Education for diversity: the role of networking in resisting disabled people’s marginalisation in Bangladesh

This article examines the role networking has played, at local and national levels, in facilitating communication between key actors involved in challenging the marginalisation of disabled people from education and from wider Bangladeshi society. Efforts to promote awareness of the importance of including disabled children in their local schools have gained ground at national level through a complex web of networking relationships, including government departments concerned with education and social welfare, disability-focused NGOs and mainstream development agencies and networks. The article explores the experience of blind people, (in their role as members of self-help groups linked to Community-Based Rehabilitation programmes in rural areas) in supporting disabled children to access their local school, and in ensuring their safety. Some evidence is provided for the role of networking in challenging marginalising policies, in accessing services (including financial benefits), and in resisting marginalisation. In considering this evidence, the authors debate the different forms and meanings of networking in societies which prioritise collectivity and interdependence, rather than individualism.     

Girls’ higher education in India on the road to inclusiveness: on track but heading where?

The scope of this paper spans from macro-level national and inter-state comparisons to more micro-level intra-state scrutiny of systemic fault-lines shaping the contours of girls’ education in India. Post independence, national level indicators have been suggestive of greater gender parity. Yet, there is more to inclusiveness of girls in Indian higher education than increasing absolute numbers or improving gender ratios. Rising female participation has coincided with a massive ‘systemic expansion’ of delivery systems and therefore, would have to be a function of this expanded availability. As a corollary, systemic skews and limitations, both qualitative and quantitative, are bound to influence how girls get incorporated into the system. This would matter not just in terms of how many access it, but also what courses do they access and where. In the course of this paper, we scan through several geographic layers of delivery systems to surface how critical systemic traits are shaping access to higher education in India, and how girls remain particularly vulnerable to them. It reveals how the progress achieved so far has spawned its own hierarchies, which do not get reflected adequately in the national level indicators. As we scale down to states, the first set of skews begins to surface in the form of inter-state disparities of access and uneven faculty-wise distributions. Moving to the next level of geographic dis-aggregation, further skews are revealed based on availability of medium of instruction; as also the guidelines of gender based affirmative action meant for improving girls’ participation that ironically end up creating their own distortions. Through a study of these multi-layered hurdles, this paper brings forth the systemic side of impediments that have remained less explored in comparison with the cultural-attitudinal biases that have plagued girls’ participation to higher education in India.     

From Córdoba to Washington: WTO/GATS and Latin American Education

This article examines the educational dimension of the General Agreement on Trade in Services of the World Trade Organisation (WTO/GATS), with a special focus on its potential implications for the Latin American region. This ambitious strategy to transform education into a tradable commodity in a global economy cannot be isolated from other international treaties and from the neoliberal policies that have impacted Latin American societies for the last two decades. In this regard, we argue that the WTO/GATS educational agenda has the potential to further the project of privatisation to a higher level, opening the door for international competition. In a continental political economy characterised by large asymmetries in educational export markets and in interactive technologies, such competition will not take place on an even playing field, as the USA is better positioned than most countries in the region to take advantage of a ‘free educational market’. If the proposed WTO/GATS goes ahead in such a context, Latin American countries can be adversely affected in terms of their sovereignty on cultural policy, the quality and accessibility of their public education systems, the training of scientists and researchers oriented towards national development, and the contribution of their education systems to the common good and to the equalisation of opportunities in largely unequal societies. We recommend that Latin American governments do not commit themselves to the educational agenda of the WTO/GATS before holding a wide process of public participation, information and reflection in national parliaments and in civil society.     

浅议我国高等会计教育的目标及方法

在现代社会,教育先行已成为世界各国的共识。高等会计教育的水平将在一定程度上影响着社会经济的发展。提高我国高等会计教育水平,培养满足社会需求的会计专门人才已成为当务之急。因此,我国高等会计教育应充分利用现代化的演示教学、网络教学等先进的教学方式,变阐述教学为引导启发,加强课堂讨论及案例分析等,培养出不仅掌握全面的会计知识,而且具备会计实践能力的综合性会计人才。     

Vulnerable Voices: An examination of the concept of vulnerability in relation to student voice

Vulnerable student voices are a matter for concern in contemporary higher education, but that concern is directed more towards identifying vulnerable groups, and seeking to widen their participation in higher education. It is less to do with the vulnerability of certain modes of voice when students are there.

