Popular Education Research Articles

Exploring Homeschooling: In-depth Meta-Analysis of Its Impact on Learning Motivation and Factors Influencing Family Choices

This study examines the impact of homeschooling, an increasingly popular alternative education, on learning motivation and the factors influencing families' decisions to homeschool. Employing a meta-analytical approach, this study aims to synthesize existing literature on these topics, offering a comprehensive overview of current knowledge. A search conducted on the Web-of-Science database yielded 18 relevant studies meeting the inclusion criteria. The decision to homeschool is inherently intertwined with family choices, influenced by personal family beliefs and values, dissatisfaction with conventional schooling, special health conditions, and religious or moral guidance. These decisions often reflect diverse cultural and societal contexts, emphasizing the contextual nature of homeschooling choices. Overall, results indicate a significant positive impact of homeschooling on learning motivation, as it enhances students' engagement and learning interests. Additionally, the study incorporates a PRISMA diagram and a table outlining the characteristics of the incorporated studies. This meta-analysis provides an updated overview of the homeschooling phenomenon and its implications for future education and practice.

Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture in the Semi-Arid: A Case Study of Northeastern Brazil

ABSTRACT Gender inequality affects agricultural production and rural households’ capacity to build climate resilience, especially in developing countries. However, empirical research on promoting women’s empowerment in the face of environmental threats is limited, particularly in areas vulnerable to the impact of climate change, such as semi-arid regions. This study identifies factors promoting women’s empowerment in semi-arid regions and the mechanisms behind them. This mixed-methods case study was conducted in a semi-arid area in Northeastern Brazil, utilizing household surveys, key informant interviews, and focus groups. Results show that accessing targeted credit lines and extension services was significantly associated with empowerment. The qualitative findings suggest that adopting participatory mechanisms in policymaking and utilizing feminist pedagogy and popular education in the intervention delivery process was crucial to achieving women’s empowerment in the study area. HIGHLIGHTS Climate change increases risks for rural livelihoods, highlighting the need for resilience. Women’s empowerment is key to bolstering agriculture’s resilience in semi-arid regions, such as northeastern Brazil. Participatory approaches in policy design are crucial for women's empowerment success. Inclusion of feminist pedagogy in interventions enhances rural women’s empowerment.

Analysis of the Most Popular Online Ankle Fracture-Related Patient Education Materials.

Given the increasing accessibility of Internet access, it is critical to ensure that the informational material available online for patient education is both accurate and readable to promote a greater degree of health literacy. This study sought to investigate the quality and readability of the most popular online resources for ankle fractures. After conducting a Google search using 6 terms related to ankle fractures, we collected the first 20 nonsponsored results for each term. Readability was evaluated using the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), and Gunning Fog Index (GFI) instruments. Quality was evaluated using custom created Ankle Fracture Index (AFI). A total of 46 of 120 articles met the inclusion criteria. The mean FKGL, FRE, and GFI scores were 8.4 ± 0.5, 57.5 ± 3.2, and 10.5 ± 0.5, respectively. The average AFI score was 15.4 ± 1.4, corresponding to an "acceptable" quality rating. Almost 70% of articles (n = 32) were written at or below the recommended eighth-grade reading level. Most articles discussed the need for imaging in diagnosis and treatment planning while neglecting to discuss the risks of surgery or potential future operations. We found that online patient-facing materials on ankle fractures demonstrated an eighth-grade average reading grade level and an acceptable quality on content analysis. Further work should surround increasing information regarding risk factors, complications for surgery, and long-term recovery while ensuring that readability levels remain below at least the eighth-grade level.

Waste picker rights and social inclusion: the creation of a university with knowledge democracy

UNICATA is a university for and with waste pickers based on Paulo Freire's popular education pedagogy, knowledge democracy and the practice of peer learning. The aim is to create a learning space of excellence where one can dream, dare, innovate, and be inspired by transformative ideas and achievements. This university will increase access to knowledge and expand the possibilities for reflection, for a population that suffers from social exclusion and high vulnerability. Worldwide waste pickers are major protagonists in collecting, separating, and redirecting recyclable materials into the circular economy. Research demonstrates that waste pickers are central figures in educating households on waste separation practices, adding value to recovered materials, building community by integrating socially excluded individuals into their collective workspaces, indirectly also mitigating environmental and climate impacts. While these positive effects of inclusive recycling are increasingly recognized in the academic literature, unfair remuneration, stigmatization, and risk-prone or unhealthy working conditions are still the prevailing realities. This paper discusses reflections on recent experiences of implementing UNICATA in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, Brazil, in 2023, with a pilot project developing and delivering the introductory module which was successfully completed by 22 students. The research takes a social constructivist lens to uncover the colonial social and political injustices through experiential and student-centered education. Our results reveal some noticeable assets and barriers in creating inclusive education for a large population that is widely neglected, in many different geographic contexts, thus also filling a gap towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

