Search Results (37)

For too long, schools and other organizations have relied on what have come to be known as technical, rational, or functional approaches to leadership, stemming in the global north, from scientific management in the early 20th century. Schools have been hierarchically organized in the belief that only the “managers” were smart enough to know what is needed, with others (including teachers and students) needing to obey and comply with established regulations, curricular standards, and assessment tools. If we want more equitable, inclusive, and just outcomes, it is time for school leaders to reject the dominant scientific leadership paradigm and to employ a new paradigm, with new axiology, ontology, epistemology, and methodology focused on values, community, and cultures. Transformative leadership theory is described as an exercise of power and authority that begins with questions of justice and democracy. It critiques inequitable practices and offers the promise not only of greater individual achievement but of a better life lived in common with others. This article reviews some of the origins of transformative leadership theory, identifies some of the most common approaches and principles, and argues that by fundamentally reorienting leadership towards justice, democracy, and equity, transformative leadership theory provides the essential ethical and practical framework for education in a fractured world. Full article

While divine justice is central to Christian faith, theologians disagree about its nature and dimensions. This study examines Christian belief in a just world (CBJW) as a psychological belief system through which Christian believers construe justice in the world by referring to God’s Justice. Drawing on the psychological concept of belief in a just world, which emphasizes deservedness, we develop and validate a measure of CBJW. In the pilot study, 34 items were selected from biblical texts with the help of an expert review. In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis supported a four-factor solution—God’s Punishment, Reward, Sovereignty, and Forgiveness—yielding a 27-item scale. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated good fit, and internal consistency was strong. These results suggest that CBJW functionally overlaps with secular BJW in its emphasis on reward and punishment while adding theologically distinctive dimensions of sovereignty and forgiveness. Moreover, in Christian belief, justice is construed as distinct from divine love and is oriented toward an eschatological horizon, thereby differentiating CBJW from secular conceptions of justice. Full article

Street harassment is a common form of gender-based violence against women. Bystanders are sometimes present when this violence occurs, yet there is limited literature on the factors influencing their decision to intervene. We conducted two cross-sectional studies to further explore this subject. Study 1 analyzes how personal variables (gender and political opinion), and situational variables (bystander effect and type of violence) influence the intention to respond. This study included an opportunity sample of 1563 people (79.4% women and 20.6% men) that filled out a sociodemographic data sheet, the Social Desirability Scale (SDC), and the Questionnaire of Intention to Help in VAW Cases (QIHVC). The results suggest that programs targeting women should focus on diminishing feelings of fear, while those aimed at men should stress fostering empathy toward victims. Study 2 explores correlates of bystander response intentions. This study involved an opportunity sample of 785 people (80.3% women and 19.7% men), completing the same instruments as in Study 1 and adding the Global Belief in a Just World Scale (GBJWS) and the Questionnaire on attitudes towards “piropos” (AP). The results suggest that feeling responsible may influence whether bystanders choose to intervene. These insights could be used to develop more effective training program frameworks. Full article

Morocco has recently been cited by the Institute of International Education as a leading destination for Arabic study abroad. However, research has shown that ideologies of language purism and unintelligibility position Eastern varieties of Arabic as more prestigious than Western. Yet, how these beliefs affect learners studying abroad remains an understudied topic, with few studies specifically investigating learners going to Morocco. This study utilizes language learning questionnaires and one-on-one interviews to explore learner beliefs about varieties of Arabic, with particular focus on Moroccan Arabic. Specifically, it looks at four advanced L2 Arabic learners who just started their one-year-long study abroad sojourn in Morocco. Findings show that due to negative stereotypes and misconceptions from native speakers, instructors, and colleagues, learners reported not wanting to learn Darija, the Moroccan variety of Arabic, before studying abroad. However, due to the immediate need of studying and living in Morocco, participants gained interest in Darija and started challenging stereotypes and misconceptions related to this variety of Arabic. These findings highlight the impact of standard language ideology and prestige on learners’ beliefs about what language varieties to study, and how these beliefs may change once learners prepare to and go abroad. Findings from this study support pedagogical and research suggestions to prepare learners for the sociolinguistic realities of the Arabic-speaking world, including critical awareness of ideologies and developing agency in dialect choice. Full article

