Rousseau and the image of 'modern education'

The concept of 'modern education' is directly connected with Rousseau's theory of education. It is often said that Rousseau 'founded' modern education, or at least was its most influential predecessor. The paper argues that 'modern learning' or 'experimental education' was discussed within the late-17 th century 'quarrel of the ancients and moderns'. After this historically important debate, education and learning could be connected with the open experience of modern science. When compared to this tradition, Rousseau was not a modern writer. His concept of education has been far too paradoxical to serve as a groundwork for what was considered to be 'modern' or 'progressive education' at the end of the 19 th century. The image of progressive education was strengthened by child psychology, especially by theories of learning and development. Rousseau's stoic concept of 'negative education' is in many respects the opposite to such a viewpoint.     

Edifying Youths. The Chambers of Rhetoric in Seventeenth-Century Holland

For the early modern period, historians have primarily looked at institutional forms of education when investigating the intellectual molding of youths. With the exception of the wealthy, their conclusions have often been one-sided. However, youths of the middling sort in the Dutch Republic were more resourceful. Youths that could not afford a formal education at a Latin school or a university resorted to alternative resources such as chambers of rhetoric. For historians of education, chambers of rhetoric are not an obvious terrain to excavate. Traditionally, the chambers have been studied for their public literary and theatrical activities. However, those incidental public performances were only a fraction of what took place in private. In this essay we will probe into the literary activities of the chambers' private weekly meetings and illustrate how the Dutch chambers of rhetoric in the seventeenth century played an important role in edifying youths from the middling sort into a cultural elite.     

The social context of early schooling and children's school adjustment

The transition to elementary school is a major developmental milestone in the life of a child. It has been estimated that a significant number of children experience academic, social-emotional, or behavioral difficulties as they adapt to the challenges of formal schooling. Furthermore, these difficulties are compounded by poverty, often co-occur, and persist over time. This article explores the relation between the social context of early schooling; that is, features of the classroom and school environment and children's adjustment. A contextual understanding of early school adjustment fills an important gap in the literature and provides direction for future research.     

The culture of poverty,again

ABSTRACT

This introduction to the special issue offers a selective account of two efforts, across a half century, to describe and alleviate the plight of poor people and their children in school: a specific train of thought called the “culture of poverty” from its origin in 1959, through its express track to prominence across the 1960s, to its research-led crash from 1968 to 1980. The reason for documenting this history is the reemergence of culture of poverty rhetoric in the last decade. Our response recommends the early critiques to the new culture of poverty, which has mostly side-stepped a potent body of social scientific and literary contestation. The papers that follow give detail to the issues raised.     

Liberal education: An overlapping pragmatic consensus

In reviewing the course of liberal education in the US during the 20th century, Bruce Kimball in 1995 proposed that a pragmatic consensus was emerging about the understanding of liberal education. The two-fold tradition of liberal education, with its shifting emphases and accommodations between 'orators' and 'philosophers,' was being transformed into a 'new American tradition of liberal education deeply rooted in the resurgent intellectual tradition of pragmatism'. A number of different, even contradictory, criticisms of Kimball's thesis have been offered concerning the existence and nature of such a consensus and its relationship(s) to pragmatism. We suggest that the consensus thesis and the criticisms it has encountered might be best understood by comparing it to Rawls's idea of an 'overlapping consensus'. Comparing and contrasting Kimball's project and Rawls's approach suggests that the emerging consensus concerning liberal education at the beginning of the 21st century is an overlapping consensus, that is, a consensus whose nature is pragmatic, as well as a consensus whose substantive tenets are rationalized by pragmatism. Understanding the consensus in this way accounts for the varied criticism that Kimball's thesis has received and makes a significant difference in understanding the theory and practice of liberal education in the 21st century.     

