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Critical Kinship Organizations
Critical Kinship Organizations
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Professor
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Kinship Organizations
Kinship is that sense of being related to another person in one way or the other. Either this relationship can be brought about by a set of rules and regulations governing a society, or they can exist due to a blood relationship between the two or more individuals. It can be taken for granted as being the way it is, or natural as opposed to cultural acceptance. Kinships also include relationships due to blood or marriage between different people. Foraging and horticultural based society is the one where the community is dependent on searching for food, especially plants and fruit. Therefore, the kinship organization of foraging and horticultural based society is the study of how family relationships either by blood, marriage or by set rules affect the people, whose livelihood is preconditioned by collecting fruit, vegetables, sap and roots. (Peters, 2013).
Aborigines are one of the communities in Australia. They are one of the oldest communities believed to have a continuous culture on the planet. They are the descendants of the first immigrants from Africa for up to 75,000 years ago. This is known from a generic study and Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) analysis. In Aboriginal Australia, the fact that it is one of the most complicated kinship systems; it is thus the foundation of all the interactions in society both social and cultural. Kinship encompasses every aspect of the social composition and structure of every society, because the kinship organization of a particular tribe or people dictates their links with other communities and the relationship thus solely depend on the kinship system. In this society, everyone is related to everyone else and this complicates the understanding of the kinship system of the Aboriginal people (Berndt, 1988).
The cultural practices of the Aboriginal people solely depend on their living styles that have been for long the longest in the whole world. Their culture is being influenced by their social interactions from the kinship level. The kinship system is divided into a number of units in which the community is affected. The physical or geographic grouping of communities will affect how the society does their daily activities. A language group of say 600 people is made up of a band of around 10-20 people each, these people join together for one day to another to carry out activities, such as hunting and gathering of food. The people in a band can also be referred to as a horde, and they are likely to affect the thinking of young people, who join them. In the horde you are raised to believe that what your parents and the whole village do is the right thing. Hence, young people who should apply their rational judgment to come up with solutions to get swayed by the belief of their kinsmen. The kinship also affects the way people act. The day-to-day activity of the people around is likely to shape one’s actions. The people around you that are your kinship are the shapers of your life and action. You will believe life as being complete if you attain the status of the kinsmen (Crawford, 2003).
Religious classification and its effects are also ways in which kinship is likely to affect a society. The Aboriginal people of Australia are divided on the basis of their religious affiliation and beliefs. A moiety system of classification is used to classify the Aboriginals into different groups based on their religious beliefs. This system divides them into two: the sun side and the shady side. Therefore, on this basis some people are seen as the disadvantaged, whereas the others advantaged. This consequently affects even the way people think, because of the attitude attached to him or her.
Throughout the Aboriginal culture, people had different ways to refer to each other. For example, a man could address another man with a particular kin name, which could be used to address his brother. Also a kin term used by a woman would be used to all the other sisters, and therefore kinships are likely to affect even the interpersonal relationships between people in the society. This system is formally accepted, but some instances arise, where due to attitudes and perceptions of individuals, one will feel disrespected and thus a disagreement occurs (Berndt, 1988).
Relationships are considered as another area of great interest in the Aboriginal culture and kinship organization. This therefore affects the way of life of the people as they wait for opportunities to take over their brother’s wife. The relationships among the Aboriginals from different generation levels are different because of the variance in status, age and authority. There is usually the perception of who is older in the family and who should be respected, which therefore affects the way the family duties are distributed and done. Comparing the Aboriginal kinship system with the western society, we realize that the western society is not affected by this culture because of the different ways of life of the people. The westerners are more processed food eaters and are leading an urban life, where kinship is not given a lot of emphasizes (Crawford, 2003).
References
Berndt, R. M., Tonkinson, R., & Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. (1988). Social
anthropology and Australian aboriginal studies: A contemporary overview. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
Crawford, J., & Tantiprasut, L. (2003). Australian Aboriginal culture. Western Australia: R.I.C.
Publications.
Peters, E. J., & Andersen, C. (2013). Indigenous in the city: Contemporary identities and cultural
innovation. Vancouver: UBC Press.
Critical Issues in Higher Education
Critical Issues in Higher Education
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Institution:
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Institutions of higher learning are formed for various reasons, most of the private colleges are formed as for profit organizations whose major purpose is to make profits while the not for profit colleges mainly run by governments and nongovernmental organizations have the sole aim of providing education services to the students. Due to the nature of the objectives of the institutions, there divers will also be different.
Drivers for the not for profit colleges is usually to provide quality education to the students while charging them the minimum fee possible while drivers for profit colleges is making maximum possible profits. These institutions are usually run by governments, nongovernmental organizations, faith based organizations or community based organizations because they are the institutions that are in most cases interested in the welfare of the society. The not for profit institutions are concerned with the quality of education that they offer and its accessibility to large numbers of the society, however, while they may not be driven by monetary gains, these institutions usually charge a reduced fee to meet their running expenses or part of the expenses. In very few cases will the not for profit institutions fail to charge anything from the students. On the other hand, the for profit colleges are interested in making profits for the owners. Therefore, any activity that they participate in is usually directed at achieving this goal. These colleges usually charge higher fees than their equivalent, which are not for profit depending on the courses that they offer. For instance, training school for nurses that are not for profit will aim at imparting the nursing students with knowledge and skills as their main objective while for the profit making nursing schools; they will aspire to train professional nurses as long as they are making profits. A major point to note is that irrespective of the different drivers of the two types of college, the quality of training does not necessarily have to be different as long as they meet the set standards.
In the recent past, some issues have been raised regarding higher education; these have been directed at the quality of education that institutions of higher learning provide to their students. One of the critical issues that have been identified is the quality of graduates since a large number of students have been found to be involved in plagiarism or impersonation in a bid to get good grades without toiling for them. This issue has become so rampant such that some individuals and companies have opened bureaus where students can bring their assignments and projects to be done for them. The effect of this has been that students graduate with good grades but they cannot carry out their nursing duties properly. In the recent past, institutions have been trying to cope with this problems through the use of plagiarism software such as turnitout, grammarly, plagiarism checker among others that are available online to discourage students from copying their work online. In addition, hiring institutions such as hospitals have realised good grades on paper does not always mean excellent nurses, therefore, they have adopted other hiring mechanisms that test the ability of the potential employees to perform their responsibilities according to the required standards, for instance, the use of aptitude tests. The quality of education as contributed by the educators in colleges has also been a subject of discussion; this has largely been based on the ideal of hiring part time lecturers versus full time lecturers (Virgona, 2013). While there are disagreements on the ideal method of hiring educators, a common conclusion has not been reached despite everyone agreeing that it may affect the quality of training especially in nurse training schools.
My opinion on these issues facing the educational system is that they affect the leaning and quality of education and if they are not properly addressed, they may compromise on the quality of nursing graduates that they spun.
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Several factors affect the cost of education in higher education models; some of these factors are common in both for profit and not for profit institutions. A major cost driver in institutions of higher learning is technology (Ja Kim,et al, 2012). The technological environment is constantly changing making the useful life of technological gadgets very short, this has forced institutions of higher learning to replace them now and then pushing up the costs. For instance, personal computers have for the last 2 decades gone through great technological advancements in terms of their processor speed and their memory capacity. In addition, data and personal security in online platforms have also pushed up the costs as leaving them like that would make the institutions vulnerable to attacks. With the increase in demand for higher education, institutions have seen most of their resources operating beyond optimal points therefore forcing them to hire or construct additional resources to cater for the increasing number of students, consequently, the costs of running these institutions have gone up. Another cost driver in the higher education is the growing diversity of student and programs that are being offered in institutions of higher learning; for instance, in united states of America, the average cost of complying with the disabilities act lei between 700, 000 dollars for public two year courses to a maximum of 13, 000, 000 dollars for research institutions. Increased competition for a relatively constant student pool has forced institutions of higher learning to invest some of their resources in marketing to attract more students; however, these costs have not reduced even with increase in student population partly because competing institutions have also continued to market. With the rising cost of living, salaries paid to staff members have been increasing, this has been especially among the teaching members of staff, institutions have tried to reduce the costs that they offer to their teaching staff by reducing the number of tenured staff member and increasing the number of part time lecturers. Increased government regulation have also pushed the costs incurred by institutions of higher learning in an attempt to meet these regulations, some studies have shown that in America, for every tuition dollar, 7.5 cent goes to help the institution meet government regulations due to the increased number of accreditation agencies.
