Karen Smith - Böcker

Washington State is about to enter a new phase of the "math wars." Since the late 1980s, the debate over how best to teach mathematics to schoolchildren has raged worldwide among educators, politicians, and parents. The stakes are high. To operate effectively in a global, twenty-first-century economy and polity, the United states must provide an education in mathematics that is both excellent and equitable.In this volume, four scholars at the Washington School Research Center (WSRC) at Seattle Pacific University present original research drawn from statistical studies of state educational data and from thousands of classroom observations carried out by The BERC Group. They assess the current state of math education and review its history and development. The authors also provide a dispassionate review of the extensive international, national, and state literature.The in-depth observational research in Winning the Math Wars confirms that the real issue is neither the approach to teaching--traditional or reform--nor the type of curriculum. If America's goal of educational equity and excellence is to be achieved, then math teachers everywhere must be fully supported in developing the specific skills that are ideal for educating all students. The authors discussion focus on four principles for improving math teaching and learning: fidelity to reform efforts by all involved; an emphasis on instruction and instructional tools; the critical nature of mathematical knowledge; and the need for transformational change.Winning the Math Wars is an important book for policy makers, school leaders, practitioners of mathematics education, parents, and anyone who wants to make sense of the "math wars."

A practical guide for students undertaking their dissertation, Writing Successful Undergraduate Dissertations in Social Sciences uses a mixture of exercises, strategies, case study material and further reading to give hints and tips on beginning and managing a research project and working with supervisors.Providing an accessible overview of the essential steps in conducting research and writing dissertations, this fully updated edition contains new sections on:• The varied sources of support for students and how to make use of them• The use of modern technologies, and digital platforms in data collection, storage and processing• The important issues relating to ethnographic and feminist research• How to publish through peer review publications or using self-publishing platforms• The General Data Protection Regulation and legal issues relating to collection, storage and use of personal data• The skills that students have acquired through writing dissertations and how those skills could become useful for future career and employability• How students can relate their dissertations to existing theories and concepts in social sciences that relate to their dissertation.Packed with proven practical advice from ‘real-life’ data, case studies and examples, Writing Successful Undergraduate Dissertations in Social Sciences is an essential and dependable starting point and guide for any student beginning their dissertation journey in the social sciences.

A practical guide for students undertaking their dissertation, Writing Successful Undergraduate Dissertations in Social Sciences uses a mixture of exercises, strategies, case study material and further reading to give hints and tips on beginning and managing a research project and working with supervisors.Providing an accessible overview of the essential steps in conducting research and writing dissertations, this fully updated edition contains new sections on:• The varied sources of support for students and how to make use of them• The use of modern technologies, and digital platforms in data collection, storage and processing• The important issues relating to ethnographic and feminist research• How to publish through peer review publications or using self-publishing platforms• The General Data Protection Regulation and legal issues relating to collection, storage and use of personal data• The skills that students have acquired through writing dissertations and how those skills could become useful for future career and employability• How students can relate their dissertations to existing theories and concepts in social sciences that relate to their dissertation.Packed with proven practical advice from ‘real-life’ data, case studies and examples, Writing Successful Undergraduate Dissertations in Social Sciences is an essential and dependable starting point and guide for any student beginning their dissertation journey in the social sciences.

Ian Taylor and Karen Smith present a much-needed and full examination of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), covering its history and current activities. All the key areas are covered by accessibly written chapters, including:an overview of UNCTAD: what it is, why it was formed and why it is importanthow the organization operates today: what it does and how it does it key criticisms made against the organization: is it relevant in today’s world? emerging issues within the organization and its future direction.In the current era of globalization and what appears to be the dominance of neo-liberal economic thought, UNCTAD has sought to make itself germane to ongoing international debates. The implications of this for the organization’s key remit, namely making the world a fairer place, are something that this book unpacks.

Ian Taylor and Karen Smith present a much-needed and full examination of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), covering its history and current activities. All the key areas are covered by accessibly written chapters, including:an overview of UNCTAD: what it is, why it was formed and why it is importanthow the organization operates today: what it does and how it does it key criticisms made against the organization: is it relevant in today’s world? emerging issues within the organization and its future direction.In the current era of globalization and what appears to be the dominance of neo-liberal economic thought, UNCTAD has sought to make itself germane to ongoing international debates. The implications of this for the organization’s key remit, namely making the world a fairer place, are something that this book unpacks.

Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) is truly an artist for the twenty-first century. In his sculptures he refashions artefacts and antiques into surprising, sometimes monumental constructions such as Template (2007): hundreds of wooden doors and windows taken from demolished Ming and Qing dynasty temples and arranged into a massive outdoor sculpture. As much as these materials look to the past, they also speak of the present, because never before (and probably never again) have they been available in such abundance. Like his benches carved from centuries-old temple beams, Template is a sly commentary on the speed with which China's building boom is obliterating its past. (When Template collapsed in a rainstorm two weeks after its unveiling at Documenta 12, the artist embraced its demise as a clever artistic twist.)In China today, making art that's critical of current cultural and economic policies is not a particularly safe career move. But Ai's father, the poet Ai Qing, walked a similar path, absorbing European avant-garde styles while studying in 1930s Paris and later standing by them in the face of Communist opposition, a move that eventually led to his exile to the distant provincial town where his son Weiwei came to be born and raised. In the late 1970s Ai Weiwei moved to Beijing, banding together with other pro-democracy artists in a loose collective known as the Stars Group. In 1981, following government retaliation against one of their exhibitions, Ai moved to New York, where he attended art school and lived the life of the bohemian for twelve years, his East Village apartment serving as a base for countless visiting Chinese artists. When his father became ill in 1993 Ai returned to China, settling in Beijing and finally taking up his art career in earnest.Weiwei's artistic forebears belong primarily to the Western modernist avant-garde (Duchamp and Beuys are particularly relevant). But Ai has equally and increasingly been influenced by modernist architecture and contemporary urban planning, citing the need for an ideal for living in a country where runaway economic development has shown little regard for the everyday life of the individual. In stark contrast to the glass-and-steel high-rises going up around Beijing, the art galleries, ateliers and homes Ai designs are boxy and modest, made from brick and other vernacular materials. Their resolution of Eastern and Western styles is a fitting parallel to his antique readymade sculptures.At a time when the West is finally discovering Chinese contemporary art, Ai is one of the few to have transcended the label 'Chinese artist'. In part thanks to his gallery Urs Meile (Lucerne and Beijing), Ai has won the support of strong European collectors. His work is increasingly being shown at major venues around the world (Kunsthalle Bern, Kunsthaus Graz, Tate Liverpool) and included in major international exhibitions (the Moscow Biennial, the Guangzhou Triennale, Documenta). A complex, multi-faceted artist, Ai is poised to make a deep impact on contemporary art far beyond China's borders.In the interview Hans Ulrich Obrist discusses Ai Weiwei’s life and motivations, his childhood in a rural province close to the Russian border, his underground political work, his move to New York in the 80s and consequent return to China in the 90s, and his break within the art world. Karen Smith’s survey examines the evolution of Ai Weiwei’s work from the early paintings, drawings, and sculptures pieces through his most recent installations and architectural work, including the cotton-made sculpture World Map (Biennale of Sydney, 2006), the wooden doors and windows structure Template (Documenta 12, 2007) and his collaboration with the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron for the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics.Bernard Fibicher focuses on Working Progress (Fountain of Light) (2007), a site-specific sculpture for Tate Liverpool inspired by Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International (1919) and that takes the form of a spectacular chandelier.

Recent years have seen an explosion in research on tourism volunteering. Volunteers are an essential part of tourism, whether they are volunteering in their local museum, at a sporting mega-event, as an airport ambassador, or travelling the global as a volunteer tourist. Managing Volunteers in Tourism reviews the latest research to highlight the key management issues and relate them to the tourism volunteering context. It includes previously under-researched forms of tourism volunteering such as meet-and-greeters, surf life-savers, conservation, festival, and information centre volunteers and volunTourists. The book develops through three distinct sections, the first of which begins by introducing the concept of volunteering and considering the variety of volunteer forms and settings within tourism. The next part picks up the organizational approach and examines volunteer program design and planning, volunteer motivation, recruitment and selection, training and development, reward and retention, and diversity management. The final part consists of ten case studies from leading international researchers and practitioners identifying best practice and key management challenges. Real-life examples and case studies throughout this book provide an in-depth examination of the challenges facing those managing tourism volunteers, making this book indispensible for current and future managers in the tourism industry.

