Matching Items (12)
Description
The inception of the human-powered water pump began during my trip to Maasailand in Kenya over the Summer of 2017. Being one of the few Broadening the Reach of Engineering through Community Engagement (BRECE) Scholars at Arizona State University, I was given the opportunity to join Prescott College (PC) on their annual trip to the Maasai Education, Research, and Conservation (MERC) Institute in rural Kenya. The ASU BRECE scholars that choose to travel were asked to collaborate with the local Maasai community to help develop functional and sustainable engineering solutions to problems identified alongside community members using rudimentary technology and tools that were available in this resource-constrained setting. This initiative evolved into multiple projects from the installation of GravityLights (a local invention that powers LEDs with falling sandbags), the construction/installation of smokeless stoves, and development of a much-needed solution to move water from the rainwater collection tanks around camp to other locations. This last project listed was prototyped once in camp, and this report details subsequent iterations of this human-powered pump.
ContributorsMiller, Miles Edward (Author) / Henderson, Mark (Thesis director) / Abbas, James (Committee member) / Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder that can cause substantial helath problems. It is the result of a mutation in the DNA coding for hemoglobin. As a result of changes in two important amino acids, a person suffering from sickle cell disease will have erythrocytes that do not maintain the typical biconcave shape and instead for a crescent shape. Individuals with sickle cell disease may have many health problems tied to their irregular hemoglobin. The unusual shape of the erythrocytes leads to a much shorter cell life, which means that even though bone marrow remains active long past childhood to try to keep up with the loss of erythrocytes, the body is still unable to accommodate the rapid death of erythrocytes. The malformed erythrocytes can also cause vascular occlusion, blocking blood vessels and slowing blood flow. While sickle cell disease has the potential to spread worldwide, it is particularly common in Africa. This may be because people with the sickle cell trait have a high resistance to malaria, making them more likely to survive that ubiquitous disease and pass on their traits to their offspring. However, the mortality rate in young children with sickle cell disease is very high, in part because the spleen, already stressed by filtering out dead erythrocytes, has difficulties filtering out bacteria. One of the keys to stopping the spread of the disease is neonatal screening, but this requires specialized equipment that is fairly uncommon in rural areas, as can be seen in Kenya. Therefore, it would be highly beneficial to develop a more cost-effective and widely available method for testing for sickle cell disease.
ContributorsWold, John (Author) / Caplan, Michael (Thesis director) / LaBelle, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Snyder, Jan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2012-05
Description
Diabetes is a growing epidemic in developing countries, specifically in rural Kenya. In addition to the high cost of glucose testing, many diabetics in Kenya do not understand the importance of testing their blood glucose, let alone the nature of the disease. This project addresses the insufficiency of educational materials regarding diabetes in rural Kenya. The resulting documents can easily be adjusted for use in other developing countries.
ContributorsBuchak, Jacqueline (Author) / Caplan, Michael (Thesis director) / Snyder, Jan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Investment and interest in mental health on a global scale is increasing. This interest creates a need to gain an in depth understanding about how mental illness is conceptualized and treated in different cultures. This article aims to explore the views of maternal mental health in Kenya's sub-counties. Maternal mental health has a significant impact on child development outcomes, so the topic has cross-generational importance. Ten focus group discussions with a variety of participants were conducted to understand the health care system. The participants were from four Kenya sub-counties: Rachuonyo N., Wagwe, Okiki Amayo, Nyative and they were either members of either SCHMT (Sub-county health management team), CHEW (community health extension worker), facility/staff of the county hospital, HHCDO (Homa Hills Community Development Organization), THRIVE II staff (Catholic Relief Service's early childhood development program) or mothers and fathers with children under two years of age. The qualitative data were translated and transcribed on site and then retranslated and counterchecked. A secondary data analysis using Atlas.ti was performed to identify themes and trends in factors that contribute to maternal wellbeing. Four main categories were identified as having prevalent effects on the Kenyan mothers' mental health: cultural values, broken support system, limitations of resources, and knowledge, behavior and attitudes. The participants were broken up into administrative, clinical, social, maternal and paternal categories to determine specific influence in each of these areas. Further analysis defined participants' involvement in the categories as mediating, moderating and direct effects on maternal depression. Main contributors to depression were identified as a lack of paternal support, poor cultural values, and administrative resistance. Discussion focuses on consequences for the future.
