Education & Pedagogy

Within the field of adult education a paradigm shift, or at least a paradigm creep, is taking place as a result of advances in technology. This comprehensive, quasiexperimental study examining the efficacy of online education (OE) for professional development, conducted among American police officers, compares OE to traditional delivery methods, using quantitative methods and open ended questioning to determine whether the potential performance of adult learners in OE is related to various demographic factors, and evaluates the adult learners' perceptions of OE. Data analyses indicate no significant difference between the effectiveness of the delivery methods but they do reveal a statistically significant relationship between potential online learning success and a formal educational level. Although most participants in the study say they prefer traditional instruction, the majority feel that OE is an appropriate delivery method for professional development and that the use of OE for delivery of professional development provides increased training opportunities. (Contains 4 tables.)

This paper criticizes the neoliberal shift in Korean education toward educational consumerism by analyzing the boom in Specialized High schools (SHs). For its theoretical background, this paper discusses the issues of freedom, equal opportunity, and choice in education, and investigates how neoliberal consumerism has been encouraging the boom in SHs in Korea. To support its arguments, the paper provides a brief overview of the historical background of Korean education vis-a-vis the growth of private education and the emerging parental demand for educational choices. Next, the case of the SHs is analyzed in terms of how the shift creates the vicious circle of "education divide." Finally, discussions follow to emphasize that educational consumerism may cause detrimental effects on educational equity by bringing about an educational crisis rather than an opportunity. Reflecting on the case of SHs, this paper argues that educational consumerism aggravates the education divide and accelerates social polarization. (Contains 2 figures, 2 tables and 13 notes.)

In August 2000 the Department of Correctional Services (from now on referred to as the Department) held the first national symposium to translate its vision--which is to render services that contribute to community protection and the rehabilitation of offenders--into a meaningful partnership with the South African community. Correctional services in many countries face the challenge of balancing resources with the need to provide effective rehabilitation. Education is widely acknowledged as a key component of this rehabilitation. In the light of such developments, it is appropriate to ask what is known about the role of education in the rehabilitation of offenders. The purpose of this article is to determine the impact of education as a catalyst for behavioural change in enhancing rehabilitation efforts and preventing future criminal activity. The article will benefit educators in that they will know how and where they could become involved. This article will also add knowledge and an understanding of the impact of correctional education on crime and crime prevention.

The United States is not the only country that has been shocked by "A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education," the report released in September 2006 by the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, also known as the Spellings Commission. What the report emphasizes is accountability: the outcomes of higher education or student learning in which taxpayers' money is being spent. It also recommends that accrediting organizations make their standards of accreditation more outcome oriented. Japan was one of the countries jolted by this report. Consequently the Japanese higher education community has paid significant attention to U.S. higher education since the report was published, for at least two reasons: (1) the Japanese accreditation system was modeled after the U.S. system in many aspects, but (2) it is designed to work under a greater extent of governmental monitoring. In this article, the author compares the higher education accreditation system in Japan with the American system, focusing on the extent of government involvement in the processes in each nation.

Reform of teacher preparation is once again in the air. In his first major speech about education, President Obama said that "recruiting, preparing, and rewarding outstanding teachers" will be one of the new administration's top priorities. The priorities set forth in the stimulus package, as well as the Congressional debates about the future of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act--or "No Child Left Behind"--will return collective attention to preparation and retention of highly qualified teachers. Meanwhile, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education is redesigning its standards for the preparation of those teachers. Even with all those efforts, improving teacher preparation will be difficult unless new and more-definitive models of excellence--a gold standard--are established for schools of education. However, concludes the author, unless those actually in teacher education are willing to embrace the idea of striving for excellence rather than meeting an acceptable minimum standard, it will be hard to gain the respect of education's many critics, and to prepare the first-rate teachers that American students need.

This article draws on a range of primary and secondary sources to provide an account of the development in England of sex education in schools between 1870 and 2000. It pays particular attention to the decades prior to and just after the Second World War (1939-45) about which relatively little is known. Focusing on official guidance to schools provided by central government, and reports of the nature and extent of practices in school sex education at the local level, the article traces gradual shifts in policy on and practices of sex education. It is shown that, although some formal sex education took place in schools during the early part of the twentieth century, matters of sex did not become firmly established in central government guidance to schools until the 1950s. Thereafter, both central government guidance on sex education and local level practices in schools became more expansive. However, the 1980s and 1990s stand out as countervailing decades in the longer term progressive development of school sex education in England. (Contains 1 note.)

Malawi and Ghana are among the numerous Sub-Saharan Africa countries that have in recent years introduced Free Primary Education (FPE) policy as a means to realizing the 2015 Education for All and Millennium Development Goals international targets. The introduction of FPE policy is, however, a huge challenge for any national government that has experienced declining or slow economic growth and heavily relied on charging fees to parents and other sources to finance the education system. It follows, therefore, that the approach taken in implementing the FPE policy has implications for equity and efficiency in the education sector. Malawi and Ghana have differently implemented FPE policy. In this article we assess the impact of the implementation approach taken by each of the two countries on equity and efficiency in their education systems. (Contains 12 figures, 10 tables, and 2 footnotes.)

Supporters of public education fear attempts to privatize schools, while the private sector has always struggled against the monopolistic power of the public schools that educates almost 90% of all K-12 students. This trepidation has recently been intensified by the creation of a "third sector" that includes charter schools, voucher programs, and the increased diversity of private education. This article looks at the dynamics of fear as shaped by increased competition among public, private, and privatized schools. In fact, both public schools and their private school counterparts, fear privatization of education because it draws students and resources away from traditional schools. And recently, the opening of new "religious charter schools" has crossed the lines between church and state, and between private and public education. Thus, the politics of education have become somewhat more confused and unnerving as the distinctions between public and private education are virtually disappearing. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

For more than 20 years the People's Republic of China has engaged in a significant transformation of its economy and social institutions, including its education system. This article provides a general picture of what changes have taken place in Chinese teacher education at a time of rapid transition from central control to devolved and distributed management and decision making, along with the country's shift from a planned economy to a socialist market one. Two major topics of this work focus on how institutions of higher and teacher education respond to the challenges of the changing environment, and on the major trends, priorities and direction of recent education reform. Embedded in the discussion are issues such as the merger and amalgamation of institutions, teachers' professional development under the auspices of market and knowledge economy, educational information, internationalisation and others, and their effects on Chinese teacher education both in the short and the long term. (Contains 2 notes.)

This article is based on an ESRC/DFID funded research project on Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an Equity Scorecard (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/wideningparticipation). There are questions about whether widening participation in higher education is a force for democratisation or differentiation. While participation rates are increasing globally, there has been scant research or socio-cultural theorisation of how different structures of inequality intersect in the developing world. Questions also need to be posed about how higher education relates to policy discourses of poverty reduction and the Millennium Development Goals. The article explores participation in higher education, utilising statistical data and life history interviews with students in two public and two private universities. It focuses on how gender and socio-economic status intersect and constrain or facilitate participation in higher education. Findings to date suggest that opportunity structures reflect social inequalities. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)

This article attempts to locate approaches to understanding gender, education and notions of the international within debates on global social justice and cosmopolitanism. It looks at the work of three feminist scholars (Martha Nussbaum, Onora O'Neill and Iris Young) on this theme, draws out some ways in which they engage critiques of cosmopolitanism and considers some of the implications of their work for thinking about gender equality and comparative education. Two examples of work on gender equality in education at global level are assessed: the attempt to introduce gender dimensions into assessments of global financing for Education for All through the Fast Track Initiative and improved forms of monitoring of gender equality in education at national and international levels. The difficulties encountered and some of the implications for understanding discussions of cosmopolitanism are outlined, together with a case for strengthening and supporting work on gender and global social justice that takes participation and ethical reflection as a central concern.

The study reported in this paper reviewed the themes of the journal, "Theological Education," from the beginning of its publication in 1964 through 2006, as a means of gaining an historical perspective on the educational emphases that have shaped graduate theological education over the last 40 years. Theological education in the United States has developed into a substantial field of graduate professional education. The educational practices of seminaries and divinity schools are vital to faith communities across the nation, to the communities of which they are an integral part, and, subsequently, to society as a whole. "Theological Education" is one of the few published resources of scholarly works in the field of graduate theological education. There has not been a published review of the journal's themes or articles in the last 42 years. The study yielded insights into the prevailing concerns of theological educators over time, the emergence of issues and trends in theological education, and potential gaps in scholarship in the field. (Contains 3 tables.)

Both education and religion are connected with the sense of identity. In the present global world, educators have a real challenge to be able to manage identity and diversity, the local and the global, especially in the "cultural" subjects, fields where to learn to think is also to learn to construct an opinion (especially in order to define "otherness", to learn to live within differences). Religious education could be, from a methodological point of view, a laboratory for an education for peace. However, we need to think beyond the dichotomy of confessional/non-confessional. A four-fold model of religious education is proposed: theocratic, national religion, secular and multi-religious. The first three are problematic for education in diversity and peace; the multi-religious option provides the best opportunity, but only if religious education is defined in a non religiocentric way, able to combine the sensibilities and points of view of different particular cultural identities, but also respecting a global, human common identity.

This article introduces a conceptual framework for thinking about the development of anti-homophobia education in teacher education and schooling contexts. We bring the safe, positive, and queering moments framework to bear on three distinct anti-homophobia education practices: coming out stories, homophobic name-calling analysis, and Pride Week activities. Our analysis of these education practices through the lens of our conceptual framework illuminates its usefulness for thinking through both the intent and impact of anti-homophobia education within classrooms. Importantly, our analysis also reveals that within a classroom of students who are taking up anti-homophobia education in different ways any one moment can be all three--safe, positive, and queering. We advocate an approach to anti-homophobia education that seeks change through the creation of all three moments, and that locates anti-homophobia strategies on points in a constellation of "safe moments", "positive moments", and "queering moments". (Contains 2 notes and 1 figure.)

It is commonplace for politicians and the media to refer to elite sport as a means of framing discussions about physical education. This point is demonstrated by reference to recent policy documents and media reports containing statements by Tony Blair and Tessa Jowell. Their collective perspective is labelled the commonsense consensus on physical education and is the focus of a critique. Research evidence is assembled to show that some of the key assumptions of the commonsense consensus are factually incorrect and ethically questionable. Recent research on the practices of a professional football academy is presented to argue that elite sport is the wrong place to look for a model for framing quality physical education. Traces of these practices from elite sports such as football are identified in school physical education. The paper concludes with a brief description of the philosophy behind the Sport Education model as an alternative to the elite sport model and as an example of how sport may be retained in physical education in a way that stresses desirable educational and ethical outcomes.