Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Literacy Practices Among Migrant Teachers: Educator Perspectives And Critical Observations, Briana Asmus

Dissertations

This research builds upon scholarship that explores the unique needs of Latina/o migrant students and the teachers who serve them. Situated within the overlapping fields of migrant education, critical literacy, and Latina/o critical theory, this narrative examines the practices and perspectives of three teachers, each with more than a decade of experience teaching migrant students in a summer migrant education program (SMEP) in Michigan. The purpose of this study is to give educators, administrators, and community members who work with migrant students additional insight into the literacy acquisition process and unique challenges of working with this population.

Despite the aim …

Ancient Magic And Modern Accessories: Developments In The Omamori Phenomenon, Eric Teixeira Mendes

Masters Theses

This thesis offers an examination of modern Japanese amulets, called omamori, distributed by Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines throughout Japan. As amulets, these objects are meant to be carried by a person at all times in which they wish to receive the benefits that an omamori is said to offer. In modern times, in addition to being a religious object, these amulets have become accessories for cell-phones, bags, purses, and automobiles. Said to protect people from accidents, disease, loneliness, failure, computer viruses, among many other things, these objects are one of the few material aspects of religion that are a …

The Experience Of Social Flow In Vocal Jazz Improvisation, Brittany Neuser

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of experimental research procedures and gather initial data in studying the experience of social flow within the context of group music production tasks. Participants completed two different group vocal music production tasks: Performance of a pre-composed song and an improvised performance. The Flow State Scale-2 (FSS-2), a 36-item survey in which a mean score of 45 implies the ultimate flow experience and a score of 9 implies that no flow was experienced during the event in question, was used to assess the level of social flow experienced by the participants …

July 16, 2015: New Issues 20th Anniversary, Department Of English

Gleanings: Department of English Blog Archive

A special gathering of the Kalamazoo community, writers, and Creative Writing and English alumni to celebrate 20 years of New Issues Poetry & Prose. Featuring music, readings, and an art sale.

False Consciousness As A Major Hindrance To Control Of Corruption In Africa, John O. Ouko

International Journal of African Development

Corruption is rampant in Africa despite the effort to fight it. An effective fight against corruption requires a clear and firm understanding of the factors that cause and conduce it. Using Kenya as an example, I will examine some of the social, economic, political, and legal factors that have been given as causal explanations of corruption. By focusing primarily on political corruption, I will argue that false consciousness among the masses and leaders has to be overcome for the fight against corruption to be effective, and, by extension, for meaningful development to take place in Kenya and many other African …

Writing The World: Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions Of 21st Century Writing Instruction, Kristine E. Pytash, Elizabeth Testa, Jennifer Nigh

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore preservice teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology into writing instruction before and after a methods course and the experiences in a methods course that, according to the preservice teachers, influenced these perceptions. Participants were enrolled in two sections of a Teaching Language and Composition course. Data collected included an adapted Likert-scale pre and posttest survey, and focus group interviews. Preservice teachers self-reported salient course experiences, and also discussed the affordances and tensions they felt in thinking about how to use technology to teach writing. This study has implications for teacher education and …

"I Second That Emotion": Minding How Plagiarism Feels, Ann E. Biswas

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

It stands to reason that when writing teachers believe their students have plagiarized, they will experience strong emotions that impact their relationships with students, their pedagogy, and their sense of professional identity. Far from being a threat to reason, understanding and acknowledging writing teachers’ emotional responses to plagiarism can lead to a deeper wisdom of its true impact. By examining the literature on emotion from psychology, sociology, education, and writing studies as well as findings from a pilot study of writing teachers’ emotional responses to plagiarism, this article argues that the work involved in managing the emotions of plagiarism reflects …

We Learned What?: Pre-Service Teachers As Developmental Writers In The Writing Methods Class, Christina Saidy

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article employs a pedagogical reflection of a pre-service teacher and her out-of-context grammar lesson. The author uses this pedagogical reflection to argue for enhancing the writing methods class by inviting pre-service teachers to see themselves as developing writers and see the teaching and learning of writing as an ecological practice.

Teaching Reflective Writing: Thoughts On Developing A Reflective Writing Framework To Support Teacher Candidates, Donna L. Pasternak, Karen K. Rigoni

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

To achieve licensure in the United States, many teacher candidates must demonstrate competency as reflective practitioners. This requires many of them to describe their experiences through reflective writing, a mode of writing that is far from the academic writing that is taught throughout their baccalaureate education. Much reflective writing is being assigned to teacher candidates without it being taught. In an effort to intervene in that pattern, the authors examined multiple sources and developed a framework to teach to their teacher candidates to support them to communicate their practices as effective, reflective practitioners. This paper documents the evolution of creating …

Entering The Conversations, Practices And Opportunities Of Multimodality Texts, Theresa Dark, W. Douglas Baker

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

Structure Speaks: User-Centered Design And Professional Development, Nikki Holland, Christian Z. Goering

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This reflective essay situates a yearlong professional development endeavor led by a site of the National Writing Project within the language of technical communication. Developing rural writing teachers through four distinct design features—needs assessment, frequent contact, website redesign, collaborative planning through Google Docs—this work sought to put participants and providers on equal levels, sharing control of programming when possible. Professional development providers and teacher educators ultimately must model practices they desire to impacting students in the classroom.

