Editorial: Pacific education: research and practice.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Tanya Wendt Samu on the call for teachers to be responsive to the diversities between group of learners as well as within groups of learners and another by Fran Cahill on the discussion of the difficulties that Samoan adolescents have in living within the traditional Samoan culture of home

Editorial

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the sustainability of organisational changes for diploma programmes, the development of Preparation for Tertiary Learning (PTL), and childhood teacher education programme in New Zealand

Educational leadership….

An introduction is presented in which it discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the implications for leadership training, the exclusionary practices of educational leadership, and the standards for performance

Researching in cross cultural contexts: a socially just process.

In this paper, we explore culture and its relationship to cross cultural research. The context for this research is Vanuatu, a small South Pacific Island nation. The action research process used was a collaboration between two New Zealand academics, two Ni Vanuatu women researchers and 13 participants over a two year period. The focus of the action research was the design and delivery of a culturally appropriate educational leadership development programme for women. The collaborative research process raised a number of ethical and methodological considerations, for example, the importance of mutually respectful relationships, working in partnership, collaboration, capacity building, transparent communication and consideration of the local context. Using stories from the Vanuatu context, we illustrate how we navigated culture to be able to research in socially just ways. Being involved in socially just, cross cultural research calls for a thoughtful, well-designed and culturally informed approach throughout all stages of the research process, from initial planning through to follow up and capacity building and finally, the sharing of research findings

Sustaining organisational change: Teacher education in the Solomon Islands.

"Sustainability is the capacity of education reform initiatives to continue" (Webster, Silova, Moyer, & McAllister, 2011, para. 12). In this article we reflect upon the process of organisational strengthening that was a key component of the Partnership between the Faculty of Education at the University of Waikato and the School of Education, Solomon Islands College of Higher Education. We argue that within the New Zealand Aid Programmei funded partnership, the building of mutually respectful relationships, building leadership capacity and the respect for and inclusion of indigenous cultural considerations were key to the organisational change process and its sustainability

"Second Class Citizens"?: Researching the Position of General Staff Women in New Zealand Universities

Historically, women in the workforce in New Zealand, like their counterparts in many other countries, have been disadvantaged vis-a-vis their male peers. They have been concentrated in relatively few (mostly low-pay) jobs, in lower rather than higher positions in occupations with promotional structures, and/or have been paid less than men for doing the same work. Even fairly recent studies of working conditions - in, for example, the banking industry (Neale, 1984), the Department of Social Welfare (Burns, Rutherford, Neale and Searancke, 1987), the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (Warren, 1988), and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Green, 1991) - document the persistence of these inequities. Women in certain minority groups (for example, Maori women, women with physical disabilities) have tended to be particularly disenfranchised in these respects (National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women, 1990)

Testing the effectiveness of integrating community-based approaches for encouraging abandonment of female genital cutting into CARE\u27s reproductive health programs in Ethiopia and Kenya

CARE International, with technical support from the Frontiers in Reproductive Health Program completed a study in Ethiopia and Kenya designed to test the effectiveness of education activities using behavior change communication (BCC) approaches and advocacy activities by religious and other key leaders to abandon female genital cutting (FGC). In Ethiopia, the increased knowledge of harmful FGC effects and human rights issues translated to a positive attitude in support of FGC abandonment and an intention not to cut their daughters in the future. In Kenya, the analysis indicated mixed results in attitude and intended behavior change

Simulation of the global ENSO–Tropical cyclone teleconnection by a high-resolution coupled general circulation model

This study assesses the influence of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on global tropical cyclone activity using a 150-yr-long integration with a high-resolution coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model [High-Resolution Global Environmental Model (HiGEM); with N144 resolution: ~90 km in the atmosphere and ~40 km in the ocean]. Tropical cyclone activity is compared to an atmosphere-only simulation using the atmospheric component of HiGEM (HiGAM). Observations of tropical cyclones in the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) and tropical cyclones identified in the Interim ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) are used to validate the models. Composite anomalies of tropical cyclone activity in El Niño and La Niña years are used. HiGEM is able to capture the shift in tropical cyclone locations to ENSO in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. However, HiGEM does not capture the expected ENSO–tropical cyclone teleconnection in the North Atlantic. HiGAM shows more skill in simulating the global ENSO–tropical cyclone teleconnection; however, variability in the Pacific is overpronounced. HiGAM is able to capture the ENSO–tropical cyclone teleconnection in the North Atlantic more accurately than HiGEM. An investigation into the large-scale environmental conditions, known to influence tropical cyclone activity, is used to further understand the response of tropical cyclone activity to ENSO in the North Atlantic and western North Pacific. The vertical wind shear response over the Caribbean is not captured in HiGEM compared to HiGAM and ERA-Interim. Biases in the mean ascent at 500 hPa in HiGEM remain in HiGAM over the western North Pacific; however, a more realistic low-level vorticity in HiGAM results in a more accurate ENSO–tropical cyclone teleconnection

"Second Class Citizens"?: Researching the Position of General Staff Women in New Zealand Universities

Historically, women in the workforce in New Zealand, like their counterparts in many other countries, have been disadvantaged vis-a-vis their male peers. They have been concentrated in relatively few (mostly low-pay) jobs, in lower rather than higher positions in occupations with promotional structures, and/or have been paid less than men for doing the same work. Even fairly recent studies of working conditions - in, for example, the banking industry (Neale, 1984), the Department of Social Welfare (Burns, Rutherford, Neale and Searancke, 1987), the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (Warren, 1988), and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Green, 1991) - document the persistence of these inequities. Women in certain minority groups (for example, Maori women, women with physical disabilities) have tended to be particularly disenfranchised in these respects (National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women, 1990)

Sahel decadal rainfall variability and the role of model horizontal resolution

Substantial low-frequency rainfall fluctuations occurred in the Sahel throughout the twentieth century, causing devastating drought. Modeling these low-frequency rainfall fluctuations has remained problematic for climate models for many years. Here we show using a combination of state-of-the-art rainfall observations and high-resolution global climate models that changes in organized heavy rainfall events carry most of the rainfall variability in the Sahel at multiannual to decadal time scales. Ability to produce intense, organized convection allows climate models to correctly simulate the magnitude of late-twentieth century rainfall change, underlining the importance of model resolution. Increasing model resolution allows a better coupling between large-scale circulation changes and regional rainfall processes over the Sahel. These results provide a strong basis for developing more reliable and skilful long-term predictions of rainfall (seasons to years) which could benefit many sectors in the region by allowing early adaptation to impending extremes