Education & Pedagogy

This paper reflects on the identification of relevant aspects of education for measurement purposes. It begins by reviewing some detailed lists of educational capabilities from disparate literatures. It then considers how ordinary South Africans perceive education by drawing on two open-ended surveys, and attempts to reconcile their views with different education lists. The main finding is that most abstract lists need to say more about the practical side of education (skills, information and knowledge for everyday living). They also need to embrace a more joined-up view of education that can incorporate linkages between different aspects of education and between education and other aspects of well-being (including mental states and material things). The final part of the paper makes the case for embracing the complexity and imprecision involved in measuring education and briefly sketches a methodological framework that can achieve this end.

Equity issues in the field of arts and culture play an important role when it comes to extracurricular activities in education. Students with special educational needs (SEN) seem not provided with equal access. Using nation-wide random samples of fourth- and fifth-graders courtesy of the German National Education Panel Study (NEPS), the main analysis compares the amount of extracurricular musical activities of students with SEN placed in special education schools (n = 365), in general schools (n = 143), and of students without SEN in inclusive settings (n = 4048). Students placed in special education schools were significantly less likely to take classes in music schools than students with SEN placed in regular schools (and than students without SEN). There were no significant group differences regarding the attendance of concerts and theatre plays. Finally, implications for special education schools and inclusive settings are proposed.

The Early Career Researcher (ECR) Network is a multidisciplinary network with membership open to anyone conducting educational research at an early stage of their career. This includes for example, teacher researchers based in schools, Masters and doctoral students, post-doc researchers, teaching fellows and lecturers. A wide range of research areas are represented, including early years, internationalisation, inclusive education, teacher education, digital education, and education policy. Although membership is diverse, and this should be acknowledged, the authors offer this position paper from the perspective of three ECRs, based in Scotland, who work within higher education and convene the network. In this article, the authors begin by highlighting key challenges facing ECRs studying and working within higher education and consider these within the context of COVID 19. The authors then reflect on what the network can do to address these specific challenges.

The examination of racist, normalized ideology within American education is not new. Theoretical and practical conceptions of social justice in education have attempted to attend to educational inequality. Oftentimes, these attempts have reinstated the status quo because they were framed within the same Eurocentric paradigm. To address this, Django Paris proposed culturally sustaining pedagogy as a means of empowering minoritized students by sustaining the cultural competence of their communities and dismantling coloniality within educational practices. He, Michael Domínguez, and others argue that epistemic expansion is imperative for equitizing educational spaces and closing the ontological distance between teachers and students. Drawing from their work as well as scholarship from the fields of educational policy, urban education, Afrocentrism, and Indigenous studies, this paper seeks to expand the discussion about culturally relevant and responsive music education to account for students' musical epistemologies and the ways in which "epistemic travel" might inform normalized musical practices.

Environmental education provides opportunities to instill character education for adolescents in globalization era. However, positive effects of environmental education on character building are rarely studied. This study aimed at analyzing the effect of environmental education on character building of school members. This study used descriptive qualitative method with purposive sampling technique. SJHS 1 Wajak and SJHS 1 Gondanglegi were selected as research locations as they were Adiwiyata Schools. The data were collected through observation, interview, and documentation techniques. The results showed that environmental education had affected student character building. Various activities and existing regulations affect student characters, such as honest, self-confidence, responsibility, discipline, caring for fellow human beings, caring about nature, courage, religion, and creativity. Habituation and modeling are strategies used in constructing characters. Therefore, environmental education is recommended to be implemented in various schools as an effort to improve the character of school members.

Human rights education in humanitarian settings provides an opportunity for adolescent refugees to understand and exercise their human rights, respect the rights of others, and gain active citizenship skills. This paper examines non-formal education programmes and the extent to which they embed education "about," "through" and "for" human rights; it draws on mixed method data from two diverse contexts--Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and Syrian refugees in Jordan. We find stark differences in how human rights are reflected in non-formal education programming for refugees. In Jordan, the "Makani" programme integrates human rights across subjects and teacher pedagogy, and fosters skills for active citizenship. By contrast, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, a lack of basic rights hinders the delivery of meaningful human rights education for Rohingya adolescents. We conclude that human rights education should be a core pillar of humanitarian responses, but that it requires significant adaptations to contextual realities.

Inspired by Audrey Osler's call for the development of novel approaches to intersectionality in human rights education praxis, this article presents an undergraduate module on Children's Rights, examining processes of teaching and learning about rights through the topic of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE). The module, designed for future educators, intersects elements of children's rights education with the theoretical positions of queer studies and critical pedagogy. Drawing on data from two focus groups, consisting of students following the programme, the author analyses students' views and attitudes to RSE, using Foucault's overarching concept of problematisation and the concept of sites of struggle. Data analysis reveals tensions and potential clashes between the students' professional selves, their personal values, and elements of the theoretical framework adopted in the course. These tensions are nevertheless constructive, highlighting the potential of children's rights education to contribute to transformative human development.

In this essay, the author compares and contrasts accessibility to higher education senior leadership for women in the United States and Peru. This paper addresses the disparity and challenges of women in higher education senior leadership focusing on minority women such as indigenous and Afro-Peruvian women in Peru and women of color in the United States. The author further calls for empirical research on the character traits, career path, motivations, definitions of success, and challenges of women who serve in executive higher education leadership positions. This paper further contributes to the field of comparative and international higher education, both domestically and abroad, while addressing demographic challenges such as sex and race for women in and seeking higher education administrative leadership career goals.

