A Desperate Comedy: Hope and alienation in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

Abstract

This article is both a personal response to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and an examination of the concept within literature of making the strange familiar and making the familiar strange. It discusses the educative force and potential of Beckett’s strangers in a strange world by examining my own personal experiences with the play. At the same time the limitations of Beckett’s theatre are explored through the contrast with the work of Berthold Brecht, who sought to make the familiar strange as a method of political enquiry to facilitate the transformation of the capitalist state. Parallels are drawn between the possibilities of both theatre and education as tools for social transformation and change.     

Playlinks: a theatre-for-young audiences artist-in-the-classroom project

ABSTRACT

Playlinks, the project documented in this paper, contributed a theatre-based artist-in-the-classroom study to the Community Arts Zone initiative. Playlinks involved 248 elementary school classrooms in pre- and post-production workshops connected to live theatre that visited their schools. Data sources included researcher field notes, teacher evaluation forms, and interviews with both teachers and theatre personnel. Findings focus on teacher perceptions of three topics: (a) student engagement, (b) learning across cognitive and affective domains, and (c) benefits for teachers. The discussion section addresses implementation problems related to artist-in-the-classroom projects.     

The Intertextual Method for Art Education Applied in Japanese Paper Theatre—a Study on Discovering Intercultural Differences

In art education we need methods for studying works of art and visual culture interculturally because there are many multicultural art classes and little consensus as to how to interpret art in different cultures. In this article my central aim was to apply the intertextual method that I developed in my doctoral thesis for Western art education to explore whether the method would also work from a non‐Western point of view. My hypothesis was that it is possible to find local and global differences that arise from selected texts and study them interculturally. As postmodernism calls attention to marginal areas, I applied my method to a form of visual culture that is not well known in the European art education context, the Japanese kamishibai which can be translated as Japanese paper theatre. Based on the results, my study will propose a method for understanding visual culture and the multiple relations ‐ local and global ‐ between different cultures. Japanese paper theatre also offers an interesting potential for using visual and verbal stories in the theory and practice of art education.     

What Einstein meant when he said “God does not play dice …”

We analyze Einstein’s views on God and religion, and his views on Quantum Mechanics. Vasant Natarajan is at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science. His research interests are in high-resolution laser spectroscopy, optical frequency measurement, and use of laser-cooled atoms to search for time-reversal violation in the laws of physics. He serves on the Editorial board of Resonance and contributes regularly to the journal. He considers himself an Ekalavya-type shishya to his guru Einstein. A picture of Einstein hangs above his chair. This article first appeared in ‘Backstage’ — a newsletter published to mark the theatre festival ‘Moitree’ organized by Mukhosh, a Bangalore-based Bengali theatre group.     

Demographic Characteristics as Determinants of Unemployment among University Graduates in Nigeria

This study investigated demographic characteristics such as type of university attended, course of study and gender as determinants of duration of unemployment among university graduates in Nigeria. Data were collected from 1 451 employed university graduates in 300 firms in Nigeria. Results showed a significant difference between duration of unemployment and course of study (F_(6,1444) = 17.84; p < 0.05) with graduates of Engineering and Medicine having the least duration of unemployment. Significant differences also existed between duration of unemployment and the type of university attended (F_(2,1448) = 5.50; p < 0.05). Unemployment period was significantly shorter for graduates of private universities compared to those from public universities. However, gender differences did not significantly affect unemployment period (t_0.05 = -0.211; p > 0.05). One major policy implication of the findings is that entrepreneurial skills and initiative should become major concerns of higher education institutions to facilitate employability of graduates who will increasingly be called upon not only as successful applicants but also and above all as job creators.     

Some comments on the curriculum for training teachers for the primary school system in Bendel State Nigeria

This study was designed to determine the adequacy of the quality of training in terms of the programme of studies offered to the teacher‐trainees in Bendel State, Nigeria, in preparation for their role as primary school teachers. When the content of the training was evaluated against the general aims and objectives for teacher‐education in Nigeria and the objectives of primary education, it was found that:

• The aims and objectives for teacher‐education at the teachers’ grade II level in Nigeria are not sufficiently plausible to facilitate their meaningful translation into concrete and observable actions.

• The grade II teacher‐trainees are not adequately equipped, in terms of the content of their training, to discharge their responsibilities effectively in order that the objectives of primary education may be realized.

