Being a Musician

Music is the rhythm that keeps the world spinning. What is it about music that makes it so enjoyable to listen to? Is it the message that we gain from the lyrics or is just the background beat? Music, with all its intricacies, can be seen as living entity that has the ability to rest Inside our soul and create emotions such as excitement and awe. Music helps create a bond and connect people all around the world whether they speak different languages or practice different religions.Music has always been an integral part of my life. I listen and partake in music almost every day and when I listen to a great piece of music, I cannot help but feel great joy and feel as though I am one with the song. It is as if my body goes into an alternate universe where Instruments have the ability to talk and they are telling me their story. Over the years, I have learned through my experiences that music not only helps me learn, but to also grow. From an early age, I grew up listening to Classical I ndian music. My mom would sing traditional songs to me and would listen eagerly absorbing the song in its entirety.However, I did not know that I was developing my singing ability at the same time. Then, the unimaginable happened. I started to sing. This; however, is an understatement as I seemed to of sang well according to my elders and peers. I had this experience at the young age of 10 which Is when I discovered I had the talent to sing Classical Indian music. From then on, I was fixed on honing my musical skills and was determined to push it to things beyond singing. From then on, I would try singing whenever I was given a chance. I would sing in the shower, in the car, and even when my parents went to bed.Even though I liked to inning, I did not like to do it publicly in front of people. Now as I look back, it was probably because I was not very confident In my abilities so I was afraid of making a fool of myself. Not long after, my parents started to notice my knack for music and I was forced to share my talent. However, I am eternally grateful that they made me sing in public at our temple because that led to a Classical Music teacher approaching my parents and she asked them if I would like to learn from her. This was Just the beginning of my journey in music. As I continued to sing, I became more and more fascinated with piano. Ked my parents if I could start taking lessons and they readily agreed. As I went to the piano teacher, she said I had a natural ability to read music and that my fingers were Incredibly quick for an eleven year old. I continue to piano to this day and thoroughly enjoy it. Piano; however, was not the only instrument that I learned to play. In sixth grade, I joined band and picked the trumpet as my instrument of choice. I loved playing it the first moment the trumpet touched my lips. Band has been a part of my life ever since sixth grade and I have been playing the trumpet for the better part of 5 years. Simmered by the notes. Music is the only thing that has the power to fully captivate someone in this manner. Personally, music gave me the opportunity to go from the world of real-life problems to a world of tranquility and from the life of an academically overachieving student to that of a musical vocalist.

Gary Mckinnon Report

Professional Practice Ethical Case Study for Part 2 Gary McKinnon Introduction This report discusses about ethical issues that has been quoted from the Guardian â€Å"the biggest military computer hack of all time. † Gary McKinnon a Systems administrator from Glasgow; born 10 February 1966 who is suffering Asperger’s Syndrome and has been blamed upon of hacking into the United States Government computer systems. He presumably â€Å"states that he was merely looking for evidence of a UFO cover-up, the suppression of Free Energy, and other technologies potentially useful to the public. However the damages have resulted from this incident cost more than $800,000 of the Military and NASA’s computer security. This all first began in 1983 when Gary went to go to his local cinema to watch the movie WarGames, about a whiz kid who had hacked into the Pentagon, from an interview with Jon Ronson; The Guardian, Gary said that from this movie he did not mean it to actually c ome true, and had a thought in mind that he would work for the department of defence or NASA, on the other hand this is not the case for Gary’s case.Between the years 2001 and 2002 Gary McKinnon was arrested under the Computer Misuse Act in the UK just after the 9/11, and got bail by 2005. During that year the US government had started the â€Å"extradition proceedings,† Gary would face up to 70 years jail in the US, which would of exceeded to be sent to Guantanamo Bay, yet comparing the US punishment towards the UK it is considerably less. This case is still active, and McKinnon’s mother has prevented extradition from a long campaign.This report will look further in detail of what has been discussed above, as well as: * Gary’s Supporters/Appeal * Issues on his Disability * Damages on the US security These are the Ethical Issues which I think that should be discussed about Gary McKinnon’s case. Ethical Issues Surrounding Gary Mckinnon On August 200 8 Gary McKinnon’s Legal team settled on yet another appeal, this then lead onto finding out the fact that Gary McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, but before the appeal Gary’s legal team made sure that the appeal would be granted first.Asperger’s Syndrome’s symptoms can come across â€Å"repetitive patterns of behaviour and interests,† and I think that this can clash against what has been mentioned before about the movie that Gary had seen when he was 17 about the whiz kid that hacked into the Pentagon. This may have affected Gary’s thoughts and even quoted from an interview â€Å"I didn’t mean it to actually come true. † From his interests and curiosity of UFO’s and other aspects, I do not think that anyone expected the result from all that has happened.Gary McKinnon was accused of hacking into 97 different NASA and the United States computers in the years 2001 and 2002, he had used the name ‘S olo’ and had additionally got accused of hacking into various networks that was used by US Army, Navy, Air Force, Department of defence and NASA. In the USA Gary McKinnon currently have up to 20 charges which include: * Obtaining USA Top Secret Documents * Intentionally damaging Computer protection software’s * Interfering with maritime navigation equipment * Stealing computer files * Deleting critical computer files * Deleting Navy Weapons logsThe list that is shown above is just a few out of the damage that Gary caused USA. With all this that has been accused upon Gary McKinnon, he denied of causing any damage arguing against his search of UFO information. However he did admit that he left a threat on one computer, this referred to how useless the USA computer security was especially after the 9/11 attacks, he will carry on disrupting at high levels. His statement represented his belief that the 9/11 attacks was an inside job. What Gary attempted to prove was that on ce you’re on the network called ‘NetStat’, this would list the connections to that system of the US army/NASA etc.And Gary was not alone; there had been hackers from Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Thailand and more doing the same as Gary. Hackers from all over the world were just simply going through files without any of the military realising. He had been doing this for more than 5 to 7 years just looking through files until the day that he got caught. Gary had been through many unfair trials such as McKinnon Vs United States 2008 which the defendant disputed â€Å"that the plea bargain constituted ‘unlawful pressure’ and had amounted to an abuse of process†.This case was then dismissed because the case was not proven enough to oppose extradition. On the other hand with another case in 2009 McKinnon Vs Secretary of State of Home Affairs it was discovered that Gary is suffering Asperger’s Syndrome and he claimed that it would clash against the European Convention on Human Rights. The Outcome There have been many supporters for Gary McKinnon, with websites, and even grown to be supported by the National Autistic Society and Liberty, this campaign that is been running by groups of people would hopefully end the extradition.There are groups online from Facebook, Twitter many web forums to show that the public believe that he should not be extradited. More with cross party politicians supporting and ‘high profile individuals’ such as Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross. To get more people to support Gary, a petition had been arisen to support him to stop his extradition before it is too late. With the entire case in hand, the two countries have come across a huge disagreement, the US is simply wanting the extradition to take place so that Gary McKinnon can get up to 70 years in prison, with the UK trials 70 years is undoubtedly not close to that number.But without finding out that he has suffered Asperger’s Syn drome, for the people who have supported Gary McKinnon has said that he is â€Å"less blameworthy for his crimes†¦ does not necessarily mean that he can distinguish right from wrong. † There are still many questions for Gary and the future, Will Gary McKinnon’s Asperger’s Syndrome get worse and end up change his sentencing? Should people with mental disabilities be treated differently under our legal system? Conclusion For different people there are different opinions about Gary’s entire case, many people found him guilty as they seen him as deleting and intruding on mportant files from the US. Others had and still are supporting him to prevent him from getting extradition. What is the case with Gary McKinnon till this day? Currently Gary would have to face an extradition case during May 2010 just after the general election for the UK; this would mean that after the election this would leave a new government which could possibly lead into Gary McKinn on’s favour, in support of Gary; the opposition ‘Tories’ have tabled against UK-US extraditions.Also Gary’s mother ‘Janis Sharp’ has announced her candidacy to stand against ‘Jack Straw’ former Labour Home Secretary and current Minister in Blackburn (Lancashire) but confusingly Jack Straw is the least person to blame for the situation that Gary is in, he was the foreign secretary with the UK government who which negotiated with the US government that resulted in the Extradition Act 2003. Personal ReflectionWhen I first went through this case study, I was surprised and shocked in the situation that Gary McKinnon was in, I had never heard of this even though it was all over the international news and had a huge effect on the US government. With my initial thoughts I was against Gary McKinnon that he had hacked into the US and deleted important files and I immediately thought that he would be sent to prison. However I read on with th e case study that was given, researched on his situation and his court cases and then realised that this was a two way condition with arguments from two countries, whether he should have to face extradition or not.I had read on the Guardian with an interview with Gary from Jon Ronson and read along the lines that he did not mean to delete any files; it was just a matter of researching his quest of finding information on UFO’s. Then in the Wikipedia information it stated that he did admit on showing a threat referring that the US Governments security was not safe at all and many people had hacked in it many times from all over the world.With my thoughts I would support Gary McKinnon, there are many people from around the world that are hacking into the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Department of defence and NASA. With Gary’s case he had been through a lot, with the United States after him, suffering Asperger’s Syndrome and having to trial against the US for up to 7 y ears. I think that it could possibly end for him if the May 2010 British elections go the right way for Gary McKinnon.

