Institutionally imposed social agendas

This essay is excerpted from Dr. Sowell's book,Inside American Education: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas (Free Press, 1993).     

Global perspectives: aligning agendas?

In recent years there has been a growth in interest amongst a number of universities in the UK and elsewhere in the world on reflecting upon the contribution of higher education to a global society and exploring ways to broaden the curriculum to enable students to make a positive contribution to the world as ‘global citizens’. This paper will suggest, using the UK as an example, that the policy context provides a favourable environment for such developments. However, policy documents often confuse rather than clarify precisely what needs to be addressed, despite their recognition that change is required. Students are increasingly demanding more opportunities to learn and reflect upon their role and contribution to global society and at the same time employers are seeking graduates who have a ‘broader world view’, who can manage across cultures, and who understand the need for sustainable development. Summarising the influences of these drivers, the paper proposes that through a framework of global perspectives developed at Bournemouth University in the UK, these agendas around internationalisation and sustainable development can contribute to better learning and enhance the broader work of the university.     

Children's personal learning agendas at home

Ethnographic case studies of nine British working class children were conducted in order to investigate learning from the perspectives of the families. The research aim was to study children learning outside school in situations that were not specifically set up with learning in mind; in social contexts where learning was not an obligation or purpose and was therefore incidental and non‐self‐conscious; and to study children learning in the company of adults who were not professionals. This article does not offer a universal portrait of these children's learning, but a particular way of seeing and interpreting it. The children's home learning is fuelled by social and emotional dimensions. There are multiple competitors for children's attention in any given learning opportunity, and children are not necessarily learning what adults think they are. The children in the study transform the outcomes of their opportunities for learning into learning about their experiences of the human condition.     

Schools and war: urgent agendas for comparative and international education

A focus on conflict and education is one of the most pressing concerns of the current times, and yet the role of education in the perpetuation, or the mitigation, of international conflict is curiously underplayed and under‐researched. This paper looks firstly at the contributions that education makes to conflict, through the reproduction of inequality and exclusion, through perpetuation of ethnic or religious divisions, through its acceptance of dominant aggressive masculinities, through selection, competition and fear, and through distorted curricular emphases on narrow cognitive areas of learning. However, the paper also outlines some ‘possibilities for hope’, such as resilient schools, the impact of peace education initiatives and the rise of global citizenship education. It is argued that comparative and international education has a highly important role in establishing patterns of educational contribution to peace or conflict, and in dissemination of research to act as a lobbying force to influence education policy and practice. The paper outlines eight priorities, including alternative international studies focusing on ‘achievement’ in peace education; cross‐cultural or longitudinal studies of impact of peace education and war education; and tracer studies of why young people join fundamentalist organisations.     

Working within and against neoliberal accreditation agendas: opportunities for Professional Experience

Over the past decade in Australia, a neo‐liberal political climate has delivered to universities and schools increasing expectations concerning accountability and conformity within professional standards frameworks. This has contributed to growing pressure around Professional Experience programs within teacher education. In light of such accountability agendas, this paper analyses impacts arising from the emergence of institutions such as the New South Wales Institute of Teachers. In response to an insistent discourse of ‘partnerships’, it draws on the work of Lave and Wegner (1991 Lave, J. and Wegner, E. 1991. Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]), as well as Engeström (1999 Engeström, Y. 1999. “Activity Theory and individual and social transformation.”. In Perspectives on Activity Theory, Edited by: Engeström, Y, Miettinen, R and Punamäki, R.‐L. 19–38. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]), to pose a reconceptualised model of Professional Experience based on the concept of Activity Systems. An approach to partnerships that structures Professional Experience in schools around the notion of ‘communities of learning’ is presented. By shifting power relations and roles around Professional Experience, it is claimed a co‐learning environment that more effectively and concurrently attends to the professional learning needs of student teachers, as well as those of practising teachers, can be developed.     

Education for sustainable development in Africa: a critique of regional agendas

Asia Pacific Education Review - Education is often perceived in policy agendas as playing a transformative role in realising sustainable development and the SDGs on the continent. The assumption is...     

国外企业大学E-learning对我国企业大学的启示

E-learning作为知识经济时代新兴的一种学习方式,受到了国内外企业大学的青睐。通过对企业大学E-learning进行概念界定,分析了国外企业大学E-learning的现状及其网络化、灵活性、动态变更性以及互动性等特征,进而反思了国内企业大学E-learning的现状和存在的问题,并试图从重视课程开发、丰富学习资源、加强相关专家和领导层的支持力度以及企业大学E-learning要服务于企业战略目标等方面,获得对我国企业大学的启示。     

Rate my attitude: research agendas and RateMyProfessor scores

The literature on student evaluations of teaching (SETs) generally presents two opposing camps: those who believe in the validity and usefulness of SETs, and those who do not. Some researchers have suggested that ‘SET deniers’ resist SETs because of their own poor SET results. To test this hypothesis, I analysed essays by 230 SET researchers (170 lead authors) and classified the researchers as having negative, neutral or positive attitudes towards SETs. I retrieved their RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) scores and, using logistic regression, found that lead authors with negative attitudes towards SETs were 14 times more likely to score below an estimated RMP average than lead authors with positive attitudes towards SETs. Co-authors and researchers with neutral attitudes, on the other hand, did not significantly differ from the RMP average. These results suggest that personal attitudes towards SETs may drive research findings.     

Using strategy maps to prioritize learning and performance improvement agendas

There are best practices that organizations can employ to link their learning initiatives to corporate strategy. Human capital and human performance technology (HPT) professionals need to push their organizations to embrace a performance improvement agenda that is linked to strategy, and organizations need to include a learning representative in the strategic development process. If the human capital or HPT professional and CEO work together toward a common goal, the business can achieve the greatest benefit from learning initiatives.