External Mandates Research Articles

How do providers serving American Indians and Alaska Natives with substance abuse problems define evidence-based treatment?

Rates of substance abuse remain high in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations. While there are many evidence-based treatments (EBTs) for substance use problems, no studies exist describing how directors of treatment programs serving AI/ANs perceive and use EBTs. Twenty-one key informant interviews with program administrators and 10 focus groups with clinicians were conducted at 18 treatment programs for AI/ANs with substance use problems. Demographic data were not collected to protect participant privacy. Transcripts were coded to identify relevant themes. A majority of participants correctly defined an EBT using the key terms "effective" and "research" found in standard definitions of the phrase. More detailed descriptions were uncommon. Prevalent themes related to attitudes about EBTs included concerns about cultural relevance, external mandates to use EBTs, and their reliance on western conceptualization of substance abuse. While most administrators and clinicians who treat AI/AN clients for substance abuse had a basic understanding of what constitutes an EBT, there was little consensus regarding their relevance for use with AI/ANs. Recognizing that broad geographic and tribal diversity among AI/AN populations may impact conclusions drawn about EBTs, several factors may enhance the abilities of program staff to identify EBTs most appropriate for local implementation. These include gaining a more detailed understanding of how an EBT is developed and how to assess its scientific grounding, as well as utilizing definitions of EBTs that include not only research evidence, but also clinical expertise and judgment, and fit with consumer choice, preference, and culture.

Explorations of the structure-agency dialectic as a tool for framing equity in science education

Explorations of the structure-agency dialectic as a tool for framing equity in science education

P418: Living at home or moving to assisted living: a personal choice or an external mandate? An observational French study of 121 residents from 5 sites

P418: Living at home or moving to assisted living: a personal choice or an external mandate? An observational French study of 121 residents from 5 sites

Making the Client's Peace: “Privatizing” Peace? Global Law Firms Offering Pro Bono Services in Post-Conflict Settings

Lawyers of global law firms have begun to take on complex pro bono representations for clients in peace and constitution-building settings. These lawyers, who often cooperate across different offices of a global law firm, are not acting based on an external mandate but pursuant to an attorney-client relationship. The client is the source of authority and the owner of the process; yet, global law firms that serve pro bono clients are also a form of profit-making transnational corporation. In their day-today business they represent the interests of paying clients. This article will discuss whether and how such constellations can lead to power, infrastructure, and knowledge asymmetries between law firms and their often weak pro bono clients in post-conflict settings. Accordingly, it raises and discusses the following questions: Are the legal profession’s domestic codes of conduct strong enough to guarantee good professional conduct by global law firms when providing pro bono services in post-conflict settings with weak or temporarily absent local legal profession institutions? Is it desirable to create a transnational code of conduct for lawyers, law firms, and other institutions for providing pro bono legal services in such fragile peace and constitution building settings? By addressing these questions, this article also approaches pro bono services of global law firms as an example of how interests of the private sphere of lawyer-client relations and the public sphere of peace and constitution building merge, and how the legal profession’s codes of conduct regulate global law firms and their legal professionals’ conduct as global agents of “privatized” peace and constitution building efforts.

Factors influencing principals’ retirement decisions

This study, conducted in one state in the United States, replicated similar research from over a decade ago to compare principal demographics and reasons for remaining or leaving the profession. Demographics have trended with the nation. Principals are older, more diverse and are largely eligible for retirement within the next five years. Similar demographics are noted in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The reasons for retiring have changed dramatically since the first survey. External mandates were the number one reason for retirement. Another reason included spending more time with their family. Around the globe, other countries are considering national initiatives, such as accountability and high-stakes testing or national curriculum standards. This study may provide a cautionary note regarding the impact on principal role and retention. Thus, while the study occurred in the United States, the policies that influenced principals’ reasons for choosing to retire or stay in the profession appear to have global implications.

