bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
THE INFLUENCE OF LEADERSHIP STYLE, WORK MOTIVATION AND WORK ENVIRONMENT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF EDUCATORS AT SMKN 2 BANDAR LAMPUNG
Authors: Mei Novitasari Sitorus  , Iskandar Ali Alam
Published: September 2024

The study aims to measure the impact of leadership style, work motivation, and working environment conditions on teaching efficiency at SMKN 2 Bandar Lampung. A quantitative approach was chosen as the research method, with data collected directly from teachers through questionnaires, covering a total population of 31 educators. The collected data was then analyzed using multiple linear regression models. The results of the analysis showed that leadership style did not have a meaningful impact on efficiency in the teaching process. Meanwhile, work motivation factors were found to have a significant influence. Related to the work environment, the results of the analysis showed no significant influence. It is hoped that the findings from this study can contribute to improving the quality of teaching at SMKN 2 Bandar Lampung, by paying special attention to work motivation variables, while leadership styles and working environment conditions may require further evaluation in different contexts.
IMPACT OF IMPLEMENTATION OF METHODS OF COACHING FOR SUCCESS, PARTICIPATIVE, AFFILIATIVE, VISIONARY AND SITUATIONAL (COPAVISIT) AT OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT OF CELLULAR TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES IN DIGITAL ERA
Authors: Hendra Jonathan Sibarani  , Nidya Banuari  , Esther Praja Anggriany Panggabean
Published: September 2024

The development of the telecommunications industry in Indonesia is determined by the company's ability to manage operational with using methods of coaching for success, participative, affiliative, visionary and situational. The meaning of coaching for success are with treating people as they want to be treated, that is by indirectly giving punishment, participative by taking part in the problems faced by company management, affiliative by maintaining good relationships with employees and company partners, visionary support progress company, situational is done by looking at the condition of the company that is required to be able to implement the marketing industry 4.0. This research method uses a quantitative approach, the type of quantitative descriptive research with the nature of research that is explanatory. The data used are secondary data, namely employees of cellular telecommunication in Area of Regional I of Medan City as many as 800 people. The sampling technique used in this study using the Slovin formula so that the number of samples used in this study was 89 people. Sampling uses a simple random sampling approach. The results obtained in this study are coaching for success methods have a negative and significant influence, participative and affiliative, have a positive and significant influence, while visionary and situational have no influence on the operational management of cellular telecommunications companies in Medan City.
Att använda elevsvar i undervisningen
Authors: Karlsson Erica , Wennergren Ann-Christine
Published: September 2024

Skolinspektionens granskning av svenska skolor från 2010 visar att tyst arbete premieras och att elever inte ges möjligheter att lära tillsammans eller reflektera kring sitt eget lärande. Analysen ger en dyster bild av undervisning som ofta gynnar elevers individuella projekt, där tid för gemensamma upplevelser har minskat och där innehållet i det gemensamma samspelet har förändrats. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att utveckla kunskap om hur lärare systematiskt kan basera sin undervisning på samtal som utgår från elevernas förståelse. Nio lektioner i matematik i årskurs fyra har videofilmats. I analysen framkom tre kategorier. Först och främst använder sig läraren av olika sätt att ställa följdfrågor där kontrollerande frågor var vanligt förkommande. Läraren förstärkte också elevsvar genom att både lyfta fram det som var rätt och visa på vad som blev fel. Slutligen följdes elevsvar upp för att föra lektionen framåt. Resultaten indikerar att det i elevernas ” fel-svar” ligger en potential för lärande. Studien ger därmed implikationer att lärarens förmåga att ta tillvara elevsvar som underlag för undervisning i hög grad påverkar elevers möjligheter att lära.
The use of students’ answers in interactive teaching
The results of an inspection in Swedish schools in 2010 showed that students’ working individually without communication with peers was the most dominant mode. There were few occasions to reflect and learn together in groups. The report gives signals that teaching sessions, where time for shared experiences among students, are limited. The aim of the present study was to generate knowledge of how teachers’ can perform an interactive teaching based on students’ experiences. Nine lessons of Maths in school year four were video documented. The analysis displayed three categories: Teaching based on open questions, teaching based on positive confirmations and teaching based on uptakes of students answers. Findings indicate that there is a potential for learning when teaching is based on students’ wrong answers. Furthermore teachers with competence to integrate students’ answers, as a part of teaching, influenced student learning.
”Det brukar vara så här långt!” – En jämförande studie om kritiska särdrag för elevers uppfattning av tallinjen
Authors: Björk Marie , Pettersson Berggren Gunilla
Published: September 2024

