Education & Pedagogy

It is the position of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and the College and University Physical Education Council (CUPEC) that all colleges and universities uphold a physical activity instructional program for students as a strong and integral part of the academic curriculum. Bombarded by popular culture, newfound freedom, and peer pressure, the college-aged student is at high risk of making unhealthy choices. This article reports how 35 percent of students on college campuses are overweight or obese. This article discusses the barriers that keep these students from pursuing active lifestyles. It is imperative that colleges and universities must aggressively promote physical activity instructional programs. Colleges and universities must continue the K-12 education regarding health and physical education.

In this article, the author uses the academic/vocational split to reflect on some broader educational and cultural issues, for he thinks that the distinction as it is played out in school has much to teach people, whether or not they are directly involved with the issue of vocational education or, as it is now often called, career and technical education. He begins with some history, so that people can get a sense of the development of vocational education and the academic/vocational divide. He points out that the academic/vocational divide that persists in U.S. schools today is not simply a matter of curriculum. It is an expression of beliefs about intelligence and the social order that continue to limit the options of large numbers of young people. (Contains 12 endnotes.)

This study explores the role of public Islamic higher education in promoting better relations between various religious communities in post-authoritarian Indonesia. Based on field research conducted between December 2005 and March 2006, it documents how progressive Islamic education leaders have advanced a tradition of critical intellectualism in efforts toward the "renewal" of Islamic thought. This report provides an analysis of how this tradition has served as a foundation for educators seeking to promote democratization and address issues of social cohesion. It examines some of the core values expressed by educational leaders as they have aspired to transform the most prominent State Institutes for Islamic Studies (IAIN) into genuine universities. The study also highlights the conservative backlash against public Islamic higher education and other purveyors of progressive ideas within Indonesian society.

This article analyses the situation of the right to education in Europe, based on a comparative study of the recommendations made by the Committee on the Rights of the Child with respect to the reports submitted to the Committee by the European States Parties. The primary sources used are the Committee's concluding observations and the individual reports of the States Parties. The article analyses some of the educational aspects underlying the Convention on the Rights of the Child, such as obstacles to the enjoyment of the right to education, access to that right, discrimination in education, school discipline and human rights-based education. The conclusions suggest consideration of a European map, highlighting certain difficulties in such areas as access to education, discrimination against particular groups and a certain ambivalence in relation to the use of corporal punishment.

Higher levels of girls and women's participation in targeted areas are widely apparent, particularly in affluent and middle-class sites. Here, we report on research with young middle and upper middle-class high school girls successfully enrolled in non-traditional advanced placement (AP) courses in mathematics, science, and computer programming in a suburban school district in Midwestern USA. Focus group interviews with 45 of the highest achieving students in this affluent suburb revealed salient inequities and lingering impediments in the struggle for women's equality. Likewise, the limitations of gender equity politics are evident in the co-opting of discourse of privilege and individualism. (Contains 1 note.) [Abstract included in French.]

The importance of parent-teacher communication has been widely recognized; however, there is only limited research on teaching effective listening skills to education professionals. In this study, a pretest-posttest control group design was used to examine the effect of instruction on the active listening skills of preservice education professionals. Instruction resulted in statistically significant improvement for targeted active listening skills. As a measure of social validity, parents of preschool and school-age children viewed pre- and post-instruction videotapes of preservice education professionals in role-play conversations. The parents judged the post-instruction performances of the preservice education professionals to be better examples of effective communication than the preinstruction performances of the preservice education professionals. (Contains 2 tables and 1 note.)

Integration is the key to sustaining kinesiology as an academic and professional discipline in higher education. Following the vision of Amy Morris Homans, this paper focuses on integration in three ways. First, integration of our multidisciplinary scholarship, with a clear focus on physical activity, is essential to sustaining kinesiology as a unique scholarly area in higher education. Second, integration of academic scholarship and professional practice is essential to sustaining kinesiology as a scholarly profession. Finally, integration implies an active commitment to inclusion and public service, and that is critical to give meaning and relevance to kinesiology. At its best, kinesiology is an integrative professional discipline that serves the public by promoting health and well-being for all through physical activity. All forms of integration are integral to sustaining kinesiology in higher education.

"Justice-learning" lies at the intersection of service-learning and social justice education. Specifically, I argue for a distinctive form of community-based learning ("antifoundational service-learning") that fosters a justice-oriented framework ("anti-anti-social justice") that makes possible the questioning and disruption of unexamined and all too often oppressive binaries of how we view the struggle toward equity in education. The linkage of service-learning and social justice education in this manner offers a "weak overcoming" that strengthens experiential learning toward justice while avoiding the dilution and radicalization faced by both movements. I, thus, trace the linkages between service-learning and social justice education; explicate the potential of antifoundational service-learning as a form of anti-anti-social justice; and draw out the potential and implication of this linkage for both service-learning and social justice education.

