Educating for Democracy

                This post is a summary of a didactic material published  in December of 2010 at  http://www.mpn.gov.rs/wpcontent/uploads/2015/09/EDC_HRE_Volume_I_Educationg_for_democrac

                Newspaper readers or TV news watchers will find that many media reports on politics fall into one of the following two categories: Politicians attack their opponents. In doing so, they may question their rivals' integrity or ability to hold office. Politicians discuss solutions to solve problems. These two categories of political events correspond to Max Weber's classic definition of politics: Politics is a quest and struggle for power. Without power, no politician can achieve anything. Politics is something eminently practical and relevant, and discussion must result in decisions. Of course, we think of political leaders who must meet standards. There are prominent examples of leaders who stand for the extremes, the populist and the professor. One tends to turn politics into a show stage, the other into a lecture hall. The first may win the election, but will do little. The second may have good ideas, but only a few will understand them. However, not only political leaders and decision makers face this dilemma, but also every citizen who wishes to take part in politics. In a public setting, speaking time is limited, and only those speakers will make an impact whose point is clear and easy to understand. Teachers will discover that there are parallels betweeen communication in public and communication in school, the scarcity of time, the need to be both clear and simple, but also able to handle complexity. Exercising human rights, such as freedom of thought and speech, taking part in elections, is therefore a demanding task for all citizens, not only political leaders. In Education for Democracy and Human Rights, people receive the training and the encouragement that they need to take part in public debates and decision making. Politics is conceived as a process of defining political problems in a controversial agenda-setting process, and both in defining a political problem and excluding other from the agenda, a considerable element of power is involved. There is a heuristic concept of political problems and the common good, no one is in a position to define beforehand what the common good is. The individuals taking part in the process have to find out and to compromise. Participation is imperfect in social reality, with certain individuals and groups systematically having less access to power and decision-making process, thus that requires attention to increasing the access of less powerful. In Abraham Lincoln's famous quotation (1863), "democracy is government of the people, by the people, for the people"; the three definitions can be understood as follows: OF: power comes from the people, and whoever is part of authority may be held responsible by the people. BY: power is exercised either through elected representatives or direct rule by the citizens. FOR: power is exercised to serve the interested of the people, that is, the common good. No matter how long the democratic tradition is in a country and how it has developed it can not be taken for granted. In every country, democracy and human rights have to be permanently developed to meet the challenges that every generation faces. Every generation has to be educated in democracy and human rights. Core elements of modern democracies include: 1) A constitution protected by an independent high court. 2) Governments that have signed human rights conventions are obliged to uphold the range of rights they have ratified, regardless of whether they are in the constitution. 3) The equal status of all citizens. 4) Universal suffrage. In addition, some systems include the right for citizens to make decisions on a certain issue by direct vote. 5) Wide ways to participate. This includes the freedom of the media, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and the right of political opposition to act freely. 6) Pluralism. 7) Parliament, the body of elected representatives has the power of legislation. 8) Majority rule: the minority must accept the decision. Constitution define limits for majority rule that protect the rights of minorities. 9) Checks and balances: democracies combine two principles: the authority to exercise force rests with the state. However, to prevent power of force to turn into autocratic or dictatorial rule, all democracies systems include checks. The classical model divides state powers into legislation, executive and jurisdiction. Democracy gives more freedom to individuals than any other system of government, provided it is set in an order, that is, an institutional framework, and implemented as such. To function well, democracy relies on a state that exercise the rule of law and achieves an accepted degree of distributive justice. A dysfunctional state means that a government is not able to carry out its constitutional framework and laws. Democracies depend on their citizens to what extent the strengths of democracies are unfolded and their weakness are kept in check. Democracies are demanding systems, depending on their citizens' active involvement and support, an attitude of informed and critical loyalty. Democracy depend equally on a set of rules and on the citizens' attitudes towards democracy. There can be no democracy without democrats. Each generation receives its democratic heritage, and will hopefully understand and appreciate it, and learn how to make active use of it. The cultural traditions that are favourable for democracy develop slowly. A blueprint of a democratic institution can be imported, as it were, but the cultural roots of democracy can not, they must literally stem from the society's cultural heritage. Political culture can therefore be conceived in constructivist categories. It is acquired through processes of learning and socialisation. Therefore it makes a difference whether schools are governed democratically or autocratically, as the students may be expected to learn how to live in, or under, the form of government they experience in early life. Teachers can bring human rights alive in their classroom through examples they use, questions they raise, critical thinking and reflection, etc, One of the key challenges is not only helping to make human rights less abstract but also having students fall in love with the idea of human rights. Different definitions of politics are possible. A quite common one that is useful for teaching applies a three-dimensional model of politics: issues, decisions, and institutions. The dimension of political issues: in politics, people argue for their interests or about the question how a problem or a dilemma is to be identified and solved. Sometimes people organise themselves in groups in order to express their collective interests. Debate and controversy are something normal in politics; they reflect different interests and opinions in a pluralist society. The dimension of political decision-making: in politics, problems are urgent, they affect the interests of the community as a whole, or a big group of people. They demand action to be taken, so the discussion must lead up to a decision, with subsequent action. The institutional dimension of politics refers to the framework in which politics take place. What powers are given to whom? How are lections held? How are laws made? What rights foes the parliamentasry opposition have?  This dimension therefore includes the constitution, rules, and laws that define how political issues are dealt with peacefully in democratic decision-making process. A wider concept also includes a cultural dimension, the values and attitudes that govern the citizen's political behaviour.