Hur elever i år 2 uppfattar och använder tallinjen som redskap har undersökts i en Learning study. För att kunna hantera tallinjen som redskap i matematiskt tänkande behöver eleverna, i enlighet med ett variationsteoretiskt sätt att se på lärande, urskilja vad som är specifikt för denna representationsform av talsystemet. Kritiska aspekter i andra studier med liknande lärandeobjekt har beaktats vid utformandet av förtest i denna studie. Dessa aspekter har också kompletterat och fördjupat analysen av resultaten. Studiens resultat överensstämmer i stora delar med vad som framkommit i andra Learning study. Det pekar på vikten av att elever har förståelse för att tallinjen kan ha olika omfång, sambandet mellan värde och avstånd, att det behövs två referenspunkter för att kunna placera ett tredje tal, alltså bestämma tallinjens skala, samt hur del och helhet förhåller sig till varandra. Resultaten diskuteras i förhållande till tidigare Learning study samt i relation till vad vi ser som intressant ur ett undervisningsperspektiv. Studien har genomförts av matematiklärare vid Sjöstadsskolan i Stockholm, som en del i ett FoU-projekt i samarbete mellan Stockholms stad och Stockholms universitet.
"It’s usually this far” – A comparative study on critical features for pupils' perception of the number line
This study examines how second graders perceive and use the number line as a learning tool.According to the variation theory’s approach to learning, pupils have to discern what is important for this form of representation of the numeral system in order to use the number line as a tool in mathematical thinking. Critical aspects from other studies with similar learning objects have been taken into consideration for our pre-test design. These aspects supplemented and enhanced the analysis of the results and our results were consistent with earlier learning studies´. This points to the importance of pupils’ understanding of the number line range, the relationship between value and distance and the need for two reference points to determine the scale, and how part and whole relate to each other. The results are discussed in relation to previous learning studies, and in relation to what we see as interesting from a teaching perspective. The study was conducted by mathematics teachers at Sjöstadsskolan in Stockholm, as part of an action research project in collaboration with Stockholm University.
Yrkeselevers erfarenheter om bedömning och återkoppling – kritiska röster från barn- och fritidsprogrammet
Authors: Wyszynska Johansson Martina , Henning Loeb Ingrid
Published: September 2024

Artikeln bygger på en intervjustudie med 70 gymnasieelever på barn- och fritidsprogrammet om deras erfarenheter av bedömning och återkoppling, vilket har fått en alltmer central roll genom att ses som processer som stärker lärandet. Yrkeselevers perspektiv på bedömning och återkoppling är ett outforskat område. Artikeln redovisar resultat om den skolförlagda delen av utbildningen. Två teman är i fokus: lärares bedömning och återkoppling samt kamratrespons. Eleverna anser att lärares återkoppling ofta är generell, att det är skriftliga uppgifter som ligger till grund för bedömning och att kunskapskravens termer är abstrakta. De flesta tycker att kamratbedömning är svårt och att det inte är deras uppgift att bedöma sina kamrater. Elevernas utsagor ger grund för att fundera över vilka slags lärandeprocesser som lärare behöver understödja, för att elever ska erfara mer delaktighet i bedömning. Den reser också kritiska frågor att diskuteras i utbildningspolitiska sammanhang.
Vocational students' experiences of assessment and feedback. Critical voices from the Child and recreation program
The article is based on an interview study with 70 students in the Child and recreation program in Swedish upper secondary school on their experiences of assessment and feedback. The central role of assessment and feedback has been increasingly recognized as promoting student learning, but there are yet no studies of vocational students’ experiences of learning vocational subjects. The article presents results on the experiences in school-based vocational education. Two themes are in focus: 1) teachers assessment and feedback and 2) peer feedback. The students experience the feedback from the teacher as general or vague and that written assignments are a dominant means of assessing vocational knowing. Also, the quality descriptors expressed in the knowledge requirements for grades are perceived as abstract and thus of little value to the students´ comprehension of the assessment of vocational knowing. Most students find peer feedback difficult and argue that it is not their task to assess their friends. Based on these results of student experiences and perspectives, the article points out the need for a strong teacher support in order to achieve student engagement and skills development in assessment processes.
Innebörden av att kunna ’house hop’ – rörelsekunnande som kroppslig förståelse
Authors: Nyberg Gunn
Published: September 2024

