Character education: themes and researches. An academic literature review

Character education is both a rooted and developing discipline. Even though there is no consensual definition, it can be widely described as a schoolbased process to promote personal development in youth, through the development of virtue, moral values, and moral agency. Starting from the growing interest about this theme in recent years, this article aims at using the \u201ccharacter education\u201d analysis category to conduct an exploratory research on the main tendencies in the international literature, defining which are the main topics, exploring the way these topics develop in terms of theory and empirical research and analyzing how they relate to each other. In view of this goal, titles and abstracts of 261 articles published in 145 peer-reviewed academic journals over the period 2005-2014 were selected from Education Source, ERIC, Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection and SocINDEX databases. Articles\u2019 titles and abstract were analyzed through the T-Lab software, using different content analysis techniques. Although many ambivalences and ambiguities affect the meaning attributed to the character education, some key trends emerge from this literature review and the considered studies seem to agree that character education can play an important role in the construction of children and adolescents\u2019 identity and can be a distinctive intervention for youth education and socialization

New Media & Youth Identity. Issues and Research Pathways

Media have held a considerable and growing place in the social environment of industrial society in recent decades, transforming the perception that a people have of their place in the world and of their memberships and belonging, creating new paths for social relations, affecting lifestyles, socialization, and communication processes, and the construction of identity itself. The relationship between young people (especially teenagers and adolescents) and new media shows some peculiarities which are worth further reflection to understand the extent and outcomes of these social changes. This article aims to investigate the discourse on youth identity and new media in the social science literature, determining which are the key trends and exploring the more relevant research questions about this theme and the way these topics relate to one another. Titles and abstracts of articles published during the period 2004 \u2013 2013 were selected from the Scopus social sciences database and they were analysed using different content analysis techniques supported by the T-Lab software. The international literature on these topics presents a certain liveliness and heterogeneity in themes and its perspectives on theoretical and empirical research. Nevertheless, it has been possible to identify some key trends, focusing mainly on the idea of active identity construction by new media

Educational differences in fertility desires, intentions and behaviour: a life course perspective

Despite a long tradition of studying the relationship between education and fertility outcomes less is known about how educational differences in fertility intentions are formed and translated into achieved births over the life course. This paper provides new insights using data from a large cohort study and Miller’s Traits-Desires-Intentions-Behaviour framework for understanding childbearing. We examine how parental aspirations for education, educational ability in childhood, and educational attainment in young adulthood relate to: males’ and females’ fertility desires in adolescence; fertility intentions in early adulthood; and educational differences in the achievement of fertility intentions. We conclude that family building preferences expressed in adolescence, especially those for the timing of entry into parenthood are shaped by parental socio-economic background, mediated through educational ability and parental expectations for education. In young adulthood, no clear, consistent educational gradient in intended family size is found. However, there is a negative educational gradient in the likelihood of achieving intended births by age 46, especially for women. The findings indicate the importance of educational differences in employment and partnership behaviour in mediating these relationships

Consumption in action. Mapping consumerism in international academic literature

The consumer-citizen and more generally, the emergence of active forms of citizenship mediated by consumption point to a change in the relations of production, consumption and distribution. These forms of citizenship come to encompass opposite poles of consumption such as hedonism and social responsibility. When consumption choices are associated with the social and environmental issues connected to manufacturing and distribution processes, the space claimed by the active consumer comes to represents a form of social identity recognition. This \u2018political\u2019 sphere, made up of individual and/or collective claims mediated by consumer society comes in the wake of a long period of market de-politicization. On the basis of these assumptions, this article surveys and evaluates the topics related to critical consumption that are most discussed in the social sciences. Such forms of socially oriented consumption \u2013 enacted in the form of individual or collective consumer choices \u2013 represent a new form of political participation and are understood as practices of active-citizenship promotion. The findings of this article are based on data gathered from 478 peer-reviewed articles published between 2004 and 2013. The articles were selected from Scopus on the basis of their broad connection to critical consumerism and forms of socially oriented consumerism. A software-based content analysis run through T-Lab software was used to generate an analytical model of the main research axis of the most recent international literature on these arguments. The heterogeneous body of scholarly literature on socially oriented consumption reflects the rich diversity of perspectives adopted to understand the political and ethical role of consumers in contemporary societies

Media(ting) Between Generations: Common Sense and Perceptions of New Media by Young People and Teachers

The wide spread of mobile communication devices, the expansion of social media and participatory media platforms, the ease to edit, share and produce media content, indicate a trend of change in the media system that influences the production and consumption of knowledge and generates new paths for the young\u2019s identity construction. This raises necessary questions about the ways not only young, but also the education agencies \u2013 school in particular \u2013 relate to these transformations, starting from taking into account the production of common sense on the use, risks and opportunities of the media. Based on these considerations, in this paper, we will discuss the results of a qualitative case study carried out in the Veneto Region (Italy) on upper secondary school students and teachers in order to detect and compare the perception that young and educators have of the media, trying to identify boundaries or land on which to build exchange opportunities for dialogue between the generations

Introduzione: il lavoro di comunit\ue0 in ambito interculturale, tra il dire e il fare

Il lavoro introduce i contenuti del volume, ponendo le premesse per il ragionamento che far\ue0 da file rouge tra i diversi capitoli, ossia quello del lavoro sociale con i migranti e la comunit\ue0 locale, attraverso una lettura teorica e la presentazione di alcune esperienze di ricerca condotte nel territorio veneto

Nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria for protein production: experimental and computational approach

openTo convey the food and feed industry towards a more sustainable approach, the production of vegetal-derived compounds, as proteins or pigments, represents a relevant topic of research. In that regard, nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria are of interest thanks to their capability to fix atmospheric nitrogen into valuable N-based macromolecules. Looking for a potential industrial exploitation, laboratory experiments were conducted to assess Nostoc PCC 7120 cultivation features, both in batch and continuous configurations. Discontinuous cultivation was conducted in a 275-L pilot scale bioreactor in order to assess species performances in a larger operational scale, while 200-mL continuous photobioreactors were used to evaluate the effects of operating variables on harvested biomass and production of valuable compounds. With respect to enlightenment conditions, an optimal light intensity of 550 µmol m-2 s-1 was found, as the best compromise between biomass productivity and embedded valuable compounds. Secondly, a detailed study on diazotrophic growth performances was conducted, by varying the amount and source of nitrogen within the culture environment. The exploitation of such peculiar metabolic path seems to be a promising choice, since it contributes to lower nutrients-related capital costs as well as improve cultivation outcomes. Moreover, successful industrial exploitation relies also on the possibility of predicting such outcomes. Therefore, the development of a simulation model for two cyanobacterial species, namely Anabaena PCC 7122 and Nostoc PCC 7120, was considered. In detail, the model embeds the Droop theory based on the nutrient quota, accounting for the variation of biomass growth rate based on the amount of nutrients within the biomass itself. Compared to the various predictive models already available in literature, focusing only on overall biomass, the introduction of such peculiar kinetics allows then to simultaneously account for both the two typologies of cells characterizing the species in question, namely vegetative cells and heterocysts. According to the experimental background of this work, the model was developed for continuous operations, predicting cultivation outcomes with respect to the operating residence time. The derived computational outcomes seem in line with data collected in previous experimental campaigns, which were also used for the fitting of additional unknown model parameters.To convey the food and feed industry towards a more sustainable approach, the production of vegetal-derived compounds, as proteins or pigments, represents a relevant topic of research. In that regard, nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria are of interest thanks to their capability to fix atmospheric nitrogen into valuable N-based macromolecules. Looking for a potential industrial exploitation, laboratory experiments were conducted to assess Nostoc PCC 7120 cultivation features, both in batch and continuous configurations. Discontinuous cultivation was conducted in a 275-L pilot scale bioreactor in order to assess species performances in a larger operational scale, while 200-mL continuous photobioreactors were used to evaluate the effects of operating variables on harvested biomass and production of valuable compounds. With respect to enlightenment conditions, an optimal light intensity of 550 µmol m-2 s-1 was found, as the best compromise between biomass productivity and embedded valuable compounds. Secondly, a detailed study on diazotrophic growth performances was conducted, by varying the amount and source of nitrogen within the culture environment. The exploitation of such peculiar metabolic path seems to be a promising choice, since it contributes to lower nutrients-related capital costs as well as improve cultivation outcomes. Moreover, successful industrial exploitation relies also on the possibility of predicting such outcomes. Therefore, the development of a simulation model for two cyanobacterial species, namely Anabaena PCC 7122 and Nostoc PCC 7120, was considered. In detail, the model embeds the Droop theory based on the nutrient quota, accounting for the variation of biomass growth rate based on the amount of nutrients within the biomass itself. Compared to the various predictive models already available in literature, focusing only on overall biomass, the introduction of such peculiar kinetics allows then to simultaneously account for both the two typologies of cells characterizing the species in question, namely vegetative cells and heterocysts. According to the experimental background of this work, the model was developed for continuous operations, predicting cultivation outcomes with respect to the operating residence time. The derived computational outcomes seem in line with data collected in previous experimental campaigns, which were also used for the fitting of additional unknown model parameters

Servizio sociale e immigrazione. Una panoramica delle ricerche

Il capitolo propone una rassegna dei risultati delle principali ricerche empiriche svolte in ambito italiano relativamente al rapporto tra servizio sociale e persone immigrate, mettendone in luce alcuni temi prevalenti, che vengono approfonditi nel dettaglio, sia dal punto di vista degli utenti, sia da quello dei professionisti. Le considerazioni e le tematiche che emergono in questo capitolo fanno quindi da background al percorso di ricerca che viene presentato all\u2019interno del volume

Reti, Comune, comunit\ue0: le sfide quotidiane del lavoro sociale con i migranti

Il capitolo approfondisce le dimensioni (intese in termini di continuit\ue0) del lavoro di rete e di comunit\ue0 con i migranti attraverso l\u2019analisi delle opinioni e delle rappresentazioni degli assistenti sociali che operano in ambito comunale. Attraverso l\u2019utilizzo di un\u2019intervista sottoposta a 30 professionisti del territorio veneto, la ricerca indaga come avvenga il lavoro di rete con l\u2019utenza straniera, quali siano le potenzialit\ue0, i limiti e le difficolt\ue0 e quali possibilit\ue0 si prospettano per un lavoro di comunit\ue0 in grado di sviluppare processi di reale inclusione. Dai risultati, si evince l\u2019importanza della collaborazione con il terzo settore e la difficolt\ue0 e fragilit\ue0 dell\u2019attuale sistema di welfare che, tuttavia, viene compensato dal ruolo strategico degli assistenti sociali che riescono a mettersi in rete con il territorio e a diventare interlocutori privilegiati nel trovare soluzioni inedite per affrontare la complessit\ue0 del fenomeno migratorio. La dimensione del lavoro di comunit\ue0 emerge chiaramente dai racconti degli intervistati. Se, da un lato, pi\uf9 che una prassi consolidata di intervento, questo approccio sembra essere un modello ideale di lavoro a cui tendere, dall\u2019altro ne viene fortemente riconosciuta la necessit\ue0 per produrre coesione tra le diverse componenti della popolazione