Asian Teachers in British Schools: a qualitative study

The findings of a research project on the personal and professional experience of 22 first‐generation and 11 second‐generation Asian teachers are described. Four indigenous white and two West Indian teachers were also included to broaden our research perspective. The data were collected through semi‐structured interviews. The first‐generation Asian teachers, who had qualified from India or Pakistan, had faced numerous difficulties in obtaining first teaching posts, in promotion, class‐control and in forming working relationships with white colleagues. Most first‐generation teachers complained about the racial discrimination which they have to face in their professional lives. In sharp contrast, the second‐generation Asian teachers, who had qualified from Britain, did not come across any of the abovementioned problems. The teachers’ views are also presented verbatim on a range of multi‐cultural issues: the teaching of community languages, separate schools for ethnic children, Asian parents and equality of opportunity and racism in British schools.     

Thinking with Spinoza about ‘hands-on’ learning

Abstract

Despite its advanced age of about 375 years, the mind–body (psychophysical) problem is alive and well, in part because it is anchored so well institutionally in schools and in research (scientific vs. interpretive psychology). This continued presence is astonishing in the light of the fact that the seed for its solution, sown in Spinoza’s Ethics, is almost as old. The solution rests on the position that there is only one substance, which, invisible, manifests itself in two attributes, thought and extension (body). By thinking with Spinoza, especially by following the ways in which Vygotsky and Marx think with Spinoza, we arrive at an approach suitable for a social psychological theory of learning that does not separate knowing (intellect, thought) from doing and emoting (body). A classroom fragment from a 10th-grade physics curriculum is used as the starting point for overcoming the body–mind problem by thinking with Spinoza.     

Social education for teachers in Ceylon

Conclusion The problems of teacher education have not only been subjects of study for a long period, but have been so in the recent past, in reviews sponsored by Unesco, the International Bureau of Education and other bodies, official or voluntary and national or international. There has been, in these reports and reviews, an increasing attention to the social aspects of education, but there have also been two other features. Firstly, most of the studies have related to the non-graduate teacher, and secondly they have been discussions of principles, with suggestions for content, but with little if any attention to procedures.In this article the concern has been with graduate teachers, whose training is of such importance, not merely because they are responsible for secondary education, but because they are the cadre from which principals, inspectors and adminstrators come. Moreover, in addition to discussing some of the theoretical aspects of the situation, the practical procedures involved have been described and there has been some attempt to evaluate the work done.It is not claimed that this programme of social education for teachers is free from shortcomings, nor that it cannot be improved, nor that it is relevant, without modification, to places other than Ceylon. Nor is it suggested that the many and desirable changes, which are so marked a feature of educational progress in Ceylon, result only from this single factor.It can however be presented as an attempt to develop a rationale and apply a procedure in the social education of graduate teachers which has aroused the interests of its students and has flowed over into action and study which have contributed to educational improvement. It certainly has acted as an integrating factor in the work of the Department and has stimulated no little activity. Such success as it has achieved is due to the co-operative efforts of all engaged in it, both as students and staff — and their contributions are very gratefully acknowledged by the writer.

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Soziologie im Rahmen der Lehrerausbildung auf Ceylon

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Formation sociale des maitres à Ceylan

     

冷战时期巴基斯坦的安全忧患及其对策

印度独立前的穆斯林和印度教徒相比处于弱势，弱势团体的安全忧患意识成为穆斯林赞同印巴分治的重要原因；印巴独立后的“土邦之争”证明了巴基斯坦存在着安全忧患；巴基斯坦在“印巴战争”中的失利又证明了巴基斯坦是弱势团体。为了解决安全忧患，巴基斯坦采取对内发展军事力量和对外与美国结盟的对策与印度进行抗衡。其结果致使巴基斯坦国民经济发展缓慢，影响了综合国力的提高；导致了部分穆斯林国家的不满，进一步恶化了与印度的关系，给巴中关系蒙上了一层阴影。     

Sharing the same world: boys' relations with girls during their last year of primary school

