The strange case of speaker jekyllhyde

The ombudsman's work is largely persuasive. The persuasiveness derives largely from certain substantial ethical resources which are present by definition; the office is established having a particular competence and character. The person who occupies the office must fit it if his advocacy is to make good use of it peculiar resources.     

Beginning to untangle the strange coupling of power within a neoliberal early education context

Policymakers across the globe continue to promote access to early education programmes as a means to improve children's readiness for school. Many of their reforms are rooted in a neoliberal conception of governance that frames policy solutions through economic rather than democratic terms. Such policies foster an image of the successful learner as one who becomes an earner and consumer rather than an active member of the larger democratic society. This shift in the conception of publicly supported early education affects teachers of young children in multiple ways. This article examines how a sample of early educators in the USA responded to a set of neoliberal reforms in their pre-kindergarten teaching context. Examining their responses, which ultimately mimicked their policy-makers’ neoliberal reforms, reveals the subtlety of these policies in overtaking their attempts to resist them. It also illuminates the challenges they and other early educators face as policy-makers’ neoliberal policies continue to alter the purpose and direction of early childhood. Finally, it ends by considering the ways in which early educators working in similar contexts might respond to and navigate such reforms.     

The strange death of UK civil defence education in the 1980s

In the cold war, the United Kingdom government devised a number of public education campaigns to inform citizens about the precautions that they should undertake in the event of a nuclear attack. One such campaign, Protect and Survive, was released to the general public and media in May 1980. The negative publicity this publication received is considered to be a reason why a successor publication was never released despite the increased risk of nuclear attack. Using recently released records from the UK National Archives the paper considers that, aside from this explanation, interlocking institutional objectives, rather than simply inertia, provide an explanation for this hiatus.     

Exporting Failure: the strange case of NVQs and overseas markets

At a time when Britain's vocational education and training (VET) system and vocational qualifications are undergoing a major review and restructuring in response to critical reports about the model established under the former National Council for Vocational Qualifications, the British Council and associated agencies is currently trying to market National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) overseas. The chief weaknesses and failings of NVQs and the competence‐based education and training (CBET) system on which they are based are outlined in terms of assessment anomalies and the needs of firms, trainees and employers. Since these shortcomings are so so serious, it is suggested that‐‐until they have been remedied through the current reforms under the aegis of the new Qualifications and Curriculum Authority‐‐it is ethically unjustifiable to export a failed VET system to countries which may be unaware of the critical research surrounding NVQs and CBET.     

The power struggle over education in developing countries: The case of the UNESCO-World Bank Co-operative program, 1964-1989

This paper examines the relationship between the World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) between the 1960s and the 1980s. It focuses on the Co-operative Program (CP) between the two organizations, which was established in 1964 and lasted officially until 1989. In the context of the Co-operative Program, the Education Financing Division (EFD) was established, a joint unit located in UNESCO, with the purpose of carrying out technical missions to assist governments in the identification and preparation of educational projects and the formulation of funding requests to the World Bank. Drawing on archival research and interviews with former UNESCO and World Bank officials, the paper traces the history of the Co-operative Program, which was characterized by intense power struggles exacerbated by Cold War tensions. During the 25 years of the duration of the Co-operative Program, the World Bank developed into the most influential policy shaper for education in developing countries, while the influence of UNESCO, created in the post-World War II order as the United Nations’ designated organization for education, declined. Using Bourdieu’s concept of fields and DiMaggio and Powell’s concept of isomorphism as analytical lenses, the World Bank’s expansion to a development agency will be explained by its greater autonomy as a field, endowed with more capital based on the rationalization of education and isomorphic processes of professionalization of the “field of power” of educational planning. To the detriment of UNESCO, the World Bank became the powerhouse of a global governance structure that was built with support from the United States government and furthered by the rise of economics.     

Teacher education for inclusive education in the Arab world: The case of Jordan

This article examines teacher education programmes in the Arab region and the extent to which teachers are prepared to work in inclusive education settings. In the Arab world, the emerging area of inclusive education faces various challenges, among them a teaching force that is not adequately prepared to teach all children. This challenge arises partly because, without content on inclusive education, current pre-service and in-service programmes produce teachers who lack the skills to work with children with special needs in mainstream classrooms. This article focuses on teacher education in Jordan, where the problems and challenges surrounding teacher education programmes for inclusive education mirror those in other Arab countries. In Jordan, training for inclusive education is very limited at both pre-service and in-service levels, both because the idea has only recently been introduced and because of limited financial resources in the country. Still, the growing interest in adopting an inclusive education system has raised awareness about the importance of providing teachers with education that enables them to work with children with special needs in inclusive settings.     

学术权力与行政权力关系研究之研究模式述评

归纳总结了当前学术界在学术权力与行政权力关系研究方面存在的四种研究模式,分析了不同研究模式的特点及其主要研究内容,并就现有研究的不足提出了看法。     

尼采哲学中的生存问题

生存问题是尼采哲学的主题。尼采将自己的哲学看作是某种本真生存状态的表达,将写作看成是实现生存的一种方式,主张要在一种与前人不同的写作方式之中将自己的生存状态实现出来;尼采的批判哲学建基在自己的生存方式之上,作为一位批判者,他独特的言说方式乃至生存方式也构成了其批判哲学的基本内容。尼采最终将生存的本性归结为生命体对自己发出的一种"去创造"的命令,并将这种命令称作"生成意志"。     

The stylistic analysis of the poem the passionate shepherd to his love

The paper analyze the stylistic feature of the poem from the perspective of its stanza,rhyme,syntax and discourse.     

