On Timothy Findley’s The Wars and Classrooms as Communities of Remembrance

In this paper I explore the connection between narrative ethics and the increasing emphasis on historical consciousness as a way to cultivate moral responsibility in history education. I use Timothy Findley’s World War I novel, The Wars, as an example of how teachers might help students to see history neither simply as a collection of artefacts from the past, nor as an effort to construct an objective view about what went on in those other times and places, but rather as something that makes ethical demands on us here and now. Theoretically, this paper draws on Adam Zachary Newton’s conception of narrative ethics and Roger Simon’s conception of historical consciousness, both of which rest on the Levinasian themes of irreducible difference, the face, and subjectivity as a position of ethical responsibility to and for the other.     

Aesthetics of Surrender: Levinas and the Disruption of Agency in Moral Education

Education has long been charged with the taskof forming and shaping subjectivity andidentity. However, the prevailing view ofeducation as a project of producing rationalautonomous subjects has been challenged bypostmodern and poststructuralist critiques ofsubstantial subjectivity. In a similar vein,Emmanuel Levinas inverts the traditionalconception of subjectivity, claiming that weare constituted as subjects only in respondingto the other. In other words, subjectivity isderivative of an existentially priorresponsibility to and for the other. Hisconception of ethical responsibility is thusalso a radical departure from the prevailingview of what it means to be a responsible moralagent. In this paper, I use jazz improvisationas a metaphor to focus on three interrelatedaspects of ethical responsibility on Levinas'saccount: passivity, heteronomy, andinescapability. I then point toward some waysin which reframing responsibility andsubjectivity along this line might offer newpossibilities for conceiving subjectivity andmoral agency in education.     

Prediction of work functioning following accidental injury: The contribution of PTSD symptom severity and other established risk factors

Responses to a mail survey were used to investigate the contribution of PTSD symptom severity to work functioning in 69 previously employed adult survivors of accidental injury approximately 8 months post‐hospitalization. Associations of PTSD symptom severity with other established risk factors for poor work functioning were also examined. Participants were initially divided into three groups based on PTSD symptom severity and analysis of variance undertaken to determine the differences in work functioning between survivors with PTSD, subclinical PTSD, and no PTSD. As anticipated, survivors with PTSD reported significantly poorer work functioning than those with subclinical PTSD and no PTSD. Those with subclinical PTSD, however, reported significantly lower levels of work functioning than survivors with no PTSD, suggesting that this population may also be at risk of poor outcomes and in need of vocational interventions post‐accident. To determine the influence of PTSD symptom severity on work functioning over and above other established risk factors, a two‐model hierarchical regression that included the established risk factors in the first model and PTSD in the final model was undertaken. Results revealed that PTSD symptom severity uniquely predicted work functioning after controlling for the influence of other contributing risk factors. A composite of seven risk factors, including PTSD symptom severity, was shown to predict 62% (57% adjusted) of the variance in work functioning but only pre‐accident occupation, physical functioning, and PTSD severity significantly contributed to the prediction. Findings suggest that the rehabilitation management of people with PTSD or subclinical PTSD following accidental injury would benefit from early identification by the established predictors together with an integrated approach to physical, psychological, and vocational interventions.