Understanding the human dimensions of coexistence between carnivores and people: A case study in Namibia

Many carnivore populations were in decline throughout much of the 20th century, but due to recent conservation policies, their numbers are stabilising or even increasing in some areas of the world. This, compounded with human population growth, has caused increased livestock depredation by carnivores, which threatens farmer livelihoods, particularly those in developing countries such as Namibia. How to resolve this so-called “conflict” between carnivores and livestock farmers remains challenging, in part because some mitigation strategies have proven somewhat ineffective or unacceptable. By using a case-study approach on the commercial farmlands of northcentral Namibia, I aimed to understand the complexity of the human dimensions affecting coexistence between carnivores and people in an unprotected working landscape. Specifically, my objectives were to 1) develop a participatory decisionmaking exercise to analyse the views of stakeholders on how they would like carnivores to be managed in unprotected lands, 2) understand how the media framed financial incentives to improve human-carnivore coexistence, and 3) determine if there were any underlying social, economic or political causes of negative human-carnivore interactions on commercial livestock farms. To answer objective 1, I developed a new decision-making exercise that combined Q-methodology and the Delphi technique to determine whether a diverse group of stakeholders could agree on how to manage carnivores on commercial farmland. A strong agreement was reached by participants: providing conservation education and training on livestock husbandry were acceptable and effective ways to improve coexistence with carnivores. This new also method highlighted areas of disagreement between stakeholders and showed that there were two different narratives on how carnivores should be managed. This method could be used by policy makers to help with participatory decision-making for resolving other conservation conflicts. To answer objective 2, I undertook content analysis of national newspapers to determine how the media framed articles on financial incentives to mitigate this conservation conflict. The most common (30%) financial incentive discussed was compensation - many (61%) of these articles framed compensation positively. However, upon categorising these articles into those where respondents were enrolled in compensation schemes compared with those who were not, a clear pattern emerged: articles were more likely (89%) to be framed ambivalently or negatively when respondents had experience of this financial incentive compared with respondents that did not. These results can help conservationists plan more effective communication interventions and anticipate issues that can affect the success of mitigation strategies. To answer objective 3, I undertook eight months of participant observation on livestock farms and interviewed 69 respondents and found that reported livestock depredation was associated with increased instances of poaching of wildlife and stealing of livestock. This association appeared to be partly due to farmer-worker relations: when employees felt happy, respected and were paid a liveable wage, they were incentivised to perform well in their job. This resulted in livestock that were managed more effectively and therefore less likely to be killed by predators. Furthermore, these well-paid employees were not incentivised to steal or poach to supplement their income, which limited the extent of game poaching and livestock theft on the farm. These findings underline the fact that this conservation conflict is extremely complicated, driven by many social, economic and political factors that may not be apparent initially. In conclusion, this thesis has found that the conflict between carnivores and livestock farmers is a truly wicked problem, affected by a multitude of complex layers. Only by exploring the entangled web of drivers will we ever begin to create positive, lasting change for both people and predators. Niki Rust © 201

THE EFFECTS OF NCLB AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHANGE: A MODIFIED DELPHI STUDY OF PRINCIPALS\u27 PERCEPTIONS

This modified Delphi study explored the effects of No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 (Public Law 10-110) on the nation’s education system and the challenges it has presented to public school principals nationwide regarding their ability to be agents of change at a local level while maintaining effective leadership. National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) and National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) 2009-2011 national and state awards yielded a purposive, homogeneous sample of 448 principals honored as experts in the field of educational leadership and qualified to make recommendations for future reauthorization of NCLB. Through use of PsychData online survey service, Phase 1 involved two rounds of open-ended questions iteratively to a discrete panel of experts drawn from sample; Phase 2, administering the NCLB Perceptions Questionnaire (75 five-point Likert-scale items generated from respondents’ Phase 1 input) to a second distinct panel. Qualitative data analysis was accomplished with QDA Miner 4; quantitative data, SPSS 20 (descriptive statistics, factor analysis, MANOVA testing). Descriptively, rank ordering of means indicated that participants selected strongly agree or agree on 59 (78.7%) of the 75 items (e.g., recommendation to policymakers to confer with principals on proposed changes). Although the selective nature of the sampling puts generalizability somewhat in question, findings interpreted from analysis of a wealth of participant perceptions increase our understanding of principals’ perceptions of myriad educational issues (e.g., accountability, individual student growth, problems with achievement, loss of local control, and ways to make a difference in national policies through organizations). Despite their inability to reach consensus regarding NCLB’s societal impact on the plight of public education, principals expressed opinions on both sides of this debate that can be traced back to NCLB’s inception. This study is distinctive in implementation of this modified Delphi technique design to obtain input regarding NCLB from principals nationwide representing both elementary and secondary levels of our public education system. The study helps bring to light the need to provide a voice to those in the field who know first-hand the many daily challenges of educating our students in America’s 21st century public schools

