Twenty first century literature: opportunities, changes and challenges

Reviews international research that is relevant to the teaching of English, language and literacy. This book locates research within theoretical context, drawing on historical perspectives.

The Hibernicon and Visions of Returning Home: Popular Entertainment in Irish America from the Civil War to World War I

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2012

Inscape, the inshape of the trinity: a genetic analysis of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ "God’s Grandeur" and "The Windhover"

Les théories poétiques de l’inscape et du sprung rhythm établies par le poète britannique Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) ont dérouté les critiques des années durant. La plupart d’entre eux se sont appuyés sur les poèmes publiés en quête d’indices quant à la signification de ses théories. Cette thèse approfondit l’analyse mise de l’avant en révélant que la genèse de la théorie de l’inscape provient des notes de Hopkins — alors étudiant de premier cycle — sur le philosophe présocratique Parménide, et est influencée par les commentaires sur l’oeuvre De la nature du philosophe. Un examen des lettres de Hopkins à ses collègues poètes Robert Bridges et Richard Watson Dixon révèle que le sprung rhythm découle de l’inscape, sa théorie de base. La technique du sprung rhythm consiste donc en l’application de l’inscape au schéma métrique de la poésie. Cette étude établit d’abord une définition opérationnelle de chacune de ces théories pour ensuite les appliquer aux manuscrits afin de déterminer dans quelle mesure Hopkins y adhérait et les exploitait lors de la rédaction de deux de ses poèmes canoniques, God’s Grandeur et The Windhover. L’étude s’inscrit ainsi dans le champ de la critique génétique, une approche mise au point en France, particulièrement à l’Institut des textes et manuscrits modernes (ITEM). Ce sont donc sur des oeuvres littéraires françaises ou sur des textes en prose qu’ont porté la majorité des analyses à ce sujet. Suppressions, ajouts, substitutions et constantes entre différentes versions témoignent de ce qu’étaient les priorités de Hopkins dans sa quête pour atteindre l’effet désiré. Par conséquent, cette thèse s’efforce de dévoiler la signification des théories poétiques de Hopkins en établissant leur genèse et leur application respectives dans deux de ses poèmes selon une perspective de critique génétique. Elle contribue également à enrichir la critique génétique en l’appliquant à des oeuvres littéraires écrites en anglais et sous forme de poésie plutôt que de prose. Enfin, son objectif ultime est de raviver l’intérêt pour le poète Hopkins en tant que sujet viable d’étude, et de favoriser l’appréciation de ses prouesses tant comme théoricien poétique que comme poète.

Author Profiling using SVMs and Word Embedding Averages — Notebook for PAN at CLEF 2016

In this paper, we describe one of the approaches of the participation of Universidade de Évora. Our approach is similar to usual methods where text is preprocessed, features are extracted, and then used in SVMs with cross validation. The main difference is that features used come from averages of word embeddings, specifically word2vec vectors. Using PAN 2016 dataset, we were able to achieve 44.8% and 68.2% for English age and gender classification respectively. We were also able to achieve 51.3% and 67.1% accuracy for Spanish age and gender classification. Finally, we report 71.9% accuracy for Dutch age classification.

University students’ depression : a cross-cultural investigation

Australian, Iranian and Portuguese university students (N = 967) completed University Students Depression Inventory (USDI; Khawaja & Bryden, 2006) in English, Persian, and Portuguese languages respectively. A series of MANOVA were used to examine differences in depression symptoms as an effect of the country and demographic variables. Interactions were also examined. The results indicated that country, gender, and year level had some impact on the depressive symptoms of the university students. Australian students were more depressed than the Iranian and Portuguese students, while Iranian students were more depressed than the Portuguese students. Subscales of USDI: Lethargy, Motivation, and Cognitive/Emotional were also used to compare the depressive symptoms of students. The Australian female students reported a significantly higher level of lethargy than their male counterparts. Similarly, the first year male students from Iran were significantly more lethargic than the first year Iranian female students. Iranian and Portuguese male students, compared to the female students of these countries, experienced a lower level of motivation. The Australian and Iranian students, compared to the Portuguese students, reported a significantly higher level of cognitive and affective symptoms. The scores on the Cognitive/Emotional subscale increased with the year level. Differences among students’ depression are described and implications discussed.

