Education & Pedagogy

Many Black men interested in special education careers enroll in alternate route special education programs over traditional preparation programs. However, there is little research that focuses on their reasons for choosing special education alternate route programs and what makes these programs an effective choice for Black men pursuing teaching careers in special education. This qualitative study interviewed Black men regarding (a) reasons they chose an alternate route special education program, (b) core components of the program they found effective, and (c) support needs once they exited programming. Several themes emerged from this study and indicated that funding, targeted recruitment, and mentoring from Black faculty were among important factors for recruitment and retention. Recommendations for the field, implications and recommendations for policy and practice, and future research are also discussed.

As innovation increasingly fuels economic growth, higher education institutions and systems face the challenge of equipping students with the skills required by innovative economies. Using two international surveys of tertiary education graduates five years after their graduation, we show that the innovative, tertiary-educated workforce comprises a mix of graduates holding degrees from all disciplines. The contribution to innovation of different graduates varies by type of innovation. When they assess the strong and weak points of their university education, graduates give a mixed picture of the quality of the education they have received. We then link the propensity to participate in innovation to the relative emphasis on theory and practice in university programmes and conclude by highlighting the importance of a competence-based approach to curriculum and pedagogy.

A quality program is the ultimate goal for many secondary agricultural education programs. To ensure quality agricultural education programs, standards were established to measure the extent agricultural education programs in Iowa were implementing standards. Utilizing Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior, researchers incorporated the Iowa Council on Agricultural Education standards as an evaluation tool. A census study was conducted in Iowa with high school agricultural education teachers (N = 255) to better understand the extent that standards outlined by the Iowa Council on Agricultural Education were being met in agricultural education programs. In the general program standard area, improvement is needed in the areas of utilization of stakeholders, program planning, and administration communication. The FFA standard area only had one standard not being met or exceeded while Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) standard area had all standards indicated being met or exceeded.

It is generally agreed that participating in study abroad programs, even short term, has positive impacts on students. But what would be the impact of an "education abroad" opportunity for staff members in international education? Reported in this paper is a 3-month professional development program in a Canadian university for 52 international student advisors from 51 different Chinese institutions. Based on data from a survey and their comparative research reports, the study aims to glean the impacts of such an education abroad opportunity for international education professionals after their exposure to a different national context and different practices in international education. Findings of this study show that international comparison can serve as an effective approach to the professional development of international education professionals, which enhances their historical, contextual, and cultural understanding of their own work.

Engagement is a key factor for student learning, participation, and retention in a distance education course and programs. The Online Student Engagement Scale (OSE) was developed as a tool to measure student engagement in online courses. This study investigated student engagement in a graduate-level online special education-general education program to get students' perceptions about their (a) level of engagement and (b) factors contributing to their engagement. Following the OSE survey, students participated in a focus group to gain greater understanding of students' engagement in their online course and program. Results indicated that student engagement in the online program was highly rated and several themes emerged as reasons students believed that the newly minted online program was engaging. Based on these findings, implications for strengthening practice regarding engagement in online courses and programs are discussed.

Specially designed physical education (PE), also known as adapted PE, is frequently provided by an adapted physical educator. Adapted physical educators are unique, as they need knowledge about both PE and special education curricula (Kwon & Block, 2014). However, students with disabilities are not provided appropriate PE services. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, U.S.C. § 300.108, 2004) requires students with disabilities to have access to specially designed PE to meet their unique needs as determined appropriate by the individualized education program (IEP) team. However, it has been well documented that many barriers prevent effective adapted PE service delivery to students with disabilities (Government Accountability Office [GAO], 2010). Some barriers are associated with local special education administrators and special educators. The purpose of this article is to highlight the existing barriers for students with disabilities and offer possible solutions.

This qualitative study demonstrates the kinds of pedagogical pitfalls that are included in simplistic understandings of child-centeredness in the context of media education, an emerging field of early childhood teacher education with only a little empirical research done so far. Course diaries from 15 preservice teachers were analyzed to find answers to the question: How do preservice teachers approach child-centered education in the context of media education? The main findings can be summarized as follows. First, preservice teachers approached child-centeredness as an all-encompassing principle that guides early childhood education. Second, media education-related issues -- beliefs about children and media, ambiguity of media literacy, and insecurity about oneself as a media educator -- appear to bolster views of children as self-driven learners, and teachers as mere facilitators who do not have an active role in children's learning processes.

Incorporating literacy into physical education has been a longstanding challenge among physical educators. However, a dearth of research exists regarding the integration of literacy and physical education, which prompted this study. Derived from a larger 4-year longitudinal mixed methods study of physical education teacher education (PETE) candidates' perceptions around the integration of physical education and literacy, our research draws from both attitude theory and teacher socialization research to examine PETE candidates' attitudes toward literacy and toward the integration of physical education and literacy. We found that and their experiences in childhood with reading, be it "easy to read" or "struggled to read," created distinct subpopulations within this sample differently influencing the likelihood of integrating literacy into physical education. We conclude with future research suggestions for new directions in attitudinal studies and PETE programs.

