Eastwards / westwards: which direction for gender studies in the 21st century?

Eastwards / Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the XXIst Century? is a collection of essays which focus on themes and methods that characterize current research into gender in Asian countries in general. In this collection, ideas derived from Gender Studies elsewhere in the world have been subjected to scrutiny for their utility in helping to describe and understand regional phenomena. But the concepts of Local and Global – with their discoursive productions – have not functioned as a binary opposition: localism and globalism are mutually constitutive and researchers have interrogated those spaces of interaction between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’, bearing in mind their own embeddedness in social and cultural structures and their own historical memory. Contributors to this collection provided a critical transnational perspective on some of the complex effects of the dynamics of cultural globalization, by exploring the relation between gender and development, language, historiography, education and culture. We have also given attention to the ideological and rhetorical processes through which gender identity is constructed, by comparing textual grids and patterns of expectation. Likewise, we have discussed the role of ethnography, anthropology, historiography, sociology, fiction, popular culture and colonial and post-colonial sources in (re)inventing old/new male/female identities, their conversion into concepts and circulation through time and space. This multicultural and trans-disciplinary selection of essays is totally written in English, fully edited and revised, therefore, it has a good potential for an immediate international circulation. This project may trace new paths and issues for discussion on what concerns the life, practices and narratives by and about women in Asia, as well as elsewhere in the present day global experience. Academic readership: Researchers, scholars, educators, graduate and post-graduate students, doctoral students and general non-fiction readers, with a special interest in Gender Studies, Asia, Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History, Historiography, Politics, Race, Feminism, Language, Linguistics, Power, Political and Feminist Agendas, Popular Culture, Education, Women’s Writing, Religion, Multiculturalism, Globalisation, Migration. Chapter summary: 1. “Social Gender Stereotypes and their Implication in Hindi”, Anjali Pande, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. This essay looks at the subtle ways in which gender identities are constructed and reinforced in India through social norms of language use. Language itself becomes a medium for perpetuating gender stereotypes, forcing its speakers to confirm to socially defined gender roles. Using examples from a classroom discussion about a film, this essay will highlight the underlying rigid male-female stereotypes in Indian society with their more obvious expressions in language. For the urban woman in India globalisation meant increased economic equality and exposure to changed lifestyles. On an individual level it also meant redefining gender relations and changing the hierarchy in man-­woman relationships. With the economic independence there is a heightened sense of liberation in all spheres of social life, a confidence to fuzz the rigid boundaries of gender roles. With the new films and media celebrating this liberated woman, who is ready to assert her sexual needs, who is ready to explode those long held notions of morality, one would expect that the changes are not just superficial. But as it soon became obvious in the course of a classroom discussion about relationships and stereotypes related to age, the surface changes can not become part of the common vocabulary, for the obvious reason that there is still a vast gap between the screen image of this new woman and the ground reality. Social considerations define the limits of this assertiveness of women, whereas men are happy to be liberal within the larger frame of social sanctions. The educated urban woman in India speaks in favour of change and the educated urban male supports her, but one just needs to scratch the surface to see the time tested formulae of gender roles firmly in place. The way the urban woman happily balances this emerging promise of independence with her gendered social identity, makes it necessary to rethink some aspects of looking at gender in a gradually changing, traditional society like India. 2. “The Linguistic Dimension of Gender Equality”, Alissa Tolstokorova, Kiev Centre for Gender Information and Education, Ukraine. The subject-matter of this essay is gender justice in language which, as I argue, may be achieved through the development of a gender-related approach to linguistic human rights. The last decades of the 20th century, globally marked by a “gender shift” in attitudes to language policy, gave impetus to the social movement for promoting linguistic gender equality. It was initiated in Western Europe and nowadays is moving eastwards, as ideas of gender democracy progress into developing countries. But, while in western societies gender discrimination through language, or linguistic sexism, was an issue of concern for over three decades, in developing countries efforts to promote gender justice in language are only in their infancy. My argument is that to promote gender justice in language internationally it is necessary to acknowledge the rights of women and men to equal representation of their gender in language and speech and, therefore, raise a question of linguistic rights of the sexes. My understanding is that the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights in 1996 provided this opportunity to address the problem of gender justice in language as a human rights issue, specifically as a gender dimension of linguistic human rights. 