Education & Pedagogy

Since the first publication of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results in 2000, the Finnish education system has received much praise both in Finland and abroad. In recent years, Finland started to build up its own education export sector with the aim of becoming a leading actor in the international field of education export. The evolution of Finnish education export is an interesting case study not only because it is a recent phenomenon but also because of Finland's unique legal position toward the commercialization of education. This article introduces the current action steps and stakeholders of this newly emerging sector. It explores aims, strategies, and practices from the perspective of the Finnish government, Finnish education institutions, and the private sector, and sets Finnish education export in a global perspective. It is sensitive toward current challenges in the field to provide valuable insights not only for the international audience but also for Finnish actors.

In New York City, a partnership between Teach For America (TFA), the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), the Relay Graduate School of Education (Relay), and three charter school networks produced a "parallel education structure" within the public school system. Driving the partnership and the parallel education structure are the free market ideologies that emerged in the late 1970s that helped to open education to outside organizations. This paper captures two intertwined phenomena; the formation of the parallel education structure and the various partnerships that helped build it. This has resulted in two unique pathways within the public school system. One pathway focuses upon local area conventional public schools that are administered by the NYCDOE. The other pathway represents failing local area public schools that are run by charter school networks. This paper looks "beyond" TFA's current influence within the classroom and explores how market forces led to its role with other educational organizations.

This article examines the under-representation of African American students in gifted education, with attention to how representation differs for Black males and females. We contend that social injustices (e.g., prejudice and discrimination) contribute to racially segregated gifted education classes (Ford, 2013b). For support, gifted under-representation trends are shared, accompanied by formulae for calculating under-representation and inequity associated with under-representation. Denying access to gifted education based on race is a violation of civil rights in education. We discuss the under-representation of Black males and females in gifted education with "Brown vs. Board of Education" (1954) as the legal foundation and then attend to a court case in gifted education ("McFadden vs. Board of Education for Illinois School District U-46," 2013; 984 F.Supp.2d 882) for one contemporary point of discussion regarding gifted education segregation. Suggestions for desegregating gifted education are shared.

At present a new era has evolved in the education sector by means of ICTs. Different ICTs are now set to become instrumental to help expand access to education, strengthen the relevance of education to the increasingly digital workplace, and raise educational quality by, among others, helping make teaching and learning into an engaging, active process connected to real life. The application and exposure to and deployment of ICTs fundamentally change the way education is conceived and delivered to students. ICTs are enablers that optimize student-centered pedagogical methods. Due to its easy accessibility this means of education has become very popular all over the world. Distance education has got a thrust after the evolution of ICT-based education system. This paper intends to give an idea about ICT-based higher education all over the globe and its applicability in Bangladesh. Finally, it analyses the responses from different user groups to query about the current status of the ICT-based higher education system Bangladesh.

The present study is an attempt to survey the foundation of liberalism axiology and its implications for education. To this end, educational viewpoints of liberal scholars including Locke, Smith, Hume, Kant, and Russell are examined along with an introduction to liberalism axiology. Additionally, the implications of liberalism for education from will be discussed from two viewpoints, 1) foundations of value system of education, and 2) education system goals. The results highlighted some of the foundations of liberalism axiology such as individualism, liberty, humanism, intellectualism, empiricism, scientism, law, modernism, epistemological pluralism, believe in achievement, tolerance, equality, and social justice. On the other hand, the value foundations of liberal education are rationality, autonomy, and equality of respect. Furthermore, among the liberal educational goals the most important ones include public education, civil education, applied and practical education, autonomous and liberal individuals, mental development, and expansion and promotion of secular curriculum. Such educational viewpoints, however, have attracted criticism regarding radical individualism, autonomy, ethical anarchism, and negligence of public interest.

