Protestant Missionary Education and the Diffusion of Women’s Education in Ottoman Turkey: A Historical GIS Analysis

A significant literature demonstrates that the presence of historic missionary societies—especially Protestant societies—during the colonial period is significantly and positively associated with increased educational attainment and economic outcomes. However, we know less about the mechanisms underlying the long-run consequences of institutions, as it is commonly very hard to disentangle direct effects from indirect effects. One clear way to do so, however, is to explore the long-term impact of missionary influence in places in which the direct beneficiaries of missionary education are no longer present. The present article considers one such region, the Anatolian region of the Ottoman Empire. Due to the ethnic violence and population movements at the start of the twentieth century, the newfound Turkish nation-state was largely religiously homogenous. This provides us with a unique situation to empirically assess the long-run indirect effects of Christian missionary societies on local human capital. For this purpose, I present an original dataset that provides the locations of Protestant mission stations and schools, Ottoman state-run schools, and Armenian community schools contained within Ottoman Anatolia between 1820 and 1914. Contrary to the common association found in the literature, this study does not find missionary presence to be correlated with modern-day schooling. Rather, I find that regions with a heightened missionary presence and an active Christian educational market perform better on the gender parity index for pretertiary schooling during both the Ottoman and Turkish periods.

Young People as Transformative Citizens Fighting Climate Change

The government of Indonesia has launched environmental policies to address the risks of climate change at the national to local levels and involves all elements of development: economy and business, education, environment and forestry, and transportation. In fact, behavioral change is seen as unsustainable, particularly in people's everyday lives. As this problem emerges, Indonesian young people through youth-led environmental organizations hold environmental activities to alternatively introduce and educate communities and schools to recognize and identity climate change impacts. The author then presents two successful youth organizations: Greenpeace Youth Indonesia (GYI) and the Indonesian Students Climate Forum (ICSF). GYI's actions are more stirred with Greenpeace's ideology, which focuses on direct campaigns, protest, and young activist mobilization, while ICSF's repertoires for mitigating climate changes are more community schools-based educational outreach. Although both of them are distinct in nature, their works have been transformative and applicable.

Mentoring Dispositions for Pre-Service and Early Career Special Educators Through Service Learning

Service learning projects were created and implemented by faculty in the special education unit at Molloy College for pre-service and early career special education teachers. The service learning projects provided an opportunity for faculty to mentor participants in the area of dispositions for teaching through a shared experience outside of the higher education classroom. The projects were conducted in/or with community schools serving the K-12 population and students with disabilities in inclusive settings. It was hypothesized that service learning opportunities would serve as a platform for participants to reflect and to evaluate their dispositions as they act and interact in environments which were multidimensional. The results indicated that this was the case and that participants gained insights into their dispositions when the statements of dispositions were related to an experience. Faculty concluded that a variety of service learning projects provided varied opportunities for participants to exercise beliefs and bring clarity to the term “dispositions for teaching.”

Teaching Profession in Technical Education in Community Schools

Technical Education in Community School (TECS) is considered pertinent for the socio-economic transformation, particularly in a developing country like Nepal. Instructors of these schools are the key persons who transform curriculum into practice, however, their profession in their perspectives was hardly studied. With this consideration, this study was carried out to understand the experience of TECS instructors on their teaching profession. To attain this research objective, four instructors from the Diploma in Civil Engineering program of two TECSs were purposively selected, and a narrative inquiry approach was utilized to study the cases in-depth. The result showed that the instructors were interested in teaching in TECS; however, they were not ready to go to TECSs of remote villages. For them, the village settings lacked source for extra earning opportunities and career growth prospects. They were motivated to teach in Diploma in Civil Engineering as they could apply their prior knowledge and skills. At the same time, theoretical knowledge gained from their teaching in TECSs had been helpful for their engineering profession as well.

Reading Difficulty Dynamics and Interventions Within Community Schools in Ghana; Evidence From Banka Community Senior High School Using the OARP Protocol

This study was designed to assess reading difficulty dynamics and develop the corresponding interventions for students in the Banka Community Senior High School within the Asante Akyem South Municipality of Ghana. The study used multiple research designs and research methods in soliciting data for the analysis. Both semi-structured questionnaires and interview guides were used for data collection. A 100-worded paragraph was taken from the introductory page of the Integrated Science Textbook for Senior High Schools to assess the reading difficulty of students using the One-Minute Administration of Reading Passages (OARP) protocol. Three sessions of readings were done; the first without intervention, and the subsequent readings with teacher interventions. The results of the study show that majority of the respondents had text recognition accuracy (TRA), text pronunciation accuracy (TPA) and reading speed (RS) problems. Thus, TRA, TPA, and RS scores were below the 80% benchmark in the first reading (without intervention). Nevertheless, TRA, TPA, and RS scores increased above the 80% benchmark for the second and third readings (with teacher interventions). Four causative factors for the reading difficulties (RDs), three locational dynamics, four durational dynamics, four reading frequency dynamics and four periodic dynamics of RDs were identified. The study concludes that RD reduces with teacher interventions. The findings of this study is not a generalization of reading difficulty dynamics and intervention in all community schools in Ghana but rather presents contributions to an emerging academic problem which could have implications on SDG 4 in the near future within community schools. Hence, the need for setting up reading clubs in community schools towards reducing reading difficulties among students.

Integrity triad as doubled edged sword for head-teachers’ integrity: a case from Nepal

Headteachers in the community schools are responsible for academic and administrative activities. They are considered role models for integrity practices. However, the situation is different on some occasions. For instance, political interest plays more important roles than qualifications, training, work experience, etc., in school affairs. In this context, a qualitative study was carried out in the purposefully selected two schools – an urban and a rural – to explore the elements that influence school integrity practices. Data collected from the schools were analyzed and interpreted. The findings show that nepotism, unhealthy party politics, and impunity (integrity triad) influence the school integrity practices in Nepal.

Multigenerational Art Making at a Community School: A Case Study of Transformative Parent Engagement

In this article, Kevin M. Kane, Karen Hunter Quartz, and Lindsey T. Kunisaki describe the transformative parent engagement fostered in a multigenerational afterschool arts program at a community school. Community schools bring together families, teachers, and other neighborhood partners to help students learn, grow, and thrive and often integrate health, education, and social services. This embedded case study shows how community schools can also nurture cultural assets in the form of parents’ community cultural wealth. The learning of these community school parents demonstrates the mutually reinforcing relationships between transformative parent engagement, collaborative leadership, expanded learning opportunities, and integrated student supports. This study highlights the transformative impact of culturally sustaining arts on individuals, families, and the school as a whole, offering implications for researchers and practitioners in community-based arts education and community school development.

Teachers’ Beliefs on Students’ Home Language as a Resource in EFL Classroom

This is the age of multilingual turn. It advocates the inclusion of indigenous languages that the children bring to school from home as resource. At present, use of students’ home language as a resource in teaching and learning of a new language has become a vexing issue. The teachers’ beliefs on any issue determine the types of teaching learning activities that they use in the classroom. In this context, this paper aims at exploring the Nepalese English language teachers’ beliefs regarding the use of students’ home language in English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom, and why or how they form their respective beliefs. For this, I collected data from five ‘Grade ten’ English language teachers of different community schools in Kathmandu, taking in-depth interview with them. The data were analyzed qualitatively creating themes. The analysis shows that the English language teachers regard home language as a resource in EFL classroom, and they do so on the basis of their own theoretical understanding and practical experience in teaching.

California Community Schools Partnership Program: A Transformational Opportunity for Whole Child Education

The historic $3 billion investment in the California Community Schools Partnership Program provides an opportunity to transform schools into community hubs that deliver a whole child education. This brief examines key elements of the new law. It then lays out evidence-based principles of high-quality community schools implementation that are grounded in the four researchbacked pillars included in statute and aligned with the science of learning and development. It concludes with a discussion of the technical assistance needed for high-quality implementation.