Editorial Note: From the Neocolonial 'Transitional' to Indigenous Formations of Justice

It may seem odd that I am responding to the honor of the editors’ invitation to write this editorial note by questioning the premise of the current conception of the field of ‘transitional justice’ itself. The implied assumption of this field, it seems to me, is that the ‘developing’ society under examination is in transition from the state of being A, which we know, to becoming B, which we can predict. The precise question or theme of the study may vary, but the underlying inquiry seems to be whether that society can still maintain an acceptable level of what we, the ‘international community,’ recognize as justice during transition. I am not saying that this is true of every scholar or social actor in the field, but the explicit or implicit purpose of those whose work is informed by this conception of transitional justice seems to be as follows: Let us promote an intermediate level or degree of ‘justice,’ as we know or accept it to be, until the situation is ready for the next phase toward the ultimate goal of fulfillment of our vision of justice as it should be practiced everywhere in the world. Another possible purpose of scholars or social actors is to promote an ‘appropriate’ conception of justice for issues that are particular to ‘transition,’ such as finding an acceptable compromise on accountability for atrocities committed during a conflict in order to facilitate the process of ‘peacebuilding.’ In these or other similar scenarios, preference is given to a standard of justice that is mandated by the international community over indigenous or ‘traditional’ practices that are unacceptable because they are inconsistent with ‘universal’ human rights norms, as proclaimed by the international community. It seems to me that this external mandate is so much the presumed standard that even the possibility of an indigenous alternative conception of justice is not taken seriously at a theoretical or empirical level. If or to the extent that what I am saying is true, transitional justice scholarship and strategies are neocolonial because they view indigenous conceptions of justice as a distraction from the grand ‘modernizing’ mission of North Atlantic societies, 1 in the guise of the so-called ‘international community’ this time. I am using

Putting Collaboration Front and Center: Assessment Strategies for Theatre Departments

Putting Collaboration Front and Center: Assessment Strategies for Theatre Departments Monica Stufft (bio) In a time of economic downturns, the contraction of governmental funding sources, and shrinking budgets, academic departments increasingly find themselves locked in a struggle for limited resources. As much as we strive to make interdisciplinary connections, departments must carve out places for themselves within institutions. We need to swell our ranks by attracting students, for an increased number of majors leads to budget considerations, space allocations, and additional tenure-track lines. As students become progressively more concerned with their employment options after graduation, departments respond with well-defined messages about the valuable transferable skills gained through the major and the kinds of professional training acquired due to the curriculum. Alongside honing particular skills, developing critical and creative thinking, increasing an understanding of key terms, and acquiring historical knowledge, our mission statements often highlight collaboration as a key element to the educational experience. This is not surprising, as theatre is by its very nature a collaborative art. In the presence of audience members and through the hard work of performers, artistic staff, backstage, and house personnel, theatre is made possible by a rich exchange among numerous individuals who rely upon partnerships and engage in acts of cooperation. The centrality of collaboration to pursuits is not shared by theatre alone, of course. In business, medicine, and science, it is only through the coming together and sharing of resources that the most substantial achievements are made. Some have even argued that collaboration, or working jointly together towards a shared goal, is fundamental to the human experience. In his book with the Dalai Lama, psychiatrist Howard Cutler has argued that “the tendency to closely bond with others, acting for the welfare of others as well as oneself, may be deeply rooted in human nature, forged in the remote past as those who bonded together and became part of a group had an increased chance of survival” (59). As a result, our proclivity for collaboration serves not only as a vital transferable skill for our students, but also as an extremely effective academic-survival technique for ourselves. Collaboration, however, has not figured largely into our understanding of human nature for over a century; the idea that human beings are essentially selfish and only interested in meeting our own needs has dominated. Cutler points out that this view of human nature “is deeply ingrained in Western thought” thanks to canonical works by Thomas Hobbes and Sigmund Freud, to name just a few (56). Collaboration also occupies a rather tenuous place within academic institutions; from grading practices to the tenure-review process, we are embedded in an educational structure geared towards clearly delineating and evaluating an individual’s work. Grades are awarded and degrees are conferred to specific students, not to groups. The dominant discourse in the humanities and liberal arts, where most theatre departments reside, privileges sole authorship or intellectual property. Colluding together is viewed as plagiarism, worthy of academic sanctions if ideas are not correctly attributed to a specific individual. Jointly written pieces are often less valued than single-authored works, and faculty members must tout their personal achievements in tenure files even if engaged in collaborative art practices. The even larger dominant cultural discourse underpinning this is neoliberal individualism, where what is mine is mine and what is yours is yours. [End Page 53] In addition, we are also witnessing a rise in the culture of assessment. Departments are asked to clearly articulate learning outcomes and then substantiate their claims by proving measurable growth in our students given pressures put upon universities by regional and national accrediting agencies. Many resent and even resist this trend, perceiving calls for accountability as external mandates or administrative tasks that take time and resources away from what we do in the classroom. Often, the payoff is seen as minimal and the impact on our students’ learning negligible or even detrimental. At least for the perceivable future, however, assessment is here to stay. Given that reality, one possible approach is to do the least amount required in an attempt to minimize the impact on both students and faculty. Yet our field offers us insights that suggest...

