Reflective Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Reflective Practice - Essay Example As Eisner (1991, p6) observes, the successes and accurate interventions of critical reflection are discussed below against potential missing links to development as supported by various literature perspectives. Most arguments for reflective practice hold the opinion that it is a very vital tool for designing development. Both teaching and learning outcomes form an important concept in education, which takes form from the quality of experiences that the teacher and learner make out of the learning process. Critical evaluation and reflection entails learning skills that individuals develop towards a sustainable progression in application of knowledge in life and career. Reflection is an important function of mental processing that enables application of thinking in the formulation of a solution to a task aimed at specific outcomes (Boulton-Lewis, Brownlee, Dart & McCrindle 1998). The application of mental skills in such a task may follow complex or unstructured knowledge to arrive at the anticipated outcome. Personal and professional development concepts adopt self-reflection and evaluation as strong tools to exploit personal abilities for a sustainable and consistent performance (Boutrup, L eerberg and Riisberg 2010, p7). Proponents of this position however fail to demonstrate the importance of personal initiative in designing one’s reflective assessment. Commonly available reflective skills are taught, which shows lack of development of initiative minds among learners and professionals if mental skills are to be developed in an equal measure. Another common element of argument for reflective practice is that both formal and informal reflective play a vital role in the development of an all-round individual in the respective performance tasks in life, learning, and career. Reflection skills facilitate the approach that individuals adopt to internalize knowledge and ideas to make

Human Resource Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Human Resource Management - Case Study Example Part One, an overview of Tesco, provides a rationale for selecting the organisation, identifies specific features of the context within which it operates and key features of its business strategy, shows how it responds to the wider business environment, and explains the implications of the business strategy adopted for the management of people. Part Three diagnoses and critically evaluates the key elements of Tesco's HR strategy and the nature and scope of HR practice, with particular attention to the degree by which HR practice supports the organisation's business strategy and the extent to which different aspects of HR strategy are horizontally integrated. As a company that depends for its success on the quality of direct employee contact with customers through a unique and special shopping experience, Tesco like other similar companies claim that its people are its most important asset. Guided by a key core value of looking after its people so they can look after their customers, Tesco provides market-leading working conditions for its staff. However, it doesn't stop there. It also encourages suppliers to do the same: offer attractive benefits and wages, flexible work hours and leave, profit-sharing, subsidised meals, childcare vouchers, and an award-winning pension scheme, amongst other benchmarks. Achieving its business objectives would have been difficult without trust and dependence on the skills and commitment of employees who are encouraged at all levels to make their fullest possible contribution to business success. Guided by the slogan "Every little helps", Tesco delivers a unique shopping experience for customers, an objective that demands ongoing training to ensure that employees understand the right customer service objectives and strive to achieve them. Tesco was chosen for this paper because the quality of its people is recognised as a key factor for its profitability and stellar business performance, despite the bad press it gets from time to time due to the fact that despite their best efforts, it could never satisfy every

Philosophy- Philosophy and Psychiatry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Philosophy- Philosophy and Psychiatry - Essay Example Not every suicidal patient survives, even when a psychiatrist does everything in their power. If a patient wants to die, they will find a way. When a person commits suicide, the word means more than just one killing oneself. When suicide: as self-killing was viewed as an act, language only had verbs and verbal nouns with which to name it. Absent the word suicide, people viewed the self-killer as a moral agent, responsible for his deed. By contrast, we now think of suicide as a happening or result, attribute it to mental illness, and view the agents as a victim (patient).1 breaking the spirit of their profession. Psychiatrists are supposed to help suicidal patients. It is true not all patients can be helped, but a doctor, even psychiatrists, are supposed to do no harm. Assisted suicide does more harm than good. The psychiatrist in effect gives up on the patient. Psychological pain cannot be determined with an hundred percent accuracy by anyone other than the patient. It is a psychiatrist job to work with mentally ill people, but they can only see the symptoms, not the actual problem. This is why a psychiatrist should never assist in suicide. The condition under which doctors, and only doctors, may practice euthanasia: the decision to die must be the voluntary and considered decision of an informed patient; there must be physical or mental suffering which the suffer finds unbearable; there is no other reasonable (i.e. acceptable to the patient) solution to improve the situation; the doctor must consult another senior professional.3 In terminally ill patients, a doctor can judge a patients pain and disease. For example, an inoperable cancer spread through out the body can be judged through tests. Doctors can predict how long a patient has to live by studying the proof of the bodys failing, like tumors and other tissue samples. The brain can still be a mystery at times. CAT scans can

Romeo and Juliet Annotated Biboliography Essay Example for Free

Romeo and Juliet Annotated Biboliography Essay This Shakespearean classic tells the tale of a young couple who fall deeply in love finding themselves separated from their happily ever after by their family’s century long conflict. Romeo and Juliet meet and immediately fall in love, their relationship progressing rapidly and living under fear of their family’s reactions they make panicky, over-stressed decisions and find themselves digging their grave deeper and deeper. Shakespeare’s inclusion of puns makes the play feel a bit lighter at times adding much needed humor to this tragedy while his use of metaphors makes amplifies the romance and tension of the play. Setting the play in sixteenth-century Verona, Italy added to the drama and exotic nature of the play, showing royalty, foreign laws and customs. This play will keep the reader interested while including characters you grow to love despite their ignorance and often terrible decisions. Although the story is well written and contains a good blend of humor all readers must be warned, it is not a â€Å"light read† but instead stays completely true to its devastating genre. The levels of depth in personality applied to all characters involved gave it the romantic story line modern classics like Stephanie Myer’s Twilight dream of achieving. Although this book is a practically mandatory read, because of the crude and somewhat gore-filled nature of the play I would suggest that it not be read to children under thirteen or so.

