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In this article, we report the results of a study through which we collected English language teachers' needs and wants to design an online language assessment course. Through a mixed-methods approach, we asked 20 teachers from four Latin American countries what they wanted to learn in the course. The teachers wanted a course in which they could address the challenges they faced in assessment; discuss and develop new ways to assess; and learn about authentic, valid, and ethical assessment. Therefore, the findings suggest that the teachers wanted a course that mixed theory, practice, and principles of assessment. Additionally, the course should address emerging topics in English language assessment, namely bilingual assessment and the assessment of learners with special educational needs.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the unique lived experiences of international graduate students in light of COVID-19 and the recent sociopolitical climate in the USA (e.g. Black Lives Matter movement, protests against anti-Asian hate crimes and gun violence). Design/methodology/approach: The authors used an exploratory qualitative design embedded within a constructivist/interpretivist paradigm. A total of 31 international health service psychology graduate students completed an online survey, 17 of whom participated in a 60-min one-on-one semi-structured interview. Findings: Participants reported facing a range of difficulties (e.g. travel ban/inability to spend time with family, visa-related concerns, racism, decreased support) during the global pandemic and the recent sociopolitical climate in the USA. A total of 48 themes were identified and organized into six domains: COVID-19-related stress and worry, experiences of racism/discrimination, coping mechanisms, support received, recommendations for programs and higher learning institutions and advice for other international graduate students. Originality/value: The recent sociopolitical climate in the US exacerbated some of the preexisting inequities for international graduate students due to their international student status and the global pandemic. Although few in number, students also spoke about some positive changes as a result of these major historical and political events. Implications for graduate education, clinical practice and policymaking are discussed.

An earlier diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder might lead to an earlier intervention, yet knowledge and awareness of autism spectrum disorder in Latin America and Caribbean Countries are limited. A later autism spectrum disorder diagnosis has been associated with negative consequences, as it might imply later access to services. This study aims to identify factors associated with the age of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis as reported by 2520 caregivers of autistic children from six Latin America and Caribbean Countries. Results indicate that on average, caregivers were concerned about their child's development by 22 months of age; however, the diagnosis was 24 months later. Current age of autistic individuals, better language abilities, and having public health coverage increased the age of diagnosis. On the contrary, the presence of medical comorbidities, severity level, and type of diagnosis decreased the age of diagnosis. The age of diagnosis of autistic individuals in Latin America and Caribbean Countries corresponded to the start of formal schooling despite a much earlier age of first noticed developmental concern, highlighting the need to reduce this age gap and increase children's probability of benefiting from early intervention. Taken together, autism spectrum disorder personal/clinical characteristics and access to health service are the main determinants for the age of diagnosis.

Purpose: This study aims to identify the strategic leadership and change management used to obtain the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditations as well as the research development on AACSB in the past decade. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a systematic literature review following Petticrew and Roberts' study. The articles were limited to empirical studies published from 2013 to 2022, taken from the Dimensions AI database. Findings: The findings suggested that two leadership styles were used to obtain AACSB accreditation: dominance-oriented transformational and financial leadership, alongside three traits of academic leaders: commitment, engagement and encouragement. Additionally, three change management models/processes were found in the articles: teaching evaluation framework, temporary isomorphism and authenticity. Finally, they discovered that the object of the studies on AACSB accreditation had been narrowed down from the organizational level to smaller objects consisting of schools' identity, teaching, learning and business schools' key players. Research limitations/implications: As this study only used Dimensions AI, potential articles related to the topic outside the database could not be obtained. Thus, it limits the scope of the findings of this paper. Practical implications: This study informs academic leaders in business schools about the role of strategic leadership and change management in obtaining AACSB accreditation. Originality/value: Through a systematic scoping review, this study presented a decade of research development on AACSB in addition to the strategic leadership and change management needed to obtain it.

This research article reports the findings of a study that sought to identify the opinion of students on the curricular relevance in elementary and secondary education in institutions located in Colombian and Venezuelan border contexts. The methodological approach is framed within the quantitative-descriptive paradigm. The conclusions of the study show that the relationship between curriculum, pedagogical practice, student, and context, does not exempt the responsibility assumed by the members of the educational community towards education but allows for generating spaces of agreement where the social and economic context is the most significant bulwark to define the sense through which education will be dynamized.

