Search results

The purpose of this paper is to describe how practitioners from Canada, the UK, Singapore, and the USA, university educational administration faculty from the USA, and the editor of a premier international journal of educational management engaged in a collaborative process to discover how to improve the preparation and practice of educational administration on a global basis.

An appreciative inquiry theoretical research perspective was used to discover a positive core of experiences that could add to cultural proficiency as it relates to educational administration.

In each cultural context, the central nature of the highpoint stories focused on appreciative ways to work with other people. The stories suggest that relationships and collaboration are at the heart of an educational administrator's practice. It was discovered that twenty‐first century educational administrators operating in a global context believed that they could become difference makers in education.

The findings from this study provide encouragement for extended global collaboration for practicing educational administrators as well as those who are responsible for their preparation. The findings also suggest that using collaborative technologies in the framework of a cross‐cultural educator partnership can enhance the preparation and practice in educational administration programs.

To identify the attitudes and traits of teachers with an at‐risk student population in a multi‐cultural urban high school.

A research team consisting of doctoral students and their faculty advisor used an appreciative inquiry model to identify attitudes and traits of teachers who supported effective teaching in an urban high school with a high at‐risk student population.

The research team's findings indicate that those perceived as effective teachers were culturally responsive, sought small successes, encouraged students, flexible, and caring. They also formed meaningful relationships with students, had caring attitudes, and viewed themselves as difference‐makers. The research team also found a number of non‐supportive teacher attitudes and traits: blaming, racial attitudes, frustration leading to inflexibility, co‐dependency leading to encouraging the neediness of students, and lack of respect for the contributions made by the surrounding community and parents.

Teachers, administrators, and counselors agreed that forming relationships and caring for students were at the core of the attitudes and traits of effective teaching. Moreover, teachers with effective attitudes and traits were seen as having the ability to integrate into the school and surrounding community's culture to encourage students to succeed in school.

The purpose of this paper is to present methods for customized mapping and metadata transfer from DSpace to Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), which aims to improve Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) work flow at libraries using DSpace to store theses and dissertations by automating the process of generating MARC records from Dublin Core (DC) metadata in DSpace and exporting them to OCLC.

This paper discusses how the Shocker Open Access Repository (SOAR) at Wichita State University (WSU) Libraries and ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries harvest theses data from the DSpace platform using the Metadata Harvester in MarcEdit developed by Terry Reese at OSU Libraries. It analyzes certain challenges in transformation of harvested data including handling of authorized data, dealing with data ambiguity and string processing. It addresses how these two institutions customize Library of Congress's XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) mapping to transfer DC metadata to MarcXML metadata and how they export MARC data to OCLC and Voyager.

The customized mapping and data transformation for ETD data can be standardized while also requiring a case‐by‐case analysis. By offering two institutions' experiences, it provides information on the benefits and limitations for those institutions that are interested in using MarcEdit and customized XSLT to transform their ETDs from DSpace to OCLC and Voyager.

The new method described in the paper can eliminate the need for double entry in DSpace and OCLC, meet local needs and significantly improve ETD work flow. It offers perspectives on repurposing and managing metadata in a standard and customizable way.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ecology of collaboration between school and university partners using an appreciative inquiry theoretical perspective and to demonstrate how it enhances the social capital in school and university partnerships.

A case study of a partnership of an inner‐city high school and university doctoral action research was explored in the frameworks of mutuality, social capital, and appreciative inquiry. The theoretical perspective of appreciative inquiry served as the basis for the mutuality between administrators and faculty in the inner‐city high school and the doctoral action research team.

Findings suggest that approaching school‐university partnerships through an appreciative inquiry theoretical perspective creates an environment for building trust, sharing knowledge, and increasing bridging capital, thus benefiting both the school and university.

The action research team formed a partnership with teachers and administrators. The action research was transformed by the partnership and reports showed substantial progress in student achievement scores in mathematics and science. Hopefully, some of that achievement can be attributed to the research and the paper on which it is based.

