“Having Your Say” – Reflections on a Training Course For Older People Volunteering to Become Peer Visitors in Care Homes

This article analyses the “Having Your Say” training course which was designed as the initial stage of a project developing peer visitors for older people’s residential care homes. Peer visitors are older people who volunteer to take on a role aimed at capturing a “peer” perspective on the qualitative aspects of living within a residential care home 1, in contrast to the empirical and regulatory perspectives which various managerial and inspectoral regimes already address as part of their statutory obligations. This training course represents part of an ongoing programme aimed at further developing partnership working between a statutory provider, a higher education institution and a range of service user organisations including Worcestershire Association of Service Users (WASU) and Worcestershire Older Peoples’ Forum, a further intention being to evaluate the effectiveness of the actual “Having Your Say” scheme itself once it has become more fully established. Considered within the article are the processes of developing and implementing preliminary support and learning for peer visitors, the reflective learning environment’s ability to facilitate older participants’’ learning and experience in order to further inform the project and an examination of the challenges involved in working with older people in learning and teaching activities. The “Having Your Say” project is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK

The Balance of Power, Public Goods, and the Lost Art of Grand Strategy: American Policy toward the Persian Gulf and Rising Asia in the 21st Century

An important driver of relative decline in America’s international standing is the failure of its political elites to define reality-based foreign policy goals and to relate the diplomatic, economic, and military means at Washington’s disposal to realizing them—the essence of “grand strategy.” For several decades, American policy has been pulled in opposite directions by two competing models of grand strategy. In one—the leadership model—America maximizes its international standing by adroitly managing regional and global power balances and promoting the processes of economic liberalization known collectively as globalization. In the second model—the transformation model—America seeks not to manage power balances but to transcend them by becoming a hegemon, in key regions and globally. The chief reason American policy is failing is because, since the Cold War’s end, the transformation model has gained almost complete ascendancy in American political circles. That is problematic because transformationalists reject a lesson that balance of power theorists and foreign policy realists know: while hegemony seems nice in theory, in the real world it is unattainable. Pursuing hegemony is not just quixotic; it is counter-productive for a great power’s strategic position. To arrest its decline, the United States must recover a capacity for sound grand strategy, grounded in the leadership model. This is especially so with respect to two regions where policy efficacy will largely determine America’s standing as a 21st-century great power: the Persian Gulf and rising Asia. Deficiencies in U.S. policy toward each of these critical regions have become synergistic with deficiencies toward the other; over time, these deficiencies have contributed much to the erosion of America’s international standing. Recovering a capacity for sound grand strategy will require a thoroughgoing recasting of policy toward both regions—and more nuanced appreciation of the interrelationship between them for U.S. interests

The Balance of Power, Public Goods, and the Lost Art of Grand Strategy: American Policy toward the Persian Gulf and Rising Asia in the 21st Century

An important driver of relative decline in America’s international standing is the failure of its political elites to define reality-based foreign policy goals and to relate the diplomatic, economic, and military means at Washington’s disposal to realizing them—the essence of “grand strategy.” For several decades, American policy has been pulled in opposite directions by two competing models of grand strategy. In one—the leadership model—America maximizes its international standing by adroitly managing regional and global power balances and promoting the processes of economic liberalization known collectively as globalization. In the second model—the transformation model—America seeks not to manage power balances but to transcend them by becoming a hegemon, in key regions and globally. The chief reason American policy is failing is because, since the Cold War’s end, the transformation model has gained almost complete ascendancy in American political circles. That is problematic because transformationalists reject a lesson that balance of power theorists and foreign policy realists know: while hegemony seems nice in theory, in the real world it is unattainable. Pursuing hegemony is not just quixotic; it is counter-productive for a great power’s strategic position. To arrest its decline, the United States must recover a capacity for sound grand strategy, grounded in the leadership model. This is especially so with respect to two regions where policy efficacy will largely determine America’s standing as a 21st-century great power: the Persian Gulf and rising Asia. Deficiencies in U.S. policy toward each of these critical regions have become synergistic with deficiencies toward the other; over time, these deficiencies have contributed much to the erosion of America’s international standing. Recovering a capacity for sound grand strategy will require a thoroughgoing recasting of policy toward both regions—and more nuanced appreciation of the interrelationship between them for U.S. interests

