Suggestions for Utilizing the 2008 EPAS in CSWE-Accredited Baccalaureate and Masters Curriculums—Reflections from the Field,Part 2: The Implicit Curriculum

This article is Part 2 in a 2-part series discussing the new guidelines for Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) issued in April 2008 by the Council on Social Work Education. The 2008 EPAS shifted the focus of assessment for accreditation or reaffirmation from the evaluation of program objectives to assessment of educational outcomes and student achievement of practice competencies. Because major accreditation challenges for social work programs derive from the 2008 EPAS, this article continues the discussion of a model for sequencing accreditation tasks that began in Volume 30, Issue 2 of this journal. In this article, Part 2, the authors discuss the program's implicit curriculum and its assessment under the 2008 EPAS. The articles in this 2-part series are intended to be companion pieces.     

The State of Criminal Justice Educational Programs in the United States: Bachelors’ Degrees,Curriculum Standards,and the Ongoing Quest for Quality

While definitions for, and assessments of, the quality of degree programs in higher education are varied, in criminal justice the field has determined a quality program is one that meets certain standards involving such areas as program mission, curriculum, faculty credentials, and resources determined through “academic certification” by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS).The problem is few programs have pursued certification and almost no research has otherwise assessed degree program quality. Using data collected from the population of bachelor’s degree programs in criminal justice (BCJ) operating during 2015–2016 (N = 670), this study assessed program curriculum using ACJS standards, and examined institutional, departmental, and programmatic influences on the number of standards met. Results indicated BCJ programs met few curriculum standards, and that departmental factors were especially significant influences on the number of standards met. These results warrant revisiting accreditation as the mechanism for insuring the quality of criminal justice academic programs.     

The New Curriculum for the Teaching of English——With Which Dialectical Knowledge in Education Is Raised

The paper ,with a theory of Action Research and especially dialectical knowledge, gives a brief analysis and disussion of the New English Standard Syllabus(aim called the New Curriculum) and also points out the difference between the New Curriculum and the traditional syllabus of the basic English course. It is also theoretically and practically designed with some excellent suggestions on how to study the New Curriculum and make good use of English teaching.     

The International Baccalaureate and a framework for class consciousness: the potential outcomes of a ‘class-for-itself’

The International Baccalaureate (IB) examination system in early 2010 was on offer in 2700 schools in 139 countries. Since 1999, the Geneva-registered IB has created a platform for image consolidation, product standardization, and technological linkage. Out of this has emerged a globally branded ‘IB World’, educating the ‘IB Learner’, using an outcomes-based ‘IB Learner Profile’, and ‘IB Community Themes’. It is soon to be aligned within an ‘IB Association’. This creates a potential framework for class consciousness. The ‘IB Learner’, forming a ‘class-in-itself’, might form a self-conscious social grouping, a ‘class-for-itself’. This paper explores possible outcomes, within the context of two ‘agendas’. The ‘agenda for global peace’ desires an irenic class, tolerant and culturally aware. Within the context of an ‘agenda for global business’ a more inner-directed class might appear, sympathetic to globalization and the needs of Capital. Alternatively, a ‘third way’ could appear; a class who is business-oriented but socially-responsible.     

Struggling and Seeking for Identity——The Plight of the Protagonists in Fences

The characters in August Wilson’s play Fences all suffer from great pain as African American in 50s society in U.S..Father,mother and son exert their efforts struggling in both family life and social racism.The source of their survival plight,to great extent,lies in the confusion of identity.This paper explores the struggling and seeking of the characters from both interior and exterior world.     

The learner experience of Curriculum 2000: implications for the reform of 14–19 education in England

In September 2000, new qualifications for 16–19 year olds, known as Curriculum 2000, were introduced in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland with the aim of broadening the advanced level curriculum. It was left to schools, colleges, and their learners, however, to decide how these new qualifications would be used to build learner programmes of study. In this voluntarist context, the views and actions of learners have been an important factor in determining the course of the reforms. This article, which is based primarily on a study of 42 learners in a school/college consortium in the south west of England, provides a chronological account of learner experiences of these reforms during their first 2 years of implementation. The consortium discussed here offered a high‐volume study programme similar in size and content to those being proposed by the Tomlinson Working Group on 14–19 curriculum and qualifications reform in England. Learners found their expanded programmes onerous, due in part to the nature of the new qualifications and in part to the context of their implementation. The article concludes by identifying a number of policy lessons for 14–19 reform arising from this research.     

The owner,the participant and the spectator: positions and positioning in peer activity around the computer in pre‐school1

One of the most important benefits of computer use within educational settings has been described as its potential for use in collective activity. However; there is a need to take a closer look at the apparently unproblematic picture of children's actual cooperation around the computer. The purpose of this research was to study positions and positioning in peer activity around the computer in pre‐school. Data were collected in three different Swedish municipal pre‐school units with children from three to six years of age. In this paper three positions, described as ‘owner’, ‘participant’ and ‘spectator’, are identified and discussed. The positions are static as they constitute a specific space for acting, including rights, duties and obligations. They are also dynamic as, in relation to previous experiences, they appear to imply different opportunities to use the afforded space for acting. The play around the computer implies that positions and positioning are continuously defined and transformed in relation to each other.     

