The need for context-sensitive measures of educational quality in transnational higher education

This paper argues that the current approach to educational quality formation in transnational higher education promotes educational imperialism, and that guidelines and practices should be altered to embrace context-sensitive measures of quality. The claims are sustained by findings from a study that investigated how academics understood and pursued educational quality in an Australian university programme delivered in partnership with a Chinese university in China. A key finding was that a home programme functioned as the single reference point for quality in the programme delivered in China. Quality in the China programme was sought through the imposition of practices and philosophies associated with the home programme, which required the suppression of local educational traditions. The paper points out that reliance on a home programme as the single measure of quality is encouraged by governing UNESCO/OECD guidelines on quality in cross-border provision.     

Social class and educational decision-making in a choice-driven education system: a mixed-methods study

Social class differences in educational decision-making form an important explanation for persisting educational inequalities, particularly in choice-driven systems with early tracking. Nevertheless, little is known about the process preceding these choices, especially when school and track choice are interrelated. Building on school choice literature, this study aims to explore how parents from different social backgrounds shape their decision-making process at the transition from primary to secondary education in Flanders (Belgium). To this end, we adopt an explanatory mixed-methods design. Quantitative findings from a parent survey conducted in 36 primary schools were complemented with 32 in-depth interviews with parents. Our findings show two parental profiles regarding educational decision-making, which can be traced back to differences in social and cultural capital. Although effective navigation of the complex field of educational decision-making proved to be strongly class related, parents’ educational and immigrant biographies led to specific approaches, transcending the middle class versus working class binary.     

Inclusive special education: development of a new theory for the education of children with special educational needs and disabilities

Inclusive education and special education are based on different philosophies and provide alternative views of education for children with special educational needs and disabilities. They are increasingly regarded as diametrically opposed in their approaches. This article presents a theory of inclusive special education that comprises a synthesis of the philosophy, values and practices of inclusive education with the interventions, strategies and procedures of special education. Development of inclusive special education aims to provide a vision and guidelines for policies, procedures and teaching strategies that will facilitate the provision of effective education for all children with special educational needs and disabilities.     

Exemplarity and education: Retuning educational research

This article explores the idea of exemplarity in relation to educational research and teacher education. Exemplarity is introduced as an alternative to the paradigm of evidence and ‘what works’, which seems to be omnipresent in educational research at present. The idea of exemplarity relates to the particularity of educational practice. The claim of this article is that we need to skew the dominance of functionalistic studies of education, which focus on skills and solutions to problems, or on providing quick fixes and methods to be applied in practice. I will argue that this tactic shuts down interpretive spaces and gives the teacher an illusion of simplicity and efficacy that connects poorly with the complexities of pedagogical practice. Exemplarity provides a different way of answering the question of ‘what works’, since it does not claim generalisability, but instead offers a path to reflective engagement with the complexities of educational processes. The idea of exemplarity highlights how educators can be invited to lend an ear to practical experience and pedagogical theorising, and through these develop their tact and reflective abilities through exemplars that display pedagogical principles. This, in turn, offers the possibility of retuning one’s practice, and in the scope of this article, retuning educational research itself.     

Policy,practice, and reconversion in Spanish educational reform: teaching and teacher education in physical education

Abstract

Since the late 1980s, reform of the Spanish education system has been justified by reformists as a response to the social and economic changes that have occurred in Spanish society since the democratic transition in the 1970s. Consolidation of democracy, development of technology and economic convergence with the advanced nations of Europe have been seen as the major challenges for educational reform. Restructuring and legitimation processes derived from the requirements of the new reform have been conceptualized as a policy of reconversion, the main purpose of which is to maintain, or achieve, a strong competitive position in the international market. In this paper, conceptualizing educational reform as a reconversion process will allow us to link aspects of the new curriculum (content, pedagogy and assessment), school organization, teaching and teacher education in physical education with wider economic, social and cultural influences and explore the tensions and conflicts between policy and practice in PE in schools. The paper will argue that there is a widening gap between the interests of progressive educationalists and the direction of market‐driven education reform.     

