Empowerment Essays

Empowerment Essays Empowerment Essay Empowerment Essay There have been countless studies on how to improve the teaching profession. But what do educators themselves think What do they say they need to excel in their jobs And what obstacles do they commonly face . Teachers want to work in schools where they can thrive, and theyâ„ ¢re not going to thrive and extend themselves if they donâ„ ¢t feel comfortable with their colleagues and the management. | | It comes down to leaders creating a clear and compelling vision around learning and really going to bat for teachers. They have to create a safe environment for teachers†an environment where teachers feel they can make decisions that matter in both their classrooms and their institute. More broadly, effective leaders create structures in which itâ„ ¢s clear that teachers have a certain authority. In some states, according to our surveys, we have only a third of teachers agreeing that they are centrally involved in school decision-making. What they want from leaders is to have processes where they can really understand their role in learning and can really respond to situations and engage in ways that make sense to them. The pressures on principals today are overwhelming. Principals must deal with federal and state accountability systems, assessments, parents and community, and in the end, they are ultimately accountable for performance. It is difficult to let go and empower others when you know it is your neck on the line for results. But of course, in the end, it is that team effort and drawing the best from staff that will generate improved performance. Thatâ„ ¢s just a tough leap. And itâ„ ¢s even tougher for principals if they donâ„ ¢t have supportive environments, either. Many were not prepared to serve as the visionary, instructional leaders we now expect. They receive little induction and professional development of their own, and are often not empowered to make decisions at their school that they believe are necessary due to local, state, and federal policy. This is why we have started to ask principals specific questions about their support and work environment on the survey. To better understand how to empower teachers we need to understand how to empower and support strong school leaders. Are there things that teachers themselves can do to improve their career satisfaction Thatâ„ ¢s a great question, and itâ„ ¢s something weâ„ ¢ve had to think about a lot. I mean, can you have teacher empowerment when the school leadership isnâ„ ¢t necessarily willing to create safe structures and engage teachers as partners I think the answer is yes, but itâ„ ¢s not easy. I think teachers in that situation need to find other outlets to be advocates for themselves, for their profession, and for their students. Between opportunities at the state and district levels, and working with parents and other community members, I think there are ways teachers can be engaged in their work and take on more active roles even when not encouraged internally to do so. The other thing weâ„ ¢ve seen is teachers working with colleagues on their own to start creating the kind of environments they want in their schools. They create professional learning communities, finding time to collaborate. They seek out their own professional development opportunities and advocate for themselves to be able to go and learn, so they can bring that knowledge back to their colleagues. But again, this takes a lot of care and commitment†and time. Itâ„ ¢s hard for teachers to sustain over the long haul if they arenâ„ ¢t given support from leadership. What changes do you see in the teacher profession in the years ahead Schools and districts are already starting to look at recruitment and retention in very different ways. For a number of reasons, for a long time teaching has been viewed as a life-long career. We had this expectation that teachers would kind of come in on day one and have their classroom and then 30 years later theyâ„ ¢d be doing the same thing. But now you have younger people†the Gen-X and Gen-Y folks†who are looking at different ways of engaging in teaching and serving schools. The perception among many elite students who are interested in teaching is that itâ„ ¢s less of a career and more of a short-term way to gain experience and engage in meaningful work. I think this is just reality, and schools are starting to acknowledge this and figure out how to leverage the staff diversity it creates†and this involves using teachers differently. There are still going to be a lot of amazingly accomplished teachers who want to make education their lives. The important question is going to be, how can we design schools to give these teachers the flexibility and leadership capacity to mentor and get the best out of younger teachers who are maybe only planning on being in the profession for two or three years We need to draw upon our best teachers to ensure that these short-term educators are the best they can be and that they are really hitting on all cylinders while they are in the profession. We need to find new ways to identify these core, accomplished teachers and to give them new avenues to spread their expertise†through technology, for example. We need to create new career-advancement opportunities for them, give them greater decision-making authority and responsibility, and allow them to be successful in their work. So I think weâ„ ¢re going to see a greater diversification of roles for teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 Influence of teacher empowerment on teachersâ„ ¢ organizational commitment, professional commitment and organizational citizenship behavior in schools Ronit Boglera,*, Anit Somechb aDepartment of Education and Psychology, The Open University of Israel, P.O. Box 39328, 16 Klausner Street, Tel Aviv 61392, Israel b Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel Abstract The present study focuses on the relationship between teacher empowerment and teachersâ„ ¢ organizational commitment, professional commitment (PC) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). It examines which subscales of teacher empowerment can best predict these outcomes. The data were collected through a questionnaire returned by a sample of 983 teachers in Israeli middle and high schools. Pearson correlations and multiple regression analyses indicated that teachersâ„ ¢ perceptions of their level of empowerment are significantly related to their feelings of commitment to the organization and to the profession, and to their OCBs. Among the six subscales of empowerment, professional growth, status and self-efficacy were significant predictors of organizational and PC, while decisionmaking, self-efficacy, and status were significant predictors of OCB. Practical implications of the study are discussed in relation to teachers, principals and policy-makers. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. During the past decade, teacher empowerment has received a great deal of attention from researchers who studied its relationship to various organizational outcomes. In their extensive literature review, Sweetland and Hoy (2000) state that though a thorough examination has been conducted to study the relationship between teacher empowerment and various organizational and personal characteristics, [t]he results are confusingâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (p. 710). The current study aims to examine teacher empowerment in relation to outcomes that reflect the behavior of teachers in school. These outcomes†teachersâ„ ¢ organizational commitment (OC), professional commitment (PC), and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)†are key factors in their performance in a school setting (Howell Dorfman, 1986; Diefendorff, Brown, Kamin, Lord, 2002). 1. Theoretical framework 1.1. Teacher empowerment Research on teacher empowerment began to appear in the literature in the late 1980s (Edwards, ARTICLE IN PRESS *Corresponding author. Tel.: +972-3-6460617; fax: +972-3- 6465468. E-mail addresses: [emailprotected] (R. Bogler), [emailprotected] (A. Somech). 0742-051X/$ see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2004.02.003 Green, Lyons, 2002). Empowerment, as perceived by Short, Greer and Melvin (1994) is defined as a process whereby school participants develop the competence to take charge of their own growth and resolve their own problemsâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (p. 38). It is individualsâ„ ¢ belief that they have the skills and knowledge to improve a situation in which they operate. In their national study on empowerment of teacher leaders, Rinehart and Short (1991) found that reading recovery teacher leaders were more highly empowered than reading recovery teachers or classroom teachers. This finding was explained as a result of reading recovery teacher leadersâ„ ¢ having more opportunities to make decisions and grow professionally, having control over daily schedules and feeling a high level of teaching competency. According to Maeroff (1988), teacher empowerment consists of improved status, increased knowledge and access to decisionmaking. Short and Rinehart (1992) identify six dimensions of teacher empowerment: decisionmaking, professional growth, status, self-efficacy, autonomy and impact. In a study devoted to the concept of teacher empowerment, Short (1994a) describes the six dimensions in detail. Decisionmaking refers to teachersâ„ ¢ participation in critical decisions that directly affect their work, involving issues related to budgets, teacher selection, scheduling, and curriculum. To be effective, teachersâ„ ¢ participation in decision-making must be genuine, and the teachers need to be confident that their decisions actually impact real outcomes. Professional growth refers to the teachersâ„ ¢ perception that the school provides them opportunities to grow and develop professionally, to continue to learn, and to expand their skills during their work in school. Status refers to the professional respect and admiration that the teachers perceive that they earn from colleagues. Respect is also granted for the knowledge and expertise that the teachers demonstrate, resulting in support of their actions from others. Self-efficacy refers to the teachersâ„ ¢ perception that they are equipped with the skills and ability to help students learn, and are competent to develop curricula for students. The feeling of mastery, in both knowledge and practice, that results in accomplishing desired outcomes is critical in the teachersâ„ ¢ sense of selfefficacy. Autonomy refers to the teachersâ„ ¢ feeling that they have control over various aspects of their working life, including scheduling, curriculum development, selection of textbooks and planning instruction. This type of control enables teachers to feel free to make decisions related to their educational milieu. Impact refers to the teachersâ„ ¢ perception that they can affect and influence school life. Teacher empowerment has been studied in relation to job satisfaction (Rinehart Short, 1994), participation in decision-making (Gruber Trickett, 1987; White, 1992), commitment (Wu Short, 1996), conflict (Johnson Short, 1998; Rinehart, Short, Johnson, 1997; Short, 1994b), instructional practice and student academic achievements (Marks Louis, 1997; Smylie, 1994), and principal leadership (Blas!e Blas!e, 1996; Johnson Short, 1998; Kirby Colbert, 1994; Rinehart, Short, Short, Eckley, 1998). Previous research (Sweetland Hoy, 2000), supports four assumptions regarding teacher empowerment: first, teacher empowerment is most effective when it is oriented to increase teacher professionalism; second, empowerment has at least two dimensions: organizational and classroom; third, empowering teachers has its greatest impact on student achievement when the emphasis is on the core technology of teaching and learning in schools; fourth, to be effective, teacher empowerment needs to be authentic (pp. 710â€Å"711). Teacher empowerment is, therefore, perceived as a crucial factor that affects school effectiveness (Wall Rinehart, 1998). In the present study, we chose three variables that the literature found as related to school effectiveness: organizational commitment, PC and OCB. Teachersâ„ ¢ commitment to the organization†the school†has been found to predict school effectiveness (Howell Dorfman, 1986; Rosenholtz, 1991). A positive relationship has been found between organizational commitment and regular employee attendance, and an inverse relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intention (Balfour Wechsler, 1996; Porter, Steers, Mowday, Boulian, 1974). Employees who are highly committed to both the profession and the organization were found to perform better than the less committed ARTICLE IN PRESS 278 R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 ones, a behavior which results in improved overall effectiveness of the organization (Aranya Ferris, 1984). Teachersâ„ ¢ PC has been found to be critical to good instruction (Firestone Pennell, 1993). Finally, the impact of OCB on the school organization is dramaticâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢; it contributes to the overall effectiveness of the school and reduces the management component of the administratorâ„ ¢s roleâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (DiPaola Tschannen-Moran, 2001, p. 434). OCB promotes organizational performance because it presents effective measures to manage the interdependencies between members of a work group, and consequently increases the outcomes achieved by the collective (Organ, 1990, Smith, Organ, Near, 1983). This study aims to investigate the relationship between teacher empowerment and these three outcomes: teachersâ„ ¢ organizational and PC and their OCB. More specifically, we attempt to determine which subscales of teacher empowerment can best predict these outcomes. 