Significant history and historical orientation : Ugandan students narrate their historical pasts

In 2012, Uganda celebrated 50 years of independence. The postcolonial era in the country has been marked by political turmoil and civil wars. Uganda, like many other postcolonial states in Africa, cannot be described as an ethnically or culturally homogenous state. However, history education has globally been seen as a platform for constructing national identities in contemporary societies. At the same time, it is assumed that specific historical experiences of countries influence historical understanding. This study takes its starting point in the theories of historical consciousness and narrativity. A narrative could be viewed as a site where mobilization of ideas of the past to envisage the present and possible futures is made and hence the narrative expresses historical orientation. Through the concept of historical orientation historical consciousness can be explored, i.e. what history is viewed as significant and meaningful. The aim in the study is to explore in what ways students connect to their historical pasts.   The study explores 219 narratives of 73 Ugandan upper secondary students. Narratives elicited through written responses to three assignments. Designed to capture different approaches to history: either to start from the beginning and narrate history prospectively or to depart from the present narrating retrospectively. The colonial experience of Uganda affected the sampling in the way that students were chosen from two different regions, Central and Northern Uganda. The comparison was a way to handle the concept of ‘nation’ as a presupposed category. Narrative analysis has been used as a method to explore what the students regarded as historically significant and what patterns among the narratives that point towards particular historical orientations.   The empirical results show how different approaches to history, a prospective or a retrospective approach, influence the student narratives. For instance, valued judgments on past developments were more common with the retrospective approach. The results also show differences in evaluating past developments according to regional origin. Students from northern Uganda were generally more inclined to tell a story of decline. Also, it is argued that the student narratives were informed by a meta-narrative of Africa. It was as common to identify oneself as African as it was to identify as Ugandan.

Giving Is Nicer than Taking: Preschoolers Reciprocate Based on the Social Intentions of the Distributor

Recent research has found that even preschoolers give more resources to others who have previously given resources to them, but the psychological bases of this reciprocity are unknown. In our study, a puppet distributed resources between herself and a child by taking some from a pile in front of the child or else by giving some from a pile in front of herself. Although the resulting distributions were identical, three- and five-year-olds reciprocated less generously when the puppet had taken rather than given resources. This suggests that children’s judgments about resource distribution are more about the social intentions of the distributor and the social framing of the distributional act than about the amount of resources obtained. In order to rule out that the differences in the children’s reciprocal behavior were merely due to experiencing gains and losses, we conducted a follow-up study. Here, three- and-five year olds won or lost resources in a lottery draw and could then freely give or take resources to/from a puppet, respectively. In this study, they did not respond differently after winning vs. losing resources.

Modeling the Aesthetic Axis of Information Organization Frameworks, Part 1: Theoretical Basis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework, based on contemporary philosophical aesthetics, from which principled assessments of the aesthetic value of information organization frameworks may be conducted.Design/methodology/approach – This paper identifies appropriate discourses within the field of philosophical aesthetics, constructs from them a framework for assessing aesthetic properties of information organization frameworks. This framework is then applied in two case studies examining the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), and Sexual Nomenclature: A Thesaurus. Findings – In both information organization frameworks studied, the aesthetic analysis was useful in identifying judgments of the frameworks as aesthetic judgments, in promoting discovery of further areas of aesthetic judgments, and in prompting reflection on the nature of these aesthetic judgments. Research limitations/implications – This study provides proof-of-concept for the aesthetic evaluation of information organization frameworks. Areas of future research are identified as the role of cultural relativism in such aesthetic evaluation and identification of appropriate aesthetic properties of information organization frameworks.Practical implications – By identifying a subset of judgments of information organization frameworks as aesthetic judgments, aesthetic evaluation of such frameworks can be made explicit and principled. Aesthetic judgments can be separated from questions of economic feasibility, functional requirements, and user-orientation. Design and maintenance of information organization frameworks can be based on these principles.Originality/value – This study introduces a new evaluative axis for information organization frameworks based on philosophical aesthetics. By improving the evaluation of such novel frameworks, design and maintenance can be guided by these principles.Keywords Evaluation, Research methods, Analysis, Bibliographic systems, Indexes, Retrieval languages

