Productive Citizens Research Articles

Neo-liberal discourse of substance use in the UK reality TV show, The Jeremy Kyle Show

This article presents findings of a content and thematic analysis of representations of substance use and users in the UK Reality Television programme, The Jeremy Kyle Show. It provides evidence that substance use and users were problematised through the process of ‘othering’ which contributed to a reductionist drugs discourse. We argue that such discourse can be understood within the wider socio-economic political context of neoliberalism. Four intertwined themes revealed underlying neo-liberal notions that reduced substance use and users to a number of characteristics and associated issues, and provided a narrow and skewed representation of use and users. Through framing substance use as a rational choice, users were held fully responsible and blamed for their substance use, resulting problems, and failure of treatment. Substance use was associated with unemployment and dependency on state welfare, with those claiming welfare being deemed accountable for their lack of employment and shamed for their failure to meet the neoliberal notion of the productive citizen. Structural causes of substance use and inequality were silenced, and an emphasis on individual responsibility prioritised, which may lead to the reinforcement of stigma, and societal and institutional interventions being overlooked. Users were also encouraged to repair a ‘lost’ sense of self through abstinence within private inpatient treatment, endorsing the neo-liberal notion of private health care and prioritising abstinence-based responses and individual responsibility in treatment success. Implications for public perceptions of substance use, users and suitable responses, and substance users’ perceptions of themselves, are considered.

The Interrater Reliability of the Survivors of Torture Psychosocial Wellbeing Index: An Assessment Matrix Instrument

The United States continues to resettle refugees fleeing conflict, persecution, and torture, enabling many of the world’s most vulnerable individuals to start over and become productive citizens. The rehabilitation of survivors of torture is a complex process that requires service providers to assess a number of factors connected to the multidimensional construct of human wellbeing. The recently developed assessment instrument matrix, Survivors of Torture – Psychosocial Wellbeing Index (SOT-PWI), offers professional providers a way to capture quality of life metrics within the torture treatment settings. The current study sought to establish the reliability of SOT-PWI with a diverse sample of U.S.-based torture treatment professionals. Using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), results suggest that the SOT-PWI achieves a solid interrater reliability, although education level and years of work experience can influence assessment consistency. Error analysis revealed very good accuracy. Study limitations, implication for practice, and future research are considered as well.

Accounting for Student Success: Academic and Stakeholder Perspectives That Have Shaped the Discourse on Student Success in the United States

The meaning of student success differs according to the goals, interests and roles among prospective students, their parents and extended family, educators, scholars, employers, legislators and other stakeholders. Despite this wide variation, accountability for student success has been mostly equated with readily available measures like degree completion rates, time to degree and credit accumulation. Recently, especially in the United States, where the student assumes a large cost burden for attending college, interest has increased regarding the amount of debt incurred and the employment and wages obtained post-graduation to enable students to pay off that debt. There are many from within and outside the academy who criticize these simplistic measures of student success and seek evidence about how a college education develops students intellectually and morally, preparing them to lead lives as productive citizens and members of the 21st Century workforce. In this article, we review the key concepts of student success that have emerged from the U.S. higher education research literature, as well as major U.S. policy initiatives related to improving student success. The purpose of this analysis is to develop an organizing framework that enables scholars and policy makers to place their work within a broader context as related to the discourse on student success in the early 21st Century, especially within the United States, but with increasingly common elements internationally.

Rooted Pedagogies: Black Women Activist Teachers Planting Seeds

The history of activism on the part of African American women has laid the foundation on which contemporary African American women activists and scholars have developed theories, critiques, and cultural frameworks that challenges pre- established paradigms and epistemologies. This paper focuses on extending the research that begun on African American teacher activists to gain sufficient insight into their political perspectives and how their perspectives were manifested in their personal and professional lives to influence their role as a teacher. This study was informed by black feminist epistemology and it employs portraiture as its research methodology. Data analysis yielded significant findings. The subjects of the study considered those life experiences to be most significant that contributed in developing their critical consciousness as children through the influence of their family, school, and community. Each teacher pointed to the need to teach critical thinking skills so that students of color will be able to establish their places in the world as productive citizens. The pedagogical approaches of the black women activist teachers were theorized and it emerged as a model of Rooted Pedagogies grounded in the historical tradition of black women’s activism. Furthermore, the implications for teacher education and practice were discussed, alongside with the recommendations for future research.