1.2. The relationship between teachersâ„ ¢ empowerment and their organizational and PC Organizational commitment, as defined by Mowday, Steers and Porter (1979), is the relative strength of an individualâ„ ¢s identification with and involvement in a particular organizationâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (p. 226). This concept is based on three factors: the acceptance of the organizationâ„ ¢s goals and values (identification), the willingness to invest effort on behalf of the organization (involvement), and the importance attached to keeping up the membership in the organization (loyalty). These characteristics imply that the members of the organization wish to be active players in the organization, have an impact on what is going on in it, feel that they have high status within it, and are ready to contribute beyond what is expected of them. This is especially true when the leaders of the organization are perceived as adopting consultative or participative leadership behavior, where shared decision-making is prevalent (Yousef, 2000). In this case, when leaders are perceived as participative, employees feel more committed to the organization, express higher levels of job satisfaction, and their performance is high. Among the empowerment subscales, the literature refers to a number of dimensions that relate to organizational commitment. In a number of studies (reviewed by Firestone Pennell, 1993), teachersâ„ ¢ autonomy in making classroom decisions, their participation in school-wide decisionmaking, and their opportunities to learn were among the organizational conditions that showed a strong association with teacher commitment to the organization. A positive relationship was also found between organizational commitment and job involvement (Blau and Boal, 1989). PC is the degree to which a personâ„ ¢s work performance affects his self-esteemâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (Lodahl Kejner, 1965, p. 25). For a person who is professionally committed, work is a vital part of life. This means that both the work itself and the co-workers are very meaningful to the employee, in addition to the importance s/he attaches to the organization as a whole. Active participation in decision-making increases involvement and PC, which result in a higher level of acceptance and satisfaction. Evers (1990) suggested that teachersâ„ ¢ successful participation in decision-making could be explained by the feeling of ownership that comes from initiating ideas rather than responding to othersâ„ ¢ proposals. Gaziel and Weiss (1990) claimed that teachersâ„ ¢ participation, based on establishing a strong voice in decisions and policies, was a characteristic of professional orientationâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢, and fostered better working relations among staff members. With regard to self-efficacy, studies have shown that teachers with a greater sense of efficacy are more enthusiastic about teaching (Guskey, 1984), report a higher level of commitment to teaching (Coladarci, 1992; Evans Tribble, 1986), and are more likely to remain in teaching (Glickman Tamashiro, 1982). Wu and Short (1996), who studied the relationship between teacher empowerment and teacher job commitment and job satisfaction, found that among the six subscales that compose the teacher empowerment scale (SPES), professional growth, self-efficacy and status were significant predictors of job commitment. We were interested to see whether similar results would be found in this study with regard to other outcomes, such as organizational commitment and OCB. ARTICLE IN PRESS R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 279 1.3. The relationship between teacher empowerment and OCB The concept of OCB, derived from Katzâ„ ¢s (1964) conception of extra-role behavior, was first introduced by Organ (1977) who defined it as behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organizationâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (Organ, 1988, p. 4). Researchers have recognized the significant impact of OCB on the success of an organization (e.g., Chen, Hui, Sego, 1998; Karambayya, 1989). As several scholars have noted (e.g., George, 1996; Katz Kahn, 1966; Organ Konovsky, 1989), OCBs are important to the organization because through formal job descriptions, organizations cannot anticipate the whole range of behaviors needed for the achievement of organizational goals (Vanyperen, van den Berg, Willering, 1999). OCB provides the organization with additional resources and eliminates the need for expensive formal mechanisms otherwise crucial to successful restructuring processes. Today, as schools move into a new era of reorganization (Blas!e Blas!e, 1996; Clement Vandenberghe, 2000; Reitzug, 1994; Wall Rinehart, 1998), performancedefined as prescribed by task roles†is necessary but not sufficient for predicting school effectiveness. Therefore, schools will have to be more dependent on teachers who are willing to exert considerable effort beyond formal job requirements, namely, to engage in OCB. (Somech Drach-Zahavy, 2000). OCB refers to various dimensions such as altruism, conscientiousness (also termed generalized complianceâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢), sportsmanship, courtesy, and civic virtue (Organ, 1988); obedience, loyalty, and various types of participation (Van Dyne, Graham, Dienesch, 1994); and helping and voice (Stamper Van Dyne, 2001; Van Dyne LePine, 1998). The notion of behaviors directed towards the individual and the organization was first introduced by Williams and Anderson (1991), and in the educational setting, it corresponds to behaviors directed towards students, teacher colleagues, and to the whole school. OCBs operate indirectly; they influence the social and psychological environment of organizations, which in turn influence the technical core (Diefendorff et al., 2002). OCB affects the technical core since it involves extra role behaviors of some teachers toward students and teachers. These teachers help students with class materials, acquire expertise in new areas that contribute to their work, prepare special assignments for higher- or lower-level students, volunteer for school committees, set up learning programs for substitute teachers, help absent colleagues by assigning learning tasks to their classes, and work collaboratively with others. All these OCBs relate to the technical core of the organization. However, in the case of teachers who exhibit OCBs, they also help to achieve organization goals. This is reflected through extra role behaviors toward the organization, expressed by teachers organizing social activities for the school, volunteering for roles and tasks that are not part of their jobs, providing innovative suggestions to improve the school and by organizing joint activities with parents above the norm. Research on OCB in schools is very limited (DiPaola Tschannen-Moran, 2001). In this study, we have adopted the concept of OCB as investigated in educational settings. Based on Zimmerman and Rappaport (1988) who view the concept of empowerment as a sense of civic dutyâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ involving democratic participation and affecting community life and social issues (p. 136), one can expect to find a relationship between empowerment and OCB. Participation in decision-making, one of the characteristics of teacher empowerment, has been found to lead to engagement in OCB in various contexts (Porter, Lawler, Hackman, 1996). Self-efficacy has been found to be related to OCB toward the team and the organization, but not related to the student (Somech Drach-Zahavy, 2000). To date, limited research has been conducted on the relationship between teachersâ„ ¢ commitment to the organization, their PC, OCB, and teacher empowerment. Since the current literature cannot lead to definite hypotheses regarding the relationship between the subscales of teacher empowerment and school outcomes, it is our goal to determine which subscales best predict the three outcomes: teachersâ„ ¢ organizational commitment, ARTICLE IN PRESS 280 R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 PC and OCB. The findings of the study may have important implications for teachers and principals, and consequently for the entire school. 2. Method 2.1. Participants The teachers in this study were sampled from a random sample of schools located in the northern and central parts of Israel. The sample consisted of 983 teachers in 25 middle schools (grades 7â€Å"9) and 27 high schools (grades 10â€Å"12). Although it was not possible to reach a random sample of all schools in Israel, care was taken to select urban, suburban and rural schools from diverse populations that represent the composition of teachers in Israel with regard to gender and religion, age and education. Seventy-two percent were women; 73 percent Jewish and the rest Arab. Of the Jewish teachers, 78 percent were female, and of the Arab teachers, almost half (46 percent) were male. The average age was 38.5, with an average of 10 years of seniority in the current school, and 13.5 years of seniority as teachers. Sixty-four percent had a Bachelorâ„ ¢s degree, 26 percent had a Masterâ„ ¢s degree and 10 percent had a professionalâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ degree (equivalent to a junior college diploma, with teaching credentials). These demographic characteristics were similar to those found in comparable studies on teachers in Israel (Rosenblatt, 2001; Somech Drach-Zahavy, 2000). 