Psychosocial and Sociocultural Factors Associated with Cross-Cultural Adaptability

This survey study examined a set of psychosocial and sociocultural variables to determine if there were any significant group differences in responses to an instrument that measured crosscultural adaptability among urban high school teachers. A goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of sociocultural experience and the perceived coping efficacy measures of cross-cultural adaptability. This study sought insight into the relationship between teachers\u27 previous experiences and their perceived instructional and cross-cultural efficacy. Using a survey research design that included a Personal Data Questionnaire and an instrument developed by Kelley and Meyers ( 1992), the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI), data were collected anonymously from 98 educators from high schools in Northeast Florida. The psychosocial factors included vocational identity associated with teaching responsibility, years of training, educational level, age, gender, and ethnicity. Sociocultural factors, which are learned through membership in a common culture, were also examined. These factors included perceptions of exposure and comfort with cultural diversity, experience teaching in a culturally diverse school, background experience residing outside of the U.S, or in a culturally diverse neighborhood, and number of hours completed in multicultural training. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOV A) was used to examine the effects of three of the independent variables: job responsibility, self-efficacy factors, and ethnicity. Pearson product-moment and Spearman rank correlations were run to describe the relationship of characteristics and experiences to the scores on the dimensions of the CCAI. MANOVA was used to examine differences in the scores on the dimensions of the CCAI. The results from all of the statistical analyses showed that at the .05 alpha levels, significant differences were found with the variables measuring self-appraisal of efficacy and differences related to experience in living outside of the U.S. Significant differences were also noted in scores of Perceptual Acuity based on the experience of living in a culturally diverse neighborhood. There was no significant relationship found between the scores on the dimensions of the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory for those teachers who reported completed hours of diversity training. There were no significant differences found in the scores on the dimensions of the CCAI between the factors of ethnicity, age, gender, level of education, vocational identity, years experience, or experience in culturally diverse schools. The results of the analyses support previous research in the areas of self-efficacy, responsive pedagogy, and exposure theory. Implications of this study illuminate the need to review current approaches for teacher training in the field of multicultural education. The results of this study also indicate that the psychosocial factors of self-efficacy warrant further consideration in the development of teacher training programs. Future study is recommended to examine the relationship of psychosocial influences and their influences on instructional efficacy and culturally responsive pedagogy. Teacher education programs and staff development initiatives must explore more creative approaches to exposing future and practicing teachers to diversity, and persist in providing opportunities for teachers to reflect and develop cultural understanding and instructional efficacy

'The Words I Put in Your Mouth: The Sexual Politics of Rambling, Direct and Indirect Style in Kerouac's Tristessa'

This article explores how Kerouac's instrumental use of rambling, direct and indirect styles in Tristessa (1960) impacts its sexual politics. After having deciphered the attributes of the narrative voice that integrates Kerouac's aesthetics of spontaneous prose, we will turn to the character of Tristessa and analyze the features of her speech. As a discrepancy appears between the male-subject (Duluoz) and the female-object (Tristessa), we will examine the effects that such stylistic choices entail in Kerouac's narrative project, especially at the level of its economy of desire and its translation in terms of sexual politics in the novella

Ebookness

Since the mid-2000s, the ebook has stabilized into an ontologically distinct form, separate from PDFs and other representations of the book on the screen. The current article delineates the ebook from other emerging digital genres with recourse to the methodologies of platform studies and book history. The ebook is modelled as three concentric circles representing its technological, textual and service infrastructure innovations. This analysis reveals two distinct properties of the ebook: a simulation of the services of the book trade and an emphasis on user textual manipulation. The proposed model is tested with reference to comparative studies of several ebooks published since 2007 and defended against common claims of ebookness about other digital textual genres

Archaeological excavation and deep mapping in historic rural communities

This paper reviews the results of more than a hundred small archaeological “test pit” excavations carried out in 2013 within four rural communities in eastern England. Each excavation used standardized protocols in a different location within the host village, with the finds dated and mapped to create a series of maps spanning more than 3500 years, in order to advance understanding of the spatial development of settlements and landscapes over time. The excavations were all carried out by local volunteers working physically within their own communities, supported and advised by professional archaeologists, with most test pits sited in volunteers’ own gardens or those of their friends, family or neighbors. Site-by-site, the results provided glimpses of the use made by humans of each of the excavated sites spanning prehistory to the present day; while in aggregate the mapped data show how settlement and land-use developed and changed over time. Feedback from participants also demonstrates the diverse positive impacts the project had on individuals and communities. The results are presented and reviewed here in order to highlight the contribution archaeological test pit excavation can make to deep mapping, and the contribution that deep mapping can make to rural communities

American poetologics : statements and poems by twentieth century poets = Amerikanische Poetologie. - Zweisprachig: Englisch / Deutsch

Amerikanische Lyriker haben die Dichtung des 20. Jahrhunderts weltweit maßgeblich beeinflusst. Dennoch sind ihre Gedichte und erst recht ihre Äußerungen zur Poetik mit wenigen Ausnahmen in Deutschland nur spärlich rezipiert worden. Der vorliegende Band stellt die Traditionslinien und die meisten wichtigeren Dichtungsschulen von William Carlos Williams bis in die 90er Jahre (u.a. Objektivismus, Beat-, San Francisco-, Black Mountain-, New York-, Deep Image- und Language-Lyrik sowie ethnische Dichtung) anhand der Selbstäußerungen von 23 Lyrikerinnen und Lyrikern und einer kleineren Auswahl repräsentativer Gedichte vor. Erkennbar wird dabei die Vielfalt und auch die Dynamik der poetischen Produktion und Reflexion in den Vereinigten Staaten

Freedom in mundane mobilities: caravanning in Denmark

Freedom is a widely discussed and highly elusive concept, and has long been represented in exoticised, masculinised and individualised discourses. Freedom is often exemplified through the image of a solitary male explorer leaving the female space of home and familiarity and going to remote places of the world. Through in-situ interviews with families caravanning in Denmark, the primary aim of this study is to challenge existing dominant discourses surrounding the subject of freedom within leisure and tourism studies. Secondly, we shed further light on an under-researched medium of mobility, that of domestic caravanning. This serves to not only disrupt representations of freedom as occurring through exoticised, masculinised and individualised practices, but to give attention to the domestic, banal contexts where the everyday and tourism intersect, which are often overlooked. This novel repositioning opens up new avenues in tourism studies for critical research into the geographies of freedom in mundane, everyday contexts

The Influence of Manga on the Graphic Novel

This material has been published in The Cambridge History of the Graphic Novel edited by Jan Baetens, Hugo Frey, Stephen E. Tabachnick. This version is free to view and download for personal use only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © Cambridge University PressProviding a range of cogent examples, this chapter describes the influences of the Manga genre of comics strip on the Graphic Novel genre, over the last 35 years, considering the functions of domestication, foreignisation and transmedia on readers, markets and forms