ContributorsAugur, Haley Rose (Author) / Nelson, Elizabeth (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Hagaman, Ashley (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
This study investigated work-family conflict and related phenomena reported by female teachers in primary and secondary schools in Kenya. Specifically, it sought to first identify general work and family stressors and profession specific stressors, and how these stressors influenced teachers’ work-family conflict (WFC) and burnout. Second, it investigated whether support from home and work reduced these teachers’ perceived work-family conflict and burnout. Third, it investigated the impact of marital status, number and ages of children, length of teaching experience, and school location (city vs town) on perceived work-family conflict (WFC).
In this study, 375 female teachers from Nairobi and three towns completed a survey questionnaire with both closed- and open-ended questions. Data analysis was conducted through descriptive and inferential statistics, and content analyses of qualitative data. There were five primary findings. (1) Teachers clearly identified and described stressors that led to work-family conflict: inability to get reliable support from domestic workers, a sick child, high expectations of a wife at home, high workloads at school and home, low schedule flexibility, and number of days teachers spend at school beyond normal working hours, etc.
(2) Work-family conflict experienced was cyclical in nature. Stressors influenced WFC, which led to adverse outcomes. These outcomes later acted as secondary stressors. (3) The culture of the school and school’s resources influenced the level of support that teachers received. The level of WFC support that teachers received depended on the goodwill of supervisors and colleagues.
(4) Work-family conflict contributed to emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy. Time and emotional investment in students’ parents was related to emotional exhaustion; time and emotional investment in students’ behavior, the number of years teaching experience, and number of children were related to professional efficacy. Support from teachers’ spouses enabled teachers to cope with cynicism.
(5) While marital status did not influence WFC, school location did; teachers in Nairobi experienced more WFC than those in small towns. The study highlighted the importance of culture in studies of work-family conflict, as some of the stressors and WFC experiences identified seemed unique to the Kenyan context. Finally, theoretical implications, policy recommendations, and further research directions are presented.
In this study, 375 female teachers from Nairobi and three towns completed a survey questionnaire with both closed- and open-ended questions. Data analysis was conducted through descriptive and inferential statistics, and content analyses of qualitative data. There were five primary findings. (1) Teachers clearly identified and described stressors that led to work-family conflict: inability to get reliable support from domestic workers, a sick child, high expectations of a wife at home, high workloads at school and home, low schedule flexibility, and number of days teachers spend at school beyond normal working hours, etc.
(2) Work-family conflict experienced was cyclical in nature. Stressors influenced WFC, which led to adverse outcomes. These outcomes later acted as secondary stressors. (3) The culture of the school and school’s resources influenced the level of support that teachers received. The level of WFC support that teachers received depended on the goodwill of supervisors and colleagues.
(4) Work-family conflict contributed to emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy. Time and emotional investment in students’ parents was related to emotional exhaustion; time and emotional investment in students’ behavior, the number of years teaching experience, and number of children were related to professional efficacy. Support from teachers’ spouses enabled teachers to cope with cynicism.
(5) While marital status did not influence WFC, school location did; teachers in Nairobi experienced more WFC than those in small towns. The study highlighted the importance of culture in studies of work-family conflict, as some of the stressors and WFC experiences identified seemed unique to the Kenyan context. Finally, theoretical implications, policy recommendations, and further research directions are presented.
ContributorsMuasya, Gladys (Author) / Martin, Judith (Thesis advisor) / Mongeau, Paul (Committee member) / Walumbwa, Fred (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This ethnography follows mobile trajectories on roads in Nairobi to investigate how the transformation of transport infrastructure has affected people’s everyday mobility. I follow diverse mobile actors, including pedestrians, handcart (mkokoteni) workers, and minibus (matatu) operators, whose practices and ideas of moving are central to understand the city’s ordinary mobility. I also situate their everyday ways of moving in the rules, plans and ideas of regulators, such as government officials, engineers and international experts, who focus on decongesting roads and attempt to reshape Nairobi’s better urban mobility. Despite official and popular aspirations for building new roads and other public transport infrastructure, I argue that many mobile actors still pursue and struggle with preexisting and non-motorized means and notions of moving that are not reflected in the promise of and plans for better mobility. This ethnography also reveals how certain important forms of ordinary mobility have been socially marginalized. It explores what kinds of difficulties are created when the infrastructural blueprints of road “experts” and the notions that politicians promote about a new urban African mobility fail to match the reality of everyday road use by the great majority of Nairobi residents. By employing mobile participant observation of the practices of moving, this study also finds important ethnographic implications and suggestions for the study of mobile subjects in an African city where old and new forms of mobility collide.
