What Counts as Young People's Civic Engagement in Times of Accountability? : On the Importance of Maintaining Openness about Young People's Civic Engagement in Education

One aspect of the ICCS study's measurement of young people's citizen competence is 'civic engagement'. In this article it is argued that even though the study's assessment captures important aspects of young people's civic engagement, too strong educational reliance on it may contribute to meagreness in the educaitonal assignment to see to an engaged citizenry. By providing deeper insight into the ICCS study's assessment rationale, and by presenting qualitatively derived examples of young people's civic engagement, it is suggested that in order to see to fruitful ways of approaching the educational task of providing for young people's civic engagement, we need to maintain openness to different depictions of civic engagement. Among them those that matter as such for the young people themselves in and through the social and material practices they take part in.

Power relations and good governance: a social network analysis of the evolution of the integrity in public office act in the Commonwealth of Dominica

La Banque mondiale propose la bonne gouvernance comme la stratégie visant à corriger les maux de la mauvaise gouvernance et de faciliter le développement dans les pays en développement (Carayannis, Pirzadeh, Popescu & 2012; & Hilyard Wilks 1998; Leftwich 1993; Banque mondiale, 1989). Dans cette perspective, la réforme institutionnelle et une arène de la politique publique plus inclusive sont deux stratégies critiques qui visent à établir la bonne gouvernance, selon la Banque et d’autres institutions de Bretton Woods. Le problème, c’est que beaucoup de ces pays en voie de développement ne possèdent pas l’architecture institutionnelle préalable à ces nouvelles mesures. Cette thèse étudie et explique comment un état en voie de développement, le Commonwealth de la Dominique, s’est lancé dans un projet de loi visant l’intégrité dans la fonction publique. Cette loi, la Loi sur l’intégrité dans la fonction publique (IPO) a été adoptée en 2003 et mis en œuvre en 2008. Cette thèse analyse les relations de pouvoir entre les acteurs dominants autour de évolution de la loi et donc, elle emploie une combinaison de technique de l’analyse des réseaux sociaux et de la recherche qualitative pour répondre à la question principale: Pourquoi l’État a-t-il développé et mis en œuvre la conception actuelle de la IPO (2003)? Cette question est d’autant plus significative quand nous considérons que contrairement à la recherche existante sur le sujet, l’IPO dominiquaise diverge considérablement dans la structure du l’IPO type idéal. Nous affirmons que les acteurs "rationnels," conscients de leur position structurelle dans un réseau d’acteurs, ont utilisé leurs ressources de pouvoir pour façonner l’institution afin qu’elle serve leurs intérêts et ceux et leurs alliés. De plus, nous émettons l’hypothèse que: d’abord, le choix d’une agence spécialisée contre la corruption et la conception ultérieure de cette institution reflètent les préférences des acteurs dominants qui ont participé à la création de ladite institution et la seconde, notre hypothèse rivale, les caractéristiques des modèles alternatifs d’institutions de l’intégrité publique sont celles des acteurs non dominants. Nos résultats sont mitigés. Le jeu de pouvoir a été limité à un petit groupe d’acteurs dominants qui ont cherché à utiliser la création de la loi pour assurer leur légitimité et la survie politique. Sans surprise, aucun acteur n’a avancé un modèle alternatif. Nous avons conclu donc que la loi est la conséquence d’un jeu de pouvoir partisan. Cette recherche répond à la pénurie de recherche sur la conception des institutions de l’intégrité publique, qui semblent privilégier en grande partie un biais organisationnel et structurel. De plus, en étudiant le sujet du point de vue des relations de pouvoir (le pouvoir, lui-même, vu sous l’angle actanciel et structurel), la thèse apporte de la rigueur conceptuelle, méthodologique, et analytique au discours sur la création de ces institutions par l’étude de leur genèse des perspectives tant actancielles que structurelles. En outre, les résultats renforcent notre capacité de prédire quand et avec quelle intensité un acteur déploierait ses ressources de pouvoir.

