Bachelor thesis writing and supervision as potential practice-based WIL 

In Sweden, students are required to write a bachelor’s thesis in both vocational and academic university programs, though the writing and supervision process differ across disciplines and institutions. In our research on undergraduate education and work-integrated education (WIE) in the social sciences, we conceive of thesis writing and supervision, as performed in the undergraduate program, International Program in Politics and Economics (IPPE) at University West, as an example of practice-based education. While studying the educational practice of thesis writing from the viewpoint of work-integrated learning (WIL), we pose two sets of questions: how and what kind of knowledge or skills are required and acquired, and what is the role and kind of supervision involved throughout the research-thesis writing process? The second set of questions is whether the practice of thesis writing could be classified as WIE, and ultimately, if WIL is achieved; more precisely, we are investigating what kind of learning is acquired and processed, and in what ways the “knowledge” acquired through this kind of research practice is transferable to “work-life” and result in “life-long-learning”? Is the thesis writing bridging the “gap” between the university and post-graduate professional careers? To answer these interrelated questions, we construct a theoretical framework that conceptualizes work-integrated supervision as cognitive apprenticeship and dissects the supervision process which aims to develop a particular set of skills that will align (i) the aim of highquality academic university education, with; (ii) the new (mass-) diversity of student population, with; (iii) the increasing emphasis on employability and career advancement.

Material and method

Our specific object of study is an academic program in political science that according to national curriculum regulations must contain a scientific research thesis, which is closely followed by supervisors assigned to student groups of two. It is a hands-on approach to supervision (Sinclair, 2004) following a strict timeline and structure as well as support. We investigate thesis-writing as a practice, the role of the supervisor therein, and the relation between thesis writing, the curriculum, and work-life. The primary data in this qualitative small-N study is gathered by a combination of interviews and participant observation. We conducted 15 semi-structured interviews and participated in 22 supervision sessions with 4 thesis groups. From the data collected, we identified p atterns, commonalities, and differences around how the students experience the practice of writing a thesis and its relation to their work life. 

Results and indications

The findings indicate that bachelor thesis writing and supervision in the form that it is practiced at IPPE is WIL. This specific model of supervision is that of an apprenticeship. While components of traditional (or vocational) apprenticeship is included in the relationship (especially when it comes to teaching/learning the actual p ractice of research), cognitive apprenticeship with a variety of methods to allow the apprentices to observe and actively engage in the practice through the supervisor’s strategic push toward independence (Collins, Brown, and Newman 1987) provides the basis of the relationship. The one-to-one hands-on cognitive apprenticeship supervision in the program is by far the most extensive task through which the students learn how to reflect on practice and become professional in what is a wide-open career trajectory. WIL is attained through working closely with a professional in their professional capacity as his/her apprentice and being trained in that very profession (as researchers) as a result of which they acquire the skills required for an increasingly intensive knowledge economy and the public sphere. The supervision model designed as an educative, supporting, and controlling process of seven steps ranging over 20 weeks complements the academic social science education students receive up to that point sealing the acquisition of epistemological skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, capacity for relearning, and coworking in groups as well as boosting ontological skills of time and project management in becoming confident professionals. 

Implications and contributions

While there have been previous studies on conceptualizing supervision within a WIL framework, they mostly focus on the supervision of students in the workplace/place of internship in relation to the work practices (Cooper et al., 2010), or supervision, mentorship, and feedback at the workplace (Eraut, 2010), rather than the academic thesis writing. These studies, therefore, focus on supervision more as a WIE practice, i.e., supervision with the intention of making sure that workplace experience of the supervisee serves certain learning outcomes (Billett, 2019), rather than as a WIL practice for learning to process experience for knowledge production. Our finding that the specific model of bachelor supervision within the context of WIL, based on the relationship between the supervisor and the supervisee(s) as a relationship of cognitive apprenticeship achieves WIL, is thus a novel contribution to the field. 

Thesis writing, at all levels of higher education, is considered the pinnacle of the learning process at that particular level, where the students get the opportunity to turn the core knowledge they acquired from coursework into a reflective experience. The way thesis writing is handled, therefore, seems to have special relevance from a WIE perspective, since the way this reflective experience is organized and guided by the supervisor has a significant impact on the extent to which the candidates can attain WIL: learning from experience as independent researchers and acquire the ability for “reflective” knowledge/learning (Billet 2012) on both practice and learning, as required for “progressive growth” (Dewey 1976-1983; see also Fleming & Haigh, 2018), as well as “critical reflections” (Trede & Mcewen, 2012). The result from our study thus contributes to the problem of knowledge transferability between the university and “work-life” (Eraut, M., 2010) be resolved through a “transformational” WIL model of academic supervision along the lines of Liberal Arts education’s broad appeal to knowledge and critical awareness that both question, analyze, and better prepare a diverse set of students for the knowledge economy, and a labor market that regularly sees people move in and out of different careers, not least as skills and even professions become obsolete (Crisp 2019; DeNis et al., 2003; Gannaway et. al., 2017).

