Reforms early in the 21st century purported to close the achievement gap between White students and students of color, to provide accountability and transparency to taxpayers, to implement meaningful consequences for low-performing schools, and to create the workforce for the century. In this study, I investigated the effects of school reform on the lived experiences of students who graduated from high school in 2014 by inquiring into six young people’s perceptions of their schooling. I sought to better understand whether participants were aware of the existence and intent of school reforms, and how or whether their aspirations for their futures had evolved over the course of their formal schooling in concert with the expressed goals of those reforms. The data set consisted of narratives from six recent low-income male and female high school graduates of color. Analysis revealed striking similarities between their experiences despite the variety in outcomes. The narratives indicated that school reforms have had little impact on students’ lives other than to graft the go-to-college imperative, onto the young people’s inherent aspirations. Young people remained alienated from their education, and outcomes continued to adhere to racist, classist, and gendered expectations.

In his Truth and Method, Gadamer explains that subjectivity is the everyday understanding that allows us to engage with the world. Gadamer identifies three main aspects that effect our understanding, namely history, language and dialogue. Dystopian fiction is in a unique position to portray how systems of societal control affect and effect understanding, and thus subjectivity, because dystopian fiction primarily explores societies rather than only individuals. This dissertation applies Gadamer’s framework of subjectivity to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World to analyse their portrayals of subjectivity critically. Huxley’s imagined world of test-tube births, rampant consumerism, feelies and orgy-porgies depicts a subjectivity that is nearly completely controlled through the manipulation of history, language and dialogue, with the exception of a few rebellious characters. But Orwell’s Oceania is far grimmer, and the systems of control in place to manipulate history, language and dialogue create a harsh environment in which Winston Smith, the protagonist, struggles to assert his individuality, his own subjectivity, until the liberating sexual relationship he has with Julia. Although both novels depict stringent measures of control, the possibility of rebellion is present in the worlds depicted in both novels, suggesting that despite the manipulation around subjectivity’s three main pillars, as identified by Gadamer, something else provides the impetus for the characters’ understanding of rebellion. Therefore, the study also analyses the characters’ pre-understandings, as explained by Nietzsche and Heidegger, as sources for a wider framework. Through the novels’ portrayals of rebellion, these pre-understandings are shown to complement and inform Gadamer’s framework of subjectivity. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / English / MA (English) / Unrestricted

No description available.

There are three central orientations, or modes, forming a “tripod” as it were, that grounds philosophy as a cultural activity. The two commonly known modes are, first philosophical geniuses who make models of reality in their “solitary burrows” (such as a Kant and Peirce); and, second, philosophical wanderers who have an embodied praxis, performing wisdom wherever they travel (such as Diogenes of Sinope and Takuan Soho). There is however another primary and largely neglected mode of philosophy which is mutually reinforced ethical praxis rooting in a shared cosmopolitan place. In this dissertation, I characterize and defend the neglected mode of philosophy, that I call “philosophical community,” by describing the constellation of metaethical principles — general, axiological, cultural, and dialectical — that articulate and promote its values. My philosophical methodology is radically empirical philosophy of culture. The principles will be drawn from an interpretation of the whole of philosophical communal experience, considered diachronically, or globally and historically. These principles are then organized as a synchronic (present focused) coordinate whole. By “principle,” at the very least, I mean a hypothetical ground presupposed in successful inquiry. I take “community” in the broad, Roycean spirit of those relationships that build an increasing determinacy of meaning in the universe, (i.e. a community of interpretation). A philosophical community, then, is not reducible to a collection of people but can be thought of as made of a special kind of community of interpretation, as it shares some sort of place. Taken together, this constellation of principles can help us refine for ourselves a vision of the best of philosophical community life, which should also help us frame a new “brocard” for this mode of philosophy in the twenty-first century.

No description available.