Campos de reeducação em Moçambique: a ficcionalização da história em ‘Campo de trânsito'

Campo de Trânsito (2007), do autor moçambicano João Paulo Borges Coelho, ficcionaliza os fatos e abusos vivenciados nos temidos “campos de reeducação”, institucionalizados no pós-independência pelo Estado moçambicano com intuito de retirar da mesma sociedade aqueles que não estivessem preparados para compor os quadros da nova nação e reeducá-los para que se tornassem cidadãos produtivos alinhados ao modelo de governo de orientação socialista marxista-leninista. O referido texto parte do ficcional para a história de Moçambique, e rastreia abusos cometidos contra os cidadãos, tais como a negação de direitos fundamentais do ser humano, além de cercear a liberdade de boa parcela de civis, ao gerar uma sociedade cindida pelo medo, na implantação de um regime totalitário. A partir daquilo que denominaram “Operação limpeza”, o ideal de liberdade para todos defendido nas lutas anticoloniais foi postergado, dando lugar a uma nação medrosa, assustada com o fantasma dos ditos campos de reeducação. A questão da memória é enfatizada na reconstrução dos quadros sociais transpostos para o ficcional, refletindo, no passado histórico, o tempo presente pós-colonial.

The Privileged Palestinian 'Refugees'

The “Palestine refugees” have been exceptionally indulged by the international community for seventy long years. This ranged from their very recognition as refugees though most of them to satisfy the basic criteria for such status, to the unprecedented benefit of a relief agency created exclusively for their welfare (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA), to the unique privilege of passing on the “refugee” status to future generations. Rather than help resolve the Palestinian predicament, these unique benefits have served to confirm the permanency and growth in the “refugee” problem (what started as 600,000 is now over 5 million). And no organization has contributed more to this perpetuation than UNRWA, which, instead of ending direct relief within months, as stipulated by its mandate, has kept them as passive welfare recipients for decades under false humanitarian pretense, thus allowing the decades-long manipulation of their cause by successive Palestinian leaderships and the Arab regimes. One can only hope that as UNRWA nears its seventieth anniversary, the agency’s main donors, first and foremost the United States and the European Union, which bankroll nearly half of its budget, will find the necessary courage and integrity to acknowledge the urgency of deep reform and condition future contributions on UNRWA’s reversion to the original mandate: that is, its gradual transfer of responsibility for the Palestinian “refugees” to the Palestinian Authority and the host Arab governments, thus ending their eternal “refugeedom” and facilitating their integration in their respective societies as equal and productive citizens. This will be seventy years later than originally conceived, but better late than never.

An independent and mutually supportive retirement as a moral ideal in contemporary Japan

In contemporary Japanese society the ability to care for oneself and other senior citizens has become a defining feature of good retirement. The capitalist Japanese state has historically mobilised moral virtues to foster a sense of productive citizenship among senior citizens and their family members. After the country failed to recover from the long recessionary era, policies regarding the welfare of senior citizens have shifted, from a focus on familial care to an emphasis on individual responsibility. This paper traces these shifts in moral virtues since the 1970s to elucidate how ideas of ‘independence’ and ‘mutual support’ have become persuasive forms of virtue for senior citizens, particularly retired corporate workers, in the current neoliberal climate. The paper will also draw from my recent fieldwork among elderly Japanese to contrast their experiences with the state's expectations. The independent and mutually supportive retirement as a performative cultural production was often experienced as one of intense dislocation, rather than belonging, in a productivist state.

Importance of Identifying and Fostering Positive Character Strengths in Early Years for a Bright Future as Emerging adults

The term emerging adults is a relatively new term used to denote the individuals aged between 18-24 years. The researchers have pointed out that this age group is quite different and unique and different terminologies used at present are inadequate in showcasing the unique characteristics of this age group. Previous researchers would agree on one point that emerging adulthood is a stage where individual's productive contribution to society begins and they really possesses huge potentials for growth and development. At the same time more vulnerable to risk behaviors and unhealthy lifestyle habits which will hamper the finest actualization of their potentials. So, how the emerging adults could be molded in such a way that will minimize their vulnerability to risk behaviors? During the previous developmental year's society and parents had significant role in character formation and development, but in emerging adulthood it is more of individual himself and the peers around him. The role of family and society becomes very minimal because of their unique characteristics as emerging adulthood. In such scenario, how can we reduce the emerging adults' vulnerability to risk behaviors? Positive psychology has a significant role to play here. Moldings and interventions based on Positive psychology approach in early years would equip the individual to overcome their vulnerability to risk behaviors. These intervention aims at identifying and nurturing positive character strengths of the individual in the early years. This chapter emphasizes the role of identifying and fostering positive strengths and culture-specific values in early years and adolescents so that when they become emerging adults they would be highly productive and truitful citizens and won't spoil theirs as well as the nation's future by engaging in risk behaviors and national asseth.

