High expectations, varying outcomes: Decentralization and participation in Brazil, Japan, Russia and Sweden

In the past 20 years, decentralization has been proposed as a strategy for enhancing public participation. Aid-providing organizations, such as the World Bank, stimulated decentralization processes in several countries in the hope that this would promote civic empowerment, diminish corruption, enhance efficiency, and improve public service delivery. This assumption forms the basis for a comparative analysis into the relation between decentralization and participation at the local level in Brazil, Japan, Russia and Sweden. A multi-level regression analysis using the data of the Democracy and Local Governance Project was undertaken in order to test the 'one size fits all' and the 'diversity in development' hypotheses. The results show that the second hypothesis was corroborated. Perceived autonomy had a different impact on openness to participation depending on the country considered; in one country (Japan), perceived autonomy diminished public officials' willingness to be open to public participation.

Valores culturais e organizacionais em transformação: estudo sobre o Programa de Intercâmbio Social da Aiesec

Many young people have chosen go on exchange experiences, expecting to live in a context full of diversity, to know elements in the country they are visiting and also to develop themselves personally and professionally. Organizational and cultural values can be acquired or developed through these professional exchange experiences. This paper aimed to understand the vision of young people who went on the social exchange of AIESEC related to cultural and organizational values in the experience. AIESEC is a global and nonprofit organization formed by university students, with the objective of peace and the fulfillment of the humankind needs. Thus, professional exchanges are the main tool for achieving this goal. The study analyzes the experiences of 15 exchange students as well as the point of view of five managers of the organization in order to gain a broad perspective in relation to exchange experiences to understand how young people understand the concept of culture. The interview results suggest that in labor relations, autonomy and egalitarianism are values that go together, while the harmony could be observed by the fact that the projects deal with the issue of sustainability. Furthermore, responsibility, tolerance and collective were the human values that the exchange students developed the most, indicating that experience enables openness to live the diversity and to the intercultural dialogue in order to value local cultures of the visited countries

O estado democrático de direito e a questão agrária: cidadania e reforma agrária na construção da democracia

Pós-graduação em Direito - FCHS

Amoras e jabuticabas: raízes e frutos de uma Pedagogia Profunda para todos

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Ethical Care of the Self and the Teacher in the Pedagogical Relationship: Reflections Based on the Latest Foucault

Our conception of education is that it is the responsible action whereby man becomes human, trains and faces the challenges that life and the world present, as man enters a larger, shared cultural tradition and thus joins the world. However such sharing implies that we must not just rely on tradition, but remain open to new ideas. It is essential for schooling to preserve a field where the art of living intersects with the world for which future generations are being prepared. It is in this field of intersection that this essay seeks to discuss Michel Foucault's thought, care of the self and the role played by others in the acquisition of ethical attitudes pertaining to one's conduct in life. Through reconstructing Foucault's ideas, we elaborate on the hypothesis that, before morally shaping students, teaching them values, or aiding in their skill acquisition in the sense prevailing in schooling today, it is important to understand the notion of care of the self (and how the notion implies interaction with others for effective care of the self). Care of the self is vital for thoroughly understanding the relationships between ethics and education in school. We particularly examine how Foucault's ideas and his analysis of the teacher's role in shaping the student's life conduct can help educators rethink pedagogical action in an ethical sense and find within it a certain openness to the formation of attitudes in educators and students

Les Salles de Ressouces Multifonctionnelles: un recous pour les écoles inclusives au Brésil

In the 90s, the Brazilian Secretariat of the Special Education Department has expanded the democratization of education and pupils’ access to schooling, by redefi ning the operation of special education services. With this inclusion policy, the education system has been restructured. An important action, conducted during the period de 2005 to 2010, was to propose, deploy and implement Multifunctional Resources Rooms (Sala de recursos multifuncionais, or SRM), from two different types (type I and II). The challenge was to promote educational inclusion, in a program entitled Inclusive Education: the right to diversity. In a seek for new identity of teacher training and professional practice in special education, the great educational innovation is to better articulate the work of “ordinary“ and specialized teachers, via the SRM, and to develop collective and participatory actions between common spaces and support spaces. In this context, the school and the family represent an important source of partnership.

