Poly Sci Final Paper

Final Paper Washington State University Political Science 418 Fall 2012 Section 1 Professor Robert Quinlan December 6, 2012 Introduction This paper is written almost exclusively with information taken directly from the book Families of the Forest  by Alan Johnson about the lifestyle of the Matsigenka Amazonian Natives. Information regarding the Matsigenka is almost solely derived from the work of Johnson unless noted otherwise. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Matsigenka people, their needs as a community and finally pose a development project that meets the needs described.Realistically this is only one possible solution posed by an inexperienced undergraduate student. The author is student who has never set foot in South America or even has had any experience with a development project. The ideas expressed in this work are purely an academic exercise. The author does not assume that the Matsigenka do not already know and or practice some of the ideas shared in this a ssignment. Overview of the Matsigenka The Matsigenka, a native people  of the  Amazon Basin, live in what Johnson describes as an â€Å"angular landscape, along river valleys surrounded by forested mountains†.The Matsigenka have a peripheral environment on the outside edge of conquest lands. They originally settled in to a as a bid to avoid conflicts with other groups. The land is not ideal but good enough to live on while not ever being sought as territory for annexation by other groups. They are very isolated and their living choice has the consequence scarcity. Many of the best crops, fish, and game are not as bountiful as they are in other areas. They have plenty of land for their type of farming and their small population means they do not compete between themselves for resources.Their settlements are small and spread far apart. (Johnson) To understand the Matsigenka they must be seen in their own unique context of their daily lives. As with any parent, the task of r aising a child is to raise them to be able to live in the world on their own one day. For the Matsigenka this means raising children who will become accustomed to living in their own nuclear family and thrive while in relative isolation. (Johnson) The Matsigenka’s ability to be independent and desire to remain independent has been disheartening to missionaries and some schoolteachers.Attempts at organizing and building communities have largely been failures. The Matsigenka are happy to be free from directions and rules that stem from a missionary or any other persons attempt to convert or normalize them. (Johnson) From the very beginning their upbringing determines who they are as a people. From the start the emphasis on independence is apparent. No one is invited or comes to visit when a child is born. At birth a newborn is left alone on a mat while the mother is attended to. After a few minutes, the baby is then bathed with hot water causing discomfort making it cry. Johnso n) The procedure is done to strengthen the child for the hard independent life to come. The Matsigenka parents test the child’s limits, expecting more and more self-reliance at an early age. In the home, mothers commonly tether toddlers to a stake keeping them from wandering into danger. The method is no more a cruel â€Å"leash† than a baby gate used in American homes could be considered a cruel cage. (Johnson) Tethering allows the child freedom and independence without the danger of physical harm. The Matsigenka’s diet is varied and extensive.Their types of food production are farming, fishing, hunting, and foraging with some small use of domesticated animals. They can eat anything from raw foods found anywhere in their environment or eat feasts involving days of preparation. The people eat insect larvae of many bugs all during the year as source of dietary fats and protein. Larger game birds, monkeys, peccary, and tapir are the favorites. Farming small garden s is the most important to them making up more than half of their food. Foraging and fishing can often time produce disappointing results.Snakes are taboo and never eaten. (Johnson) Their diet poses no issues for them. For crops the people grow manioc (cassava), maze (corn), bananas, plantains, rice and coffee. Coffee has been introduced recently by outsiders as a cash crop. Along with trying to build communities the crop was meant to bring indigenous peoples into contact and trade with the modern parts of Peru. Coffee was seen as way to introduce money into the Matsigenka system. (Johnson) Their farming methods are sufficient to sustain them and the land they work on. The most important fish in the Matsigenka diet is shima. Johnson) These fish get up to 20 inches long and can weigh over 2 pounds. They are bottom feeders caught by net fishing. Mamori are similar in size to shima and caught with a regular hook and line setup. Rock dwelling fish like etari who are caught by hand. Alon g with other species such as shrimp and kempiti caught in traps fit into their diverse diet. Large fish species of omani, kayunaro and charava are rarely caught. (Johnson) Domesticated animals are not overly significant to a family. Families typically raise a couple of chickens and ducks.They are allowed to forage around the house during the day, feeding on insects considered pests like ants and sometimes are given maize. At night they are kept in chicken coops tended to by the children. (Johnson) As a people, the Matsigenka are very adaptive and catch all kinds of fish in many different ways. The Matsigenka do not participate in the market economy. Attempts to get them to raise cash crops and begin to participate have been implemented by outsiders. (Johnson) They make nearly all of the material goods used in daily life. However they do not make knives, aluminum pots or other metal items.As men and women they learn complementary manufacturing skills allowing them self-sufficiency. M atsigenka can survive in long-term isolation as a nuclear family with the skills in fishing, farming and hunting in the manner they prefer. (Johnson) The Matsigenka are adaptive, and independent. Needs and resource assessment based on the ethnographic description The Matsigenka have good nutrition and housing but they still have barriers to good overall health. The problems they have are not their fault. As a people they do everything they can like maintain standards of cleanliness, and treat illness with medicines they have available.The problems arise from limited resources and knowledge. (Johnson) For hygiene the Matsigenka clean themselves, their homes, and their clothing daily. Even when they sit on the earthen floor of their home they use a woven mat. (Johnson) They wash their hand before preparing food and are careful with waste. Baths are taken daily and garbage is thrown out in a separate area away from the home. The Matsigenka find human waste disgusting along with animal waste and believe according to Johnson that â€Å"The evil odor of feces is believed to invade the body and cause illness†(436)Families try to locate homes next to mountain streams to ensure a water supply uncontaminated by humans. (Johnson) Mountain streams, dry up seasonally forcing people back to the river for water where they are re-infected by water borne parasites. (Rainforest) Research has shown that the debilitating infections are colds, conjunctivitis, and parasites. Colds and conjunctivitis hit the community in waves. Epidemics move rapidly through the population. Tribal memories still exist of when the white man’s influenza that killed many. The people stay away from everyone and the schools when sickness hits.One of the most common greetings used by members is to ascertain if someone returning is sick and to be avoided. (Johnson) Johnson notes that researchers others who stayed with the Matsigenks stated: Most health complaints came to our attention because the medicines we had with us were believed to be more effective than Matsigenka remedies. Our house became a center where people would stop to tell us their symptoms and ask for treatment. They were pragmatic about accepting this help, seeing illness and injury as more or less naturally occurring. 436) When a family member becomes ill they are left to lie on a mat in their home while the rest of the family ignores the sick person. The Matsigenka believe sickness is life-threatening and feel a sick person is dangerous and best left alone. (Johnson) Johnson describes the Matsigenka as a mixed picture of health: They have an ample diet and are energetic and supple, capable of great feats of athleticism and endurance. They are attractive, maintain personal standards of cleanliness, and attend to their health needs with an array of remedies.On the other hand, they live with parasite loads that weaken them and probably contribute to many infant deaths, they are subject to viral and bacte rial infections that periodically sweep their hamlets and incapacitate them putting food production at risk†¦ Despite the beauty of nature surrounding them and their freedom to set their own work agenda, theirs is a hard life evident in the virtual absence of elderly people. (439) A needs and resource assessment based on the ethnographic description provided by Johnson would indicate a few key items.Health education, medical aid, improvements in sanitation, and clean drinking water are the most pressing needs. These could be possibly met using a culturally sensitive and responsible means of service delivery. Development project that meets one or more of the needs described Any project design must take into consideration the unique culture of the people it seeks to help Johnson notes in a prominent way that there is family level of sociocultural integration not a community one and the Matsigenka cannot be understood or appreciated except as a family level society.Meaning, as a g roup they are not â€Å"tropical-forest villagers† or â€Å"tribal peoples† like most amateur sociologists may picture. Unlike other groups they do not participate in suprafamily, raiding and warfare, structured gift exchange, or even large group feasting. (Johnson) Concepts like a family reunion or organizing a militia to defend their land are completely foreign to their way of life. Johnson notes it is extremely difficult to get them to participate in any group activity. They will listen to and directions but will walk away and refuse to join the proposed group activity.Matsigenka are not amenable to being directed or led. Education or works projects from other regions cannot be rolled out in a cookie cutter fashion to help them. Understanding their independence and determination does not mean that the Matsigenka are closed to change. In the 1980 and 1970’s sierra farmers came to the mountain valleys to live next to Matsigenka families. The new farmers have br ought infrastructural development that was welcomed by the Matsigenka people. They created school communities where boys, and girls, play soccer, study and do homework.Radios that can be found now are a sign of the integration of culture from the larger world around them. (Johnson) Most effective long term projects rely on ownership and the pride of the people they seek to help. Pride in ownership translates into maintenance and care of the public works project after the NGO who sets it up leaves. Johnson explains the idea of shintaro â€Å"owner† if we think of it not as legal title to objects like land or trees, but as a form of respect for the individual. Any project must transfer respect as ownership to achieve long term sustainability.Recently in the last 15 years money has been dumped into projects that have failed and been abandoned. (Fraser) It is not enough to just build something and leave. The best way to help might be to model what the rainforest flow project has done and pay special attention to some cultural factors. Any project should consider how ownership is considered, how the people operate as a family level society, the aversion to group activities, and being told what to do. The project should capitalize on their strong sense of hygiene and build on their dislike of human waste.The Matsigenka already intrinsically know about the importance of clean water and washing hands. The leap from understanding clean water and increasing the effectiveness of existing sanitation procedures should be an accomplishable task if executed sensitivly. Hygiene education and health services As a people they are very pragmatic, adaptable and have demonstrated a belief in better westernized medicine when dealing with researchers in the past. (Johnson) Setting up clinics may not be the answer since they will avoid any area where they may go and become sick.The clinic will need to come to the sick, not the other way around. Travelling to and helping sick f amily members on sleeping on mats in the home will strengthen any belief in stronger westernized medicine. The process will loosen the hold of traditional beliefs in bad spirits having an influence on outcomes. Health education can effectively be delivered using the existing school system and reinforced when educators visit with health professionals providing mobile medical clinic visits. (Rainforest) Previously efforts were made to do similar projects but the participants only spoke Spanish not the native language.To eliminate the language barrier it will be key that the health professionals and educators are fluent in the native language. Workers will need to understand cultural norms of the Matsigenka. (Rainforest) Special consideration should be given to immunization programs. Immunizations can make the people feel sick afterward and may scare participants off. Postponing immunizations until a trust relationship has been built up may be necessary. Credibility may be required for families to believe they are not being made sick after a flu shot or pertussis vaccination. SanitationThe Matsigenka already believe in finding the freshest water. Health education should teach how to defecate away from any water source and bury it when in the forest. The disdain they have for waste and how they conduct life around their home makes them receptive. Composting latrines with hand washing facilities may be built near schools but attention should be given to ventilation and odor control (Rainforest) considering â€Å"The evil odor of feces is believed to invade the body and cause illness†. (Johnson 436) Drinking water projects Delivering clean safe drinking water is of paramount importance to the Matsigenka, or any community.Rainforest Flow has used with self-reported success, for several years, a specific setup that uses low tech sand filtration. The method removes 99. 9 percent of bacteria from drinking water and uses a low tech gravitational flow. The systems are setup to support modest community growth and are maintained by a usage fee charged to every home water is delivered to. (Rainforest) In conclusion there are many projects that can possibly help the Matsigenka. The purpose of this paper was to introduce the Matsigenka people, their needs as a community and pose a development project that meets their needs sensitively.Like any group, assistance must be provided to them on their terms for it to be accepted. References Fraser, B. (2012, May 25). Machiguenga communities could be affected by peru gas production. Retrieved from Johnson, A. (2003). Families of the forest the matsigenka indians of the peruvian amazon. University of California Press. Retrieved from http://www. sscnet. ucla. edu/anthro/faculty/johnson/ethnography. html Rainforest flow. (2012, December 01). Retrieved from http://houseofthechildren. org/safe- drinking-water. html