ContributorsKim, Tae-Eun (Author) / Eder, James (Thesis advisor) / Bolin, Robert (Committee member) / Swadener, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Ballestero, Andrea (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This dissertation discusses the findings of an ethnographic exploratory study of Turkana nomadic pastoralist children's sociocultural practices of their everyday lifestyles and science curriculum and instruction in Kenyan early childhood curriculum. The study uses the findings from Turkana elders to challenge the dominant society in Kenya that draws from Western education ideology to unfairly criticize Turkana traditional nomadic cultural practices as resistant to modern education. Yet Turkana people have to rely on the cultural knowledge of their environment for survival. In addition, the community lives in abject poverty caused by the harsh desert environment which has contributed to parents' struggle to support their children's education. Cultural knowledge of Turkana people has received support in research demonstrating the role cultural lifestyles such as nomadic pastoralism play as important survival strategy that enable people to adapt to the harsh desert environment to ensure the survival of their livestock critical for their food security. The study documented ways in which the Kenya national education curriculum, reflecting Western assumptions about education, often alienates and marginalises nomadic children, in its failure to capture their cultural Indigenous knowledge epistemologies. The research investigated the relationships between Turkana children's sociocultural practices of pastoralist lifestyles and the national science curriculum taught in local preschools and first grade science classrooms in Kenya and the extent to which Turkana children's everyday life cultural practices inform science instruction in early childhood grades. Multiple ethnographic methods such as participant and naturalistic observation, focus group interviews, analysis of documents, archival materials, and cultural artifacts were used to explore classrooms instruction and Indigenous sociocultural practices of the Turkana nomads. The findings from the elders' narratives indicated that there was a general congruence in thematic content of science between Turkana Indigenous knowledge and the national science curriculum. However, Turkana children traditionally learned independently by observation and hands-on with continuous scaffolding from parents and peers. The study recommends a science curriculum that is compatible with the Indigenous knowledge epistemologies and instructional strategies that are sensitive to the worldview of nomadic children.
ContributorsNg'asike, John Teria (Author) / Swadener, Beth B. (Committee member) / Luft, Julie (Committee member) / Tobin, Joseph (Committee member) / Brayboy, Bryan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been lauded as a sustainable framework through which corporations can contribute to society. However, in the wake of global social justice movements, society demands that corporations take a stance on social ills to contribute to a just society. The concept of corporate social justice (CSJ) has been introduced to frame such endeavors, although it has yet to be extensively applied to the tourism industry. Drawing on the conceptual framework of corporate social justice, this study explores how CSJ principles, including accountability, transparency, impact, and sustainability, inform the business operations of eco-rated tourism enterprises in Maasai Mara, Kenya. Ecotourism Kenya, the eco-rating agency, has guidelines for eco-rated facilities on community engagement and development that require these businesses to commit to: investing in people; implementing empowerment programs for local populations; and supporting community economic linkages. The study adopted a case study research design using Maasai Mara in Kenya as a site of inquiry. Guided by a constructivist epistemological lens, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with management officials operating the eco-rated tourism businesses and Maasai community members residing in the vicinity. Purposive sampling was used to select participants from eco-rated tourism businesses, whereas a combination of snowball and convenience sampling techniques was utilized in selecting key informants from the Maasai community. Accordingly, twelve participants from eco-rated businesses and eighteen Maasai community participants took part in this study. The findings indicated that eco-rated tourism businesses in Maasai Mara engaged with the tenets of CSJ, albeit in predominantly business-focused ways. Further findings also revealed other factors that seemed to influence the local community’s appreciation of the community empowerment initiatives by eco-rated businesses. These factors included: human-wildlife conflict, corrupt reserve land dealings, and exploitation of Maasai trade by some local tourism actors. Based on the findings, this study recommends that eco-rated tourism businesses in Maasai Mara enhance their engagement with the tenets of CSJ to reflect community-centered initiatives. Moreover, a keen reassessment of multi-stakeholder influences on the Maasai community’s full appreciation of benefits from eco-rated tourism businesses should be undertaken to propel further implementation of action-oriented solutions for the community.
