title: The impact of culture on women's leadership in Vanuatu secondary schools

authors: Warsal, Daisy

subjects: Educational leadership

abstract: The government of Vanuatu ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1995. Following the ratification, Gender Equity in Education Policy was developed in 2005 by the Ministry of Education of Vanuatu. One of the objectives was to increase the number of women principals. However, recent statistics on women in educational leadership in Vanuatu show a decline in the number of women principals. The low percentage of women in educational leadership in the secondary schools of Vanuatu indicates that gender equity in educational leadership is still far from being achieved.

This study looks at how Vanuatu culture affects women's leadership in secondary schools and identifies ways in which women's leadership might be developed. Qualitative methods were employed to study the experiences of six women leaders and five aspiring women leaders in several Vanuatu secondary schools. The findings from the study indicate three main areas inherent in Vanuatu culture that significantly impact upon the leadership practices of the participants. The findings reveal the existence of entrenched cultural barriers in the education system, in the social structures of Vanuatu and in the attitudes of individual men, women and some students towards women leaders. These barriers, it seems, are the major impediments to women's advancement in educational leadership in Vanuatu secondary schools.

text: The impact of culture on women's leadership in Vanuatu secondary schools The government of Vanuatu ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1995. Following the ratification, Gender Equity in Education Policy was developed in 2005 by the Ministry of Education of Vanuatu. One of the objectives was to increase the number of women principals. However, recent statistics on women in educational leadership in Vanuatu show a decline in the number of women principals. The low percentage of women in educational leadership in the secondary schools of Vanuatu indicates that gender equity in educational leadership is still far from being achieved.

This study looks at how Vanuatu culture affects women's leadership in secondary schools and identifies ways in which women's leadership might be developed. Qualitative methods were employed to study the experiences of six women leaders and five aspiring women leaders in several Vanuatu secondary schools. The findings from the study indicate three main areas inherent in Vanuatu culture that significantly impact upon the leadership practices of the participants. The findings reveal the existence of entrenched cultural barriers in the education system, in the social structures of Vanuatu and in the attitudes of individual men, women and some students towards women leaders. These barriers, it seems, are the major impediments to women's advancement in educational leadership in Vanuatu secondary schools.

year: 2009

title: Interface design strategies for computer-assisted speech transcription

authors: Luz, Saturnino

subjects: computer science

abstract: A set of user interface design techniques for computer-assisted speech transcription are presented and evaluated with respect to task performance and usability. These techniques include error-correction mechanisms which originated in dictation systems and audio editors as well as new techniques developed by us which exploit specific characteristics of existing speech recognition technologies in order to facilitate transcription in settings that typically yield considerable recognition inaccuracy, such as when the speech to be transcribed was produced by different speakers. In particular, we describe a mechanism for dynamic propagation of user feedback which progressively adapts the system to different speakers and lexical contexts. Results of usability and performance evaluation trials indicate that feedback propagation, menu-based correction coupled with keyboard interaction and text-driven audio playback are positively perceived by users and result in improved transcript accuracy.

text: Interface design strategies for computer-assisted speech transcription A set of user interface design techniques for computer-assisted speech transcription are presented and evaluated with respect to task performance and usability. These techniques include error-correction mechanisms which originated in dictation systems and audio editors as well as new techniques developed by us which exploit specific characteristics of existing speech recognition technologies in order to facilitate transcription in settings that typically yield considerable recognition inaccuracy, such as when the speech to be transcribed was produced by different speakers. In particular, we describe a mechanism for dynamic propagation of user feedback which progressively adapts the system to different speakers and lexical contexts. Results of usability and performance evaluation trials indicate that feedback propagation, menu-based correction coupled with keyboard interaction and text-driven audio playback are positively perceived by users and result in improved transcript accuracy.

year: 2008

title: An ashy septingentenarian: the Kaharoa tephra turns 700 (with notes on its volcanological, archaeological, and historical importance)

authors: Lowe, David J.

abstract: Most of us are aware of the basaltic Tarawera eruption on 10th June 1886: the high toll on life (~120 people), landscape devastation, and loss of the Pink and White Terraces. But this was not the first time that Mt Tarawera produced an eruption of importance both to volcanology and human history. This edition of the GSNZ Newsletter marks the 700th anniversary of the Kaharoa eruption – its septingentenary to be precise – which occurred at Mt Tarawera in the winter of 1314 AD (± 12 years) (Hogg et al. 2003) (Fig. 1). The importance of the Kaharoa eruption is at least threefold. (1) It is the most recent rhyolite eruption in New Zealand, and the largest New Zealand eruption volumetrically of the last millennium. (2) The Kaharoa tephra is an important marker horizon in late Holocene stratigraphy and geoarchaeology (Lowe et al. 1998, 2000), and in particular helps to constrain the timing of settlement of early Polynesians in North Island (Newnham et al. 1998; Hogg et al. 2003; Lowe 2011). (3) There is a link between the soils that developed on the Kaharoa tephra, the animal ‘wasting’ disease known as ‘bush sickness’, and the birth of a government soil survey group as an independent organisation (Tonkin 2012).

text: An ashy septingentenarian: the Kaharoa tephra turns 700 (with notes on its volcanological, archaeological, and historical importance) Most of us are aware of the basaltic Tarawera eruption on 10th June 1886: the high toll on life (~120 people), landscape devastation, and loss of the Pink and White Terraces. But this was not the first time that Mt Tarawera produced an eruption of importance both to volcanology and human history. This edition of the GSNZ Newsletter marks the 700th anniversary of the Kaharoa eruption – its septingentenary to be precise – which occurred at Mt Tarawera in the winter of 1314 AD (± 12 years) (Hogg et al. 2003) (Fig. 1). The importance of the Kaharoa eruption is at least threefold. (1) It is the most recent rhyolite eruption in New Zealand, and the largest New Zealand eruption volumetrically of the last millennium. (2) The Kaharoa tephra is an important marker horizon in late Holocene stratigraphy and geoarchaeology (Lowe et al. 1998, 2000), and in particular helps to constrain the timing of settlement of early Polynesians in North Island (Newnham et al. 1998; Hogg et al. 2003; Lowe 2011). (3) There is a link between the soils that developed on the Kaharoa tephra, the animal ‘wasting’ disease known as ‘bush sickness’, and the birth of a government soil survey group as an independent organisation (Tonkin 2012).

year: 2014