150th Birthday of Euclides da Cunha

            One month ago the Brazilian writer Euclides da Cunha, would complete 150 years old. So this post is a tribute to him.  I studied from 5º grade to 8º grade in a school with his name. The first summary was published at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclides_da_Cunha. The second was published at http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2014/02/22/book-review-the-scramble-for-the-amazon-and-the-lost-paradise-of-euclides-da-cunha/. The third translated by me and it was published http://radios.ebc.com.br/momento-tres/edicao/2016-01/2001-os-150-anos-de-euclides-da-cunh. The fourth was published at http://www.jstor.org/stable/3512701?seq=1#fndtn-page_scan_tab_contents. The fifth was published at http://www.wanderlino.com.br/chronicle/014.htm. The sixth was published at http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?

            Euclides da Cunha (1866-1909) was a journalist, sociologist and engineer. He was born in the town of Cantagalo in the Rio de Janeiro state. He attend the military school and become a member of the Army until 1896, when he was discharged in order to dedicate himself to studying civil engineering. In 1897, he accompanied the Army in the Campanha de Canudos, against a rebellious group of peasants under the leadership of Antonio Conselheiro. Between August and October, he was working as a war correspondent for the O estado de São Paulo Newspaper. In 1903, he was elected to the Academia Brasileira de Letras. In August of 1909 trying to kill a young lieutenant, who was the lover of his wife, but his brother shoots back and thus he was killed. His most important work is, "Os Sertões" (Rebellion in the Backlands), a non-fictional account of the military expeditions promoted by the government against the rebellious village called Canudos. The book was translated by the University of Chigaco Press in 1944. It remains in print. Euclides da Cunha was the basis for the character of the journalist in Mario Vargas Llosa's The War of the End of the World. 

           Euclides da Cunha's life met a dramatic end. Of precarious health, racked by fever, half-deranged, he confronted his unfaithful wife, Ana and her younger lover, Dilermando. A gun battle ensued with both men shot. While Dilermando survived, Euclides's life ebbed away, as he bled to death from chest wounds. Although writer Euclides da Cunha is a central focus of The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost paradise of Euclides da Cunha, the work of the UCLA Professor Susanna Hecht as "part biography, part social history, part nature writing, it is a 600-page, detailing a forgotten time of Amazon exploration and compeling imperialisms in the 19th and 20th centuries. Euclides da Cunha was sent to the Amazon to survey and map one of the longest tributaries of the Amazon, the Purus. Appointed by Baron Rio Branco, Euclides was charged with developing the nationalist narrative that would shape Brazil-Bolivia-Peru boundary mediations by unveiling hidden histories of conquest and settlement. Luckly for us, he was also told to describe anything interesting he passed along the way. Euclides saw his survey position as the perfect basis for a new literary work. Provisionally entitled O Paraíso Perdido, he intended it to be a nationalist synthesis of "geography, philosophy, biology and journalism" that would "unveil the Amazon's explorers, spies, natives and brutal geopolitics". Intended also as a companion work to acclaimed "Os Sertões", a non-fictional account of the Brazilian government's military expeditions against the rebellious village Canudos. Canudos was destroyed, but Os Sertões, however, is celebrated not only for its brilliant writing but because of the interesting change in Euclides' authorial voice, "...initially sneeringly superior insisting on inevitable victory of Brazil's coastal civilisation over mestizos backlanders, he increasingly emphasizes  with the doomed rebels..."

