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Music and Sustainable Development Goals: Telling the Story
No full textNow, 10 years after the United Nations adopted its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the music profession continues to work toward being a responsible partner in the health and preservation of the planet and its inhabitants. By transcending social barriers, music promotes cultural awareness and mutual understanding, encourages creativity, and enhances emotional well-being, outcomes vital to the global goals of health, freedom, peace, education, equality, prosperity, and environmental sustainability. The article includes various examples of how music performers, educators, composers, and scholars are creating or adopting new practices that are mindful of reducing the carbon footprint, yet financially feasible in their application
FROM SCARS INTO STARS: TRANSFORMING THE PAIN OF TRAUMA INTO PURPOSE IN ACADEMIC WRITING
Get PDFThis dissertation argues for the value of acknowledging students\u27 emotions in the writing classroom, inspired by a pedagogy which has generated extensive controversy over the past 30 years. This project investigates how writing teachers might carefully allow students to harness their emotional reactions as they write. My project’s first chapter defends the value of victims\u27 stories and the \u27\u27talking cure,\u27\u27 following an explanation of how this psychological work would be introduced to a classroom setting, and with what tools, recognizing the potential disruptions that trauma may bring to a learning space. My second chapter turns to writing teachers who have employed this strategy in various ways. In chapter three, I turn to writers who have written about their own psychological pain. This is a chapter analyzing the kinds of primary literary texts one might use in a college classroom to encourage students on their own personal explorations. My fourth chapter discusses class pedagogy through the dramatization of films where faculty face administrative resistance to asking their students to engage in emotional expression. Chapter four speaks to the longstanding trope of how Hollywood’s fictionalized educators have been beset by administrators, while attempting to enable students to engage with their emotions as part of their education. My fifth and final chapter narrates my own experiences as a filmmaker while discussing my creative and pedagogical work in the wake of the Parkland shooting. While I too attempt to juxtapose my own story to match the types of plots seen throughout Hollywood films in teachers, I stand clear that I make no attempt to anoint myself as the savior that pop culture depicts educators to be. Rather, I see myself as a person who simply works hard to humanize the learning space as a caring and emotionally available person. Although this project was initially inspired by personal trauma in the aftermath of a shooting, the findings in this work are applicable to all students who wish to unburden themselves of traumatic experience, as well as those from non-traditional educational backgrounds, which is a growing part of student populations today
A CASE STUDY OF ITALIAN TEACHERS’ CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY WHEN TEACHING U.S. UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS STUDYING ABROAD IN ROME, ITALY
Get PDFFor over two decades Italy has been the second destination, first non-Anglo-Saxon, for U.S. undergraduate students studying abroad, with 36,945 students in academic year 2017/2018 corresponding to a 10.8% share and a 4.5% increase from 2016/2017 (IIE, 2019). With over 150 North American college and university programs present in the country (AACUPI, 2019), a specifically designed law (Art. 2 of Law N. 4 of 14 January 1999) created to support study abroad in Italy, and a 40-year-old nonprofit association (AACUPI) focused on promoting and supporting American universities and colleges with programs in Italy, Italy is, and will be for some considerable time one, of the top study abroad destinations for U.S. students. With one in ten U.S. undergraduates studying abroad before graduating, and this group’s race and ethnicity increasing in diversification, 30% in 2017/2018 vs. 18.1% in 2006/2007 (IIE, 2019), it becomes crucial to investigate culturally responsive pedagogy in the context of U.S. students studying abroad in Italy. The purpose of this dissertation is to discover if undergraduate students from a four-year university from the Northeast of the U.S. benefit from culturally responsive pedagogy while studying abroad at their institution’s Rome, Italy, campus. To answer this question a qualitative single explanatory case study was used to research how four Italian teachers applied culturally responsive pedagogy when teaching to these students from the main campus in the United States. Personal semi structured interviews, in-class direct observations, and teaching artifacts were the instruments utilized to study two male and two female teachers with an average of just over 20 years of teaching experience. Coding was executed through a two-step design with one phase of first cycle (open - descriptive) coding and one phase of second cycle coding (axial). The themes generated by this process were then matched against the proposed potential research outcomes. The study’s significance, focused on producing richness of information and not generalizability (Donmoyer, 1990; Patton, 2002), is to help educators in the field of study abroad to understand the importance of CRP in the context of study abroad, as well as to provide further opportunities of investigation in the field
EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF CLINICIANS’ TRADITIONAL BELIEFS ONEND-OF-LIFE CARE COMMUNICATION
Get PDFEffective end-of-life communication is essential to patient-centered care, shaping treatment decisions, family well-being, and overall care quality. While patients’ traditional beliefs are often cited as barriers to quality end-of-life care, less is known about how clinicians’ own beliefs affect their communication efficacy and distress tolerance. This study examined how traditional beliefs—specifically those about death and dying (e.g., avoidance of direct discussion due to taboos), emotional expression (e.g., viewing emotion as dangerous or controllable), and filial piety (e.g., respect and deference to elders)—relate to clinicians’ distress intolerance during end-of-life communication. It also tested whether self-efficacy mediates or moderates these relationships. A sample of 244 interdisciplinary healthcare providers (physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists) completed self-report surveys via Qualtrics. It was hypothesized that beliefs about death, emotional expression, and filial piety would form a single attitudinal dimension. However, only beliefs about death and emotional expression were strongly correlated; filial piety was not. Traditional beliefs about death and emotional expression were associated with greater distress intolerance. Self-efficacy in end-of-life communication, in contrast, was linked to lower distress intolerance. Structural equation modeling (SEM) tested whether a latent “traditional beliefs” construct predicted distress intolerance through self-efficacy. The model did not yield good overall fit, but path analyses showed that traditional beliefs directly predicted distress intolerance. Further, beliefs about death and dying significantly predicted self-efficacy, while beliefs about emotional expression predicted distress intolerance. Mediation analyses indicated that self-efficacy partly mediated the relationship between traditional beliefs and distress intolerance. No moderation effects were found. ANOVA revealed that attending physicians reported higher self-efficacy and lower distress intolerance compared to residents, nurses, and social workers. However, they endorsed more traditional beliefs about death and dying than residents. These findings suggest clinicians’ own beliefs may shape how they experience and manage end-of-life conversations. Training efforts should increase awareness of how personal beliefs about death and emotion influence communication and clinician distress during these sensitive encounters
THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE AND PERSONALITY ON INTERPERSONAL FUNCTIONING AND SOCIAL MOTIVATION
Get PDFThis study investigated the role of culture and personality in shaping interpersonal functioning and social motivation among undergraduate students. With the increasing interests in how individual characteristics and cultural backgrounds influence social behavior, this research aimed to examine the interaction between cultural orientation (individualistic vs. collectivistic) and personality (introversion vs. extroversion) on social competence and motivation. The study utilized online questionnaires, including the Big 5 Personality Test, a Culture questionnaire, and a Social Functioning Questionnaire, to assess how these factors contribute to interpersonal engagement and social drive. The primary hypothesis posited that individuals from individualistic cultures and those with introverted personalities would perform worse in social competence compared to those from collectivist cultures and extroverted individuals. This hypothesis was based on data that collectivist and extroverted individuals are more likely to engage in social interactions and exhibit higher levels of social motivation. However, the results did not support the hypothesis, as no significant effect of cultural background on interpersonal functioning or social motivation was found. The F-value for the effect of culture was 0.427, with a p-value of 0.516, indicating that cultural orientation did not explain significant variance in either social competence or motivation within this sample. Similarly, while personality traits did not reach statistical significance, a trend toward differences in social competence and motivation was observed, suggesting that personality may still influence social behavior, though not in a statistically significant manner. The study also tested the interaction effect between culture and personality, exploring whether the relationship between personality traits and social motivation might differ depending on cultural background. However, the interaction was not significant (p = 0.5109), suggesting that culture and personality do not interact in the anticipated way in this sample. These findings challenge the notion that cultural background plays a powerful role in social behavior and motivation. While the expected relationships were not supported, the results invite further exploration of these factors in other populations and contexts to better understand their potential influences on social functioning