External mandates and instructional leadership: school leaders as mediating agents

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how US school leaders make sense of external mandates, and the way in which their understanding of state and district accountability policies affects their work. It is posited that school leaders’ responses to external accountability are likely to reflect a complex interaction between their perception of the accountability policies, the state and district contexts in which those policies are situated and their own leadership beliefs and practices.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use both principal and teacher survey data to explore the question of how perceptions of external policy are associated with instructional leadership behaviors. Cases of seven principals are employed to flesh out the findings from the survey analysis.FindingsIt is concluded that external accountability policy may have a positive impact on instructional leadership – where they see those policies as aligned with their own values and preferences, and where they see their district leaders as supportive of school‐driven accountability initiatives. In these cases, school leaders internalize the external accountability policies and shape them to the particular needs that they see as priorities in their own school. Where one or the other of these factors is weak or missing, on the other hand, leaders demonstrate more negative attitudes to external accountability and weaker instructional leadership.Originality/valueThis analysis draws on a unique, large‐scale data base and uses a mixed methods approach to answer the question.

Attracting Talent to the Frontiers of Finance

A growing number of public pensions and sovereign funds located in regions without a history of financial services are making direct investments that bypass traditional financial intermediaries. It seems the world’s financial center of gravity is shifting away from the traditional financial hubs, such as London, New York and Tokyo, to cities at the frontiers of financial markets. Significantly, this new geography of finance and investment offers some unique opportunities for these investors to leverage their organizational endowments (e.g., scale, time horizon, certainty of capital, etc.) through creative capital deployments (e.g., in-house management, seeding new managers, etc.). However, it also creates a variety of new challenges. For example, how do public pension and sovereign funds set up world-class investment organizations out on the frontiers of finance? More specifically, how do these funds attract the talented investment staff they require to implement a sophisticated investment strategy that combines both in-house and external mandates? In this brief white paper, we highlight how certain public pension and sovereign funds are attracting the necessary human resources. We focus, in particular, on the recruitment of the organization’s leaders, both current and future, within the investment departments.

Implementing a multifaceted quality-improvement curriculum in an obstetrics-gynecology resident continuity-clinic setting: a 4-year experience.

Although many residency programs are instituting quality improvement (QI) curricula in response to both institutional and external mandates, there are few reports of successful integration of resident initiated projects into these QI curricula with documented impact on health care processes and measures. We introduced a multifaceted curriculum into an Obstetrics-Gynecology continuity clinic. Following a needs assessment, we developed a didactic session to introduce residents to QI tools and the how to of a mentored resident-initiated project. Resident projects were presented to peers and faculty and were evaluated. A postgraduation survey assessed residents' satisfaction with the curriculum and preparedness for involvement in QI initiatives after residency. We also assessed whether this resulted in sustained improvement in health care measures. The curriculum was presented to 7 classes of residents (n = 25) and 17 resident initiated projects have been completed. Twenty-one residents (84%) completed the preintervention survey and 12 of 17 (71%) residents who completed the entire curriculum completed the postintervention survey. Sustained change in surrogate health measures was documented for 4 projects focused on improving clinical measures, and improvement in clinical systems was sustained in 9 of the remaining 13 projects (69%). Most of the respondents (75%, n = 9) agreed or strongly agreed that the projects done in residency provided a helpful foundation to their current QI efforts. This project successfully demonstrates that a multifaceted program in QI education can be implemented in a busy Obstetrics-Gynecology residency program, resulting in sustained improvement in surrogate health measures and in clinical systems. A longitudinal model for resident projects results in an opportunity for reflection, project revision, and a maintenance plan for continued clinical impact.