3. “The Rebirth of an Old Language: Issues of Gender Equality in Kazakhstan”, Maria Helena Guimarães, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. The existing language situation in Kazakhstan, while peaceful, is not without some tension. We propose to analyze here some questions we consider relevant in the frame of cultural globalization and gender equality, such as: free from Russian imperialism, could Kazakhstan become an easy prey of Turkey’s “imperialist dream”? Could these traditionally Muslim people be soon facing the end of religious tolerance and gender equality, becoming this new old language an easy instrument for the infiltration in the country of fundamentalism (it has already crossed the boarders of Uzbekistan), leading to a gradual deterioration of its rich multicultural relations? The present structure of the language is still very fragile: there are three main dialects and many academics defend the re-introduction of the Latin alphabet, thus enlarging the possibility of cultural “contamination” by making the transmission of fundamentalist ideas still easier through neighbour countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (their languages belong to the same sub-group of Common Turkic), where the Latin alphabet is already in use, and where the ground for such ideas shown itself very fruitful. 4. “Construction of Womanhood in the Bengali Language of Bangladesh”, Raasheed Mahmood; University of New South Wales, Sydney. The present essay attempts to explore the role of gender-based language differences and of certain markers that reveal the status accorded to women in Bangladesh. Discrimination against women, in its various forms, is endemic in communities and countries around the world, cutting across class, race, age, and religious and national boundaries. One cannot understand the problems of gender discrimination solely by referring to the relationship of power or authority between men and women. Rather one needs to consider the problem by relating it to the specific social formation in which the image of masculinity and femininity is constructed and reconstructed. Following such line of reasoning this essay will examine the nature of gender bias in the Bengali language of Bangladesh, holding the conviction that as a product of social reality language reflects the socio-cultural behaviour of the community who speaks it. This essay will also attempt to shed some light on the processes through which gender based language differences produce actual consequences for women, who become exposed to low self-esteem, depression and systematic exclusion from public discourse. 5. “Marriage in China as an expression of a changing society”, Elisabetta Rosado David, University of Porto, Portugal, and Università Ca’Foscari, Venezia, Italy. In 29 April 2001, the new Marriage Law was promulgated in China. The first law on marriage was proclaimed in 1950 with the objective of freeing women from the feudal matrimonial system. With the second law, in 1981, values and conditions that had been distorted by the Cultural Revolution were recovered. Twenty years later, a new reform was started, intending to update marriage in the view of the social and cultural changes that occurred with Deng Xiaoping’s “open policy”. But the legal reform is only the starting point for this case-study. The rituals that are followed in the wedding ceremony are often hard to understand and very difficult to standardize, especially because China is a vast country, densely populated and characterized by several ethnic minorities. Two key words emerge from this issue: syncretism and continuity. On this basis, we can understand tradition in a better way, and analyse whether or not marriage, as every social manifestation, has evolved in harmony with Chinese culture. 6. “The Other Woman in the Portuguese Colonial Empire: The Case of Portuguese India”, Maria de Deus Manso, University of Évora, Portugal. This essay researches the social, cultural and symbolic history of local women in the Portuguese Indian colonial enclaves. The normative Portuguese overseas history has not paid any attention to the “indigenous” female populations in colonial Portuguese territories, albeit the large social importance of these social segments largely used in matrimonial and even catholic missionary strategies. The first attempt to open fresh windows in the history of this new field was the publication of Charles Boxer’s referential study about Women in lberian Overseas Expansion, edited in Portugal only after the Revolution of 1975. After this research we can only quote some other fragmentary efforts. In fact, research about the social, cultural, religious, political and symbolic situation of women in the Portuguese colonial territories, from the XVI to the XX century, is still a minor historiographic field. In this essay we discuss this problem and we study colonial representations of women in the Portuguese Indian enclaves, mainly in the territory of Goa, using case studies methodologies. 7. “Heading East this Time: Critical Readings on Gender in Southeast Asia”, Clara Sarmento, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. This essay intends to discuss some critical readings of fictional and theoretical texts on gender condition in Southeast Asian countries. Nowadays, many texts about women in Southeast Asia apply concepts of power in unusual areas. Traditional forms of gender hegemony have been replaced by other powerful, if somewhat more covert, forms. We will discuss some universal values concerning conventional female roles as well as the strategies used to recognize women in political fields traditionally characterized by male dominance. Female empowerment will mean different things at different times in history, as a result of culture, local geography and individual circumstances. Empowerment needs to be perceived as an individual attitude, but it also has to be facilitated at the macro­level by society and the State. Gender is very much at the heart of all these dynamics, strongly related to specificities of historical, cultural, ethnic and class situatedness, requiring an interdisciplinary transnational approach.

