Criteria and indicators as negotiated knowledge and the challenge of transfer

This paper aims to understand the effects on which criteria and indicators for (education for) sustainable development [(E)SD] are based in terms of knowledge transfer. Therefore, (E)SD criteria and indicators in general are regarded as negotiated and established knowledge, incorporating expectations. As such, this knowledge can be spread throughout the educational system in order to create a new order brought about by learning. Such a knowledge transfer takes place in different contexts, for instance, while (a) developing criteria and indicators, (b) applying them in organisations, and (c) reporting on criteria and indicators, thereby contributing to the diffusion of concrete social knowledge. The transfer of knowledge incorporated in criteria and indicators is revisited in the light of the concept of ‘loose coupling’ and of different paradigms, and is inspired by neo-institutionalist approaches. Drawing on these concepts, the paper discusses the challenge of transfer and suggests to overcome one-dimensional approaches to (E)SD development.     

This is Huey P. Long talking

Few Americans are familiar with the structure and myriad junctions of the EBU; one of the most important organizations concerned with the broadcasting in the world. Mr. Barber, a doctoral candidate at Northwestern University, is currently in Europe as the guest of the EBU while on a special data‐collecting grant from The Danforth Foundation.     

How education for sustainable development is implemented in Germany: Looking through the lens of educational governance theory

The United Nations (UN) Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) aimed to integrate the principles, values and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning around the world. The authors of this article address the implementation process of ESD in Germany during the UN Decade (2005–2014). By undertaking a meta-analysis of the findings of four related sub-studies they carried out during a three-year project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the authors contribute to the understanding of the process of transferring the concept of ESD within a multi-level education system. They investigated this process at two levels – the federal state (a sub-national entity in Germany) and the communal level. Drawing on educational governance theory, the authors unveil principles, norms, rules and procedures in the coordination of action within constellations of heterogeneous actors contributing to the implementation of ESD in their social entities. The outcome of the meta-analysis describes an emerging governance regime in ESD, taking into consideration the following features impacting the coordination of action being carried out by the actors involved: (1) the understanding of the normative concept of ESD as content of negotiation; (2) the perceived opportunity for actors to gain and increase appreciation within the field of ESD as an incentive for and driver of engagement; and (3) the dynamic quality of the set-up, rules and principles of the coordination of action, which renders these subject to situative changes. In the final part of the paper, the findings are discussed from the perspectives of the theory of transfer and the current empirical basis of ESD policy and governance.     

Two faculty psychologists on the “ends” of speaking: George Campbell and Johann Sulzer

This essay demonstrates that certain factors which were working among British writer to alter thinking about rhetoric seem also to have been at work in the eighteenth century in Germany. These trends are exemplified in the writings of Johann Sulzer as compared to George Campbell.     

An empirical approach to certain concepts of logical proof

To develop a consistent approach to the basic concepts of logical proof in a theory of rhetoric requires a philosophical base of analysis. An empirical approach makes possible a consistent and precise explanation of the hey concepts of logical proof in a manner closely approximating what we vaguely have in mind when we use terms like “fact”; and “proof in common sense ways.     

Perceived confidence as a function of self‐image

The hypothesis that a speaker's perceived confidence is a function of his self‐image was studied in this investigation. Seventeen matched pairs of subjects were picked on the basis of a pretest of the Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker index. The experimental subjects were given indirect suggestion that their audiences viewed them as confident speakers. Posttest differences between treatments was significant at the 5% level of confidence.