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Edwards, LaWanda Cobia Debra C. "Accountability practices of school counselors." Auburn, Ala, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10415/1715.
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Ort, Jennifer Ann. "Accountability among baccalaureate nursing students| Definitions, perceptions, and engagement practices of accountability." Thesis, Sage Graduate School, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10257944.
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To ensure optimal patient care an especially high level of accountability is required when entering the workforce. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore, describe, and define perceptions of accountability as described by sophomore and senior nursing students in two baccalaureate nursing programs. The research questions aimed to (a) define what it means to be accountable as a student in general and a nursing student in particular (b) describe the importance of accountability to the profession of nursing (c) describe the circumstances and conditions that demand accountability, and (d) engage in actions that promote self-accountability. After obtaining IRB approval, the researcher explained the study to the sophomore and senior nursing students who agreed to participate in the research. Eighteen participants were interviewed.
Six questions were asked during interviews conducted to investigate perceptions of accountability. Content analysis was used to discern the essence of the narratives, from which nine themes emerged. The nine themes identified are: Difficulty defining accountability and the interchangeable use of the terms; accountability and responsibility; emerging knowledge; focus on work of nursing; student attention to tasks and outcomes; motivation/self-discipline; student stress and sources of stress; conditions for accountability and responsibility, and faculty actions; and promoting self-accountability and accountability to others.
Study findings suggested that this group of students understood the importance of accountability but were unable to verbalize a definition, often confusing accountability with responsibility. Students perceived that faculty played a role in their academic success; students also promoted accountability in faculty and in peers who were less successful academically.
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Topdemir, Cindy M. "School Counselor Accountability Practices: A National Study." Scholar Commons, 2010. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3706.
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This study focused on school counselor accountability practices. The role of the
school counselor is changing and the need to be more accountable is now here. This study
attempted to answer several critical questions regarding school counselor accountability.
It examined the degree to which school counselors use accountability measures, to what
extent they believed certain accountability practices were deemed helpful to their school
counseling program, and what they believed their barriers were. Accountability is a “hot”
topic in present school counseling literature; but little research has been done up to this
point investigating these issues related to school counselor accountability nor school
counselors’ perceptions and beliefs about them. This study attempted to delve into those
perceptions and beliefs.
Participants were members of state school counseling associations from across the
United States. Three hundred seventy-five school counselors participated. Of those,
70.2% were currently using accountability practices. A total of 47.4% of the participants
report presently being required to implement accountability practices. The most
frequently reported barrier to accountability practices was that it was “too time
consuming.” The most frequently reported type of assistance desired from professional
organizations or university programs was training. Support was reported most frequently
as the type of assistance desired from school systems. Results from other analyses are
also included. Limitations, implications, and suggestions for further research are
provided.
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Abayo, Abdiel Gershom. "The accountability and corporate disclosure practices in Tanzania." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.260010.
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Ismail, Sherif. "Accountability practices of Islamic banks : a stakeholders' perspective." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/4256.
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This study explores the concept of accountability in Islamic Banks (IB), which may achieve through disclosure. It aims to measuring the bank’s disclosure levels which contains Sharia, Social and Financial (SSF) as well as determinants and consequences of this disclosure. It moreover aims to identify the gap between Islamic banks’ board and stakeholders concerned with the accountabilities priorities of IBs. To achieve these objectives the researcher conducted six empirical studies. The first three empirical studies uses content analysis to measuring compliance level with Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) standards as well as measuring the and sharia, social and financial disclosure (SSFD). It furthermore adopts Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) to identify the determinants of SSF reporting related to firm characteristics and corporate governance of Board of Directors (BOD) and Sharia Supervisory Board (SSB). The fourth empirical study uses the same method (manual content analysis) and OLS to measuring the economic consequences of SSFD on the firm value through testing the impacts of disclosure on market capitalization and return on assets. The fifth empirical study adopts questionnaire as well as Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to measures the non-economic consequences of SSFD though surveying the perceptions of stakeholders who deal with IBs about the increasing SSFD on loyalty; trust and satisfaction. Finally, the sixth empirical study uses questionnaire to explore the consequences of SSF practices on the perceptions 600 stakeholders who deal with IBs and non-customers who do not deal with IBs. Highlighting the distinctions between economic and non-economic consequences of disclosure in the study enables the researcher to obtain greater insights into the implications of SSF reporting. Moreover, exploring accountability practices from different viewpoints (management, stakeholders and non-customers) and based on different methods (content analysis and questionnaire) allows the researcher to obtain greater insights into IBs accountabilities’ practices. This study provides several interesting findings. With regard to the disclosure and compliance levels, the study finds a variation between IBs in the number of SSFs disclosed, with a notably low level of non-financial reporting (Sharia and social). It also finds high compliance level with AAOIFI standards related to financial and Sharia reporting and low compliance levels with social reporting requirements. Concerning with the determinants of disclosure; the analysis shows positive significant association of disclosure levels with existing Sharia auditing department; auditor; size and profitability. It also finds that corporate governance mechanisms play an important role in improving SSF reporting. The analysis indicates that corporate governance mechanism of board of directors (BOD) as well as Sharia supervisory board (SSB) are the main determinants behind the disclosure levels for IBs such as SSB size, SSB reputation; BOD independence, duality in position and ownership structure. Concerned with the economic consequences of disclosure, the study finds that Sharia, social and overall disclosures have a positive impact on Firm Value (FV) based on the accounting-based measure (ROA). It moreover finds that Sharia and overall disclosure has a positive significant impact on the FV based on market-based measure (Market Capitalization). It argues that the association between disclosure and FV is sensitive to the category of disclosure and the proxy employed for FV. Consequently, the study provides evidence that the SSF disclosures not derived from the same factors, and both have a different impact on firm value. With regard to the non-economic consequences of disclosure, the results indicate that there is a significant association between disclosure and stakeholders’ trust, satisfaction, and loyalty. The results furthermore indicate that there is a partial mediating of trust and satisfaction in the relationship between disclosure and loyalty. A pyramid of IBs’ accountabilities from stakeholders’ perspectives shows the importance of Sharia, then financial and social accountability for both stakeholders and non-customers. It moreover shows that the main criterion of stakeholder’s selection of IBs was Sharia, financial then social factors. Stakeholders who deal with IBs are satisfied about the practices of these banks. Both of groups believe that IBs may guide by Sharia, financial then social objectives. The results identifies gap between the orientation of IBs’ board based on the disclosure and orientation of stakeholders and non-customers based on their perceptions towards SSF accountability. The main originality for this study is measuring SSFD for most of Islamic banks around the world from different perspectives and methods as well as identifies the main determinants and consequences of this disclosure. These results have several implications for regulators, policy makers, managers, IBs, investors, FASB and AAOIFI. For instance, the present study has revealed that disclosure of SSFs - especially non-financial ones - was limited in many annual reports as well as websites. Therefore, regulatory bodies may identify a minimum level of SSFs to publish by each IB. The study has crucial implications to how IBs may improve its Sharia compliance disclosures to create a competitive advantage. The present study is one of the first to investigate the determinants and consequences for SSF disclosure for IBs based on a holistic model. Moreover, the current study is one of the first to investigate the non-economic consequences for corporate disclosure. The current study has some limitations, in either sample or data; disclosure indices; approach; or in its research methodology, which have to consider as potential avenues for future research.
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Williamson, Tankiya L. "Exploring Perceptions of Accountability Practices Used in Social Services." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/4823.
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As required by the Government Performance Results Act of 1993, the use of performance measurements in social service organizations to measure outcome data has increased expectations of efficient outcomes in service delivery. This study addressed the problem of inefficient service delivery in nonprofit human service organizations from the perspective of direct service staff responsible for service provision. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how direct service staff in nonprofit organizations perceive their individual contributions to the overall goal of providing efficient quality service. Principal agent theory framed the inquiry regarding how direct service staff working in nonprofit human service organizations perceive the nature and value of using performance measurements as required by law. Data were collected from 5 direct service workers through semi-structured interviews and analyzed for content themes using Ethnograph software. The results of this study indicated direct service workers perceive organizational efficiency related to how well they do their jobs and not overall at the organizational level. In addition, participants identified job training and more open communication with management to understand how organizational level goals would be valued to do their jobs effectively. This study contributes to social change by informing those who develop nonprofit human services policy and practice of the potential for further staff training curriculum and improvements to the organizational accountability culture.
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Conlin, Brad. "INGO Performance Management Practices and the Need for Accountability." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/32143.
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This study provides a comprehensive look at the current state of best practices in performance appraisal systems in the public and private sector. From this, the main objective for this research paper is to investigate the reasons why INGOs are not currently able to properly implement a ‘best practices’ based performance appraisal system. Furthermore, this paper will provide both future research questions, as well as practitioner based recommendations. In addition, it will examine the need for higher levels of accountability in INGOs through appropriate performance appraisal systems.
