MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES ABOUT THE EFFECTIVNESS OF POSITIVE BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS AND SUPPORTS IN A DIVERSE DISTRICT: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY

This study used a phenomenological design to discover how middle school teachers in northern California perceived the effectiveness of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) in improving school climate and lowering office discipline referrals. PBIS is a school-wide initiative implemented in schools across the United States as an approach for addressing discipline and promoting a positive school climate. The researcher examined teacher perceptions on effectiveness of PBIS at the middle school level. The district implemented PBIS to align with district initiatives to lower exclusionary discipline practices (office referrals, suspensions, and expulsions) for students, with an emphasis on African American males, students with disabilities, and foster youth. The study used transformative learning theory and teacher self-efficacy to guide the research. The overarching research question explored was: What are middle school teachers’ perceptions about the effectiveness of PBIS? Data were collected from individual semi-structured open-ended interviews; concern statements; and examination of the trends of suspension, expulsion, and office discipline referrals pre-PBIS and post-PBIS. Data analysis revealed that all participants used positive terms to describe their school’s climate. Participants also experienced shared benefits and barriers when discussing PBIS in their school settings. The results of this study support PBIS in middle schools and addressed barriers. The results could be used to guide the decision-making process of those responsible for PBIS at the local school district level as well as at the individual school and classroom levels

Los bombardeos sobre Afganistán: la unión de los medios de comunicación y el poder político para mitigar la indignación de la opinión pública

The United States (US)-led war in Afghanistan has resulted in high levels of civilian casualties and human suffering for over nine years. One of the primary causes of this suffering during the first three months of the war came from high altitude bombing led by the US Air Force. Tens of thousands of bombs equal to approximately 14,000 tons were used over Afghanistan in the first three months of the war from October 2001. However the damaging effects of this bombing campaign were largely hidden from Western audiences. This article examines techniques used by the US government and two mainstream media organisations to alter perceptions of the early stages of the air war in order to dampen indignation over the injustice being perpetrated against Afghanistan’s civilian population. These techniques can be organised under five headings: cover-up, devaluation, reinterpretation, the use of official channels and intimidation.La guerra liderada por los EE.UU. en Afganistán ha producido unas elevadas cantidades de muertes civiles y sufrimiento humano durante más de nueve años. Entre las causas principales de este sufrimiento durante los tres primeros meses de la guerra estuvieron los bombardeos realizados desde gran altura por la Fuera Aérea de los EE.UU. Decenas de miles de bombas, con un peso aproximado de 14000 toneladas, se lanzaron sobre Afganistán durante esos tres meses, a partir de octubre de 2001. Sin embargo, los efectos destructivos de esa campaña de bombardeos se ocultaron, casi por completo, a la opinión pública occidental. Este artículo estudia las técnicas utilizadas por el gobierno norteamericano y dos populares grupos mediáticos para adulterar las percepciones sobre las primeras fases de la guerra aérea, con el objetivo de diluir la indignación que podría haber producido la injusticia sufrida por la población civil afgana. Estas técnicas pueden ser agrupadas en cinco categorías: ocultación, minimización, reinterpretación, uso de los canales oficiales e intimidación

Points of Contact Between Activism, Populism, and Fandom on Social Media

This article explores how music fans used social media to increase a social movement’s public support. Although initially dismissed as a conspiracy theory, the movement eventually gained widespread support and is motivating communities to engage in broader cultural conversations. The movement’s success, this article argues, is largely owed to social media’s networked communication affordances and how they facilitate fan-based citizenship and citizen journalism. Through a rhetorical analysis of social media communication related to the movement, this article examines how online fan-based citizen journalism can draw together seemingly disconnected ideologies and audiences to diversify and bolster social movements’ support

An Evaluation of the Marxist Paradigm in Comparison to a Biblical Worldview: The Case of Venezuela