The Role of Educational Systems in the Link Between Formative Assessment and Motivation

Formative assessment has been widely promoted as a means to support student learning and motivation. This practice has potential for communicating to students the value of what they are learning, both in the classroom and beyond (Brophy, 2008). To make good on those promises, however, requires an understanding of the connections between formative assessment practices and the realities of the social systems in which they are employed. In this article, I consider the importance of classroom systems, including the purposes of assessments, their function in the classroom social structure (including issues of power, identity, and competing values), and teachers' multiple concerns with effects on student learning and motivation. I also address the role of conflicts between the practice of formative assessment and grading policies, departmental assessment norms, school district structures, and external assessment mandates. Finally, the recommendation of Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, and Wiliam (2004) are examined in light of these issues.

Assessing local partnerships: an organisational perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess, from an organisational perspective, the internal efficacy of public policies designed to stimulate voluntary inter‐municipal partnerships. In particular, it sets out to assess the capacity of such incentive‐based policies to push the councils in the direction desired by the legislator, i.e. service sharing and joint policymaking.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach (exploratory case study) has been adopted. Primary data from semi‐structured interviews with administrators and public managers were collected and analysed along with secondary data on the inter‐municipal partnerships established in the important Italian region of Lombardy. The critical contingencies and conditions that shape local voluntary collaborations are compared with the assumptions of a model developed by Montjoy and O'Toole.FindingsThe paper questions the assumption that access to additional resources is enough to induce the councils to collaborate in service sharing and joint policymaking. While, on the one side, the councils' organisational and managerial limitations condition their willingness and capacity to forge long‐term relationships, on the other, the pressure on councils tasked with partnership implementation (especially the aggregation leaders) and the effort to ensure the orchestration of the activities and joint decision making lead them to opt for the less structured forms of cooperation (e.g. bilateral agreements). The most binding and ambitious collaborative forms are also those exposed to risks, including stagnation and goal displacement.Originality/valueUnlike the mainstream studies on local partnerships, the paper addresses the policies that incentivise the setting up and development of such initiatives. The paper further develops the use of a model that policymakers will find a valuable aid in predicting agency responses to external mandates and in identifying the different types of potential implementation pitfalls.

Technology Supported Systems in Scde: Myth Versus Reality

The College of Education Assessment Infrastructure Survey was developed and administered to 1011 institutions over a 12-month period ending April 2007. The survey examined the capacity of university-based teacher preparation programs to respond to the growing and increasingly complex data management requirements that accompanies assessment and accountability edicts. The summarized responses of 266 institutions (26%) confirmed that education units have responded to accreditation and accountability mandates, though none have relied solely on the institutional-level infrastructure. This has resulted in the implementation of a variety of assessment systems that vary widely in sophistication and cost. The qualitative responses of 52 institutions highlighted the major benefits and challenges encountered with the implementation and use of these assessment systems. The dominant 3 benefits reported were improved communication with internal and external stakeholders, data-supported program improvements, and data-supported assessment improvements. The top 3 reported challenges were responding to increasing and complex assessment requirements coupled with inadequate resources, inadequate assessment systems, and the loss of professionalism that comes with responding to external mandates.

