Literature for Swedish Lutherans in Colonial America, 1696–1730

In bis dissertation on the Augustana Synod and its significance for the construction of nineteenth‐century Swedish—American identity, DagBlanck examined the literature issued by the Augustana Book Concern. ^{1 1} Dag Blanck, Becoming Swedish‐American. The Construction of an Ethnic Identity in the Augustana Synod, 1860‐1917(Uppsala, 1997). One of the most important types of literature was the textbooks, intended for use in the Swedish—American schools. Blanck's analysis of their contents provides evidence that these textbooks served the purpose of constructing and implanting a certain Swedish—American identity by providing space not only for the Swedish cultural heritage, but also the American immigrant experience. Applying a similar perspective, this article discusses the significance of Swedish literature to the descendants of the New Sweden colonists at the turn of the seventeenth century. From the early 1690s and through the 1720s, the book supply comprised a major line of communication between Sweden and America. While previous research has emphasized the religious point of view and the missionary efforts conducted by Swedish authorities, the article analyses the book supply from the perspective of Swedish—American ethnic formation. Defending their rights to religious freedom and land possession, the old settlers mobilized along ethnic lines. In order to discuss what purpose this literature might have served in promoting Swedishness, the article presents an assessment of the extent and composition of the five major book deliveries to America prior to 1720. Particular attention will be paid to the construction of a special Swedish‐American literature.

     

The Use of the Visual in Classical Jesuit Teaching and Education

On the basis of the most important and largest collection of affixiones in the world, held at the Brussels Royal Library, this essay discusses their didactic characteristics, and the genre's intentions. Attention will primarily he paid to the emblems thematising Jesuit pedagogy itself. By having their pupils create symbolic signifiers of education and learning, the Jesuits ingeniously led them to participate consciously in their educational system. The affixiones combine visuality with literary erudition and humour, and they are a fascinating source of information for historians of education, not in the least because of the way in which the exhibitions managed to link the cultivation of rhetorical and artistic skills to reality‐based teaching. To the present day, however, they have aroused the interest of literature historians only.     

Androgyny and the Mentoring Role: an empirical study to examine for prominent mentor expectations

abstract

As part of an ongoing research design, we wished to examine how mentors behave whilst in the mentoring role. The starting point for this was a study to examine how mentors felt they were expected to behave in context; that is, an organised educational mentoring situation, as we recognised the importance of situation‐specificity. Prior to empirical study, we theorised that the mentor may be androgynous; or more precisely are able to display high levels of expressive and instrumental behaviour. Seven suppositions were examined. Our findings were that whilst in the role, mentors do indeed feel expected to blend and display high levels of both instrumentality and expressiveness. Further, the levels of expressive behaviour they perceived they were expected to display were significantly higher. The higher levels of expected expressive behaviour is not congruent with the androgyny literature: our samples proved an exception to the ‘masculine supremacy effect’. Also, that mentoring may require high levels of stereotypically feminine behaviour is something that the mass of mentoring literature has not discussed and may warrant further attention. We concluded that the diverse, complex and complicated nature of mentoring is met with expectations to display flexibility and versatility across situations — to take a proactive approach to coping with mentoring situational demands — such is not mitigated by gender. Their reported high expected levels of both expressive and instrumental behaviour are congruent with our theory of the androgynous mentor.     

Notes on British education: an American's perspective

Abstract

This paper argues that the Scottish Education Department (SED) has dispensed with its earlier advocacy of human relations management approaches to staff development. The concept of ‘collaboration’, stressed in the National Committee for the In‐service Training of Teachers (NCITT) reports of 1984, is not mentioned in the SED's consultation paper School Teachers’ Professional Development into the 1990s. The period between 1979 and 1984 is analysed briefly. This period was typified by a declared preference for collaborative INSET. Consideration is given to the SED's consultation paper School Teachers’ Professional Development into the 1990s, and the SED's concept of ‘professional development’ is examined. The SED's management ethos as implied in Curriculum and Assessment in Scotland: a policy for the 1990s is incorporated into the analysis.     

