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This article provides a case study of three educational digital storytelling (EDS) projects in which researchers use intercultural identity management theory (IMT) as a framework to investigate student claims of transformation within short-term study abroad courses. Across three separate hybrid digital production and intercultural communication courses with study abroad requirements, instructors noticed a pattern of students sharing similar sentiments that they experienced significant changes in beliefs, attitudes, or identity, with some even describing being "transformed" by the course experience. Analyses of multimedia student communications revealed that conducting interviews provided a discursive way to practice IMT agency. Furthermore, planning and editing digital stories prompted students' consideration of intercultural identity transformations as they viewed self-depictions of intercultural communication experiences. Exploration into the EDS learning process reflects that of established IMT phases, lending support to how EDS projects can provide pedagogical guidance for instructors seeking IMT awareness as part of the short-term study abroad experience.

Reasoning for complexity is a fundamental competency in these complex times for solutions to social problems and decision-making. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the validity and reliability of the eComplexity instrument by presenting its psychometric properties. The instrument consists of a Likert-type scale questionnaire designed to measure college students' perceptions of their mastery levels of complex reasoning competency as well as the subcompetencies that comprise it. The instrument was applied to higher education students in different countries of Latin America and Spain. The questionnaire articulates four types of thinking: systemic, scientific, critical and innovative and consists of 25 items. The methodology used was instrumental and psychometric, which seeks to demonstrate the validity and reliability of the eComplexity questionnaire. The results obtained from the research were as follows: The exploratory factor analysis indicated a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin index (KMO) > 0.80, a significance of p< 0.05 and a Cronbach's Alpha value of 0.93. Likewise, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis was carried out and was possible to corroborate the internal structure validity of the instrument. In addition to Cronbach's Alpha coefficient, McDonald's Omega, and Guttman's Lambda coefficients were calculated to calculate reliability. With the results obtained it was possible to conclude that the instrument is valid and reliable, can be used in various university contexts to support integrated training necessary to address current challenges and contribute to educational research. It is recommended for future studies that the research can be expanded by using an instrument that can move from perceptual terms to measuring levels of complex reasoning mastery, but it is valuable to contrast with the students' perception to have a broader vision.

It is widely accepted that concept maps are a meaningful learning tool. Even so, the use of concept mapping as a meaningful learning tool is probably less common than the use of concept mapping as an assessment tool. In first place, the easiest thing to with a student's concept map is to apply a rubric and give it a grade. And second, teachers often believe that by using a meaningful learning tool, their students are learning meaningfully while constructing their concept maps. We are then missing on the greatest power of the concept map, its use as a tool to learn meaningfully. In this paper we examine the difference between using concept maps for learning and for assessment, and propose steps on how to move towards the use of the tool to improve students' learning and understanding.

In the rapidly changing atmosphere of the global economy, productivity has become a very important concept for long-term economic growth, development, regional and global competitiveness, raising social living standards and increasing the level of welfare for countries. In the 21st century, when scientific knowledge, technology, innovation, R&D and entrepreneurship manifest themselves in every stage of the production process, human capital has come to the fore as an important and determining factor that increases productivity. In the current study, the effect of human capital, one of the most important outputs of education, on country productivity was analyzed for 24 developing countries, including Turkey, which are in the upper middle income group. In the application part, a panel data set was created for the 24 countries included in the study with the series obtained from the database of PWT10.0 for the period of 1980-2019. The Human Capital Index was used to reveal the human capital status of the countries included in the analysis and the Total Factor Productivity Index was used to reveal the productivity status. The Granger Panel Causality Test was employed to determine whether there is a short-term relationship and the Westerlund Panel Cointegration Test was employed to determine whether there is a long-term relationship between the two variables. As a result of a bilateral causality relationship was found between human capital and productivity in the short-term and a cointegration relationship in the long-term. The study is important and different from other studies in that it focuses on the concepts of human capital and productivity, which have a very limited place in the education literature, although they are directly related to education, and it is grounded on an interdisciplinary approach (bringing together education, sociology and econometrics).

