The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Transition from Learned Society to Totalitarian Academy (1944–1949)

The process of transforming the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Arts, founded in 1869 as a Bulgarian Learned Society, into a national research center began in 1940 and was significantly accelerated in 1944, immediately after the coup d'état of September 9, 1944, called during the last 50 years a 'socialist revolution'. Strong pressure was exerted on the Bulgarian 'bourgeois intelligentsia' by the new Fatherland Front ruling circles controlled by the communists. Closing down of the old and appointing a new 'progressive' Academy was also discussed. The urgent actions of the Executive Council of the Academy prevented these plans. A number of progressive-minded scholars and artists were elected to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Arts in January 1945 and July 1946, and a plan for reorganizing the Academy was approved in November 1945. This opening stage of self-restructuring of the Academy was crossed out by the Law of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences of 1947. By this law the Academy was transformed into a governmental organization, but some academic autonomy and respect for the academic traditions were preserved. Only two and a half years later, however, when the Bulgarian Communist Party had an absolute majority in the Parliament and the 'open building of socialism in the People's Republic of Bulgaria' had been already announced, a new, completely totalitarian, Law on the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences was passed.     

ROLE OF THE POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES IN THE OVERALL R&D EFFORTS OF POLAND

In 1951, the Polish Academy of Sciences was set up in Warsaw, more or less on a Soviet model, by the merging of two academies, one in Cracow and the other in Warsaw, that traced their origins to the late Eighteenth Century. The achievements of Polish science owe much to the excellent training and research facilities offered by the Academy, achievements that have won much recognition abroad, both West and East. Confronted with severe financial constraints since the period of transition began in 1989, the Academy has had to make painful adjustments and above all to face the fact that the salaries which it can afford to pay its researchers are abysmally low. Until such time as the economy improves, the continued high quality of the research undertaken by the Academy and its institutes and centres will depend upon their success in developing fruitful foreign partnerships.     

THE BELARUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES DURING THE TRANSITION PERIOD

The work and the prospects of the Belarussian Academy of Sciences are described. The Academy, like other institutions in Belarus, has suffered greatly since the period of transition began in 1990. The Academy and its constituent institutes are struggling to continue providing their traditional leadership in regard to basic and applied research in all disciplines. In some areas, particularly in the hard sciences, Belarussian researchers continue to chalk up internationally recognized successes; however, the size of the research staff in the republic has declined by 50 per cent since 1990, and there is difficulty in recruiting new blood. The basic problem is one of finance; however, the Academy is trying to tap several sources of funding including the government. It is also taking steps to influence the training of young scientists and academics and to forge links with the Academies of other countries. At all costs, Belarus must not lose its scientific potential.     

THE TRANSFORMATION OF RESEARCH IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC: THE ROLE OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic traces its origins back through the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences to several private learned societies, one of which was founded in the Eighteenth Century, that eventually received royal (Habsburg) charters. The Academy as it exists today has been affected by the same processes of transition as the rest of Czech society. The Academy and its various institutes are subject to periodic evaluation. It must now share responsibility for research in the Czech Republic with other state organs, particularly the universities.     

THE CROATIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND ARTS PAST AND FUTURE

The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts traces its origins back to efforts to create a learned society in Croatia during the first half of the Nineteenth Century. At first concerned exclusively with the language, literature, and history of Croatia, it evolved into an eclectic organization conducting and sponsoring research in a wide rage of disciplines and fields. Currently, the work of the Academy is concentrated in eight departments and is conducted by eleven scientific councils, ten committees, and twenty research units. Since its founding, the Academy has published almost 3,400 books.     

ROLE OF THE SLOVAK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES DURING THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

The transformation of a socialist‐type Academy of Sciences into an institution capable of functioning in a democratic market economy is described. Prior to 1989, the Slovak Academy of Sciences was the state mandated coordinator of science and technology in Slovakia and was funded directly by the state budget. Since 1990, the Academy has had to share many of its prerogatives with other authorities and institutions, as in the case of the universities in regard to doctoral programmes, or to cede them out‐right, as in the case of the Ministry of Education and Science in regard to the coordination of basic research. Its budget has been drastically cut. It has also had to contend with the introduction of a western type of grant programme and system of evaluation for its subordinate institutes, some of which have been closed. In short, the Slovak Academy of Sciences must compete in an increasingly open science market in which it must give proof both of the quality of its work and of the relevance of the latter to the needs of society.     