2.2. Research instrument A quantitative questionnaire, combining four Likert scales measuring OC, PC, OCB and teacher empowerment, was mailed in 2001 to teachers in 52 middle and high schools. The respondents were asked to refer to their current school, and to answer a range of questions about their feelings of empowerment, their commitment to the school and the profession, and their OCB in school. Teacher empowerment was measured using the School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES) (Short Rinehart, 1992). The SPES measures teachersâ„ ¢ overall perception of empowerment. It is a 38-item instrument on a 5-point scale (scored from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree). Factor analysis of the SPES revealed six dimensions at the basis of the construct. The dimensions and their internal consistency estimates (coefficient alphas) are: involvement in decision-making (0.89); opportunities for professional growth (0.83); status (0.86); self-efficacy (0.84); autonomy (0.81); and impact (0.82). The overall scale has reliability of 0.94 and the same reliability level of alpha was found in the current study. Examples of items are: I make decision about the implementation of new programs in the schoolâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (decisionmaking), I am treated as a professionalâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (professional growth), I believe that I have earned respectâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (status), I believe that I am empowering studentsâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (self-efficacy), I have the freedom to make decisions on what is taughtâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (autonomy), and I believe that I have an impactâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (impact). Organizational commitment was measured using Mowday et al.â„ ¢s (1979) Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ). This 15-item instrument measures affective rather than normative or continuance commitment, by asking the respondents to refer to their identification with and involvement in a particular organization. Examples of items are: I tell my friends that this school is a great school to work forâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ and I feel very little loyalty to this schoolâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (reverse coded). A 7-point scale (scored from 1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree) was used. Scores on the 15 items were averaged to yield a summary score representing organizational commitment. The internal reliability estimates for the OCQ scores were strong across Mowday et al.â„ ¢s (1979) six samples (ranging from 0.82 to 0.93) and resulted in a single-factor solution. In the current study, the reliability level of alpha was 0.87. Professional commitment was measured using Lodahl and Kejnerâ„ ¢s (1965) 20-item scale, specifically adjusted to the educational setting. This instrument focuses on teachersâ„ ¢ job involvement and on the importance of work to them in general. Examples of items are: I live my job as a teacher 24 h a dayâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ and Most things in my life are more important than my workâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (reverse coded). A 5- point scale (scored from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree), was used. Scores on the 20 ARTICLE IN PRESS R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 281 items were averaged to yield a summary score representing PC. The reliability level of alpha in this study was 0.87. Organizational citizenship behavior was measured using a 23-item scale developed and validated in the school context (Somech Drach- Zahavy, 2000). This instrument refers to discretionary behaviors that go beyond existing role expectations and are directed toward the individual, the group, or the organization as a unit. The OCB scale consists of three subscales: (a) eight items relate to students (e.g., I stay after school hours to help students with materials covered in classâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢), with a reliability level of alpha of 0.80; (b) seven items relate to colleagues (e.g., I help an absent colleague by assigning learning tasks to the classâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢), with a reliability level of alpha of 0.77; and (c) eight items relate to the school as a unit (e.g., I make innovative suggestions to improve the schoolâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢), with a reliability level of alpha of 0.87. A 5-point scale (scored from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree), was used. Scores on the 23 items were averaged to yield a summary score representing OCB. The reliability level of alpha in the current study was 0.92. 3. Results Preliminary analyses of t-tests were performed to determine whether there were gender and type of school (secondary/high schools) differences with regard to the research variables (i.e., teacher empowerment, organizational commitment, PC and OCB). The results revealed no significant differences (p > 0:05). In addition, the correlations between the other demographic variables (education and length of tenure) and the research variables were marginal (below 0.09); hence, we treated the participants as one group. Means, standard deviations and intercorrelations for the research variables are shown in Table 1. An examination of the means of the subscales of the SPES revealed that the subscales that received the highest scores were status (M ? 4:1), professional growth (M ? 3:8), impact (M ? 3:7) and self-efficacy (M ? 3:7). The lowest average score was ascribed to decision-making (M ? 3:1). The Pearson correlation matrix revealed that all six subscales were significantly (po0:0001) and positively correlated with organizational commitment (ranging from 0.34 to 0.65), PC (ranging from 0.37 to 0.68) and OCB (ranging from 0.21 to 0.61). The more the teachers perceived themselves as practicing any of the teacher empowerment components, the more they expressed commitment towards the organization, the profession, and OCBs. In addition, the correlation between organizational commitment and PC was positive and significant (r ? 0:68). Multiple regression analysis was employed to identify which empowerment dimensions best ARTICLE IN PRESS Table 1 Descriptive statistics and correlations Variable Mean s.d. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1. Decision-making1 3.1 0.73 0.54 0.34 0.60 0.63 0.63 0.34 0.41 0.61 2. Professional growth1 3.8 0.69 0.72 0.74 0.55 0.73 0.65 0.60 0.36 3. Statusa 4.1 0.62 0.62 0.44 0.67 0.58 0.51 0.21 4. Self-efficacya 3.7 0.65 0.56 0.77 0.53 0.58 0.50 5. Autonomya 3.3 0.84 0.61 0.37 0.37 0.39 6. Impacta 3.7 0.72 0.50 0.54 0.44 7. OCb 4.3 0.83 0.68 0.41 8. PCa 3.4 0.59 0.20 9. OCBc 3.1 0.72 Variables 1â€Å"6 are subscales of teacher empowermentâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢. All correlations are statistically significant, po0:0001: a Rating scale: 1=Strongly disagree; 5=Strongly agree b Rating scale: 1=Strongly disagree; 7=Strongly agree c Rating scale: 1=Very seldom; 5=Very often 282 R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 predict teachersâ„ ¢ organizational commitment, PC and OCB (see Tables 2â€Å"4). Tables 2â€Å"4 show the results of the multiple regression analysis for each of the outcomes: organizational commitment, PC and OCB, respectively. For each regression, all six components of teacher empowerment were included in the equation. Table 2 shows that three predictor variables† professional growth, status, and selfefficacy† were statistically significant predictors of organizational commitment and explained 44 percent of its variance (F?3674? ? 173:65; po0:0001). Results of the second multiple regression analysis (Table 3) indicate that the same three predictors†self-efficacy, professional growth, and status†were statistically significant predictors of PC and explained 40 percent of its variance (F?3665? ? 148:1; po0:0001). Results of the third multiple regression analysis (Table 4) indicate that three predictors†decision-making, self-efficacy, and status†were statistically significant predictors of OCB and also explained 40 percent of its variance (F?3640? ? 144:23; po0:0001). An evaluation of the assumptions of each of the three regression models yielded no violations of assumptions of linearity, normality, and homoscedasticity of residuals. 4. Discussion The findings regarding the means of the six dimensions of teacher empowerment appear to be consistent with previous studies. Wall and Rinehart (1998), for example, found that the most frequent dimensions of empowerment, amongst high school teachers, were in descending order: status (M ? 4:14; s.d.=0.51), self-efficacy, impact, professional growth, autonomy and decisionmaking (M ? 2:94; s.d.=0.72). In the present study, we found very similar results: status (M ? 4:10; s.d.=0.62), professional growth, impact, self-efficacy, autonomy and decision-making (M ? 3:06; s.d.=0.73). These findings imply that teachers feel that they are respected (status), have opportunities for professional growth, are effective at their job (impact) and perform well (selfefficacy). Yet, in both the American sample and in our population, teachers did not feel that they were involved in the process of decision-making. We can speculate that either teachers are not aware of their involvement, or that they really ARTICLE IN PRESS Table 2 Regression coefficients and F-test value for organizational commitment Variable B SE b F R2 Professional growth 0.62 0.07 0.44___ 87.69 0.44 Status 0.36 0.07 0.22___ (6,671, po0:0001) Self-efficacy 0.23 0.07 0.15 Autonomy 0.01 0.05 0.01 Decision making 0.03 0.06 0.02 Impact 0.12 0.07 0.09 Constant 0.63 0.20 ___po0:0001: Table 3 Regression coefficients and F-test value for professional commitment Variable B SE b F R2 Self-efficacy 0.25 0.05 0.29___ 75.47 0.41 Professional growth 0.19 0.05 0.23___ (6,662, po:0001) Status 0.11 0.04 0.12_ Autonomy 0.05 0.03 0.07 Decision making 0.06 0.04 0.08 Impact 0.05 0.04 0.06 Constant 1.08 0.12 _po0:01; ___po0:0001: Table 4 Regression coefficients and F-test value for organizational citizenship behavior Variable B SE b F R2 Decision-making 0.46 0.04 0.46___ 71.88 0.40 Self-efficacy 0.39 0.06 0.35___ (6,637, po:0001) Status 0.17 0.05 0.14___ Autonomy 0.002 0.04 0.002 Impact 0.003 0.06 0.003 Professional growth 0.04 0.06 0.03 Constant 1.04 0.16 ___po0:0001: R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 283 were not given the opportunity to participate in various forms of school decision-making. (Wall Rinehart, 1998 suggest these considerations in their discussion about the role of the school councils in the schools they sampled). The results of the present study showed that two of the six subscales, self-efficacy and status, significantly predicted all three outcomes: organizational commitment, PC and OCB. Another subscale, professional growth, predicted two of the outcomes: organizational and PC. Participation in decision-making predicted OCB. The results regarding the criterion variable, organizational commitment, correspond with earlier findings that investigated the SPES subscales (Wu Short, 1996). In their study, Wu and Short found that professional growth, self-efficacy and status predicted organizational commitment and explained 45 per cent of its variance. These same subscales were found to explain 44 per cent of the variance of organizational commitment in the present study. Self-efficacy is oneâ„ ¢s perception of oneâ„ ¢s competence and ability to act. In educational settings, it was found that when teachers believe that they can make a difference with their students, they do (Gibson Dembo, 1984). The importance of selfefficacy as a predictor of all three outcomes can be understood if we relate to the original concept of self-efficacy developed by Bandura (1977). According to Bandura, self-efficacy is based on two dimensions that he labeled outcome expectancyâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ and efficacy expectancyâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ (p. 79). Outcome expectancyâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ implies that an individual estimates that a given behavior will result in certain outcomes. Efficacy expectationsâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ refer to behaviors toward the expected outcomes. Not surprisingly, where teachers report higher levels of self-efficacy, they exhibit more organizational behaviors. Teachers who have high expectations of themselves to perform effectively and successfully in school will carry out extra functions beyond the formal ones and will feel more committed to their school and to the teaching profession. With regard to status, our findings demonstrate that teachers who have a high sense of status in their work tend to invest in more OCBs and to feel more committed to the organization and to the