Swimming for Life: The Emergency of Teaching Black Children to Swim

The purpose of this article was to provide relevant discussions and data related to the urgency of teaching Black and other minority children to swim. The findings in this report indicated that Black children tend to have a higher drowning rate when compared to other groups. Also, as high as 64 percent of Black children suffer from extreme fear when confronted with discussions pertaining to swimming. Researchers sometimes perceive this as a cultural issue manifested by parents who never learned to swim themselves. Our findings indicated that Black children have a six times likelihood for unintentional drowning when compared to their white counterparts. Among the reasons for low swimming priorities among Black children, included lack of facilities, affordability, fear of water, and hair concerns.

“Squeeze and Lift”: A Design Ethnography of Learning and Teaching Pelvic Floor Exercises

<p>Pelvic floor exercises are an important practice in the prevention and resolution of pelvic floor disorder. However, pelvic floor exercises are often not practiced regularly or correctly which puts women at high risk of experiencing pelvic floor disorder symptoms. These symptoms are debilitating in terms of physical and mental health, and when ignored can worsen over time. In particular, pregnant and postnatal women are at the most risk of this disorder and still do not practice the exercises as required. This study identifies the lack of correct and regular exercises being practiced as a complex social and cultural issue which is best explored with ethnographic design research. The use of semi structured interviews, narrative analysis and informational probes enabled an open ended exploration of pregnant and postnatal women‟s experiences with learning and practicing pelvic floor exercises. Health professionals experience with teaching pelvic floor exercises has also been explored and findings have shown that to assist regular and correct exercise there is a need for professional diagnosis and guidance, suitable to each women‟s health, lifestyle, and way of learning. Themes in the findings included; Safety and Professional Support, Teaching PFX with Metaphor, Integrating PFX into Daily Life and Device Concerns and Feedback. Design recommendations which correspond to each of these themes were formed. Discussion of these findings using background literature also gave crucial context to this study, underscoring overarching key themes of education and empowerment which future pelvic floor exercise designs should embrace. Finally, this study addresses the strengths and weaknesses of an ethnographic design research approach in informing the development of future designs and systems for healthcare, and opens spaces for future work.</p>

“Squeeze and Lift”: A Design Ethnography of Learning and Teaching Pelvic Floor Exercises

<p>Pelvic floor exercises are an important practice in the prevention and resolution of pelvic floor disorder. However, pelvic floor exercises are often not practiced regularly or correctly which puts women at high risk of experiencing pelvic floor disorder symptoms. These symptoms are debilitating in terms of physical and mental health, and when ignored can worsen over time. In particular, pregnant and postnatal women are at the most risk of this disorder and still do not practice the exercises as required. This study identifies the lack of correct and regular exercises being practiced as a complex social and cultural issue which is best explored with ethnographic design research. The use of semi structured interviews, narrative analysis and informational probes enabled an open ended exploration of pregnant and postnatal women‟s experiences with learning and practicing pelvic floor exercises. Health professionals experience with teaching pelvic floor exercises has also been explored and findings have shown that to assist regular and correct exercise there is a need for professional diagnosis and guidance, suitable to each women‟s health, lifestyle, and way of learning. Themes in the findings included; Safety and Professional Support, Teaching PFX with Metaphor, Integrating PFX into Daily Life and Device Concerns and Feedback. Design recommendations which correspond to each of these themes were formed. Discussion of these findings using background literature also gave crucial context to this study, underscoring overarching key themes of education and empowerment which future pelvic floor exercise designs should embrace. Finally, this study addresses the strengths and weaknesses of an ethnographic design research approach in informing the development of future designs and systems for healthcare, and opens spaces for future work.</p>

Unholy Matrimony: Forced Marriage in New Zealand

<p>This study explores the issue of forced and underage marriage in Aotearoa New Zealand. It documents the stories of survivors of actual and threatened forced marriage. It also records the survivors‟ analyses of their experiences and their recommendations for changes that may deter the practice in New Zealand. This study postulates that forced marriage is not a cultural issue per se, but a form of violence against women, shaped by socio-political forces and practised by some. It examines notions of „honour‟ and „shame‟ which are often inextricably linked to the issue of forced marriage. The study goes on to provide an overview of genderbased violence in Asia, Africa and the Middle East as well as diaspora communities internationally and in New Zealand. This research study is heavily influenced by GAD thought and by various epistemologies including postcolonial feminism, subaltern studies and participatory action research. As such, it emphasises self-reflexivity and focuses on „gender relations‟ than „women‟ as the category of analysis. The views and potential contributions of eleven stakeholder agency participants in terms of addressing the issue of forced marriage are also included in this study. The study also examines relevant existing New Zealand legislation in light of the country‟s international obligations regarding marriage. Specific recommendations on both social and legislative reforms are provided in an attempt to promote a collaborative, multi-sector response to address the issue from the perspectives of both intervention and prevention. In conclusion, this study, which is the first of its kind in New Zealand, hopes to shed light on an issue that is a human rights violation. It aims to promote action to deter the practice and to progress the rights of ethnic minority women in New Zealand without fuelling an anti-minority discourse. Finally, it attempts to fill a number of knowledge gaps in academic, policy and legislative literatures.</p>

