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Article
Publication date: 29 November 2013

Lauren Munro, Robb Travers, Alex St. John, Kate Klein, Heather Hunter, David Brennan and Chavisa Brett

This study sought to gain a better understanding of the general life experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) newcomer youth, situated within the broader…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study sought to gain a better understanding of the general life experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) newcomer youth, situated within the broader context of their lives post-migration. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of various forms of oppression experienced by LGBT newcomers and offers recommendations for transforming services to better serve the complex needs of this marginalized population.

Design/methodology/approach

The Teens Resisting Urban Trans/Homophobia (TRUTH) project was comprised of ten focus groups with 70 youth (aged 14-29) living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Another three focus groups were conducted with 13 GTA service providers and teachers working with LGBT youth, in addition to one key informant interview. For this paper, the authors drew from a subset of the data including four newcomer-specific focus groups in which there were 39 youth who identified as refugees or immigrants, as well as key informant interviews with four youth (three of whom also participated in focus groups) and one service provider. Participants were asked about “what homophobia and transphobia meant to them”, “where they experienced it”, “in what forms”, and “how it impacted their daily lives”.

Findings

The experiences of LGBT newcomer youth in this study involved a complex negotiation of multiple systems of oppression. Youth described experiences of homophobia and racism within interpersonal relationships, in the LGBT community, in their respective diasporic communities, in social service encounters and during the immigration/refugee process. Barriers for LGBT refugee youth included difficulties finding work and accessing health care, as well as the additional burden of proving their sexual orientation during refugee claimant hearings.

Research limitations/implications

While the combination of focus groups and key informant interviews is a strength in this study, it also presents challenges for analysis. In focus groups, it is not always clear who is speaking; because of this, the authors were sometimes unable to differentiate between refugee and immigrant youth (or those without status) in our focus groups, making it often unclear which perspective or experience youth were speaking to. Another limitation was the dominance of the “cisgender gay male voice” in our conclusions. Lesbian and bisexual women were present in fewer numbers and the sample only included three trans youth.

Practical implications

The findings reveal systemic discrimination on the basis of race and sexual orientation that illuminate injustices within Canadian society and systems that can enhance the efforts of those working in policy and service environments. Focused anti-homophobia and anti-racism training, and the implementation of policies designed to enhance accessibility, could improve service provision for newcomer LGBT youth. Furthermore, in order to facilitate a more just settlement process, a broader understanding of sexual identity, gender identity, and gender expression is required of the refugee claimant system.

Originality/value

This study examines the experiences of youth in a large and complex, multicultural, and gay-friendly urban centre, thus providing timely and current data about the well-being of newcomer LGBT youth. As such, it is one of the first studies to offer some insights into the life issues and challenges post-migration of Canadian LGBT newcomer youth.

Details

Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-0980

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 November 2013

Ayden I. Scheim, Randy Jackson, Liz James, T. Sharp Dopler, Jake Pyne and Greta R. Bauer

Despite health inequities experienced by Aboriginal and transgender (trans) communities, little research has explored the well-being of Aboriginal trans (gender-diverse) people…

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Abstract

Purpose

Despite health inequities experienced by Aboriginal and transgender (trans) communities, little research has explored the well-being of Aboriginal trans (gender-diverse) people. This paper aims to describe barriers to well-being in a sample of Aboriginal gender-diverse people in Ontario, Canada.

Design/methodology/approach

In 2009-2010, 433 trans people in Canada's most populous province participated in a multi-mode health survey. In all, 32 participants identified as First Nations, Métis, or Inuit (Aboriginal); unweighted frequencies were calculated to describe their characteristics.

Findings

Participants expressed diverse gender identities; 44 per cent identified with the pan-Aboriginal term two-spirit. High levels of poverty (47 per cent), homelessness or underhousing (34 per cent), and ever having to move due to being trans (67 per cent) were reported. In all, 61 per cent reported at least one past-year unmet health care need. Most participants had experienced violence due to being trans (73 per cent) and had ever seriously considered suicide (76 per cent). One-fifth had been incarcerated while presenting in their felt gender. Aboriginal spirituality was practiced by 44 per cent, and 19 per cent had seen an Aboriginal Elder for mental health support.

