Education & Pedagogy

The current movement toward increasing privatization in general and market education in particular has been extensively examined in terms of its neoliberal roots and incompatibility with the aims of public, democratic education. This analysis presents a different critique, one that draws upon current economic theory and research to challenge the most fundamental assumptions and claims of market education. Contrary to presumed virtues of profit, competition and choice, we argue that the forces of rent seeking in the market model of education do not operate according to these principles and are exacerbating structures of inequality and segregation. We outline an alternative conceptual framework for understanding this model.

Originally rooted in aesthetics, David Elliott's thoughts about jazz education have changed considerably from his 1983 dissertation through his 1995 landmark book, "Music Matters," which outlined his praxial music education philosophy. The purpose of this article is to extrapolate the apparent evolution of David Elliott's thoughts about jazz education by examining his writings on the topic from 1983 through 1995. The research questions are: (a) What were the paths that led Elliott to his thoughts about jazz education in "Music Matters"? (b) What previously held positions were abandoned, and with what were they replaced as his philosophy evolved?

Adult education programs are often grounded in problematic assumptions about learners' inadequacies. The purpose of this article is to critique such assumptions through presenting a history of the manner in which representatives of Canadian governments conceptualized the education of Inuit adults from the 1940s through the 1980s. Using genealogical methods and archival data, I find three stages in the evolution of official discourses about Inuit adult education: exclusion, cultural deprivation, and individualization. This article contributes to the history of Inuit education, and to the critique of deficiency discourses as more broadly deployed in the education of adults from marginalized backgrounds.

The purpose of this study is to investigate teachers' views on co-education. The study, which adopted a descriptive screening model, involved 240 teachers (142 females and 84 males) working in four primary schools and four secondary schools located in the central towns of Adana. Data were collected using Views on Co-education Scale (VCS). Analysis included descriptive statistics as well as Mann Whitney-U and Kruskal Wallis H tests. Results show that teachers mainly support co-education and do not adopt single-sex education. Religion teachers had the lowest scores in terms of supporting co-education.

Aija Riniken, senior ministerial advisor, Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, shares her perspective on the future of basic education. She writes that her perspective is mainly from Finland's point of view because she has worked on many different levels of education in Finland and has witnessed many changes throughout the years. Here Riniken writes that with this article she is reaching wider with her ponderings because internationalization and cooperation between countries is an important and continually increasing aspect of education. She believes that many issues are common between countries, and all nations have a lot to learn from one another.

Using quantitative and qualitative measures, this study examined reports of sexual health education among 300 individuals with skeletal dysplasia (dwarfism). Many participants felt their sex education neglected their specific minority needs. These needs may include body image concerns, medical considerations in sex or pregnancy, and logistics of physically having sex. Medical professionals may provide more sexual health education than mental health providers, but all may ignore or minimize the sexual health needs of this population. Health care systems and communities of individuals with skeletal dysplasia need to work together to increase their access to sexual health education.

This article reviews two recent books on the rising use of digital data in schools and university education, reflecting on areas of further research, analysis, and action. The books discussed are: (1) "The datafication of primary and early years education: playing with numbers," by A. Bradbury and G. Roberts-Holmes, London, Routledge, 2017, 158 pp., £84.23 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-13-824217-3; and (2) "Big data in education: the digital future of learning, policy and practice," by B. Williamson, London, Sage, 2017, 256 pp., £85.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-47-394800-6.

This article proposes conceptual frameworks for reforming doctoral education to better train research and development (R&D) professionals ("knowledge professionals"), while also training for the academic profession. Knowledge professionals represent personnel who are involved in R&D activities, including researchers, support staff, and others. Doctoral education is experiencing rapid changes, both structurally as well as within academic programs, and recent reform initiatives emphasize competency-based doctoral education as a response to the societal demands of the knowledge society. This paper briefly overviews the competencies for doctoral students, and proposes how to implement the concept of competency in doctoral education practice.

As teacher education aims to prepare thoughtfully adaptive teachers, programs have begun to examine a practice-focused approach. One movement focuses on the pedagogy of teacher education, including how practice is unpacked, decomposed, for teacher candidates. This paper examines the pedagogy of decomposition in a U.S. based practice-focused reading course. This paper presents the Framework for Decomposition in Teacher Education. Using this tool, findings indicate decomposition is much more nuanced and complex than previously reported. Implications of this expanded view include an analytic tool for researchers and supports for teacher educators in understanding the different types of complex practice to unpack in preparing teachers.

In this article, essential knowledge for teacher educators in the teaching of skill analysis is discussed. The research literature shows that preservice and practicing teachers are not well trained in skill analysis and content knowledge as they need to conduct and act on their diagnoses. First, the reasons why skill analysis deserves much more attention in teacher education are described. Next, skill analysis is defined and essential knowledge for teacher educators and teachers discussed. Finally, examples are provided for improving the practice of teaching skill analysis to preservice teachers.

Extension programming can be effective at delivering nutrition education to food pantry clients. This study aimed to understand the perceptions of food pantry personnel towards nutrition education. A mixed methods survey was administered to food pantry personnel (n=53). Most (62.3%) reported their food pantry was church-affiliated, and few (22.6%) reported any Extension collaboration. Qualitative themes included perceptions that nutrition education was resource intensive, clients were not interested in nutrition education, and differing attitudes towards nutrition education. When working with food pantries, Extension should educate personnel about the importance of nutrition education, offer resources, and facilitate programming.

This article presents an exploratory study aimed to document co-taught education courses across the general-special education curriculum and to determine perceived change in students' disability knowledge as a result of taking the courses. Collaborative teaching taught by a general and special education university faculty was examined over a 10-week quarter at a large public university. The infusion approach of teaching disability utilized in the study shows great promise for providing disability knowledge to general education pre-service students who may otherwise receive minimal disability-related coursework. Recommendations for future research and practice are discussed.

Many teacher education programs are committed to social justice. This commentary argues that gender-expansive education--teaching that opens up, democratizes, and complicates our understandings of gender, gender identity, and gendered embodiment in our classrooms in ways that make space for all kinds of students--must be meaningfully, intersectionally included in teacher education that aims to promote equity, democracy, and freedom through schooling. We suggest ways that teacher education programs can leverage many of the critical skills and dispositions already cultivated in social justice education to integrate gender-expansive perspectives throughout their curriculum.

This article delineates the four successive dimensions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act's (IDEA) central obligation of "free appropriation public education" that the courts have developed thus far: (a) procedural, (b) substantive, (c) incomplete implementation of the last Individualized Education Program (IEP), and (d) incomplete implementation of the next IEP. This current snapshot cites illustrative cases and, to the extent available, empirical analyses. The final recommendation warns against lowering practice and policies to the minimum legal standards for each of these four "faces," instead using them as organizing counter-markers for a proactive professional orientation.

National Energy Education Development (NEED) is concerned with the dissemination of energy education information, the way children learn best, and the type of citizens students will become. Cooperative learning, where students take responsibility for their own learning and that of others in their group, class, school, and their community, is emphasized. Included in this packet of materials are student project activities, games and icebreakers (such as the Energy Enigma game), plays using "energy tales," the NEED Youth Awards Program for Energy Achievement, rock performance, the 1991 NEED Energy Education Poll, fact sheets on energy, and The Great Energy Debate Game. (KR)