Education & Pedagogy

Evidence of the powerful impact teachers have on student achievement has led to an intensive focus on cultivating effective teachers, including special education teachers (SETs). Local special education administrators (LSEAs) share responsibility for cultivating effective SETs throughout their districts. However, the roles LSEAs play in this process have not been clearly defined through research. This qualitative investigation used grounded theory methods to examine how LSEAs in the Victoria School District, a high-performing, inclusive district, described their roles cultivating a district-wide community of effective SETs. The findings have implications for districts' efforts to cultivate effective SETs systemically and for future research on effective district-level leadership for special education.

This article serves as commentary on the papers featured in the issue. Accordingly, these papers and the questions raised in them form the basis of its discussion. The papers, in turn, are addressing numerous aspects of creativity and working with the mathematically gifted, an area of study that has attracted considerable scholarly attention in the recent decades. This article attempts to elaborate on the findings and ideas of the discussed papers, specifically emphasizing the intrinsic connection between education for the mathematically gifted and general education, as well as the importance of the study and improvement of the practice of mathematics education. The piece starts with the discussion of a few relevant theoretical problems, then, following one of the papers in the issue, addresses the myths of gifted education and creativity, and then goes into other themes of the issue, including classroom practices and mathematics teacher education. At the end, some new research questions posed in the issue are discussed.

The purpose of this multi-state study was to identify agricultural education teachers' perceived level of importance regarding selected instructional supervisory practices used in the nonformal components of agricultural education. The theoretical frame supporting this study was the theory of andragogy. Data were reported on the perceived importance of 28 instructional supervisor practices. Agricultural education teachers indicated that the instructional supervisor should understand and support the teaching and learning processes used in nonformal settings, provide them with resources, and observe them in aspects of their teaching that transcend the traditional classroom. Female agricultural education teachers perceived all nonformal instructional supervisory practices as more important than did male agricultural education teachers. Researchers recommend that agricultural educators and the principals who supervise them incorporate the supervision of teaching in the nonformal setting into evaluation protocols.

This essay responds to and develops ideas set out in Robert Davis' 1999 essay "Can there be a Catholic curriculum?" It takes the measure of far-reaching changes that have taken place in curriculum studies and strategic educational thought in the intervening period as the process of globalisation has intensified. It re-engages with the traditions of the Catholic mind and their place in education, drawing upon the commitment of Pope Benedict XVI to a "new humanism" in learning and teaching at all levels of Catholic educational practices. Revisiting the principles of the Catholic curriculum, the essay also sets these within a wider and timely Catholic construction of liberal education fit for the challenges of the modern era.

Background: Peer education is a much-used approach to health education with young people and marginalised groups. Rarely, however, has the concept been interrogated for its meaning and usefulness, despite pleas for the importance of doing so going back several decades. Objectives: Against this background, this paper offers a specifically educational analysis and critique of existing conceptualisations and descriptions of peer education. Design: The paper responds to the challenge of opening up the "black box" of peer education with respect to teaching and learning, using the pedagogical frameworks offered by Basil Bernstein, critical pedagogy, feminist post-structuralism and Robin Alexander. Results and Conclusion: Findings point to the value of theories of pedagogy as conceptual and analytic lenses through which to interrogate what peer education is (and might be) and to better account for the uneven effectiveness of the approach.

This article reports on a longitudinal study spanning over 5 years, involving the design and implementation of an early childhood teacher education program model that engages a critical-ecological theoretical approach, a funds of knowledge perspective, and design-based methodology. This project aimed to promote equitable education for all children, and especially for young immigrant children encountering situations of oppression within the national and local educational contexts in Arizona. In this teacher education program, families, community members, researchers, pre-service teachers and teachers worked together to develop new modes of curricular activity, new spaces, new relationships, and new forms of movement among participants, as well as new circulations of literacy artefacts.

The potential strengths and weaknesses of a Foucauldian critique of education are discussed and evaluated. The article focuses specifically on the value of Foucault's work for critiquing social and political ideologies prevalent in education, which is understood as a societal institution, and hence, as a modern regime of institutional power. In terms of strengths, the ability to raise issues of knowledge, power and contestation that are traditionally ignored in educational theory is addressed. In terms of weaknesses, Foucault's problematic use and understanding of power and his apparent rejection of objective truth are investigated. The critique develops at the hand of influential, but competing, interpretations of Foucault's contribution to the field of education in particular, and philosophy in general. It is argued that these influential readings of Foucault gain traction within specific discourses (such as education), and should thus be subjected to critical scrutiny.

