Connecting religion and teacher identity: The unexplored relationship between teachers and religion in public schools

It is increasingly acknowledged that for individuals to participate in a pluralistic and democratic society, they must understand religious conviction and difference. In educational literature, the discussion surrounding education and religion focuses on the implications for students. It is important to consider what this may mean to the teachers, as teachers directly influence student learning. This article uses literature on religion, multiculturalism, teacher identity, and popular culture to connect teachers' private religious identifications to their professional identities in public school classrooms. It supports future research in this area and provides a theoretical framework for subsequent studies.     

小学英语课程实施的个案研究

采用质性的研究方法,以一位专家教师与一位生手教师作为研究对象,针对其课程实施历程进行了近三个月的观察研究,并辅以访谈、文件分析、简单问卷调查等方式搜集资料,将所得资料从教师知觉课程层面、教师运作课程层面和学生经验课程层面进行比较分析,探讨小学英语课程实施的现状和存在的问题,并提出相应的改进建议。     

Determinants of school choice: understanding how parents choose elementary schools in Alberta

Rational choice theory suggests that parents are utility maximizers who make decisions from clear value preferences, that they are able to demand effective action from local schools and teachers, and that they can be relied upon to pursue the best interests of their children. This paper presents a different perspective and argues that parents invest a mixture of rationalities when selecting schools. Based on the results of a survey of 1,500 parents of students in 11 private, eight public and 10 alternative elementary schools in Alberta, Canada, this paper explores the logic, values, and concerns that inform parental decision making in the selection of an elementary school for their children and discusses implication for policy and educational reform.     

Social difference and the politics of schooling in Africa: a Ghanaian case study

This paper examines the implications of ‘social difference’ for schooling in African contexts. It highlights theoretical and philosophical engagements with ‘difference’ that could help explore and search for viable educational options in Africa. The paper engages voices of university students interviewed in a longitudinal ethnographic research study on schooling done in Ghana. Issues and questions about knowledge production, identity development and representation in pluralistic schooling contexts are raised. Insights about local knowledges, individual agency and resistance as they relate to possibilities for rethinking schooling and education in Africa are also explored. The students' narratives reveal how dialogues about school and educators' practices about difference and diversity are [not] addressed with respect to the students' schooling. Lessons on the possibilities of inclusive schooling environments are offered.     

让主体主动起来,把学会学习落到实处--中学政治课三自一导教学改革的实践与思考

中学政治课的“三自一导”教学改革,使教师和学生的角色发生了重大变化,适应社会发展的要求。在政治课教学中,要指导和培养学生自读书、自质疑、自求索的习惯和方法。     

理解、交流与学习——建构主义在中学政治课教学中的运用

本运用建构主义的观点，对目前中学政治课教学中的理解、交流与学习进行了反思，认为理解是知识意义的建构，交流是意义的共享与协商，学习是自主体验的过程，并提出了相应的教改思路。     

略论中学政治课的改革与高师政教专业的任务

本文阐述了当前中学政治课改革的历史过程和基本特点,论述了高师政教专业的改革要从服务方向、思想教育、导次设置、教学内容、教学等方面主动适应中学政治课改革的需要。     

Measuring the quality of education at two levels: A case study of primary schools in rural Ethiopia

This paper constructs two measures of the quality of education. The first one is a quality measure on the institutional level, it is derived inductively from the answers provided by school directors from rural Ethiopia on several interview questions. A cornerstone in my definition of school "quality" in a resource constraint environment is the degree of responsiveness to household needs. The second one is a measure of the quality of teaching at the individual level based on teaching attitudes and teaching behaviour of teachers. Pearson correlations show that school quality is positively correlated with increased enrolment but also that the quality of teaching is negatively correlated with increased pupil/teacher ratios. Schools in rural Ethiopia thus make a quantity-quality trade-off. Evidence suggests that class size is not the relevant variable in the quality debate, but time allocation of teachers is.     

