Education & Pedagogy

This article builds upon the experiences and results of the application of sustainability assessment instruments in higher education. First, a short overview of existing sustainability assessment tools will be provided, as well as their contribution towards the integration of sustainability in higher education. Second, a reflective case focuses on the use of sustainability assessment for policy development in higher education. This case is based upon the application of the Auditing Instrument for Sustainability in Higher Education in a Belgian higher education institution, focusing on four consecutive assessments in the department of Business Studies (2003, 2004, 2009, 2010). Based on the assessment reports and an evaluation of the assessments, the contribution of sustainability assessment to policy development is reflected upon. The article provides a research-based, reflective study, and focuses on the consecutive application of sustainability assessment tools, the contribution of sustainability assessment to policy development and the contribution of sustainability assessment to connecting a bottom-up approach to a top-down approach. The article results in specific recommendations on the use of sustainability assessment for policy development in higher education.

Improving student academic performance in senior-secondary education increases student opportunities for employment, training and further education. The aim of this research was to identify students', completing the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) Physical Education, perceptions of teacher-related factors that influence subject specific academic performance. Unit 3 and 4 VCE Physical Education students (n = 23) from three government secondary schools and one independent secondary school in Victoria, Australia completed poster annotations identifying their perception of the "perfect" VCE Physical Education teacher. The de-identified data from the posters were transcribed verbatim, coded and analysed using NVivo software to explore student perceptions of teacher-related factors that influence academic performance. Emergent themes from the poster annotations suggested that student's perceptions of the "perfect" VCE Physical Education teacher included the teacher-related factors of knowledge (of subject matter), verbal ability, caring, enthusiasm and teacher accessibility.

Developing teacher education programmes founded upon principles of critical pedagogy and social justice has become increasingly difficult in the current neoliberal climate of higher education. In this article, we adopt a narrative approach to illuminate some of the dilemmas which advocates of education for social justice face and to reflect upon how pedagogy for inclusion in the field of physical education (PE) teacher education (PETE) is defined and practiced. As a professional group, teacher educators seem largely hesitant to expose themselves to the researcher's gaze, which is problematic if we expect preservice teachers to engage in messy, biographical reflexivity with regard to their own teaching practice. By engaging in self- and collective biographical story sharing about "our" teacher educator struggles in England and Norway, we hope that the reader can identify "her/his" struggles in the narratives about power and domination, and the spaces of opportunity in between.

Policy makers and others charged with driving economic growth often assume a link between entrepreneurship education and business start-up. However, there is little by way of supporting literature in this regard, with few studies exploring impact measures that relate to actual venture creation. This paper considers two routinely collected data sets in the UK that directly relate to graduate self-employment and business start-up over a five-year period--the Higher Education-Business and Community Interaction survey (HE-BCI), and the survey of Destinations of Leavers of Higher Education (DLHE)--and explores whether the data can be used to assess impact. There is some evidence that HE-BCI may be affected by changes in data collection requirements, but it remains the most complete, extensive and useful longitudinal data set on graduate business start-up. DHLE would appear to be the best source of data for measuring the impact of both enterprise education and start-up support initiatives at an institutional level.

Recent analyses of education policy discourses in Europe and beyond note the rise of the discourse of "employability" as a new form of regulating the relationship between universities, markets and the state. Education and labour market relationships are also considered to be one of the main aspects of postsocialist transition. This contribution compares the construction of these links in the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1970s and in its successor states today. Drawing on sociology and anthropology of policy and studies of education as a practice of governmentality, it shows how policy discourses from two distinct political and historical contexts nevertheless exhibit continuity in terms of empowering the state via agentification of markets, employers or the working class. Interpreting this continuity in the context of changing political and economic orders, the contribution argues for a more nuanced understanding of "socialism," "postsocialism," or "neoliberalism" in the analysis of education policies.

The geographical scale of West Texas provides a unique opportunity to demonstrate active engagement between Texas Tech University and the residents of this vast region. The institution responded to community requests and collaborated to develop four new, rural off-campus teaching and research sites and expand the presence of an existing site. These initiatives focused on expanding access to higher education, engaging in outreach research and scholarship, and enhancing early childhood through 12th grade school partnerships. Technology networks and distance-delivered academic resources were leveraged to achieve these goals. State guidelines for the development of new off-campus sites provided limited guidance for rural educational delivery of research partnerships. As a consequence, the institution's engagement with rural communities yielded increased understanding of these institution-community partnerships, their symbiotic benefits, and the constraints that should guide them.

The political importance of mathematics in post-16 education is clear. Far less clear is how mathematics does and should relate to vocational education. Successive mathematics curricula (e.g. core skills, key skills) have been developed in England with vocational learners in mind. Meanwhile, general mathematics qualifications remain largely disconnected from vocational learning. Following a brief historical survey of mathematics within vocational education, the paper presents findings from a nested case study of student groups in three large Further Education colleges in England. The primary unit of analysis herein is student groups learning Functional Mathematics in two vocational areas: construction and hairdressing. We show how approaches to organising teaching, developing connected curricula and classroom pedagogy tend to "isolate" or "integrate" mathematics from/with the vocational experience. "Integrated" approaches are shown to impact positively on student engagement and attitudes to learning mathematics. The paper concludes by discussing the potential impact of academic qualifications displacing vocationally relevant mathematics.

