Useful citizens,useful citizenship: cultural contexts of Sámi education in early twentieth-century Norway,Sweden, and Finland

Abstract

This article investigates Sámi elementary education in early twentieth-century Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The main focus lies on cultural contexts that frame and limit language use. The key analytical concepts are useful citizen and useful citizenship. Through these concepts the article probes the ways in which governmental educational authorities and Sámi teachers talked about education and citizenship. Studying these concepts and the cultural contexts behind them sheds light on the formation phase of Nordic citizenship. Full-scale citizenship was not offered to all individuals inside the nation state. Where it was, it had certain conditions that excluded cultural elements of minority populations. Sámi teachers defined citizenship mainly within the Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish nation states. However, some tendencies towards a more cross-national notion of Sámi identity can be discerned.     

多维度视角中的关联理论浅析

从多个维度对关联理论进行分析和研究,目的在于揭示关联理论作为一种基本交际原则的多重适用性。首先简短地提出了Sperber和Wilson对于关联理论的定义;接着从关联与认知、关联与语境、关联与语用三个维度对关联原则的主要理论和模式进行回顾和评析,指出认知、语境、以及语用通过关联理论这一共同载体形成彼此之间的差异与联系;最后讨论关联理论在言语交际中的作用和地位并对它未来的前景作以展望。     

Living and learning as an international postgraduate student at a Midlands university

This paper investigates the views of 20 full-time international postgraduate students, many of whom were Chinese, on living, learning and becoming successful students at one university in a multicultural city in the Midlands of England. The qualitative study built on findings from the International Students’ Barometer (ISB) survey for the university, in that it seeks to understand how students’ experience of context (living) interacted with their experience of learning in building their identities as successful learners. Student participants were sampled opportunistically within a purposive framework. Data was collected through audio-recorded individual semi-structured interviews, using as a stimulus participant-constructed concept maps of their perceptions of learning in the university and living in the city. Interview data were transcribed and analysed thematically. The main findings showed that participants enjoyed living in a city with an international culture, although some found it strange initially because they encountered different styles of life and food, albeit including some that they enjoyed at home. They welcomed studying at a university with high international prestige, a wide range of excellent facilities and generally approachable tutors but were shocked by having to undertake unfamiliar styles of independent learning with brief teaching hours. They perceived culture shock as transitional, which declined as they made friends, often with co-linguists, and became familiar with life in the city, work in the university and the extensive support of tutors.     

Going to action? A literature review on educational proposals in formal Environmental Education

The current state of the planet’s environmental deterioration calls for formal educational contexts to implement effective environmental proposals which nurture action competence. The aim of this paper is to examine the educational proposals in formal contexts that have been published in the two research journals of greatest impact on Environmental Education during the period 2008–2013, and to analyse how they contribute to the development of action competence. Special attention is paid to research (i) based on real participation by students; (ii) promotes reflection on the complexity of environmental issues; (iii) facilitates critical thinking; (iv) encourages autonomous and responsible decision-making and (v) involves communities. Our results show that these approaches can help improve the development of action-focused environmental education and bring to light a series of challenges for future research.     

Comparing the gender gap in educational attainment: the impact of emancipatory contexts in 33 cohorts across 33 countries

Nowadays, women outperform men in educational attainment in many countries. Still, large variation between countries remains. Emancipatory contexts in which individuals are raised might explain these differences in male–female educational attainment, both over time and across countries. This study examines individual and contextual factors that affect educational attainment of men and women for cohorts born between 1950 and 1982 across 33 countries. Possible explanations for differentiation over time and across countries relate to women’s labour market participation and an emancipatory normative climate, indicated by degree of religiosity. We employ multilevel models on data (N = 138,498) from 6 waves of the European Social Survey and the US General Social Survey (2002–2012) to test our hypotheses. Results show that a higher level of female labour market participation in early adolescence improves women’s performance in education, whereas high levels of religiosity during that phase negatively affect women’s educational attainment.     

