Infusing an inter‐professional and inter‐university perspective into healthcare education

A national (USA) student‐led, case‐based CLinician/Administrator Relationship Improvement OrganizatioN (CLARION) competition focuses students in medical and related healthcare programs on the provision of healthcare that is safe, timely, equitable, patient‐centred, effective and efficient. Students work in four‐person, inter‐professional teams to research and analyse a designated case. They then present their findings and recommendations to a panel of independent judges. Students, with support from their faculty advisors, approach the case as they see fit. Following initial participation in this CLARION competition, an inter‐professional team of students from two universities and their advisory faculty developed a two‐semester, pre‐competition course as a model to facilitate transformation in healthcare education. The course is theoretical, empirical and practical. It has multiple levels of learning and is designed to mentor students, develop faculty, measure learning outcomes and stimulate administrators in higher education to think creatively about curriculum development across disciplines. This integrated and inter‐professional approach is pivotal in healthcare education to ensure students learn safe and evidence‐based clinical practice that meets the highest standards for quality care.     

Early Childhood Education as a Scientific Discipline: a state‐of‐the‐art perspective

The objective of early childhood education is to address the totality of issues and areas of activity relevant to young children. In spite of the considerable growth in knowledge concerning children and childhood, this objective has yet to be attained at the theoretical level. Proceeding from the vantage point of a retrospective of the conceptions of the two classical theorists, Rousseau and Frobel, the case is made for grounding early childhood education in the dimensions of subjectivity, intersubjectivity, society and history in order to be able to analyse its various tasks in their respective specificity and reciprocal dependence. The attempt is made to characterise the challenges facing such a theory and to outline the resulting systematic issues for a pedagogy of early childhood.     

Childhood and education in Jean-François Lyotard’s philosophy

The theme of childhood and education in Lyotard’s philosophy provides an interesting field of reflection combining education studies and continental philosophy. Childhood in Lyotard’s thought is mostly understood as infantia, a concept that appears towards the end of his work. The claim of this article is that childhood in Lyotard’s philosophy cannot be reduced to the late concept of infantia; looking at the recurring nature of this theme in his writings that is present from the beginning, as well as various figures under which it appears, pushes Lyotard’s readers to reconsider his work from a pluralist and interdisciplinary perspective.     

Educational distance from the perspective of self‐direction: an analysis

To establish which factors predict student intentions to contribute towards an OpenCourseWare site, an online questionnaire was distributed among University of Queensland students via email. The 320 participants completed items that were based on the theory of planned behaviour and were designed to measure attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. Measures of altruistic motivation were also included as a predictor for intentions to contribute. Overall, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and altruistic motivation explained 43.1% of the variance in students’ intentions to contribute. Attitudes and altruistic motivation were the strongest predictors, accounting for 7.49% and 7.12%, respectively, with subjective norms accounting for 3.9%. Perceived behavioural control was not found to contribute to the explanatory model. The implications for universities creating new OpenCourseWare sites are discussed. Further research should investigate the effects of barriers on student intentions to develop and contribute and should examine the determinants of faculty support.     

Aristotelian character education: A précis of the 2015 book

This article provides a précis of Kristján Kristjánsson’s 2015 book, Aristotelian Character Education, under discussion in the present issue.     

Flourishing as the aim of education: towards an extended, ‘enchanted’ Aristotelian account

Flourishing, understood along Aristotelian or quasi-Aristotelian lines as objective eudaimonic well-being, is re-emerging as a paradigm for the ideal aim of education in the 21st century. This paper aims to venture beyond the current accounts and Aristotle’s own, by arguing that both suffer from a kind of ‘flatness’ or ‘disenchantedness’ in failing to pay heed to the satisfaction of certain impulses that have been proven to give fullness to our lives: impulses having to do with awe-inspiring emotional attachments to transpersonal ideals. I thus argue that while Aristotelian flourishing is a necessary place to begin, it is not a sufficient one to conclude, a study of human flourishing, either generally or in classroom contexts; it needs to be extended and ‘enchanted’ in order to do so. That venture does not necessitate an embrace of supernaturalism, however.     

Introducing a neo‐Weberian perspective in the study of globalisation and education: structural reforms of the education systems in France and Israel after the Second World War

Only since the 1990s has the impact of globalisation on education drawn scholarly attention, primarily due to the impact of international school achievement surveys. This study argues that the globalisation of education began much earlier, with the establishment of intergovernmental agencies, such as UNESCO and the OECD, and the adoption of American educational models after the Second World War. The neo‐Weberian perspective I propose focuses on knowledge producers and education global networks and incorporates an analysis of the specific national context and their peculiarities without losing sight of the globalisation process and its homogenising character. Knowledge producers constitute a status group that increases its social and academic capital through advancing global education models locally. The analysis of reforms in the education systems of France and Israel after the Second World War shows how the diffusion of global educational models that stress equality of opportunity enhanced local transformations and affected national policies. Such an analysis elaborates the process whereby knowledge producers, linked to global networks, constructed ‘social problems’ according to the education knowledge production institutionalised in each country and the socio‐politic conditions of each society, and how their alliance with highly ranked functionaries brought about structural reforms aiming at the ‘democratisation of education’ in France and Israel.     

