Education and conflict recovery : the case of Timor Leste

The Timor Leste secession conflict lasted for 25 years. Its last wave of violence in 1999, following the withdrawal of Indonesian troops, generated massive displacement and destruction with widespread consequences for the economic and social development of the country. This paper analyzes the impact of the conflict on the level and access to education of boys and girls in Timor Leste. The authors examine the short-term impact of the 1999 violence on school attendance and grade deficit rates in 2001, and the longer-term impact of the conflict on primary school completion of cohorts of children observed in 2007. They compare the educational impact of the 1999 wave of violence with the impact of other periods of high-intensity violence during the 25 years of Indonesian occupation. The short-term effects of the conflict are mixed. In the longer term, the analysis finds a strong negative impact of the conflict on primary school completion among boys of school age exposed to peaks of violence during the 25-year long conflict. The effect is stronger for boys attending the last three grades of primary school. This result shows a substantial loss of human capital among young males in Timor Leste since the early 1970s, resulting from household investment trade-offs between education and economic survival.Adolescent Health,Youth and Governance,Education For All,Primary Education,Post Conflict Reconstruction

Progettare un paesaggio low cost

Nelle maggiori città europee e in diversi casi nel resto del mondo la tutela, la valorizzazione e la cura partecipata del verde pubblico sono pratiche ormai consolidate da decenni; esiste da tempo una consapevolezza matura del ruolo determinante che le aree verdi svolgono nell’ambito di uno sviluppo sostenibile della civiltà. Attraverso l’esperienza del recupero per la fruizione immediata di Fondo Uditore a Palermo, oggi si presenta anche per Palermo l’occasione di allinearsi a quella che, più che una tendenza, è una necessità riconosciuta e imprescindibile per garantire una migliore qualità della vita in ambito urbano. Qui, dove la recente storia urbanistica racconta decenni di colpevole negligenza nel dotare la città degli standard minimi di servizi primari e aree verdi, un progetto che porterà all’apertura di un nuovo parco urbano si deve all’azione di un gruppo di studiosi e cittadini, attivatosi attraverso i media e i social forum più noti del web. Il recupero di un fondo agricolo abbandonato da quasi vent’anni, privatizzato per i precedenti trenta, e la sua rifunzionalizzazione come parco urbano sono il risultato di una collaborazione sinergica tra cittadinanza attiva e l’amministrazione regionale. Emerge l’occasione per una rifl essione sulle funzioni che la città contemporanea a da al proprio patrimonio verde e sulle potenzialità delle aree agricole residuali nel miglioramento della qualità ambientale

Start-Ups and Licensing Agreements: An Exploratory Case Study

Licensing agreements can exist between established companies but they increasingly also give rise to start-up companies, built around the licensed technology. Licensing-out technology can represent a risk as well as an opportunity for any licensor as there is a trade-off between additional revenues that can be gained from the licensing agreement and the costs related to the transfer itself, as well as the risks of opportunism by the licensee. When licensing to a start-up, this risk is higher, as start-ups have scarce resources, high failure rates and no past performance on which to gauge the start-up’s success. For the start-up the license could also represent a risk in the form of sunk costs and constraints on their evolution path. This paper discusses under which conditions technology licensing between a licensor and a start-up can be beneficial to both parties. Through a qualitative analysis, interviewing a number of European start-ups, we will examine in particular the role of contractual clauses, the relationship between licensor and licensee, the role of the licensed technology in the final product and the role of a technology push versus demand-pull scenario in a licensing deal. For all these aspects we will reflect on their influence on the licensor and licensee

Short- and Long-Term Impact of Violence on Education: The Case of Timor Leste

This paper analyzes the impact of the wave of violence that occurred in Timor Leste in 1999 on education outcomes. We examine the short-term impact of the violence on school attendance in 2001 and its longer-term impact on primary school completion of the same cohorts of children observed again in 2007. We compare the educational impact of the 1999 violence with the impact of other periods of high-intensity violence during the 25 years of Indonesian occupation. The short-term effects of the conflict are mixed. In the longer term, we find evidence of a substantial loss of human capital among boys in Timor Leste who were exposed to peaks of violence during the 25-year long conflict. The evidence suggests that this result may be due to household trade offs between education and economic welfare

Does War Empower Women? Evidence from Timor Leste

Conflicts may change the material conditions and the incentives individuals face through death, displacement and other consequences of violence. Being a victim of a war can also profoundly change individual beliefs, values and preferences (Bellows and Miguel 2009). Several counts have linked violent conflicts – including the two world wars – to changes in the roles of women, as well as social norms and beliefs towards gender roles within societies. The aim of this paper is to investigate the medium- and long-term consequences of a long-lasting conflict – the Timor Leste conflict – on various dimensions of women’s empowerment.UK Department for International Developmen

