The Implications of Native American Heritage on U.S. Constitutional Protections

LUO Remote Online Presenter Graduate Textual or Investigativ

The Bookbinding Workshop: making as collaborative pedagogic practice

conference paper at the Group for Learning in Art & Design's 2015 annual conferenceThe value of Engagement is no longer questioned” (Trowler & Trowler, 2010, p.9) Trowler & Trowler, in their 2010 report for the HEA’s Student Engagement Project, note that studies have consistently shown associations between student engagement and improvements in identified desired outcomes, including cognitive development, critical thinking skills, practical competence, and skills transferability. They also note that there are specific features of engagement which improve outcomes, including student-staff contact, active learning, and cooperation amongst students such as group work and peer support. Trowler & Trowler found that interacting with staff has been shown to have a powerful impact on learning, especially when it takes place outside the classroom and responds to individual student needs. The NUS 2012 Student Experience Survey supports Trowler & Trowler’s findings. The purpose of the study was to understand student expectations of a university experience. Teaching quality was cited as the most important factor in what makes a good learning experience. Students want more engaging teaching styles that are interactive, use technology & props to make the subject more accessible and interesting. This paper will consider student engagement through collaborative teaching and learning practices I have developed within a series of bookbinding workshops in which I acquire new skills alongside my students. Developed directly from my practice-based PhD inquiry The Artist Book: making as embodied knowledge of practice & the self which emerged from my curiosity of whether new knowledge of practice, creativity, expression and the self might emerge from the embodied practice of making with one’s hands. Inspired by the research of Reid and Solomonides (2007) which suggests that for creative students to engage successfully in their studies they must have the opportunity to “develop a robust Sense of Being [sic]” . The most valuable pedagogic conditions, according to Reid and Solomonides, will be those that create learning opportunities that encourage this embodiment of the creative self. Lawrie (2008) ponders whether design educators could encourage in our students a deeper understanding of their subject beyond skills leading to employability and entrepreneurship. She suggests, “…an answer may lie in the intersection of embodiment, meaning and signification” . The bookbinding workshop developed from my desire to seek ways to engage with and alongside students in my practice and research to ground my own making within my pedagogic practice. In this way students are not being ‘instructed’ by a skilled specialist but rather collaborating with a committed enthusiast and researcher learning from their practice and experience. This paper will discuss the impact these workshops have had on participating students, their practice and their sense of “creative self” through the analysis of anonymous surveys carried over the span of two years

Autodissemination of pathogens: A novel approach to controlling the Japanese beetle

Since its discovery in the United States in 1916,Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) has become the nemesis of agriculturists and home gardeners. Larvae in the soil feed on grass roots, damaging turf, and adults feed on many species of plants, skeletonizing leaves. Together, they cost around 450 million dollars in control annually. Chemical and cultural methods are used to control the pest, with varying success. Pheromone traps containing feeding lures are effective at attracting the beetles from surrounding areas, but the beetles then have to be killed. We conducted a study to explore the use of the trap as an autodissemination device in which attracted beetles are infected with entomopathogenic nematdes (EPNs)prior to their release. A bioassay evaluated the effectiveness of twenty EPNs to infect adult beetles and cause mortality. All twenty EPNs were able to infect and kill the beetles. Adult beetles were then infected with an EPN from the bioassay and placed in outdoor cages, to assess the vertical transfer of the EPNs from adults to offspring. As beetle larvae were unaffected by the treatment and no EPNs were recovered from the plots, the ability of four different EPNs to develop and reproduce in adult beetles was measured. Among the four tested, only the two Steinernema EPNs were able to develop into adults and reproduce in the beetle. Further studies will concentrate on the two most virulent Steinernema EPNs for developing control strategies for the adult Japanese beetles in the field

