The Japanese Journal of Curriculum Studies
Online ISSN : 2189-7794
Print ISSN : 0918-354X
ISSN-L : 0918-354X
Volume 8
Displaying 1-18 of 18 articles from this issue
  • Article type: Cover
    1999Volume 8 Pages Cover1-
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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  • Article type: Cover
    1999Volume 8 Pages Cover2-
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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  • Hirokazu KIMURA
    Article type: Article
    1999Volume 8 Pages 1-12
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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    Over the last few decades, we have had a popular view that Course of Study for the Social Studies II (Tentative) for secondary schools in Japan was constructed based on Missouri State Curriculum Program. In a recent paper published in Journal of Educational Research on Social Studies (Shakaika-Kenkyu), No.38, I proposed a new interpretation of the origin of social studies curriculum in Japan after the World War II. The point is that many titles of the units in Course of Study for the Social Studies II (Tentative) were translated from the Virginia State Curriculum Program for secondary schools. The purpose of this paper is to re-evaluate the characteristics of the Virginia State Curriculum Program for secondary school, especially Materials of Instruction Suggested for the Core Curriculum of Virginia Secondary Schools published by the Virginia State Board of Education from 1938 to 1941. The characteristics of that curriculum program for Virginia secondary schools can be summarized as follows: 1) The curriculum aims at "continuation and develpoment of democratic society"; 2) It has a framework based on the concepts of Cultural Anthropology; 3) It deals with universal content in terms of time and space; 4) It is organized based on educational theories of pragmatism by John Dewey.
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  • Reiko MATSUKAWA
    Article type: Article
    1999Volume 8 Pages 13-31
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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    With the trend towards internationalization, more and more emphasis has been placed on the development of communicative competence in foreign language education all over the world. The content of foreign language education has been enhanced accordingly, and various syllabuses have been developed to replace the traditional grammatical/structural syllabus. Situational, notional, functional and topical syllabuses have been alternative approaches to foreign language syllabus design. Recently, some syllabus designers have suggested that syllabus content might be specified in terms of learning tasks and activities. This suggestion is based on the grounds that communication is a process rather than a set of products. In this process-oriented approach, consideration of learning process is built into the syllabus. As a result, the traditional distinction between syllabus design and methodology becomes difficult to sustain. Also here in Japan, increased priority has been given to the development of communication skills and international understanding in foreign language education. According to the final report of the Curriculum Council submitted in preparation for adopting a five-day school week in 2002, under the new national curriculum elementary schools will provide hands-on activities to expose children to foreign languages and to help them become familiar with foreign life and culture in the newly established "Period of Integrated Study". Although introducing foreign language education to primary schools is still a controversial issue, practical research is being carried out at pilot schools in every prefecture. This article, based on the pilot studies at some elementary schools, discusses the current stage of curriculum construction in primary English education and points out the following three problems; (1) What is the basic building unit with which to construct a primary English curriculum? In many pilot schools, some activities or tasks have emerged as important concepts and components within curriculum designing. Elementary school teachers have introduced various activities or tasks, which have never been carried out in secondary English lessons. Although "activity/task-based syllabus design" has been under experimental conditions, it is of interest to see how children themselves learn English in terms of "activity" or "task". (2) What is the relationship among English learning, international understanding and integrated studies? In curriculum designing, some pilot schools put emphasis on international understanding, some don't, and others plan to combine English learning or international understanding and some other subject areas into an integrated study. Through these challenging trials, it must be clarified how English learning contributes to international understanding and integrated studies. (3) Is there continuity between the primary and secondary English curriculum? Although both primary and secondary English curricula are basically communication-oriented, there is a distinction of teaching and learning methodology between these two. The former adopts an integrated approach with an emphasis on fluency, and the latter an analytic approach with an emphasis on accuracy.