Rationale – I have decided to study the gender-oriented issue of conjugal roles in the family

I have decided to study the gender-oriented issue of conjugal roles in the family. This area of sociological interest came about when we looked at family life and the symmetrical family. Another reason for my interest in this is it is still an issue despite all the changes such as sex discrimination, and even though feminists have raised the issue it seems that there is still not equality in the allocation of domestic tasks between husband and wife. The Lancaster Regionalism Group found an increase in men's participation but not in the unpopular chores, while Alan Warde suggests that the nature of household tasks varied between couples. From this evidence I derived my hypothesis â€Å"Men do help around the home but do not make an equal contribution†. Primary research will be used and will take the form of a diary. For my variables my sample size will be ten married / cohabiting couples. Both male and female will be in full time employment aged between 30 to 40, as I have access to these respondents. They will be chosen using a snowballing method. A quantitative method will be used to measure the time spent on tasks around the home, and the nature of tasks performed. CONTEXT. The issue of the domestic division of labour was raised by feminists like Ann Oakley in her study â€Å"The sociology of Housework† in which she argued that housework should be taken seriously as a type of â€Å"work†. Other feminists have developed this theme and looked at ways in which women experience inequality in the home. My first source is drawn from the Lancaster Regionalism Group's investigation into the household division of labour in Northwest England in 1988. This concept â€Å"domestic division of labour† is crucial because it relates to my aim. The â€Å"domestic division of labour† describes the way in which household tasks are allocated in the home. These researchers found that husbands tend to do a very much larger proportion of tasks concerned with the home such as car maintenance etc. However the women do the vast amount of domestic chores. The Lancaster researchers examined the popularity of different household chores. They wanted to test whether the male or female partner was likely to get the unpopular job. From their list of 20 tasks ironing, washing clothes and dishes were chosen as the most disliked chores. Although men had last washed the dishes in 23% of households, only 5% had done the ironing and 3% had last cleaned the dishes. The least pleasant of all tasks cleaning the toilet was last done in 81% of households by women. The Lancaster Regionalism Group concluded that there was some evidence that attitudes had changed but the actual pattern of behaviour remains much the same as it was in the earlier generation. The Lancaster Regionalism Groups work links in with my own hypothesis because the study found an increase in men's participation but not in the unpopular chores. Secondly there is the feminist approach to the domestic division of labour. The feminist Ann Oakley argued that the social scientists who claimed it was natural for women to take a caring role in the family e.g. perform household tasks had been tricked by their own prejudices into assuming what it meant to be a woman. Some contemporary sociologists have taken Stoller's argument and suggest that women take on more domestic responsibilities in any given household because it is seen as culturally appropriate feminine behaviour. Therefore it is difficult to discover whether the sharing (or not) of domestic tasks can be seen as a true measure of â€Å"equality†. My third source is drawn from Gershunys study on domestic division of labour. He measured changes in the domestic division of labour by looking at the use of time in the household. He investigated the dual burden hypothesis, which states that even when women take up professional work, they continue to carry on the domestic work. Gershuny found that over the period of 1974-5 to 1987 the husbands of working women continued to do less than half the total paid and unpaid work done by their spouses. However in some types of household's men did contribute equally and husbands share of work had risen. This source is relevant to my hypothesis because the source concludes there is evidence to show that men were taking on more mundane tasks as done by women, but such tasks continued to be the female's responsibility. My next source is the article † Domestic divisions of labour† by Alan Warde.The source concerns the aspect of women's two roles, their conventional responsibility for housework and paid work. According to the study where wives are involved in paid employment they spend fewer hours, on housework where men seem to be doing more. Nevertheless, women still do a greater share of domestic work. There is a strong gender division of tasks, with women doing routine household jobs. The article concludes that the traditional patterns remain very much in evidence and the rate at which men are learning to do female tasks may be slower than that at which women are learning to do male tasks like plastering etc. This source is relevant to my study because selected tasks between husband and wife remain much the same, women doing more housework and men doing painting etc. My final source is once again on the domestic division of labour by Madeleine Leonard. The article suggests that housework remains women's work. Research shows that there is a clear gender division of labour in housework tasks just like the Lancashire Regionalism group found in their study. This source is relevant to my study because it suggests that even though men are making a contribution when it comes to chores they are still not doing an equal share. These studies suggest that, despite much greater equality for women there is still an imbalance of responsibility when it comes to household chores. However my own research may suggest otherwise. Methodology Three main areas need to be covered for this research. Firstly, there needs to be a way of measuring the amount of domestic labour performed by females and males in the present day family groups. I have decided to measure who does what around the home. Secondly I will be measuring the tasks done with others and the time spent on chores. The principal research method I will use will be a diary, as I believe this is a more original method for this research. Not only will this method give me a greater validity but also an insight into the issue. I also hope it will identify trends within my sample group about the amount of housework performed. Using the diary method will also enable me to replicate Wilmott and Youngs approach, as they too used a diary method in their study of the â€Å"symmetrical family† where they asked respondents to keep a diary detailing the hours spent on paid and unpaid work. My sample will consist of 10 couple's aged between 30 to 40 who are all employed. They will be chosen using the snowballing method. Using this method offers a wide range of advantages for example it will enable me to obtain a relevant sample without having a sampling frame. The diary method will involve asking my respondents to keep a strict diary recording and detailing the amount of domestic labour they performed throughout the day, as well tasks done alone and the time spent on chores. When using these method respondents would need to keep this diary for up to a week. The diary will offer the opportunity to let the respondents record their account of the domestic labour performed without causing any bias, and so it will be a more reliable source. An example of sociological research that has used a diary method is Wilmott and Young's study of the symmetrical family where they asked respondents to keep a diary detailing the hours spent on paid and unpaid work. Another study example where a diary method has been used is Ann Oakley's study on the sociology of housework. Oakley asked respondents to keep a housework diary, revealing for the feminist debate the hard work and long hours housework demands. The advantage of using the diary method is qualitative data can discover peoples meaning and interpretations and can often also be examined systematically to identify patterns by using content analysis. This approach is favoured because it is free of values and scientific. Another advantage of using the diary method is it is a more reliable source when it comes to ethical issues, as respondents will not be influenced when recording the amount of work performed & will not reveal aspects of their lives they wish to remain hidden. One of the other reasons why I decided to use the diary method is it does not limit the resource-based area of time and money. The diary method will enable me to collect informative, relevant and original data whilst remaining within practical constraints. The diary method reflects two major methodological disadvantages selectivity and it is typical. The selectivity issue is a problem because the respondent will decide what is included not me the researcher. This could lead to irrelevance and inaccuracy & a difficulty in comparing data from different respondents. However to over come this disadvantage I will divide the diary into three categories to specify what sort of things to include. However this solution may too be a disadvantage as I am using a qualitative method this may lead to bias because I am imposing a framework on the respondent. The second disadvantage is typical because I do not know the amount of confidence I can have in the usualness of the day recorded. Most people's lives follow regular patterns but if my diary period of ten days is untypical then my picture as the researcher will be distorted. EVIDENCE. Despite the progress made by women in the twentieth century, which has brought about a substantial amount of change and has put an end to inequality and discrimination between sexes in many areas, women have still not won the battle of equality between men when it comes to domestic work in the home. When talking about work, it can be assumed that this refers to paid employment. However there is one job which is performed full time by women more than men, which is housework or domestic labour. My research concludes that domestic work done by women is hardly ever recognised. For instance respondent A had done more hours of domestic work in a week compared to her husband respondent k (refer to appendix). From my diary I can estimate women spend an average of fifty hours a week on housework which is far more than most people spend in paid employment. Men seemed to be doing less than this amount of domestic work compared to their wives, in some days doing less than half what they consider to be housework or related tasks. I have found from my diaries that housework is still seen as the main responsibility of women even though both partners are working in full time paid employment. It is still women who take on the main responsibility for housework from all the ten couples who took part in my experiment. My findings show that women still have an unequal role with men in the homestead. Much of this inequality arises because the central role of women is still seen by a male dominated society as that of housewife and mother. For instance a similarity I found