IASSIST gone glocal

Welcome to the special double issue of IASSIST Quarterly 2021 (IQ vol. 45(3-4) 2021). IASSIST is an acronym. You may think that the word is the contraction of the two words 'I assist'. In my mind, you are right! Whether the word IASSIST or the long explanation of seven words came first is the problem of the chicken and the egg. However, it is undisputed that when it is spelled out, the first I in IASSIST is for International. That has been so from its founding in 1974. Having IASSIST members in USA, Canada, and some (west) European countries was for a long time what we myopic westerners considered to be international. It is with great pleasure that IASSIST Quarterly now presents a double issue from a regional workshop in Africa. Even in 2021, it is only a small number of IASSIST's members who are from regions not part of the western world. However, having a special issue from the African region is an important contribution to making IASSIST truly international. The phrase 'think globally, act locally' is a good framing of the compressed word 'glocal'. This special issue was compiled by guest editors Winny Nekesa Akullo and Robert Stalone Buwule, and they were also behind the Africa Regional Workshop that took place at Makerere University (Kampala, Uganda) on January 11 to 13, 2021. Winny Nekesa Akullo works as Head, Library and Documentation Centre at Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority in Uganda, and is the IASSIST Africa Regional Secretary. Robert Stalone Buwule is Senior Assistant Librarian at Kyambogo University, also in Uganda. The themes of the workshop addressed a world issue: 'Data Literacy as a catalyst for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)'. Thus, global problems were addressed from a local viewpoint. Great thanks to Winny and Robert for their lead in the arrangement of the workshop and extra thanks to them for collecting, editing, and making the papers of the regional workshop available to us all, and for making the regional international and the local global. Enjoy the reading! Karsten Boye Rasmussen - December 2021

Research Dialogue 1: Endangered and underrepresented languages

Research dialogue between Prof. Geoffrey Khan, Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge and Fridah Katushemererwe, Makerere University, Uganda, chaired by Ioanna Sitaridou, Professor of Spanish and Historical Linguistics, University of Cambridge.

Influence of Fieldwork on the Preparedness of Food Technology and Bioengineering students for the Job Market: A Case study of EAPI Student Skills Enhancement Program

This study aimed at evaluating the influence of fieldwork on the professional and personal skills among Food Technology and Bioengineering (FTB) students of Makerere University. The data was obtained from 40 respondents from three FTB programs (Food Science and Technology, Human Nutrition, and Agricultural Engineering). A semi-structured electronic questionnaire was used to collect the data. The questionnaire comprised of Part 1: Student biography, Part II: Participation in the EAPI student skills enhancement program, Part III: Professional skills, and Part IV: Personal growth. Part I and II consisted of closed-ended questions while Part III and Part IV were evaluated on a 5-point Likert scale (1- Strongly disagree and 5 – Strongly Agree). Descriptive analysis was used to evaluate the student demographic information and participation in the student enhancement program. The reliability of the Likert scale for professional development and personal growth was determined using the Cronbach’s alpha index. The study results indicated that 60% (n=40) of the respondents better understood their career goals through fieldwork, 83% (n=40) increased their skills and knowledge in performing particular tasks, 55% (n=40) changed their attitude and feelings about self and others, while 75% (n=40) had the opportunity to apply theoretical concepts to the actual work environment. Fieldwork stimulated the FTB students’ interest in the field of food processing, mindset change especially concerning job creation, conduct, and prospects. The study findings explain the need to adjust the mode of knowledge delivery and dispensation at the Higher Education Institutions to reduce the rate of unemployment and improve the employability of students.

