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This study examined the most common social skills among elementary school students in an intercultural environment with contextual diversity, taking age, gender and place of birth into consideration. A total of 803 students (aged 6 to 12) were assessed using the previously validated "social skills questionnaire for intercultural students in primary education". Data were analyzed by descriptive and comparative statistics using the most recent version of SPSS software taking into account sociodemographic variables about social skills. The results indicate that gender exhibits different levels of social skills. Specifically, boys present higher scores than girls to reject and end interactions as well as in the ability to make suggestions to others. Students' social skill development is influenced by their nationality since social interaction within a community and the development of specific social skills are determined by the traditions and customs of every country. It is necessary to consider the diverse profiles of students as priority targets for educational interventions aimed at fostering these types of skills which will contribute to social integration in diverse contexts. The practical implications of this study suggest that educational programs should be adapted to address gender and nationality differences in the development of social skills. Better social and cultural integration in diverse school environments help students interact effectively and develop essential social competencies in a globalized world.

This study investigates the experiences of an international graduate student at a South Korean university via positional identity theory. It reveals the positional identities that evolved out of the student's experiences studying the Korean language prior to starting her graduate degree, and during her time as a graduate student. Applying narrative research methodology that employed interviews and journal entries, the findings reveal that the student's self-perceived right to receive her lectures in English coupled with negative experiences learning Korean prior to her graduate studies influenced her willingness to learn the Korean language and impacted upon her experiences during her graduate lectures. Perceived neglected duties and denied rights clustered to form positional identities which were radically different to described identities held prior to her time in the South Korean educational context. Implications on what these results might mean for the newly developing international graduate student market in Korea are then discussed.

What are the differences in teaching quality in countries with large cultural and economic differences, such as Nicaragua, South Korea, and the Netherlands? Can these differences be bridged with training programmes? In Nicaragua, South Korea, and the Netherlands, respectively 271, 407, and 144 English and mathematics teachers in secondary education were observed by specially trained observers. The difference in teaching quality between Nicaraguan teachers and teachers in South Korea and the Netherlands is about 1.5 "SD". The difference between Dutch and South Korean teachers is about .13 "SD". After 160 hr of teacher training, in combination with training of observers in reliable observation, the Nicaraguan teachers grew slightly more than 1 "SD". Further research should check whether a growth in teaching skills of teachers in developmental countries is accompanied by a growth in learning performance of students.

Some theories of second language acquisition have had a major influence on the teaching and learning of a second language. This study reports the acquisition of English as a second language over a six-month period by a six-year-old Nicaraguan girl. Findings are based on a cross-sectional study and data that come from observation, journaling, and video recording. There are many beliefs, arguments, and controversies about the importance of being exposed to a language at an early age and the roles that these three vital theories play: behaviorism, innatism and interactionism. Hence, this study sought to investigate the importance of an early start in language acquisition and the role these three core second language theories played in the process. The data collected adds evidence to the theory that age plays a significant role in acquiring a language. The three theories used in this study were found to be present in the process of how this child learned or acquired a language. The use of these theories could serve as a basis for teaching English to children.

As global engineering education projects and programs are initiated, too often social outcomes and long-term impacts are assumed to be positive. This is particularly true for sustainable development projects, which often have an inherent assumption of positive transformation through engineering solutions. We argue that a focus on technical deliverables absent prioritization of how and with whom our partnerships happen is less likely to actually lead to our desired social outcomes and longer-term impacts. We draw from the fields of community-based global learning, global development, and program evaluation to provide tools and insights for university-based engineering teams and off-campus partners to improve their long-term outcomes and impact. In particular, we draw on the fair-trade-learning (FTL) framework and core principles. We suggest adaptations to the FTL framework for engineering education, namely (i) broadening the definition of "community" to explicitly incorporate multiple types of off-campus partners, including for-profit enterprises; and (ii) more clearly distinguishing between outputs (e.g. deliverables), outcomes, and longer-term social impacts. Our analysis suggests integration of the FTL core principles of partner/community voice and direction and dual purposes increases the likelihood of achieving the desired social impact.

