Democratic Resilience: Citizens' Evaluation of Democratic Performance during the Great Recession

Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Sociales/ Social Sciences por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Mención InternacionalPresidente: Pedro Riera Sagrera.- Secretario: Guillermo Cordero García.- Vocal: Ruth Dassonnevill

The prize for hard work: effort, educational attainment and the transmission of social inequality

The meritocratic paradigm, predominant in our society, consists of the idea that success in life is determined by the combination of ability and effort. However, individuals only have agency over effort, a concept that has remained understudied in comparison to its importance for equality of opportunity. Bridging interdisciplinary literature from sociology, economics and psychology, this thesis seeks to expand the knowledge on the relevance of effort for educational processes and the transmission of social inequality. To expand the knowledge on effort, two measures of actual exerted effort are employed. The first reflects test effort, measured with the PISA test. The second is an experimental measure of cognitive effort stemming from real-effort tasks. These measures are used in different contexts (Australia, Spain and cross-country) to analyze the impact of effort on short and long-run educational outcomes. Furthermore, the thesis tests mechanisms based on sociological theories through which effort could contribute to the reproduction of social inequality. The results demonstrate that effort is indeed a crucial determinant of educational attainment. The magnitude of the impact is comparable to the effect of cognitive skills. Nevertheless, effort also contributes to the transmission of social advantage. The specific mechanisms and the implications for the conception of meritocracy and equality of opportunity are discussed.This thesis has received funding from the European Reserarch Council (ERC) under the European Union 's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 758600).Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Sociales/ Social Sciences por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid Mención InternacionalPresidente: Fabrizio Bernardi.- Secretario: Juan Jesús Fernández González.- Vocal: Heike Solg

Spain:: Citizenship education or civic education? A controversial issue in Spain

Purpose: The aim of this country report is to offer an overview of civic and citizenship education in Spain. Approach: The report analyses the Spanish curriculum and the current legislative framework, examining the way social and civic competences are integrated in both primary and secondary education. Additionally, the paper also examines the latest educational reform, establishing a comparison between how citizenship education was addressed in the curriculum until 2013 and the way a cross-curricular approach has been adopted since then. Findings: The paper has been able to establish a clear difference between two political and educational conceptions. On one hand, from 2006 to 2013, the Spanish government introduced “Citizenship and Human Rights Education” as a core subject linked to a broader approach to traditional civic education. After the 2013 reform, the new government favoured instead a cross-curricular orientation that avoided references to the idea of citizenship and limited the scope of civic education. A discussion is provided regarding what policy reforms can be expected in the near future in Spain

Psychometric study of a questionnaire for the assessment of factors associated with the choice of degrees and universities in the Spanish public system

© ACM 2013. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in TEEM '13 Proceedings of the First International Conference on Technological Ecosystem for Enhancing Multiculturality. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2536536.2536577Many different factors are taken into account by students when choosing a degree and University. Some of these are general considerations, such as the quality of the degree course, ratio of available places and places in the degree course chosen as first choice, cut-off mark, etc. Others are subjective factors, such as friends studying the same degree or studying in the same university, etc. Knowledge of these factors and the importance given to them by students can provide a competitive advantage when carrying out activities aimed at advertising and attracting students. This paper presents a psychometric study of a questionnaire that has been developed to assess variables relating to social and personal aspects involved in the selection process and accessing the Spanish public university system. The questionnaire was evaluated by means of a pilot test, the results of which were used to generate a final scale, which was administered to a total of 1532 students from eight Spanish universities. These students can be divided into six major areas of training and courses from 2009-10 up to 2012-2013. All the students had recently graduated from high school and were in their first year at the university. The results showed that the reliability of the both the six factors taken into consideration (Consideration of the University; Perceived Utility; Social Impact; Vocational Aspects; Influence of Surroundings and Geographic Location) and an adjustment of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis used to estimate construct validity was high. Likewise, the results show high discrimination validity between groups defined by relevant variables such as gender or academic area of the university studies.This work forms part of the project entitled "A Longitudinal Model Impact Assessment of Variables Involved in selecting Studies and University. Academic achievement in high school, and university entrance exam, as predictors of initial performance at University ", financed by the ICE at the University of Barcelona in the Redice 2012, with Code Number 1641-01. The translation of this paper was funded by the Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain.Hervás Jorge, A.; Guàrdia I Olmos, J.; Peró, M.; Soriano Jiménez, PP.; Capilla Lladró, R. (2013). Psychometric study of a questionnaire for the assessment of factors associated with the choice of degrees and universities in the Spanish public system. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2536536.2536577

