Attracting university professors to interior cities in Brazil: Individual perceptions as a basis for educational planning

One of the difficulties in Latin American development is attracting highly qualified professionals to interior cities with growth potential. Also, as in most less developed countries of the world, this is accompanied by a tendency toward a permanent ruralurban migration of the existing, more qualified personnel, leaving interior regions deficient in an important development resource. In this study a culturally versatile method to identify perceived desirable characteristics of cities as places to work and live is proposed. A triadic selection procedure and factor analysis are employed with a case study sample of graduate students in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The results show that there are four major categories of attributes (population, economic, cultural, and physical) which could be used as incentives to attract people to medium sized interior cities in developing countries. Various ways in which the local university could be employed in such strategies are presented as examples of planning possibilities.     

SCAFFOLDING THE INQUIRY CONTINUUM AND THE CONSTITUTION OF IDENTITY

This article considers the impact of scaffolding on pre-service science teachers’ constitution of identities as teachers of inquiry. This scaffolding has consisted of 2 major components, a unit on current electricity which encompasses the inquiry continuum and an open inquiry which is situated in context of classroom practice. Our analysis indicates 2 major themes. The first is the importance of scaffolding inquiry as a strategy for engaging in the discourses, experiences, and emotions that are foundational to the constitution of identity from the post-structural perspective. The second theme is that the opportunity to conduct an open inquiry, while concurrently considering its pedagogical implications, provides our pre-service teachers with an appreciation of the value of inquiry.     

Discourse, the moral imperative and Faraday’s candle

This commentary considers two lines of inquiry into the work of Ideland and Malmberg: the role of discourse in shaping teachers’ responses to Roberts’ (2011) Visions of Science and the moral imperatives that will accompany any shifts between Vision I and II. Vision I of science has accreted to itself great power and prestige, both of which shape notions of a ‘good’ science education. Any shift towards Vision II will require serious engagement in a Foucaultian discourse into the issues of power, inclusion and exclusion that Ideland and Malmberg describe. Similarly, the moral imperatives that arise require courage to both contest the status quo in science education, and develop a reasoned, morally defensible, response to the challenge that Vision II is really a form of ideological activism.     

Readiness and expectations questionnaire: a cross-cultural measurement instrument for first-year university students

The readiness and expectations questionnaire (REQ) assesses first-year students’ expectations and preparedness for their first year in university. This measurement instrument is useful for educational policy and curriculum development; it can also be used to predict the outcomes of the first year of college. This instrument was initially developed to compare students enrolled in programs in the Netherlands and New Zealand, with predominant populations of domestic students. However, the Bologna process and globalisation trends also have increased the availability of international degree programmes. This raised the question whether the REQ can be used to compare groups of international students. Therefore, this article aims to assess the cross-cultural measurement equivalence of the REQ in international bachelor degree programmes in economics and business in a Dutch university, taught in English. The results indicate that not all aspects of the instrument achieve measurement equivalence, but most of its scales, with some adaptations, can evaluate students’ expectations and preparedness and thus encourage a better match between student and institution.