Algebraic Topics for Future Middle School Teachers

This text contains algebraic concepts relevant to the middle school mathematics curriculum. Topics include the basics of number theory, functions, linear systems, matrices, and polynomials

Beyond Rules and Tools: Imagining a Design Approach to Metadata Management Training

Professional development offerings for cataloging and metadata practitioners primarily focus on rules and tools - the standards, guidelines, and software applications commonly used in the field. These areas of knowledge are important and foundational, but professionals also need competence in synthesizing this information to solve metadata problems. In this presentation, I will explore design epistemology as a way of understanding metadata management. I will apply design concepts and methods to reimagine metadata training and provide suggestions for on-the-job training approaches that support the development of these harder-to-teach skills

Out of Print: Gay Periodicals and the Construction of Gay Community, 1969-1980

As the Gay Liberation movement spread across the cities of the United States during the 1970s, one institution bolstered it more than any other: the gay press. This thesis examines the role of the gay press in constructing an imagined community of gay men during the 1970s, uncovering the methods in which it fashioned a gay world that both encompassed and reached beyond the temporal and geographic boundaries of the United States. Throughout its three chapters, it argues that writers in gay periodicals built gay community and the Gay Liberation movement in numerous ways, such as reporting on gay history (Chapter One), uncovering foreign gay communities and culture (Chapter Two), and by solidifying the concerns and aspirations of the movement through public discussions of its multifarious struggles (Chapter Three). Furthermore, It aims to show how the gay press’ reportage not only built a gay world by mapping the universality of homosexuality across time and space, but also how it fostered harmful divisions within the gay community just as it was pulling it together. By looking at how racist and imperialist thought was utilized in the construction of a global gay community, the thesis highlights a dual relationship where gay periodicals brought men from around the world together into a singular gay community, while at the same time stratifying this community through the language of race and empire. It accomplishes this task by utilizing nearly a dozen periodicals catered to gay men from the era, including Gay Liberation periodicals such as Gay Liberator and Gay Sunshine, gay entertainment and tourism magazines like QQ and Ciao!, and local gay newspapers such as Boston’s Gay Community News, examining repeated coverage on gay history, foreign gay communities, and gay politics throughout this diverse selection of publications. In turn, this thesis provides insight into how print cultures can construct social movements and imagined communities through a variety of mechanisms, while also spotlighting how they represent and even foster malignant divisions within the worlds they are building. Moreso, it also aims to demonstrate the challenges faced by the American Gay Liberation movement and other movements for sexual liberation throughout the twentieth century in addressing the intersectional struggles shared by many LGTBQ+ individuals. By uncovering these “pitfalls of sexual liberation,” as described by historian Laurie Marhoefer, a better understanding of the American Gay Liberation movement and the manners in which it conceived and constructed gay community, a community largely made for white gay men, can be obtained

“Expressions of the Fury of the Women”: How Andean Women Were Direct Participants in the Great Rebellion

This article confronts a longstanding issue in the historiography of colonial Latin America, examining the role that subaltern actors—specifically, Indigenous, non-elite women—played in revolutions. This essay demonstrates that women directly participated in both combative and non-combative roles in both the Catari and Tuparista factions of the Andean’s Great Rebellion, as well as in the Comunero Revolution. In particular, the article discusses how these women resolutely fought in and commanded armies, provided the insurgent army with funding, and took on administrative tasks. Specifically, women revolutionaries such as Micaela Bastidas, Tomasa Titu Condemayta, Bartolina Sisa, Gregoria Apaza, and Marcela Castro led the revolution forward for both men and women soldiers through their military command. Furthermore, the harsh sentences and lengthy trials that the women revolutionaries were subject to were evidence that their revolutionary efforts were taken seriously by the Spanish Court. The article closes by presenting scholar Ella Schmidt’s interpretation of how Micaela Bastidas’s testimony in her criminal trial may have been Bastidas’s effort to confront her agency and resist the gender norms placed upon her by the Spanish Crown

Redcue seclusion and restraint through Trauma-Informed Care De-escalation techniques

