Employee Ownership and Shared Capitalism: New Directions in Research

[Excerpt] This book showcases the diverse state of cutting-edge academic work on shared capitalism. More specifically, this book attempts to illuminate a representative cross section of current research about shared capitalism, enliven academic debates about it, and embolden new research initiatives. The works in this volume do not provide a complete picture of the current state of employee ownership or research about it, but by showcasing a representative sample of work, they illuminate shared capitalism\u27s complexity as an organizational, psychological, sociological, and economic phenomenon that requires deep interdisciplinary understanding. Another goal of this volume is to demonstrate to broader groups of policy makers, shareholder activists, journalists, business intellectuals, economic and social justice activists, and citizens the ongoing relevance of shared capitalism and its potential for improving broader social and economic outcomes beyond employee well-being and firm productivity, such as promoting economic growth, innovation, and employment stability, as well as addressing the alarming growth in wealth inequality that has occurred in the last two decades. Although this book and its introduction focus primarily on employee ownership in the United States and, to a lesser extent, western Europe, it is important to note that shared capitalism can be found in all parts of the globe, from broad-based employee stock options in Korea, to the privatization of formerly state-owned industries in eastern Europe, to worker cooperatives in Argentina that were created in response to the financial crisis of the early 2000s. This diversity provides a rich set of experiences on which we can draw to assess the potential offered by shared capitalism and to inform policies to encourage it. This volume represents a modest step in that direction

Blogging and Poetry: Fourth Graders Develop their Higher Order Thinking Skills

The purpose of this study was to see if and how my fourth grade students used blogging to develop the higher order thinking skills of applying, analyzing, and evaluating when responding to poetry. The study provided me with insights into how blogging can be used as another avenue for discussing poetry, as opposed to the more conventional approaches of verbal discussion and handwritten responses. A secondary purpose of this study was to provide other educators with insight into how blogging can develop students\u27 use of higher order thinking skills when responding to poetry. I addressed the following research question through this study: how does blogging influence the higher order thinking skills of fourth graders when responding to poetry? In this study, I investigated how my students\u27 use of blogging influenced their higher order thinking skills. I conducted this qualitative action-research study in my fourth grade classroom in a suburban school district located in western New York, where I collected and analyzed data on my students to learn new strategies and best practices for teaching them how to use higher order thinking when responding to poetry. I began the study by administering a pre-assessment and interview to determine my students\u27 abilities and understanding about responding to poetry using higher order thinking. To help my students develop skills in how to comprehend poetry at the levels of applying, analyzing and evaluating, I used a balanced literacy approach, focusing on reading and writing in a five-week unit of study focusing on poetry as the genre of literature being studied. As part of the study, students responded to poetry through blogging. I analyzed their blogging responses to determine their use of higher order thinking skills. I also used a series of Quick Writes throughout the study to gather written feedback from students about their experiences. I administered a post-assessment at the end of the five-week unit to determine how blogging influenced the students\u27 abilities to use higher order thinking skills when responding to poetry. Finally, I concluded the study by conducting student interviews to see how blogging was supportive in the areas of applying, analyzing, and evaluating. I assessed all thirteen students in my class to determine their ability to use higher order thinking when responding to poetry. From the thirteen students who were assessed, I chose a purposeful sample of three students with limited higher order thinking skills who differed in gender, socio-economic status, and ethnicity to focus on for the case study portion of the action-research study. I chose the three students as participants because I wanted to represent a wide range of learners and abilities, covering factors such as gender, race, and socioeconomic status to ensure the findings provide implications for a large population. The participants were members of my fourth grade classroom, which offered me many chances for direct observation during authentic learning opportunities as the investigation progressed. Based on the pre-assessment and interview I used to determine the students\u27 understanding of higher order thinking, the activities I created during the poetry unit were designed to meet the needs of various learning styles to support each student\u27s potential for mastering the unit\u27s objectives. I analyzed the contents of the three students\u27 blog responses to determine what higher order thinking the students used when responding to poetry, as well as administered a post-interview and a series of Quick Writes to get their insight into how blogging supported the use of higher order thinking. As a result of this study, the students and I have found that learning to read and write can be fun and exciting as long as we are willing to use the tools and people around us to help develop as readers, writers, and thinkers. The students also realized that there are multiple ways of applying, analyzing, and evaluating text, specifically poetry