It is, therefore, suggested that teacher education at the level under consideration demands a new direction whereby the trainees will be equipped with appropriate skills, knowledge, attitudes and values.     

Carnivals, the Carnivalesque, The Magic Puddin', and David Almond's Wild Girl, Wild Boy: Toward a Theorizing of Children's Plays

This article seeks to extend current children's literature criticism into children's plays and children's theatre. The article uses Norman Lindsay's The Magic Pudding as a prose introduction to an idea of a theatrical carnivalesque. Building on the practical experience of being involved in a large program of original drama for children, written and produced within the university context, it develops a theory of plays-as-the-performance-of-texts, relating this to the current debate on performance and performativity. It adopts the idea of performativity as performative belonging and identifies some distinguishing characteristics of children's plays. Applying some of these ideas to David Almond's Wild Girl, Wild Boy, it notes the idea of moral psychic reorganisation as part of the essence of carnival.     

Perceptions of leadership effectiveness in schools for children who are blind or have low vision in Nigeria

This study used the standard-based essential behavioural leadership qualities (EBLQ) method of leadership assessment, to determine leadership effectiveness of the principals of the schools for children who are blind and have low vision in Nigeria, from the perspective of the teachers of these schools. The four-stage method of leadership assessment of the EBLQ method was used to analyze data (N = 271) collected through availability sampling, to determine leadership effectiveness of the principals relative to levels of essentiality of EBLQ items. Findings show a pattern of incongruence between rankings of essentialities and effectiveness of the principals on the EBLQ items. The principals were perceived most effective in having ‘excellent educational qualifications’ which was ranked fourth as essential for leadership effectiveness. The principals were also rated twentieth on ‘timely payment of salary’, which was ranked most essential for leadership effectiveness. Overall effectiveness of the principals, however, was described as exemplary. This study is expected to contribute to much-needed studies on leadership in the schools for the blind in Nigeria, as well as provide a coaching effect for the principals of these schools.     

The school theatre as a place of cultural learning: the case of Soviet Latvia (1960s–1980s)

Abstract

The goal of this article is to reveal how through school theatre activities under authoritarian rule, changes took place in pupil knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviour regarding culture, namely, how the process of cultural learning occurs. I use a historical case study, specifically the case of the Valmiera School Theatre, which was the leading theatre group, not only in Soviet Latvia, but also in the entire Soviet Union. My primary sources are eight unstructured interviews, 20 published memoirs, articles in the press, theatre programmes, and photographs. One part of Soviet pedagogy was aesthetic upbringing, which was implemented through state-funded collectives, including school theatre groups. By participating in theatre activities, students gained knowledge of cultural heritage (literature, theatre, art, etc.), the ability to perform and acquire skills in other practical fields, and developed an appreciation of culture as a value. I argue that cultural learning through theatre was demonstrated by the fact that the students transferred their knowledge, skills, and attitudes to a new context, namely, their places of work and public cultural activities (e.g. amateur theatres). This case study also reveals the specific role of school theatre in the process of cultural learning, as well as some sensitive issues in the relationship between knowledge-orientated or formal educational environments, and the informal creativity of school theatre.     

Koranic education and militant Islam in Nigeria

In this article the author outlines and discusses the influence of Koranic schools, and their students (almagiri) on the rise of fundamentalism and the spreading of militant Islam in Northern Nigeria.The author contends that while Islamic fundamentalism is the banner of both the Western-oriented Muslims and traditional Nigerian Muslims, it differs in expression in Northern Nigeria. The article shows that these differences result from the influence of the Koranic schools on the traditional teachers (ulama) and their students on the one hand, and Western universities, Wahhabi Arabs, and Western-oriented teachers and their students on the other.The origins of the Koranic school curriculum in Nigeria, the training of traditional Muslim teachers, and the lifestyle of the students are discussed. The author shows how certain socialization patterns found in the Koranic schools and almagiri system seem congruent with the political attitudes and values stressed by spokesmen of militant Islamic sects in Northern Nigeria.

