Education & Pedagogy

Our education systems must provide access to quality and equitable educational opportunities so all students can reach their full potential. Increasingly urgent issues, such as environmental threats, economic crises, and the recent global pandemic, have highlighted the need for education systems to be flexible and resilient in times of stress to ensure there is no loss in learning for children. Leading innovation in education requires creating an environment that encourages creative thinking to solve education challenges and support continuous improvement. Teachers, principals, school counselors, advisors, administrative staff, NGO staff, government ministry officials, and all those in a position to guide actions that improve education and learning outcomes can be innovative leaders. This article describes implementations to innovation by answering questions like: what does it mean to lead change in schools and in education systems today?; what are the characteristics of a leader in education innovation?; and what are some challenges to fostering leadership for innovation in education?

Visual arts education must outline a defensible vision for our discipline that acknowledges the arts are White property. In this article, I argue that visual art itself should be recognized as a racializing technology contributing to the production and ranking of human difference. I show how a previous iteration of visual arts education--visual culture art education--also called into question the role of visual art in producing the cultural superiority of the Enlightenment subject, who was key to the historical emergence of whiteness itself. However, this approach to art education was more concerned with the political ontology of the image rather than the human. Drawing on Al-An deSouza's studio practice, negotiated refusal, I begin to outline a vision for visual arts education that recognizes the arts as White property, and yet does not give up on either fine art or the human.

The use of online education tools has increased rapidly with the transition to distance education caused by the pandemic. The obligation to carry out all activities of face-to-face education online made it very important for the tools used in distance education to meet the increasing needs. In line with these needs, radical changes have occurred in the learning management systems used in distance education. Therefore, in this study, it is aimed to determine the features that the systems used in distance education should have and to compare the existing systems according to these features. For this purpose, a novel fuzzy extension, interval valued intuitionistic fuzzy Z-numbers, is defined for modeling uncertainty, and AHP and WASPAS methods using proposed fuzzy numbers are developed to determine the importance of decision criteria and compare alternatives.

Teachers play a significant role in the effective implementation of sexuality education programmes in schools. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between teachers' attitudes, self-efficacy, and teaching practices in sexuality education in public primary schools. A survey using self-administered questionnaires was conducted. Data collected from 77 teachers were analysed using simple and multiple linear regression tests. The analyses revealed that teachers' attitudes toward sexuality education and self-efficacy to teach this education significantly predicted their teaching practices in sexuality education. The results also revealed that the interaction between teachers' attitudes and self-efficacy significantly predicted their way of delivering this type of education in the classroom. The study concluded by suggesting the need for comprehensive professional development to enhance teachers' skills.

This article discusses the benefits of aligning the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to promote quality education and sustainable development in India's higher education institutions. The NEP 2020 and the SDGs share common objectives related to promoting access to quality education, improving learning outcomes, and fostering innovation and research. By integrating the SDGs into their curricula and operations, higher education institutions in India can help their students develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to contribute to sustainable development in India and globally. The article also provides examples of higher education institutions in India that have adopted the SDGs and incorporated them into their curricula and operations. The alignment of NEP 2020 with the SDGs is expected to further encourage the integration of the SDGs into higher education in India.

Often second generation young adults and their immigrant parents aspire high and towards general education despite a modest socioeconomic background. Little is known about the interrelation between educational aspirations and institutionally co-structured educational pathways. These interrelations are particularly important in an early tracking and a highly segregated education system like Switzerland, where -- in contrast to many other countries -- vocational education and training is highly valued and frequently attended. We evaluate how educational aspirations amongst young adults of the second generation and Swiss natives change as young people move through the education system -- and thus through different educational contexts. We analyse how these changes interfere with group-specific reference systems, educational pathways and structure.

This historical study is an extension of an earlier study "The Origins of Multicultural Music Education in Chinese Secondary Schools' General Music Classes." In the earlier study, I examined multicultural music education in middle school music classes in the People's Republic of China from 1989 to 2010. The present study examines the same topic during an earlier time period, 1978-1988. Primary sources are national syllabi issued by the Chinese Ministry of Education and State Education Commission. The study concludes that during the time period Chinese multicultural music education highlighted the diversity of Chinese music culture, involving music from 56 nationalities in the People's Republic of China. The findings, along with the findings of the earlier study, reveal trends in multicultural music education in Chinese schools.

This manuscript presents a preliminary discussion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a disruptive technology with the potential to significantly change special education practices. The article begins with a brief description of the development of AI. The authors recognize our assertions are subjective and require further research. Several references are not peer-reviewed because educational research takes years to conduct, analyze, and disseminate outcomes. In this manuscript, we discuss current software used for writing with students in special education and discuss similarities and differences with AI software. This discussion is followed by questions and examples related to implementation, ethical and policy considerations, and preservice special education teacher preparation. The article concludes with future considerations for how AI will impact the special education technology field.

