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Higher education is increasingly recognised as being critical to social and economic prosperity. It is also a policy area where the Commonwealth could significantly increase its impact. This could be achieved without major cost, by working through activities already in place, and persuading member governments to make stronger use of these brands and mechanisms. This paper focuses on four key areas selected by the the 19th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (19CCEM) Steering Committee: (1) Costs and access; (2) Links with employment; (3) Securing the next generation of academics; and (4) Student and staff mobility. These were chosen because of their importance, relevance to conference themes, and synergy with existing Commonwealth-related initiatives. In each case, the brief summary of issues is intended to stimulate debate on whether, and how, the Commonwealth could play a greater role. [This paper was prepared for the Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (19CCEM) (19th, Bahamas, Jun 22-26, 2015).]

Utilizing social network analysis, UNESCO international student mobility (ISM) data, and World Bank income classifications, this paper examines patterns of social reproduction in ISM within four established regional education networks from 2008-2012. Findings indicate that the global trend of uneven flows from developing to developed nations is replicated fractally within the Southern African Development Community, the European Higher Education Area, the Union of South American Nations, and University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific. Developed and/or higher income countries play a preeminent role in the regional networks as senders and receivers; whereas, developing (lower income) countries function primarily as source nations. This suggests that elite cultural capital is being centralized through ISM not only globally, but regionally as well.

Constraints of the pandemic and rolling lockdowns eliminated opportunities to gather in person. Yet, for the learning cities movement, this period of coronavirus curtail was also a time of increased networking and creative collaboration. Where once human energies expended in "process work" left little retrievable trace, now artifacts accumulate apace in electronic clouds. What might a little excavation through material collected since the onset of COVID-19 reveal about ways localities and learning city networks mobilized to address the pandemic? For those on the resourced side of the digital divide, openly available content grants access to a gallery of community responses, transnational strategies, and future forecasting. [For the full proceedings, see ED625421.]

Benedict Anderson argues that nationalist ideas in Asia and Africa are modeled on the 'modular' forms of nationalism that developed in the Americas and Europe. This paper argues that anti-colonial nationalism is a field of contestation between different ideas and practices. Some of these were indeed based on selective appropriation of Western practices, whereas some of these rejected such ideas and practices and contended that decolonization or emancipation necessarily entailed rejecting the examples set by Western nations. This paper compares the thoughts of Frantz Fanon and M.K. Gandhi, two of the most influential figures in post-colonial thought in the twentieth century as well as active participants in major anti-colonial struggles, and contends that in spite of contextual and ideological differences between them both rejected the Western models of nationalist politics and emphasized a repudiation of colonialism through political and institutional innovations in similar ways. The three major sections of the paper deals with their respective critiques of colonialism and elite nationalism; the prescribed modes of political practice; and the projects of national reconstruction. The unifying thread in each of these three sections is their common concerns regarding negation of colonialism as well as the cultural alienation of the nationalist elite and the necessity of a radical break with Western models of nationalist politics. The concluding section attempts to understand the reasons why their visions of national independence remains unfulfilled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although gender differences in mathematics are smaller than they have been in the past, prominent voices still attribute these differences to a variety of fixed individual factors, such as genetic characteristics of men and women. We hold the alternative view that these differences can be ultimately attributed to malleable factors. From this vantage, societies could influence gender differences in mathematics by changing students' experiences in school. In this study, we built on prior work suggesting that mathematics anxiety causes lower mathematics scores. In particular, we found that mathematics anxiety entirely explains the gender differences evident in mathematics scores from the 2012 US Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Furthermore, we found that gender moderates the mediating role of mathematics anxiety: math anxiety is more detrimental for male than for female students. Because math anxiety is a malleable individual characteristic, we conclude that gender differences reveal more about gendered societal experiences than they do about innate characteristics of men and women. [For the complete proceedings, see ED629884.]

This paper seeks an answer about the level of awareness of green economics/green jobs as a concept for sustainable growth among the young population in Europe. In order to provide a basis for sustainable growth we take into consideration the essential issues. Green economics is an emerging field of economics combining knowledge from the natural sciences and economy, thus offering unique insights into four areas: climate changes mitigation, businesses, political and moral. The conclusions refer to the future needs for building awareness and creating a solid base for knowledge sharing on sustainable development issues among the young population. In addition, recommendations for inclusive policy dialogue to facilitate such growth are part of the focus as well. The research group targeted 30 people from five European and one African country between 18 to 25 years of age. A method using qualitative research combined with exploratory research has been used for this survey and its analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) is an international, non-profit educational organization. The Association's purpose is to advance the knowledge, theory, and quality of teaching and learning at all levels with information technology. The "EdMedia + Innovate Learning" conference took place in Vienna, Austria July 10-14, 2023. These proceedings include 202 papers, including 7 award papers.