Authentic Assessment Competence of Building Construction Teachers in Indonesian Vocational Schools

In the year 2020-2035 the number of productive citizen (15-60 years) of Indonesia will reach 70 percent over all citizens. It becomes a bonus when the citizen group possesses competence relevant to the era. Entering 21st century most important skills that a worker needs to acquire are: collaboration, creativity and problem-solving and character qualities like persistence, curiosity and initiative. In response to this issue, in 2013 Ministry of Education and Culture developed a new curriculum called “2013 Curriculum”. It emphasises on authentic-learning and assessment that promote higher-order thinking skills: creative, innovative, and problem solving in real life. This research focuses on teachers’ authentic assessment competence at the state vocational schools describing their understanding on the concepts and principles of authentic assessment and their ability in its planning and implementation. The findings show that teachers’ understanding and their ability to plan and implement authentic assessment are inadequate and furher training on authentic assessment is recommended.

Accessing the world through promotion of a reading culture in Zimbabwe Rural Schools: the case for Mavhurazi Primary School

Successful promotion of a reading culture in rural schools requires the participation of the rural community who need more education on the importance of a library and how it is a central asset that can empower them to be productive citizens of their country. In rural Zimbabwe, there are few libraries existing in schools, creating a situation which has impacted negatively on the literacy and reading levels of the poor marginalized rural children. This paper therefore explores the collaboration and partnership of a rural community, parents, schools, local traditional leaders and international trust organizations in promoting a reading culture in schools by encouraging the community to develop an interest in books as resources that can transform their livelihoods. The author on his first visit met with important stakeholders such as School Heads, School Development Committee who are the parents’ representatives, the District Education Inspector, local Chief and several Headmen, Village Councillor, local businesspeople and health workers. Five Schools which the author identified through Mavhurazi School Head’s assistance were targeted in order to elicit response on a culture of reading. The paper will offer recommendations on the best way forward regarding use of the books by rural learners of Mudzi district, and then concludes by examining best methods to adopt to promote reading and bring about better performance in schools by learners. The promotion of rural adult literacy is another issue to be examined by this paper as well as the need to support the Primary and Secondary School Ministry’s concerted efforts to bring on board the concept of adult literacy to the poor rural folks of Mudzi district in rural Zimbabwe.

Early Childhood Diplomacy: Policy planning for early childhood development

Children who are well nurtured, appropriately cared for, and provided with positive learning opportunities in their early years have a better chance of becoming healthy and productive citizens of nations and of the world. This article reviews the art and science of policy planning for early childhood development (ECD) from a diplomacy perspective. Since ECD is often addressed as a part of the education sector and education is always a part of multisectoral ECD services, a strong relationship exists between Education Diplomacy and Early Childhood Diplomacy.

“Am I Gonna Become Famous When I Get My Boobs Done?”

Abstract Gigi Gorgeous: This Is Everything (dir. Barbara Kopple, 2017) is a feature-length documentary following the life of Canadian YouTube video blogger Giselle “Gigi” Lazzarato—aka Gigi Gorgeous—currently distributed on the site's premium streaming feature, YouTube Red. As one of YouTube's most high-profile content producers and its most successful trans video blogger (“vlogger”), Lazzarato has thoroughly documented her life on-screen; however, she has largely avoided sharing details of her surgical procedures. This Is Everything takes a closer look at her rise to fame alongside the story of her gender transition, revealing how Lazzarato has carefully engineered the documentation of her surgeries to navigate the burgeoning marketplace of online celebrity. Following Jasbir K. Puar, this review argues that the film demonstrates an axiomatic case of “piecing” the transgender body that extends the temporality of surgical procedures, thus mapping the rehabilitation of transgender subjects into productive citizens of the neoliberal US economy.

