Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 51 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-51).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1918. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-79) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 93 p.; also includes graphics. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Antoinette Miranda, College of Education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-93).

In my dissertation, "Writing with an Iron Pen: Gender and Genre in Early American Elegy," I show how the work of early American women poets engages the same generic questions about the process and use of consolation as modern anti-elegies. The first half of the dissertation focuses on poems written by one of America's earliest poets. In chapters one and two I look to the elegies of Anne Bradstreet to show how, from the first book of poems published by an American colonist, women poets have highlighted the limits of the consolatory elegy when either elegist or elegized was not a valued male member of the community. In chapters three and four, I turn to the Age of Revolutions and eighteenth-century poets Hannah Griffitts and Phillis Wheatley. Their elegies, I argue, extend and expand grief even as they refuse the sympathetic identifications that, in contemporary poems, offer opportunities for demonstrations of sympathy key to the earliest formations of American national identity. Ultimately, I suggest, early American women's poetry offers another location from which to contest the problems of affect, power, identity, and community posed by the conventional elegy. / text

I will investigate the primordial squeezed limit bispectrum as produced by inflation in single-field models. Previous results have argued that generically, single-field inflation produces a negligible bispectrum. However, more careful evaluation yields a more ambiguous result. I will discuss an alternate method for calculating the squeezed limit bispectrum for a general single-field inflation model. I will also explore slow-roll inflation with a non-standard initial state, where we find an enhanced squeezed-limit. I will discuss the detectability of such models in various cosmological observables such as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), Large Scale Structure, and mu-distortion of the CMB. / text

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The purpose of this study was to examine the role that parents take in the development of the emergent curriculum in early childhood classrooms influenced by the philosophy of Reggio Emilia schools. I conducted this teacher research study in my preschool classroom and in another private preschool that follows a similar philosophy. Both preschool programs are accredited by the NAEYC; both preschool programs follow practices associated with the philosophy of Reggio Emilia, including building on the children's interests by using an emergent curriculum; and both schools encourage parents to participate. My close ties with each preschool allowed me access in ways that would not have otherwise been possible. To learn how parents are protagonists in early childhood classrooms, ones influenced by the schools of Reggio Emilia, I observed six parent participants in the two preschool classrooms (three at each site) during a four-month period. I also interviewed each of these six parents and interviewed six teachers from the two sites regarding their parent involvement practices and their use of the emergent curriculum. The data analysis led to a greater understanding of how parents are involved in early childhood programs. The analysis showed how parents influence the emergent curriculum, and how they perceive the process. The analysis also shared the teachers' perceptions of parents in the early childhood classroom specifically in emergent curriculum development. This analysis is from data collected from parent participants and teacher participants of the two preschools. Case studies offered an in-depth portrayal of two parents and how they influenced the emergent curriculum and how they were protagonists in their children's school life. This study has allowed me to become more aware of how parents influence the emergent curriculum and how parents and teachers perceive the process.

This research evaluates the textual and archaeological evidence for pilgrimage in the Iron I central hill country of the southern Levant during the Late Bronze Age-Iron I transition period (ca. 1300-1000 BCE). The central hill country comprises the Judean and Samarian hills that are located west of the Jordan River and rise near Hebron to the south and end in the north near Dothan. This location and time period reflect the nascent stages of Israelite identity. Pilgrimage provides new perspectives through which to evaluate a specific aspect of early Israelite religion and culture. This research demonstrates that pilgrimage to ceremonial sites, where processions and ritual performances were held, provided avenues for families and clans to come together for a collective purpose and to fulfill collective needs. Pilgrimage has many facets that transect social, economic, and political agendas. By looking at the entire network of sites availed in the archaeological and textual record that apply to the Iron I central hills, from household shrines to shrines of regional and cross-clan appeal, this research suggests that there were several scales of pilgrimage evident in the central highlands. Each scale of pilgrimage had different sociological implications, but primarily pilgrimage provided avenues for people to exchange goods and services without losing honor, negotiate status, and bond over a collective awareness of kinship and community that provided avenues for disparate tribes to coalesce into a coherent political body.

"Sur le chemin de Jerusalem" is the comprehensive examination of three unknown mosaic pavements, exhibited in the Museum of Maaret-en-Nouman in Northern Syria. A comparison with other known documents brings together elements of evidence to their provenance, to the type of building they had adorned, and to the underlying links between architectural organization and mosaic ornamental decoration in an ecclesiastic environment. The picture catalogue detailing the size and composition of each of the three mosaics dates the iconographic material from the third quarter of the fourth century to the first half of the fifth century, that period in time which witnessed the Christianization of the North Syrian countryside and a great development of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Sites of Palestine. / The mosaic of Temanaa features the cosmographic representations of late antique Near East. With the mosaic of Beseqla, we find the earliest dated example of a decorated pavement of a paleochristian baptistery. Tell Aar is the fragmentary mosaic of an unusually early example of a five-aisle transept basilica housing apostolic remains. / The exceptional quality of these documents demonstrates how close attention to material history can effectively increase our knowledge of the growth and expansion of early Christianity.

<p> Teacher attrition is a growing concern among states and school systems. Novice teachers face many difficulties during their induction and the high attrition rates within the first five years of teaching are a testament to the challenges new teachers face (Herrington et al., 2006; Fantelli &amp; McDougall, 2009). Due to new demands emerging from U.S. education policies placing an emphasis on accountability and student mastery of predetermined learning outcomes, there have been many new demands placed on kindergarten teachers (Goldstein, 2007).</p><p> By using a narrative inquiry methodology, this research study seeks to answer the following overarching question: How do novice kindergarten teachers describe their experiences in their first of year teaching? The study also seeks to answer the following sub questions: What <i>domains of curriculum practice</i> act as constraints on novice kindergarten teachers curricular decision making? How do novice kindergarten teachers use their professional discretion in making decisions about how to integrate developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) into the mandated curriculum in an era of standards-based reform?</p><p> The research was guided by the following theoretical framework: Boote&rsquo;s (2006) Theory of Professional Discretion. Participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interview protocol (Patton, 2002). Interviews were transcribed and then coded for emerging themes. The researcher worked with the participants to re-story and create a narrative of their experiences in their first year of teaching.</p><p> The following themes emerged from the interview data: (a) Teaching was a lifelong career goal; (b) Teaching kindergarten was not a choice; (c) They planned as a team; (d) They had a fear of deviating from the prescribed curricula; (e) The participants were overwhelmed with standardized testing; (f) They experienced being a living contradiction; (g) The participants had a lack of job security; (h) The participants were all surplussed or &lsquo;let go&rsquo; at the end of the school year. These themes were used to write the <i> narratives of experience.</i> There were four <i>narratives of experience, </i> one for each participant. Each narrative tells the story of each participant&rsquo;s first year of teaching.</p>