An Analysis of China’s Four Traditional Festivals from the Perspective of the Theory of Cultural Functions

This paper analyzes the cultural elements of China’s four traditional festivals from the perspective of the Theory of Cultural Functions, which presents in detail the forming of traditional festivals, varied festival traditions and good expectations held by people toward lives. This paper is also designed with the aim to further exert the functions of traditional Chinese festivals, which as a result, will contribute to the preservation of national characters and the inheritance of national spirits.     

An Overdue Theoretical Discourse: Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice and Critical Race Theory in Education

Scholars often use Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Bourdieusian analyses with the aim of studying inequities in education. Despite their usefulness and popularity, a theoretical discourse between the two frameworks has not yet transpired and the two are sometimes constructed as incompatible, if not at odds. The argument in this essay is three-fold: (1) CRT has never fully engaged with Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice, (2) Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice and CRT, although distinct, are not necessarily in opposition, and (3) CRT and Bourdieusian concepts have the potential to inform each other, resulting in a more nuanced engagement of the interplay between structure, agency, and racial realities in education.     

International Immersion in Belize: Fostering Counseling Students’ Cultural Self-Awareness

International cultural immersion provides an in vivo, authentic, cross-cultural experience that can enhance multicultural awareness, knowledge and skills. This article examines the impact of an international immersion on graduate counseling students’ cultural self-awareness using a qualitative approach. Five graduate counseling students participated in a 3-week study abroad in Belize where they interacted with persons from diverse cultural backgrounds and settings. Four major cultural self-awareness themes emerged from the analysis of participants’ journals, (a) discrimination and prejudice, (b) cultural pride and appreciation, (c) cultural sensitivity, and (d) self-awareness. The findings are presented along with implications for future research and the use of international immersion as a viable experiential teaching strategy to enhance counseling students’ cultural self-awareness.     

Children’s Illustrated Magazines in the Era of Post-Soviet Transformation

Abstract

The study of Russian children’s illustrated magazines at the various stages of their formation and development remains a relevant topic due to the evolution of their printed forms in the context of the transformation of the media environment. The first Russian children’s magazine was Children’s Reading for the Heart and Mind [Detskoye chteniye dlya serdtsa i razuma] (1785–1789). This publication contributed to the creation of Russian periodical literature for children, and it provided the point of departure for the creative efforts of numerous publications that followed in its footsteps, including even present-day Russian children’s magazines.

The aim of the present article is to study the evolution of the forms of Russian children’s illustrated magazines under modern processes of the transformation of the media environment. This goal has determined the objectives of the paper: to study empirical materials related to this topic, consisting of numerous children’s publications from different historical periods; identifying the relevant stages of the development of children’s periodicals; examining the content and formal characteristics of children’s periodicals; applying an integrated approach to working with the most important aspects of Russian children’s magazines in the process of transforming the media reality.

Our research methodology is based on a structural approach, which has been updated to incorporate structural-functional, structural-formal, and system-synergetic approaches as well as linear regression methodology. The problems that arise from the epistemological context are determined by the significance of the integrated approach to the study of the formal structure of Russian children’s illustrated magazines. When we review the state of research in this area, we see that there have been very few studies of Russian periodicals for children despite the relevance of the topic.

During the process of their formation and development, children’s magazines came into being as a special type of publication with varying subject-thematic, ideological, political, pedagogical, and commercial orientations. They differed in their target audience, content, and presentation, and they were made available to a wide circle of readers. The content of these publications mainly included fiction, journalism, nonfiction articles, sociopolitical commentary, entertainment, and advertising. We have provided a theoretical justification of our research methodology, which uses the general scientific structural method and facilitates the study of the evolution of Russian children’s illustrated magazines. The methodology has allowed us to draw conclusions about how their formal structure as well as the larger media environment were transformed over time.     

Study on the Translation of Puns in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from the Perspective of the Functional Equivalence Theory

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a world-famous masterpiece in children’s literature.The adventure stories in the novel deeply attract the child readers in different countries in the world.The use of puns in the work adds to its aesthetic value.In China,many scholars have translated it.The research topic is the application of Nida’s theory of functional equivalence in the pun translation in children’s literature work Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the degree of equivalence in Wu Juntao’s translation.The person who does the research has read the original work and the translator Wu Juntao’s translation of this book,analyzed the translation of puns in the book,read the relevant journal articles on the theory of functional equivalence and thought about the academic views in them.On the basis of text reading,translation analysis and reference analysis,the following conclusion has been made:According to the basic points in the theory,in the work,Wu Juntao’s translation of the puns has basically achieved the equivalence between the original text and the target text in readers’responses,language style and language meaning.     

From Within the Belly of the Beast: Rethinking the Concept of the ‘Educational Marketplace’ in the Popular Discourse of Education Reform

The task of this article is to carry out a synthetic analysis of the concept of the educational marketplace as it is used in the popular discourse of education reform so as to unpack what has become a commonsensical idea in American politics. It is a conceptual framework that has opened an ever-expanding sovereign space in the American state for the colonization of a public institution by the private sphere by means of public policy. The results of this analysis suggest that the reform policies associated with the concept of the educational marketplace are ineffective in raising average student achievement, have a high probability for generating significant social costs, and are a manifestation of an articulation of power now in ascendancy in the United States.     

Revitalizing the Physical Education Social-Justice Agenda in the Global Era: Where Do We Go From Here?

Critical theorists have called attention to the intensification of diversity that is now occurring inside and outside of school, while critically engaging with the detrimental effects of globalization on equity, diversity, and social justice. Globalization presents new challenges to education and to issues of social justice. In this article, we argue that there is a need for scholars in the field of physical education to re-think and re-frame the social-justice agenda to address current inequalities produced by globalization. To support this argument, we first reflect on the impact of global neoliberalism on physical education; second, we discuss the ways in which, as a result of global neoliberalism, public health discourses have an “othering” effect on ethnically diverse young people; third, we propose a theoretical shift from a focus on equality to a focus on difference; and finally, we conclude with considerations for future research and curricula in school physical education.     

On the Translation of Hybridity in the Chinese Version of Saving Fish from Drowning in the Light of Bakhtin’s Theory of Dialogue

In translation, hybridity often poses a big challenge to the translator, especially when the hybrid text is a novel. The au?thor of this paper hopes to contribute to the study of the translation of hyb...     

China’s International Education Initiatives and View of Its Role in Global Governance

China is becoming an increasingly important actor in global governance. This paper contends that China participates by promoting its own global governance concepts on the one hand and by complying with the established global norms on the other. The paper introduces several key global governance concepts of the Chinese government and argues that they are likely to persist due to their roots in traditional Chinese Daoist and Confucian philosophies. It then focuses on China’s initiatives in education—the creation of Confucius Institutes and China’s involvement in United Nations (UN) educational initiatives—as examples of the Chinese approach. Finally, the paper discusses China’s educational profile in relation to its broader role in global governance.     

Rethinking Dąbrowski’s Theory II: It’s Not All Flat Here

Unilevel disintegration, the second level in D?browski’s theory, does not have a structure comparable to the higher levels. It also lacks direction. If so, one is bound to ask what is developmental about it and what, in fact, is developing in level II. Two classsic studies and one of highly gifted adults show three possible kinds of emotional development on the not-so-flat plane of level II: a personal growth from black-and-white to relativistic thinking, from no sense of self to an individual self, and fulfillment of one’s talents as a productive member of society. Viewing the levels as types of development makes clear that the first two levels are not precursors to advanced development.     

Education and the Contested Meanings of ‘Global Citizenship’

This article examines the oftentaken-for-granted educational policy and curricular discourses of globalization and global citizenship within their larger cultural, political, and economically uneven histories and unequal consequences. Drawing upon evidence from recent scholarship on the implications for classroom pedagogy embodied inefforts to internationalize curricula in the North American university contexts, as well as specific related efforts in one Canadian context, the University of British Columbia,this article unpacks the contested meanings of global citizenship from above and below.The author analyzes three dominant curricular discourses of global citizenship. Far from weakening the Canadian state and building instances of transnational democratic educational communities, these dominant discourses may actually reinforce notions of Canadian gendered and racialized nation-building and nationalism. The article raises questions about what an alternative curricular and educational policy discourse from below premised upon efforts to decolonize curricula might look like. By way of provisional conclusion, the author discusses some promising examples of such an alternative,showing how they depend on seeing the relations between the local and global neither as fixed abstractions nor as a slogan system to be applied in absolutist racial, geographical,national, or culturally essentialist terms.     

On Implicit Information Translation of Shakespeare’ s Works from the Perspective of Relevance Theory:In the Case of Zhu’ s Translation and Liang’ s Translation

The Relevance Theory put forward by Sperber and Wilson not only gives rise to a new research on pragmatics, but also provides a new theoretic foundation for other disciplines. Gutt applies the theory to translation and gives a relevance-theoretic account of translation. The relevance-theoretic communicative model provides rational explanation for existence of the implicit information. The appropri ate treatment of the implicit information is consistent with readers’ cognitive environment and expectation. Human communication de pends on not only the text, but also the inferential context. The adequate contextual effect is derived from the correct judgment and infer ence of the implicit information in communication. Therefore, the translator should match the original author’ s intention with target text readers’ expectation to make sure that they yield adequate contextual effects with appropriate processing efforts. Implicitness is one of the features of Shakespeare’ s works. It is more demanding for the translators to catch and transfer to the target readers the implicit information. Zhu Shenghao and Liang Shiqiu, the two famous translators adopt different translation strategies to deal with the implicit information in the works.     

Jerome Bruner’s Theory of Education: From Early Bruner to Later Bruner

Though a psychologist by training, Jerome Bruner has always been, and still is, one of the leading figures in education. His theory of education in the 1960s and the 1970s directly influenced the programs of education formulated during those decades. The influence of his theory after the 1980s seems to be less direct, and some who read his 1996 book, The Culture of Education, may have an impression that his educational theory has changed. In this paper, I will review the historical significance of the changes in Jerome Bruner’s work over his career and their implications for curriculum theory. I will argue that there are, in fact, significant changes in Bruner’s views.