The Role of Reform Curricular Materials in an Internship: The Case of Alice and Gregory

This report describes a case study of asecondary school mathematics internship wheremost of the elements of the internship ecologywere aligned with calls by the National Councilof Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM] for reform.Much research has been done on the lack ofimpact of teacher education programs on teacherclassroom behavior. Often this results fromdissonance between the philosophy and goals ofuniversity teacher education programs and thoseof schools. The case documented here offers aninstance of alignment between the universityprogram and the school internship site. Thefindings showed that within this supportiveatmosphere the reform curricular materialsbeing used in the classroom had a strong andlargely positive influence on the character ofthe internship experience, and on the intern'slearning. The form and content of the materials– Core-Plus Mathematics Project'sContemporary Mathematics in Context –supported reform-oriented development for theintern by providing particular foci to theplanning discussions between the intern and thementor. These areas of focus were: (a) themathematics content itself, (b) conceptualunderstanding as a main goal for instruction,and (c) the use of questioning as the bestmeans of guiding students to thatunderstanding. The findings highlight theimportance of developing reform-supportiveenvironments for intern teaching placements.     

Teachers’ beliefs of behaviors,learning, and teaching related to minority students: a comparison of Han and Mongolian Chinese teachers

Teachers from mainstream and minority backgrounds teaching in the same school contexts presumably hold different beliefs of learning and teaching about minority students due to their unique prior life and ethnic experiences. Teachers in similar school environments are also assumed to share beliefs of teaching and learning about their students because of the influences of their similar school contexts despite their different prior life and ethnic experiences. This study examines the two contentious assumptions by surveying the beliefs of behavior, learning, and teaching that the mainstream Han and minority Mongolian Chinese teachers in the same school contexts hold about their Mongolian Chinese students. It found that the two groups agreed that teachers’ inadequate planning and management were the major sources of their students’ behavior problems while students’ home backgrounds, abilities, and efforts explained their learning failure or success. Both believed that students’ emotional and social problems were more important than their learning problems for them to attend to, and their expertise in helping students develop self-worth was more important than their expertise in curriculum and pedagogy. Both preferred to vary teaching standards, content, and methods to accommodate students’ differences and offer opportunities for students to discover things themselves.     

The use of engineering design scenarios to assess student knowledge of global,societal, economic,and environmental contexts

Product archaeology as an educational approach asks engineering students to consider and explore the broader societal and global impacts of a product's manufacturing, distribution, use, and disposal on people, economics, and the environment. This study examined the impact of product archaeology in a project-based engineering design course on student attitudes and perceptions about engineering and abilities to extend and refine knowledge about broader contexts. Two design scenarios were created: one related to dental hygiene and one related to vaccination delivery. Design scenarios were used to (1) assess knowledge of broader contexts, and (2) test variability of student responses across different contextual situations. Results from pre- to post-surveying revealed improved student perceptions of knowledge of broader contexts. Significant differences were observed between the two design scenarios. The findings support the assumption that different design scenarios elicit consideration of different contexts and design scenarios can be constructed to target specific contextual considerations.     

Improving Reading Skills

How do you get information from an article as much and fast as possible while you are reading? It is a very important thing for us——Chinese readers. Reading is an important element in our English study. Mastering reading skills will help increase our reading speed and comprehend what we read. Now several reading skills are to be discussed in this paper.     

Research Agendas and Computer Technology Visions: The Need for Closely Watched Classrooms

There are numerous research methodologies that may be applied to the study of computer technology, and each has the potential to provide insights into its usefulness. The selection of research methodologies should be driven by the nature of the questions under investigation rather than a predetermined idea that some research methods are superior to others. This article focuses on a particular methodology, case studies, and it describes their potential for making a unique contribution to our understanding of computer technology. The special value of case studies lies in helping us understand the complexities found in classrooms, where the multiple variables that influence computer use interact in complex ways. © 1999 IFIP, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers