The politics of Britishness: multiculturalism,schooling and social cohesion

This paper is set against a backdrop of contemporary concerns about Britishness. It explores the dominant view that unprecedented levels of cultural diversity within western contexts such as the UK are undermining social cohesion and are attributable to minority groups’ failure to connect or assimilate with mainstream ‘British’ (read White Anglo) culture. The paper focuses on how these issues play out for several of the key teachers at ‘Hamilton Court’, a large English comprehensive multicultural school. Despite the school being a socially cohesive space, these teachers were concerned with students’ lack of affiliation with ‘British’ culture. The paper examines these concerns through critical lenses that problematise reductionist and racialised understandings of Britishness and assumptions that associate an affiliation with Britishness with generating social cohesion. Against this backdrop, the paper provides further warrant for continued critical discussion about issues of Britishness, multiculturalism and schooling.     

Compulsory schooling,education, depression and memory: New evidence from SHARELIFE

In this paper we provide new evidence on the causal effect of education on adult depression and cognition. We use SHARE data and schooling reforms in several European countries as instruments for educational attainment. We find that an extra year of education has a large and significant protective effect on mental health; the probability of suffering depression decreases by 6.5 percentage points. We find a large and significant protective effect on cognition as measured by word recall. We also explore whether heterogeneity and selection play a part in the large discrepancy between OLS and IV (LATE) estimates of the effect of education on depression and cognition. Using the data available in SHARELIFE on early life conditions of the respondents such as the individuals’ socioeconomic status, health, and performance at school, we identify subgroups particularly affected by the reforms and with high marginal health returns to education.     

Urban inequality,social exclusion and schooling in Dhaka,Bangladesh

This paper asks whether education is a viable route to better livelihoods and social inclusion for children living in poor urban areas in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It uses qualitative interviews with 36 students aged 11–16, living in slum and middle-class areas, and also draws on data from a larger, mixed-methods study to provide context. Many children from slums are excluded altogether from education, while others are incorporated into the system but on unfavourable terms. The paper identifies three principal ways in which this adverse incorporation can happen: through differential access to different types and quality of school; through obstacles that prevent children from poorer households from progressing through the system and reaching higher levels; and through subordinate power relations in the school, embodied in systems of assessment, labelling of students and discipline. These are likely to limit the potential for education to be a socially transformative institution.     

Life History Research in Education

Life history research,as one of the most powerful research methods in sociology,brings some re-freshened air into interpretive research.In this paper,the development of life history research,from modernism to postmodernism,from life story to life history,is firstly illustrated.Then the process of conducting life history research is analyzed specifically,which is followed by its unique strengths.Finally,its issues,its general issues and its special issues in Chinese context,are critically examined.     

Tales of the 50‐somethings: selective schooling,gender and social class

Through a discourse of diversity, specialism, equality and choice, selective schooling is again on the UK education agenda. A previous selection policy operated between 1944 and 1964. The argument that some children are more suited to a vocational education and others to an academic one is evident now and then. This paper focuses on the life‐histories of four ‘50‐something’ women sent to ‘bilateral’ schools in Bristol, England. With children from the same primary school or street, they found themselves on differing sides of a divide between grammar and secondary‐modern education. The paper explores the practices through which White working class children received contrasting experiences of the same school, where different gendered‐classed identities, aspirations and expectations were constructed. The co‐existence of firmly separated grammar and modern streams within one school allows an analysis of everyday practices of selective schooling, of the means by which one was constantly constructed against the other.     

British South Asians and pathways into selective schooling: social class,culture and ethnicity

This article is a theoretical and empirical study of the ways in which different South Asian groups, Bangladeshi, Indian, and Pakistani, achieve entry into the selective education system, taking into consideration the factors of social class, ethnicity and culture. In‐depth interviews with 42 South Asian school pupils from three single‐sex selective schools (one independent and two grammar), 47 South Asian school pupils from three secondary modern schools, and 25 South Asian parents are used to interpret perceptions, attitudes towards, and experiences of selective school entry. It is found that that certain working‐class South Asian parents possess strong middle‐class attitudes towards selective education, irrespective of their ability to facilitate it as a function of their financial, cultural, or social capital. Middle‐class South Asians were not only highly motivated but also possessed the economic, social and cultural capital to ensure successful selective school entry. In general, social class status was the strongest factor in the likelihood of gaining entry into selective schools. This research contributes to the literature on selective education as well as on the intricacies of the British South Asian educational experience.     