Islamophobia or no curriculum? The way in which Islam, muslim culture and muslim immigrants are treated in school textbooks in Catalonia

El objetivo de nuestro artículo es analizar la presentación del Islam, de los musulmanes y de las culturas árabe y musulmana en los libros de texto. Nos basamos en un enfoque metodológico complementario, entre cuantitativo y cualitativo. En el estudio cuantitativo, se han analizado 246 documentos (el 84,1% de los cuales son manuales y libros de texto; el 10,2%, libros de ejercicios; el 4,2%, documentos de acompañamiento y el 1,1%, guías del profesor) que incluyen la totalidad de las asignaturas de la enseñanza no universitaria de Cataluña. Una primera aproximación a los resultados nos permite observar el predominio de referencias en la asignatura de Historia de Bachillerato con diferencias estadísticamente significativas respecto a los porcentajes que se dan en otras disciplinas. Otras asignaturas de ciencias sociales como el Conocimiento del Medio en Primaria (11,7%) o las Ciencias Sociales en ESO (8%) también muestran una buena proporción de representaciones. En el resto de materias, las referencias presentan porcentajes que oscilan entre el 1% y el 5%. Por otra parte, en el 46,2% de los textos analizados no se ha encontrado ni una sola referencia. En el estudio cualitativo (análisis del discurso), que hemos desarrollado a partir de la revisión de un centenar de libros de texto de ciencias sociales correspondientes a los niveles educativos de ESO y Bachillerato, se han seleccionado diez extractos (seis de contenido verbal y cuatro de representaciones icónicas). En esta segunda revisión, se comprueba que solo algo menos de los dos tercios de los textos (64%) contiene alguna alusión –ya sea verbal o icónica– a las culturas musulmanas o al resto de los temas anteriormente citados. Los datos que hemos obtenido ponen de manifiesto la necesidad de revisar y actualizar los contenidos de nuestros libros escolares con respecto a las omisiones y deformaciones del tratamiento del Islam, las culturas musulmanas y la presencia de musulmanes en nuestra sociedad.This research focuses on the way in which Islam, Muslims and the Arab and Muslim cultures are presented in textbooks. The research methodology has been based on a combination of complementary qualitative and quantitative techniques. The quantitative study included an analysis of 246 documents (mainly text books) encompassing all the subjects taught in nonuniversity- level education in Catalan schools. As regards the materials used, most references are in History at the «Bachillerato» or School Leaving Certificate level, with statistically significant differences in the percentages observed in other disciplines. In other Social Science subjects such as «Conocimiento del Medio» (Knowledge of the Environment) in Primary education and «Ciencias Sociales» (Social Sciences) in Compulsory Secondary Education, there were also appreciable numbers of references to this theme. In half of the texts analysed, no references to the subject were found. In the qualitative study (based on discourse analysis), which involved the analysis of approximately one hundred social science textbooks corresponding to Compulsory Secondary Education and School-Leaving Certificate levels, ten extracts (six with verbal content and four involving iconic representations) were selected. In this second review of the bibliographical material, less than two thirds made any reference, whether verbal or iconic, to Muslim culture or any of the other concepts. The data obtained show the need to revise the contents of school textbooks in order to correct omissions and deformations in the treatment of Islam, Muslim culture and the presence of Muslims in society

Propuesta de intervención didáctica interdisciplinar de inglés a través de las ciencias sociales

