Trading quality across borders: colonial discourse and international quality assurance policies in higher education

Accountability and quality assurance have become central discourses in higher education policy throughout the world. However, accountability and quality assurance involve power and control. Practices and ideas about quality developed in the Global North are spreading rapidly across the Global South, leading to increased uniformity in the approaches to quality assurance. Given the significant asymmetries that divide the Global North and Global South, this article maps interdiscursive relations among key texts that influence policy development on international quality in higher education, and explores the applicability of colonial discourse as a perspective for understanding this increasing international convergence.     

Development and Evaluation of Food Safety Modules for K‐12 Science Education

Career and educational opportunities in food science and food safety are underrecognized by K‐12 students and educators. Additionally, misperceptions regarding nature of science understanding persist in K‐12 students despite being emphasized as an important component of science education for over 100 y. In an effort to increase awareness concerning career and educational opportunities in food science and food safety and to improve the nature of science understanding among K‐12 students, a series of problem‐based learning modules was developed and pilot tested with a total of 61 K‐12 students. Results of pre‐ and postevaluations and assessments indicated that (1) interest in science, food science, and food safety increased and (2) content knowledge related to the nature of science, food science, and food safety was improved. We further suggest that these modules provide opportunities for educators in traditional as well as extracurricular settings to demonstrate important concepts contained in the newly released Next Generation Science Standards.     

ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool Children's Version (ICAST-C): Instrument development and multi-national pilot testing

ObjectiveTo develop a child victimization survey among a diverse group of child protection experts and examine the performance of the instrument through a set of international pilot studies.MethodsThe initial draft of the instrument was developed after input from scientists and practitioners representing 40 countries. Volunteers from the larger group of scientists participating in the Delphi review of the ICAST P and R reviewed the ICAST C by email in 2 rounds resulting in a final instrument. The ICAST C was then translated and back translated into six languages and field tested in four countries using a convenience sample of 571 children 12–17 years of age selected from schools and classrooms to which the investigators had easy access.ResultsThe final ICAST C Home has 38 items and the ICAST C Institution has 44 items. These items serve as screeners and positive endorsements are followed by queries for frequency and perpetrator. Half of respondents were boys (49%). Endorsement for various forms of victimization ranged from 0 to 51%. Many children report violence exposure (51%), physical victimization (55%), psychological victimization (66%), sexual victimization (18%), and neglect in their homes (37%) in the last year. High rates of physical victimization (57%), psychological victimization (59%), and sexual victimization (22%) were also reported in schools in the last year. Internal consistency was moderate to high (alpha between .685 and .855) and missing data low (less than 1.5% for all but one item).ConclusionsIn pilot testing, the ICAST C identifies high rates of child victimization in all domains. Rates of missing data are low, and internal consistency is moderate to high. Pilot testing demonstrated the feasibility of using child self-report as one strategy to assess child victimization.Practice implicationsThe ICAST C is a multi-national, multi-lingual, consensus-based survey instrument. It is available in six languages for international research to estimate child victimization. Assessing the prevalence of child victimization is critical in understanding the scope of the problem, setting national and local priorities, and garnering support for program and policy development aimed at child protection.     

The Future of Journalism—Who to Believe?

This work collates the opinions of European professionals and internet users concerning the changing reality facing the world of journalism following the explosion of digital media. Our research shows the results of analytical surveys conducted between October 2013 and January 2014 among 54 professionals of renowned prestige, and 500 regular users of the digital media in the five most populated countries in the European Union: Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain, all states affected to a greater or lesser extent by the crisis of the printed press. The surveys cover a wide range of topics, from the impact of social networks, the quality of the digital media, the willingness of citizens to pay for content and the degree of interactivity in the digital media for the future of journalism. Professionals and users agree that the news in 2020 will be better and more interactive than now. With regard to other matters, there is more disagreement. Professionals are much more critical than users when it comes to evaluating the quality of the news. The professionals’ survey was more qualitative, and, in their opinion, overcoming the crisis in the written press implies, among other measures, promoting analysis, prioritising quality over quantity and offering “niche” specialisation.     

Bilingualism and morphological awareness: a study with children from general education and Spanish-English dual language programs

Existing research on the impact of bilingualism on metalinguistic development has concentrated on the development of phonological awareness. The present study extended the scope of existing research by focusing on morphological awareness, an aspect of metalinguistic awareness that becomes increasingly important beyond the initial phase of literacy development. Participants included three groups of fourth-grader children from the same school with comparable SES and non-verbal IQ: (a) monolingual English-speaking children from a general education programme, (b) Spanish-speaking children from a Spanish–English dual-language programme and (c) English-speaking children from the same Spanish–English dual-language programme. Researcher-developed measures of vocabulary and morphological awareness were administered. Results suggested that bilingual education can have a positive impact on the development of morphological awareness through cross-language transfer as well as increased sensitivity to structural language features. The findings contribute to a growing body of research on how bilingual experience may shape children’s metalinguistic development.     

