All posts tagged: Latin

How schools can improve gender equality in Latin America

How schools can improve gender equality in Latin America

Published by skeptic

In Latin America, deeply ingrained cultural beliefs about gender roles – what women and men should and shouldn’t do – persist. This is despite increased involvement by women in traditionally male spheres, such as business and politics. And these ideas are held among young people, too. A study in 2020 found that only 32% of adolescents in Latin America fully support gender equality. My past research has found that in Mexico, 63.6% of teenagers believe women should not be involved in politics. In Chile and Colombia, however, teens’ support for gender equality is much higher. This disparity suggests that gender attitudes are shaped by broader social and political contexts. My recent research with colleagues suggests that schools have the power to shape students’ beliefs about gender equality. We found that there is a link between classes in which open discussion takes place and students with a strong grasp of civic topics and support for gender equality. We also found that schools with supportive and inclusive environments are linked with more positive attitudes among students towards …

Keep Latin funding for six more months, Phillipson urged

Keep Latin funding for six more months, Phillipson urged

Published by skeptic

Schools involved in the Latin Excellence Programme have written to the education secretary to ask for an extension Schools involved in the Latin Excellence Programme have written to the education secretary to ask for an extension More from this theme Recent articles School leaders have asked Bridget Phillipson to fund the government’s state school Latin scheme for six more months to help soften the blow of losing support. The £4m Latin Excellence Programme (LEP), designed to broaden access to the typically “elitist” subject, was supposed to run until 2026. But the DfE’s decision to stop funding from next month has left pupils facing disruption and sparked wider uproar. In a letter sent to the education secretary on Wednesday and seen by Schools Week, leaders of schools involved said that ending the scheme in February would place a “financial burden” on them. It would force them to divert funds from already stretched budgets to continue Latin provision for the academic year. MAT Future Academies – which spearheads the scheme, through its Centre for Latin Excellence – …

Trump Team Rebuffs Talks on Mass Deportations, Latin American Countries Say

Trump Team Rebuffs Talks on Mass Deportations, Latin American Countries Say

Published by Sam

Donald Trump has promised to pursue the largest deportation operation in American history as soon as he takes office. But the Mexican government and other regional allies have been unable to meet with the incoming Trump administration, according to officials in Latin America, leaving them in the dark about the president-elect’s plans to deport millions of illegal immigrants. The incoming administration rebuffed requests by Mexico for a formal meeting, insisting that detailed discussions would begin only after Mr. Trump is sworn in next Monday, according to a Mexican official and two people familiar with the exchanges who were not authorized to speak publicly. The Guatemalan and Honduran governments received similar messages, according to officials from those countries. “This is not the way things usually work,” said Eric L. Olson, a fellow at the Wilson Center’s Latin American program and Mexico Institute. “Usually there are more informal contacts and some level of discussion by now.” The incoming administration may want to limit confrontation before ramping up pressure by signing a flurry of executive orders on migration, …

Latin American Fact-Checkers Brace for Meta’s Next Moves

Latin American Fact-Checkers Brace for Meta’s Next Moves

Published by skeptic

This 180-degree change is a response to Donald Trump’s imminent second presidential term and to the methods of the competition, such as X’s Community Notes. Meta decided not to invest any more money in its program. Now, it hopes that Facebook and Instagram users themselves will be the ones to decide what content is disinformation or not. In the statement where Zuckerberg announced that he will dismantle the program, he said that fact-checkers succumbed to political bias, destroying more trust than they’d created in the US. However, for Laura Zommer, former director of Chequeado (one of the most important Spanish-speaking verifier organizations) and LatamChequea, and now leader of Factchequeado (a verification media aimed at the Latino community in the US), Zuckerberg’s statements are not a surprise, and he does not have scientific evidence for his claims. “Far from censoring, fact-checkers add context,” Zommer says. “We never advocate for removing content. We want citizens to have better information to make their own decisions.” Zommer, who is skeptical of how the dissolution of this program might benefit …

