The four short stories in this collection all take place in Galvin, a rural Midwestern town plagued by its reluctance to acknowledge the problems that are destroying it: methamphetamines, unemployment, and a dwindling police force to name a few. The characters in this collection realize that stasis eventually becomes paralysis, and that escape is both necessary and inevitable, whether it is through uprooting, obsession, or substance abuse. Each character experiences alienation and struggles with the way their past decisions have shaped the trajectory of their lives. There is a sense of danger throughout the collection for the next generation of the town's inhabitants, as small children are usually in trouble or under the guidance of adults who are still struggling to untie the knots of their own lies. These characters are all running down ghosts—of the loved ones they've lost or abandoned, of the innocence they've surrendered, of the lives they lived before regret. / Department of English

The purpose of the study was to determine the opinions of Indiana middle level principals as to what criteria are most essential for middle level schools. Another purpose of the study was to determine the principals' opinions of middle level teacher certification requirements, current state curriculum requirements, length of school day requirements, and length of school year requirements. The final purpose of the study was to determine any significant relationship between the principals' opinions and the size, setting, and grade level arrangement of the schools in which the respondents worked.A review of the literature revealed a number of criteria deemed essential to middle level schools which became the basis for the study. Fifty-five such criteria were submitted to a panel of experts in middle level education. The validation process produced forty-four criteria considered essential for middle level schools.This list of criteria was included in a questionnaire sent to the principal of each school In Indiana housing some combination of grades five through eight. The principals were asked to select the five criteria from the list they considered most essential and the five least essential to an effective middle level school.Questions were also included dealing with a separate licensing pattern for middle school teachers,''difficulty finding qualified middle school teachers, curriculum requirements, length of school day and length of school year requirements.Respondents were considered as a total sample and also grouped according to school size, school setting (metropolitan, suburban, town and rural), and grade levelarrangement. The demographic data were determine any statistically significant analyzed to relationship between the factors and the principals' opinions. Conclusions1. In identifying criteria most essential for middle level schools, Indiana middle level principals tend to emphasize student discipline, teaching techniques appropriate to student need, a core academic curriculum, recognition of the unique characteristics of middle level students, and opportunities for teachers to work together on curriculum and problem solving.2. In general, Indiana middle level principals do not favor a separate licensing pattern for middle level teachers.3. In general, Indiana middle level principals find the current requirements for middle level school curriculum, length of school day, and length of school year to be adequate. / Department of Educational Administration and Supervision

<p> As the sole stable democracy in the Middle East and the only Jewish democratic country in the world, Israel faces unique challenges. The intersection of religion and civic responsibility has been a central internal conflict since Israel's founding in 1948, and today has reached a critical breaking point. The Haredim are a rapidly growing insular Ultra-Orthodox segment of Israel's Jewish population that have wielded disproportionate political influence since the birth of the nation. Refusing to seek jobs in a secular economy or participate in the military, these Jews perceive themselves as an independent religious community and actively seek to preserve that distinction. As Ultra-Orthodox, this community embraces only the most stringent interpretations of the Jewish bible, called the Torah, and insists that Israel's democracy incorporate central tenets of biblical law within its governing bodies. The Haredim's fervent rejection of the economic, educational, social, and military pillars that constitute the backbone of modern-day Israel comes at a high cost to the state. High unemployment rates and a refusal to participate in Israel's conscription military place the Haredim at odds with the vast majority of Jewish Israelis who do not share their values and pay large sums of money to support them. The Haredim currently comprise 11 percent of the total population and are expected to reach 18 percent by 2030. The social, economic, and military implications of this growth are dire and the need for remediation is urgent. A critical and thorough examination of evidence and primary sources supports this urgency. In 2014, a dramatic political shift in Israel enabled the current governing coalition to take a litigious approach towards addressing its shared future with the Haredim. Haredi compliance with new laws is unlikely given that the Haredim feel duty-bound only to the Torah, yet an emerging middle-class of Haredim who embrace secular values while retaining their religious roots may be the key to preserving Haredi values while encouraging more responsible civic participation. It is difficult to envision a future in which Israel is militarily strong, financially solvent, and able to preserve itself for future generations if Israel cannot thoughtfully address its complicated relationship with the Haredim.</p>

