Minority View Research Articles

Professional Learning Communities and Democratic Ideals: The Influence of John Dewey

This paper conceptualizes as well as theorizes how Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) demonstrate democratic principles using John Dewey’s philosophy of education and democracy. The study reviewed the meaning of democracy and its characteristics and highlighted PLCs as social spaces for building democracy in schools. Also, the study explored whether a relationship existed between PLCs and democracy as ideally conceived. The reason behind this exploration was to ascertain whether the environment created in schools and the activities of teachers in their PLC groups serve as core components of establishing PLCs. The study revealed that the formation and implementation of PLCs truly illuminate democratic principles because all teachers take an active part in discussions and deliberations in matters affecting them; members remain committed to the course of the group and the school system because they feel as part; respect and tolerate the views of others, especially minority views and; take part in the decision-making process of the group. The nurturing of these ideals develops informed democratic citizens who would be capable of influencing local, state, and national level decisions and policies. These principles could also be passed on to their students.

Gender, American Identity, and Sexism

SOCIAL SCIENTISTS LONG HAVE BEEN INTERESTED in explaining why individuals vary in their beliefs about national identity and what citizens think it means to truly belong to their nation. Research to date has provided many insights into the determinants and consequences of emphasizing different elements of American national identity. Understanding why different individuals emphasize particular dimensions of national identity is important because these beliefs predict a wide range of political and social attitudes, including views of cultural minorities, support for policies designed to increase economic and social equality, political trust for key democratic institutions, opinions about how immigrants should be treated, and even a person's subjective well-being.1 While scholars have documented large gender differences across a wide range of political behavior and attitudes, researchers have yet to closely examine the relationship between gender and what individuals see as being most important to being an American.2 We also do not yet understand how persons' views about national identity may shape their views of gender equality. These oversights are puzzling, given the robust body of research showing that patriarchy has been a defining feature of the conceptualization of American national identity since the beginning of the nation, with men and women continuing to experience what it means to be American in distinct and unequal ways.3 Our study contributes to both this scholarship and the larger body of research looking at gender gaps in political attitudes by examining the extent to which contemporary beliefs about America's national identity differ by gender, as well as—and perhaps more importantly—the consequences of such beliefs on attitudes toward women. Specifically, we test whether men and women differ in their conceptions of what it means to be fully American. Then, we investigate how variations in conceptions of national identity shape individuals' attitudes about the role of women in society generally. Finally, we examine the extent to which gender moderates the consequences of individuals' beliefs about Americanness on their level of sexism.

The Discontents of Truth & Trust in 21st Century America

Abstract Credible fact-making for policy demands the same legitimating moves as are required for credible politics. Experts, like politicians, must represent the world in ways that respect diverse standpoints, aggregate disparate opinions to produce a semblance of objectivity, and find persuasive ways to bridge gaps between available and ideal states of knowledge. Every society, moreover, commands its own culturally recognized approaches to producing and testing public knowledge, and expert practices must conform to these to be broadly accepted. Insisting on the superior authority of science without attending to the politics of reason and persuasion will not restore trust in either knowledge or power. Instead, trust can be regained with more inclusive processes for framing policy questions, greater attentiveness to dissenting voices and minority views, and more humility in admitting where science falls short and policy decisions must rest on prudence and concern for the vulnerable.