A Walk of 20 Steps: Representing memory of place

A Walk of 20 Steps: Representing memory of place “…’(T)he everyday’ is a space where practice and representation are complexly interrelated, where the lived reality of the quotidian co-exists with clichés, mythologies, stereotypes and unsourced quotations” (Moran, 2005, p.13) . Pierre Nora’s (1989) work documenting the diverse range of French national sites of memory demonstrates that the “where” of memory changes over time and that official memory can be challenged by alternative forms of cultural memory. Just like memory, then, place is also unstable and open to shifting social perceptions about its function and use. Joe Moran (2005) examines how representations of the everyday have influenced the ideas surrounding the relationship between public and private spheres in postmodern culture. Overlooked, ignored and discounted as a source of meaning for wider cultural developments, everyday culture then becomes a source of resistance for Antonio Gramci’s (2005) “spontaneous philosophy” and Michel Foucault’s (1980) “subordinate and unofficial knowledge”. The everyday culture my doctoral visual practice gazes upon, analyses and questions is the suburban landscape of my hometown, Wellesley Massachusetts, fifteen miles west of Boston, the state’s capital. My photographs capture daily shopping life in the tradition of deadpan photography depicting local vernacular which emerged from America in the 1960s and 1970s through the work of Ed Ruscha, Stephen Shore, William Eggleston, Lewis Baltz, Robert Adams and Dan Graham. Of particular inspiration to my photographic method was the work of Hilla and Bernd Becher who began systematically documenting industrial sites around Germany in the late 1950s. The pair was interested in returning to the ‘straight’ aesthetic and social concerns of German practice in the 1920s and 1930s and a rejection of the contemporary leanings towards sentimentality. While the photographs of Central Street naturalise the assumptions and myths of conspicuous consumption, the act of photographing and decoding these signifiers of everyday upper-middle class life offers me space to question the legitimacy of this dominant culture of commodity fetishism and the effects of this landscape upon my identity

A Study Assessing Changes Occurring in Kindergarten Children at Central School, Hoquiam, Washington, during the School Year 1967-1968 in Terms of Readiness and Academic Growth

A group of fifty-one kindergarten children (23 boys and 28 girls) from Central School in Hoquiam, Washington, were studied for the purpose of evaluating changes occurring during the school year in terms of readiness and academic growth. A series of tests were given in October and November as an inventory of the child\u27s background of skills and readiness in the fall, and the tests were repeated in May to measure any change occurring during the school year

Assessing Western Australian Year 11 students’ engagement with responding in Visual Arts

Responding to visual arts is an important outcome of both the Western Australian and the Australian (F-10) Curriculum in Visual Arts (ACARA, 2014; Curriculum Council, 2008; School Standards and Curriculum Authority, 2014a). Responding is important because it facilitates students’ development of visual literacy, or the ability to decode and recode meaning through visual media (Flood, 2004; Flood & Bamford, 2007; Avgerinou & Petterson, 2011). This mixed methods research study investigated Western Australian students’ engagement in responding within Year 11 Stage 2 Visual Arts. A diagnostic instrument was created to quantitatively assess the engagement of 137 Year 11 Visual Arts students. Additionally, 10 students and 11 Visual Arts teachers participated in semi-structured interviews to explain and extend the quantitative findings. Five Heads of The Arts and eight Principals also participated in interviews to position the students’ engagement with Visual Arts responding within a broader school context. The findings of this research emphasise the importance of diagnostically assessing students’ engagement, particularly within senior school (Years 11 and 12) Visual Arts courses that emphasise responding in student assessment. Additionally, early childhood intervention is important for students to learn the foundational skills and knowledge required to be successful in senior school Visual Arts. In addition, professional learning is essential to support Visual Arts teachers to respond to the increasing complexity of visual culture and critical theory in the curriculum. Professional learning is also important to shift school culture from the perception of Visual Arts responding as part of academic rigour and assessment, to a perception of responding as necessary to students’ development as active citizens in a visually saturated twenty-first century life-world

The Silence in America’s Classrooms: The Portrayal of Women and Gender in United States High School History Textbooks

In the twenty-first century, the process of adopting statewide history textbooks has become a political battleground surrounding concepts of race, gender, and identity in American history. By contextualizing the current discussion surrounding content in American history textbooks, I examine the portrayal of women in secondary United States social studies textbooks from the 1960s to the 2010s. In doing so, I show how portrayals of women\u27s history evolve in the most widely adopted high school post-Civil War American history textbooks in each decade from the 1960s through to the 2000s. By comparing the evolution of the women’s and gender historiography to the change in high school history textbooks, this analysis reveals new information about the level of pedagogical cogency in teaching social and cultural history to high school students. Textbook publishing data does not indicate the most popular textbooks nationwide or even statewide, with ample options available on the market. However, I am able to narrow the source material to the twenty states with a statewide textbook adoption process to examine commonly approved textbooks. I then calculate the approximate population of secondary high school students in those states to quantify students\u27 intake of the adopted textbooks. While considerable scholarship analyzes the portrayal of women in high school history textbooks, this study emphasizes slight improvement of the textbooks and offers a solution to creating more effective learning material

The Silence in America’s Classrooms: The Portrayal of Women and Gender in United States High School History Textbooks

In the twenty-first century, the process of adopting statewide history textbooks has become a political battleground surrounding concepts of race, gender, and identity in American history. By contextualizing the current discussion surrounding content in American history textbooks, I examine the portrayal of women in secondary United States social studies textbooks from the 1960s to the 2010s. In doing so, I show how portrayals of women\u27s history evolve in the most widely adopted high school post-Civil War American history textbooks in each decade from the 1960s through to the 2000s. By comparing the evolution of the women’s and gender historiography to the change in high school history textbooks, this analysis reveals new information about the level of pedagogical cogency in teaching social and cultural history to high school students. Textbook publishing data does not indicate the most popular textbooks nationwide or even statewide, with ample options available on the market. However, I am able to narrow the source material to the twenty states with a statewide textbook adoption process to examine commonly approved textbooks. I then calculate the approximate population of secondary high school students in those states to quantify students\u27 intake of the adopted textbooks. While considerable scholarship analyzes the portrayal of women in high school history textbooks, this study emphasizes slight improvement of the textbooks and offers a solution to creating more effective learning material

The Philosophical Underpinnings and Negative Consequences of the Indian Child Welfare Act

This paper will examine the philosophical underpinnings of current federal Indian policy and its physical, emotional, and economic consequences on individuals and communities. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission found in 1990 that “[T]he Government of the United States has failed to provide civil rights protection for Native Americans living on reservations” (W. B. Allen 1990, 2). As Regan (2014) observes, individuals have been denied full title to their property – and thus use of the property as leverage to improve their economic condition (Regan 2014). Tribal executive and judicial branches have been accused of illegal search and seizures, denial of right to counsel or jury, ex parte hearings and violations of due process and equal protection (W. B. Allen 1990, 3). Violence, criminal activity, child abuse and trafficking are rampant on many reservations (DOJ 2018). Largely because of crime and corruption, many have left the reservation system. The last two U.S. censuses’ report 75% of tribal members do not live in Indian Country (US Census Bureau 2010). Research suggests current federal Indian policy and the reservation system are built on philosophies destructive to the physical, emotional and economic health of individual tribal members. This paper contends that allowing property rights for individual tribal members, enforcing rule of law within reservation systems, supporting law enforcement, and upholding full constitutional rights and protections of all citizens would secure the lives, liberties and properties of affected individuals and families

Gait as a predictor for cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease

PhD ThesisCognitive decline and dementia are core features of Parkinson’s disease (PD) with major personal and socioeconomic impact. Identifying individuals at risk of cognitive decline and dementia is vital in order to optimise clinical management and develop novel therapeutics. However, biomarkers for cognitive decline remain a major unmet need. A large structured review undertaken as part of this thesis revealed discrete gait characteristics predicted cognitive decline and dementia in older adults but to date no such study has been conducted in PD. Thus, the primary aim of this thesis was to investigate gait as a clinical biomarker for cognitive decline in PD. Newly diagnosed PD participants (n=118) and controls (n=184) completed a detailed quantitative gait assessment under single and dual task conditions at baseline. Additionally, a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological assessments were completed at baseline, 18 and 36 months later. Mixed-effects models identified significant gait predictors of cognitive decline over three years. Baseline cognition was also explored as a predictor for cognitive decline. Finally, gait was collected in the free-living environment using a body-worn monitor (BWM) and cross-sectional analysis explored free-living gait-cognition associations. Original contributions to knowledge were that gait characteristics under single and dual task in an incident cohort of PD predicted decline in discrete cognitive domains over three years. Critically, in comparison to gait, baseline neuropsychological assessment performance did not predict cognitive decline. Additionally, cross-sectional analysis in early PD revealed discrete gait-cognition associations in free-living signifying future clinical utility for gait as a clinical biomarker. This thesis provides the first evidence for gait as a clinical biomarker for cognitive decline in PD. Discrete gait characteristics may provide a low cost clinical biomarker and make an important contribution to prognostic models of dementia risk in PD