This paper explores the effect of cross gender relations on the construction of boys' masculine identities. The findings are based on data gathered from a year long empirical study of 10 to 11‐year‐old boys set in three UK junior schools. Although masculinity is defined against femininity and boys needed to mark out a set of distinctions from themselves and girls, I found that most boys categorized girls as different (they are not us) rather than oppositional, and the most common reaction was one of detachment and disinterest. Rather than maintaining that there are two separate worlds, I argue that there are two complementary gendered cultures, sharing the one overall school world, which are further nuanced by social class and race/ethnicity. Although there was a tendency of boys to dominate space and girls were often excluded from playground games, many girls refused to be dominated by boys, and some were able to deliberately exercise power over them.     

论艾德礼政府的印度土邦政策

对印度土邦的政策是艾德礼政府在移交权力时对印政策的一个重要方面.由于英国王室和政府与土邦的关系跟英国与英属印度的关系不同,因此,艾德礼政府在移交权力时就不可能将对英属印度的政策用于土邦.艾德礼政府承认土邦在英属印度正式移交前仍然享有其原有的特权地位,但为了避免印度次大陆"巴尔干化",艾德礼政府所有的政策声明都强调土邦必须与英属印度合并.在英属印度移交权力的过程中,英国政府及英印总督蒙巴顿积极协调土邦与印度继承政府之间的关系,劝导实力强大的土邦王公放弃谋求独立的想法.因此,艾德礼政府的土邦政策从一个侧面表明它并没有分裂印度的打算.     

In search of phronesis: recognizing practical wisdom in the Recognition (Assessment) of Prior Learning

This article argues that greater understanding of the Aristotelian concept of phronesis or practical wisdom would make an important contribution to the conceptualization and implementation of Recognition (Assessment) of Prior Learning (RPL/APL) in formal education contexts. However, there is a need to identify phronesis empirically so that RPL assessors can identify it and RPL candidates can articulate it. Extracts from the qualitative data of two separate research projects are presented to show examples of phronesis. These extracts also show the difficulties associated with its articulation and identification. It is argued that even if phronesis cannot be accredited for RPL purposes, it should be taught and discussed in the curricula of adult education and RPL portfolio development courses to show the importance of this form of knowledge and reasoning and the different forms it might assume in formal education and life contexts.     

Recruiting the Next Generation of Measurement Professionals1

How are we going to find the next generation of measurement professionals? What are the issues pertinent to recruitment and training? If there were any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of revolution; when the old and the new stand side by side and admit of being compared; when the energies of all … are searched by fear and by hope; when the historic glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era? This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Phi Beta Kappa Address, 1837.)     

Web2.0时代博客新闻的传播形态

相对2003年以前的互联网模式,W eb2.0是对新一类互联网应用的统称,是一次从内容到技术上的质变。博客是W eb2.0应用的典型代表,是大众传播方式的一种变革。依据近年对新闻博客传播现象的观察研究,博客新闻在传播形态与传播特点上具有创新之处,并且部分地改变了以往互联网新闻的传播形态。但是,对自媒体传播的过度崇拜,产生了对反主流传播的过高预期,博客新闻在现实中的传播形态远未达到颠覆传统媒体的传播力度。     

惠东濒危畲语的活力与保护

惠东多祝畲语代际传承中断早,呈老龄化趋势,中老年畲民多为双语人,年轻人畲语使用能力差。畲民对畲语的支持度较低。畲语活力较低,使用域有限,是一种濒危的需要抢救的少数民族语言。建议从政策立法、双语教育和采集记录畲语三个方面抢救惠东畲语。     

