La investigación como estrategia pedagógica en el proceso de formación de educadores : relato de práctica docente.

Monográfico con el título: 'Formación y desarrollo profesional del profesorado'. Resumen basado en el de la publicación

Luz, color e imágenes en la vida y en la obra de Rafael Alberti.

Resumen basado en el de la publicación

Aprendizaje activo en Ingeniería de Telecomunicaciones : un caso de estudio.

Resumen basado en el de la publicación

Fatores do abandono escolar precoce e motivações para o regresso em educação de adultos

A presente investigação tem como objetivo analisar e compreender os motivos que levaram um grupo de adultos a frequentar um processo de formação, depois de terem abandonado precocemente a escola formal, quando seria de esperar a sua frequência. Sendo Portugal um país em que se tem verificado um elevado abandono escolar precoce, apesar das melhorias nas últimas décadas, torna-se necessário conhecer as razões desse abandono e, ao mesmo tempo, procurar compreender as motivações dos adultos para o regresso a um percurso educativo. Numa altura em que as experiências e as aprendizagens informais e não formais assumem um lugar de destaque no currículo individual, assim como a aprendizagem ao longo da vida, torna-se pertinente a reflexão acerca da necessidade crescente demonstrada pela população adulta em atualizar os seus conhecimentos e ver formalmente reconhecidas as competências adquiridas ao longo da sua vida. Assim, foi realizada uma análise documental de entrevistas efetuadas aos adultos, antes da frequência da sua formação, num Centro de Novas Oportunidades. Os resultados obtidos foram discutidos à luz da investigação recente neste domínio.

Evasão escolar no ensino fundamental : a concepção de egressos do projovem urbano em Carmópolis/SE : um estudo de caso

A presente pesquisa objetivou, a partir da percepção dos egressos do ProJovem Urbano, do Município de Carmópolis/Sergipe, compreender as razões que levam o aluno à evasão escolar, depois de aderir a um programa educacional. Tendo em atenção o objetivo desse trabalho, que era o de investigar a evasão em programas educacionais, a estratégia de pesquisa selecionada, foi o estudo de caso, exploratório e descritivo, com abordagem qualitativa. A coleta de dados constituiu-se de entrevistas semi estruturadas, realizadas com 20 egressos e 07 professores do programa educacional de governo, ProJovem Urbano, que teve início em abril de 2009 e encerramento em Outubro de 2010, realizado no Município de Carmópolis, Estado de Sergipe/Brasil. Os resultados obtidos permitiram apontar que fatores, enquadrados em três grandes categorias: contexto familiar, contexto social e contexto escolar concorreram para que o estudante interrompesse ou abandonasse sua vida acadêmica. Os dados coletados possibilitaram, também, considerações acerca do conceito de evasão e dos procedimentos utilizados para a investigação desse fenômeno. Buscou-se, em especial, oferecer subsídios para uma reflexão crítica, a respeito dos programas educacionais de governo, criados com o objetivo de facilitar e estimular o ingresso ou o retorno do indivíduo ao ambiente educacional, mas não são suficientes para amenizar as taxas de fracasso ou evasão escolar.

Strained relations: a critical analysis of the mining conflict in Prestea, Ghana

This paper examines the dynamics of the ongoing conflict in Prestea, Ghana, where indigenous galamsey mining groups are operating illegally on a concession awarded to Bogoso Gold Limited (BGL), property of the Canadian-listed multinational Gold Star Resources. Despite being issued firm orders by the authorities to abandon their activities, galamsey leaders maintain that they are working areas of the concession that are of little interest to the company; they further counter that there are few alternative sources of local employment, which is why they are mining in the first place. Whilst the Ghanaian Government is in the process of setting aside plots to relocate illegal mining parties and is developing alternative livelihood projects, efforts are far from encouraging: in addition to a series of overlooked logistical problems, the areas earmarked for relocation have not yet been prospected to ascertain gold content, and the alternative income-earning activities identified are inappropriate. As has been the case throughout mineral-rich sub-Saharan Africa, the conflict in Prestea has come about largely because the national mining sector reform program, which prioritizes the expansion of predominantly foreign-controlled large-scale projects, has neglected the concerns of indigenous subsistence groups.