Training the high-order competency of complex thinking encompasses addressing its sub-competencies of critical, innovative, scientific and systemic thinking. In this framework, how do the practices of reasoning for complexity in Latin American institutions differ from other regions? This study focused on comparing training practices that promote complex thinking in national and international educational entities through analysis of their programs and alternative professional credentials to identify best educational practices. The comparative education method benchmarked the selected institutions and compared the best educational practices. The four categories of analysis were the philosophical, theoretical, and political components and the educational process. A significant-document analysis was applied to publications found on the websites of 19 educational institutions, and the data were triangulated. The findings accounted for (a) educational institutions seeking to educate individuals who can improve the quality of life in society and contribute to sustainable development, (b) educational practices aimed at developing complex thinking competencies and lifelong learning as essential for new educational models, (c) the collaboration of researchers, faculty, and other stakeholders, and appropriate tools for formative assessment, promoting the development of complex reasoning competencies in changing environments, and (d) educational processes focused on developing high skills, innovation, and digital transformation as essential for designing the future of education. This study is intended to be of value to managers, decision-makers, professors, researchers, and society interested in creating new programs to develop high-level capabilities, such as complex thinking.

The present ethnographic study was conducted in collaboration with thirty-five Latin American children from different countries during the period of school closures precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through exchanges of multimodal texts (letters, text messages, photos, drawings, audios, videos) and virtual encounters, we sought to understand how these children reconstructed and transformed their schooling practices. Through our interactions in this constructed ethnographic field, we could observe how the children lived during the pandemic from their unique perspectives. Everyday school structures were incorporated within the children's embodiments and experiences at home, opening new opportunities for agency enactment, and expanding possibilities for learning and exploration. Their learning practices revealed a process of appropriation, merging what they already knew to new learning experiences that were created beyond the school as an institution or an abstract concept.

Purpose: The challenges facing 21st-century society are becoming increasingly complex, requiring the development of new citizen competencies. This study aims to validate an educational model focused on developing complex thinking in higher education students. Current educational models lack future-ready competencies, necessitating the emergence of new models to guide future generations toward the common good. Design/methodology/approach: This was an adaptation of the causal-layered analysis (CLA) applied to 415 participants from higher education institutions in Mexico, Panama and Spain. Sessions were designed to present the proposed educational model and explore participants' perceptions of its significance and contributions to future education. Findings: Key findings include the following: participants perceived complexity as difficult and challenging; causes of problems were linked to outdated educational models requiring replacement by those that develop students' competencies; participants envisioned changes that would develop individuals capable of understanding and transforming society; and participants recognized the model's transformative potential, offering a novel proposal for 21st-century education. Originality/value: This research sought to gather opinions from different stakeholders using the CLA methodology, providing a deep understanding of participants' perspectives on the proposed solution.

Although several studies highlight the benefit of short-term immersion programs abroad among social work students, few studies have examined their transformative nature. In response, this study aimed to describe the transformative change experienced by MSW students from the Southwest USA who participated in a short-term, immersion program in either Panama or Italy. The structure of the program consisted of two components: a 10-week hybrid classroom during the semester and a 12-13 day, short-term immersion program during the summer. Content analysis was utilized to examine student reflections on the impact of the short-term study abroad experience in areas such as cultural awareness and humility, professional and personal growth, and the most impactful and transformative experiences. The results included the following themes: (1) Community, (2) Adaptation, (3) Empowerment/Inspiration/Transformation, &; (4) Culture. Implications for future research in this area are identified along with considerations for educators regarding planning, teaching, and/or leading the in-country experience to best support student transformation in short-term immersion programs abroad.

Achieving inclusion and equity in international business (IB) education remains a challenge, given the rising costs of college tuition and the increasingly diverse and non-traditional student population. These changes may reduce the feasibility and relevancy of activities, such as study abroad programs, and an MNE-centric IB curriculum for a significant number of college students today. To overcome these challenges, in this paper, we share our findings from a case study on a virtual service-learning project that fostered cross-border interactions between undergraduate students in North America and small business owners in Central America. Over the course of one semester, students worked to draw connections between their unique individual backgrounds and skill sets, connect IB and global strategy concepts to small business operations, and deepen their understanding of sustainable development. Our findings demonstrate that this practice can enhance student enjoyment, academic learning, professional growth, and civic learning. Overall, virtual service-learning can be effective as an alternative teaching and learning approach to address the significant challenges in IB education.