The purpose of the research was to identify the perceptions and attitudes of university students in the main border and receiving city of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia, to validate the tendency registered in several studies and surveys where discriminatory and xenophobic practices were evident. Through an instrument made up of 35 questions and applied to 216 young people between 16 and 28 years of age, it can be concluded that despite the information they receive from the media, university students understand that the decision to migrate was motivated by adverse situations that Venezuelan people face in their country, putting their survival at risk. This opens the possibility of designing and implementing strategies that promote economic integration, but also cultural integration, based on diversity, respect as a value and recognition of the other not only from the media scenario but also from the communicative action itself.

The world is changing, and university education must be able to adapt to it. New technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics are requiring tools such as simulation and process control to develop products and services. Thus, control systems engineering schools are adapting to new educational frameworks tailored to deploy promising and feasible new technologies. Herein, we have relied on computer animation-based education and its implementation as an online project-based strategy to attain the objectives and goals of the control systems engineering courses at University of Los Andes, Venezuela. The ControlAnimation library developed in Mathematica program in 2002 has been used as a tool to teach control systems engineering courses since 2008 and with greater prominence since 2020, when the stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic were enacted. Consequently, computer animation-based education has proven its feasibility as an online tool combined with project-based learning techniques, thus allowing students to interact with an animated control system by changing the mathematical model and the design parameters of control laws in a comfortable and somewhat playful way. This enabled new capabilities to study the dynamic behaviors of primordial control systems online. In addition, it allowed students to co-identify and relate in a more intuitive way to the mathematical models and control equations with the physical behavior of the real control systems.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of Open Educational Resources (OERs) has increased due to its advantages for academic activities and educational quality. Hence, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have sought to develop strategies to promote curricular and extracurricular activities that favor developing disciplinary and transversal competencies such as complex thinking and its meta-competencies: critical, systemic, scientific, and innovative thinking, oriented to favor problem-solving among students and the academic community. The main objective of this study was to analyze how using OERs in virtual education can promote the development of complex thinking as a transversal competency in higher education. We analyzed the content of 65 educational projects in a webinar aimed at promoting the adoption of OERs in the professional practice of the educational community. Each project had to comply with specific requirements, from the project's identification and description to measuring and evaluating the results and its impact and added value. Once all the projects were reviewed, the responses were classified into defined categories for better presentation; the sub-competency of complex thinking promoted by each project element was identified qualitatively. The results highlight how an OER can, through concrete activities, elicit complex thinking and its sub-competencies in higher education. The present study adds new evidence to the literature regarding boosting OERs as a tool to develop competencies aligned with UNESCO recommendations and contribute to fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals in education.

We describe the structure, benefits, and challenges associated with a virtual cultural heritage exchange (VCHE) between undergraduate students in an applied anthropology class and a group of English language learners (ELL). Using qualitative data collection and analysis methods, the project aimed to teach anthropological methods and perspectives to the students while investigating three research questions: Will a VCHE (1) build social bonds and bridges, (2) improve English language acquisition, and (3) raise "heritage consciousness" (awareness and appreciation of, along with an associated sense of agency toward, cultural heritage) among participants? Results support the research questions and show the effectiveness of VCHEs when they are designed to meet the interests and needs of ELL participants and students.

One of several scientific disciplines' significant objectives is to determine the integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the academic setting. This research studies the use of ICTs, especially the Internet, by university students in Hispanic countries. The methodology used is descriptive and quantitative, based on data mining, through a validated and highly reliable instrument. The sample was composed of students from six countries (N = 1893). The results show that the primary interests in using ICTs and the Internet are primarily for consuming social networks, obtaining information, and leisure, above and beyond their use for academic and university purposes. This indicates that there is still a lack of sufficient training for the optimal use of these technologies by higher education students. It is urgent to carry out digital literacy processes that allow them to develop a critical sense in using ICTs, nowadays configured as powerful means of communication. Furthermore, this study has been determined that the Hispanic common space has solid cultural roots and everyday practices that lead to quite similar general interests.

In this paper we analyze the semantic and pragmatic properties of a colloquial interrogative construction attested in European Spanish, which we label invariable "qué" questions (IQQs). In doing so, we contribute to the better understanding of a relatively understudied phenomenon in Spanish, given that IQQs have been mainly approached from a purely syntactic standpoint. We claim that evidentiality and irony play a crucial role in the understanding of IQQs. Because of their special interpretative functions, as well as the fact that they do not appear to have a clear correlate in other languages, we believe IQQs pose a challenge to the second language student, which is why we further offer a step-by-step proposal to introduce IQQs in the Spanish as a second language class.

