Global English, Hegemony and Education: Lessons from Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci and his concept of hegemony are often invoked in current debates concerning cultural imperialism, globalisation and global English. However, these debates are rarely cognizant of Gramsci's own university training in linguistics, the centrality of language to his writings on education and hegemony, or his specific engagement with language politics in his own day. By paying much greater attention to Gramsci's writings on language and education, this article attempts to lay the groundwork for an adequate approach to the current politics of global English.
While Gramsci may have left formal education and his studies in linguistics at Turin University as a young man to become a full time journalist and political activist, he certainly did not 'jettison' his study of language as is commonly implied. It has been widely accepted that Gramsci had an expansive conception of education which would curtail any suggestion that 'education' must be limited to formal schooling or university. Likewise, this article demonstrates the importance of Gramsci's lifelong analysis of language, its role in education and the development of hegemony. It argues that Gramsci's writings on language policy in Italy, specifically la questione della lingua [the language question] and his concern with linguistics, are an integral part of his approach to education and hegemony.     

Education for All: Policy Lessons from High-Achieving Countries

This paper draws upon case studies of countries which universalised primary education early in their development process and rapidly increased secondary enrolments thereafter. It examines the common elements of social, and specifically, education policy among these high achievers, and also evaluates the policy lessons for other developing countries from the experience of these countries. The supply and demand-side factors which help in explaining this success are compared with the situation prevailing in the rest of the developing world.     

Leadership,Management and Education: Lessons for and from Schooling

Abstract

School based enterprise education and activities are becoming increasingly popular within Australian schools, particularly among students in senior years. However, the objectives of school based business education are still unclear, largely as the demand for activities and courses presently outstrips the development process. As such, the approach taken has centred on the ‘traditional’ style of education, with an overriding concern placed on what can ‘reasonably’ be demanded of students time and resources. This paper outlines the factors contributing to the increased popularity of school based enterprise activities in Australian schools reviewing both past and present teaching methods. An alternative approach to business education is proposed and analysis of the relative merits of this proposal undertaken. The overall objective of the alternative proposed is to remove the artificial environment associated with the approaches employed to‐date. This will require the acceptance of failure as a possible positive outcome and the consideration of issues in a broader social, community and macro‐economic context.     

MBA教育：借鉴与思考

章根据国内外MBA教育的现状，分析了MBA的培养目标、培养教育方式及其特点，并在此基础上，结合国内MBA教育的要求和形势，对即将开展MBA教育的院校提出若干建议。     

Innovations and Challenges in Project-Based STEM Education: Lessons from ITEST

Journal of Science Education and Technology - For over a decade, the National Science Foundation’s Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program has funded...     

Financing Education in Transitional Societies: Lessons from Russia and China

Recent years have brought emerging theoretical propositions about the nature of educational change in societies undergoing transition from socialism to market economies. Focusing particularly on the financing of education, this article examines patterns in Russia and China in the light of this literature. It shows that although transitions in the two countries have displayed major differences, they have also displayed significant similarities. These similarities have been evident despite the fact that changes in Russia and China have been made independently of each other. This has largely been because of the impact of market forces, though it has also reflected broader forces of globalisation.     

Institutional Mergers in Higher Education: Lessons from International Experience

Higher education systems andinstitutions have used institutional mergers toaddress a range of different problems,particularly fragmentation amongstnon-university institutions, lack of financialand academic viability, pressures for majorsystem restructuring and external competitivethreats. While mergers frequently aredisruptive, strongly contested and costly inboth human and financial terms, they have thepotential to produce substantial longer-termbenefits, particularly larger and morecomprehensive institutions, stronger academicprogrammes, improved student services, enhancedstudent choice, greater institutionalflexibility and, under certain conditions,increased efficiencies and cost-savings. Sensitivity to human and cultural factors andeffective leadership are of utmost importancein achieving success in merger processes.     