The Fascist view of the ‘allogeni’ in the border regions

ABSTRACT The Fascist policy towards linguistic minorities has sometimes been compared to that practised in the colonies, using the categories of racism and internal colonialism. According to some interpretations, Fascism considered members of minorities as something foreign, potentially hostile, if not actually inferior, starting from a clear dividing line between who could be considered Italian and who not. It has also been argued that the ‘allogeni’ were the first targets of radical measures to exclude them from Italian citizenship, the forerunners of the later racist laws implemented against colonial subjects and Jews. This article has three aims: to verify whether severe discriminatory actions really were taken against members of linguistic minorities with regard to citizenship rights; to understand whether these persons were perceived as completely alien to the nation on the basis of clear, shared demarcation lines between those who could consider themselves Italian and those who could not; and, finally, to determine whether the view of such minorities was always radically negative and disdainful to the extent that it could justifiably be called racism. The analysis of forms of representation focuses in particular on the German-speaking population of South Tyrol, using various sources (newspapers, institutional correspondence, political speeches, literary accounts). The answer to the first question posed is negative; as regards the other two, in the first place there is a considerable degree of uncertainty on the part of the Fascists in defining the members of the German-speaking minority, who were sometimes presented as being completely outside the perimeter of Italianità, i.e. Italianness, while more often as being on the margins but undoubtedly capable of integration thanks to their unshakably Italian core. This seems to reveal a certain difficulty in defining who could be considered Italian and who could not when clearly drawing the boundaries of Italianness. Secondly, judgements were made about the South Tyroleans that were in no way characterized by a lack of appreciation or by contempt. The descriptions of the South Tyrolean peasant are, to say the least, flattering: full of exaggerated praise for his many virtues, from his religiosity to his obedience to institutions, from his strong ties to the land to his conservatism. The views regarding the Slovenian and Croatian-speaking populations of Venezia Giulia and Istria were very different, expressing and amplifying the most scornful stereotypes of anti-Slavism developed during the national struggles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

A variational-autoencoder approach to solve the hidden profile task in hybrid human-machine teams.

Algorithmic agents, popularly known as bots, have been accused of spreading misinformation online and supporting fringe views. Collectives are vulnerable to hidden-profile environments, where task-relevant information is unevenly distributed across individuals. To do well in this task, information aggregation must equally weigh minority and majority views against simple but inefficient majority-based decisions. In an experimental design, human volunteers working in teams of 10 were asked to solve a hidden-profile prediction task. We trained a variational auto-encoder (VAE) to learn people’s hidden information distribution by observing how people’s judgments correlated over time. A bot was designed to sample responses from the VAE latent embedding to selectively support opinions proportionally to their under-representation in the team. We show that the presence of a single bot (representing 10% of team members) can significantly increase the polarization between minority and majority opinions by making minority opinions less prone to social influence. Although the effects on hybrid team performance were small, the bot presence significantly influenced opinion dynamics and individual accuracy. These findings show that self-supervized machine learning techniques can be used to design algorithms that can sway opinion dynamics and group outcomes.

Depravity and lewd acts under Article 156 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in the coordinates of legal certainty

The article contains critical remarks on the wording of Article 156 ("Depravity of minors") of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, reveals its inconsistency with the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Violence of 25.10.2007, as well as lack of legislation the content and scope of the concepts of "depravity" (Article 156 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and "lewd acts" (Articles 181, 156, 302 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), which in accordance with the principle of legal certainty is a violation of Article 8 of the Constitution of Ukraine. The thesis about the inadmissibility of sending the blanket norm of criminal legislation (Articles 181, 156, 302 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) to unspecified norms of morality, which, in turn, is historically variable and differs depending on religion, political or corporate preferences, views of minorities or people of different races, nationalities and genders, etc. A new version of Article 156 ("Depravity of a person under the age of sixteen") of the Criminal Code of Ukraine has been proposed.

Bullying toward LGBTQI + students in Australian schools: Understanding teachers’ intentions to intervene

The bullying of sexual and/or gender minority youth at school is a social violence issue that is ubiquitous in most countries. In line with evidence-based practice, teachers are consistently shown to be a critical component of success when addressing this issue; however, teachers’ preparedness to respond to sexual and/or gender motivated bullying is under researched. Utilizing components of the theory of planned behavior, a sample of 437 Australian teachers were investigated to determine whether knowledge, perceived barriers, and attitudes toward both sexual and/or gender minorities predicted teachers’ intentions to intervene when a sexual and/or gender minority student is bullied above and beyond sociodemographic factors associated with prejudice. Results of hierarchical linear regression demonstrated that teachers with more positive views of gender minorities and less traditional views related to gender ideologies were more likely to endorse higher intentions to intervene in sexual and/or gender minority motivated bullying. Findings suggested teachers’ attitudinal biases inform their professional practices when a sexual and/or gender minority student is bullied.

