The current study investigates a group of Chinese undergraduates’perceptions of Chinese culture.It examines the discourses that the students drew on to assign meaning to Chinese culture and how the students used thes...The current study investigates a group of Chinese undergraduates’perceptions of Chinese culture.It examines the discourses that the students drew on to assign meaning to Chinese culture and how the students used these discourses in constructing their Chinese cultural identity.A qualitative study was conducted collecting written self-reflective reports on critical intercultural incidents from 39 Chinese undergraduates at a university in Beijing.Questions designed to evoke reports from the students had them describe incidents in their past intercultural experiences that made them acutely aware of themselves“being Chinese”and specify aspects of Chinese culture that they felt such awareness could be attributed to.A discourse analysis reveals the multiplicity and contextuality of the students’notions of Chinese culture.The findings raise important considerations for contemporary Chinese undergraduates’cultural identity and their much debated“identity crisis.”展开更多
Conceptual metaphor has always been the study focus of cognitive linguistics. Conceptual metaphor is ubiquitous, cognitive and systematic. Nathaniel Hawthorne in his representative work The Scarlet Letter makes full u...Conceptual metaphor has always been the study focus of cognitive linguistics. Conceptual metaphor is ubiquitous, cognitive and systematic. Nathaniel Hawthorne in his representative work The Scarlet Letter makes full use of the conceptual metaphor. A detailed description of the heroine Hester Prynne through the conceptual metaphor fully expresses Nathaniel Hawthorne＇ s feminist thoughts. Through the metaphorical analyses of the name Pearl, the scarlet letter ＂A＂, the forest and the scaffold this paper analyzes Hester Prynne＇ s resistant consciousness. On the basis of this, the positive social significance of the novel is explored.展开更多
Given that preaching is the primary mode of public theological discourse for most Christian ministers, an intellectual virtue of verbal restraint is required when practicing public theology and it is wise to address t...Given that preaching is the primary mode of public theological discourse for most Christian ministers, an intellectual virtue of verbal restraint is required when practicing public theology and it is wise to address the ways that homilies can shepherd public discourse practices. A theology of rhetoric includes the homilist＇s moral purpose. Homilies either enhance public discourse or pervert it. This essay sketches a pattern of sermon movement that respects the logic operative in public theology, given the social context of America. Homilies can help cultivate the pastoral care of public rhetoric by modeling discourse that nurtures the politics of accountability. While many call for a public ethos where divergent moral voices engage each other in highly contested arenas, a precondition to practicing effective public theology requires that one exercises discourse in a way that respects the social limits on the free exercise of religion. It is important that a public theology of rhetoric clarifies the original social agreement for acceptable religious discourse in the public arena. Homiletics, as a dimension of practical theology, can teach preachers methods of pastoral care for public discourse. The social agreement in liberal democracies to contain the combative nature of religious discourse assumes a logic that is circumscribed by commitments to （1） religious pluralism, （2） theological agnosticism, and （3） epistemological pragmatism. Here we propose that a sermon＇s form, which implicitly touches upon these commitments, can tap into the basic modes of persuasion in secular liberal societies. This respects the moral purposes previously agreed upon and expected of partisans during highly contestable times. This calls for incarnational humility on the part of the Christian public theologian and it guides her/his practice.展开更多
Forgiveness plays a main role in transitional justice, it is important to verify how forgiveness is justified by contemporary societies. No contemporary mentality can avoid the intuition that we are facing a reality t...Forgiveness plays a main role in transitional justice, it is important to verify how forgiveness is justified by contemporary societies. No contemporary mentality can avoid the intuition that we are facing a reality that seems to belong to the field of religion. Hence, what interests us is precisely the moral consideration of this discussion. Facing the morality of forgiveness, the questions that are raised with respect to each type are： whether it is possible to forgive and whether one should forgive. The inherent contradiction of those who affirm the obligatory nature of forgiveness results in the supererogatory character of forgiveness. If all forgiveness is supererogatory in itself, then all forgiveness is always presented as something undeserved. Thus, we do not have supporting points to embark on a discourse about forgiveness. The result is that our political communities do not really know how to manage situations such as transitional justice.展开更多
