Library: Best sellers

Much of the discussion about Peake's Titus Books has been about how to place them in the lexicon of English literature. I am proposing that these books should be read as works of postmodern existentialism. Both postmodern theory and existential theory are interested in the same issues, such as the loss of grand narratives, the rejection of totalizing world views, the subjectivity of truth, the nature of one's existence, and the search for meaning in an increasingly incomprehensible world. Societal issues, such as political upheaval, the growth of major cities, war, and advances in science and...

Ten vibrocores were collected from the outer, middle and inner part of the tidal flats off Busum (German North Sea coast) to identify the gradual changes in sediment composition and sedimentary structures due to their location and input of hydrodynamic energy. The outer part of the investigation transect includes Tertiussand and D-Steert, the middle part is the huge sandbank of the Bielhovensand and the inner part comprises the Meldorf bight. The study turned out that the facies in the outer part is dominated by sandy material and the bedding types mainly are small scale cross bedding and mas...

While serving as governor of Mississippi from 1980 until 1984, William F. Winter envisioned education as a key to moving Mississippi away from poverty. He championed educational reform as the means for improving schools with low student achievement. From the beginning of his tenure, Winter's goal was to improve K-12 education by implementing three needed improvements: public kindergarten, compulsory attendance, and a lay board of education. During the first two years of his administration, Winter struggled to gain support from within the legislative body itself. Mores of Mississippi, which rel...

This dissertation attempts to investigate some interactional features in the conversation of women and men taking into account verbosity, turn-taking, use of standard forms, directness and assertiveness. To do so, an ethnographic method of natural conversation video-recording was utilized within a group of 2 female and 2 male Brazilian Portuguese speakers and 2 females and 2 males in a group of English speakers. This study suggests that the amount of talk uttered by women and men when they are in informal occasions may not vary so drastically. Accordingly, this investigation also shows that fe...

Benjamin's work has been classified either according to the principles of historical materialism, or according to the principles of metaphysics. This fragmentation of his ideas, however, obscures the real impetus of his oeuvre, particularly in the interpretation of his central notion of redemption. If instead one considers Benjamin as a critic of the everyday in search of a mechanism for change, influenced by the historical condition and his intellectual contemporaries, then we are able better to understand his narrative. The Weimar Republic was a period dominated by the dialectic between hope...

The aim of this research was to investigate the perceived impact of ICT on Zimbabwean A-level science and mathematics teachers' self-directed professional development. The study was based on a questionnaire survey of 254 teachers throughout the country. Supplementary data came from 54 interviews. Some observations of teachers using ICT in teacher-centres, e-mail correspondence, and field reports also contributed to the database of the study. An analysis framework was developed through the use of grounded theory on the interview transcripts. The framework yielded 9 themes relating to the teache...

Teacher evaluation is an activity of assessing teachers' performance. It is equivalent to teacher appraisal/teacher performance management in England. This study explores the complexities of implementing Teacher Evaluation in primary schools in Taiwan. It concentrates principally on the development of Teacher Evaluation in Taiwan in the light of international research, especially that relating to the English context. The philosophical perspective with which this study is most closely aligned is constructivism. In particular, using qualitative methods of documentary analysis and interviews, it...

The environmental reports of 12 Scottish Strategic Environmental Assessments have been subject to critical analysis in order to assess the extent to which they include Cumulative Effects Assessment (CEA) as a required component under the SEA directive. The anticipated benefits of assessing Cumulative Effects in a strategic setting are wide-ranging and well researched, yet there appears little documented evidence of this in the Scottish context. The level of Cumulative Effects inclusion in the reports studied was investigated, along with the parameters that appear to limit the success of the la...

The presence and influence of the media in modern times has increased to a point where they have seamlessly permeated every aspect of contemporary life, a situation that has led some to attribute them ideal qualities to promote and strengthen human rights values, while others perceive their commercial interests as an obstacle to perform such a task. This dissertation analyses the role of the media in promoting human rights, based primarily on a theoretical discussion which examines the problem from four different angles: the idealistic perception mainly promoted by the United Nations; the real...

The purpose of the qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the influence of leadership development or succession-planning programs upon women's progression to high-level positions and their continued success in the executive ranks. A qualitative methodology provided a detailed and rich understanding of the experiences of women in high-level leadership from the perspectives of women who have experienced leadership development or succession-planning programs. Twenty women in high-level leadership positions employed in for-profit organizations in the eastern United States we...