VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The moral and pedagogical importance of dissent to Catholic education

Canadian Catholic schools sit at the intersection of conflicting interests, most notably those of the Roman Catholic Church, secular provincial governments, local communities, and individual students. In Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest, Nunavut, and Yukon Territories these schools receive full public funding and stand as institutional accommodations for minority interests in Canada. These schools do not exist without controversy, however. The official views of the Church sometimes clash with Canadian law, and all Canadian Catholics do not fully agree with Church teachings on human reproduction, female ordination, marriage, and queer persons. As well, some other Catholic views suggest that the Catholic identity of these schools has been severely eroded by the influences of secular culture. Should students disagree with the prevailing Catholic teaching in these schools there is little or no institutional support for expressing their disagreement in a way that does not lead to a false binary choice between religious and secular norms. This study asks how students who disagree with prevailing Catholic teachings might be taught to express their dissent in a more pedagogically and religiously meaningful way. This study proposes Pedagogy of Dissent as a philosophical framework upon which to base future directions in classroom practice, school administration, and relations between the Catholic school, Church, and student. The framework is grounded in an historical argument that Canadian Catholic schools are exemplars of macro-political dissent from the dominant secular culture, but that they are also the bearers of internal tensions inherent in religious education. The theological argument examines the issues of authority and dissent within Catholic Education. The study then shifts to an original philosophical analysis of the concept of dissent that defines and differentiates it from related concepts like disagreement, opposition, contestation, and resistance. The subsequent discussion of the concept considers and refutes several criticisms of the concept and argues its relevance to educational institutions and relationships. In addition to the historical, theological, and philosophical arguments the study's proposal proceeds from the analysis of interview data from fourteen Catholic high school religion teachers who provide illustrative insights into the current pedagogical tensions inherent within Catholic Schools.
Face to face with the peasant: village and state in Riazan, 1921-1930

“Face to Face with the Peasant” focuses on peasant and state in Riazan, Russia, in the years between the civil war and the first collectivization drive. Typically, in the historical literature, the Russian peasantry in the 1920s is regarded as apolitical, desperately wanting to be left alone. This study argues that peasants were interested in coming to a workable living arrangement with the Soviet regime in the mid-1920s. One of the central arguments of the dissertation is that the Bolshevik center lost patience with such negotiations because of its profound commitment to a high modernist program. This commitment involved complete devotion to the idea that progress for Russia would involve industrial development and a bright, modern, socialist future. The peasant population in its “peasantness” was seen as a serious obstacle to such development. Thus the commitment to high modernism led to a civilizing mission and peculiar kind of colonizing project. Part one focuses on those divisions of the state, which came into contact with the peasantry in the arena of both violent and non-violent crime. The Bolshevik struggle with the peasantry over who was to control local space forms the basis of part one of the work. Part two of the dissertation deals with the struggle between state and peasantry for resources. Together with the portrait of the state at the lowest levels and its crisis of shortages, one begins to understand why the battle for resources was so fierce. Through a study of banditry, hooliganism and samosud (vigilante justice), part three traces changing perceptions of the countryside at the central level, while simultaneously attempting to convey elements of everyday life in the village. The center expressed an increasing fear of the backwardness, violence and darkness of the countryside, and an escalating fear about the nature of its own administration at the lowest levels. The epilogue of Face to Face with the Peasant, through the example of the Pitelinskii Rebellion, explores how this fear fed on itself, and played itself out at a fever pitch in the carnival of violence that was collectivization.
Cosmological black holes as models of cosmological inhomogeneities

Since cosmological black holes modify the density and pressure of the surrounding universe, and introduce heat conduction, they produce simple models of cosmological inhomogeneities that can be used to study the effect of inhomogeneities on the universe's expansion. In this thesis, new cosmological black hole solutions are obtained by generalizing the expanding Kerr-Schild cosmological black holes to obtain the charged case, by performing a Kerr-Schild transformation of the Einstein-de Sitter universe (instead of a closed universe) to obtain non-expanding Kerr-Schild cosmological black holes in asymptotically-flat universes; and by performing a conformal transformation on isotropic black hole spacetimes to obtain isotropic cosmological black hole spacetimes. The latter approach is found to produce cosmological black holes with energy-momentum tensors that are physical throughout spacetime, unlike previous solutions for cosmological black holes, which violate the energy conditions in some region of spacetime. In addition, it is demonstrated that radiation-dominated and matter-dominated Einstein-de Sitter universes can be directly matched across a hypersurface of constant time, and this is used to generate the first solutions for primordial black holes that evolve from being in radiation-dominated background universes to matter-dominated background universes. Finally, the Weyl curvature, volume expansion; velocity field, shear, and acceleration are calculated for the cosmological black holes. Since the non-isotropic black holes introduce shear; according to Raychaudhuri's equation they will tend to decrease the volume expansion of the universe. Unlike several studies that have suggested the relativistic backreaction of inhomogeneities would lead to an accelerating expansion of the universe, it is concluded that shear should be the most likely influence of inhomogeneities, so they should most likely decrease the universe's expansion.
Sound into gesture: a study of conductors' experience