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Zakaria, Zamzulaila. "The practices of managing performance : accounting, accountability and cultural practices in a privatised pharmaceutical organisation." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2011. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/49226/.
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This study seeks to understand the practices of managing performance in a privatised pharmaceutical organisation. In particular, it examines the interplay of accounting, accountability and cultural practices in the everyday practices of managing performance in the organisation. Based on an intensive field study of five months, an ethnographic approach was selected and data collected through observations, interviews and reviews of documents. Drawing on practice theory, this thesis provides an insight into how accounting as part of the constituents of organisational control systems was implicated in the practices of managing dual accountability, cultural change and the process of goal alignment. Contrary to the notion that accounting is mainly associated with the exercise of hierarchical accountability, the case illustrates practical and general understandings of accounting were enacted through socialising accountability. Additionally, it describes the way in which accounting and strategising were implicated in the practices of managing dual accountability in the organisation. In light of the implementation of KPIs in the organisation, the mesh of accounting and other organisational practices are explored, the consequences of which are explained in two findings. Firstly, the study argues that the coexistence of change and stability of accounting practices is the outcome of the interplay between agency and subcultural practices. This study suggests that subculture resides in practices, which influences the way in which accounting is used in the organisation. Secondly, the thesis discusses the uses of performance measurement in managing the interdependence of practices and to promote goal alignment. The implementation of the management programme and the change of organisational structure are illustrative of the process through which accounting and non-accounting control relate in the process of goal alignment.
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Handayani, Wuri. "Accountability and governance practices in Islamic microfinance institutions : evidence from Indonesia." Thesis, University of Hull, 2015. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:16433.
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This thesis presents an explanatory analysis of the accountability and governance practices within Islamic microfinance institutions in Indonesia, adopting Bourdieu’s theory of practice with the triad of concepts of field, capital and habitus. This study is based on the argument that accountability and governance are socially and subjectively constructed through internal and external mechanisms. The internal mechanism includes the organisational history and its culture, while the external factor is the context in which the organisation operates. The concept of field is a guide to achieving the first research objective in examining the historical development of the Islamic microfinance sector in Indonesia. The changes and developments within the field are the external factors that affect the construction of accountability and governance practices within selected Islamic microfinance institutions in Indonesia (IIMFIs). The historical research method is deemed the most appropriate to provide a narrative history of the development of the field. This was done by interviewing and analysing the secondary data of journal research relating to Indonesia’s socio-political situation over the period, the initiative on microfinance services, the Islamic resurgence movement and the financial reforms. The findings demonstrate that the development of the Islamic microfinance sector is inseparable from the socio-economic and political situation in Indonesia. Therefore, the field of Islamic microfinance is dynamic rather than static: it changes and develops over time. Furthermore, the concept of capital and habitus helps to achieve the second research objective, to examine the construction and re-construction of accountability and governance within selected IMFIs in Indonesia: BMT A and BTM B. The internal factors of the growth of various types of capital (economic, culture, social and symbolic), imbued by the organisational habitus, constructed the accountability and governance practices. Such practices are developed over the period corresponding to the different stages of organisational growth. Both institutions have evolved from small pilot projects into two of the biggest IIMFIs in Indonesia by developing their own mechanisms of accountability and governance to ensure their capability to continue their operations in the future. This study offers a unique lens for exploring, in a specific context, the construction of accountability and governance practices, the dynamic aspects of which traditional governance theories are unable to explain.
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Hay, Aletha Adell. "The mediating influence of internal accountability systems on teachers' assessment practices." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/29219.
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This collective case study explores the nature of internal accountability systems in two elementary schools situated within a provincial-level accountability agenda using large-scale performance testing to ensure both school accountability and professional learning. The purpose of this mixed model study was threefold: first, to explore the components and strength of internal accountability systems and the interactive dynamics with the external system; second, to identify key environmental factors that impacted the school-based systems; and third, to reveal the influence these internal forums had on teachers' assessment practices. Multiple theoretical lenses informed the conceptual framework used to analyze the policy to practice connections in the restructuring educational system.
The study findings reveal several observations. First, internal accountability systems should possess five components including aims, information on school performance, a standard of achievement, person(s) who judge school performance, and mechanisms to guide and monitor teachers' practices. The presence of all five components suggests that strong internal accountability systems were in place in the two schools. Second, two environmental factors impacting these systems were large-scale performance tests and professional leadership. There is indication that the design of the testing program minimized unintended negative effects linked with public reports and that school leadership was instrumental in mobilizing support for school improvement and professional learning. Third, the study also describes the relationship between the internal and external systems nested within the province's standards-based reform initiative. The findings unpack the compatibility between the instruments and strategies of the school-level systems and those of the state-level system, lending support for the proposition that external oversight contributes to school-based ownership for proactive change. Finally, the study findings illuminate how internal accountability systems mediated teachers' practices and supported the development of collegial assessment practices. The findings lend support for the position that the dual aims of accountability and professional learning are enabled when internal accountability systems are facilitated by a professionally oriented external policy environment.
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DeVoe, Shawna. "K-4 Teachers' Perceptions of Teacher Instructional Leadership Practices." University of Akron / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1395128452.
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Rahman, Abdul Rahim Abdul. "An interpretative inquiry into accounting practices in Islamic organisations in Malaysia." Thesis, University of Southampton, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.264996.
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Dewi, Miranti. "An in-depth case study of beneficiary accountability practices by an Indonesian NGO." Thesis, Aston University, 2017. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/33383/.
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This study aims to build an understanding of beneficiary accountability, including defining the term, the operational mechanisms through which it is discharged, the processes that enable such practice and the consequences that result from those processes. To achieve the aim, a qualitative case study design is adopted and a rich fieldwork carried out in an Indonesian NGO to gather empirical evidences via 46 interviews, five focus groups and field observations. Framed by Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998)’s three dimensions of social capital (cognitive, structural and relational), this study shows that social capital acts as both an antecedent factor facilitating the discharge of beneficiary accountability, and also as its consequence. The study thus makes a theoretical contribution to social capital literature while also addressing Inkpen and Tsang (2005)’s call for research to examine interaction effects among the three dimensions of social capital, particularly within NGO accountability context. Moreover, the discharge of beneficiary accountability, as understood by participants in this study, can be viewed as the non-procedural practice of positioning beneficiaries as the central focus of an NGO’s activities, whether in delivering provisions and assistance, disclosing financial information or strategically empowering beneficiaries to become self-reliant. This investigation into what constitutes beneficiary accountability serves as a critical path to shedding light on the operationalisation of beneficiary accountability. It also enables this study to respond to recent calls (e.g. by Banks, Hulme, & Edwards, 2015; Boomsma & O'Dwyer, 2014; Schmitz, Raggo, & Vijfeijken, 2012) for a more comprehensive understanding of beneficiary accountability practices. Additionally, practitioners working in NGOs may also derive benefits from this study as it provides empirical evidence for them to reflect on their commitment to beneficiaries as the very reason for their work, allowing them to be inspired by a comprehensive discussion of the mechanisms through which accountability is discharged to beneficiaries.
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Mantovani, Nadia. "Identity work, moral accountability and food mothering practices in narrative of black teenaged mothers." Thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.521408.
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Jackson, Walter G. Beckner Weldon. "Perceptions, management practices, instructional programs and resources frequently used by urban school principals to meet the requirements of school accountability." Waco, Tex. : Baylor University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2104/4199.
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Sha'ven, Widin Bongasu. "A study of accounting and accountability practices in microfinance institutions (MFIs) : case evidence from Cameroon." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2015. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/6008/.
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Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) play important roles in socio-economic development and poverty alleviation particularly in developing countries. It has however been argued that the focus of MFIs is changing from the traditional purely social to commercial (mission drift) and has been criticised for neglecting the welfare of citizens and grassroots accountability in favour of commercialisation and accountability to donors/shareholders. This mission drift has resulted in changes in the structure and practices of MFIs. The study has been designed to examine how the accounting and accountability practices of a MFI can change in response to changes in its mission. The study presents case evidence from a large MFI operating in Cameroon with data collected through semi-structured interviews, informal discussions and documents. The study traces the evolution of the organisation and its accounting and accountability practices. A theoretical framework of an interpretive nature is used which draws on institutional entrepreneurship theory in order to highlight the importance of actors in the change process. The findings suggest a mission drift and transformations over the years from a social to a commercial organisation with the change impacting significantly on its structure and accounting and accountability practices.
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Schey, Ryan Andrew. "Youth's queer-focused activism in a secondary classroom: Pedagogy, (un)sanctioned literacy practices, and accountability." The Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1521558506221929.
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Atkins, Rosa Stocks. "School Practices and Student Achievement." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/29565.
