Disability,Stigma and Otherness: Perspectives of Parents and Teachers

This qualitative study explored the perspectives of parents and teachers in the US with regard to the meaning and implications of disability in the context of schoolling, and of raising a child with a disability. The findings revealed broad conceptual differences in the perspectives of these two groups. Teachers’ beliefs were generally consistent with medical model perspectives on disability as biologically defined. Parents’ interpretations, more aligned with a sociocultural paradigm, were situated in the cultural meanings ascribed to disability and linked with issues of stigma, marginalisation and access. The findings also revealed the existence of master narratives on families of children with disabilities, entrenched in assumptions of pathological functioning and negative outcomes among these families. Implications for professional–family partnerships in the education of students with disabilities are discussed.     

Changing the English Classroom: When Large-scale ‘Common’ Testing Meets Secondary Curriculum and Instruction in the United States

This article explores the intersection of new, large-scale standards-based testing, teacher accountability policy, and secondary curriculum and instruction in the United States. Two federally funded consortia – the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the Partnership for Readiness of College and Careers – prove focal to this paper, as these two organisations are creating new tests that will assess 42–49% of the K–12 student population in the United States in 2014–2015. Because greater teacher accountability for student performance will be given for these tests, there is more reason to pay attention to what these tests measure and what they do not. Our analysis suggests that these new tests will hold secondary English teachers accountable for literacy and disciplinary knowledge outside the field of English and thus raise important questions about what English teachers should, can and will do, especially when their jobs are on the line.     

‘Twilight or Middlemarch?’ A Teacher’s Refusal to Choose

What should children and young adolescents read? Recent changes in the English curriculum have once again shifted the focus towards more canonical texts, but does featuring such texts on the course necessarily equate to rigorous teaching and in-depth learning? Through a self-examination of her own reading history, the author argues for a dialogic approach to reading and text selection instead, so that students may negotiate better understandings of themselves and their own socio-cultural contexts.     

Critical thinking as room for subjectification in Education for Sustainable Development

Issues of sustainability are complex and often steeped with ethical and political questions without predefined or general answers. This paper deals with how secondary and upper secondary teachers discuss these complex issues, by analysing their aims for Education for Sustainable Development. With inspiration from discourse theory, their articulations about students as political subjects are analysed. Critical thinking emerged as a nodal point in teachers’ discussions. In this study, critical thinking is articulated as having various qualitative meanings related to different epistemological views. On one hand, critical thinking is articulated to invite room for subjectification; but on the other hand, room for subjectification is challenged when critical thinking is articulated through the educational aims of qualification and socialisation. A consequence of changing epistemological view might be that political and ethical issues take a back seat.     

Sustainability as a cross-curricular priority in the Australian Curriculum: a Tasmanian investigation

In this paper, we report on an investigation into sustainability education in schools in the Australian state of Tasmania following the implementation of the Australian Curriculum. Sustainability is one of three cross-curriculum priorities in the new national curriculum and is the focus of this research (sustainability cross-curriculum priority (CCP)). Principals and Curriculum Leaders (PCLs) from all schools in Tasmania were invited to complete a survey that asked them about their understanding of various aspects of sustainability and how the sustainability CCP was integrated across learning areas. Sixty-eight PCLs (24%) responded to the survey. They reported generally good understandings of sustainability and education for sustainability, but lesser understandings of the sustainability CCP and the nine organising ideas. Respondents’ understandings of sustainability were dominated by an environmental focus. The PCLs’ responses in relation to sustainability implementation across learning areas gave insights into ways that the sustainability CCP can serve as a pivot for cross-curricular teaching and learning, which is strongly advocated for achieving transformative sustainability education. We conclude this paper with a discussion of how the sustainability CCP is an important asset in the necessary reorientation of the Australian formal education system for a more sustainable future. We note the importance of professional support so that educators may better understand sustainability and its complexity as a cross-curricular priority and envision ways in which the sustainability CCP can be realised within education.     

A Classroom Exercise to Examine the Trade‐off between Mission Capacity and Life Cycle Cost

This article presents a classroom exercise, centered on a simulation that has been used for 4 years in an MBA program to help students develop an understanding of the trade‐offs involved in managing capital assets in the public sector. Though often ignored in business schools, mission is a key criterion that must be considered when managing such assets, and acts as a surrogate for profit. The case presents a rich environment in which the impact of cost reductions (or additional investments) on mission can be quantified, and trade‐offs can be assessed and discussed. It gives students a chance to develop creative ideas for process improvement, and provides sufficient data for them to analyze the impact of their suggestions in a rigorous way.     

“学”的内求与外发——从《论语》首章看儒家教育要义

教育的目的在于"成人"。现代教育中,学习往往成了外索利益的功能性存在,使得人闭锁于一己之身。以孔子为原型,阐释论语以"学"为基的教育内涵,有助于还教育以"成人"之本。孔门之"学"是儒家教育的起点,其目的有二:学为君子,是从个人的历时性成长维度的内求;学而为政,教化人心,是公共精神的外发。无论是内求还是外发,二者存在根源上的一致性,即都统一于"成人"的教育目的。     

“沉默的螺旋”在高校思想教育中的体现及启示

从70年代,伊丽莎白·诺尔·诺依曼提出"沉默的螺旋"理论起,"言论偏向"问题开始频繁出现在人们的视野中。至此社会各阶层都遭受了这一理论的枷锁。本文从当下大学生这一特殊群体出发,阐述了"沉默的螺旋"在高校思想教育中的体现,并探究了在面对这一窘境时可行的解决办法,为其他群体的话语权研究提供了科学依据。     

Functions of“Marriage”in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure

Marriage is usually associated with happiness and harmony. But in Shakespear’s Measure for Measure, it seems it is in?fused with power of law. Is it a clear-cut punishment or reward? Its qualities revo...     

修辞学研究应有的格局与坚持——序宗廷虎、李金苓先生80华诞纪念文集《追梦修辞学五十年》

宗廷虎与李金苓夫妇同为复旦大学中文系教授,都是师从中国现代修辞学之父、复旦大学老校长陈望道先生学习修辞学的。他们从学生时代开始学习研究修辞学,直到耄耋之年,仍然心系修辞学,魂牵修辞学,穷其一生,矢志不渝地在修辞学园地辛勤地耕耘、拓荒。他们在修辞学研究上所取得的成就,为中国修辞学界同仁所一致公认。他们成功的秘诀有两点:一是对修辞学这门学问的坚持,二是有自己研究应有的格局。