Education & Pedagogy

Early childhood is a critical period of rapid physical, cognitive, and psycho-social development of a child. The quality of care and education which a child receives at this crucial age will determine to a great extent the level of his/her physical and cognitive development in the future. In Nigeria, Early Childhood Care, Development and Education (ECCDE) is an aspect of Universal Basic Education which was introduced in 1999 to increase the access of children to basic education and improve the state of education in the country. While all hands are on deck to ensure successful implementation and achievement of the objectives of the scheme, it is unfortunate that ECCDE is facing some challenges thus making it unrecognized in Nigeria. This paper examines the challenges of early childhood education in Nigeria. To improve the situation, the following measures are recommended: establishment of more public creche, kindergarten, and nursery schools by the government; enforcement of the use of mother tongue in the teaching of children; training more personnel in the field of early childhood education in tertiary institutions; and introducing unified curriculum as well as providing more infrastructures.

The World Conference on Education for All (1990) stated that learning begins at birth. The Dakar Framework for Action (2000) included the expansion and improvement of early childhood care and education as the first of six global goals. A number of countries have launched a variety of efforts to meet their global commitment to the development of care and education services for their young children. Pakistan is one of the signatories of the Education for All movement. However, Pakistan has not nationally agreed to implement a systematic scheme of early childhood education. Thus, Pakistan is considered "far behind" in its progress towards meeting the goal of early childhood education. One strategy in some countries has been to use mothers in the education of the young. However, this policy option is problematic in Pakistan, since educating mothers to become literate and more knowledgeable about contemporary childrearing will require far more extensive efforts and resources than in other countries. This article is an effort to uncover the basic issues around early childhood education in Pakistan and to provide practicable, research-based suggestions regarding early childhood education.

International teacher education is very topical. A recent article by Roberts (2007) in "Teacher Education Quarterly" concluded that teacher educators face difficulties in creating structures and activities and finding the time, energy, and financial resources to promote a deep level of understanding for world dilemmas and events. But what constitutes "a deep level of understanding for world dilemmas and events" for students of international teacher education, and how is its attainment as a learning outcome "dependent on the vision of associated faculty"? This article attempts to grapple with this question. Starting from an historical characterization of three periods of teacher education research and policy in North America over the last 60 years, the author shows how faculty vision of international teacher education has been influenced by different and contrasting conceptions of internationalization as a result of the changing macro-political context surrounding teacher education. The author explores three different ways of conceptualizing internationalization: (1) classical liberal stance; (2) cosmopolitanism; and (3) postmodern trans-nationalism. His thesis is that the heavy neo-liberal emphasis on economics is denying teacher educators all the benefits of cultural and political globalization in international teacher education. (Contains 11 notes.)

Although health, safety and risk education for school pupils has received growing attention in recent years, for the most part related education programmes and research aimed at assessing those programmes have focused on health education, with relatively little attention paid to the array of immediate safety risks that are confronting pupils within the school context. This article reports on research carried out with teaching staff in seven schools to establish the approaches that teachers adopt when delivering lessons with inherent risks. This research is primarily concerned with investigating how a safety education strategy in a school context is implemented, operationalised, communicated and presented to pupils, and to establish whether approaches depart from the theories and prescriptions advanced by education advisors and other Government bodies or stakeholders. The perceptions of the teachers are used as a basis for a broader discussion about the adequacy of safety education and the potential to enhance and broaden the delivery of a safety education curriculum implemented through state schools. The following are appended: (1) The English National Curriculum "general teaching requirement" for health and safety; and (2) Sample of extracts from National Curricula documents, which provides the reader with an initial insight into the nature of safety education requirements. (Contains 10 notes.)

Although Uganda has made tremendous progress in education provision in the past decade, particularly with the introduction of universal primary education, it is confronted by a number of financing challenges relating especially to the demand for increased access at the secondary and tertiary levels. There are two aspects to the funding question: the insufficiency and the misallocation of resources. Both aspects have to be addressed in the interests of improved efficiency and equity. First, at a macrolevel, it is clear in the light of high social demand, that education is inadequately funded even though it is the major budget item. Second, within the education sector, secondary education is seriously underfunded. Third, there are serious inequities in the distribution of resources beyond the primary level. Inequities are exacerbated because the poor are forced to seek access in the fee-paying private sector. Fourth, there is increasing evidence that greater efficiency can be achieved in the utilisation of current funding especially in the secondary, technical and vocational, teacher education, and higher education subsectors as well as in the governance and management of primary education both at the centre and at the decentralised subnational government level. A range of innovative financing strategies is needed to address the many and diverse challenges in the various education subsectors.