In the current paper we examine the importance of ethics in marketing in Asian, African, and European cultures. We use empirical data showing that there are large ethical differences between cultures and countries and these differences result in differences in income as compared with the cost of living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media coverage of immigration has played an important role in the creation of national imaginary and identity. However, since immigration and asylum policies are increasingly shifting to supranational decision making in the European Union, the issue should also be analyzed from the perspective of Europeanization. What are the old and new ethnic and cultural identities and versions of community that are being constructed in news coverage of African "illegal migration" to Europe? What types of positions are offered for various social agents? This paper aims to make sense of the representations and identities that are being constructed in the Finnish news stories of African migration to Europe. The coverage of a Northernmost European newspaper of a Southernmost event offers an opportunity to analyze discourses of Europeanization and identity constructions of Europe and Africa.Previous research on news of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants stresses frame of illegality. However, a closer textual analysis shows the diversity in news journalism. Illegality is no doubt the most recurrent frame, but the migrants are also framed as victims and as heroes - particularly in reportages made in Africa where the migrants have names and social status compared to the routine news coverage where they are left as "non-persons". Divisions are made firstly between "poor Africa" and "rich Europe". Africa is presented dirty and diseased, and since Europe is imagined as the opposite, it is loaded with good qualities. However, Europe is not understood as one entity, but distinctions are made between the "organized" North and "inefficient" South. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on Eastern European immigrants and their functioning is quite limited. Some research has been conducted on Eastern European (EE) immigrants and their adaptation in the United States. However, there is a lack of information about the Eastern European immigration at a global level. The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the patterns of EE immigration around the world. Since Eastern European's main destination areas for immigration are North America and Western Europe, the focus of the paper is on these two areas. However, immigration patterns to Asia, Africa, Australia and South America are also discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report describes the British Voluntary Service Organization (VSO) training model and its implications for teacher education. VSO posts teachers with experience in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or mainstream education to teacher training posts in countries in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. All volunteers must participate first in a skills training course in England that includes professional teaching, country specific, and health and general briefings. The methodology involves a team of trainers who work with a core belief that to become a trainer you need to experience planning, delivering, and evaluating training events. Initial stages are tutor-planned and tutor-lead, to ensure that all participants are up-to-date on current thinking on core English Language Training (ELT) topics and methodologies. The remainder of the course is negotiated with participants who choose sessions to plan and deliver as a team with the tutors. Courses have been generally well-received by participants. The only negative reaction led to a course maximum limit of 20 participants. Pre-planned and completed timetables for a typical course are appended. (NAV)

The article investigates the theoretical bases of empowerment, appropriation, identity and compares them with empirical analysis of the use of the Internet by groups of women in four different geographical areas: Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. A number of Web sites from these areas were selected to perform a content analysis and compare their use in reference to community service, social action promotion, women's involvement in political practices and forms of interactive communication.

