Messiness of forest governance:How technical approaches suppress politics in REDD+ and conservation projects

Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) was originally conceived to address the global problem of climate change by reducing deforestation and forest degradation at national and subnational levels in developing countries. Since its inception, REDD+ proponents have increasingly had to adapt global ideas to local demands, as the rollout process was met with on-the-ground realities, including suspicion and protest. As is typical in aid or ‘development’ projects conceived in the global North, most of the solutions advanced to improve REDD+ tend to focus on addressing issues of justice (or ‘fairness’) in distributive terms, rather than addressing more inherently political objections to REDD+ such as those based on rights or social justice. Using data collected from over 700 interviews in five countries with both REDD+ and non-REDD+ cases, we argue that the failure to incorporate political notions of justice into conservation projects such as REDD+ results in ‘messiness’ within governance systems, which is a symptom of injustice and illegitimacy. We find that, first, conservation, payment for ecosystem services, and REDD+ project proponents viewed problems through a technical rather than political lens, leading to solutions that focused on procedures, such as ‘benefit distribution.’ Second, focusing on the technical aspects of interventions came at the expense of political solutions such as the representation of local people's concerns and recognition of their rights. Third, the lack of attention to representation and recognition justices resulted in illegitimacy. This led to messiness in the governance systems, which was often addressed in technical terms, thereby perpetuating the problem. If messiness is not appreciated and addressed from appropriate notions of justice, projects such as REDD+ are destined to fail

Expert technology-using teachers: Visions, strategies, and development

In order to establish a theory of practitioner perceptions of technology integration, this study used a grounded theoretical framework to examine how teachers view and use technology, as well as the experiences that influence their development of technology integration expertise. Technology integration was defined by eight expert technology-using teachers\u27 technology integration visions, strategies, and the experiences that motivated them to develop technology integration expertise. Eight expert technology-using teachers were solicited from a population of 31 recipients of a state technology award program that required submission of a portfolio documenting classroom technology use. Using a multiple case study research design and grounded theoretical framework, data were collected from three sources: interviews, observations, and award portfolio documents. These data sources were analyzed for each teacher using constant comparative analysis methods and represented in individual case study reports. The eight case study reports were compared to develop a theory that transcended the individual cases. The findings indicated that expert technology-using teachers\u27 strategies for technology were based on the goal of achieving meaningful technology integration, using technology for to enhance student comprehension, increase student motivation, and/or increase students\u27 achievement by applying technology skills. Their visions epitomized meaningful technology integration that enhanced student understanding typically by placing technology in the hands of their students. However, many of their expressed visions sometimes conflicted with their actual implemented strategies. With regards to the experiences that influence development, four sets of experiences emerged from the data as critical to motivating the teachers to pursue more technology integration: Technology in Context (developing an interest through exposure and building basic technology skills); Implementation in the Classroom (motivated by students or other stakeholders reactions); Advancing Technology Integration Knowledge (self-initiating learning opportunities and implementing, revising, and reflecting); and Sharing with Others (engaging in leadership opportunities and teaching teachers technology). Implications of this research suggest using meaningful technology integration visions and strategies as a goal for teachers, aligning technology integration with teachers\u27 current pedagogical and curricular strategies. In addition, experiences from the four sets that emerged from the data as influencing technology integration development should incorporate this idea of meaningful technology integration

Revisiting Preservice Technology Integration Course Content: What are the Critical Objectives?

Technology integration classes are constantly changing. At both the University of Oklahoma and Indiana University, placing this undergraduate course online for the pandemic exposed considerable redundancy. This conversion allowed us to streamline content, model effective online practices, engage students in developing remote learning skills and focus on course objectives to ensure that each activity was aligned with our goal to create effective technology using teachers.https://orc.library.atu.edu/atu_faculty_books/1065/thumbnail.jp

Teacher beliefs and uses of technology to support 21st century teaching and learning

Previous research has established the importance of teachers’ beliefs to classroom practices including teachers’ choices of instructional strategies (Smith & Southerland, 2007; Wilkins, 2008) and assessment methods (National Association of State Boards of Education, 2009), as well as their selection of instructional resources (Speer, 2008), and technology tools (Ertmer, Ottenbreit-Leftwich, Sadik, Sendurur, & Sendurur, 2012). As noted by Fives and Buehl (2012), research on teacher beliefs spans nearly 60 years and includes over 700 empirical studies. Yet, despite this large body of work, additional research is needed to explicate the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and their uses of digital technologies, specifically those that support 21st century teaching and learning

Interpretation of research on technology integration in teacher education: preparation and current practices

Researchers have called for renewed efforts in exploring both what knowledge should be taught in preservice teacher education programs with regard to technology. In addition, researchers have also called for renewed efforts on how to best prepare teachers to effectively use that knowledge to support teaching and learning. There were multiple ways to approach this problem, but researchers selected a two-phase mixed-methods research design. This chapter examines how the research focus and results were selected and interpreted through the two-phase mixed-methods research design. The chapter describes why and how specific populations were selected (teacher educators and practicing teachers). In addition, the chapter describes why data sources were selected (surveys and multiple case studies - interviews, documents). The analysis of data is also detailed, noting the various statistical tests run, as well as the methods for coding open-ended data. Furthermore, descriptions of interpretations of the results and how findings were established are presented

K-12 Technology Leaders: Reported Practices of Technology Professional Development Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation

Teachers have perceived technology professional development (tech-PD) as ineffective, particularly when it does not address individual needs. Researchers need to examine how tech-PD experiences are planned, implemented, and evaluated. Typically K-12 technology leaders (e.g., technology coaches) are responsible for planning, implementing, and evaluating tech-PD. This study focused on the reported tech-PD design practices of technology leaders who are members of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Based on data from questionnaire responses (n=153), interviews (n = 6), and artifacts (n = 6), three trends emerged: (a) ISTE technology leaders planned tech-PD experiences based on teacher, administrative, school, and district needs, but did not report conducting formal needs assessments; (b) ISTE technology leaders implemented tech-PD via a variety of approaches, but did not report implementing sustained and continuous tech-PD; and (c) ISTE technology leaders evaluated tech-PD using self-reported teacher data, but did not collect more systematic evaluation data

A sociological view on designing a sustainable online community for k–12 teachers: A systematic review

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. As a way to support teachers’ professional development activities and build communities of practice for teachers, education researchers and practitioners have put considerable effort into building an online learning community for K–12 teachers to create a venue to facilitate teachers’ joint knowledge construction. However, a substantial number of such online communities have failed due to lack of participation of members. Therefore, it is critical to understand how to design a sustainable community that fulfills members’ needs and elicits active participation of members. In this literature review, we adopted a sociological framework to investigate how to create a sustainable online community. This framework suggests that the sustainability of a community comes from individual members’ three types of commitments: instrumental, affective, and moral commitments. Such commitments are results of members’ cognitive, cathectic, and evaluative processes and lead to membership retainment, cohesive relationships, and socially regulated participation. Using this framework, we conducted a systematic literature review on online teacher community articles published from 1990 to 2018. Our findings provide insights on factors associated with teacher members’ instrumental, affective, and moral commitment to an online community. Based on these findings, we further provide design suggestions to build a sustainable community for teachers