10 research outputs found
Making it Real: Promoting Novice Teachers’ Critical Perspectives on Educational Issues Through Structured Debates
No full textThere is a sense of ambivalence with regard to the place of the knowledge of the foundations of education in the makeup of an effective teacher in today’s lexicon of the term. The reason for the marginalization of the field often points to the perspective that the discourse that comprises the scope of educational foundations is too abstract to provide guidance to the everyday concerns of practitioners. In this interpretive and self-exploratory study, the author triangulated a) literature on the place of educational foundations of education in teacher education, b) description of a critical issues course that used structured debate to promote novice teachers’ critical perspectives on educational issues, and c) interpretive analysis of 21 preservice teachers’ reflections on implemented debates to answer the questions that guided the study. The questions were 1.) What is the place of the study of the foundations of education in the preparation of teachers for the 21st century? 2.) Did the use of structured debate provoke novice teachers’ critical perspectives on educational issues? The findings of the study showed that the use of structured debate elicited critical insight into the meaning and nature of educational issues from most of the participating novice teachers. The conclusion from the study supported the idea that the ability to exercise critical perspectives on educational policy and practice issues is a quintessential element that separates self-renewing and ever-maturing educators from teaching technicians
Pracademics: Facilitating Smooth Transition from Industry to Academia
No full textThe decision to move from an established industry career to academia is, in most cases, one that is not taken lightly, and the factors that contribute to this decision vary from person to person. In a world with an increasing demand for universities to produce professionals that are industry-ready, and able to make positive contributions in the workplace and wider sector, having educators with industry experience who understand the needs of the sector can be invaluable. This is particularly so in practice-oriented disciplines, such as Technology. However, in most cases, for those trying to make the transition, it is not a straightforward process. There are often stumbling blocks and factors that stand as deterrents to making this transition. Drawing on practical experience, this chapter will discuss how transitions into academia can be eased by starting with part-time or visiting academic roles whilst still in industry, prior to taking up full-time academic positions. Additionally, the chapter will explore how the undertaking of a relevant doctorate whilst still working in industry can help to smooth the transition. Finally, the author makes recommendations for how HEIs can assist in mitigating some of the deterrents to the transition process
Multistakeholder perspectives on geographical accessibility to emergency obstetric care in Benin City, Nigeria
No full textIntroduction In many Nigerian cities, travel to emergency obstetric care (EmOC) remains challenging, and the so-called urban advantage is shrinking. Benin City, Nigeria, has four major referral hospitals providing EmOC, yet maternal mortality remains very high. While facility-based deliveries are common, many women still face significant delays in reaching timely, appropriate care. This study explored women’s and stakeholders’ perspectives on EmOC geographical accessibility in this rapidly urbanising city. Methods This descriptive qualitative study was conducted in four referral hospitals in Benin City, Nigeria. In-depth interviews were conducted with 44 purposively recruited women who had experienced obstetric emergencies, alongside 11 key stakeholders, including health service planners and policymakers. Women were recruited from hospital settings and communities in three local government areas identified as having the poorest geographical access to EmOC. Thematic analysis followed Braun and Clarke’s six-step approach. Results Four themes emerged from our study: 1) travel challenges force some women to use unsafe transport and seek informal care in emergencies, 2) bypassing non-preferred facilities prolonged travel to obstetric care, 3) systemic inefficiencies further complicates EmOC geographical access, and 4) multi-sectoral action needed to improve EmOC geographical access. Women described unsafe roads, lack of transport, and security concerns, particularly at night, leading to delays or resorting to traditional birth attendants. Referral inefficiencies, workforce shortages, and inadequate facility readiness compounded these delays. Participants proposed infrastructure upgrades, birth preparedness, improved insurance coverage, and stronger referral coordination to reduce in-transit delays and ensure equitable access. Discussion Timely access to EmOC in urban settings is undermined by the intersection of spatial inequities, system dysfunction, and unreliable service availability. Addressing these challenges requires integrated infrastructure planning, strengthened referral coordination, and investment in health workforce retention. Without effective implementation of existing policies and targeted support for high-burden areas, maternal health inequities will persist even in urban contexts
Gender Differences in the Integration Literature: A Content Analysis of JPT and JPC by Gender and Integration Type
No full text The current project asks the questions: Do “women's ways of knowing,” particularly women's ways of knowing God as evidenced in the literature on women's spirituality, imply that women have a unique contribution to make to the integration literature? Do feminine perspectives on integration provide a necessary ‘corrective’ to the largely theoretica literature? Based on a review of feminist contributions to theology, spirituality, philosophy, and psychology, it was hypothesized that female authors' contributions to the integration literature would emphasize practical, clinical, and experiential integration. A content analysis of the past ten years of integration articles in the Journal of Psychology and Theology and the Journal of Psychology and Christianity was conducted to examine the relationship between gender and type of integration. Significant variations in the frequency of male and female first authorship across types of integration were found. Gender differences in the frequency of interdisciplinary, intradisciplinary-clinical, and faith-praxis integration articles contributed most towards the variations: Female authors were more likely to author clinical and faith-praxis integration articles, and male authors were more likely to author interdisciplinary integration articles. Implications are explored regarding the benefits of including feminine thought as an integral partner in the task of integration and spiritual formation. </jats:p
