Biophily: Five Musical Episodes for the Revolutionary Educator

Biophily: Five Musical Episodes for the Revolutionary Educator is a composition meant to reflect, through music, some of the key concepts and ideas of authors like Paulo Freire, William Ayers, Neil Postman, and Charles Weingartner in their works that we covered in Social Foundations. Each piece aims to deconstruct poor teaching habits and practices, and musically express a better way to go about education

Towards a More Inclusive Music Education: Experiences of LGBTQQIAA Students in Music Teacher Education Programs Across Pennsylvania

During the past decade, the field of music education has seen an increase in the amount of scholarship surrounding LGBTQ studies in music teaching and learning. For example, the University of Illinois hosted three symposia for the field of music education dedicated to LGBTQ studies (2010, 2012, 2016), and proceedings from these symposia were published in three separate issues of the of the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education (2011, 2014, 2016). Other notable scholarship has been published in Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education (Gould 2005); the Music Educators Journal (Bergonzi, 2009; Carter, 2011; McBride, 2016); the Journal of Research in Music Education (Carter, 2013; Nicholas, 2013); and UPDATE: Applications of Research in Music Education (Garrett, 2012). (excerpt

An Investigation of the Perceived Leadership Behavior of First-Line Supervisors in Selected Manufacturing Plants

The first-line supervisor appears to be caught in a dilemma between the demands of his superior and the needs of his subordinates. This study focuses on the dilemma by describing and analyzing the leadership behavior of most and least effective first-line supervisors as perceived by superiors, subordinates, and by the supervisors themselves. Two basic dimensions of leadership behavior, power-structure and consideration-sensitivity, were investigated by using a leadership rating questionnaire. Participating plants, listed in the Directory of Arkansas Industries, were twenty-three small manufacturers employing five or more production supervisors and 100 to 500 production workers. Participants in each plant were the plant manager, three first-line supervisors, and a random sample of five employees reporting to each participating supervisor. Nonparametric statistical techniques, consisting of chi square and the Goodman-Kruskal measures of association, were used. The results of this study indicate that there were significant differences in the leadership behavior of most and least effective supervisors. The most effective supervisors were consistently perceived more favorably by both superiors and subordinates than were the supervisors designated as least effective. Compared to the perceptions of the most effective supervisors, there was considerably greater distortion between the way the least effective supervisors perceived themselves and the way they were perceived by their superiors and subordinates. Most effective supervisors tended to perceive themselves in close agreement with how they were perceived by both their plant manager and their subordinates. This finding indicates that accurate self-insight may be significantly related to effective leadership. There also tended to be more consistent association between the self-perceptions of plant managers and their most effective supervisors than between the self-perceptions of the plant managers and their least effective supervisors. The most effective supervisors were characterized by a perceived balance of emphasis on both of the primary dimensions of leadership behavior, power-structure and consideration-sensitivity. The least effective supervisors perceived themselves as much more oriented toward consideration-sensitivity, although their plant managers and subordinates perceived them as more oriented toward power-structure. Thus, the most effective supervisors were characterized by balanced and successful leadership behavior, while the least effective supervisors were characterized by unbalanced and less successful leadership behavior. The study confirms previous findings on the existence of measurable differences in the behavior of more and less effective supervisors. It analyzes such differences on dimensions which parallel the initiation of structure and consideration classifications used in the early Ohio State studies. It suggests the use of the reported perceptions of superiors and subordinates to focus on possible leadership problems in the industrial setting. The implications of this study would seem to suggest the need for organizations to consider modifying their present rating systems to include perceptions of performance from above and below as well as self-ratings. The perceptions of the supervisor from three perspectives might provide the supervisor with a more comprehensive understanding of his total performance on the job. This multi-level rating system could help reduce conflict situations and lead to better management practice. This study, although limited to the first-line supervisory level in manufacturing plants, would also seem to have implications for other levels of management and other types of organizations

Vinalhaven Lobstermen’s Co-Operative, 1938

The author describes his experience helping the lobstermen of Vinalhaven to form cooperative buying and marketing club, in 1938

Technology capital transfer

It is widely believed that an important factor underlying the rapid growth in China is increased foreign direct investment (FDI) and the transfer of foreign technology capital, which is accumulated know-how from investment in research and development (R&D), brands, and organizations that is not specific to a plant. In this paper, we study two channels through which FDI can contribute to upgrading of the stock of technology capital: knowledge spillovers and appropriation. Knowledge spillovers lead to new ideas that do not directly compete or devalue the foreign affiliate’s stock. Appropriation, on the other hand, implies a redistribution of property rights over patents and trademarks; the gain to domestic companies comes at a loss to the multinational company (MNC). In this paper we build these sources of technology capital transfer into the framework developed by McGrattan and Prescott (2009, 2010) and introduce an endogenously-chosen intensity margin for operating technology capital in order to capture the trade-offs MNCs face when expanding their markets internationally. We show that economic outcomes differ dramatically depending on the source of greater openness and the channel with which technology capital transfer is operative.

