Western School Research Articles

Sexual health education outcomes within Canada’s elementary health education curricula: A summary and analysis

There continues to be much concern about Canadian students’ access to sexual health education within their schools’ health education programs. This concern continues in a largely unique national context—one in which health education curricula vary across all territories and provinces. At the same time, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2018) has recently published its updated International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education. These UNESCO guidelines provide key concepts, topics, and technical guidance about sexual health-related topics that are advisable for students in all grades, including for those students in Kindergarten/Primary (K/P) through Grade 6. In this article, we provide a summary and critical analysis of sexual health education outcomes within all of Canada’s elementary health education curricula. This summary and analysis should be of particular relevance to those who share an interest in health education and/or sexual health education, particularly within Canadian and/or other Western schooling contexts.

An Important Way for the Balanced Development of China’s Higher Education: First-class Universities to the Central and Western Regions

With the support of the higher education institutions in the western region and the promotion of the higher education revitalization plan in the central and western regions, China has basically solved the problem of “higher education poverty in the central and western regions”, but the relationship between supply and demand of high quality higher education is still very tense, especially in the central and western high quality higher education. Being lack of resources and a small number of first-class universities, the uneven geographical distribution of high-quality higher education resources has become the main factor restricting the overall development of China’s higher education. How to rationally allocate high-quality higher education resources in the east to the central and western regions, the feasibility of first-class universities to the central and western schools, and the promotion of policies to solve the central and western are of great significance. Keywords: higher education balance, first-class university, central and western school DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-9-06 Publication date :March 31 st 2019

La escuela y el deporte como “epistemicidios” de lo lúdico en las culturas de Abya Yala

The aim of this research is to analyze the relationship between school, play and sport, from a sociocultural, critical and decolonial positioning. In order to do so, it exposes itself to the idea of epistemicide, understood as the way in which modern epistemology destroys its own cultural components and knowledge and imposes Eurocentric criteria in the way of understanding and practicing play and sport. The analysis is divided into three sections. The first shows how the western school has broken into Latin American educational processes. The second section focuses on how the conception of sport has disrupted the playful processes inherent in educational processes. In the third, the interaction between the apparent educational chaos and the playful aspects is considered. Key words: epistemicide; sport; game; Abya Yala; Eurocentrism.

La dimension interpersonnelle de la pleine conscience

ObjectiveThe concept of “embodied mindfulness” (Khoury, Dionne, & Grégoire, 2018; Khoury et al., 2017) was recently introduced and discussed according to both Eastern and Western conceptualizations and operationalization of mindfulness. Our previous papers (Khoury et al., 2018; Khoury et al., 2017) proposed embodiment as a common process that integrates mindfulness across the Buddhist traditions and western schools of thoughts. Moreover, it grounded the notion of “embodied mindfulness” in Buddhist philosophy and neurobiology, namely in the integration of top-down and bottom-up processes. This new notion allowed a common understanding of the mechanisms of change of different Western mindfulness practices, namely Western mindfulness meditation and Langerian mindfulness. It also proposed consciousness as an interaction between the mind, the body, and the outside world. This article aims to deepen and broaden the notion of “embodied mindfulness” by taking into account the interpersonal and social contexts, which are often neglected in the theory, practice and research pertaining to mindfulness. MethodIn order to investigate the social dimension of mindfulness, we conducted a thorough qualitative review of theoretical and empirical papers pertaining to the interpersonal, familial, relational, and social aspects of mindfulness and thus, according to both mindfulness-meditation and Langerian mindfulness approaches. Empirical research addressing the interpersonal and social effects of mindfulness in both approaches is presented and discussed. Additionally, we reviewed the state of research in conceptualizing, operationalizing, and measuring the interpersonal/social dimension of mindfulness in both the meditative and Langerian approaches. Results and DiscussionThe results of interpersonal mindfulness are presented and discussed according to the different contexts. In the family context, both correlational and experimental studies have suggested positive effects of mindfulness on relationships between couples (e.g., increase of satisfaction and reduction of reactivity) and on the emotional, social, and behavioral adjustments of children of parents with higher mindfulness disposition or following mindfulness training. The positive outcomes on children were found across different developmental stages (e.g., childhood, early, and late adolescence) and included lower aggressiveness and externalizing behaviors, and more positive interactions with parents and peers, therefore higher self-regulation. The results were also found among both nonclinical and clinical populations, including children with neurodevelopmental disorders such as Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder. In psychotherapy context, qualitative and correlational studies suggested that dispositional mindfulness is correlated with an increase in therapeutic alliance and presence, therefore, an increase in therapeutic effectiveness. In addition, an experimental study showed better clinical outcomes among patients seen by therapists practicing meditation than therapists who were in the control group. On the social level, both correlational and experimental studies have suggested positive effects of mindfulness on prosocial behaviors, empathy, altruism, compassion, and reduction in discrimination. These results were obtained in both the meditative and Langerian approaches. According to current research, interpersonal mindfulness, even though globally defined, was only measured in parenting and teaching contexts. Therefore, the need of having a contextually independent measure of interpersonal mindfulness is very high. ConclusionsIn light of the empirical results, we believe that the notion of “embodied mindfulness” would benefit from being extended to include more explicitly its interpersonal dimension. Integrating both intrapersonal and interpersonal/social dimensions in conceptualizing and measuring mindfulness can broaden our understanding of mindfulness and its applications and carry important implications in devising new mindfulness-based interventions, which should consider both the intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions of mindfulness.