Educative Curriculum Materials (ECMs) are teaching materials that have the dual function of providing learning activities to students and providing professional development to the teachers that use them. Answering a call for professional development opportunities, and with input from English teachers in rural Nicaraguan schools, the designers created a set of ECMs aligned with the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education Curriculum. When physically bringing the completed materials to educators in rural Nicaraguan schools became impossible, it was determined that the delivery system had to change. With support from a team of undergraduate computer science students, the ECMs were transferred to a digital delivery system, the new format allowing for even more English teaching and learning support. This paper shares how a revolution in Nicaragua and failed project ultimately led to the creation of the English teaching app Reaching for English.

This article conceptualizes art therapy as an intercultural contact zone or social ecotone, defined as the liminal space that emerges when two or more habitats overlap. In the unresolved tensions of their interaction, negotiation of power through cultural humility is an ongoing, profoundly ethical process. This premise is illustrated with examples from a high-contrast contact zone the author experienced as an art therapist in collaboration with a social justice-oriented organization serving marginalized communities in their emancipatory goals. The implications of cultural borderlands are discussed as transgressive zones of transformative power and exchange.

Purpose: Different forms of social learning have been explored to act as complements to conventional extension services. This paper examines the possibility of using vocational training to high school students who in turn transfer information to their parents. Design/Methodology/approach: We conduct a randomized control trial in nine communities in rural Nicaragua and evaluate changes in the knowledge of agricultural technologies, access to credit markets, and technology adoption for parents and students using a difference-in-difference approach. Findings: Our results show improvements in knowledge-based outcomes for students and parents, and increased access to credit markets and adoption of agricultural technologies by parents. Practical Implications: Given the increase in schooling across developing countries, our results suggest that programs designed around within-family information diffusion can complement more conventional forms of agricultural extension. Theoretical Implications: Little explored channels of information exchange can act as complements or substitutes of conventional extension models, where those are weak or non-existent. Originality/Value: This paper is one of the first to explore and evaluate the teacher-student-parent of information exchange as an alternative for agricultural technology diffusion.

Global South and Indigenous communities often represent the contexts of international service learning (ISL) programs. However, rarely are the effects of historical colonization and the potential colonizing impact of Global North visitors being investigated. Central to this article is our story as Global North and settler-Canadian researchers who are learning to experiment with decolonization as a theoretical framework for ISL research. We offer an account of the development of an encuentro (symposium); a culminating event for a four-year study, in which Guatemalan and Nicaraguan host community members share of their experiences as Indigenous hosts. The findings reveal challenges in future ISL research in such contexts and offer ideas about how institutions and organizations may develop ISL in ways that honor community visions of reciprocity.

This article draws on existing literature, a large, multi-institutional dataset, and several case studies to explore two empirical questions: Do students of color (SOC) differ from white students in statistically significant ways in respect to the global learning goal of cultural humility? And what interactive effects do students and faculty from diverse backgrounds, diversity and inclusion advocacy, and diverse community contexts have on one another? We draw on existing literature and quantitative data to demonstrate that SOC tend to bring strengths to global learning experiences. We share several case studies to demonstrate how those strengths may lead to specific alliances regarding justice work in host communities, complicating any conception of students as visitors unattached to local justice struggles. Throughout the article, we draw on current literature and practice to present several questions at the intersections of education abroad, diversity, equity, inclusion, community-based global learning, and critical global citizenship.

Latin American countries have evolved over the years. Still, after years of military reign, socioeconomicinstability, and civil wars, the region has been known for its anti-hegemonic economic growth (educationalpolicies) strategies. Central and South America's educational system has long been under investigation by researchers both theoretically and empirically. The transition of its education system through the introduction of centralized, liberalized, and populist ideology has sparked many researchers' interest. This paper aims to understand and compare 14 Latin American countries' education orientation. The study uses a matrix table to visualize the qualitative finding.