in my study was that nearly all the female respondents who took part carried out similar tasks over one week such as cleaning the toilet, cooking and hovering etc. Whereas the male respondents tasks where also similar for instance gardening and painting etc. This may suggest that many jobs are still seen as men's job and women's job. This compares with the Lancaster Regionalism Group's study. This study showed that 80%of women were responsible for general domestic duties such as cleaning the toilet and only 31% of men took full responsibility for work to be done in the homestead. This tells me about my aims that many full time working women have two jobs in comparison to the men's one job. My own findings reveal that although a wide range of jobs and opportunities are available to women the main role of a woman's life is expected to be that of housewife. Although out of the 10 couples who took part in my experiment only 2% shared the responsibility of housework equally. This compares with Gershuney's study because he found that in some types of households men did contribute equally. The only difference, which was clear in my study, was that attitudes to domestic chores are changing. Respondents k and L(refer to appendix) were doing tasks such as cooking, making the tea etc all tasks done by women out of the other couples who took part in my experiment. This for instance compares to Gershuney's study because he found men were taking on more mundane tasks as done by women. The process of conducting my research went well although I would make a number of changes if I were to carry the experiment out again. For instance I decided that half an hour would be suitable and a long enough space of time for respondents to record the tasks done. I now think that this time period was not suitable, as this was too short. People may spend longer than half an hour on certain tasks such as hovering and so this may not have been recorded in the diary. I believe that forty-five minutes would have been a longer space of time. However if I had decided to choose to go with more than forty five minutes than respondents may not choose to record tasks that take them less than five minutes for example putting the rubbish out. After carrying out the experiment the ten couples who took part said they found it difficult recording what they thought was a task. Questions raised from the respondents included would walking the dog and taking the kids to school be considered a task?. To overcome this problem I could list about twenty tasks such as hovering, and other possible variations on a cover sheet and attach it to the diary and instruct respondents to record only the tasks on the cover sheet. I found that some respondents were recording gardening, and painting etc the problem with this is some people may choose to do gardening or painting as a hobby so these can not be recorded as chores. Again using a cover sheet could solve this problem. From my diaries I found that men were spending only half an hour on tasks when doing it on there own. However when they recorded tasks done with others they were spending more time on tasks of up to an hour. This shows that women obviously take more time on domestic chores whereas even though men are doing there bit the time taken is much shorter. By comparing all the diaries from males I could see that the tasks done by men were very similar such as changing a light bulb or fuse. This was also the case with women all the tasks done by them over the week was also very similar such as cooking, changing the linen etc. This shows me that there is a gender division when it comes to household tasks. The main role of a women's life is still to be that of a housewife, having dinner ready on the table, cleaning the house etc although men are doing there part in the domestic sphere but just not enough compared to men. This compares to the study of † Back to the future† by Madeline Leonard. She found that housework by large remains women's work, and this more than any other factor accounts for women's continued exploitation in the home. In her study she found that women are responsible for cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing, while men do jobs such as gardening and home maintenance. The key findings of all my primary research include that although it is true that women have made a huge progress, total equality in the home is still a myth. The battle of the sexes when it comes to domestic tasks has still not met its equilibrium although evidence from my research suggests that attitudes are changing slowly. EVALUATION & FINAL CONCLUSIONS. The sampling problems apparent in my research were that there were problems finding an equal number of working class and middle class couples. Consequently my sample was mainly working class. This problem simply reflected the facts of the type of domestic work that I the researcher was looking for. There may have been a need to adjust my hypothesis or the sample characteristics because it was too broad. My sample was reduced to ten couples because when I went round to respondent's homes they were not in. To overcome this problem I the researcher could have made the diary worth while for the respondents in order to motivate them to take part. I now believe that the sample I chose to use was not representative. This is because only ten couples took part. The couples in the survey were mainly working women and men and so may not be representative of professional men and women. There is no indication in the data that a range of different types of couples, e.g. working class, members of ethnic minorities, etc was sampled. The strengths of my research are that I focused on the comparative approach by using the snowballing method for example the way the couples were randomly sampled. The representatives of the sample, especially the equal sexes ratio. All diaries were handed out to respondents in their home because of the anonymity of the diaries. The weaknesses of my research were that the respondents might have thought the research was official and feel threatened by it, and so refuse to co-operate with it etc. Therefore the responses may not therefore reflect the truth, despite anonymity. The respondents were not supervised when they were filling in the diary and in reaction, some respondents may not have co-operated fully, experience of self reports tell us that people have a tendency to exaggerate, lie, not take surveys seriously. I did explore the issue in sufficient depth because my secondary data was appropriate to draw a suitable hypothesis. My secondary data was derived from a range of sources: social studies review, the Lancaster Regionalism Group etc. These all gave me an official picture of the domestic division of labour situation. The sources of data that I have collected are the most effective in relation to my aims. However other methods of data collection might have been possible for instance a large-scale survey of the population could be conducted of the workload shared between husband and wife in general. I could include questions on women's role as housewife which operationalise in various ways positive and negative attitudes towards them. Interviews could be conducted with husbands, which would measure their attitudes and their perception of social attitudes towards housewives. A content analysis could be carried out on newspaper coverage of the role of women in the home. My choice of method did affect my results for example by using the diary method I was able to control variables via using a snowballing sample. It is seen to have high reliability because it is easily repeated. Other sociologists can verify the data obtained by using the same standardised diary and similar samples. It is also seen as objective because the sample population is randomly rather than deliberately selected. During the diary schedule I did attempt to operationalise the concept domestic division of labour etc in such a way that it was not judgmental of the couples. I used my personal theoretical perspective and related this to my choice of method for instance the couples could have been interviewed together, although a more interesting variation that I chose was to use a diary method. This method was chosen so that they could record the amount of domestic tasks done separately. I was then able to compare data to get a gender version of the amount of tasks done. My experience of carrying out the research compares to the interpretivists. Firstly, the task of the researcher is to investigate how those taking part in the study interpret the world around them. In order to do this, the sociologist has to get inside their heads and see the world through their eyes. This is called â€Å"verstehen† and is an attempt to empathise with those being studied. Second, interpretivists emphasise validity seeing the world as it really is. Validity played a great importance in my chosen method because I was trying to find out how domestic tasks were shared so seeing the world as it really is. Third, cause and effect relationships are impossible to construct because people socially construct social situations and the interpretations people give to certain situations often vary. I found this to be the case in my research between couples. I do think my results are presented in the most effective way. As my chosen method was qualitative I was not able to produce any statistical data however my diaries were in columns with appropriate headings. To study this research further people could develop the idea of helping around the home by using Wilmot and young's assertion that the family is still symmetrical. Also people could research whether women actually want to be helped when it comes to household tasks even though feminists argue that the family is still an exploitative arrangement for women. CONCLUSION My hypothesis read†¦ † Men do help around the home but do not make an equal contribution† I can conclude that my hypothesis was correct because I found from my diaries that women are still doing more than there fair share of domestic work compared to men. This is the case because the extensions of traditional domestic roles of housewives and mothers are still in which women continue to be socialised these include serving and waiting on people, catering for them and cleaning and clearing up after others. These are all jobs women traditionally did and still do in the home. Such jobs include primary school teaching, low-grade catering work, working as shop assistants, supermarket shop fillers, secretaries' etc. For example secretaries often serve their (usually male bosses), organise the office in the workplace to make things easier for them, making tea and coffee and clearing up after their meetings. Primary school involves childminding, catering involves cooking etc. Women have limited career opportunities than males for a number of different reasons. There is the gender stereotyping at school and the wider gender role socialisation process in the home and in the work place. This is similar to the article † Back to the future† by Madeleine Leonard who found that this gender role socialisation process in the home made women continue to see housework as an important part of being a â€Å"good wife and mother† and are satisfied with the unequal domestic division of labour.

