Effecting communication and information Essay Example for Free

Effecting communication and information Essay Recruitment and Retention Process and Documentation WHSmith was established in 1792 by a man named Henry Walton Smith, and his wife Anna, but was established under the name H W Smith. After their deaths, the business was passed on to their two sons; Henry Edward, and William Henry Smith. The business was renamed to WHSmith as William was the older of the two and he was the more able businessman. WHSmith today, as one of the biggest retail groups in the UK, it is made up of two core businesses; high street retail, and travel retail. They have approximately 17,000 employees working in either of the 543 High Street stores or the 129 Travel stores in the UK. The manner in which a person is employed within WHSmith would obviously have to start with a job opening. This opening can be due to one of many reasons. For example: If a new store is opened or if someone has left his or her job. From there on, the steps taken would start off with WHSmiths Human Resources Department making a job specification, which consists of the job details. Here is an example of a job specification for an opening at WHSmith as an assistant manager: Job Specification Vacancy Role Title: Assistant Manager London (North/South/East/West) Role Level: Assistant Manager Region: London Location: London Salary: i 17,000 i 23,000 Details: You will be required to work six days a week. In your role as assistant manager, it will be your duty to assist the retail manager in his day-to-day work. This job is very demanding and you never know, it may be the just the job for you. In a position as assistant manager, you will be given two weeks paid holiday a year. Person Specification: Role: We are looking for a good team player, with proven retail management experience, good communication, a target driven approach plus the ambition and potential to succeed. The Assistant Manager is responsible for achieving store sales targets by leading, motivating and developing the store team to achieve sales targets and customer service standards and to support the Store Manager. The next step would be for them to produce a person specification, which outlines the type of person they are looking for (for example: qualifications, previous experience etc. ). WHSmith would then plan on advertising the job in a number of different places so as to attract attention towards the job opening. Advertisement is very costly and it would be in the best interests of WHSmith to get the job details and specifications absolutely spot on. Once all of this information has been gathered, it is then advertised in a number of places (i. e. the internet, job centre etc. ). WHSmith have recently started to recruit online with an Internet based job recruiting process. The next step involves people applying for that specific job by providing their relevant documents, which will then be analysed by WHSmiths Human Resources department. Applicants are then short-listed and a number of the applicants are selected. I have provided a WHSmith job application form with my assignment. The selected applicants will then be asked to provide references from two or more reliable sources. These would be from people like previous employers and former educational teachers. Those who are selected as people who seem like suitable candidates for the job will then be invited for a formal interview at a WHSmith. A senior member of staff would usually carry out this interview. The data that is derived from the interview is then analysed and compared to the prepared person specification. After a long, time-consuming process, and a lot of money being spent, the successful candidate is then offered the job. In the case of WHSmith and the job specification I have given, this candidate would have to have previous experience in a retail management position, and would basically be the person that they see as the best man/woman for the job. P2 Employability, Personal and Communication Skills Assistant Manager Role The Assistant Manager is responsible for achieving store sales targets by leading, motivating and developing the store team to achieve sales targets and customer service standards and to support the Store Manager. The job role is related to the Person Specification. Person Specification The person specification asks for someone with the following traits: We are looking for a good team player, with proven retail management experience, good communication, a target driven approach plus the ambition and potential to succeed. These skills are all placed on the person specification for a reason. The Personal Skills outlined here are: Â  Someone who is a team player An assistant manager will be required to work with the manager as part of a team. They also have to be a team leader, as outlined in the job role. Â  Someone with a target driven approach In a high position like this, it is necessary that an assistant manager knows how to tackle set targets and that they approach these targets whole-heartedly. Â  Someone with the ambition and potential to succeed If an assistant manager does not wish to progress, then they will not give the job their full attention. It is better that they want to, and are able to succeed so that they can have a positive impact on the business. It is also their job to motivate the store team and it would be hard to do so if he/she wasnt motivated him/herself. The Employability skills outlined here are: Â  Someone with proven retail management experience It is absolutely vital that someone who wants to work as an assistant manager, has some previous experience managing a store or people, and was good at doing so. The Communication skills outlined here are:Â  Someone with good communication It is essential that, as an assistant manager, you are able to communicate well. This is due to the fact that an assistant manager is required to communicate messages to both the manager, and the store team. P3 Electronic and Non-Electronic methods for communicating business information There are many different methods of communication. These can be divided into two different categories: Electronic (non-written), and Non-Electronic (written). Methods of communication that would come under Written Communication would be things like: Â  SMS (Text Message) Methods of communications that would come under Electronic Communication would be things along the lines of: Meetings Both Written Communication and Electronic Communication have their advantages. These advantages differ depending on the audience which is being addressed. The recipient is very important when it comes to the type of communication that is being used. Within The Organisation Within the organisation the methods of communication that I would use would be things like: Meetings In an organisation, it is inevitable that there will be meetings held. These are usually used to discuss improvement, the current status of the organisation, and to get staff to contribute their ideas. Customers These are the methods of communication that I would use to communicate with the customers: Publicity Materials To tell the truth, this is an obvious one really. The way to get customers is through publicity. If your organisation is a well known one, it is more likely to prosper. Â  Advertisements In my opinion, advertisements should be used by all major and even small organisations. These should outline things like services provided and special offers to attract more customers. Suppliers Here are some of the methods of communications I would use to communicate with suppliers of goods etc. : Â  Letters These are a great way of communicating and people have been using them for centuries. I would use letters to communicate with suppliers because it is not a long time consuming method of communicating. You just write what you need to say, put it in an envelope, post it, and the recipient gets it the next day! Easy Peasy! * Telephone This is one of the simplest, most direct ways of communicating with people today. Talking with suppliers on the telephone would mean that all of the business involving matters like deliveries, times, amounts, and other things can all be sorted out in a matter of minutes. P4 Sources of Information External Source. This information is external (outside of the business) information that I have taken from the BBC website. Here is the link, as evidence of information: http://newsvote. bbc. co. uk/1/shared/fds/hi/business/market_data/shares/3/23473/twelve_month. stm I have provided information on WHSmiths share prices. From this graph we can see the rise and fall in WHSmiths share price value in the year 2007. The current (exact) value of their shares on the 13th of December 2007 at 14:22 is i 324. 75. We can see that the peak of their share value this year was in March. The lowest point was in late November. Internal Source This information is internal (within the business) information that I have taken from WHSmiths Annual report. Here is the link, as evidence of information: http://www. whsmithplc. com/grp/WHSPLC-IR-AR07. pdf I have provided information on WHSmiths Profits for the years 2006 and 2007. From this information we can see the increase in profits and the percentage increase. Year 2006 2007 Increase in Profit Percentage Increase Profit i m (Before Tax) i 51 i 66 i 15 29. 41% We can see that their profit for the year 2006 was i 51million, the profit for the year 2007 was i 66million, the increase in profit was i 15million, and the percentage increase is 29. 41%. Here is a column graph showing the information. Secondary Source Secondary information is information that I will be using. This information is already in existence, but has been gathered by other people, and not myself. I will be using information from WHSmiths annual report. This information was gathered by WHSmith, within the corporation. Here is the link as evidence of information: http://www. whsmithplc.com/grp/WHSPLC-IR-AR07. pdf I have provided information on WHSmiths Carbon Emissions for the last five years. From this we can see the increases and decreases in Carbon Emissions. Year 2002/3 2003/4 2004/5 2005/6 2006/7 Carbon Dioxide Emissions (kg) 0. 9 0. 76 0. 82 0. 79 0. 71 We can see that, in the period 2002/3, their Emissions were very high. In the period 2003/4, these Emissions are reduced significantly. In the period 2004/5, these Emissions are increased, and in 2005/6 they are again decreased. In the period 2006/7, these Emissions are decreased furthermore. We can see that WHSmith have successfully reduced their Carbon Emissions. P5 Presentation of information I have been asked to present the data aquired in three different methods. Here is the Share Price information presented in a line graph: Profit i million (before tax) I will be using a column graph and a line graph to present this information. Column Graph Line Graph Carbon Dioxide Emissions I will be using a column graph and a line graph to present this information. Column Graph Line Graph I will now be using a power point presentation to present all of this information.