teaching profession than teachers who do not express that level of status recognition. Teachers who perceive that they have the professional respect and admiration of their colleagues, in addition to acknowledgement of their expertise and knowledge, will be more inclined to contribute to their schools. Their contribution will be exhibited in the expression of greater commitment to the profession and the organization and in practicing OCBs that reflect helping others (students, colleagues, and the organization as a whole). Professional growth, oneâ„ ¢s belief that one works in a supportive and nurturing environment that stimulates professional growth and development, may impact oneâ„ ¢s feeling of commitment to the organization and the profession. The more teachers perceive that they have opportunities for professional growth, the more they will strive to act for the good of the organization and the profession. According to Firestone and Pennell (1993), the knowledge demands of the new teaching strategies have stimulated the need to bring about the professionalization of teaching, of which professional growth is one measure. Teachersâ„ ¢ commitment depends on their drive and will to grow professionally, a fact that has implications for the quality of instruction that the teachers will maintain. Lastly, participation in decision-making, the subscale of teacher empowerment that was one of the predictors of OCB, was found in previous research to be linked to OCB (e.g., Vanyperen et al., 1999). Participation in decision-making is joint decision-making or decision-making that is a product of shared influence by a superior and his or her employee (Koopman Wierdsma, 1998). It was found to affect job satisfaction (Rice Schneider, 1994) and as such, it is reasonable to assume that teachers satisfied with their jobs will, among others, exhibit more OCBs. A number of studies have shown a positive relationship between participation in decision-making and organizational commitment (e.g., Hoy, Tartar, Bliss, 1990; Louis Smith, 1991). In the present study, there was significant positive correlation between the two; however, decision-making was not found to be a predictor of organizational commitment ARTICLE IN PRESS 284 R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 but rather of OCB. One might expect that teachers who report that they participate in decisionmaking processes in their school will show more OCBs that are reflected in activities beyond their existing role expectations. However, it was surprising that participative decision-making was not found to be a predictor of organizational commitment. One explanation for this finding may be the fact that decision-making was treated as a onedimensional construct rather than a two-dimensional one. Decision-making in the school setting involves participation in decision-making in the technical domain (i.e., dealing with students and instruction), and in the managerial domain (i.e., dealing with school operations and administration). By combining these two dimensions, which may sometimes conflict, we may have caused cancellation out of both. In another study, Somech and Bogler (2002) found that teachersâ„ ¢ participation in technical decisions did not predict organizational commitment; however, teachersâ„ ¢ participation in managerial decisions was found to predict organizational commitment. Findings regarding the significant positive correlation between organizational commitment and PC confirm previous research (e.g., Cohen, 2000), and contradict other research that asserted that there may be a conflict between the two concepts (e.g., Wallace, 1993). The results of the present study may imply that there is no inherent conflict between organizational commitment and PC, although a tension between the two may exist (Aranya Ferris, 1984). Teacherâ„ ¢s perceived autonomy and impact were the least effective predictors of any of the outcomes examined, since both these variables were excluded from the regression equation. Although these findings are consistent with other research which examined the predictors of job satisfaction and organizational commitment among the six dimensions of teacher empowerment (Wu Short, 1996), they are somewhat surprising. One would expect teachers who experience a high level of autonomy and feel that they have great impact on what is going in school, to report higher levels of commitment to the school and to their profession and to contribute more than expected of them to the school. The current results imply that the two constructs, autonomy and impact, may not be directly related to the outcomes examined here since individuals who feel that they are autonomous and have impact in their workplace do not necessarily translate these feelings into behaviors that reflect great commitment to the organization, to the profession, or to OCB. It is interesting to relate OCB to the concept of a teacher professional community or a teacher learning community (Darling-Hammond Sykes, 1999). A professional community of teachers is characterized by three key features: a common set of activities that provide frequent face-to-face interaction, specific organizational structures to assist in developing common understandings, values and expectations for behavior to evolve, and a core of shared values regarding what students should learn, how faculty and students should behave and the shared goals to maintain and support the community (Louis, Kruse, Bryk, 1995). Obviously, such a professional learning community involves the establishment of a school-wide culture that makes collaboration expected, wide-ranging, authentic, continuing, and focused on student outcomes (Toole Louis, 2002, Chapter 8). In order for such a community to exist, it is expected that extra-role behaviors, in addition to in-role behaviors, should be implemented in the school setting. Without applying discretionary behaviors that go beyond the existing role expectations, and that are directed to the students, the teachers and the school organization as a unit, it would be almost impossible for a community of teachers to become a professional learning community. Kruse, Louis and Bryk (1995) indicate that one of the preconditionsâ„ ¢Ã¢â€ž ¢ for the development of a professional learning community is the openness to improvement, trust and respect, access to expertise, supportive leadership and socialization. To achieve these human and social resources, it is crucial that teachers demonstrate OCB, since this affects the social and psychological environment of the organization reflected in shared norms and values, a focus on student learning, reflective dialogue with colleagues, and peer collaboration. ARTICLE IN PRESS R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 285 5. Conclusions and implications This study primarily investigated the relationship between teacher empowerment and organizational commitment, PC and OCB. The findings demonstrate that a number of teacher empowerment dimensions have an impact on these outcomes in the school setting, but a number of limitations should be considered when interpreting these findings. First, since all measures used are self-reports, common method variance is a problem, as well as social desirability effects. Although self-report data are commonly used to measure individual self-perception (Spector, 1994), one should bear in mind that they may not reflect the actual performance of the respondents. Second, although in selecting the sampled schools, care was taken with regard to the representation of urban, suburban and rural schools serving diverse populations that represented the composition of teachers in Israel with regard to gender, religion, age and education, we cannot generalize from this sample to all middle and high schools in Israel since the schools were located in the northern and central parts of Israel. Related to the issue of sampling is our 41 percent response rate, a rate not unusual in social science studies (e.g., Bogler, 1994; Kidder, 2002; Williams Shiaw, 1999), but a factor which should be kept in mind when attempting to generalize to a larger population. A study that randomly and representatively samples all the middle and high schools in the country could allow such generalization. In addition, this study viewed each variable as a single scale rather than as a multi-faceted one. In contrast, organizational commitment was studied elsewhere (Hartmann Bambacas, 2000) as a multi-method scale with three dimensions: affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment. This multi-level method may provide a better understanding of the phenomenon than using a single scale. One of the important contributions of the present study is that it underscores the relative effects of four teacher empowerment dimensions on the important outcomes of organizational commitment, PC and OCB in the school. These outcomes have been found to be beneficial to organizations. PC is considered a major determinant of organizational effectiveness (Pfeffer, 1994) and individual motivation (Hackman and Lawler, 1971). Organizational commitment has been found to affect employee identification with the organization, level of effort, and turnover (Stroh Reilly, 1997). OCB has been linked to increased performance (Brief Motowidlo, 1989). Two of the teacher empowerment dimensions, self-efficacy and status, appear to be crucial in predicting all three organizational outcomes and should therefore be strongly acknowledged by school principals who strive to raise teachersâ„ ¢ commitment to the organization and to the profession and to increase teachersâ„ ¢ motivation toward OCB for the benefit of the school. Principals need to establish working conditions that will bring teachers to perceive themselves as having a high level of competency, and experiencing high status and selfesteem. Second, teachers who view themselves as professionals or perceive opportunities to grow professionally may contribute more to the school as their commitment to the organization and to the profession increases. Principals need to recognize that the feelings and perceptions of teachers about their schools, and their desire to attain opportunities for professional growth, are beneficial to the organization itself. Finally, based on the finding that participation in decision-making is a predictor of OCB, school principals should acknowledge the significance of the extra-role, rather than the inrole, nature of OCB since it carries great advantages for other members in the organization, including other teachers, students and the school as a whole. Thus, principalsâ„ ¢ practice of jointdecision- making should be recognized as highly important to the organization and its members. The findings of the study should also be acknowledged by policy-makers outside the school on the assumption that achieving high levels of organizational commitment, PC and OCB are important to them. Thus, the Ministry of Education, as the centralized office, and its operational units on the local level, should encourage participation of teachers in seminars and programs that stress teachersâ„ ¢ professional growth and self-efficacy. It is assumed that once the teachers experience ARTICLE IN PRESS 286 R. Bogler, A. Somech / Teaching and Teacher Education 20 (2004) 277â€Å"289 greater opportunities for professional growth and acquire greater trust in their ability to achieve high-order goals (i.e., greater self-efficacy), their status will rise as well. As a result, and in addition to participating in shared decision-making with the principal, teachers may feel empowered at school, a fact that will reflect on their feelings of commitment toward the organization, the profession and their extra-role behavior. Possible extensions of this study could be to examine the effects of other variables, such as perceived supervisory support (Vanyperen et al., 1999) or job satisfaction, as mediating variables in the relationship between teacher empowerment (or its subscales) and school outcomes (either those that were examined in the present study or others). 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Alaric - Formation of the Gothic Kingdom Timeline

