Deconfessionalising RE in Québec and Flanders: a comparative study

Inspired by the comparative method for RE as outlined by Bråten, this article elaborates on some similarities and differences between the present RE system in Flanders (Belgium) and the past RE system in Québec (Canada). After a brief outline of the societal level, the focus will be on the institutional level, where international, national and sub-national legislation will be examined. In addition, attention will be given to informal processes on the societal sub-national level, and especially to the debates with regard to the deconfessionalisation of RE in Flanders on one hand, and the debates on this issue in Québec on the other. This comparison will not only reveal important similarities, but also significant differences. Interestingly, it seems to be the case that especially these differences, and the particularities of the Flemish educational system, make the deconfessionalisation in Flanders even more complicated and difficult – but therefore not less urgent – than in Québec.     

Reading for Fun and Improvement in Reading

1.The Story of Sandwich三明治是上班族的最爱。这不仅是因为它味道鲜美,营养丰富,而且还因为它食用方便,节省时间,人们可以一边干活,一边享用。那么当初发明人是怎样突发灵感,做出了这种风靡全球的美味呢?请看“趣谈三明治”。In English there are som e interesting words.These words have som e interesting stories behindthem.The word“sandwich”,for exam ple,is verycom m on in English,but it has a good story.If wewant to know the story behind it,w e m ust knowsom ething about an E nglish noblem an.H is nam e…     

Reading for Fun and Improvement in Reading

Ways to Fall Asleep看过《神雕侠侣》的人都记得,小龙女睡法奇特,她练就了在绳上入睡的功夫。无独有偶,为了尽快进入自己的梦乡,历史上许多名人绞尽脑汁,寻找入睡的方法,有的人终于找到了自己独特的入眠方法,而有的人却还是好梦难圆。你想探个究竟吗?请看“睡眠趣闻”。     

Reading for Fun and Improvement in Reading

What Are You Doing on Weekends?周末又到了,难道你不高兴吗?紧张的课堂学习告一段落,终于可以放松一下自己了。那么,干些什么,你计划好了吗?也许你的活动安排得不够丰富多彩,那就让我们一起看一看地球村另一端的孩子们周末都做些什么?     

Reading for Fun and Improvement in Reading

A Friendly Cat一位先生惜猫如子,一日三餐与猫形影不离,有了好吃的东西,总忘不了和爱猫共同分享。久而久之,顽皮的猫也深受感动,总想寻找机会报答主人的知遇之恩。一天吃饭时,这只亲爱的猫不见了。正当主人     

Reading for Fun and Improvement in Reading

Pepper5s Wonderful Use胡椒味道辛辣,宜脾胃,通七窍,是调味之佳品。令人称奇的是,胡椒粉除了能做调味品外,有时还有其他意想不到的妙用!邻居阿姨仅用     

Beyond Borders: Reading “Other” Places in Children’s Literature

The author analyzes two texts, Gloria Whelan’s Homeless Bird and Deborah Ellis’s Parvana’s Journey, in an attempt to explain some of the problems and difficulties associated with those texts. The author examines Whelan’s representations of India and finds troubling binaries associated with that text. In comparison, the author finds Ellis’s depictions of Afghanistan more nuanced and complex. The author also discusses student reception of both texts and offers ways to problematize some of their reactions.

Reading and Reading Comprehension in CET-6

ＲｅａｄｉｎｇａｎｄＲｅａｄｉｎｇＣｏｍｐｒｅｈｅｎｓｉｏｎｉｎＣＥＴ６ＹａｎｇＹａｎｈｅｎｇＴｈｅＦｅｄｂａｃｋＣａｌｉｎｇｆｏｒＣａｕｔｉｏｎＲｅａｄｉｎｇｃｏｍｐｒｅｈｅｎｓｉｏｎｓｅｃｔｉｏｎｉｎＣｏｌｅｇｅＥｎｇｌｉｓｈＴｅｓｔＢａｎｄ...     

Didactics and professional practice in preservice teacher education: A comparison of the situations in France and Québec

The authors analyze the role and function of didactics in preservice teacher education as presented in official texts from the ministries of education of Québec and France. They identify the conceptions these texts convey about the ties between didactics and professional education and demonstrate the vulnerable and limited position of didactics in teacher education. In concluding, adopting a comparative approach, they highlight several convergent features of the two systems of teacher education as well as marked differences relating to training in didactics.     

The professional stance of ethics and religious culture teachers in Québec

In September 2008, a new Ethics and Religious Culture programme was implemented in Québec’s elementary and secondary schools. One of the main pedagogical challenges of this new course has been the requirement that teachers adopt a professional stance of impartiality. Teachers must refrain from sharing their points of view, so as not to influence students as they develop their own positions. This paper deals with the requirements related to this new professional stance, namely that teachers maintain a critical distance from their own convictions and values, respect the student’s freedom of conscience and religion to avoid any indoctrination, and play the role of a cultural mediator. This new requirement has not gone over without question. For instance, some educators believe that, in the name of authenticity, it is preferable for teachers to freely express their own beliefs, thus ensuring a transparent relationship with students. For others, as teachers are in position of authority in the classroom, it is very important that students feel free to develop their own personal viewpoint on ethical and religious questions without being unduly influenced. This article examines these different issues.     

