title: Social Change and Reproductive Behaviour in Rural Bangladesh, 1983-1996

authors: Nahar, Luftan

abstract: Recent changes in the reproductive behaviour of women m the rural areas of Bangladesh have occurred at a time when the country has been and still 1s predominantly agricultural and socio-economic conditions poor. Attempts to explain the causes of these changes, especially consideration of the role of family planning programmes, in such an unfavourable context, have generated enormous controversy among academics. 
This study examines the determinants of these recent reproductive changes in rural Bangladesh over a 13-year period. It uses quasi-experimental design based on comparison between three areas: national rural, Matlab intervention and Matlab control, using time series analysis of the repeated surveys. The changes were measured by two major proximate determinants: demand for additional children and trends in current contraceptive use. The outcome of these two factors, the fertility decline, was also analysed. The specific objective was to examine whether the family planning programme is a determinant of, or a mechanism towards, the changes m reproductive behaviour, and what role other micro and macro factors play in this. 
The major findings of the study show that the demand for no additional children was generated prior to the fertility decline among rural women of Bangladesh indicating a demand for fertility control. The family planning programme has helped to mitigate the demand for fertility control modifying supply logistics since the late 1970s. 
In terms of the determinants of reproductive change at the macro, macro and community level, this study documented that reproductive behaviour is strongly affected by biosocial and cultural factors related to macro level social structures existing at the community level. It is less strongly affected by social factors, and weakly affected by economic factors. However, the strong relationship between biosocial and cultural factors and reproductive behaviour changed over the period studied. In all three areas studied, young women who have fewer living children or sons have started using contraceptives though the old women are the major users. 
Changes m reproductive behaviour have resulted from social change coming in response to land crises, community contextual factors, the Non-Government Organisation programmes, and other macro level social changes occurring in more recent times. These changes affect both the macro and community level social structures related to patriarchy, which, in tum, influence the proximate determinants: the demand for no additional children and the current use of contraceptives. 
The study suggests that reproductive women in all three areas shared a similar notion of desired family size and level of demand for no more children prior to the fertility decline of the 1980s. This desired family size is much lower than the actual fertility rate and is probably affected by the prior mortality changes and improved survivorship. During the period studied, desired family size reduced further but it reduced equally, despite a different level of family planning intervention in one of the three areas. With this same level of desired family size, Matlab family planning intervention with an efficient supply logistics show an extremely successful mechanism for increasing contraceptive use and there reducing fertility levels in the mid 1970s, while high fertility in the other two areas began to decline in the 1980s. 
Finally, examining the four possible postulates, the present study found that no one postulate alone could explain the changes in reproductive behaviour among rural Bangladeshi women. Further in-depth study is needed for better understanding of the dynamics of these reproductive changes.

text: Social Change and Reproductive Behaviour in Rural Bangladesh, 1983-1996 Recent changes in the reproductive behaviour of women m the rural areas of Bangladesh have occurred at a time when the country has been and still 1s predominantly agricultural and socio-economic conditions poor. Attempts to explain the causes of these changes, especially consideration of the role of family planning programmes, in such an unfavourable context, have generated enormous controversy among academics. 
This study examines the determinants of these recent reproductive changes in rural Bangladesh over a 13-year period. It uses quasi-experimental design based on comparison between three areas: national rural, Matlab intervention and Matlab control, using time series analysis of the repeated surveys. The changes were measured by two major proximate determinants: demand for additional children and trends in current contraceptive use. The outcome of these two factors, the fertility decline, was also analysed. The specific objective was to examine whether the family planning programme is a determinant of, or a mechanism towards, the changes m reproductive behaviour, and what role other micro and macro factors play in this. 
The major findings of the study show that the demand for no additional children was generated prior to the fertility decline among rural women of Bangladesh indicating a demand for fertility control. The family planning programme has helped to mitigate the demand for fertility control modifying supply logistics since the late 1970s. 
In terms of the determinants of reproductive change at the macro, macro and community level, this study documented that reproductive behaviour is strongly affected by biosocial and cultural factors related to macro level social structures existing at the community level. It is less strongly affected by social factors, and weakly affected by economic factors. However, the strong relationship between biosocial and cultural factors and reproductive behaviour changed over the period studied. In all three areas studied, young women who have fewer living children or sons have started using contraceptives though the old women are the major users. 
Changes m reproductive behaviour have resulted from social change coming in response to land crises, community contextual factors, the Non-Government Organisation programmes, and other macro level social changes occurring in more recent times. These changes affect both the macro and community level social structures related to patriarchy, which, in tum, influence the proximate determinants: the demand for no additional children and the current use of contraceptives. 
The study suggests that reproductive women in all three areas shared a similar notion of desired family size and level of demand for no more children prior to the fertility decline of the 1980s. This desired family size is much lower than the actual fertility rate and is probably affected by the prior mortality changes and improved survivorship. During the period studied, desired family size reduced further but it reduced equally, despite a different level of family planning intervention in one of the three areas. With this same level of desired family size, Matlab family planning intervention with an efficient supply logistics show an extremely successful mechanism for increasing contraceptive use and there reducing fertility levels in the mid 1970s, while high fertility in the other two areas began to decline in the 1980s. 
Finally, examining the four possible postulates, the present study found that no one postulate alone could explain the changes in reproductive behaviour among rural Bangladeshi women. Further in-depth study is needed for better understanding of the dynamics of these reproductive changes.

year: 2003

title: Processing mathematical thinking through digital pedagogical media: the spreadsheet

authors: Calder, Nigel Stuart

subjects: mathematics education

abstract: Abstract

This study is concerned with the ways mathematical understanding emerges when mathematical phenomena are encountered through digital pedagogical media, the spreadsheet, in particular. Central to this, was an examination of the affordances digital technologies offer, and how the affordances associated with investigating mathematical tasks in the spreadsheet environment, shaped the learning trajectories of the participants. Two categories of participating students were involved, ten-year-old primary school pupils, and pre-service teachers. 