The Role of ‘Edutainment’ in Education for Sustainable Development

The Sustainable Strategies Game (SSG) is being developed as ‘edutainment’ in response to the need to understand sustainable futures and advocate sustainability within workplaces in Higher Education. SSG seeks to both deliver experiential teaching and learning for business sustainability and enhance students’ learning experiences within Worcester Business School. This paper presents findings from action research undertaken to formally investigate two aspects of SSG within edutainment for ESD: firstly, it explores the value students obtain from game playing as an approach to sustainability learning. Secondly, it establishes students’ suggestions for evolutions to SSG, e.g. game design and additional features such as social media interventions or legal challenges, to increase its value as a tool for teaching and learning. Informal feedback following sessions playing SSG suggests games generally generate positive effects on students’ learning. Students highlighted SSG offered an enjoyable alternative approach to learning and could drive changes to sustainability thinking. Introducing such gameplay offers the potential to engage participants in collaborative behaviours and encourage consideration of profitability through strategies which carry less impact on the environment; vital to create a sustainable future. This paper presents qualitative evidence from game players that can enhance SSG as a tool to further improve students’ learning experience and its value as edutainment rather than entertainment within ESD.

Higher Education - Border or Boundary? Can Theatre in Education Help Promote a University Education?

With the expansion and increased availability of Higher Education the progression to study for an undergraduate degree has been viewed as a simple stepping stone with examination success a straight - forward border pass. Changes in the funding of degree courses has established a series of more challenging boundaries to entry which demand a rigorous assessment of the benefits of Higher Education. The Widening Participation Unit at The University of Worcester has sought to ease this border crossing for pupils whose parents have not been to university. Their experience from previous projects was that school pupils more easily relate to undergraduate students whose experience of Higher Education is recent and relevant. With this in mind they commissioned the Drama and Performance Department to create a Theatre in Education programme that introduced an awareness of post sixteen options and future choices to challenge Higher Education stereotypes. As a result of this collaboration Why Bother? was created, directed by myself and devised and researched with four students who were studying drama. Their own experiences were used to inform the character development and dealt with worrying as a mature student about integration into full – time education, loss of income after working, the pressures of emotional commitments to partners and being away from home. The programme toured to two thousand year 9 – 11 pupils in Worcestershire and Herefordshire schools in January and May 2011. Devising and touring Why Bother provided students with an opportunity to work as a professional paid TIE team that it is not possible for them to do as part of their undergraduate degree course. My initial research looks at the effectiveness and limitations of this project based on pupil questionnaires and the experiences of the team which are explored within the broader context of TIE and its potential for affecting attitudinal change. This has given rise to a number of questions that need consideration in the development of a new TIE programme aimed at raising the awareness of sixth form students who are about to make the decision whether to apply to university or not. Collaboration with university students in exploring the value of an education that they have subscribed to raises issues of bias and whether their powers of persuasion actually prevent pupils from making their own individual decision. The ethics of promoting a “free” university education seem much less complex than the decision required now which involves balancing the real value against the high financial cost suggested in the working title of Is it Worth it? This paper will present my first attempts to develop research methods and methodologies that will enable me to evaluate the success of this and future TIE.

The Silent Majority: an Exploration of the Integration of Voting Software within Theatre in Education programmes

I wanted to explore whether traditional Forum Theatre approaches can be enhanced by the use of integrated voting software to empower young people. My research is based on two of a series of widening participation interactive TiE programmes focused on the decisions young people make on educational progression. I worked as a director alongside students studying Drama and Performance at The University of Worcester and the programmes have toured widely to schools across Worcestershire and Herefordshire. ‘It’s Up to You!’ (2013 – 2014) was aimed at years 8 and 9 choosing their GCSE options and ‘Move on Up!’ (2014 - 2015) looked at the hopes and fears of year 6 pupils about to go up to secondary school. Finding a voice in Boal’s framework as a ‘specactor’ does not always appeal to a pupil who does not want to stand out from the crowd or is not familiar with a classroom where drama conventions are practised or understood. The anonymity of the voting software with results of decisions made appearing instantly on screen is certainly appealing to some pupils: ‘I also loved the keypads they gave us so that we could answer the questions without having to put our hand up and wait..’ This paper aims to interrogate the idea that empowering needs to not simply be about giving voice to a few confident group members but allowing the silent majority to be able to experiment with decision making in an educational and social context.

