Group items tagged

Using an ethnography of discourse approach, this article argues that literate interactions in a rural eastern Kentucky community are strongly linked to symbolic values assigned to self through the gender-based division of reading and writing labor. Noting that literate practices are God-given attributes of women's "nature," it describes how literate interactions provide contexts in which a woman can negotiate her social, religious, and cultural identity. What constitutes acceptable literate forms is culturally constrained by a tension between maintaining "country" values while assimilating those "proper" women's literate forms which augment, rather than replace, oral forms. Men's identities are not linked to these literate practices, creating minimal or non-literate behavior. These cultural constructs of literacy affect both men's and women's behavior in classroom, workplace, or urban interfacing situations, affecting mobility problems. (Abstract taken from JSTOR.)

This article brings up the cultural dynamic that Oprah has created. She has a huge following of every race and has brought many cultures together through reading. She has a large black and also white fan base in women. She has brought all of these people together with the love for reading good books. She is talked about again in this article as being a phenomenon. This is a good point that will be good for my paper because it is a different view. Not only does she send sales of books through the roof, she also brings groups of all different people together on one common ground.

The author here talks about the impact that Marshall Mathers, known as Eminem in popular culture, has had with his derogatory lyrics. It speaks about the use of derogatory terms in reference to race instead of culture. It is an article about the persona Eminem puts on with his raps and lyrics, and the real meaning which is underlying throughout the derogatory terms and crude ideas.

This article reports on a small-scale study which examined the home literacy practices of a group of 3 and 4 year-old children in a working-class community in the north of England and explored how far these practices were reflected in the curriculum of the nursery the children attended. The data illustrate that there was a dissonance between out-of-school and schooled literacy practices and that there was more evidence of nursery literacy practices infiltrating the home than vice versa. Children's literacy practices in the home were focused on media and popular cultural texts and the article argues for greater recognition of these contemporary cultural practices in early years policy documentation and curriculum guidance. (Abstract taken from JSTOR.)

Conservative activists throughout history have sought to censor thinkers from Karl Marx to Friedrich Nietzsche to John Dewey. Why would Charles Darwin be any different? The religious conservative movement-what Apple deems "authoritarian populism"-is a threat to both education and culture, striking a particularly resonant chord in the evolution/creation debate. Crafting a linguistic façade known as "intelligent design" has allowed conservatives to covertly enter the scientific realm. Scientists, he argues, must assemble themselves, as the authoritarian populists have, in order to uphold the very best of science. Apple does a particularly exceptional job examining the psyche of the conservative alliance and its widespread cultural impact.

This article discusses the use of slang by different ethnicities. It discusses the concepts of whether or not slang can be pinpointed to certain cultures opposed to a certain group of "slang talkers". It also helps distinguish between slang being used as a barrier between teens, adults, social groups, and even differences between friends. This helps to illustrate the different varieties of literacy among youths and adults from different cultures.

A film on OhioLINK. Could be helpful for students researching bilingualism. When Massasoit hailed the Plymouth settlers in their own language, they might have taken it for a sign that English would dominate the New World. Packed with surprising etymologies and intriguing stories, this enhanced DVD traces the dynamic relationship between English and America, exploring the linguistic influence of westward expansion, cowboy culture, slave culture, and encounters with the French and Spanish languages. Key works examined include The New England Primer and Webster's The American Spelling Book. Can be viewed using a DVD player or computer DVD-ROM drive. (50 minutes, color) Part of the "Adventure of English" series.

The article addresses the idea of "religious illiteracy" in the United States as of early 2007. The author relates the lack of general religious knowledge among his students at Boston University. He believes that religious illiteracy is more dangerous than cultural illiteracy because religion is the "most volatile" constituent of culture. He notes that some knowledge of the world's religions is essential in processing messages from politicians, the media, and education. He believes that, in the interest of civics, all U.S. undergraduate students should be required to take an academic religious studies course. He also acknowledges that religious literacy in the U.S. requires compromise between the secular left and the religious right. (Abstract from EBSCO.)

Clark turns to philosophy to assess the relationship between naturalism and supernaturalism. In a political sense, all debates must deal with the physical world, for that is all that we know. Religious doctrines are acceptable as moral implicates, but in order to extend universality in the public realm, the language cannot be theological. The issue is essentially linguistic; by using a common language grounded in empiricism, we can better tackle the issues at hand. Clark suggests that the best mode of pacifying these views is to turn toward empiricism, which is grounded in evidence rather than faith. There is no way to "prove" faith. However, it is important to guard against the threat of "totalitarian empiricism" in which uniformity replaces consciousness. We live in a pluralistic society, and so it is to remain. Extending this thinking to the evolution-creation debate can perhaps shed light on a very plausible and practical solution.

This paper discusses the use of English slang by a South African community of Gauteng. Although English is not the preferred vernacular used by most occupants of Gauteng, this study shows the way slang identifies different cultures, races, and social groups among even the African youth who speak English.

This study focuses on the improvement of Birch Middle School, which is an urban school. This school was known as the worst in the district. Before one knew it the new principal made signifigant improvement in this school. he stressed to teachers to creat a strong academic culture. He overall created a better school for the children to come and learn and that by the help of one person, they can change alot and many lives.

This article talks about some common sense rules cannabis users should regulate their use. By comparative study of marijuana users in Amsterdam and San Francisco data shows similar use patterns and having to do with drug control. Despite different drug policies the two cities are similar in marijuana use. This is excellent support because it shows that it does not matter if marijuana is legal or not. This data comparison also supports reasons for legalization. If one country has legalized marijuana and it is not effecting their society negatively than the US needs to reconsider marijuana laws.

Over the last seven years, Jessie Little Doe Fermino, a member of the Mashpee tribe on Cape Cod, has been on a single-minded mission to revive the language of her ancestors, Wampanoag, the one that greeted the Pilgrims when they landed at Plymouth Rock and that gave the state of Massachusetts its name. But when she applied to the National Endowment of the Humanities for a grant to create a Wampanoag dictionary, she was turned down. The apparent reasons: the Wampanoag language has not been used in about 100 years, the known descendants of the original speakers number only 2,500 and Ms. Fermino is trying to make a spoken language out of a language that until recently existed only in documents, many of them from the 17th century.

An opinion piece by well-known anti-theist Christopher Hitchens.