Beyond hope: Rhetorics of mobility, possibility, and literacy

When writing teachers enter the classroom, they often bring with them a deep faith in the power of literacy to rectify social inequalities and improve their students’ social and economic standing. It is this faith—this hope for change—that draws some writing teachers to locations of social and economic hardship. I am interested in how teachers and theorists construct their own narratives of social mobility, possibility, and literacy. My dissertation analyzes the production and expression of beliefs about literacy in the narratives of a diverse group of writing teachers and theorists, from those beginning their careers to those who are published and widely read. The central questions guiding this study are: How do teachers’ and theorists’ narratives of becoming literate intersect with literacy theories? and How do such literacy narratives intersect with beliefs in the power of literacy to improve individuals’ lives socially, economically, and personally? I contend that the professional literature needs to address more fully how teachers’ and theorists’ personal histories with literacy shape what they see as possible (and desirable) for students, especially those from marginalized communities. A central focus of the dissertation is on how teachers and theorists attempt to resolve a paradox they are likely to encounter in narratives about literacy. On one hand, they are immersed in a popular culture that cherishes narrative links between literacy and economic advancement (and, further, between such advancement and a “good life”). On the other hand, in professional discourse and in teacher preparation courses, they are likely to encounter narratives that complicate an assumed causal relationship between literacy and economic progress. Understanding, through literacy narratives, how teachers and theorists chart a practical path through or around this paradox can be beneficial to literacy education in three ways. First, it can offer direction in professional development and teacher education, addressing how teachers negotiate the boundaries between personal experience, theory, and pedagogy. Second, it can help teachers create spaces wherein students can explore the impact of paradoxical views about the role of literacy on their own lives. Finally, it can offer direction in public policy discourse, extending awareness of what we want—and need—from English language arts education in the twenty-first century. To explore these issues, I draw on case studies and ethnographic observation as well as narrative inquiry into teachers’ and theorists’ published literacy narratives. I situate my findings within three interrelated frames: 1) the narratives of new teachers, 2) the published works of literacy educators and theorists, and 3) my own literacy narrative. My first chapter, “Beyond Hope,” explores the tenuous connections between hope and critique in literacy studies and provides a methodological overview of the study. I argue that scholarship must move beyond a singular focus on either hope or critique in order to identify the transformative potential of literacy in particular circumstances. Analyzing literacy narratives provides a way of locating a critically informed sense of possibility. My second chapter, “Making Teachers, Making Literacy,” explores the intersection between teachers’ lives and the theories they study, based on qualitative analysis of a preservice course for secondary education English teachers. I examine how these preservice English teachers understood literacy, how their narratives of becoming literate and teaching English connected—and did not connect—with theoretical and pedagogical positions, and how these stories might inform their future work as practitioners. Centering primarily on preservice teachers who resisted Nancie Atwell’s pedagogy of possibility because they found it too good to be true, this research concentrates on moments of disjuncture, as expressed in class discussion and in one-on-one interviews, when literacy theories failed to align with aspiring teachers’ understandings of their own experiences and also with what they imagined as possible in disadvantaged educational settings. In my third and fourth chapters, I analyze the narratives of celebrated teachers and theorists who put forth an agenda that emphasizes possibilities through literacy, examining how they negotiate the relationship between their own literacy stories and literacy theories. Specifically, I investigate the narratives of three proponents of critical literacy: Mike Rose, Paulo Freire, and Myles Horton, all highly respected literacy teachers whose working-class backgrounds influenced their commitment to teaching in disenfranchised communities. In chapter 3, “Reading Lives on the Boundary,” I demonstrate how Mike Rose’s 1989 autobiographical text, Lives on the Boundary, juxtaposes rhetorics of mobility with critiques of such possibility. Through an analysis of work published in professional journals, I offer a reception history of Rose’s narrative, focusing specifically on how teachers have negotiated the tension between hope and critique. I follow this analysis with three case studies, drawn from a larger sampling, that inquire into the personal connections that writing teachers make with Lives on the Boundary. The teachers in this study, who provided written responses and participated in audio-recorded follow-up interviews, were asked to compare Rose’s story to their own stories, considering how their personal literacy histories influenced their teaching. My findings illustrate how a group of teachers and theorists have projected their own assessments of what literacy and higher education can and cannot accomplish onto this influential text. In my fourth chapter, “Horton and Freire’s Road as Literacy Narrative,” I concentrate on Myles Horton and Paulo Freire’s 1990 collaborative spoken book, We Make the Road by Walking. Central to my analysis are the educators’ stories about their formative years, including their own primary and secondary education experiences. I argue that We Make the Road by Walking demonstrates how theories of literacy cannot be divorced from personal histories. I begin by examining the spoken book as a literacy narrative that fuses personal and theoretical knowledge, focusing specifically on its authors’ ideas on theory. Drawing on Bakhtin’s notion of the chronotope—the intersection of time and space within narrative—I then explore the literacy narratives emerging from the production process of the book, in a video production about Horton and Freire’s meeting, and ultimately in the two men’s reflections on their childhood years (Dialogic). Interspersed with these accounts is archival material on the book’s editorial production that illustrates the value of increased dialogue between personal history and theories of literacy. My fifth chapter is both a reflective analysis and a qualitative study of my work at a men’s medium-high security prison in Illinois, where I conducted research and served as the instructor of an upper-level writing course, “Writing for a Change,” in the spring of 2009. Entitled “Doing Time with Literacy Narratives,” this chapter explores the complex ways in which literacy and incarceration are configured in students’ narratives as well as my own. With and against students’ stories, I juxtapose my own experiences with literacy, particularly in relation to being the son of an imprisoned father. In exploring the intersections between such stories, I demonstrate how literacy narratives can function as a heuristic for exploring beliefs about literacy between teachers and students both inside and outside of the prison-industrial complex. My conclusion pulls together the various themes that emerged in the three frames, from the making of new teachers to the published literacy narratives of teachers and theorists to my own literacy narrative. Writing teachers encounter considerable pressure to align their curricula with one or another theory of literacy, which has the effect of negating the authority of knowledge about literacy gleaned from experience as readers and writers. My dissertation contends that there is much to be gained by finding ways of articulating theories of literacy that encompass teachers’ knowledge of reading and writing as expressed in personal narratives of literacy. While powerful cultural rhetorics of upward social mobility often neutralize the critical potential of teachers’ own narratives of literacy—potential that has been documented by scholars in writing studies and allied disciplines—this is not always the case. The chapters in this dissertation offer evidence that hopeful and critical positions on the transformational possibilities of literacy are not mutually exclusive.

