Editorial

Abstract

The Ethiopian Renascence Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities assesses factual and theoretically built social realities that are abundantly emerging; in its broadest sense, the ERJSSH focuses on issues that influence the society --providing vital information. Although they remain quite unresolved, fundamental epistemological questions about the nature of human action or social life and the proper way to explain or understand it are hotly debated by authors. The ERJSSH is highly helpful in classifying diverse approaches to social and/or human science as (a) illustrative, (b) evocative, (c) critical, (d) postmodern/social constructionist, and (e) revelatory approaches to many inquiries. All the authors in (7.1) below focus on the ways that an interpretive social science offers a relatively coherent view of social inquiry that assists the integration of the virtues, avoiding the limitations of other approaches. In the current (7;1) issue of ERJSSH, Awegichew Amare in his article, historical dynamics of the heritage vvalues of Mount Gǝšän, Ambassäl: Evidence from the Mäṣḥafä Ṭefut (The Book of Ṭeff Grains) investigated the dynamics of the values of Mount Gǝšän by pointing out that Mount Gǝšän serves as home to earliest Christian communities in Amhara, a medieval royal prison currently becoming a well-known Pilgrimage site. The uninterrupted religious value of Mount Gǝšän was reinforced by the coming of the fragment of the Holy Cross, relics. The author elegantly stated that the religious reforms within the Ethiopian Orthodox church led by Aṣe ZärʾaYaʿǝqob monumentalized Mount Gǝšän to an elaborated status of Dagәmawit Ǝyärusalem. As well, the second entry in this issue is Women’s empowerment, socioeconomic status and demographic factors of contraception in Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia: A sequential analysis by Getachew Nibret Tewabe , Kassahun Tegegne Gesese , and Alemeneh Getaneh Mihrete. The authors argued that Women’s education and employment as proxy measures of women’s empowerment do not suffice to capture gender power relations and the way in which reproductive behaviors are governed. The writers further advanced that women’s empowerment influences modern contraception independent of socioeconomic and demographic factors –suggesting that improving women’s position through the promotion of their empowerment is mandatory. The third article, namely, An Investigation of Perception, Purpose and Amount of L1 Use in EFL Classrooms: the Case of Grade Five Students in Atse Fasil General Elementary School by Dessie Alemayehu and Getnet Gidey. This article thoroughly examined the perception, purpose and amount of L1 use in EFL classrooms ---showing that Amharic was used for clarifying difficult concept, providing instructions, maintaining discipline, checking comprehension, eliciting ideas, explaining rules and defining vocabularies. In this study, the key to understanding EFL was found to be L1 (Amharic). In the fourth article, namely, man and nature in Zakes Mda’s the Whale caller: An ecocritical perspective is critically analyzed by Abdullahi Kadir Ayinde, a Nigeria writer. He presented that Zakes Mda’s Whale caller focuses on the binarity as a means of mediating between humans and natural environment. The author emphasizes on the neglected non-human elements by drawing attention to how tourism and uneven distribution of resources expose both animals and people to disenfranchisement. The fifth article is about the impact of incarcerated mothers on the development of children. The author argued that children who accompanied their incarcerated mothers and those left at home are both suffering from agony of equal magnitude as these susceptible children need support from all stakeholders. In the ensuing article, the impacts peers’ correction versus teachers’ correction on students’ writing performance, Ephrem Tiruneh probed the overall impacts of both corrections on students’ performances. The author indicated that teachers’ corrections had strong effect on students writing performance than peers’ corrections as peer correction found to be unconstructive and less helpful to students. In the seventh article, land use /land cover change and its implications on socioeconomic condition of farmers in Machakel Woreda, Ethiopia by Getaye Nebere, Eyaya Belay and Abel Markos discussed that land use / land cover changes derived from the natural process and anthropogenic interference in ecosystem. This analysis indicated that farmland and settlements increased consistently every year with the rate of 7.59 km2 (1.02%). The main driving forces of these changes, the authors argued, are the population pressure that is associated with higher demand of land for farm and housing purpose. The eighth article by Tegegne Derbe elaborated on the idea that most of the livelihoods of people in Ethiopia depend on subsistence agriculture whose carrying capacity has decreased due to rapid population growth rate and farm size reduction. Thus, the current issue contains eight articles to lucidly be navigated by readers. As editors do not claim perfections, they strongly ask readers to forward their constructive feedbacks so that the editorial team will gain from such suggestions -in order to improve future editions