Research limitations/implications

Action is needed to address the social determinants of health among Aboriginal gender-diverse people. Using principles of self-determination, there is a need to increase access to health and community supports, including integration of traditional culture and healing practices. Larger study samples and qualitative research are required.

Originality/value

These first published data regarding the health of Aboriginal gender-diverse Ontarians illustrate both their heterogeneity and all-too-common experiences of individual and systemic discrimination, and barriers to care. Results highlight potential impacts of colonialism and social exclusion, and suggest priorities for ameliorative action.

Details

Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-0980

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 November 2013

Roxanne Longman Marcellin, Greta R. Bauer and Ayden I. Scheim

Minority stress theory suggests enhanced HIV risk for those experiencing social marginalization, while an intersectionality framework posits that forms of marginalization may…

3229

Abstract

Purpose

Minority stress theory suggests enhanced HIV risk for those experiencing social marginalization, while an intersectionality framework posits that forms of marginalization may interact. The purpose of this paper is to understand how race/ethnicity- and gender-based discrimination may impact HIV risk among transgender or transsexual (trans) people.

Design/methodology/approach

The Trans PULSE project – a community-based research study in Ontario, Canada – used respondent-driven sampling to survey 433 trans participants, including 35 Aboriginal persons and 62 non-Aboriginal persons of colour. Descriptive and regression analyses were weighted to adjust for recruitment probabilities.

Findings

Most Aboriginal persons (65 per cent, 95 per cent CI: 37-90) and persons of colour (90 per cent, 95 per cent CI: 74-100) reported at least one experience of racism or ethnicity-based discrimination, and the vast majority had experienced transphobia (90 and 92 per cent, respectively). Among non-Aboriginal trans persons of colour, experiences of racism and transphobia interacted in increasing odds of engagement in high-risk sex. Increases in experience of one type of discrimination had strongest effects on HIV risk when coupled with high levels of the other.

Research limitations/implications

Persons of colour were ethno-racially diverse; it is possible that different experiences of racism, with divergent effects, were collapsed. Odds ratios may overestimate actual risk ratios.

Originality/value

While some sub-groups of trans people of colour have been identified as highly vulnerable to HIV, few studies have explored the impact of discrimination. This paper explores the roles of two types of discrimination in engendering HIV-related risk, and suggests potential limits to resiliency in the face of high levels of discrimination targeting multiple facets of identity.

Details

Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-0980

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 November 2013

Margaret Robinson and Lori E. Ross

The purpose of this paper is to outline the use of intersectionality theory in research with gender and sexual minorities – that is, with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to outline the use of intersectionality theory in research with gender and sexual minorities – that is, with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) people, and lesser-studied groups such as two-spirited people.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the paper note the limited way that LGBTQ research has taken up issues of intersecting oppression. The paper outlines why theoretical and methodological attention to overlapping oppressions is important, and why theorists of intersectionality have identified the additive model as inadequate. The paper presents a sketch of current best practices for intersectional research, notes special issues for intersectional research arising within qualitative and quantitative paradigms, and finishes with an overview of how these issues are taken up in this special issue of Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care.

Findings

Current best practices for intersectional research include. Bringing a critical political lens to data analyses; contextualizing findings in light of systemic oppressions; strategically using both additive and multivariate regression models; and bringing a conscious awareness of the limitations of current methods to our analyses.

Originality/value

This paper addresses the use of intersectionality theory in research with gender and sexual minorities, highlighting methodological issues associated with qualitative and quantitative paradigms in LGBTQ research.