This sociophonetic study examines affricate variation through a continuous lens using diachronic data from Caracas Spanish. We investigate the relationship between frication and occlusion period duration in affricate segments across two steps. First, we present a phonetic characterization of the dependent variable and its variants. Second, we examine the sociolinguistic profile of the variants in an oral corpus of Caracas Spanish. Correlation analyses between the frication period, occlusion period, and overall segment duration suggest that frication lengthening is most prominent, which may mean that affricate variation in Caracas is not necessarily a lenition process, but rather a lengthening one. Through a mixed-effects linear regression model, we determine that frication duration is significantly conditioned by social and linguistic factors in Caracas. Longer frication periods are predicted by following high vowels, corpus year, speaker sex, and in word-initial position. These results suggest that traditional affricate lenition may in some cases point to a process of lengthening and retiming that is both socially and linguistically stratified. This paper contributes to the field by providing an acoustic examination of variable affricate production as well as a diachronic sociolinguistic investigation of this phenomenon in the Spanish of Caracas, Venezuela.

There is an abundance of scholarship documenting educators' uses of for-profit social media platforms for professional learning, but little is known about how inauthentic accounts affect those experiences. We studied 83 state-sponsored accounts' interactions with the teacher-focused #Edchat hashtag by analyzing their profiles, profiles of accounts they retweeted, and tweets they shared. We found no patterns of overt state interference in #Edchat; however, state-sponsored accounts amplified other inauthentic accounts, such as those focused on commercial, spam, and self-promoting #Edchat messages. Most state accounts used formulaic methods to create relatable account profiles that may go unnoticed by educators using the hashtag. These findings raise questions for educators and researchers about disinformation, anonymity, attention-seeking, and information glut in social media environments polluted by inauthentic amplification.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the impact of the financial aid programme aimed at discounting tuition fees at one of Venezuela's first private universities on early and late student departure, both from the degree programme and the institution, as well as on graduation. The propensity score matching was used by calculating the average treatment effect estimator under parametric and non-parametric methodologies such as nearest neighbours, Kernel, or local linear regression. The results indicate that although there is evidence of the programme exerting a positive impact on early student departure to a greater extent (reductions between 8% and 15%), the impact tends to be considerably less when it comes to reducing late student departure (between 1% and 5%), and it had no impact on graduation.

This paper reflects on the problems faced by refugee students during the COVID-19 pandemic (summer semester 2020) as "calouros," i.e. freshmen during their first year, in a public university in Brazil. Through a content analysis of their personal accounts, collected electronically by their teacher of Portuguese for academic purposes (the first author), we describe how five students (a Syrian, two Haitians, a Venezuelan and a Togolese refugees) (re)visit their experiences, in which several dynamics intersect: being 'calouro', being refugee students, learning the shelter language "in loco," and experiencing social distancing due to the closing of universities. Because learning the language of the host country is not the only factor affected by the pandemic, we also observe how language learning (settings) intersect with other aspects characterising the refugee status: housing conditions, availability of learning materials, and the uncertainty attached to the present and future of their own lives and of other family members.

Through her epistolary correspondence and her novel "Ifigenia" (1924), Teresa de la Parra (1889-1936) questions racial stratification systems reminiscent of colonial times and still present in twentieth-century Venezuela. Parra establishes the malleability of racial categories through a moderate racial discourse that intends to re-classify whiteness as the sole marker of economic wealth. Via its young and naïve protagonist, "Ifigenia" depicts how white elites reluctantly adapted to modernity's significant socioeconomic changes, leaving previous racial stratification systems--and their whitening projects--obsolete. Parra's moderate approach to race has been consistently overlooked by numerous scholars who often focus on "Ifigenia's" feminine discourse. However, Parra's novel thrives in the nuanced juxtaposition between racial purity and "mestizaje" that mirrors the tension between Paris and Caracas as opposing geographical and racial spaces. Parra's nuanced discourse reveals a moderate racial theory that underscores the importance of controlled racial mixing and intends to negotiate between a European ideal of racial purity and a Venezuelan "mestizo" reality at the turn of the twentieth century. Ultimately, her protagonist willingly sacrifices herself for the continuation of a national narrative where modernity has enforced an acceptance of "mestizaje."

