Educational Equity in the Access to Post-Secondary Education: A Comparison of Ethnic Minorities in China with Aboriginals in Canada

This study provides insight into equity issues in post-secondary education by exploring and assessing the history, the reality and the potential developments in higher education for minority students in China, in comparison to post-secondary education for aboriginal students in Canada. It highlights access to post-secondary education by these minorities in both countries in terms of educational policy enactment, orientation, and its enforcement. The study examines both commonalties and differences in the educational policies of both countries to shed light on how each country is able to grapple with the issue of equity in their respective post-secondary educational systems in response to the principles of liberty, equity and dignity as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This study employs a historical approach to identify the common trends by examining issues concerning access to post-secondary education for ethnic minorities in China and the aboriginals in Canada. Specifically, the study employs a comparative method analyzing how access and equity are defined, how policies have evolved, and the impact that the policy has on the minority students in China and aboriginal students in Canada. The assessment of the access issues in these two countries not only reveals some common trends in the evolution of access norms in the post-secondary education of both countries, but also identifies certain differences in response to their historical traditions, national cultures, and diverse educational structures. The findings are presented in three sections: growth and gap, equality versus equity, and equity and the difference among the difference.     

A comparison between junior colleges and special training colleges in Japan

The history, function and role of two types of Japanese post-secondary institutions-junior colleges and special training colleges — are examined. The junior colleges which have hitherto been associated with the provision of academic, non-vocational education have begun to diversify into vocational courses in response to the increasingly popular vocational courses provided in the special training colleges (sennon gakko) developed since 1976 in the best of the formerkakushu gakko. The implications of this for the future development of post-secondary education in Japan are considered.     

What to do next: an exploratory study of the post-secondary decisions of American students

Research on college choices is the new tool used by Higher Educational Institutions to help them identify the influences and factors affecting potential student populations. To measure the growing rate of working students in higher education, we propose to examine the decisions made after graduating from high school to current demographic changes. In this study, we use data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002) to estimate the influence of individual variables on post graduating high school choices using multinomial logistic regression analysis. Untangling the individual choices allows us to examine, four possible after high school life choices—students who decide to pursue post-secondary education (student); those who decide to work while attending a post-secondary institution (working student); those who decide to enter the workforce (worker) or high school graduates who neither work nor enroll in postsecondary education (unemployed). Results suggest that aside from socioeconomic status and achievement, interesting patterns for gender, ethnicity and family composition and its effect on the likelihood of a high school graduate’s life choices emerged. As an example, Asian students are more likely to enter their next phase in life as a student than a working student in comparison to white ones. That result is a clear example that not all high school students are alike in their life choices; therefore, for a better understanding in the needs and decision making ways of high school graduates, this paper addresses different factors that lead to a post-secondary decision in order to accommodate their transition to HEI.     

MacIntyre,rival traditions and education

This paper critically discusses MacIntyre's thesis that education is essentially a contested concept. In order to contextualise my discussion, I discuss both whether rival educational traditions of education found in MacIntyre's work – which I refer to as instrumental and non-instrumental justifications of education – can be rationally resolved using MacIntyre's framework, and whether a shared meaning of education is possible as a result. I conclude that MacIntyre's synthesis account is problematic because the whole notion that there are rationally negotiable ways in which to compromise or harmonise opposing justifications of education found in instrumental and non-instrumental forms of education is troubling – the reason being that these are cultural disagreements about human flourishing that are not neutral-free, and due to a lack of care distinguishing between the common uses of the term ‘education’, and its looser usages to mean something like school learning that embraces a range of aims and goals that are often incompatible. In this light, it is argued that the contestability card has been unnecessarily overemphasised, and brings to our attention the complex ways in which we interpret education and what it means to be educated.     

Exploring Resilience in Latina/o Academic Outcomes: A Latent Class Approach

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between various protective factors with academic outcomes of Latina/o high school students. We use two groups of protective influences, individual and family, and their relationship to 12th grade mathematics achievement, dropout rates, and enrollment in post-secondary education. Latent class analysis was used to identify academic protective profiles, or latent groups/classes, among high school Latina/o students (N?=?1610) and assess group differences with respect to gender, SES, immigrant status, student’s native language, preschool attendance, and 10th grade mathematics. Results indicated the presence of four academic protective groups, which differed with respect to academic discussions with parents, and attitudes about mathematics. The four classes are compared with respect to academic outcomes and differences are discussed as well as implications for practice.     

Intergenerational correlations in educational attainment: Birth order and family size effects using Canadian data

We exploit the 1986, 1994, and 2001 waves of the Canadian general social surveys in order to estimate intergenerational correlations in education. The use of these specific data is important because of available information on the final educational attainment of survey respondents and both parents, as well as family size and birth order. OLS estimates reveal that: (1) relying exclusively on maternal schooling to capture the effects of parental education results in coefficient estimates that are biased upwards; (2) children born to parents with some post-secondary schooling are more likely to attain similar education levels than children born to parents with lower educational accomplishment; (3) in most specifications coefficient estimates of paternal schooling are greater in magnitude than maternal accomplishment; and finally, (4) coefficient estimates of the number of siblings are consistently negative and significant even after the inclusion of birth order effects, implying that a larger family is correlated with a reduced likelihood of post-secondary education.     

