Journal articles on the topic 'Equitable access to work-integrated learning'

The Farmers’ Rights concept is part of an international treaty of which Malaysia is one of the signatory parties. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (FAO Treaty 2004), articulated four core rights under the Farmers’ Rights concept – namely the right to traditional farming knowledge, the right to seed, the right to equitable benefit sharing and the right to participate in the decision-making process. Article 9.2 (b) of FAO Treaty 2004 stipulates that farmers should be given equal opportunity to equitably participate in sharing benefits from the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The right to equitable benefit sharing legally justifies among others, the rights of smallholder farmers who have been breeding seeds for generations to receive benefits; either monetary or non-monetary from any commercialization of the seeds that have been developed by them. Non-monetary benefits include access to seeds for their farm. This paper investigates to what extent the existing legal provisions of plant variety law in Malaysia has integrated this right to equitable benefit sharing to small farmers as compared to similar legislation in India and under African Union (AU Model Law for the Protection of the Rights of Local Communities, Farmers and Breeders, and for the Regulation of Access to Biological Resources). These two legal frameworks aimed to protect their small farming communities are cited as legislation with the best practices on implementing Farmers’ Rights core rights. The aim is for Malaysia to learn from these countries in order to ensure legal protection for small farmers’ right to equitable benefit sharing of their plant genetic resources.

In a recent pilot for a redesign of an undergraduate entrepreneurship course, factors for consideration included: materials and resource costs, ability for work-integrated learning, and responding to the contemporary needs of the workplace outside of the post-secondary institution. The utilization of an industry leader’s open learning platform and the implementation of micro-credential certificates supported students’ learning experiences that bridged theory to experience and work-integrated learning. The use of multiple credentials (in addition to course grading) provided additional dimensions of learning and experience. This redesign was developed through 2019 and launched in January prior to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the 2020 winter semester. The intentional strategy in this course design was to build student competencies through theory and content, developing an application with micro-credential certificates, and utilizing work-integrated learning with students creating an ecommerce website to service an existing business or start-up plan. Serendipitously, as businesses and the ecommerce platform were forced to quickly adjust in response to the impacts of the pandemic, undergraduate students were able to learn and design in authentic circumstances and applications. Critical questions are raised concerning equitable access to technology and the reciprocity of gains in the open learning platform between students, institutions, and profitable businesses.

This article reports on six White urban principals who came to administration with a commitment to create more equitable and excellent schools for students from marginalized communities. These leaders made strides in raising student achievement, creating a climate of belonging for students, staff, and families, and increasing access to learning opportunities for marginalized students. The analysis sought to address the following research question: “In what ways do White leaders who make significant progress in creating excellent and equitable schools include race and racial issues in their leadership?” Five aspects of these leaders’ work around undermining racism and a Whiteness ideology are highlighted.

Land use in much of sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by legislative frameworks based on a strong colonial legacy, focusing strongly on state control and minimal devolution of management responsibilities to local communities. However, attempts to reconcile conservation and socio-economic development by increasing stakeholder engagement in community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) have been undertaken since the late 1980s. Based on a review of published literature on historical land-use trajectories, the evolution of CBNRM, and key respondent interviews with NRM experts in Ghana and Zambia, this paper asks: What lessons can be learned from CBNRM to inform integrated landscape approaches for more equitable social and ecological outcomes? The paper discusses the positive characteristics and persistent challenges arising from CBNRM initiatives in both countries. The former being, improved rights and resource access, an established institutional structure at the local level, and a conservation approach tailored to the local context. The latter include the absence of multi-scale collaboration, inadequate inclusive and equitable local participation, and limited sustainability of CBNRM initiatives beyond short-term project funding timelines. The paper argues that integrated landscape approaches can address these challenges and improve natural resource management in Ghana and Zambia. We urge landscape practitioners to consider how the lessons learned from CBNRM are being addressed in practice, as they represent both challenges and opportunities for landscape approaches to improve natural resource management.

This report presents the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO’s) evaluation of the adaptations in care delivery, research operations, and regulatory oversight made in response to the coronavirus pandemic and presents recommendations for moving forward as the pandemic recedes. ASCO organized its recommendations for clinical research around five goals to ensure lessons learned from the COVID-19 experience are used to craft a more equitable, accessible, and efficient clinical research system that protects patient safety, ensures scientific integrity, and maintains data quality. The specific goals are: (1) ensure that clinical research is accessible, affordable, and equitable; (2) design more pragmatic and efficient clinical trials; (3) minimize administrative and regulatory burdens on research sites; (4) recruit, retain, and support a well-trained clinical research workforce; and (5) promote appropriate oversight and review of clinical trial conduct and results. Similarly, ASCO also organized its recommendations regarding cancer care delivery around five goals: (1) promote and protect equitable access to high-quality cancer care; (2) support safe delivery of high-quality cancer care; (3) advance policies to ensure oncology providers have sufficient resources to provide high-quality patient care; (4) recognize and address threats to clinician, provider, and patient well-being; and (5) improve patient access to high-quality cancer care via telemedicine. ASCO will work at all levels to advance the recommendations made in this report.

In July 2017, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) released a new mission statement that shifts the organization's primary focus to supporting and advocating for the highest quality mathematics teaching and learning for all students. A key strategy for achieving this goal is to advance “a culture of equity where each and every person has access to high quality teaching and is empowered as a learner and doer of mathematics” (NCTM, 2017, “Strategic Framework,” para. 2). Increasing equity and ensuring the highest quality mathematics teaching and learning for all students requires systemic change (National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics [NCSM] & TODOS: Mathematics for ALL, 2016). As educators are called to enact NCTM's new mission, we acknowledge that such change is complex. We also acknowledge that our own experiences conducting equity work that is grounded in an asset-based approach are at different stages of development, ranging from beginning levels to lived experiences as diverse mathematics learners and mathematics education researchers. We see this change in mission as a call to both act politically (Aguirre et al., 2017) and to change story lines (i.e., “broad, culturally shared narrative[s]”; Herbel-Eisenmann et al., 2016, p. 104) that dominate the public perception of mathematics learning and teaching. We acknowledge that systemic barriers are part of a larger educational issue, but for the purposes of this commentary, we focus on mathematics.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed peoples’ lives in unexpected ways, especially how they allocate their time between work and other activities. Demand for online learning has surged during a period of mass layoffs and transition to remote work and schooling. Can this uptake in online learning help close longstanding skills gaps in the US workforce in a sustainable and equitable manner? We answer this question by analyzing individual engagement data of DataCamp users between October 2019 and September 2020 (n = 277,425). Exploiting the staggered adoption of actions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 across states, we identify the causal effect at the neighborhood level. The adoption of nonessential business closures led to a 38% increase in new users and a 6% increase in engagement among existing users. We find that these increases are proportional across higher- and lower-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods with a high or low share of Black residents. This demonstrates the potential for online platforms to democratize access to knowledge and skills that are in high demand, which supports job security and facilitates social mobility.

This chapter reviews critical areas of research on issues of equity/equality in the highly proclaimed and exponentially growing model of bilingual education: two-way immersion (TWI). There is increasing evidence that TWI programs are not living up to their ideal to provide equal access to educational opportunity for transnational emergent bilingual students. Through a synthesis of research from related fields, we will offer guidelines for program design that attend to equality and a framework for future research to push the field of bilingual education toward creating more equitable and integrated multilingual learning spaces. Specifically, this review leads to a proposal for adding a fourth goal for TWI programs: to develop “critical consciousness” through using critical pedagogies and humanizing research.