Previous studies have suggested the importance of sustainability in all organizations; however, their application to schools as an organization is limited. This study aims to characterize sustainability in primary and secondary catholic schools. The theoretical framework is based on the theories of resources, capabilities and stakeholders because they relate most directly to organizational sustainability. The method consists of three interrelated parts. First, a bibliometric analysis with four clusters was obtained in the first model of understanding (1.0). The second stage consisted of a content analysis, which elicited meanings by screening 2,710 records and deepening 200 research studies with the model (2.0). Then, in the third stage, an exploratory analysis was carried out through interviews with a group of Latin American education experts who manage almost 300,000 students in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, and Chile; the data were analyzed using the text mining technique with discourse analysis. The results validated five categories: Management, Campus Operation, Well-being, Education for Sustainable Development, and Associativity. This study concluded that associativity in these Catholic organizations is fundamental to guaranteeing their sustainability over time and that the wellbeing category implies social and political transformation processes. Therefore, it is proposed for future research to measure these categories and systematize them as a model of sustainability management in the school as a whole and as a strategy for managing sustainability processes in the whole school.

The emergence of the pandemic has led to fundamental social and economic swaps throughout the world, the sponsored measures taken have a significant effect on the mental health of individuals. The objective of the study was to compare the level of depression related to the meaning of life in students in times of pandemic at the Continental University of Peru and the "Rafael María Baralt" National Experimental University of Venezuela. The type of research developed was descriptive correlational with a cross-sectional design. The sample was made up of two groups: the first corresponds to 300 students from Peru and 300 from Venezuela. The Beck Depression Inventory and the Dimensional Sense of Life Scale, standardized version for Latin America, were used as measurement instruments. With the Spearman correlation coefficient it was determined that there is a moderate negative relationship of -0.610, which indicates that there is an inverse correlation in the variables level of depression and sense of life of the students and it was concluded that, among the students university students from both countries, there is a moderate inverse significant correlation between depression and the meaning of life, in the current times of pandemic.

This article describes a factor analytic study designed to identify the underlying dimensions of school-based counseling practice that will be useful in describing cross-national differences in school-based counseling practice and in enabling comparative research on school-based counseling policy and effectiveness. Practicing school-based counselors (N = 2913) from 10 countries (China, Costa Rica, India, Kenya, South Korea, Malta, Nigeria, Turkey, the United States, and Venezuela) used the International Survey of School-Based Counseling Activities (ISSCA) to rate the centrality of 40 activities to the role of a school-based counselor. Factor analysis determined that five dimensions adequately described the school-based counselor role: Counseling Services; Advocacy and Systemic Improvement; Prevention Programs; Administrator Role; and Educational and Career Planning. Analysis of Bartlett Factor Score averages revealed that each country demonstrates a unique profile which reflects that country's dominant mode of practice. This lead article describes these dimensions and the cross-national differences on these dimensions. Subsequent articles in this special issue describe country-specific results and explain factors that affect practice within each country.

This article reports findings from surveys collected from practicing school-based counselors in Venezuela (N = 30) and Costa Rica (N = 107) using the "International Survey of School-Based Counseling Activities" (ISSCA). Analyses identified striking similarities between these two countries and major differences when compared to the other 10 countries within this special issue. The discussion is focused on explaining how school-based counseling policies and educational policies in Venezuela and Costa Rica influenced the development of counseling practices over time.

This study used the five dimensions of practice identified by Carey, Fan, He, and Jin (2020) to describe the preferred mode of practice of US school-based counselors and compare this mode of practice with nine other countries. A total of 380 US school counselors completed the International Survey of School Counselor Activities-United States. Mean item ratings and mean BART scores were used for both descriptions and comparisons. US counselors indicated that Counseling Services; Advocacy and Systemic Improvement; Prevention Programs; and, Educational and Career Planning were all important aspects of their role. In comparison to international counterparts, US counselors placed greater emphasis on Advocacy and Systemic Improvement and Prevention Programs. Results confirmed previous scholarship suggesting that counselors in the US have a very broad role. Any reformulation of this role would benefit from comparative international research on the strengths and limitations of different modes of practice.

This research identifies activities that Maltese School-based Counsellors (MSC) engage in and perceived as appropriate for their role. The article also compared Maltese school-based counselling with counselling in other countries. The results reflect both: (1) the influence of the American and British models of counselling; and (2) the unique cultural context. MSCs evidenced congruence with regard to perceptions of appropriateness and actual activities carried out. However some activities, which they considered as appropriate, were not being carrying out. This may mean either that counsellors' workloads were untenable, or that the job descriptions, remits and boundaries of the psychosocial team in the Maltese model may be limiting practice. Recommendations include reflecting on the Maltese psychosocial system so that students can best benefit from all the teams' professionals, at the same time, allow for flexibility and trans-disciplinary teamwork to reduce fragmentation (e.g., Klein, 2008; Liao, 2016; Vyt, 2015).

