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This study aimed to assess the readiness of pre-service English teachers in a teacher training program at Fiji National University to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) to Fijian ESL learners. Using a mixed-methods approach, data were collected from twenty-two students enrolled in a compulsory language course during their third year of undergraduate study. These findings underscore the pivotal role of English teachers in maximizing students' formal schooling and exposure to their native language (L1) to create an engaging learning environment. Additionally, this study found that enhancing pre-service teachers' cultural awareness improves their readiness to teach English to Fijian ESL students. Central to this study is the recognition of the essential elements necessary in pre-service teacher education programs. This study includes multifaceted support systems, such as emphasizing the significance of comprehensive support in pre-service teacher education programs, including mentorship programs, practical teaching opportunity experiences, feedback mechanisms, platforms for self-reflection and peer reflection opportunities, integration of technology into teaching, and the improvement of effective communication and teaching methodologies. These findings hold substantial promise in informing and potentially guide policy decisions and offer recommendations for the refinement of teacher-training programs and curriculum development in secondary school settings. This study recommends the provision of training and support through professional development seminars geared towards fostering culturally responsive and inclusive classrooms, emphasizing the importance of training and ongoing support for teachers.

AbstractThis paper presents two contexts of meaning to gain systemic comprehension of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from the standpoint of a Systems Thinking Practice, called Interpretive Systemology. The first interpretive context is based on a notion of the social sector affected by the performance of the organization, which will allow us to open a space to explore about the ethical issue regarding a definition of boundaries from a standpoint of the organization and challenging some of the insufficiencies of such perspective to deal with the issue of CSR. The second context of meaning is grounded on searching for a social meaning of the organization through a grasping of it by asking about the practices in which the organization is engaged. This context will allow to approach CSR from a historical–ontological perspective in order to consider CSR as a result of an impoverishment of social practices to hold in the social milieu and the appearance of the organization as a way of providing a weak network of relations that is now compelled to find social legitimacy by addressing an unanswered question about the social order in which the organization appears. A core concept in this second context is social learning understood as a process that is currently undermined by a strong emphasis on training in organizational skills without pursuing a process of social learning as the ground upon which organizational skills are funded and articulated. In this sense, CSR is asked to answer about the production not only of its products and services, but also of other collateral effects or by products, such as how the people become engaged in a giving organizational setting. In this regard, it is claimed that community learning and engagement with the organization is central to enhance the CSR from a holistic perspective. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore organizational induction as socially situated learning processes. It presents an empirical study of inductees going through an induction program in a medium sized bank and discusses their induction as a dual process of becoming a practitioner and constructing practice.Design/methodology/approachThe research performed is qualitative: ethnographic methods including participant observation and interviews are used, and analysed through an interpretative methodology.FindingsThe paper suggests that the divide between the teaching curricula in the induction course and the learning curricula in real life banking contribute to the inductees' ability and desire to engage in the construction of customer service officer practice; the divide itself legitimizes differences in particularities of the practice, and enhances the inductees' ability to enact, accomplish, and construct practice actively.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper suggests induction should be viewed as opportunities for organizational learning as much as the training of newcomers to adhere to organizational standards.Originality/valueThe paper presents a novel empirical case exploring socially situated learning. Looking at the confluence of authoring and performative acts allows us to expose the agentic dimension of practices; thus emphasising the construction involved in any practising.

Few empirical studies have examined the relationship between learning organization dimensions and public sector performance. While others have argued that public organizations are important contexts to for the study of organizational learning, learning in public sector and government organizations has not been given the empirical attention that private sector learning has. The goal of this study is to assess to what degree a government bureaucracy can learn and to examine whether a relationship exists between learning (predictor variables) and performance (criterion variables) in a government organization. To evaluate this, the government department of Family Services and Consumer Affairs within the province of Manitoba, Canada was used as a case study. All non-political staff in the Department were invited to complete an online version of an adapted version of the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ). The current study addresses several gaps in the literature. This study found that a relationship indeed exists between organizational learning and performance in a Canadian public sector context. Second, a fourth variable of performance (goal performance) was added to assess the relationship between organizational learning and an organization's stated goals. Dimensions of the learning organization were found to be predictive of goal performance. Third and finally, this study offers recommendations on if and how a public sector organization can move from a bureaucracy, with its hierarchical authority and rules and order, to a learnaucracy, based on individual empowerment and a culture of reflexivity. ; May 2012

The purpose of this paper is to explore the conception and implementation of a collaborative approach to public sector professional learning which seeks to explore some of the most sensitive and important relationships between power, politics and policy. Specifically the paper will consider 3 key issues. First, it will set out the pedagogic debate that exists within the discipline of public administration on links between theory and practice and how this translates into the content and delivery of an MPA programme. Second, it will outline how, as a result of this pedagogic debate senior NICS civil servants became an integral part of the design and delivery team for the new Masters programme. Third, the paper will consider how the first cohort of students responded to this collaborative provision and the impact which it had on their professional working experiences. Taking these factors into account, the paper will consider the scope for using this model as a basis for a new level of professionalisation of the civil service around the core business of governments, the exercise of power.

Limited state capacity to carry out core government and service delivery functions poses a major constraint in post conflict countries, especially those with low income levels. With regard to scope, the research carried out for this note primarily focuses on developing a detailed understanding of how civil service institutes are established and function, and to reflect on available information about their impact. This note synthesizes the findings from case studies covering three countries and four public service training institutes: Rwanda (Rwanda Management Institute (RMI)); Uganda (Civil Service College Uganda (CSCU)); and Liberia (Liberia Institute of Public Administration (LIPA) and the Financial Management Training Program (FMTP)). The general policy rationale for establishing institutes of public service has been to improve national public sector capacity; while a key choice involves investing in longer and more in-depth or shorter-term training. To deliver training, a mix of some permanent staff with consultants recruited from the public sectors has worked well.

Over the last 30 years, colleges of education across the nation have examined and deliberated how best to educate pre-service history teachers for the challenges of the modern classroom. Specifically, they sought to create and refine teacher preparation programs that foster within the pre-service history teacher the propensity to use authentic teaching practices once they are licensed and instructing independently in the classroom. Using a situated learning theoretical framework, this research study adds to the literature on this topic by examining how a semester-long pre-service residency at a historic site, archive, library, or museum influences in-service history teacher pedagogy. Utilizing an ex post facto qualitative research methodology with a questionnaire, interviews, and analysis of lesson plans, this study pursued the objective of evaluating the nuances of a residency and how those experiences influence in-service pedagogical dispositions. The findings of the study conclude pre-service history teacher residencies offer valuable and unique learning spaces for the pedagogical development of pre-service history teachers by promoting authentic-based teaching models that participants carry into their in-service teaching.

In 2015, I worked for 10 months on a research project that had the ambitious aim of improving the experiences and treatment of people with learning difficulties using health services. Initiated by some senior health service staff, the project took the form of action research and aimed to stimulate an increase in service user-led quality checking of health services as a mechanism for service improvement. The project also set out to involve people with learning disabilities on an equal basis from the start. Involving a partnership between my university, a voluntary sector organization, and part of the National Health Service, I co-worked on an equal basis with a colleague who has learning difficulties and was located with the voluntary sector organization rather than university. In this case, I will discuss the part of the project that involved interviewing quality checkers with learning difficulties and their supporters and working with them and health professionals to develop the tools. I will argue for the importance of involving disabled people in research in a way that addresses power imbalances but will also discuss the very real challenges of doing this. By using examples of issues faced during the course of the project, I will explain some of the pitfalls, tensions, contributions, and successes likely to face.

"In Organizational Survival in the New World Alex and David Bennet combine their years of experience to propose a new model of the firm that enables organizations to react more quickly and fluidly to today's fast-changing, dynamic business environment. The Intelligent Complex Adaptive System (ICAS), based on research in complexity and neuroscience - and incorporating networking theory and knowledge management - turns the living system metaphor into a reality for organizations." "The Bennets combine theory and practice in a new vision of the organization to empower leaders, managers and professionals who must excel in the age of complexity."--Jacket

Industrial relations cover all such relationships that a business enterprise maintains with various sections of the society such as workers, state customers, and public who come into its contact. In other words, it is the study of the interactions among industry, its employees and the governments that oversee them. Ambo University has been contributing much for promoting sustainable development at local, regional, and national level through educational and research activities, short term training, outreach services, and consultancy services. While its great contribution is commendable, little attention was given to its industrial relations by researchers in the field of industrial relations. The general objective of the study was to assess the problems and prospects of industrial relations of employees of Ambo University and propose strategic measures for better future. Promoting good governance and democracy in all management levels of Ambo University, creating favorable working environment and environment of good will and mutual cooperation among employees, and encouraging employees to use modern technologies like ICTs in service delivery are some of the strategic measures proposed in this study to improve the industrial relations of employees of Ambo University.

Evaluates the benefits and problems of applying the experience curve in two very different service organisations. The first case shows how an experience curve has been calculated at a macro (organisation) level for British Airways over a 20 year period, including the time at which it was privatised. The second example shows an application over the first year of operation of a high‐volume paperwork processing operation within a financial services organisation. These studies demonstrate that experience curves can be applied to great effect in high volume service organisations, but a single measure of output needs to be established. The paper also shows how different phases and rates of learning may be linked to organisational and technological change, and discusses how an experience curve might be used to monitor improvement and establish future cost‐related performance objectives.

It is vital that social work managers and leaders are able to deliver and manage effective supervision to their teams. Recent social work reports such as the Munro Review into Child Protection identified poor supervision as a barrier to good and effective social work practice and highlighted the need for quality supervision to become embedded within departments. This book demonstrates how both managers and their staff can engage with supervision with a view to successful outcomes. There are detailed sections on audit tasks and reflection questions to enable readers to increase awareness of their role as well as develop action plans for improvement in their practice

Travelers expect integrated and multimodal itinerary planning while addressing their individual expectations. Besides common preferences such as travel time and price, further criteria such as walking and waiting times are of importance as well. The competing features of these preferences yield a variety of Pareto-optimal itineraries. Finding the set of Pareto-optimal multimodal travel itineraries in efficient run time remains a challenge in case multiple traveler preferences are considered. In this work, we present a sampling framework to approximate the set of Pareto-optimal travel itineraries that scales well in terms of considered preferences. In particular, we guide the search process dynamically to uncertain areas of the complex multimodal solution space. To this end, we learn the structure of the Pareto front during the search with Gaussian Process Regression (GPR). The GPR sampling framework is evaluated integrating an extensive amount of real-world data on mobility services. We analyze long-distance trips between major cities in Germany. Furthermore, we take up to five traveler preferences into account. We observe that the framework performs well, revealing origin and destination specifics of Pareto fronts of multimodal travel itineraries.