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Slum Managers
No full textAll sorts of landlords—governmental landlords, cooperatives, large-scale corporate landlords, and mom-and-pops—engage in slumlording to some degree. Despite that fact, some of the most popular proposed solutions to the problem focus on a property owner’s size and corporate form, rather than its property management practices. This Essay contends that management, not ownership, is the proper target for regulations intended to improve the conditions under which many tenants live. It then proposes pairing and using in tandem two mechanisms for addressing management: licensing and receivership
Initiating Remedies for Our Unconstitutional and Unlawful Residential Segregation
No full textIn 1866, Congress passed a Civil Rights Act outlawing burdens on freed slaves not also imposed on free whites, reasoning that racial discrimination—both public and private—undermined effective emancipation. However, subsequent Supreme Court jurisprudence did not honor or uphold this law and its progeny. Had it done so, the hard-fought promise of equality would not have been broken, the America we know today would not be so racially segregated, and the “badges and incidents” of slavery could have been timely eliminated.
The racial segregation of America’s neighborhoods is not, as was long thought, merely the result of private activities such as unethical mortgage lending and the use of racially restrictive covenants. As detailed in The Color of Law, throughout the twentieth century segregation was intentionally imposed by national, state, and local governments. De facto segregation, including the interrelated realities of segregated neighborhoods and segregated schools, was exposed to be nothing more than a myth. Private bigotry would have been inoperative but for government willingness to ignore its legal and constitutional obligations and instead enact policies and programs of racial exclusion.
De facto segregation is not only a myth, it is a dangerous one. If our country’s racial separation is seen as accidental, there exists no legal or constitutional requirement to remediate persisting segregation.
The remedies for manifestations of racial segregation, such as the denial of equal education addressed in Brown v. Board of Education, should not only be forward-looking to prevent ongoing segregation, they should appropriately be remedial as well, to undo the ongoing harms of past discrimination.
There does not now exist the political will to pursue national remedies proportional to segregation’s multi-generational impacts. While neighborhood segregation may have been largely created by the federal government, its maintenance, even exacerbation, results from local policies and programs. Activist community groups can develop the power to effect remedies.
As outlined in Just Action, these groups can challenge local practices that reinforce segregation, each contributing a small but accumulating step to combating neighborhood racial inequality. Banks, realtors, developers, and government agencies that imposed segregation can be pressured to take active remedial roles. Similarly, local groups can seek to improve the lackluster enforcement of the Fair Housing Act.
Individual and organizational support of local fair housing centers—both by raising funds and recruiting volunteer testers—is necessary for these centers to continue critically important paired testing programs in their communities.
These measures, coupled with mobilizing support for reforms in tax assessment policy, unconstitutional zoning, housing sales and rentals, and many other local public and private practices that have a discriminatory impact, are within the capacity of community groups and local activist organizations.
All too often, civil rights advocates focus their energy on the federal level, proposing well-crafted, but futile reforms that have minimal chance of enactment and implementation. Instead, the most productive area in which to begin to direct energy is local, focusing on redressing segregation—and the badges and incidents of slavery—in our own communities
Autonomous Instrumental Music Learning on an Online Platform: How is Study Motivation Related to Engagement and Study Outcomes?
No full textMusical instruments have been recognized as attractive targets of volitionally developed long-term engagement. However, in music education research, the significance of autonomy in fostering learning motivation has mainly been perceived through the prism of student-teacher interaction. Addressing this gap, this study shifts the focus towards an autonomous learner perspective embracing the learner’s volitional approach and interest in engaging with musical instrument learning. Through an analysis of a survey sample (N=215) involving participants’ experiences with an online music learning platform, the study explores participants’ study motives and their association with study engagement, alongside the subsequent learning and wellbeing outcomes. An exploratory factor analysis on learning motives revealed six factors, among which the autotelic motive emerged as the most significant precursor to affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement with learning. A statistical path model elucidated that the autotelic motive was linked to wellbeing and instrumental learning outcomes through the engagement. Further examination on motivational participant clusters indicated that the effects between engagement factors and outcomes varied between the groups, shaped by their distinct motivational profiles. The observations underscore the importance of recognizing learners’ autotelic orientation and devising strategies to nurture this motive, particularly through challenge and curiosity support within the instructional context
Exploration of Language and Identities among Study Abroad Participants in Non-Anglophone Context: Experience of Asian International Students Studying Abroad in Belgium
No full textThis Research Summary examines the study abroad experiences of Asian international students who study in non-anglophone Belgium. This research investigates how the experiences of mobility programme participants impact individual identity, with a focus on national, regional, and global citizenship identity. Eighteen qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews were implemented. Mixed lived experiences and reactions towards national, regional and global identity after participation in mobility programmes were identified. Findings showcase non-anglophone European Higher Education and the study abroad experience of non-anglophone speakers from Asia in the post-COVID-19 era. The Research Summary provides a critical snapshot of Asian International students’ lived experience, especially under the increasing popularity of English medium instruction in non-Anglophone contexts. Findings can inform relevant pedagogical practices in the realm of international education
Decolonizing Colombian Foreign-Language Classroom Assessments: A Meaningful Framework
No full textIn Colombia, foreign-language evaluation validity appears to be mainly related to the analysis of instruments, leaving aside students’ characteristics, affective schemata and expectations. Drawing from critical pedagogy, this study aimed at raising authenticity and meaningfulness in the development of valid foreign-language assessments in a higher education classroom. Framed in the sociocultural perspective, the teacher/researcher and her students obtained substantial gains by adapting a syllabus and evaluation system to better respond to the needs of their context. It was a collaborative process that implied contextualizing contents, establishing a concept of language ability, and including students’ voices in the design of assessments, to answer the question: how could authenticity and meaningfulness become decolonizing forces in a foreign-language course? Conjugating the Communicative Curriculum and the Model of Language Ability, the course syllabus was shaped around communication goals, meaningful dimensions, significant class events and linguistic purposes of the class ecology. As a contribution, this article presents a framework educators can adjust to work with their students towards the decolonization of knowledge in the Global South
Patterns of Teaching and Professional Development Practices in Brazilian-Finnish Transnational Education
No full textThis study investigates teachers’ professional practices during the delivery of a transnational professional development programme by one Finnish university for a cluster of Brazilian private universities. The objective is to identify local instructors’ patterns of teaching (teachers’ personal-professional qualities), which are conceptualised as approaches to teaching and self-efficacy beliefs, as well as participation in professional development practices (professional cultures and professional development activities). An online questionnaire was sent to the teaching staff of five universities and 201 responses were received and analysed. The most important explanatory aspect was self-efficacy beliefs, which formed the basis for categorising teachers into meaningful clusters. The findings illuminated significant disparities among these clusters concerning their teaching approaches and engagement in professional development activities. Additionally, the results indicated that teachers who had participated in the transnational pedagogical programme were more committed to experimenting in teaching and participating in research-focused and formal professional development activities than those who had not. Plausible explanations for these results and directions for future research are discussed
The Well-Being of International Doctoral Students—What Does it Look Like, What Affects it, and How Can We Support it?
