Education & Pedagogy

Education holds promise as a vehicle for sustainable global development and human capacity development, as reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. International education has become a prominent feature in contemporary times on the educational landscape as students become increasingly mobile in pursuit of their right to education. This study investigates the key factors that motivate international students to undertake better quality education at higher education (university) level, particularly in Europe, and the underlying gender preferences for study destinations within the framework of push-pull factors. The study collected responses of 288 individuals from 84 countries who had undertaken some form of education in Europe through the European Commission-funded Erasmus Mundus (EM) Scholarship. Responses were collected through an online platform, Survey Monkey. Outcomes of the study revealed that Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Netherlands, and Spain are the most popular destinations for pursuing higher education in Europe. The United Kingdom is the most preferred destination for female students while Germany is the most preferred destination for male students, with slight changes for other countries. Key motivating factors for international education were found to be scholarship opportunity, better quality of education, and availability of the relevant study program. The least influencing factors were found to be the commonality of language, suitable environment (eg climate, temperature), geographical proximity, the scope of migration, and social cost.

Social and inclusive education as captured under the Sustainable Development Goals enjoined most countries to implement policies to bring about education for all students. Inclusive education recognises that students come from diverse backgrounds with varied characteristics, which include different learning capacities and cognitive development. The purpose of this study was to examine Ghanaian teachers' attitudes toward inclusive education. The Multidimensional Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education Scale (MATIES) developed by [Mahat, M. 2008. "The Development of a Psychometrically Sound Instrument to Measure Teachers' Multidimensional Attitudes toward Inclusive Education." "International Journal of Special Education" 23: 82-92.] was administered to 280 selected teachers in Ghana. The results of Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed that the three-factor structure of the MATIES theorised by [Mahat, M. 2008. "The Development of a Psychometrically Sound Instrument to Measure Teachers' Multidimensional Attitudes toward Inclusive Education." "International Journal of Special Education" 23: 82-92] was not supported by the Ghanaian sample. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a correlated four-factor solution. These four factors were labelled Behavioural, Affective, Positive Beliefs, and Negative Beliefs. The reliability coefficients for these four subscales were 0.90. 0.86, 0.77, and 0.73, respectively. Analysis of variance revealed that males exhibited more negative beliefs towards inclusive education than females; more experienced teachers exhibited low behavioural attitudes than their counterparts with less teaching experience.

This study was aimed to investigate the inequality of opportunity of access to the higher education centers and to present a model of reducing inequality of opportunities and to administer justice and fairness in order to achieve a sustainable development among the 17 cities and towns of West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. This research was a descriptive-analytic and survey type of study in nature. The participants included 890 pre-university high school students who completed a set of questionnaires eliciting their perceptions on opportunity inequality in accessing higher education. Moreover, documents adopted from the responsible governmental bodies on this topic were analyzed. The collected data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient, cluster analysis, path analysis and neural networks by means of Topsis, SPSS, and Excel softwares. The findings showed that there is inequality of opportunity of access to the higher education centers in cities of West Azerbaijan. Based on the path analysis, admission and individual-family indexes had the most and the least impacts on inequality of achieving higher education, respectively, among the cities of West Azerbaijan. Moreover, the neural networks model showed that the education indexes were the most important and the individual-family indexes were the least important ones in predicting the opportunity of accessing higher education in these cities. This study reveals that a three-componential model (namely, education, admission, and family-individual) along with their sub-components could be the basis for achieving education for sustainable development.

In this study, it was aimed to determine prospective social studies and elementary education teachers' attitudes towards national parks and views on ecology-based environmental education. In this study, which was conducted following the stated purpose, an educational practice was carried out in Termessos National Park (Antalya) for two days in 2018 with a total of 26 prospective teachers enrolled at faculty of education at Akdeniz University, of whom 11 from social studies education and 15 from elementary education. In the study, in which a mixed research design was employed, the "Attitude Towards National Parks Scale" developed by Denis, Genç, and Demirkaya (2008) was used as a data collection tool. Pretest and post-test analyses of the data were conducted using SPSS to determine the effect of ecology-based environmental education given in the specified national park on the prospective teachers' attitudes towards national parks. In the qualitative part of the study, the participants' views on ecology-based environmental education were elicited through interviews conducted before and after the practice education with the help of the "interview form for ecology-based environmental education," which was developed by the researchers. The data obtained were subjected to content analysis, which is one of the qualitative analysis techniques. The results revealed that the practice "Ecology-based Environmental Education in a National Park" positively affected the prospective teachers' attitudes towards national parks and contributed positively to their views on ecology-based environmental education.

