The role of the musical intelligence in whole brain education

This study was prompted by the recent increase in academic and public interest in neuromusical brain research, which provides information about how the brain processes music. It is the task of neural science to explain how the individual units of the brain are used to control behaviour, and how the functioning of these units is influenced by an individual's specific environment and relationships with other people. However, the concept of neuromusical research is relatively new to music education. In any learning experience, brain processing (of information) is not an end in itself. The skill of 'thinking' is dependent on the whole integrated mind/body system, with skills being a manifestation of conscious physical responses that demonstrate knowledge acquisition. Howard Gardner's 'Theory of Multiple Intelligences' lists the musical intelligence as one of eight autonomous intelligences: linguistic, logic-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental. All of these intelligences can be developed to a reasonably high level. This thesis uses David Elliott's praxial philosophy as a conceptual basis. Elliott's four meanings of music education: education in music, by music, for music, and by means of music, have been selected to determine the parameters for an 'inclusive' understanding of musical intelligence. Scientific research findings, brain based data, and behavioural results with educational implications have been used to define what is meant by the musical intelligence, and its role in whole brain learning. Whole brain learning (also referred to as 'accelerated' learning or 'super' learning) is examined in the framwork of IQ (intellectual quotient/intelligence), EQ (emotional intelligence), and SQ (spiritual intelligence). It is important to note that the brain imposes certain constraints on the learning ability of individuals, but that there are also numerous benefits to be derived from an awarenss of brain functions pertaining to education in general and music education in particular. These constraints and benefits are an important feature of whole brain learning, with the musical intelligence playing a vital role.Dissertation (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2003.Musicunrestricte

How can K12 Education reduce prejudice?

This thesis investigates how K-12 education can reduce prejudice. Firstly, I define what I mean by prejudice and explain what my research methodology is for the study. Through a conceptual examination of existing research, including theories on why people are prejudiced and what we know about prejudice reduction from social psychology, I go on to propose four areas of individual cognitive and social development in which educational strategies can act on prejudicial thinking and lessen it. These are: - Understanding beyond the other; - Critical Thinking; - Metacognitive thought; - Empathy. I also synthesise findings into two institutional approaches that are effective. These are: - The contact hypothesis; - Specific pedagogical principles that are embedded in international education. These six areas are brought together in a multi-facetted response to the problem of prejudice. The thesis problematises the construct of prejudice reduction by grappling with its complexity through a critical account of the substantial literature on the subject. This means not only contextualising studies according to the parameters of their method but also engaging with prominent discourses in associated fields in a reflexive manner. The thesis is an original contribution to knowledge in that it builds a bridge between work on prejudice in the schools of social psychology, cognitive psychology and neurobiology and K-12 education. My study offers a framework synthesising effective classroom interventions that can be adapted and adopted in a variety of contexts to combat the central operating system of prejudice formation

Being in Performance: A Philosophical Account of the Embodied Actor

In this dissertation I present and analyze three distinct actor-training exercises primarily through the lens of the Embodied Cognition (EC) branch of contemporary philosophy, which attempts to frame human understanding as a fully embodied interaction with the environment. Drawing from neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, and other branches of philosophy, EC provides both an excellent set of tools and a strong theoretical framework to help explain how people encounter meaning in life. I apply its unique perspectives to this philosophical account of the embodied actor as I analyze the various elements at play in actor training praxis, which allows me to shed some light on both the mysterious craft of acting and on theatre itself

Critical Moments of Meaning and Being: Narratives of Cancer during Young Adult Life