In this article Puchner and Markowitz illustrate a major problem in education and in teacher education, the underlying dynamics of which are a national problem. The problem of negative beliefs about African American families in schools is not a new idea but actually stems from unfounded and untested assumptions about the way the world works and comprises the individual narratives that are engrained in institutional culture. In this article Puchner and Markowitz add that many people still don't realize it's a problem, and teacher education programs in particular need to continue to figure out how to expose the reality of racism in our schools. Especially in teacher education, some tend to assume much of what is necessary to deal with racial issues is already being done by incorporating multicultural education into teacher courses. However, the current study shows what happens when you scratch the surface.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between special education provision in Norway and school district leaders' perspectives regarding (a) the need for special education and (b) the importance and prevalence of integrated and segregated approaches. Findings indicate that the percentage of students perceived as being in need of special education was significantly higher than the percentage of students who actually receive this support. However, districts in which an increased need was reported did not have lower enrolment in special education than regions in which participants felt that the level of special education provision was appropriate. No relationship was found between the percentage of students receiving special education and the importance placed on either segregated or integrated approaches. Whereas virtually all participants valued integrated solutions, segregated approaches received higher ratings of importance in districts where these practices were prevalent.

This article reports on the preliminary findings, design criteria and lessons learned while developing and piloting an alternative to traditional print-based education delivery within a prison environment. PLEIADES (Portable Learning Environments for Incarcerated Distance Education Students), was designed to provide incarcerated students with access to internet-independent secure digital and mobile technologies. An internet-independent version of Moodle was developed to complement course readings deployed on eReaders. The aim of the project was to increase access to and participation in higher education courses that are increasingly offered exclusively online. The article begins with an overview of the current provision of education within prison environments and introduces the rationale for commencing the project. The research findings of the project trial are discussed and the paper concludes with the lessons learned and implications for further research, development and implementation.

Changes in the economy, nature, production and society together with increasing scientific and technological knowledge make demands of transforming school teaching in the field of technology education. The aim of the article is briefly to explore the integration between science, technology and traditional craft education by analyzing the current trends in Finnish technology education. Additionally, the research tried to explore, in a preliminary way, whether or not a curriculum which retains the traditional textile and technical crafts, or new technology education, would enhance technical abilities better? The data of the empirical part suggest that there was a difference between students' who received education based on the traditional craft or technology education curriculum. The difference was mainly seen in technological knowledge and in attitudes towards technology. Hence, still much of the learning is focused on production skills, and approaches that are now dominant in craft education do not prepare students to meet the challenges of modern technology and working life.

After more than a decade of democratic citizenship education in public schools in South Africa, the Department of Basic Education (DoBE) has still not produced sufficiently plausible ways for how democracy and citizenship ought to be taught in classrooms. I argue that the recent "practical guide" on how to cultivate "responsibility and humanity" in public schools is, firstly, an acknowledgement that democratic citizenship education has not as yet been adequately realised in schools; secondly, that the "practical guide" itself does not adequately address the conceptual slippages regarding democratic citizenship education since the release of the Manifesto on Values, Education and Democracy, and thirdly, that an amended version of responsibility and humanity is required in order to enhance their cultivation in public schools. The thrust of this article involves a conceptual analysis of democratic citizenship education, how the concept has theoretically unfolded in policy texts, and how the concept can contribute to building and enhancing responsibility and humanity in public schools.

In the literature on citizenship education, frequent references are made to Dewey. However, educationalists do not always interpret him correctly. To provide some counterbalance, I explain Dewey's views on education and democracy. I base this, not only on "Democracy and Education", but also on 17 articles that Dewey wrote after "Democracy and Education", and on his "Ethics" and two earlier works, frequently cited by educationalists: "Ethical Principles Underlying Education" and "School and Society". According to Dewey, democracy and education are two sides of the same coin. Both involve and foster self-determination, self-development and participating in the common good, enlightened by intelligent understanding and scientific spirit. At the present, it is customary to define democratic citizenship education primarily in terms of social and moral learning, sometimes as though it can be distinguished from academic learning, as something extra besides learning subject matter. When such an approach is attributed to Dewey, as it often is, this is unwarranted.

The paper analyses the interface between Nigeria's anticipated failure in the Education for All (EFA) 2015 targets and her policy implementation strategies in relation to children literacy. The principal purpose is to locate evidences that may explain the expected failure. The paper relies largely on secondary data and existing literature to examine key literacy intervention strategies in Nigeria under the Universal Basic Education (UBE) and Nomadic Education policies. The analysis focused on the linkage between the book industries, education funding and literacy policy implementation strategies, where evidence of large scale disagreement was found in support of the thesis of this paper that Nigeria's anticipated failure in the 2015 EFA targets is largely consequent upon poor policy implementation strategy arising from 1) disconnection between her book industry and literacy policy implementation and 2) unsettled socio-demographic influences. Some measures are recommended to reinvigorate Nigeria in the global drive towards EFA beyond 2015.

The paper examines the inherent strengths and weaknesses of the higher education system in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Using a literature review, three elements were examined: its development and structure, quality, and research capacity. The findings reveal that the UAE's higher education sector has witnessed remarkable growth since 1997, guided by the state's policy commitment, and few restrictions on foreign universities opening branches in the UAE. This situation has led to substantial growth in the supply of higher education opportunities for the Emirati and expatriate population. Despite the UAE having achieved a high ranking for 'quality indicators' on the global level in the World Economic Forum's Competitiveness Reports, the quality of graduates, education, and research engagement is still debatable. Significant efforts are needed to ensure that these critical issues, as well as the understudied expansion of higher education institutions, are being addressed to erase the misalignment with the UAE's strategic goals.