RSS 1.0SUNY Oswego Faculty and Staff Scholarly Publications
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More than “A Matter of Deciding To”: Citizenship, Border Positionality, and Irresolution in Louise Erdrich’s The Night WatchmanThis article considers Indigenous refusal to state-imposed US citizenship through a reading of Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman (2020). The novel follows the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa’s struggle to remain a federally recognized tribe during the US government’s move toward tribal termination in the 1950s. While the characters’ appeal to the US government could be construed simply as a plea for state recognition, the novel’s insistence on Chippewa kinship structures as a simultaneous and legitimate expression of the characters’ political identities suggests otherwise. Taking up conversations in Indigenous studies pertaining to the limits of state recognition and the possibilities of generative forms of refusal, the article expands upon Mohawk scholar Audra Simpson’s (2014) model of refusal with an emphasis on irresolution. This irresolution is manifested in the novel’s narrative form—which refuses closure. The article uses the term border positionalities to describe the unresolved and unsettled tension between the characters’ Indigenous and settler political identities. It contends that the incommensurability of these social and political identities makes Erdrich’s novel an important text for reading citizenship as an ongoing site of struggle for Indigenous people.
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Physical inactivity and sedentary behavior negatively impact postural balance and gaitBackground: The benefits of physical activity (PA) do not depend on the PA level, but also on sedentary behavior (SB). An interaction between PA and SB (i.e., PA-SB interplay) is important to determine one’s health status. This study explored the effect of PA-SB interplay on balance and gait in healthy young adults.Methods: Healthy young adults (n = 133, 18-35 yrs) were placed in four PA-SB interplay groups using the American College of Sports Medicine PA guidelines (i.e., sedentary active [>6hr/day, >150min/week], sedentary inactive [>6hr/day, <150min/week], physically active [<6hr/day, >150min/week] and physically inactive [<6hr/day, <150min/week]). Participants’ balance and gait were assessed with inertial measurement units placed on seven bodily sites. Significance level was set at p < 0.1. Results: Sway acceleration RMS during eyes closed on stable surface in the balance test showed a statistically significant difference among the PA-SB interplay groups (p = 0.055) which was found between sedentary active and physically inactive (p = 0.066). Anticipatory postural adjustment (APA) duration during gait showed a statistically significant difference among the PA-SB interplay groups (p = 0.010) which was found between sedentary inactive and physically active (p = 0.019) and between sedentary active and physically active (p = 0.026). Conclusion: PA-SB interplay influences static (sway acceleration RMS) and dynamic balance (APA duration) of healthy young adults. Findings suggest that somatosensory processing during balance and gait initiation are significantly impacted by PA-SB interplay. Future studies should explore PA-SB interplay on balance and gait in elderly and diseased populations.
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Enhancing AI Engagement: Psychological Approaches to Motivate Employee Acceptance and UtilizationThe rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers organizations significant opportunities for enhanced efficiency, innovation, and competitiveness. However, successful AI integration depends on employee acceptance, often encountering resistance. A comprehensive strategy for managers is essential to gain AI acceptance and usage. This article uses the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to frame technology acceptance determinants. We then incorporate insights and practical implications from Conformity, Expectancy, Self-Determination, Technology Threat Avoidance, and the Job Characteristics theories to provide a more comprehensive framework. These theories offer managers a practical approach to facilitate AI engagement and align goals with employees' aspirations. We recommend clear communication of AI benefits, alignment of employee needs with organizational goals, a supportive environment, and provision of necessary resources and training.
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Evaluative Information Literacy Rubric for AI ToolsAs creators, consumers, and curators of information, students and scholars need to be able to assess AI research tools. The makers of these tools claim they can do everything from locating sources, to reading and explaining them, to writing new papers that synthesize these sources. These tools promise great things, but it’s not always obvious how these tools work, what data they use, and what data they gather from / about users. If we accept that students (and other writers) will use these tools, how can we help them to look behind the curtain? The Evaluative Information Literacy Rubric for AI Tools breaks down larger concepts from ACRL's Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education and asks questions of AI research tools users need to consider.