In this study, I will argue that the difference between profane love and sacred love, as examined in Jāmī's masnavī Yūsuf va Zulaykhā, can be conceptualized through vision and narrative planning. Jami's tale centers on Zulaykhā's love for Yusuf and her subsequent conversion to monotheism. The text makes extensive use of the sense of sight, especially through the trope of jelvah-i maḥbūb, the blinding hierophany of the beloved, to create meaning and to illustrate the transformation of Zulaykhā's profane love into sacred love. This transformation occurs in several stages, each of which conveys philosophical and mystical doctrines from Ibn 'Arabī. / Lors de cette étude, nous argumenterons que la différence entre l'amour profane et l'amour sacré, tel que présentée par Jāmī dans le masnavī Yūsuf va Zulaykhā, peut s'exprimer par la vision et la répartition du récit. Le récit de Jāmī se concentre autour de l'amour de Zulaykhā pour Yūsuf et sa conséquente conversion au monothéisme. Le texte utilise le sens de la vue , surtout à travers la figure de style jelvah-i maḥbūb, la hiérophanie éblouissante du bien-aimé, afin d'illustrer et de donner un sens à la transformation de l'amour profane de Zulaykhā en amour sacré. Cette transformation a lieu en plusieurs étapes, chacune communiquant des doctrines mystiques et philosophiques d'Ibn 'Arabī.

This dissertation explores the position of Gypsies in the sixteenth century Ottoman Empire in an engagement with the formidable material, historiographical and conceptual challenges that this venture entails. These challenges stem from the limitations of the sources on Gypsies, the variety of narratives produced in contemporary scholarship on the history of Gypsies and deployment of contested concepts such as "marginality," "ethnicity" and "race" with almost no problematization, contextualization and historicization. Chapter one discusses theoretical and conceptual challenges through looking at various studies on those positioned on the margins, chapter two deals with the material challenges and introduces the historical sources and their limitations. Here I pay particular attention on the court records and how they have been used in Ottoman historiography up until now, as the court records of Üsküdar extending from 1530 – 1585 constitute the backbone of this dissertation. Following this methodological overview of the sources, Chapter three and four are a macro analysis of Ottoman social and moral landscapes. Here an attempt is made to position Gypsies within this contested landscape. Then the thesis takes a rather micro turn, though it should not be considered as a micro-history. In chapter five, Üsküdar's local court and its records are introduced as well as some of the problems encountered in studying Gypsies through the prism of these court records. Chapter six is where my argument comes together and binds the various parts of the dissertation. Reading the court records in communication with the kanunnames, mühimme registers and published research on the tahrir registers, it is an attempt to demonstrate hybridity and diversity within the community of Gypsies. After demonstrating this diversity within the category 'Gypsy', chapter seven attempts to analyze how the Ottoman Imperial state appropriated what I call a "community in motion" at various levels into its administrative system. Through considering the state's various policies especially those regarding taxation, settlement and the incorporation of many Gypsies in the Balkans within the structure of the auxiliary military forces – müsellems - yet at the same time (ideally) excluding them from joining the Janissary corps, I argue that the Ottoman state policy vis a vis Gypsies in the sixteenth century Balkan and Anatolia was neither uniform nor did the ruling authorities have a singular and monolithic view of Gypsies. One of the main conclusions of this dissertation is that the legal, social and economic status of Gypsies in the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century is much more complicated than what can merely be characterized as marginalization or toleration. The interaction of the Gypsies, both with the state and with the Ottoman society at large, was simultaneously both hostile and symbiotic. / Ce mémoire étudie la position des tziganes dans l'Empire ottoman du seizième siècle en engageant avec les défis matériaux, historiographiques et conceptuels formidables qu'entraine cette entreprise. Ces défis proviennent des sources limités sur les tziganes, des récits variables de la recherche contemporaine sur leur histoire, et l'emploi de concepts contestés comme la marginalité, l'ethnicité et la race sans aucun effort de problématisation, contextualisation ou historicisation. Le premier chapitre discute les défis théoriques et conceptuels à travers plusieurs études sur les marginalisés, tandis que le deuxième chapitre fait connaître les défis documentaires en introduisant les matériaux historiques et leurs limitations. Ici je concentre sur les documents judiciaires et la manière dans laquelle on les a exploités dans l'historiographie ottomane jusqu'à présent, et ca parce que les documents d'Üsküdar qui datent des années 1530-1585 représentent le noyau de ce mémoire. Enchainant avec ce survol des sources, les troisième et quatrième chapitres constituent une macroanalyse du paysage social et morale. Une tentative est faite ici à localiser les tziganes dans ce paysage. À ce point, le mémoire tourne vers le plan micro, sans pour autant devenir une micro-histoire en soi. Dans le cinquième chapitre, la cour régionale d'Üsküdar et ses documents judiciaires sont introduits ainsi que certains problèmes qui se présentent dans l'étude des tziganes à travers le prisme de ces documents. Le sixième chapitre représente le cœur de mon argumentation et c'est ici ou sont liés les différents fils du mémoire. Une lecture des documents judiciaires dans le contexte des kanunnames, registres mühimme et la recherche publiée sur les registres tahrir, montre l'hybridisme et la diversité à l'intérieur de la communauté tzigane. Après cette démonstration de la diversité au sein de cette catégorie dite «tzigane», le septième chapitre tente d'analyser comment l'état impérial ottoman a su intégrer ce que j'appelle une communauté mobile dans son système administrative. Par une considération de leurs politiques, surtout ceux de l'imposition, de l'installation et de l'incorporation de plusieurs tziganes balkaniques aux rangs des forces auxiliaires militaires – müsellems -- tout en leur refusant d'entrée dans le corps Janissaire. Je maintiens que la politique d'état ottomane vis-à-vis les tziganes dans les Balkans et l'Anatolie durant le seizième siècle n'était ni uniforme ni astucieux. Les autorités n'avait qu'une vue singulière et monolithique des tziganes. Un des principales conclusions du mémoire est que le statut légal, social, et économique des tziganes dans l'Empire ottoman à cette époque était d'une complexité qui dépasse nos caractérisations de marginalité ou tolérance. L'interaction des tziganes avec l'état, ainsi qu'avec la société ottomane, était simultanément hostile et symbiotique.

