The paper’s authors are composers operating within the field of experimental music. Their music is created from the use of limited materials placed into repetitive structures involving cyclic pitch patterns and sustained tone textures. This reductive approach to composition provides a fertile area for discussions of temporality, as the music functions outside of standard teleological narrative structures thereby prompting more varied subjective temporal experiences for listeners. The paper will take as its starting point the experience of the listener, rather than (...) the musical score, enhancing discussions from Thomas Clifton’s Music as Heard.1 This angle is particularly relevant when discussing minimal works, as the score does not give an indication to what the auditory experience will be, it simply acts as what pianist Philip Thomas describes as a ‘prescription for action’ for the performers.2 Drawing particularly upon work on the temporal experience by Merleau-Ponty, the paper discusses how phenomenological approaches can provide effective insight into the experience of sustained tone and repetitive music. By discussing notions of retention and protention, the two composers will explore how this permeates their compositional approach, particularly in relation to the use of repetition, examining the different types of musical materials used by the composers and how this affects the temporalities experienced upon performance. Points of similarity and variance between the two outlooks are explored in detail, providing an in-depth discussion as to how attitudes towards temporality can result in nuanced differences in output. Fundamental essences are clarified and discussed in relation to other composers’ work, and in particular American composer James Tenney’s work in applying a phenomenological model upon the listening experience is considered alongside the central discussion. The results of this investigation provide both clear artistic statements on the role of phenomenological thought in the creative process, and also tentative starting points for further discussion on experiential temporalities in minimal and experimental musics. (shrink)

This paper draws on findings from a longitudinal study of 101 part-time final year trainee teachers attending a Lifelong Learning Sector teacher education course at a new university in the North of England. Provoked by an interest in trainee teachers’ notions of what is educationally desirable in their subject specialisms and contexts, the study spanned the 2010-11 academic year and works within deconstructive paradigms to further examine participants’ declared philosophies and to promote new directions in educational practice in the sector. (...) In doing so, through analysis of the place and use of language in both trainee teachers’/respondents’ and the teacher educator’s/researcher’s reflective and reflexive spaces, this paper considers the twin notions of sameness and otherness in respondents’ dispositions and argues for critical and careful consideration of how language is used and interpreted by teacher educators as they seek to develop professional knowledge and practice in the sector. (shrink)

Within the mediums of cartoons and comic books/strips, there is an increasing ‘epidemic’ of evil little ‘girls’ who we spy upon as they plot their machinations and execute flawless acts of sadism and maliciousness, often to our collective delight. Writers and illustrators have given these little ‘girls’ license to engage in epic acts of naughtiness. These, at first glance, seemingly harmless little ‘girls’ are agents of malice and deviousness; and, we the audience, seemingly revel in their evil deeds. This chapter (...) is intended as an examination of what inspires authors and illustrators to turn the tables on societal conventions of how little girls should behave; reimaging evil in tiny, cute, little packages down to the ubiquitous frilly dress. Even companies like Sanrio, ™ home of the adorable and non-threatening Hello Kitty and associated characters recently added an ‘evil’ character named Kuromi to their line of critters marketed, largely, to young girls. It would appear there is an increasing desire for little girls to be viewed as more than sweet, innocent and cherubic. Characters such as Mandy from the ‘The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy’, and the loveable undead ‘Lenore’ of the ‘Lenore’ comic book series, and many more will be discussed in depth. The diabolical deeds they perform, their victims of choice and their motives will be examined. Psychological profiles, if you will, of these adorable, yet maladapted little munchkins will be provided as well as possible explanations for why we find ourselves so enamoured with them. (shrink)

This is the last of the four essays in Part II of the book on liberalism and traditionalist education; all four are by authors who would like to find ways for the liberal state to honour the self-definitions of traditional cultures and to find ways of avoiding a confrontation with differences. One of the tasks of the book is to separate out different kinds of affiliation and the extent to which the arguments made about cultural recognition can be extended to (...) other objects of affiliation. Mark Halstead’s chapter on schooling and cultural maintenance for religious minorities in the liberal state provides a catalogue of the different types of groups that are to be found in liberal societies, and the different kinds of cultural and educational claims that are typically attached to each of them. His definition of minority group is useful in conceptualizing many of the papers in the volume. The chapter falls into three sections: Section 10.1, which looks at four types of disadvantaged minorities, attempts to distinguish non-Western fundamentalist religious minorities living in the West from other minorities that may experience disadvantage of various kinds in liberal societies; Section 10.2, on religious minorities in the liberal state, explores some of the educational and other difficulties encountered by such religious minorities in more detail, and typical liberal responses; Section 10.3, on rethinking the liberal response, contains some proposals that are designed to meet the educational needs of both the liberal state and the religious minorities at the same time. (shrink)