Education & Pedagogy

Higher education in Zimbabwe is undergoing changes mainly because of the rapid expansion that started in 1999. The current situation is that higher education is going through a series of crises due to the fact that government subventions are diminishing in real terms as a result of the decline in economic growth, yet at the same time, student enrolments are increasing very rapidly due to increasing demand for tertiary education. Universities are critical to the development of any nation. In the developing countries, they are often the only institutions with the capacity for the development of high-skilled manpower, technology transfer and generation of new knowledge. With increasing globalization, it is natural that when such institutions are in a state of decline or stagnation, research and international attention come to the forefront. This paper reviews the development of higher education in Zimbabwe with a particular focus on universities, as the country moves from an elite to a 'mass' education system. It critically analyses the factors impacting on access and the quality of higher education before drawing conclusions. As resources become scarce there is a tendency for political intervention in the resource allocation process. The paper argues for the adoption of a transparent formula for allocating resources under a supportive higher education policy framework. It postulates, as a way forward, that the ultimate goal for improving efficiency and effectiveness in African higher education lies in a transparent formula for resource allocation that rewards performance, not withstanding, adequate public funding.

In 1999-2000, 7.1 million adults age 24 or older constituted 43% of all undergraduates in U.S. institutions of higher education, compared to 5.73 million adult students enrolled a decade earlier (1989-1990). The growing proportion of adult undergraduates has become a significant source of enrollment and income for numerous institutions for which the proportion of "traditional age" students (typically defined as between 18 to 22 years of age) is shrinking. The growth of adult participation in U.S. higher education has occurred in the context of other changes within higher education. Despite these shifts in higher education practice, scholars have paid little attention to adult students' presence and their impact upon nonprofit higher education. Several studies have documented the lack of attention to adult students in U.S. higher education research. Given claims about the lack of research on adult undergraduates and the repetitive nature of the existing research, as well as the lack of a current in-depth analysis about how adult students are portrayed in the higher education literature, these authors chose to use content analysis to examine seven refereed higher education journals published between 1990 and 2003 to determine how adult undergraduate students were treated in their articles. The purpose of the study was twofold: to determine the frequency with which adult students appeared in selected journals of higher education as a topic of research, and to examine how the scholarly discourse in the journals portrayed these adult students. (Contains 3 tables and 1 endnotes.)

Agricultural education has been an essential factor in the success of agricultural development in the Netherlands. At present, as in many countries throughout the world, the position of agricultural education is threatened. Does agricultural education have a future in the Netherlands, and if so, what strategies are being used for its survive? This paper discusses these questions. First the agri-food complex is described briefly, to give some contextual information about agricultural education. Additionally, some factual information about agricultural education itself is given. Subsequently, the trend towards green education is described, followed by a description and discussion of the first Policy Letter of the Ministry of Agriculture on the future of agricultural education. Then, the second Policy Letter is presented, including the shift towards content innovation of agricultural education and the implications for a general green curriculum. The paper then concludes with an overview of the types of responses used by institutes of agricultural education (schools and colleges) to cope with the uncertain developments. These responses are presented as metaphors: evaporating (vanishing), dissolving (merging into much bigger regional non-sectoral educational institutions) and crystallizing (regional and supra-regional sectoral cooperation and merging). The conclusion is that the crystallizing scenario is the most promising one for agricultural education, which has to support systems innovation of the agri-food complex. A further conclusion is that more attention should be given to the organization of the knowledge infrastructure to stimulate effective cooperative knowledge production and learning. (Contains 1 table.)

In-service professional development in education began informally in the early nineteenth-century as a means of disseminating classroom management techniques, specifically addressing ways in which corporal punishment could be delivered to a child without inflicting serious injury. This initial effort paralleled a concern regarding children's rights and welfare sparked by the abuses of the Industrial Revolution. Teachers at the time enjoyed almost total autonomy in the classroom, and although an educator's command of academic content was assumed to have been imparted as part of her or his own education, pedagogical skills, if recognized as important at all, were left to be picked up through experience. By the mid-1800s, public concerns began to arise regarding inconsistency in teacher quality as a result of unregulated teacher training. In response, evening courses in specific subject area education soon were offered to address gaps in teachers' knowledge. Teachers of art, although virtually ignored as a distinct group with specific needs, have nonetheless been carried along with the changing tides of educational reform. This article discusses the rationales for in-service professional development and venues for professional development. Furthermore, the remainder of this article makes the case for professional development opportunities that target the unique needs of art specialists, and demonstrates an underused partnership--that between state art education associations and institutions of higher education--which can offer engaging, rigorous, and most important, relevant, professional development opportunities to K-12 art educators.