The global goal to end hunger requires the interpretation of problems and change across multiple domains to create the scope for collaboration, learning, and impactful research. We facilitated a workshop aimed at understanding how stakeholders problematize sustainable diet transition (SDT) among a previously marginalized social group. Using the systems thinking approach, three sub-systems, namely access to dietary diversity, sustainable beneficiation of natural capital, and ‘food choice for well-being’, highlighted the main forces governing the current context, and future interventions of the project. Moreover, when viewed as co-evolving processes within the multi-level perspective, our identified microlevel leverage points—multi-faceted literacy, youth empowerment, deliberative policymaking, and promotion of sustainable diet aspirations—can be linked and developed through existing national macro-level strategies. Thus, co-designing to problematize transformational SDT, centered on an interdisciplinary outlook and informational governance, could streamline research implementation outcomes to re-structure socio-technical sectors and reconnect people to nature-based solutions. Such legitimate aspirations could be relevant in countries bearing complex socio-political legacies and bridge the local–global goals coherently. This work provides a collaborative framework required to develop impact-driven activities needed to inform evidence-based policies on sustainable diets.

The Coalition for Equal Access to Education (CEAE) is a Calgary-based nonprofit organization committed to working with community, education, and government stakeholders to promote access to quality, equitable education and services for K-12 English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners. CEAE is active in developing innovative projects, research publications, and informing policy and decision-makers on issues that affect education and services for children and youth. In addition, the organization engages in community development initiatives through literacy development support for ethnocultural children and youth, leadership training on active parental involvement, and promotion of systemic change and cultural competence. In its work to address the complex needs of ESL children, families, and the professionals who support them, the CEAE has developed Helping Children Learn at Home, a parents’ program that supports ethnocultural parents in creating healthy learning environments in the home, in understanding better and addressing their young children’s learning needs, learning about the Canadian education system, and contributing to decision-making processes in schools and in the community that affects their children’s educational success. This article describes the program and the pilot session completed in February 2011. The evaluation phase included feedback from the participants, the CEAE staff, and the curriculum developers in order to produce and publish a completed version of the document, which will be available for use by other agencies.

Abstract Opportunities and experiences for all students, including students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, to build self-determination abilities and skills are critical to enable positive postsecondary outcomes (e.g., competitive and integrated employment, community access participation). However, racially and ethnically marginalized students with disabilities might experience fewer opportunities to build self-determination due to systemic issues (e.g., absence of policies emphasizing equity and racial justice, lack of understanding of students' social and cultural capital). The present study is an initial, exploratory analysis to determine if students with disabilities from racially and ethnically marginalized backgrounds reported different self-determination outcomes as they engaged in the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction (SDLMI) in inclusive, general education classrooms. Findings suggested African American/Black students with and without disabilities as well as Hispanic/Latinx students without disabilities scored highest in self-determination at the beginning of the academic year (baseline) and that including disability status crossed with race/ethnicity as a predictor of self-determination baseline improved understanding of the data patterns. Implications for systemic changes to enable equitable education across research and practice are discussed.

Access to education has been the central tenet of the Millennium Development Goal 2, which focused strongly on increasing enrolment yet failed to promote education quality and equity and address contextual complexities that sustain exclusion. As a consequence, many children are not learning. There is growing recognition that effective, efficient and equitable education for all will not be achieved without better accountability. The present paper details innovative methods for strengthening the learning process through better social accountability. The paper defines and tests in rural schools of Afghanistan and Pakistan a community-based system dynamics protocol using participatory group model building (GMB) techniques. We tested the protocol with two groups of teachers and one group of children, with the three produced causal loop diagrams highlighting factors that influence learning in the classroom from the perspectives of the participants. The sessions showed interest, engagement, quick mastery of how GMB methods work and clear understanding of how the current classroom system hinders learning for many students. Researchers found that large autonomy and initiative could be left to the workshop participants, keeping the facilitator’s role to one of explaining the method and asking clarification about causal relations.

Residential schools are an important mechanism by which equitable access to laboratory provide hands-on experience and face-to-face learning for students enrolled in distance mode. This paper elaborates on the evaluation of residential school conducted as a part of undergraduate materials science and engineering course for the distance/flexible students enrolled at Central Queensland University, Australia. The students in this course are adult students who are employed full-time as practitioners and juggling with work, family, and study commitments. This cohort differs greatly in their technical knowledge and professional experience from the students who are enrolled internally. Internal students are predominately students who have progressed from secondary school to tertiary education without any workplace experience. A three day residential school provided the opportunity for students to work individually (undertake quizzes) and as a group (conduct laboratories, pursue group project) to ensure they had access to lecturers and their peers in progressing their tasks and assessment items. The students travelled from throughout Australia to attend the residential school and its design acknowledges the need for the time allocated to be focused, meaningful and worthwhile so students can maximise time at the residential (and the subsequent follow up activities) and minimise time away from the workplace.

While digital writing projects (DWPs) like podcasts, videos, and infographics are rigorous sites of scholarly knowledge production, the growth in their popularity as classroom assignments often has more to do with a sense that these are “fun” assignments. Horner, Selfe, and Lockridge (2015) describe such dismissive attitudes using the term fetishization. When DWPs are fetishized by students and faculty, they are celebrated while being dismissed as pedestrian fads. Ultimately, fetishization decreases the amount of support offered by faculty, the effort invested by students, as well as the demand (and budget) for learning service support. This means that disparities between students (including access to technologies, digital literacies, and “normative” abilities) are exaggerated. In this paper, we illuminate four interconnected drivers of fetishization that obscure the realities of DWPs—the myth of digital natives, assumptions about tool-content division, faith in digital tool neutrality, and idealizations of the web. Like all teaching approaches, thoughtful instructional design and learning supports are required for DWPs to create effective, equitable, safe, inclusive, and accessible learning opportunities. This paper enhances writing instructors’ and tutors’ ability to challenge fetishized perspectives of DWPs in their work with faculty and students alike.

This paper explores the issue of social justice through the lens of equitable access to Advanced Placement courses inthe City of New York High Schools, with focus on Advanced Placement Environmental Science. A criticalcomponent of the Advanced Placement Environmental Science course is the incorporation of environmentalfieldwork. The National Research Council (2014) suggest that field stations are important for STEM education andprovide opportunities to engage students in the natural environment and get them excited about science. Through theCurriculum and Community Enterprise for Restoration Science, an NSF funded opportunity, students in theAdvanced Placement Environmental Science course are integrating their field station work in Oyster Restoration inthe New York City Harbor. These interactions with the environment offer unique experiences which engagemarginalized students in both rigorous coursework and affords equity in science learning. In turn, it affords allstudents the opportunity for upward mobility and increased career opportunities in the area of STEM.

This case study details several concrete approaches to integrating the use of student-loaned iPads in the teaching of mathematics in Higher Education. Although there is a scarcity of rigorous studies into the efficacy of tablet devices for improved educational outcomes, previous case studies have argued that tablet devices, if used, should be integrated into the whole learning experience. The mathematics teaching team at Middlesex University have developed an inclusive digital pedagogy over the last five years that enabled us to effectively respond to the remote teaching imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic by loaning iPads to all students on specialist mathematics programmes. As we begin the return to campus, we continue to integrate these devices into our teaching to address the observed “digital divide” in Generation-Z students which is characterised not by access to smart devices but by the digital skills to use them as effective learning tools. This is particularly relevant at Middlesex University which is disproportionately affected by digital poverty amongst its student population. We discuss the use of virtual whiteboard apps, the necessity of handwritten mathematics, the rich integration of multimedia content, persistent collaborative “problem solving spaces”, and how a common hardware platform allows for varied and equitable inclusive assessment. We also report the results of students’ surveys of iPad use during the remote-only 2020-21 academic year.

In response to widespread concerns about student mental health, a growing movement in higher education is focused on fostering student well-being as an important element of student success. Thriving college students experience a level of psychological well-being that contributes to their persistence toward graduation and allows them to gain maximum benefit from their time in college. Student well-being is also important for its own sake. In the fall of 2019, 41.1% of undergraduates reported experiencing moderate or severe psychological distress and 76.5% reported experiencing moderate or severe stress in the past 12 months. Some students experiencing psychological distress receive a formal diagnosis of anxiety, depression, or other mental health conditions that may require accommodations to ensure equitable access to courses. Although disability resource centers work with instructors to develop accommodations, instructors can also proactively take steps to design their courses in a manner that promotes student well-being and is inclusive of students with mental health conditions. The universal design for learning (UDL) framework, an approach based on educational research in the learning sciences, can guide the development of flexible learning environments that are supportive of and accessible to all learners. Here we outline three course modifications that can promote student mental health and provide initial steps toward UDL in physics courses.