The long‐day childcare context: implications for toddlers' pretend play

Forty‐eight toddlers aged 17 to 31 months attending long‐day childcare participated in this project, which examined some of the influences of the day‐care context on their emerging pretend play. Ninety minutes of video‐taped observations were collected for each participant as they engaged in free play with their same‐age peers and their pre‐school‐aged peers. The play environment was assessed on a number of dimensions, including the provision of play materials, the quality of care and staff attitudes toward play. Additionally, the participants' weekly attendance pattern was taken into consideration. The complexity of pretend play was coded in accordance with Westby's Symbolic Play Scale (1991 Westby C A scale for assessing children's pretend play 1991 in: C. E. Shaefer, K. Gitlin & A. Sandgrund (Eds) Play diagnosis and assessment New York Wiley 131 161  [Google Scholar]). Two components of the long‐day childcare context—play with pre‐school‐aged peers and the unsatisfactory provision of play materials—were found to be significantly influential on the participants' complexity of pretend play. An attendance of four or more days in childcare was also found to be favourable. A number of implications for educational programming in the day‐care context arise from these results.     

Imagined Authority: Blackboard Jungle and the Project of Educational Liberalism

The 1955 movie Blackboard Jungle portrays the efforts of high school teacher Richard Dadier to overcome his students’ resistance to the regime of the school At the same time, Blackboard Jungle inaugurated the use of rock and roll in movies, thereby heralding the emergence of a distinct youth culture. Representations of youth and schooling were uniquely suited to capture the anxieties that arose out of American familial, economic, and political conflicts in the 1950s. By synthesizing matters of male and state authority in an ambivalent blend of rebellion and social control, Blackboard Jungle articulated the ambiguities of the liberal ideology that schooling and the state more broadly could simultaneously insure individual freedom and contain social conflicts. Blackboard Jungle’s gendered narrative was mirrored in academic research into the causes of juvenile delinquency, in differing career paths for men and women educators, and in attacks on progressive curricula. By combining an examination of the film's narrative and visual technique with an analysis of its reception, this article explores the liberal ideology which has shaped American schooling.     

Beyond Rote-Memorisation: Confucius’ Concept of Thinking

Confucian education is often associated with rote-memorisation that is characterised by sheer repetition of facts with no or little understanding of the content learnt. But does Confucian education necessarily promote rote-memorisation? What does Confucius himself have to say about education? This article aims to answer the above questions by examining Confucius’ concept of si (thinking) based on a textual study of the Analects. It is argued that Confucius’ concept of si primarily involves an active inquiry into issues that concern one’s everyday life, promotes inferential thinking, and facilitates self-examination. Far from advocating rote-memorisation, Confucius highlights the need for us to take ownership of our own learning, engage in higher order thinking, and reflectively apply the lessons learnt in our lives.     

Katsushika Hokusai and a Poetics of Nostalgia

Abstract

This article addresses the activation of aesthetics through the examination of an acute sensitivity to melancholy and time permeating the literary and pictorial arts of Japan. In medieval court circles, this sensitivity was activated through a pervasive sense of aware, a poignant reflection on the pathos of things. This sensibility became the motivating force for court verse, and through this medium, for the mature projects of the ukiyo-e ‘floating world picture’ artist Katsushika Hokusai. Hokusai reached back to aware sensibilities, subjects and conventions in celebrations of the poetic that sustained cultural memories resonating classical lyric and pastoral themes. This paper examines how this elegiac sensibility activated Hokusai’s preoccupations with poetic allusion in his late representations of scholar-poets and the unfinished series of Hyakunin isshu uba-ga etoki, ‘One hundred poems, by one hundred poets, explained by the nurse’. It examines four works to explain how their synthesis of the visual and poetic could sustain aware themes and tropes over time to maintain a distinctive sense of this aesthetic sensibility in Japan.     

Moving Images: Propaganda Film and British Education 1940‐45

Village School (1940) and Children's Charter (1945) are two propaganda films produced on behalf of the British government at the beginning and the end of the second world war and are key visual sources for educational history, quite accessible but so far much neglected by educational historians. This paper examines the two films as case studies of the visual in the making of educational space at one moment in history. The historical moment is the second world war in Britain, and the space is the public space in which educational policies and ideologies are promoted.

