Negotiating for change: women’s movements and education reform in Taiwan

The dramatic changes during the past 20 years in Taiwan offer a good example of how gender policy in education is facilitated by a combination of interrelated economic, political and social forces. Taiwan’s policy on gender education emerged from the interaction of state, education, academic and non‐academic feminist positions in reforms. This paper demonstrates – first, the importance of the socio‐political contexts in which reform was proposed, and second, the actions of feminists in making best use of the opportunities thrown up by a confluence of social factors. The social, economic and political transformations of the 1980s saw the rise of a ‘new’ state both supposedly and in reality more responsive to the needs of non‐profit organisations. In testing out relationships of partnership with the state, feminist activists saw the deregulation of education as an opportunity to get women’s issues on the agenda. These reforms were catalysed by a series of social events bringing together supporters in a mood of celebration, protest or mourning specifically in response to particular events. The struggles, contentions, and negotiations that underlay the eventual approval of gender reform in education are illustrated.     

Boys and machines: gendered computer identities,regulation and resistance

Students negotiate their masculine and feminine identities as students of information and communication technology (ICT) and computer users as they participate in specialist ICT courses and in other areas of their lives. As they negotiate these roles, they are established in relations of power and authority with the technology and with each other. Case study research relating to students’ experiences in specialist computer courses in a New Zealand secondary school reveals a complex and dynamic picture of identity construction and subjectivity. In constructing their personal identities as computer users, males and females experience the regulatory forces of gender relations while at the same time resisting stereotypes. Students make conscious and pragmatic decisions to pursue particular computing courses and paths as they balance their options in the realisation of their possible selves as computer users and adults in the world of work. These decisions signify regulation by and resistance to gendered power relations.     

我国目前数学活动经验研究综述

数学活动经验是近几年数学课程改革研究的热点话题之一。我国数学教育研究工作者和实践工作者对数学活动经验的研究,目前主要集中在数学活动经验的内涵、类型、主要作用和教育价值、促进学生积累数学活动经验的教学策略等方面。未来研究应该注重清楚简洁地界定数学活动经验及其所包含的内容,研究、实践使学生获得并积累数学活动经验的策略,在研究、实验的基础上提出数学活动、数学活动经验的基本要求,积极开展实证性研究和评价研究等。     

教师专业化教育改革的风险及其防范

教师专业化教育改革作为一种朝向预期目标、改进实践的有意识尝试,在增进未来教师专业知识、锻炼专业技能、陶冶专业精神等方面取得成效的同时,面临的最主要风险是如何处理不同类型教育间的协调、平衡与融合,包括:通识教育与专业教育的同步优化,文理学科知识与教育专业知识的有效融合,以及专业针对性与职业普适性的兼顾并重。为规避和防范可能的风险,需要深入探索教师教育规律,树立代价意识,强化教育学术意识,建立多元参与的改革决策体系。     

中国古代妇女法的变迁轨迹及原因

中国古代的妇女法作为传统法律的重要组成部分,其伦理法特征较之其他法律更为典型。妇女法这一特征的逐步形成,同古人的家族观、秩序观、贞节观紧密相关。而法律一旦形成,又深刻地影响着社会观念及妇女的生活乃至整个社会。     

The disaster of the ‘self‐managing school’ – genesis,trajectory, undisclosed agenda,and effects

Sometimes an educational idea is inexplicably adopted around the world with remarkable speed and consistency and in the absence of a proper evidence base or with little regard or respect for teachers, students or learning. This paper examines what has arguably been the most contentious and virulent educational reform of the past half‐century. Variously labelled, in what amounts to the self‐managing school, what this reform has done is virtually dismantle public education and privatise it without public debate or proper scrutiny. This paper considers the alleged claims by the enthusiastic proponents and examines what has subsequently transpired, particularly in respect of the most disadvantaged students and the broader mission of improved learning.     

中国共产党农民思想及政策述论

中国共产党的农民思想和农民政策,为革命、建设和改革开放三个历史时期中心任务的完成发挥了无以替代的历史作用。在新民主主义革命时期,中共通过不断地探索和完善土改政策和路线,极大地动员了广大农民参加反帝反封建的民主革命;在社会主义建设时期,以农业集体化和户籍制度为制度依托,通过实施数十年的对农副产品的统购统销,基本完成了为工业化积累资金的历史任务;在改革开放初期,先是实行以家庭联产承包责任制为核心的一系列措施,极大地解放了农业生产力,至世纪之交,又连续推出取消农业税、补贴农业生产,以及为广大农民提供基本社会保障的新农合和新农保等反哺农业的惠农政策,成为践行以人为本的科学发展观和建设小康社会的重大举措。     

From sociological fictions to social fictions: some Bourdieusian reflections on the concepts of ‘institutional habitus’ and ‘family habitus’

This paper expresses serious reservations regarding the increasingly popular Bourdieu‐inspired notions of ‘institutional habitus’ and ‘family habitus’ in education research. Although sympathetic to the overall theoretical approach and persuaded of the veracity and importance of the empirical findings they are used to illuminate, it argues that, from a Bourdieusian point of view, they actually present several difficulties that threaten not only to overstretch and reduce the explanatory power of the French thinker’s concepts but to stifle analysis of the kinds of struggles and complexities that both he and, somewhat contradictorily, the researchers in question spotlight. Bourdieu had his own ways of making sense of the themes raised, and although there is indeed a need to push him further than he went, to say what he did not and to emphasise what he would not, this has to be guided by consistent logic and not simply pragmatic empiricism.     

Changes in school mathematics knowledge in Greece: a Bernsteinian analysis

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the changes that took place in school mathematics knowledge for pupils aged six and seven (first grade of Greek elementary school) and its pedagogical approach, which took shape following the reforms of the mathematics curricula in 1982 and 2003. Our analysis is based on Bernstein’s theoretical framework on pedagogic discourse and Dowling’s theoretical framework on textual domains. The results showed that there are differences between the 1982 and 2003 reforms, in terms both of the content of mathematics knowledge, as well as of the forms of pedagogic interaction between the teacher and the pupil.     

Primary and secondary effects in the explanation of disadvantage in education: the children of immigrant families in France

This paper explores the prospective transition of immigrant and native students in France from lower to upper secondary school. Because they are more likely to be tracked to less prestigious (vocational) tracks, immigrant and immigrant‐origin students are significantly disadvantaged at this key academic stage in comparison with the children of native families. Primary and secondary sources of educational disadvantage are explored to explain this phenomenon. Primary effects appear to account for the entire initial disadvantage, while secondary effects could have a positive impact for immigrant‐origin students. Nonetheless, immigrant families appear to be more conservative than native families and may need stronger evidence that their children will succeed in upper secondary school.