Education & Pedagogy

Contemporary American education policy rhetoric is problematic because its authors' assertions, particularly those about the goals of education, frequently conflict with their implied moral and/or ethical commitments. This philosophical policy analysis uses Appiah's cosmopolitan principles to examine the ethical implications of current education and music education policy discourse and practice. While education policy rhetoric promoting the fulfillment of basic human needs through employment aligns with one aspect of the cosmopolitan principle of universal concern, policy makers' assertions about unbridled economic competition contradicts cosmopolitans' concern for all individuals. Contemporary education and music education policies that enable teachers to have freedom in selecting content and instructional practices reinforce the cosmopolitan principle of respect for legitimate difference, but discourse and action emphasizing standardization, including standardized outcomes, conflicts with the cosmopolitanism. Four recommendations are offered: use cosmopolitan ethics as a means of framing agreement or dissatisfaction with contemporary education policies; implement parts of the National Core Music Standards in ways that promote standards without standardization; advocate for the aspects of the Opportunity-To-Learn Standards for Music Instruction; consider how music educators' day-to-day practices interface with the cosmopolitan ethics.

A survey research was conducted to find out if reported improvements in access to education in Ghana are reflected in comparable improvements in delivery of quality education. The study examined theoretical constructs on adequacy and quality assurance in education to ascertain the state of quality provision in education, and whether there is a significant difference in existing quality provisions in education and what the quality provisions should be as perceived by the study respondents. Questionnaire and quality indicators observation check list were used to collect data from the study respondents consisting of heads of basic schools in the Central region of Ghana who were selected by simple random sampling technique. Data collected were analyzed using both descriptive statistics and gap analysis that utilized paired samples t test procedure.Major findings reported in the study showed that reported improvements in access to education do not correspond to improvements in the provision of educational facilities to assure the delivery of quality education. Also, there was statistically significant difference in existing quality provisions in education and what the quality provisions should be.

The role of pre-vocational education in general compulsory education has become increasingly relevant over recent years, with the international debate focussing particularly on its importance in school-to-work transitions. This study considers curriculum design and the implementation of pre-vocational education in four countries with radically different cultures: India, China, Germany and the USA. Using a theoretically framed concept of relevance to inform curriculum analysis, it compares the widely divergent content of curricula. In addition to this, interviews with teachers in all four countries flesh out how the curriculum is implemented in practice. The study, which is based on the "prescribed curriculum" and "enacted curriculum" approach, demonstrates that a range of factors means implementation varies widely from country to country but that teachers in all four countries focus in pre-vocational education on equipping students with life-skills.

This article examines the significance of the concept of participation for teacher meaning-making processes in education for sustainable development and health education. In Scandinavian public schools, education for sustainable development and health education focus on a wide palette of societal problems rather than on narrow curricula. Drawing on selected reviews of research literature on education for sustainable development and health education, Lacanian psychoanalysis provides inspiration for our analysis of the concept of participation, and how it is positioned and enacted in these fields of practice. Essentially, we argue that the concept of participation has a dual nature: it serves both as an educational ideal and as a teaching strategy. We also explore how the failure to achieve the ideal of "true" participation may serve a positive purpose for the teacher; the acknowledgement that participation is not always as genuine as desired establishes a pedagogical situation where ideals of engaging pupils through true participation can continue to exist side by side with clear signs of a less consequential participation.

There has been a paucity of literature investigating the teaching beliefs and intentions of Australian physical education teacher education (PETE) students that enter teacher training. The First-year Influences on Teaching Perspectives Exploratory (FIT-PE) study explores the teaching perspectives of first year PETE students; including teaching perspectives predicted as being dominant and important for physical education teaching. The teaching perspectives inventory (TPI) was administered to 105 Australian PETE students. Independent t-tests and one-way ANOVA statistical tests were conducted to compare average teaching perspective summary scores across demographic variables. The FIT-PE study findings revealed 18 year olds (compared to 20-25 year olds) and PETE students from rural backgrounds (compared to regional) had significantly higher average summary scores for the transmission (content-oriented) teaching perspective. This paper provides reflective opportunities for teacher training programs of the underlying core teaching values (beliefs and intentions) of students at the entry point of PETE training.