This article is an attempt to empirically establish a new category of social beliefs defined as postmodern beliefs. They are cognitive categorizations of social and media messages regarding ways of understanding the world which are based on the basic assumptions of postmodernism, quite widely recognised as fundamental. The theoretical model adopted in the article assumes the existence of three beliefs: antifundamentalism, absolutization of freedom and relativization of truth. The hypothesised concept was operationalized as Postmodern Beliefs Questionnaire (PMBQ). Verification studies were carried out on three groups of over 600 people. The verification of the tool was carried out by using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to select the appropriate pool of statements, then data in two subsequent datasets was analysed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to empirically verify the selected set of statements and estimate relevant parameters. The tool constructed allows for investigating the distinguished beliefs at a satisfactory level of reliability and validity. It can be used to measure the extent to which the representations that make up the popular understanding of postmodernism have been recognised and built into the overall belief system about the world of the respondents. The distinguished postmodern beliefs differ in terms of relations with other social beliefs of the respondents, such as anthropocentrism, traditionalism, faith in a just world, as well as the attitude of individuals to material values or their individualistic orientation. Full article

Personal relative deprivation (PRD) is closely linked to a range of mental health problems. In the digital era, the association between social media use and PRD has received increasing attention. However, most studies have been conducted in Western contexts, and the underlying mechanisms in China remain unclear. This study examined the relationship between social media use and PRD among 2504 adult urban residents in China. Based on relative deprivation theory, it further explored the mediating role of subjective social status and the moderating role of belief in a just world. Results revealed that social media use was negatively associated with PRD. Subjective social status mediated this relationship: social media use was positively associated with subjective social status, while subjective social status was negatively associated with PRD. Moreover, belief in a just world strengthened the direct negative link between social media use and PRD, as well as the positive link between social media use and subjective social status. These findings suggest that social media are not always a risk factor for mental health. Their impact should be considered within specific cultural contexts and regulatory policies. Full article

The Social Justice Values (SJV) scale, as presented in this work, was developed to assess individuals’ attitudes and behaviors towards the values of social justice. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis were employed to ascertain the validity and reliability of the SJV instrument. The investigations revealed that the scale consists of 17 items across three factors, namely, instrumental values of social justice, social terminal values of social justice, and personal terminal values of social justice. The Cronbach alpha coefficient for the entire scale was 0.893. The nomological validity of the proposed scale was assessed by testing its association with two relevant scales: Distributive Justice and Multidimensional Belief in A Just World. Although the investigations indicated that this scale is a reliable instrument for assessing social justice through values among university students, further studies are required to confirm its validity with other samples. Full article

Beliefs about a social system help people understand and evaluate their environment and are related to their behavior within a society. When people believe that they live in a just social system and develop positive attitudes about the social and political environment, they experience greater satisfaction and well-being. This phenomenon is known as a palliative effect. Two theoretical approaches that explain support for social and political systems are the beliefs in a just world and system justification approaches. The objective of this review was to analyze the literature published between 2019 and 2023 that addressed the associations of beliefs in a just world and system justification with health-related well-being. The search yielded 2064 potentially eligible articles, 26 of which were ultimately selected. The results showed that beliefs in a just world are associated with a more positive perception of the world and better health outcomes. In addition, people with a greater propensity to justify the system experience higher levels of health-related well-being. This positive association is consistently observed across different social groups and contexts. These findings support the phenomenon of palliative effects attributable to beliefs in a just world and system justification. Full article

