“Let’s not leave this problem”: exploring inclusive education in rural South Africa

Inclusive education represents a new agenda for educational reform that spans a wide range of socio-political, cultural, ethical, personal and interpersonal dimensions. Working towards educational inclusion demands commitments, responsibilities and initiatives on the part of all parties to take into consideration the meanings and purpose of education and social justice, to engage and take collective actions in their struggle to combat the diverse forms of educational and social exclusion. This paper presents an educational initiative to implement inclusive education in rural KwaZulu-Natal, an area of South Africa that is most seriously affected by the pandemic of HIV and AIDS. Through the implementation of participatory video-making projects in two schools, the authors seek to empower the voices and actions of teachers in an effort to cope with the problems of poverty and marginalization facing many children. The outcomes of this type of participatory work with teachers have implications for the policy-making process, which in turn, could change the ways educational policy research is structured and implemented.

Seeing for ourselves: when teachers make documentary films. Rebel Goulash and Over the Rainbow

To begin … a moral tale for anthropologists, a fantasy in which an anthropological cinema exists—not documentaries about ‘anthropological’ subjects but films designated by anthropologists to communicate anthropological insights. It is a well‐articulated genre distinct from the conceptual limitations of realist documentary and broadcast journalism. It borrows conventions and techniques from the whole of cinema—fiction, documentary, animation and experimental … this fantasy is more like science fiction than anything else. It is not remotely close to being realized. But it is an ideal worth pursuing (Ruby, 2000 Ruby J 2000 Picturing culture: explorations of film and anthropology (Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press)  [Google Scholar], pp. 1–2).     

Cues of paternal uncertainty and father to child physical abuse as reported by mothers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Objective

Paternity is uncertain, so if paternal feelings evolved to promote fitness, we might expect them to vary in response to variables indicative of paternity probability. We therefore hypothesized that the risk of lapses of paternal affection, including abusive assaults on children, will be exacerbated by cues of non-paternity.

Methods

Cross-sectional study of 331 Brazilian mothers, interviewed about 1 focal child (age 1–12) residing with her and the putative father. Child physical abuse was assessed using the Conflict Tactic Scales: Parent Child (CTSPC). Two potential cues of (non) paternity were (1) whether the parents co-resided when the child was conceived, and (2) whether third parties allegedly commented on father–child resemblance. Data were analyzed through multiple logistic regressions.

Results

Mothers reported child physical abuse by 15.9% (95% CI 4.6–27.1) of fathers who had not cohabited with them at conception, compared to 5.9% (95% CI 3.1–8.7) of those who had. The odds ratio for abuse by fathers who had not cohabited at conception in relation to those who had—adjusted for income, education, age, sex of child, whether child was first born, household size, time father spent with child, and alcohol abuse and drug use by father—was 4.3 (95% CI 1.4–13.8). Mothers reported abuse of 7.0% (95% CI 4.0–10.0) of children who purportedly resembled their fathers, versus 8.7% (95% CI 0.2–17.1) of those who did not.

Conclusion

According to maternal reports, not having co-resided at conception quadrupled the chance of child physical abuse by currently co-residing Brazilian fathers. The reported prevalence of abuse was unrelated to reported allegations of father–child resemblance.     

Developmental dyslexics show deficits in the processing of temporal auditory information in German vowel length discrimination

The present study investigated auditory temporal processing in developmental dyslexia by using a vowel length discrimination task. Both temporal and phonological processing were studied in a single experiment. Seven German vowel pairs differing in vowel height were used. The vowels of each pair differed only with respect to vowel length (e.g., /a/ vs. /a:/). In German, vowel length is characterized by temporal and spectral information. Three types of differences between long versus short vowels were varied: In the phonological condition, pairs of natural vowels were used, differing in their temporal as well as in their spectral content. In two temporal conditions, in contrast, a natural vowel was always combined with a manipulated one to keep spectral content of long and short vowels identical. Thus, the only distinguishing feature between the two vowels was temporal in nature. Vowels were embedded into monosyllabic pseudo-words and presented successively in a speeded same–different task. Twenty dyslexics and twenty age-matched controls participated in the experiment. In both groups, discrimination accuracy decreased with increasing vowel height in the two temporal conditions. This result is consistent with former findings on the relevance of temporal information for vowel length identification in German and extends this topic to cover discrimination demands. In the phonological condition, groups did not differ in discrimination accuracy. In both temporal conditions, however, dyslexics performed worse than controls. These results suggest that developmental dyslexia is associated with impairments in processing basic acoustic parameters of the speech signal, in particular, with a deficit in temporal processing.     

