Digital Commons Network^™

On The Use Of Introspection In The Study Of Consciousness, Yaojun Lu

Dissertations - ALL

For the past half century, introspection has once again become a trusted source of knowledge in the study of consciousness. Some philosophers reflect on their own consciousness to draw metaphysical conclusions; some psychologists hypothesize observable regularities of consciousness by collecting introspective reports. They operate under the doctrine that first-person perspective provides a privileged access to the conscious mind. This dissertation is a critical examination of the use of introspection in the scientific and metaphysical study of consciousness. I first develop classic criticism of the privileged access, with a diagnosis of the failure of introspective psychology and a reflection on the …

Enhancing Graph Neural Networks By Editing Graphs, Jiayu Li

Dissertations - ALL

Graphs are pervasive in both the natural world and various domains of science and engineering. Numerous advanced classifiers, such as Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), have been developed to perform node classification on these graphs. However, as graphs become denser with an increasing number of edges, GNNs often suffer from suboptimal generalization performance due to the presence of task-irrelevant connections. These redundant connections can introduce noise, consume excessive computational resources, and degrade performance. Identifying and preserving critical connections in large-scale graphs, while pruning unnecessary ones, is crucial for enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of GNNs in node classification, particularly for GCNs. …

Mediating Roles To Develop Literacy Skills: A Formative Research Project Exploring Planning Tools Which Support Co-Practice For English Language Learners, Deborah Ann Moriarty

Dissertations - ALL

ABSTRACT Mediating Roles to Develop Literacy Skills: A Formative Research Project Exploring Planning Tools Which Support Co-practice for English Language Learners Educators are often required to mediate many factors while engaging in the act of literacy instruction. It is an insurmountable task to maneuver varied approaches, curricular expectations, achievement goals and overall system dynamics while teaching. This is confounded when teachers are differentiating to meet the needs of English language learners. The additional support of both literacy and English as a New Language (ENL) consultant teachers is intended to assist classroom teachers with this important work, however, collaboration becomes yet …

Overcoming Obstacles To Interdisciplinary Research: Empirical Insights And Strategies [Peer-Reviewed Journal], Cristo Leon Ph.D., James Lipuma Ph.D.

STEM for Success Resources

Explore how to overcome obstacles to interdisciplinary research with strategies for transdisciplinary communication, breaking silos, and fostering collaboration. Read insights from Cristo Leon and James Lipuma in this impactful study.

Mormonism Through The Lens Of Translation Studies, Gabriel González Núñez

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Most religious movements often have an invisible relationship to translation. This is the case for major religious traditions, such as Christianity. Among the Christian denominations, Mormonism is perhaps particular due to a quite visible relationship with translation. As a religious tradition that is very much rooted in and experienced through translation, it has caught the eye of translation scholars who have studied it to theorize on the nature of translation. However, much of this scholarship seems somewhat uninformed as to what scholars in the field of Mormon Studies have also been exploring regarding translation. And the opposite seems to also …

Citation Practices Of Contrasting Cultures In Q1 Journal Articles, April Rose C. Gonzales

Sinaya: A Philippine Journal for Senior High School Teachers and Students

Citation is a distinguishing feature in research writing that every researcher must include to ensure credible ethical research. Citing sources is necessary as it provides credit to the original author, refers to previous findings, sets credibility, and enables sustainability of the topic. However, studies least consider culture as an element that influences citation beliefs and practices. Most literature holds a lack of language proficiency as the culprit for poor citation skills. Drawing from Hofstede's Cultural Dimension theory (2011) and Lewis’ (2006) Cultural Behaviour in Relation to Writing, this study explores the influence of culture on citation practices with the hope …

Beyond Bindis, Bhajis, Bangles And Bhangra: Promoting Multiculturalism In Primary Schools In Predominantly White British Places, Suparna Bagchi

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

Twenty-first-century education as a powerful means of knowledge will possibly be shaped by the emphasis it places on having classrooms that are race-conscious and multicultural. The present article is based on a doctoral study that explores an under-researched area: experiences and understanding of multiculturalism in mainstream primary schools situated in the predominantly White places of Southwest England. The study was underpinned by a sociocultural theoretical framework; data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the adult participants, students’ classroom activities, and documentary analysis of school displays. The article focuses on the data generated from the students’ classroom activities. Findings show differences …

