SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATORS’ ENACTMENT STRATEGIES OF THE FRENCH INTEGRATED CURRICULUM CONTENT

<p>This article presents an action research on Lesotho educators’ enactment strategies of the French integrated curriculum content. Essentially, the aim of this article was to explore the concept of content in order to establish whether enactment strategies used by educators on content favour successful attainment of goals. Convenience sampling was used in selecting seven participants. Four methods of data generation, namely, one-on-one semi-structured interviews, document analysis, observations, and reflective activities, were used. Action research was effected in two phases: Phase One findings demonstrated educators’ dominant use of savoir (factual enactment strategies) at the expense of savoir-faire (social enactment strategies) and savoir-être (habitual enactment strategies). This seemed to present a hurdle, as content was not aligned with goals. Phase Two results, through the intervention of action research, saw educators maintaining a balance among savoir, savoir-faire and savoir-être, thereby aligning content with goals prescribed in the curriculum and therefore augmenting greatly the chances of attaining these goals. The article consequently recommends a revision of the policy, in which the use of the three propositions of content would be advocated to encourage teaching of schooled knowledge, context-dependent knowledge, as well as knowledge that is deemed essential by the educator as required by the prevailing context.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0620/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Defining Religion: Sacred Moral Communities

We provide and support our definition of religion. Religion is (1) a social enactment of a desire for the ultimate. It is (2) embodied in ritual practices; (3) described by systems of symbols and beliefs; (4) developed in communal settings, and often institutionally legitimated. (5) Religion interacts and negotiates with powers and forces that are experienced as within and beyond the self and group. (6) This power or force is most often referred to as god/spirit or gods/spirits. (7) The affective experience of ritual, and the symbolic and social boundaries constructed in rites, mobilize group identity and bind the group into a moral community. Last, (8) these moral communities produce networks of solidarity, and carry the potential for tension and, more rarely, conflict and violence within and between groups.

We Rise Out of the Cradle into the Grave: An Ethnographic Exploration of Ritual, Mourning, and Death on a Hutterite Colony

The Hutterites are a closed ethnoreligious community whose funeral traditions have remained unchanged for centuries. Few researchers have had the opportunity to study this unique group. This study is an ethnographic exploration into the experience of child death and ritual on a Hutterite colony utilizing participant-observation and interviewing. Three recurrent themes emerged: ritual/tradition, spirituality/faith, and social cohesion and integration/group identity. Observed rituals are situated within the broader framework. While some aspects of the response to death may resemble those of mainstream culture, a deeper evaluation of descriptive and structural specifics reveals some important differences. Most of the cultural contrast is contained in concrete social enactment of death rituals, shared identity, and the immutable faith in God at the center of the Hutterite mourning process. These factors may help account for the low rates of mental disorders seen among Hutterites, even following traumatic events, and would be worthy of further investigation.

Beyond the utility of violence

This article points to the limitations of utilitarian theories of violence, as evident in the works of anthropologists who insist that all acts of violence either serve instrumental purposes (such as advancing one's own position) or expressive purposes (such as communicating key social ideas). Against the totalizing claims of such theories, the article observes that most homicides that occurred in the South African lowveld village where I conducted fieldwork research were the unanticipated consequence of men striking out in moments of anger. Although not the purposeful outcome of calculated conduct, these homicides were not however random. The high incidence of homicide can be explained in terms of Sahlins's concept of conjunctive agency, and by the co-presence of structural conditions of deprivation, ideologies of masculine domination, the wide prevalence of firearms, and the social enactment of rage.

Some Complexities of Gendered Talk about Texts

In this study, I reanalyzed classroom discussion data. I approached this inquiry with a social-enactment theoretical orientation and a substantive framework based on gendered classroom interactions, multiple subjectivities, and power relationships. The data sources consisted of three videotaped class discussions and interviews about the discussions as well as fieldnotes produced during my weekly observations conducted during an academic year in an Advanced Placement English class. I analyzed the actions and interactions of two highly visible 12th graders. The students accepted and contested traditional gender-based expectations, indicating some complexities of gendered talk about texts. Locating literacy events theoretically at the confluence of external forces and individual actions helped me explain these actions and interactions and suggest possible classroom practices. I close this report with concerns and questions.

A Model of Social Interaction to Guide Occupational Therapy Practice

Social interaction is recognized as being within the domain of occupational therapy practice. However, without a clearly defined model of social interaction that is consistent with the tenets of occupational therapy, therapists' understanding of how socially-oriented occupational behaviour is produced and their ability to assess and treat social deficits will remain limited. A working model that conceptualizes social interaction within the context of occupational performance is presented and discussed. Social enactment skills, the output of the process, are produced as a result of the individual's ability to take in and make sense of social information, and develop a plan of action. This process is influenced by several variables including the individual's sensory organs, cognitive abilities, emotional state, volitional traits, and interactional style. Three brief case studies illustrate the utility of the model in explaining clients' social interaction and helping to guide the assessment and intervention process.