Education & Pedagogy

Contrary to pervasive assumptions about the need for lifelong learning, U.S. and Canadian adults' collective learning efforts far outpace workplace requirements. Underemployment has several dimensions: the talent-use gap, structural unemployment, involuntary reduced employment, credential gap, performance gap, and subjective underemployment. Substantial economic reforms are needed, not more emphasis on lifelong learning. Contains 92 references. (Author/SV)

Describes the role played by people's movements and nongovernmental organizations, including educational programs, in empowering citizens and combating injustice in the Philippines. The authors argue that this type of education can play an important role in challenging the materialist vision of progress and awakening people to deeper values. Contains 58 references. (AMA)

Analyses some of the difficulties involved in implementing the recently approved Basic Education Program for primary and secondary education in Sierra Leone. Discusses issues such as funding, training, and retention of teachers, curriculum reform, language development, equipment and supplies, and evaluation. Concludes that political stability is important in implementing basic education. Contains 21 references. (AMA)

Two preservice master's-level courses in early-childhood special education were taught twice across two academic years through distance learning using two-way interactive television (ITV). Results indicated the 103 student participants generally rated ITV as acceptable but most would choose traditional course delivery. Factors crucial to success are discussed. (CR)

Creating an equitable school environment is easier in theory than in practice. This article provides background information to help educators understand the importance of gender issues and offers concrete teaching strategies (in the areas of assessment, curriculum, school climate, and instructional supervision) to minimize gender bias. (17 references) (MLH)

Presents conclusions about school failure in European countries reached by the European Symposium on School Failure. The conclusions focus on the conceptualization of school failure, acceptance of the problem by governments, frequently adopted solutions, more coherent solutions, and implications for teacher education (prerequisites, the institutional dimension, and the curricular dimension). (SM)

Students with special needs share the same basic needs for literacy instruction. General-education teachers should maintain primary responsibility for literacy education for all students, while special educators and reading specialists provide support. This paper examines obstacles to quality literacy instruction, offering a school-based case study in which these obstacles were overcome. (SM)

Describes efforts to implement a systematic approach to planning for technology integration in two colleges of education, addressing recent revisions to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Foundations and offering revised support materials and recommendations for future implementation of the planning model. Notes the need to support faculty and encourage group commitment in such efforts. (SM)

Considers assumptions implicit within Western science-education research and practices. Argues that Western science underpins science teaching and that other world views are not foregrounded. Claims that the notion of "alternative views" positions knowledge construction in other cultures in ways that do not permit different world views or understandings to emerge. Also suggests that "alternative" implies alternative to Western science. Contains 61 references. (Author/WRM)

Examines similarities and differences in the institutions that authorize postsecondary technical education in the United Kingdom and Japan, focusing on the mechanisms for awarding degrees (quality evaluation vs. credit accumulation), structural differences, depth and scope of operation, legislative and policy-making approach, adaptation to system change, and impact on university education. (MSE)

A college professor who sometimes appears as a guest on a local radio call-in program discussing contemporary higher education, talks about the nature of the changes occurring in the college curriculum and student population, multicultural education, teaching styles and objectives, trends in access to a college education, and the financial crisis facing colleges and universities. (MSE)

Describes development of a rural Guatemalan women's organization created to respond to the psychological, economic, and educational consequences of long-term war, massacre, military occupation, poverty, and exile. The association's genesis and current work reflect collaborative processes of interethnic and transnational nonformal education, community organizing, and leadership development. Contains 45 references. (MLH)

Examines multicultural and introductory special-education textbooks to assess how each set of texts treats the other's issues. Analyzes conversations with teacher-education leaders addressing how their programs treat both issues. Conflating diversity concerns with traditional conceptions of disability is highly problematic. Explores progressive ways to link agendas. Contains 61 references. (MLH)

This study surveyed 146 recent graduates from special-education doctoral programs concerning the following: motivating factors for obtaining a doctoral degree, considerations when selecting initial careers, and the effects of marriage and family on those decisions. Salary, relocation factors, and prior career experiences strongly influenced decisions concerning university careers. Universities need to address the continuing problem of special-education faculty vacancies. (Author/DB)

In a study surveying 410 graduating education majors, respondents reported little opportunity to see technology use modeled in a college classroom setting by university professors or in a student-teaching setting by supervising teachers. Without such modeling, tomorrow's teachers may not be sufficiently prepared to integrate technology into instruction. (MLH)