Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Although it is a culturally rich and physically beautiful country, Nepal is one of the world's poorest and least-developed countries. While the country's educational system has made a great deal of progress in a very short time, there is still much to be done. Many government schools are in bad physical shape, still others are extremely underfunded, especially in rural areas. Furthermore, supplementary materials like libraries, children's books, and computer labs are rare. Despite getting to school, many children are still denied the opportunity to learn. This presentation will share the results of the school effectiveness study from 20 SAVE schools and 6 control schools across various regions of Nepal. Results include student reading fluency performance and concepts of print at the grade 3 level; the amount of time on task spent by students annually in the sample schools; an analysis of school support services; and correlations related to the factors that most impact students’ abilities to learn in Nepal. Interventions and policies provided to the implementing organization will be discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Colleges of education must prepare effective teachers, but they must also keep incompetent or ill-suited people out of the profession. This session explores issues of dispositions, inadequate performance, and standards within the context of accountability.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: How do democracy and external security concerns influence interstate reconciliation? This study examines the prospects of moving from a lower stage of peace to a higher stage of peace among former belligerents. I identify three categories of peace: pre-peace, negative peace, and positive peace. Specifically, I maintain that the effects of democracy and external security will have different effects on the prospects of interstate reconciliation based on what level of peace they are occurring at. I control for several other factors here that capture the effect of the last war, interest similarity, international factors, domestic politics, past conflict and opportunity factors. I test my arguments using duration analysis on a dataset that contains information on all former belligerents since 1816. The results give support to my contention that what matters at one stage will not necessarily have the same impact at another. In addition, it is found that many dyads move out of the lowest level of relations but that states find it rather hard to reach the highest level of peace. The results also show that both democracy and external security considerations do contribute to the highest level of peace being attained but the story is more complicated when it comes to leaving the lowest level of peace.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Global connectivity as an analytical concept is central to research on global-local interactions. There is however a lack of empirical studies based on directly measuring global connectivity and examining its impact on individual behavior regarding a global vs. local orientation. This paper aims to examine the relationship between global connectivity and global oriented consumption at the individual level in the local context of Shanghai, China. The central hypothesis driving the paper is that people with strong global connectivity tend to exhibit global oriented consumer behaviors. To test this hypothesis, we have created the exogenous latent variable of personal global connectivity and the endogenous variables from recent data on Shanghai. Using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique, we have found that personal global connectivity combined with ones socioeconomic status is strongly correlated with global oriented consumer behaviors. A key component of personal global connectivity--surfing foreign Web sites--has the strongest effect on global consumer behaviors.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Contemporary conflict resolution rests heavily on modern rational-legal, individualist, self maximizing assumptions. This paper critiques some of these assumptions in terms of the experience of two high context collective cultures in the Sth West Pacific. It will explore the nature of the relationship and tensions between traditional and introduced conflict resolution mechanisms in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands