Complexity of change in ethnic tolerance following use of a Complex Instruction unit on the Holocaust in Latvia

Implementation of the first Complex Instruction (CI) based unit developed especially for Latvia focused on the Holocaust. It has provided an opportunity to examine issues of ethnic tolerance among Latvian high school students and teachers. Two independent studies were conducted by the first author to measure the impact of the unit. The first study compared the level of ethnic intolerance among students before and after participation in the CI-based unit activities. Results showed reduced prejudice among this group, but also a decrease within the control group. Analysis of these results pointed to the influence of the history teacher. This teacher taught both groups of students. During interviews, teachers indicated that they had changed as a result of participation in CI seminars and through the use of the CI unit. The teachers stated that they felt an increase in self-esteem, empathy and ethnic tolerance. The aim of the second study was to measure attitude change among a larger group of teachers before and after participation in CI training seminars. Results showed an increase in civic responsibility attitudes. Further analysis indicates that the degree of change is influenced by the amount of exposure to and experience with the new teaching methods.     

Learning from genocide? A study in the failure of Holocaust education

The importance of learning lessons from the Holocaust and from the mass slaughter in Rwanda was recognised in the theme underpinning Britain's Holocaust Memorial Day in 2004. This article is principally concerned with the lessons learnt from the Holocaust by a culturally diverse group of students aged 14 to 16. They all attended schools in an outer London borough and were interviewed after taking part in a local event held to mark the 2004 commemoration. The article concludes with a discussion of the main findings of the investigation.     

Bilingual Education: The case of Latvia from a comparative perspective

This introduction briefly describes the historical, demographic, linguistic and educational background of Latvia. It discusses the concepts of identity and integration in the Latvian context, and also the educational and political motivations that exist in this society regarding bilingual education. Conclusions and recommendations are derived from this analysis, as well as from the contributions made by the various authors who participated in this special issue of Intercultural Education.     

Learning from weaknesses in teaching about culture: the case study of a Japanese school abroad

This paper examines education for cultural awareness in a Japanese school abroad from the perspective of the teachers. An attempt is made to identify the difficulties which might be encountered by teachers when teaching about the host society and its culture. The paper also examines how this particular school modified its existing approach to better address the dynamic and complex nature of intercultural understanding and exchange.     

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: Critical Analysis of a Film Depiction of the Holocaust

Film depictions of the Holocaust have become a ubiquitous part of social studies education, as many states have mandated Holocaust or genocide curricula in recent years; however, the quality of such curricula varies greatly, as does the level of teacher preparation for Holocaust-based instruction. Given the increase in mandates and the lack of more rigorous content knowledge expertise, many teachers turn to films, such as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, to represent, for students, the horrors of the Holocaust. The film, however, is deeply problematic in several ways—historical inaccuracy, questions of agency and gender, and an overarching message that represents a potentially dangerous interpretation of responsibility for the greatest crime in human history. This article explores the failings of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and proposes strategies that teachers may use to mitigate the film’s shortcoming and to provide for a valuable learning experience for students.     

Back for business: The link between foreign experience and entrepreneurship in Latvia

Research shows that return migrants have a higher propensity to set up an entrepreneurial activity or be self-employed compared to non-migrants. We take a multidisciplinary approach and empirically study the case of Latvia as a migration donor country to learn how re-migrants participate in entrepreneurship back at home. We are interested if return migrants can be seen as a vehicle for entrepreneurship development and if it is worth looking at them as agents of business growth and innovation. Not only we measure the fact of being entrepreneurial but also explore sources that contribute to the higher propensity, attitudes to creating own business venture, level of ambitions and population sentiment towards entrepreneurs. Based on a nationally representative adult population survey of 8000 observations, we find that early-stage entrepreneurial activity, established business ownership as well as intrapreneurship for return migrants exceed that of the non-migrant population. The self-perceived capabilities to start business is higher for those who have lived abroad, and fear of failure is lower. Return migrants also have better business networks and higher growth and export ambitions. Latvian return migrant entrepreneurship is not necessity driven but rather motivated by opportunities. Migration experience, length of stay aboard and capital accumulated abroad are found to be significant predictors of probability to become entrepreneur when controlled for socioeconomic and personal factors.     

