Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1990. / Title from title page screen, viewed November 9, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Patricia H. Klass (chair), Joseph A. Braun, Ronald L. Laymon, Mary Ann Lynn, Patricia O'Connell, Sally B. Pancrazio. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-137) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin -- La Crosse, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-42).

First Year Composition (FYC) is one of the most important courses for any incoming college student. This course (often designated as English 101) provides students the rhetorical tools to fully engage in critical thinking and writing on the college level. One of the most common methods of organizing FYC is to use a topic as the center of all the reading and writing prompts. The use of outside subject matter to teach FYC is a common practice that is rarely interrogated for its effectiveness. However, the Hairston debate in the early 1990s opened up a public discussion of how FYC should be taught. I am arguing that this debate was never fully resolved. Instead of using this historical moment in our field to discuss how topics impact FYC instruction, the use of topics has continued to be normalized during the last twenty years with little attention given to interrogating what actually happens in a FYC course that focuses on a topic. This dissertation study examines what happens when a controversial theme like race is used as the primary organizing principle of both a day and night FYC course in a metro-St Louis area community college. Using discourse analysis, I analyze student writing to determine how the students' writing is impacting by the subject matter of the course.

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第16854号 / 工博第3575号 / 新制||工||1540(附属図書館) / 29529 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科材料工学専攻 / (主査)教授 田中 功, 教授 邑瀬 邦明, 教授 中村 裕之 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

In this thesis, I examine the complexities involved in the representation of trauma in both aesthetic and ideological configurations in the relationship between the generic experience of modernity and particular historical events of atrocity. This relationship continues from the discourse of social and moral degradation and the rise of modem psychiatry, to the idea of artistic and literary creation. The discourse of trauma has become intrinsically linked to the aesthetic in the configuration of the experience of modernity that points not only to the problematisation of the self but also the crisis of representation. Starting from the discourse of trauma surrounding the experience of the First World War, the thesis examines the language of technology and mechanisation as a means for overcoming the traumatic experience of the war in the work of Ernst Jünger and other writers and artists across the political spectrum during the Weimar period. I also investigate the aesthetic configurations of `depersonalisation' and `impersonality' as they are figured in the texts and images of the European Avant-garde particularly, the Neue Sachlichkeit, and the thematic origins of the image of trauma since the early modem period. I also examine the pathological rhetoric of disintegration and decay in the discourse of war trauma in the work of Louis-Ferdinand Celine. The thesis proposes that there is a reactionary tendency in the image of disintegration, decay and fragmentation in particular avantgarde movements such as the Neue Sachlichkeit, Expressionism and Surrealism. I conclude that the representation of trauma is intrinsic to diverse political and aesthetic positions articulated through rhetorical strategies in the discourse of scientific rationalism, technological progress, the medical sciences and the modernist aesthetic of fragmentation and disfiguration. In the final part of the thesis, I investigate these aesthetic and ideological themes in the contemporary discourse of trauma surrounding the representation of the Holocaust, particularly the construction of the `Holocaust museum' and its artefacts through examining the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D. C. and the Jewish Museum in Berlin.

