Nexus Of Education Research Articles

Non-Timber Forest Products Collection Affects Education of Children in Forest Proximate Communities in Northeastern Pakistan

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are crucial in driving the economy of communities living inside or around forests. The scarcity of business and employment opportunities often push the forest proximate communities to tap a range of NTFPs for earning their livelihoods. In many forest-based communities around the world, children are actively involved in NTFPs collection, which is likely to affect the socioeconomic paradigms of these children. We aim to investigate how the NTFP collection venture affects the education of the children involved in the forest proximate communities of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Pakistan. A stratified sampling followed by a series of focus group discussions and one-to-one interviews were carried out to collect information on collection behaviour, patterns, income generation, and other socioeconomic variables. We used a binary logistic regression model to explain children’s state of attending schools using a range of socioeconomic variables. The empirical evidence showed that 42% of the NTFP-collecting children were not going to school, and nearly two-thirds were working in unfavourable working environments. The regression model showed that the role and behaviour of contractors, along with factors like household conditions, were important factors in employing children for long working hours. The study has implications for reforming policies regarding the nexus of income generation and education in the forest-based communities.

Out of the labour force and out of school: a population-representative study of youth labour force attachment and mental health

ABSTRACT This study examines youth mental health at the nexus of work and education, with a focus on youth who are both out of the labour force and out of school. Using data from a nationally representative sample of Canadian youth ages 15–29 (n = 4883), this study examines the relationship between self-reported symptoms of depression, distress, and life-satisfaction and five distinct categories of labour market and educational attachment (employed non-students, employed students, students, unemployed youth, and youth out of the labour force and school). Main associations were estimated using logistic and ordered-logit regression. Stratified analyses were done to examine whether associations differed by youth socioeconomic status (SES). Study findings indicate that being unemployed has distinct associations with mental health compared with being out of the labour force and out of school. Unemployed youth had higher odds of depression, greater distress, and lower life-satisfaction, whereas the mental health of youth who were out of the labour force and out of school were not significantly different than employed non-students. There was some indication that being out of the labour force and out of school may be associated with higher life satisfaction for high-SES youth, but estimates were not statistically significant.

Sustainable development, Education for Sustainable Development, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Emergence, efficacy, eminence, and future

AbstractThis paper aims to present a narrative of the outcome of an extensive historical literature review of global policy development and processes concerning the emergence, efficacy, and eminence of sustainable development, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs]) inception to date. It starts by presenting the emergence, efficacy, and eminence of the concept and term “sustainable development” (which is integral to ESD) in terms of its historical definition, dimensions, understanding, interpretations, and challenges. It also highlights the take‐up of sustainable development in terms of green growth, human development, and human agency. It then presents an overview of ESD, accompanied by a discussion of its key characteristics, approaches, and significances. The paper then highlights a semantic analysis of the development of ESD, with a special focus on some converging processes, events, concepts, discourses, and declarations that have supported the rise of ESD and shaped its status to date. Considerable emphasis is placed on the significance and nexus between environmental education and ESD. The paper analyses the crucial interconnection between education, sustainable development, ESD, the SDGs, and human development. Furthermore, the paper discusses the centrality of ESD to the global education discourse and the nexus, role, and relevance of education and particularly ESD in relation to the achievement of all the SDGs. The paper concludes by critically reflecting on the above, vis‐à‐vis the author's previous empirical research on higher ESD, making recommendations on the future of ESD research and practice.

Eros as Educator in the Era of Advanced Monetary Economy: Simmel’s Social Metaphysics of the Erotic Being

In the era of advanced monetary economy, the nexus of love, money, and good education is at the origin of the “good society”. If marriage was invented for reasons of administration of goods and money, then the fact that individual love came upon marriage in the specific historical and geographical context of the Western European metropolitan life cannot be a coincidence. The platonicladder of love, that leads to eternity through the erotic elevation of the soul to the sight of the Ideas, is transformed in Modern era through the new perception of Money as a “secular god”. For Plato, the goal of the lover is actually “education” (paideia) as he is supposed to give to the soul of the beloved wings in order to elevate itself to the contemplation of the Ideas. Plato’s heritance regarding love, says Simmel, is the belief that beyond the affect something of a bigger order is hiding in the phenomenon of love. As long as serial monogamy is the dominant model of erotic relations in our days, it is clear that its spiritual background is linked to Platonic Eros, not as an initiation to the science of the general, but, bended by the modern understanding of the individual, as an art of the individual. What is explored in this article is the educational role of Eros and its cultural potential.Eros can actually be considered as educator, as the initiator of the individual to a higher collective and spiritual order.