Securing Restful Services With Token Based Authentication Computer Science Essay

Securing Restful Services With Token Based Authentication Computer Science Essay Enterprises are increasingly deploying RESTful services for two reasons 1) to enable Web 2.0 integrations with data stores and backend systems 2) to allow RPC-style communication between client side web frameworks like GWT or YUI and backend systems. In addition, there are multiple frameworks to develop these services that are consumed internally and externally by different endpoints in different contexts. Hence, it is vital to provide simple and adaptable security that both integrates seamlessly with enterprise security and brings authentication, authorization and integrity to the services. This paper covers the pros and cons of various approaches of RESTful services security: 1) Transport level security (TLS/SSL) provides secure peer-to-peer authentication, but this technique is inadequate when requests for authentication are based on delegation (allowing sites to authenticate on behalf of the user). 2) The OAuth protocol enables consumers to access services through an API that doe s not require consumers to disclose their service provider credentials to access services. This is the most commonly followed approach used by Google AuthSub, AOL OpenAuth, and the Amazon AWS API. However, not all REST frameworks provide support to this protocol. 3) Token-based authentication developed for CA Technologies Unified Connector Framework (UCF) to expose services over REST or SOAP combines the advantages of these two without compromising standards and simplicity. Introduction Since RESTful web services are exposed using standard HTTP protocol and methods, they can easily be consumed in multiple ways, such as with direct access from browsers using URLs; through programmatic interface using HTTP client libraries; and from client side frameworks such as JavaScript,. If enterprise systems provide RESTful access to their data and functionality, the open nature of REST requires a strong security solution to prevent access by unintended users; to prevent sniffers on the network from reading messages; and to control the users who are allowed to interact with specific services and disallow certain actions for certain users. The question is what should be the strong security solution? The REST protocol itself does not specify any predefined security methods. Many people believe that HTTP security practices can be successfully applied for securing REST services. This can be true, depending on the scenarios where RESTful services are consumed. HTTP security may be ad equate if the RESTful services are intended for internal use only. One example is web applications using Ajax frameworks. Since they need RPC over HTTP or RESTful services for backend interactions, invocation of services is internal to the UI and transparent to clients who interact with the UI. In such a scenario, HTTP security may be adequate.. However, greater security is required when RESTful services are intended for external use, For example, CA Technologies Catalyst integration platform provides RESTful services that can be consumed by such mechanisms as mashups, ESBs, Ruby scripts, and many more, and requires a higher level of security. Although the security requirements greatly vary for these two scenarios, we need a simple and adaptable solution for both. This article describes the commonly used security methods for RESTful services and suggests a solution that mostly fulfills the security requirements for externally published services, including REST, SOAP over JMS, SOAP o ver HTTP, and other protocols. This approach was developed for and is used in the RESTful services of the Core API of CA Technologies Catalyst integration platform. Commonly available methods for securing RESTful services Container-Managed Authentication and Authorization: As RESTful web services are HTTP-centric, the most natural fit for authentication and authorization is container based authentication and authorization. The concept of realm places a central role in the Tomcat approach. A realm is a collection of resources including web pages and web services, with a designated authentication and authorization facility. The container approach to security also is declarative than programmatic that is details about the security realm are specified in a configuration file rather than in code. The container also provides option to enable wire level security. Refer [1] [2] for information about configuring realms for authentication and authorization and SSL/TLS for wire level security. The advantages of this method need not be specified explicitly here as they are proven and widely used. However, it has the following limitations when applied to RESTful services for enterprise use: With user credentials based authentication, the security solution is confined to identity silos. It does not support the Actas scenario. An Actas scenario involves multi-tiered systems to authenticate and pass information about identities between the tiers without having to pass this information at the application/business logic layer. Mutual Authentication: HTTPS with client certificate enabled performs two-way authentication. In addition to the client receiving a signed digital certificate representing the server, the server can receive a certificate that represents and identifies the client. When a client initially connects to a server, it exchanges its certificate and the server matches it against its internal store. Once this link is established, there is no further need for user authentication. Mutual authentication is perhaps the most secure way to perform authentication on the Web. This approach has the same drawbacks mentioned in the previous section. Another disadvantage of this approach is the managing of the certificates. The server must create a unique certificate for each client that wants to connect to the service. From the browser/human perspective, this can be burdensome, as the user has to do some extra configuration to interact with the server. Shared Key based authentication: This is the common method used by Amazon web services and Microsoft Azure services. In this method initially the client registers with the service provider. As part of registration, the service provider sends the client an Access Key ID and a Secret Access Key. When a client wants to invoke services, it prepares the request, performs a hash on the request using its Secret Access Key, attaches the signature (hash) to the request, and forwards it to the service provider. The service provider verifies the signature is a valid hash of the request and, if authenticated, processes the request ([3] [4]). This achieves requester authentication as well as integrity without SSL The problem with this authentication schemes is that the contents and ordering of the string to sign are different from one service provider to another service provider. For instance, though Amazons and Azures mechanisms are very similar, their differences make them incompatible. Perhaps due to this issue, the OAuth approach covered in the next section is gaining popularity as a standard security mechanism for RESTful services. OAuth Oauth is an open protocol allowing secure API authentication and authorization in a simple and standard method for web applications. OAuth allows users of a service to provide limited access to a third party account of theirs to the service without sharing credentials. OAuth is often described as a valet key that users can give to a service to access their accounts on other services. For example, a user of Flickr (the service provider) would provide Snapfish (the consumer) with read only access to their Flickr account. This lets Snapfish access photos in the users Flickr account so they can order prints. Refer [5] for more details about OAuth specification. OAuth has some distinct advantages: It doesnt require certificates By choosing the right token format, it can support claims based Token. A claim is a statement about a subject; for example, a name, key, group, permission, or capability made by one subject about itself or another subject. Claims are given one or more values and then packaged in security tokens that are distributed by the issuer. It supports the SAML token. SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) is a standard for exchanging authorization and authentication data between between an identity provider and a service provider regardless of their platforms or security systems. OAuth with SAML enables federated authentication and authorization. The only drawback is that not all RESTful services frameworks provide native support for dealing with OAuth based authentication. For example, Apache CXF does not support OAuth. Token based Authentication CA Technologies Catalyst4 integration platform includes the Unified Connector Framework (UCF) that provides a Java-based solution for connectivity and integration among CA and third-party products UCF has distinct security requirements: It should be able to support Actas scenarios; the platform should be able to invoke services from 3rd party providers on the behalf of clients Catalyst exposes services in several different protocols, including RESTful, SOAP over HTTP, SOAP over JMS, etc. Its security solution should work consistently in all the forms of the services. Its security solution should be extensible, simple and adaptable in different scenarios. To accommodate these requirements, UCF introduced the token based security solution using public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificate for authentication and authorization of its services. This solution has the following components:. Domain Trust Certificate (DTC) is an X.509 v3 certificate issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) or self signed owned by the DomainManager that controls the UCF domain. Trusted Certificate (TC) is a X.509 v3 certificate signed by DTC. A Node is either a service provider or service consumer who owns that TC signed by the DTC. Security Service is available per container2 which hosts several connectors1. This service issues a Token, validates the Token and sets claims retrieved from Token to the context so that they can be used by connectors or other entities in the container for Authorization or Actas scenarios. CertAuthService is an independent entity provides services like signing Certificate Signing Request CSR 5 and providing the DTC public key Token consists of set of claims signed by security service. Interactions on the Client side: The client generates a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) using keytool 6 and obtains a X.509 certificate signed by DTC from the CertAuthService. The signed CSR is called a Trusted Certificate (TC) in UCF domain. The client makes an addTrust() request to the Security Service at the service provider by passing its public key certificate. This step enables the Security Service to validate the certificate and add provided certificate to its trust store. Steps 1 2 are performed only once per client. The client makes a getToken() call with tokenRequest to the Security Service. The tokenRequest consists of claims and a signature computed using the clients private key. If client is using UCF API to make remote calls, then steps 1 2 are transparent to the client at the time of proxy creation to the service endpoint. The client prepares the request and adds the Token to the request header. If client is using the UCF API to make remote calls, then adding the Token to the request header is transparent to the client. The client makes a remote call Interactions on the Service side: The Security Service is hosted from a Catalyst container so that it is available to both external users and inside the container for security token validations. For addTrust() calls, the Security service validates the provided certificates signature to find whether it is signed by DTC or not. If it is DTC