Symbiotic Cities: Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Mass Culture, 1910-1960

This dissertation examines how Buenos Aires emerged as a creative capital of mass culture and cultural industries in South America during a period when Argentine theater and cinema expanded rapidly, winning over a regional marketplace swelled by transatlantic immigration, urbanization and industrialization. I argue that mass culture across the River Plate developed from a singular dynamic of exchange and competition between Buenos Aires and neighboring Montevideo. The study focuses on the Argentine, Uruguayan, and international performers, playwrights, producers, cultural impresarios, critics, and consumers who collectively built regional cultural industries. The cultural industries in this region blossomed in the interwar period as the advent of new technologies like sound film created profitable opportunities for mass cultural production and new careers for countless theater professionals. Buenos Aires also became a global cultural capital in the wider Hispanic Atlantic world, as its commercial culture served a region composed largely of immigrants and their descendants. From the 1920s through the 1940s, Montevideo maintained a subordinate but symbiotic relationship with Buenos Aires. The two cities shared interlinked cultural marketplaces that attracted performers and directors from the Atlantic world to work in theatre and film productions, especially in times of political upheaval such as the Spanish Civil War and the Perón era in Argentina. As a result of this transnational process, Argentine mass culture became widely consumed throughout South America, competing successfully with Hollywood, European, and other Latin American cinemas and helping transform Buenos Aires into a cosmopolitan metropolis. By examining the relationship between regional and national frames of cultural production, my dissertation contributes to the fields of Latin American studies and urban history while seeking to de-center the United States and Europe from the central framing of transnational history.