You can lose what you never had

An often-used idiom states: you can't lose what you never had. Yet contrary to this expression, it is possible to lose what you never had – at least when special education support is concerned. In Ontario, as in other jurisdictions, special education exists as a codified system. An ever-changing nexus of discourses and documents – including normalisation, legislation, regulations, and memoranda – set out how special education is to function in the province. The documents themselves articulate how learners' needs are to be formally identified, as well as how students are to be supported. Within this network a phenomenon of non-identification has arisen whereby some students do not get identified and yet would have qualified for special education support had they gone through the process. Yet what leads to this phenomenon? To what does the phenomenon itself lead? Should Ontario's special education system be readjusted to address the phenomenon of non-identification, or is identification itself an inherently flawed practice? To explore these three questions, this paper will analyse Ontario's identification policy, examining what it allows, what it dictates, as well as the challenges it creates.     

Moral education in Hong Kong: Confucian‐parental,Christian‐religious and liberal‐civic influences

A brief review of the social and educational context of Hong Kong shows that the publication of the General guidelines on moral education in schools in 1981, by the Hong Kong Education Department, marked a milestone in the development of moral education. The Guidelines explicitly asserted moral education as one function of schooling, whilst also formally recognizing the home and the community as two main influences. This paper narrates how three moral sources of influence – namely Confucian‐parental, Christian‐religious and liberal‐civic – have shaped the development of moral education in Hong Kong from 1973 to 2003. It then examines in more detail: parental influence at home – the Confucian moral source in Chinese family; schooling influenced by religious sources – taking Christian schools as an example; and the Independent Commission Against Corruption as an official agency for moral education – a liberal source calling for civic morality. In conclusion, the post‐colonial emergence of nationalistic influence in the recently constituted Chinese Special Administrative Region, advocating national identity as the new core value, is traced and the implications for future moral education in Hong Kong are considered.     

A review of online course dropout research: implications for practice and future research

Although online learning is expanding in availability and popularity, the high dropout rates remain a challenging problem. In this paper, we reviewed the existing empirical studies on online course dropouts in post-secondary education that were published during the last 10 years. We identified 69 factors that influence students’ decisions to dropout and classified them into three main categories: (a) Student factors, (b) Course/Program factors, and (c) Environmental factors. We then examined the strategies proposed to overcome these dropout factors: (a) understanding each student’s challenges and potential, (b) providing quality course activities and well-structured supports, and (c) handling environmental issues and emotional challenges. Finally, we discussed issues regarding dropout factors and strategies for addressing these factors and offered recommendations for future research.     

Textbooks of doubt: using systemic functional analysis to explore the framing of climate change in middle-school science textbooks

Middle school students are learning about climate change in large part through textbooks used in their classes. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how the language employed in these materials frames this topic. To this end, we used systemic functional analysis to study the language of the chapters related to climate change in four sixth grade science textbooks adopted in the state of California. The linguistic variables investigated were: types of nominal groups; processes; circumstances; and the modality system. Our findings showed that these textbooks framed climate change as uncertain in the scientific community – both about whether it is occurring as well as about its human-causation. The implications for science education are discussed in relation to how the current political and public discourses of climate change, rather than the scientific discourse, is influencing how textbooks discuss this topic.     

Effects of problem solving after worked example study on secondary school children’s monitoring accuracy

Monitoring accuracy, measured by judgements of learning (JOLs), has generally been found to be low to moderate, with students often displaying overconfidence, and JOLs of problem solving are no exception. Recently, primary school children’s overconfidence was shown to diminish when they practised problem solving after studying worked examples. The current study aimed to extend this research by investigating whether practising problem solving after worked example study would also improve JOL accuracy in secondary education. Adolescents of 14–15 years old (N = 143) were randomly assigned to one of five conditions that differed in timing of JOLs, whether practice problems were provided, and timing of the practice problems provided: (1) worked examples – JOL, (2) worked examples – delay – JOL, (3) worked examples – practice problems – JOL, (4) worked examples – practice problems – delay – JOL or (5) worked examples – delay – practice problems – JOLs. Results showed that practice problems improved absolute accuracy of JOLs as well as regulation accuracy. No differences in final test performance were found.     

Breaking the cycle: a phenomenological approach to broadening access to post-secondary education

Over the past decades, there has been a substantial increase in post-secondary education participation in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Union countries. This increase, however, does not necessarily reflect a parallel equitable growth in post-secondary education, and early school leaving is still an issue of concern in particular regions and countries across the world. This paper presents a study on increasing participation in post-secondary education in Malta, the country with the one of the highest proportions of early school leaving in the European Union. The study was carried out in a region with one of the highest rates of early school leaving in the country, making use of a phenomenological approach as well as a resilient systems perspective to early school leaving. On the basis of students’ narratives, the study identifies a number of risk and protective factors in early school leaving and makes various suggestions on how to build more resilient systems to facilitate access to post-secondary education, particularly for students coming from low socio-economic, excluded backgrounds.     