The Beatles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Beatles - Essay Example Two of the Beatles are now dead, but the icon of "Beatles" remains, having moved from a Modernist, central position within world culture to a postmodernist, ironic placement as a mixture of nostalgia and commercialism. When The Beatles first appeared on music scene in 1963, the idea of a musical band being anything more than simply a group of young men (and sometimes women) who played live and who would, if successful, release records, had yet to be invented. Pop groups, even those that became phenomenally successful in a manner never seen before, were clearly definable, and limited Modernist figures. A clear delineation could be made between the pop group and the musical culture/general world in which they performed and lived. In a modernist and semiotic sense, the relationship between signifier ("The Beatles") and signified (the live performances and records) was fairly clear (Barthes, 1978). But as early as the late stages of Beatlemania in 1964, a postmodern uncertainty was coming into the sign "Beatles" as a slippery commutability between signifier and signified started to occur. Essentially "The Beatles" became a signifier for much more than the signified of their music. The hysterical "love" that surrounded the four young from Liverpool reached such extreme and massive proportions that some seriously suggested that the fans were suffering from some kind of mass hysteria. "The Beatles", to put them in a Freudian context, were bringing out an id within their fans that dominated their ego and superego. While the raw sexuality of Beatles music was making the previous icon of rebellion, Elvis Presley, seem relatively tame by comparison, their success within Britain caused them to become icons of the mainstream establishment as well. In 1965 Queen Elizabeth II bestowed the MBE, a civil honor, on the band. Their dominance of the music industry - on April 4th 1964 they had all top five records on the Billboard Top 100 (Spitz, 2006) - had apparently led them to become icons of that most traditional of British institutions, the monarchy. When John Lennon told the Royal Command Audience that they should applaud, only the rich should jangle their jewelry the "servants" of the Queen who had been commanded to perform for her (and who bowed so low) were now ironically commenting upon the British class system. The move to postmodern irony had already started before the famous mop-tops were grown long, the Beatles stopped performing live, and the concept studio album took over. The role of the Beatles as something more than merely a pop group began to take on far greater proportions as the Sixties rolled on. Thus they were seen as having snubbed the President of the Philippines' wife and barely escaped the country with their lives, and John Lennon caused a huge uproar by his less-than-diplomatic, but probably correct assertion that the Beatles were at the time more popular than Jesus (Spitz, 2006). Much of 1970's fashion can be traced to a single Beatles album cover: that of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Thus the sheer range of culture and society that the Beatles influenced eventually drowned out the importance of their music. An ideal symbol of this tendency was the perhaps apocryphal moment when the band stopped playing at a gig only for the audience not to notice because of the noise they were

