A Study about Our Educational Resource Deployment of Compulsory Education

In the base of utility and marginal utility, the article put forward the concept of utility and marginal utility of educational outlay and the theory of them, and analyzed the actuality of educational resource deployment in our country, gave some advice about how to improve our educational resource deployment of compulsory education.     

What Is Educational about Education? The Distinctiveness of Education

This article explores two questions: (1) Is education a unique and distinct discipline? (2) Is education anything other than the achievement of noneducational aims or objectives? In it, Trevor Norris examines how these two questions are interconnected, specifically analyzing how what we think about education as a distinct field of study informs what we ask of it as a practice. When we study education, we should be educational about it, because if we render education as the object of study, it is never endowed with agency or distinctiveness. Norris inquires into the distinctiveness of education as a way of thinking and a way of impacting the world, asking what are the conditions that make it possible for us to identify something as “educational”? To investigate this question, Norris draws from Hannah Arendt's account of politics, and he concludes by describing a case study assignment that requires educational foundations students to draw from philosophy of education in order to show what exactly is educational about education by contrasting education with business and psychology.     

The 2005 Paul F-Brandwein Lecture: Is Our Past Our Future? Thoughts on the Next 50 Years of Science Education Reform in the Light of Judgments on the Past 50 Years

As I look back at K-12 science education in post-World War II America, it strikes me that surprisingly little progress has been made. This disappointing outcome cannot be due to a lack of effort, for in the last half-century our investment in science education reform—human and financial—has been substantial. In this essay, I focus first on some of our failures (as I see them) of the last 50 years, and speculate on why we were not more successful. With that in mind, I then propose a reform agenda for the next 50 years.     

Whither thee, Educational Technology? Suggesting a Critical Expansion of Our Epistemology for Emerging Leaders

It is possible that some outdated ideas about ‘management’ in our field are constraining our preparation of new educational technologists to lead education organizations in the Knowledge Age? This paper takes an interdisciplinary stance to examine educational administration, education technology and complexivist thinking about leadership in our field. It begins with a critical analysis using one of six educational leadership/administration knowledge “contexts” - leadership vs. management - to unpack our field’s existing position on the topic (English, 2011). For parsimony, the other five contexts are mentioned briefly throughout this paper: (2) organizing and institutions and (3) Policy and governance. (4) Finance and Human Resources; (5) Change and Innovation and (6) Learning and technology. Other articles in this Special Edition of Tech Trends testify that outstanding, effective leadership exists in small, medium and large organizations every day around the world because of educational technologists doing amazing work in various contexts. This article suggests a frame for expanding our field’s epistemology for in-program and emerging educational technologists to build their capability to lead organizations that learn in a Knowledge Age.     

Dearing is Dead – Blunkett is Born? The Future Funding of Higher Education

The Dearing Report's most substantial and rigorous piece of work on funding has been rendered irrelevant by the government's decision to adopt a different approach which Dearing had not considered. Much time, effort and money could have been saved if the government had made its objectives clear before the Report was finalised rather than on the day it was published.
Yet the Dearing chapters on funding are not wasted because they provide the case for a student contribution to tuition costs on the grounds of equity. These arguments are examined and supported in the paper. The Report is criticised for missing the opportunity to argue for credit-based funding in relation to both the public and student contributions.
The reasons for the government preferring its particular mix of means-tested fee and loan instead of means-tested maintenance grant are explained in terms of its political objectives. The effect of the government's proposals is that no student or parent pays more now for higher education than under existing arrangements. The extra private costs are incurred by graduates in repaying their additional loans out of their future income.
Finally, the misplaced emphasis on dealing with the full-time student funding problem led the Committee to give insufficient attention to other students. The adoption of a genuine lifelong learning model of higher education might have generated more relevant proposals not only on funding but elsewhere.     

What Mathematics Education May Prepare Students for the Society of the Future?

This paper attempts to engage the field in a discussion about what mathematics is needed for students to engage in society, especially with an increase in technology and digitalization. In this respect, mathematics holds a special place in STEM as machines do most of the calculations that students are taught in K-12. We raise questions about what mathematical proficiency means in today’s world and what shifts need to be made in both content and pedagogy to prepare students for 21st Century Skills and mathematical reasoning.     

What If? The Educational Possibilities of the Earth Charter

Evoking a concern for intergenerational equity and claiming that the bounty and beauty of Earth have become diminishing prospects, I introduce the Earth Charter as an expression of the hopes of diverse communities around the globe. I argue that the Charter deserves educators' attention as an integrated vision of social justice, peace, and ecological sustainability. I believe the Earth Charter can help transform our conception of what is foundational to include solutions to the deepening anthropogenic ecological crisis. Attention is given to the rationale and methodology for teaching with the Earth Charter. I argue that those in educational studies must deeply engage the problems of our time and that the Earth Charter offers hopeful possibilities for examining and addressing our mutual interconnections.     

Just the Facts? The Separation of Sex Education from Moral Education

In this essay Sharon Lamb considers how progressives have begun to win the longstanding battle to shape sex education and what they have had to give up in the process. After framing the battle in historical context, Lamb uses discourse analysis to explore the hidden values in the “evidence‐based” (EB) curricula that progressives currently favor and that pass for neutral today. As her analysis reveals, EB curricula privilege three discourses — a discourse of science, a discourse of healthy choices (with an emphasis on individuals), and a discourse of efficacy — all of which are grounded in ideology and serve to legitimize certain kinds of knowledge while undermining other kinds. Lamb concludes by proposing eight tenets for the future of sexuality education, which are intended to displace the eight tenets codified by proponents of abstinence‐only‐until‐marriage sexuality education.     

Back to the Future: Re-appropriating Religious Education—A Case Study Using the Black Church

The article suggests that Religious Education, in practice and as a field, will benefit by exploring the history and practice of Religious Education in the Black church. Using examples from the history, curriculum, and process of Religious Education in the historic Black church, the article argues that the Black church offers a dynamic educational example for religion scholars and religious educators. The importance of reinvigorating Religious Education in the Black church is discussed and recommendations for future practice are made.     

Where Do We Go from Here? The Future of English Higher Education

A Delphi study has been carried out, soliciting views from higher education experts on likely and desirable developments in English higher education until 2025. The paper reports the most salient findings of the Delphi questionnaire and presents two scenarios that focus largely on the institutional fabric of the system. The first scenario follows the general agreement emerging from the two rounds of the Delphi study and suggests a smaller higher education system and the return of a binary divide between about 25 research‐intensive universities and about 70 other higher education institutions. The second scenario is a counter‐scenario that intends to present an alternative picture of English higher education in 2025. That scenario suggests a compact system of six research‐intensive universities, about 40 comprehensive institutions and five private providers. With respect to the steering of the system, a key difference between the two scenarios is that the former assumes a continuing role of market forces, whereas the latter is based on a much stronger role of the government.