Fifty years after the production of Circular 10/65, which confirmed comprehensive education as the national policy for secondary education in England and Wales, it is possible to trace the idea of comprehensive education from the 1940s to the 1960s, to understand the position of the Labour Party in its development, and to assess the nature of the contribution of Circular 10/65 itself to comprehensive education in Britain. There were strong connections between the 1944 Education Act and Circular 10/65. In particular, Michael Stewart, the Labour Party education policy review of 1957-1958, and the 1958 report "Learning to Live" that arose from this, played a key mediating role. Awareness of public opinion through the then novel device of market research and a determination to consolidate ambitious reforming ideals into a practical strategy for educational reform over the longer term formed part of the party's revisionist approach under Hugh Gaitskell, and helped to provide the basis for Labour's policy on comprehensive education when it returned to power in 1964.

In the present study we compared comprehensive education systems and education systems using between-school tracking with regard to disparities in the quality of student-teacher relations between low and high achieving students, between students with different socioeconomic backgrounds, and between schools with different achievement and social compositions. Data from 271,760 students in 10,125 schools in 40 of the 41 education systems that participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment 2003 was analysed using three-level regression models. The results document differences between comprehensive education systems and those using between-school tracking: In the former, but not the latter, high achievers and students with higher socioeconomic backgrounds had better student-teacher relations than their schoolmates. In education systems with between-school tracking, but not in comprehensive education systems, the quality of student-teacher relations was higher in schools with a disadvantaged social composition. These findings indicate a need to develop better strategies to address the socio-emotional needs of disadvantaged students in comprehensive education systems.

This article examines the research literature to determine whether the provision of quality early childhood education (ECE) lowers the risk of a child developing special education needs (SEN) and mediates the intensity of support for children with an identified exceptionality. Schools play a crucial role in reducing developmental gaps assessed at school entry, but their success comes with great expense in special education and related costs. Research indicates that ECE could narrow these gaps and better prepare children for success in school, and this realization is slowly being reflected in public policy. Based on our literature review, we describe the benefits of quality ECE in lowering special education expenses. Specific play-based learning pedagogical strategies support all children in optimizing academic progress, language development, social skills, and emotional-behavioural regulation. Professional learning for early childhood educators can build capacity to embed effective pedagogy into daily practice. The provision of quality ECE that makes a difference depends on the knowledge and skills of this workforce.

Access to education is a significant determinant in future success, not only for a country but equally for individuals. Higher Education (HE) thus is an integral part of the Sustainable Development Goals and vital in supporting African development. Despite this, there is often a lack of access to HE in many parts of Africa, distance education can subsequently play an important role in increasing access to education by providing materials online. Even though institutions such as the University of South Africa, a provider of Open Distance Learning (ODL), can open access to HE for many marginalised and peripheral communities, we cannot separate access to ODL education from the debate of access to ICTs. Students in urban areas have a significantly different educational experience to students with poor ICT access in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. This paper explores the nature of access to ICT and how this affects students' ability to access HE.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the effect of critical multicultural education on the multicultural attitudes of preservice teachers in a teacher education program. Design/methodology/approach: The study sample consisted of 76 preservice teachers enrolled in a teacher preparation program. This study used a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design with pretest-posttest. The multicultural content integration was implemented in an experimental group for one semester, and data were collected using the teacher multicultural attitude survey. Findings: Analyses indicated that preservice teachers who were exposed to the critical multicultural education program showed significantly greater progress in their multicultural attitudes compared with teachers in the control group. The results of this study indicate that the integrating critical multicultural education content into teacher education program has a positive effect on fostering preservice teachers' multicultural attitudes. Practical implications: Teacher education program planners should integrate multicultural content, materials and activities into teaching methods courses to promote change in preservice teachers' multicultural attitudes. Originality/value: This study contributes to the multicultural studies on teacher education.

