The geopolitics of South African cities: States, citizens, territory

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented July 1991This paper addresses two problems within the analysis of South African society. The one, that of the nature of the state, has been the focus of a great deal of intellectual activity. The other, the spatiality of South African society, is more remarkable for its absence from published work: an absence which the intensely geographical nature of our society calls upon us urgently to redress. These two problems - the state and space - are, I will argue, very much inter-related, both in the history of South Africa, and more generally at a theoretical or analytical level

Strong [O III] Objects Among SDSS Broad-Line Active Galaxies

We present the results of a spectral principal component analysis on 9046 broad-line AGN from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We examine correlations between spectral regions within various eigenspectra (e.g., between Fe II strength and H$\beta$ width) and confirm that the same trends are apparent in spectral measurements, as validation of our technique. Because we found that our sample had a large range in the equivalent width of [O III] $\lambda$5007, we divided the data into three subsets based on [O III] strength. Of these, only in the sample with the weakest equivalent width of [O III] were we able to recover the known correlation between [O III] strength and full width at half maximum of H$\beta$ and their anticorrelation with Fe II strength. At the low luminosities considered here ($L_{5100 \AA}$ of $10^{42}-10^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$), interpretation of the principal components is considerably complicated particularly because of the wide range in [O III] equivalent width. We speculate that variations in covering factor are responsible for this wide range in [O III] strength.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures, published in Ap

Die-by Framing both Lengthens and Shortens Life: Further Evidence on Constructed Beliefs in Life Expectancy

Decisions regarding consumption over the lifespan require some estimate of how long that lifespan is likely to be. Payne et al. (2013) found that respondents' estimates of their own life expectancy are on average 8.6 years shorter when elicited using a die-by frame than when elicited by a live-to frame. If decision makers act on these life expectancies, then an arbitrary detail of framing will lead to drastically different choices. We propose that the framing effect is sensitive to the iterative probabilistic elicitation procedure employed by the previous literature. Study 1 compares the framing effect across the iterative probabilistic procedure and a point estimate procedure that simply asks respondents the age they will live to/die by. The iterative probabilistic procedure implies a life expectancy six years shorter in the die-by frame than in the live-to frame, replicating the results of Payne et al. (2013). With the point estimate procedure, however, the framing effect reverses: the die-by frame increases life expectancy by three years. In Study 2, we test for the framing effect using a point estimate procedure on a representative sample of 2000 Britons. Again, and in contrast with the previous literature, we find that the die-by frame implies longer life. Our results reinforce the previous literature that beliefs around life expectancy are constructed. We recommend caution when attempting to debias life expectancy estimates or using life expectancies in choice architecture

Millions Learning: Scaling Up Quality Education In Developing Countries

An estimated "100-year gap" persists between education levels in developed and developing countries, and if business proceeds as usual in the education sector, this gap is not projected to close. Today, 250 million children around the globe--many of them having spent at least four years of school in a developing country--lack the most basic literacy and numeracy skills. Additionally, countries around the world are struggling to help young people develop 21st-century skills, such as critical thinking and collaborative problem solving, which are increasingly demanded by the labor market. "Millions Learning" tells the story of where and how quality education has scaled in the developing world. The story emerges from wide-ranging research on scaling and learning, including 14 in-depth case studies, from Brazil and Honduras, to Uganda and Zambia, to Jordan and India.What we found is that from the slums of New Delhi to the rainforest in Brazil, transformational change in children's learning is happening at large scale in many places around the world. We found that successful scaling of quality learning often occurs when new approaches and ideas are allowed to develop and grow on the margins and then spread to reach many more children and youth. What constitutes the margins varies on a case-by-case basis. For some, it means a flexible central government giving freedom to its officials within a district to try a new approach. For others, it involves a community movement that develops new ways of reaching marginalized children whose educational options are limited.Scaling from the margins occurs in two main ways: idea adoption, namely the spread of new approaches across an education ecosystem, and delivery innovation, the development of new ways to deliver education to marginalized children and youth. With the former, effective new approaches to improving components of the teaching and learning process--from curriculum, to materials, to teacher development--have spread across education ecosystems and been adopted by different actors. With the latter, new education delivery approaches for the most marginalized communities--such as distance learning models or alternative education programs--have developed and grown within and across countries. We identified 14 core ingredients, in different combinations depending on the context, contribute to scaling quality learning. Each of these ingredients is central for scaling effective approaches that improve learning. Their importance is frequently reinforced from evidence in the broader scaling literature. They include essential elements for designing, delivering, financing, and enabling scaling of quality education