Alaric - Formation of the Gothic Kingdom Timeline Alaric Sacks Rome | Alaric Timeline Alaric Before 395: Alaric, a Gothic king [see Visigoths Timeline], had no territory or power base beyond his soldiers, but he was leader of the Goths for 15 years. When he died, his brother-in-law took over. When he died, Walla, and then, Theoderic ruled the Goths, but by then the Gothic king finally had a physical territory over which to rule. One of the historical sources, Claudian, says Alaric confronted the Emperor Theodosius at the Hebrus River in 391, but Alaric didnt come into prominence until 4 years later, in 395, when Stilicho sent Alaric and auxiliary troops who had served in the Battle of the Frigidus to the Eastern Empire. 395-397: The historian Zosimus claims Alaric, upset that he lacked a proper military title, marched on Constantinople to try to get it. According to Claudian, Rufinus, (de facto head of the Eastern Empire at the moment) bribed Alaric with Balkan provinces to sack, instead. Looting, Alaric advanced through the Balkans and via Thermopylae into Greece. In 397, Stilicho led naval forces against Alaric, forcing the Gothic troops to Epirus. This act provoked Rufinus, so he persuaded eastern Emperor Arcadius to declare Stilicho a public enemy. He withdrew and Alaric received a military position, perhaps magister militum per Illyricum. 401-402: Between then and 401, nothing is heard of Alaric. Gainas, a Gothic military leader under Theodosius, went in and out of favor so that Alaric thought his Goths would be better off elsewhere. They set off for the Western Empire, arriving at the Alps on November 18. Alaric threatened to invade Italy, and then carried through. He fought against Stilicho at Pollentia (map ), on Easter in 402. Stilicho won, took Alarics loot, his wife, and his children. The two sides signed a truce and Alaric withdrew from Italy, but soon Stilicho claimed Alaric had violated the terms, so they fought in the summer of 402 at Verona. 402-405: Although the battle was indecisive, Alaric withdrew to the Balkans, where he stayed until 404 or 405 when Stilicho granted him the office of magister militum for the West. In 405, Alarics people went to Epirus. This, again, upset the Eastern Empire who saw it as preparation for an invasion of Illyricum (map ). 407: Alaric marched to Noricum (Austria) where he demanded protection money what was probably enough to repay his losses at Pollentia in return for not invading Italy. Silicho, who wanted Alarics help elsewhere, persuaded Emperor Honorius and the Roman Senate to pay. 408: Arcadius died in May. Stilicho and Honorius planned to go East to tend to the succession, but Honorius magister officiorum, Olympius, persuaded Honorius that Stilicho was planning a coup. Stilicho was executed on August 22. Olympius refused to honor Stilichos bargain. Alaric next demanded gold and a hostage exchange, but when Honorius refused, Alaric marched on Rome and put the city under siege. There he was joined by veterans of other barbarian battles. The Romans feared starvation, so they promised to send an embassy to Honorius (in Rimini) to convince him to settle with Alaric. 409: The imperial legation met the Romans. Alaric demanded money, grain (it wasnt just the Romans who were hungry) and the top military office, magisterium utriusque militiae which post Stilicho had held. The imperials conceded money and grain, but not the title, so Alaric marched on Rome, again. Alaric made two more attempts with smaller demands, but was rebuffed, so Alaric set up his second siege of Rome, but with a difference. He also set up a usurper, Priscus Attalus, in December. The historian Olympiodorus says Attalus gave Alaric his title, but rejected his advice. 410: Alaric deposed Attalus and then took his troops near Ravenna to negotiate with Honorius, but he was attacked by a Gothic general, Sarus. Alaric took this as a token of Honorius bad faith, so he marched on Rome, again. This was the major sack of Rome mentioned in all the history books. Alaric and his men sacked the city for 3 days, ending on August 27. [See Procopius.] Along with their plunder, the Goths took Honorius sister, Galla Placidia, when they left. The Goths still didnt have a home and before they acquired one, Alaric died of a fever very soon after the sacking, at Consentia. 411: Alarics brother-in-law Athaulf marched the Goths into southern Gaul. In 415, Athaulf married Galla Placidia, but the new western magister utriusque militiae, Constantius, starved the Goths out, anyway. After Athaulf was assassinated, the new Gothic king, Walla, made peace with Constantius in exchange for food. Galla Placidia married Constantius, producing a son Valentinian (III) in 419. Wallas men, now in the Roman army, cleared the Iberian peninsula of Vandals, Alans, and Sueves. In 418 Constantius settled Wallas Goths in Aquitaine, Gaul. The Goths in Aquitaine were the 1st autonomous barbarian kingdom inside the Empire. Source Irene Hahns Review of Michael Kulikowskis Romes Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric (Key Conflicts of Classical Antiquity. Take the Alaric Quiz.

