The Right of Way: Ethical Decision Making of Selected Elementary School Principals: A Dissertation

One of the central goals of current education reform in this country has been to equalize learning opportunities and outcomes for all groups of children, including and especially those groups previously marginalized. With federal education reform mandates of the early twenty-first century, the work of schools is rigidly evaluated on evidence of achievement - not simply evidence of good processes and intentions. This high-stakes demand for universal achievement has brought several ethical aspects of school leadership, including distribution of resources and equality of educational opportunity, sharply into focus. The subject of ethics in school administration has only recently been attended to by researchers (Beck & Murphy, 1994). Prior to 1990, most of the research regarding the school principalship was of a positivist, technical nature. In this study, I engaged in phenomenological inquiry because I was interested in learning about the lived experiences of the selected participants as they were engaged in a single phenomenon - decision-making when faced with an ethical dilemma in their principalship. Clark Moustakas\u27 (1994) model of transcendental phenomenology will provided the basis of the research design. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe individual principals\u27 experiences of ethical decision-making in a complex era. I presumed that most school principals would have a vivid memory of an experience when they were forced to make a tough decision - one that challenged them to take a position in spite of competing and deeply felt moral values. Ethical dilemma, in this case, was the term used to describe an event which calls for a decision to be made when moral values or ethical principles were in conflict. I was interested to know how they encountered this dilemma, what they thought and how they felt about it, what values they brought to bear, what advice they sought and from whom, how they resolved the dilemma, and what effect the experience had on their own leadership. Turmoil stemmed from what these principals experienced as a conflict of duties. Consistent with the conclusions of prior studies, I found that the most vexing ethical dilemmas reported by these principals involved imposing sanctions for staff (primarily) and students (secondarily). In three cases the issue was dismissal for underperformance. In two cases the issue was communicating dissatisfaction with teacher performance, either verbally or through the formal evaluation process. In two cases the issue was student discipline, specifically the determination of appropriate consequences for misbehavior. Two cases were unique in that they didn\u27t fall into these categories, but were illustrative of how inner conflict arises when one is duty-bound to present a stance that runs counter to one\u27s authentic self. These reported ethical dilemmas could be located within one or more of the following paradoxes: Justice versus mercy, conflict within the ethic of the profession (as described by Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2001), and personal code versus professional code. Several other themes emerged from the data. First, nearly all these principals reported being strongly influenced by the impact their decisions would have on their school community, especially the staff. Second, many of these principals were able to speak positively about their experiences, believing that their struggles resulted in refined leadership skills. Third, the experiences of these principals underscored the need for support from the superintendent and other central office personnel when difficult decisions had to be made. Finally, all of these principals\u27 stories ended with a positive ending, with the principals\u27 claim that they were comfortable with their decision-making and their belief that they did the right thing. Any negative feelings, such as fear or doubt, were not reported, leaving me to believe that these principals were not comfortable discussing them, even in a confidential setting with a researcher unconnected to their school systems. This points to the need for a support network where school principals can feel comfortable raising thorny ethical issues, and where private doubts and fears can addressed with candor. I hope that this study of these school principals\u27 ethical decision-making will contribute to the current knowledge base of the role of the school principal, with implications for principal preparation programs, professional development of current and aspiring school principals and teachers, and policy making that can support sustainable leadership conditions

Loss-of-function analysis of EphA receptors in retinotectal mapping

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Berry phase in open quantum systems: a quantum Langevin equation approach

The evolution of a two level system with a slowly varying Hamiltonian, modeled as s spin 1/2 in a slowly varying magnetic field, and interacting with a quantum environment, modeled as a bath of harmonic oscillators is analyzed using a quantum Langevin approach. This allows to easily obtain the dissipation time and the correction to the Berry phase in the case of an adiabatic cyclic evolution.Comment: 6 pages, no figures. Published versio

