Education and poverty reduction in Tanzania

This paper reviews research on the returns to education in Tanzania, both financial and non-financial, and considers whether these returns translate into poverty reduction. It looks at reasons why achievement of high primary enrolment rates in the past did not lead to the realisation of the associated developmental outcomes, considering factors both within and beyond the education system. Achieving mass access at the expense of quality appears to have had a negative impact on equality. The poverty reduction potential of current programmes to develop the primary and secondary education systems are discussed in the light of past experience.     

Education and poverty in rural China

We analyze household and school survey data from poor counties in six Chinese provinces to examine the effects of poverty, intra-household decision-making, and school quality on educational investments (enrollment decisions) and learning outcomes (test scores and grade promotion). Unlike previous studies, we use direct measures of credit limits and women's empowerment. Drawing a distinction between the effects of wealth (measured by expenditures per capita) and credit constraints, we find that the former improves learning while the latter reduces educational investments. We find evidence of a story of gender bias in which academically weak girls are more likely to drop out in primary school while most boys continue on to junior secondary school. Women's empowerment reduces the likelihood of dropping out but does not affect other outcomes. Finally, our measures of school quality have some effect on the duration of primary school enrollment but not on learning.     

South African universities and human development: Towards a theorisation and operationalisation of professional capabilities for poverty reduction

This paper reports on a research project investigating the role of universities in South Africa in contributing to poverty reduction through the quality of their professional education programmes. The focus here is on theorising and the early operationalisation of multi-layered, multi-dimensional transformation based on ideas from Amartya Sen's capability approach. Key features of a professionalism oriented to public service, which in South Africa must mean the needs and lives of the poor, are outlined. These features include: the demand from justice; the expansion of the comprehensive capabilities both of the poor and professional capability formation to be able to act in ‘pro-poor’ ways; and, praxis pedagogies which shape this connected process. This theorisation is then tentatively operationalised in a process of selecting transformation dimensions.     

Parental or policy maker misunderstandings? Contextual dilemmas of pre-schooling for poverty reduction in Malawi

With the move towards achieving universal primary education, focus is increasingly shifting towards early childhood development. Within this, debates are apparent between those who view education at this stage holistically, with concern that it should not be directly linked with primary schooling, and those who view it more explicitly as contributing towards achieving universal primary completion by ensuring that children will be appropriately prepared for studying at this level. Moreover, it is apparent that views of different stakeholders vary. Evidence from Malawi indicates that national policies are closely linked with the international agenda, with a focus on holistic approaches. However, parents view pre-schooling in a narrower way, as an important step towards preparing their children for studying successfully at the primary level. Rather than considering this as parental ‘misunderstanding’, we argue that this perspective shows a greater awareness of local realities and is, therefore, more likely to support an escape from poverty.     

浅析继续教育与西部大开发之关系

西部大开发,人力资源与人才资源开发是重点,而继续教育是人才资源开发的重要途径。积极发展西部地区继续教育,提高劳动素质,既是部开发战略基础建设中的重要环节,也是我国教育工作的重点之一。继续教育实质上是一个提高素质教育的问题,它是终身教育体系的重要组成部分,因此,西部大开发,要发展继续教育。     

Education and skills for development in South Africa: Reflections on the accelerated and shared growth initiative for South Africa

In July 2005, President Mbeki announced the launch of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), a new development strategy designed to help the South African state meet the ANC's 2004 election pledges, namely:

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halve unemployment;     

Skills development for poverty reduction (SDPR): The case of Tajikistan

Vocational education and training (VET) can contribute to the attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. A key to economic and social progress is the training of better-qualified individuals and skilled enterprise staff who will be more productive, improving goods, increasing incomes and adapting to changing markets. Experts from international cooperation agencies see VET projects as suitable instruments for poverty alleviation in target groups working in the informal sector and rural economy. The recent shortages and high prices of rural products in many developing countries support this position. For the past two years a skills development for poverty reduction (SDPR) project has been running in rural areas of Central Asia to address rural poverty. The approach and findings of the project are discussed against the background of the international debate on VET in the context of poverty alleviation. It is hoped that the conclusions will contribute to optimising the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of similar VET projects.     

Education and poverty in the global development agenda: Emergence,evolution and consolidation

The objective of this paper is to analyse the role of education and poverty in the current global development agenda. It intends to analyse the emergence, evolution and consolidation of a global agenda, which attributes a key role to education in the fight against poverty. With this objective, the paper addresses four main issues: first, it analyses the context in which the emergence of the agenda must be placed, analysing specifically the changes generated by globalisation; second, it focuses on the role of the actors, and especially on the role of the World Bank in setting the agenda; third, it explains the consolidation of the agenda by the Education for All Conferences and the Millennium Development Goals; finally it presents some of the main limitations of the hegemonic agenda.     

