Examining the role of ideological and political education on university students' civic perceptions and civic participation in Mainland China: Some hints from contemporary citizenship theory

A long existing compulsive curriculum of ideological and political education is employed by the Chinese government to promote citizenship education among Chinese university students. This article builds on the findings of a mixed-methods research that examined the role of ideological and political education on university students’ civic perceptions and civic participation. The results showed little evidence of this curriculum having a clear effect on students’ political participation such as voting, as well as their idealized broad civic participation, but did reveal relatively positive effects on students’ civic intention and civic expression. In addition, it also identified its significant role in organizing students towards attending party-related activities. It shows that ideological and political education is insufficient to achieve specified aims of citizenship education among Chinese university students. We then argue that it results from a mechanistic understanding of citizenship and participation in educational policies and structural barriers to young people’s formal participation. Hence, this article argues that the forms and contents of citizenship education in China need to be reconsidered beyond the limits of the current ideological and political education and that the analyses contributed to an argument for a broader approach to citizenship education to be developed and adopted

Education and work in Scotland: global knowledge economy, enterprise culture and entrepreneurship

This thesis has grown out of interest in and observation of dilemmas for practice and attitudes to enterprise education in primary and secondary schools in Scotland. There seem to be mixed views on the purpose of enterprise education and its justification to be part of the curriculum, its relationship to other means of addressing work-related purposes of education and shifting policy interpretations that propose to link enterprise education with entrepreneurship education. This latter consideration has been highlighted more recently with the provision of financial support for enterprise education from successful and influential Scottish entrepreneurs. These circumstances are examined in the later parts of the thesis and are preceded by an analysis of the wider context and variety of connections and interrelationships between work and education. Historical, social, political, economic and cultural connections emerge as necessary disciplines for understanding work, how our concept of work has developed and how it has been related to education along the way. Historical analysis is needed in order to analyse and forecast how education and work relationships are developing today and so a history of work and its relationship with education in industrial and post-industrial economies is provided as well as consideration of developments in the traditional but more narrowly defined area of vocational education. More recent developments in global interconnectedness, communications technology and the emergence of knowledge as the major requirement of our 21st Century lives have altered the balance in the education and work relationship making education the more proactive agent in the pair. Educational policy and practice have in the past been shaped by political and economic changes in society but contemporary attitudes to the importance of knowledge, its application and its transfer, in stimulating economic growth have made learning a sought after ‘commodity’ and education, although slow to make major changes to school practice, is now in a position to shape the nature and practice of work and workplaces. It emerges in the thesis that although education has been and is influenced by political, social and economic requirements, policy makers arguably have not paid much attention to the social sciences or to philosophical considerations when considering curriculum development. Likewise social science and philosophical enclaves have not shown much interest in educational theory and practice. Only recently have education faculties been established in many UK universities and begun to develop research cultures that in other disciplines already have long traditions and prestige. The chapters of the thesis bring together a broad and original compilation of areas of study that provide a scenario of connections that have the potential to inform, motivate and increase the understanding of educators and the makers of education policy when addressing the work-related aims of education. The final chapter sums up the scope of the variety of influences on the relationship between education and work and proposes that, although they provide very necessary bases for understanding, they have over time diminished what the thesis claims to be a necessary element in all education and educational policy deliberations, including those on education for work: that of value-based considerations for the development of the human person. Suggested ways forward for schools and course design, teacher education and education policy making are provided in the light of the deliberations of the thesis

Teacher 2020. On the Road to Entrepreneurial Fluency in Teacher Education

No abstract available

Job quality in Europe

Promoting job quality and gender equality are objectives of the European Employment Strategy (EES) in spite of a downgrading of the attention given to both in the revised employment guidelines and the re-launch of the Lisbon Process. However, advances on both of these objectives may be important complements to the employment rate targets of the EES, as access to good quality jobs for both sexes is likely to help sustain higher employment rates. While the European Commission has a broad view of the concept of job quality in practice, it relies on a selection of labour market type indicators that say little about the quality of the actual jobs people do. Using data from the 2005 European Working Conditions survey, we analyse job quality along three dimensions: job content, autonomy and working conditions. We conclude that gender and occupational status, along with other job characteristics such as working time and sector, have more influence on an individual’s job quality than the country or ‘national model’ they are situated in. Our results also demonstrate the value of developing indicators of job quality that are both gender sensitive and derived at the level of the job rather than the labour market in order to advance EU policy and academic debate on this topic

The effect of boundary constraints on finite element modelling of the human pelvis

