Education & Pedagogy

This paper represents the perspectives of 25 special education teacher scholarship students from 13 Caribbean and Central American countries (Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nevis, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Grenada, and Antigua) on the status of special education in their countries in the areas of funding, legislation, identification, and programming. Specific sections of the report address the following aspects of special education in this geographical area: disability prevalence, legislation, funding, identification and placement, programs, teacher training, services, other factors affecting special education in the Caribbean and Central America, public awareness, attitudes, government barriers, poverty, and new directions for the 21st century. Appendices include a listing of general areas of concern about special education in the Caribbean and Central America, and specific information about St. Christopher and Nevis, Barbados, Belize, and Jamaica. (DB)

This bulletin describes the use of new qualifications, the General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQ), which have been developed in Great Britain to qualify students for admittance to higher education through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). The first part of the bulletin discusses the suitability of GNVQs as a route from school or college to higher education and describes ways in which GNVQ programs might be enhanced for progression. The second part of the bulletin offers some advice and guidance on establishing agreements, supporting progression to higher education from GNVQs, between centers offering GNVQs, and universities and colleges of higher education. Examples are provided, and a checklist for establishing a GNVQ progression agreement is included. The findings in this bulletin are derived from research undertaken by UCAS and the National Council for Vocational Qualifications with higher education institutions and further education colleges. (KC)

This module on evaluating and recording student progress is 1 in a series of 10 modules written for vocational education teacher education programs. It is designed to give a basic understanding of the principles and practices associated with assigning grades and translating these "marks" into meaningful outcomes. Introductory materials include the following: a listing of competencies/tasks to be covered, objective, overview of the module, listing of suggested resources, and content/instructional strategies, including prerequisite information. The module covers these topics: role of grades; traditional grading system; satisfactory-unsatisfactory or pass-fail grading systems; pitfalls of grading; advantages of a competency-based system of evaluation; assigning grades in a competency-based program; and converting student performance into grades. A summary and review concludes the module. Seven transparencies are appended. (YLB)

Talcott Parsons did not leave us with a global and consistent sociology of education. Instead, different aspects can be found in Parsons's oeuvre in different theoretical contexts. This paper summarises these different parts of Parsons's sociology of education -- his writings on the concepts of education and socialisation, the university, the school, the professions, and modernisation -- and discusses central criticisms and perspectives for further theoretical development. The paper goes on to argue that the value of cognitive rationality serves as a common basis of Parsons's sociology of education and that Parsons's sociology of education should be characterised as normative functionalist. Since the current sociology of education does not deal very intensely with Parsons's theoretical approach, the paper also considers references to other authors and the relevance for current questions and research in the sociology of education.

The present paper aims to highlight the structural problems of the Turkish higher education system by focusing on the problems associated with cost and quality of and access to higher education. These problems manifest themselves in the form of massification, the explosion in the number of public universities without resources and even students, increasing cost of education as inequality and privatization of education are on the rise. Those problems have been exacerbated with the implementation of neoliberal policies that accelerated the decline of the welfare state in Turkey. Populist policies such as opening state universities in every province have not helped with the outcome of such policies: declining quality and increasing cost of higher education, yet let faith-based organizations seize the opportunity of collapsed welfare.

Based on the higher education reform experience in Taiwan, this research elucidates the conditions for the marketization of universities. It draws on critical discourse analysis to explore power relations between higher education, society, and the government and suggests that the university has always been considered a valuable resource for state development. By analyzing the heterogeneity of discourses used in official documents and the academic literature, this research identifies the social contradictions that triggered the education reform movement in the 1990s, including humanistic resistance against economic utility, educational inequality, and demand for academic autonomy. Neoliberalization in higher education is shown as a contemporary model for mobilizing academic resources in indirect but effective ways, with the aim of mapping both neoliberal practices in Taiwan and their connections with the global trend of marketizing higher education.

Girls' education has been widely promoted as the answer to a wide range of problems. This article maps four key ideas that have framed this formulation. These are firstly, a techno-rationalist approach linked to narrowly defined interventions, termed here 'what works'. Secondly, a more normative engagement is outlined, termed 'what matters' which explores how girls' education is part of processes to extend and defend rights, support feminism or decoloniality. Thirdly, an approach termed 'what disorganises' looks at the ways in which girls' education has been used deceitfully and hypocritically to mask the perpetuation of unjust power. Lastly, an approach termed 'what connects' maps processes associated with building connections and epistemologies of co-ordination. The implications of these four framings are considered for the development of discussions on girls' education and gender equality and methods in comparative education.

