The Trouble with Diversifying the Faculty

Author(s): Walter Benn Michaels / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

This article presents the problem of politics of di erence realized within the American educational system, with a special emphasis on higher education. This politics is according to the author based on putting in the center of all educational actions the idea of diversity, as well in creating academic institutions. This key idea becomes in the American context a special significance, regarding the fact that the American society is based on ideology that celebrates multiculturalism and diversity as such. This article presents also an important for the contemporary situation in the United States problem of combining cultural and ethnic diversity on the economical category of di erence between various classes. Furthermore, it seems to be more significant in the light of the economic crisis in recent years that affected also American education in the same extent.

"Afazja dziecięca, niedokształcenie mowy o typie afazji, alalia i alalia prolongata oraz SLI/DLD – w kręgu badań i terminologii", Łódź, 22 maja 2021 roku (sprawozdanie z konferencji naukowej)

Author(s): Ewelina Zając,Renata Gliwa-Patyńska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2021

"Bermanov dosje", moje pripombe

Author(s): Janko Pleterski / Language(s): Slovenian Issue: 1/2001

Če vzamemo v roke spomine akademika profesorja dr. Aleksandra Bajta, vidimo, da opisujejo, vsaj v delu, kjer zadevajo njegovo bivanje v Italiji od jeseni 1943 in v prvih mesecih 1944, pričakovano neobičajne doživljaje. Nakazal jih je namreč že v svoji biografiji univerzitetnega učitelja, objavljeni v letu 1957.2 V primerjavi s tistim, kar je o svojem pohajanju po italijanskih gričih napisal takrat, je veličanje sicer nekoliko skromnejše, toda opisi so vzlic temu zanimivi in lepo berljivi. Ni šlo za neuspešne diverzantske podvige v ta namen posebej zbrane skupine, ampak za veliko manjše ambicije, četudi ne za manj tvegane in manj mučne doživljaje. Mladi Aleksander Bajt takrat iz Ljubljane ni "emigriral" pred Nemci, pač pa zato, ker se je bal, da bi ga v domačih hribih partizani kar umorili, čeprav je bil le manj pomemben član Narodne legije. [...]

"First in Line". Student Assessments of Pioneering Examples of Blended Learning

Author(s): Roderick Flynn / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

This paper presents a study of how a cohort of students respond when they encounter a single module delivered via a blended/flipped learning approach at a point when the rest of their learning occurs in more traditional face-to-face learning environments. The study is based on a case study at the School of Communications, Dublin City University where the author has pioneered online delivery of module content blended with F2F moderation of small-scale seminar sessions based on the online content. The paper introduces the practical difficulties – for both tutor and student – of “being first” in the sense of creating course content and learning to interpret/process content delivered in a non-traditional fashion.

"I Feel Like a Guinea Pig”: Emotional Responses to the Online Pivot

Author(s): Elaine Beirne,Mairead Nic Giolla Mhichil,Mark Brown / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

This paper reports on the emotional experiences of first year students as they prepared to start their higher education online because of Covid-19 public health precautions. Emotion research holds important insights for the development of pedagogical and institutional strategies to support students adapt to the increased focus on online learning both now and into the future. Students’ responses to a survey embedded at the beginning of an online learning preparatory MOOC were analysed to identify (a) the anticipatory emotions they were experiencing towards online learning, and (b) what they perceived to be the sources of those emotions. Findings revealed that anxiety was the prevailing emotion, although positive emotions, such as excitement and hope, were also reported. A thematic analysis identified seven over-arching sources of those emotions as described by the students. This paper concludes by briefly discussing the implications for educators.

"THE WONDERS OF NATURE ARE LIKE THE WONDERS OF MATHEMATICS" (MIHAI EMINESCU)

Author(s): Costel Chiteş / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

130 years after the premature demise of one of the leading figures of Romanian culture, Mihai Eminescu, we will attempt to have a closer look into the depth of his ideas, his research projects that were bestowed upon the Sciences, and, primarily, upon the queen of all sciences, which is to say, mathematics. We will be highlighting some mathematical aspects, namely the ones discussed in his work1, all the while taking into account the level of development in mathematics, in the 19th century.