Front page schools, back page schools : a case study of factors perceived to affect academic performance in five Papua New Guinea secondary schools

Papua New Guinea has reformed its colonial established education system and made huge investments with the help of donors to achieve equal access and quality education for all its citizens. Despite this national aspiration and these policy reforms and investments, secondary schools that enrol grade 9 students who are relatively equal in education ability show huge disparities in their grade 10 academic performances. This study examined perceptions of students, teachers and principals regarding factors affecting the disparity in academic performance in the context of a developing country. The central question for the study is: What are the perceptions of students and teachers of the factors that affect disparities in secondary schools' academic performance? This qualitative case study involved two high and three low academic performing secondary schools in Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. Primary data were collected through focus groups and semi-structured interviews involving 112 participants. Students and teachers are key participants in this study, as it intends to find out the realities of schools, yet they are an under-researched group. A postcolonial and sense of community conceptual framework was developed for the analysis of the participants. perceptions. In addition, scholarship on school effectiveness and equity in education informed the interpretation of the findings. Three themes were evident in participants. views. First, participants expressed their view that differences in academic performance were related to the adequacy and equitability of resources. The inequities in resource inputs led some of them to coin the metaphor of .back page and front page. schools. Second, many expressed the view that deficiencies in implementing bilingual education, given the difficulty of catering for 800 vernacular languages, contribute to poor English proficiency and subsequent poor academic performance. Finally, participants believed that, in order to have a positive school culture, it is necessary for educators to recognise and respect contemporary students. identities, communal/tribal membership and needs. This study has implications for national education policy on resource allocation to address equality and equity, bilingual education and teacher education. Moreover, as the study found that high academic performance in this context is also influenced by intra-school social relationships, these relationships need to be nurtured. When appropriately nurtured, they become an important factor in sustaining quality education for all secondary school students. This thesis has laid the foundations for further research and invites further investigations into policy and implementation of school reforms aimed at improving academic achievement.

Changing practices

The paper suggests new approaches to the teaching of literature by introducing poststructuralist concepts that challenge traditional reader response approaches to engaging with texts. It compares the responses of two groups of student readers, a graduate class preparing to become teachers of English and a secondary English class, and concludes that readers produce readings not only from the words on the page but from a range of cultural and historical positions already available to them. The paper explores concepts such as textual ‘gaps and silences’ and ‘intertextuality’ through examples of activities that have been designed for use with students of English and literature.

Factors affecting the motivation of TEFL academics in higher education in China

This study investigates the motivation of English language lecturers in a Chinese university. Recent studies have shown that low morale and job dissatisfaction are significant problems identified in lecturers who teach English in universities in China. Given the importance of teaching English as a second language in China, this problem has potentially significant ramifications for the nation’s future. Low staff morale is likely to be associated with less effective teaching and poor student learning outcomes. Although the problem is acknowledged, there has been limited research to understand the underlying contributing factors. To address this, a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach was adopted and implemented in two phases at a large regional university in Northern China. The participants in the main study were 100 lecturers from two colleges at this university. All of the lecturers were responsible for teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL); 50 were teaching English majors and 50 were teaching university students whose majors were not English. The research was informed by a synthesis of self determination theory and theories of organisational culture. The study found: 1) in contrast to previously reported studies, lecturers in this institution were in general autonomously motivated in teaching. 2) However, their level of motivation was influenced by their personal experiences and varied sense of competence, relatedness and autonomy. 3) In particular, personal experiences and contextual factors such as the influence of Chinese culture, societal context, and organisational climate were significant in regulating lecturers’ motivation to teach. The findings are significant for leaders in higher education who need to implement policies that foster effective work environments. The study has also provided insights into the capacity of self determination theory to explain motivation in a Chinese culture.

