Force For Positive Change Research Articles

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in an Age of Accountability: Building Bridges

In recent years, as pressures for accountability have increased in higher education, some members of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) community may worry that the inquiry-based, improvement-focused practices they advocate could be put at risk by easy-to-administer, one-size-fits-all forms of assessment, quality assurance, and administrative control. But while acknowledging both real and perceived tensions between these two movements, we also examine some of the ways and settings in which they are converging, featuring a number of international examples in which external quality and assessment mandates have been employed to support SoTL-like work. We look, too, at the roles that scholars of teaching and learning can play as mediators and brokers between the two movements, helping to translate accountability requirements into opportunities for improvement. In short we argue that these two movements present opportunities for each other. SoTL can contribute to what is, or should be, the central goal of accountability: ensuring and improving the quality of student learning. The accountability movement, for its part, can provide a new context for integrating and valuing SoTL as a force for positive change on campuses and beyond. Taken together, the two approaches can make meaningful contributions to higher learning today. The paper concludes with recommendations to the SoTL community for building bridges between the two movements.

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in an Age of Accountability: Building Bridges

In recent years, as pressures for accountability have increased in higher education, some members of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) community may worry that the inquiry-based, improvement-focused practices they advocate could be put at risk by easy-to-administer, one-size-fits-all forms of assessment, quality assurance, and administrative control. But while acknowledging both real and perceived tensions between these two movements, we also examine some of the ways and settings in which they are converging, featuring a number of international examples in which external quality and assessment mandates have been employed to support SoTL-like work. We look, too, at the roles that scholars of teaching and learning can play as mediators and brokers between the two movements, helping to translate accountability requirements into opportunities for improvement. In short we argue that these two movements present opportunities for each other. SoTL can contribute to what is, or should be, the central goal of accountability: ensuring and improving the quality of student learning. The accountability movement, for its part, can provide a new context for integrating and valuing SoTL as a force for positive change on campuses and beyond. Taken together, the two approaches can make meaningful contributions to higher learning today. The paper concludes with recommendations to the SoTL community for building bridges between the two movements.

People Who Use Drugs as Agents of Change: Peer-to-Peer Education as a Force for Positive Change

Commentary on Li et al. “A Social Network Approach to Demonstrate the Diffusion and Change Process of Intervention from Peer Health Advocates to the Drug Using Community” and Mackenzie et al. “Agen...

Positive Coaching: Ethical Practices for Athlete Development

Positive coaching has traditionally been defined and understood through a modernist lens (Smoll & Smith, 1987; Thompson, 1995, 2003) and a combination of privileged scientific knowledges. One effect of this is that coaches' problemsolving approaches tend to disregard the complex social, and relational dimensions of coaching (Nash & Collins, 2006) and ignore how problems get selectively framed and named (Lawson, 1984). As a result, many problems in sport remain misunderstood or solved ineffectively. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault we critique these reductionist understandings of effective and ethical coaching and argue that for coaches to become a positive force for change, they must engage in an ongoing critical examination of the knowledges and assumptions that inform their problem-solving approaches. Further, we conclude that for coaching to become a respected profession worthy of deep and intelligent thought, it is vital that coaches carefully consider the effects produced by the way they solve problems.

Research for Change: Young People, Youth Crime and the Use of Custody on Teesside