MEDIA IN THE ERA OF GLOBALIZATION IN LATIN AMERICA

Terms like Internet, cyberspace, virtual reality, in short, globalization, have been frequently words for all of us, in recent years. This refers to the phenomenon that has shaken the people of this world. Are rapidly changing due to technological advances and complex levels reaching relations between countries, corporations, partnerships and people.The attempt to understand the phenomenon of globalization is compounded when we try to understand the term, coined by Marshall McLuhan.McLuhan was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and studied at the Universities of Manitoba and Cambridge, the latter of which he received his degree of Doctor of Philosophy specializing in English Literature. He taught at the universities of Wisconsin and St. Louis and University of the Assumption and Saint Michael's College, University of Toronto, where he was director of the Center for Culture and Technology.Marshall McLuhan and B. R. Powers, wrote the play, The Village Global1. The universe has become a village is the future predicted for them in the 60's. Today reality has overtaken the theory. However, this phenomenon is presented in this work, so whimsical style reminiscent of Jules Verne, but does not clarify the content of the term. While we believe that in the past there were attempts; globalize these attempts were very different from what we understand by globalization. 

Show de Mamulengos de Heraldo Lins: construções e transformações de um espetáculo na cultura popular

The theater of puppets is one of the many expressions of popular culture which is marked by ongoing constructions and transformations in its symbolic representations as well as its characters and performances. In the city of Natal/RN, there is a manipulator called Heraldo Lins, an artist who operates such puppets, and has been performing his puppet since 1992. Lins has his own look at how he produces his performances and seeks to adjust his puppets to social and rentable contexts. Lins‟s performances are tailor-made in accordance with the request of his customers, as he makes up the passages and lines of his puppets according to his audience. This research aimed to study how the Heraldo Lins Mamulengos Show is built, especially its changes. We note that Lins chooses to dismantle the symbolic values of the tradition in the regular puppet theater once he adapts to modern patterns, placing himself between the traditional puppet theater and the cultural industry. The work in camp was made through a methodological focused in a participative observation and an audiovisual registry

On and off the stage at Atlanta Greek Picnic: Performances of collective black middle-class identities and the politics of belonging

This dissertation presents a thick ethnography that engages in the micro-analysis of the situationality of black middle-class collective identification processes through an examination of performances by members of the nine historically black sororities and fraternities at Atlanta Greek Picnic, an annual festival that occurs at the beginning of June in Atlanta, Georgia. It mainly attracts undergraduate and graduate members of these university-based organizations, as they exist all over the United States. This exploration of black Greek-letter organization (BGLO) performances uncovers processes through which young black middle-class individuals attempt to combine two universes that are at first glance in complete opposition to each other: the domain of the traditional black middle-class values with representations and fashions stemming from black popular culture. These constructions also attempt to incorporate—in a contradiction of sorts— black popular cultural elements in the objective to deconstruct the social conservatism that characterizes middle-class values, particularly in relation to sexuality and its representation in social behaviors and performances. This negotiation between prescribed v middle-class values of respectability and black popular culture provides a space wherein black individuals challenge and/or perpetuate those dominant tropes through identity performances that feed into the formation of black sexual politics, which I examine through a variety of BGLO staged and non-staged performances. ^

The Relationships between Elementary School Principals' Emotional Intelligence, Leadership Style and School Culture

The role of the principal in school settings and the principal’s perceived effect on student achievement have frequently been considered vital factors in school reform. The relationships between emotional intelligence, leadership style and school culture have been widely studied. The literature reveals agreement among scholars regarding the principal’s vital role in developing and fostering a positive school culture. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between elementary school principals’ emotional intelligence, leadership style and school culture. The researcher implemented a non-experimental ex post facto research design to investigate four specific research hypotheses. Utilizing the Qualtrics Survey Software, 57 elementary school principals within a large urban school district in southeast Florida completed the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), and 850 of their faculty members completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ Form 5X). Faculty responses to the school district’s School Climate Survey retrieved from the district’s web site were used as the measure of school culture. Linear regression analyses revealed significant positive associations between emotional intelligence and the following leadership measures: Idealized Influence-Attributes (β = .23, p = < .05), Idealized Influence-Behaviors (β = .34, p = < .01), Inspirational Motivation (β = .39, p = < .01) and Contingent Reward (β = .33, p = < .01). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed positive associations between school culture and both transformational and transactional leadership measures, and negative associations between school culture and passive-avoidant leadership measures. Significant positive associations were found between school culture and the principals’ emotional intelligence over and above leadership style. Hierarchical linear regressions to test the statistical hypothesis developed to account for alternative explanations revealed significant associations between leadership style and school culture over and above school grade. These results suggest that emotional intelligence merits consideration in the development of leadership theory. Practical implications include suggestions that principals employ both transformational and transactional leadership strategies, and focus on developing their level of emotional intelligence. The associations between emotional intelligence, transformational leadership, Contingent Reward and school culture found in this study validate the role of the principal as the leader of school reform.

