A team of academic researchers, clinicians, prison administrators and undergraduate and graduate students came together to conduct an evaluation of a pre-release discharge planning program in a women's prison facility. This paper describes differences between academic and corrections systems, adaptations needed in order to work within the correctional system, pragmatic and ethical issues addressed by our team, and the joys and benefits we experienced doing the project. Team members who had not previously worked in a prison setting found it an extraordinary, transformative learning experience in spite of the challenges.

This article proposes an analytical framework to better understand the role that information and communication technology (ICT) skills play in improving employment opportunities for low-income groups. The paper draws upon research with over seventy non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide ICT training and other employment services in 30 countries around the world. It explores the linkage between ICT skills and employability on three levels: NGO program design, characteristics of individual job seekers or trainees, and environmental dynamics that influence employment outcomes. The researchers argue that basic ICT skills are often important, but are usually insufficient for members of disadvantaged groups to improve their employment situation. The proposed multilevel framework identifies some of the common elements that help situate basic ICT skills in relation to other factors that can facilitate or impede employability.

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This article sheds light on the collection and use of data by libraries in sixteen countries across Africa. It highlights the challenges that librarians and library organizations face in gathering, analyzing, and presenting data of various types for self-advocacy. In this study, qualitative data from a meeting of library representatives was analyzed to identify main challenges including: data integrity in terms of completeness, accuracy, credibility, and relevancy; infrastructure; capacity; local investment in libraries; time; and participation of data collectors and respondents. Implications for those collecting data on African libraries as well as those supporting the use of data in these contexts are discussed. The purpose of this paper is not to feed into representations of African libraries as chronically under-resourced and lacking in capacity, but rather, to constructively engage with first-hand accounts of how librarians are experiencing and navigating barriers in order to offer potential avenues forward for the field.

The present research is embedded in the professional development and research line, and in the needs of secondary education and first-year university teachers. Evidencing the importance of teachers’ professional training to include specific adaptations and skills on both the intercultural dialogue and understanding—often called Intercultural Competence—is fundamental because of the direct impact for the sustainable development of human beings, groups, and ecosystems. An extensive investigation of the role played by each of the main competencies linked to the following intercultural dimensions was performed: Professional Identity, Ethics and Axiology, Methodology, and Inclusive Education. The integrated methodology used was a cross-study of data, performed after the obtention of a three-cornered evaluation of results collected in focus groups, interviews, and questionnaires. Findings showed the impact of the intercultural dialogue and understanding in education patterns for the sustainable development of society. Other outputs also underlined the relevance of setting up a new ecology of forms, knowledge, attitudes, and educational meanings, further used to update teachers and students’ training in sustainable ecology and cultural diversity. Progress made in these complementary competencies—Professional Identity, Ethics and Axiology, Methodology—were appraised by teachers participating in the present study; the latter showing an increased interest and demand for the intercultural competence, after increasing their proficiency in the other complementary competencies.