Boundary crossing ahead: perspectives of entrepreneurship by sustainability educators in higher education

The study provides a novel investigation of university sustainability educators and evaluates their knowledge and perspectives of entrepreneurship through the theoretical lens of communities of practice. This study offers key insights into how entrepreneurial education can positively impact upon sustainability educators behaviors and practices. This study explores, through a UK and European semi-structured survey of sustainability educators, three key research questions. Firstly, how an entrepreneurial or an enterprising approach contributes to solving sustainability problems? Secondly, the extent to which sustainability education programs in universities are making reference to enterprise/entrepreneurship? The study found that sustainability educators had mixed, but predominantly negative or absent, attitudes towards entrepreneurship and its perceived value towards sustainability. The results indicate that far greater collaboration and interaction is required between the disciplines to support this evolution to enhance their potential to collaborate and exchange best practice. Thus the University sectors strategic decision makers need to take responsibility for developing and encouraging such conversations

Inequalities in young peoples' educational experiences and wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic

While the health risks of Covid-19 for young people are low, they have borne a heavy cost of the pandemic through intense disruption to their education and social lives. These effects have not been experienced equally across social and demographic groups. Using data from a nationally representative survey of 4,000 young people linked to their education records, we study inequalities in young people's experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic. We find particularly stark inequalities by socio-economic status, with young people from poorer families facing disadvantage on multiple fronts, particularly in their experiences of home learning, returning to school, and exam cancellations compared to more advantaged young people. Gender and ethnic inequalities were more mixed, though young females reported significantly lower wellbeing scores than males. This evidence suggests that the pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities, meaning policymakers concerned with increasing equity and social mobility now face an even bigger task than before

Higher education, career opportunities, and intergenerational inequality

The UK government has expressed a desire to increase social mobility, with policies to help achieve this aim focused on reducing inequalities in educational attainment. This paper draws together established and new information about the contribution that higher education can make to social mobility using a life-course approach, considering differences by family background in terms of university attendance and achievement, as well as occupation and earnings following graduation. We find substantial socio-economic differences at each stage. Young people from poorer backgrounds are, on average, less likely to go to university than their richer peers. Even among the selected group who do go to university, they are less likely to attend the highest status institutions, less likely to graduate, and less likely to achieve the highest degree classes. These differences in degree outcomes contribute to the lower average earnings of graduates from poorer families, but earnings differentials go well beyond those driven purely by degree attainment or institution attended. The evidence strongly suggests that, even after taking these factors into account, graduates from affluent families are more likely to obtain a professional job and to see higher earnings growth in the labour market. We discuss the implications of these findings for the prospects of higher education as a route to greater social mobility

The Devon Island Expedition

In 1959 the Arctic Institute of North America undertook an integrated program of long term research on Devon Island in the Queen Elizabeth Islands of arctic Canada. The co-ordinated studies were designed to help understand the interrelationships between the glacier ice of Devon Island, the ocean in Jones Sound, and the encompassing atmosphere. They are being carried out over a 3-year period under the leadership of Spencer Apollonio. The main effort is concentrated on attempts to evaluate such factors as physical, chemical, and biological variations in the arctic waters of Jones Sound caused by discharging glaciers; evaporation and transfer of moisture between the ocean waters and the ice-cap and glaciers; and the overall influences of solar radiation energy on the mass balance of the ice-cap, the biological production in the sea, and the growth and decay of sea-ice. Some supplementary studies in archaeology and geology are included in the expedition's work because of the marked deficiency of knowledge in those subjects for Devon Island. In the late summer of 1960 a main base was established on the north shore of Devon Island near Cape Skogn by an advance party of eight men taken in with their materials by the Canada Department of Transport icebreaker "d'Iberville". During a 3-week period buildings were erected and routes inland and to the ice-cap explored and marked, while an archaeological reconnaissance of the Cape Sparbo area was made by a small party under Mr. Gordon Lowther of McGill University. Everything was installed for a beginning of the 3-year program in April 1961. During the months of April to September 1961 21 men worked on extensive programs in geophysics, glaciology, marine biology and oceanography, meteorology, and surveying. Intensive work was also completed in archaeology and geology. ..

