Continuing Education and the Redrawing of Boundaries

Continuing education, broadly defined to include both vocational and non-vocational kinds of provision, is having an increasing impact within higher education. Its further expansion is now part of government strategy. This expansion will not be achieved without difficulties, and it poses considerable and varied challenges to those who work in higher education. In this paper, we focus on the effects that continuing education is having on established boundaries within higher education — boundaries between different sectors and types of provision, between different subjects and ways of teaching, and between higher education staff and their different skills. As the provision of continuing education increases, existing boundaries will change, become more permeable or be broken down altogether while new divisions and distinctions are created and built up.     

A comparison between junior colleges and special training colleges in Japan

The history, function and role of two types of Japanese post-secondary institutions-junior colleges and special training colleges — are examined. The junior colleges which have hitherto been associated with the provision of academic, non-vocational education have begun to diversify into vocational courses in response to the increasingly popular vocational courses provided in the special training colleges (sennon gakko) developed since 1976 in the best of the formerkakushu gakko. The implications of this for the future development of post-secondary education in Japan are considered.     

高职文科类英语专业实践教学拓展研究

高职院校英语专业学生必须拓展自己的专业知识才能在职场中谋得一席之地.为此,可将课程设置为三类：英语基础课、英语专业课和贸易知识课,同时,改革教学方法,建立教学实践基地.     

Does Vocational Training Help Transition to Work? The ‘New French Vocational Bachelor Degree’

This article analyses whether graduates in university vocational courses benefited from better labour market outcomes in France than those in academic courses. We focus on bachelor degrees in France, comparing ‘general’ or ‘academic’ degrees with ‘vocational’ degrees. The vocational bachelor degree was created in 1999 in the continuity of the education policy of expanding the number of vocational courses in French universities and in the framework of the Bologna Process. It aimed to lead to a new qualification at the intermediate level between the qualified technicians’ diplomas and the engineering or senior management diplomas. We use a French survey on higher education leavers in 2001 who were interviewed in 2004. In order to take into account the selection in the vocational track, we applied statistical methods which allow us to compare graduates with similar characteristics. Our results show that education mismatch is less great for vocational bachelor graduates, which is coherent with the idea that the vocational track better responds to employers' needs. In addition, we find empirical evidence that vocational bachelors tend to be associated with higher pay even after accounting for the heterogeneity of students. Our last findings suggest that the university-employer link specifically developed for the vocational bachelor course influences the way vocational graduates find their job: they are significantly more likely to use university-based contacts to obtain their first jobs.     

‘Because the ego started to grow bigger than the project itself’: a case study of founder’s syndrome on an educational community of practise

In 2010 I worked at Green Shoots, a nonprofit service-learning urban farming school started by John Browne. Despite an openly egalitarian community of practise ethic, Browne used his leadership to create a hierarchy at the school that eventually led to a walk-out by staff in which he responded by outright firing them. Using the theory of founder’s syndrome, or the tendency of a founder to subvert the aims of their organization, I examine Browne’s leadership and how his attitude destroyed the community of practise at Green Shoots. Findings reveal a character profile of Browne as a charming and inspirational teacher who engaged in a dominating leadership that contradicted the community of practise's ideals, creating further contradictions which resulted in disrespected students, disillusioned staff, and a founder unable to take responsibility for his leadership. Finally, I discuss the importance of addressing the power of founders so that founder’s syndrome does not impede the important work of educational nonprofits.     

Trends in the payoff to academic and occupation-specific skills: the short and medium run returns to academic and vocational high school courses for non-college-bound students

Using data from three longitudinal surveys of American high school students, I show that vocational courses helped non-college-bound students to start their work life more successfully. A comparison of the returns to academic and vocational course work for non-college-bound students who graduated in 1972, 1980 and 1992 finds that the short and medium term payoffs to vocational courses rose substantially between 1972 and 1980 and remained high in 1992. Holding a host of variables constant, academic course work had much smaller labour market payoffs than vocational course work. These findings contradict the often repeated claim that employers now seek workers with a good general education and are happy to teach the occupation specific skills necessary to do the job. High school students who do not plan to attend college full-time would be well advised to start studying a well paying occupation before they complete high school. [JEL: I20, J23, J24]     

Is Liberal Studies a political instrument in the secondary school curriculum? Lessons from the Umbrella Movement in post-colonial Hong Kong

This paper examines whether Hong Kong teachers and students perceived Liberal Studies and its ongoing curriculum review as politically driven during and after the Umbrella Movement, a large-scale civil disobedience campaign that took place in September 2014. The findings presented herein show that both groups disagreed with the claim that Liberal Studies was used as a political instrument to instigate students’ participation in the protest movement. Moreover, they also reveal that teachers have maintained their neutrality towards controversial issues related to politics during Liberal Studies lessons. Whilst the participating teachers and students considered the government's proposed reform of Liberal Studies to be politically motivated, they held differing attitudes towards the addition of more China-related elements to the subject. On the basis of these results, this paper analyses the potential role of Liberal Studies in the democratisation of local society. It also provides an indication of the curriculum's dynamic nature, explanation of students’ resistance to the review policy and suggestions for the subject's future development.     

MEDIA STUDIES AND VOCATIONALISM

University arts faculties have traditionally been reluctant to admit a vocational component into arts courses. The author's experience in teaching media at the New South Wales Institute of Technology suggests that the fears underlying this reluctance, while not completely irrational, arise from problems between academics and professionals who cannot work well together: they can be overcome if those involved behave with tact and flexibility. The approach to media studies in Australia is described.     

高职院校实施博雅教育的策略

博雅教育旨在通过对学生知识面的拓展、批判性思维的培养以及综合能力的训练,使学生成为知识渊博、品格高雅的人,为解决高职院校在人才培养过程中因偏重专业课程教学而导致的学生片面发展问题提供了重要的视角和选择。高职院校应充分重视和发展博雅教育,重塑大学理念以培养健全的人,开设博雅课程以提供全面的教育,丰富教育手段以促进学生成长成才,培养出更多适应社会发展需要的优秀人才。     

Learning from childhood to mature adulthood: what makes people want ‘to learn to learn’ and keep on learning?

This article describes 35 individuals who have expressed an interest in taking university courses after retirement. Longitudinal data and individuals' own accounts are presented, in an effort to clarify the role that symbolic resources play in individuals' lives, for their capacity to construct their own identity, to function as social actors, and ‘to learn to learn’. It is argued that their lives provide grounds to consider a re‐conceptualisation of adult learning.     

From here to there and back again: the story of a mother,her son,disability, and school choice

Nelly and her children live in Queensland, Australia. When it came time for her second youngest son to start school, Nelly was not prepared for the difficulty that she had enrolling him at the school of her choice. In spite of her son's disability, Nelly thought that it was natural that he would go to his local school with his sister. It is not surprising that she expected this, given the legal and policy endorsement of inclusive education that exists in the Queensland education system. What unfolded in Nelly's life as she pursued this enrolment is the subject of this article. This is the story of a mother who believed in and hoped for inclusive schooling for her son but who found herself caught in a series of events and experiences which ultimately led to the decision to transfer him into a special school. This is also the story of how, disillusioned and regretful, she went on to undo that decision. Told primarily in Nelly's own words, this narrative provides a deep insight into one mother's efforts to exercise her parental authority, the difficulties she encountered in trying to do so, and the consequences for her son.     

Undergraduates' Views of Teaching as a Career Choice

This study explored undergraduates' views of teaching as a career choice. A total of 298 students completed a questionnaire in which they were asked to rate the importance of 20 factors in influencing their choice of career, and then the extent to which they thought teaching as a career offers these factors. A comparison was made between the views expressed by three groups of students: those who were definitely not considering teaching (N = 102), those who were seriously considering teaching (N = 40), and those who were undecided (N = 155). All three groups rated 'a job that I will find enjoyable' as the most important factor influencing their choice of career. However, as we move from the 'definitely not considering teaching' group towards the 'seriously considering teaching' group, there was a shift towards rating as important in their choice of a career those factors which teaching more evidently offers and a more favourable rating that teaching offers these factors (e.g. 'a job which gives me responsibility', 'a job where I can contribute to society' and 'job mobility'). The students who reported that they could be encouraged to consider teaching as a career were also asked to consider measures that might do so. The most highly rated measure was 'an increase in the quality of resources for teaching'.     

ABSTRACTS OF DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION, 1973‐1974

The ethos of the Enlightenment placed religious and spiritual concerns in a private sphere, while politics became a public concern. In this vein, many American educators, including John Dewey, have vigorously insisted that public schools remain free from religion while inculcating a common civic virtue. Recently, however, educational theorists and practitioners influenced by Dewey have worried about the public's lack of spiritual intelligence and have asked how democracy and spirituality might be reconciled within schools. I approach this question through an examination of Elmer Thiessen's Teaching for Commitment: Liberal Education, Indoctrination, and Christian Nurture (1993). While not a follower of Dewey, Thiessen's work raises important questions for those who follow Dewey and who are concerned with the relationship between democracy and spirituality.     

