Portraying intelligence: children’s drawings of intelligent men and women in Finnish and Russian Karelia

This study sets out to examine Finnish and Russian children’s representations of intellectual competence as contextualised in the hierarchies of abilities, age and gender. Finnish and Russian pupils, aged 11–12?years, were asked to draw pictures of an intelligent person and an ordinary person. It was found that gender appearance of intelligent men and women was less heterosexual than that of ordinary men and women. In Russian pictures, the intelligent characters, especially women, were widely separated from the ordinary ones in terms of cognitive-mental features. In Finnish depictions, the differentiation between the intelligent and ordinary characters, especially women, was not so categorical and was primarily based on status. It appears that Russian children are apt to relate their representations of intellectual ability to the institutionalised systems of cognitive competence, education and science, whereas Finnish children associate intelligence to social success as well. Further, cultural and gender-related hierarchies of age seemed to reflect in the children’s images.     

Critical moments and second-chance education constructing socially excluded women’s stories of career success

This study narrates the role of education/training in the career success stories of twelve women on an Irish active labour market programme, Community Employment (CE). All from lower socio-economic groups, having early school-leaving backgrounds, and, prior to CE, were long-term unemployed. CE enhances the employability of the long-term unemployed by offering job opportunities and providing education/training. Using narrative inquiry, it understands how the women (re)construct their interpretations of their career success following critical moments of change in their lives. The study narrates the stories on a case-by-case basis according to the category of critical moment that each participant experienced and then views the chronicles via the lens of social class as mediated through the educational structure. It, therefore, specifically recognises the micro-individual and macro-social aspects of a person’s interpretation of his/her career and education/training experiences. To understand the change process inherent in the stories, a theoretical construct, Giddens’ (1991) fateful moment, is operationalised by examining how the critical moments evolve in to fateful moments facilitated by the structural influence of the education/training provided by the expert system of CE. The study concludes by proposing three categories of career success for this sample to take account of their altered career structures.     

Management by Results and Higher Education Evaluation as Fashions and Success Stories: The Case of Finland1

Fashion is easily understood as something to do with style and consumption. However, the concept of fashion can also be applied when organisations and the change in them is analysed and explained. Universities and their departments adopt different kinds of policy fashions. This article approaches management by results and evaluation in the Finnish context as fashions and success stories which universities and their departments have either accepted or rejected. Fashions and reactions to them have created new practices and cultures, and simultaneously either displaced the old practices or taken their place with them. Fashions are further translated into local action at universities and their departments.     

‘Education is a life marathon rather than a hundred-meter race’: Chinese ‘folk’ comparative discourses on Finnish education

Over the past decade Finnish education has been praised worldwide for its students’ ‘amazing’ results in the OECD PISA studies. Thousands of pedagogical tourists – including policy-makers, researchers and educators – have visited the country to find out about the reasons behind the success and to borrow, often uncritically and un-reflexively, Finnish practices that can help them to become ‘good performers’ too. This has resulted in what we call ‘folk’ comparative discourses on Finland. China is no exception to the rule. In this article we examine a range of books about Finnish education published in the Middle Kingdom (China) for a general rather than narrowly specialist readership. We are interested in how these volumes construct certain images and myths about it and what these tell us about how the authors view Chinese education but also current societal discussions about it. Our approach is based on critical and reflexive interculturality.     

Senior female academics in the UK academy: theoretical perspectives for understanding the impact of education and familial influences on career success

This paper examines the theoretical perspectives I utilised in my doctoral research to uncover the role of class and gender in my respondents’ stories and experiences of their career success. I argue that adopting an economic model for conceptualising the influence of social class and gender in the respondents’ stories and experiences of their career success is inadequate because it has historically neglected to take account of women’s position in the labour market. Drawing on an example from my data examining the influence of the respondents’ familial attitudes and dispositions towards education, the paper contends that Bourdieu’s concept of habitus is an invaluable tool for theorising senior female academics’ pathways to career success by bringing together a cultural, social and economic understanding of social class and gender.     