Details

Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-0980

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1927

When men still alive to‐day were young, not a single cargo of chilled or frozen meat, of fruit or of dairy produce from the Southern Hemisphere, had been landed in this country…

Abstract

When men still alive to‐day were young, not a single cargo of chilled or frozen meat, of fruit or of dairy produce from the Southern Hemisphere, had been landed in this country. We have, that is, lived in the last generation through a dietetic revolution which has left us to a large and increasing extent dependent on foodstuffs grown at the ends of the earth and consumed weeks or even months after they leave the places of their origin. Fifty years ago Australia was importing butter, and a century ago the first cow was imported into New Zealand—where there are to‐day more cattle than men. This change in the balance of trade has created a series of new problems in practical science. Some of these have been solved in part, others remain impregnable, and all urgently call for solution; for every year, and almost every month, damage to cargoes is suffered that has its origin in our imperfect knowledge of how to submit perishable goods to the ordeal of prolonged ocean carriage. Beef, to take an obvious example, is hard to bring satisfactorily from Australia. There are two methods by which meat may be preserved, freezing and chilling. The same installation is used in both cases, but for the former, the machine requires to be more powerful, since the temperature of the meat must remain well below 32 degrees F. Mutton lends itself perfectly to freezing, but beef, owing to structural and other causes, is deteriorated if frozen. The tissues are ruptured by expansion, and so, when the meat is defrosted, much of the nutritive liquid escapes. It is possible, that this problem of “drip” may be solved. It is also possible that beef from Australia may be transported to Europe in a chilled (not frozen) state. Experimentally this has already been achieved, but much remains to be done before small scale experiment can be converted into current commercial practice. When it is remembered that there is available in Australia land which would feed a further seven to ten million head of cattle, the importance of the investigations now being conducted into means of transport will be understood. The ocean carriage of fruit involves inquiries equally fascinating and, perhaps, less known. An apple or an orange is not killed by being plucked, but continues to live and “breathe,” that is to say, to absorb oxygen from the air and yield in its place carbon dioxide. In consequence, a ship's hold packed with fruit would quickly resemble a Black Hole of Calcutta were not certain precautions taken. The crowded living cargo threatens to suffocate itself, and the remedy lies in lowering the temperature of the fruit so that it may breathe more slowly, and in the provision of adequate ventilation. Cold, and to a certain extent the expired gas, CO2, itself, lower the rate of living—that is to say, the rate of chemical change, so that the fruit ripens more slowly. It is in this state of delayed ripening that apples from Australia or oranges from South Africa can be brought to this country without damage. Stated in this way, the problem sounds simple enough; given some degree of cold and ventilation, all will be well. As a matter of fact, the limits of temperature and of ventilation within which it is permissible to move are narrowed by both engineering and biological considerations. Living matter does not suffer coercion gladly or passively, and the attempt to delay ripening, though it undoubtedly succeeds, does not leave the fruit at the end where it would be if it had ripened normally. The sequence of chemical change is different; flavouring substances abnormal in character or in amount are apt to be produced, and the problem of successful storage is to hit upon that combination of temperature humidity and ventilation, which will in the end present the product to the palate of the consumer in a state as near to the normal as may be. Fruit, moreover, has its recognisable storage diseases, and, though much advance has been recorded in recent years, losses are still suffered regularly. As an example of the tricks that can be played with plants, it may be mentioned that a rose bush, just budding, can be kept at its “freezing” point and its growth arrested. Then, if it is sheltered under a hothouse roof so that light shines upon it continuously, it will bloom to perfection many months later, when its temperature is allowed to rise. Roses in December arc, in fact, a practical proposition. The stowage of fruit naturally requires particular care. On banana boats, for instance, the chambers are subdivided into pens by portable rails supported in special stanchions, and from the air trunk access may be had to the bananas for inspection during the voyage. To check the danger caused by bulging cases it is sometimes the practice to fit battens around the case ends of thickness equal to the amount of bulge, thus preventing pressure on the fruit itself when the ship rolls. Mere ventilation without refrigeration is sometimes found to be adequate. Provided a good, regular circulation of air is secured, fruit can be brought here and even to America in this manner from the Mediterranean. Ingenious precautions are taken to see that rough weather does not affect storage conditions. In the old days one of the popular methods of artificial lowering of temperature was that of the direct expansion cold air machine. The air from the cargo spaces was sucked into the machine, compressed, cooled, expanded and sent back through the cargo spaces. This system proved, however, unsatisfactory, and has virtually been scrapped. The problem of the elimination of loss from fruit cargoes begins not in the cold store but in the orchard. A layman might expect different varieties of apples to vary in their carrying quantities. But experience has shown that apples of the same kind, even when grown near together and showing no difference if eaten as soon as plucked, vary considerably in their keeping power according to the soil on which they are grown. Thus Victoria plums under standard uniform conditions of commercial storage have had a life varying from one to six weeks. In another case Allington Pippin apples of the 1925 crop, taken from two different trees growing in the same garden less than 15 yards apart, showed a commercial storage life in the same cold store until January, 1926, in one instance, and in the other until May, 1926. Evidently growers, shippers and all concerned in the fruit trade dare not allow such results to be possible, for waste has to be paid for, and if the damage is charged to the public the consumption of fruit is liable to be lowered. It may be feasible to vary keeping quality by modifying soils, and this aspect of the matter, which is, of course, extremely complicated, is being strenuously tackled. If the tasks before scientific investigators are hard, the prizes are valuable. For, apart from the desirability of adding to knowledge, huge commercial interests are at stake. Our capacity for consuming fruit imported from the Southern Hemisphere is only beginning to be tested. It is scarcely too much to say that until after the war we had been accustomed to enjoy apples and oranges only in the colder months. The supplies now on the market all through the summer come wholly from the Southern Hemisphere. South Africa only started exporting oranges in the first decade of the present century, and then only in very small quantities. Now she sends nearly a million cases every season, and it is estimated that this figure could be multiplied tenfold in the next fifteen years if the demand were sufficient. It is such considerations that have led the Empire Marketing Board to give a substantial grant to the Low Temperature Research Institute at Cambridge, which is enabling the Institute to build a new and enlarged station, and considerably to extend its activities in all directions. But producers and consumers are alike dependent on workers in the spheres of low temperature research and soil investigation. These scientific inquirers have much ground to cover before we can claim completely to have learnt the art of carrying perishable cargoes half round the world.—(The New Statesman).