Addressing women’s construction health and safety needs in Africa

Concerns have been raised in Africa to address women’s construction health and safety needs adequately. These concerns include less participation of women in the sector, low income and less benefits being given to women, lack of adequate protective construction clothing suited for women, unfavourable employment conditions for women, and lack of construction site security and other facilities for women. This research article provides an overview of the suggested solutions to address the concerns raised. In addition, practical interventions being implemented by the Durban University of Technology and Makerere University research collaboration project team to address women’s needs in construction health and safety through women empowerment and involvement in construction research, education and practice in Africa are outlined. The main approaches applied in this research study are as follows: use of relevant publications on women’s construction health and safety needs in Africa and analysis of data obtained from reliable construction professional bodies in South Africa and Uganda to demonstrate gender imbalances.Contribution: The main contribution of this study was to emphasise the significance of including and involving women in construction research, education and practice as a major solution to address women’s health and safety needs in Africa in the future as women are in a much better position to understand their own needs than men.

Towards enhancing creativity in university settings: does hope of academic knowledge workers matter?

PurposeAlthough a burgeoning body of literature has established the influence of hope and employee creativity, the debate on the relative importance of hope and its components of pathway and agency on its outcomes has not been clarified. Literature has it that hope and its individual components of pathway and agency have a varying magnitude of influence on its outcomes. Some scholars argue that agency and pathway components better predict its outcomes than overall hope. The current study establishes the relative importance of hope and its components on creativity using evidence from Makerere University, Uganda.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a cross-sectional quantitative survey design to collect data from the academic staff of Makerere University. The study used usefulness analysis to establish the relative importance of the predictor variables on the dependent variable.FindingsThe study findings revealed that agency and hope components of hope significantly predicted creativity. Overall, hope also significantly predicted creativity. Regarding relative importance, hope turned out to be the most “useful” predictor of creativity, followed by its components of agency and pathway.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted in a public university setting located in urban areas. The findings may not be generalizable to private settings due to variations in the teacher's creative behaviour with variation in the creative environment. The study was also cross-sectional, which may not yield results of changing employee creativity over time. Further studies should establish the link between hope and creativity using a longitudinal survey to compare employee creativity using data collected at different intervals.Originality/valueThe value of the current study is both theoretical and empirical. Theoretically, the study findings enrich the hope theory by revealing the relative importance of hope on its outcomes over and above its components. The study also confirms the assertions of the dual pathway to creativity model by revealing that employees who are rich in hope components of agency and pathway have the cognitive flexibility to pursue creative goals and, when faced with failure, can generate alternative solutions to solve work problems.

The Number and Determinants of Nutrient foramina among dry human femur bones from the East African population: A Cross-section study

Background: Nutrient foramina form important landmarks on the femur and other bones as the portal of entry for nutrient arteries. Nutrient arteries are important sources of blood supply for growing bones; and their variations may be due to congenital or acquired causes. These variations are important in anatomical comparisons, orthopaedic surgical practice and forensic medicine. Aims: This study aimed at establishing the number and determinants of the nutrient foramina among dry human femur bones from the East African population. Materials and methods: This was a cross-section study of 333 dry femur bones from the East African population, at the Galloway osteological collection of Makerere University college of health sciences. The number of nutrient foramina on the shaft of each femur, the corresponding demographic, clinical and morphometric characteristics were documented. Data were entered in an Excel sheet and exported to STATA 14 for analysis. Univariate, bivariate and multivariable analyses were performed to obtain the summary statistics and the measures of association. At all levels of analysis, a p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Of the 333 femurs, 291 (87.4%) were from males; and 137(50.15%) were right femurs. The age ranged from 20 to 75 years with a mean age of 35 (SD± 12) years. Nutrient foramina ranged from one to four; mean of 1.4 (SD±0.5) and median of 1 (IQR: 1 to 2). Of the 333 femurs, 199 (59.8%) had one foramen, 129 (38.7%) had two foramina, four femurs had three foramina and one femur had four foramina. There was a statistically significant association between the number of nutrient foramina and the femur’s: mid-shaft circumference (p=0.014; 95%CI: 0.003 to 0.028), nationality (p=0.016; 95%CI: -0.284 to -0.030) and sex (p=0.012; 96%CI: -0.405 to -0.050). Conclusion: Nutrient foramina among femurs from the East African population range from one to four per femur, with predominantly one foramen. The key determinants of the number of foramina are: mean mid-shaft circumference, nationality and sex. These findings are significant in anatomical comparisons; forensic and orthopaedic practices. KEY WORDS: Nutrient foramina, dry human femur, East African population, morphometric characteristics.

