Academic Home Research Articles

Ego Involvement and the Law of Exercise: Memorization as a Function of Ego Involvement in Folklore Scholarship and Anthropology

The article is a component in my “Folkloric Behavior”, a total innovation within my “Folkloric Behavior” (1967), which introduced a theoretical system for analyzing a folkloric phenomenon in a cognitive verifiable context. The universal psychosocial principles constituting the system were applied to a real (live) community: the ethnic Arabs living in Brooklyn, N.Y., USA, with particular emphasis on the Egyptian component. This approach stood in sharp contrast to the dominant Freudian psychoanalytic and Jungian analytical psychology theories that dominate this field. Terms, concepts, and processes offered in this innovative work are currently being used—often in isolation of their academic home and systemic links-- in various folklore fields. Examples of current usage are: “ego-involvement”, “learning process”, “extinction”, “motivation”, “intervening stimuli/cues [(re-presented as) “negotiations”, etc.). Ironically, my founding work on “Folkloric Behavior” is hardly ever evaluated or even mentioned. It would be useful to afford students of folk traditions and other readers the benefits of research objectivity of tracking the temporal sequence in which these key issues appeared in folklore scholarship. This step would be required for also establishing the history of ideas in a discipline.

Expanding Genetic Counselor Roles: A Model for Global Research Development.

Genetic counselors (GCs) increasingly play key roles in advancing genomic medicine through innovative research. Here, we examine one large cohort of GCs' evolving contributions to the literature, with the goal of facilitating worldwide professional development for GCs through scholarly activities. Publications were cataloged by members of the Section of Genetic Counseling (Section), established at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania in 2014, including publication year, journal, impact factor, and author position. Data were organized using the "My Bibliography" tool on the National Center for Biotechnology Information website and a Research Electronic Data Capture database created to initially collect manuscripts published through 30 June 2020. A subsequent survey captured publications through 5 February 2024. An amount of 52 of 120 (43%) GCs shared their curriculum vitae/papers. 992 unique publications were identified from 1986 to 2024. Since 2013, no less than 32 papers were published annually by Section members and no less than 10 GCs contributed to publications yearly. Impact factors typically averaged >5.0 per year. Areas of foci diversified considerably since 2015. Here, we establish that GCs indeed contribute to scholarly work as evidenced by the number of publications alone. The establishment of an academic home may have contributed, given publications increased concurrent to launching the Section, providing a model for organizing GCs at institutions nationally and internationally. Highlighting such achievements will foster the expansion of GC roles in the era of precision genomic medicine and therapy. Considering ways to support GCs towards expanding these activities is equally important.

Home Economics in Higher Education 1945–1955: The Academic Home Economics Education at Aarhus University and the Emergence of a Female Figure

In 1945, Aarhus University established the first advanced courses in home economics within the Nordic countries. This reflected the idea of a modern university that provided the blueprint for Aarhus University. However, hidden in the archives are various controversies surrounding the establishment of the courses. Based on 17 applications from 17 women educated within home economics, this article paints a picture of the women who chose to enrol in the academic courses in home economics, as well as the background for its development and the negotiations that took place around higher education for women within the field of domestic services. Sara Ahmed’s figures of “the stranger” and “the willful subject” provide a theoretical foundation for examining which female figures emerged due to the early academicisation of a professional education programme for women. By drawing on these figures, the article concludes that a specific female figure emerged as a bridging figure linking notions of the housewife and the female academic.

Young children with intellectual disabilities and their mathematical attainments: Do parents' attitudes toward mathematics, home numeracy, and literacy practices matter?

This study explored potential factors of numeracy acquisition in young children with intellectual disabilities (IDs). Those factors are determined to assess parents' academic expectations and home practices that they use with their children daily. The sample consisted of 187 Greek-speaking couples, comprising a total number of 374 parents. All of them had a child with mild IDs aged between 4 and 7 years old. Since Greece is placed among European countries with the lowest median disposable income it is significant to assess the potential effects of each family's socioeconomic status. We employed structural equation modeling to identify potential factors affecting a child's with IDs numeracy outcomes. Analysis of moments structures (AMOS) revealed that there is a good fit for the suggested second-order structural equation model. Results are discussed regarding their practical implications.

