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The Everyday Heroism of a Neurodiverse Teacher in Aotearoa New Zealand
Get PDFThis article works to demonstrate the utility of everyday heroism as a construct to understand the work of teachers as heroic. The first part of the article makes connections across literature that establish the everyday work of teachers as heroic. This is done by connecting banal heroism, bureaucratic heroism as it is explored in academic literature and film, and the notion of the hero as companion. Teaching as everyday heroism is then demonstrated through a case study of one neurodiverse teacher’s inquiry into her practice. Using three critical moments from an autoethnographic case study, the teacher is shown to be both a bureaucratic hero and a heroic companion to her students. The case study demonstrates the teacher’s use of the hero’s journey to support her own planning and development of resources
From Heroic Imagination to Belonging-Focused Healing: A Tribute to Philip Zimbardo
No full textThis article offers a reflective account of the Polish adaptation of the Heroic Imagination Project (HIP), a global educational initiative founded by Philip Zimbardo to promote everyday heroism through psychological awareness. As HIP took root in Poland, we developed a robust infrastructure of certified trainers, academic collaborators, and educational centers, reaching over 250 schools and 800 educators. Grounded in core psychological principles -- such as the bystander effect, social conformity, and prejudice -- the program empowered participants to resist negative social influences and cultivate moral courage. The experience also gave rise to Belonging Focus Therapy (BFT), a psychobiological and sociocultural approach that addresses the deep psychological wounds of exclusion and rejection. Drawing from personal collaboration with Zimbardo, this article weaves together educational outcomes, therapeutic insights, and empirical findings to show how cultivating psychological safety and self-awareness fosters heroism, healing, and inclusion. In honoring Zimbardo’s legacy, HIP in Poland stands as a testament to the transformative power of belonging
Aligning school improvement – From goal setting to classroom application.
No full textBy connecting district goal setting to school initiatives and classroom application, a Virginia school district makes accountability work
College Teaching - What makes a college education truly great — and how can teachers sustain the passion and rigor it demands?
No full textThis content addresses sustaining teaching excellence through evidence-based pedagogical strategies, directly applicable to continuing education and institutional faculty development programs
Multi-Variable Monte Carlo Simulation for Portfolio Analysis in Excel
No full textMonte Carlo (MC) simulation has several applications in finance, including risk management, valuation, and portfolio management. In this paper, we use multiple correlated Geometric Brownian motion (GBM) processes that allow for very robust portfolio analysis. In this treatment, five correlated funds make up a portfolio. MC is used to not only forecast possible future portfolio and fund outcomes, but to also evaluate the benefits and costs of a hedging strategy and to consider the effects of different correlation structures between the funds on portfolio performance. Because the programming is in Excel, the analysis is very accessible and available to analysts to not only perform MC, but to also understand the underlying mechanics.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Combining Excel’s =LAMBDA and =MAKEARRAY functions allows a user to create user-defined functions that generate multi-factor Monte Carlo Geometric Brownian motion (GBM) simulations that are correlated. In this paper, we demonstrated up to five factors, however, the model is generalizable to more than five correlated variables.
A hedging strategy analysis is possible by allowing the simulation to output values at each time-step prior to recording the final outcome. One can determine if the hedging strategy is too strict or lax in regard to mitigating risk and if the strategy is worth the cost relative to its risk reduction benefit.
Monte Carlo simulation allows for a type of scenario analysis to determine the effects of varying parameters from their initial values (possibly historic values) to other possible values that may occur in the future. We provide an example in which correlation values between funds are made more positive and more negative relative to their initial values
Letter from the Editor
No full textLetter from Sam Chanenson, Editor in Chief, Osmosis Science Magazine
THE ILLUSION OF PROTECTION: EXAMINING THE ENIGMATIC PRIVILEGES OR IMMUNITIES CLAUSE
No full textFor many years, the United States Supreme Court has protected unenu- merated rights, or rights not expressly stated in the United States Constitu- tion, under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.! However, the Court has revoked or limited protections for certain unenumerated rights under this Clause in recent years. Most notably, in June 2022, the Supreme Court held in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that the Con- stitution does not confer the right to an abortion and thereby overtuming nearly fifty years of precedent that began with Roe v. Wade in 19732 To reach its holding in Dobbs, the Court cited Washington v. Glucksberg, a 1997 case that Fourteenth stated only rights with deep roots in the history and tradition of the United States are recognized as fundamental rights deserving of constitu- tional protection.’ Applying the test set out in Glucksberg, the Court deter- mined that abortion was not “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tra- dition” and was, therefore, not a protected fundamental right under the Amendment.* In his Dobbs concurrence, Justice Clarence Thomas expressed his desire to see “whether any of the rights announced in this Court’s substantive due process cases are ‘privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States’ protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.”* Ac- cording to Justice Thomas, fundamental rights should be protected under the Privileges or Inmunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, not the Due Process Clause.® The problem with this idea is that the Privileges or Immun- ities is Clause is considered a dead letter in the Constitution.” Justice Thomas therefore suggesting that the Privileges or Immunities Clause be revived. He expresses his desire for revival in the dissent of Seanz v. Roe, stating: Because I believe that the demise of the Privileges or Immunities Clause has contributed in no small part to the current disarray of our Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence, T would be open to reevaluating its meaning in an appropriate case. Before invoking the Clause, however, we should endeavor to understand ‘what the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment thought that it meant. We should also consider whether the Clause should displace, rather than augment, portion
Mushrooms and Mind Control
No full textIn a humid forest climbs a lone carpenter ant. At midday, it sinks its mandibles into a leaf’s vein and is locked in place. A few days later, a thin stalk of mycelium erupts from its head, dusting the forest floor in spores to infect a new victim. The ant has been infected by an unseen puppeteer known as Ophiocordyceps unilateralis sensu lato, more commonly called cordyceps or the “zombie‑ant fungus” (de Bekker et al., 2021). When we think of mind control, visions of mad scientists and maniacal villains tend to dance through our heads; the true culprits, however, are microscopic organisms that employ a variety of tools to alter and modify their host’s behavior. It is worth noting that this is not the mind control you see in the movies— that is, the fungus is not consciously piloting the ant. Rather, “mind control” is a simplified way of explaining how behavioral manipulation works on this scale. Cordyceps displays a particularly spectacular control over an ant’s faculties: coordinating it to die in the perfect microclimate for its growth (de Bekker et al., 2021). But how
Nonprofit Third Places: Assessing Program Implementation Impact on Student Learning and Development Beyond the Classroom
No full textMany students lack equitable access to safe, engaging, and supportive learning environments beyond the traditional classroom. Nonprofit organizations such as First Tee and Girls on the Run often fill this gap by creating “third places” that foster student growth through sports programs. This capstone project examines the effectiveness of nonprofit-operated sports programs that serve as third places in enhancing student learning and development, focusing on the strategies that make them successful and sustainable. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study integrates quantitative surveys of educators, interviews with nonprofit staff, and document analysis of program records, strategic plans, and annual reports. Key variables include social-emotional growth and skill development, as well as organizational factors such as program design, partnerships, and staff training. The research explores how different stakeholders perceive the role and impact of nonprofit third places in supporting youth development outside of school. Findings from this project will generate actionable insights to help nonprofits strengthen program design, demonstrate effectiveness to funders, and expand access to high-quality learning environments. By illuminating the strategies that contribute to successful outcomes, the study aims to advance both scholarly understanding and practical application within the nonprofit sector, ultimately supporting more equitable and enriching opportunities for students
“A Leader or a teacher”: A Latent Theory of Transformative Education in James MacGregor Burns’s transforming-transactional leadership paradigm
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to uncover a latent theory of transformative teaching and learning to be found in James MacGregor Burns’s account of transforming leadership and place it in interdisciplinary conversation with transformative education. The importance of this interdisciplinary exploration consists in this: Burns’s view that good leadership and good teaching are nearly indistinguishable has powerful implications that have been too little recognized. For, if right, teachers ought to view their work as exemplifying leadership (of a mutually beneficial, elevating sort); similarly, leaders across organizations ought to look to transformative teachers as paradigmatic models of good leadership. Expanding on this interdisciplinary analysis, we shall note the ways in which Burns’s vision for transforming leadership may be helpfully augmented by Douglas Yacek’s recent theory of transformative education that centers transformation in the form of aspiration. Similar to both Burns’s and Yacek’s discussions of transforming teacher leadership and transformative education in classrooms, respectively, when I write here of leadership in education, I shall focus here on leadership as it occurs between teacher and student in (especially secondary and college) classrooms (rather than the educational leadership of administrators, deans, or principals—positional leaders—in schools). Accordingly, this paper will be of interest to both scholars of transformational leadership and philosophers and practitioners of transformative education