Despite efforts worldwide to ensure quality education for all learners through inclusive education, indications are that many learners, especially those that experience barriers to learning, are still excluded from full access to quality and equitable education opportunities in mainstream primary schools. This article uses a qualitative approach and phenomenological strategy to focus on the ecological aspects influencing the implementation of inclusive education in mainstream primary schools in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 participants from seven schools to gather data, whilst a process of framework analysis was used for the analysis of the data. The investigation revealed that the implementation of inclusive education is not only hampered by aspects within the school environment, but also by aspects across the entire ecological system of education.

This paper revisits the abolition of the colleges of education in England and Wales, specialist providers of teacher training which were effectively eradicated in the years after Margaret Thatcher's 1972 White Paper "Education: A Framework for Expansion." Its central argument is that the way in which change was enacted thereafter represented a significant break with the model of policymaking which had held sway since the end of World War Two. Whilst more far-reaching change would come after Mrs Thatcher's "conversion" to neo-liberalism later in the decade, the fate of the colleges of education was, I argue, an important if largely overlooked episode in the history of education--especially in terms of violating the collaborative relationship between central government and local authorities which had, until that point, dominated education policy in post-war Britain.

Due to the increased interest in ecology, global warming and numerous environmental problems, ecological issues are becoming extremely important in education. Many researchers and thinkers believe that solutions to environmental problems are affected by the environmental ethics adopted. This article identifies which of the three branches of environmental ethics (anthropocentric, biocentric and holistic ethics) are present in formal environmental education in Poland. This has been achieved by analysing the content of textbooks used by science teachers in the fourth grade of elementary schools (Stage II of education). The results show that (moderate) anthropocentric ethics is dominant in the content of formal environmental education, while biocentric ethics is less frequent and there is also some focus on holistic ethics and the declaration that man is part of nature.

Richard Milner, and Lori Delale-O'Connor offer their remarks on Daniel Lapsley & Ryan Woodbury's commentary (available in this v38 n3 2016 issue of "Action in Teacher Education") entitled "Moral Character Development for Teacher Education." They begin the conversation by commenting that Lapsley and Woodbury raise some essential questions for the field of teacher education regarding the ways in which preparation programs and professional development opportunities shepherd teachers toward becoming moral and character educators. Milner and Delale-O'Connor concede that while Lapsley and Woodbury raise some essential and compelling points in their article, anecdote framing, and lack of empirical evidence make it difficult to fully support the position that it is teacher education's responsibility to build moral-character educators. Of particular concern for Milner and Delale-O'Connor are questions about what moral and character education is, and who decides.

Educational systems differ from country to country. Variables including society's requirements and state policies may underlie these different systems. No matter what rationale those system differences have, the main purpose of the system is to raise "qualified individuals." Institutions of higher educations are structures in which the necessary information is produced and human resources are raised for countries to develop and advance. Therefore, universities have become one of the prominent institutions that define nations' future now. This study addresses the conditions of entering the institutions of higher education, which have an important place in educational systems, and provide a general description of the transition to higher education in the world and in Turkey. A model was proposed for the transition to higher education in accordance with that description.

Supervisors, administrators, and directors of special education usually use the authoritative leadership style when supervising their special education staffs; however, collaborative leadership styles are slowly overtaking authoritative leadership styles. These leaders have the task of producing an environment where the culture is inclusive, the relationships are positive, and partnerships are developed and responsible for the success of all students with disabilities Managing strictly by objectives could produce a close-minded type of system that could produce an unpleasant environment, making it difficult for special education teachers to do their jobs efficiently. In this article, the author compares and contrasts the collaborative leadership style with the authoritative leadership style amongst special education personnel in leadership positions. A review of literature determines utilizing a more collaborative leadership style is successful at increasing special education staff productivity.

Demand for special education teachers grew continuously from the passage of Public Law 94-142 in 1975 through 2005, when this trend reversed. From 2005 to 2012, the number of special education teachers employed by U.S. schools declined by >17%. The primary purpose of this investigation was to determine factors that contributed to this decline. We parsed change in number of special education teachers employed into four constituent elements and found that these recent reductions were fueled by decreases in disability prevalence and the relative ratio of teachers to students in special versus general education, which favored the latter. These changes have important implications for teacher preparation programs' efforts to adequately prepare special and general educators and for policies designed to improve teacher quality.

In this study, we investigate the distribution of qualified special educators across elementary neighborhood schools and exclusionary public and private special education schools. Using the 2011-2012 Schools and Staffing Survey, we provide a descriptive analysis of measurable teacher qualifications (e.g., years of experience, preparation type, degree, formal preparation, certification) across the three settings of interest. Findings indicate that each type of school relies heavily on special educators who lack qualifications in special education. Furthermore, special educators in neighborhood schools were statistically significantly more qualified in terms of experience, degrees, and special education certification than special educators in public and private exclusionary special education schools. These findings have important implications for policy makers, school leaders, and researchers.