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Gender equality and equity represent crucial elements of a just and inclusive society, extending beyond slogans. These principles acknowledge how societal norms, laws, and cultural factors shape individuals' experiences based on gender. Striking a balance between gender equality and equity is pivotal for fostering a fair environment where everyone has equal opportunities to thrive, regardless of their gender. The book \"Gender Equality & Equity\" is a comprehensive book that helps readers understand these concepts and equips them with tools to work towards a more equitable world. At its core, the book discusses the legal foundations of gender equality and equity, which not only protect rights but also provide mechanisms to address gender-based discrimination. It emphasizes the vital role of women in leadership and recognizes both their contributions and challenges. The book addresses factors influencing gender differences and advocates for social protection. This book offers essential a deep understanding of gender equality and equity, empowering individuals to contribute meaningfully to a more just and inclusive society.

Promoting gender-transformative change through social protection entails the deliberate design and implementation of policies and programs that effectively address the unique needs and challenges faced by women and girls. These initiatives not only aim to alleviate poverty and reduce vulnerability but also to challenge and transform the underlying gender norms and power dynamics that perpetuate inequality. By adopting a gender-responsive and inclusive approach to social protection measures, such as cash transfers, healthcare services, and employment opportunities, societies can harness their potential to advance gender equality and empower women. By ensuring equitable access to resources and opportunities, facilitating economic empowerment, enhancing access to education and healthcare, promoting women's decision-making autonomy, and challenging discriminatory gender roles and stereotypes, social protection programs can serve as catalysts for profound social and gender transformations, resulting in more equitable and just societies. \"Promoting Gender-Transformative Change through Social Protection\" is a seminal resource that comprehensively examines the intersection of gender and social protection. This book caters to scholars, practitioners, and students seeking a profound understanding of the crucial role, implementation, and impact of gender-transformative social protection. It covers diverse topics, including an introduction to gender-transformative change and social protection, analyzing gender inequality within social protection systems, the intersectionality of gender in social protection, gender-responsive policies and programs, addressing gender bias in implementation, empowering women through social protection initiatives, case studies of successful gender-transformative interventions, and monitoring and sustaining transformative change. By offering expert perspectives and practical insights, this handbook serves as an indispensable guide for individuals navigating the complexities of promoting gender equality through social protection. It empowers readers to effect change, foster inclusive societies, and contribute to the advancement of gender-transformative approaches within social protection frameworks, both locally and globally.

Recently, inclusive education has become the direction of special education development. Inclusive education requires that teachers’ educational philosophies and approaches meet the needs of all students. Since pre-service teachers are future educators in training, it is vital to investigate their perspectives on inclusive education. Pre-service teachers’ attitudes, ability and views of inclusive education have an impact on the success of inclusive education practice. However, little literature has examined the influence of psychological mechanism of pre-service teachers toward inclusive education, i.e., the impact of empathy on pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education and the mediating effects of teaching motivation and inclusive education efficacy toward the aforementioned relationship. Thus, this study employed Stimulus-Organism-Response’s (S-O-R) model to underpin the research framework that examines the relationship between pre-service teachers’ empathy and attitudes toward inclusive education and the mediating effects of teaching motivation and inclusive education efficacy in the Chinese context. Quantitative data through survey questionnaires was collected from 480 Chinese pre-service teachers and analysed using PLS-SEM. Findings suggested that pre-service teachers’ empathy directly predicted teaching motivation, inclusive education efficacy, and attitudes toward inclusive education. Teaching motivation and inclusive education efficacy together play a chain mediating role in the relationship between empathy and pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education. The results of this study offer a theoretical framework that explains in detail the psychological mechanisms underlying the effects of pre-service teachers’ empathy, teaching motivation, and inclusive education efficacy on attitudes towards inclusive education. The research findings also provide practical guidance for the professional development of teachers, talent cultivation, and the development of inclusive education in higher education.

A growing number of countries is setting up natural capital accounts (NCA) based on the system of environmental-economic accounting (SEEA); however, actually using them for better policy making turns out to be complex. This paper synthesises lessons on the institutional mainstreaming of the SEEA and its use in improving policy decisions affecting natural capital. It draws on discussions held at two Policy Forums organised by the World Bank Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services program and the United Nations Statistical Division. Practical examples of how the SEEA helps to improve policy making are explored. Emerging from the Forums were ten principles for making NCA fit for policy. These principles promote a comprehensive NCA organisation, a purposeful use of accounts, trustworthy methods and institutionalisation of NCA mechanisms in government. To put these principles into practice, six strategies are outlined: (1) assure credibility of the accounts; (2) align supply and demand for NCA; (3) assure high level support for NCA; (4) encourage cooperation between institutions so NCA and policy are mutually constructive; (5) provide evidence that natural capital is economically important and; (6) assure policyrelevant communication of NCA results.

