Gender balance in ECEC : why is there s little progres?

Social attitudes about male participation in the upbringing of children have changed considerably over the past few decades. Men are now seen as important for children’s development and learning. Research from many countries worldwide shows that in early childhood care and education (ECEC), male workers are welcomed by female colleagues and parents. In the last two decades there have been initiatives for more men in ECEC in several European countries. Nevertheless the proportion of male workers ECEC remains low worldwide. This article questions the persisting gender imbalance in ECEC and analyzes ambivalences regarding more men in the field. Based on recent gender theory, efforts and limits of strategies for more male students and workers in ECEC in Belgium, Norway and Germany are discussed. It is concluded that deeply held gendered attitudes and practices in the field of care and educational work with young children have to be put into question. More space in ECEC for embodied subjectivities is needed to overcome essentialist conceptions of differences between body and mind, women and men

Determination of nutrient salts by automatic methods both in seawater and brackish water: the phosphate blank

9 páginas, 2 tablas, 2 figurasThe main inconvenience in determining nutrients in seawater by automatic methods is simply solved: the preparation of a suitable blank which corrects the effect of the refractive index change on the recorded signal. Two procedures are proposed, one physical (a simple equation to estimate the effect) and the other chemical (removal of the dissolved phosphorus with ferric hydroxide).Support for this work came from CICYT (MAR88-0245 project) and Conselleria de Pesca de la Xunta de GaliciaPeer reviewe

Was verspricht der Koalitionsvertrag der schwarz-gelben Bundesregierung im Bereich der Bildungs- und Familienpolitik? Eine Bewertung ausgewählter Aspekte

Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden sowohl bildungs- als auch familienpolitische Maßnahmen, wie sie im Koalitionsvertrag der gegenwärtigen schwarz-gelben Bundesregierung genannt werden, diskutiert und bewertet. Für beide Politikbereiche ist die frühkindliche Bildung und Betreuung von hoher Relevanz; dies lässt sich bildungs- und familienökonomisch begründen. Im Koalitionsvertrag kommt diesem Bereich jedoch kein besonderer Schwerpunkt zu. Darüber hinaus stehen die Maßnahmen, die im Kontext der Bildungspolitik und im Kontext der Familienpolitik genannt werden, unverbunden nebeneinander. Offenkundig mangelt es an einem bildungs- und insbesondere an einem familienpolitischen Gesamtkonzept. Der Beitrag beleuchtet auch die Notwendigkeit einer größeren Zielgruppenorientierung der deutschen Bildungs- und Familienpolitik. Diese findet sich im Koalitionsvertrag nur sehr vereinzelt wieder. Hinzu kommt, dass viele Maßnahmen im Zuständigkeitsbereich der Länder und Kommunen genannt werden. Das bedeutet aber, dass diesen Gebietskörperschaften entsprechende Finanzierungsspielräume gegeben werden müssen, die nicht durch Reformüberlegungen in anderen Politikbereichen (wie der Steuerpolitik) eingeschränkt werden dürfen. Abstract The present paper first discusses and evaluates the educational and family policy measures mentioned in the coalition agreement of the CDU-FDP coalition government. As research in educational and family economics has shown, early childhood education and care is extremely important for both of these fields of public policy. There is no particular emphasis on early childhood education and care in the coalition agreement, however, and the educational policy and family policy measures that it does mention appear entirely disconnected from each other. In sum, the coaliation agreement displays an evident lack of an overarching concept for educational and family policy in particular. Second, this paper presents arguments highlighting the need for a stronger focus on the main target groups of German educational and family policy. The coalition shows such a focus only in certain isolated areas. Furthermore, many of the measures mentioned are placed under the jurisdiction of the Länder (state) and municipal governments. What this means, however, is that these government bodies will need to be provided with sufficient funding, and that this funding must be protected from cuts under the pretext of reforms in other areas (such as in tax policy). JEL Classifications: I22, I28, I38, J1