Editorial: Las religiones en la Educación comparada: el pasado y el presente

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The changing status of vocational higher education in contemporary Japan and South Korea

노트 : Vocational Content in Mass Higher Education? Responses to the Challenges of the Labour Market and the Work-Place. Bonn, 8 -10 September 200

Planting the Landscape

A landscape is an investment of time and money that can be a beautiful, functional, and satisfying living space. Gardeners and landscape managers implementing integrated pest management strategies through good judgment in plant selection, site preparation, and planting practices will reduce insect, disease, and wildlife damage and will help ensure the growth and longevity of the investment. Proper plant selection, site preparation, and planting practices are aspectsof integrated pest management. Continued integration of correct cultural practices is important through proper mulching, watering, fertilizing, and other management practices to reducepests

Living in a Gender-Binary World: Implications for a Revised Model of Consumer Vulnerability

Baker, Gentry, and Rittenburg’s (2005) model of consumer vulnerability outlines the personal, social, and structural characteristics that frame consumers’ experiences of vulnerability in the marketplace. Later applications and enhancements have expanded consumer vulnerability theory. While the theory has been applied in numerous settings, to date it has not been used to examine the ways that gender identity may intersect with market factors to produce vulnerability. Application in this setting also allows for the integration of various model enhancements, and the examination of vulnerability using a more complete formulation of the theory. Based on in-depth qualitative interviews and collages, along with examples from current marketing practice, our research shows consumer vulnerability to be a useful lens for understanding gender variant consumers’ experiences and the ways in which marketing systems can be engaged to reshape those experiences

In the eye of the beholder : an investigation of insider perspectives on the concept of successful aging

This research study is an exploration regarding the concept of successful aging and what it means to older individuals whose voices have commonly been disregarded in research o f this nature. Data were collected from a sample of ten individuals ranging in age from sixty-six to ninety-five years old. With the goal of including the perceptions of those who have been excluded from previous research, the participants comprising the sample all resided in a long term care facility in northwestern Ontario, and all had a low socioeconomic status. In-depth interviews, following a semi-structured interview guide were conducted with each participant in order to gain their views concerning the concept. Each interview was tape-recorded and later fully transcribed. The data gathered was analyzed following an interpretive approach, and was reduced through a series of thematic coding. This research study contributes to the understanding that there is much to be learned from listening to those with lived experience. The findings indicate that according to the accounts of those interviewed, successful aging involves several components which are extremely interconnected. Specifically, the highly interrelated core themes to emerge were: having a sense of personal happiness; mental stimulation; acceptance; and adjustment. Participants also uncovered various facilitating factors which were felt to aid in contributing to the core themes identified, and in turn, to successful aging. In addition to the findings that emerged thematically from the data, an important element regarding the concept surfaced. Ultimately, the significance of personal perspectives was revealed as it was highlighted that successful aging is a personal matter which resides within each individual, and therefore can only ever be subjectively defined

Higher Education and Society: A research report

This report draws on a substantial body of research undertaken by the Open University's Centre for Higher Education Research and Information (CHERI) on the changing relationships between higher education and society. Higher education currently faces many changes, some externally driven by government policies and changing patterns of social and economic demand and some internally driven by changes in the way knowledge is produced and organised within universities and other 'knowledge organisations'. CHERI examines these changes through empirical research which is policy relevant though not policy dictated, frequently international, and broadly focused on the social impacts of higher education. Does higher education make a difference and to whom? In their different ways, the articles in this report seek to provide answers to this important but difficult question