Understanding the Organ Music of Olivier Messiaen: Optical Illusions Versus Aural Realities

In this thesis, I examine the organ music of Olivier Messiaen both from the viewpoint of a theorist and as an organist. I assert that not only his influences, but also his in-depth understandings of the mutations stops of the organ and what pitches are produced by using these stops inform Messiaen\u27s music. Furthermore, the organ music requires more than mere visual inspection, but must be aurally experienced because of the registration requirements placed in the score by Messiaen. The utilization of mutations often does not produce concert pitch, but other pitches absent in the score. To demonstrate this I provide numerous musical examples throughout this document. Furthermore, I assert that Messiaen\u27s deliberate use of mutation stops is a part of his musical and harmonic language often overlooked as colorful or mere tone painting

Intergroup Dialogue Facilitation: Learning From Experts

Intergroup dialogue (IGD) is a popular and effective tool for fostering communication between social identity groups and increasing social justice awareness and action. It has been implemented widely at colleges and universities across the United States and has also found a place in community-based interventions. Since the development of IGD, researchers have sought to identify participant outcomes and the factors that affect them. However, there is a dearth of research on the role of the facilitator in this process. Past research examining facilitators has examined only novice facilitators and has focused data collection on post-dialogue reflections. Additionally, there is little consensus on best practices for training future facilitators. This exploratory study seeks to add to this literature by examining what peer- and self-identified experts of IGD facilitation believe has contributed to their expertise. Specifically, we examined how they were trained to be an IGD facilitator, and how they would advise the training of future facilitators. Through a critical-constructivist grounded theory analysis of seventeen in-depth interviews, core competencies and qualities of facilitators were identified. These themes, along with specific recommendations from interviewees, are combined to propose potential recommendations for the development of new programs and the further improvement of existing IGD training programs

Parent Coaches’ Experiences and Insights into a Youth Soccer Program

Municipal governments continue to struggle with decreased funding. In order to offset depleting funds, agencies rely on volunteers to provide resources to the public. In youth sport programs, parents provide much of the support, and it is estimated that 90% of youth sport coaches are parents. Given that parents have been instrumental in youth sport programs, the purpose of this study was to understand parents’ experiences and insights associated with volunteering by using a youth soccer program located in a mid-sized town in Illinois as a case-study. Specifically, the study examined (a) parents’ motivations in volunteering, (b) challenges parent coaches faced while volunteering, and (c) parent coaches’ recommendations to agency personnel. Using a purposive sample, 11 parents were interviewed. Findings indicated that parents were motivated to volunteer in order to help their child, and several expressed a more in-depth philosophy about giving back to the community. The primary motivation and benefit for volunteer coaches was their relationships with the children. Relationships with other adults in the program were also significant, but they tended to be secondary. Challenges in volunteering included working with the children, parents, and agency staff. Agency recommendations included providing incentives to coaches, conducting player assessments, ensuring that recruited volunteers share the agency’s philosophy, and addressing volunteer concerns

Information Literacy for Teachers and Teacher Educators

Presented at the 2003 national meeting of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL).Describes a three-dimensional approach to approaching information literacy instruction for pre-service teachers through a case study of library-faculty collaboration at Washington State University

College Reconfiguration: Building Faculty Support

Following a year-long discussion, deliberation, and feedback process, faculty and staff in the College of Education and Human Development at Bowling Green State University voted overwhelmingly in support of reconfiguring from five schools and one department to three schools. We discuss our journey and outline the initial benefits, challenges, and lessons of this new configuration

Engaging College Communities in Collaborative Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is often met with skepticism. Too often, this process goes nowhere and changes nothing. The leadership team from Bowling Green State University’s College of Education and Human Development share a collaborative strategic process focused on building a common college identity, concrete actions, and a collective sense of accountability

Collaborative College Leadership

With the collaborative leadership style of a new dean, the Dean’s Executive Council (associate deans, school directors, chair) in the BGSU College of Education and Human Development transformed operations of the team and our work with college faculty. This has reenergized the college and garnered substantial faculty support and engagement

What are the benefits of interacting with nature?

There is mounting empirical evidence that interacting with nature delivers measurable benefits to people. Reviews of this topic have generally focused on a specific type of benefit, been limited to a single discipline, or covered the benefits delivered from a particular type of interaction. Here we construct novel typologies of the settings, interactions and potential benefits of people-nature experiences, and use these to organise an assessment of the benefits of interacting with nature. We discover that evidence for the benefits of interacting with nature is geographically biased towards high latitudes and Western societies, potentially contributing to a focus on certain types of settings and benefits. Social scientists have been the most active researchers in this field. Contributions from ecologists are few in number, perhaps hindering the identification of key ecological features of the natural environment that deliver human benefits. Although many types of benefits have been studied, benefits to physical health, cognitive performance and psychological well-being have received much more attention than the social or spiritual benefits of interacting with nature, despite the potential for important consequences arising from the latter. The evidence for most benefits is correlational, and although there are several experimental studies, little as yet is known about the mechanisms that are important for delivering these benefits. For example, we do not know which characteristics of natural settings (e.g., biodiversity, level of disturbance, proximity, accessibility) are most important for triggering a beneficial interaction, and how these characteristics vary in importance among cultures, geographic regions and socio-economic groups. These are key directions for future research if we are to design landscapes that promote high quality interactions between people and nature in a rapidly urbanising world

‘Growing your own’: a multi-level modelling approach to understanding personal food growing trends and motivations in Europe

Growing food for personal and family consumption is a significant global activity, but one that has received insufficient academic attention, particularly in developed countries. This paper uses data from the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) to address three areas of particular concern: the prevalence of growing your own food and how this has changed over time; the individual and household context in which growing takes place; and whether those who grow their own food are happier than those who do not. Results showed that there was a marked increase in growing your own food in Europe, in the period 2003–2007. This increase is largely associated with poorer households and thus, possibly, economic hardship. In the UK however the increase in growing your own food is predominantly associated with older middle class households. Across Europe, whether causal or not, those who grew their own were happier than those who did not. The paper therefore concludes that claims about the gentrification of growing your own may be premature. Despite contrary evidence from the UK, the dominant motive across Europe appears to be primarily economic — to reduce household expenditure whilst ensuring a supply of fresh food

Conviviality by design : the socio-spatial qualities of spaces of intercultural urban encounters

This paper presents findings from a mixed-method research project which explored use of outdoor spaces and social connections in Bradford, a post-industrial city in the north of England with a highly ethnically diverse population. Data was collected through micro-scale behavioural mapping of public spaces (analysed using GIS) and both on-site and in-depth interviews. The integration of these methods allows a focus on intersectional identities and social values for everyday conviviality situated in different typologies of public open spaces (parks, squares, streets) in city centre and suburban neighbourhoods. The analysis offers nuanced insights into the socio-spatial aspects of conviviality: patterns of activity by diverse users, situations in which encounters are prompted, and the implications of negotiating differences in relation to perceptions of self, others, and the environment. We discuss the relevance of the urban public realm for shared understandings of diversity, qualities of visibility, lingering and playfulness, and the importance of threshold spaces. We explore racialised and excluding experiences and how these relate to mobility and territorial patterns of use, specifically with relation to gender. The paper highlights connections between intercultural encounters and urban design practice, with implications for well-being and integration in ethnically diverse urban areas