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 29 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1933

The Fruit Control Act, 1924, is an important one as it provides for the establishment of a Fruit Control Board, and is described as an “Act to make Provision for Control of the…

Abstract

The Fruit Control Act, 1924, is an important one as it provides for the establishment of a Fruit Control Board, and is described as an “Act to make Provision for Control of the Fruit Trade.” The following definitions are laid down :—Board is the Export Board of Control, or a Local Control Board established under this Act. Fruit: this term is applied to apples and pears only. Fruit Trees are apple trees and pear trees only. Producers are persons carrying on business as producers of fruit for sale and being the occupiers of orchards registered under the Orchard and Garden Diseases Act of 1908. The Export Control Board may give directions as to grading, packing, handling, storage, shipment, sale, insurance against loss, display at exhibitions, and generally all matters relating to handling, distributing and disposal of fruit. It may also appoint overseas agents to act under its directions. To enable the Export. Control Board to control effectively the export of fruit, the Governor‐General may, under the Customs Act, 1913, prohibit the export of any fruit save in accordance with a licence issued by the Minister of Agriculture in terms approved by the Board. Part I. of the Act applies to fruit grown for export, and s. 3, i, states that this part of the Act shall come into operation by Proclamation approved by the Executive Council. It is, however, provided by s. 3, ii, that the Proclamation shall not issue unless a proposal has been carried at a poll of producers by a majority of valid votes recorded, and (sec. 4) if seventy per cent. of the producers in a district wish their district to be excluded from the operations of the Act, then the Minister of Agriculture shall by notice in the “ Gazette ” exclude that district. In this way the important Otago provincial district was excluded by notice on 15th January, 1925. Since it seems that no provision was made in Part I. of the original Act in the event of persons changing their minds, Otago presumably would have excluded itself for ever from the operations of the Act. The Act was designed to aid fruit growers and to further the interests of the apple exporters, for under s.s. 8–14, the Export Control Board has power to assume absolute or limited control over fruit intended for export after service on the owner of the fruit or by notice in the newspapers. It guaranteed, in fact, the quality of the fruit. Otago fruit growers seemed to have thought better of the matter, and an Amending Act (No. 6, 1932) was passed whereby (s. 2) Otago fell into line with the rest of the Dominion. Part II. of the Act applies to fruit for home consumption. It is not at present operative in any part of the Dominion, as the necessary authority under the Act has not been given by poll of fruit growers. Provision in this case, however, has been made for fresh polls to be taken if ten per cent. of the producers petition that this should be done. It is not as far as we know anywhere implied, still less expressly stated, that the Act shall be made to apply to any fruits other than apples or pears. Still, it seems only reasonable to see in this Act a basis for further legislation of the same kind which may in the future be applied to other fruits. It seems to have operated most successfully as far as apples for export are concerned. During the debate in the Legislative Council on the Fruit Preserving Industry Act of 1913, the then member for Nelson, which is perhaps the most successful apple‐growing district in the Dominion, stated that two years before—that is about the year 1911—there was a shipment of apples to England. “Nothing has been done as far as I can gather in following up that experiment.” The Minister for Agriculture was able to assure him that the apple consignment to England had turned out very satisfactorily. The export trade in apples has perhaps turned out to be far more satisfactory that anyone twenty years ago, either in New