Nur Anisah PhD

This article presents a comparative study exploring how diverse mindscapes influence futures thinking, informing futures studies curricula and educator roles. Workshops in three locations involving two participant groups were analysed. Data collection involved a mixed method approach, including a Likert scale questionnaire and reflection essays. The study reveals diverse cultural worldviews and societal contexts in Taiwan, Mexico, and Guatemala, with cultural factors significantly shaping… 展開

This article presents a comparative study exploring how diverse mindscapes influence futures thinking, informing futures studies curricula and educator roles. Workshops in three locations involving two participant groups were analysed. Data collection involved a mixed method approach, including a Likert scale questionnaire and reflection essays. The study reveals diverse cultural worldviews and societal contexts in Taiwan, Mexico, and Guatemala, with cultural factors significantly shaping participants’ perceptions of the future. Recognising these influences enables a nuanced understanding and informs curricula design and scaffolded learning to support the development of futures literacy.

Keywords

Comparative Analysis, Cultural Diversity, Feminising Futures, Learning Environment, Futures

The lack of systematic comparison limits our understanding of learning futures studies and acquiring futures literacy. This study addresses this gap with a comparative study to better understand the impact of cultures and traditions have on futures thinking and future consciousness among teachers and students in Taipei, Mexico City, and Guatemala through workshops as learning environments with a view to foster more inclusive and accessible futures literacy, transcending boundaries and transforming teaching practices.
In Dator’s (2003) critical assessment of the field of Futures, he draws attention to its prevailing Western and male-centric perspectives, a concern echoed by numerous authors such as Milojevic (1999, 2000, 2005) who champions feminising futures studies and the ‘women’s ways of knowing’; Degand (2022) delves into the necessity of envisioning unimagined solutions while contemplating future possibilities in Black education and the integration of Black comics in classrooms — as part of a special edition dedicated to Black education and Afrofutures (Winn, 2022). There's a pressing need for a more inclusive gender, cultural and epistemological mix. 收回

This paper presents the Futures Triangle as a framework to help guide thinking about the future. It works as a thinking tool or cognitive map, helping us interpret the past, orientate the present in charting our move to the future. This article uses four case studies to demonstrate the use and usefulness of the Futures Triangle for advancing futures studies in that it scaffolds the thinking about possible, probable and plausible futures, eliciting images of the future, interpreting the past and… 展開

This paper presents the Futures Triangle as a framework to help guide thinking about the future. It works as a thinking tool or cognitive map, helping us interpret the past, orientate the present in charting our move to the future. This article uses four case studies to demonstrate the use and usefulness of the Futures Triangle for advancing futures studies in that it scaffolds the thinking about possible, probable and plausible futures, eliciting images of the future, interpreting the past and orientating the present, integrating knowledge and values for charting plausible futures, and increasing democratic participation in imaging desired futures. These case studies illustrates the effectiveness and utility of the Futures Triangle in enhancing futures studies and its potential for broadening engagement and understanding in the field.
How does one think about the future? We need some kind of tool or framework to help guide us muddle through the complexities surrounding our lives when we think about what we want and can do now to move us closer to a future we prefer. The Futures Triangle is one of such frameworks, it works as a cognitive map, helps us interpret the past, orientate the present in charting our move to the future.
This article discusses the use and usefulness of the Futures Triangle in scaffolding five of the nine primary purposes of futures studies as Bell (2003a:75-97) advocates. People rely on their cognitive maps of the future (Bell 2003b:3) to orient and guide themselves in making decisions and choices of the coming future. One framework we can use to help conceptualise such maps is the Futures Triangle.

This framework acts as a thinking tool in providing a structure prompting our thinking process, a tool for support when we were confused about how to proceed. How do we make sense of things? How would we know where to start, or what matters most when we think about the future? 收回

Abstract

Women cyclists are an underrepresented group and initiatives taken to promote the uptake of cycling among women have been limited. This exploratory study employs the Futures Triangle as a framework in structuring a series of in-depth interviews conducted with fourteen women cyclists to capture women who cycle’s images of the future. Three themes emerge from the analysis: why women don’t cycle more, motivators for women encouraging them to cycle more, and the desirability of… 展開

Abstract

Women cyclists are an underrepresented group and initiatives taken to promote the uptake of cycling among women have been limited. This exploratory study employs the Futures Triangle as a framework in structuring a series of in-depth interviews conducted with fourteen women cyclists to capture women who cycle’s images of the future. Three themes emerge from the analysis: why women don’t cycle more, motivators for women encouraging them to cycle more, and the desirability of connecting with other women who do cycle. The findings of the study, further deconstructed using Causal Layered Analysis, result in a deeper understanding of the systemic causes of the issues facing women cyclists, and the worldviews held and narratives owned by society and women themselves which perpetuate those issues.