The learning process in architecture at Universidad Simon Bolivar is based on confronting students with practical or theoretical situations to let them acquire knowledge about the discipline. The core of this process is on design studio courses, and from the early stages of the program they have to discover for themselves the role of architecture in the creation of spaces. Alongside this design methodology, students are exposed to theoretical, historical, and technical knowledge that aims to complement their skills for their professional future. This paper evaluates the general efficiency of the learning process based on solving problems. The first part describes the application of a problem-based situation in a sustainable urban environment for the Architectural professional. The second part explores similarities and differences among Design Studio Learning(DSL), as it is generally applied, and Problem-Based Learning (PBL). Data about methodology, level of student participation, and results were compared using the syllabus. The comparison between title, competences and objectives shows that these aspects should be addressed differently if using PBL.

The urban design courses of the urban planning career in the Universidad Simón Bolívar (USB, 2017) Caracas-Venezuela, are part of the backbone of workshops (4 of 11) and invite to the study of parts of the city whose problems demand to be resolved, according to traditional teaching methods. Considering this precedent and within the framework of the Citylab project (2015-2018), the Problem Based Learning (PBL) is implemented in Workshop VI, during the last quarter of 2017; and then a questionnaire is given to the participating students to know their opinion on the following points: their role in this process of building knowledge, and their appreciation about both the exchange with local guests-actors and this new methodology. The respondents conclude that in the face of the traditional method, the PBL promoted capacity building for critical analysis, teamwork and consensus building against the city's complex problems

Latin American countries have evolved over the years. Still, after years of military reign, socioeconomicinstability, and civil wars, the region has been known for its anti-hegemonic economic growth (educationalpolicies) strategies. Central and South America's educational system has long been under investigation by researchers both theoretically and empirically. The transition of its education system through the introduction of centralized, liberalized, and populist ideology has sparked many researchers' interest. This paper aims to understand and compare 14 Latin American countries' education orientation. The study uses a matrix table to visualize the qualitative finding.

The objective of this article is to present the good practices in the conception of the redesign of spaces for university education in the Venezuelan context of the Sucre Mission, taking into consideration the historical context in which it takes place. The training of professionals is considered a priority for the development of nations, being desertion or abandonment a latent phenomenon that emerges as a result of dysfunctional economic scenarios or the emergence of exceptional situations. The use of the internet and mobile technology make it possible to mitigate such a situation in a challenge to maintain a quality university education; all of which demands relevant, timely and viable organizational processes.

The COVID-19 global pandemic presented an unprecedented challenge to the sustainability strategies and initiatives of many nations. In many countries, education strategies and funding were negatively impacted and, consequently, especially vulnerable groups were highly affected, amongst them Indigenous communities around the world. As Indigenous communities were already amongst the most vulnerable before 2020, a strategically and well-planned recovery from this pandemic would be vital to secure their well-being. This article offers reflections on the potential of infusing "Education for Sustainable Development" (ESD) in the classroom, the school and the community as a whole, to deal with known and yet unprecedented sustainability challenges in presenting commonalities of 32 good practice reports from 21 countries collected in advance and during the global pandemic. Authors make the point of considering the pandemic and its widespread impact as yet another sustainability challenge and position "ESD" as a potential tool to achieve quality education and unleash the full potential of education for society when planning recovery efforts in hope for a better future of Indigenous communities in the long term. As the good practices were also included in a report of the "UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to the 48th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council," focusing on the post-pandemic recovery efforts for Indigenous Peoples, further thoughts on both official reports and their alignment with the overall "2030 Agenda" from an "ESD" perspective are included.

The delayed acquisition of Spanish "ser" and "estar" is generally understood as rooted in the cognitive demands imposed by the integration of semantic-pragmatic and world-knowledge factors associated with their lexical meanings. Here we ask (1) what is the nature of this language world-knowledge integration? and (2) what is the developmental trajectory including its age distribution? We examine Spanish copula production and comprehension in 142 children (age range: 4-12 years) and 26 adults. Using two tasks, sentence-choice (comprehension) and cued-production (production), we test the hypothesis that "estar" use is constrained by an ability to construe an alternative to the copula predication; an ability that develops with life experience. We test "estar/ser" use in two contexts: alternative-supporting, favoring "estar" use; and alternative-neutral, neutral regarding "estar" use, and possibly favoring "ser" use. The results show that for comprehension, children do not reveal adult-level sensitivity to context, exhibiting instead over-selection of "estar" sentences. For production, all children over-produce the "estar" sentence, even after having just chosen the "ser" counterpart. However, in this task, the 10- to 12-year-olds do behave similarly to adults and differently from 4- to 6-year-olds, consistent with our hypothesis. Alternative construal requires exposure to entities and properties in a variety of situations; exposure that older children are more likely to exhibit. Collectively, these results (1) support the properties of "estar" use hypothesized to underlie the language-world-knowledge integration, and (2) delineate a potential developmental trajectory whereby mastery of the copula may not begin to manifest until 10-12 years of age, not because of any one linguistic factor but rather due to specific world-knowledge exposure constraints.