Becoming a teacher: student teachers´ experiences and perceptions about teaching practice

In an attempt to build a more comprehensive and holistic understanding of the complexity, dynamics and idiosyncrasies involved in becoming a teacher, this study focussed on the experiences of 295 student teachers. Their feelings, cognitions and perceptions regarding teaching practice were analysed using the short version of the Inventory of Experiences and Perceptions of the Teaching Practice. Results emphasise some of the difficulties experienced during this period (e.g., stress, sense of weariness and ‘vulnerability’), as well the positive perceptions of these student teachers regarding their growing knowledge and skilfulness, as well as their sense of efficacy, flexibility and spontaneity in their performance and interactions. Their perception of their accomplishments in achieving reasonable levels of acceptance and recognition within the school community and their positive evaluation of the guidance and support provided by their supervisors are also emphasised. Differences were found – in terms of gender and graduate course background – in the way these student teachers experienced some aspects of teaching practice.

Relatório de estágio. Terapia manual ortopédica

Objectivo: Descrever a intervenção em fisioterapia aplicada num paciente com o diagnóstico de entorse da Tíbio-társica de grau III. Participantes e Métodos: Paciente que em 1 de Dezembro de 2009 na sequência de uma disputa de bola, sofreu uma entorse da tíbio-társica. Iniciou fisioterapia a 4 de Janeiro de 2010, tendo sido utilizadas para o tratamento técnicas de Mulligan, nomeadamente MWM, mobilização articular, reforço muscular e treino proprioceptivo. O tratamento foi realizado diariamente durante 6 semanas. Resultados: Após a aplicação das técnicas de Mulligan MWM na 1ªsemana, o perónio encontra-se devidamente reposicionado, no entanto o calcâneo ainda se encontra posteriorizado. No fim da 2ªsemana, a amplitude articular aumentou significativamente, aproximando-se dos valores do membro contralateral, verificouse um ganho de força muscular progressivo. Na 3ª e 4ª semana progrediu-se o tratamento em termos de fortalecimento muscular e treino proprioceptivo. Na 5ª semana apresentava amplitudes de movimento de 17º de dorsiflexão, 43º de flexãoplantar, 15º de eversão e 18º de inversão. Relativamente à força, o músculo tibial anterior apresentava um grau 5 de força, longo e curto peronial e flexores plantares grau 4+. No fim de 6 semanas, terminada a sua recuperação encontrava-se sem qualquer limitação funcional, igual força muscular bilateral e proprioceptividade normal. Conclusão: Foi salientado o processo de raciocínio clínico desenvolvido pelo fisioterapeuta ao longo das 6 semanas de intervenção: a recolha e interpretação dos dados da história, levantamento das primeiras hipóteses, testes dessas hipóteses no exame objectivo, estabelecimento de um diagnóstico funcional e construção e implementação de um plano de intervenção com a colaboração do utente que permitiram uma recuperação funcional que foi de encontro aos objectivos traçados.

A relevância da imagem na interpretação simultânea

Trabalho de Projecto apresentado ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Tradução e Interpretação Especializadas sob orientação de Mestre Suzana Noronha Cunha

Formação alternativa no ISCAP

O Ensino Superior Politécnico deve aproveitar o Processo de Bolonha para assumir um papel de relevo na resposta às necessidades do mercado de trabalho, seja através da adequação dos planos curriculares das suas licenciaturas e mestrados às reais necessidades dos empregadores, seja através da realização de formações que permitam aos trabalhadores no activo ou no desemprego aumentar, actualizar, diversificar e aprofundar os seus conhecimentos, para melhorarem a sua empregabilidade e melhor competirem a nível nacional e internacional, de modo a constituirem uma mais valia para as organizações onde trabalham. O ISCAP tentou já essa via com sucesso, com a oferta de dois cursos, um na área da contabilidade e fiscalidade e outro na área da tradução.

The periodic table: contest and exhibition

The systemization and organization of ideas and concepts is an integral part of science. In chemistry, the organization of the periodic table of the chemical elements in the 1860s was one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs ever made and in fact during the 20th century it became a universally recognized scientific icon (1). The periodic table is the fundamental classificatory scheme of the elements and summarizes the realm of chemistry (2). Simply knowing the position of an element in the periodic table tells us about its properties and is usually enough to predict how the element will behave in a wide variety of different situations or reactions (1). Based on this potential mine of information, it is possible to make reliable predictions of the properties of the compounds that each element forms. Nowadays, the concept of the periodic table is starting to interact with other sciences and reports of periodic tables of amino acids (3), genetic codes (4), protein structures (5), and biology (6) can be found in the specialized literature. Symbiosis between science and art, for example, “The Periodic Table of The Elephants” (7), can also be seen. To appeal to a better understanding of the periodic table, the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Instituto Politécnico do Porto and the Centro de Química da Universidade do Porto promoted a contest and exhibit with the goal of stimulating a wide and heterogeneous audience, ranging from young children and their parents to graduate students from several disciplines, to explore the nature of this icon. Imaginative educational activities such as contests (8–10), games (11, 12), and puzzles (13–15) provided a way to communicate with the general public with the goal of attracting students to science. This also constituted an interesting, informative, and entertaining alternative to non-interactive lectures. Simultaneously, artistic creativity was combined with scientific knowledge.