Space and Theatre

Theatre as an artistic and cultural activity has been the subject of academic speculation ever since the Greeks, but it was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that European and American scholars institutionalized a field of theatre studies. A significant part of this new field’s self-definition involved a clear splitting away from traditional literary studies, within which theatre had previously had its academic home. The entire Western tradition, from the Greeks onward, considered the drama primarily as a branch of literature—the other basic divisions being the epic and the lyric. Traditionally theatre scholarship was based upon the literary text (Artistotle’s indifference to spectacle is an early and notorious example of this bias) and the actual process of the physical realization of this text, while not entirely ignored, was a matter of considerably less interest.

Factors influencing employee retention of academic home tutors in a private school

This study’s goal is to investigate the links between pay and benefits, worklife balance, professional development, and employee retention among academic home tutors in a Malaysian private school. Data from 80 respondents from this private school were gathered using a quantitative survey method. Statistical package for social science (SPSS) was employed throughout the study to analyze the data. The study results showed that salary & compensation and career enhancement positively correlate with employee retention. Meanwhile, work-life balance was not statistically linked with employee retention. The management should revise the human resource management practices by including these elements. The management should design salary & compensation packages that fit with individual knowledge, capabilities, and performance. The management may also consider offering flexible work schedules, such as training, mentoring, job mobility, and a reduction in working hours, as well as wellness assistance, such as counselling services and health and wellness initiatives. This will give employees the chance to advance their careers.

The Relation of Big Five Personality Traits on Academic Performance, Well-Being and Home Study Satisfaction in Corona Times.

As a result of the protective measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, German students experienced home study in the spring of 2020. The present study addressed the relation between coping with the home study situation and personality. The interrelations of the Big Five factors with students' well-being, study satisfaction and academic performance were examined in 287 German online participants. The results showed significant positive correlations of positive affect and conscientiousness, as well as of better academic performance and academic satisfaction. For extraversion, a positive supporting effect on the affective level emerged, although previous studies suggested negative influences of extraversion on affect in home study settings in other phases of the pandemic. Furthermore, in contrast, neuroticism showed a negative relation to study satisfaction and mood in home study. In summary, the personalities of students should be considered in order to provide protective measures and avoid negative coping effects.

Investigation of the diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within the undergraduate student population within the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University.

Iowa State University (ISU) provides resources for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI-B) to provide students with a comfortable academic home regardless of their demographics or prior experiences. The objective of this study was to investigate undergraduate students' DEI-B perspectives in the Department of Animal Science at ISU. One survey instrument was developed containing 14 questions that covered demographics, feelings of inclusion, comfort-seeking tools, and ways to improve DEI-B. Answer choices were either multiple choice, 1 to 5 sliding scale, or a specified text sliding scale. Eligible participants were undergraduate students enrolled in Animal or Dairy Science (n = 974). Demographics and comfort-seeking tools will be presented descriptively. Inclusion at the start and after 2 yr were compared using six different linear models. A variable was deemed significant if the P-value was ≤ 0.05. A total of 383 students (88% of total respondents) completed 50% or more of the inclusion questions. Seniors had the highest response rate. More students reported coming from a rural background. Primary species of interest was companion animals. There were no observed differences in feelings of inclusion in classes, with peers, or with faculty for hometown, admission type, ethnic group, and first generation when students started (P ≥ 0.067). There was a difference for primary species of interest (P ≤ 0.011) and with female students feeling less included (P ≤ 0.039). There were no observed differences after 2 yr in classes, with peers, or with faculty for classification year, admission type, or first generation (P ≥ 0.088). Suburban students felt the least included in classes compared to rural and urban students (P ≤ 0.036). Female students felt less included in all three categories (P ≤ 0.017). The majority of students reported having companion animal experience but almost half reported having no experience with livestock prior to ISU. A total of 51% of students said they never considered transferring to another major and 48% indicated that they plan to pursue a career in veterinary medicine. A total of 75% of students felt inclusion could be improved by creating more hands-on opportunities and 60% suggested the department provide more study space. In conclusion, the Department of Animal Science at ISU has some effective inclusion practices but needs to evolve and improve in its DEI-B practices for the undergraduate student population.

Home for Age Studies?

Age studies, particularly within the United States, is academically “homeless.” You cannot get a degree in age studies; you will not find departments of age or aging studies with strong humanities representation; and you will not find job listings seeking experts in age studies. This essay explores some of the consequences that follow from age studies not having an academic “home,” as well as the gains and constraints that age studies scholars may encounter when pursuing age studies work within a different discipline or field, using the particular example of working within health humanities. While the essay ultimately presents ambivalence about the necessity, and pessimism about the practicality, of an academic home for age studies, it does lay out several priorities for future field growth. In particular, the priority that should guide field-building in age studies is enabling future students to pursue work in age studies.