signed then the Service adds the certificate to its trust store. For getToken() calls, the Security service checks the signature against the available keys in its trust store. If it succeeds then a token is prepared and returned to the client. The token consists of claims, lifetime and the signature of the Security service. For all incoming calls to the services available in the Catalyst container, calls are intercepted at CXF handlers and the token is verified with Security service. If it is from a valid client then claims are extracted out of the token and sets to thread local context so that it may be used by connector implementation for further authorization or authentication with other service providers. Finally, the call is forwarded to the service. If the Security service is unable to validate the token, an unauthorized exception is returned to the client. Authorization is handled by any provider on service using claims. As described above, this solution supports authentication based on X.509 certificate and authorization is done by any provider using claims. The same set of claims is used for Actas scenario. For instance, services running in Catalyst container can use claims to talk to another services or endpoint on the behalf client. Conclusion The solution described in Section 3 is a better fit for platforms/products like Catalyst that need to make services available in more than one form such as REST, SOAP over HTTP and SOAP over JMS. It is a security solution that works consistently in all forms of services. Also, the solution is extensible to other modes of authentication like user credentials other than certificate based. This solution needs additional work to replace custom Token format to SAML based so that tokens can be consumed in third party software which understands SAML. This. Acknowledgments The solution described in Section 3 was contributed by entire UCF team which includes Sijelmassi, Rachid, me, GVN, Anila Kumar and Koganti, Naga. . Actas

Benefits Of Distributed Leadership Education Essay

Benefits Of Distributed Leadership Education Essay Leadership is not all down to the Head teacher, the head of department or, in the classroom the teacher. If it is, nobody is learning anything at all about leadership. The first rule about leadership is that it is shared. (Brighouse and Woods, 1999:45) Most often administrative leadership is viewed as different from any kinds of leadership in school. The roles might be different since most managerial roles are completed outside the classrooms while teachers leadership is exercised within the classroom. Nevertheless in school, teachers, administrators, Learning Support Assistants (LSAs), parents and students can all work together towards the improvement of Distributed Leadership (DL). That is why Sergiovanni states that, If leadership is a practice shared by many then it must be distributed among those who are in the right place at the right time and among those who have the ability. (2006:189-190) In this section, literature will be organised and focused round the following questions: What are the benefits of distributed leadership in a secondary school? To what extent is leadership shared among all stakeholders in Sunflower School? How far can distributed leadership facilitate learning? How effective to the schools improvement and success can distributed leadership be? What are the benefits of distributed leadership in a secondary school? A successful leader is classified as such, when s/he manages to involve others in the process of leadership. According to Sergiovanni, when principals share leadership, they get more power in return (2006:185). DL also enables those involved to develop their own leadership skills. With DL, Principals are helping their colleagues by boosting their self-confidence, and to make their own decisions (Nicholls, 2000). Recently, Mifsud found that Maltese Heads practise shared decision-making to ensure widespread ownership (2008:7). Thus all teaching-staff (Teachers and LSAs) will become more autonomous, while abiding with the School Development Plan (SDP) and curriculum. Sharing leadership with all stakeholders involves dedicating time to achieve good results (Brighouse and Woods, 1999). The pure type of collegiality (Bush, 1995:52) works its best, when the institution is formed by a small number of staff. Having a large number of teaching-staff will surely make DL difficult. Although in our schools context we have a large number of staff, DL can still work since the teaching-staff is divided into smaller groups. Likewise, Brighouse and Woods say that, The smaller the school or teaching unit, the more leadership, as well as work, can be shared (1999:45). According to Leithwood et al DL helps teachers to be satisfied with their work, increases their sense of professionalism, stimulates organisational change, increases efficiency and encourages cross-interactions between teaching-staff (1999:115). Although, Blase and Blase argue that entrusting teachers with self-autonomy and empowerment makes them feel satisfied, motivated and confident and they are likely to give their utmost in their job (1994:29); this sometimes may also lead the teaching-staff to overpower the Principal like it happens in our school. Yet, Blase and Kirby (1992) found that when teachers are empowered through autonomy, their attitudes and performance will get better. Moreover, even when leadership is shared among teaching-staff and students, this creates an attitude of respect between them, especially when they are so directly involved. Having a democratic leader helps gain attentive listening from subordinates, which in turn will also help improve relationships. When teachers working in democratic schools but had previous experiences in other schools which have authoritarian leaders were interviewed Blase and Blase (1994) concluded that teachers classroom autonomy enable them to have class control. An autocratic style called by Brighouse and Woods north pole-north pole leadership will lead teachers to work to rule and nothing more (1999:51). In contrast having a democratic style called north pole-south pole where leadership is shared among all stakeholders, will unlock enormous surges of energy and effort among professionals (Brighouse and Woods: 1999:51). They also argue, that sharing leadership will relieve Heads form some leadership stress. Thus DL, leads to sharing of responsibility which will not remain a burden on the Heads shoulders. Until recently, according to Cauchi Cuschieri (2007), leadership in Maltese Church Secondary Schools was seen as the Head teachers job. However, the style used nowadays is much more DL amongst stakeholder s. In our school this is not the case, since from its founding, it was believed that DL enables sharing ideas and responsibility which finally leads to the schools improvement. Duke et al, (1980) established, that the school is democratic one when the teaching-staff, is involved in the process of decision making. Likewise, Blase and Blase argue that increasing teacher access to decision making is essential to empowering teachers (1994:33). Also, Churchfields secondary school study shows, that teachers feel the need to participate in the schools management as it gives better results in the decision making process (Bush, 1995). Finally, when a decision is taken, it is the teaching-staffs responsibility to put it into action. So, being involved leads the staff to make a decision (Bush, 1995). Rivalland (1989 cited in Wolfendale 1992:57) presents a number of benefits that can be achieved from parental involvement in schools: They work for a better learning environment since it is for their own childs interest; Whatever is needed to be done in school, and whatever parents are able to do, they do it and they offer themselves as human resources to the school; They create the learning connection between schools and students respective homes; With their presence in school, they will become aware of what the school needs from time to time. Although, Wolfendale (1992) argues, that having parents involved in the study and formulation of schools behaviour and discipline policy will give a good result; this may not be applicable in our school since it seems that the Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) tackles only social issues and personal concerns of parents. However, this will be investigated later on in this study. King states that students leadership is mostly exercised in the prefectorial system (1973:141). However, this does not seem to be the only solution for our school, since leadership is also exercised through the students council. It is true that the ultimate responsibility of decision-making in schools is in the hands of the Principal. Nonetheless, as Frost claims Schools can also be enriched by students contributions to decision-making and curriculum development (2008:356). Moreover, when students are consulted in certain matters such as finance they are taught some of the hard lessons of democracy (Colgate, 1976:123). Prefects and councillors are students particularly chosen to help in school control and decision making. If their appointment is successful they may also serve as role models for other students (King, 1973). Contrary to all the benefits of involving all stakeholders, one has to say that collegiality is an intense activity since it entails work after school hours. Likewise, Smylie and Denny (1990) argue that the involvement of the teaching-staff in leadership may be time consuming and may have an effect on the students needs. The time for training and the funding allocated for these functions are not enough, argues White (1992). These problems make DL more difficult to succeed. However since all teaching-staff in our school have free periods during the day, this may not be a problem. Adding to this, having a large number of participants might create problems in communication, even when having a wide range of different views from all participants (Bush, 1995). To what extent is leadership shared among all stakeholders in Sunflower School? Leadership is not a one man job, because to be successful this must be shared. Moyo writes that: The concept of distributed leadership is the idea of sharing leadership amongst all stakeholders. These stakeholders, as stated earlier include head teachers, middle leaders, teachers, parents and students. (2010:25) It is not leadership if a person orders, requires, seduces, or threatens anothers compliance, (Sergiovanni, 2006:192). So true leadership is when it is shared among all those having the ability to be involved in it. Similarly, Brighouse and Woods emphasise that: One person may be key but leadership is shared among pupils, teachers and other staff and members of the community (1999:48). Likewise, Leithwood et al (1999) refers to DL as a key element of many SDPs. Until recently the Head teacher in Maltese schools was seen as the schools ultimate authority (Mifsud, 2008). Rather than having an autocratic school, having a democratic one entails having a DL (Bush, 1995). With collaboration, and exchange of ideas, problems can be solved collegially, while individual qualities are developed further (Leithwood et al, 1999). This is what Bush calls collegiality (1995:52), and claims that there are two different types of collegiality, one is the restricted, meaning that a number from the staff are chosen to participate in the process of decision making, while the other called pure is the process which involves everyone equally (Bush, 1995:52). Teachers, LSAs, parents and students who are enormously committed to children and school life (Brighouse and Woods, 1999:49) are perfect for participating in DL, because they are more approachable, more trusted, and their main goal is school improvement. In one of the interviews carried out in Blase and Blases (1994) study, a teacher describes best what a shared governance principals attitude should be like, that is, to guide not to dictate. Teachers