Inclusive education is a practice of teaching handicapped children in regular classrooms with non-handicapped children to the fullest extent possible; such children may have orthopedic, intellectual, emotional, or visual difficulties or handicaps associated with hearing or learning. In India there are constitutional provisions for Inclusive Education. Education is the right of all children, and IE aims to ensure that all children have access to an appropriate, relevant, affordable and effective education within their community. This education starts in the home with the family, and th includes formal, non-formal and all types of community-based education initiatives. Article 14, Article 21A, The 86 Constitutional Amendment Act 2002 of the Indian Constitution clarifies that "all" includes children with disabilities as well. This article will discuss Concept of inclusive education, Specific Terms in inclusive education such as Impairment, Disability, Special Educational Needs, Learning Difficulty, Mental Handicap, Indian Constitution about Inclusive Education, Reasons For Inclusion, The inclusive education programmes under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Provisions for CWSN (Children With Special Needs) under SSA and a case study on inclusive education.

Many diverse forces are motivating institutions of higher education, particularly business schools, to develop and deliver education via the Internet. As higher education institutions explore this opportunity, the question of how courses and degree programs should be designed for effective online delivery via the Internet is a nontrivial concern and challenge. To address this concern and challenge, this paper articulates, defines, and justifies a typology consisting of four types of online distance education that can be pursued by institutions of higher education. The four online distance education types--Overview Model, Overview Model with Feedback, Technical-Skills Model, and Managerial Learning Model--can be differentiated along a number of "content-related," "delivery-related," and "learning-related" issues and have applicability at various educational levels. In addition, the paper highlights and discusses five key lessons for institutions to consider in their desire to launch online distance education initiatives. These lessons provide insights not only for launch success but also for the ongoing sustainability of online distance education.

Although the role of education in addressing the challenges of climate change is increasingly recognized, the education sector remains underutilized as a strategic resource to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Education stakeholders in many countries have yet to develop a coherent framework for climate change education (CCE). This article underscores the critical role that education can and should play in addressing and responding to climate change in all of its complexity. It provides rationales as to why CCE should be addressed in the context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Advancing CCE in the context of ESD, or Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development (CCESD), requires enhancement of learners' understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change and their readiness to take actions to address it. The article presents key organizing principles of CCESD and outlines key knowledge, skills, attitudes, dispositions and competences to be fostered through it.

In Sweden, bridging programmes for migrant teachers and preschool teachers at higher education institutions started in 2007 as a governmental project and are still developing today. Altogether, more than 4300 teachers with a foreign teaching degree have been admitted to the Swedish bridging programme between 2008 and 2018. Migrant teachers from over 90 countries have studied in the bridging programme. These programmes, located at six higher education universities in Sweden, offer supplementary education for migrants with a teaching degree from a foreign country. The aim is to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to teach in a Swedish context. In addition, since teaching is a regulated profession, supplementary education gives migrant teachers the requirements needed to apply for certification at The Swedish National Agency for Education. This agency collaborates with The Swedish Council for Higher Education in assessing foreign education requirements. Guidance and planning take place in relation to the migrant teacher's previous education and work experience. An individual study plan with a maximum of 120 ECT is designed. To be accepted to this programme, the migrant teacher needs a diploma of education from a country outside Sweden. In addition, proficiency in the Swedish language must be equivalent to upper secondary school.

Special education teachers are expected to fulfill diverse teaching and nonteaching tasks in comparison to their general education peers. However, their performance is evaluated with measures that were normed for use with general education teachers. These specialty teachers are also routinely evaluated by professionals who may lack formal special education training or experience. These conditions render special educators vulnerable for inaccurate performance evaluation. Explicit research is needed to clarify the professional skills that are most critical to special educators' professional effectiveness and ensure continuity of focus on these skills in preservice teacher education and employment contexts. This qualitative study builds on an earlier empirical investigation that demonstrated consensus among three sets of professionals that the standards developed by Council for Exceptional Children's (CEC) represented skills that are critical for special education teacher effectiveness. The current study describes which skill domains were identified as critical for special education teacher effectiveness across participant groups and those that reflected distinct groups' perspectives. Implications for future research are presented relative to strategies to more clearly articulate special education teacher expertise and ways to strengthen continuity across preservice special education teacher education and in-service professional development contexts.

