Digital Commons Network^™

Methods Of A Narrative Inquirist: Storying The Endured Teacher Identity, Taylor Norman

The Qualitative Report

While I was a young English language arts teacher, my teacher identity matured in a nurturing environment cultivated by my veteran colleagues. Finding that this is not the common narrative told by beginning teachers (Alsup, 2019, 2006; Danielewicz, 2001), I wondered what impact sharing the stories of my veteran colleagues could have on young teachers. The purpose of this paper is to explain why narrative inquiry fit the parameters of this particular inquiry, what methods were utilized and how the project was constructed. Like Spector-Mersel (2011), I intend to describe my use of narrative inquiry to expand its conceptual and …

The Impact Of War On U.S. Army Leader Self-Development Domain In The Early 21st Century, Stephen D. Pomper

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research examines senior U.S. Army officer leaders’ propensity and appreciation to engage in self-devolvement and to develop their junior leaders. The research compares what the Army is prescribing to its leaders with what they are actually saying and doing. It focuses on the decade before the Global War on Terrorism, during the high-tempo war period, and the last ten years. We find that the past 19 years of war have impacted the U.S. Army in countless ways. One is arguably on its most precious capability—its active officer leaders. As the Army rose to war-related challenges, it did so …

Using Monuments To Teach About Racism, Colonialism, And Sexism, Susan Phillip

Publications and Research

This chapter examines how an interdisciplinary high-impact practice approach to teaching and learning using selected contested monuments can reveal intersections of racism, colonialism, and sexism, and lay the foundation for students’ civic engagement. In place-based and virtual experiences, students observe and investigate local and national monuments, integrating knowledge from multiple disciplines, including history, psychology, art, culture, and tourism. Students make critical analyses about how monuments reveal power relationships in our society. Students from various disciplines explore the origin of contested monuments, the evolving national and local debates around them, and their effect on students’ learning to evaluate historical, contemporary, and …

A Cross-Cultural Study On The Relationship Between Environmental Awareness And Social Media Use: Saudi Arabia Vs United States, Mohammed Alsahafi

Theses

For many countries today, environmental sustainability is a subject of concern, and the world has witnessed the rise of environmental activism in recent years. Social media is increasingly being used by relevant stakeholders to raise environmental awareness. This study explores the relationship between social media use and environmental awareness from a cross-cultural perspective. Building upon previous research, this study compares social media use, environmental awareness, and their relationship between Saudi Arabian and American college students. Survey data was collected from a convenient sample of 266 Saudi Arabian and 290 American college students on their use of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram …

Metaphor And Emotiveness As Rhetorical Devices In Abbas’S Address To The Pope, Aysar Yaseen

Journal of the Arab American University مجلة الجامعة العربية الامريكية للبحوث

Managing any linguistic event means steering the situation towards serving one’s own purpose or goals via careful wording of one’s message. This is immensely achieved through using emotive words that address the receiver’s emotions rather than his/her intellect since managing linguistic occurrences is closely intertwined with subjectivity and emotiveness. In other words, language must be warm, intimate, and sentimental and addresses conscience to effect persuasion. Furthermore, Language is the carrier of image. For the image to be understood, two conditions must be met. First, image must be accessible, i.e. exists or can be imagined in the immediate context and culture. …

Mummy Cave; North Fork Shoshone River; Park County, Wyoming, Timothy Andrews

Conspectus Borealis

Mummy Cave represents the silence of the Sheepeater Shoshone. Little evidence of human occupation can survive this close to the river. The bank is low and rocky, with a thin deposit of alluvial soil, from the present shoreline to the angle of the ridge, where the ruddy breccia and tuff rise acutely, providing a rockface where the erosive action of the frigid mountain water could lap over eons at the igneous wall to form a shallow overhang. Camp placement in this proximity to a river was likely common, making use of a broad level riverbank to live close to water …

Looking At Environmental Consciousness Through The Lenses Of Morphic Fields And Systems Theory, Johara Bellali

Journal of Conscious Evolution

This paper is an exploration of a space in which questions of self-determination and planetary crises can co-exist. It swims in uncomfortable seas of accepting that environmental consciousness is as innate as our existence, and at the same time not aligned to healthy ecosystems. In this paper, I will first explore environmental consciousness from an ecosystem perspective and present some self-organizing principles of our systems; then I will look into our perceptions, awareness, and sensing of them and finally propose an understanding of how the morphic fields in ecosystems and the creative flow of the life force co-exist in our …

Centaur Mind: A Glimpse Into An Integrative Structure Of Consciousness, Azin Izadifar

