Extensive Advocacy Research Articles

Teachers and Students’ Awareness of Re-Entry of Mother-Students Policy in Public Secondary Schools in Dodoma City, Tanzania

This study investigates the awareness levels among teachers and students regarding the re-entry policy for mother-students in public secondary schools in Dodoma City, Tanzania. The study employed a descriptive research design. A purposive sampling method was employed to select 10 of these 35 schools, ensuring a diverse representation from different areas within the city. The selected schools' population included 11,329 students and 512 teachers, from whom a sample of 489 students and 104 teachers was drawn. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed through descriptive statistics and the Chi-square test. Based on the findings, the study concludes that gender and students’ education level determine the awareness of re-entry policies. Those students in higher classes had greater exposure to the policies than those in lower classes. Therefore, educational mobility expands individuals' access to policy discussion, calling for specific interventions among females and lower classes. The study suggests that professional development programs must increase teachers’ understanding of the re-entry policies, especially for female teachers. The school curriculums should introduce an extensive advocacy program for lower-level classes and girls. A fair outreach must be undertaken so that students, regardless of their socio-economic background, can know about reentry policies.

Application and performance evaluation of recycled building materials in civil engineering

The concept of renewable materials has received extensive advocacy and promotion in the ongoing development of the construction industry. Furthermore, emerging renewable building materials, such as bio-based composite materials, are continually evolving and gradually being incorporated into civil engineering applications. This paper focuses on the application and performance assessment of recycled building materials in civil engineering. As a crucial component of environmental protection and sustainable development, recycled building materials possess vast potential for application. In this article, the characteristics of common materials such as recycled concrete, recycled steel, and recycled glass are introduced, and their mechanical performance, durability, and other vital attributes are evaluated. Finally, the feasibility and challenges of recycled building materials are analyzed, along with discussions on sustainable development strategies and policy support. The comprehensive research results demonstrate the significant role of recycled building materials in promoting sustainable development in civil engineering, warranting increased support and promotion at the policy and societal levels.

A scoping assessment of dental services at designated head and neck cancer centres in Ontario, Canada

BackgroundDentists serve a crucial role in managing treatment complications for patients with head and neck cancer, including post-radiation caries and oral infection. To date, dental services for head and neck cancer patients in Ontario, Canada have not been well characterized and considerable disparities in allocation, availability, and funding are thought to exist. The current study aims to describe and assess the provision of dental services for head and neck cancer patients in Ontario.MethodsA mixed methods scoping assessment was conducted. A purposive sample of dentist-in-chiefs at each of Ontario’s 9 designated head and neck cancer centres (tertiary centres which meet provincially-set quality and safety standards) was invited to participate. Participants completed a 36-item online survey and 60-minute semi-structured interview which explored perceptions of dental services for head and neck cancer patients at their respective centres, including strengths, gaps, and inequities. If a centre did not have a dentist-in-chief, an alternative stakeholder who was knowledgeable on that centre’s dental services participated instead. Thematic analysis of the interview data was completed using a mixed deductive-inductive approach.ResultsSurvey questionnaires were completed at 7 of 9 designated centres. A publicly funded dental clinic was present at 5 centres, but only 2 centres provided automatic dental assessment for all patients. Survey data from 2 centres were not captured due to these centres’ lack of active dental services. Qualitative interviews were conducted at 9 of 9 designated centres and elicited 3 themes: (1) lack of financial resources; (2) heterogeneity in dentistry care provision; and (3) gaps in the continuity of care. Participants noted concerning under-resourcing and limitations/restrictions in funding for dental services across Ontario, resulting in worse health outcomes for vulnerable patients. Extensive advocacy efforts by champions of dental services who have sought to mitigate current disparities in dentistry care were also described.ConclusionsInequities exist in the provision of dental services for head and neck cancer patients in Ontario. Data from the current study will broaden the foundation for evidence-based decision-making on the allocation and funding of dental services by government health care agencies.