Cost efficiency in institutions of higher learning can be achieved by ensuring that the cost drivers are maintained at their minimum possible levels. The costs associated with marketing of the institutions can be minimised by ensuring costs that are invested in other areas that improve performance of the institutions have their optimal output, this means improving the quality of education that these institutions offer (Moule, Ward & Lockyer, 2010). For institutions such as Harvard and Massachusetts institute of technology do not spend much on advertising themselves but every year they receive large volumes of application letters, which exceed their capacities, this is due to the quality of training that they have been known to offer. However, this is a long-term measure to reduce costs, as the quality of education will be manifest after the students have joined the workforce. In order to save on costs that are related to technological upgrades, collaborating with several institutions including technology firms such as Microsoft will drastically reduce the cost technological upgrades. Due to increase in demand of education especially in nursing, collaborating of institutions where the institutions, which are operating beyond their optimal capacity with those of a lower level to train nurses, would help them reduce the cost of hiring or constructing additional facilities. Instead of hiring full time lecturers, institutions should hire more part time lecturers with long class time, this will save costs since lectures will only be paid the number of hours that they are in class.
There have been discussions on the role of fulltime and part time lecturers and which is the best plan for institutions of higher learning. Full time lecturers are usually employed by the institutions, therefore their time is usually spent within the institution, proponents of this type of faculty have argues that this is the best if quality of education is to be maintained since they have ample time for research and to address students concerns. On the other hand, part time faculty is thought of as the best in terms of cost since they are only paid for the time they are in class, in addition, if the part time faculty is practising in their profession. For instance, a nursing educator who spends part of his time in the wards and part in the class is likely to produce graduates that are more qualified since he transfers his experience in nursing to the class.
3.
According to CAEL, several student services are available which are important in different aspects of a student’s life. One of the services is college credit; this service allows the students to receive college credits for the experience that they have gained from their work and from what they know from life, this will help them save on the time required to complete their education and the resources. This service also helps learning institutions to assess their students and determine how effective their teaching programs are in meeting the specific need of the students (van Riemsdijk, 2013). The second service that is available to the students is prior learning assessment, which helps students acquire college credit for college level learning that is acquired from other sources such as military training. Competence based education is the other type of service that is offered which entails giving credit to students for the skill learned rather than the time that is taken to learn that skill. This service is aimed at improving the quality of education that students receive since it based on the ability of students to demonstrate the skill learned, in addition, it allows students to progress at their own pace. Advising service helps the students and employees to make informed decision about their careers in order to for them to achieve satisfaction in them. Career service enables individual to plan their education and futures from a point of information; consulting involves enabling adults to meet their specific needs in educations. Convening services entail bringing together all stakeholders to build better solutions to tackle the challenges that face adult education while public policy involves making recommendations for legislation to remove barriers for adult education.
The faculty members role in these services include helping in assessing whether other forms of learning that do not involve conventional classrooms are at par with the skills learned in the normal classroom setting. In addition, they also play an advisory role on the various options that the adult students have in their preferred fields (Jeffries, Clochesy & Hovancsek, 2009). The impact of these services on students retention is that it is likely to retain students since they ensure that the all the needs of the students are met.
References
Ja Kim, M., Gi Park, C., Kim, M., Lee, H., Ahn, Y., Kim, E., & … Lee, K. (2012). Quality of nursing doctoral education in Korea: towards policy development. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 68(7), 1494-1503. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2011.05885.x
Jeffries, P. R., Clochesy, J. M., & Hovancsek, M. T. (2009). Designing, implementing, and evaluating simulations in nursing education. Teaching in nursing: A guide for faculty, 322-334.