农村教育和培训应为社区建设服务

科学救国、科教兴国的理想持续推动了中国100年的教育改革。20世纪20年代至30年代教育改革的前辈看到新学摧毁了维系中国农村基层的文化和教育传统,乡村发展停滞。过去25年的教育改革和大规模发展使得农村教育问题愈加棘手。教育改革走向决策权高度集中、管理方式单一、教育内容统一,难以满足农村广大地区各类社会人群的文化教育需求。农村建设需要知识和技能,更需要有居住者参与和协作的社会支持体系。非正规教育培训、边干边学是人类传承文化知识和发展技能的动态式教育培训和自我教育培训的方式。成人的非正规教育是社会进程中参与者共同建构新社会形态、创造知识技能、达到概念和行动认同的重要途径。     

Educational Pluralism - a historical study of so-called 'pillarization' in the Netherlands,including a comparison with some developments in South African education

Recently, modern democratic governments have been facing religious and other minorities demanding state funding of separate schools. A system of completely equal treatment of both state and denominational schools has existed in the Netherlands since 1920 and is firmly rooted in the Dutch history of the previous centuries. It may be of interest to know how this pluralistic system of 'pillars'-as it has been called in Dutch historiography-came into being and how it has functioned ever since, even until the present day, when 'pillarization' is still a prominent feature of the Dutch educational domain, despite strong secularising and post-modern tendencies. This paper describes the historical roots of the Dutch pillarized educational system, i.e. of this remarkable subcultural segmentation of education-and of society in general-on the basis of different religious or philosophical views. In the process of pillarization a crucial part was played by Dutch Protestants. With South Africa being heavily influenced by these Protestants and South African educational history running partly parallel to Dutch educational history during the 19th century, it seems worthwhile to examine why pillarisation did not occur in the southern hemisphere. In order to understand the process of pillarization it is necessary to look well into the history of the Netherlands since the 17th century. Relevant similarities between the South African and the Dutch developments up to 1900 are presented as well. At the time when the Dutch system of educational 'pillars'-or 'voluntary apartheid' as it has recently been called-fully developed towards the end of the 19th century, South African educational history, however, took a completely different course towards compulsory racial apartheid. The present revolutionary changes in South Africa, however, seem to entail some new interesting parallels between the educational situations in both countries. To substantiate this, the paper highlights some relevant features of 20th century South African educational developments, before analysing the present Dutch situation and giving the reasons for the permanent strength of the pillars. Not only are the old pillars still standing firmly, but new minorities of immigrants have also discovered the uses of the system of pillarization for identity-building and cultural emancipation. To conclude, the paper addresses the question of whether pillarization in education can and should be adopted outside the Netherlands.     

Federal Policies and Local Realities: The Case of Appalachian Senior Programs

ABSTRACT

National senior service programs have had a long and relatively successful history. Emerging at the intersection of federal aging and poverty policy initiatives in the early 1960s, projects such as the Foster Grandparent Program (FGP) and the Senior Companion Program (SCP) have expanded in size and scope over the last several decades. These two programs were first introduced into northwestern North Carolina in the 1980s. While the experiences of FGP and SCP in the region have broadly mirrored the successes of programs located elsewhere, they have also confronted difficulties unique to their local realities that federal policy guidelines are often not sensitive to.     

Special education in Spain at the beginning of the 21st century: the challenge to educate in an unequal and multicultural society

An overview of the challenges facing the Spanish Special Education system at the turn of the century is presented. Significant changes have occurred in Spain over the last two decades that have affected the landscape of Spanish public schools in an unprecedented way. First, since the late 1980s, students with a variety of disabilities have been attending general education classrooms along with their peers. Additionally, for the last 20 years, Spain has experienced a dramatic increase in immigration patterns from Northern Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Thus, Spanish educators are facing the challenge of educating an increasingly heterogeneous student body. Students' different educational needs are often handed down to the special educator teacher who is faced with the task of ensuring the student's academic and social participation. Reform efforts conducted by Spanish educators to ensure that all students, regardless of their gender, ability level, ethnic and social backgrounds, as well as language and religion of origin, have equal access to a full social and academic participation in their schools and communities are described.     

