Education & Pedagogy

New Jersey's Public School Education Act of 1975 requires local school districts to provide students with "thorough and efficient" educational opportunity. This report describes State initiatives carried out as of April 1986 to help urban districts comply with the act's mandate in the face of the particularly complex and concentrated problems faced by those districts. The report is divided into five parts. A background section describes State Department of Education reorganization, examines the context of urban education, and summarizes findings of effective schools research. Next, a section called "Activities on Behalf of Urban Education" outlines the following initiatives: (1) a seminar for urban educators; (2) State creation of 11 Urban Specialist positions; (3) creation of an Urban Education Advisory Committee; (4) location of the Regional Curriculum Services Unit-North (RCSU) in an urban community; (5) funding of programs for urban dropouts; (6) creation of a Special Assistant for Urban Education position; (7) an urban initiative consisting of the Broad-Based Assistance Program and Operation School Renewal; (8) compensatory education aid; (9) summer remedial assistance with the High School Proficiency Test (HSPT); and (10) vocational education programs. "Activities Relevant to Urban District Improvement," summarizes seven State initiatives bearing on the needs of urban districts, while the fourth section, "Initiatives on Behalf of All New Jersey Schools and Students" describes nine additional State efforts benefiting urban schools. A final section provides a brief conclusion. (AF)

Over the last two decades, education privatization has become a widespread phenomenon, affecting most education systems and giving place to a consistent increase in private school enrolment globally. However, far from being a monolithic phenomenon, privatization advances through a variety of context-sensitive policy processes that translate into multiple policy outcomes. This paper aims at understanding why and how education privatization unfolds in a broad variety of settings and, to this purpose, examines the different manifestations of education privatization on the light of Cultural Political Economy (CPE). The conceptual and analytical tools provided by CPE prove to be particularly well suited to explore such a multi-faceted and multi-scalar phenomenon. CPE has helped us to capture the intersect and tension between different drivers (global and local, material and ideational) of education privatization through the evolutionary mechanisms of variation, selection and retention. On the basis of a systematic literature review methodology, encompassing 227 research papers, the article identifies and systematizes six different paths towards education privatization--understood as groups of frequently associated circumstances, mechanisms and courses of action leading to privatization. Conceived as ideal types, these different paths ultimately allow for a richer understanding of education privatization and show that the international diffusion of education privatization norms and discourses is far from producing policy convergence at a global scale.

In 1968 the Bilingual Education Act marked the first comprehensive federal intervention in the schooling of language minoritized students by creating financial incentives for bilingual education in an effort to address social and educational inequities created by poverty and linguistic isolation in schools. Since that time federal education policies related to language instruction for emergent bilingual students have undergone a number of shifts that reflect changing ideological perspectives on language and citizenship. These shifts, in turn, frame seemingly neutral educational requirements for preservice and practicing art educators related to language and visual art instruction, implicating art educators in ideological stances toward students and families who primarily speak languages other than English. This article reviews the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in its most recent reauthorization as the Every Student Succeeds Act, and offers insight into ideological implications of standards and assessments that impact art educator preparation and art teaching practices with regard to language in the art classroom, including the National Core Arts Standards and the Education Teacher Performance Assessment. Implications regarding ways art education, framed by ideological policies, might support or undermine social and educational inequities educational policies are intended to address are discussed.

Previous studies show that many students with reading and spelling problems have a lack of progress in reading and spelling skills after years of special education services. The aim of the study is to evaluate the reading and spelling skills of Finnish children in grades 1 and 2 receiving part-time special education from special education teachers for reading and spelling difficulties (RSD) and for RSD with other learning difficulties. In this study, the focus is in the roles of the form and the amount of part-time special education in reading and spelling skills development. Of 152 children involved in the study, 98 received part-time special education for RSD, and 54 did not have RSD and did not receive special education. The results showed that the reading and spelling skills of students with RSD lagged behind age level and that students with overlapping difficulties exhibited even slower development. Small group education and a moderate amount of part-time special education (approximately 38 h per year) predicted faster skill development, whereas individual and a large amount of special education (more than 48 h per year) were related to slower skill development and broader difficulties.

