Education policy as normative discourse and negotiated meanings: Engaging the Holocaust in Estonia

This article uses a socio-cultural approach to analyze the formation and implementation of Estonia’s Holocaust Day Policy, a day of both commemoration for victims of the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity, and education about the Holocaust. It investigates both the multi-level development of the policy in light of external pressure (from foreign advocates and transnational groups including NATO and the Council of Europe) and the ways in which policy as normative discourse was constructed and its meanings negotiated between international sources, the national government, and educators. It draws attention to the multifaceted nature of discourse in a post-authoritarian context where power disparities further complicate an already complex trans-national policy environment.     

Criteria and indicators as negotiated knowledge and the challenge of transfer

This paper aims to understand the effects on which criteria and indicators for (education for) sustainable development [(E)SD] are based in terms of knowledge transfer. Therefore, (E)SD criteria and indicators in general are regarded as negotiated and established knowledge, incorporating expectations. As such, this knowledge can be spread throughout the educational system in order to create a new order brought about by learning. Such a knowledge transfer takes place in different contexts, for instance, while (a) developing criteria and indicators, (b) applying them in organisations, and (c) reporting on criteria and indicators, thereby contributing to the diffusion of concrete social knowledge. The transfer of knowledge incorporated in criteria and indicators is revisited in the light of the concept of ‘loose coupling’ and of different paradigms, and is inspired by neo-institutionalist approaches. Drawing on these concepts, the paper discusses the challenge of transfer and suggests to overcome one-dimensional approaches to (E)SD development.     

Research as ideology in professional communication

This article claims that the debate over research in professional communication is grounded in ideology. The article discusses the ideologies of two research perspectives: a functionalist perspective, common in much social scientific research, and a critical interpretive perspective, currently emerging in disciplines other than our own. The article sets recent discussions of research in professional communication within a functionalist framework, then posits that a critical interpretive ideology provides an alternative. The interests advanced by both perspectives are discussed, and the viability of critical interpretive research in professional communication is supported.     

Comparison of learning in two context-based university chemistry classes

ABSTRACT

Context-based learning (CBL) is advocated as beneficial to learners, but more needs to be understood about how different contexts used in courses influence student outcomes. Gilbert defined several models of context that appear to be used in chemistry. In one model that achieves many criteria of student meaning-making, the context is provided by ‘personal mental activity’, meaning that students engage in a role to solve a problem. The model’s predicted outcomes are that students develop and use the specialised language of chemistry, translate what they learn in the immediate context to other contexts, and empathise with the community of practice that is created. The first two of these outcomes were investigated in two large-enrolment university chemistry courses, both organised as this CBL model, in which students were introduced to kinetic molecular theory (KMT). Sample 1 students (N₁?=?105) learned KMT through whole-class kinaesthetic activity as a human model of a gas while focusing on a problem identifying substances in balloons filled with different gases. Sample 2 students (N₂?=?110) manipulated molecular dynamics simulations while focusing on the problem of reducing atmospheric CO₂. Exam answers and pre-/post-test responses, involving a new KMT context, were analysed. Students in Sample 1 demonstrated a stronger understanding of particle trajectories, while Sample 2 students developed more sophisticated mechanistic reasoning and greater fluidity of translation between contexts through increased use of chemists’ specialised language. The relationships of these outcomes to the contexts were examined in consideration of the different curriculum emphases inherent in the contexts.     

农村教育:矛盾及对策

推进农村税费改革和实行“以县为主”的义务教育管理体制,是解决“三农”问题,实现城乡和区域统筹,促进社会经济全面、协调、可持续发展的两项关键举措。这两项举措在促进农村改革发展取得可喜成绩的同时,也引发了农村教育的许多矛盾和问题。应采取必要措施,突出重点,解决问题,如:建立公共财政体系,完善教育经费的分担机制;改革税收金融体制,解决历史留下的债务问题;优化教育投入机制,提高教育资源的使用效能;推进办学体制改革,建立现代教育的治理制度;改革教育行政体制,建立现代教育的市场制度;完善立法司法体系,强化教育发展的法治保障。通过这些措施,调整和完善两项举措,确保农村教育持续健康发展。     

Powerful knowledge and the curriculum: Contradictions and dichotomies

The concept of powerful knowledge (PK) has central dichotomies and contradictions, which this article questions. The origins, meaning, purpose and reality of PK are considered. PK is based in social realism, and the article suggests how critical realism could inform more illuminating analyses of knowledge and power. The two versions of realism are compared for their different approaches to dichotomies and dialectic, and to types of knowledge as sacred or profane. The dichotomies assumed in PK theory, which will be reviewed, are: separating concepts from values; informal everyday experience versus formal academic education; separating disciplines versus interdisciplinarity; passive versus active learning and curriculum versus pedagogy; and policies versus theories of power and knowledge. The article concludes that these dichotomies are unrealistic and unhelpful. If teaching informed by PK theory is to benefit students and society, and if knowledge is to be associated with power, it will be helpful to overcome or revoke the dichotomies, which are better understood through dialectical analysis, as shown throughout the article.     