Measuring the quality of education at two levels: A case study of primary schools in rural Ethiopia

This paper constructs two measures of the quality of education. The first one is a quality measure on the institutional level, it is derived inductively from the answers provided by school directors from rural Ethiopia on several interview questions. A cornerstone in my definition of school "quality" in a resource constraint environment is the degree of responsiveness to household needs. The second one is a measure of the quality of teaching at the individual level based on teaching attitudes and teaching behaviour of teachers. Pearson correlations show that school quality is positively correlated with increased enrolment but also that the quality of teaching is negatively correlated with increased pupil/teacher ratios. Schools in rural Ethiopia thus make a quantity-quality trade-off. Evidence suggests that class size is not the relevant variable in the quality debate, but time allocation of teachers is.     

Stifling transformation through the manipulation of enrolment: A case study of two public high schools in Gauteng Province

Abstract

This article reports on an investigation into how admission policies in general and the ‘zoning’ policy in particular are applied by the School Governing Bodies (SGBs) of two particular former Model C secondary schools in a town in the Gauteng Province, Republic of South Africa. It also examines the admission criteria currently in use against the background of allegations that the application of these criteria is a veiled attempt to exclude black learners from schools in order to retain a white learner majority. It also considers what can be termed the ‘channelling’ of learners. Interviews were conducted with a sample of disgruntled parents, a chairperson of the school governing body (SGB) of one of the schools and the principals of two unrelated schools, which were mentioned during the interviews with the disgruntled parents.     

The persistence of religion in Germany's modernizing schools,from Empire to Republic

Germany's well‐established, and often envied, public elementary schools of the early twentieth century, encompassing the years from the late German Empire through the Weimar Republic, were both centers of reform pedagogy and sites of persistent confessional religious education. This article uses schoolbooks, curricula and pedagogical literature to examine the relationship between these two educational currents, the first associated with modernity and the second with tradition. The article stresses continuities from Empire to Republic, both in reform pedagogy and in religious curricula, pointing to elements of modernity in the conservative Empire, and to the persistence of tradition amidst the turmoil of the 1920s. In addition, it suggests not only that reform and religion coexisted but that reform of religious instruction helped to maintain its place in the modern school.     

A different result of community participation in education: an Indonesian case study of parental participation in public primary schools

Parental participation in school management is regarded as a good thing according to the rationale that local people know better and are able to be more responsive to their own needs. However, little is understood about the implications of the School Operational Support policy for community participation in education. This study investigated parental participation in the context of education decentralisation with regard to the changing situation in which the Indonesian government provides sufficient funds for school operational costs. Using a qualitative inquiry, researchers collected data through document analyses, questionnaires and interviews with stakeholders of two public primary schools in Depok, Indonesia. The study found that prior to the Free School Program, parental participation was limited to parents’ financial contribution and associated matters. However, since school was made free, parents’ involvement in school budgeting has become very limited; they are no longer engaged in the planning of allocations, and neither they nor the school committees are able to make inputs into decision making; even the functions of the school committees are limited to rubber stamping the school budget.     

Mobilizing ethnic equality in admissions to schools: Litigation,politics, and educational change

This study explores the impact of litigation on the mobilization of ethnic equality in the admission to Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) schools in Israel, and examines the socio-political mechanisms that have shaped this impact. It uses a case-study approach and draws on an analysis of documents and interviews. The findings confirm the conclusions of other studies regarding the limited ability of courts to produce change in schools by showing that ethnic equality was not mobilized until the Ministry of Education reformed its policy. However, the findings also show that the legal discourse empowered a group of Haredi parents to raise the rights consciousness of other parents and to support them in surmounting barriers that had impeded rights claims. The phenomenon of rights agents exemplifies how ethnic equality in school admission is mobilized in a bidirectional process: top-down judicial rulings empowered Haredi agents, who, in turn, have mobilized rights from the bottom-up to the new appeals committees in the Ministry of Education. The phenomenon also demonstrates the significance of collaborative relationships among lawyers, politicians, and social agents in order to generate social reforms in schools of ultra-religious groups.     

中学思想政治课教学的“精”、“疑”、“活”探讨

中学思想政治学科的素质教育主要体现在知识,能力和觉悟三个方面,“精”,“疑”,“活”的课堂教学方法有助于学生素质的培养,精讲精练是学生掌握知识的基础,从“疑”到“释”地培养学生认知能力的关键,搞“活”教与学是提高学习效率的重要手段。