Government research evaluations and academic freedom: a UK and Australian comparison

Performance management systems have been an inevitable consequence of the development of government research evaluations (GREs) of university research, and have also inevitably affected the working life of academics. The aim of this paper is to track the development of GREs over the past 25 years, by critically evaluating their adoption in the UK and Australian higher education sector and their contribution to the commodification of academic labour, and to highlight the resultant tensions between GREs and academic freedom. The paper employs a literature-based analysis, relying on publicly available policy documents and academic studies over the period 1985–2010. GREs are a global phenomenon emanating from new public management reforms and while assessments of university research have been welcomed, they have attracted critique based on their design, the manner in which they have been applied, and the unintended consequences of their implementation on academic freedom in particular. Consistent with international research on the impact of GREs, Australian research assessments appear to be undoing the academic freedom that is central to successful research. Further empirical research on the impact of GREs on academics is urgently needed.     

Renewed commitments in a time of vigilance: sexuality education in the USA*

Over the past 20 years, the USA has seen more than its fair share of controversy with respect to education about sexuality, sex and intimate relationships. Attention has focused on content (abstinence-only vs. comprehensive instruction), delivery (by teachers, parents, health professionals or community educators) and context (within school and beyond). In recognition of this fact, Sex Education invited the development of a virtual special issue comprising a sample of its most impactful papers on these and related topics. The 2016 Presidential election results and recent legislative action in the USA point to the importance of thinking broadly about teaching and learning about sexuality inside and outside of schools and of considering sexuality as it intersects with categories of difference, privilege and penalty, including ability, age, immigration, race, gender and class. This paper, developed as an introduction to the virtual special issue, opens with a discussion of the journal’s contributions to the ongoing discussion of pleasure and desire in sexuality education. From there, we turn to the question of what is possible given the material and ideological conditions of schooling and then to opportunities for teachers and learners outside the conventional classroom. We follow with a discussion of the place of intersectional analyses in sexuality education research, and conclude with some thoughts on sexuality education research at this political moment.     

美国政府农业公共政策分析

美国农业的生产方式和控制管理技能都属世界最先进之列，美国农业之所以成功，有其得天独厚的农业资源的因素，但更与经历市场竞争所形成的农业相关产业的组织结构、有竞争力的生产方式、积极的公共政策密切相关。美国是一个市场经济国家，但政府在对关键问题如农产品剩余、食品安全、支持与补贴等方面起着重要的管制作用。对美国的重点农业政策进行理性的研究，对于优化我国的三农政策具有重要意义。在两个大国间进行比较研究，从理论上讲是完全可行的，但在政策制定和执行中必须研究不同的自然条件、经济、社会和文化背景对农业制度的多方位影响。     

美国科技计划管理及其特点

分析美国科技计划的管理程序及其特点,提出了美国科技领先的一个重要原因在于实行严谨而有序科技计划管理的观点,旨在为新形势下我国科技计划管理模式的创新发展提供借鉴。     

Contingency in innovation and the role of national systems: taxol and taxotère in the USA and France

A very rich collection of archival material is used to compare two anticancer drugs commercialised by multinationals collaborating with public sector research, one in the USA and one in France. The framework of national innovation systems is used to compare the innovative environments for each development (different institutional structures, research programmes, financing, industry-academic-government relationships, environmental concern, and intellectual property regimes). The empirical work was able to bring out the nuances and subtleties of each environment, the way in which innovation took place in practice, and some striking differences from what stereotypical accounts of innovation in each country would have suggested.     

美国首部全国《州共同核心课程标准》解读

2010年6月2日,美国州长协会最佳实践中心和州首席教育官员理事会共同颁布了首部《州共同核心课程标准》,这将改变美国各州课程标准差异极大的混乱局面;课程标准的制定是由民间组织联合发起的,各州有权决定是否采用;课程标准的难度有所增加,立足为学生的未来发展夯实基础,从而确保美国在国际上的竞争力;现已有48个州同意采用此《标准》,联邦政府还将通过竞争卓越计划,对采用此《标准》的州将给予资金支持,这将对美国基础教育未来的走向影响深远。     

美中小学电子教科书的使用现状及分析——加利福尼亚州电子教科书政策引发的争议

美国加利福尼亚州电子教科书政策的实施与全美经济危机和节省采购教材费用等有直接关系。电子教科书在使用过程中引发了争议。美国基础教育阶段电子教科书使用的现状及近期发展所面临的问题,为我国教科书的发展的提供了借鉴。     

Public libraries,digital literacy and participatory culture

In recent years public libraries have experimented with user-generated or community-contributed content through the interactive tools of Web 2.0. For some commentators this not just establishes a new relationship between libraries and their publics, but signals the end of information hegemony and an ‘expert paradigm’. Such claims need to be treated with caution. This article argues that public library experiments with user-generated content can be more usefully analysed in the context of wider institutional mandates around literacy, civic engagement and access. This article critically examines some recent library developments in this field, with a particular focus on Australian libraries.     

Remote access laboratories in Australia and Europe

Remote access laboratories (RALs) were first developed in 1994 in Australia and Switzerland. The main purposes of developing them are to enable students to do their experiments at their own pace, time and locations and to enable students and teaching staff to get access to facilities beyond their institutions. Currently, most of the experiments carried out through RALs in Australia are heavily biased towards electrical, electronic and computer engineering disciplines. However, the experiments carried out through RALs in Europe had more variety, in addition to the traditional electrical, electronic and computer engineering disciplines, there were experiments in mechanical and mechatronic disciplines. It was found that RALs are now being developed aggressively in Australia and Europe and it can be argued that RALs will develop further and faster in the future with improving Internet technology. The rising costs of real experimental equipment will also speed up their development because by making the equipment remotely accessible, the cost can be shared by more universities or institutions and this will improve their cost-effectiveness. Their development would be particularly rapid in large countries with small populations such as Australia, Canada and Russia, because of the scale of economy. Reusability of software, interoperability in software implementation, computer supported collaborative learning and convergence with learning management systems are the required development of future RALs.     

土耳其世锦赛美国男篮获胜因素分析

运用文献资料、数理统计和对比分析等方法,对美国男篮在土耳其世锦赛上的获胜因素进行分析,结果表明,美国男篮获胜的因素是：谦卑踏实的对待态度、合理的战术运用、超强的攻防能力、坚定的信心与精湛技术的结合。