Education & Pedagogy

This paper provides a brief background of the education system in Saudi Arabia and current special education services and programs for students with disabilities. Additionally, this paper presents the findings of some studies that examined teachers' perspectives regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities. As Saudi Arabia continues its dramatic period of improvement, changes in special education services will occur rapidly. To improve special education services, educators, parents, policymakers, and other professionals should consider many suggestions regarding critical components of successful inclusive education. In addition, further research is needed on changing the attitudes of stakeholders toward inclusion so they can be supportive of these students in a general education setting.

W. Reid Hastie, the fifth president (1957-1959) of the National Art Education Association, promoted the need for a scholarly venue devoted entirely to issues and research in art education and a place where related research results could be presented on a regular basis to the field of art education, as well as the larger field of education. His vision led to the initiation of "Studies in Art Education," a journal of issues and research in art education. The first issue was published in the Fall of 1959. Hastie's vision, practice, and support of research are examined within the context of the history of research in art education and the rapidly changing world of higher education following World War II.

From the 1920s through the early 1940s, school-based programs in both health and physical education--mandated by government legislation and hailed by the public--increased in scope and complexity. By 1937, the assumption of the interconnectedness of the two fields was institutionalized in the merger of the American Physical Education Association with the Department of School Health and Physical Education of the National Education Association to form the American Association for Health and Physical Education. This paper focuses on the role of health education, physical education, and public health professionals in the emergence and critique of scholastic health and physical education programs in the first half of the 20th century. (Contains 4 notes.)

Educating a student with special needs became an interest in Jordan at the end of the 1960s. This article provides an overview of the general and special education systems in Jordan. Historical and demographical information is included for the purpose of placing the education of children in Jordan within the context of its land and the population of Jordan. The general education system and special Education system in Jordan is reviewed in depth. Issues related to the current practices and limitations of services for students with disabilities in Jordan are discussed. Suggestions to improve the current system is provided. (Contains 7 tables.)

The fields of environmental education, outdoor education, adventure education, and experiential education are linked by shared goals, objectives, and characteristics. National standards connect these fields to secondary education. In this preliminary study, the authors describe how aspects of the 4 fields are used by environmental educators in Idaho secondary schools and what importance such educators place on goals related to the fields under study. Environmental educators (N = 52) completed an online survey. Results suggest that although the goals of environmental education are important to respondents, the programs represented depart from key characteristics described in the literature. The goals of outdoor, adventure, and experiential education were of mixed importance to respondents, and the characteristics of these fields were variably present in Idaho secondary schools. (Contains 5 tables.)

This article raises questions about the degree of equity of higher education in Portugal. It is based on research that the author conducted in 1995 and 1996. From diversified indicators, namely the academic level and social class of the parents of university students in particular, and the Portuguese population, the author concludes that, in general, Portuguese higher education is not equitable. Moreover, Portuguese university education can hardly be described as promoting the universal right to education. The author backs his conclusion by a determination of the spending of students and families on education and the large proportion that the sum represents in their total budgets. The article ends with some suggestions as to how to guarantee fulfillment of the universal right to education.

This paper seeks to examine the impact of education on income growth in India for the time period 1966-1996. Education is broken down into the categories of primary, secondary, and tertiary. Time series techniques are used to determine whether education, for each category, has a causal impact on growth. Furthermore, the education variables are also broken down by gender and analysis is carried out to determine whether the causal results vary by gender. The results indicate that primary education has a strong causal impact on growth, with more limited evidence of such an impact for secondary education. Finally, the evidence is quite compelling that it is female education at all levels, that has potential for generating economic growth.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA Amendments of 1997) charts a clear change of direction for special education teachers in two areas: (a) access to general education curriculum standards and (b) the consideration of assistive technology (AT) when planning the individualized education program (IEP) of all students with disabilities. Whereas the special education program once looked exclusively at the needs of the individual child, it now must look at these needs as they relate to involvement and progress in the general curriculum. Assistive technology has an increasingly important role to play in helping special education students achieve these general education outcomes (Behrmann & Jerome, 2002; Fisher & Frey, 2001; O?Neil, 2000; Rose & Meyer, 2000).