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After implementing a statewide standardized testing program in 1998, the Virginia Department of Education realized that some schools were making great gains in student achievement while other schools continued to struggle. The Department conducted a study to identify the practices used by schools showing improvement. Six effective practice domains were identified. The current study was a follow-up to the research conducted by the Virginia Department of Education.
A questionnaire measuring the six effective practice domains: (a) curriculum alignment, (b) time and scheduling, (c) use of data, (d) professional development, (e) school culture, and (f) leadership was administered to teachers in 148 schools in Virginia; 80 schools participated. Two questions guided the study: (1) How frequently do schools use the Virginia Department of Education effective practices, and (2) what is the relationship between the use of the effective practices and school pass rates on the 3rd grade 2005 Standards of Learning (SOL) reading test? Descriptive statistics, linear regression, and discriminant function analysis were applied to explore the relationships between the predictor variables (percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch and the use of the effective practices) and the criterion variable (school pass rate on the 2005 SOL 3rd grade reading test). Academic culture and the percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch accounted for significant amounts of the variance in school pass rates. The remaining five effective practice measures were not related to school pass rates. The measures may have affected the results. In most cases, one person was used as the proxy for the school, and this person may have provided a biased assessment of what was happening in the school.Ed. D.
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McCallister, Frank F. "Evaluation of the inventory and accountability practices of common support equipment throughout Pacific and Atlantic Fleets." Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 1997. http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA333418.
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Thesis (M.S. in Systems Management) Naval Postgraduate School, March 1997.Thesis advisors, Donald R. Eaton, James G. Taylor, Gordon R. Nakagawa. Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-82). Also available online.
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Parsa, Sepideh, Ian Roper, Michael Muller-Camen, and Eva Szigetvari. "Have labour practices and human rights disclosures enhanced corporate accountability? The case of the GRI framework." Elsevier, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2018.01.001.
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This paper critically evaluates Transnational Corporations' (TNCs) claimed adherence to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)'s "labour" and "human rights" reporting guidelines and examines how successful the GRI has been in enhancing comparability and transparency. We found limited evidence of TNCs discharging their accountability to their workforce and, rather, we found evidence to suggest that disclosure was motivated more by enhancing their legitimacy. TNCs failed to adhere to the guidelines, which meant that material information items were often missing, rendering comparability of information meaningless. Instead, TNCs reported large volumes of generic/anecdotal information without acknowledging the impediments they faced in practice.
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Yasmin, Sofia. "An exploration of the accountability practices of Muslim charity organisations in the UK : a legitimacy perspective." Thesis, University of Hull, 2014. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:8624.
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This thesis presents an exploratory analysis into the communicated and lived accountability practices of Muslim charity organisations in the UK, utilising Suchman’s perspective on legitimacy and the Islamic theoretical framework. Communicated accountability was explored by examining the extent to which Muslim charity organisation’s [MCO’s] trustee annual reports [TARs] comply with the narrative elements of the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) 2005 through a comparative analysis with the TARs of Christian charity organisations [CCO]. 123 CCO TARs and 238 MCO TARs were analysed. This part of the research sought to understand how MCOs managed their pragmatic legitimacy. Findings from this stage of the study suggest CCOs and larger charities of both groups of RCOs provide more disclosure and better quality TARS, RCOs do not disclose the whole range of accountability as required by the SORP framework, none of the MCOs provided any disclosure in relation to how their zakah or waqf funds have been distributed and there was evidence of complacency by external examiners and account preparers. Lived accountability was explored using a qualitative approach. Interviews with 18 trustees, senior executive, management and charity personnel of the eight largest MCOs in the UK were undertaken. This stage of the research sought to understand how MCOs enacted accountability to achieve moral and cognitive legitimacy. It was found that functional accountability of MCOs and the subsequent moral legitimacy was linked to two core areas of accounting and auditing, and governance and oversight. A number of aspects were identified which either drove or impeded accountability in MCOs. Islamic religious values were found to be important aspects helping MCO members navigate cognitive legitimacy. This study provides a unique lens through which the theoretical analysis of accountability within religious organisations and charity organisations can be extended.
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Maloley, Karen Larsen. "Teachers' responses to mandated assessment case studies of teachers' assessment practices in elementary classrooms /." Diss., Connect to online resource - MSU authorized users, 2008.
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Lewis, Jonathan Leopold. "A study of the relationship between scheduling practices and selected Outcome Accountability Project indicators in Virginia high schools." W&M ScholarWorks, 1993. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539618360.
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Since the publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983, educational theorists and practitioners have begun to reevaluate the business of schooling in America. In Virginia, the Department of Education has instituted World Class Education (WCE), Common Core of Learning, and Outcome Accountability Project (OAP) initiatives in producing an educational system on par with systems internationally by developing curricula based upon perceived twenty-first century needs and by measuring school and division productivity based on student outcomes. It is likely that innovative school scheduling practices will play a critical role as school districts and individual schools begin to restructure their programs within the framework of these initiatives. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between scheduling practices and selected Outcome Accountability Project indicators in Virginia high schools. Subjects were 212 high school principals from a total of 265 high school principals in Virginia who responded to a mail survey consisting of a Scheduling Practices Questionnaire.;The evidence attained from a simple analysis of variance in this investigation supported the conclusions that there were no relationships found to exist between scheduling type and the four OAP indicators. Additionally, descriptive data revealed that since 1983 a large majority (83%) of respondents reported changes in their school schedule and that a significant number (33%) of principals reported that consideration is being given to future changes in schedule type. While it was not the primary intent of this study to investigate the relationship between location-specific factors and scheduling type, principals reported that two factors (school bus schedules and school board regulations) were deemed to be important influences on schedule development.;The practical significance of the findings is that although there tends to be little variation in present scheduling type in Virginia, there is an interest expressed by principals to change schedule type in the future. For this reason, though no relationship can presently be seen between scheduling type and student productivity, future changes may affect that finding. Also, the high rate of return and high rate of request for results of the study indicate a high degree of interest by principals in the scheduling topic.
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Sawandi, Norfaiezah. "Authentic, strategic and symbolic stakeholder engagement : an evaluation of CSR and accountability practices in Malaysian unit trust industry." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2014. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=23618.
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This thesis is concerned with exploring and assessing CSR and accountability practices that are regarded as part of the stakeholder engagement initiatives of five case organizations operating in the Malaysian unit trust industry. The case organizations consist of four unit trust management companies (UTMC) and one unit trust self-regulatory organization (SRO). The empirical content of the paper is derived from a series of semi-structured interviews, along with a comprehensive analysis of documentary sources and observation of organisational CSR and accountability practices. The empirical evidences were evaluated against an idealised model of stakeholder engagement. The model was developed in this study to differentiate between CSR and accountability practices undertaken due to authentic felt responsibilities, symbolic purposes, strategic advantage or the business case. The model was constructed from the interaction of two dimensions, with the first dimension from a typology of CSR and the second dimension from a typology of accountability practices, constructing four broad categories of stakeholder engagements. Firstly, the results reveal that the main CSR initiative of the case organizations is the voluntary financial education program for the public and the investors. Secondly, it is found that only one case organization provides accounts on social and environment through its CSR report. Thirdly, the empirical evidence suggests that the case organisations used the similar engagement practices for a range of different reasons, which included strategic and/or symbolic purposes. However, in some cases, the practices were associated with a mixture of concern for 'others' and their own business interest (Roberts, 2003, Shearer, 2002). The research is based on an analysis in a specific context which may limit its wider applicability. The analytical framework developed in this study is an attempt to understand the often complex relationship between CSR and accountability practices, particularly in the financial sector and in the Malaysian regulatory context.
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Mycroft, Hazel. "Talking food : everyday dieting practices in a weight management group." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2007. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/2907.
