Range Of International Contexts Research Articles

De-mystifying the nimbus of research: re-igniting practitioners' interest in exploring EAP

Engagement in research is recognised as a transformative force for professional development in EAP. Consequently, for many EAP practitioners research and/or scholarship have been added as contractual requirements. However, many EAP professionals desist from engaging in this, as they wonder how to fit it into their workload. In this paper I consider a form of practitioner research, Exploratory Practice, which integrates research and pedagogy in sustainable investigations into practice. I discuss ways in which different EAP practitioners, in a range of international contexts, explore puzzles relevant to their professional development, and disseminate their understandings. Drawing on published studies and vignettes from EAP practitioners enacting Exploratory Practice, I examine the ways in which these activities dispel the nimbus surrounding traditional views of research. This includes conducting robust investigations, and providing multimodal presentations in the supportive atmosphere of BALEAP PIMs and Conferences. In doing so, practitioners enhance their understandings of pedagogy and contribute to the field as equally-valued theorisers, and meaning-makers in EAP.

Measuring Adolescent Participation: Results from a Qualitative Pretest in Cote D’Ivoire and Indonesia

Adolescence, or the period of transition between childhood and adulthood, is a significant stage in human development. Not only is it a time of physical growth and neurological development, but it is also a time when many young people begin to expand their networks beyond their family, form close ties with their peers, develop and express their views, and have a greater desire to be involved in decisions that affect them. This act of forming and expressing their views and influencing matters that concern them is sometimes referred to as adolescent participation. When viewed through an international human rights lens, adolescent participation is considered a fundamental right, and consequently, there is a need for reliable and valid measures that accurately assess adolescent participation and allow for internationally comparable data. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively test a draft questionnaire designed to measure adolescent participation. The goal was to gain insight into both how the items would perform cross-culturally and how adolescents’ comprehension and interpretation of different constructs related to adolescent participation. Cognitive interviews were conducted with 123 adolescents aged 10 to 19 in Côte d’Ivoire and Indonesia. This paper describes the development of the draft questionnaire, presents the methods used to pretest the questionnaire, and summarizes the findings. This study reveals important considerations for researchers and practitioners interested in qualitatively pretesting questionnaires with adolescents and in measuring and understanding adolescent participation across a range of international contexts.

Local regeneration and community wealth building–place making: co-operatives as agents of change

Purpose This paper aims to provide an introduction to how worker co-operatives and other organisations based on principles of the participatory economy have been adopted in a range of international contexts as a vehicle for transforming places with a strong aspiration to address location-specific social challenges. Design/methodology/approach Through a presentation of four narrative cases, the paper exemplifies international experiences of co-operative approaches to place-making. It critically reflects on the philosophical and strategic underpinnings of the projects implemented in Rochdale, Preston, Bologna, Rome and Cincinnati. Findings The practical experiences of a number of local projects of place-making involving co-operatives are conceptualised. The research has identified the importance of institutional, organisational and legal constraints for transformative cooperative-based place-making initiatives. It shows a strong relevance of the place’s historic legacy and communal governance for the choice of place-making approaches. Research limitations/implications Further investigation is needed to establish whether co-operatives have the same driving force potential in terms of local regeneration and community wealth building place-making in non-Western contexts and less developed locations. Practical implications The paper highlights cases that incorporate place-making practices involving the co-operative organisation and municipal participation and considers their transferability potential. Originality/value The paper advances an important conversation relevant to researchers, educators, co-operators, politicians and local officials on diverse contemporary approaches in towns and cities that seek to reshape and regenerate local socio-economic fabric by engaging tradition, principles and organisation models developed within the co-operative movement.

Farm tourism as a driving force for socioeconomic development: a benefits viewpoint from Iran

ABSTRACT In recent years, the potential of farm tourism to generate socioeconomic benefits for farmers and suppliers has been established in a range of international contexts. This study aims to identify the main socioeconomic benefits of farm tourism for farming communities in Iran on a national scale. In order to cover agricultural potentiality, nine provinces were selected. Factor analysis of the data extracted nine social and economic factors, which were then analysed using stepwise regression analysis. The findings indicate that the diversification of Iran's farms into tourism businesses would introduce a new social and economic growth stimulus for local communities. The stepwise regression findings were employed to identify which farm tourism factors are required for socioeconomic development in Iran. Factors were divided into nine categories of socioeconomic development: learning and educational activities improvements, cultural development, community participation, thriving local economy, pursuit of personal values, income generation, quality of life improvement, building business competitiveness and modifying migration structure. Among these categories, farmers/suppliers in farming communities have primarily concentrated on the pursuit of personal values and income generation.

