Education & Pedagogy

This timely, edited volume brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on space and spatiality in inclusive education discourses. With research from an international range of scholars, the book explores the intersections, boundaries, and intermediary spaces of inclusion and exclusion within educational contexts. It advances thinking in inclusive education research and links discourses of the spatial turn in inclusive education with a call for thinking spatially. Instead of defining one spatial approach as the overarching framework for analysis, it considers the potential of combining spatial approaches from diverse disciplines, including social sciences, educational science, and geography. The book systematically identifies and links the relations between a diversity of spatial theoretical perspectives and phenomena of inclusion/exclusion. This volume provides invaluable, transdisciplinary readings and reflections on space and spatiality in inclusive education, and will be highly relevant for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of inclusive education, educational theory and the sociology of education.

The "Kenya Gender and Education Roadmap" is a series of four evidence briefs designed to provide a comprehensive analysis of the gender and education landscape in Kenya. Drawing from a variety of key data sources, including the Population Council's Evidence for Gender and Education Resource (EGER) Database, DHS and national-level datasets, and recent literature from East Africa the series provides data-driven insights into gender-related barriers to schooling, especially for girls. By combining needs assessments, current evidence, and practice-based research, the series sheds light on the alignments and gaps in Kenya's efforts to achieve gender equity in education. This brief assesses current data from the EGER Database to provide a snapshot of the current gender and education practice landscape in Kenya. It highlights where programs are being implemented, which interventions they are using, and what outcomes they are aiming to achieve.

We used longitudinal staffing data from Pennsylvania to explore differences in special education personnel attrition across personnel categories, individual characteristics, and district characteristics. Special education administrators and school psychologists had the highest attrition rates among special education personnel, with special education administrators 6.4 percentage points more likely to leave their district than observably similar special educators in the same district. Black special education personnel were 2.1 percentage points more likely to leave than observably similar White special education personnel in the same district. Special education personnel in urban districts and districts serving high proportions of students of color also were more likely to leave, all else equal. These trends suggest the need for targeted retention efforts for these important categories of special education personnel. [This project is funded by a contract with PaTTAN Pittsburgh and the Bureau of Special Education at the Pennsylvania Department of Education.]

The author's preservice program prepares both single and dual certification master's students to teach in inclusive classrooms. This article provides an overview of the context in which, and for which, the program was designed, a description of the program, including what the author means by inclusive education and critical special education, explanations of key pedagogical and assessment practices that she leans on to meet her goals, and concludes with an account of how the program came to be developed. (Contains 4 notes and 1 table.)

Distance education is defined, the various approaches for effective research are summarized, and the results of major research reviews of the field are explained in this article. Additionally, two major areas of research are included--research on barriers to the adoption of distance education and research summaries that explain and support best practices in the field. This paper concludes with the summary statement that "it is not different education, it is distance education"; what is known about effectiveness in education is most often also applicable to distance education.

For over 30 years the field of special education has grappled with the problem of disproportionality. The discourse around this issue has predominately focused on possible causes, and yet the problem persists. This paper will provide an overview of the research on disproportionality and multicultural special education. In addition, the authors will examine the extent to which culturally responsive teaching has been implemented in special education and will propose future directions for research and practice. (Contains 2 tables.)

This article uses international comparisons to examine the ways in which national differences in educational philosophies and policies have affected trajectories through education for immigrant and second generation students and their succeeding socio-economic, civic and political integration. By looking at various settings such as classrooms, immigration policies and state education programmes, it examines how education systems have responded to the changing demographics of their transnational student population and how contemporary forms of mobility are shape-shifting conditions of inclusion and exclusion in education. (Contains 2 notes.)

By using the education Gini coefficient (EGC), as the indicator of education equity, this paper will calculate the degree of education equity in China during 1978-2004. Results show that although education equity as a whole has improved significantly since 1978, it is rather at a low level compared with the international average. Due to the great inequality among regions and the rural-urban disparity in education, the positive influence of education on social development and economic growth has been limited.

Advanced knowledge is the basis for higher education, but less research on higher education deals with it. The essay elaborates on the major point in several ways: first, the practice-oriented higher education research tends to ignore advanced knowledge; secondly, higher education shall never turn a blind eye to advanced knowledge due to their close relation; thirdly, the paper presents a tentative discussion over the external and internal characteristics of advanced knowledge. The research on advanced knowledge can not only provide better support for the reform of higher education, but also has great significance in perfecting the present theoretical system of higher education.

The demand for distance continuing engineering education (CEE) is growing. This article describes the following with regard to CEE: the purpose; its importance, trends and unique challenges. Distance education can meet some of these challenges. Benefits and challenges of distance CEE are discussed along with the different types of distance CEE providers including universities, professional and trade organisations, corporate universities, for-profit education providers and government. Some recommendations are given for distance CEE. The specific focus here is on non-degree courses that are generally highly practical and focused.

The education of African American ministers in the United States has been little researched. Numerous books address the profession of ministry and the education of Blacks in general, but most do not specifically address issues pertaining to the professional education of Black ministers. The majority of the hurdles African Americans faced were primarily in the South and were incurred by the institution of slavery. This does not imply that African Americans residing in the Northern states did not encounter more than their share of hurdles based on the color of their skin.

This article provides an overview of distance education in Brazil and compares it with that in the United States. It presents a brief historical perspective of private and public initiatives in Brazil and concentrates on present governmental projects and educational policies guiding distance education, with emphasis on higher education. Deficits of higher education are discussed and e-learning is presented as a partial solution to the problem of supply and demand of higher education in the country. (Contains 5 tables and 2 figures.)

Describes a study of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Program for Women and Girls (PWG) conducted by the Urban Institute between 1998 and 2000. Assesses the PWG's contributions to the field of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET) education and gender equity. Concludes that the PWG successfully effected both positive, short-term changes in human capital and long-term changes in knowledge capital and social capital resources to improve equity in SMET. (Author/KHR)

Dutch society and educational policy see citizenship education as being an important task of education. The first section of this paper discusses the concept of citizenship and citizenship education, and analyses educational developments in the Netherlands. Following on from this introduction the second part of the paper puts forward a critical democratic pedagogy of citizenship education. With this proposed democratic pedagogy in mind, the third and final part of the paper goes on to analyse the discourses and developing practices of citizenship education in the Netherlands, and proposes a number of new possibilities.

This article describes the inter-cultural education movement in the United States in the years 1940 to 1960. Drawing on material found in "Religious Education" and other sources, it focuses in a special way on the contribution that religious educators made to this movement. The article presents the social analyses made by religious educators, the stated theoretical bases for their engagement, and a description of noteworthy practices in inter-cultural education and religious education. The article concludes that this movement paved the way for the somewhat broader movement that began in the 1960s and continues to this day.