Clustering together to advance school improvement: working together in peer support with an external colleague

This research study explored how a group of rural primary schools, working together with the same school improvement partner (SIP), could positively affect the leadership of their schools through group strategic planning and the more efficient use of headteacher time and expertise. By using semi-structured interviews with headteachers and informal discussions with governors, the research investigated whether this method of collaborative working, with a single external professional facilitator, could enhance the leadership of the participating schools. The study concluded that the formation of such a collaborative group could have a positive impact on the leadership of the schools, the wellbeing of the headteachers themselves and the expertise of their governing bodies, when it was led by an external professional who had gained the respect and trust of all members of the group. Although the research specifically explored the role of a SIP held in common, its findings are transferable to any group of school leaders working together with a single external partner such as a national or local leader of education (NLE or LLE)

Getting into the Game: The Trickster in American Ethnic Fiction

Trickster novels, especially those by Gerald Vizenor and Maxine Hong Kingston, can be used to destabilize and undermine ethnic stereotypes. As many studies show, the trickster him/herself cannot be stable and thus resists the limitations of definition as the embodiment of ambiguity. Both insider and outsider, s/he plays with the whole concept of sides so as to erase the distinction between them. The trickster plays the game, including the game of language, in order to break and exploit its rules and thus destabilizes linguistic markers. Kingston and Vizenor use their novels to subvert the rules of the linguistic game and free perception from stereotypic rigidity. Perceptions of race and ethnicity are frequently codified in the form of stereotypes with which we are all familiar. Once established, they, of course, prove remarkably difficult to dismantle however false or misleading they might be with regard to the race or ethnicity in question; and thus they continue to exacerbate the social tensions with which we are equally familiar. Ethnic American literature has frequently addressed this issue; in this essay I intend to look at one narrative strategy which is specifically designed to question, challenge, exploit, and even manipulate perception

Artists and critics : the national medical journals

The problems facing the publishing of a national medical journal are many. Established journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal and Lancet have first choice of the best articles, leaving other journals with only second and third rate material. This problem can be solved only by having a larger amount of research, with more authors wanting to publish and enough referees to review the material.peer-reviewe

Is Private Enforcement of EU Law through State Liability a Myth?:An Assessment 20 Years after <em>Francovich</em>

This paper assesses the success of Member State liability as a tool for the private enforcement of European Union law. The argument made is that Member State liability, first established 20 years ago in the Francovich case, is not a suitable and reliable mechanism to compensate for the weaknesses of public enforcement. The argument is based on statistical findings concerning the case law on Member State liability in two key Member State jurisdictions, England and Germany. The findings reveal that surprisingly little litigation has taken place so far and that only a handful of cases were litigated successfully. This leads the author to conclude that Member State liability has not been successful as a mechanism for the enforcement of EU law. The article continues by analyzing why most of the proceedings initiated remain unsuccessful. It is shown that the criteria for the remedy are very difficult to satisfy and that there is reluctance on the part of national courts to award damages for the failure of Member States to comply with EU law. Before this background it is suggested that state liability under EU law should be chiefly regarded as a means of individual compensation rather than a tool for the private enforcement of EU law

[Review of] Lean\u27tin L. Bracks. Writings on Black Women of the Diaspora: History, Language, and Identity. Crosscurrents in African American History, Vol I

In her Preface to this study, Lean\u27tin Bracks describes her purpose as being to describe a model which may provide for today\u27s black woman a means to take control of her destiny by retrieving her Afrocentric legacy from the obscured past (xi). This model, which she applies through discussions of The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, Related by Herself (1831), Toni Morrison\u27s Beloved (1988), Alice Walker\u27s The Color Purple (1982, and Paule Marshall\u27s Praisesong for the Widow (1984), is tripartite: historical awareness, attention to linguistic pattern, and sensitivity to stereotypes in the dominant culture (xi)

Yoruba Girl Dancing and the Post-War Transition to an English Multi-Ethnic Society

This paper exemplifies the insider/outsider binary in a nation\u27s shift towards a multi-ethnic society. The writer gives insight into the African Diaspora within England in her exploration of Yoruba Girl Dancing

[Review of] Jeff Karem. The Romance of Authenticity: The Cultural Politics of Regional and Ethnic Literatures

The romance of authenticity to which the title of Jeff Karem\u27s timely new study refers is the romance between the American reading public and the regional or ethnic writer who is viewed as providing an authentic cultural viewpoint, often to the extent of becoming regarded as the premier representative of that culture. Karem\u27s argument, however, is that too much symbolic weight (205) is often attached to the work of writers seized upon as representative. They are asked to bear the burden of providing a vicarious and definitive immersion in a particular culture, and therefore their work is judged mostly in anthropological terms, with regard to the authenticity of the experience delineated. Mainstream writers, however, are evaluated by much broader standards: they are freer to explore different genres, for example, without risking accusations that their culture is not being accurately represented. [M]uch criticism invested in authenticity and representation, says Karem, has reduced marginal authors to mere informants (209). Worse, in the academic arena the work of such authors (whose canonicity is often largely determined by publishers) is often used as a means of confronting ethnic issues purely symbolically in the classroom, precluding any real action beyond it

Beyond <em>Bosphorus</em>:The European Court of Human Rights’ Case Law on the Responsibility of Member States of International Organisations under the European Convention on Human Rights

Abstract included in the text