FINDING THEIR WAY: THE EXPERIENCES OF STUDENTS ENROLLED IN A CAREER PATHWAYS PROGRAM
Get PDFDue to many sociopolitical factors such as an inequitable public-school education, many students do not graduate from high school in the United States. In 2018 “approximately 2.3 million 16- to 24-year-olds were not enrolled in high school and had not earned a high school diploma or alternative credential” (McFarland et al., 2018, p. 12). There is inequity in school funding and resource allocation. Barker and Weber (2016), Cascio and Reber (2013), and Kim and Taylor (2008) have found that the inequitable resource allocation in public schools is a causal factor of dropout. This is problematic because “college graduates find better jobs, earn more money, and suffer less unemployment than high school graduates do” (Hout, 2012, p. 379). Students who do not earn a high school diploma or GED fare economically worse (Alliance of Excellent Education, 2010; Rumberger, 2020). This qualitative study drew on the case study method and explored the experiences and perspectives of three participants who returned to school by enrolling in a Career Pathways program. This program enables students who have not earned a high school diploma or GED the opportunity to earn their High School Equivalency (HSE) and associate degree simultaneously. The Career Pathways program in this study is offered at a proprietary college located in a major metropolitan area in the Northeast. I examined Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth theory (CCW), which acknowledges BIPOC and immigrant communities cultures as a source of empowerment. CCW asserts that BIPOC communities possess many forms of capital. CCW was used as a lens through which I engaged my study. The study highlighted the capital the research participants possessed and how the participants utilized their capital to navigate through college. This research adds to the literature regarding supports and motivations that can be used in similar educational settings to aid non-traditional students in the attainment of a college degree
EXAMINING ADHD DIAGNOSED YOUNG ADULTS’ SELF-PERCEPTIONS OF PERSONAL READING BEHAVIORS DURING PLEASURE READING EXPERIENCES
Get PDFAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) impacts the lives of individuals with neurodivergent brains in varied and personal ways. This phenomenon mirrors the diversification of the minds I have been intrigued by for decades. In an effort to better understand the relationships between ADHD and pleasure reading, the lived experiences with pleasure reading of six young college students were examined. Participants were formally diagnosed with some form of ADHD before the study, yet did not have a reading disability diagnosis. One-on-one interviews were conducted to explore in-depth each participant’s experiences with pleasure reading. Through interpretative phenomenological study (IPA), four themes emerged: (a) perceptions of self as a reader, (b) varied experiences with reading comprehension, (c) flow experiences with high-interest self-selected reading content, and (d) relationships between reading and distractions. The purpose of this study was to capture and explore more deeply each participant’s experiences with pleasure reading, rather than prescribe a “one-size-fits-all” strategy. The researcher eschewed all attempts to settle upon recommending any strategies, other than one––allow complete autonomy (reader’s completely free choice, not in name only, but in reality) regarding pleasure reading both at home and in school. All participants emphasized freedom of choice (high-interest, self-selected content) as most important to them when engaging in pleasure reading, as well as the cause of their greatest struggle (when forced by an adult to read any content without their free choice). Although complete autonomy may not be feasible at this time in traditional classrooms, regarding pleasure (independent) reading, all people (but especially those with ADHD brains) should be supported to reading by their natural curiosities and set individual timelines for doing so. This study’s participants unanimously exhorted the positive impact this strategy has done for them and their enjoyment of pleasure reading
NEITHER WITHOUT BOTH: CONFRONTING OPPRESSION AND TRAUMA IN UNIVERSITIES – COMMUNITY RHETORICS TOWARD ABOLITIONIST CRITICAL LITERACY PRACTICES