Use of the Pyramid Model for Supporting Preschool Refugees

Response to Intervention (RtI) is being applied to early childhood settings for the support of positive behavior and social development through the Pyramid Model (Fox, Carta, Strain, Dunlap & Hemmeter, 2010). This qualitative study assessed the use of the Pyramid Model for preschool aged refugee children living in a refugee resettlement community. Many young refugee children have experienced trauma (George, 2010) and some experience behavior and social challenges (Almqvist & Brandell-Forsberg, 1997). Twenty-five preschool service providers were interviewed about their use of the Pyramid Model for the support of preschool refugee students. Themes to be shared include how ECEs are implementing the practices outlined in the Pyramid Model along with strategies for adapting recommended practices to meet the needs of refugee families

Fodder conservation brings bigger cream cheques

Conservation of plenty of fodder is undoubtedly one of the most important operations on the dairy farm. Conservation is the master key which, when turned to the full will help in attaining very good butterfat production, providing, of course that breeding and weeding are being carried on wisely and that no serious diseases are encountered

Kikuyu grass planting by machine

The value of Kikuyu grass as a pasture plant is known to most dairy-farmers. It is deep-rooting and capable of good autumn, late spring and—in summer moist areas all-year-round production. It is valuable on sandy soils even in the drier dairying districts, is palatable to stock and can withstand heavy grazing

Combining Biophysical and Price Simulations to Assess the Economics of Long-Term Crop Rotations

Biophysical simulation models (e.g. APSIM) using historical rainfall data are increasingly being used to provide yield and other data on crop rotations in various regions of Australia. However, to analyse the economics of these rotations it is desirable to incorporate the other main driver of profitability, price variation. Because the context was that APSIM was being used to simulate an existing trial site being monitored by a farmer group Gross Margin output was considered most appropriate. Long-run rotational gross margins were calculated for the various rotations with yields (and other physical outputs) derived from APSIM simulations over a period of 100+ years and prices simulated in @Risk based on subjective triangular price distributions elicited from farmers in the group. Rotations included chickpeas, cotton, lucerne, sorghum, wheat and different lengths of fallow. Output presented to the farmers included mean annual gross margins and distributions of gross margins presented as probability distributions, cumulative probability distributions and box and whisker plots. Cotton rotations were the most profitable but had greater declines in soil fertility and greater drainage out of the root zone.Crop Production/Industries,

Combining biophysical and price simulations to assess the economics of long-term crop rotations

Long-run rotational gross margins were calculated with yields derived from biophysical simulations in APSIM over a period of 100+ years and prices simulated in @Risk based on subjective triangular price distributions elicited from the Jimbour Plains farmer group. Rotations included chickpeas, cotton, lucerne, sorghum, wheat and different lengths of fallow. Output presented to the farmers included mean annual GMs and distributions of GMs with box and whisker plots found to be suitable. Mean-standard deviation and first and second-degree stochastic dominance efficiency measures were also calculated. Including lucerne in the rotations improved some sustainability indicators but reduced profitability.Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management,

PIV Study of the Vortex Wake behind a Translationally Oscillating Cylinder in a Quiescent Fluid

The near wake produced by a circular cylinder oscillating translationally in a quiescent fluid or, alternatively, by oscillatory flow past a stationary cylinder at low Keulegan-Carpenter (KC) and Stokes (b) numbers has been investigated using Particle Image Velocimetry. All but one of the two- and three-dimensional regimes of the Tatsuno & Bearman [11] map were investigated. The findings are successfully compared with previous experimental observations and numerical simulations. Twodimensional Particle Image Velocimetry results of regime B show how the symmetrical pattern of vortices around the cylinder becomes three-dimensional. Additionally, the instantaneous results of regime E confirm that there is an intermittent change in the direction of the V-shaped vortices around the cylinder