Suchergebnisse

This institutional survey research was used to improve administrative policies at International Montessori Center (IMC), a private international kindergarten in Bangkok, Thailand. The main goal of the study was to gather input from school stakeholders regarding daily conditions and functions, with the ultimate goal of improved administrative policy implementation. A literature review indicated no direct prior research. A survey gathered input from four stakeholder groups, including 15 teachers, 104 parents, 17 staff, and 3 administrators, regarding Physical Safety, Child Sense of Being Valued (classroom atmosphere), Classroom Conditions, Information Availability, Parent-Teacher Meeting Quality, Administrative Support, Parental Support (overall), Educational Tools and Technology, Quality of Peer Professional Relationships, and Availability of Needed Supplies. Stakeholders rated the daily operations areas using five-point Likert-style questions and responded to two open-ended questions. In sum, findings highlighted a number of useful perspectives for the little-studied early-childhood administrative community: a) seemingly mundane school functions are important to those who experience them on a regular basis; b) all stakeholder input is valuable when gathering school daily operations feedback; c) similarities and differences in stakeholder input help administrators develop a more holistic perspective of school functioning; and d) stakeholder input is a valuable tool for administrators to use when critically considering responsive policy formulation. Conclusions reached were limited to correlations and patterns found in one institution. However, it is clear that this original research is a valuable step in improving administrative policy implementation at the private international kindergarten level.

Peer-sexual abuse in educational settings is a matter of international concern – featured in mainstream news reports, televised through drama series and documented in research. In 2018 the UK government revised and published a series of policy documents to assist schools in addressing the phenomenon. This paper considers the sufficiency of this policy framework through social field analysis of focus groups with staff and students at seven educational establishments in England that ran from 2015-2017. Analysis reveals four avenues through which staff and students created or reinforced norms the underpinned harmful sexual behaviours and in doing so created contexts conducive with peer-sexual abuse. While policy developments have made initial acknowledgements of school cultures as associated to peer-sexual abuse, significant progress is required if policy is to provide a framework that challenges, rather than reinforces, individualised – and on occasion victim-blaming – narratives of peer-sexual abuse. ; 12m embargo from publication date

In the literature, the power debate is divided between modern and postmodern positions. The former hold that power and truth are opposites, while the latter view them as mutually constitutive. These debates mix epistemological, normative and sociological claims. Using classical sociological methods, strict criteria for valid functional explanations are set out and the relationship between power and truth is explained in these terms. It is argued that agents use truth to create local social capital for themselves, which has the unintended functional effect of reinforcing the effectiveness and stability of social systems. This entails an account of authority as a performative act that meets with a felicitous reaction by others.

Recent contributions to the literature on bureaucratic reform suggest that profit-seeking consultants from the private sector are one of the main driving forces behind the global spread of New Public Management (NPM) ideas. But contrary to what is expected, the growing role of consultants in the construction of the "post-bureaucratic state" in Britain and Canada did not lead to policy uniformity or convergence in the acceptance of NPM ideas. To explain these differences, the article focuses on the ways in which the differential access of consultants to decision-making centers inside the state influenced the application of the business management ideas that they bring to the policy process.

Reprinted from Political science quarterly, v, wviii, no. 4. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Seit Jahren wird in Moskau und Kiew über die Zuordnung Sewastopols kontrovers diskutiert. Vor allem die 'Nationalpatrioten' Rußlands (sowie spektakulär auch Moskaus Oberbürgermeister Lushkow) bezeichnen die Stadt unter Hinweis auf den historischen Sonderstatus zu Sowjetzeiten als Teil der Russischen Föderation. Auch nach Ratifizierung des 'Großen Vertrags' Rußland-Ukraine durch Staatsduma und Föderationsrat sind die stark emotional geprägten Gegensätze nicht ausgestanden. Die vorliegende Analyse untersucht die Zuordnung Sewastopols vor und nach seiner Übergabe an die Ukraine 1954 anhand offizieller Dokumente der UdSSR so wie der russischen und ukrainischen Sowjetteilrepubliken. Herangezogen werden Verfassungen, Gesetze, Statistiken und quasi-amtliche Enzyklopädien der Zeit zwischen 1948 und 1991. Das Ergebnis: Es gibt nach 1954 keine Hinweise darauf, daß Sewastopol zur RSFSR gezählt wurde, wohl aber dafür, daß die Stadt als Teil der Krim und damit der Ukraine galt. (BIOst-Dok)