Unholy Matrimony: Forced Marriage in New Zealand

<p>This study explores the issue of forced and underage marriage in Aotearoa New Zealand. It documents the stories of survivors of actual and threatened forced marriage. It also records the survivors‟ analyses of their experiences and their recommendations for changes that may deter the practice in New Zealand. This study postulates that forced marriage is not a cultural issue per se, but a form of violence against women, shaped by socio-political forces and practised by some. It examines notions of „honour‟ and „shame‟ which are often inextricably linked to the issue of forced marriage. The study goes on to provide an overview of genderbased violence in Asia, Africa and the Middle East as well as diaspora communities internationally and in New Zealand. This research study is heavily influenced by GAD thought and by various epistemologies including postcolonial feminism, subaltern studies and participatory action research. As such, it emphasises self-reflexivity and focuses on „gender relations‟ than „women‟ as the category of analysis. The views and potential contributions of eleven stakeholder agency participants in terms of addressing the issue of forced marriage are also included in this study. The study also examines relevant existing New Zealand legislation in light of the country‟s international obligations regarding marriage. Specific recommendations on both social and legislative reforms are provided in an attempt to promote a collaborative, multi-sector response to address the issue from the perspectives of both intervention and prevention. In conclusion, this study, which is the first of its kind in New Zealand, hopes to shed light on an issue that is a human rights violation. It aims to promote action to deter the practice and to progress the rights of ethnic minority women in New Zealand without fuelling an anti-minority discourse. Finally, it attempts to fill a number of knowledge gaps in academic, policy and legislative literatures.</p>

Determinants of Crime Against Women in India: A Spatial Panel Data Regression Analysis

Gender discrimination has been an important socio-economic and cultural issue in Indian backdrop; though India is one of the fastest-growing nations in the world but she has ranked 108th (out of 144 countries) in 2016 on the global gender gap index. In order to explore the determinants of crimes (such as dowry death, rape, molestation and torture) in India, we consider 24 states and five time points (over 1995–2015). Rank correlation over time clearly suggests that states exhibiting higher incidence of molestation experience higher incidence of rape; we get similar results in case of torture and dowry death as well. We employ both global and local Moran’s indices for dowry death, which has the least reporting bias, and observe that space as well as neighbourhood effect does matter; on the contrary, we find that other types of crimes vary randomly. Specifically, spatial panel regression results on dowry death clearly show that space along with neighbourhood effect does matter towards variations of dowry death; only two variables namely female work force participation and police station significantly reduce the incidence of dowry death.

Social Capital of Farmers in the Rural Communities of Vojvodina

Summary The development of rural areas is a complex social, economic, political and cultural issue of immense importance to the development of society as a whole. The vitality of rural communities, which represent a specific socio-spatial phenomenon, affects the development of global society and is inextricably linked to the development and issues of urban areas of each society. Both in theory and development practice, rural development as a complex and enduring process has long been unjustifiably reduced to the economic-agrarian matrix, often reflected in the modernization of agriculture and the centralized and sectoral management of and influence on rural development. The primary focus of this paper is on the social capital of rural communities, i.e. social relations and connections within local rural communities which, alongside other important development factors, are one of the prerequisites to maintaining their vitality. The paper presents the results of a survey on social capital conducted on 281 farms in the region of Vojvodina (Serbia), indicating the characteristics of the social capital on the farms considered and the farmers’ attitudes towards the development and life of their local communities. The social capital of the surveyed farmers was found to be only relatively good, suggesting that the overall social capital in Serbia is underdeveloped because all the farms considered are located in Vojvodina, i.e. the most developed agricultural area in Serbia characterized by rural settlements with the most favorable infrastructural, demographic and economic conditions.

Online Learning and Quality Practice With Administrative Support and Collaboration

Higher education institutions must innovate and develop new modes of learning, both formal and informal, that meet the demands of the knowledge-driven economy. There is a growing demand for education and a push for non-traditional ways of delivering knowledge and learning. This chapter begins by identifying the technological changes that are affecting all societies and how these changes will specifically impact postsecondary education. The topic of course delivery is viewed as a cultural issue that permeates processes from the design of an online course to the evaluation of an online course. This chapter will examine and review key components of and tools for designing high impact online courses that support student learning and provide suggestions for faculty teaching online courses to assist in creating high-quality online courses that support teaching and, consequently, facilitate opportunities for student learning.

Eén bril, vele visies?

One outlook, many perspectives? Diversity in Flemish news media and the perception of the audience A diverse range of actors and viewpoints can safeguard the quality of news reporting and the distribution of attention to different sides to a story. In this study, we look at the differences in content diversity between the news coverage on two (one socio-economic and one socio-cultural) cases in the Flemish news environment and how these differences translate into perceptions of diversity and bias with the audience. Despite limited differences in content diversity, we find that news items on the sociocultural and socio-economic case highlight different actors. Moreover, news items on the socio-cultural case are more neutral, while the coverage on the socio-economic issue contains more (balanced) viewpoints. These differences in content are largely translated into differences in perception. However, we find that a slight bias in perception of tone in the coverage on the socio-cultural issue is due to personal characteristics and issue-relevant attitudes.