From Bullets To Blackboards

The sad fact is that many youths and children do not feel safe either at school or at home. In recent years, there have been increases in bullying, teacher assault, and student-to-student physical altercations. Nearly every school child has witnessed violence at school firsthand. The search for answers as to why children use violence must be an ongoing conversation that challenges the myths and perceptions around the issue of school and personal violence. Intended for educators and parents, Books, Blackboards, and Bullets focuses on key issues for identification of school shooters and shootings. While explaining factors that increase the likeliness of student violence, Marcel Lebrun introduces many different perspectives that may be effective in working with troubled populations in our schools. He provides many strategies for dealing with difficult or violent youths, empowering educators to act to prevent school shootings. The book also provides checklists and assessment tools for evaluating possible dangers as well as a list of resources that educators can use in their daily work.

This edited volume focuses on how international education policy, set by international policymakers and donors, influences local education policy in developing countries. The book’s primary purpose is to give voice to scholars from developing countries and regions around the world by inviting them to explore how the international policy, invariably linked to international aid, influences education policy formation and implementation in their country or region and how this influence does or does not meet the local cultural, social, economic, and political needs. A relatively recent and small body of research and commentary supports a discourse that questions how well international education policy mandates such as Education For All serve the needs of developing countries. The intent of this book is to advance this discourse by giving voice to local scholars who observe and study the donor process. The book will be divided into two sections: the first section will set the stage for the discussions in the second section by providing theoretical and historical context for international education policy. As a framework for understanding, the book adopts the position that international policy does not have either the ability or the intent to serve the widely diverse needs of development around the world. International education policy has been formed, historically, by wealthy nations and agencies dominated by Western theoretical paradigms. In recent years, donor countries have made an effort to collaborate with developing countries in developing international education policy goals; however, this collaboration has been limited. Following establishment of the context of international education policy, section II of the book provides a forum for scholars from around the world to openly discuss and critique the impact of international policy on education in their country or region.

Current global estimates of children engaged in warfare range from 200,000 to 300,000. Children's roles in conflict range from armed and active participants to spies, cooks, messengers, and sex slaves. Child Soldiers in the Age of Fractured States examines the factors that contribute to the use of children in war, the effects of war upon children, and the perpetual cycle of warfare that engulfs many of the world's poorest nations. The contributors seek to eliminate myths of historic or culture-based violence, and instead look to common traits of chronic poverty and vulnerable populations. Individual essays examine topics such as: the legal and ethical aspects of child soldiering; internal UN debates over enforcement of child protection policies; economic factors; increased access to small arms; displaced populations; resource endowments; forced government conscription; rebel-enforced quota systems; motivational techniques employed in recruiting children; and the role of girls in conflict. The contributors also offer viable policies to reduce the recruitment of child soldiers such as the protection of refugee camps by outside forces, “naming and shaming,” and criminal prosecution by international tribunals. Finally, they focus on ways to reintegrate former child soldiers into civil society in the aftermath of war.

From the skyrocketing AIDS rate in Haiti to the oppressive pollution in industrial China, from the violent street culture of Nigeria to the crippling poverty in Nicaragua, from child trafficking in Thailand to child marriages in India, this jam-packed six-volume set explores all these issues and more in an unprecedented look at the world's children at the dawn of the 21st century. In recent years, while many countries have enjoyed a higher standard of living and improved working conditions, others have been torn apart by war and incapacitated by famine, and are struggling to improve life for their children and their future. Recent concern over the world's children has resulted in a global attempt to define what constitutes an acceptable childhood. New attention has been paid, not only to healthcare and secondary education, but also to the right to play and increased access to technology. The UN's codification of children's rights has done much to expand our understanding of what is needed for healthy growth and development of children and youth. Organized by region, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Children's Issues Worldwide is the first globally focused set of this magnitude, offering extensive, up-to-date coverage of these critical issues. Original chapters accessibly synthesize current data on key topics, including education, play and recreation, child labor, family, health, laws and legal status, religious life, abuse and neglect, and growing up in the 21st century.

This book provides new insights into the phenomena of global education policies and international policy transfer. While both of these issues have gained popularity in the field of international and comparative education, there remains much that we do not know. In particular, while numerous studies have been produced which examine how global education policies—such as vouchers, charter schools, conditional-cash transfers, standardized testing, child-centered pedagogy, etc.—are implemented globally, we lack research which illuminates the origins and evolution of such policies. The book addresses this critical gap in our knowledge by looking at multiple aspects of the trajectory of a particular policy which was born in El Salvador in the early 1990s and subsequently went global. Edwards explicitly analyzes the trajectory of global education policy with reference to the role of international organizations and within the larger international political and economic dynamics that affected the overall country context of El Salvador.

Exploring the interplay between globalization, education and international development, this book surveys the impact of global education policies on local policy in developing countries. With chapters written by leading international scholars, drawing on a full range of theoretical perspectives and offering a diverse selection of case studies from Africa, Asia and South America, this book considers such topics as: How are global education agendas and policies formed and implemented? What is the impact of such policy priorities as public-private partnerships, child-centred pedagogies and school-based management? What are the effects of political and economic globalization on educational reform and change? How do mediating institutions affect the translation of global policies to particular educational contexts? What are the limitations of globalised policy solutions and what problems do they encounter at local levels? From students of education, development and globalization to practitioners working in developing contexts, this book is an important resource for those seeking to understand how global forces and local realities meet to shape education policy in the developing world.

This book is the first systematic, interdisciplinary examination of the peace agreement signed between the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to end one of the largest and most violent conflicts in the Western Hemisphere. It discusses the achievements, failures, and challenges of this innovative peace agreement and its implications for Colombia’s future. Contributors include negotiators of the Agreement, judges of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, representatives of the civil society, and leading academic experts in peace studies, human rights, international law, criminal law, transitional justice, political science, and philosophy. Based on the premise that peace is a form of transferable social knowledge, and therefore necessitates transformative social learning, the volume also discusses what other countries can learn from the Colombian experience. This book will be of much interest to students of peace and conflict studies, transitional justice, Latin American politics, human rights, civil wars and International Relations.