This research originates from the desire to understand the conductor's experience of gesture as an interpretation of a musical score and as a response to the sounds produced by the ensemble. The Central Research Question asks: "How do six specific conductors experience: (1) the translation of their sound-concept into gesture, and (2) the attendant interactions with their ensemble?" The term gesture, in this research, includes all the communicative movement performed, and the postures adopted, by the conductor. The findings of this research consist of rich phenomenological descriptions of internalized musical concepts, of conducting gesture, and of the sensation of connection with the ensemble. Individual and common themes are articulated, culminating in a hermeneutic re-writing of each conductor's experience. In accordance with the principles of hermeneutic phenomenology, the conductors participated in all stages of the research process, including the verification of the findings. The dissertation concludes with the assertion that conducting gesture is a unique form of representation, and with suggested applications of the research to a model of transformational music education. The theory of complex constructs and hermeneutic phenomenology form the conceptual framework of this dissertation. Personal narrative was employed as a means to exploring the subject and laying the groundwork for a general set of interview questions. Observations of rehearsals and concerts led by the five participating conductors generated a set of contextual descriptions, as well as a series of specific interview questions. The majority of the data consists of interview transcripts. The analysis was performed by filtering the data through ten 'lenses' corresponding to the ten fields that structure the Literature Review: Physiological, Psychological, Musicianship, Political, Sociological, Phenomenological, Emotional, Aesthetic, Ritualistic, and Spiritual.
Relationships between leadership style, span of control and outcomes

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between leadership style, span of control and outcomes using a conceptual model linking concepts from three theories: transformational leadership theory, span of control, theory and contingency theory. The study findings provided support for the theoretical relationships between leadership style, span of control and outcomes. Results of the study supported the argument that transformational leadership matters---the higher the nurses rated their manager as having a transformational leadership style, the higher the nurses' job satisfaction and the lower the unit turnover rate. Transactional leadership style had a similar effect on nurses' job satisfaction as that of transformational leadership style although to a lesser extent. Management-by-exception leadership style, on the other hand, decreased nurses' job satisfaction. Recommendations for theory and research include: further testing of the proposed relationships in the study's theoretical model; and continued examination of how various organizational factors affect leaders, staff, work groups and organizations. The sample consisted of 717 nurses, 41 nurse managers and 51 patient care units drawn from four types of units (medical, surgical, obstetrics and day surgery) and seven hospitals. Hierarchical linear modelling and multiple regressions were used to test the study hypotheses. Recommendations for practice include designing and implementing management programs that focus on a transformational style of leadership and the development of guidelines regarding the number of staff a nurse manager can effectively supervise and lead. As well, the study findings provided support for the argument that span of control matters---the wider the span of control, the higher the unit turnover rate and the lower the unit labour stability rate. A very important and interesting finding is the significant moderating influence of span of control on the effects of leadership on nurses' job satisfaction. The interaction between span of control and leadership decreased the positive effects of transformational and transactional leadership styles on nurses' job satisfaction, and increased the negative effects of management-by-exception and laissez-faire leadership styles on nurses' job satisfaction. These findings demonstrated that no leadership style can overcome a wide span of control.
Ethics and difference: time, space and ethics in the philosophy of Watsuji Tetsurô, Kuki Shûzô and Martin Heidegger

Both postmodern philosophy and contemporary Japanese philosophy pose a challenge to ethics in their critique of the Western philosophical tradition. This challenge is to resist the oppression that results from ignoring the differences between individuals and social groups. A response to this challenge involves articulating an ethics based on the concepts of otherness and difference and the contingent nature of concrete interpersonal relationships. Through creative dialogue with three philosophers, Watsuji Tetsurô (1889–1960), Kuki Shûuzô (1888–1941) and Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), I articulate the meaning of ethics in this context of difference. Ethics is the practical process of negotiating the difference between people. It engages the dialectical relationship between ethical ideals and the concrete, lived experience of individuals by means of a constant process of critique. In addition to articulating the meaning of ethics, I also explain the relationship between Heideggerian phenomenology and the thought of Kuki and Watsuji. Both studied Heidegger's philosophy intently during the 1920s, and their work develops out of the creative tension between acceptance and rejection of Heideggerian phenomenology. Through the negotiation of phenomenology on the part of both Japanese philosophers, we can see the difficulties that are encountered when Japanese philosophical ideas are articulated in a European philosophical vocabulary. The relationship between acceptance and critique in each philosopher's interpretation of Being and Time can be seen as an illustration of the ethical negotiations involved when different cultural paradigms meet. In addition to illustrating the tension present in an articulation of East Asian philosophy by means of a Western philosophical paradigm, we also see in the works of Watsuji and Kuki the development of various ethical possibilities within Heideggerian thought. Watsuji draws on the Heideggerian concept of existential spatiality as the basis of his ethics (albeit by means of a critique of Heidegger's apparent neglect of spatiality), while Kuki draws on different resources. For Kuki, ethics is not a question of articulating the social nature of human existence, as Watsuji will suggest. Rather, ethics must be based on the problem of negotiating difference—difference between self and other—and the responsibilities that this difference entails. Thus while Watsuji develops the ethical possibilities within Heideggerian philosophy by means of a more traditional phenomenological approach, Kuki develops the ethical possibilities in phenomenology that were later identified by Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida.
An exploratory study of the self-directed learner

A review of several educational studies traces the movement away from the acquisition of basic cultural prerequisites, and toward the development of students' problem solving skills. An increase in the level of aspiration for schooling, that of improving real-life task competence, is hypothesized and its origins and implications are discussed. Improvement in real-life task competence is related to a model of the self-directed learner, and several propositions that clarify assumptions inherent in this model are presented. Increases in real-life task competence are hypothesized to be the result of teaching students to apply the superordinate strategy of topic elaboration (Robinson, Ross and White, 1985) to the study of task components, and of using reflection strategies to improve task performance. A Grade 9 advanced level English course is developed to form a realistic educational context for this study. In this course, students can be taught both topic elaboration and reflection strategies. Changes in each student's self-directed learning are profiled and analyzed to examine difference from pre- to post-course interviews. Results of the study show that: (1) students' performance in topic elaboration and its component skills can be improved. (2) the range of contexts in which students can apply the topic elaboration scheme can be extended. (3) the quality of student reflection can be improved. (4) the sophistication of students' strategies for undertaking independent projects can be improved. Increases in students' pre- to post-interview scores of self-directed learning average (a treatment effect of) 1.4. This represents a very significant change over the five month period of the study. While this study was undertaken under considerable time pressure, it does show that the aspiration of increasing, through direct instruction, students' self-directed learning behaviours is a viable aspiration for schooling. Increased self-directed can be realized when topic elaboration is taught as a guiding superordinate structure, and when improvement in performance is sought by the use of reflection strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
I am, therefore, we are: a narrative inquiry into the stories of experience of three women teachers of Balochistan and the Northern areas of Pakistan

In Pakistan, recent and dramatic shifts in the economic, political, and social contexts of teachers' lives have significantly affected their personal and professional horizons. These teachers, in turn, are now in a position to extend and expand these horizons. My research, entitled, I Am, Therefore, We Are: A Narrative inquiry into the Stories of Experience of Three Women Teachers of Balochistan and Northern Pakistan, deals with the stories of experience of three remarkable Pakistani women teachers: Dr. Naghmana Ansari, Shahida Sultan Shah, and Shama Ali. What they have in common is their heroic struggle to acquire an education and to earn higher degrees, which they achieved only through great personal sacrifice and despite improbable odds. Narrating their unique stories; showing how their lives have been shaped by Pakistan's geographical, historical, economic, political, and social legacy; describing the significance that Karachi, Balochistan, and the Northern Areas (the three research sites) have held for the women; and, finally, interpreting their stories within the frameworks of narrative inquiry, on the one hand, and feminist theory and praxis, on the other (the ‘interpenetration’ of which has resulted in the formulation of a new concept, “narrative feminism”), constitute the four major aims of this thesis.

Keywords: Teachers, Social conditions
Teachers, Social conditions
Teachers, Pakistan
Women, Right to education
Women, Right to education
Women, Pakistan
Women's rights
Women's rights, Pakistan
Women, Social conditions
Women, Pakistan
Women, Social conditions
De-spiriting aboriginal children: aboriginal children during the 1960s and 1970s child wefare era

