International Institute for Collaborative Cell Biology and Biochemistry—History and Memoirs from an International Network for Biological Sciences

I was invited to write this essay on the occasion of my selection as the recipient of the 2012 Bruce Alberts Award for Excellence in Science Education from the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). Receiving this award is an enormous honor. When I read the email announcement for the first time, it was more than a surprise to me, it was unbelievable. I joined ASCB in 1996, when I presented a poster and received a travel award. Since then, I have attended almost every ASCB meeting. I will try to use this essay to share with readers one of the best experiences in my life. Because this is an essay, I take the liberty of mixing some of my thoughts with data in a way that it not usual in scientific writing. I hope that this sacrifice of the format will achieve the goal of conveying what I have learned over the past 20 yr, during which time a group of colleagues and friends created a nexus of knowledge and wisdom. We have worked together to build a network capable of sharing and inspiring science all over the world.     

The Buddhist Institute at Phnom Penh,the International Council of Women,and the Rome International Institute for Educational Cinematography: intersections of internationalism and imperialism, 1931–1934

This article explores the intersection of aspects of imperialism and internationalism in discussion of cinematography at the League of Nations, at the International Council of Women (ICW), and as they played out in the imperial, national and local flows around educational cinematography in the work of Suzanne Karpelès at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It focuses on the 1931 ICW cinematograph conference organised by Laura Dreyfus-Barney at the League’s Rome International Institute for Educational Cinematography (IIEC) and on the IIEC’s 1934 cinematography congress, when Dreyfus-Barney fed Karpelès’ ideas about educational film into the congress. The article looks at the notion of rapprochement (of nations) within internationalism as this became articulated at both the League and the ICW with notions about mentalities within imperialism. It also traces the intersection of rapprochement and mentalities in Karpelès’ promotion of educational cinematography from her base in Phnom Penh. The article concludes that various elements around the cinematic at the League, the ICW and at Phnom Penh illustrate articulations of internationalism in the domains of nationalism and imperialism as well as articulations of the national and imperial in the domain of the international.     

“The crux and the magic”: The Political History of Boston Magnet Schools, 1968–1989 1

This study analyzes public perceptions of Boston's magnet school program. Typically evaluated in terms of their impact on racial integration, magnet schools also were designed to improve the tarnished image of the Boston school system. While promoting voluntary integration at a handful of schools, the magnet program struggled to change the reputation of public education in the city. Boston's magnet schools found themselves perched precariously between conflicting and equally-problematic perceptions. To the extent that they were perceived to be elite enclaves, Boston magnet schools became potent symbols of inequality. To the extent that magnet schools were not perceived to be academically superior, they could never encourage integration nor become symbols of the potential of Boston public schools. Illustrating the dilemma presented by these contradictory perceptions, the history of Boston magnet schools suggests that efforts towards racial integration must be intertwined with campaigns for increasing educational achievement citywide.     

Lessons Learned: Findings from MIT Initiatives in Educational Technology (2000–2005)

Since 1999, MIT has undertaken an extensive effort in creating and implementing educational technology. Broadly speaking, there have been two kinds of efforts: developing web-based services for higher education and creating educational technology applications for use in the classroom. This article reviews a group of projects that produced educational technology applications for use in the classroom or for classroom-based activities and were assessed by educational researchers in the Teaching and Learning Laboratory (TLL). From those in depth studies, as well as less extensive involvement with a half dozen more initiatives, we draw three major findings on the role and impact of educational technologies as they were developed and used at MIT over 6 years: (1) the most successful educational technologies meet a specific instructional need that has been unmet or poorly met by traditional media; (2) too much technology or technology that does not work well can be detrimental; and (3) there are important relationships between the technologies and the learning environments in which they operate.

The Rise and Decline of Comprehensive Education: Key Factors in the History of Reformed Secondary Education in Belgium, 1969–1989

In answer to economic needs and social demands, a structural innovation was introduced in secondary education in most West European countries, mainly in the 1960s. Contrary to the traditional schools, organized in vertical categories, the so‐called comprehensive schools brought together all branches in one school. There was protest against this type of school from the start but it was mainly in the 1980s and 1990s that comprehensive schools came under siege. In most countries the comprehensive structures have been abandoned or adjusted to a more moderate form.

