Education & Pedagogy

In this article, the author demonstrates how the current emphasis on viewing early childhood education (ECE) as an investment keeps ECE at the margins of U.S. political debates as well as in other discussions around the world. Historically, the field of ECE in the United States has struggled, and continues to struggle, for political positioning. While studies continue to demonstrate ECE's effectiveness in preparing students for success in later life (e.g., Schweinhart et al., 2005), politicians and the public appear unwilling to implement or advocate for a universal early childhood education system. The author believes that the lack of political will to broaden ECE exists because the field continues to position itself to policymakers as an intervention or investment. Using George Lakoff's (2002, 2004) cognitive theory as a foundation, the author argues that early childhood educators must consider strategies to reframe their positioning of ECE so that they can move their field from the margins to the heart of discussions over education policy.

This paper focuses on policy initiatives and strategies used to promote the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in higher education in South Africa. It explores a wider international outlook and current debates in South Africa to map out an emerging South African perspective concerning the integration of ICT in higher education. It also provides a brief survey of key policy developments on e-education in general to contextualize the use of ICTs. In doing so, the paper addresses the following questions: What general goals do policy makers in South Africa express in national policy documents for the integration of ICT in the education system? What is the role of government regarding the use of ICT in higher education? What policies and strategies for ICT do leaders of South African higher education institutions develop? How do South African national priorities and higher education institutional strategies match?

Work and technology are--at least in all industrialized countries--characterized by continuous and fundamental change. This change has to be reflected in the education of technical workers. Engineering pedagogy must identify new demands and ensure that they are addressed in the design of technical education. To this end, engineering teachers in businesses, universities, schools and at other educational facilities discuss and test modified or new technical education concepts. This paper argues for an educational approach in which the focus is on the cooperative development of course content with the learner and the regional relevance of what is taught and learned. Engineering and other technical education and training must be demand-driven rather than supply-led. The paper examines how this can be achieved. The discussion is based on experiences in regional and international projects for the advancement of technical education and teacher training. (Contains 2 tables and 6 figures.)

This article explores how gender is threaded through the expansion and privatization of higher education in Jordan. Due to the justified current concern with the educational deficit of Muslim girls, it is easy to overlook the educational advances made by girls in some Islamic countries. In Jordan, girls have profited more than boys from the expansion of higher education. Economic or political reasons cannot explain this change, so explanations for the advancement of girls in the universities have to be sought elsewhere. I argue here that, for Jordan, this female advancement is linked to the commercialization of education set in motion by the early mission schools, the re-Islamization of society, and the prestige system of "culturedness." For this article, I have drawn upon qualitative anthropological data gathered through interviews with students, staff and parents in Jordan and from an analysis of higher education statistics. (Contains 1 note.)

The aim of this paper is to induce doubt about the ethical rightness of compulsory education laws and inspire educators to imagine and begin to make a world in which there are many different forms of gifted education. The paper does this in three ways. It paints a polemical picture of gifted education as a minor variation on public schooling and describes the contradictions and limitations this entails. It presents a short history of education in the United States to support the claim that compulsory schooling aims to shape the character of children in the interests of religion, government, corporations, and other groups. It argues that compulsory schooling is inconsistent with the liberal democratic value of the right to self-determination. The paper also offers a conception of education for self-development as one vision of what gifted education could be were it freed from the strictures of compulsory schooling.

Special education research has undergone one of the most significant developments in the history of education during the past two decades (Gersten, Vaughn, Deshler, & Schiller, 1997). These developments can be related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 and the resulting knowledge about teaching individuals with disabilities. This landmark legislation has not only supplied a framework for the provision of educational services to all children with disabilities in the United States, it has also been a catalyst for dramatically changing the knowledge base about effective instructional practices and services for children and youth with disabilities. In addition, research conducted with students with disabilities has been a source of information to general education. Research on cooperative learning, reading comprehension, instructional grouping procedures, and curriculum-based assessment have significantly influenced practice in general education. Special education research and practice, previously deemed as irrelevant by most members of the general education community, has been increasingly valued (McKenna, 1992; National Academy of Education, 1991).

The term "environment-based education" describes a form of school-based environmental education in which an instructor uses the local environment as a context for integrating subjects and a source of real world learning experiences. Despite the growing body of evidence that supports the educational efficacy of this instructional approach and its foundation of high-quality environmental education, relatively few teachers seem to practice environment-based education (University of Maryland Survey Research Center, 2000). In the context of encouraging more widespread adoption of this formal instructional approach, the author used exploratory survey research with a convenience sample of 287 teachers to investigate influences on teachers' decisions to use and their abilities to implement environment-based education. The author used analysis of variance and discriminant function analyses, and results suggest that environmental literacy knowledge and skills and environmental sensitivity are important in teachers' decisions to use and their abilities to implement environment-based education. (Contains 6 tables.)

Continuing medical education (CME) on the Internet has grown steadily over the past several years. However, the quality of Web-based CME has received limited attention in the medical literature, and there have been few attempts to articulate quality standards. This article describes five sets of standards published in the distance education literature and explores whether the standards might be used to inform and enhance approaches to designing and delivering Web-based CME programs. Standards synthesize practical knowledge, best practices, and research findings. They vary in their perspectives on quality, fall short of being comprehensive, and convey many elements that apply to Web CME. We conclude that published standards in the distance education literature can provide valuable guidance to Web CME providers, and there is a clear need for additional research into questions about what works in Web-based education and why.