This Action study was established in 1997 by the Society because of our concerns about the sharp increase in the use of custody for chi ldren and young people aged under 18 in England and Wales since 1992. was selected as the site for the enquiry because the local Courts have an established pattern of using high levels of custody for juveniles. The research also took place during a period when the Justice Process in England and Wales was being reformed and reorganised via the Crime and Disorder Act (1998). MUltiple methods and sources were used to gather data and produce information. The sources included the views and experiences of serious and/or persistent young offenders and key decision-makers such as Magistrates and Judges. This action research study was designed as an intervention which would challenge and influence decisions within the local Justice System. The project is in the process of developing realistic and viable alternatives to custody for local Courts through Restorative JusticelVictim-Offender Mediation. The evidence of need for this type of intervention was established within the study. Introduction Aim of the Study This study about Youth Crime and the Use of Custody on Teesside was established by The Children's Society as a national and regional response to the substantial increase in the use of custody for young people in England and Wales since 1992. was selected as the area where the study should be undertaken because it is one of the locations within England and Wales where there is a pattern of using high levels of custody for young people. is locked into a cycle of high levels of crime and high levels of incarceration as a response to offending behaviour by young people. This cycle is underpinned by significant levels of socio-economic disadvantage and social exclusions. Research for Change explored ways of breaking the Criminal Justice aspects of this cycle from a wide range of perspectives. The study was a qualitative action research investigation which used multiple methods and sources to gather data and produce information. The sources included the views, experiences Munro, Change, Crime and Custody and perceptions of those who are the subjects of the Criminal Justice process along with those who administer it. The aim of the research was to begin the process of effecting positive change for and with young people at risk of custody on Teesside. The Children's Society believes that local neighbourhood and communities can benefit from reductions in recidivism amongst young people when counter productive custodial sentences are replaced by viable community based alternatives to The mission statement of the Children's Society is: To be a positive force for change in the lives of children and young people whose circumstances make them particularly vulnerable. The Children's Society position with regard to the use of custody for children and young people is: All children and young people experience just processes and retain their liberty unless containment is necessary to protect themselves and others from serious harm. Those under 18 should not be held in prison custody. The Children's Society describes itself as a Christian, Social Justice, Child-centred organisation which works in a multi-cultural and multi-faith society. The preparations for the enquiry began in January 1998 and the fieldwork was undertaken between June 1998 and November 1998. CONTEXT OF THE STUDY The National Context Since the mid 1980's and the failure of the short, sharp, shock response to young offenders by the first and second Thatcher led Conservative Governments, there had been a steady decline in the use of incarceration as a response to offending behaviour by young people in England and Wales since 1985. This fall reflected the figures for reported crimes in England and Wales. There was a significant decline in the rates of offending behaviour by children and young people (per 100,000 of the population) in England and Wales between 1985 and 1996. Although there have been reductions since 1985 in the known offending rate for most offence groups, increases have occurred for violence against the person (including common assault) , robbery and drug offences.

Keeping Faith: Faith Talk by and for Incarcerated Youth

In the context of talk about changing their lives, incarcerated young men and their supervisors talk about faith as a force for positive change. Given the historical and contemporary significance of religion as a locus of organizing and collective struggle, I argue that faith represents a potential asset in efforts to assist incarcerated young offenders pursue education, legal work, and sobriety or diminished substance (ab-)use. I draw on growing consensus among scholars of youth development that religious affiliation, and spirituality more generally, are protective and can promote other positive developmental outcomes. I also draw on discursive studies of substance abuse treatment and religious conversion to highlight the ways in which faith talk by and for youth offers avenues for institutionally sanctioned agency and recognized genres of biographical reconstruction. I conclude by suggesting that critically exploring matters of faith and belief in public institutions might usefully inform curricular and programmatic interventions to assist young people avoid recidivism, school failure and substance abuse, and perhaps, find or imagine satisfying and meaningful adult lives.

Environmental justice, sustainability and vulnerability

Justice is a core yet often ignored principle of sustainability. However, sustainability for some at the expense of others undermines the principles and practice of sustainability as a force for positive change. In this commentary, I argue that sustainability research and practice can benefit from a closer reading of environmental justice scholarship. At the same time, environmental justice can draw on sustainability principles of systems thinking, anticipatory action and environmental stewardship to strengthen its methods and approaches while broadening its constituency. Vulnerability science can bridge environmental justice and sustainability and can also benefit from the convergence of ideas, principles and practices of these fields.

Confronting the uncomfortable: health plans and health disparities: a moral dilemma in a morally driven industry.

American medicine was traumatized when, in the 1970s, it was revealed that hundreds of African-American men were purposefully denied treatment for syphilis for decades at the Tuskegee Medical Institute.1 For two centuries, American medicine had never confronted the mythology that the practice of medicine was above the fray of power structures that reinforced the status quo. Historically, physicians have characterized their profession as the practice of the “art of medicine.” The Hippocratic oath inspires young doctors to apply biological knowledge to comfort and to help other human beings, regardless of their background. The complexity of human interactions leads to an infinite set of outcomes and expectations and, as an “artist,” a physician works earnestly to manage conditions resulting in comfort and wellness. Health plans, in contrast, exist to efficiently organize thousands of individualized encounters by harnessing the power of technology and managing and parceling services to optimize health and mitigate the impact of illness for a defined group of individuals. In effect, health plans have become the invisible “third person” in the exam room, exerting a ubiquitous influence on what had been historically considered a hallowed relationship between physician and patient. Accordingly, the predominant view of health plans (ie, insurers) is that of a necessary, but not altogether welcome third-party arbiter between patient and physician. The arbiter, in this case, has rarely been regarded as a positive force for change. (It should be noted that a number of health plans, eg Kaiser Permanente, are designed with the conviction that optimal outcomes are achieved when patient care incorporates “integrated” delivery, the result of a partnership between clinical provider and insurer. Nevertheless, physicians on one hand, and insurers on the other, represent dichotomous relationships to patients as individuals.) In a generic sense, modern clinical outcomes are the result of physician-patient-health plan interactions. Indeed, thousands of hours and millions of dollars are expended annually to dissect the hidden factors that result in suboptimal population outcomes and adverse individual incidents. The resultant interplay between health plan and individual clinician ultimately defines the patient experience and the outcomes of the health care system as a whole. For the most part, America's health care system, both heralded and maligned, examines itself through the lens of diagnosis, therapy, and delivery of care. Unfortunately, this set of parameters falls short when applied to the aggregate impact of substandard care and outcomes provided to persons of color, ie health disparities. Our health care system, the composite product of health plans and clinicians, has yet rid “the damned spot” of discrimination and racial inequality and its concordant suffering. The idea that clinical outcomes are bounded by the therapeutic relationship between patient and clinician results in physician-centric “solutions” to eliminate health disparities. But if we concede that health plans do indeed have a role in defining the clinical encounter, the “third person” in the exam room then might just have a major, if not decisive role in erasing the systematic failure to achieving equity in health care. Health plans wield powerful tools that can instigate positive health care outcomes. Health plans need to harness their assets, including the collection and analysis of copious data, the provision of incentives that accelerate the adoption of positive practices, and the establishment of benchmarks for standards and quality, to be effective change agents in eliminating health care disparities. … diagnosis, therapy, and delivery of care. … falls short when applied to the aggregate impact of substandard care and outcomes provided to persons of color, ie health disparities.

Conflicts management, social capital and adoption of agroforestry technologies: empirical findings from the highlands of southwestern Uganda

In the highland ecosystems where actions by some individuals or groups often generate off-site effects among a wide range of social actors and stakeholders, the use and management of natural resources are susceptible to multiple forms of conflicts. This paper examines the hypothesis that conflicts constrain the adoption of agroforestry technologies. Using empirical data from 243 households in Kabale-Uganda, the study identified over 780 different cases of conflicts, and found positive relationships between certain types of conflicts and adoption of agroforestry technologies. The results of this paper challenge the conventional wisdom that conflicts are pervasive, and that the prevalence of conflicts is a major barrier to the adoption of NRM technologies. On the contrary, they seem to suggest that conflicts may have some positive outcomes; they provide incentives for the adoption of NRM technologies, and can be a potential force for positive social change. Conflicts are an essential feature of NRM in the highland systems and cannot therefore be ignored. What matters is the ways such conflicts are managed and resolved, and transformed into a force for positive change. We found that three dimensions of social capital (collective action, byelaws implementation and linking with local government structures) have increased the ability of communities to manage and transform conflicts into opportunities for collective action. These findings suggest new areas for further investigation to improve understanding of adoption decisions and building local capacity for scaling up the impacts of agroforestry innovations.

