Asian Research Journal of Arts & Social Sciences

This paper explores the growing need for integrated arts education at the college level. Specifically, the authors describe the need for an arts program which incorporates multiple disciplines and connects them to other, non-creative disciplines. Arts education affords students invaluable lessons in critical thinking, creativity, and communication, all of which are essential for the successful navigation of 21st-century challenges. The authors conclude that, contrary to current trends wherein arts education is being marginalized at the post-secondary level, an integrated approach to college arts education offers indispensable skill and enlargement of perspective for the general education of successful balanced individuals.

In this study, the availability of action research knowledge was measured among teachers of mathematics in schools belongs to Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza Strip. The study sample consisted of 241 male and female teachers, where the study sample contained (25%) of the total study population, which consists of (972) active teacher during the current study time (second semester- 2019/2020). It was found that the sample has a strong knowledge about the action research concepts. Moreover, it was confirmed that there are no significant differences attributed to the variables of gender, training programs, and educational qualification. Meanwhile, the results showed that there is a significant effect by the teacher’s age and cumulative experience on the teachers’ knowledge of action research. Based on the findings, the challenges and obstacles that prevent teachers or limit their ability to perform action research must be studied and thus an attempt should be made to overcome those obstacles in order to push the teacher to perform the action research.

This study aimed to fill a methodological gap between different research projects focusing on migration patterns and give a theoretical account of how economic and non-economic factors have influenced diverse communities’ international migration from various regions of Rakhine State. The data analysis was made based on 840 survey respondents and 500 key informants across Rakhine State. The findings suggest that economic migration is the most salient type of migration. Poverty, usually directly stemming from a vicious circle of underproductivity in the farms, higher labour wages on the side of employers and lower labour wages on the side of employees in the agricultural sector, an absence of alternative income sources, and higher unemployment rate, has compelled different community members to decide to pursue international migration. Socio-political migration is the second most salient type of migration; with a fairly large number of respondents reporting a common experience of intercommunal discrimination. A number of respondents also reported their common experience of discrimination by the government’s ministerial departments during the private key informant interviews, although they were reluctant to give the same responses through surveys. Conflict-induced migration is the third most salient type of migration. A prolonged presence of communities’ security concerns stemming from the communal violence and lingering tensions since 2012, and escalating regional armed conflicts between state and non-state security forces since 2016, also has an impact on migration patterns in Rakhine State. The environmental fallout has imposed an indirect impact on migration through some economic factors such as temporary or long-term unemployment, business suspension, or indebtedness. Social networks also make a significant contribution to the continuation of people’s international migration from Rakhine State. However, legal migration institutions are rather weak, while illegal ones are desperately powerful in the State.

Debate over the factors that perpetuate male dominance in political representation all over the world continues. Several factors have been cited, including the fact that women have a weak foundation in political party leadership which forms the basis for subsequent progression in leadership. In spite of the fact that women have the capacity to compete favorably in national politics if they have a say in choosing who stands for elections at political party level, several studies tend to pay less attention on women’s leadership in political parties at the subnational level. Using qualitative methods, the paper makes a contribution to women’s participation in political leadership using the two dominant political parties, the National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic Party, that have alternated political power in Ghana since the return to constitutional rule in 1993. Findings showed that women’s representation in political party leadership at the subnational level mirrors national trends, albeit some local particularities including unfavorable meeting time where such decisions are taken. The paper concludes that the creation of the women’s wings in Ghanaian political parties and the institutionalization of financial waivers for women are necessary but not sufficient conditions to boost women activism in subnational party politics.

This study aimed to examine the job crafting practice among the lecturers of College of Language and Culture Studies (CLCS), Bhutan. The study applied quantitative research approach and used Slemp and Vella-Brodrick’s [1] Job Crafting Questionnaire to collect data. The data were collected from 42 lecturers (Male=35 and Female=7) of the college, and analyzed using SPSS to calculate descriptive analysis, frequency, mean and standard deviation. The findings showed that the participants of this study were highly engaged in job crafting. Of three forms of job crafting, relational crafting, cognitive crafting and task crafting, the findings suggested that participants were most likely to be engaged in relational crafting. Further, the findings showed that the lecturers who lacked job resources engaged more in job crafting. Also, it was found that while the gender does not influence job crafting practice, the demographic factor such as participants’ qualification and number of years in the job seem to be affecting their job crafting practice. The study has drawn some strategic implication for employee engagement and wellbeing enhancement.