Public Participation in Contaminated Communities

The present study examines seven current, ongoing cases of public participation across a broader spectrum of communities. In contrast to earlier notorious historical failures, such as those at Love Canal, Woburn, and Times Beach, the cases in this study explore experiences considered relatively successful by both the agencies and the communities. The study sought to better understand the determinants of successful public involvement in contaminated communities where: (1) site characterization, cleanup options, and economic redevelopment were issues of concern and conflict; (2) more than one federal agency was involved; (3) state and local agencies were also involved; and (4) environmental justice was often an issue. The purposes of the study were to: (1) identify those factors most important to, and essential for, successful community involvement, (2) evaluate or suggest initiatives to further enhance successful public participation, and (3) identify options for more successful interaction and coordination of federal, state, and local agencies in their efforts to promote environmental and public health goals in contaminated communities.The study focused on initiatives which: enhance communication, outreach, and learning in the community; build skills and capability in the community; and provide for increased community participation in, and access to, government decisions. Special attention was paid to public participation problems in economically disadvantaged and minority communities with disproportionate environmental burdens (i.e., environmental justice communities), and to mechanisms for improving interagency coordination at all levels of government

Unmet goals of tracking: within-track heterogeneity of students' expectations for

Educational systems are often characterized by some form(s) of ability grouping, like tracking. Although substantial variation in the implementation of these practices exists, it is always the aim to improve teaching efficiency by creating homogeneous groups of students in terms of capabilities and performances as well as expected pathways. If students’ expected pathways (university, graduate school, or working) are in line with the goals of tracking, one might presume that these expectations are rather homogeneous within tracks and heterogeneous between tracks. In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), the educational system consists of four tracks. Many students start out in the most prestigious, academic track. If they fail to gain the necessary credentials, they move to the less esteemed technical and vocational tracks. Therefore, the educational system has been called a 'cascade system'. We presume that this cascade system creates homogeneous expectations in the academic track, though heterogeneous expectations in the technical and vocational tracks. We use data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY), gathered during the 2013-2014 school year from 2354 pupils of the tenth grade across 30 secondary schools in the city of Ghent, Flanders. Preliminary results suggest that the technical and vocational tracks show more heterogeneity in student’s expectations than the academic track. If tracking does not fulfill the desired goals in some tracks, tracking practices should be questioned as tracking occurs along social and ethnic lines, causing social inequality

The Intersection of Positive Psychology and Teachers\u27 Dispositional Fitness: A Delphi Study

U.S. educators of the 21st century have witnessed renewed attention given to the importance of teacher dispositions as a component of the requisite tripartite of knowledge, skills, and dispositions. In this Delphi study, two previously unaligned constructs, positive psychology and teacher dispositions, were synthesized for the purpose of: a) identifying the most compelling teacher dispositions that infuse positive psychology into positive classroom communities, and b) suggesting observable behaviors that are indicative of teachers\u27 dispositional fitness in positive classroom communities. Using the Positive Teacher Disposition Index (PTDI), a panel of educators, consisting of classroom teachers, university faculty, and educational administrators selected 18 teacher dispositions as most compelling in a positive classroom community. Delphi panelists also recommended observable behaviors as exemplars of teachers\u27 dispositional fitness. The results substantiate the high level of favorability and integrative compatibility between positive psychology and teacher dispositions. Implications suggest a potential exigency for grade-appropriate dispositions and a need to extend the minimal dispositional assessment requirement for teacher-candidates by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) beyond the dispositions to be fair and to believe that all students can learn

Proceedings of the 11th Toulon-Verona International Conference on Quality in Services

The Toulon-Verona Conference was founded in 1998 by prof. Claudio Baccarani of the University of Verona, Italy, and prof. Michel Weill of the University of Toulon, France. It has been organized each year in a different place in Europe in cooperation with a host university (Toulon 1998, Verona 1999, Derby 2000, Mons 2001, Lisbon 2002, Oviedo 2003, Toulon 2004, Palermo 2005, Paisley 2006, Thessaloniki 2007, Florence, 2008). Originally focusing on higher education institutions, the research themes have over the years been extended to the health sector, local government, tourism, logistics, banking services. Around a hundred delegates from about twenty different countries participate each year and nearly one thousand research papers have been published over the last ten years, making of the conference one of the major events in the field of quality in services

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience