Current Research in Education and Social Studies Vol. 1

The Influence of Tradition over the Community of Faith: An Old Testament Perspective

2021-08-03T03:42:56+00:00

In this article, (The Influence of Tradition over the Community of Faith: a Biblical Perspective), the author tries to understand the way the religious tradition influences the community of faith. The importance of the subject is demonstrated by the impact which a tradition has upon a certain community. The consequences can be serious. As far as the consequences for the Jewish community in history, it is showed that, even though they had lost their country many times, they miraculously preserved their identity. The author argues that tradition kept the community on track, by preserving some customs, practices that have been passed on from generation to generation. The main responsibility for this was given to the leaders of the community: the kings, the priests, and the prophets. When the leaders abandoned the Yahwist tradition, the community lost its identity. Another role of the tradition in relationship to the community is to educate the community. The Old Testament presents situations in which the geographical territory – the Land of Israel, reacted against the Jewish community in order to motivate it to keep the tradition. Two kinds of reactions of the land are presented against the community: The land had the power of driving out the Jews from their country, and the land can exercise pressure upon the community while the community was living into the land, in order to correct its attitude towards the tradition. We have the case of the Samaritan community, who did not keep the tradition of the land and experienced difficulties. As far as the attitude of the New Testament towards other communities living in the land, it was given the example of Jesus who had a favorable attitude towards Samaritans. In some instances Jesus recommends some Samaritans as models to be followed by Jews. Even Jesus himself is identified in Christianity as being the Good Samaritan.

Impact of Flood on Female Headed Households in Nkumoro Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Nigeria

2021-08-03T03:49:14+00:00

Flooding since 2012 is becoming increasingly severe and frequent in Nigeria. Flood disasters are major threats to human beings as they reverse major developmental processes in any area affected, hampering socio/economic activities especially among the Female Headed Households as they are more prone and vulnerable to flood impacts. Flood disaster mitigation in Female Headed Households needs to address socio-economic issues and coping strategies. This paper seeks to review impact of 2016 flood on Female Headed Households in Nkumoro, Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Nigeria which is one of the worst hit areas by flood. Social media, personal observations, structural questionnaires and interviews were the sources of information. The result revealed that the major livelihood of sampled Female Headed Households were farming, fishing and trading. These women had their crops damaged and were unable to fish during the flooding period, thus increasing propensity for food insecurity for their households. Their sources of income were significantly affected as the income source is the nexus of their livelihood which when absent increases their vulnerability. There is a dire need for the Female Headed Households to be given priority in terms of aid provision to enhance their livelihood.

Satirizing the Nigerian Climate: Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Selected Political Cartoons from TELL Newsmagazine

2021-08-03T03:51:45+00:00

The study identifies the multimodal discourse features of selected cartoons from TELL newsmagazine. It analyses the features of multimodal discourse in the cartoons, discusses the manners of their deployment in the cartoons and relates the features to the contexts in which they were applied. These are done with a view to discovering their intended implicating messages, especially in the visual images. The study employs both primary and secondary data. The primary data are drawn from cartoons of TELL newsmagazine in Nigeria, while the secondary data are obtained from books, journal articles and the internet. The data are analysed using the frameworks of Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) as explicated by Gunther Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen 2001. The paper concludes that the cartoons are deployed to enhance easy understanding and comprehension of the messages on sensitive political issues.

Essence of Academic Performance: Counselling for Effective Mentoring

2021-08-03T03:58:51+00:00

Excellent performance at any stage in life is paramount to great achievement and good success at all levels of human endeavours including scholastic attainment. High academic performance requires thorough progressive guidance, adequate preparations through constant supervisions and mentoring from significant others which include but not limited to the learners, the teachers, school administrators, counselling psychologists and concerned parents. However, some learners are fraught with low academic performance and therefore would perform abysmally low. The low academic performance could be due to many factors. Internal factors within learners and external factors which could be positively managed to increase or activate high academic performance in the learners. This study therefore seeks to establish the synergy between the internal and external factors through effective mentoring to activate high academic performance in learners.

Street Vending and Child Care: Impending Disaster?

2021-08-03T04:11:50+00:00

Children of street vending mothers are exposed to hazardous risks from the vending environment, for example, air pollution, noise pollution, and lack of sanitary resources. However, street vending provides an opportunity for mothers to support the basic needs of their children. Lack of adequate resources and alternative care for children force some mothers to take alongside their children to the street vending business on a daily basis, therefore, compromising their safety and wellbeing. The vending vocation is mostly dominated by women across the world due to modernisation and socio-economic changes (Ntseane, Solo 2007). The author’s previous study in Gaborone provided a background to the issue of women street vendors and the care of children under the age of seven (7) years. The findings revealed that children are vulnerable to various risk factors (Sekgabo, 2006). For these caregivers, provision of quality care means taking the child with them to the business, being certain that the child ate something during the day, that the child is adequately dressed, and ensuring that the child is on the caregiver’s radar during the day. This paper therefore, explores the risks that children whose caregivers take to the street vending business are exposed to and proposes inter-professional interventions for the provision of alternative care for children.

