Education & Pedagogy

In Lithuania, citizenship education for preschool children was not regulated until 2022, and consequently the related issues have not yet received much attention from Lithuanian researchers. However, based on the insights of scientists from other countries it can be argued that in order for children to be active citizens when they grow up, it is important to develop their civic attitudes and behaviour in early childhood. The aim of the research presented in the article is to find out teachers' attitudes towards citizenship education for young children in Lithuanian preschool education. Summarising the results of a structured group interview, we can state that in Lithuanian preschool education institutions, children receive only a fragmentary and superficial education in citizenship, because, on the one hand, teachers have a narrow conception/understanding of citizenship and, on the other hand, they basically do not understand the content of the citizenship education programme and what components constitute citizenship competence. However, it should be noted that teachers understand the need to change the current practice, but they do not know how this can be done.

Dalits in the Indian subcontinent region (such as India and Nepal) have low attainment in higher education. This study comprises a systematic review of 18 research papers to ascertain whether higher education institutions are disrupting or propagating caste inequalities in the Indian subcontinent. Guided by Amartya Sen's concepts of capability development, this paper examines the Dalits' freedom and opportunities to study in an inclusive and non-discriminatory higher education environment. The findings demonstrate that despite the government's support for Dalit higher education, their freedom to study in an unbiased environment is limited because of the prejudiced practices of non-Dalits. The exclusion of Dalits from education is occurring through non-Dalit teachers' and privileged peers' prejudiced behaviour. Higher education should promote the freedom of Dalits by a) questioning the values which predominantly serve non-Dalits and b) disrupting caste-based discriminatory actions of non-Dalits.

Attention is being paid to the problem of migrant children in Beijing accessing education after junior high school. Because Beijing students generally do not want a vocational education, the availability of such education in Beijing is shrinking. But a survey indicates a high demand and desire among the children of migrant workers for a vocational education, while there is also a strong demand in the labor market for entry-and mid-level talent. Beijing's vocational high schools have a strong capacity to supply such talent. The concept of controlling population size through education policy, and dividing urban from rural, based on the household registration system, are the primary reasons that the children of migrant workers cannot access a vocational education in the city. Policy adjustments and institutional innovation for the orderly expansion of vocational education resources to the children of migrant workers would be an important choice for promoting economic and social development and social equity in China's capital.

This paper discusses one of Furlong's major areas of work, the theory and practice of teacher education. Taking up where our joint publication "Teacher Education in Transition: Re-Forming Professionalism?" (Open University Press 2000) left off, it examines how accelerated moves towards school-based teacher education, as well as increased school autonomy, are impacting upon notions of teacher professionalism and professional formation in England. It looks at how in this context a "core" professionalism mandated by central government through its teaching standards is being supplemented or even replaced by a series of "local" professionalisms and the "branded" professionalisms of Teach First and Academy chains. The paper then considers the implications of these developments for the future of Education as a subject of study in universities and, in particular, for the vision set out in Furlong's recent book "Education: an anatomy of the discipline" (Routledge 2013).

Over the past two decades regional agreements have become more significant in educational and training. This paper situates and analyses the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the Bologna Process and the Lisbon Strategy and explores their influence on the integration of higher education systems in Mercosur (the Southern Common Market of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela). Mercosur is still a customs union, and the project of integrating higher education is at an early stage. Lacking organically established regional bodies, coordination of integration in Mercosur has focused on summits and meetings of officials. However, in a context of unequal maturity in regional integration, there is emerging evidence that the EHEA project is influencing the reforms of national systems of higher education and even Mercosur's model for a regional area of higher education. A nascent Europeanization of higher education systems in the Mercosur region is emerging, by-passing Mercosur's regional structures. The formulation of policies has been permeated by policy transfer from Europe to national territories within Mercosur.

Because higher education serves both public and private interests, the way it is conceived and financed is contested politically, appearing in different forms in different societies. What is public and private in education is a political--social construct, subject to various political forces, primarily interpreted through the prism of the state. Mediated through the state, this construct can change over time as the economic and social context of higher education changes. In this paper, we analyze through the state's financing of higher education how it changes as a public/private good and the forces that impinge on states to influence such changes. To illustrate our arguments, we discuss trends in higher education financing in the BRIC countries--Brazil, Russia, India, and China. We show that in addition to increased privatization of higher education financing, BRIC states are increasingly differentiating the financing of elite and non-elite institutions.

In recent years, early childhood education and care have gained increasing public attention. This has led to an expansion of education and care programmes. Yet, little is known about how parents use different options of education and care. Take, for example, kin care, paid caregivers and out-of-kindergarten activities. Drawing on social reproduction theory, we argue that parents organise their children's lives depending on their social class. In addition, we hypothesise that immigrant status plays a role in how parents set up their children's education and care. We use logit regression models to analyse the education and care arrangements of n?=?2400 parents with 3-5?year-olds in Germany. The findings show that parents from the middle and upper classes make more use of "enrichment activities" than lower and working class parents. When it comes to the influence of immigrant status and to informal care arrangements, the findings add to a more complex picture.