Skill Acquisition through Indigenous Apprenticeship: A case study of the Yoruba blacksmith in Nigeria

This paper is primarily concerned with indigenous apprenticeship in the Yorubaland of Nigeria with particular reference to training in blacksmithing. First, it provides a background which considers the nature of apprenticeship and shows how it is different from schooling. Then it discusses the necessary and vital ground work that should be done before a candidate is admitted to apprenticeship. The article describes the various stages in the apprentice's training, their rationale and their implications. Finally, the implications of this indigenous approach to manpower development for schooling and out-of-school educational programmes are considered.     

从职业实践出发，培养核心业务能力——以武汉职业技术学院外语系英语专业毕业生的调查为例

对外贸易的迅速发展不仅需要大量的专业人员,也对高职专业教学提出新的目标要求。外贸成为应用英语教学日益重要的服务领域。为了检验课程建设的效果,改进教学,笔者借助问卷和在线访谈调查了应用英语外贸方向部分毕业生的就业情况、所学英语和贸易类课程对其职业发展的影响。调查发现：本专业基本上“学用对口”,资格能力证书有利于学生对口就业,应用英语教学促进了毕业生的职业发展;学生在校时缺乏明确的职业认识,他们渴望在校时得到专业性实践训练、获得初步的“工作经验”和发展“综合素质”。基于此,笔者建议本专业教学按照外贸职业的工作过程设计综合化课程和组织情境教学,把应用英语和外贸职业能力有机结合起来,在学生经历（模拟）职业实践的前提下培养他们解决职业实际问题的行动能力。     

From Crowther to Core Skills

Abstract

Both major political parties are currently giving a high priority to this country's quality of education, especially to its provision for 16‐19 year‐olds. Responding to persistent criticism expressed by leading industrialists and scientists of our narrow specialisation, the government produced its White Papers on further and higher education with issues of breadth and equivalence of status at their core. The purpose of this article is to trace the recent history of largely unsuccessful attempts to reform the A‐level examinations, to show why they failed and to draw some conclusions about that history which may be relevant to the contemporary political and educational debate. Firstly, it will consider the likely outlook for the Advanced Supplementary Examinations, which have been introduced as broadening devices for pupils and which are intended to coexist with traditional A‐level courses. Secondly, it will consider recent proposals to introduce core skills, a more radical initiative which seeks to incorporate identifiable common skills into both A‐level and AS courses and vocational courses. The strength and nature of past resistance to changes at A level and the mixed reception given to these initiatives inside and outside schools and colleges do not augur well for their success.     

Masking,mediators and agency: bilingual children and learning to read

This paper begins with a discussion of some of the key insights of recent sociocultural research that consider bilingual children and learning to read and culminates in a discussion of Syncretic Literacy Studies (SLS). It then presents data from an ethnographic study that focused on the learning experiences of a small group of Year Three Bangladeshi‐heritage pupils during 1 year of their schooling in order to problematise some of the claims made in recent sociocultural work and in SLS, particularly the focus on children's agency. The findings from the study suggest that (a) there are limits to children's agency that are not recognised in recent work and in SLS; (b) that identity has an important role to play: children can successfully mask what they cannot do as readers in order to present a particular identity in the mainstream classroom; and (c) that the access some children have to mediators may be limited and can change over time.     

Editors’ Note

The notion that students come to science courses with misconceptions has become quite widely accepted by those who follow or participate in education research. DiSessa and his colleagues (diSessa, 1988, 1993; Smith, diSessa, &; Roschelle, 1993/1994) have challenged the theoretical and empirical validity of this perspective and offered an alternative account of cognitive structure in phenomenological primitives or p-prims. The purpose of this article is to further clarify and contrast the two accounts: in particular, to consider their utility and generativity as conceptual tools for teachers. How may each perspective influence instructional perceptions and intentions? The article recounts a discussion about forces and motion from a high-school physics class, analyzes how a teacher may perceive students' participation in that discussion from either perspective, and considers what, based on those perceptions, the teacher may see as tasks for instruction.     

“There Are No Housewives on Star Trek ”: A Reexamination of Exit Rights for the Children of Insular Fundamentalist Parents

In this essay, Paula McAvoy addresses the problem caused by the liberal state's necessary tolerance of insular fundamentalist groups and the concern that children raised in such groups do not have a fair opportunity to evaluate their inherited beliefs. This tension comes to the fore around disagreements over schooling and requests for religious accommodation. Often, these requests are treated as straightforward dilemmas — either the state accommodates the group at the expense of the child's future interest in autonomy, or the state must use its power to coerce the group into compliance. McAvoy argues for a principled middle ground between these two views. Using William Galston's conditions for securing the right to exit (set out in his 2002 book Liberal Pluralism) and evidence from Anabaptist apostates, McAvoy shows that insular groups cannot satisfy these conditions. Consequently, when accommodation is necessary, the state must mitigate the foreseeable costs to children by enacting policies that “facilitate entrance” for those who later choose to exit.