Impact of school inspections on improvement of schools—describing assumptions on causal mechanisms in six European countries

School inspection is used by most European education systems as a major instrument for controlling and promoting the quality of schools. Surprisingly, there is little research knowledge about how school inspections drive the improvement of schools and which types of approaches are most effective and cause the least unintended consequences. The study presented in this paper uses interviews with inspection officials and a document analysis to reconstruct the “program theories” (i.e. the assumptions on causal mechanisms, linking school inspections to their intended outcomes of improved teaching and learning) of Inspectorates of Education in six European countries. The results section of the paper starts with a summary of the commonalities and differences of these six national inspection models with respect to standards and thresholds used, to types of feedback and reporting, and to the sanctions, rewards and interventions applied to motivate schools to improve. Next, the intermediate processes through which these inspection models are expected to promote good education (e.g. through actions of stakeholders) are explained. In the concluding section, these assumptions are critically discussed in the light of research knowledge

Civic crowdfunding research: challenges, opportunities, and future agenda

Civic crowdfunding is a sub-type of crowdfunding through which citizens, in collaboration with government, fund projects providing a community service. Although in the early stages of development, civic crowdfunding is a promising area for both research and application due to its potential impact on citizen engagement, as well as its influence on the success of a wide range of civic projects ranging from physical structures to amenities and local services. However, the field remains under-addressed in academic research and underdeveloped in terms of the number of civic projects posted to crowdfunding platforms. Acknowledging these issues, we outline the history of civic crowdfunding and describe the current landscape, focusing on online crowdfunding platforms established specifically for the funding of civic projects (Citizinvestor, ioby, Neighbor.ly, Spacehive). The challenges and the opportunities of civic crowdfunding are examined, and its distinguishing characteristics are outlined, including a consideration of the impact of social media and platform features. We then propose a research agenda to help shape the future of this emergent field

Action research and democracy

This contribution explores the relationship between research and learning democracy. Action research is seen as being compatible with the orientation of educational and social work research towards social justice and democracy. Nevertheless, the history of action research is characterized by a tension between democracy and social engineering. In the social-engineering approach, action research is conceptualized as a process of innovation aimed at a specific Bildungsideal. In a democratic approach action research is seen as research based on cooperation between research and practice. However, the notion of democratic action research as opposed to social engineering action research needs to be theorized. So called democratic action research involving the implementation by the researcher of democracy as a model and as a preset goal, reduces cooperation and participation into instruments to reach this goal, and becomes a type of social engineering in itself. We argue that the relationship between action research and democracy is in the acknowledgment of the political dimension of participation: ‘a democratic relationship in which both sides exercise power and shared control over decision-making as well as interpretation’. This implies an open research design and methodology able to understand democracy as a learning process and an ongoing experiment

Foodways in transition: food plants, diet and local perceptions of change in a Costa Rican Ngäbe community

Background Indigenous populations are undergoing rapid ethnobiological, nutritional and socioeconomic transitions while being increasingly integrated into modernizing societies. To better understand the dynamics of these transitions, this article aims to characterize the cultural domain of food plants and analyze its relation with current day diets, and the local perceptions of changes given amongst the Ngäbe people of Southern Conte-Burica, Costa Rica, as production of food plants by its residents is hypothesized to be drastically in recession with an decreased local production in the area and new conservation and development paradigms being implemented. Methods Extensive freelisting, interviews and workshops were used to collect the data from 72 participants on their knowledge of food plants, their current dietary practices and their perceptions of change in local foodways, while cultural domain analysis, descriptive statistical analyses and development of fundamental explanatory themes were employed to analyze the data. Results Results show a food plants domain composed of 140 species, of which 85 % grow in the area, with a medium level of cultural consensus, and some age-based variation. Although many plants still grow in the area, in many key species a decrease on local production–even abandonment–was found, with much reduced cultivation areas. Yet, the domain appears to be largely theoretical, with little evidence of use; and the diet today is predominantly dependent on foods bought from the store (more than 50 % of basic ingredients), many of which were not salient or not even recognized as ‘food plants’ in freelists exercises. While changes in the importance of food plants were largely deemed a result of changes in cultural preferences for store bought processed food stuffs and changing values associated with farming and being food self-sufficient, Ngäbe were also aware of how changing household livelihood activities, and the subsequent loss of knowledge and use of food plants, were in fact being driven by changes in social and political policies, despite increases in forest cover and biodiversity. Conclusions Ngäbe foodways are changing in different and somewhat disconnected ways: knowledge of food plants is varied, reflecting most relevant changes in dietary practices such as lower cultivation areas and greater dependence on food from stores by all families. We attribute dietary shifts to socioeconomic and political changes in recent decades, in particular to a reduction of local production of food, new economic structures and agents related to the State and globalization