현대음악으로서의 실용 및 대중음악 분석

Objectives The need for an accurate understanding of the concepts of contemporary music, practical music, and popular music, and the recognition of the necessity for changes in music education based on individual music tastes and preferences, are affirmed. This aims to advocate for a reassessment of music textbooks, particularly in elementary music education, through a quantitative evaluation of practical and popular music content. Furthermore, the proposal emphasizes the necessity for changes in music textbooks through individual assessments of multi-frequent songs.
 Methods Analyze the popular music area included in elementary school music textbooks. We analyzed the songs included in 32 textbooks from 8 different publishers, established the multi-frequent songs, and looked into the characteristics and contents of each song. The need for changes to the songs included in textbooks is confirmed through individual evaluation of the distribution of songs included in music textbooks and the multi-frequent songs.
 Results First, animation music accounts for 26.4% and movie music 25.8%, which accounts for more than 50%. Second, there are 121 foreign songs and 61 domestic songs, with POP (13.2%) followed by K-POP (9.9%), and there are many POP in the singing field. Third, there are differences between textbooks, Fourth, the content related to the music industry is insufficient, and it is included in 5 textbooks (out of 32), and Fifth, there are problems with the content and release period of multi-frequent songs. Lastly, since multi-frequent songs are repeatedly included in middle and high school textbooks, a feasibility study on this aspect is also necessary.
 Conclusions There is a need to realistically reflect the songs included in textbooks, and for this, it is necessary to reexamine the songs included in textbooks. There is a need for a change in perception of popular music education due to scientific development, and a practical approach to the methods and content needed for future popular music education is needed.

Quality and Dependability of ChatGPT and DingXiangYuan Forums for Remote Orthopedic Consultations: Comparative Analysis.

The widespread use of artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT (OpenAI), is transforming sectors, including health care, while separate advancements of the internet have enabled platforms such as China's DingXiangYuan to offer remote medical services. This study evaluates ChatGPT-4's responses against those of professional health care providers in telemedicine, assessing artificial intelligence's capability to support the surge in remote medical consultations and its impact on health care delivery. We sourced remote orthopedic consultations from "Doctor DingXiang," with responses from its certified physicians as the control and ChatGPT's responses as the experimental group. In all, 3 blindfolded, experienced orthopedic surgeons assessed responses against 7 criteria: "logical reasoning," "internal information," "external information," "guiding function," "therapeutic effect," "medical knowledge popularization education," and "overall satisfaction." We used Fleiss κ to measure agreement among multiple raters. Initially, consultation records for a cumulative count of 8 maladies (equivalent to 800 cases) were gathered. We ultimately included 73 consultation records by May 2023, following primary and rescreening, in which no communication records containing private information, images, or voice messages were transmitted. After statistical scoring, we discovered that ChatGPT's "internal information" score (mean 4.61, SD 0.52 points vs mean 4.66, SD 0.49 points; P=.43) and "therapeutic effect" score (mean 4.43, SD 0.75 points vs mean 4.55, SD 0.62 points; P=.32) were lower than those of the control group, but the differences were not statistically significant. ChatGPT showed better performance with a higher "logical reasoning" score (mean 4.81, SD 0.36 points vs mean 4.75, SD 0.39 points; P=.38), "external information" score (mean 4.06, SD 0.72 points vs mean 3.92, SD 0.77 points; P=.25), and "guiding function" score (mean 4.73, SD 0.51 points vs mean 4.72, SD 0.54 points; P=.96), although the differences were not statistically significant. Meanwhile, the "medical knowledge popularization education" score of ChatGPT was better than that of the control group (mean 4.49, SD 0.67 points vs mean 3.87, SD 1.01 points; P<.001), and the difference was statistically significant. In terms of "overall satisfaction," the difference was not statistically significant between the groups (mean 8.35, SD 1.38 points vs mean 8.37, SD 1.24 points; P=.92). According to how Fleiss κ values were interpreted, 6 of the control group's score points were classified as displaying "fair agreement" (P<.001), and 1 was classified as showing "substantial agreement" (P<.001). In the experimental group, 3 points were classified as indicating "fair agreement," while 4 suggested "moderate agreement" (P<.001). ChatGPT-4 matches the expertise found in DingXiangYuan forums' paid consultations, excelling particularly in scientific education. It presents a promising alternative for remote health advice. For health care professionals, it could act as an aid in patient education, while patients may use it as a convenient tool for health inquiries.

