Reflections of Practicing School Principals on Ethical Leadership and Decision-Making: Confronting Social Injustice

The study objective was to identify leadership dilemmas of practicing school administrators and their own codes of ethics to inform understandings of ethical decision-making. Ethical decision-making underpins leadership practice, theory, and preparation. Existing models for ethical leadership underplay the importance of social justice ethics in decision-making. The research encompassed a qualitative study based upon the constructivist paradigm. Data were collected in the form of interviews, document analyses, and professional observations with practicing school administrators in public schools. Dilemmas reported were analyzed utilizing ethical leadership theories together with social justice constructs. Results indicate ways practicing school administrators, faculty preparing administrators, and other business or organizational leaders can utilize ethical decision-making and leadership for organizational improvement

Does visual acuity have an effect on children’s educational achievement? evidence from Peru

La inequidad es un tema importante para muchas iniciativas internacionales, incluida la actual. Un aspecto de la inequidad que ha recibido poco la atención es el impacto de la discapacidad en la educación. Este documento de trabajo explora si los niveles leves o moderados de discapacidad visual se asocian con el rendimiento educativo de los niños de 7 y 8 años en el Perú. Las estadísticas descriptivas de la muestra Young Lives sugirieron que los niños con peor agudeza visual tienen un mejor rendimiento en las pruebas de matemáticas, lectura y vocabulario. Sin embargo, cuando varias características de los niños y sus familias son incluidos como controles, los resultados se invierten, y encontramos un efecto negativo significativo de los pobres agudeza visual en las pruebas de matemáticas, marginalmente significativo para el vocabulario, y no significativo para leer

Parental Acceptance of HPV Vaccine in Peru: A Decision Framework

En: Plos ONE, Vol. 7, No. 10, e48017. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048017Objective and Method: Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer affecting women worldwide and it is an important cause of death, especially in developing countries. Cervical cancer is caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) and can be prevented by HPV vaccine. The challenge is to expand vaccine availability to countries where it is most needed. In 2008 Peru’s Ministry of Health implemented a demonstration project involving 5th grade girls in primary schools in the Piura region. We designed and conducted a qualitative study of the decision-making process among parents of girls, and developed a conceptual model describing the process of HPV vaccine acceptance. Results: We found a nonlinear HPV decision-making process that evolved over time. Initially, the vaccine’s newness, the requirement of written consent, and provision of information were important. If information was sufficient and provided by credible sources, many parents accepted the vaccine. Later, after obtaining additional information from teachers, health personnel, and other trusted sources, more parents accepted vaccination. An understanding of the issues surrounding the vaccine developed, parents overcome fears and rumors, and engaged in family negotiations–including hearing the girl’s voice in the decision-making process. The concept of prevention (cancer as danger, future health, and trust in vaccines) combined with pragmatic factors (no cost, available at school) and the credibility of the offer (information in the media, recommendation of respected authority figure) were central to motivations that led parents to decide to vaccinate their daughters. A lack of confidence in the health system was the primary inhibitor of vaccine acceptance. Conclusions: Health personnel and teachers are credible sources of information and can provide important support to HPV vaccination campaigns

Does having a newborn child affect income diversification opportunities?: evidence from the peruvian Young Lives study

Este artículo describe los patrones de diversificación de ingresos de los hogares con un niño recién nacido en el Perú. Las comparaciones se hacen con lo que la literatura muestra para la población en general y con los ingresos patrones de diversificación de hogares en las mismas comunidades pero sin niños pequeños

Early rapid weight gain and subsequent overweight and obesity in middle childhood in Peru

En: BMC Obesity, 3: 55, doi:10.1186/s40608-016-0135-zBackground: Rapid postnatal weight gain is associated with risk of overweight and obesity, but it’s unclear whether this holds in populations exposed to concurrent obesogenic risk factors and for children who have been extensively breastfed. This study investigates whether an increase in weight for age from birth to 1 year (infancy) and from 1 to 5 years (early childhood) predicts overweight and obesity, and waist circumference at 8 years, using data from a longitudinal cohort study in Peru. Methods: Generalized estimating equations (GEE) models were constructed for overweight and obesity, obesity alone and waist circumference at 8 years versus rapid weight gain in infancy, and early childhood including adjusted models to account for confounders. Results: Rapid weight gain in both periods was associated with double the risk of overweight and obesity, obesity alone at 8 years and increased waist circumference even after controlling for maternal BMI and education level, sex of child, height-for-age at 8 years, consumption of “fast food” and number of days of active exercise. The association was significant, with some differences, for children in both rural and urban environments. Conclusions: Rapid weight gain in infancy and in early childhood in Peru is associated with overweight and obesity at age 8 years even when considering other determinants of childhood obesity

The interaction of public assets, private assets and community characteristics and its effect on early childhood height-for-age in Peru

