The state of history teaching in private-run confessional schools in Lebanon : implications for national integration

History curriculum gravitates towards understanding differences among pluralistic societies. However, the Lebanese case has exacted a range of differences promulgated by the number of confessional-run private schools, with little control over their administrative or curricular policies. Since the establishment of the Republic in 1926, public policy gave the private schools their own constitutional prerogative maintaining their own educational programmes, each with a distinctive value system. This paper looks at the policies towards history curriculum by the seven major confessional schools in Lebanon. Through textual analysis of history books, reviews of policies, and interviews with students, educational decision-makers, and history teachers, the paper argues that confessional schools have propagated their own line of discourse for history teaching, without accommodating for a pluralistic discourse of integration.peer-reviewe

A hierarquia de moedas e a relação centro-periferia revisitada

XX Encontro Nacional de Economia Política: desenvolvimento Latino-Americano, Integração e Inserção Internacional - UNILA, Foz do Iguaçu, 26 a 29 de maio de 2015O presente trabalho tem por objetivo reavaliar a relação centro- periferia à luz dos desenvolvimentos recentes do sistema monetário internacional, com particular destaque à hierarquia de moedas. Com efeito, o foco de análise da relação centro-periferia na literatura tem sido a divisão internacional do trabalho, o ritmo e a difusão do progresso técnico a ela associados e o padrão de consumo que ela incorpora. Ao considerar o Estruturalismo Latino-Americano e as Teorias da Dependência, observou-se que os teóricos da relação centro- periferia conferiram, de fato, pouca importância à dimensão fi nanceira do capitalismo mundial. No entanto, parece ser esta, hoje, seu aspecto mais relevante. De acordo com a hipótese aqui adotada, a esfera fi nanceira, sobretudo a hierarquia de moedas, é um aspecto essencial para se compreender a relação centro-periferia contemporânea, particularmente no que se refere ao grau de autonomia de política dos países periféricos, uma das principais dimensões nas quais se manifesta. Como foi possível demonstrar, a periferia está sujeita, em virtude de sua posição subordinada na hierarquia de moedas, à maior vulnerabilidade externa, à maior instabilidade do câmbio e dos juros, e, por fi m, ao modesto raio de manobra de suas políticasBanco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES); Usina Hidrelétrica de Itaipu (ITAIPU); Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) e Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (UNILA

Representations of poverty in British newspapers: a case of ‘othering’ the threat?

The meanings of social problems like poverty develop within the public sphere. This paper uses the theory of social representations to examine how poverty is represented in British newspapers. Poverty has been discussed and interpreted in numerous ways, and newspapers not only provide a platform for these elaborations but also contribute to shaping public understanding on the issue. The study sampled news coverage on poverty in four British newspapers during two randomly chosen one-month periods in the years 2001 and 2011. The data set of news reports (n = 274) was thematically analysed to examine representations of poverty. The study found that in the domestic context, media represents poverty as a problem limited to vulnerable groups such as children and the elderly. With a lack of discussion on the wider socio-economic causes and contributing factors, poverty within the UK appears as an ‘orphan phenomenon’ with an unknown genesis. In contrast, the representations of poverty outside the UK are vivid and elaborate, and the news reports hold the socio-political inefficiency of countries responsible for poverty. The study also found that the media uses poverty to make sense of catastrophic events in society: the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States and the London riots of 2011 were both anchored using poverty. This paper discusses the representational dynamics of these findings and argues that the media representations distance general society from poverty, representing it as a problem of the othe

Development and validation of the Multi-dimensional University Research Workplace Inventory (MDURWI)

WOS:000454839600005This study describes the development and validation of an instrument aimed toward measuring organizational features of an academic research workplace. The question pool was developed based on data from a pilot study (N = 43). The survey was deployed to academic researchers in the field of higher education research worldwide (N = 850). An exploratory factor analysis conducted on 36 questions, followed by confirmatory factor analysis, which lead to a final pool of 27 questions in five subscales, one of which divided into three lower-order factors. The final model exhibited very good fit (X2/df = 2.561; CFI = 0.972; PCFI = 0.784; RMSEA = 0.043; P[rmsea ? 0.05] < 0.001; AIC = 891.018; BCC = 987.839) and psychometric properties, in the form of factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity, as well as reliability and sensitivity. Implications of this instrument for research and policymaking are discussed, as well as future research directions.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

The economic policy in Brazil in the context of the global financial crisis (2008-2012)

