Education & Pedagogy

Early American historians provided the public and policy-makers with information about US history that provided both entertainment and policy suggestions. As American historians became more professionalised in the early twentieth century, they concentrated more on their own scholarly concerns and less on policy-relevant writings. In recent decades, however, there has been a gradual revival of interest among academic historians in policy-making. In the 1950s and 1960s American education history was revitalised from two different directions. Some scholars questioned the highly positive, in-house histories previously written by education professors. Later a group of "revisionist" education historians pointed to the failures of American public schools and the neglect of children living in poverty. During the creation of Head Start and the Elementary and Secondary Education programme in the mid-1960s, there was a lack of historically relevant education policy studies. Education historians now have joined other scholars in analysing these programmes as well as the recent billion-dollar initiative to improve American history teaching.

While all children have a right to quality care and education in their early years, how to secure that right, especially in resource-limited contexts, is the subject of much debate. For some nations, private schools can seem like a good option, requiring few federal resources. However, the privatization of early education presents significant challenges when it comes to ensuring quality, equity, and access. Private education is often limited to those who can afford to pay school fees, leaving out the most vulnerable and marginalized children. Even for those who are able to attend private schools, there is no guarantee of quality in the facilities or teaching. This concern is particularly acute in the area of early childhood education, where few nations have established public systems, leaving early care and education to families, religious institutions, and private companies. In this article, the author explores some of the benefits and challenges to private early care and education in Nigeria.

There has been little research conducted on Taiwanese Aboriginal music education in comparison to Aboriginal education. C. Hsu's "Taiwanese Music History" (1996) presents information on Aboriginal music including instruments, dance, ritual music, songs and singing, but information on music education practices is lacking. The examination of historical documentation shows that music education was used by both the Japanese government and Christian missionaries to advance their political and religious agendas. This paper will examine the development of the music education of Aborigines in Taiwan from the mid nineteenth century, when Christian missionaries first came to Taiwan, until the end of the Japanese protectorate (1945). I shall discuss how the missionaries from Britain and Canada successfully introduced Western religious music to Aboriginal communities by promoting various activities such as hymn singing and religious services. The paper will then look at the influence of government policy on Aboriginal music education during the colonial periods. These policies affected both the music taught in elementary schools and the teaching materials.

The article discusses the challenges and factors impeding the education reforms in Ukraine despite the continuous efforts to modernize the higher education system. It considers the major provisions of the new Higher Education Law of Ukraine (HELU) and their alignment with the requirements of the Bologna Process for the country to integrate in the European Higher Education Area. With the volatile economic and political current situation in the country, the government and educators try to set in motion the proclaimed reforms. The authors argue that a more comprehensive and holistic approach to policy deliberation and implementation is needed to make the law and regulations work. Frank Fischer's policy evaluation framework (1995) is believed to be instrumental in developing a strategy for reforms evaluation and execution. The Ukrainian experience in boosting reforms in higher education is valuable for the countries in transition and could be interesting to education analysts and policy makers for it informs the ongoing discourse about the role and issues of higher education in the globalized world.

Grace Reid and the late Stephen Norris argue in this issue the urgent need for widespread Science Media Education (SME) as an integral part of formal and informal science education. SME is to achieve two goals: First, allow learners to critically evaluate any media as a source for scientific information by understanding the socio-economic and socio-cultural context of how and why news and entertainment media are created, and secondly, utilize media as a legitimate and productive source for science education and science learning. While laudable, I will argue that SME as an integral part of STEM education is unrealistic, and offer instead that the broader concept of Information Literacy might be more easily achieved within the current strong movement to conceptualize STEM education via science and engineering practices and within the broad goals of strengthening learners' 21st century skills. [For "Scientific Media Education in the Classroom and Beyond: A Research Agenda for the Next Decade" (Grace Reid and Stephen Norris), the article which this review addresses, see EJ1091573.]

