Corruption in UK local government: the mounting risks

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The state-private interface in public service provision

Political theory sets out a strong case for the state to play a major role in public service provision. Yet services are often provided by a range of state and non-state actors as well as by collaborative partnerships. This paper surveys the literature, seeking to map arrangements in developing countries and to understand the politics of different types of service provision

Mathematics: it\u27s all about language

Not many years ago, Hillegeist and Epstein, from Gallaudet University, wrote that \u27while there is no question that the increase in difficulty of the mathematical concepts is an important factor in mathematical comprehension and there seems to exist an effect on comprehension specifically related to language. The special role of language in mathematics is a factor in the educational success of deaf students. However,they add that at this point (1987), the nature of the language effect is not completely clear. (Hillegeist&Epstein, 1987). Reading this statement led me to the purpose of this project, which is to review literature that will examine the areas of critical period and language development of deaf children: core knowledge and cognitive development with regard to the impact on deaf students and mathematical instruction: and deaf students\u27 mathematical progress based on the National Council for Teacher\u27s of Mathematics standards (NCTM).Focus is on the critical period for language acquisition, core knowledge and current mathematical instruction methods of deaf students to analyze the consequences for deaf education in the area of mathematics. The importance of early language acquisition is noted. AIternative ideas and observations from contemporary research related directly to: the unique connection between cognitive development and language acquisition: the construction of knowledge by children, and NCTM standards are summarized regarding learning mathematics. The goal is to synthesize the most current literature and perhaps suggest ways in which educators of the deaf can contribute to the development of the higher-order processing and cognitive skills necessary for their successful post-secondary study of mathematics

Parliamentary codes of conduct do not end political corruption, but they can help build a democratic political culture

Since Lord Nolan drafted his principles of public life, codes of conduct have become a key tool for parliaments around Europe seeking to build or repair their reputations. New research by Elizabeth Dávid-Barrett suggests that, although codes do not necessarily prevent corruption, the process of writing them helps to build a democratic culture and attract high-calibre individuals into public life

Background study: professional and ethical standards for parliamentarians

This study provides an overview of the practical measures OSCE participating States can take to promote ethical behaviour among politicians. It was undertaken by ODIHR with the fundamental objective of developing a practical tool that draws upon academic research and practical experience in OSCE participating States. The aim of this study is to identify the main concerns and possible obstacles that need to be considered while reforming, developing and designing parliamentary standards of conduct, in- cluding, but not limited to, codes of conduct. In the fast-changing field of parliamentary ethics, this publication favours a snapshot approach of currently existing codes of conduct or ethics in the OSCE region over rigorous cross-country analysis. The cases selected are skewed towards countries where such codes exist. This Background Study: Professional and Ethical Standards for Parliamentarians was produced to be a comprehensive but practical publication that analyses how to build and reform systems that set professional and ethical standards for Members of Parliament (MPs) and regulate their conduct to ensure that those standards are met

Trail Vision: Utilizing Leopold As Environmental Equipment For Living

Hiking trails are one of the major ways citizens make observations about the natural world. An analysis of trail maintenance texts demonstrates a focus on concealment and camouflage of human construction and upkeep in National Scenic Trails. These practices are detrimental to environmentalism, since the resulting ideology frames nature as overly self-sufficient and not in need of human stewardship. Trail maintenance practices are analyzed in reference to the nature/culture dichotomy. Perceptions of nature’s self-healing ability are analyzed through a comparison of the oil spills in Santa Barbara during 1969 and 2015. An alternative approach is found through Aldo Leopold. Leopold provides environmental “equipment for living” in issues of trail management and stewardship. The main focus of the alternative perspective is encouraging trekkers to reflect on the sources of items used to create trails, by utilizing transparency in trail construction methods

