Evidence on educational returns and the factors that determine the demand for schooling in developing countries is extremely scarce. We use two surveys from Tanzania to estimate both the actual and perceived schooling returns and subsequently examine what factors drive individual misperceptions regarding actual returns. Using ordinary least…

In sub-Saharan Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have far-reaching consequences for 550 million children under the age of 18. This UNICEF Child Alert examines how the disease and measures put in place to contain it are impacting the lives of children across the region, exacerbating existing threats like conflict, climate change and…

This paper is based on my own practice as a teacher educator at a university in the north-east of England and focuses on the effectiveness of dialogue as a tool for teaching the topic of socio-economic disadvantage in initial teacher education (ITE). The research was triggered by questions which had emerged within my work, about the compatibility…

This study explores the use of constructivist pedagogy promoting learner-centered teaching in Kenya's rural primary schools. It explores both the school-based as well as bureaucratic hurdles to the success of constructivist pedagogy. Teacher ideologies, issues of diverse cultures and traditional beliefs, the rural context characterized by…

Sexuality education forms part of the national school curricula of most sub-Saharan African countries, yet risk-related sexual behaviour among young people continues to fuel the HIV pandemic in this part of the world. One of the arguments put forward to explain why sexuality education seems to have had little impact on sexual risk-taking is that…

The year 2006 marked the 30th anniversary of the publication of Michael Rutter and Nicola Madge's Cycles of Disadvantage (1976). As such, it provides an opportunity to take stock of debates over an alleged cycle of deprivation, both in the 1970s, and more recently. This article seeks to use historical methods in order to outline some areas in…

Based on ethnographic research conducted in north-west Cambodia in 2000-2001, this paper examines why disabled people experience systematic marginalisation in the labour market. Although there are no official data on the relationship between disability and employment status in Cambodia, this research suggests that disabled people are more likely…

This paper offers an alternative viewpoint on why people choose to engage in artisanal mining--the low tech mineral extraction and processing of mainly precious metals and stones--for extended periods in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing upon experiences from Akwatia, Ghana's epicentre of diamond production since the mid-1920s, the analysis challenges…

While conducting a qualitative inquiry involving in-depth interviews on the perceptions of health risks within a group of profoundly poor urban families in the southern part of Mexico City, Martinez-Salgado and her interdisciplinary team of women interviewers got involved in emotionally complex situations with the women participants in the study.…

In the socio-economic context of Bangladesh, involvement of women in agriculture is very important. It would be easier to control rural-urban migration by engaging women in agricultural activities to a greater extent. Women play a vital role in agricultural production throughout the Bangladesh, making a significant contribution to the basic…

The social studies teachers of North Fork Senior Secondary School (a pseudonym) had organized an activity to raise students' levels of awareness of the tragic events taking place in Darfur by giving them a taste of what it is like to experience a famine. The North Fork "famine" would last from Friday afternoon at 3:00 until Saturday at…

Demystifies ideas surrounding U.S. foreign aid to the underdeveloped countries of the world and dispels many commonly held notions concerning the generosity of this foreign aid. Advocates revising U.S. aid programs along the lines of the proposed Global Poverty Reduction Act. (KO)

This study investigated the health-related concerns of adolescents living on streets as compared to poor and privileged adolescents living with their families in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The different groups of respondents were similar in terms of individuals' fear of disease and lack of concern about health in old age. AIDS and cancer were feared by…