Developing Whole Leaders for the Whole World

How do we holistically develop leaders with the capacity and character to tackle the most pressing moral challenges in our modern world? While it may be easier to focus on one thing such as strengths, experiences, or mentors, the reality is that developing a leader’s capacity to lead well includes many interrelated components. Based on our experience and research, the six components of the Holistic Leadership Development Model (HLDM) are presented, along with strategies for creating rich conversations that connect the components in a meaningful way for leaders. The six areas are (1) experiences and learning; (2) strategic networking; (3) developing others; (4) integrated fulfillment; (5) leading under pressure; and (6) calling and purpose. While we are not suggesting that these are the only areas to consider when developing leaders, focusing on these six creates conversations and development plans for leaders that they perceive as capturing the reality of the challenges they face in developing their leadership capacity. Guides for evaluating one’s own leadership development and for having rich development conversations are included

Bilingual education includes far more aspects than developing language competence:a case study about intercultural competences in municipal day care centres in Munich

Abstract. Language is one element of bilingual education. Yet, bilingual education includes far more aspects than developing language competence. This research is conducted to understand how the bilingual project Élysée 2020 enhances intercultural competence. It aims to find how educators and directors conceptualize bilingual education, and how children develop intercultural skills, studying the case of the Élysée project in municipal day care centres in Munich, Germany. The theoretical framework chapter of this study explores the topics of bilingual education and intercultural competence. The first part of the chapter takes the standpoint of sociolinguists, viewing language in relation to society. The term bilingual education is defined within that scope, and the concept is explored supported by the literature of Ofelia Garcia. The second part of the chapter is based on Michael Byram’s theory of intercultural competence and how attitudes, knowledge and skills are tools to navigate in a diverse world. Both bilingual education and intercultural competence are explored in the context of early childhood education. Case study methodology was chosen for this study. The case of the Élysée project in the context of municipal day care centres in Munich was in focus, and three types of data were deemed necessary to study this case. Firstly, educators, directors, and a district manager were interviewed in semi-structured interviews to collect their perceptions of the project, of how it was implemented and what they found to be beneficial apart from language acquisition. Secondly, observations of French lessons with children from diverse linguistic backgrounds were made. Lastly, a policy paper Quality Charter (2013) gave insight to the objectives and principles of the project. The three types of data were analysed using thematic analysis. The main findings provide insight how educators and directors initially perceived bilingual education, how it changed over time and how intercultural competence became visible through the Élysée project. The findings from the interviews, observation, and a policy document gave a broad picture of the process of establishing the Élysée project in the municipal day care centres and the relation of policy and practice. All data captured details how intercultural competences were strengthened through the project, especially raising awareness and growing appreciation towards linguistic and cultural diversity. The results of the study can support stakeholders to consider, implement, and evaluate bilingual education in the context of early childhood education

Building and Sustaining Hope in the Face of Failure: Understanding the Role of Strategic Social Support

The research on hope has focused on how individuals build and maintain hopeful emotions through their own successful attempts of achieving their goals using personal agency and pathways. Success in meeting the goal leads to higher levels of hope within an individual and an increased belief that they can achieve more difficult tasks, while failure leads to a decrease in levels of hope (Helland & Winston, 2005; Snyder, Rand, & Sigmon, 2002; Snyder, Shorey, Cheavens, Pulvers, Adams, & Wiklund, 2002; Snyder, Irving, & Anderson, 1991). The purpose of this study was to explore the moderating relationship of strategic social support on levels of hope despite ratings of experience with failure. The sample was sourced from participants in an online leadership development tool. Once outliers were removed and missing data was managed through multiple imputation, the final sample for this study was 573. The age range was 21 to 97 with 56.2% identifying as female. Moderation analyses were conducted using PROCESS macro for SPSS (Model 1 and Model 2). While interaction effects were insignificant, main effects for social support on levels of hope were significant (B = 0.154, p = .007). Furthermore, there was a significant main effect of relational strategic social support (emotional support, advocates, and sources of feedback) on levels of hope (B = 0.141, p = .05). Additional exploratory analyses found that both sources of feedback (B = 0.141, p = .000) and advocates (B = 0.121, p = .0184) had significant main effects on hope when assessed separately. The results of this study indicate that strategic social support may have a key role to play in building and sustaining levels of hope and be worth the investment and effort to connect individuals with the sources of support they need to increase levels of hope

Official Historiography, Political Legitimacy, Historical Methodology, and Royal and Imperial Authority in Spain under Phillip II, 1580-99

Between 1580 and 1599, Spain was the subject of a barrage of foreign polemical attacks, a reaction to Spain's European hegemony under Philip II. These attacks used historical arguments to directly challenge Spain's political legitimacy and power, its reputation, and its political standing within Europe by criticizing Spain's dynastic arguments for empire, and denigrated Spanish imperialism and the nature of Spanish rule, threatening constitutional structures by claiming that Philip ruled as a tyrant. In response to these attacks, a coterie of scholars and powerful political advisors, seeking to solidify claims to certain territories and to justify imperial actions, developed innovative historical writing practices that were effective ideological tools for creating support for new political ideas. To convincingly defend Spanish imperialism and restore Spanish reputación, official history needed to concern itself with questions of statecraft, and to do so within the framework of humanist notions of "good" history. Specifically, the new type of historical writing used humanist and antiquarian methodologies, especially an emphasis on source-based documentation of arguments and claims, and combined these with reason of state politics to respond to European challenges to Spanish imperial authority and Spanish actions in Portugal and France by ensuring that only a very specific image of the king was conveyed, and very specific sources were utilized and revealed. In doing so, official historians, most notably Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Esteban de Garibay, and Gregorio López de Madera, and advisors, like Juan de Idiáquez and Cristóbal de Moura, turned to the writing of history not as a means to reform the state, but instead as a potent means to bolster and defend the existing state's identity and advance its purpose. This dissertation uses court correspondence, the treatises on the artes historicae written by the court historians, and the innovative official histories they produced to show how the tensions between ideology and methodology played out in this new form of official history, and how theory and practice came together in the service of power. Through its use of multiple sources of data, this study shows that it was due to the polemical context, not despite it, that a new and more powerful history emerged, which included new practices and cultivated a more critical sensibility. Official history came to play a role in giving conceptual identity and political legitimacy to Spain's imperial ambitions in a new reason of state context. Thus, notions of rule (Spanish Christian reason of state) and provisions of proof became the two pivots upon which Spanish imperial ambitions were justified, and larger debates about how to legitimize formal rights and privileges found a concrete form of expression in official history

