Institutional Advertising in Higher Education

ABSTRACT

Based on an apparent lack of published research, an exploratory study was conducted to discover and describe current advertising practices in higher education. Results from fifty-nine colleges and universities who advertise in local, regional, and national media are reported regarding media usage, importance of communication objectives for institutional messages, and the importance of audiences targeted for advertising. All major media were used by most institutions sampled. Few colleges and universities reported using just one advertising medium. Traditional target audiences were noted. Communication objectives mentioned most often were general image enhancement and awareness of the institution.     

Living in an era of comparisons: comparative research on policy,curriculum and teaching

ABSTRACT

The articles in this special issue include different perspectives on comparative policy studies with an aim to understand transnational education policies in relation to the logic of national educational systems and to grasp the ongoing reframing of teacher identity and teaching as a result of the policy activities of ‘new’ and coordinated international actors. This special issue aims to contribute to a continued qualified investigation in curriculum issues at the various levels within the public education system, as well as in the international policy movements, affecting public education differently in different nations. A ‘comparative curriculum research’ inspired by theories and methods from comparative education might be helpful in this endeavour.     

Culturally reimagining education: Publicity,aesthetics and socially engaged art practice

Abstract

This paper sets out to reimagine education through a cultural perspective and explores education as a performative practice that establishes certain borders of ‘public’ belonging. Wide-spread debates about the public dimension of schools and universities have focused on how economic rationales need to be replaced with alternative visions of education. This paper seeks to contribute to this revisioning of the public in education by reclaiming education as a specifically cultural endeavour, one tied to practices that are at once both performative and aesthetic. To this end, I draw on theoretical notions of publicity that highlight its performative character. I then offer a reading of a socially engaged art project in order to suggest ways in which this performative character of publicity can be seen to be educational. This paper argues that education itself emerges through various cultural enactments that delineate the contours of who counts as a public and who does not.     

Impacts of perceived country image,institution image and self-image on students’ intention to study abroad: a study in Hanoi,Vietnam

ABSTRACT

This study examined high school students’ evaluations of a country image, institution image and self-image with regards to their intention to attend a foreign university. Using data gathered from students in Hanoi (n?=?403), this study found that the students have more positive perceptions of the host country, the host institution and their desired self-image if they choose to study abroad as compared to those of their home country (Vietnam). In addition, the perceived image of the host country and host institution can generate a significant impact on the formation of the students’ desired self-image. However, the most important antecedent of the students’ intention is the discrepancy between the perceived image of the host country and the perceived image of the home country. Based on these findings, implications for foreign institutions and home institutions in recruiting and retaining students are discussed.     

Private higher education in Africa: The case of Monash South Africa

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to review the contribution of private institutions to higher education in Africa and use Monash South Africa as a case study. A literature search was conducted to gain perspective on the current situation with respect to private higher education institutions in Africa and how they are perceived in relation to public higher education institutions.

In comparison with public higher education institutions, private higher education institutions in Africa were successful in four areas: ? Widening access to higher education in the continent

? Improving the quality of education

? Improving student experience

? Increasing the recognition and marketability of their degrees

However, private higher education institutions in Africa have failed in two areas: ? Reducing the costs of higher education in Africa

? Assisting with retention of skilled human capital in African countries.

In fact, private higher education institutions in Africa, have exacerbated the two situations above.

Monash South Africa was the first foreign university to be established in South Africa and one of over 100 private universities in the continent. As a campus of Monash University in Africa, it has seen a steady growth with over 3,500 students in the past 10 years of its existence. Like other private institutions, the campus was successful in the four areas above and also fails in the area of costs and assisting in retention of skilled staff in Africa. The campus has been successful in blending its private provider status with a public purpose mandate by offering degrees in social science, business and economics, information technology and health sciences.     

Predicting Position on Teaching Creationism (Instead of Evolution) in Public Schools

ABSTRACT

The federal government has repeatedly denied the introduction of creationism into public schools as it is a direct violation of the separation of church and state. Little is known about those who would opt to eliminate evolution in scientific curriculum altogether. The authors examined this more extreme anti-evolution perspective in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults ( N = 2,000). A binary logistic regression model involving 11 relevant predictors revealed that the most important predictor of support for the teaching of creationism-only education in public schools was low educational attainment, which yielded a stronger magnitude of effect than did belief in God or importance of religion. Results are interpreted and discussed in the context of implications for educational policy and science curriculum in public schools.     

Does majoring in criminal justice affect perceptions of criminal justice

Research continues to show that the public holds misperceptions about crime and criminal justice. The media influences the public in many of these misperceptions, often shaping beliefs and ideologies. Higher education gives criminal justice majors the opportunity to gain much more accurate knowledge than the general public. Nonetheless, it is the public that heavily influences the development of the criminal justice system. It is important, therefore, to examine the influence of criminal justice education. Criminal justice majors and non-majors in a Midwestern university were surveyed with regard to demographics and perceptions of crime and criminal justice. Results indicate that criminal justice majors have significantly different perceptions about criminal justice issues than non-majors. Implications for educating the public are discussed.     