The Impact of Shape on the Perception of Euler Diagrams

Euler diagrams are often used for visualizing data collected into sets. However, there is a significant lack of guidance regarding graphical choices for Euler diagram layout. To address this deficiency, this paper asks the question `does the shape of a closed curve affect a user's comprehension of an Euler diagram?' By empirical study, we establish that curve shape does indeed impact on understandability. Our analysis of performance data indicates that circles perform best, followed by squares, with ellipses and rectangles jointly performing worst. We conclude that, where possible, circles should be used to draw effective Euler diagrams. Further, the ability to discriminate curves from zones and the symmetry of the curve shapes is argued to be important. We utilize perceptual theory to explain these results. As a consequence of this research, improved diagram layout decisions can be made for Euler diagrams whether they are manually or automatically drawn

KINETIC ANALYSIS OF HORIZONTAL PLYOMETRIC EXERCISE INTENSITY

This study assessed the multi-planar kinetic characteristics of a variety of plyometric exercises that have a horizontal component. Ten men and ten women performed a variety of plyometric exercises including the double leg hop, standing long jump, single leg standing long jump, bounding, skipping, power skipping, cone hops and the hurdle hop (45.72 cm). Subjects also performed the countermovement jump. All plyometric exercises were performed on a force platform. Landing peak ground reaction forces (GRF) and rate of force development (RFD) were analyzed for three planes of movement. A number of differences were found between plyometric exercises. Quantification of plyometric exercises based on the analysis of GRF and RFD assists practitioners in the design of programs based on known intensity of these exercise

THE ROLE OF SHOE SOLE DUROMETER ON JUMPING KINETICS

This study investigated the relationship between shoe heel density (HD), toe density (TD) and the peak ground reaction force (GRF) and rate of force development (RFD) during jumping. This study also assessed the reliability of the durometer to assess shoe soles. Subjects included 12 men. Shoe HD and TD were assessed via durometer and kinetics were determined during the countermovement jump on a force platform. A Pearson bivariate correlation analysis was performed. Results reveal that HD was not correlated with GRF (r = -.22, p = .50) or RFD (r = -.14, p = .67). Similarly, TD was not correlated with GRF (r = -.29, p = .37) or RFD (r = -.28, p = .37). Intraclass correlation coefficients for the heel and toe durometer were .95 and .92, respectively. Jumping kinetics were not mediated by shoe sole characteristics, though the durometer was reliable for assessing shoe soles

Fat dads must not be blamed for their children's health problems

The relationship between the parental genomes in terms of the future growth and development of their offspring is not critical. For the majority of the genome the tissue-specific gene expression and epigenetic status is shared between the parents equally, with both alleles contributing without parental bias. For a very small number of genes the rules change and control of expression is restricted to a specific, parentally derived allele, a phenomenon known as genomic imprinting. The insulin-like growth factor 2 (Igf2/IGF2) is a robustly imprinted gene, important for fetal growth in both mice and humans. In utero IGF2 exhibits paternal expression, which is controlled by several mechanisms, including the maternally expressing untranslated H19 gene. In the study by Soubry et al., a correlation is drawn between the IGF2 methylation status in fetal cord blood leucocytes, and the obesity status of the father from whom the active IGF2 allele is derived through his sperm. These data imply that paternal obesity affects the normal IGF2 methylation in the sperm and this in turn alters the expression of IGF2 in the baby

Entanglement temperature in molecular magnets composed of S-spin dimers

In the present work, we investigate the quantum thermal entanglement in molecular magnets composed of dimers of spin $S$, using an Entanglement Witness built from measurements of magnetic susceptibility. An entanglement temperature, $T_{e}$, is then obtained for some values of spin $S$. From this, it is shown that $T_{e}$ is proportional to the intradimer exchange interaction $J$ and that entanglement appears only for antiferromagnetic coupling. The results are compared to experiments carried on three isostructural materials: KNaMSi$_{4}$O$_{10}$ (M$=$Mn, Fe or Cu).Comment: accepted for publication in EP