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- Abraham, Getahun Yacob, 1958-
(author)
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International practicum for what and on whose terms?
- 2018
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- International practicum for what and on whose terms? Getahun Yacob Abraham Senior Lecturer Karlstad University The aim of this paper is to investigate about the aims of international practicum and who is benefiting from it. If it is found that one side, the North or the South, is benefiting, to look at the possibilities to reconsider the practicum in order to benefit both. Review of literature in the field and my own experiences as a Swedish university lecturer involved in the teacher students practicum in the South will be the base for this paper. Some preliminary results of my literature review show that practicum in the South mainly focuses on giving the teacher students from the North the possibility of intercultural understanding with specific focus of dealing with change taking place at home, the diversity of students in classrooms (Abraham & von Brömssen, 2018; Bosire & Brigham, 2009; Marx & Moss, 2011; Wiken & Klein, 2017). Long time experiences show that in the movement of students from the North to the South, the economically and politically dominant countries can dictate the terms (Bosire & Brigham, 2009; Yang, 2002). In addition to that the countries in the center gain more advantages than the countries in the periphery (Barnet & Reggie, 1995). Keywords: Internationalization, International practicum, teacher students, North, South. References Abraham, G.Y. & von Brömssen, K. (2018). Internationalisation in teacher education: Student teachers reflections on experiences from a field study in South Africa. Education Inquiry. https://www-tandfonline-com.bibproxy.kau.se/doi/full/10.1080/20004508.2018.1428035 Barnet, G.A. & Yingli Wu, R. (1995). The international student exchange network. 1970&1980, Higher Education, 30, 353-368. Bosire, M.M. & Brigham, S. (2009). Preparing North American preserivice teachers for global perspectives: An international teaching practicum experiences in Africa, The Alberta Journal of Education Research, 55 (3), 415-428. Marx, H. & Moss, D.M. (2011). Please mind the culture gap: Intercultural development during a teacher education study abroad program, Journal of Teacher Education, 62 (1), 35-37. Wikan, G. & Klein, J. (2017). Can international practicum foster intercultural competence among teacher students? Journal of the European Teacher Education Network, 12, 95-104. Yang, R. (2002). University internationalization: Its meaning, rationales and implications, Intercultural Education, 13 (1), 81-95.
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- Abraham, Getahun Yacob, 1958-
(author)
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New Public Management in the Swedish Higher Education
- 2016
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The focus of this study is to find out about the neoliberal New Public Management entry into the Swedish higher education institutions, its effect and the possible alternative to it. The study is based on articles in academic journals, policy documents and government sponsored reports. The result of the study shows that the Swedish higher education institutions are influenced by New Public Management. This is visible as market characters such as efficiency, competition, quality control, customer satisfaction is highly valued at present in the higher education. There is also emphasis on manpower training for the labour market. Easily measurable knowledge for immediate use of economic growth are prioritized at the expense of critical and analytical knowledge. Higher education’s autonomy is to some extent violated, collegial leadership is replaced by appointee leadership, staff are under pressure to follow instructions instead of exercising their academic freedom. Based on these findings I will argue against these trends and emphasis on the importance of all partners in higher education to review the present condition in order to facilitate the possibility for keeping higher education (universities) as public autonomous institution, to keep academic freedom intact, to assure that higher education should have both professional and democratic contents, and that higher education should continue to undertake basic long term and short term research for immediate use.
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- Abraham, Getahun Yacob, 1958-, et al.
(author)
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Postcolonial perspective, indigenous knowledge and critical theories for transforming universities and societies in Southern/Africa
- 2017
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This conference paper will address some problems facing Southern/African universities. Instead of detailed discussion of general problems facing universities in Southern/Africa, it will focus on universities relation to their funding partners such as the state and external donors, as well as their role as higher education institution in terms of teaching, research and the outreach/community services program. We believe postcolonial investigation into higher education helps universities to look into their past and its impact on their present. Through researching indigenous knowledge systems, they can find out about locally developed knowledge that they can integrate into their educational curricula. Concepts from critical theories could be used to analyse universities relations to their funders, their teaching-learning process, their research and their outreach to their communities. Specifically, through using critical pedagogic approach, they can prepare their students to critically view the reality of their societies, to find out their needs and to participate in the process of their transformation. On the base of these perspectives, hopefully universities could address the problems of inequalities caused by class, gender, ethnicity and race. KEYWORDS: Postcolonial perspective, indigenous knowledge, critical theories, transformation, universities, societies, Southern/Africa.
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- Abraham, Getahun Yacob, 1958-, et al.
