Teses / dissertações sobre o tema "Social sciences -> philosophy -> eastern"

On May 1st 2004 the European Union was enlarged with ten new countries. Eight of these share a common background as satellite states of the former Soviet Union and today three more are candidate countries for an EU membership. These countries share a state-communist past. In terms of gender equality this affects the countries’ norms regarding gender and the conception of equality between the sexes. The EU has an outspoken commitment to gender equality and has throughout the years developed a number of Equal Opportunity Policies to combat the problem with gender discrimination within the EU. What happens when the EU is implementing these policies into the former communist countries and norms from two different environments meet? T

he thesis aim to critically review and discuss EU equal opportunity policies concerning the labour market in the former communist countries from perspectives of neo-institutionalist and contemporary feminist theory. The discussion concern obstacles to change and the creation of norms regarding gender equality, and whether the specific background (the communist experience) shared by the countries of the Eastern Europe might have implications for the process.

The thesis uses a multi strategy approach, combining text studies, interviews and quantitative data. The analytical framework consists of concepts relating to change and norm formation from cultural neo-institutionalism and a feminist perspective. The input consists of the present rules and roles in the former communist countries and the existing EU equal opportunity policies. The situation that appears when the perspectives meet is analysed from a critical feminist perspective based on modern debates regarding the east-west dichotomy within the school of feminism. By adding concept of change from the school of cultural neo-institutionalism the situation can be evaluated from a norm creating perspective. This creates an opportunity to discuss potential future scenarios.

The findings of the thesis show that there is a significant difference between the theoretical foundation for a discussion on gender equality between the EU15 and the CEEC11. This is reflected in a lack of gender awareness in the CEEC11 acknowledged by both NGOs and EU officials. The implication of this is that the EU is challenged to make the public aware of the importance of these values. They are forced to create a change in the norms governing gender equality in the CEEC11. However, the findings also show that the EU is somewhat uncritical towards its own role as the norm shaper in the process. There is a need for the European Commission to reflect over the present equal opportunity policies in order to create sustainable change. If the EU fail to do so it will most likely be the uncontested norm-holder and socialisation ceases to be a two way process. The consequence may be ineffective policies.

This research study investigated five elementary teachers' conceptions of listening positioned across a complex and diverse state of dialogue. Social studies educational researchers have promoted democratic discourse in various studies aimed at preparing teachers to cultivate active student citizenship. The absence of careful attention to the multifaceted dimensions of listening is a notable gap in current extant research related to classroom discussion. Educational philosophers, alternatively, have argued for the moral and intellectual virtues of listening on equal grounds to its dialogic counterpart: speaking. I synthesized writing from various fields and categorized listening into two broad domains: thin and thick listening. Thin listening, widely conceptualized in education, is further characterized as obedient and attentive listening. Deeper notions of thick listening fall into the subcategories of democratic, relational, and pedagogical listening. Hermeneutic phenomenology is the research methodology guiding the methods and interpretative analyses undertaken in this study. Applying principles from phenomenologist Max van Manen, I framed interview questions for teachers to reflect on the nature of listening in their classroom and everyday experiences. I read and listened to the interview transcripts and recordings numerous times with openness and wonder, yet with an understanding that interpretation is never free from judgment or situated perspective. Findings revealed elementary teachers conceptualized listening under thicker terms when engaging in reflective analysis, although thin listening ideas remained present at times in their thinking about students, the classroom, and dialogue. This study arranged thick listening findings into four broad themes: a) listening to specific students activating new ideas about listening, b) the dynamic relationship between listening and being listened to, c) the connection between speaking, thinking, and listening (interlistening), and d) disturbed notions listening. The conceptions teachers disclosed are significant to elementary educators and researchers in social studies teacher education because thin notions prevail unchallenged, thus rendering an unbalanced and incomplete view of classroom dialogue. Inquiry into the nature and process of listening can inform future studies related to common classroom discussion frameworks, such as Structured Academic Controversies (SACs), that social studies researchers value in civic education.

