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What do you Understand by the Term ‘Human Security`.

Posted by on Feb.19, 2012, under Arts and Humanities, International Affairs and Politics No Comments

Human security is an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenge the traditional notion of national security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be the individual rather than the state. Human security holds that a people-centered view of security is necessary for national, regional and global stability. The concept emerged from a post-Cold War, multi-disciplinary understanding of security involving a number of research fields, including development studies, international relations, strategic studies, and human rights. The United Nations Development Programmer’s 1994 Human Development Report is considered a milestone publication in the field of human security, with its argument that insuring “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear” for all persons is the best path to tackle the problem of global insecurity. Frequently referred to in a wide variety of global policy discussions and scholarly journals,
Critics of the concept argue that its vagueness undermines its effectiveness;[4] that it has become little more than a vehicle for activists wishing to promote certain causes; and that it does not help the research community understand what security means or help decision makers to formulate good policies.
Human security focuses on the protection of individuals, rather than defending the physical and political integrity of states from external military threats – the traditional goal of national security. Ideally, national security and human security should be mutually reinforcing, but in the last 100 years far more people have died as a direct or indirect consequence of the actions of their own governments or rebel forces in civil wars than have been killed by invading foreign armies. Acting in the name of national security, governments can pose profound threats to human security. The application of human security is highly relevant within the area of humanitarian intervention, as it focuses on addressing the deep rooted and multi-factorial problems inherent in humanitarian crises, and offers more long term resolutions. In general, the term humanitarian intervention generally applies to when a state uses force against another state in order to alleviate suffering in the latter state (See, humanitarian intervention).
Under the traditional security paradigm humanitarian intervention is contentious. As discussed above, the traditional security paradigm places emphasis on the notion of states. Hence, the principles of state sovereignty and non-intervention that are paramount in the traditional security paradigm make it difficult to justify the intervention of other states in internal disputes. Through the development of clear principles based on the human security concept, there has been a step forward in the development of clear rules of when humanitarian intervention can occur and the obligations of states that intervene in the internal disputes of a state.
These principles on humanitarian intervention are the product of a debate pushed by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. He posed a challenge to the international community to find a new approach to humanitarian intervention that responded to its inherent problems.[29] In 2001, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) produced the “The Responsibility to protect”, a comprehensive report detailing how the “right of humanitarian intervention” could be exercised. It was considered a triumph for the human security approach as it emphasized and gathered much needed attention to some of its main principles:


Assessment Programs Should be Solidly Grounded in the Latest Research on Learning, Writing, and Assessment.

Posted by on Feb.10, 2012, under Education, Teaching No Comments

Best assessment practice results from careful consideration of the costs and benefits of the range of available approaches. It may be tempting to choose an inexpensive, quick assessment, but decision-makers should consider the impact of assessment methods on students, faculty, and programs. The return on investment from the direct assessment of writing by instructor-evaluators includes student learning, professional development of faculty, and program development. These benefits far outweigh the presumed benefits of cost, speed, and simplicity that machine scoring might seem to promise.
Best assessment practice is continually under review and subject to change by well-informed faculty, administrators, and legislators. Anyone charged with the responsibility of designing an assessment program must be cognizant of the relevant research and must stay abreast of developments in the field. The theory and practice of writing assessment is continually informed by significant publications in professional journals and by presentations at regional and national conferences. The easy availability of this research to practitioners makes ignorance of its content reprehensible.
Assessment in the Classroom
In a course context, writing assessment should be part of the highly social activity within the community of faculty and students in the class. This social activity includes:
* a period of un-graded work (prior to the completion of graded work) that receives response from multiple readers, including peer reviewers,
* Assessment of texts—from initial through to final drafts—by human readers, and
* More than one opportunity to demonstrate outcomes.
Self-assessment should also be encouraged. Assessment practices and criteria should match the particular kind of text being created and its purpose. These criteria should be clearly communicated to students in advance so that the students can be guided by the criteria while writing.


Renaissance and the Enlightenment Contribute to the Making of Modern World?