I den här artikeln presenterar jag en del av mitt avhandlingsprojekt (Nyberg, 2014) där syftet var att undersöka vad rörelseförmåga kan innebära i termer av vad ’man kan’ när man kan röra sig på olika sätt. Syftet med artikeln är att visa hur en fenomenografisk analys av elevers olika sätt att röra sig kan bidra till hur kunskapen om rörelsekunnande kan utvecklas. Den fenomenografiska analysen innebär att, i det här fallet, systematiskt undersöka hur elevers ’kroppsliga förståelse’ av en rörelse uttrycks genom olika sätt att röra sig. Resultatet av analysen visar även vilka aspekter av rörelsen som är möjliga att urskilja och erfara, vilket bidrar till en förståelse av vad det innebär att kunna en rörelse. I artikeln diskuterar jag hur en fenomenografisk ansats kan underlätta för lärare i idrott och hälsa att bortse från sina egna underförstådda antaganden om vad det innebär att behärska en rörelse och hur undervisningen i idrott och hälsa kan bidra till utveckling av rörelseförmåga.
The meaning of knowing 'house hop' - movement capability as somatic grasping
This article reports a part of a doctoral thesis (Nyberg, 2014) of which the aim was to explore what capability to move can mean in terms of ‘what there is to know’ when knowing how to move in specific ways. The aim with this article is to show how a phenomenographic analysis of students’ ways of moving can contribute to how knowledge about capability to move can be developed. The phenomenographic analysis means, in this case, to systematically study how students’ somatic understanding of a movement is expressed through different ways of moving. The result of the analysis also shows what aspects of the movement are possible to discern and experience. This in turn, contributes to a specifikation of what it means to know a movement. It is discussed in what way a phenomenographic approach can facilitate for PE teachers to understand what it means to know a movement from the students’ point of view and thereby ‘bracket’ one’s own underlying assumptions regarding what it means to master a movement. Additionally, a phenomenographic approach can provide ways of developing the teaching and learning of capability to move in the context of PE.
Brief Discussion on the Efficacy of Combining Yiqi-jianpi Therapy with Chemotherapy for the Treatment of Colorectal Cancer
Authors: Yi Zhongjia
Published: September 2024

Colorectal cancer is one of the common and frequently occurring malignant tumors both at home and abroad. With the continuous economic development and improvement of living standards, the incidence of colorectal cancer has increased significantly due to the increasing prevalence of high-salt, high-fat, low-fiber diet. In recent years, the combination of Yiqi-jianpi therapy with chemotherapy for colorectal cancer has achieved better objective efficacy, and it has unique advantages in reducing toxicity, enhancing efficacy, improving the quality of life of patients, and prolonging survival period.
Clinical Practice Ability and Related Factors Among Senior Undergraduate Nursing Students Post-Clinical Internship: A Latent Profile Analysis
Authors: Liu Xin , Aguila Nancy A.
Published: September 2024

The shortage of nurses and inadequate clinical practice abilities among senior undergraduate nursing students has raised significant concerns globally. The discrepancy between nursing education and practical skill requirements in hospitals is the primary contributor to this issue. Objectives: This study aimed to (1) explore potential classifications for assessing the clinical practice abilities of senior undergraduate nursing students in clinical practice, (2) identify distinct subgroups based on their clinical practice abilities, and (3) analyze the factors influencing these subgroups. Design: This was a cross-sectional study using latent profile analysis. Participants: A total of 336 fourth-year nursing students who had recently completed clinical practice were included in this study. Methods: Data were collected using a structured questionnaire that included sociodemographic factors, the Nursing Professional Attitude Questionnaire (NPAQ), and the Environmental Assessment Scale for Nursing Clinical Practice. The Clinical Ability Scale for Undergraduate Nursing Students (CCSUNS) measures clinical practice abilities. Latent profile analysis was used to identify subgroups of students based on their clinical practice abilities. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the factors influencing these subgroups. Results: Three profiles of clinical practice ability were identified: (1) "low level - guidance dependent" (51.79%), (2) "intermediate - response improvement" (33.85%), and (3) "high level - autonomous decision-making" (16.37%). Key influencing factors included gender, academic performance, professional nursing attitude, and the clinical practice environment. Conclusions: More than half of the senior nursing students demonstrated poor clinical practice abilities. Enhancing the clinical practice environment, increasing practical opportunities, fostering professional attitudes, and addressing gender equality are critical for improving clinical practice abilities. Future multicenter longitudinal studies are recommended to explore changes in clinical practice abilities over time and across different stages of clinical practice.
Review of Influencing Factors of Patients' Medical Choice Behavior in Online Health Community
Authors: Mao Zhendong , Musah Adiza Alhassan , Huang Dan
Published: September 2024

The development of information technology has made online medical communities a new avenue for addressing medical resource shortages. However, the complexity of information and the asymmetry between physicians and patients makes patients confused when they consult in online health community (OHC). This study systematically analyzed and summarized relevant theories and factors influencing patients' medical choice behavior through literature review. The objective is to offer guidance for patients' decisions in selecting physicians and to support the sustainable development of online medical community platforms, as well as to provide practical insights for further exploration in this field. Objective: This review examines recent theories and factors influencing patients' medical choice behavior in online health community (OHC), aiming to offer insights for patient choice regarding physician selection and the sustainable development of online medical platforms. Methods: A literature analysis was conducted to summarize studies on patients' medical choice behavior in OHC, identifying relevant theories and influencing factors. Results: The analysis identified seven key theories in the study of patients' medical choice behavior: signal theory, trust theory, social capital theory, social exchange theory, the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), and the opportunity-motivation-ability (OMA) framework. Factors such as physicians' professional capital, online effort, service quality, online reputation, patient preferences and disease heterogeneity significantly influence patients' medical choice behavior. Conclusion: There is a trend toward integrating multiple theories in understanding patients' medical choice behavior in OHC; however, interdisciplinary research remains limited. Most studies focus on patients’ medical choice behavior from the physicians' perspective, while research from the patients' viewpoint is lacking. This study suggests two future research directions: enhancing the integration of multidisciplinary theories and expanding the scope of research subjects.
Cognitive Impairment from Breast Cancer Chemotherapy in the Perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Authors: Yi Zhongjia
Published: September 2024