家庭教育支持的国际经验与借鉴

对家庭教育的重视与社会的发展程度有关,发达国家在这方面的探索和相关经验有助于中国思考本土家庭教育立法以及政策和措施的开展.通过重点介绍美国、瑞典、法国和日本四个国家的法律、政策和措施,通过他们各有的显著特点及探索方法,可为中国家庭教育立法以及政策措施的开展提供多元模式和多种视角.鉴于篇幅限制,本文内容只侧重于相关国家突...     

Teaching Darwinian Evolution: Learning from Religious Education

This article examines what science education might be able to learn from phenomenological religious education’s attempts to teach classes where students hold a plurality of religious beliefs. Recent statements as to how best to accomplish the central pedagogical concept of ‘learning from religion’ as a vehicle for human transformation are explored, and then used to appraise the historical research into how Charles Darwin’s responses to religious ideas influenced and were influenced by his scientific work. The issues identified as crucial for science educators to be aware of when teaching students Darwinian evolution are then outlined and, finally, suggestions are made to enable individual students to examine how their personal religious beliefs might interact with their growing understanding of Darwin’s evolutionary approach.     

Redefining Leadership: Lessons from an Early Education Leadership Development Initiative

This study examined how experienced early educators developed as change agents in the context of a leadership development program. Unlike in many other professions, experienced early educators lack opportunities to grow throughout their careers and access the supports they need to lead change in their classrooms, organizations, the profession, and beyond. This qualitative study brings a relational and entrepreneurial leadership theory lens to its analysis of the experiences of 43 early educators as they co-created pathways forward as leaders for change. The study defines leadership as a process of influencing change to improve early care and education, and not reserved just for those with a formal leadership position. Results show how educators came to see themselves as leaders and pursued different paths to making change and driving improvement. The study offers a new conceptual mapping of a leadership development ecosystem for supporting educators’ capacity to identify as leaders as well as lead improvement and innovation. The paper concludes with lessons learned and recommendations for strengthening the leadership infrastructure to support early educator leadership for change and innovation.     

Parental Involvement in Children's Education: Lessons from Three Immigrant Groups

Objective. This study explores immigrant group and individual differences within groups in parental reports of involvement in their children's education as a function of both sociodemographic and cultural variables. Design. Over 300 parents from three different immigrant groups - Portuguese, Dominican and Cambodian - were interviewed when their children were in either second or fifth grade. Results. Language comfort and immigrant group membership were the most frequent variables associated with group differences in the various aspects of parental involvement. Cambodian parents showed the lowest levels of parent involvement as expressed in measures of attitudes, contact with schools, home-based control over children's behavior, and provisions of material support for homework. Ethnographic data suggest that differing forms of group migration, the educational system's differing responses to the groups, and group differences in cultural values explain the above findings. Within the Portuguese and Cambodian groups, language comfort was also the variable most frequently associated with individual differences in the dimensions of parent's involvement. Finally, the different dimensions of parental involvement are highly correlated amongst each other within the Portuguese and Cambodian families, but not so for Dominicans. Conclusions. These findings suggest both similarities and differences in the processes of parental involvement in children's education across three quite different immigrant groups.     

国外高校网上教学成功和失败的原因剖析

网上教学已经成为终身教育体系中的一种重要教学模式.然而,在十多年的网上教学实践中,有的网络教学机构获得了成功,而有的网络教学机构惨遭失败.本文旨在从国际的视野,从整体上探讨国外高校网上教学成功和失败的原因.研究发现,成功的网上教学是遵循了远程教育的基本原理和规律,充分发挥了网上教学的优势.网上教学失败的主要原因是:错误地认为网上教学就是通过网络把现有的课程传递给大量的学习者从而获得高利润;错误地认为网上教学是低成本的;错误地认为著名高校可以凭声誉把课程直销到世界各地,而无需顾及本地的实情和学习者特征.作者的结论是,网上教学将会得到持续发展和进一步扩展,同时不可避免地会继续出现优胜劣淘的现象.     