Philanthropies and private foundations are increasingly acting as key nodes of the policy assemblages through which neoliberal and neomanagerialist policies are entering the field of education in Italy. In a country where public school 'ineffectiveness' and 'resistance to innovation' are taken for granted nowadays, policy philanthropists-entrepreneurs are attempting to lead the way in re-thinking education according to the new globalised economic imperatives.Starting from the ongoing 'evaluation turn' of the Italian education system, the article unravels the complexities of those processes of policy influence. The analysis addresses multiple foci: the emergence of new discourses of education reform and the networks of social interaction they are rooted in; the generative effects such discourses can have on producing new positions, subjectivities, opportunities; and the structural selectivities influencing education policy-making.The article highlights the first moves of a peculiar process of 'policy privatisation' whose main potential outcomes are both a process of education policy-making privatisation and a reculturing of education according to a new private-business ethos.

Educational historians have established that progressive education was a multifaceted, diversified approach to education reform, and have recognized that such a variegated phenomenon is difficult, if not impossible, to define. Instead, historians attempt to capture the complexity of progressive education either by articulating its principal qualities or by identifying different wings, or varieties, of progressivism in education. This paper attempts to contribute to the historical understanding of progressive education by arguing in favor of recognizing a previously overlooked variety of progressive education that reflects not only definitive elements of John Dewey's educational theory, but also major tenets of American philosophical pragmatism, which may be called "pragmatic progressivism". The identification of pragmatic progressivism as a variety of progressive education could indicate that Dewey had more influence on educational practice than previously thought. This paper reviews representative historical attempts to characterize progressive education in the US and explains four elements of Dewey's educational theory that manifest tenets of American philosophical pragmatism. It then identifies fifteen historical progressive education activities and theoretical proposals that occurred during the period spanning the 1920s to the 1960s that reflect the four elements of pragmatic progressivism.

The thought on nature education plays an important role in both Eastern and Western history of educational thoughts. However, the rich thought on nature education in Pre-Qin Taoism in China was little-known in Western academia. Chuang Tzu was the co-founder and one of the main representative figures of Pre-Qin Taoism philosophy and nature education. This study will reveal the core contents of Chuang Tzu's thought on nature education mainly based on the analysis of Chuang Tzu. For Chuang Tzu, the aim of education is the individual's inner freedom. And in order to realise it, this study reveals, is not to learn knowledge or morals from somebody but to recognise the Way of Nature. The basic rules and methods of education are following the Way of Nature. But Chuang Tzu's understandings on nature and nature education are different from Rousseau. For Chuang Tzu, one may get real freedom only if he can find a way to reconcile with nature, society, and himself. These opinions may be very meaningful for today's education.

Machine learning technology is currently a new frontier for higher education globally, and the African higher education system needs to change in tandem with this technological trend in order to combat challenges faced by the system. These challenges include lack of institutional research to discover new knowledge, unfavorable methods of instruction, especially the language conflict, access to education for marginalized and isolated communities, high dropout rates, depleted infrastructure and unavailability of resources, overpopulated classrooms, and a biased grading system. This paper discusses alternative machine learning solutions to these challenges faced by the African higher education system, in order to ensure that students develop the skills needed to thrive in this digital era. Findings reveal three key technological solutions that can provide alternative solutions to these challenges, and they include customized/personalized learning, predictive analytics and digital administrative management, and virtual assistance. This paper concludes that for Africa, Catching up with the world goes beyond adopting these new innovations to facilitate learning. Recommendations include rethinking the content of the African curriculum, developing an unbiased education system, and adopting a suitable medium of instruction.

The present study aimed to understand the experiences of disabled students while gaining higher education in Kashmir. According to the conference on the 'Rights of Persons with Disability', Article 24, 2(a), disabled persons should not be barred from broader education organizations due to their disability. Besides, the 'Millennium Development Goals' and 'Education for All' insist on justice, equality and quality education for all. Yet, like in other societies, in Kashmir too disabled people face a large number of obstacles while attempting to achieve higher education. The study was conducted on 21 disabled students studying at the University of Kashmir during the year 2018. The results revealed that disabled people face a large number of obstacles while accessing education and come across a vast amount of challenges such as experiencing harassment, being excluded from the university, lack of institutional support, accommodation, financial support, seminars and infrastructure and facilities necessary to obtain benefits from the equivalent quality of education as their colleague.