Journal articles on the topic 'Open-plan high school'

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the Malaysian National Professional Qualification for Educational Leaders (NPQEL), a principal leadership preparation programme and the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013–2025, a comprehensive plan for a rapid and sustainable transformation of our education system through to 2025 to ensure high-performing school leaders in every school.Design/methodology/approachIn understanding how the NPQEL operates and its effectiveness in preparing high performing school leaders, a research instrument of open-ended questions were administered to 102 principals from government-funded secondary schools, to establish how they were prepared for their leadership roles and their views of their leadership practices.FindingsThe NPQEL programme provides evidence of strong outcomes in preparing school leaders towards high-performing school leadership in Malaysia in combination of a variety of approaches with respect to its designs and competency standards. Findings indicate that the NPQEL contributes towards the development of the school leaders' attributes or skills for their leadership roles; and the NPQEL fulfils the aspirations set out in the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013–2025.Originality/valueThis paper explores the potential influence of Malaysian NPQEL and the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013–2025 on preparing high-performing school leaders in every school.

Problem solving is one of several important abilities a student must have. Problem solving is a planned process that mustbe done in order to get a certain solution of a problem that is not obtained immediately. One type of problem studentsmust solve is an open-ended problem. Open-ended problem solving for every student is certainly different from oneanother. The level of mathematical ability of students is one of the factors that influence these differences. This type ofresearch is a qualitative descriptive with the purpose to describe the profile of open-ended problem solving based onPolya’s steps viewed from mathematical ability level of junior high school students. Three students from grade VII arethe subjects in this research (one student having high mathematical ability, one student having moderate mathematicalability, and one student having low mathematical ability). This research uses instruments mathematical ability test, openended problem solving test, and interview guidelines. The results showed there were differences in the open-endedproblem solving profile on students with high, moderate, and low mathematical ability. Student with high mathematicalability can carry out all the steps of Polya’s problem solving. Student with moderate mathematical ability are able to carryout the step of understanding the problem, devising a plan, carrying out the plan, however there are indicators that are notfulfilled at looking back’s step they are using the other way to solve the problem and make conclusion. Student with lowmathematical ability can not show the adequacy of the data at understanding the problem’s step and can not carry out thesteps of devising a plan, carrying out the plan and looking back.

BACKGROUND: One industry affected by the COVID-19 mandated social distancing policies is sport. In the wake of pressures to return to some normalcy, sport leagues have begun a return to play, many of which include regulations additional to the typical athlete and fan experience. Youth, Middle School, and High School sport leagues are of specific interest in America given the currently inconclusive national plan for returning to face-to-face instruction of students at schools. PURPOSE: The current goal is to identify the perceptions and experiences of current sport professionals throughout the country regarding a return to play. METHODS: The participants of this study were 181 Youth and High School Sport Coaches of various sports. The sample contained males (n = 123) and females (n = 58). The age of respondents ranged from 20 or more years of age. A return to play questionnaire was created and used to collect data for this study. The survey consisted of 12 yes or no questions regarding a return to play during the pandemic, with an opportunity for an open-ended explanation for each. Statistical methods employed to conduct data analysis included frequencies to determine percentages. A crosstabs analysis and Pearson Chi-Square tests of association were utilized to identify statistical significance within the variables. FINDING: No statistically significant association was found at the p ≤ .05 level between age or years of coaching experience and any response to a yes/no question. Percentages for high school coaches who responded "Yes" to each question are presented. Due to the wide variety of responses in these open-ended explanations, statistical expressions were not conducted, and an inclusive list of explanations for each question is provided. CONCLUSION: While the research result is unclear, the information obtained from coaches in the current study presents a small illustration of the current perceptions of athletic leaders in this region regarding the return to play of youth sport coaches and their respective schools' policies.

Pramuka is a form of non-formal education that becomes a place in the implementation of Pramuka education. In Pramuka activities, its members are trained with various skills, including leadership, discipline, self-confidence, mutual help, and independence. Its activities are generally carried out in the open with fun, interesting, directed activities by the basic principles and Pramuka methods. In general, Pramuka activities are only filled with the same activities, but in Sudirman Kalipare High School, Malang Regency has innovations for Pramuka as extracurricular activities by incorporating entrepreneurial learning. As a result, students are increasingly honed in their creativity and find a breakthrough to developed into an entrepreneurial venture with low capital and maximum results. Jendral Sudirman High School Scout Contingent won 1st place in the Sangga Putri Business Plan in the Pramuka Achievement Competition in the Bali-Bali Level VIII 2019.

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menghasilkan perangkat pembelajaran matematika berupa Rencana Pelaksanaan Pembelajaran (RPP), Petunjuk Kegiatan Siswa (PKS), dan Tes Ketercapaian Kompetensi (TKK) berbasis open-ended approach yang layak dalam mengembangkan keterampilan berpikir tingkat tinggi pada siswa SMA. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian pengembangan yang terdiri atas 3 tahap utama, yaitu pendahuluan, desain produk, dan pengembangan dan evaluasi. Subjek uji coba penelitian yaitu 105 siswa, seorang guru SMAN 1 Barabai, seorang guru SMAN 2 Barabai, dan seorang guru SMAN 8 Barabai. Instrumen penelitian yang digunakan adalah lembar validasi, lembar penilaian guru, lembar penilaian siswa, lembar observasi keterlaksanaan kegiatan pembelajaran, dan TKK. Penelitian ini menghasilkan perangkat pembelajaran matematika berupa RPP dan PKS dengan kriteria valid, praktis, dan efektif dalam mengembangkan keterampilan berpikir tingkat tinggi pada siswa, serta TKK yang telah memenuhi kriteria valid, praktis, dan reliabel.Kata Kunci: pengembangan, perangkat pembelajaran, keterampilan berpikir tingkat tinggi Math learning software development based open-ended approach to develop HOTS in high school students AbstractThis study aimed to produce a mathematics kitwhich were lesson plan, student activities manual (SAM), and the competency achievement tests (CAT) that was able to develop students higher order thinking skills in senior high school. This research was a development research which consists of 3 main stages, namely preliminary, product desain, development and evaluation. The tryout subjects of research were 105 students, one teacher of SMAN 1 Barabai, one teacher of SMAN 2 Barabai, and one teacher of SMAN 8 Barabai. The research instrument used was a validation sheet, teacher assessment sheet, student assessment sheets, feasibility observation sheets of learning activities, and CAT. This study resulted the mathematics learning kit in the form lesson plan and SAM meets the criteria of validity, practicality, and effectiveness which were able to develop higher order thinking skills, and CAT meets the criteria of validity, practically, and reliable.Keywords: development, learning kit, higher order thinking skills

Short stories have the advantage of teaching materials. Because of its short form, it is flexible to be used as teaching materials that do not take long to read. This study aims to describe the teachers’ perception of the urgency of integrating tolerance education in the short story appreciation, the content of tolerance values in the short story appreciation learning instruments in high school, and the content of tolerance values in the short story appreciation teaching materials in textbooks. In order to achieve that, a descriptive qualitative method was employed in this study. The results are as follows. (1) All Indonesian teachers in senior high schools in Surakarta have the perception that the value of tolerance education is important to be integrated into learning, including in the short story appreciation learning. (2) The character of tolerance is always listed in the Syllabus document and the Core Competency component of the lesson plan. Apart from that component, the character of tolerance is implicitly included in the character of "caring" and "open to others' opinions" in 86% of the syllabus and lesson plans. (3) There are 9% of short story appreciation teaching materials that have tolerance education content. The potential for this tolerance content is found in a lot of teaching material topics in the form of learning activities and short stories. Keywords: Character Education, Short story appreciation, Teaching material, Textbooks

Abstrak: Penelitian ini adalah penelitian deskriptif kualitatif, yang bertujuan untuk mengetahui profil kemampuan pemecahan masalah open-ended pada materi bangun datar segiempat bagi siswa SMP . Subjek dalam penelitian ini adalah 3 siswa kelas VIII H SMP N 8 Salatiga yang memiliki kemampuan tinggi, sedang, dan rendah. Subjek dalam penelitian ini diambil dengan teknik purposive sampling. Teknik pengumpulan data berupa tes, wawancara, dan dokumentasi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa subjek berkemampuan sedang dan subjek berkemampuan rendah belum mampu memahami masalah, menyusun rencana pemecahan masalah khususnya soal nomor satu. Subjek berkemampuan rendah belum mampu memeriksa kembali. Abstract: This is a qualitative descriptive research. The purpose of this research is to know the profile of open-ended problem solving in rectangular geometric shape of junior high school students. The subject of this research is 3 students of class VIII SMP Negeri 8 Salatiga who have high, medium, and low skills. The subject of this research is taken by using purposive sampling technique. The data collection techniques used were a test, interview, and documentation. The result showed that subject capable of achieving and subject capable low have not been able to understand a problem, device a plan problem solving especially about number one. Subject capable low have not been able to l ooking back.

Field study was conducted in naturally ventilated primary school buildings in a warm and humid environment in Imo State, Nigeria to determine the thermal comfort perception of young children (aged 7–12 years) and to understand the thermal conditions in the classrooms. The comfort temperature was investigated in two types of classroom buildings during the rainy and dry seasons from October 2017 to May 2018. Approximately 7050 completed valid questionnaires were collected from 330 young children repeatedly surveyed twice a day. The children answered comfort questions at the same time the indoor and outdoor thermal variables were being measured. Results indicated that the combined ‘open-space’ classrooms produced a neutral temperature of 28.8°C with comfort range, 25.2–32.3°C. The neutral temperature of the combined ‘enclosed-plan’ classrooms is 28.1°C with 25.8–30.5°C as the comfort range. The differences in the comfort perceptions may be attributed to the differences in the architectural characteristics of both categories of classroom buildings. High temperature tolerance was shown by the participating children in the study area. This article, therefore, suggests that installing air conditioning in primary schools in the warm humid environment in Nigeria may not be necessary as it could lead to unnecessary energy consumption and carbon emission. Practical application: This work is part of the main research work that pioneers research on thermal comfort in public primary school classrooms in Nigeria. The findings from this study on the acceptable indoor temperatures in naturally ventilated classrooms in the warm and humid climate in Nigeria are important information for building services engineers and architects. The young children in these classrooms can accept high indoor temperatures. The intention of this information is to discourage high energy usage in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system in primary school buildings in the study area, while maintaining the acceptable thermal comfort levels.

This community service activity aims to equip children with various kinds of knowledge about further study, have a view on further study so that students are able to make decisions in choosing and planning their studies, according to their talents and interests. The method used in this service activity is counseling with lectures and open discussions in conveying material, this can facilitate the extension process and students are more flexible to ask questions about various matters related to further study. The target of this community service activity is the students of class XII SMA Negeri 1 Labuapi, West Lombok, totaling 30 students. The result of this service activity is that students are able to plan and make further study decisions they want after graduating from high school that is tailored to their talents and interests.

The aim of this study was to determine opinions of a group of prospective Turkish primary school teachers aboutwhat teaching methods and techniques are more suitable to teach science. In addition, their perceived competence inselection of teaching methods and techniques was explored. In Turkey, primary school teachers offer various coursesin the first four years of primary education. Their ability to benefit from teaching methods and techniques suitable forsubjects and courses is considered important in terms of realization of learning. The study was also directed towardsexamining whether third-year university students having taken courses for methods and techniques used to teachdifferent subjects felt competent about selection of suitable methods and techniques.This is a case study using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative data were gathered withPerceived Competence Scale for Selection of Teaching Methods and Techniques for Prospective Teachers,developed by Durdukoca et al. (2017). Qualitative data were collected through an open-ended question “Whatteaching methods and techniques do you think you want to use in the future”. All the participants answered thisopen-ended question and completed the scale. Data obtained through the open ended-question were analyzed withcontent analysis.The study sample included 96 third-year students studying in the Department of Primary Education in BucaEducation Faculty of Dokuz Eylül University in the spring term of the 2017-2018 academic year. Quantitative datawere analyzed with SPSS v. 22 and t-test.The prospective primary school teachers were found to plan to use student-centered methods and techniques and tohave high perceived competence concerning selection of teaching methods and techniques. Their perceivedcompetence did not differ between genders and students with different academic performance. Only having apositive perception of competence significantly differed between branches of students.

In this article we delve into tensions lived by teachers when there is no coincidence between intentions and desires of curricular plan and lived experience. By means of a narrative inquiry we go deep on a high school teacher´s experience and we pause in a short time period in which he lived a disagreement with the educational inspection and the official curriculum. Later, through an exegetical analysis, we relate the teacher´s story with the scientific literature, in order to open new questions and thoughts that help to live tensions in a fruitful way. The analysis points out to three dimensions where tensions are lived: needs, language and time. Finally, the study of these tensions shows that their origin is located in an epistemological framework. It means, they are the result of a friction between different educational knowledge perspectives, which turn out to be different ways of dealing with planning and teacher work.

O presente estudo caracterizou-se por ser do tipo participante e teve como objetivo geral analisar a viabilidade do desenvolvimento da disciplina Educação Física no ensino médio, período noturno, por meio de uma proposta metodológica de Ensino Aberto. O estudo constituiu-se de quatro etapas básicas de desenvolvimento que foram: primeira, diagnóstico geral da situação da Educação Física no CAIC/UEM- turno noturno,- segunda, elaboração de uma proposta participativa para o desenvolvimento da Educação Física, baseada na metodologia de Ensino Aberto,- terceira, desenvolvimento da proposta durante um semestre envolvendo as turmas de segundo ano dos cursos de Educação Geral e Auxiliar de Enfermagem e,- quarta, avaliação das ações desenvolvidas pelo estudo durante o semestre. Como resultado geral, pôde-se concluir que a Educação Física é plenamente viável de ser desenvolvida dentro do ensino noturno, com conteúdos significativos e de valor para seus participantes. Não houve nenhuma queixa ou comentário que desabonasse as estratégias adotadas e as ações desenvolvidas. Como ponto final do estudo, sugere-se que estudos da mesma natureza sejam desenvolvidos nas demais áreas do conhecimento, no período noturno, para que possam contribuir para uma mudança significativa da formação hoje ofertada ao aluno trabalhador. The aim of the present participating study was to analyze the feasibility of developing Physical Education in evening classes of Senior high school through an Open Teaching Methodology. It was carried out through the following basic phases: surveying Physical Education situation at CAIC/ UEM — evening classes,- establishing an interactionist plan to develop Physical Education based on the Open Teaching Methodology,- carrying out the plan during one semester involving senior highschool second year classes of the courses in General Education and Nurse Aides, selected for being halfway through the course and already having experienced Physical Education systematic teaching,-evaluating.

This study examines the effectiveness of counselor communication on the self-disclosure of students in SMA Negeri 3 Parepare. Counselors in high schools get a clear role and position or place, where counselors as a component of student support services (student support services) to help the development of personal, social, career, and academic aspects of students through guidance and counseling programs to students in plan (individual student planning), responsive service delivery and system development (system support). Therefore, counselors are highly required to have effective communication skills to support counseling, so counseling communication skills can make students open themselves. This type of research is descriptive qualitative using observation, interview, and documentation methods. The subject in this study was the BK teacher of SMA Negeri 3 Parepare as the school counselor using data analysis techniques namely interpretation data analysis techniques and triangulation analysis techniques. The results of this study indicate that the stages of counseling can be seen based on the stages of effective communication conducted by counselors, including; 1) Fact finding, 2) Planning, 3) Communicating, 4) Evaluating. The communication skills applied by counselors in the implementation of counseling are (attending), empathy, summarizing, asking, and honesty. By using the communication model, in this study found that the counselor's communication achieved students' self-disclosure as evidenced by giving their trust to the counselor, expressing honest statements in the counseling process, and students feeling relieved after the counseling. Based on some of the results obtained by researchers, the communication skills conducted by counselors to achieve students' self-disclosure are effective.

Background: Early, intensive sports specialization has been positioned as a potentially harmful pattern of participation for developing youth athletes; however, it remains largely unknown how youth sport families decide if and when an athlete will specialize. Areas lacking in the literature include exploration of the prevalence of specialization for elementary-school-aged athletes and in the community-based recreational context, current and prospective experiences of sport families, and comparisons between stakeholder groups regarding their perceptions of sport specialization. Purpose: To explore and compare early youth sport parent-athlete dyads’ perceived sport participation characteristics, attitudes, and experiences related to youth sport specialization. Methods: Youth sport parents and athletes completed a sport participation survey designed to examine 1) Demographic characteristics of the youth sport family and their context; 2) Characteristics of the youth athlete’s current (ie, degree of specialization) and planned sport participation pathway (ie, if and when they plan to specialize); 3) Perceptions of the athletes’ sport experience, with an emphasis on sport specialization. Descriptive analyses were conducted for demographic and sport participation characteristics, and paired-samples t-tests were conducted to compare sport-related attitudes and perceptions of sport specialization in matched parent-athlete dyads (p≤.05). Results: Ninety-six total participants (48 parent-athlete dyads; 66.7% of athletes (n=32) were male) from a single community-based early youth sport program completed the sport participation survey. 85.4% (n=72) of total participants rated the athlete’s current degree of specialization as low or not at all, though participants more commonly anticipated specializing in middle school (48.9%; n=44) and high school (52.2%; n=47). In comparing the parent-athlete dyads, these groups did not significantly differ in their perceptions of sport specialization, perceived pathway enjoyment, or their plans to specialize in the future. However, athletes were significantly more likely to identify as currently specialized (p<.01), perceive a higher degree of current specialization (p=.047), and rate themselves as more burned out (p<.01) than their parents. Conclusion: These findings indicate that parents and athletes generally possess similar attitudes toward sport specialization and perceptions of athletes’ sport experiences during their early youth participation. While youth sport families are not commonly engaging in specialization during these elementary school years, many plan an eventual sport pathway for their athlete that involves specializing in a main sport. Lastly, it appears that even at an early age, athletes may perceive their sport experience as more specialized and more taxing than their parents, highlighting the need for open communication and understanding within these dyads. Tables: [Table: see text][Table: see text][Table: see text]

Heat waves are the second leading cause of weather-related morbidity and mortality affecting millions of individuals globally, every year. The aim of this study was to understand the perceptions and practices of community residents and healthcare professionals with respect to identification and treatment of heat emergencies. A qualitative study was conducted using focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, with the residents of an urban squatter settlement, community health workers, and physicians and nurses working in the emergency departments of three local hospitals in Karachi. Data was analyzed using content analysis. The themes that emerged were (1) perceptions of the community on heat emergencies; (2) recognition and early treatment at home; (3) access and quality of care in the hospital; (4) recognition and treatment at the health facility; (5) facility level plan; (6) training. Community members were able to recognize dehydration as a heat emergency. Males, elderly, and school-going children were considered at high risk for heat emergencies. The timely treatment of heat emergencies was widely linked with availability of financial resources. Limited availability of water, electricity, and open public spaces were identified as risk factors for heat emergencies. Home based remedies were reported as the preferred practice for treatment by community members. Both community members and healthcare professionals were cognizant of recognizing heat related emergencies.

A student is someone who studies in formal education, in this case, vocational students are expected to be able to gain expertise and skills as a provision to get and open a job. Students must be able to become entrepreneurs with new and innovative products. Vocational High School students can print entrepreneurial candidates after graduating from school so that they can help push the wheels of the national economy. Vocational students can be said to be prospective entrepreneurs, so they need to be equipped with digital business literacy and financial literacy in facing the development of the industrial revolution 4.0. This service activity is aimed at increasing the understanding of prospective entrepreneurs as well as improving skills in utilizing technology and the internet for business (business) in the digital era. The method used is workshop and training. The products produced are creative content from prospective entrepreneurs which can be in the form of vlog videos, promotional videos, and others. In addition, prospective entrepreneurs can also take advantage of the existing marketplace as a means of doing business (marketing). Community service activities have been carried out on Wednesday, April 14, 2021. Participants in the activity are class 12 students majoring in accounting from SMK Lebakbarang as many as 47 SMK students. The resource person for the activity was Wahid Wachyu Adi W, M.Si. (Lecturer) and Novendi Arkham M, M. Account. (Lecturer). The form of service activities is a workshop with material about digital business and financial literacy. Participants of service activities can follow well. The attendance rate is 83% until the activity ends. Participants also actively participated during the activity. Participants can carry out group assignments well, namely expressing ideas or business ideas in the digital era. The success of service activities is due to the service team being able to plan well and able to coordinate with collaboration partners intensively.

AbstrakKemampuan pemecahan masalah merupakan tujuan pokok dari pembelajaran matematika. Penyajian masalah matematika terbuka, merupakan alternatif untuk menumbuhkembangkan kemampuan pemecahan masalah peserta didik. Agar proses pembelajaran berlangsung efektif, perlu didukung dengan perangkat pembelajaran yang relevan. Hal tersebut yang mendasari untuk melakukan penelitian pengembangan perangkat pembelajaran matematika berupa Rencana Pelaksanan Pembelajaran (RPP) dan Lembar Kerja Peserta Didik (LKPD) berbasis model pembelajaran penemuan dengan masalah open ended, yang dapat memberikan pengalaman belajar kepada peserta didik dalam keterampilan, menyelidiki, dan memecahkan masalah yang berkaitan dengan dunia nyata serta menyelesaikan masalah-masalah terbuka. Jenis penelitian adalah penelitian pengembangan menggunakan model Plomp yang terdiri dari tiga fase yaitu preliminary research, prototype, dan asessment phase. Pada fase preliminary research dilakukan analisis berupa analisis kebutuhan, analisis peserta didik, analisis kurikulum, serta analisis konsep. Dari hasil analisis yang telah dilakukan diperoleh informasi bahwa perlunya pengembangan perangkat pembelajaran yang dapat meningkatkan kemampuan pemecahan masalah peserta didik. Pada fase prototype dilakukan perancangan produk yaitu RPP dan LKPD berbasis model pembelajaran penemuan dengan masalah open ended untuk kelas X semester 2. Pada fase asessment phase dilakukan uji praktikalitas dan uji efektivitas. Penelitian pengembangan yang akan dilaksanakan ini, diharapkan dapat memperoleh perangkat pembelajaran matematika berbasis model pembelajaran penemuan dengan masalah open ended untuk kelas X SMA yang memiliki karakteristik valid, praktis dan efektif.Kata Kunci: pengembangan, perangkat pembelajaran, model pembelajaran penemuan, masalah open ended.AbstractProblem solving skills are the main objectives of mathematics learning. Presentation of open math problems, is an alternative to develop the problem solving ability of learners. In order for the learning process to be effective, it needs to be supported with relevant learning tools. This is the basis for conducting research on the development of mathematics learning tools in the form of Learning Implementation Plan (RPP) and Student Learning Sheet (LKPD) based on discovery learning model with open ended problem, which can provide learners experience in skills, investigate, and solve Problems related to the real world and solving open problems. The type of research is a development study using a Plomp model consisting of three phases: preliminary research, prototype, and asessment phase. In the preliminary research phase, analysis is done in the form of needs analysis, learner analysis, curriculum analysis, and concept analysis. From the results of the analysis has been obtained information that the need for the development of learning tools that can improve students' problem solving skills. In the prototype phase, the product design is RPP and LKPD based on discovery learning model with open ended problem for class X semester 2. In the phase phase phase, it is tested by practicality and effectiveness test. The development research that will be carried out is expected to be able to obtain the learning device of mathematics based on discovery learning model with open ended problem for class X high school that has valid, practical and effective characteristics.Keyword: Development, learning device, discovery learning model, open ended problem.