Posted by on Jan.18, 2012, under World History No Comments

Eighteenth century is remarkable in the history of Europe because it ushered in a new era. Significant developments could be seen in the field of art, architecture and literature. Renaissance brought a new vision in man’s life. It emphasizes on the creative power of man as an architect of his own destiny. Established dogmas and notions began to be questioned under scientific advancement. Renaissance is an Italian word meaning re-birth. It is associated with major social and cultural developments in Europe between and the 15th centuries. Renaissance contributed greatly to the creation of modern Europe. It laid the foundation stone on which modern Europe has been built, the features of renaissance includes formation of new ideologies, procures and discoveries, debates But some of the critics are of the opinion that renaissance provided essential ingredients or raw materials for the modern Europe. It was the enlightenment that laid the foundation of the modern world. According the turn of 18th and 19th centuries, it became obvious that the western societies were undergoing a radical structural change. In different fields like science, technology and production enormous growth could be seen that initiated a radical change of the western European society. Renaissance is immediately followed by reformation. It also contributed enormously to the spirit of self consciousness by privatizing religious practice and Protestantism. The major socio-cultural developments in Europe during the 13th-15th centuries were codified as renaissance. The new vision glorified individual .the new secular and individualistic values which were somewhat incompatible with Christian beliefs, constituted a new worldly philosophy of life known as humanism, drawing its main ideas and inspiration from ancient times. It is the only moral basis which inspired questioning about the feudal and Christian inheritances in Europe. New groups were emerged known as lawyers and notaries. They drew up and interpreted the rules and written agreement without which trade on a large scale was not possible with the growing development of commerce and trade there was a acute need for men skilled in drafting, recording and authenticating contract and letters. There were the notaries and specialists to do this work. During this period a new culture also emerged known as humanism renaissance .humanism was a new philosophy of life which glorified human nature in secular terms. The humanist self-image as free agents of civilization was sharpened by a new historical consciousness which enabled them to distinguish their time as an age of light in comparison with the preceding age. The humanists belonging to different generation thought themselves as a part of new generation. The renaissance had important implications for education. Petrarch’s dream of a cultural and moral generation of Christian society, based on the union of eloquence and philosophy, had important implications for education. Humanism also gained dominance with the evolution of a new art called printing. By 1500, many classical texts had been printed in Italy, mostly in Latin. But the most important development could be seen in the field of religion. One of the most important features of the renaissance is a beginning of a loosening control of religion over human life. Renaissance created conditions for the emergence of secular ideology. Apart from pursuit of glory, the self development of individual personality emerged as another social ideal. Eighteenth century Europe witnessed very wide sweeping changes in all spheres of life. After came the renaissance the age of reason which was popularly known as the age of enlightenment. The enlightenment men were not irreligious but they were bitterly against the institutions of Christianity. The age of reason of enlightenment generally used the scientific method of enquiry to launch a systematic attack or established religious norms and traditions.  Enlightenment theorists were emphasized on liberty, freedom and happiness for all. Enlightenment advocates twin belief that a) the present was better and more advanced than the past, and b) this advancement has resulted in the happiness of man. The growth in scientific knowledge had given the enlightenment grounds for being optimistic.


What do you Understand by Participatory Research?

Posted by on Jan.07, 2012, under World History No Comments

What do you understand by participatory research?
The key features of participatory research are:
People are the subjects of research: the dichotomy between subject and object is broken People themselves collect the data and then process and analyze the information using methods easily understood by them The knowledge generated is used to promote actions for change or to improve existing local actions The knowledge belongs to the people and they are the primary beneficiaries of the knowledge creation
Research and action are inseparable – they represent a unity research is a praxis rhythm of action-reflection where knowledge creation supports action People function as organic intellectuals there is an built-in mechanism to ensure authenticity and genuineness of the information that is generated because people themselves use the information for life improvement.
Such participatory research may not get written up. Oral and visual methods characterize this process of knowledge creation. If people can be stimulated to write them up in their own idiom then such research could be an important source of a people’s literature, and reading materials for a wider public.
Some of the material could be translated into pictures, cartoons, graphics, posters and slogans which may be a more effective method of communication. Such documentation may be carried out by community activists who are well placed to articulate the community’s way of thinking. The key processes of Participatory Research
The promotion of participatory research is basically an exercise in stimulating the people to: Collect information reflect and analyse it Use the results as a knowledge base for life improvement, and whenever possible, to document the results for wider dissemination ie for the creation of a people’s literature.


