Disparities in work, risk and health between immigrants and native-born Spaniards

We analyse the impact of working and contractual conditions, particularly exposure to job risks, on the probability of acquiring a permanent disability, controlling for other personal and firm characteristics. We postulate a model in which this impact is mediated by the choice of occupation, with a level of risk associated with it. We assume this choice is endogenous, and that it depends on preferences and opportunities in the labour market, both of which may differ between immigrants and natives. To test this hypothesis we apply a bivariate probit model to data for 2006 from the Continuous Sample of Working Lives provided by the Spanish Social Security system, containing records for over a million workers. We find that risk exposure increases the probability of permanent disability arising from any cause - by almost 5%.

El voluntariat social i la participació comunitària : la situació actual i les perspectives de futur al voltreganès

Aquest Treball de Final de Grau d’Educació Social pretén aprofundir i reflexionar al voltant dels conceptes de desenvolupament comunitari, participació i voluntariat social, sobretot en la seva dimensió pràctica. Partint d’aquest marc teòric, s’ha portat a terme una anàlisi de la realitat social i una diagnosi de necessitats socials del Voltreganès, és a dir, de la comunitat que formen els municipis de les Masies de Voltregà i Sant Hipòlit de Voltregà. A partir dels resultats, i la interpretació de les dades extretes de les entrevistes, realitzades a diferents professionals vinculats amb l’àmbit social i d’atenció a les persones, s’ha justificat la necessitat i interès d’un projecte de voluntariat, per poder donar resposta a les necessitats emergents de la població. En la part final del treball presento l’àmbit i les línies principals d’aquest projecte.

L’educació emocional a través de la música per afavorir la convivencia l’aula en l’Educació Primària

L’educació emocional cada dia guanya més rellevància en l’àmbit educatiu. S’està comprovant que les emocions estan molt lligades al desenvolupament intel·lectual i social de les persones. La pràctica inclosa en aquest treball pretén afirmar la hipòtesi de que l’educació emocional a través de la música afavoreix la convivència a l’aula. Grans teòrics, al llarg de la història, han destinat part de la seva carrera a l’estudi de l’evolució del concepte d’emoció i les diferents vessants relacionades amb aquesta, com la intel·ligència emocional i/o l’educació emocional. L’ús de la musica com a recurs per treballar l’educació emocional ha permès un progrés en la convivència a l’aula, gràcies al seu efecte socialitzador.

Women's work histories in Italy: education as investment in reconciliation and legitimacy?

Within pre-enlargement Europe, Italy records one of the widest employment rate gaps between highly and poorly educated women, as well one of the largest differences in the share, among working women, of public sector employment. Building on these stylized facts and using the Longitudinal Survey of Italian Households (ILFI), we investigate the working trajectories of three cohorts of Italian women born between 1935 and 1964 and observed from their first job until they are in their forties. We use mainly, but not exclusively, event history analysis in order to identify the main factors that influence entry into and exit from paid work over the life course. Our results suggest that in the Italian context, where employment protection policies have also been used as surrogate measures to favour reconciliation between family and work, and where traditional gender norms still persist, education is so important for women's employment decisions because it represents an investment in 'reconciliation' and 'work legitimacy' over and above investment in human capital.

The european higher education area at work: Lights and shadows defining continuous assessment

The aim of this paper is to analyse how learning assessment, particularly the Continuous Assessment system, has been defined in the Public Administration and Management Diploma Course of the University of Barcelona (Spain). This course was a pioneering experiment at this university in implementing the guidelines of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), and thus represents a good case study for verifying whether one of the cornerstones of the EHEA has been accomplished with success. Using data obtained from the Teaching Plans elaborated by the lecturers of each subject, we are able to establish that the CA system has been progressively accepted to such an extent that it is now the assessment formula used by practically all of the lecturers, conforming in this way to the protocols laid down by the Faculty of Law in which this diploma course is taught. Nevertheless, we find that high dispersion exists in how Continuous Assessment is actually defined. Indeed, it seems that there is no unified view of how Continuous Assessment should be performed. This dispersion, however, seems to diminish over time and raises some questions about the advisability of agreement on criteria, considering the potential which CA has as a pedagogical tool. Moreover, we find that the Unique Assessment system, which students may also apply for, is an option chosen only by a minority, with lecturers usually defining it as merely a theoretical and/or practical test, of little innovation in relation to traditional tests.

