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Argues that postmodernist appeals to difference & particularity over the supposed universalism of Enlightenment thinking mirror similar appeals of nineteenth-century racial theorists. Contemporary theories of difference from a variety of theoretical outlooks -- including postmodernism, poststructuralism, Marxism, deconstruction, & phenomenology -- are briefly reviewed, with special attention to the antiessentialist claims that lay at the heart of all of them. It is contended that, while surely there are conflicting pressures & identities in modern life, the claim that all identities bear equal social validity reduces identity to a personal lifestyle choice & ignores fundamental social relations. Such a move leaves no space from which equality can be developed, & deconstructs all universal frameworks that offer guides to making important political choices. Finally, it is noted that while theories of identity more often latch onto cultural & social factors to explain the generation of difference, their cultural formalism is no different in substance than the racial formalism of the racial theories that preceded them. 41 References. D. M. Smith

Successful teamwork is being recognized as a necessity for many aspects of effective administrative assignments and team-leadership has proved effective in improving team performance. Using two management-related colleges of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) as organization of study, ninety respondents were sampled through the use of questionnaire. It was concluded after analysis that the practice of team-working is and should be embraced by corporate organizations, especially tertiary institution i.e. the more collectively engaged staff members are, the better the outcomes for the organization generally. Likewise it was also concluded that working in well-structured teams with an effective team-leader is a predictors of both individual and collective performance. The recommendation among others was that other institutions (private/ public) in the education sector should emulate the FUNAAB team-working initiative in order to continually and effectively meet their corporate obligations.
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Background Conduct, anxiety, and depressive disorders account for over 75% of the adolescent mental health burden globally. The current protocol will test a low-intensity problem-solving intervention for school-going adolescents with common mental health problems in India. The protocol also tests the effects of a classroom-based sensitization intervention on the demand for counselling services in an embedded recruitment trial. Methods/design We will conduct a two-arm, individually randomized controlled trial in six Government-run secondary schools in New Delhi. The targeted sample is 240 adolescents in grades 9–12 with persistent, elevated mental health symptoms and associated distress/impairment. Participants will receive either a brief problem-solving intervention delivered over 3 weeks by lay counsellors (intervention) or enhanced usual care comprised of problem-solving booklets (control). Self-reported adolescent mental health symptoms and idiographic problems will be assessed at 6 weeks (co-primary outcomes) and again at 12 weeks post-randomization. In addition, adolescent-reported distress/impairment, perceived stress, mental wellbeing, and clinical remission, as well as parent-reported adolescent mental health symptoms and impact scores, will be assessed at 6 and 12 weeks post-randomization. We will also complete a parallel process evaluation, including estimations of the costs of delivering the interventions. An embedded recruitment trial will apply a stepped-wedge, cluster (class)-randomized controlled design in 70 classes across the six schools. This will evaluate the added effect of a classroom-based sensitization intervention over and above school-level sensitization activities on the primary outcome of referral rate into the host trial. Other outcomes will be the proportion of referrals eligible to participate in the host trial, proportion of self-generated referrals, and severity and pattern of symptoms among referred adolescents in each condition. Power calculations were undertaken separately for ...