A pandemic of uncertainty: Leading together when we can't see the future alone

Purpose: In this research note, I reflect on the role of certainty in educational planning, amid the challenges to certainty posed by the COVID pandemic. This reflection is autoethnographic, based on theoretical literature from the field of organizational leadership, as well as my own teaching observations. Methods: Over the past several months, the COVID pandemic has undermined and frustrated efforts to plan the future. In this paper a litterature review research was adopted. Results: The possibility opened by the pandemic is that organizational leadership can become more relational, fluid, and responsive; rather than relying on assumptions of certainty. To further enrich this argument, follow-up studies could explore specific examples and cases in which organizations have adjusted their assumptions regarding certainty, planning, and leadership. Implications: Insight identified in this article has lasting implications for how educational institutions approach planning and how organizations can cultivate leadership to be more resilient and nimble

Social Justice Leadership in the Becoming. A Response to Educational Leadership or Followership?

In this letter, I respond to comments from David Gabbard regarding my article on the Broad Superintendents Academy. Energized by Gabbard’s critique, my letter points toward a position for educational leaders that works both within and against dominant systems. I ask: How can we model in our own communities the kind of caring, inclusion, and dialogic relations that we espouse in our graduate seminars? This type of leadership carries the challenge of working in ways that are both effective and subversive, both oppositional and affirmative

The Broad Challenge to Democratic Leadership: The Other Crisis in Education

This article interrogates the workings of the Broad Superintendents Academy, as a specific illustration of the influence of venture philanthropy in American public education. It introduces the Broad Foundation’s agenda for educational leadership training, foregrounding how it frames the problem of leadership and the implications of such training for critical democratic governance of educational systems. As it shapes public consciousness of the “crisis” in education, the Broad Foundation confuses an indicator of equity with the more fundamental construction of an equitable society. The Broad education agenda seeks to disenfranchise local communities by concentrating power in the hands of superintendents bent on engineering district operations to produce “results.” This article argues for expanded dialogue about the implications of the Broad agenda for the field of educational leadership and the project of educating critically minded leaders

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationDisturbances play an integral role in regeneration and succession of many forested ecosystems in the Intermountain West region of the western United States. However, changes in climate have been shown to alter the occurrence, duration, and frequency of disturbances. The research presented here uses a paleoecological approach using multiple proxies from sediment cores from three different sites from the Intermountain West in order to assess the linkages among disturbances, climate, and vegetation composition. From the first site in the central Rocky Mountains, a paleoenvironmental data documents the sensitivity of past quaking aspen occurrence to increased temperatures, while frequent wildfire activity led to the persistence of a quaking aspen. From the second site located in south central Utah, a paleoenvironmental data documents how changes in the position of the El Nio Southern Oscillation dipole transition zone affects moisture availability across the state of Utah, which ultimately influences vegetation composition and wildfire frequency. Lastly, from the third site located on the north slope of the Uinta Mountains in northeastern Utah, paleoenvironmental data assesses the long-term primary control on wildfire activity from the region. The results from this dissertation suggest that disturbance regimes have been in a state of constant change throughout the Holocene as a result of climate variability and in combination these led to changes in vegetation composition. The information contained in this dissertation will be important for natural resource planning and management because it provides context regarding the natural range of disturbance and vegetation variability for three distinctly different forested settings located in the Intermountain West. Forest managers can use paleoenvironmental records as analogs to help place context of how forested ecosystems will respond to climatic changes. By providing forest managers with long-term information about forest composition and disturbance regimes at multiple sites, this dissertation can be used to enhance resource policy making, planning and management

A study of the precipitation of iron di-sulphide and its relation to certain types of deposits

Very few of the interesting points bearing upon the formation of iron di-sulphide will be treated in this paper. The laboratory tests made are considered to have been sufficiently thorough to substantiate the ideas set forth so that exhaustive tests were not necessary. While the field evidence was collected largely in the Joplin district of Missouri, the conclusions are sufficiently generalized to be applicable to any district in which pyrite and marcasite have been derived from cold solutions --page 2

The case for problem-making research in the developmental university

Everyone knows that research should solve problems. It’s common sense, especially in the context of lower-income countries striving to improve the living conditions for all citizens. Ethiopian universities are now being encouraged to conduct more problem-solving research and thus function as “developmental universities” in support of national growth priorities. However, advocates of problem-solving research have overlooked a major problem. In this essay, I suggest that the discourse of problem-solving research may constrain our research questions and neglect problems that call for critical attention. To widen our research discourse and our research vision, I propose that problem-solving research should be complimented by problem-making research, i.e., research that highlights otherwise hidden issues – including who has the power to frame “problems” – and challenges us to look more critically at the consequences of our “solutions

Final Report on the Activities of the Center for Immigrant and Refugee Community Leadership and Empowerment (CIRCLE) Project: Covering the Period from 09/01/99 to 08/31/00

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Plasmodium knowlesi and other malaria parasites in long-tailed macaques from the Philippines

Background Macaca fascicularis (long-tailed macaque) is the most widespread species of macaque in Southeast Asia and the only species of monkey found naturally in the Philippines. The species is the natural host for the zoonotic malaria species, Plasmodium knowlesi and Plasmodium cynomolgi and for the potentially zoonotic species, Plasmodium inui. Moreover, other Plasmodium species such as Plasmodium coatneyi and Plasmodium fieldi are also natural parasites of M. fascicularis. The aims of this study were to identify and determine the prevalence of Plasmodium species infecting wild and captive long-tailed macaques from the Philippines. Methods A total of 95 blood samples from long-tailed macaques in the Philippines were collected from three locations; 30 were from captive macaques at the National Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center (NWRRC) in Luzon, 25 were from captive macaques at the Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center (PWRCC) in Palawan and 40 were from wild macaques from Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park (PPSRNP) in Palawan. The Plasmodium spp. infecting the macaques were identified using nested PCR assays on DNA extracted from these blood samples. Results All 40 of the wild macaques from PPSRNP in Palawan and 5 of 25 captive macaques from PWRCC in Palawan were Plasmodium-positive; while none of the 30 captive macaques from the NWRRC in Luzon had any malaria parasites. Overall, P. inui was the most prevalent malaria parasite (44.2%), followed by P. fieldi (41.1%), P. cynomolgi (23.2%), P. coatneyi (21.1%), and P. knowlesi (19%). Mixed species infections were also observed in 39 of the 45 Plasmodium-positive macaques. There was a significant difference in the prevalence of P. knowlesi among the troops of wild macaques from PPSRNP. Conclusion Wild long-tailed macaques from the island of Palawan, the Philippines are infected with P. knowlesi, P. inui, P. coatneyi, P. fieldi and P. cynomolgi. The prevalence of these Plasmodium spp. varied among the sites of collection and among troops of wild macaques at one site. The presence of these simian Plasmodium parasites, especially P. knowlesi and P. cynomolgi in the long-tailed macaques in Palawan presents risks for zoonotic transmission in the area