Jun 2010, Volume 5 Issue 2
    

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  • Research articles
    A Study on the Measurement of Job-Related Stress among Women Academics in Research Universities of China
    Lili Zhang ,
    2010, 5(2): 158-176. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-010-0011-4
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    This study intends to gain an understanding of the sources of stress among women academics in research universities of China. Studies have shown that, compared with their male counterparts, women report higher level of stress in work/family conflicts, gender barriers and career development. Based on the results of this study, the following conclusions can be drawn about their particular stress experiences. Firstly, women academics perceived the demands for career development as highly stressful. The main career challenges for them include the need for renewing knowledge, lack of research productivity, and slow career progress. Secondly, gender related barriers increased pressure on women academics. These barriers are difficulties in getting into male-dominated networks, social stereotypes of women, and gender discrimination in promotion. Finally, women academics experienced more difficulties in fulfilling both academic work and family roles. The main conflict situations pertained to “performing both work and family roles very well,” “children’s education and future” and “lack of time to satisfy personal interests and hobbies.”
  • Research articles
    How Gender Shaped Science and Education: A History of Nutritional Sciences in the 19th and 20th Centuries
    Rima D. Apple ,
    2010, 5(2): 177-185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-010-0012-3
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    Many societies view the world as composed of two distinct and complementary spheres: the female (domestic) sphere and the male (public) sphere. Because science was part of the male sphere, women were inhibited from pursuing a career in scientific research. However, the more limited female sphere often found within university departments of home economics provided women some space to establish their own research agendas. Using the lens of the history of nutrition, we can see how this universe of separate spheres had, and continues to have, both negative and positive effects for women in science.
  • Research articles
    A Cultural Study of Chinese American Women’s Self-Identification and Education
    Qing Li,
    2010, 5(2): 186-196. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-010-0013-2
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    This qualitative research aims to investigate the process of how Chinese American women develop their identities while growing up in the United States as daughters of Chinese immigrants. Specifically, the author explores the following questions: How do Chinese American women come to identify themselves as Chinese American, and act this identity in their everyday lives? How does the process of self-identification interact with their interpretations of how they are perceived and recognized? How do they incorporate educational messages from their family and schooling into their own understandings of the social world they live in? How have their understandings of their identity changed along the path with their encountering different social contexts and institutions? Through collecting personal accounts by interviews, the researcher intends to unravel the intersectionality of race, class, gender, and ethnicity, and illustrate how that would affect these Chinese American women’s educational experience and life outcomes accordingly.
  • Research articles
    Opportunities and Barriers: Gendered Reality in Chinese Higher Education
    Bohong Liu, Yani Li,
    2010, 5(2): 197-221. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-010-0014-1
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    In the field of Chinese higher education, gender is still a significant issue, as is a general ignorance of gender discrimination against women. Issues related to gender can be observed throughout the process of education: at the time of entering an institution, during the educational process and as an outcome of education. The following seven aspects of sexual discrimination occur in Chinese higher education system: (1) Fewer opportunities for women in higher education than for men; (2) within disciplines and specializations there exists the phenomena of gender segregation and diffluence; (3) considerable gender difference exists in the distribution of school resources; (4) teaching materials and teaching content are gender discriminatory; (5) within higher education institutions, student organizations have a degree of gender imbalance; (6) campus culture has a hidden agenda of gender discrimination; and (7) employment prospects for women tend to be unequal and discriminatory.
  • Research articles
    Cultivating an Inclusive Individuality:Critical Reflections on the Idea of Quality Education in Contemporary China
    Huajun Zhang,
    2010, 5(2): 222-237. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-010-0015-0
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    Quality education reform in China gives high importance to developing the individual’s full potential. However, the education system is dominated by a kind of exclusive competitiveness in which high stakes examinations shape the learning process. This paper seeks to bring a philosophical perspective regarding the disjunction between the intent of reform and the reality of an exam-oriented system by proposing a conception of inclusive individuality. I argue that the conception of inclusive individuality pays particular attention to the inner strength of every unique student and is crucial to realizing the individual’s full potential. The ideas of three philosophers, John Dewey, Liang Shuming, and Albert Camus, are drawn upon in formulating this conception of inclusive individuality. At the practical level, the paper suggests the use of narrative approach as a way of developing students’ inner strength to bring their lives into the classroom and empowering them to interact with the formal curriculum and develop their own inclusive individuality.
  • Research articles
    Assessing the Quality and Equality of Hong Kong Basic Education Results from PISA 2000+ to PISA 2006
    Esther Sui-Chu Ho,
    2010, 5(2): 238-257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-010-0016-z
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    This paper seeks to examine the quality and equality of basic education of Hong Kong based on the first three cycles of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Results from these three assessments suggested that the Hong Kong students have an outstanding performance in mathematics, science and reading. In particular, the performance of reading improves substantially in PISA 2006. As far as equality in education is concerned, the achievement gap of students from different socio-economic backgrounds in Hong Kong is relatively small compared with other countries. However, the academic performance variation between-schools suggest that, there is still academic segregation among secondary schools in Hong Kong although it has been reduced slightly in the PISA 2006.
  • Research articles
    National Curriculum Reform in China and England: Origins, Character and Comparison
    David Halpin,
    2010, 5(2): 258-269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-010-0017-y
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    Both China and England require state-funded schools to teach a national curriculum. While policy congruence in terms of overall intention is apparent, there are major differences between each country’s approach to systemic curriculum reform which highlight contrasting attitudes to how best to effect change in schools and widely differing views on curriculum design, particularly in relation to pedagogy, and its significance.
  • Research articles
    Effectiveness of Professional Development Policies Based on Teachers’ Subjective Evaluation
    Donghai Zhang ,
    2010, 5(2): 270-289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-010-0018-x
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    　The results of a questionnaire-based investigation carried out across China regarding teachers’ professional development were used to create an extensive database. Chinese teachers’ subjective evaluation of a number of professional development policies was statistically analyzed. From their ratings, it is shown that in schools across China, differences exist in terms of the effectiveness of professional development policies in teaching profession. Striking differences exist between regions as well as between school levels. Multi regression analysis has shown that training and refresher courses are two of the major factors that influence differences in teachers’ evaluation of policy implementation. A key finding is that the provision of many different types of training does not necessarily help bring about effective policy.
  • Research articles
    Access to Higher Education of 25 Ethnic Minorities in Yunnan Province, South Western China
    Jianxin Zhang , Jef C. Verhoeven,
    2010, 5(2): 290-306. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11516-010-0019-9
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    The level of development of higher education (HE) is an important indicator to measure the development of the social economy and the civilization of a region or country. In this article, we compare the distribution of the freshmen of ethnic minorities (EMs) with the distribution of EMs over the population, based on a sample of 1 464 freshmen from 25 EMs of Yunnan Province in People’s Republic of China (PRC). Although this analysis shows that access to HE is equal for some categories of EM students, it still shows that access to HE is harder for these minorities in comparison with freshmen from Han (major ethnic group comprising of 92 % of the Chinese population) families.