The main purpose of this research was to reveal the opinions of prospective teachers of special education teacher education program about special education schools and the special education field. This study was used the phenomenological designed. It involved 14 special education teachers of Harbiye Selman Nasir Eskicak Secondary School. The collected data were subjected to data mining by content analysis. Some results had been obtained regarding the dreams and problems and solutions proposed by prospective teachers in a special education institution and special education. It had been found out that prospective teachers design student-centered and differentiate the disability differences among individuals-oriented design when designing special education schools. In addition, they pointed out that there were some problems related to teachers, teaching environment, curriculum, legislation and parents in the field of special education. It had been seen that prospective teachers who produce solutions to these problems have awareness about the field. With the help of the results obtained from the study, suggestions about the special education field were developed.

Understanding how mathematics preservice teachers (M-PSTs) learn about issues of equity is essential to addressing the inequities that persist in mathematics education. In this article, we use (Gutiérrez, in: Herbel-Eisenmann, Choppin, Wagner, Pimm (eds) Equity in discourse for mathematics education: theories, practices, and policies, Springer, New York, 2012a) aspects of equity (i.e., access, achievement, identity, and power) to describe the reported opportunities to learn about equity (Equity OTLs) in five purposefully chosen secondary mathematics teacher education programs. Data included interviews with M-PSTs and instructors from four types of courses--mathematics content, mathematics for teachers, mathematics education, and general education--in each program. The mathematics- and algebra-specific Equity OTLs were most frequently related to issues of access and achievement, whereas the Equity OTLs reported in general education courses were more often related to issues of power and identity. In addition, the two programs housed in universities with more diverse populations had a relatively greater reported emphasis on equity. Implications for teacher education and future research are discussed.

This article examines the under-representation of Black students in gifted education, asserting that social inequalities (e.g., prejudice and discrimination) contribute to segregated gifted education programs. Under-representation trends are presented for gifted education, along with methods for calculating under-representation and then inequity goals. Philosophically, this article is grounded in disparate impact discourse, where outcome is more cogent than intent. Denying access to gifted education based on race is immoral and illegal. Pragmatically, under-representation is couched under the larger and more comprehensive achievement gaps and inequities in school settings with implications for de jure segregation. We discuss the under-representation of Black students in gifted education with "Brown v. Board of Education" as the legal foundation and then focus briefly on a recent court case in gifted education ("McFadden v. Board of Education for Illinois School District U-46") for a contemporary point of discussion. Recommendations for desegregating gifted education for Black students regarding attitudes, instruments, and policies and procedures are provided.

This article analysed missionaries' roles in the development of general and special education by examining the relationship between the Great Commission and education and the biblical perspective on disabilities as the foundational links between their work and inclusive education. While missionaries have not been directly involved in the practices of inclusive education today, their work in initiating and formalising special education services has facilitated a more welcoming attitude toward individuals with disabilities, and propelled governments around the globe to make special and inclusive education a public responsibility when socio-political environments demand it. To provide a concrete illustration, this article used Hong Kong as an example by examining missionaries' key involvements and impact in its development of public education from the early colonial era to today's inclusive education. The missionaries' legacy in Hong Kong's inclusive education development lay in their nurturing of Christian educators as supported by a high number of public Christian schools and Christian educators advocated for inclusive education, and in their efforts to formalise special education during the early colonial era (175).

The provision of a culturally responsive pedagogy is considered to be an important part of delivering a quality education that is ongoing and able to be sustained over time in Pacific developing nations. A quality sustainable education is considered to encourage cultural inclusivity, policy and curriculum practices in schools. By ensuring an inclusive and quality education, education can serve as a powerful vehicle for wider sustainable economic development in the Pacific region. To meet this end, United Nations Pacific signatories pledged support for the educational goal, endorsing an inclusive and equitable quality education for all that promotes relevant learning. The implementation of culturally relevant teaching and learning environments have long remained a challenge for Pacific nations. In order to realise a sustainable quality education, the question that needs to be asked is: what does sustainable education look like in Pacific regions? This paper explores how the tivaevae as a culturally responsive pedagogy model creates opportunities for a sustainable education and curriculum in the Pacific region and, in turn, contributes to an inclusive and quality education.