Modeling the Aesthetic Axis of Information Organization Frameworks, Part 2: Case Studies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework, based on contemporary philosophical aesthetics, from which principled assessments of the aesthetic value of information organization frameworks may be conducted.Design/methodology/approach – This paper identifies appropriate discourses within the field of philosophical aesthetics, constructs from them a framework for assessing aesthetic properties of information organization frameworks. This framework is then applied in two case studies examining the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), and Sexual Nomenclature: A Thesaurus. Findings – In both information organization frameworks studied, the aesthetic analysis was useful in identifying judgments of the frameworks as aesthetic judgments, in promoting discovery of further areas of aesthetic judgments, and in prompting reflection on the nature of these aesthetic judgments. Research limitations/implications – This study provides proof-of-concept for the aesthetic evaluation of information organization frameworks. Areas of future research are identified as the role of cultural relativism in such aesthetic evaluation and identification of appropriate aesthetic properties of information organization frameworks.Practical implications – By identifying a subset of judgments of information organization frameworks as aesthetic judgments, aesthetic evaluation of such frameworks can be made explicit and principled. Aesthetic judgments can be separated from questions of economic feasibility, functional requirements, and user-orientation. Design and maintenance of information organization frameworks can be based on these principles.Originality/value – This study introduces a new evaluative axis for information organization frameworks based on philosophical aesthetics. By improving the evaluation of such novel frameworks, design and maintenance can be guided by these principles.Keywords Evaluation, Analysis, Bibliographic systems, Indexes, Retrieval languages, Philosophy

Nicaragua y el Lawfare: el derecho internacional como sucedáneo de la guerra

El interés de esta monografía es evaluar la relación entre el derecho internacional, la guerra y la política exterior a la luz del concepto de lawfare. Esta relación se evalúa a la luz del caso de las relaciones de Nicaragua con sus vecinos. Se analiza y explican las distintas nociones de derecho internacional desarrolladas por las teorías de Relaciones y sus limitaciones; la utilización de la guerra jurídica como estrategia sustitutiva de la guerra material en el caso de Nicaragua. Utilizando el concepto desarrollado por Charles Dunlap, el trabajo busca demostrar que el lawfare explica algunas relaciones entre derecho, guerra, y relaciones internacionales que las teorías clásicas no pueden y, adicionalmente da razón de las acciones de Nicaragua mediante la utilización del Derecho Internacional.

La apropiación del discurso emocional, como estrategia de Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, para la movilización de masas

La presente investigación pretende analizar la apropiación del discurso emocional, como estrategia de Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, para la movilización de masas. El análisis del discurso emocional supone el estudio desde ámbitos psicológicos, sociológicos y políticos que constituyen un andamiaje diferente al de otras investigaciones hechas con base en el fenómeno “Gaitán” y a la concepción de las emociones en la movilización. Para lograr los objetivos de este estudio de caso, se realizará un análisis de fuentes primarias (discursos de Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, testimonios documentados sobre varias movilizaciones que surgieron en la época en la que el líder político era visible en las esferas del poder). Adicional a lo anterior, se realizará una revisión documental sobre las el uso del discurso emocional como estrategia para movilizar masas, influir en las decisiones de la población, crear juicios a partir de las motivaciones que la masa construía y así generar acciones concretas.

Quality of Judgment Assessment

The intersection of Artificial Intelligence and The Law stands for a multifaceted matter, and its effects set the advances on culture, organization, as well as the social matters, when the emergent information technologies are taken into consideration. From this point of view, the weight of formal and informal Conflict Resolution settings should be highlighted, and the use of defective data, information or knowledge must be emphasized. Indeed, it is hard to do it with traditional problem solving methodologies. Therefore, in this work the focus is on the development of decision support systems, in terms of its knowledge representation and reasoning procedures, under a formal framework based on Logic Programming, complemented with an approach to computing centered on Artificial Neural Networks. It is intended to evaluate the Quality-of-Judgments and the respective Degree-of-Confidence that one has on such happenings.

Uma abordagem experimental de fatores da adesão à medicação em idosos: barreiras e facilitadores

Este estudo teve como objetivo perceber de que forma certos fatores mencionados como determinantes da adesão à medicação, nomeadamente severidade da condição clínica (SCC), confiança no clínico, complexidade do regime e custo dos medicamentos influenciam os juízos de adesão por parte de idosos. Replicando a investigação de Diniz, Oliveira, e Santos (2016) sobre a doença cardíaca (DC), recorreu-se a uma tarefa experimental composta pela combinação dos diferentes níveis dos fatores, pediu-se aos 72 participantes que avaliassem o nível de adesão percebida à medicação de um hipotético doente com diabetes Tipo II. Através da ANOVA mista de medidas repetidas verificou-se que a SCC surgiu como o único determinante da adesão, revelando, tal como na DC, a importância do afeto como informação. Contudo, a diabetes Tipo II gerou menos pavor do que a DC, com os restantes fatores a não influenciar a adesão por causa de preferências enviesadas para o presente; An experimental approach of factors of medication adherence in elderly: Barriers and facilitators Abstract: The purpose of this study was to understand how certain factors mentioned as determinants of adherence to medication, namely severity of clinical condition (SCC), trust in the clinician, regimen complexity and cost of medication, influence the judgments of adherence by the elderly. Replicating the investigation of Diniz, Oliveira, e Santos (2016) about heart precondition (HP), an experimental task composed by scenarios combining the different levels of the factors was used, asking 72 participants to rate the degree of perceived adherence to medication of a hypothetical patient with Type II diabetes. Through mixed repeated measures ANOVA it was found that SCC emerged as the only determinant of adherence, revealing, as in HP, the importance of affect as information. However, the clinical condition Type II diabetes generated less dread than the HP, not influencing adherence because of present-biased preferences.

Into the looking glass: Literacy acquisition and mirror invariance in preschool and first-grade children

At what point in reading development does literacy impact object recognition and orientation processing? Is it specific to mirror images? To answer these questions, forty-six 5- to 7-year-old preschoolers and first graders performed two same–different tasks differing in the matching criterion-orientation-based versus shape-based (orientation independent)-on geometric shapes and letters. On orientation-based judgments, first graders out- performed preschoolers who had the strongest difficulty with mirrored pairs. On shape-based judgments, first graders were slower for mirrored than identical pairs, and even slower than preschoolers. This mirror cost emerged with letter knowledge. Only first graders presented worse shape-based judgments for mirrored and rotated pairs of reversible (e.g., b-d; b-q) than nonreversible (e.g., e-ә) letters, indicating readers’ difficulty in ignoring orientation contrasts relevant to letters.

From Traditional Assessment to the New Competency-Based Assessment

The evaluation of school students has always attempted to estimate the effort, abilities and learning of students. However, at the beginning, evaluation consisted in measuring the progress of the student’s behavior compared to a desirable behavior. Later on, different changes in evaluation benefited the processes addressed to assessing the academic achievement of students and learning itself. Today, the demands of the contemporary society are vast and numerous: students not only require knowledge, they need to develop skills, values and postures. Postmodern education requires individuals to develop different talents and competencies to grow in every way. Therefore, evaluation should respond to such needs promoting an ethical, technical, reliable assessment of the student’s competencies, thus providing more fair and objective, qualitative and quantitative judgments. This dissertation project is the result of a literature review of several authors and the daily work of teachers in the Centros de Educación Media Superior a Distancia [High School Distance Centers] of Morelos, Mexico.

TO BREASTFEED: TO WHOM IS THIS DECISION?

This paper aims to provoke a reflection, in the light of Discourse Analysis, on advertising campaigns in defense of breastfeeding. We understand that a discussion on this discourse, which is becoming more popular in society, deserves a review, especially when the subject seems to transpose the field of the debatable, since it is given as non-controversial. What stands as problematic – which does not relate to the benefits of breastfeeding – is the existence, in these campaigns, of a social problem concerning the treatment that the female body receives when public policies come into play, taking as their responsibility a choice that should be left exclusively to women. The discussion focuses on a discursive practice of expropriation of the mother’s own body when public authorities unilaterally support the discourse of breastfeeding, publicly exposing, through the unsaid, the women who, by choice or impossibility, do not breastfeed. This discursive order conveys questionable judgments on the good mother (the one who gives herself entirely to maternity) and the bad mother (the one who, by choosing not to breastfeed, is seen as less dedicated to the child and, even worse, as the one that deprives her child of better health). The campaigns that comprise the corpus of this study reveal silencing practices that cause a complex process of non-autonomy of women over their own bodies.

THE REPRESENTATION OF THE BRAZILIAN SOCCER TEAM IN WORLD CUP BY GLOBOESPORTE.COM

Our work in this research is to capture the value judgments in the discourse of the website Globoesporte.com on representing the Brazil National Football Team during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We have checked how the team is overrated by the website, submitted to the editorial line of Globo Organizations which is especially optimistic about the national football. The analysis was based on the relation between the texts and the information we have access to and the theoretical assumptions. It seems obvious for us that, because of the emotional bond with the country, the Brazil National Football Team gets more attention from the website.