Continuum Publishing Group

Spinoza and the stoics; power, politics and the passions.

The intellectual genealogy of Spinoza includes Stoic forbears. His dialog with those same Stoics continues in the interpretation of his writings on moral and political philosophy, particularly his Ethics and Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. Here DeBrabander (philosophy, Maryland Institute College of Art) closely examines both for evidence of Stoic influence in a series of lively essays that prove Spinoza's place as a father of the Enlightenment. He finds that Stoic perfectionism colors endeavor and virtue and forms an earthly brand of salvation, that psychotherapy and virtue are closely linked, given the framework he has built, and that Spinoza's take on perfectionism built his concept of the sociality of virtue. From this he shows how perceptions of political duty built Stoic ideas about political reason that become a form of devotion, if not the highest form, and how Christ, the Apostles and even Solomon figured as models of public philosophers within that devotion. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Spinoza's Ethics; a reader's guide.

Cook (philosophy and religion, Rollins College) offers help to first-time readers of Benedictus de Spinoza's (1632-77) work of early modern philosophy, daunting for its geometrical manner and unfamiliar vocabulary. The philosophical system itself is remarkably modern and familiar, he says, proceeding rationally, taking science seriously, and regarding human beings from a strictly naturalistic perspective. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Spoken language pragmatics; an analysis of form-function relations.

This collection of eight articles examines aspects of the form and function in spontaneous spoken language. Contributors use as examples everyday conversation, football commentaries, interviews, consultations, task-based conversations, radio-play productions and intercultural conversations to show how speakers position themselves according to their relation to their discourse, work through different tasks, mark time and space, and move between different voices, personal situations and education levels. Specific topics include demonstrative and personal pronouns in formal and informal conversations, grammatical past time references, the structure and function of wenn clauses and their role in problem solving, the relationship between deixis and modality, modal particles and emotion, speech rate and emotion working with time pressure in English and German football commentary, multiple voices and artistic reformulation in "directing-conversations," and tandem conversation about word meaning in intercultural positioning. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The strange world of David Lynch; transcendental irony from Eraserhead to Mulholland Dr.

Wilson, who specializes in literary Romanticism, examines the films of David Lynch, particularly Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Dr.. He argues for their portrayal of transcendental irony, using poststructuralist and psychoanalytic approaches and Martha Nochimson's theory about Lynch's optimism. He argues that Lynch is focused on "imagistic and linguistic instability" and relationships between desire and fantasy, seeing him as a romantic visionary rather than a skeptic. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Subject knowledge and teacher education; the development of beginning teachers' thinking.

Ellis (educational studies, Oxford U.) traces the development of three new teachers' understanding of their subject knowledge in the context of standards-based teacher education and the practice of testing or auditing student teachers' subject knowledge. He proposes a theory of subject knowledge development that builds beyond objectivist and individualistic epistemologies associated with standards and auditing and goes to a more contextualist and sociocultural approach toward teachers' cognition and learning. In general, he believes teacher educators should pay greater attention to the school sand subjects departments in which beginning teachers learn content. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Suicide of the West.

Western civilization is undergoing an internally generated crisis that portends a drift towards collective suicide, warn the authors (an entrepreneur and a former British MP from the Labour Party). They argue that this suicide is coming because the West is abandoning six fundamental ideas to which a "large degree of the West's success can be traced." These are Christianity, optimism, science, economic growth, liberalism, and individualism and each are examined in turn. The authors also consider the proper approach towards the rest of the world, which they conclude should consist of "the avoidance of tyranny and aggression, the refusal to advance economic or political interests by invading and occupying foreign lands, and extending the hand of friendship and cooperation first to one's neighbours, and then to all who come in peace." (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

A survival guide for college managers and leaders.

Collins (South Cheshire College, UK) presents a guide for college leaders and senior managers to directing a further education college in the UK. He outlines the principles of senior leadership, including the skills required; dealing with the first day and week; shaping the organization; communicating a vision; designing a structure; planning and resources provision; dealing with people; performance and quality; and implementing change. He also details examples of good, bad, and questionable practices from college managers and leaders of all ages. The book may also be of use to continuing professional development teacher trainees in the US, Canada, and other countries. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Teaching adults.

