Education & Pedagogy

The importance of cultural competency in physical education is unmistakable. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) has identified elements of cultural competency within both the National Standards for Physical Education and the National Standards and Guidelines for Physical Education Teacher Education. Although there are clearly identified standards for both students and teacher candidates designed to address the needs of diverse populations, many teachers seemingly do not align their teaching approach to these principles. And while there is an abundance of literature delineating the relationship between cultural competency and student learning, there is a lack of literature examining strategies for providing practical methods and resources for faculty to develop and strengthen their own cultural competency. The purpose of this article is to emphasize the importance of developing cultural competency among physical educators from all levels.

The higher education literature reveals the highly subjective nature of thinking about the roles of higher education and its teachers with respect to "education for sustainability". We used Q methodology to help to clarify and categorise commonly held viewpoints about this complex issue held by teachers in one university in New Zealand. We developed 50 statements about the issue and asked 43 participants to rank them and to record their responses to written questions. Our analysis confirms four significantly and qualitatively different viewpoints, one of which advocates for sustainability and for education for sustainability. The other three viewpoints do not, and each has distinct characteristics that prevent those who own them from using their position within the university to encourage students to act sustainably. Our article interprets these viewpoints and discusses their implications to higher education.

In this literature review, we explore the potential role of education in supporting peacebuilding and societal transformation after violent conflict. Following a critical analysis of the literature published by academics and practitioners, we identify the notion of humanisation (as in the seminal works of Paulo Freire and others) as a unifying conceptual core. Peacebuilding education as humanisation is realised by critical reflection and dialogue in most curricular initiatives reviewed, an approach aimed at overcoming the contextual educational constraints often rooted in societal division and segregation, strained community relations and past traumas. We argue that education as humanisation and critical dialogue can offer pedagogical strategies and provide a compelling conceptual framework for peacebuilding education. Such a conceptual framework can serve as a basis for research in the area, especially in contexts where educational institutions tend to be structured to dehumanise.

This article examines the synergy between a long established discipline, geography, and the younger discipline of educational studies, especially its component, comparative education. Although this synergy was recognised by the founding father of comparative education, Michael Sadler, and one of his principal followers, George Bereday, the geography of education has yet to take its place alongside the other foundations of education. Possible reasons for this will be examined as well as the literature of the geography of education as it has slowly developed over the last 40 years. Since the majority of that literature has come from British academics, others have been excluded from this account due to constraints of space but it can be mentioned here that there have been significant inputs from European geographers, especially Peter Meusberger. Throughout, the value of a more sophisticated perception of the spatial dimension of educational activity and provision will be argued, especially in relation to comparative education.

In the transformative world of today, the role of environmental education has become a much-debated issue. The experience from various EU countries shows lack of a concrete policy for the advancement of those strategic skills that correspond to the identified need for the connection of environmental education to green career choices. This paper discusses the process being currently followed by the GreeNET project for the promotion of innovative and engaging activities that underline the scientific aspect of environmental education, to provoke interest on green sciences among students, and thus contribute to the increased number of students choosing science-related subjects. The goal is to form a concrete framework for the collection and exchange of exceptional yet limited and non-associated good practices in the area of environmental education and green career counselling, and teacher training. For this reason, a European network of teachers is formed and trained to develop the competencies necessary to educate their students according to cutting-edge approaches in environmental education.

Educational authorities in Taiwan have been expanding the higher education sector since the 1990s to meet the demands of economic transformation and to meet cultural expectations. Consequently, the higher education system of Taiwan has evolved from an elite system to a universal one. The rapid expansion of higher education is also characterized by salient features such as the increase of higher degrees, an enlarged private sector, and diminishing numbers of junior college institutions and students. This study explores whether these changes at the national level have brought challenges to the labour market. Our findings reveal that intensified competition for employment caused by the increased number of college graduates has incurred extra monetary cost and uncertain wage prospects at the individual level. Disadvantaged students might suffer the most from the massification in light of increased financial investments and low(er) rates of return to higher education.

The "New Orleans Tribune" (1864-1870), the first black daily newspaper in the United States, was the singular text in the public South at its time to staunchly advocate for public, integrated education, anticipating the ruling of "Brown v. Board of Education," and arguing that separate education would always be synonymous with unequal education and would reinforce the mark of inferiority already placed upon blacks by slavery. This article argues that the "Tribune" grounded its argument against segregated education in logos-centred rhetoric that focused specifically on combating the dominant discourse of white supremacy and black inferiority embedded in the emerging ideology of scientific racism. The "Tribune" defended against the divisive rhetoric of the newly forming eugenics movement and instead posed public, integrated education as a necessary prerequisite to rebuilding a nation destroyed by the Civil War.

