Do Catastrophes in Poor Countries Lead to Event-Related Policy Change? The 2010 Earthquake in Haiti

Prompted by Birkland and Warnement‘s (2014) findings that the earthquake was not a significant focusing event in Haiti, the author reassessed the issue. Using the 2010 earthquake as the starting point, a detailed content analysis of evaluation and strategy report and DRR and developmental plans to find the level of policy adopted and implemented after the earthquake. Using the criterion of event-related implementation as a proxy for event-related policy change the author judges whether and to what extent was the earthquake a focusing event. Among the findings are that not only were there event-related policy change inside and outside of Haiti. Many policy changes were significant in the way they shaped development policy, disaster risk reduction policy and practice as well as humanitarian policy and practices and the tools and methods used in planning for and responding to catastrophes. The more fundamental question is whether, once adopted and implemented, the policy changes can be sustained. Findings show significant challenges in that regard

Public Health Nurse Decisions Regarding At-Risk Postpartum Case Closure

During the late 19th century, public health nursing emerged in the United States as an autonomous nursing specialty providing maternal-child health (MCH) home visitation services. Present day MCH public health nurses (PHNs), guided by their predecessors, focus on health promotion and disease prevention in at-risk maternal-child populations. Health policies, funding streams, and local public health nursing protocols are examples of extrinsic factors that may affect length of home visitation services for at-risk women and their children. The purpose of this study was to better understand the factors related to variations in PHN decisions to terminate home visitation services for at-risk postpartum clients. The participants in this qualitative descriptive study were MCH PHNs working in a Southwestern United States public health nursing department. Snowball sampling was incorporated in order to reach a purposive sample saturation of 18 PHNs. The data consisted of verbatim transcripts of semi-structured, open-ended interviews with individual participants; field notes; and analytic memos. Data analysis was an ongoing process of conventional content analysis which included the incorporation of new data and researcher reflections. Consensual validation of the results was achieved through the participation of the research committee members\u27 peer review of the analysis process and study results. This work has resulted in three manuscripts. The first manuscript, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010(PL 111-148): An Analysis of Maternal-Child Health Home Visitation, was published in the journal of Policy, Politics, and Nursing Practice. The second and third manuscripts, At-Risk Postpartum Clients Receiving Public Health Nurse Home Visitation Services, Part I: Opening a Case; and Part II: Closing a Case, describe the study methodology and research findings. Study results indicated that PHN case closure decisions occur along a continuum of cognitive analysis and intuition. Services are rendered on a short-term or long-term basis and length of services are affected by PHN, workplace, and client factors. The findings suggest the need to advance the research specific to PHN home visitation services for at-risk postpartum women and their children

Locations of serial reach targets are coded in multiple reference frames

AbstractPrevious work from our lab, and elsewhere, has demonstrated that remembered target locations are stored and updated in an eye-fixed reference frame. That is, reach errors systematically vary as a function of gaze direction relative to a remembered target location, not only when the target is viewed in the periphery (Bock, 1986, known as the retinal magnification effect), but also when the target has been foveated, and the eyes subsequently move after the target has disappeared but prior to reaching (e.g., Henriques, Klier, Smith, Lowy, & Crawford, 1998; Sorrento & Henriques, 2008; Thompson & Henriques, 2008). These gaze-dependent errors, following intervening eye movements, cannot be explained by representations whose frame is fixed to the head, body or even the world. However, it is unknown whether targets presented sequentially would all be coded relative to gaze (i.e., egocentrically/absolutely), or if they would be coded relative to the previous target (i.e., allocentrically/relatively). It might be expected that the reaching movements to two targets separated by 5° would differ by that distance. But, if gaze were to shift between the first and second reaches, would the movement amplitude between the targets differ? If the target locations are coded allocentrically (i.e., the location of the second target coded relative to the first) then the movement amplitude should be about 5°. But, if the second target is coded egocentrically (i.e., relative to current gaze direction), then the reaches to this target and the distances between the subsequent movements should vary systematically with gaze as described above. We found that requiring an intervening saccade to the opposite side of 2 briefly presented targets between reaches to them resulted in a pattern of reaching error that systematically varied as a function of the distance between current gaze and target, and led to a systematic change in the distance between the sequential reach endpoints as predicted by an egocentric frame anchored to the eye. However, the amount of change in this distance was smaller than predicted by a pure eye-fixed representation, suggesting that relative positions of the targets or allocentric coding was also used in sequential reach planning. The spatial coding and updating of sequential reach target locations seems to rely on a combined weighting of multiple reference frames, with one of them centered on the eye

Feminism and racism: what is at stake?

This paper is motivated in the first place by my own moral and political opposition to racism, i.e. to anything which defines people as inferior because of their race, or ethnic or cultural identity. It argues that accusations that feminism is ‘racist’ or ‘white and middle-class’ are rarely, if ever, substantiated with argument and evidence, and that anyway, the logic of feminism precludes it

What does it mean to call feminism 'white and middle-class?'

This paper argues that there are a number of problems with the often reiterated arguments to the effect that feminism is 'white and middle-class'. They tend to elide the problematic of male domination, focusing instead on hierarchies among women. They ignore the male dominated nature of the anti-racist struggle itself. And they suffer from a lack of clarity about what 'white and middle-class' might mean. The body of the paper is devoted to a detailed investigation of some of these arguments, with the aim of elucidating the problems. It concludes with a recommendation that any assertion that feminism is 'white and middle-class' be carefully and critically evaluated, and not simply reiterated as self-evident

Power and distaste: tolerance and its limitations

The paper is divided into two parts, a short introductory section called ‘The case for tolerance’, and a longer section, ‘Beyond tolerance’, which contains the major part of the argument. The burden of that argument is that there are good reasons for thinking that tolerance is not the progressive virtue it is usually assumed to be. Rather, it is argued, tolerance is merely one more ruse of domination. It makes more palatable those social arrangements that work to the benefit of the already powerful and privileged, but it does not seriously bring them into question, much less challenge or threaten to undermine them

Developing Preservice Teacher Conceptions of Effective Teachers Using Classroom Scenarios to Practice Difficult Conversations

Faculty from three different teacher preparation programs implemented classroom scenarios to help preservice teachers practice holding difficult conversations with students. The goal was to enhance critical reflection and discussion around creating culturally responsive classrooms to change preservice teacher conceptions of effective teachers\u27 qualities. Results indicate that preservice teacher conceptions of effective teachers shifted from a focus on personal attributes to teaching skills. This study addresses the need for practice-based teacher education that has advanced in parallel with efforts to find new ways to the practical knowledge needed to be culturally responsive teachers