Inequalities in Access to and Outcomes of Higher Education in Africa

There have been very few studies of the socio-economic background and outcomes for students in Africa because of the lack of data. This chapter draws on an institute which has information about their parental background and subsequent careers collected from surveys. In terms of access, the combination of parents not having more than primary education, renting and not owning land identified less than 1% of students whilst the percentage of entrants reporting that their parents had a post-secondary qualification is considerably higher (around 57%) than the norm at the time the parents would have been studying (around 7%). These students were upper middle class. In terms of outcomes, both current students and alumni say that the curriculum only partly fits their employment needs, but 85% of alumni would recommend AIMS to other students. In general, employers are satisfied with AIMS interns, but the percentage of AIMS graduates who are unemployed has risen from 2% in 2011 to 29% in 2016. Finally, rather than contributing to Africa, over one-third of graduates since 2012 are in the West.

How does parental time relate to social class in a Nordic welfare state?

Time intensive parenting has spread in Western countries. This study contributes to the literature on parental time use, aiming to deepen our understanding of the relationship between parental childcare time and social class. Based on time-diary data (2010–2011) from Norway, and a concept of social class that links parents’ amount and composition of economic and cultural capital, we examine the time spent by parents on childcare activities. The analysis shows that class and gender intersect: intensive motherhood, as measured by time spent on active childcare, including developmental childcare activities thought to stimulate children's skills, is practised by all mothers. A small group of mothers in the economic upper-middle class fraction spend even more time on childcare than the other mothers. The time fathers spend on active childcare is less than mothers’, and intra-class divisions are notable. Not only lower-middle class fathers, but also cultural/balanced upper-middle class fathers spend the most time on intensive fathering. Economic upper-middle and working-class fathers spend the least time on childcare. This new insight into class patterns in parents’ childcare time challenges the widespread notion of different cultural childcare logics in the middle class, compared to the working class.

Lautentabulatur UKR-LVu 1400/I als ein humanistisches Scholarbuch

The Krakow Lute Tablature UKR-LVu 1400/I (ca. 1555-1592) belongs to the hardly explored collections of the Lviv University Library (Ukraine). This paper considers the manuscript is in the context of humanist culture and didactic practice in Central Europe during the 16th century. At the centre is an examination of the Tablature's relation to the elaborate scholarly traditions from the first half of the 16th century, especially to the humanist Lessons Book tradition and Commonplace practice. It is argued that the Krakow Lute Tablature was a guide to poetic and musical enterntainment in the upper-middle class and aristocratic milieu of Krakow. With its clear focus on the theme of love, it was possibly intended for the non-university leisure time among Polish-Lithuanian scholars and students around 1550. Analogies between literary and musical sayings (sententiae) can be found partly in semantic parallels (in the madrigal and chanson intabulations), but above all in the technique of creating and using sententiae which is precisely in the spirit of 'commonplace' practice. In the musical entries of the Krakow Lute Tablature, sketches, fragments, dance models and intabulations, which are close to vocal models, assume the function of the literary and poetic sententiae.

In search of the ‘best’ option: American private secondary education for upper-middle-class Chinese teenagers

This article focuses on unpacking the processes of how a rapidly rising group of urban upper-middle-class Chinese families decide to send their only children to the United States on their own for private secondary education. The article analyzes the socio-historical background of such choice and lays out these families’ various paths to opting out of the neoliberal school-choice market in China and eyeing American private secondary education as the ‘best’ option. Based on in-depth interviews with 33 parents in several Chinese mega-cities, the author demonstrates that Chinese urban upper-middle-class families choose such a transnational educational choice as a silent exit from the anxiety-ridden Chinese education system. Situated in the socio-historical transformation of contemporary Chinese society, the reasons for exiting range from dissatisfaction with the political narrative to educational aspiration of a ‘well-rounded’ education and resistance against the test-oriented pedagogical practices at school. This ethnographic research provides a unique perspective to engage with works on elite education in a global context and enriches the theorization of the global middle classes.

To study the immunization status of children aged 1-5 years admitted to department of pediatrics, Lala Lajpat Rai & Associated Hospitals, GSVM Medical College, Kanpur

The Present study was conducted in the Department of Pediatrics of Lala Lajpat Rai & Associated Hospital GSVM Medical College, Kanpur. All the children aged between 1-5 years, admitted in Department of Pediatrics were asked to participate in this study. Information regarding vaccination, socio-demographic factors was collected from their parents and care takers. Accuracy and validity of information were confirmed by immunization card in possible situation and inspection for BCG scar. Hospital based descriptive cross-sectional study.In upper class, 100% of children were completely immunized. In upper middle class, 80.8% children had complete and 19.1% partial immunization status. No one remained unimmunized in upper middle class. In lower middle class, 33.9% of children were completely immunized, 59.6% partially immunized and 6.4% remained unimmunized.Children who were 1stin birth order, had maximum immunization coverage (44.8%). Minimum immunization coverage was in birth order >4 (3.2%). P value is <0.001, indicates the significant relation between birth order and immunization status. As birth order increased, immunization coverage decreased. In this present hospital based descriptive cross –sectional study, we found that 51.2% children were fully immunized, 45.6% were partially immunized and 3.2% children were unimmunized as per National immunization schedule. Children belonging to upper class were 100% completely immunized. In upper middle class 80.8% children in lower middle class 33.9%, in upper lower class 55.7% and in lower class 50.9% children were completely immunized respectively. In lower class immunization coverage was higher than lower middle class. Droprate for BCG to pentavalent 1 was 10.64%, similarly dropout from BCG to measles was 12.7%. Dropout rate of pentavalent 1 to pentavalent 2 was 1.4%, pentavalent2 to pentavalent3 was 2.6%. It indicates that system is not able to hold the child once registered. Steps for improvement should focus on reducing the drop rate from BCG to pentavalent and measles.

DISCOURSE CATEGORIES: A CASE FOR ENGLISH RESTORATION DRAMA

In this article, the notions of discourse and discourse categories are considered within the framework of a cognitive-communicative paradigm. In particular, three groups of discourse categories: cognitive, communicative and metadiscursive are considered in this paper. Within the group of cognitive discourse categories, I consider Restoration ideology and argue, that the institution of theatre and the dramatic discourse of the period became powerful means royal propaganda. I argue, that the dramatic discourse of the English Restoration performed two main functions: entertainment and dissemination of a new ideology. In this paper, I substantiate that the religious discourse of English Puritanism was replaced by the secular Restoration one. Within the group of cognitive categories, I also single out basic discourse-generative concepts of the dramatic discourse of the English Restoration. As to the group of communicative discourse categories, I focus on the values, chronotope, and the participants of the dramatic discourse of the English Restoration. I argue, that Restoration discourse disseminated libertine values such as licentiousness and debauchery. As to the chronotope of the dramatic discourse of the English Restoration, in this article, I state that the events in Restoration drama take place mostly in popular and familiar to both readers and viewers places of the London of the seventeenth century and discourse participants are mostly representatives of a wealthy upper middle class and the nobility. Within the group of metadiscursive discourse categories, I focus on the existing variety of genres inherent in the dramatic discourse of the English Restoration.