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This thesis used fifty hours of naturally occurring video and audio taped data from the ‘weigh-in' section of four commercial weight management groups in the East Midlands of England. This thesis is a discursive psychological and conversation analytic investigation of the turn-taking organization of the talk, examining what the group leaders and members make relevant in their talk about food and dieting. The data was transcribed using the Jeffersonian method. Group members attend the group weekly, and are weighed - their weight gain, loss or maintenance is recorded on a membership card. The analytic chapters follow the format of the ‘weigh-in' section of the meeting exploring firstly how the group leaders and members manage the practices of getting ready to be weighed; then how the ‘news' of weight gain, loss or maintenance is told and receipted; before exploring how ‘advice-giving' is constructed and the final analytic chapter deals with the issues of morality and accountability in the leaders' and members' talk. Analysis shows that the ‘pre-weigh in practices' involved before the group members are weighed consists of two robust patterns, 1) the practice of getting undressed is not oriented to by either the group members or group leaders and the group leaders avoided direct eye contact and concerned themselves with other business or 2) when no undressing practices took place, the group leaders were much more comfortable with direct eye contact. These sequences show how the body and its practices are constructed in particular ways within, and as part of the practices of getting ready to be weighed. Analysis showed the telling and receipting of weight news gets done differently depending on whether the group members have gained, lost or maintained weight. When the news concerned weight gain, the sequence included a ‘pre-announcement' and the news TCU was punctuated with marked trouble. When the news concerned weight loss, only the group members produced a pre-account and the news TCU contained no marked trouble. Finally, when the group members had maintained weight, the news TCU was delivered bluntly, and there was no evidence of trouble. In relation to advice-giving, analysis showed that group members repeatedly worked to assert their epistemic priority to avoid having to acknowledge the advice and the advice was receipted minimally. Finally, analysis showed that group members produced accounts with reference to a moral evaluation, such as blame or culpability. Sometimes an account was produced to circumvent being held publicly accountable for the event or action. It became apparent that both the group leaders and group members could not orient to themselves, their behaviour or food without it being constructed within a moral or accountable framework. Therefore, the thesis is an exploration of how group leaders and members manage the ‘dieting-practices' involved in getting weighed in a commercial weight management group and how using DP and CA can show the intricate turn by turn organization of such practices.
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Abu-Baker, Nafez Ibrahim Ahmed. "Use of an accountability framework as an alternative approach for corporate social responsibility reporting and disclosure practices in Jordan." Thesis, University of Dundee, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.309386.
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Moss-Luffrum, Beverley Jane. "Paradigmatic resonance and dysjunction in the development of the human sciences : accountability and expertism in the history of parturial practices." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1993. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/36195/.
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This thesis examines the function of discursive paradigms in the process of subjectivisation and the formulation of objects in the development of the human sciences. The history of childbirth practices exemplifies the operations of paradox and paradigm, and of epistemic changes and continuities, in relation to medical, ethical, and pedagogic discourses. The recent past has brought rapid change in the practices and outcomes of parturition with regard to technologisation, and the improvement in mortality rates. The achievement of technological childbirth has a complex and paradoxical history, and should be understood other than as an inevitable and progressive phenomenon of scientific endeavour, or as a conspiracy of patriarchy which victimises and subjugates women as a matter of intentionality. The histories of the parturient and of the midwife are only partially linked. An examination of childbirth history reveals some of the implications of phallogocentricity for the history of women and for the constitution of gender and gender relations. Midwifery has its own unique but unmistakeable place in the historical discourse of pathologisation and professionalisation - and cannot be regarded simply as an arena of masculine appropriation. The mechanisms for change in parturial practices have been developing to facilitate the modifications of recent history since around 1800, but there are discursive resonances which are linked also to changes in pedagogic organisation which began in the Middle Ages. Further, in order to analyse and evaluate the history of parturition over the past two hundred years, it is necessary to examine the paradigmatic structures based upon dialectical reasoning which have dominated the development of the human sciences since antiquity. Childbirth provides examples of many historical exigencies which informed a panoply of disparate effects, but it is also in many respects unique and anomalous. An exploration of the operations of power, knowledge and influence in this sphere, reveals as much in terms of its resistances as its susceptibilities, to medical appropriation. The history of childbirth is unusual insofar as the technologies and innovations that developed in relation to it, were in fact, slow to be implemented. Evidence of such paradigmatic dysjunction is provided by the examples of the use of forceps, asepsis and anaesthesia in the nineteenth century. This thesis addresses aspects and effects of professionalisation, and the increasingly disciplinary implications of expert discourses for the pregnant and parturient woman in the twentieth century.
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Saunders, Christina H. "Upper Elementary Reading Instruction in the Age of Accountability: Balancing Best Practices with Pressures to Achieve on High-Stakes Tests." VCU Scholars Compass, 2017. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/4724.
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The present study identifies reading instructional practices used in upper elementary classrooms during the age of high-stakes test accountability and compares reading practices among schools of varying accreditation status and socio-economic status (SES). The current study partially replicates and extends a study conducted by Baumann, Hoffman, Duffy-Hester, and Ro in 2000. The Baumann et al. (2000) study provides a frame of reference to compare instructional practices prior to high stakes testing with those used in the current high stakes testing environment. Third- through fifth-grade teachers in seven school districts in central Virginia were asked to complete an electronic survey. Descriptive statistics from 113 surveys identified current instructional practices, materials used for instruction, and grouping strategies used for reading instruction. Kruskal-Wallis H tests were used to identify differences between groups based upon socio-economic or accreditation statuses. Participating teachers reported using a balanced approach to reading instruction, indicated a desire to develop independent readers, and noted that a considerable amount of time is spent on comprehension instruction. Leveled guided reading books, fiction books, and nonfiction books are used frequently for instruction, but basal readers are used infrequently. Ability-based groups were reported as a primary grouping structure, but many teachers indicated they also use whole-class mini-lessons. Schools with higher percentages of students receiving free and reduced lunch, Title 1 status, and those that have not met accreditation benchmarks are more likely to spend time on vocabulary instruction. Title 1 schools are also more likely to use test preparation materials and twelve additional classroom resources, such as general reading skill workbooks, phonics workbooks, and commercial classroom libraries. While most teachers felt pressure to modify instruction to match assessments, no differences in the degree of pressure felt were found based upon either measure of SES or accreditation status.
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Bombly, Sarah Mirlenbrink. "Reading Assessment Practices of Elementary General Education Teachers: A Descriptive Study." Scholar Commons, 2013. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4866.
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In this descriptive study, I researched five elementary general education teachers' reading assessment practices as they worked within the context of IDEA (2004), NCLB (2002) and Response to Intervention (RTI). My own connection to the classroom and reading assessment practices brought me to this research. I presented my personal and professional connection through vignettes about my own classroom assessment practices. Relevant literature on both the context and culture of assessment were pertinent to this research.
I used a qualitative design, specifically, Colaizzi's (1978) method of phenomenological analysis. Data were three in-depth phenomenological interviews, relevant documents and artifacts, and use of a researcher reflective blog. I summarized the initial findings of this research through 10 clustered themes; shift of focus, ever changing accountability, independent efforts with data, collaborative efforts with data, working environment, interventions and reading assessment practices in action, authenticity in practice, lack of decision making power, teacher emotion, and teacher needs and wants and a composite narrative in order to describe the lived experience of these teachers reading assessment practices.
Implications from my research with regard to policy include a perceived incongruence between an RTI framework and the teacher evaluation system with regard to active collaboration. Those toward practice include difficulty with the day-to-day implementation of an RTI framework and the perception of a singular focus of RTI as disability determination. My recommendations for future research include an action research agenda designed to explore increased involvement of stakeholders such as students, parents and other school personnel.
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Lauwo, Sarah. "Analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and accountability practices in a developing country context : a study of mining industry in Tanzania." Thesis, University of Essex, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.537936.
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This study focuses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in Tanzania, a developing country in East Africa. CSR has become one of the greatest challenges in the contemporary globalisation era. As corporate influences on the daily lives of people have increased in the global economy, sometimes more than those of elected governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and pressure groups have become sceptical of corporate power and increasingly concerned about the socio-economic and environmental consequences of corporate activities. Many corporations have sought to reassure public opinion by publishing corporate responsibility statements and codes of conduct. However, these have often been subordinate to pursuit of profit. Although an increasing volume of literature has sought to provide an understanding of CSR from a variety of competing theoretical perspectives, the literature has focused mainly on developed countries with relatively little scholarly attention being paid to CSR practices in developing countries, including Tanzania which forms the subject matter of this thesis. Previous CSR studies have tended to focus on individuals and have used theories such as agency, stakeholder and legitimacy. However, while such theories provide a useful framework for explaining and understanding the business-society relationship, they attach little explicit weight to the broader socio-political, economic and historical contexts which shape CSR practices. Thus, this study examines the nature and extent of CSR practices in Tanzania within a socio-political and economic context. It does so by adopting structuration theory in order to consider the duality and dialectical interrelationship between social actors and institutional structures which create, shape, influence and undermine the (re)production of CSR practices in a developing country. It considers the impact of globalisation, corporate power and the role of the developmental state on the conduct of responsible business practices in Tanzania. The study shows that in the context of globalisation that Tanzania's dependence on the international financial institutions and on investment by foreign multinational corporations has shaped and influenced Tanzania's socio-economic environment and institutional structures. Thus, the institutional structures in Tanzania have been shaped by global pressures, in particular by the desire to attract capital in order to deal with Tanzania's endemic poverty. As a result, the Tanzanian government's capacity to promote public accountability, good governance, transparency and corporate responsibility has been seriously constrained. The evidence shows that MNCs in Tanzania have produced statements containing pledges to act in a socially responsible manner, but that their actions have left much to be desired for employees, local communities, the government, and society as a whole. The study draws attention to the gap between corporate statements about CSR and about what happens in practice, which casts doubt on corporate claims to be keen to promote CSR and questions the reasons for such claims. The gap between corporate talk and corporate action suggests that corporate promises to act in a socially responsible manner may be 'hollow', or a mere fiction designed to legitimise business operations in Tanzania. As a consequence, contrary to the claims of the companies to be acting in a socially responsible way and to be committed to improving the economic and social infrastructures and quality of life of local citizens, the widespread poverty in Tanzania remains significant. There is therefore a pressing need for reform in order to mitigate the pervasiveness of the social, economic and environmental problems in Tanzania. This study argues that an attempt to change CSR and its potential in promoting socio-economic development in Tanzania and developing countries in general should be accompanied by changes in the governance system at both the local and global levels.
