This paper is part of a larger cross-sectional, phenomenological study that examined pre-service teachers' belief of the competencies they possess to teach socially sensitive issues at secondary level in Trinidad and Tobago. Purposive sampling resulted in 39 pre-service social studies teachers (Years 2 to 4) who were exposed to a methodology course in a social studies specialisation programme and nine social studies lecturers, at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. The study is located in the mixed methods paradigm, with a quan/QUAL design. This paper represents discussions and findings from two questionnaires and four focus groups analysed through the IBM SPSS Statistics 22 software for the quantitative analysis and content and micro-interlocutor analyses for the qualitative analysis. The findings show that pre-service teachers believe they have the competencies to teach socially sensitive issues; yet they had not obtained these from the designated methodology course. Further that both contextual and personal factors affect the teaching of socially sensitive issues. Six themes, with accompanying competencies emerge from the data and frame affective teaching of socially sensitive issues. Arising out of the findings, the author developed a competency-based framework that has implications for curriculum development and transformational pedagogy.

Educators’ attitudes have drawn attention of researchers worldwide, where numerous studies have been conducted to explore the factors that influence educators’ attitudes toward educational topics in order to understand them and direct them in ways that contribute to the enhancement of the educational practices. In this study, we aimed to identify attitudes of early childhood educators in the Sultanate of Oman towards movement education, and to investigate the differences in attitudes according to nationality and qualification. The sample of this study consisted of 201 pre-school female educators in the Sultanate of Oman. The participants responded to Attitudes towards Movement Education Scale, which consisted of three dimensions (emotional, cognitive and behavioral). This scale was designed and modified for the purpose of this study. The results of this study revealed that the participants’ attitudes towards movement education were positive in general. The emotional dimension ranked first (87.7%), followed by the cognitive (82.6%) and behavioral dimensions (78.8%). The results also showed that there were differences in attitudes towards movement education due to educators’ nationality and educational levels.

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This study aimed to understand the association between self-esteem (SE) and gender, age, body mass index (BMI) and rural-urban dichotomy among Omani teenagers. Multivariable regression analyses were conducted using generalized linear models to study the impact of gender, age, BMI, and place of residence on the SE score after adjusting for other variables. Of the 4,432 teenagers studied, 47.4% were boys and 52.6% girls. The majority (64.4%) were from rural areas and 35.6% from urban areas of Oman. About 23% were physically underweight, while 51% were normal and 26.2% were overweight or obese. The results of this study revealed that Omani girls have higher SE than boys. It also showed that no relationship between SE and BMI. Finally, the results showed that children residing in rural areas had higher SE than those in city dweller.

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