What we feel and what we do: emotional capital in early childhood work

The ancient Greeks articulated three types of knowledge, episteme, techne and phronesis. Education has emphasised two of these – ‘pure’ knowledge and technical skills – while neglecting the latter. Within early childhood a key aspect of phronesis – practical wisdom – is emotion work, and its impact on the well-being of educators. Taking a sociological approach to emotions within early childhood reveals how these are shaped by issues of gender, social class and other dimensions of inequality, rather than being universal. Drawing on interviews with childcare educators in Australian services, I analyse how emotion work practices become embodied over time, and the role that this emotional capital plays in moderating workforce issues such as burnout or low morale. Making the practical wisdom of early childhood educators a more conscious part of pre-service and in-service education challenges existing educational approaches, and enables a more critical, reflexive and resilient workforce.     

Entanglement and transnational transfer in the history of infant schools in Great Britain and salles d’asile in France, 1816–1881

The historical developments of infant schools in Great Britain and salles d’asile in France – both precursors of present-day preschools – were interconnected. However, historians have not yet analysed specifically how transnational exchange influenced the growth and nature of these institutions. Drawing on archival data and secondary sources, and using a combined comparative and transnational approach, this study aims to remedy this omission. It traces the evolution of British infant schools and French salles d’asile from their beginnings to their affiliation with the education systems in their respective countries – i.e. from 1816, when Robert Owen founded the first infant school in Britain, to 1881, when the salle d’asile was incorporated as an integral part of the French education system (renamed école maternelle). The study also shows how ideas about infant education and the motives and experiences of educators and social reformers spread across British borders and influenced the development of salles d’asile.     

The Role of Partnership in Shaping the Diversity Agenda

This study examines how external stakeholders, collaborators, and partners help shape the diversity agenda in post-secondary education. Results from a comparative case study analysis of four professional schools (public health, business, social work and engineering) at a large American research university suggest that external social actors are influential in stimulating diversity-related activity and determining how post-secondary organizations address pressures, expectations, demands, requirements and incentives related to diversity.

     

The Movimiento Al Éxito summer pop-up program: The role of testimonio in moving new diasporic Latina/o youth through Iowa history to critical consciousness

Al Éxito supports the leadership development, post-secondary education, and civic engagement of Iowa Latina/o¹ youth. In the summer of 2015, it piloted Movimiento Al Éxito, a “pop up” summer program. In this article, we detail the innovative components and curriculum and describe our journey with “new diasporic” Latina/o youth learning about their place in Iowa and developing testimonios which challenge existing narratives. We explain how emergent critical consciousness led to the program’s continuation and expansion the following school year.     

Transitions to post-secondary and tertiary education in the Netherlands: a trend analysis of unconditional and conditional socio-economic background effects

In the tracked educational system of the Netherlands, students at the end of secondary education have to decide whether they want to enter subsequent post-secondary or tertiary education. Depending on the previous qualification, they have the choice between up to four different options, including not entering further education. We propose, in line with prevalent theoretical approaches, that children from lower socio-economic backgrounds tend to make decisions that do not fully capitalize on their previously obtained qualifications. By means of multinomial logistic regression models we tested the unconditional and conditional effects of family background for entering the different tracks of post-secondary education. In the unconditional analyses we found effects for parental education on making a transition to all types of post-secondary and tertiary education, but the occupational status of the father seems to be only relevant for the transition to lower tier tertiary education. The conditional effects of parental education for making the transition to senior vocational education and university are strong, while the transition to lower tertiary education is not influenced by parental background characteristics. This shows that even with eligibility for the most prestigious tracks, children from lower socio-economic backgrounds tend to make less ambitious educational decisions. We also examined to what extent this inequality changed across time for the cohorts that terminated secondary education between 1932 and 1995. Decreasing effects of parental education indicate that the expansion of secondary education had the positive effect of leading more children from lower social backgrounds into favourable secondary education tracks, especially the intermediate general track. This equalization is carried forward through the entire sequence of educational transitions. The students from advantaged backgrounds nevertheless still profit from the parental resources in access to the most prestigious tertiary education institutions given secondary qualifications. Their head start into the academic track has not been reduced across cohorts.     

Fixing contradictions of education commercialisation: Pearson plc and the construction of its efficacy brand

ABSTRACT

This paper explores some of the fundamental contradictions related to the commercialisation of education and how Pearson plc – ‘the world’s leading multinational education company’ – is trying to overcome these challenges through discourse and semiotics. Pearson’s Efficacy Framework is a semiotic-calculative device created to measure the impact of educational products and services sold by the company. This paper examines the ways in which the efficacy programme and tools developed by Pearson represent a type of ‘social fix’ intended to resolve contradictions linked to education commercialisation by demonstrating the ‘measurable impact’ and ‘outcomes’ resulting from its educational products and services and communicating that to customers, shareholders, policymakers, state managers and partners. Efficacy will be analysed as it relates to a hegemonic ‘knowledge brand’ in the making in education that is being actively promoted and appropriated by Pearson. Pearson, therefore, aims to construct a corporate brand and reputation around efficacy based on legible measures of performance, which this paper argues is in response to risks and contradictions associated with the commercialisation of education.