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  • Kanji UECHI
    Article type: Article
    1999Volume 8 Pages 33-44
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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    The purpose of this paper is to point out the problematic and importance of postmodernism and to explore the possibility of articulating postmodernism with discourse of schooling in order to facilitate social emancipation, by examining Henry A. Giroux's critical pedagogy. As we know, J. F. Lyotard declared that complete reliance on "grand narratives" as meta-discourses, which is the most significantly characteristic point of the modern, was denied. "Grand narratives" that Lyotard criticized produces the "center-margin" schema with which only a certain kind of culture is legitimated, and placed in the "center" position of the relationship among cultures. This means other kinds of cultures except legitimated one are necessarily placed in the "margin," excluded, and neglected. Although the importance of the critical perspective of postmodernism, it is remarkably difficult to adapt postmodernism for discourses of schooling. In other words, it seems to be impossible to carry on schooling without legitimation of knowledge and norm taught in school because schools are completely modern institutions, and depend on what Lyotard calls "grand narratives." Postmodernism and discourses of schooling are contradictory in nature. Against the question of the contradictory relation between postmodernism and discourses of schooling, Giroux shows in his critical pedagogy the following answer. Giroux estimates the worth of knowledge of postmodernism, while simultaneously he points out postmodernism means more than mere criticism of modernism. According to Giroux, discourses of postmodernism reduce its political possibility by neglecting an attempt to articulate the postmodern concept of difference with the modern concept of radical democracy. He advocates reconstructing schools as public spheres and requests of teachers in it the role of transformative intellectuals. Teachers as transformative intellectuals show their students what Giroux calls "borders," which are shaped by each culture and limit people's recognition, and teach the significance of "crossing borders." In schools as public spheres, it is not only possible but also important to recognize how differences or "borders" which people have contribute to oppress certain kinds of people in reality, to encourage student to transform such social situations. We easily find the idea of emancipation in the core of Giroux's critical pedagogy. But this idea is not identified with the "grand narrative" because Giroux claims for the necessity of keeping critically investigating this idea. This means that the idea of emancipation in his critical pedagogy is not given legitimation. "Grand narratives" must be denied, but this does not mean the refusal of "narratives" such as emancipation itself. "Narratives," used in this paper are located between "grand narratives" and "individual narratives" which are produced in everyday life of individuals, and are still needed in discourses of schooling.
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  • Fukuyo Tomita
    Article type: Article
    1999Volume 8 Pages 45-57
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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    This paper,which concerns initial teacher training (ITT) in England and Wales after the 1988 Education Reform Act, will examine the effects of the National Curriculum for ITT for England introduced in 1998 on the ITT system, its meaning and issues. Educational reforms in Britain during the last decade have been made in order to raise standards in education, recognised as one of the main national targets. It is equally recognised that teachers have a key role to play in achieving these targets. The theory underlying increased governmental control of teacher training is that a national curriculum for ITT may lead to a distinct improvement in the standard of teachers, resulting in higher national educational standards. According to Britain's educational history, the role of the government in teacher education was only to decide the number of trainees in ITT and to formally recognise their status. The introduction of the ITT National Curriculum is a pioneering trial of national control over the content of courses. The first effects to be considered are on the institution providing ITT. The new course system is complex. External control systems, such as inspections by OFSTED and reviews by TTA, put new pressure on the ITT institutions, which is a threat to them because of the funding question. These impacts on the institutions force them to introduce new ideas and adjustments in order to survive. This may be difficult for some institutions. As a result, some may disappear, and the system for providing ITT may be revised. A second set of effects concern the kinds of teachers which may be expected to result from the implementation of the ITT National Curriculum. This Curriculum aims to produce particular types of teachers, as follows: teachers who are experts in core subjects; teachers able to use information and communications technology; teachers with practical competence; teachers as subjects specialists; teachers using standard English. These new teachers will change school climates and influence other teachers. The ITT National Curriculum reflects the social requirements stemming from the rapid developments, especially the globalization of modern technology, in an ever - increasingly multi-cultural society. During the last two decades, controversial governmental dogma has penetrated government policies, such as centralisation and decentralisation, and control and flexibility, which can be seen in the teacher education reform policies. So far as this dogma is well thought out, the ITT reform can succeed. The main weakness of the ITT National Curriculum is that it is merely a list of competences such as knowledge and skills. So the courses based on it are teacher training, not teacher education. To be a teaching professional requires qualities such as creativity, enthusiasm, commitment and philosophical thinking as well as competences. This paper is composed of six sections, as follows: 1. Introduction - the meaning of the reform of initial teacher education-2. The background to the introduction of the ITT National Curriculum 3. The contents of the ITT National Curriculum 4. The effects of the reform of ITT (1) Required adjustments and efforts of the ITT institutions (2) Required review of the ITT courses 5. The expected attributes of teachers (1) Teachers expert in core subjects (2) Teachers able to use information and communications technology (3) Teachers with practical competence (4) Teachers as subject specialists (5) Teachers using standard English 6. Conclusion (Abstract)
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  • Young-keun Jeong
    Article type: Article
    1999Volume 8 Pages 59-72
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The purpose of this study is to examine the process of the teacher's role performance based on the viewpoint of SBCD which places teachers as developer. The viewpoint of SBCD in this study is that 「the place of the curriculum development is school, the main person to develop it is teacher, and it is the idea to develop the curriculum according to the actual situation of school」. Thereason is that the idea of SBCD is to try to move the decision-making authority of curriculum from the center to each school. In order to clarify the process of teacher's role performance from the point of SBCD, this study focuses on the interactive model as the alternative to the objective model. Examining this model, I establish 1) the teachers as the centralrole to the practice of interaction 2) the practice of situational analysis by teachers, as two points. I established the following hypothesis based on the framework of the above analysis. 1) Teachers would reach on consensus by way of interaction with colleagues, when judging their roles to develop curriculum of school level. 2) It is the actual situation of school, not the direction of a certain person that teachers depend on the criterion when they judge thir roles. I examined of the use of the elective subject as an example, and the following is the result. 1) Teachers participate in the process of school's decision-making, and through this kind of discussion to decide the method of use and course establishment, they argue about their roles, judge the decided agreement as their roles, and carry out. The criterion of the judgment about the role of teacher isbased on the analysis of school situation such as the school facilities, the number of teachers, and the instruction of compulsory subjects. 2) Teachers analyze the situaton of curriculum resources by way of the interaction with the students, and decide the feasible course content and the method of the development. Further- more, Teachers judge and carry out their roles based on the analysis of the idea of collegues and the president's leadership, the atmosphere of school when they decide a certain method of the development.
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  • Masami KUROHA
    Article type: Article
    1999Volume 8 Pages 73-86
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper is based on the participant observation and interviews with the teachers of an Elementary School and tries to clarify characteristics of school based In-Service Teacher Training (INSET) in the 1997-98 academic year. According to the Case Study, this paper attempts to examine the validity and possibility of the Ethnography in Educational Research. First, According to research materials, this paper clarified the characteristics of INSET. 1 The teachers in INSET reflect their teaching practice and its effectiveness from the viewpoint of pupils' products of Learning. After all, they show personal Leadership in response to the learning of students flexibly. 2 The teachers in INSET shared the common teacher's beliefs. Their Beliefs are composed of a sense of mission, "More Effective Learning of pupils development through the professional development". 3 The teachers in INSET accept each other as significant others. Because they think that they can facilitate their professional development as a teacher only thorough critique among them as to their teaching practice. Secondly, The advantages of ethnography to the school study are as follows. 1 The Ethnography can describe emic of the exactly. 2 The Ethnography can urge to check the validity of empirical inquiry. 3 The Ethnography can offer a resource of hypotheses for empirical inquiries. Finally, The Ethnograpy can create flexible wisdom so that it can cope with school's problems through the implication of teachers collegiality.
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  • Mie NISHI
    Article type: Article
    1999Volume 8 Pages 87-100
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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    The purpose of this study is to discuss Grubb's concept of integration through analyzing the vocational and academic integration in "new vocationalism" which he addresses. Traditionally, the system and the purpose of vocational education have been separated from those of academic education in American high schools. However, this separation comes to be reconsidered mainly by the political and business worlds, claiming since 1980s, that schooling should prepare competitive workforce in the world economy. Professor Grubb at U.C. Berkeley, one of the most influential in American vocational education, calls this trend "new vocationalism", which consists of following strands: 1. A Nation at Risk: The Imperatives for Educational Reform (A Nation at Risk), 2. What Work Requires of Schools A SCANS Report for America 2000 {A SCANS Report), 3. The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1990 (Perkins Act), 4. The School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 (STWOA), 5. The Systemic Approaches to Integration: (1) The Academy Model, (2) Occupational High Schools and Magnet Schools, and (3) Occupational Clusters, Career Paths and Majors. These are the points of view to consider this "new vocationalism": the occupational and academic contents in integrated programs, target population, reforming just vocational education or restructuring the entire high school, and whether to change pedagogy or not. They are the points at issue Grubb articulates from the historical analysis of vocational and academic integration. According to Grubb, A Nation at Risk is conservative in both of the content and the teaching method, and A SCANS Report, Perkins Act and STWOA don't integrate vocational programs with academic programs, though they adopt some kind of integration by their own definitions. On the contrary, Grubb insists the systemic approaches integrate these two programs. He suggests they are broader preparation, encompassing various occupations, incorporating a greater variety of academic material. This broad-based education, he says, is appealing to students with a wider range of aspiration and backgrounds, then provides the substantial ways of restructuring high schools. He also points out the integrated curriculum itself becomes an incentive to change pedagogy. By using projects and cooperative learning, he tries to introduce the context of "meaning-making" into vocational education. As he mentions, the greatest ambition of integrating academic and vocational education is to reshape the whole high school, for all students and all teachers. Therefore, it is clear that Grubb puts the greatest importance on the systemic approaches to integration. The reason he aims to restructure the entire high school comes from his challenges about vocational education as following: it is a "dumping ground" for at-risk students, and high schools, with responsibilities for occupational sorting and preparation, are dominated too much by academic education not relevant for students' lives. That's why he attempts to give vocational education a proper position in high schools through the systemic integration with academic education. He argues that this type of education is based on Dewey's "education through occupations". The conclusion is, Grubb finds out, in the systemic approaches of "new vocationalism", the possibility to reverse vocationalism established around the turn of the century, which has prepared students only for employment after graduation, and very narrowly defined occupations. "New vocationalism" comes to give students opportunities to enter post secondary institutions as well as employment, and also high schools an impetus to restructure it, while he suggests that it involves danger to deprive itself of these innovations.

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  • Masako MOTOYAMA
    Article type: Article
    1999Volume 8 Pages 101-116
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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    The purpose of this study was to examine how children "learned" at their own pace through interactions in social settings, and how their learning was discovered by interpreter. In the integrated curriculum, children's learning would be different from teacher's planning or expectations. They would change the children's ways of dealing with the objects within their relationships and norms in the classroom. To comprehend Such kind of children's learning, their teacher needs to transform their view of learning from operation-oriented behaviorism or cognitive theory, to the clinically-oriented one. Additionally, he needs to describe and interpret reflectively how children produce their intellectual actions through interacting in social settings longitudinally. In a fifth-grade class room, an integrated curriculum for the theme of eating was practiced, where I ethnographically examined the learning processes of a child (Yamane) whose friendships was unstable and academic rating was low. The results were as follows; 1. A child, Yamane, chose his tasks which was to investigate different of the ways of eating in various cultures of races, eras, and areas. Then he learned reasonably at his own way, interacting with classmates and adults, though he had been sometimes a great trouble to other classmates or the teacher. 2. The interpreter, I, was able to find out child's learning through revealing and reexamining reflectively my bias by which I had regarded the child's participation in jokes toward other children as interrupting the classes. 3. Therefore, the child's unique way of learning seemd to be found out by the interpreter's reflective interpretations.
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  • Shizuka INOUE
    Article type: Article
    1999Volume 8 Pages 117-130
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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    Der Zweck dieser Aufsatzes liegt darin, Konzept und Praxis des fächerübergreifenden Unterrichts im Projekt "Schulischer Umweltbildung" in Berlin als ein Beispiel für fächerübergreifenden Unterricht für Umweltbildung in Deutschland darzustellen und seinen Charakter zu verdeutlichen. Die Durchführung der Umweltbildung in alien Ländern in Deutschland wurde in dem Beschluß "Umwelt und Unterricht" der Kultusministerkonferenz vom 17.10.1980 orientiert. In dem Beschluß kann man den Anspruch bestätigen, sich mit der Umweltbildung "in mehreren Fächer (n) oder fäacherübergreifenden Unterrichtsveranstaltungen" zu beschäftigen. Umweltbildung in Deutschland ist jedoch bisher fast in naturwissenschaftlichen Fächern, kaum fächerubergreifend durchgeführt worden. Um solches Problem zu überwinden, wurde das Umweltbildung-Projekt in Berlin vom April 1993 bis Juli 1996 durchgeführt, an dem sich 21 Schulen in Berlin beteiligten. Das Projekt heißt "Schulische Umweltbildung im Ballungsraum des wiedervereinigten Berlin" ("Schulische Umweltbildung"). Es war eins der Ziele des Projekts "Schulischer Umweltbildung", "Modelle für fächerübergreifenden Unterricht und interdisziplinäre Projekte zur Umweltbildung zu entwickeln und zu erproben". Im vorliegenden Aufsatz soll erstens der Hintergrund des Projekts "Schulischer Umweltbildung" umgerissen werden. "Schulische Umweltbildung" war ein der Modellversuche von der Bund-Länder-Kommission für Bildungsplanung und Forschungsförderung, Umweltbildung in alien Ländern zu verankern. Zweitens sollen die Voraussetzung und das Konzept des Projekts "Schulischer Umweltbildung" verdeutlicht und vier Organisationsformen für den fächerübergreifenden Unterricht dargestellt werden, die den Schulen vorgeschlagenwurden. In dissem Projekt wurden viele fächerubergreifende Unterrichte durchgeführt, bei denen um deg Kern der humanistischen bzw. "philosophischen, musischen und literarischen" Fächer sowohl naturwissenschaftliche als sozialwissenschaftliche Fächer integriert werden sollen, um den Beschluß "Umwelt und Unterricht" der KMK vom 17.10.1980 zu ergänzen. Drittens soll berachtet werden, wie die fächerübergreifenden Unterrichte wirklich in den Schulen durchgeführt wurden. Hier werden zwei Beispiele dargestellt: Das erste ist die Praxis unter dem Thema "Mull". Dabei ergibt sich Zusammenhang von Fächern; Das zweite ist die Praxis unabhängig vom Rahmen der Fächern. In dieser Praxis handelte es sich um die Entwicklung der philosophischen Aspekte der Umweltbildung, die eins der wichtigsten Themen in "Schulischer Umweltbildung" ist. Schließlich soll der Charakter des fächerübergreifenden Unterrichts in "Schulischer Umweltbildung" zusammengefaßt werden wie folgt: Fächerübergreifende Unterichte in "Schulischer Umweltbildung" werden durch Betonung nicht-naturwissenschaftlischer, vor allem humanistischer Aspekte in Unterrichtsinhalten charakterisiert. Dabei handelt es sich um Ethik oder Wert hinsichtlich der Umweltfragen. Ethik oder Wert soll jedoch nicht indoktriniert, sondern selbstständig gebildet werden, nachdcf Wissen der Umweltfragen kritisch kritisch geprüft werden ist. Wissen der Umweltfragen gilt also als notwendig für die selbstständige Bildung des Umweltbewußtseins. In diesem Sinn soll die bisher herrschende naturwissenschaftlische Umweltbildung aus diesem Projekt nicht ausgeschlossen werden. Naturwissenschaftlische Aspekte in der Umweltbildung sollen positv in nicht- naturwissenschaftliche bzw. humanistische Umweltbildung wie "philosophische" einbezogen werden. Die fächerübergreifenden Unterrichte in diesem Projekt zielen die Bildung der Fähigkeiten zur Kritik, Selbstbestimmung und Mitbestimmung.
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  • Yasuhiro KODAMA
    Article type: Article
    1999Volume 8 Pages 131-144
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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    The purpose of this paper is to make the necessity of Theory Criticism in History Study clear, and to present how to form the study based on Theory Criticism. It is necessary that student criticize more than one historical theory in history studies, the following are that grounds. 1) Historical theory isn't a truth, but it is an idea that historian makes, therefore, teacher must assist that students can make his own historical theory by taking advantage of historians theories. 2) Teacher help students be able to distinguish interpretation from facts in historical explan ation, and develop theories. 3) Teacher help students consider how different theories are, and why historians make different theories. Historical theories in Social Studies should be chosen in the following way. 1) Teacher have to choose theories that change student's historical common sense into scientific recognition. 2) Teacher have to choose theories that help students criticize a prejudice against foreign countories. Hitory Study based on theory criticism is able to organized in the following way. 1) Teacher arranges selected historical theories, and take up the case study that makes students distinguish between theories. 2) Teacher should find out historical facts concerned in the same case study. 3) Teacher should form class procedure that help students inquire the theory, criticize or contradict the theory, find out new theory, and consider difference of theories.
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  • Article type: Appendix
    1999Volume 8 Pages App1-
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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  • Article type: Appendix
    1999Volume 8 Pages App2-
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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  • Article type: Appendix
    1999Volume 8 Pages App3-
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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  • Article type: Appendix
    1999Volume 8 Pages App4-
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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  • Article type: Cover
    1999Volume 8 Pages Cover3-
    Published: March 31, 1999
    Released on J-STAGE: October 17, 2017
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  • Article type: Cover
    1999Volume 8 Pages Cover4-
    Published: March 31, 1999
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