Education and religion in Iran: The inclusiveness of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) textbooks

The focus of this paper is religion and education with particular reference to EFL (English as a Foreign Language) textbooks. The writers of this paper aim to raise the awareness of research community, educators, and teachers regarding the interconnectedness of religion and education. In the first phase of the study, the researchers scanned a series of secondary-level Iranian EFL textbooks prescribed by the Iranian Ministry of Education to determine religious concepts in the form of linear and/or non linear content. The next phase of research was the analysis of the content to determine the level of inclusiveness of the textbooks in terms of culture and religion. These textbooks were also analyzed to determine whether the propagation of religious content was overt or covert. Finally the impact of religious content in textbooks was discussed with reference to identity and nation building.     

The impact of religion on the educational achievement of Black boys: A UK and USA study

Black boys in the United Kingdom and the USA have almost become synonymous with the concept of ‘underachievement’. However, many Black boys are achieving against the odds. Whilst the possession of a high degree of dominant cultural capital is widely recognised as a key contributory factor to academic achievement, the contributory role of other forms of non‐dominant capital is often overlooked. This qualitative study of educationally successful Black males in the United Kingdom and the USA, involving 40 Black male students from both new and ancient universities, set out to establish whether religion was a contributory factor to the educational success of Black male students. The study found that most of these students were religious and that their church community engineered cultural and social capital and their belief in God engineered religious capital, all of which made significant contributions to these Black male students' academic achievement.     

自由教育的历史演变及当代特征

始于古希腊时期的自由教育思想,直到今天仍然在教育理论和实践领域发挥着影响力,考察自由教育的历史演变及当代特征,有助于准确地理解和把握自由教育思想。     

Reading posthumanism and decolonisation diffractively towards (re)configuring an ontoepistemic approach to religion education

ABSTRACT

Student-teachers are exposed to different approaches to teaching Religion Education in South Africa. Amongst these have been the phenomenological-reflective-dialogical approach of Cornelia Roux and the empathetic-reflective-dialogical approach of Janet Jarvis. These different approaches made immeasurable contributions as they started to shift how Religion Education has been taught. The approaches are both informed by a social constructivist methodology, which riposte previous traditionalist approaches. This article questions whether these approaches, amidst the decolonial turn and the posthuman predicament, are still germane as they tend to separate ontology from epistemology. A diffractive reading of posthumanist theory and decolonial literature enabled us to bring texts in intra-action so as to problematise the colonial, capitalist and patriarchal character of existing approaches to Religion Education, both ontologically and epistemologically. This remains pivotal for a country like South Africa where colonial epistemicide prevails despite it being vehemently challenged. Our aim is to weave a text(ile), an ontoepstemic approach, to (re)configure Religion Education in support of the transformative potential of the decolonial project in South Africa. In our pursuit of ontoepistemic justice, we advocate for decolonising the Religion Education curriculum, understood as a verb, as (1) a means to critical empowerment and as (2) a complex encounter with entangled, embedded knowledges.     

Education and Human Diversity: The Ethics of Separate Schooling Revisited

This article reviews the arguments in the separate schools debate in an attempt to present a view of the matter which would be acceptable in a liberal democracy. Although the case for common or inclusive schools is treated sympathetically, the burden of the argument is that public sponsorship of separate schools can be defended once certain conditions are met.     

(Re)Positioning the Child in the Policy/Politics of Early Childhood

How a community constructs the notion of childhood and the child is fundamentally implicated in the practices and policies of that community. This article explores the positioning of the child in historical, contemporary and emerging trends in the provision and practices of Australian early childhood education and care. It argues that if left uncontested, emerging contemporary constructions have the potential to normalise policies, practices and pedagogies derived from a commercialised view of childhood. Drawing on the experiences and practices of early childhood pedagogues and policy actors both in Australia and overseas the authors posit an alternative construction of the child as citizen and the possibility of the early childhood field as a site for the practice of democracy.     

Signatures of citizenship: The rhetoric of women's antislavery petitions

Women's antislavery petitioning not only contributed significantly to the success of the abolition movement, but also figured centrally in the ongoing struggle over defining and redefining various levels of U.S. citizenship.     

关于高职院校办学质量的几点思考

高职院校培养的是一线技术应用型人才,因此专业设置必须适应区域经济发展需要,专业面应宽窄结合,不仅要适应职业需要,还要考虑受教育者发展的需要;课程建设必须牢牢把握其应用性、实践性以及专业面宽窄结合原则;通过在职培训和引进企业优秀人才相结合建设高素质双师型教师队伍,是高职院校办学质量的基本保障。     

在高师音乐教育中应开设室内乐课

“室内乐”在不同的时代和条件下有其不同的意义。在高师音乐教育中开设“室内乐”课不但可以提高学生对多声部音乐的表演能力,全面提高学生艺术修养,优化高师音乐教育的外部环境,增强艺术实践环节,而且可以使学生接受更多的通才教育,从而增强适应社会的能力。“室内乐”课的开设必将为高师音乐教育注入新的活力。     

The experience of black African religious education trainee teachers training in England

This study addresses issues surrounding the recruitment and training of black African religious education teachers within the context of the government’s intention to make the teaching profession more representative of the wider community. In relation to this there is a strong emphasis in the Teacher Training Agency’s Qualifying to Teach on selection procedures which promote equality of opportunity and the recognition of individual training needs. The study is informed by the work of Sikes and Everington who have highlighted the place of religion and culture within the personal histories of religious education teachers. Black African members of two successive cohorts of PGCE students are tracked to identify their training needs in relation to their cultural and religious backgrounds. The data identifies four cultural and religious factors which impact on their training to teach religious education in the UK. Finally, as advised by the Carrington Report, recommendations are made for the practice of teacher educators.     