A bibliometric analysis was carried out on the production and publication of research papers related to the study of the management variable in the quality of education in Latin America. The purpose of the analysis proposed in this document is to know the main characteristics of the volume of publications registered in Scopus database during the period 2016-2021 in Latin American countries, achieving the identification of 1183 publications in total. The information provided by said platform was organized by means of tables and figures categorizing the information by year of publication, Country of Origin, Area of Knowledge and Type of Publication. Once these characteristics were described, a qualitative analysis was used to refer to the position of different authors on the proposed topic. Among the main findings of this research, it is found that Brazil, with 589 publications, is the Latin American country with the highest production. The area of knowledge that made the greatest contribution to the construction of bibliographic material referring to the study of management in the quality of education was Medicine with 538 published documents, and the type of publication that was most used during the period mentioned above was the journal article, representing 71% of the total scientific production.

School closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic affected over a billion young people worldwide and presented a threat to long-term learning, particularly for public school students in low socioeconomic situations. This article offers quasi-experimental evidence on a low-cost strategy for distance learning applied in the Republic of Panama to minimize the negative consequences of the pandemic on public elementary school children's reading levels. We conducted a 12-week intervention that utilized mobile phone technology and dissemination of reading material through WhatsApp, a cross-platform messaging freeware service, to maintain and improve children's reading levels during the pandemic school shutdown. The objective was to determine the feasibility of using WhatsApp as a digital tool to facilitate education and inform evolving practice and policy responses. Results among 292 students between the second and sixth grades indicated overall mean gains of up to 10.3% in the number of words read per minute, with statistically significant improvements overall and higher gains among the second and third grades. In addition, the adoption rate was high, with a reported average of 84% completion of the daily readings. The results of this low-tech intervention have immediate and longer-term implications for using mobile technology as a supplemental or complementary learning tool, especially for developing regions and during school closures or school vacations.

This study uses PISA 2018 data to analyze, from a multinational perspective, whether interest in environmental issues is a determining factor of science literacy. A relational survey model is used as a quantitative research design to analyze secondary data obtained from the PISA 2018 evaluation data of 98,306 students at the age of 15 in 15 different countries and economies. Several statistical tests, including t-test, multiple regression analysis, and artificial neural network analysis are employed. According to the results of the analysis, significant differences are found between the science literacy scores of students who are 'very interested' in the environmental issues in their country and those who are not at all interested. Similarly, significant differences are found between the science literacy scores of students who are 'very interested' in environmental issues in other countries and those who are not at all interested. In addition, students' relevance to environmental problems are factors that statistically predict students' science literacy in a significant way.

Background: Physical activity (PA) is considered an important factor affecting academic achievement (AA). Different intensities of PA affect mental engagement (ME), which, in turn, affects AA. However, the role of ME in the relationship between PA and AA remains unclear. Objective: This study aimed to examine the mediating and/or moderating role of ME (i.e. cognitive flexibility [COGFLEX], metacognition [META] and competitiveness achievement motivation [COMPETE]) in the relationship between PA (both moderate- and vigorous-intensity activities) and AA. Method: Structural equation modelling was used to build a mediated moderation model. A total of 68,144 students from eight economies who participated in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment were included in the study. Results: Moderate-intensity physical activity (MPA) was significantly positively correlated and vigorous-intensity physical activity (VPA) was significantly negatively correlated with AA in adolescents. COGFLEX, META and COMPETE were found to play a significant mediating role in the relationship between both types of PA (MPA and VPA) and AA. COGFLEX and COMPETE were found to moderate the relationship between VPA and AA. Conclusion: ME plays a mediated moderation role in the relationship between the intensity of PA and AA. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Over 8 million children under the age of 14 live with a disability in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. These children are often denied educational opportunities and related services that have the potential to enhance their quality of life. In this qualitative study, we conducted a secondary analysis of interviews with eight parents of individuals with disabilities living in the Republic of Panama. The aim of this study was to examine the parental perceptions of disability, communication supports afforded to individuals with disabilities, and enablers and barriers families face when raising, educating, and finding services for their children. Four general themes emerged from the analysis of the transcript: child characteristics, child communication, sources of support, and barriers to inclusion. Implications and possible solutions are discussed.