In this study, the pre-service teachers' attitudes towards the educational inclusion for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were investigated to identify their attitudinal patterns and predictors. An attitudinal survey was conducted with 264 pre-service teachers in a teacher training programme in Malaysia. The study involved 151 special education pre-service teachers and 181 pre-service teachers in Special Education, Sciences, and in English teacher training programmes, in order to identify the effects of teaching specialisations and societal attitude on their inclusive education attitudinal measures. The findings revealed that the special education pre-service teachers were less in favour of the total inclusion of students with ASD in the mainstream, when compared with the non-special education pre-service teachers. The findings also revealed the combined effects of societal attitude and a categorical teacher training model in shaping the pre-service teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education for the students with ASD in Malaysia. Such combined effects offered a perspective to explain the delay in the implementation of inclusive education, and also the prospect of its future development in the Southeast Asian region.

The article considers human rights and their relevance to an impartial and inclusive form of religious and world views education. Such a form of education is justified because of its intrinsic worth as part of a liberal education, and its instrumental value to the personal development of students and to their social development as members of societies in which people need to live together, despite holding different religious and secular beliefs. It is argued that the human rights codes are especially relevant to the argument for inclusive religious education related to the social development of young people. The Council of Europe's work in this field since 2002 is summarised, including its publication of Signposts (Jackson in Signposts: policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious world views in intercultural education, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, http://www.theewc.org/Content/Library/COE-Steering-documents/Recommendations/Signposts-Policy-and-practice-for-teaching-about-religions-and-non-religious-world-views-in-intercultural-education, 2014). Its impartial (secular but not normatively secularist) approach sees the human rights codes as vital reference points for discussions about the limits of individual freedoms, including 'freedom of religion or belief', supports forms of 'education about religions and beliefs' which combine impartial study with opportunities for student dialogue and exchange, and regards such education as complementary to forms of faith nurture within families and communities.

A long existing compulsive curriculum of ideological and political education is employed by the Chinese government to promote citizenship education among Chinese university students. This article builds on the findings of a mixed-methods research that examined the role of ideological and political education on university students' civic perceptions and civic participation. The results showed little evidence of this curriculum having a clear effect on students' political participation such as voting, as well as their idealized broad civic participation, but did reveal relatively positive effects on students' civic intention and civic expression. In addition, it also identified its significant role in organizing students towards attending party-related activities. It shows that ideological and political education is insufficient to achieve specified aims of citizenship education among Chinese university students. We then argue that it results from a mechanistic understanding of citizenship and participation in educational policies and structural barriers to young people's formal participation. Hence, this article argues that the forms and contents of citizenship education in China need to be reconsidered beyond the limits of the current ideological and political education and that the analyses contributed to an argument for a broader approach to citizenship education to be developed and adopted.

The philosophical and pedagogical principles of transnational higher education development in the second half of the XX--at the beginning of the XXI century are revealed based on the authentic scientific research sources and reflections of prominent scientists. Review of scientific works, devoted to the problems of education transnationalization, allowed concluding that in the late XX century the traditional relationship of pedagogy and philosophy changed under the influence of globalization and internationalization of education. On the basis of determinant analysis it has been found that postmodernism (J. Derrida, M. Foucault, J. Lyotard, R. Panvit) and postnonclassical science (H. Haken, I. Prihozhyn, V. Stepin) serve philosophical grounds for transnational higher education formation. The article proves that the "philosophy of global problems" as a set of ideas based on the objectivity of the total global relations, serves as the basis for building a modern educational paradigm that is reflected in the concept of global education. The fundamental idea of global education is to develop a holistic vision and human perception of the world, awareness of its place in the interconnected and rapidly changing environment, by filling content of educational process with human values. Practical implementation of these ideas is made by the introduction of multicultural education approach, critical pedagogy, global education and formation of intercultural educational content, which reflects the cultural and historical specificity of population.

