Masons of California’s Post

Tomorrow is a big day for adult literacy. We’ll find out the level of literacy and numeracy skills among adults in Ireland and 30 other countries, updated for the first time in over ten years. Results of the international Survey of Adult Skills will be released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday 10 December. Watch this space! #AdultLiteracy #PIAAC #AdultSkills OECD - OCDE

Have you read #Glocality's article that explores best practices for child-led monitoring and evaluation in the development aid sector and provides an insight into participatory methods. It was written by Magdalene Nickel from Windesheim Honours College, the Netherlands. Here is a message from the author: "I am excited to announce that my bachelor thesis, my very first academic paper, has been published! This research has been a journey of passion, delving into the world of child participation in monitoring and evaluation within the development aid sector.   I have gained valuable insights into the importance of empowering children to actively participate in shaping the programs and services that impact their lives. With this knowledge, I designed and implemented child-friendly complaint and feedback mechanisms for Help a Child and partners involved in the South Sudan Joint Response.   Currently pursuing my master's degree in Evaluation, I'm eager to dive deeper into the intersection of child participation and children's rights. Through my ongoing research, I aim to further explore how we can amplify children's voices and ensure their meaningful inclusion in decision-making processes.   I extend my gratitude to everyone who contributed to this work and supported me on my journey.   I invite you to read the article, especially if you're a young professional in the development aid and humanitarian sector or if you work closely with children.   I'm eager to hear about your thoughts and experiences with child participation. If you're working with children too, don't hesitate to comment or send me a message. Let's chat! 😊" Check the link in our bio or scan the QR code to access the article!  #childledresearch #developmentaidsector #childparticipation #ethics #openaccessjournal #glocality

#Finnish adults top charts in #literacy #numeracy and #problemsolving skills according to OECD study

As we conclude the third school year impacted by the war in Ukraine, significant challenges continue to hinder the inclusion of displaced children from Ukraine into education systems across 23 EU Member States. Despite various efforts by European governments, issues such as language barriers, well-being concerns, and teacher shortages persist. The newly released report by the European Commission, ‘The inclusion of displaced children from Ukraine in EU education systems,’ sheds light on these ongoing challenges and underscores the need for comprehensive support for students, families, and teachers. ETUCE highlights the importance of involving education trade unions and Ukrainian families in these discussions, noting the gaps between policy and implementation due to funding deficits and other barriers. For more detailed insights and to read what ETUCE has to say, visit our website: https://t.ly/HFH08 Together, let's continue our efforts to support all children and uphold their right to education. #MakeTeachingAttractive #SupportTeachers #EducationForAll #Inclusion #Education #ETUCE

I attended an excellent, deeply knowledgable and powerful webinar this week, with Palestinian and international academics, hosted by: Sociologists in Solidarity with Palestinians. Over the past 200 devastating days, more than 34,000 Palestinian men, women, children and babies have been killed. - more than 77,000 Palestinians have been injured, many with life changing injuries, including multiple amputations and disabilities. - more than 41,000 Palestinians are missing across Gaza. - more than 7,000 Palestinians are under the rubble of collapsed homes, neighbhoods, hospitals, schools, public buildings, refugee camps, there is no way to safely rescue them. - almost 15,000 children have been killed in Israel’s military onslaught on Gaza, in seven months. - almost 10,000 Palestinan women have been killed in the past seven months. The key message? Collective work is required to ‘de-exceptionalise’ Palestine and incorporate Palestine across all areas of decolonisation, justice, gender, disability, health and human rights, the climate crisis and deficit of global democracy. **** Decolonial pedagogies and Palestine in the sociological classroom. As the ongoing Israeli genocidal violence in the Gaza Strip has highlighted, Palestine and Palestinians remain an ‘exception’ in Western societies. This is the case not only in government and mainstream media discourses, but also across our academic institutions. The lack of appropriate response by universities in the West has negatively impacted our pedagogical commitments to our students as well as our academic integrity as our academic communities have faced now for months a situation in which an entire population has been dehumanized and subjected to mass killing and mass destruction. While Palestinian and other critical voices actively naming the Israeli genocide against Palestinians are repressed, silenced, ignored and dismissed, we turn to the expertise of colleagues working on decolonial pedagogy and knowledge about Palestine. We discuss: -how can we ‘de-exceptionalise’ Palestine and incorporate Palestine in different areas of the sociological curriculum (e.g. disability; environment; democracy; health)? -how can we create constructive spaces where students can learn histories and structures of power and violence in Palestine-Israel without fear? -how can Palestine help us understand better what decolonial pedagogies are or should be? -and vice versa how can decolonial pedagogies help us produce knowledge and classroom activities about Palestine that are disposed toward justice and emancipatory projects? Demand that your universities divest from companies supplying the Israeli military complex. Amplify the voices and scholarship of Palestinians in Gaza, not least given the targeted destruction of universities in Gaza and the intimidation and censorship of Palestinian academics and students in Israel, the West Bank and the diaspora, including here in Britain. #Gaza #Palestine

Need a solution? Ask a Finn.

A collaborative report by Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre and ESSA, highlights the progress and gaps in Early Childhood Development (ECD) research across Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda from 2010-2022. Led by Eunice M. Williams, Ph.D, the report reveals that across all four countries, women are underrepresented in research outputs, especially in international journals.  The report underscores the need for increased funding, particularly for under-researched ECD components like play and responsive caregiving. It calls for greater collaboration among African researchers and more opportunities for women and early career researchers to publish in international journals. Read the summary report: https://lnkd.in/eHz6NuDc Dive into the full report here: https://bit.ly/415gnS0 This UKFIET - The Education and Development Forum blog summarises some of the key findings from this mapping exercise: https://lnkd.in/ekJj5Sgf Patrick Dunne Lucy Heady Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Pauline Essah, PhD Samuel Asare, PhD Sandra Baxter Pauline Rose Izel Kipruto Rexford Akrong Melinda Sarpong

The Global Research Agenda for Preventing and stopping Child Exploitation is now live. I was one of the 14 global key experts to participate in this and learned a lot. In our consensus, the worst forms of child exploitation, be it in humanitarian contexts or worst forms of child labor in non-conflict zones and sexual exploitation of children (especially online) must analyzed from an intersectional lens. Also, children MUST be at the center of these discussions- which the research process took into account. Also, understanding the different scenarios and multiple factors (especially power and gender relations) is crucial to distill on WHO is affected more and in what ways they are trapped. An example I have witnessed, the worst forms of child labor exploitation in artisanal mining areas (like the DRC or Uganda) are different from those in humanitarian contexts (e.g., where children take on the streets to sell flowers to provide for their families like the case of Syrian refugee children in Beirut, Lebanon) or say, a family that abets their children in influencer culture exposing them early childhood sexual exploitation. Thanks, Terre des Hommes Netherlands and Amy Riley-Powell. You can read it here and join us for the launch in April. #sexualexploitation #childrensrights #childexploitation #researchagenda #worldissues #childrenshealth https://lnkd.in/dwYSeKz4

Too often the jargon that comes with research and data can be overwhelming and exclusionary. DataDrive2030 is trying to change this! See one of our How-To Guides below:

ICYMI: Last week Imagine Worldwide was welcomed onstage at the Clinton Global Initiative to announce a bold commitment to catalyze life-changing literacy and numeracy for 1 million children in Sierra Leone and Tanzania over the next three years. We are laser-focused on increasing the access, effectiveness, affordability, and sustainability of foundational learning at scale. Learn more: https://ow.ly/PgVH50TAzih #CGI2024