La salud infantil en general y el estado nutricional a largo plazo, en particular, están relacionados con las características y activos familiares (incluida la educación materna) y las características de la comunidad (incluido el acceso a los servicios públicos), así como a las características específicas del niño. La política pública tiene un papel crucial en el aumento de la probabilidad de que un niño pueda acceder a servicios de salud de alta calidad, así como a otros servicios públicos que tienen un efecto en el estado de salud. Sin embargo, el acceso a estos servicios públicos puede tener diferentes efectos dependiendo de cómo interactúa con las características específicas de la comunidad y la familia, en particular la educación de la madre o el cuidador. En Perú, a pesar de un aumento dramático en la inversión en salud durante la última década, particularmente en los centros de atención primaria, y una mejor focalización de la inversión en salud pública, todavía hay un alto grado de desigualdad y pérdida. Además, hay evidencia de que la productividad de los establecimientos de salud es en promedio baja, y la variabilidad muy alta, con una menor productividad observada en las áreas rurales. El acceso al agua y al alcantarillado también muestra una considerable variabilidad. En muchos casos, el acceso y uso de servicios tales como instalaciones de salud, agua y saneamiento, electricidad, caminos, etc., está determinado por la posesión de activos privados. El uso eficiente de estos servicios parece estar relacionado con activos clave como la educación

Automatic online motor control is intact in Parkinson’s disease with and without perceptual awareness

In the double-step paradigm, healthy human participants automatically correct reaching movements when targets are displaced. Motor deficits are prominent in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. In the lone investigation of online motor correction in PD using the double-step task, a recent study found that PD patients performed unconscious adjustments appropriately but seemed impaired for consciously-perceived modifications. Conscious perception of target movement was achieved by linking displacement to movement onset. PD-related bradykinesia disproportionately prolonged preparatory phases for movements to original target locations for patients, potentially accounting for deficits. Eliminating this confound in a double-step task, we evaluated the effect of conscious awareness of trajectory change on online motor corrections in PD. On and off dopaminergic therapy, PD patients (n = 14) and healthy controls (n = 14) reached to peripheral visual targets that remained stationary or unexpectedly moved during an initial saccade. Saccade latencies in PD are comparable to controls’. Hence, target displacements occurred at equal times across groups. Target jump size affected conscious awareness, confirmed in an independent target displacement judgment task. Small jumps were subliminal, but large target displacements were consciously perceived. Contrary to the previous result, PD patients performed online motor corrections normally and automatically, irrespective of conscious perception. Patients evidenced equivalent movement durations for jump and stay trials, and trajectories for patients and controls were identical, irrespective of conscious perception. Dopaminergic therapy had no effect on performance. In summary, online motor control is intact in PD, unaffected by conscious perceptual awareness. The basal ganglia are not implicated in online corrective responses

Dorsal striatum does not mediate feedback-based, stimulus-response learning: An event-related fMRI study in patients with Parkinson\u27s disease tested on and off dopaminergic therapy

© 2018 Learning associations between stimuli and responses is essential to everyday life. Dorsal striatum (DS) has long been implicated in stimulus-response learning, though recent results challenge this contention. We have proposed that discrepant findings arise because stimulus-response learning methodology generally confounds learning and response selection processes. In 19 patients with Parkinson\u27s disease (PD) and 18 age-matched controls, we found that dopaminergic therapy decreased the efficiency of stimulus-response learning, with corresponding attenuation of ventral striatum (VS) activation. In contrast, exogenous dopamine improved response selection accuracy related to enhanced DS BOLD signal. Contrasts between PD patients and controls fully support these within-subject patterns. These double dissociations in terms of behaviour and neural activity related to VS and DS in PD and in response to dopaminergic therapy, strongly refute the view that DS mediates stimulus-response learning through feedback. Our findings integrate with a growing literature favouring a role for DS in decision making rather than learning, and unite two literature that have been evolving independently

Does Having a Newborn Child Affect Income Diversification Opportunities?: Evidence from the Peruvian Young Lives Study

The ability of households to diversify their income sources is strongly related to their capacity to cope in times of pressure, such as during economic crises. This is particularly so among the poor, who often do not have adequate resources on which to draw when under such pressures. Households with a newborn child face two additional constraints: the income-generating capability of mothers can be moderately or severely reduced; and households may have to spend more because of the newborn child. Very little is known about whether income diversification strategies are constrained for such households, but such constraints could have serious implications for child well-being at a critical time in the child’s development. This paper describes the income diversification patterns of Peruvian households with young children (aged between 6 and 18 months). Comparisons are made with the overall population in Peru, and with the income diversification patterns of households in the same communities who have no young children. The authors explore links between income diversification strategies, household assets, the external environment and child well-being. Their findings give empirical support for policy or project interventions aimed at increasing income-generating opportunities for Peruvian women with a newborn child