Aiding education in conflict: The role of international education providers operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Amid rising violence against civilian aid operations in insecure environments, attacks on the education sector pose a unique set of challenges for international aid actors. In recent years incidents of violence targeting the education sector in Afghanistan and the conflict-affected areas of Pakistan have increased. This article synthesizes recent research, quantitative analyses, and observations of practitioners in order to explore the key issues facing aid workers in the education sector. The findings suggest that in extremely violent and polarized environments such as Afghanistan and the conflict-affected areas of Pakistan, the international community can provide education assistance more effectively and securely through a low-profile, community-based approach that de-emphasizes the role of government, and avoids, as far as possible, any association with international political/military actors. The authors conclude that education sector coordinators could play a larger role in providing practical guidance and supporting an inter-agency dialogue to share lessons and good practice in delivering education services in these contexts.     

Supporting students with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) at secondary school: a parent and student perspective

This paper describes a small‐scale research project undertaken in July 2007, which focused on a group of students with a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) currently attending a mainstream secondary school. Three focus groups were held with students in Years 9 and 11 and with their parents in order to explore current practice on additional support at secondary school for students with ASD. Several aspects of support at school were positively evaluated by the participants. It also examines how support could be provided in the future to address perceived additional needs. It concludes with several implications for planning for support in the future.     

A latent transition analysis of academic intrinsic motivation from childhood through adolescence

A longitudinal modeling approach was utilized to determine the existence of latent classes with regard to academic intrinsic motivation and the points of stability and transition of individuals between and within classes. A special type of latent Markov Chain model using Mplus was fit to data from the Fullerton Longitudinal Study, with academic intrinsic motivation measured from ages 9 through 17. Model fit using the Bayesian Information Criterion index was examined. The best fit involved a 3-class model, with classes designated as motivationally gifted, intermediate, and at-risk. Transitions between classes occurred mainly during childhood, whereas stability ensued by age 13. Methodological contributions are discussed, as well as theory and applications of the findings with regard to academic intrinsic motivation.     

Analyzing measurement models of latent variables through multilevel confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical linear modeling approaches

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is often used in the social sciences to estimate a measurement model in which multiple measurement items are hypothesized to assess a particular latent construct. This article presents the utility of multilevel CFA (MCFA; Muthén, 1991, 1994) and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM; Raudenbush, Rowan, & Kang, 1991) methods in testing measurement models in which the underlying attribute may vary as a function of various levels of observation. An illustrative example using a real dataset is provided in which an unconditional model specification and parameter estimates from the MCFA and HLM are shown. The article demonstrates the comparability of the two methods in estimating measurement parameters of interest (i.e., true variance at levels the measures are used and measurement errors).     

Empowerment and women in adventure tourism: a negotiated journey

Women’s participation in adventure tourism is growing, yet few studies have explored this group of tourists. This conceptual paper seeks to extend our understanding of female adventure tourists by examining the empowering journey women can take through constraint negotiation to enjoy the benefits of adventure tourism. Using content analysis to review the literature on women’s adventure experiences in tourism and recreation settings reveals prominent themes that have been consolidated to propose constraint, negotiation and benefit categories. A conceptual model is presented that illustrates the opportunities for women’s empowerment within these categories and examines the interrelationships and interdependency between them. The model shows that constraints, negotiations and benefits can be experienced simultaneously, at different points in a woman’s adventure tourism journey and used as a vehicle for empowerment. Women will also re-evaluate these categories before, during and after their adventure tourism experience. Therefore, the categories are not fixed and evolve each time a woman participates in adventure tourism throughout her life. Suggestions are made for further study in this under-researched area.     

Substance abuse and behavioral correlates of sexual assault among South African adolescents