Formação do professor para trabalhar com recursos de tecnologia assistiva: um estudo de caso em Mato Grosso

Due to the process of educational inclusion, it is necessary for the teacher who works with disabled students to acknowledge and master the resources of assistive technology equipment available in Brazil. The objective was to identify the presence of these resources at school and evaluate, having the teacher as the evaluator, the conditions of dealing with the Assistive Technology resources and equipment. The sample consisted of 14 teachers who work in the Resources Multifunction Classroom and 18 regular classroom teachers who have disabled students enrolled in their classrooms. Data collection was performed through the TAE Questionnaire - Assistive Technology for Education. The data collection was performance in groups during the training course sponsored by the Education Department of Rondonópolis as part of the Program of Continuing Education Training for Managers and Educators - Inclusive Education: The Right to Diversity. The questionnaire data indicated differences between the two groups mentioned. The teachers of the Resource Classes indicated that Assistive Technology resources are now being introducing at schools and that over 50% of this group understand the resources presented on the questionnaire. Most of the regular classroom teachers is still unaware of the Assistive Technology resources and equipment. Regarding the dealing of these resources the group of teachers from the multifunctional classroom is better prepared to use this technology. The data suggest the need for investment in acquisition and training of teachers in relation to Assistive Technology resources.

Práticas inclusivas para deficientes visuais, baseadas na informação e conhecimento: reflexões e ações

We live in a society governed by information, knowledge and social inclusion. This leads us to reflect on the importance of access and use of information for people with visual disabilities to build knowledge, exercising citizenship and contribute to lifelong learning. We are faced with a society more open to diversity, questioning their mechanisms of segregation and envisions new ways of social inclusion of people with disabilities. Hence the importance of understanding the inclusive practices, especially for the visually impaired person. Thus, we sought to perform a literature search to understand the theoretical corresponding to the selective approach of the existing literature on the subject. It was considered as a concept of this type of research, which provides that a systematic search for information on existing sources, ie, in all the literature that has become public in relation to the subject studied in order to offer reflections and contributions on issues of access and use of information, emphasizing the role of social responsibility of mobilizing information professionals are considered mediators and actors of vital importance in this scenario.

Modelos organizacionais e a modernidade radicalizada periférica

Pós-graduação em Ciências Sociais - FCLAR

Geografia, patrimônio e diversidade cultural: linguagem audiovisual em ações educativas

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Bacterial diversity in soil in response to different plans, phosphate fertilizers and liming

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Empirical diversity indices applied to forest communities in different successional stages

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Physiological diversity in tolerance to water deprivation among species of South American desert rodents

Rodents from and and semi-arid deserts are faced with the problem of water conservation. The physiological responses of small rodents to such conditions have been intensively investigated over broad geographically disjunct areas. Despite the presence of xeric habitats in South America since the late Tertiary, some studies suggest that sigmodontine South-American desert rodents do not display the same diversity of physiological responses at the species level as those observed in other desert-dwelling species of rodents. In this paper, we analyzed the physiological responses to water deprivation, at the interespecific and interindividual level, among eight species of sigmodontine desert-dwelling rodents from different geographical areas within South-American deserts. Using randomization tests, we found no significant phylogenetic signal for resistance to water deprivation or for individual variability in this response. Contrary to our initial predictions, we observed that sigmodontine rodents from arid/semi-arid habitats (Monte Desert) had significantly lower rates of body mass loss per day (higher tolerances to water deprivation) than species from the hyperarid deserts. We showed that sigmodontine rodents from South America showed a remarkable diversity of physiological mechanisms for coping with water shortage resulting from different evolutionary adaptive strategies. This diversity, however, displays a rather unexpected pattern in terms of its geographical distribution. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

From Amazonia to the Atlantic forest: Molecular phylogeny of Phyzelaphryninae frogs reveals unexpected diversity and a striking biogeographic pattern emphasizing conservation challenges

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Genetic diversity of NS5A protein from hepatitis C virus genotype 3a and its relationship to therapy response

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)