(2010). Veterans Education: Coming Home to the Community College Classroom. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, National-Louis University. The purpose of this study was to identify the needs of veterans who are community college students and to examine community college programs and services essential to meeting their needs. A qualitative case study design using interviews, observations, field notes, document reviews, a focus group, and a preinterview demographic questionnaire provides a holistic account of the community college experience for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. This research study gives a voice to veterans who are community college students, and provides community colleges with insights that may enable them to improve their services for this population. Five major themes relating to the veterans' perspectives of their needs at the case institution emerged from the data: (a) credit streamlining; (b) streamlining of programs and services; (c) faculty, advisor, and counselor training; (d) difficulties encountered by veterans, and (e) factors that constitute a veteran friendly campus. These five… [Direct]
(2010). Supporting Student Veteran Success: Institutional Responses to the Post-9/11 GI Bill and the Influx of Student Veterans. WISCAPE Viewpoints. Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education (NJ3) The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, commonly known as the Post-9/11 GI Bill, represents the largest investment in veterans' education since the original GI Bill of 1944. The bill pays tuition for a student veteran up to a cap based on public in-state undergraduate tuition and provides a monthly housing stipend, as well as money for books and educational supplies. Since its adoption in August 2009, the bill has made postsecondary education more affordable and accessible for many veterans. Due to the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the size of the United States military has increased. Many veterans of these wars will soon return to American soil, and the Post-9/11 GI Bill, along with other benefits, will help thousands attend colleges across the nation. In this Viewpoints, contributors representing several institutions–staff and colleagues from the Madison College Veterans Services Office, Tami Koepsel of Edgewood College, and John Bechtol of the… [PDF]
(2010). Islam in the Classroom: Teachers and Parents Alike Are Unsure about the Topic, but It's Never Been More Important. School Library Journal, v56 n10 p34-37 Oct. Between recent threats by a Florida pastor to burn the Quran, the nation's ongoing presence in Afghanistan, and protests at the planned site for Park 51, an Islamic community center and mosque set to be built two blocks from the World Trade Center site, the topic of Islam is a tricky one, especially in K-12 schools, say many educators. For starters, it can be difficult to find appropriate materials to bring into media centers and classrooms. And then, parents can object to Islam being taught to their children, as protest groups across the Internet can attest. Of all major religious groups in the United States, Muslims trigger the most feelings of prejudice among Americans, according to a poll released in January by the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. This prejudice can play out when organizations hear of Islamic culture being taught in schools. Knowing how to craft such a lesson is key. For teachers who don't have access to professional development programs, guidance on how to… [Direct]
(1966). Intermediate Dari for Peace Corps Volunteers. Afghanistan. This more advanced Dari text was designed for Peace Corps Volunteers in Afghanistan who desired to speak the language on higher levels, but it could also be used during the last part of the training programs in the United States. It follows the author's elementary text, "Farsi Reference Manual Basic Course," which has been used in all the Afghan Peace Corps training programs. This text is divided into eight units which contain presentation, reinforcement. recapitulation, and conversation drills. Dari script materials are included. (CFM)… [PDF]
(2007). The Student Soldier. Community College Journal, v78 n1 p22-25 Aug-Sep. Educating America's service men and women has long been a core mission of many community colleges, especially in cities and towns that host military bases and installations. Today, a soldier, sailor, or Marine can be stationed anywhere in the world and continue his or her education with the help of distance learning initiatives. Whether a soldier is stationed in war-torn Baghdad, in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, or on an ice breaker in Antarctica, emerging technologies provide access to a community college education. This article describes three community colleges that serve the military and offer distance learning for military personnel…. [Direct]
(2012). School or Madrassa? Parents' Choice and the Failure of State-Run Education in Pakistan. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, New York University. Two major assumptions have dominated much of the discourse on Islamic schools in Pakistan since the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s and following the US attack on Afghanistan in October 2001. First, the Pakistani state-run education system is failing. Because of the poor quality of education at public schools, parents choose to send their children to attend madrassas. Second, madrassas produce religious militancy, threatening Pakistani and global security. My study focuses on this first assumption and explores the extent to which parents' decisions to send their children to madrassas is explained by their educational, rather than religious, motivations given the poor state of public education. Contrary to the popular assumption that families' choice of madrassas is associated with the poor standards of public education in Pakistan, findings from my research show that parents who send children (both male and female) to public school do not perceive madrassas as an alternative despite… [Direct]
(2008). Learning for a Bright Future: Schooling, Armed Conflict, and Children's Well-Being. Comparative Education Review, v52 n4 p639-661 Nov. During and after armed conflicts, policy makers and practitioners often advocate education to support the physical, psychological, and social well-being of children. In such advocacy they reference education's role in promoting children's welfare, although there is evidence that schooling in particular can jeopardize children's well-being. In this article, the authors argue that, under certain conditions and with certain approaches, schooling can support children's well-being. This subject has been given little attention in existing literature and practice. Using data collected on primary school students living in refugee and postconflict contexts through the International Rescue Committee's Healing Classrooms Initiative, the authors examine the diverse ways in which Eritrean refugee students in Ethiopia, Afghan students in Afghanistan, and Liberian refugee students in Sierra Leone conceptualize their own well-being in relation to their school experience. The authors then draw out… [Direct]