Re-Offending by Released Terrorist Prisoners: Separating Hype from Reality

In this Policy Brief, the authors critically analyse the definition of 'recidivism', and demonstrate the need for a concrete operational definition before one is able to truly analyse recidivist activity. Following this, the authors discuss terrorist recidivism in a range of international contexts, ranging from Northern Ireland to Sri Lanka, the United States to Israel. By taking this broader perspective it allows the reader to gain a greater understanding of what factors related to recidivism rates may be context-specific, and which are universal.

Getting ‘What Works’ working: building blocks for the integration of experimental and improvement science

ABSTRACT As a systemic approach to improving educational practice through research, ‘What Works’ has come under repeated challenge from alternative approaches, most recently that of improvement science. While ‘What Works’ remains a dominant paradigm for centralized knowledge-building efforts, there is need to understand why this alternative has gained support, and what it can contribute. I set out how the core elements of experimental and improvement science can be combined into a strategy to raise educational achievement with the support of evidence from randomized experiments. Central to this combined effort is a focus on identifying and testing mechanisms for improving teaching and learning, as applications of principles from the learning sciences. This article builds on current efforts to strengthen approaches to evidence-based practice and policy in a range of international contexts. It provides a foundation for those who aim to avoid another paradigm war and to accelerate international discussions on the design of systemic education research infrastructure and funding.

Summary, initial outputs and next steps Collaboration for Applied Health Research & Delivery.

The Collaboration for Applied Health Research & Delivery (CAHRD) is an emerging network of organisations and individuals working across the spectrum of applied health research [1] and delivery with the common vision of improving the health of low and middle-income populations through the transformation of health systems. CAHRD has three strategic goals for its first 5 years (2012-2017): 1. The development of a robust human resource base and professional infrastructure 2. The conduct and publication of experience in applied health research and delivery 3. Building strong partnerships and implementing excellent communication strategies. CAHRD's inaugural Consultation took place in June 2014 attended by almost 170 participants and contributed to all three of these strategic goals. It resulted in a number of strengthened and new collaborative ventures, each aimed at tackling major health challenges for lung health, maternal and newborn health, neglected tropical diseases and health systems over the next 10 to 20 years. The Consultation was the culmination of months of work and preparation centred on establishing creative dialogue and productive joint working across and between a range of international contexts, health topics, and disciplines united by our mission to improve the health of low and middle income populations. This paper summarises the consultation process and conclusions, and identifies initial outputs and next steps.

Generating public and private benefits through understanding what drives different types of agritourism

The capacity of agritourism to generate private economic benefits for farmers has been established in a range of international contexts. We also find that agritourism in its predominant form is a financially important opportunity for diversifying farmers in Scotland. However, by exploring motivations associated with the supply and demand of different ‘types’ of agritourism, two additional niche markets that incorporate direct interaction between visitors and agriculture have been identified, which may have significant implications in the context of future policy and practice. It is proposed that these types of agritourism have significant potential to generate public as well as private benefits; including increased public awareness of food and farming, promotion and sale of locally produced farm foods, and through supporting the implementation of agri-environmental and conservation measures. We also discuss the importance of underpinning agritourism studies with a solid conceptual foundation, which not only provides for greater understanding of the products and services being studied, but also provides for greater comparability between agritourism studies and allows the research to be positioned in the context of the agritourism literature as a whole.

Cycling on abandoned Second World War airfields and Jugando a Las Escondidas en el Parque: examining play memories from adults growing up around the world

This study examined play memories from adults who grew up in a wide range of international contexts. Surveys and semi-structured interviews asking adults to recollect play memories were completed with 135 adults (100 Females, 35 Males) who grew up in 21 countries. Play memories were analysed to identify adults’ favourite types of childhood play, barriers preventing their play, beliefs about the impact of their childhood play across their lifespan, the emotions associated with recollecting their play, and the similarities and variations represented across the adults’ play memories. Pretend play, play in nature, and risk-taking were prevalent themes, however, the data reflect how variation in sociocultural and historical contexts strongly influenced children's play experiences. The majority of participants associated play memories with positive feelings and reported lifelong benefits of early play experiences. The literature on sociocultural variations in children's play and neuroscience research on memories as reconstructions informs discussion of the findings.

Supporting young adolescent students from minority cultural groups who are underachieving in learning

Establishing appropriate learning environments for culturally diverse underachieving students continues to challenge educators across a range of international contexts. A synthesis of findings from our studies in New Zealand indicated that teachers and students from Pasifika and Māori backgrounds considered that learning is facilitated by the establishment of positive student–teacher relationships in which their culture and language is acknowledged and valued. Collaboration and co‐operation within small groups also supported learning, which influenced engagement as well as achievement. We contend that developing effective and culturally sensitive pedagogical practices that are informed by research offers a way forward, not only for practitioners, but also for teacher education.

Literacy for All: quality language education for few

With a focus on educational provision the area of English as a second language (ESL), this paper takes stock of developments in the last 10 years since the inception of the Australian Literacy for All policy in 1998. A review of the issue is timely, not least because of the recent window of opportunity afforded by the first change of government at the federal level for more than a decade. More than this political imperative, though, is a consideration of what contemporary research now reveals about the nature of second language development itself, and the implications this raises for the teaching and learning of English to students from language backgrounds other than English. As such, the broader discussion is applicable to students in a range of international contexts. A related aim of the paper, however, is also to demonstrate that the intensely political nature of ‘literacy’ renders any discussion of the subject – in whatever the context may be – inseparable from a broader consideration of politics in relation to how and what to teach, and the further implications this raises for the provision and positioning of ESL within education systems.

Language tests as language policy tools

This paper contextualizes language tests in relation to educational and national language policies by demonstrating how these language measures may be used as mechanisms for affecting de facto language policies. This phenomenon is of special relevance given current controversies in nation states between multilingual and multicultural realities and government policies that perpetuate homogenous policies with regard to national languages. The introduction of language tests in certain languages delivers messages and ideologies about the prestige, priorities and hierarchies of certain language(s), and not others, leading to policies of suppression of diversity. Tests also influence language policy with regard to the nature of language, as derived from the criteria used for judging language quality via rating scales, guidelines and frameworks, thus leading to a view of language as standardized and homogenous. Yet language tests, when they incorporate research findings about language learning and language use, can serve as tools for creating more valid and real language policies that mediate and negotiate between ideology and practice. The discussion of these issues is supported by examples from a range of international contexts in this paper.

Disability and accounting firms: Evidence from the UK

Abstract An accumulation of interpretative studies in a range of international contexts has considered gender, race and social class in accounting employment. However, no work has considered accounting firms’ attitudes towards employing disabled people. This omission is surprising given the passing of successive disability rights legislation in the United States since 1918 and the United Kingdom (UK) since 1944 and consequent changes in public expectations regarding equal employment opportunities for disabled people. This paper examines the UK accounting profession's response to changes in disability legislation. Using a survey administered to UK firms and an analysis of the Big Four firms’ 2003 UK annual reviews, we report that firms’ have a minimal understanding of disability, that disability is not a significant component of firms’ personnel policies, that firms lag behind other organizations in their attitudes to disability, and images of disability are wholly absent from firms’ annual reviews. We discuss these findings in the context of prior accounting research which considers gender, race and social class, which is used to develop a research agenda.

Adult learning for citizenship: towards a reconstruction of the social purpose tradition

This paper seeks to review and re-frame the idea of social purpose adult education in the context of a contemporary Risk Society and the interface between modernist and postmodernist influences on learning. After interrogating and critiquing the social purpose tradition in adult education, it relates this to the changing nature and widening scope of adult learning within a developing Learning Society. The paper puts forward the idea of Adult Learning for Citizenship as a way of maintaining and reconstructing social purpose learning within a Risk Society and as a necessary challenge and counter-focus to the dominant discourse of Lifelong Learning shaped by the economic imperative and framed very much in terms of human capital. In developing this argument, the paper proposes a new framework for Adult Learning for Citizenship which consists of four different but overlapping dimensions of social purpose learning: learning for inclusive citizenship, for pluralistic citizenship, for reflexive citizenship and for active citizenship. Within this framework, it develops new rationales for social purpose adult learning linked to instructive examples of practice from a range of international contexts. In conclusion, it examines the implications of such a framework for the praxis of adult educators.

An Investigation of the Effectiveness of an Evaluation Instrument Designed for Use with Modular Masters Courses in a Range of International Contexts

ABSTRACT In a previous paper the construction of an instrument designed to be of use in the evaluation of modular Masters courses for teachers and administrators in international schools was described. Initial impressions of the efficacy of the instrument were encouraging, and its use was extended in a number of ways within the scheme of continuing professional development organised through the Centre for the study of Education in an International Context at the University of Bath. In particular, the evaluation model was extended to three different modules taught in an increased number of Study Centre locations, by different tutors, to groups of different sizes and composition. Under such a range of conditions the question arises of parity of quality in the delivery of the modules, and the usefulness of the evaluation instrument in contributing to an assessment of the quality of teaching and learning was explored. This paper describes the results of an investigation undertaken to test the robustness of th...