‘Development in reverse’? A longitudinal analysis of armed conflict,fragility and school enrolment

This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of cross-national data on armed conflict, state fragility, and enrolment in primary and secondary schooling. The study is motivated by questions raised in the 2012 Human Security Report, which challenges the widely held assumption that conflict is necessarily detrimental to educational outcomes. We use multilevel modelling techniques to determine how conflict and fragility relate to changes in enrolment. Our findings suggest that growth in enrolment is significantly lower in conflict-affected countries but that the effect is dependent upon countries' overall enrolment level. However, when we control for fragility, the effect of conflict is not significant, which is consistent with the Human Security Report's suggestion that fragility is an underlying cause of both conflict and poor educational outcomes. We conclude by discussing the relevance of our findings and challenges for future research on fragility and education.     

Predicting and explaining students’ stress with the Demand–Control Model: does neuroticism also matter?

University students often report high stress levels, and studies even suggest a recent increase. However, there is a lack of theoretically based research on the structural conditions that influence students’ perceived stress. The current study compared the effects of Karasek’s demand–control dimensions with the influence of neuroticism to address environmental and individual characteristics related to stress. Two points of measurement were included: T1 in the middle of the term and T2 during the examination period. Participants were 146 psychology students at two German universities (M_age = 22.6 years). We applied an adapted version of Karasek’s Job Content Questionnaire, a self-developed stress scale, and the 21-item Big-Five-Inventory. At T1, both neuroticism and demands significantly predicted stress (total adjusted R² = .40), although relative weights analyses indicated that the contribution of demands was more pronounced (relative importance: 63%). Longitudinally, controlling for stress at T1, the demand–control dimensions explained additional variance in the increased stress level at T2, whereas neuroticism did not contribute additionally (R² = .52). Results indicate that self-reports on stress among university students are not only a reflection of underlying negative affectivity. We conclude that perceived stress can be explained by structural conditions rather than personality, providing opportunities to reduce stress among students.     

Thinking relationally about studying ‘up’

In this paper, the authors argue that despite a resurgence of elite studies, the majority of existing scholarship works to reify and legitimize social inequality through its language and method. In particular, the authors utilize Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of relational thinking to review and critique contemporary research on elite education and the ways in which such scholarship relies on a stratificationist approach to class analysis. Ultimately, this paper argues that future research on social class, and elite studies in particular, could benefit from using Bourdieu’s relational approach as a means to better address the challenges of social inequality.     

Empirical evaluation of an educational conservation programme introduced in Swiss secondary schools

This paper surveys the consequences of pupils' participation in a conservation education programme by monitoring changes in their relevant knowledge as well as in their environmental perception. The programme in question is an extra-curricular education unit about an endangered migrant bird (Apus apus; Apodidae) which was initiated by a state-wide conservation agency and offered free of charge to all secondary schools of the German-speaking part of Switzerland. An activity package was provided to the participating classes and individually introduced by the classroom teacher during an entire school year. The programme highlighted the bird's natural history and also focused on the individual involvement of pupils who built artificial nest-boxes and watched the bird's breeding and feeding behaviour at appropriate outdoors sites. A bilingual approach was included by sharing these observations with pupils of (French-speaking) Senegal, this country being the wintering region of the rd. bi Based on an instrument measuring environmental perception, i.e. individuals' preservation and conservation preferences (from an attitudinal and behavioural point of view) and built on construct validation procedures published in a previous study, the influences of the education programme were evaluated on a pre-/post-test basis. The post-test was delayed for at least a month after experiencing the education programme in order to exclude short-term effects. The programme had a significant positive effect on the specific knowledge level and on two of the five environmental perception subscales. The results are discussed in the context of other related outdoor ecology education programmes.     

The Trouble with Higher Education: A critical examination of our universities

This study examined and compared the legal inputs, structural settings and implementation process of lifelong learning policy in Thailand and Japan focusing on street-level agents. The findings demonstrated that while both countries had legal frameworks that provided a legislative platform to promote lifelong learning among the elderly based on a bottom-up implementation of policies, three major differences existed that equated with different outcomes of lifelong learning among the elderly in both countries. First, the promotion of lifelong learning for the elderly in Thailand mirrored complex administrative structures of several host organizations and multiple legal frameworks; whilst Japan’s lifelong learning policy had been promoted based on the Social Education Act under a single ministry. Second, while Thailand based its policy implementation on government agents at the regional and local level in policy delivery, Japan developed a community-based multilayered platform that promoted the policy with active involvement from various local players. Finally, lifelong learning policy for the elderly in Thailand reflected the personal initiatives of policy promotion by government agents at the local level; whereas, lifelong learning policy for the elderly in Japan was pursued based on the interests of the elderly and the community in which they lived.     

Book reviews

International Review of Education -     

When socialists marketize: the case of China’s wind power market sector

This paper analyzes China’s attempt at maintaining and stabilizing the market framing of wind power development as ‘sustainable.’ Drawing on mixed data and new directions in the social studies of marketization, the analysis focuses on the Chinese government’s responses to the ‘quality crisis’ in the wind turbine industry. Employing five types of framing – goods, marketizing agencies, market encounters, price-setting, and market design and maintenance – the paper sheds light on flexible government interventions to steer the socio-technical assemblage around wind power towards a ‘turn to quality.’ In essence, this is a study of market construction in the context of Chinese wind power experiments. The paper contributes to new directions in market studies by (1) demonstrating the importance of attending to the contested algorithmic transformation of wind resources to wind power; (2) taking market studies to a transitional and developmental context, which renders marketization prone to constant overflowing; and (3) elucidating a particular Chinese model of experimental market construction ‘through embracing overflowing.’ The paper proposes new trajectories for future market studies with a focus on non-Western contexts, to reveal the wide variety of how marketization unfolds.     

Despicable Others: Animated Othering as Equipment for Living in the Era of Trump

This essay comparatively examines U.S.-Russian and U.S.-Mexican interculturality in the Despicable Me movie franchise. We argue that cultural transformations of the main protagonists – Russian Gru and Mexican El Macho – are politically significant cases of U.S.-Russian and U.S.-Mexican interculturality, reflected and constructed by popular culture in general, and by animated cartoons in particular. Conceptualizing and analyzing animation as “equipment for living,” we demonstrate how these cases serve as epistemological and pedagogical tools of confirming U.S.-dominant ideology, and discursively and visually constructing (Russian and Mexican) Others the way that they are currently understood and treated in (the non-fictional) U.S. society.