JEWISH SCHOOLS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY: PATTERNS OF ACTION AND REACTION

The article presents research from a practitioner research study conducted in a non-denominational Jewish secondary school. As part of the study, students created artistic works based on chapter 12 of the biblical book of Numbers. Four of the twelve student groups created works that directly engaged with their conceptions of God as represented in the text while also making direct links to God's role in their lives. Learning through the arts can be a powerful tool that teachers can draw on in order to provide space for students to reflect on their understanding of God and as a way to engage students in conversations about God.     

中国物理学会的成立及其抗战前的主要活动

我国现代物理学的发展起步较晚,因此现代意义上的专门化物理学会在中国的成立具有重要的意义,是我国物理学发展具有里程碑式的事件.清末民初中国出现了向西方学习的热潮,一批留学欧美和日本的留学生在上个世纪二三十年代陆续学成归国,他们把物理学的种子带了回来,并生根发芽结果,物理学人的专门化组织--中国物理学会经过李书华、叶企孙、吴有训等物理学前辈的努力终于在1932年8月于清华大学成立.中国物理学会的成立促进了我国物理学研究和教学事业发展,在抗日战争前取得了令人可喜的成绩.     

EDUCATION AND THE LITURGICAL LIFE OF THE CHURCH

Abstract In every faith community, worship and education should be conceived and practiced as interdependent, interpenetrating dimensions of ecclesial life. Too often, however, worship and education are separated and compartmentalized to the detriment of both. This article explores a way to understand the inherent unity of worship and education and proposes a structure of ecclesial life in which each is necessary to the other. Putting education and worship in conversation yields new clarity regarding the liturgical nature of ministry and the micro- and macroscopic perspectives of education. Significant implications are drawn, especially with respect to the important insights that an educational perspective can bring to pastoral leadership in the community.     

ACTIVITIES OF THE NATIONAL EQUIVALENCE INFORMATION CENTRE FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM

The recognition of diplomas and degrees is an essential element in the promotion of international student mobility. A number of international and national organizations are engaged in the search for solutions to the manifold problems involved. The following article presents the objectives and activities of the British Council's National Equivalence Information Centre.     

GOVERNMENT'S CONSTRUCTION OF THE RELATION BETWEEN PARENTS AND SCHOOLS IN THE UPBRINGING OF CHILDREN IN ENGLAND: 1963–2009

In this essay David Bridges argues that since most families choose to realize their responsibility for the major part of their children's education through state schools, then the way in which the state constructs parents' relation with these schools is one of its primary levers on parenting itself. Bridges then examines the way in which parent‐school relations have been defined in England through government and quasi‐government interventions over the last forty‐five years, tracing these through an awakening interest in the relation between social class and unequal school success in the 1960s, passing through the discourse of accountability in the 1970s, marketization in the 1980s and 1990s, performativity extending from this period into the first decade of the twenty‐first century, and, most recently, more direct interventions into parenting itself and the regulation of school relations with parents in the interests of safeguarding children. These have not, however, been entirely discrete policy themes, and the positive and pragmatic employment of the discourse of partnership has run throughout this period, albeit with different points of emphasis on the precise terms of such partnership.     

试论民族区域自治制度与构建和谐社会

民族区域自治制度贯彻了民主法治精神,体现了公平正义原则,维护了国家统一扣社会稳定;民族区域自治制度促进了少数民族扣民族地区的发展,发展是构建扣谐社会的途径;社会主义和谐社会的构建是一个动态过程,民族问题的解决也是一个循序渐进的过程,在坚持扣完善民族区域自治制度中不断解决民族问题,构建社会主义扣谐社会。     

THE CHURCH AND THE CITY

Abstract

This article mingles stories and concepts of young Jewish Israeli children about God, with reflections on the roles of faith, memory, imagination, and cognitive development in children's Religious Education. The stories are meant to illustrate, among other things, the purity and innocence of young children's faith, which is largely untroubled by fact. Then, using Vygotsky's notions of children's spontaneous concepts and the development of more mature and accurate conceptions in the “zone of proximal development,” a central dilemma in Religious Education will be explored. How can religious educators help young people acquire accurate historical information, textual skills, and theological methods of inquiry, while at the same time nurturing the precious flame of faith? Can we do better at combining systematic learning with pure faith? Toward this purpose, three complementary goals of Religious Education will be suggested: cognitive, practical/moral, and spiritual.     

THE CHURCH AND EDUCATION

In the ten years following 9/11 there was unprecedented interest in, and commitment to, religious education in the school curriculum in England. Politicians, academics, and professionals all argued that learning about religion could foster “social cohesion” and even prevent terrorism. Accordingly there were a number of national and international initiatives to develop religious education as a part of intercultural education. With a focus on England, but taking full consideration of landmark transnational collaborations, this article examines developments in policy and professional discourse concerning religious education that occurred after, and sometimes as a direct result of, the events of 9/11. It is argued that this emphasis, often instigated at the behest of politicians, led temporarily to an increased status of the curriculum subject in England, but that this influence may have also led to increased instrumentalism, and with it, associated risk to the subject's intellectual autonomy and integrity.

¹ Although the argument and views presented are my own, and any errors remain my own responsibility solely, I thank Robert Jackson, Joyce Miller, David Aldridge, Victoria Elliott, and James Robson for their comments on an earlier draft of this article. I also acknowledge the contribution of the late Terence Copley who, by telephone in November 2010, gave sage advice on the issues discussed in this article.      

THE GROWTH AND RESOURCES OF TRAINING SCHOOLS

Teachers are thought to be the backbone of any high school. Data indicating how students perceive their teachers was gathered from a questionnaire completed by 355 recent Yeshiva high-school graduates. Results show that Yeshiva High School teachers are thought of as open minded and tolerant (51.9%), caring (73.2%), and interested in developing the teacher/student relationship (77.2%). The 66% of Yeshiva students who viewed teachers as positive role models stood in sharp contrast to the 2.4% of the general high-school population reported in the literature who viewed teachers as positive role models.     

MANAGERIALISM, FUNDAMENTALISM, AND THE RESTRUCTURING OF FAITH-BASED COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

A bstract .  In this essay, Chaya Herman explores the interaction between two powerful global dynamics that have affected educational institutions and society at large: one is neoliberalism, with its attendant notions of marketization and managerialism; the other is the resurgence of ethnic and religious, often fundamentalist, communities in the search for identity. The essay is based on a larger research project that explores the profound effects of the ideological and managerial restructuring process in Johannesburg's Jewish community schools, the broader context for which has been South Africa's transformation to democracy. Herman suggests that these two dynamics are synergetic forces and that their accumulated effect has the power to shift the discourse of the community toward ghettoization and toward the creation of a homogenous community founded on a narrowly defined common identity.