Background: Critical literature examining international service learning does not examine the historical formations or expectations and experiences of hosts in depth. Most studies focus on either a critical examination of colonial or imperial history or a wide analysis of host perceptions without the same critical attention to history. Purpose: The research reported in this article focuses on the experiences and histories of Nicaraguan hosts in international service learning. Methodology: The research includes a qualitative case study and draws on in-depth interviews with 21 Nicaraguan hosts. The research was conducted in 2014 and 2015 as a part of a larger study which also included volunteers. Findings: Nicaraguans who participated in international service learning did so with intentional outcomes that are shaped through Nicaraguan histories of transnational solidarity. This intentional participation meant that programming was cultivated with the hopes for politicized learning outcomes. Implications: International service learning is a complex and problematic pedagogy as has been well documented in the literature. Seeking to understand, however, the motivations and expectations of hosts as contextualized in their own historical formations, cultures and desires can provide alternative frameworks and imagining for international service learning practices.

The COVID-19 global pandemic presented an unprecedented challenge to the sustainability strategies and initiatives of many nations. In many countries, education strategies and funding were negatively impacted and, consequently, especially vulnerable groups were highly affected, amongst them Indigenous communities around the world. As Indigenous communities were already amongst the most vulnerable before 2020, a strategically and well-planned recovery from this pandemic would be vital to secure their well-being. This article offers reflections on the potential of infusing "Education for Sustainable Development" (ESD) in the classroom, the school and the community as a whole, to deal with known and yet unprecedented sustainability challenges in presenting commonalities of 32 good practice reports from 21 countries collected in advance and during the global pandemic. Authors make the point of considering the pandemic and its widespread impact as yet another sustainability challenge and position "ESD" as a potential tool to achieve quality education and unleash the full potential of education for society when planning recovery efforts in hope for a better future of Indigenous communities in the long term. As the good practices were also included in a report of the "UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to the 48th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council," focusing on the post-pandemic recovery efforts for Indigenous Peoples, further thoughts on both official reports and their alignment with the overall "2030 Agenda" from an "ESD" perspective are included.

Although the leadership training and development industry generates billions of dollars each year, some countries lag behind. This article explores one program's attempt to expand leadership training and development opportunities in Nicaragua. The Leadership Trainer Certification Program (LTCP) is designed to prepare those who are responsible for the leadership development of others with the knowledge, skills, and facilitation techniques to effectively train others in leadership. In this article, we detail qualitative narrative data from one participant's experience to share how he translated his learning into his leadership training and development practice. This article illuminates how leadership train-the-trainer programming can re-shape the leadership landscape, especially in places like Nicaragua and throughout the Global South.

In August 2017, 27 residents from four Nicaraguan and four Guatemalan communities met in Managua, Nicaragua, to discuss their experiences hosting International Service Learning (ISL) groups from the Global North. Despite having many positive recollections, these host community representatives identified a number of issues of concern. This article describes the background to this "encuentro" (gathering), the issues raised, and the solutions identified in order to encourage Global South host organizations to become better able to articulate their expectations of their Northern visitors and to insist that Northern-sending agencies become more responsive to the expectations of their Southern hosts

In spring 2018, nine agriculture students from Louisiana State University traveled to Nicaragua for a study abroad course. During this experience, students explored agricultural industries and engaged in cultural tours as well as in a service-learning project. Evidence has demonstrated that such experiences can transform students' intercultural sensitivity, global knowledge, and views on agriculture. To facilitate such an experience, however, requires educators to design experiences that challenge students' existing values and worldviews -- a concept known as dissonance. Mezirow theorized that when individuals reflect critically on dissonance, it spurs a transformational learning (TL) process. However, knowledge of the types of dissonance that initiate TL in study abroad programs is insufficient. This study, therefore, sought to understand the multiple ways that students experienced dissonance during a study abroad course. Through our analysis, four forms of dissonance emerged: (1) environmental, (2) sociocultural, (3) intellectual, and (4) personal. When viewed through the lens of TL theory, the forms of dissonance appeared to shape and influence how students experienced TL as well as their resulting perspective changes. As a consequence, this study provided important insights into how study abroad courses could be designed and delivered to better encourage the maturation of students' perspectives on global issues and problems.

