 |
|
ISSN 1556-6757 |
SJI |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Volume
1, Issue 1, 2007
|
| |
| |
Abstract
Many economists are questioning the role of foreign aid as a
development tool. The Caribbean region has received
significant amounts of foreign aid but with mixed results.
The region
confronts daunting development issues,
such as declining productivity and employment against the
backdrop of a challenging international environment with a
high risk of natural disasters. The study argues that
tourism is a stable source of growth for the region and has
great potential as a mechanism for distributing foreign aid
in a market driven approach that may avoid several of the
shortcomings of traditional foreign aid. The Caribbean Basin
Initiative includes fiscal incentives for U.S. citizens to
travel to certain Caribbean countries for the purpose of
strengthening their economies and should serve as a model
for further study and
innovation.
This study assesses whether
tourism can serve as an approach to delivering U.S. aid to
the Caribbean.
Full Article
Abstract
The Biological Sciences Department at Marshall University
was finding it difficult to offer the required courses for
Biology majors as each curriculum stated. In addition, it
was unclear if the course offerings truly represented the
best training for the specialized majors. As a starting
point for evaluating the curriculum we chose to measure
current student satisfaction with introductory courses,
preparation for upper-level courses and course offerings.
Student satisfaction with their academic agenda has been
linked to program strengths, and an assessment was
undertaken to identify effective (and ineffective) areas of
the curriculum as perceived by students. In particular, was
the inclusion of defined core classes, currently set at
three, giving students the necessary skills for their
upper-level courses, and were
there courses within the curriculum that contributed to
success following graduation?
A survey questionnaire was developed and administered to
students in eleven biological science courses. These courses
spanned the biology curriculum and included the
participation of freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, and
graduate students A selected complement of controls embedded
within the administered assessment tool, determined that
being enrolled in all three core courses was the only
variable that was statistically significant and a positive
impact on the students’ perceptions of the quality of their
scientific education. An outcome of this study revealed that
completing, or currently being enrolled in, all three
designated core courses resulted in students rating the
quality of their scientific education significantly higher
than students who have not taken all core courses. These
findings were at the beginning of a restructuring of the
Biological Sciences curriculum, with their associated
required and recommended courses, and resulted in placing
the core courses earlier in the academic programs.
Full Article
Abstract
This article presents the case for including multicultural
education in the curricula of counseling and educational
leadership graduate programs at U.S. universities. As
professions and disciplines, counseling and educational
leadership are obligated, ethically, through their
respective professional codes of ethics, to ensure that
matriculants exit their preparation programs in possession
of skills, knowledge, and dispositions that will enable them
to behave in a culturally competent manner. While there are
different schools of thoughts regarding the most appropriate
model for teaching multicultural education, the author
argues that there is no incorrect model. The author offers
his views on the topic of multicultural education as one who
initially met resistance from colleagues to establish such a
course, and who, after the establishment of the course,
taught it for nearly fifteen years.
Full Article
Africa, Seeds, and Biofuel
Baruti I. Katembo,Pearl S.
Gray
Abstract
Quantity depletion and
harmful gas emissions associated with fossil fuels have caused
scientists and global attention to focus on the use of alternative,
eco-friendly fuel substitutes such as green energies (wind, solar,
water, bio) as
replacements.
Africa, Seeds and Biofuel
will highlight Jatropha, a biofuel source
seen by many as a conduit for
cutting global dependence
on fossil fuels as well as an emerging cash crop that can boost rural
incomes,
infrastructure, and development in poor
countries. Jatropha (scientific name
Jatropha curcas),
a tree (known by
more than 200
multi-language names) growing in abundance in Africa, Central & South
America, the Caribbean,
India
and Southeast Asia, produces seeds which contain oil (37% average
content per seed) that is convertible to a Diesel fuel substitute; it
has many other attractive qualities, e.g. long seed production life (50
yrs.), droughtresistance, and multi-use applications (soap, insecticide,
various medicinal cures). Optimal use of Jatropha seeds as a biofuel are
predicted to produce a cheap, abundant and eco-friendly fuel source for
transport systems, electricity production, and the powering of cellular
networks.
Full Article
William W. Bostock
Abstract
The
electronic storage and retrieval of cultural heritage is a great
challenge because of the need to maintain components of social memory
which is the basis of identity and which is therefore a necessary
condition of health and survival. In many countries, cultural heritage
has been lost or is endangered, but electronic storage offers the
possibility of retention. However there is great uncertainty over the
ethics of ownership of cultural property. Debate often takes place in
terms of rightful but neglectful ownership versus acquired benevolent
custodial ownership often with colonial origin. Virtual ownership may
appear to provide an answer but in view of the psychological
significance of memorabilia including actual human bodies and body
parts,
this would seem highly unlikely. However, in other areas, such as the
archiving of text and voice of endangered languages, electronic storage
offers a challenge of immense value.
Full Article
Abstract
This paper examines the predictors of attitude toward wife battery among
Nigerian men using the most recent Nigeria Demographic and Health
Survey. Results show that religious affiliation, number of unions, type
of earnings for work (P<0.05); literacy and frequency of watching
television (P<0.01) were significant predictors of holding on to mixed
views about wife battering, while wealth index, type of earnings for
work and portion of household expenditures respondents’ earnings pay
significantly predict that Nigerian men will hold on to traditional
ideas (P<0.01). The paper concludes that men with low socioeconomic
status are more likely to hold on to traditional views about the
acceptability of wife battering in Nigeria.
Full Article
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