Aim/Purpose: This paper presented the framework for the integration of digital technologies in education, implemented in InTecEdu Program, developed by Remote Experimentation Laboratory (RExLab), Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. Background: The main objective of the model presented is to arouse interest in science and technology among adolescents. Therefore, it sought to develop STEM competencies (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in children and adolescents. Understanding learning in STAM areas can favor the development of professionals who can supply the demand in related sectors, especially in the scientific-technological scope. To fulfill the main objective, strategies related to students and teachers were developed. With activities aimed at students, it was hoped to promote vocations to scientific-technological careers and encourage entrepreneurship. On the other hand, the activities related to teachers aimed at training them to integrate technology into their lesson plans. Inspired by the Maker Culture, the model sought to make it possible for teachers to become the main agents in the process of integrating technology in their lesson plans, since they were in charge of building and producing their digital content and other resources to support their didactic activities. The maker movement is a technological extension of the “Do It Yourself!” culture, which encourages ordinary people to build, modify, repair, and manufacture their objects, with their own hands. The training actions were preceded by a diagnosis, inspired by the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model, as well as the lesson plans prepared and made available by the teachers. Methodology: Methodologically, the framework’s work plan was composed of five Work Packages (WP), which include management, resource mapping, strategies related to teachers, strategies related to students, and the dissemination and exploitation of results. In the 2014-2018 period, 367 teachers participated in training activities, intending to integrate technologies into lesson plans. At the end of 2018, 27 Basic Education schools, including an indigenous and a rural school, from the public-school system, in the states of Santa Catarina, Minas Gerais, and the Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil, using the project’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). In these 70 teachers, 230 classes, and 6,766 students accessed didactic content, produced by teachers, at VLE. Also, 20 laboratories were available in 26 instances, for use in practical activities in disciplines in the STEM areas. Specifically, in the STEM areas, 3,360 students from 98 classes from 9 schools had integrated the Remote Laboratories, in lesson plans in the subjects of Physics and Biology (High School), Science (Elementary School). Contribution: The main results of the application of the framework are related to the training of human resources, knowledge production, and educational innovation. About the training of human resources, we sought to contribute to the training of teachers concerning technology in education and, with that, arouse greater interest on the part of students, as well as obtain improvements in their learning from teaching methodologies supported on the use of digital technologies. On the other hand, the production of knowledge, in the program and the socialization of research, is favored by the model based on open-source resources, both in terms of software and hardware and with open educational resources. This characteristic favor and expands the potential for reapplying research and, consequently, its contribution to educational innovation. Findings: The results, about students, indicated an increase in motivation due to the creation of new teaching and learning opportunities. The fact of extending the classroom and school, through remote laboratories, to support practical activities and the use of VLE, was also pointed out as a very positive factor. On the other hand, the realization of the workshops, inspired by practices of the Maker Culture, provided an approximation of these to the skills of the real world, which will certainly favor their employability. Regarding the teachers, it is noticed the continuity and expansion in the use of technological resources in the classroom; many sought and have participated in new training actions. Recommendations for Practitioners: Provision of a repository of practices for sharing and reuse of lesson plans developed by teachers participating in the research. Technical documents, manuals, and guides for robotics, computer programming, electronics and new technology workshops for students. Recommendation for Researchers: Technical documents, manuals, and guides for remote laboratories. Data collected in the applied questionnaires. Technical documents, manuals, and guides for robotics, computer programming, electronics and new technology workshops for students. Impact on Society: The main results of the framework application are related to human resources formation, knowledge production, and educational innovation. Regarding the formation of human resources, we sought to contribute to the formation of teachers concerning technology in education and, about the students the creation of teaching and learning opportunities, to extend the classroom and also the school, through the remote laboratories, to support the practical activities and the use of the VLE. Future Research: The socialization and reapplication of the framework since it is based on open-source resources, both software and hardware, and with open educational resources.

During adolescence, healthy eating habits are important, and regular meal intake has an especially positive effect on future health. However, the rate of skipping breakfast has gradually increased. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the positive effects of a rice-based breakfast in Korean adolescents who usually skip breakfast. In this open parallel-group, randomized controlled trial, 105 middle and high school students aged 12–18 years who habitually skipped breakfast were recruited. They were randomly divided into three groups: the rice meal group (RMG, n = 35), wheat meal group (WMG, n = 35), and general meal group (GMG, n = 35). The RMG and WMG received a rice-based breakfast and wheat-based breakfast, respectively, for 12 weeks. After a 12-week intervention, the body fat mass (p < 0.05) and body mass index (p < 0.05) in the RMG were significantly lower than those in the other two groups, and the stress score was also significantly lower in the RMG (p < 0.05). Moreover, after the intervention, in the RMG only, compared to baseline levels, the relative theta (RT) wave activity significantly decreased in eight electrode sites, and the relative alpha (RA) wave activity increased significantly. Eating a rice-based breakfast has positive effects on body fat accumulation and cognitive function in Korean adolescents. Furthermore, a rice-based breakfast plan that is preferred by adolescents should be developed to assist them in developing healthy eating habits.

Generally an exam, a performance test or a test to be used for summative or evaluation purposes must be prepared according to a definite plan. The present paper aimed at analyzing and evaluating the certificate exam, the study also revealed the questions representation of Bloom's cognitive levels. This article presents also the statistical and psychometric indices that characterize each of the questions (26 items) that make up a certification exam of the Sciences of Life and Earth in a Moroccan high school in Meknes. Indeed, two hundred test copies have been analyzed using the SPSS and Anitem software. The average of goals achieved in activities of knowledge, analysis, understanding and evaluation is 61%, 52%, 37.5%, 58% respectively, but it is only 19% for "application" activity. The success rate in open questions items is only 38.5% against 61.5% for Multiple Choice Questions (MSQ) and closed questions. The internal homogeneity coefficient is greater than 0.8 (α = 0.84), which means that the homogeneity of the instrument has been considered satisfactory. According to the index of difficulty out of the 26 items, two are extremely inferior (P> 0.8), while two others are extremely superior (P <0.2). According to the index of discrimination eleven items meet the conditions of validity, three are not discriminating and twelve should be reviewed. The correlation between the success rate in these items and their difficulty index is high (R = 0.98). In light of the findings, we recommended the necessity of having measurement and evaluation experts in writing questions of exams and we highly recommend the necessity of continuous training of teachers in the field of assessment and evaluation.

Abstrak — Tujuan penelitian ini adalah mendeskripsikan profil berpikir kritis siswa dengan gaya kognitif field dependent-independent dalam memecahkan masalah open ended matematika. Metode yang digunakan adalah deskriptif kualitatif yang akan memberikan gambaran profil berpikir kritis siswa dengan gaya kognitif field dependent-independent dalam memecahkan masalah matematika open ended. Subjek yang digunakan pada penelitian ini adalah 2 siswa kelas IX dengan rincian masing-masing 1 siswa gaya kognitif field dependent (FD) dan field independent (FI). Teknik pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan cara tes gaya kognitif GEFT, tes pemecahan masalah matematika (TPMOE) dan wawancara. Data yang diperoleh dianalisis pada setiap tahap pemecahan masalah berdasarkan kriteria berpikir kritis Jacob dan Sam. Setelah diteliti, hasil menunjukkan profil berpikir dua subjek mengenai pemahaman masalah relatif identik. Kedua subjek melaksanakan indikator klarifikasi, namun subjek FD salah dalam menghubungkan antar bagian saat menyelesaikan menggunakan cara ke II. Kedua subjek memenuhi indikator asesmen dan strategi pada saat langkah menyusun rencana. Subjek FI dan FD memberikan alasan yang masuk akal terkait dengan strategi yang dipakai, memilih informasi yang terkait dengan pemecahan masalah, serta dapat memberikan alasanyang tepat pada setiap langkah. Kedua subjek juga dapat memprediksi hasil dari langkah pengerjaan yang telah dibuat. Saat tahap melaksanakan rencana, kedua subjek menyelesaikan permasalahan sesuai dengan tahap yang telah direncanakan serta bisa membuat konklusi secara tepat. Kedua subjek memeriksa kembali langkah yang telah dilakukan pada langkah memeriksa kembali. Subjek FD kurang teliti saat memahami masalah sehingga berakibat menggunakan cara yang salah pada cara II.Kata Kunci : Berpikir kritis, pemecahan masalah, field dependent-independent.Abstract — The aims of this research is to describe the critical thinking profile of students with field dependent-independent cognitive styles in solving open ended mathematics problems. The method in this research is descriptive qualitative which will produce descriptive data in the form of a description of the critical thinking profile of students with dependent-independent field cognitive style in solving open ended mathematical problems. The subjects were 2 students on 9th grade junior high school with the details of each student is, the first student with field dependent (FD) cognitive style and the second student with fieldindependent (FI). Data collection techniques were carried out by means of the GEFT cognitive style test, mathematical problem solving test (TPMOE) and interviews. Data were analyzed based on Jacob and Sam's critical thinking criteria at each step of Polya's problem solving. The results showed the profile of thinkingof the two subjects at the same stage on understanding the problem. Both subjects carry out clarification indicators, but the subject FD is wrong in connecting between parts when completing using method II. In the steps of devising a plan the two subjects carry out all the assessment indicators and strategies. Both subjects provide logical reasons related to the strategy used, the selection of relevant information, and can provide the right reasons at each step. Both subjects can also predict the results of the steps that have been made. In the steps of carrying out the plan, the two subjects solve the problem in accordance with the steps that have been planned and can make conclusions correctly. In the step of looking back, the two students evaluate the steps that have been taken. The FD subject was not too careful when understanding the problem so that he use the wrong method on the II method.Keywords: critical thinking, problem solving, field dependent-independent

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic in the management of English learning and to improve student achievement at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta. The research approach used is descriptive qualitative, with data collection techniques through interviews and observations. The research subjects were English teachers and deputy principals of SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta. The results of the study are as follows. First, English education planning is prepared based on subjects, competency standards, basic competencies, learning objectives, teaching modules, procedures, time allocation, learning activities, learning resources/equipment, and evaluation of distance education students' learning outcomes during the Covid- 19. Second, the implementation of education that the teacher is trying has been guided by the latest updated syllabus and online learning implementation plan. English teachers have practised innovative education during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as Google Classroom, Zoom, WhatsApp, and many more. Distance learning that the teacher applies is to open lessons, deliver modules or teaching materials two days before learning activities occur, and discuss learning with students where learning is student-centred. The educational process places more emphasis on the cognitive and psychomotor domains. Third, learning assessment uses pre-test and post-test when online education takes place. The evaluation method used in learning applies direct observation, carries out tests/exercises at the end of the lesson so that the teacher knows the weaknesses and measurements of each student. Learning support facilities at Muhammadiyah 3 High School Yogyakarta are equipped with a language laboratory to facilitate the implementation of learning English more effectively.

AbstractIntroduction: The quality of school depends on a well-functioning school management, managed by the top school managers. It is very important to know the real conditions of the school to be able to provide any effective changes. Especially, it is necessary to know the educational process which can be efficiently determined by an inspection process. The inspection process is present in current pedagogical science and in pedagogical practice which deserves increased attention of all participants in the educational process.Methods: The study is based on a theoretical analysis of the presented issues and on a research. The findings were analysed, compared, and conclusions were drawn for school practice. We used the following research methods:- content analysis of the existing literature;- the quantitative method of gathering data by the medium of a twelve-item questionnaire containing four closed and eight semi-open questions. The questionnaire contained data necessary to process and evaluate the questionnaire, these were inserted as the last question;- statistical data processing methods.Results: New times bring a new style of management and a new understanding of the inspecting activity, which creates a partnership between the student and the teacher. It is to promote mutual understanding between them, based on the principles of democracy. Innovations in the educational practice also affect the realization of inspecting activities. The aim of managers, as well as inspectors, is to promote inspections not only as a tool for evaluating the teaching process but also as methodological help for teachers. The goal of our research was to map the state of the inspecting activity in selected high schools and to find out about the changes in teachers’ opinions on inspecting activities over the twenty-year horizon. We cannot generalize our findings for schools of all kinds as only 88 respondents (44 respondents participated in the 1998 research and 44 respondents in the 2017 research) took part in our research.Discussion: Managing the educational process and taking the responsibility for its quality are among the basic duties of the school management and in the conditions of the Slovak Republic, as it follows from Act no. 596/2003 on state administration in education and school self-government as last amended. Supervising school leadership is one of the fundamental means of feedback that allows the study of the level of educational and training results, the fulfillment of the conceptual development of school, and the fulfillment of the tasks in the short-term school plan. The objective of the principal of the school is to obtain objective information about the level and the outcomes of the educational work of the school and, if deficiencies are identified, it is his/her duty to eliminate them. The most important task of the school is to implement the School Educational Program in line with the State Educational Program (SEP), which should take into account the needs of students, the interests of students and their parents, and contribute to improving the processes going on in the school, especially in the educational process. The research revealed that inspections conducted by school managers (the principal, deputies, administrators) are the most beneficial for the work of teachers. This fact was caused by the effort of the school managers to view inspections as a means of personal growth of teachers and not only as a controlling mechanism of teachers’ work. This was also confirmed by the research showing that inspections by the members of school management are now clearly focused on emphasizing the positive aspect of teachers’ work. This was caused by a shift in the inspectors’ perception of the inspecting activities in the period of twenty years - they use them as a teacher-oriented tool.Limitations: The number of participants in the research sample was one of the methodological limitations of this research. We cannot consider this number to be representative for the purpose of generalizing the results.Conclusion: In this study, we realized a mutual comparison of attitudes and opinions of teachers regarding inspecting activities. This comparative study, taking into account the twenty-year time span, has shown that the inspectors (school managers) have acquired such methods of evaluating their teachers, which objectively refer of their actual performance, that the most beneficial inspections for teachers’ own pedagogical work are the inspections conducted by the members of the school management, that the adherence to pedagogical ethics by the inspectors has an increasing tendency, and that formalism, as well as the subjective evaluation of teacher’s work, have a downward tendency and have disappeared from the conclusions of inspections. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that, in the course of two decades, significant changes have taken place in the realization of inspections, both on the part of the inspectors and on the part of the teachers and their perception of inspections.

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>The speeches prepared in a plan and presented to the target group are in the ready speech class. Changing world conditions personalize the person and break away from the outside world. This situation leads to an increase in the number of people who are inadequate in interpersonal communication, difficult to express themselves, and who can not express the situation they are facing. Appropriate studies should be carried out to train the generations that can express your verbal thought and adopt a level of personality. At this point, it is very important to determine the levels and interests of individuals. At this point, the motivation of individuals who are reluctant to open individuals can be improved in this way.</p><p>This research was conducted to determine the selection of topics on the lower level prepared by junior high school students. "Are middle school students different in their choice of subject, such as readiness, gender, grade level, parental level of education, family economic level, book page reading per month?" And "What are the opinions of the middle school students in the subjects of the prepared talk?" the answer was searched. A complementary hybrid design was used in the study. The first group of the study consisted of 24 selected students. Data; The semi-structured interview form for the first sub-problem and the second semi-structured interview form for the second sub-problem were analyzed by frequency and percentage calculation. It has been examined whether subject selection tendencies differ according to variables such as gender, class level, parental education level, family economic level, number of book pages read in one month. In the second part of the research, thematic coding was done.</p><p>5th and 6th grades, animal and nature in topic selection, environment in 7th grade, 8th class sports branches are extraordinary. Subject selection; The gender of the students, the level of education of the father, the educational status of the mother, the profession of the father, the occupation of the mother, the monthly income of the family and the number of books read in a month. When the general opinions of the middle school students are evaluated regarding the prepared speech, the negative aspects such as excitement, interruption and not being able to express themselves can not be prevented with prepared speeches. Students can communicate their thoughts effectively.</p><p><strong>Öz</strong></p><p>Bir plan dahilinde hazırlanıp hedef kitleye sunulan konuşmalar, hazırlıklı konuşma sınıfındadır. Değişen dünya koşulları, insanı bireyselleştirmekte ve dış dünya ile olan ilişkilerini koparmaktadır. Bu durum kişiler arası iletişimde yetersiz, kendini ifade etmekte zorlanan, karşılaştığı sorunlar karşısında içinde bulunduğu durumu dile getiremeyen bireylerin artmasına neden olmaktadır. Düşündüğünü sözlü olarak doğru ifade edebilen nesiller yetiştirmek, beceriyi kişilik özelliği olacak düzeyde benimsetmek için seviyeye uygun çalışmaların yürütülmesi gerekmektedir. Bu noktada ise bireylerin seviyelerinin ve ilgi alanlarının belirlenmesi büyük önem arz etmektedir. Duygu ve düşüncelerini açığa vurmada isteksiz durumda olan bireylerin motivasyonu bu şekilde artırılabilecektir.</p><p>Bu araştırma, ortaokul öğrencilerinin hazırlıklı konuşmada konu seçimlerini belirlemek amacıyla yapılmıştır. “Ortaokul öğrencilerinin hazırlıklı konuşmada konu seçimleri, cinsiyet, sınıf seviyesi, anne-baba eğitim düzeyi, ailenin ekonomik seviyesi, ayda okuduğu kitap sayfası değişkenlerine göre farklılık göstermekte midir?” ve “Ortaokul öğrencilerinin hazırlıklı konuşmada konu seçimleri ile ilgili görüşleri nelerdir?” sorularına cevap aranmıştır. Araştırmada tamamlayıcı karma desen kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın birinci çalışma grubunu, resmi bir okulda öğrenim gören 120 ortaokul öğrencisi; ikinci çalışma grubunu, birinci çalışma grubu içerisinden seçilen 24 öğrenci oluşturmaktadır. Veriler; birinci alt problem için ölçme aracı ile ikinci alt problem için yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formu ile toplanmış, frekans ve yüzde hesaplamasıyla çözümlenerek yorumlanmıştır. Konu seçme eğilimlerinin cinsiyet, sınıf seviyesi, anne-baba eğitim düzeyi, ailenin ekonomik seviyesi, bir ayda okunan kitap sayfası sayısı değişkenlerine göre farklılaşıp farklılaşmadığı incelenmiştir. Araştırmanın ikinci kısmından elde edilen veriler tematik kodlama yapılarak analiz edilmiştir.</p><p>5 ve 6.sınıfların konu seçimlerinde hayvanlar ve doğa konusu, 7.sınıfta çevre konusu, 8.sınıfta spor dalları öne çıkan konulardır. Konu seçimleri; öğrencilerin cinsiyetlerine, baba eğitim durumuna, anne eğitim durumuna, baba mesleğine, anne mesleğine, ailenin aylık gelirine, bir ayda okunan kitap sayfası sayısına göre anlamlı bir şekilde farklılaşmamaktadır. Ortaokul öğrencilerinin hazırlıklı konuşmayla ilgili genel görüşleri değerlendirildiğinde hazırlıklı konuşma ile heyecan, kekeleme, kendini ifade edememe gibi olumsuzlukların ortadan kalktığı; öğrencilerin düşüncelerini etkili bir şekilde aktarabildikleri görülmüştür.Çalışmanın bulguları öğretmenler, ders kitabı yazarları tarafından dikkate alındığında öğrencilerin duygu ve düşüncelerini ortaya koymadaki isteksizliği giderilmiş, motivasyonları artırılmış olacaktır. Kendilerini daha iyi ifade eden ve konuşma becerisini kişilik özelliği olacak düzeyde benimseyen bireyler yetiştirilebilecektir.</p>

PREFACEIndonesian Journal of Science and Technology (IJoST) is a peer-reviewed journal that aims to publish and disseminate innovative research articles on the latest developments in all fields of science and technology. The journal publishes original papers in English, which contribute to the understanding of science and improvement of the science and technology. Papers may be theoretical explanation (including computational), experimental observation and analysis, or combination from both theoretical and experimental analysis. The contribution should be unpublished before and not under consideration for publication in elsewhere. IJoST maintains a standard double-blind peer review process. The review process means that the identity with the author, and the reviewer are not known to each other. IJoST is an open-access journal, and in this issue IJoST does not charge for readers, authors, or their institutions for access to the journal articles. This journal was firstly published on April 30, 2016, and issued every April and September in each year, published by Tim Pengembang Jurnal at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia.In this issue, we published nine papers, including seven original research articles and two review papers. In this issue, we received papers from remarkable researchers in several countries in the world, including Iran, Italy, Malaysia, South Korea, The Netherlands, and Indonesia. The first paper discussed about photodecomposition profile of organic material during the partial solar eclipse of 9 March 2016. The next paper presented about techno-economic assessment of coal to SNG power plant in Kalimantan. In the third paper, authors discussed about how to optimize and plan for Designing VHS Building Using Chronolux, in which this can be used for school building. In the fourth paper, authors discussed about project for offshore horizontal directional drilling (HDD) for pipeline crossing in Bukit Tua, Indonesia. The fifth article presented method for detecting mango tree varieties based on image processing. The next paper discussed on the relationship between social performance and corporate financial performance. The sixth paper described high temperature oxidation behavior of T91 steel in dry and humid condition. The seventh is a review article regarding early phase process evaluation, in which this evaluation based on industrial practices. The last paper is a review on module-scale simulation of forward osmosis module in the focus of Plate-and-Frame.We believe that this issue will give benefits for the improvement and the development of science and technology.Bandung, September 2016 Editor

A successful international learning initiative focusing on student agency began with a link facilitating OE-enhanced teaching between a UK university and a US high school class. It became an international trip organised and funded by five UK students and their teacher who travelled to California, teaching and performing music across formal and informal learning settings. The project is now a credit-bearing class, retaining the original initiative’s openness within the university curriculum where final-year students collaborate with the teacher, self-organising to design and plan curricular details from travel logistics to musical interactions. Students engage in heutagogy, demonstrating the highest levels of autonomous, personal learning in this co-learning environment. Their assessment, a reflective journal, encourages engage with deeper learning processes. The original trip was documented as an eBook including 10,000 student-authored words telling their collaborative learning journey. The book was published without DRM an accessible model for other students and educators.

The popularization of the STEM educational model has also brought along the need for well-trained teachers. In this model, it is aimed to understand examples in real world and solve related problems. Of course, this depends on the development of critical thinking, creative thinking, researching and experimental skills. For these reasons, in the study, the difficulties which the physics-chemistry preservice teachers encountered while preparing lesson plans in relation to STEM implementations and their opinions about the implementation of these plans. For this purpose, the preservice teachers were asked to form real life-related, information-based problems covering the acquisitions included in the high school programs and then they were expected to turn these into STEM lesson plans. The study is a descriptive study, one of the qualitative research methods. The data was collected via the forms developed by the researchers and including open-ended questions and one-to-one interviews. The obtained data was analyzed according to the steps of content analysis. When the analysis results were examined, it was found that the preservice teachers had difficulty in forming real life-related, information-based problems covering the acquisitions included in the high school programs and integrating them with scientific knowledge and in the engineering integration of STEM implementations and finding materials.