The journey of two Latino educators: our collective resilience

This article represents a journey into education undertaken by two Latino educators from diverse generations. Through the content of the narratives, we emphasize that success was achieved within the presence of oppression. The narratives reveal significant constructs that shaped our journey. For the first author, Pablo, role models, pivotal moments, and resistance had a powerful influence in his journey. Family lessons and self-sacrifice were key to the success of the second author, Yolanda. These constructs contributed to both of our resilience and success. We suggest that the aforementioned constructs have significant implications for Latino youth in the educational system.     

Drug education in bolivian schools: A feasibility study for cross-cultural application of a preventive curricular unit

The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of adapting and implementing in La Paz, Bolivia a drug education course originally developed for use in the middle schools in the United States. On the basis of teacher and student evaluations, it was concluded that the unit is a viable, culturally relevant and effective method of drug education in the public and private schools in La Paz. Implications for the prevention of other health-related problems and for implementation of a demandreduction strategy to prevent drug abuse throughout the Americas are discussed.

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Zusammenfassung Ziel dieser Studie war es herauszufinden, inwieweit die Anwendung eines Kurses zur Drogenerziehung in La Paz, Bolivien durchführbar ist. Dieser Kurs wurde ursprünglich für Mittelschulen in den Vereinigten Staaten entwickelt. Auf der Basis von Bewertungen durch Lehrer und Schüler fand man heraus, daß dieser Kurs eine lebensfähige, kulturell relevante und effektive Art der Drogenerziehung in öffentlichen und privaten Schulen in La Paz ist. Außerdem wird diskutiert, welche Auswirkungen auf die Verhütung anderer Gesundheitsprobleme erzielt werden, sowie auf die Durchführung einer Strategie zur Verringerung der Nachfrage, um den Drogenmißbrauch in ganz Amerika zu reduzieren.

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Resumen El objetivo de este estudio residía en comprobar la factibilidad de adaptar e implementar en La Paz, Bolivia, un curso de educación antidrogas que se ha desarrollado para aplicarlo en las escuelas de enseñanza media de los Estados Unidos. Sobre la base de evaluaciones hechas por docentes y estudiantes se ha llegado a la conclusión de que el curso es un método viable, de relevancia cultural y efectivo para realizar una educación antidrogas en los colegios públicos y privados de La Paz. Se discuten las implicaciones del estudio para la prevención de otros problemas relacionados con la salud y para implementar una estrategia de reducción de demanda, a efectos de prvenir el abuso de drogas en todo el continente.

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Résumé L'objectif de cette étude est de tester la faisabilité de l'adaptation et de la mise en oeuvre à La Paz, en Bolivie, d'un programme de prévention contre la drogue, développé à l'origine pour être utilisé dans les écoles primaires aux Etats-Unis. D'après les évaluations des enseignants et des apprenants, il s'est avéré que ce programme constitue une méthode de prévention contre la drogue valable, culturellement pertinente et efficace, pour les écoles publiques et privées de La Paz. La discussion porte sur les répercussions sur la prévention d'autres problèmes de santé et sur la mise en oeuvre d'une stratégie de réduction de la dépendance afin de s'opposer aux méfaits de la drogue sur le continent américain.

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This project was made possible by a grant from the North-South Center, University of Miami, Florida, USA.     

Giving account of our (mobile) selves: embodied and relational notions of academic privilege in the international classroom

ABSTRACT

Contemporary models of academic work reflect a process of compression given that busy (time compression), jet setting (space compression) scholars constitute the norm of academic success. Valuable reflections from mobile academics are available, and yet, such narratives are often confined to individual voices and perspectives. In this paper, we endeavor to present a collaborative analysis of our shared experience as short-term foreign experts at a Chinese Normal University, simultaneously embracing and being troubled by our institutional and individual desires to become global. Throughout our analysis, we focus on the contrasts of our national, racial and class identities of origin and those we enacted while teaching in China. In doing so, we pay attention to the literal and metaphorical meaning of mobility. Our project explores ways in which mobility is(n’t) always privileged, as well as whether and how we experience time – space compression contrasting our class, race, nationality and sexual orientation differences.