Keywords

Women Cyclists, Images of the Future, Futures Triangle, Causal Layered Analysis 收回

Abstract

Collaborative learning strategies have positively affected learning outcomes at different levels of education from kindergarten to college. This study demonstrates the successful application of collaborative learning in teaching futures studies to two cohorts of undergraduate students over two semesters at Tamkang University. The article outlines the structure of the course, which embraced the principles of collaboratively learning in an attempt to engage active participation in… 展開

Abstract

Collaborative learning strategies have positively affected learning outcomes at different levels of education from kindergarten to college. This study demonstrates the successful application of collaborative learning in teaching futures studies to two cohorts of undergraduate students over two semesters at Tamkang University. The article outlines the structure of the course, which embraced the principles of collaboratively learning in an attempt to engage active participation in thinking about the future. Students’ learning experiences are thematically explored and evidence shows positive interdependence was produced by groups working on analysis based on futures methodologies supported by Miro, an online collaborative whiteboard. An instructional outcomes framework for collaborative learning for futures studies emerges from the findings. The concluding discussion is structured using causal layered analysis, allowing for deeper insights into the underlying issues of student learning as well as solutions for possible problems.

#CLA #FuturesStudies #CollaborativeLearning #education #PeerInteraction #PeerLearning #LearnerIndependence 收回

This essay aims to share with the community of practice an approach for incorporating and embedding Futures and scenarios into business school curriculum as part of strategy development practice with a view to strike a balance between scientific rigour and practical relevance of management education. Through the conduct of a 3-day Foresight for Strategy Development workshop curated for as an intensive course for a cohort of DBA students at the Narxoz Business School, Almaty, Kazakhstan, the… 展開

This essay aims to share with the community of practice an approach for incorporating and embedding Futures and scenarios into business school curriculum as part of strategy development practice with a view to strike a balance between scientific rigour and practical relevance of management education. Through the conduct of a 3-day Foresight for Strategy Development workshop curated for as an intensive course for a cohort of DBA students at the Narxoz Business School, Almaty, Kazakhstan, the author describes the step-by-step process of building scenarios and shares some of the learning outcomes from the workshop. The 3-day workshop was designed with two objectives; that is, to teach the basic skills of futures thinking by introducing futures studies, and to incorporate the five stages of scenario development process as part of strategic planning practice. While students learned the reasons for and the process of embedding scenarios as a planning tool, and were able to apply theory to practice in classroom exercises, this cohort of DBA students found it quite challenging to have a proper grasp of Futures concepts and methodologies. They were overwhelmed by the amount of contents they have to process within the space of a 3-day intensive workshop. This feedback was not peculiar to this cohort of students and it was a common lament received from the various workshops conducted in different countries including Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Bahrain and Oman. This was particularly true with those in the developing economies where futures studies is relatively a new discipline. This experience tells us there is an opportunity to fill this void by introducing and embedding futures studies and scenarios as part of the planning and strategy development in Management courses in Kazakhstan. 收回

Purpose:
The paper aims to identify the emerging themes on the challenges faced by the Malaysian private higher learning institutions in the provision of providing quality education.
Design/ methodology/ approach:
Semi structured interviews were purposively conducted with 29 of the Malaysian private higher
learning institution internal and external stakeholders ranging from the relevant personnel of the
institutions (the quality director, administrators and senior academics)… 展開

