Real or Imagined Women? Staff representations of international women postgraduate students 1

In Australia's globalising universities many support staff and teaching staff now work with international women postgraduate students. But are they aware of the issues facing these women, and is their understanding of them adequate? Indeed, how do they represent them? In this paper we draw on a small-scale pilot study involving key university personnel. We argue that the ways in which such staff represent this group of students is problematic. Focusing primarily on academic issues and on the literature on learning styles, we analyse these staff members' representations of international women postgraduate students from a postcolonial perspective. We explore the extent to which such representations, and the learning styles literature that reflects and informs them, are what Edward Said calls 'Orientalist'. In so doing, we point to both the constitution of the international woman student as postcolonial female subject and show how this situates her in relation to the prevalent learning styles discourse. Further we argue that such representations of the students differ in crucial ways from the students' self-representations, suggesting that in certain subtle ways such staff members are engaging with 'imagined' rather than 'real' women.     

Sharing sociological stories: reflections on teaching sociology in prison

This paper reflects on an education programme aimed at addressing aspects of the diverse and disrupted educational backgrounds of women in a local prison. The programme, which has been primarily sociological in content, is designed to give participants some idea of what university education involves, but without any of its formal requirements. It has not run altogether smoothly. The problems encountered have prompted this reflection on the storytelling nature of the interaction between educator and participants, that is, on the narrative nature of both the lectures being given and the women's responses to them. This is explored in terms of Tennant's () notion of the situated self in adult education. It is argued that, where prison education is commonly a site of conflict between educational models aimed, at one limit, at correcting individual pathology and, at the other, at analysing oppressive social structures, the narrative approach adopted in this programme offers participants a middle way—an opportunity to reflect on the self in a way that locates their own experiences within wider social structures. The approach rests, however, on the ability of participants to construct narratives of their lives in relation to wider public narratives. It is argued that the different responses of young and older women to the programme (resistant and enthusiastic, respectively) may have arisen, at least in part, from their differential abilities to craft life stories in the context of the programme.     

Implications of the New Common Assessment Framework and Lead Professional Working for Pastoral Care Staff in Schools

The common assessment framework (CAF) and lead professional (LP) working are being introduced into all local authorities in the next 2 years as part of the Every Child Matters agenda. This article describes some elements of an evaluation of 12 pilot trials. It was found that schools and pastoral staff in particular played a major part in the trials. The majority of the research participants thought that this was a worthwhile initiative and examples were collected of successful implementation of the scheme. However, issues of missing skills, lack of time and limited practical support for staff in schools were highlighted. It is suggested that these issues may be magnified in the full-scale implementation of CAF and LP work. Considerable effort by pastoral staff and education managers will be required if this 'good idea' is to deliver improved outcomes for children in need.     

迪斯尼之旅

一次我和丈夫以及两个孩子前往佛罗里达州的迪斯尼乐园旅游,我们全身心地沉醉在它的各种奇观之中。精疲力竭地玩了三天之后,我们要回家了。当我们驱车离开时,儿子挥手说:再见,米奇。     

周恩来的外交智慧

特殊的纪念品 有一次,周恩来和一位美国记者谈话。记者看到总理办公桌上有一支派克钢笔,便带着几分讽刺,得意地发问：“总理阁下也迷信我国的钢笔吗？”周恩来听了风趣地说：‘这是一位朝鲜朋友送给我的。这位朋友对我说：”这是美军在板门店投降签字仪式上用过的,你留下作个纪念吧！’     

Phronesis in Musical Performance

ABSTRACT This paper suggests a much more serious purpose for an education in music-making than play or pleasure or even the training of professional musicians. It presents and explicates a possible connection between musical performance training and the development of practical wisdom. Music in performance constitutes in effect a form of virtuous conduct, where one learns through doing and thereafter comes to love and to be capable of wise practical judgement. Excellence in this field requires the exercise of a species of reasoning and judgement analogous to Aristotelian practical wisdom, and develops the distinctive qualities of character and vision of the practically wise person.