Is critical thinking across the curriculum a plausible goal?

Critical thinking (CT) is considered an essential educational goal. As a result, many philosophers dreamed their departments would offer multiple sections of CT, hence justifying hiring additional staff. Unfortunately, this dream did not materialize. So, similar to a current theory about teaching writing, “critical thinking across the curriculum” has become a popular idea. While the idea has appeal and unquestionable merit, I will argue that the likelihood the skills necessary for effective CT will actually be taught is minimal

Learning Her Way In: The Life History Of A Latina Adult Educator

This paper explores the various learning experiences of a bilingual and bicultural woman of Mexican heritage. The data collection and data analysis were performed with the intent of creating a life history and allowing recurrent themes to emerge. These three recurrent themes were identified as interplay among learning, survival, and spirituality; health, health care, and parish nursing; and multiple and competing contexts. The essential structure that connected all of the recurrent themes was the participant’s learning and the impacts that it had on her lived experiences. In this way, Monica and her life history are the story of a Latina who has learned her own way into a second culture

Commodified Inequality: Racialized Harm to Children and Families in the Injustice Enterprise

This article addresses the systemic racialized harm of a vast injustice enterprise, with a focus on the symbiotic operations of agencies and justice systems monetizing vulnerable children and families, including the impact of contractual revenue schemes uncovered in my new book, Injustice, Inc. Our foundational justice systems are permeated by a history of racial injustice, and that history reverberates into factory-like operations that churn children and the poor into revenue. The revenue-generating mechanisms used by juvenile and family courts, prosecutors, probation departments, police, sheriffs, and detention facilities all draw the concerning historical connection—interlinked with the practices of child and family agencies—as the institutions abdicate their ethical and constitutional requirements in order to commodify inequality

Electromagnetic mirror drive system

Oscillatory electromagnetic mirror drive system for horizon scanner

Poverty Revenue: The Subversion of Fiscal Federalism

Fiscal federalism is a staple of economic theory that underlies the federal-state partnership in the nation‘s largest federal grant-in-aid programs, such as Medicaid and Title IV-E Foster Care. The theory is founded on a simple principle, the collaboration of the federal government‘s financial power and stability and state governments‘ ability to deliver services tailored to regional needs. However, the theory ignores a vast industry that has grown around the flow of federal funds. In addition to providing operational and consulting services for all aspects of government aid, this poverty industry - which usurps inherently governmental functions and is rife with organizational conflicts of interest and a revolving door of personnel - has now tapped into grant-in-aid funding at its source. Through revenue maximization contracts, the poverty industry helps states increase claims for federal aid, and the additional funding is often diverted from its intended purpose. The contractors take as much as 25% as a contingency fee and assist cash-strapped states with strategies to route the aid dollars into general revenue rather than targeted assistance. Then, while maximizing claims on behalf of state clients, the industry simultaneously contracts with the federal government to reduce payout of the same federal funds. Analogous to the iron triangle formed by the military-industrial complex, the vertical relationship between the federal and state governments in grant-in-aid programs has been transformed by a poverty-industrial complex. And as the structure of fiscal federalism is subverted, the benefits of the theory break down. As the intended social welfare maximization goals of government turn to revenue maximization, and intergovernmental collaboration turns to conflict, the integrity of fiscal federalism in grant-in-aid programs is undermined and statutory purpose is lost

Foster Children Paying for Foster Care

This Article examines the legality and policy concerns of state foster care agencies using children\u27s Social Security benefits as a state funding stream. The practice requires foster children who are disabled or have deceased or disabled parents to pay for their own care. Often with the assistance of private consultants under contingency fee contracts, agencies look for children who are eligible for Social Security benefits and interject themselves as the children\u27s representative payees. Rather than using the benefits to serve the children\u27s unmet needs, the agencies use their fiduciary power to access the children\u27s benefits and apply the funds to reimburse foster care costs for which the children have no legal obligation. Although the practice was upheld by the Supreme Court in Washington State Dep\u27t. of Social and Health Services vs. Guardianship Estate of Keffeler, the decision was limited and legal and policy questions remain unresolved. This Article provides a framework for renewed policy discussions and expanded litigation strategies in the wake of Keffeler. The Article investigates agency practices, weighs the policy concerns, analyzes several possible legal challenges that remain after Keffeler, and concludes with concrete suggestions for reform