Traditional medicine in sub-Saharan Africa : its importance and potential policy options
No full textThis report indicates that about 20 percent of Africans who seek medical care first consult traditional healers. Patients tend to consult modern health care services for infectious or acute diseases, or those for which modern health care has been shown to be highly effective. But patients tend to consult traditional practitioners for chronic diseases, for diseases related to psychological or social disruption or to reproductive systems, for diseases that are slow to respond to treatment or deemed to be"magical"in origin. The prestige and credibility of traditional healers have been waning in the face of modernization and an increasingly educated public. Even so many highly educated people consult traditional practitioners. A survey in Ibadan of two groups - one educated elite, the other a traditional, less privileged group - found that roughly 70percent of both groups used traditional health care, particularly traditional drugs. The author shows that traditional medicine is an important source of health care for significant number of Africans and that traditional healers, particularly those who wield authority within their communities, are an important human resource for health care.Gender and Health,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Systems Development&Reform,Regional Rural Development,Hygiene Promotion and Social Marketing
The role of social media in health misinformation and disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic : bibliometric analysis
No full textBACKGROUND: The use of social media platforms to seek information continues to increase. Social media platforms can be used
to disseminate important information to people worldwide instantaneously. However, their viral nature also makes it easy to share
misinformation, disinformation, unverified information, and fake news. The unprecedented reliance on social media platforms
to seek information during the COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by increased incidents of misinformation and disinformation.
Consequently, there was an increase in the number of scientific publications related to the role of social media in disseminating
health misinformation and disinformation at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health misinformation and disinformation,
especially in periods of global public health disasters, can lead to the erosion of trust in policy makers at best and fatal consequences
at worst.
OBJECTIVE: This paper reports a bibliometric analysis aimed at investigating the evolution of research publications related to
the role of social media as a driver of health misinformation and disinformation since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally, this study aimed to identify the top trending keywords, niche topics, authors, and publishers for publishing papers
related to the current research, as well as the global collaboration between authors on topics related to the role of social media in
health misinformation and disinformation since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
METHODS: The Scopus database was accessed on June 8, 2023, using a combination of Medical Subject Heading and author-defined
terms to create the following search phrases that targeted the title, abstract, and keyword fields: (“Health*” OR “Medical”) AND
(“Misinformation” OR “Disinformation” OR “Fake News”) AND (“Social media” OR “Twitter” OR “Facebook” OR “YouTube”
OR “WhatsApp” OR “Instagram” OR “TikTok”) AND (“Pandemic*” OR “Corona*” OR “Covid*”). A total of 943 research
papers published between 2020 and June 2023 were analyzed using Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation), VOSviewer (Centre
for Science and Technology Studies, Leiden University), and the Biblioshiny package in Bibliometrix (K-Synth Srl) for RStudio
(Posit, PBC).
RESULTS: The highest number of publications was from 2022 (387/943, 41%). Most publications (725/943, 76.9%) were articles.
JMIR published the most research papers (54/943, 5.7%). Authors from the United States collaborated the most, with 311
coauthored research papers. The keywords “Covid-19,” “social media,” and “misinformation” were the top 3 trending keywords,
whereas “learning systems,” “learning models,” and “learning algorithms” were revealed as the niche topics on the role of social
media in health misinformation and disinformation during the COVID-19 outbreak.
CONCLUSIONS: Collaborations between authors can increase their productivity and citation counts. Niche topics such as “learning
systems,” “learning models,” and “learning algorithms” could be exploited by researchers in future studies to analyze the influence
of social media on health misinformation and disinformation during periods of global public health emergencies.The South African Department of Science and Innovation and the South African Medical Research Council under the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa Joint Application Form 2020/33.https://infodemiology.jmir.org/InformaticsSDG-03:Good heatlh and well-beingSDG-16:Peace,justice and strong institution
African dance in England: spirituality and continuity
No full textBetween the 17th and 20th centuries, the British misunderstood African cultural practices and reported on those in derogatory terms. With other European nations they projected Africans as ‘savages’ without any cultural traditions and consistently devalued traditional African religions and dances. Those views have seeped into the psychology of the British mentality and specifically, may have negatively influenced African dance development in the UK.