interviewed could make comparisons of past and present principals. Although its ideal to involve everyone in the process of decision making, in the context of our school, there should be a person that leads both the discussion, and assumes responsibility for taking the final decisions, which should be the Principal or a delegate. About this, Blase and Blase state that principals are compelled to assume full responsibility over all school matters (1994:78). Dunford et al also maintain that whilst the Head will remain the leader, others will need to add a leadership role to their management responsibilities (2000:5). Weick (1976, cited in Blase and Blase 1994:135) claims that now schools have developed into organisations, in which administrators and teachers work separately and independently. This does not appear to be our schools situation, as the stakeholders all seemed to be involved in teamwork. In contrast, Blase and Blase (1994) research presents principals under study as being open to others opinions, collegiality and DL. When this issue of DL was introduced, most Senior Management Team (SMT) members were being involved. Arguing this Dunford et al (2000) say that particularly having more SMT members in a secondary school, leads to the shared responsibility and the establishment of different roles. Leithwood et al (1999:121) in their study found that teachers were most likely involved in school planning and school structure and organisation while the principals leadership is more focused to management issues. In our school this is not the case as in school planning the Principal is the Chairperson. Normally, people think that teacher leadership is exercised only within the classroom. However, in democratic schools like ours, teachers are involved in all aspects of the school, even when taking decisions. Blase and Blase also state that, Successful shared governance principals show trust in teachers capacity for responsible involvement in both school-level and classroom-level decision making. (1994:27) Similarly Leithwood et al argued that there are two forms of teacher leadership; one is the formal style for leadership of class control, or an informal one: By sharing their expertise, volunteering for new projects and bringing new ideas to the school helping their colleagues to carry out their classroom duties, and by assisting in the improvement of classroom practice, (1999:117). Brighouse and Woods (1999) concluded that because teachers are leaders in classes they dont like to be followers, and so expect to participate more in school leadership. Moreover, they also say that: Successful Headsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ are men and women with ideals and the ability to share those ideals with those whom they lead. (1999:54). Therefore, through the sharing and openness of ideas, leadership is shared and decisions taken will hold much more. However, in the context of our school, if leadership is to be shared and if teachers are to work in different groups, they are to be monitored either by the Principal or assistant principal. Moreover Leithwood et al, (2000) claim that the number of people involved in DL varies according to different tasks. Most effective distribution of leadership functions would vary the numbers of people providing leadership in response to the complexity of the tasks to be performed-more in the case of complex tasks and fewer in response to simple tasks (2007:58). Research shows that in Malta, Practically all schools have teachers involved in one team or another (LIE, 2009:176). The benefits of DL indicate that Maltese schools are trying to work hard on it. Since 1980, the Education Act in England ensured parental representation on school governing bodies (Wolfendale, 1992:62). Likewise, the Maltese Education Act that was reformed in 2006 states that the Maltese Directorate for Educational Services, Should promote, encourage and monitor the democratic governance of schools through School Councils with the active participation of parents, teachers and students. (GOM, 2006:7) Thus the PTA and Students Council were introduced in Maltese Schools so that they may participate actively in school leadership and decision making. As Wolfendale (1992) said, the aim for parents participation is to represent other parents, to discuss common interest issues and to inform other parents of decisions taken through written circulars or school meetings. It is also described as a forum for teachers and parents to meet and engage in social and perhaps fundraising activities (Wolfendale, 1992:74). Furthermore, research in Malta confirms that parents are indeed involved in policy decision making and practice (LIE, 2009). Parents are always keen to participate in school leadership for the benefits of their own children and for the schools improvement (Wolfendale, 1992). In our school, this may not be the situation, since there are those who are passive and do not participate in any activities or meetings even if it regards their own childs interests. In most of the Maltese schools or colleges, only a small percentage of parents are involved through the PTA committee, while others get involved only through activities organized by the school or the PTA. Some parents are called upon by the schools to offer their expertise where necessary (LIE, 2009:175). However, Wolfendale (1992) notes, that sometimes teachers do not feel the benefit of parental involvement in school. Harding and Pike (1988 cited in Wolfendale, 1992:59) suggest ways in which parents can be directly involved in the school. This can be done through: Personal contact with the school and staff; Written communication; PTA or other parental groups within the school; Their involvement in school matters and learning. In contrast, in primary schools the rate of parental involvement in the PTA is higher than in the secondary. This most probably happens because secondary schools are much larger in number and more teachers are involved, so the rapport between parents and teachers may not be that strong. These issues have been called by Wolfendale as difficulties to set up and maintain teacher-parent initiatives in secondary schools (1992:58). The development of the School Development Plan was one of the main activities where DL was exercised in Maltese schools with the intention of including all stakeholders in planning and discussion. As the aim was for the schools improvement and improved learning for all students, it was noticed that students were not included in any of the discussion. This issue was later tackled firstly by a students school council (LIE, 2009) and then by an Ekoskola committee, which takes care of the environment (Bezzina, 2007). Since, students are the final achievers of the educational institution, they should have space and opportunities to share their views and talk about their needs. Bell and Harrison (1998) state that it is of mutual importance for the school to work in collaboration with students and encourage them in teamwork. Likewise, Brighouse and Woods (1999) stress the importance of involving children in leadership roles within the school, to make them more responsible and prepare them for the world of work. However, there are two types of student leaders and these must be clearly distinguished. There are those called bullies, who use their power to intimidate others and as a result push away all other students. The other group is called unofficial leaders (Brighouse and Woods, 1999:48), who somehow always attract others. Moreover, they may be trusted and given a number of leadership duties to carry out as they are seen by teachers as capable and responsible pupils. To distinguish between these kinds of leaders, the school can organise a socio-gram test at the beginning or at the end of the scholastic year. How far can distributed leadership facilitate learning? Leithwood et al (1999) argue that there is a challenge between leadership practice, and the research that points out ways in which leadership affects students and their learning. In contrast, Spillane claims that: What matters for instructional improvement and student achievement is not that leadership is distributed, but how it is distributed (2005:149). However, Leithwood et al (2006b) maintain that after classroom teaching, leadership is next to influence students learning. Lately, Leithwood and Massey emphasised that Leadership is a major cause for the improvements in student achievement. (2010:79) Principals and other SMT members are encouraged to work hard towards creating a better environment for better learning. This means that they are to ensure that the school atmosphere is good both for teachers to work in and for students to learn. This does not refer only to the physical environment, but also to the distribution of leadership and teachers autonomy. Principals acceptance of trust and DL within their school means that they let the teaching-staff choose their ways and means of teaching that is best applicable for the students under their responsibility (Blase and Blase, 1994). This also can be done through encouraging teamwork between teachers and LSAs. Similarly, Bezzina claims that Only by involving all stakeholders and respecting differences can we give birth to new ideas (2006:86) and thus create a better atmosphere for better learning. Moreover, Brighouse and Woods highlight that DL and collaboration among all staff will result in: raising the achievement of pupils (1999:83). Christopher Bezzina conducted a case study in one of the Maltese Church schools, where the academic achievement was not so high. The schools Head, having had experiences in different schools introduced the issue of DL for better learning. Teaching-staff, parents and students were encouraged to participate in the schools matters and decision making programmes. The result was successful concluding that quality improvement initiatives placed a great emphasis on the leadership of the organisation (Bezzina 2008:23). Thus, one can conclude that having DL in a school has a great impact on learning. According to Moyo, DL has an effect on students learning through teachers, who are the closest leaders in contact with students and their learning; But in order to achieve this, teachers need to be involved and motivated by the leadership, (2010:23). Teachers having a personal view of DL, help children to learn more. This is done by involving them in leadership practice inside and outside the classroom. Brighouse and Woods (1999) note that even the type of teacher-student relationship has an influence on students learning. Moreover, having autocratic leadership style in class does not help in creating a learning atmosphere for students. The teacher with good student relationship encourages pupils to never give up, and aim high in life for the future. As stated by Blase and Blase (1994), teachers autonomy is when they are free to decide their own ways and means, to carry out their work. In Malta, teachers autonomy is mostly linked with the classroom; where they are free to design their lesson plans, with their own resources, while also having autonomy to students control, which Blase and Blase (1994:73) call it disciplinary matters. This kind of DL will also influence students learning. Besides this type of autonomy in the classroom, new methods and techniques should be tried and encouraged. This so called innovation facilitates learning for all students, as education becomes not just one size fits all, but adapted especially to the pupils needs (Blase and Blase 1994:75) through the organisation of differentiated learning. In school, this entails teamwork, reinforces collegiality and sharing of the resources within. For teachers to improve students learning, they must first share their ideals with others and then work together towards that ideal. It is the job of the management to bring those ideals together into common set of objectives, (Brighouse and Woods, 1999:54). Parents are considered as the first educators, great