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Una Antígona para tiempos de supervivencia: lo heroico y lo sucio en Antígona del dramaturgo cubano Yerandy FleitesThis essay analyzes Antígona (2008) by Yerandy Fleites to show how the author tackles the current Cuban political situation by rewriting the Sophoclean tragedy. Fleites adjusts the Greek myth to the Cuban context by means of parody and an intertextual dialogue with both Jean Anouilh’s Antígona (1944) and Peruvian poet José Watanabe’s Antígona (2000). The study then unpacks the idea of dirtiness and Fleites’ depiction of the female heroine to demonstrate how the dramatist proposes hybris as the main psychological driver behind the Cuban Antigone (and that, to an extent, of the generation she represents) to suggest possible avenues for sociopolitical change. At the same time, this study considers the interpretations of Fleites’ Antígona that Cuban directors Pedro Franco and Julio César Ramírez respectively brought to the stage in 2013 and 2020. Ramírez’s reading in particular provides an understanding of Antígona in the context of the protests that occurred on November 27, 2020, when intellectuals, writers, and artists demanded that the Cuban Ministry of Culture recognize their rights and their freedom as citizens.
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Professional development and coaching in the science of reading: Impacts on oral reading fluency in comparison to national normsThe purpose of this 5-year longitudinal study was to examine the rate of growth of oral reading fluency (ORF) scores in response to professional development and coaching related to the Science of Reading (SoR) in one urban public school district in the northeast United States. A non-random sample of all grade 1-5 students (n=434) enrolled in the school over a five-year period was used. Analysis of the growth in ORF scores was conducted using a latent growth curve analysis within a structural equation model framework. This model allowed comparison of growth between the sample and established national norms. Results indicate that across the grades over time, the sample demonstrated significantly greater growth (9%) when compared to the national norms (6%), despite interrupted instruction due to the covid-19 pandemic. These results suggest that repeated Professional Development (PD) and ongoing coaching to implement the SoR can lead to longterm growth in student ORF. The implications support SoR as an effective instructional framework which may mitigate against loss of instructional time in the classroom and serve as a protective factor against school interruptions, especially for at-risk learners.
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Accelerating Reading Growth in the Wake of the Pandemic: Research and SolutionsData is showing that student reading outcomes have been negatively impacted by the pandemic and corresponding disrupted learning. These findings highlight the need for an acceleration in evidence-based learning to foster stronger reading. The Science of Reading (SoR) provides a solution for effective and efficient pedagogy that is proven to produce significant gains in reading. Educational legislation is shifting to support the use of evidence-based approaches based on the SoR through policy changes including funding, professional development, and certification requirements. Districts are exploring innovative programs, such as 1:1 tutoring utilizing pre-service teachers and summer programming, to try to further accelerate learning gains. We recommend a concerted approach for stakeholders involving legislation, higher education, and districts to ensure that evidence-aligned instruction is being effectively used. Only with a unified approach incorporating all of these elements will we be able to counter the impact that the pandemic has had on the reading ability of our students.
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Transformative Features of Teacher Residency Programs: A Textual Narrative SynthesisAlthough teacher residency programs (TRPs) are increasing in prevalence, the scholarly literature on these programs has not been systematically synthesized to demonstrate consensus regarding benefits of teacher residency programs for teacher preparation over traditional models. This literature review provides a textual narrative synthesis of empirical research on teacher residencies from 2014-2019 and summarizes features of TRPs, including enhanced mentoring, immersive resident learning, and a transformative third space for teacher preparation. The literature synthesis confirmed that TRPs have the potential to transform teacher preparation and improve upon university-school partnerships to bolster theory-to-practice connections. As TRPs innovated and developed their residency programs, the reflective process was essential.
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Teacher candidate self-efficacy and ability to teach literacy: A comparison of residency and traditional teacher preparation modelsThis comparative study explored self-efficacy and ability for scientifically-based literacy instruction between a traditional and residency model of teacher preparation. Pre-/post-survey data was collected using the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy for Literacy Scale. Mentor teachers completed a modified version of the survey on candidates’ abilities. Data were analyzed using paired sample t-tests, independent sample t-tests, and a trend analysis. Results revealed that candidates in the Residency Model held higher levels of self-efficacy for literacy instruction than in the Traditional Model. Mentor teachers rated candidates in the Residency Model as more able to teach literacy than those in the Traditional Model. There was alignment amongst the mentor rating and the resident perception of ability. In the Traditional Model, the mentor and student teacher were not as aligned in their perspectives of student teacher ability to teach literacy. Teacher preparation programs should consider the potential of teacher Residency Models to prepare pre-service teachers for the use of the Science of Reading for teaching literacy.