Is There a Need for Cultural Adaptation of the Last Aid Course?-A Mixed-Methods Study across the Danish-German Border.

Last Aid courses (LAC) have been established in 20 countries in Europe, Australia, and America to improve the public discourse about death and dying and to empower people to contribute to end-of-life care in the community. A mixed-methods approach was used to investigate the views of LAC participants about the course and cultural differences in relation to care and nursing at the end of life in the border region of Germany and Denmark. One-day workshops were held, including Last Aid courses in German and Danish, focus group interviews, and open discussions by the participants. The results show that almost all participants appreciate the LAC as an option to talk and learn about death and end-of-life care. The informants find individual differences more important than cultural differences in end-of-life care but describe differences connected to regulations and organization of services across the border. Suggestions for adaptation and improvement of the LAC include the topics of organization and support across the border, religions, and cultures, and supporting people in grief. The findings of the study will inform a revision of the Last Aid curriculum and future projects across the border and will help to include the views of minorities.

Citation impact and social media visibility of Great Barrington and John Snow signatories for COVID-19 strategy

ObjectiveThe Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) and the John Snow Memorandum (JSM), each signed by numerous scientists, have proposed hotly debated strategies for handling the COVID-19 pandemic. The current analysis aimed...

Risks and opportunities associated with pollinators’ conservation and management of pollination services in Latin America

The conservation status of pollinators and pollination in Latin America (LA) is reviewed. The knowledge regarding native and managed pollinators (e.g., honeybee and stingless bees) and pollination services was synthetized, and the guidelines to improve the opportunities for conservation are provided, considering the threats to pollinators and the perspectives from traditional and local knowledge. The analysis indicates that diverse threats (e.g., large-scale agriculture, deforestation, overuse of agrochemicals) are linked with pollination and pollinator decline, which affect the reproduction of most native plants and the yields of many crops. LA harbours the highest bee diversity worldwide, with 26% of the total recorded species, and it is a biodiversity hotspot of vertebrate pollinators, including hummingbirds, perching birds, nectarivorous bats and other mammal pollinators. Specific recommendations to conserve native pollinators and to improve pollination services are provided, which could be considered by stakeholders and governments aiming to elaborate biocultural conservation. For example, introducing policies and legal responses for incentives to help farmers maintain natural habitats and forests, to replace or reduce agrochemicals and to improve diversified crop production with agroecological practices; refining agrochemical regulations to minimize the exposure of pollinators to insecticides and herbicides; improving knowledge and education on pollinators and pollination gives societies worldwide the opportunity to change current hegemonic agricultural practices and consumption patterns; integrating different land ethical views of ethnic minorities on a sustainable relationship between production and biodiversity. A wider view combining social, ecological, cultural dimensions may support better decision making. This holistic socio-agroecological perspective is urgently needed to conserve and manage pollinators at different spatial and temporal scales, and to integrate pollination services, pollinator-friendly habitat management approaches and diversified farming systems.

Can the Skeptic Search for Truth?

AbstractSextus Empiricus associates the Pyrrhonian stance with the activity of inquiry or investigation. In this paper, I propose to examine the skeptic’s involvement in that activity because getting an accurate understanding of the nature and purpose of skeptical inquiry will make it possible to delineate some of the distinctive traits of Pyrrhonism as a kind of philosophy. I defend the minority view among specialists according to which (i) Sextus describes both the prospective Pyrrhonist and the full-fledged Pyrrhonist as inquirers into truth, and (ii) the full-fledged Pyrrhonist can, without inconsistency, engage in truth-directed inquiry.