The curriculum-designed internship in hospitality management education has diverse impacts. Adopting the Career Construction Theory, this research explores how internships affect students' career choices before, during, and after their hotel internships. The methodology of this research consists of semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and documentary investigations on international students' internship diaries. Results show that the curriculum design is critical to the success of an internship. The empirical findings indicate that internship preparation, cultural adaptation during the internship, and reflexivity after the internship are important elements in an effective internship. Research findings reveal the current status of international student internship programs in the Chinese context and provide implications for internship curriculum development in hospitality management and international students' career development. The present article recommends that it is crucial to manage students' career construction route through a proper arrangement of an effective internship program. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.

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.

Gender inequalities still affect the health and well-being of young people worldwide. Given the apprehensions among government and educators in a conservative context like Panama to implement comprehensive sexual education, there is a need for other educational efforts to stimulate healthy and respectful intimate relationships between adolescents. This article examines to what extent a newly developed Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) program, "Me and My New World," provides a context in which students can learn to recognize and manage emotions, to care about others and themselves, make responsible decisions, develop social awareness. The program could additionally facilitate behavioral changes of young people towards more gender equality. Specifically, we focused on equal gender roles, equal rights in relationships and nonviolent problem solving, and present the qualitative effect evaluation among adolescents in Panama. The findings suggest that SEL-based lessons might broaden views on how young people experience the process of exploring identity formation, how assumptions of inequalities can be recreated through the lessons, and that SEL can emphasize the significance of choice and decision-making in interpersonal relationships. The perspectives, needs, and limitations highlighted by the adolescents living in a conservative context are highly valuable for improving future learning strategies for the development of healthier relationships.

The Panama-Heritage University Indigenous Intercambio Program (PIIP) is a science and cultural exchange between participants from both the United States (US) and the Ngäbe and Buglé (NB) of Panama. This study abroad program is specifically designed to resonate with the cultural backgrounds of Latinx and Native American students together with the Indigenous community they work with. PIIP provides a model for developing a community-based study abroad experience that is empowering for both students and host communities. Data gathered from US students, the NB participants, and a PIIP professor were analyzed to examine questions exploring how taking underrepresented minority students on an international experience is different--both for the study abroad student and the host community. We explore how power dynamics are always at play and begin to redefine the purpose of study abroad. Mutual learning, an exchange of ideas, and a relationship built on reciprocity and respect form the foundation for a balanced and fair partnership. PIIP offers possibilities and hope for both students and the partnering community members.

Higher education institutions must take into account the changing nature of the world of work. They must understand the capacities and competencies demanded by graduates of universities because in an unpredictable world, careers will undergo permanent changes and must respond to the changing needs of the labour market. In this article, we present the results of a study on whether the skills acquired by graduates of the Bachelor's Degree in Executive Secretariat of the Autonomous University of Chiriqui correspond to the needs demanded by the labour market. The research is based on a mixed methodology, which enables the integration of quantitative and qualitative approaches, providing a holistic view of the problem studied. The results of this study show that for employers, command of the English language and competence in the use of modern office equipment are essential for the performance of secretarial work.

This study conducted a general and comparative analysis of how university students use mobile digital devices for educational purposes in various places and spaces both inside and outside university facilities in Spain and Latin America. It analyses a total sample of 886 students (442 Spanish and 444 Latin American) corresponding to five Spanish and five Latin American universities. The research methodology was based on factorial analysis and comparison between groups with parametric and nonparametric tests. The results show that educational use of mobile digital devices in the Hispanic world concentrates on the use of smartphones and tablets inside university facilities; primarily in college cafeterias, corridors, classrooms and libraries. Spanish and Latin American students used tablets in and out of University facilities for storing and retrieving information, and smartphones for sharing educational information and content.