不同文化背景下的"女强人"人生轨迹--王熙凤与思嘉丽形象比较

王熙凤和思嘉丽分别是东西方小说的“女强人”形象代表,她们为权力而奋斗的故事是“女强人”的成功之道。性格的差异和手段的不同,使她俩有着不同的命运,她们的形象也闪烁出不同的光芒。通过分析两者的性格和命运来探讨她们形象的异同。     

The Past is Difference - The Difference is Past

Education has been the main channel through which Finnish women have attempted to achieve the status of an individual. But what has the story of women's individualisation been like? The article examines women's educational life stories - 'independence narratives' - and highlights the gendered interpretations women have made of their lives. The gender difference in these stories is a temporal difference within the self: through the rhetorical construction of a dualistic division between the past and the present self, a qualitative hierarchy is introduced between a (past) woman and a seemingly gender-neutral individual. Moreover, the use of the woman as the temporal other of the individual reflects the timeless character of the individual. The individual constitutes a norm that determines the perspective from which the past and the present are viewed. While the individual is timeless, the difference is historicised and projected into the past.     

才子救佳人:中国的考试英雄

西方文化中的侠义精神往往带有浪漫爱情色彩。经典及传统故事中的西方英雄们经常为了自己的心上人甘愿赴汤蹈火,九死一生。在西方文化中,英雄救美,侠骨柔情更显英雄本色。中国的传统故事中虽然也充满了动作英雄,可是他们对美人的观感与西方动作英雄的观感恰恰相反。中国的动作英雄不但不拯救美人于水火中,反而认为红颜祸水;他们不但对美人没有展现浪漫情怀,相反是避而远之。那么谁来拯救中国的美人?在中国传统故事中,这个英雄救美的责任就落在寒窗苦读、金榜题名的才子们身上。他们虽然手无缚鸡之力,却能凭借在考试中拔得头筹而拯救佳人,我们因此称其为"考试英雄"。本文首先分别阐述东西方经典及传统故事中的动作英雄,然后回顾中国特有的考试英雄形象,并对其原因进行分析。     

不同文化背景下的男性世界——张爱玲小说论

张爱玲的小说擅长描写旧文化背景下女性绝望苍凉的不幸命运和殖民文化背景下女性尴尬失落的生存状态。她为了描写女性的遭际而描写男人的世界、述说男人的故事 ,展示不同文化背景下的男性世界的丑陋、自私、无能、堕落 :有生活于旧文化背景下的没落男性 ;有行走于东西文明的新旧兼杂的男性 ;有沪港畸形文明滋生的畸形变态男性 ;有长期居住在中国 ,既远离本土文化又远未溶入中国文化的外国男性 ,他们的劣行劣质无不打上其依存的文化背景和特有的生活方式的印记 ,成为酿成女性悲剧命运的内在根源。     

The Moral Concerns and Orientations of Sixth- and Ninth-Grade Students

This article investigates the moral concerns and orientations of 6th grade (N =100) and 9th grade (N =94) Finnish students. The students' written stories about moral conflicts in schools are analyzed according to their main content. The nature of moral concerns of students as reflected in the stories is investigated. Furthermore, the moral orientations of justice and care are used as helpful concepts to explore the moral meaning making of students. The empirical findings reveal that 6th-grade and 9th-grade students emphasize different kinds of moral conflicts in schools. The boys and girls are shown to differ in their main moral orientations in solving moral conflicts. The girls are shown to be more care oriented and emphatic. The girls differ from the boys in their reflection on the meanings of the conflicts in a broader context of life.     

THE WAY TO SUCCESS? ON THE HISTORY OF ACADEMIC CAREERS FOR WOMEN IN AUSTRIA

The article sketches the history of the education of women in Austrian universities, particularly the University of Vienna, and the attempts of some of the first female graduates to pursue academic careers. Middle class women, just like middle class men, considered education and possible academic careers as sure ways to social and economic emancipation. However, if the model worked for men, it worked less well for women who although admitted to university studies in increasing numbers found that their attempts to pursue academic careers were fraught with many obstacles. Despite numerous female success stories, the university did not turn out to be, for women, a route to emancipation and career fulfilment. Even today, if Austrian women are accepted and are achieving success in other areas, in industry and in public service, for instance, they are doing so in these endeavours far more easily and in greater numbers than in the universities.     

