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Title: “THE UNIVERSITY OF THE VILLAGE” : THE UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA AND THE MAKING OF POST-INDEPENDENCE NIGERIA
Creator: Stevenson , Russell Wade
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN, the first indigenous university in Nigeria and the first land grant university in Africa. This dissertation argues that UNN represented an innovative experiment in African higher education by expanding higher education to the general populace rather than the colonially privileged elite. However, its construction drew upon patronage politics and taxation regimes that expropriated funding at the same time other regions...
Show moreABSTRACT This dissertation examines the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN, the first indigenous university in Nigeria and the first land grant university in Africa. This dissertation argues that UNN represented an innovative experiment in African higher education by expanding higher education to the general populace rather than the colonially privileged elite. However, its construction drew upon patronage politics and taxation regimes that expropriated funding at the same time other regions faced education taxes. Resistance to the University’s construction reflected local sentiments of inequitable distribution of tax resources throughout Nigeria’s Eastern Region. The University also served as a mechanism in post-independence Nigerian geopolitics: as a mechanism for removing the influence of the British-established University College, Ibadan and British educational models more generally. The University of Nigeria, Nsukka would be, as Taiye Selasi and Achille Mbembe have phrased it, an “Afro-politan” institution—porous and all-encompassing of knowledge systems throughout the globe. During the Nigeria-Biafra war, UNN faced sustained wartime damage—damage from it could not easily recover. The Nigeria-Biafra war laid the groundwork for a period of sustained infrastructural decay and internal resistance, even as the Nigerian federal government enjoyed larger access to oil revenue. This dissertation examines what makes African institutions “indigenous” and how UNN represented the halting transformation from coloniality to indigeneity in the post-independence Nigerian nation-state.
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Title: “IN A NEW NORMAL SITUATION, A NEW APPROACH” : MID-PANDEMIC EFL TEACHER PERSPECTIVES ON IMPLEMENTING TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING IN EAP COURSES
Creator: Siddiqui, Tamoha Binte
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Scarce research exists with regards to TBLT implementation in EAP courses, especially those courses held in EFL settings. Hence, this study explores the extent to which EAP teachers from an EFL country, Bangladesh, hold beliefs that align with core TBLT principles, as well as their levels of receptiveness to using tasks in the classroom. In this mixed methods study, data was collected from 30 tertiary-level EAP teachers in Bangladesh using a questionnaire survey and follow-up interviews. A...
Show moreScarce research exists with regards to TBLT implementation in EAP courses, especially those courses held in EFL settings. Hence, this study explores the extent to which EAP teachers from an EFL country, Bangladesh, hold beliefs that align with core TBLT principles, as well as their levels of receptiveness to using tasks in the classroom. In this mixed methods study, data was collected from 30 tertiary-level EAP teachers in Bangladesh using a questionnaire survey and follow-up interviews. A convergent mixed methods analysis was used to triangulate the data and verify the findings. Results showed that participants agreed with core TBLT principles from a moderate to high level, and consistently favored use of tasks over traditional activities. Moreover, teacher beliefs and practices seem to have become further aligned with core TBLT tenets in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shift to online teaching. I conclude the study by highlighting a number of implications for EFL teaching contexts. Additionally, I suggest that teacher and student autonomy need to be nurtured not only during curriculum development and implementation, but also in theoretical and research design.
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Title: “IMFUNDO” THE STUDENT; THE EVOLUTION ADAPTATION, AND PRACTICE OF African CENTERED EDUCATION AT THE KARA HERITAGE INSTITUTE IN PRETORIA SOUTH AFRICA
Creator: George III, Clarence
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: ABSTRACT“IMFUNDO” THE STUDENT; THE EVOLUTION ADAPTATION, AND PRACTICE OF AFRICAN CENTERED EDUCATION AT THE KARA HERITAGE INSTITUTE IN PRETORIA SOUTH AFRICAByClarence George III This dissertation study (Imfundo) seeks to explore, the practice and evolution of African centered education at the Kara Heritage Institute from 2016 to 2019. This project seeks to study African centered education at Kara focusing on how the Heritage Institute instills notions of African consciousness, notions of Pan...
Show moreABSTRACT“IMFUNDO” THE STUDENT; THE EVOLUTION ADAPTATION, AND PRACTICE OF AFRICAN CENTERED EDUCATION AT THE KARA HERITAGE INSTITUTE IN PRETORIA SOUTH AFRICAByClarence George III This dissertation study (Imfundo) seeks to explore, the practice and evolution of African centered education at the Kara Heritage Institute from 2016 to 2019. This project seeks to study African centered education at Kara focusing on how the Heritage Institute instills notions of African consciousness, notions of Pan-Africanism, structural pedagogy, and culturally relevant pedagogy. This research project evaluated and observed African-centered education in South Africa at the Kara Heritage institute in Pretoria South Africa. Over 4 years of data collected has yielded a great deal of information about South Africa's unique approach to education, culture, and heritage restoration.
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Title: “I JUST NEED THE PLAYERS” : HOW URBAN SCHOOL LEADERS NAVIGATE RESOURCE CONSTRAINT THROUGH EXTERNAL PARTNERSHIPS.
Creator: Gilzene, Alounso A.
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This study examines urban school leaders and their decision-making around external partnership relations in resource-constrained contexts. I employed a case study design guided by sense-making and cultural responsiveness to highlight behaviors that contribute to successful partnership work (Ganon-Shilon & Schecter, 2017; Khalifa, Gooden & Davis, 2016). To do this work, I conducted this research in three predominantly Black schools in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Using in...