(2008). Transnational Feminist Rhetorics in a Digital World. College English, v70 n5 p471-489 May. In this essay, the author examines the digital circulations of representations of one Afghan women's rights organization–the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)–to demonstrate the importance of a global and digital field for feminist rhetorical analysis. Specifically, this analysis traces how women's self-representations are transformed through their circulation within global fields of rhetorical action in ways that often "fix" these women within neoliberal frameworks of "democracy" and "women's rights," thus erasing the multiple ways in which women across the globe use Internet technology to create and claim identities, agency, and political activism outside of the circulation of one-third world rhetorics of power. This essay emphasizes the importance of understanding the cybercirculation and mediation of representations of RAWA through Internet technologies–a factor that has often been ignored by feminists from the West as they… [Direct]
(1998). Afghanistan: NGOs and Women in the Front Line. Community Development Journal, v33 n2 p117-23 Apr. In conflict-torn Afghanistan, international nongovernmental organizations are attempting to build indigenous capacity for development. Strategies include support for women, involvement of local elders, and integration of internal and external value systems. (SK)…
(2002). The Afghans: Their History and Culture. Culture Profile, 2002. This booklet provides a basic introduction to the people, history, and cultures of Afghanistan. It is designed primarily for service providers and others assisting the Afghan refugees in their new communities in the United States. The 12 sections focus on: (1) "Preface"; (2) "Introduction" (recent Afghan refugees); (3) "The Land"; (4) "The Economy"; (5) "The People" (Pushtuns, Tajiks, Altaic groups, and other ethnic groups); (6) "History" (antiquity, early conquests, introduction of Islam, empires, beginnings of Afghanistan, western powers, formation of Afghanistan, modernization of Afghanistan, Soviet occupation, and current crisis); (7) "Religion" (the Sunni and the Shi's, the Taliban version of Islam, and Islam's impact on daily life); (8) "Daily Live and Values" (social structures, family life, key cultural and social values, festivities, food and drink, dress, and music and literature); (9)… [PDF]
(2009). Grading the War Story. Teaching English in the Two-Year College, v36 n4 p353-354 May. This article considers the emotional and psychological complexities of responding to personal narratives when the focus is war. The author teaches at a community college and she always begins her semester with a narrative assignment for the usual reasons: students write better when they write what they know; teachers should scaffold writing assignments a la Moffett–to enable students to move from what is emotionally close to them to more complex and seemingly faraway topics; narratives allow teachers to get to know their students and their students' writing in more multifaceted ways. Those are all good reasons, and they have worked for her in the past, but this semester, a part of her wishes that she had never given a personal narrative essay assignment. Many of the stories that her students told were connected to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her mind spins wondering how to critique these writings just the right way, without becoming lost in depression. She knows that she must… [Direct]
(2010). A Safe Zone for Veterans: Developing the VET NET Ally Program to Increase Faculty and Staff Awareness and Sensitivity to the Needs of Military Veterans in Higher Education. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, California State University, Long Beach. Given the increased educational benefits of the Post 9/11 G. I. Bill for veterans, and as the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down and the troops come home, the number of military veterans entering colleges and universities is expected to increase. As non-traditional students with significant life experience, often including combat, this population of students may have different needs than traditional college students. The purpose of this study was to develop, pilot, and evaluate the VET NET Ally program to educate staff and faculty about the needs of military veterans in higher education. Modeled after Safe Zone Ally programs common on college campuses, the VET NET Ally program provided 4-hour training seminars focused on pre- and post-military culture, personal identity issues, and the services available to veterans to assist them in achieving their personal, social, and educational goals. The study provides an outline of the training modules included in the… [Direct]
(1980). Learning Sexual Identity: Parents and Children in Northern Afghanistan. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, v11 n4 p254-65 Win. Describes different roles and socialization activities of male and female children in an Afghanistan household. Stresses the implications for adolescent behavior and marital relationships of mothers' influences on children of both sexes. (GC)…
(1978). Statistical Profile of Children and Mothers in Afghanistan. Interim Edition. This interim report is an updating of the 1977 Statistical Profile of Children and Mothers in Afghanistan. The interim report reflects the significant changes in policies brought about by the Saur Revolution establishing the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in 1978. A comprehensive revision of the report is expected when the new government's five year plan is available. The profile presents the policy objectives of the Khalqi Government regarding children and mothers, provides the population estimates being used by government planners, and draws together the latest available data relating to the health, educational and social status of children and mothers. Information and tables are provided on mortality, birth and migration rates, health needs and institutions, water supply and environmental sanitation, housing, education, and communications. (SS)…
(1979). Integration of Women in the Development Process and Its Impact on the Wellbeing of Children. This report, prepared by the UNICEF Office in Kabul, Afghanistan, is on the status of women in Afghanistan and on the problems and issues affecting their integration in the national development process. The report provides a general overview of the relationship between developmental programs for women, improvement of women's status and the resulting impact on the well-being of Afghan children. The United Nations assistance to programs benefiting women, and the specific roles which UNICEF plays in this regard, are described. In addition, future courses of actions for UNICEF are suggested. (Author/MP)…