First Published in 2004.Research on special education has tended to focus on technical and professional aspects of provision and matters of placement.The voice of the pupil with special educational needs has tended to be silenced by professional discourses, reducing him or her to a passive recipient of specialist provision.

For almost five decades, school districts in the US have been required by federal law to integrate disabled students into mainstream classrooms. Many educational agencies, however, have also done the opposite: They have included non-disabled students in special education settings. This practice, now known as \"reverse mainstreaming,\" has historical roots in 19th-century educational programs and is still used across the country. This article is the first to investigate reverse mainstreaming as a form of integration. Drawing on a historical account and a systematic analysis of hundreds of administrative decisions, this article documents the circumstances that gave rise to this practice and analyzes its normative underpinnings. In doing so this article exposes a conundrum: On the one hand, educators and judges have long justified reverse mainstreaming by pointing to its potential to reduce prejudice through structured interactions between disabled and non-disabled students. On the other hand, reverse mainstreaming often treats disabled students as inferior to their non-disabled peers and imposes mainstream norms at the expense of disability culture. Thus, rather than reducing prejudice, such structured interactions may perpetuate the very stigma and misconceptions they are designed to eradicate. Moreover, as this article details, reverse mainstreaming can lead to an inequitable distribution of scarce resources. Combining insights from social psychology and disability studies, this article proposes guidelines for legal and policy reform aimed at ensuring that intergroup interactions in educational settings take more egalitarian forms. As policymakers continue to grapple with desegregating America’s schools along race and class lines, these insights have important implications that extend beyond the disability arena.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) find increasing attention as actions to address societal challenges through harnessing ecological processes, yet knowledge gaps exist regarding approaches to landscape planning with NBS. This paper aims to provide suggestions of how planning NBS can be conceptualized and applied in practice. We develop a framework for planning NBS by merging insights from literature and a case study in the Lahn river landscape, Germany. Our framework relates to three key criteria that define NBS, and consists of six steps of planning: Co-define setting, Understand challenges, Create visions and scenarios, Assess potential impacts, Develop solution strategies, and Realize and monitor. Its implementation is guided by five principles, namely Place-specificity, Evidence base, Integration, Equity, and Transdisciplinarity. Drawing on the empirical insights from the case study, we suggest suitable methods and a checklist of supportive procedures for applying the framework in practice. Taken together, our framework can facilitate planning NBS and provides further steps towards mainstreaming.

This commentary makes three points in relation to the theme of 'decolonising geographical knowledge'. First, it highlights the potential that the theme has in terms of widening the imperative to decolonise geographical knowledge; second, drawing on decolonial critiques of postcolonial theory, it stresses the structural difficulty of decolonisation efforts that are conceived within extant disciplinary infrastructures; and third, it argues that decolonising geographical knowledge should encourage geographers to, in fact, turn away from the discipline as we attempt to 'speak to' the places, peoples, and communities on and with which we work.

ChatGPT is the first large language model (LLM) to reach a large, mainstream audience. Its rapid adoption and exploration by the population at large has sparked a wide range of discussions regarding its acceptable and optimal integration in different areas. In a hybrid (virtual and in-person) panel discussion event, we examined various perspectives regarding the use of ChatGPT in education, research, and healthcare. We surveyed in-person and online attendees using an audience interaction platform (Slido). We quantitatively analyzed received responses on questions about the use of ChatGPT in various contexts. We compared pairwise categorical groups with a Fisher's Exact. Furthermore, we used qualitative methods to analyze and code discussions. We received 420 responses from an estimated 844 participants (response rate 49.7%). Only 40% of the audience had tried ChatGPT. More trainees had tried ChatGPT compared with faculty. Those who had used ChatGPT were more interested in using it in a wider range of contexts going forwards. Of the three discussed contexts, the greatest uncertainty was shown about using ChatGPT in education. Pros and cons were raised during discussion for the use of this technology in education, research, and healthcare. There was a range of perspectives around the uses of ChatGPT in education, research, and healthcare, with still much uncertainty around its acceptability and optimal uses. There were different perspectives from respondents of different roles (trainee vs faculty vs staff). More discussion is needed to explore perceptions around the use of LLMs such as ChatGPT in vital sectors such as education, healthcare and research. Given involved risks and unforeseen challenges, taking a thoughtful and measured approach in adoption would reduce the likelihood of harm.