Collaborative Power: Graduate Students Creating And Implementing Faculty Development Workshops On Multilingual Writing Pedagogy, Dorothy Worden, Brooke R. Schreiber, Lindsey Kurtz, Michelle Kaczmarek, Eunjeong Lee

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The increasing numbers multilingual students in US universities, whether international students or multilingual citizens and permanent residents, have made it clear that students’ language needs can no longer be relegated to the ‘experts’ in specialized courses or tutoring centers. All faculty will teach multilingual students, yet few faculty have received specialized training to prepare them to work effectively with the multilingual writers in their classrooms. While there is a need for professional development efforts designed to help faculty more effectively teach multilingual writing, institutional divisions between first language (L1) and second language (L2) writing instruction pose challenges for the organization …

Learning To Teach Writing In The Age Of Standardization And Accountability; Toward An Equity Writing Pedagogy, Shannon M. Pella

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Qualitative data from over three years of a lesson study project were analyzed through a situated learning theory lens in order to describe the connections between teacher learning and the variety of situations, or contexts that shaped the learning. The lesson study professional development model included planning, observation, and student data analysis protocols. The lesson study was situated in various middle school classroom settings, which provided multiple learning contexts. Additionally, teacher learning was shaped by the larger socio-political context often comprised of accountability rhetoric, standardization, and testing pressure. This study described how two teachers negotiated balance, or theoretical equilibrium, across …

Global Chaucers: Reflections On Collaboration And Digital Futures, Candace Barrington, Jonathan Hsy

Accessus

Global Chaucers, our multi-national, multi-lingual, multi-year project, intends to locate, catalog, translate, archive, and analyze non-Anglophone appropriations and translations of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Since its founding in 2012, this project has rapidly changed in response to scholars’ diverse interests and our expanding discoveries. Almost all these changes were prompted and made possible by our online presence (including a blog and Facebook group), and digital media comprises our primary means for gathering information, disseminating our findings, advertising conferences and events, and promoting the resource to other scholars. Because digital media can help disparate people traverse geographical and linguistic barriers, …

“Nede Hath No Law”: The State Of Exception In Gower And Langland, Conrad J. Van Dijk

Accessus

This article discusses the use of the legal maxim necessity knows no law in the works of William Langland and John Gower. Whereas Langland’s usage has stirred up great controversy, Gower’s unique application of the canon law adage has received hardly any attention. On the surface, it is difficult to think of two authors less alike, and the way in which they relate the concept of necessity to different subjects (the poverty debate, fin amour) seems to support that feeling. Yet this article argues that reading Langland and Gower side by side is mutually illuminating. Specifically, this article reveals …

Foreword, Georgiana Donavin, Eve Salisbury

Accessus

Co-editors Georgiana Donavin and Eve Salisbury welcome readers to Accessus 2.2.

Three Spanish Querelle Texts: A Bilingual Edition And Study, Elena Woodacre

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Heroines Of The French Epic: A Second Selection Of Chansons De Geste, Kathy M. Krause

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Women And Economic Activities In Late Medieval Ghent, Kate Staples

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Conflicting Femininities In Medieval German Literature, Olga V. Trokhimenko

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Back Matter, Medieval Feminist Forum, V.50, No.2, 2015

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Gender And Genre In La Estoire De Seint Aedward Le Rei: Reading Versions Of Medieval Queenship, Alexandra Verini

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Questions Of Gender In Byzantine Society, Kriszta Kotsis

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

A Poisoned Past: The Life And Times Of Margarida De Portu, A Fourteenth-Century Accused Poisoner, Candace Robb

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Medieval Feminist Forum, V.50, No.2, 2015

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Virgin'a End: The Suppression Of The York Marian Pageants, Andrea R. Harbin

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

With the rise of the Reformation in England, we see the abolishment of much of the religious drama of the late Middle Ages. The first pageants in York to fall victim to this were the pageants about Mary, which were produced by the weavers', drapers', and hostellers' guilds. While the content of the Marian pageants themselves made them a target of Reformational ire, public sentiment was still on the side of the Corpus Christi Play as a whole. Yet the guilds that produced the Marian plays were not as powerful as they had once been. All three of these trades …

The Fabric Of Marian Devotion In Isabel De Villena's Vita Christi, Laura Michele Diener

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Elizabeth De Burgh, Lady Of Clare (1295-1360): Household And Other Records, Linda E. Mitchell

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Professor Emerita Has Second Book Published, College Of Education And Human Development

Family and Consumer Sciences News

Marlene Breu, professor emerita of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, will be having her second book published that she wrote during her time at WMU.

Graduate Of Career And Technical Education Program Develops Prosthetic Arm With 3-D Printer, College Of Education And Human Development

Family and Consumer Sciences News

Adam Zavislak, a graduate of CEHD's Career and Technical Education program, created the prosthetic arm.