Immigration Policy Impasse as an Actor: A Matter of Concern for Educators

This qualitative, ethnographic research inquiry intends to prompt further conversation about how scholar-practitioners in the social sciences approach divisive topics such as immigration policy in teacher education. In the U.S. Southeast, practicing K-12 teachers and the researcher-instructor participated in a federally funded English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) professional development program through a public university. The professional development program’s goal was to advance teachers’ knowledge of working with culturally and linguistically diverse students. Although the school district where the study took place has a high population of immigrant students, statewide policies prohibiting immigrant students from higher education was new information for many teacher-participants. Empirical data includes responses from public school teachers learning about restrictive educational policies that affect immigrant students as well as the researcher-instructor’s auto-ethnographic inquiry as a teacher-activist-scholar. Drawing from actor-network theory (Latour, 2005), this work contributes to conceptual and empirical studies in the nexus of education and policy impacting immigrants in the U.S., with an attempt to better understand ideological gridlock. Keywords: immigration policy, ESOL teachers, teacher professional development, actor-network theory

At the Nexus of Education and Incarceration: Four Voices from the Field

At the Nexus of Education and Incarceration: Four Voices from the Field

The nexus of war, resettlement, and education: War-affected youth’s perspectives and responses to the Quebec education system

This article examines the realities of war-affected youth living in Quebec, Canada, and in particular, their experiences and responses to education upon resettlement. In our qualitative study, using both in-depth interviews and focus groups, we queried 22 young people affected by war. Our thematic analysis describes the challenges youth faced in school after having experienced war-related trauma and migration. Despite existing international and national education frameworks, education policies and provisions are largely lacking and ill-equipped to support refugees’ unique needs. Youth felt that teachers and support staff tended to overlook young people’s pre-migratory lives, as well as post-migratory realities. To facilitate resettlement, war-affected refugee youth sought connections beyond school – in the form of peers, surrogate families, or community members from the same country of origin. These non-formal educational supports demonstrate youth’s agency, illustrating high bonding social capital. To support youth at the nexus of war, resettlement, and education, our findings point to the need for greater consideration of both pre-and post-migratory experiences, as well as for increased bridging and social capital to strengthen the linkages across student-school-community in ways that both build upon and respond to the strengths and challenges of war-affected children.

Nexus between Intelligence Education and Intelligence Training: A South African Perspective

This paper examines the nexus of intelligence education and training from a South African perspective with the focus on current practices in light of the country’s transition towards democracy. A brief overview is provided on the history and development of the South African intelligence community with specific focus on the civilian intelligence services from the period prior 1994 to date (2015). The main focus, however, is on intelligence education that is currently available from training institutions and universities in South Africa as registered with the Department of Higher Education as well as private training institutions on the one hand, and the intelligence training practices within the statutory intelligence environment on the other. To this extent, the relations between academic institutions and the intelligence structures in terms of education and training within South Africa are perused against other practices within the African continent and internationally. The approaches to the study of intelligence are also addressed within this paper. Likewise, the how, what as well as to whom – pertaining to intelligence education and training availability and accessibility to students and practitioners within South Africa, is reviewed and analysed with the focus on making recommendations for the enhancement and improvement thereof to enable a focus on preparing the next generation of professional intelligence officers. Disclaimer The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect any official Government views or expressions. This article is available in Journal of Strategic Security: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/jss/vol8/iss5/15

Headlines from the NLN: NINR/NLN Co-Sponsor 2015 National Nursing Research Roundtable: The Nexus of Practice, Research, and Education for the Health of the Nation