Because of its inherent political nature, projects for developing civic education in emerging democracies have often been criticized for being a tool for hegemonic control by the "West." Much of these suspicions have been pointed at the United States (US) due to the government's policy of supporting educational reform in emerging democracies. Many of these programs have been criticized as well-intentioned but superficial consultations, or at worst, as a hegemonic imposition of American values and conceptions of democracy. In either case, the heart of the criticism rests on the often accurate perception that the civic education that is developed in these emerging democracies relies too heavily on Western expertise and conceptions of democracy and lacks sufficient indigenous voice and understanding of the context in which it is to be used. Some have even argued that this process is implicitly inherent in all Western educational aid programs. This article seeks to address this criticism through analysis of the conduct of an ongoing US-Ukraine civic education project. Emerging from this analysis is a series of lessons learned about contextualizing civic education that can be useful for others involved in such partnerships. This article first details the conduct of the Education for Democracy in Ukraine Project. The article examines the success of the project in overcoming the structural factors of dominance by comparing the Ukrainian products to similar US models. Then the article discusses the lessons learned about the importance of emphasizing context in civic education and concludes with some questions and suggestions for a framework for developing contextual civic education in the future. (Contains 1 table and 20 notes.)

This paper argues that the increasing diversity of multicultural Australia is now troubling teacher education due to the under-representation of world English speaking (WES) student teachers of minority immigrant backgrounds. This is now a concern of national significance to education policy-makers and researchers. This paper summarises key findings from a study of higher education policy and practice which investigated issues concerning the education and retention of WES student teachers of minority (Asian Pacific) immigrant backgrounds. In doing so it presents an analysis of the report of the Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training on teacher education, "Top of the class." In terms of policy action for the recruitment of WES student teachers it was found that this report recognises the significance of WES teachers, but that there is an under-enrolment and retention of WES student teachers. Evidence from the case study indicated that WES student teachers experienced pedagogical disengagement from their teacher education programs as contradictions in them becoming "Australian teachers". They experienced this gap between the hopes and happening in their teacher education programs; their practicum; the complexities of student behaviour management; the English language difficulties of their teacher educators, and most importantly the marginalisation of their language and thus their knowledge of education. (Contains 1 table.)

The official baptism of primary education offered in the "Hadow Report" of 1926 signalled a new beginning for "elementary" education. The indication that primary education would form the basis of a progressive and continuing education until the age of 14 was an important statement of intent. However, if Hadow signified the baptism of primary education, its coming-of-age in Wales, and the beginning of another developmental stage, was marked by the report "Primary Education in Wales," chaired by Professor Charles Gittins, just over 40 years later in 1967. As the First report of Central Advisory Council for Education (Wales) "to be concerned with a general survey of primary education," the Gittins report of 1967 can be regarded as a landmark document. With identical terms of reference to the influential Plowden report of the same year in England, "Primary Education in Wales" nevertheless reflected the explicit aspirations of a small nation with its own cultural heritage, language and specific demographic considerations. Part of this cultural heritage was, and still is, the role and position of music both within the culture and the curriculum. In this article, the author assesses whether music education in schools was framed "by" the people or "for" the people. He examines a range of books, journals and official publications published in the period under review to compare and contrast views from the "people" presented therein with those contained in official reports and other associated publications. (Contains 40 notes.)

This article reports the results of a study about the factors that affect social studies development in Jordan's secondary schools. An evaluation of data obtained within the limitations of this study relative to the development of social studies education, in particular, and education, in general, indicates that the principle of the Great Arab Revolt and Palestinian problems has affected general social, educational, and political conditions in the modern Jordanian State. Analysis of information indicated that little prospect for major development of the Jordan social studies curriculum exists for the immediate future. This is because political and cultural influences have made such development very selective and controlled. It also reveals that the lack of social philosophy in the area of citizenship education could put social studies education on the back burner. An overall analysis of data reveals that some factors in Jordanian culture are considered hindrances to the development of social studies education and the adoption of the new teaching approaches. These include: (1) lack of understanding of the nature of social studies education; (2) the bias in the favor of natural science and linguistic studies at all level of public education over social studies education courses; (3) the shortage of well-trained social studies teachers; (4) the political system's work against the full development of the social studies education curriculum; and (5) the fact that economic opportunity is against social studies education. The results of this study suggest that social studies curriculum in Jordan's secondary schools should be re-examined, re-evaluated, and revised.