Linguistic and anthropological research has demonstrated that language ideologies play a complex role in contexts of language endangerment, as well as in revitalization initiatives. In this paper, we articulate some central ways in which these beliefs and interests can translate into significant barriers to successful language revitalization. Based on collaborative ethnographic fieldwork with Indigenous languages in North and South America, we propose a model for planning language ideologies as a practice that can be deliberately incorporated into revitalization efforts. Given the urgency of the situation facing many languages, we argue that treating language ideologies as requiring planning is necessary and offer preliminary suggestions about what this planning could look like by analyzing examples around the language ideology assemblages of language teaching and learning.

The Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS) program is ever-increasingly being promoted in the field of early childhood education. This proposal is articulated with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and UNESCO's Education 2030 Agenda, which understands that children may learn and develop competencies on sustainability, be agents of change, and actively contribute to sustainable development. In this regard, the World Organization for Early Childhood Education has insisted on conceptualizing Education for Sustainable Development from the standpoint of three dimensions: sociocultural, economic, and environmental, with multiple efforts to build indicators that allow one to value the educational environment as a promoter of ECEfS, reflected in the Environmental Rating Scale for Sustainable Development in Early Childhood (Siraj-Blacthford, J., Mogharreban, C. & Park, E. (2016). International research on education for sustainable development in early childhood. Springer, Berlin. Doi:10.1007/978-3-319-422008-4). We, therefore, questioned ourselves regarding its relevance for assessing these types of initiatives to validate the indicators encountered in two Latin American countries. A comparative case study was considered the most appropriate method of analysis from the perspective of an international comparison (García-Garrido, Educación Comparada. Fundamentos y problemas, Dykinson, Madrid, García-Garrido, Educación Comparada. Fundamentos y problemas, Dykinson, 1982), taking into consideration two units of analysis (kindergartens selected in Santiago, Chile, and Caracas, Venezuela). The most relevant results showed that there were no significant differences between the two countries. The analysis yielded scores that placed the work of the kindergartens mostly at level 1 in the economic and sociocultural dimensions, and an incipient level 3 in the environmental dimension, which seems to indicate a transition toward greater sustainability in pedagogical work with children.

Mapoyo, a Carib language of Venezuela with only one native language speaker, is very close to becoming dormant. Recent interest in the revitalisation of the language has led to classes being imparted in the elementary school and to teachers trying to learn the language and to reinforce it in the school. However, in 2013 when there were 3 speakers left, variation within and among them has led to uncertainty among the language learners which in turn has led to diminishing use. I argue, based on observations in the community and interviews with the teachers, that a 'standard language ideology' is putting Mapoyo language revitalisation at risk and that therefore any revitalisation project needs to address ideological domains as well as pragmatic concerns.

Since 2015, Trinidad and Tobago experienced an influx of over 40,000 migrants from Venezuela. Having signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, young migrant children are entitled to education in Trinidad and Tobago. However, they face obstacles accessing schooling and social services [UNICEF EC (UNICEF Eastern Caribbean). 2019. "Making Friendly Spaces for Venezuelan Children." Accessed September 14, 2019. https://www.unicef.org/easterncaribbean/media_39482.html]. Broadly, this conceptual study sought to answer one primary question: What are the key issues Trinidad and Tobago's government must address in order to support young children from Venezuelan migrant families in the early years setting? To answer this, data from policy documents, government releases, peer-reviewed articles and news reports were analysed. Six overarching themes emerged from the literature: policy gaps, fear/xenophobia, resource limitations, familial support, political risks and child rights infringements. Recommendations for overcoming challenges are included.