The vocational turn of adult education in Denmark – an analysis of adult education policy from the late 1990s

ABSTRACT

Denmark has a strong and versatile tradition of adult education. Over a long historical period, adult education for public enlightenment and leisure, for continuing study and for vocational and professional competence have been developed, been made part of state policy and been used by citizens. But in recent years the public and political presence of Danish adult education has changed. While education policy issues generally abound in public and political debates, adult education is given much less attention than earlier. In this article, we trace the causes of this and conclude that it reflects a turn towards focusing on vocational types of adult education and a relocation of adult education policy to networks linking the state and the social partners. Drawing on theories of policy streams, policy networks and the competition state, we provide a historical analysis of Danish adult education reforms during the past two decades and document how the vocational turn has manifested itself.     

Building the university/public school partnership: A workshop for mentor teachers

Abstract

Strong teacher education programs acknowledge the importance of a partnership between teacher education and public school faculties and the important role mentor teachers play in the education of student teachers. Studies suggest that mentor teachers trained in supervision are more effective than those who are not. This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a workshop for mentor teachers that reflects the collaborative effort of university and public school faculties. The particular focus of this workshop was on giving feedback to student teachers. Evaluation data suggest that mentor teachers felt the workshop provided helpful information.     

Knowledge and attitudes of secondary school teachers regarding sexual health education in England

Objective To assess the sexual health knowledge of teachers who contribute to secondary school sexual health education in order to determine whether teachers are adequately prepared to implement present government education and public health policies.

Design Results were obtained from a questionnaire as part of a two‐phase intervention study.

Setting Nineteen mixed‐sex, state secondary schools in central England.

Participants One hundred and fifty‐five teachers (94 female, 61 male) participated.

Main outcome measures The questionnaires were distributed to teachers to assess their knowledge of sexual health, contraception and sexually transmitted infections. In addition, teachers' attitudes on the subject of sex and relationships education were evaluated.

Results The results suggest that teachers have insufficient sexual health knowledge to effectively teach sexually transmitted infections or emergency contraception, although their general sexual health knowledge was good. Therefore, at present teachers do not have adequate specialist knowledge in sexual health to contribute to current recommendations for sex and relationships education in secondary schools. There were no statistically significant differences in the results regarding location of school, area of residence, gender or age of the participant.

Conclusions Many teachers are being expected to contribute to secondary school sexual health education programmes at a time when they do not have sufficient knowledge to provide young people with adequate sexual health education and when they do not feel prepared to teach, and in many cases would prefer not to teach, these programmes.     

‘Just Say No’: public dissent over sexuality education and the Canadian national imaginary

ABSTRACT

Scholars of sexuality have argued that ‘moral panics’ about sexuality often stand in for broader conflicts over nationality and belonging. Canada has spent decades cultivating a national image founded on multiculturalism and democratic equality. The Ontario sexuality education curriculum introduced in 2015 drew audible condemnation from a variety of groups. Drawing from Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Race Theory, we argue that the public discourse surrounding these protests exposed the limits of Canadian pluralism, fuelling a meta-debate about the ‘Canadianness’ of recent immigrants and the incompatibility of liberal values with those of non-Westerners, especially Muslims. We explain this in terms of contextual factors such as Ontario’s publicly funded Catholic school system and anti-Muslim xenophobia in the post-9/11 era. Our analysis speaks to the importance of intersectional social justice efforts as part of the movement for comprehensive sex education.     

Framing the benefits of higher education participation from the perspective of non-completers

ABSTRACT

Ensuring that students of all backgrounds are smoothly transitioned through the stages of access, participation and completion in higher education has been the focus of much public policy and research in recent decades. Subsequently, public policy discourse treats those who do not complete their higher education degrees as unsuccessful, despite a lack of research considering the beneficial outcomes of non-completing students. Evidence of beneficial outcomes of higher education participation without completion has potential to challenge the deficit-centric discourse of completion dependent on a binary view of success and failure. This article details a critical discourse analysis of responses to a 2017 survey of university non-completers asked ‘were there any benefits from the time you spent doing an [sic] incomplete degree?’. This study finds that non-completers experience a wide range of benefits from incomplete studies despite the dominant discourse discounting their experiences as unsuccessful. Additionally, this study presents a critique of framing surveys of non-completing students within the normative bounds of success as completion in higher education, and instead calls for a more nuanced construction of success in higher education.     

