Introducing technology education to young children: A design,make and appraise approach

The National Statement on Technology Education will soon be released in Australia. The statement advocates adesign,make andappraise approach to technology education. The document includes Year One children and provides exemplars of curriculum activities for early childhood children. Although much curriculum development in technology education for primary and early childhood has taken place in the UK, little research has been conducted within the early childhood area in Australia. This paper describes a study which sought to investigate how thedesign,make andappraise approach could be implemented within early childhood using existing materials, procedures and teaching programmes. In particular, the pre-school programme was considered to see if the approach was suitable for young children, and if girls could be encouraged into this newly defined area of study. Specializations: early childhood science education, early childhood technology education.     

Back to basics: how young mothers learn about sex and sexuality

Adolescent pregnancy continues to be a major concern for policy-makers, programme developers, helping professionals and society generally in the USA, especially in light of the US federal government's legislative emphasis on abstinence-only sex education until recently. Studies have found that abstinence-only programmes do not succeed in preventing young people from becoming sexually active or pregnant; most young people have sexual intercourse in their teenage years long before they even contemplate marriage. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how 32 teenage mothers learned about sex and their related views about pregnancy and birth control. Findings indicate that they have often received little accurate information about sex from their parents and schools. Findings also reveal their widely varying views about birth control and pregnancy. Overall, the findings support the need for comprehensive sexuality education that addresses the topics covered in this study in an age-appropriate manner. The findings also suggest ways that helping professionals in other settings besides schools can help young people address these issues.     

Parents’ perceptions and children's experiences of early intervention – inclusive practice?

This paper explores the experiences of early intervention for three families in England. The case study research considers parental perspectives and children's experiences of early intervention: what do parents want and what are children's experiences? In particular the ways in which parents and children participate in early intervention programmes in order to support learning will be explained. Case study data includes interviews with four parents. The early intervention experiences of three children with Down Syndrome aged 3–4 years old will be described and placed within the context of early years and inclusive education policy and practice in England ( DfES, 2001, 2003a,b; 2004a; TSO, 2003; QCA, 2000 ). Recent recognition within Government policy towards increased parental involvement in the learning of young children will be considered within the context of inclusive education and early years policy and practice. The ways in which parents are encouraged to be involved in developing the learning of their children and their support from professional services will be considered. The parents’ views and experiences enable a conceptualisation of the implementation of policy and practice, in relation to the opportunities provided and the difficulties encountered. The tensions identified raise questions about whether parents are receiving the kinds of support they need and expect, and in particular whether suitable consideration has been given to the pedagogic models being applied through early intervention programmes.     

Implementing community-based comprehensive sexuality education with high-risk youth in a conservative environment: lessons learned

Although comprehensive sexuality education programmes have the potential to improve the sexual health and well-being of young people, many socially conservative rural states in the USA have laws and policies restricting school-based comprehensive sexuality education and supporting abstinence-only education. This paper describes the process of building a community-university partnership to implement a community-based comprehensive sexuality education peer education programme for high-risk young people and presents preliminary findings from a longitudinal evaluation. Through purposive recruitment, the sample included 386 young people (mean age) who were more diverse than the local community. Important university-community partnership components included (1) establishing local connections and legitimacy, (2) adapting and tailoring programmes to meet community context, (3) sustainability planning, and (4) flexibility, persistence, and patience. Building community trust and capitalising on the mutual benefits of community-university partnerships are effective methods of building community sexuality education programming in a conservative environment. Tailoring evidence-based approaches to comprehensive sexuality education in a politically restrictive environment shows promise in improving the sexual and reproductive health of young people.     

Teaching sexual matters in Taiwan: the analytical framework for popular culture and youth sexuality education

Although most teachers realize the potential of using popular culture within the sexuality education classroom, incorporating it successfully is complex. Especially, how can teachers critically analyse the ideology contained in popular culture without lapsing into moralizing and design motivating activities? For teachers in Taiwan, whose training has involved abstinence-only sex education and discourse, avoiding such activities is an even greater challenge. This study attempts to present an analytical framework for development students' sexual literacy through popular culture to respond to these issues. The framework for using popular culture sexual literacy as a pedagogical tool enables teachers to shift from analysing popular culture itself to understanding the lessons regarding sexuality and gender that students derive from it. Using this analytic framework, teachers can establish an interesting and meaningful method to discuss sex and intimacy relationship issues and facilitate students' inquiry into the multiple understanding of sexuality and gender; especially in discussing and understanding the desire of adolescent girls. Through this framework, the true needs of students in sexuality education can be addressed. This pedagogical approach also relates the course content to the practical experiences of young students and alters student opinions on formal sexual education.     

