Nationally and locally, a paucity of students are effective writers. The purpose of this exploratory, sequential mixed methods study was to explore effective research-based writing strategies and influences on writing skills of 5th grade students. Guided by Vygotsky's zone of proximal development theory, the research questions investigated teachers' perceptions of the best instructional writing practices, the effect of writing practices on students' state writing scores, the relationship between student attendance and performance on the state writing test, and the amount of instructional planning dedicated to best writing practices. Data were collected from interviews with 5th grade teachers (N = 5), student scores on the state writing assessment (N = 247), student attendance records, and teacher lesson plans. Interview data were open coded and thematically analyzed, quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t tests, and lessons plans were content analyzed for time spent on best writing practices, as identified in the review of literature. The overarching themes from the teacher interviews included (a) importance of teacher guided instruction, (b) confusion about the best practice in writing instruction, and (c) additional supports for students to be effective writers. Current writing instructional practices did not improve state writing assessment scores. There were significant differences in the state writing scores between students who passed and those who did not pass the state writing test. Attendance data were not related to student writing scores. Teacher planning did not reflect the use of best practices in the classroom. These findings informed a 21-hour professional development program to increase awareness of best practices in writing instruction. This study contributes to social change by potentially affecting students' proficiency in writing for 21st century college and career expectations.

acase@tulane.edu

The thesis paper titled Flutter explores French colonial textiles in relation to the Andalusian "zellige" (tiles). Using these art forms to create historical interventions I question the structures of power that shaped the visual language of empires. The body of work made as part of this thesis uses printmaking and motion graphics to reconstruct and deconstruct these systems of pattern and music, to explore a space for both to visually interact. This work grows out of an ongoing investigation of how the reading of cultural symbolism like ones found in historical signifiers (a sign's physical form such as a sound, printed word, or image as distinct from its meaning) like in such motifs are in states of flux and seek to discover new readings. / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation, Visualizing Virtual Space in Modern and Postmodern Literature, explores the nature of the virtual as it relates to Henri Lefebvre’s conception of spatial practice in literature and culture. The goal of this analysis is to locate a site within theories of space for the inclusion of the postmodern object narratives that have emerged in contemporary culture. In order to accomplish this goal, I have created a semantic square that configures Lefebvre's three conceptions of space with a new fourth term, integral space. The emergence of integral space is developed through the analysis of fiction by four major authors: William Gibson, Marcel Proust, James Joyce and David Foster Wallace. Each of these authors engages the virtual through a different narrative approach. Gibson uses the virtual to create the spatial practice of his characters. Proust uses the virtual to undermine the representations of space inherent in the autobiography. Joyce virtualizes his main character, through the narration, in order to build representational spaces. Finally, Wallace uses the virtual to create integral spaces of cultural critique for the subject of his text. By situating these four authors at vertices of the semantic square, the inherent dialectical conflicts among their positions are revealed. The exploration of these conflicts reveals the cultural power of integral space within contemporary practice. Integral spaces emerge through the postmodern process of cultural accumulation. The power of these spaces is their ability to reveal to their subjects the nature of the spatial practice that directs their everyday lives. The aesthetics of integral practice are firmly rooted in the later theories of Theodor Adorno. Adorno's aesthetics operate by negating the negation of identity in the subject. The synthesis of Adornian aesthetics with integral space allows the subject to create object narratives from the fractured materials of postmodern culture. This analysis uses the space created by this synthesis to explore the agency of the subject in contemporary spatial practice. Ultimately, integral spaces will be developed as the primary arena of spatial understanding in both contemporary literature and spatial practice. / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

<p>An elementary precondition for the EU Member States to act coherently in the field of foreign policy is to reach a common standpoint on particular issues of the CFSP. Due to the intergovernmental character of decision-making in the sphere of the CFSP, the Member States reach a common position primarily through negotiations. In this regard the thesis focuses on an analysis of the EC/U Member States negotiations about two politically highly controversial foreign policy issues – the Yugoslav recognition crisis of 1991 and the Iraqi crisis of 2002/2003.</p><p>Developing a theoretical model of analysis based on merging Moravcsik’s liberal intergovernmentalism and negotiation analysis the author seeks to examine and explain the outcomes of these negotiations, while emphasising the necessity to view negotiation as a process throughout which a variation in certain factors can occur and hence influence the outcomes of negotiation in a decisive way.</p>