Differential recognition of children's cultural practices in middle primary literacy classrooms

This paper argues that teachers' recognition of children's cultural practices is an important positive step in helping socio‐economically disadvantaged children engage with school literacies. Based on 21 longitudinal case studies of children's literacy development over a 3‐year period, the authors demonstrate that when children's knowledges and practices assembled in home and community spheres are treated as valuable material for school learning, children are more likely to invest in the work of acquiring school literacies. However, they also show that while some children benefit greatly from being allowed to draw on their knowledge of popular culture, sports and the outdoors, other children's interests may be ignored or excluded. Some differences in teachers' valuing of home and community cultures appeared to relate to gender dimensions.     

South African contributions to LGBTI education issues

ABSTRACT

South Africa stands out in the African region for its protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights. This article examines South Africa’s contributions to local policy for LGBTIs and to work on LGBTI issues in education policy and education rights progress internationally. It also considers broader South African contributions to the theorisation of gender and sexuality. Data derive from an analysis of 102 interviews with key informants participating in high-level global networking for LGBTI students’ rights, and documentary analysis showing how stakeholders characterise South African contributions to transnational LGBTI education work. Informants identified how such contributions have a strong human rights emphasis, furthering post-colonial resistance to simplistic gender and sexuality classification schema imposed via imperial colonising dynamics. While South African work in this area has also promoted and facilitated research, it has at times been limited by ambivalence from its leadership. The nation’s early adoption of constitutional rights, relationship rights and educational equity provisions as acts of decolonisation contribute valuable African LGBTI work examples to the region. Their success encourages further funding for South-South transnational LGBTI education work.     

Being ‘nice’ or being ‘normal’: girls resisting discourses of ‘coolness’

In this paper we consider discourses of friendship and belonging mobilised by girls who are not part of the dominant ‘cool’ group in one English primary school. We explore how, by investing in alternative and, at times, resistant, discourses of ‘being nice’ and ‘being normal’ these ‘non-cool’ girls were able to avoid some of the struggles for dominance and related bullying and exclusion found by us and other researchers to be a feature of ‘cool girls’ groupings. We argue that there are multiple dynamics in girls' lives in which being ‘cool’ is only sometimes a dominant concern. There are some children for whom explicitly positioning themselves outside of the ‘cool’ group is both resistant and protective, providing a counter-discourse to the dominance of ‘coolness’. In this paper, which is based on observational and interview data in one school in the south of England, we focus on two main groupings of intermediate and lower status girls, as well as on one ‘wannabe’ ‘cool girl’. While belonging to a lower status group can bring disadvantages for the girls we studied, there were also benefits.     

论19世纪英国女性作家的女性意识——以夏洛蒂·勃朗特的《简爱》为例

以女性社会性别角色为切入点,运用权力话语理论,解读19世纪英国小说《简.爱》,探讨了女性作家在男权社会文化下的创作是不断挣脱男性权力话语的束缚,反抗男性话语霸权和推崇女性独立意识的矛盾过程。     

劳动力市场的性别分层研究

本文依据制度经济学和社会分层的相关理论,将男性劳动力和女性劳动力放在国家再分配经济体制和市场经济体制的制度框架中,通过微观分配领域的就业制度以及宏观分配领域的社会保障制度的分析,指出社会转型期的劳动力市场中,男性劳动力与女性劳动力不是根本对立的群体划分,而是体制内男劳动力、体制内女劳动力、体制外男劳动力和体制外女劳动力四个逐级递减的性别交错层次。     

In a practical mood: Studying for a profession in the changing kibbutz

The influence of recent social and economicchanges in the Israeli kibbutz on the prolongedstage of youth was examined with respect tohigher education. The young people on thekibbutz of the late 1990s appear lessmoratorial and more instrumental about theirfuture and commence higher education earlierthan in previous age cohorts. When starting tostudy, their educational and professionalprospects are crystalized as those of thenon-kibbutz student. Most of them opt foracademic, degree-granting studies, but a higherpercentage than among the general populationprefer vocation-oriented colleges to theresearch oriented universities. In choosingfields of study, they prefer more appliedstudies like engineering, social services andpractical arts and are less likely to choosesciences and the humanities. De-communalizationand economic instability of the kibbutz,inadequate preparation in kibbutz high schoolsfor the competitive admission to theuniversities, exposure to a restricted range ofoccupations during adolescence, and lack of acultural tradition supportive of elitiststudies may explain this practical mood, moresalient among kibbutz women.     

Students’ reception of peer assessment of group-work contributions: problematics in terms of race and gender emerging from a South African case study

Participatory assessment is increasingly employed in higher education worldwide as a formative mechanism to support students’ active learning. But do students in an increasingly relationally diverse environment perceive that peer assessment of individuals’ contributions to group-work tasks enhances their learning? Recognising the impact of students’ conceptions on the quality of their learning, this study considers students’ perspectives of peer assessment of group-work contributions at a South African university. Questionnaires elicited students’ perspectives of and general attitudes towards assessment of and by their peers. A growing measure of discontent with the process of assessing peer contributions to group tasks emerged, including actual and perceived racial and gender stereotyping, and related rejection-sensitivity. These initial findings were checked against the students’ experiences in a report-and-respond process that enabled probing discussions of the interpretations. This paper examines and explores the implications of such identifications and receptions for learning engagement and group-work curriculum development in the context of a rapidly transforming higher education sector.     

基于性别差异的我国高校毕业生就业特征研究

本研究基于北京大学2009年度全国高校毕业生就业抽样调查数据,针对社会科学研究中的高度复杂性、非线性和不确定性特征,运用复杂性科学研究中的神经网络拟合仿真方法,较好地分离出性别差异对我国高校毕业生就业工作特征和流动特征的影响。研究表明:性别因素将会导致10.89%的薪金差距;男性获得就业地户口的机率比女性高出9.27%;从整体上看,男女大学生就业单位性质的差异并不明显。相对上述就业工作特征,毕业生流动特征的性别差异较为显著:男性毕业生比女性具有更强的流动性,除了就业流动以外,上学流动、毕业流动的性别差异度分别是19.5%和23.77%,全流动差异更是达到了40.57%;而男女毕业生就业流动概率的差异度仅有2.77个百分点,其主要是女性的流动惰性所造成的。     

赞比亚高等教育中的性别平等问题研究——以赞比亚大学为例

随着性别平等问题在教育领域受到越来越广泛的重视,赞比亚政府为此颁布了一系列旨在解决性别不平等问题的政策。高等教育机构在政府政策的推动下也纷纷采取了一系列措施鼓励女性入学,如开展新生确认行动,采用降分措施,改善女生在校硬件设施等。通过对赞比亚大学女生就学情况的分析可知,女性接受高等教育的情况得到了一定程度的改善,国家解决性别不平等问题的政策和高校相关措施得到了有效的贯彻和落实。但赞比亚高等教育中尚未实现性别平等,在某些学科领域性别不平等问题仍然较为严重。