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<p> Collectivism and individualism are widely recognized as the most important aspects of culture and communication impacting the highly human relational fields of psychology, social work, and education. In the field of education, collectivism is attracting recognition as a determinate consideration impacting educational outcomes, classroom management, and the purpose of teaching and learning, particularly relevant in light of increasing economic inequity, institutional racism, and the decline of social cohesion. Collectivism affirms interdependence, other-interestedness, mutuality, equity, and care for holism and sustainability, which includes ecological sustainability and embraces communitarian values (Hofstede, 1980; Triandis, 1989; Lodge, 2009; Greenfield, 1994; Trumbull, Rothstein-fisch, &amp; Greenfield, 2000). </p><p> The purpose of this study was to contribute to the development and promulgation of pedagogy promoting collectivist worldview. It examines the impact of Democracy Education pedagogy, a self-transformation through a social participation approach to teaching and learning developed by Roy Wilson, at the Institute for Community Leadership (ICL). Education aims at strengthening democracy as a means for rectification of disparities in academic achievement and meaningful civic/social engagement, evidenced by prevalent race and class divides in the U.S. educational system. The research draws on 16 years of programming provided by the ICL, in 62 predominately low-income, racially diverse, urban, rural, and tribal school districts of Washington, Oregon, California, and Florida. Former student and teacher participant survey data were collected and analyzed for transformative and emancipatory relevance. A mixed method, quantitative and qualitative research approach provided a complementary, iterative-analytic assessment, optimizing elaboration, illustration, and clarification. A survey measuring collectivism and individualism (Singelis, Triandis, Bhawuk, &amp; Gelfand, 1995) was included in the student survey. </p><p> The research findings support the hypothesis that collectivist worldview can be taught and learned. Evidence of increased collectivism was found in correlation to increased length of time student participants were in the Democracy Education program. Above-average collectivist scores were registered by 86.4% of the student respondents. This indicated a high associational value favoring teachability and learnability of collectivism. The study illuminates conduct, character, and consciousness affiliated with collectivist worldview and documents the impact of their acquisition. Analysis of impact was organized around four themes: significance for the individual learner; educational method and practice; educational philosophy and worldview, and the relationship between collectivism and individualism. Collectivism is weighed as an essential consideration for the sustainability and advancement of democracy.</p>

<p> It is worth great effort to identify the motivation a person may have to live a certain way. Efforts in persuading a person to change are fruitless if he or she lacks the right motivation. This thesis identifies strict parameters for sustainability as well as impediments to future sustainability. Further, it examines possible ways to overcome such impediments. Building on previous research in the field of environmental motivational research, this research proposes nine motivations why people not associated with environmental behavior would want to live a more sustainable lifestyle. The small rural town of Albion, Idaho was selected as the sample for this research. Residents living within the sample area displayed very little desire to change their current lifestyle. Top motivations for living more sustainably were a desire to live a healthier lifestyle, to live more self-reliantly, and the desire to wear things out such as reusing a zip lock bag multiple times instead of throwing it out after only one use, in order to get the most use out of any one item. In a focus group discussion, comments by participants referred to the desire to keep traditions alive, provide educational opportunities to their children, and furnish their children with the ability to live a healthier lifestyle as core reasons to live sustainably. In the mind of the participants, there is not much difference between the terms "sustainable lifestyle," "self-reliant lifestyle," and a "rural lifestyle." All three lifestyles are viewed synonymously.</p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> sustainable, sustainability, environmental sustainability, stewardship motivation, motivation for sustainability, environmental motivations, environmental motivational research</p>

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone / The study investigates how local-level efforts at sustainability have been implemented in developing countries and Caribbean islands. In order to protect resources and longevity of these regions, communities often adopt sustainable development initiatives with assistance of external support. The goal of this study is to evaluate initiatives taken by similar communities and organizations that have met the needs of ecosystems through sustainable action plans. The combined information gathered in this study will aid St. Croix, USVI in evaluating current practices as well as planning for future actions. The purpose of this research is to develop a case study of local-level sustainable development initiatives for St. Croix, USVI in order to address the needs of community members and environment through evaluations and successful frameworks of similar island communities. Through information collected, an analysis that addresses issues related to improving community for healthier communities via an improved built environment design, will investigate possible forms and systems of successful urban populations. This thesis addresses some of the issues related to improving community design for better civiv health outcomes via an improved design and framework policy for the built environment. In order to explore this, the thesis seeks sustainable potentials in urban inner cities and island communities to develop an action plan and design for St. Croix. USVI.