Influence of Coulomb and Phonon Interaction on the Exciton Formation Dynamics in Semiconductor Heterostructures

A microscopic theory is developed to analyze the dynamics of exciton formation out of incoherent carriers in semiconductor heterostructures. The carrier Coulomb and phonon interaction is included consistently. A cluster expansion method is used to systematically truncate the hierarchy problem. By including all correlations up to the four-point (i.e. two-particle) level, the fundamental fermionic substructure of excitons is fully included. The analysis shows that the exciton formation is an intricate process where Coulomb correlations rapidly build up on a picosecond time scale while phonon dynamics leads to true exciton formation on a slow nanosecond time scale.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure

Lattices of quasi-equational theories as congruence lattices of semilattices with operators, Part I

We show that for every quasivariety K of structures (where both functions and relations are allowed) there is a semilattice S with operators such that the lattice of quasi-equational theories of K (the dual of the lattice of sub-quasivarieties of K) is isomorphic to Con(S,+,0,F). As a consequence, new restrictions on the natural quasi-interior operator on lattices of quasi-equational theories are found.Comment: Presented on International conference "Order, Algebra and Logics", Vanderbilt University, 12-16 June, 2007 25 pages, 2 figure

Photochromic organic-inorganic hybrid nanocomposite hard coatings with tailored fast switching properties

A recently developed photochromic organic-inorganic nanocomposite (Nanomer) coating system is investigated, which is based on an epoxysilane as network former, different bisepoxides as spacer and an organic amine as thermal cross-linker. This coating system is compatible with different photochromic dyes like oxazines, pyrans and fulgides and also with surface modified ceramic nanoparticles as filler in order to obtain macroscopic hard properties\u27 without changing the photochromic kinetics. In order to investigate the dye-spacer interactions and influence on the switching kinetic behavior, the matrix composition was diminished to the network former, the thermal cross-linker and two types (polar and nonpolar) of spacers in different concentrations. Four commercially available spirooxazines with different molecular sizes and polarities were incorporated into the matrices and coatings on glass slides were prepared by float-coating and cured at 130 °C for 2 h. The half darkening and half fading times of the coatings were measured by a fast diode array spectrometer as a function of spacer type and concentration for the four different dyes. The nonpolar\u27 spacer CHMG did not influence the switching kinetic of the dyes significantly and fast switching times of 2 s-4 s were obtained. The polar\u27 spacer PCF (aromatic character) showed interactions with the dye molecules, which led to an increase in the switching times of up to 25 s. The retardation of the switching process increased with increasing spacer content and with increasing polar character of the dye molecule. From these results, it could be concluded that the photochromic behavior of the spirooxazines could be adjusted to different applications by interactions with polar spacers

Creating Simulated Microgravity Patient Models

The Medical Operational Support Team (MOST) has been tasked by the Space and Life Sciences Directorate (SLSD) at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) to integrate medical simulation into 1) medical training for ground and flight crews and into 2) evaluations of medical procedures and equipment for the International Space Station (ISS). To do this, the MOST requires patient models that represent the physiological changes observed during spaceflight. Despite the presence of physiological data collected during spaceflight, there is no defined set of parameters that illustrate or mimic a 'space normal' patient. Methods: The MOST culled space-relevant medical literature and data from clinical studies performed in microgravity environments. The areas of focus for data collection were in the fields of cardiovascular, respiratory and renal physiology. Results: The MOST developed evidence-based patient models that mimic the physiology believed to be induced by human exposure to a microgravity environment. These models have been integrated into space-relevant scenarios using a human patient simulator and ISS medical resources. Discussion: Despite the lack of a set of physiological parameters representing 'space normal,' the MOST developed space-relevant patient models that mimic microgravity-induced changes in terrestrial physiology. These models are used in clinical scenarios that will medically train flight surgeons, biomedical flight controllers (biomedical engineers; BME) and, eventually, astronaut-crew medical officers (CMO)

Dynamics of individual Brownian rods in a microchannel flow

We study the orientational dynamics of heavy silica microrods flowing through a microfluidic channel. Comparing experiments and Brownian dynamics simulations we identify different particle orbits, in particular in-plane tumbling behavior, which cannot be explained by classical Jeffery theory, and we relate this behavior to the rotational diffusion of the rods. By constructing the full, three-dimensional, orientation distribution, we describe the rod trajectories and quantify the persistence of Jeffery orbits using temporal correlation functions of the Jeffery constant. We find that our colloidal rods lose memory of their initial configuration in about a second, corresponding to half a Jeffery period.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure