Citizenship is associated with educational learning which facilitate to get ready our young graduates for the challenges and prospects of a changing World. Citizenship is becoming a corner stone subject in teaching learning process. However, still it is an entrance to a more comprehensive society. So, it was indispensable to explore the function of universities in developing citizenship among graduates. A survey research method was adopted, with a questionnaire and fifteen hundred Master level graduates were selected as sample of the study from fifteen public/private universities of Pakistan. The analysis of data exposed that a substantial number of the graduates having civic characteristics, were significantly in favor to develop sense of responsibility, leadership skills, curricular and co curricular activities, knowledge of current World events, civic research and facilities, law and religious studies, civic literacy and ethical awareness, crime prevention and human rights. For humanizing the civic characteristics and the accessibility as well as sustainability of the civic services in the universities, it is suggested that there should be no gap among learners, faculty and the management. The faculty and management be dedicated to student centered learning and the focus would be on the course learning and deliberate conclusions.

While teachers are strategically positioned to mediate school-based HIV/AIDS education interventions which provide information on HIV/AIDS to young people, how individual teachers experience the implementation of Zimbabwe’s primary school AIDS curriculum in specific work conditions has seldom been questioned. This qualitative case study explores some of the practical experiences that 20 grade 6 primary school teachers encountered as they implemented the mandatory Zimbabwe’s primary school AIDS curriculum. A purposive sample of 6 schools and 20 teachers was used from which 3 teachers were observed teaching 5 lessons each. Findings from data collected during lesson observations and semi-structured interviews revealed an admixture of positive and negative cognitive and emotional implementation encounters that prompted teachers to cope with the curriculum in complex ways. The study established some dilemmas that the teachers confronted in their enactment of this curriculum in the context of a myriad of curriculum implementation factors that played out on their work. For example choosing between discussing openly, sexually sensitive issues with students and omitting the issues in a bid to respect the cultural conventions of the community influenced teachers’ work.

BackgroundWhile, an extensive literature reveals the many risk factors associated with truancy, less is known about the way truancy develops, intensifies and persists. In recent years, authors have argued that the development of truancy should not be understood as an individual phenomenon, but as a process of complex interactions between the adolescent and his/her parents, peers, teachers and school staff. There is, however, little research on how relationships between these parents, peers, teachers and school staff operate and influence the development of truancy.PurposeIn this paper, we try to fill this gap by analysing the narratives of truanting adolescents, and by investigating their experiences of the onset and persistence of their own truancy.Sample, design and methodsAs part of a larger study, 20 adolescents from Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, were individually interviewed. Data were analysed qualitatively.Results and conclusionsThe stories suggest that what begins as occasional truancy can easily evolve into persistent truancy that eventually could lead to permanent non-attendance. For many of the interviewed pupils, the development of their truancy can best be described as ‘truant spirals’. Compared to the seemingly easy transition towards truanting for the first time, the narratives suggest that it is extremely difficult to curtail the pattern of persistent and intensifying truant behaviour.

Background: In the United States, an emphasis on evidence-based decision-making in education has received renewed interest with the recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act. However, how best, in practice, to support the use of evidence in educational decision-making remains unclear. Research Practice Partnerships (RPPs) are a popular strategy for cultivating evidence-based decision-making among educators, but understanding the ways in which partnerships can influence educators’ use of research evidence in their decision-making is limited.Purpose: This paper explores the influence that Research Practice Partnerships can have on educators’ evidence-based decision-making.Sources of evidence: A framework is offered for examining the impact of Research Practice Partnerships on behaviours such as educators’ evidence-based decision-making, in the context of school and district improvement efforts. The framework suggests a host of intermediary and long-term outputs: for example, the ‘mindsets’ of researchers and practitioners which are most conducive to enabling evidence-based decision-making among those engaged in Research Practice Partnerships. We explore this framework through short illustrations of the experiences of three Research Practice Partnerships, contextualising the ideas within the literature, and presenting the process of our design and pilot of a survey instrument used to examine the perceived impact of Research Practice Partnerships.Main argument: We argue that participants’ self-reported behaviours and perceptions are important elements in examining the influence of Research Practice Partnerships on educators’ evidence-based decision-making. Additionally, this paper examines the potential benefits and challenges of attempting to measure the outputs and outcomes of a Research Practice Partnership using a survey measure.Conclusions: The process of developing the pilot survey suggests that certain conditions in Research Practice Partnerships may be more conducive to the development among educators of behaviours, mindsets and perceptions associated with evidence-based decision-making.

Background: Data-based decision-making (DBDM) and research-informed teaching practice (RITP) are key to teacher and school improvement. Currently, however, DBDM and RITP represent two distinct approaches to developing evidence-informed practice (EIP) and do not correspond to the all-encompassing notion of EIP envisaged by many academics and commentators.Purpose: DBDM and RITP are usually employed independently of each other. Each is associated with its own theoretical perspectives and research base, and each has its own pitfalls and strengths. Yet the approaches employed appear to be complementary, suggesting that there might be value in combining DBDM and RITP into one overarching process for achieving EIP. This paper presents the conceptual analysis and arguments for this proposal.Sources of evidence: Drawing from literature and previous research in the fields of DBDM, RITP and EIP, we describe both DBDM and RITP, before comparing and contrasting the integral aspects of each.Main argument: Our analysis leads us to suggest that not only is there overlap between these two approaches, but the strengths of each appear to mirror and compensate for the weaknesses of the other. As such, we argue that it is important that decisions in education are based on a combination of personal judgement, research evidence and local school data. This is because such a combination is likely to lead to equitable, effective and efficient decisions that are informed by values and preferences, grounded in context and steeped in practices that have been shown to be effective elsewhere.Conclusions: We suggest that an effective strategy for EIP might be to achieve ‘the best of two worlds’ by integrating DBDM and RITP. In line with evidence-informed practices in medicine and management, this means EIP in education can finally be engaged in as a holistic approach to educational decision-making that critically appraises different forms of evidence before key improvement decisions are made. Our proposed approach, Evidence informed School and Teacher Improvement, is thus designed with the aim of enhancing the quality of educational provision by employing these evidence types as part of a systematic cycle of inquiry, focused on continuously improving the quality of learning in schools.