Education & Pedagogy

When Ghana became independent in 1957 it had one of the most developed education systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Over the next forty years its education system expanded to provide places for most, but not all, of its children. Since the education reforms of the late 1980s enrolments have grown steadily; this contrasts with some SSA countries with universal free primary education policies, which have experienced short periods of rapid growth. Education reforms in Ghana, however, have fallen below expectations. The Free and Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) programme introduced in 1995 promised universal education by 2005. This paper revisits Ghana's FCUBE policy for clues as to why it did not achieve the target goal and especially why poorest households seem to have benefited least from it. One disappointment with FCUBE is that its input did not go far enough to offset the opportunity costs of schooling for the poorest households by abolishing all forms of fees and reducing significantly the indirect costs associated with attending school. The incidence of late entry, overage attendance and poor households' need for child labour also posed a further threat to the benefits FCUBE promised. (Contains 9 tables, 8 figures, and 2 notes.)

The year 2008 marked the 11th anniversary of Hong Kong's return from the UK to the People's Republic of China. In this decade, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has repeatedly emphasised the importance of the development of national identity and patriotism in school education, and has at the same time introduced diverse cultural values into the school curriculum. This article explores the dynamics and complexity of the relationships between the state, globalisation and nationalism in Hong Kong that are re-shaping music education in response to contemporary socio-political changes. It argues that Hong Kong school music education has made a gradual cultural shift towards globalism and nationalism, and away from the Westernism that has dominated Hong Kong music education since before the change of sovereignty on 1 July 1997. The article concludes with a discussion of how music education might juggle two pairs of relationships in the curriculum: between global and national cultures; and between the education of cultural values and nationalism in Chinese music. There is pressure to rethink teacher education in terms of the need to be aware of the socio-political environment in which it operates, and within which it makes music education socially relevant.

In 2003, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), recognizing the need for a standard definition of distance education, issued a monograph that posed a definition of distance education as "institution-based, formal education where the learning group is separated and where interactive telecommunications systems are used to connect learners, resources, and instructors" (Schlosser & Simonson, 2003, p. 1). Though posing this new definition, the authors acknowledged that different perspectives of distance education result in different definitions and that their "definition is not the only one and certainly not the first offered for distance education" (p. 3). As recently as Spring 2003, members of AECT's Distance Learning Division debated the boundaries of the field. Some held the position that the distance learning term was outmoded in a society characterized primarily by "blended" scenarios in which traditional classroom instruction is supplemented with varying degrees of distance instruction. This article explores the notion that the multiple and changing definitions of distance education can drive the practice and research in the field in a direction that can either disadvantage a large segment of the population or embrace a segment that advanced technologies have traditionally disadvantaged. (Contains 1 table.)

The subject of this investigation is the composition and distribution of students of Armenian educational institutions and their partition in the state and private sectors of higher education. The study examines the general rise of educational institutions, particularly private ones, where the average number of students is considerably less than in the state institutions of higher learning. There has also been an increase in the number of students in state-paid and private higher education institutions. This is discussed, together with the fact that 75 per cent of students are involved in the system of paid education in the Republic of Armenia. For that reason, the financing of education is a serious problem for a considerable part of population at the present time. Gender issues that are involved in professional higher education are examined. The structure of financing higher education and problems unique to the Republic are also considered. Some measures for the further development of a financing and lending system in higher education are suggested, particularly the creation of an educational lending system that would enable more people to study for degrees in the higher education sector with the assistance of student loans. (Contains 1 footnote, 7 tables, and 4 figures.)

When William Moore, a Scottish Presbyterian pastor, established the first special school in China in 1874, the country began her long and circuitous journey toward establishing formal educational services for individuals with special needs. Special education in China developed slowly on the infertile soil of continual wars, political instability, and adverse economic conditions for about three quarters of a century. These services are now developing more rapidly in concert with economic reforms and the Open Door Policy initiated in 1978. Legislative and policy changes initiated by the central government have encouraged increasing numbers of exceptional students to enroll in elementary and secondary schools, with similar outcomes occurring in vocational education and higher education. Although recent achievements in providing educational services to exceptional individuals have been positive, further development of special education in China warrants systematic efforts in improving the quality of learning in regular classrooms, shortening the discrepancy between urban and rural areas, and promoting psychological services for special students. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