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Davids, Cindy Law Faculty of Law UNSW. "Police misconduct, regulation, and accountability : conflict of interest complaints against Victoria Police officers 1988???1998." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Law, 2004. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/20515.
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Conflict of interest allegations became a prominent part of the political and public sector in the 1980s and 1990s in Australia and elsewhere. The arena of policing was not immune, and in Victoria, the Ombudsman drew particular attention to the problem and expressed concern about the rise in public complaints relating to alleged conflicts of interest on the part of police officers. Against this background, permission was granted by Victoria Police for a major study of conflict of interest complaints against police officers within their jurisdiction. Access was granted to all public complaint case files where conflict of interest was the focus of the allegations, from the period 1988???1998. A total of 377 usable complaints files were examined, involving 539 police officers. Through extensive examination and analysis of these complaint case files, a comprehensive map of the particular kinds of interest involved, the nature of the conflicts with official police duties, and the particular contexts within which conflicts of interest emerged, was developed. Analysis of the case files identified 25 different types of problems related to conflict of interest. These were spread across the private and public realms of police officers??? involvements. Previous studies of conflict of interest have focused largely on the opportunities for misconduct arising in the public realm of police work and police duty, largely neglecting attention to the private realm of the relationships and involvements of a police officer that give rise to conflicts of interest. In this study, the specific private interests that gave rise to problems were able to be identified in 35 percent of all cases. Three broad problem areas were identified: (i) outside employment, private business interests, political, social, and sporting interests and involvements; (ii) family-based involvements, especially those involving family law problems; and (iii) problematic personal relationships, including relationships with criminals, informers, and persons of ill repute. These conflicts of interest were related to a range of breaches of official police duty, including the misuse of police authority for personal or family benefit, the use of police position to facilitate personal relationships, and inappropriate disclosure of confidential police information. When the conflict of interest identified related specifically to a police officer???s official or public role as a member of the police force, the main types of misconduct identified included three broad areas: (i) the use and abuse of police powers and authority; (ii) the use and abuse of police resources, including information; and (iii) the receipt of gratuities and breaches of the law. These problems were shown to play out in a range of ways, encompassing such behaviours as misuse of the police identity, inappropriate accessing of police information, involvement in investigations where the police officer concerned has a personal interest in the matter, failing to take appropriate police action against friends, family, or associates, the exercise of improper influence in civil matters, and engagement in harassment and discrimination. This study offers some important conceptual developments in relation to the notion of conflict of interest, focusing on the importance of the distinction between a conflict of interest and an associated breach of duty. The study noted that it is often erroneously assumed by police that if there is no breach of duty evidenced, then there is no problem of conflict of interest. The study also offers an important insight into the oversight and accountability processes involved in Victoria Police, emphasising the importance and effectiveness of the oversight role of the office of the Victorian Ombudsman. Evidence also suggests that the internal review processes within Victoria Police are by-and-large stringent, and that senior police management are genuinely interested in making police officers more accountable for their actions. However, it is concluded that both front-line operational police officer and police management often have a limited understanding of conflict of interest, and problems attendant to conflicts of interest. The study???s insights into the problem of conflict of interest are significant insofar as this problem is related to police misconduct???ranging from minor to serious???of various kinds. Attention to the problem of conflict of interest may be an important element in preventing ???upstream??? police misconduct and corruption.
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Saidu, Sani. "Investigating accountability and governance practices in joint development zones : a case study of Nigeria and Sao Tome & Principe's Joint Development Zone." Thesis, Robert Gordon University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1012.
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This study critically assesses the appropriateness of the governance system used to control all aspects of oil exploration and production within the Nigeria São Tomé and Príncipe Joint Development Zone (NSTP-JDZ). The motivation for carrying out the research emerged from a review of the literature on oil and gas joint venture operations which straddle more than one country’s borders. In the case of the NSTP-JDZ, several reports had criticised its governance practices but had failed to provide a rigorous analysis to substantiate their claims. The study therefore contributes to the literature relating to the governance of oil and gas joint development zones. A mixed method approach was used in the empirical research and the results were analysed against a globally acknowledged good governance theoretical framework. The results confirmed that there are major flaws in the NSTP-JDZ governance system, although there are also positive aspects of the practices. Four areas of concern were identified: Firstly, inadequate personnel skills were impairing management of the zone to such an extent that it could not be guaranteed that resources will be safeguarded for the benefits of future generation. Secondly, control of resources was severely impaired by an uncertainty about who had the authority to implement actions and, of more concern, by political and other conflicting interventions in the management decisions of the NSTP-JDA. Thirdly, the findings indicated the need for improvement in the audit procedures and communication culture between local communities and NSTP-JDZ operators. Lastly, there was a body of opinion that employment practices within the zone were unfair. In addition to identifying the above deficiencies in the governance system, the study has identified and analysed differences in views on governance issues between key stakeholders in the zone. These differences are important as they may well pinpoint why the governance system is deficient and, more importantly, reveal how the governance system can be improved. The vested interests of stakeholders are known to shape stakeholder views and, when there are stakeholders from different countries representing their nation’s interests, these differences can be acute; the findings may be extrapolated to other joint development zones although the various characteristics of the parties involved in each zone will affect the degree to which it is applicable. Finally, the study may have significant economic consequences for both Nigeria and the São Tomé and Príncipe - bearing in mind the importance of oil resources to both countries.
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Regacho-Anaclerio, Renee D. "Principal behaviors and practices that support the development of a standards-based instructional system." Scholarly Commons, 2007. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2350.
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This qualitative study sought to identify the common behaviors and practices of principals in high achieving standards-based schools. Three schools were examined in the study. These schools were selected from a ten county area and had demonstrated consistent and unusual growth on the Academic Performance Index (API). The practices of principals were identified through a phenomenological study of the experiences of successfully implementing a standards-based instructional system. Principals were interviewed individually, and focus groups of teachers were interviewed separately. Both groups were asked about the principal behaviors and practices that led the school to achieve academic success. Principals and teachers across the three sites identified similar practices including high expectations of students and staff, planning and goal setting based on student achievement data, frequent monitoring of student achievement, teacher collaboration, principal classroom visits, principal visibility on campus, principal accessibility, and a school culture that promoted trust and team work.
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Callender, Betty Darlene Miles. "The Relationship Among Effective School Correlates, School and District Practices, and Exemplary Student Performance in Texas." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2007. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5195/.
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The Texas Education Agency (TEA) annually rates campuses and districts on how well they meet standards of student performance. Since the high standard is so difficult for campuses and districts to reach, educators continually seek ways to improve student performance. The effective schools process is research-based and has stood the test of time. Descriptive statistics were used in this study to identify practices within the effective schools correlates that exemplary campuses implement. Campuses with long-term exemplary ratings were identified using the TEA data base. Campus site-based teams were surveyed using the More Effective Schools Staff Survey. Data was collected on elementary and secondary campuses with homogenous, diverse, economically advantaged, and economically disadvantaged student populations. District instructional leaders for those campuses completed a District Instructional Leader Survey to determine what practices districts implement to support their exemplary campuses. Findings from this quantitative study revealed what effective schools practices were highly evident on these exemplary campuses, regardless of diversity, economic status, district size, community type, property wealth, or location within the state. Findings also revealed that district leaders provide direction and support in the areas of (a) professional development; (b) beliefs, mission, and goals; (c) curriculum; (d) instruction; (e) assessment; and (f) site-based decision making. The research data imply that campus or district administrators can improve the performance of their students if the identified practices are implemented.
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Agyenim-Boateng, Cletus. "Examining the structuration processes in the financial accountability and governance practices pertaining to the public private joint venture partnerships (LIFT) in the UK health sector." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2012. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/examining-the-structuration-processes-in-the-financial-accountability-and-governance-practices-pertaining-to-the-public-private-joint-venture-partnerships-lift-in-the-uk-health-sector(96d755d2-22e4-48ac-8324-f4e9c603d8b9).html.
