Teaching Religion OR about Religion: The Paradox of Religious Education in Secondary Schools in Uganda

The article reviews the teaching of Religious Education in schools in Uganda. Uganda is a religiously pluralistic country with Christianity and Islam the most popular. Ugandans are theists, their worldview is religious and they are passionate about their faiths. Therefore, Religious Education is a fundamental subject since the early years of education as it marked the beginning of formal education in Uganda. However, whilst Uganda has a diversity of religions such as Christianity with its different sects, Islam and its sects, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, the education system considers only Islam and Christianity. Therefore, the article discusses whether the teaching of Religious Education where only Christianity and Islam are considered is justified to be referred to as Religious Education. The article concludes that there is a mismatch between the NCDC (2008) stated goals, objectives and content of Religious Education. The objectives and goals portray a false image that RE is intended to expose learners and to achieve educational purposes. Yet, the content, approaches and teaching methods are quite contradictory. The implementation of RE in Uganda is purely confessional; it does not aim at educational goals but at deepening learners' faith distinctively. Instead of teaching about religion, learners are taught religion. The article is based on documentary analysis of the Religious Education curriculum, syllabi and teachers' and learners' handbook documents. In addition, the article analysed literature about the teaching of Religious Education including the aims and goals of Religious Education, the pedagogical approaches, methods and techniques in Religious Education in modern pluralistic communities. In identifying the appropriate literature, suitable databases were identified and used Boolean operators and proper search terms, phrases and conjunctions were used. To further ensure the credibility of the reviewed publications for analysis, only peer-reviewed journal articles with ISBN numbers and Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) were used

Literary Characters and their Verbal Mimicry through the Prism of Gestalt Analysis

The paper represents a fragment of a multi-year project focused on everyday speech interaction and, particularly, on verbal mechanisms of granting speech efficiency and effectiveness. The introductory statement of the research is more precise thespeaker organizes his/her message verbally, the easier it is understood by the listener. Special attention is paid to the methodological approach to verbal identification of literary characters’ social strata. The paper also elicits how Gestalt analysis can be successfully applied to different practical linguistic tasks. Hence, the article deals with the advantages of Gestalt, used for unmasking the virtual speaker’s social identity and his social status. Besides, a close study of speech situations has revealed some cases when the speaker tries to play a verbal trick on the audience, thus consciously or unconsciously imposing a false image and hiding his/her true identity. The phenomenon of speech imposters, discovered in literary dialogues termed “speech, or verbal mimicry,” while the speakers who use such verbal masks are called “mimics.” In the presented research, two types of mimicry are distinguished: progressive and regressive speech mimicry. Hence, the characters’ speech was analyzed through the prism of his/her actual or imposed social status, which allowed to single out sufficiently reliable syntactic indicators of the speaker’s real social profile.

Literary Characters and their Verbal Mimicry through the Prism of Gestalt Analysis

The paper represents a fragment of a multi-year project focused on everyday speech interaction and, particularly, on verbal mechanisms of granting speech efficiency and effectiveness. The introductory statement of the research is more precise thespeaker organizes his/her message verbally, the easier it is understood by the listener. Special attention is paid to the methodological approach to verbal identification of literary characters’ social strata. The paper also elicits how Gestalt analysis can be successfully applied to different practical linguistic tasks. Hence, the article deals with the advantages of Gestalt, used for unmasking the virtual speaker’s social identity and his social status. Besides, a close study of speech situations has revealed some cases when the speaker tries to play a verbal trick on the audience, thus consciously or unconsciously imposing a false image and hiding his/her true identity. The phenomenon of speech imposters, discovered in literary dialogues termed “speech, or verbal mimicry,” while the speakers who use such verbal masks are called “mimics.” In the presented research, two types of mimicry are distinguished: progressive and regressive speech mimicry. Hence, the characters’ speech was analyzed through the prism of his/her actual or imposed social status, which allowed to single out sufficiently reliable syntactic indicators of the speaker’s real social profile.

Millennia of continuity in the votive behaviour of Europeans The testimony of tools for determining the value of metal Tisíciletá kontinuita votivního chování Evropanů Svědectví nástrojů k určení jakosti kovu

Archaeology has a great deal of experience with how the misinterpretation of finds creates a false image of the past. The main reason for this is down to ideologically-conditioned stereotypes. The paper describes one such case involving hundreds of thousands of finds of one type of artefact, commonly classified as whetstones, pendants, amulets, etc., from the Chalcolithic up to the Early Middle Ages. The article emphasises that although touchstones from ancient burials had already been identified using an electron microscopy half a century ago, the interpretation of these finds corresponding to the paradigm from the early 19th century remains popular to this day. For the chemical microanalysis of metal traces preserved on the surface of these stone artefacts, samples were selected from Russian, Slovakian, Swedish and Ukrainian sites, from the Hallstatt period up to the Early Middle Ages, with special regard for their previous interpretation history. However, the main aim is to point out the symbolic role of tools used to test the value of precious metals outside the grave context. Finds from wet environments in particular reveal the continuity of the behaviour of European over the millennia, regardless of the current ideology or cult, and the diversity of artefacts that were, and still are, chosen as a medium for votive behaviour.