Justice motivation has been considered one cause of celebrity infidelity scandals becoming flaming incidents. Nevertheless, few studies have examined how the belief in a just world (BJW), one motivation for justice, affects people’s attitudes toward these incidents. This study was conducted to identify the relations among BJW, negative emotions toward infidelity (NE), and celebrity infidelity blaming (CIB). Data were collected from 1186 Japanese adults (mean age = 44.9 years, SD = 13.8; 49.4% male). The results of structural equation modeling revealed that NE positively relates to CIB and plays a mediating role between BJW and CIB. However, BJW neither facilitates NE nor positively predicts CIB; on the contrary, it suppresses both NE and CIB. The findings indicate that BJW decreases people’s blame on celebrity infidelity and suggest future directions for mitigating the issues posed by casting blame on celebrities’ cheating scandals. Full article

Just World Beliefs are a tendency to believe the world is inherently fair. The strength of these beliefs correlates with victim derogation, including blaming victims of medical pathology. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate whether the strength of belief in a just world predicts beliefs about the etiologies of early pregnancy loss. In total, 911 adults living in the United States were recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants completed a web-based assessment of their views on causes of pregnancy loss and a validated measure of just world beliefs. Pearson’s chi-squared test was used to evaluate the association between just world belief strength and beliefs about internal and external causes of spontaneous pregnancy loss. Compared to participants with weak just world beliefs, respondents with strong just world beliefs were more likely to attribute a pregnancy loss to benign reproductive choices (contraception use or a prior abortion) and daily activities (prolonged standing, engaging in an argument) that are within an individual’s control, while minimizing the contribution of factors that cannot be controlled (fetal genetic abnormalities). Understanding belief systems contributing to miscarriage stigma may help to develop stigma-reducing interventions for both patients and the general public. Full article

EU politics on decarbonizing shipping is an argumentative endeavor where different policy actors strive try to influence others to see problems and policy solutions according to their perspectives to gain monopoly on the framing and design of policies. This article critically analyzes, by means of argumentative discourse analysis, the politics and policy process related to the recent adoption of the FuelEU Maritime regulation, the world’s first legislation to set requirements for decarbonizing maritime shipping. Complementing previous research focusing on the roles and agency of policy entrepreneurs and beliefs of advocacy coalitions active in the policy process, this paper dives deeper into the politics of the new legislation. It aims to explore and explain the discursive framing and politics of meaning-making. By analyzing the political and social meaning-making of the concept “decarbonizing maritime shipping”, this paper helps us understand why the legislation was designed in the way it was. Different narratives, storylines and discourses defining different meanings of decarbonization are analyzed. So is the agency of policy actors trying to mutate the different meanings into a new meaning. Two discourses developed in dialectic conversation framed the policy proposals and subsequent debates in the policy process, focusing on (i) incremental change and technology neutrality to meet moderate emission reductions and maintain competitiveness, and (ii) transformative change and technology specificity to meet zero emissions and gain competitiveness and global leadership in the transition towards a hydrogen economy. Policy actors successfully used discursive agency strategies such as multiple functionality and vagueness to navigate between and resolve conflicts between the two discourses. Both discourses are associated with the overarching ecological modernization discourse and failed to include issue of climate justice and a just transition. The heritage of the ecological modernization discourse creates lock-ins for a broader decarbonization discourse, thus stalling a just transition. Full article