In recent years, the incidence of breast cancer has been on the rise globally and in China. The conventional treatment methods for breast cancer include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, targeted therapy, traditional Chinese medicine, and other biological immunotherapy. In the treatment of breast cancer, the status of chemotherapy drugs is unshakable, and the related toxic side effects have gradually attracted people's attention. Doxorubicin is an anthracycline drug, which is the cornerstone drug for adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer. It exerts anti-tumor effects by inserting DNA and inhibiting topoisomerase II, but it can also cause severe neurotoxicity by crossing the blood-brain barrier, clinically manifested as memory and executive function decline, etc., which has a huge impact on the patient's work and life. With the development of modern medicine, the advantages of traditional Chinese medicine in preventing and treating adverse reactions related to breast cancer and improving patients' quality of life are increasingly being recognized. Traditional Chinese medicine classifies chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment into related diseases such as "dementia", "brain marrow depletion", and "forgetfulness" based on its main clinical symptoms, and achieves the therapeutic effect of improving chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment through clinical differentiation and coordinating relevant therapies, providing a scientific basis for the treatment of adverse reactions related to malignant tumors by traditional Chinese medicine in radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Dutchified English in an Ohio Beachy Amish-Mennonite Community
Authors: Downing Lara
Published: September 2024

This article compares the English spoken by Beachy Amish-Mennonites just outside the Holmes County, OH, plain community with the English of non-plain neighbors. Although there is no previous linguistic research about the Beachys in this region, previous research on the dialects of English spoken by Amish communities suggests that differences from regional standards are influenced by deliberate border maintenance, primacy of language in expressing ethnic identity, and interference from Pennsylvania German, known to speakers as “Dutchified English.” However, little research has examined the English of the Beachys, who, compared to the Amish, occupy a less conservative position between separation from and engagement with broader society. The variables I focus on are initial th-stopping, final obstruent devoicing, and the low back vowel merger. The first two variables are documented for Amish English and various German bilingual communities. Th-stopping is also socially salient and is associated with the more religiously orthodox Amish churches in Holmes County. I collected production and perception data from ten speakers in the Beachy congregation and five non-Anabaptist speakers from the same region, and I present here my findings of the use of th-stopping and final consonant devoicing, both of which are attested, although neither are used categorically, and the low back merger, which is attested categorically in all non-Anabaptists but in only one Beachy speaker. The perceptual data has theoretical implications for the role of community identity and border maintenance between non-plain neighbors and the heavily Amish Holmes County community.
Can a New Layer of Leadership Save Sectarian Practice? A Decentralized Denomination’s Experiment with a Central Committee
Authors: Anderson Cory
Published: September 2024

The Beachy Amish-Mennonite bishop committee was established at the 1991 annual ministers’ meeting as a conservative response to uncertainty about religious practices across the denomination. The committee was tasked with developing 18 concerns from the meeting into a denomination-wide standard of practice. While majority support was forthcoming for this statement, leadership from some influential, moderate congregations worked against the committee for two reasons. First, the congregation’s leaders wanted a think tank-style advisory committee, not a committee that made and enforced regulations. Second, these congregations feared being ousted due to eventually falling out of conformity. Due to this opposition, the committee began rotating members and the initial goal of a standard of practice was lost, except a prohibition against television and radio that was ratified in 1999. The committee was an institutional focal point that allowed conservatives and moderates to express their goals, and when the moderates gained control, some conservatives took independent initiative to establish a constitution, to which congregations voluntarily adhered. This eventually turned into the Maranatha Amish-Mennonite and Ambassadors Amish-Mennonite denominations.
Of Process, Practice, and Belief: What Can We Learn about Old Amish Church History and Polity from this Special Issue’s Source Documents?
Authors: Anderson Cory
Published: September 2024

