Middle Tennessee State University: Journals@MTSU
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Post Secondary Education
Full text linkEducation has been an important part of the United States history. In the 17th century, the Puritans insisted that each town create a school. Thomas Jefferson advocated the idea that a democratic society needs educated residents. Education reform dates back to the 1800s when there was an increased demand for skilled workers. Education reformers have recently been pushing to provide educational opportunities for all citizens. It is documented that an educated citizenry is needed to help society thrive and improve social mobility, economic growth, and equity (Unauthored, 2010)
“There is no death, only change.” : Science and the Supernatural in H. Rider Haggard’s The Days of My Life and She.
Full text linkAvenging ghosts, a near-immortal woman who claims to possess lost scientific knowledge, and mummies awaiting reincarnation assume a prominent position in H. Rider Haggard’s novel, She: A History of Adventure (1886/87). But how do we read the mummies or the near-immortal Ayesha’s Eastern “scientific” knowledge that appears more akin to sorcery than science? A strategic reading of She with an eye on Haggard’s autobiography, The Days of My Life (1925), yields intriguing insights into the author’s fascination and fear of the occult, which he sought to reconcile with prevailing scientific thought. These ideas reverberate through the mummies and Ayesha, expressing Haggard’s unique and syncretic understanding of reincarnation that accords with contemporaneous shifts in scientifically informed religious ideologies.
Haggard’s interest in connecting religious concepts to evolution, scientific materialism,4 and the nascent field of psychology adumbrates cultural shifts occurring at the fin de siècle as Christian theological positions on death and the afterlife were reimagined. The cultural contest between Eastern and Western knowledge emerges when examining how Haggard draws on ancient and modern Eastern religious concepts, new Western scientific theories, and particularly through his grudging acknowledgement that some Eastern thought was valid. Both texts intervene in the contemporaneous discourse on the tenuous distinction between Eastern and Western knowledge and “legitimate science” and “pseudo-science” that was liberally deployed to explain death, immortality, the subconscious mind, and past-life memories
TEACHING THE ECONOMICS OF AUTOMATION
Full text linkThe purpose in this paper is to create a teaching module on the economics of automation. Avoiding technicalities but focusing on critical thinking, key ideas in the economics of automation are highlighted, and class discussion material is provided based on popular books published in the 2020s. Differing perspectives from these books allow for rich class discussions on topics including the risks of automation, the power of Big Tech, and policy responses for the digital economy. For ECON 101 students, Disney animation clips are provided as hooks to engage in analogy-based understanding of issues in automation. Likewise, other video clips are used to discuss the risks and dangers of automation related to jobs, scams, democracy, and political polarization. Overall, this teaching module highlights key ideas in the economics of automation, incorporates ideas from recently published books, and complements the lecture with videos to retain student interest
SWIFTONOMICS: USING TAYLOR SWIFT TO TEACH ECONOMICS
Full text linkTaylor Swift is the most iconic music artist of her generation; her current Eras Tour is already the highest grossing of all time. Given her fame, fortune, and popularity among Millennials and Gen Z, which make up the vast majority of today’s college and high school students, Taylor Swift’s career offers a myriad of opportunities for teaching economics. The impact of her career has led to a new term entering the economics lexicon: Swiftonomics (the economics of Taylor Swift and Swift’s impact on the economy). This paper provides two lesson plans that make use of the Taylor Swift phenomenon to illustrate the concepts of supply and demand and exchange rates. For each lesson plan, we provide links to videos and news articles and a range of assessment activities involving Quizizz and a standalone handout which can be used in-class or assigned for homework. The size, diversity, and devotion of Taylor Swift’s fanbase (colloquially known as Swifties) presents economic educators with a unique opportunity to incorporate economic lessons within their current curriculum, from high school through to an introductory economics course at the college level
Promoting Tangible, Cultural, and Cognitive Access to STEAM Identity Through Literacy-Based-Picture Book Biographies
Full text linkLearning and innovation skills such as creativity, critical thinking and problem solving, communication, and collaboration can be fostered through learning about STEAM role models. Using selected picture book biographies, teachers can help their elementary students visualize the experiences of these individuals as they developed and refined ideas or products that addressed needs. The nature of picture book biographies, the unique vocabulary of each STEAM content area, and the use of language arts strategies can promote access and equity as students examine issues and challenges faced by previous generations. They can question and begin to form their own STEAM identities as they consider the contributions they can make during their lifetime
The Impact of Mitigating Refugee Students\u27 Mathematics Learning Loss on Their Resilience Levels