Gay Nazis

Most histories on the development of homosexual identity in Germany focus on the 19th-century origins of the first homosexual rights movement, the thriving queer culture in large cities like Berlin during the 1920s, the extensive advocacy done by the liberal sexologist Magnus Hirschfield, and the ultimate eradication of all this progress by the Nazi regime. Consequently, these histories focus primarily on left-wing progressive homosexual advocacy groups like Hirschfield’s WhK (Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee; German for Scientific-Humanitarian Committee). Comparatively, less attention is paid to a smaller, but nevertheless significant cohort of right-wing male homosexual activists — or masculinists — like Adolf Brand and Hans Blüher who rejected notions that same-sex desiring men constituted an effeminate “third sex”. In their view, homoeroticism was the ultimate expression of virility and male camaraderie, and they fused this idea with nationalist, racialist, and antisemitic views in order to formulate a right-wing position against repealing Paragraph 175, Germany's anti-sodomy law. World War One (WWI) was a crucial event which allowed homosexual veterans to affirm their desires more boldly without being labelled as weak and unmanly — their war experience allowed them to defend their reputation as macho and patriotic men. This paper investigates the historical, social, and psychological reasons why many early Nazis, especially those who joined the SA, were attracted to Brand and Blüher’s ideas. The SA’s relative tolerance for homosociality provided a safe space for many homosexuals in the movement. However, this was extremely problematic for the political side of the Nazi Party whose hegemonic heterosexual masculine image came under question after a series of SA scandals in the early 1930s, and ultimately took deadly actions to quash non-heteronormative elements of the movement.

It is time to fix the low financing trap: public spending on education revisited

PurposeThis paper aims to explore whether there is a “low financing trap” that results in underfunding of education systems in low and lower middle income countries (LICs and LMICs). It shows public investment in education has not increased over the last two decades despite extensive advocacy and has equilibrated at about 4% of GDP. More than 6% of GDP is needed to achieve the sustainable development goals.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses large scale data from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics and the World Bank to analyse patterns of investment across sub-Saharan Africa. The most recent data downloaded in 2022 are used for each country. The analysis uses time series analysis to show how flows of resources for education have evolved and illustrates the limits to growth.FindingsThe research develops a taxonomy of countries and identifies three bands of effort for investment in education. Individual countries tend to remain in the same band of expenditure level and only the highest band countries are likely to be able to finance their development goals from their own resources between now and 2030. Escape from the low financing trap is critical for future educational development.Originality/valueInnovative approaches to external assistance are needed which recognise that domestic revenues are at the heart of sustainable financing and that greater efficiency and effectiveness are critical to sustainable solutions. The priority is to accelerate the development of fiscal states, which can finance public goods from domestic revenue and make good use of concessionary assistance.

The Impact of Student-Teacher Policy Perception on Employment Intentions in Rural Schools for Educational Sustainable Development Based on Push–Pull Theory: An Empirical Study from China

Governments and professional organizations around the world have realized that successful recruitment and retention policies are vital to address the shortage of teachers in rural and remote areas. To the best of our knowledge, despite extensive advocacy of policies and discussions pertaining to their implications, an academic investigation into how student teachers perceive the policies and how their policy perception influences rural employment intentions has rarely been performed. Herein, this study is devoted to investigating the impact of policy perception on student-teacher rural employment intentions. In this study, the participants consist of undergraduate and postgraduate students at Chinese universities who specialize in preparing teachers of all disciplines. A questionnaire survey and quantitative analysis based on commercially available software Questionnaire Star, SPSS 26.0, Amos 26.0 and RMediation package were performed in data acquisition and analysis. It was found that student-teacher perception of the supporting policy Rural Revitalization Strategy was a little below average. High policy perception leads to an increase in the intentions of student teachers to seek employment in rural areas, and social support and positive job perception mediate the linkage between policy perception and rural employment intentions. It was also found that a difference in academic qualifications, census registration, and unpaid teaching satisfaction exists in the intentions to teach in rural schools. Such effects can be explained by the push–pull theory. Finally, this study provides recommendations for governments, universities, rural schools, and families.

