Toward Inclusive and Equitable Education for All: Lessons from the experiences of New Zealand refugee background university students

The ability of education to transform individuals' lives, and by extension those of their communities and societies, is well documented. As such, education is at the heart of the United Nations’ (2015) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), represented by SDG 4, “Quality Education”, which seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Tertiary education institutions (TEIs) in particular have been highlighted as critical settings from which SDGs can be better understood and achieved. Although the benefits of tertiary education are well understood, access to, and participation within, TEIs remains unequal for students from marginalized backgrounds, particularly those from refugee backgrounds (RBs). Over the last twenty-five years, research has begun to consider issues relating to access and participation within TEIs for students from refugee backgrounds (SRBs) highlighting numerous barriers that they face. However, very few studies have focused on identifying strengths, capabilities and supports. The experiences of SRBs within the contexts of New Zealand TEIs are vastly understudied. In response to this gap, as well as to the dominance of barrier-focused literature, this thesis considers the experiences of SRBs within New Zealand universities from a strengths-based lens. It seeks to understand what has enhanced the experiences of SRBs, and what can facilitate further positive experiences for them in the future. It answers the primary research question: “What is working well to enhance the experiences of SRBs within New Zealand universities and why?” To answer this question, a transformative research approach using Appreciative Inquiry (AI) methodology was taken. Primary data was generated using semi-structured interviews with sixteen undergraduate and postgraduate SRBs at four different New Zealand universities. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. This analysis identifies several targeted provisions and personal strengths that are working well to enhance the experiences of SRBs within New Zealand universities. Comparing these results with the current landscape of targeted provisioning and policy relating to SRBs in TEIs, I argue that existing and future initiatives could be (re)designed to emphasise: social connections, institutional welcome, staff advocacy, financial provisioning, and the resource of family and community. In addition, this study strongly advocates for the designation of SRBs as an equity group within national level policy, in order to mandate all universities to provide targeted provisioning. Overall, this research provides a New Zealand-specific perspective on the growing body of literature centred on the experiences of SRBs within tertiary education. Its strengths-based AI framework offers a unique understanding of how future practice and policy can be developed around what is working well for students. Additionally, its New Zealand context unsettles traditional understandings of where education and development research and initiatives are conducted and implemented

Using a mini-artificial language to investigate question-formation: Does underlying production pressure affect surface form?

Our general hypothesis is that the sentence planning process influences the kinds of structures languages allow. In particular, the type of wh-question structures in a language will be determined by the challenges involved in planning the structure

State of digital news preservation

Research Team: Edward McCain (Principal Investigator, Digital Curator of Journalism, University of Missouri Libraries, Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute), Neil Mara (Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow, Neil Mara News-Tech Consulting; former McClatchy News Systems Director and Journalist), Kara Van Malssen (Partner and Senior Consultant, AVP Consulting), Dorothy Carner (Head, Journalism Libraries/Adjunct Journalism Professor, University of Missouri Libraries/Missouri School of Journalism), Bernard Reilly (President Emeritus and Senior Advisor, Center for Research Libraries), Kerri Willette (Senior Consultant, AVP Consulting), Sandy Schiefer (Journalism Research and Digital Asset Librarian, University of Missouri Libraries), Joe Askins (Head, Instructional Services, Library Research and Information Services, University of Missouri Libraries), Sarah Buchanan (Assistant Professor, School of Information Science and Learning Technologies)"Are you concerned about the longevity of your news organization's content? Have you lost any content or critical metadata through the constant churn of shifting digital technologies? Can you pull up the original, full-resolution videos and photographs your newsrooms produced for that major breaking news story last year? Can you prove definitively that you own the copyright to the story that went with it? And are you wondering whether you can locate and access the evergreen content you need for that proposed new digital product you're considering on food or travel or sports? If any of these questions worry you, or you wonder about the future of the public record of our communities in the age of massive expansion of digital news channels and sources, there are problems that need to be understood and solved, and steps newsrooms can take to ensure availability, access and control of digital news content and assets. That's the purpose of this report, to provide the results of research into what's happening in today's news media when it comes to preserving irreplaceable digital news content. And to share the best ideas and practices news organizations can adopt to address the common problems that can so easily threaten the digital news content we are creating every day. In an effort to address these questions, a research group from the University of Missouri Libraries and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute launched an 18-month-long project to assess the status of preservation of born-digital news content across the news industry. Supported by a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this report provides the results of that research, conducted through onsite and video conference interviews, including a wealth of information and analysis on a little-known, largely hidden problem that's been developing in the shadow of the news industry's financial crisis and the shift to digital production and publishing. This report includes a User's Guide to finding and understanding what's in each section, followed by a concise Background on how the switch to digital publishing, and the collapse of old business models helped fuel the upheavals that developed into today's preservation problems. A summary of the Methodology used in this research comes next, followed by the report's Findings, Recommendations, Conclusion and Appendices. ..."--Executive Summary."A report on a research project led by faculty and experts at Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute and the University of Missouri Libraries. This project was supported by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation."--Cover.Includes bibliographical references (pages 123-125)

Brain enlargement and increased behavioral and cytokine reactivity in infant monkeys following acute prenatal endotoxemia