Mujeres, sociedad y arte. Proyecto colaborativo

Este trabajo narra la realización de un libro colectivo sobre perspectiva de género. En el mundo actual, la imagen de la mujer en los medios resulta muy manipulada, contribuyendo a difundir una imagen interesada y falsa de la mujer. Los futuros maestros deben ser sensibles a esta situación para que no se conviertan en consumidores pasivos. Con el proyecto se les dotó de mecanismos de crítica para contrarrestar una situación inadmisible en el S. XXI. Queremos conseguir que los alumnos reflexionen críticamente sobre el papel de la mujer en la sociedad mediante la acción colaborativa, descrita en el texto. La capacidad del Arte para generar imágenes que provoquen emociones nos permite alcanzar nuestros objetivos. This paper reports the production of a group book about gender perspectives. Nowadays, the image of women in mass-media tends to be manipulated and this contributes to the dissemination of a misleading and false image of women’s identity. Future teachers should be especially conscious of this situation so that they do not become passive consumers of publicity. This project aims to offer students mechanisms for criticism and reflection to counteract a situation which in the 21st century should be simply unacceptable. Our goal is that our students reflect critically about the role of women in society by means of a collaborative action which this article explains in detail. The capacity of Art to provide images that elicit emotions allows us to reach our aims.

Postoperative Textiloma Mimicking Intracranial Rebleeding in a Patient with Spontaneous Hemorrhage: Case Report and Review of the Literature

During craniotomy, hemostatic materials such as oxidized cellulose and cotton pads, commonly used to control bleeding, may cause a granulomatous reaction that may produce space-occupying mass lesions termed textiloma (or gossypiboma). We present a 46-year-old female who underwent a right frontotemporal craniotomy and surgical removal of intraparenchymal cerebral hemorrhage, and who developed a textiloma during the postoperative period causing seizures. Granulomatous reactions due to hemostatic agents have been reported experimentally, as well as after cranial and spinal operations. We emphasize that although it is rare, an adverse reaction such as a postoperative textiloma due to hemostatic material and subsequent granuloma formation can result in a false image of rebleeding, tumor recurrence, radiation necrosis, or postoperative abscess, depending on the particular clinical history of each patient.

Powstanie kawalerii SS Totenkopf i jej rola w niemieckiej polityce okupacyjnej na ziemiach polskich w latach 1939–1941

The topic of the article is one of the German SS regiments stationed in occupied Poland and its role in The German occupation policy. While the history of the SS formation is very well known in both academic and popular science literature, its cavalry has not been elaborated in great detail thus far. Although this topic seems interesting, it has not yet been discussed in any book in the Polish language. Most of the literature related to this topic was published in German and English. The 1st SS Death’s Head Cavalry Regiment operated primarily in the General Government and was under the Higher SS and Police Command. Some of its squadrons also operated in areas annexed to the Reich, i.e. the Warta Voievodship (Reichsgau Wartheland). From this article we will learn about the formation of the SS Death’s Head cavalry and its gradual inclusion in the brutal occupation policy of the Third Reich in Poland. In the case of its formation, we are dealing with tasks such as combating the early partisan units, searching for weapons, participating in the creation of ghettos, or helping to eliminate Polish levels of the intelligentsia. Noteworthy is the participation of this unit in the production of the propaganda film “Kampfgeschwader Lützow”, in which Polish cavalrymen were presented attacking German tanks with sabres. This false image was reproduced after the war in some movies or books, and contributed to the distorted presentation of Polish soldiers in the defensive battles of 1939.

An Overview of Feature-Based Shadow Detection Methods

Shadows occur very frequently in digital images while considering them for various important applications. Shadow is considered as a source of noise and can cause false image colors, loss of information, and false image segmentation. Thus, it is required to detect and remove shadows from images. This chapter addresses the problem of shadow detection in high-resolution aerial images. It presents the required main concepts to introduce for the subject. These concepts are the main knowledge units that provide for the reader a better understanding of the subject of shadow detection and furthering the research. Additionally, an overview of various shadow detection methods is provided together with a detailed comparative study. The results of these methods are also discussed extensively by investigating their main features used in the process to detect the shadows accurately.