Online Public School: A Study of the Parent\u27s Perspective

The purpose of this study is to identify the influences that lead parents to choose and support an online education as an alternative method of learning for their children. Parents ultimately decide to support and permit their son or daughter to participate in online learning. Parents also possess the authority and influence to determine whether their child will continue utilizing this nontraditional method of learning (Joshi, 2014). In the field of education, there is a need to understand the rationale why parents support online instruction and programs. Data were collected from a cross-sectional survey instrument using a 4-point Likert-type scale and multiple-choice responses from the parents in Kanawha County, West Virginia who have a child in the online program. The results of the study led the researcher to conclude that the majority of the parents participating in the study perceived that their child needed to consider changing from the traditional classroom setting to alleviate problematic issues that were negatively affecting academic achievement. Parents surveyed had a strong positive response regarding their child being academically more successful in the online program as compared to the traditional face-to-face method of instruction. Not only are these findings important for district leaders and parents, but they are vital for principals, teachers, school counselors, and other school personnel

Cultural Aesthetic Experience: Perceptions of Learning Developed through Cultural Immersion

This study explored the role of cultural aesthetic expressions (often also referred to in this study as cultural arts) play in perceptions of learning while individuals are in the ongoing process of being immersed in a non-native culture. This inquiry focused specifically on the narratives of seven expatriates undergoing the process of cultural immersion in Germany, Slovenia and the United States. Using narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; He, Phillion & Connelly, 2005), participants were engaged in discussion, observation and interview for the purpose of exploring and analyzing how they make meaning from previous knowledge and their developing encounters with aesthetic expressions, perceived of as culturally diverse from or similar to their own. The researcher\u27s narrative is included as a voice in the study, contributing to establishing contextual elements as well as discussing perceptions of accessibility and awareness to the aesthetic expressions in these cultures. It also includes insights reflecting upon participant narratives, referencing additional research, and citing from formal interviews and informal consultations with host-country community members who practiced in the arts and education sectors of the respective cultures. The narratives included in this dissertation offer significant evidence to suggest that intercultural literacy is developed in part through aesthetic forms of cultural exchange for this set of participants. The results of this study contribute to the discourse regarding how learning is perceived through cultural aesthetic expressions during the cultural immersion process by revealing some of the complex aspects of the meaning making process and presenting examples from lived experience of how cross-cultural complexities are navigated by a diverse sample of individuals in relation to cultural aesthetic expressions

And They Entered as Ladies: When Race, Class and Black Femininity Clashed at Central High School

“And They Entered as Ladies: When Race, Class and Black Femininity Clashed at Central High School,” explores the intersectionality of race, gender and class status as middle-class black women led the integration movement and were the focal point of white backlash during the 1957 Little Rock Central High School crisis. Six of the nine black students chosen to integrate Central High School were carefully selected girls from middle-class homes, whose mothers and female family members played active parts in keeping their daughters enrolled at Central, while Daisy Gatson Bates orchestrated the integration of the capital’s school system. Nevertheless, these women have generally been examined through the lens of black male activism or as catalysts for white women’s gendered and social fears. The marginalization of these women’s experiences at Central High ignores their uniquely gendered and racialized challenges that factored profoundly in the violent defense of white supremacy that targeted middle-class black femininity, and women who bore every credential for the title of Southern \u27lady\u27--except for skin color. These women, their motivations and experiences in a pivotal moment in civil rights history must be examined with the same gravity that has been afforded to the singular racial component of the Little Rock school crisis, as well as to the gender and class explorations that have been afforded to segregationist, moderate, and liberal white participants. My work will expand our understanding of the social crisis in the Arkansas capitol, center the voices of black Arkansan women in the historical record, and provide a springboard for understanding how black women have organized for social justice, been marginalized in those same movements, and transcended intersectional discrimination across the nation

“Reality” TV: Portrayals of Labor and Birth in a Mainstream Reality Series One Born Every Minute

Today, the birthing process is predominantly medicalized in the United States. Compounding this phenomenon is the media, which has a strong influence on people’s perceptions, attitudes, and behavior, and can serve to reinforce cultural norms—specifically, mainstream media disproportionately promotes medicalized birth. The media often portrays labor and birth as a dangerous affair, and as a result, may contribute to the culture of fear around labor and birth. In this feminist, qualitative media analysis, we examined women’s experiences giving birth on a popular reality television series called One Born Every Minute. We analyzed how women’s births are portrayed in four episodes, paying close attention to the frequency of perceived danger and who identifies as the decision maker. We asked two questions to guide our study: 1) How often is birth portrayed as dangerous in the reality television show One Born Every Minute? and 2) Who are presented as decision makers during labor and birth? We found that labor and birth are more frequently portrayed as dangerous than not, and that women are most often the least empowered to make decisions during labor and birth, after their doctors and family members. This analysis reflects popular beliefs about labor and delivery and sheds light on the disempowerment of mothers in labor and birth

Muscle function and coordination of amputee and non-amputee stair ascent

textStair ascent is a common activity of daily living and is necessary for maintaining independence in a variety of community environments. However, it can be a biomechanically challenging task. For example, for transtibial amputees the loss of the ankle plantarflexors coupled with the task demands of stair ascent require amputees to develop compensatory mechanisms that utilize the prosthesis and remaining musculature. The overall goal of this research was to use advanced musculoskeletal modeling and simulation techniques in a series of studies to understand how individual muscles contribute to stair ascent in non-amputees and how unilateral transtibial amputees compensate with the prosthesis and remaining musculature during stair ascent. In the first study, a simulation of non-amputee stair ascent was developed to elucidate the contributions of individual muscles and the biomechanical mechanisms by which they accomplish stair ascent. The hip abductors, hip extensors, knee extensors and plantarflexors were found to work synergistically to generate, absorb and/or transfer mechanical power to accomplish stair ascent. In the second study, a simulation of transtibial amputee stair ascent was generated to identify functional deficits and compensations necessary for amputees to ascend stairs. The passive prosthesis was able to emulate the role of the uniarticular plantarflexors, but was unable to replicate the role of the biarticular plantarflexors. As a result, compensations from other muscles were necessary. In the final study, simulations of non-amputee and amputee stair ascent were used to determine the contributions of individual muscles and the prosthesis to dynamic balance control, which was quantified using whole-body angular momentum. The prosthesis was able to replicate the role of the plantarflexors in the regulation of sagittal-plane and, to a lesser extent, transverse-plane angular momentum. However, while the non-amputee plantarflexors contributed minimally to frontal-plane angular momentum, the prosthesis acted to rotate the body towards the contralateral leg, which required additional muscle compensations. By understanding the role of the individual muscles and prosthesis in achieving stair ascent and identifying the compensations used by amputees, this research provides a foundation for designing refined prostheses and targeted rehabilitation programs that improve an individual’s ability to ascend stairs.Mechanical Engineerin

THE COLOR PREFERENCES OF TREATMENT RESISTANT DEPRESSED PATIENTS: A PILOT STUDY

A pilot study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of color light therapy as a treatment modality for individuals with treatment resistant depression. A secondary objective of the study was to determine the color preferences of the individuals and to assess whether the color preferences changed as a function of treatment. Pre and post measures of depression using the PHQ-9 found a significant decrease in depression after color light therapy (t (9) = 5.13, p < .01). Pre- and post-treatment measures of color preferences found significant changes in the preferences, with an increase of green (t (9) = -2.53, p < .05) and a decrease in blue (t (9) = 2.58, p < .05)

On Critchfield's proposal: student concerns and recommendations

This is the published version, reproduced here with the publisher's permission. This article is also available electronically from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3359848/.No abstract available for this item