In this article I analyze postcolonial theory as a critical framework to improve understanding of global service-learning (GSL) partnerships. Although research on student learning outcomes from participation in GSL has grown dramatically over the past decade, scholarship on community outcomes and perspectives in GSL continues to lag. Just as participation in GSL does not necessarily result in global learning outcomes for students without intentional programming, I argue that GSL research on community perspectives does not necessarily result in ethical community-university partnerships without interrogation of who is involved and how that research happens. In this article, I pull back the curtain to describe my positionality (who) and the methods utilized (how)--including the cautionary tales and challenges encountered--to provide an example of a participatory orientation to GSL research.

Ensuring that cultural sensitivity in teacher education programs is addressed will enhance new teachers' confidence and effectiveness in the classroom. As the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, teacher candidates have experienced a non-contact environment at every stage of their professional education. Specifically, the pandemic impacted the availability and quality of their field experiences, including student teaching, internship/practicum, clinical work in culturally responsive teaching, and study or teaching abroad. Moreover, the shift to online instruction in most school districts required teachers to reconsider their approach to engagement in classroom activities. This article describes how the authors, in response to the limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, implemented a unique program with the goal of increasing aspiring teachers' educational cultural competence. The Online Global Outreach (OGO) program is a field experience that provides a cost-effective and time-efficient way to build pre-service teachers' educational cultural competence by giving them the opportunity to teach virtually in a foreign school when in-person interaction is not feasible. The goals of the program were to increase the teacher candidate's self-awareness and self-confidence and to allow them to gain cultural capital, in terms of culture-related knowledge, social skills, and behavioral norms, that they could apply to their future classrooms.

Human languages, signed and spoken, can be characterized by the structural patterns they use to associate communicative "forms" with "meanings." One such pattern is paradigmatic morphology, where complex words are built from the systematic use "and re-use" of sub-lexical units. Here, we provide evidence of emergent paradigmatic morphology akin to number inflection in a communication system developed without input from a conventional language, "homesign." We study the communication systems of four deaf child homesigners (mean age 8;02). Although these idiosyncratic systems vary from one another, we nevertheless find that all four children use handshape and movement devices productively to express cardinal and non-cardinal number information, and that their number expressions are consistent in both form and meaning. Our study shows, for the first time, that all four homesigners not only incorporate number devices into representational devices used as predicates, but also into gestures functioning as nominals, including deictic gestures. In other words, the homesigners express number by systematically combining "and re-combining" additive markers for number ("qua" inflectional morphemes) with representational and deictic gestures ("qua" bases). The creation of new, complex forms with predictable meanings across gesture types and linguistic functions constitutes evidence for an inflectional morphological "paradigm" in homesign and expands our understanding of the structural patterns of language that are, and are not, dependent on linguistic input.

Historically, education abroad has been designed to provide students a full immersion experience by way of semester or year-long study at a foreign university. However, this traditional format has been redefined to include a variety of non-traditional international experiences, such as international service learning projects, internships, and short-term international experiences. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to develop a deep understanding of the lived experiences of agricultural education undergraduate students participating in a short-term international experience. The overarching question that guided the study was: What were the lived experiences of agricultural education undergraduate students during a short-term international experience? As a result of the short-term international experience, students did not progress fully through all levels of development needed to be considered proficient in cultural competence. However, students demonstrated significant gains in cultural awareness and some gains in cultural understanding and cultural sensitivity. Finally, participating students verified some progress toward building cultural communication competencies as a result of their experience.