This paper explores ways to bring together local and global knowledge systems in the context of education. It first discusses the concepts of native science and of intercultural education, key ideas in Ecuadorian indigenous education today. Both of these concepts seek to unite the local and the global in new ways. It explores the views of Ecuadorian indigenous educators and leaders around issues of education and science. The primary need voiced by these individuals is that of defending their communities against various kinds of encroachment, economic as well as cultural, and the enterprise of education is viewed within this reality. Finally, the paper discusses the paradigm of place-conscious education, which the author argues is a unifying conceptual framework that speaks to the concerns voiced by these educators as well as those of educators elsewhere. (Contains 4 notes.)

In an interview, Khalil Mahshi, director-general of international and public relations for the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education, talks about the legacy of the first Palestinian intifadah and the current state of Palestinian education. He emphasizes the subjective nature of his observations and the complex role of commenting on the work of colleagues who are still engaged in the difficult work of building an education system. He describes the changes that have taken place in the education of Palestinians since he and Kim Bush wrote "The Palestinian Uprising and Education for the Future," and he outlines lessons from this development process that are applicable globally to the building and rebuilding of education systems in the face of occupation, resistance, and conflict. (Contains 3 notes.)

This discussion provides a historical overview of how policy has influenced the preparation of leaders for special education. Professional leadership standards that guide knowledge and skill acquisition to support preparation and professional learning are framed using historical contexts. Leadership practices are identified that hold promises for effectively executing domains for special education leadership. Ways to advance special education leadership preparation, informed by leadership practices that better support students with disabilities, are examined. Avenues are explored for retaining and fortifying the advocacy roles of leaders of special education through leadership preparation for special education.

This chapter explores the landscape of higher education in Singapore as the nation positions itself to emerge stronger after the pandemic. A focus on three major issues facing higher education -- digital transformation, job readiness of graduates, and access to quality education, describes education-based initiatives for addressing these challenges in Singapore. Local autonomous universities are woven into the tapestry of sustainable growth and development within Singapore's economy. Connections between the development of education-based initiatives are made to illustrate how these institutions of continuous learning are positioning for relevance considering current developments and to suggest some areas for enhancement for promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. [For the complete volume, "Higher Education in Southeast Asia. International Perspectives on Education and Society. Volume 49," see ED675089.]

This book invites the reader to think education against, beyond and without the school and its paraphernalia. To think about 'education', rather than schooling, and what kind of education is relevant to and needed now in the complex, difficult and dangerous world we live in. That invitation means testing our limits, questioning and changing ourselves and thinking the practice of education differently. The book is not about tinkering, improving, reforming -- it about clearing away the detritus of the school and using the space created to explore education as self-formation and commoning. It will be of interest to scholars and graduate students of alternative education, schooling, educational policy and philosophy, and the sociology of education.

This is the tenth volume of the bound periodical, "American Journal of Education," which was established to enter into a range of education-related discussion and investigation. This issue contains articles on: Theodore Lyman; State Normal School of Connecticut; drawing in all elementary schools; Pestalozzi, Fellenberg, and Vehrli, and the industrial training of the poor; instruction in common things; elementary instruction in economical science; intellectual instruction; subjects and means of education; religious instruction; discipline; example; public instruction in the Grand Duchy of Baden; schools of art and science; German views of female education; Cornelius Conway Felton; and Memorial of the Worcester County Teachers' Association to the State Teachers' Association, 1860. [This volume was published by F. C. Brownell.]

In collaboration with the Arts Education Partnership, Education Commission of the States is turning its attention to STEAM education (adding the "A" for arts), which can promote a more comprehensive approach and provide state policymakers with more policy levers. Several states have already begun implementing STEAM education and are making progress. Yet more can be done to capitalize on the early years to build strong foundational skills. To explore the positive impacts of STEAM education for young learners in pre-K through fifth grade, this Policy Brief highlights four trends from arts integration and STEAM research over the past 20 years. It includes examples, along with implications for each trend, and closes with considerations for state policymakers.