Education & Pedagogy

Present higher education reforms in the Nordic countries diminish the role and influence of the state on the governance of higher education institutions. While still providing a framework for the management of higher education, in general, the state supervises rather than controls higher education institutions (HEIs). The rhetoric of change stipulates HEIs to respond to environmental needs, and the external stakeholders often assume greater prominence relative to the internal ones. This development is explained by a paradigmatic shift in the concept of good governance. Furthermore, the Stakeholder Society perspective is used to investigate the changing position and meaning of stakeholders in Nordic higher education. (Contains 1 table.)

This study is part of a larger study that uses mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative methods) to investigate preservice teachers' knowledge and understanding of multiculturalism and to prepare preservice teachers to work in diverse classrooms. The results indicate two findings: 1) that preservice teachers come from homogeneous backgrounds; and 2) Schools of Education must begin early in teacher education programs to integrate multiculturalism throughout their program of study. The implications of the results suggest that for true understanding of diversity and multiculturalism specific methods and strategies must be implemented through rigorous training in teacher education. (Contains 7 tables.)

Arguing that teacher education has become rule bound, even in the use of teaching narratives and cases, and for the need to challenge beginning teachers' conceptions of teaching and learning, the author suggests parables as promising means for enlivening teacher education and for stretching understanding. After defining parable, the author presents an analysis of three examples--"The Storm," "The Sower," and "The Fish and the Turtle"--to illustrate some of the rich interpretative possibilities they offer for thinking critically and imaginatively about teaching and learning and for generating fresh educational metaphors useful for guiding thought and action.

This study examines metaphors about learning produced by a group of eighteen students at a big public university in Malaysia. The learner perspective is placed within a wider discourse on education in order to explore whether the images employed by the learners to describe their learning reflect the dominant conception of education as "production". The metaphors supplied by the participants were analyzed and classified into several themes. None of the metaphors generated by the students alluded to the images that link education with "production". The study contends that the student perspective on education can enrich educational discourse and highlight the previously obscured notions on education and learning.

Forgiveness education has demonstrated psychological, social and academic benefits; however, it has not been discussed as a means of promoting character development for children and adolescents. In this paper, we discuss forgiveness as a moral concept and explain how forgiveness can contribute to current discussions of character education. After reviewing relevant literature we describe how a forgiveness programme can be an effective form of character education and attempt to clarify the contributions the forgiveness literature can make to the field of character education. We argue that forgiveness provides those interested in character development with a programme that can enhance educational initiatives and advance the character education research agenda.

This paper analyzes various U.S. career education programs through a democratic learning framework that adopts three foundational principles: 1) Democratic career education respects student rationality by encouraging student critique and evaluation of course material; 2) Democratic career education includes alternative perspectives on vocationally related issues such as labor market structure, environmental impact and sustainable development, the labor movement and labor history, acceptable working conditions and economic globalization; 3) Democratic career education emphasizes that economic, labor market and working conditions are constructed through human agency and can be reconstructed through democratic participation (Hyslop-Margison & Graham, 2001). The authors conclude the reviewed career education programs undermine democratic learning in a variety of ways.

This article presents statements by President Dmitry A. Medvedev at the meeting of the Council on the Implementation of Priority National Projects and Demographic Policy on the development of education, health care, and demography, and at the ceremony on the occasion of the launching of the Year of the Schoolteacher in Russia, held at the Russian A.I. Hertzen State Pedagogical University in the framework of the work of the first Pedagogical Assembly. This article also presents discussions and data on schoolteachers and teacher education in Russia. (Contains 1 figure, 2 tables, and 3 notes.) [This article was translated by Kim Braithwaite.]

Higher education in Hong Kong is currently undergoing a dramatic transformation, as it moves from a three-year British model to a four-year American model. To assist with the effort, five Fulbright Scholars in General Education are sent each year to Hong Kong universities, where they are discovering striking similarities with developments in US higher education. In this article, the author who is a Fulbright Scholar in General Education, reflects on his recent experience in Hong Kong, where educators are confronting many of the same challenges of integrative learning that face educators in the United States. He discusses trends that he is seeing in the second year of the Fulbright program in Hong Kong.

Studying democracy, and doing so critically, while striving to live it presents a peculiar and special charge to public education. As John Goodlad suggested, for teacher educators and in-service educators, this charge brings with it a responsibility to stand as stewards of public education and, hence, the most noble traditions of democracy in America, traditions that are fragile and in need of constant nurturing. Realizing this charge has far-reaching implications and may ultimately be the single, perhaps only, means for preserving public education in America. To this end, democracy needs to become a central part of the explicit curriculum for both public and teacher education.

This article describes a study that examined evidence of the enduring effects of United World Colleges (UWC) education, arguably the only purely ideology-driven international education model. The study adopted an interpretive phenomenological analysis of an autoethnography by a UWC graduate. The study found that the graduate has incubated her own ideal in seeking relevance to the changing world for the whole life environment that UWC had provided to nurture international togetherness on a personal level and across the globe.

This paper examines what has happened over a period of 25 years since a separate Division of Chemical Education was created within the Department of Chemistry at Purdue University. It argues that the faith in the chemical education graduate program that was demonstrated when the division was created was well-placed, and that chemical education has been shown to be a legitimate area of scholarly inquiry. The chemical education program provides a useful model for other discipline-specific, content-based education research programs such as the School of Engineering Education at Purdue, which recently experienced its fifth anniversary. (Contains 1 tables.)

This article explores Earth Charter education as a form of values education that is integral to education for sustainable development. Initially, it outlines how Earth Charter education rests on an ecocentric worldview and a social analysis of ecojustice--terms that are defined and explained. Moving from this rationale, the article explores issues in implementing Earth Charter education in affluent societies and concludes that the contradiction between the values and vision of the Earth Charter and the culture of affluent societies must be confronted. Some pedagogical strategies for meeting this challenge are introduced.

After nearly two years in development, a new federally backed research service on "what works" in education began rolling its first products off the assembly line. Launched with $18.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Education, the newly operational What Works Clearinghouse is the department's electronic version of a "Consumer Reports" for research in education. Part of the Bush administration's push to transform education into an evidence-based field, the clearinghouse has the job of vetting research on programs and strategies and publishing the results on a Web site where practitioners and policymakers can easily find them.

New demands and high attrition levels of special education teachers have created a crisis for education and extensive additional stress for special education directors and principals. The critical shortage of highly qualified special education teachers has significantly increased the pressure to hire and retain them. This article discusses factors that affect teacher attrition and proactive recommendations to address the shortage. In addition, the authors make suggestions for systemic reform and improvement of the level of job satisfaction for special education teachers.

This review of literature examines the status of education in high-need, urban schools. The article begins with a discussion of the issues and challenges experienced in these settings including the resources available, community context, quality of teachers, preparation of future teachers, and the characteristics of students. Following this discussion is a synthesis of potential strategies for change that can be implemented by schools, teachers, and institutions of higher education. The article concludes with an analysis of the quality of the current literature and recommendations for future researchers documenting their efforts to improve educational practice in high-need, urban schools.