Towards a Critical Global Citizenship?: A Comparative Analysis of GC Education Discourses in Scotland and Alberta

Global citizenship has increasingly become common parlance in education curricula internationally. Yet, it can be argued that in many instances, especially in official curriculum documents, Global Citizenship Education (GCE) tends to ignore critical engagement with ethics and complexity that inform global inequities worldwide, and often fails to achieve the self-reflective political consciousness called forth by a critical GCE. In this paper, we compare conceptualizations of GCE in the Alberta Social Studies curriculum, Canada, and in the Scottish national curriculum, Curriculum for Excellence. We consider the extent to which these documents and attending discourses open up critical discursive spaces for complex, ethical understandings and calls to action related to global injustices and political responsibilities, or foreclose important opportunities

Spectroscopic studies of cyclodextrin complexes with 2,5-bis-(4-methylphenyl)oxazole

The complexation of γ-cyclodextrins (γ-CDs) with the guest molecule 2,5-bis-(4-methylphenyl)oxazole (MPPO) has been studied by use of fluorescence spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The changes in the 1H NMR aromatic signals of MPPO in aqueous γ-CD provide evidence of complexation and inclusion. DLS was used to confirm the existence of a distribution of the aggregates in the nanometer range. Excimer fluorescence was pronounced in the presence of γ-CD. The evidence of the existence of two species was shown through fluorescence lifetime data. The emission intensities of the steady state fluorescence and the fluorescence anisotropies of the linear aggregates revealed a phase transition temperature of 60 °C

Hybrid calix[4]arenes via ionic hydrogenation and transition-metal-mediated processes

We report the first application of ionic hydrogenation for the synthesis of upper-rim urea- or carbamate-derived hybrid calix[4]arenes. Subsequent metal-mediated transformations using 4-iodophenylurea calixarenes afforded structurally unique 1,3-di(biaryl)-, 1,3-di(biarylalkyne)-, or 1,3-(biaryl)(biarylalkyne)-derived hybrid calixarenes. © 2009 American Chemical Society