El exilio interior y el destierro de las maestras australianas en un sistema escolar estatal centralizado y patriarcal

This article explores Australian women teachers’ struggles for equality with men from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. While Australia purported to be a progressive democratic nation, centralised patriarchal state school systems relied on women teachers to fulfil the requirements of free, compulsory and secular schooling. This study focuses on the state of South Australia where women were enfranchised in 1894, far ahead of European countries. However, women teachers were subjected to internal exile in the state school system, and banished by the marriage bar. The article begins with the construction of the South Australian state school system in the late nineteenth century. The enforcement of the marriage bar created a differentiated profession of many young single women who taught prior to marriage; a few married women who required an income; and a cohort of senior single women who made teaching a life-long career and contested other forms of subordination to which all women teachers were subject. Led by the latter group, South Australian women teachers pursued equality in early twentieth century mixed teachers unions and post-suffrage women’s organisations; and established the Women Teachers Guild in 1937 to secure more equal conditions of employment. The paper concludes with the situation after World War Two when married women were re admitted to the state school system to resolve teacher shortages; and campaigns for equal pay gathered momentum. In South Australia, the marriage bar was eventually removed in 1972.Este artículo explora las luchas de las maestras australianas por la igualdad con los hombres desde finales del siglo XIX hasta mediados del siglo XX. Aunque Australia pretendía ser una nación democrática progresista, los sistemas escolares estatales patriarcales centralizados dependían de las maestras para cumplir con los requisitos de la escolarización gratuita, obligatoria y laica. Este estudio se centra en el estado de Australia  meridional, donde las mujeres obtuvieron el derecho al voto en 1894, muy por delante de los países europeos. Sin embargo, las maestras fueron  sometidas a un exilio interior en el sistema escolar estatal, y desterradas por la barrera matrimonial. El artículo comienza con la construcción del sistema escolar estatal de Australia del Sur a finales del siglo XIX. La aplicación de la prohibición del matrimonio creó una profesión diferenciada de muchas mujeres jóvenes y solteras que enseñaban antes de casarse; unas pocas mujeres casadas que necesitaban un ingreso; y una cohorte de mujeres solteras de edad avanzada que hicieron de la enseñanza una carrera para toda la vida e impugnaron otras formas de subordinación a las que estaban sujetas todas las maestras. Encabezadas por este último grupo, las profesoras de Australia del Sur persiguieron la igualdad en los sindicatos mixtos de profesores de principios del siglo XX y en las organizaciones de mujeres posteriores al sufragio, y crearon el Women Teachers Guild en 1937 para garantizar unas condiciones de empleo más igualitarias. El documento concluye con la situación después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, cuando las mujeres casadas fueron readmitidas en el sistema escolar estatal para resolver la escasez de maestros; y las campañas por la igualdad de salarios cobraron impulso. En Australia Meridional, la prohibición del matrimonio se eliminó finalmente en 1972

Where are the early years of school in contemporary early childhood education reforms? An historical perspective

Made available in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13384-014-0161-0Although international definitions of early childhood repeatedly refer to a birth-8 age span, there are complex, institutional divides within this age range. This paper explores the divide between pre-compulsory and compulsory early childhood institutions. In countries such as Finland this divide is not such an issue because children do not begin formal schooling until age seven or eight. However, in Australia these 8 years include both pre-compulsory programs (often birth-5) and compulsory schooling. We argue that in situations where the early years of compulsory school are included in a country’s definitions of early childhood, they often occupy a tenuous place in research, policy and practice. Drawing from the history of early childhood education in South Australia, we explore the place that the early years of school have occupied in early childhood discourse, policy and practice and then consider some contemporary state-based and national reforms. Our hope is that by considering the South Australian past, the paper may provide a space from which to advocate for policies and structures that uphold specialist expertise and leadership in the early years of schooling

Sowing the Seeds of a Pre-Service Model of Teacher Education in the Early Twentieth Century.

Our article seeks to describe, analyse and assess the contribution of Margaret Hodge and Harriet C. Newcomb to the training of kindergarten, primary and secondary school teachers in New South Wales at a time of wide-ranging educational reform. These two English teacher educators were recruited to Sydney in 1897 for the purpose of establishing a new training scheme equivalent to the teaching diploma courses offered at the University of Cambridge. In their subsequent work for the Training Board of the NSW Teachers’ Association, reconfiguring training programs for teachers in private schools, as lecturers and examiners in the history and theory of education, and in founding Shirley School and Kindergarten to practically demonstrate their progressive educational philosophy, the pair were at the forefront of moves to abolish the outmoded pupil teacher system and institute a pre-service model of teacher education. Concurrently, they agitated for change by speaking authoritatively in various forums on the broader issue of improved schooling standards through the systematic training of teachers in the science and art of education. On the eve of their return to London after eleven years in Sydney, Margaret and Harriet aptly concluded that if their record was one of “the petty done, the vast undone”, and their appeal for the technical training of teachers so they might constitute themselves into a professional class “premature”, they had “at least sown the seed”.

British Teachers in Canada After Both World Wars: “Imbued with the spirit of Empire”?

