A case for liberating learning Enhancing students' quality of life through education in the classroom and beyond Throughout the history of our civilisation, education has been seen by philosophers, national leaders and educators as essential for social cohesion and economic development. However, there is a tension between the (proper) interest of governments in ensuring that education prepares young people to be effective citizens, and the desire of educators to ensure that students maintain individuality and a rich learning experience. While it is important to have comparable standards within and between countries, when it comes to issues of curriculum standardisation risks constraint and over-regulation. In education the liberal tradition places great emphasis on individual freedom, moving well beyond 'freedom from...' and rather positioning and promoting education as 'freedom to...'. It is this commitment to education's emancipatory potential that underpins all of the essays in this book. While exploring the impact of globalisation and emerging technologies on the teaching and learning practices of schools and universities, Liberating Learning presents a variety of pioneering initiatives advocated by seminal thinkers and practitioners with a series of commentaries on where education is, and where it is going. There are three key areas of focus: the curriculum; pedagogy; and the role of secondary education in widening participation in higher education. Collectively, the perspectives outlined here consider how we might transform our vision of education as authentically enabling and emancipatory into a reality for all young people. In a climate where the imperative for sharing ideas and good practice between distinct educational sectors, and between educators and policy makers, is crucial, our hope is that this collection will serve as catalyst for further debate on how to liberate learning and broaden participation.

The 1990s witnessed an explosion in women's writing in France, with a particularly exciting new generation of writer's coming to the fore, such as Christine Angot, Marie Darrieussecq and Regine Detambel. Other authors such as Paule Constant, Sylvie Germain, Marie Redonnet and Leila Sebbar, who had begun publishing in the 1980s, claimed their mainstream status in the 1990s with new texts. The book provides an up-to-date introduction to an analysis of new women's writing in contemporary France, including both new writers of the 1990s and their more established counter-parts. The editors' incisive introduction situates these authors and their texts at the centre of the current trends and issues concerning French literary production today, whilst fifteen original essays focus on individual writers. The volume includes specialist bibliographies on each writer, incorporating English translations, major interviews, and key critical studies. Quotations are given in both French and English throughout. An invaluable study resource, this book is written in a clear and accessible style and will be of interest to the general reader as well as to students of all levels, to teachers of a wide range of courses on French culture, and to specialist researchers of French and Francophone literature. -- .

In today's globalised world, it is increasingly important to understand the otherness of different societies and their beliefs, histories and practices. This book focuses on a burning cultural issue: how concepts and constructions of gender and sexuality impact upon health, medicine and healthcare. Starting from the premise that health is neither a universal nor a unitary concept, it offers a series of interdisciplinary analyses of what sickness and well-being have been, are and can be. The originality of this book is its cross-cultural and trans-historical approach. Bringing together specially commissioned work by both major critical voices and young scholars in fields ranging from anthropology and art history to philosophy, political science and sociology, this volume challenges many traditional assumptions about gender, medicine and health-care. Issues addressed include: the politics and realities of female genital mutilation; sex-work and migration; the portrayal of mothering in contemporary African writing; the representation of AIDS in literature, photography and the media; the place of gender in ancient Egyptian health papyri; the dramatisation of morality and sexual over-indulgence in Thai literature; the relationship between myths of menstruation and power in early modern England; the role of anger in traditional Chinese medicine; and the ways in which both disease and sexual identities were redefined by cholera in the nineteenth century. The wide-ranging Introduction provides a historical and theoretical framework for what is defined here as Cultural Medicine, whilst fifteen original essays demonstrate from different perspectives that health is not merely a physiological and medical issue, but also a cultural and ethical one. An invaluable research and study resource, this book is written in a clear and accessible style and will be of interest to the general reader as well as to students of all levels, to teachers of a wide range of disciplines, and to specialist researchers of cultural studies and of medicine.