IMPLEMENTING CHARACTER EDUCATION AS SOLUTION OF CHILDREN MORAL DECADENCE

<p>Character education is an important issue in the world of late-adult education. This is related to the phenomenon of moral decadence that occurs in the midst of society as well as in an increasingly diverse government environment. Among others include crime, injustice, corruption, violence in children, to the violation of human rights. This proves that there is indeed a crisis of identity and characteristics of the Indonesian nation. The existence of character education becomes an appropriate answer to the various problems that have been mentioned previously. It is known that character education is defined as education which develops character values in children so that they have values and character as their character, apply those values in their life, as members of society and religious, nationalist, productive and creative citizens. School as a place of education providers is expected to be a place capable of realizing the mission of character education.</p>

The Poster Child of the “Second” Cultural Revolution: Huang Shuai and Shifts in Age Consciousness, 1973–1979

This article charts fluctuations in age consciousness during the waning years of China’s Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and its immediate aftermath. It argues that between 1973 and 1979, a dramatic shift occurred in normative perceptions of children and what the experience of childhood should entail. During the Cultural Revolution, the ideal child had a good class background, was anti-intellectual, and challenged authority. After Mao’s death in 1976, however, the new leadership reimagined children along more conservative lines. Their child was naive, studious, and, most importantly, politically disenfranchised. In juxtaposing the prevailing attitudes of these two periods, we witness a reorientation of childhood whereby the post-Mao leadership sought to move children away from revolution toward a more normative understanding of childhood that involved play, study, and growth into economically productive citizens. As a case study in what the ideal child was meant to be, the article examines the public life of Huang Shuai, a twelve-year-old primary school student who rose to national prominence in late 1973.

Choosing an Ideal Graduate Education: The Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology Experience

With the use of descriptive research, the researcher investigated the reasons of 152 freshman graduate school students in choosing NEUST for their graduate education. The respondents agreed that enrolling in NEUST Graduate Programs will make them good critical thinkers, collaborators, proficient speakers, responsible and productive citizens. Likewise, they have chosen the university because of its quality education, highly qualified teachers, affordable fees and high accreditation status. Efficiency of the services of the different offices was experienced by the respondents. However, they want to improve on the classroom condition, students’ lounge, graduate school library schedule and library holdings. Likewise, they wished for accessible clean restroom per level of graduate school building.

Les nourritures de Jean-Jacques Rousseau: cuisine, goût et appétit by Olivier Assouly

Reviewed by: Les nourritures de Jean-Jacques Rousseau: cuisine, goût et appétit by Olivier Assouly Ivy Dyckman Assouly, Olivier. Les nourritures de Jean-Jacques Rousseau: cuisine, goût et appétit. Garnier, 2016. ISBN 978-2-406-05751-2. Pp. 444. The notion of food is complex, with various considerations. At its most basic level, food can be discussed in terms of production, preparation, and ingestion. A more [End Page 244] sophisticated treatment would deal with trends and movements in agriculture and diet. The most far-reaching aspects concern the effects of climate, populations, and politics on the global food system. As Assouly demonstrates, all the above issues are not just relevant to our era. Rousseau had definite and, at times, paradoxical views on food and its path from field to mouth to table to politics. Some of those arguments continue to resonate. In the introduction, Assouly outlines the thematics of his text, which he divides into three sections. The first speaks to the role and significance of cuisine in its simple to elaborate gastronomic states and the function of goût as the sensory mechanism that distinguishes nutritious and tasty fare from that which is not. L'appétit is of foremost concern in the second part. Assouly demonstrates how Rousseau reshapes it to become the basis for nutrition reform. That is, the individual as both man and citizen creates his own diet for the purpose of self-preservation. In the final segment, food is politicized. As a member of society, each person is obliged to consider the political, moral, and economic necessities of the state in order to keep it equally healthy and independent. L'appétit and goût are not merely relegated to an individual's table but are indispensable to the function of the whole of a society. The division of these sections is fluid. Arguments and citations overlap and are repetitive. When examining Rousseau's ideas about food—a subject not commonly associated with him—Assouly incorporates familiar terms into the text. It is impossible to read any analysis of Rousseau without encountering l'amour-propre, l'amour de soi, la nature, la perfectibilité, la pitié, and so on. The positions of selected ancient and early modern physicians and philosophers—among them Aristotle, Plato, Locke, and Tissot—are highlighted to defend or counter Rousseau's argumentation. As textual support, Assouly relies primarily on Émile and to a lesser extent the second Discours. He also mines from La nouvelle Héloïse, Du contrat social, Essai sur l'origine des langues, the Confessions, and the Rêveries du promeneur solitaire. In the third section, two Assouly discussions are noteworthy for their political dimensions and clarity. On the surface, both seem counterintuitive to Rousseau's thought. The first concerns maternal breastfeeding, which Rousseau touts not for its physiological benefits but for its sociological and moral implications. Because of this initiation to the act of feeding, bonds are formed between mother and child, husband and wife, and eventually a productive citizen and the state. The process self-perpetuates, ensuring a stable political union. The second touches on Rousseau's advocacy of hunting for neither subsistence nor pleasure but to create a harmonious society where violence is channeled and virility is fostered through a constructive activity. [End Page 245] Ivy Dyckman Independent Scholar Copyright © 2018 American Association of Teachers of French

