Produced subjectivities and productive subjects : locating the potential of the self-reflective blog

Blogging software has popularly been used as a mode of writing about everyday life to interact with others. This thesis examines the political potentials that are opened up by self-reflective blogging. The self-reflective blog is a synergy of self-reflective practices and computer-mediated communication. A genealogy of the history of computer-mediated communication and various public self-reflective practices is conducted to uncover affect as the utility of various economies of subject production. Efforts made to blog-like the efforts made to interact online in other CMCs-are positioned as a kind of affective labor. Adapting Hardt and Negri's (2005) theorization of the multitude, whereby affective labor-the production of social relationshipsis a kind ofbiopolitical production, affect will be determined as a kind ofbiopolitical power that exists in everyday life.

Optical Properties of Sb2Te3, and Dilute Magnetic Semiconductors Sb1.97 VO.03 Te3 and Sb1.94 CrO.06 Te3

This thesis reports on the optical properties of the dilute magnetic semiconductors, Sb1.97 V 0.03 Te3 and Sb1.94Cr0.06Te3, along with the parent compound Sb2Te3' These materials develop a ferromagnetic state at low temperature with Curie temperatures of 22 K and 16 K respectively. All three samples were oriented such that the electric field vector of the light was perpendicular to the c-axis. The reflectance profile of these samples in the mid-infrared (500 to 3000 cm-1) shows a pronounced plasma edge which retracts with decreasing temperature. The far-infrared region of these samples exhibits a phonon at ~ 60 cm-1 which softens as temperature decreases. Kramers-Kronig analysis and a Drude-Lorentz model were employed to determine the optical constants of the bulk samples. The real part of the optical conductivity is shown to consist of intraband contributions at frequencies below the energy gap (~0.26 eV) and interband contributions at frequencies above the energy gap. The temperature dependence of the scattering rate show that a mix of phonon and impurity scattering are present, while the signature of traditional spin disorder (magnetic) scattering was difficult to confirm.

Reflection Reframed: The Process of Photography as Strategy for Teachers' Reflective Practice

Teacher reflective practice is described as an effective method for engaging teachers in improving their own professional learning. Yet, some teachers do not understand how to effectively engage in the reflective processes, or prefer not to formalize the process through writing a reflective journal as taught in most teacher education programs. Developing reflective skills through the process of photography was investigated in this study as a strategy to allow enhanced teacher reflection for professional and personal growth. The process of photography is understood as the mindful act of photographing rather than focusing on the final product-the image. For this study, 3 practicing educators engaged in photographic exercises as a reflective process. Data sources included transcribed interviews, participant journal reflections, and sketchbook artifacts, as well as the researcher's personal journal notes. Findings indicated that, through the photographic process, (a) teacher participants developed new and individual strategies for professional leaming; and (b) teacher participants experienced shifts in the way they conceptualized their personal worldviews.

Being Relational With Underserved Youth: A Reflective Process

When working with under-served youth, possibly the most important, yet often times the most difficult, thing for practitioners to do is to build positive, trusting, open relationships. This study aims to address this challenge. Two groups of under-served youth were examined, one being teens deemed “at-risk” and one being youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study was novel in its approach as all efforts were made to ensure the youth's opinions on how to be relational with them were heard. Two youths with ASD were nonverbal and a special picture interview procedure was developed to allow their participation. Three thematic statements emerged from the data collected: 1. Youth need low anxiety relationships. 2. Youth need novel forms of engagement. 3. Youth need us to understand that their actions reflect their histories. The analyses that lead to these statements are described as well as the reasoning and implications of these statements.

Critical incident analysis through narrative reflective practice: A case study

Teachers can reflect on their practices by articulating and exploring incidents they consider critical to themselves or others. By talking about these critical incidents, teachers can make better sense of seemingly random experiences that occur in their teaching because they hold the real inside knowledge, especially personal intuitive knowledge, expertise and experience that is based on their accumulated years as language educators teaching in schools and classrooms. This paper is about one such critical incident analysis that an ESL teacher in Canada revealed to her critical friend and how both used McCabe’s (2002) narrative framework for analyzing an important critical incident that occurred in the teacher’s class.