Education and conflict recovery : the case of Timor Leste

The Timor Leste secession conflict lasted for 25 years. Its last wave of violence in 1999, following the withdrawal of Indonesian troops, generated massive displacement and destruction with widespread consequences for the economic and social development of the country. This paper analyses the impact of the conflict on the level and access to education of boys and girls in Timor Leste. We examine the short-term impact of the 1999 violence on school attendance and grade deficit rates in 2001, and the longer-term impact of the conflict on primary school completion of cohorts of children observed in 2007. We compare also the educational impact of the 1999 wave of violence with the impact of other periods of highintensity violence during the 25 years of Indonesian occupation. The short-term effects of the conflict are mixed. In the longer term, we find a strong negative impact of the conflict on primary school completion among boys of school age exposed to peaks of violence during the 25-year long conflict. The effect is stronger for boys attending the last three grades of primary school. This result shows a substantial loss of human capital among young males in Timor Leste since the early 1970s, resulting from household investment trade-offs between education and economic survival. Keywords: conflict; education; children; gender

Realtà e virtualità dell’apprendimento di una L2 con tecnologie mobili

Digital technologies, particularly those employed for mobile learning, drive users to perform actions that are key contributions to the learning process. Thanks to the employment of electronic devices, including those small and handy such as smartphones and tablets, learning and teaching move from being virtual to concrete processes in the development of L2 skills. This paper describes some major characteristics of portable devices and their increasingly pervasive multiple uses. Furthermore, it illustrates mobile learning by focusing on its strongly innovative pedagogical implications: a new notion of context, which is no longer a physical space in which learning takes place; the re-interpretation of the bipolar distinction between formal and informal learning; the pro-active role of learners, who can choose where, what and when to study; and finally the notion of ‘delocalized community’ as an agent of learning. This process of innovation and ‘materialization’ of learning is supported by the growing number of Educational Apps, which they have become increasingly specialized, each of them reflecting more or less innovative pedagogical designs. The spectrum varies from those proposing rote memorization of vocabulary or structural grammar exercises to more creative ones which allow learners to upload digital assets and exchange them online with other people around the world. The former reflect a behaviourist view of learning, the latter a post-costructivist and more learner-centered approach. As an example of the more innovative ones, this paper describes a recently developed App, called Linguacuisine. Finally, the paper suggests that, in order to highlight the ‘materiality’ of mobile learning, it is time to avoid using labels such as ‘virtual exchange’ when referring to events of asynchronous and synchronous communication, and prefer labels such as ‘telecollaboration, online exchanges’. Recognizing ‘materiality’ to actions triggered by the use of technologies in learning implies questioning the potential of digital resources, managing learning needs and processes, becoming aware of the wide-reaching change in learning conditions and attitudes, and directing innovation so as to achieve maximum outcomes

Didattica inclusiva per l’ascolto in L2 in contesti di intercomprensione: Conoscenze metacognitive di bambini della scuola primaria

Quale tipo di conoscenza metacognitiva (persona, compito, strategie) mettono in luce i bambini? Come reagiscono i bambini alle domande dell’insegnante? Quali aspetti del repertorio esperienziale evidenziano? A queste domande cerca di rispondere la sperimentazione di approccio inclusivo all’intercomprensione realizzata in una scuola primaria in Italia con il kamishibai, una tecnica di narrazione giapponese basata sull’impiego di tavole con immagini, in legno o cartone. Lo scenario di apprendimento mira a potenziare la capacità di comprendere un testo narrato in due L2 non note agli allievi (francese e spagnolo) ed elicita le conoscenze metacognitive di giovani apprendenti in merito all’ascolto in lingue seconde. I materiali didattici sono stati adattati ai bisogni di apprendimento di bambini dislessici

Processi di intercomunicazione tra parlanti di lingue affini: analisi di sequenze metalinguistiche

La comunicazione mediata dal computer sia scritta asincrona sia orale via videoconferenza costituisce una forma di apprendimento integrata in diversi contesti istituzionali. Presso alcuni atenei europei e americani (es. Universitade Estadual Paulista, Università del Salento) essa prende il nome di teletandem. Molti studi sull’apprendimento in tandem riguardano “episodi a carattere metalinguistico” durante scambi diadici orali (in presenza o mediati dal computer) o quasi-sincroni della chat tra parlanti che comunicano nella loro L2, che è sua volta la lingua nativa del proprio interlocutore. Pochi studi, invece, analizzano tale fenomeno nel corso di scambi orali bilingui via videoconferenza in cui i partecipanti parlano nella loro L1 affine a quella dell’interlocutore. Attraverso un’indagine empirica, il presente studio contribuisce a colmare tale lacuna e mette in luce come i partecipanti orientano il discorso verso il codice o verso i contenuti del messaggio in contesti telecollaborativi di intercomunicazione tra parlanti di lingue affini. Lo studio mostra che nei casi analizzati le sequenze metalinguistiche non sono auto-orientate ma etero-orientate: l’interlocutore mette in evidenzia in primo luogo ciò che comprende, specifica successivamente ciò che non comprende indirizzando così in modo collaborativo il dialogo verso la risoluzione del problema comunicativo