A different perspective in building tools to collect and share educational resources

Australian acceptance of middle schooling has been gaining momentum. The impetus behind the introduction of middle schooling in Australia has been to provide a more developmentally appropriate educational experience for Years 6-9 students (approximately ages 10-11—14-15) and a smoother transition between the traditional primary and secondary divide. An underpinning practice in the philosophy of middle schooling is small communities of teachers and students. Teachers working in a middle school environment are organised into small teaching teams that plan and teach together. Middle schooling practice, however, demands some reshaping of complex and multiple relationships among teachers. This reshaping includes collaborative planning, teaching, assessing, and reporting within teaching teams, together with closer relationships with students, administrative staff, parents, and the wider community. These collaborative tasks require teachers to negotiate a new complex web of interrelationships. Stages in group development have been explored in a variety of settings. Tuckman (1965) identified four stages in the development or “life cycle” of groups (i.e., forming, storming, norming, and performing) that have been shown to be transferable to groups across a number of disciplines. As newly formed middle school teaching teams evolve and work to complete these new collaborative tasks and negotiate these new relationships, they have been reported to progress through this same life-cycle. The way that these teams move through these progressive stages is important to the effective functioning of the team. This purpose of this study was to examine the formation, development and maintenance of four middle school teaching teams over the course of their first year as a team. This study aimed to identify factors that facilitate or hinder a positive trajectory for a team’s development and to explore the influence of a school’s culture on teaming practices. Teams involved in this study were all in government run middle schools in South East Queensland that introduced an holistic reform in the last decade. A multi-site case study approach was used. Qualitative data were gathered through semistructured individual interviews with core teaching staff in each team and through notes taken during participant observation days throughout the year. Comparisons of data within and across teams revealed six main characteristics that were found to either positively or negatively influence teaching teaming in the four teams from the three Queensland schools participating in the study. These characteristics concerned (a) training (i.e., both preservice and inservice); (b) administrative support throughout the teaming process (i.e., from formation to establishment and maintenance); (c) attitudes of team members to teaming (i.e., a willingness to participate in a team and experience and confidence in contributing to the team); (d) relationship building; (e) conflict; and (f) school culture. These results resonated with the research literature on the experiences of middle school teaming practices in the USA. A school’s culture was identified as one of the six defining characteristics of a team’s experience within the first question of the study. It was found to exert facilitating and inhibiting effects on the other 5 characteristics that were identified. Moreover, the results revealed several aspects of working in teams that teachers found challenging. A lack of specific training in teaming skills (i.e., either preservice or inservice) prevented teachers from establishing adequate team protocols (i.e., goals, rules, and roles) able to facilitate the smooth functioning of the team. Specifically, teachers generally demonstrated limited and ineffective means of dealing with conflict, which, in most instances, caused team development to stagnate or regress. Findings from this study has shown a gap between what the middle school literature has said about collaboration and teaming and how it is being implemented in these three Queensland middle schools. This study also demonstrates the urgent need for preservice and inservice training in teaming practices to occur concurrently with the introduction of a middle years’ reform in Australia. It also identifies a list of specific teaming skills that are required by teachers embarking on a teaming experience and a list of the facilitating and hindering factors to team formation and development at an individual, team, and school level.

Atom lithography is a technique to structure layers of atoms during deposition, using interactions of near-resonant light fields with neutral atoms. The basic scheme uses a standing wave light field, aligned just above a substrate, while a beam of atoms impinges perpendicularly on the standing wave light field. The interaction of the light field and the atoms focuses the atoms towards the crests or troughs of the standing wave intensity, dependent on the tuning of the light field. The focused atoms are subsequently deposited on the substrate, resulting in an array of lines, whose periodicity is determined by the wavelength of the light field. The standing wave light field can therefore be seen as an array of lenses, focusing the atom beam into an array of lines. The first experiments on atom lithography were performed in the 1990s with sodium and chromium. In this thesis experiments with iron are described, which is a magnetic element and thus allows for the creation of magnetic nanostructures. To focus atom beams into structures using atom lithography, well-colimated atom beams are required. The most common technique to create collimated atom beams is transverse laser cooling, but iron has no closed optical transition suitable for laser cooling. Fortunately Smeets and Te Sligte found that even then atom lithography of iron is possible. If the standing wave light field is considered to be an array of lenses, the focusing of the atom beam on a single lens is determined by the local collimation of the atom beam at that position. This local collimation is determined by the geometry of the beam source and the distance of the beam source to the standing wave lens. Using a small beam source (e.g. 1 mm diameter) positioned far from the standing wave (e.g. 1 m), the geometrically collimated atom beam is suitable for atom lithography. Chapter 3 shows what the implications of geometric collimation are on the structure formation in atom lithography. The geometric effects that locally collimate the atom beam on the sample also introduce local offset angles of the atom beam with respect to the focusing light field. Structure formation has been observed with lines of up to 7 nm high on a background layer of 15 nm average height, over areas of up to 400 µm × 6 mm. This indicates that the offset angles can vary over an 8 mrad range, which is more than an order of magnitude larger than the local angle of collimation. The offset angle influence the local geometry of the deposited structures: an increasing offset angle decreases the local line height, increases the width and creates a skewness in the local line shape. The local geometry of the lines has been modelled with a Monte Carlo particle tracking model and the results were compared to experiments. It was found that the highest and narrowest lines suffer from significant broadening due to surface diffusion in experiments, limiting the achievable structure width of iron on SiOx samples to about 80 nm. We have also found that in atom lithography without laser cooling, each standing wave lens is effectively imaging the source geometry onto the substrate. We therefore propose using structured atom beam sources to image more complex patterns on sub-wavelength scales in a parallel way. The reason to use iron in atom lithography, is the option to create magnetic nanostructures. However, in previous experiments no clear magnetic signature of the atom lithographic structuring of iron was found. Therefore in Chapter 4 firstly the magnetic properties of unstructured layers of iron (Fe), nickel (Ni) and FexNi1-x are investigated. These layers are all ferromagnetic, but with a reduced magnetic moment compared to bulk values due to contaminations and crystal growth effects. As a reference for periodic atom lithography structures, periodic line structures are created with interference lithography in a polymer layer and onto these structures thin layers of FexNi1-x are shadow deposited, thereby creating a layer periodically modulated in both height and elemental composition. This periodic modulation in composition has been observed with SEM-EDX on sub-micron scales. The structures showed a clear magnetic anisotropy with an easy axis along the direction of the lines, in accordance with expectations. In Chapter 5, the magnetic properties of atom lithographic iron line structures are presented. Using MOKE microscopy, direct comparison of structured and unstructured parts of a sample is possible, which allows for the observation of clear magnetic signatures due to the atom lithographic structuring. In layers of an average thickness of about 15 nm, no anisotropy is induced by the line structures, while a magnetic easy axis along the direction of the lines is expected. The line structures introduce an isotropic increase in the coercivity of the layers, indicating that the line structures can be considered as isotropic corrugations instead of directional line structures. For layers of 30 nm average thickness and thus higher line structures, a clear magnetic anisotropy is observed for the highest line structures. This anisotropy can be seen as a magnetic easy axis along the direction of the lines, as expected for line structures. However, we also observe a sharp increase in coercivity for applied fields perpendicular to the lines. This phenomenon is intriguing and may be explained by a pinning of head-to-head domain walls along the direction of the lines. In Chapter 5, we also report on the first results of co-deposition of FexNi1-x, where the Fe is structured into lines using atom lithography, while the Ni is deposited uniformly, thereby creating an alloy of modulating composition. Magnetic analysis of these structures indicates that these structures are anisotropic, both the coercivity and the shape of domain walls is dependent on the angle of the applied field relative to the line structures. Finally in Chapter 6, we investigate the possibilities to focus a thermal beam of atoms into a single 100 nm spot using light fields, thereby creating a nanopencil suitable for deposition of nanostructures. A Monte Carlo particle tracking program was developed to model the all optical focusing or funneling of 10 µm sized atom beams to a 100 nm spot. This model included effects of initial beam divergence, magnetic substructure, laser cooling, and spontaneous as well as stimulated diffusion and it was applied to a number of promising light field configurations. The best results obtained for experimentally realistic settings are a beam focused to a full width at half maximum of FWHM = 0.55 µm in a blue detuned hollow beam where atoms are focused towards the dark center, or a FWHM = 0.31 µm in a red detuned axicon light field, where atoms are focused towards the maximum intensity at the heart line. However, in the latter case the focused beam has a flux only 25 times larger than the background flux, which is unpractical for applications. The limiting factors of all schemes are heating due to stimulated diffusion and the limited interaction time available for a thermal beam of atoms. A nanopencil could be possible if it were based on the focussing of a slow and / or monochromatic atom beam, but this would seriously complicate the practical application of such a device.

This paper addresses the potential effects on human capital accumulation and economic growth of the alternative compositions of public expenditures in the context of a computable dynamic general equilibrium model of overlapping generations and heterogeneous agents in which altruistic parents make schooling decisions for their children. In the presence of fixed and variable costs for different levels of schooling, we show that reducing household costs of primary education has the largest positive impact on growth and poverty reduction in the short run. Moreover, an increase in higher education spending increases long-run growth. These effects can be substantial even when increasing education spending comes at the expense of public infrastructure investment.

Social Class and Education: Global Perspectives is the first empirically grounded volume to explore the intersections of class, social structure, opportunity, and education on a truly global scale. Fifteen essays from contributors representing the US, Europe, China, Latin America and other regions offer an unparralleled examination of how social class differences are made and experienced through schooling. By underscoring the consequences of our new global reality, this volume takes seriously the transnational migration of commerce, capital and peoples and the ramifications of such for education and social structure. Moving beyond national confines, internationally recognized scholars, Lois Weis and Nadine Dolby, offer a set of emblematic essays that break new theoretical and empirical ground on the ways class is produced and maintained through education around the world.

This study attempted to examine the current status of educational leaders, the barriers they face and their supports, and what they can do to fully include students with special needs. The researcher interviewed principals, special education and general education teachers at three elementary schools. According to the results, the participants encountered three major barriers: (1) incomplete teams of special education professionals; (2) a lack of concepts about inclusive schooling; and (3) limited time for planning and training. Participants thought that educational leaders and the committee for promoting special education can support the implementation of inclusive schooling. In order to fully implement an inclusive schooling program, they suggested that educational leaders should promote such a program, enhance teachers' capacity, and organize a team of special educational professionals. This study thus clearly shows the need for an inclusive schooling implementation plan for educational leaders, a plan with three goals: (1) before educational leaders convey the idea of inclusive schooling to teachers and to the public, they should modify their reform ideology; (2) by encouraging professional development and reinforcing collaborative relationships, educational leaders need to strengthen teacher capacity to prepare the staff for inclusive schooling; (3) educational leaders should propose strategies for reallocating school staff resources, reducing large class size and mandating inclusive schooling, as well as provide more opportunities for planning and training. This is probably the first study to discuss the issue of inclusive schooling in Taipei based on the ICS model. In terms of the roles of educational leaders, the researcher hopes this study can lead to further study of, and also better implementation of, inclusive schooling in Taiwan.

We present the structure and the use of a knowledge database of tunnel for teaching purposes. This database, called KBT, is complementary to the e-learning tool DIDACTU. The development of KBT will give an important help to teaching providing text an images to illustrate courses. 2000). Words are ambiguous, so we must express them with definitions in order to resolve their ambiguity. A word and its definition is what we call a “concept”, which refers to every and each item which matches the definition and – hence – the name. So, that we call concept is each thing and tool clearly identified in tunnel works. A jumbo, a beam, a computer code, a theory are concepts. The identification of these concepts is done by automatic language treatment running on chosen texts. An expert of the world of tunnel give definition for any concept and set it in a tree that checks subsumed relations (IS A) between all concepts. The same process applies to various relations between concepts, mainly aggregation (IS A PART OF); the sum of these various trees, featuring the same concepts, offers a kind of common reference for concepts organisation in the field of tunnels. This helps to define some conceptual neighbourhoods, which, we hope, will allow some reasoning in a next future or for the educational software DIDACTU a new kind of navigation and for the knowledge base KBT a new query mode. This part is still under development, and shall be presented next symposium. 3 MAIN CONCEPTS LEADING TO THE KBT DATABASE 3.1 What is an “interesting” tunnel and for what use? When teaching, examples are used for showing some feature or some problem that may occur during the construction of a tunnel. Interesting tunnel are these where something unexpected occurs and where an original solution must be founded. For a teacher, but also for a young engineer, the discussion that can develop when showing the case is usually fruitful, and the student will remember the causes of the incident and its remedial. Several cases, well chosen, would be an appreciated help when teaching, or for new engineers, who wish to upgrade their own knowledge. 3.2 What were the previous works about databases? The previous works about on-line databases are numerous, and the authors contributed to these progresses (Faure et al, 1992). A recurrent subject of discussion about that kind of database is the property of the data. In the WASSS project (Faure, 1999), (Faure et al, 2001) we have decided to share the data into two parts, the first one that we call meta-data, which are information on the data, and the data itself. The meta-data are access free, but the detailed data remains under the acknowledgement of its owner. It is quite heavy and we worried about the management of the rights (Faure et al, 2002). For the actual release of KBT we skip that approach and we think that all data must be free for a gentle use of the database. One other aspect of that kind of database is the feeding of it. Preparation of a case must be very light, if we want obtain numerous cases. We observed that for a men knowing correctly the case he want to display, the capture of the structured data all must no be longer than few minutes, and we conceive KBT as to agree with this constraint. The building of the web 316 Figure 1. First page when entering DIDACTU with the link to KBT. pages presenting the case may be longer, but as the form is completely free, it is easy for the writer to describe his case generally already existing on an other format, and he can use images, maps, sketches and also web links. The WEB page(s) is written in his own language, as KBT allows the use of several languages. 4 THE ON-LINE KBT DATABASE KBT means: “Knowledge data Base for Tunnels”. The word knowledge is used in its full signification, that is to say, that we want collect not only information about tunnel, but also reasoning about it when an incident occurs. For this, when filling the database four kinds of data are asked in a chosen language among French, Italian, Spanish, German and English. 4.1 What data for KBT? 4.1.1 General data about the tunnel These data are asked in a form, the user must fill: Name of the tunnel Country GPS coordinates of the two entrances Owner of the tunnel Builder (name of the company) Number of tubes Mean declivity Shape of section (circular, horse shoe shape, elliptic, rectangular....) (a combo list) Length of the tunnel Excavated volume Name of the road (railways) that uses the tunnel Date of the opening Date of writing the form Name of the writer Used language for web pages.

