提高高等教育教学质量的关键环节

提高高等教育教学质量是摆在我们每一个高校教育工作者面前的紧迫任务。本文结合我国高等教育的实际情况,提出从培养目标、专业设置、课程体系、教学方法、实践教学、师资队伍、科学研究等基本环节,作为提高教育质量,解决教育中出现的问题的根本途径。     

Multicultural Pedagogy Development in Modern Education

Although there is a growing interest in the influence of multicultural issues in education, there is still a lack of theoretically well-grounded comparative analyses of educational systems. Topics such as problems and prospects involved in the development of multicultural pedagogy are broadly discussed, but often suffer from an insufficient number of empirical and comparative studies. The lack of systemic or unified research in the field of multicultural education has reduced multicultural pedagogy within education to the simple implementation of individual training courses. As a result, multicultural pedagogy is generally oriented only toward the needs of a single country, rather than toward a system of multicultural interests that takes into account the interests of multiple countries. As a result, we must develop methods that will enable the realization of true multicultural pedagogy. The leading objective should be, firstly, the consideration of the individual as a subject of culture in a multicultural environment with a goal to determine the significance of the formation of an individual＇s multicultural qualities; secondly, the development of an integrative approach. Comparative studies are taking the lead in addressing this goal and recommending specific steps to incorporate multicultural pedagogy more systematically into an existing education system in every country. This paper addresses these problems by discussing theoretical questions behind the development of the ideological basis of multicultural pedagogy.     

Two Cheers for Interpretivism: Deconstructing the British Political Tradition

This article engages with Bevir and Rhodes' version of interpretivism from a critical realist perspective. It argues that they are misguided to equate path‐dependency with path‐determinancy. Instead, we argue that there are three path‐dependencies, institutional, discursive and political‐economic, which constrain without determining the actions of agents and thus effect political outcomes. The argument is illustrated through a brief consideration of the operation of the British Political Tradition.     

State terrorism research and critical terrorism studies: an assessment†

This article explores the value of scholarship on state terrorism for the critical study of terrorist violences. The article begins by identifying four primary contributions of this scholarship: first, a rethinking of the status and significance of terrorism; second, an unsettling of broader assumptions within International Relations (IR) and terrorism research; third, an ability to locate state violences within pertinent, but potentially camouflaged, contexts; and, fourth, a prioritisation of critique as a responsibility of scholarship. The article’s second section then argues that the purchase of this work could be further extended by greater conceptual engagement with the state itself. In particular, we point to the value of contemporary approaches to the state as a terrain and outcome of social and political struggle, rather than as a singular actor of unitary purpose. Rethinking the state in this way has value, we argue, first, for moving research beyond the identification and typologising of state terrorisms; and, second, for circumventing the perennial problem of identifying intentionality in efforts to designate violences as (state) terrorism.     

Deconstructing invisibility: race and politics of visual culture in Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss race relations and power-building in Brazil. It is well known that the Iberian colonizers developed special ways of imposing their supremacy, dissimulating the skin color standards to provoke some type of beliefs about shade stratification among African descendents, indigenous and mixed-race people. For the first time in South America there are deconstructive projects of that colonial paradigm still alive and strongly embedded in the media landscape. However, new identity politics and attitudes have been emerging amidst this old social cognition. This paper will discuss some speculative thoughts and power-building scenarios on new representations and struggles derived from these lived forms that are emerging in the new racial formations in Latin America. The question is: what will nation-building in the midst of this changing imagery be like? This paper proposes that a civic pedagogy is the only answer to rendering this phenomenon visible.     

Toward a critical peace education for sustainability

This article proposes the need for peace education as a field to embrace critical power analysis of place in efforts toward social and environmental sustainability. Rather than status quo reproduction, a critical peace education for sustainability should both elucidate and transform the power dynamics inherent in structural violence and cultural violence. The inherent rights of people, plants, and ecosystems to live with dignity and to prosper are proposed. Practically speaking, the article offers perspectives from a critical pedagogy of place and an earth connections curriculum unit as vehicles for transformative education.     

A critical discourse analysis of pavement advertisements of herbal medicine and spiritual healing services in Central Johannesburg

Abstract

This article discusses the language in a range of advertisements for herbal medicines and spiritual healing services, as found in fliers distributed on the pavements of the Johannesburg central business district. The socio-cognitive approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) was employed to analyse the language used. The purpose was to identify the ways in which the producers of the advertisements, through careful choice of discourse, attempt to manipulate potential customers. It was established that the producers purported to have solutions to a broad range of problems affecting society. These included sexual, marital, business-related and social problems, for which the healers claimed to have quick and permanent solutions. Stylistic techniques include the use of juxtaposition, rhetorical questions, hyperbole, punctuation marks, indigenous languages, first-person narratives in testimonies, illustrations and the naming of herbs. The conclusion can be drawn that the advertisements demonstrate a perceived power imbalance between their producers and the target audiences. This may lead certain clients to be deceived by the herbalists and spiritual healers, sometimes with disastrous consequences. It is, however, acknowledged that not everyone in South African society believes all the claims made in these advertisements.     

World Championship in Negotiation? The Role of Competitions in Negotiation Pedagogy

The last decade has seen the emergence of several new negotiation competitions around the world. We think the two major drivers of this development are a general trend toward the increasing internationalization of higher education and a recognition of the specific benefits of competitions for negotiation pedagogy. These benefits include: the high level of student commitment generated by participation in a competition, which enhances the quality of negotiation; the opportunity that the competitions give students to experience authentic cultural diversity; and the networking opportunities for students and instructors that the competitions create. This article focuses on the role that negotiation competitions can play in negotiation pedagogy. We first present an overview of the currently most important international negotiation competitions. This is followed by an outline of the specific benefits of negotiation competitions for pedagogy. We then take a closer look at the organization and outcome of negotiation competitions and discuss the opportunities for their development and growth.     

Meeting the enemy: American exceptionalism and international law

Howard Zinn has been classified in a number of ways for his many social contributions. However, despite the breadth of his work, he has never been considered a criminologist. It is likely that this is the result of the inaccurate perceptions many Americans have about crime being a predominantly street‐level social problem. Zinn maintains that the social harms caused by those in positions of political and economic power are in fact crimes against humanity that are far more destructive and violent than the actions our legal system has historically deemed criminal. He also points to the ways our criminal justice system is unjust and ineffective, and has demonstrated how social inequality ensures that the disadvantaged will be further subordinated by the criminal justice system. Zinn’s critical contributions about the most significant sources of social harm, the unjust nature of the American justice system, and the influence of social inequality offer an unorthodox criminological perspective that deserves special consideration. His unconventional criminology calls for increasing social justice by means of political dissent, social resistance, and civil disobedience.     

Teaching restorative justice to education and criminal justice majors

In academia, departments in Education and Sociology/Criminal Justice are in different colleges, but professionals in these fields frequently interact, such as probation officers working in schools and teachers working in prisons. This paper describes a course that addressed a commonality of the two by focusing on Restorative Justice. The content of the course was multi-disciplinary and co-taught by two professors from these different disciplines, and students were from a wide range of majors. Not only did the course content focus on Restorative Justice, this perspective guided how the course was taught. All classes were conducted within a Circle, students participated in the creation of the syllabus, students contracted for grades, and students organized many of the discussions. Emphasis was on critical analysis of Restorative Justice practices and theories. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations were provided as well as reflections by the teachers.