In Applied Research for Sustainable Change, Sharon M. Ravitch and Nicole Mittenfelner Carl draw on twenty years of teaching and research to offer an incisive guide to practitioner-led qualitative research. They make the case for "local knowledge generation"--inquiry-based, school-level research that can contextualize quantitative data, enrich insight, and guide leaders in making more effective decisions leading to sustainable organizational change. The authors offer a framework for conducting applied research that connects practitioner research to theories of transformational leadership and professional development. They show how to align research studies with the school's mission and context and offer step-by-step guidance on forming a research team, designing the research project, collecting and analyzing data, and formulating, sharing, and acting on results. In each chapter, they draw on examples provided by education leaders who have participated in their courses. This book provides an invaluable resource for empowering education leaders at a time when their professional judgment is often circumscribed or dismissed. A central theme of the book is the power of participatory research to counter simplistic, often deficit-based narratives about patterns of student achievement and to foster transformational, sustainable change. Sharon M. Ravitch is a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. Nicole Mittenfelner Carl is a postdoctoral fellow in the Teaching, Learning, and Leadership Division at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

Design for Sustainable Change explores how design thinking and design-led entrepreneurship can address the issue of sustainability. It discusses the ways in which design thinking is evolving and being applied to a much wider spectrum of social and environmental issues, beyond its traditional professional territory. The result is designers themselves evolving, and developing greater design mindfulness in relation to what they do and how they do it. This book looks at design thinking as a methodology which, by its nature, considers issues of sustainability, but which does not necessarily seek to define itself in those terms. It explores the gradual extension of this methodology into the larger marketplace and the commercial and social implications of such an extension.

Data Science Applied to Sustainability Analysis focuses on the methodological considerations associated with applying this tool in analysis techniques such as lifecycle assessment and materials flow analysis. As sustainability analysts need examples of applications of big data techniques that are defensible and practical in sustainability analyses and that yield actionable results that can inform policy development, corporate supply chain management strategy, or non-governmental organization positions, this book helps answer underlying questions. In addition, it addresses the need of data science experts looking for routes to apply their skills and knowledge to domain areas. - Presents data sources that are available for application in sustainability analyses, such as market information, environmental monitoring data, social media data and satellite imagery - Includes considerations sustainability analysts must evaluate when applying big data - Features case studies illustrating the application of data science in sustainability analyses

"Designed with the graduate student in mind, Qualitative Research focuses on helping the reader cultivate and integrate theoretical, methodological and conceptual knowledge to provide insight into the interaction and to help understand the central concepts, topics and skills needed to engage in rigorous, valid, and respectful qualitative research. The authors have balanced communicating the foundations and processes of qualitative research with clarity and simplicity, while at the same time capturing its complexity and the multiple layers that were central to writing this book. Whether you are new to qualitative research or not, the goal for this book is to develop and deepen your understanding of an approach to research that seeks, designs for, and engages criticality in qualitative research. Every chapters begins with an overview and key objectives for the chapter. Many diverse examples illustrate key concepts throughout, along with a wide range of memos, conceptual framework narratives, graphics and much more. The new edition will include an earlier discussion of research ethics as crucial to students' inquiry, expanded information on individual methods for qualitative data collection, an expanded chapter on coding and other types of qualitative data analysis, and more thorough resource sections so students can further their qualitative research journey"--

There is a void of research and other academic materials to support stakeholders operating within industry and the service sector with respect to their perceptions and experiences of remote work, particularly in the context of global business, sustainability, and change management. As more businesses consider remaining and maintaining a remote workforce, it is of paramount importance that new research be conducted regarding the multifaceted area of remote work and sustainable change for global business. Remote Work and Sustainable Changes for the Future of Global Business raises awareness of the multifaceted area of remote work in the context of sustainable change. In particular, it explores remote technology in an attempt to cope with the changing landscape of work environments amidst global change from a sociotechnical perspective. This book provides insight into the challenges both national and international businesses face during a world crisis. Covering topics such as crisis management, the human cloud, and virtual collaboration, this book is essential to business managers, project managers, business clusters, entrepreneurs, higher education practitioners, faculty and PhD researchers, educational boards, technology vendors and firms, and academic researchers.

Climate change is a major problem, generating both risks and opportunities that will have a direct impact on the economy and the financial sector. In recent years, climate change has threatened both the survival of the financial system and economic development. The growing occurrence of extreme climate events combined with the imprudent nature of economic growth can cause unsustainable levels of harm to the financial sectors. On the other hand, it presents a range of new business challenges. In contrast to the most evident physical risks, companies are vulnerable to transformational risks that arise from the reaction of society to climate change, such as technological change, regulation and markets that can boost the cost of doing business, threats to the profitability of existing goods, or effects on the value of the asset. Climate change also offers new business opportunities, and it has made research in the context of a sustainable financial sector indispensable. The Handbook of Research on Climate Change and the Sustainable Financial Sector focuses on the impacts of climate change on various sectors of the world economy. This book covers how businesses can improve their sustainability, the impact of climate change on the financial sector, and specifically, the impacts on financial services, supply chains, and the socio-economic status of the world. Beyond focusing on the impacts to the financial industry itself, this book assesses how climate change in the financial sector affects the well-being of society in areas such as unemployment, economic recessions, decreases in consumer purchases, and more. This book is essential for stockbrokers, business managers, directors, fund managers, financial analysts, consultants and actuaries, institutional investors, policymakers, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in a comprehensive view of the impact of climate change on the financial sector.

In these times of rapid change, including a global pandemic, educational leaders need tools and frameworks that can adapt to evolving shifts in real time. What might happen if a leadership framework could make sense of this complexity in ways that are humane, ethical, culturally responsive, and multifaceted? This book examines how a flux leadership mindset and corresponding tools promote the conditions for educational change that uplift stakeholders and generate contextualized data during emergency situations. The educational leaders at the heart of this book employed a flux leadership tool through a process called “rapid-cycle inquiry,” which allows for collaborative inquiries to take place in real time to answer tough questions and surface stories that are often silenced in times of sudden change. Featuring narratives of what happened to schools during COVID-19, Flux Leadership introduces a generative framework for agile, responsive, anti-racist, trauma-informed, healing-centered leadership for times of crisis and beyond. Book Features: Provides a framework and set of real-time strategies for leaders to engage in critical leadership practice and crisis leadership with attention to equity.Addresses vital school and district-based leadership issues in various contexts, including reflexivity, identity, positionality, racial literacy, brave space leadership, equity-focused professional development, and critical collaboration.Covers a range of vantage points and intersectional social identities in succinct, accessible, and pragmatic ways.Creates a new approach for leaders to get at context and drive homegrown metrics that speak back to and challenge top-down metrics in schools and districts.