Carol Benson, Kara D. Brown and Bridget Goodman
This chapter reviews and synthesizes three major strands of recent research, alongside discipline-specific research design, from scholars of Language Issues in Comparative and…
Abstract
This chapter reviews and synthesizes three major strands of recent research, alongside discipline-specific research design, from scholars of Language Issues in Comparative and International Education. The first strand is mixed methods research on the policy and practice of L1-based multilingual education programs, and their contribution to raising educational quality and addressing equity and inclusiveness worldwide. The second strand is qualitative, community-based research of educational programs aimed toward revitalization of minoritized, indigenous, and/or endangered languages. The third strand is empirical and theoretical research that seeks to document, contest, and reconceptualize the dynamics among dominant and non-dominant languages within and between international contexts. The authors explore points of synergy between studies, examine publication in the field from a meta-perspective, and suggest encouraging directions of future research, while highlighting the value of non-dominant languages as resources for education and life.
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A content analyses study of social studies textbooks was completed in 1993 by Rahmia Wade. She found the problematic way in which researchers examined texts noting they relied too…
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A content analyses study of social studies textbooks was completed in 1993 by Rahmia Wade. She found the problematic way in which researchers examined texts noting they relied too much on personal perceptions and opinions of social studies topics and failed to cite additional sources to support their claims. The investigation further asserted social studies textbook analyses lacked interrater reliability and data quantification. In many cases, the authors of these works were comparing textbooks to other textbooks, rather than to standards, and were not examining all the texts used in a particular discipline. Based on these findings, Wade questioned the effectiveness of these analyses for improving social studies education. This project replicated Wade’s study. A random sample of social studies textbook analyses published between 2002 and 2012 was considered and the author found that they have changed little since Wade’s article. Suggestions are offered for those interested in conducting textbook analysis with a focus on how to make such studies more relevant for classroom teachers. These suggestions include: analyzing both the textbooks and standards simultaneously, analyzing the entire textbook, and providing student centered lesson ideas.
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Carol Benson, Kara D. Brown and Bridget Goodman
This essay provides an overview of key contemporary issues researched by scholars of Language Issues in Comparative and International Education. The authors present this…
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This essay provides an overview of key contemporary issues researched by scholars of Language Issues in Comparative and International Education. The authors present this scholarship around three main themes: L1-based multilingual education; language revitalization and education; and the power dynamics between dominant and non-dominant languages in educational settings. Research in all three themes challenges the view of monolingualism as the norm and invites the view that all languages are resources. These perspectives are relevant to the goals of educational development, particularly to equitable access to quality schooling. Recent research examines some stakeholders’ resistance to supporting and sustaining local languages and cultural practices. While language-in-education policy change may be slow, there are promising directions in research on how educators and communities exercise agency in transforming educational institutions to support plurilingualism and intercultural understandings. Scholars highlight the ideological, pedagogical, and policy-level supports needed for sustainable development of multiple languages, literacies and learning across contexts.
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This study analyzed gender balance in the texts and illustrations of three recently published, high school US history textbooks and one alternate volume of American history. In…
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This study analyzed gender balance in the texts and illustrations of three recently published, high school US history textbooks and one alternate volume of American history. In all of the American history texts analyzed there were significantly more males than females in text content and illustrations. These textbooks focused on the contributions of those famous Americans who have been a part of the historical record. The record is skewed with regard to gender, leaving teachers and students with the arduous task of acknowledging the absence of women while attempting to fill in the gaps through their own research and resources. Standards committees and textbook publishers should change their focus and teachers and students should confront gender imbalance by integrating high quality women’s history resources into the classroom with web-based resources, family and community history projects, young adult literature, history textbook analysis, and the vision of the C3 Framework.
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Drawing on world society and policy analysis literatures, the purpose of this paper is to examine the uneven diffusion of family planning programs in the developing world and the…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on world society and policy analysis literatures, the purpose of this paper is to examine the uneven diffusion of family planning programs in the developing world and the subsequent consequences for child health. The study begins by assessing the effect of world society ties on countries' commitment to and capacity for family planning programs. It then examines the impact such programs have on child health inputs and survival.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a cross‐national, quantitative study design on a sample of less developed countries.
Findings
Countries' world society embeddedness is a robust predictor of their institutional commitment to and capacity for family planning programs. Such program efforts are also shown to have a significant impact on child survival rates, mediated by reduced fertility and higher rates of childhood immunization.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should further explore the way in which such programs contribute to and/or serve as a foundation for health infrastructure in developing countries.
Practical implications
This study points to the child health benefits associated with building capacity in family planning programs. Practitioners should take care to appropriately adapt global policy models to local needs and circumstances while allowing local control.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to a growing body of literature on the role of world society (international nongovernmental organization) networks in spreading development policies and programs in the developing world. Going one step further, it assesses the actual impact of one such policy program on children's health.
