The “Nature” of leadership philosophy in outdoor and adventure education: Partnership or predation

Nature continually impresses humans in its role as an omnipresent, if not ultimate, source of power. One hallmark of outdoor and adventure education (OAE) has been its presumption that humans' interaction with aspects of Nature's “power” promotes the antecedents of leadership: measurable, persistent psychological effects and behavioral modifications including self-awareness, self-reliance, and stewardship. Recently, an unresolved discourse has arisen involving the guiding philosophies and actual outcomes derived from programs assembled under various combinations of the terms outdoor, adventure, environment, recreation, and education. Unifying these five terms is leadership potential mediated through Nature's metaphorical majesty and demonstrable power. However, Nature can be an ally, a medium, or an enemy, and outcomes resulting from OAE programs should be congruent with a consciously examined, coherent philosophy. A theoretical model depicts combinations of society, civilization, and culture placed along a continuum ranging from predation to partnership to demonstrate that the type of leadership emanating from any two or more perspectives may be very different. Nature is a complex system that is both predatory and partnering, and leadership in OAE must purposefully select and design programs that embrace the appropriate philosophy of Nature.     

Development of a global lifelong learning index for future education

Since the transition from industrial society to a knowledge-based society, the source of national competitiveness is also changing. In this context, lifelong education has become a new competitive strategy for countries. This study broadly consists of three steps. Step I features a theoretical review of global lifelong learning indices and a comparison of the indices with existing ones. Step II introduces the process of development of indices based on the previous studies. Step III compares the rankings of countries in the area of lifelong learning based on the indices. Indices developed through this study will be used to evaluate the lifelong learning level of a specific country and to compare that with the lifelong learning levels of major countries around the world. In addition, the strengths and the weaknesses of the lifelong learning system of a specific country will be identified based on the indices, and the efforts that the country should make as a priority to improve the competitiveness of its lifelong learning system will be identified. To sum up, these indices will be able to be used as a reference when countries evaluate policies related to lifelong learning and make decisions that aim to improve the competitiveness of lifelong education.     

Online MBA students' perceptions of online learning: Benefits, challenges, and suggestions

Online MBA programs have seen a rapid rise in student enrollments in recent years and institutions of higher education have keen interests in offering quality online MBA programs to meet the demands. The present study reports the results of a case study in which over 100 students enrolled in a top-ranked online MBA program were interviewed and surveyed to investigate their perceptions of the benefits and challenges in online learning and their suggestions for improving the quality of the online MBA program. It was found that virtual teaming was a major factor that influenced the students' online learning experience; they viewed virtual teaming experiences as valuable for preparing them for the increasingly global business environment; at the same time, it also served as a key challenge to their learning in the online environment. Students' suggestions for improving the quality of online MBA program are discussed as well.     

Conceptualizing shadow curriculum: definition,features and the changing landscapes of learning cultures

This article presents a new conceptualization of ‘shadow curriculum’, one component of the worldwide phenomenon of shadow education, i.e. learning outside of school. Traditional conceptions of curriculum are not applicable to shadow education, and so this article begins by exploring how shadow education practices qualify as a new focus of curriculum studies. Based on existing scholarship and our own field experience in South Korea, we propose that shadow curriculum can be defined as supplementary curriculum out of schooling provided by educational business industries that are aimed for individual students’ academic success in formal education. The following discussion explores the characteristics of shadow curriculum and shows that incorporating shadow curriculum as a new area of focus in the field of curriculum studies can broaden existing understandings of student learning and the concept of curriculum. Our hope is that this discussion will open a new intellectual space for analysis of the complex phenomenon of shadow education within the field of curriculum studies.     

University and Department Influences on Scientists’ Occupational Outcomes

Research in Higher Education - Over 50,000 Ph.D. degrees in Science and Engineering (S&E) are awarded annually by United States (U.S.) universities, but few studies have systematically...     

Nine years after child sexual abuse

OBJECTIVE: During 1988-1990, 103 children presented to Child Protection Units (CPU) at two children's hospitals in Sydney, Australia. Nine years later, the psychological adjustment of these young people (mean age=19.1 years, SD=3.4 years; range=14-25 years) was compared with that of non-abused young people of similar age and gender to assess group differences and examine potential risk factors. METHOD: At intake, data on the nature of the index sexual abuse, demographics and the family environment were collected by clinicians. A comparison group, of similar age and gender, was selected from schools in the catchment area of the CPUs. Six years after presentation for the abuse, records of the statutory child protection authority were checked to determine any further notifications for abuse and/or neglect. Nine years after intake, 49 of the abused young people and 68 of the non-abused young people and/or their parents were interviewed and assessed. RESULTS: The sexually abused young people performed more poorly than non-abused young people on psychometric tests of depression (p=.001), self-esteem (p<.001), anxiety (p<.001), behavior (Child Behavior Checklist: p=.01; Youth Self Report: p=.01; Young Adult Self Report: p<.001), and despair (p=.001). They were also more likely to have a history of bingeing (p=.002), self-inducing vomiting (p=.02), smoking cigarettes (p=.01), and using amphetamines (p=.002), ecstasy (p=.002) and cocaine (p=.004). Potential risk factors were in two groups, family and child. Family factors: family functioning, parental drug/alcohol problems, mother's sexual abuse history, mother's depression and socio-economic status. Child factors: despair and hopefulness, number of negative life events, ratings of their father's care, previous notifications for child sexual abuse and placements in out-of-home care by the statutory child protection authority. In the presence of other risk factors, child sexual abuse was a significant predictor of self-esteem, behavior and bingeing. CONCLUSIONS: Rather than focusing only on the individual's child sexual abuse, treatment may also need to address the family's functioning and the individual's feelings of despair.     

Burnout in Teachers of Young Children

The purpose of this study was to identify variables or combinations of variables that are related to burnout in teachers of young children. The 353 participants were teachers who worked with young children more than 20 hours a week. The Maslach Burnout Inventory, a 22-item semantic differential measuring burnout, and a questionnaire about personal and job characteristics were administered to the subjects. A factor analysis, one-way analyses of variance, and maximum regression were used to analyze data. The factor analysis showed that the Maslach Burnout Inventory measures burnout and competence of teachers. The variables which account for burnout and competence are discussed.     

The power of political talk: how and when it mobilizes politically efficacious citizens’ campaign activity during elections

Political communication scholarship has investigated the mobilization effect of citizens’ political discursive behaviors during elections. With the recent advent of SNSs Social Networking Sites (SNSs) in the political communication environment, citizens’ discursive behaviors on SNSs have received increasing academic attention. This study examines (1) whether offline political talk mediates the relationship between political self-efficacy and election campaign activity (a type of political participation); (2) whether its mediation effect differs from that of SNS political talk; and (3) how those mediation effects vary according to citizens’ endorsed political ideologies. The results reveal that the effects of both offline and SNS political talk are statistically significant among conservatives, liberals, and moderates. Interestingly, the mediation effect of SNS political talk was substantially larger among liberals than among conservatives or moderates (i.e. a moderated mediation effect), while the effect of offline political talk was consistent across all three ideological groups. This study demonstrates that the electoral mobilization effect of SNSs is ideology-dependent, and is particularly based on the mismatch between SNS users’ political ideology and the current government's political orientation. Implications and limitations of the study are also discussed.