Education & Pedagogy

This paper argues that the social foundations of education, and particularly the disciplines of history, philosophy and sociology of education, must continue to play an integral role in programs of teacher education. We report on the decline of the study of history of education within Faculties of Education in Canada as an example of the marginalization of the role of the social foundations in teacher education programs generally. In this context we furnish what we take to be some of the strongest reasons for the requirement for future teachers to engage with the social foundations--some of these arguments apply to all of the foundational areas, and some apply to specific foundational disciplines. Some of these arguments will be familiar, some new. We conclude that if a teacher education program in Canada is to be of a very high quality then it must include a strong social foundations component. (Contains 8 footnotes.)

The purpose of this article is to critically examine Somaliland's post-conflict education reconstruction. The work includes documentary analysis of the Somaliland Education Policy. The authors also draw on the National Teacher Education Policy and the Somaliland National Education Development Plan. The analysis of these documents is primarily informed by discourse analysis theory developed by Fairclough. It is argued that the policy text analyses indicate and favour an enterprise-oriented education ideology. This emphasises competitiveness in market environments both nationally and individually. Educational ideologies are closely related to political ideologies. The authors argue that since the collapse of the socialist government of Somalia in 1990, Somaliland has developed a new political ideology strongly informed by neo-liberal views. This research attributes the development of new education and political ideologies to the significant local-national and global interactions between the local education stakeholders, the Somaliland diaspora community and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) that support the education sector.

Swedish teacher education has undergone several reforms in recent decades aimed at incorporating teacher education into the university setting and strengthening the teaching profession. In view of earlier research that has shown how arts education in schools is ruled by dominant knowledge ideologies, the purpose of the project is to critically scrutinize current discourses related to arts learning and arts education in teacher education. The study is based on social constructionist theory and data were collected by various means, including 19 focus group interviews with teachers and students at 10 Swedish teacher education institutes. Our analysis shows that an academic discourse focusing on theory, reflection and textual production has pushed aside skills-based practice. A second discourse, characterized by subjectivity and relativism vis-a-vis the concept of quality, is also found in the material. Finally, a therapeutic discourse is articulated and legitimized based on an idea that student teachers should be emotionally balanced.

Since 2001 in Finland, all six year olds have had the right to free pre-school education, and almost all pre-school-aged children take advantage of this opportunity. The purpose of this article is to dissect the development of Finnish pre-school education curricula within the societal context and within the changes in trends of curriculum planning between 1972 and 2000. The study analysed five curricula texts through qualitative content analysis by paying attention to the functions of pre-school education and the positioning of children and educators. The development of pre-school education consisted of four phases: (1) the era of pre-school education trials; (2) the era of heterogeneous pre-school education arrangements; (3) the era of changes in curriculum policies; and (4) the era of pre-school education establishment. The results indicated that the changes in pre-school education curricula related to the changes in Finnish society and in basic education. (Contains 2 notes.)

The education of professionals oriented to poverty reduction and the public good is the focus of the article. Sen's "capability approach" is used to conceptualise university-based professional education as a process of developing public-good professional capabilities. The main output of a research project on professional education in South Africa is an innovative "Public-Good Professional Education Index" generated by using three knowledge sources: theory; empirical data from five university-based professional education departments in three universities in South Africa; and deliberations with stakeholders. Here the case of a Department of Engineering is selected to exemplify how the Index assists an evaluation of the development of public-good professional capabilities in universities, which allows some optimism in the spaces between realism and idealism. Attention is drawn to the relevance of the approach and arguments to contemporary university-based professional education worldwide. (Contains 4 tables.)

In this paper we offer an appraisal of the economics of education research area, charting its history as a field and discussing the ways in which economists have contributed both to education research and to education policy-making. In particular, we highlight the theoretical and methodological contributions that economists have made to the field of education during the last 50 years. Despite the success of the economics of education as a field of inquiry, we argue that some of the contributions made by economists could be limited if the economics of education is seen as quite distinct from the other disciplines working in the field of education. In these areas of common interest, economists need to work side by side with the other major disciplines in the field of education if their contribution to the field is to be maximised, particularly in terms of applying improved methodology. We conclude that the study of education acquisition and its economic and social impact in the economics of education research area is very likely to remain a fertile research ground. (Contains 7 notes and 1 table.)

Bullying and victimisation remains a pervasive problem within the nation's schools. International research has indicated that students who are enrolled in special education curricula are victimised and perpetrate more bullying than their general education peers. Few empirical studies have examined bullying and victimisation rates among American schoolchildren within special education programmes. The current study examined rates of bullying and fighting perpetration and victimisation among middle-school students (n = 7331) and high-school students (n = 14,315) enrolled in general education and special education programmes. As hypothesised, students in special education reported greater rates of bullying and fighting perpetration, and victimisation than general education students. Students who were in self-contained classrooms reported more perpetration and victimisation than those in inclusive settings. Fighting perpetration was similar for younger and older students in special education settings, whereas fighting perpetration was lower for older students, versus younger students, in general education. (Contains 3 tables and 3 figures.)

This article examines the access policies in Portuguese higher education, from the 1974 revolution to the present. Recently, under the simultaneous pressure of a declining birth rate and increasing financial stringency, higher education institutions, both public and private, have started to compete for students, while responding to increasing social demands for a more diversified higher education. The government and institutions are being challenged to meet both the political goal of equality of opportunities through widening access to higher education, and the need to attract underrepresented students from a broader range of social backgrounds that includes more mature students. This article contextualises the government's access policies, which changed quite recently to offer not only "more" higher education but also "more diverse" higher education; it also identifies institutional reactions to access policies as reflected by the nature of public or private funding and higher education type, that is, university or polytechnic identity.