Hong Kong popular music education and its (dis)contents

This article presents some of the data gathered in a study on popular music education in Hong Kong, which was marginalized in local schools until recently. The study was conducted between April and December 2021 to explore possible policies that could promote Hong Kong popular music via education. It adopted a mixed-method design that consisted of a survey questionnaire, ten in-depth, semi-structured interviews with popular music education stakeholders and fifteen focus-group interviews with participants in various popular music education programmes. While the research findings are based on a small amount of data about a short period, from them I hope to offer a modest suggestion on how to draft policies that promote Hong Kong popular music, a genre that is generally agreed to be declining in the new millennium, through education in the future.

Problematizing prescriptive methods in popular music education: Neo-liberalism, care and Little Kids Rock/Music Will

Music Will/Little Kids Rock has been a key player in the growth of K-12 popular music education in the United States. The purpose of this article is to critically consider the material designed for curricular and instructional use by Little Kids Rock through a critical content analysis of publicly available resources and reports. We examine this material through dual lenses of care and neo-liberalism, as care has been framed as a counternarrative to neo-liberal discourse. Three key themes emerged during data analysis: hero narratives, mix-and-match aims and complex negotiations with neo-liberal values. We close by suggesting that attention be paid to the ways in which methods and practices that may seem to thwart hegemonic norms are often fraught with complexity, and we encourage continued critical reads of educational programming and curricula.

Benefits of integrating popular music in primary and secondary schools: A case study of Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, China

Western popular music began to dominate the Chinese music market after China implemented the open-door policy in 1978, which led to its introduction in schools in 2001. Popular music remains common outside of the classroom while occupying a small portion of school curricula. This study explores the influence of popular music in primary and secondary schools in Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, China. A combination of questionnaires, interviews, observations and an examination of the author’s teaching experience was used to gather data on issues affecting students’ and teachers’ acceptance of popular music and the relationship between popular music and music education. Findings indicate that popular music can be integrated into the curricula, improve teaching effectiveness, make learning more attractive for students and relate to the students’ everyday lives.

JPME and APME in 2024 and beyond

In this essay, the editorial team for the Journal of Popular Music Education (JPME) introduces the first issue of the journal’s eighth volume (2024). The authors provide a summary of the JPME contents from the previous year (2023, volume 7) and highlight the two Special Issues from that volume. One Special Issue was a belated 25th anniversary response to Paul Théberge’s landmark book, Any Sound You Can Imagine, and the other was dedicated to contemporary considerations around music technology pertaining to popular music education. The authors acknowledge the privilege of publishing and of engaging in scholarship amidst a world in turmoil. They then look forward to conferences taking place in 2024, including the first gathering of the Association for Popular Music Education outside of the United States, in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the summer. The editorial closes by outlining the topic foci of two forthcoming JPME Special Issues in 2024.

Environmentalism in popular music education: A critical pedagogy and Students as Partners approach

In the face of looming environmental catastrophe, music educators have an obligation to support students in finding ways to navigate and respond to environmental change through their practice. Data from a survey of popular music students in an Australian higher music education institution showed that while students held serious concerns about environmental threats, they did not feel empowered to address these through their music and could not envisage a role for music education to support them to do so. It is proposed that a praxial pedagogical framework informed by critical pedagogy, and supported through the Students as Partners approach, would help popular music students to develop their musician activist identities and empower them to respond to the challenges of a changing climate through their art.

The prefigurative politics of leadership education: Connecting our practice to broader movements.