Education and Employment Issues in Malaysia

Education and Employment Issues in Malaysia Introduction Education is rapidly in Malaysia since independence. Education in Malaysia consist five stages of education which are pre-school, primary education, secondary education, tertiary education and post-graduate education. Education can be seen as the process which is transmits its knowledge, values and skills from one generation to the next generation. In this education is not used only to instill the values and norms of a given society. Different forms of education have different stucture of learning that define the learning process. Education is as a tool to reduce poverty, restructure the economy and to raise the standard of living for the people in this country. The government must take a serious stand of the on the development of higher and smooth education to work transition. Education is one of the most important investment that country can make it to reducing poverty and inequality. With education, it give a people critical skills and tools to help them better to provide for themselves and their children. Besides, it can helps people to work better and create opportunities for sustainable economic growth now and into the future. Girls and boys who learn to read, write and count will provide a better future for families and country. In short, education has the power that can make the world a better place. The raising of quality education in the country is critical for Malaysia to achieve a high performing education system which provides the human capital needed for a high income economy. It is important to ensure the stability of the individual in social function whereas good education gives way to the status of a job and a good salary, contribute positively to the sosioeconomy impact and generate psychological development. Many of issue that faced by Malaysia’s education system in managing the transition of those who complete their studies as they enter the world of work such as the problem of job mismatches, gender imbalance in education and so on. So this topic can analyze what issues that faced by Malaysia’s education system. Problems faced by employers in hiring fresh graduates From the graph above the command problems is poor command of English (55.8%) and these skills are lacking among new graduatres. Fresh graduates must have skills when they are applying a job which are devide to two categories comprising hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills is a mastery and practice of a body knowledge whereas soft skills are the development of largerly inter and itra-personnel skills. Issues in education The problem of job mismatches Mismatches of qualifications with employers’ needs means that what is expected by the employers in the job market does not match (Kalaimagal and Norizan, 2012). Lack of experience are the major cause of unemployment among fresh graduates. The market is oversupplied with young and inexperience graduates as the number of graduates increasing over the year. The graduate oversupply has resulted that imbalance of the number graduates in the relation of the job opportunities available in the market. According to the article on â€Å"Close to half of Malaysian graduates either jobless or employed in mismatches fields†, which is attributes up the 40% public university graduates in Malaysia are either jobless or are stuck in mismatches occupation on July 27, 2013. In this article, one of the ways of overcoming such problems is to encourage more (graduates) to be more entrepreneurial and to do that, must ensure they have more experience that will enable them to be more sustainable. Among the reason side for the unemployment was the lack of language proficiency particularly in English as well as not having sufficient knowledge and competency in the jobs that they applied for. The skills mismatches between employers and worker is one is one of many reasons leading to high graduate unemployment. Malaysia has produced many skilled workers in IT, science, and professional graduates that were aim to increase RD and raise productivity in our key leading sectors. The absence of quality leading institutions to absorb the lead such initiatives has resulted in high unemployment. Gender Imbalance In Education Gender inequality in education and employment poses a major challenge to development. The female advantage in terms of tertiary enrolment does not necessary directly into advantageous participation in the labour market. Although women are likely more than man to have a university education, female graduate are more likely than male graduates to be lower paying jobs or to be unemployed. Female enrolment has outnumber of males and this phenomenon has been attributed to the new gender gap. Closing the gender gap education has now become a development priority. This identified that education is the primary vehicle for woman that not only to build basic capabilities but also to play a meaningful role in bring equitable social and economic development. The government regards education is an important tool to empower the women of Malaysia and constantly strengthened its education system in addition to providing more educational opportunities for woman. Now, in our system woman in Malaysia are attending universities and are enrolled in various courses such as arts and humanities, science and technology as well as vocational and technical field. Males need to perform well at the school level in order to compete for places in university. Fewer high paying jobs would be available to men leading to changes in future workforce composition. Table 8.3 below in 2013 show the percentage and ratio of students at public higher education institutes by gender. Percentage of female students is the higher which is 61.02% than the male students which is 38.98%. This data showed the imbalances of gender between female and male students. This is because female students more to hardworking and to study in the higher instituition than male students. Lack of Science and Technical Graduates Malaysia is going to the rapid shift of production based economy to knowledge-based economy, so companies are progressively needed more of