Holding on to history and each other: The unexpected LGBTQ legacy of a Czech Holocaust survivor and a Torah scroll from her hometown

Abstract

A Czech Holocaust survivor rescued by a Kindertransport in 1939; a long-lost Torah scroll, rediscovered in 1964, from a Jewish community wiped out in World War II; a German American lesbian who converted to Judaism in 2001. Three disparate stories, unfolding decades apart, converge in one memorable encounter, a Kristallnacht commemoration in Los Angeles organized by Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC), the world’s first LGBTQ synagogue, which leads to an enduring friendship and fresh insight into contemporary queer Jewish life. In this personal essay, longtime BCC member Sylvia Sukop interweaves history and autobiography to explore the beauty and power of ritual, the resonance of the “Choose life” passage in Deuteronomy that her congregation reads from its rescued Czech scroll every Yom Kippur, and the many forms that good deeds and survival can take. Progressive faith communities, the author suggests, and the traditions in which they are rooted make space to witness and affirm the fullness of one another’s humanity, bridging differences and fostering unexpected kinship in a brutally divisive world.     

Institutional child protection: issues in program development and implementation

As part of a comprehensive inventory of state institutional child protection programs, state protective services offices were surveyed by telephone, self-administered questionnaire, and site interviews regarding the policies, procedures, and protocols of each for handling complaints of abuse and neglect in children's institutions.     

Effects of Grammar Instruction and Fluency Training on the Learning of the and a by Native Speakers of Japanese

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - In a computer-assisted sentence completion task, the effects of grammar instruction and fluency training on learning the use of the definite and indefinite...     

Gesture in Instruction: Evidence from Live and Video Lessons

Previous studies have shown that teachers’ gestures are beneficial for student learning. In this research, we investigate whether teachers’ gestures have comparable effects in face-to-face live instruction and video-based instruction. We provided sixty-three 7–10 year old students with instruction about mathematical equivalence problems (e.g., 3 + 4 + 5 = __ + 5). Students were assigned to one of four experimental conditions in a 2 × 2 factorial design that varied (1) instruction medium (video vs. live), and (2) instruction modality (speech vs. speech + gesture). There was no main effect of medium: The same amount of learning occurred whether instruction was done live or on video. There was a main effect of modality: Speech instruction accompanied by gesture resulted in significantly more learning and transfer than instruction conveyed through speech only. Gesture’s effect on instruction was stronger for video instruction than live instruction. These findings suggest that there may be a limit to gesture’s role in communication that results in student learning.     

Beyond the nature/society divide: Learning to think about a mountain

Sociological efforts to understand environment-society relationships fall primarily into four conceptual categories. The first three, involving analytical separation, analytical primacy, and balanced dualism, all draw distinctions between biophysical and social aspects of human experience, with subsequent analyses being based on thesea priori distinctions. The fourth or constructivist approach questions this naturalized dichotomy, calling attention instead to mutual contingency or conjoint constitution: What we take to be physical facts are likely to be strongly shaped by social construction processes, and at the same time, what we take to be strictly social will often have been shaped in part by taken-for-granted realities of the physical world. Technology offers important opportunities for tracing these interconnections, being an embodiment of both the physical and the social. The point is illustrated with a long-term historical analysis of a specific physiographic feature—a mountain—that has undergone little overtphysical change over the centuries, but has undergone repeated changes in its social meanings and uses. Few of the changes would have been possible in the absence of the mountain's physiographic characteristics; similarly, few would have occurred in the absence of changing sociocultural definitions and possibilities. The challenge for sociology is not just to recognize the importance of both the physical and the social factors, and certainly not to argue over the relative importance of the two, but to recognize the extent to which what we take to be physical and social factors can be conjointly constituted.The paper's subtitle is intended as a tribute to Aldo Leopold and to one of his most famous essays (1949).