Points of view: reconceptualising literacies through an exploration of adult and child interactions in a virtual world

This article explores theoretical and methodological issues in literacy studies emerging from an investigation of how children and adults make meanings when virtual worlds are embedded in classroom contexts. Drawing on the work of Law and Mol and Kwa's exploration of ‘baroque complexity’, it highlights the importance of recognising and interrogating multiplicity in examining interactions through and around texts. The implications of this, we suggest, go beyond research into literacies in digital environments to raise questions about how we theorise and research literacies more generally. In particular, this leads us to re‐examine the use of the literacy event as a unit of analysis. We argue that these issues are particularly important at a time when diverse and multiple literacies collide with educational policies that reduce literacies to ‘the basics’ and to simple models that prescribe what is learned.     

南非学校暴力的文化审视

南非自1994年以来,教育机构一律取消了种族隔离。但是,由于长期种族隔离造成的阴影短时间内尚难以消除,学校中的冲突事件不断。目前,校园暴力已成为南非学校的毒瘤。本文扫描了南非学校暴力的现状,认为校园暴力是种族隔离教育制度的蛮性遗留。之后,从文化维度对南非学校暴力进行了分析,提出了解决的途径。     

Identifying supporters and distracters in the segmented world of the adult learner

This paper examines the results of research into the learning experiences of a group of adult learners in a university preparation programme in a college of Technical and Further Education in Sydney, NSW, Australia. The research was conducted over a three year period by the author as a teacher-researcher and is grounded in the phenomenological work of Schutz, and Berger and Luckmann. Students identified the diverse segments of their complex life-worlds and the salient situated interactions within these segments which support or distract them from learning. What emerges is a representation of the life-world of the adult learner which enables adult educators and students to better understand the complex world of learning in adulthood. An understanding of this world has become increasingly significant as recent economic and social changes have ensured that more adults return to formal education.     

Management of adult education organisations in Africa

International Review of Education -     

儿童时期健康与营养状况的跨期收入效应

儿童时期的营养健康状况是持续影响个人成长、家庭发展和地区人力资本积累的重要因素。在夫妻双方合作议价的儿童营养决定作用框架下,基于脱贫地区帮扶车间中妇女本地就业的准实验设计和湖南、河北、广西三省的微观调查数据,实证分析妇女(母亲)本地就业对儿童营养摄取的影响及其作用机制,发现：妇女本地就业对儿童的日均能量和蛋白质摄入均具有显著的正向影响,但对儿童能量摄入改善更大;妇女本地就业分别对儿童在幼儿阶段的能量摄入和在小学阶段的蛋白质摄入改善更明显,而且营养改善效应并不存在明显的性别差异;从作用机制来看,妇女收入对儿童能量和蛋白质摄入存在显著的正向中介效应,家庭议价能力仅对儿童蛋白质摄入存在显著的正向中介效应,而时间照料的中介效应均不显著。脱贫地区在承接产业转移中应统筹考虑妇女劳动力就业与产业项目选择,在新型城镇化建设中逐步建立健全妇女就业市场,创造更多适合农村妇女工作的就业机会,提高妇女本地就业的能力和可行性,从而扩大妇女本地就业的正外部影响,从妇女就业帮扶的角度促进家庭能力建设。     

Twenty years of adult education in Southern Africa

The paper's starting point is to consider adult education as embedded in the political, social, cultural and economic processes of society. The writers believe that it is necessary to develop an understanding of these contexts in order to understand the role of adult education in Southern Africa in the last 20 years. The paper then looks at adult education in the Southern African context in terms of three themes. These are: adult education for survival; for economic development and for political and cultural development. Finally the paper considers the shift from adult education to lifelong learning.     

Political economy of higher education: comparing South Africa to trends in the world

Education is one of the major linchpins of economic, social and political development of any nation. Recent evidence suggests that higher education can produce both public and private benefits. Thus, the role of the state in making education policy, and funding education is indeed critical, and cannot be left to be determined by market forces alone. Nevertheless, the trend of inadequate government funding for universities, loss of autonomy, infrastructural decay, falling academic standards, politicization and privatization of education, etc. appear to be a worldwide phenomenon and not just restricted to the developing world. South African higher education shows much promise with respect to knowledge production and dissemination, to contributing to social equity, economic and social development and democracy, and to the development needs of the Southern African region and the African continent. However, higher education in South Africa is under considerable stress from domestic and international trends that are redefining the nature and role of public sector post-secondary education (PSE) institutions worldwide. The paper will outline the role of PSE in the knowledge economy and the impact of the neoliberal context on the evolution of higher education in South Africa and the world. Given the significant developmental implications of investment in higher education, the authors argue that relegating this important public policy issue to the market forces is likely to promote inequality in the society, along with negative consequences for socio-political stability, economic sustainability, and knowledge generation.     

