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Examining the Opportunities and Access to Gifted Programs: Unintended Social and Emotional Consequences
No full textThe purpose of this article is to examine the social and emotional consequences of the inequity of access to gifted programs in the United States’ school system. To complete this study, we used a modified version of the PRISMA method to conduct a systematic literature review about the following research questions: What are the social and emotional aspects of gifted programs? What are the positive social and emotional aspects of gifted programs? What are the negative aspects of gifted programs especially for students that are not in the programs? Following the PRISMA method, we used academic databases, like ERIC, using multiple keywords such as academically gifted, gifted programs, consequences, and student perceptions. Both quantitative and qualitative studies were included, as well as peer reviewed scholarly articles relating to consequences of the gifted program. The findings include negative consequences such as a sense of elitism in the school environment, perfectionistic tendencies in gifted students, and an underrepresentation of students of color in gifted programs. In addition to negative consequences, there were also positive aspects of the access and opportunities for selection into gifted programs including an elevated motivation in gifted students and heightened time management skills from the increased rigor in coursework. 
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Performing Histories of Abhyudayamu and Yakśagānamu: Reading Performance and Performative Literatures of Early Modern South India as Historiography
Get PDFScholars have established over the past decades that the tradition of historiography in South Asia was not altogether a Western import. This has allowed us to revisit South Indian vernacular literary texts in a new light. Historians A. K. Warder, Romila Thaper, Nicholas Dirks, and the trio of Sanjay Subramaniam, Velcheru Narayana Rao, and David Shulman have argued eloquently in their writing about seeing Indian literature as serious sources of historical evidence. For example, the trio identify sources such as Karanam-s (service gentry who were book keepers/accountants), Raya Vācakamū-s (chronicles of Vijayanagara Kings), and Tārikh-s (modern members of society who wrote history), all seemingly non-traditional sources authored by ministers, court chroniclers, accountants, army chieftains, and others as important materials. I further this argument to investigate the vernacular performative literatures of Abhyudayamu-s in the yakśagānamu style, from early Modern Tañjāvur. Raghunātha-abhyudayamu, a Telugu Yakśagānamu text written by Vijayarāghava Nāyaka in the seventeenth century, records the daily life of his father Raghunātha Nāyaka.
Abhyudayamu is in the versified prose format of dvipada (poetic metre). It enumerates the genealogy, lifestyle, events, people, and place, as well as the escapades of the King. It literally sequences the dawn-to-dusk life of the Telugu Nāyaka King. The Raghunāthaabhyudayamu, is written in the yakśagānamu genre and has a distinct performative quality with song and dance as its central modes of expression. Performing the yakśagānamu, which extolls Raghunātha’s greatness through historic conquests, administrative prowess, warfare genius, processions, cultural and romantic alliances was a way to report history. It was also the assertion of kinship and identity by the Bahujan (historically serving class) Nayaka Kings. Performing the yakśagānamu daily in open court must be read as layered modes of embedding historic memory in public consciousness.