Zealand or in this country, could have supposed. The experimental shipment of 1911 was followed by the four years of war with its immense disorganisation, so that the industry, as we know it, may be said to have originated with this Act. In a word, the Act ensures uniformity of the consignments of fresh apples and pears exported from the Dominion to this and other countries. The export of fruit from New Zealand has, as everyone knows, been in operation, with varying success, for a number of years. Otago, for example, had established, through the Otago Provincial Fruitgrowers' Council, its own system of shipping and marketing fruit grown in the Province and intended for export—this indeed appears to have been the chief reason for the refusal of Otago to vote itself into control under Part I. of the 1924 Act. Still, we agree with the member for Egmont when he stated in the course of the debate on the Bill that “ the export of fruit is virtually a new business.” It will be readily seen that the control and guarantee of fruit—apples and pears—for export, and the advice and assistance rendered to the fruit growers must in the long run react on the output of the growers of every kind of fruit in the Dominion, it appears to be only a question of time. The time will have come when New Zealand grows more fruit than it can consume. When the Dominion grows the surplus fruit the amount of imported fruit must very materially decrease. Fresh fruit will still be exported, but we venture to predict that canned fruit will form a not inconsiderable proportion of the fruit trade taken as a whole when that time comes. The jam‐making industry already absorbs a considerable quantity of fruit, and if jam can be made fruit can be canned. Thirty‐five years ago a Mr. W. J. Palmer stated “ Nature has in the most unmistakable manner destined New Zealand to be pre‐eminently a fruit‐growing country… . New Zealand can produce, without artificial aid, almost everything that California has to raise by the expensive agency of irrigation.” If New Zealand can do that, then it is in as good a position to supply us with some of our imported canned fruit, as are the Dominions of Canada, Australia and South Africa, and the United States. Indeed, climatically it is on the whole better equipped than are the other countries just mentioned. Still, things seemed to have moved slowly as regards fruit‐canning in New Zealand. In 1910 and in other years the Year Book observes “ a great deal more might be done in bottling fruits … if only for home consumption.” The total amount of apples, peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums gathered in the Dominion amounts to 2,363 thousand bushels in round figures, and the last four named fruits make but 12·5 per cent. of this total. There would therefore seem to be plenty of room for expansion in the growth of these fruits which presumably form no inconsiderable amount of the fruit which is being canned for home consumption at the present time. Otago heads the list for production in all four, and markedly so for nectarines and apricots. It may be remarked that out of a total of 18 thousand acres returned as under fruit, the average size of a holding is about 7½ acres, the number of holdings decreasing rapidly after the 20–30 acre limit has been passed. New Zealand is therefore technically what we should describe as a land of small holdings as far as the fruit industry is concerned. In 1931 canned and bottled fruit valued at over £60,000 was imported into New Zealand—this figure does not include the value of imported pineapples. The country of origin was mainly Australia, and the fruits for the most part consisted of apricots and peaches. In 1931, 20,399 cwt. of fruit of New Zealand origin and valued at £45,691 was canned, and 16,086 cwt. valued at £29,337 was pulped. The Dominion has evidently still a very long way to go before it becomes self‐supporting in the matter of canned fruits, even though it may be able to grow the fruit itself, while an export trade in canned fruits is presumably still a long way below the commercial horizon.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 35 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1933