晚清广东科举考试枪替之风初探

晚清科举考试中枪替风气盛行，但各地又存在着差异。在广东，“文风颇盛，弊亦最多”，地方政府和社会人士为防范科举考试中的枪替现象，采取了种种措施，这在一定程度上遏制了科场舞弊的泛滥，然而因科举制度自身的缺陷和闱娃赌博的影响，又使这些努力付诸东流。     

Silenced Truths: Relational and Emotional Dimensions of a Beginning Teacher's Identity as Part of the Micropolitical Context of School

This article focuses on teacher identity. Based on two small stories told in a peer group by a beginning teacher, we ask: How does a beginning teacher tell about her identity as part of the micropolitical context of school? Theoretically and methodologically, the research is committed to a narrative approach in understanding teacher identity. The material consists of small stories based on videotaped peer group discussions of 11 Finnish teachers. The results of the research illustrate the micropolitical context at the heart of how a beginning teacher's identity is constructed through diverse emotionally significant relationships. Narrative ways of working, such as group discussions, can offer teachers an opportunity to recognize different dimensions of their identity.     

Pedagogical possibilities for unruly bodies

Project Re?Vision uses disability arts to disrupt stereotypical understandings of disability and difference that create barriers to healthcare. In this paper, we examine how digital stories produced through Re?Vision disrupt biopedagogies by working as body-becoming pedagogies to create non-didactic possibilities for living in/with difference. We engage in meaning making about eight stories made by women and trans people living with disabilities and differences, with our interpretations guided by the following considerations: what these stories ‘teach’ about new ways of living with disability; how these stories resist neoliberalism through their production of new possibilities for living; how digital stories wrestle with representing disability in a culture in which disabled bodies are on display or hidden away; how vulnerability and receptivity become ‘conditions of possibility’ for the embodiments represented in digital stories; and how curatorial practice allows disability-identified artists to explore possibilities of ‘looking back’ at ableist gazes.     

团队创业学园：芬兰大学创业教育模式及启示

创业教育是芬兰在确立国家创新体系后大学为更好服务社会而采取的新措施,为培养大学生的企业精神,芬兰大学的创业教育注重在真实生活中锻炼学生创业能力,团队创业学园就是行之有效的一种新模式。本文介绍了于韦斯屈莱应用科技大学团队创业学园的运行管理、教学特色,分析了依托团队公司开展创业实践活动、提升学生创业能力的成功经验,以期对我国大学创业教育有所启示。     

寻找自我——华美和中国当代女作家笔下的母女关系比较

相较于一般男作家的宏大历史叙述,华关和中国当代女作家的书写重心偏向她们那不可替代的个人记·tc~,ax性生命体验,其中的母女关系一直是她们热哀书写的母题之一。她们以自传或准自传的故事背景,以母女之间的矛盾、冲突、理解、和解或顶礼膜拜的故事来展现女性寻找自我的成长历程。     

From PISA to national branding: exploring Finnish education®

Since the recent global paradigm shift in the governance of higher education toward business and marketing, internationally competitive education is increasingly considered as an asset for governments. Consequently, governments started to invest in education branding and marketing their educational systems. In Finland, national interest in education branding rose especially since the country's success in the programme for international student assessment studies created a positive reputation of its basic education. In this article, the authors investigate how this reputation is transformed into a general Finnish education brand, based upon Finland's official Country Brand Report (2010). The governmental discourse on Finnish education reveals a fusion of education and national branding, which is why the authors suggest to discuss the Finnish education brand as Finnish education®. The article provides an analysis of the elements constituting the brand and opens up a critical discussion on the ethics of branding education through cultural and national characteristics.     

中国现代作家笔下的“南洋”女性欲像

研究了现代作家有关“南洋”女性人物的作品,认为中国现代作家笔下涉及“南洋”故事的女性描写,多呈现出“男权主义”的叙境。其中包括“景色女”的被凝视、“商人妇”的被“闺范”以及“英雄妻”附属性的被欲望化叙事,所有这一切都显示了“菲勒斯中心主义”的欲像图式的胜利。     

张爱玲小说创作得失论

张爱玲的小说以《传奇》《十八春》为代表,大多写世俗生活中的凡人小事,表现衰败封建大家庭中太太、小姐们的爱情生活等,人物鲜活,描写细腻,手法多样,但在中华民族生死存亡的年代,作者仅仅沉迷于一己的悲欢,甚至丧失自己的立场,这是她创作的局限性。