Purpose:
The paper aims to identify the emerging themes on the challenges faced by the Malaysian private higher learning institutions in the provision of providing quality education.
Design/ methodology/ approach:
Semi structured interviews were purposively conducted with 29 of the Malaysian private higher
learning institution internal and external stakeholders ranging from the relevant personnel of the
institutions (the quality director, administrators and senior academics), regulatory agencies, prospective employer, students and parents. Thematic analysis was then applied to analyse the participants’ responses in determining and clarifying the challenges faced by the Malaysian private higher learning institutions in the issue of providing quality education.
Findings:
Eight overarching themes were identified namely Academics, Facilities, Students, Programmes and curriculum, Competition, Accreditation, Finance and Research. Academics represent the most frequent challenge raised by the participants, whereas Research emerged as the least mentioned challenge during the interview sessions.
Research limitation/ implications:
The present study focused solely on Malaysian private higher learning institutions and thus the findings may not be applicable to the foreign private higher learning institutions that are operating in Malaysia as well as to the public higher learning institutions.
Originality/value
The findings are expected to provide valuable guidelines to the Malaysian Private HLIs in areas where resources need to be critically disbursed. To the regulatory agencies and policy makers, the findings could enlighten them on the difficulties faced by these privately funded institutions so that further policies can be designed and implemented to assist these institutions in their operations and long term survival. 收回

Purpose: This paper assesses the utility of an approach to the design of multiple Balanced Scorecards within large / complex organisations, considers the relevance of ‘emergent strategizing’ in this kind of strategy implementation, and explores the project organisation and wider co-ordination issues that impact this type of work.

Design/methodology/approach: A “Research Orientated - Action Research” research approach has been adopted, comprising qualitative observations of an ongoing… 展開

Purpose: This paper assesses the utility of an approach to the design of multiple Balanced Scorecards within large / complex organisations, considers the relevance of ‘emergent strategizing’ in this kind of strategy implementation, and explores the project organisation and wider co-ordination issues that impact this type of work.

Design/methodology/approach: A “Research Orientated - Action Research” research approach has been adopted, comprising qualitative observations of an ongoing programme within a major organisation in the Middle East. The case is based on feedback obtained from key actors (participants, facilitators) and the analysis of documentation produced by the project.

Research limitations: The project relates to a continuing programme within the client organisation that was not explicitly established before it started as an action-research activity. This has limited and constrained the quality of the information reported.

Findings: Over four years the project engaged directly with over 200 managers from the organisation’s 35 most senior management units. Its purpose was to align the strategic aims of each unit with those of the organisation and introduce a new form of strategic control. The paper shows that consensus forming and the creation of locally relevant strategic agendas can be usefully and successfully embedded in a large scale strategic control and alignment programme. The paper notes the large resource implications and duration of such programmes, and the challenges of integrating the resulting processes with those already in place. The paper concludes that for the case organisation the resource investment appears to have generated useful outcomes.

Keywords: strategic alignment, strategic control, performance measurement, performance management, case study, cascading, balanced scorecard
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The paper highlights the roles of performance measurement in supporting reform initiatives in Malaysia's higher education.
This paper puts a spotlight on performance measurement in higher education, discusses on the factors that shape performance measurement, the role of performance measurement, the types of indicators in use, and the use and usefulness of performance measurement information.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the subscription to social constructivism as an inquiry paradigm to explore performance measurement issues faced by government agencies and public bodies with a view towards improvement. The paper presents the use of phenomenology to understand performance measurement practice in central government using in-depth interviews with twenty-two individuals. The participants were asked two broad questions: What worked well in terms of performance measurement… 展開

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the subscription to social constructivism as an inquiry paradigm to explore performance measurement issues faced by government agencies and public bodies with a view towards improvement. The paper presents the use of phenomenology to understand performance measurement practice in central government using in-depth interviews with twenty-two individuals. The participants were asked two broad questions: What worked well in terms of performance measurement with this organisation? What did not work very well? Their answers led to more specific questions providing rich data on their experiences generating an understanding of the common practice of performance measurement. The phenomenology was a useful approach in teasing out the ‘common sense of performance measurement’ from respondents of which otherwise taken for granted. The success of phenomenology and in-depth interviews rests heavily on researcher’s interviewing skills in drawing the details from interviewees, when and how to probe into certain aspects; and their data analysis ability in identifying, interpreting, clustering and exploring the links and relationship between emerging themes. The test would be: Have we enough data to explain the phenomenon? Can we explain the relationships between emerging themes? Have we enough evidence in constructing a convincing argument? The paper summarises the step-by-step approach to data analysis procedure in guiding phenomenology research and ends with lessons learned. 收回

Malaysia is working towards transforming into a knowledge-driven economy where the generation and the utilization of knowledge contribute significantly to economic growth and wealth creation. Knowledge being singled-out as one of the key factor in driving growth and creating value. This notion has an expansive implication on how industry, academia and government must now work closer to make active contribution. Universities are now driven to find their way to better deliver. Drawing upon… 展開

