Renewing quality assurance at a time of turbulence

The current national and institutional focus on teaching and learning in higher education (HE) in the UK has led to a growing credentialisation of those teaching in this sector. There is now more emphasis on being recognised as being qualified to teach in HE and this information is being included in statistical reports, marketing documentation and other promotional materials. Thus, having a recognised qualification is becoming requisite for many, both those new to teaching in this sector and experienced colleagues, who hitherto had never needed to consider this. This paper considers some of the practicalities and potential pitfalls of introducing a professional recognition scheme for those involved in teaching and supporting learning across a university.     

Communication and marginal sites: the Chipko movement and the dominant paradigm of development communication

This article uses the Chipko movement in northeastern India to propose an additional way to think alternatively about communication and development. The Chipko movement took place in the 1970s. Movement members demanded better local resource management by the state and for a greater voice in the determining the use of the local forests. Acknowledging that alternatives to the dominant paradigm of communication and development already exist (the participatory communication models and the participatory action research models), this essay shows even these alternatives did not address certain problems associated with the dominant paradigm. After a brief review of the dominant paradigm and the alternatives this article examines certain dimensions of the Chipko movement, such as the role of movement leaders, resource management, and strategies of communication, and argues that a Chipko-based ‘regions in protest’ model should take a place among the various models posed as alternatives to the dominant paradigm.     

Bardet–Biedl Syndrome: A Rare Cause of Chronic Kidney Disease

Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) is a rare autosomal recessive condition characterized by retinitis pigmentosa, postaxial polydactyly, central obesity, and renal involvement. Renal failure is the commonest cause of death. We report a case of BBS with chronic kidney disease (CKD) at younger age (17 year) from India. This diagnosis should be considered in patients with renal disease and the characteristic phenotype of retinitis pigmentosa, postaxial polydactyly and central obesity. These patients should undergo regular monitoring of renal function test to early diagnosis and treatment of CKD to prevent morbidity and mortality. Renal transplantation is a viable option of renal replacement therapy in these patients. These findings are valuable for comparing phenotype of BBS patients with CKD from various national and international centers.     

Down Syndrome with End-Stage Renal Disease

Down syndrome is one of the most common genetic causes of learning disabilities in children. Although the incidence of renal and urological involvement in Down syndrome is not very common, monitoring of patients with Down syndrome for renal diseases should be done regularly as patient’s age into the second and third decades. With increased survival, it appears that a growing number of these patients present with chronic renal failure. Down syndrome patients are apparently not suited for peritoneal dialysis because of lacking cooperation. This procedure can be prone to failure, mainly because of an increased risk of peritonitis. Handling such patients especially those on peritoneal dialysis is challenging. Here we report a case of Down syndrome with end-stage renal disease treated with hemodialysis for 6 months. To the best of our knowledge and current literature review this is the first case report of a patient with Down syndrome undergoing hemodialysis.     

Muslim schools in secular societies: persistence or resistance!

Muslim schools are a growing phenomenon across the world. Muslim diaspora resulting from multiple factors including political, religious and economic enhanced the need among Muslims to maintain and develop their faith identity. Marginalisation of Muslims, in whatever forms and for whatever reasons, particularly in Muslim minority and/or secular societies further energised affiliations with faith identity. In this context, the article will argue that Islamic schools are being seen by many Muslims as an option not only to provide opportunities for updated education in consonance with their perceptions of Muslim identity, but also to denote an agenda for resistance to challenge racism and existing power relations.     

Conservative force or contradictory resource? Education and affirmative action in Jharkhand,India

This article explores the combination of education and affirmative action in challenging historic inequalities faced by adivasis, or indigenous peoples, living in a remote region of Eastern India. We show how the combined effects of education and affirmative action can act as a ‘contradictory resource’. On the one hand, policies of affirmative action are enabling young educated adivasis – the children of subsistence farmers and manual labourers – to benefit from the creation of new, rural state jobs. We show how without affirmative action, such jobs may well have been monopolised by a local elite of higher castes. On the other hand, we argue several conservative processes have accompanied these changes. First, the reserved jobs secured by adivasis are relatively badly paid and insecure. Second, these jobs have not enabled relative progress for adivasis vis-à-vis traditional elites who are moving out of rural areas and diversifying their livelihoods. Third, young educated adivasis have begun to emulate the norms, values and ways of life of the local elite. This ‘culture of emulation’ is fostering new inequalities between educated adivasis and their poorer kin, who face increasing proletarianisation. The contradictory resource, we argue, concerns not only inequalities in accessing certain jobs, but also the creation of new forms of differentiation among historically marginalised people. We conclude by setting these findings within the wider complex relations emerging between caste, ethnicity and class in contemporary India.     

Social media in higher education: A literature review of Facebook

The rapid adoption of social media technologies has resulted in a fundamental shift in the way communication and collaboration take place. As staff and students use social media technologies in their personal lives, it is important to explore how social media technologies are being used as an educational tool. The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of social media, in particular, Facebook, as an educational tool in higher education. Through a review of the literature, this paper explores the myriad ways in which Facebook is being used as an educational instrument for learning and teaching. Multiple benefits of Facebook usage for learning and teaching have been identified such as increased teacher-student and student-student interaction, improved performance, the convenience of learning and higher engagement. The paper also highlights the potential problems and limitations of Facebook usage ranging from educators’ dominance to privacy concerns. Finally, Facebook usage guidelines that can be adopted by educators to encourage social media adoption are proposed. As social media usage continues to grow in higher education, future empirical research is warranted.     

FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS: CENSORSHIP AND THE THIRD-PERSON EFFECT

The third person effect hypothesis, which states that individualsexposed to a mass media messaage will expect the communicationto have a greater effect on others than on themselves, may helpto explain the growing trend in support of media censorship.It is suggested here that overestimating the effect of mediaon others may play an important role in the forces underlyinga willingness to restrict various types of communication. Toexamine this relationship, this study focused on the discrepancybetween perceived media effects on others and self, and itsrelation to pro-censorship attitudes within three major topics:the media in general, violence on television, and pornography.The results of this study support the existence of the third-personeffect in mass communication. The findings also indicate thatas the gap between perceived firstand third-person effects increases,individuals are more likely to manifest pro-censorship attitudes.This relationship remained for all three topics even when avariety of potentially confounding demographic, media use, andattitudinal variables were controlled. The data also suggestthat for pornography the effects gap is related to a willingnessto act in favor of censoring.