Identify Leadership Style Essay

As a leader, it sometimes takes a step back to look at oneself to realize what type of leader you are to understand your strengths and weaknesses, so you can lead an effective team to success. After lots of leadership quizs and readings, my leadership style is participative (Democratic) with an emphasis on the consensus view. â€Å"A participative leader seeks to involve other people in the process, possibly including subordinates, peers, superiors and other stakeholders. Often, however, as it is within the managers’ whim to give or deny control to his or her subordinates, most participative activity is within the immediate team (Tannenbaum and Schmitt, 1958).† Some of the characteristics of the participative leader and that of myself are: creating an atmosphere were creativity is wanted and rewarded, engaging in the group decision making process and while keeping the final say over decisions, allowing members to share ideas and thoughts. A1a: Two Strengths Using the participative leadership style gives me the most advantages when working and making decisions in a group. The main two strengths of my leadership style (participative) is: Empowerment and Better Team Decisions.  Empowerment: as defined by Dictionary.com, â€Å"v.–to give power or authority; to authorize, especially by official means. To enable or permit (Dictionary.com, 2014).† How does it feel when you feel like you have a say in a group or team? You feel valued. I enjoy allowing my team to feel valued and employ their decisions to make for the best decision possible. The feeling that group members get from participating makes the final decision accepted much more. Personally, when team members have input in the final goal, they feel responsible and take it much more seriously. Better Team Decisions: Since I don’t know all the answers, isn’t it better crucial to have lots of people helping find the answers. In my leadership style, since we have lots of people brain-storming on ideas, it makes for better team decisions. When a tough decision is ahead, its critical to have others helping make decisions. Employees input is invaluable in a group participating setting. When I allow others to help make decisions, the quality of those decisions will only increase. A1b: Two Weaknesses With this effective leadership style brings some cons. One of the cons of this style of leadership is time restrictions. When the team is liberated into making decisions, it takes awhile to come to great group decision. This type of leadership allows lots of discussions and hearing everyone’s opinions, which in-turn slows down the whole process. This style is a slower process, but the pro of making the best decision outweighs the con. The second con for this leadership style is that there can usually only be one decision and we as a team/group can not use everyone’s opinion or decision. This can cause some team members to become upset or heated, but can be avoided with a good leader leading the discussions. When allowing this style to be in a group, the group must come to a consensus in agreeing on the best decision and all parties must agree with whatever outcome is chosen. A2: Compare against two other styles Lets look at two other leadership styles and compare them to the participative leadership style. Authoritative (autocratic) which is a style that has clear expectations and usually makes decisions with little input from the team/group. In this style, the group makes fast decisions and the leader is usually the most knowledgeable team-member in the group Some similarities are that when the  team is in a bind or time is no longer of essence, the team leader must make an autocratic decision for the betterment of the group. The contributions of the team will be much lower than that of my participative style. Delegative (Laissez-Faire) is the opposite of the autocratic style in that there is little or no team guidance and the team is left to make all the decisions. This style is the least productive style because it offers no structure. The group is more likely to demand a lot from the leader and usually will not work independently. This style is used when all team members are over-qualified in the area of expertise, but also leads to lack of motivation for the group. The participating leadership style that I am apart of uses both the autocratic and the delegative style aspects to achieve maximum group potential. Participative leadership is concerned about the group and that the group has input. A3: Understanding to be more effective To be a leader you must have a mix of skills, behaviors, value sets and knowledge. To be a more effective leader one must understand their abilities and understand others and their strengths/weaknesses. This understanding includes an apprehension for other leadership styles. An impelling leader, understanding certain situations and leadership styles, can carry out different styles to lead different groups and teams of people. A great leader will supply assistance and encouragement to a group based on its needs and maintain the group by using its knowledge of different leadership styles. An effective leader can not accomplish success exclusive of a team. Those teams will consist of lots of team members and different leaders. An effective leader will be able to understand other leadership styles to support and assist those leaders. â€Å"The advantage to understanding your leadership style is that you understand your strengths and weaknesses. You can be proactive and more effective as a leader by strategically using your strengths and counteracting your weaker areas. Your style defines your values and perspective, and being aware of it will aid your communication those you work with. As the saying goes, knowledge is power. You can empower yourself and move forward in your career or interest by exercising this knowledge (Raines, 2011).† When knowing yourself and your leadership style it helps you in the workplace. Knowing your work environment and workplace challenges helps to address appropriate solutions using your leadership style. By knowing your style and the areas around you, it helps you make sound strategies for solutions to the problems and you can succeed by steering the strengths of the leadership way. Being a leader means that you must be able to know your strengths and weaknesses and the situations of the group and when to incorporate your style into the situation. Leadership is not a thing that fits all situations. The more leadership styles you are accustomed to, the more negotiable you will be able to be in the group. A4: Two problems in workplace due to different leadership Problem 1: An employee is always late for workplace. The schedule that the employee is on is one of rotating shifts (day and night). This involves different managers with different leadership styles. These different leadership styles has allowed this employee to continue its bad behaviors and continue to be late. Problem 2: Personality Clash. Your style is to talk out problems and solutions (democratic leadership style) while a manager you work with is direct and to the point (autocratic style), and doesn’t want to hear about the solutions but just wants the problems fixed. â€Å"Spray gun in tablet bed has stopped working, most of the team wants to find root cause, but one of the managers wants a solution now and doesn’t want to understand what caused  the problem.† A4a: Two ways to overcome each problem Problem 1: Late employee. The employee that is late knows that if LF (Laissez-Faire) manager is working that he allows an unstructured work environment. In other words, see nothing, hear nothing, speak nothing and all is correct in the work place. He has unclear expectations for this late employee and is more of people pleas-er that tackling the problem. This manager is fine if the employee is late as long as it does not effect production. This leadership style also allows him to play favorites. He has different rules for different people. As long as production is not affected, whats to bother? If AA (Autocratic) is manager, this employee knows that she can not be late to work, as is not for fear of consequences of her actions. They know that action will be taken against them if they are late. This causes a trickle down effect for employees, and their team morale. Since not all leadership team-members are on the same plane, things like this are always happening. We must fix this problem, before it gets out of hand. Fix. LF manager should first follow the rules and make the employee accountable for her actions. If that employee is late, they should have consequences like everyone else. If that does not work, then managers of this team should be aware of all times that employees are arriving and leaving work. During a monthly meeting, management could review all badge in/outs to make sure times are consistent with when employees are arriving and leaving. At these meetings, employees are questioned and held accountable for their tardiness. If this is not a viable option, management should have one manager that is responsible for all tardies/lates to work. This would be a dedicated job for the manager and take the responsibility off of the other managers and  help alleviate the leadership style differences between managers. Another quick fixer, would be to discuss this problem with LF manager and hold him accountable for allowing the employee to get away with tardies/lates. This one on one meeting would help to show him that there are consequences to his actions and that all employees need to be accountable for their actions. Problem 2: Spray gun. One way to fix this problem is to invite and have the said manager attend and hold discussions within the group to help him see that not all problems have immediate solutions. Allowing him on the team, helps him develop his leadership style and see there is not one leadership style that encompasses all problems. The leader must find it valuable for them to be on the team and to give input. Showing them that they are valued goes a long way to helping them develop as great leaders. Have a one on one with the manager to discuss reasons for and against having this meeting. If both parties that are having trouble understanding meet, then they are more apt to understand where each other is coming from. If this doesn’t work, we can always call an upper level management manager to help diffuse the situation. Another solution would be coaching. Maybe this manager/leader is insecure/uncertain about work environment or doesn’t want to make decisions because its not my job. Maybe this manager lacks creativity or innovation. Whatever the issue that they are dealing with, a great effective synergistic leader would see this as an opportunistic time to coach the manager in these areas to help alleviate stress, uncertainty and encourage teamwork, trust, expectations and cohesion amongst teams. A5a: Three advantages that increase productivity on these advantages â€Å"Taking a team from ordinary to extraordinary means understanding and  embracing the differences (Bennicasa, 2012).† The joint vision enables all groups to have meaningful communications—business synergy. Lets take a company that is going through a major brand transformation. The reasons not to change are abundant. The company was reaching goals and employee satisfaction was high. The company would lose brand identification through the proposed changes from upper management. The company would be dysfunctional because the whole team was not on board for the transformation. The change was a challenge from all parties involved. The bottom line came when management and the team members realized that those concerns did not compare to the importance of providing the best product and customer service to the customers. The shared vision had to be recognized from all that was serving through the transformation. The important factor was understanding that it was not about us anymore, but about the company’s greater good and we had to embrace it. Meetings were held, discussions were had about working together, being a better team, how to better serve our customers, and enabling team diversity. We had to see the team synergy to be able to grow and become a better productive team. New logos and mottos and so forth did not create team synergy, but leadership had to add value to the team and show all the team members that they were required to make a better team—that is business leadership synergy. Once team synergy was found, this allowed the team members to be accountable for their actions and this included the quality of the new products. In return, this created a better product for the customer. A second advantage of having a synergy leadership style could be used when different team members are not included in a process that affects them. When a team of engineers and managers are designing a new stream line approach to the production floor to help move along the packaging process of â€Å"M&Ms†. A synergy leadership approach to the stream line approach would be  to include the actual workers from the packaging floor. These employees would be able to discuss best practices for help in designing the new approach. This would speed up the meeting process and would speed up implementation of new processes because the packaging team members would be included in the process. Including these team members would allow for less trial and error and more time being productive in having the new packaging approach in a workable state. Having a synergistic team is just as important than the actual packaging process because it stream lines the meeting, allows team-members to have certain expectations, keeps the meetings focused on the problems and develops and enhances rich collaborative discussions that are now easy to have—business success. The third advantage of leadership synergy would be having all upper management in a participative meeting discussing the new vision for the company. After long discussions the team has selected the vision for the company. The team then selects an authoritative figure to disburse the new vision information to the whole company group—because its not up for debate anymore. Knowing when to use different leadership roles is very important. In this model, a decision that has the absolute consensus of all upper management, will appear when all team-members is seeing the discussion directly through the same glasses – which includes the mission, the vision and the teams goals. Without these glasses, cooperative judgments can be challenging to accomplish. The hard part of making decisions and agreeing upon them in a multi-leadership style team –is that there is no common goal – changes in leadership styles will strangle the discussions, as more thoughts will only add to the difficulty in making a decision. Looking through the same lenses of the glasses permits a variety diversity into the debate and allows the group to succeed. Once we see everything through the same lens, then the upper management group  can be more productive in delivering a vision in a timely manner. This synergy of upper management leaders then starts trickling down to management teams throughout the plant and then onto regular teams and committees in the plant. This trickle down affect makes teams more productive, more efficient by allowing the meetings to flow better and to free up people to not be in meetings (to be on the floor being productive making the products). References Bennicasa, Robyn. (2012) 6 Leadership Styles, and When You Should Use Them. Retrieved from http://www.fastcompany.com/1838481/6-leadership-styles-and when-youshould-use-them. Dictionary.com. 2014. Empowerment Definition. Retrieved from http://dictionary. reference.com/browse_empowerment Raines, Stephanie. 2011. The Advantages of Knowing Your Leadership Style. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-knowing leadership-style18924.html. Tannenbaum, A.S. and Schmitt, W.H. (1958). How to choose a leadership pattern. Harvard Business Review, 36, March-April, 95-101.

Politics and Beliefs Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Politics and Beliefs - Term Paper Example This essay discusses that according to Cloninger, for a certain group of people, ideology is important and performs four functions. The first function is it describes the surroundings and answers question why things go as they are. The second of these functions is the evaluation of the surrounding whether good or bad. The third of the functions of ideology is to give the person or group of people a sense of identity. The most important of the functions is the programmatic aspect where ideas are applied into actions. Political ideology is therefore a very important aspect of human nature. A political ideology according to Cloninger is like a revolutionary movement at first that will try to create change according to the goals in life as they wish. Gerring in Chris Livesey’s work entitled Power and Politics defined â€Å"Ideologies† (a set of related beliefs and values) become political ideologies when they â€Å"specify a concrete programme of actions† (such as pa rty manifesto). Mullins described political ideologies as a program of collective action for the maintenance , alteration and transformation of society†. Livesey stated that a conventional way to classify political ideologies is to view them as a continuous line (the continuum) with two ends: â€Å"left wing† parties including Communist and Socialist and â€Å"right wing† parties such Conservative and Fascist. Rummel also identified major political ideologies by illustrating a political triangle. ... They advocate the view that capitalism is a form of exploitation which unfairly concentrates powers and wealth among the few people only. Socialists believe that capitalism creates inequality in a society and does not work in the interest of the majority. According to Rummel (n.d.), libertarianism is the â€Å"political formula for those who opposed to state power.† Thus these are people who wanted to do as things their own way and support basic civil freedoms. Authoritarianism leans more on â€Å"the traditions and customs and central power lies in the hands of a leader who maintains such tradition and policies (Rummel, n.d.). Political Socialization Political socialization is defined as â€Å"the process by which political culture is transmitted in a given society. It occurs at both the individual and community level, and it extends beyond the acquisition of political culture to encompass the learning of more sophisticated political ideas and orientations. Political social ization is a lifelong process and a variety of individuals and institutions contribute to its shaping effect†(http://imej.wfu.edu, Political Socialization). This process of transmission is carried through the agents of socialization which include family, schools, church, friends and media. Family is considered to be the most important agent of socialization. Most likely, children will have the same political affiliation as their parents. Schools on the other hand also have vital effect on students’ political values through peer groups. Religion also affects a person’s values and ideologies through their moral teachings. Friends also influence a person’s value through sharing of thoughts and constant communication. Media

Effects of information system and information technology on Amazon.com Essay - 3

Effects of information system and information technology on Amazon.com - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that there are many ways that Amazon as a company uses information systems and information technology to perpetuate its success. First, an information system is the system that uses information technology in order to manipulate, retrieve, capture or even display data. Information systems serve several purposes which fairly lead to achieving success by a company or a business. Such roles that the information system and information technology play in a business include attaining excellence in the operation of the business, business models, offering services, and also invention of new products, the information system, and the information technology has also been a tool to attaining intimacy between the customer and the supplier, for the company to attain competitive advantage and finally so that the business can survive in the business environment. Therefore, Amazon Company seeks to achieve all these advantages through the use of the informati on system and technology. There are other factors resulting from the use of information system and information technology. Such factors include the transformation of business enterprises, the fact that the digital firms have emerged, industrial economies have transformed, and a global economy has emerged and thus giving room for a lot of competition. Information systems and information technology enable the where many businesses and companies are competing

The Instructors Leadership Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Instructors Leadership - Case Study Example We are motivated using the rewards of being to learn something in class and getting good grades and inversely, we will get failing grade and be admonished if we do not do well in class. As a leader, Terence Fletcher is a wise figure because the class looks up to him. There is so much we can learn from him and we respect him very much. He is also our role model. In class, he is always around to help us with our lessons and even pushes to perform. He motivates his class to believe in themselves that they can anything if they want it. The class could feel that he really wanted us to succeed not only in his subject but also in whatever endeavor we would like to be. Only that sometimes Terence Fletcher pushes some of his student hard which touches them in a wrong way that instead of being motivated, they felt being pushed too hard. Terence Fletcher encourages open communication with his class as part of his leadership style. He encourages to articulate ourselves not only as part of the subject of encouraging us to think but also as a method of his leadership of knowing and communicating with the students to make teaching more effective. 2. Our instructor’s leadership style is effective to some students and not effective to some. While we understand that it is the job of a teacher to motivate and push student’s to learn, each student has different learning styles and pace. After all, as the lecture of Fiedler’s Contingency Theory states, â€Å"Leader’s effectiveness depends on the fit between leader’s style and situation† which means that an effective leader or teacher adjusts according to the situation or the need of the student. For most students, our teacher’s leadership of encouraging us to do anything and helping us succeed is effective but applying the same style to all students may not work all the time. Some students like to pace their learning and does not feel motivated when they are pushed too much that instead of being motivated,  they felt being pushed too hard.

Nursing questions Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nursing questions - Article Example During this stage, the nurse gathers relevant data from the patients, primarily, the most relevant medical g history. At this important stage the emphasis of the process lies on the patient, and as in a usual professional-client relationship, communication skills emerges as the most important tool in this interaction. According to Peplau (1997), the emphasis and concentration of the nurse during the phase should be based on active listening skills, and whenever necessary asking the patient questions to probe their own description and personal experiences. In practice and ethically, nurses must walk the thin line between client service and avoidance of personal bias, prejudice or even sharing personal stories. Sharing of personal experiences while with the client the tables are reversed and the client becomes the listening ear for the nurse, and the nurse needs shall be the focus other than the other way round. This role is purely a professional call and there at times when shifting f rom a social relationship to a professional one becomes daunting and uncomfortable. There are various literatures that discount and explore an actual study of the nurse and patient relationship during the three phases, but since the major focus is on the first phase, this paper shall explore the relationship with regard to the orientation phase, and some of the studies have involved nursing student’s relationship with their patients. Forchuk (1994) is one such example of a scientific research that subjected Peplau’s theory to a test at the orientation phase. In the paper, the researchers studied 124 nurse-patient pairs, and according to Forchuk (1994), presuppositions of the patient and the nurse have a relation to the growth of the therapeutic relations. Further, Forchuk (1992) measured the length in time that it would take within the orientation phase between the nurse and the