The two motion pictures are located in their historical context, followed by comparative and critical comments from three perspectives: the image as a document of relations between producer and consumer; the image as a medium of expression; and the image in its relation to a wider iconography of education. A major focus for this paper is the way in which promotion of a progressive curriculum and teaching method is inscribed within a film on schooling in wartime evacuation, and it also highlights the complexity of reading motion pictures, and especially propaganda film, as historical evidence.     

Beyond the Backlash: Sex and the City and Three Feminist Struggles

Much scholarly debate surrounds the extent to which female situation comedies make feminist contributions, particularly in a postfeminist context. While Sex and the City (SATC) can be read as a postfeminist text, this essay aims to recover the show's feminist meanings. To that end, this essay situates SATC within three key feminist struggles—between the individual and the collective, feminism and femininity, and agency and victimization. As Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha face each of these struggles, they often embody complex feminist identities. Exploring these complexities will highlight SATC's participatory elements as they relate to the ongoing feminist project.     

Teachers' Prior Experiences and Actual Perceptions of Professional Identity

Abstract

After a review of literature, 14 items were generated which represent teachers' professional identity. The participating teachers (n = 28) were requested to express and clarify their actual perception for each item. In addition they were asked to draw so‐called story‐lines from the present to the past and to clarify the highest and lowest points in these lines. The respondents were secondary school teachers with an average teaching experience of 21 years. All of them perceived their actual professional identity as positive. The teachers' stories of their experiences demonstrate so‐called progressive rather than regressive lines in their careers. Some teachers also demonstrate so‐called stability story‐lines, i.e. lines without high(est) and low(est) points. It is argued that—in the long term—these and other research findings can be relevant to those who are responsible in schools for the further development of teachers' careers.     

Assertion‐reason multiple‐choice testing as a tool for deep learning: a qualitative analysis

This paper reflects on the ongoing debate surrounding the usefulness (or otherwise) of multiple‐choice questions (MCQ) as an assessment instrument. The context is a graduate school of business in Australia where an experiment was conducted to investigate the use of assertion‐reason questions (ARQ), a sophisticated form of MCQ that aims to encourage higher‐order thinking on the part of the student. It builds on the work of Connelly (2004 Connelly, L. B. 2004. “Assertion‐reason assessment in formative and summative tests: results from two graduate case studies”. In Educational innovation in economics and business VIII: pedagogy, technology and innovation, Edited by: Ottewill, R., Borredon, E., Falque, L., Macfarlane, B. and Wall, A. 359–378. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.  [Google Scholar]) which produced a quantitative analysis of the use of ARQ testing in two economics course units in a flexibly‐delivered Master of Business Administration (MBA) program. Connelly's main findings were that ARQ tests were good substitutes for the more conventional type of multiple‐choice/short‐answer type questions and, perhaps more significantly, ARQ test performance was a good predictor of student performance in essays—the assessment instrument most widely favoured as an indicator of deeper learning. The main focus of this paper is the validity of the second of these findings, analysis of questionnaire data casting some doubt over whether student performance in ARQ tests can, indeed, be looked upon as a sound indicator of deeper learning—student reactions and opinions suggesting instead that performance might have more to do with one's proficiency in the English language.     

The Effects of Message Framing and Visual Image on Persuasion

This study examined the joint effects of message framing (gain vs. loss) and visual image (image vs. no image) on persuasion as it related to the use of dental floss and the use of sunscreen (N = 252). For both topics, the results revealed a Frame × Image interaction effect on fear. The interaction was such that the presence (vs. absence) of an image produced more fear in the loss-framed conditions. The corresponding results for gain-framed messages were inconsistent. Covariance analyses showed that fear mediated the effect of the interaction on persuasion, whereas dominant cognitive response did not.

[Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Communication Quarterly for the following free supplemental resources: sunscreen and flossing messages of gain-visual and loss-visual.]     

