An Educational international partnership responding to local needs: Process evaluation of the Brazil FAIMER Regional Institute

The Brazilian public health system requires competent professionals sensitive to the needs of the population. The Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) provides a two-year faculty development programme for health professions educators, aiming to build leadership in education to improve health. A partnership with governmental initiatives and FAIMER was established for meeting these needs. This paper describes the initial process evaluation results of the Brazilian FAIMER Institute Fellowship (FAIMER BR). Methods: Data were analysed for the classes 2007-2010 regarding: application processes; innovation project themes; retrospective post-pre self-ratings of knowledge acquisition; and professional development portfolios. Results: Seventeen of 26 Brazilian states were represented among 98 Fellows, predominantly from public medical schools (75.5%) and schools awarded Ministry of Health grants to align education with public health services (89.8%). One-third (n = 32) of Fellows' innovation projects were related to these grants. Significant increases occurred in all topic subscales on self-report of knowledge acquisition (eff ect sizes, 1.21-2.77). In the follow up questionnaire, 63% of Fellows reported that their projects were incorporated into the curriculum or institutional policies. The majority reported that the programme deepened their knowledge (98%), provided new ideas about medical education (90%) and provided skills for conflict management (63%). One-half of the Fellows reported sustained benefits from the programme listserv and other communications, including breadth of expertise, establishment of research collaboration and receiving emotional support. Conclusion: Contributors to initial programme success included alignment of curriculum with governmental initiatives, curriculum design merging educational technology, leadership and management skills and central role of an innovation educational project responding to local needs.

Lateinamerika in der globalen Zirkulation von Expertise über den Umgang mit historischem Unrecht. Das Beispiel der Wahrheitskommissionen

Since the 1980s, the ways societies grapple with past human rights violations have become another area that is increasingly exposed to specialized knowledge production. Together with the profound changes in the dealing with the legacies of illegal or illegitimate exercise of power over the last decades, the expertise in the field not only expanded dramatically, but also became more diversified. The transitions from military dictatorships to democracies in South America in the 1980’s marked the historical beginning of this new era of coming to terms with the past, conceptualized in the following decade paradigmatically in the field of “transitional justice”. The subcontinent remained a central site in the global production and circulation of this knowledge, not least in regard to the two major innovations in societies’ arsenal of means of dealing with the past and their increasing conventionalization: the internationalization and transnationalization of the criminal prosecution of gross human rights violations and the truth commissions. Focusing on the expertise about truth commissions, the article aims to reconstruct and to analyze the role of Latin American experiences and actors in the remarkable global career of a key instrument in confronting past atrocities

Creation of relational assets through the 'library of equipment' model:an industrial modernization approach of Japan's local technology centres

SMEs with a weak internal R&D capacity show the tendency to shy away from using external sources of technical expertise. The tendency deters providers of industrial modernization services from supporting such structurally weak SMEs. This paper examines how Japan's local technology centres - kosetsushi - remove the bottleneck and reach out to a significant proportion of SMEs with a weak R&D capacity in their localities. Kosetsushi centres sustain habitual interactions with client firms through 'low information gap' services solving immediate needs and lead the clients to a riskier and longer path toward innovation capacity building. This gives kosetsushi centres a position distinct from universities and consultancies in the regional innovation system. While long-term relationships between kosetsushi centres and their client firms can increase switching costs and produce lock-in effects, a case study of two kosetsushi centres illustrates the importance of 'low-information gap' services and relational assets created thereby to the modernization of SMEs with a weak internal R&D capacity. The paper calls for long-term commitment by the public sector if it addresses the issue through modernization services.

The response to and effects of microcomputers in the education sector:the introduction of an innovation in local authority secondary schools

The study addresses the introduction of an innovation of new technology into a bureaucratic profession. The organisational setting is that of local authority secondary schools at a time at which microcomputers were being introduced in both the organisational core (for teaching) and its periphery (school administration). The research studies innovation-adopting organisations within their sectoral context; key actors influencing the innovation are identified at the levels of central government, local government and schools.A review of the literature on new technology and innovation (including educational innovation), and on schools as organisations in a changing environment leads to the development of the conceptual framework of the study using a resource dependency model within a cycle of the acquisition, allocation and utilisation of financial, physical and intangible resources. The research methodology is longitudinal and draws from both positivist and interpretive traditions. lt includes an initial census of the two hundred secondary schools in four local education authorities, a final survey of the same population, and four case studies, using both interview methods and documentation. Two modes of innovation are discerned. In respect of administrative use a rationalising, controlling mode is identified, with local education authorities developing standardised computer-assisted administrative systems for use in schools. In respect of curricular use, in contrast, teachers have been able to maintain an indeterminate occupational knowledge base, derived from an ideology of professionalism in respect of the classroom use of the technology. The mode of innovation in respect of curricular use has been one of learning and enabling. The resourcing policies of central and local government agencies affect the extent of use of the technology for teaching purposes, but the way in which it is used is determined within individual schools, where staff with relevant technical expertise significantly affect the course of the innovation.

