Social capital and aspirations for educational attainment: a cross-national comparison of Australia and Germany

With the emergence of ‘knowledge economies’ across the industrialised world, transitions from school to work have generally become more complex and uncertain. Nonetheless, such developments vary between countries, as young people form aspirations which align with their individual preferences, academic abilities and the economic, cultural and social capital to which they have access. Previous research emphasises the positive influence social capital received from parents and school networks has on young people's developing aspirations. Meanwhile, the social capital young people generate for themselves through ‘out-of-school’ activities is often construed as either irrelevant or problematic. In this paper, we examine the relationship between this latter dimension of social capital and the educational aspirations of young people in Australia (aged 14/15; n = 3586) and Germany (aged 14/15; n = 2517). Both countries have distinct institutional settings with varied school-to-work transition regimes. Our results show that youth-derived social capital, generated through participation in out-of school extra-curricular activities, mediates the association between parental background and educational aspirations in both countries. We suggest that, by exposing young people to broader sets of values, skills and resources not accessible within the family and the school context, such involvement may be important for promoting educational aspirations and attainment.     

七年制中西医结合专业西医外科教学模式探讨

通过对七年制中西医结合专业西医外科教学模式现状的分析 ,认为当前首先必须更新思想观念 ,以全新的概念 ,逐步创建中西医结合外科教材。结合西医外科教学优势注重人才的发现 ,改进教学手段 ,提高教学效果 ,加快中西医结合事业的发展     

编写“大学语文”需要“精品”观念——对高等教育学历文凭《大学语文》的几点意见

大学语文教学对学生的精神修养、人文素质教育的潜移默化以及写作能力的提高有不可低估的作用,因此选编大学语文教材时,应该树立牢固的精品观念.在文章的选编、注释等方面都应精益求精.     

Patterns of Work and Schooling in Young Adulthood

If the years of late adolescence and early adulthood are depicted as rocky, disorderly, and experimental, then how should the life course stage that immediately follows be characterized? Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, we focus on work and school activities in the latter half of the young adult years (ages roughly 25–31) to empirically address whether the diversity of work and schooling patterns diminishes. Finding a lack of orderliness in work and schooling trajectories, and that holding two or more activities simultaneously is quite common, we question how this stage of the life course should be conceptualized. Moving away from the traditional sequential roles approach, we use multinomial logistic regression to differentiate among activity sequences commonly held by young men and women at these ages, and address how family of origin background factors and prior life experiences influence life course experiences in the later 20s and early 30s.

     

Supply of schooling and dropout rates: Evidence from the Oportunidades programme in Mexico

In this article we provide evidence that measures of school supply, such as quantity and quality at the local level, are important predictors of dropout behaviour among conditional cash transfer beneficiaries in Mexico. We use administrative records of the Oportunidades programme in both rural and urban areas to follow the schooling trajectory of a cohort of students from sixth grade to high school. Under half of rural beneficiaries attending sixth grade make it to the tenth grade. Our regression analysis indicates that the absence of a junior high school in a locality increases the probability of dropping out after sixth grade by 6.8 percentage points; the absence of a high school increases the probability of dropping out after ninth grade by 12.2 percentage points. This means that 16% of all rural sixth‐grade students would enter tenth grade if they had junior high and high schools in their localities. Attending a low‐quality junior high school increases the probability of dropping out after ninth grade by 13 percentage points in rural areas and 7.6 percentage points in urban areas.     

从教育文化理念视角探索我国女子中长跑后备人才的培养对策

以我国奥运会优势项目女子中长跑近几年专项成绩大幅度下降和后备人才匮乏为研究对象,分析认为：在＂举国体制＂下的＂三极训练网＂为基础的各级体校为追求自身利益,一是在学与训的时间安排上明显偏重于训练,导致运动员文化水平偏低;二是训练过程中＂拔苗助长＂,导致年轻运动员因伤而缩短竞技生涯,因此,树立以＂运动员第一,运动成绩第二＂的文化理念,从培养全面发展竞技体育人才的视角,走学校化培养竞技体育后备人才,是提高我国女子中长跑竞技水平的可持续发展之路,     

The impacts of the food,fuel and financial crises on poor and vulnerable households in Nigeria: A retrospective approach to research inquiry

This article examines the impacts of the financial, food and fuel crises on poor and vulnerable households in two states of Nigeria: Lagos and Kano. It uses retrospective household‐level data to analyze the impacts of induced price variability on household welfare. The results indicate that aggregate shocks have significant adverse effects on household consumption, schooling and child labour decisions, with a degree of impact heterogeneity across regions and rural and urban areas of the country. We find that the coping strategies adopted by the poor to deal with the short‐term effects of the crises can lock households in a low‐income equilibrium or poverty trap. Provided that covariate shocks exacerbate these effects, they become central for policy design.     

The militarisation of English schools: Troops to Teaching and the implications for Initial Teacher Education and race equality

This article considers the implications of the Troops to Teaching (TtT) programme, to be introduced in England in autumn 2013, for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and race equality. TtT will fast-track ex-armed service members to teach in schools, without necessarily the requirement of a university degree. Employing theories of white supremacy, and Althusser’s (1971 Althusser, Louis. 1971. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.” In Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, edited by, Althusser Louis, New York: Monthly Review Press. Accessed September 10. http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm [Google Scholar]) concept of Ideological and Repressive State Apparatus, I argue that this initiative both stems from, and contributes to, a system of social privilege and oppression in education. Despite appearing to be aimed at all young people, the planned TtT initiative is actually aimed at poor and racially subordinated youth. This is likely to further entrench polarisation in a system which already provides two tier educational provision: TtT will be a programme for the inner-city disadvantaged, whilst wealthier, whiter schools will mostly continue to get highly qualified teachers. Moreover, TtT contributes to a wider devaluing of current ITE; ITE itself is rendered virtually irrelevant, as it seems TtT teachers will not be subject specialists, rather will be expected to provide military-style discipline, the skills for which they will be expected to bring with them. More sinister, I argue that TtT is part of the wider militarisation of education. This military-industrial-education complex seeks to contain and police young people who are marginalised along lines of race and class, and contributes to a wider move to increase ideological support for foreign wars - both aims ultimately in the service of neoliberal objectives which will feed social inequalities.     

关于国家助学贷款良性循环机制的探讨

国家助学贷款自2000年启动以来,圆了无数困难学生的求学梦,产生了积极的社会影响。但国家助学贷款的发放机制、回收机制和激励机制不完善,亟待建立贷款回收信息系统和出台相应的法规来规范贷款人、高等学校和用人单位的责任和义务,通过减免部分或全部贷款来激发学生全面发展和到国家急需人才的地方去工作。