Geriatric Education Center (GEC) faculty and staff are committed to teaching health professionals about the impact of culture on the health and health care of elders from ethnically diverse backgrounds. Ethnogeriatrics was highlighted as an important issue in the National Agenda for Geriatric Education during the 1990s. Between 1999 and 2001, the GEC Collaborative on Ethnogeriatric Education developed a Core Curriculum on Ethnogeriatrics and Ethnic Specific Modules. Faculty from 34 GECs wrote, reviewed, revised, expanded, and disseminated the Curriculum in Ethnogeriatrics. The 16-module, web-based Curriculum provides detailed information and teaching resources about important historical and cultural influences on the health care experience of the diverse U.S. population of elders. The Stanford GEC has tracked usage of the ethnogeriatric curriculum and reports favorable responses regarding its effectiveness. Many GECs have used the modules in their continuing education programs. GEC faculty share their teaching methods with others at professional meetings and present training sessions in their own geographical areas. (Contains 3 tables.)

In this article, Phyllis Jones of the Department of Special Education at the University of South Florida and Elizabeth West from the University of Washington explore key issues in respect to teacher education for teachers who teach pupils with severe and profound learning difficulties in the USA. Issues relating to quantity and quality of teachers are discussed in the context of policy and practice in the USA. Reflections related to teacher education delivery in the USA, in terms of case-based learning and distance education, for example, and the content of teacher education courses, for example, in terms of helping teachers to understand the needs of pupils with learning difficulties and the promotion of evidence-based practices, are discussed. Phyllis Jones and Elizabeth West suggest that their reflections can contribute to continuing discussions about teacher education in the UK for teachers who work with pupils with severe and profound learning difficulties.

This article explores the nexus between foreign aid and Nepal's primary education in order to understand how aid agencies affect national educational development. It argues that after 1990, when global education targets provided the basic framework for all donor agency funding to primary education and the subsequent use of a sector-wide approach to achieve them, "national" education policy-making has become relatively unimportant if not meaningless because the documents produced within the parameters of global education targets have become the de facto policies. Moreover, the traditional policy-making function of the Ministry of Education (MOE) has "transcended" to a higher donor--MOE level, relegating the role of the Ministry to "managing" aid and aid agencies. This increased donor-ministry nexus has narrowed the avenues for broader participation by other relevant national stakeholders. Ironically, all this is happening amidst calls for decentralisation of educational planning. (Contains 7 notes.)

Making progress toward a more sustainable world will require education programs that foster informed, empowered, and just societies and opportunities for lifelong learning. Non-formal community education is an important component of lifelong learning and is crucial to raising awareness, building partnerships, and influencing action to engage people in working for sustainability. The article presents a critical overview of current trends in community education practice and programs in Australia, and discusses their contributions to environmental and sustainability outcomes. Rather than focus on a comprehensive review of community education literature, this article presents a snapshot of the current context upon which community education practices are built and reviews programs in the areas of Community Action, Social Marketing, Interpretation and Education of Communities of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds. Realigning existing funding opportunities, building the capacity of facilitators and supporting more innovative and participatory approaches to community education are needed if existing education programs are to make a significant contribution to sustainability practice.

Without adult education, there would have been no Communist government in China. Once the Long March arrived in Yan'an, Mao and Communist leaders used adult education in informal and nonformal settings to build momentum for revolution. This article analyzes the theory and practice of adult education during the Yan'an "golden years" (1936-1939) of Chinese communism. Data were derived from interviews in Yan'an and close analysis of writings by foreign visitors to the Red base. Because of 1950s McCarthyism in the United States and tyrannical behavior in post-1949 China, Chinese Communists rarely appear in orthodox adult education history in the west. But after 30 years of "reform and opening," this is a good time to recall Yan'an adult education and remarkable foreigners who studied and contributed to it. Although Chinese are now obsessed with modernization and money, looking into a rearview mirror might help illuminate adult education on the Red road ahead.

Learning and understanding more about sustainable development had become a feature of policy initiatives and programmes by a number of countries prior to the decision at the Johannesburg Summit to promote a Decade on the subject. But research and evaluation of programmes on sustainable development education over the past 10 years have, in the main, highlighted the initiatives as being little more than an extension and development of environmental education. This article aims to remind readers that development education is an important root of sustainable development education. The launch of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) provides an opportunity to ensure that international and national programmes are closely linked to understanding the world in which one lives, the divisions between rich and poor, and the need to engage people in working for a more just and equitable world. By reviewing progress to date in England, this article suggests that there has been a distinct lack of clarity and debate about what is particular about education for sustainable development (ESD).

As the ubiquitous force of globalization further erodes the nation-state and political activity increasingly focuses on global issues, there is renewed attention to models of global education. Within this global context, human rights education emerges as a response to the demands of global education. One of the main objectives of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004) is the building and strengthening of programs and capacities for human rights education at the national and local levels. In this essay, an overview of human rights education and the policy guidelines for national plans of action for human rights education developed by the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) are presented. Further, the essay focuses on comprehensive national initiatives within the Decade that are being undertaken in Japan, Austria, and the United States, with particular attention to the implementation of human rights education in formal secondary school settings.