The interrelation of twenty-first-century education and work from a gender perspective

This paper analyses the interrelation of twenty-first-century education and work from a gender perspective. The analysis is carried out theoretically by asking whether human capital theory and Bourdieu’s reproduction theory are adequate instruments for such an endeavour. It is argued that the explanatory power of the human capital concept of the interrelation between education and work is extremely weak, because the human capital concept conceals costs necessary to create human capital. In contrast, reproduction theory comprehends investments in education through reproductive work. But, reproduction theory fails short to explain ongoing gender hierarchies within employment. Therefore, analysis of social and societal structure needs to go beyond the focus on education and work to explain the maintenance of gender hierarchies.     

Teacher training by alternating classroom work and work analysis: from the perspective of a social conception of meaning and action

This article explores teacher training by the alternation of classroom work and work analysis using an approach based on a social conception of meaning and action. The advantage of this approach is that it allows the development of professional activity in preservice teachers (PTs) to be assessed by tracking how the reflective tools acquired in training evolve in work and/or work analysis situations. The concepts of ‘meaning’ and ‘expectation’ are helpful in discussing the empirical data from a research program designed to evaluate the potential for PTs’ professional development offered by the alternating work/analysis programs of French University Institutes of Teacher Training. The main conclusions concern the need to organize PTs’ professional experiences within a training network so that PTs are not left on their own to face the diverse and complex situations of daily professional exercise. The effective procedures are those that allow PTs to construct concrete and circumstance‐based expectations that the professional rules they have learned are still operational. These expectations help PTs to efficiently calibrate and interpret the meaning of their work experience, while also allowing them to prepare to act differently.     

Perpetuating gender stereotypes in the classroom: a teacher perspective

This paper discusses findings from a study funded by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (NI) to explore the promotion of gender equity in the classroom and the extent to which initial teacher training and in-service courses address gender issues. Data from a questionnaire survey of 344 teachers and the qualitative dimensions of the study suggest that teachers are generally aware of gender stereotypes in the classroom and that, despite their lack of training in gender issues, where appropriate, most attempt to challenge this type of behaviour. Concern was expressed with the role of teachers in unconsciously perpetuating stereotypes and the extent to which equality issues are directed more towards girls than boys.     

基于社会性别视角下的女性管理者角色分析

女性管理者作为一个特殊群体,在公共管理和经济发展中的作用愈来愈大。但她们也面临着发展的巨大压力和难题,多重角色的困惑、性别意识的刻板、社会的偏见直接影响着女性管理者的成长和发展。分析女性管理者的角色特征,找出制约女性管理者发展的因素,有助于对其未来趋势的洞察。     

Straight Roads and Winding Tracks: Swedish educational policy from a gender equality perspective

A review of Swedish educational policy and educational research indicates that labour market considerations have had a high visibility. Straight routes through the educational system have been laid out in order to equalise and make the system more efficient. Empirical studies show that women's strategies to combine education, work and family often resulted in ‘winding tracks’ through education. Predominant research models tend to adjust to the ‘straight roads’ of educational policy while women's winding routes have been set aside. The current Swedish goal of equality between men and women gives work and parenthood the same weight for both sexes. This article discusses whether this goal could set a challenging framework for a research agenda where more gender‐sensitive methodologies are developed as well as gender‐sensitive concepts, upgrading women's knowledge, experiences and values.     

Recapturing imaginations and the gender agenda: reflections on a progressive challenge from an English perspective

Study careers of minority students in Dutch higher education are still less successful compared with the careers of majority students. Minority students still seem to experience more difficulties than majority students. Vincent Tinto’s twin concepts of academic and social integration are used here to explore the experiences of minority and majority students in Dutch higher engineering education. Based on a small‐scale interview study, it is shown that ethnic background does not seem to be a decisive, unequivocal factor in the extent to which students are integrated in institutions of higher education. Student answers show differences according to ethnic background in both social and academic integration, and these differences vary according to the year in which the students are found. The paper ends with some suggestions for further exploration.     

Constraints to change in traditional educational systems: Lessons from the Chilean case

Educators from developed countries arrive in the third world with a set of recipes large enough to cope with all the problems of the country they want to help. Their advice, however, is usually not taken into account. The present paper describes the main constraints limiting innovation in the Chilean case. It is hoped that a better understanding of the functioning of this school system (representing the actual situation in more than 90% of the less developed countries) will help those experts to design more realistic proposals.