Collaborative Portraits for Intersex Justice

Collaborative Portraits for Intersex Justice

Iranian consecration of Irish nationalist ‘martyrs’: the Islamic Republic of Iran and the 1981 republican prisoners’ hunger strike in Northern Ireland

This article focuses on the official and semi-official Iranian coverage and representation of the 1981 republican prisoners’ hunger strike in Northern Ireland and the related corporeal constructs of the hunger strikers as ‘martyred’ bodies. The particular characterization and utilization of Irish republican hunger strikers by media outlets, officials, and other propagandists of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) was an instance of groups outside Northern Ireland appropriating Irish nationalist bodies for their own ends. IRI commentators re-articulated the starving bodies of Irish republican hunger strikers, re-infusing them with symbolic meanings in a cross-cultural and ideologically laden configuration in the service of IRI’s self-projection as the patron of worldwide struggles for justice and liberation against the twin forces of imperialism and domestic opponents. In the process, IRI added its own layers of agency and politically crafted somatic meaning to the hunger strike. Meanwhile, IRI’s extensive advocacy of the republican hunger strike in Northern Ireland was eagerly welcomed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), to which most hunger strikers belonged; with PIRA and its political wing, Provisional Sinn Féin, hoping to secure diplomatic recognition, and possibly material aid, from the Iranian government for bolstering PIRA’s domestic and international standing vis-à-vis the British government.

American pediatric society's 2017 John Howland award acceptance lecture: a tale of two toxicants: childhood exposure to lead and tobacco.

This article summarizes the presentation of the 2017 Howland Award to Michael Weitzman, MD, at the Annual Pediatric Academic Society Meetings. It summarizes the remarkable advances in understanding the effects and pathways of exposure of the two most common and pernicious of our nation's child environmental exposures, namely lead and tobacco. It also summarizes the profound effect of the translation of these findings into prudent and effective clinical and public health policies such that exposure to both has dramatically decreased over the past 40 years due to the tenacious activities of pediatricians, other child-related professionals, government agencies at all levels, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Research and clinical activities, although essential, were not sufficient to produce these successes, but required extensive mentoring to produce a generation of academic pediatricians capable of conducting the requisite research, and extensive advocacy by pediatricians and others to overcome the formidable inertia and outright opposition to efforts to protect our children from these exposures. Moreover, the article highlights that both of these environmental exposures have roots in social and environmental injustice and neither is solved, and that there is no safe level of exposure to either of these toxicants.

Richard Oswald, Magnus Hirschfeld, and the possible impossibility of hygienic melodrama

Richard Oswald’s Weimar German film Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others, 1918) has long been read as a hygiene film. The film’s co-producer Magnus Hirschfeld and his extensive advocacy to improve living conditions of homosexual men has positioned scholars to see this film in a long line of work aimed to reach and transform public opinion about homosexuality. Hirschfeld had envisioned the film would improve the lives of homosexual men by drawing public attention to the suffering they endure under a legal code, which criminalized male homosexuality. Though central to the film’s emotional and thus rhetorical aims, its melodramatic plot has received little attention. This article thus focuses on the film as melodrama. The goal is to show that, through its adherence to a stylistic of melodramatic impossibility as theorized by Jonathan Goldberg, Different from the Others draws on hygiene film esthetics to compel viewers to imagine a better world, an impulse which runs parallel to the explicit call for social reform captured in the film.

Maximizing the Post-Approval Safety of Flibanserin: A Role for Regulators, Clinicians, and Patients.

In August 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made the controversial decision to approve flibanserin (Addyi®) for women experiencing hypoactive sexual desire disorder. A number of factors contributed to disagreements regarding the FDA's decision, including the product's two prior failed FDA reviews, the unmet need of women with this disorder, extensive advocacy and politicization surrounding the product's relevance to women and sexual health, the potential for widespread off-label use, and the product's tenuous risk/benefit profile. Despite that, attention now shifts to maximizing the safe use of the product, including the optimal means to avoid numerous drug-drug interactions as well as the concomitant use of alcohol, both of which potentiate the risks of dizziness, hypotension, and syncope. Although the FDA has implemented a comprehensive Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies program to maximize the product's safe use, patients, clinicians, and regulators must exhibit heightened vigilance early in the product's post-market life.