This paper tries to explain the factors that stimulated innovation in the 1960s, and those that counteracted comprehensive education. As will be shown, these factors were not always related to ideological positions. In fact, the reasons for local educational authorities to “go comprehensive” (or not) were often practically rather than ideologically inspired. Theories of “dominant rationality” by Matthijssen and the “referential” by Jobert succeed in surpassing ideological parameters, and can be interesting tools to explain changing mentalities. However, a satisfying explanation for the history of comprehensive education cannot be offered without paying attention to everyday pragmatics, that – in the author's view – have been decisive for the evolution of comprehensive education.

The paper will be illustrated with examples from the Belgian case. Comprehensive schools were introduced in Belgium in 1969. All state public schools went comprehensive in the 1970s, and the number of comprehensive private schools grew rapidly until growth ceased around 1980. The ongoing struggle between Catholic comprehensive and traditional schools led to a compromise created by the Catholic educational authorities, a fusion of comprehensive and traditional elements. This structure was imposed by the Flemish government as a unitary structure for all secondary schools in the Dutch‐speaking part of Belgium in 1989.     

The Persistent Gap between Education and Care: a ‘History of the Present’ Research on Belgian Child Care Provision and Policy 1

The first Belgian crèches for children from birth to three years of age date from the nineteenth century. From 1919, formal legislation on child care was developed. In the early twentieth century, the origins of Belgian childcare and in its initial legislation some core aspects of present‐day child care policy and practice can be found. This article will focus on two of these historical aspects of Belgian child care. Both features have far‐reaching consequences for the organization of present child care provision, for professional qualifications and for policy matters. The first is an aspect that is very common in Western Europe, and a source of current pedagogical debate: the persistent gap between care for the infant and the education of the preschool child. The second is a typical Belgian feature of childcare: subsidized liberty as a specific form of public–private partnership. This article wishes to contribute to the debates on viewing childcare policy and practice by historicizing these issues. A close look at Belgian child care history reveals how the gap between education and care and subsidized liberty occurred and in what context. Consequently the early twentieth century will be highlighted. However, it will also focus on oppositional discourse in the 1970s. In this period, another antagonistic debate took place, namely regarding compensation programmes for ‘blue collar’ parents. The article will briefly point to some remarkable similarities between the discussion in the 1910s and the 1970s. The outcomes of these discussions, as well as the concepts underpinning them, explain the persistence of the division between education and care. The debate between Henri Velge and Elise Plasky, around which this article is composed, has been studied previously by Belgian historians. The scarce research on Belgian child care history focuses on child care as a women's employment issue, somewhat neglecting the educational aspects. This vein, i.e. that historical research itself is embedded in the discursive regime separating education from care, is the very subject of this article. Therefore, research was conducted from a hermeneutical perspective, looking at coherences between discourses and their social, economic and cultural contexts. This research aims also to acknowledge the critiques of De Certeau regarding the focus on discontinuities in the construction of history.     

Cross‐national Comparisons in the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP): The USA,Norway and China

This article provides a cross‐national perspective on successful school principalship in three countries derived from an analysis of case studies in the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP). The ISSPP aims to investigate the characteristics, processes and effects of successful school leadership across eight countries (i.e. Australia, Canada, England, the United States, China, Denmark, Sweden and Norway). Examples from the USA, Norway and China (Shanghai) were selected to illustrate cross‐national differences related to the societal purposes of education, the structure and funding of different national educational systems and the influence of particular governmental educational policies (i.e. accountability‐oriented policies) on the leadership practices of individual school principals. Variations in selection criteria and research procedures were also noted. Recommendations for further research using a cultural framework include analysing multiethnic schools to identify culturally specific leadership practices as well as developing further ISSPP case studies in non‐Western contexts.     

