Divisions Burman University is an independent publicly funded university located in Lacombe, Alberta, Canada. It is sponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada. It is a part of the Seventh-day Adventist education system, the world's second largest Christian school system. By date of founding, it is the oldest university in Alberta.The school's official mission statement is to educate learners to think with discernment, to believe with insight and commitment and to act with confidence, compassion, and competence. The university places emphasis on service in local and global communities.
This article examines the early Christian movement, as portrayed in the New Testament, through the lens of trauma recovery. The authors suggest that many of the practices narrated and exhorted in the New Testament compare positively with best practices developed for post-traumatic growth. The article first gives an overview of current research on trauma recovery, focusing especially on group methodologies. Curt Thompson's 'confessional community' framework is an important model for resilience-building. Next, the authors discuss the existence of trauma among early Christ followers. Crucially, the threat of trauma can be as damaging as the traumatic event itself. Even if few Christians experienced state-sanctioned violence, the expectation that such could happen, coupled with the reality of social ostracism, would have produced trauma from a sociological perspective. The remainder of the article focuses on practices that would have assisted Christ followers in flourishing. The New Testament is full of familial language, suggesting that early Christians formed a type of fictive kinship. This synthetic family structure would have lessened the loss of family that many Christians faced. One function of family in the ancient world was ensuring that everyone in the kin group was fed. Christ followers did this in the form of sharing goods. The love and encouragement that are ubiquitous in the New Testament are analogous to the corporate support used in modern recovery groups. Finally, the propensity of early Christians to reinterpret their suffering based on a Gospel metanarrative accomplished meaning-making - another key modality in modern trauma recovery. The authors conclude with a call to analyse ancient texts with a focus on trauma resilience. Cet article examine le mouvement chr & eacute;tien primitif, tel qu'il est d & eacute;peint dans le Nouveau Testament, sous l'angle du r & eacute;tablissement apr & egrave;s un traumatisme. Les auteurs sugg & egrave;rent que bon nombre des pratiques relat & eacute;es et encourag & eacute;es dans le Nouveau Testament pr & eacute;sentent des similitudes positives avec les pratiques recommand & eacute;es pour favoriser la croissance post-traumatisme. L'article commence par donner un aper & ccedil;u des recherches actuelles sur le r & eacute;tablissement apr & egrave;s un trauma, en mettant particuli & egrave;rement l'accent sur les m & eacute;thodologies de groupe. Le cadre de la & laquo; communaut & eacute; confessionnelle & raquo; de Curt Thompson constitue un mod & egrave;le important pour le renforcement de la r & eacute;silience. Ensuite, les auteurs abordent la question de l'existence de traumas chez les premiers disciples du Christ. Il est essentiel de noter que la menace d'un traumatisme potentiel peut & ecirc;tre aussi pr & eacute;judiciable que l'& eacute;v & eacute;nement traumatisant lui-m & ecirc;me. M & ecirc;me si peu de chr & eacute;tiens ont subi des violences sanctionn & eacute;es par l'& Eacute;tat, la crainte que cela puisse arriver, associ & eacute;e & agrave; la r & eacute;alit & eacute; de l'ostracisme social, aurait pu g & eacute;n & eacute;rer un trauma d'un point de vue sociologique. Le reste de l'article se concentre sur les pratiques qui auraient aid & eacute; les disciples du Christ & agrave; s'& eacute;panouir. Le Nouveau Testament regorge de langage familial, ce qui sugg & egrave;re que les premiers chr & eacute;tiens formaient une sorte de parent & eacute; fictive. Cette structure familiale synth & eacute;tique aurait att & eacute;nu & eacute; la perte de la famille & agrave; laquelle de nombreux chr & eacute;tiens & eacute;taient confront & eacute;s. L'une des fonctions de la famille dans le monde antique & eacute;tait de veiller & agrave; ce que tous les membres du groupe familial soient nourris. Les disciples du Christ y parvenaient en partageant leurs biens. L'amour et les encouragements omnipr & eacute;sents dans le Nouveau Testament sont analogues au soutien collectif pratiqu & eacute; dans les groupes de soutien modernes. Enfin, la propension des premiers chr & eacute;tiens & agrave; r & eacute;interpr & eacute;ter leurs souffrances & agrave; la lumi & egrave;re d'un m & eacute;tar & eacute;cit & eacute;vang & eacute;lique a permis de donner un sens & agrave; ces exp & eacute;riences - une autre modalit & eacute; essentielle dans le processus moderne de gu & eacute;rison des traumas. Les auteurs concluent en appelant & agrave; analyser les textes anciens sous l'angle de la r & eacute;silience face au trauma.