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is twofold: first, to examine the prevalence of being the victim of actual and attempted rape among a large representative sample of Cape Town high school students; and second, to identify the correlates of sexual assault for both boys and girls, including alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, behavioral problems, and suicidality. METHOD: Data for this study were derived from the 1997 South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (SACENDU) school survey. A stratified sampling procedure was used to select students in Grades 8 and 11 at non-private high schools in Cape Town. A total of 2,946 students completed a survey consisting of socio-demographic questions and items about substance abuse, sexual activity, and other adolescent health risk behaviors. A subsample of 939 was randomly selected to complete items about sexual violence. RESULTS: The results revealed that 8.4% of respondents were victims of attempted rape, while 5.8% were victims of actual rape. Ordinal logistic regression showed that girls were 3.9 times more likely than boys to have been victims of sexual abuse. Family structure was also significantly related to rape as persons who lived with a single parent (OR = 1.74, CI = 1.00-3.04) and those who resided with one biological parent and one step parent (OR = 2.59, CI = 1.34-5.01) were more likely to have been have been victims of sexual abuse than those living with both biological parents. Alcohol use (OR = 2.0, CI = 1.10-3.62), anti-social behavior (stolen property, caused physical damage to property, bullied others, or been in physical fights) (OR = 1.44, CI = 1.12-1.86), suicidal dialogue (OR = 2.48, CI = 1.19-5.19), and suicidal attempts (OR = 3.2, CI = 1.65-6.30) were also significant predictors of sexual abuse victimization. Racially classified social groups (RCSG), age, drug use, and cigarette smoking were not significant predictors of sexual abuse victimization, while socioeconomic status was found to be marginally significant. CONCLUSION: This study reinforces the importance of multiple factors including alcohol use, anti-social behavior, suicidal thoughts and actions, and family structure with respect to sexual assault of adolescents in South Africa. Establishing and strengthening intervention programs, school based child protective protocols, professional education of teachers and school personnel, community prevention programs, and initiatives could help prevent adolescent sexual violence and reduce the sequelae associated with this problem.     

Politics,Poverty and Education in Rural South Africa

This article examines the relationship between poverty and education in South Africa, and how its conceptualisation has changed historically. By analysing two major inquiries into poverty conducted by the Carnegie Corporation (in 1929‐32 and 1982‐84), it highlights the political nature of poverty and also its racialisation in South Africa. Using material from a peri‐urban research study, it extends the analysis to include the underprovision of schooling, gender relationships of poverty and also child labour. The article illustrates how the relationship between poverty and education has been differently constructed in different discourses, and concludes by considering the challenges of developing policies to address the education/poverty nexus in the rural areas of post‐apartheid South Africa.     

Le modele de l'acquisition des competences et la formation des personnes agees

Résumé La formation des personnes âgées se trouve présentement fortement influencée par le modèle de l'acquisition des compétences qui prévaut dans la culture pédagogique. L'auteure de cet article expose et illustre le modèle dans sa forme première et sa direction actuelle, puis elle cherche à voir s'il convient de le retenir pour la formation des personnes âgées.

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The training of the elderly is at present strongly influenced by the competence acquisition model that currently prevails in pedagogical culture. The author of this article examines and illustrates this model in its original form and its current direction. She then addresses the question of whether it is appropriate to retain this model for training elderly people.

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Zusammenfassung Die Seniorenfortbildung wird von dem zur Zeit in der pädagogischen Kultur vorherrschenden Modell des Erwerbs von Kompetenzen sehr beeinflußt. Die Autorin dieses Artikels untersucht und beleuchtet dieses Modell in seiner ursprünglichen Form und der gegenwärtigen Zielsetzung. Sie diskutiert anschließend die Frage, ob eine Aufrechterhaltung dieser Art von Fortbildung für Ältere sinnvoll ist.

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Resumen La formación de personas mayores está fuertemente influenciada por el modelo de adquisición de competencias que suele prevalecer en la cultura pedagógica. La autora de este artículo examina e ilustra este mdoelo en cuanto a su forma original y a la dirección que actualmente toma. Finalmente, plantea el interrogante de si es apropiado o no mantener este modelo para la formación de personas mayores.

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Cet article développe les thèmes d'une communication intitulée Les lecompétences et l'éducation des personnes âgées,présentée lors de la 22e réunion scientifique et éducative annuelle de l'Association canadienne de gérontologie, Montréal, 30 octobre 1993.     

A heterotopology of the academy: mapping assemblages as possibilised heterotopias

Heterotopias are counter-sites of enacted utopias through which reality is simultaneously represented, contested and inverted. They are physical or mental spaces where, although norms of behaviours are suspended, there are connections with a plethora of other spaces. This article constructs a collective biography as a heterotopology of the academy. Academic subjectivities are produced and often constrained within powerful Higher Education discourses. Constructing an affective assemblage of becomings as a heterotopology, the authors deploy poststructural philosophy to re-story academic life experiences and conceptualise agency in the academy. Taking licence with the notion of academicity and heterotopia, the article describes how spaces in the measured university can be deterritorialised through generative lines of flight. An affective assemblage is presented that ruptures the discursive orientation of category boundary work where academics are constituted as ‘productive metric-minded knowledge workers’. The collective biography research approach facilitates a mapping of affective cartographies as a heterotopology and a critique of the discursive production of selves. The subjectivations of identity politics in matricised assemblages may be, even if momentarily, evaded, refused and agentically resisted.