Reflections on the Use of DWR in Intercultural Collaboration

This article is a reflection on a Developmental Work Research project focused on the introduction of information and communication technology in schools in Africa. The longstanding project incited us to examine developmental research partnership as a joint mediated activity that takes place in a developing country. The data include several workshops, Change Laboratories (CLs) in three schools, and ethnography from these schools. By tracing the bottom-up approach of CLs, and to capture the complexity of the effects of related activities represented in the partnership, we were led to focus on dialogue where the dialectic of local and global forces evolve.     

Reflections on the Trend of Intercultural Communication in the Postmodern Context

Nowadays deconstruction has gradually changed people's way of thinking and people have come to establish the multifaceted thought patterns from multiple perspectives to ponder intercultural communication. Intercultural communication is neither static nor monolithic but fluid and constantly evolving. This paper starts with the microdefinition as well as an emic, culture-specific approach to the research. Then it presents the manifestations of the new trend. This essay adopts the framework of cultural pattern of Hall's high-context and low-context cultures. At last, the author gives some suggestions about how to shatter preconceptions and ethnocentrism to achieve effective communication in intercultural settings.     

Making the Net Work for Intercultural Education

This article examines the use of the Internet in education, and how its use can revolutionise the way children learn, the way they communicate their ideas and the role of the teacher in the classroom. The Internet has some of the greatest potential in the field of education and particularly intercultural education—due to the nature of the medium, cultural, national, gender, racial and national barriers between students can be reduced and communication with any part of the world is immediate, frequent and informal.

There are many challenges for educators using this new medium in the classroom—there is a great lack of training in IT, the schools themselves need to be connected and there must be a fundamental change in the philosophy of teaching. In addition, there is a grave need for on‐line educational content. This article examines three educational websites for young people and presents an example of a group exercise for student publishing.     

Intercultural Education in Initial and Field Training

In Italy teachers for nursery and primary schools are trained in many ways. Although in this complex system numerous initiatives regarding the implementation of intercultural education have been taken by the Ministry of Education, practice is still inconsistent and a great deal is left to the initiative of individual teachers, principals and schools. The Teachers Centre of Democratic Initiative (CIDI) realised two projects in the field of language education. The basic idea was to ascertain to what extent the language used in school may pose an obstacle for children whose mother tongue is not the school language. The follow‐up was a field training course on intercultural issues. The objectives were to identify didactic instruments and procedures designed to transform the way in which a foreign child would be viewed from being a “problem” to being appreciated and valued. The paper closes with a list of elements that may be viewed as cornerstones of training activity in an intercultural framework.     

Some Reflections of an Existential Approach to Education in Social Work

To look at social work education implies that we look first at the young people to whom we offer it and in doing so I feel we must ask—who are they; what are the values motivating them and what are some of the issues that have earned for them the name “new generation”? Unless we have some understanding of these motivating factors, I don't think we are in any position to presume to educate them.     

Holocaust Education in the Czech Republic, 1989-2002

The issue of the Holocaust in Czech education has undergone profound changes since 1989. While the topic was still widely ignored in Czech textbooks and school instruction during the early 1990s, it has slowly become--in the last few years--a standard part of history lessons and newer textbooks. Teacher training courses, as well as other activities, have served to promote and support Holocaust education. The paper also illuminates the difficulties that Czech historians and educators encounter when they try to incorporate the topic of the Holocaust into Czech history lessons, especially when they wish to address Czech anti-Semitism and racism. Further improvement of Holocaust education in the Czech Republic will depend on reforming Czech teaching and instruction in such a way that more modern teaching methods are adopted. Od roku 1989 prosˇ lo vzde é l´v´ní é o holocaustu v ? eskeé republice z´sadní émi zme é nami. Zatí émco na po? ´tku 90. let bylo toto teéma v ? eskyéch u? ebnicí éch a ve vyéuce v podstate é ignorov´no, v poslední éch ne é kolika letech se stalo standardní é sou? ´stí é u? ební ého procesu. Vzde é l´v´ní é o holocaustu podporují é ru? zneé projekty, v? etne é sˇ kolení é u? itelu? . Tento ? l´nek se ale z´roven é pokousˇí é uk´zat, na jakeé obtí éz é e nar´z é ejí é ? esˇ tí é historici a pedagogoveé, kdyz é se snaz éí é za? lenit teéma holocaustu do kontextu ? eskyéch de é jin a pr é edevsˇí ém kdyz é se mají é zabyévat citlivyémi teématy ? eskeého anti-Semitismu a rasismu. Z´roven é se v ? l´nku poukazuje na to, z é e dalsˇí é zlepsˇ ov´ní é vyéuky o holocaustu uézce souvisí é s reformou ? eskeého sˇ kolství é ve prospe é ch moderní éch vyéukovyéch metod.     

Some Reflections on the Crisis in Sociology*

Claims that sociology must be divided into closed ideological and paradigmatic camps are critically examined. Convergences among the major analytical approaches are considered and possible explanations explored.     

Some Epistemic and Methodological Challenges within an Intercultural Experience

My experience with the Intercultural Indigenous System of Learning and Studies (SIIDAE) in Chiapas gave rise to a dialogue on two different levels: intercultural and interdisciplinary. I understand dialogue here as a very complex model of translation that, at the same time, challenges the unilateral conception of translation. This article reports the decolonial challenges raised by SIIDAE during our dialogue and responds to these challenges by proposing an intercultural reflection on anthropological practice and on its geohistorical context, and by showing the need of an intercultural transformation of society and of anthropology itself.     