Different Strategies,Different Outcomes? The History and Trends of the Inclusive and Special Education in Alberta (Canada) and in Finland

This study compares the strategies and delivery of education for students with special educational needs in the province of Alberta, Canada, and in the country of Finland, in the European Union. The rationale for comparing these two jurisdictions is grounded by the idea that both of these areas have high general standards of living, a well-developed public education system, and top results in international school achievement tests. The data consists of available educational policy papers, previous research papers, and educational statistics. This article first describes the special education system development and the current situation, followed by the funding system and discussion about the implications and outcomes of different policies. The historical analysis shows that while many similarities exist between Alberta and Finland, there are also some culturally-bound elements present that have strongly affected the progress and the decision-making process related to the organization of the education for students with special needs.     

The Present Situation of Chattel Guarantee System and Its Improvements—Taking the Angle of American Uniform Commercial Code(UCC)

Although there are appropriate stipulations for the chattel guarantees in the law of China, this guarantee system could not adapt to the request of economy’s development because of the following reasons: the scope of chattel guarantees is narrow according to relevant stipulations; the transaction cost of the chattel is high; mortgage registration of chattel is in a mess; lack of efficiently executive guarantee system, etc. To counter the problems existing in the present Chinese chattel guarantee system, in this article, the author proposed some corresponding suggestions and countermeasures, hoping to perfect the chattel guarantee system in China.     

History, Applications, and Philosophy in Mathematics Education: HAPh—A Use of Primary Sources

The article first investigates the basis for designing teaching activities dealing with aspects of history, applications, and philosophy of mathematics in unison by discussing and analyzing the different ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of including these three dimensions in mathematics education. Based on the observation that a use of history, applications, and philosophy as a ‘goal’ is best realized through a modules approach, the article goes on to discuss how to actually design such teaching modules. It is argued that a use of primary original sources through a so-called guided reading along with a use of student essay assignments, which are suitable for bringing out relevant meta-issues of mathematics, is a sensible way of realizing a design encompassing the three dimensions. Two concrete teaching modules on aspects of the history, applications, and philosophy of mathematics—HAPh-modules—are outlined and the mathematical cases of these, graph theory and Boolean algebra, are described. Excerpts of student groups’ essays from actual implementations of these modules are displayed as illustrative examples of the possible effect such HAPh-modules may have on students’ development of an awareness regarding history, applications, and philosophy in relation to mathematics as a (scientific) discipline.     

Measuring Teachers’ enjoyment,anger, and anxiety: The Teacher Emotions Scales (TES)

The emotions of teachers are considered relevant not only for their own well-being but also for the functioning of classrooms. Nevertheless, research on teacher emotions has been slow to emerge, and scales for their assessment via self-report are generally lacking. In the present research we developed four-item scales for three emotions considered most relevant in the context of teaching: enjoyment, anger, and anxiety (Teacher Emotions Scales, TES). Based on data of 944 teachers, we tested German and English language versions of the TES for reliability, internal and external validity, and cross-language equivalence, while exploring the utility of both a general and a student-group specific variant. All scales proved to be highly reliable, and confirmatory factor analysis supported internal validity by showing that three-factor models (enjoyment, anger, and anxiety) were superior to single-factor or two-factor (positive vs. negative affect) models. The external validation analyses provided consistent evidence for theoretically meaningful relations with teachers’ general affect, burnout, job satisfaction, and teacher self-efficacy. These findings were robust across multiple studies. In addition, consistent relationships with student ratings of teaching behaviors were found. Analyses of measurement invariance revealed that the English and the German language versions were fully structurally equivalent und displayed metric invariance.     

