CGD A Month In Review - Spring 2024

CGD Month in Review for Spring 2024

This spring, we were very sorry to lose our colleague Professor Graeme Nixon. The statement from the School of Education is available to read here: Professor Graeme Nixon, School of Education | News | StaffNet | The University of Aberdeen (abdn.ac.uk) Graeme will be very much missed by the CGD, the NIHR CAMW Project where he was a co-I, and the School of Education as a whole. 

What's been happening in the CGD:

• The Scottish Literacies Project closed on 31st March 2024, after a succesful seven years. The project successfully developed, implemented and embedded a social practices approach to adult literacies education in Rwanda that can be managed and delivered by local institutions in order to support people's livelihood through poverty reduction and inclusive socioeconomic development.
  
• The CGD has hosted several seminars on mindfulness and critical realism, with speakers from the Universities of Oxford, Bristol, Birmingham and City University New York. All recordings are available here: Seminar Series | Education | The University of Aberdeen (abdn.ac.uk)
• The NIHR CAMW Project has shared new open access training on Child & Adolescent Mental Health Disorders, Mindfulness practice: an experience and perspective from an Ethiopian Clinical Psychologist, Scoping Reviews and Doing a Literature Review.
• The NIHR CAMW Project published 'A protocol for a critical realist synthesis of school mindfulness interventions designed to promote pupils' mental wellbeing' in Frontiers in Public Health, available here: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1309649 
• The NIHR CAMW Project published 'A protocol for a critical realist systematic synthesis of interventions to promote pupils’ wellbeing by improving the school climate in low- and middle-income countries' in PLOS One, available here: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286489 
• The NIHR CAMW Project met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2024. Resources are available here: Open Access Training | Education | The University of Aberdeen (abdn.ac.uk)
• The NIHR CAMW Project team have been completing feasabilty testing of both research tools and the mindfulness intervention in Rwanda and Ethiopia. 
• Dr Lucia D'Ambruoso published a pre-print on 'Opening decision spaces: a case study on the opportunities and constrains in the public health sector of Mpumalanga Province, South Africa', available here: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-197717/v1
• Dr Lucia D'Ambruoso published 'Retrospective analysis of Verbal Autopsy data to understand health system utilisation and reasons for avoidable mortality after fatal injury within a three delays framework in Karonga, Northern Malawi', available here: doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-081652
• Dr Peter Mtika, Prof Pamela Abbott, Prof Wenceslas Nzabalirwa and Ismael Nyaruhanga have a book chapter forthcoming in Education Applications & Developments IX, titled 'What difference does a social practice approach to adult literacies education make to adult learners' quality of life in Western Rwanda?'
• The above is based on Dr Peter Mtika's presentation at the International Conference on Education and New Developments 2024, abstract available here: 03_OP_525.pdf (end-educationconference.org)
• Dr Lucia D'Ambruoso published 'Equitable access to quality injury care; Equi-Injury project protocol for prioritizing interventions in four low- or middle-income countries: a mixed method study', available here: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-10668-y 
• Dr Lucia D'Ambruoso published Sugar-sweetened beverage intakes among adults between 1990 and 2018 in 185 countries', available here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41269-8
• Ismael Byaruhanga, Prof Roger Sapsford and Prof Pamela Abbott published the policy brief 'Early Development Centres: What rural Rwandan mothers would find most useful', available here: https://doi.org/10.57064/2164/22145

Looking ahead:

• The NIHR CAMW Project starts the intervention stage in Septemebr 2024 - the team will be working in schools for the academic year to assess the impact of the culturally appropriate mindfulness intervention on children and adolescents' mental wellbeing.
• The CGD seminar series will restart in the autumn 2024, with Professor Alpesh Maisuria and Dr Grant Banfield, and Leslie Huckfield confirmed to speak on critical realism.