Emerging conversations within oncology have drawn more attention to cancer among young adults (ages 18-45). Recent research has illuminated many of the psychosocial difficulties young adults face as they go through the many trials and tribulations of chronic illness. However, a subject still understudied, much is unclear about the personal as well as the cultural implications of being diagnosed during this period of time. In a book of cancer stories, performer and young adult cancer patient Kairol Rosenthal (2009) expressed her frustration with what she saw as “stereotypes” promulgated by the limited public discourses that exist on the subject (p. 7). She sought to counterbalance these representations with stories capturing the “complexities of our real daily lives” (p. 7). Indeed, in oncological discourses young adults tend to be cast in oversimplified terms, based upon cultural expectations about what young adulthood should be and pressures to conform to those standards. Intersecting with dominant discourses within narrative identity development, two imperatives are placed upon young adults’ stories: integration of different life experiences and selves into a coherent narrative and developing a sense of self-authorship in the direction of one’s life. What seems to be lost in these imperatives within the existing research is what is at stake for individual lives (a phenomenological perspective) and how those stakes are negotiated or contested with hegemonic trajectories of life (a critical perspective). Receptive to Rosenthal’s critique of dominant discourses around cancer and young adulthood, the purpose of this thesis was to explore the complexity and diversity of young adults living with cancer. More specifically, I intended to interrogate some of their existential and biographical challenges as expressed in their narratives of cancer, as well as their engagements with ideological constructions of young adulthood, namely, the expectations of narrative coherence and self-authorship. This research marked a departure from most studies on the subject in its qualitative methodology (i.e., narrative analysis) and in its explicit evaluation of the effects of cultural discourses on young adults’ attempts to make meaning. More generally, this research shows the importance of language—in discourses, narratives, and metaphors—in constructing and communicating illness experiences. For this project, I gathered a mix of written and oral narratives (through semi-structured interviews) from 21 participants from across Canada. The foci of analyses were on what could be called narrative ‘moments of meaning’ and ‘moments of being,’ that is, situated expressions of how they made sense of their worlds and themselves. Many of these were critical moments in the sense of questioning and resisting dominant discourses of cancer and young adulthood. Their moments of meaning often expressed negotiation of personal desires and innovative intentions with familiar cultural narratives or “prototypical plots” (Good, 1994)—including stories of battling cancer, embarking on a life journey, nearing recovery, encountering unpredictability and mystery, and living with chaos. These moments of meaning served an array of purposes well beyond the expected function of constructing a coherent narrative. When telling of identity disruptions and the liminality of cancer, participants produced both more orderly moments of being (e.g., survivor, patient, or warrior identities) and more liminal moments of non-being (e.g., victim, phoenix, or trickster identities). Self-authorship seemed to be present among the former, while the latter expressed less control and certainty of being—which was not always seen as a problem. These moments of being and non-being were collaborated and contested within the intersubjective spaces of their clinical relationships, local worlds, and cancer patient communities. More specific to their age group, their moments of being and non-being often related to what may be understood as developmental identities, including the ‘traditional milestones’ such as individual autonomy, family (i.e., marriage and parenthood), and vocation (i.e., getting an education and building a career). In their struggles they sometimes reaffirmed these cultural ideals toward identity integration and other times resisted them as “normalizing ideologies” (Becker, 1997) of young adulthood. As part of these larger negotiations of meaning and being, the participants expressed struggles to understand the moral significance of their illnesses. Confronted with what may be called “causal ontologies” of suffering (Shweder, 1997), they spoke of different etiological models of cancer’s origins as well as reconciliatory models for living with cancer in the future. Their narratives sometimes led toward “remoralization” (Kleinman, 1988)—couching experiences of suffering in terms of a moral order (narrative coherence) and personal responsibility (self-authorship)—and sometimes led away from it, depending on whether they believed their illnesses originated from events in their personal and social lives. Overall, the participants in this study communicated complex and potentially chronic existential challenges. In many ways their narratives resisted dominant representations of young adults with cancer—and of cancer patients in general—suggesting that such representations need to be rethought. Their critical moments of meaning and being may serve as counternarratives to the stereotypes of concern to Rosenthal and many other cancer patients. Specifically, their narratives revealed the merits and limits of the ideological construction of young adulthood as a time of narrative coherence and self-authorship. This study has important implications for future health research and psychosocial support in the field of oncology; building upon a “narrative medicine” (Charon, 2006), sensitivity to how language is used among young adult cancer patients may lead toward more inclusive clinical practices