Wood Identification of Western School “Janes<sup>'</sup> Mansion” in Kumamoto Prefecture Collapsed by the Kumamoto Earthquake

Wood Identification of Western School “Janes<sup>'</sup> Mansion” in Kumamoto Prefecture Collapsed by the Kumamoto Earthquake

The Complementary Effects of Islam and CSR: Some Empirical Evidence

This paper empirically investigates what has been claimed in the literature; that there are no significant differences between the Islamic and Western schools of business ethics. A proxy for the Western school is corporate social responsibility (CSR) while in the Islamic school, a reasonable approximation would be Shariah-compliance (SC). But because financial performance is not the main priority in CSR and SC, this study examines the effects CSR and SC has on firm resilience and firm risk. The regression estimates using an emerging market sample show that both CSR and SC improves firm resilience besides reducing firm risk in the following year. The findings empirically validate the claims made in the literature; that business ethics, Islamic or otherwise, are similar in substance and form. By empirically examining this claim, this study paves the way for a convergence of values and practices besides fostering greater unity between cultures.

No man’s land of modern poetry

V. Kozlov, a critic specializing in contemporary poetry, discusses the major issues plaguing this branch of the literary process: such as the ‘synoptic’ quality of modern critical work, vitriolic conflicts between guilds, absence of a publication with a comprehensive overview of the current developments in poetry, etc. The author finds that the biggest problem of modern poetic criticism is that, unlike the Western school of literary criticism, it is unable to take in the big picture of all ongoing developments in modern poetry, and its every attempt to reconstruct it is guided by its subjective perceptions. He suggests that this could be ameliorated if the critics would refer to the philological school and return to universal criteria for the sake of a holistic literary process.

Postmodern education and the challenges facing Chinese postmodern scholars

Postmodern philosophy and postmodern philosophy of education are the western academic schools that have had an undeniable effect on today’s educational theory and practice in China.Over two decades...

Children's theory of mind development: Cultural perspectives

We focus our review on the cross-cultural studies on the development of theory of mind. We present evidence that the acquisition and development of theory of mind is cultural-universal as well as cultural-specific. Although children from different cultural backgrounds pass false belief task at about 4 years old, they show significant difference in timing and sequence in understanding of different mental states. To explore influential factors in the development of children’s theory of mind, more researchers begin to focus on the effect of macroscopic cultural backgrounds. This paper review the cultural differences between East and West in parent-child talk, parental rearing pattern, pedagogical experience and development of executive function, and their relations with children’s theory of mind to understand cultural specificity of Eastern children’s theory of mind acquisition and development. In family parenting practices, Western parents talk more about mental-state terms, and tend to adopt authoritative parenting style. In contrast, Eastern parents refer more actions and its consequences in parent-child talking, and tend to adopt authoritarian parenting style. Mental-state talking can promote children’s attention and cognition to mental state of themselves and others, and thus directly facilitate theory of mind development of Western children. Action-consequence talking, which needs children to infer themselves or others’ mental state, could indirectly facilitate Eastern children’s mental-state understanding. Comparing with authoritarian parents, authoritative parents encourage their children more to question, discuss and argue, which offer more opportunities for Western children to be exposed to mental-state terms, thus promote theory of mind development of Western children. In contrast, authoritarian parenting style chosen by Eastern parents has negative effects on the development of their children’s mental understanding. As for pedagogical experience, Western schools adopt inquiry-teaching model, which characterized by encouraging students to express their views and cooperative learning that facilitated Eastern children’s mental understanding. On the contrary, eastern schools adopt traditional teaching model, which characterized by behavior control and unconditional rule-following that impede the theory of mind development of the Eastern children. Executive function of Oriental children is significantly better than that of the Western peers, but this advantage has not been transformed into the of the theory of mind development. We hypothesize that the combination of executive function and social experience about mental understanding together promote the development of theory of mind. In conclusion, we hold the opinion that “every road leads to Rome”, the Eastern and Western children’s theory of mind may have undergone different development paths. This article, based on the existing literature, presented a cultural model of children’s theory of mind development. Furthermore, some issues arising from this review that we hope will be addressed in future studies. Firstly, there are needs to explore the cross-cultural differences of theory of mind from the developmental perspective. Secondly, we should conduct cross-cultural study to explore the path and effect size of these influential factors of theory of mind. Thirdly, what the impact of cultural exchanges has on the development of children’s theory of mind is an issue that is worth studying. Fourthly, there are needs to explore the indirect effects of social changes on children’s ToM development.