Social Experiences of Muslim Americans Regarding the Intolerance Displayed by Non-Muslims

Non-Muslims in the United States have openly expressed their opposition regarding Muslim Americans, which has led to the racial profiling and unequal treatment of Muslim Americans. Literature regarding the intolerance displayed by majority members indicates a need for further research that explores the point of view of minorities in the United States. Intolerance is defined as the refusal and unwillingness to respect or tolerate persons of a different social group or members of minority groups who hold beliefs contrary to one’s own. The intolerance displayed among members of different religious and cultural backgrounds can limit the ability to discover new information needed in promoting positive social change among Muslims and non-Muslims in the United States. Semistructured interviews were used to explore the social experiences of Muslim Americans of Palestinian descent in Cleveland, Ohio, regarding prejudice and discrimination displayed by non-Muslims. The theory of planned behavior and impression management theory were used as the framework for this study. Convenience and purposeful sampling were used to recruit the 10 participants chosen for this study. Template analysis, Giorgio’s psychological phenomenological method, and coding were used to analyze the data obtained from this study. Participants revealed experiencing prejudice and discrimination “everywhere” and “anywhere,” including verbal attacks and emotional distress. Participants also described the intolerance among Muslims and non-Muslims as “good and bad” or “it depends.” Information from this study can help in the development of social strategies that can be used to improve the interactions among Muslims and non-Muslims in United States.

On the authorship and publication dates of Theraphosa and Theraphosidae (Araneae, Mygalomorphae): a clarification

The genus Theraphosa was established by Thorell (1870) as the type genus of the simultaneously published family Theraphosidae, the most diverse group of mygalomorph spiders. This authorship and publication date have long been accepted by the majority of authors. However, there has been a long-standing minority view that the genus name should be attributed to Walckenaer (1805), and the publication date of the family name changed to 1869.
 A thought-provoking recent publication has examined this case. Based on a limited selection of the relevant literature, the authors struggled to make sense of their sources and prematurely concluded that the minority opinion might indeed be correct. They overlooked the potentially destabilising implications of this reattribution.
 This paper revisits the evidence in the light of a much wider range of relevant publications, places it in its important historical context and, on the basis of the current rules of nomenclature, concludes that the traditional consensus has indeed been correct.
 Thus, Theraphosa Thorell, 1870 is the type genus of Theraphosidae Thorell, 1870 and a nomen protectum, while Theraphosa Schinz, 1823 is a nomen oblitum, mostly limited to the German textbook literature of the early 19th century. Teraphosa Eichwald, 1830 and Teraphosa Gistel, 1848 are junior synonyms of Avicularia Lamarck, 1818 (syn. nov.). Theraphosa Walckenaer, 1805 is a suprageneric name of the class-series (synonymous to Mygalomorphae) and not available at the genus level.

Denying the Truth Does Not Change the Facts: A Systematic Analysis of Pseudoscientific Denial of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

PurposeSeveral articles have claimed that complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) does not exist. Although a minority view, it is important to understand the arguments presented in these articles. We conducted a systematic literature search to evaluate the methodological quality of articles that claim CRPS does not exist. We then examined and refuted the arguments supporting this claim using up-to-date scientific literature on CRPS.MethodsA systematic search was conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane CENTRAL databases. Inclusion criteria for articles were (a) a claim made that CRPS does not exist or that CRPS is not a distinct diagnostic entity and (b) support of these claims with subsequent argument(s). The methodological quality of articles was assessed if possible.ResultsNine articles were included for analysis: 4 narrative reviews, 2 personal views, 1 letter, 1 editorial and 1 case report. Seven points of controversy were used in these articles to argue that CRPS does not exist: 1) disagreement with the label “CRPS”; 2) the “unclear” pathophysiology; 3) the validity of the diagnostic criteria; 4) CRPS as a normal consequence of immobilization; 5) the role of psychological factors; 6) other identifiable causes for CRPS symptoms; and 7) the methodological quality of CRPS research.ConclusionThe level of evidence for the claim that CRPS does not exist is very weak. Published accounts concluding that CRPS does not exist, in the absence of primary evidence to underpin them, can harm patients by encouraging dismissal of patients’ signs and symptoms.

