American Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

1Rhonda Dookwah, Gabriel Julien 2

This research highlights the experiences of sixteen undergraduates who studied Macroeconomics at a higher education institution in Trinidad and Tobago called Prestigious College. The students used the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach for the first time and were extremely excited and anxious about learning through the use of the PBL strategy. Furthermore, they were quite willing to deviate from the traditional instructional method to accept the PBL. A review of the existing literature within the local context, indicated that there is a dearth of information about the experiences of these undergraduates who study Macroeconomics, using the PBL approach at Prestigious College. Hence, their voices and opinions about their experiences are absolutely necessary since they can be a catalyst for the proper creation of policy and implementation of PBL in this country. Moreover, their voices and opinions answer the research question: What are students´ experiences with Problem-Based Learning in the study of Macroeconomics at Prestigious College? Consequently, an action research which used a case study was employed to adequately ascertain their experiences. It involved semi-structured interviews with four focus groups. Data were collected, collated, analyzed and narrated using two major themes: PBL motivates learners and PBL facilitates self-directed learners. Recommendations strongly advocating student-centered strategies were also offered.

*EGOBUEZE, Anthony, PhD, OGELE, Eziho Promise, AJUNWO, Daniel

The Legislature is officially elected or otherwise selected body of people vested with the responsibility and power to make laws for the good governance of the State. The Legislature like every other institution of the State, hardly functions without conflict which could either be internally or externally induced. This research is empirical, and interrogates conflicts in the National Assembly of Nigeria between 1999 – 2018 and reviews the implications for democratic consolidation. Employing secondary data and content analysis as methods of data collection and analysis as well as conflict theory as a framework of analysis, the study revealed the inordinate ambition of the political class to retain power at all cost for economic gains as the major cause of conflicts in the Legislature and recommends respect for the rule of law, making legislative offices as part-time and less attractive as the panacea for democratic consolidation.

Richa Srishti

Kashmiri, a North-western language (Dardic) of Indo-Aryan family, contains lexicon of tatsam , tadbhav and deshaj (indigenous) words. The investigation of the root forms reveal that most of the verbs are intransitive at base. Hence, most of the verb roots end up being listed as intransitives, if one were to make reference to solely morphology in decisions concerning what constitutes the base form of a Kashmiri verb. The present paper argues that morphology can’t be the reliable basis to decide on the verb classification. Hence, it is imperative to investigate the semantico-syntactic behaviour of verbs and classify them accordingly. This paper provides an account of semantico-syntactic classification of Kashmiri verbs using the framework of Levin & Rappaport (1995) and focuses to capture the relationship between syntax and semantics of Kashmiri verbs.

Dr. Pamela Hampton-Garland, Dr. Morris Thomas

White invisibility involves the notion that whites do not have to be noticed. Creating a society where there are people and then people of color. This can lead to several issues, particularly as it pertains to educating adults. Adult Education is grounded in Andragogy, which includes educating all adult learners. Making any learner invisible does a disservice for all parties involved. In this paper we will highlight how an Adult Education program addresses this issue by including courses in its curriculum that focuses on English Speakers of Other Languages, Special Education in Adult Education, and Adult Development Learning and Motivation where the learners in this setting are exposed to differences not only hinged in marginalization and hierarchy but through Culture & Context course learners understand experientially how to build community by expanding their perspectives.

Claver Boundja

In the current era of local development, the choice and planning of local development projects have become complex, due to the involvement of multiple benchmarks, such as political, technical, social, economic and environmental. This requires good collaboration between the populations benefiting from development projects, political decision-makers and technicians. And the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making tool (MCDM) is an adequate technical instrument capable of enabling the various actors involved to design and plan development models that meet the real needs of local populations. This article proposes a modeling and a theoretical simulation of the ELECTRE TRI technique (MCDM), likely to be applied in the process of choice, planning and evaluation of local development projects. The objectives of the study are to acquire mastery of the methodology, to assess its integration into the planning process and to study a concrete problem. Interest is particularly focused on the integration of human development criteria, depending on public policies, levels or areas of application, actors involved or stakeholders, the historical and cultural dimension of the local human group. We start by presenting the ELECTRE TRI method; we then formulate an ELECTRE TRI model in the context of the territorial division of Bantucracy (Boundja 2019); we finally show the simulation of a development project in this context.

