Simultaneous identities: ethnicity and nationalism in mother tongue education in Nepal*

The scholarly works on ethnicity and nationalism have been highly dominated by binary frameworks. In addition, the normative preference for civic consciousness and the concerns of national disintegration often separate the notions of ethnicity and nationalism. This article suggests that the notions of ethnicity and nationalism cannot be understood exclusively as a choice between maintaining the integrity of the nation and completely rejecting it. Drawing on fieldwork in mother tongue schools in Nepal, the article draws attention to the ways in which school actors discursively positioned ethnic identity as imperative to national identity, the one that bolsters the notion of Nepali nationhood. By paying close attention to the everyday context within which discourses of nationalism are situated, this article argues for an analytical necessity to approach ethnicity and nationalism in relation to each other to appreciate the process of symbolic negotiations in public spaces.     

Geography's secret powers to save the world

The purpose of this paper, prepared to present at the 2018 joint Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG) and International Geographical Union (IGU) regional conference, is to suggest three strategies, framed as proposals, that geography and geography education can deploy to “save the world.” The first proposal is to expand explicit instruction in spatial thinking to close gender‐based achievement gaps. The second proposal is to apply research from the learning sciences to develop persuasive geography curricula and instructional materials. The third proposal focuses on ways social media and geospatial technologies can be employed in civic education, an idea termed “spatial citizenship.” The paper suggests a re‐envisioning of geography education with an enhanced focus on teaching for, in, and about a world that fully appreciates difference and acts on that appreciation.     

‘Talking Itself Out of a Political Future’: Education and Australian Army Engagement with Papua New Guinean Independence, 1966–72

The Australian Army, while having a long association with Papua New Guinea after the Second World War and before independence in 1975, is often conceptualized as a small player in the decolonization process, of interest to scholars because of its cost and potential threat to democratic government. This article examines the Army’s education programme and associated policies in the decade before independence to argue that the institution was acutely aware of looming decolonization, and actively sought to create a national Papua New Guinean military by repurposing policies originally designed to serve Australia’s defence needs, in particular through ‘civic’ education. It embarked on this path without direction from the Department of Territories. While the results of ‘civic’ education are difficult to determine, this article shows that the Australian Army was engaged in the profound shifts occurring around it in Papua New Guinea.     

Bringing Organizations Back In: Multilevel Feedback Effects on Individual Civic Inclusion

Policy feedback scholarship has focused on how laws and their implementation affect either organizations (e.g., their resources, priorities, political opportunities, or incentive structures) or individuals (e.g., their civic skills and resources or their psychological orientations toward the state). However, in practice the distinction between organizations and individuals is not clear‐cut: Organizations interpret policy for individuals, and individuals experience policy through organizations. Thus, scholars have argued for a multi‐level model of feedback effects illuminating how policies operating at the organizational level reverberate at the individual level. In this theory‐building article, we push this insight by examining how public policy influences nonprofit organizations’ role in the civic life of beneficiaries. We identify five roles that nonprofit organizations play. For each role, we draw on existing research to identify policy mechanisms that either enlarge or diminish nonprofits’ capacity to facilitate individual incorporation and engagement. From these examples, we derive cross‐cutting hypotheses concerning how different categories of citizens may need policy to operate differently to enhance their civic influence; whether policy that is “delivered” through nonprofits may dampen citizens’ relationship with the state; and how the civic boost provided by policy may be influenced by the degree of latitude conferred on recipient organizations.     

马来西亚华人社会的语言生活和认同结构——以问卷调查为基础的分析

为了客观反映马来西亚华人在语言和认同等领域的现状,采用问卷调查的方法,通过基本数据材料的分析,探讨了当今马来西亚吉隆坡、古晋、吧巴和诗巫等地的华人认同情况.在语言方面,华人子弟在小学阶段大致打好华语基础,同时保持华人认同.在日常生活中,华语和华人方言的使用占优势,但在商业和职业范围,马来语和英语的使用率有所增加.经济生活方面,华人发扬了传统的奋斗精神,贡献于国民经济的发展.政治认同方面,华人对马来西亚的认同,远远高于对中国等其它对象的认同.结果显示:华人既保持华人性而又能动地适应国民规范;华人以民族语言维持传统文化的族群社会功能,扮演着国家社会发展的重要角色,在这一过程中,华人形成了本身的"华人文化圈"并进一步孕育着华人文化的发展与创新.     

邓小平对恢复高考的特殊贡献

恢复高考是教育战线拨乱反正的一个重要突破,是中国高等教育发展史上的一个里程碑,对国家、社会和个人的发展都产生了深远的影响。在恢复高考这一决策过程中邓小平起了关键作用。他吸取了"文化大革命"时期高等教育的教训,号召要完整准确地理解毛泽东思想的科学体系,领导指导思想和教育战线上的拨乱反正,为恢复高考扫清了思想障碍;推动党和政府做出恢复高考的战略决策,实现了中国高等教育史上的一次重要转折;领导整顿教学秩序,为创造良好的高等教育环境做出了重要贡献。     

"良妻贤母"与"贤妻良母"的不同命运——近代中日女子教育比较

“良妻贤母”曾经是近代日本女子教育的代名词,有知识、有文化,始终是近代日本妇女的“贤”与“良”的主要标准之一。其时的中国也曾受其影响,以培养“贤妻良母”为目标。然而,近代以后半封建、半殖民地的社会状况使中国妇女不可能像日本妇女那样,在相对安稳的环境下去接受教育和知识的熏陶。日本的“良妻贤母”与中国的“贤妻良母”不仅有着不同的内涵,也面临着完全不同的命运。     

对"大跃进"时期江苏省农业中学的宏观历史考察

1958年,农业中学最先诞生于江苏省.在"大跃进"运动的影响下,江苏省农业中学的学校数量及在校人数迅速膨胀,成为全国教育"大跃进"的一个重要组成部分和表现形式.在整个"大跃进"时期,江苏省的农业中学始终保持了一个庞大的规模,直到中共中央决定对国民经济实行"调整、巩固、充实、提高",其盲目发展的势头才得以遏制并开始逐步调整.     

Between nationalism and regionalism: Higher education policy and national/regional identity in Quebec and Wallonia

This article explores the nexus between nationalism/regionalism and higher education policy at the subnational scale. Relying on a Critical Discourse Analysis, the study investigates how notions of national/regional identity are discursively embedded in the higher education policy discussions of Quebec and Wallonia. A comparative approach based on the distinct logics of subnational politics in both cases is used. Whereas Quebec is considered a quintessential example of ‘subnationalism’, the Walloon case is defined as a political regionalist movement. The findings reveal the permeation of substate identity interests in both Quebec and Wallonia's higher education policy discussions, underscoring parallels between them despite their diverging characters. At the same time, the discourse analysis sheds light on important distinctions in the manner in which this identity discourse is articulated. By juxtaposing identity politics in ‘nationalist’ and ‘regionalist’ movements, the study aims to bridge their conceptualisation and critically reflect on the categorisation of subnational movements.