This study was carried out to examine the social appearance anxiety of the faculty of sports sciences and faculty of education in terms of some variables. In this context, the social appearance anxiety scale was applied to the students of the sports sciences who received sports education and the students of the education faculty who did not receive sports education. Independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, and LSD tests were used to analyze the data. As a result of the analysis, the social appearance anxiety scale score was found 34.43 in women and 35.11 in men. On the other hand, the social appearance anxiety scale score was found to be 32.89 in students of faculty of sport sciences and 36.68 in students of faculty of education. There was no significant difference in social appearance anxiety scale scores in terms of gender variable (p>0.05). A significant difference was observed in the social appearance anxiety scale scores in terms of sport education status variable (p<0.001). The social appearance anxiety scores of the students who were satisfied with their own body weight and height were found lower than those who were not satisfied, which was found statistically significant (p<0.001). The results of this research showed that the social appearance anxiety of students of the faculty of sport sciences who receive sports education is lower than those of the faculty of education students who do not receive sports education.

The combination of neo-liberalism and the massification of higher education combined with the diminished public funds for higher education contributed to the rise of academic capitalism and entrepreneurship across higher education systems and institutions across the world. With the focus on human capital development and its contribution to economic development, higher education is increasingly located within the globally accepted knowledge-based economy discourse. Fiscal challenges, changes in funding mechanisms and the enhanced use of New Public Management in higher education, shifted funding of higher education to individual students and their families, supported the growth of private higher education, and promulgated the privatization of public higher education institutions. Most governments are utilizing New Public Management, which increases public accountability and transparency in the utilization of public funds, including those for higher education. Furthermore, there is an increasing trend and focus on research with economic and social applications rather than fundamental research. The mentioned trends and developments highlight the changing characteristic of higher education systems and institutions towards the scholarship of application, academic capitalism and entrepreneurship. These trends also hold in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, which aside from being influenced by globalization and its discourses, are ongoing a complex regionalization process to establish an ASEAN Community. This article seeks to understand public policy-related factors that contributes to academic capitalism and the establishment or reconfiguration of ASEAN universities into entrepreneurial universities.

Although there has been forward movement in identifying and addressing diverse learning needs, social justice education is not a significant part of the current standards for beginning teachers or K-12 students in the U.S. Throughout our standards-based history, social justice has been more of a hidden curriculum. To attain the 50 Million Strong by 2029 goal, it is vital to acknowledge that physical education is a social justice issue. Without consideration of the historical, political, and social contexts that permeate and frame physical education, along with the social identities and lived experiences of our future teachers and students, it is unlikely that this goal will be sustained. While concerns have been voiced relative to the standards-based teaching movement, in a country that espouses standards-based education, a first step in moving any educational reform forward is to formalize its inclusion in the national standards that serve to guide our discipline. A philosophical shift may be what is needed for change to occur regarding social justice education in an attempt to enhance the learning opportunities for "all" students. A forward step in creating this change is to address the research and pedagogical practices of our current physical education teacher education and K-12 programs, along with the physical education standards and policies at the national and state levels. We specifically articulate connections between social justice education and four key, interconnected research areas related to (a) occupational socialization, (b) curriculum, instruction, and assessment, (c) technology, and (d) professional development.

This research aims to examine the current situation of multicultural education in elementary schools. Therefore, the views of the classroom teachers on multicultural education have been examined and multicultural education activities have been observed in the classes. Having a case study research method which is considered as one of the qualitative research designs, the study hosts a total of 15 classroom teachers who worked in the province of Elazig during the 2016 and 2017 academic year. The maximum variation sampling method has been used in the research. The research has employed semi-structured interview and observation forms. The research data has been analyzed through content analysis. Research results have revealed that most of the teachers perceive multicultural education as education presented to the individuals with different ethnic identities. Teachers' perceptions towards multicultural education have been identified to be similar in terms of their gender, seniority and educational status. Teachers mostly do student-centred activities related to multicultural education, use drama and case studies in their classes. While practising multicultural education, teachers mostly encounter with student-related problems. The majority of the people have recommended that parents be trained on the relevant subject. Similar results have emerged in the observations made by the researcher. Based on the research findings, several recommendations have been provided. Primary school curricula should be organized taking multicultural education into consideration, and the problems identified by teachers should be eliminated by those concerned.