There are ways for teachers to carry out independent professional development--leading themselves to grow in their understanding and practice of teaching. Two of these are action research and individual development plans. However, to use these models, teachers need connections with teaching colleagues, a mentor, and/or a basic understanding of how to do research and carry out reflection. These are resources that rural Nicaraguan teachers--and many teachers in other contexts around the world--rarely have. The authors looked for an alternative pathway for independent professional development and began to ask the questions: What would professional development look like if trainers and colleagues were less important in the process? What would it look like if teachers were experimenting autonomously on their own with teaching materials that met their needs? As researchers and teacher trainers, the authors discovered a concept that was new to them: "Educative Curriculum Materials" (ECMs). ECMs are teaching materials intentionally designed to guide educators to understand teaching concepts in their own way. Teachers "infer" theory rather than "hear" about it in a workshop. The authors applied the concept of ECMs to teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) and developed materials in collaboration with Nicaraguan teachers. In this article, the authors describe ECMs and review key literature related to them. They then suggest a process that others who are supporting teachers in similar circumstances can use to develop and refine classroom materials that provide independent professional development. The authors share examples of their own findings in Nicaragua as well as some sample materials.

The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015 marked a new milestone for early childhood education, care, and development. For the first time in the framework of global goals, preschool education was described as integral to children's school readiness. Yet with few exceptions, much of the research on the impact of preschool has stemmed from high-income countries. Even fewer studies have examined preschool participation and later learning across multiple countries. This article helps fill this gap by connecting preschool participation to early primary reading outcomes, as measured by the Early Grade Reading Assessment. Drawing on a unique data set using student-level learning assessments from 16 countries, we use preprimary participation to explain primary school reading skills, including letter knowledge and oral reading fluency. We also model the influence of key demographic variables on these outcomes, including home language and classroom language of instruction (LOI). For a subset of six countries with exceptionally rich data, we examine national-level policy and practice to better understand what might explain the persistence or fadeout of the effect of preschool. Policy makers and practitioners alike will find these results useful in making cases for improving preschool experiences for children in low- and middle-income countries in the next decade of SDG-related efforts.

In view of increasing diversity regarding the cultural background of children in pre-schools and the like, it is important to know how they differ in their perception of social networks. This study investigated the perception of social support networks in young children from three different eco-social milieus. Participants (N = 138, 4-6 year olds) were recruited from German urban nuclear families and two groups of rural extended families in Central America. The support networks were analyzed by means of two game scenarios for "Sharing" and "Asking for Help" with a family collage in addition. Results show significant differences between groups in regard to the size, structure, and relationship patterns of support networks. Networks of urban German children included mainly friends, parents, and siblings, whereas those from Central American children also included other members of the extended family. The perceived importance of father, mother, and siblings differed between groups. Children's willingness to share correlated with parental socio-cultural orientation. Practical implications for early childhood education are discussed in view of children's socio-cultural background.

This study examined the effects of a 9-week auditory intervention on the auditory skills of five children with hearing loss who experienced prolonged auditory deprivation before receiving hearing aids. A single-case multiple baseline design across participants was used to examine the effect of the intervention on the children's auditory skills using a weekly probe. The analyses showed a moderate to high intervention effect for three out of five participants. Children demonstrated gains in detection, discrimination, and identification, and Participant 5 also showed gains in sentence comprehension. Findings provide preliminary support for offering auditory intervention to children with hearing loss who are late identified and aided in the presence of residual hearing.

Job uncertainty and ambiguity is a reality in many current societies, therefore, the idea of self-employment has taken a more active role, not only out of necessity, but also because it brings innovation and development to societies. In view of this situation, the following question arises: how can we strengthen the entrepreneurial spirit of our students? This article has the objective to collect theoretical information of the state of the art on entrepreneurship education: what it has been, what it is, and what can it be, in order to present the current condition of the topic, both in the psychological and pedagogical field. To achieve this objective, information from 108 research sources, mainly from scientific articles and books was collected, concluding that, although generally, entrepreneurship education has significantly contributed to the creation of businesses, developing countries, specifically, those in Latin America, still require extra effort to fully implement entrepreneurship topic in the curriculums, particularly because of challenges such as political instability, technology and international competition.

This essay explores the potential value of short-term study abroad experiences within the unique framework of a new global service-learning program at Providence College which connects international with local engagement as a way to "do more with less." The authors first introduce a typology for global service-learning, illustrating how this model fits within current approaches to international service-learning. They then describe a case study, "Voices Across Borders," the global service-learning program which provides opportunities for students to engage with rural Nicaraguan and urban Providence youth through projects that harness the power of storytelling to make connections across borders. Based on the lessons from this effort, the essay offers a set of civic practices that can support the longer-term impact of short-term global service-learning, including i) fostering storytelling across borders; ii) cultivating students as partners; iii) developing reciprocal community partnerships; and iv) creating public work, visual, auditory or performing public artifacts. After describing the challenges for short-term international engagement, the authors conclude that global service-learning initiatives might more appropriately be focused on collaborative learning, rather than service, as a way of thinking more comprehensively about the entire global "ecology of education" which links learning at the international and local levels.

School dropout is a growing concern in Central America, and in Latin America as a whole, because of its consequences for economic productivity, the inclusiveness of growth, social cohesion, and increasing youth risks. This paper utilizes more than two decades of household survey data to construct a systematic overview of school dropout at the primary and secondary levels in Central America, focusing on recent trends in dropout patterns and their underlying causes. Within each country, poverty, rurality, and indigenous group membership are the strongest correlates of dropout, reflecting several underlying factors that affect the marginal benefits and costs of staying in school. Global and regional evidence increasingly points to common policy priorities for reducing dropout across Central America, including addressing remaining gaps in access at the pre-primary and secondary levels, improving the quality of education at all levels, and strengthening the coverage, targeting, and coherence of existing programs aimed at improving education outcomes. However, additional rigorous evaluations, including cost data, are needed to identify the most effective specific approaches in each country.

This study examines recent trends and factors in school dropout at the upper secondary education level across Latin America. The methodology employs repeated cross sections of data to track the life cycle path of cohorts of individuals in 18 countries. A key finding is that while upper secondary enrollment rates increased in the region, dropout has remained persistently high, despite relatively favorable macroeconomic conditions. To explain dropout trends, the study examines the impact of three groups of factors: (i) shifts in the cohort size and socioeconomic composition of the population eligible for entering upper secondary; (b) the macroeconomic environment and labor market opportunities; and (c) the returns to schooling. We show that an important factor in persistently high dropout rates has been the higher numbers of students from poor socioeconomic backgrounds reaching upper secondary. In addition, high returns to education have been a pull factor into schooling, while, especially in countries where the majority of youth dropout prior to upper secondary, the data confirm an apparent substitution effect due to the opportunity cost of forgoing employment opportunities. The findings confirm the growing policy focus on upper secondary across Latin America and suggest implications for the policy agenda.

This case study described the oral expressive outcomes of five children with hearing loss who experienced prolonged auditory deprivation prior to participating in an auditory intervention. Expressive outcomes were measured by the number of spontaneous words and imitations. Visual analyses revealed that two of the five participants increased their oral expressive skills during the intervention. The results suggest that children with hearing loss who are late identified and aided can still develop some basic oral expressive skills, but they would probably benefit from interventions that directly target the use of words expressively.

Educators involved in the improvement of science instruction need to explore how science education could better align with the needs and interests of specific communities, especially in areas of Central America where local knowledge has been expunged from schools. In this paper, I draw upon Culturally Sustaining and Revitalizing Pedagogies to explore a single community's visions for science education and how these visions may be used as pathways for restoring relevant science education practices. To do this study, a case study approach was used to collect 150 h of science lesson observations at three schools in a small Nicaraguan community and interview 18 science teachers and community members. Many of these teachers and community members provided detailed accounts of local science knowledge or methods of teaching science that had been replaced with Westernized curriculum and pedagogies to the detriment of learning and their community. Results indicate two overarching visions: (1) a vision for reviving Scholar Orchards and (2) a vision for learning science with community resources. These findings highlight the need to partner with local teachers and community members when designing, implementing, and evaluating science education because they possess sophisticated visions for making science more relevant, sustaining, and revitalizing within their community context.

