Elitebildungsforschung im Vergleich – Frankreich,USA und Großbritannien

Research on elites (that is, on status groups that occupy dominant positions) is characterized by the lack of connection between studies that focus on elite recruitment and those that focus on the exercise of power by elites. As underlined by Giddens (Elites and power in British society, 1974), both types of approach are important and should complement each other in the analysis of mediations between the class structure, the organizational structure and the power structure in a given society. Giddens also insists on the need for recruitment studies to take account of two different dimensions: the types of channel that are privileged by elite groups to reproduce their social position, and the degree of social closure or openness of these channels to other groups (Parkin, The social analysis of class structure, 1974). This distinction is used to organize the present chapter, which focuses on a single channel that has come to play a crucial role in post-industrial societies, that is schools and, more precisely, upper secondary and higher education institutions, and on their influence in three different national contexts: France, the United Kingdom and the United States. In the first section, the specific features of elite education are examined. The second section explores the extent and modes of institutional and social closure.     

The harmful aspect of teacher conditional support on students’ self-perception of school competence

When children perceive a conditional support, they only feel loved and encouraged for their ability to meet others’ standards. This may lead them to develop high sensitivity to errors and anxiety and low perception of competence. In this study, we examined the relationship between the perceived conditional support from teacher and children’s self-perception of school competence. We tested the mediating effect of sensitivity to errors and test anxiety in the relationship between teacher conditional support and children’s perception of school competence. Participants were 524 elementary school students (aged 9–10 years). The results showed that the greater the extent to which the children perceived conditional support from their teacher, the lower their self-perceived scholastic competence. They also confirm that this relationship was mediated by sensitivity to errors and test anxiety.     

Strategic competence: Applying Siegler’s theoretical and methodological framework to the domain of simple addition

In this study we investigated the variability, frequency, efficiency, and adaptiveness of young children’s strategy use in the domain of simple addition by means of the choice/no-choice method. Seventy-seven beginning second-graders, divided in 3 groups according to general mathematical ability, solved a series of 25 simple additions in 3 different conditions. In the first condition, children could choose whatever strategy they wanted to solve each problem. In the second and third condition, the same children had to solve all problems with one particular strategy, respectively adding up to 10 and retrieval. The results demonstrate that second-graders as a whole choose adaptively between retrieval, decomposition, and counting strategies when solving simple additions, and that they use these strategies neither equally frequently nor equally efficiently. Furthermore, our results indicate that children with different mathematical ability use generally the same strategies to solve these problems, but differ in the frequency, accuracy and adaptiveness with which they apply these strategies. Finally, this study documents the value of the choice/no-choice method to assess the adaptiveness of young children’s strategy use in the domain of early arithmetic.     

Youths’ and scientists’ authoring of and positioning within science and scientists’ work

What would it take for youth to come to see science as a source of inspiration, as something intriguing and valuable, and as a world including them as active agents and legitimate members irrespective of who they are or who they want to become? I attempt to find some answers to this question by listening in on what youth have to say about science and scientists, talk occasioned through the conduct of oral histories of scientists and reflective work about visits to their work places, conducted by a small group of youth participating in an inner-city summer gardening program. I examine how youth and scientists position each other through talk and action and how they co-construct and deconstruct science and scientists’ work. I show how creating spaces within which youths’ images are validated and taken as resources for further co-construction and deconstruction of the world of science can lead to the development of broad notions of science that make insider status a possibility for them, whether as informed citizens or scientists.     

Critical role of leadership in nurturing a knowledge-supporting culture

This paper addresses the critical role leadership plays in the implementation and facilitation of knowledge management activities. Leadership is particularly important for organizations willing to ‘evolve’ their culture to a knowledge-supporting culture. Organizational culture has been identified as the main impediment to knowledge activities, and therefore leaders should model the proper behaviors causing culture to evolve in a way that enables and motivates knowledge workers to create, codify, transfer, and use and leverage knowledge. In the literature this leadership behavior is referred to as ‘leading through a knowledge lens’. Leading through a knowledge lens has some special characteristics since it is dealing with knowledge workers having specialized expertise. Leading them can be done only by intellectual power, conviction, persuasion, and interactive dialog. It requires skills that build confidence and engagement. Therefore, leaders should establish trust and commitment that will help the knowledge organization to achieve its knowledge and business goals.     

Ethical issues in web data mining

Web mining refers to the whole of data miningand related techniques that are used toautomatically discover and extract informationfrom web documents and services. When used in abusiness context and applied to some type ofpersonal data, it helps companies to builddetailed customer profiles, and gain marketingintelligence. Web mining does, however, pose athreat to some important ethical values likeprivacy and individuality. Web mining makes itdifficult for an individual to autonomouslycontrol the unveiling and dissemination of dataabout his/her private life. To study thesethreats, we distinguish between `content andstructure mining' and `usage mining.' Webcontent and structure mining is a cause forconcern when data published on the web in acertain context is mined and combined withother data for use in a totally differentcontext. Web usage mining raises privacyconcerns when web users are traced, and theiractions are analysed without their knowledge.Furthermore, both types of web mining are oftenused to create customer files with a strongtendency of judging and treating people on thebasis of group characteristics instead of ontheir own individual characteristics and merits(referred to as de-individualisation). Althoughthere are a variety of solutions toprivacy-problems, none of these solutionsoffers sufficient protection. Only a combinedsolution package consisting of solutions at anindividual as well as a collective level cancontribute to release some of the tensionbetween the advantages and the disadvantages ofweb mining. The values of privacy andindividuality should be respected and protectedto make sure that people are judged and treatedfairly. People should be aware of theseriousness of the dangers and continuouslydiscuss these ethical issues. This should be ajoint responsibility shared by web miners (bothadopters and developers), web users, andgovernments.     

Enzyme engineering: accomplishments and prospects

Developments in enzyme technology could lead to a completely new type of chemical industry utilizing moderate conditions of pH, temperature, and pressure to produce, from wastes or by-products, high yields of complex chemicals without generating new waste products that pollute the environment. The new tools of this branch are immobilized, as opposed to dissolved, enzymes or whole cells with enzymatic capacity. Methods of biochemistry must be applied at the same time, including genetic manipulation, molecular ageing, and protein chemistry.