An inquiry into the ontology of critical gender consciousness in Africa Philosophy is long overdue. Hitherto discourses on gender problems lost focus because of the tendency to leave out the gaps in culture created by...An inquiry into the ontology of critical gender consciousness in Africa Philosophy is long overdue. Hitherto discourses on gender problems lost focus because of the tendency to leave out the gaps in culture created by colonial experience, modernity＇s assaults and unAfricaness in ontology and essence. It is argued here that the fulcrum for a legitimate feminist doctrine is Theistic Humanism, the philosophy of African philosophy that exposes the epistemological and metaphysical basis of the rightful and ethical place of women in the society without injury, injustice and abuse on womanhood. Theistic Humanism as an ontology and cosmology abhors class struggle among husbands, wives, sons, daughters, etc.. Class struggle between men and women degenerated from the oneness of being ontology and Gender community where husbands and wives were happily married with different complementary social roles for the preservation of society.展开更多
Language teacher professional development has recently shifted away from transmissionist approaches based on cascading or transfer of external knowledge toward social constructivist paradigm with a focus on the situat...Language teacher professional development has recently shifted away from transmissionist approaches based on cascading or transfer of external knowledge toward social constructivist paradigm with a focus on the situationality of learning and teaching as social processes of sharing and （re）constructing personal meanings, understandings, and skills. The social constructivist view of teacher education values teachers＇ agency in constructing and shaping personalized knowledge as a socially constructed experiential process in context. So, the researcher as an EFL educator in an Iranian teacher education university investi- gates the professional development of an EFL teacher during a three-year-time span both as a student and then as a teacher. Teacher journals, observation, and interview as three appropriate data gathering tools were used to obtain triangulated data. Student teacher professional change during the time span, multidimensionality of professional development, and discursively shaped personal beliefs and knowledge and their influence on teaching actions and practices were the emerged themes of data analysis based on Strauss （Qualitative analysis for social scientists. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998） constant comparative method, including three steps of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The findings of this research challenge the transmission nature of teacher education which assumes student teachers as the conduits, requiring to be filled with skills, input, and knowledge lectured by educators as authority figures.展开更多
基金This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China under Grant No.3162020ZYKC05Beijing Social Science Funds under Grant No.19YYC017.
文摘The current study investigates a group of Chinese undergraduates’perceptions of Chinese culture.It examines the discourses that the students drew on to assign meaning to Chinese culture and how the students used these discourses in constructing their Chinese cultural identity.A qualitative study was conducted collecting written self-reflective reports on critical intercultural incidents from 39 Chinese undergraduates at a university in Beijing.Questions designed to evoke reports from the students had them describe incidents in their past intercultural experiences that made them acutely aware of themselves“being Chinese”and specify aspects of Chinese culture that they felt such awareness could be attributed to.A discourse analysis reveals the multiplicity and contextuality of the students’notions of Chinese culture.The findings raise important considerations for contemporary Chinese undergraduates’cultural identity and their much debated“identity crisis.”
文摘Conceptual metaphor has always been the study focus of cognitive linguistics. Conceptual metaphor is ubiquitous, cognitive and systematic. Nathaniel Hawthorne in his representative work The Scarlet Letter makes full use of the conceptual metaphor. A detailed description of the heroine Hester Prynne through the conceptual metaphor fully expresses Nathaniel Hawthorne＇ s feminist thoughts. Through the metaphorical analyses of the name Pearl, the scarlet letter ＂A＂, the forest and the scaffold this paper analyzes Hester Prynne＇ s resistant consciousness. On the basis of this, the positive social significance of the novel is explored.
