Reconceptualizing the Republic: Diversity and Education in France, 1945–2008

Since the nineteenth century, France, not unlike the United States, has experienced significant immigration and, as a result, great flux. Yet, the French public discourse and policy instruments concerned with ethnic and racial diversities evolved in sharp contrast to those in the United States. Whereas U.S. nation-building incorporated the recognition of ethnoracial identities, with all of its trials and tribulations, the French nation's trajectory assumed a unitary form. Recent developments, however, point to changes in the Republic's projection of its identity and its citizenry. An analysis of school teaching finds that the Republic is now re-envisioned as open and tolerant of diversity, though more from a universalistic, normative perspective—increasingly indexed at the transnational level—than from a perspective that privileges France's immigrant and colonial past. </jats:p

Evaluation of anti-tuberculosis potentials of selected medicinal plants in Endau Rompin, Johor, Malaysia

Tuberculosis (TB) remains an escalating health crisis globally which prompts new approaches to find more effective therapeutic strategies. Medicinal plants of Malaysia have a significant role to play in being able to provide new therapeutic remedies. The local people of Kampung Peta (Jakun tribe), Endau Rompin claimed that local preparations of some plants are used to treat symptoms of tuberculosis. There is a need to validate the claim by tradition healers scientifically. The aim of this research is to search for anti-TB from plants of Taman Negara Johor Endau-Rompin, exploiting the traditional medical practices of the Jakun people. Aqueous and organic extracts of these plant species were screened for their antimycobacterial activity using agar disk diffusion assay, Tetrazolium Microplate Assay and agar plate assay against Mycobacterium smegmatis. The effect of the extract on mycobacterial cell at the cellular level was investigated upon treatment with the crude extracts via time-kill analysis, leakage of compound absorbing at 280nm, and field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The findings revealed that methanol extract of Nepenthes ampularia displayed the largest zone of inhibition (DIZ=18.67 ± 0.58 mm). Ethyl acetate extract of Musa gracilis and hexane extract of N. ampularia exhibited the lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC=0.39 mg/mL). Hexane extract of N. ampularia showed the lowest minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC= 1.56 mg/mL). At 3-fold of MIC, hexane extract of N. ampularia, ethyl acetate extract of M. gracilis and ethyl acetate extract of N. ampularia killed the entire bacterial cell within 8 h of exposure by causing the cell lysis. The GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of phytoconstituents that might contribute to the antimycobacterial effect. The study scientifically justified the use of the selected medicinal plant species by Jakun people. Further studies on N. ampularia and M. gracilis could lead to the development of new anti-TB drugs

L’éducation en vue d’un développement durable: enjeux, objectifs et pistes pratiques interdisciplinaires

Le présent article propose des pistes de réflexion susceptibles d'aider à penser les programmes scolaires à travers l'idée d'urie éducation en vue d'un développement durable (EDD). Le développement durable (DD) est un projet de société et un choix politique. Il nécessite l'acquisition de connaissances pour comprendre les problématiques complexes et interdisciplinaires auxquelles il fait référence. Mais plus encore, il nous conduit vers des modes de raisonnement et des logiques qui nous sont peu habituels. Penser une éducation en vue d'un développement durable doit donc prendre en compte des particularités qui portent autant sur des aspects cognitifs (les modes de raisonnement et les connaissances) que sur des aspects affectifs et émotionnels (liés notamment aux valeurs, aux paradigmes et aux imaginaires) ou politiques et économiques (éducation citoyenne, principe de responsabilité). Enfin, cette éducation ayant une visée pragmatique, la question du passage à l'action ne doit pas être éludée. Les pistes pédagogiques qui conduisent vers une telle éducation portent en elles les germes d'un enseignement différent, organisé de manière non dogmatique, et osant aborder les valeurs et surtout leur clarification

Ambiguities and paradoxes in a competence-based approach to vocational education and training in France

This article aims to show the effects of the prevalence of the competence regime within several sectors of vocational education and training in France. The first part of the article outlines the origin of the concept of competence and the evolution of its meaning. Later, the underlying theoretical and epistemological foundations are examined and two different paradigms are distinguished. The second part of the article focuses on ambiguities and paradoxes of effect of competence approaches, in specific educational programmes in the healthcare professions and social work in France. This study is based on the analysis of a corpus of documents concerning French vocational education and training that use a competence-based approach. (DIPF/Orig.

Contributions to a cognitive analysis of the teacher evaluation policy

A definição de novas regras para a avaliação dos professores do ensino não superior acontece, em Portugal, com a publicação do Decreto‑Lei n.º 15/2007, de 19 de Janeiro. A avaliação assenta agora em mecanismos competitivos, de prestação de contas, influência quiçá das instâncias de regulação supranacional na elaboração das políticas nacionais. Desta “cultura do desempenho” irrompem instrumentos que complexificam a natureza e o formato do conhecimento recolhido e apelam à recomposição das relações entre o Es‑ tado e as grandes organizações internacionais. Perspectiva‑se o conhecimento com uma centralidade que lhe advém do seu crescimento e difusão à escala mundial. A avaliação, na forma de regulação instrumental, intervém na construção da agenda e da decisão política, podendo ser vista como processo político. O conhecimento, enquan‑ to instrumento de regulação, implica que se apure o tipo de conhecimento mobilizado através dos instrumentos de regulação e a forma como se processa a sua recepção. Consequentemente, importa fazer a genealogia desta nova política e analisar as mu‑ danças dos modos de regulação a partir do seu estudo, vendo os instrumentos como produtos das decisões políticas e os referenciais como produtores dessas decisõe