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Jean Gebser’s theory of consciousness suggests that we are experiencing a new era in the history of consciousness. Human consciousness moves like a pendulum. The current Integral Structure of Consciousness is not unprecedented, yet we are experiencing it in a multi-layered, deeper, and vaster way. Centaurs are imaginal creatures that first appeared within the Mythical Structure of Consciousness, making a bridge between the unity of the Magical and the duality of Mental structures. In this paper, I view the centaurs through the lenses of mythology and archetypal depth psychology and discuss the critical role of this mythic figure in the …

The Journey Back To Wholeness That Already Is, Jenna Dishy Wes

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Sunrise’s father had had lost his own, rather impactfully at the tender age of seven, just as he was transitioning into what Piaget called the Concrete Operations Period. “With this change, he (began) to behave in many ways much like an adult and, indeed, in terms of lines for the self and moral reasoning, many adults never grow past this stage” (Combs, 2009). And so would be the case for Sunrise’s father. Having never been given the tools or guidance to heal from such trauma, he resorted to substances that subdued what it was he could not face. Sunrise …

An Exploration Of Linguistic Relativity Theory For Consideration Of Terence Mckenna’S “Stoned Ape Theory” On The Origins Of Consciousness And Language: Implications For Language Pedagogy, Nicole Lopez

Journal of Conscious Evolution

The “linguistic turn” from the early 20^th century created a shift in the ontological underpinnings of various disciplines within the social sciences. Several key figures asserted that much of what we think of as reality is constructed based on a system of social institution that we call language. Language shifted to becoming a fundamental aspect of the ontological realities within a given discipline in the social sciences. Most significant to my understanding of the relationship between language, its origins, and the emergence of higher forms of human consciousness is Terence McKenna’s Stoned Ape Theory. In this article, …

The Structure, State, And Stream Of Mary Consciousness In The Quest For The Knowing Body, Christine Dennis

Journal of Conscious Evolution

The science of consciousness has traditionally situated knowledge creation in the mind, and thus, marginalizes the knowing body. Returning to the body requires a decolonization of consciousness in Euro-Western research paradigms and in our bodies. This research is grounded in the spirituality indigenous to my Latinx matrilineage known as Mary consciousness, which frames the body as an epistemic pillar of knowledge creation. A feminist fleshing of the knowing body displaces the centrality of the mind by elevating indigenous ways of knowing. Material feminist worldviews contribute by expressing the degree to which the body has been marginalized as a valid source …

A Whiteheadian Innervation Of The Soma: A New Vision For The Peripheral Nervous System, David Milliern

Journal of Conscious Evolution

This essay draws attention to two problems in neuroscience’s set of assumptions. These self-defeating assumptions include: 1) the assumption that what the nervous system, especially the brain, does is synthesize experience, while also assuming philosophical realism, and 2) the problem of biological signal transduction. In the latter, neuroscientists and philosophers of biology have left unaddressed the issue that the signal differences between the inside and outside of the organismic boundary are of distinct ontological types; and yet no concern has been expressed regarding how it is possible that an organism’s inner states could reflect the experiential content flowing from outside …

Feasting On Words: What University Students Learn When They Study Food Writing And Food Media, Janet K. Keeler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of food in college curriculum is unique in its ability to create lasting impact because of the keen interest millennial and Generation Z students have in what they eat and drink. Studying media with food at its core is an underutilized mechanism to show how food intersects with the lives of all people thus encouraging students to look beyond their own experiences to consider the wider society. A program evaluation of 10 semesters of food writing and food media courses at a Florida public university reveals the ways in which students make deeper connections to culture and current …

The Value Of Xinjiang Class Education To Ethnic Minority Students, Their Families And Community: A Capability Approach, Xin Su, Neil Harrison, Robyn Moloney

The Qualitative Report

In this article, the authors investigated how families of Xinjiang class students perceive the benefits of the Xinjiang class policy for students. Based on the work of Melanie Walker, the authors adopted the capability approach as an analytical tool and collected data through in-depth interviews with families of Xinjiang class students over three months of fieldwork in Xinjiang and eastern China. The authors obtained a list of seven functional capabilities that illuminate the value of Xinjiang class education, and complaints that need to be addressed in the future. The results demonstrate how the benefits of Xinjiang class education, from a …

“Surveilling The Maternal Body”: A Critical Examination Through Foucault’S Panopticon, Sarah Symonds Leblanc

The Qualitative Report

This article analyzes my personal experience of having a maternal body through autoethnographic means. Being pregnant is a time of celebration, but moms experience private and public changes in their bodies. These public changes continue during the postpartum period. Ground in Foucault’s panopticon, this paper explores how the maternal body undergoes self-surveillance as well as surveillance by the proverbial others. I provide vignettes and personal experiences to highlight the panopticon: moms self-surveil but moms are also being surveilled when in the public eye. I make the argument of how the maternal body is a site of surveillance often used to …