PPT战略及其在旅游扶贫开发中的实践

近十年来，我国旅游扶贫工作取得了可喜的成就．但各地也出现了不少的问题。近年来，PPT战略作为一种全新的旅游扶贫开发思路开始广泛应用于我国旅游扶贫开发实践中。文章重点分析了PPT战略的内涵，并结合我国旅游扶贫开发实际．分析了实施PPT战略的原则、流程以及实施PPT战略具体的措施。     

关于李大钊论历史学性质问题的探析

历史学的学科性质,是艺术,还是科学?在20世纪初期,中国史学家就这一问题展开讨论,李大钊很早就开始关注与思考这一史学理论中最基本而且很重要的理论问题。在近代中国,李大钊是对于历史学的学科性质问题论述较早,也较为成熟的史学家。李大钊关于历史学特有性质的论述,是他史学思想中的一个重要内容。否认历史学不具有科学性的一些人,往往是从否认历史发展无规律可循立论的。李大钊关于历史学性质的论述也是对这一不正确的认识的积极回应。李大钊坚定地指出:"史学之当为一种科学,在今日已无疑义。"李大钊在坚持历史学的学科性质是科学的同时,也承认在具体的历史研究过程中存在艺术性的工作。历史学研究含有艺术性的工作和历史学是艺术是两回事。历史研究中所体现的这种艺术性是工作层面的事情,并不等同于学科层面。     

What has Happened in the Teaching of Politics in Schools in England in the Last Three Decades,and Why?

During the last three decades there have been very different approaches to political learning in schools in England. Very generally, prior to the 1960s, if anything was done explicitly, there was a concentration on learning facts about the British constitution. The late 1960s and into the 1970s saw a 'burgeoning of interest' (Heater) in political education characterised by attention to skills within a broader definition of politics than had been used in British Constitution courses. The 1980s saw the birth or, in some cases, redevelopment, of a whole raft of adjectival educations concerned with peace, development, the environment, 'race', in a way that was more holistic and affective than earlier initiatives. The current period has been described as 'the decade of the citizen' (Dahrendorf), which for most of the 1990s seems to have meant some attempt at learning about responsibilities within a framework of officially sanctioned values, and opportunities to undertake voluntary action in the local community. Very recent developments shift education for citizenship into more enlightened waters but there may be little cause for optimism that widespread implementation will occur. The reasons for such shifts are discussed and trends and consequences (actual and likely) are explored.     

The Other Side of the Gender Gap

In 1990s Britain girls consistently outperform boys in examinations at 16 + . This achievement, however, has taken place in a context where many of the concerns voiced by writers in the 1970s and 1980s have not been resolved. It is argued that there is another side to the so-called 'gender gap': drawing on data from 20 schools in eastern England, it is suggested that girls still feel alienated from traditionally 'male' subjects, that career aspirations are still highly gendered, that boys still dominate the classroom environment, that boys' laddish behaviour can have a negative effect on girls' learning, and that some teachers have lower expectations of girls and find boys more stimulating to teach. In short, the gender debate has been captured by those concerned predominantly with male underachievement, leaving girls to make the best they can in what often continues to be a male-dominated environment.     

精准扶贫的中国经验与时代价值

精准扶贫是我国扶贫开发工程推进到新阶段后的新举措。精准扶贫是一个动态的过程,其核心要义是精准,其根本是扶志与扶智。我国的精准扶贫取得了丰富的经验:坚持中央主导,发挥地方政府积极性;推动经济发展,激发贫困人口脱贫动力;鼓励社会扶贫,汇集社会扶贫合力;重在精准战略,突出精准扶贫实效;加强国际合作,拓展扶贫减贫渠道。精准扶贫是我国全面建成小康社会的根本需要,是扶贫开发实践模式的探索创新,是党执政能力现代化的重要表现,为世界减贫工作作出了巨大贡献。     

Europe,Continental philosophy and the philosophy of education

On what might a comparative discussion of philosophy of education that takes Europe as one of its terms be based? This paper begins by addressing the complexity that attaches to the name 'Europe' in this context in order to lay the way for a more detailed consideration of so-called 'Continental' philosophy--specifically of poststructuralism. It makes reference to the ways in which the work of poststructuralist thinkers has often been interpreted in 'postmodern' educational theory and seeks to reveal certain errors in this regard. Distinctions are drawn between postmodernity, postmodernism and poststructuralism, illustrating the last of these in terms of two influential strands of thought drawn from Levinas and Nietzsche, and indicating their value for education. In conclusion, some brief remarks are offered regarding the institutionalization of philosophy of education in Europe.     