The promise of Iceland

Memoir, 288 pages. An account of journeys made by the author from Australia to Iceland as a way of interrogating notions of cultural belonging, family, and homecoming. "In 1990, Kári Gíslason travelled to Iceland to meet his father for the first time. What he finds is not what he expected. Born from a secret liaison between a British mother and an Icelandic father, Kári Gíslason was the subject of a promise – a promise elicited from his father to not reveal his identity. The Icelandic city of Reykjavík, where Kári was born, was also home to his father and his father’s wife and five children – none of whom knew of Kári’s existence. Moving regularly between Iceland and Australia, he grew up aware of his father’s identity, but understanding that it was the subject of a secret pact between his parents. At the age of 27, he makes a decision to break the pact and contacts his father’s other family. What follows, and what leads him there, makes for a riveting journey over landscapes, time and memory. Kári travels from the freezing cold winters of Iceland to the shark net at Sydney’s Balmoral, an unsettled life in the English countryside and the harsh yellow summer of Brisbane, and back again. He traces the steps of his mother who answered an ad in The Times for an English-speaking secretary in 1970 and found herself in Iceland among the ‘Army of Foreign Secretaries’, and in the arms of a secret lover. Iceland becomes the substitute for the father Kári never really knew as he discovers the meaning of ‘home’ and closes the circle of his own fatherless life."-- publisher website

Practical insights into curricula integration for primary science

As indicated in a previous Teaching Science article, effective planning for curricula integration requires using standards from two (or more) subject areas (e.g., science and English, science and art or science and mathematics), which also becomes the assessment foci for teaching and learning. Curricula integration of standards into an activity necessitates pedagogical knowledge for developing students’ learning in both subject areas. For science education, the skills and tools for curricula integration include the use of other key learning areas (KLAs). A balance between teacher and student-centred science education programs that draw on democratic processes (e.g., Beane, 1997) can be used to make real-world links to target students’ individual needs. This article presents practical ways to commence thinking about curricula integration towards using Australian curriculum standards.

Whom to group with - a Bourdieusian narrative analysis of international students in an Australian university

Introduction to the topic or context and/or mapping of the literature Increasing degree-seeking, self-funded, international students from affluent Asian countries, who use English as an additional language (EAL), have contributed to cultural and linguistic diversities in Australian universities. Such diversities further posed challenges in pedagogy and assessment. In particular, these students' English proficiency and cultural attributes were highlighted as factors in productive group discussions, and equitable group assessment. The focus in the research literature thus far is on how EAL international students can better English proficiency and adaptability to group participation. However, little is known from sociological perspectives about the power relations involved in EAL students' choice of group members in group discussions.

The minority report : disproportionate representation in Australia’s largest education system

The overrepresentation of students from minority ethnic groups in separate special education settings has been extensively documented in North America, yet little research exists for Australian school systems. To address this gap, we systematically analyzed 13 years of enrolment data from the state of New South Wales. Stark differences are seen in patterns of enrolment between Indigenous students, students from a Language Background Other than English (LBOTE), and non-Indigenous English speaking students. Moreover, these differences are increasing. While enrollments of Indigenous students in separate settings increased faster across time than did enrollments of Indigenous students in mainstream, enrollments of LBOTE students in mainstream increased faster than did enrollments of LBOTE students in separate settings.

Honesty about adverse events - more honoured in the breach than in the observance

The medical board of Australia Code of conduct reminds doctors that" "When adverse events occur, you have a responsibility to be open and honest in your communication with your patient, to review what has occurred and to report appropriately." More honoured in the breach rather than the observence may or may not be correct. Faced with the English concerns and the Netherlands research, an evidence based assessment of compliance with the ethical duty to disclose adverse events is warranted.

Sexual abuse prevention education

Child sexual abuse is a serious problem that has received increased attention in recent years. From an ecological perspective, in which social problems are viewed in the context of characteristics of individuals, families, and broader societal systems (Prilleltensky, Peirson, & Nelson, 2001), preventing child sexual abuse involves strengthening capacity to intervene at individual, family/relationship, school, and community levels. School-based education programs have been developed in efforts to prevent child sexual abuse before it happens and to provide children who may already be experiencing it with help seeking information. Use of these programs must be based on evidence rather than ideology. Evaluations of these programs have demonstrated that sexual abuse prevention education can provide children with improved knowledge and skills for responding to and reporting potential sexual abuse. However, this learning does not seem to be maintained over time which means further attention should be given to repeated learning, opportunities for concept reinforcement and integration with other topics. School-based programs typically present information to children by presenting a series of core concepts and messages which are delivered using engaging pedagogical strategies such as multi-media technologies, animations, theatre and songs, puppets, picture books, and games. This chapter will outline the key characteristics of effective child sexual abuse prevention programs, and will provide directions for future research and practice.