Journal of Advocacy, Research and Education

4-15

Authors: Gordon K. Adomdza, Michael Asiedu, Amma Sefa Dede Lartey, Anatu Ben Lawal

Social enterprises have been identified as one of the ways of tackling some of the most challenging social problems around the globe. Despite, being touted as indispensable to the developmental agenda of most developing economies, especially across Africa, very little effort has been made to understand the scope of impact and impact assessment measures adopted to evaluate the activities in the space in the continent. The current study is an inquiry into the mechanisms adopted by SEs in their impact assessments within Africa. Additionally, the research focuses on the scope of impact of SEs across the continent. The results revealed an imbalance in the use of the two categories of impact measures; “individual-based impact measures” and “non-financial impact measures”. SEs have relied more on “what we do” and numbers to justify their impact in several parts of the continent. Additionally, the research also revealed that some of the impact areas of SEs included poverty and inequality; education and technology; entertainment; child empowerment; girl and women empowerment; youth empowerment; and social welfare and disability. The research recommends that SEs should endeavor to measure their impact from a comprehensive perspective, to align their activities and measures to the broader national and/or global agenda.

36-42

Authors: Teklu Tafase Olkaba, Wakgari Tasisa Duressa

The study investigated the extent of Ethiopian higher education expansions policies and its program diversification responding to the local market demands and realities on the ground. The study explored a range of literature on Ethiopian higher education policy scenarios within national development policies. The study was guided by one research question: To what extent the expansion policy and program diversifications in Ethiopia higher education responded to the demands and realities of the local economy? The literature review, document survey, and focus group discussions were used to examine the expansions policies and their program diversification processes. The findings of the study illustrate that the responsiveness of Ethiopia's higher education expansion policy brought a tremendous increase in enrolments within a short period. Moreover, the finding confirms that the Graduate Mix Policy resulted in poor program relevance and a graduate unemployment crisis. Based on the findings of the study, conclusions were made for policymakers to critically revisit the policy scenarios in Ethiopian higher education expansion, diversification, and relevance in line with national, regional, and global manpower demand.

11-20

Authors: Noel Julius Ntawigaya

Professional conduct among school teachers in Tanzania has a very vital impact on teaching and learning. The purpose of the study was to find how professional code of ethics among teacher educators in teacher training colleges (TTCs) as among teacher training institutions (TTIs) is being practiced with effect to their student-teachers who are prepared to teach in schools as their outputs. The study used a mixed research approaches using the qualitative approach as the dominant approach with explanatory design. About 155 informants were used and data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussion. Findings revealed that professional misconduct among school teachers, to a large extent, involve fresh university graduates who have never professionally trained in TTCs than the TTCs graduates. Moreover, findings confirmed that TTCs teacher educators to a large extent maintain the Professional Code of Ethics and Conduct (PCEC) and positively affect their student-teachers. It is then recommended that, in order to help in maintaining PCEC in schools, all responsible employment authorities for professional teachers should introduce the conditions that all fresh university graduate teachers with no professional teaching experiences in lower levels must first undergo ethical professional internship before employment. Moreover, the government should strategically improve TTCs to make them professional training centres for professional teachers who wish to teach at lower levels of education.

17-32

Authors: Jade Kouletakis

In 2008, the South African parliament passed the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act, which came into effect on 2 August 2010. In doing so, South Africa sought to replicate the apparent success of the United States of America’s Bayh-Dole legislation. One of the express objectives of the Bayh-Dole Act is the increase in university-industry collaborations (U-I). Whilst U-I has not been expressly stated as a primary aim of the IPR Act, the legislative history has demonstrated that issues relating to U-I have permeated the political landscape from the inception of the IPR Act. It is therefore relevant – although hitherto unexplored – to consider whether South Africa’s IPR Act might have the same supposedly positive effect on U-I experienced by the Bayh-Dole Act. In answering this question, this paper chooses to focus on two factors that may be considered particularly pertinent in light of South Africa’s recent socio-legal landscape, namely (a) the lack of substantive patent examinations, and (b) government investment in higher education. To this end, it will be argued that the IPR Act will only serve to have a negative effect on U-I, if any at all.

40-45

Authors: Samuel Harrison-Cudjoe

Elections serve many important purposes in states across the globe, most especially as an important means of acquiring or retaining political power. This has led to violence as a characteristic of electoral politics in Africa and Ghana. This paper seeks to provide insights into electoral violence in Ghana, and offer Security Sector Reform as a means of curbing it. The paper also offers some complementary to preventing electoral violence.

5-14

Authors: Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva

In the world of academic publishing, to refer to a journal or publisher (or any other scholarly entity) as “predatory” carries with it a very serious and negative connotation, and can damage its reputation if that claim is made in public. If such a claim is supported by clear evidence, then it becomes a valid critical opinion because it is substantiated. Even if others share different opinions, the original claim cannot be false if clearly substantiated by evidence. However, if such a claim is made without solid support, then such a claim can be defamatory. Academics are weary of the nature of such claims from the Jeffrey Beall era. Between May and December of 2017, Leonid Schneider, currently one of science’s most vocal watchdogs, Tweeted on several occasions that Springer Nature’s Science and Engineering Ethics (SEE) was “predatory”, in one Tweet even stating that “They are deeply unethical crooks at Science & Eng Ethics!” These are not light claims to be made in public. Moreover, Twitter is not simply a private communication medium, it is a powerful disseminative social media tool that is used by academics, and others, to give maximum exposure to a message. In this case, Tweets were likely made to cause reputational damage. Academia has entered a new phase in its evolution where polite communication about the issues to save the image of the for-profit publishing model is being tested by select individuals or groups, who sacrifice political correctness in the name of truth. If Schneider were to provide clear proof of his claims that SEE is predatory, then this would rock the world of ethics publishing, because SEE represents one of the most established academic ethics journals globally, ranked third based on its Clarivate Analytics journal impact factor. On September 16, 2017, the author contacted Schneider to request a full and thorough list of properties that led him to make these accusations in public. In that email, the SEE co-editors-in-chief, Raymond Spier and Stephanie Bird, Springer Nature, COPE and other related individuals were copied, with a formal request to offer feedback. Almost two years after that email, not a single entity has ever responded. Spier deceased at the end of April 2018, leaving a vacuum in this challenge by Schneider on SEE. This paper offers some perspectives about this case, and the wider implications of making accusations in public, especially using Twitter, which is now clamping down on social media aggression, of a potentially defamatory nature, without proof or substantiation.

20-28

Authors: Evans Frimpong Kyei, Edward Appiah Boateng, Abigail Kusi-Amponsah Diji

Postoperative pain has been a challenge for the healthcare industry for many years in Africa especially Ghana. However, its management has not received adequate attention like other aspects in the industry as it is evident that clients who undergo surgery continually experience much pain after surgery. The study sought to explore patients’ experiences with postoperative pain management. The study employed a qualitative research design with a phenomenological approach. In all twelve (12) participants were recruited for this study using purposive sampling approach. Participants were interviewed in a face to face manner with the help of a semi-structured interview guide. These were patients who had survived more than twenty-four (24) hours after surgery. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) guided the active generation of four themes which described participants’ postoperative pain management experiences. Pain disability, dualistic engagement with nurses, drivers and discomforts of analgesic intake and casting the mind off pain characterized participants’ postoperative pain management experiences in the current study. Pain disability represented the debilitating nature of the postoperative pain experience which affected their activities of daily living. Participants described both positive and negative nursing encounters which were covered under the dualistic engagement with nurses. The drivers and discomforts of analgesic intake related to participants’ motivation for taking prescribed pain medications and some of the untoward effects they experienced with such drugs. Casting the mind off pain illustrated participants’ engagement in non-drug techniques due to their potential in distracting them from their prevailing postoperative pain. Unrelieved postoperative pain and its undesirable effects persist despite decades of advanced technologies and research on pain. Postoperative pain care should be individualized to meet the unique comfort needs of patients. Analgesics and non-drug techniques should be encouraged to maximize postoperative pain relief with minimal or no untoward effects.

103-106

Authors: Linda Ama Owusuaa Amoah

Infectious diseases are of significant health importance to human and animal life. Globally, infectious diseases continue to present a great challenge to health with regard to morbidity and mortality. This review seeks to analyse from existing evidence, the altering role of co-infection on the population dynamics of infectious diseases. This paper has implications for research, policy and clinical interventions.

115-119

Authors: Michael Okyere Asante

Do the words ‘labour’ and ‘work’ carry the same or different meanings? Can they be used interchangeably, and under what contexts? While we find that in the English language and other European languages, such “etymologically unrelated words” are considered as reflecting the same activity, they could mean different or similar things depending on their contexts. In this brief paper, I show how this is the case in Plato’s use of ergon (work) and ponos (labour).