Globally, sea levels have risen in the last century, and various projections suggest substantial increases in sea level due to climate change in this century. In Nigeria, there are no up-to-date sea level rise (SLR) assessments for the coast. Much of the Nigerian coast is low lying with the consequence that a 1 to 3 metres rise in sea level, which may result from eustatic or climate change, will have a catastrophic effect on the human activities in these regions. This study examines the consequences of continued sea level rise with a focus on erosion and inundation for the Nigerian coast and considers the coastal management practices of coastal partnerships (CPs). The Nigerian coast has been delineated according to distinct geomorphological units, which include the Barrier, Mud, Delta and Strand coasts. The Bruun model has been used to compute shoreline recession along the Nigerian coast with the exception of the Mud coast. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to develop inundation models and examine the impact scenarios that SLR will have on critical elements, which include land, population, economic activity (Gross Domestic Product), urban extent, agriculture and wetlands with the aid of high quality spatially disaggregated global data. A case study approach was used to assess the management practices of Pro-Natural International Nigeria; Niger Delta Wetland Centre, Niger Delta Development Commission; and Flood Erosion and Coastal Zone Management, Rivers State with the aid of a suite of systemic sustainability appraisal indices. Results indicate that shoreline recession will be mild along the coast while substantial loss due to inundation of the critical elements is expected for all the scenarios considered. The sustainability assessment indicates that the CPs did not meet the required standard for sustainability, however there was evidence of constructive management in some of them. This study has been able to provide up-to-date baseline data concerning the vulnerability of the coast to SLR for the four coastal systems in Nigeria. The coastal sustainability assessment, which is the first ever in Nigeria, reflects the need for corrective measures in the management practices of the CPs to achieve a sustainable coast in the light of coastal hazards.

Significant investments are being made in the construction sector in order to raise the quality of the buildings and make them more sustainable and energy-efficient. The key aspect of these investments should be the purposeful optimization of the possible renovation and construction measures. However, this important matter usually is being pushed aside in favor of construction price and/or quality. Nevertheless, there are plenty of criteria that play a major role in building sustainable development. The main purpose of this study is to present a tool that combines multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods and building certification systems in order to make weighted decisions in complicated construction tasks. For this, a decision making model was developed with a focus on sustainability, buildings’ life cycle, MCDM methods, and building certification. The first section of this thesis, the introduction, discusses the importance of the investigated area, and the main objectives, tasks, and structure of the thesis. A literature review is presented in Section 2 – Theory. The main works in the area of sustainability, LCA, building certification, and MCDM are collected to show their role and importance and how they interact in the construction industry. Section 3 presents and discusses the main ideas and instructions of the proposed decision making model. Section 4 (Methodology) introduces the main existing and proposed techniques that I have used to implement the study. Sections 5 and 6 are the case studies, which demonstrate how the proposed methods can be used in practice. Final conclusions and recommendations are presented in Section 7. / <p>QC 20170209</p> / Funded by L.E. Lundberg foundation

<p> American colonization of the Hawaiian Islands has brought about generations of Native Hawaiian learners being subjected to educational practices that are incompatible with core Indigenous beliefs. Consequently, Native Hawaiian learners have lower academic achievement than other ethnic groups in the islands. The lack of success is not confined to academics since Native Hawaiians are also underrepresented in material-economic, social-emotional, and physical wellbeing. Hawaiian culture-based education (HCBE) can be used to decolonize educational practices by increasing cultural relevancy and compatibility within schools. This study was conducted within a school founded explicitly for the education of Native Hawaiian children. The selected campus has approximately 80 teachers and 650 Native Hawaiian learners (age eleven to fifteen). The purpose of the study was to better understand implementation of the HCBE framework components and data was collected through surveys and semi-structured follow-up interviews. The findings showed that although there was a range of the extent the teachers at the school understood and implemented the various HCBE components, there was commitment to using Hawaiian language, knowledge, and practices as the content and context for student learning. The data also showed though teachers have a high level of understanding of the importance of relationship building, that building family and community relationships remains an area of challenge. Additionally, teachers pride themselves on delivering meaningful personalized learning experiences and assessments to their students, and would like their own professional development to be grounded in the same educational practices. This study provides baseline data to inform further growth. </p>

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / Sustainable certifications are expanding in popularity within the built environment as the construction industry is progressing towards sustainability, while benefits are becoming more valuable to the businesses that reside in sustainably certified spaces. These benefits, such as thermal comfort and natural daylighting, not only translate to enhancing employee’s health, but employers within sustainably certified buildings have found greater retention rates in employees, improved business recruitment, as well as higher productivity in employees. The range of this analysis is directed towards two businesses that reside in sustainably certified buildings, DPR Construction-Phoenix in Arizona and the Mosaic Centre for Conscious Community and Commerce in Edmonton, Canada. Both buildings will be assessed for the impact their sustainable space have on their business. The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of holistic and specific components of sustainability certifications, exclusively LEED and Net Zero Energy, on businesses. The study was unique as it was conducted by interviewing an integral consultant/designer in the construction process that still currently works in the building. The interview revealed that DPR Construction found employees to be more comfortable in their workspace, thus suggesting that productivity would be improved however this cannot be measured. The Mosaic Centre found new business advantages such as utilizing the space for tours and community engagement opportunities that have given the businesses within the Mosaic Centre unique marketing opportunities to improve business. This analysis will help commercial building owners gain insight on the business impacts of implementing sustainable building components to achieve a LEED certification, Net-Zero Status or a Living Building Challenge certification.