Why develop leaders? What politics are implicit in our practice? This paper uses the history and practice of Popular Education as a comparative framework to survey the politics of intentional emergence leadership pedagogy, surfacing potential alliances for building social change movements. Using a case analysis, the article elucidates the ways the classroom embodies an opportunity to explore and enact a prefigurative politics of significant social change that upends traditional relationships to authority, hierarchy, and decision-making. Exploring the opportunities and dangers of connecting the classroom to broader social movements, the article concludes by advocating that such connections could offer a firmer and more explicit stance to the question: why develop leaders?

The Useful Cinema of State Secrecy. On Some Socialist Romanian Spy Films

A decree passed by the socialist Romanian state at the beginning of the 1970s stipulated the need to defend state secrets as a condition for the country’s economic and social progress in the context of its growing participation in world commerce. While the law operated with a wide notion of state secrecy, referring to any piece of information which, if disclosed, could jeopardize the Romanian state’s interests, it included harsh regulations with regard to personal contacts with foreign citizens and served primarily for establishing a heightened operative control over the local economic life. Following the Romanian State Security Council’s encouragement of campaigns for popular education, which should help prevent any trespassing of this decree, the early 1970s saw the commissioning of several instruction films made by the newly founded Film Service of the Ministry of the Interior as a form of ‘counterintelligence training of the working class’. The present paper contextualizes and closely analyzes some of these films staging fictional cases of industrial espionage and their subsequent investigation by State Security as a form of useful cinema, arguing that, aside from their main educational mission of raising awareness about the legal responsibilities ensuing from the decrees concerning state secrecy, these films also acted as an instrument of national, geopolitical and institutional self-representation.

Peasant international solidarity: a case study on the MST's internationalist solidarity brigade in Mozambique

This article is an analysis of an international solidarity action carried out in Mozambique, with the objective of assisting the victims of Cyclone Idai (2019), and the principle of solidarity, one of the pillars that guidethe MST. The methodology adopted was the case study of an experience of the MST Internationalist Brigade in the Hamamba region. At the time, actions were carried out in the areas of agriculture, civil construction, and health, based on class internationalism, popular education and agroecology.These natural disasters have become more frequent and their consequences to humans and nature have been enhanced by the advance of agribusiness in the world.

The representation of Islam in Religious Education textbooks in England: an alternative approach

ABSTRACT This article examines the representation of Islam in four of the most popular and current Religious Education textbooks in England. The aim is to identify the extent to which the curriculum content is aligned with the aims of Religious Education in England. The textbooks content is reviewed using three frameworks available in literature, two of which are directly related to analysing textbooks on Islam while the third is a general set of curriculum guidelines on making textbook content inclusive. Based on examples extracted from the textbooks, it is argued that the representation of Islam in the curriculum lacks diversity, is stereotypical and promotes an essentialised view about Islam as a religion. The article further uses the case study of jihad to propose the use of hermeneutical approach in writing curriculum content about Islam using sources of authority and historical and literary perspectives to combat the issue of monolithic, absolutist, and fossilised representation of Islam in textbooks.

School as a contested territory for citizenship: An ethnographic study of illegal occupation and protest processes at a popular vocational education school in the chilean october.

School as a contested territory for citizenship: An ethnographic study of illegal occupation and protest processes at a popular vocational education school in the chilean october.

Exploring the Usage of ChatGPT Among Medical Students in the United States.

Chat Generative Pretrained Transformer (ChatGPT) is a large language model developed by OpenAI that has gained widespread interest. It has been cited for its potential impact on health care and its beneficial role in medical education. However, there is limited investigation into its use among medical students. In this study, we evaluated the frequency of ChatGPT use, motivations for use, and preference for ChatGPT over existing resources among medical students in the United States. Data was collected from an original survey consisting of 14 questions assessing the frequency and usage of ChatGPT in various contexts within medical education. The survey was distributed via email lists, group messaging applications, and classroom lectures to medical students across the United States. Responses were collected between August and October 2023. One hundred thirty-one participants completed the survey and were included in the analysis. Of the total, 48.9% respondents responded that they have used ChatGPT in medical studies. Among ChatGPT users, 43.7% of respondents report using ChatGPT weekly, several times per week, or daily. ChatGPT is most used for writing, revising, editing, and summarizing purposes. 37.5% and 41.3% of respondents reported using ChatGPT more than 25% of the working time for these tasks respectively. Among respondents who have not used ChatGPT, more than 50% of respondents reported they were extremely unlikely or unlikely to use ChatGPT across all surveyed scenarios. ChatGPT users report they are more likely to use ChatGPT over directly asking professors or attendings (45.3%), textbooks (42.2%), and lectures (31.7%), and least likely to be used over popular flashcard application Anki (11.1%) and medical education videos (9.5%). ChatGPT is an increasingly popular resource among medical students, with many preferring ChatGPT over other traditional resources such as professors, textbooks, and lectures. Its impact on medical education will only continue to grow as its capabilities improve.

