Universities and the Professional Development of Teachers: credentialling and beyond

In recent times, in a context of salary award restructuring, government and employer concerns for raising the educational standards and skill levels of Australia's workforce through retraining, and changes in career patterns and pathways to promotion, attention has focused on the role of universities in continuing professional education (CPE). Typically, the focus has been on credentialling and opening up access to award courses in universities, but also there are implications for universities themselves and their educational interface with government and the education industry. This paper focuses on this aspect of current trends in the professional development of teachers and considers its implications for the universities, teacher employers and the profession. It also aims to go beyond credentialling in the professional development of teachers by addressing alternatives to credentialling by universities.     

'Voices in the Air': Evaluations of the learning experiences of international postgraduates and their supervisors

Increased marketing of postgraduate programmes by 'Western' universities demands academic communication among scholars from divergent cultural backgrounds, though each may bring distinctive learning traditions and values. At the University of Adelaide an Integrated Bridging Programme (IBP) offers international postgraduates the opportunity to develop languages and skills for successful acculturation. Evaluations of this programme reveal that both postgraduates and their supervising staff often assume unquestioningly that only the newly-recruited foreign postgraduates need to change their academic goals and practices, especially in relation to critical thinking and to studying in a different postgraduate research culture. This paper argues that in this commercial educational context, the challenge to learn is on both sides. Valid 'transcultural' education requires that the values of Western academic tradition be critiqued through the perceptions and experiences of international scholars. The role of bridging programmes like the IBP can be central to this process.     

Weaving the 'Seamless Web': Why higher education and further education need to 'merge' if lifelong learning is to become a reality

This paper offers evidence that universities need to create ever greater links with further education if lifelong learning is ever to become a reality. Adult learners and potential adult learners are intimidated by the mystique of the 'university' (in its cultural metaphorical sense) but would be more inclined to return to learning if the said learning could take place in the more 'friendly' confines of a further education college. Thus the trend of FE colleges offering 'higher' education courses with validation by universities is one which should be encouraged and pursued to an even greater extent than it already is.     

Who is to retrain the teacher trainers?: A Papua New Guinea case study

The single most important factor to improve the quality of education in a developing country appears to be increased general and professional education of teachers. Initially, it seems that this may be appropriately addressed in the teachers' colleges. However, the teacher educators themselves, often have received their own education either from the universities of developed countries or from “expert” expatriates at home. Often the result has been an adapted western curriculum being offered in the teachers' colleges, which is inappropriate to the student teachers. As a means of obtaining increased insight into a developing country's context, this study sought to gain some understanding of how Papua New Guinea teacher educators and inservice teachers negotiate their western higher education at the University of Papua New Guinea. This may provide assistance to expatriate educators to provide an educational experience that addresses student learning needs with appropriate process and content.     

合作与差异：加拿大导师制度的选择 ——基于三所一流大学的经验

导师制度的建设与完善是推进研究生教育高质量发展的重要环节。基于对加拿大三所世界一流大学的分析，发现其研究生导师制度呈现出“合作与差异”并重的特色，表现在：导师角色上，以多方引导人、共同责任人为定位；导师职责上，重视规范职责与协商职责并行；导师时间上，提倡全程参与研究生教育；导师指导效果保障上，多维度促进导师专业成长。研究结果对我国研究生导师制度建设的启示如下：探索“自我询问”机制，引领导师理解自己；尝试“期望协议”，明晰师生的主体职责；落实导师合作小组，拓展指导效果；深化“分类指导”细则，关注学生多样性；打造规制、引导、自主“三合一”服务体系，促进导师专业成长。     

Student Teachers' Resistance to Exploring Racism: Reflections on 'doing' border pedagogy

While teachers have a responsibility to teach in a way that is anti-discriminatory and inclusive of all students irrespective of students' gender, 'race'/ethnicity, social class, disability or sexual orientation, in this paper my focus is on 'race' and racism and the ways in which some teacher education students resist examining their own racialised assumptions. Given that 'race' is invariably constructed in terms of the 'Other', it is imperative, as Gillborn (1996, p. 165) has suggested in the British context, for whites to 'reflect critically on their own assumptions and actions as whites'. It is equally imperative in Australia for 'white' researchers and teachers who are committed to anti-racism to turn the gaze inward and to reflect on our own racialised assumptions. Within this context one of the key concerns of this paper is the extent to which teacher education students can be given the freedom to express their views and explore their value positions without however slipping over into perpetuating racist stereotypes.     

Futuristic Metropolis or Second-rate Port? Adult education in Hong Kong before and after 1997

Despite China's assurances about 'one country, two systems', adult education in Hong Kong is in for some big changes. This paper maps the present adult education landscape, reviews research, posits four scenarios concerning the future and identifies challenges to be faced by adult educators in Hong Kong after 1997. Returning Hong Kong to the bosom of a Maoist, MarxistLeninist state is not necessarily good news for Marxist adult educators. Functionalist orthodoxy will be permitted but those committed to Marxist (critical, emancipatory) approaches to adult education will be in jeopardy because of laws about subversion. Adult education is shaped by the context in which it occurs and what happens to critical adult educators in Hong Kong after 1997 will signal the extent to which ''one country, two systems'' is reality or illusion.     

