48 research outputs found
From Hybridity to Singularity: The Distillation of a Unique Buddhist Identity on the Borderlands of South and Southeast Asia
The thesis is an exploration of identity on the borderlands between South and Southeast Asia. Specifically, it establishes the nature of the cultural distinctness of one of the largest ethnic groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh. The thesis presents the historical processes behind the hybridity of this ethnic group and how it eventually came to be under one self-identifying label - the Marma. The study employs various approaches to understanding the creation and reproduction of identity. From the maintenance of the boundaries of culture to the processes at work within culture through concepts such as creolization, syncretism, and entanglement. These latter theories point towards a fluid process of reconfiguring and recasting of structure or creating order from chaos, in response to changes in the environment. The research also explores other essentially different approaches that have similar conceptual outcomes, such as the theories that stress that traditional practice and ethnic identity are invented afresh according to present historical contexts and in response to both internal and/or external pressures. These different approaches help to piece together the various components of Marma cultural identity. The ethnographic data is presented in three parts with each section drawing upon the relevant theories to examine the field data on the Marma group. The thesis contributes a detailed monograph on the study of borderland cultures and demonstrates the value of applying several lenses to the study of identity in complex areas of the world
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Toward a Pedagogy of Paidia: A Re-imagining of Education through the Lens of the Philosophy of Plato, Schiller, and Gadamer
In the wake of the French Revolution and the failure of subsequent governments to enact humanistic reforms, Schiller observed in frustration that âa great moment has found a little peopleâŠâ As we emerge from a once-in-a-century pandemic, navigating crisis after crisis amidst uncertainty and instability, it is easy to sympathize with Schillerâs frustrations. For parents and teachers, the pandemic and its effect on public education have been eye-opening, and present a clear call to action. We are currently in an important historical moment with both challenges and opportunity. For education theorists and policy makers, this moment calls for a rethinking and reimagining of our schools (and schooling), if not our entire educational paradigm. This is a moment that calls for a re-evaluation of contemporary education reform - a deeply flawed movement guided largely by assessment and accountability culture.
Unfortunately, this moment has been met by characteristic smallness and a lack of imagination and dedication to our public commons and social infrastructure of which our schools are an integral component. It is not a reimagining to defund public education; and it is not a reimagining to transfer our current, inadequate curriculum (guided by a flawed neoliberal paradigm) onto a synchronous or asynchronous digital platform. This moment called for imagination, creativity, kindness and audacity, but instead we got a doubling down on efficiency, assessment, and a model of schooling closer to âeducational accountingâ than anything even remotely resembling a rich and broad humanistic education.
The goal of this dissertation is in part to highlight an important concept that could broaden our thinking about contemporary education. That thing is play, not in a narrow, gamified sense but rather the robust rich conception paidia. In this dissertation, I argue we must re-engage with paidia in order to reclaim the ancient notion of paideia, or an ideal education in the broadest sense. This exploration of the serious play as the basis of education in the philosophical tradition begins with Plato, Aristotle, and others in Greek antiquity, and evolves through the thought of Kant, Schiller, Heidegger, Gadamer, Dewey, and others. Once we have traced this concept from its foundational discussion in Platoâs philosophical dialogues through German romanticism and into the 20th century and beyond, we can put this concept into conversation with contemporary schooling and the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary education reform.