The concept of student voice may be anatomised into three constituent elements: an epistemological voice, or a voice for knowing, a practical voice, or a voice for doing, and an ontological voice, or a voice for being and becoming. A voice for being and becoming is less valued and validated in contemporary higher education, and more vulnerable, than voices for knowing and doing. Developing an ontological voice is deemed less important than developing epistemological or practical voices, yet an ontological voice is fundamental to those two other voices.

The concept of vulnerability needs to be extended from referring to certain under‐represented groups in the student body to indicating the strength or weakness of certain modes of the student voice. Vulnerability is not only about the vulnerability of the presenting student, but also about his voice yet to be uncovered. Reinterpreting vulnerability fosters modes of recovering ontological voices at risk of being lost.     

毕节学院学生国防教育的现状及对策研究

由于受经济发展水平、地理位置、思想观念等因素的制约,毕节学院学生国防教育还处于初级阶段,存在着国防教育内容随意和教育方法单一、无明确的标准和要求、国防法规意识淡漠等问题。因此,要进一步加强学生国防教育,重点在于严格贯彻和落实各项国防法规和政策,把学生的国防教育工作纳入法制轨道,使学院国防教育工作的实施有章可循、有法可依,逐步走上制度化、规范化的道路。     

Decolonization,Nationalism, and local identity: rethinking cosmopolitanism in educational practice in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Cosmopolitanism and its application for education in western societies has been well examined. Yet cosmopolitanism in society and in education has not been systematically explored in many Asian societies. Facing a large number of people from diverse backgrounds, the society and its education system in Hong Kong are troubled by issues similar to those found in western postindustrial societies, related to cultural and national belonging and identity. Prejudice and racism towards ethnic minorities – particularly those from South Asia and Africa, is quite common. Additionally, animosity and hostility to mainland Chinese newcomers has increased and intensified in the context of Hong Kong’s “repoliticization” after its 1997 handover. This article aims to explore how cosmopolitanism is understood, valued, and approached in Hong Kong education. We start by exploring the role of decolonization and nationalization in political education in Hong Kong. We then discuss cosmopolitanism, and consider how it impacts particular social and educational issues in Hong Kong. We also provide an analysis of discourses on cosmopolitanism taken from Hong Kong General Studies and History textbooks, to identify challenges faced in facilitating cosmopolitan values, a balance of identities, and global citizenship in Hong Kong education.     

Rethinking Vulnerability in the Age of Anthropocene: Toward Ecologizing Education

In this essay, Huey‐li Li argues that, although precariousness has always been embedded in human existence, our human vulnerability has been heightened by seemingly omnipresent and omnipotent risks in the modern era, ranging from the 9/11 terroristic attacks and nuclear meltdowns to infectious disease outbreaks and climate change. Li unravels some of the ambiguities surrounding the conceptualization of vulnerability, pointing out that human vulnerability, to a large extent, is coterminous with the increasingly more vulnerable global–local ecological systems in the age of the Anthropocene. She then connects this formulation of vulnerability to the existential, ontological, and social vulnerability in education and its accompanying discourses. Li questions the wisdom of thinking that human invulnerability is an attainable goal in the modern era and argues further that all protective and preventive efforts are actually counterproductive — that is, that they instead tend to maximize our fears and thus render us more vulnerable. Instead of perpetuating the vulnerable pursuit of invulnerability in formal educational institutions, Li concludes, modern schooling should embrace and engage ecological and human vulnerability. In this way, education might better assume ethical responsibility for mitigating the ongoing ecological decline.     