contributors of all aspects of learning, and always interested in helping their children to learn better. Wolfendale (1992:60) argues that, parents as educators, can make a significant contribution to childrens acquisition of reading and literacy skills. Moreover, Leithwood et al argue that: No matter what the student population, involving parents primarily in the teaching of their own children is most likely to contribute to childrens learning (2006a:102). The study by HMI (Her Majestys Inspectors) showed that Parents involvement in schools, lead to students success (1991, cited in Wolfendale, 1992:56). Its interesting to study ways in which parents can help both teachers and students in relation to learning. However, one must also take note of the relationship that exists between parents and teachers and not cause any job meddling. Usually, we only think of academic results when it comes to students learning. However, research shows that through their participation in leadership, students gain more knowledge and acquire new skills. These skills are needed for their future in society. Frost claims that students participation in leadership also helps them acquire other non-academic achievements; greater self-esteem, heightened self-confidence, interpersonal and political skills, and self-efficacy when students have opportunities to exercise responsibility (2008:356). When given certain leadership roles, students set their own targets for learning through that experience (Brighouse and Woods, 1999), which might also be of help to other students. Brighouse and Woods (1999) argue that a teacher can give responsibility to students to help those in need in a certain matter. Through each others support, those that have less academic abilities will achieve and learn more. Research shows that pupils have so much to say about their learning, and as such they should be consulted for the benefit of their learning, and the methodology used by teachers in class (Morgan, 2011). How effective to the schools improvement and success can distributed leadership be? Fink sees schools as living systems where: Leadership is distributed across the various cells that affect a school such as students, teachers, parents, unions, social services, County Hall, and local communities. (2010:44) Bezzinas study carried out in a Maltese Church School revealed, that when teachers were involved in DL the majority of staff felt responsible for determining the way forward (2008:24). He then concluded that school improvement and success can be achieved, with hard work, sacrifice and commitment expressed by the Head teacher, the senior leadership team, pupils, parents and teachers, (Bezzina, 2008:26). LIE maintains that when a policys decision making process involves all stakeholders in a school including, SMT, teachers, students and parents; Then the values which are held dear by the school will be on the road to success because they would have been owned by all (2009:176) Brighouse and Woods (1999:45) confirm that research done in the past and again lately by OFSTED shows that, leadership in schools is the key factor in improvement and success. They also argue that, A key ingredient to school success is the extent to which the values of school life are shared among all the members of the community, (Brighouse and Woods, 1999:55) According to Telford (1995) collaboration between all stakeholders within a school brings about school improvement. She argues that the following points which lead to school improvement affect both the individuals within the school and the institution itself; Development of the educational potential of students, professional development of teachers, good organizational health, institutionalization of vision (Telford, 1995, cited in Bell and Harrison 1998:14). It is interesting to note that it is much easier for principals to control goals rather than humans. To gain control for the accomplishment of a goal, leadership must be shared (Sergiovanni, 2006). Little (1981, cited in Sergiovanni, 2006:186) found that when principals work through collegiality with teachers, the school will improve. It is of importance to equalize the principal and teachers opinions in a discussion, since no one should be preferred to the others as everyone is sharing from his/her own knowledge, for the schools best interest (Blase and Blase, 1994). Similarly, Nicholls (2000) argue that leadership is best carried out when a number of people having the same values and aims challenge each other for getting better results. In other words, one can say that school leadership is best fulfilled when all those involved in the institution, share their thoughts without being considered as superior to one another. Thus, including group activity liberates leadership and provid es the framework we need for widespread involvement in improving schools (Sergiovanni, 2006:186). In successful schools, when a debate crops up on school improvement, the staff should work on: Involving pupils, parents and governors (Brighouse and Woods, 1999:83). Likewise, Davies and Davies (2010) also claim that it is crucial to involve others in school leadership as it leads to school improvement and success. Moreover, they say that: Engaging all the staff in discussions about where the school is, where it needs to go and hence the skills and knowledge we need to learn to achieve progress is a uniting factor. (Davies and Davies, 2010:15) Shared leadership might bring about changes which are required for school improvement to take place. The best change is usually one generated from something or someone within the school because it Recharges energy in participants and embraces the greatest likelihood of improvement in teaching and learning styles, simply because it is so localised, (Brighouse and Woods, 1999:60). Changes for school improvement are gained faster, when teachers are involved in the process of decision making (Bush, 1995). Furthermore, Brighouse and Woods, (1999) argue that when change for school improvement is required, time has to be allocated in the schools diary, since the staff needs time to work on the implementation process. In their study Leithwood et al concluded that teachers consider their participation in leadership, as a step for the school to be more effective and innovative (1999:121). Moreover, when teachers are involved in the decision making they are less likely to have adverse reactions to principals expectations. According to Dunford et al (2000) when the decision making process involves those who are closest to its impact it gives a positive attitude towards school improvement. In addition, they say that if secondary schools want to be effective, leadership must be shared at least among senior staff. Furthermore, Sergiovanni (2006) emphasises that in schools where power is shared among principals, teachers, parents and others, work is done autonomously towards schools aims for school improvement. Likewise, Nicholls (2000) claims, that a shared vision is indispensable for school improvement. Trusting teachers through empowerment may lead principals to achieve their desired goals without imposing them. Building trust is critical to empowering teachers, (Blase and Blase, 1994:29). They also claim that this shows that the principal demonstrated great faith in them and valued them as experts and professionals, (Blase and Blase, 1994:77). Teachers involved in different leadership roles are expected to work for the improvement of the decision-making process (Leithwood et al, 1999). This collegial process of involving others in the decision making process is exercised through discussion and shared power in the institution. In a collegial, collaborative environment, principals consistently concentrate on enabling others to examine and redesign schools for improved learning, and teachers learn to share power and work as a team. (Blase and Blase, 1994:33) Leithwood et al (2007) concluded that when DL is implemented and when opportunities are offered, staff will be much more motivated to work towards school improvement. From their research Leithwood et al established that: Informal leaders had more involvement with creating high-performance expectations and motivating others than formal school leaders, while formal leaders had more to do with identifying and articulating a vision. (2007:57) With informal leaders we can include both parents and pupils. When students are at home most of them speak about their school experience with their siblings and through this parents get to know their thoughts and feelings. Hence, parents might be another link between schools and children. Parental involvement in schools may bring about changes which will finally lead to school improvement. Similarly, Wolfendale argues that, parental opinion can be mobilized to bring about significant changes (1992:63). Conclusion Schools success lies in the skills and attitudes of the professional staff, not merely within the leadership capabilities of the principal. (Blase and Blase, 1994:28) Thus DL is needed for growth and development because the Principal sometimes is in need of other staff members to solve certain problems. According to Bezzina, DL calls for an extension of that power vertically downwards to involve all members of staff, (2000:305). Moreover, the final result of school success is a job that belon

Essay --

This paper aims to answer 2 research questions. For the first question: With the measure of role plays, what refusal strategies would the oversea students adopt more frequently in different interlocutory status? From the data analysis, we can see that the oversea student in the study adopted many different refusal strategies in different interlocutor statuses. The 6 scenarios have similar imposition, which is to refusal an invitation to a party. The changing variables are the distance and power. In this complex contextual situation, the student was able to change her refusal strategies in different situations. She adopted more strategies when she refused a person of a higher social status or distant relations, in order to save the listener’s face. On the other hand, when she refused a person of lower social status or close relations, she would change the refusal strategies and make the conversations more relaxing and casual. One important reason might be that the oversea stude nts are more aware of the social communication skills because they can learn more about the cultural difference and communicative differences in the process of their oversea studies. They must communicate with many foreign teachers and students, and experience culture shock at the same time. As a result, they can be more familiar with the pragmatic features of different strategies. The second question is that: Is there any difference in the refusal strategies between oversea students and other EFL learners in China? There are many researches related to the different refusal strategies between NS and NNS. The previous findings showed that: many NNS preferred to use â€Å"a direct strategy and less differentiated supportive moves†; at the same time, â€Å"40% of NNS prov... ...in comparing with Chinese EFL learners’ refusal strategies, we borrowed findings from other researches because of time limitation, and this may cause the results being different from what it should be. Here are some suggestions for the future study: first, in order to make sure the data are effective, we should invite more oversea students with difference learning experience and language proficiency; second, in a precise study, more social and contextual variables should be taken into consideration, in order to test students’ different reaction and strategies; finally, if we want to compare the oversea students with Chinese EFL students, we should invite both to participate in the research, rather than depending on other studies and research findings. In conclusion, in order to prove or modify the research findings, further researches are still needed in the future.

