2024 Jacob Breezeel

https://scholarworks.harding.edu/tenor-authors/1130/thumbnail.jp

Little Cricket on the Hearth: The Quiet Feminism of _Little Women_

Since the advent of the cult of domesticity, the stakes for female characters in domestic literature have been notoriously high. There was no room for flaws, rebellious decisions, and certainly no room for mistakes—whether of the woman’s own accord, or simply as collateral damage of a male character’s immorality. In this shallowly Calvinist domain, women were never more than one broken guardrail away from social ruin or death. In writing Little Women, Louisa May Alcott breaks these molds through unflinching kindness to her female characters from childhood to adulthood, even unto death. Alcott achieves this quietly feminist feat by allowing women to learn and grow through emotions and mistakes that in a different novel may have been dehumanizing; providing them the agency to choose whether to work inside or outside of the home, with equal dignity given to either choice; and providing female characters the agency to choose their life partners and the ability to enjoy egalitarian marriages. Alcott also provides a female authority figure in religion who is both wise and lovingly maternal; and the humanity for her female characters to live and die as regular people, rather than angels or whores. Little Women has been studied extensively for how it approaches Protestant domestic values, egalitarianism in marriage, the reality of female anger and anxiety, and its complicated sisterly relationships in the midst of other noted domestic works of the same time period. The novel has been both praised and critiqued for how it handles all of these subjects. This thesis seeks to broaden focus and celebrate Little Women as a revolutionary and positive landmark in the history of the genre and depiction of female characters

The Great Father of Washington: Grant’s Indian Policy and the Acquisition of the Black Hills

Ulysses S. Grant\u27s Indian policy was viewed as one of the many failures of his presidency. However, upon further analysis of the events and circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the Black Hills, it appears that Grant\u27s sentiments toward the Indians were unlike that of any of his constituents. He saw them as human beings. Though his Indian Policy ultimately failed, Grant\u27s call for peace with the Indians was well ahead of its time

2024-04 Library Student Workers

https://scholarworks.harding.edu/read/1104/thumbnail.jp

Conflicting Ethe in _Anna Karenina_: A Reexamination of Tolstoy’s Complex Female Protagonist

Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina depicts the world as an endless array of choices and experiences to which one assigns meaning to. His characters, like real people, must navigate their world of complex ethical systems using their own moral ethos. Readers and critics alike critique Anna as a heroine for living out her moral ethos, pitting it against the social and feminist ethos of late 19th century upper class Russian society. Anna’s story is either interpreted as a cautionary tale or Anna is portrayed as a feminist heroine who tragically died for love. Throughout this paper, I argue that Anna is both admirable as a feminist hero yet she must pay the consequences of her actions in a society that rejects her. Anna Karenina is a rich novel that portrays a complex, sympathetic, but ultimately didactic judgment of Anna’s ethos against the ethos of her society. I define ethos as the individual or societal values, expectations, and morals used as a guide to everyday living. Anna chooses to leave the safety of the societal ethos to pursue her own virtues and morals. She pitts herself against the social ethos, which prizes both traditional values with competing Western values. This paper examines the additional ethical systems and their primary themes. The first is the social ethical system which explores moral hierarchy and double standard. The second examines the three primary couples of the book and their ethical systems, focusing on the theme of love and marriage. The final and most important ethical system is that of the family and motherhood. Anna ultimately fails her society but fails herself and her family even more so. Anna is a heroine who sees herself locked into her life trajectory when her ethos and individual choices come with consequences that she decides she cannot live with

Elucidating the Interactions between Melatonin, Indole-3-Acetic Acid, and Gibberellin in _Arabidopsis thaliana_ Development through Gene Expression Analysis

Several phytohormones regulate Arabidopsis germination, including abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellin (GA), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and melatonin (MT). These phytohormones contribute to efficient, timely germination, which allows for optimal crop yield. To examine the effect of MT on Arabidopsis germination, a germination assay was conducted with wild-type and auxin-deficient seeds. Percent germination was decreased in wild-type and increased in auxin-deficient seeds with MT treatment. To examine genetic interactions between IAA, GA, and MT during germination, RNA was isolated from wild-type and auxin-deficient seeds that were treated with IAA or MT. Transcriptional analysis was conducted with quantitative PCR to observe how treatment with different hormones affected MT, ABA, and GA biosynthesis and regulatory gene expression in both wild-type and auxin-deficient seeds. MT biosynthesis gene expression was higher in auxin-deficient seedlings compared to wild type, but was decreased in both groups when treated with IAA. GA biosynthesis and ABA regulatory gene expression was decreased in wild-type and auxin-deficient seeds treated with MT. This work demonstrates diverse roles for MT in Arabidopsis germination, including a possible compensatory role for MT in the auxin-deficient mutant. Future transcriptional analyses may provide further insight about the interactions between ABA, GA, IAA, and MT and how these hormones coordinately function during plant development. Knowledge of these interactions will be useful in general plant research as well as agricultural research

Effects of Occupational Violence and Aggression on Teacher Wellbeing in Australian Schools: A Meta-Analysis

Occupational violence and aggression (OVA) is an extremely prevalent and concerning issue in all school contexts around the world. International research highlights high prevalence rates of OVA against teachers and identifies a wide range of alarming impacts of OVA on teacher wellbeing. These impacts include risk of anxiety, depression, PTSD, poor sleep, stress, burnout, poor job performance and leaving the profession. The topic of OVA in Australia has been increasing in the media over recent years, as well as the introduction of new OVA prevention strategies. A systematic literature review was conducted to critically analyse and synthesise all of the current available Australian research on the impacts of OVA on teacher wellbeing. The main findings identified that there is a major lack in Australian research and that there are physical and psychological impacts to the many teachers who experience OVA in Australia. This study highlights the gap in Australian research about the effects of occupational violence and aggression on teacher wellbeing, and highlights the need for further in-depth research in Australia

A Geographical Lens on Rural Teacher Induction and Retention

Induction is a critical phase for early career teachers (ECTs) because it is where they develop their sense of professional identity and often decide whether or not to stay in the profession. Substantial research has reported high rates of rural teacher retention during induction (e.g., Ingersoll & Strong, 2011), but few researchers have examined this pattern through a geographical lens. Rural education theorists Gruenewald (2003) and Reid et al. (2010) suggest that a geographical lens is a useful way to understand the complexities of place and space—particularly rural space. Rooted in their theories, the present study aimed to address the aforementioned research gap by asking, “What does existing literature say about the impact of rural geography on the experiences of teacher induction and retention among early or mid-career teachers?” Using a secondary analysis of primary research, the study found that the two factors with the most frequent impact on induction were small administrative networks and physical distance from amenity-dense areas, while the most significant factor impacting ECTs’ desire to stay was if they were from the community. This dynamic is due to the influence of ECT background on administrative support, community acceptance, and community familiarity. The significant influence of ECT background suggests that the most impactful aspect of rural geography is not inherent to the natural environment, but rather socially constructed by those within the rural spaces. Implications of such findings for induction programming and further research are discussed