MISSIONS OF THE ROMANIAN ACADEMY

The article begins with quotations from Act No. 4 of 5 January 1990 of the Romanian Government, stating the mission and purposes of the Romanian Academy in a post‐communist Romania. Thus the missions of the Academy include a traditional mission, that of being the highest scientific forum in the country; a social‐managerial mission, by which the Academy undertakes specific scholarly projects of major national and international interest; an active mission, that of work in a number of areas performed by 65 units and 2,000 researchers; and finally, that of uniting the scholarly efforts of all Romanians, both inside and outside the territorial limits of Romania.     

Towards global wisdom in the ERA of digitalization and communication

Conclusions Educational reform needs the synergetic efforts of UNESCO, the EU, national and local governments, policy makers, educators, business communities, public interest groups, parents, citizens, and non-governmental organizations, such as IFIP and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievements (IEA). It is a matter of crucial importance that countries in transition participate in the EU’s educational and training initiatives and programmes, such as PHARE (including TEMPUS), COPERNICUS, SOCRATES and LEONARDO, as well as in all UNESCO initiatives and projects. Original language: English Blagovest Sendov (Bulgaria) Former speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament and vice-speaker of the present Parliament. Graduate in mathematics from Sofia University, and specialist in numerical analysis from Moscow University and computer science from Imperial College, London. He has held the posts of Dean of the Mathematical Faculty and Rector of Sofia University, and president of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the International Federation for Information Processing, the International Association of Universities, and vice-president of the International Council of Scientific Unions. From 1979 to 1990 leader of the Bulgarian research group on new curricula integrating school subjects with computers and information technology. This is a slightly edited version of a paper presented at UNESCO’s second International Congress on Education and Informatics: Educational Policies and New Technologies, Moscow, 1–5 July 1996.     

THE TASKS OF ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES AND THE REFORM OF THE HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

The different national Academies of Sciences are as varied as their individual histories and the societies of which they are a part. At the same time, they all have certain characteristics in common. An Academy is usually the highest ranking scientific body in its country. It is independent of higher education institutions, of political parties, and of the state, even if it receives state subsidies. Among the special features of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, one can cite the fact that its General Assembly includes two hundred representatives of the Hungarian scientific community who serve three‐year terms but cannot participate in elections for new Academy members and that its forty research institutes and eighty research groups that are located and function in universities have a high degree of autonomy in regard to the Academy as such.     

Constructing Roma students as ethnic ‘others’ through orientalist discourses in Bulgarian schools

This article uses the case of Bulgarian, predominantly Roma, schools to illustrate the long history of stereotypes about Roma people dating back to modernity’s discursive binary oppositions of ‘civilized’ vs. ‘barbarians.’ The data from a longitudinal study with 12 Bulgarian educators showed the modes by which Roma as the Other is created in the school context as a universal cognitive category, internalized in social and individual identities that divide the world into ‘us’ and ‘them.’ The paper argues that Bulgarian teachers’ perceptions of attitudes, behavior, and values of Roma communities are, in fact, a projection of the discursive representations with which western European modernity has constructed the Balkan region. This research contributes to further explicating how the ideological paradigm of neoliberalism intersects with the old Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment dichotomy of civilized–barbarians and how it is reconfigured to construct those incapable of fitting within the entrepreneurial spirit of the free market efficiency as unwilling to democratize. The case of Bulgarian, predominantly Roma, schools serves to illustrate how peoples who are Othered in the western European discourse designate their own Other, and thus provides a fruitful approach to understanding how Roma’s social exclusion is constructed and situated.     

THE ROLE PLAYED BY THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES IN THE SOCIAL,ECONOMIC, AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY

The article is an argument in favour of a type of national science policy in which a National Academy of Sciences is at the same time the highest ranking association of scientists and the capstone of a national organization of research institutes specialized in different fields of the sciences and the humanities. Such was the Soviet Academy of Sciences and is now the Russian Academy of Sciences, the roots of which go back to 1724. The achievements in science of the various Academy institutes are detailed, and while the author recognizes that the universities too perform research, their basic task is teaching. For him, the duality of research in the academy and teaching in the universities has given good results and should continue.     

