In the work of Thai film director Apichatpong Werasethakul, the problematic nature of contemporary citizenship is anchored in images of health and political authority. His first feature-length film, Mysterious Object at Noon (2000), frames culture and political community around a doctor’s prescription of a hearing aid. This same physician and doctor’s office provides the backdrop for a transnational migrant seeking a work permit in the director’s second film, Blissfully Yours (2002). In the controversial Syndromes And A Century (2007), initially banned in Thailand, these provincial scenes give way to hierarchical images of control in a Bangkok hospital where its residents are rigidly organized amid symbols of national authority. The director’s most recent film, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), moves from the hospital of previous films to hospitality by positioning a Laotion migrant worker as primary caretaker of the film’s lead character, a former soldier. From these examples, political theory is better positioned to connect health with an enlarged concept of “care” for the Other, precisely because their medical settings reimagine the assemblage of guests, strangers and hosts as an encounter between doctors and patients. These images place the viewer into an ethical engagement with caregiving and caretaking in the Thai political present, a tenuous moral regime of well-being where an unsettled nation-state struggles to retain its oversight.

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Haiku, a traditional Japanese form of poetry, is well known all over the world today. However, for the majority, it is approachable only in their native languages, which seldom contributes to enhancing the Japanese language proficiency of the haijin. On the other hand, in the field of Japanese language education, Haiku has been used as a tool for improving learners’ Japanese skills, encouraging their further understanding of Japanese culture, history and aesthetic sense.
This paper reports practical examples of the utilization of Haiku for Japanese language education. The first examples aim to develop specific topics of Japanese learning: the sense of Japanese mora timing for better pronunciation, proper use of onomatopoeia, and discussion of seasonal words to understand cultural differences. For the second example, a holistic approach which integrates different skills such as reading, listening, speaking and writing is also reported based on various attempts in an intermediate Japanese course of Akita International University. Learners’ positive reactions toward the Haiku class are also shown as proof of the usefulness of Haiku for Japanese language education.
Finally, further possibilities for Haiku are mentioned from the view point that Japanese language education should cooperate with related fields such as Japanese literature, art and philosophy.

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A Master of Education program at a public university system in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) employed a distributed delivery system utilizing videoconferencing to allow students in disparate locations to join together for a course of studies. An instructor taught each course from one of six campuses on a rotating basis. Each cohort of students was tied-in to the lecture and presentation via videoconference and was able to hear, see, and participate in all classroom activities in real-time. Titled tele-presence supported distributed course delivery (TSDCD), this method of instruction was intended to allow students in remote locations to participate in degree programs and utilize the expertise of a limited number of teaching staff. Nine educators have taught courses using the TSDCD system. The research question for this qualitative study addressed teaching and asked, what was the best pedagogical practice for teaching in such a system? Data was generated from a survey of teachers who participated in the program. The findings identified a set of best practices. They included making each lesson student centered, utilizing an inter-cohort and intra-cohort discussion model in class sessions, using the on-site tutor as a facilitator for inter-cohort discussions and activities, and the need to develop lesson plans that are specific in their goals and the timing of each activity. These best practices, and others identified in the findings, can inform the teaching practice of an educator working within distance education modalities.

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The aim of this paper is to analyze differentiation theory without relying on the system concept, because this concept has a questionable methodological status. The replacement of the system concept with an interaction concept allows a completely new approach to the phenomenon of social differentiation, because interaction types are structurally related to value dilemmas. However, whereas such value dilemmas are not recognized in pre-modern societies, they become obvious in modern societies. The fact that we have lost the illusion of order in modern societies leads to the phenomenon of differentiation into advocates of different values in the domains of economics, sociology, and political science.

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Much of the focus of education concerns in Latin America has been on mainstream education in those countries. However, indigenous people make up a significant portion of the population and are largely overlooked in discussions of educational reform. In this review of the literature, we examine the ethnic and educational reforms that have taken place in Latin America and what roles the reforms play in upholding indigenous rights. We then present the educational challenges that the indigenous people currently face in progressing in their educational achievements and provide examples of how reform has been working to promote an effective learning environment in Latin America. We conclude with a potential model for further improvement coming from the subfield of “opportunity to learn.”

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This article aims to explore the concepts of ‘quality’ in education and how they are reflected in practices. Three research questions guide this study: 1) What are the current understanding and debates about ‘quality’ in education? How are they measured? ; 2) What are current challenges and initiatives of improving the quality of primary education in Niger? How are they designed to achieve quality in primary education? ; and 3) What are the positions of donor agencies involved and how do they affect the project initiatives? The discourse of the ‘quality’ in education is investigated through a review of literature, referring to qualitative data from the case study of School for All project in Niger, developed by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The concepts, the project initiative and the approach of relevant donor agencies involved in the project are examined using the framework of Didactic Triangle (Clarkson, 2009), which identifies three components of education systems: ‘contents’, ‘transmitters’ and ‘receivers’. The discussion highlights the argument that current understanding of the concept places emphasis on ‘inputs-outputs’ relations, as well as the way the project in the case study seems to reflect. The discussion concludes with the concerns relating to the education and projects with the increased focus on measurable outcomes.

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