American Stroke Association Stroke Council Update

This report represents the Spring 2015 update of the Stroke Council. Much has happened in the last 12 months, and we want to particularly focus on the major developments in acute stroke therapy and their implications, progress in the American Stroke Association (ASA)/American Heart Association (AHA) quality initiatives and tiered systems of stroke care, and the approval of a new code for the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). Each Stroke Council Update starts with restating our 2020 Goals: to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20% while reducing deaths from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by 20%. In December 2014, we had further evidence that our efforts are bearing fruits. In 2011, stroke fell from the number 3 to the number 4 cause of death in the United States, and in December, stroke fell from number 4 to number 5. This development, which reflects the continued decrease in age-adjusted mortality rates for stroke, is a remarkable testament to concerted educational and public health efforts to control blood pressure, decrease tobacco use, appropriately treat atrial fibrillation, educate the public about stroke warning signs, and improve and standardize the neurocritical care of stroke patients. Yet, it is sobering that the actual number of strokes continues to increase as the population ages because the incidence of stroke increases markedly with age. Stroke remains the second leading cause of death worldwide and one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. That is why the ASA/AHA is partnering with the World Stroke Organization and World Health Organization to take best practices and apply them worldwide. We have accomplished much but have more to do. The International Stroke Conference Scientific Sessions and Pre-conference meetings in Nashville was a great success with 4341 attendees, the largest number of attendees ever. The quality of the …

Role of Pediatricians in Fostering Resilience in Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

From the Saint Louis University School of Medicine; and Sisters of Saint Mary A rich literature exists on best practices for screening, diagnosing, and managing children with autism. With its 2012 release of Autism: Caring for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Resource Toolkit for Clinicians, and Autism Spectrum Disorders: What Every Parent Needs to Know, the American Academy of Pediatrics has supplemented their current standards of care by providing both pediatricians and parents with comprehensive, up to date information on the screening, diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of autism. Underlying the presentation of factual data is the strong message to parents of hope and connection to others who have similar experiences. Both books acknowledge the tremendous stress parents of children with autism experience, and focus on how parents and pediatricians can partner effectively to optimize developmental outcomes. But do these essential resources go far enough? It has been well documented that parents and caregivers of children with autism often face tremendous emotional strains, changes in lifestyle, and economic hardship associated with caring for their children. Current best treatment practices frequently entail lengthy, time consuming interventions across service sectors, as well as extensive advocacy efforts on the part of the parent. Many of the empirically supported treatments for children with autism include parents in the therapeutic process, making them essential to the continuity, maintenance, generalization, and outcomes of treatment. One of the most empirically supported interventions, Applied Behavior Analysis, requires a parent’s strict daily compliance. Other treatments such as Floortime or Developmental Individual Differences Relationship Based Models, require parents to implement play therapy sessions with their child several times per day. The child’s home becomes another place for implementing therapeutic services. Unfortunately, little attention is paid to evaluating the parent’s ability to implement the intervention and to bolstering parental resilience—the dynamic process of being able to parent effectively in the face of having a child with autism. Historically, resilience has been studied on an individual level, but more recent research and practice have applied the construct to the social ecological system in which the child resides, specifically parental functioning. Resilience is a superordinate construct encompassing 2 distinct components: significant adversity and positive adaptation. Within this definition, risk is defined in terms of statistical probabil-

Is insufficient knowledge of epilepsy the reason for low levels of healthcare in the Lao PDR?