Introduction. Now China is completing the “State program for medium and long-term reform and development of education for 2010–2020.” The results achieved during the implementation of this program and the new strategy for the development of China’s education, including in the field of higher education and higher education institutions, are becoming a new subject of research in domestic science and require careful study. The purpose of the study is to characterize the current state of Chinese universities and identify a strategy for their development until 2035. Methods and materials. As research methods, analysis of open data sources and comparative analysis were used. The source base includes regulatory documents of the People’s Republic of China in the field of education (laws, the state program and state projects), CPC documents related to the development of the education system (reports of the party congress and plenum), information resources of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (National Statistical Reports on Education Development for 2016–2018), data from QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the period 2016–2020. Analysis. As a result of the reform, the gross enrollment ratio of high school education (10–12 grades) increased from 79.2% (2009) to 88.8% (2018), and higher education from 24.2% (2009) to 48.1% (2018). The fulfillment of the tasks of reforming the higher education system, including the implementation of Projects 211 and 985, by the beginning of the 13th five-year plan (2016) has enabled 85 Chinese universities to enter the world ranking THE (2016–2017). In 2016, China switched to a new strategy for the global development of higher education, embarking on the implementation of the “Project of First-Class Universities and Scientific Disciplines”. At the 19th CPC Congress (2017), this strategy was supplemented by the task of intensive development of higher education. Currently, the global development strategy for higher education and universities in the country is continuing as part of the overall modernization of education, according to which China plans to strengthen the combined power and influence of country’s education in the international arena by 2020, and by 2035 to increase the competitiveness of higher education in the context of transforming the country into a global educational power. Results. The results of the study include the following: 1) the current state of Chinese universities significantly exceeds the state of 2009 in both quantitative and qualitative indicators; 2) the modern strategy for the development of higher education is the strategy of global development of Chinese universities, aimed at their achievement of leading and first positions in the world, as well as strengthening the competitiveness of China’s higher education, contributing to the transformation of China into a world educational power in 2035.

Abstract Case 1 70 year old man presented with acute myelo-monocytic leukemia diagnosed in June 2009. He demonstrated no response to standard 7+3, nor high dose AraC. He remains in remission from his acute leukemia 4 years from his diagnosis, as long has he remains on the dandelion root tea, which was started immediately after chemotherapy. If he takes less than three cups / day of the DRT, his peripheral blood monocytes start to rise.1 Repeat testing demonstrates chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. Case 2 Sixty year old female with acute myelomonoctyic leukemia possibly progressing from chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. She underwent induction chemotherapy with 7+3. Her day 28 marrow showed no evidence of remission. She then underwent re-induction with high dose Ara-C at 3 gm/ m2 x 6 doses. She did receive neupogen support, and on day 28, her peripheral blood white blood count was 60 x 109/L with monocytes of 3.0 x 109/L and blasts 1.2 x 109/L. Repeat bone marrow biopsy identified chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). She stopped the neupogen and started dandelion root tea, three cups per day. She is now 5 months from her initial diagnosis and remains in complete hematological response: WBC 4.2/ Hgb 127 / Platelet 182/ Neutophils 2.6 / Monocytes 0.8. Other Cases We have had other possible cases that may support the efficacy of this product in refractory hematological malignancies. In one case of CMML-2 a 76 year old man did receive azacytadine for the duration of his treatment, as well as DRT. He finally succumbed to his disease at 30 months after his diagnosis. We previously presented an elderly female that used only DRT to treat her CMML and experienced a hematological remission for 3 months prior to relapse. Her initial WBC was 130,000 x 109/L.3 Another case of acute myeloid leukemia, who, because of co-morbidities was not a candidate for more aggressive options, relapsed from her M2- acute myeloid leukemia in November 2010. She was treated with low dose AraC, and then dandelion root tea. Although she remained transfusion dependent, she only developed peripheral blasts when she was unable to find the DRT for one month. She continues on the DRT at 15 month from relapse of her acute leukemia.3 We have a phase 1 clinical trial open at our centre investigating a novel formulation of dandelion root extract in refractory hematological malignancies. We plan to study the molecular pathways previously described in CMML including TET2 , CBL , NRAS, KRAS, JAK2 and RUNX1. http://www.ontario.canadiancancertrials.ca/trial/Default.aspx?dsEndecaNav=Ro%3A0%2CNs%3AP_TrialStatus_sort_en%7C101%7C-1%7C%2CNrc%3Aid-30-dynrank-disabled%7Cid-130-dynrank-disabled%7Cid-131-dynrank-disabled%7Cid-132-dynrank-disabled%7Cid-619-dynrank-disabled%7Cid-620-dynrank-disabled%7Cid-621-dynrank-disabled%7Cid-622-dynrank-disabled%7Cid-4294965875-dynrank-disabled%2CN%3A4294952782&TrialId=OCT1226&lang=en 1 Caroline Hamm and Sindu M. Kanjeekal, Unusual Response of Acute Monocytic Leukemia to Dandelion Root Extract, Blood (ASH Annual Meeting Abstracts), Nov 2011; 118: 4288 2. Kohlmann A, Grossmann V, et al. Next Generation Sequencing of Technology Reveals a Characteristic Pattern of Molecular Mutations in 72.8% of Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia by Detecting Frequent alterations in TET2, CBL, RAS, and RUNX1. JCO (28) 2009. 3. Ng W, Hamm C. Can Dandelions Cure? Schulich School of Medicine Research Day, 2009 Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Medicine is a sphere of activity where there are no trivialities, no unnoticed acts, views, experiences. All contact between the doctor and the patient during the course is a system of human relationships, so the outcome of any treatment depends on their level and quality. Through cooperation with a physician, the patient takes an active position, assumes responsibility for his or her health and takes part in recovery. An inextricable set of manual skills and communication skills determines the professionalism of the physician, forming a solid foundation of trust in the patient. The purpose of the investigation is to consider the specifics of issues of deontology and professional ethics in the work of a dentist in modern conditions. The professional morale of the doctor is the subject to the goal of health and human life. Hence the well-known ethical principle of therapy: "Non nocere". The basic moral principle states: "Do not harm the patient by providing the patient health care." At the clinical departments of the Medical Academy, one of the goals of training future specialists is the tradition of treatment, when the doctor brings benefits to the patient and does not harm. These approaches are implemented by the teacher during the theoretical part of the class, and especially on the practical one. When studying the section "Periodontology" at the departments of Therapeutic and Surgical Dentistry of UMSA, the ethical principle "Non nocere" is used at the stages of diagnosis of periodontal tissue diseases, the appointment of general treatment, when choosing local therapies, especially in the application of surgical methods (closed and open curettage, , cryo-curettage, gingivectomy, scapular operations, and others). Students learn to apply a differentiated and individualized approach to each patient. For the modern physician, the highest values must be universal values, therefore, in the process of decision-making, he can not be guided by the notions of moral and other value-added character. The doctor acts as an expert who, based on clinical data and experimental laboratory findings, establishes a final diagnosis, explaining to the patient all that relates only to his disease, leaving out the attention of the patient's vital problems. At the departments of Surgical and Therapeutic Dentistry, during classroom practical classes in the clinic, students, from the first steps of communication with patients, develop basic ethical and moral principles. Students independently conduct a subjective and objective examination of patients, learn to correctly collect the anamnestic data of the disease and life of patients. They analyze the data of the anamnesis, ponder them and make a plan of diagnosis and plan of treatment of their patients. After the differential diagnosis and the establishment of a final clinical diagnosis, under the guidance of the teacher, medical manipulations are carried out. One of the main ethical and moral principles is the preservation of medical secrets - the physician should not disclose personal information about the patient, as well as express doubts regarding his recovery. In order to gain the full confidence of the patient, the doctor must also preserve family secrets. Medical secrecy is the information the doctor receives during his duties. Starting with junior courses at profile dentistry departments, students learn that the medical secrecy involves the non-disclosure of disease data not only to others, but in some cases to the patient himself. It is necessary to protect the patient from the information that may harm his mental condition and the ability to fight the disease. When using information constituting a medical secrecy in the educational process, in research work, in particular, in cases where they are published in a special literature, anonymity of the patient should be ensured. Providing medical stomatological services is a complex of activity that requires a lot of knowledge, skills, technology, work from biological elements that can be unpredictable, as well as knowledge of medical psychology. The ethical duty of a dentist is to respect the patient's right to make independent decisions. At the same time, the actions of a dentist are inevitably influenced by such human factors as subjectivity of judgment, fatigue, lack of time, mistakes of other people, technical malfunction of equipment, etc. The peculiarity of the activity of the dentist at the present stage is the comprehensive implementation of the principles of bioethics, which could be considered universal: it is the autonomy of the individual, informed consent, voluntariness, confidentiality, dignity, integrity, vulnerability, justice. Patients want to believe that their doctor always establishes an absolutely accurate diagnosis and never misses the treatment, but it is simply impossible. The combination of human relationships and technological moments increases the likelihood of medical errors. Ethics requires that the physician inform the patient of his or her mistakes if these errors affect the health of his or her health. Open recognition and analysis of mistakes are beneficial both to the patient and to the dentist, and to the whole practice. Educational medical institutions of the III and IV levels of accreditation, which carry out post-graduate education for cadets and interns, pay great attention to practical activities. The reception of patients is carried out by teachers, along with young doctors or young doctors independently admit patients under the control of a teacher-tutor. Such situation often does not suit patients. They seek quality skilled assistance and do not want to be "trained" to doctors who have only received diplomas. Employees of the higher medical school use the knowledge of ethics and deontology in the relationship between the physician and the patient, and help to build a patient's confidence in a young specialist. The senior teacher explains to the patient the need to attract young doctors to treatment, defines the purpose of this collaboration as a transfer of experience. In modern medicine, in particular, in dentistry, the patient takes part in the discussion of the treatment process, acquaints himself with the plan of examination and treatment, and gives his written consent to this at the completion of medical documentation, in particular, an outpatient card for a dental patient. The dentist interacts with the patient as a specialist and performs all necessary manipulations. With this aim in improving the medical skills of students and interns, discussions are held with their colleagues, discussions with older and more experienced doctors of complex diseases, clinical examinations, clinical conferences are practiced [4, 5]. Teachers of the dental departments of the academy always educate the students and intern doctors such qualities as a doctor, such as friendly fellowship, availability for contacts, readiness to seek help and help a colleague, justice, and high professionalism. It should be noted that the culture of behavior, together with professional competence, forms the authority of the physician both in the team and among patients. A doctor of proper clinical education is always grateful to his mentors. The key to friendly collegial relationships is deep respect, goodwill and trust, adherence to the established subordination, discipline.

The article looks at the “tough choices” (per the National Development Plan) South Africa has to make to be a successful country. It provides policy recommendations and prescriptions for many of the critical issues facing South Africa. The most urgent policy challenges revolve around high levels of unemployment, the regulation of the labor market and the role of unions, the shortage of skills, and the education system. The solutions proposed include the relaxation of labor laws, which hinder entry into the labor market, especially for young people; the introduction of special economic zones; the adoption of an open migration regime for skilled migrants; and the establishment of low-fee private schools and private tertiary education providers. The article calls for bold and visionary leadership in South Africa to ensure that the “tough choices” needing to be made are implemented.

Viktor Vlasov is one of the brightest representatives of Ukrainian button accordion school, and his work is a special page in the musical culture of Ukraine and a significant component of the button accordion art for children. By his work V. Vlasov implements, new ideas and techniques of performing skills that rely on bright artistic images in the native children’s music, and also applies the means of composition techniques that appear in contemporary button accordion art and he pays attention to the latest unconventional methods of sound making. Due to this variety, V. Vlasov’s works have no only their main task – the education of children, but also it is a guideline for other composers. Music scholars, who study the work of Ukrainian composer-accordionist V. Vlasov, have the important task to give a proper assessment of work in general, and summarize the basic criteria of his approach to the formation of the system of young accordionist’s professional skills. Children’s music of button accordion of Ukrainian authors is a significant amount of works for young performers. Although the history of button accordion performance and pedagogy in comparison with other musical instruments is very short, it can be confirmed of the formation of certain schools of button accordion craftsmanship, including the author’s schools, one of which includes the original work of V. Vlasov. In Ukraine, the period of children’s music of button accordion development was synchronized with the formation of a professional button accordion music in general. Beginning from the second half of the twentieth century composers-accordionists made a huge contribution to the musical heritage, including for children. At the same time, information about this stage of musical culture is still poorly explored, the potential of the Ukrainian children’s music of button accordion is not sufficiently defined, the information about collections of plays for children and young people of Ukrainian composers is not generalized or systematized. Ukrainian music for children encompasses a multitude of individual composer styles (from V. Kosenko, M. Lysenko, I. Shamo to contemporary authors such as A. Gaidenko, V. Vlasov, P. Gubanov, O. Shmykov, B. Myronchuk and many others. V. Vlasov definitely can be considered composers with a brightly individually creative writing. All composer’s musical creativity is original and is closely connected with Ukrainian and world classics using authentic folklore, with an appeal to modern pop and jazz genres. He is the author of many works for button accordion which are as complicated, oriented on high level masters as works for beginners. V. Vlasov’s «Album for Children and Youth» has become an important achievement in the field of button accordion art. The cycle of V. Vlasov includes 45 different-colored music pieces; they are not connected with a plot-thematic line, because each music piece has its musical and artistic content. In addition, the music pieces are grouped into five notebooks in accordance with the general plan and a clear pedagogical task. In the first two notebooks of the album («Album of the first-graders», « At a visit to a fairy tale «), the world of a modern child is developed very clearly in the tradition of children’s album from such composers as R. Schumann and P. Chaikovsky to S. Prokofiev and B. Bartok. In the notebook «Folk tunes» which includes folk treats, V. Vlasov managed to cover folk leaks of different regions of Ukraine. The music pieces of the last notebook («Variety-jazz plays») are based on modern jazz language. Researchers more often pay attention to the listed notebooks. This article focuses on the central book of the album – «Chamber Plays». Three sonatas at the beginning of this notebook are perceived as a microcycle where the specificity of sonat thinking is consistently revealed and the artistic and technical tasks for the artist are gradually becoming more complex. The first music piece is a miniature «Sonatyna» of F-dur of early classical type, but even in the summary presentation the thematic contrast is already presented and the functional and logical side of the sonata form is implemented. The second «Sonatyna» D-dur meets the examples of Vienna classics – the thematic is based on the original contrast, there is already a motive comparison in a small development. The third «Sonatyna» C-dur is the most difficult task for performance; it relies on a complex of expressive means corresponding to the music of the 20th century – the toccata-basis of the themes, a complex harmonious language. Thus, three sonatas are a short «summary» of the genre for button accordionists at beginner level. The study of these sonatas is important for assimilating the most complex musical structure. The following music plieces are devoted to other genres, where the author focuses on the transformation of stylistic features. The romantic type of «Serenade» focused on J. Field’s nocturnes has such features as intricacy, expressiveness, sensuality and refinement and corresponds to the general lyrical character of the music piece. The greatest artistic complexity for button accordion performers in «Serenade» is precisely the embodiment of the character of a work that requires a certain level of student’s artistic development, an open emotionality. «Harpsichord» is a work that helps to restore the picture of the aristocratic salon of the times of Rococo, but at the same time it gives certain tasks for the young performer. V. Vlasov somewhat unusually interprets the distribution of textural functions in this musical piece: the part in the left hand imitates the sound of a harpsichord, creating a harmonic accompaniment, while the soloing art of the right hand reflects the timbre of flute or oboe; here the coordination of the hands of the button accordionist and the differentiation of the strokes are important. The last music piece of the book «Watercolour» seems more complicated in content, and more complex in texture development and performance tasks. In this musical creation of this genre of painting, the composer redefines the established notions about the art technique of watercolors and combines the traditions of musical Impressionism with the elements of the «plot», which is represented as a picture. The Viktor Vlasov work, one of the most prominent representatives of the Ukrainian Button accordion School, is a special page of the musical culture of Ukraine and an important component of children’s button accordion music. The most important achievement of the composer in the “Album for Children and Youth” is the systematic, consistent, professional justification of the whole set of musical and auditory ideas and professional skills that make this cycle can be a real school of button accordion craftsmanship.

Introduction: Compared with adults, children have higher emergency department (ED) utilization for asthma exacerbation. While community coalitions have been shown to prevent ED visits for asthma, there is little guidance on where to best implement these efforts. Geographical information systems (GIS) technology can help in the selection and coordination of potential coalition partners. This report proposes a model to be used by clinicians and child health equity advocates to strategize high-impact community health interventions. The aims were to identify the clusters of ED utilization for pediatric asthma, evaluate sociodemographic features of the population within the clusters, and identify potential primary care and school community partners. Methods: This model uses ED visit data from 450 nonmilitary California hospitals in 2012. We obtained ZIP code–level counts and rates for patients younger than 18 years discharged with a diagnosis code of 493 for asthma conditions from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development’s Open Portal. We applied GIS spatial analysis techniques to identify statistically significant cluster for pediatric asthma ED utilization. We then locate the candidate community partners within these clusters. Results: There were 181 720 ED visits for asthma for all age groups in 2012 with 70 127 visits for children younger than 18 years. The top 3 geographic clusters for ED utilization rates were located in Fresno, Inglewood, and Richmond City, respectively. Spatial analysis maps illustrate the schools located within 0.5– and 1-mile radii of primary care clinics and provide a visual and statistical description of the population within the clusters. Conclusion: This study demonstrates a model to help clinicians understand how GIS can aid in the selection and creation of coalition building. This is a potentially powerful tool in the addressing child health disparities.

Dalam pembelajaran matematika,kemampuan pemecahan masalah merupakan aspek yang sangat penting untuk di perhatikan .pemecahan masalah matematika siswa smp berdasarkan langkah polya.metode pemecahan masalah seperti yang di katakan polya ada 4 fase penyelesaian masalah, yaitu : (1) menentukan hal-hal yang di ketahui dan yang di tanyakan secara lengkap. Selain itu siswa juga mampu memahami hubungan antar informasi yang di berikan. Sehingga dapat dikatan bahwa siswa mampu memahami masalah (2) menyusun suatu permisalan dan menyusun model matematika, sehingga dapat di katakan bahwa siswa mampu menyususn rencana penyelesaian.(3) menyelesaikan model matematika dengan tepat ,mampu mencari hasil akhir dari soal tersebut dan mampu melakukan oprasi hitung dengan tepat . sehingga dapat dikatakan bahwa siswa mampu melaksanakan rencana penyelesaian. (4) mengecek penyelesaian soal tersebut baik langkah-langkahnya maupun perhitungan secara menyusun kesimpulan. Sehingga dapat dikatakan bahwa siswa mampu mengecek kembali. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian deskriptif kualitatif dengan subjek penelitian ini adalah siswa MTSn 5 Bandung Barat. maka hasil penelitian ini dapat disimpulkan bahwa peneliti melakukan penelitian di dua kelas yaitu kelas VIII E dan VIII F di MTSn 5 Bandung Barat, dengan dua metode yaitu kelas eksperimen dan kontrol. Berdasarkan hasil uji test menggunakan soal kemampuan pemecahan masalah dengan materi yang diterapkan adalah SPLDV. Dengan menguji menggunakan kolmogorof-smirnov diperoleh: Nilai signifikasi postes pada kelas VIII E yaitu kelas eksperimen terdapat hasil eksperimen 0,076 karena > 0,05. Dan mempunyai nilai rata-rata yaitu 15,6296. Nilai signifikasi postes pada kelas VIII F yaitu kelas eksperimen terdapat hasil kontrol 0,068 karena > 0,05. Dan mempunyai nilai rata-rata yaitu 10,4815.Dan dapat disimpulkan bahwa: (1)kelas eksperimen dan kontrol berdistribusi normal. (2)pemecahan masalah kelas eksperimen lebih baik dari pada kemampuan pemecahan masalah kelas kontrol. Kata Kunci : masalah matematika, kemampuan pemecahan masalah. ABSTRACT In mathematics learning, problem solving ability is a very important aspect to note. Mathematics problem solving of junior high school students is based on polya step. Problem solving method as said polya there are 4 phase problem solving, that is: (1) determining things in know and ask in full. In addition students are also able to understand the relationship between the information provided. So that it can be said that the student is able to understand the problem (2) compile a model and develop a mathematical model, so that it can be said that the student is able to arrange the completion plan (3) complete the mathematical model appropriately, able to find the end result of the problem and able to do the oprasi calculate exactly. so it can be said that the student is able to carry out the settlement plan. (4) checking the solution of the matter both the steps and the calculation in conclusion. So it can be said that students are able to check again. This research is a qualitative descriptive research with the subject of this research is MTSn 5 Bandung West students. then the results of this study can be concluded that the researchers conducted research in two classes namely class VIII E and VIII F in MTSn 5 West Bandung, with two methods of experimental class and control. Based on test result test using problem solving problem with the material applied is SPLDV. By testing using kolmogorof-smirnov obtained: Postes significance value in class VIII E ie experiment class there are 0.076 experimental results because> 0.05. And has an average value of 15.6296. Postes significance value in class VIII F that is experiment class there are control result 0,068 because> 0,05. And has an average value of 10.4815.And it can be concluded that: (1) experiment and control classes are normally distributed. (2) experiment class problem solving is better than class control problem solving abilities.

