Education & Pedagogy

This paper is situated in the re-visioning ethos that has been part of the genealogy of multicultural education. In the context of teacher education, the authors ask: where to now? In this paper, they reflect on their design and delivery of a new undergraduate unit offered by the School of Education, University of Western Sydney. The unit attempted to work through ideas of "cosmopolitanism" as a way of rethinking diversity education for the twenty-first century. The paper offers a critical review of multiculturalism in teacher education and examines theories associated with cosmopolitanism in the education context. The authors examine the ways in which a "cosmopolitan imagination" might have relevance in contemporary contexts of diversity in Australia, and particularly in the western and south-western Sydney region in which they teach. (Contains 8 notes.)

The education exclusion of pastoralists is increasingly recognised as a critical area for attention in progress towards Education For All. This article sets out two interlinked propositions as to what underlies barriers to education inclusion for pastoralists in India: a conflation of "education" with schooling; and ambiguity over whether pastoralism is a relevant contemporary livelihood. Taking an adverse incorporation and social exclusion perspective on marginality, policy narratives of education inclusion are explored using its construct of "terms of inclusion". Empirical evidence showing how pastoralism and formal education intersect demonstrates multi-faceted exclusions which simultaneously drive demand for schooling and impose highly adverse terms of incorporation for pastoralism in the globalising economy. Policy strategies currently undervalue "education" as situated learning with a crucial role in pastoralist livelihood sustainability, recognition of which is essential to considering how such "education" can interface with institutional arrangements and tackling the delegitimisation of pastoralism by hegemonic, place-based schooling. (Contains 11 notes.)

Framed within a shift from a highly centralized system of higher education (HE) to a de-regulated system in Norway, this article addresses how the foci upon student recruitment and incentives in the governmental funding of HE have stimulated market dynamics which affect local configurations of bachelor degrees in sport, physical education and outdoor pursuits, which in turn, can affect the content knowledge of physical education teacher education (PETE) degree. Analyzing data generated via in-depth interviews with Deans and Heads of programs at three significant national providers in the field of HE sport and physical education, this article illuminates how marketization permeates the communication of education values and, thus, the institutional pedagogical discourse. This article problematizes the ways in which PETE pedagogical discourse currently reflects market values embedded in new managerialism in local strategies to recruit students at university colleges in Norway, rather than educational or professional values.

This self-reflexive essay teases out the predicaments that I have encountered through my past publishing experience, while situating them in a critical review of the existing English-language studies of Japanese education. Drawing on postcolonial theoretical insights and recent critical sociology of academic knowledge production, I use my personal experience as a starting point to identify the particular discursive structure of comparative education that constrains the articulation of "other" education in the field. My critical review of comparative studies of Japanese education demonstrates that many of them, including my own, unreflexively accept the subject positions offered by this discursive condition and thus further constrain space for those who write in English about "other" education and Japanese education in particular. In conclusion, I discuss recent studies of Japanese education that partially address the dilemmas raised in this paper and the wider implications of this study for the field of comparative education. (Contains 12 notes.)

This synthesis paper explores current leadership training in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in Bulgaria. The analysis begins with discussion of global factors influencing the implementation of leadership training in STEM education in general and then presents information about the current status of leadership training in Bulgaria with emphases on the country's economics, politics and geographical location as specific factors influencing leadership education. A short background of Bulgaria is presented with regard to population, gross domestic product, educational system, engineering force and possible need for leaders in industry in Bulgaria and the European Union. The paper provides an overall view about the current status of leadership training in all Bulgarian universities offering STEM education and concentrates specifically on two major universities by examining their currently offered programmes. As part of the discussion, similar training elements in other European countries and the USA are presented. (Contains 1 table.)

Inclusion of students with disabilities into the mainstream educational system continues to be a major issue and concern faced by many developing nations. Many individuals with disabilities face the challenge of exclusion from any form of education and failure by society to recognize their capabilities and rights. The educational system in Ghana still has a long way to go in providing efficient and effective services despite the government's adoption of inclusion as the policy to guide the education of individuals with disabilities. This paper provides an historical overview of special education in Ghana addressing both pre-independence and post-independence efforts. The status of inclusive education in Ghana is examined focusing on the challenges and prospects of inclusive education. Recommendations for future direction of inclusive education in Ghana are also addressed.

In recent years, the rapid growth of higher education in Taiwan has led to an essential shift from education for the elite to the massification of higher education. Although this massification is making higher education more accessible, one of the main concerns is whether opportunities for higher education are the same among all social classes in Taiwan. The focus of this article is therefore on social class barriers to higher education in Taiwan. In the article, secondary data analysis is employed. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that the current dual policy of tuition fees has resulted in a situation in which social class barriers still remain, although the massification of higher education has provided more opportunities for students from families with different levels of income. (Contains 4 tables, 1 figure and 1 note.)

