Remembering and Disremembering in Africa

Abstract In remembering the attainment of political emancipation, post‐independence African countries have learned to narrate the official national narrative and to forget other stories. Commemoration of the nation’s past almost always goes hand in hand with officially decreed national amnesia. Therefore, the story of the nation has to be narrated and remembered by forgetting certain aspects of the colonial past. By implication the dual act of remembering and forgetting sets the pattern for how the postcolonial African nation narrates itself in the postcolonial moment. Focusing on Kenya as an example, this paper argues that the national commemoration of political emancipation from colonial rule tends to silence narratives of opposition and political incarceration that emerge in the postcolonial moment. The outcome is a remembering‐and‐forgetting battle that has implications for how diverse individuals conceive of themselves collectively as a nation and how they forge or fail to forge a coherent collective memory.     

我国少数民族地区体育教师继续教育现状及发展策略

我国少数民族地区体育师资缺乏、教师专业水平较低,体育教师继续教育的观念陈旧,学校对继续教育投入力度不够.研究分析认为只有加强少数民族地区体育教师体育理论知识、体育实践课程、终身体育思想等方面的继续教育,逐步健全少数民族地区体育教师继续教育机制,确保继续教育经费投入,才能有效促进少数民族地区体育教师继续教育健康快速地发展.     

The Twentieth Century Is Not Yet Over: Resources for the Remaking of Educational Practice

The article traces some lines of connection between teachers’ efforts to reshape the way that teaching and learning are done in local settings, and larger‐scale shifts and tensions in education policy. The article begins with an account of opposition to the changes that European governments inspired by global policy orthodoxy seek to make in their education systems. It suggests that the intellectual and political resources that supply such opposition were accumulated in most cases in the immediate post‐war period, and replenished in the social conflicts of the 1960s and 1970s. It raises the possibility that these resources are now – save in a largely nostalgic sense – exhausted, and cannot contribute to a remaking of education systems. This notion is tested by exploring the ideas and practices of teachers who, working under the banner of ‘creativity’, are attempting to break away from the standards agenda that they have inherited. In doing so, the article suggests, they may find themselves drawing from social, democratic traditions of education, developed not just in England, but elsewhere in Europe; educational internationalism is not the sole property of policy elites.     

A Comparison of the No Blame Approach to Bullying and the Ecosystemic Approach to Changing Problem Behaviour in Schools

This paper compares the No Blame approach to bullying with the ecosystemic approach to changing problem behaviour. It suggests that there are several similarities between the two approaches: they are both applicable in particular kinds of situation; their success depends to a great extent on the people using the technique, in particular the degree to which they can bring the quality of genuineness to the situation; they are not directly concerned with punishment, truth or control; and they challenge the assumptions teachers make about children's problem behaviour. A key point is the need for teachers to recognize that bullying is a natural event (in so far that it is a regular one) and the need to suspend their own feelings of anger and repugnance. As the writer points out, 'a process which fails to engage the bully and makes no attempt to enhance feelings of concern and understanding is unlikely to bring about any fundamental change in behaviour'. Though written at a fairly theoretical level, what the writer says has direct relevance to practice in schools.     

Sport and Friendship

My aim in this paper is to make the case for encouraging friendship in sport. First, I argue that sport is especially conducive to friendship. Second, I argue that since friendship is life-enhancing then to participate in sport and not to have made friends is to have failed to take a life-enhancing opportunity. Third, I argue that there are sporting benefits to be had from sporting friendships. Finally, I say something about the role of friendship in sport achieving its broad political aim of helping 'to build a better and more peaceful world'.     

Youth transitions in Britain on the threshold of a ‘New Europe‘

This paper considers the social construction of the youth phase and discusses the fact that, on the whole, transitions to adulthood in Britain are completed biographically sooner than in comparable continental European countries. Education and training arrangements and participation rates are important distinguishing features. Central aspects of the timing and shaping of youth transitions in Britain are placed in European Community contrast; young Britons’ prospects in ‘Maastricht‐Europe’ are considered and education policy implications are drawn.