Theory and Formalization: Some Reflections on Experience

I describe in this paper some of my efforts in developing formal theories of social processes. These include work on models of occupational mobility, on models to describe the emergence of expectations out of performance evaluations, and on the graph theory formulation of the Status Characteristics theory. Not all models have been equally significant in developing theory. However, the graph theory formulation has played a central role in the growth of the Expectation States program. It has been involved in the generalization of theories, the integration of theories, and in the construction of highly sensitive tests of theories that would be impossible without the inferential capacities of formalization.     

Implementation of Intercultural Education Programmes based on Cooperative Learning

An intercultural programme must not overlook the elimination of racist attitudes, but should especially promote multicultural and democratic values.

In Spain, one of the most rejected groups is Gypsy people and their schooling is a problematic issue. We believe that intercultural attitude training programmes can be a practical pedagogical answer for promoting acceptance and respect for diversity.

To do this, we have chosen educational strategies of Cooperation in the Classroom, Active Participation and Persuasive Communication. All of them involve a search for new perspectives, the use of sociocognitive conflict as a driving impulse for learning, and an atmosphere of equality, respect and participation in the classroom.

We present in this paper one of the school programmes we have implemented in Valencia. This programme has been designed to be integrated within the ordinary school curriculum and not regarded as an added out‐of‐school activity. In order to implement it, we organised a teacher‐training course to analyse the intercultural model, to show the need for attitude training in education and to offer pedagogical guidance for the implementation of this type of intercultural programme.

The results of the programme show the improvement in pupils ‘ attitudes towards Gypsy people and cultural diversity in general.     

Teaching the Holocaust in America's Schools: Some considerations for teachers 1

This paper examines a number of variables that teachers must consider before beginning a study of the Holocaust with their students. Since Holocaust education should look very different depending upon the grade level of the students, it discusses how these variables come into play for different grades, as well as theoretical considerations for teaching the Holocaust in the classroom. It traces the history of Holocaust education in America's schools, discusses major approaches to presenting the topic, and explores the connection between Holocaust education and the teaching of morality.     

Concepts of Europe in Intercultural Teacher Education and Training

At a time when teacher education is under close scrutiny across Europe, this article attempt to examine some of the intercultural elements within this key area of education. A principle focus is the conceptualisation of terms such as Europe and European where the argument is made that the use of such terms is deeply ideological and deserves close scrutiny. Following a brief examination of the crucial position of migration in Europe and the social policies consequent upon it, the article end with an account of practice in an English teacher training institution that attempts to utilise some of the conceptual frameworks outlined in this article.     

理解法团主义——兼论其在中国国家与社会关系研究中的适用性

近年来,法团主义被越来越多地用于对中国的国家与社会关系进行理论概括或预测。本文认为,这种概括或预测是不恰当的,究其原因在于,多数使用者在对法团主义的理解上缺乏总体性,从而导致判断上的偏差。本文首先尝试对法团主义进行一种总体性考察,即依次考察其问题指向、观念基础、制度特征和社会基础,在此基础上指出,法团主义作为一种模式并不适合用来对中国的国家与社会关系进行理论概括或预测,尽管二者在观念及制度上具有高度相似性,但后者缺乏前者所必需的社会组织基础。     

Intercultural Education and Teacher Education in the United Kingdom: a case of reversible decline

This paper traces the development of intercultural education in initial and in‐service teacher education in the United Kingdom. It is argued that intercultural education in the UK has been continually locked into various political agendas and that its place in teacher education has suffered almost terminal damage as a result. It was stifled as part of the UK Conservative government's anti‐liberal ideology and its attempts to restrict analysis of social issues. The effect continues under the new Labour government because of its commitment to the rhetoric of quality and standards in the basic skills. In order to understand the nature of intercultural education in teacher education in the UK, it is necessary to understand something of the background to developments in intercultural education in schools in general, and the history of developments in teacher education. The first part of the paper will examine the development of approaches in schools and the in‐service training of teachers: the second will discuss the parallel developments in initial teacher education.     

Reflections on Competence and Ideology in Social Work Education

The American system of social services has been structured to fit the needs of a system of late industrial state welfare capitalism Much confusion about the goals of social work education springs from a lack of understanding about the nature of our social system and the changes that have resulted from the emergence of technology as a major social institution This paper explores the changes occurring in our society and discusses how a more harmonious balance might be struck in our educational program for social work by taking into account the impact of technology and its possibilities for social service     

Intercultural Education in Two Teacher-training Courses in the North of the Netherlands

This paper examines the implementation of intercultural education in two teacher-training courses in the north of the Netherlands. The place of intercultural education in the formal curriculum was examined as well as the assessment by the students and teachers of its implementation. It was found that intercultural education has found its place in teacher-training programmes, but only in a marginal way. Students as well as teachers find that the intercultural content of the programmes deserves further development. It also seems that intercultural education does not have a high priority, is offered in a too non-committal way and is formulated in too abstract terms. The institutes do not have well-developed visions pertaining to intercultural education. Teacher-training programmes should be aware of the responsibility they have in better preparing prospective teachers for the reality of multicultural classrooms and a multicultural society. There are, however, indications that the institutes are working on the intercultural dimension of their mission.