Servant Leadership and its Relationships with Core Self-Evaluation and Job Satisfaction

Servant leadership is a growing topic in the leadership literature. Our study considered servant leadership’s relationship to two outcomes, core self-evaluation and job satisfaction. The former is particularly noteworthy because if servant leadership predicts core self-evaluation this would confirm that servant leadership affects important changes in employees as people, a central tenet of servant leadership. In addition, if servant leadership predicts core self-evaluation, this could add to the question of whether core self-evaluation is a non-changeable personality trait or is potentially malleable. We conducted a field study of three firms and found that servant leadership predicts both core self-evaluation and job satisfaction, and that core self-evaluation also predicts job satisfaction. This study contributes to servant leadership, and in general to values-based leadership, by observing a predictive relationship to core self-evaluation, which potentially adds new information about the impact servant leadership can have on individuals. This study confirms the findings of previous authors who found that servant leadership predicts job satisfaction

Perceptions of personal risk in tourists’ destination choices: nature tours in Mexico

Terrorism, pandemic diseases, and other threatening events have recently heightened the sense of personal risk for tourists considering international travel. This article addresses the paucity of research assessing perceptions of risk both before and during travel to risky destinations. Tourists on two nature tours in Mexico were interviewed and observed while engaged in the travel. Many types of specific perceived risks were uncovered, including insect-borne disease, traffic accidents, financial losses, and unattained goals. Some correlates of perceived risk were tour company reputation, stage of family life cycle, age, and motivation. Based on the types of perceived risk and the factors, five propositions are discussed. One unexpected proposition addresses the role of age and states that as the perceived years of physical ability to travel decreases, the tolerance for safety risk increases. Another proposes that eco-tourists with intense, destination- specific motivations are more tolerant of travel risk than those with casual and/or social motivations. The article concludes with suggestions for tour industry managers and directions for future research

A Quasi-Experimental Study of the Classroom Practices of English Language Teachers and the English Language Proficiency of Students, in Primary and Secondary Schools in Bangladesh

English in Action (EIA) is an English language teacher development project based in Bangladesh that was intended to run from 2008 to 2017, but which was extended at the request of the Government of Bangladesh, with additional funding from UKAID, for a further year to 2018. By the time of the design of this study (2014-2015) EIA was drawing to the end of upscaling (phase III, 2011-2014) and entering institutionalisation and sustainability (phase IV, 2014-17, extended 2018). Successive prior studies had indicated substantial success in improving both teachers’ classroom practices and student learning outcomes, over the pre-project baseline (e.g. EIA 2011, 2012). The 2014 Annual Review of EIA recommended that in the final phase, EIA should explore whether it would be possible to carry out a study that compared a ‘counterfactual’ or control-group of teachers and students, to the ‘EIA’ or treatment schools: i.e. a Randomised Control Trial or Quasi-Experimental study. A proposal for a Quasi-Experimental study was developed in collaboration with DFID’s South Asia Research Hub (SARH), which also provided the additional funding necessary to implement such a study. The teachers and students who were the subject of this study, were the fourth cohort to participate in English in Action (together with teachers from ‘control’ schools, in the same Upazilas). This fourth EIA cohort included Schools, Teachers and Students from approximately 200 Upazilas (of approximately 500 in total) across Bangladesh, including some of the most disadvantaged areas (with reference to UNICEF deprivation index), such as Char, Hoar and Monga districts. Teachers took part in a school-based teacher development Programme, learning communicative language teaching approaches through carrying out new classroom activities, guided by teacher development videos that showed teachers, students and schools similar to those across the country. Teachers also had classroom audio resources for use with students. All digital materials were available offline, on teachers own mobile phones, so there is no dilution of the Programmes core messages about teaching and learning, by some intermediary coming between the teacher and the materials. Teachers were supported through these activities, by other teachers in their schools, by their head teachers and by local education officers. Some teachers from each area were also given additional support and guidance from divisional EIA staff, to act as Teacher Facilitators, helping teachers work through activities and share their experiences at local cluster meetings. Whereas previous cohorts of teachers had attended eight local teacher development meetings over their participation in the project, for Cohort Four, this was reduced to four meetings, with a greater emphasis being placed on support in school by head teachers, as well as support from local education officers. This change was part of the move towards institutionalisation and sustainability of project activities within and through government systems and local officers. The purpose of this study was both to provide the evaluation evidence required for the final phase of the EIA project and to contribute to the international body of research evidence on effective practices in teacher development in low-to-middle income country contexts

Distance higher education in the People's Republic of China

This is a study of distance learning as part of the higher education system in China. The thesis investigates the development of distance learning systems in the post-Mao period (1976-1991), and assesses their roles in higher education as a whole. The first part of the thesis considers the theory, policy and practice in China as contexts within which distance learning has to operate. It also considers concepts and hopes for distance learning that are found in the international literature. Three major distance learning systems are investigated in detail in the second part of the thesis. The third part considers these systems in the context of one province and also in the national context, bringing together the first two parts. The contribution of distance learning to higher education in China has been important, and it has shown great promise. However, the government at local and national level has sought to control some of the systems to suit its planning needs for the economy, and to conform to its view of quality. The thesis argues that this has meant that an opportunity has been lost to capitalize on the contribution of distance learning. Future developments are likely to rest in part on changes to programmes away from the higher education level, and in part on the degree to which the systems co-operate and indeed integrate their activity

Race and Interest Convergence in NCAA Sports

Article published in the Wake Forest Journal of Law and Policy

Professor Alvin L. Storrs 1950-2010 In Memoriam

Article published in the Michigan State Law Review

Major College Sports: A Modern Apartheid

Article published in the Texas Review of Entertainment & Sports Law

A Trail of Tears: The Exploitation of the College Athlete

Article published in the Fla. Coastal Law Review