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce current research and theory on systems design for change, or systemic change, in the fields of education and training. Systems design is the process for determining what characteristics a new system should have, resulting in a model of the new system and a plan for creating it. Systemic change is the process of changing a system from one paradigm to another by applying systems thinking and systems theory. Repeated calls for massive reform of current educational and training practices have consistently been published over the last several decades. This has resulted in an increasing recognition of the need for systemic change in education as numerous structured, piecemeal approaches to education reform have been implemented and failed to significantly improve the state of education. This chapter first presents a description of design theory and systems theory as the foundations for systems design. Design theory is the concepts and principles that help to develop strategies and methods for designing. The term system has been defined in various ways by different researchers, but the core concept is one of relationships among components comprising the whole.

The benefits of vocational education and, more specifically, the apprentice paradigm for the individual, the employer and for society as a whole have been accepted widely across many nations. These benefits have been delivered through a structured apprenticeship which has persisted for centuries, evolving from the early Guild system of indentured apprenticeship to the modern apprenticeship models operating in Japan and Ireland, on which this study has focused. This research examines the mechanics of the apprenticeship model in Japan and in Ireland, charting and analysing how both systems have evolved and adapted to economic, political and cultural challenges, exploring how both systems have responded in very different ways with some parallel outcomes. The five themes explored in this research emerged from an initial literature review of the topic, these themes are echoed throughout the various chapters to offer a multi-dimensional examination of the apprenticeship model. These themes frame the key areas of investigation explored through interviews which were conducted in both Japan and Ireland. The volume of extant research conducted on apprenticeship in each country was found to be surprisingly low, considering the long tradition of these august systems in both Ireland and Japan. A mix of documentary research and qualitative semi-structured interviews were employed to fully examine the paradigm of apprenticeship from an objective macro policy viewpoint down to the micro level narrative of those who had direct experience with the apprenticeship model. The sample consisted of educators, apprentices, Master crafts people and industry representatives to reflect the variance of views and experience of the actors involved in the delivery of apprenticeship. The main findings of the research demonstrated that the structure of the apprenticeship paradigm was not a formidable, durable, monolith which could weather the unrelenting march of progress through future generations, but, rather, the research revealed a delicate and fragile lacework of stakeholders, each of whom contributed to the overall form and shape of a training system embedded in societies who’s confidence in vocational education has changed quickly and without warning as the winds of fortune and taste have changed. The recommendations outlined offer a potential new model of apprenticeship which reinforces the view that this important form of education requires careful and constant curation through strong stewardship built on uncompromising quality assurance. Apprenticeship can only exist with an active public appreciation of the tangible historical value of past practices which can incubate the development of the highest levels of craft skills that the apprenticeship model can deliver to a nation. In this way the potential economic value of an idealized apprenticeship model can be realized to the benefit of the apprentice, employer and to society for centuries to come.