Futsal, which can be defined as a new sports branch compared to football, has some shortcomings in comparison with football as well according to the studies carried out. Studies have rather focused on the movement characteristics of futsal players during the game and the physiological effects of games. On the other hand, there are only a limited number of studies conducted on game analysis. Therefore, as the primary goal of the present study, offensive variations that ended up as goals in all matches played in Futsal World Cup were analyzed. As the secondary goal, these parameters were studied in terms of the teams' winning-drawing-losing states during games. In the present study, a total of 52 matches of the teams playing in 2016 FIFA Futsal World Championship were analyzed. The analyses of the games were performed using the hand notation method. Differences between offensive variations (Diagonal, parallel, central and transition game forms, set games etc.) and the goals scored (shots taken, shots at goal, the area where the goals were scored, the way the goals were scored, the area where the foot hit the ball, block shoots etc.) were determined with One-way Anova and Kruskal-Wallis tests on SPSS version 20 in terms of 3 variables (win-loss-draw). The findings show that the winning teams had significantly more shots than the losing teams (10.80, 95%CI (from 3, 73 to 17, 87) and that the number of shots at goal was also higher (5.82, 95%CI (from 2, 43 to 9, 91) in terms of the teams' winning-losing-drawing states. However, no statistically significant difference was found between the areas where the shots were taken and the points they ended up at the goal. As for position specific games, on the other hand, statistically significant differences were found in terms of winning, losing and drawing states during the game (central= X[superscript 2] (2) = 10.500, p = 0.005, diagonal= X[superscript 2] (2) = 17.142, p = 0.000, parallel= X[superscript 2] (2) = 10.931, p = 0.004, transition= X[superscript 2] (2) = 28,587 p = 0.000). No statistically significant difference was found between set games ending up with goals and the teams' game score variables. The results obtained concerning offensive variations in a superior futsal championship reveal that positional games of dynamic style could be much more effective compared to set games of static starting positions in winning the game. Moreover, producing shooting positions and their accuracy levels seem to be an important factor affecting success. According to these results, it can be recommended that the trainings to be held should be designed to improve positional games that these should be planned as practices that result in shots.

The aim of this research is to study the fundamental elements used to broaden mathematical knowledge and to establish guidelines for its development using Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) framework. This study is an experimental quantitative research. Problem solving pretest and posttest were given to the students of Carti Tupile School (control group) in Spanish and students of Sayla Olonibiginya School (experimental group) in their mother tongue. A didactic guide was used as the learning method in IBE for the fourth grade students of Sayla Olonibiginya School. It was used to motivate them to discover the principles and concepts of mathematics in arithmetic and geometry. The results showed that traditional methodologies are not better than the didactic guide used for contextualized development under the IBE.

Indigenous adolescents and young people in Panama are at high-risk for sexually transmitted infections, due in part to limited access to condoms and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education. There is a paucity of evidence on how to develop sexual and reproductive health education programmes that incorporate different sources of learning. We used Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory to understand two key sources of learning: noncaregivers (school or healthcare personnel) and caregivers (parents/grandparents/stepparents). Better understanding about sexual and reproductive health learning sources could provide a foundation for the development of targeted, culturally congruent interventions. This study included ethnographic observation in two Indigenous communities in Panama, followed by semi-structured interviews with young people and caregivers. Findings suggest non-caregiver sexual and reproductive health education was commonly provided by teachers, and increasingly through the Internet. Caregivers focused on topics of abstinence/delaying sexual debut, pregnancy, and STIs/HIV; condoms pregnancy, and STIs/HIV. Condoms and condom use were not mentioned. Traditional sexual and reproductive health teaching by same-gender caregivers took place through the rituals of mokän (girls at menarche) and grön (boys 13-14 years). To develop culturally congruent interventions, we suggest programmes to improve sexual and reproductive health knowledge and access to condoms, which respect and build on social and traditional learning spaces.

As we work to educate our children in effective ways, supporting their efforts to make a positive difference reaps benefits for both students and society.

Teachers spend a lot of time finding 'just right' picture books for their students. However, much of what is known about a book's difficulty level was developed with native English speakers. More needs to be developed with the distinctive characteristics of English Learners (ELs). This study reports on the selection of picture books to teach in an intensive week-long intervention with Spanish-speaking ELs in a low SES community in Panama. It applies the concept of tellability rather than readability. Tellability considers who is speaking about what to whom and in what circumstances. Novice teachers who were not fluent in Spanish learned to successfully select and instruct using carefully selected books for teaching English in science-themed lessons. These teachers considered features of books that matched the ELs' oral and written English abilities as well as matched specific language teaching strategies for EL beginners.

Short-term study abroad experiences are the most common type of undergraduate study abroad programs offered by universities in the United States. However, and to the best of our knowledge, little empirical research exists on students' learning outcomes following their participation in a short-term program using an integrated research praxis. To address this, we structured an international embedded program in Costa Rica and Panama which allowed students to engage in authentic research experiences topically centered in ecology and service-learning activities in conservation biology. Mixed methods analyses on data generated from the assessment of students (n=54) in three cohorts, revealed students' gains (both positive and negative) in specific scientific skills and knowledge domains in both the fields of ecology and conservation biology, as well as interest in doing further field research, perceptions of authentic international field research, appreciation of the value of biodiversity, advocacy, and future actions as conservationists and informed citizens (global citizenship).

