Interview with Erica Uszak: Scholarship Recipient for 2018 CWI Summer Conference

Recently, the CWI reached out to Erica Uszak ’22 to reflect on her experience at the 2018 CWI Summer Conference. Uszak, currently a freshman at Gettysburg College studying History and the Civil War, was one of ten high school students to receive a scholarship to attend the conference. Any high school student with an interest in history is eligible to apply for the High School Scholarship. [excerpt

Skills for multiagency responses to international crises

Overview Australian responses to international, complex emergencies and humanitarian crises, generated by natural disaster, conflicts or incidents, demand the coordinated responses of multiple civil-military-police actors and agencies. A scoping study of Australian government agency training needs in the latter half of 2013 indicated that stakeholder agencies continue to have difficulty in identifying and developing individual skills to enable people to operate effectively in a high-pressure crisis environment that requires an integrated civil-military-police response. Agencies highlighted the need to develop a ‘whole-of-government’ set of skills for civil-military-police interaction that would complement agency specific skills. In 2015, the Australian Civil-Military Centre (ACMC) commissioned Sustineo to undertake a project to address this gap. This report, based on Sustineo’s research and consultations, goes some way to identifying the skills needed for effective civil-military-police interaction. However, the list is not exhaustive. In fact, the report highlights the difficulty of articulating a specific set of multiagency, cross-cutting skills for civil-military-police interaction. Practitioners gave consistent advice that specific skills were less important than other factors in successful civil-military-police interaction. Skills and training are only one component of success. The factors that can facilitate and enhance civil-military-police interaction and the strategies required to address those factors are much broader. The report highlights some of these broader factors and how they interrelate. It identifies the interdependence of individual knowledge, skills and attributes, the value of building relationships, the importance of tolerance and understandings of difference and the need for trust and credibility. The report concludes that an individual’s ability to operate effectively in a civil-military-police environment is developed both prior to and during a mission or deployment and relates more to the type of person and their relationships than to specific skills. Generic skills and attributes for effective civil-military-police interaction Common and shared goals Situational awareness Understanding of whole-of-government Personal attributes such as flexibility, resilience and working in a team Professional skills, such as negotiation, mediation, conflict management and partnership brokering Existing professional relationships and networks Trust Self-awareness (and social and emotional intelligence) Tolerance of diversity (including of organisational differences and cultural diversity). The report identifies considerations for developing people for deployments and it is hoped that these will inform agencies’ training and development strategies. The findings support the ongoing work that the ACMC is undertaking to develop an Australian Government Preparedness Framework (the Framework). The Framework will draw together several streams of work that are interrelated, including this report, to further build Australia’s whole-of-government effectiveness in responding to disasters and complex emergencies overseas

Australian Government guiding principles for civil-military-police interaction in international disaster and conflict management

The Australian Government’s Guiding Principles for Civil-Military-Police Interaction in International Disaster and Conflict Management (the Guiding Principles) has been developed by the Australian Civil-Military Centre (ACMC) in collaboration with the departments of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C), Defence (ADF), Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and Attorney-General’s (AGD), the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID). The Department of Immigration and Citizenship and the Treasury have also reviewed and contributed to the Guiding Principles. The purpose of this document is to outline five strategic principles, agreed at working and senior levels across government, to inform policy and planning for international disaster and conflict management. The Guiding Principles does not seek to replace current multiagency 1 or single agency documents and policies. It aims to provide common strategic imperatives to improve the effectiveness of whole-ofgovernment collaboration in a multiagency environment. The Guiding Principles is designed to build on the unique capabilities of all stakeholders. The agreed principles are: > Clearly define strategic objectives and operational roles and responsibilities > Engage proactively > Share knowledge and understanding > Leverage organisational diversity > Commit to continuous improvement

Public Perceptions of the Midwest’s Pavements - Wisconsin - Phase I (Winter Ride)