Durante las últimas décadas, se ha aumentado en gran medida la implantación del bilingüismo en el sistema educativo español. Esto supone para los docentes un nuevo frente lleno de retos, metodologías, opiniones y ventajas y desventajas. En este documento, tratamos de hacer visible la opinión de diversos autores acerca de las distintas formas de implantar el bilingüismo en la educación, así como los objetivos que se persiguen con ello. A continuación, realizamos una propuesta basándonos en las concreciones curriculares correspondientes a la Comunidad de Madrid, lugar en el que pudimos vivenciar en primera persona dos programaciones de aula para evaluar las consecuencias que tiene el bilingüismo sobre los alumnos. Esta propuesta consiste en un proyecto interdisciplinar en el que los contenidos principales corresponden a la asignatura de Ciencias Sociales, siendo impartidos en gran parte en inglés como ejemplo de Segunda Lengua Extranjera.Departamento de Filología InglesaGrado en Educación Primari

Tips for writing a good scientific article in Education

¿Cuáles son las características que debe reunir un buen artículo de investigación educativa? En este trabajo aportamos algunas sugerencias útiles para redactar artículos que puedan ser publicados en revistas de impacto. Estas ideas surgen de tres fuentes diferentes de información: nuestra experiencia como autores y editores de revistas de investigación educativa, la revisión de otros textos con objetivos análogos publicados en campos diferentes al educativo, y los resultados de un estudio exploratorio de 20 textos ejemplares de investigación cuantitativa y cualitativa (10 publicados en las revistas españolas de investigación educativa de mayor prestigio, y otros tantos en revistas internacionales). A lo largo del artículo aparecen recomendaciones y ejemplos que abarcan desde los pasos a seguir para elaborar un artículo de investigación, cómo estructurar sus apartados, el estilo de la escritura o el contenido de cada una de las partes que lo conforman diferenciando si se trata de artículos cuantitativos y cualitativos, hasta aspectos a tener en cuenta por los autores para buscar revistas de investigación donde publicarWhat are the characteristics of good articles of educational research? In this paper, we provide some useful suggestions for writing articles that can be published in academic journals with high impact. This collection of ideas emerges from three different sources: our experience as authors and editors of educational research journals, the review of other texts with similar objectives published in fields rather than education, and they come from the results of an exploratory study of 20 exemplary quantitative and qualitative’ research papers (10 published in the most prestigious Spanish academic journals in the field of Educational Research, the other 10 have been published in the international journals with the higher impact factor). Throughout the article, it appears recommendations and examples that include: steps to elaborate a research article, how to structure the paper in sections, recommendations about the writing style of all the single sections of the paper considering the quantitative and qualitative kind of paper, and different aspect to consider in order to find the target journal to submit the pape

Visibilidad de los autores de la Enfermería Iberoamericana en Google Scholar: valoración del instrumento

Antecedentes: La comunicación de los hallazgos de investigación es una fase esencial del proceso investigativo, y este proceso comunicativo se ha convertido en elemento fundamental de la evaluación de la actividad científica. Para esto surgen diversas bases de datos y herramientas bibliométricas, entre ellas Google Scholar y uno de sus productos, Google Scholar Citations (GSC) para evaluar a los investigadores. Objetivo: Determinar la repercusión de los investigadores de la enfermería iberoamericana a través del índice h según Google Scholar Citations. Metodología: Estudio bibliométrico descriptivo en tres fases, (1) Valoración inicial del instrumento GSC, (2) Diseminación del proyecto, y (3) Elaboración del Ranking GSC de Autores de Enfermería en Iberoamérica. Fase piloto: Se realizaron 3 búsquedas en Google Scholar Citations para localizar los investigadores (label:enfermería, label:enfermeria; label:enfermagem). Se incluyeron los investigadores con más de 100 citas registradas. En una primera prospección, se localizaron 185 investigadores en total, de los cuales se seleccionaron 83, con los que se elaboró el ranking de investigadores ordenándolos de acuerdo a su valor de índice h. La media del índice h fue de 11, su valor máximo 26 y el mínimo 4. Conclusión: Es posible y necesario evaluar los investigadores, conjugando para esto las los índices bibliométricos y herramientas disponibles, para que las evaluaciones sean más exhaustivas y permitan acercarse con mayor profundidad a la producción e impacto de estos investigadores