Extreme empiricism: John Howard, poetry, and the thermometrics of reform

This essay examines an outpouring of printed poems and biographical publications in the 1780s and 1790s that sought to shape the public image of the celebrated prison reformer John Howard. These materials, we argue, reveal the ways in which reform, empiricism, and Christian charity reinforced each other in late eighteenth-century popular imagination, and how this conjunction provoked a new vision of Britain’s empire and a backlash against mixing the scientific and the miraculous. As we show, Howard used the language of temperature to turn empirical data into evidence for the necessity of prison reform. This same thermometric language underwrote panegyric poems that represented Howard as global emissary of British benevolence—the icon of a new kind of empire whose power was symbolized by nearly miraculous capacity to temper inhospitable climates. This body of exuberant poetry transmuted data-based reform and technological advances in ventilation into proselytical triumph, a conjunction that was met, after Howard’s dramatic, self-inflicted death, with charges of overheated religious enthusiasm. As a result, Howard’s medical acquaintance and collaborators posthumously defended the temperateness of Howard’s empirical methods while also labeling him an amateur data collector, the lowly helpmeet of the professional man of science. By tracing Howard’s appearance in printed poetry and periodical writing, this essay illuminates the uneasy yet potent imbrication of reform culture, colonialism, medicine, and discipline formation in the final decades of the eighteenth century

Significant Work Is About Self-Realization and Broader Purpose : Defining the Key Dimensions of Meaningful Work

Research on meaningful work has proliferated in recent years, with an increasing understanding of the centrality of meaningfulness for work-related motivation, commitment, and well-being. However, ambiguity around the main construct, "meaningful work," has hindered this progress as various researchers have used partly overlapping, partly differing conceptualizations. To bring clarity to this issue, we examine a broad range of various definitions of meaningful work and come to argue that meaningfulness in the broadest sense is about work significance as an overall evaluation of work as regards whether it is intrinsically valuable and worth doing. Furthermore, we argue that there are two key sub-dimensions to this work significance: Broader purpose as work serving some greater good or prosocial goals (the intrinsic value of work beyond the person in question). And self-realization as a sense of autonomy, authenticity and self-expression at work (the intrinsic value of work for the person in question). Previous definitions of meaningful work feature typically one or two of these elements-significance, broader purpose, self-realization -, but in the future it would be beneficial to clearly acknowledge all three elements in both definitions and operationalizations of meaningful work.Peer reviewe

Institutionalising the eLearning division at the University of the Western Cape (UWC): lessons learnt

Universities need to re-align teaching and learning in response to advances in educational technology. The University of the Western Cape (UWC) established an eLearning Division (ED) in May 2005 which has experienced rapid growth. In this paper, we present the role of the eLearning Division in the institutionalisation of eLearning. We argue that a supportive leadership and effective organisational policies and strategies are key components to the success of the establishment of eLearning. Furthermore, we show that the success is also pegged to the continuous review and updating of the organisational policies in the light of new requirements. Our strategy for staff development involves facilitating changes in the mindsets of UWC’s community towards the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in teaching and learning through empowering them for online course facilitation as well as enhancing their computer literacy skills. Our challenges result from resistance from some of our intended clientele, as well as the challenges of coordinating the Division’s activities with well established divisions and entities within the university. The eLearning Division’s success and achievements are based on continuous review and feedback as we strive to improve and enhance our service to meet the needs of UWC educators

American Economic Imperialism and the Spanish-American War Era

American history and education always viewed the Spanish-American War era of 1898 as a time when imperialism unexpectedly became foreign policy. However, American imperialism would differ from the form it took in European countries. America would promote a “noble imperialism” that would elevate the culture of these new territories to the greatness that America represented. This notion appeared daily in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle during 1898. As time passed, the historiography of this era changed to provide more evidence of economic and military imperialism underlying American actions. Also, evidence about American brutality during the pacification of the Philippines came to light. Modern education can no longer focus on small pinpoints of history now that we have the technology to find ever increasing amounts of information. Many educators and historians agree that the use of modern technological devises and a focus on the whole story can engage the 21st century student

Wikis as Platforms for Authentic Assessment

Calls for accountability focus attention on assessment of student learning. Authentic assessment involves evaluating student learning as students perform real world tasks. We present a four-stage conceptual framework for authentic assessment. We argue first that evaluation is a process rather than a static one-time event. Second, authentic assessment involves evaluating experiential learning. Third, multiple evaluators assess student work, including self-assessment or review by a public audience. Finally, authentic assessments offer more learner choice. Wikis, as user-friendly web spaces that support easy web authoring for individuals or for collaborative groups, provide a platform for both student learning and authentic assessment

Digital ethics, political economy and the curriculum: this changes everything

This chapter makes the case for a refocusing of teaching and learning across the curriculum on foundational questions about ethics in digital culture – and, hence, for reframing classroom practice around critical digital literacies. Our view is that a central aim of schooling now should be the interrogation of the forms and contents, practices and consequences of digital communications, and that the curriculum should engage developmentally and systematically with the current issues regarding everyday actions and their consequences, corporate and state surveillance, privacy and transparency, political and economic control and ownershi

Rethinking Nathaniel Dance’s Portraiture: Sociability, Masculinity and Celebrity

Nathaniel Dance (1735-1811) was a leading portraitist in London who worked alongside luminaries such as Reynolds, Romney and Gainsborough in the Golden Age of British portraiture. Dance’s contemporaries have been subject to considerable research, however, analysis of Dance has been limited with only one major study of his work undertaken in the 1970s. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Dance’s upper-middle class family were already established in London’s sociable society. His career and his works afford a different perspective from which to examine portraiture as part of Britain’s sociable society. In more recent years eighteenth-century art history research has diversified to include the complex cultural mores and behaviours of Britain’s sociable society. From stockings, buttons, books and swords to ideas of sociability, masculinity and the public sphere, a wide range of topics have become the purview of the art historian. These approaches provide the framework for rethinking Dance’s portraiture, establishing the foundation for assessing his work in a dynamic and complex way. Dance’s practices reveal the multifaceted connections between portraiture, the artist, the sitter, and the audience. This thesis argues that Dance’s portraits operated as instruments of influence in the networks and affiliations of sociable society and that a range of factors are critical to fully understand Dance’s work, including, the complex nature of sociability, changing concepts of masculinity and the rise of celebrity. This research expands our knowledge of the importance of business and social networks and the role of the portrait for communicating connections and social position of the sitters. Duplicated portraits, which are a prominent feature in Dance’s portraiture business, reveal the extent that this medium connected sitters within Dance’s social sphere and in turn facilitated the expansion of Dance’s own networks

Spartan Daily, February 20, 1989

Volume 92, Issue 17https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/7807/thumbnail.jp

Neal, Mary Julia, 1905-1995 (MSS 4)

Correspondence, speeches, and writings of Shaker scholar and English professor, Mary Julia Neal, a native of Auburn, Kentucky. Neal served as director of the Kentucky Building at Western Kentucky University from 1964 to 1972. Includes photos and correspondence with twentieth century eastern Shakers