Imagining migration: Placing children's understanding of 'moving house' in Malawi and Lesotho

Research pertaining to children's geographies has mainly focused on children's physical experiences of space, with their 'imagined geographies' receiving far less attention. The few studies of children's imagined geographies that exist tend to focus on children's national identities and their understanding of distant places. However, children's lives are not necessarily static and they often move between places. Research has not so far considered children's images of these transitional spaces or how such images are constructed. Through an examination of over 800 thematic drawings and stories, regarding 'moving house, produced by children aged 10-17 years in urban and rural communities of Lesotho and Malawi, this paper explores southern African children's representations of migration. The research considers how ideas of migration are culturally-constructed based on notions of family, home and kinship, particularly in relation to the fluid family structure characteristic of most southern African societies. The results suggest that most children imagine migration as a household rather than an individual process.. rarely including micro -migrations between extended family households in their drawings. Further, children's images of migration are place-rooted in everyday life experiences. Their representations concentrate on the reasons for migration, both negative and positive, which are specifically related to their local social and environmental situations and whether house moves take place locally or over longer distances. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of these conceptualisations of moving house for children's contemporary migration experiences, particularly in light of changing family structures due to the effects of the HIV/AIDS pandernic. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Student projects: plagiarism and assessment

Within the Information Technology degree programme of the University of Reading, the students undertake a major project in their final year. The module is both a hurdle to an honours degree and significant in terms of assessment weighting. The two year history so far has shown that bad citation and plagiarism are issues, and in one case called for the due referral of a project report. In the light of experience to date, we are focusing firstly on plagiarism prevention, giving generic advice on report writing and citation practice, and secondly on detection. In the longer term, I believe we need to reflect on what capabilities we should be creating in our undergraduates and therefore what and how we should be assessing them.

Bayesian estimation of recent migration rates after a spatial expansion

Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) is a highly flexible technique that allows the estimation of parameters under demographic models that are too complex to be handled by full-likelihood methods. We assess the utility of this method to estimate the parameters of range expansion in a two-dimensional stepping-stone model, using samples from either a single deme or multiple demes. A minor modification to the ABC procedure is introduced, which leads to an improvement in the accuracy of estimation. The method is then used to estimate the expansion time and migration rates for five natural common vole populations in Switzerland typed for a sex-linked marker and a nuclear marker. Estimates based on both markers suggest that expansion occurred < 10,000 years ago, after the most recent glaciation, and that migration rates are strongly male biased.

Class II phosphoinositide 3-kinase defines a novel signaling pathway in cell migration

The lipid products of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) are involved in many cellular responses such as proliferation, migration, and survival. Disregulation of PI3K-activated pathways is implicated in different diseases including cancer and diabetes. Among the three classes of PI3Ks, class I is the best characterized, whereas class II has received increasing attention only recently and the precise role of these isoforms is unclear. Similarly, the role of phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate (PtdIns-3-P) as an intracellular second messenger is only just beginning to be appreciated. Here, we show that lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) stimulates the production of PtdIns-3-P through activation of a class II PI3K (PI3K-C2β). Both PtdIns-3-P and PI3K-C2β are involved in LPA-mediated cell migration. This study is the first identification of PtdIns-3-P and PI3K-C2β as downstream effectors in LPA signaling and demonstration of an intracellular role for a class II PI3K. Defining this novel PI3K-C2β- PtdIns-3-P signaling pathway may help clarify the process of cell migration and may shed new light on PI3K-mediated intracellular events.

Student-teachers' perspectives on positive and negative social processes in schools

In recent years, the Standards for Qualified Teacher Status in England have placed new emphasis on student-teachers' ability to become integrated into the 'corporate life of the school' and to work with other professionals. Little research, however, has been carried out into how student-teachers perceive the social processes and interactions that are central to such integration during their initial teacher education school placements. This study aims to shed light on these perceptions. The data, gathered from 23 student-teachers through interviews and reflective writing, illustrate the extent to which the participants perceived such social processes as supporting or obstructing their development as teachers. Signals of inclusion, the degree of match or mismatch in students' and school colleagues' role expectations, and the social awareness of both school and student-teacher emerged as crucial factors in this respect. The student-teachers' accounts show their social interactions with school staff to be meaningful in developing their 'teacher self' and to be profoundly emotionally charged. The implications for mentor and student-teacher role preparation are discussed in this article.

Student perceptions of their IEP targets

The 2001 Code of Practice for Special Educational Needs (DfES, 2001) explicitly states that students with IEPs should have an active role in the writing and implementing of them. A research project was conducted in which 19 Year 8 students in three schools were interviewed, with the findings cross-referenced against an examination of their individual education plans (IEPs) and interviews with the SENCos. Very few students were able to communicate a clear understanding of IEPs. Students' stated targets mostly reflected mainstream target-setting: very few stated targets matched with those in their IEPs. Consistent with these findings is literature which argues that meaningfully involving students in the IEP process takes considerable time and effort, which would appear to imply that the number of students with IEPs in any one school must be limited. Against this are pressures, particularly from OFSTED but also from examination boards, to have IEPs available as evidence that students' needs are being met. The article concludes by suggesting that SENCos look to limit the number of IEPs issued, alongside a robust defence of the school's special educational needs policy within the school evaluation form to ensure that students' needs are met and also are seen to be met.