BackgroundThe treatment gap for epilepsy is considerable in low and middle-income countries. In the Lao PDR it is estimated at over 90%. Health workers play a significant role in bridging the gap between people with epilepsy (PWE) and access to epilepsy care. In a national survey we assessed: 1) the knowledge and practices of health workers in the Lao PDR towards the disease, and, 2) patient attendance at health facilities.MethodsWe conducted a random three-stage sampling of health workers at the provincial, district and health center levels in 2009.ResultsOverall, 284 health workers were enrolled in 50 health facilities of 11 provinces: health centers 24.7%; district hospitals 23.2%; and province hospitals 52.1%. Only a minority of these (2.5%) recalled ever having received training or seeking information on epilepsy. Our survey showed a lack of knowledge in diagnosing and prescribing drugs for epilepsy, including phenobarbital, the first-line of treatment. The majority of respondents (59.9%) was unaware of the availability of antiepileptic drugs in health facilities. Only 10 (20%) health facilities, and no health centres, received people with epilepsy. It was estimated that one PWE per month receives medical attention. Traditional beliefs about PWE were common; such as the idea that epilepsy could be transmitted through saliva (63.2%). A higher attendance of PWE was observed in province hospitals where the knowledge of epilepsy care was higher. Global acceptance of people with epilepsy was low.ConclusionsThe low level of knowledge of epilepsy on the part of health workers may be contributing to the wide treatment gap in the Lao PDR. Improving knowledge of this disease and increasing the availability of antiepileptic drugs will reduce misconceptions about epilepsy, thus encouraging more PWE to seek treatment. Community-based educational programs and extensive advocacy for people with epilepsy only began in 2009.

IDEOLOGICAL SETS OF POLITICAL ATTITUDES IN LITHUANIAN SOCIETY

Everyday public discourse and empirical researches show that the ideological thinking among the major part of Lithuanian society is practically non-existent (political attitudes are found to be incoherent, and opinions are seemingly self-contradictory). Such unpopularity of ideological thinking makes it difficult to predict the political outlooks and behavior of the public and potentially challenges the foundations of the representative democracy. However, conclusions on the broader political thinking inconsistency in society would be hasty without evaluating the existence of alternative coherent belief systems or systems of political attitudes. In other words, the methodological perspective is worth to be changed: from searching ideological thinking along presupposed strict ideological lines as suggested by the classical political thought, to looking for the possible other consistencies in the same field, other sets of the same political attitudes. In this article, primary results of such research, obtained after applying the Q-sort methodology, are presented, and three shared social perspectives, which operate as certain political ideologies among Lithuanian public, are discussed. The first one, conditionally named free self-expression discourse, centre on the extensive advocacy of free, equally for everybody accessible self-expression idea and a strong opposition to any restrictions of personal freedom and choice. Though economic issues do not play a key role in this perspective, along the ideas of free market competition the priority lies on some “minimum” of care, which the state ought to ensure for its population. The second perspective is based on the perception of the current situation in the state and society as chaotic, flawed, and reveals longing for the “order” which mainly means a high priority given to one strong leader. In this shared social perspective, moral and economic issues are (at best) of secondary importance while Soviet times and current Russia are seen positively through a pragmatic and even a nostalgic prism. Finally, the third perspective, which could be called the traditional morality discourse, cherish the so-called traditional values such as respect of life, family, religion, ethnic identity, and condemns the Soviet regime in which these values were suppressed. These three shared social perspectives could be respectively linked with the ideologies of social liberalism, authoritarianism, and conservatism. However, emphasizing the authenticity of these perspectives, the interconnections should be deliberated and not too much binding. Most important, these perspectives could be regarded as an evidence of coherent political thinking in Lithuanian society – internally coherent political belief systems are found, and they are shared by society members.

A Comparative Study of Nonprofit and For-Profit Web-Based Issue Advocacy

Using the Web to advocate positions and actions on public issues is an emerging and potentially powerful means of shaping public opinion and action. Building on studies of Web advocacy in the political sector, this research employs content analysis to examine Web-based advocacy by U.S. for-profit and nonprofit organizations. For-profit organizations were found to engage in much more Web advocacy than nonprofit organizations. Those organizations that did engage in extensive advocacy, or were committed to multiple social values, appear to have come to adopt these postures or activities consistent with what a cost-benefit analysis of the impact on their enterprise would predict. With respect to region, the Northeast and South evidenced a higher and lower pattern of advocacy, respectively. Finally, greater financial resources predicted more extensive advocacy content generally; the particular issue areas this study examined were community focus, charitable causes, environmental issues, and diversity.