Group Think Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Group Thinking Essays

Group Think This type of dysfunctional operation of an organization has many ways and opportunities for failure. The basic fundamentals of this process are the beginnings of failure as groups seek conformity and unity they sacrifice everything in order to maintain peace within the group. Many times this will take the individuals creative thoughts and ability to voice the creative edge thinking away. In many organizations this is a process that is continually used. It is perceived that management wants the organizations operation or process to run without any type of question or waves. Below are listed eight of the main symptoms of group think as detailed by Janis, I. L & Manns book â€Å"Decision making† Symptoms of Groupthink are divided into three types in which they can manifest themselves: Type I: Overestimations of the group's power and morality Type II: Closed-mindedness Type III: Pressure toward uniformity When broken down the three types of groupthink can be broken farther down to eight ways groupthink causes failure. 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Illusion of invulnerability: Members ignore obvious danger, take extreme risks, and are overly optimistic. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Collective Rationalization: Members discredit and explain away warnings contrary to group thinking. 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Illusions of Morality: Members believe that their decisions are morally correct ignoring the ethical consequences of their decisions. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Excessive Stereotyping: The group constructs negative stereotypes of rivals outside the group. 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pressure for Conformity: Members’ pressure any in a group who expresses arguments against the groups’ stereotypes, illusions, or commitment, viewing such opposition and disloyalty. 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Self-censorship: Members withhold their dissenting views and counter arguments. 7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Illusion of Unanimity: Members perceive falsely that everyone agrees with the group decision silence is seen as consent. 8.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mindguards: Some members appoint themselves to the role of protecting the group from adverse information that might threaten group compliance. Personal styles are limited by the group with GROUP THINK. Most of the time the individual will not take the chance to buck the system or willing to take the chance of being discredited by the core group if they do not agree with the process and or direction that is being lead. Decision styles are affe... ...ve that the label of Groupthink can be used too loosely. I myself have experienced situations where a Group is too quick to label themselves as sufferers of Groupthink. Although I truly think that Groupthink is a severe problem that exists today, the Challenger being one of the most disastrous of those examples. I believe that we all need to be careful not to be too swift about the use of the Groupthink label. It can be just as negative to a group to label them as wronged in their process when no such error exists as to call them victims of Groupthink. Again the dilemma is that groups need to always be alert to the existence of Groupthink, they also need to not label themselves or other victims of Groupthink unfairly. Although there are many times that Groupthink leads to failure, there are few instances when it works for the food. This is a fine line to walk, but it is most definitely a line that needs to be walked time and time again. Works Cited: Jarvis, Chris. GROUPTHINK Janis, Irving L. Victims Of Groupthink. Houghton Mifflin Company Boston, 1972 Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Houghton Mifflin Company Boston, 1982 Griffin, Em. Groupthink. McGraw-Hill Inc., 1997

Comparison between the Great Gatsby and Macbeth Essay

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most intense plays and one his most complex psychological studies. It is also a play about which there is a great deal of historical background, which I think you’ll find interesting because it reveals Shakespeare’s creative process. The play was written in 1605–1606. It’s one of the plays where the date is pretty firmly established by internal references to external events, and most scholars have agreed on the date. Shakespeare was at the height of creative powers, and his theatrical company, the King’s Men, was the official royal acting company. He had the large Globe Theater, a large public playhouse on the south bank of the Thames. He would soon open the Blackfriars Theater, a small private theater within the city itself where the plays were performed indoors, and he and his men performed often at the court for the king and his family. The Blackfriars Theater would be exempt from the law prohibiting theaters within the City of London by being a private club. It could accommodate only a couple of hundred people, opposed to the Globe audiences of a couple of thousand, and therefore Shakespeare charged a higher price for entry. That in turn meant that the audience was wealthier and more sophisticated than the average attendee at the Globe was. Because the plays were performed indoors by artificial light, they could be done at any time or weather. Because it was a smaller theater, the acting style used could be more subtle and understated than the broad, overly dramatic acting used in the Globe before audiences of several thousand. As far as we know Shakespeare’s company continue to perform all the plays in both theaters; it’s just that the productions would have differed in the way they were performed. Once you know something of the complex historical background, a very curious fact emerges about this bloody, violent drama: the story of this psychotic killer and his fiendlike wife was actually written as a tribute to Shakespeare’s royal patron, King James I of England, who was also king of Scotland. What an unusual way to thank the king for his patronage! Of all of his plays, this is a powerful suspense thriller. We may know who the killer is, but we are fascinated to see if Macbeth gets away with it and to see how he convinces himself to commit the multiple homicides. The historical background is necessary to help you understand why Shakespeare wrote the play the way he did. Without the background there are many passages and references which make no sense to a modern audience. This background also reveals the fascinating way Shakespeare used and twisted history to make a better play and to address the political agenda of King James. It also shows some of the things going on at that time in English society and politics. Macbeth is an openly political play. Macbeth is considered a history play, based on the events in the life of a real historical figure, but it is even more a powerful tragedy. Shakespeare played fast and loose with historical fact in all his history plays, but none more so than this play. When Shakespeare wrote a play like Richard III, he was writing about events that had taken place about 100 years before, so most people in his English audience had a general sense of what that time was like. In the case of Macbeth, he was writing about a time over 500 years in the past in a country about which most of his English audience was totally unfamiliar. Shakespeare and his audience did not consider history to be a science, in which the goal was accuracy; rather history was an art, related to storytelling. The purpose of history was to make a moral point about the present society. You looked to the past to find or create parallels with the present age that would help you explain how people should behave right now. Therefore history was often manipulated, changed or simply created to support some political agenda. Every king at this time used history as a tool in his arsenal to help hang on to power. They would hire professional historians to rewrite the past to support their claim to power in the present. Similarly, religious figures would use history as a weapon to attack their opponents. In many accounts written at this time by Protestant advocates, history is seen as the rise of many proto-Protestants, people who lived hundreds of years before Martin Luther, the first official Protestant. These earlier figures are shown to be forerunners who simply didn’t realize they were Protestants. The historical sources that Shakespeare used were as much mythologies as they  are reality. Actually there was very little known about the historical Macbeth, so if the historians hadn’t made things up they wouldn’t have had much to say about him. Shakespeare’s principal source, Holinshed’s Chronicles of Scottish History, was a loose collection of gossip, tales and fantasies, so the material he was using was already seriously flawed from a historical perspective. Shakespeare then used this flawed material selectively, not telling the whole story, but only bits and pieces that made for a good drama. He altered historical records to heighten dramatic effect, as we’ll see in the dramatic account of Macbeth’s first murder. Shakespeare also changed history to simplify complexities and, quite frankly, to kiss up to King James. Shakespeare took a story supposedly set in the 11th Century, around the year 1050, and filled it with many references to events taking place in 1605 in England, in particular to one of the most dramatic events in English history, the Gunpowder Plot, which had happened just the year before. No wonder the play bears little resemblance to the historical reality. The historical Macbeth had become king in the year 1040 when he killed the previous king, Duncan, in battle. To put this in a historical context, this is hardly the Middle Ages; it’s still the Dark Ages, as historians have termed the various stages of European history. It is 26 years before the Norman invasion of England, which is generally considered to be the beginning of the medieval period in Britain. In 1040 Macbeth became king and ruled for 17 years until he was overthrown and killed by Duncan’s son, who became King Malcolm III. Malcolm is famous primarily because he married an English princess named Margaret who was later made a saint. According to the Scottish historian Archibald Duncan, little is known about Macbeth and his lovely wife Grunnich, except that they were pious and endowed a religious house at St. Andrew’s (which is probably the caddy shack on the fourth green of that famous golf course — joke). The couple went on a religious pilgrimage to Rome where, the chroniclers said, â€Å"they sowed money like seed.