Volume 2016 No. 2

Language Screening Studies Point at Insufficient Medical and Language Therapeutic Care of Immigrant Children

Eugen Zaretsky, University Hospital of Frankfurt/Main, Germany, and Benjamin P. Lange, Julius Maximilian University of Wuerzburg, Germany

Spiritual Leadership - A Buddhist Skillful Means Approach towards Corporate Social Responsibility

Mai Chi Vu, University of Auckland, New Zealand

The Legacy of Peter Yoshirō Saeki: Evidence of Christianity in Japan Before the Arrival of Europeans

James Harry Morris, University of St Andrews, Scotland

Audience and Authority in the South English Legendary 'Life of St. Katherine'

Gillian Adler, University of California, Los Angeles, US

Caught in the Spotlight: Engaging Distance Students

Josua Pienaar, Central Queensland University, and Nadine Adams, Learning and Teaching Services, Central Queensland, Australia

The Lonely Non-Resistant: Adin Ballou's Opposition to Violent Abolitionism in Antebellum America

Bryce Hal Taylor, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany

Simultaneous Measurement of the Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution at Regionally Distinct Colleges

Martin Kelly, D'Youville College, Kati I. Stoddard, Texas A&M University, David W. Allard, Texas A&M University-Texarkana, US

The Influence of Islam on the Education System in Germany and Austria

Barbara Friehs, University of Graz, Austria

Gender Mainstreaming in the European Union: The Firework Effect

Carla V. Maenza, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, University College London, UK

Faith, Belief and Religious Experience

John H. Dreher, University of Southern California, US

Examining the Impact of Team Dynamics on Academic and Professional Performance: A Cross-Sectional Study at Three Levels of Higher Education

Joseph B. Baugh, The University of Arizona and the University of Phoenix, US

The Role of Collective Motivation and Empathy in Self Help Groups

Sakshi Ghai, Vedica Scholars Programme for Women, India

Giving Women a Voice in the Decision Making Process Towards Achieving Environmental Sustainability: The Case of Oil Drilling in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Uchenna Ijoma, University of Ottawa, Canada

Language Screening Studies Point at Insufficient Medical and Language Therapeutic Care of Immigrant Children

Eugen Zaretsky, University Hospital of Frankfurt/Main, Germany, and Benjamin P. Lange, Julius Maximilian University of Wuerzburg, Germany

Immigrants in Germany might suffer from disadvantages with respect to the medical treatment of language-related problems. We hypothesised that parents of immigrant children reported language-related abnormalities less often than parents of monolingual Germans because such abnormalities more often remain undetected. Methods. Three data sets with a total of 5,726 monolingual German children (= MO) and 3,240 bi-/multilingual children (= BM) of preschool age were analysed retrospectively. Questionnaires for parents and daycare centre teachers as well as language test results were examined by cross-tables, Mann-Whitney U-tests, correlations, and binary logistic regressions. University language experts classified all children as needing (CLIN) or not needing (NCLIN) medical help and as needing (
Zaretsky _Lange.pdf
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Spiritual Leadership - A Buddhist Skillful Means Approach towards Corporate Social Responsibility

Mai Chi Vu, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Spiritual leadership can be approached from various religions with their own merits; however, this paper explores and examines the practicability and adaptability of the Buddhist teaching principles in leadership practices. Rather than concentrating on some specific Buddhist principles that have been studied and became familiar in Western literature such as the Four Noble Truths, the Eight Fold Noble Path, the Middle Path, the laws of nature, etc., the study is aimed at a comprehensive theoretical framework from the Buddhist perspectives towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) based on the Buddhist qualities from the Ten Stages of Perfections in the Flower Garland Sutra. Among the qualities of those ten stages, skillful means will be of special interest in this paper. Though skillful
Vu_M .pdf
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The Legacy of Peter Yoshirō Saeki: Evidence of Christianity in Japan Before the Arrival of Europeans