What is Difference Between Pure Vowels and Diphthongs in English? How do you Describe them?

Posted by on Dec.29, 2011, under Arts and Humanities No Comments

The pure vowels of English

The vowels can be plotted on a vowel diagram with reference to the cardinal vowels. We shall first plot the pure vowels. Since all vowels are voiced in English and there is no nasalized vowels we assume that during the production of English vowels the vocal cords are vibrating and the soft palate is raised to shut off the nasal passage. We describe vowels in terms of the parts of the tongue raised and the relative height to which it is raised in the mouth. The front of the tongue raised can be fairly high mouth than for the vowel in the bead or it can be slightly lower in the mouth for the production of the vowel in bead for example, in bid and lower for the vowel in bed and still lower for the vowel in bed. Similarly, the back of the tongue is high in the mouth for the production of the vowel in cool; it is slightly lower in the mouth low in the mouth for the vowel in calm. Another important feature used to describe vowels in the position of the lips during their production. Sometimes the position of the lips is the only distinguishing features-between two vowels. For example, the two vowels .a:/as in calm, and/D as in hot, are both vowels during the production of which the back of the tongue is low in the mouth, the only features that differentiates /a/; from /D/ is the position of the lips. We have referred to long and shorts vowels. When the talk about ‘long` vowels what we refer to is the relative length of long vowels. In identical environments long vowels are longer than short vowels. For example, the vowel /I,/ in feet is longer than the vowel/I/ in fit. These words differ in respect of the vowel alone. The two consonants /f/ and /t/ are common to both. Apart from this, each vowel has different degrees of length depending upon the phonetic environments in which it occurs. For example, generally a vowel is longer when it is followed by a voiced consonant or when it occurs finally in a word than when it is followed by a voiceless consonant, for example, the vowel Jar/ in side and sigh is longer than in sight. The /ae/ in tag is longer than the /ae/ in tact. A vowel in the final position in words is longer than it is before voiced consonants. For example, the vowels/a/ is longer in the word car than in the word card. Thus vowel length is a variant which depends upon the position that it occupies in a word.

The diphthong in English

The diphthongs are vowels in the production of which the tongue moves from one position in the mouth towards another position. In order to indicate this glide (movement) from one position towards another, the phonetic symbols for each diphthong is a combination of the two vowels- one in which the tongue is in position initially and the towards which the tongue moves. The two symbols represent a single sound and not two sounds. Of the eight diphthongs,

(a)    in the three tongue glides towards/I/, that is, /ei,ai/

(b)   in the two tongue glides towards /u/, that is,/au,au/, and

(c)    In the three the tongue glides towards /a/, that is,/ea,ua/.

The diphthongs in which the tongue moves towards the vowels/I, and U/are called closing diphthongs and those in which the tongue moves towards /a/ are called centering diphthongs. Closing diphthongs gliding to/I/ /

/er/as/in gate

The glide starts from a point just below the front, half-close position and moves in the direction of /I/. With the movement of the tongue towards/I/, the lower jaw moves upwards closer to the upper jaw than it was for /e/, the first element of the diphthong. The lips are spread.

/ai/as/in bite

For the production of /ai/ the tongue glides from a point near the front open position, towards the RP vowel /I//. Along with the glide the lower jaw moves from an open position to an appreciably closer position. The lips, which are in the neutral position at the beginning gradually change to a loosely spread position as for /I/. The vowel occurs in both accented and unaccented positions.

/oi/as boy

For the production of /oi/ first the back of the tongue moves towards the position between open and half-open and the lips are open rounded. Then the tongue glides in the direction of the vowel /I/.the lips, which open rounded at first, change the neutral towards the end. The jaw movement is less than for the diphthong/ai/.

Generally, the vowel occurs in accented syllables. Its occurrence syllables are rare. Closing diphthongs gliding to /u///:/au,au/.

/au/as in boat

For the diphthong/au/ the glide is from the central position between half-close and half-open, and moves in the direction of/u/. The movement of the jaw is very slight. The lips are neutral at the beginning of the glide and become rounded towards the end.

