Being a Self-Employed Older Woman: From Discrimination to Activism

This article presents an autobiographical account of an older woman’s lived experience of self-employment. Little is known about women who experience ongoing self-employment into their 50s and beyond. Shoshanna’s personal narrative describes her experiences and the challenges she has faced as she reflects upon her attempts to grow and sustain her business and the implications of ageism and gender inequality in laying a claim to entrepreneurship. The narrative proceeds to reflect on her activist work, as it is constructed through the creation of a social enterprise to support older people. Shoshanna’s narrative provides valuable insights into the intersection of age and gender in self-employment moving from discrimination to active support

On the notion of education policy: Mapping its landscape and scope.

Education policy is a complex policy field that falls on the borderlines between education, economic policy and social policy. According to Callewaert (2006, 767), policy is “a set of guidelines within a ‘governing text’’’. At the same time, policy is a product and a process that ‘is still being made, and re-made as it is being implemented’ (Bowe et al. 1992, 14). Policy is closely linked with the notion of power, which in turn can be defined as ‘a relation between people, and is expressed in simple symbolic notation’ (Dahl 1957, 201). In the diverse constructions of policy, Jones (2013, 3ff.; see also Ball 1994; Bell & Stevenson 2006, 17f.) identifies four types of key themes in the field of education policy: policy as text, policy as values-laden actions, policy as process and policy as discourse

Shifting problems and shifting policies to reduce student drop-out:the case of vocational education policy in Denmark

This chapter provides a comparative analysis of the evolution of senior secondary certificates of education in the Australian states of Victoria and Queensland. Based on an analysis of policy reforms from the mid 19th century to the present, I argue that the evolution of senior certificates can be understood in terms of three over-arching historical phases: elite, democratic and economic. Each phase reflects distinct normative understandings and practices regarding the role of senior certificates. Understanding the history of senior certificates in three phases provides a foundation from which to develop a broader analysis of historical trends in the development of senior secondary curricula and education in Australia and internationally

DNA fragmentation in mouse organs during endotoxic shock.

The systemic inflammatory response syndrome has still an unpredictable outcome, and patients often die of multiple organ failure despite circulatory stabilization therapy. The still incompletely understood pathophysiological mechanisms include organ damage due to direct toxic actions of cytokines elicited by overactivation of the host response. To study this process of organ failure in experimental septic shock, we injected mice with a lethal dose of endotoxin and examined apoptotic and necrotic tissue damage biochemically, histologically, and ultrastructurally. Endotoxin administration caused oligonucleosomal as well as random DNA fragmentation in liver, lung, kidney, and intestine. In the liver, DNA fragmentation was not restricted to hepatocytes but also occurred in nonparenchymal cells. The DNA fragmentation was mediated by tumor necrosis factor and attenuated by endogenous nitric oxide release. Unlike the situation in D-galactosamine-sensitized mice, in which injection or release of tumor necrosis factor causes massive hepatocyte apoptosis, liver failure due to high doses of endotoxin was characterized by single-cell necrosis, a low incidence of apoptosis, and simultaneous damage to nonparenchymal cells. We conclude that, even though endotoxin causes cytokine-mediated DNA fragmentation in several organs including the liver, hepatocyte apoptosis itself seems to be a minor phenomenon in high-dose endotoxic shock in mice