In this paper, we present the status quo and challenges regarding the use of additional languages as a medium of instruction in Brazilian higher education. We begin by contextualizing the importance of the process of internationalization at home (IaH) and additional languages in higher education. Next, the teaching of additional languages in Brazil, which has been until very recently relegated to the private sector and accessible only to an elite, is introduced. We then provide an overview of the present state of affairs of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in the country, which is still in its infancy. We move on to describe different ways in which language and content can be integrated in higher education, as well as how EMI can be introduced in disciplinary courses. We finish concluding that EMI can maximize the learning of academic English by Brazilian students and content instructors, as well as encourage a more international higher education and balanced academic mobility by allowing foreign students to study in Brazil while preserving and even increasing the international interest in the Portuguese language. In a country located in the periphery of knowledge production and dissemination, we understand that the adoption of EMI can potentially foster the inclusion of more Brazilians in the global academic and research scenario. It gives them access to the knowledge produced internationally and, at the same time, enables the research produced in the country to be disseminated globally.

67 Background: Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) carry underexplored practical and ethical implications for the practice of clinical oncology. As oncologic applications of AI proliferate, a framework for guiding their ethical implementations and equitable distribution will be crucial. Methods: We reviewed the current landscape of AI applications in oncology research and clinical practice by reviewing the current body of evidence in PubMed and Medline. Key ethical challenges and opportunities to address health equity are critically evaluated and highlighted. Ethical implications for patients, clinicians and society at large are delineated, with particular focus on the impact and ramifications of AI with respect to healthcare disparities and equity of oncology care delivery. Results: Growing concerns that AI may widen disparities in oncologic care by virtue of lack of affordability, inconsistent accessibility and biased machine-learning models are addressed. Although there is potential for AI to widen disparities in oncology care, using foresight in application, AI has the potential to (1) democratize access to specialized clinical knowledge, (2) improve the accuracy of predicting cancer susceptibility, recurrence and mortality, (3) prevent diagnostic errors in under-resourced settings, (4) minimize unintended bias and (5) enable access to tailored therapeutic options including clinical trials if appropriately deployed. Separately, AI can be harnessed to identify areas of underserved needs and optimize systems of health-information sharing and reimbursements as blockchain technology converges with AI. As AI advances it will have a larger presence in oncology research and clinical practice. Conclusions: A strategic framework integrating ethical standards and emphasizing equitable implementation can help ensure that the potential of AI to address disparities in oncology are maximally captured and its perils averted. Further work is being done on exploring these challenges and will be submitted as a manuscript.

Purpose In commenting on the issues raised by Drake et al. the purpose of this paper is to discuss three areas of practice: assessing capacity in the presence of intransigence and/or rigid patterns of thinking and behaviour; understanding addiction in this context; and identifying “reasonable adjustments” in the way addiction and substance misuse services are provided to this client group. Design/methodology/approach As well as discussing the issues raised by Drake et al. the commentary refers to a serious case review exploring similar issues. Findings Both the case discussed by Drake et al. and the serious case review draw attention to the importance of identifying “reasonable adjustments” to current practice. Research limitations/implications While the implications of the cases discussed are very significant, further work quantifying the scope of the problems identified would be very useful. Practical implications The 1995 Disability Discrimination Act (UK) requires public services to make “reasonable adjustments” in order for people with a range of disabilities to access their services on an equitable basis. This paper identifies what some of those areas of difficulty might be. Originality/value This is a relatively new area of work and expertise in both mainstream addiction and specialist intellectual disability and mental health services needs to be developed in order for them to provide more coherent and accessible programmes to individuals.

Growing interest in how marginalised citizens can leverage countervailing power to make health systems more inclusive and equitable points to the need for politicised frameworks for examining bottom-up accountability initiatives. This study explores how political capabilities are manifested in the actions and strategies of Indigenous grassroots leaders of health accountability initiatives in rural Guatemala. Qualitative data were gathered through group discussions and interviews with initiative leaders (called defenders of the right to health) and initiative collaborators in three municipalities. Analysis was oriented by three dimensions of political capabilities proposed for evaluating the longer-term value of participatory development initiatives: political learning, reshaping networks and patterns of representation. Our findings indicated that the defenders’ political learning began with actionable knowledge about defending the right to health and citizen participation. The defenders used their understanding of local norms to build trust with remote Indigenous communities and influence them to participate in monitoring to attempt to hold the state accountable for the discriminatory and deficient healthcare they received. Network reshaping was focused on broadening their base of support. Their leadership strategies enabled them to work with other grassroots leaders and access resources that would expand their reach in collective action and lend them more influence representing their problems beyond the local level. Patterns of representing their interests with a range of local and regional authorities indicated they had gained confidence and credibility through their evolving capability to navigate the political landscape and seek the right authority based on the situation. Our results affirm the critical importance of sustained, long-term processes of engagement with marginalised communities and representatives of the state to enable grassroots leaders of accountability initiatives to develop the capabilities needed to mobilise collective action, shift the terms of interaction with the state and build more equitable health systems.

Introduction. For the last thirty years, UNESCO has been repeatedly raising questions of accessibility and quality of education for every child, teen, and adult by implementing the “Education for All” program. The new concept of education proposed by UNESCO aims at transforming people’s lives and formulates the following sustainable development goal “To provide inclusive and equitable quality education and create lifelong learning opportunities for all. One strategy for achieving this goal is to use and develop information and communication technology (ICT) to strengthen education systems, knowledge dissemination, access to information, and quality and effective learning. The aim of the work is to increase the efficiency of students’ learning of geometrical and graphic disciplines by developing a pilot electronic course in LMS Moodle and special software implementing elements of individualization of the learning process. Materials and methods. Theoretical research methods included generalization of scientific and pedagogical literature on formation of spatial thinking. Empirical research methods included testing, interviewing, and questioning using Google forms. Mathematical methods of research included algorithmizing and programming. Python 3.9 language and PyCharm development environment were used for writing the trainer program. The OpenCV, Matplotlib and Keras libraries, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Visio and CAD Compass-3D were used to create methodological materials Results. The software simulator for developing spatial thinking of engineering students studying “Descriptive Geometry” discipline has been developed in three versions. Conclusion. The ideas about the level of spatial thinking of modern students are supplemented. The original programs for the implementation of the elements of individualization of the educational process in the discipline of “Descriptive geometry” and algorithms of its work were developed and introduced into the scientific turnover, as well as the proposed pedagogical conditions of their use. Practical significance lies in the creation of learning and teaching methods and program basic elements for the use of end-to-end digital technology in the learning process.

<p>To improve the quality of online learning in Indonesia higher education, Faculty of Nursing (FoN), Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) supported by the Directorate of Higher Education in Indonesia that known as DIKTI developed an online course named Family Nursing. The course is a community nursing course in regard with the care of family nursing and it discusses the concept of family, family health, and the concept of a wellness family. The course was developed to achieve the mission of equitable access to information, relevance, and improvement of the quality of higher education throughout Indonesia, especially in nursing education. The online course was offered in one private nursing school in Jakarta area that never had any online course nor using online learning method in the delivery of their subjects. The aim of this report was to describe students’ experiences in an online course. This paper reports on the evaluation work of one semester online/blended learning project funded by DIKTI. Sixty five students, who experienced the online/blended learning method for the first time, were enrolled in the online course. The students have agreed to fill an evaluation online form after their mid semester exam. The evaluation form consisted of closed- and openended questions. This report revealed that most students (&gt; 70%) agreed that their experience on the online (blended) learning was positive. However, it should be noted that, a quarter of students (27-28%) had less motivation to do the independent learning and perceived that the online learning was a learning experience that lack of support in developing their critical thinking. Several important themes further emerged including students’ issues (lack of knowledge and motivation), teaching-learning process issues (lack of facilities and clarity) and academic staff issues (minimal feedback and different perceptions between academic staff and students). Though online/blended learning can be employed to support nursing and healthcare education, there is limited appreciation of students' experience and the use of e-learning. Context is also being considered as an important part when applying the online/blended learning, thus, this report provides a new understanding of students’ opinions on their first experience when engaging with online learning at a private nursing school. This report further provides a number of inhibiting factors continue to affect the student experience.</p>

