Ethical dilemmas: Teaching futures in schools

Educational policy is implicitly futures oriented, yet in most instances fails to engage learners with explicit futures tools and concepts at a school level. Futures studies in education, or futures education has the potential to reposition learning as purposeful and mobilizes the lives of participants by connecting the curriculum of schools with the multifaceted futures of learners. This is a complex task within the tensions often existing between: the cultural role of a school, the expectations of a society, the expertise of teachers, and the increasingly diverse needs of learners (Bateman, 2012). It is between the tensions of these things that the ‘ethical’ issues of what is taught, or omitted as content in a classroom and the consequences of these choices are evident.This paper highlights ethical and moral dilemmas, as they were apparent in two futures education projects. In the first study, the teachers discuss the inherent limitations of offering a broader and more futures oriented curriculum. In the second study, teachers reflect upon their students’ anxiety with regards to futures images as they are interrogated within a curriculum study. Each of these studies highlights the ethical challenges that arise, when possible, preferable and probable futures are developed as part of learning in school settings, which are culturally and demographically diverse.Tirri and Husu (2002) highlight the ethical dilemmas, which emerge in classrooms around the world, based on conflicts in values and competing intentions between key stakeholders. In the studies which contribute to this discussion, there is evidence to suggest that futures thinking causes conflict within an individual's perception of how the world should be, or their worldview as a result of futures imagining which goes beyond what is taken for granted, or is an assumed future eventuality. In the same way, Carrington, Deppeler, and Moss (2010) argue that all curriculum choices about what is taught (or not taught) in a classroom reflect an ethical decision made by a teacher, with regards to what is foregrounded for learning and what is omitted.It is crucial to re-examine the role of a school in educating students for their futures, as opposed to educating students with an aim of furthering governmental agendas. More significantly, however, as this paper highlights, it is exploring the boundaries of what is acceptable or unacceptable, appropriate or inappropriate to teach in a classroom, given the changing diversities of schools and education systems throughout the world.     

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西方幼儿教育对我国幼儿教育发展的启示——以英国、美国为例

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爱尔兰酒店管理高等教育课堂教学理念及启示

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企业集群理论是从价值增值环节研究经济组织和资源配置的管理学理论,企业集群的互利机理与共生机制对指导职业教育集团的发展有着重要的意义。文章结合我国职业教育和职教集团的现状,提出集团化办学是一种职业教育集群升级模式。职教集群升级本质上是集群治理效率的提升。我国职教集团化办学大体处于短距离市场价值链层级,要实现价值链的高移与升级,必须加快从短距离市场价值链到准等级型价值链的演进和从准等级型价值链到网络型价值链的提升。而要实现这种升级,必须基于深度产学合作和资源整合实现职业集团角色转型和准确定位,以实现职业教育与区域经济的良性互动与对接。     

运用契合原则和引导原则增强大学生思想政治教育实效性

高校进一步增强大学生思想政治教育的实效性,就要在教育过程中贯彻契合原则与引导原则。要牢牢把握大学生思想政治教育的基本目标,调查研究大学生思想品德的基本状况,巧妙进行教育过程中的自然街接与合理过渡,引导大学生健康成长。     

现代设计教育中创新思维的培养

设计教育是美育的核心,承担着开启人的感知力、理解力、想象力、创造力,使人的内心情感和谐发展的重任。在现代设计教育中,通过培养学习兴趣,训练发散思维和加强实践教学环节等培养学生的创新思维。     

论高职学生职业观念的构建

以具有大学生身份而在企业一线进行技能或操作型工作为培养目标的高职院校,应该特别重视引导学生形成健康的生活生存观念、完美的职业精神和良好的职业素养。因为在传统的价值观发生了颠覆性的断裂而孕育全新价值观的社会环境正在形成之中的社会、经济结构转型时期,学会认识、享受职业比掌握职业技能、选择职业更重要。     

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税收优惠是国家在税收方面给予纳税人和征税对象的各种优待的总称。在中国,99%的企业是中小企业。长期以来我国都有关于中小企业税收优惠的规定,从而促进了中小企业的快速发展。此次国际金融危机使我国中小企业的发展面临严峻挑战,保护中小企业迫切需要税收优惠政策的支持。完善中小企业税收优惠制度,对于帮助中小企业顺利度过难关,促进国民经济发展,维护社会稳定均有重大意义。本文通过借鉴当前金融危机形势下各国关于中小企业税收优惠制度的调整经验,对我国现存相关立法进行了全面剖析,并就完善该项制度提出几点建议。     

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