Towards an empirical analysis of justice in ecosystem governance

The 2010 Nagoya Protocol under the Convention on Biological Diversity and recent changes in the policies of major international conservation organizations highlight current interest in revisiting the moral case for conservation. Concerns with equity and human rights challenge well-established notions of justice centered on human responsibility toward nature, the common good or the rights of future generations. This review introduces an empirical approach to the analysis of justice and shows how conservation scientists can apply it to ecosystem services-based governance (or in short, ecosystem governance). It identifies dominant notions of justice and points out their compatibility with utilitarian theories of justice. It then discusses the limited appropriateness of these notions in many contexts in which conservation takes place in the Global South and explores how technical components of ecosystem governance influence the realization of the notions in practice. The review highlights the need for conservation scientists and managers to analyze the justice of ecosystem governance in addition to their effectiveness and efficiency. Justice offers a more encompassing perspective than equity for the empirical analysis of conservation governance

Picturing Teacher Agency: Developing Upstanding Heuristics in a Middle Grades Social Studies Methods Course

This paper presents a multi-case study of teacher candidates in a pre-service middle grades social studies methods course. The research aimed to understand how the middle grades teacher candidates viewed their future as upstanders with agency in middle grades settings. The focus of the research was on heuristic representations that the teacher candidates created to illustrate how they understood their role in supporting the democratic aims of middle grades social studies. Qualitative data was collected and analyzed through chordal triad of agency theory (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). The findings indicate that preservice teachers best understand their future as change agents through their role of curriculum and instruction and their impact on students, additionally their conceptualizations of their intended agency were influenced by their past and present experiences as well as their projected goals for the future. This research also suggests that heuristics may be a powerful tool in the preparation of teacher candidates, helping them to think through their role in supporting the democratic aims of social studies, middle grades education and social justice education. Important constraints about teacher candidates’ perceptions (or lack thereof) of oppressive structures within middle schools settings are considered

Eliminating Mental and Physical Health Disparities Through Culturally and Linguistically Centered Integrated Healthcare

Since the U.S. Surgeon General’s report on mental health (1999) declared mind and body to be inseparable, integrated healthcare, bringing the body and mind back together, has been gaining significant momentum across the nation as a preferred approach to care for people with co-morbid physical health and mental health conditions. Primary care settings often are the gateway to healthcare for racial and ethnic minority populations and individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) and, as such, it has become the portal for identifying undiagnosed or untreated behavioral health disorders. An integrated holistic philosophical approach to behavioral healthcare provides an opportunity to address mental and physical health disparities and achieve health equity through a culturally and linguistically centered integrated healthcare delivery model that by definition must be person-centered, family-centered, and community-centered

Promising State Policies for Personalized Learning

This report is a valuable resource for state policymakers—whether they are seeking to create conditions in state policy to support personalized learning, moving forward with initiatives to develop personalized learning pilot programs, hosting task forces to explore policy issues and needs, or taking a comprehensive policy approach for supporting advanced personalized learning models.Personalized learning is where instruction is tailored to each student's strengths, needs, and interests—including enabling student voice and choice in what, how, when, and where they learn—to provide flexibility and supports to ensure mastery of the highest standards possible

Breaking the Barriers to Specialty Care: Practical Ideas to Improve Health Equity and Reduce Cost - Call to Action for a System-wide Focus on Equity

Tremendous health outcome inequities remain in the U.S. across race and ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and geography—particularly for those with serious conditions such as lung or skin cancer, HIV/AIDS, or cardiovascular disease.These inequities are driven by a complex set of factors—including distance to a specialist, insurance coverage, provider bias, and a patient's housing and healthy food access. These inequities not only harm patients, resulting in avoidable illness and death, they also drive unnecessary health systems costs.This 5-part series highlights the urgent need to address these issues, providing resources such as case studies, data, and recommendations to help the health care sector make meaningful strides toward achieving equity in specialty care.Top TakeawaysThere are vast inequalities in access to and outcomes from specialty health care in the U.S. These inequalities are worst for minority patients, low-income patients, patients with limited English language proficiency, and patients in rural areas.A number of solutions have emerged to improve health outcomes for minority and medically underserved patients. These solutions fall into three main categories: increasing specialty care availability, ensuring high-quality care, and helping patients engage in care.As these inequities are also significant drivers of health costs, payers, health care provider organizations, and policy makers have a strong incentive to invest in solutions that will both improve outcomes and reduce unnecessary costs. These actors play a critical role in ensuring that equity is embedded into core care delivery at scale.Part 5: "Call to Action for a System-wide Focus on Equity"These solutions create value not only for patients, but also for health care providers and public and private payers.  Each of these actors have a role to play in scaling and sustaining the health equity solutions.

Text Messaging in the Patient-Centered Medical Home to Improve Glucose Control and Retinopathy Screening.

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of a text messaging program (TMP) to improve glucose control, retinopathy screening (RS) rates, and self-care behaviors in patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes. Methods: A single-group design with a quasi-systematic random sample (n=20) received educational/exhortational text messages on their cellular phones for 3 months. Subjects, 12 of whom identified as a minority ethnicity, were mostly male, aged 27-73 years. Results: Glucose control and RS rates improved significantly. Subjects (\u3e70%) reported changes in self-care behaviors. Conclusion: Leveraging ubiquitous technology, a TMP for patients with limited access to healthcare education, holds promis

Building Medical Homes in State Medicaid and CHIP Programs

Presents strategies, best practices, and lessons learned from ten states' efforts to advance the medical home model of comprehensive and coordinated care in Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Programs in order to improve quality and contain costs

The Strengths and Challenges of Community Organizing as an Education Reform Strategy: What the Research Says

Outlines the advantages of community organizing as a reform strategy, such as its ability to address power relationships and build political will for broad reform; evidence of impact; effective strategies, including working via alliances; and challenges

Why Not the Best? Results From the National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, 2011

Assesses the U.S. healthcare system's average performance in 2007-09 as measured by forty-two indicators of health outcomes, quality, access, efficiency, and equity compared with the 2006 and 2008 scorecards and with domestic and international benchmarks

Introducing Preservice STEM Teachers to Computer Science: A Narrative of Theoretically Oriented Design

This paper narrates the process of designing a curricular unit that serves to introduce preservice science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers to computer science (CS) education. Unlike most literature that focuses on results and findings, this paper explains how a justice-centered approach to CS education informed decisions about the theoretical underpinnings of curricular design choices. Situated in issues related to the gentrification of Austin, Texas, the described curricular unit explores how the increased use of CS and growth of the technology sector are having a direct impact on the historically marginalized residents of East Austin. Connected by a theme that maps are both a form of data visualization and political artifact, the described curricular unit uses CS as a tool to: critique the macro-ethics of politics and society; provide a CS learning environment that can be responsive to the multiple social identities of students; and connect CS to larger struggles for justice and liberation.Educatio