NEW TRENDS IN BULGARIAN HIGHER EDUCATION

The process of reform in higher education in post‐1990 Bulgaria is briefly presented. The first step was a law in 1990 mandating academic freedom and university autonomy. Other legislation led to the creation of private higher education institutions and the charging of tuition fees for certain course programmes offered by the state institutions. A serious problem has been the decline in the quality of higher education and research, this due to the economic difficulties resulting from the period of transition and to too much laissez‐faire in higher education in general. In reaction, the state has taken steps to lay down basic requirements for admission to higher education; nationally mandated standards for state certification in certain subjects including medicine, economics, and engineering; and the development of a national quality assessment system for higher education. There has also been the influence of certain international programmes, most notably, TEMPUS. Everyone understands that higher education has a major role to play in order to guarantee the success of the transition process.     

African American Othermothering in the Urban Elementary School

Othermothering and community othermothering can be defined as African American women's maternal assistance offered to the children of blood mothers within the African American community. Originally traced to slavery, othermothering was a survival mechanism that served as a vehicle for educational and cultural transmission. Currently, an othermothering tradition exists within the urban elementary-school context, and African American female educators play an integral role in fulfilling the pyschoeducational needs of the urban child. By employing a qualitative methodology, this article presents two biographical portraits that examine othermothering by a young elementary-school principal and community othermothering by a fifth-grade elementary-school teacher with 25 years of experience in the urban classroom.