"UNIWERSYTET JEST NAJWAŻNIEJSZY”. Stefana Sawickiego idea katolickiej universitas studiorum

Author(s): Henryk Duda / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The article discusses the publications by Stefan Sawicki (a scholar born in 1927) on the idea of the Catholic university. According to Sawicki, the most important issue in this fi eld is the relation between science and faith (ratio et fides), and the resulting question about the university’s identity, in particular about the marks of a Catholic university. The other issues, such as procedures of giving names to Catholic universities, their research fi elds, the proper size of a Catholic university, and the balance between the university’s openness to ‘others’ and its guarding its identity, stem directly from this crucial issue. While Stefan Sawicki’s writings will not provide a ready-made answer to the question of how a Catholic university should be structured or how it should function at a given time in history, they may inspire a “reflection and debate on what the university of this type should (and can) be like today, in particular in modernday Poland” (Stefan Sawicki, On the Catholic University, Lublin: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL, 2012, 8). Sawicki adds: “It might be commendable not to limit the debate in question to the general formulas of the Catholicity of a university, but rather to point how the Catholicity in question should be implemented in the academic practice” (ibidem). The questions raised by Sawicki pertain to an issue which cannot be disregarded also outside the scope of his work.

"Женитьба" Н. В. Гоголя на болгарской сцене

Author(s): Tatiana Fed / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2019

The article traces a range of performances staging Gogol’s play Marriage in Bulgaria with a special emphasis on the respective translations into Bulgarian. The theory features translation and adaptation mechanisms specifically applied to cultural realia. The staging in the Sofia Theatre is highlighted. The methodology applied belongs to the framework of cross-cultural communication studies and employs cultural-historic and reception approaches.

"За" и "против" за развитието на общата търговска политика на Европейския съюз

Author(s): Irena Nikolova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2018

In recent years, the trade policy of various countries has become an important topic, both for administration and business. The present paper aims at presenting the EU trade policy and some of its advantages and challenges.

#Foodporn: fetishized sharing of food and its images

Author(s): Francesco Piluso / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

Once translated into images, food acquires a broader meaning. Food is no longer merely something to eat, but to show, share and look at. The increasing amount of images and pictures of dishes on our social networks, associated with hashtags such as #foodporn, expresses this renewed social, communicative and provocative function of food. However, the exhibition of these images is quite ambivalent when it comes to establishing determined patterns of visual and social relationships with and between users. The aim of this article is to analyze and attempt to provide mediation to this ambivalence. The pornographic exposition of food images no longer presupposes a transitive form of consumption by the user, but becomes pure and self-reflexing spectacle. The images are obscene (Baudrillard [1981] 1994) and characterized by an excess of transparency on their object which abolishes any form of seduction (Baudrillard [1979] 1990). Barthes ([1980] 1981) defines this kind of image as unary. Pornographic images are an emblematic example. In terms of their self-evident objectivity, these pictures lack any punctum, any piercing sign of a relationship with or openness to the observer (see Eco 1962; 1979). Nevertheless, behind their apparent transparency, the images are always products of specific perspective cuts, and still able to convey mystery, meaning and involvement. The unary image of food is a further fragment in a series of multiple perspectives on the same object. Such potentiality is actualized in our (social) media culture in which sharing and continuous remediation of images and pictures of food constitute a complex storytelling of the object. This, in turn, fosters further participation by the users. The ambivalence between the indifference of the pornographic image and the involvement in the serialization of the detail is synthetized by the notion of fetishism (Baudrillard [1972] 2019). The social (and) media scenery seems to exemplify and radicalize a sort of commodity fetishism, in which social relationships between users are shaped and mediated by (social) media relationships between images of food.

#Openteach: Open Course, Open Online Teaching, Open Textbook

Author(s): Orna Farrell,James Brunton,Ní She Caitriona,Eamon Costello / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

This paper will explore the experiences of the #Openteach project team in developing a flexible and evidence based approach to support professional learning for those who teach online. The project had a number of phases, which included a needs analysis of online students and educators about effective online teaching, the publication of a review of the literature entitled Teaching Online is Different, and a pilot evaluation report. The #Openteach open course ran in March 2020 and focused on five key aspects of teaching online: social presence; facilitating discussion; collaboration online; live online teaching; and supporting online students. The final phase of the project involves the creation of an open textbook bringing together all of the project outputs, due for publication in summer 2021. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data collected from online educators pre and post the initiative, this paper reports on two aspects of the #Openteach project in detail: the design, development and delivery of the open online course and the process of creating the #Openteach open textbook.