No full textThere are multiple reviews on the well-being of international students and doctoral students, but to our knowledge, none on the well-being of international doctoral students. We undertook a scoping review to understand the state of well-being of international doctoral students, the factors that affect it, and the strategies that support it. We searched PsycInfo, EBSCO, Scopus, and ERIC for full-text, peer-reviewed articles published in English from 2003–2023. Fourteen studies were included in our scoping review. These studies suggest that international doctoral students report relatively low well-being in terms of negative emotions, attitudes toward the self, and social relationships. Their well-being is affected by an intersection of predisposing, contextual, and psychological factors. Strategies to support well-being focused on actions that individual students can enact to support their own well-being. We suggest several strategies to support the well-being of international doctoral students, focusing on those that involve actions taken by institutions
Un-fathering the Constitution
No full textConstitutional law turns on Madison’s vision. This because Madison is universally acclaimed by the Supreme Court and legal academe as the Constitution’s father. However, Madison’s constitutional parentage sounds more in lore than logic.
A careful review of recent historiography, Madison’s own writings, and new analytics tools available on the Quill Project reveal Madison as much less important to the Constitution than previously thought. He did not bring about the Convention, did not write the Virginia Plan, and was not that influential at the Constitutional Convention. Immediately after the Convention, Madison considered himself and the Constitution a failure, and disclaimed any singularly unique role in its framing. His influence grew post-Convention in writing the Federalist Papers and drafting the Bill of Rights but was more modest for the unamended Constitution. Madison does not a father make, especially in the singular sense.
This paper focuses on the impact Madison’s demotion has on the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Constitution. Without Madison on the constitutional podium, several foundational moorings of constitutional law must be reconstructed on additional or alternative grounds
Student Unrest and The Growth of Repression on Campus: A Comparison of Administrative Responses to Student Activism at The University of Connecticut
No full textThis paper sheds light on how university administrations have historically used instruments such as police, policy and punishment in order to deter and control student protests on campus. Students at the University of Connecticut’s Storrs campus have an undeniable relationship with activism that integrates global issues at the local level, allowing them to play visible roles in international anti-war and anti-racist movements of different eras. The University of Connecticut (UConn) is used as a case study by assessing the ways the administration has responded to anti-Vietnam War and Civil Rights movements of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in comparison to the actions taken against the Pro-Palestinian Anti-Apartheid movements of the 2020’s. By setting UConn’s history of protest and response within the broader national context of each era, it becomes clear that university administrations have become more aggressive in their tactics, ultimately at the cost of student freedoms. Modern student activists can better safeguard their rights and advance their movements forward by understanding the development of universities reliance on police, policy and punishment to deter student protest
Decoding the Algorithm: The Mathematics Behind TikTok’s Short-Form Content Success
No full textWithin the realm of social networks, TikTok has become the central hub for short-form video content. The network’s unique ability to capture individual preferences using predictive analytics has greatly contributed to its massive success, allowing the company to optimize its performance and content personalization. In an age where digital media have such a significant influence on society, it is essential that users develop an understanding of how social network algorithms function to make more informed online decisions. Although TikTok’s technological system is primarily undisclosed, the platform certifiably leverages several key mathematical principles within its algorithm to achieve its core goals of generating user, creator, and platform value. This thesis reveals how mathematical modeling is embedded into the application’s design in order to optimize content delivery, personalize the user experience, and ultimately increase engagement and platform growth. Matrix factorization is implemented in the application’s operating system to track video-user interactions and predict engagement. The network uses probability models to estimate the likelihood that a user will engage with a video based on past behavior, observing metrics such as watch time, likes, and shares. With the help of artificial intelligence, machine learning algorithms analyze videos to match user interests and adjust recommendations in real time. Lastly, the use of Fourier transforms allows the company to perform trend analysis on sound waves, predicting the success of music and speech on the platform. Each component of the algorithm ensures that the platform produces high-quality content recommendations that encourage long-term engagement from users