Education & Pedagogy

This aim of this research was to investigate art teacher education in Taiwan and England to gain insights into two art education systems with a view to improving art teacher education in Taiwan. To achieve this aim, a cross-cultural study using a multi-method approach was adopted and data was collected over three years of full-time study in England and four academic years of reflection on teaching in art teacher education in Taiwan. This research revealed how complex and hazardous it is to state categorically what the similarities and differences really are between two art teacher education systems, especially in a subject as ill-defined as art. Nonetheless, this study did produce some important differences in the two art teacher education systems in aspects of (1) government regulations and institutional provision, (2) theoretical underpinning, (3) art curriculum policy and delivery, and (4) cultural differences affecting art teachers' attitudes and values.

The present study explores teachers' attitudes toward the gifted and gifted education. Specifically, the authors examine whether teachers tailor their responses about attitudes toward the gifted to fit the perceived interests of the researcher. In addition, the authors examine several potential predictors of attitudes toward the gifted: training or experience in gifted education, training or experience in special education, and self-perceptions as gifted. A total of 262 teachers participate in the study. The perceived epistemic interests of the researcher do not affect teachers' self-reported attitudes toward the gifted. Teachers who had received training in gifted education hold higher perceptions of themselves as gifted. However, teachers' self-perceptions as gifted are unrelated to their attitudes toward gifted education. Finally, special education teachers hold slightly lower attitudes toward the gifted. The authors discuss the implications of these results for the field of gifted education. (Contains 5 tables.)

This article focuses on special education as cultural representation and explores how it is fashioned by the realities of the Caribbean diaspora. These realities are framed within the context of the Caribbean's response to the global agenda of education for all and the development of learning support systems that are relevant to regional and national circumstances. Historical and contemporary accounts of policy development are discussed to exemplify the link between colonialism and the construction of difference. Particular consideration is given to how specific groups have been historically marginalized within an ideology of normalization. Identity accounts provide insights into how disabled girls and those labelled as having learning difficulties experience education and show how the expansion of special education through strategies for education for all provide social challenges and possibilities. Further, constraints on expansion of special education are considered in light of the socio-economic developments of Caribbean countries.

There is a certain kind of liberal educator who bases his or her practice on a particular attitude toward the "Big Questions." The questions of fundamental literacy in K-12 education, or of expertise in vocational and professional education, may be just as important, but they are seen as quite different in kind. Indeed, the questions of liberal education take hold of people only under certain conditions. They call for distinct curricular and pedagogical approaches suited to a particular kind of learner. Beyond the scene of learning, these questions also challenge societies more generally to recognize the value of acknowledging, experiencing, and responding to them and to maintain forums for their discussion. In this article, the author redescribes the nature of the questions of liberal education via a close reading of some words of Rainer Maria Rilke. It is his hope that a clearer appreciation of the existential nature of the questions will illuminate what should be distinctive about this education. (Contains 1 note.)

Policy on service learning is framed in the discourse of reciprocity, partnership and engagement. It is tasked with transforming higher education to bring about opportunities for integrating theory and practice, work-based learning and academic learning, so that higher education engages with knowledge created in other sites of practice. While policy is visionary, conditions on the ground bring to the fore complex challenges which relate to the nature of partnerships, reciprocity and engagement on the one hand, and the purposes and practices of higher education on the other. This begs the question, "Can service learning deliver on its espoused goals?" In this article we argue that critical education theory provides a lens which researchers and practitioners can use to illuminate the practice of service learning in higher education. We reflect on our own practice of service learning in teacher education to show the way in which critical theory can illuminate and expose imbalances and gaps in the mutuality and partnership promised in policy.

Current debates on internationalisation are couched in relation to globalisation, and gives the impression that this phenomenon is new. There is also a tendency to discuss internationalisation in relation to various rationales, with economic rationales being dominant. This article challenges the assumption that internationalisation is something new and the notion that it is mainly driven by economic rationales. It argues that in colonial contexts, international education is as old as the advent of colonialism. In the context of South Africa international education is as old as the emergence of higher education in South Africa. Therefore current discussions on the role of international education as part of, or a response to globalisation, should also incorporate the role of international education in colonial conquest and perpetuation of segregation, failing which, discussions of internationalisation will be superficial and not do justice to the complex, divided and conflict-ridden nature of South African society.

This article traces the development of policy in regard to the provision for children with special educational needs from the report of the Special Education Review Committee in 1993 to the enactment of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act in 2004. It begins with definitions of the terms special educational needs and pupils with special educational needs. The main discussion includes reference to the O'Donoghue Case, the Comprehensive Initiatives scheme of 1998, the Education Act of 1998, the Study of Remedial Education in Irish Primary Schools 1998, the Learning Support Guidelines of 2000, the reports of the task forces on dyslexia and autism, as well as the circulars issued by the Department of Education and Science relevant to special education in that period. (Contains 1 note.)

Art education as a distinct academic discipline is relatively recent and closely related to the growth of specialist teacher qualification programmes in university education departments. Opportunities for art teachers to engage in research were first provided in advanced diploma courses and specialist masters programmes set up in university education departments. Later these were followed by specialist doctoral degrees. Since the majority of such programmes are located in education departments, research training has tended to be social science based. Recently there has been a flurry of publications by art and art education specialists devoted to explaining and extolling the idea of art practice as an alternative paradigm. This article analyses and discusses this development and the status of research in the specialist field, drawing on the author's recent experience of carrying out two systematic reviews of studies in art education. It examines strengths and weaknesses in the two research paradigms and suggests ways forward for improving training in art education research.