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Résumé Les éducateurs des pays développés offrent au Tiers-Monde toute une série de formules suffisamment élaborées pour remédier aux difficultés que rencontre le pays auquel ils viennent en aide. Il reste que ces éducateurs ne sont pas toujours écoutés. La présente communication décrit les principaux obstacles qui se dressent lors des tentatives d'innovation au Chili. Le fonctionnement du système éducatif Chilien est représentatif de la situation réelle qui prévaut dans plus de 90% des pays en voie de développement et l'on espère qu'une meilleure compréhension de ce système aidera les spécialistes en question à élaborer des projets plus réalistes.

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I have benefited greatly from advice and criticism from many friends, especially Russell Davis, Noel McCinn, Joseph Farrell, Sister María José Tresch, Richard Durstine, and Jane Hobson. I am grateful to all colleagues participating in the experiment.     

社会工作视野下高校和谐校园的构建

基于社会工作视野,分析了当前高校不和谐的现状,探讨了高校和谐校园的含义,提出了构建高校和谐校园的策略。     

Moving from resistance to agreement: The case of the Chilean teacher performance evaluation

The paper discusses the process whereby a system of teacher evaluation was established in Chile through a lengthy and complicated process of negotiations between the three main institutions concerned: the Teachers’ Union, the Association of Chilean Municipalities (managers of the public school system) and the Ministry of Education. The process is examined in the light of discussions centred on teacher accountability and tensions between the concepts of formative and summative teacher performance evaluation. In order to understand the issues that arose along the process the article provides historical background information about conflicts surrounding teachers during the Military Government (1973–1990) as well as a discussion on how the different parties involved incorporated the different perspectives on teacher accountability and evaluation of teacher performance that are found in the literature and policy discussions in other geographical contexts. In its conclusion, it focuses on the importance of time, consultations and negotiations in order to reach the implementation of a system that is both appropriate and feasible for the agreed purposes.     

Paradox of student gender: a case study of economic education from China

In many Chinese universities and colleges, female students outperform male students in social science subjects. This paper presents a case study, which examines gender difference in economic education in a Chinese university. We look at a sample of students from the Chinese university and find that holding constant observed student characteristics, female students on average appear to earn higher scores than male students and the gender difference is primarily driven by low achieving students. We further find that the gender difference in exam scores is not because of female students' ability, family background and other unobservable student characteristics. Instead, it is simply a result of female students exerting more effort than male students. We finally explore a wide range of possible explanations for the gender difference in diligence, but find little support for any of the explanations.     

From state to market coordination: the Chilean case

Chile's higher education system has moved a long way from state and professional towards market coordination. Presently, market oriented policies predominate across the system, based on a loosely regulated private provision of higher education and the use of a set of “para market” mechanisms designed to enhance competition between state supported universities. The effects of these policies on the number and differentiation of higher education institutions, on enrollment, on the evolution of professional careers and academic degree programs, and particularly on the funding of the higher education system are here analyzed. A balance is drawn, specifically with respect to the nature and quality of private institutions and their public regulation, and to the competition for funding between state supported universities.     

Emotions in group work: insights from an appraisal-oriented perspective

Small group work is common practice in higher education. However, empirical research on students’ emotions related to group work is still relatively scarce. Particularly, little is known about students’ appraisals of a group task as antecedents of emotions arising in the context of group work. This paper provides a first attempt to systematically disentangle the relationship between individual differences in group work appraisals and emotions that arise in the context of a real-life group assignment. Beginning and end questionnaires (with an interval of 6 weeks) from 446 teacher education students who completed a mandatory, assessed group assignment within a university course were used to examine students’ multi-dimensional group work appraisals and emotional experiences. Findings showed that individual differences in emotions emerge as a function of appraisal processes and provided support for systematically treating students’ group work experiences as multi-dimensional, as appraisal dimensions have distinct implications for students’ emotional experiences.     

Cooperative group work: A perspective from the U.K.

This chapter explores three major strands in the development of CL approaches in the U.K. The first examines the role of cooperative group work in facilitating the personal growth of the individual; the second focuses on cooperative group work as a means of enhancing the child's thinking abilities; and the third looks at some wider social outcomes for the child which participation in cooperative group work may imply. Educational practice and research findings form the basis for the argument in the chapter.     