Orientador: Daniela Magalhães PratesDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de EconomiaResumo: A crise financeira global assumiu uma dimensão sistêmica em setembro de 2008, após a falência do banco de investimento Lehman Brothers, afetando os países de maneira indiscriminada. Diante desse cenário, os países emergentes adotaram um conjunto de políticas anticíclicas e enfrentaram desafios de política econômica impostos pelos desdobramentos da crise. Esta dissertação objetiva entender as políticas econômicas adotadas no contexto da crise num país emergente específico: o Brasil. Para isso, quatro hipóteses serão propostas para compreensão dessas mudanças: i) A utilização de medidas anticíclicas pelos países avançados no contexto da crise; ii) As novas recomendações do mainstream e dos organismos multilaterais; iii) A inserção comercial e financeira diferenciada e a política econômica do Brasil no período pré-crise; iv) A nova gestão da política macroeconômica com a entrada do governo Dilma em 2011, traduzida no esforço assumido de "recolocar os preços macroeconômicos no lugar" ("getting the macroeconomic prices right"). A partir das hipóteses acima, a política econômica do Brasil no contexto da crise financeira global pode ser entendida por meio de três fatores fundamentais. Primeiro, as políticas adotadas logo após a eclosão da crise sistêmica seguiram as medidas anticíclicas dos países avançados e estiveram relacionadas (sem nenhum sentido de causalidade) com a as novas recomendações propostas pelo mainstream. Segundo, a redução da vulnerabilidade externa - por meio da diminuição do endividamento externo do setor público e da política de acumulação de reservas - e a melhora da situação fiscal no período 2003-2007 conferiram maior espaço de política econômica e permitiram a adoção de medidas anticíclicas no contexto da crise. Por fim, a mudança na gestão da política econômica em 2011 respondeu aos desafios impostos pela nova fase de alta dos ciclos de fluxos de capitais e de preços de commodities, pelo aprofundamento da crise europeia, e pelos sinais de esgotamento do ciclo de consumoAbstract: The global financial crisis has taken a systemic dimension in September 2008, after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers , affecting countries indiscriminately . Given this scenario , emerging countries have adopted a set of countercyclical policies tax challenges faced by economic policy developments in the crisis . This dissertation aims to understand the economic policies adopted during the crisis emerging in a specific country : Brazil. In order to understand this changes, four hypotheses are proposed: i) The use of countercyclical measures by developed countries during the crisis; ii) The new recommendations from the mainstream and multilateral agencies; iii) The differentiated trade and financial integration and economic policy of Brazil in the pre-crisis iv) The new management of macroeconomic policy with input from the Dilma government in 2011, reflected the efforts to get the macroeconomic prices right. From the above hypotheses, the economic policy of Brazil in the global financial crisis can be understood through three fundamental ideas. First, the policies adopted after the outbreak of systemic crisis, followed the countercyclical measures of the advanced countries and were related (without any sense of causality) with the new rhetoric proposed by the mainstream. Second, the reduction of external vulnerability - by reducing the external debt of the public sector and reserve accumulation policy - and the improved fiscal situation in 2003-2007 gave more room for economic policy and allowed the adoption of countercyclical measures in the context of the crisis . Finally, the change in economic policy management in 2011 responded to the challenges posed by the new phase of the cycles of capital flows and commodity prices, the deepening of the European crisis, and the signs of exhaustion of the consumer cycleMestradoTeoria EconomicaMestre em Ciências Econômica

The Academic ‘Patras’ of the Arab World: Creating a Climate of Academic Apartheid

This paper discusses factors that are contributing to the rise of what we refer to as an ethos of “academic apartheid” in Arab institutions of higher education. The paper examines the failure of these institutions to overcome their alienation from indigenous epistemology, to emancipate the education they provide from its colonial past, and to move towards the modern information age. The difficult position of Arab academics striving to rediscover, reintegrate and reorganize an epistemological framework to serve the indigenous world is also discussed. Current institutional approaches have deleterious effects on the performance of Arab academics, including arresting the process of transition to development. The paper concludes that Arab academics have a range of choices in determining how to establish a course of corrective action

Problems and the epistemology of electronic publishing in the Arab world: The case of Lebanon

Publishing in the Arab world still is in its development stage. Many journals discontinue publication because of financial pressures, while those that asynchronously function are almost totally dependent on institutional (academic) funds. Other barriers as editorial hegemony, national and political instability, and institutional discouragement that hinder researchers and writers to submit or even try to publish work in indigenous Arab journals. Scholarly output is generally tied to the epistemological perspective of the researcher-writer; this in itself has been the major milestone to the lack and absent electronic journals in the Arab world. Electronic publishing has not appealed to the scholarly community in the Arab and Middle Eastern society and remains to be in dormant state. Scholars need to understand the World Wide Web and recognize the revolutionary elements of electronic journals as pacifiers to the hegemony of traditional publishing