Battles with Words: Literate and Linguistic Resistance in Multi-Ethnic U.S. Literature and Everyday Life

Battles with Words analyzes the role of multi-ethnic U.S. literature as an alternative form of cultural production which critiques and challenges U.S. linguistic and literate hegemony and homogeneity. The texts comprising this field continually emphasize the ways in which words, through language and literacy, become tools of power and action used by the ethnically marginalized to negotiate everyday advantages for themselves and challenge the linguistic and cultural domination of Anglo America. Through their critiques of the culture of English-only monolingualism that has continued to dominate the national landscape of the U.S. throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, these authors indicate their concern with the ways language intersects with and impacts literature, as well as their interest in using literature to explore and critique the relationship between language, literacy, race, ethnicity, and citizenship in the U.S. Using seven contemporary multi-ethnic U.S. novels, I examine how these novels portray language and literacy as weapons of the dominant which maintain and reproduce racist, classist systems of power and bureaucracy and as tools for those who are positioned as ethnically, linguistically, and nationally unauthorized, subjugated, and illegitimate to resist their subordination and disenfranchisement. By examining these works through a rhetorical lens, my analyses attempt to elucidate what is (un)said, (un)speakable, and (un)recorded when subordinates confront authorities in various public and private contexts including classrooms, social services offices, immigration stations, neighborhoods, and homes. The high-stakes literate and linguistic exchanges these works portray offer a multitude of perspectives from which to consider the seemingly mundane, ordinary ways in which language and literacy are used by the marginalized and the powerful as they negotiate various everyday contexts and encounters. While these novels reveal the many problematic uses of literacy and language in power struggles in the U.S., especially as they relate to race, ethnicity, and citizenship, they also suggest alternative ways that language and literacy might be used less hierarchically and more democratically in everyday life, offering models for transforming bureaucratic, institutional, and social encounters. These alternative models should interest not only literary scholars, but also those in the fields of composition, pedagogy, language, literacy and education

Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking

Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking features two key themes. First it focuses on helping students become more seasoned and polished public speakers, and second is its emphasis on ethics in communication. It is this practical approach and integrated ethical coverage that sets Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking apart from the other texts in this market

The Role of Teaching Models and Chemical Representations in Developing Students' Mental Models of Chemical Phenomena

Chemical representations play a vital part in the teaching and learning of chemistry. The aim of this research was to investigate students’ understanding of chemical representations and to ascertain the influence of chemical representations on students’ developing mental models of chemical phenomena. Three primary threads flowing through the thesis are models, representations and learning. Each thread was found to play a vital part in students’ learning of chemical content, in their learning of the scientific process and in their learning about the process of learning itself. This research with students from Year 8 to first year university level comprised four studies that provide comparisons between ages, abilities, learning settings and teaching and learning approaches. Students’ modelling ability was observed to develop and improve through instruction and practice and usually coincided with an improvement in their understanding of chemical concepts. While students were observed to actively use models to make predictions and test ideas, some were not aware of the predictive nature of models when asked about it. From the research, five characteristics of scientific models have been identified: scientific models as multiple representations, scientific models as exact replicas, scientific models as explanatory tools, how scientific models are used, and the dynamic nature of scientific models. A theoretical framework relating the four types of models - teaching, scientific, mental and expressed - and a typology of models that highlights the significant attributes of models, support the research results. The data showed that students’ ability to describe the role of the scientific model in the process of science improved with their increasing age and maturity.The relationship between the three levels of chemical representation of matter - the macroscopic level, the sub-microscopic level and the symbolic level - revealed some complexities concerning the representational and theoretical qualities and the reality of each level. The research data showed that generally most students had a good understanding of the macroscopic and symbolic levels of chemical representation of matter. However, students’ understanding of the sub-microscopic level varied, with some students being able to spontaneously envisage the sub- microscopic view while for others their understanding of the sub-microscopic level of chemical representation was lacking. To make sense of the sub-microscopic level, students’ appreciation of the accuracy and detail of any scientific model, or representation upon which their mental model is built, depended on them being able to distinguish reality from representation, distinguish reality from theory, know what a representation is, understand the role of a representation in the process of science, and understand the role of a theory in the process of science. In considering learning, the importance of an individual’s modelling ability was examined alongside the role of chemical representations and models in providing clear and concise explanations. Examining the links forged between the three levels of chemical representation of matter provided an insight into how students were learning and understanding chemical concepts. Throughout this research, aspects of students’ metacognition and intention were identified as being closely related to their development of mental models.The research identified numerous factors that influenced learning, including internal factors such as students’ prior chemical and mathematical knowledge, their modelling ability and use of chemical representations, motivation, metacognitive ability and time management as well as external factors such as organisation, assessment, teaching resources, getting feedback and good explanations. The choice of learning strategies by students and instructors appeared to be influenced by those factors that influenced learning. Feedback to students, in the form of discussion with classmates, online quizzes and help from instructors on their understanding was observed to be significant in promoting the learning process. Many first year university non-major chemistry students had difficulties understanding chemical concepts due to a limited background knowledge in chemistry and mathematics. Accordingly, greater emphasis at the macroscopic level of representation of matter with contextual references is recommended. The research results confirmed the theoretical construct for learning chemistry - the rising iceberg - that suggests all chemistry teaching begins at the macroscopic level, with the sub-microscopic and symbolic levels being introduced as needed. More of the iceberg becomes visible as the students’ mental model and depth of understanding increases. In a variety of situations, the changing status of a concept was observed as students’ understanding in terms of the intelligibility, plausibility and fruitfulness of a concept developed.The research data supported four aspects of learning - epistemological, ontological, social affective and metacognitive - as being significant in the students’ learning and the development of their mental models. Many university students, who are mature and are experienced learners, exhibited strong rnetacognitive awareness and an intentional approach to learning. It is proposed that the intentional and metacognitive learning approaches and strategies could be used to encourage students to be more responsible for their own learning