SummaryThe aim of this study is to demonstrate from actual projects that ICT can contribute to the balance of health systems in developing countries and to equitable access to human resources and quality health care service. Our study is focused on two essential elements which are: i) Capacity building and support of health professionals, especially those in isolated areas using telemedicine tools; ii) Strengthening of hospital information systems by taking advantage of full potential offered by open-source software.Our research was performed on the activities carried out in Mali and in part through the RAFT (Réseau en Afrique Francophone pour la Télémédecine) Network. We focused mainly on the activities of e-learning, telemedicine, and hospital information systems. These include the use of platforms that work with low Internet connection bandwidth. With regard to information systems, our strategy is mainly focused on the improvement and implementation of opensource tools.Several telemedicine application projects were reviewed including continuing online medical education and the support of isolated health professionals through the usage of innovative tools. This review covers the RAFT project for continuing medical education in French-speaking Africa, the tele-radiology project in Mali, the “EQUI-ResHuS” project for equal access to health over ICT in Mali, The “Pact-e.Santé” project for community health workers in Mali.We also detailed a large-scale experience of an open-source hospital information system implemented in Mali: “Cinz@n”.We report on successful experiences in the field of telemedicine and on the evaluation by the end-users of the Cinz@n project, a pilot hospital information system in Mali. These reflect the potential of healthcare-ICT for Sub-Saharan African countries.

Background/Context Large gaps in achievement and interest in science and engineering (STEM) persist for youth growing up in poverty, and in particular for African American and Latino youth. Within the informal education community, the recently evolving “maker movement” has sparked interest for its potential role in breaking down longstanding barriers to learning and attainment in STEM, with advocates arguing for its “democratizing effects.” What remains unclear is how minoritized newcomers to a makerspace can access and engage in makerspaces in robust and equitably consequential ways. Purpose This paper describes how and why youth engage in making in an after-school, youth-focused, community-based makerspace program “Making 4 Change.” Four in-depth stories of engagement are shared. Using a mobilities of learning framework, we discuss how youth appropriated and repurposed the process of making, and unpack how the program attempted to value and negotiate youths’ ways of making from an equity-oriented perspective. Research Design Utilizing a two-year critical ethnography, involving 36 youth over two years in two making settings, we assumed roles of both program teachers and researchers. Data collected included field notes, session videos, weekly youth conversation groups, youth created artifacts, and interviews. Analysis was iterative, involving movement between a grounded approach to making sense of our data, and a mobilities of learning framework. Findings Three forms of engagement—critical, connected and collective—supported youths’ sustained and mutual engagement in the makerspace. Across the three, it was essential to balance purposeful playfulness with just-in-time STEM modules, invite a broadening range of identities youth could draw on and perform, and to more critically address the affordances and constraints inherent in a community makerspace. Conclusions From the insights gained, we suggest that framing youths’ experiences through the lens of equitably consequential learning and becoming challenges the field to consider how making—as a practice—is always linked to individual and social histories that unfold across space and time. Who can make and who cannot, whose knowledge matters and whose does not, are all a part of making itself. But such understandings are not without tensions, for the work that youth do, which can invoke nontraditional tools and practices towards nontraditional ends, can be fraught with complexities that youth and adults alike are unprepared to handle. “There are a lot of people who get frostbite in the winter when people are outside. Ours is way cheaper than a regular sweatshirt and way warmer. It will keep you warm and snug. It will have a heater in it, and lights for glamour and fashion.” Emily “Our idea could help change things. People make fun of you. Why are you wearing that? You are ugly. There are stains on your clothes… I was like I am going to give you something beautiful but with casual in it so that you don't expose yourself. Like a jacket that goes all of the way down.” Jennifer

Teacher educators are in a unique position to prepare future educators to disrupt the status quo and enact changes that ensure equitable access to educational opportunities for all students, including those with disabilities. It is critical that those who prepare future special education teachers (SETs) ensure they are prepared to engage with the broader school community to foster inclusivity and positive outcomes for all students, in addition to designing specially designed instruction (SDI) responsive to the unique learning needs of individual students with disabilities. Addressing this task requires candidates who are prepared to employ high leverage and evidence-based practices, culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy, and universal design for learning. In this article, we describe how one small Department of Special Education sought to reinvent its program to center anti-racism and anti-ableism to inspire the next generation of SETs to adopt a transformative vision for public education. The result was a cohesive course roadmap that employs a “common trunk” of classes aligned with differentiated coursework needed for specialization for each credential that centers these principles while reducing assignments. The newly aligned road- maps ensure candidates in our programs will be ready to situate their work with students with identified disabilities within the context of the broader goals of public education.

Equitable access to high-quality higher education is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 4, 5, and 10, which indicate that it is crucial for a future sustainable society. Globalisation and reductions in systemic barriers to university admission are creating increasingly diverse higher education classrooms, but traditional education methods may unfairly disadvantage some groups of students. Creating equity in access to high-quality education requires teaching approaches that are considerate of each student’s individual sociocultural context as it affects their educational attainment. Building on discipline-based education research (DBER) principles in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, a modified holistic approach is proposed that primarily centres on students and tailors the teaching methods to the needs of the individuals and the dynamic of the whole class. This work demonstrates that educational attainment and student confidence was improved by applying an individual-centred teaching approach in a highly diverse undergraduate engineering classroom. Trials of this approach in a pilot classroom showed clear and consistent improvement over standard active learning approaches. Best practice guidelines for individual-centred teaching in STEM classrooms are provided. Further work is needed to examine the efficacy of this approach in a generalised setting, but the positive outcomes for student attainment are in line with existing research in the literature. The best practice guidelines presented herein may serve as a starting point for other educators to become more aware of the sociocultural needs of their individual students and classrooms, which may result in a move towards equity in STEM higher education.

Public school districts across the United States have implemented school choice systems that have the potential to improve underserved students' access to educational opportunities. However, research has shown that learning about and applying for schools can be extremely time-consuming and expensive, making it difficult for these systems to create more equitable access to resources in practice. A common factor surfaced in prior work is unequal access to information about the schools and enrollment process. In response, governments and non-profits have invested in providing more information about schools to parents, for instance, through detailed online dashboards. However, we know little about what information is actually useful for historically marginalized and underserved families. We conducted interviews with 10 low-income families and families of color to learn about the challenges they faced navigating an online school choice and enrollment system. We complement this data with four interviews with people who have supported families through the enrollment process in a wide range of roles, from school principal to non-profit staff ("parent advocates''). Our findings highlight the value of personalized support and trusting relationships to delivering relevant and helpful information. We contrast this against online information resources and dashboards, which tend to be impersonal, target a broad audience, and make strong assumptions about what parents should look for in a school without sensitivity to families' varying circumstances. We advocate for an assets-based design approach to information support in public school enrollment, which would ask how we can support the local, one-on-one support that community members already provide.

The COVID-19 crisis has revealed a need for rethinking approaches to education and livelihoods. Education in its present dispensation does not provide equitable access to children from marginalized segments of the population. It also suffers from deficits in the areas of social and emotional skills, over-emphasis on the three Rs, language used as a medium of instruction, and excessive competition for scoring marks, among others. There is very low uptake of vocational education. The National Education Policy 2020 tries to address some of these issues and plans on closer integration of vocational education with the school framework. High unemployment rates of educated youth, along with underemployment due to skill mismatch, show poor school-to-work transition and underscore the importance of TVET for youth in the future. Skill already exists in the economy in informal knowledge systems which are largely undocumented and thus not acknowledged in the formal system. These need to be combined with Western-centric knowledge systems so that the imbalance between formally educated/trained workers and informally trained workers is redressed. There is also a need to bring back the joy of learning, as Tagore’s experimentation with education has demonstrated.