science and technical graduates. On the other hands, new graduates who are not meeting needs of industry due to the lack of crucial skills and innovations. So, it will be difficult when many companies are not willing to invest time and money to train new graduates due to budget and time constraints because companies have to conduct training workshops and courses which can be typically take up to two years. Some employers poor in English command of the English language among fresh graduates. In general, local graduates are highly qualified but not proficient in English language. Lack of skills issue Soft skills are nontechnical skills such as communication, management and leadership which are required to successful practice. This is because majority of students are not confident with their soft. Soft skills are very important in securing a job in the job market. They are unable to communicate effectively because they lack confident and have a poor command in English language. In addition, local companies are demanding English proficiency too (The Star, 10 April 2011). Even local company, they are looking for graduates who are creative, inventive and bold to success in the market job. It had stated that most employees require workers to possess qualities such as good attitude, strong work ethics, and the ability to communicate well, a willingness to learn and to contribute new ideas. It has been acknowledge by the general consensus of Malaysian employers that Malaysian graduates lack the soft skills although are well trained in their areas of specialization (Nurita, Shaharudin, Ainon, 2004). Soft skills is the most important skill, this is because they have to communicate clearly and persuasively during the job interviews. Malaysian education system focus to exam oriented. So, for those who complete their studies have a lack of these skill is common everywhere. Here, new graduate are a little more aware about it now and there has been a slight improvement but the challenge are the same. There is a fear of failure or being put in the spotlight. The Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) has identified seven soft skills that should be possessed by all graduates as indicated in the Module for the Development of Soft Skills for Higher Learning Institution Malaysia, 2006 which include the skills for tertiary institutions need to inculcate among the local graduates: critical thinking and problem solving skills, communication skills, lifelong learning and information literacy, team working skills, professional ethics and morality, entrepreneurship skills and leadership skills. Soft skills are identified as generic skills and require training in contrast to hard skills which are associated with procedures or tasks that are observable, quantity and measurable. In facing the challenge of the job market, soft skills are required by university graduates. So, learning in tertiary classroom has moved away from teacher-centered to student-centered learning. Thus, it can be a necessary for those are searching a job nowadays especially for new graduates. Our system is through exam oriented, so many of the student are lack in their soft skills. In other to work transition is the supply of work to new fresh graduates are little bit. Many of company now need a graduates who have a soft skills that will be an innovative persons. So, our Malaysian education system must improve their system which is exam oriented. Another academic in a private institution of higher learning commented on lack of leadership in his institution. Poor leadership and lack of commitment and motivation from top management is one of the main reasons which creates a barrier to the growth and effectiveness of many private institutions and management school. A number of institutions employ retired academicians to occupy prime and decision-making positions and many of these retired academics lack vision, motivation and commitment with no interest in promoting the institutions and management education. Quality Issue Companies overwhelmingly agree that the content and quality of local university education do not adequately prepare students for the workforce while a weak basic education is also to be blame for producing graduates with adequate soft skills. The Malaysia education system must to differentiate between the various type of unemployment graduates, the reason why they are unable to find a work, and the interventions that must be taken to help them find employment. One possible explanation for the relatively high rate of graduate unemployment could be employers unwillingness to offer the level of compensation needed to meet the expectations of recent graduates and attract the required talent. So, Malaysia need to address the mismatch in skill formation and build a functioning feedback mechanism between educational institutions and the industry. A university of Malaya seven year longitudinal study of the school work transition (Nagaraj et al., 2009: 219) found that university graduates to have low regard for creativity and for risk taking. This bring us that fresh graduates increasingly view of the ability to think critically and creatively, and work independently. But graduates from Malaysian Universities seem to be lacking in these areas. In addition, government should look at improving incentives and recruitment for them for promoting professional development and career management (text book) Through the analysis of the current performance of national education based on the blueprint, government public examination lack of the ability to assess and reflect objectively the academic proficiency of students. This according to not only did our students performed poorly in higher level thinking, they also had difficulties with basic knowledge. This shows it is a very serious problem in managing the transition of our students. Besides, the public perception of the quality of education from industry perspective is based on the graph below. Industry perspective is refer to employers opinions about university graduates and these can be into five weaknesses listed as follows (Jobstreet survey, 2011): (1) unrealistic salary demands, (2) bad character, attitude and