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Shaoul et al. (2012) state that the accounting, scrutiny and oversight of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) remain areas of concern. Also, there have been calls for a more socio-technical and multidisciplinary approach to accounting and governance studies (Broadbent, 2012; Broadbent and Guthrie 2008), especially in relation to the empirical study of PPPs (Hodge et al., 2010). This thesis responds to these calls in part by drawing on Giddens’ structuration theory to examine the financial accountability and governance concerns that are created in PPP joint venture structures. The empirical work focuses on the health sector, which is identified as one of the sectors inundated by PPP activities, particularly in the UK (Treasury, 2012; Whitfield, 2010). It adopts a case study approach, based on qualitative methodology, which involves documentary analysis of secondary data and interviews in relation to two PPP schemes under the Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) scheme in the UK’s health sector.The thesis investigates: the extent to which the corporate structures of the LIFT scheme do complicate financial accountability and governance including external scrutiny; the extent to which the LIFT scheme does enhance partnership working between the public and private sector partners; the structures in financial accountability and governance in the LIFT scheme; the human agents that provide agency in financial accountability and governance in the LIFT scheme and; whether and in what ways structures and human agency in financial accountability and governance interact in the LIFT scheme and what the implications are.The thesis finds firstly that the complex corporate structure of the LIFT scheme is very complicated and the joint venture mechanism cannot be relied upon to deliver transparency of reporting. Secondly, as limited companies, all financial reporting follows private sector accounting regulations and Company Law and there is minimal disclosure in terms of information available to the general public. This is worsened by lack of information sharing between partners as evidenced in one case study group. Thirdly, there was considerable inconsistency in the reporting due to multiplicity of interpretive schemas between the two case study groups. Fourthly, there was considerable change in the reporting due both to changes in accounting regulations and changes in organisational structure and interpretive schemas throughout the period. Fifthly, there is lack of continuity of public sector oversight and monitoring as the public sector, in practice, restricts its activities to pre-operational phase and limited oversight after construction phases. Moreover, partnership working is very difficult in the context of profit seeking under the LIFT structure. Partnership working and success of the LIFT scheme may depend on trust, key personalities working together as well as leadership. From the structuration perspective, the study finds structural contradictions and conflicts of interests in financial accountability and governance practices. Therefore, transparency, public accountability, oversight and scrutiny are necessarily undermined and, policy makers should pay attention to not only the private sector technologies but also the manner in which they are used to benefit finance capital.
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Eubank, Morris Carrie Elizabeth. "TOWARD ASSESSMENT LEADERSHIP: STUDY OF ASSESSMENT PRACTICES AMONG SCHOOL AND CLASSROOM LEADERS." UKnowledge, 2017. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/edsc_etds/30.
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Traditionally, models of instructional leadership espouse data-informed decision making in response to student assessment outcomes as one of the core school leader behaviors. In recent years, rising expectations from accountability policies and related assessment practices have myriad implications for school districts, specifically in the areas of standards-driven reform, student assessment systems, and professional development models. As a result, demands on schools to collect and use student assessment data to inform curricular and instructional decisions has expanded. While principals are typically held responsible for school improvement efforts, more contemporary models of instructional leadership incorporate teachers as classroom-based leaders of assessment practices in forums such as professional learning communities.
School and classroom assessment leaders engage in behaviors such as (a) identifying an assessment vision, (b) fostering group goals, (c) providing a model of data- informed decision making, (d) promoting teacher job-embedded professional learning experiences, (e) evaluating instructional practices with specific feedback, and (f) strategically aligning resources to school improvement goals. Unfortunately, school districts face many challenges with assessment leadership due to barriers in beliefs about assessments, time with and access to tools and training, and knowledge and skills about how to operationalize effective assessment practices that yield positive student outcomes.
The purpose of this study was to explore assessment leadership as a construct among P-12 school and classroom leaders in one large district in Florida. Data were collected using an Internet-based survey constructed from existing qualitative and quantitative measures of key components of assessment leadership established in the literature. A series of descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted to (a) explore the factor structure of the instrument and (b) evaluate the influence of assessment learning experiences, beliefs, and knowledge on assessment practices. Relationships among variables were examined when considering moderating variables for school role (i.e., school-level administrator or classroom teacher as professional learning communities facilitator) and school type (elementary or secondary). Limitations were discussed to inform future research in this critical area of school improvement.
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Oguagha, Udechukwu Offordile. "A critical evaluation of the effectiveness of local content policy (LCP) and transparency practices in LCP implementation in the Nigerian oil and gas industry." Thesis, Robert Gordon University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2742.
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One of the aims of the Local Content Policy (LCP) is the economic development of Nigeria through the utilisation of local personnel and resources in the activities of the Nigerian oil and gas industry. Many studies have investigated the LCP, but limited work has been undertaken in investigating the transparency practices involved in the implementation of the LCP in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The study critically evaluates the effectiveness of the LCP and the transparency practices associated with its implementation. A conceptual framework based on accountability was developed and employed in designing the research instrument. This framework was underpinned by the institutional theory, which links accountability discourse to regulatory institutions where organisations within a particular field are subject to pressures to exhibit legitimacy through socially and culturally authorised administrative routines that are intended to render accountability. The study employed a qualitative methodology and the data was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with respondents from twenty-three indigenous oil and gas companies, regulatory bodies, international oil and gas companies and non-governmental organizations. The research findings demonstrate that the various LCP stakeholders’ views on the definition and purpose of the LCP differ significantly. These diverse opinions affect the way in which the LCP is perceived and implemented in the oil and gas industry. The study has been instrumental in revealing a number of positive effects the LCP has generated since its implementation in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. For example, the LCP compelled IOCs to utilise local resources in their operations, resulting in the domestication of oil and gas activities. However, the findings also reveal that the LCP has been enforced despite the lack of local capacity and capability for its implementation. The findings, therefore, highlight a number of challenges associated with LCP implementation including: the lack of infrastructure; insufficient capital and manpower; absence of trust; and the lack of coordination between the regulatory agencies in the industry. The research findings also reveal that there are different levels of transparency in the implementation of LCP. Determination of the level of transparency in LCP implementation and compliance monitoring is at the discretion of the NCDMB and the oil and gas companies, which unfortunately facilitates corrupt practices. Therefore, this study argues that significant improvements are required in transparency practices in LCP implementation by strengthening the LCP’s monitoring and enforcement process. Further, enforcement should strictly be the responsibility of the NCDMB, with no interference from the Nigerian government. Some further recommendations arising from this research include the need for investment in infrastructure that will facilitate indigenous companies’ participation in the industry. Also, efforts should be made to promote partnership and collaboration between indigenous companies and IOCs, encouraging investment in world-class infrastructure that can compete with international standards. To foster this partnership, the government and IOCs must invest in educational institutions which could boost the knowledge and capacity of Nigerians. The research concludes with the development of two new models: (1) The LCP stakeholder perception model; and, (2) The LCP implementation model. These models, which are the main contributions of knowledge arising from this thesis, will potentially aid the effective implementation of the recommendations arising from this study.
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Cook, Elaine D. "The challenges of leading the attainment agenda : framing the role and practices of the new Secondary Headteacher." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/22251.
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Scottish institutions within the educational networks, including Government, local authorities, and schools, are entangled in performative activities dedicated to improvements in student attainment. Secondary school performance in Scotland is measured nationally predominantly by the number and level of national qualifications achieved. The thesis makes the case that this attainment agenda places enormous pressures on Headteachers to ensure student outcomes are maximised and that the culture of performativity is a major factor in shaping the roles and practices of Headteachers. The study is based on four new secondary school Headteachers in a single Scottish local authority. It is through an examination of their work practices that the formation of subjectivities within a range of power relations and discursive regimes are explored. Performativity and accountability influence the role and actions of the Headteacher in many ways which are unanticipated. There is an ongoing power struggle engendered by the pressures and controls imposed on new Headteachers which modify and discipline their behaviours. In this thesis, a case study methodology is employed and the concepts of Michel Foucault are applied to provide an alternative means of understanding the practices of Headteachers. A Foucauldian approach also provides a different perspective on the problematic conceptualisation of school leadership. The aim of this study is to make a research-based contribution to our understanding of the complexities and competing priorities negotiated by new Headteachers. The research evidences the dominance of the attainment agenda on the lived lives of the new Headteachers. This study should enable the development of additional ways to assist with Headteacher preparation and the provision of improved support in the early years of Headship.
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Palmer, Jason S. "Performance Incentives, Teachers, and Students: Estimating the Effects of Rewards Policies on Classroom Assessment Practices and Student Performance." Connect to this title online, 2002. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1024404726.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2002.Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xiv, 169 p.; also includes graphics. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Mary K. Marvel. Includes bibliographical references (p. 150-169).