Motivational interference in school-leisure conflict and learning outcomes: The differential effects of two value conceptions

It was hypothesized that students' value orientations are connected to their experience of motivational interference in a conflict between a school- and a leisure-related activity as well as to school marks as indicators of learning outcomes. In a self-report study with Italian adolescents (N = 433; M = 14.5 years) using a school-leisure conflict scenario, first, the relations between the 10 values introduced by Schwartz and the Inglehart-based Achievement and Well-being value orientations were investigated. Correlations and multidimensional scaling analysis showed overlaps as well as differences between the two sets of value variables. Regression analyses revealed that the Schwartz values were significantly related to the experience of motivational interference during studying and during leisure as well as to school marks. The inclusion of Achievement and Well-being value orientations explained additional variance of the three dependent variables. The relevance of individual values in explaining students' reactions to motivational conflicts is highlighted.     

The potential for lifelong learning in dementia: a post-humanist exploration

Numbers of people with dementia are projected to grow to 682 million globally by 2050. However, despite this escalation, the widely-promoted positive vision of lifelong learning throughout all ages does not extend to people with dementia. Constructions of learning for those with dementia are predominantly limited to the management of symptoms. The focus on retrieval of memory does not seem to allow for the emergence of the learner as a ‘new beginner’ or as a teacher. This paper focuses on a recent study, Beyond Words to challenge dominant assumptions about dementia and learning. Using a post-humanist theoretical framework, this longitudinal qualitative study explores the benefits of community music for those who face problems communicating with words: such as those with dementias, autism, learning difficulties and brain damage. Rather than characterising them as ‘non-verbal’ it positions them as ‘post-verbal’ and able to communicate in different ways. Moving away from discussions of ‘selfhood’, the paper uses a post-humanist approach to explore an agentic assemblage including one person with dementia from the study and also explores how another participant teaches important lessons about materiality and time. It demonstrates that learning and ‘new beginnings’ and ‘becomings’ can and do take place at advanced stages of dementia, challenging the assumption that dementia is a wasteland for learning. It also shows how people with dementia have much to teach researchers about living and learning.     

Global estimates of the implications of COVID-19-related preprimary school closures for children’s instructional access,development, learning,and economic wellbeing

Observational data collected prior to the pandemic (between 2004 and 2019) were used to simulate the potential consequences of early childhood care and education (ECCE) service closures on the estimated 167 million preprimary-age children in 196 countries who lost ECCE access between March 2020 and February 2021. COVID-19-related ECCE disruptions were estimated to result in 19.01 billion person-days of ECCE instruction lost, 10.75 million additional children falling “off track” in their early development, 14.18 million grades of learning lost by adolescence, and a present discounted value of USD 308.02 billion of earnings lost in adulthood. Further burdens associated with ongoing closures were also forecasted. Projected developmental and learning losses were concentrated in low- and lower middle-income countries, likely exacerbating long-standing global inequities.     

Learning action learning: a journey

The action learning set (ALS) is an often-used tool in practice development to facilitate group reflection. As such, its use evolves in the hands of the participants as they become more comfortable with the process and as trust develops amongst group members. This paper aims to discuss the journey of one ALS over a 2-year period. It seeks to highlight the process of learning through an ALS and the complexity of making the process meaningful for the participants. The role of trust within an ALS cannot be overstated. This was an imperative factor in the overall effectiveness of the set.     

Keith Pavitt and the Invisible College of the Economics of Technology and Innovation

This paper uses a database on scientific interaction in the field of the economics of technological change and innovation. The database is used to address two issues. First, the network is shown to be (approximately) scale-free. This suggests that growth of the number of scholars active in the field and so-called preferential attachment (i.e., scholars entering the field prefer to attach themselves to highly reputable existing members of the network) are characteristic of the nature of the underlying field. Thus, increasing returns seem to govern mechanisms of reputation formation. Second, the potential existence of cohesive subgroups of relatively strongly connected scholars is explored, and the implications of this for the paradigmatic structure of the field are discussed.