The Dominion of New Zealand is not, at present, an exporter of canned fruits. The canned fruits which are made are made for home consumption. So far as the export trade of fruit…

Abstract

The Dominion of New Zealand is not, at present, an exporter of canned fruits. The canned fruits which are made are made for home consumption. So far as the export trade of fruit is concerned the New Zealand growers have mainly concerned themselves with raw apples and to a smaller extent with pears. Everyone knows that the Dominion extends over a small range of low southern latitude; that it has a sunny and equable climate; a rainfall well distributed over the year; a variety of excellent soils. It will, in a word, grow almost anything, a fact that has not altogether proved to be an unmixed blessing. Up to 1876 its hundred thousand square miles of area was divided into nine provinces; after that date by the Provinces Act, 1876, the country was divided for administrative purposes into counties with powers of local self‐government. The central government, at Wellington, is responsible for the Acts referred to in this article, these Acts being applicable to the whole of the Dominion. Such legislative measures as have been passed in relation to the fruit industry have for their main object the development of fruit orchards, chiefly those of apples at present. In the year 1930–1, 3,539 tons of fruit were used in the making of jams, jellies, canned or bottled fruits and “other products.” The value of the fruit canned or bottled was £45,763, as against £165,655 for jams and jellies, and £119,104 for “other products” in the same period. This works out roughly to about 14 per cent. The Orchard Tax Act† (No. 25, 1927) provides for special taxation for the development of the fruit‐growing industry and the protection of orchards from fireblight.‡ Under Section 3 of the Act any fruit grower with 120 or more trees in his orchard shall pay one shilling for every acre or part of an acre. The minimum yearly tax under this section shall be five shillings. The term “fruit” includes apples, pears, quinces, oranges, lemons, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums and cherries, and any other kind of fruit which may subsequently be declared by the Governor‐General in the Gazette. This is a good list of fruits and illustrates as well as anything of the kind can the great possibilities of New Zealand as a fruit‐growing country. Lemons are an important crop in North Island. Much of the lemons consumed in New Zealand are home grown, but it is desired to make the Dominion self‐supporting in this respect. The Poorman Orange, according to the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, is becoming popular as a substitute for imported grape fruit. Oranges it seems have been cultivated with success since about 1875, as well as citron, lime and lemon in the neighbourhood of Auckland. Thompson (Naturalisation of Animals and Plants in New Zealand, 1922) quotes a remark by an officer of the brig “Hawes” in December, 1928, that he saw a few orange trees that had been introduced with success. The same author remarks that apples, pears, and, according to Major Cruise (1820), peaches had been introduced by the missionaries. It was about this time that missionary enterprise, which would appear to have been somewhat badly needed, made its appearance.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 35 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1984

R.J. Stephens

Tourism is a growth industry, and is being fostered as a means of providing regional economic development, new employment opportunities, a more diversified economy, and of…

Abstract

Tourism is a growth industry, and is being fostered as a means of providing regional economic development, new employment opportunities, a more diversified economy, and of increasing foreign exchange earnings. The basis for increasing both internal and international tourist flows is primarily New Zealand's natural attractions of land forms, flora and fauna. Tourist patterns reflect this, with a heavy concentration of visitors to National Parks and other areas noted as scenic attractions.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 11 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1905