Esclaves,Militaires et Libéraux: les Chemins de l’Enseignement Mutuel au Brésil (1808–1854)

Mutual/monitorial teaching was officially introduced in Brazil under the “Decree of the First Letters” on 15 October 1827. Such a decree was the first law on National Public Instruction of the Brazilian Empire and proposed the establishment and the adoption of the Lancasterian approach in elementary schools. This study analyses the beginning of the mutual/ monitorial teaching in Brazil between 1815 and 1827 and the political‐administrative obstacles to its implementation from 1827. Such an approach was influenced by the Société pour l’instruction élémentaire, founded in France in 1815 to promote the diffusion of mutual teaching. It also analyses the teachers’ formation based on the theoretical and practical principles of the mutual/monitorial teaching as explained in Baron de Gérando’s book, widely diffused in Latin America, Cours Normal des instituteurs primaires, ou Directions relatives à l’Education Physique, Morale et Intellectuelle dans les Ecoles Primaires (1832).     

Charles Sturt University Extended Practicum Program: Deliberative and Serendipitous Learning

Two recent trends in teacher education in Australia have been partnerships and internships or extended practica. Both of these trends are underpinned by a recognition of the importance of site‐based learning as part of teacher education and professional development. Whilst many extended practicum programs in Australia are in their infancy, it is worth examining the grounds on which they were established and the opportunities they provide for the participants. This paper is concerned with an Extended Practicum Program (EPP) that is based on a partnership between Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, the New South Wales Department of School Education (NSW DSE) and the New South Wales Teachers Federation (NSW TF).     

Deconstructing Delphinium: Violence and Flowers in Rousseau’s émile and Henke’s Chrysanthemum

This article is an attempt to contribute to the conversation about “go[ing] beyond all kinds of binary thinking” (Lenz Taguchi, Going beyond the theory/practice divide in early childhood education: introducing an intra-active pedagogy, 2010, p. 50), especially the binary which positions “adults” and “children” as being powerful and powerless, respectively, in educational settings. It is also a personal reflection on “naming.” At the center of the reflection are two literary works, the picture book by Henkes, Chrysanthemum (1991), and the novel by Rousseau, émile, ou l’education (1762a). The central metaphor of émile—that of the developing child as organically unfolding, like a flower—is deconstructed by the plot involving two flower-named characters in Chrysanthemum. These characters are the protagonist, Chrysanthemum, and her music teacher, Delphinium Twinkle. Two acts of “naming” are considered: the literal act of naming a newborn baby and the abstract concept of “naming” [or labeling] a particular time in the life of a human being: “Childhood” (Cannella, Deconstructing early childhood education: social justice and revolution, 1997).     

L'ÉTAT ET LA MÉDICALISATION DE L'ACCOUCHEMENT EN EUROPE OCCIDENTALE AU XVIIIÈ SIÈCLE. L'EXEMPLE DE L'OBSTÉTRIQUE∗

C'est au XVHIè siècle, et selon des modalités variables que l'accoucheur apparaît dans les pays d'Europe occidentale. Mais c'est en France sans doute que le rôle de l'Etat est le plus déterminant.

Par une campagne de dénigrement systématique, au nom de l'humanité souffrante et de la nécessaire protection des mères et des nouveau‐nés, les administrateurs et les médecins prétendent mettre un terme à l'exercice des accoucheuses traditionnelles, et limiter celui des sages‐femmes. A la routine des matrones, on substitue un corps de doctrine cohérent, et l'on entend faire disparaître les ‘superstitions’ du passé. Le projet serait louable, si le souci humanitaire ne débouchait de fait sur une attaque en règle de la société rurale, dont l'accoucheuse est l'un des supports.

Mais l'ambition des médecins et le souci de l'Etat de préserver les populations ne suffisent pas à expliquer l'importance d'un changement qui d'ailleurs ne s'effectue pas partout au même rythme: villes et campagnes, Europe du nord et du sud s'opposent. De fait, l'évolution des pratiques médicales n'est possible que parce que la demande de soins, le besoin de sécurité commençe alors à l'emporter sur toute autre considération.

     

A Teacher's Response to ‘Reflection‐in‐action’

A teacher‐researcher questions whether Schon's Reflective Practitioner is an appropriate text for ensuring change in teaching practices. It is argued that teachers’ perspectives prompt a particular interpretation of ‘reflection‐in‐action’ that justifies individualistic, immediate and limited change strategies. Schon's rhetorical appeals can be interpreted as offering tacit approval for the existing craft culture; for the inhibiting effects of this craft culture to be effectively challenged, individual teachers need the supportive insights which collaboration can provide.