WASH in Schools Empowers Girls' Education: Proceedings of the Menstrual Hygiene Management in Schools Virtual Conference 2013

This publication brings together the key elements of the 16 presentations made at the Second Annual Virtual MHM in WinS Conference at UNICEF Headquarters in New York City on 21 November 2013. Building on recommendations from the MHM 2012 virtual conference, the 2013 conference focused on the research tools and instruments being used to explore MHM barriers and practices and to evaluate the interventions being trialed or implemented in various contexts

Learning for change : Cross-disciplinary postgraduate programmes in sustainability

Through connecting the local and global, higher education institutions play a vital role in addressing social, environmental and economic challenges and ultimately achieving a sustainable future. New Horizons: Responding to the Challenges of the 21st Century (Scottish Government, 2008), outlines the contributions which Scottish universities should make to the economy, culture and society, and to the political priorities of the Scottish Government. Learning for Change: Scotland’s Action Plan for the Second Half of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (Scottish Government, 2010) examines progress to date and sets out the actions that higher education institutions have committed to undertaking in the second half of the decade and beyond. These two important documents provide the context for work that has taken place at the University of Strathclyde in response to the challenges set out within them. The University of Strathclyde has been ranked first in the Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Observatory Report 2008 and plans to build on this success. The challenges presented by Sustainable Development are inherently holistic, demanding equal responses from all disciplines and this requires the development of a framework for University-wide, cross disciplinary teaching. This paper describes work that has taken place within the University to develop a new university-wide, multi-disciplinary, Strathclyde Masters programme in Sustainability (SMS) aimed at articulating a framework for integrating flagship postgraduate courses & classes, sustainability literacy, skills training workshops and subsequent continuing professional development courses. Conclusions are presented from the three main bodies of work involved: a review of current thinking in ESD; a multi-stakeholder consultation process involving students, academic and professional services staff within the university, and external stakeholders, and the creation of a Sustainability Map detailing current postgraduate provision of ESD at the University

International lessons for the digital age

Some commentators hold the view that the digital divide is a problem largely caused by lack of access to appropriate technologies which, when overcome, will act as a virtual panacea for many interlinked ills. Yet, others see this as far too simplistic an analysis in the search for radical solutions in a world of such extreme social inequality and global inequity. This paper will argue for a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach to finding those solutions, advocating a greater amount of needs-based work in this field, getting to the root of the problem by taking into account the particular set of conditions within each situation or case study. At the same time it will strive to create a more harmonious world view where each small scale project is seen as part of a network searching for broader solutions rather than an end product in themselves. In order to provide a framework for this argument, and support theories with informed practice, a case study of a teacher training project delivered to Rwandan students, through the medium of the English language and new technologies, will be used as an example of what has been achieved so far in the field of online learning, and what lessons could be learned for the future. The paper shall also argue for greater involvement on the part of British universities, so that voyages into this multidimensional terrain, widely explored but largely uncharted, remain more pedagogic than economi

Digital Learning: Reforming Teacher Education to Promote Access, Equity and Quality in Sub-Saharan Africa

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the present and future impact of digital learning on teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Digital learning in this report is defined as any instructional practice that uses new communication technologies effectively to improve access to and strengthen learning. The focus of the report is student-teachers and teachers. The 2015–2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicitly seek to substantially increase the supply of well-qualified teachers in the region, drawing on international forms of development and co-operation where necessary (Goal 4)