The motivation of Consumers to purchase luxury goods Research Paper

The motivation of Consumers to purchase luxury goods - Research Paper Example With the rapid growth of national economies in most of the world countries, the purchasing power of the people in the countries has also improved and luxury consumption has improved. The consumption of luxury goods by the consumers calls for guidance in most of the countries. The study will involve data collection, analysis and presentation of findings in the form of a discussion. Based on the rapid development of most of the country’s economy and the improvement of the purchasing power, the consumption of luxuries also has some development. In an example, in 2006, an estimated population of 320,000 Chinese consumers who spend their money on luxury products on an estimated 10% of all the global luxury brand sales (Arifoglu, 2012). After six years, the numbers of consumers went up by double or even triple (Hausman, 2000). The change made the number of consumers rise by a 10% making the Chinese consumers become the largest in the world. A report send by the world luxury association indicated that Chinese overseas luxury goods consumption during 2013 totaled to about $8.5 billion, the Chinese shopping on luxuries increased to 68.8 in 2011 (Hidayat and Diwasasri, 2013). Presently, there has been an understanding that the local indicators of consumer attitudes do not sufficiently to the different volitional, internally motivated, avoidance response tendencies in different consumption or acquire situations (Hausman, 2000). A general critique is that these attitude measures are based on the conceptualizations that are too narrowly focused (Hidayat and Diwasasri, 2013). One area of the criticism has indicated that the symbolic, hedonic, and the esthetic facets of consumption are not adequately shown in these conceptualizations and accordingly in the resultant operationalizations (Arifoglu, 2012. The body of literature that relates to luxury products crops up when another related literature from

UK politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

UK politics - Essay Example This is the reason why UK’s government from 1997-2010 has been dubbed as the â€Å"Labour Government.† British prime ministers serve the British people for not more than five years (Magstadt, 2008). This means that after five years, another prime minister will be chosen unless the current leader can maintain the parliament’s â€Å"vote of confidence† (Magstadt, 2008). Blair’s political career is a perfect example for this political situation. After he served the British people for five years, he was again elected for another term. Blair was reelected by the British parliament in 2001 (Childs, 2008). It was another victory for the Labour Party after Blair’s landslide election in 1997 (Childs, 2008). The Third Way The â€Å"Third Way† is actually an ideology (Walraven & Persons, 2000). It is often associated with the Labour Party. This political idea was actually introduced by Tony Blair (Holmes, 2009). He has utilized this ideology when he ran for public office in 1997 to be UK’s prime minister. He described his platform of governance as the â€Å"Third Way†. This description seemingly suggests a different way of imposing policies in United Kingdom. Blair was actually aiming for ideological change. He wanted to change the political landscape of British government. He neither favored the first and second way of leading Britain. The first way refers to Margaret Thatcher’s leadership while the second way pertains to John Major’s administration. It was Blair’s vision to implement a new policy. The â€Å"Third Way† or the so called â€Å"New Labour† is the way to adopt this modern course of action (Kramp, 2010). Blair called this policy as â€Å"neither the old left nor the new right† (Leach, 2009 cited in Kramp, 2010, p.4). In other words, the â€Å"Third Way† proposes changes which do not adopt to the old party’s agenda (Kramp, 2010). It establishe s a new and independent policy. It tries to separate itself from Thatcher and Major’s conservative governments (Kramp, 2010). Stated in another sense, the â€Å"Third Way† is a whole new political ideology. According to Kramp (2010), it is a hybrid. Anthony Giddens, the author of the â€Å"Third Way† ideology declared that all he wanted to make is a framework of a collaborated or integrated political programme which will cover each of the significant parts of society (Giddens, 1998). This means that Giddens aims for equality among the British citizens in terms of public services. He wanted to create a point of convergence between the left and right ideologies. In doing such, he made sure that none of the political terms will be in conflict. He formulated the â€Å"New Labour† in a way that it does not favor any of the old ideologies neither the new ideologies. Giddens actually integrated the key concepts of the two principles. In other words, the â€Å"T hird Way† is a neutral political ideology. As cited by Giddens, the ultimate objective of the â€Å"Third Way† must be to assist the people â€Å"pilot their way through the major revolutions of our time: globalization, transformations in personal life and our relationship to nature† (Giddens, 1998). He further said that it is necessary for social democrats to question cultural and economic protectionism as well as the far right territory which views globalization as destructive to national tradition and integrity (Giddens, 1998)

Orem's theory of self-care in the maternity department Essay

Orem's theory of self-care in the maternity department - Essay Example As the essay declares the subject of short study here is, ‘The concept of Self-Care’ in nursing practice as envisaged in the maternity department of a hospital. It will be argued that the Praxis of Self-Care could greatly improve the rehabilitative role of nurses by positively influencing an individual’s self-care agency; which is the power component of self - care behavior, as according to Dorothea Orem’s Theory. This paper discusses that the term ‘Self-Care’, is familiar through Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Theory of nursing. Orem’s theory is composed of three related theories: the theory of Self-Care, the theory of Self-Care Deficit and, the theory of Nursing Systems. Orem’s theory views the individual as a self – care agent with especial needs. When ‘self-care’ is practiced it enhances health and well-being being. There is a visible link between responsibility and self-care; Self-care can be stated as a self-initiated, deliberate and purposeful activity linked to health and well-being. Pertinent action is performed to meet the therapeutic self-care demand arising out of known needs for care. This varies from time to time, as required by the various stages of life-cycle, of the individual person. The non-fulfillment of this demand, gives rise to a self-care deficit, which denotes the need for nursing. The decision to provide self-care is tak en jointly by the patient and the nurse. Herein the nurse plays a pivotal part in the influence of the patient.