personality, (3) poor command of English language, (4) lack of good communication skills, (5) too choosy about the job. Thus, issues are faced by Malaysias education system are students problem to more to their attitude. The problems not only in the students knowledge and learning skills but also in their ways to interacting with people and handle their personal matters. Conclusion As the conclusion, Malaysian education system must have an incentive to managing work transition for those who complete their studies as they enter the world of work because many of fresh graduates had been seen was unemployment phenomenon. We notice there is over-emphasis on the number of students enrolment. This has reflected that our education is pay more attention to quantity instead of quality. The issues such as the problem of job mismatches, gender imbalance in education, lack of science and technical graduates, lack of skills issue, quality issue can be a problem for education system in managing for those who complete their studies as they enter the world of work. This bring us that fresh graduates increasingly view of the ability to think critically and creatively, and work independently. Then, issues are faced by Malaysias education system are students problem to more to their attitude. The problems not only in the students knowledge and learning skills but also in their ways to interacting with people and handle their personal matters. This problem can be overcome among the students if they have alternatives to change their attitude. Thus, the work transition will be going smoothly. References Azina Ismail. (2011), Graduates’ Characteristics And Unemployment: A Study Among Malaysian Graduates at https://www.google.com.my/url?sa=trct=jq=esrc=ssource=webcd=1cad=rjauact=8ved=0CBwQFjAAurl=http%3A%2F%2Fijbssnet.com%2Fjournals%2FVol_2_No_16_September_2011%2F11.pdfei=q3VYVI3EMJS uQTtsoDwAQusg=AFQjCNG_ZNPiJMafyPAb3f2z9pKlwkR7ewsig2=oY8T8Hod1JLQLQzlES7X0wbvm=bv.78677474,d.c2E Yu Ji. (July 27, 2013). Close to half of Malaysian graduates either jobless or employed in mismatches fields. The Star. Zainah Anwar. (July 13, 2007). Why boys are lagging behind girls. New Straits Times. Kalaimagal and Norizan. (20121), Employment issues among Malaysian information and communication technology (ICT) graduates: A case study at https://www.google.com.my/url?sa=trct=jq=esrc=ssource=webcd=8cad=rjauact=8ved=0CEgQFjAHurl=http%3A%2F%2Fumexpert.um.edu.my%2Ffile%2Fpublication%2F00005131_86042.pdfei=63pjVNeGBY6yuATRpoLgDwusg=AFQjCNHi_NvMbvrYEErFjGF5k7XxzkuTuAsig2=m1lBnW15DbwSByNTxHDzMQbvm=bv.79189006,d.c2E The star (2011). Employment, Pg. F20, 10 April 2011. Nurita, Shaharudin and Ainon (2004). Percieved employability skills of graduating students: Implications for SMEs. Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, Module for the Development of Soft Skills for Higher Learning Institution Malaysia, 2006. Azmi Anshar. (2011), Don’t fret, let gender ratio evolve naturally at http://www.perdana.org.my/emagazine/2011/07/nst-dont-fret-let-gender-ratio-evolve-naturally/ Blueprint: https://www.google.com.my/url?sa=trct=jq=esrc=ssource=webcd=1cad=rjauact=8ved=0CBwQFjAAurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjpt.moe.gov.my%2FPENGUMUMAN%2FGE%2520blueprint%25202012-2017.pdfei=D7h0VKm6Bo6CuwSgu4KQCwusg=AFQjCNFlZFST4__guwp25NKpubE_7olKBAsig2=dMhw3RXGPOLNDYtfC81N5wbvm=bv.80185997,d.c2E reforming national education https://www.google.com.my/url?sa=trct=jq=esrc=ssource=webcd=3cad=rjauact=8ved=0CCgQFjACurl=http%3A%2F%2Fklscah.org.my%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FReforming-National-Education.pdfei=gEZ3VIbGB4eyuASotIKYCgusg=AFQjCNFWXtxgfKhdXtDptdW2cipR6Dqb4wsig2=UBgLZwYQayOstiRFIPbewQbvm=bv.80642063,d.c2E Nagaraj, S.; Chew, S.B.; Lee, K.H.; and Rahimah, A.H (eds.) (2009), Education and Work: The world of Work, Kuala Lumpur: Faculty of economics and administration, University of Malaya. jobstreet.com http://www.jobstreet.com.my/aboutus/preleases163.htm Malaysia educational statistics 2014 https://www.google.com.my/url?sa=trct=jq=esrc=ssource=webcd=2cad=rjauact=8ved=0CCYQFjABurl=http://emisportal.moe.gov.my/emis/emis2/emisportal2/doc/fckeditor/File/Quickfacts_2014/Buku%20Quick%20Facts%202014.pdf?PHPSESSID=6f0e912c366b9e08e2d1e97d78f59373ei=aXd3VOydH8O-uATHhYDQDgusg=AFQjCNFKlEP6LDq7xuUucVm8OZKGCdx08gsig2=yOHEjtw6Cmm1jilkqSq0wwbvm=bv.80642063,d.c2E

Raymond Williams And Post Colonial Studies Cultural Studies Essay

Raymond Williams And Post Colonial Studies Cultural Studies Essay Twentieth century literary critic Raymond Williams was one of the most reputable, yet contested scholars from the British New Left. Once dubbed our best man in the New Left by his contemporaries, Williamss reputation in a post colonial context is less secure.  [1]  Patrick Brantlinger said it best: Williams was thoroughly the representative man. He was the voice of the ordinary, the voice of the working-class, the voice of Wales, the voice of British socialism, the conscience of Britain and of Europe. He understood that his life mattered because it was ordinary, and representative.  [2]  However, the early 1980s signified the shift in political and economic relations between western and non-western countries through post-colonialism, including former British colonies.  [3]  Moreover, post-colonialism served as an avenue to recover alternative ways of knowing and understanding or simply those other voices as alternatives to dominant western constructs.  [4]  While Raym ond Williams provides British colonial commentary, primarily in his seminal work, The Country and the City, it was in the periphery of his grander cultural theory. Scholars within the Birmingham School and post colonial studies have debated the implications of this, including Williams himself. Consequently, this essay will outline the scholarly debate regarding Raymond Williamss alleged ambivalence towards British colonialism and race within his conception of culture. This will allow for an examination of Williamss work within the context of postcolonial studies, particularly the legacy of his cultural theory in a modern context. Raymond Williamss analysis in The Country and City certainly coincides with postcolonial theories emphasis on geography, whether in conversations around spaces, centers, peripheries or borders.  [5]  This analysis is especially significant because as argued by Anthony Alessandrini, postcolonial theory has benefited from the Marxist and Marxist-influenced analyses undertaken by figures involved in the post-Second World war movements against imperialism and for national liberation.  [6]  Alessandrini attributed the 1970s and 1980s political work and cultural analysis of writers like Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall and Paul Gilroy for influencing major figures in postcolonial studies such as Franz Fanon and Edwards Said.  [7]  Therefore, as Alessandrini continued, We would need to look more closely at the historical circumstances under which the field of postcolonial studies has arisen, and especially at the sorts of strategic decisions involved in the adoption or rejection of particular theoretical paradigms.  [8]  Paul Giles would certainly agree as he adds, It would be disingenuous to ignore the fact that postcolonial scholarship in its contemporary guise has as one of its enabling conditions of possibilityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the increasing attention paid to issues of subalternity and hegemony by forms of cultural Marxism such as those of Antonio Gramsci and Raymond Williams.  [9]  Consequently, this paper is framed around this very approach in regards to the work of Raymond Williams. While few would question the merit or significance of Raymond Williams and his nuanced study of the nineteenth century British rural working class in both Culture and Society and the Long Revolution, there has been significant criticism of Williams due in part to his silence regarding British colonialism. This has proved to be disturbing for some, and certainly problematic for a number of Williamss contemporaries and successors even within the British New Left. Gauri Viswanathan provides an exceptional layout of the criticisms against Raymond Williams and the British New Left in general to conceptualize culture and imperialism. He outlines that within British cultural Marxist tradition since Williams, the conception of British nationalism has been used interchangeably with issues of race, colonialism, or imperialism.  [10]  This is quite evident in Raymond Williamss Keywords (1976), in which the definition of race is not a separate entry of its own, but is distinctively tied to i deas of nationalism. Williams writes: Nationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦originally with a primary sense of a racial group rather than a politically organized grouping. Since there is obvious overlap between these senses, it is not easy to date the emergence of the predominant modern sense of a political formation. The persistent overlap between racial grouping and political formation has been important, since claims to be a nation, and to have national rights, often envisaged the formation of a nation in the political sense, even against the will of an existing political nation which included and claimed the loyalty of this [racial] grouping. It could be and is still often said, by opponents of nationalism, that the basis of the groups claim is racial. (Race, of uncertain origin, had been used in the sense of a common stock from C16 [sixteenth century]. Racial is a C19 [nineteenth-century] formation. In most C19 uses racial was positive and favourable, but discriminating and arbitrary theories of race were becoming more explicit in t he same period, generalizing national distinctions in supposedly radical scientific differences. In practice, given the extent of conquest and domination, nationalist movements have been as often based on an existing but subordinate political grouping as upon a group distinguished by a specific language or by a supposed racial community.  [11]   Gauri Viswanathan attributes Raymond Williamss understanding of British nationalism as less of a theoretical oversight or blindness than an internal restraint with complex methodological and historical origins.  [12]  Citing Raymond Williamss conception of base and superstructure, Viswanathan dissects Williamss methodology and level of comfort with Marxist framework. While Viswanathan highlights the dynamic nature of Williamss work as seemingly accommodating a broadened analysis of culture to include colonial relations, he ultimately concedes that Williams continually resisted that kind of refinement of his work.  [13]  Moreover, Viswanathan continued that this base and superstructure framework restricted him [Williams] to solely economic determinist outcomes and pointed to the inefficacy of Williamss cultural materialism.  [14]  Hence Viswanathan concluded that Williamss model was inherently unable to accommodate British imperialism as a function of metropolitan culture due to the internal restraints of his troubled self-conscious with Marxian  [15]  frameworks. Forest Pyle presented a similar commentary in his essay, Raymond Williams and the Inhuman Limits of Culture. Pyle argues that since language is a human instrument it is consequently inhuman for Williams to consider culture as the mapping of a particular historical configuration and of social, economic, and political life.  [16]  Moreover, Williamss cultural theory is beyond repair and cannot simply be corrected  [17]  due to the intertwined nature of culture and community within Williamss work. Therefore Pyle concludes that Raymond Williamss sense of culture cannot account for the historical and structural forms of colonialism and its aftermath. Pyle then goes a set further than Viswanathan in asserting that this points to not merely a personal limitation but a structural limitation that is explicitly exhibited by Williamss unapologetic understanding of empire.  [18]   Both Pyle and Viswanathan provide interesting critiques in light of Raymond Williamss 1973 essay, Base and Superstructure. Within this essay Williams stated that he had no use or static or highly determinedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ model(s) in which the rules of society are highlighted to the exclusion of the processional and historical.  [19]  Yet as both Pyle and Viswanathan conclude, Raymond Williamss analysis does not apply this cultural materialism model within an imperial or colonial context. Viswanathan indentified Raymond Williams as having an internal restraint due to his understanding of British culture and national identity.  [20]  Therefore Williamss conception of national culture remained hermetically sealed from the continually changing political imperatives of empire.  [21]  For example in The Country and the City, Raymond Williams classifies imperialism as the last mode of the city and countryà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦within the larger context of colonial expansion in which ev ery idea and every image was consciously and unconsciously affected.  [22]  Ultimately, however, British influence extended outward rather than that the periphery had a functional role in determining internal developments.  [23]  Consequently, Williams could only conclude that Britain achieved dominance through the power of a fully formed cultural and institutional system which was transplanted and internalized within British colonies.  [24]   Unsurprisingly, Raymond Williamss cohorts within the Birmingham have attributed this kind of colonial analysis to racism or an egregious form of Eurocentrism on Williamss part. This is especially the case for those involved in black cultural studies, namely Stuart Hall and Paul Gilroy. Stuart Hall openly critiqued the limitations of the Birmingham cultural theory in dealing with the other during his tenure as program director in the late 1960s. Hall found that the issues race and cultural relations as advocated by his predecessors were particularly oppressive to minority groups, therefore highlighting a departure of the School itself from Raymond Williams.  [25]  In Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies, Hall discusses the question of race in cultural studies as a major break in the Birmingham School. He emphasizes: Actually getting cultural studies to put on its own agenda the critical questions of race, the politics of race, the resistance to racism, the critical questions of cultural politics, was itself a profound theoreticalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.and sometimes bitterly contested internal struggle against a resounding but unconscious silence. A struggle which continued in what has since come to be known only in the rewritten historyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.of the Centre for Cultural Studies.  [26]   Paul Gilroy, who studied with Stuart Hall at the Birmingham School in England, focused on postcolonial modes of deracination within transatlantic culture.  [27]  As Paul Giles states, Paul Gilroy took issue with what he perceived as traditional racism and ethnocentrism of English cultural studies,  [28]  citing in particular the tendencies of E. P. Thompson and Raymond Williams to systematically omit blacks from their analysis on British cultural identity.  [29]  Therefore, Gilroy viewed America as a counterpoint to British cultural analysis, and a means of disturbing any narrowly ethnic definition of racial authenticity or the purity of cultures on either side of the Atlantic.  [30]  Gilroy juxtaposed black culture in Britain with American black protest movements, in order to discredit conceptions of race, people or nation as advocated by Raymond Williams. In fact, Gilroy presents one of the most extreme critiques of Raymond Williams, charging him with proposing a ne w racism in his analysis of culture.  [31]   New Left scholar Benita Perry highlights that the new racism advocated by Raymond Williams was especially problematic for Paul Gilroy, who argued that New Left efforts in the 1960s to reclaim patriotism and nationalism resulted in ethnic absolutism.  [32]  She continues that the concept of culture itself became a site of struggles over the meaning of race, nation, and ethnicity for scholars interested in minority studies such as Gilroy.  [33]  The main issue for Gilroy was that Raymond Williamss conception of culture, with its emphasis on long experience, deflected the nation away from race, setting the course for British Cultural Marxists in general to write irresponsibly and quite ambivalently about race.  [34]  Additionally, this excluded blacks from the significant entities due to Williamss silence on racism, which for Gilroy has its own historical relationship with ideologies of Britishness and national identity.  [35]  This is very similar to the argument presen ted by Gauri Viswanathan earlier on the influence of Raymond Williams on British imperial and national scholarship.  [36]   Beyond overt notions Eurocentrism, Williamss critics vehemently opposed his understanding of the long [British] experience deriving from rooted settlement, which excluded colonized groups and immigrants from the significant entity.  [37]  Paul Gilroy notes that the most egregious silence in Williamss work is his refusal to examine the concept of racism which has its own historic relationship with ideologies of Englishness, Britishness and national belonging.  [38]  He adds, There can be little doubt that blacks are familiar with the legacy of British bloody mindedness in which he takes great pride. From where they stand it is easier to see that its present day cornerstones are racism and nationalism, its foundations slavery and imperialism.  [39]  Therefore, Gilroy concludes that cultures are not isolated from each other as Raymond Williams seemly implied in The Country and the City, but are linked to the persistent crisscrossing of national boundaries.  [40]   Additionally, Paul Gilroy discussed the implications of Raymond Williamss work for peoples of color residing in or immigrating to England. In direct response to Williamss position on lived experience and rooted settlement, Gilroy pointedly asked: How long is long enough to become a genuine Brit in the context of lived and formed identities?  [41]  Gilroy argues, that Williamss favored the exclusion of immigrating peoples of color and contributed to a new racism grounded in a discourse of nation, focused on the enemy within and without race.  [42]  This new racism is rooted on cultural rather than biological determination, proving them undeserving of citizenship and creating authentic and inauthentic types of national belonging.  [43]  This was a position that his Birmingham School program director, Stuart Hall agreed with as well. Raymond Williamss requirements for British citizenship had major implications for those colonial subjects of the Commonwealth outside of Britain, such as Jamaican scholar Stuart Hall. These groups lacked the settled kind of identity and would certainly not qualify under this sort of citizenship as advocated by Raymond Williams as well.  [44]  Raymond Williamss commentary in Towards 2000 favored lived and formed identities, preferably those of a settled kind, for practical formation of social identity has to be lived.  [45]  Williams continues: Real social identities are formed by working and living together, with some real place and common interest to identify with.  [46]  Unsurprisingly, Stuart Hall retorts: I am the sugar at the bottom of the English cup of tea. I am the sweet tooth, the sugar plantations that rotted generations of English childrens teeth. There are thousands of others beside me that are, you know, the cup of tea itself. Because they dont grow it in Lan cashire, you know. Not a single tea plantation exists within the United Kingdom? What could Williams say to this-this outside history that is inside the history of the English?  [47]   Donald Nonini adds to this discussion in his analysis of Stuart Halls critique of Raymond Williams. He writes: The issue here for Stuart Hall, is the requirements of real and lived social identities, and the manner of exclusion of recent immigrants, who although residence of England, have only been there for a few generations. Clearly they do not share the long historical association with the land and forcible integration upon it as Williams required for real citizenship.  [48]  This had major implications on Stuart Halls work within the Birmingham School because he could not ignore the racialized aspects of Raymond Williamss cultural theory. In his essay, Culture, Community, and Nation, Hall equates Williamss cultural belongingness through actual, lived relationships of place, culture and community, amongst politically and culturally subordinate peoples as a replacement for biological determinism and coded language for race and color.  [49]  Therefore, Stuart Hall agrees wit h Paul Gilroy that there is overt ethnic absolutism within Raymond Williams work. Moreover, Hall concludes that post-colonial diasporas of the late-modern experience will never be unified culturally because they are products of cultures of hybridity.  [50]  Hall equates this hybridity to a diasporic consciousness, which meant that non- retain strong links with the traditions and places of their origins while adapting to their present circumstances, so that they can produce themselves anew and differently.  [51]   In defense of Raymond Williams, Andrew Milner argued that both Stuart Hall and Paul Gilroy misinterpreted Williamss position on race, citing Towards 2000 as an example.  [52]  Milner writes that Williams was not only vocal about race, but advocated the kind of grassroots social movements that would raise awareness for the heterogeneous strands of English society.  [53]  In fact, Williams describes anti-globalization social movements as resources of hope.  [54]  Additionally, Milner relates Williams analysis of social movements to his understanding of class. He adds that for Williams, neo- imperialist issues led into the central systems of the industrial-capitalist mode of production and its system of classes.  [55]  He supports his position quoting Williams discussion of rooted settlements in Towards 2000: Rooted settlements were alienated superficialities of legal definitions of citizenship with the more substantial reality of deeply grounded and active social iden tities.'  [56]  This interpretation, according to Milner, was problematic for future Birmingham School scholars, particularly Paul Gilroy, who concluded that Williamss authentic and inauthentic types of national belonging followed the same racist rhetoric of British conservatives.  [57]  Milner, however, maintains that this was a distortion of Williamss original argument. He ultimately concludes that future scholars should reexamine Williamss position on race.  [58]   Similar to Milner, Donald Nonini and Christopher Prendergast presents Towards 2000 as the best evidence of Williams conception of racism and visible others in a post colonial context. Nonini cites Williamss observation that the most recent immigrations of more visibly different peoplesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦have misrepresented and obscured pasts.  [59]  Nonini continues that Raymond Williams did account for the differences within British culture and the contested nature of citizenship. For example, Williams wrote that when newly arriving immigrants interacted with true Englishmanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦angry confusions and prejudices were evident because of the repression of rural culture and people within Great Britain.  [60]  Nonini interprets this as a sign of Williams internalized colonist sentiment.  [61]  Therefore, Raymond Williams understood racism as the result of the hostility between the formerly integrated peoples and the immigrating more visibly different peoples due to colon ial ideology.  [62]  Moreover, Andrew Milner continues that Raymond Williams did not exclude blacks from a significant social identity with their white neighbors, as Paul Gilroy suggests highlighting Williamss analysis of rural mining communities in Towards 2000.  [63]  Additionally, Stuart Halls assertion that Raymond Williams not only questioned, but ruled out the possibility that relationships between blacks and whites in many inner-city communities can be actual and sustained is even more unfounded when analyzing Williamss work in Towards 2000.  [64]   Christopher Prendergast clarifies that Raymond Williams did not consider this as actual racism, but a profound misunderstanding due to purely social and cultural tensions between the English working class and who they perceived as outsiders.  [65]  While Williams seems to side with the ordinary, working-class man, Prendergast does specify that Williams did counter nativist claims in his conclusion that foreigners and blacks were just as British as we are.  [66]  Therefore, Prendergast maintains that Williams understood the limitations of a merely legal definition of what it is to be British. He adds that Williams felt that attempts to resolve issues around social identities were often colluded with the alienated superficialities of the nation which were often limited to the functional terms of the modern ruling class.  [67]  Ultimately, both Prendergast and Milner conclude that Raymond Williams was not oblivious to racial relations, citing Williams again: It is by working and living together as free as may be from external ideological definitions, whether divisive or universalist, that real social identities are formed.  [68]   While Milner and Prendergast offer an apologetic interpretation of Raymond Williams and colonial relations, Paul Giles and Forest Pyle emphasize Williams conception of culture as the liability in his analysis. In his essay, Virtual Americas: The Internationalization of American Studies and the Ideology of Exchange, Paul Giles cites Raymond Williamss idealized conception of community as an empowering and socially cohesive forceas problematic.  [69]  Williamss stubborn insistence in holistic communities and rooted settlements creates significant challenges when dealing with imperial relationships. Seemingly, Raymond Williamss cultural analysis accommodates a broadened conceptualization of culture that is inclusive of colonizer-colonized relations, yet this never materializes. Instead, Williamss understanding of the cultural experience becomes overtly exclusive of colonial others, minorities, and immigrants due to his naturalized and geographically localized notion of English nation al culture.  [70]  As outlined previously with Forest Pyle, Williamss appropriation of culture as inhuman and fictional due to the pervasive and elusive nature of the term itself in relation to colonial analysis.  [71]   Post colonial scholar R. Radhakrishnan provides a critique of Raymond Williamss cultural theory as a means of deconstructing Eurocentrism in a post colonial context. While Radhakrishnan acknowledges the insight provided in The Country and the City, he argues that Williamss continual self-reflexivity posits him in a contradictory position when it relates to colonialism and culture. Therefore his commentary becomes both oppositional-marginal and dominant-central and ultimately coincides with a demonstrably metropolitan voice.  [72]  As a result, those within the margins or periphery of dominant British culture are too easily and prematurely adjusted and accommodated within what Williams considered as a connecting process towards a common history.'  [73]  Radhakrishnan maintains that what differentiates post colonial scholars such as Edward Said or Paratha Chatterjee from Raymond Williams is their awareness and articulation of subaltern marginality that often negates Williamss n otion of a successfully transplanted method of cultural commonality.  [74]  In that sense British nationalism or culture can be enacted in the postcolonial context to the detriment of indigenous, peripheral cultures because it fails to speak for them. Therefore, Radhakrishnan concludes that Williamss cultural analysis is incapable of dealing with the nuances of either a colonial or post colonial world. Nevertheless, numerous scholars have worked to

Communication Accomodation Theory Essay -- Communication

The Communication Accommodation Theory states when people interact they alter their speech to fit in or accommodate for other. CAT describes the psychological, social, and linguistic behaviors that people exhibit when communicating with each other (Coupland, Coupland, Giles, Henwood, 1988). Each individual has his or her own personality and motivation when involved in a conversation, this attribute are reflected in how the individual speaks, listens and then responds to the other person involved in the conversation. According to this theory, communication between two people can at any time be adjusted by either party in response to actual, perceived, or stereotyped expectations of the other person (Coupland, et al., 1988). This means that either party can change their communication style based on what they feel or pick up on during the conversation. The CAT theory can help understand how humans interact with one another while communicating. CAT is based on the premise that speakers and listeners unconsciously and mutually modify their linguistic (e.g., language choice, vocabulary) and/or paralinguistic (e.g., dialect, tone of voice, speech rate) behaviors to become more similar to (convergence) or different from (divergence) their interactional partners (Giles, Mulac, Bradac, & Johnson, 1987). Convergence strategies signal interactants' positive attitudes toward each other, such as increasing attractiveness and approval or showing solidarity, whereas divergence strategies accentuate differences between interactants (Giles et al., 1987). CAT is based on the idea that people with unknowingly modify their language to become more similar or from the person they are communicating with. Convergence usually occurs when the sp... ....), Language and social psychology. (pp.45-65) Hordila - Vatamanescu, E., & Pana, A. (2010). The Application of the Communication Accommodation Theory to Virtual Communities: A Preliminary Research on the Online Identities. International Journal Of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 5(4), 279-290. Jones, E., Gallois, C., Callan, V., & Barker, M. (1999). Strategies of accommodation: development of a coding system for conversational interaction. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 18(2), 123-152. Krippendorff, Klaus (2004). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Myers, P., Giles, H., Reid, S. A., & Nabi, R. L. (2008). Law Enforcement Encounters: The Effects of Officer Accommodativeness and Crime Severity on Interpersonal Attributions are mediated by Intergroup Sensitivity. Communication Studies, 59(4), 291-305.