The purpose of this article is twofold. The first is to introduce the theme: "Responding to the educational needs of the young to bring about globalization with a human face," which formed part of the discussions at the 47th session of the International Conference on Education, Geneva, Switzerland, 8-11 September 2004. The second is to provide a preview of the key messages of the World Bank's Secondary Education Policy Paper, which will appear in June 2005 (World Bank, 2005). A confluence of at least three major forces has given new urgency and importance to secondary education, the main channel for educating youth. The first is the demographic trend that is putting pressure on the entire education system. This pressure is particularly strong on secondary education, which has hitherto been under-capitalized in many countries. The second is surging demand for secondary school education following accelerated national and international action to achieve Education for All (EFA); and the third is growing demand for educated and highly qualified workers driven by the knowledge/technology economy. These three major forces are briefly discussed. (Contains 2 figures and 4 notes.)

Initial teacher education provides a strategic opportunity for ensuring that all teachers are ready and able to teach for sustainability when they begin their teaching careers. However, it is widely recognized that this strategy has not been used to its full potential. Efforts in education for sustainable development (ESD) at this level have tended to engage with prospective teachers and teacher educators already interested in this area of learning--preaching mostly to the converted. This paper reports on a study undertaken by the Australian Research Institute of Education for Sustainability (ARIES) for the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage, which sought to appraise the models of professional development underpinning a range of initial teacher education initiatives. Its intention was to learn from these experiences and identify effective models for mainstreaming ESD in pre-service teacher education. Three main models of professional development were identified: the Collaborative Resource Development and Adaptation Model, the Action Research Model and the Whole-of-System Model. The paper concludes by arguing that a systemic approach that engages the whole of the teacher education system is necessary if ESD is to be successfully mainstreamed in initial teacher education. (Contains 3 figures.)

This study was motivated by the premise that no nation grows further than the quality of its education. The paper presents an investigation on the relationships between funding, ICT, selection processes, administration and planning and the standard of science teacher education in Nigeria. The data for the study was gathered through a two page questionnaire administered to 180 respondents who were accessible in the Faculties of Education and Schools of Education of selected institutions. In total, 154 questionnaires were retrieved, representing an 86% return rate. At the same time, the data was analyzed using the SPSS version 13.01 software program. The survey was carried out to discover the perception of university and College of Education academic and non-academic staff regarding the impact of funding, ICT, selection processes, administration and planning of teacher education programs in Nigeria. It was suggested that both the academic and non-academic staff were disgruntled with the sluggish integration of the investigated variables in both state and federal owned institutions of higher education in general and teacher education programs in particular. (Contains 4 tables and 3 figures.)

The purpose of this study was to determine the value of business education at the secondary school level as perceived by three groups of people who have great impact on course offerings, student advisement, and teacher hiring decisions. Specifically, high school counselors, high school principals, and local board of education presidents in a Midwestern state were surveyed concerning the value of business education at the secondary school level. Survey results showed that all three groups believed high school business education courses are valuable with keyboarding, computer applications, and word processing being the most important. Principals and board of education presidents believed a general business course should be a required course rather than an elective. Of the workplace competencies taught in business courses, overall results showed the most important, according to respondents, were decision making/critical thinking and human relations. The least important workplace skill was small business management/entrepreneurship. Overall, high school principals valued business competencies and courses more than guidance counselors and board of education presidents, with guidance counselors being least supportive. (Contains 7 tables.)

Preschool education is extremely limited in Turkey, suggesting an absence of public recognition of its importance and a lack of state support. In the "VI. Five Years Development Plan," it was exposed that the target in preschool education could not be reached. Especially, regional differences played an important role. According to population and health research in Turkey in 1998 for those under the age of five, the prevalence of stunted growth among children was 16%. Because children's physical and mental development depends on a nutritious diet, it is emphasized that nutrition education must be diffuse and organized education for both children and their families. At the universities in Turkey, the faculties of education graduate the preschool education teachers. The syllabus of these departments shows that nutrition education is given to the students. Especially, during the early years when children are sensitive and are captive listeners and when habits are formed, nutrition education is a must in the formation of health-promoting nutritional concepts and behaviours. Nutrition education can change behavioural risk factors, and target existing eating patterns, food preparation, and choosing specific types of food. (Contains 1 figure.)

Teacher burnout and attrition are epidemic in the field of special education. The annual attrition rate for special education teachers has been estimated to be between 8% and 10% (Whitaker, 2000), and special education teachers are leaving the field in much greater numbers than their peers in general education (Nichols & Sosnowsky, 2002). Nationally, there is a persistent annual shortage of approximately 29,000 fully certified special education teachers (Boe, Cook, Bobbitt, & Terbanian, 1998). High teacher turnover creates expense and hassle for schools and districts and it also affects students. The Study of Personnel Needs in Special Education (SPeNSE) (2002) reports that limiting teacher turnover enhances both student learning and teacher quality and urges school administrators to develop and implement plans to lower their teacher turnover rate. Several studies mention the role of principals in special education teachers' decisions to remain in or to leave the field. Researchers have also found principal support to be positively related to teacher retention. In this article, the author describes four strategies: (1) prioritizing collaboration; (2) being personally supportive; (3) handpicking mentors; and (4) emphasizing continued learning, which principals can use to increase retention rates for special education teachers.

During the twentieth century, there were increasing concerns about forms of violence and, also, increased interest in peace education. There are various approaches of peace education. And, since all the approaches aim at the same goal--peacemaking--the basic assumptions of the different approaches must agree, otherwise there will be internal inconsistencies in peace education theory. This article examines different concepts, perspectives and implications of the key terms of "anthropomorphic" and "ecocentric" in the context of peace education. These are identified as two perspectives underlying certain inconsistencies between the views of human rights education and of environmental education, being two important perspectives in peace education. Over the past decades, much educational effort has been made to improve human rights education and, also, education to help save the earth from environmental deterioration. Nevertheless, there are still problems in the process of promotion both for human rights and environmental preservation. Theoretically, the problem of whether human rights are compatible with ecological sustainability results from the conceptual conflict between different worldviews: anthropocentrism and ecocentrism. This article takes a philosophical perspective in exploring the meaning of these worldviews and suggests that the matter of incompatibility can be resolved by reconceptualising human rights from the view of ecocentrism rather than anthropocentrism. (Contains 3 tables and 2 notes.)

In 2006, the Chinese government conducted, in the western provinces and a few central provinces, a reform that exempted all rural compulsory education stage students from tuition and miscellaneous fees, in accordance with the measures for implementing the New Mechanism for Assured Funding for Rural Compulsory Education (hereafter "New Mechanism"). At the start of the new year in 2007, the state waived the tuition and miscellaneous fees for rural compulsory education stage students in all regions and for urban compulsory education stage students in the eight provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions of Anhui, Jiangxi, Shanghai, Tianjin, Ningxia, Jiangsu, Hainan, and Zhejiang. This policy, which benefits the people, is profoundly welcomed by farmers. The implementation of the New Mechanism has solved the issue of making school attendance affordable for every child and has laid the basis for enabling everyone to benefit from an equitable education. However, the present imbalances in China's compulsory education currently make it impossible for every child to acquire the conditions that could enable equitable education. This article presents the author's initial policy proposals. [This article was translated by Ted Wang.]

Not only is peace one of the values at the heart of Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV), it is also presented as one of the programme's outcomes. The SSEHV programme seeks to promote "human values" in British schools, also with regard to educating pupils from different social, cultural or ethnic backgrounds towards greater tolerance and understanding. The programme aims to achieve this as part of the statutory provision of physical, social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship education as well provision for the social, moral, cultural and spiritual (SMCS) development of pupils in community schools. This article reports on an ethnographic study of SSEHV in the UK, which was conducted by members of the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU) at the University of Warwick. The research reported here focused on the development of the programme, its contents (including the value of "non-violence" and the practice of "silent sitting"), its application in the classroom, and its reception by pupils and teachers. Further, this article seeks to embed SSEHV in the wider theoretical context of peace education and suggests theoretical discussions to which this investigation contributes. (Contains 9 notes.)

As the Internet continues to drain readers and advertising, newspapers are left with no choice but to cut back on coverage. Many papers have settled on higher education as an expendable beat. At the National Education Writers Association, which represents education reporters and editors around the country, the e-mail list for elementary- and secondary-school reporters buzzes with activity while the higher-education list lies mostly moribund. Coverage of elementary and secondary schools is closer to readers' hearts, editors argue. Higher education, by contrast, generally operates better and involves lots of out-of-town students. So out goes the higher-education coverage. At many papers, the only reporters covering colleges and universities write about basketball and football. Also lost from diminished local reporting about colleges and universities are the contributions that local newspapers can make to national reporting on higher education. Just about the biggest scandal in higher education in recent years, the revelation of improper relationships between colleges and student-aid lenders, was partly reported by regional reporters. For all those reasons, college leaders have powerful incentives to put together their best arguments for continued local coverage--admissions concerns, economic impact, cultural events, educated work force--and request a sit-down with the managing editor and city editor.