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Almeida, Pedro Fontes Barbosa de. "Estratégias e ações de marketing e comunicação em instituições particulares de solidariedade social : estudo de caso : Associação Casapiana de Solidariedade." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/14169.
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Mestrado em Ciências EmpresariaisA presente dissertação enquadra as estratégias e ações de marketing e comunicação, e outras práticas de gestão nas IPSS. Estas são organizações sem fins lucrativos que pertencem, mas não esgotam o Terceiro Setor, tendo atualmente uma elevada importância para a sociedade, facilmente comprovada pela relevância que a Economia Social tem na economia do país. A redução dos financiamentos por parte do Estado, e as dificuldades sentidas por este tipo de instituições, despoletaram a necessidade da sua profissionalização. O presente trabalho foca-se no caso empírico de uma IPSS, a ACS, que tem já implementadas práticas de gestão geralmente utilizadas no setor lucrativo. Deste modo, a presente dissertação tem como principais objetivos compreender qual a relevância para os gestores da ACS, das estratégias e ações de marketing e comunicação para a instituição, de que forma são utilizadas, e qual a importância da introdução de práticas de gestão neste tipo de organizações. A escolha do Estudo de Caso como metodologia foi muito importante, possibilitando através da consulta de várias fontes de dados disponíveis assegurar diferentes perspetivas, permitindo a análise e compreensão da importância que a profissionalização e as práticas de gestão têm para as organizações sem fins lucrativos, neste caso, para a ACS como IPSS escolhida para o estudo. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que a introdução de práticas de gestão, utilizadas no setor lucrativo, nas IPSS têm um importante papel no seu dia-a-dia.
This work addresses the communication and marketing strategies and actions, as well as management best practices, within the IPSS. These not-for-profit organizations belong to the third sector, playing an important role in society that can be easily perceived from the impact that social economy has in the country's national economy. The difficulties of these entities, with particular relevance to the reduction of the public funding, have raised the need of turning into professionally run entities. The main goals of this work are to understand how relevant are the marketing actions and communication strategies for the institution, how are they employed and what is the importance of the introduction of management best practices within this type of organizations. The choice of the Case Study approach as a methodology was very important, not only allowing to know different perspectives by consulting several sources of information, but also to analyse and understand how important the professionalization and management best practices are for the not-for-profit organizations (specifically for ACS as the chosen IPSS for the current study). The results achieved with this work suggest that the introduction of management best practices by the IPSS, having the ACS as an empirical case, already in use in the for-profit sector, have a verified importance in their day to day work.
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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Gashgari, Reema. "Exploring the implications of corporate governance practices and frameworks for large-scale business organisations : a case study on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." Thesis, Brunel University, 2017. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/14347.
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In 2006 the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) introduced new legislation related to corporate governance (CG). Initial evaluation by the World Bank three years later showed relatively modest implementation of the regulations. This thesis investigates the extent to which this has been adopted over the past ten years. Saudi business has become more globalized, and a more standardised approach to CG is naturally expected by international partners and investors who must themselves justify investment. This research expands the existing literature on CG by examining the progress of countries with developing economies and relatively weak or new histories of regulated CG. This thesis explores the extent and form of the uptake of the newest generation of CG regulations, the existing roadblocks and the general current attitudes to corporate governance in KSA, examining the extent of KSA company compliance with KSA corporate governance regulations, the reasons for non-compliance when that exists, and any relevant deficits in the 2006 legislation with respect to international best practice. This is investigated through the use of a series of interviews and surveys with major Saudi organizations, as well as analysis of secondary information. The mixed method approach of quantitative and qualitative data analysis was selected as providing a means to generate both benchmarking data (i.e. quantitative) and further insight as to obstacles for further adoption (i.e. qualitative). As the basis for the investigation, questions are structured around four basic pillars of corporate governance: transparency; stakeholder value; responsibility; and fairness. This linkage of these factors with organisational structure, decision-making and the overall image of the firm within the industry is combined with an examination of how CG affects Saudi business expansion and investments, particularly in relation to how parties from other countries perceive the governance of a company. This perception of governance may condition their views concerning, for example, partnering with and investing in that company. The secondary data relates to The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), Sanabil Investments and Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC). The qualitative data analysis was taken from interviews conducted from fifteen top managers of large-scale organisations. The quantitative data was collected from three organisations: Almarai, Saudi Aramco and Albaik. The overall results of the qualitative analysis and the secondary analysis showed that CG plays a vital role in business development. Quantitative analysis supported the idea that transparency, stakeholder value and corporate image are the main attributes of CG in a Saudi context, with statistical analysis indicating that both are essential to company access to private investment and market liquidity The overall findings indicate KSA’s need to improve its CG standards further, and taht whilst benchmarking of government-supported institutions such as SAMA and SABIC would be of assistance, the KSA government could play a pro-active role in encouraging businesses to expand best international corporate governance practices.
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Bur, Marsha. "The relationship between principal reported instructional and organizational practices of Title I elementary schools and adequate yearly progress." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2011. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/4862.
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This study examined the practices of Title I elementary school principals in the state of Florida for the school year 2009 - 2010. Elementary school principals in six Florida school districts responded to a survey to determine the extent of implementation of instructional and organizational practices identified by research to improve instruction and learning. The practices (sub-constructs) examined were identified as curriculum, instruction, assessment, educational agenda (vision, mission, beliefs, goals), leadership for school improvement, community building, and culture of continuous improvement. The results of this study indicated that participating Florida Title I principals believed that they were implementing effective instructional and organizational practices in their schools. Despite this belief, all but two of the schools represented in the results, failed to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) for school year 2009 - 2010. The analysis of the responses indicated a negative, but not statistically significant, correlation between self-reported scores and AYP percentage points earned. These results warrant further study to determine if the reported indicators can be verified by observation or other personnel. Within the limits of this study, the negative correlation suggested that school principals should examine their practices related to instructional and organizational effectiveness for fidelity and stakeholder buy-in. Principals must not only believe that these practices are evident, they must verify them through constant monitoring and quantitative measures.ID: 029809713; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 120-127).
Ed.D.
Doctorate
Teaching, Learning and Leadership
Education
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Hoffman, Carla Ruth Clawson. "Social and emotional learning| A case study of the practices and systems within a caring middle school community." Thesis, University of the Pacific, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10246236.
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This qualitative single case study examined the connections between social-emotional learning and academic achievement in adolescents. Questions that formed the foundation for research include the background of how one middle school developed social and emotional practices for their student population, the ways in which those practices are implemented and sustained in the school community, how social-emotional learning practices interface with academics, and approaches which can be shared with other school sites. Qualitative research methods included formal and informal participant interviews, site and field observations, and the collection of artifacts and documents such as test scores and student work. Data was coded and analyzed by themes: 1) Building Relationships and Developing Trust; 2) Learning Engagement and Achievement; 3) Teaching Accountability and Responsibility; 4) Collaboration; 5) Resolving Conflicts; and 6) Budgets, Curriculum and Standards, and Teacher Demands. Data show convincing connections between creating caring school communities and the academic, social, and emotional development of adolescents.
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Ceja, Rafael Jr. "Data-driven decision making and its effects on leadership practices and student achievement in K–5 public elementary schools in California." Scholarly Commons, 2012. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/78.
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The enactment of the NCLB Act of 2001 and its legislative mandates for accountability testing throughout the nation brought to the forefront the issue of data-driven decision making. This emphasis on improving education has been spurred due to the alleged failure of the public school system. As a result, the role of administrators has evolved to incorporate data-driven decision-making practices to help make educational choices. While the underlying assumption of implementing data-driven decision making is that it will lead to improvements in education, this has yet to be empirically proven. The purpose of the study was to analyze the relationships among school characteristics, principals' level of experience, principals' data-driven decision making practices, and student achievement. This census study addressed principals of k-5 public elementary schools. In this quantitative study, a web-based survey was used to measure principals' data-driven ion-making practices. The student achievement data examined were the California Standards Test results for English language arts and mathematics for the 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 school years. Through a series of multiple regression analyses, the study examined the relationships among school characteristics, principals' level of experience, principals' data-driven decision making practices, and student achievement. Specifically. this study explored the amount of variance in student achievement scores in language arts and mathematics that could be explained by school characteristics, principals' level of experience, and data-driven decision-making practices. The results showed principals are incorporating data-driven decision-making practices in k-5 public elementary schools in California. In addition, the results showed that principals believe the quality of their decision making has improved due to implementing data-driven decision making. Principals indicated they were incorporating practices identified in the four constructs used in the present study: (a) establishing a data-driven culture, (b) data-driven decision making by teachers to improve student achievement, (c) supporting systems for DDDM, and (d) collaboration among teachers using data-driven decision making. A strong negative correlation was found between the number of students on free and reduced lunch and student achievement.