Abstract Title: Reduction of Seclusion and Restraint among Children and Adolescents in Inpatient Psychiatric: A Health Policy Analysis Background: Seclusion and restraint or restrictive intervention in inpatient/ acute hospitals, emergency departments, crisis stabilization units, residentials, or group homes is a pressing and an immediate concern in mental health settings. The federal government, The Joint Commission, and the other National organizations have made significant strides in prioritizing the reduction and elimination of seclusion and restraint among children and adolescents due to its negative physical and psychological consequences. Trauma-Informed care De-escalation techniques are evidence-based first-line management to reduce and eliminate restrictive interventions for children and adolescents. Local Problem: Research suggest the use of seclusion and restraint among child and adolescents in inpatient psychiatric hospitals is higher compared to adult population. The national statistics shows that the seclusion and restraint rate is six times higher than that of adults. The Commonwealth Center for Children and Adolescents stands out with its reported patient restraint rate, which is 40 times higher than the overall national average. The use of restrictive interventions is negatively associated with trauma, re-traumatization, physical injuries to patient and staff, shame, psychological distress, and even death, ultimately impacting healthcare costs and quality of life. Methods: This project will aim to provide a re-envisioned policy analysis to present the evidence-based Trauma-Informed care De-scalation techniques to decrease seclusion and restraint among children and adolescents. Retrospective data will be collected and analyzed on seclusion and restraint per 1000 patient days and patient information will remain de-identified. Bardach’s Eightfold Path to Policy Analysis approach utilized to analyze the policy. Interventions: This policy analysis project involves a review of existing policies, guidelines, and best practices, as well as consultation with experts in the field and stakeholders, and therefore does not involve an intervention. The project will include a review of guidelines and policies from child/ adolescent psychiatric facilities in other states that have incorporated Trauma-Informed care De-escalation techniques to reduce seclusion and restraint. This data gathering process will allow the researcher to compare current policies and practices to address the issue of seclusion and restraint among children and adolescents. Results: This policy analysis project is still in process. In accordance with Bardach/ Collins Eightfold Path to Policy Analysis, three policy options will be highlighted. These will include 1) continue with the current policy or status quo . 2) Adjust and improve the policy\u27s current language and introducing the concepts of Trauma-Informed care-based De-escalation techniques. 3) Create a new policy that completely incorporates Trauma-Informed care De-escalation techniques. Implications: Given the ethical and legal liability to humanely treat patients, especially highly vulnerable children and adolescents, with dignity, the need for a thorough, systematic policy analysis is critical. Recommending a second alternative policy option to adjust the existing policy based on evidence-based practice, such as Trauma-Informed care De-escalation techniques will aid in reducing seclusion and restraint rates. This approach will ensure in achieving an overarching goal of patient and staff safety, reduce health care costs, and improve quality of life

Exploring Critical Theory, Environmental Advocacy, and Popular Culture by Crafting Multiauthored Humanities Scholarship: A First Draft

In the Fall 2023 semester, the six graduate students included as authors on this Grad Expo presentation, as well as our faculty member, Dr. Matt Brigham, discussed and decided that we would, rather than six individual graduate student papers, write one seven-authored essay with the aim of presenting it at an academic conference and/or advancing the project toward publication in a scholarly venue. The graduate seminar, SCOM 653: Critical Perspectives: Environment, Advocacy, and Public Culture, is part of the environmental communication concentration in the JMU School of Communication Studies’ MA Program in Communication and Advocacy, and the students in the seminar included both first- and second-year students in the program, as well as an additional student taking the class as an employee of the university. Our faculty member Dr. Brigham first suggested this scholarly model early in the semester, and we examined readings that reflected on both pragmatic and philosophical questions, such as author-order, what ought to serve as a bare minimum for any individual to be classified as a co-author. After electing to try this experiment, we each offered ideas of possible artifacts for analysis and topics for the paper, and after extensive deliberation, we selected a song/video by the band The 1975. This song (and the corresponding official video released by the band) was the opening track of their 2019 album, and in a departure from their own style, lyrics, and sounds, the band asked Greta Thunberg to write a script that she could speak on top of subtle instrumental music. Once we decided on the artifact/text for the analysis, we next worked to figure out an appropriate critical approach/method, which ended up being Kenneth Burke’s notion of perspective by incongruity (the most obvious evidence of which was found in the glaring contrast between Thunberg’s jarring words, about the end of the world as we know it due to climate change, and the soothing, soft music, as well as the gentle colors and shapes that accompanied the words and sounds. Ultimately, we were able to submit a proposal for this work to be included in an edited book volume on Eco-Horrors. We have been given notice that our contribution has been selected to prepare a full essay for consideration to the volume’s editors. While this presentation offers an opportunity for us to discuss the work itself, we also use this space, first and foremost, as an opportunity to reflect on the lessons (including challenges and possibilities) that we gained from this first draft of our own foray into multi-authored scholarly writing in the humanities and critical studies. [429 words

Leadership framing legitimacy for the sustainable social impact of nonprofit startups