Social and Emotional Learning: An Argument for Religious Pluralism

The purpose of this project is to argue that in order for social and emotional learning (SEL) goals to achieve their intended outcomes for students and society, religious pluralism must be reflected in student instruction. SEL involves the use of evidence-based practices to provide opportunities to develop competencies related to self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making which are intended to enable students to demonstrate morally appropriate actions and ethical decisions, which I am calling right behavior. It is my argument that one\u27s understanding of right behavior embodies both implicit and explicit moral beliefs based on one\u27s worldview which reflects a certain conception of the good life and the good society. In many cultures this concept is shaped by the dominant, organized religion of the group. However, the religious diversity in the United States since its inception led to an American tendency to privatize religion and avoid meaningful public deliberation of competing views of the good life and the good society. However, I contend that this paradigm is no longer adequate for equipping twenty-first century students with the background knowledge, critical thinking, problem-solving, and ethical judgment skills required for full participation in the social, political, and economic spheres of society. Instead, I am proposing a SEL-religious studies model that values religious freedom, equality, and neighborly affection, and recognizes the presence of moral and religious pluralism in American society

The Comparative Sociology Of Disabled Masculinities: A Bourdieusian Analysis Of Autobiographies By Men With Spinal Cord Injuries and Autism Spectrum Conditions

Sociological examinations of the intersection between disability and masculinity remain underdeveloped. While insightful analyses have considered the mechanisms through which impairments may interrupt socially valued performances of masculinity, a number of key limitations persist. Extant work within the field has not considered in sufficient depth and complexity: the comparative diversity of the gender/disability intersection; the role(s) of affective embodiment; and the generative interaction between distinct impairment forms and strategic enactments of masculinity. Employing forty published autobiographies from men with Spinal Cord Injuries and Autism Spectrum Conditions, this thesis uses Bourdieusian social theory to conceptualise the dynamic interaction between corporeality and overlapping experiences of privilege/exclusion. Spinal Cord Injuries are conceived of as radically disrupting possessed and anticipated gendered resources, alongside a relative stability of culturally normative, internalised prisms of masculine self-evaluation. Yet, narrators within this group negotiated the encompassing social environment with a knowing, gendered fluidity, through narrative practices of rugged heroism, the privileging of the cerebral, and participation within masculinising interdependencies. Autism Spectrum Conditions were, similarly, conceptualised as involving limited access to valued gendered resources; yet, a phenomenologically disjunctured embodiment of taken-for-granted meaning appeared to interrupt dialectics between internalised and externalised modes of self-evaluation. This group’s “alien” habitus could motivate scholastic forms of learning designed to develop “social skills”, often fostering gendered practices that were recognisably “masculine”, but lacking in interpersonal/cultural fluidity. The thesis concludes with a comparative examination of the two groups under consideration, contending that, alongside significant points of resonance, their experiences were tremendously distinctive in terms of gendered embodiment, temporality, the habitus, social/biomedical interventions, and the “feel for the game”

Critical Moments of Meaning and Being: Narratives of Cancer during Young Adult Life

