Suchergebnisse

The implementation of new policy is often influenced by factors within and outside of an organization. This qualitative case study examines the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in the field of history-social studies (HSS) in a Southern California school district. The literature on implementation points to three possible explanations for variations in policy implementation at the local level. One is lack of understanding of the policy itself on the part of actors implementing the policy. Another is competing priorities both inside and outside the organization that lessen the importance of a new policy. The third is the role of front-line implementers in tailoring policy to the particular needs of the client base they serve. Data from this study suggests that all three factors played a role in standards implementation in the school district studied. Teachers in the district were exposed to three different interpretations of the CCSS and their meaning to the HSS curriculum. One interpretation, dubbed the "literacy" interpretation, suggested that HSS classrooms were to be a location for explicit instruction on reading and writing. Another, labeled the "inquiry" interpretation, envisioned HSS classrooms as a location for student questioning and history education as a process of investigation. The third, the "rigor" perspective, saw CCSS implementation in HSS as a process involving higher levels of student cognition. Given these mixed signals, as well as other demands from district and site administration, teachers in the district studied implemented the CCSS in HSS in a manner I call defensive implementation. Drawing on McNeil's (1986, 2000) concept of defensive teaching, defensive implementation was characterized by three factors: a reliance on outside "experts" as the source of knowledge, compartmentalization of authority and responsibility, and essentialization and display of the reform as implementation of the reform. This study concludes that despite the label of reform carried by the CCSS standards, implementation of the CCSS in HSS classrooms was not uniform. Instead, teachers drew from existing understandings and were mindful of what they believed were more important priorities within the school district to implement the CCSS defensively.

Science communicators and scholars have struggled to understand what appears to be increasingly frequent endorsement of a wide range of anti-science beliefs and a corresponding reduction of trust in science. A common explanation for this issue is a lack of science literacy/knowledge among the general public (Funk et al. 2015). However, other possible explanations have been advanced, including conflict with alternative belief systems and other contextual factors, and even cultural factors (Gauchat 2008; Kahan 2015) that are not necessarily due to knowledge deficits. One of the challenges is that there are limited tools available to measure a range of possible underlying negative perceptions of science that could provide a more nuanced framework within which to improve communication around important scientific topics. This project describes two studies detailing the development and validation of the Negative Perceptions of Science Scale (NPSS), a multi-dimensional instrument that taps into several distinct sets of negative science perceptions: Science as Corrupt, Science as Complex, Science as Heretical, and Science as Limited. Evidence for the reliability and validity of the NPSS is described. The sub-dimensions of the NPSS are associated with a range of specific anti-science beliefs across a broad set of topic areas above and beyond that explained by demographics (including education, sex, age, and income), political, and religious ideology. Implications for these findings for improving science communication and science-related message tailoring are discussed.

This article is concerned with a community of practitioners that does not hold together well: amateur scientists. It examines the interrelationships between amateurs and professionals in a museum of natural history and focuses, in particular, upon two 'community-making devices' through which they meet: an annual conference and a journal. I consider these devices as a place of encounter, or 'boundary encounter', between amateurs and professionals. These encounters provide for a combination of several practices – practices of naming, assuring linguistic heterogeneity and thematic flexibility, exchanging knowledge and symbolic gifts – that enables the museum to keep the heterogeneous group of the amateurs somehow together. Since the connections between amateurs and professionals are not permanent, nor strong, but rather partial and fragile, they have therefore to be nurtured and cultivated with care. In fact, the museum and its professionals cannot continue to control – to use technical and 'cold' devices to discipline subjects – but have to care by fostering a 'warm' world of people. As I will show then, beyond their role as a place that brings together an epistemic collective, the encounters described in this paper also function as devices that nurture weak ties.

The last twenty years not only saw the development of a distinctive systems theory by Niklas Luhmann, but also the emergence of a transdisciplinary field called science and technology studies (STS), which emanated from the older sociology of science. This contribution is dedicated to a basic confrontation of theoretical approaches in "new" STS with Luhmann's sociology of science as a part of his theory of society. On the one hand, I want to depict some similarities between both approaches, i.e. the linguistic/semiotic turn, relativism and reflexivism. On the other hand, in the second section, I try to show some of the major differences between recent STS theories and Luhmann's autopoietic systems theory. Basic distinctions are identified with regard to the perception of science (closed system vs. "seamless web") and the different scope of the theories. This finally leads to the modest conclusion that these conceptualizations can hardly be integrated and thus reflect the complexity of contemporary science - both as "subject" and "object".

This volume explores the work and thought of Edith Stein (1891-1942). It discusses in detail, and from new perspectives, the traditional areas of her thinking, including her ideas about women/feminism, theology, and metaphysics. In addition, it introduces readers to new and/or understudied areas of her thought, including her views on history, and her social and political philosophy. The guiding thread that connects all the essays in this book is the emphasis on new approaches and novel applications of her philosophy. The contributions both extend the interdisciplinary implications of Stein's thinking for our contemporary world and apply her insights to questions of theatre, public history and biographical representation, education, politics, autism, theological debates, feminism, sexuality studies and literature. The volume brings together for the first time leading scholars in five language-groups, including English, German, Italian, French and Spanish-speaking authors, thereby reflecting an international and cosmopolitan approach to Stein studies

Science in the Islamic world thrived from the 9th to 13th centuries, with Islamic scientists making signicant contributions to the elds of astronomy, mathematics, optics, medicine, pharmacology and technology. e discipline is seeing a revival in some contemporary Islamic nations due to renewed government interest and the construction of science and technology research centers. ; https://thekeep.eiu.edu/muslim_journeys_exhibits/1002/thumbnail.jpg

"This book focuses on the history of the WIC in Brazil in order to study the role of lobbying for political decision making in the seventeenth- century Dutch Republic, and argues that lobbying was the primary tool for people to implement, shape, and maintain institutions. Considering this impact, it is astonishing that lobbying has been underappreciated and regularly neglected by historians of all sub- disciplines"--

U.S. regulation of chemicals is in need of an overhaul, informed by European legislation and guided by new thinking about risk.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is reviewing the discipline development course of the history of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics and recognising the changes of its development and its historic mission in the new stage will be beneficial to the construction of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics from the perspective of doctrinal history.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper from the aspect of discipline formation and development, the history of China's socialist political economy has experienced two stages: emergence and formation (the first stage) and steady development (the second stage). It has explored new research fields and improved the quality of research levels. However, the role of studying the history of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics has not been fully played regarding satisfying the needs of constructing socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics.FindingsIn this study when the construction of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics entered a new era, the study of the history of socialist political economy also entered a new stage, showing new features in terms of research objectives, principles, scale and methods.Originality/valueTherefore, the research on the history of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics should be highly emphasised, and the focus on serving the construction of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics should be its historic mission and core task. Also, researchers should pay attention to changing ideas, laying a good foundation, highlighting key points, building platforms and broadening horizons.