The internationalization of in-service teacher training in Québec cégeps and their foreign partners: An institutional perspective

Through a case study of Québec??s general and vocational colleges (cégeps), this article analyzes the role that institutions play in internationalizing the in-service training they provide to their teachers, and explains how partnerships with educational institutions in developing countries contribute to this process. Data from a questionnaire completed by 39 cégeps show that cégeps sustain internationalized in-service teacher training through teacher mobility, international cooperation, and training activities. Teacher mobility and international cooperation support efforts to establish partnerships with foreign institutions. The relationships that cégeps have with developing countries are changing: international cooperation, associated with a ??selling?? relationship, is decreasing, while teacher mobility, associated with a ??gelling?? approach, is increasing. Finally, the consistency between cégep activities and the government??s strategies is explained by considering the community of interest composed of cégeps, the government of Québec, and Cégep International.     

Conjunction and Teaching Reading Skills in English

Conjunction contributes to organizing and managing stretches of discourse, indicating the way the information is arranged. Successfully identifying these discourse markers is of great benefit to the reader to extract the required information from what he/she reads, especially for the candidates who are tested for their reading abilities in a given time, for these markers give clues to the reader and make the perception easier and save a lot of time. To teach students to explore reading skills and read successfully all by themselves, language teachers had better keep in mind the significance of conjunction and get students to share and apply it.     

“Jesus Loves Me, This I Know”: Finding a Rainbow God in Contemporary Adolescent Literature

This article explores four adolescent novels published between 1999 and 2010 specifically for the intersections of Christian faith and lesbian and gay sexual identities. Using cultural, queer, and ideological theories, the piece makes distinctions between progressive and traditional depictions of both Christianity and LGBTQ teen protagonists in Nancy Garden’s The Year They Burned the Books (1999), Laura Torres’s November Ever After (1999), Alex Sanchez’s The God Box (2007), and Mark Hardy’s Nothing Pink (2008).     

The Romantic Movement in English and American Literature

Ⅰ The Appearance of Romantic Lite-ratureThe Romantic Movement in Eng-lish literature came into being as anew trend at the turn of tlie 18th and19th centuries.It was flowering dur-ing the first half of the 19th centuryin America.During this period,the class con-tradiction and national contradictionwere extremely acute in Europe.In1789,the French Revolution broke out,,which overthrew the feudal power.As a result of this,a new bourgeois     

Reading Poison: Science and Story in Nazi Children’s Propaganda

Children’s books of Nazi propaganda prove that a society can venerate science to the point of making biology the organizing principle of its educational system yet nevertheless produce children’s literature shot through with fabrication and falsehood. Three children’s books of Nazi propaganda that are frequently mentioned in accounts of anti-Semitism but seldom analyzed are discussed: Elvira Bauer’s Trau keinem Fuchs auf grüner Heid und keinem Jud auf seinem Eid (1936), Ernst Hiemer’s Der Giftpilz (1938), and Hiemer’s Der Pudelmopsdackelpinscher (1940) illustrate the ways in which racist science and ideological narrative tautologically reinforce each other in an extreme version of how “narratives play a key role in communicating science” (Pauwels, 2019, p. 434) in children’s nonfiction. These texts of lurid racism, all issued by the book publishing arm of Julius Streicher’s virulently anti-Semitic newspaper Der Stürmer, offer a monitory case study of how bad science and toxic narrative can coalesce into a literary poison intended to indoctrinate young readers. This analysis of Nazi nonfiction for children demonstrates how science and story can be exploited to promote a racist agenda.

     

A New Beginning? John Yandell’s The Social Construction of Meaning: Reading Literature in Urban Classrooms

John Yandell’s The Social Construction of Meaning: Reading Literature in Urban Classrooms provides a powerful counterpoint to current policy discourse in education. By focusing on the social interactions that occur in the classrooms of two English teachers, Yandell shows how their pupils are able to explore dimensions of language and experience that far exceed the outcomes prescribed by official curriculum documents. This is because their teachers conceive of reading as a social activity in which everyone can participate. Yandell thereby affirms the value of a literary education as an integral part of an educational project that is genuinely democratic and inclusive.     

Reading and Comprehension: a longitudinal study of ex‐Reading Recovery students

The paper reports the results of a longitudinal case study conducted in Australia and New Zealand. The study compares the reading and comprehension age of children in their fifth and sixth years in school. Reading and comprehension ages of 121 children who had Reading Recovery intervention at age 6 were compared with those of a Comparison group of 121 children, drawn from the same classes who, at age 6 years, had been better performers in literacy. Reading and comprehension assessment was conducted with the use of the Neale Analysis of Reading and analysed by means of a t‐test. Results show that the mean reading age of ex‐Reading Recovery children was nearly 12 months superior to that of the Comparison group and that the mean comprehension age was nearly 13 months superior at very highly significant levels. The results strongly suggest that Reading Recovery tuition at age 6 years enabled the 121 ex‐Reading Recovery children to make greater progress in literacy than children in the Comparison group.