Canada's important areas of expertise in open educational resources (OER) are beginning to be built upon or replicated more broadly in all education and training sectors. This paper provides an overview of the state of the art in OER initiatives and open higher education in general in Canada, providing insights into what is happening nationally and provincially. There are growing examples of OER initiatives from several Canadian institutions offering free courses to Canadians and international learners. National open education initiatives include the federal government's Open Data pilot project and the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada (CMEC) support for the Open Educational Resource Paris Declaration, as well as Creative Commons Canada. Regionally, the western provinces of British Columbia and Alberta are supporting OER as part of major open education initiatives.

Bourdieu has argued that higher education is a field that reproduces social inequality, thus complicating how openness widens access to higher education in the developing world. Drawing on the experiences of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), this paper critically analyses and evaluates the rationale, approach, difficulties, opportunities, outcomes and benefits of NOUN's experience in widening access to higher education in Nigeria using Bourdieu's field theory. We argue that the success of efforts for openness in higher education in a developing world context involves steering the contradictory tensions of openness and access across competing policy and practice fields. We offer this theorisation as a future social theoretical agenda for reflexive research for improving the effectiveness of praxis to widen access through openness in higher education in the developing world.

This study aimed to identify the attitudes of public secondary school students in the State of Hail towards the modern educational concepts, and what are the differences between them. It has been used in the study descriptive analytical method. The study was conducted on a sample of 400 male and female students, chosen randomly according to the variables of gender, branch of high school, school type, and average. A questionnaire was made and consisted of (39) items, and distributed on five key areas: Technology Education, Democratic Education, Integrated Education, Creative Education, and Environmental Education. The results indicated that students' attitudes toward contemporary educational concepts have come up in two areas: Technology Education and Democratic Education and the rest of the areas were the medium degree of importance. The results also showed no statistically significant differences in students' attitudes due to the variables of the study.

The Australian National Program Standards for Teacher Education prioritises knowledge of culturally inclusive practices and challenges the educational community to present research on well-structured, inclusive, cross-curricula education partnerships. This article meets this challenge as it explores a core unit of work for undergraduate teachers with Indigenous education as its foundation. Most importantly, the paper presented here provides an overview of how to develop culturally appropriate pedagogical practice through culturally inclusive curriculum. Both the unit of work and the paper are built on the principles of Constructive Alignment. In engaging with the article, the reader will use the 4Rs of reflection, as used by the pre-service teachers within the unit of work, to personally engage with curriculum conversations. This engagement demonstrates excellence in education design and offers clear alignment with the Australian Curriculum Studies Association's (ACSA's) principles for Australian curriculum.

At a recent international education conference, current life history and narrative research within Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) was criticised for its seeming inability to "produce anything new" and for lacking "rigour". This paper aims to respond to the criticism and to reassert the strengths of narrative inquiry in the current moment. It maps out narrative and life history research (published in English) carried out in PETE, illuminating a spectrum of narrative approaches and a richness of theoretical perspectives. It underscores the need for PETE scholars to acknowledge the broad range of philosophical assumptions about knowledge and how we come to know as this underpins all research, whether carried out within a qualitative or quantitative research tradition, and to develop a climate of mutual respect for these various positions if we are to avoid stagnation, hegemony or blind spots in our research agendas.

Although engineering education has played important roles in China's growing power and influence on the world stage, engineering education policy since the Reform and Opening-up in the late 1970s has not been well documented in current English-language scholarship. Informed by historical and sociological studies of education, engineering and engineering education, this paper attempts to address this scholarly gap by relating contemporary Chinese engineering education policy-making to its broader historical, cultural and ideological contexts. Based on analysis of policy documents and reports released by the Chinese government and engineering schools, and drawing on prior scholarship of Chinese (engineering) education policy, this paper employs the concept of "past/forward" as an analytic lens to interpret and understand four major areas of engineering education policy change in contemporary China: institutional reform, disciplines and majors, training objectives, and curriculum reform.

Higher education is undergoing a process of globalization and new realities of a globalized higher education world are emerging. Globalization also has a profound impact on higher education research. Global and transnational topics are theoretically and empirically elaborated and seem on the rise, whereas the international comparative outlook seems to become outdated in a world where national spaces become more and more global. On the basis of a bibliometric analysis of the state and development of both international comparative and global and transnational higher education studies and based on a critique of the methodological nationalism, this article discusses the analytical and explanatory power of international comparative higher education studies and lessons that both fields can learn from each other. The suggestion is that international comparative studies could embrace transnational and global studies to develop towards a methodological glocalism instead of being outlived.

The concept of a Nordic model of education is sometimes used to refer to the considerable similarities of education reforms and systems of the five Nordic countries (i.e. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) during the second half of the 20th century--reforms that aimed at social justice, equality and cohesion not least by providing schooling of high and equal quality, regardless of children's and young people's resources, origin and location. This article discusses to what extent one may still speak of such a "Nordic model of education", considering the impact of neoliberal policies in all of the five countries. It is concluded that even if the education systems still display a number of common, inclusive traits, extensive marketization and privatization practices in Nordic countries, and particularly of Swedish education, raise serious doubts about the survival of the alleged Nordic model.