In today's globalised world, it is increasingly important to understand the otherness of different societies and their beliefs, histories and practices. This book focuses on a burning cultural issue: how concepts and constructions of gender and sexuality impact upon health, medicine and healthcare. Starting from the premise that health is neither a universal nor a unitary concept, it offers a series of interdisciplinary analyses of what sickness and well-being have been, are and can be. The originality of this book is its cross-cultural and trans-historical approach. Bringing together specially commissioned work by both major critical voices and young scholars in fields ranging from anthropology and art history to philosophy, political science and sociology, this volume challenges many traditional assumptions about gender, medicine and health-care. Issues addressed include: the politics and realities of female genital mutilation; sex-work and migration; the portrayal of mothering in contemporary African writing; the representation of AIDS in literature, photography and the media; the place of gender in ancient Egyptian health papyri; the dramatisation of morality and sexual over-indulgence in Thai literature; the relationship between myths of menstruation and power in early modern England; the role of anger in traditional Chinese medicine; and the ways in which both disease and sexual identities were redefined by cholera in the nineteenth century. The wide-ranging Introduction provides a historical and theoretical framework for what is defined here as Cultural Medicine, whilst fifteen original essays demonstrate from different perspectives that health is not merely a physiological and medical issue, but also a cultural and ethical one. An invaluable research and study resource, this book is written in a clear and accessible style and will be of interest to the general reader as well as to students of all levels, to teachers of a wide range of disciplines, and to specialist researchers of cultural studies and of medicine.

French Studies in and for the 21st Century draws together a range of key scholars to examine the current state of French Studies in the UK, taking account of the variety of factors which have made the discipline what it is. The book looks ahead to the place of French Studies in a world that is increasingly interdisciplinary, and where student demands, new technologies and transnational education are changing the ways in which we learn, teach, research and assess. Required reading for all UK French Studies scholars, the book will also be an essential text for the French Studies community worldwide as it grapples with current demands and plans for the future.

Char is regarded as one of the most important modern French poets. Admired by Heidegger for the profundity of his poetic philosophy, he was also a hero of the French Resistance. Associated with the surrealist movement, he wrote poetry which confronts the major twentieth century moral, political, and artistic concerns with a simplicity of vision and expression that owes much to the poet-philosophers of ancient Greece.

Much has been written about the role and presence of the Arabs in the world at the beginning of this millennium, and their ability to meet the challenges overwhelming our planet, bristling as it is with science, technology and latest lethal weapons. Now this new book by Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber penetrates to the heart of the Arab situation by a new route, hitherto uncharted. The author gives us a practical and precise summary of his own contemporary Arab experience from an intercontinental perspective, notable for its success, variety and modernity. Sheikh Mohamed has been able to scale the peaks of international corporate and institutional life, and impose his presence and voice upon them. Here, in a distillation of wisdom drawn from a unique career, he presents us with a practical account of the lessons of his success, so that they can be applied to economic and social institutions and thence to society at large. This book is a translation of the Arabic original, first published in 2009. It therefore pre-dates the events of the`Arab Spring' and other recent upheavals in the Arab world. Its insights are none-theless valid, and are just as applicable to the Arab world today as they were four years ago. Indeed, they have taken on extra urgency in the light of the author's prescient diagnosis of the Arab peoples' thirst for democracy, human rights and proper citizenship in their own countries. SHEIKH MOHAMED BIN ISSA AL JABER was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 1959, and is today a prominent international businessman and philanthropist. He is founder and chairman of the MBI Group, a worldwide investment institution operating in the hospitality, real estate, finance, oil and gas, and food industries, as well as the founder and sole patron of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation, a UK-registered charity focused on building bridges between the Middle East and the wider world. Among many other roles he is Special Envoy of the Director General of UNESCO for tolerance, democracy and peace, official UN spokesman for good governance, founder of the London Middle East Institute at SOAS, and a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. With a Foreword by Professor Michael Worton.

Do you know God as our good Father? Join Michael Worton as he takes you through his journey with Christ. A miraculous path from living as an orphan to living as a son, understanding, along the way, the true identity of being His child and The Mystics of His Love.

This volume of essays brings together critical analysis and commentary on the literary work of Michel Tournier.