THE INSTITUTES OF THE LATVIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND THE INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION: PROBLEMS OF INTEGRATION

Since achieving independence in 1991, the Republic of Latvia has taken radical measures to reform its system of science on a western model. The funding system has been overhauled, the Academy of Sciences, that used to be a kind of Ministry of Science, has become an academy of the classical type, and the advanced degrees of scientists inherited from the USSR‐era have been nostrificated. The big problem has been that of enacting the decision made to integrate the former institutes that were subordinated to the Latvian Academy of Sciences into the university system. The process has been resisted by university teachers who do not want to do research and by institute scientists who do not want to teach students, particularly undergraduate students. The article describes several measures that have been taken to deal with this problem which still remains unresolved.     

The American University in Bulgaria as an Entrepreneurial University

Entrepreneurship in an educational institution is not strictly commercial. It is also defined in terms of educational objectives. The author, who is the Provost and Dean of Faculty at the American University of Bulgaria at Blagoevgrad, describes the setting up of this university in 1990‐1991 as a case study in educational entrepreneurship. This American‐style liberal arts university has become very successful through offering a curriculum that is unique to the Bulgarian higher education environment and employing faculty and staff who have a very strong professional and personal commitment to the institution and its mission. The university operates according to democratic principles of shared governance with an emphasis upon Total Quality Management and state‐of‐the‐art facilities in such areas as Internet access, computerization, and library automation. The university has made a successful adaptation to the Bulgarian cultural, linguistic, and material environment, and has won the respect of the traditional Bulgarian academic establishment. Success in this case is illustrative of entrepreneurship defined as taking an exciting idea and making it work in spite of difficulties.     

Qualitative research in Australia

Qualitative educational research in Australia has been characterized since the early 1970s by vitality and interest in reconstructing in cultural terms the best research practices, particularly those observed in the UK and USA. The former's influence is best demonstrated in case study method and participatory action research in the 1980s. Australian qualitative educational sociology, drawing on critical theoretical methods, continues to command strong international respect. More recently, post‐structuralist theory has influenced many approaches to qualitative inquiry, especially in feminist research, which reflects a more globalized view of research. Whatever theoretical and methodological directions Australian qualitative enquiry takes in the later 1990s, research must address political and economic contexts of change both nationally and globally if it is to make a difference.     

AN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES IN THE YEAR 2000: A FRENCH CONCEPTION

An Academy of Sciences is the offspring of the scientific community in its country. It is recognized as representative of this community and of the supreme authority of the country which is the guarantor of its independence and freedom. The Academy has the tasks of monitoring, stimulating, and assessing, doing so within the scientific community by means of its publications, its opinions, and the prizes it awards; within the national community, at the political level, the cultural level, and at the social level by its studies, reports, recommendations, and symposia; and at the international level, at which it represents the country in major international scientific organizations (ICSU, ALLEA). If the development of sciences has led countries to organize research structures outside the Academies, the latter, nonetheless, will continue to play an essential role at a time when the interactions of science with the authorities and society are stronger than ever.     

论有效重铸的特征

学术界普遍认为纠正性反馈对二语习得是有积极作用的。重铸已经被证明为使用频率最高的纠正性反馈方法,它的作用在二语习得研究方面受到越来越多的关注。我们对重铸的特征及其有效性的认识不断扩展,目前普遍认为,重铸的有效性受制于多种变量。本文通过文献研究,尝试探究有效重铸的特征并就如何进行有效反馈提出建议。     

也谈沦陷区文学的评价问题

沦陷区文学,是中国现代文学的一种特殊形态,具有多层次性、隐蔽性和寄生性.对其研究既要防止简单化,又要避免陷入"纯艺术",只有详尽地占有材料,对作家作品进行具体分析,才能作出客观、公正、科学的评价.     

Cultural and pedagogical implications of a global e‐learning programme

An eleven country internal evaluation of the Cisco Networking Academy program across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, revealed a number of issues related to the globalization of e‐learning. The Academy program is a 280‐hour web‐based course that teaches students to install, maintain and troubleshoot computer networks. It was developed in the US by educators and Cisco network specialists and is taught in educational institutions in over 150 countries worldwide. Hitherto research on cultural influences on teaching and learning have been limited to overseas students being taught in an unfamiliar culture or online by teachers with unfamiliar pedagogical strategies. Through interviews with both students and teachers and observation in classrooms, this study reveals how important local tutors are in helping students adapt to the style of the material and to make a course developed in another country both culturally and pedagogically relevant.