National and European identities: notions of reconcilability and inclusiveness in a case study of German trainee teachers

The link between formal education and national identities is widely acknowledged. Empirical research on national and supranational identities of teachers, however, is still relatively rare. Whilst a number of studies consider the special population of teachers, these contributions do not consistently focus on national and supranational identities. Based on a case study of 72 trainee teachers from Baden‐Württemberg (Germany), the present paper looks at the reconcilability of national and European identities and explores notions of the European Union in terms of cultural and geographical inclusiveness. Findings on the case study level are considered in their own right, but also compared to findings on the regional, national and European level, using relevant Eurobarometer survey data. The article shows that high levels of attachment to nation and high levels of attachment to Europe do not have to be mutually exclusive. It also demonstrates that, for most trainee teachers, the European Union constitutes a culturally and geographically inclusive institution that is supposed to stand for cultural diversity, peace, freedom and respect of human rights. Through comparisons that go beyond the case study level, the paper recognises the importance of regional and national contexts. Nonetheless, it argues that some of its findings are likely to be relevant for studies of national and European identities across different European societies.     

中国民办高等教育回顾与前瞻

中国民办高等教育已经走过了二十五个春秋,时至今日,虽然取得了一定成绩,但仍属于"弱势群体".尤其近年来民办高校倒闭事件频发,引发了人们对民办高等教育的担心和疑虑.有人不免发问,中国民办高等教育是否还有发展的空间?要回答这一问题,就需要对民办高等教育发展的历史和未来进行一番梳理和探讨.事实上,无论是从国际高等教育发展趋势来看,还是从我国经济发展水平、大众对高等教育的需求、国家财政供给能力以及政府的政策态度来看,中国民办高等教育都将有巨大的发展,这是历史发展的必然.     

浅谈高校国防教育与素质教育的相互关系

国防教育与素质教育具有非常密切的关系。文章探讨了国防教育的主要内容,国防教育在素质教育中的地位和作用,以及加强国防教育的途径。实践证明,加强国防教育有利于促进大学生的素质教育,实现高素质人才的培养。     

民族地区地方高校学生心理健康教育的有效途径——团体心理辅导

民族地区地方高校的大学生除了承受社会、家庭各方面的压力外,还要承受因学校因素、地区因素给他们带来的诸多压力;民族地区地方高校学生心理健康总体水平偏低,身心症状比一般高校的大学生严重;全方位、多途径地开展团体心理辅导是民族地区地方高校全面提高学生心理素质的迫切需要。     

Learning Logo: The social context of cognition

In the wake of South Africa's first non-racial elections in 1994, the new Minister of Education launched a national process which would purge the apartheid curriculum of its most offensive racial content and outdated, inaccurate subject matter. At a first glance these essential alterations to school syllabuses sounded reasonable and timely, given the democratic non-racial ideals of the new government. However, these syllabus alterations had little to do with changing the school curriculum and much more to do with a precarious crisis of legitimacy facing the state and education in the months following the national elections. The haste with which the state pursued a superficial cleansing of the inherited curriculum is explained in terms of the political constraints, conflicts and compromises which accompanied the South African transition from apartheid.     

A Collaborative Approach for Teachers' In-service Training

Abstract

To different degrees, Western industrial societies are both democratic and capitalist. In some respects, the tenets of democracy and the functional needs of capitalism are at odds. The state must try to manage the tensions between the two, particularly through its education policy, including that for teacher education. This paper analyses how teacher education policy since 1980 has been influenced by these tensions. It argues that current policy in teacher education is vulnerable to the objection that it is not democratic, but cautions that those calling for a more democratic basis for teacher education might be equally vulnerable to the objection that they focus too much on the democratic ends of education rather than on the technicalities of teaching. The analysis refers mainly to Britain and the United States.     

Education for global citizenship in a divided society? Young people's views and experiences

Global citizenship education has been suggested as a means of overcoming the limitations of national citizenship in an increasingly globalised world. In divided societies, global citizenship education is especially relevant and problematic as it offers the opportunity to explore identities and conflict in a wider context. This paper therefore explores young people's understandings of global citizenship in Northern Ireland, a divided society emerging from conflict. Results from focus groups with primary and post-primary pupils reflect some theoretical conceptualisations of global citizenship, including an awareness of global issues, understandings of environmental interdependence and global responsibility, though other elements appear to be less well understood. We argue that global citizenship education will fail to overcome engrained cultural divisions locally and may perpetuate cultural stereotypes globally, unless local and global controversial issues are acknowledged and issues of identity and interdependence critically examined at both levels.     

