‘I Have Māori in Me’: Shades of Commitment and Negotiation of Subjectivity in an Aotearoa/New Zealand School

ABSTRACT

Based on ethnographic fieldwork (1997–1998) at a secondary school with a Māori?English bilingual unit in Aotearoa/New Zealand, this article examines two different ways students with Māori ancestry identified themselves contextually: those in the bilingual unit identified themselves mostly as being Māori, while those in mainstream classes identified themselves mostly as Pākehā (white New Zealander) but occasionally as being Pākehā but having Māori in them. Existing analytical frameworks, such as symbolic ethnicity (Gans 1999) or citizenship (Ong 2003), fail to capture the contextual and dialogic display of these different shades of identification practices. Applying the notion of commitment and its disavowal proposed by Doerr for this special issue (2013), this article analyses these two identification practices as a proactive commitment and a hedging commitment linked to institutional belonging to the bilingual unit and mainstream classes, respectively, and to the wider cultural politics of the official yet tokenistic biculturalism of Aotearoa/New Zealand.     

Korean Fan Dance for Fun: Performing Alterity in Contemporary Japan

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on performances of Korean folk culture in Japanese schools and communities to analyse how minority identities are constructed. Korean minority education in Japan has taken up the challenge of reversing the stigma attached to former colonial subjects, employing a range of tangible props what Twine (1999 Twine, France Winddance. 1999. Bearing Blackness in Britain: The Meaning of Raical Difference for White Birth Mothers of African-Descent Children. Social Identities, 5(2):185–210. doi: 10.1080/13504639951554[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) calls ‘racial literacy’ which prepares racial minority children to cope with and challenge racism at large. While embodying identity expression through Korean folk dance performances is an effective strategy, it faces constraints from larger social forces. Korean dance and music performances do little to challenge the dominance of mainstream values. These performances are embedded in everyday family, school, and community practices and paradoxically reproduce existing gender roles, broader pedagogical ideologies, and social structures. This ethnographic case study disentangles contradictions in minority education and shows commitment to alterity accompanies disavowal of alterity in relation to the hegemonic Japanese culture and society.     

Location Is Everything: An Educational Primer for Use with “Genetic Analysis of the Ribosome Biogenesis Factor Ltv1 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae”

The article by Merwin et al. in the November 2014 issue of GENETICS provides insight into ribosome biogenesis, an essential multistep process that involves myriad factors and three cellular compartments. The specific protein of interest in this study is low-temperature viability protein (Ltv1), which functions as a small ribosomal subunit maturation factor. The authors investigated its possible additional function in small-subunit nuclear export. This Primer provides information for students to help them analyze the paper by Merwin et al. (2014), including an overview of the authors’ research question and methods.Related article in GENETICS: Merwin, J. R., L. B. Bogar, S. B. Poggi, R. M. Fitch, A. W. Johnson, and D. E. Lycan, 2014 Genetic analysis of the ribosome biogenesis factor Ltv1 of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics 198: 1071–1085     

JCI标准下临床健康教育模式的改进

医疗机构评审国际联合委员会的标准是世界公认的医疗服务标准,依据医疗机构评审国际联合委员会标准对健康教育模式进行改进,建立标准化健康教育工作程序、推行医师、护士、药师、康复治疗师、营养师等共同协作全员参与的健康教育模式,取得一定成效。对医疗机构评审国际联合委员会标准下的健康教育模式和体会作出总结,为临床健康教育模式提供指导。     

Demystifying computer science for molecular ecologists

In this age of data‐driven science and high‐throughput biology, computational thinking is becoming an increasingly important skill for tackling both new and long‐standing biological questions. However, despite its obvious importance and conspicuous integration into many areas of biology, computer science is still viewed as an obscure field that has, thus far, permeated into only a few of the biology curricula across the nation. A national survey has shown that lack of computational literacy in environmental sciences is the norm rather than the exception [Valle & Berdanier (2012) Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 93, 373–389]. In this article, we seek to introduce a few important concepts in computer science with the aim of providing a context‐specific introduction aimed at research biologists. Our goal was to help biologists understand some of the most important mainstream computational concepts to better appreciate bioinformatics methods and trade‐offs that are not obvious to the uninitiated.     

