Making waves in education

Making Waves in Education is a book of a collaborative nature, being a collection of chapters written by undergraduates studying B.A. Hons in Education at the Universities of Plymouth and York. Thirteen chapters, each from a different student, cover topics from learning theories to sex education, home education and autism. The chapters are well-organised and written, and they cover key topics in an accessible and thoughtful way. The chapters are generally well - referenced and present critical and balanced arguments. Many use hard statistics in an effective way to back up their points and all include bibliographies as indeed one expects from a serious publication. The collection therefore addresses itself to a wide readership of anyone interested in education, and students and teachers/trainers in HE in particula

The New Hampshire, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Mar. 5, 1959)

An independent student produced newspaper from the University of New Hampshire

Nicomachean and Neo-Aristotelian Ethics and Shakespeare\u27s Tragedies

Nicomachean and Neo-Aristotelian Ethics in Shakespeare\u27s Tragedies examines two of Shakespeare\u27s most compelling tragedies--Othello and King Lear--through the lens of contemporary virtue ethics theory, thereby offering new conceptions of how morality operates in these plays. Although neo-Aristotelian moral philosophers locate the roots of their theories in Aristotle\u27s Nicomachean Ethics, their arguments reach far beyond Aristotle\u27s original theoretical conception, offering innovative ways for us to understand virtue in our analysis of morality. The dissertation Introduction provides an overview of contemporary moral philosophy--i.e., the state of normative ethics today, including brief explanations of Deontology, Teleology, and Virtue theory. Discussion in Chapter One focuses on Aristotle\u27s original conception of Virtue Ethics as espoused in his Nicomachean Ethics, and Chapter Two highlights the theories advanced by prominent contemporary neo-Aristotelian philosophers: Rosalind Hursthouse\u27s argument in defense of the action-guiding principles of virtue ethics, Christine Swanton\u27s Nietzschean formulation of virtue, Michael Slote\u27s Agent-Based approach to understanding human morality, and the collaborative efforts of Virginia Held, Annette Baier, Michael Slote, and Nel Noddings in the development of the Ethics of Care. Chapter Three examines the principal characters in Othello through lenses offered by Swanton and Slote, thereby offering viable new analyses of the characters\u27 behaviors. And through a close reading of King Lear, Chapter Four illustrates the scholarly import of the Ethics of Care in literary analysis. An innovation in virtue ethics that locates the very essence of morality in human caring, the Ethics of Care offers an avenue for us to gain greater insight and a deeper appreciation of literature from a new and significant philosophical perspective

Decision-Making in Literary Translation: A Descriptive Study of Swahili Literary Translations

This study investigates the notion of “shifts” in Swahili literary translations within a wider context of communication and focuses on the translators’ role and goals, which shape and direct both the process and the product of translation. The study is intended to answer the broad question of why Swahili literary translations appear as refracted as they are hence, it is, an inquiry into the make-up of Swahili literary translations, as they exist in the target culture. Of key importance to this research is the broad view of translation as mediated inter-lingual communication. Based on such a view, this study proceeds on the general assumption that translation is a rewriting of an original text and as such it not only reflects a certain ideology and a poetics but also manipulates literature to function in society in a certain way (Lefevere, 2002, p. xi). The fundamental contention of this thesis is that since translation involves active intervention of translators through transformation rather than identity and similarity, research on the personal goals of translators is inevitable in order to explain ‘departure/shifts’ in the translations produced. Essentially, this research takes a target-oriented approach, which means that it answers questions about Swahili literary translations without reducing them to objects that are only explicable in terms of their source. Instead of viewing translations as bound to their source orientation and expect them to be as close as possible to the source texts, in both form and content, the present study explores the notion that translation is a process that involves decisions and choices of agents towards fulfillment of certain goals (Hermans, 1999, p. 39). On this basis, the study makes use of the descriptive target-oriented framework that contextualizes the activities of translation actors (agents) in functional terms, effectively countering the thinking that a translated text is or should be a mere reproduction of the source text. Consistent with these theoretical explorations, the empirical investigation corroborates the theoretical discussion by utilizing explanatory descriptive methods. The research findings of this investigation offer corroborative evidence that Swahili literary translations are complex artifacts at the intersection of process and skopos

Towards an ethics of otherness: re-considering birth, time, and silence in education

The notion of the self in Western literature has overwhelmingly focused on separation and individuality, and has conflated knowing with being. This work proposes to retell the story of the modern Western individual through the themes of birth, time, and silence (as they represent the lifecycle), in an effort to locate the self as one who is called forth by the other, as discussed in the works of Emmanuel Levinas. By re-theorizing the moments of birth, time, and silence as moments of living for the other, rather than as moments in which selves become more autonomous, the self can be understood as an ever-changing entity whose primary responsibility is to respond to the other. Each theme is discussed in its historical context and contemporary function in education, and is subsequently analyzed as a moment of living for the other. Birth is discussed through the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, and the author argues that the metaphor of giving birth to the other and letting students give birth is appropriate for teaching. Time is addressed through the works of Henri Bergson and Michel Serres. In this chapter, time is likened to poetry, and the notion of modern time is criticized for its insistence on linearity, for which Bergson and Serres offer alternate possibilities. The work returns to Serres to discuss the possibility of experiencing silence as an opportunity for meeting the other, rather than signaling an end. Through this approach, knowledge is removed as the foundation of the self, and meaning, as created with the other through an ethical relation, is posited as an alternative to knowledge. Ultimately, the retelling of the story of life through birth, time, and silence offers new ways to imagine existing ethically in the world. The conclusion asks the reader to reconsider creativity and peace in terms of rethinking the self through the other

But Thinking Makes It So: A Curriculum to Build an Optimistic Explanatory Style Leveraging High School Dramatic Arts

An association exists between optimism and emotional, physical and performance benefits that can help protect high school students against depression and strengthen resilience. Learning to change one’s explanatory style is a way to promote optimism. High school drama programs present an opportunity to teach positive psychology skills, such as optimism, to increase the well-being of students. At the same time, these skills offer an opportunity for actors to gain mastery in their craft. This paper proposes a four-class high school drama curriculum that attempts to do both. Curriculums to change explanatory style have already been designed with successful results. The curriculum proposed here adapts these skills to make them useful for actors when analyzing scenes and developing characters. If, “all the world is a stage, and all men and women nearly players”(Shakespeare, 1623, 2.7.142-143), then actors who find the skills useful in their theatrical practice, should experience higher engagement, adoption, and mastery of the explanatory style skills and thus, experience higher well-being