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The Beast with Two Backs: Bestiality, Sex Between Men, and Byzantine Theology in the Paenitentiale TheodoriToday, the comparison of male homosexuality to bestiality is unfortunately too well-known from homophobic polemics. Yet this comparison has a history in the Anglophone world, and it emerged in the early European Middle Ages seemingly not in order to dehumanize men who had sex with men but in order to make bestiality appear serious by comparing it to male-male sexual acts. The eighth-century Paenitentiale Theodori—which collects the judgments of the Byzantine-born Archbishop Theodore—is the earliest extant English text to connect male-male sexual acts with bestiality. This comparison does not occur in the previous penitentials, but, after its appearance in the Paenitentiale, this comparison traveled throughout Western Europe. No scholarship to date examines the global origins of such a comparison. This paper argues that later medieval views of bestiality as perverse and as a serious sexual offense emerged from bestiality’s early comparison to same-sex acts (rather than vice-versa). Prior to the Paenitentiale Theodori, European theologians described bestiality as a minor sin akin to masturbation. Theodore borrowed the comparison of bestiality and male-male sex acts from a Latin mistranslation of the 314 Greek Council of Ancyra and from the Byzantine theologian St. Basil the Great. Since the early penitentials accorded male-male sexual acts some of the most serious penances, the comparison of bestiality to these acts elevated bestiality for the first time in Western Europe to the status of a serious and unnatural sin. Through connection to effeminizing male-male sexual acts, bestiality gained a reputation as a serious, boundary-violating sin in its own right.
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Body-worn cameras: Technological frames and project abandonmentThis case study examines the technological frames of administrators and users regarding the implementation of body-worn cameras at the Pennybridge Police Department, a mid-sized police organization (<300) in the Mid-Western United States. Using semi-structured interviews, a patrol survey, and ride-along observations; we found that different actors based on their hierarchy and function framed body-worn cameras differently over time. Administrators implemented body-cameras to protect officers from frivolous complaints while at the same time holding them accountable for their behavior. Users felt, for the most part, that the technology had become a “gotcha mechanism” as body camera footage was used to placate the public, monitor officer behavior, and charge them with minor infractions. Adding to their frustrations, users felt increasingly dispirited by the technical shortcomings of the cameras and the backend storage system provided by the vendor. At the same time, administrators were vexed by the financial and logistical burden of the program, ultimately leading to project abandonment and a search for a new system. Our findings have important implications for policymakers and future research.
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The Pennybridge pioneers: understanding internal stakeholder perceptions of body-worn camera implementationSince body-worn cameras (BWCs) were catapulted into mainstream discourse, they have diffused rapidly across police agencies in the United States. Research followed swiftly, providing a wealth of information about how the police and citizens make sense of these technologies. Moreover, we have learned how these technologies have impacted important policing outcomes, such as citizen complaints and the use of coercive force during citizen encounters. However, despite the growing body of research, very little is known about how police stakeholders make sense of the implementation of BWCs and about their decision-making throughout the implementation process. Therefore, this research examines the decision to implement BWCs in one mid-sized municipal police department in the United States through the lens of Rogers (2003) Diffusion of Innovations theoretical framework. We rely on semi-structured interviews and observations with 17 stakeholders to address this question. Our findings show that BWC technology generally posed little uncertainty for stakeholders in terms of what it could offer conceptually. However, because the agency was an early adopter, decision-makers were confronted with significant uncertainty about practical matters such as the financial and logistical costs of implementing the technology, in addition to policy creation. These findings have important implications for scholars and practitioners.