RESPONSE: “SLEEPER TRANSITIONS” AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Abstract

In this article the authors present the results of their research of cooperation schools in the Netherlands. These schools are an exception in the dual educational system because they originate from a merger of a religiously neutral public school and a religious school. The data, provided by school principals, show key values of the cooperation schools. These values are compared to characteristics of public education. The authors also focus on the organization of religious education. This study is a first step in a broader research of Dutch experiments concerning the merging of different religious school identities.     

Edifying Youths. The Chambers of Rhetoric in Seventeenth-Century Holland

For the early modern period, historians have primarily looked at institutional forms of education when investigating the intellectual molding of youths. With the exception of the wealthy, their conclusions have often been one-sided. However, youths of the middling sort in the Dutch Republic were more resourceful. Youths that could not afford a formal education at a Latin school or a university resorted to alternative resources such as chambers of rhetoric. For historians of education, chambers of rhetoric are not an obvious terrain to excavate. Traditionally, the chambers have been studied for their public literary and theatrical activities. However, those incidental public performances were only a fraction of what took place in private. In this essay we will probe into the literary activities of the chambers' private weekly meetings and illustrate how the Dutch chambers of rhetoric in the seventeenth century played an important role in edifying youths from the middling sort into a cultural elite.     

A complex matter: charitable organisation or corporate institution? A reflection on charity and its applicability in an era of market-driven higher education in Australia

ABSTRACT

Universities represent institutions of learning, research and knowledge but are also not-for-profit charitable organisations delegated the charitable purpose of advancing education and public benefit. Charity law differentiates the obligations, values and philosophies of not-for-profit and for profit organisations. Policy and economic imperatives to reform universities in Australia should raise questions about potential compromises to charity values, social justice objectives and public benefit. The disjuncture between the values of charity and profitability draws attention to issues of public benefit in a market-oriented higher education economy and obligations delegated by charity laws. More research is needed into the investment of charity capital and obligations of public benefit delegated to Australian public universities.     

From savages to capitalists: progressive images of education in the UK and the USA (1920–1939)

ABSTRACT

One strand of historical research in education that sails on the waves of the visual turn in history concerns the progressive image of education. A major reference point is an article written in 2007 by Burke and Grosvenor, who, on the basis of the photographic archives of two progressive schools in England, constructed a visual typology of progressive education. After a content analysis of 944 images published in the educational journal The New Era and 1827 images in Progressive Education in the period 1920–1939, it is concluded that this typology is partly adequate for describing a common image of new education in the UK and progressive education in the USA. But it should be extended with two more elements: (a) urban discovery and nature exploration, and (b) cultural-historical representations and recapitulation. In the latter children are first portrayed as ‘primitive savages’ who later become little bankers and shopkeepers in a capitalist economy.     

Innovations of education socialisation in Vietnam: from participation towards privatisation

Abstract

Education reforms worldwide, in both developed and developing countries, address the content of education programmes and/or changes education systems. There are different paths, and different socioeconomic contexts, for those nations which pursue education reform, and Vietnam makes for an instructive example. The country’s socioeconomic renovation, known as Doi Moi since the late 1980s, has put forward the discourse of socialisation, which generally advocates greater public participation in all areas of society. Although socialisation has been the central ideology of the Doi Moi process, there is still a dispute about its meaning and implications. This paper contributes to debates about reforms by examining the discourse of socialisation in Vietnam through analysis of government documents and public opinion in various media. These secondary documents on education socialisation in Vietnam, highlight the institutionalisation of education socialisation in an apparent movement from general public participation to a form of privatisation. This institutionalisation has dramatically transformed the conditions of people’s access to education in Vietnam.     

乡村教师形象的问题审视及其重构

乡村教师形象是乡村教育发展的动态名片,对于乡村教育师资的引进与保留有着重要的影响作用。对当前乡村教师形象发展进行审视,发现当前乡村教师形象呈现出"神圣化"与"污名化"对立、"坚守"与"逃离"反差、"荣誉"与"落后"悖逆等形象症结,整体形象不佳。分析缘由,教师本体性价值的迷失、乡村教育生态系统的失谐、网络媒介叙事惯习的偏误是问题形成的诱因。据此,研究提出应以归正乡村教师形象建构的价值取向为逻辑起点,基于生态发展观协调构建乡村教育体系为解决动力,以规制媒介叙事偏好为条件保障,以期建立具有真实稳固、积极正向、和谐统一特征的新时代乡村教师形象。     

University Image: The Benefits of Assessment and Modeling

ABSTRACT

Residents across a state were asked about their opinions about a regional university. Using closed- and open-ended questions in mailed surveys, information about university image was collected. Results indicate that residents have one of two opinions about the university—either they have a general, positive opinion (halo effect) or no opinion. LISREL modeling of the data point to the significant components of university image and how they influence the decision to send a son or daughter to the university, which in turn leads to a better understanding of the impact of university image. More work with varying populations and a variety of universities needs to be published to contribute to a general, overall understanding of the impact of university image.