minority students during the transitions into university. Scant research has investigated MCO at a micro daily timescale. This study examined how personality (agreeableness) functions in conjunction with interpersonal processes (inter-ethnic contact and perceived discrimination) to influence MCO as daily within-person processes., Methods: Multi-level structural equation modeling were used to analyze month-long daily diary data from 209 ethnic/racial minority freshmen (69% female)., Results: There was a positive indirect association between agreeableness and MCO through inter-ethnic contact at both within- and between-person levels. At the within-person level, on days with lower (vs. higher) levels of ethnic/racial discrimination, higher levels of agreeableness were associated with higher levels of MCO., Conclusions: These findings highlight the contributions of intensive longitudinal data in elucidating ethnic/racial minority students' personality and acculturation processes in daily life involving protective and risk factors on micro timescales., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Personality published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

When transitioning from a familiar learning culture to a United Kingdom higher education (HE) culture, international students face a number of academic, cultural, and linguistic challenges. This paper considers the obstacles that international students experience and critically analyzes the use of social media to aid the academic transition of a group of postgraduate international students. Specifically, it analyzed the use of Yammer to support peer collaboration and communication to enhance academic development of a group of Southeast Asian international students undertaking an MA at a UK university in the North of England. The student feedback suggested that social support networks were important for academic engagement and development. This paper recommends more training on the affordances of Yammer, additional online tutor presence, and more scaffolded activities.

This paper explored the multiple layers of social and intercultural adjustment challenges experienced by international female doctoral students in Australia. The paper investigates multiple dimensions of sociocultural differences between the students' native and host countries, including sociocultural context, community engagement, personal and social lives, and the intersection of more commonly researched sociocultural identities. This investigation is undertaken within the epistemological positioning of feminist standpoint theory and intersectionality. In addition, a narrative inquiry approach and a thematic analysis are used to understand the students' social lives and issues of adjustment to a new culture. Themes like intercultural understanding, social connectedness and adjustment issues are used to encapsulate the students' views about their social positionality and understanding of their lives during PhD in Australia.

This paper is an analysis of Francophone immigrant parents' experiences of child language brokering in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Using a qualitative research design, data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews from nine immigrant parents who were selected through a convenience and snowball sampling technique. Through the lens of sociocultural theory and acculturation, the key findings indicate that the Francophone immigrant parents displayed positive feelings and had optimistic expectations concerning their children's language brokering skills in English and their future prospects in South Africa. The paper concludes that Francophone immigrant parents' experiences of child language brokering are complex and dynamic and are influenced by the context and purpose of communication.

This paper analyzes how language is framed as a route to full inclusion, particularly for unaccompanied asylum-seeking students labelled as disabled. It is based on a qualitative study carried out in the Italian city of Rome, which, although cosmopolitan, is often characterised by nationalistic political landscapes. The manuscript reveals how institutional biases (re: race, ability, and migration) about unaccompanied forced migrant youth, often manifested in their construction as disabled and foreign by local professionals, hinder the likelihood that they successfully participate in the life of the host society. The paper also shows how the inclusion of migrant and refugee students living in foster care homes is conceptualised as a violent integration into monolingual and monocultural education settings. Drawing on Disability Critical Race Studies and Raciolinguistics, this contribution analyzes how unaccompanied forced migrant students respond to their linguistic urgency, learn power majority languages, and simultaneously devalue their home language to perform the 'good (im)migrant.' Lastly, the contribution shows how processes of racialization of disabled unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee students influence how western communities perceive their linguistic capacity and effort.

This paper examines the relationship between language, (in)visibility, and (im)mobility in racialized spaces, focusing on Finnish, Somali, and Arabic speakers in Sweden. Using a theoretical framework based on hegemonic whiteness and intersectionality, the study explores how multilingual practices and subjectivities intersect with race, religion, gender, and class to shape social visibility and mobility. The research draws on linguistic ethnographic data, including interviews, linguistic landscape documentation, and an analysis of the media discourse. The study finds that while Finnish speakers have become invisible due to assimilation policies, Somali and Arabic speakers are hypervisible in Swedish public spaces and discourse, although Arabic speakers are sometimes, and in relation to other migrants, nearing Swedish whiteness. However, all three languages and their speakers are constrained by a white normativity that reproduces inequality. The paper challenges simplistic notions of mobility/immobility and visibility/invisibility in the context of a changing racial order in Sweden, where whiteness serves as a binary sorting mechanism that perpetuates inequality. Overall, this research sheds light on the complex entanglement of language, visibility, and mobility in white spaces and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the intersectional dynamics of race and language.