The National Nursing Research Roundtable (NNRR) has met annually since 1987 to provide an opportunity for leaders of nursing organizations with a research mission to discuss and disseminate research findings to improve health outcomes. The NNRR mission is to serve public's health through development of a strong research-based nursing practice. The annual NNRR brings together clinicians, scientists, educators, scholars, and policy leaders to discuss priorities in science, practice, and policy and to envision future.The 2015 NNRR, co-sponsored by National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) of National Institutes of Health and National League for Nursing, brought together more than a dozen professional nursing societies to discuss importance of health care transitions within context of nursing practice, research, and education. Scientific presentations on latest advances in transitional care were followed by break-out sessions to discuss science of health care transitions and policy, practice, and education implications of these transitions as critical aspects of health care.2015 PRESENTATIONSNINR ResearchNINR Director Dr. Patricia Grady provided an update on NINR research in which she summarized NINR-supported studies focused on health care transitions following treatment in acute care settings. She noted that recent changes in health care policy have catalyzed need for more research and that field of transitional care research has been pioneered by nurses. Citing Transitional Care Model (TCM) developed by Dr. Mary Naylor from University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Grady noted that TCM has contributed to improvements in health outcomes and patient satisfaction for seniors suffering from multiple chronic illnesses. By demonstrating that nurse-managed transitional care reduces hospital readmissions and can substantially reduce total health care costs, TCM has garnered attention of third-party payers (Naylor, Aiken, Kurtzman, Olds, & Hirschman, 2011).Dr. Grady cited other examples of nursing research in transitional care in hospital as well as community settings. One example was Discharge Decision Support System, embedded in electronic health records systems to identify patients in need of follow-up after hospital discharge to improve health outcomes and reduce hospital readmission costs (Holland, Knafl, & Bowles, 2013; Holland, Rhudy, Vanderboom, & Bowles, 2012). Researchers are currently developing systems, tailored to end-user, for continuous evaluation and improvement - an approach with potential for broad implementation and dissemination.Intersection Among Research, Education, and PracticeIn her keynote address, Dr. Eileen Sullivan-Marx of New York University discussed critical intersection between research, education, and practice and how these areas can be combined with two current health care priorities - improved delivery of health care services and use of technology - to enhance undergraduate nursing education. Dr. Sullivan-Marx cited opportunities through curricula to include students with experiences in technology, posing question of how to harness their capabilities in designing future efforts rather than fitting them into ongoing projects.Dr. Sullivan-Marx recommended teaching research skills at all levels of education to make research careers exciting. She emphasized case-based learning with integration of research and highlighted importance of tying nursing and nursing outcomes to data, informatics, and health care financing.Science of Health Care TransitionsDrs. Barbara Riegel, Arlene Butz, and Debra Barksdale provided scientific presentations on science of health care transitions and policy and practice implications of health care transitions as a critical aspect of health care.Dr. Riegel (School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania) defined transitional care as the range of time-limited services and environments designed to ensure coordination and continuity among at-risk populations as they experience care transitions, for example, moving from one level of care to another (e. …

NINR/NLN Co-Sponsor 2015 National Nursing Research Roundtable: The Nexus of Practice, Research, and Education for the Health of the Nation

NINR/NLN Co-Sponsor 2015 National Nursing Research Roundtable: The Nexus of Practice, Research, and Education for the Health of the Nation

The Nexus of Structural Transformation, Employment and Education: Evidence from Mozambique and Tanzania

Africa’s recent economic performance has been quite impressive. However, strong economic growth has not always corresponded to sufficient poverty reduction, partly because it has failed to generate productive employment. This paper compares the experiences of two fast growing African countries and provides an in depth insight on the different growth paths being pursued. In particular, the study aims to examine the role of education in facilitating structural changes in Mozambique and Tanzania. Building from micro-level estimates, we find that major structural change in the employment and economic structure in Tanzania and Mozambique was only to a limited extent translated into higher productivity add and decent work creation.

A Nexus of Education and Child Labor: Barefoot Teachers in the Brickfield Schools of India

Grass roots initiatives like the brickfield schools and the Barefoot Teacher Training program described in this article, led by non-governmental organizations in eastern India, highlight the slow but steady strides taken toward universalizing primary education—a key development goal for the new millennium. The present article showcases the positive effects of early education in addressing child labor and poverty issues and the role of local initiatives in ensuring the right to primary education for the historically disadvantaged. Such interventions have significant implications for other developing nations as well.

Gendering social mobility: a comparative perspective on the nexus of education and class across Europe

Research on social mobility typically acknowledges the relevance of gender. However, gender-based differences still lack extensive description and explanation. This article starts by reviewing a number of influential contributions on social mobility, educational systems and employment change, as well as important critiques raised in feminist scholarship with regard to these topics of enquiry. We argue that class analysis should not only document asymmetry between men and women in greater detail, but also incorporate it as a piece of explanatory value in the understanding of social mobility at large. This is attempted by examining the data of the European Social Survey covering 22 countries. Drawing on this large-scale data set, we will demonstrate that the transformation of employment structures favours particular forms of upward mobility, which coexist with the resilience of gender inequality in accessing affluent classes. The impact of gender on the nexus between social background, educational attainment and class position is far from uniform in Europe, with significant variation across classes, countries and fields of study.

