Education & Pedagogy

The export of higher education services has become a major and controversial aspect of the internationalization of higher education, especially with the current GATS negotiations. Over the past decade, Australia has become the third largest exporter of higher education, mainly to a limited number of South and East Asian countries. Australian public higher education institutions in 2002 had over 185,000 international students and this constituted over 21% of the total student enrolment load. Recruitment of international students has brought substantial financial benefits to Australia and its universities. In addition, it has prompted Australia to make more deliberate efforts towards with the internationalization of curricula and encourage expanded exchange of staff and students. At least in the short term, the prospects of future expansion in international student numbers are promising.

Education policy in sub-Saharan Africa is predicated on human capital assumptions and therefore promotes the expansion of formal education as a way to promote economic growth. As a result, formal education is valued primarily as a private consumer good, a form of cultural capital that allows some to get ahead and stay ahead, rather than as a public good that also benefits the overall society. In the absence of vibrant industrial labor markets, job prospects for school leavers are poor, which places an inflated premium on educational credentials. The collapse of formal economies combined with high population growth rates suggests that higher social rates of return might accrue from more investments in nonformal adult education aimed at improving the skills and labor productivity of rural populations.

Increasing the participation of youth with severe disabilities in general education has remained a consistent and prominent focus of legislative, policy, and research initiatives. We examined the perceptions of high school staff regarding the goals, barriers, benefits, outcomes, and supports associated with including adolescents with severe disabilities in general education classes. We found that general and special educators, paraprofessionals, and administrators both converged and diverged in their evaluations of different aspects of general education participation. Despite broad agreement regarding the benefits of and instructional priorities in general education classrooms, stakeholders differed significantly in their perceptions of barriers associated with including students with disabilities in general education classes at their high schools. (Contains 5 tables.)

This paper reports on a professional development intervention coupled with an empirical research study focused on a mentor teacher study group. An unanticipated outcome of the study group was an evident development in the sense of accountability displayed by participants toward the work of teacher education in their school. In effect, teachers' identities were transformed from relatively passive cooperating teachers, following the direction of teacher education program guidelines and procedures, to active school-based teacher educators, consciously developing repertoires of mentoring practice, and taking initiative to remake the culture of their school as a context for learning to teach. The paper proposes a theoretical analysis to explain the evolution of accountability among study group members, examines five different examples of how such accountability was manifested, and suggests implications for teacher education programs. (Contains 1 note.)

This article discusses social issues in the Bologna process and who benefits from these social issues. The Bologna Declaration did not come out of the blue. It was preceded by the 1998 Sorbonne Declaration, which in turn built on the 1997 Lisbon Recognition Convention. Rather than discussing recognition of exams and degrees, the author takes the Lisbon Convention as a starting point to talk about recognition of human values. The author talks about how the Lisbon Convention underlines the social and cultural dimensions of higher education in Europe. The author discusses the important parts of the higher education system. One is the qualifications framework. Another important element of the higher education framework is quality assurance. The author believes that equal access of all qualified candidates to higher education is an important element of higher education policies in Europe.

Over the last generation, a new politics of education has evolved throughout the United States. Since the 1983 watershed report "A Nation at Risk" (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), the country's most influential business and political leaders--and, more recently, mayors--have spearheaded efforts to improve student achievement in America's schools in unprecedented ways. Their concerns about the quality of education have been predicated on widespread apprehension that if its schools remained mediocre, the nation will be unable to compete in an increasingly competitive global economy (Friedman, 2005). In this article, the author discusses growing mayoral involvement in education. He also presents essays--written by some of the leading scholars studying mayoral engagement in education--which elaborate on the pros and cons of this phenomenon. These pieces amplify a variety of issues that are gaining attention as concerns persist about the quality of urban public education in an increasingly competitive global economy.

Questions related to the inclusion of students with disabilities in the Oregon statewide assessment program were sent to 1,201 special education teachers and 625 principals representing Grades K-12. Teachers and principals responded positively to questions probing their knowledge of statewide policy and their understanding of how to acquire information from the state education department related to test policy. A significant difference between teachers and principals existed on numerous policy questions. Differences were also found between principals and special education teachers on questions related to the usefulness of test results in guiding instructional programs and improving school accountability efforts; on these questions, teachers consistently responded less favorably than principals. Both groups felt that very few parents understood individual test reports for their children.

