From Mother to Sister: The Development in the Understanding of Mission in the Life and Writings of St Thérèse of Lisieux and its Contemporary Relevance

This dissertation analyses the development in the understanding of mission in the life and writings of St Thérèse of Lisieux and considers its contemporary significance. The thesis is that Thérèse progressed from a ‘mother missiology’ to a ‘sister missiology.’ This missiological evolution is intrinsically united to Thérèse’s transcendence of the faith-categories of her era. Initially, with her Catholic contemporaries, Thérèse regarded it as her duty to ‘mother’ unbelievers into divine life. This ‘mother missiology’ gradually became ‘sister missiology’ as two movements of grace, namely the emergence of the ‘little way’ and Thérèse’s intensifying union with Jesus, the kenotic Christ, took Thérèse beyond her era’s vision of faith. The paradigm of ‘sister missiology’ has an entwined dual dynamic: radical solidarity with unbelievers and radical receptivity to the gratuitous outpouring of God’s love. Sister missiology is demonstrated to be a potentially vital enabler of the Church’s missionary agenda in the twenty-first century. It is able to facilitate the realisation of the missionary objectives of the Second Vatican Council and offers a road-map for the Church’s engagement with postmodernity. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Theology from the University of Notre Dame, Australia, 2006

Biotechnology's wheel of knowledge

Article with results of study carried out to raise awareness of the role of biotechnology in the New Zealand curriculum. The findings highlighted that biotechnology learning needs to be situated in real life contexts that are relevant to the leaner

Developing a biotechnology learning hub for New Zealand

The article discusses the development of New Zealand's Biotechnology Learning Hub. The authors explains the Biotechnology Learning Hub is an on-line portal developed as a result of initial findings. Its principal aim is to bring the biotechnology and education sectors together in a more sustainable way. The author outlines classroom studies, meetings with the Biotechnolgy industry, and the features of the hub

Making Pigs Fly

[Excerpt] You\u27ll see a union in this hospital when pigs fly. So went the opening statement by the new Vice President of Human Resources at St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet, Illinois. Poor staffing ratios, out-dated equipment, lack of respect and nonexistent communications between staff and management compelled the nurses of St. Joe\u27s to bring in the Illinois Nurses Association in February, 1991. Fifteen years earlier, the nurses had tried to organize a union but had lost the election. Ironically, the issues were the same — nothing had changed. The odds still appeared to be against the nurses. St. Joe\u27s management hired the notorious law firm Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather and Geraldson and two anti-union consultants, Modern Management, Inc. and Management Science Associates. They forced the nurses out on strike for 61 days in the dead of winter, and tried to use a Colorado-based scab nursing agency, U.S. Nursing, to bring in replacements. This time, however, the outcome was different. On March 16, 1993, after the longest strike in Illinois nursing history, the St. Joe\u27s Nurses Association/INA signed their first contract with the medical center. Had it not been for the overwhelming community support, built over the months of organizing and negotiating, there is little chance that we would have won our struggle for a union. We gained support not only because our cause was just, but because we had strong primary and secondary leadership in the union and a communication network which reached every St. Joe\u27s nurse. We took these same strengths and skills and applied them in the public arena. Anti-union management, union-busting lawyers and consultants could not stop us

Expanding the context for student learning of science: The conceptual development of the New Zealand Science Learning Hub

Student engagement in science is an issue of international concern. Research indicates that one way to increase engagement in science is to involve students in authentic and relevant contexts that promote an enquiry-based stance. A key aspect to engaging students is to provide teachers with educative materials. In today’s world teachers and students look to web-based materials for their own development and learning. This paper will provide a conceptual framework for the development of the New Zealand Science Learning Hub as well as describing the process of its development, its component parts and their relationship to the conceptual frame

How Nutrient Trading Could Help Restore the Chesapeake Bay

The largest estuary in the United States, the Chesapeake Bay is a vital economic, cultural, and ecological resource for the region and the nation. Excess runoff and discharges of nutrients -- particularly nitrogen and phosphorus -- from farms, pavement, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), and other sources have placed the bay on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) List of Impaired Waters. This nutrient pollution is responsible for creating large algal blooms that lead to "dead zones" in the bay (Chesapeake Bay Program, 2009b). Despite decades of restoration efforts, progress has been slow, and the rivers and streams that drain into the Bay remain polluted (Chesapeake Bay Program, 2009b)

Stratigraphic method of eustatic quantifications: a sea level curve based on Jurassic-Cretaceous strata of the Russian Platform

Two types of sea level are presently defined: relative and eustatic. Relative sea level (RSL) is the sea surface elevation relative to some local land surface. Eustatic sea level (ESL) is a term used to characterize worldwide changes in sea level, and reflects the relationship between the volume of the ocean basins and the volume of ocean water. In order to measure eustatic changes with respect to the lithosphere a reference frame is necessary. The most reasonable reference frame is a stable platform, free from local epeirogeny and subsidence. The broad stability of the Russian Platform makes this area an ideal reference frame for calculating ESL from the Late Jurassic to the Paleogene. Information about sea level fluctuations can be derived from stratigraphy through a technique known as backstripping. The backstripping equation relates eustasy to sediment thickness, water depth, and tectonics. This method restores the strata to the original state of deposition, before compaction loading, and epeirogeny. On the basis of widespread horizontal uniform thinly bedded Mesozoic marine strata, the Russian Platform is inferred to be tectontonically stable. The backstripping method applied to the Russian Platform restores the stratigraphy to the original elevation of deposition, and because the Russian Platform has not experienced subsidence or uplift, the resulting RSL curve is also applicable as a ESL curve. Subsidence rates for surrounding basins forming during the same time can be determined using the quantified eustatic sea level curve. Subtracting the eustatic sea level curve from the calculated relative sea level of the subsiding basin will result in the amount of subsidence. This procedure has been applied to the Caspian Basin resulting in a subsidence rate of 7.8 m/m.y. from the mid-Callovian to mid-Aptian.No embarg

Influences of Disclosure Among Child Sexual Abuse Victims

Child forensic interviews are essential in eliciting disclosures in child abuse cases. Due to the nature of abuse and the child victims, barriers are inevitable to obtaining a full disclosure. This research describes the barriers as well as the factors that increase the likelihood of eliciting a disclosure during child forensic interviews. Previous research has found that factors more likely to induce a disclosure are having a supportive primary caregiver, an investigation which was instigated by the child victim, and if the victim is an older female. Barriers preventing disclosure include threats made by the perpetrator, fear, lack of opportunity to disclose, lack of understanding of the abuse, and a close relationship between the victim and the perpetrator. For this research, qualitative interviews were conducted with child protection workers, social service staff and law enforcement who regularly conduct child forensic interviews to better understand the factors that increase the likelihood of disclosure among children, as well as the barriers that prevent disclosure. Findings from this research obtained from local practitioners indicate that factors that help elicit a disclosure include a child-­‐friendly environment, caregiver support, and connecting and rapport building between the interviewer and the child. The greatest barrier preventing disclosure was found to be the lack of caregiver support and the fear of the outcomes of disclosure. From this research we can better improve the way practitioners interview their child clients through providing a child-­‐friendly environment, ensuring support from caregivers, and the possible expansion to the NICHD child forensic interview protocol to better meet the needs of reluctant children