There has been an increase in sales education across the U.S. and world. Due to the growing and critical demand of sales professionals, new programs have been established at many universities. This study investigates the feasibility of adapted sales curriculum that is used in a U.S. based university and if it can be used in Latin America to help people develop skills to enhance their personal livelihood. Data was collected from both Guatemala and Nicaragua before and after the training was delivered. T-Tests were utilized to analyze if there was an increase in the participants employability and earning power. The results indicate that teaching individuals from both countries basic sales skills can immediately increase employability and earning ability. This paper outlines this process while outlining a model for collaboration and outreach efforts.

Nicaragua published its first series of textbooks for the teaching of English in public secondary schools in 2016. This article reports on an investigation of the first three textbooks belonging to this series. The aim was to see how the textbooks follow up the Nicaraguan national curriculum, which emphasizes the need for learners to develop communication skills. We discuss the approaches with reference to principles of communicative language teaching and Nation's four strands for a well-balanced language course. We identify significant discrepancies between the three books and, thus, a lack of progression in the course. The investigation is also an example of the affordances of our analytical tool for textbook analysis.

Purpose: The current study identifies successes and limitations of sustaining Dale se Real (DsR) as a school-based educational intervention program related to drugs and violence for 7th and 8th grade students in Nicaragua, Central America. As evidence-based interventions are transported and imported across national borders, issues surrounding their adaptation and sustainability become important targets for investigation. Design/methodology/approach: Interviews were conducted with nine key informants (e.g. school directors, implementers) from seven institutions, four of which sustained DsR and three of which did not. This study explores DsR's fit with the institutions' missions and routines, program adaptability, broader community support and sustainability planning. Findings: Findings demonstrate two emerging views of sustainability within the Nicaraguan schools: a deficit approach and an empowerment approach. These two approaches imply different motivational structures for institutions and also led to the practical finding that developers and trainers need to provide structured or formal ways of empowering schools to continue implementing a program after staff no longer routinely contact them. Originality/value: This study contributes a particular case on what facilitates and impedes sustainability of school-based interventions that can inform future intervention research in Latin American countries.

This paper presents a review of twelve studies on the effectiveness of international service-learning projects. The purpose of this review is to analyze, through the use of themes, the goals and issues affecting outcomes of such programs in order to evaluate the current uses of international service-learning within multiple fields. International service-learning goals range from producing a sense of civic engagement to transformational pedagogy and should be examined for their effectiveness within higher education. This study was conducted in the form of a literature review focusing on international service-learning research taken from the early 2000's to the present. Data focusing on program goals and outcomes was collected, and the findings suggest that international service-learning programs must focus on more than critical reflection in order to produce change in its participants--both students and community members. The findings also suggest that programs set goals that are not always readily met, and therefore, a few recommendations have been made for program improvement.

International businesses face a difficult task when trying to decide where to place or expand a business that could be located anywhere in the world. Each country is a complex system of human capabilities, technical systems, [infrastructure bases, laws, cultures and economic systems. How can a company know which country is best for it today, and even more importantly, which country will grow into an appropriate location for future business opportunities? Several studies offer insights into how to make site selection decisions (O'Farrell & Wood, 1994; Papadopoulos et al., 2002; Rothaermel et al., 2006) but the complexity of the data required makes initial analysis across many countries problematic. Most businesses, trying to predict an ideal country or sequence of countries to enter, are left to simple rules of thumb or decision models using limited criteria (Górecka & Szalucka, 2013; Alexander et al., 2011). A wide variety of country data of varying reliability and efficacy are frequently used (Rahman, 2003). Many of the largest companies have developed specialized teams with sophisticated models for site selection. However, for smaller companies finding reliable, consistently measured data they can interpret and analyze in ways that provide useful insights is a challenge. This article introduces the Social Progress Index, launched in April 2013 at the 10th annual Skoll World Forum held at the University of Oxford (The Origins, 2015). The Social Progress Index is unique because it is the most comprehensive framework developed for measuring social progress and the first to measure social progress independently of GDP or other economic variables (Porter, 2015; Keohane, 2015). Three cases have been chosen to demonstrate the usefulness of the Social Progress Index for site selection in three very different circumstances.

This study used ethnographic methods to understand factors influencing the implementation of an educational intervention combining short math content videos with teacher trainings and mentorship in high-poverty primary schools in Nicaragua with implications for rural school reform. Educators in rural schools in Latin American face serious obstacles to improve classroom instruction and pedagogy, including lack of resources and overcrowding. Research suggests an over-reliance on input-output models in which inputs (e.g. teacher salaries, textbooks, technology, computer labs, numbers of classrooms, etc.) are expected to produce particular outputs (student retention, lowering drop-out rates, increasing graduation rates, etc.); however, studies show that regardless of the resources, much depends on effective use of resources for successful teaching and learning (O'Sullivan, 2006; L. S. Shulman, 1987). While input/output models provide insights into an educational systems economic efficiency, they do not offer insight into what actually transpires inside of a classroom (O'Sullivan, 2006). Much depends on effective training and use of these very resources. Though systemic issues in the Nicaraguan educational system produced numerous obstacles for the eleven participating 3rd and 6th grade teachers, the educational intervention model supported teachers' ability to be innovative and grow their practice in four ways: a) increased pedagogical knowledge; b) opportunities to collaborate and support one another as a community of teachers; c) flexibility in adaptation of the intervention model to their specific classroom context; and d) use of videos as supportive resources for content knowledge.

We can expect climate change to alter the frequency, magnitude, timing, and location of many natural hazards. For example, heat waves are likely to become more frequent, and heavy downpours and flooding more common and more intense. Hurricanes will likely grow more dangerous, rising sea levels will mean more coastal flooding, and more-frequent and more-intense droughts will produce more wildfires. Children, particularly the poor and those in developing countries, are at risk. Carolyn Kousky considers three ways that natural disasters may harm children disproportionately, often with long-lasting effects. First, disasters can damage children's physical health. Children may be injured or killed, but they may also suffer from such things as malnutrition caused by disruptions in food supply or diarrheal illness caused by contaminated water. Moreover, disasters can cut off access to medical care, even for non-disaster-related illnesses. Second, disasters can cause mental health problems. Not only are disasters themselves stressful and frightening, but children can suffer psychological harm from the damage to their homes and possessions; from migration; from the grief of losing loved ones; from seeing parents or caregivers undergo stress; from neglect and abuse; and from breakdowns in social networks, neighborhoods, and local economies. Third, disasters can interrupt children's education by displacing families, destroying schools, and pushing children into the labor force to help their families make ends meet in straitened times. How can we mitigate the dangers to children even as disasters become more powerful and more frequent? For one thing, we can prepare for disasters before they strike, for example, by strengthening school buildings and houses. Kousky also describes actions that have been proven to help children after a disaster, such as quickly reuniting them with parents and caregivers. Finally, a range of policies not designed for disasters can nonetheless help mitigate the harm disasters cause children and their families. In fact, Kousky writes, using existing safety net programs may be easier, faster, and more effective than creating entirely new programs after a disaster occurs.

This article explores the role of enabling school structures, collegial trust, and collective efficacy in 15 pre-Kindergarten to 12th grade international, private schools in South and Central America and Mexico. While most of these schools shared an "American" curriculum the local culture and school norms affected the climate of the school and the likelihood of the development of a professional learning community (PLC) in each school and country accordingly. As enabling school structures, trust in the principal, collegial trust, and collective efficacy were more established, the PLC was more likely to be developed based upon teacher perceptions in this quantitative study.