Women's oral knowledge and the poverty of formal education in the SE Peruvian Amazon

Formal education is often assumed to be a positive force for change, enabling people to find a route out of poverty. However, this is not always the case. The Haramkbut community in the Peruvian Amazon are now questioning the widespread assumption that schooling can provide knowledge and skills for establishing alternative livelihoods. Indigenous knowledge and traditional forms of work have been devalued through economic changes forced upon the Haramkbut by ecological destruction and environmental degradation. The result of this has been a process of impoverishment, which has been worsened by missionary education and an adherence to the national Spanish-language curriculum. In contrast, the indigenous model of intercultural bilingual education which is currently being 'rolled out' to the Harakmbut puts indigenous knowledge and practices at the centre of its curriculum, pedagogy and philosophy. This in turn contrasts with the education reform measures currently being implemented nationally through the Ministry of Education. Education could and should be a positive force in the lives of the Harakmbut people, and Harakmbut women in particular, and in their fight against an impoverishment of their way of life.

Reenergizing public health through precaution.

The precautionary principle has provoked a spirited debate among environmentalists worldwide, but it is equally relevant to public health and shares much with primary prevention. Its central components are (1) taking preventive action in the face of uncertainty; (2) shifting the burden of proof to the proponents of an activity; (3) exploring a wide range of alternatives to possibly harmful actions; and (4) increasing public participation in decision making. Precaution is relevant to public health, because it can help to prevent unintended consequences of well-intentioned public health interventions by ensuring a more thorough assessment of the problems and proposed solutions. It can also be a positive force for change. Three aspects are stressed: promoting the search for safer technologies, encouraging greater democracy and openness in public health policy, and stimulating reevaluation of the methods of public health science.

Companies in international relations

Despite their increasing size and reach, multinational companies do not enjoy the unfettered power attributed to them by many critics. The long-term, physically static nature of much investment, coupled with the new transparency through which investors can monitor performance, means that the supposed transfer of power from governments to corporations is largely an illusion. It is true that companies are more involved with and dependent upon international relationships than ever before. Trade and investment have both grown more rapidly than output. The removal of political barriers has opened new areas to investment, and the development of communications has created a new degree of scrutiny and a new political agenda around issues such as human rights and the environment, which multinationals cannot ignore. In responding, companies have become part of the process of change and development, and actors in the international system. The challenge for all concerned is to ensure that their presence and influence are engaged as a force for positive change.

Bridging Gibraltar: Latinos as Agents of Reconciliation in Relations between Black and White America

This Article argues that Latinos/as are uniquely situated and destined to serve the critical role of agents of reconciliation and healing in American race relations, particularly between black and white America. If we choose to take up the mantle of racial healing and reconciliation, we can be a powerful force for positive change.

Students as environmental change agents

Against a background of an increasingcommitment to the environmentby government and industry, the impact of “care for the environment” in the hospitality management curriculum is explored. Hospitality educators have the opportunity to expose students to environmental concepts, issues and techniques within a vocational context. Corporate responsibility is a prerequisiteto sustainable policy development. If hospitality management education can deliver students with the skills and motivation to be environmentally proactive they will be effective change agents and ensure the hospitality industry works for the “sustainable vision”. A survey of final year students reveals that their attitudes and actions are influenced positively by their learning experience and that the hospitality curriculum can be a positive force for change.