Fekede Sileshi Fufa

The effort of this paper mainly depends on the critical analysis of archival sources, manuscripts and oral tradition. The name Limmu in this paper represents both the place name and the Oromo groups settled in the area after the 16th century Oromo population expansion. There are various clans of the Oromo group: Saphera, Guto, Warra Iggu (Bariso, Manni and Hanno), Kube, Warra Da’imo (Dimma, Warsuu, Harru, Ibso and Sirba) and Indibo. I favored to indicate them all Limmu Oromo, because the topic of my paper is fully focused on Limmu Oromo. In this context it represents largely the Oromo of Limmu, Haro Limmu and Western part of Gidda districts. Following settlement in the area, Limmu Oromo clans have occupied the whole fertile and suitable highland areas and had exercised their own democratic gadaa system for a long period of time. This system continued, until Menelik conquered the region. 

Dr. Chinmay Biswas

Two localities of North 24 Parganas of West Bengal in India are selected for the study. The Oraons people of these areas came from Chatonagpur Plateau of Jharkhand and Bihar. They immigrated to these two localities for various works such as Railway construction, Jungle cutting, etc. by the moneylenders and Landholders and companies. Most probably they came One hundred to One fifty years ago. Since, this long time they lived here and the plenteous number of urban cultural traits entry their life. As the result a few changes have specifically occurred in their lifestyle. The study was carried out to look at how the changes and modifications occur in their Song, festivals and, the myth.

Wei Cai

The worsened psychological conditions of rural left-behind children have become a significant concern in Chinese society. This paper investigates the left-behind children’s families and the school environment in which they receive education, in Yunnan Province, China. This isa large and under-privileged group, and the paper seeks to shed light on how their mental health is affected by these circumstances. The research conducted mainly employs a qualitative methodology of observation as well as analysis of quantitative data collected by sociologists and researchers. The results demonstrate that various conflicts in these situations could adversely influence their emotions and psychological health. These conclusions could inform migrant families as well as schools on ways to improve their parenting and teaching skills to better cater to the emotional needs of left behind children in Yunnan Province.

Oluokun, Philip Olusunmade

The main focus of this paper is to investigate the perception of learners with mobility constraints on environmental accessibility elements, simple random technique was used to select one hundred and twenty two students with mobility constraints in three (3) tertiary institution in Oyo State. It was deduced from the findings that most buildings in the schools are not accessible to learners with mobility constraints. Blindness imposes a great limitation to the overall wellbeing of an individual for the singular reason of inability to move around independently. People with severe visual limitation are often dependent on others or on artificial aid for independent travels. They often get frustrated and sometimes get stranded. Apart from barriers that are structural within the environment, (i.e. buildings and other constructions) there are many other designs which constitute hindrances and make the environment both inaccessible and unfriendly to person with physical impairment. Example of such includes simple home appliances, machines and tools as well as many other utilities; such as automobiles, computers, lifts, travelators etc. It was recommended from the findings that accessible elements should be incorporated into the school environment. Learners with mobility impairments, require sufficient space to approach and open doors. Additionally, since doors with significant resistance will be difficult to open for learners with mobility impairments, they should not be used at entrances. Clearance space is required beyond the latch side of doors to provide for optimum maneuverability. Latch-side space of at least 18 inches is required for forward approaches, and the clearance space in front of the door must be at least 60 inches deep for the pull side of doors.

Ejitu N. Ota, Ph.DChinyere S. Ecoma, Ph.DChiemela Godwin Wambu, Ph.D

 One of the lasting legacies of military rule in Nigeria is the creation of states. This started in 1967 when Yakubu Gowon, the then military Head of State (1967-1975) created twelve states to replace the existing regional arrangement. Almost every subsequent military regime has latched on this precedent to create states, the last being that of General Sani Abacha. In all, political, more than any other consideration informed the creation of states. All the exercises in state creation have also reflected and sustained the numerical dominance of the former northern region over the former eastern and western regions. Using primary and secondary sources in its methodology, this paper historicises state creation in Nigeria and concludes that state creation by military Heads of State since 1967 achieved the prime objective of political, economic and numerical domination of the south by the north. This translates to allocation of enormously higher resources to the north than the south which generates most of the national resources. The paper opines that restructuring the Nigerian state could be a lasting elixir to the ill feelings among ethnic minorities in the country.