The Namibian inclusive education policy's response to gender nonconforming learners

The provision of education to children is a human right that most countries including Namibia are trying to achieve. Hence, through educational inclusion, educators strive for removal of barriers within education systems for all children to learn. The purpose of this study was to explore how the Namibian inclusive education (IE) policy responds to gender non-conforming learners. Drawing upon the Social Identity Perspective (SIP) and interviews with four education officers and employing a transformative case study, this study revealed that the Namibian IE policy does not clearly pronounce itself on inclusion of gender non-conforming learners. The study further discovered culture, religious beliefs, lack of training and lack of information on gender non-conformity as factors preventing teachers to interpret the IE policy statement in relation to gender non-conformity. The study recommends for the IE policy to have a clear statement and guidelines on handling of gender non-conformity issues in schools. The study further recommends for the programmes for in-service teacher training to integrate the content on sexuality and gender diversity. Moreover, through in-service teacher training, education officers should provide correct information on gender non-conformity to curb the discrimination towards gender non-conforming learners within the school communities.     

Assessment of Disabled Students in Higher Education: Current public policy issues

Although there are over 68,000 disabled students in higher education programmes in the UK, a laissez-faire policy has been adapted regarding the provision of assessment services for these students, with a result that there have been no statutory duties for these programmes not to discriminate against them. With the introduction of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001) amending Part IV of the Disability Discrimination Act (1995), it would be timely to consider assessment related issues and benefits from the experiences of the US higher education programmes and educational testing agencies in this area since the mid-1970s. This paper argues that it is the academic achievement of disabled students that should be measured by the assessment services, not their disabilities. Without the provision of reasonable assessment adjustments, as the research shows, it is inevitable that disabilities of disabled students would be measured not their academic achievements, contrary to the main argument put forward by Sharp and Earle (2000) among others. The paper argues for a historical role for the educators and administrators of higher education programmes in eliminating discrimination against disabled students in provision of assessment services at every stage of their studies in the long run.     

Promoting Gender Equity for Young Children in the South and South East Asian Region

This article examines the status of current policies aimed at promoting gender equity for young children in the South and South East Asian Region. It details the main themes and concerns within these policies and argues that there is still considerable work to be done before gender equity programmes fully permeate all aspects of the delivery systems of education for young children. In conclusion ten elements for successful gender equity programmes are outlined as a basis for developing a strong strategic approach to gender equity within the region.     

Triple jeopardy: special education for Palestinians in Israel

Research comparing special education for Jews and for Palestinian Arabs in Israel outlines major inequalities. This situation has remained largely unchanged for decades and there is little evidential reason to believe there will be improvement in the near future. Palestinian children requiring special education are adversely affected by a combination of institutionalised discrimination and neglect and the implications of living in a traditional society that is reluctant to adopt outlooks necessary for modernising education, particularly for children with special needs. To the best of our knowledge, no overview of special education for the Palestinian minority in Israel has been published in English to date. While change is most likely to occur as a result of effective activism within the Palestinian Arab community, high rates of poverty and political marginalisation remain a daunting obstacle.     

当代美国青少年性教育的两大模式探析

20世纪后半叶,青少年性教育引起了世界各国的普遍关注。美国是青少年性教育的先行国家之一,它的性教育模式多样纷呈,其中最具代表性的当属综合性性教育模式和唯禁欲性教育模式。本文将回顾这两大性教育模式的发展历程,通过比较两者的性教育目标、性教育内容以及各自的性教育价值取向等,以分析两者背后所隐藏的不同的价值观体系,以期为我国方兴未艾的青少年性教育提供参考。     

Accessing Imagined Communities Through Multilingualism and Immersion Education

In this article I apply constructs of language as economic and symbolic capital, transnationalism, investment, and imagined community to an analysis of interviews with immigrant parents living in Vancouver, Canada. These parents promote multilingualism by maintaining their family language and enrolling their children in French Immersion programmes. I argue that they view multilingualism as capital and invest in language education as a means of securing their children's access to various imagined language communities. Referring both to a transnational perspective and a national context of official bilingualism, they imagine that French Immersion education will enable their children to participate in a Canadian French-English bilingual community while maintaining the family language will ensure affiliation with their heritage language communities in Canada and abroad. In addition, they imagine that multilingualism will equip their children with valuable language resources that help transcend national borders. This discussion highlights the overlap and distinctions of theoretical constructs and raises questions about the objectives of language education and immersion programmes in an increasingly mobile and multilingual society.     

城镇化进程中农村基础教育的问题与对策

城镇化是农村现代化的必然趋势。在当前城镇化进程中,农村基础教育发展出现了诸如“升学主义”观念有所加强、基础教育“育人价值”受到忽视、“身份”歧视导致辍学现象增加、留守农民工子女教育质量下滑、课程结构欠合理等问题。为此,应通过转变基础教育观念、强化基础教育的文化传递与改良功能,消除“身份”歧视意识,加强对留守农民工子女的监护,改革和完善课程结构等,有效促进农村基础教育健康发展。     

The Problem of Democratic Values Education

The paper explores the moral ontology of democratic values education. It argues against the assumption that democratic values education, based on individual freedom, should be understood in a moral anti-realist and constructivist frame of reference. It claims, instead, that it is possible to educate in democratic values in ways that foster the development of the rational and moral autonomy of children only within the moral realist context. The Kohlbergian, Deweyan, Rawlsian, MacIntyrean and Rortyan counter-arguments are considered and some of their problems discussed.     