Full text linkRefugee children face many difficulties on their migration routes. These challenges continue even after arriving in the destination country. It is important for the world\u27s growing child migrant population to successfully adapt to the host country. Otherwise, there is a risk for future generations facing psychological, social, and academic challenges. Education and training play an important role in the adaptation process of children and youth. The focus of this study was to overcome the math learning losses of refugee students by changing the approach to mathematics in order to increase their resilience. For this purpose, a one-group pretest-posttest quasiexperimental design was used. Among the refugee students now living in Germany and Greece, two were Syrian and 40 were Turkish. Within the framework of the project, a two-month problem-based mathematics education program was carried out for the students. The Connor- Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-25) (2003) was administered to the refugee students at the beginning and end of the program. In addition, the students\u27 views on the mathematics education program were taken. According to the students\u27 views, the program was efficient, and the learning losses were mitigated. It was also found that the mitigation of math learning losses increased the resilience of refugee students significantly (p<.01)
“Fairy-Born and Human-Bred”: From Fantastical to Farcical in Charlotte Brontë’s Fiction
Full text linkCharlotte Brontë’s writing has always been conscious of negotiating the truth and the idealistic. Brontë composed her mature novels in sharp distinction to the infernal worlds of the Glass Town saga, the fictional kingdoms she and her siblings created throughout their childhoods. Her juvenilia essentially function as high fantasy genre fiction, though over time, Brontë became more intent on exposing “the extreme of reality, closely depicting characters as they had shown themselves … in actual life” as opposed to these “exaggerated idealisms of her early girlhood” (304), or so writes Elizabeth Gaskell in the author’s posthumous biography. This definition of reality, however, was subject to change over the course of Brontë’s writing career. In the span of eight years, her novels became increasingly psychologically complex, leaving behind the fairytale pilgrimages of her juvenilia and Jane Eyre to make room for the eccentric and pessimistic narration found in Villette. Indeed, when we compare the motifs and genre style found in Brontë’s texts, an overarching lack of the fantastical emerges throughout her narrative arcs
Coleridge and Milton: How Paradise Regained Inspired Christabel
Full text linkColeridge’s Christabel is widely studied for its multifold obscurity and mysteriousness. Its fragmentary state has puzzled and challenged scholars for two centuries, but what is as baffling and enigmatic as its ending is its emergence, or the inspiration for Coleridge’s composition of Christabel
Poe’s Art of Seduction: Montresor as Author in “The Cask of Amontillado”
Full text link Herein I argue that the character Montresor, the narrator and protagonist of “The Cask of Amontillado,” serves as Poe’s fictional illustration of an author engaged in the creative process. Montresor, in his actions and in his recounting of them, executes a “plot” that puts Poe’s theory of “unity of effect” to the test. Montresor seduces Fortunato just as Poe seduces the reader: through verbal craft. His intent is to induce terror, and the measure of his success is the measure of the degree to which he achieves maximum effect. Montresor’s plan, his execution, and his delivery of the tale all exemplify the principles Poe outlines in “The Philosophy of Composition”—an essay published just months before “The Cask of Amontillado.”
In the first section of the paper, I trace Poe’s development of the unity of effect theory in the years leading up to the publishing of “The Philosophy of Composition.” I then apply the theory to a close reading of “Amontillado.” In the final section, I discuss the tacit contract between author and reader required for Poe’s brand of horror. In observing the correlation between Poe’s conception of the author and his fictional illustration of the author, we see how Poe sets the preconditions for 20th-Century genre fiction by placing the audience in the foreground—an emphasis that would find full flower in the age of mass media, when the distinction between “art” and “entertainment” would become immaterial
Stopping the Willow Project on Social Media: An Exploration of the Social Problems Process in a Sub-Environmental Issue
Full text link The Social Problems Process (SPP), a sociological theoretical model, encompasses an in-depth examination of the stages a social problem (SP) passes through to achieve remediation. This project aims to explore the SPP of the environmental sub-SP of fossil fuel continuation as demonstrated by the Willow Project (WP), an accepted policy that allows for intensive oil drilling in environmentally vulnerable landscapes, contributing to exacerbated climate conditions. The aim of this exploration is to better understand the SPP in contemporary SPs and role of social media. The present study uses qualitative content analysis, emphasizing frequency and themes, of WP-related Instagram posts. A total of forty-four posts were collected and analyzed across two account categories: activist/educational (n=5) and news/informative (n=5). Approximately 86% of the analyzed posts were collected from the activist/education account category (n=38) with primary themes of taking action and animal/environmental consequences. Contrastingly, the news/informative account category produced minimal coverage prioritizing contextual information. These findings support the WP sub-SP passing through the initial three stages of the SPP: claims making, media coverage, and public reaction. This work contributes to filling in the gaps of literature exploring SPs within social media with an acute focus on the connections between environmental SPs, public perception, and youth