Global university rankings (GUR) have become increasingly influential as a proxy measure of higher education quality. The more recent development of regionalised forms of rankings has increased their global reach, drawing a greatly expanded range of institutions into their orbit. As a result, regionalised GUR have developed an increasing potential power to shape social perceptions, institutional actions, and everyday academic practices. In this paper, the perceived impact of regionalised forms of GUR is analysed from the perspective of Latin American higher education. Based on a critical meta-synthesis framed by a "glonacal heuristic" (Marginson and Rhoades, Higher Education 43:281-309, 2002), the tensions arising around the application of regionalised forms of global rankings are mapped. Specifically, the impact of rankings on conceptions of the mission of universities is foregrounded. The meta-synthesis identifies three primary tensions around the regional application of GUR in Latin American contexts: how conceptions of regional higher education quality are most effectively developed, how the local university is imagined under the weight of global expectations, and the relativised value of local agency in assessing quality outcomes. The findings suggest that GUR have created strong fissures in Latin American higher education regarding the missions of institutions, particularly in confronting the powerful hegemonies of the epistemologies of the Global North imposing themselves on Latin American higher education. The paper concludes that the stratification and social anxiety caused by the regional applications of GUR may not be necessarily productive in encouraging regional institutional diversity or in enhancing the local relevance of higher education.

Despite their prolonged history of immigration to the UK, studies on Turkish Cypriots' acculturative processes have been scarce. Utilizing 20 semi-structured interviews with three generations of Turkish Cypriot immigrants living in the UK, this paper explores the acculturation processes of Turkish Cypriots by focusing on their sense of self, ethnic and national identity delineations. How do they identify themselves, and what do their identifications suggest about their acculturation? In an attempt to contribute to the empirical studies on the acculturation and identity of "other white" immigrant groups, we argue that there exists a bi-cultural/multi-cultural self with varying degrees of closeness to the host country, as well as hyphenated (British Cypriot), multi-hyphenated (London Turkish Cypriot) and travelling identities that are constructed through experience, time and place. Although there exist some intergenerational differences, it can be said that Turkish Cypriots have been open to the idea of integration starting from the first generation and, in general, have high acculturation, which was evident from the narratives of how they situate themselves within the ethnic and national identities.

Objectives: Computerised neuropsychological assessments (CNAs) are proposed as an alternative method of assessing cognition to traditional pencil-and-paper assessment (PnPA), which are considered the "gold standard" for diagnosing dementia. However, limited research has been conducted with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) individuals. This study investigated the suitability of PnPAs and CNAs for measuring cognitive performance in a heterogenous sample of older, Australian CALD English-speakers compared to a native English-speaking background (ESB) sample. Methods: Participants were 1037 community-dwelling individuals aged 70–90 years without a dementia diagnosis from the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study (873 ESB, 164 CALD). Differences in the level and pattern of cognitive performance in the CALD group were compared to the ESB group on a newly developed CNA and a comprehensive PnPA in English, controlling for covariates. Multiple hierarchical regression was used to identify the extent to which linguistic and acculturation variables explained performance variance. Results: CALD participants' performance was consistently poorer than ESB participants on both PnPA and CNA, and more so on PnPA than CNA, controlling for socio-demographic and health factors. Linguistic and acculturation variables together explained approximately 20% and 25% of CALD performance on PnPA and CNA respectively, above demographics and self-reported computer use. Conclusions: Performances of CALD and ESB groups differed more on PnPAs than CNAs, but caution is needed in concluding that CNAs are more culturally-appropriate for assessing cognitive decline in older CALD individuals. Our findings extend current literature by confirming the influence of linguistic and acculturation variables on cognitive assessment outcomes for older CALD Australians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is the first to examine international students in Vietnam despite the country's long-existing effort at internationalization. The empirical study is conducted at a large public university in the capital of Vietnam, a popular destination for foreign students. The study explores socio-cultural adaptation of foreign students and finds that lack of support system severely affects their adaptation, especially in academic adaptation. The paper aims to draw attention to the renovation of university system in order to better serve the needs of a diverse student body.

In the era of higher education institutions' internationalisation, international student mobility is viewed as a crucial educational tool for enhancing the cross-cultural competence of learners. This paper aims to present research findings on the development of cross-cultural competence (skills, knowledge, and attitudes) among students participating in a short-term international mobility programme. The study involved 45 students from five European universities located in Kosovo, the Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium, and Malta. We utilised three scales in our methodology: the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory, the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire, and the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale, along with data from a structured diary. Our findings indicate that students who took part in this programme expanded their knowledge through various trainings and workshops during each study visit abroad. Students not only gained new knowledge and specific skills (e.g., conflict management, negotiation skills), and behaviours (e.g., tolerance, openness, trust), but they also improved previously acquired competencies, such as professional and linguistic ones (English fluency). This study contributes to the scientific understanding of cross-cultural competence development and may also be valuable in designing intercultural training and mobility programmes for students.