Special Education Needs Essay Example for Free

Special Education Needs Essay Ronald Gulliford and Graham Upton say that special educational needs (SEN) came in use as a result of dissatisfaction: The term special educational needs began to come into use in the late 1960s as a result of increasing dissatisfaction with the terminology used in the Handicapped Pupils and School Health Service Regulations (1945), which classified handicapped children into ten categories according to their main handicap. (Gulliford and Upton, 1992). The definition of SEN in the Education Act 1996 is: ‘a child has special educational needs. if he has a learning difficulty which a medical condition does not necessarily imply a ‘difficulty in learning’ or a ‘disability’ and therefore may not constitute a learning difficulty requiring special educational provision’. Tomko (1996) defined inclusion in education as ‘ the act of attending regular education classes, with the supports and services needed to successfully achieve the individual’s IEP goals, while actively participating in activities as a member of the class who belongs’. The writer believes inclusion is a desired state to be achieved, that may or may not occur by simple placement alone. It is an ongoing process. I believe that unless a child has sense of identity with the class, and unless he or she has the supports and services needed and is reaching his or her IEP goals then inclusion has not been achieved. 2. 0 AREA CHOSEN The writer is currently working at School X, a school in Malaysia and she finds that an element of provision that possesses a barrier to the learning and participation of some students in the school is teaching assistant. The barrier that is faced by School X in connection with teaching assistant to support SEN students is teaching assistant in School X do not clearly understand their roles and responsibilities. Thus, will they to be able to play their roles and responsibilities towards SEN students? Besides that, teaching assistant in school X do not have the necessary knowledge and skills in identifying and handling with Special Educational Needs students. Thus, will the teaching assistant(TA) be able to handle emergency cases involving SEN students or will the TA cause a worse situation which may lead to the SEN student being injured or harmed. The writer chose teaching assistant as an element of provision that possesses a barrier to support SEN and Inclusive education in her school because she personally feels that teaching assistant plays a vital role in dealing with students with SEND. Groom, B. and R. Rose supports the researcher’s statement that a teacher assistant (TA) plays an important role in supporting pupils with SEN: The role of the TA has undergone something of a transformation from the time when classroom assistants were seen as ‘an extra pair of hands’ in the classroom to the present day where they are perceived to have a more professional role. (Groom, B. and R. Rose, 2005) 3. 0 RESEARCH The writer carried out a few informal interviews with the school staff and among the barriers listed to support SEN students in school X, she finds the barrier of a teacher assistant an interesting aspect to research on. The writer was a teacher assistant in school X for a year and she is keen to know how as a teacher assistant she could have assisted SEN students. Based on the writer’s observation and interview with the school staff, the writer found out that in school X there is no full-time teacher assistant in all reception and primary grades. A school with SEN students requires at least one assistant teacher in all the reception and primary classrooms. The writer personally feels that it is essential for all the reception and primary level classrooms to have a full – time teacher assistant because it may affect a SEN student if there is a frequent change in the teacher assistant of a classroom. A SEN student may need to adapt to a new TA each time there is a change in the TA of the classroom and this may affect a SEN Child’s learning behaviour and attitude in classroom. Thus, the writer strongly believes that in order to support SEN students, a full time teacher assistant is important. The teachingexpertise (no date) claims that teacher assistant ‘are often required to work with learners who have special educational needs, either individually or in small groups, and are used to help interpret the class material and ensure students stay focused during teaching sessions’ (teachingexpertise, no date). Thus, if there are no full-time TA in school X, then how is it possible for SEN students to have one to one assistants. Besides that, based on a few informal interviews with teacher assistant in school X, the researcher identified that teacher assistant in school X does not clearly understand their roles and responsibilities towards SEN students. Thus, how are the TA in school X able to support SEN students when they are not briefed and explained on their duties and responsibilities? TA in school X also does not know how to identify and assess students with SEN, including gifted, talented and slow learners. The writer questioned a few TA whether if there were able to exactly proof and identify a SEN student with no assumptions and the writer received a negative response for her question. TA’s in school X do not have the necessary knowledge and skills in handling with Special Educational Needs and Disability student. The TA’s in the school are neither receiving any special educational needs training so that they can augment the classroom teacher in inclusive education. In addition, TA’s are not provided with institutional support to become more effective in practising inclusive education. According to Adults Supporting Pupils with SEN, teacher assistant will have some typical duties: †¢ Maintaining an up to date file on individual pupil(s) †¢ In high schools, ensuring that individual education plans (IEP’s) are circulated/brought to the attention of subject/form tutors †¢ Contributing to group/individual education plans from knowledge of the child’s/young person’s progress †¢ Helping to gain the child’s/young person’s view of the IEP †¢ Collating relevant information from any other assistants who work with that pupil †¢ Contributing to the Annual Review process. †¢ Attending the Annual Review meeting †¢ Involvement in target setting for the pupil in line with the aims of the IEP. (Adults Supporting Pupils with SEN, 2004) TA’s in school X are not provided with any policy on their duties and responsibilities in supporting SEN students. Thus after much research, the writer feels that school X should have a policy on TA’s role in Supporting SEN and Disability. 4. 0 CONCLUSION School X provides the teacher trainees with continuous professional developments (CPD’s) training once a week. The topic discussed during CPD’s are usually on how to make a more effective IB environment classroom, teaching strategies and approaches and International Baccalaureate (IB) related topics. According to teaching expertise, ‘CPD is strategically focused and integrated with performance management and school improvement, to raise standards of teaching and learning’. Thus, it would be better if SEN and Inclusion is discussed during CPD’s, so that teacher assistant can become more effective in practising inclusive education. Besides that, TA’s should be equipped with the knowledge and skills in handling with Special Educational Needs and Disability students. A TA should be provided with sufficient guidance on how to identify students with SEND, including gifted, talented and slow learners. School X should take full responsibility of providing TA’s employed with sufficient knowledge on SEN and Inclusion before placing them in a classroom. School X should also employ full time teacher assistant not only for the creche and reception but also for the primary grades in order to support SEN students. The writer believes that if School X was to look into the aspect of teacher assistant and provides the entire teacher assistant with the training on SEN and Inclusion, TA would not be a barrier to the learning and participant of SEN students in the school. PART 2 TITLE Part 2 – Critical Reflection A critical reflection on the barrier(s) to learning and provision identified in Part 1. This should explore the strengths and weaknesses of a particular aspect of provision and an analysis of its implications for practice both at institutional and individual levels. This will be informed by literature (research, legislation, policy documentation) and your own evidence. 1. 0 INTRODUCTION The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (2001) published by the Department for Education states that ‘children have special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty which calls for special educational needs provision to be made for them’. The writer strongly supports the statement as she personally feels a child should not be labeled as a Special Educational Need (SEN) student if he or she does not have a learning difficulty which a SEN term needs to be named for them. Teacher assistants (TA) are supporters of a class teacher or homeroom teacher who ‘works under a teacher’s supervision to give students additional attention and instruction’ (BLS, 2012). A TA plays several roles in an institution: †¢ Provide extra assistance to students with special needs, such as non-English-speaking students or those with physical and mental disabilities. †¢ Supervise students in classrooms, halls, cafeterias, school yards, and gymnasiums, or on field trips. †¢ Tutor and assist children individually or in small groups to help them master assignments and to reinforce learning concepts presented by teachers. †¢ Enforce administration policies and rules governing students. †¢ Discuss assigned duties with classroom teachers to coordinate instructional efforts. †¢ Instruct and monitor students in the use and care of equipment and materials to prevent injuries and damage. †¢ Observe students performance, and record relevant data to assess progress. †¢ Present subject matter to students under the direction and guidance of teachers, using lectures, discussions, or supervised role-playing methods. †¢ Prepare lesson materials, bulletin board displays, exhibits, equipment, and demonstrations. †¢ Organize and supervise games and other recreational activities to promote physical, mental, and social development (BLS, 2012) The writer agrees to the tasks of a teacher assistant as stated in (BLS, 2012), teacher assistant should be able to provide support and help to a student who is categorized as SEN. Thus, a school with SEN students will need teacher assistant in order to support the classroom teacher and the student. The writer is currently teaching Visual Arts for Grade 1 students and on her free periods she assists and observes Reception students at School X, a school in Malaysia. Based on the writer’s observation throughout her experience working in School X, she finds teaching assistant as an element of provision that possesses a barrier to the learning and participation of some students Teaching assistant is a barrier in school X because there are lack of teaching assistant to support SEN students. Teaching assistant who are present in school does not clearly understand the roles and responsibilities that they play for the school, teachers and students. Thus, teaching assistant in school X is unable to play their roles towards SEN students. In addition, teaching assistant in school X does not have the necessary skills and knowledge in identifying and handling SEN students. Thus, how are they going to be able to identify or classify a student as SEN student, gifted or talented student? A wrong assumption on a student can lead to a great impact on his education. The writer chose teaching assistant as the barrier lacking in school X to support SEN students because she is very much keen to know how she as a teaching assistant can support and assist SEN students. 2. 