DEVELOPING ISLAMIC-CONTENT BASED READING COMPREHENSION MATERIALS FOR ISLAMIC HIGHER EDUCATION

This study was motivated by the needs for an appropriate reading comprehension material for the students of the English Education Department (EED) in Islamic Higher Education (1)to describe the profile of the present textbooks used by EED in IHE; (2)to describe the quality of the present textbooks used in EED of IHE; (3) to get the deeply information on the needs to design ICRCM;(4) to construct the prototype model of ICRCM; and (5) to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the prototype model. This study has used R&D which was conducted in three phases. The first was the exploration phase which consists of evaluating the quality of present textbooks used in IHE in West Sumatera, and to analyze the needs for the ICRCM textbook. The second was the prototype development phase where the prototype model was constructed, evaluated, and tried out. The last was expert validation in which experts and practitioners were involved to review the model in order to help the refinements. The results of the research indicated that the qualities of the present textbooks were fair. Meanwhile, the result of need analysis pointed out that the lecturers, students, and heads of the EED need the model of ICRBM. In the prototype devel opment phase, the draft of ICRCM was carefully constructed. It was designed using skill-based reading, authentic materials, Islamic-character building, intensive & extensive reading activities, and collaborative learning. Furthermore, the results of field tryout revealed that the students enjoy reading ICRCM in the classroom. They felt that they were motivated to read ICRCM. Finally, the results of experts’ and practitioner’s judgment showed that the reading textbook needs to be revised in terms of mechanical aspect, grammatical points and teacher’s guide. The research findings conclude that the use of ICRCM in the IHE context empirically can improve students’ motivation to read, increase their reading performance, and build their Islamic characters. These findings recommend that ICRCM could be adopted as RC materials in teaching RC at EED of IHE in West Sumatera because it had strong pedagogical justification

Mental Maps in EncycNet: Exploring Global Representation in a Historical, German Knowledge Graph

First popularized by Google in 2012 (Singhal 2012), knowledge graphs (KG) have now become a staple data representation method. KGs can be described as directed graphs, where the nodes (subject and object entities) represent any type of human knowledge. The edge specifies the relationship between subject and object. KGs are increasingly moving into the (digital) humanities. At their core, the humanities facilitate the preservation, dissemination, and analysis of cultural heritage knowledge. In all three aspects, this work is gradually changing towards the digital, such as digital thesauri. The network structure of KGs in particular opens up new possibilities for data aggregation and data analysis in the humanities. For one, KGs are an opportunity to interlink different fields of study through ontologies. They can also be used as additional sources for text preparation, as a new technology to query, aggregate, and analyze data in new ways, or to discover previously unseen relationships (Hawkins 2022, Zhang et al. 2021). In other words, as per Hyvönen (2020), KGs are not only good for data exploration and solving pre-set problems, they can also be employed for “finding research problems in the first place, for addressing them, and even for solving them automatically under the constraints set by the human researcher.” This abstract introduces the first openly published version of the EncycNet KG, a semantic knowledge graph built from historical German encyclopedias, as well as its potential for the digital humanities. In particular, using EncycNet and Wikidata, we analyze how the representation of countries in encyclopedias has changed from the 19th century until today

Going entrepreneurial: the dark side of donors and trade union support to informal workers in Accra, Ghana

This article analyses donor-funded aid programmes to support trade unions’ work in the informal street food sector in Accra, also known as ‘chop bars’. It reviews the programmes that this aid entailed, against the backdrop of socioeconomic stratification in the sector. The article reviews the achievements and blind spots of such initiatives and underlines the disconnect between donors’ aid and the reality on the ground. It argues that this is rooted in the market fundamentalist notion of the informal economy being promoted through such aid, with its focus on small-scale enterprises. The article shows that the supply-side solutions to support chop bar operators, under the broad umbrella of the promotion of entrepreneurship, are unfit to address the structural barriers causing the employment crisis in African cities. The study also stresses the neglect by such programmes of wage workers in chop bars, the most vulnerable category of workers in the industry

Kartu Prakerja Program and Youth Employment: Gender-Specific Outcomes in Indonesia

The Kartu Prakerja Program is a form of the active labor market policy in Indonesia, serving as a significant initiative to enhance competencies and job opportunities, including for vulnerable groups such as the young and female labor force. This study aims to analyze the program’s impact on youth employment, with a focus on gender differences. Using Propensity Score Matching (PSM), the results show a significant positive effect on employment probability, particularly for women. The findings suggest that skills training and financial incentives play a crucial role in enhancing employability. The study recommends expanding program access to vulnerable groups and continuously assessing its effectiveness

ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES (ECOWAS) AND SUB-REGIONAL INTEGRATION IN WEST AFRICA

The formation of ECOWAS was seen as the beginning of a new era in the history of economic cooperation in West Africa. Its overall aim was to promote cooperation and integration, with a view to establishing an economic and monetary union as a means of stimulating economic growth and development in West Africa. However, since the emergence of ECOWAS, the organisation has been saddled with a lot of challenges and intra-subregional crises without much economic and overall integration being achieved. This study assessed the extent to which relations among the countries of the West African sub-region could enhance regional integration in West Africa. This work adopted the integration theory as the theoretical framework of analysis. The significant finding of the work revealed that even though there is ECOWAS as a sub-regional body of West Africa, member states do not engage in maximum cooperation and that there are many resources that remain underutilized due to a lack of close relationships, which in turn hindered the full integration of the sub-region. Other findings are that the implementation of ECOWAS protocol on free movement of people and trade is criminally exploited by cross border criminals in the region thereby affecting member States to fully open up their borders to each other. Again, a whole number of strategies have been put in place for the full implementation of the integration process to include but not limited to; the creation of the West African Monetary Union, as well as the West African Youth Union, the West African Women’s Association and others. The work concluded by recommending, among others, that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) central and coordinating body should be backed by legal or legislative instruments and that would be respected by all member countries with the power to sanction recalcitrant members as well as given the recognition through adoption of formal national measure and given appropriate backing to its establishment and the right to operate and access public assets on resources. By this, member states will comply and participate fully in the integration process.  Article visualizations

Labor market configuration in Santiago del Estero: A descriptive analysis of labor inequalities in the period 2010-2022

El presente trabajo busca describir la configuración de las desigualdades laborales en el mercado de trabajo en la provincia entre 2010 y 2022. Para el análisis, se tienen en cuenta los indicadores básicos del mercado de trabajo (tasas de actividad, empleo, desocupación y subocupación). Además, se detallan los atributos de la demanda de empleo en términos de grandes ramas y calificación de los puestos generados. Finalmente, se caracteriza la fuerza de trabajo, en términos de niveles educativos, calidad de los empleos e ingresos. Para ello, el estudio se basa en el análisis estadístico descriptivo de los microdatos de la Encuesta Permanente de Hogares – Total Urbano del Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INDEC) del tercer trimestre para el período 2010-2022. El mercado de trabajo en la provincia se caracteriza por una fuerte participación del sector agropecuario -fundamentalmente agricultura de subsistencia-, la administración pública y los servicios, con una escasa participación de la industria, lo que genera limitaciones para crear suficiente empleo registrado. Como consecuencia de esto, el exceso de fuerza de trabajo se emplea en condiciones de precariedad y con bajos ingresos.This paper seeks to describe the configuration of labor inequalities in the labor market in the province between 2010 and 2022. For the analysis, the basic labor market indicators (activity, employment, unemployment and underemployment rates) are taken into account. In addition, the attributes of the demand for employment are detailed in terms of major branches and qualification of the jobs generated. Finally, the labor force is characterized in terms of educational levels, job quality and income. For this purpose, the study is based on the descriptive statistical analysis of microdata from the Encuesta Permanente de Hogares – Total Urbano del Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INDEC) of the third quarter for the period 2010-2022. The labor market in the province is characterized by a strong participation of the agricultural sector -mainly subsistence agriculture-, public administration and services, with a low participation of industry, which generates limitations to create enough registered employment. As a consequence, the excess labor force is employed in precarious conditions and with low incomes.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Estimating and Conditional Forecasting Bilateral Migration Flows Between South America and Europe, 1985–2050

South America and Europe have a history of reversals in the directionality of migration. While South America was a major destination for European migrants in the early twentieth century, migration flows have reversed in recent decades, with increasing South American emigration to Europe. However, inconsistencies in bilateral migration data hinder empirical assessments of migration systems between these regions. This study addresses this gap by (1) estimating a complete, comparable, reliable, and consistent time series of bilateral migration flows between South America and Europe from 1985 to 2018 and (2) generating conditional forecasts until 2050. Using a two-level hierarchical Bayesian model, it integrates one-year and five-year transition census data, corrects for undercounting of native-born migrants, adjusts for census approaches and data quality, and incorporates key migration drivers, including demographics, socioeconomic disparities, historical ties, and environmental factors. By producing reliable migration data, this study provides a robust foundation for analyzing the persistence and evolution of migration patterns between South America and Europe across time. It contributes to migration systems theory by integrating theoretical insights with empirical modeling, assessing whether South America–Europe flows form a structured, evolving network, whilst also serving as a valuable reference for analyzing future migration trajectories