Changing knowledge regimes: Universities in a new research environment

This paper takes an apparent knowledgeparadox as its point of departure. `Knowledge'has acquired a more all encompassing meaningtoday, yet this has not strengthened thesupport for and confidence in higher educationinstitutions. On the contrary, it is oftenclaimed that they have outlived theirusefulness. In trying to understand thedevelopment behind this paradox, we deal withthree issues. We discuss first thewidening concept of knowledge and the claimthat there is emerging a new mode of knowledgeproduction. Secondly the widening concept ofknowledge is put into a social and politicalcontext, where massification and its socialimplications are discussed. Thirdly we developa theoretical framework based on the concept ofknowledge regimes. In this part wediscuss how the concept of knowledge regimesand the related concepts of knowledgeinterests and knowledge alliances may behelpful in understanding the complexities andambiguity of higher education development.Finally we discuss some implications regardingknowledge's role in social development. Wequestion the assumption that there is anecessary relationship between a wideningconcept of knowledge and a given form ofknowledge development.     

Supplementation of urban home visitation with a series of group meetings for parents and infants: results of a “real-world” randomized, controlled trial

Objective: Home visitation has been shown to be effective in reducing rates of child maltreatment and in enhancing psychosocial outcomes in children and their parents. Even when available, however, it is underutilized by parents in some urban settings. We tested a supplemental 10-session group intervention for its ability to increase active participation in home visitation, enhance the quality of caregiving behavior of parents, and improve social developmental outcome in children.Method: A randomized controlled design was utilized, involving two separate cohorts of parents of 3- to 18-month old infants, totaling 148 parent-child dyads. The intervention focused on practical experience in promoting parent-infant attachment relationships.Results: At 6 months follow-up, there was a substantial increase in the proportion of intervention group parents participating in home visitation, compared to parents in the control group (Fisher’s exact p = .008). Parents in the intervention group exhibited a trend for improvement in their capacity to appropriately interpret infants’ emotional cues (p = .08), independent of the effects of home visitation itself. Attrition in both the treatment and control groups was inversely associated with income and level of education.Conclusions: Group meetings may constitute an effective means of engaging stressed urban families in home visitation.     

Whose confession? Which tradition? (A preliminary critique of Penny Thompson, 2004)

What does Penny Thompson really want? Reading her article in BJRE 26 (1) proved a baffling experience: it clearly wanted to say something, and to say it passionately, yet signally failed to do so. It fails largely because it lacks an argument; there seems also to be conceptual muddle at its heart. A fuller critique will need to attend to Thompson’s reading of religious education’s history, particularly to her use of evidence—but that is a story for another night. Consequently, this brief critique has at its core four questions to elicit clarity where at present there is none: First, does Penny Thompson want so to revision religious education in community schools that she and other aspirants to ‘Christian confessional religious education’ may freely work to convert young people to ‘Christianity’ and to nurture them in a Christian tradition? Second, in what sense, or senses, does Thompson want readers to understand her phrase, ‘the truth of the Christian faith?’ Third, in whose confession and in which tradition does Thompson want this Christian confessional religious education to be rooted? Fourth, is Penny Thompson willing to allow Christian teachers to present alternative understandings of Christianity, critical of her (implied) view? These questions are preceded by reflection on the form of her article’s argument and on its use of ‘confess’ and its cognates.     

略论印度古代史的若干特点

印度古代史，内容繁杂，深邃古奥，且缺乏原始资料。关于印度光荣历史的谈论，众说纷纭，莫衷一是。印度古代史有如下的特点：经济上，它实行封闭而保守的村社生产方式；政治上，它长期分裂与短暂统一相交替；社会结构上，它有着独具一格、等级森严的种姓制度；文化上，它主要是瑰丽灿烂的宗教文明。     

Perinatal Risk Factors for Mild Motor Disability

The aetiology of mild motor disability (MMD) is a complex issue and as yet is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of perinatal risk factors in a cohort of 10‐year‐old boys and girls with (n = 362) and without (n = 1193) MMD. Among the males with MMD there was a higher prevalence of postpartum haemorrhage, caesarean section, low birth weight and stressful first year of life. Among the females with MMD, there was a higher prevalence of essential hypertension, anaemia and threatened pre‐term. Multivariable logistic regression revealed gender (male), anaemia, threatened pre‐term birth (if female) and hypertension (if female) weakly explained MMD at 10 years. These results underscore the importance of considering gender differences in order to better understand the multiple influences on motor development.     

