At a time when the OECD (2007) is advocating more local engagement for higher education institutions, this study looks at a number of community initiatives in Australia where local universities have played a key role. All were studied as part of the PASCAL Universities and Regional Engagement (PURE) project, which involves a total of 19 regions…

Using Norway 1948-2004 as a case, I test whether changes in variables related to social integration can explain changes in suicide rates. The method is the Box-Jenkins approach to time-series analysis. Different aspects of family integration contribute significantly to the explanation of Norwegian suicide rates in this period. The estimated effect…

Most citizens with long-term mental distress want a real job, and both Norway and European policies agree that work is a crucial part of social inclusion goals. Yet we know little about the actual impact of work on the recovery process for people with severe and often enduring mental distress. This article reports findings from a qualitative study…

Institutions should normally have an integrative influence. The family, for example, has the task of protecting and giving socio-emotional support to children, and schools should prepare young people for their future. Ideally the common goal of all of society's institutions is to secure the integration of youth and prevent or intervene against…

What are the preconditions for right-wing extremist violence among German youths? For several years, the rate of this violence has been increasing in Germany, and the same can be observed for right-wing extremist orientations characterized by the coming together of ideologies of unequal worth and the acceptance of violence as a mode of action. And…

These proceedings contain the abstracts of papers of EDUSREF 2018, which was held in Ankara, Turkey on 6-7 April 2018. Establishing in 2018 as a scientific initiative; Education, Society & Reform Research (EDUSREF-2018) is an International Conference that aims to bridge the knowledge gap, promote social research esteem, and produce democratic…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how fifteen students with blindness and visual impairments experienced their engagement in undergraduate studies at four 4-year universities and perceived their success. They also provided their understandings of the impact of institutions, faculty, staff, and others on their academic success.…

This paper is based on qualitative interviews undertaken with immigrant youth of African descent in Windsor, Ontario; it describes their sojourner lives across geographic borders and their final settlement in Windsor. The paper also offers narrations of the activities that enabled them to formulate friendships and the barriers and facilitators to…

The envisioning of Singapore as an inclusive society has witnessed the most progressive systemic and policy developments concerning people with disabilities in recent years. The building of "heartware" in society (as in the will, values, and attitudes of its citizens) in order to realize the vision of an inclusive society, however,…

This article focuses on Spain's most recent implementing of education policies designed to address the needs of immigrant students. It overviews how the latest education policies do not meet the needs of a diverse body of students, drawing on information provided in focus group interviews from several Madrid schools, as well as from other official…

As the world settles in to the reality of globalization, it becomes clear that many incongruous facets of human existence have been forced together into a giant tumbler--economy, information systems, finance and people--giving rise to contradictory but also generative responses. Previously excluded and excised "objects" are now occupying intimate…

The United States has become more ethnically diverse, and this trend is projected to continue. Despite an increase in minority group enrollment on campus in the United States during the last decade, their rates of degree completion are not keeping pace (NCES, 2007). The question that remains to be answered is: What factors are unique to minority…

The research reported in this paper investigates the impact of, and challenges with, encouraging argumentation on students' conceptual development in physics. It draws its theoretical framework from two socio-cultural perspectives of learning, i.e. that learning science occurs in a social setting and secondly that learning science is a discursive…

The purpose of this mixed method study was to explore perceptions of students with disabilities in a predominantly Hispanic serving institution. Factors of transition from high school to college, campus involvement, engagement in student organizations and their perceptions of campus climate were investigated through both a survey with 104…

The Academic, Personal and Professional Learning (APPL) model of support for student nurses was developed and implemented as a pilot project in the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences of a university in response to a number of internal and external drivers. The common theme across these drivers was the enhancement of the social, academic…