School
I have been very busy lately to say the least. Currently in the Fall 2011 semester at school (my 2nd year of graduate studies). My current classes are “Migration and Remittances in the Americas” and “Gender and Development.” Next year will be a quick Spring semester, then I will be finished. For now. I am undecided on what to do next. Some thoughts coming to mind are 1) work on a second Master’s degree, 2) apply for a PhD program, 3) step away from academia and take a long break, or 4) start my own venture. Either way, it will be an adventure. At last, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. I am leaning towards starting my own venture… Let’s see what happens.

Travel
The plan is still to travel to South East Asia in Fall 2012. Consider it a much-deserved graduation trip, and my first to Asia. On the itinerary is Singapore, Thailand, and either Vietnam or Cambodia. There may also be a side trip to Costa Rica.

Conferences
Yes, there are a handful of conferences coming up where I will be presenting some academic work. A couple in 2011 and a few in 2012 (tentatively). Expect more details to come to the blog.

Research
My research interests have fluctuated widely while I’ve been in school. But mostly I have stayed in the same realm of education and development with varying mixtures of technology, gender, and economics. However, today I can say I am finding my footing more than ever before. After studying conditional cash transfers for a research paper, I seem to be stuck on microfinance and educational finance. Those issues interest me incredibly and I expect them to occupy my research for some time in the future. I have a strong hunch that any future endeavors I participate in will involve financial issues for the poor in paying for education.

That’s all for now.

This one month break will no doubt give me some time to catch up on some blogging that I have put off since April. Not much time, though, since I am taking two trips during that month and will be moving to a larger apartment. Nevertheless, I am halfway finished with school and anxious to pick up writing again.

In the meantime, here are some interesting pieces on Brazil from my Twitter account:

• Brazil Created More Jobs Than US in 2011 via @Forbes
  Job creation is good news for Brazil. The real question about Brazil’s economy is, how long will it last before it begins to overheat?
• Rio City Government in Brazil Offers IT Courses for Disadvantaged Residents via @onlinefinance
  Great to hear that IT training is being valued as a viable career opportunity for the poor. Information technology is increasingly becoming accessible to all social classes. More of this please. And kudos to Cisco Brazil.
• Minorities now officially a majority in Brazil via @CNNWorld
  Interesting take on when minorities become the majority in an emerging economy. Indeed, a big social experiment.
• From LAN To Scam? – Regulating Cyber Cafes
  A new law being proposed will require all of Brazil’s cybercafes (aka LAN houses) to register with the government. Obvious concerns are 1) regulation for taxation and control, and 2) surveillance of Brazilian citizens. Not a welcoming step for Brazil’s government and net privacy.

I have a few posts in the works, most of which will have to wait until my semester officially ends in two weeks. Some of what I’m working on:

• Recap of my March trip to Brazil. With luck, I will summarize my daily writing while on the trip. Each day will be a blog post, connecting you to pictures of what I did and the places (schools, NGO’s, etc) I visited.
• Information about my research on Guatemala I performed for a recent paper. Topic is roughly gender disparity on indigenous females of Guatemala and the examination of some policy initiatives over the past decade.
• Information about my research on Brazil. This is what I’m primarily working on over the next two weeks. I’m very excited about this research into AfroReggae, civic education within the favelas of Rio, respect and youth crime prevention.

When the semester ends, expect posts on all of the above. In the meantime, listen on Twitter.

But there’s hope.

While I don’t have much time to create new original information (i.e. blogging), I am rather efficient at consuming information. Lots of information. My current Google Reader has roughly 450 RSS feeds (at last count) constantly pouring information to me on topics ranging from gender issues in African society to the latest in educational technology to digital rights in the Middle East. [Many of those links are listed here.] This is where I listen to the world’s pulse. I’ve trained my brain to process lots of information quickly. Not to mention, I read about 10 periodicals monthly cover to cover from Wired to various academic journals.

About 80% of what I read might go in my head and get lost, the rest goes to one place: Twitter. Twitter is a great outlet for those of us with little time but lots of information. It’s no longer a goofy communication medium people joke about. It has become a serious (and valuable) outlet for news and information on virtually any topic you might be interested in.

So… If you are interested in receiving all the interesting items I find, I suggest you head over to my Twitter account. You will undoubtedly find many useful nuggets (over 4,000 at last count). If not, ask me! Who knows, I likely know where to find what you’re looking for.

For the time being, Twitter is my one outlet for all of this information I consume and will likely remain so until I find the time (and discipline) to become a regular blogger on things other than random school updates.

The full paper will be peer-reviewed by none other than my own peers at GWU.

You might notice the topic of that paper because it’s the same paper I will be presenting at this year’s CIES in Montreal two months later.

Not only am I happy that my first graduate paper is getting exposure at two great venues, I’m happy that the issue of gender disparity in education is getting much-needed attention.