Within the last two decades intercultural teacher education has become a priority in many European countries. The consensus among researchers, it seems, is that intercultural education should begin with the initial training of teachers. In this paper we present the implementation of a collaborative action research programme in which we built a collaborative network through which we tried to help student teachers develop practices of intercultural education. First, we briefly examine the existing situation regarding teacher education in Cyprus and we discuss generally teacher education in relation to intercultural education. Subsequently, we explain the term "collaborative networks" and then analyse the methodology we followed for the research that led to this paper. Finally, we present and analyse, with additional research, the themes that arose through our paper's former data analysis.

This paper examines the extent to which initial teacher education (ITE) programmes contribute to the development of inclusive attitudes, values and practices. Inclusive education is the entitlement of all children and young people to quality education, irrespective of their differences or dispositions. It is about embracing educational values of equity, diversity and social justice. The data which underpins this paper was obtained through research commissioned by the Department of Education (DE) Northern Ireland (NI) which sought to identify existing practices that increased the motivation, participation and achievement of all pupils of school age with special educational needs (Moran & Abbott, 2006). Head teachers' and Special Educational Needs Coordinators' (SENCOs) views were sought on the effectiveness of ITE programmes in preparing student teachers to work in inclusive school settings.

Schools in the United States and schools across majority of countries around the world today face two critical issues: "Inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms" and a contributing factor to success of this inclusion, teachers prepared to use best practices. "Best practices" in education are approaches to teaching, programs used with students, classroom procedures followed, teaching strategies used, and methods incorporated that may have consistently produced good reliable results and reported as such in literature. This paper describes best practices used in university setting to prepare teachers to use these best practices and follow a cross-categorical service delivery approach in general education classrooms with students with special needs, in resource room setting, and/or self-contained special education classrooms. (Contains 5 figures.)

Because of education reform policy and misconceptions about artistry and artistic assessment, visual art education remains in the margins of high school education. One response to the lack of supportive arts education policy is the Advanced Placement (AP) Studio Art Program, a visual arts assessment at the high school level that engages large numbers of students in rigorous art experiences. This article reviews the structure and characteristics of the AP portfolio assessment as a basis for critique and policy analysis. At issue are the reliability of this assessment's measurements and its level of credibility with key constituencies. These concerns are especially relevant in a testing culture in which objective evaluations are highly regarded and art education programs are often threatened. The authors suggest possibilities for future research and policy recommendations for secondary art education. (Contains 8 notes.)

This paper presents some of the findings derived from a UK Aimhigher South Yorkshire research report on disability and higher education. Many of the students who shared their life histories for this project found that there was a lack of information in making choices about their futures, especially information about pursuing higher education. Without information to make informed choices, disabled students not only experience stress and anxiety, but also difficulty in preparing themselves for higher education study. This is, perhaps, reason for the low proportion of disabled learners in further and higher education. There are many reasons to explain this disparity. Many factors are inextricably linked to disablism institutionalized within many sectors of education. The education arena is not being singled out here. However, it does serve as further notice of the pervasiveness of disablism existing in wider society.

This article focuses on the government's higher education policy trajectory during the post apartheid period. The central argument of the article is that government policy ought to be examined in the light of a struggle over aligning the higher education policy discourse with the government's chosen macro development path. Policy activity has to be understood in the context of an emerging "policy force field" during the 1990s, which circumscribed the government's ability to act decisively in the sector. I discuss this struggle over policy alignment by focusing on three key policy moments, which point to the shifting policy discourse over an eight-year period. Given the discursive shift, the article shows how historically disadvantaged institutions had become the key "problem" around which higher education policy unfolded.

Current preservice teacher education students are tomorrow's teachers and what they believe about the priority and challenges of music education in elementary schools is important, as it will impact on their attitudes and practice when they are teaching in schools. This study examines the state of primary music education and investigates the perceptions of almost 1000 preservice teachers from five countries in relation to the priorities and challenges associated with teaching music in elementary schools. Challenges identified included teachers' lack of musical experience; the low priority given to music in schools; the lack of resources, time to teach music, subject knowledge and adequate preparation time. This study highlights the need for a higher priority for, and more experience in music education in both preservice teacher education and in primary school classrooms. (Contains 6 tables.)

The knowledge base of education-related law is growing at a rapid pace. The increase in federal and state statutes is rising commensurate with litigation that directs teachers on curricular, professional, and social matters. At the same time, numerous studies provide significant evidence that teachers lack an adequate level of knowledge of education law. Variables studied include teacher experience, age, sex, teaching level, education level, geographic location, and membership in professional organizations. In most instances, the studies were inconclusive about the effect of the variables on teachers' knowledge of education law. However, as teachers become older, their knowledge of education law appears to become better. In an attempt to address the documented evidence of an inadequate level of knowledge of education law, policy makers can require courses in education law, and school personnel can require frequent professional development sessions on relevant school-law matters.