(IN)EFFECTIVENESS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND MODELS OF EXCELLENCE IN PRACTICE

Author(s): Branko Škafar / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

This paper presents some tools, used to ensure quality and excellence in organizations. On the way to ensure quality and excellence, which enable efficiency and effectiveness, organizations are assisted by well-known tools, with their common features being discussed. Based on the research, findings on the (non)functioning of these tools are given, with the focus on popular tools, such as ISO 9001, the EFQM model, etc. Results of the survey are used to suggest how to make the quality and excellence tools more useful and direct their usage toward realization of organizational effectiveness.

(INTER)CULTURAL AWARENESS IN JAPANESE LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS

Author(s): Magdalena Ciubăncan / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

(Inter)cultural awareness is a widely discussed concept in foreign language education, being considered one of the main pillars on which the process of language learning is based. Our paper’s aim is to analyze the way in which (inter)cultural awareness is constructed in the main Japanese language textbooks used worldwide after the 1980s. We focus on the self-introduction sections in A1-level textbooks, identifying the main “foreigner” characters and examining their linguistic and cultural behavior in their interactions with the Japanese ones, as this is the first encounter of non-Japanese learners with the (inter)cultural construct in Japanese language study materials. We demonstrate that, at this level, we can speak of an advanced cultural awareness, but not of a genuine intercultural one.

(Jaki?) Doktorat i co dalej? Rzecz o wysoko wykwalifikowanych specjalistach w społecznościach lokalnych

Author(s): Włodzimierz Olszewski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 16/2014

When searching for the internal developmental dominants of the local societies, it is crucial to focus on highly qualified specialists with the scientific degree. The reflections presented in the article are focused on the models of obtaining the doctorate degree, indicating the barriers for further scientific career of the doctors from the outside of the academic environments as well as their activity aiming at introducing the social and cultural changes. I do also try to create the typology of doctors inside the local societies. The said reflections are related to the Polkowice sub-region and are the case study itself.

(Nie)bezpieczna rodzina – kalejdoskop (dys)funkcji

Author(s): Beata Maria Nowak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2019

Artykuł traktuje o sytuacji współczesnych rodzin, ich problemach, uwikłaniach kryzysowych oraz możliwościach niesienia im pomocy. Autorka artykułu rozważa sytuację rodzin dotkniętych dysfunkcją lub polidysfunkcją, nieradzących sobie w obliczu narastającego kryzysu wieloproblemowego. Dokonuje przeglądu badań nad tego typu rodzinami. Odnosi się do aktualnie prowadzonej polityki prorodzinnej i wskazuje na alternatywne możliwości udzielania pomocy rodzinom w wychodzeniu z zapaści polidysfunkcyjnej. Za szczególnie ważne uznaje wspomaganie holistyczne, uwzględniające zwłaszcza poddawanie tego typu rodzin treningom kompetencyjnym indywidualnym i grupowym. // This article deals with the situation of contemporary families, their problems, crisis complications and the possibilities of helping them. The article discusses the situation of families affected by dysfunction or polydysfunction, unable to cope in the face of a growing multi-problem crisis. It reviews research into this type of families, refers to the current pro-family policy, and points to alternative ways of helping families to recover from a polydysfunctional collapse. Holistic support is found to be particularly important, especially when it comes to subjecting families of this type to individual and group competence training.

(Nie)moce kształcenia historycznego w Polsce. Głos w dyskusji

Author(s): Arnold Kłonczyński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2015

There is an ongoing discussion on the crisis of humanistic education at universities. The causes of this phenomenon are considered to be the Bologna system introduced several years ago, the low qualifications of candidates, the introduction of the educational effects described by the National Qualifications Frameworks as well as the system of financing higher education institutions. One should remember in this discussion about the arguments for the maintenance of the Bologna system, which gives an opportunity to extend the offers of universities and to modify them. The academic community protests against the attempt to surrender the education to the discipline of the labour market. The commercialization of education is clearly visible in the presently used dehumanised terminology, in which universities ‘render educational services’ and education has become a service (production). The proposed solutions, e.g. the establishment of so-called ‘flagship universities’, may divide the academic community and lead to the crisis that will overshadow the present one.

