Enhancing Accessibility, Diversity, and Literacy of Heritage Language Maintenance in Our Community: A Proposal for Public Libraries with a Focus on the Korean Community

In contrast to the U.S. emphasis on producing English monolinguals, the needs of world language fluency and education have become more evident than ever as society becomes more globalized and potential bilinguals and even multilinguals are transformed to important human resources. However, even now, linguistically diverse communities often experience significant heritage language loss after immigrating to the U.S. due to the still long-held undervaluation of heritage languages and the push for rapid assimilation to the new society. Research has revealed the many benefits and advantages of heritage language development and maintenance, but unfortunately, the formal education system in the U.S. has not been able to provide sufficient heritage language education. For this reason, this research focused on the potential role of public libraries to find an efficient supplement to help promote heritage language maintenance and development by using the children’s Korean collections and Korean heritage language population as a representative case. Based on public libraries’ well-established infrastructure, well-placed locations within communities, and professionally accumulated know-how for sourcing, cataloging, and managing resources, local public libraries can make an impactful difference in the Korean community. It is hoped that this proposal can provide useful and practical plans to assist public libraries in supporting the maintenance of language and culture for Korean heritage children, and further, be used as a framework to enhance the collections for other linguistically diverse communities as well

Life force of nature

My work strives to illustrate the bond between Mother Nature and human beings. Primarily, I seek the harmony created by balanced compositions of natural and man-made objects. Any accidental visual conflict arising from this pairing is also a subject matter I find myself exploring within the execution my pieces. In our high-speed daily lives, we often find ourselves unsettlingly disconnected from nature. Stephen Harrod Buhner describes this feeling as a loss of connection to plants, to the land, to Earth, [that] leaves the holes with which we are naturally born unfilled, and proposes that the solution is reconnection to the natural world and the living intelligence of the land (231). According to him, humans all possess vacancies that are only filled by the living things that have evolved on the earth with us for a million years. I seek to create an answer to this dilemma with my art, creating work that draws from the refreshing vitality of nature. Reflecting the principles in Taoism, a philosophy of harmonious human life with nature, Mother Nature proves to be an abundant inspirational resource for the creation of art. Certainly, humans\u27 appreciation of nature and its sublimity has been expressed in many different forms of art throughout the ages. It is not my goal, however, to simply mimic the outside visual features of nature. Paul Klee said, Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible (Chipp 182). Through the human element that is my thoughts and experiences, I seek to transform the superficial features of nature to an expression of its inner values. I find the plants growing in urban settings to be some of the most intriguing objects. In the artificial surroundings of busy cities, I observe the struggle of plants as they attempt to survive and sustain their lives amidst the chaos. Despite the often squalid conditions, the plants successful growth speaks to a strong life force that rivals their counterparts growing in the pristine wilderness. Through the exploration of various media: silver, cotton, fishing line, steel, copper, concrete, plastic, and ceramic, I attempt to illustrate this contrast of nature and the industrialized world. In this thesis, I intend to reveal the inspiration derived from nature, and how these influences and motivations are manifested in the execution of my artwork. Adopting the vitality of nature as a major motif, my jewelry and sculptural pieces serve to express this idea in a tangible form. As an infinite aspect of life, I am convinced that the unlimited energy and vitality of nature could remain a solid foundation for my continuous working process