Show moreThis study examines urban school leaders and their decision-making around external partnership relations in resource-constrained contexts. I employed a case study design guided by sense-making and cultural responsiveness to highlight behaviors that contribute to successful partnership work (Ganon-Shilon & Schecter, 2017; Khalifa, Gooden & Davis, 2016). To do this work, I conducted this research in three predominantly Black schools in the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Using in-depth phenomenological interviewing (Seidman, 2007), I worked with three Black school leaders, and four members of the Volunteer Corps volunteer organization to understand the inner workings of the partnership relationship and how different factors influenced implementation school-wide. Volunteer Corps is an organization that works with urban school districts to provide 10-15 full-time volunteers to work in district-identified schools. The school leaders talked at length about their process of incorporating other external organizations into their schools’ operational framework. The findings from this study suggest that school leaders lean heavily on sensemaking processes when working with external partnership organizations. School leaders have to piece together an understanding based on information they gather from both formal and informal sources. Also, school leaders in the study discussed how their preparation to become principals had some gaps regarding external partnership work. Some findings suggest that when school leaders maintain partnerships with organizations that provide volunteers, the racial makeup of volunteers has a variety of effects on predominantly Black school contexts. For example, the school leaders in the study had to devote additional time to conduct cultural responsiveness training to prepare white volunteers to work with Black students. Last, school leaders named several benefits and costs associated with partnership work. While some benefits seemed obvious (i.e. additional money, additional human capital), there was some complexity and nuance in the benefits and costs. I analyzed these findings through a lens of sensemaking, to understand the process, and Critical Race Theory, to speak to the context of the communities and schools. Principals can learn from this study because it provides examples of the ways school leaders in urban school contexts have navigated the work of external partnership work. Leadership preparation programs could also benefit from understanding the mechanics of external partnership work to better prepare prospective principal candidates for the work of engaging with and maintaining resources from organizations. This study could also inform policymakers, as the findings have implications for the notion of equity, and the conditions that cause the creation of partnerships with external partnership organizations.
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Title: [Delta]2079-tetrahydrocannabinol-mediated suppression of the Interferon-alpha (IFNalpha) response by plasmacytoid dendritic cells and IFNalpha-mediated activation of T cells in healthy and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected human subjects
Creator: Henriquez, Joseph Edgar
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the primary psychoactive cannabinoid congener in Cannabis sativa and is a well characterized modulator of immune activation. In murine models, treatment with THC can exacerbate viral and bacterial infection, in part, by suppression of the inflammatory cytokine response. One of the key classes of cytokines suppressed by THC is type I interferons (IFN), a group of cytokines consisting of IFNα and IFNβ. The primary source of IFNα during acute antiviral immune...
Show moreΔ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the primary psychoactive cannabinoid congener in Cannabis sativa and is a well characterized modulator of immune activation. In murine models, treatment with THC can exacerbate viral and bacterial infection, in part, by suppression of the inflammatory cytokine response. One of the key classes of cytokines suppressed by THC is type I interferons (IFN), a group of cytokines consisting of IFNα and IFNβ. The primary source of IFNα during acute antiviral immune responses is the Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell (pDC), which can secrete 1000-fold more IFNα than other circulating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Paradoxically, patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a chronic viral infection that causes immunodeficiency via infection and depletion of CD4+ T cells, have fewer circulating pDC with a reduced capacity to secrete IFNα. Furthermore, circulating pDC number has been correlated with CD4+ T cell number and treatment with IFNα can reduce HIV-mediated CD4+ T cell depletion. Conversely, hyperactivation of pDC is associated with T cell exhaustion and is implicated in HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). Interestingly, many HIV patients utilize medicinal cannabinoids to combat the effects of chronic HIV infection. The focus of this project was to determine if IFNα-mediated stimulation of T-cells can be suppressed by THC by testing the following hypothesis: THC will suppress TLR-9-dependent activation of pDC, subsequent efficacy of pDC-mediated T cell activation, and CD8+ T cell-mediated activation of astrocytes. These studies revealed that CpG-ODN-induced IFNα secretion and expression of CD83, a costimulatory molecule, by pDC is suppressed by THC in a concentration dependent manner. Furthermore, key intracellular signaling events required for inflammatory cytokine secretion by pDC were suppressed by treatment with THC and CBR2-specific agonists in pDC from healthy donors. Additionally, pDC from HIV+ donors were more sensitive to THC-mediated suppression than pDC from healthy donors. Treatment with THC also inhibited IFNα-mediated activation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from healthy and HIV+ donors. Specifically, treatment with THC diminished IFNα-induced IL-7R expression, cognate signaling, and subsequent proliferation. Interestingly, and in contrast to the results in pDC, T cells from HIV+ donors were less sensitive to the suppressive effects of THC. Finally, stimulation by CD3/CD28/IFNα induced the secretion of IFNγ and TNFα by CD8+ T cells from healthy donors. Further, IFNγ and TNFα induced secretion of inflammatory cytokines by U251 astrocytes. Coculture of CD8+ T cells with U251 astrocytes and direct stimulation of U251 astrocytes with recombinant TNFα and IFNγ revealed that treatment with THC reduced both the activation and secretion of cytokines from CD8+ T cells and the subsequent cytokine-mediated stimulation of the U251 astrocytes. Collectively, these studies have provided evidence for the use of cannabinoids in ablating the type of neuroimmune interactions which can lead to HAND by demonstrating that THC can suppress the activation of pDC, and subsequent activation of T cells and astrocytes.
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