The present research aims to analyze the Panamanian State Budget for Education according to the allocations approved by the government over the last 26 years. In the overall state budget, it is striking that the percentage allocated to education is far below the amount required. Education must be a priority for any state agenda if access is to be ensured to quality education that is equitable, inclusive, pertinent and comprehensive. The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommend that countries allocate 20% of overall state budgets to education. If a nation aims to develop, it must demonstrate a real and firm commitment to education by the political class and society as a whole; this commitment is embodied in the state budget designations for education.

Over the past twenty years, many sectors have used capacity diagnostics for mapping and analyzing the skills needed for national development at individual, organizational and institutional levels. These diagnostics, also sometimes referred to as "needs assessments" or "gap analyses," are systematic investigations carried out prior to or during an ongoing program, project or productive activity as a means to gaining insight on discrepancies between current and desired conditions with a view to improving performance, designing new processes, and/or correcting deficiencies. This article presents a model for adapting capacity diagnostics to assess higher education for (1) documentation of existing resources in specific institutions or disciplines, and (2) quantification of labor market perceptions of current assets and gaps, with a view to facilitating planning for and development of required curricular, research and personnel capacities. The model is illustrated with a case study from the Republic of Panama where the National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation (SENACYT) conducted a study with Tulane University to assess the country's higher education and research in the social sciences. This article further explores the potential for this higher education diagnostic to serve as a tool for academia supply-labor market demand gap analysis elsewhere, which has far-reaching implications for countries and states in terms of competitiveness at national and global levels--particularly for developing regions.

The importance of effective communication skills in the workplace is widely documented and recognized as a success factor in many fields of endeavor. As the workplace becomes more diverse and more global in nature, the ability to communicate across cultures is gaining in importance. A class exercise in which Panamanian educators and US students cross-interviewed each other is discussed with regard to its perceived impact on the communication process and on its ability to enlighten students on shopping behaviors of persons from another culture.

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.

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 article employs narrative analysis to examine how the media in 12 different countries characterize the "Teach for All" (TFA) teacher. Examining mass media narratives in these 12 countries illustrates that there are some remarkable commonalities in the narratives and character portraits co-constructed and propagated by the media. At the core of these narratives is the notion of a problem in education. This problem justifies the creation and emergence of a character, commonly constructed in opposition to traditionally certified teachers, who embodies the characteristics and attributes of the contemporary neoliberal subject. This article discusses the implications of this character's widespread representation; namely, how does the character construction influence the broader public perception about education and how is it contributing to the (re)imagination of the role of the teacher?

Few studies have investigated the effects of combining undergraduate research with study abroad. The authors present student self-reported learning gains from two undergraduate courses that embed research within study abroad courses. Students in one course worked in small groups on original research projects; students in the second course collectively contributed to one ongoing, professional research project. Student learning was evaluated through focus groups, reflective journaling, and surveys. Students from both courses reported gains unique to research in an international context, including curiosity inspired by novel environments and valuing local knowledge for site-specific questions. Differences in student learning between courses raise questions about the relationship of course structures to high-impact practices and their potential to affect learning in opposing or synergistic ways.

This study gives an account of the transformation of Catholic Schools in Latin America in the years after the Vatican Council (1970-2015). Mainly, it looks into changes in their enrolment, and more importantly, in how the Catholic primary and secondary educational subsystem has varied in its shared participation within the national education systems of which they are part. By using quantitative methods, this study presents evidence that is significant for understanding the trends followed by Catholic Schools in several Latin American countries, and Latin America as a region. When facing major criticism because of the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, this evidence may serve the purpose of valuing what this apostolate means and how it needs to change in the future.

Sociologists consistently try to activate students' sociological imagination even as they focus on teaching substantive and methodological information and skills. Teaching international development and other global topics pose particular challenges for engaging students actively in the local context while teaching about global and macro processes and outcomes. In this article, we connect international development and object-based learning at a university museum to describe a semester-long project of object analysis of Kuna textiles, the "mola," in a topical seminar course on the sociology of international development. We detail how the approach can be adapted to local and online museum collections. Using student reflections, open-ended questionnaires, discussions, and student projects and analyses, we demonstrate how this active learning approach can provide important grounding and skills for a sociological approach to international development.