The wide use of e-technologies represents a great opportunity for underserved segments of the population, especially with the aim of reintegrating excluded individuals back into society through education. This is particularly true for people with different types of disabilities who may have difficulties while attending traditional on-site learning programs that are typically based on printed learning resources. The creation and provision of accessible e-learning contents may therefore become a key factor in enabling people with different access needs to enjoy quality learning experiences and services. Another e-learning challenge is represented by m-learning (which stands for mobile learning), which is emerging as a consequence of mobile terminals diffusion and provides the opportunity to browse didactical materials everywhere, outside places that are traditionally devoted to education. Both such situations share the need to access materials in limited conditions and collide with the growing use of rich media in didactical contents, which are designed to be enjoyed without any restriction. Nowadays, Web-based teaching makes great use of multimedia technologies, ranging from Flash animations to prerecorded video-lectures. Rich media in e-learning can offer significant potential in enhancing the learning environment, through helping to increase access to education, enhance the learning experience and support multiple learning styles. Moreover, they can often be used to improve the structure of Web-based courses. These highly variegated and structured contents may significantly improve the quality and the effectiveness of educational activities for learners. For example, rich media contents allow us to describe complex concepts and process flows. Audio and video elements may be utilized to add a “human touch” to distance-learning courses. Finally, real lectures may be recorded and distributed to integrate or enrich on line materials. A confirmation of the advantages of these approaches can be seen in the exponential growth of video-lecture availability on the net, due to the ease of recording and delivering activities which take place in a traditional classroom. Furthermore, the wide use of assistive technologies for learners with disabilities injects new life into e-learning systems. E-learning allows distance and flexible educational activities, thus helping disabled learners to access resources which would otherwise present significant barriers for them. For instance, students with visual impairments have difficulties in reading traditional visual materials, deaf learners have trouble in following traditional (spoken) lectures, people with motion disabilities have problems in attending on-site programs. As already mentioned, the use of wireless technologies and pervasive computing may really enhance the educational learner experience by offering mobile e-learning services that can be accessed by handheld devices. This new paradigm of educational content distribution maximizes the benefits for learners since it enables users to overcome constraints imposed by the surrounding environment. While certainly helpful for users without disabilities, we believe that the use of newmobile technologies may also become a fundamental tool for impaired learners, since it frees them from sitting in front of a PC. In this way, educational activities can be enjoyed by all the users, without hindrance, thus increasing the social inclusion of non-typical learners. While the provision of fully accessible and portable video-lectures may be extremely useful for students, it is widely recognized that structuring and managing rich media contents for mobile learning services are complex and expensive tasks. Indeed, major difficulties originate from the basic need to provide a textual equivalent for each media resource composing a rich media Learning Object (LO). Moreover, tests need to be carried out to establish whether a given LO is fully accessible to all kinds of learners. Unfortunately, both these tasks are truly time-consuming processes, depending on the type of contents the teacher is writing and on the authoring tool he/she is using. Due to these difficulties, online LOs are often distributed as partially accessible or totally inaccessible content. Bearing this in mind, this thesis aims to discuss the key issues of a system we have developed to deliver accessible, customized or nomadic learning experiences to learners with different access needs and skills. To reduce the risk of excluding users with particular access capabilities, our system exploits Learning Objects (LOs) which are dynamically adapted and transcoded based on the specific needs of non-typical users and on the barriers that they can encounter in the environment. The basic idea is to dynamically adapt contents, by selecting them from a set of media resources packaged in SCORM-compliant LOs and stored in a self-adapting format. The system schedules and orchestrates a set of transcoding processes based on specific learner needs, so as to produce a customized LO that can be fully enjoyed by any (impaired or mobile) student.

We examine the education-entrepreneurial intentions relationship and the effects of experiential entrepreneurship education. Relying on the theory of planned behavior and the theory of human behavior, we develop and test hypotheses to enhance the knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship education. This study discerns ways in which experiential education in entrepreneurship can positively affect the attitudes and intentions of students, and to further the base of knowledge in the link between education programs and intentions. Results suggest that problem based experiential learning does indeed impact how students think about entrepreneurship as a career and their perceived level of control.

