The teaching of critical race, feminist, and queer theory generally, and of LGBT rights specifically, has developed into a discrete, contested, and politicised area of teaching in English law schools and beyond. While there is some academic discussion on the personal and political significance of ‘promoting LGBT rights’ within law schools, less considered is how ‘LGBT rights’ are shaped by the emotions of legal academics and how these emotions circumscribe what we imagine LGBT rights can and/or should mean in law (...) and critical legal study. To illustrate this dynamic, this paper uses critical race, feminist, and queer scholarship alongside work in the emerging field of Law and Emotion to articulate the ‘emotional grammar’ of teaching a Gender, Sexuality and Law unit at an English law school. Turning to autoethnography, I use my emotional experiences as a methodological tool to explore how emotions co-constitute the pedagogical, political, scholarly, and personal registers of LGBT rights as a descriptive, critical, and normative pursuit. In doing so, I use ‘emotional grammar’ as a novel way to map how emotions structure legal pedagogies invested in pursuing LGBT rights. Emotional grammar illustrates how emotions structure: (1) the articulation of LGBT rights as an object of study in law; (2) the pursuit of law to secure the rights of LGBT people; and (3) the shape of legal critique relating to LGBT rights. (shrink)

In this paper, a formal theory is presented that describes syntactic and semantic mechanisms of philosophical discourses. They are treated as peculiar language systems possessing deep derivational structures called architectonic forms of philosophical systems, encoded in philosophical mind. Architectonic forms are constituents of more complex structures called architectonic spaces of philosophy. They are understood as formal and algorithmic representations of various philosophical traditions. The formal derivational machinery of a given space determines its class of all possible architectonic forms. Some of (...) them stand under factual historical philosophical systems and they organize processes of doing philosophy within these systems. Many architectonic forms have never been realized in the history of philosophy. The presented theory may be interpreted as falling under Hegel’s paradigm of comprehending cultural texts. This paradigm is enriched and inspired with Propp’s formal, morphological view on texts. The peculiarity of this modification of the Hegel-Propp paradigm consists of the use of algebraic and algorithmic tools of modeling processes of cultural development. To speak metaphorically, the theory is an attempt at the mathematical and logical history of philosophy inspired by the Internet metaphor. And that is why it belongs to the tradition of doing metaphilosophy in The Lvov-Warsaw School, which is continued today mainly by Woleński, Pelc, Perzanowski, and Jadacki. (shrink)

This study aims to improve the effectiveness of English grammar teaching in high school. Firstly, the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) educational model is comprehensively discussed. Then, the current situation and difficulties of English grammar teaching in high school are analyzed. Finally, based on the traditional and the STEAM teaching mode, a comprehensive study on the psychological motivation of students is carried out in high school English grammar teaching. The traditional teaching model had little effect (...) on students’ psychological motivation in the process of English grammar teaching. Therefore, students’ satisfaction with English grammar teaching under the traditional teaching model is very low, especially in innovation and practice. The STEAM teaching model has greatly improved the psychological motivation of high school students in the English grammar teaching process. The overall satisfaction rate of the students with the English grammar teaching in the STEAM teaching model is 70%. This teaching model can greatly improve students’ requirements for innovation and practice. This study not only provides a reference for the improvement of English teaching in high schools but also contributes to the reform and development of education. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to consider the ways in which civic republican theory can provide a meaningful and useful account of social justice, one that is which holds resonance for educational debates. Recognising the need for educationalists interested in civic republicanism to pay greater attention to ideas of justice—and in particular social justice as it concerns relationships between citizens —it is argued that a form of civic republicanism committed to freedom as non-domination is capable of providing a substantive (...) model for analysing social justice within educational arenas. After positioning the contribution offered here within existing educational literature on civic republicanism, salient elements of social justice as freedom as non-domination are identified. On this basis, debates concerning the existence and potential expansion of state grammar schools in England are considered in relation to the account of republican social justice as non-domination. It is argued that from this republican position grammar schools represent an arbitrary domination of the interests of those less well off by those with greater material and cultural capital and in doing so lead to advantages for some at the expense of others. Though the focus of the paper is on grammar schools in England, it is suggested that republican justice may be a useful frame for considering similar educational cases in England and elsewhere. (shrink)

