The Differentiation and Promotion of Students’ Rights in Portugal

This investigation includes a differential study (Study 1) and a quasi-experimental research (Study 2). In Study 1, the objective was to establish to what extent students’ rights existed and analyse the differentiation between students’ rights with Portuguese and immigrant mothers, throughout school years. The sample consisted of 537 students with Portuguese and immigrant mothers, distributed by different school years (7th, 9th and 11th grades). The Children’s Rights Scale (Hart et al., 1996; Veiga, 2001) was used. In Study 2, the purpose was to analyse the effects on students’ rights of the use by teachers of a communicational intervention program, supervised by school psychologists. The sample involved 7th and 9th grade students, in a total of four classes, two forming the experimental groups (n = 36) and two the control groups (n = 43); as in Study 1, the Children’s Rights Scale was used. The results indicated the effectiveness of the communicational intervention program on students’ rights and are consistent with previous studies. An implication is that psychologists and teachers, working together and taking a human rights perspective, may develop an important role in projects to promote the students’ rights

Academic freedom in Europe: reviewing UNESCO’s recommendation

This paper examines the compliance of universities in the European Union with the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher–Education Teaching Personnel, which deals primarily with protection for academic freedom. The paper briefly surveys the European genesis of the modern research university and academic freedom, before evaluating compliance with the UNESCO recommendation on institutional autonomy, academic freedom, university governance and tenure. Following from this, the paper examines the reasons for the generally low level of compliance with the UNESCO Recommendation within the EU states, and considers how such compliance could be improved

Human rights and community work. Complementary theories and practices

Much effort has been placed on developing international understandings of human rights without the corresponding attention to responsibilities. The authors argue that a community development framework may be useful in re-conceiving human rights in a more holistic way, and that social workers and community development workers are well placed to be 'grass roots human rights workers

Statistical analysis of the phytocoenose homogeneity. II. Species frequency distribution and frequency distribution of the standing biomass as a function of the area size

Homogeneity of the Leucobryo-Pineium phytocoenose was assessed on the grounds of the species frequency distribution and frequency distributions of the total ground-layer biomass and those of individual species. It was confirmed that: 1) species frequency distribution and frequency distribution of biomass, as well as their statistical characteristics depended on the area size and 2) for analysed phytocoenose the area at which frequency distributions of both measures were symmetrical could be determined. The studies showed that phytocoenose homogeneity was related only to the definite area size, i.e. to the definite scale of its spatial differentiation