In search of meaningful assessment in the university curriculum: the case for culturally relevant pedagogy

ABSTRACT

The poor performance of Pacific students at university is a concern for every level of society. Conventional models of teaching, learning and assessment have overlooked the cultural background of students, yet the effects of this oversight have been disastrous, alienating and disempowering. Studies of and developments in education in the Pacific and elsewhere offer opportunities to rethink the methods of teaching, learning and assessment of Pacific students in ways that are congruent with their home culture. Informed by the principle of so’a lau pule (the Samoan concept of consensus through consultation and conversation) and ethnographic research methods, this study describes an attempt to rethink ways of teaching, learning and assessing student performance in a third-year course on Resource Conservation and Management in the School of Geography, Earth Science and Environment at the University of the South Pacific. Introduced in 2007, the Student Innovative Contribution to Knowledge (SICK) allows students to participate in key decisions concerning teaching, learning and assessment. SICK is grounded in the principles of inclusiveness and participation. It takes account of the skills and abilities of Pacific students and is aligned with the philosophical basis of Pacific cultures. One hundred and fifty-eight students took part in this study over a 5-year period. Analysis was based on students’ written reviews of the semester’s work, in-depth conversation with individual students and the end-of-the-course evaluation. The findings show that, while students embrace the need for non-conventional forms of teaching, learning and assessment, the most frequently cited responses for non-participation are poor time management and varying perceptions of what is considered an innovative assessment. This study shows that understanding the cultural background of students is critical to creating culturally inclusive learning environments.     

Finding Common Ground: A Critique of Subsumption Theory and Its Application to Small-Scale Forest Carbon Offsetting in Uganda

Carbon markets as a policy tool to mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases continue to be controversial, especially in developing countries. It is thus refreshing that Carton and Andersson (2017 Carton, W., and E. Andersson. 2017. Where forest carbon meets its maker: Forestry-based offsetting as the subsumption of nature. Society &; Natural Resources 30 (7):829–43.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) undertook a field investigation of a transnational forest carbon offset project in Uganda. However, I am concerned that assumptions of structural Marxism that underwrite subsumption theory may have led the authors to see the project as inherently conflict ridden and exploitative and to neglect actual benefits. Their presentation of the project’s local impact jarred with my own empirical research into this project, undertaken in 2009, as well as more recent news accounts. While my field effort preceded the authors’ by 6 years, I attribute our different interpretations largely to theoretical and methodological differences. Evidence I present below suggests considerable alignment between the interests of transnational carbon markets and Ugandan smallholder farmers. Additional fieldwork might be able to resolve these differences in interpretation.     

Developing and Sequencing Community Engagement and Experiential Education: A Case Study of Urban Geography Teaching and Research

Community engagement curricula and course design can provide substantial experiences for both community members and participating students. Using a case study approach, this research focuses on four steps in this process: initial community relationship forming, engaging in community service, transitioning to civic engagement, and developing a community-based research program. Narrative examples from student course evaluations position these community-based experiences as transformative for multiple parties. Institutional structures are presented as helpful entrees to engagement for students, while noting that community relationships provide contextualized, powerful, and meaningful relationships, supporting recommendations for emerging and existing community engagement programs.     

Measuring Community and University Impacts of Critical Civic Geography: Insights from Chicago

Geographers have increasingly adopted community-based learning and research into their teaching and scholarly activities since Bunge and Harvey called for an applied public geography that is both useful and challenges societal inequalities. With few exceptions, however, there has been little discussion of methods for measuring this work. Many published assessments focus on the impacts of projects on students but overlook the impacts on community partners. Impacts on faculty and the larger university community are also often ignored. This article discusses literature on the evaluation of community–university research and service learning from a critical perspective. A discussion of service learning and community-based research (CBR) projects at two Chicago universities, DePaul and Chicago State, is presented. In both cases challenges were encountered to achieve full evaluation of projects, yet both included an evaluation of university and community partners that allowed for assessment of the projects’ value to all partners.     

Combining low-carbon economic development and oil exploration in Brazil? An energy–economy assessment

Brazil's nationally determined contribution (NDC) pledged under the Paris Agreement has marked a new stage in its climate policy towards strengthening low-carbon economic development beyond the recent drastic cuts in emissions from deforestation. Brazil especially means to limit oil consumption driven by future economic growth and to increase energy efficiency and biofuel use in the transport sector. On the other hand, Brazil still aspires to become a major petroleum province given its huge reserves of ‘pre-salt’ oil. This article aims to clarify under what conditions low-carbon economic development and oil exploration can possibly be combined in Brazil and what would be the energy system, environmental and macroeconomic implications of enabling policies for doing so. To address these questions, an energy–economy computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Brazilian economy is used to simulate alternative scenarios up to 2030. The results first show that implementing the most recent energy plans, which take into account the new economic reality in Brazil, should lead to over 20% lower domestic CO₂ emissions in 2030 than the indicative NDC target, and to the export of the bulk of newfound crude oil. Second, with the same level of oil production, deeper domestic decarbonization, triggered by additional carbon pricing and sustainable efficiency measures, appears achievable with very small gross domestic product (GDP) loss and maximum oil exports, while being aligned with a 2°C emission pathway. However, (i) extra oil exports may induce net additional emissions outside Brazil and be seen as a perverse incentive and (ii) the economic growth strategy based on high oil exports may hinder the necessary diversification of the Brazilian economy.

Key policy insights

• Low-carbon development goals will strongly interact with oil policy in Brazil.

• The 2030 NDC target should be easy to achieve considering the new economic reality in Brazil.

• Deeper domestic decarbonization is achievable with very limited GDP loss and significant oil exports, while being aligned with a 2°C emission pathway.