Objective – To examine the human resources environment in Canadian libraries in order to assess readiness to accommodate change and to identify opportunities for human resources planning. The “8Rs” of the study were defined as recruitment, retirement, retention, remuneration, repatriation, rejuvenation, re-accreditation, and restructuring. Design – This study was undertaken in three phases over nearly three years through the use a variety of methods including literature review, analyses of existing data (Statistics Canada and library school graduate data), telephone interviews (with senior library administrators), focus groups (with representatives from Canadian Association of Research Libraries, Canadian Urban Libraries Council and Alberta Association of Library Technicians), print surveys (library institutions) and web-based surveys (of professional librarians and paraprofessional library staff). Setting – Canadian libraries that are not component branches of a system, and that employ professional librarians. Subjects – Stage I: 17 senior library administrators participated in telephone interviews and three focus groups were conducted. Stage II: Surveyed library administrators representing institutions. A multi-stage stratified random sampling technique was used to ensure geographical representation from each of Canada’s provinces and territories. Full census participation was conducted for members of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries and the Canadian Urban Libraries Council. The print survey instrument was distributed to 1,357 subjects; 461 completed surveys were returned (response rate of 34% with results for the total sample accurate within plus or minus 3.8 per centage points, 95 times out of 100). Stage III: Surveyed professional librarians and paraprofessional staff. Multi-stage random sampling was used to ensure representation of library staff from all library sectors and sufficient sub-sample sizes. Of the 12,472 individuals in the sampling frame, 8,626 were notified of their selection to participate in the web-based survey. Corrections were made to e-mail addresses and 7,569 e-mail invitations with the survey URL were sent successfully. Of the 8,626 potential respondents, 3,148 librarians and paraprofessionals participated (for a response rate of 37%). A non-random Canada-wide call for participation was distributed to library staff who had not been represented in the sampling frame via the listservs of 56 library associations. This provided an additional 1,545 respondents and the total sample size increased to 4,693 for a confidence interval of plus or minus 1.2%, 95 times out of 100. The non-random data from the Canada-wide call was kept in a separate dataset file. Methods – Stage I began with a literature review and analysis of existing Statistics Canada and library school graduate data. Three focus group sessions with representatives from Canadian Association of Research Libraries, Canadian Urban Libraries Council and Alberta Association of Library Technicians were held and in-depth telephone interviews were conducted in May 2003 with 17 senior library administrators. Transcripts were thematically coded and summarised. The interview guide is available as Appendix E of the report. The results of Stage I were used to inform the design of the two survey instruments (Stages II and III). Stage II was a 17-page print survey informed by insights gathered in Stage I and was sent to library directors in the summer of 2003. The print mail-out of the institutional survey was sent to libraries that employed at least one librarian and were not a component branch of another system. A copy of the institutional survey is available as Appendix C of the report. Stage III was a web-based survey of librarians and paraprofessional library staff undertaken in the summer of 2004 using random and non-random sampling methods. This survey was developed from insights gathered in Stages I and II. A copy of the individual survey is available as Appendix D of the report. Main results – The analytical focus of the 275-page report is on the broad Canadian library sector. Data and analysis are provided by type of library, type of staff, and by geographical regions where sufficient response rates have allowed reporting. Although the role of the paraprofessional is examined in many sections of the report, the principal focus is on the professional librarian. Nine sections of the report present results, analysis and strategic human resource planning implications. Highlights for the broad Canadian library environment are briefly described below. Each section of the report provides further breakdown by library sector, type of position, career stage and other variables that provide significant insight. Workplace Demographic Characteristics (Section C) This section provides demographic information about those in supervisory or management roles (62% of librarians), union density (67% of librarians and 79% of paraprofessional staff), longevity in career, part-time employment, and gender, along with other characteristics. Results conclude that visible minorities and Aboriginal staff are under-represented across all types of libraries and that few libraries recognise the credentials of immigrant librarians. Recruitment to the Profession and to the Organization (Section D) Positive exposure to libraries and librarians is the best predictor of librarianship as a career choice and there were no significant differences in the original motivations for choosing the professional librarian career between new professionals and senior librarians. In response to the open-ended question about motivation for choosing librarianship, none of the librarian respondents (n=1,823) indicated leadership, managing libraries or supervising others as their reason (p. 52). Many respondents indicated reasons for choosing the profession that are in alignment with the values of librarianship, but few indicated reasons that reflect the real nature of the librarians’ role. The average age of new librarian recruits is 37 (with little variation between sectors). Thirty per cent of paraprofessionals are interested in pursuing an MLIS degree; 29 per cent are not interested because they are satisfied with their current role. The major barriers for paraprofessionals wishing to pursue the MLIS degree are inadequate or unrecognised credentials (21% - although 45% of paraprofessionals have an undergraduate degree), geographic distance (33%), lack of money (48%), and lack of time (49%). Eighty per cent of libraries report that the major barrier to recruiting is budget constraints; other barriers include small size of library (60%), organizational hiring freeze (54%), inadequate librarian pay (54%), geographic location (52%), inadequate pool of qualified candidates (51%), and inadequate pool of interested candidates (50%). The ten most important and difficult-to-fill competencies when recruiting varied significantly for each sector: leadership potential, ability to respond flexibly to change, and ability to handle high-volume workload were the three highest-ranked competencies across all libraries. Retirement (Section E) Canadian libraries experienced librarian retirements (11% of total current workforce) and paraprofessional retirements (7% of total current workforce) between 1997 and 2002. During this period, 79 per cent of librarians retired before age 65. Forty per cent of librarians over age 50 estimate that they will retire between 55 and 60. Only 9 per cent of libraries have a succession plan. Staff Retention: Inter- and Intra-organizational Mobility (Section F) Librarians are satisfied with their work and stay in their organization because they like the job (85%), co-workers (84%), and workplace (79%). Seventy-seven per cent of senior librarians and 87% of senior paraprofessionals have been at their current library for more than 10 years. Sixty-nine per cent of librarians believe they are qualified to move to higher level positions, but 69% of institutions state that limited librarian turnover contributes to a lack of promotional opportunities. Education (Section G) Seventy-five per cent library administrators agree that MLIS programs equip graduates with needed competencies, but 58% recommended that the programs provide more management, business and leadership training. Seventy-six per cent of administrators believe that they have little or no input into curriculum content of MLIS programs. Overall evaluation of MLIS education by recent librarian entrants is not positive. Only forty-four per cent indicated that the program provided a realistic depiction of the job, while only 36% said the program provided a realistic expectation of work in their library sector. Recent librarian entrants (67%) were satisfied with the overall quality of their MLIS program, but few indicated that their program provided them with the necessary management skills (25%), leadership skills (20%), or business skills (12%) for their position. Recent library technician entrants were more satisfied (81%) with their programs’ success in providing general skills (87%), and providing a realistic depiction of the job (72%). Continuing Education (Section H) New librarians (72%) need a significant amount of ongoing training, but only 56% believe that their institution provides sufficient training opportunities. Only 30% of libraries have a routine method for determining training needs of librarians and fewer (13 %) have an evaluation method for training outcomes. In most cases, about half of those who received training reported that it improved their job performance. Quality of Work and Job Satisfaction (Section I) Librarians and paraprofessionals are satisfied with their jobs (79% for each) and librarians (72%) and paraprofessionals (61%) agree that their salary is fair. Most libraries offer a wide range of benefits to their employees, including life insurance (95%), pension plan (92%), and medical benefits (88%). Librarians (80%) and paraprofessionals (70%) are satisfied with their benefits. Although a low percentage of librarians agreed that they have little job stress (24%) and only 39% found their workload to be manageable, 62% of librarians agree that their work allows work, family and personal life balance. The statistics are slightly more positive for paraprofessionals. There is a gap between the desire to be treated with respect (98% for all workers) and the perception that respect is conveyed (77% of librarians and 75% of paraprofessionals). A similar gap exists between desire to be involved in decision-making and actual involvement. The two most important factors for job satisfaction for all library workers are respectful treatment and a job that allows them to learn new skills and grow. Numerical Librarian Demand-Supply Match (Section J) Libraries hired more librarians than they lost in 2002, for a net three per cent increase. Many library administrators believe that there will be a five-year increased demand for librarians (77%) and paraprofessionals (81%). The short-term supply (next 5 years) of new librarians to replace departures due to retirements is predicted to have the capacity to fill 98 per cent of the current librarian positions; the capacity to replace library technicians is 99 per cent. The long-term supply (next 10 years) of new librarians to replace departures due to retirements is predicted to have the capacity to fill 89 per cent of the current librarian positions; the capacity to fill technician positions is identical. These predictions are based on no growth in the number of positions in the future. Match Between Organizational Job Function Demand and Individual Staff Supply of Skills, Abilities, Talents, Interests (Section K) Libraries report that increased use of information technologies (87%) and re-engineering (61%) have contributed the greatest change in the roles of librarians. Libraries report that more librarians have been required to perform a wider variety of tasks in the past five years (93%) and that this trend will continue over the coming five years (94%). A high percentage of libraries (86%) reported that over the past five years librarians have been expected to perform more management functions and 56% of mid-career and senior librarians believed this had occurred. Libraries (88%) believe that this trend will continue; only 44% of librarians indicate interest in performing management functions. Mid-career and senior librarians report that job stress has increased over five years ago. Requirements to work harder (55%), perform more difficult tasks (56%), perform a wider variety of tasks (69%), and perform more managerial functions (56%) are the contributing factors. The performance of a wider variety of tasks and more difficult tasks was significantly related to the assessment by librarians that their jobs were more enjoyable, interesting, rewarding and challenging. Institutions (78%) reported the increased need for paraprofessionals to perform librarian tasks over the past five years and believe that this will continue (77%). Only 28% of paraprofessionals believe they are currently required to perform more librarian tasks. Conclusion – The need to confirm the existence and magnitude of the crisis that will be created by upcoming retirements in Canadian libraries was a primary motivator for this study. Conclusive results were obtained that should inform each sector and geographic area in Canada. The percentages of staff over the age of 55 (librarians: 25%; paraprofessionals: 21%) is much greater than that of the Canadian workforce (11%). If there is no growth in the number of positions needed, there will be no short-term supply-demand crisis to fill the gaps left by retirements. There will be a librarian and technician shortage in ten years (a shortfall of 11% of the current supply) and a more significant crisis if the predicted growth in staffing is factored in. Recruitment to the librarian and technician professions is critical and the paraprofessional staff may be a potential pool of future MLIS candidates if the accessibility issues associated with the programs are addressed. Only nine per cent of organizations have a succession plan in place. There is great opportunity for the development of strategic solutions. In response to the open-ended question about motivation for choosing librarianship, no respondent indicated leadership, managing libraries or supervising others as their reason. This is of concern when 62% of librarians today work in a managerial role. Management and leadership skills are a significant concern for recent graduates, administrators, and librarians, with all indicating that the workplace needs are greater than the current preparedness. More cooperation with MLIS programs and professional associations is essential to ensure that leadership and management skill development are supported through the curricula and continuing education planning. Organizations must also develop and support a culture where leadership is encouraged and expected, and recognised. There is a need for further development of continuing education opportunities, and training needs assessment and outcome assessment programs may be beneficial. Paraprofessionals and new librarians are less satisfied with the workplace training opportunities available to them than librarians in later stages of their careers. Role change will continue in libraries and planning will be essential to ensure that restructuring reflects the competencies that will be needed in the new mix. Workload and job stress appear to be rising and will require careful monitoring. There may be opportunity to define roles for “other” professionals in libraries. Library staff have a tendency to stay in their institution for much of their career, making decisions in the recruitment and hiring processes of critical importance. Loss of employees due to turnover is not a problem for most libraries, but the lack of turnover has affected the promotional opportunities for those who desire upward mobility. An interesting recommendation was made that two or more libraries may realise both cost savings and benefits through the sharing of staffing resources. If issues surrounding credentials can be addressed, there may be a potential pool of future immigrant librarians.

Este artigo tem o objetivo de auxiliar na compreensão de como são implementadas as estratégias internacionais de inclusão no sistema educativo em Moçambique. O estudo tem como base teórica Freire (2014); Rosa (1998/2004); Brandão (1986); Bolacha (2013); Chambal (2007); Rodrigues (2008) incluindo as recomendações da UNESCO (1990) e o Plano Estratégico Para Educação De Moçambique (PEE 1998-2003). A escolha dessas publicações se deu devido ao alto grau de representatividade na implantação do sistema educativo inclusivo em Moçambique, que consiste a centralidade da educação como a força de mudança, instrumento de superação das barreiras de exclusão e a construção da cidadania, potencializando a conquista do ser sujeito na vida social. Quanto à metodologia, utilizou-se da pesquisa documental, que viabilizou o entendimento do contexto histórico, econômico, educacional e social de Moçambique. Para a realização das análises foram considerados os pressupostos defendidos nos documentos internacionais para a implementação da inclusão escolar, sustentada por uma análise do contexto. Das constatações se pode afirmar que a educação inclusiva é um direito social e a sua promoção é de responsabilidade do Estado. Essa educação deve ser acompanhada por ações que impactem de forma direta a vida do cidadão, numa estratégia gradual, contínua e sistemática, sendo oferecida a todos, independentemente de suas características físicas, econômica, sociais e ou culturais. Em outras palavras, o Estado deve garantir um processo educacional de qualidade, que amplie as relações intersociais, por meio de práticas pedagógicas alicerçadas no princípio da equidade para superação de toda e qualquer dificuldade que se interponha à construção de uma escola democrática. Nesse sentido a educação inclusiva, contribui na edificação de uma sociedade justa, livre de preconceitos como forma de promover a dignidade humana. Sistema educativo en Mozambique: as estrategias de inclusión internacional Este artculo tiene o objetivo de ayudar a compreender cómo se implementan las estrategias inclusión internacional el sistema educativo em Mozambique. El estúdio se basa teóricamente Freire (2014); Rosa (1998/2004); Brandão (1986); Bolacha (2013); Chambal (2007); Rodrigues (2008) incluidas as recomendaciones de la UNESCO (1990) y el Plan Estratégico Para Educación en Mozambique (PEE 1998-2003). La elección de estas publicaciones se debi[o al alto grado de representación del sistema educativo inclusivo em Mozambique, que consiste em la centralidad de la educación como a fuerzade cambio, um instrumento de superar las barreras de la exclusión y la construcción de ciudadanía, potenciando el logro del ser sujeto em la vida social. Em cuanto a la metodologia, se utilizo la investigación documental, que permitiócompreender el contexto histórico, económico, educativo e social de Mozambique. Para la realización de las análisis se consideraron los supuestos formulados em los documentos internacionales para la implementación de la inclusão escolar, apoyadas em um analisis del contexto. De los hallazgos se puede decir que la educación inclusiva es un derecho social y su promoción es responsabilidad del Estado. Esta Educación debe ir acompañada de acciones que impacten diretamente em la vida del ciudadano, em uma estrategia gradual, continua y sistemática, ofreciéndose a todos, independentemente de sus características físicas, económica, sociales o culturales. Es decir, el Estado debe garantizar un processo educativo de calidad, que amplíe las relaciones intersociales, a través de prácticas pedagógicas basadas em el princípio da equidad para superar todas y cada uma de las dificultades que se interponem em el caminho de la construcción de uma escuela democrática. Es este sentido, la Educación inclusiva, contribuye a la construción de una sociedade justa, libre de prejuicios como forma de promover la dignidad humana. Palabras clave: Educación em Mozambique. Educación inclusiva. Derechos humanos Educational system in Mozambique: international inclusion strategies This work ains understand how they are implemented as international strategies for inclusion in the Education suystem in Mozambique, having as basis Freire (2014), Rosa (2004), Brandão (1986), Bolacha (2013); Chambal (2007); Rodrigues (2008), and recomendation from UNESCO (1990) and Strategic Education Plan for Moçambique PEE (1998-2003). The choice of these publications was due to the high degree of representativeness in the implementation of the inclusive Educational sytem in Mozambique, which consists of the centrality of education as the force for change, and instrument for overcoming the barriers of exclusion and the construction of citizenship, enhancing the conquest of your being subject in social life. As for the employee, it uses documentar research, which as a natural source of information, made it possible to understand the historical, economic, Educational and social context of Mozambique. Inorder to carry out the analyzes, the assumptions of inclusion supported by na analysis of the contexto were considered. From the findings it can be said that inclusive education is a social rights and promotion the resposibility of the State, it must be accompanied by actions that directly impact the life of the Citizen, in a gradual, continuous, systematic way, being offered to all regardless of their physical, economic, social and cultural characteristics, that is must open students with disabilities, guaranteeing a quality Educational porcess, which expands inter-social relations guarantes a teaching practic with principles of equily to overcome any all difficulties thea stands in the way of Building a democratic Scholl. Whitin the scope of na inclusive education, contributes to the Building of a just Society, free from prejudice as a way promoting human dignity. Keywords: Education in Mozambique, Inclusive education, Human rights.

The pace of technological change is accelerating, the duration of the trends is becoming shorter and the number of technological alternatives to solve IT problems grows quickly. Keeping IT higher education course curricula up-to-date becomes more and more challenging. This paper presents an empirical study that aims to assess whether an open-statement and open-solution methodology in an IT-related project-based learning (PBL) course led to the adaptation of the skills learned by students to the trends of the main IT technology domains. The study analyses data from more than 90 projects by students from eight academic years of the course” Project on Information Technologies”, carried out by students in the last year of the Bachelor of Science in Informatics Engineering at the Barcelona School of Informatics. Our results identify a high correlation between the technologies chosen in student projects and technological trends, which shows that the methodology encourages students to incorporate the latest technological innovations in their project work plan.

What do you want to be when you grow up? As a kid, that was my least favorite question. I dreaded conversations with adults because they always asked it—and no matter how I replied, they never liked my answer. When I said I wanted to be a superhero, they laughed. My next goal was to make the NBA, but despite countless hours of shooting hoops on my driveway, I was cut from middle school basketball tryouts three years in a row. I was clearly aiming too high. In high school, I became obsessed with springboard diving and decided I wanted to become a diving coach. Adults scoffed at that plan: they told me I was aiming too low. In my first semester of college, I decided to major in psychology, but that didn't open any doors—it just gave me a few to close. I knew I didn't want to be a therapist (not patient enough) or a psychiatrist (too squeamish for med school). I was still aimless, and I envied people who had a clear career plan. We all have notions of who we want to be and how we hope to lead our lives. They're not limited to careers; from an early age, we develop ideas about where we'll live, which school we'll attend, what kind of person we'll marry, and how many kids we'll have. These images can inspire us to set bolder goals and guide us toward a path to achieve them. The danger of these plans is that they can give us tunnel vision, blinding us to alternative possibilities. We don't know how time and circumstances will change what we want and even who we want to be, and locking our life GPS onto a single target can give us the right directions to the wrong destination.

In an era of educational reforms, school leaders lived up to high expectations in implementing a new curriculum as the learning society demands improvements and transformation. How these neophyte leaders lived becomes an oblivious issue. This phenomenological study on leadership investigated the lived experiences, meaning and insights, and perceived achievements of neophyte school leaders in the Division of Negros Occidental. Anchored on Piaget’s constructivist philosophy, trait theory and emotional resilience theory, the participants of the study were 3 principals and 3 assistant principals who were appointed in 2015 onwards and were selected through criterion sampling. The data were gathered through in-depth interviews and field observations. The data were analyzed using the Esterberg’s qualitative analysis including immersing with the data, open coding, focused coding, development of themes and grounding the analysis. Member checking was utilized to establish the reliability of the themes. Findings showed that the lived experience of neophyte leaders included embracing the challenges of K to 12 Program while the meaning and insight was perceiving triumphs over challenges. The perceived achievement was employing strategies that work. The proposed training plan involved topics on adjustment strategies, professional dealings and collaboration techniques.

A disciplina de Sociologia é fundamental nos dias atuais para compreender as estruturas sociais e o que as movem, em ordem política, economia, cultural e social. A Sociologia, passa por dificuldades de ordem política até sua inserção em 2008, quando torna-se obrigatória em todas as séries do ensino médio. O intuito da Sociologia é fazer com que o aluno do ensino médio, compreenda a sociedade em que está inserido e potencializar essa compreensão em sua prática cotidiana. Porém, algumas dificuldades podem ocorrem nesse processo formativo desse aluno, dificultando o ensino da Sociologia. Sendo essas dificuldades de várias ordens. Diante disso, este estudo possui como objeto de pesquisa analisar as dificuldades existentes no processo de ensino da Sociologia na Coordenadoria Regional de Educação de Canoinhas/SC. Nessa direção, a pesquisa de natureza qualitativa, com questionários abertos foram utilizados para a aplicação de entrevista aos 16 professores de Sociologia. Com o intuito, em compreender as dificuldades encontradas pelo professor que está lecionando a disciplina de Sociologia na Coordenadoria. Concluiu-se com esta pesquisa, que os professores da disciplina de Sociologia encontram dificuldades na construção do conhecimento sociológico, como: falta de interesse dos alunos, de recursos físicos, materiais, infraestrutura adequada, plano de carreira, falta de valorização, mudanças no plano de carreira, formação, a inexistência de um plano de carreira. Palavras-chave: Sociedade. Professor. Ensino de Sociologia. Dificuldades. ABSTRACT The discipline of Sociology is fundamental nowadays to understand the social structures and what move them, in political, economical, cultural and social order. Sociology, goes through political difficulties until its insertion in 2008, when it becomes mandatory in all grades of high school. The aim of Sociology is to make the high school student understand the society in which he is inserted and enhance this understanding in his daily practice. However, some difficulties may occur in this student's training process, making it difficult to teach Sociology. These difficulties are of various kinds. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the difficulties existing in the process of teaching Sociology in the Regional Coordination of Education of Canoinhas / SC. In this sense, qualitative research, with open questionnaires, was used to apply interviews to the 16 Sociology professors. In order to understand the difficulties encountered by the teacher who is teaching the discipline of Sociology in the Coordination. It was concluded with this research, that the teachers of the discipline of Sociology find difficulties in the construction of the sociological knowledge, such as: lack of interest of the students, of physical resources, materials, adequate infrastructure, career plan, lack of valorization, changes in the plan career. Keywords: Society. Teacher. Sociology teaching. Difficulties.

The purpose of this study was to determine the level of Teachers Difficulties and Struggles in Modular Distance Learning Delivery: Input to BE-LCP. The information on related literature and studies were gathered to formulate the hyphothesis, conceptual framework presented in the paradigm and the definitions of terms. Specifically, the information was found in journals documents, published and unpublished materials like thesis, readings and internet. Descriptive method was used to determine the answers from the questions stated above. The respondents of this study were sixty public junior and senior high school teachers in Cavinti, Laguna. The study used questionnaire checklist by means of google form as the main tool in gathering the data. The formulation of the questionnaire was based on the investigations and findings of other researchers discussed in the related literatures and studies. The main instrument used in gathering data was the questionnaire checklist was the statistical tool such as Mean and Standard Deviation. From the data gathered and discussed, the following conclusions were derived: The computed mean value registered Teachers Difficulties and Struggles in Modular Distance Learning Delivery: Input to BE-LCP in terms of Strategy is Highly Practiced shows that it is being practiced. At the time of pandemic in the learning continuity, teachers and parents encourage learners in the new normal. Understanding the current education setup can make a way to guide the learners in answering their activities. By giving ample time and don’t give pressure can help learners to answer their task. But teachers must explain or give clear instruction for learners to easily understand the lesson. In this time of pandemic, school must open their communication to the stakeholders as they are the one who can help in the learning continuity. As they will work as one for the sake of the learners’ progress as they need the support to cope up with the current situation. KEYWORDS: Modular Distance Learning, Learning Continuity, Instruction, Stakeholders, Learning Outcomes, Learning Plan

McCarney, Rosemary A. Where Will I Live? Second Story Press, 2017. In Where Will I Live, Rosemary McCarney uses 23 pages of images captured by a host of skilled photographers to convey the plight of the world’s refugee children. These images were provided by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. They depict children and their families as they flee in fear, cross hostile landscapes, live in tents and makeshift shelters, and dream of hope. In them, we sense the threat of violence, but we do not see violence itself. Neither do we see death. The lines of text with which McCarney captions the photographs are brief, pointed, sometimes sobering, always thought provoking. “But where will I live? Will it be down this road…beyond this hill…past this fence…across this sea?” [pp.7-10] McCarney is uniquely qualified to write on the global refugee crisis. As Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Geneva office of the United Nations and its Conference on Disarmament, and Past President of Plan International, she speaks with authority on the topic. This book is evidence of her ability to convey her message to child audiences. An accomplished author, her previously published works for children include the international bestseller, Every Day is Malala Day. The global refugee question is a grim subject; this book, however, is not grim—partly because McCarney focuses not on the miseries of the refugees’ flight, but on their hopes for the future. This she accomplishes by means of a child’s question, “Where will I live?” Looking at the images the author has arrayed, reading her words, thinking of the work to which she has dedicated her life, we may venture a guess at the answer that lies in her heart: “Our doors are open.” Where Will I live? could be read and understood by most children in grade three. Its subject matter, however, is also completely appropriate for discussion with older students—certainly, those in grades four to six. Finally, in classes where adult students of English as a Second Language have experienced the hardships depicted in the book’s pages, it could prove very successful in prompting dialogue. Reviewer: Leslie Aitken Highly recommended: 4 stars out of 4 Leslie Aitken’s long career in librarianship involved selection of children’s literature for school, public, special, and university collections. She is a former Curriculum Librarian at the University of Alberta.