Learning from all? The World Bank,aid agencies and the construction of hegemony in education for development

This paper explores the nature and quality of the participation that characterises the Bank's consultations with external actors and examines the extent to which the Bank is responsive to such feedback when it comes to defining its policy preferences and strategies in the education domain. It draws on a case study of the participatory process that was organised around the definition of the last World Bank Education Strategy (WBES2020) and focuses on the participation of three European aid agencies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Department for International Development of the UK. This paper acknowledges that a significant effort was made to promote the inclusiveness and transparency of the participatory process, yet it concludes that the conditions for promoting quality participation and substantive policy change were not provided. Furthermore, the way international aid agencies produce and use knowledge limits their role and influence in the context of the Bank's consultations. Hence, by not contesting the Bank's policy ideas substantially, the agencies contribute inadvertently to reproducing the Bank's predominance in the education for development field.     

The Struggle for Early Childhood Curricula: A comparison of the English Foundation Stage Curriculum,Te Wha¨riki and Reggio Emilia

Parents, teachers, researchers and politicians often have strong and conflicting views about what is right for young children in the years before school. Curricula can become 'sites of struggle' between ideas about what early childhood education is for, and what are appropriate content and contexts for learning and development in early childhood. This paper focuses upon the way visions for early childhood are expressed through the curricula offered in three very different contexts--in England, New Zealand and Reggio Emilia in Northern Italy. These three examples of early childhood curricula are compared in order to explore how a growing pressure from vocational and instrumental influences can impact on progressive and socioculturally inspired early childhood curricula and approaches. A comparison of these examples also reveals how early childhood curricula and educational systems are often forged amidst differing contexts in relation to national and local control of early childhood curricula and approaches. These differing contexts can also give rise to differing conceptualisations of knowledge, learning and pedagogy. Des professeurs, des chercheurs et des politiciens ont souvent des vues fortes et contradictoires au sujet de ce qui est bon pour les jeunes enfants dans les anne´es avant l'e´cole. Les programmes d'e´tudes peuvent devenir 'des sites de lutte' entre les ide´es au sujet du but de la premie ¤ re e´ducation d'enfance, et au sujet du contenu et des contextes pertinents a ¤ l'apprentissage et le de´veloppement dans la petite enfance. Cet article se focalise sur la manie ¤ re que des visions pour la petite enfance sont exprime´es par les programmes d'e´tudes offerts en trois contextes tre ¤ s diffe´rents--en Angleterre, Nouvelle-Ze´lande et Reggio Emilia dans l'Italie Septentrionale. Ces trois exemples des programmes d'e´tudes de la petite enfance sont compare´s afin d'explorer comment une pression croissante des influences professionnelles et instrumentales peut faire une forte impression sur les programmes d'e´tudes et des approches progressifs et inspire´s par des approches socioculturels. Une comparaison de ces exemples re´ve ¤ le aussi comment les programmes d'e´tudes de la petite enfance et les syste ¤ mes d'e´ducation sont souvent forge´s parmi des contextes diffe´rents par rapport au controle national et local de programmes d'e´tudes sur la premie ¤ re enfance et des approches diffe´rents. Ces contextes qui diffe ¤ rent peuvent engendrer aussi conceptualisations qui diffe ¤ rent sur la connaissance, l'apprentissage et la pe´dagogie. Los padres, los profesores, los investigadores y los poli´ticos tienen a menudo visiones fuertes y en conflicto sobre lo que es correcto para los nin ¨ os pequen ¨ os en los an ¨ os que preceden a la escuela. Los planes de estudios pueden convertirse en "sitios de lucha" entre las ideas sobre el propo´sito de la educacio´n preescolar y sobre cuales son el contenido y contextos apropiados para aprender y para el desarrollo en la primera infancia. Este arti´culo se centra sobre la manera que las visiones para la nin ¨ ez temprana son expresadas a trave´s de los planes de estudios ofrecidos en tres contextos muy diversos--en Inglaterra, Nueva Zelanda y en Reggio Emilia en el norte de Italia. Estos tres ejemplos de los planes de estudios de la nin ¨ ez temprana se comparan para explorar co´mo una presio´n cada vez mayor de influencias vocacionales e instrumentales puede afectar los planes de estudios y acercamientos metodolo´gicos progresistas e inspirados por tendencias socioculturales. Una comparacio´n de estos ejemplos tambie´n revela co´mo los planes de estudios de la nin ¨ ez temprana y los sistemas educativos se forjan a menudo en medio de contextos divergentes en lo referente al control nacional y local de los planes de estudios y de los acercamientos metodolo´gicos sobre la nin ¨ ez temprana. Estos contextos divergentes pueden tambie´n dar lugar a conceptualizaciones divergentes del conocimiento, del aprendizaje y de la pedagogi´a.