Civic and Political Studies
Caregivers’ Knowledge of Inclusive Education and its Implementations in Early Childhood Centres of Osun State, Nigeria View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Babatunde A. Adeyemi
The study investigates caregivers’ knowledge of inclusive education in early childhood centres in Osun State. It also considers the attitude of caregivers toward the implementation of inclusive education in the study area. It further examines the relationship between the caregivers’ knowledge of inclusive education and their attitudes towards its implementation in the study area as well the influence of variables such as caregivers’ educational qualification and years of experience on their attitude towards the implementation of inclusive education in early childhood education centres in Osun State. The study adopted a survey research design. The population for the study comprised all preschool teachers across the three senatorial districts in Osun State. The sample size for this study consisted of 450 caregivers selected using multistage sampling procedure. An instrument titled ‘Caregivers Knowledge and Attitude Towards Integration of Inclusive Education Questionnaire (CKATIIEQ) was employed. The results among others show that that a significant relationship was found between caregivers’ knowledge of inclusive education and their attitudes towards its implementation (χ2 (n = 448) = 31.22, df = 2, p < .05). Results further reveal that there was no significant influence of caregivers’ educational qualification (χ2 (n = 448) = 2.036, df = 2, p > .05) and caregivers’ years of teaching experience χ2 (n = 448) = 6.577, df = 4, p > .05) on their attitude towards the implementation of inclusive education. The study concludes that knowledge of inclusive education of caregivers in early childhood education in Osun State was partial.
Promoting Green Technical Efficiency: A Regional and Urban Agglomeration Cluster Analysis
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Renuka Mahadevan
Using 2010 to 2017 provincial data on China, this paper is the first to compare conventional technical efficiency (TE) that does not consider carbon emissions and green TE which takes carbon emissions into account. This is done using an improved version of the the two-stage double bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis to explicitly model carbon emissions as an undesirable output to analyse green economic growth for the first time. The adopted model also addresses major shortcomings in previous studies. New evidence shows that the conventional and green TE rankings may be similar but there are variations in the intertemporal trends of China’s provinces, regions and clusters. In addition, there are differences in the determinants of the two TEs. For example, although urbanisation improves both TEs, its role is overestimated in conventional TE gains while the service sector share has no role in conventional TE gains unlike green TE. This highlights the importance of the industry structure (i.e., the share of service sector) in sustainable economic growth when carbon emissions are accounted for, a result that was masked when conventional TE was analysed. Our results further show that provinces with similar urbanisation rate can have differences in green TE in part due to green TE also being driven by the GDP share of services. The study cautions that varying strategies for different provinces, regions and clusters is necessary for a “win-win” green transformation towards sustainable economic growth.
Circumstantial Evidence in Support of a Trojan Colony in Italy: A Study in Ancient Migration
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Valentine J. Belfiglio
Ancient Trojan referees established a colony in Italy circa 1178 BCE. Historiography and conceptual analysis of the writings of ancient and modern historians, and current archaeological discoveries is used in this study. Troy existed in the 12th century CE. The Trojan War and the voyage of Aeneas, and his settlement in Italy, are supported by ancient historians, while unsupported by current archaeological discoveries. We conclude based on a preponderance of the evidence, especially the work of ancient historians, that it was more likely than not, that the voyage and settlement of Aeneas in Italy happened.
Where to Next?: The Post-migration Considerations of Filipinos in Diaspora in Taiwan
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mariam Jayne Agonos
Literature purports that there is a tendency for migrants to move back and forth from the homeland and host country, and even from one host country to another. Filipinos, with a pervasive culture of migration, exemplify a “multi-country, itinerant migration patterns”. This study probes into the considerations of Filipinos in diaspora in Taiwan after their migration to the host country. Furthermore, the study gives focus on the policies and contexts in the homeland and the host country that influences the post-migration considerations among Filipinos in diaspora. Guided by the concepts of human agency and social capital, the study argues that sense of belonging plays an essential role in developing their social contexts in Taiwan, and subsequently, their plans thereafter. In-depth informant interviews with eight Filipinos in diaspora were conducted to gather migrant narratives and understand their experiences and plans. It can be gleaned from the interviews that while the informants have mostly positive experiences and situations in their host country, there remains to be a desire to leave, either to go back home or to migrate elsewhere. Meanwhile, previous and current contexts in the homeland, including socio-political situations and personal-familial situations, is factored in by the informants whenever they consider migrating again. While there is longing for the homeland, these Filipinos in diaspora also display ambivalence about returning to the homeland.