Motivation and retention of health workers in developing countries: a systematic review

Background A key constraint to achieving the MDGs is the absence of a properly trained and motivated workforce. Loss of clinical staff from low and middle-income countries is crippling already fragile health care systems. Health worker retention is critical for health system performance and a key problem is how best to motivate and retain health workers. The authors undertook a systematic review to consolidate existing evidence on the impact of financial and non-financial incentives on motivation and retention. Methods Four literature databases were searched together with Google Scholar and 'Human Resources for Health' on-line journal. Grey literature studies and informational papers were also captured. The inclusion criteria were: 1) article stated clear reasons for implementing specific motivations to improve health worker motivation and/or reduce medical migration, 2) the intervention recommended can be linked to motivation and 3) the study was conducted in a developing country and 4) the study used primary data. Results Twenty articles met the inclusion criteria. They consisted of a mixture of qualitative and quantitative studies. Seven major motivational themes were identified: financial rewards, career development, continuing education, hospital infrastructure, resource availability, hospital management and recognition/appreciation. There was some evidence to suggest that the use of initiatives to improve motivation had been effective in helping retention. There is less clear evidence on the differential response of different cadres.sch_die8pub4080pub

Young people today: news media, policy and youth justice

The new sociology of childhood sees children as competent social agents with important contributions to make. And yet the phase of childhood is fraught with tensions and contradictions. Public policies are required, not only to protect children, but also to control them and regulate their behaviour. For children and young people in the UK, youth justice has become increasingly punitive. At the same time, social policies have focused more on children's inclusion and participation. In this interplay of conflict and contradictions, the role the media play is critical in contributing to the moral panic about childhood and youth. In this article, we consider media representations of “antisocial” children and young people and how this belies a moral response to the nature of contemporary childhood. We conclude by considering how a rights-based approach might help redress the moralised politics of childhood representations in the media

Education for Sustainable Development: Towards the Sustainable University

We  planned  this  conference  in  anticipation  of  the  end  of  the  UN  Decade  of  Education  for  Sustainable   Development  (DESD),  and  the  start  of  the  next  phase  for  those  involved  in  ESD  here  and   internationally.    At  Plymouth  University,  2015  marks  ten  year  anniversary  since  cross-­‐institutional   work  on  sustainability  and  sustainability  education  was  spearheaded  by  the  founding  of  the  Centre  for   Sustainable  Futures  (CSF).    Coincidentally,  2015  also  marks  a  ten  years  since  the  influential  HEFCE   policy  document  ‘Sustainable  Development  in  Higher  Education’  was  released.   Holding  the  conference  in  January  –  named  after  the  Roman  god  of  doorways,  of  endings  and   beginnings  –  we  sought  to  look  at  some  of  what  has  been  achieved  in  sustainability  education  to  date   and  explore  its  prospects  as  we  move  forward.   Following  an  enthusiastic  response  to  the  call  for  abstracts,  the  conference  featured  a  diverse  range   of  research  papers,  posters,  and  roundtable  presentations  from  academics  and  practitioners  across   the  UK  and  beyond.  The  conference  was  arranged  around  three  overarching  themes:     ESD  Pedagogy:  Criticality,  Creativity,  and  Collaboration   What  are  the  teaching  and  learning  processes  that  enable  students  to  develop  their  own  capacity  to   think  critically  and  creatively  in  the  face  of  global  sustainability  challenges  and,  secondly,  to  act   collaboratively  in  ways  that  pursue  more  hopeful  and  sustainable  futures?   Innovative  Learning  Spaces  for  ESD   What  are  the  physical  environments  that  provide  opportunities  for  new  forms  of  sustainability   education  to  flourish?  What  lies  beyond  the  lecture  hall  that  is  conducive  to  student  learning  through   inquiry-­‐based,  active,  participatory,  interdisciplinary  and  experiential  methods?   Towards  the  Sustainable  University   What  are  effective  approaches  for  leading  institutional  change,  organisational  learning,  and  staff  CPD   towards  sustainability?  This  publication  focuses  on  the  last  theme  –  Towards  the  Sustainable  University.    The  previous   PedRIO  Occasional  Paper  8  looks  at  the  first  theme  ESD  Pedagogy:  Criticality,  Creativity,  and   Collaboration

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

By chance or by plan?: The academic success of nontraditional students in higher education

In the United Kingdom, a “good” undergraduate degree is understood to be a “first class” or an “upper second class,” which is achieved by three-quarters of students. The need to distinguish oneself from others is ever more important in an increasingly crowded graduate market, although a first-class degree is most likely achieved by privileged students. Informed by Bourdieu’s theory of habitus and capital, this study explores the educational experiences and trajectories of 30 final-year high-achieving nontraditional (HANT) students through in-depth interviews. These include working-class, minority ethnic, and/or mature students at university. We found that prior development in academic study skills and the desire to prove oneself, often in response to previous negative experiences, are key ingredients in academic success. Our HANT students also seem to find inspiration or support from significant others, an educational capital, although these resources are often by chance rather than by plan. Implications for policy and practice are suggested