Search results

In terms of the concept of broken home as a juvenile delinquency risk factor, whilst Nigeria and Ghana are culturally different from western nations (Gyekye, 1996; Hofstede, 1980; Smith, 2004), parental death (PDE) and parental divorce (PDI) have been previously taken-for-granted as one factor, that is ‘broken home’. This paper aims to deconstruct the singular model of ‘broken home’ and propose a binary model – the parental death and parental divorce hypotheses, with unique variables inherent in Nigerian/Ghanaian context.

It principally deploys the application of Goffman’s (1967) theory of stigma, anthropological insights on burial rites and other social facts (Gyekye, 1996; Mazzucato et al., 2006; Smith, 2004) to tease out diversity and complexity of lives across cultures, which specifically represent a binary model of broken home in Nigeria/Ghana. It slightly appraises post-colonial insights on decolonization (Agozino, 2003; Said, 1994) to interrogate both marginalized and mainstream literature.

Thus far, analyses have challenged the homogenization of the concept broken home in existing literature. Qualitatively unlike in the ‘West’, analyses have identified the varying meanings/consequences of parental divorce and parental death in Nigeria/Ghana.

Unlike existing data, this paper has contrasted the differential impacts of parental death and parental divorce with more refined variables (e.g. the sociocultural penalties of divorce such as stigma in terms of parental divorce and other social facts such as burial ceremonies, kinship nurturing, in relation to parental death), which helped to fill in the missing gap in comparative criminology literature.

Though some disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) abstractions and core concepts may appear transparently obvious to some readers, others might not easily grasp the complexities embedded in them. This chapter focusses on the main arguments connected to DRRM. It unravels some of the complexities that abound in the framing of key disaster risk reduction concepts in literature. This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part focusses on understanding the dynamics of disasters. This part revisits definitions of disasters in literature, how they have been conceptualised in academia and what makes them different from other related concepts such as hazards, crisis, vulnerabilities and emergencies. Furthermore, considering that some impacts of disasters are more obvious than others, it examines some of the less conspicuous relationships between disasters and other phenomena. The second part examines the concept of DRRM in existing literature, highlighting the importance of resilience in DRRM and revisiting key methodological approaches in building resilience among communities. The third part places the concept of DRRM within the African context. It demonstrates the delicate aspects embedded in successful DRRM in Africa amid institutional development and policy issues. This part concludes with the identification of key knowledge gaps in DRRM in Africa. These knowledge gaps identified in the wider literature are used to justify why the chapters in this book and the context covered (sub-Saharan Africa) are of utmost importance in DRRM.

This chapter outlines the efforts of two tenure-earning faculty members in distinctly different disciplines. Those navigating through a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) context face a unique set of challenges relative to institutional infrastructure that lends support for teaching, student development, research implementation, and scholastic activities. To address these shortfalls, the authors took action by implementing a novel and collaborative course redesign. While these efforts aimed to enrich existing course instruction, develop undergraduate students' research and teaching pedagogy, and provide culturally relevant teaching services to a partnering primary education institution, early incidents that emerged from the redesign revealed the utility of affording students such as innovative research experience (RE). The authors developed the novel assignment in accordance with Florida A&M University's Quality Enhancement Program, #WriteOnFAMU, which seeks to create a culture in which students become actively engaged in their learning through writing proficiency. Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) supports high-impact practices, undergirded by multiple opportunities for students to participate in cocurricular writing opportunities.

Moreover, the cross-curricular integrative writing approach implemented by the instructors of these courses (the authors) provided students enrolled in the Colleges of Education and the College of Social Sciences, Arts, & Humanities a unique opportunity to become actively engaged in a multidisciplinary approach to learning. The assignment not only enhanced students' writing proficiency but also broadened their exposure to content area knowledge, afforded students an opportunity to synthesis materials across disciplines, and allowed for critical analysis relative to an action-based, translational RE. The collaborative research assignment entailed two major objectives: the developed project was to (1) improve elementary education preservice students' lesson plan writing and implementation proficiency and (2) develop emerging psychology students' ability to produce and implement an action-based research project within the realm of Social Psychology. Students enrolled in RED3013 (Teaching Reading and Diagnosing its Growth) and SOP3003 (Social Psychology) worked collaboratively to complete the course requirements. Throughout the chapter, the authors describe how this teaching approach aided in faculty and student development. The narrative elaborates on tenure-earning elements of teaching and service via peer collaboration. Additionally, the authors highlight the scanty resources that create pitfalls for affording students opportunities to develop as researchers.