Upper Nile University the Effect of Corruption on Governance andEconomic Developmentin South Sudan: A Case of Juba County

This study aim on establishing the impact of corruption and governance and economic development in Juba county, Jubek state South Sudan.The objectives of the study are; to assess the relationship between Corruption and Governance, to assess the relationship between Corruption and Economic Development and to analyse the factor structure for Corruption and governance on Economic development. The study employed a cross sectional and descriptive design while using qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study population will be 150 selected using simple random sampling techniques. The sample size determination was made using Krejcie and Morgan Table (1970) formula. The sample size is 108. The data will analyze using Statistical package for social scientists (SPSS 20). Corruption is the main threat to Governance and Economic Development in the Republic of South Sudan. ‘Good governance entails accountability, transparency, enhanced public participation in decision making, strengthened public sector and civil society institutions and greater adherence to the rule of law. Corruption results in grave violations of socio-economic rights, condemns people to extreme levels of poverty and often leads to social unrest. Curbing corruption is therefore critical to the achievement of good governance and the rule of law in many counties such as Juba County, Jubek State, and South Sudan. Although most legal systems in East Africa prohibit corruption, the practice is significantly different. The Government of South Sudan is working hard to make the citizens improve their standard of living through the formation of South Sudan Anti-corruption commission to eradicate corruption in the country. The rule of law is also enforced on citizens who are embezzling public finance for personal gain. Those who involved in fraud and political corruption or any kind of corruption are brought to justice.Governance is an indeterminate term used in the international development literature to describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources. Governance is ‘the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented)’ Governance is always seen when Local elections are conducted freely and fairly, according to international standards and national legislation, and without any fraud. Governance has eight major elements. E.g.,it is participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitableand inclusive and follows the rule of law. It assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are taken into accountand that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making. It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society. Economic development can be defined as efforts that seek to improve the economic well-being and quality of life for a community by creating and/or retaining jobs and supporting or growing incomes and the tax base. Economic development is the process by which a nation improves the economic, political, and social well-being of its people. The term has been used frequently by economists, politicians, and others in the 20th and 21st centuries. Economic development typically involves improvements in a variety of indicators such as literacy rates, life expectancy, and poverty rates. GDP does not take into account other aspects such as leisure time, environmental quality, interracial and united international peace, freedom, or social justice; alternative measures of economic well-being have been proposed.

Ethical considerations for involving adolescents in biomedical HIV prevention research

BackgroundInvolvement of adolescent girls in biomedical HIV research is essential to better understand efficacy and safety of new prevention interventions in this key population at high risk of HIV infection. However, there are many ethical issues to consider prior to engaging them in pivotal biomedical research. In Uganda, 16–17-year-old adolescents can access sexual and reproductive health services including for HIV or other sexually transmitted infections, contraception, and antenatal care without parental consent. In contrast, participation in HIV prevention research involving investigational new drugs requires adolescents to have parental or guardian consent. Thus, privacy and confidentiality concerns may deter adolescent participation. We describe community perspectives on ethical considerations for involving adolescent girls in the MTN 034 study in Uganda.MethodsFrom August 2017 to March 2018, we held five stakeholder engagement meetings in preparation for the MTN 034 study in Kampala, Uganda (NCT03593655): two with 140 community representatives, two with 125 adolescents, and one with 50 adolescents and parents. Discussions were moderated by the study team. Proceedings were documented by notetakers. Summary notes described community perspectives of adolescent participation in HIV research including convergent, divergent or minority views, challenges, and proposed solutions.ResultsMost community members perceived parental or guardian consent as a principal barrier to study participation due to concerns about adolescent disclosure of pre-marital sex, which is a cultural taboo. Of 125 adolescent participants, 119 (95%) feared inadvertent disclosure of sexual activity to their parents. Community stakeholders identified the following critical considerations for ethical involvement of adolescents in HIV biomedical research: (1) involving key stakeholders in recruitment, (2) ensuring confidentiality of sensitive information about adolescent sexual activity, (3) informing adolescents about information to be disclosed to parents or guardians, (4) offering youth friendly services by appropriately trained staff, and (5) partnering with community youth organizations to maximize recruitment and retention.ConclusionsStakeholder engagement with diverse community representatives prior to conducting adolescent HIV prevention research is critical to collectively shaping the research agenda, successfully recruiting and retaining adolescents in HIV clinical trials and identifying practical strategies to ensure high ethical standards during trial implementation.