/ea/as in rare

. For the diphthong/ea/ the glide begins in the front between the half-close and half open, closer to the half-open position, and moves in the direction of /a/. The glide moves in the direction of the opener /a/if/ea/occurs finally as in bear, and in the direction of the less open variety of /a/if it occurs non-finally as in scarce, various. The lips are neutrally open throughout the production of the glide.


What is History of Common People? Discuss it with Reference to the History-writing in India.

Posted by on Dec.23, 2011, under History, Indian History, World History No Comments

Grass hoods history, history seen from below or the history of the common people, people’s history, and even ‘history of everyday life. The conventional history about the great deeds of the ruling classes received further boost from the great tradition of political and administrative historiography developed by Ranke and his followers. The history from below was an attempt to write the history of the common people. It is history concerned with the activities and thoughts of those people and regions that were neglected by the earlier historians. Peasants and working classes, women and minority groups, unknown faces in the crowd, and the people lost in the past became the central concern of this historiographical tradition.

According to Raphael Samuel, the term “people’s history” has had a long career, and covers and ensemble of different writing. The beginning of the history from below may be traced to the late 18th century. In the classical western tradition, history-writing involved the narration of the deeds of great men. The common people were considered to be beyond the boundaries of history and it was beneath the dignity of the historian to write about them. Peter burke points out, ‘until the middle of the eighteenth century, the word “society” in its modern sense did not exist in any European language, and without the word it is very difficult to have any conception of that network of relationships we call “society” or “the social structure”.

In India, most of members of the subordinate classes, including the industrial classes, are not literate, therefore, direct sources coming from them are extremely rare, if not completely absent. Given this scenario, the historian trying to write history from below have to rely on indirect sources. As sabyasachi bhattacharjee points out, given the low level of literacy we have to depend on interferences from behavior pattern. Report on opinions and sentiments, on oral testimonies etc. oral traditions also have their problems. They cannot be stretched back too far and one has to work within living memory. These problems are outlined by one of the great practitioner of history from below, Ranjit Guha,the founder of the subaltern studies . Above all “history from below” has to face problem of the ultimate relative failure of mass initiative in colonial India,

Most talk about elitist origins of the evidences which the historians use for understanding the mentalities behind the peasant rebellions. This has come down to us in the form of official records of one kind or another –police reports, army dispatches, administrative accounts, minutes and resolutions of governmental departments, and so on. Non-official sources of our information on the subject, such as newspapers or the private correspondence between persons of authority, too speak in the same elitist voice, even if it is that of the indigenous elite or of non-Indians outside officialdom.

History from the below,  As the perspective of the common people in the process of history- writing. It is in against that concept of historiography, which believes I Disraeli’s dictum that history is the biography of great men. Instead the history from below endeavors to take into accounts the lives and activities of masses who are otherwise ignored by the conventional historians. Moreover it attempts to take their point of view into accounts as far possible. It is venture; the historians face a lot of problems because the sources are biased in favor of the rulers, administrators and the dominant classes in general.


Evidences for support the evolution of Homo sapiens.

Posted by on Dec.15, 2011, under Men and Society, Science and Technology, World History No Comments