Master's in autonomous systems: an overview of the robotics curriculum and outcomes at ISEP, Portugal

Robotics research in Portugal is increasing every year, but few students embrace it as one of their first choices for study. Until recently, job offers for engineers were plentiful, and those looking for a degree in science and technology would avoid areas considered to be demanding, like robotics. At the undergraduate level, robotics programs are still competing for a place in the classical engineering graduate curricula. Innovative and dynamic Master’s programs may offer the solution to this gap. The Master’s degree in autonomous systems at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), Porto, Portugal, was designed to provide a solid training in robotics and has been showing interesting results, mainly due to differences in course structure and the context in which students are welcomed to study and work

Relatório de estágio em Educação Pré-Escolar

Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar

Relatório de estágio em Educação Pré-Escolar

Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar

Relatório de estágio em Educação Pré-Escolar

Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar

Relatório de estágio de Qualificação Profissional

Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar

Relatório de estágio

Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar e Ensino do 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico

Gestão de resíduos produzidos num sistema de drenagem e tratamento de águas residuais

O presente trabalho centra-se na gestão de resíduos produzidos no sistema de drenagem e tratamento de águas residuais do município de Vila Nova de Gaia. A entidade onde decorreu o trabalho é uma empresa responsável pela distribuição de água e pela drenagem e tratamento de águas residuais. A empresa está certificada pela norma NP EN ISO 14001, desde 2001, sendo então um dos objectivos o enquadramento da gestão dos resíduos em estudo na referida norma, acompanhando os requisitos da mesma com vista ao seu total cumprimento. Outros dos objectivos foi estudar qual a opção de tratamento mais adequada a aplicar ao resíduo no seu local de armazenamento temporário com vista a minorar os seus impactes ambientais. De acordo com a caracterização analítica do resíduo e com os aspetos legais aplicáveis, foram também analisados os destinos finais possíveis e ambientalmente adequados ao resíduo. A medida proposta para a minimização de impactes no local de armazenamento temporário do resíduo foi a estabilização com cal nos leitos de secagem, disponíveis numa antiga ETAR de loteamento. O doseamento de cal a aplicar ao resíduo será de 10 kg de cal apagada comercial (Ca (OH)2) por uma tonelada de resíduo fresco com um período mínimo de secagem de 2 meses. Outra das medidas de minimização de impactes selecionada foi a implantação de uma cortina arbórea ao redor da instalação. Sendo o resíduo em estudo muito heterogéneo, constituído principalmente por areias, terras e gradados, a valorização foi equacionada mas não foram encontrados alternativas viáveis. O destino final considerado como mais adequado tendo em conta todas as características do resíduo e eluato, analisadas de acordo com o previsto no Decreto-Lei n.º 183/2009 de 10 de Agosto, foi o aterro para resíduos não perigosos. Foi também objecto do estudo a identificação e análise de todos os aspectos ambientais relacionados com a gestão de resíduos e a avaliação da sua significância. Dos aspectos ambientais identificados como significativos, destacam-se aqueles que ocorrem presentemente, os resíduos armazenados (gradados/limpeza de redes), e os que podem ocorrer em situações de emergência, fuga/derrame de óleos/combustíveis e cheiros/odores. De forma a minimizar os aspectos ambientais identificados, e de acordo com a norma NP EN ISO 14001, foram propostas ações que constam de um programa de gestão elaborado para este trabalho, onde se definem os objectivos, metas e prazos. As principais medidas propostas no programa de gestão foram: Estabilização com cal (inicial e reforço se necessário); melhoria do espaço envolvente; análise de questões de saúde ocupacional/segurança; adjudicação de prestação de serviços da recolha por operador licenciado; implantação da cortina arbórea; registo no SIRAPA; criação de planos de emergência ambiental e de segurança.

Probability and statistics: selected problems

Probability and Statistics—Selected Problems is a unique book for senior undergraduate and graduate students to fast review basic materials in Probability and Statistics. Descriptive statistics are presented first, and probability is reviewed secondly. Discrete and continuous distributions are presented. Sample and estimation with hypothesis testing are presented in the last two chapters. The solutions for proposed excises are listed for readers to references.

Linear algebra: selected problems

Linear Algebra—Selected Problems is a unique book for senior undergraduate and graduate students to fast review basic materials in Linear Algebra. Vector spaces are presented first, and linear transformations are reviewed secondly. Matrices and Linear systems are presented. Determinants and Basic geometry are presented in the last two chapters. The solutions for proposed excises are listed for readers to references.