Engaging students in ethical debates

This case study outlines an investigation into the acceptance of a new pedagogical paradigm aiming to engage and inspire students in ethical and entrepreneurial activit

Presidential Debates or Political Theatre?

This essay investigates the current condition of the United States presidential debate structure. Research has shown that candidates participating in these debates often direct most of their attention to form the most bold and catchy one-liners in order to capture the hearts and minds of the American people. As a result, citizens are not gaining enough knowledge of their presidential candidates. The focus on personal attacks and grand statements puts policy and campaign strategy out of the spotlight. Candidates are given around five minutes to address a serious question about our nation. In a perfect world with no interruptions this is still not nearly enough time to effectively explain a stance on immigration, healthcare, etc. Are the American people getting valuable campaign information from these debates or are we just watching political theatre? Faculty Sponsor: Maureen Heffern Ponick

Globalization – challenges and debates

Globalization refers to the emergence of a global society in which economic, political, environmental, and cultural events in one part of the world quickly come to have significance for people in other parts of the world. Therefore, globalization is a process leading to increasing integration of the national economies and diminishing importance of political boundaries so far as economic, political and social activities are concerned. This paper explains the meaning of globalization in five broad conceptions, reasons for globalization, key institutions of globalizations and debate over globalization.Globalization, Development, Challenges, Developing Countries

Mothers, Teachers, Maternalism and Early Childhood Education and Care: Some Historical Connections

Many current debates in Australia regarding the policy, politics and practicalities of child care provision are embedded in dominant discourses of maternalism. This paper places these debates within some historical contexts, emphasising the long history of these debates and the enduring centrality of maternalism – where the most revered of roles and relationships a woman can have is that of mother and one-on-one carer for her young child. In this paper I discuss some of the historical points at which maternalism came to dominate early childhood education and care. I consider Froebel, and the women who spread his word, nation building and the rise of psychology, making links between these and current debates in Australia

Early development economics debates revisited

Development economics in its early years created the image of a fierce fight between advocates of contrasting theories or approaches-"balanced growth"vs."unbalanced growth"or"program loans"vs."project loans."This view has the merit to highlight such conflicts in great detail; yet it fails to take into account the reality of development economics as it was practiced in the field. This paper reassesses these old conflicts by complementing the traditional focus on theoretical debates with an emphasis on the practice of development economics.A particularly interesting example is the debate between Albert Hirschman, one of the fathers of the"unbalanced growth"approach, and Lauchlin Currie, among the advocates of"balanced growth"on how to foster iron production in Colombia in the 1950s. An analysis of the positions held by these two economists shows that they were in fact much less antithetical than is usually held and, indeed, were in some fundamental aspects surprisingly similar. Debates among development economists during the 1950s thus must be explained-at least partially-as the natural dynamics of an emerging discipline that took shape when different groups tried to achieve supremacy-or at least legitimacy-through the creation ofmutually delegitimizing systemic theories.Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Access to Finance,,Labor Policies

Sorry Buddy, But Your Name Isn\u27t on the List: Fear and the Ethics of Organ Donation in Film

The fear of death and illness is a powerful motivator. When taking into account the ethical reasoning that drives organ transplantation and procurement practices, it is persuasive enough to sway minds and corrupt pure reason. And so this paper will uncover how fear of illness and death shape answers to the ethical questions that arise in transplant debates and how these debates are in turn raised in the ethical dilemmas portrayed by popular American films. This paper will examine recent films such as The Island, and Never Let Me Go to illustrate how the ethical dilemmas associated with organ transplantation, and the fear engendered by these depictions of it express the ethical debates of the American culture. It will determine that the shortage of available organs lies at the root of this fear, and then analyze how it inspires two general views of transplantation debates. It creates a fear that motivates the organ recipient and a fear which motivates the potential organ donor

Performance, Politics and Media: How the 2010 British General Election leadership debates generated ‘talk’ amongst the electorate.

During the British General Election 2010 a major innovation was introduced in part to improve engagement: a series of three live televised leadership debates took place where the leader of each of the three main parties, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative, answered questions posed by members of the public and subsequently debated issues pertinent to the questions. In this study we consider these potentially ground breaking debates as the kind of event that was likely to generate discussion. We investigate various aspects of the ‘talk’ that emerged as a result of watching the debates. As an exploratory study concerned with situated accounts of the participants experiences we take an interpretive perspective. In this paper we outline the meta-narratives (of talk) associated with the viewing of the leadership debates that were identified, concluding our analysis by suggesting that putting a live debate on television and promoting and positioning it as a major innovation is likely to mean that is how the audience will make sense of it – as a media event