We also will look at how this idea of a broad, engaging education has been lost, what is at stake if we lose it permanently, and what paidia can offer our present age with respect to reimagining education for a post-pandemic 21st century. This discussion attempts to retrieve something important from the tradition of thinking about education more broadly - paideia - education not merely as a matter of utility, efficiency, or credentialing, but also as a matter of justice. This discussion will inform our understanding of education as a matter of justice and lifelong learning that encourages real fulfillment and has the potential to open structures and potentialities. We will demonstrate that the concept and history of paidia are relevant for reflecting on the impoverished education paradigm we have today, but it is also helpful in pointing the way towards a new paradigm
Radical Belonging: School as Communion of Peoples, Place, and Power
In wondering âHow are decolonizing, place/land-based, and community-grown learning places created and sustained as alternatives to dominant settler-colonial systems, and what stories would they share about their creation and existence?â, I formed relationships with two alternative, autonomous, decolonizing schools through a teacher-guide at each school who served as guides for me to enter their spaces with invitation. In developing these relationships over 2-3 years and spending 2-3 weeks alongside each of them at their school sites, I was able to sustain natural and deep conversation with my teacher-guides, who then served as co-storyers of this research to collectively consider research questions through the lens of their stories and lived realities in their schools. This study was carried out through narrative storywork, Indigenous and culturally responsive methodologies, and critical autoethnography, as my experience of entering these school communities and forming these relationships over time became a supporting contribution to the data. Data is regarded as all the stories, conversations, reflections, observations, intuited moments, and elements of portraiture that were gathered through this process of sustained relationship with my co-storyers and my dedicated time in being within and experiencing each school space. I identified four major themes as emergent from the data: (1) a necessary process, (2) school as communion, (3) a radical existence, and (4) belonging. Dialogue with my co-storyers about the emergent themes suggests that this work of creating decolonizing, community-grown, place-specific alternatives to settler-state educational systems is necessary across many communities; yet, entering this work requires a necessary process of individual and collective work to align to place-appropriate, decolonized, and Indigenous principals of place, community, culture, and work. Data also suggests that creating such schools is radical yet sustainable and that these schools embody a paradigmatic shift from colonizing, individualistic systems toward collective, communal systems aligned with Indigenous and anti-colonial communities. Furthermore, the data and dialogue suggest that within this work of growing such place-specific communal schools, members of the community are often afforded a greater sense of belonging and collective ownership over their educational experience. Both schools in the study also demonstrated a positive impact on the place and land on which their school was situated. Therefore, this study implicates that there is value in seeking and growing schools outside of the dominant system and that communities who seek to grow such place and person-specific schools can experience great benefit for both human and more-than-human members of the community.
Keywords: alternative-autonomous school, communal school, school as communion, decolonizing, anti-colonial, Indigenous-aligned, Indigenous methodology, decolonizing communities, portraiture, critical autoethnography, co-storying research, narrative storywork, belonging, culturally responsive methodologies, place-based, land-based, resisting settler-state, sustainable systems thinking, HÄlau KĆ« MÄna, Angeles Workshop School, revolutionary schools, diverse communities, students of colo
Reversible Computation: Extending Horizons of Computing
This open access State-of-the-Art Survey presents the main recent scientific outcomes in the area of reversible computation, focusing on those that have emerged during COST Action IC1405 "Reversible Computation - Extending Horizons of Computing", a European research network that operated from May 2015 to April 2019. Reversible computation is a new paradigm that extends the traditional forwards-only mode of computation with the ability to execute in reverse, so that computation can run backwards as easily and naturally as forwards. It aims to deliver novel computing devices and software, and to enhance existing systems by equipping them with reversibility. There are many potential applications of reversible computation, including languages and software tools for reliable and recovery-oriented distributed systems and revolutionary reversible logic gates and circuits, but they can only be realized and have lasting effect if conceptual and firm theoretical foundations are established first
Towards Middleware for Fault-tolerance in Distributed Real-time and Embedded Systems
Abstract. Distributed real-time and embedded (DRE) systems often require support for multiple simultaneous quality of service (QoS) properties, such as real-timeliness and fault tolerance, that operate within resource constrained environments. These resource constraints motivate the need for a lightweight middleware infrastructure, while the need for simultaneous QoS properties require the middleware to provide fault tolerance capabilities that respect time-critical needs of DRE systems. Conventional middleware solutions, such as Fault-tolerant CORBA (FT-CORBA) and Continuous Availability API for J2EE, have limited utility for DRE systems because they are heavyweight (e.g., the complexity of their feature-rich fault tolerance capabilities consumes excessive runtime resources), yet incomplete (e.g., they lack mechanisms that enable fault tolerance while maintaining real-time predictability). This paper provides three contributions to the development and standardization of lightweight real-time and fault-tolerant middleware for DRE systems. First, we discuss the challenges in realizing real-time faulttolerant solutions for DRE systems using contemporary middleware. Second, we describe recent progress towards standardizing a CORBA lightweight fault-tolerance specification for DRE systems. Third, we present the architecture of FLARe, which is a prototype based on the OMG real-time fault-tolerant CORBA middleware standardization efforts that is lightweight (e.g., leverages only those server-and client-side mechanisms required for real-time systems) and predictable (e.g., provides fault-tolerant mechanisms that respect time-critical performance needs of DRE systems)