Initiation and rites of passage: Learning the school culture

Tese de doutoramento em Relações Internacionais, Política Internacional e Resolução de Conflitos, apresentada à Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de CoimbraEsta tese questiona as perspectivas académicas e as práticas internacionais dominantes sobre contextos de pós-guerra, defendendo que estas se encontram centradas num pensamento binário que diferencia como categorias e períodos antinómicos guerra e paz, político e criminal, reprodução e resistência. Argumenta-se que esta visão redutora impede a compreensão da complexidade das relações, continuidades e mimetismos entre lógicas e períodos da guerra e a paz. Isto porque as perspectivas dominantes das Relações Internacionais, e mesmo dos Estudos da Paz e dos Conflitos, tendem, a ignorar múltiplas violências quotidianas assim como os percursos de produção de margens sociais e políticas e as suas reconfigurações ao longo da história; tendem, ao mesmo tempo, a veicular visões estereotipadas dos grupos nas margens do poder, nomeadamente os jovens de países e sociedades periféricas, e a constituí-los como ameaças para a segurança internacional, ignorando o sofrimento localizado e os percursos concretos de reprodução das violências; tendem ainda a secundarizar o papel de dinâmicas e actores internacionais na produção da violência, assim como a negligenciar uma análise das dinâmicas de resistência e de não-violência no quotidiano, privilegiando-se uma análise do comportamento dos actores formalmente entendidos como políticos. Pelo contrário, adopta-se nesta tese uma perspectiva alternativa de análise a partir de dois contextos distintos: El Salvador e Guiné-Bissau. Partindo das experiências e percepções de jovens não privilegiados, em contextos urbanos marcados por adversidades constantes, questiona a utilidade e pertinência dos enquadramentos de reflexão e de intervenção baseados na identificação entre pós-guerra, pós-crise e pós-violências e revela a permanência e incrustação da guerra, da crise e da violência no quotidiano. As vivências quotidianas de violência, de sofrimento e de impossibilidades nestes contextos reflectem fragmentos de guerra na paz, assim como fragmentos de resistência na reprodução da violência e da dominação. Reflectem, ainda, uma genealogia das violências e da distribuição do poder à qual não são alheios actores e políticas internacionais. Esta análise leva-nos assim a reconsiderar a distinção rígida entre velhas e novas violências, entre violência política e não política, entre actores políticos e não-políticos, entre agressores e vítimas, entre grupos mais e menos relevantes, entre local e internacional.This thesis challenges the prevailing academic perspectives and international practices regarding post-war contexts. It sustains that these perspectives are based on a binary thinking that establishes opposite categories and periods such as war and peace, political and criminal, reproduction and resistance. This limited outlook, it is argued, prevents the thorough comprehension of the relations, continuities and mimesis that connect the periods and logics of war and peace. Therefore, mainstream International Relations and even some Peace and Conflict Studies perspectives tend to ignore the multiple forms of everyday violences as well as the processes of production of social and political margins and their reconfiguration throughout history. At the same time, these perspectives tend to propagate stereotyped views of the groups at the margins of power, namely of youngsters in peripheral countries and societies, and portray them as threats to international security, ignoring local suffering and the particular paths through which violences are reproduced. Furthermore, they also tend to overlook the role of international actors and dynamics in the production of violence and neglect the examination of the dynamics of resistance and nonviolence in everyday life, privileging instead an exploration of the behaviour of formal political actors. Conversely, this thesis adopts an alternative analysis approach, examining two distinct contexts: El Salvador and Guinea-Bissau. Drawing upon the experiences and perceptions of non privileged youth, in urban contexts characterised by continuous adversities, it questions the utility and the relevance of academic and intervention frameworks that tend to equate post-war with post-crisis and post-violences and rather reveals the permanence and pervasiveness of war, crisis and violence in everyday life. In these contexts, everyday experiences of violence, suffering and impossibility reveal fragments of war in peacetimes as well as fragments of resistance in the midst of violence reproduction and domination. Furthermore, these everyday violences reveal a genealogy of violences and of power distribution, which are also influenced by international actors and policies. Finally, this analysis leads us to reconsider the rigid distinctions between old and new violences, political and non-political violence, political and non-political actors, perpetrators and victims, more relevant groups and less relevant groups, the local and the international.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - SFRH / BD / 36589 / 200

A culture of learning in the informal museum setting?

An interactive science exhibition was used as the basis for a study of young children's behaviour and learning in an informal setting. Young primary school children were observed during school excursions to the exhibition, and the interactions of the children with the exhibits, with each other and with the adults supervising the visit were examined. In the context of this exhibition, learning was enhanced by student interaction with other students, and by the involvement of supervisory adults in guiding the students in the exploration of the activities provided. It is suggested that an appropriate environment for learning in this informal museum environment, is one where the children are free to interact with their peers, where the activities encourage co-operative activity between students, and where assistance from adult supervisors is available to facilitate student investigation of exhibits. Teachers, parents and museum staff involved in school visits to the informal setting need to take an active role in promoting a culture of learning

Challenges to Participating in a Lifestyle Intervention Program: The Native American Diabetes Project

PURPOSE: This paper describes the factors that American Indian teachers in the Native American Diabetes Project (NADP) reported affected participation in the NADP lifestyle education sessions. METHODS: A postsession exit interview was conducted with each of the 7 mentors (teachers) of the NADP sessions. Interview questions addressed general perceptions of the sessions, factors that kept participants from coming to the sessions, and attitudes toward diabetes and persons with diabetes. Interviews were transcribed and responses reflecting factors related to participation were marked and organized into topic areas. RESULTS: Mentors reported a range of factors that affected participation in the sessions, such as conflicts with community activities and beliefs/attitudes about diabetes. The latter factor includes program knowledge, recruitment methods, attitudes toward the program, and beliefs about diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: Asking community members what factors they believe affect participation is an important component of increasing participation in community-based programs. Community members can provide a valuable personal perspective of actual and potential conflicts in the community