Despite its popularity in education studies literature, interdisciplinary science education is mostly considered outside the multitude of social forces that drive education reform. This has contributed to a mythologizing of interdisciplinary science education and lead to assumptions about the necessity of its intervention into science education practice. This research constructs a critical analysis of interdisciplinary science education by exploring a philosophical understanding of the relations between scientific disciplines, investigating discourse about interdisciplinarity in science education policy literature, and provides socioeconomic context for this reform movement. In particular, Louis Althusser's theory of ideology as material force, his conception of the spontaneous philosophy of scientists, and his theses on the ideological nature of interdisciplinary science are foundational to this critique. Althusser's contributions allow for critical reflection on interdisciplinarity and the effects of promoting it throughout scientific enterprise. Viewing interdisciplinary science education through this critical lens allows for demarcating the ideological narratives of reformist discourse from the intended outcomes of reform. This investigation elucidates the intervention of interdisciplinarity as an ideological force governing the reproduction of scientific labor, with intended downstream socioeconomic effects, such as shifting science labor from the public sector to private industry to accommodate for austerity. The conclusions of this analysis advocate for historical materialist methodologies in science education research and critical education studies, while emphasizing the role of ideology in socioeconomic reproduction.

Except other reasons such as politics, economics and military, the decline and collapse of the Ottoman Empire are because of outdated education system. After the proclamation of the Republic, the newly established Republic of Turkey gave great importance in education with its all dimensions to not fall into that error Ottoman Empire had fallen. Many educators who grew up during the 2nd Constitutional Monarchy and took part in the formation of the Republican period education presented and revealed their opinions and suggestions on education. What is interesting in their thoughts is that they are now being implemented as an education policy in modern Turkish education system. In this qualitative study, the report written in 1926 by Sadrettin Celal Antel and published in the Journal of Turkish Education Ministry, titled as "Ten Years Improvement Report", was first transcribed to today's Turkish and then compared to the recent regulation issued on June 16th, 2016 by Turkish Higher Education Council of educational sciences as study disciplines. The study of education in Turkey was divided into the subfields of Philosophical, Social and Historical Foundations of Education, Education Curriculum and Instruction, Education Management, Lifelong Learning and Adult Education, Teaching Technologies and Guidance and Psychological Counseling. The comparison has revealed that educational sciences not only achieved the aims of the main sciences but also included opinions and suggestions compatible with today's contemporary pedagogical understanding.

Secondary education provides a vital link between basic education and the world of work, on one hand, and further training on the other. It is therefore an important sub-sector of education in the preparation of human capital for development and provision of life opportunities. Secondary education in Kenya takes four years to complete, catering for students aged 14 to 17 years and it leads to the award of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education. The objectives of secondary education are to acquire necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes for the development of the self and the nation and to promote love for and loyalty to the nation among others. There are several impediments that have hindered government efforts to provide free day secondary schooling. These include, the New Constitution that made Teachers Service Commission autonomous, unregulated school levies by education officials, heads associations, remedial teaching, and failure by sponsors to play their oversight role and corruption in ministry of education. It is recommended that the students who are not likely to benefit from formal secondary schooling should be provided with options to access secondary education, through alternative methods such as distance learning and skills training. In addition, Kenya Certificate of Primary Education should be scrapped to reduce the demand for boarding schools except among the nomadic communities. With the necessary legislation in place, the government should hire private auditors to ensure prudent use of public resources.