Abstract Extant research studies shed light on how the business sector establishes legitimacy to access resources for organizational success. There is a big research gap regarding how nonprofits attain legitimacy for sustainable social service delivery. It shall be more important to understand how nonprofits obtain legitimacy than for-profits given their inherent resource constraints. Drawing on Suchman’s (1995) legitimacy theory, this study intends to examine how leadership frames legitimacy for the sustainable social impact of human service nonprofits over time through a survey research design. It is expected that framing pragmatic, moral, and cognitive legitimacies are associated with human service nonprofits accessing resources during startup, professionalization, and institutionalization periods respectively. In addition, this research study also provides nuanced perspectives on specific subcategories of the legitimacy of interests that relate to human service nonprofits accessing resources over time. This research shall have some practical implications for nonprofit leaders and practitioners obtaining legitimacy to access resources for achieving sustainable social missions. Keywords: nonprofit, legitimacy, sustainable social mission, life cycle. Research Questions and Hypotheses The three research questions are as follows: what specific legitimacy of interest primarily framed by leadership is associated with the human service nonprofits accessing resources during startup, professionalization, and institutionalization periods respectively? Hypothesis One: Primarily framing pragmatic legitimacy is associated with accessing resources from resource holders during the startup period. Hypothesis Two: Primarily framing moral legitimacy is associated with accessing resources from resource holders during the professionalization period. Hypothesis Three: Primarily framing cognitive legitimacy is associated with assessing resources from resource holders during the institutionalization period. Variables The independent variables are three categories of legitimacy, i.e., pragmatic legitimacy, moral legitimacy, and cognitive legitimacy, as well as nine sub-categories of legitimacy, i.e., exchange legitimacy, influence legitimacy, dispositional legitimacy, consequential legitimacy, procedural legitimacy, structural legitimacy, and personal legitimacy, comprehensibility, and taken-for-grantedness. The dependent variable is the aggregated financial support from resource holders, such as donors, foundations, and government strategic partners. The two control variables included to capture other influences on accessing resources from resource holders are an organization\u27s size in assets and geographic areas

Shaping Tomorrow\u27s Ethical Leaders

This phenomenological qualitative research study sought to explore the essences of ethical leadership and the self-efficacy of emerging leaders in leadership development. The researcher became curious about this topic when a question was proposed during the Adult Education and Human Resource Development (AHRD) graduate course, Foundations of AHRD, on whether leaders are born, or made. After a class discussion ensued on the key aspects of leadership development, a genuine interest in the research of ethical leadership was established. The purpose for this research study was twofold: First, there was a need to comprehend the essences of ethical leadership. Discovering the essence simply refers to the sense or logic of a particular human experience and how it essentially presents itself in a phenomenological study (Dukes, 1984). This understanding occurred through a comprehensive literature review and by conducting transcendental phenomenological interviews of four self-identified, ethical leaders across industries: A global non-profit organization, an agricultural manufacturing facility, a public school system, and a financial service company. The second purpose of this study was to use the findings from the literature review and phenomenological interviews to make recommendations on the development of a survey as a measurement tool to assess key factors of ethical leader behavior and the self-efficacy of emerging leaders when faced with challenging decisions. To further expand the research on the essences of ethical leadership, three research questions were developed: 1) Based on the review of the literature, what are the core essences of ethical leadership? 2) How do leaders across industries define and describe the core essences of ethical leadership? 3) How do the findings from this study inform recommendations for the development of an instrument measuring ethical leadership and the self-efficacy of emerging leaders in leadership development? To answer the first question, a thorough literature review was completed to gain a better understanding of how researchers have defined ethical leadership over the last couple of decades, leadership styles that best represent ethical behaviors, the essences of ethical leadership in characteristics and behaviors, the motivations of ethical leaders, and the self-efficacy of emerging leaders to make ethical decisions when faced with challenging workplace situations. The second question was answered through transcendental phenomenological interviews that were conducted with four self-identified ethical leaders across the industries of agricultural manufacturing, a global non-profit organization, a public school system, and a financial servicing company. The participants were leaders in the roles of executive director, HR coordinator, operations manager, and accountant/team manager. Through the interview data collection of participant transcripts, the researcher was able to create themes and subthemes that represented the most important behaviors and characteristics of ethical leaders. Findings from the literature review and participant interviews were used to inform research question three, and the researcher was able to recommend the development of a survey measurement tool for the purpose of assessing the self-efficacy of emerging leaders in leadership development when faced with challenging ethical decisions in the workplace