Research Diary: A Tool for Scaffolding

Diaries have long been seen as tools for reflection in learning languages, and learning about teaching. Despite this recognition of the importance of narratives in diary writing, little attention has been paid to the role of research diaries in the process of learning about research, and learning how to be a researcher. During the author\u27s own research into the construction of teaching knowledge by pre-service trainees, she became aware that her research diary was scaffolding her own construction of research knowledge. In this article the author discusses the role of a research diary based on a socio-cultural theory of learning. The diary acts as the expert other in the scaffolding of research knowledge by the novice researcher. The discussion of the nature of the scaffolding and the role of diary writing draws on examples from the author\u27s research diary written during her doctoral studies

Review of Large Carnivore Conservation: Integrating Science and Policy in the North American West

The management and conservation of large carnivores is of worldwide concern and is as much about human values, interactions, and governance as carnivore biology. Susan Clark and Murray Rutherford continue their work on coexisting with large carnivores ( Clark et al. 2005 ) with a new edited volume Large Carnivore Conservation: Integrating Science and Policy in the North American West . Large Carnivore Conservation that expands on the same themes as their previous work with case studies from Arizona to the Yukon. While focusing on the North American West, Clark and Rutherford hope to provide a holistic approach to carnivore management in general

Aquaponics as an educational tool

This chapter provides an overview of possible strategies for implementing aquaponics in curricula at different levels of education, illustrated by case studies from different countries. Aquaponics can promote scientific literacy and provide a useful tool for teaching the natural sciences at all levels, from primary through to tertiary education. An aquaponics classroom model system can provide multiple ways of enriching classes in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), and the day-to-day maintenance of an aquaponics can also enable experiential learning. Aquaponics can thus become an enjoyable and effective way for learners to study STEM content, and can also be used for teaching subjects such as business and economics, and for addressing issues like sustainable development, environmental science, agriculture, food systems, and health. Using learner and teacher evaluations of the use of aquaponics at different educational levels, we attempt to answer the question of whether aquaponics fulfils its promise as an educational tool

IgE Mediated Autoallergy against Thyroid Peroxidase – A Novel Pathomechanism of Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria?

Chronic spontaneous urticaria (csU), which is characterized by recurrent episodes of mast cell-driven wheal and flare-type skin reactions, is often associated with elevated total IgE levels and thyroid autoimmunity. We speculate that some csU patients express IgE autoantibodies against thyroid antigens such as thyroid peroxidase (TPO), which could bind to skin mast cells and induce their activation.We developed and used a site-directed human IgE capture ELISA to quantify IgE-anti-TPO. We used this assay and investigated csU patients (n = 478) and healthy control subjects (n = 127) for IgE-anti-TPO and then assessed IgE-anti-TPO-positive and -negative csU patients for clinical and serological differences. ( = 61%, IgE-anti-TPO: median 6.67, interquartile range 5.39–8.24). IgE-anti-TPO-positive and -negative csU patients had very similar distributions of age and gender as well as disease activity and duration. IgE-anti-TPO-positive csU patients exhibited significantly higher IgG-anti-TPO levels and lymphocyte counts as well as decreased C4 complement levels.Our findings show that a sizeable subgroup of csU patients expresses IgE antibodies against thyroid peroxidase. These autoantibodies could cause “autoallergic” mast cell activation, a novel pathomechanism of chronic spontaneous urticaria