Violent and aggressive behaviors are social and health problems that have grown exponentially in Latin American countries. During the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation. In response to these problems, the Association for the Development of Comprehensive Education and Communities (Aseinc) has provided education and training programs for teachers and K-6 students in Venezuela since 2009. Through the years, Aseinc identified the urgent need to support their beneficiaries with tools to "fight" violence. Their response was to create and implement a structured program to reduce violence in schools, promoting a culture of peace and non-violence for children and adolescents that would be transferable to their families and communities. As part of this mission, a multidisciplinary team of professionals from Aseinc created Aulas de Paz in 2019. Initially, all concepts were gathered in an activity booklet that provided socio-emotional skills to teachers and students from vulnerable and rural areas. Aulas de Paz evolved into an intersectoral program and, today, its strategies are included in all educational programs carried out by the organization. The goal is to increase the number of teachers, parents, caregivers, and community leaders who are trained with strategies, dynamics, and activities linked to positive personal and social core values.

Between 2007 and 2017, El Sistema -- Venezuela's national system of youth orchestras -- enjoyed a seemingly unexplainable meteoric rise, followed by an equally spectacular sunset. Although it would be easy to dismiss this Sistema decade as being no more than a peculiar aberration of music education history, I assert that El Sistema more accurately represents a poignant return -- or ritornello -- to one of the recurring rationales for music education, namely social activism. By situating this brief but notable decade of Sistema enthusiasm amidst a wider historical context of Venetian Ospedali, British Brass Bands, and American Settlement Music Houses, I highlight and critique the use of social activism as a rationale for music education. Ultimately, I argue that the societal importance claimed by El Sistema and derivative music education initiatives is not tenable, especially in consideration of the unremarkable legacies of similar socio-musical endeavours. I also argue that a stronger socio-musical lens would be advantageous for the field of music education to adopt. Thus, in addition to establishing a centuries-long pattern of socio-musical ritornellos, the purpose of this paper is to use a rise-and-fall dialectic to further explore the complexity of music education and its capacity for directly addressing society's inequities.

Dominant discourses promote El Sistema and Sistema-inspired music education programmes as positively transforming young lives through social inclusion and musical excellence. However, critics have raised concerns that the El Sistema model has little support from objective, evidence-based research. To address this issue, the authors conducted a review of peer-reviewed articles published in English between 2010 and 2020, in order to bring together descriptions and findings of research examining El Sistema and Sistema-inspired programmes. Following a scoping review method, the authors identified 30 relevant articles for detailed review. The reported studies were identified to address programme impacts (including musical growth, academic achievement, cognitive development, and social-emotional development) and programme design (e.g., pedagogical approaches, curricular focus, and programme challenges). Reported research methods included randomised control trials, longitudinal randomised studies, qualitative interview studies, a quasi-experimental pre-post design study, and ethnographic studies. Overall, the results of this scoping review strongly suggest that Sistema-inspired music education programmes have great potential for positively impacting students, particularly in terms of musical and social-emotional development, with less convincing but nevertheless reasonable evidence of increased academic achievement and cognitive development. The authors conclude that realising the potential of El Sistema and Sistema-inspired programming requires context- and student-specific teaching, curricula, and community support.

The global pandemic caused by coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) disrupted both public and private life for many. Concerning medical students, practical teaching and classrooms were substituted with a virtual curriculum. However, how this new academic environment has affected students' health and lifestyles has yet to be studied. In this study, we surveyed 2,776 students from nine different countries about changes in their university curricula and potential alterations in their daily habits, physical health, and psychological status. We found negative changes across all countries studied, in multiple categories. We found that 99% of respondents indicated changes in their instruction delivery system, with 90% stating a transition to online education, and 93% stating a reduction or suspension of their practical activities. On average, students spent 8.7 hours a day in front of a screen, with significant differences among countries. Students reported worsened studying, sleeping, and eating habits with substantial differences in Latin American countries. Finally, the participants frequently expressed onset and increase in both mental and physical health symptoms: backache, asthenopia, irritability, and emotional instability. Altogether, these results suggest a potential risk in the health and academic performance of future doctors if these new academic modalities are maintained.

As texts enact historically situated ways of making knowledge, intertextual analysis through citation patterns can shed some light on a community's epistemologies. The present research seeks a deeper understanding of the theoretical trends, the influences, and the emerging disciplinary configuration of the writing studies community in Latin America. Findings confirm the existence of an extremely diverse theoretical landscape, with a strong influence of English-speaking authors, followed by locals. A network analysis model for co-cited authors reveals two well-differentiated approaches. This kind of analysis constitutes a useful input to further the discussion about disciplinary epistemologies and ideologies of the field in the region.