• A broad strategic vision is needed to reconcile climate policy, energy policy and other economic development objectives.

     

Carbon pricing in practice: a review of existing emissions trading systems

This article analyses the implementation of emissions trading systems (ETSs) in eight jurisdictions: the EU, Switzerland, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and California in the US, Québec in Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and pilot schemes in China. The article clarifies what is working, what isn’t and why, when it comes to the practice of implementing an ETS. The eight ETSs are evaluated against five main criteria: environmental effectiveness, economic efficiency, market management, revenue management and stakeholder engagement. Within each of these categories, ETS attributes ? including abatement cost, stringency of the cap, improved allocation practices over time and the trajectory of price stability ? are assessed for each system. Institutional learning, administrative prudence, appropriate carbon revenue management and stakeholder engagement are identified as key ingredients for successful ETS regimes. Recent implementation of ETSs in regions including California, Québec and South Korea indicates significant institutional learning from prior systems, especially the EU ETS, with these regions implementing more robust administrative and regulatory structures suitable for handling unique national and sub-national opportunities and constraints. The analysis also shows that there is potential for a ‘double dividend’ in emissions reductions even with a modest carbon price, provided the cap tightens over time and a portion of the auctioned revenues are reinvested in other emissions-reduction activities. Knowledge gaps exist in understanding the interaction of pricing instruments with other climate policy instruments and how governments manage these policies to achieve optimum emissions reductions with lower administrative costs.

Key policy insights

• Countries are learning from each other on ETS implementation.

• Administrative and regulatory structures of ETS jurisdictions appear to evolve and become more robust in every ETS analysed.

• A ‘double dividend’ for emissions reductions may also exist in cases where mitigation occurs as a result of the ETS policy and when auction revenues are reinvested in other emissions-reduction activities.

     

广西区域经济极化时空格局研究

采用差异系数、极化指数并结合ESDA技术方法,对2004—2014年广西区域经济极化的演变趋势进行研究。11年中,广西整体经济极化程度呈增长趋势,以低水平极化为主;增长重心由东北部向中部移动,南宁、北海和柳州形成经济极化"三角区",经济落后区域从东南部转移到西北部,整体呈现"西低—中高—东低"的空间格局;大多数县域与周边区域的空间关联程度较小,离所倡导的区域化的经济发展模式还有一段距离。     

基于CiteSpace中国海洋经济研究的知识图谱分析

利用CiteSpace可视化文献分析工具对1982~2013年CNKI总库中文核心期刊以及CSSCI中文社会科学引文数据库中海洋经济研究的3 441篇相关文献进行分析,绘制出研究热点、核心作者群及研究机构的知识结构图谱。结果表明：自中国海洋经济研究会成立以来,中国海洋经济研究主要围绕 “海洋经济”、“海洋产业”、“可持续发展”、“海洋资源”、“海洋开发”、“滨海旅游”等展开;韩增林、张耀光、郑贵斌、殷克东、李靖宇、徐志斌等是主要的发文作者;国家海洋局、中国海洋大学、辽宁师范大学和广东海洋大学为发文较多的机构;《海洋开发与管理》是海洋经济相关研究载文量最多的期刊,《经济地理》、《中国人口·资源与环境》、《地域研究与开发》、《资源科学》等是主要的载文核心期刊。除了传统的海洋经济研究视角下,区域海洋经济差异、海洋产业结构与布局及优化、海洋产业竞争力、海洋产业集群、现代海洋产业、海洋资源开发利用的可持续、人海关系的脆弱性、滨海旅游等的研究外,在新的国际和国内形势下,海洋经济相关理论、战略性新兴海洋产业研究、海洋经济可持续发展研究、及“一路一带”战略对海洋经济相关研究的新要求也是需要重点关注的方面。     

东北现象再解析和东北振兴预判研究——对影响国土空间开发保护格局变化稳定因素的初探

从“东北现象”的新近表现,提出影响国土空间开发保护格局变化的3个稳定因素：资源环境承载能力、地缘关系、文化和体制机制。分别对3个稳定因素在东北地区的特征状况进行了解析,结果表明东北资源环境承载能力本底强,但开发利用效益不佳,突出表现在优化开发区和重点开发区面积过小、限制性开发区收益较低、资源环境承载力预警超载低;位于全球三大经济圈之一的东北亚核心区,地缘优势突出,但未能转换为经济优势,突出表现为外向型经济比重过小、对日韩贸易地位不凸显;文化和体制机制成为限制东北地区发展的核心障碍,突出表现在产业结构不合理、国有经济比重过高。以五大发展理念为指引,结合东北振兴的问题导向,着重对东北地区提高科技创新能力解决发展驱动力的转型、创新国有企业改革模式和促进多种所有制经济协调发展、围绕“一带一路”战略实现开放经济的转型以及腾出国内市场促进东北优势产业继续保持活力、以共享发展理念消除城市贫困增进东北地区民生福祉、采取经济社会生态效益相统一的原则实现东北地区按照主体功能定位进行发展等开展预判研究。     

基于智能物联网技术的天津城市积水监测预警系统

通过智能物联网技术实时获取积水监测实况数据,利用天津市气象精细化格点预报产品和城市自动雨量观测站实况数据,以机器学习、神经网络模型和天津市城市内涝风险等级划分原理为基础,研究基于用户实时位置的城市内涝预报预警技术,研发天津市城市自动化积水监测预警系统。结果表明,该系统具备一定的城市内涝风险监测预警预报能力,并在2018—2020年多次重大天气过程中应用,积水深度预报结果与监测结果基本一致,应用数据表明验证结果良好,系统可以为政府防灾减灾决策、指挥调度提供精准、及时的气象数据支撑。