Existing knowledge of supplementary education, that is education organised and run by political, faith or ethnic groups outside of formal schooling, is patchy. This article is an exploration of the histories of supplementary education in the twentieth century. It is organised into three sections. The article begins by reviewing some existing literature and argues that supplementary education has been a topic of marginal concern for social historians, sociologists and historians of education. This marginal status has often been reflected in the way in which a dominant account of the history of supplementary education has entered the research literature despite a rather selective evidential base. The second section of the article deploys an expansive definition of education, and presents some new historical evidence concerning African Caribbean and Irish supplementary education. A final arguments section reflects on the significance of supplementary education and suggests some topics for a future research agenda. (Contains 83 footnotes.)

A departmental review of education curricula in Queensland, Australia has found that minimal or no learning about sexuality education takes place. Its public schools and teachers are able to avoid or not fulfil their obligations regarding the teaching of sexuality education and reproductive health to children and young people. This lacuna in schools' duty of care may significantly compromise the well-being, choices, life skills and opportunities for young people as they mature towards adult citizenship, and may even lead to potentially hazardous situations for them. To redress this deficiency, a new curriculum and supporting documents have been developed by Queensland's curriculum authority. This paper audits both the current Human Relationships Education and the new Sexual and Reproductive Health Education curricula. This paper also analyses the rationale for teaching school students about sexuality, relationships and reproduction as an essential part of Health and Physical Education, in light of significant contemporary sexuality education issues and contexts. (Contains 1 table.)

Community engagement was a relatively unknown concept in South African higher education until the late 1990s. In response to the call of the White Paper on the Transformation of Higher Education (1997) for "feasibility studies and pilot programmes which explore the potential of community service in higher education" the Joint Education Trust launched the Community-Higher Education-Service Partnerships (CHESP) initiative in 1999. The purpose of this initiative was to assist South African Higher Education Institutions to conceptualization and implementation community engagement as a core function of the academy. This article tracks the development of community engagement in South African higher education through the CHESP initiative and identifies some of the processes and outcomes at a programmatic, institutional and national level. The article includes four South African universities as case studies to illustrate the processes and outcomes of embedding community engagement in South African higher education. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)

National policy in higher education requires higher education institutions to widen access to adult learners alongside other previously excluded groups, yet gives few indications as to how this should be done. The assumption seems to have been that broadening access is sufficient in itself. In this article we argue that it is possible to construct space for adult learners in higher education if institutions conceive of access in its broadest sense, that is, when access is explicitly linked to retention and throughput, and when learning is closely aligned to the changing context of higher education and the workplace. We use adult education and social learning theories to analyse an honours programme in Journalism and Media Studies where adult learners have flourished because access has been linked to learners' motivation, mindful adaptations to the curriculum, and support from the workplace.

UNESCO formed the concept of fundamental education in hopes that the programme could end poverty, bring world peace and serve indigenous people. When UNESCO's first pilot project appeared to fail, the organisation developed centres where fundamental education workers learned to use such techniques as libraries, museum displays, films and radio, instruction in vernacular languages, and literacy campaigns. Modelled on progressive education, these techniques shared four tendencies that contradicted the aims of fundamental education. First, the programmes seemed to impose a modern scientific culture on indigenous societies. Second, the fundamental education workers found themselves manipulating indigenous people to accept what the programmes offered. Third, when officials used words aimed at helping, they seemed to mask the cultural traits that the programmes implied. Fourth, the fundamental education workers tended to translate failure as an indication of the need for increased efforts rather than as events questioning the wisdom of the programmes. (Contains 59 footnotes.)

Quality assurance has been integrated into the fabric of higher education in China, with the issue of quality in higher education--how to evaluate it and how to enhance it--now taking centre stage in Chinese higher education. In the past decade, the development of quality assurance in Chinese higher education has covered a broad spectrum of initiatives, from national policy, quality evaluation methodology, and institutional adoption of quality assurance schemes, to the matrix of quality evaluations. This article attempts to present a comprehensive overview of quality assurance in Chinese higher education by reviewing and analysing the context and development of quality assurance initiatives, alongside the current structure and management of quality assurance in Chinese higher education. By commenting on the current realities and remaining challenges in Chinese higher education, this article also points to some implications for Chinese higher education institutions in their further progress along the quality assurance path. (Contains 4 tables and 3 figures.)

In this article, the author reflects on his last 15 years of experience as an environmental education researcher and teacher education faculty member. Through the personal reflections of narrative inquiry, he observes and interprets the changes he has witnessed and participated in at the state, university, college, and department level, and also on the bureaucratic forces that make more sweeping change unlikely in the short term. Although the changes he discusses have not fundamentally transformed what he considers to be an educational system that reproduces unsustainable cultural patterns, they may offer insight into the process of change and the possibilities for creating counter-spaces within the educational establishment where education for sustainability might take root. (Contains 2 figures.)

Assessment of general education has a long history, although relative to the age of liberal education and educational evaluation it is a very recent development. One of the first recorded efforts to comprehensively assess student achievement in higher education in the United States occurred in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when many institutions had general education programs in practice but not necessarily in name. In this effort, nearly forty-five thousand high school and college students were given a multiple-choice test that assessed students' knowledge of the physical world, mathematics and science, and the social world including psychology, sociology, statistical methods, and ancient cultures. This article gives a brief history of general education assessment, responds to common criticisms of general education assessment, and makes a case for assessing general education as a critical element of faculty members' responsibility.