Los amantes bajo los olivos. El simbolismo erótico del olivo en el cancionero popular hispánico

Traditional popular poetry follows a certain culture and has a literary canon that is very different from written poetry by educated authors. Among the elements that distinguish this poetry and that emphasize the continual presence of symbolism, which is manifested in the connotative reading of the texts, is a symbolism that refers to eroticism and to the romantic relationships of men. In these folk songs nature acquires a distinct meaning of love, for example by means of the presence of the olive as a frequent motif in Andalusian, Hispanic and European songs.

Lecturas de la prensa popular: Un estudio de recepción del periódico Q'hubo en la localidad de Kennedy en Bogotá

En este trabajo de grado se aborda la relación entre las audiencias y los medios a partir de un estudio de recepción del diario Q’hubo en los sectores populares de Bogotá, específicamente en la localidad de Kennedy de esta ciudad. El estudio reconoce que las formas determinadas de interactuar con los medios están atadas a los contextos, las instituciones y los entornos culturales y sociales desde los que lector construye su realidad y se inserta en la sociedad actual. Por lo mismo, se nutre de estos elementos para entender los procesos de recepción a través de las formas cotidianas de consumo del diario Q’hubo frente al contexto mediático actual. Se sustenta que el Q’hubo se comunica con sus lectores combinando aspectos clásicos de la prensa popular y adaptando aspectos de diseño y lenguaje aportados por los nuevos medios. Lo que a su vez se relaciona con apropiaciones, usos y modos de leer de la audiencia, que reivindica interacciones tradicionales y desarrolla interacciones emergentes gracias a la convergencia de las tecnologías con la cultura letrada, oral y visual.

El rol de los actores subnacionales en la construcción de la política exterior de Japón. Estudio de caso: La disputa territorial por las islas Senkaku/Diaoyu entre Japón y China (2001-2014)

El presente estudio de caso tiene como objetivo analizar la influencia de la gobernación de Tokio en la formulación de la política exterior de Japón durante la disputa territorial por las islas Senkaku/Diaoyu. Para ello, se identifican los puntos más relevantes de la política exterior de seguridad de Japón después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Se hace un énfasis en la política bilateral de seguridad sino-japonesa, con el fin de ubicar el conflicto territorial por las islas Senkaku/Diaoyu como un punto importante en la agenda internacional de seguridad de ambos países. Se estudia y analiza el concepto de paradiplomacia; articulado, a su vez, por los conceptos de identidad y rol en política exterior de la perspectiva teórica del Constructivismo de las Relaciones Internacionales, para así analizar la influencia de Tokio en el manejo de la política exterior de Japón en el marco del conflicto territorial por las islas Senkaku/Diaoyu.

Multicultural work environment as a key in cross-cultural negotiations and organizations’ performance: Canada overview

Es necesario que los gerentes sean líderes y establezcan relaciones sólidas con los empleados, para luego establecer las mismas con socios potenciales. Para lograr este objetivo, Con el fin de cumplir este objetivo, el uso de estrategias y técnicas de negociación es crucial, así como la importancia de la conciencia cultural y de la diversidad. La globalización no sólo ha movido a los mercados sino también a las personas, la inmigración es un fenómeno fuerte hoy en día y varios países, como Canadá, han sido inclusivos y han apoyado a estos nuevos ciudadanos. Las empresas de Canadá, sin importar la industria, han asumido el reto de integrar una fuerza laboral diversa con el propósito de adquirir nuevos conocimientos y crecer a nivel nacional, pero sobre todo en el ámbito internacional. Igualmente, es esencial tener en cuenta las ventajas y limitaciones del multiculturalismo dentro de la empresa y específicamente en las negociaciones interculturales.