"What (Whose) purpose does your knowledge serve?" In her book, Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities, Martha Nussbaum states the difference between a democratic education for citizenship and an education for profit, and draws attention to the current education crisis caused by an overvaluation of the latter over the former. An education for democratic citizenship aims to develop three key abilities: critical thinking, the capacity to understand and to transcend parochial attachments, and empathy. An education for profit, however, requires the training of specific skills in order to produce the economic growth of a certain group, company or country. While the first, in accordance to a Socratic education, focuses on the foundation of perennial structures of thought related to human dignity, the latter, following the sophistic model, simplifies these structures according to economic priorities. In this paper, I critically explore Nussbaum's manifesto by reformulating two key arguments to show that: (1) education must always aim at creating knowledge, and (2) education must always be focused on the development of humanism as the greater goal, regardless of the emphasis on arts and humanities or on exact science.

This exploratory study investigates what science educators from differing groups (outside of higher education--informal and formal (K-12) and inside of higher education--content and pedagogy experts) believe are the roles and responsibilities (and what actions these might involve) in climate change education for: 1) their group of educators, and 2) other groups of educators, for climate change. A hybrid theoretical perspective (interactionism and social constructivism) was used. Written data were analyzed using a delimited discourse methodology to make sense of the participants' thinking of roles and responsibilities for climate change education. The psychosociological construct "diffusion of responsibility" provided a useful interpretative lens. Findings suggest that science educators from different groups hold differing views of roles and responsibilities for climate change education, which may lead to a damaging diffusion of responsibility for effective climate change education. Recommendations for effective professional development in climate change education are suggested to ameliorate the potential for a diffusion of responsibility.

Disappointing results of international monitoring studies such as TIMSS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study) and PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) have fuelled another general debate on the need for a sufficient level of scientific literacy and the necessity to improve the quality of science instruction in school. Science education research has played essential roles not only in analyzing the actual state of scientific literacy and the actual practice in schools but also in improving instructional practice and teacher education. A conception of science education research that is relevant for improving school practice and teacher education programs will be presented here. This conception is based on a Model of Educational Reconstruction which holds that science subject matter issues and students' learning needs and capabilities have to be given equal attention in quality development attempts. Further, research and development activities have to be intimately linked. It is argued that science education research drawing on this framework is an indispensable prerequisite for improving instructional practice and hence for the further advancement of scientific literacy.

Early childhood teachers may differ regarding the knowledge base they use when making professional decisions. In this study two orientations are distinguished: the orientation towards scientific knowledge vs. the orientation towards intuition and subjective experience. As different tracks in early childhood teacher education qualify for professional practice, and as education of early childhood teachers matters with regard to developmental outcomes of children, knowledge orientations of prospective early childhood teachers attending universities and attending vocational schools are investigated and compared. Knowledge orientations were assessed by means of a questionnaire. After propensity score matching of 402 beginners and 402 graduates, multilevel analyses indicate that scientific orientation at the end of teacher education was higher and subjective orientation was lower than at the beginning. Furthermore, scientific knowledge orientation of BA-students was higher, subjective orientation was lower than of students at professional schools. Implications of these results regarding education of early childhood teachers are discussed.

Despite increasing policy emphasis on improving teacher quality, little is known about how teachers acquire their movement content knowledge in physical education teacher education (PETE). To address this question we examined: (a) movement content courses designed to teach K-12 physical education content in the PETE curriculum, (b) the purpose of the movement content courses, (c) the focus of the movement content course syllabi, and (d) pedagogical tasks used to teach movement content knowledge. Data were collected from websites, program coordinators, and course syllabi in 26 PETE programs and analyzed using descriptive statistics or one-way chi-square test. A primary conclusion from this study is that not a lot of common content knowledge is taught in the PETE curriculums we examined. A second conclusion is that specialized content knowledge does not represent a significant focus in the movement content classes. These findings both support and challenge current policy initiatives that address teacher quality in PETE.

