Learning from the past? History and development education

This paper discusses changes in approaches to development education that stress that development is something that happens in every society and not just in ‘developing countries’. In particular it focusses on one development relationship, that between Britain and Ireland, as a microcosm of global problems of colonialism, dependency, nationalism and misunderstanding. It ends by suggesting a historical approach to teaching about development relationships between countries.     

Whither the ivory tower? Corruption and development of higher education in Nigeria

Abstract

In the struggle to combat corruption in Nigeria, popular and intellectual discourse has essentially been devoted to the behaviour of public officials such as politicians. However, only little intellectual attention seems to have been cast on corruption in the education sector. This article attempts to fill this knowledge gap. Based on desk analysis, it indicates that corruption proliferates in the education sector just as in other sectors in Nigeria with crippling effects on the ranking, and standard of tertiary education. Situated within the theory of functionalism, it ascribes the proliferation of corruption to negative societal influence, poor funding, poor reward system and acute infrastructure decay. However, it holds that there is yet the prospect of redemption based on some measures that have been undertaken in various tertiary education institutions to tackle the social malaise. It recommends the need for men and women of integrity to champion the desired reform in the ivory tower.     

The need for culturally sensitive sexuality education in a pluralised Nigeria: But which kind?

A substantial number of studies have been conducted on sexuality education in Nigeria. These provide evidence of the positive impact of sexuality education on the psychosocial well-being of children and youth and the value of sexuality education for the sexual health of young people. Yet another research has investigated the views of parents on the school-based sexuality education of children and the different models and approaches employed. All of these studies implicitly reflect an issue that has not yet been sufficiently discussed. Nigeria is a uniquely pluralised country, with a multitude of cultures and sexual cultures. The implications of this diversity for policy and practice in sexuality education and for how sexuality education has (or has not) responded to this heterogeneity are rarely considered. This article addresses this gap by seeking to conceptualise how sexuality education might proactively address the cultural diversity of Nigeria. It begins by sketching out key features of this diversity in Nigeria and highlights the need for a culturally sensitive approach. Thereafter, there is a critical engagement with three possible approaches that sexuality education might take. Highlighting the weaknesses of monocultural, multicultural and transcultural approaches, this article argues for an open-cultural stance as the best means of fostering culturally sensitive sexuality education.     

What develops in children's development of altruism?

Abstract

Cognitive-developmental theorists have maintained that children's development of altruism does really mean a movement from centration to decentration. In this paper we make a different claim. Borrowing from the two micromodels Piaget used, in succession, to account for the child's transition from preoperational to operational throught (i.e., a cost-gain model guided by game theory, and an affirmation-negation model based on equilibration theory), we suggest that children's development of altruism represents a movement from centration or cost-perception to compensation or gain-construction. Ninety children from three age levels (30 5-year-olds, 30 7-year-olds, and 30 10-year-olds) were presented with four prosocial dilemmas appealing to sharing, donating, helping, and conforming. Children's cost-perception/gain-construction competence was first assessed and then related to their level of altruism in an opportunity-to-donate situation. Consistent with our cost-perception/gain-construction approach, children became more likely with age to think of prosocial acts in terms of gain than in terms of cost. Positive associations between gain-construction competence and observed altruism were also found. These results strengthen our Piagetian approach to children's development of altruism     

Effective teacher? Student self-evaluation of development and progress on a teacher education programme

This article examines 28 teachers’ views about their teacher education requirements. The participants were enrolled on a one-year full-time pre-service teacher education programme with a focus on post-compulsory education and training. The study examines how student teachers’ self-evaluations against aspects of teaching professional practice changed, developed and evolved over the duration of the course. The results reveal a statistically significant improvement in self-evaluation when all areas of professional expertise are considered. In addition, the study reports a decline, as the programme progresses, in student-assessed need to learn about specific aspects of teaching.     

What does class origin and education mean for the capabilities of agency and voice?

This article investigates the relationship between class origin, educational attainment, and the capabilities of agency and voice. The main objectives are to investigate how class origin and educational attainment interact and to consider whether higher education reduces any structural inequalities in the social aspects of life. A longitudinal approach is applied, using a national survey of 1058 Swedish young people, controlling for baseline values of agency and voice. The empirical analysis reveals an association between class origin and agency and voice. University education proves to be of central importance for the capabilities of agency and voice; however, this varied for young people with different class origin. Young people from manual working-class backgrounds benefit from higher education, while no significant result was found for young people with white-collar parents. The results indicate that higher education reduces structural differences in capabilities central for social participation.     