Individuals within fish populations differ in many traits, such as sex, life-history, habitat residence, diet, and morphology. Such trait differences among individuals (i.e. intra-population variation) may be greater than the differences among populations (i.e. inter-population variation). My dissertation examines intra-population variation, with a focus on trophic relationships and morphology; as well as how variation in these attributes may reflect differences in bioaccumulation of contaminants. The second chapter of my dissertation examines the influence of spatial-temporal variation on the trophic structures of round goby (Neogobius melanstomus) and two age classes of yellow perch (Perca flavescens) within Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron. Using stable isotope ratios (δ13C, δ15N, δ2H, δ18O) and stomach contents as trophic indicators, I examined variation of diets. I found that spatial variation had a greater impact on diet indicators than both annual and seasonal variation. This spatial variation could represent a form of compartmentalization within the community of fish residing in Saginaw Bay, and could provide stability to the community. Chapter three of my dissertation examines intra-population variation in yellow perch morphology through a series of mesocosm experiments. My first mesocosm study determined that yellow perch could be experimentally manipulated to display divergent morphologies using simulated habitats, specifically pelagic and littoral habitats. Following this experiment, I focused on specific environmental drivers (structure, prey resources, and predation risk) as possible influences on yellow perch morphology. Within experimental pools, I exposed yellow perch to one of four treatments (an open pool, a structured pool, pools with chironomid prey resources and pools with a perceived, olfactory, predation risk) in the summer of 2015. Following exposure to these treatments I examined the morphological changes in yellow perch in magnitude and direction. I observed that while each treatment induced some difference in morphology, the open and structured treatments had the greatest magnitude of difference. I repeated the open and structure treatments during the following summer (2016). Again, I found that structure and open morphologies could be induced by my mesocosm treatments, but also observed that shapes differed from the previous year’s structure and open treatments. Finally, my fourth chapter examined how variation in trophic niches and morphology may reflect variation in contaminant concentration of fish in their natural environment. In this chapter, I extended my work with yellow perch to also include black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) and examined fish from 5 northern Indiana glacial lakes. Using model inference techniques, I found that variation in mercury was closely associated with not only fish total length, but also stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) and morphology. Interestingly, morphology-related variables of both species were strong predictors of mercury concentration in fish, following total length. Together, the chapters within my dissertation highlight the importance of considering intra-population variation, in which local factors such as habitat conditions and prey availability can influence individual variation in trophic structuring and morphology. These in turn may reflect other attributes of interest, such as the accumulation of contaminants.

Higher education institutions today face increasingly complex challenges in adopting and implementing Learning Management Systems (LMS) to improve student learning experiences. Although previous research regarding LMSs exists, it has not fully explored the findings of their conceptual framework through empirical studies of Critical Success Factors (CSFs). This research provides in-depth details about the development of a conceptual framework designed to guide the LMS implementation process in higher education settings. The Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method is used to identify and introduce the main elements in this conceptual framework. Furthermore, the conceptual framework was validated through a series of questionnaires distributed to experts in the fields of education and information technology. The results of this research show that the conceptual framework developed covers important stages in LMS implementation, from planning to evaluation. Empirical validation carried out involving experts proves that the conceptual framework developed is valid as an instrument for implementing LMS in a higher education environment. The conclusions of this research provide valuable guidance for LMS implementation in higher education.

This chapter outlines some meanings of ‘social responsibility’ in the area of literacy education. It suggests that the term be taken to lead educators toward reconsidering their students, their own practices, and their educational materials and assessments in two ways: across place (the variety of lived social conditions that they and their students inhabit) and through time (the role of literacy education in connecting their own and their students’ past, present and future). This chapter turns first to the past to examine social responsibility as a key to the connection between literacy and schooling, and then to some available scenarios of futures for schooling, to draw out their differing implications for literacy educators, and the role of knowledge in learning and schooling. A particular focus is the role of literacy education in the acculturation of youngsters into the powerful curricular forms of knowledge and discourse around which secondary education is built. The argument is that students come to engage the specific literacy demands of the various curriculum areas from the middle primary years onward. Their participation in their own secondary schooling and in their further education and training depends crucially on how well they can engage these high-stakes literacy demands. Further, however, their efficacy as citizens who belong when and where they are, and who act effectively with an understanding of that sense of belonging, also relates strongly to their literacy capabilities.

Also titled: Expenditure on Education and Training

Since ten or fifteen years ago, civic education is coming back to the foreground of the news. It is now an obligatory school subject in primary and lower secondary school, the college, namely nine years of a schooling which it is as a rule the same for all pupils. The author introduces programmes from primary school and from the college. However, between official programmes and what is effectively taught, differences are often very large. What some primary school's teachers say about what they teach and about college's pupils provides another point of view on civic education. A short evocation of the history of civic education in French school puts in prospect actual choices and specific problems of this school subject, in particularly its difficult stabilisation. The article closes with the presentation of some tensions and contradictions which are necessary to take into account to think and to implement civic education.