Context: International medical graduates (IMGs) are forming an ever-increasing proportion of the medical workforce. Much of the discourse around IMGs is about their performance at work and interventions to improve it. This discourse, however, is rarely situated in the wider context of the experiences of IMGs as migrants despite the wider context of migration and acculturation being likely to have a significant impact on IMGs' well-being and, ultimately, performance at work., Objectives: The objectives of this article were to (1) raise awareness of the inextricable broader context within which IMGs are situated as migrants; (2) outline the impact this context might have on IMGs' performance; (3) discuss literature from the social sciences related to acculturation that could better inform the way we view IMG transition and performance; (4) highlight how acculturation theory can help inform the design, implementation and evaluation of interventions to facilitate the transition of IMGs into the host country and the workplace; (5) list some interventions that can provide support; and (6) suggest theory driven lines of enquiry to study acculturation in IMGs and the impact related issues might have on performance., Methods: This is a cross-cutting edge review drawing on selected theory and literature from the social sciences to explore its relevance to IMGs., Conclusion: The broader context of migration and acculturation should not be ignored when discussing IMG performance in the workplace or when instigating interventions to improve it. There is an urgent need to further evaluate the impact this broader context has on IMGs' well-being and performance., (© 2023 The Author. Medical Education published by Association for the Study of Medical Education and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The research question of the present paper is the following: to what degree (if any) is gender relevant as an explanatory factor in, firstly, the process of assimilation and later, the process of (re)vitalisation of indigenous and minority languages in northern Fenno-Scandia (the North Calotte)? The assimilation of the ethnic groups in question was a process initiated and lead by the authorities in the three different countries. Finland, Sweden and Norway. Nevertheless, members of the indigenous and minority groups also took part in practicing, though, not necessarily promoting, the official assimilation politics, for different reasons. (Re)vitalisation, on the other hand, was initially -- and still is -- mostly a process stemming from the minority groups themselves, though the authorities to a certain extent have embraced it. The paper thus addresses the question of whether gender played a role in the two different processes, assimilation and (re)vitalisation, and if that was the case, how and why.

The complexity of the linguistic environment in Cameroon raises the question of context and its role in the acquisition of another language. This paper draws a dichotomy between learners in such contexts considered rural and those regarded as urban or cosmopolitan. Using the irregular verb as a yardstick, an evaluation of the acquisition of irregular verb patterns by 80 final year primary school learners from 2 contexts in the Northwest Region of Cameroon was done. Oral and written tests were administered to check learners' acquisition of verb inflectional categories, verb tenses and general written and oral productions. The findings reveal similar trends in the acquisition of inflectional categories and verb tenses by learners in both contexts and divergent trends in general oral and written productions. For instance, learners in both contexts had similar challenges using the Vs, Ved and Ven inflections with a very low average frequency of 26% and with a high frequency of 67.2 % for the Ving and Vo inflections. Though learners in the urban centres had higher degrees of efficiency in oral productions, their counterparts in the rural areas had more challenges in verbal as against written productions. The paper concludes that second language acquisition is not a consequence of a unilateral context but a result of a plethora of other factors both within and without the learning environment with evident pedagogic implications for stakeholders in the second language acquisition industry.

How can Levinas's work help language educators respond ethically to encounters with students? This paper considers this question in the context of adult immigrants learning an additional language, and is interested specifically in the existential aspects of language learning. How does the experience of "coming into being" in a new language play out in the classroom encounter, and how, if at all, can language teachers respond ethically to this experience? The paper discusses three challenges when considering Levinas's ethics to answer this question. The first is that language education is dominated by what Levinas calls 'the Said'. The second is that the impossibility of knowing whether one has responded ethically results in a compulsive return to the pedagogical scene. The third and final challenge involves the tensions between Levinas's ethics and political critiques of language education.

Many papers on international student mobility have analysed different macro factors influencing the decision making of international students. However, only a limited number of studies have considered the role of language distance on international educational choices. This paper aims to fill that gap by identifying the role of language proximity in international degree seeking student flows among 21 countries of the European Economic Area in the years 2005, 2010 and 2015. Our gravity models reveal a statistically significant influence of language proximity on student flows within these 21 countries. We argue that language proximity simplifies academic, cultural and socio-economic integration of international students in the destination country and as a result makes the process of their adaptation to a new environment easier and smoother. Future research should expand on the mechanisms of that influence.

