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Background In Italy, migrant family care assistants (MFCAs) represent the most cost-effective answer to dementia home care need and to desire of ageing in place of older adults and family caregivers. Nevertheless, MFCAs very often have no training in elder care and even less in the dementia care. Conversely, elder care training may improve MFCAs’ working condition and mental health. Exploring MFCAs’ educational needs is one of the objectives of the “Age-It” project, aiming at advancing knowledge and competences on ageing by applying a holistic, interdisciplinary, and problem-solving approach through the synergic work of research and educational institutions, care providers and civil society associations, businesses and industries. Methods In Autumn 2023, 25 semi-structured questionnaires, including both closed and open-ended questions, were conducted with MFCAs living in two Italian regions: Marche and Molise. The research material was thematically analysed to answer four research questions: Which is the work experience of MFCAs of older adults with long-term care needs? Which are their educational needs? Which are the barriers to training? Did the emigration geographical area of respondents and the migration route influence their willingness to attend an elder care training? Results Three main themes were identified: (1) Migration: a painful choice to flee poor (violent) societies; (2) Elder care: a stressful work; (3) Needs and barriers to elder care education. Most interviewed MFCAs face many difficulties at work, including stress, burden and lack of free time. Many respondents expressed the need and willingness to improve their knowledge on ageing processes, dementia, behavioural disorders, medicine administration, bedsores and injuries medication. The 24 h work represents the main barriers to attend the lessons. Discussion Suggestions for future trainings include a co-designed curriculum embedding contents on dementia and behavioural disorders; self-care and resilience; host country language. Concerning policy and practice recommendations, mandatory, free and periodic, blended trainings, a clear offer of elder care education, the recognition of previous courses at EU and national level are encouraged. Conclusions Given the pivotal role of MFCAs in the LTC in Italy, it is urgent that they are adequately trained. Given the stressful and 24 h work, a co-designed e-learning platform may be a promising means for reaching and training them. Clinical trial number Not applicable

Physical and social distancing recommendations aimed at limiting exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic have forced residency programs to increasingly rely on videoconferencing and web-based resources. In this pilot study, we aimed to explore the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on residency training experience, and to delineate the perceived barriers to the successful implementation of web-based medical education. A 19-item survey was compiled and distributed electronically using Qualtrics. This anonymous survey included information on the training level of each resident, their participation in formal didactics before and during the pandemic, and their perception of the ease and limitations of virtual didactics. The resident's opinions on specific educational resources were assessed, and the effectiveness of new delivery methods on resident engagement and learning was examined. Thirty anesthesiology residents were surveyed, 19 of whom agreed to participate in the pilot study. One participant with incomplete responses was excluded, yielding a final cohort of 18 respondents. Most residents (56%, 10/18) reported that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected their residency training. The time spent on didactic training and independent studies was, nevertheless, not affected by the pandemic for 90% (16/18) of respondents. Nonetheless, 72% (13/18) of residents were less engaged during virtual lectures in comparison to in-person didactics. Important limitations included distraction from the physical environment (67%, 12/18), internet instability (67%, 12/18), less obligation to participate (44%, 8/18), technical difficulty and unmuted microphones (33%, 6/18, each), and people speaking over each other (28%, 5/18). Despite these limitations, most residents stated that they would like to keep a combination of virtual didactics including live Zoom lectures (56%, 10/18), prerecorded web didactics (56%, 10/18), and virtual ground rounds via Zoom (50%, 9/18) as the \"new normal.\" Despite important limitations listed in this report, anesthesia residents would like to keep a combination of virtual lectures and presentations as the new normal after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The education rankings of Australian students continue to slide further down the international scale, yet the dominant discourse in relation to both the cause and solution to this perceived decline remains focused on funding, curriculum and teacher quality whilst failing largely to take account of the broader social contexts in which education takes place. Drawing on findings from recent research in primary schools in regional Australia, this paper raises the question of Australian school students' human right to an education and explores the role that school social workers can play in upholding this right. Discussion draws on international research, including studies that examine the outcomes of employing suitably qualified School Social Workers who can foster links and networks between student, family, school and community. It is argued that these networks create social capital that can serve to enable students to benefit from both the education to which they are entitled, and the connections that may empower them, as they move into adult life. [Author abstract]

This article considers research into barriers to learning (including HIV/AIDS) in a small, rural town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A variety of qualitative participatory research methods were used, including photovoice, a method in which research participants take photographs and then decode these together with the researchers. Rich, thick data was obtained using photovoice, and the researchers found this method particularly useful for dealing with the ‘unspoken’ and working with marginalised people. This method, particularly because of the emotive nature of photographs, is also a potentially powerful political tool in exposing and exploring deepening levels of poverty and crisis experienced by the marginalised in post-apartheid South Africa. Photovoice as a method, however, raises issues of ethics and researcher-researched power dynamics; in particular, whether it is ethically acceptable to use photographs from consenting participants in light of the imbalance of power between the subject and the researcher, particularly in the context of HIV/AIDS. This article explores ethical and power issues in using the photovoice method.