Corruption, Governance and Political Instability in Nigeria: A Dysfunctional Conundrum

2021-08-03T04:17:38+00:00

The Nigerian State is a victim of high-level corruption, bad governance, political instability and a cyclical legitimacy crisis. Consequently, national development is retarded, and the political environment uncertain. The country’s authoritarian leadership faced a legitimacy crisis, political intrigues, in an ethnically - differentiated polity, where ethnic competition for resources drove much of the pervasive corruption and profligacy. While the political gladiators constantly manipulated the people and the political processes to advance their own selfish agenda, the society remained pauperized, and the people wallowed in abject poverty. This invariably led to weak legitimacy, as the citizens lacked faith in their political leaders and by extension, the political system. Participation in government was low because citizens perceived it as irrelevant to their lives. In the absence of support from civil society, the effective power of government was eroded. Patron - client relationships took a prime role over the formal aspects of politics, such as the rule of law, well-functioning political parties, and a credible electoral system. In order to break this cycle and ensure good governance, accountability and transparency must be guaranteed.

View on Human from Perspective of Information Age Organizations: Necessity of Trained and Developed Human Resource for Sustainability and Competition

2021-08-03T04:21:18+00:00

As the information age has changed everything in the world, it has also changed organizations in terms of structures, working methods, competitive methods, technologies and strategies. In fact, this is a magical transformation for organizations. The human element of organizations has sometimes been the planner, sometimes the implementer, and sometimes the victim of this change and transformation. In the transformation of information age organizations and in the sustainable competition of the new age, whatever the role, human has continued to be an indispensable organizational resource as before. The only difference according to the human profile of the past period is that it has the characteristics that can fulfill the requirements of the information age and sustain continuous change. This study focuses on the perspective of information age organizations on human. In addition, it tries to discover what features human resources organizations need nowadays. In determining these characteristics, the employee characteristics stated in the job advertisements of hundreds of companies that exhibit information age characteristics were taken into consideration. Organizations that want to survive in the information age have to selection, evaluation, promote, train and improve their human resources from this perspective. Today, it is an important fact that organizations should have employees who can adapt to their transformed structures, working methods, competitive methods, technologies and strategies. It should not be forgotten that human resource is the only creator and applier of knowledge and is the most valuable resource of information age organizations.

Determinants of Performance of Public Primary Schools in Kenya: A Case Study of Gatanga District

2021-08-03T04:25:22+00:00

Recently, the Kenyan government reaffirmed its commitment to enabling majority of its citizen’s access to education through establishment of free primary education program and subsidizing secondary education. However, despite all these efforts, the education sector continues to face myriads of problems, major one being skewed performance in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) across the many regions of the country. Gatanga district in Central province is one of the many districts witnessing poor performance in KCPE over the last eight years. As such, this study was designed to find out the underlying issues leading to poor performance in KCPE in the district with special focus on all primary schools in the administrative unit. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population was primary schools in Kenya and the study population is public primary schools in Gatanga district. A census approach was used to select all the 56 public primary schools. A questionnaire was the main instrument for data collection. Data was qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. The major findings were that Gatanga public primary schools were overwhelmed by the high number of students coming with the introduction of free primary education. Discipline of pupils was found to have minimal influence on KCPE performance while stakeholders’ support was deemed necessary to supplement school administrations’ activities. The study concludes that introduction of free primary education in Kenya has greatly affected teachers’ teaching workload, hence poor performance schools. The study recommended employment of more teachers by the school boards to supplement the government-employed teachers as well as frequent in-service trainings for all teachers.

Online Purchasing Behavior among Students in Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia

2021-08-03T04:32:12+00:00

The internet penetration in Malaysia showed rapid growth, and its e-commerce platform such as online shopping is heavily used as it can be accessed 24 hours a day. The outlook on the main factors that influence online purchasing behaviors need to be investigated. This study investigated the factors that affect online purchasing behavior, in particular among university students by using statistical analysis, i.e. factor analysis and descriptive analysis. Study shows three main factors that influence students’ behavior towards online shopping which were attitude towards online shopping, trust, and perceived benefit.

Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to Explore Experiences of New Poverty

2021-08-03T04:37:44+00:00

‘New poverty’, an urban type of poverty mainly affecting the middle class, has increased dramatically over the past five years in Greece following the 2007-2008 economic crisis and the strict austerity measures which were adopted. Focusing on subjective experience and meaning making, this study aims to illuminate how ‘new poverty’ is experienced and given meaning by two individuals living in the wider metropolitan area of Athens. Participants’ accounts were elicited through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Three overarching themes were identified: the impact of poverty on participants’ lives, the perceived causes of ‘new poverty’ and coping strategies. Participants focused on the all-pervasive nature of poverty and its impact on their physical and psychological well-being. They mainly identified the cause of poverty to be associated with socioeconomic factors, favouring economic/structural explanations. Ways of coping with poverty included receiving financial assistance from parents and engaging in social comparisons. The findings are discussed in relation to extant literature.