Qualitative Interviews with Irregular Migrants in Times of COVID-19: Recourse to Remote Interview Techniques as a Possible Methodological Adjustment

Forschungsdesigns erfordern Flexibilität. Wichtig ist aber, dass Anpassungen nicht immer ausschließlich mit Nachteilen verbunden sein müssen. In dieser Forschungsnotiz möchten wir unsere Überlegungen zu den Auswirkungen von COVID-19 auf die Durchführung von qualitativen Interviews mit irregulären Migrant*innen veranschaulichen. Die Ausführungen wurden in Anlehnung an eines unserer eigenen Projekte entwickelt, bei dem sich die Feldarbeit derzeit in der Planungsphase befindet. Aufgrund ihrer möglichen Relevanz für ähnliche Projekte möchten wir unsere methodischen Überlegungen teilen. Wir liefern Anmerkungen zur aktuellen Situation irregulärer Migrant*innen in verschiedenen (europäischen) Ländern sowie eine Einschätzung der methodischen Durchführbarkeit von qualitativen Face-to-Face-Interviews mit irregulären Migrant*innen und möglicher Alternativen zu dieser Methode (insbesondere verschiedener Formen von Ferninterviews). Abschließend kommen wir auf unsere Entscheidung zu sprechen, mit einem Mixed-Mode-Ansatz zu arbeiten, der es uns erlaubt, verschiedene Fernbefragungsmodi zu nutzen, und damit die nötige Flexibilität zur Anpassung an den Verlauf derartiger gesundheitlicher und gesellschaftlicher Krisen bietet.Research designs require flexibility, and adjustments made to the designs do not always have to lead exclusively to disadvantages. In this research note, we would like to share our reflections on the impact of COVID-19 on the conduct of qualitative interviews with irregular migrants. Since these considerations were developed in close connection with one of our own projects, in which fieldwork is currently in the planning phase, we believe they may be relevant to similar projects. We include a brief remark on the current situation of irregular migrants in different (European) countries, as well as an assessment of the methodological feasibility of qualitative face-to-face interviews with irregular migrants and possible alternatives to this method such as remote and online interview formats. We conclude with insights on our recommendation to rely on a mixed-mode approach, which allows us to use various remote interview modes, thus providing the necessary flexibility to adapt to profound health and social crises such as COVID-19

Assessing the need for a bachelor’s degree program in agricultural extension at King Saud University

NESCO, a body of the United Nations, described education as instruction that is well organized and sustained for the purpose of communicating knowledge, skills, and valuable understanding about real-life activities (Abbas, 2017). Higher education refers to specialized education that universities or colleges provide (Smith & Abouammoh, 2013). Students at this level of education receive more specialized training and teaching that prepares them for future employment, research, and business (Smith & Abouammoh, 2013). Universities offer various academic degrees (IDP, 2019). The typical practice is for universities to offer bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees to students (IDP, 2019). However, some universities choose not to offer bachelor’s degrees, but only to concentrate on master’s and doctoral degrees (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, 2019). Universities usually have different reasons for such decisions. However, one would expect a university to offer a wide range of degrees to students, rather than only offering graduate degrees in some areas

Influence of Family Supervision and Peer Pressure on Female Students Behavior in Public Secondary Schools: A study conducted in Ubungo Municipality, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Young female students are often torn between family supervision, which can be positive or negative, and peer pressure to conform to the pressures on life decisions and behavior orientation as they grow up and learn. Little is known as to how they cope especially in a large city and with the media influence they face. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences on female students’ behaviour (focusing on family supervision and peer pressure) in public secondary schools. Specifically, the study intended to determine the nature of family supervision and peer pressure among female students; to identify the main forms of behavioural issues that affect female students’ learning; and to find out in what ways family and peer pressure influences female students’ behaviour focusing on time management, work habits and truancy. The study has used a descriptive research design employing questionnaires and interview guides to collect data from a sample of 133 students, 50 teachers, 10 parents and 4 school heads. Qualitative data [mainly interviews with students, parents and teachers] collected were analyzed using thematic analysis techniques while quantitative data from a questionnaire used descriptive statistics approach. The study found that parents, school environment, peers and school management have both negative and positive effects on female students’ behaviour inside and outside school. It has also revealed that some students learn bad behaviour from their homes and community with some of the friends influencing to affect their academic performance. The most predominant disciplinary cases among female students were involvement in sexual relationships while schooling. The study concluded that parental supervision and teacher-parents coordination is essential in providing learning support to female students. The study recommends that administering corporal punishment in school should focus on shaping childrens’ behaviour rather than cause psychological torture. Frequent seminars and meetings between students and teachers on the importance of schooling are essential in raising awareness. Additionally, schools may invite experts from a government institution or private organization responsible for transforming students’ behaviour who will talk to students about adolescence and its social impact. Owners and managers of schools should establish a friendly schooling environment that promotes and enhance the teaching and learning process. Schools should be fenced to avoid external interactions and prevent truancy