(Nie)sprawiedliwe narzędzia – pisanie bluszczowe

Author(s): Aleksander Cywiński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2021

The text presents an autoethnographic response to the results of a survey in which academics were asked about their sense of justice regarding the tools offered by universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis of 118 responses and their justifications indicates that for 77% of them the tools proposed during the COVID-19 epidemic are fair and for 23% – unfair. In addition, respondents questioned the validity of the question of fairness with regard to digital tools. On the basis of autoethnography, the above result is a catalyst for reflecting on the author’s ideas about the research topic and the relationship of people with artificial intelligence (AI). As a result of the conducted analysis, it is postulated that the dichotomy “fair/unfair” be used in relation to digital tools used in education.

(Re)presenting the University of Bucharest in the Media. Fundamental Approach to the Process of Academic Leadership

Author(s): Viorica Aura Päu,Adriana Ştefănel / Language(s): English Issue: 19/2014

The aim of this paper is to integrate the quantitative content analysis methodology into the broader perspective of the social representation theory, in the attempt to illustrate the manner in which the mediated social representation of an institution can be included in an effective communication strategy.

(Self) Evaluation of Knowledge in Students’ Population in Higher Education in Macedonia

Author(s): Lupco Kevereski / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2017

Students’ assessment, in general, observed through a socio-historical prism, has always beentreatedas an extremely sensitive, current, significant, indicative and continuously present phenomenon. In that respect, what is especially relevant is that for a very long time docimological procedures and their effects have been focused on following only the primary and secondary schools’ student population and they were expected to be an integral part of the teachers’ professional practice. But, when the first book on evaluation in higher education appeared in the UK some 30 years ago, there were some fierce reactions to it. Thus, Hounsell (2003) points out that this topic has become so controversial, frightening and even offensive for many university professors. However, today it is considered that a good practitioner is the one who reviews his own practice and who evaluates the teaching process from the learners’ perspective (Brown, Fry & Marshall, 2003). Therefore, the underlying motivation for conducting this research was the fundamental issue of students’ self-evaluation of their achievements.The main objective of this study is to determine whether there is compatibility of the students’ self-assessment of their achievements with the professors’ evaluation of students’ achievements. To that end, we applied a transparent procedure for collecting information involving a self-evaluation sheet and an interview technique in the context of the following university courses: general psychology, developmental psychology and social psychology. The preliminary results point to a high percentage of correspondence betweenthe students and professor’s evaluation. The expected outcome of this research is to promote this type of evaluation approach and to turn it into a common practice in higher education as it can contribute greatly to amplifying the quality of students’ self-assessment on the one hand, and the teachers’ interest in bettering the existing modes of students’ evaluation on the other hand.

(Un)professionalisation or (Re)professionalisation of the Academic in the Brave New World?

Author(s): Maria Jose Sa,Carlos Miguel Ferreira,Sandro Serpa / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2019

In this article, we seek to provide an answer to the following research question: Is the academic profession, as a profession, going through a process of increasing proletarianisation, which is influenced by the new mission that is being implemented in universities (in a broad sense), in the sense of un-professionalisation, or are there new conditions for academics’ re-professionalisation experienced as a challenge? A meta-analysis of publications that focus directly on this topic was carried out, specifically through a conceptual analysis of the most recent literature addressing this topic. It is concluded that, in general, and notwithstanding institutional, local, regional, national and international specificities, there is some degree of academic’s un-professionalisation resulting from an increase in the functions ascribed to him/her by the political dimension that, in a context of increasing instability and control of his/her activity through the quantity and intensity of the functions to be carried out, may call into question academic autonomy, a basic foundation of the University. However, and concurrently with this un-professionalisation, there is a new context which could, under certain conditions, foster the enormous challenge of re-professionalisation (limited and under new conditions). As an implication of this work, there is a need to rethink this situation, which, if continued and deepened, will call into question the academic profession in some of its central dimensions, which may jeopardise the future sustainable development of our societies.