Moule, P., Ward, R., & Lockyer, L. (2010). Nursing and healthcare students’ experiences and use of e-learning in higher education. Journal Of Advanced Nursing, 66(12), 2785-2795. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2010.05453.x
van Riemsdijk, M. (2013). Obstacles to the Free Movement of Professionals: Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications in the European Union. European Journal Of Migration & Law, 15(1), 47-68. doi:10.1163/15718166-12342023
Virgona, T. J. (2013). Graduate nursing student self-assessment: Fundamental technology skills. Journal of Nursing Education & Practice, 3(3).
Critical evaluation of the use of Cognitive Interviewing in Investigative interview of witnesses
Critical evaluation of the use of Cognitive Interviewing in Investigative interview of witnesses
Introduction
The process of criminal investigation heavily relies on gathering of information partly from the accounts given by eye witnesses. The interview style adapted during investigative interview of witnesses has major implications on the amount of information that is gathered from the subjects. This brings out the importance of cognitive interview. As explained in this paper, cognitive interview uses simple mnemonic techniques to get the interviewee to remember details of the scene, thereby enabling the interviewer to gather more information than would be gathered using standard methods (Orthmann & Hess, 2012, p. 190). This paper provides a critical evaluation of the usefulness of this interview style in the investigative interview of witnesses.
Discussion
As mentioned, cognitive interviewing helps forensic searchers to gather much more information from witnesses than what can be gathered using standard interview method. There are four main cognitive interview approaches used by forensic searchers. One of these is the context reinstatement technique. In this approach, an interviewer helps a witness in reconstructing internal (personal) and external (physical) contexts which existed during the time when an incident of research occurred (Milne, 1997). The interviewer asks the witness to form mental impressions of the environmental features of the original scene using objects located in the interview room or area. The witnesses may also be asked to comment on their emotional reactions to the incident and any smells, sounds or other important conditions that were present. The effectiveness of retrieval cues in this case is dependent on the extent to which the text context overlaps with the context of research. According to Tulving and Thomson (1973, p. 356) this approach is effective in retrieving much information from witnesses, provided that the information had been successfully retained in the mind of an interviewee after the incident. However, some studies have shown that this technique has transient effects that are unfavorable to the process of information gathering. The witness may not be able to effectively relate the test to the original context, hence, leaving important details (Memon & Bruce, 1985, p. 350 & Eich, 1995, p. 295). Despite this, this is one of the most accurate interview techniques, as Milne (1997) explains.
The second component of cognitive interviewing is to ask the interviewee to report all details related to an incident. The witness is encouraged to report all information, including that which may seem to be irrelevant or that which they only remember partial details (Fisher & Geiselman, 1992). According to Memon and Bull (1991, p. 298), this technique is effective in facilitating the recall of more information. Most importantly, pieces of incomplete information gathered from different witnesses regarding the same incident can be combined to form valuable information. However, this technique may sometimes lead to gathering of too much irrelevant and misleading information regarding an incident (Memon & Bruce, 1985, p. 354). Regardless of this, this is one of the most useful cognitive interview tools.
The third technique is to ask the witness to try to recall details of an incident from different perspectives (Milne, 1997). The witness is asked to place him or her self in the shoes of the witnesses or other witnesses and report information about the incident from these perspectives. This technique is based on the assumption that a change in the perspective through which a witness looks at the details of a scene leads to a change in retrieval description, hence allowing the witness to recall new information from the new perspective. The objective of this technique is to use several pathways of information retrieval and hence, increase the amount of information elicited from a witness. However, concerns have been raised regarding the effectiveness of this technique in gathering credible or valuable information. Memon and Koehnken (1992, 40) argued that the changes in perspective for reporting may confuse the witness and lead to fabricated information. According to Memon and Stevenage (1996), this technique has even been widely avoided by forensic searchers with some of them expressing concerns that the instructions may mislead witnesses. Despite this, this technique has been proven workable and useful method of soliciting additional information from witnesses. Milne (1997) explains that this technique can produce accurate information, just like the other cognitive interview techniques but it may not increase the volume of information gathered from a witness any more than the other methods.