The present study investigates linguistics and cognitive effects of bilingualism with a minority language acquired through school medium education. If bilingualism has an effect on cognition and language abilities, regardless of language prestige or opportunities of use, young adult Gaelic-English speakers attending Gaelic medium education (GME) could have an advantage on linguistic and cognitive tasks targeting executive functions. These will be reported, compared to monolingual speakers living in the same area. Furthermore, this study investigates whether there is a difference in (...) Home Speakers of Gaelic (speakers who had acquired the language at home) compared to New Speakers of this language, i.e. whether an immersive context -as the one offered in medium education- compensates for not being native. A group of 23 monolingual English young adult speakers was compared with a group of 25 bilingual speakers attending a GME school since five years old. Participants were tested on comprehension of a set of sentences with incremental complexity in English, on their capacity to inhibit a distractor using the Test of Everyday attention (TEA) and on their performance in a Digit Span task. A tendency for a better performance on more complex linguistics and cognitive tasks was reported in bilinguals compared to monolinguals with a further advantage for New Speakers compared to Home Speakers. The study supports the idea that being bilingual in a minority language is as beneficial as speaking any other combination of languages. An immersive context of acquisition can be a good ground for developing advantages on both linguistics and cognitive tasks, with a further advantage for New speakers of the language. (shrink)

Rapid technological advancements, globalisation, environmental crises, and ongoing conflicts have contributed to an increasingly quickly changing social, cultural, and work environment for current and future generations. In this paper, we argue that the traditional schooling system and approaches to curriculum and pedagogy that are based on nineteenth century industrial age models might reach their limit to prepare students sufficiently for the expectations and challenges of life and work in future. While so-called 21st-century education has seen a nominal change in (...) classroom layouts and increased use of teaching technology, we would argue that not much has changed in terms of the underlying structures of schools and the mostly pre-described curriculum schools and teachers must operate under. While current education systems struggle with many challenges from teacher burnouts to increasing student dis-engagement (e.g. rising truancy in New Zealand), we posit that new challenges lie ahead that will further disrupt, if not implode, current approaches to schooling and curriculum. Drawing on theories such as Biesta’s World-Centred Education and Pinar’s notion of Currere to reconceptualise curriculum, we would argue that schooling needs to move away from the traditional ‘static map’ of curriculum content to a more dynamic approach to schooling that allows teachers and schools to chart new territory, together with their students, for a rapidly changing future. As guiding compass of sorts for dynamically exploring an uncertain future with students, we propose Teschers educational approach to Schmid’s Art of Living as a starting point. (shrink)

We present a case study of grammatical constructions and how their function in a single language can be captured through semantic and syntactic classification. Since 2016 an on-going joint project of UiT The Arctic University of Norway and the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow has been collecting and analyzing multiword grammatical constructions of Russian. The main product is the Russian Constructicon, which, with over two thousand two hundred constructions, is arguably the largest openly available constructicon resource (...) for any language. The combination of this large size with depth of analysis, containing both syntactic and semantic tags, makes it possible to view the interrelation of constructions as families and to discover trends in their behavior. Our annotation includes 53 semantic tags of varying frequency, with three tags that are by far more frequent than all the rest, accounting for 30% of the entire inventory of the Russian Constructicon. These three semantic types are Assessment, Attitude, and Intensity, all of which convey a speaker’s evaluation of a topic, in contrast to most of the other tags. Assessment and Attitude constructions are investigated in greater detail in this article. Secondary semantic tags reveal that negative evaluation among these two semantic types is more than twice as frequent as positive evaluation. Examples of negative evaluations are: for Assessment VP tak sebe, as in Na pianino ja igraju tak sebe “I play the piano so-so [lit. thus self]”; for Attitude s PronPers-Gen xvatit/xvatilo, as in S menja xvatit “I’m fed up [lit. from me enough].” In terms of syntax, the most frequent syntactic types of constructions in the Russian Constructicon are clausal constructions [constituting an independent clause like s PronPers-Gen xvatit/xvatilo ] and constructions with the anchor in the role of adverbial modifier. Our semantic and syntactic classification of this large body of Russian constructions makes it possible to postulate patterns of grammatical constructions constituting a radial category with central and peripheral types. Classification of large numbers of constructions reveals systematic relations that structure the grammar of a language. (shrink)