Poverty Revenue: The Subversion of Fiscal Federalism

Fiscal federalism is a staple of economic theory that underlies the federal-state partnership in the nation‘s largest federal grant-in-aid programs, such as Medicaid and Title IV-E Foster Care. The theory is founded on a simple principle, the collaboration of the federal government‘s financial power and stability and state governments‘ ability to deliver services tailored to regional needs. However, the theory ignores a vast industry that has grown around the flow of federal funds. In addition to providing operational and consulting services for all aspects of government aid, this poverty industry - which usurps inherently governmental functions and is rife with organizational conflicts of interest and a revolving door of personnel - has now tapped into grant-in-aid funding at its source. Through revenue maximization contracts, the poverty industry helps states increase claims for federal aid, and the additional funding is often diverted from its intended purpose. The contractors take as much as 25% as a contingency fee and assist cash-strapped states with strategies to route the aid dollars into general revenue rather than targeted assistance. Then, while maximizing claims on behalf of state clients, the industry simultaneously contracts with the federal government to reduce payout of the same federal funds. Analogous to the iron triangle formed by the military-industrial complex, the vertical relationship between the federal and state governments in grant-in-aid programs has been transformed by a poverty-industrial complex. And as the structure of fiscal federalism is subverted, the benefits of the theory break down. As the intended social welfare maximization goals of government turn to revenue maximization, and intergovernmental collaboration turns to conflict, the integrity of fiscal federalism in grant-in-aid programs is undermined and statutory purpose is lost

PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT IN ONLINE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY OF PREPARING PASTORAL PRACTICE THROUGH DISCURSIVE ACTIVITY

The purpose of this dissertation study was to explore the professional preparation of students in online classes at a Christian theological seminary. Concerns of theological education involve the capacity or incapacity of community development and somatic or embodied learning in online education. Using a theoretical framework drawn from communities of practice (Wenger, 1998), professional clergical preparation (Foster, Dahill, Golemon, & Tolentino, 2005), and Gee’s (2000-2001) dimensions of identity development, the researcher focused the analyses on students’ written texts located in the discussion board fora of the online courses. These records were examined for indications of formation of the professional identity of the developing clergy, interpretation skills necessary for the clergy, performance development for activities entailed in the profession, and contextualization proficiencies for the situated enactment of the local church ministry essential in the practice of the professional clergy. The study concludes that students’ discussions evince dimensions of the development of professional identity and pastoral imagination as described in Foster, Dahill, Golemon, & Tolentino (2005). In addition, stories shared on the discussion fora, told both by the instructors and the classmates who had a range of experience in first careers or in pastoral ministry, built a shared repertoire of professional practice as inherent in a Community of Practice (Wenger,1998). The dissertation study confirms if and then identifies how graduate students in online ministerial preparation use discursive and interactive participation to identify with the professional Community of Practice of the clergy The structures of the discussion board fora, the roles of the instructor, and implications for instructional designs that may support the development of pastoral professional identity are also included. Findings demonstrated that less structured discussion prompts as well as more frequent postings stimulated more student-student interaction that built relationships. Courses that focused more on student-content interactions had less relationship building. A non-evaluative facilitation tone of the discussion fora generated a more collaborative environment. In classes that utilized a learn-by-doing approach, collaborative student discursive activity in the discussion fora supported and enhanced learning. Creative discursive activities such as case studies and role plays provided simulated experiences and spurred narrative development of shared repertoire

Collateral Children: Consequence and Illegality at the Intersection of Foster Care and Child Support

This Article is the third in a series addressing the conflict between state revenue maximization strategies and the missions of state agencies serving low-income children. The Article examines the policy of foster care cost recovery through child support enforcement. When children are removed from poor families and placed in foster care, federal law requires child welfare agencies to initiate child support obligations against the parents. Resulting payments do not benefit the children but are converted into a government funding stream to reimburse the costs of foster care. This cost recovery effort often subordinates the child welfare system’s primary goals of protecting the interests of children and simultaneously strengthening and preserving families to the bureaucratic focus on replenishing government revenue. No such federal cost recovery requirement exists when children are removed from well off families. The policy targets parents whose children were often removed due to the circumstances of poverty, and the neglect that results. Already impoverished parents are further burdened by government owed child support obligations, hampering their struggle to reunify with their children. Federally required case plans intended to aid reunification are illegally converted into debt collection tools. And as the reunification efforts falter, an unconstitutional practice emerges: terminating parental rights for a government-owed debt. This Article reveals the framework and policy implications, and uncovers the illegality, when the core missions of child welfare agencies are diverted towards a self-interested fiscal pursuit