Human Connections
University of Malta (Valletta Campus)
Bolstering Diversity and Inclusion through Learning Capacity Models: Changing Traditional Practices Make a Big Difference in Diversifying the Workforce View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Donna Duellberg, Mary Ann Swendsen
In 2022 the United States Coast Guard examined the possibility of shifting traditional ASVAB-based recruitment and selection in the military to a dynamic model. After analysis of existing recruitment and selection data from the past several years, it was recommended that recruits should be assessed after multiple test attempts times in order to demonstrate their learning potential, rather than being matched to training programs on the basis of an aptitude score after only one test attempt. The study found that women and ethnic/racial minorities were more likely to persevere through the recruitment process by taking the ASVAB/AFCT multiple times, and they exhibited statistically significant improvement compared to their White and male peers over the course of their re-takes. It also concluded that learning capacity scores were fairer—meaning they were less affected by recruits’ demographic background—than single timepoint ASVAB scores. The research found that those recruits who were granted a waiver after only one ASVAB attempt were consistently and substantially more likely to fail their training programs and need to retrain. In comparison, those recruits who earned their way into their training programs by taking the ASVAB multiple times were less likely to need to retrain.
Re/humanising Education through Innovative Pedagogies in Digital Spaces
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ellyn Lyle, Wendy Kraglund Gauthier
Teaching and learning are profoundly personal experiences, yet systems of education often prioritize disembodied and decontextualized approaches that continue the historical marginalization of the lives they seek to represent. Re/centring teachers and learners at the heart of education re/positions knowledge as contextual and constructivist while allowing teachers and students to leverage technology to enhance learning, rather than dictate it. Rehumanising education this way is at once pedagogical and practical and has the capacity to transform the classroom from a place too often characterized by what is missing to a place of presence. Through an exploration of innovative pedagogies supported by learning technologies, we seek to cultivate thinking about the social transformation possible in online spaces that resist the (often arbitrary) quantification of the human self.
Gender Diversity in the Curriculum of Brazil`s Secondary Schools View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Else R. P. Vieira, Sonia Fatima Schwendler
This paper analyses ways Brazil’s secondary schools embrace social transformation through the inclusion of gender diversity in their curricula or syllabi. Regional diversity is contemplated through a comparative focus on countryside schools in the southern state of Paraná and urban schools in the northeastern state of Pernambuco, more specifically the capital city of Recife. An in-depth investigation (2018-22) has given audibility to teachers’ and school administrators’ views on this controversial topic, particularly in the context of the then incumbent far right government’s escalating heteronormative and prejudiced narratives and moves. How do schools in the two regions accommodate, on the one hand, the progressive 1996 National Education Guidelines and Framework, still in place, and the inclusive legalization of same-sex relationships and, on the other, intimidating political-religious discourses in the spheres of power? What roles can new technologies play in this educational context?