Homo sapiens, our own species, are distinct from other mammals: great apes such as chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans and from early hominids. At some point between 8 and 4 million years ago gorillas and then chimpanzees split off from the evolutionary line that would lead to humans. As Michael H. Hart explains in his fine book Understanding Human History, Australopithecus afarensis, our likely hominid forefather, lived in East Africa about 3.5 million years ago. The Australian anthropologist Raymond Dart (1893-1988) discovered the first fossil of an Australopithecus Africans, a slightly more evolved version of A. aphaeresis, in 1924 in southern Africa. It was neither ape nor human and caused a stir at the time. Prior to this find, most Western scholars had believed that humans evolved in Eurasia. Louis Leakey (1903-1972), the son of British missionaries, was an archaeologist and naturalist working in British-ruled East Africa. He went to school at Cambridge University in England, majoring in anthropology and graduating in 1926. From the very start Louis felt that our species arose in Africa, a concept which is now widely held but was controversial at that time. Through their tireless exploration and research, Louis and his English wife, the archaeologist and anthropologist Mary Leakey (1913-1996), made the Olduvai Gorge in the Serengeti region in northern Tanzania, famous for its wildlife, their domain. They made a series of spectacular pale anthropological and archaeological discoveries in East Africa and founded a Leakey family dynasty of leading scientists that is currently in its third generation. Lucy, the skeleton of an Australopithecus aphaeresis that lived 3.2 million years ago, was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 by the American pale anthropologist Donald Johnson (born 1943) along with the French anthropologist Yves Coppens (born 1934). The genus Homo diverged from Australopithecines more than two million years ago with Homo habilis, which made very crude stone tools called Oldowan after the Olduvai Gorge. About 1.8 million years ago a new species, Homo erectus, arose in East Africa, the first hominid to spread out of Africa. The earliest fossil of Homo erectus (“human that stands upright”), the Java man, was discovered by Dutch physician and pale anthropologist Eugene Dubois (1858-1940) in 1891 on the island of Java, then under Dutch colonial rule. H. erectus existed not just in Africa but in parts of Eurasia as far as Java in Southeast Asia, but apparently never settled in Australia or the Americas; this was achieved by early modern Homo sapiens during the past 40,000 years.


Perceptions of writing are shaped by the methods and criteria used to assess writing.

Posted by on Dec.06, 2011, under Education, Teaching No Comments

A. The methods and criteria that readers use to assess writing should be locally developed, deriving from the particular context and purposes for the writing being assessed. The individual writing program, institution, or consortium, should be recognized as a community of interpreters whose knowledge of context and purpose is integral to the assessment. There is no test which can be used in all environments for all purposes, and the best assessment for any group of students must be locally determined and may well be locally designed.

B. Best assessment practice clearly communicates what is valued and expected, and does not distort the nature of writing or writing practices. If ability to compose for various audiences is valued, then an assessment will assess this capability. For other contexts and purposes, other writing abilities might be valued, for instance, to develop a position on the basis of reading multiple sources or to compose a multi-media piece, using text and images. Values and purposes should drive assessment, not the reverse. A corollary to this statement is that assessment practices and criteria should change as conceptions of texts and values change.

C. Best assessment practice enables students to demonstrate what they do well in writing. Standardized tests tend to focus on readily accessed features of the language (grammatical correctness, stylistic choices) and on error rather than on the appropriateness of the rhetorical choices that have been made. Consequently, the outcome of such assessments is negative: students are said to demonstrate what they do wrong with language rather than what they do well. Quality assessments will provide the opportunity for students to demonstrate the ways they can write, displaying the strategies or skills taught in the relevant environment.


Any individual’s writing ability is a sum of a variety of skills employed in a diversity of contexts, and individual ability fluctuates unevenly among these varieties.

Posted by on Nov.23, 2011, under Education, Teaching No Comments

A. Best assessment practice uses multiple measures. One piece of writing—even if it is generated under the most desirable conditions—can never serve as an indicator of overall writing ability, particularly for high-stakes decisions. Ideally, writing ability must be assessed by more than one piece of writing, in more than one genre, written on different occasions, for different audiences, and responded to and evaluated by multiple readers as part of a substantial and sustained writing process.

B. Best assessment practice respects language variety and diversity and assesses writing on the basis of effectiveness for readers, acknowledging that as purposes vary, criteria will as well. Standardized tests that rely more on identifying grammatical and stylistic errors than authentic rhetorical choices disadvantage students whose home dialect is not the dominant dialect. Assessing authentic acts of writing simultaneously raises performance standards and provides multiple avenues to success. Thus students are not arbitrarily punished for linguistic differences that in some contexts make them more, not less, effective communicators. Furthermore, assessments that are keyed closely to an American cultural context may disadvantage second language writers. The CCCC Statement on Second Language Writing and Writers calls on us “to recognize the regular presence of second-language writers in writing classes, to understand their characteristics, and to develop instructional and administrative practices that are sensitive to their linguistic and cultural needs.” Best assessment practice responds to this call by creating assessments that are sensitive to the language varieties in use among the local population and sensitive to the context-specific outcomes being assessed.