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Johansson, Johanna. "Constructing and contesting the legitimacy of private forest governance : The case of forest certification in Sweden." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-63948.
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In recent decades, political scientists have devoted substantial attention to the changing role of the state towards more inclusion of non-state actors in policymaking. This deliberative turn, or move towards governance, may signal inability to handle complex problems without cooperation with nonstate actors. On the other hand, governance is frequently credited with generating legitimate decision-making processes and results. In some instances, non-governmental actors have even taken the lead in policymaking. One archetype of such private governance, which has received significant scholarly attention, is forest certification. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is frequently described as the most democratic and therefore legitimate forest certification organization since it grants equal voting rights to three stakeholder groups in the formulation of criteria for responsible forestry: environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), social groups (indigenous peoples and labor organizations) and forest owners. However, in Sweden, a country often described as a role model in forest certification, the FSC has increasingly received critique for failing to generate legitimate processes and results, and recently three of five ENGOs have chosen to exit the FSC organization. Such processes of de-legitimation have received little attention in the forest certification literature. This thesis therefore provides a critical assessment of the legitimacy of forest certification in Sweden. Legitimacy is analyzed through concerned stakeholders’ perceptions of both procedural qualities (input legitimacy) and problem-solving capacity (output legitimacy). This study of legitimacy is combined with an assessment of the ability of certification to enhance environmental protection, defined as changes in both forest management practices and biophysical conditions. The thesis focuses not the least on legitimacy on the local level, which is where the actual implementation takes place. Today local studies of the legitimacy of forest certification are rare. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are applied and a number of sources are analyzed: forest monitoring data, survey data, interviews with and documents produced by the participating stakeholders. Papers I and IV analyze the perceived legitimacy of forest certification, while Papers II and III analyze forest certification schemes’ ability to enhance environmental protection. The results show that a process of de-legitimation is occurring in Swedish forest certification. In particular, certification has lost legitimacy with ENGOs, which increasingly consider Swedish forest certification to lack both input legitimacy and output legitimacy. Moreover, although the Swedish FSC standard pays attention to reindeer husbandry, the results show that reindeer herders consider themselves to have limited power to influence long-term forest planning and management (low output legitimacy). The forest industry, on the other hand, increasingly grants legitimacy to forest certification due to customer demands, which are created not the least by pressures from international ENGOs and by EU regulation. The results also show that Swedish forest companies have paid more attention to their environmental practices after obtaining certification. However, to what extent these changes result in positive environmental impacts remains uncertain, especially since forests in Sweden grow slowly, which requires analyses over time. There are also measurement problems resulting from the low certification rate among small-scale forest owners and from the fact that certified small-scale owners tend to be more active in their management. These findings highlight that research on private forest governance should not neglect the role of the state, neither as a buyer nor as a regulator. These findings also suggest that further research should pay attention to power asymmetries in private governance and develop methods for better understanding and evaluating the certification schemes’ environmental and social impacts.
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Coker, Olugbenga. "Accountability in non-governmental organizations : theory and practice." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2012. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/accountability-in-nongovernmental-organizations-theory-and-practice(37f9f70c-2aa7-4e0f-89ba-d1ea672212e7).html.
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The study of Non-Governmental Organisations’ (NGOs’) accountability has lagged behind that in the private sector in the areas of empirical details and theoretical foundation. This thesis analyses the research question: How do NGOs practice accountability and what is the theoretical basis for this practice? To answer this question, the study develops a descriptive framework that classifies accountability practices along two broad dimensions: one based on the form of giving accounts (which could be process or performance) and the other based on the form of holding to account (which could be contractual or communal). The resulting four possibilities were built into a framework around which a theory was developed and used to guide the empirical investigation in 6 NGOs, 3 in the UK and 3 in Africa. The study rejects the rigidly structured research approach of the rationalist school and the completely unstructured approach of the phenomenological school. In regard to the exploratory nature of the research question, it adopts a ‘middle range thinking’ approach proceeding with a partly structured process and a prior theory in ‘skeletal’ form ‘fleshed out’ with the findings as the study progressed. The research finds that the bulk of the resources utilised by NGOs are derived from the global north while the bulk of the needs for NGOs’ services are in the global south, and that this influences accountability practices across both sides of the hemisphere. Because of the nature of NGO’s objectives and activities, it is argued traditional accounting’s capability to provide a full account of NGOs’ performance is severely limited. This, coupled with the involvement of multiple stakeholders with varied needs, has resulted in the use of multiple systems of accountability. In total eight practices were identified, spread across the four possible approaches in the theoretical framework with practices aimed at the needs of the statutory authorities and the Institutional donors dominating in the UK NGOs. Where southern NGOs have a large part of their income supplied by northern hemisphere Institutional donors only the accountability needs of these donors dominates as the local regulatory frameworks are weak. The insights from the thesis raise a range of policy issues about the form and regulation of accountability by NGOs and the role of the Institutional donors in it.
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Jelley, Diana Mary. "Peer appraisal in general practice." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.366581.
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Ispas, Ileana Alexandra. "Political accountability in practice : a conversation analytic study of ministerial accountability towards the Scottish parliamentary committees." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/4496.
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This study examines political accountability within the context of ministerial accountability towards the Scottish parliamentary committees. A review of the existing literature on accountability identified striking discrepancies between different disciplinary perspectives. In particular, political science research (e.g. Mayer, 1999) focuses on describing the structural mechanisms available for constraining the behaviour of those being made accountable. This literature includes research on ministerial accountability (e.g. Flinders, 1991), although largely focusing on accountability towards the parliamentary Chamber rather than the committees. By contrast, the psychological literature does not focus on accountability, but rather on developing a classification of accounts (e.g. Scott and Lyman, 1968) doing the kind of work that is examined in political science under ‘accountability’ (i.e. providing excuses and justifications to explain problematic behaviours), and testing these accounts using experimental designs (e.g. Weiner et al., 1987). However, given its focus on classification and experimental designs, the psychological literature on accounts treats language as reified and abstract. A third (discourse and conversation analytic) research tradition uses recordings of real-life verbal interactions to examine the turn-by-turn unfolding of interactions (e.g. Atkinson and Drew, 1979), but few studies focus on accountability, and none specifically investigate political accountability. My study is the first to bridge the gap between these three disciplinary perspectives by examining the practice of political accountability through the turn-by-turn unfolding of interactions between ministers and members of Scottish parliamentary committees. The thesis aims to contribute to an understanding of democracy in action by providing an insight into the practical ways in which accountability is accomplished within this specific real-life setting. The corpus of data was compiled from 27 hours of video recordings of interactions between ministers and members of four Scottish parliamentary committees. I analysed the data using conversation analysis (CA). Use of CA led me to identify indirectness as a pervading characteristic of the ways in which challenges are formulated and attended to in the interactions between committee members and ministers, as well as a number of ways in which committee members and ministers attended to matters of stake and interest in relation to such challenges. In addition, CA has allowed an insight into the limits of accountability by showing how ministers can avoid answering particular questions. These findings stand in stark contrast to the political science literature, which emphasises the adversarial nature of interactions within parliamentary settings and the availability of mechanisms for holding ministers to account (e.g. parliamentary committees) without investigating the way in which these mechanisms are used in practice. Furthermore, these findings contribute to the psychological literature on accounts by investigating their use within a real-life setting, and to the discourse and conversation analytic literature by showing the way in which well-known conversational devices (e.g. footing) are adapted to suit the specific context of parliamentary committee meetings with ministers.
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Bonner, Michael L. "Accountability of School Psychology Practicum: A Procedural Replication." Cincinnati, Ohio : University of Cincinnati, 2001. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=ucin1006784236.
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Brown, Lori Lynne. "Educator Perceptions of Instructional Leadership in the School Improvement Process." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2016. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3031.
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The purpose of this case study was to conduct an investigation of educator perceptions of instructional leadership in the school improvement process. Interviews were conducted with educators and an administrator in a small, rural high school in Middle Tennessee. In 2010, the high school was labeled as a low performing school by the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE). In 2014, Commissioner Kevin Huffman announced the school was on the TDOE Reward School Cusp List for being in the top 10% of schools based on one-year progress data from the Tennessee Value-added Assessment System (TVAAS) school composites.
Participants of this case study shared experiences and opinions of the instructional leadership utilized by the school principal. As indicated in the findings of this study, instructional leadership practices are crucial in the school improvement process. The key themes related to indicators of sound instructional leadership practices were: maintaining a culture of continuous school improvement, having every faculty member participate in the development and implementation of the school improvement plan, knowing how to use data to make crucial decisions, developing leadership capacity in the school, and being an engaged leader during the school improvement process. Developing a qualitative understanding of the perceptions of effective instructional leadership will enhance greater understanding of leadership practices in the school improvement process.