Education & Pedagogy

This article discusses two interrelated themes. First, that arts education plays a valuable role in developing the skills required by successful individuals of an increasingly sophisticated knowledge economy; and second, that arts education programmes in initial primary teacher education courses should be linked to, and compatible with, the needs of future schools. If young people are successfully to develop skills, knowledge and understandings that prepare them as productive citizens of the creative economy, then those enabling that development should understand and in turn be able to demonstrate and foster these capacities. (Contains 1 note.)

Through a detailed case study of one preservice teacher's development, the author examines the tension between basic skills and whole language discourses in literacy education. The author frames "the basic skills/whole language binary" as a "social imaginary,"--"an image that exists within the popular imagination or unconscious" and a force that frames one's societal understanding of literacy education. The author demonstrates how prospective teachers recruit their own experiences to position themselves within this binary and suggests important ways in which university coursework and practicum placements can provide a context in which preservice teachers might make sense of the "social imaginary" of literacy education. (Contains 2 notes.)

This article presents the closing address delivered by Sir John Daniel of UNESCO at the Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) General Conference on "Incentives and Accountabilty: Instruments of Change in Higher Education," which was held at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) headquarters in Paris on September 18, 2002. Drawing on his years of experience working in a number of different higher education settings, Sir Daniel comments and provides insight on the four themes of the conference: (1) National policy instruments and their effect on institutional behavior; (2) Motivating individuals; (3) University governance and institutional identity; and (4) Incentives and collaboration in the international education market.

Since the 1980s, "key school system" (KSS) in basic education has contributed to teaching quality and the development of some schools. However, at the same time it brings about many serious problems such as failure to attain educational objective, being away from the goal of education equity, arising students' mental or emotional problems, lack of moral education, vicious competition among schools and so on. It can be said that the present educational problems are tied closely to "KSS". As a result, this paper attempts to do a deep reflection on it to promote the education reform of China.

Since the mid-1980s, the UK government polices for higher education have reflected a belief in the contribution of higher education to economic prosperity and have generally encouraged the development of work-related curricula in higher education. In 2000, the government supported the introduction of a new kind of higher education programme (the foundation degree) specifically aimed at improving the delivery of technical and professional skills to meet industry and business needs. Foundation degrees were to be work-related intermediate awards which also provided opportunities for progression to honours degrees. In this paper, I look at employers' perceptions of intermediate, work-focused higher education in general, and consider the issues raised for the government's new policy in relation to foundation degrees.

This paper considers issues concerning the quality of education in Eritrea using the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report's (GMR) framework for quality education. Drawing on 2 years school-based professional experience in the country, the multiple factors affecting quality in schooling are discussed. The applicability of the GMR framework is then assessed. Given the recent militarisation of the Eritrean school system, it finds the framework seriously lacking, by failing to enable a critique of some of the issues that arguably go to the heart of the quality of education in the country. (Contains 1 figure.)

Rural education and its policy agenda has for many decades primarily focussed upon responding to decline to "keep things going; keep things open". While this has been understandable and much has been achieved, it is now opportune--essential?--that rural education and its leaders embrace a new challenge, sustainability, and use it to pursue new policy fronts. The 25th anniversary of the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia is a timely occasion to consider this. Five issues critical to national sustainability, and a program to engage city and urban youth in living and learning in rural communities, are presented to stimulate new policy and operational possibilities for rural education under the umbrella of sustainability.

This article describes an intervention known as the Peer Family Life Education Project that was designed as an alternate delivery method of an established family life education curriculum in an urban middle school setting. The factors contributing to sexual risk behaviors by urban adolescent populations are identified. A review of previous efforts at peer health education is presented. Program development and implementation is described. The strengths and weaknesses of the program are discussed, and suggestions for improving future efforts at the incorporation of peer health education to reduce sexual risk behaviors by adolescent urban populations are presented.

It is now widely recognized that early childhood education has paramount significance for the well-being of societies. In this study, the current situation of early childhood education in Turkey is discussed mainly in terms of its perception by the government, the school enrollment rate and the quality of early childhood education programs. The study attempts to evaluate the case of Turkey compared to those of several other developed countries. It is believed that this brief snapshot considerably demonstrates that Turkey lags behind several countries not only in terms of quantity but also with respect to the quality in early childhood education; however, it has at least recognized the worth of early childhood education.

This paper examines the challenges faced by the Turkish higher education system and exposes the inequities and realities educators in a developing nation must struggle with as they try to find a prestigious spot in the knowledge-production industry. After a brief overview of the literature that illustrates how globalization penetrated into each stage of development of Turkey's modern institutions of higher education, the paper presents a discussion, based on national and international statistics, of the challenges these institutions face as a result of globalization, namely increasing demands for higher education; faculty shortages; the internationalization of higher education; research and knowledge production; and the process of financing higher education.

This article explores the socio-economic and political factors which have contributed to the rapid expansion of education in the public universities in Kenya and how it has impacted on the quality of education in these institutions. It mainly focuses on the response to insatiable public demands for university education in the country as well as historical and regional inequalities and how the expansion has affected the quality in terms of facilities and teaching and learning technologies, staffing and instruction. Finally, the article proposes some measures of improving the quality of education in the public universities in the country. (Contains 1 table.)

This study explores teacher candidates' understandings of children with special needs and learning disabilities; the effect of a special education course supporting a tutoring practicum; and how curricula can critically deconstruct and disrupt dominant, inequitable notions and practices. Data were collected through initial and end-of-course questionnaires and focus groups that took place after the course and related practice had ended. Theory-practice gaps addressed are transferable to teacher education contexts where the focus is on developing future teachers' understandings of and responses to dis/ability in early childhood education learning environments.

In this article, we argue that the musical schooling of immigrant students could be seen as forming a healthy test for any educational context in terms of how democracy is enacted. We engage in a discussion linking music education, agency, pluralism and democracy. In our theoretical reconstruction of multicultural music education we first make a review on how music education literature has approached the cultural and musical schooling of immigrant students. We then attend to sociological theories to discuss why development of musical agency may be of particular importance to first generation immigrant students and how agency-enhancing music education may be connected to the development of sound democratic practices in the 21st century schooling.

This article focuses on curriculum in the context of international education, examining a particular example: arts education, and specifically music, in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP). As one expression of, and agent for, international education, MYP Music supposedly fosters intercultural awareness. The article considers how this is done. Music education, developments within the MYP, ideas about intercultural awareness itself and curriculum design theories all inform the discussion. Several examples of innovative music programmes in non-school settings illustrate a highly contextualized approach which places strong emphasis on intercultural understanding. It is argued that, in addition to disciplinary understanding, an international curriculum should aim for intercultural understanding and international understanding. (Contains 1 figure.)

This article suggests that the public higher education "quality assurance" systems which have been erected over the last 20 years or so rest on flimsy public policy and intellectual foundations. It asks if input/output relationships in higher education can be identified to the extent implied by current models of public higher education "quality assurance". The article proposes a moratorium on any further development and extension of public higher education "quality assurance" systems until several fundamental issues have been satisfactorily addressed. It calls for a new higher education performance evaluation paradigm in which the standards achieved by new graduates in areas such as logical thinking are the prime candidates for independent validation.