Maintenance of proper health and prevention of diseases of civilization are now significant public health problems. Nutrition is an important factor in the development of youth, as well as the current and future state of health. The aim of the study was to show the benefits of the application of cluster analysis to assess the dietary habits of high school students. The survey was carried out on 1,631 eighteen-year-old students in seven randomly selected secondary schools in Bialystok using a self-prepared (...) anonymous questionnaire. An evaluation of the time of day meals were eaten and the number of meals consumed was made for the surveyed students. The cluster analysis allowed distinguishing characteristic structures of dietary habits in the observed population. Four clusters were identified, which were characterized by relative internal homogeneity and substantial variation in terms of the number of meals during the day and the time of their consumption. The most important characteristics of cluster 1 were cumulated food ration in 2 or 3 meals and long intervals between meals. Cluster 2 was characterized by eating the recommended number of 4 or 5 meals a day. In the 3rd cluster, students ate 3 meals a day with large intervals between them, and in the 4th they had four meals a day while maintaining proper intervals between them. In all clusters dietary mistakes occurred, but most of them were related to clusters 1 and 3. Cluster analysis allowed for the identification of major flaws in nutrition, which may include irregular eating and skipping meals, and indicated possible connections between eating patterns and disturbances of body weight in the examined population. (shrink)

Several areas in the UK allocate children to secondary schools based on exam results at age 11. While many studies have investigated how attending academically selective schools affects pupils’ subsequent educational attainment, we know very little about how grammar attendance affects other outcomes, such as pupils’ self-confidence, academic self-esteem and aspirations. We investigate this by applying propensity score matching techniques to rich data from the Millennium Cohort Study. Results show that attending a grammar school has very little impact (...) upon pupils’ socio-emotional outcomes. Expanding grammar schools is therefore unlikely to benefit pupils in this respect. (shrink)

Teachers of children of all ages are enjoined by the National Curriculum for English to develop their pupils’ ability to write in standard English. This study explores the implications of these injunctions by examining the use of non-standard dialect grammar in the writing of 362 texts written by pupils of 11 an 15 years of age. It is established that most of the forms used are found in all four of the geographical regions sampled. The grammatical features of these (...) non-standard dialects and the frequency with which they occur are itemised and compared with a study of spoken English based on the same corpus. There is found to be considerable overlap between these and other recent studies of non-standard dialects in schools, although non-standard dialects are used more widely in speech than in writing. (shrink)

The city of Kūfa has come to the forefront since the early periods of Islam by dealing with religious sciences and developing these sciences. While these sciences were initially limited to religious sciences, they gradually began to diversify as a result of the expansion of the Islamic geography. Because the Arabs' encounter with the Byzantine and Sassanid empires did not only lead to struggle but also allowed them to get to know their cultures. As a result of this contact, the (...) scientific basin in the Islamic world began to be filled with sciences from different cultures. This geographical expansion had both positive and negative aspects. One of these negative sides was the deterioration of the languages of the Arabs who mixed with foreign peoples in the conquered lands and the spread of this deterioration to the reading of the Quran. In response to this negative situation, studies on grammar sciences emerged in the city of Basra and were transferred to the city of Kūfa a century later. Kūfa grammar school was formed as a result of the intensive work of grammarians from Kūfa regarding grammar science, which also attracted attention in the city of Kūfa. The greatest share in the transformation of Kūfa grammar into a school belongs to al-Kisā’ī and his student al-Farrā. Although there were grammar studies and lessons in Kūfa before al-Kisā’ī and al-Farrā, they were not at a level that would ensure the transformation into a school or compete with Basra grammar school. Muādh al-Herrā is one of the pioneers of Kūfa grammar school. Muādh al-Herrā, about whose life there is not much information, was interested in scientific fields such as syntax grammar, language, tafsir, hadith, recitation and poetry. Muādh al-Herrā is one of the important figures in the history of Kūfa grammar, as he dealt with grammar in the early periods of Kūfa grammar, gave lessons and taught scholars such as al-Kisā’ī and al-Farrā, who helped developing the school of Kūfa grammar. In this study, the life of Muādh al-Herrā, about whom we have not come across any independent study, is presented, in the context of his scientific views as reflected in the sources, information about his scientific personality is presented and the issue of whether he is the founder of the sarf is examined. (shrink)

The scientific aim of the paper is to juxtapose the views on economic order developed by the leading representatives of two schools of liberal thinking – German ordoliberal Walter Eucken and the Austrian economist Friedrich August von Hayek. The first scholar opted for deliberately constructed competitive economic order, the second one advocates for allowing the social institutions to emerge and evolve spontaneously. The analysis proves the similarity of both theories in regard to the significance of principles of an economic order (...) and the importance of competition for maintaining individual freedom. On the other hand some differences in the areas of sources of rules, institutional change, and the role of the state, induce their complementarity. Developing an intellectual basis for economic policy requires an eclectic approach combining two analysed perspectives. (shrink)

In this third paper in a series of four, we explore some ways of doing education differently. An education that moves beyond the persistent failures and irredeemable injustices of modern mass schooling episteme. The episteme for education we adumbrate – an episteme of life continuance – begins with a recognition of interdependency and the value of diversity, diverse knowledges and relations of tolerance. We propose an escape from the extinction ethics which modern schools perpetuate and a new grammar (...) of living in which education and politics are processes of re-learning, co-learning, decision taking, limit testing, and conflict resolution in relation to an uncertain future. To achieve this, we outline a set of open and ‘unplanned’ commoning activities that would take place within local social infrastructures focused on re-politising learning itself and practicing the care of oneself, others, community and the environment. The proposal for a different education as common(ing) activities undertaken within social infrastructures, is about reimagining political and environmental relations, and co-creating a sense of collective ownership of and responsibility for the environment. A form of community that it is practical, rather than utopian, and that would be both the means and ends for such an education. (shrink)

Language development is not completed when children enter primary school. As the comprehension of connectives (such as although, despite) is important for understanding and producing academic texts and, thus, relevant for school success, we investigated its development and influential factors across primary school age on the basis of a newly developed and validated test instrument. Drawing on a German sample of N = 627 children (57.6 % language minority learners) in Grades 2 to 4, results of growth curve models showed (...) students’ initial level of the comprehension of connectives to be negatively related to its growth rate. Additional analyses revealed this association to be due mainly to parental socioeconomic status (SES) rather than children’s language background. Particularly, parental SES and children’s receptive grammar impacted initial level as well as growth rate of connective comprehension. Our results indicate the need for early and continuous sensitization of children for the register of academic language especially in the group of children from low socioeconomic background. (shrink)

The entropic state that engulfed the East Coast of Australia in the first eight months of 2020 followed thirty years of uninterrupted economic growth and 10 years of tenuous federal governments divided on the question of climate change. The twin geophysical crises of catastrophic bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a public reckoning around our guardianship of the environment, as well as our relationship with science and indigenous knowledge. Congruent with this was the rapid transformation of both schools (...) and universities to online learning, causing the most significant rupture to the traditional ‘grammar of schooling’ for decades. This unprecedented conflation of crises has resulted in the unusual situation where education can be radically transformed, as the material conditions that usually remain latent (thus negating the possibility for change) suddenly exist. As a result, there has been an increased openness to pedagogies of potentiality, as schools and universities resist the urge to ‘return to normal’. Amongst these pedagogies, the philosophy of Bernard Stiegler is unique in its direct response to the entropic state with a counter-impulse, negantropy, which seeks to harness our technological capacity under an ethos of care and unite it with our existential purpose to flourish and thrive. This paper will consider the possibilities of Stiegler’s utopian call for action in relation to the Australian context, as schools and universities reconceptualise the sharing of knowledge and the purpose of education that seeks to rectify the gaps of the past. (shrink)