Entering dystopia, entering Erewhon

Abandon hope all ye who enter here: a society cannot be truly dystopian if travellers can come and go freely. Anti-utopias and 'satirical utopias' - that is, societies considered perfect by their advocates but not by the implied reader - must be well-regulated enough to prevent the possible disruption caused by a visitor. There is no exit at all from the classic twentieth-century dystopias, which end either in an actual death, like that of the Savage in Huxley's Brave New World (1932), or in a spiritual death like Winston Smith's in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). Any glimmers of hope that the protagonist may have felt are quickly destroyed.

Last charge of the knights? Iraq, Afghanistan and the special relationship

At the heart of the ‘special relationship’ ideology, there is supposed to be a grand bargain. In exchange for paying the ‘blood price’ as America's ally, Britain will be rewarded with exceptional influence over American foreign policy and its strategic behaviour. Soldiers and statesman continue to articulate this idea. Since 9/11, the notion of Britain playing ‘Greece’ to America's ‘Rome’ gained new life thanks to Anglophiles on both sides of the Atlantic. One potent version of this ideology was that the more seasoned British would teach Americans how to fight ‘small wars’ in Iraq and Afghanistan, thereby bolstering their role as tutor to the superpower. Britain does derive benefits from the Anglo-American alliance and has made momentous contributions to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet British solidarity and sacrifices have not purchased special influence in Washington. This is partly due to Atlanticist ideology, which sets Britain unrealistic standards by which it is judged, and partly because the notion of ‘special influence’ is misleading as it loses sight of the complexities of American policy-making. The overall result of expeditionary wars has been to strain British credibility in American eyes and to display its lack of consistent influence both over high policy and the design and execution of US military campaigns. While there may be good arguments in favour of the UK continuing its efforts in Afghanistan, the notion that the war fortifies Britain's vicarious world status is a dangerous illusion that leads to repeated overstretch and disappointment. Now that Britain is in the foothills of a strategic defence review, it is important that the British abandon this false consciousness.

Flooding, resettlement and change in livelihoods: evidence from rural Mozambique

Post-disaster development policies, such as resettlement, can have major impacts on communities. This article concerns how and why people's livelihoods change as a result of resettlement, and what relocated people's views of such changes are, in the context of natural disasters. It presents two historically-grounded, comparative case studies of post-flood resettlement in rural Mozambique. The studies show a movement away from rain-fed subsistence agriculture towards commercial agriculture and non-agricultural activities. Ability to secure a viable livelihood was a major determinant of whether resettlers remained in their new locations or returned to the river valleys despite the risks that floods posed. The findings suggest that more research is required into 1) understanding why resettlers choose to stay in or abandon designated resettlement areas; 2) what is meant by 'voluntary' and 'involuntary' resettlement in the context of post-disaster reconstruction; and 3) what the policy drivers for resettlement are in developing countries.

Parliamentary sovereignty, popular sovereignty, and Henry Parker's adjudicative standpoint

Discussions of popular sovereignty in early modern England have usually been premised upon a sharp distinction between ‘legal/constitutional’ forms of discourse (which merely interpret the law) and ‘political’ ones (which focus upon the right to make it). In such readings of the period, Henry Parker has a pivotal position as a writer who abandoned merely legalistic thinking. This chapter takes a different view. It argues that Parker’s major intellectual achievement was not so much to abandon legal/constitutional discourse as to offer a theorisation of its most distinctive features: he offered an account of a new kind of politics in which concern for ‘interests’ in property and in self-preservation replaced humanist concern with promotion of virtue. Parker drew upon ideas about representation best expressed by Sir Thomas Smith and ideas about law best expressed by Oliver St John. The theory he developed was not intended as a justification of legislative sovereignty, but of adjudicative supremacy. His picture of the two Houses as supreme adjudicators was meant to block the path to direct democracy. But the adjudicative standpoint they came to occupy presupposed that freeborn adults had ‘interests’ in life, liberty, and possessions. This had democratising implications.

Within - versus between - country differences in risk attitudes: implications for cultural comparisons

Cultural comparisons enjoy increasing popularity in economics. Since cultural comparison must abandon random allocation to treatments, it is unclear whether differences found between countries can be attributed to country characteristics or are merely driven by differences in subject pools. In experiments in two Chinese cities and at two campuses in Ethiopia, we show that within-country differences are negligible. Differences between the two countries, on the other hand, are large.

Being dialysis-dependant: a qualitative perspective

The technology of renal dialysis offers a way in which life can be sustained, so it is not surprising that the complex, diverse and evolving iatrogenic aspects of dialysis-dependency continue to be researched. However, there has been a tendency to take for granted the human process of making sense of the intrusiveness of dialysis. This study was designed to explore the meanings of dialysis-dependency. The study sample was 10 participants: five female, five male; five on peritoneal dialysis, five on haemodialysis; whose ages ranged from 22 to 68 years. Using a narrative methodology the following methods were used: in-depth interviews, narrative and thematic analysis, fieldwork/notes from five renal units, participant validation, and journal reflections. A thematic analysis revealed the continuum themes of Freedom-Restrictions, Being Normal-Being Visible, Control-Acquiesce, Hope-Despair and Support-Abandon. The themes portrayed as continuums serve to remind health care professionals that those with chronic illnesses strive to make sense of what is happening to them. Variations within each of these themes can occur daily, weekly or monthly. Acceptance may never be reached or may be tentative. Some clients will strive for control and freedom to choose for themselves, others will acquiesce to the overwhelming changes wrought in their lives. Thus, health care professionals might consider placing the personal meanings of those who are dialysis-dependent to the fore, being sensitive to the sufferings wrought by the regime, which treats but does not cure, which sustains life but does not heal.

The Purely Reflected Self

Belief in the concept of the self causes suffering. Unfortunately, although conceptual constructions like this may help to define our goal—the casting off of the belief in the self—this is a much more difficult thing to actualize and attain in daily practice. Our building blocks can form a neat tower, and we can climb to the top and gaze at the horizon, but they will topple, leaving us once again over our heads in the hedgerow. Buddha describes his teachings as a raft to ford the river of suffering in order to reach the far off bank of enlightenment: as one does not take the raft after crossing the river, so we must not lean on his teachings to make our way through life. So I intend here to abandon the raft for other accounts of existence written by other thinkers, and in this my purpose is twofold: First, in reading other interpretations we can gain new tools with which to study the architecture of the concept of the self, and second, in studying the history of the concept of self as it progresses through history we can better understand the non-inherentness of this problematic construct. I intend to examine the philosophies of self in the Chinese and European traditions, and their subsequent deconstructive traditions in order to achieve this goal.

The Australian Government`s abandoned infrastructure outsourcing program: "fiasco" or relatively typical?

Early in 2001, after a damning public report by the Auditor-General, the Australian Federal Government was forced to abandon its highly promoted “whole of government” infrastructure outsourcing initiative. This about-face was greeted in the press with reports that the initiative was a “fiasco”. Yet a four-year case study of the initiative suggests a more complex picture. The initiative can be viewed in a quite different light on the basis of comparisons with a contemporary survey of 240 Australian organisations engaged in IT outsourcing. This reveals that many of the negative outcomes associated with this “fiasco” are typical of those experienced by large Australian organisations. This has important implications for decision makers confronted with choices about sourcing IT service delivery.

Production decisions and lot sizing for automotive stamping

A discrete event model was used to examine the effect of machine downtime and operating policy on the long-run average cost of an automotive stamping line. Operating policy refers to the selection of a target batch size and the circumstances under which a line stoppage will lead to the current batch being abandoned. It is assumed that the abandon/resume decision is based solely on the severity of the problem (i.e., repair cost) and the fraction of the batch completed. A method of identifying low-cost operating policies is presented using data obtained from a real stamping plant. It is found that, within a single part framework, this approach results in significantly lower average costs than are currently achieved. It is also demonstrated that by varying the model parameters it is possible to measure the potential benefits arising from process modifications (e.g., decreased die-set times). This can be used to identify the areas where improvements will have the greatest impact on cost and is particularly useful when assessing the expected return on a potential investment. A multiple-part extension to the model is suggested and the potential benefits discussed.