This paper explores the role of education as infrastructure in large-scale ehealth strategies--in theory, in international practice and in one national case study. Education is often invisible in the documentation of ehealth infrastructure. Nevertheless a review of international practice shows that there is significant educational investment made in implementing national ehealth agendas. Disparate views about the role of education are implicit in the ehealth strategy literature, while there is a shortage of evidence-based accounts of ehealth education. In the case of Australia, the benefits and challenges of a broadly collaborative approach to ehealth education are highlighted through activities of various types occurring on many levels to support the implementation of a national ehealth system. This paper concludes that although evidence-based practice is a given in other areas of healthcare, and although there are many published evaluations of ehealth usability and acceptance in the health informatics literature, there is surprisingly little evidence about what works and doesn't work with regard to the ehealth education.

This study analyzes how access to public and private institutions of higher education in Chile has changed as the post-secondary system has become increasingly privatized. It analyses access by young people to higher education from four perspectives: funding type (public/private), gender, family income level, and ethnicity. The study uses descriptive data, primarily from the CASEN and Higher Education Information System (SIES) databases. Access to higher education in Chile has exploded in recent decades, largely because of private institutions, which currently enrol two thirds of higher education students, and offer them courses that are often irrelevant and of low quality. In contrast, in the early 1980s, the private sector enrolled under 30% of students. The study also found a gradual increase in the enrolment of females, of students from the least wealthy families, and of ethnic minorities, although the inequality gap persists, especially at the more prestigious private and public universities.

In an era of recurring teacher shortages, Flanders struggles with a considerable proportion of teacher education graduates who do not enter the teaching profession. This study identifies the predictors of teacher education graduates' choice on job entry (teaching profession or not). A prospective research design with two data collection phases is adopted. Student teachers (subsequently graduates) (N = 217) of integrated teacher training for secondary education were surveyed shortly before as well as shortly after graduation. Results of chi-squared and t-tests indicate that gender, initial motivation for teaching, mentor support, teacher education preparation, teacher efficacy, learner-oriented beliefs, performance in teacher education, and employment opportunities show differences (at 1% level) between graduates who entered and those who did not enter the teaching profession. Results of the subsequent logistic regression validate the importance of teacher education (i.e. mentor support)--beside initial motivation and labour market factors--to explain graduates' decision on job entry.

Adult education institutions face a variety of challenges in "migration societies". This paper first analyses the marginal adoption of the topic by researchers in a German-speaking context and points out the dominance of a target group approach in the past. To open up alternative perspectives, I will discuss challenges for adult education in migration societies by referring to an empirical study which explored the labour market situation of highly skilled immigrants in Austria. The analysis focused on the question of how adult education/vocational training can strengthen the agency of learners under certain social conditions in terms of "recognition". The theoretical framework developed in this research project interrelates work from the philosopher Axel Honneth with those from Pierre Bourdieu as well as with theories of (institutional) discrimination and racism. Finally, challenges for institutions active in adult education and professional qualifications are named through defining adult education as a context for, and practice of, recognition.

There is increasing attention worldwide to advancing quality education. Beyond a rhetorical aim, many international organizations and national education systems have articulated a commitment to promoting measures of quality education through the development of educational indicators. This article broadly explores the global influences on national definitions and measures of quality education through examining select educational issues in Spain and Italy. Through an examination of select educational issues in these two illustrative national examples, there appears to be a connection between the ways in which educational quality indicators are used and defined at the national and international level. These examples provide insight into how the Organisation for Economic and Co-operation and Development (OECD) influences educational policy developments in quality education within the national space, particularly through its own "Education at a Glance" indicators and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The authors argue that by including key international indicators of quality at the national level, the OECD wields considerable influence in national education policy spaces, and, furthermore, narrows what it means to develop quality education.

The transition into a post-industrial economy changed the nature of the Australian labour market extinguishing jobs in traditional industries and creating jobs in new industries. Workers displaced from the manufacturing sector and women seeking to re-enter the labour market after taking time out for family reasons need to retrain in order to secure full-time employment in new industries. Consequently, returning to education is a relatively common occurrence in Australia as adults adapt to the changing demands of the labour market. Using the first 12 waves of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia data, this paper examines the characteristics of those who return to education and gain new educational qualifications. The effect of upgrading educational qualifications on employment outcomes is also examined. The results show that those with higher levels of education were more likely than those with low levels of education to complete new qualifications after the age of 25 and that employment outcomes vary according to level of qualification completed.

Current changes to policy around higher education in the United Kingdom are leading to an increasingly marketised system. As funding is transferred from the United Kingdom government to the individual student, universities will be required to pay more attention to marketing. This paper draws on the literature relating to marketing of services to assess the extent to which higher education marketing addresses issues of covenant, quiddity and representation. Using a mixed sample of universities and associated further education colleges who provide higher education opportunities, this research investigates the marketing strategies of different types of higher education institution. Differences identified include the extent to which reputation, educational experience, research and student life are used in marketing. We conclude that newer universities and further education colleges appear to be more greatly influenced by contemporary government policy agenda than are the older more traditional institutions, which continue to trade largely on their established strong reputations. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

School-based adolescent sexual health education in the United States has long served as a means of combating emotional and physical threats to the well-being of youth. However, this sex education has since its inception marginalized the experiences and health concerns of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) students and contributed to school environments frequently hostile toward sexual minority groups. Growing concern for the welfare and educational experiences of sexual minorities suggests the need to improve school-based support for LGB students. This article explores this challenge by examining the relationship between sex education and sexual minorities. Through a review of the history of adolescent sexuality and sex education, and continuing barriers to support for LGB students, this article reveals how marginalization of LGB groups has manifested within schools and argues improving education with regards to LGB groups is necessary to develop equitable and safe educational environments. Suggestions for improving support of sexual minorities in schools and sex education are discussed.