保护中国的植物遗产

China's rich floral diversity includes more than 33 000 vascular plant species, representing approximately 10 percent of all known plant species. Over half of these species are endemic to China. However, China's rapid economic development in the last 30 years and continuous population growth have seriously damaged plant resources in the wild and the ecological environment, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of endangered species. There are nearly 4 000 to 5 000 higher plants that are now threatened or on the verge of extinction. To help halt the loss of Chinese plant diversity, Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) has developed a China programme and opened its first office based in Guangzhou in 2008. This office works along with Chinese partners aiming to secure Chinese plant diversity through integrated conservation approaches with reintroduction/population reinforcement, engagement of local communities in conservation activities, capacity building in horticulture and environmen tal education and public outreach.     

Changing the science education paradigm: from teaching facts to engaging the intellect: Science Education Colloquia Series, Spring 2011

Dr. Jo Handelsman, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University, is a long-time devotee of scientific teaching, receiving this year’s Presidential Award for Science Mentoring. She gave a seminar entitled “What is Scientific Teaching? The Changing Landscape of Science Education” as a part of the Scientific Education Colloquia Series in spring 2011. After dissecting what is wrong with the status quo of American scientific education, several ideological and practical changes are proposed, including active learning, regular assessment, diversity, and mentorship.     

Parental age difference, educationally assortative mating and offspring count: evidence from a contemporary population in Taiwan

Using contemporary population data from Taiwan, we examine the relationships between parental age difference, educationally assortative mating, income and offspring count. Controlling for women's reproductive value (measured by age at first birth), we find that an older husband is associated with fewer offspring, whereas a husband with similar or higher education is associated with more offspring. Concerning resources, we find that women's income is negatively associated with fertility and husband's income is positively associated with fertility among highly educated women. These results are consistent with the view that women compensate for trade-offs between education, income generation and childbearing by seeking mates with a higher status.     

Medical student perceptions of a behavioural and social science curriculum

Background In 2006, Oregon Health & Science University began implementing changes to better integrate mental health and social science into the curriculum by addressing the Institute of Medicine''s (IOM''s) 2004 recommendation for the inclusion of six behavioural and social science (BSS) domains: health policy and economics, patient behaviour, physician–patient interaction, mind–body interactions, physician role and behaviour, and social and cultural issues.Methods We conducted three focus groups with a purposive sample of 23 fourth-year medical students who were exposed to 4 years of the new curriculum. Students were asked to reflect upon the adequacy of their BSS training specifically as it related to the six IOM domains. The 90-minute focus groups were recorded, transcribed and analysed.Results Students felt the MS1 and MS2 years of the curriculum presented a strong didactic orientation to behavioural and social science precepts. However, they reported that these principles were not well integrated into clinical care during the second two years. Students identified three opportunities to further the inclusion of BSS in their clinical training: presentation of BSS concepts prior to relevant clinical exposure, consistent BSS skills mentoring in the clinical setting, and improving cultural congruence between aspects of BSS and biomedicine.Conclusions Students exposed to the revised BSS curriculum tend to value its principles; however, modelling and practical training in the application of these principles during the second two years of medical school are needed to reinforce this learning and demonstrate methods of integrating BSS principles into practice.     

Association between chemerin rs17173608 and vaspin rs2236242 gene polymorphisms and the metabolic syndrome,a preliminary report

Metabolic syndrome (MeS) is associated with increased risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease. There is some evidence indicating that adipokines play a role in the development of MeS. The present study was aimed to investigate the impact of chemerin rs17173608 and vaspin rs2236242 gene polymorphisms with the risk of MeS in a sample of Iranian population.