3 research outputs found

    Education aspirations among young people in Peru and their perceptions of barriers to higher education

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    Data from the Young Lives survey in Peru show there is a gap between young people’s aspirations for higher education and their actual chances of accessing university or college. This paper uses qualitative information from Young Lives in order to gain a deeper understanding of young people’s aspirations as well as their views of the main barriers they face. We analyse how aspirations are formed, to what extent they are related to parents’ educational aspirations for their children, and if they are stable or tend to change over time. We find high aspirations among low-income young people and their caregivers and establish that education is highly valued by Peruvian families. Young people’s aspirations are influenced by their caregivers’ educational history and experiences. The longitudinal nature of the data, both quantitative and qualitative, allowed us to identify that young people’s, and particularly caregivers’, educational aspirations changed over time, mainly in response to changes in the family’s socio-economic circumstances. The study also identified several barriers preventing low-income youth in urban and rural areas from realising their educational aspirations. Besides economic and psychological barriers (mainly experienced as lack of family support), the papers points to the existence of additional barriers such as a lack of information available to secondary school students, and their parents, about higher education (what and where to study and how to apply) and the fact that schools do not play an active role in preparing students for a transition to higher education. Based on their findings, the authors discuss some policy recommendations aimed at overcoming those barriers.</p

    Thermal Parameters and Microstructural Development in Directionally Solidified Zn-Rich Zn-Mg Alloys

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    Transient directional solidification experiments have been carried out with Zn-Mg hypoeutectic alloys under an extensive range of cooling rates with a view to analyzing the evolution of microstructure. It is shown that the microstructure is formed by a Zn-rich matrix of different morphologies and competitive eutectic mixtures (Zn-ZnMg and Zn-ZnMg). For 0.3 wt-pct Mg and 0.5 wt-pct Mg alloys, the Zn-rich matrix is shown to be characterized by high-cooling rates plate-like cells (cooling rates >9.5 and 24 K/s, respectively), followed by a granular–dendritic morphological transition for lower cooling rates. In contrast, a directionally solidified Zn1.2 wt-pct Mg alloy casting is shown to have the Zn-rich matrix formed only by dendritic equiaxed grains. Experimental growth laws are proposed relating the plate-like cellular interphase, the secondary dendritic arm spacing, and the eutectic interphase spacings to solidification thermal parameters, i.e., cooling rate and growth rate. The experimental law for the growth of secondary dendritic spacings under unsteady-state solidifications is also shown to encompass results of hypoeutectic Zn-Mg alloys subjected to steady-state Bridgman growth.The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by FAPESP-São Paulo Research Foundation, Brazil (Grants 2012/08494-0, 2013/15478-3, 2013/25452-1, 2013/23396-7, 2014/50502-5), CNPq-The Brazilian Research Council, and CSIC-Spanish National Research Council (Project i-link0944).Peer Reviewe
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