Producing British education by Chinese parents: Fulfilling parenting responsibilities in WeChat

Education and parenting are popular topics on social media. In China, it is now common practice for parents to discuss and share education-related information in WeChat, a premier Chinese social media app. In order to understand parents' educational aspirations in WeChat and the way parents fulfil their parenting responsibilities, this research used virtual ethnography to study a WeChat parents group named Little MBA. Focusing on parents' textual conversations and posts shared in the group, this article demonstrates how Chinese parents constructed their own image of British education to express their views on and aspirations for the education their children received in China. In Little MBA, three features of British education were constructed, including emphasis on character building, cultivation of entrepreneurship and influence of aristocratic education. In the process of presenting their version of British education, these parents were using Chinese notions like fuyang (cultivation with abundance) and qiongyang (cultivation with deprivation) to understand and reproduce the meaning of British education in their own context. Their constructs of British education were understood as a way to fulfil their parenting responsibilities transferred from the state. The ambiguous image of British education parents constructed, one that emphasised both traditional and neoliberal values, reflected the conflicting nature of parents' educational aspirations in contemporary Chinese society.     

全面两孩政策下婴幼儿照护家庭支持体系的构建——基于育儿压力、母职困境与社会支持的调查分析

加强家庭婴幼儿照护支持是二孩时代实现幼有所育的关键。从家庭育儿压力、母职困境和社会支持出发,调查6个省12个市共计11453个3岁以下婴幼儿家庭。结果发现,家庭育儿压力较高,抚育成本高昂,子女教育成为最大挑战,且二孩家庭育儿压力更大;母亲育儿工作难平衡,超过三分之一的母亲职业中断,且二孩家庭、低收入和低学历母亲面临更大的职业困境。在社会支持方面,家庭内部支持以祖辈为主,父亲参与不足;对教育支持最为迫切,但所获外部支持有限。在历史短板、时代挑战和文化制约的多重影响下,亟待构建婴幼儿照护家庭支持体系,通过加强对家庭婴幼儿照护的支持和指导,形成夫妻同工、祖辈适度参与的动力机制,保障女性就业权,最终实现家庭与社会共同参与的婴幼儿照护良好格局,切实缓解家庭的育儿压力。     

School–Parent Partnerships in Singapore

In an era of rapid global economic and social change, educational institutions like schools and universities are struggling to keep their curricula and programs relevant. Singapore’s schools are no exception, especially when education is viewed as the essential element for maintaining the nation’s global competitiveness in ways that are totally disproportionate to its size. The current shift from an ‘efficiency-’ to an ‘ability-’ driven paradigm in education, however, is increasing uncertainty and raising the stakes in an already pressurized system where schools, educators and students constantly compete for top academic awards and rewards. The concept of “partnership” in Singapore education is a significant, relatively new, trend that has caught on among local schools only since the late-1990s, with the focus on creating better “total” learning environments for students. This paper analyses the challenges of matching rhetoric with professional practice with regard to school–home partnerships in Singapore, and concludes that the key to authentic collaboration lies in the mutual appreciation and valuing of diversity as well as a deep sense of shared responsibility by all parties concerned.     

亲子关系研究的主要进展

亲子关系在国外研究较多,而我国尚处于起步阶段。本文探讨了国内外亲子关系研究在六个方面的主要进展,包括亲子冲突高发期、父母教养方式、亲子性别交互作用、社会经济地位、非典型家庭形态以及青少年犯罪等。并探讨了当前世界亲子关系研究的最新动向,提出了对我国本土化亲子关系研究的启示。     

Cultural Beliefs about Autism in Indonesia

Cultural beliefs about parenting have an important influence on parenting behaviours, including considerations about appropriate ways to parent children with autism. Although Indonesia has one of the largest and most ethnically diverse populations in the world, little is known about cultural beliefs regarding children with autism within Indonesian cultures. The goal of the present study was to investigate how Indonesian mothers from a range of backgrounds and without a child with autism understood autism and the most appropriate ways to parent such a child. The study was a qualitative investigation using semi-structured interviews with nine Indonesian mothers. Five aspects were investigated: understanding about autism, beliefs about causes of autism, possible reactions to having a child with autism, perceptions of parenting a child with autism, and perceptions of parent-child relationships. The interviews revealed five related themes about autism, including traditional cultural beliefs about appropriate behaviour during pregnancy, karma, and God’s plan, that are not usually reported in the literature from western countries.     

高职非英语专业英语课程的“努力记录”教学手段小探

针对高职院校非英语专业学生英语学科学习态度散漫、不求上进这一现象,依据William Wilen在其著作《有效教学决策》中营造学习氛围的有关理论,设计并实施“努力记录”教学手段,探讨通过营造支持性教学氛围逐步帮助学生习得积极英语学习态度,培养其在英语学习中的主人翁意识,使其成为主动、独立的学习者。     

'Moral Democratic Education and Homosexuality: Censoring morality' by John Petrovic: A rejoinder

This article takes issue with certain aspects of the argument put forward by John Petrovic in a recent issue of the Journal of Moral Education : that adherence to principles of democracy requires not only the positive portrayal of homosexuality in schools but also precludes teachers from expressing their beliefs against it. It is argued that certain of Petrovic's appeals to democracy are somewhat rhetorical, and that his fuller characterisation of moral democratic education leaves him open to charges of inconsistency. The second part of the article develops what the author considers to be a more appropriate defence of the view that common schools should indeed present homosexuality as a morally acceptable way of life that some of their students may one day elect to lead, but which argues that there needs also to be within schools (and within the curriculum) full and open debate with those whose competing comprehensive theories of the good life lead them to regard homosexual behaviour as repugnant or even sinful.     

维吾尔族、回族母亲教养方式与幼儿社会性发展的相关研究

文章采用分层整群抽样的方法,对维吾尔族、回族母亲教养方式与幼儿社会性发展进行了定量分析并得出了结论。受教育水平越高,母亲权威行为越多,专制行为越少。母亲权威行为越多,越有利于幼儿社会性发展。     

彝族俐侎人养育习俗的教育价值对边远民族地区幼儿教育的启示

彝族俐侎人在养育幼儿的过程中主要是向幼儿传授民族生产生活技能、进行宗教信仰的传递以及在生活中进行日常礼仪的训练。养育习俗作为幼儿园教育的补充发挥了积极的教育作用,也对边远民族地区幼儿教育有很大的启示：环境创设应整合本土文化资源;教育内容应贴近幼儿的生活世界;课程创设应融入儿童民间游戏;教育与养育相结合。     

Sex Differences in Goals for Supportive Interactions

One explanation for sex differences in supportive behavior is that men and women pursue different goals in supportive interactions. Sex differences in goals may themselves be explained by personality traits such as expressivity and supportive self‐efficacy, or situational factors such as target responsibility. The current study examined sex differences in the pursuit of eight supportive goals, and the extent to which differences were explained by personality and situational factors. Participants (254 men, 386 women) read hypothetical scenarios involving a distressed friend who was depicted as responsible or not responsible for his or her problematic situation, and responded to measures of supportive goals and personality traits. Results indicate that women are somewhat more likely to pursue a range of goals that are likely to result in effective supportive messages (e.g., emotional support, problem‐solving). Many of the sex differences in goal pursuit were mediated by the personality traits of expressivity and supportive self‐efficacy.