The article investigates the significance of time, the nature of capital, and the role of technological progress in economic processes. The presented analysis of the three economic categories makes use of the theoretical achievements of notable representatives of the Austrian School of Economics, for whom a creative entrepreneur was the main protagonist of the interactions taking place in the economy. The above-mentioned economic categories, taken together, are for him the foundation of human activity. The time factor is of great importance (...) for man – individuals constantly analyse historical events so as to attain success in contemporary economic reality, and in the future. Capital is the basis for economic calculation, which underpins all entrepreneurial activity. Technological progress, which happens in time and requires considerable capital outlay, is the driving force of economic growth. (shrink)

This study compares the estimated grammar school effect in different regression models, and explains why previous evidence of the effetiveness of grammar school is mixed. Like most studies of school effectiveness evaluation, previous research on grammar school effect usually applies regression to control for confounding between-school factors and determines whether attending grammar schools is associated with an academic benefit. While this value-added approach is very feasible and widely adopted, there is usually substantial variation in the evidence (...) produced when statistical choices differ. Applying the national data with more than 149,000 pupils, the study presents the sensitivity of grammar school effectiveness when baseline variables, outcome variables, and regression techniques differ. The findings will help researchers understand the mixed evidence of the effectiveness of grammar schools so far, and the unsettled debate on grammar schools nationally. While inconsistent estimations due to passive design is a common trait in school effectiveness evaluation studies, grammar schools’ effectiveness might be even more sensitive to statistical choices due to their special student intakes. Interpreting the variation between different statistical models, the findings caution researchers in dealing with the evidence in grammar school effectiveness and call for stronger designs as well as more carefully selected explanatory variables. (shrink)

Increasing parts of the world population have rudimentary reading and writing skills but limited command of grammar, syntax and spelling. This functional illiteracy has detrimental effects on labor market participation, population health and political stability. Geographies of illiteracy also include affluent societies like the Netherlands, a country that is not only illustrative of a widespread phenomenon, but arguably also a bellwether of things to come elsewhere in the world if these developments are not reversed. This exploratory paper focuses on (...) two institutional spaces where the literacy crisis is conventionally addressed: schools and public libraries. We argue that while each has a contribution to make, neither institution is currently able to curtail the trend, partially because preferred literacy promotion methods are incongruent with rapidly evolving changes in the literacy landscape, especially regarding youth communication. We consider three possible responses to our current literacy crisis and conclude that efforts to curb functional illiteracy require a pragmatic and multi-pronged approach, and perhaps even some counterintuitive strategies. (shrink)

The acquisition of complex motor, cognitive, and social skills, like playing a musical instrument or mastering sports or a language, is generally associated with implicit skill learning . Although it is a general view that SL is most effective in childhood, and such skills are best acquired if learning starts early, this idea has rarely been tested by systematic empirical studies on the developmental pathways of SL from childhood to old age. In this paper, we challenge the view that childhood (...) and early school years are the prime time for skill learning by tracking age-related changes in performance in three different paradigms of SL. We collected data from participants between 7 and 87 years for a Serial Reaction Time Task testing the learning of motor sequences, an Artificial Grammar Learning task testing the extraction of regularities from auditory sequences, and Probabilistic Category Learning in the Weather Prediction task , a non-sequential categorization task. Results on all three tasks show that adolescence and adulthood are the most efficient periods for skill learning, since instead of becoming less and less effective with age, SL improves from childhood into adulthood and then later declines with aging. (shrink)