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Many scholars and practitioners consider development to be as much an institutional and organizational phenomenon as it is an economic one. Among other elements, civil society is…
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Many scholars and practitioners consider development to be as much an institutional and organizational phenomenon as it is an economic one. Among other elements, civil society is a key determinant of a country’s level of social capital. Important links appear to exist between a robust associational milieu and the effective operation of democracy. However, the role of civil society organizations in human development has only recently gained attention.
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Guangming Cao, Yanqing Duan, Trevor Cadden and Sonal Minocha
– The purpose of this paper is to develop, and explicate the significance of the need for a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop, and explicate the significance of the need for a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value.
Design/methodology/approach
Embracing a systems perspective, this paper examines the interrelationship between IT and other organisational factors at the organisational level and its impact on the business value of IT. As a result, a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value is developed. An example of enhancing IT business value through developing systemic capabilities is then used to test and demonstrate the value of this framework.
Findings
The findings suggest that IT business value would be significantly enhanced when systemic capabilities are generated from the synergistic interrelations among IT and other organisational factors at the systems level, while the system’s human agents play a critical role in developing systemic capabilities by purposely configuring and reconfiguring organisational factors.
Practical implications
The conceptual framework advanced provides the means to recognise the significance of the need for understanding IT business value systemically and dynamically. It encourages an organisation to focus on developing systemic capabilities by ensuring that IT and other organisational factors work together as a synergistic whole, better managing the role its human agents play in shaping the systems interrelations, and developing and redeveloping systemic capabilities by configuring its subsystems purposely with the changing business environment.
Originality/value
This paper reveals the nature of systemic capabilities underpinned by a systems perspective. The resultant systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value can help us move away from pairwise resource complementarity to focusing on the whole system and its interrelations while responding to the changing business environment. It is hoped that the framework can help organisations delineate important IT investment considerations and the priorities that they must adopt to create superior IT business value.
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Thomas Misco, Gavin Pond and Mindy Spearman
Labor history is an important social studies topic often neglected in both textbooks and classrooms. We argue for the importance of including labor history in social studies and…
Abstract
Labor history is an important social studies topic often neglected in both textbooks and classrooms. We argue for the importance of including labor history in social studies and for the unique value of editorial cartoons as an educational resource to meet the challenge of making labor history relevant and engaging to students. Editorial cartoons are a unique form of visual rhetoric. To understand the meanings contemporary readers would have made from the cartoons, students need to engage both visual and written symbols that were current at the time of publication. These efforts help develop essential historical thinking skills by bridging semiotic gaps that impede meaningful understandings of history. A critical analysis of labor-related editorial cartoons not only helps students understand labor history, but also develops the skill of analyzing visual rhetoric, an invaluable tool for civic life in an information society saturated with images designed to persuade. Additionally, political cartoons that illustrate issues of exploitation, marginalization, and oppression provide unique and engaging points of entry for classroom discussions about issues of social justice, particularly as it relates to labor. To aid practicing social studies teachers, this article includes specific pedagogical approaches, resources, and examples of labor-related editorial cartoons that social studies teachers can introduce into their classrooms.
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The analysis in this special issue on the sociology of development continues the ongoing process of problematizing the development enterprise. While the notion of modernization…
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The analysis in this special issue on the sociology of development continues the ongoing process of problematizing the development enterprise. While the notion of modernization seems out of fashion, and few scholars would juxtapose the so‐called “progress and superiority” of modernization with the supposed “stagnation and inferiority” of tradition, the concept of development retains considerable ideological content. Evaluating development theories solely in terms of their relevance for policy both privileges the dominant worldview of the development community and masks the ideological premises of that worldview. The conditions pitting the ideology of free‐markets against state‐led development no longer exist, to be sure. Instead, the intricate connections between the global war on terror and global economic restructuring now serve the hegemonic project of developmentalism – “making the world safe for markets”.
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Thomas Simpson, Dan Wheatley, Vivienne Brunsden and Rowena Hill
The purpose of this paper is to discuss methods of capturing the impact of fire and rescue service (FRS) community safety work which directly aims to reduce the occurrence of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss methods of capturing the impact of fire and rescue service (FRS) community safety work which directly aims to reduce the occurrence of specific incidents.
Design/methodology/approach
The impact assessment method described focuses on addressing one of the major problems with regards to attributing outcomes to FRS community safety work; the influence of external factors. This paper looked to assess the incident trends within a case study UK FRS within the context of the following external data sets: first, incident trends within other UK FRSs; second, demographic trends; and third, incident data from other public services.
Findings
There were instances, either across the whole region served by the case study FRS, or within specific districts, where evidence suggested a strong likelihood of the community safety work of the case study FRS contributing towards an observed reduction in incidents. These findings were established through filtering the impact of widespread external factors, which could impact upon incident figures.
Research limitations/implications
The utility of this impact assessment relies upon FRS consistently recording the specific aims and focus of individual community safety activity, so that any positive outcomes can be attributed to a particular group of community safety initiatives.
Originality/value
This paper discusses how an evaluation process, to determine the likelihood of community safety impacting upon incident numbers, can be practically applied to a FRS.