Using a transnational framework, this paper explores five British teachers’ perspectives of Canadian people and education in the years following both World Wars. These teachers came to Canada for various reasons and periods of time. Although they spoke from diverse social locations, they found much that they could identify as British in Canada. Notwithstanding the presence of “New Canadians” and persistent gender inequalities in the teaching workforce, Canada was conceptualized as a “land of opportunity” and loyal to the British Empire. However, the British teachers were ambivalent about the extent to which progressive curriculum and teaching practices had mediated the “system of marks and exams” which characterized Canadian education

Radio MARC Nov 3,1989

Radio program sponsored by Franco American Centre on WMEB, University of Maine radio station

Several types of types in programming languages

Types are an important part of any modern programming language, but we often forget that the concept of type we understand nowadays is not the same it was perceived in the sixties. Moreover, we conflate the concept of "type" in programming languages with the concept of the same name in mathematical logic, an identification that is only the result of the convergence of two different paths, which started apart with different aims. The paper will present several remarks (some historical, some of more conceptual character) on the subject, as a basis for a further investigation. The thesis we will argue is that there are three different characters at play in programming languages, all of them now called types: the technical concept used in language design to guide implementation; the general abstraction mechanism used as a modelling tool; the classifying tool inherited from mathematical logic. We will suggest three possible dates ad quem for their presence in the programming language literature, suggesting that the emergence of the concept of type in computer science is relatively independent from the logical tradition, until the Curry-Howard isomorphism will make an explicit bridge between them.Comment: History and Philosophy of Computing, HAPOC 2015. To appear in LNC

Lfc and Lsc Oncoproteins Represent Two New Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors for the Rho GTP-binding Protein

Lfc and Lsc are two recently identified oncoproteins that contain a Dbl homology domain in tandem with a pleckstrin homology domain and thus share sequence similarity with a number of other growth regulatory proteins including Dbl, Tiam-1, and Lbc. We show here that Lfc and Lsc, like their closest relative Lbc, are highly specific guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) for Rho, causing a >10-fold stimulation of [3H]GDP dissociation from Rho and a marked stimulation of GDP-[35S]GTPgammas (guanosine 5'-O-(3-thiotriphosphate) exchange. All three proteins (Lbc, Lfc, and Lsc) are able to act catalytically in stimulating the guanine nucleotide exchange activity, such that a single molecule of each of these oncoproteins can activate a number of molecules of Rho. Neither Lfc nor Lsc shows any ability to stimulate GDP dissociation from other related GTP-binding proteins such as Rac, Cdc42, or Ras. Thus Lbc, Lfc, and Lsc appear to represent a subgroup of Dbl-related proteins that function as highly specific GEFs toward Rho and can be distinguished from Dbl, Ost, and Dbs which are less specific and show GEF activity toward both Rho and Cdc42. Consistent with these results, Lbc, Lfc, and Lsc each form tight complexes with the guanine nucleotide-depleted form of Rho and bind weakly to the GDP- and GTPgammaS-bound states. None of these oncoproteins are able to form complexes with Cdc42 or Ras. However, Lfc (but not Lbc nor Lsc) can bind to Rac, and this binding occurs equally well when Rac is nucleotide-depleted or is in the GDP- or GTPgammaS-bound state. These findings raise the possibility that in addition to acting directly as a GEF for Rho, Lfc may play other roles that influence the signaling activities of Rac and/or coordinate the activities of the Rac and Rho proteins

Modeling daily soil salinity dynamics in response to agricultural and environmental changes in coastal Bangladesh

Understanding the dynamics of salt movement in the soil is a prerequisite for devising appropriate management strategies for land productivity of coastal regions, especially low-lying delta regions, which support many millions of farmers around the world. At present, there are no numerical models able to resolve soil salinity at regional scale and at daily time steps. In this research, we develop a novel holistic approach to simulate soil salinization comprising an emulator-based soil salt and water balance calculated at daily time steps. The method is demonstrated for the agriculture areas of coastal Bangladesh (∼20,000 km2). This shows that we can reproduce the dynamics of soil salinity under multiple land uses, including rice crops, combined shrimp and rice farming, as well as non-rice crops. The model also reproduced well the observed spatial soil salinity for the year 2009. Using this approach, we have projected the soil salinity for three different climate ensembles, including relative sea-level rise for the year 2050. Projected soil salinity changes are significantly smaller than other reported projections. The results suggest that inter-season weather variability is a key driver of salinization of agriculture soils at coastal Bangladesh

Regulation of RasGRP via a Phorbol Ester-Responsive C1 Domain

As part of a cDNA library screen for clones that induce transformation of NIH 3T3 fibroblasts, we have isolated a cDNA encoding the murine homolog of the guanine nucleotide exchange factor RasGRP. A point mutation predicted to prevent interaction with Ras abolished the ability of murine RasGRP (mRasGRP) to transform fibroblasts and to activate mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAP kinases). MAP kinase activation via mRasGRP was enhanced by coexpression of H-, K-, and N-Ras and was partially suppressed by coexpression of dominant negative forms of H- and K-Ras. The C terminus of mRasGRP contains a pair of EF hands and a C1 domain which is very similar to the phorbol ester- and diacylglycerol-binding C1 domains of protein kinase Cs. The EF hands could be deleted without affecting the ability of mRasGRP to transform NIH 3T3 cells. In contrast, deletion of the C1 domain or an adjacent cluster of basic amino acids eliminated the transforming activity of mRasGRP. Transformation and MAP kinase activation via mRasGRP were restored if the deleted C1 domain was replaced either by a membrane-localizing prenylation signal or by a diacylglycerol- and phorbol ester-binding C1 domain of protein kinase C. The transforming activity of mRasGRP could be regulated by phorbol ester when serum concentrations were low, and this effect of phorbol ester was dependent on the C1 domain of mRasGRP. The C1 domain could also confer phorbol myristate acetate-regulated transforming activity on a prenylation-defective mutant of K-Ras. The C1 domain mediated the translocation of mRasGRP to cell membranes in response to either phorbol ester or serum stimulation. These results suggest that the primary mechanism of activation of mRasGRP in fibroblasts is through its recruitment to diacylglycerol-enriched membranes. mRasGRP is expressed in lymphoid tissues and the brain, as well as in some lymphoid cell lines. In these cells, RasGRP has the potential to serve as a direct link between receptors which stimulate diacylglycerol-generating phospholipase Cs and the activation of Ras