Just another brick in the wall? The relationship between classroom-based political education and the political interest of young adults in Switzerland

This article asks whether political education at upper secondary school – i.e. shortly before or at the age when young people receive the right to vote – affects individual political interest as well as differences in political interest between social groups. Empirically, we use a novel data set combining individual student data with information on classroom-based political education as well as teacher characteristics. We do not find support for a more or less automatic and positive effect of classroom-based political education on young people’s political interest. Whereas we analyzed three dimensions of political education (knowledge, skills, arousing interest in politics), the skills dimension was the only one that exhibited a consistent positive (and mostly significant) relationship with young peoples’ political interest. Moreover, classroom-based political education seems not to compensate for a lack of political socialization at home but rather tends to affect students with politically interested parents most strongly.     

My life is a mess: self-deprecating relatability and collective identities in the memification of student issues

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we investigate memes about student issues. We consider the memes as expressions of a new networked student public that contain discourses that may fall outside the mainstream discourse on higher education. The paper is based on content analysis of 179 posts in the public Facebook Group ‘Student Problem Memes’, combined with a nine-month media watch and a discussion workshop with 15 students. Through self-deprecating humour, students create an inverse attention economy of competitive one-downmanship, where the goal is to display humorous failure instead of perfect appearance. Our analysis shows that students use humour to express, share, and commiserate over daily struggles, but also that the problems related to work/study balance and mental health, are experienced as a persistent feature of student living. We also analyse limitations of meme-based publics, emphasizing processes of inclusion and exclusion through specific vernaculars of visual and discursive humour where issues related to gender, race, orientation, class, and ability are sidelined in favour of relatable humour.     

大学生思想政治教育内容构建创新的思路

当前大学生思想政治教育内容的构建方面存在着一些非常明显的不足。创新大学生思想政治教育内容应该坚持导向性和多样性的相互结合,科学性与人文性的相互匹配,继承性同时代性的相互促进,理论性同实践性的相互联系,先进性同广泛性的相互统一,系统性与层次性的相互协调。     

以职业性为导向的全日制专业学位研究生培养模式研究

全日制专业学位研究生培养是对学术学位研究生培养的一种互补,更是职业性导向的强烈需求。当前,师资队伍、课程体系、培养目标、教学方法、教学内容等方面存在突出问题,阻碍了专业学位教育的健康发展。全日制专业学位研究生的培养,要以职业性为导向,明确专业学位教育定位,打造高质量的师资、创新教学内容与教学手段,构建模块化教学体系,并进行职业资格认证,以此保障专业学位研究生的质量与良性发展。     

新媒体视阈下高校国防教育创新研究——基于某高校的思考

改革创新是发展的源泉,新的时代条件下,高校国防教育要贯彻落实“深化国防教育改革”的战略部署,就应该加大国防教育工作创新的力度,适应新媒体环境带来的巨大变化,努力探索新媒体的特点,发挥新媒体的作用,不断推进高校国防教育工作,提高针对性和实效性,为深化国防和军队改革贡献力量。     

基于个性化人才培养的思想政治教育路径研究

按照当前高校人才培养的新要求,将大学生思想政治教育工作的新思想、新理念、新方法和个性化人才培养工作的实施过程有机结合,准确把握大学生思想政治教育和个性化人才培养的理论联系,积极探索二者之间相互促进、协调发展的有效实施路径,进一步落实“以人为本、个性发展”的工作理念,科学、有效地完成当前大学生思想政治教育工作。     

Maternal Education and Investments in Children's Health

Maternal education differences in children's academic skills have been strongly linked to parental investment behaviors. This study extended this line of research to investigate whether these same maternal education patterns in parenting are observed among a set of parenting behaviors that are linked to young children's health. Drawing on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (n = 5,000) and longitudinal models incorporating random effects, the authors found that higher levels of maternal education were associated with more advantageous health investment behaviors at each phase of early development (9 months, 2 years, 4 years, 5 years). Moreover, these disparities were typically largest at the developmental stage when it was potentially most sensitive for children's long‐term health and development. These findings provide further evidence of a developmental gradient associated with mothers' education and new insight into the salience of mothers' education for the short‐ and long‐term health and well‐being of their children.     

Two Teacher Educators Go to the Source: Teaching an Interdisciplinary Class in an Urban Charter High School

The authors of this article are two teacher educators who worked collaboratively to co-teach an interdisciplinary English and US history class to eleventh-grade students in an urban high school. They wanted to ensure the methods they were teaching preservice teachers were current and effective. The article discusses the foundational beliefs that influenced their teaching, the interdisciplinary curriculum they taught, some of the challenges they encountered, and a brief snapshot of the students' views of the curriculum. The authors discuss that putting their beliefs into practice outweighed the challenges they encountered—a culturally relevant, authentic, interdisciplinary curriculum can be effective in an urban classroom. The experience also assisted them in teaching their English and social studies methods classes.     

Does Higher Education Cause Religious Decline?: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Within‐ and Between‐Person Effects of Higher Education on Religiosity

Although there is ample empirical evidence of the associations between higher education and various aspects of religiosity, the causal mechanisms producing these associations remain unclear. I use four waves of longitudinal data, with respondents ranging in age from 13 to 29, to model the within‐ and between‐person effects of higher education on several measures of religiosity. The results show that earning a bachelor's degree is associated with within‐person declines in some but not all measured aspects of religiosity, which partially supports the argument that higher education causes religious decline. The results also suggest that those predisposed to attending religious services self‐select into higher education, that relatively religious youth in general self‐select into nonelite colleges, and that those with low levels of religious belief self‐select into elite universities. These findings further understanding of the associations between social class and religion, particularly the causal effects of higher education.     

Invisible students: experiences of lesbian and gay students in social work education in Greece

This article explores through semi-structured interviews the experiences of four lesbian and two gay students from the Social Work Department in the Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Greece. The complete absence of openly out lesbian or gay students or faculty members in the Department was considered reflective of the particular social and cultural context of Greece. Participants reported that lesbian and gay issues were marginalised in the curriculum and that heteronormativity often prevailed in the classroom. Consequently, same-sex sexuality was generally invisible and, when discussed, certain faculty members and peers often appeared to be uncomfortable. Within this context, participants stressed the importance of the professors’ role regarding the climate and content in the classroom. None of the participants considered that their sexual orientation had affected negatively their academic attainment; the lesbian or gay identities sometimes had a positive effect on participants’ academic attainment level exactly because of the negative impact these identities had on their social life. Most participants felt that their studies had not prepared them adequately for gay affirmative practice. Implications for social work education are considered.