Education & Pedagogy

Economists were long unaware of the influence of knowledge upon the growth process. With theories of human capital and theories of endogenous growth, knowledge gained a central position in the growth process. However, this has not been proved in many industrialized countries. The nature of the relations between education and growth is hence far from having been perfectly determined. It is therefore of interest to examine the links between education and economic growth. From this point of view, three questions are addressed. Does higher education play a part in the growth process? Which sector of education is involved? Is its role the same in different countries? Using the notion of causality developed by Granger, the relationship between higher education and economic growth is compared in France and Germany before the Second World War. The results show that higher education has an influence on gross domestic product but only in the case of France. Germany does not seem to obey the dominant theory whereby education is the cause of growth. Moreover, economic growth increases the number of students in Germany. This is consistent with the idea that education is a growth-driven accompanying investment.

Over the last 20 years, the voice of business and its impact upon Australian vocational education have transformed. These changes comprise the reluctance of enterprise to be involved; industry determining what is taught and assessed, and how; the principles for administering vocational education; and attempts to use vocational education to reform the schooling system. These transformations and government complicity in them are enmeshed in the restructuring of the Australian economy, allegedly in response to an increasingly competitive and globalised economy. They were also facilitated by vocational education continuing to be misunderstood and having low status. However, the expanded leadership role afforded to Australian business has not been matched by its purchase on the complexity of educational issues and practice, including the need to encompass other interests (e.g. small business and students). While vocational education has become the business of business, it seems it is business not understood. Even in addressing its own purposes (i.e. work readiness), business has demonstrated a preference for ideological and naive imperatives that have proved inadequate. Along the way, the goals for vocational education and standing of its institutions, practitioners and students have all been transformed, probably to their detriment.

The aim of this article is to analyse the transferability of higher education undertaken abroad to a domestic labour market. More specifically, how do Norwegians who have undertaken their education abroad cope on the labour market compared to those who have a corresponding education from Norway? To examine this, we analyse short-term labour market careers among graduates. Three measures of labour market outcome are investigated: job probability, skill mismatch and wages. Results show that education undertaken abroad has both positive and negative effects on labour market outcome. Graduates with a foreign degree have a lower job probability and a higher risk of over-education relative to home graduates. But among the employed, "abroad" graduates have higher wages. The latter is explained partly by more abroad graduates than home graduates being employed in the private sector. Highest job probabilities are found among those who have parts of their education from abroad. The main results are significant and robust across models, but the quantitative differences in labour market outcomes between abroad and home graduates are relatively small.

In February 2001, national family and consumer sciences (FCS) leaders, state department of education supervisors, and FCS education providers from 16 higher education institutions representing every region of the U.S. met to establish a national support system and clearinghouse for FCS teacher preparation. Their goal was to aid existing FCS teacher education programs to better meet student needs for preparation in all relevant content areas, and to enable students who do not have ready access to an FCS teacher preparation program to obtain education advising, support, and preparation to facilitate becoming a licensed FCS educator or an Extension educator. From this effort, the FCS Education Program Consortium (EPC), a collaborative of universities, established a comprehensive national model for delivering student support services, sharing faculty, sharing courses, and sharing course development resources to facilitate distance-delivered FCS education preparation. The EPC partnership is one of the first of its kind to identify new ways, at a national level, to think about course delivery, course assessment, quality assurances, marketing, and accountability. None of the associations, universities, or state education agencies has the faculty, financial resources, or expertise to launch what the Consortium has undertaken.

The paper examines the theoretical position of intercultural educational studies. It begins by stressing the vital importance of intercultural education and the progress that has been made in recent times. It then turns to the terminological shift that occurred two decades ago, from multicultural to intercultural education, which was accepted unquestioningly at the time. Retrospectively, we might ask what was the discursive strategy of this lexical change. Did it not serve to disguise the realities of much cultural interaction: conquest, slave trade, genocide? What are the theoretical (as distinct from the moral) premises of intercultural education? Is the aspiration realistically for an education able to negotiate between cultures rather than to show that there is more than one culture? As the subject appears not to be tightly focused, so the context is also under-theorized and effectively de-politicized. The international political, economic and cultural contextualization (globalization) of intercultural education is essential to its understanding. Is there an international view of intercultural education, or is it rather a few paradigmatic examples? The paper shows how the development of a social sciences and comparative perspective might assist the theoretical deficit suggested above.