inequality, poverty, and well-being

Thesis(Doctoral) -- KDI School: Ph.D in Development Policy, 2022This dissertation presents the empirical results of a series of studies on the development issues such as income inequality, poverty, and employee’s well-being. The objective of this study is to examine empirical evidence of how technological progress affect income inequality in advanced countries as well as poverty reduction in developing countries, and further to explore the effect of work hour reduction policy on employee well-being. This will enable us to expand our understanding on the effects of technological progress on socio-economic outcomes as well as the impact of labor market policy on worker’s satisfaction. This thesis consists of three chapters under the broad banner of three essays on development issues: inequality, poverty, and well-being. The first essay, Innovation and Top Income Inequality: Evidence from OECD Countries, aims to explore the effect of innovation on top income inequality in OECD countries over the period of 1980-2017. Innovation is proxied by the number of patent application. Top income inequality is expressed by top 0.1%, 0.5%, 1%, 10% income shares. Sample countries are 34 high-income countries as most innovations occur in these countries. Using cross-country panel and 2SLS estimations to deal with the endogeneity, I found that innovation has positive and significant impact on top income shares in rich countries. These results are also robust using alternative innovation variables such as patent grant and patent citation data. Based on this finding, I propose three kinds of policy options to reduce rising top income inequality: prevent tax loopholes used by the richest and strengthen tax progressivity for the top riches, lastly enhance educational reforms to improve moral values and thus reduce corruptions. The second essay, Financial Innovation, Financial Inclusion, and Poverty: Evidence from Developing Countries, explores the links between financial innovation and poverty in developing countries. For this, a panel was set up for 103 developing countries over the period of 2004-2018. To address endogeneity, OLS with fixed effects and instrument variable strategy are used. As external instruments, latitude of capital city and legal origins are used for European ex-colonies. The results show that financial innovation measured by Financial Inclusion Index shows negative and significant effects on poverty. This is robust when using alternative Financial Development Index created by IMF. Thus, financial innovation is a useful tool for poverty reduction in developing countries. This implies that financial innovation enhances financial inclusion through easier access to finance, which brings about growth and reduces poverty. This encourages developing countries to make efforts on boosting financial innovation to address poverty issue. The third essay, The Effect of Work Hour Reduction on Employee Satisfaction: The Case of Working Hour Reduction Policy in Korea, investigates the effect of standard 40-hour workweek policy on workers’ subjective well-being in Korea. The essential part of the policy was to reduce legal work hour per week from 44 to 40 hours, aiming to improve workers’ quality of lives. The policy was implemented in time order by industry and firm size from 2004 through 2011. This policy setting provides us a good opportunity to explore the causal impact of the policy by using DID (difference-in-difference) analysis. I use Korea Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) data to estimate the effect of the policy on life and job satisfaction by applying DID estimation method. I found that the policy has significant effect on life satisfaction with leisure and family income while negative effects on job satisfaction overall. This result is also robust when the dependent variables are converted into binary variables.- Chapter 1: Innovation and Top Income Inequality: Evidence from OECD Countries, 1980-2017 - Chapter 2: Financial Innovation, Financial Inclusion, and Poverty: Evidence from 103 developing countries - Chapter 3: The Effect of Work Hour Reduction Policy on Employee Satisfactions: The Case of Work Hour Reduction in KoreadoctoralpublishedSooyoung HWAN

Exploring the relationship between organisational culture and planning processes in selected Western Australian sport associations

This study explored the effects of organisational culture on the planning processes of three state sport associations in Western Australia. Using the competing values framework of organisational culture and Chapman\u27 s planning model, this study aimed to explore three research questions: (i) What are the demographic and organisational cultural profiles of the selected sport organisations? In particular, do professionals and volunteers share similar or different perceptions of the organisational cultures?; (ii) Wh~t are the development planning processes for each sport association? How does each association perceive the development planning processes?, and; (iii) How does organisational culture influence planning processes? To find answers to these research questions, this study used two kinds of data: a survey for quantitative analysis, and interviews with CEO/President and board members of each association for qualitative analysis. For all the associations, group culture was strongly emphasised. This may be a tradition in sport, especially as Australian sport has a strong reliance on volunteers, and is a quality that distinguishes sport organisations from other types of organisations. The slightly lower emphasis on rational and developmental culture may be indicative of the newer trends of professionalism in sport and the tension between especially group culture and rational culture as professional officers (paid staff) take over managing sport from the volunteers. All these sport associations exhibited low to very low emphasis on hierarchical culture, suggesting that these attributes are less evident and less valued, and perhaps the organisational structures are less hierarchical, although organisational charts for the associations were not investigated. In comparison, the interviewees recognised group, development and hierarchical cultures to be emphasised but not rational culture. This may indicate that the two facts were combined: first, organisations have moved from hierarchical to a more horizontal structure, and second, the interviewees, in general, had been with respective associations for a significantly longer duration than the average workers. It was found that the workers in the three associations had similar perceptions in regard to their planning processes. Regression analysis found that group cultural value was significantly related to the association\u27s planning process. Hierarchical culture was also found to be related to some aspects of the planning process, such as the association\u27s recognition of the importance of planning. It was also found that some demographic profiles of respondents affected the perception of planning processes. For example, a female worker was more likely to perceive that her association\u27s planning processes were better developed. A worker with longer experience in the current occupation was more likely to perceive his/her association\u27s planning processes as less developed. The status of the worker, whether she/he was a volunteer or paid employee, also seemed important in recognising the importance of planning. The findings from this study presented important suggestions and recommendations for sport organisations and national and state governments, as well as relevant academic disciplines, regarding the relationship between organisational culture and planning processes

The Kano’s Method: Mature Customers’ Perceived Service Level and Satisfaction With the Restaurant Service

The mature consumer segment has become more of importance in the U.S. economy because of the tremendous increase in the number of senior population and their increasing purchasing power. It is necessary that the restaurant industry have a better understanding of this segment to provide satisfactory dining experience. This study proposes to evaluate restaurant service attributes from seniors’ point of view. The survey will be conducted to measure expectation, perception, and level of importance of restaurant attributes. Then, the Kano’s method will be applied to classify those attributes according to their relative impact on customers’ satisfaction/dissatisfaction. The study results will provide the restaurant industry with meaningful implications in better serving the mature market