This is a case study of Deakin University that will expand their education service to Turkey. Turkey is located in Southeastern Europe and Southwestern Asia with a strong growing economy, population and demand for tertiary education. It presents a good opportunity for Deakin University to expand its education services in and increase its market share globally. Considering the high level interests amongst Turkish students in the field of Business, Deakin will offer a Business degree in Commerce where students can further specialize in various fields. In doing so, Deakin will be in partnership with a local university called Koc University. Located in Istanbul, where the majority of the target market is concentrated, Koc University has the facilities that Deakin can use in providing education services in Turkey. On the other hand, Deakin will provide the information technology equipments, Deakin Student Online (DSO) systems and learning resources such as access to Journals, online live conference etc. Highly qualified lecturers, both from Australia and local teachers will be help to ensure the quality of teaching learning process provided by Deakin. In addition, Deakin has an extensive experience in providing education services abroad through partnerships, often called offshore programs, and will use its experience for its expansion to the education market in Turkey. Despite having seven agents in Turkey, Deakin is currently relatively unknown to the Turkish education market. In order to promote the marketing activities in Turkey as well as support the students enrolled at the offshore program, Deakin will open a representative office. Considering the large market in the high school student segment and the education situation in Turkey where there is more demand of tertiary education than university places, there is a high opportunity of success for Deakin in Turkey. Keywords: Deakin University, Turkey, International Marketing, Education service

Awards, Announcements, and News HarperCollinsCanada announced that Sandy Nichols from Calgary, AB, was the winner of the Illustrate “Alligator Pie “Competition that launched in October 2013. Nichols’ proposal was the unanimous choice of the competition judges, who selected it from more than 60 entries. Nichols has officially signed on with HarperCollinsCanada to illustrate the special anniversary board book edition of Dennis Lee’s famous poem “Alligator Pie.” You may wish to follow Amy’s Marathon (and if so moved, contribute to her fund raiser as well). Amy Mathers’ goal is to raise money for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC) to endow a Canadian teen book award to be presented at the yearly Canadian Children’s Literature Awards gala. Amy will collect fundraising pledges for which donors will receive a charitable tax receipt. As stated on her website: "Inspired by Terry Fox’s and Rick Hansen’s Canadian journeys, Amy Mathers decided to honour her passion for reading and Canadian teen literature while working around her physical limitations through a Marathon of Books. Realising that Terry Fox could run a kilometre in six minutes during his Marathon of Hope, she figured out that she could read ten pages in the same amount of time. Thus, on her journey, ten pages will represent one kilometre travelled across Canada. Amy will be reading teen fiction books from every province and territory, exploring Canada and promoting Canadian teen authors and books by finishing a book a day for each day of 2014. She will write a review for each book she reads, and invites people to share their thoughts on the books she reads too." http://amysmarathonofbooks.ca/ Consider attending the upcoming Serendipity conference in Vancouver: Children’s Literature in a Digital Age ( Saturday, March 8 2014 at UBC). Presenters include illustrator Paul Zelinsky, Canadian authors Arthur Slade and Hadley Dyer, two high profile teacher-librarian bloggers John Schumacher (Library Journal) and Travis Jonker (School Library Journal) and author Tim Federle. “From practical advice on using literature-based apps with children to learning how authors and illustrators are using social media and electronic publishing, Serendipity 2014 is a must-attend event for educators, librarians, researchers and literature lovers looking to the future of books for young people.” http://vclr.ca/events-2013-14/serendipity-saturday-march-8-2014/ Saturday, May 3, 2014 is another day to mark on the calendar; the University of British Columbia will host “I Will Be Myself”: Identity in Children’s and Young Adult Literature, Media and Culture. This is a one-day conference showcasing graduate student research that explores, questions, and analyzes the issues surrounding identity in various elements of children’s and young adult literature. Keynote speaker is Dr. Phillip Serrato. The conference fee is very reasonable and includes refreshments and a catered lunch. http://blogs.ubc.ca/iwillbemyself/ For those of you in the Calgary area, plan on attending "When Worlds Collide 2014" from August 8-10, 2014 at the Carriage House Inn. This is a festival for readers, writers, artists and publishers of commercial and literary fiction, including genre, YA, Children’s books, and Poetry. Guests of honor include Diana Gabaldon, Jacqueline Guest, Mark Leslie, D.J. McIntosh and Brandon Sanderson. http://www.whenwordscollide.org/ The 2014 Alberta Readers’ Choice Award (ARCA) has now received 45 titles from a variety of Alberta authors, all vying for a $10,000 prize provided by the Edmonton Public Library (EPL). With this submission list finalized, EPL is now turning to its colleagues across the province for help in shaping a ten-item longlist that will be provided to our jury in February. If you are a staff member in an Alberta library—whether public, academic, government, law, school system or other—we want to hear from you. We’ve set up a poll at the following site: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QXZCCRZ. Please note that we are only counting ballots that have institutional e-mail addresses listed, so please make sure that you’re listing your work e-mail. This vote will remain open until end-of-day, February 5th and results will be made public on Thursday, February 13th.www.epl.ca/2014-ARCA-submissions. The ALAN Review posted the following Calls for Papers and Proposals which may be of interest for those of you working with young adult materials. Fall 2014: Stand Your Ground: Fostering Independent Thought and Action. We believe that, as educators, we sometimes need to be our own best allies as we fight to teach in ways we know to be good and right and true-and increasingly uncommon in an age of commonality. We need to know how to defend our selection of materials and our practices as we stand our ground in the face of scripts and censors, standards and accompanying tests. In this issue, we invite educators to band together and unite around our shared commitment to kids and stories, to offer our own evidence-based support for the innovative work we do in our classrooms and libraries, to celebrate the ways in which we encourage our own students to think independently and act in good conscience, even when the odds feel daunting. Please send manuscripts to: alan-review@uconn.edu . General submissions are also welcome by the deadline of March 31, 2014. The ALAN Review also notes that "Stories from the Field" invites readers to share a story about young adult literature. This section features brief vignettes (approximately 300 words) from practicing teachers and librarians who would like to share their interactions with students, parents, colleagues, and administrators around young adult literature. Please send your stories to:alan-review@uconn.edu. That is it for this time around. Last word (reminder/suggestion): Become actively involved with the National Reading Campaign, celebrating the joy of reading in all kinds of ways. “Tell us why reading matters to you, and learn what you can do for reading! Because when Canada reads, Canada grows.” http://www.nationalreadingcampaign.ca/Gail de VosGail de Vos, an adjunct instructor, teaches courses on Canadian children's literature, Young Adult Literature and Comic Books and Graphic Novels at the School of Library and Information Studies for the University of Alberta and is the author of nine books on storytelling and folklore. She is a professional storyteller and has taught the storytelling course at SLIS for over two decades.

Abstract Objective. To evaluate the pattern of internet use and factors that facilitate or dissuade its use among nursing students from a university in Urmia, Iran.Methods. A cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted with 162 nursing students selected through simple random sampling.Results. The findings indicated that 49.1% of the students used the internet from 15 to 60 min per day. The principal use of the internet was to search for scientific content in the Web. Factors that facilitated internet use were “ease of use” and “Access to experts to solve problems and answer questions”, while the dissuasive factors were “lack of concentration”, “cost of internet services”, and preference for information provided by professors or available directly in textbooks. Internet use by the students was related with the use of this tool in classroom activities and with English fluency.Conclusion. Students have an internet use pattern aimed at self-study that should be strengthened with knowledge of English, assignments online, familiarization with the use of electronic databases, and other strategies to motivate them to use this technology with greater frequency.Descriptors: computers; cross-sectional studies; information technology; information storage and retrieval; Internet; students, nursing.How to cite this article: Shirazi F, Heidari S, Fard SJ, Ghodsbin F. Pattern of Internet Use by Iranian Nursing Students. Facilitators and Barriers. Invest. Educ. Enferm. 2019; 37(2):e06.ReferencesGündüz HB. Digital divide in Turkish primary schools: Sakarya sample. TOJET. 2010; 9(1)43-53. Mokhtarinoori J, Zohari S, Yaghmai F, Ebadi A, Yoldashkhan M. Study of factors relation to internet use with usage of internet by teachers according to theory of reasoned action. Iran J. Nurs. Midwifery Res. 2011; 5(19):25-36. Jacobs HL. Information literacy and reflective pedagogical praxis. J. Acad. Librarian. 2008; 34(3):256-62. Jafari M, Diane M. Evaluation of the use of the Internet by students at Kabul University and determinants of Facilitators and Barriers factors. J. Libr. Inf. Sci. 2010; 13(3):179-204. Deltsidou A, Gesouli- Voltyraki E, Mastrogiannis D, Noula M. Undergraduate nursing students computer skills assessment: a study in greece. Health Sci. J 2010; 4:182-8. Hallila LE, Al Zubaidi R, Al Ghamdi N, Alexander G. Nursing students' use of Internet and Computer for Their Education in the College of Nursing. Int. J. Nurs. Clin. Pract. 2014; 1:108. Jetté S, Tribble DS-C, Gagnon J, Mathieu L. Nursing students' perceptions of their resources toward the development of competencies in nursing informatics. Nurse Educ. Today. 2010; 30(8):742-6. Gilmour JA, Huntington A, Broadbent R, Strong A, Hawkins M. Nurses’ use of online health information in medical wards. J. Adv. Nurs. 2012; 68(6):1349-58. Gilmour JA, Scott SD, Huntington N. Nurses and Internet health information: a questionnaire survey. JAN. 2008; 61(1):19-28. Rastgoo A, Naderi E, Shriatmadari A, Seifnaraghi M. The impact of Internet information litracy training on university student’s problem solving skills. Q. J. N. Approach Educ. Ad. 2011; 1(4):1-22. Saeidi M, Yaghmaei F, Ranjbaran M, Godarzvand L, Hariri G, Imanzad M. Knowledge, skills, access and usage status of computers, internet and databases in nursing students and some of the related factors. Adv. Nurs. Midwifery. 2014; 23(83):51-8. Kumar S, Tadakamadla J, Tibdewal H, Duraiswamy P, Kulkarni S. Internet usage among undergraduate dental students in India. Rev. Odonto Cienc. 2010; 25(3):261-5. Abtahi S, Feali M. Evaluation of skill and use of Information Technology and Internet among professors, postgraduate and undergraduate students in Mashhad Dental School in Iran in 2007-2008. J. Mash Dent. Sch. 2008; 32(4), 257-262. (Persian) Jamshidi L, Mehrdad AG, Jamshidi S. Assessing nursing students’ knowledge and attitudes about computers and the internet. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 2012; 46:1371-4. Jadoon NA, Zahid MF, Mansoorulhaq H, Ullah S, Jadoon BA, Raza A, et al. Evaluation of internet access and utilization by medical students in Lahore, Pakistan. BMC Med. Inform. Decis. Mak. 2011; 11(1):37. Almarabeh T, Rajab L, Majdalawi YK. Awareness and usage of computer and internet among medical faculties’ students at the University of Jordan. J. Software Eng. Appl. 2016; 9(05):147. Maleki Z, Goudarzi M, Mohtashami L, Faghihi B. Knowledge and attitudes of dental students and academic staffs towards internet usage in dental training in Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. Shahid Beheshti Univ. Dent. J. 2010; 28(1):40-7. Houshyari AB, Bahadorani M, Tootoonchi M, Gardiner J, Peña RA, Adibi P. Information and communication technology in medical education: an experience from a developing country. J. Pak. Med. Assoc. 2012; 62(3 Suppl 2):S71-5. Unnikrishnan B, Kulshrestha V, Saraf A, Agrahari A, Prakash S, Samantaray L, et al. Pattern of computer and internet use among medical students in Coastal South India. South East Asia Reg. Assoc. Med. Educ. 2008; 2(2):18-25. Maroof KA, Parashar P, Bansal R. How are our medical students using the computer and internet? A study from a medical college of north India. Niger. Med. J. 2012; 53(2):89-93. Mashhadi M, Rezvanfar A. Effective factors on IT application by agricultural and natural resources faculty members at Tehran University. Q. J. Res. Plan. High. Educ. 2007; 13(2):151-68. Sajadi FS, Shokoohi M, Kakoei S, Sheikhi F. Evaluation of skills and use of computer and internet among professors, postgraduate and undergraduate students in Kerman, Iran. Strides Dev. Med. Educ. 2013; 10(2):166-74. Shirazi F, Sharif F, Molazem Z, Alborzi M. Dynamics of self-directed learning in M.Sc. nursing students: A qualitative research. J. Adv. Med. Educ. Prof. 2017; 5(1):33-41. 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The ProjectThe Hand Up Linkage project focuses on the family as a communication context through which to explore the dynamics of intergenerational welfare dependency. In particular, it explores ways that creative life-course interventions might allow children in welfare dependent families to construct alternative realities for themselves and alternative views of their future. Formed through an alliance between a key Western Australian social welfare not-for-profit organisation, St Vincent de Paul WA (SVDPWA and also, in the context of volunteers, ‘Vinnies’), and Edith Cowan University, the project aims to address the organisation’s vision to provide “a hand up” (St Vincent 1) rather than ‘a hand out’, so that people can move forward with their lives without becoming dependent upon welfare. Prior to the start of the research, SVDPWA already had a whole of family focus in its outreach to poverty-impacted families including offering homework clubs and school holiday children’s camps run by their youth services division. Selected families supported by SVDPWA have been invited to participate in an in-depth interview for the project (Seidman), partly so that researchers can help identify “turning points” (King et al.) that might disrupt the communication of welfare dependency and inform more generalised intervention strategies; but also in order to explore the response to creative interventions within the children’s daily lives, including investigation of how strategies the child (and family) employed might help them to imagine alternative realities and futures for themselves. This paper closely examines the way that one 10 year old child from a non-English-speaking background family has employed alternative ways of viewing her life, through the camp program provided by the Linkage Partner St Vincent de Paul WA, and through reading novels such as Harry Potter and the Lemony Snicket Unfortunate Incidents series. Such activities help fuel hope for a different future which, in Snyder’s view has “two main components: the ability to plan pathways to desired goals despite obstacles, and agency or motivation to use those pathways” (Carr 96).The FamilyKani is a 10 year old girl living in a migrant sole parent family. The parents had moved to Australia from Bangladesh on student visas when Kani was 5 years old, however due to domestic violence the mother had recently separated from her husband, first into a women’s refuge then into private rental accommodation. The mother is in protracted negotiations with the Department of Immigration for permanent residency, which she had to recommence due to her separation. There are also family court negotiations for child custody and which restrict her leaving Australia. She receives no government benefits and minimal child support, works fulltime and pays full childcare fees for Kani’s 3 year old brother Adil and full primary school fees for Kani at a local religious school, given that Kani had experienced bullying and social aggression in previous schools. Kani was referred to SVDPWA by the women’s refuge and she began attending SVDPWA Kids’ Camps thereafter. (NB: Whilst the relevant specifics of this description are accurate, non-relevant material has been added or changed to protect the child’s and family’s identity.)Creative Life-Course InterventionsThe creative engagement that Kani experienced in the Hand Up project is constructed as one component in a larger model of creativity which includes “intrapersonal insights and interpretations, which often live only within the person who created them,” (Kaufman and Beghetto 4). Such an approach also acknowledges Csikszentmihalyi’s work on the concept of “flow”, whereby optimal experiences can result from positive absorption in a creative activity. Relevant Australian research such as the YouthWorx project has identified participatory engagement in creativity as one means of engaging with young people at risk (Hopkins; Podkalicka). The creative interventions in the Hand Up project take two forms; one is the predesigned and participatory creative activities delivered as part of the SVDPWA Kids’ Camp program. The second is a personalised intervention, identified by way of an in-depth interview with the child and parent, and is wholly dependent on the interests expressed by the child, the ability for the family to engage in that activity, and the budget restraints of the project.Reading as an Alternative RealityA key creative intervention embedded in the Hand Up Linkage project is determined by the interests expressed by the child during their in-depth interview. Also taken into account is the ability for the family to engage in that activity. For example, Kani’s mother works fulltime at a location which is an hour by public transport from home and does not have a car or driver’s license, so the choice of creative opportunity was restricted to a home-based activity or a weekend activity accessible by public transport. A further restriction is the limited budget available for this intervention in the project, along with an imperative that such interventions should be equitable between families and within families, and be of benefit to all the children in addition to the interviewed child. Fortunately, transport was not an issue because Kani expressed her interest very emphatically as books and reading. When asked what she liked doing most in life, Kani replied: “Reading. I like reading like big books, like really thick books and stuff. I have like 30 in my room. Like those really big books. And I'm starting to read Harry Potter now. Okay, the books that I like reading is Harry Potter, the entire set Roald Dahl books and the Baudelaire Orphans by Lemony Snicket. I like reading David Walliams. I like Little Women” (Kani). Her excitement in listing these books further animated the interview and was immediately emphasised because Kani took the interviewer (second author) and her mother into her room to demonstrate the truth of her statement. When asked again at the close of the interview “what’s a favourite thing that makes you feel good inside?” Kani’s answer was “Family and reading”. The energy and enthusiasm with which Kani talked about her reading and books made these the obvious choice as her creative intervention. However, participation in book-related courses or after-school activities was restricted by Kani’s mother’s transportation limitations. Taking into account how the financial constraints of her sole parent family impacted upon their capacity to buy books, and the joy that Kani clearly experienced from having books of her own, it was decided that a book voucher would be provided for her at a local bookstore easily accessible by bus. The research team negotiated with the bookstore to try to ensure that Kani could choose a book a month until the funds were expended so that the intervention would last most of the coming six months.What Kani was expressing in her love of books was partly related to the raw material they provide that help her to imagine the alternative reality of the fictional worlds she loved reading about. Kani’s passionate engagement in these alternative realities reflects theories of narrative immersion in one’s chosen medium: “One key element of an enjoyable media experience is that it takes individuals away from their mundane reality and into a story world. We call the process of becoming fully engaged in a story transportation into a narrative world” (Green et al. 311–12). Kani said: “Reading is everything, yeah. Like getting more books and like those kind of things and making me read more... ‘cause I really love reading, it’s like watching a movie. Do you know ... have you watched Harry Potter? … the book is nothing like the movie, nothing, they’ve missed so many parts so the book is more enjoyable than the movie. That’s why I like reading more. ‘Cause like I have my own adventures in my head.” This process of imagining her own adventures in her head echoes Green and Brock’s explanation of the process of being transported into alternative realities through reading as a result of “an integrative melding of attention, imagery, and feelings” (701).Constructing Alternative Realities for Herself and an Alternative Possible FutureLike many 10 year olds, Kani has a challenging time at school, exacerbated by the many school moves brought about by changes in her family circumstances. Even though she is in a school which supports her family’s faith, her experience is one of being made to feel an outsider: “all the boys and the girls in our class are like friends, they’re like ... it’s a group. But I’m not in their group. I have my friends in other classes and they’re [my classmates are] not happy with it, that’s why they tease me and stuff. And like whenever I play with my friends they’re like ... yeah”. The interviewer asked her what she liked about her special friends. “They’re fun. Creative like, enjoyable, yeah, those kind of things …they have lots of cool ideas like plans and stuff like that.” As Hawkins et al. argue, the capacity to develop and maintain good relationships with peers (and parents) is a key factor in helping children be resilient. It is likely that Kani also shares her creativity, ideas and plans with her friendship group as part of her shared contribution to its existence.A domestication of technology framework (Silverstone et al.) can be useful as part of the explanation for Kani’s use of imaginative experience in building her social relationships. Silverstone et al. argue that technology is domesticated via four interlocking activities: ‘appropriation’ (where it embraced, purchased, taken into the household), ‘objectification’ (where a physical space is found for it), ‘incorporation’ (the spaces through which it is inserted into the everyday activities of the household or users) and ‘conversion’ (whereby the experience and fact of the technology use – or lack of use – becomes material through which family members express themselves and their priorities to the social world beyond the home). Arguably, Kani ‘converts’ her engagement with books and associated imaginative experiences into social currency through which she builds relationships with the like-minded children with whom she makes friends. At the same time, those children feed into her ideas of what constitutes a creative approach to life and help energise her plans for the future.Kani’s views of her future (at the age of 10) are influenced by the traditional occupations favoured by high achieving students, and by the fact that her parents are themselves educational high achievers, entering Australia on student visas. “I want to be a doctor … my cousin wants to be a doctor too. Mum said lawyer but we want to be a doctors anywhere. We want to be a ...me and my cousin want to be doctors like ...we like being doctors and like helping people.” Noting the pressures on the household of the possible fees and costs of high school, Kani adds “I need to work even harder so I get a scholarship. ‘Cause like my mum can’t pay for like four terms, you know how much money that will be? Yeah.” Kani’s follow-on statement, partly to justify why she wants “a big house”, adds some poignancy to her reference to a cousin (one of many), who still lives in Bangladesh and whom Kani hasn’t seen since 2011. “Like I want to live with my mum and like yeah and like I live with my cousin too because like I have a cousin ... she’s a girl, yeah? And like yeah, she’s in Bangladesh, I haven’t seen her for very long time so yeah.” In the absence of her extended family overseas, Kani adds her pets to those with whom she shares her family life: “And my mum and my uncle and then our cat Dobby. I named it [for Harry Potter’s house elf] ...and the goldfish. The goldfish are Twinkle, Glitter, Glow and Bobby.”Kani’s mum notes the importance of an opportunity to dream a future into existence: “maybe she’s too young or she hasn’t really kind of made up her mind as yet as to what she wants to do in life but just going out and just you know doing stuff and just giving them the opportunity”. The SVDPWA Kids’ Camp is an important part of this “they [the refuge] kind of told us like ‘there’s this child camp’. … I was like yeah, sure, why not?” Providing Alternative Spaces at the SVDPWA Kids’ CampThe SVDPWA Kids’ Camps themselves constitute a creative intervention in offering visions of alternative realities to their young participants. Their benefit is delivered via anticipation, as well as the reality of the camp experience. As Kani said “I forget all about the things that’s just past, like all the hard things, you know like I go through and stuff and it just makes me forget it and it makes me like think about camp, things we’re going to do at camp”. The Kids’ Camps take place three times a year and are open to children aged between 8 and 13, with follow-on Teen Camps for older age groups. Once a child is part of the program she or he can continue to participate in successive camps while they are in the target age group. Consisting of a four day activity-based experience in a natural setting, conducted by Vinnies Youth and staffed by key SVDPWA employees and Youth volunteers, the camps offer children a varied schedule of activities in a safe and supported environment, with at least one volunteer for every two child participants. The camps are specifically made available to children from disadvantaged families and are provided virtually free to participants. (A nominal $10 enrolment fee is applied per child). Kani was initially reticent about attending her first camp. She explained: “I was shy, scared because I sleep with my mum so it’s different sleeping without Mum. I know it’s kind of embarrassing ‘cause, sleeping with my mum like, but I just get scared at night”. Kani went on to explain how the camp facilitators were able to allay her fears “I knew I was safe. And I had people I could talk to so yeah ...like the leader”. As one Vinnies Youth volunteer explains, the potential of offering children like Kani time out from the pressures of everyday life is demonstrated when “towards the end of every camp we always see that progression of, they came out of their shell … So I think it’s really just a journey for everyone and it’s understandable if they did feel stuck. It’s about what we can do to help them progress forward” (VY1). Kani was empowered to envision an alternative idea of herself at camp, one which was unexpectedly intuited by the research interviewer.When the interviewer closed the interview by expressing that it had been lovely to talk to Kani as she was “such a bundle of energy”, Kani grinned and replied “Do you know the warm fuzzies, yeah? [When positive thoughts about others are exchanged at the SVDPWA Kids’ Camp]. The bundle ... all the leaders say I’m a bundle of happiness”. The Kids’ Camp provided Kani with a fun and positive alternative reality to the one she experienced as a child handling the considerable challenges experienced by social isolation, domestic violence and parental separation, including the loss of her home, diminished connection to her overseas extended family, legal custody issues, and several school changes. Taking the role of cultural intermediary, by offering the possibility of alternative realities via their camp, SVDPWA offered Kani a chance that supported her work on creating a range of enticing possible futures for herself. This was in contrast to some commercial holiday camp experiences which might more centrally use their “cultural authority as shapers of taste and … new consumerist dispositions” (Nixon and Du Gay 497). Even so, Kani’s interview made clear that her experience with the SVDPWA Kids’ Camps were only part of the ways in which she was crafting a range of possible visions for her adult life, adding to this her love of books and reading, her fun, creative friends, and her vision for a successful future which would reunite her with her distant cousin and offer security to her mother. ConclusionUnderstandably, Kani at 10 lacks the critical insight required to interpret how her imaginative and creative life provides the raw materials from which she crafts her visions for the future. Further, the interviewer is careful not to introduce words like ‘creative’ into her work with the participant families, so that when Kani used it to talk about her friends she did so drawing upon her own store of descriptions and not as a result of having recently been reminded of creativity as a desirable attribute. The interview with this young person indicates, however, how greatly she values the imaginative and cultural inputs into her life and how she converts them in ways which help ensure access to further such creative currency. Apart from referencing her reading in the naming of her cat, Kani’s vision for herself reflects both the conventional idea of success (“a doctor”) and a very specific idea of her future living as an adult in house large enough to include her mum and her cousin.Kani’s love of reading, her pleasure in books, her choice of friends and her aspirations to scholarly excellence all offer her ways to escape the restricted options available to families who seek support from organisations such as SVDPWA. At the same time the Kids’ Camps themselves, like Kani’s books, provide an escape from the difficulties of the present. Kani’s appropriation of the cultural raw materials that she draws into her life, and her conversion of these inputs into a creative, social currency, offers her an opportunity to anticipate a better future, and some tools she can use to help bring it into existence.ReferencesCarr, A. Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness and Human Strengths. 2nd ed. Hove, UK: Routledge, 2011.Csikszentmihalyi, M. Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.Green, M., and T. Brock. “The Role of Transportation in the Persuasiveness of Public Narratives.”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79 (2000): 701–21.———, T. Brock, and G. Kaufman. “Understanding Media Enjoyment: The Role of Transportation into Narrative Worlds." Communication Theory 14.4 (2004): 311–27.Hawkins, J.D., R. Kosterman, R.F. Catalano, K.G. Hill, and R.D. Abbott. “Promoting Positive Adult Functioning through Social Development Intervention in Childhood: Long-Term Effects from the Seattle Social Development Project.” Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 159.1 (2005): 25. Hopkins, L. “YouthWorx: Increasing Youth Participation through Media Production.” Journal of Sociology 47.2 (2011): 181–197. doi: 10.1177/1440783310386827.Kani. In-depth interview, de-identified, 2016.Kaufman, J. C., and R.A. Beghetto. “Beyond Big and Little: The Four C Model of Creativity.” Review of General Psychology 13.1 (2009): 1–12. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0013688>. King, G., T. Cathers, E. Brown, J.A. Specht, C. Willoughby, J.M. Polgar, and L. Havens. “Turning Points and Protective Processes in the Lives of People with Chronic Disabilities.” Qualitative Health Research 13.2 (2003): 184–206.Nixon, S., and P. Du Gay. “Who Needs Cultural Intermediaries?” Cultural Studies 16.4 (2002): 495–500.Podkalicka, A. “Young Listening: An Ethnography of YouthWorx Media’s Radio Project.” Continuum 23.4 (2009): 561–72.St Vincent de Paul Society (WA). St Vincent de Paul Society, Annual Report 2013. Perth, WA: St Vincent de Paul Society (WA), 2013. 5 Jan 2017 <http://www.vinnies.org.au/icms_docs/169819_Vinnies_WA_2012_Annual_Report.pdf>.Seidman, I. Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 2006.Silverstone, R., E. Hirsch, and D. Morley. “Information and Communication Technologies and the Moral Economy of the Household.” Consuming Technologies: Media and Information in Domestic Spaces. Eds. R. Silverstone and E. Hirsch. London: Routledge, 1992. 9–17.Snyder, C.R. Handbook of Hope. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, 2000.VY1. In-depth interview with Vinnies Youth volunteer, de-identified, 2016.