What kind of space is 'Ground Zero' ?——On Harvey's Dialectic Analysis of Time and Space

时间与空间是英美马克思主义关注的一个核心问题.大卫·哈维在继承牛顿、爱因斯坦和莱布尼茨等的时空理论的基础上,运用马克思主义辩证法,从两个维度建构起自己的时空理论:一是从空间与时间、物质、运动之间的关系来确定空间的属性,将时间与空间划分为绝对空间、相对时一空和关联时空;二是根据人们的实践活动将空间划分为物质空间、空间的表征、表征的空间.两个时空维度的辩证张力所形成的“时空矩阵”体现了哈维的时空终极辩证法,也丰富了马克思主义的空间时间辩证法思想宝库.     

Professional development schools and special education: A promising partnership?

Abstract

Professional development schools (PDSs) have become an important component of preservice teacher preparation. Researchers investigating the effect of the PDS model on the principal stakeholders (preservice teachers, classroom teachers, students, and university faculty) have reported many positive effects. The role of the PDS in special education teacher preparation, however, appears to be less well defined. This article focuses on PDS participation of special education teacher preparation programs and addresses the apparent reluctance to embrace the PDS model.     

Concepts and practices of education and adult education: obstacles to lifelong education and lifelong learning?

Over the last half century, in varying degrees and under various names, there has been much interest in learning throughout life for everybody. Although what has been written has stressed its necessity and feasibility, little has been achieved. As is common to all things educational, it has lagged behind the times. Little considered and highly resistant among the obstacles to it are the current concepts, institutions and practices of education. The widespread, systematic study of education in the 19th century grew out of the need to train teachers required by the introduction of universal primary schooling. Concentration by teacher trainers on this task, and their struggle to establish their subject as a coherent discipline to be taught in institutions of higher education was such that the prevailing view of education came to be restricted not merely mainly, as hitherto, but only, to the upbringing of children and young people. Rejecting this view of necessity, adult educationalists have sought for their own field academic recognition as a discipline, emphasizing their differences from initial education. Study of current educational writings from many countries shows that the reconciliation of these two positions, necessary to lifelong education, has not gone very far. Consideration of what might be done to create a process and a habit of lifelong learning for all on the basis of current practice and theory of initial education and adult education, of which lifelong education can only be a contributory element, will require fundamental changes in both. There are few signs so far of the political will and the sense of urgency that will apparently be required.     

Vocational education and training for development: A policy in need of a theory?

The current decade has seen a significant return of interest in vocational education and training (VET) amongst the international policy community. This rise in policy and programmatic interest in VET's role in development, however, stands in contrast to the state of the academic debate. Whilst there have continued to be both policy and academic developments in VET in OECD countries; in the South there has been a paucity of VET research and little in the way of theoretical exploration. Rather, the academic orthodoxy in the international education and development field is dismissive of VET's possible contribution. Given the return of the policy interest in VET for development, and the possibilities of a broader vision of education–development relations beyond 2015, when the MDGs end, it is time to revisit the role of VET in development from an explicitly theoretical stance. In this article, I argue that the current approach to VET is grounded in an outmoded model of development, whilst the academic critique of VET in developing countries is clearly long outdated. In contrast, I examine the implications for VET of recent trends in thinking about development through the exploration of three particular theoretical approaches: human rights, capabilities and integrated human development. I conclude by considering the purposes, natures and possibilities of VET as a means of human development.     

What happened and why? Considering the role of truth and memory in peace education curricula

This paper is an exploration of challenges arising in the interplay between a standardised peace education curriculum and a localised post-conflict setting. Drawing on interview data from two Kenyan schools, the paper explores the reception of peace education initiatives implemented in Kenya following the post-election violence of 2007/2008 through the voices of teachers and pupils. The analysis identifies two patterns emerging from the pupils’ point of view; firstly an engagement with narratives of conflict addressing what happened during the outbreak of violence, and secondly an awareness of collective narratives of the past, centred on the question of why the conflict broke out. The data identifies a gap between the knowledge and perspectives of the pupils, and the level of engagement by the curricula and teachers in the same issues. Finally, the paper explores some implications of these diverging needs and perspectives in relation to the design and implementation of peace education curricula, particularly in relation to providing sufficient support for the teachers.     

Paulo Freire and ‘the need for a kind of education in hope’

This paper explores Paulo Freire’s philosophy of hope. This is significant because, for Freire, it was human hope that rendered education possible, necessary and necessarily political. Like other areas of his thought, however, his reading of hope contained ambiguities and contradictions, and the paper explores these by locating Freire’s thought in the wider context of the philosophy of hope. It focuses in particular on the divergent interpretations Freire provides regarding the objective and the experience of hope. It argues that many of the conflicting demands placed on the radical educator stem from the tensions and vagaries one finds within his philosophy. The paper concludes by discussing the wider significance of Freire in light of the discourse of ‘complex hope’ that is developing within educational studies.