Using statistical data on the implementing conditions of China's educational expenditure published by the state, this paper studies the Gini coefficient of the budget educational public expenditure per student in order to examine the concentration degree of the educational expenditure for China's basic education and analyze its balanced development condition. As the research shows, China's basic education is undergoing an unbalanced development due to diversified factors, which is mainly reflected as follows: firstly, the budget educational public expenditure presents a four-tiered appearance of the strong, the less strong, the less weak and the weak, which lead to a great discrepancy between the two opposing extremes; secondly, the compulsory education in rural areas is still confronted with great difficulties; thirdly, the general senior secondary education is loaded with the crisis of unbalance. Therefore, it is necessary to construct a balanced development policy framework of the basic education and pay close attention to the benefit and effectiveness of the educational input. In addition, it is also important to clearly stipulate the criterion of the government's educational allocation and to support the disadvantaged areas in order to promote the balanced development of the basic education.

This essay examines the formation, operation, and social effects of adult education classes in France during the nineteenth century. These classes were created and operated prior to the formation of France's national education system and were part of the expansion of primary schooling for the working class, or more generally for "the people". The more formally organised classes were typically held at local Catholic and non-sectarian primary schools throughout France, but this essay argues that classes held in a variety of other settings contributed to the diversity of adult education courses offered in the 1830s and 1840s. During this early period, the diversity of adult education courses led to wide-ranging social effects, including a challenge to the existing political and social order. Ultimately, however, adult education courses were incorporated into the developing national primary education system and became part of the formation of a generalised system of social distinction that defined and reproduced hierarchies of class and gender in modern French society. (Contains 49 footnotes.)

The experiences of three students with significant disabilities and their educational teams were studied during these students' first year of receiving general education services. Interviews were conducted with general educators, special educators, and parents to identify issues encountered during the year. Also, classroom observations were conducted throughout the year in both self-contained and general education settings for each student, and time sampling data were collected on instruction, downtime, and problem behavior. Results indicated that the education teams encountered several issues related to providing general education access for students with significant disabilities relating to two primary areas: (a) philosophical differences about the purpose of providing access to general education for students with significant disabilities, and (b) efforts to collaboratively team and meet the educational needs of the students with significant disabilities. Observational results indicated that the students received more instruction, experienced less downtime, and engaged in fewer problem behaviors in general education settings. (Contains 4 figures and 3 tables.)

I analyse module outlines within a particular school of social sciences located in a faculty of education, and uncover the evolving systems of teaching social sciences in a teacher education curriculum. The data are analysed through two theoretical lenses: firstly, through the lense of models of teacher education and professional development, and secondly, through the lense of multicultural and multi-disciplinary studies. The analysis reveals that a new language around social sciences is still in the early stages of development, drawing its main referencing from the official policy of the National Curriculum Statement. Unable to develop an independent new language, the social sciences in teacher education tend to capitulate to external dominant forces. There is little evidence of engaging with a critical discourse around the potential of teacher education, resulting in a perpetuation of an applied science notion of professional growth. The juxtaposing of existing disciplinary boundaries constitutes the character of the delivery of the social sciences. I point to a "pedagogy of hope" which focuses on the future rather than on the present status of marginalisation of the social sciences in a teacher education curriculum. The paper offers a way to develop a "Creole", a language and a discourse around the social sciences in general, for teacher education in particular.

By 2000, girls' and women's education was a priority for international development organisations. While studies have examined the impact of recent campaigns and programmes, there has been less exploration of ideas about girls' and women's education within development thought in the immediate post-colonial period, and the political mechanisms through which this came to be a global concern. Through a study of policy documents, this paper investigates how the education of girls and women came to be prioritised within the two principle UN agencies involved with education since 1945, the World Bank and Unesco. A shift in priorities is evident, from ensuring formal rights and improving the status of women, to expanding the productive capacities of women, fertility control and poverty reduction. While the ascendance of human capital theory provided a space for a new perception of the role of women's education in development, in other policy arenas women's education was central to exploring more substantive, rights-based notions of gender equality. Ultimately, the goal of improving girls' and women's education fitted into diverse development agendas, paving the way for it to become a global development priority. (Contains 2 tables and 15 notes.)