Answer question Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Answer question - Coursework Example Poor cleaning of the reservoirs where the tuna, eggs, vegetable oil, and vinegar were stored could have been the source of pathogens in the tuna sandwich. Handling of food in unhygienic manner could have been a possible cause of the growth of the pathogens on the Tuna (Shiowshun 2012). The contamination of peanut butter could have occurred at the storage reservoirs where the peanut butter is stored before it is sold or at the packaging where there is a possibility of poor hygiene or improper procedures followed. Improper use of products used in processing could also have caused the growth of the pathogens. If it is the peanut butter, it is assumed that the problem is the manufacturer because during the processing stage if it was not well processed then it is likely to have pathogens. Poor safety during processing can lead to growth of pathogens on the peanut butter. Improper processing of foodstuff causes contamination of the food by pathogens. During processing if, the manufacturers are not careful with the processes and the substances they use, it could cause growth of pathogens (Nauta 2007). Manufacturers could have used methods that are not safe during processing thus causing the growth of

Effects of Volcanoes on Air Pollution in Japan Research Paper - 1

Effects of Volcanoes on Air Pollution in Japan - Research Paper Example The researcher states that volcanic eruption has led to creation of new features tearing down the old ones. Large eruptions are risky, sometimes killing millions of people at the time of occurrence. Eruption has an extreme impact on change on the earth climate. The complex changing processes and events on the planet’s climate results from volcanic eruption. Increase in level of radiation on the earth surface results from the volcanic eruption. Millions of individuals are potentially exposed to volcanic gases globally. Primary studies states that health hazards of volcanic gases. Sulphur IV oxide and acid aerosols generated from volcanic eruption are associated with respiratory illness and mortality in Japan. Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) in most geothermal areas in Japan has associated with increase in nervous system and respiratory diseases. According to Prisma, volcanic eruption has resulted from natural hazard that has affected the human population globally. Systematic reviews re ported that volcanic eruption has led to human injuries, displacement, refugee, fatality, death and mortality among others. According to the Science for a Changing World organization, volcanic eruption releases more than 130 million tons of carbon IV oxide (CO2) into the atmosphere every year in Japan. CO2 is odorless and colorless has no direct hazard to human life but it has a long life effect to human health. The CO2 increases geographical temperature leading to change in atmospheric conditions. Extreme heat from the lava entering water bodies rapidly heats up and vaporizes seawater resulting to chemical reactions. Effects of volcanic eruption highly depend on how the solids and gases from the interior of the earth eject from the ground forming various features such as mudflows, ash falls, pyroclastic flows and stream explosions in Japan. Japan has experience great effects relating to the volcanic eruption. An effect of volcanic eruption has impact on air, water, and land. The ef fects have both positive and negative significance to natural environment.

Native American Lierature Essay Example for Free

Native American Lierature Essay Native American culture is an evolving topic for people who consider themselves Natives now but throughout the history of their ancestors they have been forced to define themselves over and over again. The culture that exists today is not the same one that existed but has changed due to the events going on in the world around them and the desire to fit in a constantly changing world. Most of what has survived time from the Native American legacy is the things that now define what Native Americans used to be to most of the culture today. These are the things that today are seen on television, people in odd little pieces of clothing riding bare back on horses making noises by patting their mouth with their hand. But this is not very representative of the culture as a whole. One of the main ways histories is passed down for any group of people to its descendants is through story and the Native American people did this in a more unique and powerful way them most cultures. Each of these stories in the collection of Native American authors have one thing in common (besides the fact that they are all Native American) and it is that they are all telling their story. No other culture only writes about what they know but they tell stories of epic heroes of long ago and they can be used to fill in the history of the people that write. Story telling for this culture is not just way to entertain themselves or each other but a way of sharing what they have learned and the history of their people. Most Native American stories are written with a purpose. The literary devices that are used within Native American Literature have come out of the tradition of vocal storytelling that later gets put from pen to paper. One literary device that was used is imagery for example in â€Å"The Little People† by Maria Campbell she goes on about the house to tell the reader about how their houses were different and similar at the same time. â€Å"There were open beams on the ceiling and under these ran four long poles the length of the house. The poles served as racks where furs where hung to dry in the winter†¦ roots hanging from the walls†. Campbell page 77). In another story â€Å"Return to White Earth† by John Rogers he goes into such detail about little things like how they made dishes, â€Å"†¦Mother would teach us how to make dishes out of birch bark†¦ it was urgent that we understood how to make our own dishes. These we fashioned as we needed them, for always did we carry birch bark with us. Sometimes we had soup, and this would call for deeper dishes. The dishes were always burned after each meal- no washing and nothing left around to attract bugs or flies. † (Rogers, page 53). These details seem randomly placed in the stories since sometimes things that one might feel like there should be detail to has little to no detail like when Campbell talks about her uncle’s death she talks about it like it was no big deal (Campbell page 79). But these stories are not just stories for the sake of entertainment but many of these stories are autobiographies that people wrote later in their lives. The details that they remember are not always the ones that one would classify as important but it is knowledge that the details that are written in the book are the ones that impacted the Native American’s live the most. People of any culture often seek an identity to label themselves with so that they can fit into society. The Native American culture has been changed quickly since the United States began and moved west taking over their territories. This causes many of the stories that take place to end a very different setting then it started. An identity can do many things for a person including giving their lives definition from legal, to social and personal purposes. The role of social identity plays its way with the Native American literature and storytelling like it does with any scenario. Any person who is looking to social belong within a group of people is going to change themselves to some degree in order to do so. When people within a group change their behavior it causes the group itself to slowly change its dynamic. Most of the character’s within this week’s readings are not only subject to the community they are in and the rules that their people live by but also the rules and communities of other people and villages that practice similar ways of living or are forced to occupy the same space. These stories are written for what feels like the ancestors of the people who wrote the story to begin with. Much like the oral tradition of story telling it seems like the writing was meant as a way to pass down the tribe’s histories to the next generation. Being that American English majors of the twenty first century we are probably not the target audience sometimes the language is hard to understand. The Native people lived in these lands longer then the American people have but over time the Americans have come into the lives of the Natives and forced them either leave to live by the rules of a different people. This change did not happen over night but it is why the stories in this book are so very different over time. The stories help pass down traction from the elders to their daughters, sons and grandchildren without have the type of rule books that many cultures follow. The Native American people have had hard times but have grown in with the culture that surrounds them and has adapted to living lives both true to themselves and socially expectable which are two things that often are not easy to coincide.