How to write a dissertation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

How to write a dissertation - Assignment Example A Dissertation is a cumulative effort representative of the entirety of the educational experience. The importance of a dissertation in the educational experience of a student can never be underestimated. A dissertation should report the empirical conclusion of a study as well as provide an over view of current literature and current findings on the subject. It should interpret these facts based on a comparative reading of the sources relative to the experimental outcome. The descriptive study must analyse the "trends in attitudes, events, and facts in terms of their commonality and potential for prediction" (Smith, 1997, p. 34), In this dissertation, ontological and epistemological assumptions will be discussed in relation to positivist and interpretivist approaches to business research. Moreover, two methods of collecting and analyzing qualitative data will be critically compared and contrasted.Part B : Ontological belief and epistemological assumptions are always expected to be at complete dissention with each other and influence the positivist and interpretivist approaches to business research. Ontology is the department of metaphysics concerned with the nature of being. Ontological assumptions will therefore be completely influenced by faith. Such assumptions quite naturally form the basis of positivism and positivist approaches to business research. Positivism is the philosophical system recognizing only positive facts and observable phenomena. It naturally accepts. Epistemology is the theory of knowledge or grounds of knowledge. Thus, epistemological assumptions form the basis of interpretivist approach to business research. Epistemological assumptions will challenge every ontological belief and will want to question every positivist approach of business research. While ontological assumptions will naturally believe in the goodness of a product or process, epistemological assumptions will want to interpret every aspect of the same. Ontological assumptions will not question the theoretical basis of a concept or a product or even a research process. The basis of such assumptions is good faith or a simple faith in the goodness of the product per say, based on face value or usage. This represents a microcosm of ontological assumptions. People tend to assume a certain fact to be true just good or proper. It can be so either by means of rote' or by way of peer pressure. Large scale acceptance of a certain product or concept or idea will influence this acceptance aspect of business research. There is no theory attached to a wide spread acceptance - just the mere fact of acceptance. Epistemological assumptions will want to get to the bottom of the matter and will raise questions about the theoretical basis of the assumption. Epistemological assumptions begin with an inherent suspicion of the knowledge basis of the concept or product. They want to understand and interpret everything in a framework of methodology Conventional science is based on 'rational positivist' thought. This includes the presumptions that there is a 'real world'. Data can be gathered by observing it This data is factual. It is truthful and unambiguous. The 'post-positivist', 'interpretivist' philosophy, on the other hand, asserts that these assumptions are unwarranted, According to this philosophy 'facts' and 'truth' are a wild supposition and 'objective' observation is impossible, and that the act of observation-and- interpretation is dependent on the perspective adopted by the observer. Interpretivists criticise even the physical scientists for the narrowness of their assumptions. Their criticisms hold some truth particularly strongly in the social sciences, where the objects of study are influenced by so many factors. These factors are extremely difficult to isolate and control in experimental laboratory settings. The interpretivist ap

The Nurses Role in Wound Care in the Community Essay

The Nurses Role in Wound Care in the Community - Essay Example Community-based leg ulcer clinics have shown to be very effective; however, there is a need to adopt a well-organised leg ulcer aftercare delivery to reduce the recurrence of leg ulceration and improve the quality of life. Research also revealed that there are significant lacunae with respect to nurse’s knowledge of the principles and practice of wound care. The strategies to improve nurse’s knowledge and future developments in wound care are discussed. The dissertation concludes with recommendations that more high quality clinical research trials be conducted in the future to assess the efficacy of various dressings and adopting the NICE guidelines and the TELER system. Recommendations are also made to conduct a comprehensive education program for nurses at all levels of training and practice. A wound care certification program and an online distance-learning package for acute and chronic wounds for nurses are also recommended. Over the past few decades, the protocols in wound management has changed and evolved rapidly. There has been a shift from dry to moist healing and an increasing trend in the use of modern dressings. Wound management alone leads to a massive drain on health care resources. Diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers, and pressure sores are frequently encountered clinical conditions and many of these conditions are chronic, leading to repeat visits. There has therefore, been an emphasis on proper wound care and the search for an ideal dressing continues to this day. The aim of this dissertation is to review the literature related to wound care regarding the principles and practice of wound care, methods of wound evaluation and the role that nurses play in wound care management in the community. Both electronic database search and manual search was made for literature related to wound care. Electronic database search included PUBMED and MEDLINE searches. The keywords used included â€Å"wound care,† â€Å"wound

Achieving Success on International Assignments Essay

Achieving Success on International Assignments - Essay Example As more companies grow and become globalised many employees are also being charged with international assignments and therefore it is important to be prepared. This involves assessing your own personality, team skills, as well as leadership in order to make sure they match international. With these important personal and corporate skills gained through experience with many people from across the world serving in different I believe I am ready to take up an international assignment anytime it is presented my way.  If sent for an international assignment I believe I will easily achieve success owing to great interpersonal skills gained over time. I have a strong confidence in myself, self reliant and proven ability of working independently with little or no supervision at all. As an individual I also am well versed with major international languages and am open to learning new languages used in whatever host country. When faced with obstacles I have observed myself to be very resilie nt and have persevered extremely difficult circumstances. I also view myself as a very flexible individual with impeccable ability to strongly face and come out of uncertainties unshaken. Another great personal trait that I know in myself is the ability to interact with all kinds of people, tolerate everyone and uphold respect for other people as well as their cultures even if they are not familiar. This has helped me to get along well with persons from all spheres of life and I therefore believe will also influence my fast adapting.

Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business Ethics - Essay Example Business does not exist independent of the society, and consequently politics. The participation and involvement of the businesses in the corrupt practices and policies of the governments has also been to some extent responsible for the developments which led to the ongoing protest movements that are challenging governments in the Middle-East. The emerging concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) calls for positive interactions on the part of the corporate entities with the communities in view of the fact that the companies are part of the communities and in turn the community is one of the stakeholders of the companies. Nasr, S. (2006) points out that if implementing corporate governance standards in joint venture companies has proven to be difficult, trying to apply them to family businesses is an even more difficult task. This is because such businesses are more about family than they are about business. The economy of the Middle East countries is dominated mostly by the f amily businesses. However, the broad picture emerging in a society is required to be well understood both by the family and professional entities for a sustainable development in the long run. ... e towards the environmental responsibility of the mankind, this aptly reflects the limits in terms of exploitation whether socially, economically or politically by the various vested interest groups. Blowfield, M & Murray, A. (2008, p.24) state â€Å"There are various ways of categorizing the main issues that fall under the corporate responsibility†. He has listed out Business ethics, Legal compliance, Philanthropy and community investment, Environmental management, Sustainability, Animal rights, Human rights, Worker rights and welfare, Market relations, Corruption and Corporate governance as prominent areas of corporate responsibility activity today. The agriculture and business are the cornerstones for development of the communities or societies in the world. The industrial development over the period of time has played an important role in the economic development of the countries relegating agriculture to the secondary place. Blowfield and Murray have placed business ethic s in the forefront as its corporate responsibility, and the influence of the business enterprises in the society and politics has been growing phenomenally over the period of time. The importance of business in the scheme of things has been further stressed by the phrase ‘Corruption and Corporate governance’ implying that corruption and corporate governance is closely interlinked. When we say corruption in the corporate companies, logically it is implied that the business influences ‘politics’ negatively by way of corruption to further their corporate interests. The business enterprises in the Middle East countries acting as a conduit for the movement of monies out of the countries to the safe havens have facilitated corruption in these countries perpetrated by the political forces.