This study aimed to analyze the student's behaviour in relation to their degree of commitment, participation, and contribution in a MOOC based on a social learning approach. Interaction data was collected on the learning platform and in social networks, both of which were used in the third edition of a social MOOC course. This data was then studied via statistical methods and analysis of social networks. This study assumes that social communities would arise around the course, would remain over time, and that participants would even contribute with new proposals. The findings indicated that social learning communities are built and continue only while the course is open and while the teachers are involved in fostering participation. Although this study is limited, the design criteria of the course, the pedagogical model on which this is supported, and the methods applied for this analysis provide other researchers and educators with clues for better understand the dynamic process of social learning in social MOOCs.

Job uncertainty and ambiguity is a reality in many current societies, therefore, the idea of self-employment has taken a more active role, not only out of necessity, but also because it brings innovation and development to societies. In view of this situation, the following question arises: how can we strengthen the entrepreneurial spirit of our students? This article has the objective to collect theoretical information of the state of the art on entrepreneurship education: what it has been, what it is, and what can it be, in order to present the current condition of the topic, both in the psychological and pedagogical field. To achieve this objective, information from 108 research sources, mainly from scientific articles and books was collected, concluding that, although generally, entrepreneurship education has significantly contributed to the creation of businesses, developing countries, specifically, those in Latin America, still require extra effort to fully implement entrepreneurship topic in the curriculums, particularly because of challenges such as political instability, technology and international competition.

Approximately one million international students were enrolled at U.S. universities in the academic year 2015-2016, and the number has been steadily rising since. Although these students aim to increase intercultural communication skills, international knowledge, and critical thinking skills, some international students experience difficulty participating in class discussion. Several studies have revealed a range of obstacles to full participation in in-class discussions, including language, cultural differences, academic differences, and social isolation. Among these barriers, some studies have identified emotional factors that significantly affect learning. This study was an in-depth exploration of the adverse emotional factors that impede discussion participation. Using a qualitative approach, twenty-three international students at one university were interviewed, and their responses analyzed. Students reported that fear, embarrassment, social isolation, judgment and discrimination were barriers to participation. These findings are discussed in the context of a framework for reducing negative emotional states, employing self-efficacy theory. This framework was applied to the interview results and the author's observation of international students' behavior in dormitories and university offices. These findings suggest a possible intervention approach for educators to help international students express themselves in the classroom.

This study examines recent trends and factors in school dropout at the upper secondary education level across Latin America. The methodology employs repeated cross sections of data to track the life cycle path of cohorts of individuals in 18 countries. A key finding is that while upper secondary enrollment rates increased in the region, dropout has remained persistently high, despite relatively favorable macroeconomic conditions. To explain dropout trends, the study examines the impact of three groups of factors: (i) shifts in the cohort size and socioeconomic composition of the population eligible for entering upper secondary; (b) the macroeconomic environment and labor market opportunities; and (c) the returns to schooling. We show that an important factor in persistently high dropout rates has been the higher numbers of students from poor socioeconomic backgrounds reaching upper secondary. In addition, high returns to education have been a pull factor into schooling, while, especially in countries where the majority of youth dropout prior to upper secondary, the data confirm an apparent substitution effect due to the opportunity cost of forgoing employment opportunities. The findings confirm the growing policy focus on upper secondary across Latin America and suggest implications for the policy agenda.

This qualitative case study seeks to understand and describe, in depth, the different learning processes in which a nine-year old, Venezuelan girl (Victoria) engaged to reaffirm her identity as a language learner and become a legitimate member of a community of practice during the first six months in an Iowa City Elementary School. Data collection included observations in class and at home, field notes, interviews, oral and written artifacts and e-mails. Analysis was made through a constant comparison of the data to reflect on the potential categorizations of the artifacts considering mainly two theoretical constructs: "legitimate peripheral participation" (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and "collaborative relations of power" (Cummins, 1996). Results suggest that students engage more actively in activities, which are designed to construct meaning through social participation. Legitimate participation in school activities helped Victoria improve her English language ability and reaffirm her identity. The speed with which she learned English at school is mainly due to the solid community of practice she had the fortune to participate in and Mrs. Brown's mediation. The more she interacted, the better she performed; and the better she performed, the more she interacted. This research offers alternative ways to understand Victoria's experience as a language learner, the complexity of a second language learning process, and the fundamental role teachers need to perform to mediate in the students' learning to reaffirm their identities. This study represents an exemplary reflection of what we, as classroom teachers, SL/foreign language teachers, should do in our classrooms if we really want to offer students real opportunities to learn the language and help them reaffirm their identity as language learners.