Between ideology and institution: the curriculum of upper‐secondary education

This study examines apparently similar historical phenomena in 19^th‐century Prussia and Switzerland: the establishment of modern foreign languages in the curriculum of upper‐secondary education. Through the course of the 19^th century, there appear to have been great transnational European affinities with regard to both the differentiation of the upper‐secondary education into types and the development of the curriculum. However, the contextualization of the curriculum within the overall organization of the school system raises doubts as to whether the similarity is more than only quantitative. A second contextualization of the overall organization of education within cultural convictions also reveals fundamental differences rooted in different political convictions, such as monarchism and republicanism. As a result, despite the formal similarities, the establishment of the foreign language education in Switzerland and Prussia could not have been more different.     

Re‐imagining and rescripting the future of education: global knowledge economy discourses and the challenge to education systems

Using critical discourse analysis as a methodology for analysis, this paper sets out the nature and form of the challenges directed to the compulsory schooling sector by the knowledge economy that is contained in key policy and related documents put out by the OECD, the World Bank and the UK government. The OECD and the World Bank’s policy agendas are increasingly important in setting policy and programme agendas for the developed and developing countries respectively; however there are important differences between the two institutions regarding how education should be redesigned. The World Bank’s redesign of education favours the market and individualism as the means for developing knowledge and skills for the knowledge economy. The OECD, however, while concerned with human capital formation, rejects the market model in favour of an institutionally embedded liberalism to overcome the problems posed by tacit knowledge. The UK, on the other hand, has promoted the idea of personalized learning. The paper suggests that this idea is particularly problematic for developing a system of innovation for the economy that is dependent on high levels of social interaction.

The first half of the twenty‐first century will, I believe, be far more difficult, more unsettling, and yet more open than anything we have known in the twentieth century. I say this on three premises; none of which I have time to argue here. The first is that historical systems, like all systems, have finite lives. They have beginnings, a long development and finally, as they move far from equilibrium and reach points of bifurcation, a demise. The second premise is that two things are true at these points of bifurcation; small inputs have large outputs (as opposed to times of the normal development of the system, when large inputs have small outputs); and the outcome of such bifurcation is inherently indeterminate. The third premise is that the modern world system as a historical system has entered into a terminal crisis and is unlikely to exist in 50 years. However, since its outcome is so uncertain, we do not know whether the resulting system (or systems) will be better or worse than the one in which we are living, but we do know that the period of transition will be a terrible time of troubles, since the stakes of the transition are so high, the outcome so uncertain, and the ability of small impacts to affect the outcome so great. (Wallerstein, 1999, p. 1)     

Have conceptual reforms (and one anti‐reform) in preservice teacher education improved the education of multicultural,multilingual children and youth?

This article examines three conceptual reforms in US teacher education (competency‐based teacher education (CBTE), reflective teacher education (RTE) and constructivist teacher education (CTE)) for their effects on the education of multicultural, multilingual youth, as well as considering alternative certification (AC), known here as an ‘anti‐reform’. The author suggests that although each reform made incremental improvements in the ways that preservice teachers are prepared to teach multilingual and multicultural learners, none significantly altered the education of under‐served children and youth. For instance, CTE points out the importance of prior knowledge, but fails in connecting its core concepts with culturally relevant instruction. CBTE, while also generally failing to alter teacher preparation for multicultural learners, did try to make explicit connections for preservice teachers. RTE made explicit the moral consequences of working in diverse communities but fell short when it altered the apprenticeship–mentor relationship. AC of teachers is presented as the work of neo‐liberals whose largely successful efforts to deregulate teacher preparation offer both an improvement and retrenchment for urban children and youth. Finally, the article links the field’s focus on the preparation of teachers for diverse students and the moral dimension of teacher education, concluding that such a connection may be the only way to maintain the professional school preparation of teachers.     

The education of children with special needs: a cross‐cultural perspective

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses issues attendant on the practice of identifying pupils with special educational needs in advanced educational systems. Current practices in Australia and Scotland are described and attention is drawn to the problems generated by the abandonment of a category‐based approach to children with special educational needs, the variability of practice between authorities and the absence of reliable data on incidence of special educational needs. Placement outcome data derived from a Scottish study are presented and discussed. The paper concludes with discussion of Australian and Scottish practice set against United States’ experience in the light of Public Law 94‐142 and identifies areas for future research.     