Purpose To our knowledge, integration of Web content mining of publicly available addresses with a geographic information system (GIS) has not been applied to the timely monitoring of medical technology adoption. Here, we explore the diffusion of a new breast imaging technology, digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). Methods We used natural language processing and machine learning to extract DBT facility location information using a set of potential sites for the New England region of the United States via a Google search application program interface. We assessed the accuracy of the algorithm using a validated set of publicly available addresses of locations that provide DBT from the DBT technology vendor, Hologic. We quantified precision, recall, and F1 score, aiming for an F1 score of ≥ 95% as the desirable performance. By reverse geocoding on the basis of the results of the Google Maps application program interface, we derived a spatial data set for use in an ArcGIS environment. Within the GIS, a host of spatiotemporal analyses and geovisualization techniques are possible. Results We developed a semiautomated system that integrated DBT location information into a GIS that was feasible and of reasonable quality. Initial accuracy of the algorithm was poor using only a search term list for information retrieval (precision, 35%; recall, 44%; F1 score, 39%), but performance dramatically improved by leveraging natural language processing and simple machine learning techniques to isolate single, valid instances of DBT location information (precision, 92%; recall, 96%; F1 score, 94%). Reverse geocoding yielded reliable geographic coordinates for easy implementation into a GIS for mapping and planned monitoring. Conclusion Our novel approach can be applicable to technologies beyond DBT, which may inform equitable access over time and space.

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) working towards the 2030 agenda are intergovernmental set of aspirations goals outlining 17 development goals and it has associated 169 targets. Among them is education, which ensures inclusive and equitable quality education, and promote lifelong learning opportunities. Civil society organizations (CSO), plays an important role in achieving SDG in education. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the problems encountered by CSO in providing basic education in Sudan for poor children, in particular, gender equality in education, child friendly schools to ensure quality in education. This paper used empirical data, which was part of a PhD dissertation on displaced children and CSO. Interviews and focus groups discussions conducted with children age 10-18 and with four CSO key managers. Interviews conducted with a sample of 129 poor children in Khartoum. The paper will present a case study from Sudan and the voices of the children in access to education and the role of CSO in providing gender equality in education. I argue that if CSO works with and for poor children in education, and have a sound strategy to gender equality in education; SDGs in education by 2030 might achieve. The paper will end with recommendations for access to education and gender equality in education. CSO should work with and for the poor children in education and should strive towards achieving gender equality in education.

Federal legislation requires equitable access to education for all students at all levels, including in the postsecondary setting. While there have been a few studies in the chemistry education research literature base focused on how to support students with specific disabilities, this work seems to exist as a separate stream of research without direct impact on curriculum development and the overall community. This study focused on investigating how well three sets of general chemistry curricular materials support variations in students’ abilities, interests, and needs. To accomplish this, we compared the curricular materials with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, which describes steps to account for variations in ability among learners during curriculum development. The UDL framework is organized into three guidelines (multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement), further delineated by nine principles and thirty-one finer-grained checkpoints for designing courses. We looked for examples of enactment of the UDL checkpoints in a representative sample of activities. Across all three sets of curricular materials, only four of the thirty-one checkpoints were enacted in at least 75% of the activities, indicating high enactment. On the other hand, eleven of the checkpoints were enacted in less than 25% of the activities, indicating low enactment. Overall, there is much room for improvement in consistently providing support for learner variation within these general chemistry curricular materials. We argue that some of the burden of making curricular materials supportive of all students lies with curriculum developers and provide recommendations for improving support and accessibility.

There is a high incidence and prevalence of mental health problems among young people, with several barriers to help-seeking noted in this group. High rates of mental health problems have also been reported in children and adults on the autism spectrum. Taken together, young autistic people may be a particularly vulnerable group when it comes to mental health. Yet, there has been remarkably little work on the mental health needs and experiences of young autistic adults (16–25 years). Adopting a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach – in which academic researchers and young autistic adults collaborated in an equitable research partnership – we explored young autistic people’s experiences of mental health problems and their perspectives on the support they sought, if any, for these problems. A total of 130 young autistic adults took part in the research: 109 completed an online survey and 21 took part in detailed interviews. The results highlight how young autistic people find it difficult to evaluate their mental health, experience high levels of stigma and often face severe obstacles when trying to access mental health support. The findings also demonstrate how listening to – and learning from – young autistic people is crucial in ensuring that their mental health needs are met.

The current education system is still «teaching» society the tasks and goals of sustainable development on a small and insufficient scale. However, the official program document (Resolution) of the UN General Assembly formulates an appropriate global strategy «Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development». Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the key areas for implementing this global integrated multi-level strategy for social, governmental and institutional sustainable development. Education is one of the crucial prerequisites for the implementation of the UN global strategy «Agenda 2030». Therefore, education has a key role to play in seeing a just, peaceful and sustainable society (both global, continental, regional and national). International and European integrated strategy for sustainable social development «Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development» – at the global level of education and science offers a mechanism for achieving and providing inclusive, equitable and quality education and training, promoting all opportunities for education and lifelong learning. The strategy envisages providing and allowing everyone to receive and complete free, fair and quality primary, secondary and higher education, which will lead to appropriate and effective results of sustainable social development of both individual states and the global system. It is also necessary to create preconditions for ensuring access of all, regardless of social, sexual, racial, ethnic origin to quality education at all levels, and to create appropriate conditions for this by 2030, which will allow them to successfully move to the next educational levels and carry out lifelong learning. To do this, all levels, models and systems of education (through the model of «education for sustainable development») must be transformed - to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for sustainable development: sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promoting a culture of peace and non-violence, through global civic education and the recognition of cultural diversity and the contribution of culture to sustainable development. Thus, Agenda 2030 sets practical challenges for governments to ensure, through the transformation of the education system («education for sustainable development»), the maximum conditions for all people to participate (through the acquisition of quality knowledge and skills through education) in society, state and economic and political development.

As teachers, we want students to be motivated and excited about learning and engaging with new concepts. We provide what we hope are stimulating lessons and laboratory experiences that spark curiosity and motivate students to learn more and to dig deeper into the scientific concepts. More often than not, however, students ask questions such as, “Will this be on the test?” and “How many points is this assignment worth?” Even more frustrating is students chasing points to get a better grade, or asking for “extra credit.” Traditional grading systems reward students who are savvy with their time, know how much each assignment is worth, and ask professors and teachers for points back that they feel were unfairly taken away. They are rewarded with high grades that translate to being recognized with placement on honor rolls, access to scholarships, and opportunities to take advanced course work. By the time students are in their first physics class, often taught at the end of their K-12 science education, many “high achievers” have mastered this game of grades. Still, others either choose not to participate in the game or simply have not learned the rules. Grading practices and these unwritten rules of the game are part of the hidden curriculum. The hidden curriculum involves the aspects of education that are not transparent and are the unwritten lessons and expectations of schooling. These lessons and expectations are oftentimes rooted in cultural practices and, in the case of many education settings in the United States, a homogenized white middle-class culture. The hidden curriculum is an aspect of education that is harder for students outside of the dominant culture, or who are otherwise oppressed, to access. It is critical that we examine our grading practices for the hidden curriculum embedded in it if we are to make assessment more equitable and less punitive, and motivate learning for learning’s sake.

(1) Background: Pandemic-imposed lockdowns have heightened our awareness of the value of (work)place and made apparent the role it plays in establishing our sense of belonging and professional identity. The opportunity to work remotely during the pandemic has given us an appreciation of the benefits from access to increased flexibility, but there is consistent evidence emerging showing how much workers miss in-office social and learning interactions. This paper focuses on results about (i) reported perceived effectiveness and performance, (ii) sense of adjustment to remote working, and (iii) sense of belonging during the first two COVID-19-induced lockdowns, as reported by managers and workers in Australia in 2020. Findings shed light onto (i) how remote working experience affected our connection to, and the importance of, (work)place and (ii) how to harness insights towards creating spaces responsive to the activities we prefer to undertake in the workplace, permitting employees to choose the workstyle and pattern that suits their professional role and personal circumstances. (2) Methods: Correlational and thematic analyses were conducted on findings from 1579 online surveys focusing on remote working experiences during the first and second rounds of COVID-19-imposed lockdowns. A total of 668 managers and 911 workers from 12 different industry sectors participated in two rounds of the Bates Smart remote work survey (BSRWS). Surveys targeted knowledge workers of all career stages, age, and experience. (3) Results: Employees felt (i) technologically supported and productive whilst working from home, but (ii) aspects of connection, collaboration, and sense of belonging suffered; (iii) collaboration and togetherness are main motivators for returning to the office. Managers’ experiences were significantly different with (i) perceived productivity, collaboration, knowledge sharing, sense of belonging, and performance dropping; (ii) face-to-face interaction and business development were key priorities for returning to the office with (iii) challenges of mentoring and managing emotional wellbeing of teams evident. (4) Conclusions: From these surveys we conclude space is an enabler of organisational culture and professional identity, playing a critical role in establishing psychologically safe and equitable workplaces. This paper reports snapshot data showing knowledge workers’ experiences and effects of WFH under strict lockdown circumstances on wellbeing, productivity, and culture over time. It proposes two lenses (togetherness and place), through which the future workplace should be considered by industry and researchers alike.

In Spain, the issue of people with disability’s access to adapted educational material is still unresolved in the university context. Other insufficiently addressed issues comprise actions to include students with intellectual disability in university classrooms, and the awareness-raising and sensitisation of undergraduate students regarding disability. These deficiencies persist despite the known benefits of these types of initiatives for all the agents involved. For this reason, we carried out an inclusive experience at the Pablo de Olavide University, specifically in the statistics subject. Educational resources were adapted, inclusion activities were conducted with students with intellectual disability, and we were in charge of awareness-raising and sensitisation of undergraduate students. The present paper describes the experience as well as its evaluation, which was performed using a survey. Furthermore, the work compares the achievement of students with a more engaging system that incorporates inclusive teaching versus one that does not. The results, which were statistically analysed, report high levels of satisfaction for all the involved agents, as well as improvements in the academic performance of the students. Recommendations directed towards both teaching staff and educational authorities are also provided on how to promote inclusion in universities and more specifically inclusion in science. These suggested educational policies aim to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, based on the Sustainable Development Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Ensuring equitable work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for international students can be problematic. This position paper explores this challenge within the context of the Master of Public Health course (MPH) in Australian universities. The availability and accessibility of placement and nonplacement WIL for international students are examined through a desktop audit of MPH offerings across 27 public Australian universities. These findings, interpreted through the lens of cultural, social and financial capital suggest although international students stand to benefit more from WIL than their domestic peers, their opportunity to participate is lower. The paper argues a strength-based approach is needed to mitigate this issue of inequity. Suggestions are offered to improve equity in placement and nonplacement WIL for international students.

Background/Context New teachers face an array of challenges in today's schools. Even when teachers leave credential programs with useful preparation, early-career jobs and contexts shape and constrain teachers’ goals and practice related to teaching diverse learners. Becoming change agents can be a tall order. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Considering this context, we sought to understand how graduates of one teacher credential program appear prepared to advocate for educational equity in their new jobs by asking three questions: (1) What challenges do new teachers identify in classes and schools that require advocacy for some youth? (2) In what ways do they respond to such challenges? and (3) What enables these acts of advocacy? Research Design A total of 38 graduates, all currently teaching, participated in five separate 3-hour focus groups of 5–10 teachers each. We used focus groups as a research tool to triangulate a range of other data, including artifacts and surveys. We sought teachers’ deep reflections on practice, on their preparation for advocacy work, and on their professional needs. We transcribed focus group discussions then subjected these to a series of procedures, including analysis of content and themes of teachers’ narratives. Findings/Results Teachers reported actions to address equity in a range of sites, with the classroom as the core site for teachers’ advocacy work. In complex narratives, teachers reported trying to meet learning needs of diverse students. English language learners’ needs especially prompted acts of advocacy in and beyond the classroom. These included instructional tailoring, out-of-class tutorials, hunts for better texts and tests, a library field trip, creation of a culture/computer club, heightened parent contacts, and launching of a bilingual parent group. Teachers’ acts of advocacy shared four crosscutting themes: a goal of equitable access to resources and support, convictions about equity, interceding on behalf of students in need, and engaging coadvocates. Teachers reported that these themes have grounding in their teacher credential program, which featured advocating for equity in its mission, goals, and practices. Those with bilingual education credentials engaged in more acts of advocacy beyond the classroom, and analyses suggest that this may be due to credential program experiences, life experiences, and the larger sociopolitical context for teaching English language learners. Conclusions/Recommendations Results challenge conventional models of learning to teach, documenting how teachers, even in the throes of the induction period, can focus on student learning and on ways to advocate in and beyond the classroom for those in need of someone interceding on their behalf, particularly when well prepared to do so.

Annotation. Introduction. The unfavorable trend of disability in the world as a whole and in Ukraine in particular, necessitates solving the problems of access to education for children and youth with special needs, because a full life in society of people with disabilities is impossible without quality education and professional self-realization. Today, the education system for applicants with special educational needs is at a stage of inevitable change. Purpose. In the course of the research the essence and peculiarities of the development of inclusive education in Ukraine are considered. The advantages and disadvantages of including young people with special needs in the educational process are analyzed. The advantages of inclusion in the educational process both for young people with special needs and for typical applicants for higher education are substantiated. Results. A SWOT analysis of the socialization of young people with special educational needs was conducted. It is proposed to introduce measures to attract young people with special educational needs for their socialization, adaptation and integration into society. Conclusion. It has been proven that the problem of inclusive education is becoming more and more widespread every year, so higher education institutions need to respond immediately, developing mechanisms for attracting and further cooperation of young people with special needs. The practical value of the proposed ideas is: creating conditions for improving the competence of higher education students when working with people with disabilities; approbation of educational programs focused on training specialists with special needs; providing comprehensive and equitable quality education and encouraging lifelong learning opportunities for all. The socialization of young people with special educational needs will create conditions for effective work and interaction of higher education students with people with disabilities throughout the educational process. Keywords: inclusion; persons with disabilities; socialization; educational process; integration; institutions of higher education; tutor students.