Investigating the impact of teacher education strategies on preservice teachers' TPACK

The purpose of this study was to examine preservice teachers' perceptions of the support their teacher education programs provide for developing their technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). The research was conducted with 215 preservice teachers in the last year of teacher education programs and teaching certificate programs in three universities in Turkey. Data sources were the synthesis of qualitative evidence (SQD) scale that was validated in the Turkish context as part of this study and the TPACK-practical scale. The strategies investigated in the SQD-model included: using teacher educators as role models; reflecting on the role of technology in education; learning how to use technology by design; collaboration with peers; scaffolding authentic technology experiences; and providing continuous feedback. The linear regression analysis revealed a positive relation between teacher education strategies and preservice teachers' TPACK. Reflection and teacher educators' as role models were the most frequently used teacher education strategies in teacher education programs included in this study. Results provided recommendations for further research on the connection between the teacher education strategies and the development of preservice teachers' TPACK in teacher education programs.     

Classical Political Economy and the Role of Universities in the New Knowledge Economy

Higher education has become the new star ship in the policy fleet for governments around the world. The public policy focus on higher education, in part, reflects a growing consensus in macroeconomics of 'new growth' or 'endogenous growth' theory, based on the work of Solow, Lucas and Romer that argues that the driving force behind economic growth is technological change (i.e. improvements in knowledge about how we transform inputs into outputs in the production process). Knowledge about technology and levels of information flow are now considered critical for economic development and can account for differential growth patterns. In short, universities are seen to be a key driver towards the knowledge economy. Accordingly, higher education institutions have been encouraged to develop links with industry and business in a series of new venture partnerships. This emphasis in higher education policy also accords with initiatives to promote greater entrepreneurial skills and activity within so-called national systems of innovation. This paper focuses upon the economic importance of higher education as a key component of the knowledge economy. It discusses the genealogy and contributing strands to the newly emerging discourse and considers universities in the knowledge-driven economy by reference to the UK White Paper Our Competitive Future. It also considers the arguments advanced by Joseph Stiglitz (ex-Chief Economist of the World Bank) for the 'analytics of the knowledge economy' and discusses universities in terms of 'knowledge cultures'. Finally, the paper provides a critique of the policy discourse of the knowledge economy as a basis of the new challenges facing universities under knowledge capitalism.     

CONFINTEA VI follow-up and the role of university lifelong learning: Some issues for European higher education

The Belém Framework for Action underlines, among many other issues, that quality in adult learning and education must be holistic and multidimensional both as a concept and in practice, using various tools such as partnerships with higher education institutions. Bridging adult and higher education is difficult, but the lifelong learning paradigm may help European universities to meet the challenge. This paper argues that European higher education institutions should, on the one hand, educate adults to qualify them for their complex roles in society and economy either through academic programmes or in other, non-formal ways. On the other hand, higher education institutions should promote quality research on adult learning and education and develop active citizenship too. Emphasis was clearly given to the former task in the Budapest Statement in December 2008 as part of the European preparatory process for CONFINTEA VI, and the latter has been articulated by UNESCO for more than a decade. This paper suggests that a balanced position may help universities in setting themselves up as better and more effective learning organisations.     

Research-university governance in Thailand: the case of Chulalongkorn University

Universities find themselves faced with the conflicting institutional demands of being cathedrals of learning and research as well as introducing managerial and corporate-like structures. Despite many studies in higher education research that focus on how this situation affects the mission of universities, the role of imprinting has not received considerable attention yet. Our study aims at closing this research gap by analyzing the influence of institutional founding conditions on mission statements of universities. Results show that imprinting does not affect the introduction of mission statements, but rather their contents. The role of imprinting is, however, moderated by the power and the reputation of universities. In discussing these findings within the context of higher education research, our study contributes to a better understanding of developments in the field of universities.     

University Admissions and the Prediction of Degree Performance: an Analysis in the Light of Changes to the English Schools’ Examination System

The United Kingdom's Department for Education has recently changed the nature of the AS‐level examinations normally taken by students aspiring to enter higher education degree courses one year into their post‐compulsory education. In the face of protests from universities and other institutions that this would both harm students’ progression towards the A‐level qualifications, on which entry to English universities is normally based, and make it difficult for universities determining which of their applicants were best placed to benefit from their degree courses, the Department conducted research which it claimed showed that degree outcome could be predicted as well from the results of GCSE examinations taken one year before AS‐levels as from AS‐levels themselves. This paper critiques those analyses and their conclusions showing, through a re‐analysis and extended interpretation of the Department's data, that AS‐levels provide a more reliable predictor of degree performance in 2011 than GCSEs and that many students who performed better at AS‐level than at GCSE gained a place, and performed well, at a university with high entrance standards.     

