title: 'Being' an educational leader in Choiseul Province in the Solomon Islands:  A case study of the context of leadership for principals and deputy principals.

authors: Sisiolo, John Lenga

subjects: Choiseul Province

abstract: The recent decentralisation of authority to the community high schools highlights the changing nature and role of school leadership in the Solomon Islands.  This study explores the context of school leadership for principals and deputy principals in the community high schools from the leader's perspectives. More specifically, what is it like 'being' an educational leader in the community high schools in the Choiseul province. This study attempts to describe the context of leadership using the leader's accounts of being in this role before and during their current school leadership position. 
This study was conducted as qualitative research and used a case study research approach. The school leaders of six community high schools of Choiseul province were participants in this study. Eleven school leaders, five principals and six deputy principals, took part in semi-structured interviews about the nature of their leadership context. The research question that acted as a guide to these interviews was:
What is it like 'being' a school leader in a Community High School in the Choiseul province?
Through semi-structured interviews with each participant, and the documents that were related to the school leader's position and role, the findings of this research raise a number of issues for those in leadership. This includes the impact of the remoteness and isolation that is seen as a major impediment to leadership preparation and ongoing professional development. The findings also showed that school leaders typically experienced an appointments procedure which was influenced by the local community. Since the community high schools were still being physically developed, the school's physical development was seen as a priority when it comes to the appointment. The research findings provide the basis for establishing policies and practices that might support and enable current and future school leaders in Choiseul in the future.

text: 'Being' an educational leader in Choiseul Province in the Solomon Islands:  A case study of the context of leadership for principals and deputy principals. The recent decentralisation of authority to the community high schools highlights the changing nature and role of school leadership in the Solomon Islands.  This study explores the context of school leadership for principals and deputy principals in the community high schools from the leader's perspectives. More specifically, what is it like 'being' an educational leader in the community high schools in the Choiseul province. This study attempts to describe the context of leadership using the leader's accounts of being in this role before and during their current school leadership position. 
This study was conducted as qualitative research and used a case study research approach. The school leaders of six community high schools of Choiseul province were participants in this study. Eleven school leaders, five principals and six deputy principals, took part in semi-structured interviews about the nature of their leadership context. The research question that acted as a guide to these interviews was:
What is it like 'being' a school leader in a Community High School in the Choiseul province?
Through semi-structured interviews with each participant, and the documents that were related to the school leader's position and role, the findings of this research raise a number of issues for those in leadership. This includes the impact of the remoteness and isolation that is seen as a major impediment to leadership preparation and ongoing professional development. The findings also showed that school leaders typically experienced an appointments procedure which was influenced by the local community. Since the community high schools were still being physically developed, the school's physical development was seen as a priority when it comes to the appointment. The research findings provide the basis for establishing policies and practices that might support and enable current and future school leaders in Choiseul in the future.

year: 2010

title: Limited role of climate change in extreme low rainfall associated with southern Madagascar food insecurity, 2019–21

authors: Harrington, Luke J.

abstract: Southern Madagascar recently experienced a severe food security crisis, made significantly worse by well below average rainfall from July 2019 to June 2021. This exceptional drought has affected a region with high pre-existing levels of vulnerability to food insecurity (subsistence agriculture and pastoralism in the region is rain-fed only), while impacts have been compounded further by COVID-19 restrictions and pest infestations. The rainy seasons of both 2019/20 and 2020/21 saw just 60% of normal rainfall across the Grand South region and was estimated as a 1-in-135 year dry event, only surpassed in severity by the devastating drought of 1990–92. Based on a combination of observations and climate modelling, the likelihood of experiencing such poor rains in the region was not significantly increased due to human-caused climate change: while the observations and models combine to indicate a small shift toward more droughts like the 2019–2021 event as a consequence of climate change, these trends remain overwhelmed by natural variability. This result is consistent with previous research, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s Sixth Assessment Report concluding that any perceptible changes in drought will only emerge in this region if global mean temperatures exceed 2 °C above pre-industrial levels.

text: Limited role of climate change in extreme low rainfall associated with southern Madagascar food insecurity, 2019–21 Southern Madagascar recently experienced a severe food security crisis, made significantly worse by well below average rainfall from July 2019 to June 2021. This exceptional drought has affected a region with high pre-existing levels of vulnerability to food insecurity (subsistence agriculture and pastoralism in the region is rain-fed only), while impacts have been compounded further by COVID-19 restrictions and pest infestations. The rainy seasons of both 2019/20 and 2020/21 saw just 60% of normal rainfall across the Grand South region and was estimated as a 1-in-135 year dry event, only surpassed in severity by the devastating drought of 1990–92. Based on a combination of observations and climate modelling, the likelihood of experiencing such poor rains in the region was not significantly increased due to human-caused climate change: while the observations and models combine to indicate a small shift toward more droughts like the 2019–2021 event as a consequence of climate change, these trends remain overwhelmed by natural variability. This result is consistent with previous research, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s Sixth Assessment Report concluding that any perceptible changes in drought will only emerge in this region if global mean temperatures exceed 2 °C above pre-industrial levels.

year: 2022-12-01

title: Audiences, referees, and landscapes: Understanding the use of Māori and English in New Zealand dual language picturebooks through a sociolinguistic lens

authors: Daly, Nicola

abstract: When non-dominant perspectives are represented in children's literature, it is labelled multicultural, and this form of literature has much potential for altering existing power structures in society. Bishop (1990) first introduced the metaphor of multicultural children's literature offering the possibility of windows - an opportunity to see into others' worlds; mirrors - an opportunity to see your own world being reflected back; and glass sliding doors - an opportunity to step into a world through a book. However, to date, any exploration of the extent to which language diversity contributes to the representation of non-dominant perspectives in multicultural children's literature has been limited, and the use of sociolinguistic theories to frame and theorise such explorations almost non-existent.

text: Audiences, referees, and landscapes: Understanding the use of Māori and English in New Zealand dual language picturebooks through a sociolinguistic lens When non-dominant perspectives are represented in children's literature, it is labelled multicultural, and this form of literature has much potential for altering existing power structures in society. Bishop (1990) first introduced the metaphor of multicultural children's literature offering the possibility of windows - an opportunity to see into others' worlds; mirrors - an opportunity to see your own world being reflected back; and glass sliding doors - an opportunity to step into a world through a book. However, to date, any exploration of the extent to which language diversity contributes to the representation of non-dominant perspectives in multicultural children's literature has been limited, and the use of sociolinguistic theories to frame and theorise such explorations almost non-existent.

year: 2017