The Quest for the Holy Grail or Hunting the Snark? Bridging the quality‐resources divide on effectiveness and efficiency

One key driver of change in higher education is the challenge to do more, with less resource – and to do it better. The dilemma, or paradox, perhaps, of achieving efficiency whilst sustaining or enhancing effectiveness is affecting most institutions. Recognition of it is not the problem, but addressing it is. How it may be addressed will vary with the macro and the micro environments which appertain for institutions and with perceptions and interpretations of its nature and meaning. Is the pursuit of solution(s) likely to be successful, though elusive, or is it illusory and so futile? Should the ethical response be to admit bluntly that quality has suffered? In a competitive environment would such an admission by any one institution be just naïve in the extreme? The paper outlines one faculty's approaches to this hazardous and contentious issue and the main organisational, political, logistical and educational considerations and changes. It is a development of an earlier paper (Livingstone, 1996). The legend of the Grail, the drinking vessel used by Jesus at the Last Supper, tells that if the quest is conducted by those who are truly worthy, then the prize is immense; all the world will be healed. On the other hand, Lewis Carroll warns that, even after valiant efforts have located a Snark, the consequences may be dire:

I engage with the Snark – every night after dark –

In a dreamy, delirious fight.

But oh, beamish nephew, beware of the day,

If your Snark be a Boojum! For then

You will softly and suddenly vanish away,

And never be met with again! (The Hunting of the Snark, 1876)

     

The Promotion of “Civility” and the Quest for the Creation of a “City of Peace”: The Beginnings of Trinity College,Dublin and of Harvard College,Cambridge, Mass.

The paper seeks to investigate the process of the “transfer of knowledge"from the reformed university in Cambridge to the quite alien socio‐political conditions of Ireland and later to the New World. The “transfer of knowledge” fiom the English to the Irish environment was seen as relocating an ideal replica of the original The same was intended in the case of the founding of Harvard by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Both new locations, i.e. Dublin (1592) and Harvard (1636), were identified by Puritans who took their role of “civilising” a wilderness and Christianising society very seriously. Universities, despite their medieval European origin, were thought of as vital instruments in the “civilising” process. A Puritan network, communicating between all three locations, can be identified; its members endeavoured to centre their “city of peace” on the universities and their refined scholarship; this seemed indeed easier in New England than in Ireland.     

The Education Level and Society’s Demand

When people advise your children to“get an education”, if you want to raise your payment, they tell you only half the truth. What they really mean is to get just enough education to give manpower(人力)for your society, but not so much that you prove a difficulty to your society.     

The Issue of “Art for Art’s Sake” in The Nightingale and the Rose

The Nightingale and the Rose is the masterpiece of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales,he is famous in American literature as an outstanding representative of aestheticism.This paper uses the method of comparison to analyze the theme,and introduces the aesthetic ideology.The aim is to express that the main purpose of this tale is its educational role,not just "art for art’s sake".     

College Students’Quest for Lexical Study and Application

What every brick is for grande building,vocabulary is for the foundation laid for the acquisition of one language.It follows that authentic expressions are justified by the mastery of its application in a specific context.Therefore,it is crucial to delve into the process of vocabulary acquisition,that is,the effect of students’input and output.Words’meanings varied in distinct contexts.Starting from the above two aspects,this paper illustrates the understanding of learning words through examples,so as to optimize the word learning method to achieve twice the result with half the effort.     

“The Lion and the Mouse”教学案例

一、教学内容（Teaching content） There is a lion. He is big. He is very strong. His teeth are big and sharp. This is a mouse. She is small. Her teeth are small and sharp.     

“The Poetics” as Apology for Poetry and Poets

Plato and Aristotle are both great philosophers in Greek,and Plato is the teacher of Aristotle.But their attitudes to the philosophy and art are quite different from each other.In Plato’s point of view,all poets should be rebelled out of his republic as they will lead the ordinary people to a wrong way;but to Aristotle,poets and the poetry they write should be admired because they will make good effects on the people and the society.This paper is going to discuss about their different attitudes to the so cial function of the poetry in three aspects:the content and the effect of the poetry;the nature of poetry.     