A full history of the “Old Amish Church” project (c. 1865 to c. 1955-1973) has yet to be written, at least not in English, and not as an overarching, analytical narrative. However, several primary German accounts provide a close—albeit partial—analysis of events leading to the collapse of a unified Old Amish church in the aftermath of the 1860s Amish-Mennonite/Old Amish schism. While Amish-Mennonite churches continually drained a minority of Old Amish members, stricter church districts also emerged, moving members in the opposite direction. Though not self-evident as separate denominations at first, these movements were eventually recognized as schisms. These included the Sam Yoder, Stutzman-Troyer, and Andy Weaver Churches, started in the Holmes County, OH, Amish settlement, as well as the Joe L. Church in Adams County, IN, and the Highway A and Highway C Churches in Seymour, MO. Other contemporary Old Amish communities experienced similar unrest, although stricter individuals largely opted to migrate elsewhere and establish new settlements. Today, the Old Order dominate large, historic Amish communities, while the Andy Weaver and other, stricter denominations dominate the landscape of small settlements outside historic communities. Although three Ordnungs Briefen—1865, 1917, and 1939—represented overarching attempts to forge and maintain a unified Old Amish Church, these statements better predicted the types of changes on the horizon that would permanently divide Old Amish denominations. Hence, no Ordnungs Briefen have been written since 1939. The translations in this issue of JAPAS provide important insights into how Old Amish forged institutional unity and how schisms gradually unfolded. With these original documents now translated and compiled, we better understand more about the attempt at a unified Old Amish Church. Even today, the sheer amalgamation of membership loyalties, ideologies, and practices that characterize each Old Amish denomination suggests ongoing transformations in Old Amish understandings of church unity, in process, theology, and practice.
Ordnungs Briefen of 1865, 1917, and 1939: English Translations of Important Old Amish Church Orders
Authors: Raber Dan , Sheets Gregory , Anderson Cory
Published: September 2024

This is a German-to-English translation of four important decisions made by Amish church leaders. The first, in 1865, was the charter agreement that launched the Old Order movement among the Amish, as the progressive Amish-Mennonites who had been organizing annual conferences since 1863 refused to acknowledge the Ordnung Brief at the 1865 conference. The second, which also affirms the first, was written in 1917. It occurred in the shadow of the Sam Yoder division, and like the first, addresses pressures of the day on Amish practice and thought. The third, written in 1939, affirms the 1917 statement and elaborates with more recent concerns. Statements address relationships in family and church, continued observance of church rituals, views on excommunication and shunning, parental jurisdiction over youth behavior, entrepreneurship and advertising, alcohol and patronization of bars, technology such as refrigerators and automobiles, fashion in garments and grooming practices, tobacco, and reunions. [Abstract by editor]
An Account of the 1955 Ministerial Assembly in Holmes and Wayne Counties, OH: An English Translation of Joseph E. Peachey’s Allgemeine Diener Versammlung Den 26, 27, 28, Sept. 1955 [General Ministerial Assembly, September 26th, 27th, and 28th, 1955]
Authors: Sheets Gregory , Anderson Cory
Published: September 2024

This is a German-to-English translation of Bishop Joseph E. Peachey’s (Belleville, PA) account of the September 1955 Allgemeinie Diener Versammlung in Holmes-Wayne Counties, OH. While Holmes-Wayne Amish leaders called the meeting, seeking to achieve peace and resolution, instead, the meeting finalized a pending schism between the Old Order (or South Churches) and the Andy Weaver (or Dan) factions. The main focus was on a group of laymen that had withdrawn from the Orrville Amish church (Wayne County) because they did not want to practice a Bann the church district leaders had decreed. The faction received help from an Amish bishop in Holmes County, who had support from some Amish leaders. The meeting revealed widespread tension both in the Holmes-Wayne Amish community and in other Amish communities, specifically about the Bann and revivalist ideas. Peachey’s account provides a chronological account of the September 1955 meeting, including the counsels, decisions, and actions of the assembled. The author also shares about his travels to and from the meeting. [Abstract by editor]
Review of Crider, Keith. 2018. Church History: Resurrection to Reformation. Harrisonburg, VA: Christian Light Publications; Review of Yoder, Marcus. 2017. Cathedrals, Castles, & Caves: The Origins of the Anabaptist Faith. Winesburg, OH: JPV Press.
Authors: Witzig Fred
Published: September 2024

It is difficult to say how much the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation stirred up interest in the groundbreaking event, even among church-going Americans. Many in my own denomination, the Apostolic Christian Church of America, reported being unaware of the anniversary, although a few friends did think to buy me a Playmobil Luther, a bobblehead Luther, and a pair of socks imprinted with “Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders.” There were enough of us interested folks to fill a “Reformation Tour” of central Europe in 2017, and there it was clear that Germans had no intention of forgetting the event, even if they appropriated it for such modern sensibilities as religious tolerance and pluralism. “Whoever believes in diversity must also practice tolerance,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel reminded everyone at an official state function in Wittenberg on October 31, 2017. However much this belief may serve us well now, it was not Martin Luther’s message five hundred years ago. [First paragraph]
Review of Weber, Urias. 2018. New Beginnings: A History of the Old Order Mennonites of Ontario. Wallenstein, ON: Vineyard Publications.
Authors: Martin Andrew C.
Published: September 2024