Wall of whiteness: applied theatre and institutional life

ABSTRACT This essay urges the field of applied theatre to extend its critical focus to examine how whiteness differentially shapes our institutional homes, scholarship, and creative practice. Drawing from Sara Ahmed’s (2012) notion of ‘institutional life’, the essay takes readers into my academic home at the University of Missouri, a predominantly white public institution in the middle of the US, to examine my direction of a critical performance effort, The Revolutionists Project. Throughout the essay, I show how a wall of whiteness shaped the design of the performance project and, as such, worked to obstruct critical conversations about racism and institutional life.

Reviewing academic coordination on the rural distributed training platform in South Africa.

Distributed training of students from a variety of health professions is increasing in South Africa because of the type of learning it offers and that it caters for the increasing number of students being accepted into health sciences programs. Challenges and facilitators to distributed training are well documented in the literature, and include increased distance from the academic home, human resources for health challenges, student access to support systems, and identifying learning environments to match learning outcomes. In the case of the Rural Clinical School in the Western Cape, South Africa, 'academic coordinators' were employed on site to fulfil the role of coordinating and supervising student learning and community engagement. This article explores their experiences. A large-scale qualitative study was conducted in 2017 exploring the history and development of the Ukwanda Centre for Rural Health and the Rural Clinical School. Part of this study included semi-structured individual and focus group interviews with consenting academic coordinators exploring their experiences of developing and working on a rural distributed training platform in South Africa. Data were inductively analysed. Ethical approval and institutional permission were obtained for this study, and all participants provided consent. In addition to previously published challenges that clinical supervisors who are employed by the health system face, the academic coordinators reported facing challenges related to professional isolation, boundary blurring between providing student support versus acting as clinical educator, juggling multiple line managers and administrative responsibilities, navigating the new field of academia, and not having the potential for career progression. Reflecting on the needs of academic coordinators expressed in this article, we identified four conditions that may promote sustained and continuous academic coordination at rural or remote distributed training sites. These conditions are (1) living and working local; (2) having a dual role in academia and the health system; (3) having access to academic support; and (4) regular engagement with the academic home, the value of which is detailed in this article. These recommendations can be adopted to optimise and sustain academic engagement on the distributed training platform, especially in light of the current expansion of health professions training and subsequent need to attract and retain clinician-academics in remote locations.

On the Frontiers of the Indian Ocean World: A History of Lake Tanganyika, c. 1830–1890 by Philip Gooding

Since the publication of Kirti N. Chaudhuri’s Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean (New York, 1985), historical studies of the Indian Ocean World (iow) have grown exponentially. Coming to grips with this vast oceanic space has challenged subsequent generations of historians to think creatively about how best to address its great diversity in both time and space. An important feature of this recent scholarship is its interdisciplinarity. In the volume under review, Gooding takes an innovative approach to what, in some hands, might have been limited to a regional East African study of this historiographically neglected zone by locating Lake Tanganyika as a frontier of the iow. By defining the Indian Ocean littoral as the core of this watery world, he boldly proposes that this great African lake lay at its frontier. Specifically, in this analysis, he depicts a dynamic interaction that links the Swahili coast and the lakeshore littoral through the integrating element of the ivory trade. As he writes, “This book is about how these physical lines of connection developed and the roles that littoral and inland populations around Lake Tanganyika had in shaping them” (3).The book opens with an introduction discussing “Lakes, Oceans and Littorals in History” in which Gooding makes his case. The body of the text is divided into two parts. The first, entitled “Demarcations of Space,” includes three chapters—“The Growth of Emporia,” “Changing Land Use in a Changing Climate,” and “Traversing the Lake.” Part II is divided into four chapters—“Competition and Conflict on the Western Frontier,” “Global Commodities in East African Societies,” Structures of Bondage,” and “An Islamic Sea.” In each of these chapters, Gooding strives to demonstrate the numerous ways in which the changes wrought by the expansion of the ivory trade worked to connect the Swahili coast to the lakeshore and to transform the lakeshore’s society and culture, especially after about 1860.Some of Gooding’s assertions are more speculative than demonstrable—an evidentiary challenge that is familiar to historians of precolonial Africa—but his thesis nonetheless demands serious attention. That said, although he sets his study in a wide East African context and relates it to parallel examples from the broader iow, he misses the opportunity to consider the comparative possibility of an earlier interior African frontier of the iow—the auriferous region of the Zimbabwe plateau in its relationship to the Sofala coast (today, southern Mozambique). He might also have contrasted the evolution of the town of Ujiji into the main entrepôt for coastal links on the eastern side of Lake Tanganyika with the development of Nkhotakota on the western side of Lake Malawi, given their contemporaneous chronologies.The author draws from a wide range of sources, including archaeology, anthropology, oral history, and environmental studies, but he admits that the bulk of his evidence comes from reading the classic nineteenth-century European explorer and missionary accounts, whether published or located in various archives. Nevertheless, he recognizes the biases of his European sources and is meticulous in his reading of them. He is also careful in his use of oral sources, where he points to the problems of feedback and the positions of his informants (172–176).Gooding brings these elements together in each chapter of the book, but his most interesting discussions concern slavery and Islam. His most vigorous use of interdisciplinary sources and methods, however, is in his chapter about the effect of climate change (rainfall and lake levels) on what he defines as an agricultural “revolution” during the nineteenth century. As he argues, “Climate and climatic change are crucial for contextualizing this agricultural revolution” (65). Thus, he reveals the important intellectual influence of his academic home at the Indian Ocean World Centre at McGill University, where a major thematic focus is on “Appraising Risk, Past and Present” in the iow. Readers of this journal will find that chapter especially valuable.

