South Korean higher education internationalization policies: perceptions and experiences

Our study investigates how Korean universities are designing and implementing internationalization policies to meet the demands of globalization. Relying upon globalization theory we reveal how power is embedded within these internationalization efforts. Indeed, we accept the notion that the United States is the world??s superpower and therefore Korea was compelled to ??Westernize?? in order to become active participants in the highly competitive globalized twenty-first century. Through the perspectives of Koreans and foreigners (e.g., professors, students, government officials, and university administrators), our paper aims to discover and understand Korean values and traditions in comparison and detached from Western theory of globalization and internationalization policies in higher education.     

South Africa: The need for a radical restructuring of specialized education in the new South Africa

Sigamoney Naicker, a lecturer in Specialized Education in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Western Cape, provides an analysis of specialized education after one year of the first democratic government in South Africa.     

Education rights,education policies and inequality in South Africa

In this article we explore education policy changes in South Africa through a rights-based framework. We situate our analysis in the context of deepening poverty and inequality arguing that progress (or the lack thereof) in schools cannot be divorced from poverty and its consequences. We show that education reform in South Africa has been situated within a policy frame that results in a tension between cost recovery and redressing historical backlogs. We argue that the introduction of user fees and the burden of other costs have rendered abstract the idea of education as a ‘right’. The definition of rights is extended to include the quality of education and educational opportunities. We question the constitutional and legislative romanticism surrounding a rights-based discourse and encourage a re-conceptualisation of human rights in education. Finally, we examine the resurgence of education social movements in relation to democratisation, educational transformation and human rights in South Africa.     

Sexuality education in Europe: an overview of current policies

Comprehensive sexuality education is one of the most important tools to ensure that young people have the information they need to make healthy and informed choices. The aim of this article is, firstly, to outline general issues about sexuality education pertaining to curriculum content, the didactic methods used, agencies involved, political support, coverage and adequacy of provision and barriers to effective sexuality education in Europe. Secondly, the current state of sexuality education in most European Union member states and Norway is described, enabling a Europe-wide comparison of country experiences in the field. This reveals a wide variety of didactic methods and policies that have shaped the provision of sexuality education and the ease and difficulties with which the subject can be implemented, and at what age and in what form it is available.     

A group of educators' stance on the implementation of South Africa's further education and training curriculum

In their dealings with educators in the Southern Cape region of South Africa, the researchers observed among them a degree of negativity and pessimism about the implementation of the Further Education and Training (FET) policy and curriculum during 2006. Exploratory discussions supported the surmise that a gap existed between policy formulation and the actual implementation of the policy in secondary schools. A qualitative research project confirmed this surmise, and served as the basis for a theoretical examination of the dynamics behind the stance adopted by the participants.     

The idealism of education policies and the realities in schools: the implementation of inclusive education in South Africa

Inclusive education as a global movement emerged over the past 30 years to ensure quality mainstream education for all learners. Since 1994 the newly democratic South Africa also had expectations as well as the political will to change education by adjusting legislation and policies. However, the vision of a truly inclusive education system in South Africa has been difficult to achieve and results regarding the implementation of inclusive education remain questionable. There has been a growing realisation that the advent of democracy was not in itself a sufficient condition for the elimination of historical and structural inequalities in education with as recurring theme the dissonance between the government's socio-political imperative for change and economic realities. This article focuses on the development of policy and guidelines on inclusive education in dynamic interaction with the complexity of realities in South African schools with a special focus on the policy recommendations regarding the development of full-service schools. The constant comparative analysis of the two phased case study of a full-service school in a rural town revealed interesting results illustrating the complexities regarding the implementation of inclusive education and the challenges and opportunities in bridging the gap between the idealism of policies and the realities in schools.     

From Policy to Practice: Curriculum reform in South African education

An important development in the post-apartheid South Africa was a departure from apartheid education through an outcomes-based curriculum reform. This resulted in several structural and policy tensions within the system. This paper highlights how these tensions have played themselves out and shows how government and stakeholders have addressed the challenges emanating from them. The paper argues that the tensions that dominated the post-apartheid curriculum reform have resulted in a significant paradigm shift focused on reclaiming knowledge and cognition in the classroom as expressed in the new revisionism in curriculum debate. From a policy point of view, it argues that the South African experience demonstrates how the pursuit of grand philosophies and ideals such as OBE and curriculum 2005 requires, at both macro and micro, systemic and institutional levels, generally and at the level of detail, a great deal of technical and political skills that cannot be achieved overnight. This calls for realism and pragmatism in school reform by focusing attention not only on what schools in society stand for but also on what they can realistically do and achieve, given their legacies and the particular circumstances in which they operate.     

Policy and planning of physical science education in South Africa: Myths and realities

South Africa has inherited a fragmented system of science education which fails to provide adequate access to the majority of the population and poorly serves those whom it does educate. Less than 0.5% of South African students achieve university entrance qualifications in science and mathematics. Post-apartheid policies have focused on increasing investment in science education through educating more science teachers, providing more access to students to study science at schools, and supplying more science equipment to schools. Based on findings from research conducted in Kwazulu-Natal, we conclude that each of these policy initiatives can be questioned. First, Kwazulu-Natal appears to have sufficient qualified physical science teachers to meet current demand. Additional teachers may be needed to cope with expansion, but not to teach existing students. Second, apparent shortages of qualified teachers may arise because of poor deployment; many who are qualified appear to be teaching other subjects or occupying nonteaching posts. Third, rapidly expanding access appears likely to reduce, rather than increase, pass rates, and divert resources from improvements in quality. Fourth, the reasons for differences in performance and poor performance appear not to be simply associated with levels of resource provision; more likely it is the efficient and effective use of these resources which is important. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 729–744, 1998.     

Special education reform in Brazil: an historical analysis of educational policies

ABSTRACT

This paper describes an histprical view of the legal and political aspects related to special education. It analyses the current and future perspectives that public and private educational institutions utilize to provide school services to individuals with disabilities in Brazil. Although Brazil has developed laws and provisions to guarantee the integration of students with disabilities into regular schools, this is not happening in most cases. In fact, Brazil does not yet have schools that consider the diversification of students’ capabilities as beneficial to the intellectual development of deficient and non‐deficient students. Poor teacher training and institutional conservatism constitute the obstacles to the implementation of innovation in this area. Most of the innovations seen today are the fruit of individual initiatives, such as the Project for Training Teachers to Integrate the Disabled into Schools (PROEDEM) and the Project for Using Computers in Special Education, that we describe. We believe that these new proposals will have a great impact on the education of students with deficiencies. This will raise the consciousness of educators and will help to transform the current conceptions and actions related to the education of people with disabilities, making possible the implementation of special education reforms.     

Concepts,policies and practices of teacher education: an analysis of studies on teacher education in Portugal

Education policies, and in particular those related to teacher education, are central to the construction of Europe as a knowledge society and for facing the social and economic challenges that European countries must respond to in this millennium. This article presents an analysis of studies on the evaluation of in-service teacher education conducted in Portugal since 1992. Based on the results of this analysis, the study develops a reflection on the concepts, policies and practices of in-service teacher education, contextualising it within a wider equation related to teachers’ education in Europe. The study consisted of content analyses of scientific articles, research reports, studies of evaluation and legal documents that provide the guidelines for in-service teacher education in Portugal. At the end, a final reflection and some general recommendations for teacher education are presented. There is a focus on the importance of placing in-service teacher education at the centre of educational contexts and on the problems that this causes in teachers’ work, emphasising its importance for social justice in Europe.