Wesley Null's provocative questions that guided the session on the future of teacher education curriculum at the 2007 Midwest History of Education Society cut to the very rationale for compulsory public education in America. The only justification that can be morally sanctioned is that without adequate preparation for their civic duties, citizens will become the corrosive agents of the polity, not its building blocks. Most significant within this body of duties is the assumption of moral responsibilities as a citizen, particularly the normative freedom that society requires to sustain itself. In this article, the author opines how compulsory education is the delivery mechanism that individuals draw upon to create the good society. He also explains how the willful and strategic ideological blindness conferred by narrow conceptions of teacher education curriculum is making everyone unaware of the deterioration that is taking place before them each day.

Religious education in England and Germany is similar in many respects and different in others. In both countries the subject must embrace religious plurality, and in both there are questions about the role of the religious communities in their relation to religious education. In recent his book, "Religious Education in a Plural, Western Society: Problems and Challenges", Hans-Georg Ziebertz argues that the English model is not appropriate for Germany, and an alternative rationale is proposed as being more appropriate for the German situation. Having outlined his argument, the present article suggests that Ziebertz' objections to English religious education are unjustified and that his own proposals are no more than an interim measure, made necessary by the control over religious education exercised by the German churches. It is anticipated that German and English religious education will develop along similar lines in the future, and the present dialogue will be mutually beneficial.

The establishment of the European Higher Education Area has involved specifying lists of professional competencies that programs are expected to develop, and with this the need for procedures to measure how every course within a higher education program is aligned with the program's competencies. We propose an instrument for characterizing this alignment, a process that we call assessing the relevance of a course. Using information from the course syllabus (objectives, contents and assessment scheme), our instrument produces indicators for characterizing the syllabus in terms of a competence list and for assessing its coherence. Because assessment involves quality, the results obtained can also be used to revise and improve the course syllabus. We illustrate this process with an example of a methods course from a mathematics teacher education program at a Spanish university. (Contains 17 tables.)

Could marketing coursework be part of the general education requirements for all college students? This article describes the ways in which the professional school marketing curriculum model (Schibrowsky, Peltier, & Boyt, 2002) can complement and enhance liberal arts education outcomes. First, the general relationship between liberal arts education and business education is reviewed. Second, the relevance of specific marketing curriculum outcomes to the broadly established goals of a liberal arts education is discussed. Third, a model is developed that details these relationships, addressing theory-driven outcomes, practice-driven outcomes, and blended (theory + practice) outcomes. Finally, the article offers specific recommendations by which marketing educators can tailor their curricular offerings to enhance their contribution to a liberal arts education in the areas of critical and reflective thinking, formation of abstract concepts and theory, analytical skills, independent and creative thinking, leadership skills, social and emotional judgment, and oral and written communication skills. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Many challenges associated with distance education and technology integration initiatives focus on faculty issues and concerns. This article analyzes these difficulties by identifying from the literature current trends affecting faculty, faculty motivators, and faculty challenges. Then, following this review and analysis, the article presents seven strategies for university administrators and faculty to consider as part of their own strategic plan to mitigate faculty concerns and ensure program success. The seven strategies discussed include the following: (1) enable colleges and departments to accept more responsibility for distance education activities; (2) provide faculty more information about distance education programs and activities; (3) encourage faculty to incorporate technology into their traditional classrooms; (4) provide strong incentives for faculty to participate in distance education; (5) improve training and instructional support for distance education faculty; (6) build a stronger distance education faculty community; and (7) encourage more distance education scholarship and research.

This article challenges the common-sense observation that Japanese and American education have been moving in "opposite directions" in recent times. Drawing on postcolonial discourse studies and cultural studies, the article extracts from this observation an Orientalist binary epistemology that continues to set discursive limits on the way Japanese and American observers make sense of each other's education. It is argued that the predominance of this Orientalist binary paradigm in comparative discussions of Japanese and Anglo-American education has resulted in the unfortunate lack of scholarly efforts to take full account of the common global structural changes in education driven by neo-liberal and neo-conservative impulses. As a crucial step towards the critical, reflexive engagement with the continuing colonial legacy, this article proposes a structurally oriented research paradigm that enables us to discuss localised and nationalised differences in education changes within the common frame of global structural changes in economy, state and education. (Contains 5 notes.)

This article discusses and analyses the emergence of globalisation and its impact on developments within the African continent. Africa's response at a regional level through the New Partnership for Africa's Development and at a subregional level through the Southern African Development Community's "Protocol on Education" come under scrutiny. These developments, coupled with proposals to liberalize education through the General Agreement on Trade Services (GATS), affect the future of higher education in Africa. Drawing from the experiences of higher education in South Africa, the article poses policy issues arising from the liberalisation of education through GATS. It concludes by suggesting the use of regional and subregional initiatives, resources, expertise, and plans to negotiate the best possible policies for the African continent without foregoing the role of the state in these processes. (Contains 2 tables and 3 notes.)