Publication Type: Research Report
Abstract: In this paper we report on differences on mathematical classroom cultures where computer programmes from Enciclomedia, a Mexican national project, are used. Classroom cultures are characterised through the following aspects of students’ behaviour: Active/Passive, Attentive/Inattentive, Working with others/Working individually, Freedom/Constraint, Giving correct answers/ Formulating explanations, Understanding/ Remembering. Results show that changes in classroom cultures are shaped by the kinds of digital resources used. Mathematical learning was observed in relation to the use of a programme that gives students’ freedom to explore and which successfully promotes asking questions, reflecting and formulating explanations. Another programme, which restricts students’ activities, reinforces already existing tendencies of giving answers automatically.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: India has the second highest number of HIV infected individuals. Of these approximately 2,02,000 are children. These children face some of the most tragic consequences of HIV infection: being orphaned, replacing a breadwinner, nursing sick and dying parents, struggling for survival on streets. Mother to child transmission is the largest source of HIV infection in children below 15 years. This vertical transmission can be drastically reduced by PPTCT ( Prevention of Parent To Child Transmission) Programmes.With good PPTCT programmes, countries in Western Europe and USA have been able to reduce the number of children born with vertically transmitted infection. The risk of transmission has been brought down to less than 1%. Without intervention, the risk of transmission is 25-45%. In India, this translates to around 30,000 HIV positive infants born each year. This paper discusses the components of the PPTCT programmes implemented in these countries and studies the causes of lack of an effective programme in India. Some measures implemented in the Western countries are: primary prevention of HIV among parents- to- be through education and counseling, prevention of pregnancy among HIV positive women, testing of HIV status of all pregnant women, provision of anti-retroviral drugs to HIV positive mothers, replacement feeding for infants. The major barriers to their implementation in India have been the lack of infrastructure and cost. Only few places have adequate antenatal services with voluntary counseling. Even in places where such facilities exist, due to existing customs, the mothers -to –be leave for their parental homes during the last trimester of pregnancy, thus leaving the programme. There is shortage of trained counselors. Majority of the deliveries occur outside the hospitals. The costs involved in the anti-retroviral treatment is a major factor. Last but not the least, is the stigmatization of HIV which limits the uptake of testing, treatment and infant feeding modifications. .

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper enters the recent debate on the place of the human subject in international studies, with the aim of linking it better to the main disciplinary concerns of International Relations (IR) and to related research in other disciplines and fields of study. It is found that most of the main theoretical traditions of IR reserve some place for the human subject. However, these places remain imperfectly linked to suitable middle-range theories and other literatures on the human subject which would help with conceptualizing those places better. Moreover, in practical research efforts little or no empirical content is sought to fill the places reserved for the human subject. In order to correct this state of affairs the paper adapts some elements of the methodology of scientific research programmes of Lakatos to social scientific research. It is suggested that the Lakatosian ‘positive heuristics’ of the main theoretical orientations of IR – the possibilities for proposing new models and conceptualisations that keep research programmes going – represents a promising route for outlining what multidisciplinary linkages can be made to enrich and structure better the debate on the human subject. The paper argues that in order to exercise serious impact in IR, such multidisciplinary linkages must be sufficiently compatible with the ontological, epistemological, explanatory and normative assumptions of the available positive heuristics in the main theoretical orientations. The paper then concludes by outlining three possible broad directions whereby wider multidisciplinary research programmes on the human subject in international studies can be developed: the humanist, scientific and social scientific directions.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper reports on the research design, methods, and core findings of a four-year comparative research program that covered nine international bureaucracies in the field of global environmental policy: The Managers of Global Change (MANUS) project. Thi

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper presents a detailed case study of the United Nations World Food Programme’s school lunch program in an effort to understand the emerging right of a child to have food. While the right to food is recognized in a number of international documents, including the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, this right has generally been ignored. However, a child’s right to food is slowly gaining traction as a human right with which states comply. In order analyze this change I examine the period between 1961 and 1990, when the World Food Programme exported the school lunch model across the developing world. The World Food Proramme did not operate from a human rights framework. Instead, school lunches were promoted as social and economic development tools. However, I argue that their work promoting the school lunch model laid the groundwork for a child’s right to food as a human right with which states increasingly comply. By providing a viable policy model that could fulfill a child’s right to food, I argue that the World Food Programme played an essential role in advancing this right.