A study of brain drain from the perspective of salvadorans living in Pamplona, Spain

This dissertation explores how 7 Salvadorans make the decision whether or not to go back to El Salvador, once they have had the experience of living in Pamplona, Spain. All of the participants have lived a disruption of their life in El Salvador when moving to Spain. Having experienced a different setting, they reflect on what the new situation offers in terms of quality of life, versus what they find in El Salvador. This interview study explores the factors they consider when making the decision of either becoming a returned migrant, or to be part of the brain drain phenomenon. Discussion is focused on emerging topics that apply specifically to the Salvadoran context, and how it is related to national policy that aims its improvement. The stories and considerations of the participants are important in terms of public policy, as governments of developing countries need to address the socioeconomic and psychological challenges faced by the potential return migrants, so that they become attractive enough to keep the new skilled citizens as part of their working force

'Religion', 'Worldviews' and the reappearing problems of pedagogy

Proponents of ‘Religion and Worldviews Education’ claim it heralds a new paradigm shift in religious education – necessary to make the subject relevant to the contemporary world. Yet to date relatively little engagement has been made to relate these proposals to a body of theoretical and empirical inquiry about religious education pedagogy stretching back to the 1960s. Major figures in the development of religious education identified and attempted to resolve several issues in the development of pedagogical models suitable for pupils of all faiths and those of none. The principal problematic for all these thinkers was how to reconcile what they saw as the claims of religions on the one hand, and the aims of secular education on the other. Related to this central tension, they set out to tackle a series of issues such as: ‘How can young people learn from religion if they do not believe in it?’; ‘How can the reification of religious traditions be avoided?’; and ‘How can teachers deal with conflicting truth claims in the classroom?’ In this chapter, it is argued that the proposed worldviews paradigm offers little in the way of new solutions to them: changing the name or legal status of the curriculum subject to ‘Religion and Worldview Education’ offers no significant new insights but potentially puts the coherence and integrity of the subject at risk

A study of moral reasoning among secondary students in a public co-educational and private girls school in Mexico

Proponents of character education claim cultivating virtues during schooling helps students, schools and society to flourish. However, critics argue that character education programs implicitly justify social inequality by assuming success or failure in life is due to individuals’ efforts to develop their own characters. However, there is little empirical research about which individual factors, such as gender, or contextual factors, such as school type, may affect secondary school students’ character. This article begins to address this gap by the means of a comparative case study of moral reasoning performance within and between two very different kinds of secondary school in Mexico – a public co-educational school and a private girls’ school. Results suggest that individual differences (gender, religion, family circumstances and socio-economic status) and school (moral education program and school ethos) may relate to students’ ability to make moral judgements in response to realistic moral dilemmas. We consider these findings in relation to ongoing debates about character education worldwide, focusing on how gender, religion and school-type may impact on adolescents’ moral reasoning.Templeton World Charity Foundation 015

A house of prayer for all peoples? The unique case of Somerville College chapel, Oxford

Multifaith buildings have become common in Europe, North America, and much of the world, but they have yet to receive sufficient scholarly attention in the history of religious ideas, or in the theory of material religion. This paper begins to address this lacuna by the consideration of an early, but little known, multifaith chapel donated to Somerville College Oxford in the 1930s, which is unique within Oxford University. Its history, architecture, and artworks give valuable insights into the religious, intellectual, and cultural roots of what would subsequently become a global norm. The chapel can be seen as both a manifestation of the aspirations of liberal Christianity in the interwar years, including the advancement of women and ecumenism, and of the contestation of the role of religion in higher education among elites in the same period. Examining the case of Somerville chapel contributes to the theory of religion by considering how unbelief and multifaith ideas may be attempted to be materially expressed, and how this physical presence subsequently may impact on institutions and people through ongoing contestation, and negotiated use