Interpreting the Cultural Revolution politically

Abstract

This essay reviews the recent work of three sociologists, Andrew Walder, Alessandro Russo, and Joel Andreas, on factionalism in the Chinese Cultural Revolution (CR). To varying degrees, all three authors under review question the dominant sociological interpretation of CR factionalism, which directly links factional allegiance to objective class position, and they each attempt to develop a political interpretation instead. Politics, however, is understood differently by the authors. Walder argues that, through attending to the ‘event sequence’ of the CR in which factionalism emerged, factional politics can be de‐linked from the sociological base to which it is usually tied. Russo, influenced by the work of Alain Badiou and Sylvain Lazarus, argues that the factionalism of the CR should be linked to the emergence of a subjective ‘political sequence’ and not to the pre‐existing structural organization of Chinese socialism. Unlike Walder, for whom mass politics seems to be firmly identified with elite intra‐party power struggle, for Russo a space between elite power struggles and the pluralization of mass political organizations allowed a genuine subjective politics to emerge. Joel Andreas employs Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of political and cultural capital in order to study the development of CR factions in the Qinghua Attached Middle School and Qinghua University, painting a complex political and sociological understanding of factionalization. These works not only offer reinterpretations of the CR itself, but also help to generate interesting questions about the political relationship between the present and the 1960s, both in China and globally.     

The use of structuration theory to conceptualize alternative practice in education: the case of private school outreach in India

This paper contributes to arguments for the potential of Giddens’ structuration theory in educational research. It illustrates how ‘conceptual schemes’ from structuration theory were applied to the author’s empirical research on a type of alternative educational practice in India, ‘private school outreach’. It shows how Giddens’ concepts of ‘social system’, ‘structure’ and ‘agency’ helped to conceptualize private school outreach, and how ‘constraint’ and ‘ontological security’ offered explanations of apparent contradictions in private school outreach practice within the context of the reasons and motivations of actors. It also argues that when schools attempt to do things differently, contradictions may occur because the same ‘rules and resources’ that are drawn on in the production of alternative practice are drawn on in the reproduction of practice. Finally, acknowledging the debates around structuration theory, some of its key criticisms are addressed in relation to the empirical application.     

Examining Trauma-Informed Teaching and the Trauma Symptomatology of Court-Involved Girls

Young women living in urban contexts, particularly those with involvement in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, experience significant barriers to academic well-being as a result of childhood trauma. To date, little research has been done to evaluate evidence-based, trauma-informed educational interventions to improve outcomes among these students. This study used survey data from a multi-year trauma-informed teaching intervention to quantitatively measure the well-being of trauma-exposed girls in an urban, trauma-informed school setting. The study explored whether girls at a trauma-informed school demonstrated significant changes in trauma symptomatology and whether these changes varied by race/ethnicity. As hypothesized, participants experienced a statistically significant decrease in trauma symptoms over the observation period. However, there were no significant differences in trauma symptom change based on race/ethnicity. Policy and practice implications are discussed.

     

Eliciting and developing student's schema of classroom practices using a video-disc system

In this paper we explore the potential of videodisc technology to develop student teachers'capacity to examine their judgements and reasoning critically about typical classroom events. We describe how the type of setting for such activities is committed to and successful at provoking quality collaborative learning. The videodisc system offers a range of exemplars of teaching which are carefully managed to challenge and extend students'existing ideas. We have adapted the key learning constructs of scaffolding and modelling of various strategies so that the intellectual processes of analysis and reconstruction are persistently attended to. In this way, we are designing a more powerful learning environment to support students in acquiring professionally relevant knowledge.     

The influence of 2 weeks of low-volume high-intensity interval training on health outcomes in adolescent boys

Abstract

The present study aimed to establish whether 2 weeks of high-intensity interval training would have a beneficial effect on aerobic fitness, fat oxidation, blood pressure and body mass index (BMI) in healthy adolescent boys. Ten adolescent boys (15.1 ± 0.3 years, 1.3 ± 0.2 years post-estimated peak height velocity) completed six sessions of Wingate-style high-intensity interval training over a 2-week period. The first session consisted of four sprints with training progressed to seven sprints in the final session. High-intensity interval training had a beneficial effect on maximal O₂ uptake (mean change, ±90% confidence intervals: 0.19 L · min^?1, ±0.19, respectively), on the O₂ uptake at the gas exchange threshold (0.09 L · min^?1, ±0.13) and on the O₂ cost of sub-maximal exercise (–0.04 L · min^?1, ±0.04). A beneficial effect on the contribution of lipid (0.06 g · min^?1, ±0.06) and carbohydrate (–0.23 g · min^?1, ±0.14) oxidation was observed during sub-maximal exercise, but not for the maximal rate of fat oxidation (0.04 g · min^?1, ±0.08). Systolic blood pressure (1 mmHg, ±4) and BMI (0.1 kg · m², ±0.1) were not altered following training. These data demonstrate that meaningful changes in health outcomes are possible in healthy adolescent boys after just six sessions of high-intensity interval training over a 2-week period.     

Do certain groups of children profit from a grade retention?

As more children are being held back a grade as a result of tougher academic standards, the practice of retention and its effects was studied in two Utah school districts. Retention was not found to benefit the children academically or in personal or social adjustment. The purpose of this article is to further analyze the data in order to study retention effects for subgroups of children commonly believed to profit from being retained. In this reanalysis, three independent variables were added in order to address the following questions: (a) Is retention beneficial for children if supplementary academic instruction is provided? (b) Is retention beneficial if the children are average or above in intelligence? (c) Also, is retention beneficial if it occurs in kindergarten or 1st grade? Retention was not found to benefit these subgroups of children.     

Characterizing the Achievement Motivation Orientation of Children From Low- and Middle-Income Families

Research Findings: The current study examined achievement motivation orientation in preschool-age children from low- and middle-income families. Participants were 126 children who were attending an urban Head Start site or a private preschool. Children's motivation orientation was assessed as being performance oriented or mastery oriented using a challenging puzzle task (Smiley &; Dweck, 1994 Smiley , P. A. , &; Dweck , C. S. ( 1994 ). Individual differences in achievement goals among young children . Child Development , 65 , 1723 – 1743 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Children's verbalizations during the task were coded into performance concern, disengaged, and negative self-evaluation categories. Logistic regression and Mann-Whitney U analyses were conducted to examine differences between income groups in motivation orientation and verbalizations. Patterns of motivation orientation in preschool-age children from low- and middle-income families did not differ after controlling for differences in age and puzzle-solving ability. However, children from low-income families made a significantly higher proportion of performance-related verbalizations while working on the task. Practice or Policy: The findings support the examination of children's private speech as a way to assess cognitive processes underlying achievement motivation. In addition to providing a novel way to identify differences in achievement motivation that may be useful for teachers and researchers, the findings suggest the potential utility of designing interventions that promote positive private speech as a way of supporting mastery-oriented motivation in young children.