The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act: A Historical Overview

The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act (P. L. 100-77) of 1987 was the first major federal legislation enacted to address the welfare of America's homeless population and remains to this day the only such effort. This legislation marked a significant departure from the traditionally indifferent federal stance on the issue. This paper explores the question: Why did homelessness emerge as a major social problem in 1987 and not before? As this paper reveals, the development of homelessness as a public issue was predicated on a fundamental redefinition of what being homeless meant and who was to blame. Extensive advocacy efforts, key legal precedents, the media, and concentrated lobbying efforts all catalyzed this process and challenged policy makers to rethink some long-held misconceptions about the homeless. The end result was a somewhat comprehensive (though also limited) federal response in the form of the McKinney Act.

Learning science through the medium of English: what do Grade 8 learners say?

The TIMSS-R (Third International Mathematics and Science Study report) results served to focus attention on the long-standing problem of teaching and learning though the medium of English when it is not the home language of learners or teachers and proficiency levels are too low for learners to engage with the curriculum in a meaningful way. There have been calls by academics for the extension of learners' home languages as the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) beyond the Foundation Phase, to overcome this problem. However, the language attitudes of learners in this research indicate a strong preference for English as the LoLT, despite the difficulties this entails. This indicates the need for extensive advocacy, if the push to extend home language LoLT on pedagogical grounds is to succeed.

The Future of Title IX: Ensuring Success through Proactive Approaches

Introduction Although Title IX advocacy groups emerged victorious in the recent battle to protect Title IX's athletics regulations, the work to ensure equitable opportunities for girls and women in sport in the United States is far from over. We cannot be complacent, sit back and wait for the next Title IX attack to occur. Instead of wondering, What will the future bring for Title IX?, we must ask ourselves What can we bring to the future?. In short, we need to become more vigilant in our efforts to develop and implement various strategies to fully realize the spirit and intent of this very important civil rights law. Such work will require focus and attention in four major areas: 1) expanding Title IX educational outreach; 2) developing and implementing Title IX plans; 3) assessing progress toward achieving gender equity and Title IX compliance; and, 4) encouraging Title IX advocacy. Only through the continued and coordinated efforts of many, can we expect to fully realize the intended benefits of Title IX's athletics regulations by providing equitable opportunities for female and male athletes. Recap of 2002-2003 Events Before discussing the future of Title IX, let me first recap the major events that occurred during this past year and a half regarding the law. The first major event took place in January of 2002 as the National Wrestling Coaches Association filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education in order to question Title IX's athletics regulations. In response, the Bush Administration created the Commission on Opportunities in Athletics to explore Title IX issues. The Commission conducted hearings, deliberated, and provided their final report in January 2003 to the Department of Education. Due to major flaws in the Commission's process, two members of the Commission forwarded a minority report at the same time. In June of 2003, the decision was rendered in the Wrestling Coaches lawsuit in favor of upholding Title IX's athletics regulations. In July of 2003, the Department of Education issued their final action in a Dear Colleague letter. This letter from Assistant Secretary of Education Gerald Reynolds reaffirmed the Department of Education's commitment to the existing Title IX's athletics regulations, indicated their intent to reinforce their Title IX education efforts, and also included a warning that the Department of Education plans to aggressively enforce Title IX's athletics regulations. In short, due the extensive advocacy efforts of Title IX proponents [e.g., National Association for Girls and Women in Sport (NAGWS), Women's Sports Foundation (WSF), National Women's Law Center (NWLC), American Association of University Women (AAUW), National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA), National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA)], Title IX's athletics regulations were kept intact. We must now build upon this success as we broaden our educational efforts, continue to implement plans to achieve gender equity, monitor progress, and encourage future Title IX advocacy efforts. Expanding Title IX Educational Outreach Greater Title IX enforcement plans by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the threat of future Title IX lawsuits will provide greater incentive for schools and colleges to educate their athletics department staff. In turn, these leaders will look for educational tools and resources for assistance in the educational process. Accurate information must be provided to these entities about the law, its regulations, its intent, and current statistics. Currently, a number of Title IX educational resources and programs are available at the collegiate level and new resources and programs are being developed for high schools. Printed educational materials available for use include the following: the National Association for Girls and Women's (NAGWS) Title IX Athletics Policies: Issues and Data for Education Decision-makers, a thorough report that offers extensive questions and answers on the application of Title IX. …