Secular and Koranic literacies in South Asia: From colonisation to contemporary practice

This paper explores the distinction between ‘secular’ and ‘Koranic’ schooling and literacy in South Asia. It begins by tracing an archaeology of the distinction between secular ‘literacy’ and religious ‘illiteracy’. It locates the emergence of the distinction in the colonial census of the 19th century, in the development of ‘English’ education, and the responses within madrasa schools. The second part locates these debates and their on-going importance within a contemporary ethnographic setting. It examines the relevance of the distinction in relation to women's literacy practices. The paper argues that both secular and religious literacy practices are significant for women's status and well-being, and illustrates the centrality of religious reading and learning in Bangladesh. The paper challenges the conventional distinction between religious and secular schooling and literacy, noting their complementary and overlapping nature.     

Gender,sexuality and schooling: Everyday life in junior secondary schools in Botswana and Ghana

In this paper, the focus is upon daily school practices in Junior Secondary Schools in Ghana and Botswana. The data from 12 ethnographic case studies have been used to explore how the institution of schooling is gendered. The analysis focuses predominantly on the informal practices of the hidden curriculum through a theoretical perspective that highlights these institutional processes as significant to the production of gender/sexual identities. Remarkable similarities in the pervasive and inequitable gender/sexual practices within schools across country contexts are discussed in three key areas: school management and duties, gender space and gender violence. These discussions of everyday school life illustrate the ways in which both normative institutional practices and human agency produce and regulate gender/sexual identities. This micro-level analysis provides important substantive and methodological insights into what goes on inside schools and into the contexts and experiences of schooling that are significant to policy discourses of gender, education and development.     

Modelling of factors influencing gender difference in mathematics achievement using TIMSS 2011 data for Singaporean eighth grade students

Numerous studies have attributed gender difference in mathematics achievement to various sociocultural influences. Singapore is a country of higher gender equality as represented in the Global Gender Gap Index and Singaporean girls perform as well or higher than boys in international mathematics assessments. This study develops a conceptual model to examine the relationship and effects of parental involvement in education, teacher efficacy, and students’ attitudes towards mathematics on mathematics achievement for Singaporean eighth grade students using Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 data. The study finds that there is no significant gender difference in parental involvement in education and teacher efficacy and there is no gender difference in the attitude of like learning mathematics among Singaporean eighth grade students. The attitude of confidence in mathematics has positive and significant effect on mathematics achievement and the effect is greater for girls than boys. Parental involvement in education and teacher efficacy were found to have greater effect on girls’ confidence in mathematics than on boys’. As such, increasing involvement in mathematics education and providing positive reinforcement to raise girls’ self-confidence in mathematics by parents and teachers should be an integral part of any initiative to reduce gender gap in mathematics achievement.     

思维方式差异在英汉谚语中的体现

谚语是语言的精华。由于中英思维方式的差异，英汉谚语的语言结构形式及文化取向也有所不同。通过英汉谚语的语言结构形式及文化取向不同之处的比较，人们能更好地理解中英思维方式的差异。     

Battle on the Gender Homefront: Depictions of the American Civil War in Contemporary Young-Adult Literature

The American Civil War has been a popular topic for young-adult writers for years, with new books now being written from young women’s perspectives. In this paper, I will examine the gender ideologies that infiltrate contemporary Civil War books for young adults. I will examine four recent young-adult Civil-War novels: G. Clifton Wisler’s Mr. Lincoln’s Drummer (1995); Maureen Stack Sappéy’s Letters from Vinnie (1999); Jim Murphy’s The Journal of James Edmond Pease: A Civil War Union Soldier (1998); and Karen Hesse’s A Light in the Storm: The Civil War Diary of Amelia Martin (1999). I will argue that in these books young women are often shown to be disengaged and apolitical, while their male counterparts use language in powerful and political ways, even despite the historical record.

窥探欲望互联网:中国网络空间的色情文化变迁史

本文通过对色情网络公共话语实践的分析,检视了中国网络色情文化的变迁史,描摹了作为当代社会意识形态重要症候的色情文化,如何参与到中国政治、经济、文化的社会整体性变迁之中。“色情”在互联网的话语建构中,是信息自由流动、绝对自由市场的象征,是分享文化、兄弟情谊的载体,是被征用成为政治反对的话语工具、互联网新经济发展的欲望引擎,也是形塑支配性男性气质的文化力量。以高知青年男性为代表的新中间阶层既在掌握数字技术的过程中培育了群体意识与媒介表达能力,成为了网络集体行动的重要力量;也沉浸在“信息自由流动”的赛博迷思之中,试图接管文化生产与阐释权的同时摒弃了性别平等的文化政治安排。当被新经济所征用的软色情消费文化蔓延之时、“性别战争”泛起之刻、“裸贷”激发剧烈争议之际,中国社会亟需新的文化政治以促成新的社会共识。     

Physical education in Tunisia: teachers' practical epistemology,students' positioning and gender issues

This paper explores gendered student learning in physical education (PE) viewed as a situated emerging process involving a triadic relationship between teacher, student(s) and forms of knowledge that are socioculturally bounded. It concerns gymnastic teaching and learning in Tunisia. It was conducted against the background of the Joint Action Studies in Didactics (JASD). Three Tunisian PE teachers having different expertise and experience and 12 male and female students with contrasted skill levels were observed within a gymnastics unit. Based on the video record of the lessons and on teachers' interviews, the findings stress the personal, institutional and cultural dimensions that shape the observed PE practices with special attention to the gendered content taught and learned. The use of the JASD framework highlights the intertwined processes during classroom interactions that influence the co-construction of gendered learning. It makes visible the interplay between the teacher's practical epistemology and the students' gender positioning and its consequence on inequalities in terms of students' learning and the maintenance of gender order in the gym.     

Educational evaluation schemes and gender gaps in student achievement

This paper investigates whether gender gaps in student achievement are related to evaluation schemes. We exploit different evaluations at the end of compulsory education in Norway in a difference-in-differences framework. Compared to the results at anonymously evaluated central exit exams, girls get significantly higher grades than boys when the same skills are assessed by their teacher. This gender grading gap in favor of the girls is found in both languages and mathematics. We find no evidence that the competitiveness of the environment can explain why boys do relatively better on the exam. We find some evidence that the gender grading gap is related to teacher characteristics, which indicates that the teacher–student interaction during coursework favors girls in the teacher grading.     

Validation of the Korean version Gender Role Conflict Scale for Adolescents

The objective of this study was to examine the usefulness of the Korean version of the Gender Role Conflict Scale for Adolescents (GRCS-A; Blazina et al. 2005) in Korea. Korean high school students (N = 374) completed the K-GRCS-A. Results of confirmatory factor analysis supported the original 4-factor structures. Reliability was acceptable to satisfactory limits. Further evidence of construct validity was found in modest correlations with psychological well-being variables. Taken together, this study sustained the utility of the K-GRCS-A.