Sammia Poveda, Melinda Gill, Don Rodney Junio, Hannah Thinyane and Vanessa Catan
This paper aims to explore how stable employment, company culture and tailored health, digital and core skills training provided by a social enterprise (SE) in the Philippines…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how stable employment, company culture and tailored health, digital and core skills training provided by a social enterprise (SE) in the Philippines affect survivors of exploitation. Research shows survivors experience adverse social conditions and physical and mental health outcomes caused by their exploitative experience. Stable, decent employment has been identified as critical to their recovery and reintegration. This paper discusses the SE’s impact on the employees’ physical, mental and social health and behaviour. Based on our findings, the authors discuss the contribution of SE in improving health outcomes and providing health services and conclude that SEs should not replace but complement public health government programmes.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses mixed methods, presenting data from a longitudinal survey (household income, mental health and social well-being) and a follow-up qualitative study, which uses in-depth interviews and participatory videos to explore survey findings.
Findings
The quantitative analysis demonstrates positive, but gradual, changes in sexual and reproductive health behaviour; personal empowerment; and trauma, anxiety and depressive symptoms. The qualitative findings show how improvements in executive functioning, self-regulation and self-esteem occur incrementally over time. As their self-efficacy improves, employees need to avoid being overly dependent on the SE, to support their autonomy; therefore, access to complementary public health services is fundamental.
Originality/value
This paper focusses, to the authors’ knowledge, on a unique SE, which hires survivors of exploitation, without losing their competitiveness in the market.
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Ana Campos-Holland, Brooke Dinsmore, Gina Pol and Kevin Zevallos
Rooted in adult fear, adult authority aims to protect and control youth (Gannon, 2008; Valentine, 1997). Continuously negotiating for freedom, youth search for adult-free public…
Abstract
Purpose
Rooted in adult fear, adult authority aims to protect and control youth (Gannon, 2008; Valentine, 1997). Continuously negotiating for freedom, youth search for adult-free public spaces and are therefore extremely attracted to social networking sites (boyd, 2007, 2014). However, a significant portion of youth now includes adult authorities within their Facebook networks (Madden et al., 2013). Thus, this study explores how youth navigate familial- and educational-adult authorities across social networking sites in relation to their local peer culture.
Methodology/approach
Through semi-structured interviews, including youth-centered and participant-driven social media tours, 82 youth from the Northeast region of the United States of America (9–17 years of age; 43 females and 39 males) shared their lived experiences and perspectives about social media during the summer of 2013.
Findings
In their everyday lives, youth are subjected to the normative expectations emerging from peer culture, school, and family life. Within these different and at times conflicting normative schemas, youth’s social media use is subject to adult authority. In response, youth develop intricate ways to navigate adult authority across social networking sites.
Originality/value
Adult fear is powerful, but fragile to youth’s interpretation; networked publics are now regulated and youth’s ability to navigate then is based on their social location; and youth’s social media use must be contextualized to be holistically understood.
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Ana Campos-Holland, Grace Hall and Gina Pol
The No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and Race to the Top (2009) led to the highest rate of standardized-state testing in the history of the United States of America. As a result…
Abstract
Purpose
The No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and Race to the Top (2009) led to the highest rate of standardized-state testing in the history of the United States of America. As a result, the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) aims to reevaluate standardized-state testing. Previous research has assessed its impact on schools, educators, and students; yet, youth’s voices are almost absent. Therefore, this qualitative analysis examines how youth of color perceive and experience standardized-state testing.
Design/methodology/approach
Seventy-three youth participated in a semistructured interview during the summer of 2015. The sample consists of 34 girls and 39 boys, 13–18 years of age, of African American, Latino/a, Jamaican American, multiracial/ethnic, and other descent. It includes 6–12th graders who attended 61 inter-district and intra-district schools during the 2014–2015 academic year in a Northeastern metropolitan area in the United States that is undergoing a racial/ethnic integration reform.
Findings
Youth experienced testing overload under conflicting adult authorities and within an academically stratified peer culture on an ever-shifting policy terrain. While the parent-adult authority remained in the periphery, the state-adult authority intrusively interrupted the teacher-student power dynamics and the disempowered teacher-adult authority held youth accountable through the “attentiveness” rhetoric. However, youth’s perspectives and lived experiences varied across grade levels, school modalities, and school-geographical locations.
Originality/value
In this adult-dominated society, the market approach to education reform ultimately placed the burden of teacher and school evaluation on youth. Most importantly, youth received variegated messages from their conflicting adult authorities that threatened their academic journeys.
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Vanessa Tibola da Rocha, Luciana Londero Brandli and Rosa Maria Locatelli Kalil
The purpose of this paper is to present an experience of inclusion of the theme “climate change” in a Brazilian public school through training conducted with teachers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an experience of inclusion of the theme “climate change” in a Brazilian public school through training conducted with teachers.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology was based on three specific phases: reflection, focusing on the application of a pretest with 45 questions directed to three domains (knowledge, attitude and behavior); climate change education (CCE) training; and application of a post-test and action, regarding the insertion in the school space.
Findings
The survey results highlight the difficulty teachers have in understanding and applying CCE in the classroom and it underscores the importance of this approach.
Research limitations/implications
The research approach is related to a specific case in a school located in south of Brazil. Although the school has its own context, the reported experience can be considered elsewhere.
Practical implications
This case study reinforces that CCE presents broad challenges for the scientific community. For the reason that the understanding of the topic (CCE) is complex, considering the global context and the divergent opinions on the subject.
Social implications
The paper reinforces that for today’s society, sustainable development is no longer a choice but a necessity, underpinned by global Agenda 2030 discussions. In this context, teachers are essential to the transformation toward a better future.
Originality/value
The difficulties and facilities encountered during the experience serve to enhance new actions at national or even global level, respecting each new context of study and insertion of research directed to the theme – CCE.