James Harry Morris, University of St Andrews, Scotland

Peter Yoshirō Saeki was an eminent Japanese scholar who devoted much of his career to the study of Nestorian/Syriac Christianity in China. One overlooked aspect of his work is the development of the concept that Nestorians had both missionary and secular contacts with Japan throughout its premodern history. These controversial theories were taken up by his peers, transported into Western scholarship, and have trickled down to this day in historical, theological and conspiratorial works that are riddled with confusion, truth, and untruth. This paper provides a chronological and contextual history of the genesis and development of Saeki’s theories throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries within his own work and in the work of others. It is argued that such theories have been utilised
Morris_J.pdf
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Audience and Authority in the South English Legendary 'Life of St. Katherine'

Gillian Adler, University of California, Los Angeles, US

This article explores the reception history of the ‘Life of Saint Katherine’ as it appears in the South English Legendary, a popular collection of Middle English saints’ lives circulating among male and lay audiences in late medieval England. In light of the proliferation of preaching aids and sermon materials intended for the clerical instruction of lay parishioners, as well as the rise in lay piety from the thirteenth century onward, I argue that the audiences of the South English Legendary would have found political, social, and religious utility in the representation of Saint Katherine. While Katherine’s vitae sometimes minimize her disputatious speech and emphasize her devotional appeal, the South English Legendary exploits her bold voice, sophisticated education, and defiance
Adler_J.pdf
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Caught in the Spotlight: Engaging Distance Students

Josua Pienaar, Central Queensland University, and Nadine Adams, Learning and Teaching Services, Central Queensland, Australia

Equity and engagement have become the focus of many university policies. Engagement is considered to be the only solution to increasing attrition rates but is there a divide between the students’ ideas of engagement and the University’s? As universities develop new and innovative techniques to engage students, are they losing sight of the real needs of students? These innovations involve systems that enable staff to ‘see’ the engagement of their students, especially those studying by distance education. Have these new practices put students in a position where they feel stunned and trapped; no longer able to work in a manner akin to their natures? The hunt is, therefore on to find the balance between what students need and want and institutions perceptions.
This paper examines the
Pienaar_Adams .pdf
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The Lonely Non-Resistant: Adin Ballou's Opposition to Violent Abolitionism in Antebellum America

Bryce Hal Taylor, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany

This project uses the historically neglected nineteenth-century New England preacher Adin Ballou to open an intimate window into abolitionism’s failure to liberate the slave using non-violent methods attributed to Jesus Christ before the Civil War in the United States. I will highlight, through Ballou, New England abolitionism’s gradual acceptance of freeing the slave by force after thirty years of using moral suasion as its foundational liberation principle. The antislavery societies in New England nearly collapsed amidst the theological battle over Christ’s declaration to “resist not evil.”
My findings, acquired in multiple libraries in New England, indicate that Ballou was one of the leaders of the branch of abolitionists who remained fixed in their belief against using the co
Taylor_B.pdf
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Simultaneous Measurement of the Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution at Regionally Distinct Colleges

Martin Kelly, D'Youville College, Kati I. Stoddard, Texas A&M University, David W. Allard, Texas A&M University-Texarkana, US

The Measurement of the Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) survey has 20 statements that a respondent evaluates. We transcribed the MATE into an online survey delivered to Introductory Biology students by email. Six items were added at the front of the MATE to capture descriptive demographic information: Gender, ethnicity or race, religious identity, academic major, academic class, and college. The average acceptance score for evolution was 69.6 (s=16.20, N=140) out of a possible 100 points. The three survey items where students were most undecided about evolution were: 1) “With few exceptions, organisms on earth came into existence at about the same time,” 2) “The theory of evolution cannot be tested scientifically,” and 3) “The theory of evolution cannot be correct sin
Kelly_Stoddard_Allard.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [533.5 KB]

The Influence of Islam on the Education System in Germany and Austria

Barbara Friehs, University of Graz, Austria

Islam takes delight in tremendous popularity in many parts of the world. In the recent past and present, migration movements caused a relatively big spread of Islam on the European continent. Today, Islam accounts for the second strongest religion in Europe, with 15 to 20 million members. All over Europe, there are legal bills and everyday life situations that show the huge impact Islam already has on societies of strongly secularized European countries, such as the German-speaking ones.
The question to explore is how the education systems in Germany and Austria are affected by the above mentioned demographic changes. Using a comparative analysis, the goal of this study is to catch a glimpse of the influence over corresponding, legal regulations through Islam and to discuss the hence resul
Friehs_B.pdf
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Gender Mainstreaming in the European Union: The Firework Effect

