We delineate the underlying homogeneity assumption, procedural variants, and implications of the comparative method and distinguish this from Mill's method of difference. We demonstrate that additional units can provide "placebo" tests for the comparative method even if the scope of inference is limited to the two units under comparison.…

Higher education is increasingly acknowledged by national governments and international agencies as a key driver of development, and systems are expanding rapidly in response to rising demand. Moreover, universities have been attributed a central role in the post-2015 development agenda and the achievement of the sustainable development goals. Yet…

The Government of Kenya spends 30% of its budget on education. It is commonly assumed that education has an important positive effect on economic growth, but to date the evidence for this assumption has been surprisingly weak. This study aimed at exploring the relationships between the amount of investments in education and economic growth. It was…

Often the perspective of human capital is drawn with different colours: from its growing importance to the possibility of changing it with current technical and information management tools. This usually happens when analysing the human capital education and corporate problems in the context of companies and other activity-organising units. In…

Focusing on the Italian context, this research aims to analyze the relationship between investment in education and economic development through a critical exam of the human capital theory. This paradigm is compared with the social investment paradigm, particularly the Esping-Andersen's thesis, which seems more useful to unfold the link between…

Africa is a potentially rich continent due to its considerably rich resources endowment. It is believed that if there is a synergy between these resources, that is if these resources are properly harnessed with a clear vision on the part of our leaders, there is the prospect of growth leading to the development of the continent. The basis of any…

Education is a privileged area of the dominant development model in Nepal, specifically focusing on women in rural areas. This article analyses the discursive construction of development and education categories in Nepal by exploring the narratives of Nepali women on education and development as lived experiences. It shows how global and…

Local-level, place-based scholarships -- synonymous with "promise" scholarships -- are a policy strategy to improve college completion in the United States by directing financial aid to students in a particular school, district, or geographical area. There are currently upwards of 90 place-based scholarship programs across the US, most…

This article describes how public, nonprofit, and private partners in Detroit are working to improve and expand adult foundational skills development opportunities and connect them to workforce training as the city begins to make an economic comeback. It outlines the adult foundational skills challenge in Detroit, chronicles the work of a strategy…

Since the beginning of the 21st century, Panama has exhibited remarkable economic growth and has reduced the gap in terms of income per capita with high-income countries. Social progress has also been achieved, mainly through the reduction of poverty and advances in some well-being dimensions. However, challenges remain with regard to overcoming…

This research uses board games as teaching material to develop students' decision-making ability and basic scientific literacy and to foster students' value for nature and social caring by working with socioscientific issues. The board game structure contains four perspective systems: ecological, economic, cultural, and political. In the game…

We argue for the need for and provide an example of a new form of community-based engineering education in Rwanda. We draw on Bourdieu's theories of field and habitus to frame the arguments for an alternative to the current dominant engineering education model. The proposed community engineering education programme has three key facets including…

The purpose of this study was to survey the awareness, attitudes and actions of Thai, pre-service, industrial-education teachers (N=390) regarding economic, social and environmental sustainability. Survey items were derived from learning objectives provided by UNESCO in relation to 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Research questions…

Purpose: This study has two aims. It aims to analyse three essential pre-conditions of an authentic sustainability curriculum (ASC). The theoretical analysis involves the definition of authenticity through the learning outcomes (LOs) framework called authentic minimum (AM). This paper also aims to gauge students' views on economic growth,…

This article describes methods and findings from a study focused on youth living in rural communities in northern New Hampshire who struggle with accessing STEM learning opportunities because of economic underinvestment and geographical isolation. These challenges also negatively impact researchers hoping to learn how rural youth benefit from…