Curriculum capacity and citizenship education: a comparative analysis of four democracies

Governments, international organizations and academics have, in recent decades, expressed a sense of crisis in the practice of democracy based largely upon increasing levels of disengagement by citizens from even the most basic elements of civic life. One response has been to devise civics and citizenship education curricula for schools with the concomitant expectations of enhanced civic practice. Our examination of citizenship education programs has revealed considerable variation from country to country in the degree of success achieved in the design, development and implementation of programs. This paper examines recent developments in citizenship education in four leading Western democracies – Australia, Canada, England and the USA; each one with its own particular successes and shortcomings. It identifies several factors associated with the successful building of curriculum capacity for citizenship education and argues that these are fundamental for countries wishing to move beyond rhetoric and toward substance in citizenship education.     

论思维定势对理工科大学发展文科教育的影响

理相融是当今世界高等教育发展的重要理念，国内理工科大学纷纷向综合性方向靠拢，大力发展科教育。然而，在此过程中，已有的思维定势对发展科教育具有一定的影响，主要表现在内隐决策、管理层面、学术活动、学科交叉融合等四个方面。只有及时调整思维方式，按照科的特点和规律举办科教育，才能使理工科大学的科专业有较快发展。     

The marginality of migrant children in the urban Chinese educational system

The present paper explores issues of the educational marginality of migrant children in urban settings in two cities in China. The numbers of urban migrants exceed 100 million and are growing as China modernizes. This is creating tensions between residents and recent arrivals who lack residential registration and access to public services. As a result, migrant children often attend informal, private and usually unregulated schools of low quality organized by their communities. These tend to reinforce social stratification and reproduce marginality across the generations. The paper argues that state failure to provide basic education risks a growing divide between urban residents and recent migrants that has social consequences that must be addressed to remove discriminatory practices and resolve potential conflicts between hosts and migrant communities.     

Understanding the approaches to the teaching of religious education of pre-service primary teachers: The influence of religio-scientific frameworks

This paper explores what foundational concepts pre-service primary teachers are employing when they teach religious education. The study measured the attitudes to science and its relationship to religion of 92 pre-service primary teachers. Analysis of extended interviews with eight of the pre-service primary teachers illustrated how specific religio-scientific frameworks could be linked to distinct differences in approach to the teaching of religious education. The implications for teacher education were then discussed, as well as the necessity to integrate the teaching of religion and science into the design of future pedagogical approaches.     

The necessity of historical inquiry in educational research: the case of religious education

This article explores the mixed fortunes of historical inquiry as a method in educational studies and exposes evidence for the neglect of this method in religious education research in particular. It argues that historical inquiry, as a counterpart to other research methods, can add depth and range to our understanding of education, including religious education, and can illuminate important longer‐term, broader and philosophical issues. The article also argues that many historical voices have remained silent in the existing historiography of religious education because such historiography is too generalised and too biased towards the development of national policy and curriculum and pedagogical theory. To address this limitation in educational research, this article promotes rigorous historical studies that are more substantially grounded in the appropriate historiographical literature and utilise a wide range of original primary sources. Finally, the article explores a specific example of the way in which a historical approach may be fruitfully applied to a particular contemporary debate concerning the nature and purpose of religious education.     

The Management and Impact of a Student Led Iraq War Protest in a Fresh Start School

A student led Iraq war protest in a Fresh Start school provides a case study for examining the relationship between political literacy and institutional change. Pragmatic and creative management of the protest encourages a democratic problem-solving process, which contributes to mutual respect and sustained trust between pupils, and staff and pupils. There is evidence to suggest that this democratic experience within the school has the potential to bring a democratic problem solving ethos into the classroom, where learning may increasingly become characterized by individuals achieving autonomy with and for each other.     

Weaving the threads of meaning: a characteristic of children's spirituality and its implications for religious education

Although well documented from a British perspective, empirical research exploring the spiritual lives of primary school children in the Australian context is a field in which scholarship is beginning to emerge. This article reports on one particular finding which emerged from an Australian study seeking to identify some characteristics of children's spirituality in Catholic primary schools. The characteristic has been termed weaving the threads of meaning. It describes the way in which the children who participated in this study appeared to use their sense of wonder as a means of expressing their spirituality by piecing together a worldview based around their attempts at meaning making. This article argues that the existence of this characteristic presents a challenge for religious education, in particular for those programmes which operate within faith schools where the Christian narrative forms a source of the authoritative wisdom to be handed on to its students.     

公民道德教育在和谐社会构建中的作用

我国的熟人社会必须走向现代公民社会,熟人道德必须提升到以民主、平等为基点的公民道德。公民道德教育在和谐社会构建中有着重要作用,主要表现在：公民人格的养成;社会私德与公德的和谐接轨;法治国家构建的基础;社会公共精神的养成;促进国际理解和世界和谐等方面。在公民道德教育方面,当前需要注意在国家政策法律层面构建公平正义,建立国家道德荣誉体系,建立国家层面的道德维护保险措施,重视推进健康网络文化。