While the European Parliament is increasingly involved in EU governance, its role in policy developments in domains of strategic importance for the EU has not been the focus of many studies. In this article, we analyse a new digital dataset containing more than 10,000 speeches delivered in the European Parliament plenary between 1999 and 2014 and identify patterns related to temporal increase or decrease in the Parliament's focus on higher education, the topics linked to higher education discussions and patterns concerning the country and party group affiliation of the European Parliament members who speak about higher education. Our findings suggest that the total number of speeches, either specifically dedicated to higher education, or mentioning higher education when addressing other issues, did increase over time and particularly during the adoption of action programmes and related budgetary decision. Furthermore, higher education was less referred to in the Parliament speeches as a stand-alone issue than in relation to other policy areas in which the EU has strong jurisdiction. Finally, our findings indicate that the variance in whether a Member of the European Parliament speaks about higher education is more closely linked to country of origin than party affiliation, highlighting the persistent national dimension of higher education discussions at the European level. These findings attest to the increasing -- yet largely overlooked -- role of the European Parliament in higher education policy making.

The purpose of this investigation was to better understand how administrators of special education prioritize leadership statements that are part of professional standards related to leading special education programs. The article begins by examining professional identities and professionalization of special education leadership and administration within the context of research and policies and special education leadership standards. Based on the data collected in this investigation, the article concludes with the introduction of an action model for special education leadership that represents movement between the two approaches to leadership identified in this study. From the qualitative and quantitative data from this study, as well as the literature, two labels emerged from the Q-sorts and the follow-up questions that best represent each factor: (1) transactional-instructional leaders who were focused on the day-to-day responsibilities associated with instruction; and (2) transformational-relational-distributed leaders who had an affinity for the more global aspects of leadership. This investigation found that the participants' view of leadership was shaped by their experiences. These experiences were lodged in the special education leadership positions held by the participants rather than years of leadership experience. The context and setting in which these special education leaders worked affected how statements were prioritized within the Q-concourse. These findings suggest a model for special education leadership that recognizes transitional leadership as a space for leaders to address the day-to-day and instructional needs while beginning to communicate the vision, mission, and values imbued in special education programs and services with diverse stakeholder groups.

Education has become a high-stakes, big-budget item worldwide and is often a major contributor to the country's GDP. Each country's public expenditure on education differs but there is a general recognition that education is a catalyst for country growth and development. In Lebanon, public sector education is viewed by the government as unproductive and the gap between private and public schooling is vast. The strong centralization and governance of Lebanese public schools' finance, management, and curriculum hinders the development of the public education sector and influences the performance of students and teachers. Although the total expenditure on education is high (about US$1.2 billion annually: approximately 2.45% of GDP and 6.4% of total public expenditure), Lebanon's public expenditure on education is lower than expenditure by its neighbors. This study used an interpretive document analysis method to analyze the design of the public budget policy used to determine the allocation of funds to the Lebanese education sector's development plan for the educational section. The study determined the uniform guidelines for the education's budget design by comparing the design used by Finland with that of 33 other developing countries. Analysis of results found that the Lebanese public education development plan uses six of eight best-practice guidelines. This study is potentially useful for educational policymakers and researchers interested in educational budget policies design in low performing systems. Comparative document analysis will assist policymakers in Lebanon to follow bench-marked guidelines in resource allocation to improve the quality of education.