This paper presents, for further discussion, a review of the scientific literature produced internationally on the use of Social Network Sites (SNS) in different levels of education and settings. A total of 62 articles published in international scientific journals with peer review have been analysed. The main objective of this paper is to discuss the most recurrent lines of research since the emergence of these tools in education. The level of education in which research is carried out is also analysed, as well as the paradigms and methods used for data collection. The analysis leads to the conclusion that most of the studies analysed have been carried out in higher education, from a quantitative paradigm, focusing on the use of SNS as educational tools. This article shows that research into SNS in education is at an early stage of development, and it demonstrates the need to widen lines of research on SNS in media education to include as yet unexplored dimensions.

Dede Korkut's stories, one of the most important works in Turkish literature, are distinguished with their feature of reflecting the Oghuz culture. In this respect, it is possible to obtain information about children and their education in the light of the works. In the study, it is intended to reveal the education of the characters called Boghach Khan and Uruz in acquiring the qualification of bravery and the key educational elements which they confront during that process. Especially "the teacher, education methods used, punishment and reward applications" participated in the education process of the said heroes will be explained. For the education of the young ones, the focus is on particularly war educating providing their physical development and the character education (value etc.) ensuring their affective development. Who is responsible for children's education? Fathers. Fathers render a permanent education through the principle of "learning through practising and experiencing" and "demonstration" method. In the works, reward is preferred to reinforce youths' positive behaviours and achievements, while punishment is employed to prevent negative behaviours and failures.

Higher education institutions are increasingly experiencing pressure regarding their expected role in addressing immediate and long-term sustainable development challenges. Decisions about what should be taught are heavily influenced by socio-political needs and aspirations. The push towards entrepreneurship education is, perhaps, one example where some governments expect higher education institutions to encourage entrepreneurial development and awareness among students of the institutions. Indeed, political action has become a well-known force in education systems throughout the world. Utilizing a conceptual approach, this paper examines the theory and practice of curriculum politics in the Trinidad and Tobago higher education sector. It also explores various ways in which educators can survive the perceived threat of political interference in curriculum decision making. Notwithstanding the role of politics in curriculum decision making, the paper supports the view that unrestrained political intervention from non-education sources may threaten the quality of higher education programmes. As such, educators must come to terms with the reality of curriculum politics and find ways to function optimally in any given political context.

In this article we firstly set out the facts about the current stage of capitalism, the Immiseration stage of neoliberal capitalism in England. We note its relationship with conservatism and neo-conservatism. We identify increased societal inequalities, the assault by the capitalist state on its opponents, and proceed to describe and analyse what neoliberalism and neo-conservatism have done and are doing to education in England--in the schools, further education, and university sectors. We present two testimonies about the impacts of neoliberalism/neo-conservatism, one from the school sector, one from the further/vocational education sector, as a means of describing, analysing, and then theorising the parameters of the neoliberal/ neoconservative restructuring education and its impacts. We conclude by further theorising this. With the election of a Conservative majority in the May 7, 2015 general election in the UK, the policies and processes of neoliberalisation and neoconservatisation are being intensified.

Teacher education has the potential to bring changes within educational systems that can shape the knowledge and skills of future generations. Teaching in a culturally responsive manner is an important part of developing teachers to serve as key change agents in transforming education and society through research, from the perspectives of student learning and achievement in health and physical education. It was expected in this study that students' recognition of cultural activities could inspire them to engage in physical education. The aim of the study was to examine student awareness of teaching that included cultural activities, with an emphasis on Cook Islands traditional cultural values. One hundred and one students and three teachers from three different schools participated in the study. Only 5% of the student population were non-Cook Islanders. A quantitative methodology was used to analyse the results and findings of the data using an initial Exploratory Factorial Analysis (EFA) and then group comparisons. The implications of identifying Cook Islands cultural values in the curriculum of physical education and what this means for teacher education are discussed.