ContributorsChepkwony, Mercy (Author) / Buzinde, Christine N (Thesis advisor) / Bricker, Kelly S (Committee member) / Nyaupane, Gyan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Destination image refers to the sum of beliefs, ideas, and impressions a person has toward a tourism destination, which can be classified as either projected or perceived, from a supply-demand perspective. Projected destination images are beliefs of the destination designed by official destination marketing (management) organizations (DMOs) aiming to appeal to tourists. In contrast, perceived destination images are tourists’ perceptions of the destinations, which are usually posted and promoted through user-generated content (UGC). Although previous studies have documented the differences in destination marketing strategy effectiveness between projected and perceived destination images, little research has examined this from a visual attention angle. Therefore, guided by the dual-process theory, this study compares the visual attention patterns of the two destination image sources and examines how these visual attention patterns may influence advertisement effectiveness using a mixed-methods of eye-tracking experiments and post-experiment surveys, analyzed using paired-sample t-tests and linear regression models. Given the growing importance of the Chinese tourism market for Kenya and the uniqueness of Kenya as a tourist destination, the participants were recruited from Chinese residents who expressed potential travel to Kenya (n=61). Data from the experiment and the questionnaire was collected in July 2021 and analyzed using paired-sample t-tests and linear regression models. Results indicated that DMO images elicit longer and more frequent fixations than UGC images. Additionally, this study suggests that visual attention in terms of fixation duration has a significant positive impact on the advertisement effectiveness of Kenyan destination images. The study contributes to the literature by providing insights into how people visually perceive destination images and advances the dual-processes theory. Practically, the study suggests that integrating DMO pictures into UGC might be an effective approach to enhance the advertisement effectiveness of destination images.
ContributorsJin, Ziming (Author) / Budruk, Megha (Thesis advisor) / Xiao, Xiao (Committee member) / Edwards, Mike (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Employee voicing facilitates positive changes and experiences for organizations and employees. However, despite a plethora of research on voice in different disciplines, our understanding of the process of employee voicing is still limited. This study seeks to (a) identify the phases that characterize the voicing process and (b) uncover the communicative strategies that characterize the different phases of the voicing process in the renewable energy industry in Kenya. The study utilized a qualitative approach. Namely, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-three renewable energy workers in Kenya who reported to have engaged in voicing. Data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. The findings revealed five core phases that characterize voicing: idea formation, planning, initial enactment, reflexive enactment, and outcome. Further, the findings uncovered a variety of communicative strategies that are used in the different phases of voicing. These strategies emerged from the perspectives of different actors such as voicers, voicers’ peers, and recipients and their peers who are involved in the voicing process. The findings of this study advance voice theory by reconceptualizing voicing as a process that is highly interactive. Additionally, the findings extend voice theory in three other ways. First, the results demonstrate that power and status disparities in organizations produce hierarchies that inhibit voicing, especially among low power and status employees. Participants discussed how they communicatively navigate these disparities. Second, the results shed light on the ways voicers navigate different risks associated with voicing such as idea stealing and retributions. Third, the findings illustrate the specific ways that positive communicative relationships between peers, and between supervisors and subordinates facilitate voicing. Both supervisors and peers are highly involved in all phases of the voicing process and thus, contribute to the development and enactment of the ideas. Finally, the findings offer practical ways for cultivating and fostering voicing to voicers, voicers’ peers, voice recipients, and organizations in the renewable energy industry.
ContributorsKiura, Mary (Author) / Kim, Heewon (Thesis advisor) / Mongeau, Paul (Committee member) / Waldron, Vincent (Committee member) / Bisel, Ryan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022