Researchers’ positions and construction of curricula of education for sustainable development in France

The article sets the international context for the development of a curriculum of education for sustainable development and shows the directions being taken in the Francophone community. Building on a significant number of studies carried out in France, we constitute a typology of the positions of French-speaking researchers involved in those studies and contributing to the establishment of the national curriculum. This typology is constructed using a methodology based on the frequency of lexical occurrences in a bibliographic database, combined with a methodology of research on the social representations of the researchers of this community. We first present a broad comparison with the Anglo-Saxon sphere, we postulate that these positions influence the curriculum construction and raise the issue of the social responsibility of education science researchers in the face of international political demands.     

“It’s like Taking Your Man Card Away”: Male Victims’ Narratives of Male-to-Male Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is a serious organizational problem. Despite the burgeoning of research over the past 30 years, there has been less attention provided to male victim voices. The current study qualitatively explores the experiences of two male victims of sexual harassment who were harassed by male perpetrators. The study explores the interplay of uncertainties, threats, and negotiation of masculine, heterosexual identities. We also highlight the differences and similarities between the men’s communication practices during what we call the build up, the realization, and others’ responses to the men’s narratives. Theoretical implications are offered for hegemonic masculinity and liminality in relation to the experiences of male victims.     

The ‘outdoor school’ as a school improvement process: empirical results from the perspective of teachers in Germany

This paper focuses on school improvement processes in the context of weekly curricular-based teaching and learning activities outside the classroom – known as Draußenschule or ‘outdoor school’ – in three German primary schools. Qualitative interviews were conducted with three teachers two years after implementing the ‘outdoor school’. The teachers’ experiences show that the implementation and (ongoing) development of an outdoor school affects (1) teaching as such; (2) the school staff, and (3) the entire school as an organisation. The three areas are interlinked in different ways and the school improvement process cannot be approached from the perspective of any one area alone.     

Everyday teaching and outdoor learning: developing an integrated approach to support school-based provision

In the UK, teachers are increasingly being encouraged to support and undertake outdoor learning. Despite such support there is a paucity of research that has considered how outdoor learning can be implemented and offered on a regular basis by teachers. The lack of empirical research that has centralised the role of the teacher is at odds with the interest in this topic and the need for theory-driven guidance suited to teachers. Research is reported that aimed to support the provision of outdoor learning opportunities for children aged between three and eleven at nine settings (pre- or primary schools) in Scotland and England. A set of flexible guidelines that link theory and practice were used by 14 teachers. This article focuses on teachers’ reports of their activity. The incorporation of outdoor learning within conventional teaching and learning approaches is found to be feasible and the implications for practice and future research are explored.     

The motivation to study: an analysis of undergraduate engineering students at a Caribbean university

The link between motivation and success is well documented; however, there is still room to problematise motivation in regards to the individual and contextual levels. This study looks at motivation in relation to students studying undergraduate engineering courses at a Caribbean university and seeks to discover the factors that motivate them to study and the factors that keep them motivated. An online questionnaire was constructed using 19 Likert-type questions and 5 questions that allowed for open-ended qualitative responses. The findings reveal that participants tended to be motivated by the increased possibility of desired future careers and tended to stay motivated by a combination of goal-orientation and family support. It is recommended that departments, faculties and institutions deliberate on shared and contextually constructed understandings of why students choose to enrol in particular university courses.     

阳光

画家M．C．埃舍也许能够描绘出这样的画卷,一大群缸鱼进行迁徙,层层叠叠地奔往墨西哥湾的地平线上。有时透过机翼下面3英尺,可以看到这些长着钝钝脑袋的“滑翔机”们以顺时针方向从尤卡坦半岛出发,经过海湾,追逐温暖的海水和阳光,到处捕食,把从沙地里找来的被吞噬的贝放在牙床上磨碎。海洋生态学家朱丽·尼尔声称：“这些家伙一次只产一个小仔儿,一年只产一次。”上千只缸鱼能够聚集在一起确实是件非常壮观的事情。     

Uplift,climate and biotic changes at the Eocene–Oligocene transition in south-eastern Tibet

The uplift history of south-eastern Tibet is crucial to understanding processes driving the tectonic evolution of the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding areas. Underpinning existing palaeoaltimetric studies has been regional mapping based in large part on biostratigraphy that assumes a Neogene modernization of the highly diverse, but threatened, Asian biota. Here, with new radiometric dating and newly collected plant-fossil archives, we quantify the surface height of part of the south-eastern margin of Tibet in the latest Eocene (∼34 Ma) to be ∼3 km and rising, possibly attaining its present elevation (3.9 km) in the early Oligocene. We also find that the Eocene–Oligocene transition in south-eastern Tibet witnessed leaf-size diminution and a floral composition change from sub-tropical/warm temperate to cool temperate, likely reflective of both uplift and secular climate change, and that, by the latest Eocene, floral modernization on Tibet had already taken place, implying modernization was deeply rooted in the Palaeogene.     

The beast within

Wolves are such ferocious and useless creatures that all other animals detest them, yea they even hate each other, and therefore scarcely ever live together, each one in its separate hole. Perhaps of all other animals, wolves are the most hateful while living and most useless when dead... The continual agitations of this restless animal renders him so furious, that he frequently ends his life in madness.Sarah Greenleaf is a former elementary school librarian who currently reviews and writes articles for Boston University'sAppraisal; Science Books for Young People.