AIDS workplace *policy adoption and implementation in local government: An analysis of departmental variation

This is an empirical study whose purpose was to examine the process of innovation adoption as an adaptive response by a public organization and its subunits existing under varying degrees of environmental uncertainty. Meshing organization innovation research and contingency theory to form a theoretical framework, an exploratory case study design was undertaken in a large, metropolitan government located in an area with the fourth highest prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in the country. A number of environmental and organizational factors were examined for their influence upon decision making in the adoption/non-adoption as well as implementation of any number of AIDS-related policies, practices, and programs.^ The major findings of the study are as follows. For the county government itself (macro level), no AIDS-specific workplace policies have been adopted. AIDS activities (AIDS education, AIDS Task Force, AIDS Coordinator, etc.), adopted county-wide early in the epidemic, have all been abandoned. Worker infection rates, in the aggregate and throughout the epidemic have been small. As a result, absent co-worker conflict (isolated and negligible), no increase in employee health care costs, no litigation regarding discrimination, and no major impact on workforce productivity, AIDS has basically become a non-issue at the strategic core of the organization. At the departmental level, policy adoption decisions varied widely. Here the predominant issue is occupational risk, i.e., both objective as well as perceived. As expected, more AIDS-related activities (policies, practices, and programs) were found in departments with workers known to have significant risk for exposure to the AIDS virus (fire rescue, medical examiner, police, etc.). AIDS specific policies, in the form of OSHA's Bloodborn Pathogen Standard, took place primarily because they were legislatively mandated. Union participation varied widely, although not necessarily based upon worker risk. In several departments, the union was a primary factor bringing about adoption decisions. Additional factors were identified and included organizational presence of AIDS expertise, availability of slack resources, and the existence of a policy champion. Other variables, such as subunit size, centralization of decision making, and formalization were not consistent factors explaining adoption decisions. ^

Primeira intervenção da GNR no local do crime

Este trabalho aborda a questão dos atos preparatórios no local do crime, isto é, as medidas cautelares e de polícia que o primeiro interveniente policial que chega ao local deve aplicar. As diligências efetuadas pelo primeiro militar que assume uma ocorrência e que, normalmente, não é especialista na área da Investigação Criminal ou forense, revelam-se de elevada importância para o sucesso da investigação pois repercutem-se ao longo de toda a investigação. Essa abordagem caracteriza-se por não visar uma intervenção investigatória e inspetiva, mas sim de prevenção e proteção do local. O objetivo geral do trabalho consiste numa contribuição para uma exploração mais determinada do local onde foi cometido um crime, através do melhor desempenho possível do primeiro interveniente policial. Os objetivos específicos passam por definir os procedimentos a tomar pelo primeiro interveniente (tendo em conta a sua especialidade, materiais e particularidades da fase da investigação) e definir o que é, para ele, um crime de cenário, identificando as possíveis repercussões de uma má gestão do local do crime para o sucesso da investigação. Utilizamos o método comparativo, estudando os diferentes Manuais de procedimentos (nacionais e internacionais). O quadro de referência é o materialismo histórico pois enfatizamos a dimensão histórica dos processos sociais, a legislação vigente e os problemas atuais para interpretar o nosso estudo. Este trabalho assume contornos exploratório-explicativos. Seguimos um método dedutivo, pois pretende-se chegar a um caso particular da lei geral, ou seja, aos procedimentos específicos do primeiro interveniente policial entre toda a gestão do local do crime. Os resultados mais significativos são a justificação da importância do local do crime para a Investigação Criminal e da complexidade que pode advir para o trabalho do primeiro interveniente. É possível concluir um conjunto padrão de ações que devem ser tomadas (guia prático) e como se pode melhorar a intervenção através de formação e cooperação entre os elementos.