This article investigates how the Swedish forest industry, as represented by the three largest Swedish private forest companies (Svenska Cellulosa AB, Stora Enso, and Holmen), through their main public relations (PR) channels frame the current dominant Swedish forestry model and alternative models that are promoted by the European Union (EU). The content analysis of the three companies’ trade magazines published between 2019 and 2022 explores the patterns in the PR framing of the forest management models with respect to economic, environmental, and social aspects. The time interval is centered by the July 2021 announcement of the EU’s new Forest Strategy for 2030. The magazines’ target audience is private forest owners, from whom Svenska Cellulosa AB, Stora Enso, and Holmen buy 40–50% of the timber used in production. The main finding of the study is that these corporations did not present alternative methods as viable options to replace the Swedish forestry model. The magazines, with some individual variations, respond to the alternative methods promoted by the EU and environmental associations by an increased emphasis on the benefits, mainly environmental, of the Swedish forestry model–framing the model as not only the most profitable but also the most ecologically sustainable. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Women’s political leadership has been ignored both in actual political scene of world’s democracies and by the studies of political leadership. The common perception in both areas has long been that gender difference makes women unfit leaders. More recent studies of gender and leadership as well as various women politicians, on the other hand, emphasized women’s fitness for leadership due to their gendered characteristics. This paper argues that using gender as a determining factor for good or bad political leadership endangers future leadership opportunities for women. An exploration of the experience of Turkey in the 1990s with a woman political leader, Tansu Çiller, and her leadership style in relation to her gender, demonstrates that while gender stereotypes make women’s political leadership to be perceived as ineffective, any argument that is made in its favor in gendered terms faces the risk of being refuted by actual experience hence delegitimizing women’s leadership altogether. Using Crosby and Bryson’s leadership model as an analytical framework to dissect Çiller’s political and ethical leadership and her use of gender in the Turkish context, we can see that gender itself does not make a leader more democratic or ethical and arguing so works against potential women leaders.

Th is article seeks to explain two related theoretical questions by looking at the treatment of two related practices of war, pillage and rape, by international law: How does change, particularly legalized regime change, happen in international relations and what is the role of “gender” as a category in this process of change? Th e argument here is that three conditions are necessary for the emergence of a legalized prohibition regime: Firstly, states must believe that they can comply with the prohibition because non-compliance is costly. Secondly, a normative context conducive to the idea that the particular practice is abnormal/undesirable is necessary. Th irdly, actors actively propagating these ideas to promote the creation of a particular regime should exist. Th e 100-year temporal diff erence between the emergence of the regimes against pillage and rape reveals the role of gender in this process.

Sexual violence is a pervasive problem that continues to affect many women’s lives around the world. The cultural environment enables the continued perpetration of these crimes and the (re)production of these cultural environments as well as their subjects through visual arts, particularly cinema. In this article, the mutually constitutive relationship between the rape culture in Turkey and Turkish cinema, with its particular themes and characters, is explored and described in order to shed light upon the social setting that both produces and consumes the rape-themed movies while normalizing and allowing rape.

The diffusion of international human rights norms through the enforcement of international human rights law by courts has been explored by both scholars of international relations and international law. Turkey, which has been a state party to most international human rights treaties despite being a major violator of human rights, is the case in this paper. It examines norm diffusion in the area of women’s rights through court action in a patriarchal culture protected and represented by a deeply patriarchal state and judiciary. By looking at the legal processes, domestic and international, through which the issue of the right of Turkish women to keep their maiden names after marriage has gone, this paper argues that norm diffusion through court action can be triggered even in difficult cases such as changing gendered norms and describes the conditions and mechanisms that make these changes more likely.

Einleitung

Der Begriff »Vergewaltigungskultur« tauchte in den 1970er Jahren zuerst in den USA auf und wurde anschließend zu einem allumfassenden Erklärungsmuster für das Vorhandensein sexueller Gewalt in verschiedenen sozialen Bereichen: auf dem College-Campus, beim Militär, in den Gefängnissen und zu Hause. In manchen Studien wurden verschiedene Gesellschaften je nach ihrer Vergewaltigungskultur als »vergewaltigungsanfällig« oder »vergewaltigungs-frei« (Sanday 2003) kategorisiert. Wurden das normative Umfeld und die gesellschaftliche Wahrnehmung von Vergewaltigung mit dem individuellen Verhalten von Menschen verbunden, so ergab sich eine höhere oder niedrigere Zahl sexueller Übergriffe, mit mehr oder weniger harten Konsequenzen für die Täter.

Baum, Cohen und Zhukov (2018) stellten zum Beispiel in ihrer Stu-die über die amerikanische Vergewaltigungskultur fest, dass es einen signifikanten Zusammenhang zwischen der Vergewaltigungskultur und der Häufigkeit von Vergewaltigungen sowie der Reaktion des Strafrechtssystems gibt. Studien mit einem Fokus auf dem Einfluss oder der Prävalenz der Vergewaltigungskultur bezogen sich zwar auf die amerikanische Gesellschaft und arbeiteten mit einem daran ausgerichteten Modell, es gab jedoch überall auf der Welt auch Studien, in denen Ursachen, Manifestationen und Konsequen-zen von Vergewaltigungskulturen in unterschiedlichen soziokulturellen Kontexten erforscht wurden (Inal und Smith 2018). Entsprechend untersucht dieser Artikel die Vergewaltigungskultur in Schweden, wie sie sich unter Jugendlichen manifestiert, von ihnen erlebt und verstanden wird. Diese Untersuchung ist vor allem im Zuge der #Metoo-Bewegung von Bedeutung und in der von ihr ausgelösten Debatte über die Selbstwahrnehmung Schwedens als eine der Gesellschaften mit der größten Gleichberechtigung weltweit und jahr-zehntelanger aktiver Förderung der Geschlechtergleichstellung. Diesbezüglich wartet der schwedische Kontext mit einigen Paradoxien auf. Die nationale #Metoo-Bewegung hat schnell und lautstark mobilisiert und das strukturelle Vorhandensein einer Vergewaltigungskultur in einem Land aufgezeigt, in . . .