Philosophy of nature and culture and its role in shaping Humankind’s attitude to nature

We live in an era of crises. One of them, the ecological crisis, arose from the fact that the human race plunders nature, destroying, among other things, the Earth’s biodiversity. In my paper I will show that the situation is rooted in a specific worldview. Moreover, I will interrogate the question of how we can deal with the problem. Humankind’s attitude to themselves and to the world (including nature) is based on beliefs and values which make up an unquestioned prejudgment. Individuals absorb it in the process of socialization, as they assimilate the widely understood traditions of the social groups to which they belong. In the Western tradition in particular, our understanding of humanity’s situation in the world and its relation to nature, which we have had since modernity, found its clearest articulation in the views of René Descartes (1596–1650). I will begin by discussing the main characteristics of this position most pertinent to the main problem identified in the title. Then I will discuss the consequences of Cartesianism for the worldview of modern man such as the radical rationalism and anthropocentrism inherent in the European attitude. In this tradition humanity is identified with subjectivity and intellectual cognition. Reality outside of human subjectivity, that is, the whole animate and inanimate nature, is treated as the object of knowledge. Nature should be explored in the spirit of modernity’s maxim “We can do as much as we know” (F. Bacon 1561-1626); it can be used to our purposes, to satisfy our growing needs. This is being done without scruple, precisely because nature is denied being the subject. It has no right to claim moral protection. Today, in the era of globalization, this way of thinking, which originated in the West, has spread over the entire globe and led to the ongoing devastation of nature. We are dealing with an ecological disaster. In the next step I will interrogate how this situation can be changed and what may be the role of philosophy in this cultural shift. Every vision of the world is a construct (the Cartesian vision being a very good example). What philosophy can do is offer a certain vision of reality, in which humanity has a friendly (symbiotic) attitude to nature and does not treat it merely as a means to their ends. Such ecophilosophy could be based on the thesis that subjectivity is the property not just of all human beings, but of all other beings as well. Such an idea can be found in the work of the German scientist and philosopher Jacob von Uexküll (1864-1944), who granted the status of the subject to every living being. He laid foundations to the concept of nature as “a community of subjects” comprising man and the entire animate world, thus breaking away from the Cartesian framework. I am going to outline briefly his position. Finally, I will point out what needs to be done, if people are to change their attitude to nature. A good theory in and of itself will not suffice. It is necessary to instill ecological convictions and values in entire societies, so that these values would eventually come to seem obvious. We need to launch an extensive education campaign of both adults and—perhaps even more importantly—children. In other words, the comprehensive protection of nature can only be promoted through the nexus of ecophilosophy and education.

‘Losing an arm’: schooling as a site of black suffering

Drawing on data from a historical-ethnographic study of the cultural politics of school desegregation in Seattle, USA, the author explores suffering as a recurring theme in the narratives of four black leaders, educators and activists involved in the struggle for black educational opportunity in that city during the post-Civil Rights Era. As these black subjects reflect on the historical trajectory of racial desegregation policies and practices, they offer us a unique view of the confluence of racial melancholia, a heavy, deeply-felt awareness of the history and persistence of racial disregard and subjugation, and school malaise, a form of what Pierre Bourdieu has called la petite misère, or ordinary suffering. The author’s analysis of these narratives highlights how these school and community leaders reflect on the meaning of black suffering in schools, what they understand as the source of that suffering, and how they imagine that suffering might be alleviated. The article concludes with recommendations for research at the nexus of race, education and social suffering.

