Learning to Belong: School, Language, and Identity in North Schleswig in the 1980s

In a seminar in 1982 for “leading members” of the German minority in Nordschleswig, one of the statements which “crystallised” was that “the spiritual basis of the German minority is the declaration of allegiance to German-ness” (emphasis added) and, it was said in the seminar report, “The declaration must be clearly and self-confidently made visible vis à vis the surrounding society” . The need to review the contemporaneous situation behind closed doors perhaps betrays a fear that all was not well, that some people, mainly in the youngest generation, were losing interest in or commitment to their (social) identity as members of the minority, and needed to be encouraged to maintain their “German-ness”. One of my purposes here is to capture the experience and views of the young people about whose commitment there was some doubt and who were the carriers of identity and German-ness into the future. They were pupils in one of the minority’s schools and I shall show that schooling and language learning were crucial in facilitating the process of socialisation into and identification with the minority. My focus on schooling and schools is a consequence both of the visibility and strength of the minority’s school system in the life of the minority and of the scholarship which has demonstrated the power of schools in any society to create social identities, not least identification with a national or ethnic group, in this case the Norschleswiger

Nationalism in Afghanistan: Colonial knowledge, education, symbols, and the World Tour of Amanullah Khan, 1901-1929

Nationalism in Afghanistan has not received attention from the scholars of the country despite its significance, at least locally. Using a post-modernist analysis of nationalism, this thesis will study nationalism in Afghanistan in the context of colonial knowledge, class, and cultural institutions between 1901 and 1929. Chapter one is about colonialism and its impact on nationalism in Afghanistan. In the nineteenth century, colonial activities constructed the political, epistemological, and territorial foundation of Afghan nation. Chapter two shows how previous studies of nationalism in Afghanistan have explained nationalism in the country. As the review of the previous studies of nationalism in Afghanistan will show, the previous explanation is hegemonic and state-centric. Chapter three, the primary findings of this thesis, is a study of the reforms in education and its relationship to development of nationalism in Afghanistan. As a result of the reforms in education, the Afghan state was able to produce and patronize a well-composed class of roshanfekran or elites in Kabul. Chapter four is about the symbols and Amanullah Khan’s eight month world tour that became useful tools of the Afghan state and the nationalists to legitimate their nationalistic programs inside and outside Afghanistan. In the conclusion, the thesis draws attention to its findings, and suggests that further studies of nationalism in Afghanistan will be useful; especially studies that will address the relationships between class, ethnicity, and language and nationalism in Afghanistan

Secondary English Teachers\u27 Experiences on Critical Thinking for African American Male Students

African American male students (AAMSs) can benefit from literacy instruction that is student-based and geared towards using higher-level thinking skills. The conceptual framework was guided by Dewey\u27s constructivism theory, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore whether high school English language arts (ELA) teachers in an urban-suburban Midwest region of the United States have sufficient knowledge and skills to incorporate higher order thinking skills (HOT) instruction for AAMSs. Five ELA teachers from a low-performing, urban-suburban high school in the Midwest region of the United States participated in semistructured interviews; observations were conducted in the classroom, and lesson plans were reviewed. Patterns, categories, and themes emerged through using the coding process by breaking down the data into units and then grouped according to their characteristics. According to the findings, participants from this study suggested that problem- solving was the main higher level thinking skill for AAMSs. These local ELA teachers also used the Socratic questioning method as their primary instructional strategy but limited constructivist activities for AAMSs to engage during the instructional process. The findings from the data collection support the development of a professional training program. The professional development program could help teachers engage AAMSs in increasing their academic endeavors. ELA teachers can participate in professional learning communities by communicating concerns about AAMSs, using HOT skills to increase AAMSs literacy performance, become change agents, and promote a positive social change by using constructivist practices into school curriculum and instructions for AAMSs, eventually closing the achievement gap