Cooperation in engineering education between developed and developing countries

The interest of the developing countries in engineering education, as seen by engineering educators in Europe, has two main facets. Firstly, the numerous students from developing countries who are studying engineering in Europe are very obvious evidence of the priority that is given to engineering in these countries. Secondly, and less clearly seen, is the situation of engineering education in the developing countries themselves, the ways in which it is being carried out and the status of the many engineering schools that are being created. This paper describes some features of these two aspects and mentions means by which international cooperation can help to strengthen engineering education in developing countries, through linkage arrangements and otherwise.     

Successful globalisation,education and sustainable development

This article examines the role of education in ‘successful globalisation’ and how this links with agendas for sustainable development. In the first part ‘successful globalisation’ is defined as economic growth combined with equality and social peace. Japan and the East Asian tiger economies – particularly South Korea and Taiwan – have been uniquely successful in the last half century in achieving both rapid economic growth over long periods and relative income equality and social cohesion. A host of factors have been responsible for this, including fortuitous geo-political circumstances and good timing. However, education has also played a major role. The article, based on a review of international and national research literatures, analyses how far China, India, Kenya and Sri Lanka have managed to develop their own forms of successful engagement with the global economy and what part education policy has played. In the second part we relate our concept of successful globalisation to the parallel discourses of sustainable development and education for sustainable development and reflect on what our notion of ‘successful globalisation’ can borrow from and lend to these literatures.     

Mobile learning in higher education: A comparative analysis of developed and developing country contexts

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast characteristics of use and adoption of mobile learning in higher education in developed and developing countries. A comparative case study based on a survey questionnaire was conducted with 189 students (undergraduate and postgraduate) from Makerere University in Uganda and the University of Adelaide in Australia. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was employed as the theoretical framework. The results indicated that higher education students in developed and developing countries use a range of technologies for learning, with major differences between Uganda and Australia. The study concludes that mobile learning in higher education in developed and developing country contexts is still at an experimental stage with students using mobile devices in pedagogically limited ways.     

Working against globalisation: the role of the media and national education in Singapore

This article discusses how the media and schools are used as disciplinary apparatuses to resist and work against globalisation in Singapore. Aihwa Ong calls the deployment of state ideological apparatuses, such as the media and schools, acts of ‘reassemblage’, when technocrats resort to assemble institutions, diverse Government practice and political values to engage in citizenship production. The National Education curriculum package introduced to Singapore schools is one example of ‘reassemblage’, which aims to reinvent subject‐citizens who are perceived as lacking cultural mooring and a national identity. I argue that in the context of globalisation, this cultural experimentation of constructing a national identity and creating a sense of belonging is fraught with ruptures, as ‘youthscapes’ and new communication technologies are potentially the liminal spaces where other sources of identities are up for grabs. These liminal spaces further allow youths to perform ‘elective belonging’ rather than a sense of belonging bound by the ‘national’ and ‘local’.     

Special education and the regular education initiative: basic assumptions

The regular education initiative (REI) is a thoughtful response to identified problems in our system for educating low-performing children, but it is a not a detailed blueprint for changing the system. Educators must achieve consensus on what the REI actually proposes. The authors infer from the REI literature five assumptions regarding the roles and responsibilities of elementary regular classroom teachers, concluding that these teachers and specialists form a partnership, but the classroom teachers are ultimately in charge of the instruction of all children in their classrooms, including those who are not succeeding in the mainstream. A discussion of the target population and of several partnership models further delineates REI issues and concerns.     

Imaginary Friends: Managerialism,globalisation and post-compulsory education and training in England

The paper draws together a number of themes concerned with managerialism, the labour process and the attempt to shape an educational settlement in post-compulsory education and training (PCET) in England. In particular it examines the place of managerialism as a central plank in the PCET settlement in which there is an attempt to construct a social bloc organised around these interests. This discussion involves an examination of the relationship between globalisation, economic relations, technicisation and managerialism itself. This analysis sits alongside an exploration of the relationship between these and state provision of education and welfare. These notions lead into a discussion of values, entrepreneurship, creativity and subjectivity. It is argued that an education system that sees itself as committed to the development of the creative problem solver poses real questions as to whether the social formation can solve the problems of our time. Paradoxically, whilst capitalism requires the value-creating capacity of labour and education is charged to develop this, this capacity is nevertheless one that can be used to debunk capitalist relations.     

Internet of toys across home and early childhood education: understanding the ecology of the child’s social world

ABSTRACT

This article presents findings from an ongoing international study of children’s use of Internet-connected toys (IoToys) across Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Greece. The authors sought to investigate practices with IoToys across homes and early childhood settings. Data from 12 case study families and approximately 200 children who interacted with case study children in early childhood settings were collected alongside interviews with parents and educators. Findings indicate that digital difference between home and education is recurring due to infrastructure and budgetary issues in early childhood settings, resulting in organic play-based IoToy use at home versus structured adult-directed teaching of IoToys in early childhood practice. Working from a social-ecological theoretical frame however demonstrated that children skilfully and fluidly transitioned between digital and non-digital play and across diverse socio ecological contexts of home and early childhood settings.     

(W)rapping relationships between science education and globalisation

This essay reviews the contribution of Rowhea Elmesky in this volume, to the field of research in science education, and places it in the context of the juncture of youth disengagement with science, multicultural education and globalisation, with an underlay of a historical context and critiques of science education from feminist and postcolonial perspectives.     

Four stories: confronting contemporary ideas about globalisation and internationalisation in higher education

There is a common distinction between globalisation and internationalisation in higher education scholarship. Globalisation is seen as an over‐arching social and economic process where as internatinalisation is understood as the ways in which institutions of higher education respond to globalisation. This conceptual distinction has also worked its way into the practice of university administration around the world. Drawing on the theoretical work of Foucault and Giddiness, this conception the consequences of the globalisation / internationalisation distinction are analysed through four of higher accounts education strategies.     

Special educational needs,e-learning and the reflective e-portfolio: implications for developing and assessing competence in pre-service education

Diagnostic and formative assessment practices have been widely endorsed in the educational research literature. This article reports the findings of a small-scale study which investigated the extent to which these practices have been embraced in classroom teaching. The interview data from six lecturers and six students at a polytechnic in Singapore illustrate how lecturers described their strategies and students experienced them. The data indicate that, among the research participants, there was little clear evidence to suggest that diagnostic and formative assessment were coherently conceptualised or strategically applied. Further, instances of pedagogical actions that could have been taken as applications of diagnostic and formative assessment appeared to have occurred serendipitously rather than purposefully. The implications of this for the students’ learning are discussed.