Carla V. Maenza, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, University College London, UK

In this paper, we analyse Gender Mainstreaming as a gender equality strategy and its implementation in the European Union, a fertile environment. We examine how incompatible resistances generate pressure points that hinder the road to equality. We see how, while the European Commission was actively taking action into gender equality, it was battling internal resistances in the European Court of Justice decisions. These types of resistances are extremely common in European institutions, and there is no active engagement in trying to overcome them. We discuss how there is a decreasing interest in implementation, shown by slimmer budgets and increasing cultural backlash after the global financial crisis. We argue that beyond the implementation problems, its character of soft law, the inabilit
Maenza_C.pdf
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Faith, Belief and Religious Experience

John H. Dreher, University of Southern California, US

This paper offers an analysis of the conceptual relations among faith, belief and religious experience. The paper argues that neither faith in general nor religious faith, in particular, can be viewed plausibly as a form of irrational belief, that is, as belief that is unresponsive to reason. On the contrary, the paper argues that religious faith is prompted by certain kinds of perceptual and affective experiences and that the religious faith that is inspired by those experiences grounds dispositions, disciplines and patterns of behavior that are authentic expressions of faith. Religious belief formalizes religious faith, which, in its turn, is reinforced by the authentic practices that religious experience inspires.
Natural science also involves a kind faith, as the empirical data gathere
Dreher_J.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [537.5 KB]

Examining the Impact of Team Dynamics on Academic and Professional Performance: A Cross-Sectional Study at Three Levels of Higher Education

Joseph B. Baugh, The University of Arizona and the University of Phoenix, US

This study examined the impact of team dynamics on academic and professional performance through a two-part mixed-methods process. The first phase of this process probed students' ability – and willingness – to quantitatively evaluate the performance of members of their study teams, including a self-evaluation, over the duration of the class as each member’s performance impacted the development and success of a group project. The author analyzed the quantitative data with SPSS™ to correlate individual, and team ratings collected through a peer-review process as predictors of team performance on group projects and found a strong positive relationship between peer-review scores and team outcomes.
The second phase of the team dynamics study explored the qualitative experience of the t
Baugh_J .pdf
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The Role of Collective Motivation and Empathy in Self Help Groups

Sakshi Ghai, Vedica Scholars Programme for Women, India

In the Kesla block of Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh in India, we find a cohesive group of rural women accessing their true leadership potential and fostering social change within their communities. An informal group of women sharing similar socio-economic backgrounds, belonging to the same village form a collective called the Self-help groups (SHG’s). In the village of Abadipur and Silwani, women are influencing and participating in societal processes and transcending the limitations imposed by a lack of education, power, and financial assistance through leadership development.
Through a socio-anthropological lens, the paper attempts to study and analyse women leadership in under-developed rural settings and emphasise the role of collective motivation and empathy in transforming
Ghai_S.pdf
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Giving Women a Voice in the Decision Making Process Towards Achieving Environmental Sustainability: The Case of Oil Drilling in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Uchenna Ijoma, University of Ottawa, Canada

Oil drilling and its resultant effect, gas flaring, have put burdens on the shoulders of rural women who have a special interaction with the environment. Despite these dire consequences, women who are core stakeholders in the stewardship of the environment are underrepresented in the decision-making process. Based on the reviewed literature, this paper will examine the inequalities experienced by rural women of the Niger Delta Region, in the decision-making processes relating to environmental affairs in Nigeria. Using a gender lens of standpoint theory by feminist scholars (Dorothy Smith, Julia T. Wood, Shelia A.M Mclean, Angela D. Ledford), the paper argues that the adoption of gender impact assessment can result in environmentally sustainable laws and policies as well as practices that a
Ijoma_U.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [637.2 KB]

Volume 2016 No. 2

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