The Wisconsin Winter Ride Survey was designed to determine the extent to which drivers were tolerant of the rougher ride of pavements on rural two-lane highways in the winter. Survey objectives, as such, were centered around this primary question of winter ride tolerance. A telephone survey was conducted by the Wisconsin Survey Research Laboratory (WSRL), which added questions to its quarterly Wisconsin Opinion Poll for the data collection period of January 15 to March 15, 1997. A similar survey focusing only on the topic of winter driving on rural highways was conducted in Minnesota during the same period. Random digit dial samples were drawn for both states according to accepted sampling procedure. The survey data set provided by WSRL included 417 respondents. Conclusions derived from the Wisconsin Winter Ride Survey included the following. Overall, Wisconsin respondents were predominately tolerant of the pavement’s potentially rougher ride in winter. Three-fourths of the 173 respondents who had noticed a change in the pavement indicated that they were more tolerant of the rough ride in winter than they would be the rest of the year. The extent to which motorists noticed changes in the pavement was influenced by the driving and vehicle characteristics. Respondents who drove more frequently on rural two-lane highways and those driving trucks, full-size vans or sport utility vehicles were more 2 likely to notice changes. The latter finding suggests that differences in suspension and ride entered in for respondents driving cars versus those driving trucks. It follows, therefore, that noticing pavement changes generally increased as ratings of the vehicle’s ride quality declined

How do Perceptions of Outgroups Indicate Barriers to Civil Society in Iraq?

At the Iraq "liberation" in 2003, many of us asked, "Is there really hope for civil society to emerge from the chaos?" We guessed about how Sunni, Shi'a and Kurdish factions could be brought together, and if it was likely that ethnic conflicts would lead to civil war. Seeking a better understanding of the situation, this project tried to address: "How do Iraqis' ethnic and religious identities relate to perceptions of other groups (outgroups)?" and "how does place of residence relate to those perceptions about outgroups?" I collected 479 surveys of Iraqi opinions in Iraq, Jordan, and The Netherlands. I asked Iraqis for their own ideas about their future, personal and collective, and their perceptions of Those Other Groups, their "outgroups." What did I find? That background items of religion, ethnic origin, and location, alone, did not relate strongly to respondents’ attitudes towards outgroups. But, some combinations of background items did give significant differences in perceptions towards other groups. For example, "moderate” Arabs in Iraq were the group most opposed to foreigners, and were the group most opposed to expatriate Iraqis returning to Iraq. This project, and the follow-up project on social networks of Iraqis, presents one approach from which researchers and fieldworkers can develop theories to explore and explain elements of civil society in Iraq, and beyond. ____ Jon Gresham is a visiting scholar at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands. His work focuses on the Middle East; he worked twelve years there

Inmigración y diversidad: implicaciones para la formación de profesores de matemáticas

Este trabajo utiliza mi trayectoria profesional en educación matemática para presentar propuestas concretas y áreas de investigación en el tema de formación de profesores de matemáticas para aulas multiculturales. Señalo la urgencia de crear un mayor acercamiento entre los que trabajan temas como creencias y conocimientos de los profesores y los que trabajan temas de equidad en contextos multiculturales. Centrándome en la necesidad de conocer y entender el contexto sociocultural de los alumnos, subrayo la importancia de la valoración del conocimiento, la necesidad de rechazar una pedagogía basada en una visión de déficit hacia los alumnos de minorías, y la importancia de involucrar a los profesores en actividades donde puedan reflexionar sobre su práctica y desarrollar enfoques más participativos

Goals for the rich: Indispensable for a universal post-2015 agenda

The paper deals with the question of how a fair sharing of costs, responsibilities and opportunities among and within countries can be achieved in formulating and implementing a post-2015 sustainability agenda. Introduction After many years of focusing on the symptoms of extreme poverty with the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals, the UN system is finally picking up a universal sustainability agenda, enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals, that address sustainability and causes of poverty and inequality.The Open Working Group of the UN General Assembly on Sustainable Development Goals has proposed a list of 17 goals and 169 targets. The consensus outcome of this group, endorsed by the UN General Assembly in September 2014 as the "main basis" of the post-2015 development agenda, goes far beyond the narrow scope of the MDGs. The Millennium Development Goals provided an international framework for the advancement of social development for the poor in the global South with a little help from the rich in the global North. Unlike the Millennium Development Goals, the Post-2015 Agenda with the Sustainable Development Goals as a pivotal building block is intended to be truly universal and global. Sustainable Development Goals will be for everybody, rich countries, countries with emerging economies and poor countries &nbsp

La tutoria entre alumnes d'edats diferents a l'aula de ciències

L'article descriu una activitat de l'àmbit de les ciències experimentals realitzada a l'Escola Sadako de Barcelona amb alumnat del 2n cicle d'ESO i Primària. S'exposen els objectius, aspectes organitzatius i beneficis de l'experiència compartida al laboratori en què els nois i les noies de Secundària, com a tutors, ajuden els seus companys més petits