This paper brings a speculative, sociological perspective to the nature of "ability" in physical education (PE) and asks why this aspect of embodiment, with notable exceptions, has received so little critical attention in the professional discourse of PE and associated research in recent years. It is suggested that thinking about "ability" has become a taken for granted absent presence in the discursive practices of PE in the UK that variously helps configure attitudes towards the body, a sense of status, value, distinction, inclusion/exclusion and embodied self. Drawing on ideas from the theoretical work of Bernstein and Bourdieu the paper raises a number of issues about the ways in which "ability" is constructed within the disciplines that feed the various subcultures of the PE profession, influencing teaching in schools and teacher education. The paper suggests that unless greater attention is given to "physical education", rather than the interests of sport and health, the profession is unlikely to make an impact either on the "abilities" or other culturally informed differences that children and young people bring to schools. (Contains 1 figure and 3 notes.)

In the United States, a debate exists as to whether abstinence-only or comprehensive sexuality education strategies are most beneficial for school-age youth. Despite abstinence being a fundamental component of comprehensive education, the two are often characterized as polar opposites. Few studies have examined overlaps between the approaches. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between abstinence education and comprehensive topic instruction among sexuality education teachers. Data came from public school teachers (n = 199) in Florida. Abstinence instruction was measured using the Section 510 A-H guidelines. Comprehensive topic instruction was measured using the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States' guidelines. Logistic regression analyses measured relationships between abstinence and comprehensive topic instruction. Nearly one-half of teachers taught all eight A-H guidelines, and the majority taught most comprehensive sexuality education topics. The odds of teaching comprehensive sexuality education topics generally increased as teachers taught more of the federal government's abstinence guidelines. This suggests that abstinence instruction, a core element of comprehensive sexuality education, may increase alongside instruction on other comprehensive topics. We discuss the relevance our findings have for understanding the nature of both abstinence and comprehensive sexuality education. (Contains 3 tables.)

The most significant objective of pre service teacher education is to educate qualified teachers. How this quality can be attained seems possible by designing teacher education programs which enable students to acquire skills such as reaching knowledge and solving problems. It is thought that student teachers begin to understand the profession through the practices of teaching. In this way they will be able to improve themselves and reinforce their professional knowledge and skills effectively, and learn how to act accordingly. This is an important factor of achieving success in the field if necessary steps can be taken in terms of teacher education. When everything considered, it seems crucial to examine the recent changes in the developed countries carefully in teacher education and to scrutinize their effects on the teacher education system in Turkey. The objective here is to compare the models of teacher education in the USA, England, and Turkey as a majority of post-graduate students sent abroad from Turkey to the mentioned countries above. Qualitative data have been collected through analyzing the literature in the field. The results concerning the models of teacher education in the aforementioned countries have been presented here comparatively. (Contains 2 tables.)

The demand for and participation in continuing education by Canadian university graduates who completed bachelor and/or first professional degrees in 1995 are analyzed in this article. Within five years of completing their first degree, in addition to participating in graduate programs, a large number of those graduates participated in non-degree programs and courses for career and job purposes and for personal reasons. Through a descriptive analysis of National Graduate Survey (NGS) data for the 1995 cohort, the authors examined the socio-demographic profile of participants, their motives for participating in continuing education, and their choice of specific programs. According to the study findings, the respondents' labour-market situation, both in objective and subjective terms, was an important reason for participating in continuing education; indeed, more than three-quarters of participants had a job/education-related reason for participating in continuing education. In particular, the study provides information and insight into the demand (expressed and latent) of a targeted university continuing education audience. The National Graduate Survey together with Adult Education and Training Survey (AETS) and institutional data, allow a more realistic assessment of participants' needs and program preferences. (Contains 4 endnotes and 8 tables.)

Although there is a considerable body of research regarding the relationships between the sociopolitical and economic transition and its implications for the education system in South Korea, there is little known about how sociopolitical and economic factors affect labor education practice in South Korea. The premise of the study is that the development of labor education is driven not only by workers' needs but also by the state's policy to increase productivity while keeping the labor movement and political expression under control. Since many educators often overlook the importance of labor education by excluding it from adult education, very few studies have been conducted to identify the relationship between sociopolitical and economic factors and labor education in South Korea. The purpose of the study is thus to examine the effect of particular combinations of social, political, and economic forces on the development and expansion of labor education in South Korea during the period between the 1960s and the 1990s. The results of the study can be compared with studies of other countries that underwent a similar pattern of political and economic transformation. (Contains 2 tables.)