The 21st century has emerged with Canadians experiencing great concern about how we do things in the world. The degrading environment preys greatly on the minds of Canadians while our actions may not match our thoughts. How do we educate our students as future leaders about sustainability and help them understand that our individual actions make a difference? The intent of this study was to make a difference in students’ and teachers’ lives. It needed to be determined if teachers felt that there was a gap in the current way that we are teaching about sustainability. The results of a Manitoba teacher survey and a literature review identified several different risk and protective factors: those that either constrain or support the teaching of sustainability in a science classroom. The three risks that were discovered to be the strongest were preparation time, availability of resources and that sustainability issues are often highly complex. These concerns became the foundation for informing the implementation phase of this study. From this information a resource that met all of the specific learning outcomes (SLOs) as mandated by Manitoba Education, Citizenship, and Youth (MECY) for the grade 8 Water Systems cluster was designed and piloted. Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological theory (1979) and The Natural Step’s Four Systems Conditions were used as a foundation. There was a significant difference between the pilot groups and the control groups in three of the four areas tested. Teachers reported enjoying using the resource, and finding it helpful. They also reported that their students were engaged by the use of the resource. The thesis summation suggests how the resource might be shared and improved upon with and by teachers around the province and beyond, and hope that it provides a framework for future lessons or units related to sustainability.

This study investigates the relationship between the practice of Kundalini yoga and the development of interpersonal and intrapersonal awareness in Middle Years students. Secondary aims were to provide reflection time for students in their school day and to find out whether the participants were better able to cope with stress. A qualitative method was applied. Two consent forms were sent to the participants’ parents. One granted permission to participate in the yoga sessions, the other requested permission to use the students’ journals as data. There were 16 yoga sessions over three weeks. After each session, the participants and the instructor/researcher wrote reflective journal entries. Twenty-nine students participated in the yoga sessions, but only 15 student journals were used for data collection. Results included growth in interpersonal and intrapersonal awareness, growth in physical flexibility and awareness, and a desire to have relaxation during the regular school day.

Adopting a constructionist interpretive research approach, I investigated the phenomenon of motivation to learn English as a second language (ESL) in a sheltered, middle school, transitional class. I interviewed eight ESL students who were attending an ESL program in grades seven through nine. This process enabled me to distill the essence of which factors impacted the students’ motivation for second language acquisition (SLA). The literature does suggest that ESL students’ motivation to learn English may be influenced by numerous factors including, but not limited to: previous learning experiences, family perspectives on education, peer interaction, the classroom teacher, teaching strategies and procedures. The study occurred over a period of five months, from April 2012 to August 2012, and included data gathering and analysis.

No description available.

No description available.