“As the old technologies become automatic and invisible, we find ourselves more concerned with fighting or embracing what’s new”—Dennis Baron, From Pencils to Pixels: The Stage of Literacy Technologies What constitutes a computer, as we have come to expect it? Are they necessarily monolithic “beige boxes”, connected to computer monitors, sitting on computer desks, located in computer rooms or computer labs? In order for a device to be considered a true computer, does it need to have a keyboard and mouse? If this were 1991 or earlier, our collective perception of what computers are and are not would largely be framed by this “beige box” model: computers are stationary, slab-like, and heavy, and their natural habitats must be in rooms specifically designated for that purpose. In 1992, when Apple introduced the first PowerBook, our perception began to change. Certainly there had been other portable computers prior to that, such as the Osborne 1, but these were more luggable than portable, weighing just slightly less than a typical sewing machine. The PowerBook and subsequent waves of laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and so-called smart phones from numerous other companies have steadily forced us to rethink and redefine what a computer is and is not, how we interact with them, and the manner in which these tools might be used in the classroom. However, this reconceptualization of computers is far from over, and is in fact steadily evolving as new devices are introduced, adopted, and subsequently adapted for uses beyond of their original purpose. Pat Crowe’s Book Reader project, for example, has morphed Nintendo’s GameBoy and GameBoy Advance into a viable electronic book platform, complete with images, sound, and multi-language support. (Crowe, 2003) His goal was to take this existing technology previously framed only within the context of proprietary adolescent entertainment, and repurpose it for open, flexible uses typically associated with learning and literacy. Similar efforts are underway to repurpose Microsoft’s Xbox, perhaps the ultimate symbol of “closed” technology given Microsoft’s propensity for proprietary code, in order to make it a viable platform for Open Source Software (OSS). However, these efforts are not forgone conclusions, and are in fact typical of the ongoing battle over who controls the technology we own in our homes, and how open source solutions are often at odds with a largely proprietary world. In late 2001, Microsoft launched the Xbox with a multimillion dollar publicity drive featuring events, commercials, live models, and statements claiming this new console gaming platform would “change video games the way MTV changed music”. (Chan, 2001) The Xbox launched with the following technical specifications: 733mhz Pentium III 64mb RAM, 8 or 10gb internal hard disk drive CD/DVD ROM drive (speed unknown) Nvidia graphics processor, with HDTV support 4 USB 1.1 ports (adapter required), AC3 audio 10/100 ethernet port, Optional 56k modem (TechTV, 2001) While current computers dwarf these specifications in virtually all areas now, for 2001 these were roughly on par with many desktop systems. The retail price at the time was $299, but steadily dropped to nearly half that with additional price cuts anticipated. Based on these features, the preponderance of “off the shelf” parts and components used, and the relatively reasonable price, numerous programmers quickly became interested in seeing it if was possible to run Linux and additional OSS on the Xbox. In each case, the goal has been similar: exceed the original purpose of the Xbox, to determine if and how well it might be used for basic computing tasks. If these attempts prove to be successful, the Xbox could allow institutions to dramatically increase the student-to-computer ratio in select environments, or allow individuals who could not otherwise afford a computer to instead buy and Xbox, download and install Linux, and use this new device to write, create, and innovate . This drive to literally and metaphorically “open” the Xbox comes from many directions. Such efforts include Andrew Huang’s self-published “Hacking the Xbox” book in which, under the auspices of reverse engineering, Huang analyzes the architecture of the Xbox, detailing step-by-step instructions for flashing the ROM, upgrading the hard drive and/or RAM, and generally prepping the device for use as an information appliance. Additional initiatives include Lindows CEO Michael Robertson’s $200,000 prize to encourage Linux development on the Xbox, and the Xbox Linux Project at SourceForge. What is Linux? Linux is an alternative operating system initially developed in 1991 by Linus Benedict Torvalds. Linux was based off a derivative of the MINIX operating system, which in turn was a derivative of UNIX. (Hasan 2003) Linux is currently available for Intel-based systems that would normally run versions of Windows, PowerPC-based systems that would normally run Apple’s Mac OS, and a host of other handheld, cell phone, or so-called “embedded” systems. Linux distributions are based almost exclusively on open source software, graphic user interfaces, and middleware components. While there are commercial Linux distributions available, these mainly just package the freely available operating system with bundled technical support, manuals, some exclusive or proprietary commercial applications, and related services. Anyone can still download and install numerous Linux distributions at no cost, provided they do not need technical support beyond the community / enthusiast level. Typical Linux distributions come with open source web browsers, word processors and related productivity applications (such as those found in OpenOffice.org), and related tools for accessing email, organizing schedules and contacts, etc. Certain Linux distributions are more or less designed for network administrators, system engineers, and similar “power users” somewhat distanced from that of our students. However, several distributions including Lycoris, Mandrake, LindowsOS, and other are specifically tailored as regular, desktop operating systems, with regular, everyday computer users in mind. As Linux has no draconian “product activation key” method of authentication, or digital rights management-laden features associated with installation and implementation on typical desktop and laptop systems, Linux is becoming an ideal choice both individually and institutionally. It still faces an uphill battle in terms of achieving widespread acceptance as a desktop operating system. As Finnie points out in Desktop Linux Edges Into The Mainstream: “to attract users, you need ease of installation, ease of device configuration, and intuitive, full-featured desktop user controls. It’s all coming, but slowly. With each new version, desktop Linux comes closer to entering the mainstream. It’s anyone’s guess as to when critical mass will be reached, but you can feel the inevitability: There’s pent-up demand for something different.” (Finnie 2003) Linux is already spreading rapidly in numerous capacities, in numerous countries. Linux has “taken hold wherever computer users desire freedom, and wherever there is demand for inexpensive software.” Reports from technology research company IDG indicate that roughly a third of computers in Central and South America run Linux. Several countries, including Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, have all but mandated that state-owned institutions adopt open source software whenever possible to “give their people the tools and education to compete with the rest of the world.” (Hills 2001) The Goal Less than a year after Microsoft introduced the The Xbox, the Xbox Linux project formed. The Xbox Linux Project has a goal of developing and distributing Linux for the Xbox gaming console, “so that it can be used for many tasks that Microsoft don’t want you to be able to do. ...as a desktop computer, for email and browsing the web from your TV, as a (web) server” (Xbox Linux Project 2002). Since the Linux operating system is open source, meaning it can freely be tinkered with and distributed, those who opt to download and install Linux on their Xbox can do so with relatively little overhead in terms of cost or time. Additionally, Linux itself looks very “windows-like”, making for fairly low learning curve. To help increase overall awareness of this project and assist in diffusing it, the Xbox Linux Project offers step-by-step installation instructions, with the end result being a system capable of using common peripherals such as a keyboard and mouse, scanner, printer, a “webcam and a DVD burner, connected to a VGA monitor; 100% compatible with a standard Linux PC, all PC (USB) hardware and PC software that works with Linux.” (Xbox Linux Project 2002) Such a system could have tremendous potential for technology literacy. Pairing an Xbox with Linux and OpenOffice.org, for example, would provide our students essentially the same capability any of them would expect from a regular desktop computer. They could send and receive email, communicate using instant messaging IRC, or newsgroup clients, and browse Internet sites just as they normally would. In fact, the overall browsing experience for Linux users is substantially better than that for most Windows users. Internet Explorer, the default browser on all systems running Windows-base operating systems, lacks basic features standard in virtually all competing browsers. Native blocking of “pop-up” advertisements is still not yet possible in Internet Explorer without the aid of a third-party utility. Tabbed browsing, which involves the ability to easily open and sort through multiple Web pages in the same window, often with a single mouse click, is also missing from Internet Explorer. The same can be said for a robust download manager, “find as you type”, and a variety of additional features. Mozilla, Netscape, Firefox, Konqueror, and essentially all other OSS browsers for Linux have these features. Of course, most of these browsers are also available for Windows, but Internet Explorer is still considered the standard browser for the platform. If the Xbox Linux Project becomes widely diffused, our students could edit and save Microsoft Word files in OpenOffice.org’s Writer program, and do the same with PowerPoint and Excel files in similar OpenOffice.org components. They could access instructor comments originally created in Microsoft Word documents, and in turn could add their own comments and send the documents back to their instructors. They could even perform many functions not yet capable in Microsoft Office, including saving files in PDF or Flash format without needing Adobe’s Acrobat product or Macromedia’s Flash Studio MX. Additionally, by way of this project, the Xbox can also serve as “a Linux server for HTTP/FTP/SMB/NFS, serving data such as MP3/MPEG4/DivX, or a router, or both; without a monitor or keyboard or mouse connected.” (Xbox Linux Project 2003) In a very real sense, our students could use these inexpensive systems previously framed only within the context of entertainment, for educational purposes typically associated with computer-mediated learning. Problems: Control and Access The existing rhetoric of technological control surrounding current and emerging technologies appears to be stifling many of these efforts before they can even be brought to the public. This rhetoric of control is largely typified by overly-restrictive digital rights management (DRM) schemes antithetical to education, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Combined,both are currently being used as technical and legal clubs against these efforts. Microsoft, for example, has taken a dim view of any efforts to adapt the Xbox to Linux. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who has repeatedly referred to Linux as a cancer and has equated OSS as being un-American, stated, “Given the way the economic model works - and that is a subsidy followed, essentially, by fees for every piece of software sold - our license framework has to do that.” (Becker 2003) Since the Xbox is based on a subsidy model, meaning that Microsoft actually sells the hardware at a loss and instead generates revenue off software sales, Ballmer launched a series of concerted legal attacks against the Xbox Linux Project and similar efforts. In 2002, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft simultaneously sued Lik Sang, Inc., a Hong Kong-based company that produces programmable cartridges and “mod chips” for the PlayStation II, Xbox, and Game Cube. Nintendo states that its company alone loses over $650 million each year due to piracy of their console gaming titles, which typically originate in China, Paraguay, and Mexico. (GameIndustry.biz) Currently, many attempts to “mod” the Xbox required the use of such chips. As Lik Sang is one of the only suppliers, initial efforts to adapt the Xbox to Linux slowed considerably. Despite that fact that such chips can still be ordered and shipped here by less conventional means, it does not change that fact that the chips themselves would be illegal in the U.S. due to the anticircumvention clause in the DMCA itself, which is designed specifically to protect any DRM-wrapped content, regardless of context. The Xbox Linux Project then attempted to get Microsoft to officially sanction their efforts. They were not only rebuffed, but Microsoft then opted to hire programmers specifically to create technological countermeasures for the Xbox, to defeat additional attempts at installing OSS on it. Undeterred, the Xbox Linux Project eventually arrived at a method of installing and booting Linux without the use of mod chips, and have taken a more defiant tone now with Microsoft regarding their circumvention efforts. (Lettice 2002) They state that “Microsoft does not want you to use the Xbox as a Linux computer, therefore it has some anti-Linux-protection built in, but it can be circumvented easily, so that an Xbox can be used as what it is: an IBM PC.” (Xbox Linux Project 2003) Problems: Learning Curves and Usability In spite of the difficulties imposed by the combined technological and legal attacks on this project, it has succeeded at infiltrating this closed system with OSS. It has done so beyond the mere prototype level, too, as evidenced by the Xbox Linux Project now having both complete, step-by-step instructions available for users to modify their own Xbox systems, and an alternate plan catering to those who have the interest in modifying their systems, but not the time or technical inclinations. Specifically, this option involves users mailing their Xbox systems to community volunteers within the Xbox Linux Project, and basically having these volunteers perform the necessary software preparation or actually do the full Linux installation for them, free of charge (presumably not including shipping). This particular aspect of the project, dubbed “Users Help Users”, appears to be fairly new. Yet, it already lists over sixty volunteers capable and willing to perform this service, since “Many users don’t have the possibility, expertise or hardware” to perform these modifications. Amazingly enough, in some cases these volunteers are barely out of junior high school. One such volunteer stipulates that those seeking his assistance keep in mind that he is “just 14” and that when performing these modifications he “...will not always be finished by the next day”. (Steil 2003) In addition to this interesting if somewhat unusual level of community-driven support, there are currently several Linux-based options available for the Xbox. The two that are perhaps the most developed are GentooX, which is based of the popular Gentoo Linux distribution, and Ed’s Debian, based off the Debian GNU / Linux distribution. Both Gentoo and Debian are “seasoned” distributions that have been available for some time now, though Daniel Robbins, Chief Architect of Gentoo, refers to the product as actually being a “metadistribution” of Linux, due to its high degree of adaptability and configurability. (Gentoo 2004) Specifically, the Robbins asserts that Gentoo is capable of being “customized for just about any application or need. ...an ideal secure server, development workstation, professional desktop, gaming system, embedded solution or something else—whatever you need it to be.” (Robbins 2004) He further states that the whole point of Gentoo is to provide a better, more usable Linux experience than that found in many other distributions. Robbins states that: “The goal of Gentoo is to design tools and systems that allow a user to do their work pleasantly and efficiently as possible, as they see fit. Our tools should be a joy to use, and should help the user to appreciate the richness of the Linux and free software community, and the flexibility of free software. ...Put another way, the Gentoo philosophy is to create better tools. When a tool is doing its job perfectly, you might not even be very aware of its presence, because it does not interfere and make its presence known, nor does it force you to interact with it when you don’t want it to. The tool serves the user rather than the user serving the tool.” (Robbins 2004) There is also a so-called “live CD” Linux distribution suitable for the Xbox, called dyne:bolic, and an in-progress release of Slackware Linux, as well. According to the Xbox Linux Project, the only difference between the standard releases of these distributions and their Xbox counterparts is that “...the install process – and naturally the bootloader, the kernel and the kernel modules – are all customized for the Xbox.” (Xbox Linux Project, 2003) Of course, even if Gentoo is as user-friendly as Robbins purports, even if the Linux kernel itself has become significantly more robust and efficient, and even if Microsoft again drops the retail price of the Xbox, is this really a feasible solution in the classroom? Does the Xbox Linux Project have an army of 14 year olds willing to modify dozens, perhaps hundreds of these systems for use in secondary schools and higher education? Of course not. If such an institutional rollout were to be undertaken, it would require significant support from not only faculty, but Department Chairs, Deans, IT staff, and quite possible Chief Information Officers. Disk images would need to be customized for each institution to reflect their respective needs, ranging from setting specific home pages on web browsers, to bookmarks, to custom back-up and / or disk re-imaging scripts, to network authentication. This would be no small task. Yet, the steps mentioned above are essentially no different than what would be required of any IT staff when creating a new disk image for a computer lab, be it one for a Windows-based system or a Mac OS X-based one. The primary difference would be Linux itself—nothing more, nothing less. The institutional difficulties in undertaking such an effort would likely be encountered prior to even purchasing a single Xbox, in that they would involve the same difficulties associated with any new hardware or software initiative: staffing, budget, and support. If the institutional in question is either unwilling or unable to address these three factors, it would not matter if the Xbox itself was as free as Linux. An Open Future, or a Closed one? It is unclear how far the Xbox Linux Project will be allowed to go in their efforts to invade an essentially a proprietary system with OSS. Unlike Sony, which has made deliberate steps to commercialize similar efforts for their PlayStation 2 console, Microsoft appears resolute in fighting OSS on the Xbox by any means necessary. They will continue to crack down on any companies selling so-called mod chips, and will continue to employ technological protections to keep the Xbox “closed”. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, in all likelihood Microsoft continue to equate any OSS efforts directed at the Xbox with piracy-related motivations. Additionally, Microsoft’s successor to the Xbox would likely include additional anticircumvention technologies incorporated into it that could set the Xbox Linux Project back by months, years, or could stop it cold. Of course, it is difficult to say with any degree of certainty how this “Xbox 2” (perhaps a more appropriate name might be “Nextbox”) will impact this project. Regardless of how this device evolves, there can be little doubt of the value of Linux, OpenOffice.org, and other OSS to teaching and learning with technology. This value exists not only in terms of price, but in increased freedom from policies and technologies of control. New Linux distributions from Gentoo, Mandrake, Lycoris, Lindows, and other companies are just now starting to focus their efforts on Linux as user-friendly, easy to use desktop operating systems, rather than just server or “techno-geek” environments suitable for advanced programmers and computer operators. While metaphorically opening the Xbox may not be for everyone, and may not be a suitable computing solution for all, I believe we as educators must promote and encourage such efforts whenever possible. I suggest this because I believe we need to exercise our professional influence and ultimately shape the future of technology literacy, either individually as faculty and collectively as departments, colleges, or institutions. Moran and Fitzsimmons-Hunter argue this very point in Writing Teachers, Schools, Access, and Change. One of their fundamental provisions they use to define “access” asserts that there must be a willingness for teachers and students to “fight for the technologies that they need to pursue their goals for their own teaching and learning.” (Taylor / Ward 160) Regardless of whether or not this debate is grounded in the “beige boxes” of the past, or the Xboxes of the present, much is at stake. Private corporations should not be in a position to control the manner in which we use legally-purchased technologies, regardless of whether or not these technologies are then repurposed for literacy uses. I believe the exigency associated with this control, and the ongoing evolution of what is and is not a computer, dictates that we assert ourselves more actively into this discussion. We must take steps to provide our students with the best possible computer-mediated learning experience, however seemingly unorthodox the technological means might be, so that they may think critically, communicate effectively, and participate actively in society and in their future careers. About the Author Paul Cesarini is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Communication & Technology Education, Bowling Green State University, Ohio Email: pcesari@bgnet.bgsu.edu Works Cited http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/docs/debian.php>.Baron, Denis. “From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies.” Passions Pedagogies and 21st Century Technologies. Hawisher, Gail E., and Cynthia L. Selfe, Eds. Utah: Utah State University Press, 1999. 15 – 33. Becker, David. “Ballmer: Mod Chips Threaten Xbox”. News.com. 21 Oct 2002. http://news.com.com/2100-1040-962797.php>. http://news.com.com/2100-1040-978957.html?tag=nl>. http://archive.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/08/13/020813hnchina.xml>. http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/1062/>. http://www.bookreader.co.uk>.Finni, Scott. “Desktop Linux Edges Into The Mainstream”. TechWeb. 8 Apr 2003. http://www.techweb.com/tech/software/20030408_software. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/29439.html http://gentoox.shallax.com/. http://ragib.hypermart.net/linux/. http://www.itworld.com/Comp/2362/LWD010424latinlinux/pfindex.html. http://www.xbox-linux.sourceforge.net. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/27487.html. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/26078.html. http://www.us.playstation.com/peripherals.aspx?id=SCPH-97047. http://www.techtv.com/extendedplay/reviews/story/0,24330,3356862,00.html. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61984,00.html. http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/about.xml http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/philosophy.xml http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2869075,00.html. http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/docs/usershelpusers.html http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/fun.games/12/16/gamers.liksang/. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Cesarini, Paul. "“Opening” the Xbox" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0406/08_Cesarini.php>. APA Style Cesarini, P. (2004, Jul1). “Opening” the Xbox. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 7, <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0406/08_Cesarini.php>

