Fostering citizenship in China's move from elite to mass higher education: An analysis of students’ political socialization and civic participation

This study examines the patterns and interplay of college students’ political orientations and socialization toward citizenship and civil society in the Chinese sociopolitical context, alongside China's move to mass higher education. Data were collected from a nationwide survey conducted in 12 Chinese universities in 2007. The analytic framework is adapted from the classic comparative studies on civic culture pioneered by Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba. The policy implications and conclusions made by this paper suggest alternative ways for higher education institutions as civic actors to nurture active citizenship learning, to foster students as reflective and open-minded social agents, and to facilitate the growth of vibrant civil society.     

Sexuality education in South Africa: Three essential questions

Sex education is the cornerstone on which most HIV/AIDS prevention programmes rest and since the adoption of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE), has become a compulsory part of the South African school curriculum through the Life Orientation learning area. However, while much focus has been on providing young people with accurate and frank information about safe sex, this paper questions whether school-based programmes sufficiently support the needs of young people. This paper is based on a desk-review of the literature on sex and sexuality education and examines it in relation to the South African educational context and policies. It poses three questions: (a) what do youth need from sexuality education? (b) Is school an appropriate environment for sex education? (c) If so, what can be said about the content of sex education as well as pedagogy surrounding it? Through reviewing the literature this paper critically engages with education on sex and sexuality in South Africa and will argue that in order to effectively meet the needs of youth, the content of sexual health programmes needs to span the whole spectrum of discourses, from disease to desire. Within this spectrum, youth should be constructed as “knowers” as opposed to innocent in relation to sex. How youth are taught as well as how their own knowledge and experience is positioned in the classroom is as important as content in ensuring that youth avoid negative sexual health outcomes.     

知识社会:高等教育功能的重新审视

知识社会是以知识为基本要素的社会 ,如何应对知识的挑战是高等教育的重大课题。建基于“知识”这一逻辑起点 ,我们重新审视了高等教育的基本功能 ,将高等教育的功能界定为保存知识、传承知识、应用知识、创造知识、涵化知识、交流知识六个方面 ,并对传统高等教育功能进行了融合与超越。     

构建社会主义和谐社会对公民教育的诉求

十六大提出了构建社会主义和谐社会的科学论断。这要求我们必须大力发展符合构建社会主义和谐社会要求的公民教育,在坚持社会主义核心价值体系指导下,以人的全面和谐发展为方向,积极构建适合社会主义和谐社会需要的公民教育体系。     

Science education and worldview

Is there a place for Indigenous Knowledge in the science curriculum for a Zulu community in rural Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa? This article argues “yes,” based on a participative research and development project that discovered relevant science learning in a Zulu community. Among community concerns for relevant factual and performative knowledge, we found that culture and worldview are critical to community identity, to visioning educational outcomes, and to learning in school science. Cultural practices may contribute to pedagogy and curriculum; curriculum, in turn, may affirm cultural practices. Further, worldview needs to be understood as an aspect of knowledge creation. By understanding key aspects of an African worldview, science educators can contribute to both meaningful science education and community well-being. By fostering culture and worldview, a rural community can make a unique contribution to science education.     

试论韩国公民教育的特点及对我国教育事业的启示

韩国公民教育在整个教育体系中占有重要的地位,发挥着重大的作用,它不仅对社会稳定起到了积极作用,而且还促使了经济的腾飞,韩国的教育体制也引起了世人的关注。韩国公民教育能获得成功,笔者认为主要在于把握了三个重点:坚持科学的理念,规划明确的内容,运用有效的方法,这些对我国的教育事业都有着重要的启示作用,我们应当积极借鉴。     

An examination of the vocational education and training reform debate in Southern Africa

This paper explores the role that vocational education and training (VET) can play in Southern African responses to major socio‐economic challenges. It argues that this role will be most pronounced if it is articulated within a broader educational and economic vision that is shared by a range of stakeholders in society and supported by an adequate funding base, effective information systems and qualified and motivated planners and implementers. However, it cautions that it is also important to remember that VET reform will not in itself transform economies or societies. The paper argues that there is considerable convergence within Southern Africa around 10 themes of VET reform. It argues that there is much that is of merit in the current broad package for VET transformation but that it is essential that it is carefully critiqued and that elements are adapted to national circumstances and visions.     

Secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa: Exploring research priorities with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)

Abstract

Research on secondary education in Africa is urgent for several reasons. One reason is the strong link between social and economic development, on the one hand, and secondary education, on the other. Several studies have indicated this link and while African leaders are mindful of its importance, no comprehensive plan exists whereby development objectives put forward by New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) could be realised.

This article reports on a pilot study by a South African university following a request from the NEPAD Secretariat to investigate secondary education research opportunities. The study included a literature review, documentation analysis and interviews with various interested individuals and bodies that are concerned with secondary education research and development in Africa. Results of the pilot study point towards a number of important studies that have been conducted or that are currently under way concerning African secondary education. Secondly, a number of possible strategic focus areas for research have emerged, but will have to be followed by more in-depth inquiry in order to be of proper value.     

A multi-disciplinary collaborative project developing public health higher education in four higher education institutes in Africa and Europe

The HEI-ICI project involves cooperation between the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) and three African partners. The main aim of the project, now in its fourth year, has been to develop education in health sciences and to improve the quality of teaching. The target has been to develop the skills of selected junior faculty from the Public Health departments, library and IT centres at partner universities. The data was collected during the project in 2010–2014. Written and visual material was analysed using deductive content analysis. The main obstacles researchers were faced with while working in the project have been cultural: the project encouraged different cultures – not only European and African but also pan-African – to meet and work together. This novel approach to learning and teaching is based on the concept of cooperation, collaboration and trust between all of the participating partners; its foundation is the full ownership by the less developed Southern partner institutions.     

Culture,indigenous knowledge systems and sustainable development: A critical view of education in an African context

The article’s focus is the relationship between culture, indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), sustainable development and education in Africa. It analyzes the concept of sustainability with particular reference to education and indigenous knowledge systems. In particular the article analyzes the documents from the World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002 as well as from the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Moreover, the article discusses South Africa’s Curriculum 2005 (C 2005) launched by the African National Congress (ANC) by focusing on the dilemmas of exclusively introducing Western-based scientific knowledge in a cultural context based on indigenous epistemology. The article concludes by calling for more research into the viability of indigenous knowledge systems as a potential tool in sustainable development.     

The development and application of progressive education in the Netherlands and some implications for South Africa

Abstract

The charge that schooling is poorly adapted to modern conditions in South Africa and abroad has been debated since the beginning of the twentieth century, with the result that two strands of competing paradigms - traditional and progressive - crystallised from the discussion. This article delineates the salient features of progressive education to prepare the ground for a comparison of outcomes-based education (OBE) in South Africa with education in the Netherlands and thereby determine the influence, if any, of progressive education on OBE and Dutch education respectively. The data gathered to determine the progressive influence on Dutch education showed that some elements of progressive education had been combined with traditional (tried-and-tested) practices to create an effective primary educational system. The implication for South Africa is that teachers should be allowed to adapt their teaching styles and curriculum development to accommodate learners who cannot benefit optimally from progressive teaching, and that progressive principles can be implemented in South Africa, provided it is done as in the Netherlands without trying to force everybody into the same mould (i.e., on the crude principle that ‘one size fits all’),     

The World Bank and financing higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa

This article critically examines World Bank andother donor agency's policy changes towardfinancing of higher education in Sub-SaharanAfrica. It concludes that policy vicissitudeshave adversely affected these institutions. Therecommendation is that the unique context ofeach state play a role in higher educationfinancial policy formation and implementation.     

Language,culture and identity in the transition to primary school: Challenges to indigenous children's rights to education in Peru

This paper analyses a ‘critical moment’ in the educational trajectories of young indigenous children in Peru: the transition to primary school. It addresses the inequalities in educational services that affect indigenous children, before looking at the micro-level processes that take place in school settings, through a focus on two selected case studies from the Young Lives study of childhood poverty. Using longitudinal information collected in two consecutive years, the case studies show how the children's language and culture are excluded from school premises and their very identity as children and indigenous people is disregarded, negatively affecting their educational performance.     

Vocational education and training for sustainability in South Africa: The role of public and private provision

Written in the twilight of the Mbeki Presidency, this paper considers the role that skills development has in the sustainability of the South African political–economic project. It explores some of the disarticulations of public policy and argues that these both undermine public sector delivery and open up opportunities for private provision to be, under certain circumstances, more responsive to the challenges of national development. We argue that there is a possibility that the state could work more smartly with both sets of providers. Crucially, however, this would necessitate working more smartly within itself. This was a major plank of the Mbeki strategy but it has failed conspicuously with regard to the Education–Labour relationship. Whether a new President can achieve a radical reworking of this relationship may be an important indicator of the viability of any new development project.     