Privileges & Pathways Through an Academic Career in Biomechanics: Appreciation for the 2022 ASME HR Lissner Medal.

Let me begin by sharing my deepest appreciation to the ASME for honoring me with the HR Lissner Medal and to the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering for this opportunity to share my personal path through biomechanics. ASME has been an academic home for me since my days as a doctoral student where my PhD advisors, Van C. Mow and W. Michael Lai, first supported my presenting on original research in the poster sessions and student competition of the Winter Annual Meetings. ASME meetings were where I met so many career advisors including Bob Nerem, Shu Chien, Savio Woo, Sheldon Weinbaum, Mort Friedman, Steve Goldstein, and Larry Taber who shared insights and tips to support me in navigating the bio-engineering discipline. Each of these mentors and advisors previously received the HR Lissner Medal and to be added to this community brings me the greatest sense of belonging. As I hope to convey here and as I did in my 2022 talk, I very much share this honor with numerous talented trainees that have led and motivated much of the directions in my own research program. For more than 30 years, I benefited from this collective of individuals who provided energy, innovation, talent and shared wisdom that brings me to where I stand now and is a testament to the importance of mentoring in the community of Lissner Medalists and ASME.

456 Urinary catheterisation in the nursing home setting: challenges and opportunities in catheter use and design: a questionnaire study