            It was in 1902 that the newspaper, "O Estado de São Paulo published for the first time the sentence: "The backlander is before all a strongman". More than a sentence, a realization that Euclides da Cunha did in a series of articles about the northeast backland. Articles that in the same year become in a classic of the Brazilian literature. In January, 20th exactly 150 years ago, was born Euclides da Cunha. A man ahead of his time, a man who besides a writer, was journalist, sociologist, geographer and civil engineer. His tragic life become book. Euclides died with 43 years old after to have tried to kill the lover of his wife, Ana. Tragedy that still continued with the death of his son, many years after by the same killer.

            Euclides da Cunha remains one of the most intriguing figure in Brazilian literary and intellectual history. A man of powerful emotions, Euclides rose above his personal frustations and disappointments to produce a remarkable legacy for those who seek to understand Brazil. Euclides has become the perennial subject of studies seeking to offer a new understanding of the man and his time. Such analysis must inevitably rest upon a careful examination of Euclides' own works. Yet few of his informal writings survive. No diaries have ever been published. Such sources, however meager, are indispensable in revealing the connection between the author and his work. They also tell us much about the atmosphere of the Brazilian time in which Euclides labored and suffered.

             Euclides da Cunha, the writer of The Sertões, never surrendered. he was a man of the earth, a humane, but fighting man. He was a scholar and an able cartographer; dissecting the parched, destitute lives of the impoverished in Brazil. An implacable witness of strenght and weakness of the arid land and souls of its inhabitants.  He was a magician, hypnotizing us with his words, a explorer of the mysteries and mysticism of Canudos and the spirit of Antonio Conselheiro. Euclides da Cunha was a harsh man belonging to a harsh land. He personified both hope of rain and the despair of implacable droughts. He was the sociologist, the historian, devourer of horizons. He was at the same time, worst enemy of the hated military soldiers and the ally of the desert's rebels. In "The Sertões, the earth is an analysis, a panoramic view of the northeastern region. Canudos is an unkown land, entrance to the forbidden hinterland. a hell of dryness of the land and the men, a secular martyrdom of hunger and ignorance. In the interior of the land, the cowboy. Inside the man in his soul and in his flesh, rest his supertitions. There is slavery, and mystic madness. There exist no adjectives with one can qualify the War of Canudos. Only in Euclides, does the impossible, become reality. Canudos did not surrender. It was struck down while standing. The Sertões of Euclides will never fall, on the contrary, they will live forever!

              Rebellion in the Backlands is set in the Northeastern of Bazil. It is basically, a historical narration of a period of time (1896 and 1897) where the government of Brazil decided to wage war against a religious group of about 5000. this group of people, lead by a charismatic leader named Antonio Conselheiro, did not accept the government as their legitimate and was therefore deemed a threat to the rest of the country. The poor, native people proved impressive opposition. Altough, in the end the military did prevail over the people, and they were all killed. Still, the intersting thing about his book is that it seems to demonstrate that there is more to the story than just a battle lost. Thre is a certain hint of bias on the part of Euclides who seems to favor the militaristic actions taken by the Brazilian government, yet showing sympathy and even a bit of admiration towards the native who display great loyalty to their ideals. 