Privacy Protection In Machine Learning Via Exploitation Of Constrained Adversarial Evasion, Brian Testa

Dissertations - ALL

Deep neural networks are extensively applied to real-world tasks. In many cases, the data feeding these tasks are human generated content, which emphasizes the criticality of privacy and data protection. The diverse modalities of this user data provide fertile ground for 3rd parties to monetize a user’s data. This work considers two such modalities: user speech when interacting with smart speaker voice assistants (VAs) and images shared with online service providers. In these cases, the user would like to support some form of machine learning (ML) inference without allowing others. A user interacting with a smart speaker would like the …

Developing Naturalistic Precision Functional Mapping For High-Density Diffuse Optical Tomography, Aahana Bajracharya

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Advancements in non-invasive imaging have enabled extensive research into higher-order cognitive functions of the brain. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has provided valuable insights into brain networks underlying various cognitive processes. However, limitations such as confined environments and scanner noise pose challenges for fMRI to be broadly applicable across all demographics and experimental conditions, especially in speech and language studies. Because of this, there is a need for complementary techniques that can help understand the brain as it functions during everyday scenarios. High Density Diffuse Optical Tomography (HD-DOT) is an emerging functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based technique with comparative advantages over fMRI, …

Developing Naturalistic Precision Functional Mapping For High-Density Diffuse Optical Tomography, Aahana Bajracharya

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Advancements in non-invasive imaging have enabled extensive research into higher-order cognitive functions of the brain. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has provided valuable insights into brain networks underlying various cognitive processes. However, limitations such as confined environments and scanner noise pose challenges for fMRI to be broadly applicable across all demographics and experimental conditions, especially in speech and language studies. Because of this, there is a need for complementary techniques that can help understand the brain as it functions during everyday scenarios. High Density Diffuse Optical Tomography (HD-DOT) is an emerging functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based technique with comparative advantages over fMRI, …

Technology And Language Learning: Exposure To Tv And Radio News And Speaking Proficiency, Taher Bahrani, Tam Shu Sim

Kritika Kultura

Technology has dominated the world by extensive improvements in audio/visual mass media such as TV and radio. TV and radio are not just entertainment tools anymore, but can be used as pedagogically valuable technology that can provide authentic language input for language learning. This study examines the effect of exposure to TV and radio news on improving EFL learners’ speaking proficiency. To achieve this purpose, a speaking proficiency test is administered to 200 language learners, with 60 intermediate language learners selected and randomly divided into Groups 1 and 2. During the experiment, Group 1 participants are exposed to TV and …

Writing Philippine History Of Ideas And Fernando Amorsolo's Modern Art, Jovino G. Miroy

Kritika Kultura

Writing Philippine history of ideas requires that we problematize the discipline of intellectual history itself. Rethinking of itself vis-a-vis cultural and social history, Philippine history of ideas would no longer rehearse the development of philosophy in the Philippines, but also of art, religion, etc. The paper discusses how Amorsolo may be considered a modern painter. Amorsolo’s art eludes comprehension because his notion of subjectivity as well as intersubjectivity transgresses the Cartesian break between subject and object. As a modern painter, he positioned himself as an individualist, but was still able to communicate to his culture.

"Transmedial Aesthetics Is Ordinary": Some Remarks On Victor Eriche's The Spirit Of The Beehive, Jan Baetens

Kritika Kultura

Focusing on Victor Erice’s 1973 movie, The Spirit of the Beehive, this article proposes to rethink the problem of adaptation with the help of the concept of “experience” (freely borrowed from Dewey). The emphasis on the reception of a given work (in this case James Whale’s 1931 Frankenstein, a very particular screening of which is part of the movie’s diegesis) will foreground the importance of the process of intermedialization or “intermediality in action,” an all-encompassing culturally embedded experience, which is more existential than aesthetic.

What, And Where, Is Philippine Studies? A Response, Charlie Samuya Veric

Kritika Kultura

The paper responds to the papers on Philippine Studies presented in the 126th MLA Annual Convention. The panel consists of T. Ruanni F. Tupas, Jeffrey Arellano Cabusao, Cynthia Tolentino, and Vicente L. Rafael. The paper contends that what is most instructive of these papers is their cogent treatment of Philippine Studies as a problem, a mode of critical inquiry, more than a field of studies. The paper challenges scholars to explore Philippine Studies in a truly transnational perspective, to look for Filipino imaginaries beyond the United States, in unexpected sites.

