Emblem Of Authority Research Articles

Authoritative discourse in advanced studio lessons

The purpose of this paper is to explore authoritative discourses in advanced studio lessons. Authoritative approaches have been described variously as systematic instruction, direct teaching and teacher-centred, and they appear to be widely accepted in music education, and sought by advanced students. Concerns have been raised in general education theory about the limitations of such approaches, but they have been little researched in the context of studio teaching. This qualitative case study seeks evidence of authority in advanced studio behaviour, through Bakhtin’s account of dialogism and authoritative discourse and theories related to direct instruction. Specifically, an analysis is made of a single studio lesson given by an expert saxophone teacher to an undergraduate student. The terms of inquiry are focused on features of lesson dialogue, including representations of others as emblems of authority, the teacher’s initiation of tasks, student responses and teacher feedback. The study identifies internally consistent patterns of behaviour that provide abundant evidence of teacher-centred approaches to advanced studio tuition, which draw attention to the teacher’s personal expertise, privilege her perspective and convey a sense of her authority. However, the observed studio practices are found to be complex and sophisticated, with features of cognitive scaffolding that are inconsistent with authoritative discourse. It is argued that authoritative approaches are contingent on the subject matter, with their productivity contingent on the balance and match between participants’ expertise, commitment and purpose.

Alva Ixtlilxochitl's Native Archive and the Circulation of Knowledge in Colonial Mexico by Amber Brian

Reviewed by: Alva Ixtlilxochitl's Native Archive and the Circulation of Knowledge in Colonial Mexico by Amber Brian Jannette Amaral-Rodríguez amber brian. Alva Ixtlilxochitl's Native Archive and the Circulation of Knowledge in Colonial Mexico. Vanderbilt UP, 2016, 208 pp. On September 17, 2014, Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antrolopología e Historia (INAH) announced to the public the purchase of the Códice Chimalpahin from the Bible Society in London, where they had been held since the nineteenth century. Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, a mestizo and direct descendant of the indigenous rulers of the city of Tetzcoco, in New Spain, gathered this collection of indigenous alphabetic and pictorial texts along with his own historiographical works during the first decades of the seventeenth century. The "repatriation" of this collection of manuscripts from London back to Mexico, as explained in Amber Brian's Alva Ixtlilxochitl's Native Archive and the Circulation of Knowledge in Colonial Mexico, forces a welcomed reconsideration of Indian intellectuals and native knowledge's "role in the writing of Mexico's history" (140). In this book, Brian decenters the creole narrative as the main discourse of knowledge and national identity and illustrates the networks of alliances and relationships created among a myriad of scholars in colonial Mexico. Amber Brian's main intention in this book is to reframe the scholarly discussions around Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl's collection of indigenous manuscripts in order to rethink what Ángel Rama called "the lettered city." As the counterpart of the physical city—the ordered, urban space of the colonial city—the lettered city comprised the urban-elite men of letters or letrados. Mainly creole men (criollos), they were active participants in the production of knowledge and culture that maintained, discursively, colonial structures. Brian's rethinking of this core concept in the scholarship of colonial and modern Latin America redefines not only the social and ethnic scope of its members during the seventeenth century—in order to incorporate Indian and mestizo intellectuals—but also the circumstantial dynamics that determined and influenced their mutual collaborations. By focusing on the creation of networks of intellectuals around Ixtlilxochitl's collection instead of on its linear and "teleological advance" as "an emblem of authority" in the production of early Mexican patriotic discourses (140, 137), Brian effectively presents to the reader both a window into the historical dynamics forging the production, use, and appropriation of this collection across the seventeenth century and a nuanced critique of the study of criollismo or creole consciousness as the driving force behind the creation of national identity in Mexico. For Brian the "lettered city is founded on an exchange and dialogue between those who occupied the centers of power and those who existed at the margins. As such, the lettered city should be appreciated as a manifestation of various sorts of relationships and collaborations rather than a dichotomy" (8). [End Page 197] Brian's theoretical approach to Ixtlilxochitl's collection of manuscripts pivots on two core characteristics: its role as a "native archive" and, as a result, source of authority in Mexican scholarship, and its nature as a gift that fashions relationships, exchanges, and alliances. Through this framework, the author reconstructs the complex historical and local circumstances in which Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl gathered his collection of indigenous manuscripts, how this "native archive" passed from the Ixtlilxochitl family to the hands of the creole scholar Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, and how it was appropriated as a "creole archive" in the production of patriotic discourses during the second half of the seventeenth century. In chapter 1, "Creoles, Mestizos, and the Native Archive," Brian defines the term "native archive" as a type of archive produced by indigenous populations in the colonial context to safeguard their history, memory, and knowledge. Most importantly, the author highlights the fact that Alva Ixtlilxochitl's collection of manuscripts—one of the foundational archives of Mexican patriotism and nationalism—originally emerged and functioned as a "native archive." For readers interested in the early genealogy of Alva Ixtlilxochitl's collection, this chapter provides valuable information as Brian, in dialogue with past and recent scholarship, reconstructs both Alva Ixtlilxochitl's and Sigüenza's archives paying...

Presentation of the Gavel from the American Radiological Societies to the International Congress on Radiology

Mr. President: I am commissioned to bring to you greetings from the radiological societies of America, namely, the American Roentgen Ray Society, the Radiological Society of North America, the American Radium Society, the American College of Radiology, and the Radiological Section of the American Medical Association. They have sent a gavel as an emblem of authority to you and your successors, as an expression of our spirit of co-operation. This gavel has been made from ancient ivory that was buried in the glaciers of Alaska during the glacial period and is, therefore, estimated by some to be about a million years old. We hope that this gavel may pass from president to president during at least a hundred years, and serve as an emblem of peaceful authority at our international meetings.