Infections and inflammatory conditions during pregnancy can dysregulate neural development and increase the risk for developing autism and schizophrenia. The following research utilized a nonhuman primate model to investigate the potential impact of a mild endotoxemia during pregnancy on brain maturation and behavioral reactivity as well as the infants’ hormone and immune physiology. Nine pregnant female rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were administered nanogram concentrations of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on two consecutive days, six weeks before term, and their offspring were compared to nine control animals. When tested under arousing challenge conditions, infants from the LPS pregnancies were more behaviorally disturbed, including a failure to show a normal attenuation of startle responses on tests of prepulse inhibition. Examination of their brains at one year of age with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed the unexpected finding of a significant 8.8% increase in global white matter volume distributed across many cortical regions compared to controls. More selective changes in regional gray matter volume and cortical thickness were noted in parietal, medial temporal, and frontal areas. While inhibited neural growth has been described previously after prenatal infection and LPS administration at higher doses in rodents, this low dose endotoxemia in the monkey is the first paradigm to produce a neural phenotype associated with augmented gray and white matter growth

Brain white matter integrity and cortisol in older men:the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936

AbstractElevated glucocorticoid (GC) levels are hypothesized to be deleterious to some brain regions, including white matter (WM). Older age is accompanied by increased between-participant variation in GC levels, yet relationships between WM integrity and cortisol levels in older humans are underexplored. Moreover, it is unclear whether GC-WM associations might be general or pathway specific. We analyzed relationships between salivary cortisol (diurnal and reactive) and general measures of brain WM hyperintensity (WMH) volume, fractional anisotropy (gFA), and mean diffusivity (gMD) in 90 males, aged 73 years. Significant associations were predominantly found between cortisol measures and WMHs and gMD but not gFA. Higher cortisol at the start of a mild cognitive stressor was associated with higher WMH and gMD. Higher cortisol at the end was associated with greater WMHs. A constant or increasing cortisol level during cognitive testing was associated with lower gMD. Tract-specific bases of these associations implicated anterior thalamic radiation, uncinate, and arcuate and inferior longitudinal fasciculi. The cognitive sequelae of these relationships, above other covariates, are a priority for future study

Interview with Sarah Willette Padgett Satterwhite

IN PROCESSING Ms. Satterwhite received a B. A. degree in 1945 and discusses student life during the 1940s. Subjects discussed include dorm life, World War II, the AFROTC (Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corp), rules and regulations, uniforms, fire drills, food, clubs, classes, cheating, recreation, the Blue Line, dating, President Phelps, Henry Sims, and the teacher training school.https://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/oralhistoryprogram/1213/thumbnail.jp

People from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds: An open access annotated bibliography (3rd edition)

The third edition of this open access, annotated bibliography has been curated by a collective of scholars who share an interest in the impacts of forced migration on people from refugee, asylum seeking and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) migrant backgrounds. These resources are intended to be shared with the international community of researchers, students, educators and practitioners who work with, or are interested in, forced migration, education, employment and resettlement

Brain enlargement and increased behavioral and cytokine reactivity in infant monkeys following acute prenatal endotoxemia

Infections and inflammatory conditions during pregnancy can dysregulate neural development and increase the risk for developing autism and schizophrenia. The following research utilized a nonhuman primate model to investigate the potential impact of a mild endotoxemia during pregnancy on brain maturation and behavioral reactivity as well as the infants’ hormone and immune physiology. Nine pregnant female rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were administered nanogram concentrations of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on two consecutive days, six weeks before term, and their offspring were compared to nine control animals. When tested under arousing challenge conditions, infants from the LPS pregnancies were more behaviorally disturbed, including a failure to show a normal attenuation of startle responses on tests of prepulse inhibition. Examination of their brains at one year of age with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed the unexpected finding of a significant 8.8% increase in global white matter volume distributed across many cortical regions compared to controls. More selective changes in regional gray matter volume and cortical thickness were noted in parietal, medial temporal, and frontal areas. While inhibited neural growth has been described previously after prenatal infection and LPS administration at higher doses in rodents, this low dose endotoxemia in the monkey is the first paradigm to produce a neural phenotype associated with augmented gray and white matter growth

Developmental care pathway for hospitalised infants with CHD: On behalf of the Cardiac Newborn Neuroprotective Network, a Special Interest Group of the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Collaborative

Infants and children born with CHD are at significant risk for neurodevelopmental delays and abnormalities. Individualised developmental care is widely recognised as best practice to support early neurodevelopment for medically fragile infants born premature or requiring surgical intervention after birth. However, wide variability in clinical practice is consistently demonstrated in units caring for infants with CHD. The Cardiac Newborn Neuroprotective Network, a Special Interest Group of the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Collaborative, formed a working group of experts to create an evidence-based developmental care pathway to guide clinical practice in hospital settings caring for infants with CHD. The clinical pathway, Developmental Care Pathway for Hospitalized Infants with Congenital Heart Disease, includes recommendations for standardised developmental assessment, parent mental health screening, and the implementation of a daily developmental care bundle, which incorporates individualised assessments and interventions tailored to meet the needs of this unique infant population and their families. Hospitals caring for infants with CHD are encouraged to adopt this developmental care pathway and track metrics and outcomes using a quality improvement framework