Today's art education in East Asia focuses on Western ethnocentric or European ethnocentric art education. These practices reflect the tremendous effect American and European culture has had upon the art education of East Asia, including Korea. Globalization and the information-oriented society in which we live have changed the world. Like many Korean art educators, these authors realize that they are too attached to the Western or European ethnocentric method of art education and thus ignore techniques of East Asian art education. This attachment results in an unbalanced view that is presented to students about their own values and identities. Many articles on multicultural art education published in the 1990s have had an enormous influence on the diversity of art language, content, medium, design elements and principles, cultural context, and pedagogy for East Asian art education including Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. This article addresses (1) how the content of traditional Korean art reflects on art curricula from the view of a multicultural approach and, (2) how traditional Korean aesthetics can influence students' beliefs and identities. (Contains 6 figures.)

This systematic literature review examines the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications on student learning outcomes in middle school science education. Twelve studies that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. The studies were accessed from the WOS, SCOPUS, ERIC, and TrDizin indexes and databases. The PRISMA protocol was used in the selection of studies. The analysis reveals that generative AI tools significantly contribute to academic achievement, conceptual understanding, scientific and digital literacy, personalized learning opportunities, and students' motivational and emotional outcomes. The systematic review further emphasizes the importance of integrating AI tools into science education in a pedagogically and ethically sound manner. Recommendations include increasing AI literacy among teachers, incorporating ethical awareness into instruction, and developing culturally sensitive and interdisciplinary educational practices. Generative AI stands out as a transformative technology for improving the quality, accessibility, and inclusivity of science education.

Global competence is one of the key indicators for talent cultivation in the new era, and there is a notable consistency between the Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) philosophy and ideological and political education in educational objectives, teaching methods, and evaluation systems. This consistency provides the possibility for their mutual integration and promotion in educational practice. To adapt the reform requirements of foreign language education in universities under the background of the New Liberal Arts, it is necessary to explore an innovative teaching model that integrates ideological and political education with global competence based on the OBE philosophy. Taking English for Economics Majors as an example, this paper constructs an OBE-based ideological and political education teaching model with the goals of developing global competence and language ability. It proposes that by integrating the OBE philosophy into ideological and political education, the pertinence and effectiveness of ideological and political education can be further enhanced, thereby better achieving the educational goal of fostering virtue through education. The research findings offer insights into cultivating international foreign language talents with global competence.

Teachers play a key role in the implementation of inclusive education. Many studies investigate cross-country differences in teacher perceptions of inclusive education, but there is a research gap in investigating the perspectives of special education teachers. This study examines attitudes, concerns, self-efficacy and intentions of Italian (n = 180) and Swiss (n = 221) special education teacher students (SETS). Despite many similarities, Italian SETS held more positive beliefs, had fewer concerns regarding workload, and had higher intentions to use inclusive practices than Swiss SETS. No differences were found in self-efficacy to use inclusive instructions, managing student behaviour, or collaboration. Apart from inclusive legislation and policies, which might account for more positive attitudes, fewer concerns, and higher intentions to use inclusive practices in Italian SETS, absence of differences in efficacy-beliefs point to the importance of adequate support systems and teacher training in both countries. More research investigating the roles and perspectives of special education teachers across different inclusive education systems is necessary.

Computational Thinking (CT) has emerged as a fundamental aspect of modern science education, especially within pre-service teacher education. This study examines the current landscape of CT integration in pre-service science teacher education, drawing insights from an analysis of 18 empirical studies conducted since the implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards in 2013. The findings reveal the predominantly exploratory nature of research in this area and underscore the prevalence of positive outcomes associated with CT integration. Moreover, the study identifies prominent pedagogical strategies such as problem-based learning and the engineering design process, highlighting their integral roles in CT integration. Additionally, the findings uncover the interconnectedness of modeling and simulation, computational problem-solving, and systems thinking practices within CT-integrated science interventions. This suggests the necessity for a more holistic approach, including the integration of unplugged activities, the generalization component of CT, and diverse science disciplines, encompassing life science and Earth/space science. Ultimately, these findings emphasize the imperative for further investigation to comprehensively explore CT integration within pre-service science teacher education, aligning closely with contemporary educational standards and practices.

