Notes on an International Context of Korczak's Pedagogical Legacy

The paper's main aim is to introduce Janusz Korczak's pedagogical legacy to Portuguese readers. His pedagogical narratives are analysed through a lens of international contextuality of his times and of modern times, trying to identify both the universal and the controversial concepts. Korczak's contribution to the development of children's rights and his understanding of childhood and of being a child are discussed along directives for parents and teachers that may be found in his writings. This theoretical paper is meant to promote Korczak's works and to open a discussion with academics and practitioners, who are unfamiliar with his legacy. Moreover, it may also provoke Korczakians to re-read his intellectual heritage in multiple contexts and multiple ways, demonstrating that his concepts are still open to interpretation and therefore forever up to date.O principal objectivo deste artigo é apresentar a herança pedagógica de Janusz Korczak aos leitores portugueses. As suas narrativas pedagógicas são analisadas através de uma lente da contextualidade internacional da sua época e dos tempos modernos, tentando identificar tanto os conceitos universais como os controversos. A contribuição de Korczak para o desenvolvimento dos direitos das crianças e a sua compreensão da infância e de como é ser uma criança são discutidos assim como directivas para pais e professores que se encontram nos seus textos. Este ensaio teórico pretende promover as obras de Korczak e iniciar uma discussão com académicos e profissionais, que não conheçam a sua herança. Poderá, além disso, incitar os Korczakianos a lerem a sua herança intelectual em múltiplos contextos e modos, demonstrando que os seus conceitos ainda estão abertos a interpretação e, portanto, serão actuais para sempre

Gender equality and children's equality in liberal and conservative discourses: implications toward language and society

This introductory article is intended to open the volume of work prepared by the participants of the 12th UNESCO Janusz Korczak Chair International Summer School. The participants presented these papers at the RC25 ISA Interim International Conference in Warsaw, entitled: "Language and Society. Research Advances in Social Sciences" (26-27.09.2019), exploring the concepts of gender equality and children's equality in liberal and conservative discourses and practices invested in language. The papers in this volume primarily use the methodology of discourse analysis and a range of tools and methods within this framework. The purpose is to shed light on how discourses inform preferences, behaviours and representations, towards the positioning of individuals in society, based on their respective gender and their individual status - whether an adult or a child. It is interesting to explore what is expected of the holders of these positions and whether they are able to confront and renegotiate their situation. The authors look into gendered childhood, analysing if differences can be found in so-called conservative and liberal discourses. The gender aspect of childhood and the resistance towards children’s expected positions interlinked to their gender is visible to diverse degrees in this selection of papers. The concept of social positioning due to one's gender is at the heart of this volume. Therefore, this Editorial forms a theoretical backstage for the volume of works included in the special post-conference issue of Society Register

Polish Perspective on the Reflective Judgement Level Amongst Students of the Erasmus Programme

Erasmus is the largest programme in history that supports student mobility in Europe. It improves foreign language skills and the soft skills of participants, enabling immersion in diverse cultures. Moreover, it is viewed as a driver for innovation and social inclusion in higher education, contributing to a rise in the self-esteem, independence and openness of participants. These features are the integral ingredients for high levels of reflective judgment, understood as selfreferencing to one’s own knowledge production, understanding the sources of knowledge, the contexts and the relativity of one’s experience. In the empirical study presented in this paper, international Erasmus exchange students were subjected to standardised assessment of their reflective judgement level. Educational, social and familial experiences, connected to the latter were taken into account. The basic theoretical framing is derived from King and Kitchener’s (1994) Reflective Judgment Model, based on 7 cognitive stages, characteristic of 3 different levels of reflectivity: pre-reflective, quasi-reflective and reflective. The results of presented study indicate that international Erasmus exchange students display high levels of reflective judgment and the authors argue that it may be due to several socio-educational factors including an ideal activating learning environment created by the programme

Structure and evolution of chlorate reduction composite transposons.