An eclectic approach to data collection, including qualitative and quantitative methods, was initially undertaken, but as my research perspective evolved, a moderate hermeneutic frame emerged as the most productive way in which to examine the research questions. A hermeneutic process transformed the research methodology, as well as the manner in which the data were interpreted. The initial analysis and evolving methodology not only informed this transition to a moderate hermeneutic lens, they were constitutive of the ongoing research perspectives and their associated interpretations. The data, and some that was subsequently collected, were then reconsidered from this modified position.

The findings indicated that engaging mathematical tasks through the pedagogical medium of the spreadsheet, influenced the nature of the investigative process in particular ways. As a consequence, the interpretations of the interactions, and the understandings this evoked, also differed. The students created and made connections between alternative models of the situations, while the visual, tabular structuring of the environment, in conjunction with its propensity to instantly manage large amounts of output accurately, facilitated their observation of patterns. They frequently investigated the visual nature of these patterns, and used visual referents in their interpretations and explanations. It also allowed them to pose and test their informal conjectures and generalisations in non-threatening circumstances, to reset investigative sub-goals easily, hence fostering risk taking in their approach. At times, the learning trajectory evolved in unexpected ways, and the data illustrated various alternative ways in which unexpected, visual output stimulated discussion and extended the boundaries of, or reorganised, their interaction and mathematical thinking. An examination of the visual perturbations, and other elements of learning as hermeneutic processes also revealed alternative understandings and explanations.

Viewing the data and the research process through hermeneutic filters enhanced the connectivity between the emergence of individual mathematical understanding, and the cultural formation of mathematics. It permitted consideration of the ways this process influences the evolution of mathematics education research. While interpretive approaches are inevitably imbued with the researcher perspective in the analysis of what gets noticed, the research gave fresh insights into the ways learning emerges through digital pedagogical media, and the potential of this engagement to change the nature of mathematics education.

text: Processing mathematical thinking through digital pedagogical media: the spreadsheet Abstract

This study is concerned with the ways mathematical understanding emerges when mathematical phenomena are encountered through digital pedagogical media, the spreadsheet, in particular. Central to this, was an examination of the affordances digital technologies offer, and how the affordances associated with investigating mathematical tasks in the spreadsheet environment, shaped the learning trajectories of the participants. Two categories of participating students were involved, ten-year-old primary school pupils, and pre-service teachers. 

An eclectic approach to data collection, including qualitative and quantitative methods, was initially undertaken, but as my research perspective evolved, a moderate hermeneutic frame emerged as the most productive way in which to examine the research questions. A hermeneutic process transformed the research methodology, as well as the manner in which the data were interpreted. The initial analysis and evolving methodology not only informed this transition to a moderate hermeneutic lens, they were constitutive of the ongoing research perspectives and their associated interpretations. The data, and some that was subsequently collected, were then reconsidered from this modified position.

The findings indicated that engaging mathematical tasks through the pedagogical medium of the spreadsheet, influenced the nature of the investigative process in particular ways. As a consequence, the interpretations of the interactions, and the understandings this evoked, also differed. The students created and made connections between alternative models of the situations, while the visual, tabular structuring of the environment, in conjunction with its propensity to instantly manage large amounts of output accurately, facilitated their observation of patterns. They frequently investigated the visual nature of these patterns, and used visual referents in their interpretations and explanations. It also allowed them to pose and test their informal conjectures and generalisations in non-threatening circumstances, to reset investigative sub-goals easily, hence fostering risk taking in their approach. At times, the learning trajectory evolved in unexpected ways, and the data illustrated various alternative ways in which unexpected, visual output stimulated discussion and extended the boundaries of, or reorganised, their interaction and mathematical thinking. An examination of the visual perturbations, and other elements of learning as hermeneutic processes also revealed alternative understandings and explanations.

Viewing the data and the research process through hermeneutic filters enhanced the connectivity between the emergence of individual mathematical understanding, and the cultural formation of mathematics. It permitted consideration of the ways this process influences the evolution of mathematics education research. While interpretive approaches are inevitably imbued with the researcher perspective in the analysis of what gets noticed, the research gave fresh insights into the ways learning emerges through digital pedagogical media, and the potential of this engagement to change the nature of mathematics education.

year: 2008

title: An Interactive User Management System for Multilingual Documents: A case study of the Pei Jones collection

authors: Cader, Papitha

subjects: Greenstone Digital Library

abstract: Can general purpose DL software architecture be designed to provide a flexible environment that supports both the management and end-user roles through a single unified web interface? In particular we take the collected correspondence of the Māori scholar Dr. Pei Jones and undertake case study of how this approach can be applied in a practical way.

text: An Interactive User Management System for Multilingual Documents: A case study of the Pei Jones collection Can general purpose DL software architecture be designed to provide a flexible environment that supports both the management and end-user roles through a single unified web interface? In particular we take the collected correspondence of the Māori scholar Dr. Pei Jones and undertake case study of how this approach can be applied in a practical way.

year: 2012