Toleration and Recognition: What should we teach?

Generally we think it good to tolerate and to accord recognition. Yet both are complex phenomena and our teaching must acknowledge and cope with that complexity. We tolerate only what we object to, so our message to students cannot be simply, 'promote the good and prevent the bad'. Much advocacy of toleration is not what it pretends to be. Nor is it entirely clear what sort of conduct should count as intolerant. Sometimes people are at fault for tolerating what they should not, or for tolerating what they should find unexceptionable. So virtue does not always lie with toleration. Tolerance can also seem condescending; should we therefore replace it with recognition? But recognition may not be able to coexist with the disapproval that makes toleration necessary. However, not everything about toleration and recognition is controversial; there are fixed points from which students can grapple with the issues presented by both.     

Democratic school leadership reforms in Kenya: cultural and historical challenges

In this article we discuss students’, teachers’ and school principals’ perceptions of democratic school leadership reforms in Kenya. The article is based on a study that was conducted in two phases. In phase one (conducted between September and December 2007), interviews were undertaken with 12 school principals in which understandings of democratic school leadership were explored. These data were then used to develop a rationale for selecting the case schools. The second phase (conducted between January and April 2008) was an in‐depth case study of two schools. The findings reveal that school principals have made efforts to inculcate democratic school leadership by involving teachers in decision making on school matters. The principals also allow students to participate in matters such as election of prefects and holding class and house meetings. However, most teachers and principals do not support what they referred to as ‘full democracy’ for students and instead prefer what they called ‘partial democracy’ based on historical and cultural factors.     

The mediational role of posttraumatic stress in the relationship between domestic violence exposure and peer victimisation: a Cambodian sample

Research demonstrates that children exposed to domestic violence experience a myriad of internalising and externalising symptoms. The current study examines this pathway within a Cambodian sample, specifically determining if the effect of witnessing domestic violence on the child’s tendency to bully or to be bullied is mediated by symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The PTSD Checklist – Civilian Version, a revised version of a12-item bullying and victimisation questionnaire, and the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale were administered to 206 high school students in Phnom Penh. A significant mediational effect of PTSD symptoms was found for victimisation (being bullied); no such mediational model was supported for bullying as the outcome variable. However, controlling for emotional, physical, and sexual child abuse resulted in the mediation effect being non-significant. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Intercultural Perspective and Knowledge for Equity in the Mercosul Countries: Limits and potentials in educational policies

This article discusses the extent to which the tension between globalized moves towards market-oriented educational policies and the pressing need to respond to cultural diversity and inequality surfaces in the way knowledge is viewed in the educational policies of the recently created Mercosul block. In a critical intercultural theoretical framework, it explores the local context of sociocultural inequality and considers limits and potentials for working out knowledge for equity and transformation as proposed by two influential agencies in the area-the World Bank and CEPAL (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, from UNESCO)-and developed in the Brazilian national curricular guidelines, which are taken as a case study.     

Kinematic comparisons of 1996 Olympic baseball pitchers

The aim of this study was to compare and evaluate the kinematics of baseball pitchers who participated in the 1996 XXVI Centennial Olympic Games. Two synchronized video cameras operating at 120 Hz were used to video 48 pitchers from Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, Cuba, Italy, Korea, Nicaragua and the USA. All pitchers were analysed while throwing the fastball pitch. Twenty-one kinematic parameters were measured at lead foot contact, during the arm cocking and arm acceleration phases, and at the instant of ball release. These parameters included stride length, foot angle and foot placement; shoulder abduction, shoulder horizontal adduction and shoulder external rotation; knee and elbow flexion; upper torso, shoulder internal rotation and elbow extension angular velocities; forward and lateral trunk tilt; and ball speed. A one-way analysis of variance (P ? 0.01) was used to assess kinematic differences. Shoulder horizontal adduction and shoulder external rotation at lead foot contact and ball speed at the instant of ball release were significantly different among countries. The greater shoulder horizontal abduction observed in Cuban pitchers at lead foot contact is thought to be an important factor in the generation of force throughout the arm cocking and arm acceleration phases, and may in part explain why Cuban pitchers generated the greatest ball release speed. We conclude that pitching kinematics are similar among baseball pitchers from different countries.     

The Balance between Vocational Secondary and General Secondary Schooling in France and Australia

Some of the most difficult problems facing governments today are linked to their increasing involvement in the global economy. One of the most pressing problems faced by developed economies is chronically high youth unemployment. As labour markets have tightened, the jobs which have disappeared, and look unlikely to re-emerge as labour markets become more buoyant, are the jobs which young people have traditionally held - unskilled entry level jobs. The creation of the French Baccalauréat Professionnel saw the development of a programme that balanced the needs of a vocational qualification with those of a general education. This paper will look briefly at the background to the debate between general education and vocational education, in particular the low status of vocational education. The paper looks at the manner in which two developed countries in different hemispheres, France and Australia, have attempted to solve an increasingly complex problem: the transition from school to work. It suggests how the McGaw Report [(1997) Shaping Their Future ( Sydney, Department of Training and Education Co-ordination)] tackles this problem of high and low status educational pathways in Australia. The use of 'school-workplace learning' in Australia represents a relatively new specific programme, highlighting the NSW government's direction in school to work transition. In France the Baccalauréat Professionnel (Bac Pro) will be used as an example of a diploma that provides a useful bridge between the vocational and general education streams.