Hayes (Kensington and Chelsea FE College, UK) presents a practical guide to teaching adults in FE (further education) in college, workplace, and community settings in the UK. The text considers what it means to be an adult student and identifies strategies that can be used by instructors and managers of adult learning to make learning relevant and enjoyable for their students. Topics addressed include promoting equality and diversity, widening participation, improving punctuality and attendance, supporting adult learners, recognizing achievement, and recording progression. A list of useful UK organizations and websites is included in an appendix. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The teaching assistant's guide to literacy.

This pocket (5x7.75 inches) guide gives advice on the role of literacy in the classroom, helping students develop reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills, and using various strategies to help build students' confidence. Each chapter contains self-assessment questions and case studies. Elkin is an education journalist and former secondary school teacher. The book lacks a subject index. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Teaching creative writing.

Harper, head of Creative Arts, Film and Media at the University of Portsmouth, gathers 12 essays written by writers and teachers in the US and UK. Following the editor's introduction to the teaching and learning of creative writing, the chapters cover writing short fiction, the novel and poetry, and how to write for new media, TV, radio, film, nonfiction, the stage, and children and young adults. Teaching methods, workshops, and key issues in creative writing research are examined and evaluated. Tightly focused around typical course modules, the book will be useful for teachers and learners of creative writing in higher education. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Teacher development; the role of knowledge and context.

Gu (education, U. of Nottingham, UK) investigates the effectiveness of an attempt to introduce and establish Western language teaching methodologies in China. The study centers around the UK Department for International Development's 20-year language teacher education program in China (1979-99). Gu explores issues arising from cross-cultural similarities and differences in perceptions and beliefs about teaching, and their implications for teacher professional development. The research shows how teachers' and teacher educators' knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning change when challenged by contrasting views shaped by differing cultural contexts and traditions. The perception gaps across and within cultures observed in the research raise questions about the meaning of expertise in cross-cultural contexts. The study also explores common ground in cross-cultural educational development programs, and how mutual understanding and a collaborative working environment might be established in such programs. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Teaching physical education in the primary school; a developmental approach.

Pickup and Price's text (teacher training and professional development, Roehampton U., UK) introduces trainee primary teachers to the theory and practical application of a "developmental" approach to physical education to achieve the outcomes of high quality physical education required by current policy in the UK. Coverage includes the role of "physical" in primary education; an overview of motor development; the growing, developing and moving child; teaching physical education in the primary school; skill themes and movement concepts; teaching curriculum physical education; teaching activity areas; current issues in primary physical education; and subject leadership. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Teaching the FE curriculum; encouraging active learning in the classroom.

In this portable (5.5x8.5 inches) guide, Weyers (University College London, UK) provides lecturers with a range of practical strategies to promote learning in the further education (FE) classroom. He introduces the learning theories that underlie these strategies, and considers how they can best be applied in the classroom and what place they have within a standardized curriculum. He offers advice on planning interesting lessons and learning tasks that also meet exam board specifications. Books in this series are written for teaching practitioners, leaders, and managers in the 572 FE/LSC-funded institutions in the UK, including FE colleges, adult education and sixth form institutions, prison education departments, training and workforce development units, local education authorities, and community agencies. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Teaching the Holocaust in school history; teachers or preachers?.

In the UK, the Holocaust stands alongside the First and Second World Wars and the Cold War as the only four named topics which must be taught in history before the end of Key Stage 3 (by which time pupils have reached the age of 14). Russell (education, Goldsmiths College, U. of London) analyzes the debates in the UK surrounding the objectives of teaching the Holocaust in school history. Drawing on a wide range of interview data and existing literature on the subject, the author demonstrates that the essential rationale behind the privileged status of the Holocaust in the curriculum can be primarily historical, social or moral. She argues that a lack of clarity and consistency in the reasons for teaching the Holocaust are evident in the variety of approaches to teaching the topic that can be found in secondary school history classrooms in the UK. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Text, discourse, and corpora; theory and analysis.