Intercultural education in Detroit, 1943–1954

In the World War II era, many United States educators recognised that the claims of racial superiority underlying German anti-Semitism and Japanese imperialism challenged the fundamental democratic idea of human equality that is the bedrock of US political ideals. At the same time, these educators realised the importance of national social cohesion for political unity and strength. Their response to this challenge was to develop school programmes that emphasised the principles of equality of opportunity and inalienable human rights, that promoted respect for diverse races and cultures, that warned against the dangers of race-based totalitarianism and that taught all students to fulfil their responsibilities as US citizens. These programmes, generally referred to as ‘intercultural education’, enjoyed their greatest success from the late 1930s to the early 1950s.

In practice, most intercultural education programmes, as implemented in schools, did not live up to the ideals established by intercultural education’s founders. Instead, most programmes focused on the cultural contributions of diverse groups and on values such as tolerance and appreciation for differences. Yet one large and influential public school district, the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) district, did fulfil many of the expectations for the programmes. DPS administrators and teachers pushed intercultural education in more daring directions, directly tackling deeper structural issues such as power, privilege, discrimination, equality and race to help students from different racial and cultural backgrounds respect one another and to help groups that were traditionally discriminated against achieve their full rights as citizens. Intercultural education in Detroit simultaneously taught students to value racial and cultural diversity and to cherish and follow civic values – not an easy task. Although intercultural education was a short-lived movement, ending in the 1950s in Detroit and around the country, we demonstrate that many initiatives of intercultural education formed the basis for accomplishments several decades later, during what is known as the multicultural education movement. Intercultural education also had a legacy through Norman Drachler, a leader of the intercultural programmes in the 1940s: years later, as General Superintendent of the DPS in the late 1960s, Drachler would lead the effort to dramatically change US history textbooks to be inclusive of diverse people and groups.     

Opportunities and barriers: Gendered reality in Chinese higher education

In the field of Chinese higher education, gender is still a significant issue, as is a general ignorance of gender discrimination against women. Issues related to gender can be observed throughout the process of education: at the time of entering an institution, during the educational process and as an outcome of education. The following seven aspects of sexual discrimination occur in Chinese higher education system: (1) Fewer opportunities for women in higher education than for men; (2) within disciplines and specializations there exists the phenomena of gender segregation and diffluence; (3) considerable gender difference exists in the distribution of school resources; (4) teaching materials and teaching content are gender discriminatory; (5) within higher education institutions, student organizations have a degree of gender imbalance; (6) campus culture has a hidden agenda of gender discrimination; and (7) employment prospects for women tend to be unequal and discriminatory.     

The Delors Report: a guide towards education for all

The Delors report remains a timely and challenging agenda for shaping education from the earliest years. This article reviews the status of basic education, defined as a passport to life in the report. Despite progress toward universal primary education and gender parity, countries are still far from education targets adopted in 2000. Lack of care and education programmes for young children, of literacy and life skills programmes for youth and adults, and poor education quality are undermining progress towards education for all. The article stresses the importance of building inclusive systems that reach all learners regardless of their background and circumstances and provide appropriate conditions for learning. It reviews UNESCO's actions in education, emphasising the necessity of a rights-based, holistic vision as an imperative for reducing poverty and promoting sustainable development.     

Gender Relations and the Production of Difference in School-based Sexuality and HIV/AIDS Education in Australia

HIV/AIDS discourses have not only made people aware of HIV as a disease entity but have opened up new ways of thinking and talking about sex and sexuality. This article draws on findings from an evaluation of a pilot sexuality education programme, conducted in secondary schools in Victoria (Australia), to examine gender relations and the production of difference. Participating schools were required to incorporate teaching and learning experiences which normalised and affirmed sexual diversity and explored issues around HIV-related discrimination and homophobia. Two examples, gender, power and menstruation and heterosexism and homophobia, are used to analyse the language and practices students engage in as part of the process of achieving a (hetero)sexual identity. It is argued that HIV/AIDS education and sexuality education, more broadly defined, presents a particular challenge to dominant forms of masculinity and that programmes need to address gender, power and heterosexuality and its discontents if they are to have a positive impact on HIV-related discrimination and homophobia.     

A sustainability education academic development framework (SEAD)

Academic development is one means of reorientating education within higher education (HE) to include sustainability principles. This paper identifies the requirements of academic development programmes that will provide educators with the skills to engage students in the ideas of sustainability and sustainable development. In order to determine what an ideal academic development programme for sustainability education might look like, a theoretical framework for sustainable education and academic development (SEAD framework) was constructed. This was based on an analysis of the literature in the areas of sustainability education, academic development and organisational change in HE. The aim of this paper was to present and analyse the theoretical SEAD framework against three international academic development programmes in sustainability education for HE, which utilised different approaches and delivery modes. From this analysis, it is possible to determine the elements of academic development that would most likely result in a change in educational development and delivery.