Compare and Contrast Interviews Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Compare and Contrast Interviews - Assignment Example Dinkins was as poised as Rahm. For every question, he had a justification that oozed his professional experience. When it comes to leadership, NYC Mayor David Dinkins defines this in many ways. Leadership is stemmed from experience or the desire to succeed beyond others. Successful leaders deflect attention away from them and encourage others to voice their opinions. Dinkins is a great leader as a person who guides a group of individual towards a certain goal. In order to rectify this issue, Dinkins took a strong initiative as he began a hiring program that grew the police force by 25%.This, in fact, is the manifestation of being a good leader because Dinkins has paid his dues in the army and improved the race relations. I asked Dinkins about his past experience and what motivated him. He explained to me that he always wanted a social reform. Social reform has been the focal point for Dinkins as he continued to champion for women rights, reduce pollution, and help lower-class families with financial assistance. This is exemplified in NYC Mayor David Dinkins because of his ability to understand the struggle of a common man. A man with a very humble beginning, Dinkins was exemplary of reform and civil rights. A man similar to his caliber was Rahm Emmanuel. The interviewer asked Rahm about what appealed to him about this position. It is clear that Rahm stated that Leaderships is undeniably stemmed from an inner motivation to excel and lead a group of individuals to a collaborative success. Under Rahm’s professionalism, harnessing the growth of the community, championing the cause for lower-income individuals. Rahm Emmanuel was a confident public speaker who was making reformations in Illinois. Cognitive research indicates that each person attributes contribute to their upbringing. The interview asked Rahm about the worst schooling system in the USA, and Rahm was quite calm. Rahm answered with a fact that he plans to propagate for more resources. Under Rahm’s leadership, the school system has drastically been enhanced.more resources. Under

Hazardous Waste Incinerator Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Hazardous Waste Incinerator - Essay Example However, it will be worth it because the environment will be safe for future generations. Annual cost of the household hazardous incinerator = Running costs + Salaries + Insurance costs = Construction costs / 15 years (Dividing the construction cost by 15 years, allows the estimation an annual cost of the incinerator over the 15 year period) Although the hazardous incinerator costs $ 389,667 annually, the community’s incinerator is useful to the environment. It prevents the unfortunate occurrences of the 20th century in the United States. Municipal councils are often unable to achieve proper and safe disposal of refuse. As a result, issues like the Mobro incident of 1987 occur (Worell& Vesilind, 2012). However, a household incinerator for the community ensures that solid waste does not contribute to environmental pollution or the municipals burden. Finally, the incinerator will be useful for around five years. This means that the community will have an opportunity to upgrade the incinerator’s technology to be able to process solid waste products more safely. This is because environmental technology is fast developing to satisfy the environments

International Business strategy - NOKIA on global market Essay

International Business strategy - NOKIA on global market - Essay Example Every company is gearing up to develop new applications in their Smartphone offering which ultimately decreases scope of creating differentiation for customers. Mobile industry review has pointed out companies need to customize their offering with Android OS in order to fulfil demand of customers. High buyer power has forced companies to adopt technological innovation in Smartphone in order to achieve product differentiation. Threat of Substitutes Fixed line telephones can be classified as direct substitute for mobile phones. For example, fixed line phones play important role in big organizations in comparison to mobile phones. It can be inferred that threat of substitutes becoming lower due to mobile phone’s multi application and wider geographic coverage. Mobile manufacturing companies need to adopt more technological innovations in their offering in order to increase acceptance in big organizations and decrease threat from substitutes further. ... Some companies are using Android operating system for their Smartphone’s while others are focusing on windows phone. Fixed costs associated with smart phone market are high due to requirement of investing in latest technologies. Hence it can be concluded that market rivalry is high. Global Smartphone market condition can be explained in the following manner. (Source: Deloitte, 2012) The diagram is showing that Global mobile phone market is dominated by Android OS while Apple iPhone OS is the second largest contributor. Companies are banking on Android OS to develop new products. Mobile manufactures try to establish equilibrium between Smartphone and features. The market segregation can be explained in the following manner: (Source: Deloitte, 2012) In future Companies will face specific threat from counterfeit products. Mobile manufacturers complemented by low resorce capabilities tend to imititate features and design of Smartphone manufacturered by reputed companies such as No kia, Samsung and Apple. Impact of such threat will increase in future. For example, small companies in copycats has counterfeited Nokia X6 product and launched in the market. Picture of counterfeited Nokia X6 can be used to analyze extent of counterfeiting in telecommunication industry. (Source: Delaney, 2012) Companies need to take strict legal action against counterfeits in order to maintain not only market share but brand image among customers. PEST Analysis- Nokia Political Factors Companies needs to follow respective government rule of different countries in order achieve sustainable business growth and demographic advantage (Zikmund and Babin, 2006, pp. 12-15). Global economy is complemented by

Global Communication Worksheet Essay Example for Free

Global Communication Worksheet Essay Your supervisor wants to send a brief e-mail message, welcoming employees recently transferred to your department from different regions across the company, which are Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Create a clear and concise welcome message that would be appropriate for these groups of employees. Research the communication style of each of the following countries: Brazil Russia India China Transcribe the following welcome message for the employees from each country: I wanted to welcome you ASAP to our little family here in the States. It’s high time we shook hands in person and not just across the sea. I’m pleased as punch about getting to know you all, and I for one will do my level best to sell you on America. Complete the table below with your transcribed welcome messages. Also indicate whether each of the countries are more individualistic or relationship focused, and whether they are direct or indirect in their communication. Country Transcribe Welcome Message Relationship or Individualistic? Direct or Indirect?