In the previous era of open educational practices (OEP) based around distance teaching, its actors and their target group were clear to define: open universities and disadvantaged learners. In this new era of OEP linked to digitalized open educational resources, there are multiple actors and beneficiaries of OEP. This critical literature review examined numerous scholarly narratives about OEP in online distance education, by asking a simple but important question: "Who opens online distance education, to whom, and for what?". The results suggest that despite the growing importance on the social mission to make Education for All among diverse actors, clear understanding of the actual process of OEP in real-life higher education settings and clarity on how those actors actually serve disadvantaged learners are lacking. This article suggests that we refocus our OEP effort on opening higher education to the disadvantaged and collecting real-life stories of OEP and the disadvantaged.

In this article, we build on the extant literature documenting efforts to reform teacher education for inclusive education in the United States to demonstrate the complexity of preparing teachers to enact inclusive education given their own educational trajectories. We draw on qualitative data from a larger study on the nature and impact of an undergraduate course in inclusive education, providing an empirical analysis of the mediating role of general education pre-service teachers' educational experiences in their constructions of inclusive education and its feasibility. Our data reveal how pre-service teachers' educational experiences within school organisations configured by professionalisation and specialisation, worked to perpetuate and legitimate the separation of general and special education. We conclude by suggesting possible efforts to prepare educators for inclusive education.

This article presents a brief overview of the current state of distance education in France. We commence with a brief introduction to the country itself, followed by a descriptive, albeit highly abbreviated, overview of the history of France's educational system. We then turn our attention to specifically examine certain implementations of online education currently employed with the French higher education context. Selected for particular attention in this manuscript is France's "Conservatoire national des arts et métiers", "Cnam" (in English, the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, or "CNAM") and the "Centre national d'enseignement à distance", "Cned" (in English, the National Center for Distance Education, or "CNED") as 2 salient examples of the manner in which France has chosen to integrate distance education within higher education. We conclude with key reflections arising from the content presented in this manuscript.

Ecological sustainability can be considered the primary goal of higher education development, as it provides an ontological way to think about what it means for higher education's long-term development. Given the widespread concern of ecological sustainability, it's urgent to interpret and deconstruct ecological sustainability in Chinese higher education from indigenous and original perspectives. By drawing on the wisdom from Chinese ancient education philosophy which provides unique enlightenment for ecological sustainability, this paper discusses the harmonization of ecological sustainability and higher education development. In the light of the connotation of contemporary ecological sustainability and the new development of Chinese higher education, the paper also constructs a dynamic model of ecologically sustainable development in Chinese higher education. The aim is to initiate more philosophical dialogues between ancient and modern education, and to provide a new way of conceptualizing Chinese ancient education philosophy in the postmodern times.

The internationalization of higher education results in 4.6 million students attending colleges and universities outside their home countries. In the United States and other countries, there is significant underrepresentation of women among inbound international higher education students. Gender equality in education cannot be achieved so long as women are underrepresented in participation in this important educational venue. To better understand the drivers of gender inequalities in international higher education, this study examines the low participation rate by women coming to the United States by comparing it with participation data for women coming to the United Kingdom and Germany. Gender participation rates from both source regions and countries vary by destination country. By exploring the geography of gender inequality in international higher education, decision makers can better understand barriers to achieving international gender equality goals.

Physical education teacher education programs are tasked with preparing students for a teaching career in a field that possesses inherent challenges. Purpose: The current study, designed as a descriptive case study, examined how an outdoor education field experience can facilitate important learning for preservice teachers about navigating sociopolitical relationships among colleagues and the greater school community. Method: Interviews were conducted with 13 preservice physical educators and the course instructor, in addition to field observations. Results: An outdoor education experience that includes opportunities to interface with and reflect on working with various stakeholders can help preservice teachers learn to navigate sociopolitics and persist through challenges. Discussion/Conclusion: Despite challenges, the nontraditional and intensive nature of the field experience, as well as the positive relationships developed with students, compelled the preservice teachers to find effective ways to collaborate and manage teaching roles.

The first in a series of four technical reports, this study describes the structure of Oregon's educational system, focusing on the state government's role in education, on the components of public education, and on private educational institutions. The overview of the state government's administrative channels highlights the system of elected officials, appointed bodies, commissions, and agencies responsible for decisions on educational policy and finance. Historical background, statistical descriptions, and stated objectives of each sector of public education are reviewed for elementary and secondary education, education service districts, the state's community colleges, and the system of four-year state colleges and universities. Private education is examined at the elementary and secondary levels according to institutions' affiliations, purposes, organizations, finance, and relationships with other schools, both public and private. Independent colleges and universities are described in terms of their organization, finance, and relationship to state financial assistance. (JW)