Student attitudes towards cooperative learning in education

Abstract: Active or participatory learning by the student within a classroom environment has been fairly recently recognized as an effective, efficient, and superior instructional technique yet few teachers in higher education have adopted this pedagogical strategy. This is especially true in Science where teachers primarily lecture to passively seated students while using static visual aids or multimedia projections. Teachers generally teach as they were taught and lecture formats have been the norm. Although student-learning theories as well as student learning styles, abilities, and understanding strategies have changed, traditional teaching techniques have not evolved past the “chalk and talk” instructional strategy. This research looked into student’s perceptions of cooperative learning or team-based active learning in order to gain insight and some understanding as to how students felt about this learning technique. Student’s attitudes were then compared to student grades to detennine whether cooperative learning impeded or ameliorated academic performance. The results revealed significant differences measured in all the survey questions pertaining to perception or attitudes. As a result of the cooperative learning activities, respondents indicated more agreement to the survey questions pertaining to the benefits of cooperative learning. The experimental group exposed to cooperative learning thus experienced more positive attitudes and perceptions than the groups exposed only to a lecture-based teaching and learning format. Each of the hypotheses tested demonstrated that students had more positive attitudes towards cooperative learning strategies. Recommendations as to future work were presented in order to gain a greater understanding into both student and teacher attitudes towards the cooperative learning model.||Résumé: Lapprentissage actif ou préparatoire par létudiant au sein d’une classe a été reconnu assez récemment comme une technique d’enseignement plus efficace. Cependant, peu d’enseignants ont adopté cette stratégie pedagogique pour l'éducation post-secondaire. Ceci est particulièrement le cas dans le domaine des sciences où les enseignants font surtout usage de cours magistraux avec des étudiants passifs tout en utilisant des aides visuelles statiques ou des projections multimédias. Les professeurs enseignent generalement comme on leur a eux-même enseigné et les cours magistraux ont été la norme par le passé. Les techniques traditionnelles d'enseignernent n'ont pas évolué au-delà de la craie et du tableau noir et ce même si les théories sur l’apprentissage par les étudiants ont changé, tout comme les styles, les habiletés et les stratégies de compréhension d’apprentissage des étudiants. Cette recherche se penche sur les perceptions des étudiants au sujet de l'apprentissage coopératif ou de l'apprentissage actif par équipe de telle sorte qu'on puisse avoir un aperçu et une certaine compréhension de comment les étudiants se sentent par rapport à ces techniques d'apprentissage. Les attitudes des étudiants ont par la suite été comparées aux notes de ceux-ci pour déterminer si l'apprentissage coopératif avait nui ou au contraire amélioré leurs performances académiques. Les résultats obtenus dans l'étude d'ensemble révèlent des différences significatives dans toutes les questions ayant trait à la perception et aux attitudes.

Model BOT partnerstwa publiczno-prywatnego w realizacji inwestycji infrastrukturalnych

Partnerstwo publiczno-prywatne zyskuje coraz większą popularność w realizacji zadań publicznych, szczególnie w obszarze inwestycji infrastrukturalnych. W toku upowszechniania wykorzystania kapitału i wiedzy pochodzącej z sektora prywatnego do realizacji inwestycji, które dotychczas były domeną sektora publicznego wykształciły się różne modele partnerstwa. Jednym z najpowszechniejszych z nich jest model BOT, czyli build, operate and transfer, co w przekładzie na język polski oznacza buduj, eksploatuj i przekaż. Już samo rozwinięcie tego skrótu, wystarcza do opisania w sposób ogólny tej koncepcji. Polega ona na wykorzystaniu potencjału gospodarczego i organizacyjnego partnera prywatnego do budowy określonego obiektu użyteczności publicznej, następnie podmiot ten odzyskuje poniesione koszty i zapewnia sobie odpowiednią stopę zysku dzięki eksploatacji tego obiektu na podstawie udzielonej mu koncesji. Po wygaśnięciu koncesji prawa do eksploatacji obiektu wracają w posiadanie podmiotu publicznego. Niniejszy artykuł ma charakter poglądowy. Autor na wstępie przybliża podstawy prawne partnerstwa oraz status prawny jego uczestników. Następnie w oparciu o regulacje prawne przedstawiony zostaje proces realizacji przedsięwzięcia BOT, po czym określane są potencjalne korzyści i koszty płynące z zastosowania tego modelu.

Research in Education

Research in Education, like any discipline, can not be conceived in isolation. For example, if a person is to conduct research on "Juvenile literature" must be clear what aspect is going to emphasize the overarching theme. For this it is important to obtain what is the psychological approach, social, philosophical, etc.. and then define what type of library material is adapted to this approach.

