Nonformal education for sustainable development: A Bangladeshi perspective

Sustainable development means ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs’ (WCED, 1987:43). Meanwhile, any education worth the name is a life-long process for the betterment of human well-being. The social purposes of education are located in the long term, and it is right therefore that education should be oriented towards the construction and maintenance of a sustainable future. However, many children in developing countries get very little education. They have little chance to attend even low-quality primary schools, and dropout and failure rates are alarming; many leave semi-literate, soon to relapse into illiteracy, with disastrous consequences for their participation as individuals in the creation of a sustainable world. Moreover, the majority of those who are at school experience a traditional, formal education paradigm, aimed primarily at selecting and building human capital for economic growth. This paradigm is seen to be increasingly at odds with the concept of education for sustainability. Since the 1960s, nonformal education has comprised a wide spectrum of educational and training activities organised outside the formal school system. Innovative learning methods are aimed at the development of practical skills, including matters of health, sanitation, literacy, to be applied in real life situations. As an alternative approach to basic education, the nonformal sector as a whole thus increases pressure for change in the wider education system. Drawing on a three-year empirical study of young people at the point of transition between the nonformal and formal sectors of schooling in Bangladesh, this paper will develop a framework for analysing how the nonformal education paradigm could usefully and realistically increase practice for sustainability in the formal system

Imagining inclusive teachers: contesting policy assumptions in relation to the development of inclusive practice in schools

In this paper we reflect on data from two research projects in which inclusive practice in schools is at issue, in the light of wider field experience (our own and others’) of school and teacher development. We question what we understand to be relatively common, implicit policy assumptions about how teachers develop, by examining the way in which teachers are portrayed and located in these projects. The examples discussed in this paper draw on experience in Lao PDR and Bangladesh, critically exploring teachers’ roles, position and agency in practice. Similarities and differences rooted in cultural, political and institutional contexts highlight in a very productive way the significance and potential dangers of policy assumptions about teachers within the process of development. In Bangladesh, a success story is presented: the case of a group of schools in which an institutional context for learning appears to sustain teachers’ commitment and motivation, with the effect of creating meaningful outcomes for young people who were previously outside the education system. These data raise questions about the significance of institutional context to teachers’ practices, and questions about approaches to teacher development which omit consideration of that context by, for example, focusing inadvertently on features of individual teachers. We then consider teachers’ responses to the movement for inclusive education in a school in the Lao PDR since 2004. Inclusion here was understood to require a significant shift in teacher identity and a movement away from authoritative pedagogy towards the facilitation of a pedagogy which aimed to encourage the active participation of all students. Through a longitudinal study of teachers in one school, the conditions for such change were identified and again cast doubt on some of the assumptions behind large-scale attempts at teacher development. Reflecting on these experiences and the evidence they provide, we suggest that teacher development programmes are more likely to be effective where teachers are considered not as individuals subject to training but as agents located in an influential institutional context

Interpreting Magnetic Variance Anisotropy Measurements in the Solar Wind

The magnetic variance anisotropy ($\mathcal{A}_m$) of the solar wind has been used widely as a method to identify the nature of solar wind turbulent fluctuations; however, a thorough discussion of the meaning and interpretation of the $\mathcal{A}_m$ has not appeared in the literature. This paper explores the implications and limitations of using the $\mathcal{A}_m$ as a method for constraining the solar wind fluctuation mode composition and presents a more informative method for interpreting spacecraft data. The paper also compares predictions of the $\mathcal{A}_m$ from linear theory to nonlinear turbulence simulations and solar wind measurements. In both cases, linear theory compares well and suggests the solar wind for the interval studied is dominantly Alfv\'{e}nic in the inertial and dissipation ranges to scales $k \rho_i \simeq 5$.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Evidence of Critical Balance in Kinetic Alfven Wave Turbulence Simulations

A numerical simulation of kinetic plasma turbulence is performed to assess the applicability of critical balance to kinetic, dissipation scale turbulence. The analysis is performed in the frequency domain to obviate complications inherent in performing a local analysis of turbulence. A theoretical model of dissipation scale critical balance is constructed and compared to simulation results, and excellent agreement is found. This result constitutes the first evidence of critical balance in a kinetic turbulence simulation and provides evidence of an anisotropic turbulence cascade extending into the dissipation range. We also perform an Eulerian frequency analysis of the simulation data and compare it to the results of a previous study of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence simulations.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Physics of Plasma

Validity of the Taylor Hypothesis for Linear Kinetic Waves in the Weakly Collisional Solar Wind

The interpretation of single-point spacecraft measurements of solar wind turbulence is complicated by the fact that the measurements are made in a frame of reference in relative motion with respect to the turbulent plasma. The Taylor hypothesis---that temporal fluctuations measured by a stationary probe in a rapidly flowing fluid are dominated by the advection of spatial structures in the fluid rest frame---is often assumed to simplify the analysis. But measurements of turbulence in upcoming missions, such as Solar Probe Plus, threaten to violate the Taylor hypothesis, either due to slow flow of the plasma with respect to the spacecraft or to the dispersive nature of the plasma fluctuations at small scales. Assuming that the frequency of the turbulent fluctuations is characterized by the frequency of the linear waves supported by the plasma, we evaluate the validity of the Taylor hypothesis for the linear kinetic wave modes in the weakly collisional solar wind. The analysis predicts that a dissipation range of solar wind turbulence supported by whistler waves is likely to violate the Taylor hypothesis, while one supported by kinetic Alfven waves is not.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Polarized Neutron Matter: A Lowest Order Constrained Variational Approach

In this paper, we calculate some of the polarized neutron matter properties, using the lowest order constrained variational method with the $AV_{18}$ potential and employing a microscopic point of view. A comparison is also made between our results and those of other many-body techniques.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure

Multiscale nature of the dissipation range in gyrokinetic simulations of Alfv\'enic turbulence

Nonlinear energy transfer and dissipation in Alfv\'en wave turbulence are analyzed in the first gyrokinetic simulation spanning all scales from the tail of the MHD range to the electron gyroradius scale. For typical solar wind parameters at 1 AU, about 30% of the nonlinear energy transfer close to the electron gyroradius scale is mediated by modes in the tail of the MHD cascade. Collisional dissipation occurs across the entire kinetic range $k_\perp\rho_i\gtrsim 1$. Both mechanisms thus act on multiple coupled scales, which have to be retained for a comprehensive picture of the dissipation range in Alfv\'enic turbulence.Comment: Made several improvements to figures and text suggested by referee