Effect Of Globalisation: Educational Policy

Effect Of Globalisation: Educational Policy Globalisation is a buzzword nowadays and it is often claimed as a natural process by many views especially from popular media. Globalisation is inevitable to a nation. Different nation may have different response and effect of globalisation. Many sectors are affected either in good or bad ways due to globalisation and one of the examples is in education sector. In this article, I wish to discuss the effect of globalisation on educational policy, especially in Malaysian context. Globalisation is not restricted to a definition; it can be define in many ways depending from which views it is seen. In my point of view, globalisation is a process where the world is shrinking, becoming borderless and viewed as a sense of global wholeness and unity. Globalisation made everything becomes easier and it has led to great changes in many sectors since hundred years ago. However, it has speeded up over the last century due to the presence of advance technology in communication. The usage of emails and internet are the example of globalisation where global communication takes place almost instantneous. According to Bottery (2006), globalisation can be defined as the planet is viewed as a whole and the speed of communication had shrunk it over the last few centuries. Many theorists and authors generally define globalisation a process involving the movement of the worlds people, images, technologies, finance including trade, money, and capital, and ideas, such as practices concerning states and other institutional policies. (http://infonomics-society.org). Globalisation is said to be marked by speedy, free movement of people, services, capital, goods, ideas and knowledge across borders. Some people believed globalisation is a negative phenomenon which affects the world in many ways. One of the common problems that are always associated to globalisation is environmental problems. To name a few, global warming, ozone depletion and imbalance ecology system are the impact of globalisation, specifically environmental globalisation. Another example of destructive globalisation impact; cultural globalisation is seen as the cause of losing ones culture and language since everyone is adapting and practising the dominant culture. McDonald is the example of recent dominant culture as a result of cultural globalisation. Despite the negative affect of globalisation, another group of people agree that globalisation has given advantages to the world, where people get more connected and informed than ever before. Looking from cultural globalisation, Bottery states it provides cultural variety in one location to eat virtually any national dish, attend any religious ceremony, and lis ten to any kind of music. These varieties, as claims by Bottery provide education with different windows through which new perspectives are gained. Besides that, cultural globalisation too offers access to different beliefs and approaches to life, and be a real force for spiritual growth (Bottery, 2006). On top of that, globalisation is not solely focuses on the advance of technology, Bottery (2006) in his article claims globalisation includes environmental globalisation, cultural, demographic, political, American and economic globalisation and it is a continuous process whether human being recognised or not. He then added that the process of globalisation affects nation states, generate policy mediations and have direct impact upon educational institutions. To conclude, different types of globalisation put different tensions to the world. However, the different types of globalisation interact and influence one another in diverse ways, creating a more complex and difficult world to live on. Education Education is ranked among the main concern of nation-states as it is playing a remarkable role in shaping and preparing children for the future in an increasingly globalised world. In fact, much money is spent on education as a public service due to its importance. To achieve the aims of education, traditionally, nation-states developed their education policy in regards to what they saw as important to their nation. However, in recent context, education policy is seen beyond the nation-states, it is become internationalised to the dominance of the global economy over the national politics. Within the wider context of globalization, education is now regarded as an international service, playing a remarkable mission in the global economy with investment in people, skills and knowledge. Simply, it argues that education policy nowadays is formed and implemented in a global context. The improvement of education policy recently is also due to global competitiveness, due to invent human cap ital discourse which is economically competitive to other nations. In such global context, improving global competitiveness has been targeted by nation-states education policy. This is due to invent human capital discourse which is economically competitive to other nations. (infonomics-society.org) According to Mundy, many countries have become more competitive by working hard to enhance the productivity of the domestic labour force which can be accomplished by introducing new educational policies, programs and reforms that prepare children to compete in the global labour force. He later added; despite benefitting the education, the competiveness among these nation-states enhancing the production of new education polices with full of value. In fact, many studies have confirmed that there have been new education policies that introduce reforms in curriculum, pedagogy and evaluation, seeking to boost competitiveness among nation-states. Examples of these reforms are engagement in international comparisons of test performance, national curriculum and productive pedagogies Rizvi and Lingard [41] confirm that globalization has reformed and redesigned the educational policy terrain. Effect The process of globalization has deeply shifted and changed the ways in which education policies are developed, implemented and evaluated as globalization has witnessed the reworking of the nation-state; the site at which public policy was most commonly created. Positive effect It is no doubt that globalisation leads to a better education policy. This is due to education is a vital part to help a nation to compete with other nations. The role of education has changed in most common nation-state as they realised the importance of giving proper education to the people which eventually helped the economic growth of the nation. For example, recent finding in India states that Indian Education System has increased fourteen-fold in terms of the number of universities and thirty three-fold in terms of the number of colleges, in comparison to the number at the time of Independence (http://www.aserf.org.in/presentations/globalization.pdf). As a developing country, Malaysia too undergoes changes in education policy to meet the need of this globalised world. The colonisation of British in Malaysia left long lasting effect to the deviations of Malaysian education policy, which is continuously changing until today. Traditionally, education in Tanah Melayu started as a private enterprise which is mainly concerned in producing man with means of knowledge and skills for his well-being and for his salvation in the hereafter. The education system in Tanah Melayu then changed as the British needs skilled people to work for them in order to exploit the economy in Tanah Melayu thus the British colonial provides the school for locals. When the British colonized Malay, they instituted an education system in all of the colonies with the purpose of helping the natives to maintain traditional life and to prevent social unrest through restricted education (Hooker, 2003). In fact, the British limited education to creating better fisherme n and farmers, because the British worried that an over-educated population might rebel against colonial rule (Hashim, 1996).( https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/9167/Tableman_Leslie_Diana_MPA_Win09.pdf?sequence=1) This is the starting point of revolution in education policy in Malaysia, where economic sector is the biggest influence to the change. Education is an important tool in supporting the infrastructure of a country, hence having a reliable education system is critical to the success of developing countries in a global economy (Tableman, 2007). (https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/9167/Tableman_Leslie_Diana_MPA_Win09.pdf?sequence=1) Much said globalization is synonymous with the opening of national borders to the international flow of goods, services, raw materials and resources, information and technology, and human resources. In the last three decades, East Asia has been reported to experience a period of economic development which has been described as unprecedented and miraculous (World Bank, 1994). Economic growth and educational expansion is closely related, and these two aspects are also linked to state formation and developmental state. It is supported by Green (2002), the coincidence in East Asia countries of economic advance with educational expansion clearly suggests a close relationship between the two. For example, it has been reported that in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, the economic development grew eight per cent a year, which is way faster than other region on the world (Green, 2002). Generally, the enrolment rates in secondary school were below 50 per cent in each country in th e early 60s, however, these four countries have undergone enormous expansion in education, where each of the countries had quite high levels of basic education. In fact, Taiwan and South Korea now have among the highest rates of upper secondary completion in the world, and a large proportion of those who complete go on to higher education (Green, 2002). (ENGLISH AS DOMINANT LANGUAGE : http://idosi.org/wjihc/wjihc1(1)11/6.pdf) In response to economic recession in 1997 in Malaysia, the Malaysian government took a few drastic actions to reform the economy in Malaysia. The needs for more graduates and k-workers who could speak English well and who are able to work in multinational companies were listed as important strategies. To meet such needs, the government reversed the English language policy in schools. Beginning 2003, the medium of instruction for Math and Science subjects started to be taught in English. Having, at least, a credit in English in the national school examination would be an advantage for students to be accepted at public universities. Now English becomes a second language in Malaysia again. In fact, the last Malaysian Prime Minister revealed that 94% of unemployed graduated in the country are Malays and they are unable to procure jobs because industrial jobs called for a high English language competency. (http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=enlr=id=xzrSYcBxaV4Coi=fndpg=PA123dq=effect+of+g lobalization+on+education+in+malaysiaots=KNH2yfoWDUsig=odAIpeFxJyJmIwMCY1hdrhvx4sc#v=onepageqf=false) Indeed, with the advancement of technology in the classrooms, the way students learn English in Malaysia may not be the same as it was before. (http://cluteonline.com/journals/index.php/CTMS/article/viewFile/5575/5658) However, there is complicated issue regarding the usage of English language to teach Math and Science, the policy is reverted to using Malay and English to teach both subjects. Despite the issue, it is remarkable that English language is an important language for people to compete, as most of the trade commodity use English to communicate. As a developing country, Malaysia needs to focus on the aspect of lifelong learning, which is essential to meet the changes in the demand for more knowledge workers, especially in producing skilled workers. In the area of higher education, universities have become factors of the competitive advantage of nations (Porter, 1998). To obtain and sustain competitive advantage in various industries, the higher education is the main locus that moves economies forward, and the primary means of educating and generating the talent or human capital. Besides that, due to the same fact to boost world economies, universities have become more self-consciously global, especially universities of the advanced nations, looking for students from around the world who represent the entire spectrum of cultures and values, besides sending their own students abroad in educational exchange programmes to prepare them for global careers. Some of the universities also offering courses of study that address the ch allenges of an interconnected world and collaborative research programs to advance science for the benefit of all mankind. As a consequence, the forces of shaping higher education cause the movement of people across the border. Students travel from one developed nation to another, and from developing or less-developed to the developed countries to seek good education. (http://amrjournal.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/impact-of-globalization-on-malaysias.html) The preamble to the Malaysian Education Act 1996 states that education plays a vital role in achieving the countrys vision of attaining the status of a fully developed nation in terms of economic development, social justice, and spiritual, moral and ethical strength (http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1023%2FA%3A1017572119543) The economic globalisation has affected Malaysian higher education policy where in 1995, the Malaysian government reversed its opposition to private universities and encouraged private sector investment in higher education. However, the private sector including foreign providers is strictly regulated. Malaysia instead legislated to maintain governmental control over the emerging private higher education sector in order to make it meet what the government sees as the cultural and economic needs of the nation. According to Ward and Eden (2009), for education, neo-liberal economics means introducing the kind of competition which makes private business success ful. Neo-liberals want a free-market in education, making education as commodity which is bought and sold; schools are the providers and parents and children the consumers or customers. In the 1990s not only private universities and colleges are liberalised, many private schools and international schools are also built. Now, foreign capitals are allowed to hold up to 49% of the shares in any private educational company. Branch campuses of foreign universities are allowed, in fact attracted to set up in Malaysia. (http://www.japss.org/upload/1.%20globalization.pdf By 2000, there were 11 public higher educational institutions, 7 private universities, 3 foreign university branch campuses, and more than 400 private colleges approved by the Malaysian government (Challenger Concept, 2000). Most of the private institutions offer their own diplomas as well as foreign-linked degree programs, some of which require students to complete one or more years of study overseas while others can be completed entirely in Malaysia. Some of these colleges, such as Taylors College, are foreign-owned. With the money flows through this education commodity, the economy of the country will develop greatly. However, one question remain, is this liberalization, globalization and privatization of education good for Malaysians, especially the poor. It is clear that the poor cannot afford to go to private school which requires high fees. For example, one of secondary schools in Malaysia, known as Saad Foundation College, the fees required for a year is about RM 41 000 (equivalent to 8200 GBP). That is a big amount of money compared to average salary of working class people in Malaysia. It is said that private school serves better place to educate the students, for example private schools have much smaller classes, much better student-teacher interaction, excellent extra curricular activities; we take the children out of the school and into the community and we even teach several languages like French, Bahasa Malaysia and Mandarin. Although private school is good for students lifelong lear ning, it is a disadvantage to the poor, where they have no chance to have the same kind of education and is always lacking. Tooley concludes in his recent report Could Globalization of Education Benefit the Poor? That: The argument began, first by showing that there are private schools available to, and patronized by, the poor in developing countries. Second, there is evidence showing that these schools are offering poor parents and children a better deal, educationally-speaking, than the state alternative. Teachers in the private schools, in particular, the research has suggested, show a much greater commitment to teaching than in the government schools. These two considerations suggest that private education in itself could be beneficial to the poor. (http://www.japss.org/upload/1.%20globalization.pdf) Economic globalisation has affect education greatly. Higher education is swept up in global marketisation. It trains the executives and technicians of global businesses; the main st udent growth is in globally mobile degrees in business studies and computing; the sector is shaped by economic policies undergoing partial global convergence, and the first global university market has emerged. (http://doc.utwente.nl/60264/1/Marginson07globalisation.pdf) Globalization is also affecting methods of educational delivery and support. Traditional classroom delivery is now enhanced with electronic learning support. Online courses, virtual classrooms and Web-based tutorials are some delivery methodologies for distance education across borders as a result of globalization. In fact, using ICT in education is inevitable as ICT has changed the way businesses and industries are conducted and influenced the way people work, interact and function in society (UNESCO, 2002). ICT has become common place at home, at work, and in educational institutions (Kirkup Kirkwood, 2005). The use of ICT, including the Internet at home and work places, has increased exponentially (McGorry, 2002). Explosion of knowledge and information in the era of information technology has somehow helped the globalization of education. The introduction of computers and internet and other technology-mediated learning through the use of VCD, CD-Rom, Email, E-Chat, database, webpage, LMS, digital library, etc have helped in the dissemination of information and knowledge to millions around the world (http://idosi.org/wjihc/wjihc1(1)11/6.pdf). Due to this fact, Malaysia is trying to integrate the use of ICT in education, besides to bridge the gap within the global trend as other countries have long developed the policy of ICT in education. The development of the Policy on ICT in Education in Malaysia is underlying of four major pillars; Human Capital, Budget, Digital Learning Resources and Infrastructure. One of the examples the implementation of ICT in Malaysian Education policy is the launching of Smart school. The objective of the smart school Flagship Application is The Smart School is a learning institution that has been reinvented in terms of teaching and learning methods and school administration system in order to prepare the students for the Information-Based Society. Creativity and better management of information is facilitated through the use of technology where students, teachers, administrators and parents are better prepared for the challenges of the information Age. The Smart School applications brings the benefit of technology to the educators and administrators. These also allow the young to get familiar with the ICT world using tools such as personal computers, scanners, printers, multimedia products, TV/videos, etc. at a much earlier stage in life. They get to appreciate the power of the Internet and multimedia applications, which can make learning more interesti ng and enriching. This will in turn result in them becoming more technology savvy (http://www.mscmalaysia.my/sites/default/files/pdf/publications_references/SMART_SCHOOL_ROADMAP_020506.pdf) Smart School is not just about ICT intervention in teaching and learning. The national curriculum and pedagogy are given the highest importance, with the role of teachers, administrators, parents and the community enhanced in the education of the Malaysian students. Individuality, creativity and initiative amongst the students are prioritised. However, ICT is critical in making the teaching and learning processes easier, more fun and effective, as well as making communication and management among the stakeholders more efficient.