Book Reviews

The Poetics of Spice: Romantic Consumerism and the Exotic (Timothy Morton) (Reviewed by Susan B. Taylor, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs) The Gang: Coleridge, the Hutchinsons & the Wordsworths in 1802 (John Worthen) (Reviewed by Paul Magnuson, New York University) Romanticism and Slave Narratives: Transatlantic Testimonies (Helen Thomas) (Reviewed by Alan J. Rice, University of Central Lancashire) The Notorious Astrological Physician of London: Works and Days of Simon Forman (Barbara Howard Traister) (Reviewed by Kristen Poole, University of Delaware) Jean Toomer and the Harlem Renaissance (Ed. Genevieve Fabre and Michel Feith) The Evidence of Things Not Said (Lawrie Balfour)(Reviewed by Tyrone Williams, Xavier University) The Melancholy of Race: Psychoanalysis, Assimilation, and Hidden Grief (Anne Anlin Cheng)(Reviewed by Peter Kearly, Wayne State University) Rethinking the Holocaust (Yehuda Bauer) (Reviewed by Michael Bernard-Donals, University of Wisconsin, Madison) Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil (Alain Badiou; Trans. Peter Hallward) (Reviewed by Michael Rothberg, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) Chaos Theory and James Joyce’s Everyman (Peter Francis Mackey) (Reviewed by Pericles Lewis, Yale University) Fashioning Sapphism: The Origins of a Modern English Lesbian Culture (Laura Doan) (Reviewed by Craig Smith, Wayne State University) William Blake: The Creation of the Songs: From Manuscript to Illuminated Printing (Michael Phillips) (Reviewed by Michael Ferber, University of New Hampshire) Quoting Shakespeare: Form and Culture in Early Modern Drama (Douglas Bruster) (Reviewed by Ken Jackson, Wayne State University) The Reluctant Film Art of Woody Allen (Peter J. Bailey) (Reviewed by Mashey Bernstein, University of California, Santa Barbara

Technical communication. Perspectives for the Eighties, part 2

The importance of technical writing as a separate discipline is suggested. Some specific areas addressed were: technical writing skills industry needs, definitions of technical writing, the hows and whys of inhouse writing, and the nature of the composing process in technical comunication

Challenges of Using Augmented Reality to Teach Magnetic Field Concepts and Representations

Many efforts to reform science educational standards and structure have placed an emphasis on directing learners to communicate about concepts using external representations (ERs). Techniques to develop competencies with ERs often ask learners to develop understanding outside of a physical context while concurrently making connections back to the context—a very challenging task that often results in incomplete learning. This dissertation work is presented in part as a journal article and presents a study that compared the effectiveness of a computer simulation to an augmented reality (AR) simulation for developing magnetic field conceptual and representational knowledge. The AR technology provides a feature called a dynamic overlay that can present ERs in a real-world context. The study was done with six classes of ninth grade physics students and evaluated learning, proficiency of exploration, and intrinsic motivation to engage with the activity and technology. Results from this study show that contrary to expectations, students who used AR performed similarly to students who used the computer simulation conceptual and representational knowledge assessment. However, students who engaged with AR demonstrated worse exploration on average and had lower levels of intrinsic motivation. These outcomes provide evidence to the difficulty of using AR for teaching the ERs of challenging concepts and the complexities of implementing novel technologies into a standard classroom environment

Ordinary explanations as discourse: a critical analysis

Extending recent advances in attribution theory, this thesis aims to develop and apply an analytic framework within which the social constitution of explanations might be better accommodated. To this end, Part I draws on three theoretical trends: generative social psychology; critical theory; and Foucauldlan discourse analysis. Respectively, these provide: the rationale for the critique of and the alternatives to orthodox social psychology, critical reflection on the social field, and the means to locate and analyze ordinary explanations. It is shown how: conventional cognitivist analyses tend to ignore the social contingency of explanations; intergroup theory cannot adequately deal with the influence of role; script theory does not address explanations' mediation of power. By contrast, the present thesis analyzes explanations in the context of numerous intertwined factors. Including role, intergroup and power relations, and institutional, representational and material influences. In this, role’. constituted in a network of discourses and practices, is the principal conceptual tool. Packaged with a repertoire of explanations, cognitions, identities and functions, role interacts with situational factors to shape explanations. It is suggested that, through their mediation of power, explanations serve to reproduce the explainer’s role and related roles and structures. Part II applies this approach to the explanation of rape. Detailed analysis of gender stereotypes, rape myths, the the professional, polemical and lay explanation of rape produced three ideal types: the dimensional, typological and schismatic. These served to tie particular explanatory forms to their corresponding frameworks of discourse/practice and to role. The function of such rape explanations was further explored with respect to 'traditional' and 'anti-sexist' male roles, and to the role of policeman- In the latter case, it was shown that explanations tended to distance rape from 'normal’ sexuality, thereby recursively conditioning the police role and its legal, organizational and cultural delineants

A knowledge acquisition tool to assist case authoring from texts.

Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) is a technique in Artificial Intelligence where a new problem is solved by making use of the solution to a similar past problem situation. People naturally solve problems in this way, without even thinking about it. For example, an occupational therapist (OT) that assesses the needs of a new disabled person may be reminded of a previous person in terms of their disabilities. He may or may not decide to recommend the same devices based on the outcome of an earlier (disabled) person. Case-based reasoning makes use of a collection of past problem-solving experiences thus enabling users to exploit the information of others successes and failures to solve their own problem(s). This project has developed a CBR tool to assist in matching SmartHouse technology to the needs of the elderly and people with disabilities. The tool makes suggestions of SmartHouse devices that could assist with given impairments. SmartHouse past problem-solving textual reports have been used to obtain knowledge for the CBR system. Creating a case-based reasoning system from textual sources is challenging because it requires that the text be interpreted in a meaningful way in order to create cases that are effective in problem-solving and to be able to reasonably interpret queries. Effective case retrieval and query interpretation is only possible if a domain-specific conceptual model is available and if the different meanings that a word can take can be recognised in the text. Approaches based on methods in information retrieval require large amounts of data and typically result in knowledge-poor representations. The costs become prohibitive if an expert is engaged to manually craft cases or hand tag documents for learning. Furthermore, hierarchically structured case representations are preferred to flat-structured ones for problem-solving because they allow for comparison at different levels of specificity thus resulting in more effective retrieval than flat structured cases. This project has developed SmartCAT-T, a tool that creates knowledge-rich hierarchically structured cases from semi-structured textual reports. SmartCAT-T highlights important phrases in the textual SmartHouse problem-solving reports and uses the phrases to create a conceptual model of the domain. The model then becomes a standard structure onto which each semi-structured SmartHouse report is mapped in order to obtain the correspondingly structured case. SmartCAT-T also relies on an unsupervised methodology that recognises word synonyms in text. The methodology is used to create a uniform vocabulary for the textual reports and the resulting harmonised text is used to create the standard conceptual model of the domain. The technique is also employed in query interpretation during problem solving. SmartCAT-T does not require large sets of tagged data for learning, and the concepts in the conceptual model are interpretable, allowing for expert refinement of knowledge. Evaluation results show that the created cases contain knowledge that is useful for problem solving. An improvement in results is also observed when the text and queries are harmonised. A further evaluation highlights a high potential for the techniques developed in this research to be useful in domains other than SmartHouse. All this has been implemented in the Smarter case-based reasoning system

Towards a re-composition of democratic participation in regions: the role of consultative forums

Following the decentralisation of governmental processes in many European countries, a number of political decisions are now being made by regional instances of government. As they gain more political autonomy, regions also take on a renewed significance as places in which to convene a number of democratic debates between a number of actors. At the same time, the democratic trends in regions have also been characterised by the introduction of participatory elements which complement the more traditional channels of representative democracy. Modern democracies are often "hybrid democracies" in which citizens and groups delegate power by electing representatives, but simultaneously retain the possibility to raise issues or participating in decision-making between elections. This thesis is specifically concerned with the contribution of the various particularistic groups in regional decision-making processes. Within this broad area of research, my project focuses on the involvement of particularistic groups through "consultative forums". Consultative forums are relatively formal participatory structures which aspire to deepen the ways in which people and groups can effectively participate in and influence the policy-processes prior to legislation being considered. They are purposely designed to help groups get their message across to government by nurturing their voices, organising a level of interaction between the various groups, and channelling the groups' message across to government. The thesis provides an in-depth exploration of the functioning of two such consultative forums: the Scottish Civic Forum and the French Regional Economic and Social Council. Based on observations collected during thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, the thesis critically examines the extent to which these two organisations can promote the sort of dialogue and democratic debate which could lead to an effective re-composition of political action in devolved democratic processes. Theoretically, the thesis draws from a number of contemporary debates relative to the participation of particularistic groups in modem liberal democratic processes. These debates address the commonly accepted prevalence of representative democracy, the quality of regional public spheres and the in-house functioning of participatory organisations such as the consultative forums. The thesis concludes that, while the consultative forums might not necessarily be the primary means of democratic expression in the regions, each of them fulfils a very important function. One model seeks primarily to empower smaller, vulnerable groups within policy processes. The second model foments an intensive level of interaction between key regional stakeholders. I argue that both these objectives are eminently worthwhile and that the consultative forums are able to fulfil important functions in regional public spheres