Challenging White Fragility through Black Feminist Political Poetry

Due to overwhelming patriarchal hegemonies that women – white women, rich women, young women, and cis women – continue to uphold, feminism struggles to serve all women justly. To combat this negligence in feminism’s fourth-wave movement, I will use this thesis to highlight ways that Black feminist poets have not only shaped feminist theory through their own contributions, but also have prolonged and saved the livelihood of both gender and racial equality. With a strong emphasis on Intersectional Feminism, I will explore the ways in which women can be united against tokenistic power, beginning with the inspiration from three voices: Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 – 2000), Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014), and Audre Lorde (1934 – 1992)

Twilight of the Boss: All the King’s Men and Norse Mythology

This essay explores the deep connections between Warren’s third novel and Norse mythology, particularly the Ragnarok myth. By comparing characters, settings, and events in the novel with various figures from Norse mythology, as well as Richard Wagner’s operatic interpretation of the Ragnarok myth Ring of the Nibelung, this paper contends that Warren employs Norse myths that mirror his own themes of balance and acceptance that run throughout his novel

Raised in the Briar Patch: Misreading Warren’s Essay on Race

As human beings, we are prone to all sorts of misreadings: of literary works, of others, of ourselves. This scholarly and personal visit to “The Briar Patch” reveals a younger Warren subtly, perhaps even unconsciously, advocating integration in a world that in the 1920’s was not (and some might say still isn’t) ready to accept full equality

A Multi-Agent Modeling Social Network Analysis of Cooperative Learning Groups Within a Simulated Adult Education Classroom Learning Environment

Illiteracy and a lack of a high school diploma are impediments to a fulfilled and meaningful life. Low or reduced literacy and non-attainment of a high school diploma are significant problems in the United States. Adult education can be a vehicle to address these ever-present issues. A disproportionate number of students in adult education are minorities, members of lower socioeconomic statuses and traditionally marginalized groups who lack effective literacy skills and/or a high school diploma. Adult education and its related entities can serve as a vehicle to address these pervasive issues, but adult education as a program type is a field that has not been thoroughly researched. Given the extreme variance in the constituency of many adult education classrooms and the volatile nature of many adult learners’ intrinsic and extrinsic situations, research is limited and effective classroom practices specific to adult education are not well understood. Understanding the nature of the adult education classroom and the student networks within them may provide a better understanding of the complexities of the adult education classroom which, in turn, should engender further research and a better understanding of what types of cooperative learning environments and paradigms work best for adult learners. Social network analysis can assist in learning about the composition and connectivity of student learning groups and the formation of cooperative learning practices which has been shown to promote positive student outcomes. In an ever-changing classroom setting, where open enrollment is the standard, the role of incumbents versus newcomers to the adult education class in creating and maintaining student groups sheds light on how student groups can evolve and affect positive student outcomes both in the classroom and in the outside world

The Examination of the Adsorption Capabilities of the Magic Black Rocks of the Little Missouri River

It has been seen that manganese oxides precipitate from aqueous solution as they pass downstream from cold water release reservoirs. This precipitation is visible in the form of black coatings on gravels in the river or stream bed. These oxide coatings not only cause the further oxidation and precipitation of manganese ions but also have the capacity for adsorbing trace metals from the system. The amount of metal adsorbed varies with the element. This study not only addresses the various elements which may be adsorbed but also the rates at which adsorption occurs and the factors which affect those rates

Challenging White Fragility Through Black Feminish Political Poetry

Due to overwhelming patriarchal hegemonies that women – white women, rich women, young women, and cis women – continue to uphold, feminism struggles to serve all women justly. To combat this negligence in feminism’s fourth wave movement, I will use this thesis to highlight ways that Black feminist poets have not only shaped feminist theory through their own contributions, but also have prolonged and saved the livelihood of both gender and racial equality. With a strong emphasis on Intersectional Feminism, I will explore the ways in which women can be united against tokenistic power, beginning with the inspiration from three voices: Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 – 2000), Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014), and Audre Lorde (1934 – 1992)