论教育技术在现代远程教育中的应用

本文介绍了教育技术在现代远程教育中的应用,探讨了教育技术在现代远程教育中的发展。     

Discovering social inequality: Dutch educational research in the post-war era

Between the 1940s and 1960s across Western Europe a spirit of reform along comprehensive lines manifested itself in secondary education, aiming at a reduction of the existing social inequality of educational chances. These reforms are said to be rooted in new policies and in new approaches in educational studies. This article explores the relationship between educational reform and educational science in a country, the Netherlands, which did not “go comprehensive”. Though, by the late 1950s, social inequality of educational chances, the waste of working-class talent, and the impossibility of a fair selection at the age of 12 had been discovered by Dutch educationists, equal chances were not mentioned as a target in the new Secondary Education Act (1963). Its focus was directed at the development of individual talent, regardless of class, and selection continued to be applied at a very early age. This policy was even approved of by the social democrats, who elsewhere acted as protagonists of comprehensive schooling. They held on to the deeply rooted idea of two different, class-bound kinds of pupils with different educational needs, the “intellectuals” and the “manuals”, a message that had been spread for a long time by educational researchers themselves.     

Early childhood education for all: a mixed-methods study of the global policy agenda in Tanzania

This study considers the extent to which access to basic education and student learning outcomes have become more equalized or more disparate in Tanzania following the implementation of the international Education for All (EFA) initiative, and whether early childhood education access and performance follow similar patterns. To answer these questions, we apply a mixed-methods research design, which includes a longitudinal analysis of changes in educational opportunity and a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of key education policy documents in Tanzania. Findings from our quantitative analysis suggest that social inequality is persistent across time and consistent across access and learning outcomes at the early childhood and basic education levels. The implication is that, to date, the EFA agenda has only served to reproduce social inequalities in Tanzania, with the exception of increased opportunity for girls. These results align with CDA findings assessing the global and national policy discourse, which find educational inequalities to be prioritized in language but not adequately in final targets and strategies. Given the resiliency of such education inequalities, it would appear that policy capable of removing social barriers to educational opportunity requires more attention to specific at-risk student populations.     

Second Chance Programmes: a response to educational needs in compulsory education

This paper asks whether the integrated training provision currently offered through the different Spanish Second Chance Programmes (SCPs) constitutes a valid response to the educational needs and deficits known to exist among those young people who do not satisfactorily complete the Compulsory Secondary Education stage (ESO). The objectives of the current Social Guarantee Programmes (SGPs) are examined, as are the characteristics of the young people who participate in them. The Programmes of Initial Vocational Qualification (PCPI) envisaged in the most recent educational legislation are also discussed. Having identified the key factors which the empirical studies suggest influence the effectiveness of these programmes in addressing the educational needs and training deficiencies of the young people involved, a number of proposals are presented in connection with the training needs of teaching staff. The paper concludes with a number of proposals for improving the educational response to the challenges that the new perspectives and expectations raise for the development of a system of inclusive education to overcome the education deficits of the young people concerned.     

The development of the special educational needs coordinator role in a higher education setting

UK higher education appears to have generally been slow to adopt an organised means of provision for special educational needs for its students. This may be due to the fact that, historically, relatively few disabled students entered UK higher education. However, there is a growing number of disabled students entering UK higher education institutions, and the figure is likely to increase. It is therefore important and, under the UK Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001), legally binding, that UK higher education institutions make appropriate adjustments to their activities so as not to disadvantage or discriminate against disabled students. In this article Mark Taylor examines the development of the special educational needs coordinator role in a higher education setting based upon a two‐year case study in a UK university.     

教育社会分层功能的失衡:转型期农村教育的主要危机

在社会全面转型过程中,农村教育由于受到再分配和市场两种机制的双重边缘化,而使教育社会分层功能在城乡之间明显失衡。这种失衡状态,强化了教育促进复制式社会流动的功能,而非替代式的社会流动功能。它直接带来的后果是农村教育中新的读书无用论的兴起,并进而导致农村基础教育社会功能和育人功能的全面受损。     

Effectiveness of a satellite educational television program for Ethiopian secondary education

This study examined the actual practice and effectiveness of a satellite educational TV program in Ethiopian secondary schools. Participants in the survey were 228 students and 63 teachers from secondary schools. The results of the data analysis indicate that Ethiopian students and teachers scored highly in the evaluation areas. Levels of students’ general satisfaction with the satellite educational TV program were not equal for the variables of location and gender. It was also found that for students, learning demand, learning content, and class management were factors affecting their satisfaction with the satellite educational TV programs. For teachers, learning content and class management were the factors. The statistical mean difference in the satisfaction with the satellite educational TV program was between students and teachers. These findings suggest that the satellite educational TV program has the possibility of improving the quality of education in Ethiopian secondary schools.     

我国高等教育公平的成就、问题与反思

在我国高等教育实行跨越式发展战略的过程中,如何保障弱势群体的受教育权和促进社会阶层合理流动。是人们关注的焦点。高等教育实现大众化之后,我们应该以新的视角来重新阐释并界定高等教育公平的层次性和现实选择。高等教育公平既取得了巨大的历史成就,也面临新的问题,因此,寻求高等教育公平的理想途径,是教育改革的一项重要内容。     

我国义务教育的机会公平与质量公平

教育公平有教育机会公平和教育质量公平两上不同层面。我国义务教育现阶段,教育机会公平是首要迫切的目标,即人人都有相同的受教育机会,在已基本普及义务教育的城市和发达地区,应更多地关注教育质量公平的实施,大面积提高教育教学质量。     

The necessity of historical inquiry in educational research: the case of religious education

This article explores the mixed fortunes of historical inquiry as a method in educational studies and exposes evidence for the neglect of this method in religious education research in particular. It argues that historical inquiry, as a counterpart to other research methods, can add depth and range to our understanding of education, including religious education, and can illuminate important longer‐term, broader and philosophical issues. The article also argues that many historical voices have remained silent in the existing historiography of religious education because such historiography is too generalised and too biased towards the development of national policy and curriculum and pedagogical theory. To address this limitation in educational research, this article promotes rigorous historical studies that are more substantially grounded in the appropriate historiographical literature and utilise a wide range of original primary sources. Finally, the article explores a specific example of the way in which a historical approach may be fruitfully applied to a particular contemporary debate concerning the nature and purpose of religious education.     

教育技术和远程教育发展的新时期--世界远程教育发展历史追溯和展望(6)

21世纪人类社会的经济形态是知识经济。开放与远程教育被认为是实现终身教育、终身学习和学习社会理想、加速人力资源开发、推动知识经济发展的未来教育形态。本文论述教育技术和远程教育在21世纪的发展前景。     

研究教育技术办好"现代教育技术中心"

教育技术是现代远程教育的基本要素。“现代教育技术中心”是近年来众多广播电视大学推行现代教育技术的新建制,探索和构建它的实践模型,研究现代远程开放教育赋予它的使命和任务,是目前阶段电大完成“试点”项目的重要内容之一。     

Beyond the global city: a comparative analysis of cosmopolitanism in middle-class educational strategies in Australia and Brazil

ABSTRACT

The global middle class (GMC) is a theoretical construct that seeks to globalise a set of attributes identified in studies of school choice in the global north, and to a lesser extent in developing nations in Asia. As theorised by Ball a mobile middle class with cosmopolitan sensibilities drives international education options in global cities. This proposition is challenged through analysis of the histories of curriculum and class relations in two national settings (Australia and Brazil) and examination of contemporary class profiles (i.e. economic and cultural properties) in expanding forms of international education in these countries. The paper argues that the forms of cosmopolitanism associated with the educational practices of the GMC must be examined within broader historical relationships of cultural domination. We conclude by arguing that broadening the historical horizon is an important exercise to challenge the claim of the GMC to be a novel category involving exceptional forms of cultural contact generated by the dynamics of the ‘global city’.     

Job satisfaction of teachers in primary adult education in Croatia: portrait on the eve of educational reform

ABSTRACT

Assessing teacher job satisfaction is a recurrent theme in educational research. Given the forthcoming reform of the Croatian adult education system, a survey of teacher satisfaction in primary adult education was performed. Teachers exhibited two dimensions of satisfaction/dissatisfaction: one with the teaching programme and process, and the other with the attendees’ performance and support. Four clusters of teachers were identified with respect to their satisfaction levels regarding the two dimensions. Most teachers are dissatisfied with the teaching programme and process. This dissatisfaction is associated with higher experience, working only in adult education, delivering lessons based on periodical individual instruction, and having non-native speakers of Croatian in class. Satisfaction with attendees’ performance and support is more pronounced but is associated only with not having non-native speakers of Croatian in class. Existing theories explain the results well, considering the differences between the regular education system and that of adult education.     

引导支持服务--浅论教学管理改革与素质教育的实施

实施素质教育是我国教育的战略决策。学校教学管理部门应重新审视自己的职能定位,开拓新的工作思路。其中,引导教师转换角色、更新观念;支持教学目标系统的创新改造;拓展教学管理工作的职能,尝试进行服务式管理等三个问题构成了教管部门新的改革课题。