A factor-analytic reinterpretation of the Clark-Trow "educational philosophies"

Each of four principal components analyses (n = 3,944) incorporated student self-ratings (Most accurate to Least accurate) on one of the four Clark-Trow educational philosophies: Vocational, Academic, Collegiate, Nonconformist. The analyses of these 25-variable correlation matrices yielded 2 factors differentially associated with educational philosophy: Sociability versus Independence (replacing Clark-Trow's "Identification with the College") and Liberalism versus Conservatism (replacing Clark-Trow's "Involvement with Ideas"). The Vocational philosophy was associated primarily with Conservatism, the Collegiate with Sociability, and the Nonconformist with Liberalism; the Academic was moderately associated with both Independence and Liberalism.

Higher Educational Impact on Student Objectives: Longitudinal Change in Clark-Trow "Educational Philosophies"

This study explores the impact of higher education on 3,942 arts and sciences students as measured by change in their freshman and senior ratings of four Clark-Trow "educational philosophies": vocational, academic, collegiate, and nonconformist (Clark and Trow, 1966). A repeated measures analysis of variance was applied to each of the four philosophies, controlling for sex, entering year, major, parents' educational background, scholastic aptitude, and academic motivation. As expected from Clark-Trow theory, students showed significant increases in academic and nonconformist philosophies, and decreases in vocational and collegiate philosophies. Relationships between independent variables and freshman-senior change suggested post hoc reinterpretation of the dimensions underlying the Clark-Trow "phenotypes": i. e., from "identification with the college" and "involvement with ideas" to "social interests" and "academic interests" (the latter suggested by Terenzini and Pascarella, 1977).

The Impact of Greek Affiliation on Students’ Educational Objectives: Longitudinal Change in Clark-Trow Educational Philosophies

Change in 4,119 students' freshman to senior ratings of four educational philosophies (vocational, academic, collegiate, and nonconformist) provided four measures of educational impact. Repeated measures analyses of variance compared changes in philosophy as a function of Greek affiliation, controlling for sex, historical era, major, parents' education, scholastic aptitude, and academic motivation. Small but significantly different degrees of change in the collegiate and nonconformist philosophies suggested that Greek affiliation increased social interests and inhibited some forms of intellectual interests. These small differences across all students masked the moderating effect of major. In the nonconformist philosophy, for example, the Greek × major interaction reflected substantial Greek–independent differences among humanities majors, and progressively smaller differences or reversals among social science, physical science, and engineering majors. Possible interpretations of this interaction are offered.

Liberation as Revolutionary Praxis: Rethinking Buddhism Materialism

While it is only in recent decades that scholars have begun to reconsider and problematize Buddhist conceptions of “freedom” and “agency,” the thought traditions of Asian Buddhism have for many centuries struggled with questions related to the issue of “liberation”—along with its fundamental ontological, epistemological and ethical implications. With the development of Marxist thought in the mid to late nineteenth century, a new paradigm for thinking about freedom in relation to history, identity and social change found its way to Asia, and confronted traditional religious interpretations of freedom as well as competing Western ones. In the past century, several attempts have been made—in India, southeast Asia, China and Japan—to bring together Marxist and Buddhist worldviews, with only moderate success (both at the level of theory and practice). This paper analyzes both the possibilities and problems of a “Buddhist materialism” constructed along Marxian lines, by focusing in particular on Buddhist and Marxist conceptions of “liberation.” By utilizing the theoretical work of Japanese “radical Buddhist” Seno’o Girō, I argue that the root of the tension lies with conceptions of selfhood and agency—but that, contrary to expectations, a strong case can be made for convergence between Buddhist and Marxian perspectives on these issues, as both traditions ultimately seek a resolution of existential determination in response to alienation. Along the way, I discuss the work of Marx, Engels, Gramsci, Lukàcs, Sartre, and Richard Rorty in relation to aspects of traditional (particularly East Asian Mahāyāna) Buddhist thought.

The Body of Margaret Atwood: Sex Work and Prostitution within Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood

In this paper, I will argue that Canadian author Margaret Atwood uses fiscal and socially conservative dystopias to show how sex work and prostitution are choices that women would never have to make in a world with true gender equality. In these radically different worlds, women have no agency beyond their sexuality and no ability to express themselves as equals within either society. And while the structures of both societies, the society of The Handmaid’s Tale and that of both Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, are inherently different, they both stem from modern conservative philosophies: for example, the country of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale holds Christian conservative beliefs on the role of religion in the state and the culturally designated roles of women. I define social conservatism as the idea that government organizations are used to pursue an agenda promoting traditional religious values such as “public morality” and opposing “immoralities” such as abortion, prostitution, and homosexuality. I define fiscal conservatism as an agenda promoting privatization of the market, deregulation and lower taxes. In this paper I argue that because these philosophies are incompatible with gender equality, they drive women to occupations such as sex work. Women find that they have no choices and sex work provides something to “trade.” For Offred, this “trading” is more limited, because she is a sex slave. For Oryx, this trading allows her to travel to the West, yet not before her childhood is marked by prostitution and pornography. Sex work allows for Ren to reclaim some agency over her life, yet she only chooses sex work because she is presented with few other options. All of these issues stem from the philosophies that define these dystopias.

Hinterlands

The poems in Hinterlands are products of my interest in landscape. They feature complex territories that are constructs of the mind, emerging from the language of place. The term “existential territories” seems to fit my work because it suggests that the poems are products of language, spaces, and existential states coming together. The territories exist not as geographic places, but in the psyche, and their physical texture comes from using both the substantive quality of language and the ways language points to place. I do not think the resulting dream-like quality renders them unreal, but rather presents the adventure of navigating a reality unique to the world of the poem. Readers and the personae in these poems map themselves onto the world as the world maps itself onto them.

Mending The Mind With Dharma

Anxiety, depression, and tragedy are all unavoidable aspects of existence that we find ourselves grappling with at some point in our lives. In those darker moments we often look beyond ourselves for a means to cope with our struggles in the hopes of transcending into enhanced states of being. The world¿s religions have provided various answers to problems of mental and physical affliction. Across cultures and throughout history, numerous techniques for ¿mending the mind¿ have emerged, conditioned by a number of factors, including the normative values of a society as well as the scientific advances and technologies available for therapeutic application. Buddhism encompasses a broad tradition of beliefs, practices, and philosophies that, taken together, aim at eliminating suffering from the human experience. It is suggested that anyone who comes to understand and practice Buddhist teachings¿Dharma¿will rise out of the life of suffering and into a condition of awakening or nirvana. With this as an intended goal, a person who is unfulfilled in their life or who is experiencing feelings of depression will, it might be assumed, find great potential in turning to Buddhism as means for alleviation of these states. In contemporary western society, however, the most common route for eliminating emotional distress is to take antidepressant medication, which aims for immediate relief of the negative feelings and experiences that arise from depression. As I will argue, while this may be a successful approach to masking unwanted feelings, it in fact fails to treat the actual roots or cause of the undesirable experiences. Moreover, such a ¿therapeutic¿ approach lacks any aspect geared towards developing a consistently rewarding lifestyle. I will argue that the incorporation of Dharma¿both a set of ideas and as a form of practices¿into daily routines and modes of thinking provides the means for a balanced lifestyle, allowing the individual to relieve suffering and depression in a manner that the narrow scope of western medicine cannot provide.