Decolonizing Knowledges: Asian American Studies, Carlos Bulosan, And Insurgent Filipino Diasporic Imagination, Jeffrey Arellano Cabusao

Kritika Kultura

The current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have compelled interdisciplinary scholars to seek new methods of engaging US Empire. This essay will attempt to outline an emerging critique-al strand of Filipino Cultural Studies that challenges the limitations of the “cultural turn” through its connection to the larger goal of creating movements for social justice. Over the past few years, new forms of Filipino American scholarship have advanced a unique tradition of class analysis developed by earlier generations of Filipino cultural workers and activists. In addition to this new development, Filipino American cultural workers have created politically conscious art through their …

The New Challenge Of The Mother Tongues: The Future Of Philippine Postcolonial Language Politics, T. Ruanni F. Tupas

Kritika Kultura

For much of postcolonial language politics around the world, the fight has largely been between a foreign (read: colonial) language and (a) dominant local language(s). This is true in the Philippines where the debates have focused on English and Filipino, the Tagalog-based national language. In recent years, however, the mother tongues have posed a challenge to the ideological structure of the debates. Although local languages have long been acknowledged as positively contributing to the enhancement of learning in school, they have been co-opted mostly as a nationalist argument against English, American (neo)colonialism and imperialist globalization. The current initiatives to establish …

Philippine Studies And The End Of The American Century, Cynthia Tolentino

Kritika Kultura

The current struggles over US military bases and territorial sovereignty in the Pacific, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the phenomenon of globalization, alongside what is being called the “end of the American Century,” have pushed interdisciplinary scholars to develop new frameworks for engaging US Empire. The paper attempts to draw out the various figurations of “Philippine Studies” and “US empire” in the papers, which may include analyses of comparative colonialisms, class and participation in social justice movements, as well as the intersections between globalization and imperial conquest. By considering the papers’ insights on disciplinary formation and knowledge practices, the …

Childhood And Family In Contemporary Children's Fiction: Resilience, Agency, And Emergence Of New Gender Norms, Rosario Torres-Yu

Kritika Kultura

New awareness of re-thinking childhood in the emergent field of childhood studies inspires production of new discourse on social construction of childhood in literature. This paper looks at contemporary children’s literature in the Philippines from this perspective and within the context of the globalization and transnationalization of care giving. Its interrogation of selected children’s books and literature for young adult reveals that the traditional concept of childhood is now being challenged and resisted. Cognizant of the need to sustain this direction of literary production, this paper posits that children’s literature in the country should mainstream this new thinking so that …

Global Feminisms And The Polish "Woman": Reading Popular Culture Representations Through Stories Of Activism Since 1989, Magdalena J. Zaborowska, Justine M. Pas

Kritika Kultura

This article examines ten interviews with Polish feminist activists conducted by the Women’s Center “eFka” in Kraków and gathered by the Global Feminisms Project at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Employing intersectional and interdisciplinary approaches, it reads this collection in the context of Polish discourses on womanhood and femininity following the post-communist transition of 1989. The interviews offer a unique perspective on gender formations and invite us to think of the Other Europe beyond the clash of approaches to the region that have positioned it between the extremes of …

Neuroqueering As Culturally Sustaining Practice, Nathan Hughes, Meaghan Krazinski

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This article explores how neuroqueering can be a complementary component to culturally-sustaining practices (Paris & Alim, 2014), and explores how culturally sustaining frameworks can affirm neurodiversity. Issues such as criminalization of Autistic people of color, and implications of diagnosis disparities and barriers to receiving services are well known (Kearl, 2021). As Gordon (2021) notes, Centering Autistic culture (#BlackAutisticJoy) and ways of being is an important part of affirming Autistic students' identities. Culturally sustaining practices (Paris & Alim, 2014) that seek to provide supportive classroom spaces that affirm students’ culture and identity must also include attention to …

Interview With Cyndee Landrum: Usm Slis Graduate And Acting Director Imls, Gabriel Morley, E.D.

SLIS Connecting

Cyndee Landrum, a 2006 graduate of the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at The University of Southern Mississippi was named acting director of the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), an independent federal agency charged with supporting and empowering the country’s libraries. Dr. Morley interviewed her history and her perception of the future.