EDUCAÇÃO POPULAR EM SAÚDE: SIGNIFICADO DA EXPERIÊNCIA NA FORMAÇÃO DE AGENTES COMUNITÁRIOS DE SAÚDE

ABSTRACT: This study brings results from a qualitative research aiming to analyze the meaning of the training experience of Community Health Workers (ACSs, in Portuguese) in the Qualification Program in Popular Education in Health (EdPopSUS), one of the priority strategies of the Operative Plan of the National Policy of Popular Education for the Unified Health System, in Brazil. Data production occurred between 2018-2019 and included documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with the ACSs and the health and EdPopSUS managers. The textual material produced was interpreted by content analysis, in light of the Popular Education theoretical framework. The results showed that EdPopSUS encouraged the ACSs' reflection, dialogue, and affection, enhancing their creativity and autonomy in an educational space of self-knowledge and interaction with their experienced world. ACSs' personal and professional experiences were valued, improving their communication with the team, the community, and the families, their listening skills, and their ability to conduct collective educational activities. The field trips and the conversation rounds were highlighted as potentialities of this training. Challenges were identified in implementing the principles of Popular Education in Primary Health Care. The experience analyzed strengthened ACSs' role as agents of change and popular educators. In this sense, Popular Education in Health was reinforced as a pedagogical-social practice, strengthening people, movements, teams, care practices, and the health system. The educational processes based on Popular Education are recommended for the permanent education of health teams.

Popular education in health: principles, challenges and perspectives in the critical reconstruction of the country

Popular education in health: principles, challenges and perspectives in the critical reconstruction of the country

ДІАЛОГИ ФЕОФАНА ПРОКОПОВИЧА: ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ІДЕЙНО-ТЕМАТИЧНОГО СПРЯМУВАННЯ

Background. The article explores the specific features of the thematic spectrum in Feophan Prokopovych's dialogues, specifically "The Conversation of Tekton, or Tesla, with a Merchant" and "The Conversation of a Townsman with a Peasant and a Sexton". The actuality of this study lies in the fact that the texts of these dialogues serve as an additional and important source for studying the writer's artistic worldview and the specifics of his poetic work. The poetics of these dialogues represent the realization of classical principles in the works, synthesizing stylistic features of Antiquity, Baroque, and Enlightenment. The thematic spectrum of the works reflects the author's understanding of God, the role of education and knowledge in the life of individuals and society. The objective of the study is to analyze features of the thematic spectrum in F. Prokopovych's dialogues. Tasks involve identifying specific characteristics of author's dialogues and analyzing their realization in terms of thematic, genre, and stylistic aspects. Methods. The writer's dialogues are analyzed using historical-philological, hermeneutic, and comparative research methods. Results. In the dialogue "The Conversation of a Townsman with a Peasant and a Deaco", Feofan Prokopovych presents an artistic interpretation of religious and philosophical issues. The author focuses on the specificity of interpreting the phenomenon of simplicity, expressing his attitude toward it as a particular cultural concept. The work tends toward the sermon genre. An artistic idea of knowledge as a secular phenomenon important for further social progress is presented. The character of the Townsman embodies the idea of education and knowledge as acquisitions that are not innate but achieved through the efforts. Prokopovych advocates the thesis of the necessity of accessible and popularized education among broad segments of society. Conclusions. the thematic spectrum of F. Prokopovych's dialogues is focused on presenting the artistic interpretation of issues related to religion, the church, and education. In these dialogues, a particular societal stance of the writer is interpreted. The dialogue texts remain a prospective material for further scholarly studies. It is necessary to explore the dialogues from the perspective of the author's evolution of worldview and creative work.