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Zusammenfassung Eine militante islamische Bewegung breitet sich in Norden Nigerias aus. In dem nachfolgenden Artikel umreißt und bespricht der Verfasser den Einfluß der Koranschulen und ihrer Schüler (almagiri) auf den wachsenden Fundamentalismus im Norden Nigerias.Der Verfasser weist nach, daß während der islamische Fundamentalismus als Sammelbecken sowohl für die westlich orientierten als auch für die traditionellen nigerianischen Moslems dient, sich der islamische Fundamentalismus im Norden anders äußert. Der unterschiedliche Einfluß von Koranschulen auf die traditionellen Gelehrten (ulama) und ihre Schüler einerseits sowie auf westliche Universitäten, Wahhabi Araber und westlich orientierteulama andererseits, steht im Mittelpunkt des Beitrags.Der Leser wird über den Ursprung des Curriculums der Koranschulen in Nigeria, über die Ausbildung traditioneller Moslem-Lehrer und über den Lebensstil deralmagiri informiert. Der Verfasser beschreibt wie bestimmte Sozialisationsmuster an Koranschulen und imalmagiri-System mit den von den Sprechern der militanten islamischen Sekten im Norden Nigerias betonten politischen Haltungen und Werten übereinzustimmen scheinen.

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Résumé L'Islam militant est en train de se propager dans le nord du Nigeria. Dans cet article, l'auteur se propose de mettre en évidence et d'analyser l'influence des écoles coraniques et de leurs étudiants (almagiri) sur la montée du fondamentalisme dans le nord du Nigeria.L'auteur montre que si le fondamentalisme islamique est la bannière des musulmans d'orientation occidentale et des musulmans nigérians traditionnels, il diffère, en revanche, par sa forme d'expression dans cette région du Nigeria. Cet article révèle que ces différences proviennent de l'influence exercée par les écoles coraniques sur lesulama traditionnelles et leur étudiants d'une part, et sur les universités occidentales, lesWahhabi arabes et lesulama d'orientation occidentale et leurs étudiants d'autre part.Cet article apporte des informations au lecteur sur l'origine du programme d'études de l'école coranique au Nigeria, la formation des enseignants musulmans traditionnels et le style de vie desalmagiri. L'auteur montrera d'une manière générale comment certains modèles de socialisation rencontrés dans les écoles coraniques et le systèmealmagiri semblent être conformes aux attitudes et aux valeurs politiques prônées par les porte-parole des sectes islamiques militantes résident dans le nord du Nigeria.

     

Implications of Farmers’ Propensity to Discontinue Adoption of Downy-Mildew Resistant Maize and Improved Cowpea Varieties for Extension Education in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of farmers’ propensity to discontinue the adoption of agricultural technologies in southwestern Nigeria. This is predicated on the fact that extension education process should be proactive in addressing farmers in order to sustain the adoption process. Empirical studies looking at diffusion processes from an ex post perspective have failed to deliver in terms of effective ex ante policies and intervention strategies, and the transfer of the technology model has lost much of its lustre. Following a survey of arable crop farmers in two states of southwestern Nigeria, a Tobit model was estimated on the data collected during the 2002 growing season in order to identify variables significant in the farmers’ discontinuance behaviour. The variables identified are: attitude, extension visit, feedback provision, marketability and input availability. From the estimation, foremost among the significant variables leading to discontinuance of improved maize and cowpea varieties is extension visits.     

Re/searching speaking and listening across difference: Exploring feminist coalition politics through participatory theatre

This article documents insights that emerged from a feminist community-based research project utilizing popular theatre principles and techniques to explore the politics of feminist coalitions. The embodied and relational aspects of speaking and listening across difference are examined, as are the contributions theatre can make to working creatively with conflict.     

Between the aesthetic and the ethical: analysing the tension at the heart of Theatre in Education

Theatre in Education is a recognized form for exploring ethical issues in schools. Although the relationship between functional, didactic objectives and theatre artistry is recognized as complex and difficult, there has been little analytical work to elucidate its nature. This article takes the form of a case study intended to illuminate this tension by analysing a play that toured recently in secondary schools in Birmingham, UK. It concentrates on two aspects of this particular performance: its transgressive elements – the way in which it played with the boundaries of institutionalised values – and the features of its narrative that tended, in Eco's term, towards an aesthetic of openness. Rather than attempting to offer a clear‐cut theory, this article examines how these essentially theatrical elements of the performance meshed with the play's ethical agenda. I conclude that, despite the risks of transgressive play, it was the playful and open aspects of the enacted narrative that energized the students' moral engagement and subsequent reflection, and suggest that this has implications for moral pedagogy beyond the field of theatre.     