This paper examines the work of Kashmiri theatre-maker Arshad Mushtaq in the context of the political turmoil in Kashmir. It argues that Mushtaq's theatre practice challenges the India's attempt to assimilate Kashmir into its national cultural framework. Focusing on three of Mushtaq's plays rooted in collective memory, the paper examines how his work resists cultural appropriation and disrupts the notion of normalcy imposed by the state. It discusses how Mushtaq's work dislodges state-approved cultural conditions, using a unique blend of politics and aesthetics to create a powerful voice of protest.

This paper is based on the results of an ethnography conducted in the context of several junior high schools in the host community of Iran. It draws on the data collected via observations and forty sessions of in-depth semi-structured interviews with school staff, domestic (Iranian) and refugee (Afghan) students, and their parents. The paper aims to explore the probable impacts of some particular elements on the absorption of refugee students in the host community. These elements included interactions between refugee and domestic students, the role of their parents, and the role of multicultural aspects of pedagogy.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how family, tribal, and on-campus cultural-specific support can lead to higher educational and cultural outcomes for Native American college students through the lens of transculturation. To address the lack of quantitative empirical research on what it means to self-identify as Native American and thrive in a post-secondary environment, the author used a latent class analysis (LCA) to analyze empirical data. This study had two objectives: (1) identify latent classes based on perceptions of home, tribal, and culture-specific on-campus support; and (2) to use a framework of success not predicated on cultural deficit models. There were two hypotheses that guided this study. In hypothesis one, the author posited three distinct subgroups (i.e., transculturated, apathetic, and estranged). In the second hypothesis, they hypothesized that transculturated students would have higher levels of cultural reciprocity and resiliency, and would be more likely to persist. Within this paper, the author provides a historical context of Native Americans in K-12 and higher education and why assimilation led to the creation of Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). Next, they cover culturally invalid frameworks of (un)success, followed by the North American Indigenous College Students Inventory (NAICSI). In the proceeding section, they examined the history of Natives who enrolled at some of the first colonization institutions of higher learning, followed by the creation to TCUs, and the current state of Natives in higher education. As demonstrated in the results, TCUs are ensuring that their students have culture-specific mechanisms in place to ensure the success of their students. Leaders and practitioners should look to TCUs to find what is working and how they can adopt and adapt culture-specific initiatives on their campus.

This paper examines how the children of African immigrants construct their identity in the United States. The U.S. immigration policies allowing citizens of foreign countries to migrate into the country, have favored the immigration of many Africans into the country. Many of those immigrants experience challenges ranging from language and economic issues to social and cultural integration. The challenges are more accrued for the children who have to juggle between their cultural backgrounds reinforced at home and the values available in their new cultural and social environment. While there is a large body of literature dealing with issues of identity faced by immigrant children in general and English language learners in particular, the case of African children has remained unexplored. Because of the linguistic diversity in African countries, most of the children spoke at least one language other than English before immigration, they do not always have the space to practice it as their languages and cultures are marginalized both at school and in the society. In this paper, I investigate the following questions: To what extent are African children familiar with their social and cultural backgrounds? How do children identify themselves? What are the factors that impact on the children's identity? To which extent do parents influence their children's identification of the self?

Given the continuing harm that racism produces in the U.S. and the world, as well as the increased interest in anti-racist work, this paper asks: Is the work of the communication center racist? In the absence of an anti-racist praxis in every hire, in every tutoring session, in every workshop, in every training, the short answer is "yes." The communication center is racist because it is assimilationist. It expects the absence of Black Language and the presence and production of White Mainstream English (WME) in the work it does. In this paper, I offer the example of my own experience as someone engaged in communication work but who has not confronted, until now, the absence of Black Language in my own work. Black Language is not only a language equal to others, it is a living record of direct ties to African languages spoken by the first Blacks brought forcibly here as enslaved people. As such, Black Language deserves our attention. This attention must be part of an anti-racist communication center praxis.

This paper examines the impact of language on the experiences and acclimation of non-native English-speaking immigrants in the United States. Using Language Socialization Theory, the paper addresses stories of these immigrant participants in a focus group study to illuminate their aspirations, access to power, and issues of identity in their bid for acclimatization. Results indicate that no matter how desperately the demarcation is sought between language and social realities, the debate involves a deeper complexity of human relationships and comes muddled with many more inter-related and complicated factors. Given that the fluidity and constant evolution of a language is largely dependent on its users, I propose that speakers of English language should accommodate its widened user-base to provide a balanced power shift that enables free expression to all.