In discussing the merits and demerits of infants' foods, it is impossible to avoid reference to the physiological problems connected with infantile digestion, because, of course…

Abstract

In discussing the merits and demerits of infants' foods, it is impossible to avoid reference to the physiological problems connected with infantile digestion, because, of course, the whole question of suitability or otherwise turns upon the degree of digestibility of the preparations. Appearance and flavour, although of great importance in the case of adults generally, and invalids in particular, here play only a minor part.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 7 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 22 December 2020

Stamatios Papadakis

This study, by critically analyzing material from multiple sources, aims to provide an overview of what is available on evaluation tools for educational apps for children. To…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study, by critically analyzing material from multiple sources, aims to provide an overview of what is available on evaluation tools for educational apps for children. To realize this objective, a systematic literature review was conducted to search all English literature published after January 2010 in multiple electronic databases and internet sources. Various combinations of search strings were used due to database construction differences, while the results were cross-referenced to discard repeated references, obtaining those that met the criteria for inclusion.

Design/methodology/approach

The present study was conducted according to the methods provided by Khan et al. (2003) and Thomé et al. (2016). The whole procedure included four stages: planning the review, identifying relevant studies in the literature, critical analysis of the literature, summarizing and interpreting the findings (Figure 1). Furthermore, in this analysis, a well-known checklist, PRISMA, was also used as a recommendation (Moher et al., 2015).

Findings

These review results reveal that, although there are several evaluation tools, in their majority they are not considered adequate to help teachers and parents to evaluate the pedagogical affordances of educational apps correctly and easily. Indeed, most of these tools are considered outdated. With the emergence of new issues such as General Data Protection Regulation, the quality criteria and methods for assessing children's products need to be continuously updated and adapted (Stoyanov et al., 2015). Some of these tools might be considered as good beginnings, but their “limited dimensions make generalizable considerations about the worth of apps” (Cherner, Dix and Lee, 2014, p. 179). Thus, there is a strong need for effective evaluation tools to help parents and teachers when choosing educational apps (Callaghan and Reich, 2018).

Research limitations/implications

Even though this work is performed by following the systematic mapping guideline, threats to the validity of the results presented still exist. Although custom strings that contained a rich collection of data were used to search for papers, potentially relevant publications that would have been missed by the advanced search might exist. It is recommended that at least two different reviewers should independently review titles, abstracts and later full papers for exclusion (Thomé et al., 2016). In this study, only one reviewer – the author – selected the papers and did the review. In the case of a single researcher, Kitchenham (2004) recommends that the single reviewer should consider discussing included and excluded papers with an expert panel. The researcher, following this recommendation, discussed the inclusion and exclusion procedure with an expert panel of two professionals with research experience from the Department of (removed for blind review). To deal with publication bias, the researcher in conjunction with the expert panel used the search strategies identified by Kitchenham (2004) including: Grey literature, conference proceedings, communicating with experts working in the field for any unpublished literature.

Practical implications

The purpose of this study was not to advocate any evaluation tool. Instead, the study aims to make parents, educators and software developers aware of the various evaluation tools available and to focus on their strengths, weaknesses and credibility. This study also highlights the need for a standardized app evaluation (Green et al., 2014) via reliable tools, which will allow anyone interested to evaluate apps with relative ease (Lubniewski et al., 2018). Parents and educators need a reliable, fast and easy-to-use tool for the evaluation of educational apps that is more than a general guideline (Lee and Kim, 2015). A new generation of evaluation tools would also be used as a reference among the software developers, designers to create educational apps with real educational value.

Social implications

The results of this study point to the necessity of creating new evaluation tools based on research, either in the form of rubrics or checklists to help educators and parents to choose apps with real educational value.

Originality/value

However, to date, no systematic review has been published summarizing the available app evaluation tools. This study, by critically analyzing material from multiple sources, aims to provide an overview of what is available on evaluation tools for educational apps for children.

Details

Interactive Technology and Smart Education, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-5659

Keywords

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