This study aims to examine smallholder farmers’ perceptions toward the adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in smallholder farmers in the Upper Blue Nile Highlands of Ethiopia. Available research focused on profitability and economic constraints alone, disregarding the farmers’ perception of the adoption of CSA innovations. There is relatively little empirical work on farmers’ perceptions of innovations. Hence, a critical research gap that will strengthen CSA innovation research and practice includes understanding farmers’ perceptions about CSA innovations and how these perceptions interact with their adoption.

A cross-sectional household survey was conducted among 424 smallholder farmers selected from five agro-ecosystems. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data and a review of literature and documents was used to collect secondary data. The study used a multivariate probit model to examine perception factors affecting the likelihood of adopting multiple CSA innovations. The dependent variables were eight CSA innovations, while the independent variables were crafted from the three pillars of CSA.

Major CSA innovations adopted by farmers include improved variety, crop residue management, crop rotation, compost, row planting, soil and water conservation, intercropping and agroforestry. Farmers’ perception toward CSA innovations includes: CSA innovations sustainably increase productivity and income; enhance soil fertility; diversify livestock feed and energy sources; reduce soil erosion, weed infestation and crop failure; enhance soil organic matter, reduce chemical fertilizer use and rehabilitate land. Farmers’ positive perceptions of the benefits of CSA innovations for increasing crop productivity, reducing agricultural vulnerability to climate change and lowering farm greenhouse gas emissions have boosted adoption.

Farmers’ perceptions toward CSA innovations must be enhanced to increase the adoption of CSA innovations in the smallholder agriculture system. The CSA innovation scale-up strategies should focus on farmers’ perception of CSA innovation benefits toward food security, climate change adaption and mitigation outcomes. Awareness of CSA needs the close collaboration of public extension as well as local institutions such as farmers’ training centers.

The study adopts a multivariate probit model that models farmers’ simultaneous CSA innovation choices. Hence, this study contributes to the literature in four significant areas. First, it argues for differential treatment of the perception of smallholder farmers about innovations is needed. Second, it recognizes the interdependence of the adoption of innovations. Third, it directly assesses the farmers’ perception, while others use proxies to measure it. Finally, there are limited or no studies that address the perception of innovations within the lens of adopter perception theory.

This study’s fundamental objective is to assess climate change impact on reference evapotranspiration (ET_o) patterns in Egypt under the latest shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) of climate change scenarios. Additionally, the study considered the change in the future solar radiation and actual vapor pressure and predicted them from historical data, as these factors significantly impact changes in the ET_o.

The study utilizes data from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) models to analyze reference ET_o. Six models are used, and an ArcGIS tool is created to calculate the monthly average ET_o for historical and future periods. The tool considers changes in actual vapor pressure and solar radiation, which are the primary factors influencing ET_o.

The research reveals that monthly reference ET_o in Egypt follows a distinct pattern, with the highest values concentrated in the southern region during summer and the lowest values in the northern part during winter. This disparity is primarily driven by mean air temperature, which is significantly higher in the southern areas. Looking ahead to the near future (2020–2040), the data shows that Aswan, in the south, continues to have the highest annual ET_o, while Kafr ash Shaykh, in the north, maintains the lowest. This pattern remains consistent in the subsequent period (2040–2060). Additionally, the study identifies variations in ET_o , with the most significant variability occurring in Shamal Sina under the SSP585 scenario and the least variability in Aswan under the SSP370 scenario for the 2020–2040 time frame.

This study’s originality lies in its focused analysis of climate change effects on ET_o, incorporating crucial factors like actual vapor pressure and solar radiation. Its significance becomes evident as it projects ET_o patterns into the near and distant future, providing indispensable insights for long-term planning and tailored adaptation strategies. As a result, this research serves as a valuable resource for policymakers and researchers in need of in-depth, region-specific climate change impact assessments.