The fourth cognitive interview component involves providing instructions to a witness to try to recall information from different starting points (Milne, 1997). Usually, witnesses feel the need to start from the beginning and are allowed to do so. However, this technique allows for a more extensive and extra-focused retrieval by encouraging the witnesses to remember information in various orders, from beginning, from the middle, from end or from the event that is most memorable. This approach has similar impact to the ‘change perspective’ instructions in that it is believed to change retrieval description, enabling a witness to recall more information. Geiselman and Callot (1990, p. 141) noted that a recall in the forward order followed by a recall in the reverse order is more effective than two attempts to recall in the forward order. However, argument provided in this technique lacks support from statistical evidence. According to Memon et al (1997) there is no evidence that a change in the order or recall can yield additional information when applied in a cognitive interview. Nevertheless, Milne (1997) noted that this instruction has some benefits when used in specific prompts.
Conclusion
Cognitive interviewing is a useful tool that helps to yield additional information during investigative interview of witnesses. There are four cognitive interview approaches used to elicit information from witnesses namely, context recreation technique, asking the witness to provide all details related to a scene, change of perspective instructions and instructing the witness to recall information from different starting points. As noted, criticisms have been raised regarding the effectiveness of these approaches on the memory of a witness. Therefore, there is need for additional research investigating the specific affects and applicability each of these cognitive interview techniques.
References
Bekerian D L & Dennett J L 1992 “The cognitive interview technique: Reviving the issues,”
Applied Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 7, Pp. 275- 297
Eich E 1995 “Mood as a mediator of place dependent memory,” Journal of Experimental
Psychology: General, Vol. 124, No. 3, Pp. 293-308.
Fisher R P & Geiselman R E 1992 Memory enhancing techniques for investigative interviewing:
The Cognitive Interview, Charles C. Thomas, Springfield III
Geiselman R E & Callot R 1990 “Reverse versus forward order recall of script based texts,”
Applied Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 4, Pp. 141-144
Memon A & Bruce V 1985 “Context effects in episodic studies of verbal and facial memory: A
review,” Current Psychological Research and Reviews, Winter 1985-86, Pp. 349-369.
Memon A & Bull R 1991 “The cognitive interview: Its origins, empirical support, evaluation and
practical implications.” Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 1, Pp. 291-307.
Memon A & Koehnken G 1992 “Helping interviewees to remember more: The Cognitive
Interview,” Expert Evidence, Vol. 1, No. 2, Pp. 39-48.
Memon A & Stevenage S V (1996c) “The importance of time and training for CI interviewers.”
Psycoloquy Vo. 7, No. 18
Memon A Wark L Bull R & Koehnken G 1997 “Isolating the effects of the cognitive interview
techniques.” British Journal of Psychology
Milne R 1997 Application and analysis of the cognitive interview: Doctoral Dissertation.
University of Portsmouth
Orthmann C H & Hess K M 2012 Criminal Investigation. Cengage Learning, New York
< HYPERLINK “http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=lqBFdHTRmkwC&pg=PA190&dq=use+of+cognitive+interview+in+investigative+interview+of+witnesses&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mYkDUdGcFNS5hAf5lIAw&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=use%20of%20cognitive%20interview%20in%20investigative%20interview%20of%20witnesses&f=false” http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=lqBFdHTRmkwC&pg=PA190&dq=use+of+cognitive+interview+in+investigative+interview+of+witnesses&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mYkDUdGcFNS5hAf5lIAw&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=use%20of%20cognitive%20interview%20in%20investigative%20interview%20of%20witnesses&f=false>
Tulving E & Thomson D M 1973 “Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic
memory,” Psychological Review, Vol. 80, Pp. 353- 370