Old Order Mennonites do not write many books so when they do it is worth paying attention. Urias Weber’s first book makes a significant contribution by providing details of the growth and expansion of new Old Order Mennonite communities in Ontario. Urias grew up in the established Waterloo district, where pioneering Mennonites have lived since the early 1800s and Old Orders were founded in the division of 1889. However, in 1968, the young Weber family was one of several founding families to begin a new Old Order community in Mount Forest. At the time, this was a contentious and risky venture, far from the mother community (about 65kms/40 miles). The concern about new communities was probably due in part to the history of the past seven decades, when virtually all Old Order communities in Ontario had become extinct except for the flourishing Waterloo district. [First paragraph]
Flesh, Freundschaft, and Fellowship: Towards a Holistic Model of the Amish Kinship System
Authors: Škender Vlatka
Published: September 2024

Kinship as a social anthropological category, with its three fundamentals – affinity, descent, and siblingship – denotes an orderly system of social relationships past, present, and future, through which a social system is composed and reproduced. What rules, if any, regulate marriage alliance among the Amish? Why are both affinal and consanguineal relationships structurally subordinated to that of fictive kinship? Building on and reexamining the extant anthropological discourse concerning the Amish kinship organization, a comparative-diachronic analysis of courtship, marriage, descent, inheritance, and residential patterns in a holistic and alliance-focused social system is provided. The article contributes an analysis of social-cosmological precepts governing the Amish kinship structure and reaffirms Mook and Hostetler’s (1957) premise on patrilineal ultimogeniture, Hurd’s (1985b) assertion on the absence of prescriptive marriage rules, and Huntington’s (1988) argument on preferential affinal alliance. [Abstract by author]
Choosing Whom to Trust: Autonomy versus Reliance on Others in Medical Decision Making among Plain Anabaptists
Authors: Sauder Michael
Published: September 2024

The idea of patients as autonomous agents dominates the medical ethics literature in Europe and America. I maintain that Plain Anabaptists allow their communities to influence medical therapy decisions more than the typical American does. They choose differently whom to trust. This is relevant to medical professionals interacting with them, especially when Plain Anabaptists make decisions at variance with standard medical recommendations. The typical American doctor will often mistake the area of disagreement, assuming that the presentation of more facts will sway the patient. However, the emphasis on community and acceptance of authority means that Plain Anabaptists will have a correspondingly different approach to decision making. It may be true that the patient does not have all relevant data or does not realize the relative trustworthiness of different information sources. Yet, often Plain Anabaptists will come to a different decision because of a different value system. They are making their own decision about who or what to trust. [Abstract by author]
Psychological Stress and Birth Outcomes in Amish Women Before and After the Nickel Mines Shooting
Authors: Yost Berwood , Abbott Christina , Thompson-Buckland Scottie , Whitmoyer Mary , Miller Kirk
Published: September 2024

Objective: To evaluate the impact of the Nickel Mines shooting October 2, 2006 on the psychological stress and birth outcomes of Amish women living in proximity to the event. Methods: Data are from a population-based cohort study of 202 Amish women of childbearing age interviewed at baseline (winter 2004-2005) and 3 years later (winter 2007-2008). Data are also from Pennsylvania Department of Health birth records 2004-2008. Results: There was no apparent impact of the shooting on depression, social support, stress, number of diagnoses, sleep, doctor visits, number of medications, or anxiety. Nor was there an apparent impact on these outcomes when the distance of homes from the Nickel Mines school was taken into account. Timing of birth relative to the shooting apparently did not affect birthweight, gestation length or the probability of a low birthweight baby. Conclusions: Although the Nickel Mines shooting had a profound impact on the Amish community, we found no difference in Amish women’s health, mental health, or birth outcomes when comparing pre and post shooting measures. This may reflect the very high levels of social support among these women. [Abstract by authors]
Nature and the Environment in Amish Life—David McConnell and Marilyn Loveless
Authors: Reschly Steven , Long Scot , Brock Caroline
Published: September 2024

In this symposium review, three agricultural and environmental researchers discuss the book Nature and the Environment in Amish Life by David McConnell and Marilyn Loveless, both of the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. McConnell is an anthropology professor and co-author of Amish Paradox (2010, Johns Hopkins University Press) and has published his research in Human Organization, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, and the Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies (JAPAS) (Moledina, et al. 2014). Loveless is a biology emeritus professor; this is her first academic publication about the Amish.

Our reviewers offer a variety of reactions to this book. The first reviewer, historian Steven Reschly, is a founding board member of the Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies and is currently assistant editor. He has written on Amish agricultural history in The Amish on the Iowa Prairie (2000, Johns Hopkins University Press) and in articles in Agricultural History, Mennonite Quarterly Review, JAPAS, and others.

Scot Long completed his Ph.D. in anthropology at Ohio State University, having conducted extensive research on Amish farm households in southeastern Holmes County, OH. He has also published in JAPAS (Long and Moore 2014) about the impact of the environmental landscape on Amish church districts.

Caroline Brock completed her Ph.D. in envirnoment and resources at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on theoretical models for understanding Amish responses to agriculture and the environment, including organic dairy adoption and water quality conservation practices. Her research has appeared in Environmental Management, Society & Natural Resources, Journal of Rural Studies, Sustainability, JAPAS, and other outlets. She recently worked as a senior research associate at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster, OH.