THE training model to be discussed is based on an integrated set of manual and mechanised indexing systems, all handling the same body of information from a limited subject field. By extending the scope of the model's operations to include prior and subsequent activities like the selection and abstracting of the documents to be indexed, and the preparation and dissemination of material through the use of the indexes, the model may be used for a wide range of documentation training, principally at three levels: demonstration by the lecturer to the students; use by the students in the retrieval and dissemination of information; and development by the students through the selection and abstracting of documents, the indexing and storage of information and ultimately the use of feedback from the dissemination stage to improve the systems.

The Conference of the Library Association, which took place at T Bristol, on September 25th to 2Sth, 1900, will be remembered chiefly as a highly successful and enjoyable series of social events, for which the local arrangements were admirable. The atmosphere of the old city itself, with its memories of Cabot, Chatterton, the Slave Trade, and John Silver, to name only the more romantic, threw a glamour over the whole meeting, and the consequence was that, even the small rump of practicality which had been added to the proceedings for the look of the thing, was absorbed in the interest of the surroundings. Who was going to waste time, had there been any to waste, discussing the value of abstract lectures on—say bees, to public librarians, when, outside in the fresh, open air, dainty bands of Red Maids challenged attention, and the magnificent gorge of Clifton fascinated every lover of books and nature ? It was putting too great a strain upon the enthusiasm of members to expect them to forsake the beauties of a fine city for a bare and flavourless hash of papers which would do little credit to the smallest local branch of the Association. We do not in any way reflect upon the literary ability of most of the papers presented, which was uniformly high, nor upon their antiquarian interest, which, again, was great ; but we must deny the utility of most of the papers which were read, as incentives to discussion, or as in any way forwarding the main cause for which the Library Association was formed. Fourteen papers were put down for discussion, and of these only five had any direct connection with library work. Three others had a certain bearing upon the work of libraries established under the Public Libraries' Acts, while the remaining six were papers of local or literary interest. We do not complain so much about the composition of the programme, as against the cutting down of the time allotted to the discussions. If the whole business of the meeting had been to discuss the papers of Messrs. Aldred (“ book Selection and Rejection ”); Hulme (“ Principles of Dictionary Subject Cataloguing”); and Doubleday and Quinn (“Dictionary versus Classified Catalogues”), and nothing else, the time of the Conference would not have been frittered away as it was, but the Cataloguing papers were never even reached, while the one on “ Book Selection ” only survived to the discussion stage, because its author had the foresight to have it printed in advance. Next year the Council will, perhaps, organise afternoon sessions on questions pertaining to library work, for those who have no particular interest in the manufacture of soap, linoleum, or tobacco.

ANOTHER Annual Meeting has come and gone. It was scarcely to be expected that the meeting at Bradford would be a record in the number of members attending, seeing that it is only three years ago since the Association met in the neighbouring city of Leeds, and that Bradford cannot boast either the historical associations or the architectural and scenic setting of many other towns. For the most part therefore the members who did attend, attended because they were interested in the serious rather than the entertainment or excursion side of the gathering, which was so far perhaps to the advantage of the meetings and discussions. Nevertheless, the actual number of those present—about two hundred—was quite satisfactory, and none, we are assured, even if the local functions were the main or an equal element of attraction, could possibly have regretted their visit to the metropolis of the worsted trade. Fortunately the weather was all that could be desired, and under the bright sunshine Bradford looked its best, many members, who expected doubtless to find a grey, depressing city of factories, being pleasingly disappointed with the fine views and width of open and green country quite close at hand.

Besides subjectivism (in terms of value and cost) and the market process approach (as opposed to mainstream economics’ equilibrium analysis), methodological individualism is a foundational methodological principle of Austrian economics. While being (arguably) more consistently and consciously practiced within Austrian economics, methodological individualism is far from unique to this tradition and is a well-recognized principle of inquiry in the social sciences (Watkins, 1952a, 1952b). Needless to say though, methodological individualism remains controversial and discussions of its true meaning and adequateness periodically resurface in the philosophy of science literature (Hodgson, 2007; Udehn, 2002).