Emerging conversations within oncology have drawn more attention to cancer among young adults (ages 18-45). Recent research has illuminated many of the psychosocial difficulties young adults face as they go through the many trials and tribulations of chronic illness. However, a subject still understudied, much is unclear about the personal as well as the cultural implications of being diagnosed during this period of time. In a book of cancer stories, performer and young adult cancer patient Kairol Rosenthal (2009) expressed her frustration with what she saw as “stereotypes” promulgated by the limited public discourses that exist on the subject (p. 7). She sought to counterbalance these representations with stories capturing the “complexities of our real daily lives” (p. 7). Indeed, in oncological discourses young adults tend to be cast in oversimplified terms, based upon cultural expectations about what young adulthood should be and pressures to conform to those standards. Intersecting with dominant discourses within narrative identity development, two imperatives are placed upon young adults’ stories: integration of different life experiences and selves into a coherent narrative and developing a sense of self-authorship in the direction of one’s life. What seems to be lost in these imperatives within the existing research is what is at stake for individual lives (a phenomenological perspective) and how those stakes are negotiated or contested with hegemonic trajectories of life (a critical perspective). Receptive to Rosenthal’s critique of dominant discourses around cancer and young adulthood, the purpose of this thesis was to explore the complexity and diversity of young adults living with cancer. More specifically, I intended to interrogate some of their existential and biographical challenges as expressed in their narratives of cancer, as well as their engagements with ideological constructions of young adulthood, namely, the expectations of narrative coherence and self-authorship. This research marked a departure from most studies on the subject in its qualitative methodology (i.e., narrative analysis) and in its explicit evaluation of the effects of cultural discourses on young adults’ attempts to make meaning. More generally, this research shows the importance of language—in discourses, narratives, and metaphors—in constructing and communicating illness experiences. For this project, I gathered a mix of written and oral narratives (through semi-structured interviews) from 21 participants from across Canada. The foci of analyses were on what could be called narrative ‘moments of meaning’ and ‘moments of being,’ that is, situated expressions of how they made sense of their worlds and themselves. Many of these were critical moments in the sense of questioning and resisting dominant discourses of cancer and young adulthood. Their moments of meaning often expressed negotiation of personal desires and innovative intentions with familiar cultural narratives or “prototypical plots” (Good, 1994)—including stories of battling cancer, embarking on a life journey, nearing recovery, encountering unpredictability and mystery, and living with chaos. These moments of meaning served an array of purposes well beyond the expected function of constructing a coherent narrative. When telling of identity disruptions and the liminality of cancer, participants produced both more orderly moments of being (e.g., survivor, patient, or warrior identities) and more liminal moments of non-being (e.g., victim, phoenix, or trickster identities). Self-authorship seemed to be present among the former, while the latter expressed less control and certainty of being—which was not always seen as a problem. These moments of being and non-being were collaborated and contested within the intersubjective spaces of their clinical relationships, local worlds, and cancer patient communities. More specific to their age group, their moments of being and non-being often related to what may be understood as developmental identities, including the ‘traditional milestones’ such as individual autonomy, family (i.e., marriage and parenthood), and vocation (i.e., getting an education and building a career). In their struggles they sometimes reaffirmed these cultural ideals toward identity integration and other times resisted them as “normalizing ideologies” (Becker, 1997) of young adulthood. As part of these larger negotiations of meaning and being, the participants expressed struggles to understand the moral significance of their illnesses. Confronted with what may be called “causal ontologies” of suffering (Shweder, 1997), they spoke of different etiological models of cancer’s origins as well as reconciliatory models for living with cancer in the future. Their narratives sometimes led toward “remoralization” (Kleinman, 1988)—couching experiences of suffering in terms of a moral order (narrative coherence) and personal responsibility (self-authorship)—and sometimes led away from it, depending on whether they believed their illnesses originated from events in their personal and social lives. Overall, the participants in this study communicated complex and potentially chronic existential challenges. In many ways their narratives resisted dominant representations of young adults with cancer—and of cancer patients in general—suggesting that such representations need to be rethought. Their critical moments of meaning and being may serve as counternarratives to the stereotypes of concern to Rosenthal and many other cancer patients. Specifically, their narratives revealed the merits and limits of the ideological construction of young adulthood as a time of narrative coherence and self-authorship. This study has important implications for future health research and psychosocial support in the field of oncology; building upon a “narrative medicine” (Charon, 2006), sensitivity to how language is used among young adult cancer patients may lead toward more inclusive clinical practices

Building body identities - exploring the world of female bodybuilders

This thesis explores how female bodybuilders seek to develop and maintain a viable sense of self despite being stigmatized by the gendered foundations of what Erving Goffman (1983) refers to as the 'interaction order'; the unavoidable presentational context in which identities are forged during the course of social life. Placed in the context of an overview of the historical treatment of women's bodies, and a concern with the development of bodybuilding as a specific form of body modification, the research draws upon a unique two year ethnographic study based in the South of England, complemented by interviews with twenty-six female bodybuilders, all of whom live in the U.K. By mapping these extraordinary women's lives, the research illuminates the pivotal spaces and essential lived experiences that make up the female bodybuilder. Whilst the women appear to be embarking on an 'empowering' radical body project for themselves, the consequences of their activity remains culturally ambivalent. This research exposes the 'Janus-faced' nature of female bodybuilding, exploring the ways in which the women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more orthodox and feminine activities and appearances