文摘Given that preaching is the primary mode of public theological discourse for most Christian ministers, an intellectual virtue of verbal restraint is required when practicing public theology and it is wise to address the ways that homilies can shepherd public discourse practices. A theology of rhetoric includes the homilist＇s moral purpose. Homilies either enhance public discourse or pervert it. This essay sketches a pattern of sermon movement that respects the logic operative in public theology, given the social context of America. Homilies can help cultivate the pastoral care of public rhetoric by modeling discourse that nurtures the politics of accountability. While many call for a public ethos where divergent moral voices engage each other in highly contested arenas, a precondition to practicing effective public theology requires that one exercises discourse in a way that respects the social limits on the free exercise of religion. It is important that a public theology of rhetoric clarifies the original social agreement for acceptable religious discourse in the public arena. Homiletics, as a dimension of practical theology, can teach preachers methods of pastoral care for public discourse. The social agreement in liberal democracies to contain the combative nature of religious discourse assumes a logic that is circumscribed by commitments to （1） religious pluralism, （2） theological agnosticism, and （3） epistemological pragmatism. Here we propose that a sermon＇s form, which implicitly touches upon these commitments, can tap into the basic modes of persuasion in secular liberal societies. This respects the moral purposes previously agreed upon and expected of partisans during highly contestable times. This calls for incarnational humility on the part of the Christian public theologian and it guides her/his practice.
文摘Forgiveness plays a main role in transitional justice, it is important to verify how forgiveness is justified by contemporary societies. No contemporary mentality can avoid the intuition that we are facing a reality that seems to belong to the field of religion. Hence, what interests us is precisely the moral consideration of this discussion. Facing the morality of forgiveness, the questions that are raised with respect to each type are： whether it is possible to forgive and whether one should forgive. The inherent contradiction of those who affirm the obligatory nature of forgiveness results in the supererogatory character of forgiveness. If all forgiveness is supererogatory in itself, then all forgiveness is always presented as something undeserved. Thus, we do not have supporting points to embark on a discourse about forgiveness. The result is that our political communities do not really know how to manage situations such as transitional justice.
文摘An inquiry into the ontology of critical gender consciousness in Africa Philosophy is long overdue. Hitherto discourses on gender problems lost focus because of the tendency to leave out the gaps in culture created by colonial experience, modernity＇s assaults and unAfricaness in ontology and essence. It is argued here that the fulcrum for a legitimate feminist doctrine is Theistic Humanism, the philosophy of African philosophy that exposes the epistemological and metaphysical basis of the rightful and ethical place of women in the society without injury, injustice and abuse on womanhood. Theistic Humanism as an ontology and cosmology abhors class struggle among husbands, wives, sons, daughters, etc.. Class struggle between men and women degenerated from the oneness of being ontology and Gender community where husbands and wives were happily married with different complementary social roles for the preservation of society.
文摘Language teacher professional development has recently shifted away from transmissionist approaches based on cascading or transfer of external knowledge toward social constructivist paradigm with a focus on the situationality of learning and teaching as social processes of sharing and （re）constructing personal meanings, understandings, and skills. The social constructivist view of teacher education values teachers＇ agency in constructing and shaping personalized knowledge as a socially constructed experiential process in context. So, the researcher as an EFL educator in an Iranian teacher education university investi- gates the professional development of an EFL teacher during a three-year-time span both as a student and then as a teacher. Teacher journals, observation, and interview as three appropriate data gathering tools were used to obtain triangulated data. Student teacher professional change during the time span, multidimensionality of professional development, and discursively shaped personal beliefs and knowledge and their influence on teaching actions and practices were the emerged themes of data analysis based on Strauss （Qualitative analysis for social scientists. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998） constant comparative method, including three steps of open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. The findings of this research challenge the transmission nature of teacher education which assumes student teachers as the conduits, requiring to be filled with skills, input, and knowledge lectured by educators as authority figures.