Exploring Gender,Management Education and Careers: Speaking in the silences

In a research project following the careers of a group of women graduates, the authors have sought to extend the feminist conversation and education begun in a university course called 'Women and Management'. Some of these conversations include critical reflections on gender, career theory, and managerialism. Many of the project participants aspire to or have undertaken managerial careers. Inevitably there are silences within the project: often they are silences which reflect the silences within management and management education discourses. Some of those silences are to do with class differences, employment difference and differences in ethnicity. Others are to do with the private lives of the women involved and the difficulty of speaking about things that are unspeakable in management terms or organisational contexts. Part of the challenge for the authors as researchers has been to understand and work in honourable ways with those silences.     

Retrospection and Inspiration of Green Education Campaign in Chinese Primary and Secondary Schools

As the torch of learning is passed from generation to generation, competition at the turn of the century is still a competition for talent, a competition for intelligence. China's one-hundred-year history of sending students abroad has, in reality, been the history of the Chinese nation's determined efforts to build up a prosperous state and a strong people. From among the people who studied in Japan and France in the early years of this century and those who studied in the United States and Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, many great men of this century and outstanding politicians have emerged, as well as famous scholars and extraordinarily talented artists. Many brilliant names have stood out among the students who sailed across the seas. After the founding of New China, heavily guarded walls separated East and West, so that have acquired advanced theoretical knowledge and technical skills abroad, have a relatively good professional grounding, understand Chinas circumstances, are familiar with circumstances abroad, and have advantages in such respects as language, techniques, management, and marketing experience. They come back to China chiefly to seek better space for development and to carve out an undertaking. Thus it is essential to pay attention to overseas students and bring their abilities into play. Currently, Shenzhen City has but a few research institutions and a limited number of institutions of higher learning, and its party and government organs and institutions do not provide many positions. Thus we must resolve the overseas students difficulties regarding the choice of occupation, residence registration, housing, professional title, and arrangements for their family members. This will enable them to work with their minds at ease and contribute their talents. Also, one should not demand perfection from overseas students or place excessively high expectations on them; we should instead make use of their strong points and avoid their weaknesses, so that they will soon display their abilities and find their true strengths.     

Children's Theory of God's Mind: Theory-of-Mind Studies and Why They Matter to Religious Education

Theory-of-mind research has been carried out for over three decades, examining the ways children understand the minds of others—their perspectives, intentions, desires, and knowledge. Since the early 21st century, theory-of-mind studies have begun exploring the ways in which children think and reason about the minds—not only of ordinary, visible figures such as humans or animals—but of invisible figures such as spirits, angels, imaginary friends, and God. This growing body of research provides insight into children's cognitive development generally, but also into what could be called a “theory of religious mind.”     

全球化背景下的大国政治构建——以中国、俄罗斯、印度为例

在全球化背景下，建设大国已成为国际舞台上的重要景观。上世纪末本世纪初以来，中、俄、印三国都提出了建设大国的政治目标，进行了相应的政治建设。实践表明，要从国际政治战略的角度来认识国家的政治建设，大国建设不是全能政府的建设，而是要注重完善自身的文化构成。     

Empowerment and Debilitation in the Educational Experience of the Blind 1 in Nineteenth‐century England and Scotland

In earlier ‘humanitarian’ accounts, Britain’s voluntary blind institutions exemplified successful nineteenth‐century philanthropy and later became effective partners of the state. From the 1970s, Victorian charity came increasingly under criticism and subsequent studies on disability condemn the exclusion and utilitarian training of a Foucauldian ‘Age of Confinement’. Recent defences of the private record in blind welfare and education claim voluntarism’s survival proves its value and strengths. Social responses to blindness have often been complex and those involved in the early education of the blind should not be judged too categorically. The comparative poverty of Britain’s overall provision may be explained by the long absence of the state but positive initiatives did emerge. Worcester College’s pupils attained academic excellence and encouraging attempts at integration by some school boards demonstrated an alternative to confinement. The relatively small impact of these experiments, nationally, was attributable to particular elements in Britain’s educational culture.