<p> This research investigated cross-sector collaboration as ideal-seeking social action within the context of a stakeholder-led initiative to foster place-based community revitalization in the City of Cleveland, Ohio, USA. It engaged organizational leaders and citizen activists to develop and refine the praxis of design conversation inspired by an appreciative awareness of values and qualities found in communities as thriving, living systems. Within a framework of community action research (CAR) methodology, the study engaged a small group of community leaders to create a learning space and relational field enabling them to acquire knowledge and understanding in the manner of an evolutionary learning community. Through facilitated design inquiry, participants sought to understand their communities as living socio-ecological systems; evolving purposefully within a context of embedded cultural and institutional influences.</p><p> The group discourse combined generative and strategic dialogue with other co-creative inquiry practices to embody dynamic and purposeful characteristics of an evolutionary guidance system. Through design conversation in both small group and community practice settings, participants worked to transform habitual patterns of thinking and shift awareness towards appreciative qualities of communities as purposeful social systems; thereby building collective evolutionary competencies that enable self-organization and unfolding of human evolutionary potentials at the levels of self, organization, community, and society.</p><p> The study results were summarized from participant journaling and transcribed conversations, and interpreted through critical hermeneutic analysis and systemic modelling. The results demonstrate, at least tentatively, how designing conversation as a strategic approach to community revitalization praxis enabled participants to coalesce as a dynamic learning community, expressing evolutionary consciousness and competency and developing a more integral, shared understanding of Cleveland&rsquo;s communities as continuously evolving and appreciatively self-guided, living systems. These results show how strategically facilitated conversation within a framework of evolutionary systems design enabled community stakeholders in Cleveland to utilize conversation as purposeful social action to build appreciative awareness of their differences and understanding of their collective human potentials as the conscious embodiment of values and qualities found in healthy, resilient communities.</p>

<p> Since 2005, Senegal has scaled up malaria control interventions nationwide, mainly by an approach that allowed reaching people of highest needs. Activities have included vector control interventions such as Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN) and Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS), prevention of malaria in pregnant women, and diagnosis and treatment with an effective anti-malarial.</p><p> This study aims to evaluate the impact of malaria interventions on all cause mortality among children under five years following the approach of targeting people of highest needs while scaling up of malaria control in Senegal. A &ldquo;pre/post&rdquo; study design following the recommendations of the RBM Monitoring and Evaluation Reference Group (MERG) was used. This assessment of the impact of the scaling-up of malaria control interventions is based on a plausibility argument. Given that it is difficult to measure mortality resulting from malaria, the objective of the plausibility argument is to demonstrate the association between the scaling-up of malaria interventions and the reduction of all-cause mortality in children under 5 years of age in Senegal.</p><p> Efforts in vector control led to an increase in the availability of resources, and substantial improvement in intervention coverage. Use of ITN by children under 5 increased from 7 per cent to 35 percent (p&lt;0.001). The greatest increases were observed among populations most at risk of malaria, namely the poorest two quintiles, southern and central regions. Parasite prevalence decreased significantly from 6 per cent in 2008 to 3 per cent in 2010 (p&lt; 0.001). The greatest reductions in anemia and parasitaemia were observed in populations from rural areas, the poorest populations, and populations from the central and southern epidemiological zones, who also displayed the highest increase in ownership and use of ITNs. All-cause under 5 mortality decreased by 40 per cent. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed better child survival over the period 2005&ndash;2010 compared to 2000&ndash;2005. Except for the region of Dakar, child survival estimates were higher in areas with the lowest prevalence of malaria. In addition, All-cause mortality in children under 5 years was significantly lower during the period after the scaling-up of malaria control interventions (OR: 0 63; 95% CI: 0.46&ndash;0.86).</p><p> Other factors that might affect malaria transmission and child mortality were controlled for in the analysis. Despite increased rainfall malaria morbidity decreased, most strikingly among populations in which access to and use of ITNs increased most. While mortality declined in general during the study period, the greatest decreases in both parasitemia and child mortality were observed among the same populations that had the greatest increase in coverage of malaria control interventions. Similarly, the biggest declines in mortality occurred among the age group most likely to die of malaria, suggesting that malaria control interventions contributed substantially to the decrease in malaria morbidity, and consequently, to all-cause under 5 mortality. Based on the LiST model, the scaling-up of ITNs and IPTp from 2004&ndash;2010 averted 5,774 deaths in children under 5. The advent of home-based management to deliver malaria care at home, even in difficult to access rural areas, where the largest number of deaths usually occurs, has greatly contributed to expanding malaria case management across Senegal.</p><p> All-cause mortality in children under 5 was significantly lower in the period after the scale up of malaria control interventions by targeting people of highest needs. The declines in mortality were greater in the populations and regions where coverage of malaria interventions was highest. The associations held even after taking into account other contextual factors. We drawn the conclusion that malaria control activities reduced malaria related morbidity and mortality, thus contributing to significant declines in all-cause child mortality between 2005-2010 in Senegal.</p>