David R. Cole (Hrsg.): Surviving Economic Crises through Education. Global Studies in Education, Vol. 11. New York u.a.: Peter Lang 2011 (267 S.) [Rezension]

Rezension von: David R. Cole (Hrsg.): Surviving Economic Crises through Education. Global Studies in Education, Vol. 11. New York u.a.: Peter Lang 2011 (267 S.; ISBN 978-1433114786)

Deficiencies in education and experience in the management of acute kidney injury among Malawian healthcare workers

Background Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common but under-recognised disease process, which carries a high risk of mortality or chronic complications, such as chronic kidney disease and other organ dysfunction. Management of AKI, however, is suboptimal, both in developed settings and in Malawi. This is partly because of deficiencies in AKI education and training. Aim To establish current levels of AKI education in a range of healthcare workers in Malawi. Methods An AKI symposium was held in Blantyre in March 2015. Delegates were asked to complete a survey at the start of the symposium to assess their clinical experience and education in the management of AKI. Results From 100 delegates, 89 nurses, clinical officers, and physicians, originating from 11 different districts, responded to the survey. Twenty-two percent of healthcare workers (including 28% of district workers of the various cadres and 31% of nurses) had never received teaching on any aspect of renal disease, and 50% (including 63% of district workers and 61% of nurses) had never received teaching specifically on AKI. Forty-four percent did not feel confident managing AKI, and 98% wanted more support managing patients with renal disease. Thirty-four percent (including 55% of district workers) were unaware that haemodialysis was available at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) for the treatment of AKI and 53% (74% of district workers) were unaware that peritoneal dialysis was available for the treatment of AKI in children. Only 33% had ever referred a patient with AKI to QECH. Conclusions There are deficiencies in education about, and clinical experience in, the management of AKI among Malawian healthcare workers, in addition to limited awareness of the renal service available at QECH. Urgent action is required to address these issues in order to prevent morbidity and mortality from AKI in Malawi.

Efficacy of entecavir and tenofovir in chronic hepatitis B under treatment in the public health system in southern Brazil

There are about 350 million hepatitis B virus (HBV) carriers worldwide and chronic HBV is considered a major public health problem. The objective of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of the nucleos(t)ide analogues tenofovir (TDF) and entecavir (ETV) in the treatment of chronic HBV. A cross-sectional study was carried out from March-December 2013, including all patients with chronic HBV, over 18 years of age, undergoing therapy through the public health system in southern Brazil. Only the data relating to the first treatments performed with TDF or ETV were considered. Retreatment, co-infection, transplanted or immunosuppressed patients were excluded. Six hundred and forty patients were evaluated, of which 336 (52.5%) received TDF and 165 (25.8%) ETV. The other 139 (21.7%) used various combinations of nucleos(t)ide analogues and were excluded. The negativation of viral load was observed in 87.3% and 78.8% and the negativation of hepatitis B e antigen was achieved in 79% and 72% of those treated with ETV or TDF, respectively. Negativation of hepatitis B surface antigen was not observed. There was no occurrence of adverse effects. This is a real-life study demonstrating that long-term treatment with ETV and TDF is both safe and effective.

Perception of HIV among pregnant women in the public health system in two municipalities of the state of São Paulo

Aim: To verify the knowledge of pregnant women on mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV, the availability of HIV tests in the public health system and counseling on the disease in two cities, Birigui and Piacatu, São Paulo State, Brazil. Methods: This is a descriptive and exploratory research using as samples, the files of 141 pregnant women attending the Basic Health Unit. Data were collected by survey, followed by a semi-structured questionnaire with open and closedend questions. Data were analyzed on Epi Info™ 7.1.4, by the Chi-square and Exact Fisher tests. Results: From all the 141 pregnant women, 119 were interviewed and 92.4% reported to have been informed about the need of taking the HIV test during prenatal exams. However, only 5.9% were counseled and 20.2% reported to be aware of how to prevent MTCT of HIV, usually mentioning lactation suppression and prescribed medication. The association between the knowledge about how to prevent MTCT of HIV and some social, demographic and economic variables like ethnics, educational level, home location, occupation, age and parenting was not verified. Conclusions: It is necessary to advise pregnant women on the importance of taking the HIV test regardless of the examination outcome, which was not observed in the cities where the research was conducted.