This article aims to present the past and present state and future possibilities of philosophy of education as an academic discipline in Turkey as related to teacher training programs and academic studies in higher education institutions. It takes philosophy of education as consisting of the approaches that have emerged in its history. It has come to Turkey as a part of the modernization of education. It seems that during the Republican era in Turkey before World War II, mainly due to the dominance of the German conception of educational studies, the pedagogy and the history of pedagogy courses and the textbooks for them, which were central to the curricula of teacher training schools, contained the subjects of philosophy of education in its continental form; and after World War II philosophy of education is mostly understood, primarily due to Turkey's changing international relations and the spread of American influence, as the isms and the doctrines approaches as found in the USA between the 1940s and 1960s, while other approaches in the field have been less influential. The article identifies how the restructuring of the teacher training system and the curricula of Faculties of Education in 1998 was a serious blow to the discipline, since it excluded philosophy of education from the curricula of teacher preparation schools, and the flourishing discipline thus lost its hold and importance in the undergraduate programs, and then in graduate programs. But the 2006 revision of the curricula has given a kiss of life to the discipline. There are reasons to think that it can recover in the coming period.

Objective and Participants: The author conducted this study to determine college health education and promotion practitioners' perceived continuing education needs and perceived job relevance in relation to national health education responsibilities and competencies. Methods: In Spring 2006, the author invited college health education and promotion professionals to participate in an online survey, using 3 listservs. Of 276 individuals visiting the Web site, 141 participants completed the survey (51%). Participants rated their perceived training needs and job relevance for the 35 National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) competencies as well as preferred training formats. Results: Participants identified the following competencies as those in which they needed additional training: designing data-collection instruments, securing fiscal resources, interpreting evaluation and research results, carrying out evaluation and research plans, and developing plans for evaluation and research. They identified the following competencies as being the most relevant to their jobs: demonstrating a variety of skills in delivering strategies, interventions, and programs; using a variety of methods to implement strategies, interventions, and programs; initiating a plan of action; and using health-related information resources. The most preferred methods of obtaining additional continuing education were attending the American College Health Association annual meeting (67%) and completing home self-study print materials (67%). Conclusions: Collegiate professional organizations should offer a variety of continuing education opportunities centering on NCHEC competencies, specifically those perceived as needed by study participants. (Contains 2 figures and 9 tables.)

Diversity and multicultural education is fast becoming the norm. Race, gender, ethnicity, ability, language, culture, socioeconomic class, family configurations, interests, or combinations of these produce enormous diversity issues. The refection of this huge sociocultural diversity--children coming from different ethnic backgrounds--has significantly increased in the United States in recent years. The purpose of this study is to understand the dynamics of three preservice teachers' beliefs and practical knowledge of diversity and multicultural education. This study aims to develop a portrait of preservice teachers' epistemological stances with the focus of "How do the preservice teachers perceive diversity and understand multicultural education in their teacher education program?" This study draws on the theoretical framework of social constructivism which was pioneered by Vygotsky and Bakhtin, arguing for "the importance of culture and context in forming understanding" (McMachon, 1997, p. 3), with respect to teacher beliefs and practical knowledge about diversity and multicultural education. Two face-to-face in-depth interviews with three preservice teachers were conducted. The three preservice teachers' views of experiencing diversity are discussed with respect to the subcategories of "feelings of being a minority and about minorities," "experiencing ESL children," and "experiencing different races, cultures, and genders." Then, each preservice teacher's "thoughts about teacher education programs for diversity" are followed with the aspect of "seeing a need for a more practical approach of teacher education."

