Journal of Education and Research

Ethnography of School Violence: A Cultural Perspective

Raj Kumar Dhungana — 2020-11-06

School education is largely universalised in Nepal, but schools are not yet free from different challenges like violence. This study aimed to explore how adolescents are experiencing school violence, how it affects the school life, and how Nepali public schools are responding to such violence. Exploring these aspects, as the theoretical basis, I used the idea of cultural violence (Galtung, 1990), critical theory of othering (Kumasiro, 2000) and some of the locally practiced perspectives.

Engaging Displaced Nepali Workers in Post COVID-19 Situations: A Call for Action

Mahesh Nath Parajuli — 2020-11-06

As the battle against COVID-19 is on-going, it may not be suitable a time to worry about the world of work in post-COVID-19 situations. Nevertheless, it is logical for academics to envision ways out in response to the socio-economic challenges that we have to face. Through this editorial, we portray some strategies for engaging the displaced Nepali workers in post-COVID-19 situations.

Acknowledgement of Reviewers’ Contribution

JER KUSOED — 2020-11-06

The Editorial Board and the publisher of the Journal of Education and Research would like to express their appreciation to the following colleagues for their time and effort in reviewing manuscripts submitted to the JER.

Student Cabinet and Curricular Activities: A Case Study of a Secondary School in Bangladesh

Sodip Roy — 2020-11-06

Student leadership is well-known for enhancing student engagement in extra-curricular activities of the schools. But very little research has been pursued- particularly in Bangladesh on how the student leadership contributes to curricular activities and improves better learning experiences of students in secondary schools. In 2015, the Government of Bangladesh introduced Student Cabinet in the secondary schools with a view to inculcate democratic values among the pupils and to foster learning environment in schools. And, in this study, I examine how the Student Cabinet as a leadership tool influences academic activities: classroom and non-classroom activities and supports for an effective learning atmosphere in the school. To that purpose, I follow the qualitative methodology of in-depth interview, focus group discussion, and observation of the student cabinet’s actions in a selected school in Dhaka city. After an examination of its activities, the study reveals that it promotes many curricular activities of the school and minimizes the gaps of learning experiences at least a bit; however, their several activities are likely to link to traditional student politics in Bangladesh in future.

Data Mining Applications Used in Education Sector

Sushil Shrestha — 2020-11-06

The purpose of this work is to study the usage trends of Data Mining (DM) methods in education. It discusses different data mining techniques used for different types of educational data. The related papers were initially selected from the metadata containing words like Online Learning (OL) and Educational Data Mining (EDM). The papers were then filtered on the basis of DM algorithms, the purpose of study, and the types of data used. The findings suggested that EDM is the most commonly used technique for the prediction of students’ academic success, and the most used purpose is classification, followed by clustering and association. Further, this research also contains the study conducted on moodle data to find anomalies. K-means clustering was applied to find the optimal number of clusters on moodle data that consists of log and quiz dataset. The growth in the number of Internet users has increased learning through the online process. Hence, several activities are performed in OL systems, which generate a massive amount of data to be analysed to obtain useful information. Therefore, this type of research is very beneficial to academicians and instructors to identify the learner’s behaviors and develop suitable models.

Re-Examining the Value of UK University Business Studies Courses for Post- Graduation Nepalese Graduates

Paul H. Gilliam — 2020-11-06

This research analyses the reflections of post-graduation Nepalese Business Studies undergraduate and postgraduate graduates from UK universities. It follows their return to Nepal, where the graduates were facing a scarcity of employment opportunities. The primary research was undertaken at a time when UK universities were facing increasing competition to recruit international students and numbers of Nepalese students choosing the UK were decreasing. The mixed methods research was based primarily on semi-structured interviews in Nepal with twenty-three Nepalese graduates, their Nepalese employers and Nepalese education consultancies. Data were analysed using the five systems model of Bronfenbrenner (1979) and Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s (2012) Intercultural Awareness Profiling. Although the overall expectations of Nepalese students and employers towards UK higher education remained positive, results indicated a lowering estimation of the quality and reputation of UK universities and increasing Nepalese University and regional competition. The outcomes make a further contribution to the knowledge of why Nepalese students choose overseas higher education but why Nepalese employers are struggling to see clear benefits from employing UK educated Nepalese business graduates.

Schooling Experiences of Tamang Girls in Nepal

Sharmila Shyangtan — 2020-11-06

School education is the foundation for continuing education and attainment of basic skills and knowledge. Despite the international promises such as Education for All, Universal Primary Education, and national provision of school education as free and compulsory in Nepal, most of the marginalised people could not complete their school education. Among them, girls from the Tamang community are still confronting insurmountable challenges in accessing and undergoing schooling experience in Nepal. This paper argues that the schooling process of the Tamang girls is influenced by the embedded characteristics of cultural setting and their subjectivities through their stories. Using narrative inquiry as a research method for the study, this paper explored that schooling is shaped by the complex and dynamic role of embedded identities, power, and historicity of the community and people. I present how the Tamang girls experience their school education and how it has been the foundation for their higher education journey as well as identities formation. The paper concludes that identities of Tamang girls in school are multiple, intersubjective, and contextual, which are less recognised in modern schooling.

Impact of Dual Role of Teaching and Practice on School Counsellors’ Productivity in Nigeria

Shuaib A. Muhammed — 2020-11-06

The dual role of teaching and professional counselling practice is a common trend in Nigerian school system. Much research has not been conducted on the impact of this dual role on school counsellors’ efficiency and performance. The study investigated the impact of dual role of teaching and practice on counsellors’ productivity in Ilorin, Nigeria. A mixed method approach was employed on a sample of 149 school counsellors in Ilorin metropolis, Nigeria using the snow ball sampling. A scale tagged “Impact of Dual Role on Counsellors’ Productivity” was used to gather quantitative data from 149 school counsellors while an interview was further conducted to gather qualitative data from 10 school counsellors. The quantitative data obtained were analyzed using percentage, mean and ranking order analysis, t-test and ANOVA while the qualitative data was coded and narrated thematically. The findings revealed that dual role negatively affects the counsellors’ effective communication with the client; competence in handling client issues; prompt follow- up of client cases and having time to study client cases among others. Counsellors also hold the opinion that dual role affects proper record keeping, efficient organisation of guidance programme, proper follow-up of client cases among others. The study also found that the perception of respondents on influence of dual role varies based on length of year in service but they share similar views based on gender. The study concluded that dual role affects counsellors’ efficient service delivery in the school system.

Book Review: The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya

Tikaram Poudel — 2020-11-06

The arguments of The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya are grounded in the multidisciplinary nature of area studies i.e., linguistics, political science, anthropology and geography. Focusing on the area study of the trans-border region of the Himalaya, the contributors enrich their arguments through specific case studies of their respective areas. For all the contributors, the issues of language contact are central and all of them provide contextual analyses of this issue. The contributors raise placing their issues in the emerging discourse of language contact making the collection accessible not only to linguists but also to scholars interested in anthropology, sociolinguistics, political science and Asian studies.