Schools face ‘significant disruption’ after Latin scheme axe

Schools face ‘significant disruption’ after Latin scheme axe

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles Thousands of secondary pupils are facing “significant disruption” after the government scrapped its state school Latin programme mid-year as it seeks to plug a fiscal black hole. In a letter seen by Schools Week, the Department for Education has informed schools it is terminating its Latin Excellence Programme (LEP) in February. The £4 million scheme was supposed to run until 2026, but government has enacted a break clause to end it earlier. Government departments are under pressure to find savings. In a statement to Schools Week, government added it has ceased funding for “a small number of subject-specific support programmes”, but it would not be drawn on which other schemes this covers. Future Academies, the multi-academy trust that spearheads the Latin scheme, described it as “incredibly difficult” news. In a letter to schools, it said ending the programme mid-academic year will “cause inevitable and significant disruption to the education of so many pupils and the work of schools.” The move will particularly affect key stage 4 pupils, with almost …

Latin America experienced record heat, ‘climatic hazards’ in 2023

Latin America experienced record heat, ‘climatic hazards’ in 2023

Published by Sam

Latin America and the Caribbean had their warmest year on record in 2023 as a “double-whammy” of El Nino and climate change caused major weather calamities, the World Meteorological Organization said Wednesday. Issued on: 08/05/2024 – 20:01Modified: 08/05/2024 – 19:59 2 min Droughts, heatwaves, extreme rainfall and a record-breaking hurricane had major impacts on health, food and energy security, and economic development, the UN body said in a new report. “Unfortunately, 2023 was a year of record climatic hazards in Latin America and the Caribbean,” WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in a statement. “El Nino conditions during the second half of 2023 contributed to a record warm year and exacerbated many extreme events. This combined with rising temperatures and more frequent and extreme hazards due to human-induced climate change,” she added. The report said the mean temperature for 2023 was the highest on record, with Mexico experiencing the fastest warming rate in the region. Severe drought – exacerbated by heatwaves – affected large areas of Latin America, including much of Central America, forcing a reduction …

Disease and hunger soar in Latin America after floods and drought, study finds | Climate crisis

Disease and hunger soar in Latin America after floods and drought, study finds | Climate crisis

Published by skeptic

Hunger and disease are rising in Latin America after a year of record heat, floods and drought, a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has shown. The continent, which is trapped between the freakishly hot Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, probably suffered tens of thousands of climate-related deaths in 2023, at least $21bn (£17bn) of economic damage and “the greatest calorific loss” of any region, the study found. The climate chaos, caused by a combination of human-driven global heating and a natural El Niño effect, is continuing with devastating floods in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, which have killed at least 95 people and deluged swathes of farmland after the world’s hottest April in human history. Global heat records have now been broken for 11 months in a row, causing death and destruction across many parts of the planet. Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced some of the worst effects. In a summary of last year’s toll in this region, the WMO said disasters and climate change, along with socioeconomic shocks, are …

César Aira’s unreal magic: how the eccentric author took over Latin American literature | Fiction in translation

César Aira’s unreal magic: how the eccentric author took over Latin American literature | Fiction in translation

Published by skeptic

A few years ago when Patti Smith played at a cultural festival in Denmark, she told the crowd that she was happy to be playing in the presence of one of her favourite authors. It was said she had only agreed to play the festival because the author, César Aira, would be in the audience. Aira, although celebrated in his home country, Argentina, was little known outside Latin America until he was discovered in 2002 by the Berlin-based literary agent Michael Gaeb, who was enchanted by his unconventional, surrealist books, which shift atmosphere, and even genre, from one page to another. At first it proved difficult to sell Aira’s novels to a wider audience. “The fundamental problem when promoting César’s work is that the editor always asks: ‘What is the novel about?’” Gaeb told me. “And in the case of César, it’s not easy to answer that question.” Gaeb has since sold Aira’s books in 37 languages. At the start of October last year, the English betting site Nicer Odds named Aira as a favourite …

Los Angeles excludes Latin American Indigenous-language speakers

Los Angeles excludes Latin American Indigenous-language speakers

Published by skeptic

When Angelenos voted in this year’s California primary, an important group was left out: speakers of Latin American Indigenous languages such as Zapotec and K’iche’, which are not among the 19 languages in which L.A. County provides voting materials. It’s a particularly concerning oversight in Los Angeles. Our city has the largest population of Native American and Indigenous peoples of any city in the United States — and their omission has serious implications for inclusion. Section 203 of the federal Voting Rights Act requires that counties provide election materials in the language of a linguistic minority that isn’t proficient enough in English to vote without help. That group either has to be greater than 10,000 people or represent at least 5% of a county’s total population of eligible voters. California also requires tailored ballots, at a lower threshold than federal law does: Counties here have to translate the ballot for any single language minority lacking English proficiency if it makes up at least 3% of a precinct’s voting-age residents. To determine compliance with these laws, …