British Women Education Officers and progressive education for an independent Nigeria

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the work of three British Women Education Officers (WEOs) in Nigeria as the colony was preparing for independence. Well-qualified and progressive women teachers, Kathleen Player, Evelyn Clark (née Hyde), and Mary Hargrave (née Robinson), were appointed as WEOs in 1945, 1949, and 1950 respectively. I argue that the three WEOs endeavoured to reconcile their British cultural values, progressive education, English language instruction, and the intricacies of Nigerian cultures in order to prepare students for life and work in an independent Nigeria. Their roles were diverse, encompassing administration and teaching, teacher education, and leadership of girls’ boarding schools and residential training colleges where English was the language of instruction. Following an outline of the WEOs’ prior experiences, I compare and contrast their approaches to progressive education, beginning with Clark’s endeavours to make girls’ education “a graft that would grow onto and into their own way of life” at the Women’s Training College, Sokoto, in far Northern Nigeria. Then I discuss Robinson’s work in a men’s elementary training college at Bauchi where she dispensed a “down-to-earth practical” progressive education to prospective primary school teachers. Finally, Player gave girls “as complete an education as possible for life as a worker, wife and mother” at Queen Elizabeth School, the first government secondary school for girls in Northern Nigeria. Each situation illustrates the complex social relations involved in realising WEOs’ commitments to progressive education as an emancipatory project.     

Students' ranking of and opinions about the standards of learning in Nigerian Science Education Program

The purpose of this study was to investigate how postsecondary school science education students rank some identified science education program standards, as well as to seek their opinions regarding their perception of the desirability and achievement of the standards in Nigeria. A total of 265 final-year science education students in 10 colleges of education selected through stratified random sampling participated in the study. The Science Education Program Assessment Model containing 13 identified program standards of science education was used for data gathering. The instrument developed for use in Virginia State science education and adapted for the Nigerian situation was found to be highly reliable using the internal consistency and test-retest procedures. The results indicated that encouraging students to become self-directed learners and emphasizing the utilization of scientific values were prioritized as first and last, respectively. Paired t-test comparing opinions of the students about the desirability and achievement of standards indicated significant differences at p < .01. No significant gender differences were found in the study sample's perception of the desirability and achievement of the science education program standards in Nigeria. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

‘What I thought university would be like … ’ close reading as collaborative performance

ABSTRACT

This article develops an account of an extracurricular reading group convened in a small theatre/performance department, consisting of postgraduate and honours students. The origins of the group in a formal seminar/class are discussed, including a shift in syllabus design based upon breadth of reading/content to one based upon depth, taking up the practice of reading as a core classroom activity. This activity is understood as a technē: an aided bringing forth of disclosure, revealing reading to be a constructive, temporal, embodied labour, rather than a cognitive function, involving simply the decoding or retrieval of meaning from written language. Drawing upon the reflections of participants in the reading group, the article documents the rich outcomes of such a practice, arguing that, notwithstanding the apparent costliness of such a model of pedagogy for university classes, the benefits are palpable, and worth arguing for.     

Self Concept and Nigerian Teacher‐Trainees’ Attitude Toward Teaching

The declining quality of education is becoming a global concern. Teachers, no doubt, have been accused of poor attitude to work. How many teachers have dedication to the profession we do not know. This study examines self‐concept and teacher trainees attitude to the profession and found a convincing number of ‘false positive’ teachers in a teacher training college in Nigeria. Implications for teaching and quality of work done by such teachers were discussed.     

C. Walter Hodges: A Life Illustrating History

C. Walter Hodges first came to prominence as the author/illustrator of Columbus Sails in 1939, which the Junior Bookshelf hailed as The best book never to have been awarded the Carnegie Medal. Widely acclaimed for the treatment of its subject matter, its powerful narration, and accompanying dramatic line illustrations, Columbus Sails was the first of a number of vivid historical novels written and illustrated by Hodges, including The Namesake (nominated for the 1964 Carnegie Medal), The Marsh King (1967), and The Overland Launch (1969). He is internationally recognised both for his indispensable and learned books about the Elizabethan theatre (for which he gained the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration in 1964) and his vital illustrations to other authors' texts. This timely article is based on interviews and correspondence between the author and Hodges, and traces and celebrates the latter's life and career as a writer, book illustrator, teacher, and scholar.