This article traces the political, historical, and ideological roots of the Relay Graduate School of Education. Relay represents a more current iteration of alternative teacher preparation programs and emerged from the earlier partnerships between education schools and independent alternative programs (Mungal, 2012). These programs have become major producers of teacher candidates, attracting a significant number of teaching candidates who enter into the teaching profession and bypass university-based education schools. This article informs the field of teacher preparation on the emerging phenomenon of Relay Graduate School of Education. Unaffiliated with university-based education schools, Relay bypasses education schools and is allowed to confer a Masters of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) through state organizations such as the New York State Board of Regents and other equivalent state agencies. In this article, the author first describes the origins for this study in the research design. Second, he contextualizes teacher preparation in the United States, historically, politically, and ideologically as well as describe the conditions in which modern alternative teacher preparation programs took hold. Third, he explores the origin of Teacher U and its partnership with the charter school networks, and the emergence of Relay and its partnership with Teach For America. The author also reports on methods that Relay uses in the classrooms and captures the critiques of Relay. Finally, he assesses the role of Relay and its implications for teacher education. This historical analysis ultimately suggests that the role and relevance of Relay Graduate School is growing at a fast rate yet is still largely unnoticed among educators, education schools and to a much larger degree, the general public.

Adult educators face a challenge if they are to aid in the improvement of the status of women in the Third World. Women in developing countries, especially those in rural and poverty areas, are often restricted to second class educational and work opportunities. Adult educators could contribute to the reduction of such discrimination in the following ways: (1) particular attention should be given to the improvement of educational opportunities for women in rural areas and in areas of extreme poverty; (2) successful women educators must be placed in key administrative and teaching positions so as to raise the aspirations of women students; (3) women must be included in national development planning and in the implementation of adult education programs; (4) the objectives of adult education programs must be directed toward cultural change especially in respect to the status of women in society; (5) curricula, textbooks, and materials of instruction used in the adult education programs must be free of sex bias; (6) adult education programs must be offered at times and at places where those programs are readily available to women; (7) instructional media, easily adaptable to rural and poverty areas, can enhance the adult education programs; and (8) action research with a widely based participatory rationale concerning adult education methods, procedures, and programs should be initiated. Even with such improvements in adult education, however, changes in the status of women in developing countries will occur slowly, not as quickly as educators may envision. (Author/KC)

Intended as a memorial to Robert G. Sidnell, this special issue contains articles about areas of music education which he promoted. In "The Dimensions of Research in Music Education," Sidnell concluded that music education research encompasses all humanistic disciplines as well as the behavioral and social sciences. James Carlsen, in "Framework for Research: An International Perspective," presents a taxonomy of instructional systems and research studies that examine theories under one or more components of each system. "Recent Research Pertaining to Psychomotor Skills in Music," by Steven Hedden, examines research published since 1978 concerning the relationship of motor skills to music education. Henry Cady analyzes how the meaning of a work of art develops in "The Problem of the Rational in Music," and Richard Colwell suggests that a person's educational philosophy is the most important dimension of teacher education in "Music Education and Philosophy." Assessing music education is examined by Thomas Tunks in "Evaluation in Music Education: The Value of Measurement/The Measurement of Value." The need for the expansion of music education research is considered by George Duerksen in "Research and Music Education: Needs for the Next Decade," while David Williams describes music expression as a social behavior in "Do Our Models for Music Research and Teaching Reflect Our Human Social Nature?" Kate Grieshaber considers the fundamental nature of rhythmic abilities in "Children's Rhythmic Tapping: A Critical Review of Research." (JHP)

The Michigan Council on Vocational Education evaluated the coordination between vocational education and the service deliverers of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) in the state in order to comply with the mandates of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984. The purpose of the study was to describe the structure and job training activities taking place in each service delivery area (SDA) and, where appropriate, the participation of vocational education, thus resulting in a statewide case study. The statewide data were compiled based on interviews with administrators responsible for implementing vocational education and JTPA in each of the state's 26 SDAs. The statewide case study includes aggregate information on the JTPA Title II-A 78 percent adult and youth programs, the 8 percent education coordination and grants program, and the perceptions of the overall coordination between vocational education and JTPA from all of the 26 SDAs for program year 1986. From the research, the council determined that the coordination between vocational education and JTPA including the use of the vocational education program delivery systems for training is as varied as any continuum. In some SDAs, the vocational educators and job training providers have achieved effective results, and in others coordination is minimal. Based on the study, the council made recommendations for changes in the Perkins Act and JTPA legislation and in state agency cooperation. (KC)