Conformity in Modern Science: An Engine of Societal Transformation?

Popova, Natalia G.; Moiseenko, Y.Y.; Beavitt, Thomas A.

doi:10.15826/csp.2017.1.3.017

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Moreover, all official positions in the Russian system of education and science imply a significant burden of bureaucratic chores (reports, etc.) and tendency to conformity (Popova et. al, 2017), which also become an additional discouraging factor for middle leaders.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leadership Potential of Professional Teacher Associations in Russia: Formation of Middle Leaders

Merenkov

Antonova

Popova

2019

JLE

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This research study is aimed at investigating distributed leadership practices in the Russian school system, of which professional teacher associations (PTA) constitute a distinct feature. In particular, we set out to investigate the PTA leadership potential, as well as the role and specific personal characteristics of middle leaders in the Russian school education system. These associations are formed by the school administration on the basis of subject areas, bringing together teachers of maths, history, etc. Teachers join PTAs on a voluntarily basis. The key function of such organisations consists in the implementation of innovative educational approaches and techniques. In order to analyse their leadership potential, we carried out a sociological survey among the employees of high-profile secondary schools (gymnasiums and lyceums) situated in the major Russian city of Ekaterinburg. The research methodology comprised structured interviews with 110 respondents, along with in-depth interviews with 2 school directors, 4 school deputy directors and 6 heads of professional teacher associations. Our results show that the fundamentals and principles of distributed leadership are actively implemented in Ekaterinburg schools. The school administrations encourage the creation of professional teacher associations grouped around subject areas, delegating to these structural units the functions of improving the quality of teaching the respective subjects and disseminating educational innovations, at the same time as fulfilling the requirements of the state and regional education authorities. Such associations are headed by middle leaders, who are nominated by their colleagues and whose candidacy is approved by school seniors, taking into account their professional achievements, experience of leading pedagogical innovations and the presence of the right personal qualities necessary for productive collaborative work. These people perform the role of mediators, operating at the interface between various levels within the school. Although viewed as a school’s personnel reserve for the positions of principals and head teachers, our respondents consider themselves to be ‘more teachers’ or ‘innovators in education’ than administrators. The development of the leadership qualities of such professionals in the Russian school system is shown to be hindered by a ‘glass ceiling’ – a certain limit in their career growth. This discouraging factor results in some middle school leaders searching for professional self-realization opportunities outside the school system, in the spheres of business, science or culture that are believed to provide more opportunities for self-advancement.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leadership Potential of Professional Teacher Associations in Russia: Formation of Middle Leaders

Merenkov

Antonova

Popova

2019

JLE

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“…[50]. Эти выводы подчеркивают остроту для всех вузов проблемы мотивации публикационной активности преподавателей и преодоления имитационных публикационных практик, широко распространившихся, как показывают N. Popova, Y. Moiseenko, T. Beavitt [51] А. В. Кулешова и Д. Г. Подвойский, в российской науке [52]. Предложенная в статье методология взаимодействия автора с коллегами и журналом может способствовать неформальному, альтернативному институциональному, решению проблем публикационной активности исследователей и повышения качества научных публикаций.…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

Author’s agency in a research article: From the grammar of language to the grammar of communication

Sheypak

2023

Obraz. nauka

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Introduction. Writing for publication has been developed for two last decades as an independent field of research to help authors publish their research articles. Starting from the assessment that preparing the publication in a journal is an academic activity that requires learning to construct the author’s positioning in the manuscript, this paper points out the shortage of professionals to assume institutional organisation of training courses in Russia.Aim. This paper aims to suggest a framework for informal practices based on autonomy and the collective organisation of authors to construct an authorial position in the manuscript or author’s agency toward a target journal.Methodology and research methods. Various approaches applied in this paper are based on activity theory: situated learning, Change Laboratory, and expansive learning.A review of Russian and foreign research in writing for publication shows that only one of the three types of authorial agency, that is, transformative agency, might help the author to prepare a manuscript for publication in a target journal. The framework needed for emerging author’s transformative agency re-conceptualises the model of the Change Laboratory for situated learning that aims at the author’s socialisation in the discursive practices of a target journal. Situated learning for writing for publication is based on the principles of the Change Laboratory: collectivity; double stimulation; overcoming the contradiction by ascending from the abstract to the concrete.Results. A framework for three cycles of expansive learning aimed at the emergence of the author’s agency toward a target journal has been developed. The first cycle allows selecting a journal and revealing its implicit rules for manuscript production. The second cycle is focused on step-by-step manuscript revisions. Finally, a change of journal and/or author whose manuscript is discussed involves the third cycle of expansive learning.Scientific novelty. The paper considers manuscript production for publishing in a journal as an academic activity requiring deliberate training in native and foreign languages. The framework for three cycles of expansive learning in writing for publication conceptualises the publication as the author’s participation in social practices involving the journal as a discursive community.Practical significance. The framework suggested in this paper for emerging transformative agency in writing for publication might imply an alternative to the institutional training courses. Three cycles of expansive learning aim to develop the author’s publication competence and improve the quality of research articles.

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“…Подводя итог, заметим, что качественное, ясное и открытое к обратной связи научное письмо на родном языке автора останется необходимой базой для машинного перевода и в обозримом будущем. Ведущие переводческие навыки теперь развиваются в тесном взаимодействии человека и машины, что является лишь одним из проявлений социальных трансформаций более глобального уровня, объединенных идеей автоматизации, стандартизации и массовизации научного знания [10]. Таким образом, наука становится частью повседневной повестки современного человека, и доступ к научному знанию на любом языке не должен быть обременен дополнительными языковыми барьерами.…”

Section: заключениеunclassified

The challenges of machine translation of academic publications

Rew

Popova

2021

Naučnyj redaktor i izdatelʹ

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Clear translation remains a major challenge to better communication and understanding of the international academic literature, despite advances in Machine Translation (MT). Automatic translation systems which captured the detail and the sense of any manuscript in any language for a reader from any other linguistic background would find global applications.In this article, we discuss the current opportunities and constraints to the wider use of machine translation and computer-assisted human translation (CAT). At the present stage of technology development, these instruments offer a number of advantages to specialists working with scientific texts. These include the facility to skim and scan large amounts of information in foreign languages, and to act as digital dictionaries, thesauri and encyclopedias. Word-to-word and phrase-to-phrase translation between many languages and scripts is now well advanced.The availability of modern machine translation has therefore changed the work of specialist scientific translators, placing greater emphasis on more advanced text and sense editing skills. However, machine translation is still challenged by the nuances of language and culture from one society to another, particularly in the freestyle literature of the arts and humanities. Scientific papers are generally much more structured, but the quality of machine translation still largely depends on the quality of the source text. This varies considerably between different scientific disciplines and from one author to another.The most advanced translation systems are making steady progress. It is timely to revisit traditional training programmes in the field of written translation to focus on the development of higher-level research competencies, such as terminology search, and so to make best use of evolving machine translation technologies.More widely, we consider that there is a challenge across the higher education systems in all countries to develop a simple, clear and consistent “international” writing style to assist fast, reliable and low-cost machine translation and hence to advance mutual understanding across the global scientific literature.

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Conformity in Modern Science: An Engine of Societal Transformation?

Cited by 8 publications

References 25 publications

Leadership Potential of Professional Teacher Associations in Russia: Formation of Middle Leaders

Leadership Potential of Professional Teacher Associations in Russia: Formation of Middle Leaders

Author’s agency in a research article: From the grammar of language to the grammar of communication

The challenges of machine translation of academic publications

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