Examining Temporal Associations Between School Connectedness and Early Adolescent Adjustment

This study examined (a) the associations between school connectedness and early adolescent adjustment problems over a 1 year period and (b) the equivalence of these associations across gender. Five hundred middle school students (53.4% female), initially in the 6th and 7th grades, participated in the two-wave study. Results from two-group cross-lagged panel analyses were consistent across boys’ and girls’ data. After controlling for baseline levels of adjustment problems, school connectedness predicted lower levels of early adolescent conduct problems 1 year later. Regarding the opposite direction of associations, and even after baseline levels of school connectedness were taken into account, conduct problems predicted lower levels of subsequent school connectedness. There were no cross-lagged associations between depressive symptoms and school connectedness, although elevated levels of baseline depressive symptoms predicted higher levels of subsequent conduct problems. Findings elaborate previous research by demonstrating that early adolescents actively shape the middle school environment.

Indonesia,the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community,and the contingent profile of regional ‘great-power management’

Why does Indonesia, whose regional leadership would seem to flow so obviously from its material and normative footprint, and whose role as primus inter pares is readily, if sometimes grudgingly, acknowledged by its peers, struggle to translate that position into an unambiguous, consistent, and effective regional presence? While there are many possible answers to this question, this article focuses on societal interpretations, arguing that such a role is exercised not in a vacuum, susceptible to measurement against a set of fixed criteria, but in the context of its respective region's unique and constantly evolving profile. Drawing on the English School's concept of institutions, and focusing on three areas within the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (migration, disaster preparedness, and the environment), the article argues that the paradox of Indonesia's powerful-but-not-powerful position reflects the kind of ‘great-power management’ that is to be expected in the restrictive context of regional international society, and is profoundly influenced by the uneven interplay of institutions embedded at different levels in the regional experience.     

The Blue (White and Red) Orchestra: a soundtrack for the country that never was

The aim of the paper is to go beyond the commonly accepted view of Sarajevo’s Plavi orkestar (The Blue Orchestra) as the 1980s “teen pop-rock sensation” and illuminate the less conspicuous, but nevertheless crucial, political dimension of the band’s music and visual aesthetics. This will be done by discussing several “pieces of the puzzle” essential to understanding the background to and motivations behind Plavi orkestar’s political engagement in the second half of the 1980s: (1) the “Sarajevo factor;” (2) the Sarajevo Pop-rock School and the New Primitives “poetics of the local;” (3) the generational Yugoslavism; (4) the New Partisans “poetics of the patriotic;” and (5) the post-New Partisans “hippie ethos.” The concluding section of the paper will reflect on Plavi orkestar’s resurgence in 1998 and explore the question of the band’s continuing resonance within the post-Yugoslav and post-socialist contexts. An argument underlying the discussion of all of these elements is that Plavi orkestar’s Yugoslavism of the 1980s is best understood as a soundtrack for the country that never was (i.e. a popular-cultural expression of what, from the viewpoint of a particular generational cohort and its location in the “Yugoslav socialist universe,” the community they thought of as their own ought to have been but never really was), and that the current value of this soundtrack lies in offering not only a particular window into the pre-post-socialist past but also in being a symbolic referent for a certain kind of retrospective utopia that gauges the realities of the post-socialist – that is, neo-liberal capitalist – present and, in so doing, figures as a “normative compass” for the life of dignified existence.     

Local Government and Local Governance: 1944–2011

Abstract

Since the establishment of the tri-partite system of state education after the Second World War, the once simple relationships between central government and local government and the individual school have become increasingly complex. This article considers the key governance issues for schools and colleges in England and how they have been affected by the redistribution of power between central government and local government. The principal foci are the main legislative changes and the impact they have had on the respective powers and responsibilities of central government, local government and schools and colleges. The radical developments since the formation of the coalition government in May 2010 have accelerated the shift of power to central government from local government and by the end of the first term of the coalition the local authority will have little more than a vestigial role in the provision of secondary education and a diminishing role in primary and special education. As academy status becomes the norm (as it already is for secondary schools in some authorities) central government will be dealing directly with autonomous schools and academy chains. With more schools directly employing staff and with funding levels set nationally, the pattern and nature of public education will have been irrevocably changed.     

去学科化——党校学报发展的一种思路

在出版体制改革深人的大背景下，党校学报的发展面临着严峻的形势，迫切需要调整发展思路。当前，一个可行的思路就是在栏目设置上以问题化代替学科化，以此作为党校学报特色化发展的方向。     

浅析未成年人犯罪

我国的未成年人犯罪已成为社会各界所普遍关注的问题之一。本文概括出未成年人犯罪的基本状况和心理行为的特点,着重探讨了未成年人犯罪的主客观原因,从社会、学校和家庭三方面进行了系统分析,重点分析了社会因素中的网络因素及家庭教育因素。通过预测分析未成年人犯罪的发展趋势,有针对性地提出了预防未成年人犯罪的基本对策。     

菲华商联总会“捐建农村校舍运动”述评——社会资本角度的诠释

战后初期,华菲冲突剧烈,为改善华菲关系,华社积极为主流社会提供各种公益性服务,其中,商总发起与承担的"捐建农村校舍运动"成效最为卓著.经过40多年的努力,这一工作已取得了很大成就,在华社及主流社会都获得了很高的声誉,为华社创造了丰富的社会资本,对华菲融合起到了积极的促进作用.     

西方大众文化理论的反拨与突破——批判理论的批判与理论多元的开放

大众文化的崛起与文化产业的兴盛带来了许多理论话题与现实问题.西方大众文化理论的先后引进,刺激了中国大众文化批评的开展,也能解决一部分中国的大众文化现实问题.但要警惕和防止以"他者"的文化眼光来遮蔽中国本土的问题情境,或把西方社会的文化问题硬性移植到中国而变成"假想敌",所以,必须结合中国实际将西方文化理论"再语境化",结合中国当前的"后革命"特色坚持适时而积极的文化批评.     

海派文学略论

海派作家大多能接受、认同都市,关心、介入都市,进而认识、批评都市。依赖新锐的商品经济的背景,以文学的方式表示对城市的认同,海派文学的这一特征代表了一种文化上的现代性趋向。京派作家也有"海派"的纪录,中国新文学史上京海两派,其实同源而异流。     

关于加快党校后勤改革的思考

目前,党校后勤工作主要存在的问题：完全靠行政命令直接管理的僵硬体制;人事制度僵化、分配方 式单一;机构设置不合理。要解决这些问题必须深化后勤改革,按照“小机构、大服务、社会化”的模式,逐 步实现后勤服务社会化、后勤管理科学化、后勤保障与服务现代化的目标。