The european higher education area at work: Lights and shadows defining continuous assessment

The aim of this paper is to analyse how learning assessment, particularly the Continuous Assessment system, has been defined in the Public Administration and Management Diploma Course of the University of Barcelona (Spain). This course was a pioneering experiment at this university in implementing the guidelines of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), and thus represents a good case study for verifying whether one of the cornerstones of the EHEA has been accomplished with success. Using data obtained from the Teaching Plans elaborated by the lecturers of each subject, we are able to establish that the CA system has been progressively accepted to such an extent that it is now the assessment formula used by practically all of the lecturers, conforming in this way to the protocols laid down by the Faculty of Law in which this diploma course is taught. Nevertheless, we find that high dispersion exists in how Continuous Assessment is actually defined. Indeed, it seems that there is no unified view of how Continuous Assessment should be performed. This dispersion, however, seems to diminish over time and raises some questions about the advisability of agreement on criteria, considering the potential which CA has as a pedagogical tool. Moreover, we find that the Unique Assessment system, which students may also apply for, is an option chosen only by a minority, with lecturers usually defining it as merely a theoretical and/or practical test, of little innovation in relation to traditional tests.

The european higher education area at work: Lights and shadows defining continuous assessment

The aim of this paper is to analyse how learning assessment, particularly the Continuous Assessment system, has been defined in the Public Administration and Management Diploma Course of the University of Barcelona (Spain). This course was a pioneering experiment at this university in implementing the guidelines of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), and thus represents a good case study for verifying whether one of the cornerstones of the EHEA has been accomplished with success. Using data obtained from the Teaching Plans elaborated by the lecturers of each subject, we are able to establish that the CA system has been progressively accepted to such an extent that it is now the assessment formula used by practically all of the lecturers, conforming in this way to the protocols laid down by the Faculty of Law in which this diploma course is taught. Nevertheless, we find that high dispersion exists in how Continuous Assessment is actually defined. Indeed, it seems that there is no unified view of how Continuous Assessment should be performed. This dispersion, however, seems to diminish over time and raises some questions about the advisability of agreement on criteria, considering the potential which CA has as a pedagogical tool. Moreover, we find that the Unique Assessment system, which students may also apply for, is an option chosen only by a minority, with lecturers usually defining it as merely a theoretical and/or practical test, of little innovation in relation to traditional tests.

El juego y su estructura interna en relación con el trabajo de la condición física en primaria = Games and their internal structure in relation to the work of physical condition in Primary Education

One of the methodological resources that teachers use in a generalised way in Physical Education classes is the game. Inthis article we define the concept of game and analyse the characteristics of their internal structure. On the other hand welook at the concepts of physical condition and conditional skills and describe the objectives of its work in Primary Education.Finally, we relate these concepts and propose two practical examples of modifying the internal structure of the game so asto produce variations in the implied conditional skills

Arts Fusió : una proposta didàctica transdisciplinària a través d’un procés d’aprenentatge creatiu

Arts Fusió és un projecte pedagògic entorn a la transdisciplinarietat artística, consistent en una recerca al voltant d'aquest concepte i dels valors formatius que aporta en processos d'aprenentatge creatiu. A partir d'aquí hem creat uns principis metodològics per orientar una didàctica cap a la fusió del teatre, la dansa, la música i les arts visuals. Per posar de manifest els beneficis de la nostra proposta hem realitzat aplicacions didàctiques en educacio artística superior i en educació secundària obligatòria. Metodològicament ens situem en el paradigma de la complexitat i basem les intervencions en una perspectiva qualitativa exploratòria, en concret dintre de la línia de la investigació avaluativa. Com a resultats del treball hem vist que la transdisciplinarietat artística pot actuar com a mitjà i com a fi educatiu segons el context en el que ens trobem.