C. Best assessment practice includes assessment by peers, instructors, and the student writer himself or herself. Valid assessment requires combining multiple perspectives on a performance and generating an overall assessment out of the combined descriptions of those multiple perspectives. As a result, assessments should include formative and summative assessments from all these kinds of readers. Reflection by the writer on her or his own writing processes and performances holds particular promise as a way of generating knowledge about writing and increasing the ability to write successfully


Important to set a number of writing tasks for purposes of assessment. Give reasons why this is important?

Posted by on Nov.15, 2011, under Career, Education, Teaching No Comments

Writing assessment can be used for a variety of appropriate purposes, both inside the classroom and outside: providing assistance to students, awarding a grade, placing students in appropriate courses, allowing them to exit a course or sequence of courses, certifying proficiency, and evaluating programs– to name some of the more obvious. Given the high stakes nature of many of these assessment purposes, it is crucial that assessment practices be guided by sound principles to insure that they are valid, fair, and appropriate to the context and purposes for which they designed. This position statement aims to provide that guidance.

In spite of the diverse uses to which writing assessment is put, the general principles undergirding it are similar:

Assessments of written literacy should be designed and evaluated by well-informed current or future teachers of the students being assessed, for purposes clearly understood by all the participants; should elicit from student writers a variety of pieces, preferably over a substantial period of time; should encourage and reinforce good teaching practices; and should be solidly grounded in the latest research on language learning as well as accepted best assessment practices.

Reasons why this is important:

1. Writing assessment is useful primarily as a means of improving teaching and learning. The primary purpose of any assessment should govern its design, its implementation, and the generation and dissemination of its results.

As a result…

A. Best assessment practice is informed by pedagogical and curricular goals, which are in turn formatively affected by the assessment. Teachers or administrators designing assessments should ground the assessment in the classroom, program or departmental context. The goals or outcomes assessed should lead to assessment data which is fed back to those involved with the regular activities assessed so that assessment results may be used to make changes in practice.

B. Best assessment practice is undertaken in response to local goals, not external pressures. Even when external forces require assessment, the local community must assert control of the assessment process, including selection of the assessment instrument and criteria.

C. Best assessment practice provides regular professional development opportunities. Colleges, universities, and secondary schools should make use of assessments as opportunities for professional development and for the exchange of information about student abilities and institutional expectations.

2. Writing is by definition social. Learning to write entails learning to accomplish a range of purposes for a range of audiences in a range of settings.

As a result…

A. Best assessment practice engages students in contextualized, meaningful writing. The assessment of writing must strive to set up writing tasks and situations that identify purposes appropriate to and appealing to the particular students being tested. Additionally, assessment must be contextualized in terms of why, where, and for what purpose it is being undertaken; this context must also be clear to the students being assessed and to all stakeholders.

B. Best assessment practice supports and harmonizes with what practice and research have demonstrated to be effective ways of teaching writing. What is easiest to measure—often by means of a multiple choice test—may correspond least to good writing; choosing a correct response from a set of possible answers is not composing. As important, just asking students to write does not make the assessment instrument a good one. Essay tests that ask students to form and articulate opinions about some important issue, for instance, without time to reflect, talk to others, read on the subject, revise, and have a human audience promote distorted notions of what writing is. They also encourage poor teaching and little learning. Even teachers who recognize and employ the methods used by real writers in working with students can find their best efforts undercut by assessments such as these.

C. Best assessment practice is direct assessment by human readers. Assessment that isolates students and forbids discussion and feedback from others conflicts with what we know about language use and the benefits of social interaction during the writing process; it also is out of step with much classroom practice. Direct assessment in the classroom should provide response that serves formative purposes, helping writers develop and shape ideas, as well as organize, craft sentences, and edit. As stated by the CCCC Position Statement on Teaching, Learning, and Assessing Writing in Digital Environments, “we oppose the use of machine-scored writing in the assessment of writing.” Automated assessment programs do not respond as human readers. While they may promise consistency, they distort the very nature of writing as a complex and context-rich interaction between people. They simplify writing in ways that can mislead writers to focus more on structure and grammar than on what they are saying by using a given structure and style.