Western and Chinese development discourses: Education,growth and sustainability

This article examines Western and Chinese discourses of education, sustainable growth and development. Education is increasingly considered as a means to fuel economic growth, especially since the 1980s, when conservative economic values became predominant in Western development thought. Despite a discourse on sustainability favouring ecologically sound and equitable growth, education is increasingly economy-centred. Through analysis of China’s market-based socialism, its development path, and the expansion of its Africa cooperation, this article seeks to demonstrate that the China-proposed development and education models are very similar to the Western growth-based development paradigm, although the discourse is different.     

Education,skills, sustainability and growth: Complex relations

The global education agenda, embedded in the Education for All (EFA) Goals, and the Millennium Development Goals, has emphasised the importance of reaching EFA rather than sustaining this achievement. As a corollary, the emphasis for external aid has also been on increasing aid to secure EFA rather than on the dangers of aid dependency in securing and sustaining EFA. The international architecture in support of education for sustainable development appears to have little interest in analysing these tensions between the pursuit of these rights-based EFA Goals, on the one hand, and the kind of economic growth and macro-economic environment that would be necessary to sustain their achievement.     

Family poverty,school-based parental involvement,and policy-focused protective factors in kindergarten

Multilevel models of data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (N = 19,375) revealed that the negative association between family poverty and school-based parental involvement in education varied according to family and school factors targeted by large-scale policy interventions. Specifically, the association was weaker when parents and teachers had higher levels of educational attainment. In contrast, the association was stronger when schools had greater parent outreach. Also, the moderating role of parent education was stronger for two stably partnered biological parents than for other parents. These findings underscore the need to examine protective factors in research on the family process model and shed light on policy-amenable factors that potentially improve the early educational experiences of poor children.     

职业教育的人性分析

职业教育与人性之间具有一定的内在联系。职业教育的源头、发展、功能及使命与人性的需求、人性的特点及人性的追求等方面既具有基本的生物联系与物质联系,又具有直接或间接的社会联系与精神联系。     

Education development within engineering

Academic engineers who are interested in teaching often find themselves, either formally or informally, taking on the role of ‘education developer’ for their department or faculty. The trend to move towards educational development within disciplines is fairly recent and brings with it a range of interesting opportunities and challenges. Here we will look at the various issues that might occur and provide a way of looking at these that enable faculty in this position to select the most appropriate alternative for their own context.     

全纳教育——当代教育发展的方向、内涵和启示

全纳教育是当代教育重大发展趋势之一。从时代特征和文本释义的角度对产生这种趋势的必然性、全纳教育的内涵及特点进行分析是一种新的探索,其目的是通过这种探索获得有益于我国教育特别是特殊教育发展的启示。     

基于问题的学习与我国素质教育

在我国教育教学改革的过程中要不断吸收和引进国外教育教学改革方面的新成果,基于问题的学习（PBL）是国外广泛采用的一种先进学习策略和教学方法,它和我国素质教育以育人为本、全面提高学生的基本素质为根本宗旨的理念是一致的,体现了素质教育的特点和要求。因此,加大基于问题的学习的理论研究,并运用于我国教学实践中,对我国的素质教育的实施是有益的。     

高等职业教育面临的机遇、挑战及发展对策

本文初步分析我国教育改革的进一步深入，社会经济的发展给高等职业带来的机遇，陈述了社会上超前的择业观念，就业压力、奢侈的人才消费以及普通高校的不断扩招等几个方面对高等职业教育的冲击，探讨高等职业教育的发展思路，提出相应的发展对策。     

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: An analysis of a hegemonic link between education and poverty

This paper has two main objectives. First, it aims to analyse the connections between education and poverty established by the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), a central policy tool for the articulation of the Post Washington Consensus. Second, it intends to study how the PRSPs have been consolidated and expanded through different international organisations. With these objectives, the paper includes four sections: the first and second sections present the ‘model of poverty’ and the ‘model of education’ defined in the PRSPs. The third analyses how different international actors have adopted the PRSPs as a guide to orient their strategies and policies in the field of education, development and poverty reduction. The fourth and final section critically explores the current global development agenda and identifies some of its main challenges in terms of conceptualisation and implementation.     

浅析高等教育信息化的发展

从高等教育信息化的概念与目的出发,简单分析我国高等教育信息化的特征与现状,教育信息化进程中存在的问题,信息技术的发展与教育新格局的演变。     

教育中的设计:研究与发展趋向分析

设计作为人类特有的一种思维与创造活动,其本质是将事物从现存状态改善到较好状态——这与以促进人的更好发展为最高目标的教育有着内在本质上的沟通与联结。设计是教育的天然属性。教育中的设计研究迫切需要突破由教育规划和教学设计等研究领域所限定的常规研究范畴,借鉴新的研究成果和设计科学的力量来拓宽自己的研究视野,在不断的理性演进中走向新的发展。