The call to practise inclusive education in African countries has coincided with efforts to promote deeper cooperation in the education sector. Ghana and Nigeria have adopted a common curriculum to facilitate the development of people in the West African sub-region. In both countries, while much is known about the challenges faced by teachers and schools in the implementation of inclusive education, little is known about parents' attitudes, knowledge and perceived social norms regarding inclusive education. In this study, we adapted Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour to examine parents' attitudes, knowledge and perceived social norms in influencing inclusive practices. One-thousand-and-seventy-five parents were recruited from Ghana (n = 411) and Nigeria (n = 664). They completed the Parents' Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education scale, which consists of three subscales: attitudes, perceived social norms, and knowledge. Although there was a moderate relationship between the subscales, the participants were positive on attitudes and perceived social norms, but they reported a lack of knowledge about inclusive education. The participants seemed to accept the need for implementation of inclusive education, and they acknowledged the efforts of implementers in practising inclusive education. However, they indicated limited knowledge about implementation of inclusive education. The need for policymakers to prioritise public education is also discussed.

Inclusion has been increasingly recognised as a global common goal in education. In China, inclusive education for children with special educational needs and disabilities is currently practised as 'Learning in Regular Classrooms' (LRC). However, not only has the inclusion policy frequently been criticised as failing to provide clear, systematic, or consistent strategies, but also the actual practices of LRC have also been found to merely concern children's physical integration into the mainstream settings. This discussion paper explores key structural barriers to inclusive education through reviewing policies within the wider education ecosystem that are relevant to the theme of inclusion but outside the LRC policy itself. The analysis illustrates how the complex and interlocked structural barriers embedded within the wider context of current education policies pose persisting constraints for inclusion to progress in China, and how these structural barriers unique to the Chinese education system also reflect the common 'wicked problems' for practising inclusive education globally. The paper discusses five main education structures: neo-liberal education policies, national college entrance examination system, teacher evaluation system, staffing quota system and the 'combine medicine and education' policy. The conclusion illustrates the complexity and main issues facing future inclusion policy reforms and highlights key objectives for policy change. It indicates that, for inclusion reforms to be effective, broader changes are needed within the wider education ecosystem.

The Corona virus (Covid-19) pandemic, which was first indicated in Wuhan, China and rapidly became a pandemic, led numerous deaths around the world until today. The global Covid-19 pandemic affected higher education institutions, as it affected all areas of life. The pandemic caught the nations off-guard. The effects of the pandemic on internationalization in higher education institutions were among the important issues emphasized in this process. Due to the pandemic, higher education institutions were closed in most nations. While certain countries attempted to solve the problem through distance education, certain others failed to manage the crisis due to the socio-economic and technological infrastructure problems. That's way, as the impact of the pandemic on the economy was felt both in developed and developing countries, it also led to an increase in prevailing inequalities in several fields. Ironically, the invisible part of iceberg of internationalization in higher education became even more significant. Because the inequalities in the opportunities provided for international students became more pronounced. The possibility of an increase in the decline in number of international students made it necessary to rethink internationalization in higher education in the near future. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the impact of Covid-19 on higher education with a critical approach and to present sustainable internationalization recommendations for higher education institutions.

The perceptions and attitudes of educators towards multicultural education are strongly correlated to the manner in which multicultural education is applied. Previous research indicates that culture undeniably has an effect on education, nonetheless, education administrators may not have enough knowledge about multicultural education practices. The aim of the study was to identify the perceptions and interpretations of multicultural teaching from seventeen respondents employed as educators. These educators were all Maltese, teaching Maltese as a second language to adult learners who originated from diverse cultural backgrounds and were living in Malta. The researcher used a qualitative case study design of online interviews to identify the practices that educators perceive to be the best in promoting effective multicultural education. Based on content analysis, the key concepts and activities defined as effective in maintaining multicultural education performance include equality, democracy and justice. Multi-ethnic teaching offers the opportunity to equitably consider and accept divergent viewpoints, which in turn allows proper cohesion not only among students but also educators. Indeed, multi-ethnic education is essential; individuals with varying backgrounds and experiences deserve equality, and community groups need proper representation. This research thus concludes that the majority of teachers agree that practices such as ensuring equality, democracy and justice for all learners regardless of their ethnic, gender, or religious context are of high significance in encouraging inclusion, multicultural education, and student success.