Malaysia is working towards transforming into a knowledge-driven economy where the generation and the utilization of knowledge contribute significantly to economic growth and wealth creation. Knowledge being singled-out as one of the key factor in driving growth and creating value. This notion has an expansive implication on how industry, academia and government must now work closer to make active contribution. Universities are now driven to find their way to better deliver. Drawing upon Mintzberg’s five definitions of strategy: plan, ploy, pattern, position and perspective [1], this paper reviews the elements of strategic planning in the context of a higher education institution in facilitating their strive to deliver in responding to those emerging demands. It also demonstrates how the Balanced Scorecard framework can potentially help structure a more comprehensive thought-through process in shaping strategies. It concludes with a set of guidelines for strategy making. 收回

Phase II of the National Higher Education Strategic Plan to continue tis agenda to strengthen its foundation and effectively strategize to ensure the successful implementation of planned agenda.

[Malay Language version]

PSPTN II Malaysia's Global Reaach: A New Dimension is an additional policy document to PSPTN Phase II (2011-2015) aims to explore the global engagement reach through specific strategy, that is the use of soft power.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether a performance management framework is necessary for public sector organisations in Malaysia. Preliminary findings were indicative of the need for practitioner guidelines on performance measurement and management. A framework consisting of seven key elements for performance management is proposed with a view towards improvement. The proposed framework (Figure 2) informed by Nur Anisah (2008), explained by seven elements, illustrates performance… 展開

The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether a performance management framework is necessary for public sector organisations in Malaysia. Preliminary findings were indicative of the need for practitioner guidelines on performance measurement and management. A framework consisting of seven key elements for performance management is proposed with a view towards improvement. The proposed framework (Figure 2) informed by Nur Anisah (2008), explained by seven elements, illustrates performance measurement and management as an iterative process starting with (1) the setting of organisational goals and objectives and identification of key areas for monitoring. This is followed by (2) measurement activities being designed to track performance of key areas and (3) preparation of evidence for performance verification. The availability of this evidence enables (4) a process of performance review and decision-making. This review highlights performance issues managers can strategically use in staff communication to (5) drive improvements, and also help pull together evidence generated from measurement activities for (6) external reporting. Through the demonstration of successes, organisations (7) negotiate for target plans and funding. New target plans, budget plans or policy changes would almost always require some revision to existing set of goals and objectives (1) and so the cycle recommences. There are many exemplar frameworks for performance management. A quick deduction from this observation was that there was no ‘one-size-fits-all’ framework. Framework must be shaped and tailored to the needs of respective users. The needs of users were influenced by localised situational components, of which may include political, economical, social-cultural and technological factors as well as the nature of business they conduct. This gave rise to the question: Do we need a performance management framework for public organisations in Malaysia? 收回

Phase II of the National Higher Education Strategic Plan to continue tis agenda to strengthen its foundation and effectively strategize to ensure the successful implementation of planned agenda.

PSPTN II Malaysia's Global Reaach: A New Dimension is an additional policy document to PSPTN Phase II (2011-2015) aims to explore the global engagement reach through specific strategy, that is the use of soft power.

This case study illustrates the design of a new performance management system for a Malaysian international higher education institution (HEI). The International Islamic University Malaysia, with the strength of 1800 faculty members, has 20,000 students in 5 campuses across the country, 30% of that composition were international students from 90 countries. This paper describes the work done by the institution in introducing a corporate performance management system based on balanced… 展開

This case study illustrates the design of a new performance management system for a Malaysian international higher education institution (HEI). The International Islamic University Malaysia, with the strength of 1800 faculty members, has 20,000 students in 5 campuses across the country, 30% of that composition were international students from 90 countries. This paper describes the work done by the institution in introducing a corporate performance management system based on balanced scorecard. The case describes the processes involved in deploying the system at central management and then cascade to all kulliyyahs , centres, divisions, and institutes; detailing the design and implementation of 42 balanced scorecards. The performance management system was a central mechanism of control for the entire organisation. The paper explores the reasons for the new system, and looks at the design approach used to develop a system of control tailored with the needs of the institution. The paper reports that the process has been a positive and beneficial experience for the institution, and concludes with good practices for implementation of performance management system in HEIs and on future areas of research. 收回