This research was conducted to address the pressing paradigmatic split in modern American society between Marxism and Christian governing principles. The prevailing concept that governed this research is that Marxism degrades governments and societies and is inherently destructive. The exposition of Marxism’s deconstructive character transpires in this research by comparing the implementation of Marxist principles in Venezuela to the application of biblical principles in the United States. A brief historical context of Marxism and Christianity is considered alongside each worldview’s values and implementation of such values. Each worldview’s foundation is then evaluated by an investigation into Venezuela’s utilization of Marxist ideals accompanied by the effects the worldview had on the nation’s institutional structure, economic health, and crime situation and justice system. Upon analyzing the effects that Marxism had on Venezuela is an analysis of the impact that biblical principles had on the United States in the same measures as Venezuela: institutional structure, economic health, and crime situation and justice system. In evaluating various research institute findings, government-issued reports, and assorted foundational documents of Marxism, Christianity, Venezuela, and the United States, this thesis considers a wide scope of data to adequately determine the effect of both worldviews on each nation. The findings of this inquiry revealed that Marxism quickly dismantles governments and societies, replacing them with ineffective and inadequate institutions incompatible with the needs of a nation’s citizens

The Unwilling Spectator: How Secondary Exposure to Trauma Through Journalism Affects Our Emotional Processing

Police-brutality, especially directed towards black people, has been a hot-button issue in the media for the past few years. With the constant exposure to the death and brutalization of black bodies, however, some people, especially black people, have reported experiencing emotional defects as a result of these reports. The current study aims to see how exposure to police-brutality related journalism affects implicit emotional processes, such as approach-avoidance motivations. More specifically, the current study seeks to see if the race of the person whom police-brutality is directed towards in these journalistic reports further influences these effects. From a college-aged population, black and white participants (N=18) were randomly assigned to one of either two conditions: Black-Civilian or White-Civilian. To measure participant’s approach-avoidance behaviors both before and after being exposed to these stories, the current study uses an Emotional Lexical Decision Task (ELDT.) Using four 2 (time: pre-exposure, post-exposure) x 3 (valence: negative, positive, neutral) repeated measures ANOVAs, participants’ response times to negative words were analyzed to see if there was a main effect of exposure. I hypothesized that across each condition, black participants would have significantly slower response times to negative words after reading the article, compared to white participants. Furthermore, I hypothesized that black participants in the black-civilian condition would have the most significantly slower response times to negative stimuli. The results of the current study found no significant difference in response times to negative stimuli before or after exposure for any race x condition category. Possible explanations for these results and limitations of the current study are discussed

Tap Dance In Post-Secondary Dance Education: Why is it Disappearing and How Can We Fix It

Tap dance is an artform that is rapidly declining in popularity in dance training, especially in post-secondary dance education. To answer the questions of how and why a quintessentially American artform has so faded in dance teachings, this paper analyzes the history of tap and its creation by marginalized individuals, the Eurocentric legacies that influence our definitions of \u27technique\u27 in dance training, and how tap dance is currently being taught today. Evidence for the conclusions of this paper include current discussions of tap among dancers and dance educators as well as a review of recent scholarship on the history of tap and its importance to being taught in collegiate dance programs. These scholars have found that the inclusion of tap and tap history in college dance programs not only to creates well rounded students, but also furthers the mission of decolonizing these programs and exposing students to important aspects of the history of marginalized groups in America

‘’It takes me half a bottle of whisky to get through one of your assignments’’: Exploring one teacher educators personal experiences of dyslexia’

This article uses a life history approach to explore personal experiences of dyslexia of one higher education lecturer and its impact on her professional identity. The informant is currently employed as a lecturer of initial teacher training in a UK university. She worked as a primary school teacher for over a decade prior to embarking on an academic career in teacher education. The informant draws on her own experiences as a pupil, teacher and lecturer and additionally she presents accounts of student teachers with dyslexia drawn from her current professional context. Although the data is not generalisable, the account nevertheless illustrates the positive impact of the social model of disability for the informant and her students who had been identified as dyslexic during their in initial training as teachers. Additionally, the account also illustrates the ways in which teachers’ personal experiences of dyslexia can shape professional identities in very positive ways. Implications for both teacher training and pedagogic approaches in schools to support learners with dyslexia are drawn out of the narrative