Comparative and sociological perspectives on Third World development and education

Insofar as there has been any coherent theoretical basis for orthodox comparative education during the 1970's, it has derived from American modernisation theories of the 1960's. The weak explanatory power of these theories and the inability of most Third World countries to solve their educational problems have led to a growing pessimism about educational planning and increasing attention to nonformal, lifelong and distance education programs concerned with literacy and rural development.New intellectual currents during the 1970's created several alternatives to orthodox comparative education. The most important of these, based on dependency theory, has partly reduced the ethnocentrism of comparative research, but national traditions are still strongly entrenched. Comparative education based on either modernisation or dependency theories is still ill-equipped to provide Third World countries with either an understanding of the international context of their educational problems or an appropriate set of guidelines for educational planning.Both orthodox and radical varieties of comparative education are forms of cultural imperialism, against which Third World countries need to develop their own, more appropriate, traditions of comparative research.

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Zusammenfassung Insoweit es während der 70er Jahre überhaupt eine zusammenhängende theoretische Basis für die orthodoxe vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft gegeben hat, leitet sie sich aus den amerikanischen Modernisierungstheorien der 60er Jahre ab. Die schwache Erklärungskraft dieser Theorien und das Unvermögen der meisten Länder der Dritten Welt, ihre Bildungsprobleme zu lösen, haben zu wachsendem Pessimismus gegenüber der Bildungsplanung geführt und die Aufmerksamkeit zunehmend auf nicht-formelle, lebenslange und Fernbildungsprogramme gelenkt, welche die Beseitigung des Analphabetentums und ländliche Entwicklung zum Ziele haben.Neue intellektuelle Strömungen in den 70er Jahren haben verschiedene Alternativen zu orthodoxer vergleichender Erziehungswissenschaft gezeitigt. Die wichtigste, auf der Abhängigkeitstheorie beruhende unter diesen Alternativen hat den Ethnozentrismus teilweise reduziert, doch sind nationale Traditionen noch tief verwurzelt. Noch immer ist die entweder auf Modernisierung oder auf Abhängigkeitstheorien gegründete vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft außerstande, den Ländern der Dritten Welt ein Verständnis der internationalen Zusammenhänge ihrer Bildungsprobleme zu vermitteln und ihnen brauchbare Richtlinien für Bildungsplanung zu liefern.Sowohl die orthodoxen als auch die radikalen Varianten der vergleichenden Erziehungswissenschaft sind Formen von kulturellem Imperialismus, gegen den die Länder der Dritten Welt ihre eigenen, angemesseneren Traditionen für vergleichende Forschung entwickeln müssen.

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Résumé Pour autant que l'éducation comparée orthodoxe ait eu une base théorique cohérente au cours des années 70, celle-ci dérivait des théories de modernisation américaines des années 60. La faible puissance explicative de ces théories ainsi que l'incapacité de la plupart des pays du Tiers Monde à résoudre leurs problèmes d'éducation, ont engendré un pessimisme croissant regardant la planification de l'éducation et l'attention accrue portée aux programmes d'éducation non formelle, permanente, et à distance touchant le développement rural aussi bien que l'alphabétisation.Pendant les années 70, de nouveaux courants intellectuels ont ouvert plusiers alternatives à l'éducation comparée orthodoxe. La plus importante, basée sur la theorie de la dépendance, a partiellement réduit l'ethnocentrisme de la recherche comparative, mais les traditions nationales sont encore solidement retranchées. L'éducation comparée fondée sur la modernisation, ou bien sur les théories de la dépendance, est encore trop mal équipée pour fournir aux pays du Tiers Monde soit une compréhension du contexte international de leurs problèmes éducatifs, soit un jeu d'orientations appropriées pour la planification de l'éducation.Les variétés orthodoxes de l'éducation comparée, comme les variétés radicales, sont des formes d'impérialisme culturel et il est nécessaire que les pays du Tiers Monde réagissent contre cet impérialisme en développant leurs propres traditions de recherche comparative qui sont plus appropriées.

     

Directions and perspectives for development of engineering education in Jordan

There are rapid technological and economic changes associated with a huge accumulation of knowledge, which double every 8 years. Hence, increasing global competition is directing engineering educators to focus on several key areas, among which are development of curricula, graduate studies and continuing education, communications and teamwork research and development and promoting university-industry ties. Engineering education should address areas such as: analysis, synthesis, more applications, economic and management sciences, more effective computer utilization, interdisciplinary courses, in addition to more concern about the environment, society and ethics. Postgraduate programme are becoming necessary due to the increased need for depth. Scientific and engineering research is becoming a must. It is the main driver for technological development, which should start with transfer of knowledge and know-how, then improvement, modification, adaptation and, finally, innovation and creativity. The input to all the above-mentioned challenges in engineering is the quality of the secondary school graduate. Hence, improvements and development should tackle the whole education as a package. In engineering education, instructors should focus on interpreting, showing connections and helping students integrate what they have learned. In all these aspects, the most influential factor is the combined traits of hard work with sincerity and dedication with consciousness. This work aims to show the different measures and aspects needed for development of engineering education, and the extent of their application in the universities in Jordan.     

Existential perspectives on education

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to contribute to the discussion about the relevance of existential issues in contemporary education. Analysis presented in the paper is related to the problems of self-awareness, becoming oneself and self-development. First, the author begins by depicting the meaning of human existence in the light of philosophy. The following aspects have been analyzed: being true to one’s own beliefs and values, recognizing personal truth, making existential choices and finding one’s own voice. A special attention is paid to the language as an essential, constitutive element of being. Second, the article attempts to consider some educational implications resulting from the existential approach to education. Some of the issues discussed are learning to philosophize and to discover meaning, the concept of encounter in education and the role of language in self-development. While describing them the author indicates that the ignoring of crucial existential questions in education contributes to spiritual vacuity in life of young people and reduces educational thinking merely to instrumental, pragmatic problems concerning qualification and transfer of communicative skills.     

Some historical perspectives in the development of special education in Ghana

This paper traces the development of special education in Ghana, with a particular focus on the education of people with learning difficulties. The influence of the British perspective is recognized as having played a critical role in its initial development; but while trends are increasingly shifting towards inclusive practices, the institutionalization of people with learning difficulties and others with disabilities remains an entrenched practice. Evidence of official government rhetoric towards inclusive practices is noted, but prevailing traditional structures in special education service delivery and administration prevent its practical reality, especially for many pupils with learning difficulties.     

Organisational perspectives on globalisation in education

ABSTRACT

This special issue showcases the Gordian knot between organisations and globalisation in education and exposes the organisational infrastructure of globalisation in education. Overarching themes include education serving the globalisation of organisational models, globalisation as re-organising educational organisations, the organising of international bodies operating in education, and global-oriented organisations and organising in education. The paper concludes with a call for utilising organisational perspectives in the exploration of globalisation in education.     

School education and development of gender perspectives and sexuality in Japan

This study aimed to evaluate changes in the attitudes of Japan’s post-war youth towards gender equality and sexuality, and to examine whether these attitudes bore a relationship to school education. Different generations were delineated based on changes in courses of study and year of birth, and semi-structured interviews were conducted enquiring about experiences and opinions during secondary school days. We examined sexuality education in both junior high school (ages 12–15 years) and high school (15–18 years), views on premarital sex, views on marriage and divorce, and views on gender roles. Fifty-three survey participants were involved in the study: 30 women and 23 men. The characteristics of each generation were examined in relation to corresponding courses of study and the textbooks available in junior high and high schools, identifying both homologies and differences between the messages courses contained and the expressed beliefs of different generations of informants.     

Asian perspectives on teacher education

This paper reports on a study that was conducted on the effects of training students in specific strategic and meta-cognitive questioning strategies on the development of reasoning, problem-solving, and learning during cooperative inquiry-based science activities. The study was conducted in 18 sixth grade classrooms and involved 35 groups of students in three conditions: the cognitive questioning condition; the Philosophy for Children condition; and the comparison condition. The students were videotaped as they worked on a specific inquiry-science task once each term for two consecutive school terms. The results show that the students in all conditions demonstrated more helping discourses or discourses known to mediate learning than any other of the discourse categories. This outcome is encouraging because it is the helping discourses where students provide explanations, elaborations, and reasons that promote follow-up learning.     

Parent perspectives on inclusive education in Budapest

The purpose of this study was to better understand parents’ perspectives of education in Budapest, particularly parents of children with disabilities or children who struggle with learning. Nine parents were interviewed. Parents found schools for their child with a disability to be lacking in terms of updated materials, methods and service provision for students; relationships with families and the burden placed on families to advocate for their child or find alternatives were also problematic. Changes are required at all levels of the educational system, including parent involvement and teacher preparation programmes.     

New perspectives on teacher education in Kuwait

Pre‐service teacher education in England has been essentially school‐based since 1992. The article offers a critique of this design from the perspective of a practitioner and researcher working in one of its most influential schemes. The fundamental problem described concerns an impoverished understanding of experience that underpins how beginning teachers are intended to learn in schools. The problem is not one of evaluating experience as adequate in terms of exemplary practices, but about the capacity within the teacher education system for critically examining the meaning of experience in order to develop professional knowledge. The article suggests that the ontological and epistemological dimensions of experience need to be brought into a dialogue if the potential of experiential learning for pre‐service teachers is to be realised.     

The strategic evaluation of regional development in higher education

The study analyses the role of regional development in higher education using the approach of the balanced scorecard, which provides a framework for organizations to describe and communicate their strategy. It turns out that the balanced scorecard is not only an approach for implementing the strategy, but it also provides a general framework for evaluating the strategy from the different perspectives. The study presents examples where the new evaluation approach has been used to analyse the national educational policy of regional development, regional strategies of higher education institutions and their cooperation. According to the results of the study, cooperation between higher education institutions is most important from the perspectives of learning and regional development.