Search

With the rising use of service dogs to support students with disabilities, it is important that teachers are knowledgeable about how they can be incorporated into their classroom. A recent ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court has highlighted the legal responsibility of schools to allow access to the service dogs of students. However, information focusing on the preparation of teachers for this possibility is lacking. This article provides both general and special education teachers with guidelines for including service dogs in their classroom. Background information regarding service dogs is included in addition to practical considerations concerning students, the classroom, the service dog, and planning process.

Background: This study explores the impact of community-based health literacy interventions on the health and mental well-being of disadvantaged young Africans in Zambia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and South Africa. The pandemic has exacerbated mental health problems amongst children and young people, underscoring the urgent need for equitable access to mental healthcare resources. Emphasizing the importance of equitable access to mental healthcare resources, the research addresses educational and income disparities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly amongst young Africans with disabilities or vulnerabilities. Methods: The study comprised 1,624 young Africans, of whom 1,592 were surveyed, while 191 later participated in in-depth interviews and focus groups. Additionally, 32 participants exclusively joined focus groups. Participants were recruited to complete the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS), WHO-5 Well-being Index, Pandemic Anxiety Scale (PAS), and Self-rating of Happiness, as well as semi-structured interviews or focus groups. Results: The findings highlight the significance of tailored health literacy interventions in addressing mental health challenges and promoting well-being in marginalized African communities. In the sample, 43.1% (686) reported to have at least a physical disability or serious health condition and 51.4% (818) had special educational needs (SENs). Mental health scores were significantly lower in participants with two or more physical disabilities and pre-existing mental health problems. Factors significantly associated with poor mental health included poor health literacy, physical disabilities, and pre-existing mental health problems. Four main themes were generated from the thematic analysis: early childhood trajectories and mental illness experiences; positionality, open communication, and mental illness experience; mental illness experience, emotional honesty, and social stratification; and spirituality, cultural beliefs, and mental illness experience. Conclusion: The study emphasizes the need for context-specific, culturally appropriate health literacy interventions to support the mental health and well-being of young Africans in LMICs. By focusing on the lived experiences of disadvantaged groups, the research contributes to a better understanding of effective strategies for promoting health literacy and addressing health inequalities in African communities during and after health emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a time when Black Lives Matter has brought the legacies of transatlantic slavery to the global headlines, the British state has discovered slavery of a different kind: the evils of "modern slavery." Modern slavery has been defined as an urgent contemporary problem facing domestic citizens on home ground. This is nowhere more evident than in the case of county lines, the name given to the street-level drug economy of heroin and crack cocaine that is connecting larger cities to coastal and market towns. The runners of this illicit trade—working-class teenagers and young men, often racialized as nonwhite, from marginalized social housing estates—are no longer treated as criminals but as modern slaves in need of saving. Yet the making of modern slaves hinges upon fraught processes of techno-moral governance that divorce individuals' de jure vulnerability from the state's de facto production of classed and racial domination. Thus, in the name of saving the vulnerable, the state expands its remit of control into the most intimate realms of people's lives. What is more, by distinguishing those who are considered worthy of legal victimhood from others who are not, it has reinvented the figure of the modern slave master in the body of the male black working-class youth. Far from constituting a departure from punitive modes of governance, the politics of victimhood entrenches deep-seated inequalities while further distancing the state from the afterlives of Empire in postcolonial austerity Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Polizei & Wissenschaft is the property of Verlag fur Polizeiwissenschaft and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There is widespread interest in the impact of unauthorised absence on pupil attainment, links with disaffection, exclusion from school and criminality. However, little is heard about what those who take unauthorised absence from school think that the effect has been on them; nor do we hear the voices of other pupils and their teachers. This article presents evidence from a one-year study of absence in seven local authorities in England funded by the Department for Education and Skills. It defines "truancy", explores some issues from existing literature on pupil non-attendance, and presents evidence to show the impact that absence from school has on truants, other pupils and teachers. Finally, it suggests that although the greatest impact is on the academic and socio-psychological development of persistent absentees, the attitudes and learning of other pupils and the workload and morale of teachers are also affected. (Contains 2 tables and 1 note.)

Traditionally, education in Scotland has been viewed as a national service that is locally administered. This research casts new light on that relationship between the Scottish Executive and local authorities by drawing on evidence from an evaluation of the implementation of the additional support staff element of the Teachers' Agreement which determined not only teachers' pay structure but also established the professional conditions under which they would work. The paper identifies how local authorities and schools spent the grant aid on staff and equipment, how many additional support staff were appointed, and what impact they were reported to be having on teaching and learning. Information was gathered from a postal survey of all 32 Scottish local authorities and a random sample of 267 schools, and also from interviews held in six case study schools. The findings show that: all the grant aid could not be accounted for, the target number of support staff was not achieved, and their deployment and impact varied across local authorities and schools. By way of conclusion it poses the question: "Was the money well spent?" (Contains 4 tables, 1 figure and 26 notes.)