Higher education as formation of the self and citizenship: an ethnography of the University Students from Amman, Jordan

My interest in higher education and citizenship in the Middle East at large and in Jordan in particular is fostered by some of the reflections Eickelman proposed (1992). Being a quite recent phenomenon, intimately linked with the more general topic of state formation it seemed to me more suitable to study it in a little country with a recent history (a field study left almost unexplored until now as far as Jordan is concerned, to the best of my knowledge, since Antoun 1994 focuses on the migration as a quest for higher education). The process of state formation in Jordan is quite studied. I thus intended to study the higher education policies as an attempt both to create a national citizenry and more recently as a way of controlling the more problematic part of the population (youth, which constitutes more than the double of the population. See UNDP and Ministry of Planning 2000). How do the young students enter the university system, and in which way does this system work? How is this system designed, in order to retain social control of the students (since they are usually perceived to be a factor of social and political instability, as in Iran or in Egypt)? Is there any significant difference between different faculties? And if so, why? My conclusions at this stage are that the university system is an integral part of the survival of the regime. The system works quite well, and Jordan has one of the best educational position in the region. Yet there are important distinctions to be made: the access to the better faculties is socially selective while the less valued faculties are left to the poorer and less wealthy youth. This results in a different treatment of the students and of the courses that I analysed. In the better faculties the teaching standards are quite high, and the relationship between professors and students is almost on a same-level base, while in the less privileged faculties the opposite is true. Thus we can observe a concrete politics of divide et impera intended to split the youth in two. For the more privileged there are some freedoms, both within and outside classes, designed I guess at forging them as autonomous individuals. On the opposite the less privileged are kept under tight control, even if also these students are a privileged category among youth at large.

Opening Education Beyond the Property Relation: From Commons to Communism

Open Education, and specifically the OER movement, seeks to provide universal access to knowledge, undermining the historical enclosure and the increasing privatisation of the public education system. In this paper we examine this aspiration by submitting the implicit theoretical assumptions of Open Education to the test of critical political economy. We acknowledge the Open Education movement's revolutionary potential but outline the inherent limitations of its current focus on the commons (property relations) rather than the social relations of capitalist production (wage work, the company) and because of this, argue that it will only achieve limited, rather than revolutionary, impact.

Action Research : the first steps to start up a pilot experiment in heritage education

Peer-reviewed

Schooling in the Network Society : Internet in Primary and Secondary Education. Research report (synthesis document)

Aquest projecte té la intenció d'identificar i analitzar els efectes de la introducció d'Internet a les escoles catalanes (educació primària i secundària). L'objectiu és posar de manifest la manera com s'utilitza la xarxa en aquest àmbit i en quina mesura contribueix a l'aparició, en els centres educatius, d'una nova cultura adaptada a les necessitats de la societat xarxa. Amb aquest propòsit, aquest projecte desplega les seves línies d'anàlisi per a fer atenció al procés d'incorporació d'Internet, principalment, en tres direccions: la pràctica pedagògica, les formes d'organització i gestió dels centres educatius i la seva vinculació amb la comunitat i el territori. Aquesta investigació ha estat desenvolupada pel grup de recerca ENS (Education and Network Society). Amb una perspectiva comparativa, el treball d'aquest grup vol contribuir, sobre la base de dades empíriques, a interpretar la transformació de l'àmbit educatiu no universitari en els paràmetres que estableix, avui dia, la nostra societat.

Performance in post-compulsory education: evidence from vocational and academic tracks

This paper investigates the factors in_uencing grade performance in two different high school tracks (academic and vocational), including the effect of the amount of work achieved while studying. The empirical strategy analyzes grade progression through the outcomes, passing, repeating and dropping out, conditioning on previous outcomes, and dealing with the endogeneity introduced by the working variable. The analysis is based on a unique Spanish data with information on schooling and labor histories. Findings show that working reduces performance in both tracks, mainly during the first year, although the ffects are less detri- mental in the vocational path. Additionally, good performance in compulsory education, at- tending a private high school, or having high-educated parents improve outcomes, particularly in academic high school.

Effects of prison work programmes on the employability of ex-prisioners

This paper presents the main results of a study that relates information from the prison system with information for the Spanish Social Security in order to study the employability of the former inmates of prisons in Catalonia, Spain who obtained final release from 1/1/2004 to 31/12/2007. The results show that 43.6% of the ex-prisoners find a job after serving their sentences, but their integration in the labour market tends to be fragile, confirming that it is a very vulnerable group. It was also found that prison work has a favourable effect on employability and that vocational training could be useful for those who have not previously worked and have no education or job skills.