This study examined the nature of the apparent increases in grade 12 enrolment patterns of status Indians in British Columbia from 1949 to 1985 in the light of a theory of context. This theory assumes that education takes place in, and is affected by, a context of conditions both external and internal to education. The external factors assumed to affect student achievement are the prevailing social, political, and economic conditions while the internal factors assumed to affect student achievement are curriculum and teacher characteristics. Historical evidence confirmed that a contextual change took place within the dominant society. This change was characterized as a move from a condition in which the dominant society excluded minorities (exclusion) to one in which the dominant society included minorities (inclusion) coincident with the apparent grade 12 enrolment increases of status Indians in British Columbia during the period covered by the study. When the enrolments were subjected to time-series analysis the results showed that the grade 12 enrolments had increased significantly between 1949 and 1985. This finding supported the hypothesis that inclusion was positively associated with academic achievement as measured by enrolment into grade 12. Inclusion by the dominant society was seen to have evoked at least two responses by Indian groups. Therefore, although a positive association between inclusion and academic achievement has been established it was necessary to compare contrasting responses to inclusion. For this purpose two British Columbia bands which were similar in terms of geographic, demographic, and cultural characteristics, but different in terms of their control of education, were selected. Band A was identified as having chosen to remain under government control with respect to Indian education between 1976 and 1985 while Band B had chosen to exercise Indian control with respect to Indian education during the same period. Their respective grade 12 enrolment patterns were then subjected to time-series analysis which revealed a significant difference in enrolment patterns. Band A's enrolment pattern was both linear and stationary, indicating a consistent level of enrolment over time. Band B's enrolment pattern, however, showed an abrupt constant intervention effect (significant at the .05 level, t=7.79) beginning at 1979. Since both bands began their enrolment pattern at about the same level, Band B's significant enrolment increase supported the prediction that Indian control of Indian education was positively associated with academic achievement as measured by grade 12 enrolments of status Indians while Band A's stationary enrolment pattern supported the hypothesis that government control of Indian education was associated with no increase in academic achievement as measured by enrolment into grade 12. The findings of this study indicate the explanatory value of a theory of context for academic achievement. Not only does the study suggest that improved student achievement of status Indians in British Columbia as measured by enrolment into grade 12 is found in a favorable context of external and internal conditions, but the study also suggests the necessity for a proactive response to these conditions. One such proactive response is Indian control of Indian education. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time is a "fictional memoir" in which the narrator, Nick Jenkins, describes the events and characters he has observed throughout his life. As such, the primary focus of the novel would seem to be those characters and events, but the way in which Nick relates his story has a considerable impact on the narrative, and, therefore, on that primary focus. Powell has not only chosen to employ a first-person narrator, thereby establishing a specific, and individual, narrative voice, or point of view, but he also has that narrator consume much of novel by describing his perceptions of the world he observes, and this brings into focus the nature of that perspective. Hence, this paper examines the nature of Nick's role in the novel, both as character and narrator, and attempts to delineate the effect that that role has on the novel as a whole. Essentially, Nick can be characterized as a "reader" who, in effect, "interprets" the characters and events he describes, thereby contributing his imagination to their "construction". Whether he reads actual texts or observes human behaviour, Nick engages in an interpretative process which is analogous to that in which a reader interprets a text: interpreting "signs", constructing "causes", translating texts into images and "meaning-bearing" ideas, and subjecting his own "reading" to scrutiny, thereby effectively "rereading" previous "interpretations". As a "reader", Nick is interested in more than mere description: he not only desires to understand the nature of the people with whom he is involved, but also to appreciate the significance of the events he witnesses, so as to form a kind of pattern which would reveal the central themes of an age. In so doing, he does not merely relate "what happens", thereby "putting up a mirror" to his past; he also describes his experience of that past, so that the narrative does not so much present "reality", as it presents Nick’s perception of reality. Nick's characterization as a "reader" is founded on specific theories regarding the nature of the reading process, especially as they apply to the relationship between reader and text, and, therefore, the products of his "interpretations" are considered in relation to the creation of fiction. In essence, Nick's "reading" results in the construction of the characters and events he observes, so that ultimately he creates "fictions". In other words, because he does not present "reality", nor even a "reconstruction" of reality, but a "reconstruction" of his perception of that reality, Nick, in fact, "creates" his narrative, thereby constructing fiction. Hence, just as a reader creates the fiction of a novel by interpreting its text, so too does Nick produce fiction by "interpreting" the world he is portraying. Thus, in his "search for knowledge", in his efforts to understand the world around him, Nick "creates" that world, so that knowledge would seem to be the product of the observer's, or "reader's", construction - in essence; a fiction. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The number of first-generation college students (FGCSs) attending four-year colleges/universities is on the rise. While numerous studies have examined descriptive characteristics of this growing population, few studies have examined why FGCSs choose to attend college. This study sought to tackle this question by conducting focus groups with thirty-five FGCSs. Participants were asked to identify sources of vocational anticipatory socialization (VAS) that were influential in their decision to pursue a college degree as well as the VAS messages they received from these sources. Focus group data revealed seven sources of VAS with parents being the number one source of VAS messages regarding higher education. Results also revealed five VAS message types, though messages referencing a perceived overall better quality of life were the most common. The findings show that FGCSs receive socializing messages from a variety of sources but parents maintain the greatest influence.

No description available.

Many students around the world have a strong desire to study in the United States, and in recent years international students in the United States have enrolled at an all-time high. There is a significant need to learn more about these students' needs and strategies to identify the most effective practices to improve their academic life and life quality. The demand for overcoming life challenges in a new country and achieve high academic performance with their second language creates high stress for these international students. One of the groups among these international students that has been understudied is the Turkish students. The purpose of this research is to explore the academic and second language-related stress of Turkish international students, in addition to investigating students' self-reported stress management strategies. This study uses a case study methodology to thoroughly understand the impact of the second language of participants' reported stress and how they manage their life and academic performance. The researcher collected interviews from three Turkish-International students who study in a graduate school in the US. The researcher conducted inductive coding and created themes from the qualitative data. The results of the study indicate that students experience challenges due to their second language which creates stressful situations. One of the most critical areas that participants emphasized is the difficulties that they experience while they speak. Participants indicated that the challenges of speaking tasks affect their self-confidence and they tend to speak up less. One of the other critical findings of the study that participants highlighted is that they need to spend more time studying just to be able to survive in a highly competitive academic life as it is challenging to comprehend content knowledge with a second language. The obligation of studying in long hours affects their social and family life. The researcher explored the coping mechanisms that participants found effective and a summary related to the COVID-19 pandemic and how it impacted these students' stress.