Mercutio of William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet Essay -- Shakespear

Mercutio of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Although the story of Romeo and Juliet does not focus on Mercutio, to many, he is one of the most interesting characters in literature. His name puns on the word mercurial which meansunpredictably changeable. His unsteady behavior makes him wise beyond his intentions. Arecurring trend in Shakespeare’s plays is the existence of a witty fool and many foolish wits. People such as Romeo, Friar Laurence, and Capulet are people who are made out to be wise, but,in the end, they make all the wrong decisions. Mercutio serves as a foil to all these characters. He is considered by every character in the play to be a fool, but, in the long run, he is the one whois the wisest. He brings a sense of comic relief as well as a reality check to many of the character’s inthe play. Although he can be seen as a laughable youth, his character serves to show how manyof the so-called wiser characters are actually fools. The audience is first introduced to Mercutio in Act one, Scene two . Romeo speaks of having a dream and believing it to be true. This leads Mercutio to his famous Queen Mab speech. When he breaks down after his speech, Romeo states, â€Å"Thou Talk’st of nothing (I.iv. 96).† Mercutio responds with his first wise quote, â€Å"True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of anidle brain (I.iv. 97-98).† This comment does not refer to Romeo’s dream of love alone. Friar Laurence’s dream of peace in Verona proves false. In Act two, Scene four ,when the nurseappears in her gaudy attire acting as if she is the owner of the Capulet’s servant Peter, it isMercutio that churlishly reminds her that she is of the servant class as well. Mercutio’s commentprovides an alternative view of real... ... again, according to Mercutio, there is no such thing as fortune. There is the outcome of one’s actions. Romeo is unknowingly calling himself a fool for his own careless judgment. Shakespeare is loved for his story lines, but he is respected for the characters he has created. It is ironic how in Romeo and Juliet characters such as Capulet, Romeo, and Friar Laurence are made out to be wise but in actuality make bad judgment. It is also ironic that Mercutio is depicted as a childish youth when really he is the character with the most insight. Shakespeare uses Mercutio’s insight as a contrast to every other character to show how ridiculous the other characters actually are. If you pay attention to the plots and story lines, this play is a love story. If you understand Mercutio’s purpose, then this play is one of the greatest satires on human emotions ever made.

Introduction Internet Protocol Suite Essay

The Internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols used for the Internet and similar networks, and generally the most popularprotocol stack for wide area networks. It is commonly known as TCP/IP, because of its most important protocols: Transmission Control Protocol(TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), which were the first networking protocols defined in this standard. It is occasionally known as the DoD model due to the foundational influence of the ARPANET in the 1970s (operated by DARPA, an agency of the United States Department of Defense). TCP/IP provides end-to-end connectivity specifying how data should be formatted, addressed, transmitted, routed and received at the destination. It has four abstraction layers, each with its own protocols. From lowest to highest, the layers are: The link layer (commonly Ethernet) contains communication technologies for a local network. The internet layer (IP) connects local networks, thus establishing internetworking. The transport layer (TCP) handles host-to-host communication. See more: introduction paragraph example The application layer (for example HTTP) contains all protocols for specific data communications services on a process-to-process level (for example how a web browser communicates with a web server). The TCP/IP model and related protocols are maintained by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). SRI First Internetworked Connection diagram Layers in the Internet protocol suite Two Internet hosts connected via two routers and the corresponding layers used at each hop. The application on each host executes read and write operations as if the processes were directly connected to each other by some kind of data pipe. Every other detail of the communication is hidden from each process. The underlying mechanisms that transmit data between the host computers are located in the lower protocol layers. Encapsulation of application data descending through the layers described in RFC 1122 The Internet protocol suite uses encapsulation to provide abstraction of protocols and services. Encapsulation is usually aligned with the division of the protocol suite into layers of general functionality. In general, an application (the highest level of the model) uses a set of protocols to send its data down the layers, being further encapsulated at each level. The â€Å"layers† of the protocol suite near the top are logically closer to the user application, while those near the bottom are logically closer to the physical transmission of the data. Viewing layers as providing or consuming a service is a method ofabstraction to isolate upper layer protocols from the nitty-gritty detail of transmitting bits over, for example, Ethernet and collision detection, while the lower layers avoid having to know the details of each and every application and its protocol. Even when the layers are examined, the assorted architectural documents—there is no single architectural model such as ISO 7498, the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model—have fewer and less rigidly defined layers than the OSI model, and thus provide an easier fit for real-world protocols. In point of fact, one frequently referenced document, RFC 1958, does not contain a stack of layers. The lack of emphasis on layering is a strong difference between the IETF and OSI approaches. It only refers to the existence of the â€Å"internetworking layer† and generally to â€Å"upper layers†; this document was intended as a 1996 â€Å"snapshot† of the architecture: â€Å"The Internet and its architecture have grown in evolutionary fashion from modest beginnings, rather than from a Grand Plan. While this process of evolution is one of the main reasons for the technology’s success, it nevertheless seems useful to record a snapshot of the current principles of the Internet architecture. RFC 1122, entitled Host Requirements, is structured in paragraphs referring to layers, but the document refers to many other architectural principles not emphasizing layering. It loosely defines a four-layer model, with the layers having names, not numbers, as follows: †¢Application layer (process-to-process): This is the scope within which applications create user data and communicate this data to other processes or applications on another or the same host. The communications partners are often called peers. This is where the â€Å"higher level† protocols such as SMTP, FTP, SSH, HTTP, etc. operate. †¢Transport layer (host-to-host): The transport layer constitutes the networking regime between two network hosts, either on the local network or on remote networks separated by routers. The transport layer provides a uniform networking interface that hides the actual topology (layout) of the underlying network connections. This is where flow-control, error-correction, and connection protocols exist, such as TCP. This layer deals with opening and maintaining connections between Internet hosts. Internet layer (internetworking): The internet layer has the task of exchanging datagrams across network boundaries. It is therefore also referred to as the layer that establishes internetworking, indeed, it defines and establishes the Internet. This layer defines the addressing and routing structures used for the TCP/IP protocol suite. The primary protocol in this scope is the Internet Protocol, which defines IP addresses. Its function in routing is to transport datagrams to the next IP router that has the connectivity to a network closer to the final data destination. Link layer: This layer defines the networking methods within the scope of the local network link on which hosts communicate without intervening routers. This layer describes the protocols used to describe the local network topology and the interfaces needed to effect transmission of Internet layer datagrams to next-neighbor hosts. (cf. the OSI data link layer). The Internet protocol suite and the layered protocol stack design were in use before the OSI model was established. Since then, the TCP/IP model has been compared with the OSI model in books and classrooms, which often results in confusion because the two models use different assumptions, including about the relative importance of strict layering. This abstraction also allows upper layers to provide services that the lower layers cannot, or choose not, to provide. Again, the original OSI model was extended to include connectionless services (OSIRM CL). For example, IP is not designed to be reliable and is a best effort delivery protocol. This means that all transport layer implementations must choose whether or not to provide reliability and to what degree. UDP provides data integrity (via a checksum) but does not guarantee delivery; TCP provides both data integrity and delivery guarantee (by retransmitting until the receiver acknowledges the reception of the packet). This model lacks the formalism of the OSI model and associated documents, but the IETF does not use a formal model and does not consider this a limitation, as in the comment by David D. Clark, â€Å"We reject: kings, presidents and voting. We believe in: rough consensus and running code. † Criticisms of this model, which have been made with respect to the OSI model, often do not consider ISO’s later extensions to that model. 1. For multiaccess links with their own addressing systems (e. g. Ethernet) an address mapping protocol is needed. Such protocols can be considered to be below IP but above the existing link system. While the IETF does not use the terminology, this is a subnetwork dependent convergence facility according to an extension to the OSI model, the internal organization of the network layer (IONL). . ICMP & IGMP operate on top of IP but do not transport data like UDP or TCP. Again, this functionality exists as layer management extensions to the OSI model, in its Management Framework (OSIRM MF) . 3. The SSL/TLS library operates above the transport layer (uses TCP) but below application protocols. Again, there was no intention, on the part of the designers of these protocols, to comply with OSI architecture. 4. The link is treated like a black box here. This is fine for discussing IP (since the whole point of IP is it will run over virtually anything). The IETF explicitly does not intend to discuss transmission systems, which is a less academic but practical alternative to the OSI model. The following is a description of each layer in the TCP/IP networking model starting from the lowest level. Link layer The link layer is the networking scope of the local network connection to which a host is attached. This regime is called the link in Internet literature. This is the lowest component layer of the Internet protocols, as TCP/IP is designed to be hardware independent. As a result TCP/IP is able to be implemented on top of virtually any hardware networking technology. The link layer is used to move packets between the Internet layer interfaces of two different hosts on the same link. The processes of transmitting and receiving packets on a given link can be controlled both in the software device driver for the network card, as well as on firmware or specialized chipsets. These will perform data link functions such as adding a packet header to prepare it for transmission, then actually transmit the frame over a physical medium. The TCP/IP model includes specifications of translating the network addressing methods used in the Internet Protocol to data link addressing, such as Media Access Control (MAC), however all other aspects below that level are implicitly assumed to exist in the link layer, but are not explicitly defined. This is also the layer where packets may be selected to be sent over a virtual private network or other networking tunnel. In this scenario, the link layer data may be considered application data which traverses another instantiation of the IP stack for transmission or reception over another IP connection. Such a connection, or virtual link, may be established with a transport protocol or even an application scope protocol that serves as a tunnel in the link layer of the protocol stack. Thus, the TCP/IP model does not dictate a strict hierarchical encapsulation sequence. Internet layer The internet layer has the responsibility of sending packets across potentially multiple networks. Internetworking requires sending data from the source network to the destination network. This process is called routing In the Internet protocol suite, the Internet Protocol performs two basic functions: †¢Host addressing and identification: This is accomplished with a hierarchical addressing system (see IP address). †¢Packet routing: This is the basic task of sending packets of data (datagrams) from source to destination by sending them to the next network node (router) closer to the final destination. The internet layer is not only agnostic of application data structures at the transport layer, but it also does not distinguish between operation of the various transport layer protocols. So, IP can carry data for a variety of different upper layer protocols. These protocols are each identified by a unique protocol number: for example, Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) and Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) are protocols 1 and 2, respectively. Some of the protocols carried by IP, such as ICMP (used to transmit diagnostic information about IP transmission) and IGMP (used to manage IP Multicast data) are layered on top of IP but perform internetworking functions. This illustrates the differences in the architecture of the TCP/IP stack of the Internet and the OSI model. The internet layer only provides an unreliable datagram transmission facility between hosts located on potentially different IP networks by forwarding the transport layer datagrams to an appropriate next-hop router for further relaying to its destination. With this functionality, the internet layer makes possible internetworking, the interworking of different IP networks, and it essentially establishes the Internet. The Internet Protocol is the rincipal component of the internet layer, and it defines two addressing systems to identify network hosts computers, and to locate them on the network. The original address system of the ARPANET and its successor, the Internet, is Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). It uses a 32-bit IP address and is therefore capable of identifying approximately four billion hosts. This limitation was eliminated by the standardization of Internet Protoc ol version 6 (IPv6) in 1998, and beginning production implementations in approximately 2006.