Co-Creation: A Novel Approach to Developing Guidelines for Research Integrity Policy – Lessons Learned from the SOPS4RI Project

"Co-creation is a qualitative research methodology that engages stakeholders in playful activities to produce user-centered outputs. Through an interactive and open approach, co-creation explores stakeholders’ latent values, generates innovative ideas, and captures minority views, allowing for in-depth understanding of how stakeholders are affected by various factors. Therefore, co-creation is a promising methodology for developing guidelines on research integrity (RI), although there is no literature available about co-creation in this context. In our presentation, we share experiences of using co-creation to design institutional guidelines on RI together with research managers, funders and researchers across Europe. We conducted 24 co-creation workshops on topics ranging from RI education, to creating a responsible research environment, resulting in concrete guidelines that research institutions and funders can implement to foster RI. Our experience has provided us with valuable insights on using co-creation for RI guideline development. While motivating research stakeholders – often serious and analytically oriented people – to engage in creative exercises can be a challenge, particularly in the online setting, it is possible to achieve when ‘play’ and ‘work’ are carefully balanced. Additionally, to ensure the concreteness of guidelines while accounting for differences among institutions and countries, best practice examples can be used to show different approaches to implementing more general guidance. We have also learned that it is valuable to explore stakeholders’ preferences regarding the guideline format, since implementability is not only influenced by the content. These insights provide practical considerations that other researchers can use when co-creating RI guidelines. "

Book Review: Author: Al Khanif; Title: Religious Minorities, Islam, and The Law: International Human Rights and Islamic Law in Indonesia; Publisher: Routledge, 2021

This book examines religious minority rights in Islam in Indonesia from the international and local human rights perspectives. Its main contribution lies in the effort to find Indonesia's uniqueness in managing minority rights in religion. This study leads the author to a rich discussion of how international human rights through its activists spread the need for freedom of every citizen and how advocates of religious orthodoxy ​​respond to it. In contrast to analysts who use the dichotomous view of the acceptance or rejection of international human rights values, the author sees complexity in the process of spreading these values. It can be said that there is a process of modifying the values ​​of secularism in human rights and localization to make these values ​​an integral part of society. In this line of view, the author calls the Indonesian state a quasi-theistic secular state which means that Indonesia is a secular country but friendly and tries to guarantee freedom of religion and worship. In the case of minority rights in Islam, the state prioritizes harmony in society and supports the orthodox views of the majority. The minority view must be assimilated with the orthodox teachings of Islam to get a place to live. The quasi-theistic secular state continues to experience contestation and has undergone a long construction process based on the narration of the peaceful entry of Islam and the relatively moderate character of Indonesian Islam. At a certain level, this state concept has developed to be an identity and norms that become a reference for how to treat religious minorities. The author thus succeeded in showing that Indonesia is an example of a country that can develop its own identity and norms of religious life that are different from that of the Western secular state system.

Ethnic minority and migrant underrepresentation in Covid-19 research: Causes and solutions.

Ethnic minority and migrant underrepresentation in Covid-19 research: Causes and solutions.

On the Status of Rights

On the Status of Rights