METAPHYSICS IN THE BHAGAVAD GITA COMPARED WITH THE WESTERN PHILOSOPHIES: A HERMENEUTIC GAZE

This article is an outcome of hermeneutical research carried out on the Bhagavad Gita, a core eastern text of Vedic philosophy. The main purpose of this article is to explore philosophical insights embedded in this historical scripture and help the readers to gain its greater understanding and insights. It also searches metaphysical principles consisted in the Bhagavad Gita and provides answer of the questions: what metaphysical principles can be seen in the Bhagavad Gita? How can it be interpreted? How the metaphysical principles of the Bhagavad Gita associates/disassociates with western theories of philosophy? Considering the questions, the Bhagavad Gita provides theory of creation, cycle of creation and destruction and discusses about Brahma element that is seed of creative principles, Atma, Paramatta, the God. It also includes theory of being (existence). In comparison with western philosophy, it comprises wider and in-depth metaphysical principles. In order to interpret metaphysical principles, this article elaborates general introduction of the Bhagavad Gita, general concept of metaphysics and metaphysical principle can be seen in the Bhagavad Gita. It also searches associations/ disassociations of metaphysical principles of the Bhagavad Gita with metaphysics of western schools of thought. Finally, it draws implication and conclusion.Researcher: A Research Journal of Culture and SocietyVol. 3, No. 3, January 2018, Page: 33-46

The [Not So] Hidden Curriculum of the Legalist State in the Book of Lord Shang and the Han-Fei-Zi

This paper loosely draws some parallels between the experience of a subject in a so-called “Legalist” state with that of a contemporary student in Western schooling today. I explore how governance in the Book of Lord Shang and the Hanfeizi can be interpreted as pedagogy. Defining pedagogy in a relatively broad sense, I investigate the rationalizations for the existence of the state, the application of state mechanisms, and even the concentration of the ruler’s power all teach subjects habits, attitudes, and sensibilities in a similar fashion to what Philip Jackson called the “hidden curriculum”. Through his framework of “crowds, praise, and power” this paper will explore how governance teaches and what those subjected to it learn. This study also attempts to provide some insight into the usefulness of approaching “Legalist” texts with a positive sociological lens.

Maternal Encouragement of Modest Behavior, Temperamental Shyness, and Anxious Withdrawal Linkages to Chinese American Children's Social Adjustment: A Moderated Mediation Analysis.

Past studies have revealed potential differences in the functional meaning and social evaluation of children's temperamental shyness between Chinese interdependence-oriented and North American independence-oriented cultural contexts. However, very little is known about shy Chinese American children's adjustment in Western school contexts and potential pathways underlying their adjustment. To address this gap in the literature, we examined the associations between Chinese American children's temperamental shyness and their social adjustment outcomes, including peer exclusion, prosocial behavior, and assertiveness/leadership skills. In addition, the mediating role of children's display of anxious-withdrawn behavior and the moderating role of first-generation Chinese immigrant mothers' encouragement of modesty in their parenting practices as applied to associations between temperamental shyness and social adjustment outcomes were explored. Path analyses indicated that the impact of Chinese American children's temperamental shyness on their socio-emotional adjustment was mediated by their display of anxious-withdrawn behavior in school. However, when Chinese immigrant mothers encouraged their children to be more modest, children's temperamental shyness was less strongly related to negative social adjustment outcomes through diminished anxious-withdrawn behavior. These results highlighted the importance of culturally-emphasized parenting practices in fostering Chinese American children's adjustment in the U.S.

The Large-Scale Implementation of Evidence-Informed Practice Into a Specialized MSW Curriculum

ABSTRACTSocial work is embracing scientific inquiry as a guiding principle; however, scientific advancement has often outpaced modifications in the academic arena necessitating reenvisioning the curriculum. This article describes how a large western School of Social Work addressed the need to create a practice curriculum rooted in empirical evidence by adopting the evidence-based clinical decision-making intervention Managing and Adapting Practice. This evidence-informed framework includes components to guide the delivery, supervision, consultation, and quality management of children’s mental health services. The implementation included more than 1 year of planning, training of faculty members, and dissemination of the intervention to 250 students. This large-scale implementation was the first known of its kind. Processes, anticipated and unanticipated issues, and lessons learned are discussed.

Studies on 20th Century Western and Vietnamese Theories of Literary Criticism

ABSTRACTThe modernization of Vietnamese culture and arts cannot be separated from the exposure, exchange, and learning from modern Western schools of theories. The relationship of Western-Vietnamese theories of literary criticism started quite early and have made enormous contributions to Vietnamese culture and arts. In this article, the researcher conducted a series of surveys on two main issues: the relationship between Western and Vietnamese theories of literary criticism as well as the reception and application of modern Western theories in Vietnam in the 20th century; thence, the researcher sketches the overall picture of the reception of literary theories in Vietnam over a century, and also analyzes its typical characteristics.

Emotions, indigenous affective ties, and social network theory—The case of South Korea

This study conceptually explores the structural and emotional aspects of informal social networks in South Korea by examining the indigenous concepts of jeong, woori, inmaek, and yongo in relation to the theories of social networks, social capital, and social exchange. We suggest extending extant knowledge of the latter by pursuing the geocentric integration of Eastern and Western schools of thought on crucial elements of social networks, chiefly by focusing on affective characteristics compared to the conventional and dominant focus on cognitive characteristics. Moreover, we highlight the dualistic nature of informal ties by adapting the notions of yin-yang and zhongyong. Based on the results of our analysis, we suggest explicitly integrating interpersonal affection and the role of emotions as the constituting elements of social network development and cohesion.

A Comparison of fantacy–reality contradiction and melancholy themes in the works by Tevfik Fikret and Ahmet Tevfik, the first Turkish story-writer in Cyprus

The people representing Servet-i Fünun do not attend to social issues. They lock themselves in the house and are mostly interested in the nature and people they feel sorry about. The poets and writers of Servet-i Fünun literatures adapted Western literature and influenced many writers and poets of their time and later times by some changes in style, theme, and wording. The best sample of this interaction in literary periods can be observed in the comparative Works by the same community in different areas. In this study, a theme comparison will be done between the Work by Tevfik Fikret and the Turkish Cypriot writer and the theme interaction in Turkish Literature will be finalized. Tevfik Fikret is appointed as the Editor-in-chief of the Scientific and Science Journal. Then he converts the journal into Literature Journal and gathers young people around it. The Servet-i Fünun people use an arty language, peculiar to them, in expressing feelings and thoughts down to the last detail with ample images and characters. Most of the Servet-i Fünun writers and poets were raised in the same educational institutions, experienced the same political, social, and financial conditions, were engaged in the same issues, were almost at the same age generation from the middle-class, were educated in Western schools and with good knowledge of foreign languages. Naturally, these similarities created a common joy and culture among them. These writers and poets believed in strong family bonds and would take up the same motives when they were together to talk about literature issues. They influenced many writers and poets. Pessimism and tediousness, the basis of literature, became the main starting points for the whole literature. In his many poems, Tevfik Fikret treated compassion and reflected the grief of many poor and lonely people. In the 1970s Turkey adapted Western Literature type but this type of literature was introduced to Cyprus late, not before the 1890s. Even though, the Servet-i Fünun followers began to influence the literateurs and their Works in Cyprus. Soon after the British era in 1878 in Cyprus, tension between Moslem Turk and Christian Greek communities started to increase. In 1901, Ahmet Tevfik published the “Mir’at-ı Zaman” and in 1909 the “Kokonoz” newspapers. A fundamental change in the literature came about particularly when these newspapers were published in Cyprus. Tevfik Fikret brought up his views and his feelings about life in an allergoric and symbolic way. In both Works, the themes were full of pessimism and melancholy. While T. Fikret emphasized the fantasy-reality contradictions and the difference between thoughts and personalities of two lovers, the melancholy-pessimism theme was the priority in Ahmet Tevfik Efendi’s work. In both works, the nature was explained with pessimism and melancholy and was symbolized as the place of love. The Servet-i Fünun followers were a family. Even more, it is emphasized that, in some Works the main characters are the writers and poets themselves. The Servet-i Fünun followers were effective in Abdülhamid II era, during which there was a pressure on the poets and writers. The pressure and censure took the writers and poets away from social issues and made them busy with an individual, pessimistic and sickly literature. This is why, melancholy and its analysis was amply mentioned in their Works. Turkish Story-writing started in 1897 in Cyprus. Ahmet Tevfik, who was in Istanbul then, was influenced by the Servet-i Fünun followers and took them as a model in his Works. They were strongly bound to the principles of arts. Although everything could be a topic for poems, but due to the political pressure of the day, they limited their Works to love, nature, family-life, and simple current issues. As the aim, the themes by the two writers will be compared and important parts of comparative studies in Turkish literature will be dealt with, to open a way to different comparisons.

Nurturing kindness naturally: A humane education program’s effect on the prosocial behavior of first and second graders across China

Research suggests that school-based programs can increase the frequencies of children’s prosocial behaviors. However, extant research nearly exclusively studies relatively small studies in Western schools. Through a large evaluation conducted over 3 separate years in 25 public elementary schools in 5 cities across eastern China, we tested whether the Caring for Life humane education program—which employs animal- and nature-related content and activities—improved the prosociality of first and second grade students. Students who participated in the program displayed significantly greater gains in prosociality than similar students who didn’t. Students who participated in an expanded version of the program appeared to realize even greater gains. The study supports the ability of school-based programs to benefit children in the vast but under-studied area of humane education in non-Western cultures.

The importance of Evolutionary Medicine in developing countries: A case for Pakistan's medical schools.

Evolutionary Medicine (EM) is a fundamental science exploring why our bodies are plagued with disease and hindered by limitations. EM views the body as an assortment of benefits, mistakes, and compromises molded over millennia. It highlights the role of evolution in numerous diseases encountered in community and family medicine clinics of developing countries. It enables us to ask informed questions and develop novel responses to global health problems. An understanding of the field is thus crucial for budding doctors, but its study is currently limited to a handful of medical schools in high-income countries. For the developing world, Pakistan's medical schools may be excellent starting posts as the country is beset with communicable and non-communicable diseases that are shaped by evolution. Remarkably, Pakistani medical students are open to studying and incorporating EM into their training. Understanding the principles of EM could empower them to tackle growing health problems in the country. Additionally, some difficulties that western medical schools face in integrating EM into their curriculum may not be a hindrance in Pakistan. We propose solutions for the remaining challenges, including obstinate religious sentiments. Herein, we make the case that incorporating EM is particularly important in developing countries such as Pakistan and that it is achievable in its medical student body.

Of Mice and Men Gaze at Evil

Ezra Pound’s Shi-Shu: Rats is read Foucauldianly to instantiate an interaction between Confucianism and Western schools of thought in response to the problem of evil. There is a review of Leibniz’s theodicy to clear up confusion, and also to pave the way for a succession of readings of a number of philosophers like Hume and James — foregrounding epistemic inclination of poets like Pope, Wordsworth and Burns. ‘Accidentality’ and ‘essentiality’ are key philosophic terms, without which this problem cannot hold its logical structure, especially in terms of an answer. Epistemo-political ‘docility’ and literal ‘decency’ are employed together for the first time to be reintroducing ancient relationship between cruel politicians and carceral system. Utopia is taken as a mere dream so that ‘the problem’ would tend to keep its identity. What is new in this paper is a ‘gaze’-wise trace of mice in literature supporting the problem of evil in philosophy, based on an actual political background, within a broad sociological realm.

Aparigraha- Is it good for organisations

Management theories have traditionally been based on concepts borrowed from western schools of philosophy with minimal influence of Indian philosophical thought. But with India emerging as an economic powerhouse post liberalisation, the age old philosophical traditions and concepts have received renewed attention from scholars for useful insights relevant to businesses. One such construct is 'Aparigraha' interpreted as non-possessiveness, non-greediness, generosity and non-envy. The importance of the practice of Aparigraha for present day businesses has been studied but sparingly. Literature pertaining to Aparigraha also lacks empirical demonstration of the tangible benefits accruing to organisations. The paper aims to bridge this gap by suggesting a methodological tool (use of experimental games) for testing the impact of practising Aparigraha on group performance in organisations. The study uses a variant of the multiplayer dictator game and concludes that a stronger belief in Aparigraha and practice of Aparigraha has a positive impact on group performance.