新形势下高校思想政治教育改革策略

在社会改革不断深化和经济结构转型升级的新形势下,高校在进行人才培养过程中要结合社会发展需要,培养综合素质高的新型人才。不仅要培养学生的专业技术能力,也要注重思想政治教育。高校思想政治教育起着引导学生思想,培养学生积极向上的精神面貌和生活态度的重要作用。传统的思想政治教育模式与学生的实际生活脱节,无法引发学生自身的思考,思想政治教育往往流于形式,实际的教育成效较低。为此,本文就新形势下高校思想政治教育改革的策略进行了探讨。     

论网络思想政治教育中大学生主体性作用的发挥

发挥大学生在网络思想政治教育中的主体性作用,对于大学生实现全面自由发展有着重要的意义,同时,也有利于增强高校思想政治教育的实效性和针对性,有利于贯彻落实高校思想政治教育的改革创新要求.本文分析了高校在网络思想政治教育中存在的突出问题,论述了在高校网络思想政治教育中发挥大学生主体性作用的策略.     

Languages of Female Colonial Authority: The educational network of the Ladies Committee of the British and Foreign School Society, 1813-1837

This article focuses on the way women in the network surrounding the British and Foreign School Society Ladies Committee used constitutional, familial, religious and educational languages to claim an authoritative role for themselves in the development of education for non-Western women and girls. It highlights some of the ambiguities of colonial power for British women educators, which were implicit in women's self-representation of themselves as authoritative and their depictions of the non-Western female 'other'. It argues that in the two-way relation of metropole and periphery, the notion of the universal 'rational' mother employed within the network constituted an early 'professionalisation' of motherhood in relation to non-Western women, which worked to confirm the authority, responsibility and the 'Britishness' of British women themselves.     

四十年来我国高校心理健康教育政策分析：定性与定量的视角

采用定性与定量结合的方法,对改革开放以来我国高校心理健康教育政策的发展脉络与特征进行分析。我国高校心理健康教育政策经历了萌芽期、探索期、推进期和深化期,现已成为国家顶层设计中的重要组成部分,且展现出一种由心理健康教育走向心理健康服务的“大心理健康教育观”。定量分析结果显示：“心理健康”“心理健康教育”等关键词频次随时间变化而增加,且在不同时期存在显著差异,表明心理健康教育愈发受到重视;政策类型逐渐多样,卫生/健康类政策和心理健康教育专项政策有效提高了心理健康教育的社会关注度。未来政策制度应从六大体系入手,推动建立健全具有中国特色的心理健康教育体制。     

Reframing the Idea of an Educated Public

This paper seeks to reframe the idea of an educated public as construed by Alasdair MacIntyre in his lecture of 1985. Like MacIntyre, it locates the emergence of an educated public in the Scottish Enlightenment and its universities, but its focus is on aspects which are not brought into focus by MacIntyre's narrative. The paper argues, firstly, that it is only through dialogue between “intellectuals” and the wider public that the ideas that matter develop and, secondly, that a more generous rendering of the idea of an educated public is required, one which recognizes that the agenda for education is set outside educational institutions. In the current context of rapacious globalization we need to look outwards to the many associations, groups and movements, including adult education movements, which are producing knowledge rooted in projects. Some of these, such as the World Social Forum, challenge the dominant instrumental assumptions which guide much university research and call for a radical critique of universities as institutions.     

Managing staff development (Managing universities and colleges: Guides to good practice)

The article discusses higher education policies and policy making during the period of the author's direct involvement between the mid-80s and the present. The author points to an increasingly ideological form of policy making which has emphasised the economic role of higher education and created a higher education 'market'. As the scope of government has widened, the role of the Civil Service as a check on Ministers has reduced. Whilst the sector's influence on policies has also lessened, there is still more the universities could do to protect themselves as the case of quality assurance demonstrates. However this would require a willingness to act on the basis of research evidence, of which the author still sees little sign.     

Interrupting the Way Things Are: Exploring new directions in school/university partnerships

During the Australian National Professional Development Program (NPDP), 1994-1996, a large action-research project, Innovative Links between Universities and Schools for Teacher Professional Development, was undertaken. The project involved a consortium of 14 Australian universities working with over 100 schools (government and non-government) across all States and the Northern Territory. It was structured around the concept of Roundtables, whereby teachers engaged in school-based projects in conjunction with an academic associate from the partner university. The role of 'academic associate' demanded a rethinking of the role of university teacher educators in relation to teacher professional development. Six 'academic associates' and two teachers from the Murdoch University Roundtable formed a collaborative research group to investigate issues arising from their work with the project. The research was a self-reflective study of the work of the participants by those participants themselves. This paper relates the insights regarding collaborative work between academics and schoolteachers that emerged from the study.     

The Autonomy of Communication and the Structure of Education

Traditional analyses of education are subject centered. Education is either viewed from the perspective of the educator (teaching, parenting) or from that of the pupil (learning, child development). These analyses do not facilitate the study of education as a social phenomenon. This paper aims for the clarification of the 'conditio socialis' of education. It highlights the autonomy of social systems vis-à-vis their environment. Communication is described as the constitutive element of social systems. Education is analyzed as a process within which a double system-reference comes into play, viz. to social systems and to human beings. The structure of education is analyzed in the context of this interaction between social systems and human beings. In this context, the improbability of successful education comes to the fore.