Attack On Titan Anime Memes: Possible Meanings And Interpretations By Young Adults., Yee-Lin Teo, Sze Seau Lee, Xin Jie Lim

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Memes have unpredictable and diverse interpretations because of their tendencies to be parodies, remixes, or mashups. This study aims to examine the possible meanings which memes may express and the interpretations of memes by young adults within the affinity space of Attack on Titan anime memes. The two-phase methodology involves analysing the memes using Shifman’s analytical dimensions of content, form, and stance, before conducting in-depth interviews with ten young adults who represent insiders and outsiders of the affinity space. The findings discuss how Attack on Titan memes normalise sexualisation, violence, and struggles such as suicidal intentions in young adults. The …

Educative Leadership Of Curriculum Development Reconceptualized As Leadership Of Personal, Group, Institutional And System Learning, Reynold Js Macpherson

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

This paper reconceptualizes educative leadership as leadership of learning, integrating advancements in curriculum development, epistemological diversity, and ethical imperatives within a holistic pragmatic framework.

Leadership of learning positions leaders as facilitators of dynamic educational ecosystems that align curriculum goals with pluralistic epistemologies, practical solutions, and contextual relevance. Recent curriculum trends—such as personalized learning, competency-based education, cultural responsiveness, and socio-emotional learning—reflect an embrace of constructivist and critical approaches, emphasizing inclusivity and adaptability.

Holistic pragmatism strengthens these developments, advocating for curriculum designs that are theoretically sound and practically relevant, fostering co-construction of knowledge through active engagement.

Organizational development (OD) theory enriches this …

Full Issue - Excelsior, V17-1

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

Invent A Kid Project: Fostering Creative Reflective Practice In Teacher Candidates, Karen Poland, Mary Ellen Bardsley, Paul Vermette

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

A primary goal of teacher education programs is to equip teacher candidates with the necessary skills to navigate the social and cultural realities and complexities of the classroom while seamlessly integrating theory and practice. As our classrooms become more socially, economically, and culturally diverse it is important for teachers to evolve into developmentally and culturally responsive individuals who can incorporate a variety of teaching strategies to meet the unique needs of each student. However, novice teachers often face challenges in meeting the individual needs of students due to their lack of experience, classroom management challenges, time constraints, the complexity of …

Translanguaging In Middle Level Education, Helen Brandon, Ellis Hurd

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

This case study explores the experiences of two teacher candidates (TCs) in professional development school (PDS) settings with multilingual learners. While valuing multilingual learner’s diverse linguistic backgrounds and language repertoires by drawing from a toolkit of responsive practices, the TCs embraced but struggled with layering translanguaging into their classroom practices. It also examines the middle grades program that these TCs attended while centering asset-based thinking and culturally responsive practices. Overall, this study shows that teacher education programs must include another critical layer to TCs’ experiences: building the toolkit of middle school cooperating teachers (CTs). This study also serves as a …

Early Childhood Teachers’ Perspectives On Implementing Developmentally Appropriate Practice During Online Instruction, Charmaine Bonds

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Early childhood teachers had to restructure instruction when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and instruction was completed online. The problem was that early childhood teachers faced challenges using developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) in online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore early childhood teachers’ perspectives on implementing DAP in online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic and what they needed to improve their use of quality DAP online instruction. The conceptual framework comprised the DAP and the positive technology development theories. The research questions were used to explore pre-K and kindergarten teachers' perspectives on …

Counselors’ Lived Experiences Supporting Emerging Adults With Psychiatric Disorders Secure Competitive Employment, Cheryl Lakisha Andrews

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Transitioning from childhood to adulthood is a challenging life experience, further intensified for individuals with psychiatric disorders. While strong social support serves as a key resilience factor, emerging adults with psychiatric disorders face unique challenges in addition to those encountered by their peers. This population is at heightened risk for adverse outcomes, including difficulty securing employment, a critical milestone for adult independence. Counselors play a pivotal role in supporting these individuals but often report feelings of inadequacy and reluctance to engage with this complex developmental stage. This qualitative hermeneutic phenomenology study explores the lived experiences of counselors who assist emerging …

Eve And Her Feminist Descendants: The Power And Agency Of Serpentine Women In Art, Literature, And Popular Culture, Emma Sandra Shanley

Master’s Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

The Louisiana Civil Code Of 1825: Content, Influence, And Languages; Past And Future, Conference Program

Journal of Civil Law Studies

No abstract provided.