The use of finite element analysis (FEA) to investigate the biomechanics of anatomical systems critically relies on the specification of physiologically representative boundary conditions. The biomechanics of the pelvis has been the specific focus of a number of FEA studies previously, but it is also a key aspect in other investigations of, for example, the hip joint or new design of hip prostheses. In those studies, the pelvis has been modelled in a number of ways with a variety of boundary conditions, ranging from a model of the whole pelvic girdle including soft tissue attachments to a model of an isolated hemi-pelvis. The current study constructed a series of FEA models of the same human pelvis to investigate the sensitivity of the predicted stress distributions to the type of boundary conditions applied, in particular to represent the sacro-iliac joint and pubic symphysis. Varying the method of modelling the sacro-iliac joint did not produce significant variations in the stress distribution, however changes to the modelling of the pubic symphysis were observed to have a greater effect on the results. Over-constraint of the symphysis prevented the bending of the pelvis about the greater sciatic notch, and underestimated high stresses within the ilium. However, permitting medio-lateral translation to mimic widening of the pelvis addressed this problem. These findings underline the importance of applying the appropriate boundary conditions to FEA models, and provide guidance on suitable methods of constraining the pelvis when, for example, scan data has not captured the full pelvic girdle. The results also suggest a valid method for performing hemi-pelvic modelling of cadaveric or archaeological remains which are either damaged or incomplete

The potential role of variations in juvenile hip geometry on the development of Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease: a biomechanical investigation

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease (LCP) is one of the most poorly understood diseases in paediatric orthopaedics. One common trait of LCP is the marked morphological difference between healthy and pathological hips, early deviations of which (i.e. prior to disease onset) have been suggested to lead to the overload and collapse of the epiphysis. Here, the impact of common variations in geometry is investigated with a finite element model of a juvenile femur under single leg standing and landing. Here, the impact of typical variations in geometry is investigated with a finite element model of a juvenile femur under single leg standing and landing. The variations appear to have only a limited effect on the stress distribution in the femoral epiphysis even during high impact activities. This suggests that, for this individual at least, they would be unlikely to cause epiphyseal overload and collapse, even in the presence of a skeletally immature epiphysis

Death by Stereotype: Race, Ethnicity, and California's Failure to Implement Furman's Narrowing Requirement

The influence of race on the administration of capital punishment had a major role in the U.S. Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Furman v. Georgia to invalidate death penalty statutes across the United States. To avoid discriminatory and capricious application of capital punishment, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment requires legislatures to narrow the scope of capital offenses and ensure that only the most severe crimes are subjected to the ultimate punishment. This Article demonstrates the racial and ethnic dimensions of California's failure to implement this narrowing requirement. Our analysis uses a sample of 1,900 cases drawn from 27,453 California convictions for first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and voluntary manslaughter with offense dates between January 1978 and June 2002. California's death penalty statute requires a finding of one or more enumerated special circumstances for death eligibility. Contrary to the teachings of Furman, however, we found that several of California's special circumstances apply disparately based on the race or ethnicity of the defendant. In so doing, the statute appears to codify rather than ameliorate the harmful racial stereotypes that are endemic to our criminal justice system. The instantiation of racial and ethnic stereotypes into death eligibility raises the specter of discriminatory application of California's statute, with implications for constitutional regulation of capital punishment

Furman at 45: Constitutional Challenges from California's Failure to (Again) Narrow Death Eligibility

The Eighth Amendment's "narrowing" requirement for capital punishment eligibility has challenged states since it was recognized in Furman v. Georgia in 1972. This article examines whether California's death penalty scheme complies with this requirement by enpirically analyzing 27,453 California convictions for first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and voluntary manslaughter with offense dates between January 1978 and June 2002. Using a 1,900-case sample, we examine whether California's death penalty statute fails to comply with the Eighth Amendment's narrowing test. Our findings support two conclusions. First, the death-eligibility rate among California homicide cases is the highest in the nation during that period and in the ensuing decade. We find that 95 percent of all first-degree murder convictions and 59 percent of all second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter convictions were death eligible under California's 2008 statute. Second, a death sentence is imposed in only a small fraction of the d death-eligible cases. The California death sentencing rate of 4.3 percent among all death-eligible cases is among the lowest in the nation and over two-thirds lower than the death-sentencing rate in pre-Furman Georgia

Using the A/T/N framework to examine driving in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease

The A/T/N classification system is the foundation of the 2018 NIA-AA Research Framework and is intended to guide the Alzheimer disease (AD) research agenda for the next 5–10 years. Driving is a widespread functional activity that may be particularly useful in investigation of functional changes in pathological AD before onset of cognitive symptoms. We examined driving in preclinical AD using the A/T/N framework and found that the onset of driving difficulties is most associated with abnormality of both amyloid and tau pathology, rather than amyloid alone. These results have implications for participant selection into clinical trials and for the application time of interventions aimed at prolonging the time of safe driving among older adults with preclinical AD