Environmental reporting transparency has gained increasing importance in corporate sustainability discussions, especially as firms face growing pressure from investors, regulators, and civil society to justify their environmental practices. This study investigates the moderating role of block ownership in the relationship between environmental risk disclosures and corporate environmental transparency among non-financial firms in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where reporting remains largely voluntary. Using panel data from 239 firms across six SSA countries between 2012 and 2021, we constructed a composite Environmental Disclosure Index (EDI)—reflecting corporate environmental transparency—based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators. We applied both Fixed Effects (FE) and two-step System Generalized Method of Moments (System GMM) estimators to control for endogeneity, unobserved heterogeneity, and dynamic effects. Results indicate that disclosures related to carbon emissions, water use, occupational hazards, and regulatory compliance significantly enhance transparency. Moreover, block ownership moderates these relationships in both reinforcing and constraining ways, depending on the underlying disclosure level. These findings suggest that concentrated ownership can influence sustainability governance in contexts with weak regulatory enforcement. This study contributes to the literature by linking ownership structure to environmental reporting quality in emerging economies, and it offers practical insights for regulators, shareholders, and corporate leaders. Limitations and avenues for future research are discussed.
ABSTRACT Corporate sustainability reporting is widely promoted to enhance transparency and track global sustainability goals, yet its adoption remains highly uneven across nations. Prior research focuses on firm‐level drivers or aggregated institutional quality, overlooking the distinct role of financial regulators. Drawing on neo‐institutional theory and institutional substitution, this study examines how national financial sector governance influences the adoption of sustainability reporting standards. Using a balanced panel of 139 countries (2011–2023), we employ fixed‐effects, dynamic panel and instrumental variable regressions, complemented by income and regional heterogeneity analyses. The results reveal a statistically significant positive relationship between financial sector governance and sustainability reporting adoption. The effect is strongest in low‐income economies and sub‐Saharan Africa, where financial regulators compensate for weak environmental oversight. In high‐income contexts and Latin America, broad regulatory quality supplants specialised financial governance as the primary transparency driver. IFRS adoption and state ownership show limited direct influence. These findings position financial sector governance as a practical institutional substitute for underdeveloped regulatory systems. Policymakers can leverage existing financial oversight to accelerate sustainability reporting, particularly in resource‐constrained settings. The study advances institutional theory by differentiating financial regulatory capacity from general state capacity and offers a scalable pathway toward global transparency objectives.
Background: The study investigated how Bala Wande game-based activities shaped Grade 1 students’ participation, language use and mathematical meaning-making within a Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education (MTBBE) context, drawing on video data of teachers using the bilingual Bala Wande intervention programme. Aim: The aim was to demonstrate how mathematics games strengthen early grade learning within a MTBBE context. Setting: The dataset comprised 17 classroom videos across three South African provinces of teachers identified as implementing the Bala Wande programme with high fidelity. Methods: An in-depth secondary analysis was conducted on four episodes of the videos’ mathematics games. The analysis examined teacher control, student participation, and the use of mathematical and linguistic resources to understand how game-based activities created opportunities for structured mathematical and language learning. Results: Games in MTBBE classrooms are more than motivational tools. They enable students to draw flexibly on more than one language, while engaging in mathematical discourse, negotiating meaning, developing mathematical practices, and gaining confidence in communicating mathematical ideas. Conclusion: Mathematics games provide structured opportunities for learning and consolidation of mathematical concepts while fostering active participation and multilingual mathematical reasoning and communication, supporting both mathematical and bilingual language development. Contribution: The study advances multilingual mathematics education, showing how games create socially mediated and linguistically flexible learning opportunities. Using a situated learning perspective, it conceptualises multilingual mathematics learning as participation in social practices and how MTBBE, translanguaging and play-based pedagogy support mathematical understanding and language development.
This study investigates how corporate governance and ownership structures influence carbon transparency in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a region characterised by institutional voids and voluntary reporting and whether environmental committees condition these relationships. Using 2280 firm-year observations from six SSA stock exchanges (2012-2021), we apply random-effects, system GMM, and Driscoll-Kraay estimators to address endogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. Board size, gender diversity, audit committee independence, government ownership and the presence of environmental committees significantly enhance carbon transparency. In contrast, institutional ownership has a negative effect, indicating that private information channels may replace public transparency, which can lead to reduced accountability and hinder efforts to improve overall corporate governance. Environmental committees strengthen the positive effects of most governance mechanisms and partially mitigate the adverse impact of institutional ownership, highlighting their role as a cost-effective and impactful governance innovation in environments with weak regulatory frameworks. Moving beyond universalist governance prescriptions, this study reveals how gaps in institutions affect the effectiveness of governance mechanisms in emerging markets. It offers actionable insights for regulators and boards seeking to institutionalise climate accountability through targeted structural reforms particularly the formalisation of environmental oversight via dedicated committees.