This exciting new textbook challenges the implicit notions inherent in most existing International Relations (IR) scholarship and instead presents the subject as seen from different vantage points in the global South. Divided into four sections, (1) the IR discipline, (2) key concepts and categories, (3) global issues and (4) IR futures, it examines the ways in which world politics have been addressed by traditional core approaches and explores the limitations of these treatments for understanding both Southern and Northern experiences of the "international." The book encourages readers to consider how key ideas have been developed in the discipline, and through systematic interventions by contributors from around the globe, aims at both transforming and enriching the dominant terms of scholarly debate. This empowering, critical and reflexive tool for thinking about the diversity of experiences of international relations and for placing them front and center in the classroom will help professors and students in both the global North and the global South envision the world differently. In addition to general, introductory IR courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels it will appeal to courses on sociology and historiography of knowledge, globalization, neoliberalism, security, the state, imperialism and international political economy.

This exciting new textbook challenges the implicit notions inherent in most existing International Relations (IR) scholarship and instead presents the subject as seen from different vantage points in the global South. Divided into four sections, (1) the IR discipline, (2) key concepts and categories, (3) global issues and (4) IR futures, it examines the ways in which world politics have been addressed by traditional core approaches and explores the limitations of these treatments for understanding both Southern and Northern experiences of the "international." The book encourages readers to consider how key ideas have been developed in the discipline, and through systematic interventions by contributors from around the globe, aims at both transforming and enriching the dominant terms of scholarly debate. This empowering, critical and reflexive tool for thinking about the diversity of experiences of international relations and for placing them front and center in the classroom will help professors and students in both the global North and the global South envision the world differently. In addition to general, introductory IR courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels it will appeal to courses on sociology and historiography of knowledge, globalization, neoliberalism, security, the state, imperialism and international political economy.

Challenging the Western-centric foundations of International Relations (IR), this groundbreaking edited volume places Asian perspectives at the forefront of IR scholarship. Spanning nine countries across Asia, this rigorous examination reveals how concepts of sovereignty and internationalism have been uniquely interpreted and adapted across diverse Asian contexts. Moving beyond American social science paradigms, the book traces the fascinating encounters between Western and Asian worldviews, explores country-specific IR developments and demonstrates their transformative impact on global academic discourse. It is essential reading for scholars seeking to understand IR’s true global diversity and the promising future of post-Western international theory.

The part of the tourism industry which covers events, conventions and meetings is a substantial part of the global economy and provides employment for a very large number of people worldwide. The breakdown of employees in this sector is complex - employees can be full-time, casual labour or part of a volunteer workforce, and events can be as diverse as the Olympic Games and a local meeting. This book examines the role of people who work in events, meetings and conventions by looking at the context in which they work, and presenting theories, perspectives underlying trends of employment in this sector. Leading authors present international examples to further understanding of the concepts involved in people management in tourism events. This book will be an important resource for students and researchers of leisure, tourism and events management.

This book asks what it means to think globally about world politics.

This book asks what it means to think globally about world politics. In an attempt to contextualise the recent ‘globalising turn’ in International Relations (IR), it takes stock of more than 30 years of efforts at addressing IR’s Eurocentric limitations, and explores what ‘thinking globally’ means in practice through focusing on the study of (international) security and foreign policy. The authors offer thinking globally about world politics not as an alternative to, but as a critical engagement with, IR. It involves curiosity about what others think about the world, making a sustained effort to locate the knowledge they have produced, and recognising past and present contributions to what we otherwise view as ‘European’ ideas, practices, and institutions. Rather than focusing on abstract debates about the state of the discipline, the aim is to provide researchers with the conceptual tools to think globally and design their own research projects.

Winner of the 2020 Friends of ACUNS Biennial Book AwardGroup Politics in UN Multilateralism provides a new perspective on diplomacy and negotiations at the United Nations. Very few states ‘act individually’ at the UN; instead they often work within groups such as the Africa Group, the European Union or the Arab League. States use groups to put forward principled positions in an attempt to influence a wider audience and thus legitimize desired outcomes. Yet the volume also shows that groups are not static: new groups emerge in multilateral negotiations on issues such as climate, security and human rights. At any given moment, UN multilateralism is shaped by long-standing group dynamics as well as shifting, ad-hoc groupings. These intergroup dynamics are key to understanding diplomatic practice at the UN.