Objects and Objectivity: The Evolution Controversy at the American Museum of Natural History, 1915–1928

For the purpose of this essay, I examine how evolutionary theory was treated and responded to in the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of the Age of Man during the early 1900s. Specifically, I examine how the curatorial work of the museum’s president, Henry Fairfield Osborn, relied on the purported use of objectivity as a means by which to communicate the validity of evolutionary theory through the objects in his exhibit. But objectivity represented a resource for anti-evolution critics as well. To show this, I likewise examine how the Baptist pastor, John Roach Straton, responded to Osborn’s objects and purported use of objectivity in the Hall of the Age of Man and how he himself attempted to establish a different type of objectivity through pluralistic approaches to theories of origins. Established as a common value, objectivity ceased to be a simple discriminator between scientists and non-scientists within the debate over evolution. While issues over the teaching of evolutionary theory during this period are already well known, I show here that the controversy over evolutionary theory was not only an issue within public schools during the early 1900s, but also within the museum as an institute of public education and how the rhetorical role of objects and space were critical components of argument for both evolutionists and creationists.     

The goals and methods of educational technology research over a quarter century (1989–2014)

This paper presents an analysis of educational technology research with specific emphasis on determining how the research goals pursued and methods used have evolved over the 25-year period from 1989 through 2014. For this study, the contents of the Educational Technology Research and Development journal were analyzed over two six-year periods, first from 1989 to 1994 and second from 2009 to 2014, to identify the goals and methods of the studies specifically designated in the journal as “research papers.” Results indicate trends in the goals and methods employed in educational technology research that have implications for future research directions as well as for the preparation of graduate students and early career scholars to conduct educational technology research.     

The student in the Polish socialist secondary school (1945–1989): a cultural context

Abstract

Culture and education should be recognised as identical. Culture should affect education and education should prepare individuals and society to receive and create culture. Therefore, education has to shape young people’s cultural identity. The author presents students of the Polish socialist secondary school from the period between 1945 and 1989, starting from this perspective. The article shows the role of the overall environment, and the educational context in particular, in shaping a student’s identity in a cultural context. The problem is presented through the dynamics of the influence of the totalitarian system on the secondary school and its students in Poland. The temporal frame (1945–1989) covers the historical period of the Polish People’s Republic when Poland belonged to the Eastern Bloc and remained under the influence of communist ideology. At that time the general secondary school was strongly affected and controlled by the Polish United Workers’ Party. The party authorities indoctrinated young people through teaching and the school-related environment. The author addresses the question: what was the impact of the socialist school’s teaching programme and upbringing on the student and the creation of their cultural identity? She characterises socialist education, the socialist student, and cultural identity. Research is predominantly based on archival sources from The Central Archives of Modern Records in Warsaw, The Archive of the Ministry of National Education, and The Institute of National Remembrance. The author also refers to literature on the subject. Archival research and literature analysis were supplemented by the behavioural-based interview method (interviews with former teachers and students who taught and studied in the years 1945–1989).     

Avoiding pitfalls in the next International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA): Lessons on financing adult education from Belém

Civil society organisations were well organised in the sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI) held in Belém in 2009, and influential in framing a powerful agenda for transforming adult education. Despite some successes, however, there were also frustrations in the drafting of the Belém Framework for Action (BFA). Drawing on this experience, the author of this article argues that there are important lessons to be learned, particularly in relation to the financing of adult education. Not least in the face of crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change adding to economic challenges, he reasons, these lessons will be crucial for the outcome of CONFINTEA VII, which is to be held in Morocco in June 2022. After a review of the processes, power dynamics and struggles involved in Belém, the author outlines how pivotal issues around financing can be effectively framed and advanced in the upcoming conference.

     

改革开放与中国的对越政策:嬗变及其意义(1978—1989)

20世纪70年代末到80年代末,中国对越政策发生了缓慢但是明显的变化。虽然中越双边关系在这一时期还没有步入正常化的轨道,但是中国方面对越南政策考虑的出发点和着眼点却经历了从全球战略向地区主义回归的过程,并通过柬埔寨问题的解决具体表现出来。促成政策调整的根本原因在于中国国内实行的改革开放政策对中越关系提出了新的要求,而调整后的中国对越南政策以地区主义为显著特征、以服务于国内的经济建设为目的,成为后冷战时期中国对越政策的起源,也为理解和把握改革开放时代中国外交的周边战略提供了一个同时具有地区特征与普遍意义的案例。