American forestry professionalism in the third world: Some preliminary observations

Forestry, with its fulsomely developed and articulated worldview, provides an excellent case study of cultural and professional biases in projects intended to aid developing countries. Much of the forestry professional's received wisdom is defined by the ideology of the progressive era conservation movement: a preeminent emphasis on technical expertise as the basis for decision making; a related tendency to prefer comprehensive government planning and to denigrate the expertise and priorities of local resource users, who are seen as political advocates serving their own interests; a preference for managing trees, for lumber and as distinct from other forest and tree uses. This mindset leaves the forester in a poor position to understand the uses which forest users in other cultures see as important, to utilize the expertise of locals in the design and implementation of proposed aid programs, and to enquire meaningfully into alternative systems of land and tree tenure which will determine the success of those programs. Foresters are not the only professionals with trained incapacities; however, greater sensitivity to the settings in which aid projects will succeed or fail would be especially useful for western-trained foresters working in nonwestern forests, and for local foresters trained in western concepts and priorities.A version of this paper appeared inEconomic and Political Weekly, Bombay, India.     

“We Actually Trust the Community:” Examining the Dynamics of a Nonprofit Funding Relationship in New Zealand

Funding relationships in nonprofit management are increasingly defined by a philosophy of rational management, characterized by measurement of outputs and benchmarking, which represents an audit culture system (Burnley, Matthews, & McKenzie, 2005). There is concern that these approaches are constantly undermining the mission of community service nonprofit organizations (Darcy, 2002). In this research, we analyzed the management of funding relationships by examining dynamics within a nonprofit funding relationship in New Zealand. Through focus groups we explored the relationship between 17 representatives from nonprofit organizations and four Board members of a funding Trust. The management of this funding relationship was characterized by an appreciation of the diverse nature of nonprofit organizations, a balance between trust and control, and communication. We suggest that elements of these dynamics could be incorporated into nonprofit funding relationships in order to challenge an over-reliance on audit culture systems, and to re-establish relationships characterized by interaction between nonprofit organizations and their funders. Finally, we call for future research in this area.     

Long-term treatment of emotionally disturberd adoptees and their families

A review of literature on outpatient treatment of emotionally disturbed adoptees is presented. Key issues in adoption therapy are discussed. A model featuring long-term support for adoptive children and their families is described with a menu of accompanying clinical strategies. Applications in mental health settings and directions for research are reviewed.     

Validity and Psychometric Properties of the Early Development Instrument in Canada,Australia, United States,and Jamaica

There is an increasing support from international organizations and the research community for stepping beyond infant or child mortality as the most common child level social indicator and progressing towards an international measure of child development. The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a teacher-completed measure of children’s developmental health at school entry, which to date has been used in more than a dozen countries. The EDI includes five developmental domains (Physical Health and Well-being, Social Competence, Emotional Maturity, Language and Cognitive Development and Communication Skills and General Knowledge) and 16 subdomains. This paper examines the EDI’s psychometric properties in four English-speaking countries (Canada, Australia, United States and Jamaica) by evaluating both the internal consistency and factor structures, as well as exploring the association between the EDI’s Language and Cognitive Development Domain and a direct assessment of children’s receptive vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, PPVT). Overall, the factor loadings and internal consistencies of domains and subdomains were similar across the countries. The comparisons of the Language and Cognitive Development Domain with the PPVT showed high specificity and low sensitivity. The results of this paper indicate that the EDI, a measure of children’s developmental status at school entry, demonstrates similar psychometric properties in a number of countries, thus building the evidence for the instrument to be added to the limited array of internationally comparable child social indicators.     

VALIDATION OF A DIARY MEASURE OF CHILDREN'S PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES

This study compares levels of physical activity of 9–14-year-old children from a self-reported time diary with those measured using an accelerometer. Children (N = 92) wore an accelerometer for one weekend day and completed a 24-hour time diary for that day. The time children spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity from time diaries was moderately highly correlated with the measured results. Self-reported and objective measures of intensity were correlated, but the correlation varied substantially by activity and characteristics of the family. This study provides empirical evidence to support the validity of time-diary estimates when accelerometer data are not available.