Advanced cell culture platforms: methods for drug testing with microfluidics and microstructured devices

Advanced cell cultures are developing rapidly in biomedical research. Nowadays, various approaches and technologies are being used, however, these culturing systems present limitations from increasing complexity, requiring high costs, and not easily customization. We present two versatile and cost-effective methods for developing culturing systems that integrate 3D cell culture and microfluidic platforms. Firstly, for drug screening applications, many high-quality cell spheres of homogeneous size and shape are required. Conventional approaches usually have a dearth of control over the size and geometry of cell spheres and require sample collection and manipulation. To overcome this difficulty, in this study, hundreds of spheroids of several cell lines were generated using multi-well plates that housed our microdevices. Tumor spheroids grow at a uniform rate (in scaffolded or scaffold-free environments) and can be harvested at will. Microscopy imaging are done in real time during or after the culture. After in situ immunostaining, fluorescence imaging can be conducted while keeping the spatial distribution of spheroids in the microwells. Drug effects were successfully observed through viability, growth, and morphologic investigations. Also, we fabricated a microfluidic device suitable for directed and selective cell culture treatments. The microfluidic device was used to reproduce and confirm in vitro investigations carried out using normal culture methods, using a microglia cell line. The device layout and the syringe pump system, entirely designed in our lab, successfully allowed culture growth and medium flow regulation. Solution flows can be finely controlled, allowing treatments and immunofluorescence in one single chamber selectively. To conclude, we propose the development of two culturing platforms (microstructured well devices and in-flow microfluidic chip), which are the result of separate scientific investigations but have the primary goal of performing treatments in a reproducible manner. Our devices shall improve future studies on drug exposure testing, representing adjustable and versatile cell culture systems.

Genetic Breeding And Diversity Of The Genus Passiflora: Progress And Perspectives In Molecular And Genetic Studies.

Despite the ecological and economic importance of passion fruit (Passiflora spp.), molecular markers have only recently been utilized in genetic studies of this genus. In addition, both basic genetic researches related to population studies and pre-breeding programs of passion fruit remain scarce for most Passiflora species. Considering the number of Passiflora species and the increasing use of these species as a resource for ornamental, medicinal, and food purposes, the aims of this review are the following: (i) to present the current condition of the passion fruit crop; (ii) to quantify the applications and effects of using molecular markers in studies of Passiflora; (iii) to present the contributions of genetic engineering for passion fruit culture; and (iv) to discuss the progress and perspectives of this research. Thus, the present review aims to summarize and discuss the relationship between historical and current progress on the culture, breeding, and molecular genetics of passion fruit.

As artes marciais chinesas para pessoas com deficiência : contextos, dilemas e possibilidades = Chinese martial arts for people with disabilities : contexts, dilemmas and possibilities

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Adaptação e validação da escla ASKAS - Aging Sexual Knowledge and Attitudes Scale em idosos brasileiros

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Distribution of biotypes and leukotoxic activity of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans isolated from Brazilian patients with chronic periodontitis

Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans is an important etiologic agent of the periodontitis and is associated with extra-oral infections. In this study, the detection of the ltxA gene as well as the ltx promoter region from leukotoxic A. actinomycetemcomitans isolated from 50 Brazilian patients with periodontitis and 50 healthy subjects was performed. The leukotoxic activity on HL-60 cells was also evaluated. Leukotoxic activity was determined using a trypan blue exclusion method. The 530 bp deletion in the promoter region was evaluated by PCR using a PRO primer pair. A. actinomycetemcomitans was detected by culture and directly from crude subgingival biofilm by PCR using specific primers. By culture, A. actinomycetemcomitans was detected in nine (18%) of the periodontal patients and one (2%) healthy subject. However, by PCR, this organism was detected in 44% of the periodontal patients and in 16% of the healthy subjects. It was verified a great discrepancy between PCR detection of the ltx operon promoter directly from crude subgingival biofilm and from bacterial DNA. Only one periodontal sample harbored highly leukotoxic A. actinomycetemcomitans. Moreover, biotype II was the most prevalent and no correlation between biotypes and leukotoxic activity was observed. The diversity of leukotoxin expression by A. actinomycetemcomitans suggests a role of this toxin in the pathogenesis of periodontal disease and other infectious diseases.