0 STRENGTHS OF HAVING TEACHER ASSISTANT IN SUPPORTING SEN LEARNERS The writer was a TA in school X for more than a year and based on her observation her beliefs that there are several strengths in having a teaching assistant to support SEN learners. First of all, a TA would be a great aid in one to one guidance for SEN learners. A homeroom teacher will not be able to handle a classroom with SEN students all alone without support from additional staff. A TA plays the role to help the homeroom teacher in handling a group of students in the classroom while the homeroom teacher will handle the rest of the students. SEN learners seek for a person whom they are comfortable with or could rely on to request or say a thing. A teacher will not remain in classroom for the whole schooling hours. An average of three to five teachers would enter a classroom per day. Thus, A TA will be the person that a SEN student would look forward for any help or assistance as a TA usually will spend more schooling hours with students compared to any teachers. Besides that, a teacher needs to have a detail observation of the steps or moves taken by a SEN student as every of their movement is meaningful. It is impossible for a teacher to observe and record all the SEN learners’ progress by themselves. Thus, A TA will be needed to support the teacher and also observe students. A TA observation will provide a teacher with additional feedback on a SEN student progress. It would seem to follow from reports of teachers that assigning support staff to particular pupils, usually those with problems of learning, behaviour or attention, would give the pupils more individual attention and help them develop confidence and motivation in their work, good working habits and the willingness to finish off tasks (Blatchford et al., 2009a). It is a sensible solution to have a teacher assistant in supporting SEN learners as the teacher can then attend to the rest of the class without interruption. This is a productive arrangement for teachers and seems also to be having a positive effect in terms of pupil engagement, classroom control, and measures of confidence, motivation, independence, and good relationships with other pupils (Blatchford et al. , 2009a). 3. 0 WEAKNESSES OF HAVING TEACHER ASSISTANT IN SUPPORTING SEN LEARNERS The writer belief’s that having a TA in the classroom does have its weaknesses too. The writer’s belief is supported by TeachingTimes (No Date) where it states that a new report from the Institute of Education proofed those students from primary and secondary level whom receives supports from teaching assistant, show less progress than a student of the similar ability. Finn, Gerber, Farber, and Achilles (2000), on the basis of data from the often –cited Tennessee STAR project, found that there was no compensatory effect of having extra staff in larger (‘regular’) classes, a result similar to that of Reynolds and Muijs (2003). Klassen (2001) found that students with SEN who were assigned additional support for literacy made less progress than their unsupported peers. Giangreco et al. , in a series of publications, have argued that overreliance on one-to-one paraprofessional supports leads to a wide range of detrimental effects on pupils (e. g. , Giangreco et al. , 2005) Schlapp et al. (2003) identify the benefits of classroom assistants more in terms of the range of learning experiences provided and effects on pupil motivation, confidence and self esteem, and found less effect on pupil progress. On the other hand there is a well established concern that TAs can encourage dependency, e. g. , because they prioritise outcomes of activities rather than encouraging pupils to think for themselves (Moyles and Sushitsky, 1997). There are also concerns that support staff can have negative effects on pupils’ learning identity, e. g. , in terms of interference with ownership and responsibility, separation from classmates (Giangreco et al. , 1997).  ofsted (2004) suggest that TAs may be less likely to stress understanding and skills and ‘This was common reason why a significant number of pupils with SEN made too little progress, despite good teaching to the majority of the class (2004, p16). 4. 0 IMPLICATION OF HAVING TEACHING ASSISTANT AT INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL A TA does not only guide and assist SEN students in classroom or a teacher in reducing her workload, a TA also needs to play his or her roles and responsibilities towards the school. There are many tasks that a TA can play in an institute in order to aid the school staffs and support the development of the school. On the other hand, the school should also clearly understand the roles and responsibilities that a TA can play in the school and not overload them with additional task where it results in a TA being unable to accomplish his or her task as a teaching assistant in the classroom. One of the tasks that a TA can do at institutional level is to help the school staffs in decorating and creating an environment in connection to an upcoming event or festival. The writer as a TA has supported the school by decorating the school for festival such as Chinese New Year and Deepavali. The writer has also decorated the school for an environment of Celebration of Learning (COL). COL in school X means a celebration where its students oriented as parents are invited to view and observe students work and progress. The writer has decorated the school for exhibition purposes too where parents and invited guest are welcomed to the school. Besides that, the writer as a TA has helped the school in making events a successful one. The writer has come to school after working hours for special occasions in order to ensure the task allocated to her is completed. Duties which she has done as a school staff in school X are gate duty and ushering parents to specified allocations on Parent’s Day. 5. 0 IMPLICATION OF HAVING TEACHING ASSISTANT AT INDIVIDUAL LEVEL The impact of having a teacher assistant at individual level is countless. There are good and bad of having a teacher assistant to support SEN learners. The good impact of having a teacher assistant at individual level is a SEN learner will be able to receive one to one attention and guidance from teaching assistant. Thus, an individual will be able to progress at a faster rate and catch up to the pace of rest of the students in the classroom in a shorter period. The writer was assisting for a year in Grade 1 and based on her personal observation and some research, she and her homeroom teacher identified a SEN learner in the classroom. They did not label the child or exclude the child from participating in several activities conducted in the classroom as they did not want to classify the child into any terms. The writer and the homeroom teacher believed that if they were to provide the child with additional guidance and support, they child would surely show progress and improvement. Additional guidance and support was provided by the writer as the homeroom teacher handled the rest of the students. The writer assisted the student by breaking down task given by the teachers into smaller instruction and instructing the child using a simple terms including more of body language for the student to understand the instruction. The writer and the homeroom teacher succeeded in their hard work of making the student to progress as towards the end of the term, the child showed improvement in communication skills and writing skills. On the other hand, a teaching assistant can be harmful to a SEN learner if there are not filled with the essential knowledge and skills in identifying, assisting and guiding a SEN learner. Thus, to place a teaching assistant with insufficient knowledge on SEN would affect the academic progress and development of a SEN learner. 6. 0 CONCLUSION. In a nutshell, teaching assistant has many roles and responsibilities to be played not only at individual level but also at institutional level. A teaching assistant should clearly understand their roles and responsibilities before playing their roles as a misunderstanding in their task would create a great impact to the school and also students. The writer feels that in supporting and assisting SEN learners, a teaching assistant’s main aim is to assist the SEN learner with the objective and aim of showing and proving a progressive development of a SEN learner and not focusing on the completion of task. The writer as an individual who has experienced being a teaching assistant personally and strongly beliefs that a TA should not be misused and given additional task which results in TA being unable to fully do his or her roles and responsibilities towards the students. A TA’s main focus should be towards assisting students and not school work. The writer beliefs that if a TA is provided with all the necessary knowledge and skills n identifying SEN learners, a TA would be a great help in supporting, assisting and guiding SEN students towards the right path. BIBILIOGRAPHY A ND REFERENCING. Adults Supporting Pupils with SEN, (2004) The role of the Assistant, Available at: http://www. wakefield. gov. uk/NR/rdonlyres/D391ED9E-2BE4-4CC5-829F-953C07157DFB/0/Adults_Supporting, (accessed: 03/10/2012) Blatchford, P. , Bassett, P. , Brown, P. , et al. (2009a) The impact of support staff in schools, Deployment and Impact of Support Staff (DISS) Project. (Strand 2 Wave 2), DCSF Research Report 148 (London, Department for Children, Schools and Families), Available at: http://www. ioe. ac. uk/DISS_Strand_2_Wave_2_Report. pdf, (accessed: 29/10/12) Bureau of Labor Statistics, U. S. Department of Labor, (2012) Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2012-13 Edition, Teacher Assistants, Available at: http://www. bls. gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/teacher-assistants. htm, (accessed: 29/10/12) Department for Education and Skills, (2001) Special Educational Needs: Code of Practice, DfES0581, London: DfES Publications, Available at: https://www. education. gov. uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DfES%200581%202001#downloadableparts, (accessed 29/10/12) Education Act 1996, Chapter 56, (1996) London: HMSO, Available at: http://planipolis. iiep. unesco. org/upload/Malaysia/Malaysia_Education_Act_1996. pdf, (accessed: 03/10/2012) Finn,J. D. , Gerber, S. B. , Farber, S. L. Achilles, C. M. (2000) Teacher aides: an alternative to small classes? in: M. C. Wang J. D. Finn (Eds) How small classes help teachers do their best (Philadelphia, PA, Temple University Center for Research in Human Development), Available at:: http://psycnet. apa. org/journals/edu/97/3/454/, (accessed: 30/10/2012) Giangreco, M. F. , Edelman, S. , Luiselli, T. E. MacFarland, S. Z. C. (1997) Helping or hovering? Effects of instructional assistant proximity on students with disabilities, Exceptional Children, 64, pp. 7-18, Available at: maureenmcquiggan. com/files/Helping_or_Hovering. pdf, (accessed: 30/10/2012) Giangreco, M. F. , Yuan, S. , Mackenzie, B. , Cameron, B. Fialka, J. (2005) ‘Be careful want you wish for ’ Five reasons to be concerned about the assignment of individual paraprofessionals, Exceptional Children, 37(5), pp 28-34, Available at: http://www. uvm. edu/~cdci/parasupport/reviews/giangreco37-5. pdf, (accessed: 30/10/2012) Groom, B. and R. Rose, (2005), ‘Supporting the inclusion of pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in the primary school: the role of teaching assistants’, in Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 5, (1) pp. 20–30, Available at: http://onlinelibrary. wiley. com/doi/10. 1111/j. 1471-3802. 2005. 00035. x/full, (accessed: 03/10/2012) Gulliford, R. G. Upton, (ed. ) (1992) Special Educational Needs, London: Routledge, Available at: http://books. google. com. my/books? id=InjfpvVYbSECpg=PA218lpg=PP1ots=OrRgxw8lBddq=special+educational+needs, (accessed: 03/10/2012) Klassen, R. (2001). After the statement: Reading progress made by secondary students with specific literacy difficulty provision, Educational Psychology in Practice, 17(2), pp121 – 133, Available at: http://www. schoolsupportstaff. net/publications/otherpubs/aera_paper. pdf , (accessed: 30/10/2012) Moyles, J. Suschitzky, W. (1997) The employment and deployment of classroom support staff: head teachers’ perspectives, Research in Education, 58, pp21-34, Available at: http://www. uwl. ac. uk/files/instil/SoTL%20Abstracts%202010. pdf, (accessed: 30/10/2012) Office for Standards in Education (2004) Remodelling the school workforce: Phase 1 (London, Office for Standards in Education), Available at: www. ofsted. gov. uk/resources/remodelling-school-workforce-phase-, (accessed: 30/10/2012) Reynolds, D. Muijs, D. (2003) The Effectiveness of the use of learning support assistants in improving the mathematics achievement of low achieving pupils in primary school, Educational Research, 45(3), pp219-230, Available at:: http://www. fisme. science. uu. nl/staff/christianb/downloads/p1-11759185. pdf, (accessed: 30/10/2012) Schlapp, U. , Davidson, J. Wilson, V. (2003) An ‘extra pair of hands’?! managing classroom assistants in Scottish primary schools, Educational Management and Administration, 31(2), pp189-205, Available at: www. edupa. uva. es/schemesofwork/research/themes/teaching_assistants/WedFeb181416312004/wordfile. doc, (accessed: 30/10/2012) Teachingexpertise, (no date) An introduction to CPD, Available at: http://www. teachingexpertise. com/articles/cpd-teaching-profession_252, (accessed: 03/10/2012) Teachingexpertise, (no date) Meeting the needs of SEN students, Available at: http://www. teachingexpertise. com/articles/meeting-the-needs-of-sen-students-1907, (accessed: 03/10/2012) TeachingTimes, (no date) Pupils Using Teaching Assistants Make Less Progress, Available at: http://www. teachingtimes. com/articles/teaching-assistants-less-progress. htm,