While some of the performative literatures have been brought to light in the past, through publications and discourse, it is in fact in the experience of performance that vestibules the past into the future that cultural memories are built. Parts of the performed rendition are embedded as videos in this article for illustrative purposes. This study, is therefore a reading of literature complimented by embodied practice, that is rendered as performing histories: enacted literary performances imbuing the interpretive tools for cultural research
Rethinking Endings: Amany’s Persistence
Get PDFThis article relies on reflexive ethnographic methods to theorize artistic and creative ownership claims. It seeks agency for three women through writing and concrete production performance with a live audience. Focusing on the performance Encounters—a production based on the life story of the dancer, Amany of the early and mid-nineteenth century, I explore the history of a group of Indian dancers from Puducherry and Yanam who were taken to Europe in 1838 to perform at numerous European venues.1 By revisiting the repertoire performed by them and the representation of the dancers, I argue that these dancers were and remain misrepresented in the historical record as Devadasis (“servants of god”), generally misunderstood to be prostitutes. These Devadasis were termed “La Bayaderes” to mean “a female dancer” in French. Autoethnography revealed facts that make these women at once relevant to the present-day performing artists in particular and society at large. This article is also a narrative of women claiming their little-known platform, as three histories of Amany, Mangatayaru, and I come together
The Unchanging Reality of Male Dancers in Pakistan
Get PDFThe social status of male dancers in South Asia has been well-furrowed as a field of scholarly investigation. Since time immemorial, Shiva has been described as Nataraj and Bharata’s Natya Shastra refers to both male and female dancers. Wajid Ali Shah, the ill-fated Nawab of Avadh, was not just a patron of dance, but also a dancer and choreographer who wrote several books on dance like Najo, Bani, and Saut-al Mubarak. A more recent history of male dancing began with the many books on Rabindranath Tagore and Uday Shankar. But the way male dancing found social acceptance in the different countries of South Asia is quite uneven. Post-colonial India and Sri Lanka celebrated dancers such as Uday Shankar; Kathak doyens such as Shambhu Maharaj, Lachhu Maharaj, and Birju Maharaj; the Manipuri Gurus such as Amubi Singh; Kathakali Asan’s such as P.K. Kunju Kurup, T.K. Chandu Pannikar; and many more in the many dance styles of India. Patronage included the national Padma Awards, the National Performing Arts Awards (Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards), and performances and valences of many kinds. Sri Lankan dance flourished under the legendary Chitrasena; things in Pakistan were very different then
Teacher-Level Traits as Moderating Factors of Professional Development
Get PDFThis professional development (PD) study investigated the role of teachers’ initial receptive language skills on the implementation of language enhancement strategies. Head Start lead (n=12) and assistant (n=9) teachers received PD designed to increase their use of language enhancement strategies. Results indicated that teachers’ receptive vocabulary scores did predict their pretest language strategy usage; F(1, 19) = 6.40, p < .05, accounting for 25.2% of the variation in the frequency of language enhancing strategy. Additionally, there was a significant difference detected by role at pre-intervention indicating that assistants delivered fewer language enhancement strategies compared to lead teachers M = 41.25 (SD = 16.16) vs. M = 25.67 (SD = 11.98). However, post-intervention means demonstrated a closing of the gap between lead and assistant teachers’ implementation of language enhancement strategies. Results interpreted by discussing the importance of examining the moderating impact of teacher-level traits in evaluating the effectiveness of PD
Racial Disparities Among the Physical and Mental Health of Head Start Staff : Racial Disparities Among Head Start Staff
No full textRacial disparities are known to exist in terms of health care; this paper investigated if such differences existed among Head Start staff in terms of health and wellness. The purpose of the study was to compare physical health indicators from a Louisiana HS sample to a previously published data set of Pennsylvania HS staff [4].
We surveyed a predominately black (85.6%) group of HS teachers (n = 195) using a modified questionnaire developed by a Pennsylvania research team. The responses were compared to a national reference and Pennsylvania group of HS teachers [4].
Results indicated that HS teachers have higher prevalence of health-related problems than the national sample. However, our sample of black teachers in HS start classrooms experienced worse physical health than white women with similar characteristics (age, marital status, etc.). These results have profound implications regarding health disparities as well as the physical well-being of HS teachers
Vajira: The Pioneering Female Dancer
Get PDFVajira Chitrasena is regarded as a pioneer in the field of Kandyan dance, primarily for being the first female professional dancer. At nearly ninety, she was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2021, in recognition of her art form and her contribution to dance culture in Sri Lanka. Vajira has received numerous awards from the state and private institutions in Sri Lanka, and she has been the subject of numerous articles over the years. Most of the popular writings on Vajira highlight her critical contribution in advancing the female form of a traditionally male dance, paving the way for successive generations of professional female stage dancers. These commentaries that appeared in print and, later, in online media, also document the aesthetics of her dance and the supporting role she played to the acclaimed Kandyan dancer, Chitrasena, who was her partner on stage and in life. These accounts have, however, tended to ignore her role as a multifaceted artist. In addition to being a performer, Vajira is a choreographer of traditional dances and a co-creator of numerous productions; she has also been a teacher to numerous dancers over the decades and, in this process, she has developed her own, influential pedagogy for teaching Kandyan dance