Effective educators are culturally competent communicators

Effective formal education or schooling is not simply a matter of teaching and learning curriculum content. It is also about values, assumptions, feelings, perceptions and relationships. No education can take place without interpersonal communication. Effective teaching can thus be qualified in terms of relating effectively in the classroom. Effective education thus also presupposes effective communication skills. Communication as the means and indeed the medium of education is therefore crucial to school success in culturally diverse education. Teachers should therefore be sensitive to the potentially problematic outcomes of intercultural communication in the culturally diverse class. Communication may be a useful source of intercultural knowledge and mutual enrichment between culturally diverse students if managed proactively by the teacher. Otherwise, it could be a source of frustration, misapprehensions, intercultural conflict and ultimately school failure. Effective and successful communication is difficult to realise even in the most favourable circumstances. Intercultural factors, therefore, create the potential for numerous communication problems and intercultural conflict. Communication, both verbal as well as non-verbal, is critically important in cross-cultural competence. As language and culture are inextricably bound, cross-cultural communication is complex and potentially problematic. In this paper, it is argued that effective educators are effective communicators and thus culturally competent in cross-cultural encounters.     

Geometric Method and Generalized Linear Models. Two Opposite Multiparametric Approaches Illustrated on a Sample of Pituitary Adenomas

We used two statistical methods to identify prognostic factors: a log-linear model (logistic and COX regression, based on the notions of linearity and multiplicative relative risk), and the CORICO method (ICOnography of CORrelations) based on the geometric significance of the correlation coefficient. We applied the methods to two different situations (a "case-control study' and a "historical cohort'). We show that the geometric exploratory tool is particularly suited to the analysis of small samples with a large number of variables. It could save time when setting up new study protocols. In this instance, the geometric approach highlighted, without preconceived ideas, the potential role of multihormonality in the course of pituitary adenoma and the unexpected influence of the date of tumour excision on the risk attached to haemorrhage.     

The Chinese-speaking Muslims (Dungans) of Central Asia: A Case of Multiple Identities in a Changing Context

Chinese-speaking Muslims, called Dungans in Central Asia and Huizu in China, were forced to migrate to present-day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan at the end of the nineteenth century. They reconstructed their identity through interrelations with local populations and the soviet categorisation of nationality. But after 1991, their status has being gradually destabilised owing to the changes in economic, social and political rules as well as citizenship regulations in these countries. They have to readapt to the new situation created by the independence of the three former Soviet Republics, which has challenged their unity.     

Premarital Cohabitation and Housework: Couples in Cross‐National Perspective

The authors examine the effect of premarital cohabitation on the division of household labor in 22 countries. First, women do more routine housework than men in all countries. Second, married couples that cohabited before marriage have a more equal division of housework. Third, national cohabitation rates have equalizing effects on couples regardless of their own cohabitation experience. However, the influence of cohabitation rates is only observed in countries with higher levels of overall gender equality. The authors conclude that the trend toward increasing cohabitation may be part of a broader social trend toward a more egalitarian division of housework.     

论创新教育与大学生课外科技活动

介绍了大学开展创新教育的意义及对大学生的影响 ,论述了创新教育与大学生课外科技活动的关系 ,即创新教育是大学生课外科技活动出成果的前提 ,大学生课外科技活动是创新教育的新平台和主要形式 ,它既是创新教育的实践环节 ,检验着创新教育的成果 ,又丰富着创新教育的内涵 ,同时是提高大学生创新精神和能力的主要途径。提出了高校要多方面创造条件 ,深化大学生课外科技活动。     

Analyse biographique du travail féminin

Cet article montre comment l'application d'une méthode d'analyse biographique d'interaction à un domaine où l'interaction paraît évidente — activité féminine et fécondite — ouvre des perspectives nouvelles. En effet, les limites qui apparaissent lors de cette analyse conduisent les auteurs à conclure que ce n'est pas en raffinant les méthodes mais plutôt la collecte que l'on parviendra à progresser dans ce domaine. Le problème des interactions de l'activité et de la fécondité semble mal posé avant même le recours à la méthode. Cela justifie la nécessité de saisir le travail féminin comme concept unifié ne dissociant pas la sphère domestique et la sphère rémunérée. Cela conduit les auteurs à dégager quelques principes de collecte mieux adaptés aux préoccupations récentes dans ce domaine: des données biographiques sur le travail féminin. L'interaction collectée à sa source se prêterait alors à une analyse biographique plus révélatrice que celle qui confronte deux processus sans en évaluer les modalités changeantes.This article demonstrates how life event history analysis applied to the interaction between fertility and female economic activity can lead to new perspectives in the analysis of this complicated relationship. The authors identify limits to the analysis of the interaction given the anticipatory nature of behaviour. They conclude that progress in this field requires not the refinement of methods but rather a fundamental change in the approach to the data collected. If fertility and employment are considered separately, a problem is created even before the methods of analysis are applied. They recommend a conception of women's work as a whole, a conception that does not dissociate domestic and paid work. The authors go on to identify ways of improving the relevance of data collection to contemporary issues in the life history analysis of women's work. They argue that data on the interaction, collected at its source, would yield a more revealing life history than that which sees domestic work and paid work as separate spheres, and fails to take account of changes in their relationship.     

Training with o (observing) and T (treatment) teams in live supervision: reflections in the looking glass*

Working with a treatment and observing team at the same time, behind the oneway mirror, offers a variety of ways to: (a) generate multiple realities; (b) work with two different models of family therapy simultaneously; and (c) provide feedback on the teams' own roles, rules and group process. The process that 6 trainees and two supervisors used with T and O teams to examine their own coevolution as a therapeutic system using the Milan model of family therapy and Ericksonian hypnotherapy is described. The article concludes with a discussion of the advantages and pitfalls of this type of dual supervision.