Unexplored aspects of bureaucratic autonomy: a state of the field and ways forward

This article first provides a selective overview of the literature on bureaucratic autonomy and identifies different approaches to this topic. The second section discusses three major sets of open questions, which will be tackled in the contributions to this special issue: the subjective, dynamic and relational nature of autonomy; the complex linkages between tasks, organizational forms, and national path dependencies on the one hand and autonomy and performance on the other hand; and the interplay between autonomy, accountability and democratic legitimacy.

A Learner-Centred Game-Design Approach: Impacts on teachers" creativity

This study presents an innovative pedagogical approach where teachers become game designers and engage in creative teaching practices. Within co-design training workshops, 21 Spanish primary and secondary school teachers have developed their own Game-Based Learning (GBL) scenarios, especially tailored to their teaching contexts and students profiles. In total, teachers developed 13 GBL scenarios and put them into practice in real teaching contexts. The present paper analyses the impacts of this learner-centred game design approach on teachers" creativity from three different points of view: the GBL design process, the GBL scenario, and the teaching processes at stake.

A rationalist perspective on the autonomy of international sport governing bodies : towards a pragmatic autonomy in the steering of sports

International sport governing bodies (ISGBs) are built on the foundations of freedom of association and traditionally enjoy a large degree of autonomy in their decision-making. Their autonomy is increasingly confined, however, and their hierarchical self-governance is giving way to a more networked governance, in which different stakeholders exert power in different ways and in different contexts in a complex web of interrelationships. Taking a rationalist perspective on the autonomy of ISGBs, this article demonstrates that ISGBs are deploying strategies to safeguard their waning governing monopoly over international sport. Opting for an inductive approach, the authors present four possible conceptualizations of autonomy as applied to ISGBs, namely political autonomy, legal autonomy, financial autonomy and pyramidal autonomy. For each dimension, they describe the different strategies ISGBs wield in order to safeguard different dimensions of their autonomy. This article uses governance theories to hypothesize that the autonomy of ISGBs can be understood as 'pragmatic autonomy' since ISGBs only cede certain aspects of their autonomy under particular circumstances and when being subject to specific threats. Acting in a rationalist manner, they are able to keep control over governance developments in sport by using indirect and more subtle forms of governance.

Synergy Sources, Target Autonomy and Integration in Acquisitions

Determining the appropriate level of integration is crucial to realizing value from acquisitions. Most prior research assumes that higher integration implies the removal of autonomy from target managers, which in turn undermines the functioning of the target firm if it entails unfamiliar elements for the acquirer. Using a survey of 86 acquisitions to obtain the richness of detail necessary to distinguish integration from autonomy, the authors argue and find that integration and autonomy are not the opposite ends of a single continuum. Certain conditions (e.g., when complementarity rather than similarity is the primary source of synergy) lead to high levels of both integration and autonomy. In addition, similarity negatively moderates the relationship between complementarity and autonomy when the target offers both synergy sources. In contrast, similarity does not moderate the link between complementarity and integration. The authors' findings advance scholarly understanding about the drivers of implementation strategy and in particular the different implementation strategies acquiring managers deploy when they attempt to leverage complementarities, similarities, or both.

User Centered Desing in E-Learning Environments : from Usability to Learner Experience

The advent of the Internet had a great impact on distance education and rapidly e-learning has become a killer application. Education institutions worldwide are taking advantage of the available technology in order to facilitate education to a growing audience. Everyday, more and more people use e-learning systems, environments and contents for both training and learning. E-learning promotes educationamong people that due to different reasons could not have access to education: people who could nottravel, people with very little free time, or withdisabilities, etc. As e-learning systems grow and more people are accessing them, it is necessary to consider when designing virtual environments the diverse needs and characteristics that different users have. This allows building systems that people can use easily, efficiently and effectively, where the learning process leads to a good user experience and becomes a good learning experience.

Digital learner portfolio as a tool for inovating assessment in the European Higher Education Area

The present article comes from a doctoral thesis that turns on digital learner portfolio, which is an innovating methodology from the perspective of European Higher Education Area. First, the educative concept of eportfolio is described in the sense of its procedure and its structure, by means of the technological support of a platform of virtual campus. Second, it is shown the pedagogical model of an eportfolio that adapts subjects with an instrumental character to one organization based on tasks and reflections. This design of virtual learning environment is based on a teaching- learning methodology sustained in the activity of the student, which tries to give support to the management of his or her own process of learning and assessment. Finally, the article illustrates the experience of implementation of the first digital learner portfolios in the University of Barcelona and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with the objective of reflecting about the pedagogical consequences that this assessment model with technological support has in a traditional higher education institution.

Conditions for EFL learning and professional development : Finland-Swedish learner and teacher perspectives

Engelskans dominerande roll som internationellt språk och andra globaliseringstrender påverkar också Svenskfinland. Dessa trender påverkar i sin tur förutsättningarna för lärande och undervisning i engelska som främmande språk, det vill säga undervisningsmålen, de förväntade elev- och lärarroller, materialens ändamålsenlighet, lärares och elevers initiala erfarenheter av engelska och engelskspråkiga länder. Denna studie undersöker förutsättningarna för lärande och professionell utveckling i det svenskspråkiga nybörjarklassrummet i engelska som främmande språk. Utgångsläget för 351 nybörjare i engelska som främmande språk och 19 av deras lärare beskrivs och analyseras. Resultaten tyder på att engelska håller på att bli ett andraspråk snarare än ett traditionellt främmande språk för många unga elever. Dessa elever har också goda förutsättningar att lära sig engelska utanför skolan. Sådan var dock inte situationen för alla elever, vilket tyder på att det finns en anmärkningsvärd heterogenitet och även regional variation i det finlandssvenska klassrummet i engelska som främmande språk. Lärarresultaten tyder på att vissa lärare har klarat av att på ett konstruktivt sätt att tackla de förutsättningar de möter. Andra lärare uttrycker frustration över sin arbetssituation, läroplanen, undervisningsmaterialen och andra aktörer som kommer är av betydelse för skolmiljön. Studien påvisar att förutsättningarna för lärande och undervisning i engelska som främmande språk varierar i Svenskfinland. För att stöda elevers och lärares utveckling föreslås att dialogen mellan aktörer på olika nivå i samhället bör förbättras och systematiseras.

Autonomy and islands: a global study of the factors that determine island autonomy

Att ett geografiskt territorium uppnår autonomi förklaras ofta av skillnad I etnicitet, språk eller religion. En region som skiljer sig i någon av dessa kulturella aspekter från övriga regioner i ett land anses därför ha större sannolikhet att utveckla autonomi. Pär M. Olausson visar i sin avhandling att kulturella aspekter inte är den viktigaste förklaringen till att vissa öar utvecklar autonomi. Kulturella aspekter är bara en del i förklaringen till varför vissa öar utvecklar autonomi medan andra förblir en integrerad del av moderlandet. Kulturella aspekter måste kombineras med andra aspekter för att utgöra en tillräcklig förklaring till skillnaden i autonomi. Bland de autonoma regionerna i världen idag utgör öar en klar majoritet. Öar anses ofta ha speciella egenskaper som gör att de skiljer sig från fastlandet. Känslan av samhörighet och gemenskap är ofta starkare på öar pga deras ofta isolerade läge vilket i sin tur anses förklara varför många öar utvecklar autonomi. Genom att studera både autonoma och icke-autonoma öar visar Olausson att autonomi kan förklaras av att ön ligger längre än 1 000 km från fastlandet eller att den skiljer sig från fastlandet i någon av de kulturella aspekterna, att den har varit ockuperad av främmande stat och därmed avskiljd från övriga landet eller utgjort en egen stat. Den viktigaste förklaringen till varför vissa öar utvecklar autonomi men inte andra är emellertid öns strategiska betydelse.

Conditions for different autonomy regimes in the world : a fuzzy-set application

Avhandlingen behandlar temat territoriell autonomi ur ett globalt perspektiv. Syftet är dels att kartlägga de territoriella autonomierna i världen och dels att visa hur en ny metod som fuzzy-set kan användas inom ämnesområdet jämförande politik. Forskningsproblemet är att försöka finna de bakgrundsfaktorer som förklarar uppkomsten av territoriell autonomi som sådant. Territoriella autonomier ses som särlösningar inom stater. Dessa regioner har erhållit en specialställning i förhållande till andra regioner inom respektive stat och även i förhållande till centralmakten i övrigt. Regionerna kan därför ses som undantag inom det enhetliga federala, regionala eller decentraliserade systemet inom en viss stat ifråga. En kartläggning visar att det finns 65 specialregioner fördelade på 25 stater i världen. De flesta av dessa utgörs av öar. Resultaten visar att det finns två vägar vilka leder till territoriell autonomi i allmänhet. Den ena vägen är en kombination av etnisk särprägel och liten befolkningsmängd, medan den andra vägen utgörs av kombinationen av historiska orsaker och geografiskt avstånd. Båda vägar är lika giltiga och förutsättningen är en demokratisk miljö.

The principle of autonomy in Brazil: one needs to discuss it ...

The principle of patient autonomy is a cornerstone of bioethics. According to this concept, patients should be given the power to make decisions related to their treatment. It is an important component of modern medical ethics, which has received much interest in current literature. However, the rate of participation of patients and their willingness to participate are variable according to the cultural, social and family environments in which they are inserted. The aim of this paper is to promote a brief descriptive review on autonomy, the preferences of patients and the use of informed consent as an instrument for the exercise of autonomy in literature, and to stress the lack of debate, as well as the pressing need for discussion of these current issues nationwide.

The Influence of Education and Depression on Autonomy of Women with Chronic Pelvic Pain: A Cross-sectional Study

Objective Patient autonomy has great importance for a valid informed consent in clinical practice. Our objectives were to quantify thedomains of patient autonomy and to evaluate the variables that can affect patient autonomy in women with chronic pelvic pain. Methods This study is a cross sectional survey performed in a tertiary care University Hospital. Fifty-two consecutive women scheduled for laparoscopic management of chronic pelvic were included. Three major components of autonomy (competence, information or freedom) were evaluated using a Likert scale with 24 validated affirmatives. Results Competence scores (0.85 vs 0.92; p = 0.006) and information scores (0.90 vs 0.93; p = 0.02) were low for women with less than eight years of school attendance. Information scores were low in the presence of anxiety (0.91 vs 0.93; p = 0.05) or depression (0.90 vs 0.93; p = 0.01). Conclusions Our data show that systematic evaluation of patient autonomy can provide clinical relevant information in gynecology. Low educational level, anxiety and depression might reduce the patient autonomy in women with chronic pelvic pain.