Education in developing countries: the view from Mount Olympus

In a recent issue ofProspects we published a review of the World Bank's recent publication,Education Sector Working Paper. This publication represents a major policy statement by the Bank on the subject of education and significant (not to say radical) departure from previous policies. It is a document all the more important in view of the enormous funding power of the World Bank and the undeniable influence of its policies on national governments and even on international organizations. TheEducation Sector Working Paper, which has been generally welcomed in international circles, is certainly not without its critics both in the developing countries and in the industrialized world. We feel that at a time when there is a push for examining educational policies and concepts on an international level, we can contribute to the debate by publishing some criticism and rejoinder centring around the World Bank publication, much as we did in 1973 and 1974 on the subject ofLearning to Be, the report of the International Commission on the Development of Education. In this issue, therefore, we open the discussion with an article by Peter Williams, originally written for a one-day review meeting to consider the World Bank publication, held on 19 May 1975, at the University of London Institute of Education, and which he revised forProspects. The institute hopes to publish a report of its meeting, together with the papers, before the end of this year. Peter Williams' critique seems to us to be particularly interesting because it is based on the author's disagreement with the prevailing pessimism in the world, reflected by the World Bank, on the state of education in the developing nations. As always, our readers are warmly invited to contribute their reactions in any form they choose.     

Biology and Physics Competencies for Pre-Health and Other Life Sciences Students

The recent report on the Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians (SFFP) and the revised Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) reframe the preparation for medical school (and other health professional schools) in terms of competencies: what students should know and be able to do with that knowledge, with a strong emphasis on scientific inquiry and research skills. In this article, we will describe the thinking that went into the SFFP report and what it says about scientific and quantitative reasoning, focusing on biology and physics and the overlap between those fields. We then discuss how the SFFP report set the stage for the discussion of the recommendations for the revised MCAT, which will be implemented in 2015, again focusing the discussion on biology and physics. Based on that framework, we discuss the implications for undergraduate biology and physics education if students are to be prepared to demonstrate these competencies.     

“All of Her Changes Have Made Me Think About My Changes”: Fan Readings of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Alice Series

This essay follows the insights of reader response theory to examine how readers of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Alice McKinley series negotiate textual meaning and construct particular identities in relation to the series’ controversial content. Ranking second on the American Library Association’s top one hundred list of banned and challenged books for 2000–2009, and criticized by conservative groups and feminist scholars alike, the Alice series may be understood as belonging to a widely-denigrated genre of relational reading material largely consumed by girls. The study analyzes over 2 years of reader posts to the Offical Alice Blog, the major fan website to the series, to argue that reading Alice is a means by which fans shape their social and cultural identities in sometimes contradictory ways. While Alice fans display an uncritical adoption of some traditional beliefs around gender and sexuality in their reading of the series, their discussion simultaneously reveals how their recognition of the series as transgressive and liberating in its presentation of matters related to female adolescent identity enables readers to construct particular identities for themselves as readers, teens, and young women that are formed in opposition to some conservative and traditional ideologies. Moreover, in their engagement with the series’ progressive sexual politics fans move closer to claiming agency as sexual subjects.     

Teaching with and for discussion

Leading productive classroom discussions is difficult, as any one knows who has tried. Teaching future teachers to lead them is doubly difficult — a case of teaching beyond one's own understanding. Here we report our reflection on our efforts to teach beginning teachers to lead discussions. Our method was reflective inquiry, for the central problem we addressed arose from within our teaching, and this is where its solution would have to be worked out. Lisa, one of our student teachers, expressed the problem well: After participating capably in and reflecting upon model discussions that we had led, she said that she had “really no idea how to lead a discussion” herself. Our efforts to teach with discussion were surprisingly inconsequential when it came to teaching for discussion, where the subject matter is discussion itself — its worth, purposes, types, and procedures — and in which case discussion is not a teaching method but a curriculum objective. Against this problem, we critique methods we have used to teach both with and for discussion and present a typology that we developed in order to do both better.     

World Bank okays public interest in higher education

This essay review discusses the report of TheTask Force on Higher Education and Society(TFHES), convened in 1998 by the World Bank butindependently financed and staffed incollaboration with UNESCO and severalfoundations. Peril and Promise marks anhistoric turning point in the framework forpostsecondary educational planning. Rate-of-return analysis has been de-emphasized,while promotion of the public interest hasmoved front and center. The report of theTFHES, published in 2000 by the World Bank, hasreceived deserved attention in some parts ofthe world and has even developed an associatedwebsite (http://www.tfhe.net). As we explainbelow, the framework advocated by the TFHES isalready being used in official policy documentsof the World Bank, whose position will surelymultiply the influence of the Task Forcethrough its effect on other development banksas well as on programs of bilateral nationalassistance. And yet, despite its seminalimportance, the TFHES report has yet to befully appreciated by many researchers of highereducation. With this essay review, we hope tobroaden the discussion of the Task Force, and to offer a preliminary assessment of its impactin the 2002 World Bank policy document, and toconnect its arguments to questions that arecentral in the scholarly literature of ourfield.     

Racialising Discourses in Higher Education

The origins of the paper were from a small study initiated by a group of staff concerned about motivational problems among their first year undergraduate students. Researchers were invited to interview staff teaching on first year modules. As the data collection progressed it became clear that the discussion of motivation was overlaid by a racialising discourse, which allowed some staff to present the issue as an 'Asian problem'. We, therefore, felt the need to think more deeply about how issues of student learning are represented. The paper sets out the context of the study and reports on the data. However, rather than seeking to draw any firm conclusions, we have used our experience to reflect on issues of racialisation and to open up the area for discussion. The paper is intended to be part of a broader discussion about racialising discourses in higher education, which we believe should be critically addressed and debated.     

Providing better education services to the poor: Accountability and context in the case of Guatemalan decentralization

We explore how two community-based reform models align with the World Bank’s World Development Report 2004 accountability framework. Using a qualitative case study of rural Guatemalan primary schools, we examine local governance through interviews with a range of stakeholders.     

A Passport to Social Cohesion and Economic Prosperity: Report of Education in Latvia 2000

Education may be Latvia's most important public enterprise. As in all democracies, the public must understand and agree on the policies that guide it. More discussion of education issues is needed in Latvia prior to making changes in education policy, not after them. The aim of this article is to help stimulate some of that discussion. It draws heavily on prior analyses circulated by the Ministry of Education and Science, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Programme, as well as on policy research sponsored by us.

The Soros Foundation - Latvia (SFL) hopes to distribute reports annually on more specialized educational problems. However, no report can cover all issues of importance. This article tries to cover selected issues in primary, secondary, higher, vocational, and adult education, as well as on teachers and education research. Serious difficulties exist in every area, and they must be addressed quickly.

At the end of this article, 10 recommendations are offered. Each is important, but the public could add many more. If that were to occur, we would feel that this report was a success.     

Assimilation attitudes predict lower immigration-related self-efficacy among Israeli immigrant teachers

This study focuses on self-efficacy among teachers working in culturally diverse educational contexts. We put forward the notion of immigration-related self-efficacy and provide initial support for its relationship with the acculturation attitudes held by immigrant teachers. One hundred thirty-three teachers who immigrated to Israel from the Former Soviet Union participated in this study. We found that teachers tend to report high levels of self-efficacy in all the investigated aspects. According to our predictions, immigrant teachers endorsing more assimilative approaches report lower levels of self-efficacy vis-à-vis their immigrant students. Our results can contribute to a critical discussion on the place and roles of immigrant teachers in schools.     

Intervention fidelity in participatory research: a framework

ABSTRACT

In community interventions more generally, the concept of fidelity refers to the degree to which a program is delivered as intended. The present paper discusses ways in which fundamental aspects of participatory research challenge the concept of fidelity and differ from more traditional science-dominated approaches. We begin with a discussion of the fidelity concept and some of its strengths and limitations. We then discuss both social problems and proposed solutions as representing complex problems defying simple or permanent solutions. We suggest that three prominent aspects of participatory research highlight this complexity and pose challenges in assessing fidelity. First, in participatory research, the goal is not only scientific but also social action on a local issue as well. Second, the participatory process among varied partners is itself part of the intervention itself to be understood as affecting both processes and outcomes. Third, the goals of participatory research include community-level as well as individual-level changes. These issues are illustrated in a discussion of how culture is conceptualized and acknowledged in fidelity assessment. We conclude with some recommendations for approaching fidelty in participatory research in a way that appreciates its differences from more traditional paradigms underlying community interventions.     

Globalizing whiteness? Visually re/presenting students in global university rankings websites

ABSTRACT

Amid debates about the role and impact of global university rankings (GURs), very few have closely examined how GURs media outlets construct meanings of higher education (HE) in their visual representations. We critically examine publicly available visual media of students in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and US News and World Report websites. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s heuristics of representation and attending to visual grammars, we argue whiteness maintains its racial hegemony in GURs’ student imagery through its flexibility and in/visbility. Furthermore, whiteness is entangled with other systems of oppression, particularly patriarchy, homonormativity, and heterosexuality. We suggest that GURs rankings media are not simply constructing and informing us about the quality and excellence of HE, but simultaneously teaching us how to view students, often reproducing oppressive racialized and gendered ideologies. We end with methodological implications of visual cultural studies in comparative education.     