SURPRISE

Abstract Surprise is of great value for learning, especially in cases where deep‐seated preconceptions and assumptions are upset by vivid demonstrations. In this essay, Jonathan Adler explores the ways in which surprise positively affects us and serves as a valuable tool for motivating learning. Adler considers how students’ attention is aroused and focused self‐critically when their subject matter–related expectations are not borne out. These “surprises” point students toward discoveries about gaps or weaknesses or false assumptions within their subject matter understanding; as a result, students become internally motivated to correct their errors and to seek better understanding, rather than merely responding to external mandates imposed by a teacher, institution, or other authority. In this essay Adler argues persuasively that the use of surprise in teaching, both as a pedagogical tool and a topic of study, offers many educational advantages and benefits for learning.

The Hidden Curriculum of Performance-Based Teacher Education

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of study This study describes and analyzes the student and faculty experiences of a “performance-based” preservice teacher education program at a large comprehensive university in the mid-Atlantic region. The aim is to understand the “hidden” curricular messages within the program and the ways that these messages interacted with the intended learning outcomes by answering three central questions: 1) What is the hidden curriculum of this teacher education program? 2) How did faculty and preservice teachers in this program experience the hidden curriculum? and 3) How did the hidden curriculum interact with the program's intended performance-based curriculum? Background and Context Despite a growing body of literature that describes the variety of ways that teacher education programs are aligning their curriculum with new performance-based standards, more research is needed to help those concerned with reforming teacher education understand the unique ways that colleges and universities are incorporating performance-based standards and, especially, the ways that these changes are experienced by both the teacher education students and their faculty in these programs. To this end, this study helps reveal the “hidden curriculum” of one performance-based teacher education program. While the use of the hidden curriculum has been used in the past as a theoretical framework to portray “competency-based” programs in the 1960s and 1970s, it has been little used to understand contemporary “performance-based” models. Research Design A qualitative case study focused on a cohort of thirty preservice teachers and their faculty was conducted at a large comprehensive university over the course of two academic semesters. Data consisted of transcribed interviews, document analysis, and observation field notes pertaining to the experiences of three undergraduate elementary education students and their five-member faculty throughout the final two academic years of their preparation. Conclusions/Recommendations The program's central hidden curricular message for faculty and students was that superficial demonstrations of compliance with external mandates were more important than authentic intellectual engagement. Program participants frequently made the minimal possible effort to satisfy the requirements of what they perceived as routine, bureaucratized tasks. This study raises cautions for both practitioners and researchers of teacher education concerning the vigor of performance-based reform. and raises questions concerning the notion of coherence in teacher education. Many reformers have embraced coherence as a goal for teacher education programs, accepting the premise that the existence of a common conceptual vision that underscores the curriculum is an indicator of overall program quality. This study reveals some challenges associated with achieving coherent teacher preparation programs and broadens the concept of coherence in ways that take into account the complex intersection of the formal and hidden curriculum.

Making self-assessment more effective

Self-assessment has been held out as an important mechanism for lifelong learning and self-improvement for health care professionals. However, there is growing concern that individual learners often interpret the results inaccurately. This idea has led to skepticism that self-assessment in its current form can ever be truly useful for lifelong professional development. We examine the proposal that self-assessment can and should be made more effective. First, relevance should be improved. The process should be tied more explicitly to the individual's actual practice profile, rather than being loosely relevant to broader constructs around the permitted scope of practice (eg, certification or licensure). In addition, self-assessment should include not only knowledge and reasoning but also what is done every day in practice, thereby broadening from competence in simulated settings to performance in real settings. Second, the impact of self-assessment should be substantially strengthened by periodic external validation of self-assessment results, together with goals set as a result and plans for further improvement. This offers to the individual the very tangible benefit of satisfying external mandates (eg, licensure and certification). In addition, impact should be reinforced by linking the results of self-assessment to subsequent learning activities including Continuing Medical Education (CME). Although these enhancements individually may not cure all of what ails self-assessment, they might ensure greater effectiveness for the purposes of lifelong learning.

