Special education in Macedonia

ABSTRACT

This paper provides an overview of educational opportunities currently available for young people with disabilities in the (former Yugoslav) Republic of Macedonia. Information about Vygotsky's theory of defectology is presented, and its influence on the current service delivery system for persons with disabilities is described. Since independence in 1991, a series of reforms, some initiated by the signing of international declarations, have been introduced into mainstream and special education. The challenges posed by these reforms are discussed in the context of the need for East‐West partnerships based on mutual understanding and respect     

Risk factors and mechanisms of technology and insignia copying—A first empirical approach

This paper examines the relationship between a firm's strategic framework and business environment and the probability of becoming the target of “copying”, differentiated into (i) unauthorized reproduction of its technological product elements or insignia, and (ii) patent and trademark infringement. Based on bivariate and multivariate analyses of survey data, we show patterns of the links between being (legally or illegally) imitated and IP protection (e.g., defensive publishing), general strategy (e.g., selling products abroad or off-shoring R&D activities) and organizational factors (e.g., firm size). Management implications for successful strategies against the different types of being copied are derived.     

Effective Inclusive Schools: a study in two countries

Over the past several years a number of constituencies in the USA and the UK have advocated for the concept of the inclusive school as the placement of choice for students with disabilities. Such a school offers appropriate educational opportunities to all students regardless of type or severity of disability or difficulty. To determine the characteristic features of such a school, two separate studies of inclusive educational practices were undertaken in locations that shared a commitment to inclusive education but differed geographically and culturally. The first study focused on the implementation of a statewide policy on inclusion in a rural state in the USA. The second study was conducted in a densely populated London Borough also committed to inclusive education. Both studies utilised interviews with key personnel and observations of innovative practice. Results suggest that effective inclusive schools are diverse problem solving organisations and that there are different ways of achieving this goal that must reflect the cultural and social context. The barriers faced by schools are described and suggestions for policy makers, administrators and practitioners are presented.     

Why (not) associate the principle of inclusion with disability? Tracing connections from the start of the ‘Salamanca Process’

This article reflects on changes in the disability-related educational approach of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), specifically investigating the context UNESCO's Special Needs Education unit was embedded in while following up the ‘World Conference on Special Needs Education’ that was held in Salamanca 20 years ago. The paper starts with the observations that first education for all and inclusive education are currently as education themes of UNESCO quite similar in terms of their scope and rationale. Second, although debates on inclusive education have been fuelled in context with the UN-‘Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’, disability plays a less important role in UNESCO's programme spectrum, compared to some decades ago. Drawing from a study on institutions and knowledge analysing shifts in meanings of inclusive education, the recent tautology of themes is interpreted in connection with changes of UNESCO's approach to special needs education after 1994 and as consequence of shifts occurring back then in perceptions about the goals of UNESCO programmes. Borrowing from Organisation Studies, the article highlights conceptual changes in UNESCO's programmes, from traditional special (needs) education to inclusive education. Data used have been collected in the archives of the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Method of the interpretive inquiry is in-depth content analysis.     

The inclusive practice project in Scotland: Teacher education for inclusive education

While differences in national contexts are associated with variations in how teachers are trained and school systems are organised, the conceptual and philosophical problems of equity and inclusion in schooling are shared concerns. This paper describes how the structure and content of an initial teacher education programme for primary and secondary teachers has been revised to ensure that social and educational inclusion is addressed within the core programme. A rationale is presented for the development of ‘inclusive practice’, followed by a discussion of the reforms and an outline of the effects that are expected in the classroom practices of teachers in schools.     

Pre-service teachers’ personal epistemic beliefs and the beliefs they assume their pupils to have

In their workaday life, teachers are faced with multiple complex tasks. How they carry out these tasks is also influenced by their epistemic beliefs and the beliefs they assume their pupils hold. In an empirical study, pre-service teachers’ epistemic beliefs and those they assume of their pupils were investigated in the setting of teacher education for vocational schools in Germany. Results of the empirical study point at significant inconsistencies between pre-service teachers’ beliefs, the beliefs they assume of their pupils and beliefs conducive to the curricular and didactic concept preferred for vocational schools. Partly, these inconsistencies can be explained by pre-service teachers’ learning experiences in school and university. It seems important that the education of teachers in vocational education aims at scaffolding pre-service teachers in developing beliefs that are conducive for their future profession.     

The Rivalry of Nonverbal Cues on the Perception of Politicians by Television Viewers

The current study examines how a politician's “active” or “passive” nonverbal behavior can influence recipients' perception of his/her image in TV talk shows. In addition, the effects of different host and studio audience reaction shots towards the politician were analyzed. To do so, an experiment with a 2 × 3 × 3 factorial design was conducted (n = 356). The stimulus material was produced in a TV studio. The results indicate a clear influence of a politician's nonverbal behavior style and the TV host's nonverbal reactions on the recipients' image-perception.     

Content Analysis of Mediated Associations: An Automated Text-Analytic Approach

Due to the fact that mediated associations are a central aspect of many mass communication theories, their measurement is of central interest for communication research. Mediated associations are defined as the repeated pairing of an object (e.g., social group, political party) with specific attributes (e.g., crime, economy). In this article, we introduce a recently developed, automated text-analytic technique. We present an application of this method in the media stereotyping domain via the content analysis of German news coverage of Islam. As predicted, the analysis revealed substantial mediated associations between Islam-related concepts and violence (e.g., “Koran + violence”), terror (e.g., “Islam + terror”), dehumanization (e.g., “Muslims + animal-related terms”), and general negativity (valence). We discuss the promises and pitfalls of this method, make software suggestions, and provide application-related information for speedy dissemination in communication research.     

Informed Grounded Theory

The relationship between education and the economy is a basic component of the educational policy‐making discourse. This article analyses the changes that occurred in the construction of this relationship in Sweden from 1930–2000. Based on a large sample of government committee reports, the paper investigates two explanatory hypotheses for the changes in the construction of the relationship between education and the economy: (1) the influence of structural cycles of economic development (as proposed by economic historian Lennart Schön) and (2) the influence of the international educational reform discourse as produced by organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD). It is shown that economic cycles may have a certain influence in the beginning of the period studied, although later the empirical results do not fit the hypothesis derived from the cycle model. At the same time, there is a surprisingly strong degree of isomorphism between the Swedish and the international discourse throughout the entire period, although most actors do not realise this, or at least do not make it explicit.