With the growth in distance education programs and other interstate activities, community colleges increasingly need to be authorized by multiple states. State authorization provides the legal approval for postsecondary education providers to offer credentials and conduct related activities. Participation in the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (SARA) allows an institution to provide distance education to students in other SARA-member states by honoring its original state authorization through interstate reciprocity. For community colleges, SARA reduces the administrative burden to participate in distance education. This article examines trends in SARA participation and the relationship between this participation and distance education enrollment. Using NC-SARA and IPEDS data, we find that participation in SARA has grown rapidly, particularly among colleges with higher online enrollments. Distance education enrollments have likewise grown at community colleges, suggesting that SARA has successfully helped institutions maintain and grow multistate distance education programs.

The purpose of this research note is to introduce and overview both the teaching and research applications of autobiographical essay writing. Grounded in occupational socialization theory and teacher reflection, the authors propose that autobiography can be a powerful tool in helping preservice and in-service teachers more deeply reflect on their prior socialization experiences, which may help them to better understand and be willing to critique their personal belief structures. The authors provide an overview of how autobiographical essays have been used and include recommendations for teacher education practice. From a research perspective, the authors argue that autobiographical essays provide a targeted strategy for collecting reflective data on individuals' background socialization experiences. Such data are critical for socialization scholars who are interested in understanding how teachers' biographies influence their current teaching beliefs and practices. Applications for physical education-adjacent spaces, including doctoral education, adapted physical education, and elementary education, are also discussed.

Educating gifted and talented students is of paramount importance not only for individuals but also for enhancing a nation's socioeconomic development, science and technology. However, while there appears to be increasing evidence at the international scholarly space on the importance of promoting gifted education, the situation is different in Tanzania where there is yet no systematic provision for it. This article reviews literature to establish the need for the systematic provision of gifted education in Tanzania and suggests ways on how its development can be initiated in the country. The article identifies areas considered essential in improving gifted education while promoting equity and excellence in nurturing the gifted in Tanzania. These areas are discussed within the context of the proposed model for developing a system of gifted education in the country. In this development, the article argues for the integration of prosocial education with gifted education for the desired future of Tanzania's gifted education.

This article examines the relationship between education and rehabilitation within the prison context. It begins by exploring the concept of rehabilitation, examining if prison rehabilitation is possible or if it is what Pat Carlen describes as a "penal imaginary". Drawing on this idea, it considers how rehabilitation may act as a way of legitimising imprisonment and whether rehabilitation is in fact damaging and criminogenic. It then moves to explore other models of rehabilitation and imprisonment that may offer a more person-centred approach. Section two of the article begins by discussing understandings of adult education. It examines conflicting interpretations of education, settling on an understanding that is underpinned by principles of freedom. It then moves to explore how adult education is practised and understood within the prison context. Finally, this article analyses the relationship between prison education and prison rehabilitation, considering what kinds of education and rehabilitation may be conducive to supporting the holistic development of the person in prison.

In this paper, which takes the form of a dialogue, we discuss the possible directions that vocational education might take in the contemporary social, economic and technological context of the early 21st century. Taking account of the unresolved debates around vocational education internationally and future global economic demands for expertise we discuss tensions and dichotomies that continue to shape the character of vocational education by questioning definitions of the 'vocational' historically and in current policy. These include: the relation between 'vocational' and 'academic' pathways and the possibility of their integration, the meaning of technical education, the purpose of vocational qualifications, the role of trade unions and employers, and whether there should be a 'skills route' for 'low attainers'. The principal focus is on the English context, although the discussion draws on comparative examples where relevant, as well as broader factors likely to be significant in any country.

In recent years, scholars have increasingly recognized the value of the arts for furthering the aims of environmental education (EE). Likewise, art education scholars have noted the affinity between visual art and EE. Despite a long-standing environmentally oriented thread in art education literature, the extent to which United States K-12 art educators have embraced these pedagogies is unclear. We conducted survey research to examine how K-12 art educators in the US engage in environmental integration, including the extent, forms, importance of and preparedness for integration. While art educators' overall levels of environmental integration were fair, their valuing of environmental art pedagogies was moderate, suggesting a need for additional resources and professional development. Given K-12 art teachers' interest in environmental art pedagogies and acknowledged dearth of knowledge, we argue EE capacity-building efforts might target this field, aiming for comprehensive art teacher education experiences to sustained professional development opportunities.

Applying path analysis to 237 secondary school students and 320 post-secondary students in Singapore, parents' education was found to have important effects on adolescents' educational aspiration as mediated through educational track and adolescents' financial stress and self-esteem. This effect is strong for adolescents in both secondary and post-secondary education, with slight differences in the specific psychological process. The findings imply calibration of education towards parity and psychosocial interventions to improve adolescents' self-concepts, coping and aspirations. However, in the context of fast economic transformation, a burgeoning middle class, a differentiated education system, and high-income inequality, policy and psychosocial interventions will have limited effectiveness without addressing labour market disparities and the social stigma of vocational and technical education.