AimsThe National High Secure Deaf Service at Rampton Hospital provides inpatient assessment, treatment and rehabilitation for D/deaf* males living with a range of difficulties including complex responses to trauma, mental health difficulties and/or learning disabilities. In 2011, the Deaf Prison In-Reach Service was established in conjunction with Yorkshire Specialist Commissioning Group and Nottinghamshire NHS Trust aiming to provide specialist support to D/deaf prisoners. * ‘D’ = Deafness as a culture, ‘d’ = deafness as a medical disability.MethodsThe team evaluated the service to raise awareness of the specific needs of D/deaf prisoners by identifying and describing characteristics, demographics, trends and patterns within existing data as well as highlighting the nature of offences, prevalence of trauma and length of time over tariff. A secondary aim was to identify areas for development to adequately meet the needs of D/deaf prisoners.ResultsAfter reviewing data for 29 prisoners (female = 3, male = 26), the most common source of support offered by the DPRIS was signposting (over 50%), followed by direct individual work (with nursing or psychology), assessment and consultancy.Since 2011, the DPRIS has assessed 30 individuals and completed over 717 prison visits for assessments and interventions. Whilst this has been acknowledged as a small number, it has been attributed to the difficulties locating D/deaf prisoners and lack of awareness regarding the DPRIS. Currently, referrals to the DPRIS come from prison healthcare staff, but this fails to address the wider specialist needs of this population: basic communication needs, occupational needs and risk reduction work. It also excludes individuals unknown to healthcare.Direct engagement with the DPRIS included: focused risk reduction work, anger management, mental health monitoring, and 1:1 psychology work. Prior to involvement from the DPRIS, five individuals declined to engage in prison therapy. With support from the DPRIS, two were transferred to more appropriate placements, one was recommended for transfer (not transferred) and one received mental health monitoring (nursing). One continued to decline which could be attributed to potential (lack of) motivation/readiness.This evaluation supports the need for specialist interventions to ensure equitable access to recovery and rehabilitation.ConclusionWhat Next?It is hoped that the unique needs of this population will be communicated amongst professionals and steps will be made to address these as previously recommended in reports from the BDA (2016) and the Howard League.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report the training of college librarians, academic and management staff, IT managers and students on how to organise, manage and use a user-friendly library. In Uganda, as in many countries, the problem is that school and/or college libraries are managed by librarians who may have good cataloguing and management skills, but who do not have the pedagogic skills and knowledge of the school curricula that are necessary for librarians to be able to guide and mentor both teachers and students or organise curriculum-related activities or facilitate research. The development of user-friendly libraries contributes in improving education quality through nurturing the interest of students and teachers in literacy activities and active search for knowledge. Under the stewardship of the Belgium Technical Cooperation and the Ministry of Education in Uganda, library stakeholders were trained on how to put users – rather than themselves – in the centre of the library’s operations and introduced to active teaching and learning methodologies and activities with emphasis on getting engaged in transforming spaces, services, outreach to users and collections. Several measures, short and long term were taken to address the gaps limiting the performance of the librarians. Given the disparities in the trainees’ education level and work experience, the training was delivered in seven modules divided into three units for over eight months in 2015. By the end of the training, trainees developed unique library strategic plan, library policies and procedures, capacity to use library systems, physical design and maintenance systems, partnerships, library structure and staff job descriptions. Design/methodology/approach To effectively engage the participants each topic was conducted using active teaching and learning (ATL) methodologies, including: lecture with slides and hands-on practice – each topic was introduced in a lecture form with slides and hands-on exercises. The main goal was to introduce the participants to the concepts discussed, offer opportunities to explore alternative approaches, as well define boundaries for discussion through brainstorming. The question-answer approach kept the participants alert and to start thinking critically on the topic discussed – brainstorming sessions allowed thinking beyond the presentation room, drawing from personal experiences to provide alternatives to anticipated challenges. The goal here was for the participants to provide individual choices and approaches for real life problems; group discussions: case study/ scenario and participant presentations – participants were provided with a scenario and asked to provide alternative approaches that could solve the problem based on their personal experience at their colleges. By the end of the group discussion, participants presented a draft of the deliverable as per the topic under discussion. More so, group discussions were an excellent approach to test participant’s teamwork skills and ability to compromise, as well as respecting team decisions. It was an opportunity to see how librarians will work with the library committees. Group discussions further initiated and cemented the much-needed librarian–academic staff – college management relationship. During the group discussion, librarians, teaching staff, ICT staff and college management staff, specifically the Principals and Deputy Principals interacted freely thus starting and cultivating a new era of work relationship between them. Individual presentation: prior to the workshop, participants were sent instructions to prepare a presentation on a topic. For example, participants were asked to provide their views of what a “user-friendly library” would look like or what would constitute a “user-friendly library”; the college library of HTC-Mulago was asked to talk about their experience working with book reserves, challenges faced and plans they have to address the challenges, while the college librarian from NTC-Kaliro was asked to describe a situation where they were able to assist a patron, the limitations they faced and how they addressed them. Doing so did not only assist to emotionally prepare the participants for the training but also helped to make them start thinking about the training in relation to their libraries and work. Take-home assignment: at the end of each session, participants were given home assignments to not only revise the training material but also prepare for the next day training. Further the take-home assignments provided time for the participants to discuss with their colleagues outside of the training room so as to have a common ground/ understanding on some of the very sensitive issues. Most interesting assignment was when participants were asked to review an article and to make a presentation in relation to their library experiences. Participant reports: participant reports resulted from the take-home assignments and participants were asked to make submission on a given topic. For example, participants were asked to review IFLA section on library management and write a two-page report on how such information provided supported their own work, as well as a participant report came from their own observation after a library visit. Invited talks with library expert: two invited talks by library experts from Consortium of Uganda University Libraries and Uganda Library and Information Science Association with the goal to share their experience, motivate the participants to strive higher and achieve great things for their libraries. Library visitation: there were two library visits conducted on three separate days – International Hospital Kampala (IHK) Library, Makerere University Library and Aga Khan University Hospital Library. Each of these library visits provided unique opportunities for the participants to explore best practices and implement similar practices in their libraries. Visual aids – videos, building plans and still photos: these were visual learning aids to supplement text during the lectures because they carried lot of information while initiating different thoughts best on the participants’ past experience and expertise. The training advocated for the use of ATL methodologies and likewise similar methodologies were used to encourage participants do so in their classrooms. Findings Addressing Key Concerns: Several measures, both long and short term, were taken to address the gaps limiting the performance of the librarians. The measures taken included: selected representative sample of participants including all college stakeholders as discussed above; active teaching and learning methodologies applied in the training and blended in the content of the training materials; initiated and formulated approaches to collaborations, networks and partnerships; visited different libraries to benchmark library practices and encourage future job shadowing opportunities; and encouraged participants to relate freely, understand and value each other’s work to change their mindsets. College librarians were encouraged to ensure library priorities remain on the agenda through advocacy campaigns. Short-term measures: The UFL training was designed as a practical and hands-on training blended with individual and group tasks, discussions, take-home assignments and presentations by participants. This allowed participates to engage with the material and take responsibility for their own work. Further, the training material was prepared with a view that librarians support the academic life of teaching staff and students. Participants were tasked to develop and later fine-tune materials designed to support their work. For example, developing a subject bibliography and posting it on the library website designed using open source tools such as Google website, Wikis, blogs. The developed library manual includes user-friendly policies and procedures referred to as “dos and don’ts in the library” that promote equitable open access to information; drafting book selection memos; new book arrivals lists; subscribing to open access journals; current awareness services and selective dissemination of information service displays and electronic bulletins. Based on their library needs and semester calendar, participants developed action points and timelines to implement tasks in their libraries at the end of each unit training. Librarians were encouraged to share their experiences through library websites, Facebook page, group e-mail/listserv and Instagram; however, they were challenged with intimate internet access. College libraries were rewarded for their extraordinary job. Given their pivotal role in the management and administration of financial and material resources, on top of librarians, the participants in this training were college administrators/ management, teaching and ICT staff, researchers and student leadership. Participants were selected to address the current and future needs of the college library. These are individuals that are perceived to have a great impact towards furthering the college library agenda. The practical nature of this training warranted conducting the workshops from developed but similar library spaces, for example, Aga Khan University Library and Kampala Capital City, Makerere University Library, International Hospital Kampala Library and Uganda Christian University Library. Participants observed orientation sessions, reference desk management and interviews, collection management practices, preservation and conservation, secretarial bureau management, etc. Long-term measures: Changing the mindset of librarians, college administrators and teaching staff is a long-term commitment which continues to demand for innovative interventions. For example: job shadowing allowed college librarian short-term attachments to Makerere University Library, Uganda Christian University Library, Aga Khan Hospital University Library and International Hospital Kampala Library – these libraries were selected because of their comparable practices and size. The mentorship programme lasted between two-three weeks; on-spot supervision and follow-up visits to assess progress with the action plan by the librarians and college administration and college library committee; ensuring that all library documents – library strategic plan, library manual, library organogram, etc are approved by the College Governing Council and are part of the college wide governing documents; and establishing the library committee with a job description for each member – this has strengthened the library most especially as an advocacy tool, planning and budgeting mechanism, awareness channel for library practices, while bringing the library to the agenda – reemphasizing the library’s agenda. To bridge the widened gap between librarians and the rest of the stakeholders, i.e. teaching staff, ICT staff, college administration and students, a college library committee structure and its mandate were established comprising: Library Committee Chairperson – member of the teaching staff; Library Committee Secretary – College Librarian; Student Representative – must be a member of the student Guild with library work experience; and Representative from each college academic department. A library consortium was formed involving all the four project supported colleges to participate in resource sharing practices, shared work practices like shared cataloguing, information literacy training, reference interview and referral services as well a platform for sharing experiences. A library consortium further demanded for automating library functions to facilitate collaboration and shared work. Plans are in place to install Koha integrated library system that will cultivate a strong working relationship between librarians and students, academic staff, college administration and IT managers. This was achieved by ensuring that librarians innovatively implement library practices and skills acquired from the workshop as well as show their relevance to the academic life of the academic staff. Cultivating relationships takes a great deal of time, thus college librarians were coached on: creating inclusive library committees, timely response to user needs, design library programmes that address user needs, keeping with changing technology to suite changing user needs, seeking customer feedback and collecting user statistics to support their requests, strengthening the library’s financial based by starting a secretarial bureau and conducting user surveys to understand users’ information-seeking behaviour. To improve the awareness of new developments in the library world, college librarians were introduced to library networks at national, regional and international levels, as a result they participated in conferences, workshops, seminars at local, regional and international level. For example, for the first time and with funding from Belgium Technical Cooperation, college librarians attended 81st IFLA World Library and Information Congress in South African in 2015. College libraries are now members of the Consortium of Uganda University Libraries and Uganda Library and Information Science Association and have attended meetings of these two very important library organisations in Uganda’s LIS profession. The college librarians have attended meetings and workshops organized by these two organisations. Originality/value At the end of the three units training, participants were able to develop: a strategic plan for their libraries; an organogram with staffing needs and job description matching staff functions; a Library Committee for each library and with a structure unifying all the four project-support Colleges; a library action plan with due dates including deliverables and responsibilities for implementation; workflow plan and organisation of key sections of the library such as reserved and public spaces; furniture and equipment inventory (assets); a library manual and collection development policy; partnerships with KCCA Library and Consortium of Uganda University Libraries; skills to use Koha ILMS for performing library functions including: cataloguing, circulation, acquisitions, serials management, reporting and statistics; skills in searching library databases and information literacy skills; skills in designing simple and intuitive websites using Google Sites tools; and improved working relationship between the stakeholders was visible. To further the user-friendly libraries principle of putting users in the centre of the library’s operations, support ATL methodologies and activities with emphasis on getting engaged in transforming spaces, services, outreach to users and collections the following initiatives are currently implemented in the colleges: getting approval of all library policy documents by College Governing Council, initiating job shadowing opportunities, conducting on-spot supervision, guide libraries to set up college library committees and their job description, design library websites, develop dissemination sessions for all library policies, incorporate user-friendly language in all library documents, initiate income generation activities for libraries, set terms of reference for library staff and staffing as per college organogram, procurement of library tools like DDC and library of congress subject headings (LCSH), encourage attendance to webinars and space planning for the new libraries.