The Impact of Teacher Talk on Student Engagement During an Integrated STEM Unit

This study used a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to investigate the effect of teacher talk on the engagement of students in target groups during an integrated STEM unit. Each student in the target groups responded to the teacher talk in a unique way. The results of this study do not fully support the results of prior research because the engagement of only one of the eight target students was affected by the autonomy supportive talk of the teacher during the unit

Community Development for the 21st Century: Asset-building and the Resurgence of Pittsburgh

Revitalizing a distressed community is a difficult challenge. Oftentimes it can take decades to achieve. Pittsburgh\u27s East Liberty and Lawrenceville neighborhoods had fallen on hard times in the late part of the 20th century. However, in recent years, both were able to identify and leverage the assets of the community as a part of their revitalization strategy. Led by the efforts of local community organizations, these communities developed innovative redevelopment strategies that ultimately produced meaningful revitalization in both neighborhoods. The following is a study to understand if and how asset-building theories of community development influenced the strategies used to revitalize East Liberty and Lawrenceville. Through the analysis of public data sets and semi-structured interviews with the community development and local government professionals, evidence suggests that assetbuilding theories did influence redevelopment strategies and did produce meaningful revitalization in both communities

The Effect of Parental Supportiveness and Gender on English Language Achievement of Primary School Children in South-Eastern, Nigeria

English is a very important language in Nigeria today. It is a unifying language for the federation and also a major language of instruction in Nigerian schools. It is as well the official language of government business and the language of commerce and trade. Most school books and reading materials are written in English, but the standard of written and spoken English language by Nigerian pupils is very poor. It has been suspected that poor English language skill is a major contributor to the recurring mass failure of Nigerian students in public examinations. This study therefore investigated the effect of parental home-work supervision on English Language achievement of primary school children. The study is a quasi-experiment with pretest, post-test control group design. The experimental group adopted monitored parental home-work supervision while for the control group, the parent were neither trained nor monitored. The treatment lasted six weeks before the post test. English Language Achievement Test with reliability of 0.87 was used to measure learner achievement. The result showed that monitored parental home-work supervision was significantly better than the control (t-obt = 3.40, p<.05). The effect of gender was not significant. Regular Parental home-work supervision was recommended.Keywords: Parental Supportiveness, home-work, supervision, Gender, Achievement and English Languag

El contexto importa: reflexiones acerca de cómo los contextos y la composición escolar afectan el rendimiento y la experiencia educativa de los estudiantes

El punto de partida de este balance es la idea de que, en sistemas complejos como el educativo, los resultados son producto de interacciones dinámicas entre actores, contextos —culturales, sociales e institucionales— y políticas, por lo que resulta imposible reducir los resultados a un conjunto singular, específico y replicable de determinaciones. El balance busca profundizar en esta idea explorando la forma en que los contextos influyen en el rendimiento educativo de los estudiantes. Para ello, el trabajo analiza las críticas recientes que la sociología de la educación, y especialmente los estudios sobre los efectos de la composición escolar, han hecho a la investigación sobre «eficacia escolar». La literatura sobre composición escolar muestra de qué manera los contextos escolares y las características —por ejemplo, socioeconómicas y étnicas— del alumnado afectan los procesos organizativos, las prácticas de enseñanza y los demás factores intraescolares que la literatura sobre eficacia escolar identifica como asociados al rendimiento educativo. A partir de estas ideas, el balance plantea una lectura de una serie de estudios realizados en el Perú sobre factores asociados al rendimiento educativo, así como respecto a la presencia de un alto grado de segregación en el sistema educativo peruano, que sugieren algo similar: la importancia de tomar más en cuenta el efecto de los contextos educativos y de empezar a pensar en políticas educativas más contextualizadas