Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2023-04-13"
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- Do we live where it is pleasant?: correlates of perceived pleasantness with socioeconomic variablesPublication . Monteiro, João Pedro Medina; Carrilho, Ana Clara; Sousa, Nuno; Oliveira, Leise Kelli; Jesus, Eduardo Natividade; Rodrigues, João CoutinhoLiving in urban areas is the wish of many people. However, with population growth in those areas, quality of life has become a concerning element for achieving sustainable cities. Because quality of life is influenced by the built environment, the state of the latter is a fundamental issue for public policies. This research expands on previous research on the perceived pleasantness of built environments by presenting a large-scale case study of the urban layout pleasantness in the central area of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, a typical global south city, and correlating pleasantness scores with socioeconomic factors to understand whether people do in fact live where the urban layout is more pleasant and how pleasantness and socioeconomic factors relate and contribute to one’s choice of living location. A comparison with the city of Coimbra, Portugal, representative of the global north, was also carried out. The findings showed that pleasantness tended to correlate negatively with urban density and positively with income. Possible explanations for these results and their generality are advanced.
- Educators by proxy: emergency remote teaching and learning from the voice of parentsPublication . Seabra, Filipa; Abelha, Marta; Aires, Luísa; Teixeira, AntónioIntroduction: The COVID-19 pandemic led educational systems worldwide to transpose activities planned for face-to-face education to mediated contexts - through what is known as Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL). This posed unprecedented challenges to schools, teachers, families, and students. In this context, it was relevant to describe and understand how parents perceived this process, including what challenges to themselves and their children they faced and what advantages they acknowledged in the process. The present study focuses on Portuguese parents’ views on this process. Methods: Data were gathered in April and May 2020 through an online questionnaire answered by 184 parents of preschool, basic, and secondary education students (ages 3–18). The present paper presents data from open questions analyzed by deductive and inductive content analysis using MaxQDA. Results and discussion: Results evidence three overarching themes: equity, parental labor, and the meaning of school. Parents reveal substantial difficulties juggling the role of proxy educator and parent and point to inequalities - including those concerning very young children, children with disabilities or learning difficulties, students enrolled in professional education, families with insufficient access to technologies, and parents working from home. The school is portrayed as a crucial environment for development, a designated space for learning and caretaking, but also a relational and emotional context. Despite this scenario, parents acknowledge ERTL as having positive aspects and as the possible outlet to keep education going even in extreme situations.