Is what we do as teachers and learners really nothing more than 'social engineering'?
A very critical documentary on how theories of behaviourism have influenced education:
A new memorial is one of the few remaining traces of a century of mining in the former pit village of Dodworth
It was a bit like that famous scene in the film Zulu.
A small band of nervous British troops silently watching the horizon for the first glimpse of a warrior army they had never seen but with a ferocious reputation.
But this was a pit gate in North Staffordshire in March 1984 and marching towards the thin blue line of uniformed police officers were a couple of hundred miners who had just got off their buses from Barnsley.
It was dawn on day one of the miners' strike against planned pit closures. I was there with a television news crew to film the first glimpse of the flying pickets from Yorkshire.
Local Staffordshire miners had already told me they were not going to cross any picket lines so the comparison with a well-rehearsed film script was not too far off the mark.
Opening shots
That relatively good humoured first morning gave no hint that we were looking at the opening shots of what became the most fiercely-fought industrial strike in modern industrial history.
For the following 12 months, based in the Midlands as a reporter for ITV, I regularly met Yorkshire miners bussed in through the night to picket pits in areas that were not as solidly behind the strike as back home.
Former Dodworth miners Jack Carr and Steve Wyatt interviewed by Len Tingle for BBC Look North
Thirty years on I've been to some of those South Yorkshire communities where the pickets came from to ask whether the struggle was worth it?
"No question of it," I was told by former collier Steve Wyatt as we stood by a newly-installed monument to nearly a century of mining at Dodworth, near Barnsley.
Steve's absolute conviction is despite the fact that the memorial's small replica pit wheel is now the only trace left of nearly a century of mining in the village.
The strike totally failed to secure the future of the huge Dodworth Colliery which once stood a five-minute walk away from where Steve and I were standing along with Jack Carr, in 1984 NUM Branch Secretary at the pit but now a local councillor.
"We had no choice. The strike was an attack on our communities," said Jack. "OK, so we lost in terms of keeping the collieries open, but we couldn't just let it happen without a fight."
Road to nowhere
In fact, Yorkshire now has just two collieries left from the 56 operating before the strike. A workforce of over 80,000 is now down to under 800. Three decades later the fight is still going on to replace those lost jobs.
Dodworth has been luckier than most. The bulldozed pit top has now been redeveloped and 2,000 people work in the new industries that have moved on to what is now an industrial estate.
"It's a great achievement but the jobs are nowhere near as well paid or secure as what we had in the pit," I was told by Jack.
Other former coal communities have not fared so well.
Twenty miles away, on the outskirts of Doncaster, the lane that hundreds of miners used to tramp down for their shifts at Thorne colliery is now the road to nowhere.
It has been barricaded with reclaimed structural steel and bits of old conveyor belt to stop motorbikers and vandals but the flattened pit top remains as untouched and derelict as the day the bulldozers moved off.
"We've been forgotten," I was told by George Derx, the mayor of the local town council of Thorne Moorends. "Shops, businesses and jobs moved out when the local pits shut down and they haven't come back."
For communities like this the miners' strike is no mere footnote in history. Here they are still living with the consequences of what miners see as their failure to stop the government from its wholesale dismantling of the industry.
In March 1984, coal miners across Britain went on strike over planned pit closures. One former miner recalls the clash between strikers and police in 'the Battle of Orgreave'.