UnlabelledThe genes for chlorate reduction in six bacterial strains were analyzed in order to gain insight into the metabolism. A newly isolated chlorate-reducing bacterium (Shewanella algae ACDC) and three previously isolated strains (Ideonella dechloratans, Pseudomonas sp. strain PK, and Dechloromarinus chlorophilus NSS) were genome sequenced and compared to published sequences (Alicycliphilus denitrificans BC plasmid pALIDE01 and Pseudomonas chloritidismutans AW-1). De novo assembly of genomes failed to join regions adjacent to genes involved in chlorate reduction, suggesting the presence of repeat regions. Using a bioinformatics approach and finishing PCRs to connect fragmented contigs, we discovered that chlorate reduction genes are flanked by insertion sequences, forming composite transposons in all four newly sequenced strains. These insertion sequences delineate regions with the potential to move horizontally and define a set of genes that may be important for chlorate reduction. In addition to core metabolic components, we have highlighted several such genes through comparative analysis and visualization. Phylogenetic analysis places chlorate reductase within a functionally diverse clade of type II dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) reductases, part of a larger family of enzymes with reactivity toward chlorate. Nucleotide-level forensics of regions surrounding chlorite dismutase (cld), as well as its phylogenetic clustering in a betaproteobacterial Cld clade, indicate that cld has been mobilized at least once from a perchlorate reducer to build chlorate respiration.ImportanceGenome sequencing has identified, for the first time, chlorate reduction composite transposons. These transposons are constructed with flanking insertion sequences that differ in type and orientation between organisms, indicating that this mobile element has formed multiple times and is important for dissemination. Apart from core metabolic enzymes, very little is known about the genetic factors involved in chlorate reduction. Comparative analysis has identified several genes that may also be important, but the relative absence of accessory genes suggests that this mobile metabolism relies on host systems for electron transport, regulation, and cofactor synthesis. Phylogenetic analysis of Cld and ClrA provides support for the hypothesis that chlorate reduction was built multiple times from type II dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) reductases and cld. In at least one case, cld has been coopted from a perchlorate reduction island for this purpose. This work is a significant step toward understanding the genetics and evolution of chlorate reduction

Physiological and genetic description of dissimilatory perchlorate reduction by the novel marine bacterium Arcobacter sp. strain CAB.

A novel dissimilatory perchlorate-reducing bacterium (DPRB), Arcobacter sp. strain CAB, was isolated from a marina in Berkeley, CA. Phylogenetically, this halophile was most closely related to Arcobacter defluvii strain SW30-2 and Arcobacter ellisii. With acetate as the electron donor, strain CAB completely reduced perchlorate (ClO4(-)) or chlorate (ClO3(-)) [collectively designated (per)chlorate] to innocuous chloride (Cl(-)), likely using the perchlorate reductase (Pcr) and chlorite dismutase (Cld) enzymes. When grown with perchlorate, optimum growth was observed at 25 to 30°C, pH 7, and 3% NaCl. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) preparations were dominated by free-swimming straight rods with 1 to 2 polar flagella per cell. Strain CAB utilized a variety of organic acids, fructose, and hydrogen as electron donors coupled to (per)chlorate reduction. Further, under anoxic growth conditions strain CAB utilized the biogenic oxygen produced as a result of chlorite dismutation to oxidize catechol via the meta-cleavage pathway of aerobic catechol degradation and the catechol 2,3-dioxygenase enzyme. In addition to (per)chlorate, oxygen and nitrate were alternatively used as electron acceptors. The 3.48-Mb draft genome encoded a distinct perchlorate reduction island (PRI) containing several transposases. The genome lacks the pcrC gene, which was previously thought to be essential for (per)chlorate reduction, and appears to use an unrelated Arcobacter c-type cytochrome to perform the same function. IMPORTANCE The study of dissimilatory perchlorate-reducing bacteria (DPRB) has largely focused on freshwater, mesophilic, neutral-pH environments. This study identifies a novel marine DPRB in the genus Arcobacter that represents the first description of a DPRB associated with the Campylobacteraceae. Strain CAB is currently the only epsilonproteobacterial DPRB in pure culture. The genome of strain CAB lacks the pcrC gene found in all other DPRB tested, demonstrating a new variation on the (per)chlorate reduction pathway. The ability of strain CAB to oxidize catechol via the oxygenase-dependent meta-cleavage pathway in the absence of external oxygen by using the biogenic oxygen produced from the dismutation of chlorite provides a valuable model for understanding the anaerobic degradation of a broad diversity of xenobiotics which are recalcitrant to anaerobic metabolism but labile to oxygenase-dependent mechanisms

Historical politics, melted citizenship and education about the Holocaust : interview with Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs

Dear Professor Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, you are an icon for education about the Holocaust in Poland, you are very well regarded abroad and well known for that reason. I will start with some simple questions to get our conversation going. First question: Would you say that there are challenges in the preservation of memory about the Holocaust and challenges for the preservation of historic objectivity

Is gender neutrality a post-human phenomenon? The concept of ‘gender neutral’ in Swedish education

Inspired by the feminist thoughts of Rosi Braidotti and Donna Haraway, the author of this article endeavours to depict the emerging concept of gender neutrality that has developed in Sweden in recent years. The author uses an interpretative paradigm with a variety of qualitative field research tools, to gain a deeper understanding of how gender neutrality works in practice at school and nursery level in Sweden. The study took place in Stockholm in September 2014 with the author living in situ. The case study involved the use of: field notes and observations, interviews with university scholars, heads of schools and nurseries and openended questionnaires with teachers, carers and students. The analysis of written resources included the school and nursery national curriculum, press discourse and scientific publications on the subject matter. The author of the article argues that gender neutrality may be perceived as a concept originating from post-humanism, therefore it should be examined within the post-human socio-pedagogical reflection and embedded in norm critical discourse

Health, reproduction and identity: Indigenous women of Chiapas, Mexico.

Women are central to Primary Health Care strategies because of their social reproductive roles as family health carers, the health implications of biological reproduction, and the focus on family planning within related services. Such factors ensure that women have a close relationship with health policy and institutions. This thesis analyses the negotiation of differing paradigms of health and reproduction by indigenous women in the community of Amatenango del Valle in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas in relation to their ethnic and gender identities and to the context of social, economic and political marginalisation. The analysis reflects upon the divergence and convergence between this negotiation and the formulation of policy and service provision. The conceptual framework of pluralism and subjectivity is applied both to understandings of "Western" and "traditional" health paradigms as fluid and intersecting, rather than fixed and oppositional, as well as to the multiple and unfixed nature of indigenous women's identities. Concepts of pluralistic health and hybridity drawn from post-colonial and postmodern feminist theories allow space for envisioning women's agency to negotiate different health services and reproductive decisions, albeit in ways strongly mediated by the context of poverty and marginalisation. The discussion of policy formulation and the case study data reveal how pluralism is often accommodated at the level of the individual, rather than being recognised in policy and provision of services. The findings also illustrate how the historical and contemporary marginalisation of indigenous peoples affects the health status of women and their families and their utilisation of services, including family planning services. The thesis concludes that learning from the ways in which women negotiate services, particularly those multiplistic services of traditional providers, could result in the formulation of policy and the implementation of programmes which more effectively meet health and reproductive needs and better respect cultural diversity

Wazektomia. Krytyczne studium popularności tego zjawiska pośród Brytyjczyków

This paper reflects on the popularity of vasectomy surgery in the world in general and particularly in the UK. Cultural, moral, legal and medical aspects are discussed and differences of opinions on birth control, demographic policies, and opportunities for self-determination are analyzed. The article also concerns the stereotypes associated with fertility, masculinity and gender. The economic and health advantages along with costs are balanced against each other. The author looks at reasons for the popularity of this method of contraception. In the context of increasing moral freedom, one can ask questions: whether the choice of vasectomy demonstrates the attitude of modern man to increasing sexual freedom and uncontrollable Freudian instincts? Or, is it a rational, carefully thought through decision, in the interests of health and freedom of choice for women?Rozważania dotyczą popularności zabiegu wazektomii na świecie, a w szczególności w Wielkiej Brytanii. Poruszane zostają aspekty kulturowe, moralne, prawne i medyczne. Analizowane są różnice opinii wobec kontroli urodzeń, polityki demograficznej, oraz możliwości samodzielnego decydowania o sobie. Artykuł dotyka stereotypów związanych z płodnością, męskością, równouprawnieniem płci; analizuje korzyści i straty ekonomiczne i zdrowotne związane z zabiegiem wazektomii. Poszukiwane są powody popularności tej metody antykoncepcyjnej. W kontekście rosnącej wolności obyczajowej można zadać pytania: czy wybór wazektomii świadczy o nastawieniu współczesnego człowieka na seksualną wolność i niekontrolowanie Freudowskich popędów? Czy też jest racjonalną przemyślaną decyzją w trosce o zdrowie i zwiększoną wolność wyboru kobiet