The Effects of Engineering Summer Camps on Middle and High School Students’ Engineering Interest and Identity Formation: A Multi-methods Study

This multi-methods study explores changes in engineering interest and identity of middle and high school students (n = 79) attending introductory-level engineering summer camps at a large western land grant university. Middle school is a critical time when student interest, identity, and subsequently career choice begin to emerge and hence it is important that at this age students are given accurate information about engineering majors in college and future career opportunities in engineering. Data were collected over a period of two years in six summer camps. Three separate populations of middle and high school students participated in the summer camps: (a) Young Women in Engineering camp, (b) First Generation Engineering camp, and (c) Open Enrollment Engineering camp. The study adds to the body of knowledge regarding involvement in informal engineering experiences and the effect on engineering interest and identity for this age group. Pre- and post-surveys as well as focus group interviews indicated a positive change in engineering identity and a strong increase in interest in pursuing engineering majors in college and engineering careers. Four themes emerged from the qualitative data, namely future self as an engineering major and/or engineering professional, enjoyment of camp activities and engineering interest, perceptions and knowledge of engineering, and increase in engineering identity as a result of camp participation in well-structured and purposefully designed activities. Changes implemented in summer camp design based on these themes are discussed

Integrating the Demographic and Health Surveys, IPUMS-I, and TerraPopulus to Explore Mortality and Health Outcomes at the District Level in Ghana, Malawi, and Tanzania

In this paper, we first show how the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) can be integrated with other data sources to expand the types of variables available for analysis of population and health outcomes. Second, we demonstrate one particular example of such integration by modelling the social, physical, and built environment determinants of health outcomes at the district level in Ghana, Malawi, and Tanzania.  To do so, we created district-level measures of a number of variables from the DHS, and then merged them with district-level data from the IPUMS, an environmental data set called TerraPopulus, and other sources.  We find that it is feasible to combine the DHS with other data sources, and that many health and environment indicators are heterogeneous within countries, justifying further analysis at low levels of geography and suggesting benefits to using such techniques to design fine-grained programmatic interventions

Scaling impact in education for transformative change: Practical recommendations from the Real-Time Scaling Labs

Transforming education systems is a complex process that requires understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the educational ecosystem and exploring new approaches, ideas, and initiatives to improve quality learning opportunities for children and youth. However, research shows it is not enough to simply identify effective education initiatives and expand them to more people. It takes a combination of technical expertise, understanding of local contexts, political strategy, collaborative partnership, flexible adaptation, and shared vision to scale and sustain the impact of education initiatives. Scaling cannot occur through one actor alone; it requires concerted and collaborative action by multiple actors at all levels of the education system.Too often, the work of scaling is not captured by typical monitoring and evaluation or research studies and lessons learned are not systematically documented. In response, in 2018 the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings launched a series of Real-time Scaling Labs (RTSLs) to generate more evidence and provide practical recommendations on how to expand, deepen, and sustain the impact of education initiatives leading to transformative change in education systems, especially for the most disadvantaged children and youth.The purpose of this report is to look across all six of the RTSL cases to analyze common themes, insights, and lessons learned about the process of scaling as well as interesting divergences, and to offer considerations for others looking to learn from or build on this work. This report is intended for governments, education implementers, donors, and researchers who are interested in collaborative approaches to scaling impact in education

Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial-SAT : replanteando la educación secundaria rural en América Latina

Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial, también conocido como el SAT (desde los finales de 1970 hasta el presente), fue diseñado por una organización no gubernamental colombiana llamada Fundación para la Aplicación y Enseñanza de las Ciencias, FUNDAEC, que proporciona educación secundaria alternativa y completa para la juventud rural; esta integra la teoría y la práctica pertinentes para que pueda seguir trabajando en sus actividades agrícolas y otros medios de vida. Los tutores capacitados del programa utilizan una metodología de “aprender haciendo”; por ejemplo las matemáticas y la ciencia se aprenden en el contexto de la innovación agrícola, a fin de promover la educación rural y el desarrollo comunitario en las comunidades marginadas. El SAT se basa en los principios bahá’ís, y se hace hincapié en la participación ciudadana, la justicia social y el empoderamiento de la mujer. Además de las habilidades académicas, el SAT está acreditado y es reconocido por los gobiernos de Colombia y Honduras, lo que permite que los graduados puedan asistir a la universidad, o conseguir un empleo que requiera un título de educación secundaria. Puntaje en los exámenes: Los niños de los pueblos y aldeas en los que se implementó el SAT en Honduras obtuvieron resultados 45 por ciento mejores que los niños de las escuelas públicas rurales de la zona. Resultados del aprendizaje social: Los estudios cualitativos sugieren que los estudiantes SAT en Honduras mostraban un mayor sentido de responsabilidad social hacia sus comunidades, y que las estudiantes mujeres tenían mejores niveles de empoderamiento (definidos por su capacidad de auto-determinación y su habilidad para tomar decisiones estratégicas en la vida). Expansión: El modelo SAT se ha exportado con diversos grados de éxito a diferentes países de América Latina. En África, el sudeste de Asia y la región del Pacífico, el SAT ha sido adaptado para un programa hermano llamado Preparación para la Acción Social, conocido como PAS. Desarrollo rural: Mediante la contratación de tutores de las comunidades locales, el SAT contribuye a la creación de empleo; los proyectos de aprendizaje aplicado ayudan a mejorar el bienestar de las comunidades

Health promotion in an Australian Aboriginal community: the Growing Strong Brains ® toolkit

AIM: The aim of this paper is to describe the implementation and evaluation of the Growing Strong Brains® (GSB) toolkit in a remote Aboriginal community in Western Australia (WA) over a 2-year period, 2018-2019. BACKGROUND: Ngala, a community service organisation in WA, developed the GSB toolkit in 2014, a culturally appropriate and interactive resource to build knowledge of early childhood development within Aboriginal communities. This was in response to evidence that a higher percentage of children in Aboriginal communities were developmentally vulnerable compared to the rest of the population. The GSB toolkit promotes awareness and understanding of early brain development pre-birth and in the early years of a child\u27s life. METHODS: The project was underpinned by participatory action research (PAR). Reflective PAR review cycles (n = 5) monitored local community engagement, navigated challenges and utilised community strengths. Fifty-nine local service providers attended a 2-day formal training. Data were collected by using various methods throughout the project, including feedback following training, focus groups, surveys, one-on-one interviews using yarning techniques and reflective feedback from the Project Lead. FINDINGS: Establishing local Aboriginal project staff was pivotal to the success of the project. When delivering services for and with Aboriginal people, it is essential that cultural competence, safety and decision-making is carried through from planning to implementation and evaluation, and involves genuine, respectful and authentic relationships. Sufficient time allocation directed towards building relationships with other service providers and local community members needs to be considered and built into future projects.The Growing Strong Brains® project is embedded within the local community, and anticipated implementation outcomes were achieved. The support of the local people and service providers was beyond expectation, enabling the building of local capacity, and the development of a common understanding of the key messages from the GSB toolkit to allow integration throughout all levels of the community. This project has been important to build on the strategies necessary to introduce, implement and evaluate the GSB toolkit in other remote Aboriginal communities