(author)
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Swedish student teachers´ perspectives on their short field study in South Africa
- 2018
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper explores if and in what way experiences from a short field study can contribute to student teachers intercultural learning and professional development. The paper is based on focus groups and individual interviews, with two groups of Swedish student teachers that undertook a two-week field study in South African schools. Researches on internationalisation in higher education especially trying to show intercultural learning in teacher education, often last several months or a whole year. Thus, there is a knowledge gap on students’ doing shorter field studies, which our study wants to help fill. The findings show that even a short field study has an important impact on the individual student teacher’s understanding of themselves and awareness of teachers’ living and working conditions in a different culture like South Africa. It is impossible to conclude that the student teachers became more interculturally competent through this short field study. However, the student teachers in their reflections turn their attention back to their own national context for critical comparisons. As underlined by the student teachers, experiencing the context of teaching and learning and meeting people “in reality” is something that really “grabs your heart”.
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- Abraham, Getahun Yacob, 1958-
(author)
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Teachers as pedagogues, intellectuals and activists for promoting social justice through education
- 2018
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- AbstractThe purpose of this study is to investigate how teachers prepare themselves to play their role of developing their students critical thinking to understand the injustice and power relations in their society. The emphasis is on teachers as subjects and their role on preparing “critical citizens” (Moyo, 2013) that will promote democracy and social justice. Teachers are expected to work with different functions of education such as qualifications, socialization and subjectification (Biesta, 2015). Kincheloe (2008) describe teachers in a critical context as follows:Teachers working in a critical context rebel against the view of practitioners as information deliverers, as deskilled messengers who uncritically pass along a canned curriculum. Highly skilled scholarly teachers research their students and their communities and analyse the curricular topics they are expected to cover. In light of such inquiry, these teachers develop a course of study that understands subject matter and academic skills in relation to where their students come from and the needs they bring to school… (Kincheloe 2008, 118). My attempt to understand the role of teachers is inspired by critical pedagogy. According to this perspective, teachers who are willing to give room for their students and encourage them to be critical citizens are considered “problem posing educators” (Freire, 1970), “radical teachers” (Giroux, 1983), “public intellectuals” (Giroux, 2011), etc. According to Freire (1970) these teachers recognize the role of “teacher-student” and “student-teacher”; they teach their students and they are also ready to learn through their students´ reflections and from their life experiences. These teachers in addition to their good theoretical understanding are also activists in their society. Through participation in organizations such as teachers´ unions, local cultural and social associations they are well informed about the current issues and demands of their society.In their classrooms, together with their students through “generative themes” (Freire, 1970) raises issues that are not only about school subjects but also relevant to the society at large. By using “dialogic metod” (Ibid., Shor & Freire,1987) they gradually approach the issues from different angels; this enable them to see inequalities and injustice some sectors of the society are experiencing. Beyond understanding, in practice they work on promoting democracy and social justice. I would like to give two examples from the literature I reviewed. The first one is about an American high school teacher, who brought a leather soccer ball and put it in front of his students of Global Studies. He asked them to write anything about the ball and he told them they are allowed go to the front touch it and investigate it as they want. They wrote about it from different perspectives but all of them missed the text in small letters on the ball, that says Made in Pakistan. When the teacher showed them that, they started wondering why it was made in Pakistan, who produced it, how was the working condition for those who produced it, etc. This lead them to critically reflect and discuss even other issues related to materials produced abroad and the exploitative relations involved (Smyth, 2011). The second example is about students from poor farmer families in Tuscany region in Italy. They were helped by their teacher, Don Lorenzo Milani to be aware of their underclass non-privileged position in their society and their school. Eight pupils from the school, Barbiana school wrote a book titled, Letter to A Teacher (Lettera). In their book, they criticized the school system for failing them and the privilege middle class children received in their expense (Mayo, 2013).
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- Abtahi, Farhad, 1981-, et al.
(author)
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An Affordable ECG and Respiration Monitoring System Based on Raspberry PI and ADAS1000 : First Step towards Homecare Applications
- 2015
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In: 16th Nordic-Baltic Conference on Biomedical Engineering. - Cham : Springer. - 9783319129662 ; , s. 5-8, s. 5-8
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Homecare is a potential solution for problems associated with an aging population. This may involve several physiological measurements, and hence a flexible but affordable measurement device is needed. In this work, we have designed an ADAS1000-based four-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) and respiration monitoring system. It has been implemented using Raspberry PI as a platform for homecare applications. ADuM chips based on iCoupler technology have been used to achieve electrical isolation as required by IEC 60601 and IEC 60950 for patient safety. The result proved the potential of Raspberry PI for the design of a compact, affordable, and medically safe measurement device. Further work involves developing a more flexible software for collecting measurements from different devices (measuring, e.g., blood pressure, weight, impedance spectroscopy, blood glucose) through Bluetooth or user input and integrating them into a cloud-based homecare system.
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