Education & Pedagogy

Describes the efforts of the International Federation of Library Associations in support of the development of library education around the world. (PF)

This study examines the role of adult education in economically empowering rural women in Southern Ethiopia, with a focus on the Sidama and Central Ethiopia regions. Despite national progress in gender equity, rural women continue to face systemic barriers such as limited access to education, financial resources, and entrenched socio-cultural norms. Using a mixed-methods explanatory sequential design, the research integrates quantitative data from 316 rural women and qualitative insights from 46 facilitators, 2 coordinators, and 36 community representatives. Findings indicate that adult education significantly enhances women's economic agency by equipping them with literacy, entrepreneurial, and financial management skills. Participants reported notable improvements in income generation (68%), access to microloans (52%), and decision-making power at household and community levels (73%). These results demonstrate strong and statistically significant relationships between adult education participation and empowerment outcomes. Nevertheless, challenges such as geographic inaccessibility, resource constraints, patriarchal resistance, and weak policy enforcement continue to limit program effectiveness. To overcome these barriers, the study recommends culturally responsive curricula, expanded rural education infrastructure, vocational integration (for example: agribusiness and handicrafts, and multi-sectoral collaboration). This research contributes to global discourse on gender-inclusive development by situating empowerment outcomes within Ethiopia's national adult education strategy. It underscores adult education as a strategic tool for poverty reduction and social equity in rural Ethiopia, while offering actionable recommendations for policy integration, vocational training, and rural infrastructure expansion.

Background: The initiation of K-12 artificial intelligence education has been led by numerous governments and institutions. However, most existing meta-analyses have focused on the effectiveness of AI tools for learning support (AI in education; AIED), rather than AI education, and research on comprehensive evidence on how AI education improves learners' AI literacy remains limited. Objectives: This meta-analysis aims to provide an additional understanding of the future direction of K-12 AI education by synthesising and analysing existing interventions in AI education classes to enhance learners' AI literacy and holistically discussing their effectiveness. Methods: A total of 16 source articles were searched and analysed from 8 databases, considering our inclusion and exclusion criteria, yielding 57 effect sizes. These effect sizes were used to examine the effectiveness of various K-12 AI education classes in enhancing AI literacy. Results and Conclusion: The analysis showed a significant overall mean effect of AI education classes (g = 0.892, CI: [0.548, 1.236], p < 0.001) on enhancing AI literacy. Moreover, moderator analyses by publication type, year of publication, and school level of the participants did not reveal any significant patterns, indicating that K-12 AI education classes exhibit consistently positive effects across different contexts. The findings underscore the importance of continued research on K-12 AI education and offer a strong rationale for its ongoing integration by policymakers across various governments. To support discussion on this topic, future studies can reference this research and investigate the topic with more published articles.

The global smart education market is projected to reach $883.75 billion by 2028, driven by rapid advances in AI, adaptive learning systems, and digital platforms. These developments are reshaping higher education and require critical analysis of how innovative business models affect accounting education and professional readiness. This conceptual study develops a theoretical framework that links business model innovation with accounting education transformation. Drawing on platform theory, ecosystem thinking, and open innovation, the study identifies three archetypes of smart educational business models: subscription-based micro-credential systems, collaborative network ecosystems, and personalized professional development platforms. Existing literature has explored each of these dimensions in isolation, competency-based education, digital transformation in higher education, and platform economics, but no prior framework integrates them to explain how educational institutions can systematically innovate their business models to co-create value across a unified ecosystem. This framework addresses that gap by conceptualizing how the three archetypes function as interdependent, mutually reinforcing mechanisms rather than parallel pathways, mediated by a digital ecosystem layer that encompasses governance structures, stakeholder power relations, data ownership, and value capture logic. By positioning educational institutions as economic and socio-technical actors, not solely as pedagogical environments, the study offers a new analytical lens for understanding how accounting education can achieve scalable, adaptive, and sustainable transformation. The study contributes by extending business model innovation literature to the educational domain and providing strategic insights for transforming accounting education in the digital era.