Trends Shaping Education 2016

                   Many researches and reports have shown the relation of education with other areas, Education has the potential and should improve the students, communities and the country as a whole, now more one book showing this complexity. This post is a summary of the book with the title above published in 2016 at  http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/education/trends-

              Trends Shaping Education  examines major trends affecting the future of education. This work does not give conclusive answers: it is not a analytical report nor it is a statistical compendium, and it is not a statement of OECD policy. It is a stimulus for thinking about major tendencies that have the potential to influence education. The material is organised in five main chapters focused on globalisation, the nation-state, cities, modern families and technologies. The future is inherently unpredictable. Yet everyone, including policy makers and leaders in education, needs to take the future into account. Looking at trends informs our ideas about what might happen as we better understand what is already changing. Using trends is not straightforward. Opinions differ on historical developments even when there is a agreement. The trends in this book start with global changes before honing in on societies and cities, and then turn to families and children. Chapter 1 Globalisation - In essence, globalisation is the widening and speeding up of connections across national borders, facilitated by technology and decreasing transport costs. Economically, this is reflected in the rise of international trade, foreign direct investment and the spread of multinational companies with a truly global reach. The magnitude of global inequality, the gap between richer and poorer world regions is increasing. All of these global trends- economic integration, migration, climate change and rises in inequality are projected to continue in the near and medium term future. As global challenges, they do not stop at national borders and can not be solved by the actions of a single government. Tackling challenges that require co-ordinated and co-operative responses requires a new commitment to global governance and multilateralism. Education has role to play in providing the skills and competencies needed to operate in this new world. Education is a powerful tool to reduce inequality. It can also help in the integration of migrants, teaching skills as well as instilling values. Some of the ways education can affect and be affected by global trends are obvious and immediate, for example through the teaching of foreign language, global competencies for business and trade, and science. Chapter 2 The Future of the Nation-State - Urgent global challenges of the 21th century, such as climate change and growing inequality, require global solutions. However the nations still play a central role in ensuring the well-being and security of its citizens as well as developing the labor market and economic productivity. The OECD countries face a series of new challenges: population is aging, a thriving economy demands constant innovation and fewer citizens report being willing to fight for their own countries. Entrepreneurship and R&D levels are good indicators of innovation in a nation. Governments are moving to streamline procedure required to start a business, lightening the administrative load and incentivising entrepreneuship. Additionaly, international scientific collaboration is rising as global networks of researchers become increasingly important. Educators need to be aware of the advanced skills their students will need to flourish in more knowledge-intensive and international labour markets without neglecting the development of other important competencies, such as citizen engagement and social skills. The nations are charged with establishing healthcare spending and priorities. Being able to identify and treat new threats to public health and well-being is an important aspect of that responsibility. Education has a role to play in preventing and treating health conditions. Due to improved tech, better awareness and shifts in lifestyles, the major causes of death in OECD countries are changing. The fastest growing new causes of death are diabetes and dementia. The obesity epidemic is real. Education can help by stimulating physical activity and healthy eating patterns. Chapter 3 Are Cities the New Countries? Some have argued that cities are now the most relevant level of governance, small enough to react swiftly and responsively to issues and large enough to hold economic and political power. Today, more than half of the world's population lives in cities and this ratio is projected to increase to seven out of ten by 2050. Urban areas attract people searching for better economic prospects and easier access to piblic services such as education and healthcare, as well as a wider variety of cultural institutions. However, they can also confronted with a paradox: they concentrate wealth and employment opportunities, but they can also host high levels of poverty and labour-market exclusion. These conditions can contribute to more tenous social networks and disconnection from family and community, which can engender social alienation and violence. Citizen involvement is an important element of governance. Social media and the internet help to spur citizen engagement within communities. Cities attract talented innovators, reseachers and educators. This concentration of human capital stimulates development, making cities a regional nucleus for growth and innovation. Education can and contribute to this by ensuring that students have the skills and competences needed to succeed in an innovative world. It also underlines