Psychopathology among adult survivors of child pornography

BackgroundThe majority of studies investigating child pornography have focused on conceptualizing the problem and the harm of the crime, evaluating the risk for child pornography offending, or discuss preventive measures. Little is known about survivors of this type of crime.ObjectiveThis research explores the relationship between child pornography victimization and psychopathology in adulthood. Specifically, we examined the contribution of emotional reactions at the time of the crime and shortly after (guilt, embarrassment and avoidance) on psychopathology among adult survivors of child pornography.Participants and settingThe study was conducted among 107 child pornography adult survivors, aged 18–63 (M = 39.48, SD = 12.31). All participants were sexually molested during the crime.MethodsAn online survey was completed by a convenience sample of adult survivors of child pornography.ResultsFindings indicate survivor’s current age predicted current psychopathology symptoms. Survivor’s emotional reactions of guilt and embarrassment at the time of the crime and shortly after were significantly associated with elevated psychopathology, above and beyond demographic characteristics and features of the crime.ConclusionsThe present results suggest the way survivors of child pornography react to the crime might shape their mental health in the long term.     

“Only one child in the world”: Notes from a doting grandma

Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld is a teacher, author, national consultant, and new grandmother. She is on the editorial boards ofDay Care and Early Education, Columbus Parent, and the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Her booksTeaching Language Arts Creatively andCreative Activities for Young Children are widely used.     

No harmless child labor: The effect of child labor on academic achievement in francophone Western and Central Africa

This study empirically examines the effect of child labor on academic achievement in 10 francophone Western and Central African countries. The data were taken from the Programme d’Analyse des Systèmes Educatifs de la CONFEMEN and comprised characteristics of 25,288 grade six students across 1803 schools. Two-stage least squares analysis highlights that child labor undermines academic achievement regardless of subject, gender, and age. It lowers reading and mathematics scores for both genders and for children under 12 and over 13 years. Child labor therefore hinders human capital accumulation in African countries, and it takes place at the cost of future prosperity.     

The intersectionality of educational inequalities and child poverty in Africa: a deconstruction

The developing world has continually faced tremendous challenges in providing social security and safety nets for its vast populations culminating in wider educational inequalities and extreme poverty. It is not uncommon in Sub-Saharan Africa to find rapacious wealth in the hands of a few co-existing with mass poverty. As a consequence, the majority of children in education have continually experienced low attainment levels and poor prospects in life. This paper discusses interrelationships between child poverty and educational inequalities since these aspects are critical to child development and social mobility and are poignant for developing nations if they are to re-align their economies competitively at a global level. The paper used an analytic review of existing survey data and literature on contemporary contexts in Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on establishing understanding on child poverty and its impacts on children’s education and well being. In using data from the World Bank and United Nations agencies, the paper has been able to ascertain poverty indices affecting children; inadequate education investment levels; educational inequalities and how these have negatively impacted childhood education and development. Indications are that child poverty and educational inequalities continue to exist despite rising education investments in some countries. The paper posits strategies that developing nations may apply to improve childhood experiences and harness human capital, despite challenging levels of poverty.     

Approaches to costing adult literacy programmes,especially in Africa

Background

This study was originally prepared for the African Inter-Ministerial Conference on Literacy (September 2007) with the objective of analysing the costs of successful adult literacy programmes run both by government ministries, as well as international and national non-governmental organisations.

Objectives

This study aims to increase the evidence base available on costs by examining adult literacy programme costs in the context of operational details and budgeting processes. It was intended to add to the limited amount of data currently available, and to provide broad recommendations regarding the calculation of costs.

Methodology

In addition to estimates relating to costing currently available in the published literature, details of nine successful adult literacy programmes were obtained through a combination of web-searches, documentation received from organisers in response to an open-ended e-mail questionnaire and telephone calls. These are described, together with a presentation of their cost structure and our calculation of their unit costs. Particular attention was paid to ‘hidden’ costs in terms of central or provincial government costs, to contributions by NGOs and other partners and to in-kind contributions in examining the new empirical data.

Findings

Information from this study suggests that a realistic estimate of the costs of making an adult literate would be a minimum of US$100, the maximum estimate currently stated in LIFE documents. Despite an up to fivefold variation in unit costs with little obvious reason for this, the large diversity in modalities, objectives and target audience of the programmes explains much of the wide range in unit costs remarked upon by other authors.

Conclusions

We believe that it would be premature for any country to pre-define the appropriate costing structures, and what is an allowable range of unit costs, based on this information. Recommendations are made for what factors should be taken into account when calculating unit costs. Each country should consider making an inventory of the large scale programmes that exist or are being developed as a preliminary step to deciding whether or not it is appropriate to impose a costing framework or proposing a specific range of unit costs. However, there is a demonstrable need for more general agreement about the components that should be considered in any costing of an adult literacy programme.

Significance

This study contributes to the evidence base for developing a framework for analysing and allocating the costs of non-formal adult education projects in a manner to facilitate future planning.     

The linguistic complexity of adult and child contextualized and decontextualized talk

The association between decontextualized talk (DT; i.e., talk extending beyond immediate context) and child language outcomes is well-attested but not well-understood. This study tested the hypothesis that DT is more linguistically complex than contextualized talk (CT). Thirty-eight Norwegian children (M_age = 5.5 years; 25 girls; 30 Norwegian-speaking monolinguals and eight multilinguals) and their teachers were videotaped during picture book reading, story card conversations and toy play (collected 2010–2011 and 2017). Results show that DT was more complex than CT among children and teachers. Both types of talk were more complex during book reading and story conversations than during play. The conversational context should be accounted for when theorizing about the role of DT in language development.