Higher education: an education for the Élites? The Portuguese case

This article raises questions about the degree of equity of higher education in Portugal. It is based on research that the author conducted in 1995 and 1996. From diversified indicators, namely the academic level and social class of the parents of university students in particular, and the Portuguese population, the author concludes that, in general, Portuguese higher education is not equitable. Moreover, Portuguese university education can hardly be described as promoting the universal right to education. The author backs his conclusion by a determination of the spending of students and families on education and the large proportion that the sum represents in their total budgets. The article ends with some suggestions as to how to guarantee fulfillment of the universal right to education.     

比较教育:话语与权力

比较教育作为一门解释不同民族国家教育现象的教育学科 ,其话语实践总是同民族国家的社会文化紧密联系在一起。并且这种话语实践往往隐含着不同民族国家在教育科学乃至社会文化方面话语权力的争夺。通过分析研究本土生活中的日常生活层面的教育话语、本土教育实践中活跃的教育话语、民族传统教育理论中具有生命力的教育话语和民族交流本身产生的教育话语 ,进而使之体系化 ,探索并逐步建立兼具第三世界本土特色和国际通用性的比较教育话语体系 ,在教育和文化解殖民方面具有特殊的意义     

The rhetorical construction of the nation in education: the case of Flanders

This paper examines what can be learnt from ‘new rhetoric’ (focusing on the work of the American rhetorician Kenneth Burke [1897–1993]) about (national) identity and discusses how nationalism can be taught from such a rhetorical perspective. Despite the ‘deconstruction’ of nation(alism) as a grand narrative, there is a new tendency towards emphasizing national identity, caused by trends such as globalization and multiculturalism. In the language and literature teaching curriculum, this paradoxical situation often causes frictions for teachers who very often are expected to teach standard language and national literature. The hypothesis is that rhetoric is a tool to deal with these tensions in the curriculum. This paper focuses on Flanders as a case‐study. Together with pre‐service teachers it analysed the rhetorical construction of Flanders from a dramatistic perspective. It is argued that Burke’s concepts are useful tools to make students ‘symbol‐wise’: to understand the way national symbols work, and to develop critical engagement with, as well as on behalf of, those symbols.     

Internationalizing teacher education: The case of Belarus

This article describes the unique characteristics of internationalization in teacher education in the Republic of Belarus, by asking how the creation of a national system of teacher education after the USSR??s disintegration has both enhanced and hindered internationalization. The question is answered by providing an overview of the specific challenges in establishing a national teacher education system after the Republic of Belarus became independent in 1991, by introducing a concept of internationalization, and by analysing three components of the internationalization of teacher education in Belarus. The authors conclude that internationalization in teacher education is still weak; it has been hindered mainly by the frequently changing, indecisive, and incoherent national policies that have left little academic freedom for those higher education institutions specializing in the initial education of teachers. The new nation??s various and changing contacts with other countries, in both east and west, call into question the term ??internationalization?? for Belarus, where former national contacts have quickly embraced internationalization.     

Enterprising career education: the power of self-management

This article provides an account of how people’s career management is given prominence in contemporary European policy documents pertaining to career education for entrepreneurship in higher education and in vocational education and training. This study concerns the ways in which policy discourses of career management and governmental practices invoke individuals to understand themselves as entrepreneurial. Proceeding from post-Foucauldian theorizing of the concept of governmentality, the analysis draws attention to technologies and procedures designed to foster career self-management. Focus is also directed to the practices of self-knowledge, self-actualization and self-control as part of the formation of the subjectivity. It is argued that the governance of self-management operates in two interrelated ways: as a practice of inducing individuals to shape an entrepreneurial relation towards their needs and desires, and as a power to enterprise career education. In relation to this, the analysis elucidates how the discourse of competence acts upon individuals to capitalize themselves and engage in a permanent self-assessment of their needs.     

Reforms in higher education: The case of Chile in the 1980s

The impact of the 1981 reforms on the system of higher education in Chile is described and analyzed. The system has been diversified by the encouragement of private universities, the creation of professional institutes and the establishment of centers for technical formation. Changes in the funding system have, however, led to problems with student loan recovery and to private universities concentrating on subjects with low costs. Though the participation rate has greatly increased, the existence of empty places, especially in the newer private universities, is evidence of over-provision.     

Pre-vocational education in the curriculum: the case of Norwegian lower secondary education

This article investigates the composition of the Norwegian lower secondary school curriculum with a special emphasis on pre-vocational education from a contemporary perspective. The data consist of four official national curricula enacted from the 1970s until the present. Despite differences between the curricula, the main structure of school subjects has remained stable over time. Norwegian lower secondary school curricula mainly include academic subjects, even though pre-vocational education is, to varying degrees, present in all curricula, especially amongst elective subjects. This consolidated position of academic subjects results in a consistency in the composition of the curriculum. Curriculum change is most likely to happen amongst electives and is related to changes in policy making and societal changes. Pre-vocational education is mainly included in the first and current curriculum contrary to the second and third curriculum. These findings indicate that the international policy agenda and its emphasis on the relevance of education through stressing the linkage between education and the world of work only has a minor impact on Norwegian curricula. Further, the allocation of teaching hours shows that the status of pre-vocational subjects is low compared to that of academic subjects. International policies emphasizing basic skills strengthen the academic subjects even further.