The Qi connection: A study in studying Qi

The concept of Qi (pronounced chee ) is a difficult one to understand, let alone study. It strikes most of us as amorphous at best. Traditional Chinese Medicine enthusiasts in the West translate the term as life-energy . How much more broad could it be! Some try to make the term scientific, referring to Qi as bio-electrical or bio-magnetic , but they succeed only in clouding the issue further. Certainly, it does not help matters that those who would seem to know the most about this concept of Qi, the Qigong masters, are themselves most mysterious. Is it any wonder that many in the Western scientific paradigm discount the Qi concept as fiction, superstition, or quackery? Though more scientific study has been devoted to Traditional Chinese Medicine in the West over the past few decades, this attitude about Traditional Chinese Medicine is still very prevalent, largely because of the system\u27s seeming reliance on the Qi Theory. Furthermore, most studies do not address the issue of Qi itself, but instead try to fit a Western model on a Traditional Chinese Medicine phenomenon. In my opinion, this often leads to studies which are ambiguous or which do not actually study Traditional Chinese Medicine. At any rate, even the best studies rarely get to the heart of Traditional Chinese Medicine- the Qi concept. (Hereafter, Traditional Chinese Medicine will be abbreviated as TCM) How can we hope to explore a concept as broad and clouded with mystery as Qi? I propose to show that the understanding of Qi is not only possible within the Western scientific paradigm, but is really quite simple. I think the misunderstanding between the two paradigms (TCM and Western science) is more a matter of translation than disagreement. Furthermore, I hold that the Qi concept must be more narrowly defined before its validity can be properly examined, by scientific study or otherwise. I believe this process of definition is best accomplished by having a philosophical dialogue with TCM practitioners, carefully reading ancient Chinese medical texts, and designing studies based on the results of this translation effort. In my attempt to make my position clear, I will examine three basic questions: 1) What is Qi? 2) Is Qi real? 3) Can Qi be scientifically analyzed? Let us only hope that my exposition will be slightly less mysterious than its topic

In hot pursuit: Gothic virgins and villains in nineteenth-century American fiction

This dissertation investigates how three significant nineteenth-century American female writers strategically transform a central Gothic motif – the virtuous heroine pursued by a villain who lusts for sexual and socioeconomic power – to tell new stories about gendered bodies and the erotic relations between them. Established in the genre-defining British Gothic novels of the late eighteenth century, this popular motif endured throughout the nineteenth century in texts written and read on both sides of the Atlantic. This project examines understudied texts by E.D.E.N. Southworth, Louisa May Alcott, and Julia Ward Howe that exhibit a striking intertextual awareness of the motif, reformulating it to critique the era’s marital and inheritance practices that enable and reinforce persistent gender inequities. These texts presciently recognize the performative nature of gender, centering on protagonists that move fluidly between genders with strategic choices about dress, speech, and social roles. By examining these texts together, this project shows that they anticipate the insights of contemporary feminist and queer theory as their protagonists deliberately calculate how to blend traditionally gendered behaviors and transform sexual threats into situations in which they can either consensually participate or cleverly elude. Chapter One argues that E. D. E. N. Southworth’s popular serial novel The Hidden Hand (1859) rewrites the narrative pattern that situates Gothic heroines as vulnerable to rape by positioning its heroine as aware of her fictional status and therefore capable of using her metafictional knowledge to reconfigure sexually threatening situations. Chapter Two examines how Louisa May Alcott’s sensation tale A Long, Fatal Love Chase (1866) blends traditionally male and female Gothic narratives to cast its heroine as a female Faust figure whose desperate desire for freedom leads her to enter naively into a bigamous partnership with a Mephistophelean man whose relentless pursuit ultimately causes her death. Chapter Three contends that Julia Ward Howe’s recently recovered manuscript The Hermaphrodite (1848) situates its ambiguously sexed but male-identifying protagonist as a Gothic “heroine” who employs unconventional strategies to cope with conventional threats to his physical and financial autonomy and rejects all interpersonal bonds because of the gendered restrictions they impose upon him.2019-07-31T00:00:00

The Impact of Religious Beliefs on Professional Ethics: A Case Study of a New Teacher

This case study of a math and science teacher in a private religious school looks at the impact of a teacher’s religious beliefs on her experience of engaging with ethical issues in her practice. A Freirean ethical framework is used to analyze her struggles with differences between her own personal religious convictions and those of the school in which she teaches, avoiding undue influence on her students’ developing beliefs, and the inherent violence of schooling. This case provides an example of ways in which discussions with teachers about professional ethics might be broadened beyond codes and regulations to the everyday embodied, social milieu in which they work