Malawi Prison Service offers correctional education programmes to the incarcerated individuals as a vital component of crime fighting strategy. Although the role of correctional education is to fight crimes, relapse in criminal behaviour which results in the re-incarceration of ex-offenders continues to be a predicament, thereby questioning the relevance of correctional education programmes after imprisonment. Therefore, this mixed methods study analysed the transformative outcome of correctional education programmes on ex-offenders in Mzimba, Malawi using the empowerment theory. The study utilised questionnaires, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews as data collection tools, whereby quantitative data was analysed using SPSS version 20 while qualitative data were analysed thematically. Quantitative findings revealed that there is positive correlation between correctional education and successful re-integration of ex-offenders. On the other hand, the study found that criminal record negatively correlated with ex-offenders employability. Qualitative findings confirm that correctional education improves socio-economic status, behaviour and offender re-integration upon release. The study recommends that Malawi prison service should partner with other stakeholders in designing and implementing correctional education programmes.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform preschool teacher education, particularly in the domain of health education, yet its effective integration remains underexplored in socioeconomically diverse regions. Understanding the psychological and technical factors that influence AI adoption is essential for improving early childhood education outcomes. This study examines the mediating role of self-efficacy and the moderating effect of technological proficiency in the relationship between AI integration and teaching effectiveness among preschool teachers. A mixed-methods approach was employed, involving 475 preschool teachers from Henan Province, China. Data were gathered using validated survey instruments and semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that AI integration positively influences teaching effectiveness, primarily through increased teacher confidence. Technological proficiency also plays a supporting role in enhancing instructional effectiveness. These findings highlight the importance of targeted training, equitable access to AI tools, and professional development programs that foster teacher readiness and confidence in adopting AI into early childhood education.

The resegregation (i.e., overrepresentation) of Black and Latinx students in special education is a longstanding concern of scholars, researchers, and policy makers in the United States. Therefore, we conducted a critical investigation to better understand the causes of resegregation, student experiences in special education, and anti-racist actions to prevent resegregation. Using critical race transformative mixed methods for the expressed aim of advancing social and political action, we synthesized quantitative and qualitative findings from research studies to develop three well-grounded themes: (a) educators make unjust special education referrals; (b) students experience injustices in special education; and (c) teachers and students exercise resistance and agency. Culminating from this research, we propose an "anti-racist special education model" for teacher educators and policy makers to disrupt resegregation, while providing students with the equitable supports and teaching they need to be successful. Our paper concludes with implications for policy, practice, and research.

This scoping study combined a systematic literature review and qualitative content analysis of 149 articles in higher education and higher education-focused journals (those addressing fields or disciplines focused on research/pedagogy/practice within the higher education sector) to better understand: (1) the geographic contexts; (2) how education for sustainable development (ESD) and global citizenship education (GCE) address issues of human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, and appreciation of cultural diversity/cultural contributions to sustainable development; and (3) the approaches through which GCE and ESD are advanced within higher education. Findings highlight: (1) a greater focus on ESD versus GCE and limited overlap between them within individual articles; (2) a greater Global North geographic concentration versus the Global South; (3) meaningful connections with Sustainable Development Goal Target 4.7's main social domains; (4) four strategies for advancing GCE/ESD (curricular and pedagogical change, professional development, evaluation and assessment, and innovative technology platforms); and (5) two cross-cutting themes (organizational/systems change and community engagement) across the strategies.

Curriculum is at the heart of education. It has been said that a broad and balanced physical education curriculum can contribute to young people developing socially, cognitively, affectively, and physically. As such, in this article, we draw on Antonio Gramsci's ideas of culture, power, and ideology to explore the physical education curriculum in alternative provision schools in England. We did this by generating qualitative data using semi-structured interviews with 13 physical education practitioners working in 13 different alternative provision schools. Interviews were audio recorded, and audio recordings were transcribed verbatim, before being subjected to reflexive thematic analysis. The themes generated through these analytical processes were (1) Physical education curriculum should be tailored to the needs and preferences of pupils; (2) The National Curriculum, national qualifications, assessment arrangements and Ofsted inspection expectations influence curriculum decisions; and (3) Group sizes influence the physical education curriculum. We end this article by encouraging physical education and/or curriculum scholars to learn more about alternative provision settings because, at present, there is a dearth of research-informed knowledge about them despite them becoming a much more prominent feature of the education landscape in England.