Purpose of Laws in Society Essay

Laws have been around for thousands of years and serve many different purposes. Laws set boundaries. Without law, how do you know what is right or wrong? Laws make it clear for all who are under them. Their purpose is supposed to be for the protection of society. Laws are for sure needed in society to ensure the safety of the people and to ensure functions properly and efficiently. One of the Major things that laws do is that they promote the goals of society and keep people civil and try to maintain peace among the people and keep the crime right to a minimal. Laws reflect the values and beliefs in a society and promote people to do the right thing and follow the law, because it holds people accountable for their choices. One of the goals of society to create equality among the people and law make that possible giving everyone the same chances as other everyone and the power of freedom is also created through law. Laws also promote the goals of society because they protect people rights. An example of this would be when people are trying to find a job the laws protect them from being discriminated against because of there race, they can’t just get turned down for the job because of there culture or race. Laws continue to promote the goals of society and continue to help keep the people in the country under control and to keep from anarchy. Another thing that laws do very well is that help settle disputes. They accomplish this from having civil courts for example. Civil court is for civil problems and cases and settling disputes among people. An example of this could be when someone is selling something online via ebay or craigslist’s and or a similar website and then rips the person off who is buying the service or product the customers could then settle the dispute in a civil court hearing. They also help settle disputes because it gives people the chance to fight for what is true fully there’s and or what is right. For example if someone takes something from them and wont give it back they could settle the problem in a civil court. The theme of law is not to punish people but rather have them stay away from crime. As a active member of society we are expected to follow the rules and laws of our country. Law is created to keep people safe from crime and give justice. When a person breaks the law they must accept he punishment according to severity of the crime. Therefore when a person thinks about breaking the law, the law makers hope he will think twice. Laws protect people through punishment because it holds people accountable for there actions. Before you commit a crime you already know what the punishment may be for doing so. Therefore if the law makes someone think twice about what they are doing and stop that person from actually committing the crime then it has served its purposed. Laws Provide order among the society as well and this is massively important because its keeps people from going completely savage and keeps people civilized as well as keeping complete anarchy from arising. Laws provide order among the people because knowing what the laws are also means you should be aware of what happens to those who chose to not follow the law. This keeps people in tact and keeps order because most people do not wish to serve the punishment of breaking a law and therefore will most likely chose to be a law abiding citizen. Truth be told, laws are definitely needed in today’s society, they keep the people civilized and for the most part keep our society running smoothly. People need to have guidelines and rules and laws the need to be followed or else everyone would just do what they wanted and complete chaos would happen. Laws are good and serve a great purpose in our contemporary society.

Free Essays on Manhattan Projects

The Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was the code name of the U.S.’s attempt to construct an atomic bomb during World War II. It was named after the Manhattan Engineer District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, because a lot of it’s earlier research was done in New York City. An atomic bomb is a weapon that uses the energy from a nuclear reaction called Fission for its destruction. The idea that mass could be changed into energy was predicted by Albert Einstein in the earlier part of the 1900’s. John D. Cockcroft and Ernest Walton confirmed this by experiments in 1932. Then in 1938, nuclear fission was discovered by German scientists, and it was feared by many of the U.S. scientists, that Hitler would try to build a fission bomb. Three Hungarian-born physicists, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller asked Albert Einstein to send a letter to Franklin Roosevelt. Compelled by the letter in late 1939, Roosevelt ordered an effort to obtain an atomic weapon before Germany. At first, this program was led by Vannevar Bush, head of the National Defense Research committee and the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Then it came under control of Leslie Groves of the Army Corps of Engineers. Groves quickly bought a site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as a place for processing the Uranium-235 from the more common Uranium-238. Uranium-235 is used because it is fissionable, it releases many neutrons, and does not capture many. However, 99.3% of uranium in nature is the U-238 isotope, and only .7% is the lighter, more â€Å"fissionable† isotope U-235. Next, he gathered and combined research from many East Coast universities under direction of Arthur Compton, at the University of Chicago. He appointed theoretical physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer as the director of the weapons laboratory, which was built on an isolated mesa located at Los Alamos, New Mexico. After much work, a ... Free Essays on Manhattan Projects Free Essays on Manhattan Projects The Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was the code name of the U.S.’s attempt to construct an atomic bomb during World War II. It was named after the Manhattan Engineer District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, because a lot of it’s earlier research was done in New York City. An atomic bomb is a weapon that uses the energy from a nuclear reaction called Fission for its destruction. The idea that mass could be changed into energy was predicted by Albert Einstein in the earlier part of the 1900’s. John D. Cockcroft and Ernest Walton confirmed this by experiments in 1932. Then in 1938, nuclear fission was discovered by German scientists, and it was feared by many of the U.S. scientists, that Hitler would try to build a fission bomb. Three Hungarian-born physicists, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller asked Albert Einstein to send a letter to Franklin Roosevelt. Compelled by the letter in late 1939, Roosevelt ordered an effort to obtain an atomic weapon before Germany. At first, this program was led by Vannevar Bush, head of the National Defense Research committee and the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Then it came under control of Leslie Groves of the Army Corps of Engineers. Groves quickly bought a site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as a place for processing the Uranium-235 from the more common Uranium-238. Uranium-235 is used because it is fissionable, it releases many neutrons, and does not capture many. However, 99.3% of uranium in nature is the U-238 isotope, and only .7% is the lighter, more â€Å"fissionable† isotope U-235. Next, he gathered and combined research from many East Coast universities under direction of Arthur Compton, at the University of Chicago. He appointed theoretical physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer as the director of the weapons laboratory, which was built on an isolated mesa located at Los Alamos, New Mexico. After much work, a ...