Community geography (CG) pedagogy sits at the intersection of three systematic shifts in higher education: desires to expand engagement with society; the evolution of student-centered, evidence-based instruction; and, the desire to diversify voices and knowledge production in the academy. Since the 1960s geographers have regularly partnered with communities. However, within the last twenty years community geographers have centered community-engaged projects as the axis of each CG course, and combined pragmatism and service-learning to inform their instruction. Using five case studies we illustrate and provide recommendations for two key CG pedagogical characteristics: reciprocal partnerships and reflection.

This activity allows students to visualize how to obtain different stoichiometries with various techniques in a single experiment. The involvement of three phases adds to the student's interest. Instructional materials are provided to facilitate the experimental procedures, interpretation of results, and error analysis. The reaction of Li from a Li battery with water inside a syringe allows measurement of the gas evolved, the metal consumed, and the hydroxide produced. Li batteries can be obtained for less than US $1.00. This report describes the development of a 2 h activity that has been tested in whole or in part in various teacher workshops in Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, and Thailand, and it has been implemented and assessed in a general chemistry laboratory.

As inclusion becomes a growing standard for universities in the United States, data extracted from OCLC suggest that university libraries in the United States build their Spanish-language collections with books purchased primarily in Spain and Mexico. This overlooks presses from 19 other Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas. This research is concerned with the representation of books published in these Hispano-American countries and examines the holdings of 88 university libraries. The article discusses the drawbacks in neglecting purchase of literature published in Hispano-American countries and the benefits of changing collection practices into a more inclusive design, including recommendations for best practices.

Studies of gender disparities in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) performance have generally focused on average differences. However, the extremes could also be important because disparities at the top may shape stratification in access to STEM careers, while disparities at the bottom can shape stratification in dropout. This article investigates determinants of gender disparities in math across the performance distribution in Latin American countries, where there is a persistent boys' advantage in STEM performance. Findings reveal disparate national patterns in gender gaps across the performance distribution. Furthermore, while certain national characteristics are linked to gender gaps at the low- and middle-ranges of the performance distribution, female representation in education is the only characteristic associated with a reduced gender gap at the top level.

Adolescents in Panama face multiple challenges to their sexual health, rights and well-being such as high rates of teenage pregnancy (~30% of all pregnancies), increased HIV infections and sexual violence. In the absence of sufficient evidence-based data and an ongoing debate in Panamanian society about how to approach "adolescents' health problems," the aim of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions and attitudes of different societal actors, namely governmental employees, NGO employees, academics, members from religious groups, teachers and parents. We conducted in-depth interviews (N = 34) which focused on the behavioural and environmental factors considered to influence adolescents' decision making with regard to love, friendships and family relations. Furthermore, we explored how these stakeholders viewed the role of the education system, and the potential of including social-emotional learning (SEL) in the curriculum to provide skills and capacities, which could encourage adolescents to make better decisions and improve their well-being, in general but also in the context of sexual behaviours. Analysis revealed five central themes, i.e. perceptions towards gender roles and equality, adolescents' love (sexual) relationships, capacity needs regarding prevention of risk behaviours and the role of education, comprehensive sexuality education in schools and the potentiality of SEL in the education system. The findings of the study can enhance understanding on the views of stakeholders regarding the factors influencing adolescents' decision making, as well as regarding the possibilities of introducing SEL in the Panamanian educational curriculum.

This is an autoethnographic reflection of the process of navigating two cultural spaces characterizing the work of implementing a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) camp for English language learners in the country of Panama. There are three themes that are addressed: (1) the importance of gatekeepers, (2) the importance of being a learner as a researcher, and finally (3) the acknowledgement of researcher privilege and power. There are many autoethnographic forms that can be utilized. However, this article considers (a) critical social research, (b) educative experience, and (c) privilege-penalty experiences in combination with the three themes. By using this autoethnographic lens to discuss the STEM program the author shares the difficulty of walking in two worlds. One world represents the culture of home while the other represents the home that offers privilege and power needed to implement the program. This narrative is an analysis of the process of navigating these two valued spaces that have resulted in the identity of the researcher.