• I’ve been tweaking the design of this website more and more over the past couple weeks. It is finally nearing completion. I hope you dig the simplicity. Can you tell I’m a huge fan of minimalism? After all, why the need for so much flashy design and pointless widgets when it’s the content that’s supposed to speak to the readers? There will be some photos available on the homepage. I will try to keep that updated as much as possible. Also forthcoming is a robust “About Me” page with details on my past work experience and interests. Is the website missing anything? Send your comments, good or bad to me. I’m all ears.
• The Resources page is new. Go check it out.
• I will be presenting at this year’s CIES in May on gender disparity in Northern Nigerian education. Still waiting to hear back about ESRI in March, but I am hopeful I will be presenting there also.
• Also, I am anxiously gearing up for my March trip to Brazil.
• Speaking of classes, the Spring semester begins on Monday at GWU. I will be focusing on inequality in Latin America. I don’t expect this semester to be as busy as the Fall semester was, so keeping up with the blogging shouldn’t be a problem. I’m not sure what to expect in terms of workload, after seeing the syllabus for my Brazil course. The first Summer semester will likely focus on a research course. The second Summer semester is undecided at this point.
• I am seeking part-time research opportunities involving education/development/economics or any related subjects, preferably via telecommuting. Contact me if you know of anything.
• Throughout the year, I will be working with the Civil Society Coalition for Quality Basic Education (CSCQBE) in Malawi as a “friend of education”. CSCQBE will soon be changing its name to Civil Society Education Coalition (CiSEC), in which I will be helping to revamp their website and assist in some technical initiatives of the Coalition and get further involved in education in Malawi. They are an excellent coalition of organizations and I am honored to be participating in their work. Expect a post on this that will include more details…

Also, some upcoming posts I’m working on for the blog:

• Open source data for libraries
• Why it’s important to fight corruption in education
• “The Girl Effect”
• Actually, ideas DO matter. Let’s talk about it.
• Africa is no longer the dark continent…rebranding Africa
• Involvement in CSCQBE in Malawi
• eLearning in African universities

Now that I’m off in a tangent, let’s get on with 2011.

So what’s in the pipeline for 2011? Well, here’s what I have so far:

• Two great conferences are coming up in the first few months of the year. I might will be presenting at both or one of them on my first semester research on gender disparity in Nigerian education. You will hear that announced on this blog in the next couple of weeks. Update: I have been accepted to speak at 2011 CIES. More info to come later.
• My March trip to Brazil. This trip will be an excellent experience and I will take home a lot of valuable insight from many established groups. I’m planning on soaking it up like a sponge. Expect a flurry of blog posts about this trip.
• I will be doing some exciting work with a coalition of CSO’s working on economic literacy, gender disparity, and quality of education in a small African country. More details to come soon…
• A new (and long overdue) website for JosefScarantino.com!

That about sums up the next couple of months. Lots of good things on the table and definitely a nice amount of activity to kick off 2011.

As part of those studies, I am heading to Brazil in March to perform some research and become engaged with several influential NGO’s, institutes, and schools. The focus of my research in Brazil and Latin America this semester will be in creating opportunities for the marginalized with an emphasis on inequality in education, development, and political participation. Some of the items on my tentative itinerary for Brazil are listed below:

• Korean-Brazilian School
• Casa de Jesus (in Heliopolis Favela)
• Paulo Freire Institute
• Mackenzie Presbyterian University
• EducationUSA
• SINPRO
• GloboTV partnership with UNESCO
• Centros Educacionais Unificados (CEU)
• …and a couple others

If circumstances permit, I will be blogging while in Brazil about my experiences. If not, I will be sure to blog upon my return to the U.S. I am expecting the experience to be very enlightening.

If you find yourself interested in the same topics, shoot me an email to discuss. Or if you find yourself wanting to get involved in my research on a deeper level as a contributor, and possibly as co-author with the intention of publishing or sharing our research, definitely let me know.

Update (11/9/2010): As luck would have it happen, my paper is coming along very nicely and I have a wealth of data to analyze. This can work both ways. Too much data can make your conclusions more cloudy if you’re not careful. Too little data is an easy problem to understand. I seem to have a strong enough foundation to go much further than a simple semester paper, so I am going to keep this research open at the suggestion of one of my professors (Dr. Jim Williams) after the semester ends and continue exploring. The idea of varying “opportunity cost” among male and female is not a new one, but not explored enough (in my opinion). There is much to be said within both economics and education about this topic so my research will delve into both areas but with more of a focus on the education side of things. I have submitted a proposal to two conferences in 2011 to present my findings. I’ll update this post as I make progress. Sorry, but I won’t be able to post the paper in its entirety on this blog as I had hoped. I will be working hard to get it published and will have to abide by the publishers rules, whatever they may be. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

Update (10/7/2010): It appears that the focus of my paper has changed slightly since this post (under the direction of my professor). I will focus on comparing gender disparity in Nigerian education in the North and South. This will include elements such as enrollment rates, access to education, and the idea of “opportunity cost” of females versus males. Expect more to come soon.

One of the graduate courses I am currently taking at GWU in Washington, D.C. is titled, “International and Comparative Education.” For my first paper, due in December, I have chosen to compare educational development in North and South Nigeria, or more specifically enrollment rates. Or even more specifically, enrollment rates among girls.

The tentative title of my paper is, “A Comparison of Educational Development in North and South Nigeria from 1999-2010: Historical Implications of Culture and Religion on Enrollment Rates.” “A Comparison of Educational Development in North and South Nigeria: Implications of Gender Disparity.” I am hoping to blog about my findings and, eventually, my paper in its entirety.

As stated in my proposal,

“This paper will attempt to compare educational development in the North and South of Nigeria over the past ten years, with special consideration given to enrollment rates into primary schoolsgender disparity, since democracy was re-achieved in 1999 under Olusegun Obasanjo. The purpose of the comparison is to determine the barriers of entry into primary education given the multifarious socioeconomic, religious, political, and geographic differences of Nigeria’s decentralized educational system.”

I’ll also be working hard to get my paper published and will also submit it to a few upcoming conferences for presentation consideration. We’ll see how that goes. Hope you enjoy it.