This dissertation critically examines the ontological and epistemological significance of the concept of violence in French philosopher Jacques Derrida’s essay “Violence and Metaphysics” (Chapter 1), dialogues between Mennonite philosophical theologians who represent the Radical Reformation and John Milbank’s Radical Orthodoxy (Chapter 2), and the Death and the Displacement of Beauty trilogy by feminist philosopher of religion Grace Jantzen (Chapter 3). Although Derrida, Jantzen, and certain Mennonite philosophical theologians approach the problem of violence with very different concerns and frames of reference, each understand violence to have a distinctly ontological and epistemological character, while also suggesting that ontology and epistemology themselves are profoundly vulnerable to charges of violence. In Derrida’s essay “Violence and Metaphysics” language itself is imbricated in violence, and in their responses to John Milbank, Mennonite philosophical theologians Peter C. Blum and Chris K. Huebner situate their work both with and against Derrida’s supposed “ontology of violence” as they apply Christian pacifism to epistemology and seek to articulate an “ontology of peace.” In her late work in the Death and the Displacement of Beauty project, Grace Jantzen develops an epistemology that is similar to that of Blum and Huebner, while critiquing what she understands to be Derrida’s equivocation of linguistic with physical violence, all as part of her argument that the cultural habitus of the west is founded on an obsession with death that violently displaces natality with mortality. In bringing together these three sources, this dissertation uses “violence” as a diagnostic concept to assess the priorities and values of its users. Considering violence to be defined by the violation of value-laden boundaries, this study of three ontologies of violence interprets and critiques the values that Derrida’s deconstruction, philosophical Mennonite pacifism, and Jantzen’s critique of displacement seek to further and protect against violation. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation examines the early work of French philosopher Jacques Derrida (Chapter 1), debates between Mennonite philosophical theologians and John Milbank’s Radical Orthodoxy (Chapter 2), and the Death and the Displacement of Beauty trilogy by feminist philosopher of religion Grace M. Jantzen (Chapter 3). For Derrida, Jantzen, and certain Mennonite philosophical theologians the term “violence” is used to name ways of thinking, knowing, and speaking, rather than being restricted to the sphere of physical violations. This dissertation shows how these three sources each consider violence to be something that can inhere in ways of thinking about the world and our relation to it.

This thesis will explore three related concerns. First (Chapter 1), I discern some of the basic philosophical strategies at work in the Phenomenology of Perception. I will specifically discuss the teleological/ archaeological structure of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology and his notion of "primordial unity". Second (Chapter 2), I will show how these strategies are manifest in his discussion of the other. And third (Chapter 3), I will consider some of the consequences of Merleau-Ponty's treatment of the other. In particular, I will examine his understanding of difference and plurality. A comparison with Hegel's master/slave dialectic will highlight some possible limitations of Merleau-Ponty's argument. In short, I will answer the following questions: How is the other known, according to Merleau-Ponty, and just how other is this other? / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

No description available.

PhDr. Tomáš Kunca The Humanist Virtuoso: Beginnings, Idea and Illustration of Hume's experimental philosophical anthropology in Treatise of Human Nature UK FHS, Praha 2013 Thesis introduces a concept of "The Humanist Virtuoso" as distinctive feature reflecting Hume's effort to introduce an idea of experimental philosophical anthropology based on study of human nature and manifested in his A Treatise of Human Nature. Concept is justified by three steps, through analysis of the beginnings of Hume's philosophy, explication of his "science of man" idea in Treatise and illustration of this idea in action, as appears in analysis of passions (Book 2). The beginnings of Hume's way to experimental philosophical anthropology are explained thorough interpretation of historical facts connected with his early study at College of Edinburgh. First meetings with culture of science ( both British Christian tradition of experimental philosophy and Newtonian mathematical philosophy) are considered as particularly important. Detailed analysis of pre-Treatise letters (the Letter to Physician and to Michael Ramsey) is provided to make explicit the beginnings of his "science of man" idea, turn to study of human nature. Castration of Treatise is observed and discussed via analysis of his letter to Home (1737). The second...

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of parents and teachers regarding effective parental involvement with elementary students based on Epstein et al.'s (2009) 6 typologies of parental involvement. The population consisted of 77 teachers in a particular east Tennessee school district and the parents of 889 students enrolled in kindergarten through 6th grade. Parents and teachers were asked to indicate the effectiveness of 4 activities within each of the 6 parental involvement categories: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with the community. Parents and teachers were asked to rank each activity numerically with 1 indicating not effective and 5 indicating highly effective. A ranking of 2, 3, or 4 indicated an activity between not effective and highly effective. In a separate section, parents and teachers were asked to rank the 5 most important activities from a list of specific parental involvement activities. Findings indicated that parents and teachers in this study have some similar views and some differing views regarding effective parental involvement. Parents and teachers in this study shared similar perspectives by ranking the top 5 specific parental involvement activities from a list of 10 specific activities. Parents and teachers used a Likert scale to indicate the effectiveness of activities from Epstein et al.'s (2009) 6 typologies: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with the community. The t-test indicated significant differences in the perceptions of parents and teachers regarding effective parental involvement in 5 of the 6 typologies. ANOVA and post hoc analysis revealed significant differences among the parent population based on age, education level, gender, and race. No significant differences were identified among the teacher population based on the 4 demographic areas examined: age, education level, teaching experience, and gender. This study revealed that parents and teachers surveyed had some similar perceptions and some differing perceptions regarding effective parental involvement, but both groups identified communicating as the most important typology from Epstein et al.'s (2009) 6 major types of involvement.