The State of Criminal Justice Educational Programs in the United States: Bachelors’ Degrees,Curriculum Standards,and the Ongoing Quest for Quality

While definitions for, and assessments of, the quality of degree programs in higher education are varied, in criminal justice the field has determined a quality program is one that meets certain standards involving such areas as program mission, curriculum, faculty credentials, and resources determined through “academic certification” by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS).The problem is few programs have pursued certification and almost no research has otherwise assessed degree program quality. Using data collected from the population of bachelor’s degree programs in criminal justice (BCJ) operating during 2015–2016 (N = 670), this study assessed program curriculum using ACJS standards, and examined institutional, departmental, and programmatic influences on the number of standards met. Results indicated BCJ programs met few curriculum standards, and that departmental factors were especially significant influences on the number of standards met. These results warrant revisiting accreditation as the mechanism for insuring the quality of criminal justice academic programs.     

The “All-But-the-Dissertation” Student and the Psychology of the Doctoral Dissertation

Completion of the dissertation is an important milestone and often a major obstacle for PhD candidates, some of whom become and remain all-but-the-dissertation students. All-but-the-dissertation students usually disappoint both themselves and their departments. Thus it is important to understand the psychology of the dissertation. A review of doctoral dissertations on the topic of dissertation completion is followed by a discussion of developmental conflicts that frequently influence dissertation difficulties and then a presentation of the dynamic psychotherapy of a patient struggling to complete a dissertation. Problems in both external reality and internal fantasy are noted. The importance of understanding specific developmental conflicts and individual dynamics in treatment of this population is emphasized.     

The pain and lessons of constructing and becoming the “other”

Abstract

The United States and its public schools are becoming increasingly diverse, yet teachers, prospective teachers, and teacher educators remain predominantly European American. This situation raises a number of questions for teacher educators and teacher education students committed to multicultural education. One challenge to avoid when discussing issues of diversity within largely monocultural learning environments is the unintentional construction of the “Other.” This article describes the painful experiences and interactive reflections of a student of color and a White teacher educator when the student became the “Other” in a preservice teacher education course. The student, her peers, and the instructor describe how the unfortunate incident was turned into a teachable moment and a transformative learning experience that gave deeper, personal meaning to the theories they discussed in the course.     

The Use of Defamiliarization in “The Old Man and the Sea”

Defamiliarization is an important theory of the Russian formalism.Hemingway might not have been influenced by formalism,but defamiliarization assumes an integral part of his creation.His use of defamiliarization makes The Old Man and the Sea an epoch-making masterpiece.The paper is an attempt to explore the artistic charm of the novel by analyzing Hemingway's use of this artistic technique.     

The Care for the Disabled

We should care for those disabled people.In the world,some are lucky,and they have a healthy body;some are not so lucky,for them life is difficult and hard.     

The Discussion of the Character of Santiago in“The Old Man and The Sea”

"The Old Man and The Sea"is Hemingway latter years’masterpiece,with which he was awarded the Nobel prize in1954.As the protagonist of the novel,Santiago plays a vital role to the novel’s motif.Hemingway expresses his attitudes toward the life through the image of Santiago.The paper intends to explore the character of Santiago from different facets and angles.In the end,we reach a conclusion that Santiago is a strong-willed man with a young,indestructible soul,he is kind,sensitive as well as hardworking.In a ward,he is a perfect Hemingway hero.     

Teaching for identities, writing between the “we” and the “I” paradigms

Circumscribed by the culture of collectivist and Confucian traditions, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education in China has defaulted to an impersonalized provision and delivery. Much of teaching and learning is to assimilate individuals into a group identity. This epistemological model can be detected in learning outcomes, e.g., preferential use of ‘we’ over ‘I’, lack of authentic self-identity in student EFL writing, etc., and is characterized by ubiquitous rote learning. In this paper, we adopt a biographical approach to the teaching of stories expressed as personal narrative as part of the research framework. This is also applied to critical curriculum and pedagogical reforms that help students to write across their extant cultural constraint, enabling them to make a conceptual leap in understanding the difference between the collective, and the individual identities, of the “we” and the “I”. Once this conceptual awareness has been achieved, the individual viewpoint can be elicited and articulated in student writing of narrative accounts. Biographical narrative accounts of personal experience are found to have a creative and self-actualizing force in forming the individual’s identity, using his/her original voice. The findings suggest that EFL writing curriculum and pedagogy in the new era can be a useful strategy to empower students and EFL teachers to teach and write between the “we” and the “I” paradigms, and expand their ontological capability and flexibility through pedagogical effect.