论大学生两大课堂的良性对接

大学生两大课堂的良性对接是指第一课堂与第二课堂通过互动互补的"结合"实现在结构、机制与功能上的有机性、联通性和整体性。两大课堂的良性对接,体现了理论与实践的对立统一,教师与学生的教学相长,有利于学生知识、能力和素质的整体优化。实现两大课堂的良性对接必须建立一种中介组织,确立学生的主体性地位,实现二者教育功能上的互补。     

Contradictions as the driving force of collective and subjective development group employment programmes

This paper explores the role of collective contradictions in the development of participants in a group employment programmes. It presents an analysis, rooted in cultural-historical activity theory, of longitudinal data collected during an intervention aimed at social and professional reintegration of people living a long-term unemployment situation. Notably based on contradictions typology proposed by Y. Engeström and Sannino (2011), our analysis shows a predominance of discursive manifestations of conflicts and critical-conflicts in the transformation of the group’s activity. The contribution to the resolution of contradiction and the mobilization of scientific and systematic conceptual instruments seems to promote the processes of consciousness that allow, on the one hand, a better understanding of what shapes these actions, thoughts and emotions, and on the other hand, a greater control or mastery thereof. This inclusion of conceptual knowledge in the curricula of employment programmes plays a critical role in the empowerment of participants. The analysis of the collective activity of groups aimed at social and professional integration shows the importance of dialectical contradictions as a driving force for development, both in terms of collective and subjective activity. Findings support the benefits of the group context in helping participant’s development towards SPI.     

Reproduction and Contradictions in Schooling: the case of Commercial Studies

This paper attempts to explore processes involved in cultural and social reproduction with specific reference to commercial studies in a Queensland Secondary School. Reproduction theories are discussed and a framework for analysing school experience is developed. It is argued that this broad approach to the study of school experience encompasses the formal and informal, the overt and covert, and social relations as well as content aspects of the curriculum. Empirical data on the structuring of school experience in commercial studies are presented under the categories: organisation, content, methodology and general values.

The final section of the paper considers the relationship between school experience and the occupational structure with respect to commercial studies. These subjects can be seen to reproduce the patriarchal and hierarchical relationships of office work. However, a number of recent changes in the structure of the workforce and the nature of office work, have resulted in a number of ‘contradictions’ in the school/work relationship. The implications of the study in relation to educational and social change are discussed.     

Actors and ideology for educational policy transfer: the case of education reforms in the two Koreas during the Soviet and US military occupation

This paper critically considers the notion of educational policy transfer by addressing the roles of significant actors, based on an analysis of educational reforms made during the Soviet and US military occupation in the two Koreas. Using evidence from the Korean cases, the paper challenges the state-centric, linear, and static views of educational policy transfer, and proposes a new conceptualisation which involves multiple actors from different levels including international, domestic, and individual players. While the educational reforms in the two Koreas were developed by the Soviet and US military in order to maximise their long-term security interests in the Korean peninsula, the key actors who implemented the reforms were Korean policy-makers, who had been appointed to key positions of the educational administrations through the bureaucratic politics between the military authorities and the Korean polity. Thus, specific programmes and policies for implementation of the reforms depended on the Korean policy-makers’ understanding and interpretations of the different ideologies of the Soviet Union and the USA.     

Sociopolitical ideology as a determinant of students' perceptions of the university

The effect of ideological self-identification on students' perceptions and evaluations of three academic stimulus objects is investigated. Sociopolitical ideologies do structure perceptions of the academic milieu; conservative and liberal students view academic objects differently and do not use the same dimensions when describing academic objects. In predicting students' political identifications stimulus objects as well as perceptual dimensions must be taken into account.The research reported here was partially supported by the Illinois Public Interest Research Group. The assistance of IPIRG members and of SIU-C students on this project is gratefully acknowledged. Additional support was provided by the Yale University Political Science Department and the Yale University Computer Center.     

Quality and Equity in Australian Universities: Contradictions and Challenges

There is no apparent relationshipd bettwen the outcome of 1993 CQAHE quality ratings and universities’ standing on several measures of equity performance. Further, there is no relationship between the overall quality ratings and the content of universities’ submissions referring to equity issues.     

大学校长治校的基本矛盾:变革与稳定

本文对大学校长治校的基本矛盾——变革与稳定——进行了论述。认为,处理好变革与稳定这一对关系,成为大学校长治校成败的重要领导艺术。稳定是大学存在的特点,变革是大学发展的手段。以变革求稳定,以稳定促变革,是大学校长治校的主旋律。稳定是变革开展的必备秩序,变革是形成新稳定秩序的动力。一个有追求的大学校长,首要作用是使大学处于一种在“危机”状态中的平衡状态。危机意味着领导作用的凸现,意味着新的变革机会。     

从两处碑文看青州先民的自然保护意识

作者在对青州市植物资源进行调查时 ,发现过一块重要的残碑和一处碑文 ,经仔细研读 ,发现其均与当地的自然保护有关。由此证明 ,中国的“自然保护”并非“泊来品”;我们的前人也不乏自然保护意识 ,早在 2 5 0多年前 ,“自然保护”一词尚未产生时 ,就已开始了自然保护行动