This book will certainly generate many conversations and hopefully inspire further research into the Amish relationships with agriculture and the environment. [Abstract by editor]
Review of German Language, Cradle of Our Heritage—Amos Hoover
Authors: Burns Roslyn
Published: September 2024

German Language, Cradle of our Heritage provides a window into the social story behind heritage language maintenance among High German-speaking Swiss Mennonites (as opposed to the Low German-speaking Netherlandic Mennonites). Pennsylvania German, also known as Pennsylvania Dutch, is a variety of New World High German, historically spoken in the Old Order Mennonite community, among others. As with many heritage languages in the United States today, Pennsylvania German has faced obsolescence due to a gradual contraction of the appropriate social settings for heritage language. In these communities, American English use expands and fills the social spaces that were historically reserved for the heritage language. [First paragraph]
Review of Women Talking—Miriam Toews
Authors: Völz Sabrina
Published: September 2024

Women Talking is Canadian writer Miriam Toews’ seventh novel. She has also written a memoir about her father and starred in the 2007 art house film about Old Colony Mennonites in Mexico, Silent Light, written and directed by Mexican filmmaker, Carlos Reygada. Toews has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Governor General’s Award for her novel, A Complicated Kindness in 2004. [First paragraph]
Review of For the Sake of a Child: Love, Safety, and Abuse in our Plain Communities—Allen Hoover and Jeanette Harder
Authors: Metzger Trudy
Published: September 2024

For generations, a silent cry has arisen from within “my people,” the Conservative Anabaptist (CA) community, among whom I grew up: Who will listen, among us, to the cries and plight of abuse victims? Whether due to sexual abuse, neglect, emotional abuse, or other failures to protect, victims have long been voiceless. Long, they have gone seemingly unnoticed. In For the Sake of a Child: Love, Safety, and Abuse in Our Plain Communities, Allen Hoover and Dr. Jeanette Harder answer this question with: We have heard. We will respond. [First paragraph]
Working Together: Women and Men on the Amish Family Farm in 1930s Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Authors: Jellison Katherine , Reschly Steven
Published: September 2024

Old Order Amish men did not own gasoline tractors or other large power farm implements to amplify their manhood, and Amish women did not own mechanical household appliances to symbolize their feminine role as housekeepers. Rejecting the notion of mechanized, capital-intensive agriculture in favor of traditional, labor-intensive family farming, the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, practiced a system of labor that necessarily required the crossing of strict gender-role boundaries. Although men primarily identified as farmers and women as homemakers, agricultural success among the Amish necessitated a significant degree of cooperation and mutual labor. In the words of one Old Order Amish wife of the 1930s, “On our farm I did whatever needed to be done.” Employing data from the federal government’s Study of Consumer Purchases, the authors investigate how the traditional gender arrangements of the county’s Amish population enabled them to survive the Great Depression more successfully than other agrarian communities. [Abstract by author.]
Review of: Anderson, Cory, and Jennifer Anderson. 2019. Amish-Mennonites across the Globe. Amish-Mennonite Heritage Series, Vol. 2. Millersburg, OH: Acorn Publishing.
Authors: Conley Karen
Published: September 2024

The Amish-Mennonites across the Globe is a coffee-table type book, a 320 page documentary of the international mission efforts of the “car-driving” Amish groups, known variously within the plain communities as Beachy, Amish-Mennonite, or Fellowship churches. It was preceded by The Amish-Mennonites in North America, the first book of the Amish-Mennonite Heritage Series and compiled by the same authors. Naturally it is likely to appeal mostly to those people with connections to said churches. The book covers church planting efforts in 18 countries, which includes 100 congregations, most of them current but 16 of them now extinct. Each country is introduced by a summary of the last few hundred years (including the efforts of other cultures pressed upon the populace); its foods (What’s Cookin’?); Language—including a Bible verse; a blurb on the clothing/textile history of the country; and maps of the country marking current and past Amish-Mennonite congregations. The real gems of this book are the pictures of the congregations and their meetinghouses. [First paragraphs]
What’s in JAPAS 9(1) and Who Should Read It? Reconceptualizing Amish and Plain Anabaptist Culture through the Voices of Its People
Authors: Anderson Cory
Published: September 2024

This issue offers research that highlights the words and voices of plain Anabaptist people. Roslyn Burns seeks evidence among the Low German/Russian Mennonites for how historical, spatial, and religious contexts influence speech patterns, finding strong evidence especially for religious influence. Thalheimer seeks answers to why Amish parents send their children to a local public school in Northern Indiana when parochial options abound. Mong and Clifton use the narrative history method as a vehicle to allow Conservative Mennonite women to express themselves about their dress practices. Finally, Neriya Ben-Sharar compares Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish women’s sense of the third person perspective when discussing dangers of audiovisual media and the internet, finding that—unlike many other populations which view the risks as higher for others than self—these women seem quite aware of technology’s danger for self. [First paragraph]
Modest Dress Practices through the Eyes of Seven Conservative Mennonite Women
Authors: Mong Megan L , Clifton John M
Published: September 2024