(Photo: Striking miners picketing Tilmanstone Colliery in Kent, March 1985. Credit: Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Learning English for the Olympics in Japan has been a political issue: Jay Doubleyou: speaking english at the olympics Using Russian and other languages in the Ukraine has been an explosive issue... Russian language in Ukraine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The rules on 'minority languages' have been difficult to put together - and after the recent events these have become a real talking point: The deepening crisis in Ukraine involves not only issues of political sovereignty, European integration and Russian hegemony, but also language and its relationship to nationalism and ethnic identity. Immediately after the removal of President Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, the Ukrainian Parliament repealed a controversial law passed in 2012 that allowed the use of "regional languages" – including Russian, Hungarian, Romanian and Tatar -- in courts and certain government functions in areas of the country where such speakers constituted at least 10 percent of the population. Watch Your Tongue: Language Controversy One Of Fundamental Conflicts In Ukraine Ukraine’s swift abolition of the law allowing the country’s regions to make Russian a second official language has worried European MPs and officials, and has been condemned outright as a “violation of ethnic minority rights” by Russian diplomats. The European Parliament has approved a resolution on Ukraine, which among other things calls on the country’s MPs and the new government to respect the rights of minorities, particularly when it comes to the use of languages. Canceled language law in Ukraine sparks concern among Russian and EU diplomats — RT News Russia-backed American news network offers its own facts on Ukraine situation | PunditFact A proposal to repeal the law was vetoed on 28 February 2014 by acting President Oleksandr Turchynov, who ordered drafting of a new law to "accommodate the interests of both eastern and western Ukraine and of all ethnic groups and minorities."[5][6] Legislation on languages in Ukraine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The English-language local press has several articles on the issue:
Although there is a perfectly reasonable explanation:
Seventy-six-year-old Mori, who was Prime Minister for one year, from 2000 to 2001, was initially reluctant to lead Tokyo 2020 only for no other suitable candidates from the business community to volunteer for the post. Quizzed on why he and other senior Tokyo 2020 executives don’t speak English, he explained he was in second grade at school when World War II ended and “English was considered the enemy's language.” Tokyo 2020 chief makes organising committee pledge as new governor is elected | SportBusiness Group
The question remains as to how prepared the host nation will be in 2020:
Outside the box: Fourth-graders at Koyamadai Elementary School in Tokyo play a game in English on Dec. 5. | YOSHIAKI MIURA
A reform plan released in mid-December by the education ministry looks to bolster English study from elementary to high school from the 2020 academic year to pursue globalization.
Education minister Hakubun Shimomura said he hopes the reforms transform English education in a practical way, not just as a tool for entrance exams.
“I think children would like to acquire communicative skills by learning English. We have to transform the education system to serve that purpose, which I think is sought by the public,” he said.
According to the execution plan for the reform of English education in response to globalization, which is in line with proposals submitted by a government education panel to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in late May, English will be taught from the third grade in activity-oriented classes once or twice a week, mainly instructed by homeroom teachers, to “lay the foundation for communication skills.”
International student numbers to the UK have dropped by nearly a third since 2010, a report by left-leaning think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has revealed. Students from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh are most affected, with 62, 38 and 30 per cent fewer Tier 4 student visas (predominantly for higher education courses) being issued for nationals of these countries since the coalition government took over three years ago.
A main concern of the government has been reducing net migration to the UK, and ‘the reduction in foreign student numbers is being driven’ by it, Alice Sachrajda, IPPR research fellow, told the Financial Times. However, the report showed that even a 30 per cent reduction in migration by student visa holders would only reduce total net migration by 10 per cent, making very little difference in the medium term.
Despite the seemingly hostile environment for Indian students, the UK remains their most favoured destination, chosen by 21 per cent of respondents in a study conducted by the British Council. India and China are the UK’s largest international student markets.
Where do you think the word “glocalization” comes from?
What does it mean - and what does it mean to different people in different contexts?
Glocalization (a portmanteau of globalization and localization) is a term denoting the adaptation of a product or service specifically to each locality or culture in which it is sold. It is similar to internationalization. The term “glocalization” is a newly coined blend of globalization and localization refers to a concept to describe individual, group, organization, product or service that reflects not only global standard but also local one.
A new memorial is one of the few remaining traces of a century of mining in the former pit village of Dodworth
Former Dodworth miners Jack Carr and Steve Wyatt interviewed by Len Tingle for BBC Look North
Open to all: some companies may have been able to get away with pandering to Western audiences, but that must change, Nathalie Nahai says