浅析锡克社会中的种姓

锡克教教义以反对种姓制度而在印度的众多宗教流派中独树一帜,但基于种姓差别而存在的隔阂、歧视等现象在锡克社会历史的发展中并没有消除,相反对锡克社会的政治经济产生了深远的影响.     

Effects of jinlu, an anti-juvenile hormone on the growth, ultra-structure of the corpora allata and prothoracic gland of silkworm,Bombyx mori L

The 4th instar larvae of the silkworm,Bombyx mori L, when treated with anti-juvenile hormone (Jinlu) had its larval period extended by 2 days and the total larval period shortened by about 4 days. The conversion ratio of tetramolters into trimolters was 100%. But anti-juvenile hormone administration to the 5th instar larvae lengthened the silkworm age by one day. When anti-juvenile hormone was administered, we could find many neurosecretory granules of the brain transferred to the cells of the corpora allata, but there was little endoplasmic reticulum. In the prothoracic gland, the micropile edge was clear and there were large nucleoli, mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum. This study was carried out to show that anti-JH compound inhibits the secretion of Juvenile hormone in silkwormBombyx mori L. The investigation revealed that the antijuvenile hormone inhibited the secretion of corpora allata and initiated the activity of the prothoracic gland. Project supported by the Government of China and Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India for Bilateral exchange program. Post-Doctoral Scholar in College of Animal Sciences of Zhejiang University now, from Sri Padmavathi Women’s University, India.     

Preschool Temperament Assessment: A Quantitative Assessment of the Validity of Behavioral Style Questionnaire Data

Research Findings: Child temperament is an important construct, but its measurement has been marked by a number of weaknesses that have diminished the frequency with which it is assessed in practice. We address this problem by presenting the results of a quantitative construct validation study. We calculated validity indices by hypothesizing the magnitude of relationships between Behavioral Style Questionnaire (BSQ) subscales and criterion measures assessing student–teacher relationships, student characteristics related to teaching stress, and peer play interactions. We tested these hypotheses against the actual correlations observed in a sample of 44 children 40 to 68 months of age. These analyses indicated strong support for 4 of the BSQ subscales (Activity, Rhythmicity, Approach, and Adaptability) and moderate support for 1 subscale (Mood). However, new item generation and testing is recommended for 3 subscales (Intensity, Persistence, and Threshold), along with further construct definition work for the final subscale (Distractibility). Practice or Policy: These findings are particularly relevant for early childhood educators who wish to assess temperament yet are uncertain of the issues involved in its measurement. Results derived from the BSQ, viewed in context, can increase practitioners’ understandings of children's individual characteristics and guide the development of interventions to promote optimal early educational experiences for children.     

Shyness and Social Conflict Reduce Young Children's Social Helpfulness

This study examined social influences on 3‐year‐old children's decisions to help an experimenter gain another person's attention (N = 32). Children were slower to help the experimenter when the target had previously expressed disinterest in attending to her. Shy children were less likely to support the experimenter's attempts to communicate with the target; however, this association was not influenced by children's knowledge of the target's disinterest, and there was no relation between shyness and children's support for a separate physical goal. Therefore, young children's decisions to act helpfully incorporate consideration for others beyond a focal person with an unmet need, and they are further constrained by children's own comfort with the actions required to help.     

Deconstruction as Narrative Interruption

Because of the way it prioritizes interruption and calls into question the very possibility of producing coherent, selfcontained narratives, the deconstructive work of Jacques Derrida is often thought to be intrinsically anti-narrative in its very structure; and yet there are those who insist that, to the contrary, deconstruction is a narrative exercise through and through. I maintain that both interpretive approaches fall prey to a serious misunderstanding of deconstruction. I will show that deconstruction should be viewed neither as a simple affirmation nor negation of narrative but rather as a radical perplexity in the face of narrative. Indeed, any serious engagement with deconstruction requires that we call into question the very nature, function, and limits of narrative practice.