This paper explores the process and identifies the results of the Mōhala Alaka'i Emerging Leaders Program's two-year research project. As a part of a Title III grant to promote first-year Native Hawaiian student success, students conducted original research to determine the top ten barriers to student success at the University of Hawaii Maui College. Through the course of two research classes, the students in the 2017 Cohort 1 of the program conducted a study to identify the top ten barriers to student success. Based on these findings, students in the 2018 Cohort 2 of the program determined that the major barrier was access to and knowledge of resources, and suggested solutions for addressing this barrier since it affected most other barriers. The students settled on creating and implementing two projects: digital signage to be displayed across campus and a campus-wide scavenger hunt designed to share resources with first-year students. Keywords: community college; academic success; student success;

This review was prepared jointly by the World Bank Group and the World Food Programme (WFP), building on the comparative advantages of both organizations. It examines the evidence base for school feeding programs with the objective of better understanding how to develop and implement effective school feeding programs in two contexts: a productive safety net, as part of the response to the social shocks of the global food, fuel and financial crises, and a fiscally sustainable investment in human capital, as part of long-term global efforts to achieve Education for All and provide social protection to the poor.

Schools are seen as primary contributors to the social development of learners. Apart from the questionable quality of education in South Africa, the developmental and social challenges faced by learners and educators within schools in South Africa are diverse. These challenges fall within the domain of social work practice. For more than a hundred years, school social work has been a specialized field of social work practice in developed countries and it is also practiced in quite a few developing countries such as Ghana, China, Mongolia, and India. On the other hand, in South Africa, social work in schools is intermittently incorporated as part of the education system. This article calls for school social work to be acknowledged as a specialized field of practice in South Africa and included as a collaborative partner by the Department of Education in working toward excellence in education in South Africa.

Aboriginal Health Workers (AHWs) play a crucial role in the delivery of primary health care services in underserved rural and remote communities throughout Australia. The Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health (MICRRH), in Northwest Queensland, Australia, has been involved in training AHWs since 2001. During this time, it has been observed that while there has been interest in pursuing further education in other health careers, the uptake for advanced study by AHWs has been minimal. This exploratory study was designed to assess the career aspirations of local AHWs (both qualified and students) as well as community stakeholder views to identify barriers experienced when undertaking advanced education. The study used a descriptive and exploratory design. AHWs and key stakeholders were invited to participate. Open-ended interviews were undertaken with nine participants in two communities in the Mount Isa Health Service District in Northwest Queensland, Australia. While there was some interest expressed in careers like medicine and nursing, the majority of participants indicated a preference for advancement to management or specialist areas as AHWs. In relation to the barriers faced by AHWs and students in continuing study or career advancement, three main themes emerged: support; infrastructure; and promotion.

This study investigates the perceptions and experiences of students regarding the various aspects of online education while studying at the Pakistani Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) and universities that shifted to online modes of instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus of this study was to identify the level of satisfaction of students with the support being provided to them by their institutes and instructors; the use of different modes of communication and assessment methods; and their home study environment. It also explored the positively and negatively influencing factors affecting online education, as perceived by them. An online questionnaire-based cross-sectional survey research design was chosen for conducting this study. Data were collected from 707 respondents belonging to various Pakistani HEIs and universities and analyzed using the SPSS software. The results revealed a considerable dissatisfaction among the study population regarding online education being provided to them during the COVID pandemic. The participants raised concerns over the lack of institutional support and the quality of online instruction. Other issues raised included unsuitable study environments, unavailability of electricity, and connectivity issues. Overall, the majority of the students indicated that they would not like to opt for online classes in the future once the pandemic was over.

The aim of this chapter is to examine prisoners' literacy skills, their self‐efficacy beliefs concerning reading and writing, and how such variables are related to their participation in education during incarceration. Several studies show that prisoners have low literacy skills compared to the general population. A large body of evidence suggests that the prevalence rates of reading and writing difficulties are between 50 and 70% of the prison population. There is, however, a lack of consensus about the rates of dyslexia. While some researchers have reported signs of dyslexia in about 50% of the prison population, others suggest that the dyslexia rate is similar to that of the general population, and low reading and writing skills are attributed to deficient training or a lack of practice. People's perceived self‐efficacy is essential to academic success. For prisoners, studies indicate that academic self‐efficacy is a contributor to educational participation, which again can increase their academic self‐efficacy.