Recent immigration from the Caribbean, Africa and Europe has been overshadowed by immigration from Asia and Latin America, but these newcomers are of particular theoretical importance because they represent the immigrant analogs of the two most disparate and diametrically opposed American racial groups?Black and White Americans. This study employs data from the Current Population Survey (1996-2002) to compare patterns of educational and occupational achievement and mobility among Black and White immigrants. It is found that while the adult children of immigrants, irrespective of race, are doing significantly better than the immigrants themselves, racial disparities do exist. Upward mobility is, on some measures, more pronounced in the White immigrant population. While Black and White immigrants are practically identical in terms of educational attainment, the adult children of White immigrants have completed, on average, more years of education and are significantly more likely to have graduated high school than their Black counterparts. Patterns of occupational mobility seem to favor Black immigrants?particularly second generation Black women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our contribution’s goal is to revisit the notion of social exclusion, attempting to shed light on its theoretical underpinnings and to describe the better known approaches to the subject in the sociological literature. Our analysis has been limited to the sociology of the French-speaking world, highlighting the centrality of the concept in French sociology, its spread to the rest of French-speaking Europe (Belgium and Switzerland in particular), its recurrence in Quebec and, finally, its tentative use in Sub-Saharan French-speaking Africa. The multiple understandings of social exclusion, the variability of conceptualizations suggested for it as well as the widespread use to which it has been put reveal a paradox in the research material. This paradox derives from the contrast between the increasing use of the term in sociology, its appropriation by the politico-administrative discourse and its success in the media on the one hand and its rejection by sociologists who have considered the new challenges of the social question (Castel, Paugam, Taboada-Leonetti, Autès, among others) on the other. Furthermore, use of the term continues to generate much criticism. Despite the severity of the criticism, the notion of social exclusion maintains an "evocative force and a mobilizing capacity" which transferred to politics and the media as well the field of social intervention. All this leads, ultimately, to the question of how useful or fruitful the notion of social exclusion is. In light of the renewed and/or enriched theorization about the notion, it is essential to highlight its processual dimension. Hence, it should be considered as the final phase of a process of social isolation, which has a variety of degrees and facets. Thus conceived, the notion will be better able to reveal, point to and analyze the problems, contradictions, "pathologies" and individual and collective "traumas" to which the "new social question" give rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African migrants to Europe are often portrayed as fleeing poverty, but research has also posited that inequality is a determinant of migration. Using data from the Migration between Africa and Europe (MAFE) study, this paper investigates the extent to which relative deprivation is a motivation for migration between Senegal and Europe. I hypothesize that different stages in the process of cumulative causation of migration are associated with different motivations for migration. I estimate a household-level model that measures both cross-sectional household wealth and relative deprivation, and use instrumental variable techniques to estimate counterfactual household wealth and relative deprivation at an earlier stage in the process of cumulative causation. I find support for the hypothesis that relative deprivation is a potential motivation for migration in a counterfactual world prior to migration, and that migrant households are significantly wealthier than non-migrant households at the observed end point of the process of cumulative causation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) is an international, non-profit educational organization. The Association's purpose is to advance the knowledge, theory, and quality of teaching and learning at all levels with information technology. "EdMedia 2014: World Conference on Educational Multimedia & Technology" took place in Tampere, Finland from June 23-26, 2014. The following award papers were presented at the conference: (1) Designing a Web-Portal Supporting the Social Inclusion of a Specific User Group. A Case Study of the LITERACY-Portal (Dominik Hagelkruys and Renate Motschnig); (2) Using a Game-Based Approach to Design a Rich Media Learning Environment (Min Liu, Jason Rosenblum, Lucas Horton, and Jina Kang); (3) Design and Implementation of Strategies and Artifacts to Support Ubiquitous Computing in and outside the Classroom: A Reflective Case Study (Alan Amory); (4) Using Social Networking to Mentor 9th-grade Girls for Academic Success and Engineering Career Awareness (Patricia Carlson); (5) Case Study of an Online English Language Course That Emphasizes Self-Assessment of Speaking and Writing (Goh Kawai and Akio Ohnishi); (6) Pedagogical Design and Pedagogical Usability of Web-based Learning Environments: Comparative Cultural Implications between Africa and Europe (Adewunmi Ogunbase); (7) Evaluating the Nature Tour Mobile Learning Application (Jenni Rikala); (8) Guiding Students in Collaborative Writing of Wikipedia Articles -- How to Get Beyond the Black Box Practice in Information Literacy Instruction? (Eero Sormunen and Tuulikki Alamettälä); (9) Development of a Gaming Instructional Material and Design Framework for "Exploration Activities" in Science (Hodaka Taguchi and Toshiki Matsuda); (10) Serious Game Gademavo: How to Enhance Students' Ability in Taking Decisions in a Complex World (Anne-Dominique Salamin); and (11) Gaming Motivations and Characteristics of Turkish MMOFPS Players (Muhterem Dindar and Yavuz Akbulut).

The dispersion of contemporary jihadi terrorism is examined as it moves through social and geographical space over time. Implications for world-peace are then discussed. Terrorist events are coded in terms of the institutional sphere of the victim (economy, polity, etc.) and general geographical regions of the world (Africa, N. America, Europe, etc.) and then mapped over time. Terrorism is seen to be spreading both across institutional space and over geographical regions over time. Statistical methods are then employed to determine if the social institutional spread affects the geographic spread or vis-a-versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]