“生命课堂”:历史、现实与未来

"生命课堂"在我国一经提出就迅速成为我国基础教育的热点,说明它遵循了教育的本质与规律,彰显了人类对自身价值的理性关怀和人文关怀,反映了社会历史发展的必然要求和课堂教学实际的迫切需要,也反映了教育哲学观和认识论的最新成果,更体现了师生生命发展的主体需要。尽管"生命课堂"作为一个教育学概念提出的时间在我国只有短短十几年时间,但"生命课堂"思想在我国却是源远流长,在当前我国的课堂教学实践中也呈现出方兴未艾之势,其未来也必将成为我国课堂教学的常态。     

文化·历史·人生--从《文化苦旅》《山居笔记》等看余秋雨散文的主题形态

中国当代著名散文作家余秋雨90年代以来发表的重要作品影响较大,学术界就其散文争鸣也颇多.结合近年来国内有关其散文争鸣的部分成果,尝试探讨这位作家散文创作艺术的主题形态.通过对作品的分析,着重突出作者的艺术感受方式和审美原则,论述其作品的产生背景、叙述方式和文本内容等方面的主要特色,从而说明作者积极的文化历史观和将文化、历史与人生相互交织、感性与理性相互融合的艺术创作倾向.     

Becoming a Japanese Language Learner,User, and Teacher: Revelations From Life History Research

This article discusses how Sarah Lamond, a Japanese language teacher in Sydney, Australia has juggled three of her identities: second language (L2) learner, L2 user, and L2 teacher. Data come from four interviews used to create an edited life history. These data are used to draw attention to the relationship between L2 learner and language user. The concept of "identity slippage" is briefly discussed and is introduced as a way of explaining this relationship. Although these three identities are foregrounded, it was found that Sarah's other identities of wife and mother also played a significant part in her becoming a Japanese language learner. Furthermore, Sarah's story also raises the native versus nonnative language teacher issue and in turn explores notions of authentic and impostor.     

历史·生命·道德规约－读王良和小说《鱼咒》

作为沙田文学新传人的王良和,更多的是以诗歌为人所知,然而其小说亦有不俗的成绩.近作《鱼咒》,通过具有强烈暗示、象征意味的手法,在过去与现在、欲望与道德、理智与疯癫、意识与无意识等等之间的微妙对比与转换中,在对个人儿时往事回忆的基础上,展示了对人类古老历史的思考,并由此揭示生命在本能欲望与道德规约之间的冲撞与困惑,最终构成对人类生命存在形式和意义的一次令人震撼的追问.     

悠远的历史,真实的生活——回归生活的历史教学

梁启超曾抨击二十四史为二十姓之家谱,倡导史界革命,认为历史应该首先关注于普通人群。此后,社会生活史终成学术研究的一个热点。与此相适应,中学的历史教材亦开始发生新的变化,越来越生活化,这就对新时期的历史教学提出了新的要求。     

魏晋时期的家庭教育与社会教化

魏晋南北朝时期.随着官学教育的衰落,作为私学主体之一的家庭教育获得了长足发展.对魏晋南北朝时期家庭教育兴盛发达的动因及其内容和特征进行分析,进而得出家庭教育乃是这一时期社会教化最重要形式的结论.     

Social difference and the politics of schooling in Africa: a Ghanaian case study

This paper examines the implications of ‘social difference’ for schooling in African contexts. It highlights theoretical and philosophical engagements with ‘difference’ that could help explore and search for viable educational options in Africa. The paper engages voices of university students interviewed in a longitudinal ethnographic research study on schooling done in Ghana. Issues and questions about knowledge production, identity development and representation in pluralistic schooling contexts are raised. Insights about local knowledges, individual agency and resistance as they relate to possibilities for rethinking schooling and education in Africa are also explored. The students' narratives reveal how dialogues about school and educators' practices about difference and diversity are [not] addressed with respect to the students' schooling. Lessons on the possibilities of inclusive schooling environments are offered.