Editors\u27 Introduction

The inaugural issue of FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education begins a new chapter in the scholarly and professional discussion of comparative and international education research, policy, and practice. Comparative and international education research has become increasingly isolated from educational policymaking as well as school- and classroom-level decisionmaking as the amount and diversity of research in the field has grown. FIRE is an international, peer-reviewed publication, which seeks to bridge this gap by promoting interdisciplinary scholarship on the use of internationally comparative data for evidence-based and innovative change in educational systems, schools, and classrooms worldwide. FIRE provides an open source and widely accessible platform for disseminating research on education from multiple cultural, organizational and national perspectives. To introduce FIRE to the community of researchers, policymakers, and educators this introduction provides an overview of the journal’s hallmark characteristics and suggestions for manuscript and special issue topics. Die erste Ausgabe von FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education schlägt ein neues Kapitel in der wissenschaftlichen und akademischen Diskussion über vergleichende und internationale Bildungsforschung, -politik und -praxis auf. Mit der Zunahme und Diversifizierung von Forschung hat sich die Internationale und Vergleichende Bildungsforschung zunehmend von Fragen der Bildungspolitik aber auch der Entscheidungsfindung auf der Ebene von Schule und Klassenzimmer isoliert. FIRE ist eine internationale, peer-reviewte Publikation, die versucht, diese Lücke zu schließen durch die Förderung interdisziplinärer Forschung über die Verwendung von international vergleichenden Daten für evidenzbasierten und innovativen Veränderungen in Bildungssystemen, Schulen und Klassenzimmern weltweit. FIRE bietet eine freie und allgemein zugängliche Plattform zur Verbreitung von Forschung zum Thema Bildung aus verschiedenen kulturellen, organisatorischen und nationalen Perspektiven. Diese Einleitung möchte FIRE den Vertreter_innen von Forschung, Politik und Praxis vorstellen und einen Überblick über den Qualitätskennzeichen und Merkmale des Journals anbieten und zugleich einige Vorschläge für Manuskripte und Themen für Sonderhefte unterbreiten

Introduction: Comparative and International Education: Survey of An Infinite Field

The scope and breadth of the field of comparative and international education (CIE) is immense. There are few, if any, limitations on theme, issue, theory, method, or data that are relevant to CIE. In addition, every context or combination of contexts - social, political, economic, cultural - are available for both CIE scholars and professionals to do research on or work in. The flexibility and scope of the field can be a benefit, but create serious challenges to those who work in and study it. It also poses problems for those attempting to professionalize the field by creating areas of specialization or ownership. At the same time, the development of the field has historically been one of push and pull between international educational agendas and organizations with local or stakeholder-driven needs and situations. This chapter highlights those challenges and introduces the volume's chapters

Disease, predation and demography: assessing the impacts of bovine tuberculosis on African buffalo by monitoring at individual and population levels

1. Understanding the effects of disease is critical to determining appropriate management responses, but estimating those effects in wildlife species is challenging. We used bovine tuberculosis (BTB) in the African buffalo Syncerus caffer population of Kruger National Park, South Africa, as a case study to highlight the issues associated with estimating chronic disease effects in a long-lived host. 2. We used known and radio-collared buffalo, aerial census data, and a natural gradient in pathogen prevalence to investigate if: (i) at the individual level, BTB infection reduces reproduction; (ii) BTB infection increases vulnerability to predation; and (iii) at the population level, increased BTB prevalence causes reduced population growth. 3. There was only a marginal reduction in calving success associated with BTB infection, as indexed by the probability of sighting a known adult female with or without a calf ( P = 0.065). 4. Since 1991, BTB prevalence increased from 27 to 45% in the southern region and from 4 to 28% in the central region of Kruger National Park. The prevalence in the northern regions was only 1•5% in 1998. Buffalo population growth rates, however, were neither statistically different among regions nor declining over time. 5. Lions Panthera leo did not appear to preferentially kill test-positive buffalo. The best (Akaike’s Information Criterion corrected for small sample size) AIC c model with BTB as a covariate [exp( β ) = 0.49; 95% CI = (0.24–1.02)] suggested that the mortality hazard for positive individuals was no greater than for test-negative individuals. 6. Synthesis and applications. Test accuracy, time-varying disease status, and movement among populations are some of the issues that make the detection of chronic disease impacts challenging. For these reasons, the demographic impacts of bovine tuberculosis in the Kruger National Park remain undetectable despite 6 years of study on known individuals and 40 years of population counts. However, the rainfall and forage conditions during this study were relatively good and the impacts of many chronic diseases may be a non-linear function of environmental conditions such that they are only detectable in stressful periods

Buffalo Mortality Table

This table contains a description of Buffalo mortalities (Old or fresh). Buffalo mortalities were encountered by field technicians during their daily movements in the field, either accidentally coming across them on foot, by actively pursuing vultures, or because the animal had a VHF or GPS collar. See Readme fil

Buffalo Named

This is a reference table with one row per known buffalo (either based on visual characteristics or a VHF, GPS, or marker collar). This table contains data on all Identified buffalo. Each row refers to a single buffalo. The name field is a unique identifier. These were buffalo that were thought to be easily identifiable in field and were used to increase sample number for mark recapture analysis

Herd Sightings Freq

his table contains the VHF frequencies of those individuals “seen” in each herd at a specific sighting. This table should be used in conjunction with the herd sighting table by linking on HerdName and Date. Note that individuals were often not visually observed but were deduced to be in the herd based upon radio-telemetry

Data from: Disease, predation and demography: assessing the impacts of bovine tuberculosis on African buffalo by monitoring at individual and population levels

1. Understanding the effects of disease is critical to determining appropriate management responses, but estimating those effects in wildlife species is challenging. We used bovine tuberculosis (BTB) in the African buffalo Syncerus caffer population of Kruger National Park, South Africa, as a case study to highlight the issues associated with estimating chronic disease effects in a long-lived host. 2. We used known and radiocollared buffalo, aerial census data, and a natural gradient in pathogen prevalence to investigate if: (i) at the individual level, BTB infection reduces reproduction; (ii) BTB infection increases vulnerability to predation; and (iii) at the population level, increased BTB prevalence causes reduced population growth. 3. There was only a marginal reduction in calving success associated with BTB infection, as indexed by the probability of sighting a known adult female with or without a calf ( P = 0·065). 4. Since 1991, BTB prevalence increased from 27 to 45% in the southern region and from 4 to 28% in the central region of Kruger National Park. The prevalence in the northern regions was only 1·5% in 1998. Buffalo population growth rates, however, were neither statistically different among regions nor declining over time. 5. Lions Panthera leo did not appear to preferentially kill test-positive buffalo. The best (Akaike’s Information Criterion corrected for small sample size) AIC c model with BTB as a covariate [exp( β ) = 0·49; 95% CI = (0·24–1·02)] suggested that the mortality hazard for positive individuals was no greater than for test-negative individuals. 6. Synthesis and applications . Test accuracy, time-varying disease status, and movement among populations are some of the issues that make the detection of chronic disease impacts challenging. For these reasons, the demographic impacts of bovine tuberculosis in the Kruger National Park remain undetectable despite 6 years of study on known individuals and 40 years of population counts. However, the rainfall and forage conditions during this study were relatively good and the impacts of many chronic diseases may be a non-linear function of environmental conditions such tha