the role of the universities as centres of R&D. The liveability of a city often influences where people choose to settle down. Improving public transportation systems, for example, can decrease time spent commuting as well as reduce pollution and noise. Crimes and threats to safety come in many forms and trust between residents and police can help establish peace of mind. Schools can not only teach children about citizenship but also stimulates trust and engagement in their communities. A lack of green space and a greater intensity of people, traffic and industry are linked to physical and mental health challenges. Chapter 4 Family Matters The dominant family model in the 20th century has changed. Over the past 50 years the number of reconstituted families and single parent household has risen, families have become smaller and individuals are deciding to have children later in life, or not at all. Numbers of divorce are rising even as marriage rates are declining. These trends do not exist in isolation. As our concept of family transform, so too have the opportunities and challenges that families face. Public spending on family benefits has increased across most OECD countries. In the last decades personal health has improved due to better medicine, awareness and individual choices. Citizens are increasingly searching for healthier options. Education can play a role by teaching healthy lifestyles, recognising harmful tendencies and providing resources to combat unhealthy behaviour early on. Child well-being is increasing across OECD countries and indeed in much of the world, due to advances in medicine, better nutrition and healthier lifestyles. Physical and mental health is being more carefully nurtured. Still, there is a worry that the modern world has created new stresses for children. Child obesity, cyber-risks (such as online bullying) have all increased in the last decade. While there are a number of concerns, there is some good news: the time students spend on homework is declining. Schools have a responsibility to be safe places for learning, and teachers are on the front line of monitoring and ensuring their students well-being. Household poverty and debt have a large impact in families. Children living in low-income households perform more poorly in school on average due to a lack of resources including books, access to computers and sometimes even proper meals. Good quality education can be an important tool to reduce inequality and narrow the gap between low and high income students, but it can not act alone. Chapter 5 A Brave New World  In contrast to many of the trends in this book that are gradual and often linear, the pace of technological development is exponential and its impact often unpredictable. New technologies have changed the way we communicate, work and even socialise. And they have the potential to do more: innovation in biotechnology, for axample in genome sequencing, have the potential to revolutionise our lives. New tech bring new opportunities as well as new risks, the trends themselves are interralated and influence each other, sometimes in unpredictable ways. The continuing evolution of the internet has had an enormous impact on our daily lives. We can now buy our groceries, pay our bills, watch films and attend meetings without even leaving our homes. We tend to trust the information online, using virtual searches to better understand a phetora of complex information. These tech developments have opened up new markets for the education sector, including online courses and distance learning. The internet has become an integral part of our lives, especially with the development of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Internet users are more and more likely to be on line every day. The extent of these changes has given rise to concerns about decreasing attention spans, digital withdrawl and even a new syndrome: the "fear of missing out". These changes in our social and work lives challenge the education system to take advantage of the tools and strengths of new tech, while at the same time addressing concerns regarding the use of information and privacy. Once used only by the tech-savvy, social media has pervaded all aspects of modern life in just a few short years. World leaders and international organisations have increasingly taken advantage if social media as a channel of diplomacy, communication and engagement. Businesses have created their own websites and social media profiles as a form of interacting with customers. Schools and universities are stepping up their game, creating institutional pages. Education systems need to prepare their students to process the mass of information available on line and judge fact from fiction. New tech can be a double-edged sword: despite its positive impacts, it can also lead to previously unknown dangers. Cyberfraud, hacking, cyberbullying and identity theft are only some examples of new risks that have emerged. One of the most difficult challenges for governments will be staying abreast of the evolution of tech and human behaviour, for example, with an increase in the ease of uploading information and large online audience, more countries are enacting laws against revenge porn. There has been also an increase in the number of cybersecurity certificates and courses offered. Schools and teachers are increasingly faced with the challenges of education and guiding students through the advantages and disadvantages of the virtual world. Technological advances are not exclusive to the internet. Although it might still seem like science fiction, major developments in biotech have already changed our lives in dramatic ways. Biotech is used to combat disease, to produce higher yields and resistent crops, and to develop clean energy. 