This paper addresses the so-called political rationale of the European Union’s (EU) regional policy in the context of the forthcoming eastern enlargement. The political rationale emphasises a particular type of organisation, involving multiple layers of governance and actors. This organisation is considered important in effectively reducing regional disparities. Regarding the great amount of EU regional funding the candidate states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are expected to receive upon accession, capable institutions and structures for handling these funds are vital. Also, it is a crucial part of the EU’s accession criteria. By using Hungary and the implementation of the partnership principle as a case study, the process of preparing for the regional funds in CEE is investigated in-depth. A policy analysis of the cohesion between EU policy objectives and the Hungarian implementation process of the partnership principle serves as the overall basis for the analysis. In order to analyse and understand the implementation process, Historical Institutionalism (HI) is applied as a theoretical framework. It contributes by assessing the factors affecting the implementation process and thus, policy coherence. A triangulation of data consisting of interviews with Hungarian officials and EU Member State experts involved in the implementation of partnership practices, primary and secondary texts as well as basic statistics is made against the propositions formulated through HI.

In turn, a number of analytical findings have been discovered. Firstly, the policy process is seen as highly constrained by formal and informal institutional factors, created by historical policy legacies. These have shaped the goals and preferences of the actors involved and have also privileged certain groups over others. In turn, path-dependency is noticed. Secondly, this has made policy cohesion rather weak, with certain short-term requirements being fulfilled but with a lack of more in-depth, long-term measures. Thus, there is a mismatch between the EU and the Hungarian regional policy organisation. Thirdly, although the formal institutional mechanisms for change are rather rigid, indications of informal mechanisms providing possibilities of institutional change were found, with some actors adapting to the EU enlargement context. This could lead to partnership practises gradually infiltrating some ofthe institutional and organizational features and in turn, become strengthened through the multi-level governance structure of the EU. Yet, implementation of the partnership principle is identified as a long and open process, with the real challenges arriving as Hungary enters the EU

The Explanation Hypothesis is a psychological hypothesis about how people attribute moral responsibility. The hypothesis makes general claims about everyday thinking of moral responsibility and is also said to have important consequences for related philosophical issues. Since arguments in favor of the hypothesis are largely based on a number of intuitive cases, there is need to investigate whether it is supported by empirical evidence. In this study, the hypothesis was tested by means of quantitative experimental methods. The data were collected by conducting online surveys in which participants were introduced to a number of different scenarios. For each scenario, questions about moral responsibility were asked. Results provide general support for the Explanation Hypothesis and there are therefore more reasons to take its proposed consequences seriously.

The secularization of the academy thesis refers to the phenomenon of Protestant colleges and universities starting out as identifiable religious institutions of education now being places hostile, not only to Christianity, but religion in general. This has raised much discussion among leaders, faculty members, and students of religious educational institutions as to what is and what constitutes the identity of their respective institutions. It is in this context that we witness the rise in the establishment of Islamic schools in the North America. This context has generated many questions from the various stakeholders on the question of what the term ‘Islamic’ denotes in Islamic education and Islamic schools. There have been two general approaches to answering this question: a universalist approach, which seeks to identify the most basic element of what ‘Islamic’ denotes in concepts such as sacredness and God’s oneness, and a particularist approach, for which ‘Islamic’ denotes whatever a particular school holds it to be.

This dissertation argues that both of these approaches do not adequately prevent that trajectory of secularization as evidenced in the increasing sociological emphasis in Islamic schools’ mission and vision statement. It is argued that education should be viewed as the practice self-cultivation. It is in the self an educational institution seeks to cultivate where its identity resides. The dissertation seeks to answer the question of what the term ‘Islamic’ denotes by looking at the self Islamic education seeks to cultivate. To this end, the highest good of Islamic education is developed by examining the work Tadhkirat al-sāmi‘ wa-l-mutakallim fī ādāb l-‘ālim wa-l-muta‘āllim (A Monograph for the Auditor and the Lecturer on the ādāb of the Teacher and the Student) by the Mamluk era educationalist, Badr al-Dīn Ibn Jamā‘ah (d. 733/1333). It will be argued that according to Ibn Jamā‘ah, the highest good of Islamic education is to cultivate a soul that possesses adab.

Through identifying the self Ibn Jamā‘ah sees as the highest good of Islamic education, this study seeks to contribute to and extend the conversation of the identity of Islamic educational institutions in North America by retrieving the work of educationalist in the Islamic tradition.