Toward a critical hermeneutical approach of human rights education: universal ideals,contextual realities and teachers’ difficulties

The present paper takes the approach of critical hermeneutics in human rights education (HRE) that has been developed theoretically and tries to operationalize it in pedagogical practice. In particular, a group of Greek-Cypriot teachers were trained in a series of workshops on how critical hermeneutical approach (CHA) could be taught in the context of HRE. The paper explores teachers’ difficulties with and perspectives of CHA during the training designed and offered by the authors. The findings show how, in addition to epistemological issues involved concerning the meaning and implications of the CHA, the particularities of the local context (ethnic conflict, pedagogic traditions, educational structures) influenced the uptake of this approach. The implications are discussed in relation to the need to identify the difficulties teachers have with specific pedagogical approaches of HRE as they become manifest contextually, and the need to design teacher training in which teachers have opportunities to reflect upon and engage with these difficulties through a critical interpretive lens.     

大学生社团的发展现状及建设思考

大学生社团是高校实施素质教育的重要途径和有效载体,在加强校园文化建设、提高学生综合素质、引导学生适应社会、促进学生成才就业等方面发挥着越来越重要的作用。高校应当坚持正确的指导思想,针对大学生社团建设中存在的问题,加强管理和引导,促进大学生社团的健康发展。     

Sensitive and controversial issues in the classroom: teaching history in a divided society

Teaching sensitive and controversial issues (SCIs) is of growing interest in contemporary, increasingly heterogeneous societies. In democracies, different groups and institutions expect their values and worldviews to be conveyed at school. On one hand, there is the expectation that SCIs should be treated neutrally. On the other hand, there are disputes over what exactly should be seen as controversial in the first place. Research on SCIs in social studies and civics has distinguished many pressures that teachers face from the very local – the community and the parents of their pupils – to curriculum policies and issues in broader social and political fields. Research on history teaching has studied ways of dealing with divergences between collective memories, and academic and lay ways of dealing with the past. The present study combines insights from both research strands. Based on interviews with Estonian and Latvian history teachers, I discern teacher positions on, and strategies for, teaching SCIs: hiding or avoiding; finding common ground or smoothing edges; just doing the job; enhancing heterogeneity and leaving the truth open. This study illustrates the complexity and multilayered nature of the challenges that shape teachers’ choices and ways of coping with the various demands they perceive. Dealing with SCIs is shaped by tensions between sociopolitical, academic and educational factors and identities.     

Contested womanhood: women’s education and (re)production of gendered norms in rural Pakistani Muslim communities

In a world marred by the fears of religious extremism, Muslim women have become subjects of various global projects that aim to modernize ‘traditional’ Muslim societies through women’s education and empowerment. Embedded in these discourses is an assumption that all educated Muslim women will empower themselves through challenging the ‘oppressive’ structures of their families and communities. This paper challenges these homogeneous narratives of education and empowerment through highlighting the complexities of educated women’s daily lives in rural Pakistan. We situate the lived experiences of rural educated Pakistani women in global mainstream as well as in local historical narratives regarding the role and purpose of education for women. Our analysis reveals how the educated women participants’ lives were shaped by a complex gendered hierarchy that facilitated educated women to take on new roles while simultaneously requiring them to maintain harmonious relationships with family and community members.     

A theory of change for student-led academic integrity

Breaches in academic integrity are a pervasive and enduring international concern to the overall quality of higher education. Despite students being the group most affected by academic integrity policies, organisational culture is such that students tend to be passive recipients of change initiatives, rather than the drivers. To deliver a paradigm change, a theory of change framework was designed, implemented and applied to explore the viability of a student-led academic integrity society. To achieve this, a national research project involving three stages of data collection (surveys, interviews and focus groups) was conducted to obtain the perspectives of students and student representatives. The key outcome of the project has been the recent launch of an academic integrity student society, a novel initiative outside the United States of America. The theory of change framework presented here seeks to offer guidance to other institutions contemplating the viability of student-led change to academic integrity and the establishment of academic integrity student societies, in particular.     

新疆高校学生社团现状与发展对策研究——以新疆农业大学为例

新形势下,随着我国高等教育改革的不断深入,高校各类大学生社团组织也如雨后春笋般迅速发展,社团组织成为了高校延伸的第二课堂及实施素质教育的重要途径和有效方式。文章以新疆农业大学学生社团为研究对象,通过横向和纵向两个角度的比较研究,指出了新疆高校学生社团存在的现实问题,并结合新疆高校德育工作的要求,提出了做好社团工作的具体对策与建议。     

高校学生理论社团建设中德育功能的承担

高校社团文化是校园文化的重要组成部分,提高高校社团管理能力,充分发挥高校社团的作用,对提高高校校园整体文化有着重要意义。把高校理论社团建设成为优秀社团,必须以科学的发展观念为指导,以会员为核心,以社团内部文化为导向。各大高校要持续努力地探索和创新理论社团管理方式,加强理论社团的建设,发挥好高校理论社团在思想政治教育中的作用,从而形成良好的校园文化氛围和良性循环,进而实现为社会培养出更多高素质人才的目标。     

中国近代教育学会的学术研究及历史意义

教育学会的学术研究泛及近代中国教育的各个领域。教育学会从事学术研究,既反映了近代中国"救亡图存"的教育诉求,又折射着新式教育勃兴的急切呼唤,由此使其学术研究别于一般意义上的纯学术研究。依托学术研究的开展,教育学会成为中国教育近代化历史进程中一股不可或缺的推动力量,加速了中国近代教育学术的专业化发展。     

高校文学社团的现状与发展策略——以河池学院为例

作为营造高校校园文化的主力军,高校文学社团普遍存在活动影响力不够、物质条件不足、缺乏可持续发展的生命力等问题。现阶段,应从加强社团自身建设、高校积极创建促进社团发展的外部环境和条件等方面来努力,真正发挥文学社团活动应有的育人功能。     

为进一步提高学生就业竞争能力而努力

为进一步提高学生就业竞争能力,北京城市学院,中关村学部各专业开设面向其它专业的辅助专业选修课,以拓宽各类学生的专业面;切实把第二课堂与第一课堂结合起来,提高学生社团活动的内容层次和活动水平,真正提高学生的综合素质和动手能力。