Due to the forces of globalization, higher education institutions have increased their participation in international partnerships and the flow of academic services and resources across borders. This international academic mobility is known as internationalization, and transnational distance education is an example of an innovative internationalization strategy. Despite the exponential growth and the projected acceleration of transnational distance education enrollment, there is a dearth of knowledge in the measurement and practice of international quality dimensions and learning outcome indicators to support internationalization efforts for transnational distance education. This research utilized content analysis to organize networks of concepts and capture quality indicators from five internationally accepted frameworks to establish a quality dimension typology. Based on preliminary findings, 27 internationalization indicators were identified to support transnational distance education internationalization efforts. Findings support a need for more holistic quality frameworks with greater attention to internationalization quality dimensions to guide successful outcomes across borders.

Taking the migration-higher education nexus as an analytical entry point, we address the question: How can we account for different internationalisation outcomes? We focus on three actors involved in the global race to internationalise higher education activities: higher education institutions (HEIs), states, and migrants. We argue that the migration-higher education nexus enables us to begin describing and explaining differences in internationalisation outcomes (i.e. greater, limited, or none) by focussing our empirical attention on the interaction between HEI internationalisation strategies, state policies, and migrant agency to move/stay. We delineate various configurations of these interactions and how they determine internationalisation outcomes.

In 2007, the Act on Special Education for Persons with Disabilities in South Korea was enacted, resulting in various changes to the special education teacher training policy and system. Although special education is being developed and operated in response to societal changes and the budget is increased yearly, the controversy over the teacher training system continues in the education field. However, systematic academic research on these issues is insufficient. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to explain the teacher training system in South Korea. First is a brief introduction to the 4-year special education qualification system and its current status in South Korea. Second, two types of training for special education teachers are explained following teacher qualification. Third, the issues surrounding the special education training program are discussed.

Following the work of Jacques Derrida and modern educational authors, this article argues that Western education currently holds mainstream formal educational practices as the standard by which all other educational practices should be judged. This is a problem because this positions every other educational practice, including non-formal education as supplemental to formal education. Derrida calls this the logic of supplementarity. Drawing on data from over 2 years of research in Flemish youth work, that the logic of supplementarity inhibits non-formal educational environments in articulating their own educational goals. We conclude that supplementarity is an unavoidable characteristic of education, and that exactly by acknowledging practices as supplemental, it becomes possible to work towards a Derridean ideal of an education 'yet-to-come.' In this logic, we argue, it becomes possible for non-formal educational practices to both challenge formal conventions and to better their own practices.

Although education is mostly the duty of educators, it is an important field that concerns all segments of society. Studies and regulations on education on a global scale have gained momentum in terms of increasing both quality and quantity. Which issues related to education are considered important and which problems are focused on can be a guide in giving direction to the regulations in education. In this study, a total of 351 articles published in SSCI journals are reviewed, with documentary analysis, and the subject areas of the most read articles on education are discussed. The most-read articles on education focus on the themes of inequality and injustice in critical education. Other results of the research are discussed in detail in the article.

This article puts in conversation Georges Bataille's contributions to critical theory of fascism with contemporary affect theory, and outlines some implications for antifascist education. The purpose is to critically engage with the role of affectivity in fascism and antifascist education and unpack the risks entailed in antifascist education as a case of 'affective education,' thereby extending our understanding of the affective dimensions of antifascist education. If antifascism requires attunement to antifascist affects and sensibilities, as Bataille suggests, then there are important ethical and political risks for antifascist education. In particular, if antifascist education must stoke a passion for democracy, then there are concerns about where to draw the line that enables a non-dogmatic, non-manipulative antifascism. The article discusses whether or how it might be possible to remedy some of these ethical and political risks through particular strategies.

This paper describes and analyzes the social relations that emerged from an ongoing adult education internship/community-based garden project in Montreal. I employ institutional ethnography to explore and uncover how adult education internships in community gardens and gardening programming can work to produce disproportionate outcomes for adult learners, community workers, and community members. I trace my own and others' experiential knowledge of attempting to use gardens for social, environmental, and educational reasons into texts and policies that shape garden and adult education possibilities in community-based contexts. In the process of creating, funding, enacting, and evaluating adult education internships in community organizations, I elucidate specific institutional contrivances (e.g., funding, policy, work processes, discourse) that are presently structuring and defining who experiences access to gardens, gardening and its ostensible health and well-being benefits, and adult education.

This article is part of a special issue which builds on Italo Calvino's memos for the next millennium. More specifically, this paper gives an educational reading of the quality of exactitude. This quality is at the heart of what education is all about, viz. learning to give an adequate response to what things in the world demand of us -- students and teachers. This demands the collective building of a capacity to see the world in the same way. Hence, an education under the banner of exactitude is an education of the senses. It is argued for that such an education is an apt way to respond to the societal and ecological challenges we are increasingly faced with. This is made more concrete by fleshing out an alternative account of STEAM education.