Design And Operation Of Engine Testing Facilty Engineering Essay

Design And Operation Of Engine Testing Facilty Engineering Essay ABSTRACT The report covers design and development of an engine testing facility for the operation of diesel and gasoline engines. It consists of two sub-cells for each engine type. It is designed by keeping Euro 5 emission standard in mind. A study was made to find the power output of the diesel engines of 1.3 lit. Turbo to 6.0 lit. Tdi and gasoline engine of 1.6 lit. With variable vane turbo charger and variable geometry valve timing. The Heat balance sheet for both the engine and the test cell was made on the basis of power output. afterwards, the mass flow rate of the fuel, air, cooling water and oil were calculated to design the test cell. The dynamometer and other equipments were selected based on their types and operation requirements. At the end the bill of material of all the parts purchased was prepared to illustrate that the designed testing facility meets the funds of the project. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT Introduction 5 Test Cell Facilities Typical Test Cell Layout Thermodynamics of the test cell and flow measurement 7 Energy Balance 2.2.1Diesel Engine Energy Balance 2.2.2 Diesel Cell Energy Balance 2.3.1 Gasoline Engine Energy Balance 2.3.2 Gasoline Cell Energy Balance Test Cell Design Individual Test Cell Size Test Cell Design Cell Services Diesel Test Cell Layout Dynamometers Dynamometer mechanism Dynamometer Types Selection Of Dynamometer Instrument Selection 5.1Engine Speed 5.2 Temperature Measurement 5.3 Flow Rates Measurement 5.4 Pressure Transducers 5.5 Emission Equipment 5.6 Smoke Measurement 5.7 Prices of the Instruments Conclusion Reference CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In the present scenario, internal combustion engines have become the most widespread form of energy conversion from chemical to mechanical form. A lot more is going on these days to improve the design of the engine using better materials and techniques in order to achieve more power and fuel economy. Considering the amount of effort that is being put to design an engine from scratch, the art of testing an engine is becoming much harder to master. The work of designing a test cell which should test engines with varied range of power output and size requires not only the skill and technical knowledge of the subject; it also requires the exposure to the new and developing experimental techniques to observe even the minute aspect of the project in order to design the best possible layout. The testing of an engine requires correctly measuring the parameters such as temperatures, air flow, fuel flow, air velocity and several meter readings in the first attempt itself as its an expensive ex ercise to conduct an engine test. [2] 1.1 TEST CELL AND FACILITIES To build a test cell requires a detailed study of the energy input and output with respect to the engine, size of the engine etc. So the proper plan has to be carried out. The test facility should be well equipped with the modern test equipments and instruments like gas analyser, transducers etc. Following topics discussed the facilities. 1.2 A Typical Test Cell Layout The following fig. shows a typical cell layout showing the different systems like ventilation for air, conditioning systems, data acquisition, cooling and air conditioning system etc.. Fig. 1.1 A typical Test cell layout CHAPTER 2 ENERGY BALANCE AND MEASUREMENT 2.1 ENERGY BALANCE With reference to the table and the figure, an energy balance of the 1.3 litres turbo engine (manufactured by FIAT), which produces a power of 95bhp @4000 rpm (equivalent to 70 KW) is carried out. The same procedure can be later followed to calculate the energy flows for the 6.0 litre Tdi V12 Volkswagen engine producing a power of 331 KW @6050 rpm 560 Nm of torque at 2750 rpm. 2.2.1 DIESEL ENGINE ENERGY BALANCE Engine: 1.3 litre turbocharged diesel engine, power output: 95 bhp(70.87 KW) Assuming thermal efficiency of the engine = 0.42, calorific value of diesel = 44.8 MJ/kg So, fuel input power = 70.87/0.42 = 168.73 KW Specific fuel consumption = Table 2.2 Energy Balance for the fiat 500 1.3 litre turbocharged 70.87 KW diesel engine Item Energy In Item Energy Out Fuel 168.73KW Power 70.87KW (42%) Heat to cooling water 33.746KW(20%) Heat to oil cooler 5.0619 KW (3%) Heat to exhaust 42.1825KW(25%) Conv. and Radiation 16.873KW(10%) Total 168.73 KW 168.73 KW Flow Rate Calculations: Mass flow rate of the fuel: = The density of diesel fuel is à Ã‚  = 0.832 Kg / lt So, the fuel flow rate is: = 16.0096 litres / hr. Air flow: : Assuming that the air-fuel ratio at full load is 25:1 and air density is 1.2 Kg /, = 333 Kg / hr. = 333.5/1.2 = 277.5 m3/hr. Cooling water flow : : Heat loss to the cooling water is assumed to be 20% Therefore, Heat loss = Assuming 10 degrees rise in the water temperature = 48.4392 kg/min Exhaust flow : = 346.32 Kg/hr Engine: Volkswagen 331 KW, 450 BHP engine The energy balance and mass flow rates for this engine was calculated by similar fashion as shown in the above case. Table 2.3 Energy Balance for the Volkswagen 331 KW,450 bhp engine: Item Energy In Item Energy Out Fuel 788.09KW Power 331 KW (42%) Heat to cooling water 157.6KW(20%) Heat to oil cooler 23.64 KW (3%) Heat to exhaust 197.02 KW (25%) Conv. and Radiation 78.809KW(10%) Total 788.09 KW 788.09 KW Table 2.4 Flow rates for the Volkswagen 331 KW engine: Particulars Mass flow rate Fuel 63.3286 kg/hr Air 1583.21 /hr Cooling Water 226.22 kg/min or lts/min Exhaust 1583 kg/hr 2.2.2 DIESEL CELL ENERGY BALANCE The energy balance for the diesel cell has been shown the table 2.5. Some of these calculations are being done in the ventilation system section. Table 2.5 Energy balance for the diesel test cell for 450 BHP diesel engine Item Energy In Item Energy Out Fuel 788.09 KW Exhaust Gas 150 KW Ventilation Fan Power 10 KW Dynamometer Power 373 KW Electrical Cell Services 25 KW Engine Cooling Water 157.6 KW Ventilation Air 150.868 KW Cell Wall Losses 5 KW Total 823.09 KW Total 823.09 KW 2.3.1 GASOLINE ENGINE ENERGY BALANCE This cell is required to test the engines from 1.6 litre variable vane turbocharger with variable valve timing to 3 litres 400 BHP engine. Engine: Toyota corolla 1.6 litre VVT, 110 [emailprotected] rpm, 150 [emailprotected] rpm The energy balance and flow rate calculations are same as that of the previous. Assuming 30 30-30-10 thumb rule. The calorific value of petrol is = 48000 KJ/kg. Table 2.6 Energy Balance for the Toyota corolla1.6 litre 80 KW petrol engine Item Energy In Item Energy Out Fuel 267KW Power 80 KW (30%) Heat to cooling water 80 KW (30%) Heat to exhaust 80 KW (30%) Conv. and Radiation 27 KW (10%) Total 267 KW 267 KW The 30-30-30-10 rule is used for the assumption that means assuming 30% thermal efficiency of the engine and the fuel power input has been calculated on this basis. Later, 30% heat loss is carried away by the engine cooling water and the exhaust of the engine. The 10% heat is lost to the surrounding air by convection and radiation. Following table represents the various flow rates for the engine assuming the air fuel ratio at full load to be 15:1 for the gasoline engines. Table 2.7 Flow rates for the Renault 1.6 litres VVT 80 KW engine Particulars Mass flow rate Fuel 20 kg/hr Air (A:F = 15:1) 250 /hr Cooling Water 115 kg/min or lts/min Exhaust 320 kg/hr Engine: A 3.0 litre 400 BHP (294 KW) gasoline engine Energy balance and flow rates have been calculated similarly as previous cases. Table 2.8 Energy Balance for the 3.0 litre 400 BHP petrol engine Item Energy In Item Energy Out Fuel 980KW Power 294 KW (30%) Heat to cooling water 294 KW (30%) Heat to exhaust 294 KW (30%) Conv. and Radiation 98 KW (10%) Total 980 KW 980 KW The values shown in the above table have been calculated assuming the 30-30-30-10 rule as discussed in the previous section and the table below shows the various flow rates for the gasoline engine. Table 2.9 Flow rates for the Renault 1.6 litres VVT 80 KW engine Particulars Mass flow rate Fuel 73.5 kg/hr Air (A:F = 15:1) 920 /hr Cooling Water 422 kg/min or lts/min Exhaust 1178 kg/hr 2.3.2 GASOLINE CELL ENERGY BALANCE: The table below represents the energy flows in and out of the cell when operating on full capacity of 400 BHP gasoline engine Table 2.10 Energy balance for the gasoline test cell for 400 BHP engine Item Energy In Item Energy Out Fuel 980 KW Exhaust Gas 274 KW Ventilation Fan Power 5 KW Dynamometer Power 250 KW Electrical Cell Services 25 KW Engine Cooling Water 294 KW Ventilation Air 187 KW Cell Wall Losses 5 KW Total 1010 KW Total 1010 KW The energy balance sheets for the diesel and gasoline engines lay a firm foundation for the design of the in-cell services and selection of the equipments that have been carried out in the later chapters. CHAPTER 3 3.2 TEST CELL DESIGN The test cells must be provided with the following services: Water supply and drainage system Fuel supply system Ventilation system Taking engine exhaust to exterior Fire and safety regulations Portable test stand for the engine and dynamometer Control room or console etc We have to keep the temperature maintained at the ambient, so we have to give importance to ventilation system also. General purpose engine test cell has been shown in fig. 3.1. A typical test cell layout that has been used for these types of engines has also been shown in the fig. 3.2. Such type of cells is usually built side by side with common control room. The engines are imported in the cell from the rear door whereas the operator could enter from the front door. A thick glass is mounted between the control room and the engine cells so the operator could have a look at the cells while sitting inside the control room. [1] Fig. 3.1 General arrangement inside an engine cell aligned against a wall and the control room on the other side of the engine. Fig. 3.2 A layout of the test facility with two cells having a common control room .. Fig. 3.1 and 3.2 shows the typical layout of a facility incorporated with two separate cells and a common control room with a thick glass window separating the cell and the control room. The cells are aligned with a wall which leads the exhaust outlet to the atmosphere. 3.3 CELL SERVICES 3.3.1 VENTILATION SYSTEM Ventilation system plays a very important role in any engine testing laboratory or testing cell. inside the cell due to running of heavy engine a high temperature is developed also at the surface of the engine . so it is necessary to carry away this heat ventilation system should be strong enough , also it is necessary to keep the surrounding temperature at ambient conditions. The convection and radiation losses are assumed as below (based on diesel engine): Engine 78.809 KW (10% as mentioned in heat balance) Exhaust Manifold 10 KW Exhaust tailpipe and silencer 10 KW Dynamometer 40 KW Electrical equipments 15 KW Forced draught fan 5 KW Subtotal 158.809 KW Total (assuming 95% efficiency of the ventilation system) 150.868KW Table 3.2 Heat losses to be considered for the ventilation system design For the total heat loss from engine by convection and radiation H = 150.868 KW, the volume flow rate of air can be calculated as: Taking H = 150.868 KW, C = 1.01 KJ/Kg-K, à Ã‚  = 1.2 kg/m3, and temp rise of 10, the mass flow rate is: 12.447 m3/sec. or 746.87 m3/min. the air flow velocity in the duct could be taken in between 15-20 m/sec. For this value, the cross-sectional area could be 0.37-0.49 m2. So, from a range of standard duct area, it could be taken as 600mm X 600mm ( square duct) as it results into the air flow velocity of 19.5m/sec (satisfies the range of 15-20 m/sec) and velocity pressure or dynamic pressure of 228 Pa. [3] from the above data centrifugal and axial fans were selected for the inlet and outlet respectively . typical ventilation system is as shown in the fig. Specification of the fan used in the ventilation system is as follows: Fan Air vol. (m3/hr) Speed (rpm) Power (KW) Centrifugal 920 2250 0.29 Axial 958 1680 0.21 Table 3.4 represents the specification of fans selected for ventilation 3.3.3 COOLING WATER SYSTEM Water is an almost ideal cooling fluid as it has a high specific heat value, low viscosity, relatively low corrosivity and is freely available (Martyr and Plint, 2007). The required flow rates can be calculated similarly to that of air if the heat to be transferred and the change in temperature is known. Additives such as ethylene glycol (antifreeze) can be added to the water to improve the operating temperature range of the cooling system and inhibit corrosion, although the specific heat value will be reduced. There are various types of cooling water circuits that can be considered like: Open water circuit, where the water is supplied directly from the mains and is therefore not circulated back. Closed water cooling circuits, where the water is supplied from a sump or tank and can be circulated back. This has an advantage that the coolant could me mixed in water sump to improve the cooling effect. Closed pump circuit 3.4 DIESEL TEST CELL LAYOUT C:UsersrohitDesktopdiesel cell layout.png Fig. 3.4 The diesel cell layout base on all the calculation done CHAPTER 4 DYNAMOMETERS Dynamometers are used inside the test cell to measure the torque which developed on the engine output shaft. It also measures the power output of the engine. 4.1 WORKING OF DYNAMOMETER Fig. 4.1 typical setup of dynamometer The dynamometer resists the rotation of the engine shaft to measure its torque. The rotor rotates inside the stator which as the name indicates is stationary. The rotor exerts torque on the stator and this balanced by the load cell. The toque is given by: T = F X B And so the power developed by the engine could be known as: P = 2à Ã¢â€š ¬NT KW If the engine speed (in rpm) is measured using tachometer, the power could be easily calculated using the above equation. 4.2 TYPES OF DYNAMOMETER : The dynamometer types which are in practice include: Hydraulic Dynamometer DC Dynamometer AC Dynamometer Eddy current Dynamometer Each one of the above mentioned dynamometers has different set of working principle. There are four quadrants in which a dynamometer can operate: rotating clockwise producing or absorbing torque and rotating counter clockwise producing or absorbing torque. Figure gives a diagrammatical layout of these four quadrants. Most water brakes can only operate in the first quadrant. Eddy current dynamometers can operate in the first two quadrants, while AC/DC dynamometers can be used in all four quadrants. Figure 3-13: Dynamometer operating quadrants (Martyr and Plint, 2007) 4.3 DYNAMOMETER SELECTION: Different types of dynamometer has been studied by considering the advantage and disadvantage of each type of dynamometer the AC dynamometer has been chosen as it can perform in all the four quadrants and has lower inertia than the DC dynamometers, which makes it less vulnerable to vibrations due to rotation of the shaft. Diesel Cell: As the cell has been designed to fit in the engine ranging from 75-500 BHP. The dynamometer selected for this cell is AC 500 1811. 373 kw manufactured by Mustang dynamometer . The specifications are listed in table 4.2: Horsepower Cooling Type Constant torque range(ft-lb) Max Torque (ft-lb) 500 Blower 2455 2455 Table 4.2 AC dynamometer selected for diesel cell Gasoline Cell: The gasoline cell has been designed in such a way that it will test the engine with a maximum of 400 BHP. The selected dynamometer was AC 400 HP dynamometer manufacture by Dyne systems and its specifications are listed in the table 4.3 Horsepower Constant Torque range (ft-lb) Constant HP range Max Torque (ft-lb) 400 1175 3525 1787.91 Table 4.3 AC dynamometer selected for the gasoline cell CHAPTER 5 SELECTION OF INSTRUMENTS 5.1 SHAFT SPEED MEASUREMENT Tachometer is used for the engine speed measurement the non contacting digital tachometer is used so that it will not affect on the speed of the shaft . following tachometer is selected Make: Check-line ltd, Model: ctd-1000hd, Non-contact type, Measuring rang : 1.00-99999 Rpm, Prize: 5.2 TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT The inlet air, coolant inlet and outlet, exhaust and oil temperatures can be measured with thermocouples. Depending on the temperature to be measured, K and J type Thermocouples are the most common thermocouples available. J types operate in a smaller range, approximately to 150 °C while K types operate up to 1500 °C 5.3 FLOW RATE MEASUREMENTS a) Turbine-flow meter: Omega, model: FTB790 Series. It has an output range of 0-5V DC b) Fuel-flow meter: Fischer-Porter Digital fuel flow meter is selected c) Air-flow meter: Mass-air flow meter manufactured by Shijiazhuang Fortune Industrial Trading Co., Ltd. and FHC Ind, model: FHC-CMF I-DNXX Limited has been selected. temp range of -40 to 200. 5.4 PRESSURE TRANSDUCERS Omega high accuracy pressure transducer has been selected Model: PX01C1 -100G5T 5. Range: 0-400 bar, with 0 to 5 Vdc Output accuracy . 5 EMISSION EQUIPMENT The equipments used should be of euro 5 standards following chart shows the emission norms for euro 5 and euro 6 standards: EURO 5 EURO 6 PERTOL DIESEL PETROL DIESEL CO 1 0.5 1 0.5 THC 0.1 0.1 NMHC 0.068 0.068 NOX 0.06 0.18 0.06 0.08 HC+NOX 0.23 0.17 PM 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 Fig. 5.2 EURO 5 and EURO 6 emission standards Exhaust gas analyser: XM2000 5 -gas analyser Exhaust Measurement System provides a portable, low cost tool for continuous analysis of engine exhaust gas components (HC, CO, CO2, NO, O2) system. XM2000 -gas analyser manufactured by Dyne Systems Inc. 5.6 PRICE-LIST Items Price ( Reason for purchase Dynamometers 1,20,000 Power and Torque measurement Centrifugal Fans 500 Forced Draught Axial Fans 1800 Ventilation Exit Feet levelling for beds 700 Absorb vibrations 6 thermocouples 100 Temp. measurement 2 Infrared thermometers 280 Non-invasive temp. 2 Digital Tachometers 125 Engine Speed measurement 2 Data-Acquisition System 1,10,000 Record and transfer data to control room 2 Pressure Transducers 700 Cylinder Pressures All types of flow meters 10,000 Measure mass flow rates Gas Leak Detectors 400 To detect leaks Smoke Detectors 50 To detect fire 5-Gas Analyzers (2nos) 4,50,000 To check emission TOTAL COST 6,67,780  £ CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION

Identifying The Day We Were Dogs Essay -- Day We Were Dogs Essays

Identifying The Day We Were Dogs      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Whether or not "The Day We Were Dogs" (1993) is a magical realist story is questionable. Often stories are misidentified because of the closeness of literature such as magical realism, the fantastic, and the sublime. The story leaves a lot to one's imagination instead of presenting it in the text. Elena Garro blends two days and two completely different worlds together in this story. The magical elements depend on how one uses his or her imagination throughout this story. The girls could either be pretending to be dogs or they could have actually become dogs. If they are in fact real dogs, they are able to talk, and their dog Toni also talks. Also, magic numbers are used throughout the story. The main magical element is the blending of the two days. The story jumps back and forth between the two and never distinguishes between them. The realistic elements include Toni's actions. He shows how dogs spend their days lying under a tree and eating all day. Another realistic element depends on how one accepted the events that happened within the two parallel days. If the girls were not actually turned in to dogs but were just pretending, then this fact is another realistic element. Children often pretend they are animals, expecially dogs. In magical realism, "the text contains something we cannot explain according to the laws of the universe as we know them" (Faris 167) and the "descriptions detail a stong presence of the phenomenal world" (Faris 169). These quotes explain why one might think that this story is magical realism due to the two different worlds that are going on at the same time. Also, one "experience[s] the closeness or near-merging of two realms, two worlds" (Fari... ...l Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham; N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. 249-263. Garro, Elena. "The Day We Were Dogs." Latin American Writers: Thirty Stories. Ed. Gabriells Ibieta. New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press, Inc., 1993. 206-212. Faris, Wendy B. "Scherazade's Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction." Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham; N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. Sandner, David. "Romanticism and Transcendence in Nineteenth-Century Children's Fantasy Literature." The Fantastic Sublime. Westport, C.T.: Greenwood Press. 45-65, 142-147. Theim, Jon. "The Textualization of the Reader in Magical Realist Fiction." Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Ed. Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris. Durham; N.C.: Duke UP, 1995. 235-247.   

Horror of War Exposed in Erich Maria Remarques All Quiet on the Wester

Horror of War Exposed in Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the greatest war novels of all time. It is a story, not of Germans, but of men, who even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war. The entire purpose of this novel is to illustrate the vivid horror and raw nature of war and to change the popular belief that war has an idealistic and romantic character.   The story centers on Paul Baà ¼mer, who enlists in the German army with glowing enthusiasm.   In the course of war, though, he is consumed by it and in the end is "weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope"   (Remarque page #).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Through Baà ¼mer, Remarque examines how war makes man inhuman. He uses excellent words and phrases to describe crucial details to this theme. "The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts," (page #). Baà ¼mer and his classmates who enlisted into the army see the true reality of the war.   They enter the war fresh from school, knowing nothing except the environment of hopeful youth and they come to a premature maturity with the war, their only home. "We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces.   We are not youth any longer" (page #).   They have lost their innocence.   Everything they are taught, the world of work, duty, culture, and progress, are not the slightest use to them because the only thing they need to know is how to survive.   They need to know how to escape the shells as well as the emotional and psychological torment of the war.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The war takes a heavy toll on the soldiers who fight in it. The terror of death will infest the minds of soldiers... ...as they dread wound and death.   They have nothing to look forward to but years of rage.   They have experienced the horrors of war but have not experienced the enjoyments of life.   They will be pushed aside and forgotten and the years will pass, and in the end they will fall into ruin.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   All Quiet on the Western Front tries to explain the purpose of war and its uselessness.   It is a story of an almost obliterated generation that fought for nothing but the principle of hate.   Change the names, and it could have been the tale of a Frenchman, an Englishman, or an American.   It is perhaps the most tragic generation our human records tell of.   It bears the overwhelming accent of simple truth that makes you one wonder why war still exists. Work Cited Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. Trans. A. W. Wheen. New York: Ballantine, 1982.

Allen Ginsberg :: essays research papers

Allen Ginsberg started his infamous life as a revolutionary and poet of the beat generation when he began attending Colombia University. While at Colombia Ginsberg met friend and mentor Jack Kerouac whom he would later join to form the School of Disembodied Poets. During his education at Colombia University Ginsberg started his highly political and opinionated poems, which would become his signature for the beat generation. The poetry he produced would become the basis of protest and due to this and his strong political presence Ginsberg earned himself a spot on the FBI’s dangerous list.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ginsberg’s poems were that of a revolutionary and showed his dislikes of American Society and the Injustices throughout America. Ginsberg’s most recognized and an earliest poem was Howl and other poems written in 1956 (Ostriker 4). Howl being one of Ginsberg’s most infamous poems has been translated to the T. In Alicia Ostriker’s criticism of Howl she relates Ginsberg’s â€Å"Meloch† in part two of Howl to many of the evils that befall this nation today (5). Ostriker states, â€Å"Ginsberg’s mind forged Meloch likewise as oppressiveness of a modern industrial and military state, excluded from reason. Ginsberg’s Meloch is also the modern version of Mammon, the capitalism of unobtainable dollars†¦ running money†¦ electricity and banks. (7).† Howl records in veiled fashion, the humiliation and crippling of a population of immigrants to shores, which promised, hope and produced despair (3). In th e poem Howl’s (1956) first lines, â€Å" I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked dragging themselves through the Negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix. (Ginsberg, Howl)† Ginsberg is speaking of the destruction that drugs have caused in American Society and America’s addiction to drugs. Ginsberg also describes the members of his community: Who distributed supercommunist pamphlets in Union Square and undressing while the sirens of Los Alomos wailed them down, and wailed down Wall, and the Staten Island Ferry also wailed, who broke down crying in white gymnasiums naked and trembling before the machinery of other skeletons, Who bit detectives in the neck and shrieked with delight in police cars for committing no crime but their own wild cooking pederasty and intoxication (Ginsberg, Howl)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In Levi Asher’s review of Howl he describes these lines as Ginsberg’s fellow travelers, the crazy, lonely members of his community of misunderstood poet artists, unpublished novelists, psychotics, radicals, pranksters, sexual deviants, and junkies (Asher 1).