Empirical linguists admit their work is so tightly focused it is often fascinating to only a few. However, as editor Hoey (English, U. of Liverpool) and his colleagues prove here, empirical linguists can also prove their observations can be used as a foundation for a broad range of intellectual exploration. Their observations apply to everything from social critique to the extension of methodology. Using text corpora as their base, contributors of these eight essays examine lexical priming and literary creativity; grammatical creativity from a corpus perspective; parole-linguistics and the diachronic dimension of discourse; concepts of natural and human rights, work and property in the discourse of Catholic social doctrine; texts, corpora and models of language; the use of "world" in multi-word sentences in English; identification of local textual functions of the term "sustainable development"; and using corpus stylistics to bridge the gap between linguistic and literary studies. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

This book contains graphic language; comics as literature.

Comic books are a true literature, according to this book, which aims to prove its point by comparing the medium to memoir, Holocaust memoir and photography, journalism, film, and the "classics" of literature. The author, for example, compares autobiographical comics to memoir, suggesting that the best comics raise the same issues as their prose counterparts and with as much sophistication, but also arguing that the nature of the medium allows comic book writers to explore issues of self-representation in ways not available to the prose memoirist. Similarly, he compares Art Spiegelman's Maus to Holocaust memoir and photography; journalistic comics such as Joe Sacco's Palestine or The Fixer to the "New Journalists" of the 1960s, war comics to war films, and comic adaptations of canonical literature to the originals. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Thomas Reid's Ethics; moral epistemology on legal foundations.

Davis (philosophy, Covenant College, Georgia, US) argues that Scottish philosopher Reid's (1710-96) moral epistemology rests of an externalist approach to knowledge centered on his understanding of evidence and judgment. He begins his account by looking at Reid's confident claim that humans possess a moral sense, a moral perception analogous to sight and hearing. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Tolerance and the ethical life. (reprint, 2005)

This is a paperbound reprint of a 2005 book. Fiala (philosophy, U. of Wisconsin-Green Bay) says tolerance is a virtue for what he calls tragic communities, that is, communities that come together across differences, and lack the robust sense of connection that people seek in a utopian ideal of community. Tragic communities are the best possible type for people who are aware of their own individuality and finitude, he claims, and are typical of the sorts of communities created by philosophers engaged in dialogue with others. Among his topics are critical moral tolerance, modesty and the limits of the moral imagination, stoic tolerance, existentialism and repressive toleration, liberal toleration, liberalism and pragmatism, and Socrates beyond liberalism. Some of the nine essays have been published in journals. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Toward a new film aesthetic.

The author addresses what he perceives as a shortcoming in film theory: the lack of an analysis of film as aesthetically charged, or functioning affectively on the spectator. In contrast to the orthodox treatment of the affective in film writing, which "relies on the assumption of spectator passivity," he develops a theory of visual cinema, "which responds to the affective engagement with the visual impact of the image, shot or sequence on the screen." In this film aesthetic, he contends that "the spectator rises above the passivity conceptualized by Adorno, Jameson, and others." An entire chapter is devoted to The Matrix franchise. Author information is not given. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Transforming religious education; beliefs and values under scrutiny.

Gates (religious and moral education, U. of Cumbria, UK) presents a collection of 21 articles and papers published or presented over the past 35 years which reflect on a professional lifetime of involvement with religious education (RE). Focusing on the different options for giving attention to religion in the context of public education, they identify the relevant philosophically-grounded educational arguments regarding its provision; explore the emergence of a form of RE which is not owned by one faith or community; and discuss how such an approach might still be compatible with the interests of faith communities. While references are made to RE in the U.S., continental Europe and elsewhere, the focus of the text is the "agreed syllabus" model of England and Wales. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)