Special and inclusive education in the Eastern Caribbean: policy practice and provision

The countries of the Eastern Caribbean have for more than a decade been committed to the implementation of a common educational reform strategy. At the heart of this strategy has been the policy of 'education for all', which includes establishing educational support services for children with special educational needs. In the past, many disabled children and children with learning difficulties have been excluded from the education system in these countries. For many more children, attendance at school has not given meaningful access to educational opportunities. This article discusses research carried out by the authors and reports on the implementation of the Reform Strategy and on the barriers to inclusive education that persist in the region.     

On-chip collection of particles and cells by AC electroosmotic pumping and dielectrophoresis using asymmetric microelectrodes

The recent development of microfluidic "lab on a chip" devices requiring sample sizes <100 μL has given rise to the need to concentrate dilute samples and trap analytes, especially for surface-based detection techniques. We demonstrate a particle collection device capable of concentrating micron-sized particles in a predetermined area by combining AC electroosmosis (ACEO) and dielectrophoresis (DEP). The planar asymmetric electrode pattern uses ACEO pumping to induce equal, quadrilateral flow directed towards a stagnant region in the center of the device. A number of system parameters affecting particle collection efficiency were investigated including electrode and gap width, chamber height, applied potential and frequency, and number of repeating electrode pairs and electrode geometry. The robustness of the on-chip collection design was evaluated against varying electrolyte concentrations, particle types, and particle sizes. These devices are amenable to integration with a variety of detection techniques such as optical evanescent waveguide sensing.     

Daily fluctuations in young children’s persistence

Children's behavior changes from day to day, but the factors that contribute to its variability are understudied. We developed a novel repeated measures paradigm to study children's persistence by capitalizing on a task that children complete every day: toothbrushing (N = 81; 48% female; 36–47 months; 80% white, 14% Multiracial, 10% Hispanic, 2% Asian, 1% Black; 1195 observations collected between January 2019 and March 2020). Children brushed longer on days when their parents used more praise (d = .23) and less instruction (d = −.22). Sensitivity to mood, sleep, and parent stress varied across children, suggesting that identifying the factors that shape an individual child's persistence could lead to personalized interventions.     

Surviving organizational tolerance of sexual harassment: an exploration of resilience,vulnerability, and harassment fatigue

ABSTRACT

Although reports of workplace sexual harassment share various similarities, victims uniquely react and assign meaning to these events. Using Weick’s sensemaking theory coupled with Lazarus and Folkman’s model of coping, this study examines the role of organizational tolerance toward sexual harassment and its influence on victim resilience, coping, harassment fatigue, and perceived vulnerability to future sexual harassment. Survey results from 187 victims of workplace sexual harassment indicate that organizational tolerance of sexual harassment is a significant predictor of victim vulnerability, resilience, and harassment fatigue. Specifically, organizations that are more tolerant of sexual harassment are associated with higher victim vulnerability to future harassment and harassment fatigue, as well as lower resilience. Additionally, victims who responded to harassment using problem-focused coping were significantly more resilient, while formally reporting sexual harassment was associated with lower victim resilience. Overall, results illustrate the complexity of addressing sexual harassment from both an organizational and individual perspective.     

The obstacles against reaching the highest level of Aristotelian friendship online

The ubiquity of online social networks has led to the phenomena of having friends that are known only through online interaction. In many cases, no physical interaction has taken place, but still people consider each other friends. This paper analyzes whether these friendships would satisfy the conditions of Aristotle??s highest level of friendship?Cwhat he calls perfect friendship. Since perfect friendship manifests through a shared love of virtue, physical proximity would seem to be unnecessary at first glance. However, I argue that the nature of online interaction may preclude us from fully recognizing the virtues and vices in others to the degree necessary for perfect friendship to occur. As such, online friendships face significant obstacles against moving beyond utility or pleasure, and this has important repercussions for online interaction more generally.     

Who benefits from public spending on higher education in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa?

Most countries are far from achieving the new sustainable development target of equal access to higher education by 2030, with those in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa furthest behind. This raises questions about the allocation of public resources across the education system to promote equity. We use data from Demographic and Health Surveys and UNESCO Institute for Statistics in 31 countries in these regions to assess who benefits from public spending on education. Our results reveal an overall pattern of pro-rich education spending, increasing with education level. We find that this pattern can be traced to an allocation of resources to higher education that is disproportionate to the sub-sector’s size: even when higher education spending overall represents a small proportion of total educational expenditure, per-capita expenditure is extremely high. Given that the richest predominantly gain access to higher education, the current spending patterns are likely to reinforce wealth-driven education inequalities.     

A Review of Psychological Distress Among University Students: Pervasiveness,Implications and Potential Points of Intervention

A review of literature from the past 30 years establishes psychological distress as both a longstanding and current issue affecting university students worldwide. Poorer academic outcomes and problematic health behaviours are linked to students’ distress, and these wider implications also highlight the need for appropriate policies and services to support students during what is clearly a challenging time. Further review identified various socio-demographic, situational and academic factors as potential bases of students’ distress. Undoubtedly, the demands of the university lifestyle are inherently stressful; yet experiencing these as distressing is not inevitable. Rather, a review of links between university students’ psychological attributes and psychological distress indicates such attributes might be ideal points of intervention to ensure students are best equipped to manage the stressors of university, and greater attention in this area is recommended.     

Understanding productivity dynamics: A task taxonomy approach

As job markets have been polarizing, firms have been changing their labor inputs. By using matched employer–employee data for Portugal, we examine whether labor market polarization has occurred within or across firms and how labor input upgrades have contributed to overall productivity growth. We develop a firm taxonomy based on worker's occupational data. Firms can be focused on one task – Abstract, Manual or Routine – on a combination of tasks, or none. Results show that Abstract firms are the most productive and their share has increased over time. Manual firms, the least productive, have had a stable share throughout the period. Routine firms have seen their share decline over time. The dynamic decomposition of the estimated productivity reveals that productivity growth is propelled by increased market shares of the most productive incumbents and exiting of the least productive, especially for Abstract firms. Notwithstanding these productivity growth drivers, they fail to avert the productivity stagnation observed in Portugal between 2004 and 2009 due to the overall decline in productivity of incumbent firms, especially Routine. We discuss the policy implications of our results which are relevant to other European economies also lagging behind in terms of knowledge and innovation capabilities.     

Quality Assessment in Higher Education: the Scottish Experience

Quality assessment has been a feature of higher education in Scotland for the academic years from 1992 to 1996. As part of a review of its quality assessment procedures, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council commissioned a survey of perceptions of the process, both amongst those involved in conducting the assessment and those subject to it. The aims of this paper are firstly to present the profile of opinion amongst 366 respondents to the questionnaire and secondly to investigate whether any patterns are discernible within this group by examining whether TQA is viewed differently by different constituencies within the academic community. Implications for the future direction of quality assessment are discussed.     

The color of innovative and sustainable leadership: Learning from teacher leaders

In this article, I address how teachers in urban and suburban U.S. schools with multicultural and multilingual student populations demonstrate leadership both within their classrooms and schools as well as outside of them. Based on research with U.S. public school teachers in two projects (Nieto What keeps teachers going? New York: Teachers College Press 2003, Why we teach. New York: Teachers College Press 2005), various roles that teachers have in initiating, putting into practice, and sustaining change in schools are described. Implications for policymakers and administrators are then briefly explored.