Innovation and Growth

               This post is a summary of two reports. The first with the title above was published in 2007 at http://www.oecd.org/science/inno/39374789.pdf. The second report was published at https://www.kansascityfed.org/publicat/sympos/1992/s92barro.pdf

                 Undoubtedly the capability to innovate and to bring innovation successfully to market will be a crucial determinant of the global competitiveness of nations over the coming decade. There is growing awareness among policymakers that innovative activity is the main driver of economic progress and well-being as well as a potential factor in meeting global challenges in domains such as the environment and health. In addition to the rapid advances in scientific discovery and in general-purpose technologies such as ICTs and biotech, the accelerating pace of innovation is being driven by globalisation. Government policies can support innovation by updating the regulatory framework within which innovative activity takes place. government can also play a more direct role in fostering innovation. public investment in science and basic research can play an important role in enabling further innovation. This lighthighs the importance of reforming the management and funding of public investment in science and research, as well as public support to innovative activity in the private sector. The latter calls for an appropriate mix of direct and indirect instruments such as tax credits, direct support and well-designed public-private partnership, support for innovative clusters and rigorous evaluation of such public support. Implementing reforms to foster innovation may prove difficult. Strong political leadership and efforts to develop a clear understanding by the various stakeholders of the problems and the solutions can all help to communicate the need for reform and facilitate acceptance. Much of the rise in living standards is due to innovation, this has been the case since the Industrial Revolution. Today, innovative performance is a crucial factor in determining competitiveness and national progress. Evidence suggest that innovative efforts is on the rise as a share of economic activity. But intellectual assets taken as a whole, a concept seeking to aggregate measures of human capital, R&D and capacity to conduct it, patent valuations as well as intangible assets such as brand value or firm-specific knowledge, are rapidly becoming the key to value creation through a number of channels. Improvements in skills composition of labour play an important role in productivity growth. Studies suggest that investment in R&D is associated with high rates of return. And investment in software have also contributed to businness performance and economic growth. The importance of innovation has been reinforced both by globalisation and by advances in ICTs, which have enabled new forms of competition and opened new markets for the creation and delivery of innovative products and service. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) pose a perticularly important challenge. As knowledge has become an essential factor of growth and competitiveness for companies as for nations, its markets value has increased, hence reinforcing the value of protection for creators. Governments have reacted to these changes by strengthening the rights of IPR holders. In reaction to these changing conditions, and in view of ensuring a high return on their investment in creations, firms are increasingly applying for IPR. Innovation also relies heavily on the creation of basic knowledge, through both education and science. A well-performing and broadly accessible education system facilitates the adoption and difusion of innovation. The contribution of education and human capital accumulation to economic growth is well documented. Some of this occurs through science and innovation. Investment in the education and training of researchers and others highly skilled workers is a major factor in determining the contribution that scientific research can make to scientific progress. Creating, developing and diffusing new products and processes requires strong science and tech skills. There is an increasing emphasis on policy issues related to the availability of highly skilled labour. Education policy makers are paying attention to inovation outcomes, and there is encreasing emphasis to move towards a school environment which is less elitist, less compartmentalised between theorical and practical understanding. Public support for business innovation can be made more effective. The effectiveness if such support can often be improved. Governance of policies is also important as innovation often requires efforts from many ministries and government agencies, and from the national and sub-national levels. Coordinating policies is important to avoid duplication of efforts ans ensure a coherence of policies. Innovation does not need to go at the cost of employment performance. Several of the countries that have strongly emphasised innovation in recent years have also experienced strong employment growth, shpwing that these can go hand in hand. Indeed, several countries that observed strong employment growth over the last decade, such as Spain and Ireland, are now emphasising innovation as the scope for further employment-led growth is becoming more limited and duture growth will need to come from productivity growth, including innovation.

                     Many theoretical models of economic growth have emphasized the role of human capital in the form of educational attainment. Various theoretical models include human capital as a factor of production and assess the accumulation of human capital as an element of the growth process. Human capital is also important in models that allow for international capital mobility and in theories of the diffusion of technology. Extensions of the neoclassical growth model have distinguished the sector that produce goods and physical capital from an educational sector that produces new human capital. The assumption in these models is that the education sector is intensive in human capital, it takes human capital embodied in teachers to produce human capital in students. One finding stressed concerns imbalances between human and physical capital. A country with an abundance of human capital tends also to focus its investment on physical capital. The conclusion about imbalances between human and physical capital are reinforced if the accumulation of human capital involves adjustment costs that are much higher than those applicable to physical capital. Machines and buildings can be assembled quickly, but people can not be educated rapidly without encoutering a sharp falloff in the rate of return to investment. A high ratio of human to physical capital applies, as an example, after a war that destroy large amounts of physical capital, but which leaves human capital relatively intact. Japan and Germany after World war II are ilustrative cases.