Addressing the ongoing calls to reform teacher education to prepare future teachers to serve students from diverse backgrounds, this introduction reviews recent developments in teacher education to situate our thematic issue on critical teacher education for equitable learning in multilingual classrooms. The five empirical papers and two commentaries included in this issue focus on the connection between language, power, and critical consciousness to address equity concerns in teacher education as it pertains to supporting multilingual learners, asking: how do teacher education programs prepare teachers to work with diverse students in schools where there exists a long-standing history of marginalization and discrimination based on racial, economic, social backgrounds? In this introductory paper, we discuss the contributions of the papers included in the issue and share a vision for new ways for reimagining teacher education for multilingual learners.

At a time when there are renewed expressions of concern about how our societies are organised and the health of our democracies, this paper focuses on the role of education in a democracy. Informed by John Dewey's and Martin Buber's accounts of what it is to be educated, and Homi Bhabha's concept of third space work, the paper presents the case for a progressive education for democratic citizenship. Adopting an ethnologically-informed approach, the paper provides an in-depth look at two Catalan and two English schools, focussing on the ways in which they look to provide a democracy enabling education. The findings reveal how and why mutual cooperation, collaboration and dialogue in relationships are key elements in the modelling of an education for democratic citizenship.

This paper is a theoretical contribution to discussions about the emancipatory potential of citizenship education across four sites (i.e. Catalonia, Colombia, England, and Pakistan). By reflecting on policy and empirical data from our four contexts of study, we discuss whether citizenship education manifests different conditions of emancipatory education (modern, postmodern, and posthumous). We argue that citizenship education offers possibilities for emancipation, but these are constrained by capitalist and Enlightenment barriers. We conclude that if an emancipatory form of citizenship education is to be possible, there is a need to make room for politics in school classrooms and further politicise epistemological and anthropological assumptions. We recommend a form of citizenship education that conceptualises emancipation as our ability to respond ethically to situated challenges by thinking by ourselves with others.

Students identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) benefit from the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in all educational settings, including general education classrooms. Research indicates that EBPs are not consistently implemented across educational placements, nor are they always implemented with fidelity. One contextual factor that can influence successful EBP implementation is teacher attitudes toward an EBP. This study examined and compared the attitudes of general education and special education teachers toward EBPs. Study results suggest that special education teachers have more positive attitudes toward EBPs, while general education teachers are more likely to diverge from EBPs to support students with ASD. These findings have implications for improving the implementation of EBPs in both general and special education classrooms for students with disabilities, particularly students with ASD.

Purpose: This study's purpose was to explore professional career paths into physical education teacher education. Methods: Participants included 27 physical education teacher educators with an average of 20.2 years of experience selected from among attendees at international conferences, using a combination of convenience and purposive sampling. Data sources included semistructured interviews, living graphs, and participant vitae. Results: Findings describe intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors to pursue a professional role change and the selection of a doctoral program including--(a) prompted by others, (b) self-initiated, and (c) forced choice. After deciding to pursue a doctoral degree, program choice was predicated by disciplinary and institutional, as well as idiosyncratic and personal considerations. Conclusions: Understanding how and why participants repositioned themselves from their current roles into doctoral education has important implications for further research and practice to enhance the quality of doctoral education.

Given that standards-based education has been commonplace since the early 1980's, most practicing education professionals cannot remember a time where standards did not exist. Standards have historically served as a mechanism for accountability and academic achievement. In physical education, while not required in initial educational reforms, the development of standards was seen as a way to combat the marginalization of our subject. Despite this, we lack evidence demonstrating the impact of standards on physical education programming and student learning. Further, we rarely take the time to consider why standards are commonplace in education, and how they are developed. This paper brings to life the historical timeline of relevant educational reforms, offers a critical perspective of standards in physical education, and proposes several questions in order to challenge the status quo and encourage productive discourse around standards-based physical education.

Extant studies of special education teacher wellbeing often focus on negative aspects, such as stress, burnout and the consequent attrition from teaching, the latter occurring with increasing frequency in the field of special education. In this article, the authors use the OECD teacher wellbeing framework to conceptualise special education teacher wellbeing as a positive multidimensional construct, making the case for uncoupling special education teacher wellbeing from mainstream teacher wellbeing given the almost paradigmatic difference in roles, responsibilities, and educational context within Australian schools. The (limited) literature reveals numerous possibilities for supporting and promoting special education teacher wellbeing with salient wellbeing-promoting factors, such as teacher self-efficacy, connectedness, professional development, and class structure. Further empirical studies harnessing these factors will help improve working conditions and the wellbeing of special education teachers.