The aim of this study was to verify whether emotional intelligence and intrinsic religious orientation have a positive influence on a balanced time perspective (BTP) in the lives of Italian consecrated women. A positive, balanced time perspective, together with the ability to recognize one’s own emotions and those of others, is integral to people’s experience of religiosity in their lives. In this way, a balanced time perspective can open the experience of religiosity, contributing to a better world, along with all those who are engaged in a religious sentiment that is no longer limited to single segments of self-interest. In this study, we provided evidence that religious beliefs (not just participation in corporate religious life) can provide an alternative source of understanding emotions and perceiving time, for the religious people who live their consecrated life together. We tested whether this phenomenon was specific to the potential associations between various aspects of religious belief, emotional intelligence, and time perspective. This research was conducted on a sample of 283 Italian nuns, and it was verified that both emotional intelligence and intrinsic religiosity contribute significantly to a BTP. Furthermore, the fact that emotional intelligence is mediated by intrinsic religious orientation increases the benefits of emotional intelligence on the BTP of Italian nuns. Altogether, our results suggest that religiosity is linked to a balanced temporal profile and to a positive way of understanding emotions. More specifically, the pattern of relationships between religion, emotions, and time can influence and deepen both the individual and collective understanding of humanity among these religious women and create space for mutual engagement despite obvious differences. These results are in line with the requisites of Public Theology, as they allow us to specify selectively the developments on a more secure and empirical basis of how religiosity can affect the life of people, by exposing the submerged theological assumptions that characterize the internal beliefs of religiosity. Moreover, the research data indicate that the deep aspects of religiosity influence greatly the day-to-day living of religious women. This practical influence of religiosity confirms the urgency of opening up theological reflection in the public sphere of life. In fact, as long as the religiosity of the nuns is not reduced to private practice, theological reflection will also be opened to its public significance in the different fields of their apostolic mission. Full article

Midwifery practice inevitably includes miscarriages, stillbirths, and neonatal deaths. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between attitudes toward death and emotional intelligence, personality, resilience, and justice beliefs among midwives in Greece. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from 2020 to 2022 among 348 midwives employed in public hospitals, in regional health authorities, or as independent professionals. Research instruments included the Death Attitude Profile—Revised, the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire—Short Form, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and the Belief in a Just World scale. The results revealed that greater emotional intelligence was significantly associated with higher scores in the escape acceptance subscale. Midwives scored low on the neutral acceptance subscale (2.9 ± 0.8), with the highest score being recorded in the escape acceptance subscale (4.6 ± 1.0), which was significantly associated with greater emotional intelligence. Neuroticism was significantly associated with the death avoidance, approach acceptance, fear of death, and escape acceptance subscales. Finally, the subscale of distributive justice beliefs for self and others was significantly associated with the subscales of death avoidance and approach acceptance. These findings highlight the nuanced perspectives within the healthcare community. As we delve deeper into the complexities of end-of-life care, understanding these diverse attitudes is crucial for providing comprehensive and empathetic support to both patients and healthcare professionals. Full article

The introduction of ‘special measures’ within England and Wales (i.e., provisions for vulnerable and intimidated witnesses at court) marked a significant change in legal tradition and trial procedures such that victim and witness care was repositioned as a primary concern alongside the longstanding rights afforded to defendants. As public perceptions towards the legitimacy of criminal justice procedure remain a key concern among legal scholars and social scientists, this study aimed to examine individual differences in attitudes held towards the rights afforded to complainants and defendants within English courts. Adopting a cross-sectional study design, 114 UK adults were recruited to take part in an online survey. Questions centered around the importance of providing adequate witness care whilst protecting defendants’ rights to a fair trial. A new measurement tool was developed to allow these attitudes to be systematically assessed and understood, termed the Attitudes Towards Vulnerable Victims Scale (ATVVS). Results indicate that respondent age, gender, level of education, and belief in a just world are important determinants of public support for the use of special measures at trial as well as perceptions towards complainant and defendants’ rights. Taken together, findings indicate that misconceptions about vulnerable victims appear to underlie a lack of support for the use of special measures. Full article

This study investigates the impact of experienced contact on prejudiced attitudes towards individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs), examining beliefs in a just world (BJW) and social dominance orientation (SDO) as potential serial mediators. Data were collected from 224 university students (M = 23.02, SD = 2.48). Path analysis modelling assessed the structural relationships between the study variables. The findings revealed that experienced contact was negatively and significantly associated with BJW and SDO. Additionally, BJW and SDO fully mediated the relationship between experienced contact and overt prejudice. These findings underscore the influence of individual differences on attitudes towards individuals with ID, establishing a crucial foundation for future research and the development of interventions aimed at reducing prejudice and discrimination. Full article