峨眉山国内游客结构及行为特征分析

对峨眉山旅游风景区游客结构及其行为特征的分析表明：其游客主体为国内大中城市居民，其受教育程度以大专以上占绝对优势；游客年轻化的趋势明显且以中高收入为主，旅游活动是以基本层次的旅游观光居优；该旅游风景区的自然风光使大多数游客的美感体验得到满足，游客感应最深的是森林植被、清新空气、山地气候及宗教化等，相对较差的是物古迹和观赏动物；此外，近三成的游客对旅游服务质量不满意。针对上述结果，就峨眉山旅游风景区开拓游客流市场、促销定位、促使可持续旅游业发展提出理性建议。     

Asian North-American Children’s Literature About the Internment: Visualizing and Verbalizing the Traumatic Thing

Examining six texts about the traumatic experience of the internment either in Canada or the United States during World War II, we focus not only on their stylistic shift from visualization to verbalization as targeted ages of readers increase, but also on the effects, both historical and personal, social and domestic, on children of their perception of the traumatic Thing. We propose an answer to essential questions: How can we deal with the dark page in human history and overcome its haunting memories? How can we most effectively share the tales of terror with younger generations? These questions will be approached in the light of a Lacanian reading of the six texts. Instead of using these texts as a surrogate for a Lacanian psychoanalysis or demonstrating how therapeutic reading these stories can be, we explicate the concept of trauma and the meaning of the successful “healing” according to Lacan’s assumption regarding the end and the aim of psychoanalytic treatment.     

Self-regulated learning processes vary as a function of epistemic beliefs and contexts: Mixed method evidence from eye tracking and concurrent and retrospective reports

The objective of the current studies was to investigate how epistemic cognition related to specific phases and components of self-regulated learning and its adaptation to learning conditions of varying quality. In a multi-study, mixed method design, we presented university students with science content that relayed conceptual discrepancies and collected quantitative and qualitative data to study how students responded to discrepancies. In Study 1 (n = 42), we collected eye tracking patterns, study times, and metacognitive ratings and found that participants adapted their behavioral processing as a function of their epistemic cognition and discrepancy type. In Study 2 (n = 20), we collected concurrent think-aloud protocols and retrospective interviews to further explore why discrepancies were noticed (or not) and how they were resolved. Results revealed that prior knowledge and epistemic self-efficacy in oneself as an evaluator of knowledge emerged as important themes to detecting and efficiently resolving discrepancies. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and methodological implications.     

Internationale Hochschulrankings

Despite disagreement about their validity, reliability and effects, international rankings of universities have become widely used by students and higher education institutions. This article compares three international rankings of universities and analyzes, based on the academic literature, the extent to which they assess relevant aspects of teaching and research and whether these aspects are measured adequately. We study the Academic Ranking of World Universities published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the World University Ranking published by the British magazine Times Higher Education Supplement and the Excellence Ranking published by the German Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE). The analysis is based on the academic literature about these international rankings and the publications by the rankings’ publishers. We draw conclusions about the design of rankings and develop further research questions.     

Evaluating a Modeling Curriculum by Using Heuristics for Productive Disciplinary Engagement

The BIO2010 report provided a compelling argument for the need to create learning experiences for undergraduate biology students that are more authentic to modern science. The report acknowledged the need for research that could help practitioners successfully create and reform biology curricula with this goal in mind. Our objective in this article was to explore how a set of six design heuristics could be used to evaluate the potential of curricula to support productive learning experiences for science students. We drew on data collected during a long-term study of an undergraduate traineeship that introduced students to mathematical modeling in the context of modern biological problems. We present illustrative examples from this curriculum that highlight the ways in which three heuristics—instructor role-modeling, holding students to scientific norms, and providing students with opportunities to practice these norms—consistently supported learning across the curriculum. We present a more detailed comparison of two different curricular modules and explain how differences in student authority, problem structure, and access to resources contributed to differences in productive engagement by students in these modules. We hope that our analysis will help practitioners think in more concrete terms about how to achieve the goals set forth by BIO2010.     

Pre-Service Teachers’ Views of the Child—Reproducing or Challenging Gender Stereotypes in Science in Preschool

We report how 47 pre-service teachers during their preschool placement in Sweden identify events related to gender and emerging science. We analysed their reflections on the situations with Gee’s Discourse analysis. Two dominant discourse models were identified: the Discourse Construare, where pre-service teachers assumed that children have potential interests in a variety of subjects, and the Discourse Essentia, where children were regarded to have a stable core identity. In the latter discourse, the pre-service teachers’ task would be to encourage the children to be who they are. The analysis found a connection between pre-service teachers’ views of the child and whether gender stereotypes were reproduced or counteracted. The Discourse Essentia is in conflict with the goal in the Swedish national curriculum that all children should learn science. We discuss how the different discourses affect whether children are stimulated or inhibited in their emerging science activities and interests. Based on the results from an analysis of answers reflecting the Discourse Construare, we have designed a model illustrating a process for gender-aware teaching.