Get PDFThis dissertation explores pathways to addressing student suffering at the intersection of mental health and academic performance in Higher Education. I argue that Learning Specialist roles offer spaces to practice trauma-informed, anti-oppression approaches to academic support through liberatory, healing rhetorical and literacy practices. This study uses James Berlin’s theory of social epistemic rhetoric and bell hooks’ concept of theory as liberatory praxis to perform rhetorical analyses of the foundational texts guiding specific anti-oppression and/or mental health recovery organizations. By identifying rhetorical strategies in grassroots community organizations\u27 texts, this project yields implications for naming and practicing a critical literacy framework I call socio-emotional literacy as a form of liberatory harm reduction in universities as we work toward abolition
THE DUAL FACTOR MODEL: COMPARING PREDICTIVE VALIDITY OF DIFFERENT INFORMANT VARIATIONS ON ACADEMIC AND MENTAL HEALTH OUTCOMES
Get PDFThe Dual Factor Model (DFM) of mental health conceptualizes well-being and psychopathology as distinct but interrelated constructs. Unlike traditional models that focus solely on psychopathology, the DFM incorporates positive attributes such as subjective well-being, allowing for a more meaningful classification of students (Greenspoon & Falkofske, 2001; Suldo & Shaffer, 2008). Despite its increasing use in school-based research, prior studies have lacked intention in informant selection when assessing internalizing and externalizing behaviors, leading to variability in DFM construction. Given known discrepancies among self, teacher, and parent reports in mental health assessment, informant choice may significantly impact classification and predictive validity (De Los Reyes et al., 2015; Genachowski et al., 2022). However, no study has systematically compared different informant-based DFMs to determine which configurations provide the strongest predictive validity. This study analyzed a subsample of a large retrospective dataset from the Center for Adolescents Research in Schools (CAR; Kern et al., 2011), including 242 adolescents (ages 13–17). Participants were classified into DFM categories based on subjective well-being (Brief Multidimensional Students\u27 Life Satisfaction Scale; BMLSS) and internalizing and externalizing behaviors (Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition; BASC-2). This study compared six different informant iterations of the DFM and its predicative validity of anxiety, depression, and academic outcomes. Anxiety and depression symptoms were assessed using the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) and the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale-2 (RADS-2), while academic outcomes were measured with the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement. Results indicated that while DFM category distribution remained stable across models, predictive validity varied. A self-report-based model (Model 3) demonstrated the strongest predictive validity for anxiety and depression. While academic outcomes lacked strong predicative validity with DFM categories across all models. These results support the need for empirical justification in DFM construction and suggest that school-based mental health assessments should consider informant selection. Future research should explore the longitudinal stability of DFM classifications, examine the role of subjective well-being in mental health trajectories, and assess the model’s utility in guiding targeted interventions for at-risk adolescents
ADSORPTION AND RECOVERY STUDIES OF CADMIUM AND LEAD IONS USING BIOWASTE ADSORBENTS FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS
Get PDFThe use of low-cost biowaste adsorbents for the removal of toxic metal ions from aqueous solutions offers significant environmental benefits and demonstrates strong potential. This study evaluated luffa peels and chamomile flowers as low-cost biosorbents for the adsorption and recovery of Cd2+ and Pb2+ ions in both batch and column modes. To enhance adsorption capacity, the biosorbents were treated with 0.4 M HNO3 or 0.4 M NaOH. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) characterization showed that surface OH, C=O, CO and COO groups played a role in the adsorption process. Batch adsorption studies indicated an order of adsorption capacity as follows: base-treated chamomile flowers \u3e acid-treated chamomile flowers \u3e base-treated luffa peels \u3e acid-treated luffa peels. L-type isotherms were obtained for Pb2+, fitting both the Langmuir and Freundlich models, with maximum adsorption capacities (Qomax) of 34.0 mg/g for luffa peels and 49.5 mg/g for chamomile flowers, while Cd(II) showed the highest adsorption affinity at pH 8.0. The kinetic study demonstrated that adsorption followed a second-order model, reaching equilibrium within 60 minutes. Fixed-bed column adsorption results showed that luffa peels had a Thomas dynamic adsorption capacity (Q0) of 32.9 mg/g for Pb2+ and 25.8 mg/g for Cd2+. The recovery efficiency (R%) remained above 87% over three adsorption-regeneration cycles, indicating high stability of the luffa peels. This study demonstrates that biosorbents like luffa peels and chamomile flowers have substantial potential as low-cost, reusable sorbents for recovering metal ions from aqueous solutions