Annette Lareau: Annotated Bibliography

Annette Lareau: Annotated Bibliography Critical Annotated Bibliography of key texts focused on  Annette Lareaus reserach Social researchers have stressed the importance of understanding the social stratification and its impact on children and parents as a whole (Lareau A, 1999). Annette Lareau is a professor of Sociology at University of Pennsylvania. She achieved her PhD in Sociology from University of California, Berkley.   Her ground- breaking research involves, investigating questions like the influence of social stratification on families.   She has done substantial fieldwork examining the lives of American people. She has focused on the impact of social structural forces, parenting styles like concerted cultivation, educational inequalities and if they participate towards shaping vital aspects of childrens lives.   She has written many books and articles stressing on how class can make or break families present and future. Her work contributes to broaden our understanding towards the class system. The body of Annette Lareaus work that I have chosen assesses vital issues in American society, which effects children, parents and families as a whole.   It discusses vital issues like the role of class system in middle class, working class and poor families in raising their children, their daily lives, varying parenting styles and their role in childrens present and future prospects. Lareau, A., 2011. Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life. University of California Press. Annette Lareaus book Unequal Childhoods with an update a decade later is a step forward in comprehending the importance of learning and understanding the impact of class system on family lives and parenting styles in African American and White families and is an excellent effort to fill in the gap in relevant research studies. She investigated how parental practices differ among White, Black, middle class, working class and poor families and the role it plays in shaping childrens future conclusively. Annette showed that class system plays a vital role in American families lives and uncovered the practices involved in reproduction of inequalities in the society. The author performed in-depth studies with 12 different families using participant observation as her studying approach providing detailed information about the families. Children participating in the study were aged 9-10 years old.   As part of the research, the author with the support of her assistants spent about one month with the families and gathered detailed information about them.   The research involved following the participants to afterschool activities, doctors visit and spent time at their homes. A key point that Lareaus ethnographic study showed is a particular parenting approach called concerted cultivation.   While visiting participant families, she observed that Black and White middle class families are very much involved in facilitating their children to achieve their goals.   They encourage, inspire and monitor their childrens academic achievements and play an active role in their lives. These parents were always interested in listening to their childrens voice and did not discourage them to show their opinions.   As a result, these children became more confident in speaking their minds, which helped them to develop their overall confidence, self-esteem and development.   In contrast, the rearing style of children belonging to working class and poor families in both Black and White families were limited due to lack of resources.   They relied on schools to take care of their children and gave their children extra time to play.   She contrasted these two parenting approaches and discovered that both of these parenting styles were beneficial, but children belonging to middle class were more successful in schools. She argues that African American families face racial discrimination in many areas e.g. employment and live in racially segregated neighbourhoods but interestingly,   White and African-American middle class families follow the same parenting style and there was no observation of racial discrimination. An exclusive point that Lareau observed was the conversational differences between parents and children e.g. children from middle class families were mostly involved in engaging conversations with adults, which helped these children to gain confidence.   Whereas, the parents of children from working and poor families showed authority and the children mostly showed compliance and rarely participated in engaging conversations with adults.   These differences show how middle class children acquire confidence and grasp the ability to demand whereas working class children are not very demanding. In conclusion, this study showed that class matters more than race but provided limited discussion on the impact of race in childrens lives and their future and lacks the information on the role of extended families in middle class young adults. Lareau recognises that there is a gap in studying the effects of class in childrens lives, positive parenting strategies and inequality due to class and therefore calls for   in-depth research in this field. Lareau has performed a review on her study by visiting the families again.  Ã‚   Children involved in the study are now young adults.   She interviewed these young adults their siblings and parents.   Lareau discovered that the importance of social class, she had observed when these children were younger (10yrs) old developed with time. Middle class parents kept playing an active role in their childrens lives despite them moving away from their homes.   These young adults continued seeking parents guidance. Their parents were massively involved in handling situations to increase their growth potential. On the contrary, parents belonging to working class and poor families considered their children now grown ups and the young adults agreed to this view.   Extended families play an important role in shaping children belonging to working class and poor family children. In conclusion, middle class children accomplished more educational achievements than the working class and poor family kids. Parenting styles shape childrens lives as they grow into young adults to prepare them for independent successful lives. Overall, an excellent and enlightening study. Lareau, A., 2002. Invisible inequality: Social class and childrearing in black families and white families. American sociological review, pp.747-776. This research studies the effects of social class, culture, race and their interaction by investigating the function and contribution of social class system in children ages of 7-10 years old. Using an ethnographic data, Lareau aims to study the associations and connections among Black and White parents, their children and distinctions in childrearing techniques.   She found that class differences are more noticeable than racial differences and that parenting styles are a way to reproduce class-based advantages. Lareau compares two different parenting approaches to learn and report their benefits and disadvantages. Middle class parents encouraged their children to be highly involved in extracurricular activities using a concerted paradigm to stimulate and develop their talents and capabilities. On the contrary, working class parents used the childrearing method called accomplishment of natural growth paradigm.   This method involves providing, love and care for the children, givi ng them a lot of freedom and unregulated recreation time and space. As a result, Lareau observed that middle class children found it easy to adapt to the school environment, as they followed the same expectations and structured activities at home. These parents encouraged, praised and respected their childrens wishes and these positive elements were an ongoing feature of middle class families. Lareau argues that the range of activities influence family lives. The importance of structured activities results in weak family and social bonds. The author points out that as middle class children were so busy participating in after school activities they barely had any time to visit their extended families. However, this study involved limited; discussion about childrens relationship with extended families e.g. grandparents. Another important point that Laruea raised in this research is the use of language. She observed that middle class children engaged in healthy discussions with their parents and other professionals whereas, working class and poor families did not involve in continued discussions frequently with their parents.   All parents and children were involved in having conversations with professionals, but middle class children were more skilful in holding conversations with others.   The study shows that socioeconomic status can influence social connections. Children from working and poor family background has a wider range of social connections in compare to the middle class children. The author showed, that race does not seem to have a great impact in shaping childrens lives.   Although Black parents were increasingly worried about their childrens lives outside due to racial problems. In conclusion, this is an enlightening ethnographical study, with expressive and illuminative data, but as it is concentrated on a small sample therefore; it is very difficult to generalise the results to public. Lareau, A., 2000. Social class and the daily lives of children, A study from the United States. Childhood, 7(2), pp.155-171. Laurae strived to explore the social class differences by designing and performing a detailed and comprehensive study in comparison to studies performed in the past where childrens research was limited to the contexts of schools and families.   Childrens out of school activities have a significant influence on middle class parents lives.   The author provides a detailed account of how parents felt when they had to make time to take their children to participate in out of school activities. This article aims to investigate the function of social class in moulding and forming daily lives of children. This study discusses three main issues, what shapes childhood, rhythm and pace of life and to what extent parents and childrens lives interact with each other. The author collected detailed ethnographic data of children aged 7-10 years old.   Eighty children participated in this study from African American or White families over the period of 3 years.   The author aimed to observe the associations between children and parents in their daily lives. The study took place in North-eastern metropolis and Midwestern community in a white working class neighbourhood. The study involved interviews from all mothers and most fathers and childrens classroom observations. While observing children from middle and working class families, Lareau found that their lives are very different from each other.   Middle class boys occupied themselves in structured activities arranged by their parents/carers and focused on developing new skills.   Whereas, working class boys spent their time participating in informal activities e.g. free play, visiting kin and hanging out. Working class boys were much more social then middle class boys.  Ã‚   She revealed that both parenting approaches has benefits and drawbacks.   This research-studied boy in more detail than girls and some gender differences were observed e.g. girls were encouraged to participate in gymnastics rather than football.   The author states that covering aspects of race, gender and class can also show us if there is any link between these categories. The research reports that African American people has a fear of being subject to discrimination from White people and encouraged their children to be friends with black children which confirms the racial inequalities in the society. The result showed that children from middle class families spent time in structured activities organised by adults.   The foundations of these activities are skill development and public performances, which may result in knowledge enhancement.   The structures of these activities were very similar to school activities; therefore, attending school was a similar but not exclusive experience for these middle children. Observing the working class children shows a different picture.   These children do not follow a structural system in their lives; they do find organised and structured activities somewhat difficult. They liked to hang out and visit their extended families.   Lareau claims that race does not play a sufficient role but the role of class differences are clear in the daily lives of children. Overall, this is a fantastic detailed ethnographical study, which uses only a small sample of participants from limited sides of community and the author did not mention the methods employed to examine the collected data set.   Weininger, E.B., Lareau, A. and Conley, D., 2015. What Money Does not buy: Class Resources and Childrens Participation in Organized Extracurricular Activities. Social Forces, 94(2), pp.479-503. In this study Lareau et al, aimed to examine an important question of significance, which is class position in the society and its effects on childrens lives. In the past researchers have concentrated on family resources and school characteristics.   The authors stepped up this research by moving towards how children spent their time in after school activities and whether race and class differences influence childrens lives.   They concentrated on the belief that middle class parents involvement in their childrens lives encourages them to participate in structured afterschool activities, which consequently leads to future success. This research deployed a large national data set to analyse the influence of class.   The sample is restricted to Black and White children.   The children participated in this study were only chosen from private or public schools.   The author employed longitudinal survey data and time diaries collected in 2002-2003 in order to get comprehensive list of childrens activities within the course of 24-hour periods. Lareau et al aimed to investigate class differences and stated that parents from all social groups consider childrens participation in extracurricular activities vital, but some parents face challenges and constraints for example transportation or lack of time. Another key point that they revealed in this study is that parents approaches to childrearing are different due to social class.   Middle class parents practice concerted cultivation parenting style and encourage their children to participate in after school activities to support them to enhance their academic and career goals and aspirations. Observing the working class and poor families revealed that they prioritise their focus on their childrens protection and let them participate in informal play and give them space.  Ã‚   The study-employed good confound control to get robust results. The Lareau et al argues that average American children are spending approximately 4 hours weekly engaging in extracurricular activities, but children from middle class engage in a lot more activities.   Their mothers are more educated and they have resources to support their children to participate in more extracurricular activities.   The study showed that childrens engagement in extracurricular activities are related to positive results in education and employment. The authors explored the question, whether it is just the class inequalities, which differentiates families decision for their children to participate in extracurricular activities or is there a link with cultural values, as well? The authors identifies that socioeconomic status of families has a direct impact on how children spend their time after school. Due to high expenditures childrens participation in afterschool activities varied for e.g. people living in small cities and rural areas spent less money on childrens extracurricular activities less than families living in larger cities. The results of this study states that it is not just the materialistic resources, which matters maternal education, demographic characteristics e.g., gender, age, race other factors like work, labour market and cultural aspects they are all important.   The study does not discuss whether atypical childrens participation in extracurricular activities was any different from typically developing children. The study is restricted to Black and White American families. The study reveals that socioeconomic status matters, but just removing these barriers is not a guarantee that children will enrol in extracurricular activities.   Cultural aspects also influences how much time and money parents spend on children to participate in these activities. Weininger, E.B. and Lareau, A., 2009. Paradoxical pathways: An ethnographic extension of Kohns findings on class and childrearing. Journal of Marriage and Family, 71(3), pp.680-695. Class division is a vital topic of research in family studies.   A few studies have focused on its influence on family lives.   Reflecting on detailed interviews the authors aimed to extend Melvin Kohns study on childrearing standards by investigating parental responsibilities to autonomy and conformity. The study provided effective theoretical and empirical background of Melvin Kohns research studies on social stratification.   Using a secondary data, which involved 88 children aged 8-10 years old selected randomly. The participants were children from two elementary school classrooms.   The study-involved even number of American Black and White children but only involved a small number of Hispanics and Asians.   Although, it would have been useful to employ even number of all races as Hispanics and Asians are important part of American society. Lareau et al found that parents from middle class families encouraged their children to have self-control and self-direction and the results are consistent with Kohns research. It is difficult to conclude a general connection between class, self-direction and conformity The author raised the issue of variation in parental values on extracurricular activities for children. The author observed variation in values across different economic class of the families.   Middle class families were keen to expose their children to successful life chances and options while keeping them under supervision, which enhanced childrens self-esteem, self-confidence, self-worth and helped them to do well in their present and future.   Working and poor class families on the other hand did not give much importance to send their children for leisure activities.   They used their resources to provide and protect their children and they let their children develop naturally. The study shows a complicated picture of child rearing and emphasizes the need to understand parental values and parental behaviours in detail. It will be a step forward to continue to study the influence of social stratification on families. Conclusion: Annette Lareau has contributed immensely in the field of sociology.   She has ingrained herself researching American families in order to investigate how social inequality continue to sustain itself and is passed on generation after generation. The key texts are current and are grounded in sociology and psychology. The common thread in these studies are the impact of class and the role of parenting in childrens lives. There are commonalities among the texts such as middle class parents use concerted parenting styles by providing opportunities, supervised learning experiences to their children for their best interest, and do well. She has worked hard with American, families to show how class differences and children rearing techniques differ from working class to middle class and poor families and the impact of these differences on childrens future prospects. She showed that parenting is not as simple as saying that bad parents raise their children ineffectively and good parents raise children who are successful in their lives. It is much more complex. While investigating the class inequalities in American families Lareau study regarding working-class families is very influential.   Her research with working class reveals that class reflects cultural and economic variations.   Lareaus approaches of researching with children and families are very ambitious and effective.   She employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches in her research for the results to be robust.   Her research helps us to understand the effects of class and race on children in middle, working and poor class families. These studies show new light to sociologists, social scientists, and anthropologists, a new direction towards learning how race, culture and parenting fuse together and play a role in shaping childrens lives.   The author identifies the importance of both parenting styles but the author does not describe which one is more effective, when it interacts with race. These studies raise an important question. Do middle class parents work harder in supporting their children in school and teach them how to deal with racism than working and poor families?   Race and class inequalities can make childrens lives much more difficult and their future insecure. Social scientists can carry her research forward by focusing on which parental approach is more beneficial for children and how class and race interacts. Bibliography: Lareau, A., 2011. Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life. Univ of California Press. Lareau, A., 2002. Invisible inequality: Social class and childrearing in black families and white families. American sociological review, pp.747-776. Lareau, A., 2000. Social class and the daily lives of children, A study from the United States. Childhood, 7(2), pp.155-171. Lareau, A. and Horvat, E.M., 1999. Moments of social inclusion and exclusion race, class, and cultural capital in family-school relationships. Sociology of education, pp.37-53. Weininger, E.B., Lareau, A. and Conley, D., 2015. What Money Does not buy: Class Resources and Childrens Participation in Organized Extracurricular Activities. Social Forces, 94(2), pp.479-503. Weininger, E.B., and Lareau, A., 2009. Paradoxical pathways: An ethnographic extension of Kohns findings on class and childrearing. Journal of Marriage and Family, 71(3), pp.680-695. http://currents.ucsc.edu/05-06/11-28/lareau.asp Education and Stratification in Developing Countries: A Review of Theories and Research Annual Review of Sociology Vol.27:1-504 (Volume publication date August 2001) DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.77 Education and Stratification in Developing Countries: A Review of Theories and Research Annual Review of Sociology Vol.27:1-504 (Volume publication date August 2001) DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.77