Music Education, as well as cultural and musical identities are all being renegotiated, post-Apartheid, within the so-called "newer" rather than the commonly known "new" South Africa. The developing situation with certain minority groups is particularly interesting. Education in general has undergone much change since the first democratic elections in 1994: music education specifically has been affected by such change in terms of content, delivery and assessment. Within the South African context, cultural and musical identities are often intertwined with language, racial and even tribal identities, and discussing one implies the others. We are particularly interested here in the role of formal Music Education in relation to white Afrikaners and Indians as they renegotiate their cultural development, including musical aspects. (Contains 7 notes.)

Educating for global citizenship is increasingly named as a goal of education. This study examines the variations in intent and approach to global education and educating for global citizenship. A review of the literature identifies the links between citizenship and globalization as well as the conflicting discourses and agendas surrounding citizenship education in a globalized neoliberal policy context. Using a conceptual framework that highlights three contrasting approaches to globalization--a neoliberal approach, a radical approach, and a transformational approach--this article compares three global education policies and their citizenship education approaches and highlights the issues implicit in each as well as the problems and possibilities for furthering a social justice agenda. The article concludes that education for global citizenship is a complex and contested concept and that educators who claim to be educating for global citizenship must be clear on the implications of their work.

Using a qualitative study of distance education (DE) learners whose parents have not accessed post-secondary education (PSE), this paper proposes themes for further research in the study of first-generation students (FGS). This survey asked a number of open-ended questions about parental influences on university enrollment, and respondents' reasons for choosing university in general and DE in particular. Findings were consistent with current research in many areas focusing on debt aversion, lower parental guidance, older starting age, and difficulty separating from familial roles. Differences were noted, including lower parental valuation of PSE and an increased emphasis on non-educational priorities, such as family and work. The limitations of the current study are discussed, as well as suggestions for future FGS research in DE.

An international conference on the theme "Advancing the European Education Agenda" took place in Brussels and Leuven, Belgium from 30 November to 1 December 2007. This conference, part of a conference series organised by the European Education Policy Network, aimed to stimulate debate among policy researchers and policy makers who are interested in the rapid education policy developments taking place in the European arena. In this report the authors provide an overview of the key themes, challenges and tensions that were raised during this meeting. These discussions clustered around four themes: higher education, research and innovation; mobility, integration and inclusion; learning, languages and skills; and bridging the gap between education policy and research. (Contains 7 notes.)

The influence of capitalism on education's telos is a subject of critical concern. This article argues that a neo-liberal ideal that markets should determine educational efficacy and process is antithetical to the cultural good. The authors describe education as fundamentally teleological, responsible for defining, building and sustaining civilization. They further argue that an illusory ethos built upon the purely instrumental goals of the marketplace is replacing the authentic ethos for culture and identity building found in education's traditional telos. The authors hope to open a discussion that addresses the philosophical assumptions which underlie the emerging and burgeoning industry in online higher education. A call is made for a critical examination of the instrumental ethos and it is claimed that an authentic ethos will necessarily include a discourse that questions the goals for culture found in education. (Contains 1 table.)

African Americans in predominantly White institutions often carry a greater load than their positions describe. While researchers have explored the unique role of African Americans in higher education, this study deepens the understanding of this role by analyzing the work of one African American woman in a teacher education program at a large Northwestern research institution. As a female African American assistant professor, the author examines her position description and assignments over a five-year period. She focuses particularly on changes that occurred as teacher education faculty struggled to implement a social justice perspective into their preservice teacher program. How have they run these rapids together, and what impact has the institution of their social justice perspective had on her role and person as an isolated individual of color? The author finds the results deeply disturbing. (Contains 1 figure.)

This article suggests the potential existence of Humanistic Islamic Religious Education (HIRE) which is an education that is as Islamic and religious as it is humanistic and liberal. Analyzing the work of renowned Iranian theologian Abdolkarim Soroush, the article focuses on Soroush's construction of three key concepts: religious reason, prophetic experience and religious pluralism and shows that Soroush uses a movement of contraction and expansion of those concepts which allows for a more flexible relationship between religion and modernity and Muslim and Western thought. We show how Soroush's treatment of these concepts allows for a new way to read and teach religious texts, mainly the Quran. This in turn leads to a suggestion of how Soroush's work could become a philosophical bedrock for a religious education that is as humanistic, open and liberal, as it is religious and Islamic.