What began as a simple request for a book by one of my former students, at times, has not been so simple. The student, whom I refer to as Carla (name changed), hoped to read about characters similar to herself and her friends. As a teacher, I have often tried to hook my students on reading by presenting books with characters to which they can relate. These books can help increase their overall knowledge of the world, open their minds to multiple realities and variations of the human experience and provide scenarios in which they can live vicariously. Carla’s request was a bit more complicated than I had imagined. As a “Deaf” student who attended a state school for the Deaf and who viewed herself as a member of a linguistic cultural minority, she expected to read a book with characters who used American Sign Language and who participated as members within the Deaf Community. She did not want to read didactic books about deafness but wanted books with unpredictable plots and believable characters. Having graduated from a teacher-preparation program in Deaf Education, I had read numerous books about deafness. While memoirs and biographical selections had been relatively easy to acquire and were on my bookshelf, I had not once read any fictional books for adolescents that included a deaf character. (I refer to ‘Deaf’ as representing individuals who identify in a linguistic, cultural minority group. The term ‘deaf’ is used as a more generic term given to individuals with some degree of hearing loss. In other articles, ‘deaf’ has been used pejoratively or in connection to a view by those who believe one without the sense of hearing is inferior or lacking. I do not believe or wish to imply that. ) As a High School teacher with so many additional work responsibilities outside of classroom teaching, finding fictional books with deaf characters was somewhat of a challenge. Nevertheless, after some research I was able to recommend a book that I thought would be a good summer read. Nancy Butts’ Cheshire Moon (1992) is charming book about thirteen-year-old Miranda who is saddened by her cousin’s death and furious at her parents' insistence that she speak rather than sign. The plot turns slightly mystical when the teens begin having similar dreams under the “Cheshire moon”. Yet, the story is about Miranda, a deaf girl, who struggles with communication. Without her cousin, the only member of her family who was fluent in sign language, communication is difficult and embarrassing. Miranda feels isolated, alienated, and unsure of herself. Because of the main character’s age, the book was not the best recommendation for a high school student; however, when Carla finished Cheshire Moon, she asked for another book with Deaf characters. Problem & Purpose Historically, authors have used deafness as a literary device to relay various messages about the struggles of humankind and elicit sympathy from readers (Batson & Bergman; Bergman; Burns; Krentz; Panara; Taylor, "Deaf Characters" I, II, III; Schwartz; Wilding-Diaz). In recent decades, however, the general public’s awareness of and perhaps interest in deaf people has risen along with that of our increasingly multicultural world. Educational legislation has increased awareness of the deaf as has news coverage of Gallaudet University protests. In addition, Deaf people have benefited from advances in communicative technology, such as Video Relay (VRS) and instant messaging pagers, more coordinated interpreting services and an increase in awareness of American Sign Language. Authors are incorporating more deaf characters than they did in the past. However, this increase does not necessarily translate to an increase in understanding of the deaf, nor does it translate to the most accurate, respectably, well-rounded characterization of the deaf (Pajka-West, "Perceptions"). Acquiring fictional books that include deaf characters can be time-consuming and challenging for teachers and librarians. The research examining deaf characters in fiction is extremely limited (Burns; Guella; Krentz; Wilding-Diaz). The most recent articles predominately focus on children’s literature — specifically picture books (Bailes; Brittain). Despite decades of research affirming culturally authentic children’s literature and the merits of multicultural literature, a coexisting body of research reveals the lack of culturally authentic texts (Applebee; Campbell & Wirtenberg; Ernest; Larrick; Sherriff; Taxel). Moreover, children’s books with deaf characters are used as informational depictions of deaf individuals (Bockmiller, 1980). Readers of such resource books, typically parents, teachers and their students, gain information about deafness and individuals with “disabilities” (Bockmiller, 1980; Civiletto & Schirmer, 2000). If an important purpose for deaf characters in fiction is educational and informational, then there is a need for the characters to be presented as realistic models of deaf people. If not, the readers of such fiction gain inaccurate information about deafness including reinforced negative stereotypes, as can occur in any other literature portraying cultural minorities (Pajka-West, "Perceptions"). Similar to authors’ informational depictions, writers also reveal societal understanding of groups of people through their fiction (Banfield & Wilson; Panara; Rudman). Literature has often stigmatized minority culture individuals based upon race, ethnicity, disability, gender and/or sexual orientation. While readers might recognize the negative depictions and dismiss them as harmless stereotypes, these portrayals could become a part of the unconscious of members of our society. If books continually reinforce stereotypical depictions of deaf people, individuals belonging to the group might be typecast and discouraged into a limited way of being. As an educator, I want all of my students to have unlimited opportunities for the future, not disadvantaged by stereotypes. The Study For my doctoral dissertation, I examined six contemporary adolescent literature books with deaf characters. The research methodology for this study required book selection, reader sample selection, instrument creation, book analysis, questionnaire creation, and data analysis. My research questions included: 1) Are deaf characters being presented as culturally Deaf characters or as pathologically deaf and disabled; 2) Do these readers favor deaf authors over hearing ones? If so, why; and, 3) How do deaf and hearing adult readers perceive deaf characters in adolescent literature? The Sample The book sample included 102 possible books for the study ranging from adolescent to adult selections. I selected books that were recognized as suitable for middle school or high school readers based upon the reading and interest levels established by publishers. The books also had to include main characters who are deaf and deaf characters who are human. The books selected were all realistic fiction, available to the public, and published or reissued for publication within the last fifteen years. The six books that were selected included: Nick’s Secret by C. Blatchford; A Maiden’s Grave by J. Deaver; Of Sound Mind by J. Ferris; Deaf Child Crossing by M. Matlin; Apple Is My Sign by M. Riskind; and Finding Abby by V. Scott. For the first part of my study, I analyzed these texts using the Adolescent Literature Content Analysis Check-off Form (ALCAC) which includes both pathological and cultural perspective statements derived from Deaf Studies, Disability Studies and Queer Theory. The participant sample included adult readers who fit within three categories: those who identified as deaf, those who were familiar with or had been acquaintances with deaf individuals, and those who were unfamiliar having never associated with deaf individuals. Each participant completed a Reader-Response Survey which included ten main questions derived from Deaf Studies and Schwartz’ ‘Criteria for Analyzing Books about Deafness’. The survey included both dichotomous and open-ended questions. Research Questions & Methodology Are deaf characters being presented as culturally Deaf or as pathologically deaf and disabled? In previous articles, scholars have stated that most books with deaf characters include a pathological perspective; yet, few studies actually exist to conclude this assertion. In my study, I analyzed six books to determine whether they supported the cultural or the pathological perspective of deafness. The goal was not to exclusively label a text either/or but to highlight the distinct perspectives to illuminate a discussion regarding a deaf character. As before mentioned, the ALCAC instrument incorporates relevant theories and prior research findings in reference to the portrayals of deaf characters and was developed to specifically analyze adolescent literature with deaf characters. Despite the historical research regarding deaf characters and due to the increased awareness of deaf people and American Sign Language, my initial assumption was that the authors of the six adolescent books would present their deaf characters as more culturally ‘Deaf’. This was confirmed for the majority of the books. I believed that an outsider, such as a hearing writer, could carry out an adequate portrayal of a culture other than his own. In the past, scholars did not believe this was the case; however, the results from my study demonstrated that the majority of the hearing authors presented the cultural perspective model. Initially shocking, the majority of deaf authors incorporated the pathological perspective model. I offer three possible reasons why these deaf authors included more pathological perspective statements while the hearing authors include more cultural perspective statements: First, the deaf authors have grown up deaf and perhaps experienced more scenarios similar to those presented from the pathological perspective model. Even if the deaf authors live more culturally Deaf lifestyles today, authors include their experiences growing up in their writing. Second, there are less deaf characters in the books written by deaf authors and more characters and more character variety in the books written by the hearing authors. When there are fewer deaf characters interacting with other deaf characters, these characters tend to interact with more hearing characters who are less likely to be aware of the cultural perspective. And third, with decreased populations of culturally Deaf born to culturally Deaf individuals, it seems consistent that it may be more difficult to obtain a book from a Deaf of Deaf author. Similarly, if we consider the Deaf person’s first language is American Sign Language, Deaf authors may be spending more time composing stories and poetry in American Sign Language and less time focusing upon English. This possible lack of interest may make the number of ‘Deaf of Deaf’ authors, or culturally Deaf individuals raised by culturally Deaf parents, who pursue and are successful publishing a book in adolescent literature low. At least in adolescent literature, deaf characters, as many other minority group characters, are being included in texts to show young people our increasingly multicultural world. Adolescent literature readers can now become aware of a range of deaf characters, including characters who use American Sign Language, who attend residential schools for the Deaf, and even who have Deaf families. Do the readers favor deaf authors over hearing ones? A significant part of my research was based upon the perceptions of adult readers of adolescent literature with deaf characters. I selected participants from a criterion sampling and divided them into three groups: 1. Adults who had attended either a special program for the deaf or a residential school for the deaf, used American Sign Language, and identified themselves as deaf were considered for the deaf category of the study; 2. Adults who were friends, family members, co-workers or professionals in fields connected with individuals who identify themselves as deaf were considered for the familiar category of the study; and, 3. hearing adults who were not aware of the everyday experiences of deaf people and who had not taken a sign language class, worked with or lived with a deaf person were considered for the unfamiliar category of the study. Nine participants were selected for each group totaling 27 participants (one participant from each of the groups withdrew before completion, leaving eight participants from each of the groups to complete the study). To elicit the perspectives of the participants, I developed a Reader Response survey which was modeled after Schwartz’s ‘Criteria for Analyzing Books about Deafness’. I assumed that the participants from Deaf and Familiar groups would prefer the books written by the deaf authors while the unfamiliar participants would act more as a control group. This was not confirmed through the data. In fact, the Deaf participants along with the participants as a whole preferred the books written by the hearing authors as better describing their perceptions of realistic deaf people, for presenting deaf characters adequately and realistically, and for the hearing authors’ portrayals of deaf characters matching with their perceptions of deaf people. In general, the Deaf participants were more critical of the deaf authors while the familiar participants, although as a group preferred the books by the hearing authors, were more critical of the hearing authors. Participants throughout all three groups mentioned their preference for a spectrum of deaf characters. The books used in this study that were written by hearing authors included a variety of characters. For example, Riskind’s Apple Is My Sign includes numerous deaf students at a school for the deaf and the main character living within a deaf family; Deaver’s A Maiden’s Grave includes deaf characters from a variety of backgrounds attending a residential school for the deaf and only a few hearing characters; and Ferris’ Of Sound Mind includes two deaf families with two CODA or hearing teens. The books written by the deaf authors in this study include only a few deaf characters. For example, Matlin’s Deaf Child Crossing includes two deaf girls surrounded by hearing characters; Scott’s Finding Abby includes more minor deaf characters but readers learn about these characters from the hearing character’s perspective. For instance, the character Jared uses sign language and attends a residential school for the deaf but readers learn this information from his hearing mother talking about him, not from the deaf character’s words. Readers know that he communicates through sign language because we are told that he does; however, the only communication readers are shown is a wave from the child; and, Blatchford’s Nick’s Secret includes only one deaf character. With the fewer deaf characters it is nearly impossible for the various ways of being deaf to be included in the book. Thus, the preference for the books by the hearing authors is more likely connected to the preference for a variety of deaf people represented. How do readers perceive deaf characters? Participants commented on fourteen main and secondary characters. Their perceptions of these characters fall into six categories: the “normal” curious kid such as the characters Harry (Apple Is My Sign), Jeremy (Of Sound Mind) and Jared (Finding Abby); the egocentric spoiled brat such as Palma (Of Sound Mind) and Megan (Deaf Child Crossing); the advocate such as Harry’s mother (Apple Is My Sign) and Susan (A Maiden’s Grave); those dependent upon the majority culture such as Palma (Of Sound Mind) and Lizzie (Deaf Child Crossing); those isolated such as Melissa (Finding Abby), Ben (Of Sound Mind), Nick (Nick’s Secret) and Thomas (Of Sound Mind); and, those searching for their identities such as Melanie (A Maiden’s Grave) and Abby (Finding Abby). Overall, participants commented more frequently about the deaf characters in the books by the hearing authors (A Maiden’s Grave; Of Sound Mind; Apple Is My Sign) and made more positive comments about the culturally Deaf male characters, particularly Ben Roper, Jeremy and Thomas of Of Sound Mind, and Harry of Apple Is My Sign. Themes such as the characters being dependent and isolated from others did arise. For example, Palma in Of Sound Mind insists that her hearing son act as her personal interpreter so that she can avoid other hearing people. Examples to demonstrate the isolation some of the deaf characters experience include Nick of Nick’s Secret being the only deaf character in his story and Ben Roper of Of Sound Mind being the only deaf employee in his workplace. While these can certainly be read as negative situations the characters experience, isolation is a reality that resonates in some deaf people’s experiences. With communicative technology and more individuals fluent in American Sign Language, some deaf individuals may decide to associate more with individuals in the larger culture. One must interpret purposeful isolation such as Ben Roper’s (Of Sound Mind) case, working in a location that provides him with the best employment opportunities, differently than Melissa Black’s (Finding Abby) isolating feelings of being left out of family dinner discussions. Similarly, variations in characterization including the egocentric, spoiled brat and those searching for their identities are common themes in adolescent literature with or without deaf characters being included. Positive examples of deaf characters including the roles of the advocate such as Susan (A Maiden’s Grave) and Harry’s mother (Apple Is My Sign), along with descriptions of regular everyday deaf kids increases the varieties of deaf characters. As previously stated, my study included an analysis based on literary theory and prior research. At that time, unless the author explicitly told readers in a foreword or a letter to readers, I had no way of truly knowing why the deaf character was included and why the author made such decisions. This uncertainty of the author’s decisions changed for me in 2007 with the establishment of my educational blog. Beginning to Blog When I started my educational blog Deaf Characters in Adolescent Literature in February 2007, I did not plan to become a blogger nor did I have any plans for my blog. I simply opened a Blogger account and added a list of 106 books with deaf characters that was connected to my research. Once I started blogging on a regular basis, I discovered an active audience who not only read what I wrote but who truly cared about my research. Blogging had become a way for me to keep my research current; since my blog was about deaf characters in adolescent literature, it became an advocacy tool that called attention to authors and books that were not widely publicized; and, it enabled me to become part of a cyber community made up of other bloggers and readers. After a few months of blogging on a weekly basis, I began to feel a sense of obligation to research and post my findings. While continuing to post to my blog, I have acquired more information about my research topic and even received advance reader copies prior to the books’ publication dates. This enables me to discuss the most current books. It also enables my readers to learn about such books. My blog acts as free advertisement for the publishing companies and authors. I currently have 195 contemporary books with deaf characters and over 36 author and professional interviews. While the most rewarding aspect of blogging is connecting with readers, there have been some major highlights in the process. As I stated, I had no way of knowing why the deaf character was included in the books until I began interviewing the authors. I had hoped that the hearing authors of books with deaf characters would portray their characters realistically but I had not realized the authors’ personal connections to actual deaf people. For instance, Delia Ray, Singing Hands, wrote about a Deaf preacher and his family. Her book was based on her grandfather who was a Deaf preacher and leading pioneer in the Deaf Community. Ray is not the only hearing author who has a personal connection to deaf people. Other examples include: Jean Ferris, Of Sound Mind, who earned a degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology. Ferris’ book includes only two hearing characters, the majority are Deaf. All of her characters are also fluent in American Sign Language; Jodi Cutler Del Dottore, Rally Caps, who includes a deaf character named Luca who uses a cochlear implant. Luca is based on Cutler Del Dottore’s son, Jordan, who also has a cochlear implant; finally, Jacqueline Woodson, Feathers, grew up in a community that included deaf people who did not use sign language. As an adult, she met members of the Deaf Community and began learning American Sign Language herself. Woodson introduces readers to Sean who is attractive, funny, and intelligent. In my study, I noted that all of the deaf characters where not diverse based upon race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status (Pajka-West, "Perceptions"). Sean is the first Deaf American-African character in adolescent literature who uses sign language to communicate. Another main highlight is finding Deaf authors who do not receive the mainstream press that other authors might receive. For example, Ann Clare LeZotte, T4, introduces readers to main character Paula Becker, a thirteen year old deaf girl who uses sign language and lipreading to communicate. Through verse, we learn of Paula’s life in Germany during Hitler’s time as she goes into hiding since individuals with physical and mental disabilities were being executed under the orders of Hitler’s Tiergartenstrasse 4 (T4). One additional highlight is that I learn about insider tips and am then able to share this information with my blog readers. In one instance I began corresponding with Marvel Comic’s David Mack, the creator of Echo, a multilingual, biracial, Deaf comic book character who debuted in Daredevil and later The New Avengers. In comics, it is Marvel who owns the character; while Echo was created for Daredevil by Mack, she later appears in The New Avengers. In March 2008, discussion boards were buzzing since issue #39 would include original creator, Mack, among other artists. To make it less complicated for those who do not follow comics, the issue was about whether or not Echo had become a skrull, an alien who takes over the body of the character. This was frightening news since potentially Echo could become a hearing skrull. I just did not believe that Mack would let that happen. My students and I held numerous discussions about the implications of Marvel’s decisions and finally I sent Mack an email. While he could not reveal the details of the issue, he did assure me that my students and I would be pleased. I’m sure there was a collective sigh from readers once his email was published on the blog. Final Thoughts While there have been pejorative depictions of the deaf in literature, the portrayals of deaf characters in adolescent literature have become much more realistic in the last decade. Authors have personal connections with actual deaf individuals which lend to the descriptions of their deaf characters; they are conducting more detailed research to develop their deaf characters; and, they appear to be much more aware of the Deaf Community than they were in the past. A unique benefit of the genre is that authors of adolescent literature often give the impression of being more available to the readers of their books. Authors often participate in open dialogues with their fans through social networking sites or discussion boards on their own websites. After posting interviews with the authors on my blog, I refer readers to the author’s on site whether it through personal blogs, websites, Facebook or Twitter pages. While hearing authors’ portrayals now include a spectrum of deaf characters, we must encourage Deaf and Hard of Hearing writers to include more deaf characters in their works. Consider again my student Carla and her longing to find books with deaf characters. Deaf characters in fiction act as role models for young adults. A positive portrayal of deaf characters benefits deaf adolescents whether or not they see themselves as biologically deaf or culturally deaf. Only through on-going publishing, more realistic and positive representations of the deaf will occur. References Bailes, C.N. "Mandy: A Critical Look at the Portrayal of a Deaf Character in Children’s Literature." Multicultural Perspectives 4.4 (2002): 3-9. Batson, T. "The Deaf Person in Fiction: From Sainthood to Rorschach Blot." Interracial Books for Children Bulletin 11.1-2 (1980): 16-18. Batson, T., and E. Bergman. Angels and Outcasts: An Anthology of Deaf Characters in Literature. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press (1985). Bergman, E. "Literature, Fictional characters in." In J.V. Van Cleve (ed.), Gallaudet Encyclopedia of Deaf People & Deafness. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: McGraw Hill, 1987. 172-176. Brittain, I. "An Examination into the Portrayal of Deaf Characters and Deaf Issues in Picture Books for Children." Disability Studies Quarterly 24.1 (Winter 2004). 24 Apr. 2005 < http://www.dsq-sds.org >. Burns, D.J. An Annotated Checklist of Fictional Works Which Contain Deaf Characters. Unpublished master’s thesis. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University,1950. Campbell, P., and J. Wirtenberg. How Books Influence Children: What the Research Shows. Interracial Books for Children Bulletin 11.6 (1980): 3-6. Civiletto, C.L., and B.R. Schirmer. "Literature with Characters Who Are Deaf." The Dragon Lode 19.1 (Fall 2000): 46-49. Guella, B. "Short Stories with Deaf Fictional Characters." American Annals of the Deaf 128.1 (1983): 25-33. Krentz, C. "Exploring the 'Hearing Line': Deafness, Laughter, and Mark Twain." In S. L. Snyder, B. J. Brueggemann, and R. Garland-Thomson, eds., Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2002. 234-247. Larrick, N. "The All-White World of Children's Books. Saturday Review 11 (1965): 63-85. Pajka-West, S. “The Perceptions of Deaf Characters in Adolescent Literature”. The ALAN Review 34.3 (Summer 2007): 39-45. ———. "The Portrayals and Perceptions of Deaf Characters in Adolescent Literature." Ph.D. dissertation. University of Virginia, 2007. ———. "Interview with Deaf Author Ann Clare LeZotte about T4, Her Forthcoming Book Told in Verse." Deaf Characters in Adolescent Literature, 5 Aug. 2008. < http://pajka.blogspot.com/ 2008/08/interview-with-deaf-author-ann-clare.html >.———. "Interview with Delia Ray, Author of Singing Hands." Deaf Characters in Adolescent Literature, 23 Aug. 2007. < http://pajka.blogspot.com/ 2007/08/interview-with-delia-ray-author-of.html >.———. "Interview with Jacqueline Woodson, author of Feathers." Deaf Characters in Adolescent Literature, 29 Sep. 2007. < http://pajka.blogspot.com/ 2007/09/interview-with-jacqueline-woodson.html >. ———. "Interview with Jodi Cutler Del Dottore, author of Rally Caps." Deaf Characters in Adolescent Literature, 13 Aug. 2007. < http://pajka.blogspot.com/ 2007/08/interview-with-jodi-cutler-del-dottore.html >. Panara, R. "Deaf Characters in Fiction and Drama." The Deaf American 24.5 (1972): 3-8. Schwartz, A.V. "Books Mirror Society: A Study of Children’s Materials." Interracial Books for Children Bulletin 11.1-2 (1980): 19-24. Sherriff, A. The Portrayal of Mexican American Females in Realistic Picture Books (1998-2004). University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: 2005. Taxel, J. "The Black Experience in Children's Fiction: Controversies Surrounding Award Winning Books." Curriculum Inquiry 16 (1986): 245-281. Taylor, G.M. "Deaf Characters in Short Stories: A Selective Bibliography. The Deaf American 26.9 (1974): 6-8. ———. "Deaf Characters in Short Stories: A Selective Bibliography II." The Deaf American 28.11 (1976): 13-16.———. "Deaf Characters in Short Stories: A Selective Bibliography III." The Deaf American 29.2 (1976): 27-28. Wilding-Diaz, M.M. Deaf Characters in Children’s Books: How Are They Portrayed? Unpublished master’s thesis. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1993.———. "Deaf Characters in Children’s Books: How Are They Perceived?" In Gallaudet University College for Continuing Education and B.D. Snider (eds.), Journal: Post Milan ASL & English Literacy: Issues, Trends & Research Conference Proceedings, 20-22 Oct. 1993.Adolescent Fiction Books Blatchford, C. Nick’s Secret. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner, 2000. Deaver, J. A Maiden’s Grave. New York: Signet, 1996. Ferris, J. Of Sound Mind. New York: Sunburst, 2004. Matlin, M. Deaf Child Crossing. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 2004. Riskind, M. Apple Is My Sign. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1981. Scott, V. Finding Abby. Hillsboro, OR: Butte, 2000.

