As a region, the Pacific is changing rapidly. This edited collection, the first of its kind, centres Pacific-Indigenous ways of knowing, doing and being in Pacific social work. In so doing, the authors decolonise the dominant western rhetoric that is evident in contemporary social work practice in the region and rejuvenate practice models with evolving Pacific perspectives. Pacific Social Work: • Incorporates Pacific epistemologies and ontologies in social and community work practice, social policy and research • Profiles contemporary Pacific needs – including health, education, environmental, justice and welfare • Demonstrates the application of Pacific-Indigenous knowledges in practice in diverse Pacific contexts • Examines Pacific-Indigenous research approaches to promote inform practice and positive outcomes • Reviews Pacific models of social and community work and their application • Fosters Pacific perspectives for social work and community work education and training in the Pacific region. Pacific Social Work demonstrates the role of social work within societies where social and cultural differences are evident, and practitioners, community groups, researchers, educators, and governments are encouraged to consider the integration between local indigenous and international knowledge and practice. Providing rigorously researched case studies, questions and exercises, this book will be a key learning resource for social work and human and community services students, practitioners, social services managers and policy makers in Australia, New Zealand and various Pacific Island states across the Pacific including Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.

Parents know how important good schools are when they are deciding where to buy a new house. That's why they are willing to stretch their budget for a home near a "good" school. But they should not be fooled by the tree-lined streets and expensive real estate - the neighborhood schools may not be as good as they think, according to the findings in Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice. The book takes readers on a driving tour of some of California's best neighborhoods and supposedly some of its best schools. Many parents have found out the hard way that despite what they have been told about their neighborhood schools, many of these students are not performing at grade level, let alone ready for college.

Hundreds of thousands of works of art and artefacts from many parts of the Pacific are dispersed across European museums. They range from seemingly quotidian things such as fish-hooks and baskets to great sculptures of divinities, architectural forms and canoes. These collections constitute a remarkable resource for understanding history and society across Oceania, cross-cultural encounters since the voyages of Captain Cook, and the colonial transformations that have taken place since. They are also collections of profound importance for Islanders today, who have varied responses to their disp.

This open access book describes the serious threat of invasive species to native ecosystems. Invasive species have caused and will continue to cause enormous ecological and economic damage with ever increasing world trade. This multi-disciplinary book, written by over 100 national experts, presents the latest research on a wide range of natural science and social science fields that explore the ecology, impacts, and practical tools for management of invasive species. It covers species of all taxonomic groups from insects and pathogens, to plants, vertebrates, and aquatic organisms that impact a diversity of habitats in forests, rangelands and grasslands of the United States. It is well-illustrated, provides summaries of the most important invasive species and issues impacting all regions of the country, and includes a comprehensive primary reference list for each topic. This scientific synthesis provides the cultural, economic, scientific and social context for addressing environmental challenges posed by invasive species and will be a valuable resource for scholars, policy makers, natural resource managers and practitioners.

Saving California is focused on policy changes that could help restore some of California's lost luster. The authors are all current or former Californians, people with deep expertise in their respective policy areas.

Homeschooling is probably the most misunderstood school choice option. Many believe that homeschooling isolates students, is practiced by a narrow demographic, and shoulders parents with the entire responsibility for teaching their kids. The reality is that homeschooling is an incredibly diverse movement and offers a myriad of socialization opportunities for students plus a wealth of resources for homeschool parents. Thanks to the massive educational disruption brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, homeschooling has transformed from a tiny curious sideshow to a mainstream part of the education landscape. Increasing numbers of parents have found that homeschooling offers them and their children the choices, flexibility, and personalization that cannot be found in one-size-fits-all conventional schools. The Homeschool Boom highlights the wide variety of people who have decided to homeschool. They have taken the opportunities offered by technology, varied learning models, new and abundant curricular choices, and the freedom to individualize learning to educate their kids successfully outside the traditional classroom. The parents, children, and educators you'll meet reading The Homeschool Boom epitomize this new wave of homeschoolers who were dissatisfied with current direction of their children's education but made a once-unthinkable choice - the choice to educate their kids at home.

Between 2000 and 2015 the Asian American Pacific Islander population grew from nearly 12 million to over 20 million--at 72% percent recording the fastest growth rate of any major ethnic and racial group in the US.This book, the first to focus wholly on Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Institutions (AANAPISIs) and their students, offers a corrective to misconceptions about these populations and documents student services and leadership programs, innovative pedagogies, models of community engagement, and collaborations across academic and student affairs that have transformed student outcomes.The contributors stress the importance of disaggregating this population that is composed of over 40 ethnic groups that vary in immigrant histories, languages, religion, educational attainment levels, and socioeconomic status. This book recognizes there is a large population of underserved Asian American and Pacific Islander college students who, given their educational disparities, are in severe need of attention. The contributors describe effective practices that enable instructors to validate the array of students’ specific backgrounds and circumstances within the contexts of developing such skills as writing, leadership and cross-cultural communication for their class cohorts as a whole. They demonstrate that paying attention to the diversity of student experiences in the teaching environment enriches the learning for all. The timeliness of this volume is important because of the keen interest across the nation for creating equitable environments for our increasingly diverse students.This book serves as an important resource for predominantly white institutions who are admitting greater numbers of API and other underrepresented students. It also offers models for other minority serving institutions who face similar complexities of multiple national or ethnic groups within their populations, provides ideas and inspiration for the AANAPISI community, and guidance for institutions considering applying for AANAPISI status and funding. This book is for higher education administrators, faculty, researchers, student affairs practitioners, who can learn from AANAPISIs how to successfully engage and teach students with widely differing cultural backgrounds and educational circumstances.