发展中国家如何致力于更加公平的教育——以印度和南非为例

教育公平是国际社会的共同追求,促进教育公平是各国政府不可推卸的责任.本文选取印度和南非这两个重要的发展中国家,分别从历史、法律、政策、财政等方面,梳理了两国政府在教育公平方面做出的不懈努力,以期为中国的教育公平问题提供一定的借鉴和启示.     

Science education: innovation in rural and remote Queensland schools

Outside its heavily-populated south-eastern corner, Queensland is a huge administrative area with many small, remote communities that can be separated by hundreds of kilometres of dirt road, or, in other areas, not accessible by road. In this study, parents, students and teachers in nine schools from rural and regional Queensland were interviewed about their perceptions of school science. Teachers, parents and students defined remoteness by reference to their social ties, as well as the social capital and resources they drew on to teach science meaning that not only did different groups differ in their interpretations of remoteness; different teachers in similar circumstances also responded differently. Science teachers’ responses to remoteness were related to their perceptions of school-community communication and their perceptions of their freedom to innovate. Teachers who felt that remoteness gave them more freedom and recognised opportunities to utilise their environment created innovative and relevant science programmes. Teachers who felt their remoteness gave them less freedom felt isolated from the community were less likely to innovate.     

Exploring equity and quality education in South Africa using multilevel models

Educational reform in South Africa envisions schooling where all students, irrespective of their background characteristics, have the opportunity to succeed. To achieve this vision, the South African education system needs to function in such a way that students’ success does not depend on their backgrounds; that is, if school processes and policies in South Africa were inclusive and supportive of the learning of all students then we would expect high-quality schools to compensate for socio-economic disadvantage such that the achievement gap associated with the socio-economic status (SES) would be minimised. The main objective of this paper is to explore the relationship between school quality and socio-economic disadvantage. Our analysis, employing multilevel statistical models, indicates that:

1. schools do make a difference over and above the socio-economic backgrounds of learners they enrol;

2. learners are most successful in schools where they and their parents are actively engaged in the learning processes;

3. schools with these characteristics tend to compensate for learners’ socio-economic disadvantage;

4. learners from disadvantaged backgrounds are less successful in schools; and

5. the impact of SES on learners’ achievement levels is particularly prominent in high-achieving schools.

These findings call for the need to rethink the current schooling processes and policies to include structures that allow schools to provide opportunities to engage learners and their parents in the schooling processes with the objective of compensating for learners’ socio-economic disadvantage. We argue that this objective can be achieved through a capability framework where inclusion, democratic participation and child centredness serve as the major principles of the provision of quality education for all.     

非洲高等教育面临的挑战与发展前景

非洲是世界上高等教育最不发达的地区。长期存在的经济和社会危机、殖民主义遗留的影响、一些地方艾滋病的广泛传播等因素 ,是非洲高等教育发展的障碍。尽管如此 ,高等教育仍然被认为是非洲大陆发展和现代化的关键力量 ,2 1世纪非洲高等教育的发展必须取得成功。     

Democratising higher education in Ghana and Tanzania: Opportunity structures and social inequalities

This article is based on an ESRC/DFID funded research project on Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an Equity Scorecard (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/wideningparticipation). There are questions about whether widening participation in higher education is a force for democratisation or differentiation. While participation rates are increasing globally, there has been scant research or socio-cultural theorisation of how different structures of inequality intersect in the developing world. Questions also need to be posed about how higher education relates to policy discourses of poverty reduction and the Millennium Development Goals. The article explores participation in higher education, utilising statistical data and life history interviews with students in two public and two private universities. It focuses on how gender and socio-economic status intersect and constrain or facilitate participation in higher education. Findings to date suggest that opportunity structures reflect social inequalities.     

Disaster,civil society and education in China: A case study of an independent non-government organization working in the aftermath of the Wenchuan earthquake

In May 2008 nearly 90,000 people died in the most powerful earthquake in modern Chinese history. Many were students killed in substandard schools, creating a sensitive disaster zone inside a nation whose civil society organizations are beginning to flourish. This paper examines the education earthquake relief program of an international NGO, and the institutional environment the organization worked in. We argue that the restricted environment prevented implementation of high-impact programs in the most deprived places, but that the NGO needed to use the institutional opening created by the earthquake to establish a presence as an agent in China's development.