Democracy and the Discourse on Relevance Within the Academic Profession at Makerere University

Democracy and the Discourse of Relevanceis set against the backdrop of the spread of neoliberal ideas and reforms since the 1980s, accepting also that these ideas are rooted in a longer history. It focuses on how neoliberalism has worked to transform the university sector and the academic profession. In particular, it examines how understandings of, and control over, what constitutes relevant knowledge have changed. Taken as a whole, these changes have sought to reorient universities and academics towards economic development in various ways. This includes the installation of strategies for how institutions and academics achieve recognition and status within the academy, the privatisation of educational services and the downgrading of the value of public higher education, as well as a steady shift away from the public funding for universities. Research universities are increasingly adopting a user- and market-oriented model, with an emphasis on meeting corporate demands, the privileging of short-term research, and a strong tendency to view utility, and the potential to sell intellectual property for profit, as primary criteria for determining the relevance of academic knowledge. The privatisation of education services and the reorienting of universities towards the needs of the ‘knowledge economy’ have largely succeeded in transforming the discourse around the role of the academic profession in society, including in many African countries. Makerere University in Uganda has often been lauded as an example of successful transformation along neoliberal lines. However, our research into the working lives of academics at Makerere revealed a very different picture. Far from epitomising the allegedly positive outcomes of neoliberal reform, academics and postgraduate students interviewed at Makerere provide worrying insights into the undermining of a vibrant and independent academic culture. The stories of the ordinary academics on the ground, the empirical focus of the book, are in contrast to the claimed successes of the university; and the official stories of the university leadership and administration paint a picture of an academic profession in crisis. With diminishing influence on deciding what is relevant knowledge and thus on processes of democratization of their own institution and society, academic freedom is also losing its value. This perspective from the ground-level exposes the many problems that neoliberal reforms have created for academics at Makerere, leaving them feeling disempowered, often reducing them to the status of consultants. We also show how a range of local initiatives ­are steadily increasing resistance to the neoliberal model. We consider how academics and others can further mobilise to regain control over what knowledge is considered relevant, and thereby deepen democracy. In so doing, we aim to highlight some responses and actions that have proven effective so far. Democracy and the Discourse of Relevancewill hopefully help to change the systems that value knowledge in ways that are driving research institutions towards competitive and market-like behaviour. We also aim to contribute to contemporary debates about what knowledge is relevant.

Knowledge on Infection Prevention and Control and associated factors among undergraduate health professional students at Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Uganda

Introduction To practice adequate Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures, health professional students need to have adequate knowledge of IPC. In this study, we assessed the knowledge of health professional students at Makerere University College of Health Sciences on Infection Prevention and Control. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional online survey among health professional students studying at Makerere University College of Health Sciences located in Kampala, Uganda. An adapted questionnaire was used to measure knowledge on Infection Prevention and Control among students. Results A total of 202 health professional students were included in the study. The mean age was 24.43 years. Majority were male 63.37% (n = 128), from the school of medicine 70.79% (n = 143) and used one source of information for IPC 49.50% (n = 100). Being in year three (Adjusted coefficient, 6.08; 95% CI, 2.04–10.13; p-value = 0.003), year four (Adjusted coefficient, 10.87; 95% CI, 6.91–14.84; p < 0.001) and year five (Adjusted coefficient, 8.61; 95% CI, 4.45–12.78; p < 0.001) were associated with a higher mean in total percentage score of knowledge on IPC compared to being in year one. Conclusion IPC knowledge was good among health professional students in Makerere University although more emphasis is needed to improve on their IPC knowledge in various sections like hand hygiene. Infection Prevention and Control courses can be taught to these students starting from their first year of university education.