Continuing education (CE) in Bangladesh is a mass education programme. The primary aim is to develop the skills of participants, providing them with opportunities to increase their income. Its targets are neo-literate people--both male and female--between the ages of 11 and 45. Neo-literate is a technical term used in mass education in Bangladesh indicating people who became literate by completing a basic literacy course. An important feature of CE in Bangladesh is that it directly relates mass, adult, and non-formal education to participants' livelihoods. Also, for participants, CE is not just about attending courses, but is a lifelong involvement for self and collective development. In this article, the author describes from his own experience the implementation of CE in Bangladesh. The author highlights the concept and methodology aspects in particular, which may be useful to mass educators in other countries. (Contains 1 table, 2 figures and 2 notes.)

Teachers play a key role in alleviating or exacerbating educational inequality across the nation. Oftentimes this educational inequality is based on ethnicity, class, and gender as well as additional cultural factors. It is essential that teacher education programs include courses that address multicultural issues with the goal of developing true respect for those who are different than one's self. In order to gain respect for "all" others, pre-service teachers need to first understand what culture is; research their own cultural backgrounds and how individual cultural backgrounds influence the way one judges others; realize why multicultural education is needed in schools through an examination of the educational, economic, political, and social inequities in society; and be exposed to the true history of the United States. The author describes her course on social foundations and multicultural education for aspiring teachers and special education teachers at the Western Illinois University-Quad Cities campus.

Education for All (EFA) has been a major target for UNESCO for sixty years. In spite of special efforts to achieve EFA, many millions remain without the education they need. During that time, the importance of a suitable education has increased greatly, making the task more urgent. To resolve this dilemma special efforts are needed. Universal primary education, even if achieved, is not a sufficient answer. This leaves large numbers without any opportunity to achieve the skills they need for work and for citizenship. Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) can provide both the link with productive work and the motivation for continued learning that will help people in the present and the immediate future. A partnership of EFA and TVET can make major strides towards meeting the urgent needs of people. Support for this partnership now can provide a major boost to the achievement of EFA by 2015.

This paper examines the history, activities and future interests of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chair on Reorienting Teacher Education to Address Sustainability and the associated International Network (IN) of Teacher Education Institutions. In 1998, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development work programme on education for sustainable development (ESD) requested UNESCO to develop guidelines for reorienting teacher training to address sustainability. This responsibility was passed to the UNITWIN/NESCO Chair who established the IN. Participants recorded their efforts in journals, chronicling successes and failures. In 2004, IN members were sent a survey requesting information about what worked, what did not work and insights and recommendations for other institutions of teacher education. The responses were synthesized in "Guidelines and recommendations for reorienting teacher education to address sustainability". Several UN agencies and regional offices have incorporated these "Guidelines" into their efforts. Members of the IN are now engaging other institutions of teacher education through workshops and mentoring to reorient teacher education.

This exploratory study measured the sexuality education and HIV knowledge, attitudes, and risk behaviors of young adults (n = 410), ages 18-21, who recently graduated from public high schools in a midwestern state. Based on the participants' responses to specific questions, students were placed into one of three groups: students who received no sexuality education; students who received abstinence-only sexuality education; and students who received abstinence-based sexuality education. Students who reported having completed an abstinence-based sexuality education scored significantly higher on HIV knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors than those who reported receiving an abstinence-only sexuality education (p less than 0.001). The mean scores on the HIV risk behavior scale were also significantly higher in the no sexuality education group when compared to the abstinence-only group (a higher score represented less risk-avoidance of risk behaviors). (Contains 3 tables and 1 footnote.)

In the past, many Australian state schools avoided teaching about values explicitly. However, the Australian government released Australia's first official values education policy in 2005: the "National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools" (NFVEAS). This framework represents a local manifestation of the recent international values education movement. This study contributes to an exploration of what, and who, the government's construction of Australian values privileges. It uncovered the dominant discourses inherent in the framework through a critical discourse analysis, framing it in relation to the 16 key values education approaches identified in the literature. The data revealed the document's strong privileging of conservative values education discourses, particularly civics and citizenship education, values inculcation and character education. In practice, some Australian schools have been disrupting this move to conservatism by taking more critical and postmodern approaches. The paper argues for such alternative practices and policy that is more diversified and student-centred.

The impetus for this study was an article by N. Pokrovskii (2005) describing tendencies in higher education in the United States that seem promising, as they flow objectively from globalization processes and are characteristic of the whole globalizing world. As Pokrovskii is a highly qualified sociologist with a good knowledge of the system of education in the universities of America and Russia, his opinion has to be taken into account. At the same time, some of his propositions seem far from indisputable, especially his assessments of what is going on in the sphere of Russian education. In this article, the authors analyze the role of private education in Russia, its implications for social mobility and social inequality, and long-term implications of the commercialization of higher education in Russia. (Contains 1 note.) [This article was translated by Kim Braithwaite.]