Abstract Introduction Urinary catheter use is associated with a range of complications including infection, encrustation, blockage, leakage, pain and discomfort (1). There is a limited evidence-base regarding prevalence of catheterisation, and issues experienced in using urinary catheters in the nursing home (NH) population. Aim To explore the prevalence of urinary catheterisation and the types of catheters used by NH residents in a region of the United Kingdom (UK), to investigate the most common issues associated with catheter use, and to explore urinary catheter services in NHs. Methods Three different versions of a questionnaire for self-completion were designed (for NH managers, nurses and non-registered healthcare assistants), piloted and distributed to NH staff in a region of the UK, via post or online. NH managers were recruited through postal distribution to all registered NHs in the region (n=243) and via email distribution facilitated by a non-profit membership organisation representing health and social care providers. Nurses and healthcare assistants in 83 nursing homes across the region were recruited through a gatekeeper (GM: an academic care home nurse specialist and link-link lecturer from the School of Nursing and Midwifery, QUB. Questionnaires contained 47 items (managers), 48 (nurses), and 18 items (healthcare assistants), with a mixture of Likert scale questions, yes/no questions and a small number of open questions. Data were anonymised and entered into SPSS (V27) for statistical analysis. Descriptive analysis was conducted for closed-ended questions, and thematic analysis was used for open-ended questions. Results Questionnaires were completed between March and June 2022 by 162 participants. Eighty-eight responses were received from NH managers (response rate = 36.2%; 88/243). Seventy-four responses were received from nurses and healthcare assistants (31 and 43, respectively). Prevalence of catheterisation among NH residents was 6.4% (206/3226) and numbers of catheter users ranged between zero and eight per NH. Most residents (78.6%; 162/206) used indwelling urethral catheters. Almost one third of NH managers (29.5%; 26/88) and nurses (32.3%; 10/31) reported that catheters cause UTIs often and almost one in ten (8.0%; 7/88 and 9.7%; 3/33, respectively) reported a UTI occurring every time a catheter is used. Two-thirds (67.0%; 59/88) of NH managers and 58.1% (18/31) of nurses reported that catheter care training is not mandatory for all staff. Most managers and nurses agreed or strongly agreed that they had adequate catheter training in the past (80.7%; 71/88 and 74.2% 23/31, respectively), but less than half of managers and nurses reported good availability of catheter care retraining (45.5%; 40/88 and 48.4%; 15/31, respectively). Around 64.8% (57/88) of managers and 71.0% (22/31) of nurses wanted catheters to be reviewed more often than they currently are. NH managers and nurses reported difficulty in contacting specialists regarding catheter-associated problems in complex cases; only one third of managers and nurses indicated this was easy or very easy (34.1%; 30/88 and 38.7%; 12/31, respectively). Improvements to catheter design were not considered feasible by many respondents; approximately one third of managers, nurses and healthcare assistants thought improvements could be made (35.2%; 31/88, 32.3%; 10/31 and 30.2%; 13/43, respectively). Conclusion These findings highlight issues in catheter care training and management of catheter-related complications in the NH setting. Providing all NH staff, including healthcare assistants, with adequate urinary catheter training in managing catheter-associated complications has the potential to improve patient quality of life and reduce unplanned hospital visits and represents a priority for research and clinical practice. This study is the first to examine catheter prevalence and issues with use in NHs in this region of the UK. However, findings may not be generalisable to other parts of the UK or internationally.

Identifying Symptoms of ADHD and Disruptive Behavior Disorders Most Strongly Associated with Functional Impairment in Children: A Symptom-Level Approach

To enhance the understanding of how symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and disruptive behavior disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder (CD), including callous-unemotional (CU) traits, differentially relate to functional impairment (FI). Participants were 474 German school-age children (age: M = 8.90, SD = 1.49, 81% male) registered for participation in the ESCAschool trial (ESCAschool: Evidence-based, Stepped Care of ADHD in school-aged children). Clinicians assessed the severity of individual symptoms and five FI domains specifically associated with ADHD symptoms or ODD/CD/CU symptoms using a semi-structured clinical interview. We conducted two multiple linear regression analyses, combined with relative importance analyses, to determine the impact of individual symptoms on global FI associated with ADHD and ODD/CD/CU symptoms. Next, we estimated two networks and identified the strongest associations of ADHD symptoms or ODD/CD/CU symptoms with the five FI domains. Symptoms varied substantially in their associations with global FI. The ADHD symptom Easily Distracted (15%) and ODD symptom Argues with Adults (10%) contributed most strongly to the total explained variance. FI related to academic performance, home life and family members, and psychological strain were most strongly associated with ADHD inattention symptoms, whereas FI related to relationships with adults and relationships with children and recreational activities were most strongly associated with hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms. By comparison, the ODD/CD/CU symptoms most closely linked to FI domains originated from the ODD and CD dimensions. Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature on the importance of analyzing individual symptoms and highlight that symptom-based approaches can be clinically useful.

Academic Expectations and Well-Being in School Children

The current study aimed to explore health behaviour, quality of life and well-being in older children in relation to social background, parental academic socialisation and academic expectation stress, and the role of emerging constructs of self-compassion and psychological capital as potential protective factors. A survey was administered to a sample of 373 children (150 males and 223 females) aged between 11 and 15 years. Children were assessed on academic expectations stress, home and social background, parenting experience, psychological capital, self-compassion, health behaviour, well-being and quality of life. Academic expectation stress was inversely predictive of well-being and quality of life and through its impact on self-compassion and psychological capital, to health behaviour. Findings from this study would suggest that positive psychology interventions to build self-compassion and psychological capital may be efficacious in reducing the negative impact of academic expectation stress in children.

Susan S. Smyth (1965-2022).

Susan S. Smyth (1965-2022).