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Body-Worn Cameras and Internal Accountability at a Police AgencyExisting research on body-worn cameras have primarily focused on certain policing outcomes (e.g., citizen complaints and use-of-force), however, only a handful of research to date has considered how the implementation of body-worn cameras have impacted internal organizational processes at police departments. Using semi-structured interviews, a survey, and ride-along observations, we examined how body-worn cameras impacted the way police officers were held or felt accountable for their behavior. The study was conducted at the Sunnyvale Police Department (pseudonym), a small city agency in the United States that had been using cameras for two and a half years. Particularly, we describe how body-worn cameras impacted accountability at Sunnyvale within different organizational contexts that included reporting, citizen interactions, training, and supervision. Consistent with the hopes of reformers, body-worn cameras did seem to raise the general sense of accountability as they became a part of training, citizen encounters, reporting, and supervision. However, these changes were not like reformers would have imagined, as the department did not intently use cameras in a way to hold officers any more accountable for their conduct and performance on the street.
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The effects of body-worn cameras on police organisation and practice: a theory-based analysisThis study applies the technical/rational model of organisations to help explain the effects of body-worn cameras on police organisation and practice in a single police agency in the United States. Consistent with the technical/rational model, cameras had enhanced those people processing and environment-changing features of the police organisation which had tangible goals and well understood means for their accomplishment. In comparison, body-worn cameras were less successful in changing supervision and training, which were not well developed technically. We posit that improvements in these people changing aspects of police work will likely require public pressure for higher levels of police professionalism, rigorous evidence on how these cameras can make training and supervision more effective, and police agencies willing to experiment with their strategic implementation.
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“As Black as They Were Before”: The History of Skin Colour and the History of the Holy Rood-TreeA twelfth-century manuscript preserves an English homily known as the History of the Holy Rood-Tree. In it, the three Rods of Moses perform a number of miracles, including turning the skin of several Ethiopian men and their sons white. The Ethiopian mothers, however, remain Black. The History is perhaps the earliest surviving English text to create a hierarchy of skin colour, and to explicitly state that white skin is more beautiful than black skin. This article frames the History as an early chapter in the history of European depictions of Blackness. The Ethiopians know and respect God, and the History represents their Blackness as abject yet affording insight into God that white characters do not have. At the same time, they implicitly desire whiteness, in an uncanny precursor to the internalized feelings of inferiority that Frantz Fanon described for modern Black people. The History reminds us of the truth of Fanon’s claims that the European past holds modern Black people prisoner, and that it is important to write long histories of race and anti-Blackness.
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Multi-Level Message Sequence Charts to Validate the Collaborative Automotive Cyber-Physical SystemsAutonomous driving and e-mobility are swiftly becoming not only the work of science fiction or popular science, but a reality. A key focus of manufacturers and suppliers in the automotive domain is of course to specify systems that implement this reality. Often, scenarios at type-level are used throughout the development process to specify system behavior and interaction within the car, as scenario models are comparatively easy to understand and can easily be subjected to manual validation. However, autonomous driving and e-mobility require interaction not just of systems within the same car, but collaboration between multiple cars as well as between cars and miscellaneous road infrastructure (e.g., smart road signs). The car becomes a Cyber-Physical System that dynamically forms collaborating networks at runtime with other Cyber-Physical System to create functionality that goes beyond the scope of the individual vehicle (e.g., resolve a traffic jam). Consequently, a plethora of possible compositions of such a network exist and must be specified and validated completely to assure their adequate and safe execution at runtime. Doing this at type-level with scenario models becomes prohibitively tedious, error prone, and likely results in unrealistic development cost. To combat this issue, we investigate the use of multi-level Message Sequence Charts to allow for specifying interaction scenarios between collaborative Cyber-Physical System in a network of collaborating automotive Cyber-Physical System. To assist the developer in systematically defining multi-level Message Sequence Charts, we propose two processes. The resulting diagrams use a mixture of type and instance-level abstractions within one conceptual diagram. This allows reducing the required effort to manually validate the adequacy of scenarios to a manageable amount because information within the scenarios can be validated in batches. At the same time, instance-level defects become more obvious. Evaluation results from a controlled experiment show that multi-level Message Sequence Charts contribute to effectiveness and efficiency of manual validation for collaborative automotive Cyber-Physical System.