Using Indigenous Research Frameworks In The Multiple Contexts Of Research, Teaching, Mentoring, And Leading, Darryl Reano

The Qualitative Report

Indigenous research frameworks can be used to effectively engage Indigenous communities and students in Western modern science through transparent and respectful communication. Currently, much of the academic research taking place within Indigenous communities marginalizes Indigenous Knowledge, does not promote long-term accountability to Indigenous communities and their relations, and withholds respect for the spiritual values that many Indigenous communities embrace. Indigenous research frameworks address these concerns within the academic research process by promoting values such as: relationality, multilogicality, and the centralization of Indigenous perspectives. Indigenous research frameworks provide a framework that can be used in multiple contexts within higher education to …

The Long-Term Effects Of Japan’S Traumatic Experience In The Second World War And Its Implications For Peace In Northeast Asia, Eugen Koh, Tadashi Takeshima

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article is an introductory report on the work of a Japanese study group whose primary aim is peacemaking, which it seeks by promoting a greater understanding of the long-term effects of their country’s traumatic experience of the Second World War. The group does not adopt a position of victimhood but seeks to understand the full picture of Japan’s role in the war, including its role as perpetrator. We came together with the shared assumption that the country’s inability to take responsibility for its role of the war is inextricably tied to its own traumatization. If this assumption is true, …

P-Cresol Biogenesis During Bioremediation Aimed At Stimulating Chlorinated Solvent Dehalogenation, Alexis Gathings

LSU Master's Theses

The broad goal of the research described in this thesis was to better understand the potential for biologically mediated production of p-cresol in groundwater at a Superfund site located in south Louisiana. Previous literature reports that microorganisms known to carry out the transformation from L-tyrosine to p-cresol occur in diverse environments.

In the research described in this thesis, studies were conducted utilizing groundwater from the Superfund site during the course of enhanced in situ bioremediation practices aimed at stimulating reductive dehalogenation of chlorinated solvent contamination. Microbial communities established with groundwater sampled from the Superfund site were observed to …

Demechanizing Whiteness: Lessons From Theatre Of The Oppressed, Elizabeth J. Simpson

Spect-actor: A Journal of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed

The Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) provides small group techniques to strategize and “rehearse” for collaborative liberation using popular education forms of systems analysis, bolstered by practices that counter implicit biases and habituated behaviors. This essay draws on interviews with jokers at CTO-Rio to advocate the need for continual engagement of demechanizing practices both within TO and in the lives of practitioners in order to demechanize the tenets of white supremacy that we are born into, despite our essential loving nature, with particular focus on counteracting a the habit of exploiting Black suffering for creative capital.

Don't Poke The Bear - A Project Report, Nicole Kontolefa, Grace Cannon

Spect-actor: A Journal of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed

In 2018, four applied theatre practioners created a forum theatre play and workshop for a small Wyoming community. They wanted to engage participants in a dialogue about inclusion, racism and homophobia, in particular how it manifests in a state known as the "Equality State."

Forum theatre focuses on a protagonist experiencing oppression and how they may break their own bonds. In this report, two of the facilitators and creators reflect on how using forum theatre to follow the actions (or inaction) of a potential ally in a play about the exclusion of a gay woman of color was useful in …

Highlander Center: Hotlines And Cultural Bazaars, Je Naé Taylor

Spect-actor: A Journal of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed

Since the pandemic’s arrival,Highlander has created specially tailored on-line community-building spaces, programs, and re-granting opportunities for artists working at the intersection of cultural production and social change. This report documents two examples. The first is a “Cultural Workers Hotline” for BIPOC artists to share struggles, needs, and strategies for (a) coping with the impact of the pandemic on their livelihoods and (b) creating change-oriented artistic responses to the pandemic in their communities. Highlander staff have held multiple weekly virtual spaces for all of our programs, and each gathering has employed an artist to be a graphic note taker. Illustrations are …

Joker Exchange Online - Meeting The Risks And Opportunities Of The Covid-19 Crisis, Uri Yitzchak Noy Meir, Anne Larcher

Spect-actor: A Journal of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed

In this article, we narrate and analyse patterns of engagement and harvest key learning from the Joker Exchange Online (JEO) events on 11th April and May 2nd. We map the impact of these online events to inform future events as an effective collective response/strategy to global challenges. At the same time, we are Theatre of the Oppressed practitioners who attended/presented in the JEO, and this informs our research and engaged interest in theatre and community work on the margins of theatre, activism, and social change. The article has three parts: the first part look at the “triggers” for the Joker …