Confirming, Infirming, and "Falsifying" Theories of Human Rights: Reflections on Smith, Bolyard, and Ippolito Through the Lens of Lakatos

Confirming, Infirming, and “Falsifying” Theories of Human Rights: Reflections on Smith, Bolyard, and Ippolito Through the Lens of Lakatos William H. Meyer (bio) Some scholars of human rights have turned their attention to a relatively new issue. A limited number of studies have sought to establish the causal impact of multinational corporations (MNCs) on human rights in the third world. 1 These studies, conducted at several different levels of analysis, have produced some interesting (but not always consistent) results. 2 My own work in this area first appeared in the Human Rights Quarterly (HRQ) in May of 1996. 3 A follow-up study by Jackie Smith, Melissa Bolyard, and Anna Ippolito (Smith et al.) appears in this issue of HRQ. 4 My work tended [End Page 220] to support theoretical claims that MNCs have an overall beneficial impact on both first- and second-generation human rights at the international level. 5 The study by Smith et al., produced results to the contrary. Smith’s research argues that MNCs have a negative effect on rights in the developing world. 6 The editors of HRQ have invited my response to Smith’s article. While I do not dispute the validity of Smith’s conclusions, I stand by the results of my own research. In order to understand how both studies provide useful additions to our knowledge of the causes of human rights violations, this article will discuss them (along with my subsequent research) within the larger context of theory testing and theory building in the social sciences. With a proper grasp of the nature of human rights theory, one can easily understand how such conflicting results are not unusual. Indeed, they are to be expected. Furthermore, the existence of inconsistent and even conflicting results from empirical testing of human rights theories does not, in and of itself, negate the validity of those theories. A brief review of Imre Lakatos’ description of theories as research programs will help to make these points clear. 7 Before discussing Lakatos, however, the article will summarize the combined results from this body of literature. In the new edition of his textbook on human rights, Jack Donnelly briefly considers MNCs as an important new topic for human rights research. 8 Donnelly illustrates his discussion with an example taken from an advertisement placed by the Mobil Corporation in The Economist. 9 This ad defends MNC investments and operations in countries that have repressive governments. 10 According to the Mobil ad, if one of our goals is to promote [End Page 221] civil and political reforms in repressive nations, then “great global companies can be a positive force for change.” 11 The results of my 1996 HRQ article could be interpreted as lending support to these claims. My research showed that when the concept of first-generation rights is operationalized as Freedom House rankings on civil liberties and political rights, and then those Freedom House rankings are compared to direct foreign investment (DFI) by US MNCs, the results show strong positive correlations between rising MNC investment and better civil and political rights. 12 Similarly, when I operationalized second-generation rights via the Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI), and then compared PQLI scores to DFI by MNCs, I once again found strong positive correlations between increased DFI and improved human rights. 13 As DFI increased, literacy, life expectancy, and infant survival rates all improved as well. 14 My research argues that civil and political rights (as measured by Freedom House) correlate positively with DFI. 15 My research also shows strong positive correlations between DFI and second-generation socioeconomic rights (the PQLI). 16 The follow-up study by Smith’s team argues that my conclusions are in error. 17 When they measured civil and political rights by means of Amnesty International’s reports, or by means of the US State Department’s reports on human rights, they found weak negative correlations between first-generation rights and DFI by MNCs. Smith’s team also substituted data on DFI as measured by the World Bank for my data on US DFI (as reported by the Commerce Department). 18 They found a negative relationship between the PQLI and net DFI. 19 Has Smith’s...

Fighting fit

Pat White discusses how conflict can be harnessed as a positive force for change when managed effectively

Alchemy in the Academy: Can We Turn a Fragmented Faculty into a Unified Force for Positive Change?

Alchemy in the Academy: Can We Turn a Fragmented Faculty into a Unified Force for Positive Change?

A Force for Positive Change in South‐East Thames

A Force for Positive Change in South‐East Thames

Perspectives: Pharmaceutical Companies As A Positive Force For Change

Perspectives: Pharmaceutical Companies As A Positive Force For Change

National council of teachars of mathematics: President's Address 58th Annual Meeting

I count myself as very fortunate tonight. I am accorded the opportunity to be a spokesperson for a remarkable collective of highly professional members of that most important occupation, teaching. On your behalf, I will be presenting to the educational world, to policy makers in education, and to the public a document that can be a catalyst and force for positive change.