This thesis seeks to address those issues through a re-examination of the literature and a re-appraisal of Africa’s religions and dance forms. It will illustrate that in spite of he continuous attempts to decimate African cultural expression, Africa’s cultural practices survived and re-emerged in the Caribbean through slavery and through vibrate practice. The adaptation of the forms in their new environment, especially through adopting some aspects of Christian worship, nurtured alternative ways that later enabled the forms to find expression, as theatrical dance, in the UK.
The thesis is informed by international field trips, through the use of video and Internet sources, from attendances at African and Caribbean cultural events, through a wide range of secondary sources and from interviews spanning over twelve years. It is presented in two main sections. section one includes the Introduction and chapters One and Two. The Introduction provides a backdrop of current issues in African dance development and chapters One and Two provide a framework of African cultural practice on the continent and in the Caribbean, indicating how European perceptions of the people and their practices skewed the truth. Chapters Three and Four provide a detailed account of African dance development over the past fifth years through the activities of performance companies and support agencies. Chapter Five investigates dance development in the UK, specifically focusing on the works of two London-based choreographers and exploring how their spiritually determines their practice
Next generation brain health: transforming global research and public health to promote prevention of dementia and reduce its risk in young adult populations
No full textEfforts to prevent dementia can benefit from precision interventions delivered to the right population at the right time; that is, when the potential to reduce risk is the highest. Young adults (aged 18-39 years) are a neglected population in dementia research and policy making despite being highly exposed to several known modifiable risk factors. The risk and protective factors that have the biggest effect on dementia outcomes in young adulthood, and how these associations differ across regions and groups, still remain unclear. To address these uncertainties, the Next Generation Brain Health team convened a multidisciplinary expert group representing 15 nations across six continents. We identified several high-priority modifiable factors in young adulthood and devised five key recommendations for promoting brain health, ranging from individual to policy levels. Increasing research and policy focus on brain health across the life course, inclusive of younger populations, is the next crucial step in the efforts to prevent dementia at the global level. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.
Demilitarisation Nigeria and South Africa compared
No full textIn sub-Saharan African countries that have made democratic transition from military
rule and military-backed authoritarian regimes, state elites have embarked upon
strategies aimed at demilitarising the new democratic political process. Demilitarisation
of the state and politics has become an imperative because it is decisive for
consolidating democratic politics and for ensuring improvements in public safety and
security. Yet the process of such demilitarisation in these countries has often generated
a paradox, whereby the reduction of the political influence of state institutions of
violence has been associatedw ith rising civil militarism and the prevalenceo f organised
violence in the wider society.
In these circumstances, taking cognisance of the dangers of civil militarism and other
forms of private violence is a priority for designing and implementing demilitarisation
strategies and other security reforms in post-authoritarian African states. Reformminded
political elites and external supporters need to be sensitive to these dangers or
risk perpetuating the shell of electoral democracy that cannot deliver the goal of human
security in the region. This dissertation explored how the current approach to
demilitarisation is related to the problem of civil militarism by examining the case
studies of Nigeria and South Africa. It explains that given the condition of the state in
Africa, demilitarisation of politics after transition from military or military-backed
authoritarianism contributes to the emergence of civil militarism. Based on this finding,
it argues for a comprehensive approach to demilitarisation as a strategy that caters to
both state and societal violence in order to mitigate the risks of civil militarism in the
process
A critical analysis of South African peacemaking in the conflicts in the Great Lakes region
No full textIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 133-150).The Great Lakes region, where conflict resolution and peace operations have been a challenge for 40 years, has been the site of continuous conflicts in the 1960s and 1990s. Despite South Africa's enormous contribution as a peacemaker in the region since 1996, the situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remains fragile. How can another potentially deadly conflict in the Great Lakes region be prevented in the future? And how can South Africa improve its performance as a peacemaker? This dissertation analyses South Africa's peace-making efforts in the context of three events in the Great Lakes region: the 1994 Rwandan genocide, the First Congo War in 1996, and the Second Congo War in 1998. The dissertation takes an empirical approach and focuses on eastern DRC, which has the highest concentration of causalities and is crucial to the wars of the DRC. In addition to literature and documents, I have also incorporated key informant interviews and my own personal observations during my assignment as a humanitarian worker from March 2007 to July 2008. These interviews and observations may shed light on the conflict from the perspective of Congolese people. I argue that South Africa has failed as a peacemaker due to four main factors: South Africa's inadequate knowledge of mediation skills; its ambivalent and contradictory foreign policy that stressed the country's interests; its insufficient understanding of major causes, aggravating factors and the nature of this regionalised conflict; and the Southern African Development Community (SADC)'s paradoxical politics. The aim of this dissertation is to explore possible solutions to conflict by strengthening South Africa's peace-making opportunities, which IS the key to implementing successful conflict prevention