Population policies and education: exploring the contradictions of neo‐liberal globalisation

The world is increasingly characterised by profound income, health and social inequalities (Appadurai, 2000 Appadurai, A. 2000. Grassroots globalisation and the research imagination. Public Culture, 12(1): 1–19. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]). In recent decades development initiatives aimed at reducing these inequalities have been situated in a context of increasing globalisation with a dominant neo‐liberal economic orthodoxy. This paper argues that neo‐liberal globalisation contains inherent contradictions regarding choice and uniformity. This is illustrated in this paper through an exploration of the impact of neo‐liberal globalisation on population policies and programmes. The dominant neo‐liberal economic ideology that has influenced development over the last few decades has often led to alternative global visions being overlooked. Many current population and development debates are characterised by polarised arguments with strongly opposing aims and views. This raises the challenge of finding alternatives situated in more middle ground that both identify and promote the socially positive elements of neo‐liberalism and state intervention, but also to limit their worst excesses within the population field and more broadly. This paper concludes with a discussion outling the positive nature of middle ground and other possible alternatives.     

Portfolio practices in higher education in Norway in an international perspective: macro‐, meso‐ and micro‐level influences

The point of departure for this article is the ‘chameleon’ aspect of portfolios and the diversity of portfolio models and practices in higher education on the international arena today. Our aim is to investigate the contextual character of this diversity by using Norwegian higher education as an example and to show how macro‐level influences, particularly the Bologna related Quality Reform, have shaped the overall development of portfolio practices. We contextualise and discuss the sudden expansion of learning and assessment portfolios in Norway after 2002. Our data are primarily a nationwide survey of portfolio practices, supplemented by findings in a research evaluation of the reform and previously published case studies. The majority of portfolios in Norwegian higher education can be classified as ‘disciplinary‐based course work portfolios’ and they typically serve a combination of learning and assessment purposes. But within this category we found systematic differences between different educational areas where the main dividing line seems to be between professional and non‐professional education. The underlying research perspective is sociocultural and this directs our attention to contexts, cultures and traditions that shape portfolio development and practices rather than to individual differences (micro level).     

The gendered boundaries of child‐centred education: Elsie Ripley Clapp and the history of US progressive education

This paper analyses how historical narratives of the 1930s conflict between child‐centred and social reconstructionist factions of US progressive education reinforce gendered constructions of education. The split between these two groups has been drawn along lines of gender with child‐centred education associated with female educators focused on individual development and social reconstructionists comprised of university male faculty working for social justice. The work of Elsie Ripley Clapp, an active proponent of rural progressive education in the 1920s and 1930s, is used to illustrate the limitations of accepted categorisations of progressive education. The focus on Clapp points to new ways of framing the ideological tensions within the progressive education movement and highlights how the politics of gender influence which educators are remembered as leaders and activists. The paper argues that the recent renewal of interest in social reconstructionism should include a critique of its oppositional and hierarchical relation to female progressive educators.     

Professional practice,learning, and continuing education: an integrated perspective‡

The popular wisdom among professionals is that the knowledge they acquire from practice is far more useful than what they acquire from more formal types of education. This observation contradicts the dominant viewpoint in society and the professional education establishment that has given legitimacy to knowledge that is formal, abstract and general while devaluing knowledge that is local, specific and based in practice. This viewpoint has strongly influenced continuing education, which has followed the model set at the preservice level in focusing on the transmission of formal, abstract knowledge. In this paper, I describe and provide evidence for three propositions that build on the importance of knowledge gained from practice. These are: (1) the goal of professional practice is wise action; (2) knowledge acquired from practice is necessary to achieve this goal; and (3) a model of learning from practice should become the centrepiece of systems of continuing education for the professions.

     

Leadership in education: the case of Vice‐Chancellors

This paper is based on the Franklin Lecture given at the Guild of Educators on 17 November 2005 at the Bakers’ Hall, London.     

Between education and the economy: high‐stakes testing and the contradictory location of the new middle class

This paper analyzes the contradictory location of the professional and managerial new middle class within the rising tension between old systems of the industrial capitalist model of education, epitomized by a reliance on high‐stakes, standardized testing and the newer forms of production associated with the ‘fast’ capitalism of the global economy. The author argues that the professional and managerial new middle class is faced with a dilemma since they benefit from systems of high‐stakes, standardized testing, yet require schools to also teach the types of skills and flexibility associated with knowledge economy. The analysis suggests that this dilemma represents the contradictory class location of the new middle class relative to both discursive and productive resources.