† (Many of us when we go on vacation do the same thing.) That’s all we know for certain about the real Macbeth. Now the fact that Macbeth killed the previous king was not a big deal. Of  the eight Scottish kings who ruled during this time, seven had died unnatural deaths, including several who burned to death until suspicious circumstances. It was highly unusual for a Scottish king to die of natural causes in bed. This violent record was largely the result of how Scottish kings came to power. There was no fixed process of succession from one king to the next. In effect, when an old king died every male who was related to the royal family, no matter how distant the relationship, had an equal chance for the throne. It was a kind of royal free-for-all with the last man standing getting to be the king until he was done in by the next ambitious claimant. Macbeth is overthrown in 1057, still nine years before the Norman French invasion of England under William the Conqueror. Two hundred years pass by. The Norman kings are on the throne of England. A succession of English kings and queens has tried to extend their power north into Scotland, as generations of Scots have raided English settlements to the south. The warfare between these two historic enemies is almost constant. In the mid-1200’s the English king Edward, also known as Longshanks and the Scots Killer, has invaded Scotland determined to subjugate it once and for all. He pushes north and reaches the holy place of Scone where the Scottish kings were crowned. Here he seizes the holy relic called the Stone of Scone and takes it back to London where he places it under his throne at Westminster Abbey, where it remained for seven centuries, despite the efforts of Scottish nationalists to steal it back. (Prime Minister Tony Blair finally returned the stone to Scotland after his election — a smart political move.) The film Braveheart gives you a highly dramatic sense of the conflict at this time between the Scots and the English. The Scots fight back unsuccessfully because they are not united in their efforts. Finally one man arises who is able to weld the Scottish people into a single nation, Robert the Bruce, and he is able to lead to a Scottish victory. The English have to acknowledge the right of the Scottish State to exist. King Edward is bitterly disappointed and when he dies, he leaves instructions that if England ever mounts a new invasion of Scotland, his bones are to be carried at the head of the army. So you see how bitter the hatred is between the two nations. Under Robert the Bruce the Scots succeed in driving the English out, but in 1329 he dies and his daughter ascends the throne. She had married a guy who was like the business manager or steward of the royal estates. Not surprisingly the guy’s name was â€Å"Steward† or as it came to be spelled, â€Å"Stuart.† And so the Scottish throne passed on to this obscure family that had never been more than civil servants. Now every royal family worried about two things: succession, or who would inherit the throne. Henry VIII had gone through five wives trying to sire a male heir to the throne and broken with the Catholic Church over the issue. The second worry was to try and keep the crown within the family against attacks on their legitimacy. So kings were always seeking ways to bolster their claim on the throne in the perception of the people. The family of Elizabeth, the Tudors, had had on-going problems in both these areas. The first Tudor, Henry VII, lost his oldest s on soon after the boy had been married to Catherine of Aragon. So as not to have to return her substantial dowry to the King of Spain, Henry VII simply married the young widow to his next son, Henry VIII, setting in motion all the turmoil of that king’s five wives. Henry’s son Edward died while still in his teens, and his daughter, who reigned as â€Å"Bloody Mary Tudor,† was unable to produce an heir. The next Tudor monarch, Elizabeth I, declined to try to have a child by refusing to marry. Her decision caused all kinds of political problems as she approached death in 1603, until she declared on her deathbed that her distant cousin, James VI of Scotland, would rule after her. The Stuart kings, by contrast, had been very prolific. By the time Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, there had been eight generations of Stuart kings on the throne of Scotland. They were the longest-surviving royal family in all of Europe. They boasted that they would remain on the throne until Doomsday. However, the Stuarts continued to worry about the public perception of their legitimacy. After all the original Stuart king had had little claim to the throne. So it was that in the early 1500’s one of the Stuart kings hired a professional historian and ordered him to create an older, more respectable connection to the throne for the Stuarts. This historian made up an ancient ancestor of the Stuarts, Banquo, who lived clear back in the time of old King Macbeth. This Banquo, a thane or nobleman, was told by goddesses of Scottish destiny that his descendents would eventually become kings of Scotland. These goddesses were  given special powers to look into the future of the Scottish nation. So the Stuarts had a mystical claim on the throne for several hundred years before they actually were crowned. This Banquo was a completely fictional character that the historian/PR guy simply made up. Not surprisingly this character and the prediction of his descendant’s rise to power figure prominently in the play. Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather, Henry VII, had used history in just the same manipulative manner. After he defeated and killed the rightful king, Richard III, in 1485, he hired a number of â€Å"professional† historians to do a hatchet job on poor old Richard. They â€Å"proved† that he was not the legitimate king and was in fact a monster who deserved to die so the Tudors could take power. In the mid-1500’s Scotland was ruled by Mary, Queen of Scots, a distant cousin of Elizabeth I. Mary has come down in history as a kind of romantic figure, but in reality she was not nearly as sympathetic. She was a Catholic trying to rule a land that was fiercely Presbyterian, and she was not very adept at the politics of power. Plus she had the unfortunate habit of blowing up the castles where her estranged husband was staying. She was finally driven out of Scotland and fled to England where she was given asylum by Elizabeth. Rather than being content and grateful for her cousin’s kindness, she began almost immediately plotting with malcontents to overthrow Elizabeth. She let it be known that if the Catholic minority in England was able to get rid of the queen, she would graciously accept the crown. Elizabeth tried to ignore the threats and then tried to confine Mary in an isolated country home where she could cause less trouble. But Mary persisted in her plots. Finally Elizabeth is forced to stop Mary’s intrigues by having her beheaded Now when Mary fled from Scotland she left her infant son, James, and he was crowned James VI and ruled throughout his childhood. Poor James was manipulated and used by the powerful men who had custody of the young king. He learned to be very slippery and deceitful in order to survive to adulthood. In one of the great ironies of history, when Elizabeth faces  death she bequeaths the English throne to the son of her mortal enemy, Mary, Queen of Scots. James was finally able to escape from Edinburgh and the clutches of the Presbyterian elders and go to the sinful city of London, the Las Vegas of that age. In 1603 James is crowned James I of England and becomes a dual monarch. A few months later he names Shakespeare’s company the King’s Men, the royal dramatic company. The company has royal protection from local authorities and they make a great of money performing all the plays Shakespeare had written for the court. It’s no wonder that Shakespeare felt compelled to write a tribute to his royal patron, Macbeth. As I said earlier, it’s an odd play to be a tribute to a Scottish king, but then Shakespeare made a career out of doing the unusual. Now as Shakespeare pays tribute to James, he also wants to support James’ political agenda. England and Scotland had been historic enemies, but now they were governed by the same monarch, and he wanted to unite them into a single kingdom. In several plays written before 1603 Shakespeare used the Scots as convenient ethnic targets. (We see this Scots-bashing in Merchant of Venice and Henry V.) After 1603 it became politically incorrect to take potshots at the Scots. Although James and the other Stuarts wanted a United Kingdom, it would take over 100 years for England and Scotland to merge into a single political entity. To advance the king’s agenda, Shakespeare wrote the play in a certain way. He created and emphasized commonality between the two kingdoms. He was also careful not to show Banquo, the king’s mythical ancestor, in a bad light. Rather than being actively involved in overthrowing King Duncan, Banquo just stands around and waits for Fate to fulfill the prophecy of his family’s future greatness. (In Holinshed’s account Banquo had been an active participant in Duncan’s overthrow and death.) Having set up the story of the Stuart family’s rise to power, Shakespeare shift gears and makes the homicidal maniac Macbeth the protagonist of the play. The other political event which shaped the composition of the play was the criminal conspiracy to assassinate James, his family and most of the Protestant leadership of England in the Gunpowder Plot. This took place in early November of 1605, when a group of Catholic extremists planned to blow  up the Houses of Parliament on the occasion of a speech by the king to Parliament. There had been a long history of hostility between the Catholics and Protestants in England through the 1500’s, especially during the time of Elizabeth. Catholics considered her an illegitimate ruler and a bastard because she was the child of King Henry VIII’s second wife, after the illegal divorce. The film Elizabeth, with Cate Blanchett, gives you a good sense of the conflict in this time with the Catholic side being represented by the Pope and