Introduction

With the publication of this issue, 23-1, we are deeply honored to become the fifth editorial team for Global Environmental Politics. We are excited to keep building on the strong foundation laid by previous editors, including most recently Steven Bernstein, Matthew Hoffmann, and Erika Weinthal. As a result of the enduring commitments of all previous editorial teams—together with the high-quality research and writing by all authors published in these pages, and the often unseen but necessary and much appreciated work by countless reviewers over the past two decades—the journal’s impact factor reached 4.145 for 2021. A truly collective effort, Global Environmental Politics continues to be the premier academic home for research on issues related to global environmental politics and governance.Our many years of experience as associate editors of Global Environmental Politics have given us a head start on our new roles, but we are grateful that we have been able to rely on the support of Erika, Matt, and Steven, alongside the invaluable work by Susan Altman as managing editor, to smooth the transition. Joanna Lewis kindly agreed to stay on as an associate editor, and we are happy to have brought in Mark Axelrod, Kate Neville, and Yixian Sun as new associate editors. We also want to thank Beth DeSombre, who has given much time and service to the journal as the book review editor. Last but certainly not least, we greatly value the service and guidance of the GEP Editorial Board.Scholarship on global environmental politics has always benefited from the application of interdisciplinary perspectives using a multitude of methodological approaches, but the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion is increasingly recognized by researchers as well as policymakers, stakeholders, and activists. As editors, we will seek to further enhance the pluralism of articles published in Global Environmental Politics along multiple dimensions—including issue areas, geographical scope, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks—while maintaining a core focus on advancing theory through rigorous empirical work. This includes keeping up with new approaches to collecting and analyzing qualitative data as well as rapidly advancing trends in network analysis, statistics, and quantitative content analysis. To this end, we will continue to publish research notes, as instituted by Erika, Matt, and Steven. Alongside the research articles and forum articles, research notes bring new methods and datasets to the attention of readers and help broaden methodological horizons.Diversifying our pool of authors and readers remains a critical, albeit sometimes challenging, task for all of us who are involved in the editorial work. Important progress was made by our predecessors, but we believe that there is still room to continue to improve representation among our authors, our readership, and our editorial board. We are planning a number of activities to expand the geographical and disciplinary scope of the journal, including reaching out to scholars from all over the world to find out what they want from us. We will then use their feedback to develop programs intended to expand access and inclusion. This may involve a greater use of online tools and virtual events that can foster community building across long distances, as well as working with MIT Press with the goal of having more open-access articles.As quickly as scholarship is evolving, the world is changing faster. We are living in times that can be both exhilarating and frightening. Global Environmental Politics is deeply rooted in rigorous academic traditions, but there is room to foster new thinking and ideas. This is why we are also committed to mentoring junior scholars as well as scholars from under-represented groups, to ensure that they can successfully add their voices to our collective conversation by publishing in the journal. It is also why we value our many thoughtful and supportive reviewers for shepherding the work of early-career scholars through to publication and providing feedback that will help these scholars succeed with future submissions. It is a supportive scholarly community that allows Global Environmental Politics to thrive, and we are committed to maintaining that spirit of cooperation along with our standards of excellence for the journal.Finally, we would like to thank everyone for their tireless work in writing and reviewing during the worst of the global pandemic. We are committed to resuming outreach by the journal and working actively on diversity, equity, and inclusion. We remain open to new ways of working to the betterment of our community.

Past and Present: Reflections on Working in a Department of Environment and Sustainability

A growing number of environmental historians have ties to departments or institutes that focus on contemporary issues, yet scholars in the field rarely discuss careers that aren’t centered in history. How does having an affiliation with an issue-oriented department or institute change what we do? What preparation is needed to thrive in interdisciplinary communities? What are the upsides and downsides of having an academic home in environmental or sustainability studies? This essay is a reflection on those questions by a scholar who moved from a history department to a department of environment and sustainability. In addition to offering insight into a career path that is likely to become more common, this essay considers different ways that environmental historians might use their expertise to address contemporary problems. How do we see the relationship of past and present in our work?

Effect of Poverty on Students' Participation in the Class at Community Schools in Nepal

To analyse the effect of poverty on households towards class participation at community schools is the main objective of this study. A cross-sectional survey is conducted within two districts among five hundred thirty students adopting random sampling. Data on class participation are collected from semi structured survey questionnaires and analysed using bivariate and multivariate analysis with help of Stata 14. It is found that poverty hinders involvement in academic activities and managing learning facilities. Parents with poverty have been involved in nonacademic activities and are unable to manage the academic home environment. As a result their children were irregular and absent, and they were involved in nonacademic activities, which are more favourable for the poverty zone except for extracurricular activities. By addressing students’ diversity and local context, students living in poverty may have done better class participation.