In adopting the "Education White Paper 6. Special Needs Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System" of 2001, the South African education system mandates teachers and schools to address the various intersecting factors that act as barriers to learning for all learners. Using drawings and metaphors with a group of pre-service teachers, this paper focuses on a set of such factors: HIV and AIDS. The exploratory classroom inquiry reported herein explores the following question: what are my beliefs and pre-service teachers' beliefs about integrating HIV and AIDS education in the teaching and learning of mathematics? A drawing activity was developed for focus group discussions with seven primary school pre-service teachers and the author, their mathematics teacher educator. This classroom inquiry involved an analysis of the drawings and the metaphors used to describe the integration of HIV and AIDS education in the mathematics curriculum. By focusing on the metaphors and the discussions that emanated from them, the project aimed to shed light on the beliefs of a group of pre-service teachers about the possible integration of HIV and AIDS education in mathematics classrooms of young learners. The findings from these suggest varied understandings and beliefs about HIV and AIDS and their place in the mathematics curriculum and some possible strategies for the training of a "multiskilled" teacher in the age of AIDS in pre-service teacher education programmes. (Contains 1 note and 3 figures.)

This article presents the author's response to Joseph Reimer's essay titled, "Beyond More Jews Doing Jewish: Clarifying the Goals of Informal Jewish Education." Joseph Reimer states that the challenge for informal education is to move beyond socialization to clarify and achieve "deeper" educational goals. Distinguishing between socialization and education on a theoretical level is tricky because so much of education as people know it has a socializing function; and to the extent that socialization involves the transmission of values and knowledge, it is educational. So what does it mean to take a "social" program and make it "educational"? To answer this question, and to add a voice from a formative era in Jewish education to Reimer's theoretical framework, the author offers the words of a Jewish informal educator from the 1930s: Miriam Ephraim. Ephraim was then the Director of Extension Activities (the equivalent of informal education) at New York's Central Jewish Institute, a progressive school center that integrated a Talmud Torah, youth groups, and a summer camp (Camp Cejwin). Trained in the Progressive intellectual orbit of Columbia Teachers College and the Jewish Theological Seminary's Teachers Institute in the early 1920s, Ephraim was a pioneer in her insistence that Jewish youth work be both social "and" substantive. What made the Central Jewish Institute's club activities distinctly educational, as opposed to just social like the myriad youth groups that emerged in the Progressive era? Ephraim (1931/1966) explained, "Method is education." To elaborate the implications of this simple guiding principle, the author considers a rich example of Ephraim's method in practice.

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the development and effectiveness of quality assurance as a competitive tool for Singapore's private tertiary education in an increasingly competitive global market. Design/methodology/approach: A review of the growth of private education in Singapore is presented and issues related to quality and Singapore's quality assurance framework are discussed in this paper. The experience of "private schools", that is, private tertiary education providers, in relation to quality assurance is documented through two case studies of two typical private schools in Singapore. Findings: It was found that quality assurance of private tertiary education in Singapore is still narrowly focused on business and management processes. The government has not yet imposed any form of regulatory framework to ensure that academic standards are upheld. Rather, private schools are relying heavily on their own initiatives to safeguard teaching quality. Practical implications: This paper reveals the insufficient nature of quality assurance in Singapore's tertiary private education industry. The paper suggests a need for more collaboration between the Singapore Government and the private education providers in order that appropriate quality assurance is provided. The findings strongly suggest that it is critical for Singapore to re-evaluate its quality assurance framework in order to realize its vision of becoming a regional educational hub. Originality/value: This paper draws from the experience of the interviewees and will be of interest to those in the field of private education. (Contains 1 figure.)

The Museum of Irish Industry in Dublin, in its short existence (1845-1867) facilitated the access of ordinary people to popular scientific education, became a "cause celebre" and was defended by popular protest when the government recommended its abolition in 1862. Its Director, Sir Robert Kane (1809-1890) was not only an advocate of popular industrial education but also had a lifelong commitment to "united" (or non-denominational) education believing that only this type of education would achieve the ultimate result of tolerance, religious peace and national prosperity in Ireland. From 1854 a Government School of Science was part of the museum's educational activities and from 1854 to 1867 the professors attached to the museum offered courses of lectures, both "popular" and formal courses, on physics, chemistry, botany, zoology and geology, and in applied science. With its exhibition collections, its laboratories and the range of educational courses organised by its staff the museum was one of the British government's most innovative experiments in education in Victorian Ireland. Beyond this, Kane's determination that the courses offered by the museum would be available to all, with no distinction of creed or gender, distinguishes this institution as a pioneer in providing equal access to scientific education to all in the mid-nineteenth century. This article will explore the role this unique education played in the educational and social life of mid-Victorian Dublin. (Contains 82 footnotes and 2 figures.)