In this paper, I report on research about the experience of a group of English teachers who returned from the violent gang culture of Southern California to Mexico, seeking a means of changing their identities from gang members into productive, educated members of society. On returning to Mexico, the teachers had to negotiate their otherness and differences stemming from the customs and traditions they learned to perceive as normal. They learned to adapt to and blend the culture and values they had in Southern California with those of Mexico, using their English as capital to join a new community of practice, English Teaching. Through teaching they were able to gain cultural capital and bring meaning and purpose to their lives as they adapted and their identities changed through time and space. This paper offers insight into the struggle of transnational youth and how they adapt to different communities. This is especially important in a country like Mexico, where Mexican youth often grow up in the United States and have to come back to Mexico, a country they often do not feel they belong to.

Institutions of higher education (IHEs) are charged with instilling institutional identity among all employees and this is particularly true for smaller Christian IHEs committed to the Great Commission. Following a case study of a recently dissolved institution, this article suggests that it may be worth the investment to effectively generate institutional identity among adjunct faculty even if doing so requires additional funding or capital. In this paper the authors draw on the tenets of organizational socialization theory coupled with a prescribed curriculum as a conceptual framework designed to generate institutional identity among adjunct faculty. The authors highlight a multi-phased model for implementing a sophisticated curriculum formulated to effectively cultivate institutional identity and discuss the benefits that are associated with enhanced onboarding efforts. It is suggested that Christian IHEs consider benefitting from the recommended approach.

Aim: Using an integrated model of health literacy, we discuss the importance of health literacy among foreign domestic workers in the provision of informal caregiving during outbreaks of communicable diseases. COVID‐19 pandemic is used as an example. Background: Adequate health literacy in the population is known to be important for the prevention of communicable diseases. Foreign domestic workers, a group of marginalised caregivers in private households, are generally presumed to have limited health literacy because of numerous socio‐cultural disadvantages. To date, there is limited evidence that these informal healthcare providers receive support from community‐based nurses. Design: A discursive paper. Conclusion: Foreign domestic workers, with varying levels of health literacy, may be viewed either as a resource to break the chain of infection or as a potential reservoir of communicable diseases in the community. Meanwhile, restrictions imposed in response to diseases transmissions (e.g. stay‐at‐home measures for COVID‐19) may directly exacerbate the social support received by these foreign domestic works and their ability to access health‐related information. There are also concerns about their ability to appraise and evaluate information related to communicable diseases at a time when fake news and misinformation are being disseminated through social media. Language and cultural barriers are important issues that need to be addressed to ensure that foreign domestic workers are in a position to follow public health recommendations. Relevance to clinical practice: Nurses hold an important position in empowering foreign domestic workers with adequate health literacy, by engaging groups of foreign domestic workers in the community and their consulates in planning educational programmes and effectively disseminating information. At a time of global pandemic, an assessment of the health literacy levels of foreign domestic workers in places like Hong Kong is urgently required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the complex dynamics of financial innovation in early modern times, challenging linear models of temporal and spatial divisions that tend to shape our understanding of the evolution of financial systems. It supports the idea that innovation should be viewed as a non-linear and contextual process, involving diverse stakeholders and characterised by interactions and unexpected occurrences. The study focuses on the dissemination and trajectories of financial innovations, specifically the bill of exchange and its variation, the ricorsa , as well as the transferability and negotiability of commercial paper. It does so by investigating the interactions and exchanges between merchants and bankers from diverse backgrounds during the sixteenth-century Lyon fairs, using the archival records of one of the first Italian banks in Lyon (Salviati). The study reveals the mutual influence and acculturation among these agents and challenges the compartmentalisation of financial expertise. Through an analysis of transactions recorded in the Salviati bank's ledgers, the article highlights previously unknown uses of commercial paper by Southern merchant communities and discusses the factors that may have hindered the full-scale development of endorsement and discount in the Lyon trading networks, despite their potential benefits. The results provide insights into the intricate nature of financial innovation and the influence of structural and cultural factors on its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a transnational lens to discuss findings from a longitudinal study of the home literacy practices of linguistically diverse immigrant families. The paper draws on the experiences of three families to show how literacy events and practices index and mediate immigrants' identities as they settle into the host community. Observations, interviews, and family members' own documentation of their home literacies revealed the richness and complexity of the families' linguistic repertoires. Using Levitt and Schiller's distinction between ways of being and ways of belonging, the paper focuses on the role of everyday literacies in the families' lives and on how critical events at home and abroad shaped family members' identities as they navigated their new lives. The paper offers insights into the role of multilingual literacies in the settlement process and draws attention to the significance of literacy practices in shaping immigrants' transnationalism.