This study was designed to examine and evaluate historical Aboriginal child welfare policies and practices in Canada during the 1960s and 1970s. The child welfare policies and practices were critiqued by incorporating an Aboriginal, Anti-Racist, Ethnographical and Critical Auto-biographical approach and methodology. These theoretical and methodological lens support a wholistic paradigm thus, lending itself to use my own life experiences and testimony as a case example. Key areas related to child welfare were examined through utilizing medical, educational, social services, personal and collective perspectives and voices. Each institutional and personal construction addresses issues related to key questions including asking: How can we understand the workings of Aboriginal child welfare policies, specifically the Adopt Indian Metis Policy of the 1960s? How have Aboriginal children in the child welfare system been historically constructed by various institutional sources, and what kind of disjunctures took place between these constructions and a child's experiences? How can we begin to assess the impacts for Aboriginal children, and how their needs were met within these constructions? These questions have important implications for social work theory; practice and group work for the cohort that grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and more broadly, children in care. Further, it is believed that this research will have positive implications for Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal social workers and that the topic of Aboriginal Child Welfare is of significant importance to the social work field and will impact our policy, research, training and practice issues and Vision in urban and rural communities. Importantly, it is believed that this thesis will act as a catalyst for conducting a study that would examine a particular case in relation to the effects of the above mentioned Aboriginal child welfare policies and practices. The potential benefits of this qualitative study on historical Aboriginal Child welfare are examined. It is believed that this qualitative study and methodology would be relevant and welcomed in other social work contexts.
Self-assembly of block copolymers containing poly(ferrocene)

A series of well-defined poly (ferrocenyldimethylsilane) (PFS) samples spanning the 10,000–100,000 g/mol range was synthesized by the living anionic polymerization of dimethyl[1]silaferrocenophane, initiated with n-BuLi. The polymers possessed narrow polydispersities and were used to characterize the solution behaviour of PFS in THF. The organometallic-inorganic diblock copolymer, poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilane) - b - poly(dimethylsiloxane) forms long rod-like micelles in hexane solution. When the solvent is evaporated, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that individual cylindrical micellar structures form with the iron-rich, organometallic PFS core encased in a sheath of PDMS. Both static and dynamic light scattering were used to establish that the micelles are flexible rods which are stable in hexane even at 80°C. The length of the micelles can be varied from 70 nm to 10 μm either by altering the method of sample preparation or through mild sonication. The dimensions of the micellar core can be controlled by varying the length of the PFS block while maintaining the approximate ratio of the two components. If micelles are formed above the Tm of PFS, spherical aggregates are formed suggesting that crystallization of the core polymer is the driving force for the formation of worm-like micelles below Tm. A series of well-defined poly(ferrocenylphenylphosphines) (PFP), were prepared by living anionic ring-opening polymerization of the phosphorus-bridged [1]ferrocenophane. The synthesis of well-defined block copolymers is also possible. In n-hexane poly(ferrocenylphenylphosphine) - b - poly(dimethylsiloxane) forms spherical micelles. Both static and dynamic light scattering were used to characterize the micelles, which were found to have an aggregation number of 300 polymer molecules. Transmission electron microscopy revealed spherical micelles with an iron-rich PFP. The transition-metal catalysed ring opening polymerization of dimethyl[1]silaferrocenophane has led to the facile synthesis of the triblock copolymer, poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilane)- b-poly(dimethylsiloxane)-b-poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilane). The methodology was more convenient than the traditional route to block copolymers, anionic polymerization, but resulted in materials that were polydisperse. Nonetheless, self-assembly in n-hexane produced varied morphologies reproducibly. Specifically, spheres, rods and novel flower-like micellar aggregates were observed by TEM. Fractionation experiments suggest that the compositional variations associated with the polydispersity of the sample plays a critical role in determining the morphologies observed.
Towards a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) strategy for development of a biosensor for detection of nucleic acid hybridization on fused silica surfaces

Thiazole orange (TO) with different tethers were synthesized to be attached to oligonucleotides. The FRET of TO in solution with double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) was investigated with BlackHole (BHQ1) or ((4-dimethylamino)phenyl)azo)benzoic acid (DABCYL) quenchers which decreased the fluorescence 2.9 +/- 7% and 2.5 +/- 10% times, respectively. A quenching mechanism could therefore be designed to transduce hybridization. The FRET of N, N, N, N-tetramethylcarboxyrhodamine (TAMRA) and IowaBlackRQ RTM (IABLK) linked to complementary oligonucleotides immobilized on glass substrates was investigated; IABLK quenched TAMRA fluorescence. However, surface bound dsDNA caused some self-quenching of TAMRA. Solution FRET using TAMRA/IABLK at 24.5°C and 60°C with complementary and mismatched DNA was measured to investigate potential for mismatch detection. The probe sequence was based on the determinate for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). Signal intensity differed between complementary and the mismatch samples at 60°C, indicating mismatch detection potential. Results suggest the possibility of designing tethered fluorophore-quencher pairs for transduction of hybridization for development of optical nucleic acid biosensors for SMA screening.