思想政治教育与国家文化软实力的趋同性

国家和社会日益重视文化软实力的同时,思想政治教育作为我国文化软实力的内容表现和实践载体之一,它的重要性和地位也将日益凸显。文章以思想政治教育作用的研究为出发点,力求揭示思想政治教育与国家文化软实力之间的趋同性,从而体现思想政治教育也将对国家文化软实力的提升起到重大的作用。其次,旨在为这一问题的解决提供一些新思路和新角度。     

北京市中小学学生数学补习的影响因素分析

补习教育带给家庭和社会一种及其矛盾的情感,它本身不仅是具有深远的经济意义的产业,而且会对社会产生复杂的影响.为了向公众描绘一个更加清晰和全面的关于补习教育的图景,选取北京8所普通小学和5所普通中学的2 089名被试,以学校、家庭、个人为背景变量分别探讨影响数学补习次数和态度的因素.结果表明:(1)中等水平学校学生数学补习行为最积极.(2)母亲受教育水平较高,子女参加数学补习行为较积极.(3)小学生参加数学补习时间较多,态度较积极;中等数学水平学生补习态度最积极.(4) Logistic回归分析显示,学校水平、母亲受教育水平和年级对中小学生数学补习时间的累积贡献率为8.5％.分层线性回归分析显示,年级对中小学生数学补习态度的贡献率为4％.     

Evaluation of the outcome of lifelong learning programmes for social inclusion: a phenomenographic research

Our current knowledge society does not only have an impact on labour market demands, but its citizens also have to cope with increasing social demands. A growing number of vulnerable adults lack basic competences and therefore risk social exclusion. In this respect, The European Commission as well as the OECD agree that adult education can play a significant role in increasing social inclusion of vulnerable adults. However, to date, evidence of outcome of adult education programmes in terms of social inclusion is hardly available. The present study aims to unravel the complexity of the phenomenon of adult education to enhance participants’ social inclusion. Using a phenomenographic approach, we have explored different experiences of 32 vulnerable adults who have participated in adult education courses. The results show that an increase on an individual level (activation and internalisation) is more often perceived by the interviewees than an increase on the collective level of social inclusion (participation and connection). To ensure successful results and to improve quality of the lifelong learning process it seems that particularly the variables teacher support, life circumstances, and learning contents and activities are important elements to enhance the transfer aiming to increase social inclusion.     

伦理学、经济学与高等教育——作为一种公共物品的大学

本文探讨了大学教育的经济学与公共物品的功利主义概念.笔者认为,现代大学的发展与演变是与物品这一概念的变化相伴随的.早期的自由主义经济学理论(代表人物如穆勒)认为,一种物品能够被供给,要么是因为它作为一个整体对社区有益,要么是因为它不能或者不应该通过私人的方式供给,比如国防.正如国家和社会在规则制定与福利供给方面变得越来越复杂,物品的定义也日益复杂.政策的合理性往往是通过它有助于公共财富的积累而得到证明的,具体来讲,政策应该要么满足社会受众的某种具体利益(这种福利是需要政府提供的,如学生的受教育经费),要么增进社会作为一个整体的利益(比如受教育人口的增长).这与现代大学的成长和进步是并行不悖且相互砥砺的.新自由主义的观点是对以上观点的一种挑战,它认为私人的投资与供给所产生的回报要远高于公共的投资与供给,而且从道义上来讲,个人与社会对于供给何种物品应该具有选择权;同时,由经济效能与个人选择所带来的混合的社会利益可以获致更多的集体公共物品.然而,这种观点没有考虑到规范的议题(如公平与社会正义)的影响.因此,本文旨在思考上述几重张力对于以下问题的影响,这些问题包括现代大学与公共物品的当代意涵之间的联系,以及大学占统治地位的经济功能能否与其在知识和文化方面的使命相协调.     

廖世承在国立师范学院的社会教育实践

我国现代著名的教育家廖世承在担任国立师范学院院长时,带领学院师生开办社会教育,对学院所在地的文化、卫生、生产等事业的发展和民众教育水平的提高,起到了巨大的推动作用.社教工作是国师智力、人力和财力的全方位付出,凸显了国师推广地方文化教育的中心地位,而廖世承的社会教育思想是国师社教工作发展的原动力.