Understanding human anatomy is crucial for professionals working in physical education-related fields. However, anatomy education in South Korean universities is often perceived as insufficiently aligned with professional demands. This study aims to document current experiences and perceptions of anatomy education among individuals engaged in physical education and identify areas where educational provision may not fully align with professional needs. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among 730 individuals involved in physical education-related fields in South Korea. Participants reported demographic characteristics, anatomy education experiences, and perceptions regarding the sufficiency and relevance of anatomical knowledge. Group differences were examined using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Participants rated their overall anatomy knowledge at a mean score of 3.40 out of 5, with significant variation across professional orientations (p < 0.001). While 48.1% of respondents identified cadaver-based training as the most effective educational method, such training was largely absent from university curricula and mainly accessed through private programs. Costs and satisfaction levels differed significantly, with external programs often perceived as higher in quality despite greater financial burden. These findings provide a national snapshot of perceived experiences and expectations regarding anatomy education among individuals in physical education-related fields in South Korea. The results highlight persistent discrepancies between university-based anatomy education and professional requirements, particularly regarding practical and cadaver-based learning opportunities. Although this study does not directly evaluate university curricula, the documented perception patterns may inform efforts to better align anatomy education with practical demands of non-medical professional training.

The domain of Outdoor Education within Australia has many definitions. These definitions have evolved over time, and often overlap depending on location and context. Therefore, definitions of Outdoor Education carry with them a diverse range of understandings regarding its form and place in secondary school curriculum. As a result, it has been neglected as a mandated component of the formal curriculum for secondary schools in Victoria. Outdoor Education provides many learning outcomes beyond the scope of the specified curriculum. The primary purpose of this research is to review and acknowledge these outcomes in the context of the formal curriculum. The study involved two phases, a curriculum document analysis and interviews with recognised and respected experts in the field of Outdoor Education. The findings from the curriculum analysis reinforced that Outdoor Education as a component of curriculum was virtually absent from both the National and Victorian state curriculum structures. Interview results revealed that due to an extensive array of differing perspectives regarding Outdoor Education, the capacity to define it as a field of study and practice is complex and descriptions should be contextual. Overall, the data also revealed that Outdoor Education has many outcomes beyond the realm of formal mandated curriculum requirements and that these outcomes are important whether they are included in official curriculum or not. As a result, recommendations from this study are that Outdoor Education be included as a compulsory curriculum within all school year levels in Australia and that the unrecognised outcomes of Outdoor Education programs be regarded as legitimate irrespective of their status within the formal curriculum.

Education is the fundamental Right of every citizen of India. To exercise that right is a challenge when the person has a disability. The education of individuals with disabilities has come a long way in India, ranging from total rejection by schools, to right based education. Getting to know the educational system in India since BCE to current practices leads to understanding the socio-cultural ethos that impact the principles of 'education for all' in India. This narrative study with specific focus on current trends, practices and challenges was carried out through a review of government publications and documents, research studies and other relevant literature. The impact of international mandates and national policies on the educational systems are highlighted. In addition, the diverse socio-cultural, linguistic economic and geographical factors that influence the educational system and the efforts taken by the various Boards of Education at Central and State levels are discussed. Findings reveal that in essence, the policy of inclusive education espoused by the ministry of education reaches a large number of children in regular schools throughout the country, while the special schools supported by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and NGOs play their role in meeting the specific needs of the child ranging from early intervention to higher education/vocational training and job placement. Decisions about the educational placement of a child with a disability are predominantly based on parental choices, the access to schools in their locality and the extent of the child's disability.

Although there has been a long history of distance education, the creation of online education occurred just over a decade and a half ago--a relatively short time in academic terms. Early course delivery via the web had started by 1994, soon followed by a more structured approach using the new category of course management systems. Since that time, online education has slowly but steadily grown in popularity, to the point that in the fall of 2010, almost one-third of U.S. postsecondary students were taking at least one course on line. Fast forward to 2012: a new concept called Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is generating widespread interest in higher education circles. Most significantly, it has opened up strategic discussions in higher education cabinets and boardrooms about online education. Stanford, MIT, Harvard, the University of California-Berkeley, and others have thrown their support--in terms of investment, resources, and presidential backing--behind the transformative power of MOOCs and online education. As educators continue to discuss important issues such as access, affordability, and personalized learning in higher education, they would be helped by having a richer understanding of the changes that are already occurring. In this article, the author offers a descriptive view of the emerging landscape of online educational delivery models can lead to a richer understanding for the continuing discussion of issues such as access, affordability, and personalized learning in higher education. (Contains 3 figures and 19 notes.)

Taking as its starting point that the adjective international is an inadequate, but unavoidable, label to describe the content of a contemporary international education, this article sets out to explore some of the issues facing international education in a post-international world. It draws mainly on writings in French as a deliberate counterweight to international education's over-reliance on anglophone sources. The article's main theme is that the practice of international education is determined, in ways of which we are often unaware, by the social, cultural, political and ideological context in which we live. It tries to identify some of the areas in which the impact of this context is most apparent. The first part of the article focuses on the continuing role of the nation state and on education for citizenship and multiple identities, stressing that citizenship education cannot be subsumed within "education for inter-cultural understanding and respect" and drawing attention to Amartya Sen's warning about the dangers of "plural monoculturalism". The remainder of the article explores other areas in which hidden and sometimes unexamined presuppositions influence thinking and practice in ways that would benefit from challenge. These include the following: the impact of western utopianism; the balance between reason and emotion and the need for "an intelligent heart"; the pitfalls of service education and education for rights; the balance between contemporaneity and transmission; and attitudes towards happiness, adversity and language.

The world is going through a rapid transformation process in all fields. Those countries, which cannot keep up with this process, face numerous problems in terms of maintaining the living standards of their citizens. With the priority of enhancing the lives of individuals, the field of education is greatly affected by this process. Therefore in line with Turkey's ambition to become a full member of the European Union (EU), it has been determined that vocational technical secondary education needs "restructuring". Key indicators of the need for this is a mismatch between what the education sector can deliver and demands for a suitably qualified work force. This is coupled with an increasing demand for higher education and close cooperation between the sector and industry. The EU membership process already specifies certain elements which will shape the future organization of vocational and technical education in Turkey. These concern progression from primary education to vocational-technical education, the general structure, content and evaluation of programs, adoption of a more flexible and modular vocational education structure, and establishing curricula with basic vocational standards. These elements have therefore become key determinants of the "restructuring" process. In this article, the current structure of the vocational-technical secondary education system in Turkey is discussed, and the general specifications of the system are compared with that of EU countries. Moreover, certain recent studies, which can be evaluated within the scope of the restructuring, are analyzed and suggestions are made.

The goal of Education for All (EFA) is in jeopardy, and the cause is widely perceived to be a lack of political will. But we lack an accurate definition of political will. In this article, I offer a definition that determines beforehand whether a government will have political will. In contrast to current academic work and popular discourse, which looks for political will in democratic institutions or the commitment of leaders, I argue that a government has the political will to invest in primary education if doing so helps it to stay in power. The article demonstrates that providing primary education helps a government stay in power in two specific circumstances. The first is when the government needs the support of the poor, which only occurs when the poor have help organising from a "political entrepreneur". The second is when employers need large numbers of skilled workers. In these two circumstances, the government will have the political will to invest in primary education. This formula is successful in predicting government commitments to primary education over a half-century or more in three very different developing countries: Taiwan, Ghana, and Brazil. In each, the article presents evidence that periods of commitment to primary education are the result either of successful political entrepreneurship of the poor or of employer conditions. The results suggest a new direction for EFA that is more challenging but potentially more successful: directing resources toward those countries whose governments currently have political will, and encouraging it in those that do not. (Contains 14 figures and 29 notes.)

This paper begins with an exploration of the history of the international Education for All (EFA) programme and its tendency to overlook some marginalised groups of children, in particular those seen as having "special educational needs" or impairments and disabilities. The exclusion from "mainstream" education programmes of the estimated, though unreliable, figures of 90 or 98% of children in Southern countries has, until relatively recently, been largely unchallenged. The explanation lies in the still prevalent view that some children are "ineducable" and that overcrowded and under-resourced schools would not be able to cope. Consequently, a largely parallel, international debate has developed about "inclusive education", within which many conflicting positions exist. We suggest that there is an unhelpful and wasteful polarisation between EFA and inclusive education. Although inclusive education is defined by some writers in terms of overcoming barriers to learning and development for all children, in the context of Southern countries it tends to fill the gap left by EFA and so focuses almost exclusively on disabled children. This paper challenges some of the rhetoric, but also highlights the opportunities created by the current international interest in, and apparent commitment to, delivering quality education for all children. The paper concludes by offering a re-conceptualisation of the relationship between EFA and inclusive education, argues for greater collaboration and synergy between these currently parallel initiatives, and suggests ways in which practitioners and policy makers can develop more sustainable, and context-appropriate, policies and practices. (Contains 1 note.)

Modernization efforts in education, which were initiated in the 19th century, can be seen as forerunners of the modernization attempts in the Republic period. In this article, Greek education system in the Ottoman Empire will be discussed and the effects and importance of the changes observed in Greek girls' education in 19th and 20th centuries on the modernization period of the Ottoman Empire will be emphasized. Greek girls' education system is examined in terms of the schools in Istanbul. In the secular Greek education system, education of girls was considered highly important. The underlying reasons were the social change emerging in Europe and the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, recognition of the importance of women in the said change and the need to train teachers for schools that were increasing in number every day. The courses taught and methods used in Greek girls' schools played a major role in the reproduction of Greek nationalism by means of education. State authorities that closely watched these developments perceived them as a threat against their political existence, as a result of which inspection on these schools were increased; however, some of these models were also adopted for modern Ottoman education. Furthermore, increase in number of these schools caused competition, which accelerated the opening of Muslim schools. Innovations and developments in the Greek girls' education are significant in perceiving and evaluating the Ottoman education system as a whole. As a matter of fact, this period, which lasted throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, presents us with important clues, which will help us in understanding the education system of today.

When environmental education manifests itself in schools, it is usually a simple matter of the insertion of an environment-related activity into the science, or perhaps social studies, curriculum. However, if one finds a teacher who has "the ethic," the entire school might be "green." The fact that this ethic is spreading through a relatively well organized and rapidly expanding field of theory and practice, grounded in research and philosophical thought, that challenges many of the taken-for-granted assumptions of the dominant educational discourses, may be a cause for concern in some quarters. Those teachers who are happy in standard practice may not want to hear about "the alternative," the critiques of business-as-usual in the field of education, whether from environmental education or other related areas such as social justice and cultural studies. The purpose of this article is to explore some issues of worth concerning what takes place in schools and in teacher education from this vantage point of environmental education, as a field that challenges the taken-for-granted assumptions of the dominant discourses of schooling. Here, the author argues that the socially critical charter of the field of environmental education has meaningful things to say to mainstream education that, if taken seriously, can provide the means to transform one's thinking about some things that really matter in schooling. (Contains 1 note.)

The purpose of this study was to compare students' enrolment and graduate output in Home Economics with other Vocational subjects in the Colleges of Education in Nigeria. The target population included twenty (20) Federal Colleges and twenty-seven (27) State Colleges of Education offering eight Vocational and Technical disciplines during the 2001/2002, 2002/2003 academic sessions. Two research questions were formulated. The design of this study was ex-post-facto and descriptive in nature. The instrument used was the data got from the digest of statistics on Colleges of Education in Nigeria for 2001/2002, 2002/2003. The data was analysed using means, frequencies and percentages. Findings revealed an increase in students' enrolment from 39426 to 43168 in the eight Vocational/Technical subjects for the years under review. 55.9% (24115) of the students were females. Findings also revealed that Business Education, Agricultural education and Home Economics ranked first, second and third respectively.Woodwork ranked last, with MetalWork, Electrical Electronic, Secretarial Studies and Technical Education in that order. Findings also revealed an increase of 1710 (14%) NCE graduates in the period under investigation. Finding revealed a 96% female graduate output in Home Economics in the two years under review, followed by 76% for Secretarial Studies. The last was Metal Work with an average graduate output of 9%. Following these findings some recommendations were made. (Contains 2 tables.)