How do Conservative Mennonite and Amish-Mennonite women conceptualize their religious dress practices? Do they unthinkingly conform to church dress practices or do they exercise some agency? Using an oral history research methodology, we explore the relationship between social structures and individual agency through the stories of seven women regarding their interaction with modest dress practices. These stories touch on the transmission of dress practices, the variety of influences that shaped their experiences, and changes in the expression of dress practices. The stories consist primarily of quotations from interviews conducted by Megan Mong, a former member of a Conservative Mennonite church; her insider status provides a rich and nuanced inquiry. Detailed excerpts from interviews are provided for the seven women. We then organize insights from the interviews around several themes: the relative influence of religious structures and the family, dynamics of change in dress practices, and the role of inner attitudes versus external practices. The picture emerging from these stories is one in which the narrators were and continue to be extensively involved in a constantly evolving set of standards. [Abstract by authors.]
Caring for the Land and the Livestock: Anabaptist Agricultural Practices in Europe and Colonial Pennsylvania
Authors: Shenton Rebecca
Published: September 2024

Anabaptists have a strong history of agricultural innovation and care for the land. Their innovative spirit was forged out of persecution, migration, and the need to survive in challenging circumstances. This article examines the agricultural practices of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Swiss and South German Anabaptist farmers and those of eighteenth-century Anabaptist immigrants to Pennsylvania. European Anabaptist tenant farmers distinguished themselves by their family-centered mixed agriculture and their investment in both the land (using manure, lime, gypsum, and crop rotation to improve the soil) and livestock (improving natural meadows and planting pastures for fodder, maintaining clean barns, practicing confinement feeding, and carefully caring for the animals). Pennsylvania Anabaptists cleared the land they bought and built sturdy barns, fences, and houses; planted orchards and vegetable gardens; planted or improved meadows for fodder; collected manure to use as a soil amendment; utilized family labor; and sold their surplus at market. The history of Anabaptist experimentation and adaptation provides inspiration for how we might face twenty-first-century challenges with tenacity, innovation, and care for land and animals. [Abstract by author.]
Providing Agricultural Information to Amish and Mennonite Farmers: Creative Adaptations to Wisconsin Extension Programs and Communications
Authors: Halopka Richard
Published: September 2024

This service provider report taps into the experience of a longtime Extension Educator in Wisconsin. Pulling from his work in Clark County, WI, where Amish and Old Order Mennonites have been particularly important to the local agricultural economy, he provides examples of how Extension can modify programming to meet the needs of plain producers. Topics of interest to Amish and Mennonite farmers include nutrient management, forage quality, and farm safety. Areas of program modification include approaches to communication, training, and support in ways that are culturally sensitive to church restrictions. In-person training and informational voicemail recordings have been particularly useful modalities. [Abstract by editors.]
Penn State Extension Services and Plain People: An Inside Perspective on a Trust-based Relationship
Authors: Martin Phillip
Published: September 2024

This perspective on Penn State Extension Services and plain people is based on my personal experiences as a plain person, in which I interacted with Extension Services first as a farmer, and then (while working on a doctorate) as a part of the Extension system. Penn State Extension started over a century ago and was deliberate in reaching out to plain (conservative Anabaptist) farmers since the beginning, which led to a history of trust-based cooperation. For all these successes there remain challenges to effective cooperation with certain plain individuals and subgroups. I suggest these challenges are broadly similar to those experienced in other cross-cultural interactions, such as those that span broader cultural divides within the United States, and I discuss them within the categories of personal and social, technological, and philosophical differences. In general these differences are less problematic in typical Extension work that is well-defined in scope, such as management of specific insects or diseases, while successful cooperation on more open-ended topics, such as food safety, agricultural runoff, and (especially in the early years) the Extension System itself, relies heavily on trust-based personal relationships that arise from commonalities and mutual understandings that extend beyond the subject matter. More broadly, building on the history of trust-based cooperation, I present a vision of farmers (both plain and non-plain) and the scientific community as collaborators in the production of nutritious and affordable food, with Extension personnel as key communicators in that farming-science interface. [Abstract by author.]
Ten Years of the Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies: An Editor’s Reflections on a Social Movement in Academia
Authors: Anderson Cory
Published: September 2024

This Issue of JAPAS: Ground-Breaking Research, Wisconsin v. Yoder’s 50th, and the New Plain People Book Review Panel: With this issue, JAPAS is now 10 years old, a full decade of providing quality scholarship and opportunities to publish Amish and plain Anabaptist studies-focused research. Fittingly, this JAPAS is—by word count—the largest issue yet. Given this 10-year milestone, I want to use this editorial space to recall some of JAPAS’s development, in essay style, sharing some of my outlooks, opinions, and personal experiences. But first: an introduction to this issue’s extremely varied contents. [First paragraph.]