Public procurement is a strategic public-sector function that has been recognized as a vehicle in supporting the government to achieve social goals and sustainable economic development. In line with this, gender inequality can be a significant constraint to economic growth and poverty reduction. Women procurement specialists have experienced inequality access and poor participation in the capacity building program and lack of contribution being leaders in public procurement managerial positions. Most females who attended the training have returned their certificates due to the challenges of being the procurement committee. These indicate female gaps, barriers, and obstacles in working as procurement specialists. The main purpose of this study is to identify the importance of Women’s Circle initiative to obtain additional support in increasing women’s capacity to provide services better and succeed in the profession; to improve skills and networking of women and access, participate and perform their tasks as the procurement professional. The study reveals that the issue of female procurement specialist is still ‘underground’ and programs related to female procurement profession remain ‘absent’. Gender stereotypes and discrimination indicate the main gaps to promote to the manager position, even though they have a high level of education, smart and also a good commitment to their work. Women are still recognized as the second group and are not allowed to play a leadership role, to some extent. This is due to the burden of domestic responsibilities that eventually catch up with them, making it difficult to remain in that role for an extended period of time. As a consequence, they have lack of self-confident, self-respect, self-esteem and also lack of capacities in communication and leadership skills and no motivation to promote themselves to the higher position. They agreed for the Women’s Circle initiative and this forum plays a vital role in supporting female professional capacity, enhancing the bargaining position and, empowering women to negotiate career development. Women’s Circle approach is a strategic path and potentially being an Educational and Training-based Forum or Learning-based forum; an agent of Reform-based Forum and as a Networking-based Forum. For a long-term benefit, Women’s Circle becomes an agent of change among women procurement specialist that finally led to being champions for Indonesian government procurement in reaching the quality of being more equitable, transparent and accountable. This approach is one of the indicators for increasing the quality of procurement modernization program with a gender perspective.

Purpose When learning in the workplace is conceptualised as a social process, different social or cultural features of workplaces may enable or constrain students’ learning. The purpose of this paper is to understand the views of students, workplace supervisors and university academics concerning sociocultural features that influenced work-integrated learning (WIL) experiences. Design/methodology/approach An interpretive case-study methodology, incorporating questionnaires and semi-structured interviews was used to determine the views of stakeholders involved in WIL experiences in a sport undergraduate degree. Findings Students’ learning was enhanced when they participated in authentic activities, worked alongside colleagues and could assume increasing responsibility for roles they were given. Social experiences, interactions and activities provided them with opportunities to access individual, shared and tacit knowledge, to learn about language, processes and protocols for interacting and communicating with others, and to become aware of the culture of the workplace. When students successfully acquired this knowledge they were able to “take-on” the accepted characteristics and practices of the workplace community – an outcome that further enhanced their learning. Practical implications Students need to understand the social and cultural dimensions of how the work community practices before they begin WIL experiences. Practical ways of addressing this are suggested. Originality/value This paper conceptualises WIL as learning through the “practice of work communities” whereby through the activities of the community students can access knowledge in a way that may differ from what they are familiar with from their experiences within the university environment.

Planning principles for public transport networks include simplicity, legibility, frequency, and spatial coverage. These principles are typically translated into a series of guidelines that set out the specific standards for network design within a jurisdiction. In practice, such guidelines usually concentrate on creating a bus network or on defining the role of buses within a multimodal network, as rail-based routes are regarded as fixed in location, and separate planning processes are typically used to design rail frequency and stopping patterns. The outcome of network planning gives rise to tradeoffs between the economic and institutional environments and is conditioned by historical legacy. Bus routes often continue because they have operated at that location. This paper offers a case study of Sydney, Australia, where network planning guidelines still place emphasis on equality of spatial coverage despite moving toward a more integrated approach to network planning. The paper asserts that guidelines focusing on equal spatial coverage may inadvertently promote inequity by not taking account of the difficulties (and therefore higher cost) of serving challenging topographical areas. The paper examines the equity impacts of implementing service planning guidelines on the basis of equal spatial coverage. Criteria relating to equity are established and then measured with the use of data on bus supply, journeys to work, and socioeconomics. The conclusions of the paper contribute to implementation of network planning, with many cities in Australia and elsewhere implementing similar guidelines to those in Sydney.

Students from diverse backgrounds report that time pressures, financial responsibilities, caring commitments, and geographic location are barriers to their uptake of work integrated learning (WIL). Through interviews with 32 students and 15 educators who participated in online WIL, we investigated whether online WIL might be one way of overcoming these barriers. Benefits of online WIL for students included employability skills, meaningful work, affordability, and flexibility when coping with health issues. Challenges for students included missing out on workplace interactions, digital access, and finding a private space in which to work. Students from diverse backgrounds were viewed by educators as bringing positive contributions to the workplace. Educators found challenges in giving feedback and not being able to replicate some aspects of in-person workplaces. We conclude with recommendations on how online WIL might be enhanced to better meet the needs of students facing equity issues. Implications for practice and policy: All participants in online WIL should be encouraged to intentionally view diversity as a strength. Educators need to create explicit opportunities for formal and informal interaction and network building during online WIL. Educators should provide engaging and purposeful work during online WIL. Students may need additional financial or material support to undertake online WIL, for example to enable digital access and access to a private workspace.