National Efforts to Reform Residency Education in Surgery

Major changes in surgical practice and myriad external mandates have affected residency education in surgery. The traditional surgery residency education and training model has come under scrutiny, and calls for major reform of this model have been made by a variety of stakeholders. The American Surgical Association appointed a Blue Ribbon Committee in 2002 to consider the recent changes in surgical practice and surgical education and propose solutions that would ensure a well-educated and well-trained surgical workforce for the future. This committee included representatives from the American Surgical Association, the American College of Surgeons, the American Board of Surgery, and the Residency Review Committee for Surgery. The committee made several far-reaching recommendations relating to residency education in surgery. After the Blue Ribbon Committee completed its task in 2004, representatives from the aforementioned four organizations, the Association of Program Directors in Surgery, and the Association for Surgical Education created a national consortium called the Surgical Council on Resident Education (SCORE). This consortium is pursuing efforts to reform residency education in surgery and implement several key recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Committee. The principal area of focus of SCORE is the development of a national curriculum for surgery residency education and training. Other activities of SCORE include the development of a Web site to support surgery residency education and pursuit of international collaboration. SCORE's efforts will be key to offering surgery residents the best educational experiences, preparing residents for future practice, and supporting delivery of surgical care of the highest quality. The authors examine the current state of residency education in surgery and explore efforts underway to reform this educational model.

The Power of Practitioner Expertise: Building and Using Teacher Knowledge in Service of School Reform

In a policy climate driven by tests and external mandates, theories of school reform that place teachers, their knowledge, and their relationships at the heart of school improvement have garnered attention as promising alternatives. Yet little exists in print about how such theories actually work or what these approaches look like in practice. This article attempts to open up that black box by offering one example of these reform theories in action. The example derives from a study of the goals, structure, and nature of support provided within one particular network—the Middle College National Consortium (MCNC)—toward the implementation of a reform called Early College. In providing technical assistance to schools, teachers, and organizations within and outside of its membership, the MCNC network presumed that the knowledge for implementing the Early College reform, from technical details to substantive strategies for teaching, learning, and student support, inhered in the experience and expertise of veteran practitioners. The article thus describes some of the ways that the MCNC network provided assistance, development, and support for implementing Early College that depended upon the mutual sharing and building of knowledge among a network of like-minded practitioners. In so doing, it pays special attention to the role of practitioner expertise, principle-based reform, and the opportunities afforded by networks. While the paper highlights successful iterations of these theories in practice and considers the strengths of this teacher-centered approach, it also explores some of the associated challenges.

Sustaining Secondary School Visions Over Time: Resistance, Resilience and Educational Reform

This article focuses upon the sustainability of secondary school visions during a period of increasingly complex economic, social, demographic, and accountability driven change (1970–1990). Much of the classic change literature of this period highlights the failure of teachers to implement reform, and implicitly leans towards overcoming their resistance with short-term solutions so that external mandates can be institutionalized more effectively. Longitudinal studies are rarely attempted that consider the cumulative impact of both internal and external “change forces” upon teachers, or that identify the conditions necessary to ensure the sustainability of a schools vision “over time”. Viewed through the lens of resiliency, this article explores data from two high schools that participated in the Change Over Time Study (Spencer Foundation Grant number 199800214). Data suggest that not only can teacher resistance to innovation make good sense, but also, under certain conditions rarely supported by standardized reform, it can evoke a resilient, even activist, self-renewing response to change otherwise perceived to be disruptive or harmful to their school’s founding vision.

The Diversity Project as a Joint Venture

This study examines the role of corporate influence in shaping an American business school's commitment to racial and ethnic diversity. Themes emerging from an intensive case study include: (a) the centrality of corporate interest and support; (b) co-investment in ‘pipeline development’ strategies that encourage more minorities to pursue business education; (c) the role of external mandate in stimulating activity and accountability; (d) the recognition of diversity as a source of competitive advantage; and (e) evidence of partners mutually challenging each other to move the needle of progress on the diversity front. Overall, the study's findings lend support to the notion that the particular shape and scope of diversity-related activity in higher education is significantly conditioned by external desire, expectation, and involvement.