Interaction, Identity & Social Class

Social class is a longstanding locus of sociological inquiry. Prior research has investigated the phenomenon in an array of domains through a myriad of methodologies and theoretical perspectives. The heterogeneity that is posed by previous studies empirically and theoretically, however, is predicated upon a homogenous set of epistemological and ontological assumptions. This has resulted in a number of programmatic, enduring omissions. Most notably, research has neglected how social class is conceptualised and made relevant by members in forms of talk-in-interaction. Aligning with the commitments of Ethnomethodology (EM), and using Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) specifically, this thesis addresses this lacuna. Data are composed of ordinary, naturalistic forms of talk-in-interaction conducted synchronously in the English language over the last half-century (n=959). The empirical contributions of this research concern the ontological affordances, formulative possibilities and praxiological functions of two families of interactional practices that occasion the relevance of classed identities recurrently – namely, “membership categorisations” and “place references”. Chapter 4 addresses the former, canvassing the agentic, ontological and intersubjective dimensions of linguistically classed membership categories. Chapter 5 introduces the latter as a resource used to actuate classed identities in a designedly referential and metonymic faculty. Chapter 6 then recovers the activity of “accounting” for which both practices are employed across action-types; specifically, “assessments”, “complaints” and “teases”. The central objective of this thesis thus concerns the “respecification” of social class as a “members’ phenomenon”; one that is made relevant within ordinary instances of talk-in-interaction through a stable set of interactional practices in order to accomplish a diverse range of practical tasks. The thesis concludes with a review of several candidate lines of analysis for future EM/(M)CA inquiry that are anticipated by the findings of this research uniquely

A Statistical Comparison of First Time Praxis II Pass Rates between Homegrown 4 year Students and Transfer Students of a Medium Size Suburban University: A Six Year Study

In order to meet the federal mandate specified by the No Child Left Behind Act to demonstrate content competency for teaching certification, students must pass a written examination. Missouri and 37 other states chose the Praxis II to satisfy requirements. Presently, schools of education advertise the passing rate of the Praxis II as 100%, since students can take the Praxis II until they pass. This study examined only the first time Praxis II pass rates for undergraduate students in a medium sized university over a six year period. The quantitative, predictive non-experimental research study statistically analyzed first time Praxis II scores from blinded student records acquired from the Comprehensive Academic Management Systems (CAMS) to look specifically at Praxis II test data from 2005 until 2010. Students utilize various pathways as they persist toward college graduation. Some students remain in a four year institution and graduate with a bachelor’s degree through a traditional route. Other students transfer at least once, either from two year institutions or from other four year institutions. This study isolated the first time that undergraduate students took the Praxis II and compared the passing rates for two groups, homegrown, students whose transcripts showed that they had taken freshmen orientation, and transfer. No distinction was made between students who transferred from two year or four year institutions, although the researcher recommends this distinction for future studies. The study disaggregated first time test takers by the reported Praxis II test code. Random samples from elementary education certification, secondary core certification, K-12 certification, and early childhood certification were drawn for analysis. Only Physical Education and Elementary Education provided large enough groups to disaggregate data by both year and group. Z tests checked for a iii difference in means at the 95% confidence level. To check for year to year differences, a single factor ANOVA was applied. Chi Square tests for independence using proportions and means were calculated. No statistically significant difference between undergraduate homegrown students and transfer students, as measured by first time Praxis II passing rate, was found for any group except Physical Education

Interaction, Identity & Social Class

Social class is a longstanding locus of sociological inquiry. Prior research has investigated the phenomenon in an array of domains through a myriad of methodologies and theoretical perspectives. The heterogeneity that is posed by previous studies empirically and theoretically, however, is predicated upon a homogenous set of epistemological and ontological assumptions. This has resulted in a number of programmatic, enduring omissions. Most notably, research has neglected how social class is conceptualised and made relevant by members in forms of talk-in-interaction. Aligning with the commitments of Ethnomethodology (EM), and using Conversation Analysis (CA) and Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) specifically, this thesis addresses this lacuna. Data are composed of ordinary, naturalistic forms of talk-in-interaction conducted synchronously in the English language over the last half-century (n=959). The empirical contributions of this research concern the ontological affordances, formulative possibilities and praxiological functions of two families of interactional practices that occasion the relevance of classed identities recurrently – namely, “membership categorisations” and “place references”. Chapter 4 addresses the former, canvassing the agentic, ontological and intersubjective dimensions of linguistically classed membership categories. Chapter 5 introduces the latter as a resource used to actuate classed identities in a designedly referential and metonymic faculty. Chapter 6 then recovers the activity of “accounting” for which both practices are employed across action-types; specifically, “assessments”, “complaints” and “teases”. The central objective of this thesis thus concerns the “respecification” of social class as a “members’ phenomenon”; one that is made relevant within ordinary instances of talk-in-interaction through a stable set of interactional practices in order to accomplish a diverse range of practical tasks. The thesis concludes with a review of several candidate lines of analysis for future EM/(M)CA inquiry that are anticipated by the findings of this research uniquely