The effectiveness and experiences of blended learning approaches to computer programming education

AbstractAt the nexus of education and technology, blended learning is growing rapidly. Integrating face‐to‐face and online learning, blending can enhance learning and optimize seat time. This paper describes the use of the blended e‐learning model in a course “Data Structures and Algorithms” given at the Afyon Kocatepe University, Turkey. This model is realized as a combination of a face‐to‐face environment and online learning, using the University's Learning Management System (LMS) named @KU‐UZEM. The LMS consists of many applications in accordance with SCORM standards, such as, student records, user roles, courses, exams security applications, student affairs, counseling services, internal communication, director processes and evaluation. It provides whole software infrastructure by a virtual academic institution and is currently used in Afyon Kocatepe University. This paper describes both the technology for course design and programme redesign adopted a blended learning approach with both face‐to‐face and online learning aimed at enhancing the students' control over their own learning. According to the obtained results with the performed experimental evaluation, the realized blended learning model provided more effective and efficient educational experience rather than traditional, face‐to‐face learning. A survey conducted at the end of the course also showed that students were satisfied with the pedagogical approach, and their academic achievements were also better than expected. Particularly important is that the dropout rate was greatly diminished, which could be related to students' satisfaction with the support they received from the teacher and the system. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 21: 328–342, 2013

Post-conflict identity crisis in Nepal: Implications for educational reforms

This paper is concerned with exploring tensions of national identity, as played out in the evolving context of post-accord transitional politics in Nepal. Drawing on a qualitative study of empirical research, situated at the nexus of education and violent conflict in Nepal, the paper employs close observations of recent social and political movements, especially the rise of ethnic politics following the peace agreement in 2006, and further analyses the historical antecedents aiming to create a unified national identity through language and education. It argues that educational reconstruction must deal with the notion of identity as part of a measured process to correct the legacy of ethnic, linguistic and caste-based marginalisation in Nepal.

Rethinking the Neoliberal Nexus of Education, Migration, and Institutions

The rise of neoliberalism and economic globalization is identified as a significant factor contributing to macroscale structural changes in the political economy of migration and education in Korea and Canada. In this paper the empirical focus of analysis is on how nation-states have played important roles in shaping the market conditions of the international education industry under the structural changes brought about by neoliberalization. I pay particular attention to how different public institutions have become actively engaged in profit-generating activities through promoting and selling Canadian education. In so doing, I reconsider the implications of neoliberalism for the political economy of migration and international education. Drawing upon empirical evidence collected from fieldwork in Seoul and Vancouver, this paper aims to explore the complexities and locally specific outcomes of neoliberal projects. In relation to the rise of international education, this paper adds to the burgeoning literature that acknowledges that taken-for-granted views on neoliberalism are problematic and further highlights the role of public institutions as active facilitators in the process of market expansion.

7 - The Roles of Higher Education in the Democratization of Politics in Africa: Survey Reports from HERANA

Against the theory on the nexus of higher education and citizenship, this article brings together the main findings and conclusions of three related studies with African mass publics, parliamentarians from African legisla- tures, and students from three African flagship universities, conducted by the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa (HERANA). The article shows that higher education provides advantages in various measures of democratic citizenship and leadership. It plays important roles with regard to access to political information, information gathering skills, and levels of political knowledge; the ability to offer opinions and critical perspectives on politics and the economy; and levels of democratic values and democratic action. Moreover, university-educated MPs seem to make much better sense of the unique complexities of legislatures and their mul- tiple competing functions than their less educated peers. This might reflect the knowledge and analytic skills acquired through higher education, the fact that universities are themselves highly complex institutions that they needed to negotiate as students, and the finding that students acquire ex- tensive organisational leadership experience while at university. In light of this, the article suggests that higher education can play a crucial role in the democratisation of politics in Africa by developing “institution-builders” for state and civil society.

The ‘changing same’ of an ‘in-between’ generation: negotiating identities through space, place and time

In this paper I present the ‘everydayness’ of a particular group of young Muslim women and their families as they dance between a range of contradictory and shifting discourses. Through an analysis situated between the social and the cultural, the paper argues that as an ‘in-between’ generation these young women are now part of communities who are re-constructing their identities in response to what is happening around them. Through their re-contextualisation of Islam as they de-contextualise it from their parent's cultural investments, they have become ‘more confident to be seen as Muslim’. However, they are often in a dialogue with their own children and parents, as to what constitutes being Muslim in Britain and in contention with those, who often through the mass media, seek to homogenise them as Muslims, and then label them. The analysis uses the notion of a ‘mythic feedback loop’ as a heuristic device to link thinking, feeling and action and ‘mythcourse’ as a way of tracing the trajectory of these loops and mapping these inter-generational shifts. The themes threading through the paper are ones of a ‘changing same’ and ‘in-betweenness’ which I use to explore the nexus of religion, culture, identities and education to re-engage with debates around multiculturalism, majority and minority identities, democratic renewal and active citizenship.