Percy was a put upon pig. Everywhere he went, others pointed and stared. It was never Percy’s intention to be the focus of gossip and innuendo, but it seemed that from the moment he was born, other animals were destined to imbue him with all sorts of various—and often competing—meanings. Percy had asked for none of it. He thought of life as a rather simple affair. What made it complex and often baffling had more to do with what his farmyard friends projected onto him rather than anything that Percy would describe as pig related. As such, Percy had decided early on in life, that he would have no truck with superstition of any kind. The horses would grimace as he walked by; the cows would shake their heads and smile as if … well, Percy could never work out what the ‘as if’ stood in for. It obviously, though, had something to do with long, long ago. Recently, Percy had begun thinking about leaving the farm. This was not a decision to be taken lightly; in fact, it required a great deal of thought and careful planning: mulling over possible outcomes, unforeseen dangers and bends in the road. All clichés of course, but so many elements of any journey are. It was in the setting off, Percy reasoned, that the clichéd nature of any journey ended, and the individual narrative began. Percy’s one friend in the farmyard was Ian the carpet snake, and like Percy, he was unpopular with the other animals. Ian was something of a philosopher and Percy enjoyed their occasional conversations, particularly when things were going poorly for him with the other animals. Which was generally often and generally for reasons that had to do with ancient history rather than any particular matter at hand. “I think that it’s my body that’s the problem”, Percy sighed to Ian as he trotted into the barn. Ian was never quick to respond, reluctant as he was to withdraw from whatever band of sunlight he had managed to slither into. “And what problem is that little pig”, Ian demurred, unable to open his eyes just yet. “Oh well, the same problem as ever I expect”, Percy replied, obviously troubled by his relationships with the other animals in the farmyard. “They’ve been at it again have they?” Ian asked. “The thing is they’re never not at it”, Percy said grumpily. “And I’m sick of trying to work out why it is that everyone has such problems with me”. “Perhaps if you weren’t the only pig in the farmyard …” “But that’s just it, I am the only pig in the farmyard and it’s becoming intolerable. I have no understanding as to why, for the horses, I am an utter disgrace: to the cows, I’m something to pity; the birds see me as an object of ridicule and the chickens … are so arrogant toward me. Chickens! For goodness sake!” “And how is all this related to your body?” Ian asked. “Well,” Percy began, “I can’t help but think I’m somehow flawed. It’s as if my body is a joke of some kind. And it’s a joke that everyone else seems to understand but me. And no one, and I do mean no one, is prepared to tell me the joke to my face. If only I could understand why they feel so strongly about my very presence I might be able to argue my case, assure them that I am somehow different to the pigs they have in their minds”. “Mmm”, Ian muttered as he slithered into a coil and out of his sunlight. This was always the moment of commitment with Ian; the moment that signified a conversation was becoming interesting to the point where he might be encouraged to say something deep and wise; profound even. “Well, they do have a point, Percy”, Ian said. “You are enormously fat, your legs are very short, and your tail curls in disgrace at the size of your behind”. “But that’s just who I am”, squealed Percy in despair. “I can’t help the form my body takes”. Percy was close to tears, his frustration beginning to overwhelm him. “Do not cry or I will not talk to you”, Ian demanded, suddenly forceful. “Oh not you too. Can’t you see I’m distressed? My body”, Percy began, “is constantly hungry. It gives me no relief and my legs … can’t you see they have to be this way in order to support my frame? Being short means my legs are very powerful, they can move me about at more than a fair clip. It’s not right that the horses belittle me. It’s as if all the other animals think I’ve somehow asked to be born this way. As if … no one can see my good points”. “And tell me, Percy”, Ian asked kindly, “what are your good points?” “Well”, Percy replied, “I’m not fussy. I’m very pragmatic. I’m not a dreamer like the cows, or vain like the horses. Nor am I unable to commit like the birds. I have a great capacity to enlighten others as to the possibilities of pleasure and”, Percy continued, a little less sure, “I am loyal and kind”. “Mmm”, Ian demurred once more, “and yet the others are still unkind to you”. “The grasshoppers say that it’s a hangover from the dark ages; that no one actually remembers why it is they should hate me … it’s just that everyone’s sure that is what they’re supposed to do”. “Perhaps,” began Ian, “If you ate a little less?” “But you don’t understand either”, Percy cried. “You’re meant to be my friend, Ian. My one and only friend and yet you criticise me just like they do. As if … as if, my very pig-ness offends you”. “Well I do know how you feel if that is any consolation, Percy. Trust me when I say that my fan club are not people you want to hang out with. Honestly, snake lovers are troubled folk. They simple don’t understand a snake’s desire to be left alone”. “Well I don’t want to be left alone. I want to belong!” shouted Percy. So loud did Percy shout, that the horses standing outside the barn overheard him. And the idea of Percy wanting to belong made them laugh and neigh so loudly that the noise threatened to bring the humans over. Which was never a good idea. Except at feeding time. “Oh, Percy”, Ian sighed, as the horses cantered off shaking their manes in the breeze. “You can’t escape your identity. You think I want to be a carpet snake? Well, I don’t. I want to be an eagle. I’d do anything to be an eagle but that’s just not going to happen. One has to accept ones fate. And unfortunately for you, what being a pig means in this particular moment, is … well”, Ian said rationally, “rather a sad thing. But I will say this, being a pig is better than being a rat. Rats are foul and nasty creatures and you will not find anyone to disagree”. “Except perhaps a rat”, Percy exclaimed. “Oh, they know what foul creatures they are alright”, Ian corrected Percy. “But only because everyone thinks poorly of them”, Percy implored. “Such reasons exist for good … reason”, Ian stated. “Well I’m sure that the reason there are so many rats is because they know they have to stick together. They know the world is against them through no fault of their own”. “For goodness sake, Percy … our identities are put upon us all. Depending upon who our parents are, what time and place we are born into. Tell me this … if you were born a hundred years ago in a different country, do you think you would be the same pig? Do you think you would even speak the same language?” “Well … I don’t know. I’m sure I would have the same pig qualities”. “Indeed. But those qualities belong to your body, to your pig-ness rather than to who Percy is”. “But who Percy is … is constantly put-upon. Constantly manufactured by the other animals. It’s as if my fate was already decided when I was born; as if, just being born a pig was somehow wrong; somehow a disgraceful, offensive thing”. “Exactly”, Ian agreed enthusiastically. “Well, it’s not logical. It’s offensive and cruel”, Percy replied, suddenly agitated. “No one … not one single other animal has ever thought to address me as Percy. They simply see me as a pig. And the absolute worst thing about that is, being a pig, is somehow a dreadful thing for each and every other animal in the farmyard. No one thinks highly of pigs. Not even the dreadful fox who despite his cruel nature would never think to eat pork”. “Well … I’m sure if you lost a little weight’, Ian suggested. “Oh, you’re no help at all”, Percy exclaimed, suddenly angry. “Well I’m not going to take it anymore. I’m going to find a place where I belong. A place where other pigs like me have opportunities and the chance …”, Percy broke off, his courage suddenly deserting him. “The chance for what?” Ian enquired rather cynically. “It doesn’t matter”, Percy replied. “Oh, I think it does” Ian added. “You do, after all, need to know the reason for setting off”. “The reason I’m setting off is because I’m tired of being the only pig; the only animal in the barn who is put-upon is such vicious ways. Why have such dreadful meanings attached themselves to my pig-ness? It’s not fair. I want the chance”, Percy continued. “I want the chance to like my pig-ness, to celebrate my short, fat body and curly tail. I want to find a place where what it means to be a pig is normal rather than something obscure or somehow something to be ridiculed”. “Mmm”, Ian muttered once more as he stretched his long body into the fading band of light. “Good luck and God speed little pig”. “And I’m not a little pig!” Percy exclaimed as he trotted away from Ian, into the reassuring squalor of his pen. Later that night, after all the other animals had fallen asleep, Percy gently opened the latch that kept the gate of his pen closed, walked to the open door of the barn, then disappeared into the bright and starry night. The next morning there was much commotion in the barnyard. The farmer, upon realising that Percy had disappeared, mounted a short though thorough search of the farm. All the other animals were surprised by the farmer’s obvious concern for Percy. It was a concern that the other animals did not share. “Good thing, too”, said the horses amongst each other. “Dreadful little animal”, said the cows. “The neighbourhood is so much cleaner already”, tweetered the birds. “And less smelly”, chimed in the chickens. “Good riddance”, agreed Ian the carpet snack, who was keen to use the occasion to ingratiate himself with the other animals. “You know …” said the oldest and wisest of the cows. “To be born a pig is a punishment from the Gods”. “Yes I know”, said the horse standing next to the cow. “That pig must have killed someone in a past life”. “Yes”, replied the cow, “I never did like the way he tried to be so friendly when he was obviously such a foul creature”. “His very pig-ness disgusted me”, agreed Ian. “Still …”, replied the old cow somewhat suspiciously to Ian. “You did talk with him from time to time”. “It wasn’t that I liked talking to the pig”, corrected Ian. “The pig would simply trot over to where I was … on those dreadful, stumpy, trotting legs and talk and talk and talk. Last time he did so I was asleep; I didn’t wake up until he’d uttered his last sentence”. “You were giggling like a couple of school children yesterday”, corrected the horse. “It wasn’t me…”, Ian replied, attempting to correct the impression that Percy and he were somehow friends. “If you really want to know what happened to the pig last night … I ate him”. The other animals were suddenly dumbfounded. “Liar”, said the old cow. “Yes, liar”, agreed the horse. “It’s not a lie. I always hated that pig and last night …. When everyone else was asleep, I ate the pig”, Ian lied. “You’re a liar, snake. I saw the pig leave early this morning. He opened the latch on the gate to his pen and walked out the barn door without so much as a backwards glance”. Ian looked around at the other animals. Then he slithered away. “That damn snake is just as bad as the pig”, snorted horse. “Worse”, suggested the wise old cow. “You know snakes are compelled to live their lives so close to the ground because the Gods cut off all their legs after one of them lied about what he was capable of”. “Sounds just like that horrible carpet snake”, sneered chicken. “And carpet snakes are called carpet snakes because they came from that dreadful country over the hill that makes the rugs that humans love so much”. “Dreadful, dreadful, slithering snake”, hissed the blackest of the horses. Percy trotted merrily in the bright morning sun, just off to the side of the dirt road. He found that constantly travelling suited him. The whole idea of living in a pen was actually not something he ever wanted to return to. In fact, despite his initial fears when he set off the night before, Percy decided there was very little he liked about his past life. Now that he had his freedom he was determined to keep it; treasure it like the most precious of things. All the animals had decided at a hastily convened meeting that Ian the carpet snake had to be disposed of. Everyone agreed that the farm would be a much friendlier place without both the pig and the snake. “This is our one chance”, horse said very slowly and seriously. “If we don’t grasp it now, we will be forever condemned to share our farm with creatures who none of us like”. “It is a rare opportunity”, mused the cow. “Well it simply has to happen”, said the chicken haughtily. “What we need”, suggested the horse. “Is a plan”. “Yes”, agreed the cow. “Well I already have a plan”, said the bird from up in the tree. “And what’s that?” asked the horse. “Well, because the snake always eats all the mice before any of us birds have a chance to indulge, our plan is to poison a mice and then … just before it dies, place it near the carpet snake so he eats it and in so doing, poisons himself”. The other animals all looked up at the two birds on the branch above their heads. “You’ve really thought about this”, horse said. “Well, of course we have”, fumed the other bird. “Why just yesterday I was swooping down on a little mouse and just as I reached out to grab it in my claws, that evil snake swooped from nowhere and swallowed it whole”. “The snake is very greedy”, mused the cow. “Yes. Nobody likes the snake. Am I right?” asked the horse. “Hear, hear”, everyone agreed. “Right. Put your plan into action then birds and let’s all meet back here in an hour”, commanded the horse. “Good luck”, called the chickens after the birds. Percy couldn’t believe his eyes. He’d heard the noise in the distance as he trotted along in the sun, and then, from out of nowhere, a truck had turned a corner on the winding dirt road and driven straight past him. On board the truck was layer upon layer of pigs; what seemed to Percy like millions of pigs. A whole high-rise city of moving pigs, all squealing and talking in a language that was unfamiliar to him. And as the truck that was filled with pigs rolled past Percy, all he could do was follow it with his eyes. Suddenly Percy was overcome with a sense that his destiny lay onboard that truck; that if only he could manage to get inside the city of moving pigs then he would finally feel that he had found somewhere he could belong. Percy set off at a furious pace, running as fast as he could after the truck. As he got closer and closer, he realised that all the pigs were calling out to him. They seemed to be cheering him on, excited … no, desperate for him to succeed. Percy thought that if he could just run up alongside the driver’s window and somehow get his attention—perhaps by squealing very, very loudly—that the driver would stop the truck and ... The city of pigs continued to squeal desperately at Percy as he raced past their many faces. And Percy squealed back as best he could, desperate to get to the front of the truck and draw the driver’s attention. The truck suddenly slowed to negotiate a bump in the dirt road and Percy found himself in front off the cab. He turned back to face the slowly rolling wheels of the truck and squealed at the top of his voice. The truck’s air brakes hissed noisily and then the whole countryside went quiet for a beat. Percy was breathing very heavily; his face was deep red as he looked desperately up at the windscreen of the cab. Both doors of the truck opened at once and the driver and his passenger hopped to the ground. “Never seen that before”, said the passenger to the driver. “No. Wonder where he came from?” asked the driver. “I think he wants to get on board”, suggested the passenger. Then both the men laughed as they whistled to Percy and slapped at their legs, encouraging the pig to join them at the back of the truck. All the other pigs suddenly squealed as one, desperate to get Percy’s attention. Percy had never heard such a noise; it was both completely familiar though unintelligible. The other pigs seemed somehow overwhelmed by his presence … as if, they’d never seen a pig quite like Percy before. And Percy, as he trotted up the ramp of the truck into the comforting squalor of a million other pigs, squealed happily back at them, finally knowing what it felt like to belong.

In the 1980's, I was privileged to attend the profession ceremony of my sister into the Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph (SSJ). She entered the convent in the fall after her high school graduation and, ten years later, had decided that she was ready to make her final vows and commit her life to the work of God on earth and to this particular apostolic community. Though I was happy that my sister was following her calling in life, I worried that she was committing herself to an unnecessarily harsh life, ruled by the long-standing patriarchy of the Catholic Church. I didn't have much faith that the Church, in its tradition and dogma, could accommodate my sister's spirit of activism and desire to bring about social justice. However, this ceremony, designed and enacted by the SSJ, changed my mind about the possibilities. They demonstrated how "sisterhood" and life in community would position my sister to affect change in the community and allow her to participate in the creation of a kinder, more inclusive version of the Catholic religion. The profession ceremony and the accompanying mass, though they reflected the new directions in the Church, were unlike any other Catholic ceremonies that I had ever experienced. In a break from the usual service, the Sisters performed the majority of the activities of the mass. A priest (male, of course) was present only to carry out the consecration of the host for communion services and to give the blessing. The taking of such freedom in the mass by the Sisters was something that was unheard of in earlier days in the Church. In the Catholicism that I knew, the strictly ordered rituals of the mass were to be enacted by the priest and observed by the congregation. The enactment of mass also served as a subliminal vehicle for hierarchically ordering the congregation: from God to priests, to nuns, and finally to the people. The positioning of priests and nuns and their respective roles in the church has been an ongoing struggle for nuns since Vatican II, a series of councils created in 1962 by Pope John XXIII to update the workings and interactions of the Church (http://www.rcchurch/vatican2/). Religious orders were given much more autonomy over their lives and lifestyles, but little had changed in regard to the hierarchy. In 1979 when the Pope visited the U.S., women religious urged him to allow greater recognition and participation for nuns. Theresa Kane, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) asked the Pope on behalf of all nuns to "respond by providing the possibility of women as persons being included in all ministries of the church" (Kane, in McNamara, 1996, p.663). Their request went unheeded. Even now, with the turn of a new century, Catholic women religious are still denied the privilege of becoming priests or moving into positions of power within the Church. It has been a great disappointment for many nuns, but they have persevered and created new ways of operating. They changed into contemporary dress, moved beyond just teaching and nursing positions and took up social activism in earnest (Rogers, 1996). They have been bolstered by their desire to make a difference in the church and society, and are determined to find alternative ways to have their voices heard in their work of serving the people. My sister's commitment ceremony also broke from Catholic tradition and reflected the new directions of the SSJ. She based her personal statement of commitment on the Shakertown Pledge, making a connection to another monastic community, the Shakers, who live simply in the service of God and community (http://www.nypl.org). Among others, she made promises of becoming a world citizen, leading an ecologically sound life, living a life of creative simplicity, sharing of her personal wealth with the poor, renewing herself through prayer, meditation, and study, and responsibly participating in a community of faith. This personal statement was followed by her formal commitment to the Sisters of St. Joseph. To the President of the SSJ, (no longer a Mother Superior), my sister vowed to unite her life to the Community, bring the Gospel to the people and seek union of neighbor with neighbor through commitments to poverty, celibacy and obedience. She received a plain gold wedding band, not as a "bride of Christ", but as a symbol of her commitment to God, the community of the SSJ, and the world community. In their simplicity and sincerity, the vows touched my heart. My sister had moved from our nuclear family into a new family of the SSJ and the world. Her work and the world in which she moved would certainly be different than the one we had envisioned throughout our childhood together. According to Schneiders (2000), it is much more difficult today to "locate" and "situate" women religious. Unlike nuns of the earlier part of the century, my sister would not be secluded in a convent, away from people and identifiable only by a flowing black habit and service in an insular community. The world was open to her to find her ministry. In these times, many religious orders find and create their own ministries, like a "bricolage", pieceworking solutions to individually fit the myriad of life situations. Schneiders (2000, p. xxvii) describes the phenomenon in this way: "The unity of the final product and its utility result not from a preordained plan correctly followed but from the inner directedness of the one creating." More than likely, the possibility of continually being involved in creative change was the lure of the SSJ for my sister. For the SSJ, the ever-changing, creative nature of their work allows them the freedom to work in places where ministries are most needed. The Sisters of St. Joseph use their marginalized position in the Church and society as a position for change. At the profession ceremony, the Sisters had found an alternative way to reach the people and serve their congregation. They knowingly pushed the limits of tradition in the church as they expanded their participation in the ceremony and the mass. Then and in the present time, the SSJ, like bell hooks, choose to live on the margins of society for a reason; the margins are "a site one stays in, clings to even, because it nourishes one's capacity to react. It offers to one the possibility of a radical perspective from which to see and create, to imagine alternative-new worlds (1990, pp. 149-50)." At the ceremony, members of the SSJ made statements of ongoing commitment to service and their ministries. They spoke in support of poor people, disabled people, those labeled as criminals, and for all those who were not getting their fair share of life. The SSJ profoundly believe in God "who is the origin of all that is", and they seek "the union of ourselves and all people with God and with one another in and through Christ Jesus" (1987, Constitution of the Sisters of St. Joseph, p. 3; http://www.nd.edu/~csjus/home.html). For the SSJ, this charism means becoming prophets of the Church. Like their founding order, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Le Puy, France in the seventeenth century, they continually seek out those people and organizations that are in need and create solutions with them. Once programs are established and integrated into the community, they move on to the next area of need. Similarly, they see their formation as Sisters of St. Joseph as a "lifelong process" (SSJ Constitution, p. 18). After the seriousness of the vows and statements, the profession ceremony became a celebration. Happiness and energy filled the chapel as people smiled widely and enthusiastically joined in the singing of hymns. The final song, an old Black spiritual, "Oh, Happy Day", nearly brought the house down. It was the most emotional group expression I had ever seen in a Catholic service. A special experience had been co-created and shared by all of us, even the many long-time traditional Catholics who all responded enthusiastically. With the staid protocol of the mass was cast aside, the spirit of the people took over. Pearce and Cronen (1980) would propose that we, the nuns and laity, in our conjoint action, had reached a moment of liberation; we were able to create a new way of being in the Catholic Church. In their work, the SSJ accept and circumvent the worldly struggles they face with the Catholic Church by acting in a spirit of connection with the people and the community. In their ongoing ministries, the SSJ give witness to their "love of God and neighbor by living simply and working for a more just society" (SSJ Constitution, p. 12). They often struggle with the most difficult of situations and work with the most unfortunate members of society. With their love of God and service, they encourage community members to work with them to change not only the daily conditions of life, but also, the way the Church and others in the community understand and accept all people. The Catholic religion in this form is reachable; the Creator, positioned as God, works through and is simultaneously created in the actions and words of the people. In a circular fashion, God is connected with people, and people are connected neighbor to neighbor, as they connect with the spirit and word of God. In this way, the SSJ continually work toward and create their goal "that all may be one." At the profession ceremony, the people took this gift of spirit with them and, hopefully, were inspired to begin connecting in new ways with the people and chosen God/spirit of their own lives. When my sister first entered the convent, I used to wonder why nuns thanked each other after sharing a religious service. After participating in the profession ceremony, I knew. Thank you, Teresa.