教学技术’94定义的借鉴

~~教学技术’94定义的借鉴@张祖忻$上海外国语大学新闻传播学院教育技术学专业!200083~~     

Biology Education Research: Lessons and Future Directions

This feature draws on a 2012 National Research Council report to highlight some of the insights that discipline-based education research in general—and biology education research in particular—have provided into the challenges of undergraduate science education. It identifies strategies for overcoming those challenges and future directions for biology education research.Biologists have long been concerned about the quality of undergraduate biology education. Indeed, some biology education journals, such as the American Biology Teacher, have been in existence since the 1930s. Early contributors to these journals addressed broad questions about science learning, such as whether collaborative or individual learning was more effective and the value of conceptualization over memorization. Over time, however, biology faculty members have begun to study increasingly sophisticated questions about teaching and learning in the discipline. These scholars, often called biology education researchers, are part of a growing field of inquiry called discipline-based education research (DBER).DBER investigates both fundamental and applied aspects of teaching and learning in a given discipline; our emphasis here is on several science disciplines and engineering. The distinguishing feature of DBER is deep disciplinary knowledge of what constitutes expertise and expert-like understanding in a discipline. This knowledge has the potential to guide research focused on the most important concepts in a discipline and offers a framework for interpreting findings about students’ learning and understanding in that discipline. While DBER investigates teaching and learning in a given discipline, it is informed by and complementary to general research on human learning and cognition and can build on findings from K–12 science education research.DBER is emerging as a field of inquiry from programs of research that have developed somewhat independently in various disciplines in the sciences and engineering. Although biology education research (BER) has emerged more recently than similar efforts in physics, chemistry, or engineering education research, it is making contributions to the understanding of how students learn and gain expertise in biology. These contributions, together with those that DBER has made in physics and astronomy, chemistry, engineering, and the geosciences, are the focus of a 2012 report by the National Research Council (NRC, 2012 ).1 For biologists who are interested in education research, the report is a useful reference, because it offers the first comprehensive synthesis of the emerging body of BER and highlights the ways in which BER findings are similar to those in other disciplines. In this essay, we draw on the NRC report to highlight some of the insights that DBER in general and BER in particular have provided into effective instructional practices and undergraduate learning, and to point to some directions for the future. The views in this essay are ours as editors of the report and do not represent the official views of the Committee on the Status, Contributions, and Future Directions of Discipline-Based Education Research; the NRC; or the National Science Foundation (NSF).     

Utopianism and Education: The Legacy of Thomas More

'At the beginning, with Thomas More, utopia sets out an agenda for the modern world. Today, five hundred years later, what are the uses of utopia?' (Kumar, 1991, p. 85). This paper provides an answer to this question by examining More's utopian 'method' which, it is suggested, offers a model way of thinking imaginatively and prospectively about the form and content of social reform in general and educational change in particular.     

Lessons from the Nursery: Children as Writers in Early Years Education

This paper considers the rationale of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) for changing approaches to the teaching of writing in the early years. Existing pedagogy and practice are summarised and mapped against the NLS requirements. It is suggested that there are tensions both in ideology and practice which are particularly striking for the Reception year. Research in early years classrooms in three primary schools in Southern England draws attention, in particular, to the ways in which the NLS is prompting changes in contexts for writing and in the nature of teacher intervention, with an increasingly early emphasis on the didactic teaching of writing conventions. The paper concludes that developmentally appropriate, affirming strategies need not contravene the educational ideals of the NLS, providing the professionalism of early years practitioners is genuinely nurtured and respected.     

Education as an Evolutionary Phenomenon: Huxley,Waddington, and the Foundational Importance of Ethics

Interchange - This essay sheds light on the “father of epigenetics,” Conrad Hal Waddington’s (1905–1975) tacit critique of one of the most prominent biologists of the...