Labor Informality in Latin America and the Caribbean: Patterns and Trends from Household Survey Microdata

This paper documents the main patterns and trends of alternative definitions of labor informality in Latin America and the Caribbean, by exploiting a large database of more than 100 household surveys covering the period 1989-2005. The evidence suggests that there are no signs of a consistent pattern of reduction in labor informality in the region. Regardless of the definition used, labor informality remains a pervasive characteristic of labor markets in LAC. In several countries the increase in labor informality seems to have been associated more to a sizeable increase in the propensity to set informal arrangements within groups, than to changes in the national employment structure toward more informal sectors.Informality, employment,Latinamerican, Caribean,Labor Market

Initial teacher education in the university ‘My little ship, how ill-laden you are’

Initial teacher education programmes in universities must meet the needs of varying constituencies. Politicians, school leaders and academics, for example, understandably seek to influence how these programmes should look. Given the importance of well-qualified teachers for the building of effective schools, it is right that a range of stakeholders should have their say. The Donaldson Report on teacher education in Scotland (2011) has much to say regarding the academic content of teacher education programmes. It offers food for thought for those wedded to the ‘craft’ model of teacher education. Academic rigour and breadth of experience cannot be seen as inimical to the need to ensure that newly qualified teachers are, indeed, ready to teach. The rediscovery of liberal approaches to education studies and the value of the liberal arts can be key components of a reimagined teacher education process

Dynamics of Catholic Education: Letting the Catholic School Be School by Louis DeThomasis

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