Virtual Newspaper Theatre: Zoom As A Theatrical Playing Space, Nabra Nelson

Spect-actor: A Journal of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed

This article presents findings from a virtual Newspaper Theatre workshop that took place via Zoom on May 5, 2020 through Seattle Rep. Nelson reflects on the way that the constraints of the Zoom format can add meaning to Theatre of the Oppressed performance techniques in the era of quarantine and social distancing due to COVID-19. The article describes elements of the one-minute performances created during the one-and-a-half-hour workshop, and how the virtual sphere interacted with them and even enhanced them in meaningful ways. Nelson also describes “production” elements unique to Zoom, and the nature of the virtual “spect-actor.”

Application Of Applied Theatre Online With Children And Its Effects In The Indian Perspective During Covid Age, Chetna Mehrotra, Sooraj Amin, Roshan Karkera, Viral Champaneri

Spect-actor: A Journal of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed

Applied Theatre in general and Theatre of the Oppressed in particular have been put into practice for a long time now. Right since when Augusto Boal started Theatre of the Oppressed in the 1960's the tools have been utilized in many oppressive situations. Augusto focused on marginalized societies and their people. He believed that every individual who is not allowed to voice out their opinion, thoughts (political, social), views, and choices can be considered to be oppressed.

Today, in the year 2020 with the current crisis of the breakout of the communicable virus Covid 19 everyone is forced to stay …

Joker's Log 2020: An Odyssey, Julian Pimiento

Spect-actor: A Journal of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed

Join our passengers as we embark on a voyage of Theatre of the Oppressed discovery during the destabilization of 2020. Experience one Joker’s facilitating choices and how those decisions led to unexpected pedagogical destinations.

The Year In Review, 2019-2020, Rachel Desoto-Jackson, Reg Flowers

Spect-actor: A Journal of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed

The work of the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed organization and its members remains vital. As we reflect on the 2019-2020 organization cycle, we share with you the ways in which the PTO organization has continued to grow amidst these global shifts. We continue to embrace the challenges and opportunities of this moment and continue to support people whose work challenges oppressive systems by promoting critical thinking and social justice through liberatory theatre and popular education.

Theatre Of The Beat’S Restorative Justice Theatre Program: Highlights From The Baseline Evaluation, Karen Nelson, Keely Kavcic, Courtney Primeau, Kimberlee Walker

Spect-actor: A Journal of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed

This report highlights the findings from the evaluation of Theatre of the Beat’s (TOTB) Restorative Justice Theatre Program, which works with incarcerated persons at the Grand Valley Institution for Women (GVIW), a federal prison in Kitchener, Ontario. The project was conducted by the Research Shop, part of the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) at the University of Guelph, in partnership with Theatre of the Beat (TOTB), a not-for-profit theatre company with a process rooted in restorative justice principles and a passion for promoting conversations around social justice.

Abbreviating Boal At The Louisiana Old State Capitol Museum: Using Image Theatre, Bonny Mcdonald, Joshua Hamzehee, Naomi P. Bennett, Montana Smith

Spect-actor: A Journal of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed

This article describes the execution of and reflections of a Theatre of the Oppressed workshop offered in 2017 to middle and high school groups visiting the Louisiana Old State Capitol Museum on half-day field trips. The workshops accompanied The Power of Children: Making a Difference exhibit, which features the stories and struggles of Ruby Bridges, Ryan White, and Anne Frank. Despite initial plans for an hour-long session, the workshop designed to connect youth participant experiences to the stories of the children featured in the exhibit was cut to only fifteen minutes. Our group of four facilitators discusses ways we modified …

Rehearsing For Transformation: Theatre Of The Oppressed, Pedagogy And Human Rights, Amir Al-Azraki

Spect-actor: A Journal of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed

The report showcases a series of TO training workshops and projects in several contexts and settings. The aim of the report is to show how TO techniques and forms could contribute to the transformation of the learning environment and the social justice issues relevant to diverse communities across cultures (North America, Latin America, Middle East). It highlights and facilitates critical discourse and interchange through working with various participants (students, faculty, refugees, women, artists, prison staff etc.) and tackling significant issues such as trauma, violence, oppression, discrimination, gender inequality and homophobia. The report shows how TO could be used as a …

Forum Theatre On Post-Election Violence In Kenya, Mecca Burns, Caleb Seda, Bonface N. Beti

Spect-actor: A Journal of Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed

In August 2017, a Forum Theatre workshop focusing on the Prevention of Crime and Post-Election Violence, took place at Kerith Brook Secondary School, Nairobi, Kenya.