AN ANALYSIS OF STRESS LEVEL OF SENIOR SECONDARY STUDENTS OF DIFFERENT STREAMS AND ITS MANAGING STRATEGIES

This paper examines the level of stress among senior secondary school students and stress managing strategies to overcome stress. Manage appropriate level of stress among students in order to make him constructive and productive citizen of the country. The main objectives were to find out the stress level among different streams of students as well as bring to light measures to counteract the effect of stress in students. A quantitative method was used in gathering and analyzing the data. For this purpose, Singh’s personal stress sources inventory (SPSSI) was distributed among students of different streams to get mean, S.D. and C.R. values. The results obtained show the medium level of stress among different streams of students. Factors responsible for stress are school environment, physical changes, relationship and family conditions. Major findings are : (i) no significant difference in stress level of male and female students of different streams (ii) significant difference in stress level of male students of different streams. (iii) significant difference exists in stress level of female students of different streams. (iv) urban students have more stress level than rural students. (v) students studying in private school experience more stress level than government school students. Stress can be managed by enough sleep, creative games, meditation, yoga, spiritual talk, continuous monitoring the stress level, creating conducing teaching learning environment at school as well as at home and developing good relationship among peers.

The adventure of the deceitful numbers

AbstractThis article addresses access to high-quality education under a neoliberal mentality. It engages at both the discursive and material levels, by mapping how taken-for-granted truths about neoliberal policies circulate through the media. The media—newspapers, network channels, and news websites—have correlated quality education with socioeconomic status, which have effects of power in the fabrication of the productive citizen and low-performer, and in the perpetuation of the “class/room”.The unexpected deceitfulness of numbers operates as a rhizomatic regime of truths, conducting our ways of being and acting in the world. This analysis takes numbers as an actor to challenge the apparent representative and descriptive nature of standardized assessment outcomes, and the idea that competition, freedom of choice, and accountability are a means of securing equity, inclusion, and economic growth. The novels of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, particularly those featuring the fictional character Sherlock Holmes, and the Sherlock Holmes adaptations portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the TV series “Sherlock” have inspired the narrative of this story. Sherlock’s mind palace—a feature added to Holmes’ personality in the TV series—is put to great use in the narrative of this article.

(Re)Landscaping early childhood education in East Asia: A neoliberal economic and political imaginary

This article unpacks how neoliberal discourse functions as a dominant but problematic system of reasoning that changes and shifts the ways in which we come to think about early childhood education and care. A post-structuralist lens is deployed to understand the production of fears and hopes under the looming shadows of contemporary education reforms and social policies. Highlighting Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea as three cases from East Asian cultures, this article seeks to elucidate how a similar neoliberal economic and political imaginary is at work to (re)construct East Asian children as human capital for the alchemy of productive citizens in the 21st century.

Vulnerability of Individuals With Mental Disorders to Epistemic Injustice in Both Clinical and Social Domains

Many individuals who have mental disorders often report negative experiences of a distinctively epistemic sort, such as not being listened to, not being taken seriously, or not being considered credible because of their psychiatric conditions. In an attempt to articulate and interpret these reports we present Fricker’s concepts of epistemic injustice (Fricker, 2007, p. 1) and then focus on testimonial injustice and hermeneutic injustice as it applies to individuals with mental disorders. The clinical impact of these concepts on quality of care is discussed. Within the clinical domain, we contrast epistemic injustice with epistemic privilege and authority. We then argue that testimonial and hermeneutic injustices also affect individuals with mental disorders not only when communicating with their caregivers but also in the social context as they attempt to reintegrate into the general society and assume responsibilities as productive citizens. Following the trend of the movement of mental health care to the community, the testimonies of people with mental disorders should not be restricted to issues involving their own personal mental states.