Academic work from a comparative perspective: a survey of faculty working time across 13 countries

Sociological institutional theory views universities as model driven organizations. The world’s stratification system promotes conformity, imitation and isomorphism towards the “best” university models. Accordingly, academic roles may be locally shaped in minor ways, but are defined and measured explicitly in global terms. We test this proposition using data on the allocation of working time between academic tasks at research universities in thirteen countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Malaysia, Norway, UK, and the USA. We find that working time patterns differ significantly across countries, suggesting that conditions of academic work remain heavily dependent on national higher education traditions. Faculty members holding the highest professorial rank share more in common, with generally stronger interests in research and a greater time dedication to research over teaching. However, in countries with comparably steep academic hierarchies, professor positions typically entail significantly fewer teaching hours and more administration.     

社会性别概念与女权主义——从历史唯物主义的视角看社会性别概念的产生

作为女权主义理论的核心概念社会性别概念不是凭空产生的,而是女权主义运动及女权主义理论自身发展的必然结果。因此,我们在吸收借鉴这一概念时,既要看它的积极意义,也要看到它的历史局限性和阶级局限性。     

从案例中分析语用行为视角下的变动型模糊限制词语

模糊限定语包括了词语和一些组合结构,而其功能也是多方面的,并且只能根据语境来判断他们的类型。因此本文通过案例分析,运用语用行为理论,集中研究变动型模糊限定词语与语用素、语用素变体之间的关系,同时深入探讨并且在宏观上解释模糊限定词语在具体语境中的作用。     

International work in early childhood education: a UNESCO perspective

After defining UNESCO's place in the United Nations system, the author outlines the new situation that has arisen in recent years for the world's children. Although infant mortality rates continue to give concern, the major problem that international organisations have now to face is not the question of children's survival but their development. Research shows that the vital age for developmental inputs is early childhood, without which the chances of later learning achievement are severely diminished. The proposed ECD Programming Model attempts to take into account present research on early child development as well as the socio‐economic context of developing countries, where governments are increasingly unable to provide basic services.     

Attitudes of academic staff towards their own work and towards external evaluation,from the perspective of self-determination theory: Estonian case

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the attitudes of academic staff towards their own work as well as towards external evaluations. The study was based on (1) an analysis of assessment reports of institutional accreditations conducted by the Estonian Quality Agency for Higher and Vocational Education and (2) self-determination theory on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The satisfaction of academic staff with their own teaching and research competencies was measured and links among the following attitudes were analysed: sense of competence, intrinsic motivation for research, attitudes towards assessment of students and towards external evaluations. The results indicate that a correlation between attitudes towards work and towards external evaluation exists and that the attitudes of academic staff at universities and professional higher education institutions differ. The study involved 252 academic staff members and showed that competent and intrinsically motivated people perceive external evaluation more positively, thus supporting self-determination theory.     

性别视野下大学新生心理健康状况分析

目的:了解不同性别大学生的心理健康状况并提供针对性的教育。方法:运用UPI、SCL-90对2010级新生4 517人进行调查。结果:UPI中一、二类比例和总分女生均高于男生,二类学生、三类学生总分差异显著(P<0.05);女生问题主要表现在情绪调节能力差、缺乏安全感、自信心差、依赖性强;躯体方面男女生各表现出不同的问题,差异显著(P<0.05)。SCL-90中总分、强迫、人际敏感、抑郁、焦虑、恐惧、其它分值女生均高于男生(P<0.05)。结论:女生心理健康状况较男生差,应树立因性施教的理念,加强对女生的心理健康教育。     

The flow of international students from a macro perspective: a network analysis

This paper provides a network analysis of the international flow of students among 210 countries and the factors determining the structure of this flow. Among these factors, bilateral hyperlink connections between countries and the number of telephone minutes (communication variables) are the most important predictors of the flow’s structure, followed by trade, the physical distance between countries, a common border between countries and a common language between two countries. The USA is by far the most central country in the flow of international students, followed by China, the UK, France, Germany, Australia and India. These results are discussed in light of World-System Theory. Future research should examine how the network of international student flows changes over time and consider additional factors to provide a better understanding of the network as an international system.