Queen Mary. By contrast with Catholic intransigence, Elizabeth is shown to be much more humane and tolerant. She had seen too much bloodshed over religious differences. She did not much mind what people’s private beliefs were as long as they avoided public display of religious heresies. So under Elizabeth it was not illegal to be a Catholic, unlike Mary Tudor’s persecution of Protestant dissenters; it was just illegal to perform a Catholic mass in public. Understandably Catholics chafed under the restrictions of Elizabeth’s rule and believed that a strong Catholic monarch could bring England forcibly back to the Catholic faith. When Elizabeth died in 1603 many Catholics hoped their persecution would end with James. After all, his own mother had been a Catholic. However, that belief ignored the fact that James had been raised as a Presbyterian, not a Catholic. Also he found Elizabeth’s principle of allowing private faith a good compromise. And so the more militant Catholics plotted to fill the basement of Parliament with gunpowder and at the critical moment blow i t up. Now this plot was the 17th Century equivalent of 9/11 or the harebrained scheme of Timothy McVey to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City. The plot was discovered at the last minute. According to the official account released at the time the king himself, with the help of God, covered the plan. He was shown some intercepted messages which referred to â€Å"strike a blow† for the cause and realized that â€Å"blow† could mean an explosion and ordered the building searched. The effect of the discovery on England was electric, traumatic. In a flash the country realized how close they had come to disaster. As the conspirators were arrested, tortured, confessed and were executed more details came out. English society was changed in ways that are still visible today. For example to this day on November 5, the day the plot was discovered, called Guy Fawkes Day, children throughout  Britain collect money in the neighborhood to buy fireworks to set off and burn a wooden effigy called â€Å"the Old Guy† in honor of Guy Fawkes, one of the principal conspirators. The revelation of the plot did not ease the pl ight of Catholics, who were forbidden the vote or the ability to serve in Parliament. One of the other conspirators turned out to be a secret Jesuit priest named Henry Garnett. Although it was illegal to perform the mass, the Jesuits recruited young courageous English Catholics, trained them in France and smuggled them back into England to perform as priests. Garnett was the confessor of several of the other conspirators and he was detained in the initial investigation. The authorities suspected he was a priest and they asked him under oath if he knew anything about the plot. He denied any knowledge. Subsequent suspects were arrested and they revealed that Garnett had known about the plan and had advised the conspirators on what to do. He was arrested again, questioned and this time he admitted that he did know about the plot. When confronted with his earlier perjury under oath, Garnett explained that as a Jesuit he was not required to tell the authorities what they wanted to know. In defense of his own faith he had not lied under oath; he had simply equivocated. That simply meant he had not told the whole truth and had played fast and loose with the terminology, a lot like a former president testifying under a threat of impeachment. This aspect of the scandal was in some respects the most shocking for the public because he seemed to cast the Jesuits as sneaky, lying shock troops of the Pope who would commit any sin to further their own cause. And so the concept of â€Å"equivocation† became infamous, a kind of shorthand reference to the evil behind the plot. It was so shocking that the legal oath Englishmen took when they testified in court was changed at that time to include the provision that the oath was taken â€Å"without equivocation† to cover any future Garnetts. That provision continued in the English legal system down to the twentieth century. Both the celebration of Guy Fawkes Day and the legal oath demonstrate how traumatic the Gunpowd er Plot was on English society. A lot of popular works were written at this time which refer to the details of the plot, including at least three plays called Gunpowder dramas. One was called The Whore of Babylon all about the Pope leading a black mass to call  forth Satan to engineer the assassination of Queen Elizabeth. The second play was called The Devil’s Charter which traces the efforts of the evils Catholics to engineer the assassination of an English ruler. The third play was Macbeth, according to noted author Garry Wills. In the plays the Jesuits are linked to witchcraft. This was not the first attempt on King James’ life; he had survived three earlier assassination attempts. (One reason James may have been able to uncover the plot so quickly is that he had had lots of experience,) The would-be assassins were subsequently tried as witches. In another related case a plot was uncovered to kill James’ bride, a princess of Denmark. A group of accused witches from a town called Forres, mentioned in the play, had disapproved of James marrying a foreigner, and so the charmed the winds and caused a major storm on the North Sea to try and sink the ship bringing the Danish bride to Scotland. As in the other cases the plotters were arrested, tortured, confessed and were executed. As a result of his experiences and his own interest in the occult, James fancied himself an expert and had written a book called Daemonology, all about Scottish witches. In the first two Gunpowder plays listed above it is a male witch that is behind the plots to kill the English monarch. What Shakespeare does in his play is to take the â€Å"goddesses of Scottish destiny† that he had read about in Holinshed and change them into very unusual witches, in keeping with the interest of the principal person for whom he was writing the play, King James.

Night by Elie Wiesel Essay

The relationship between Eliezer and his father in the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel is interesting because of the way the relationship strengthens and weakens over the course of the book. The relationship is also interesting because of the way Eliezer allows others (inmates, Kapos, etc. ) to affect the way he feels towards his father. In Night, the relationship between Eliezer and his father is, at first, not strong. This is shown when Eliezer rebels against his fathers wishes of not studying Kabbalah and seeks guidance for this subject from the town hobo, Moishe the Beadle: â€Å"And Moishe the Beadle, the poorest of the poor of Sighet, spoke to me for hours on end about the Kabbalah’s revelations and its mysteries. † (Section 1, Paragraph 5, Page 5). Eliezer’s father is a highly respected and very intelligent man and his opinion on public and private matters is often sought after in their community, Eliezer however, describes his father as â€Å"a rather unsentimental man† and â€Å"more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin. (Section 1, Paragraph2, Page 4). This makes the relationship between Eliezer and his father interesting because even though their relationship is weak, his father still play a big part in telling Eliezer what he can and cannot do and the role of his life in the family – â€Å"my place was in the house of study, or so they said† (Section 1, Paragraph 3, Page 4) During their time together in Auschwitz, Eliezer and his father begin to grow closer. Eliezer demonstrates this when asked if he would like to be placed into a good Kommando and he replies with: â€Å"of course. But on one condition: I want to stay with my father. † (Section 4, Page 48, Paragraph 2). This may be because any strength and support they have left could only be found in each other: â€Å"My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me [from allowing myself to die] †¦ I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his sole support† (Section 6, Page 87, Paragraph 1) This makes the relationship more intriguing because it almost seems like Eliezer and his father are only continuing to live so the other has the strength to live too. By the time Eliezer and his father reach Gleiwitz, Eliezer’s father is dying and becoming increasingly weaker. Eliezer is now constantly looking after his father and giving him most of his rations, though is seems, Eliezer is doing this grudgingly: â€Å"I gave him what was left of my soup. But my heart was heavy. † (Section 9, Page 107, Paragraph 3). This is most likely due to the influence of other inmates and what the Blockalteste told him about Auschwitz being a place where it is every man for himself: â€Å"Listen to me, kid. Don’t forget you are in a concentration camp. In this place, it is every man for himself, and you cannot think about others †¦ In this place, there is no such thing as father, brother †¦ You cannot help him anymore. † (Section 9, Page 110, Paragraph 3). This makes their relationship interesting because Eliezer, though he loves his father dearly, is now stuck between the choice of continuing to nurse his father, or to let him die. A hard choice for anyone to make. A strong theme that comes through in Night that readers can see from Eliezer and his father’s relationship is the importance of strong father-son/family bonds. Three times Eliezer discusses moments that destroyed a bond between father and son. He states that these moments were brought upon them by the conditions of which the prisoners were forced to live in and to endure, these moments when a son sacrificed his father to save himself – the pipel abusing his father, the boy killing his father for a mere crust of bread, and the horrible motives of Rabbi Eliahou’s son. All of this is interesting in contrast to Eliezer and his father’s bond because their relationship demonstrates love and solidarity: â€Å"We’ll take turns. I’ll watch over you and you’ll watch over me. † (Section 8, Page 88, Paragraph 3). Their relationship shows us that love is a strong force of survival, much stronger than man’s instinct for self-preservation. In conclusion, the relationship between Eliezer and his father is interesting because of the way the relationship is shaped over the course of the book by different events. Their relationship strengthens in Auschwitz, is weakened momentarily by the actions of other inmates in Buchenwald, but comes through strong in the end because of their love for each other.