Divided by Loyalty: The Debate Regarding Loyalty Provisions in the National Defense Education Act of 1958

The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 was the first federal investment in low‐interest student loans and became a precedent for expansion of student loans in the Higher Education Act of 1965. In its controversial loyalty provisions, the NDEA required loan recipients to affirm loyalty to the U.S. government. Between 1958 and 1962, thirty‐two colleges and universities refused to participate or withdrew from the NDEA loan program, arguing that the loyalty provisions unfairly targeted students and violated principles of free inquiry. This essay argues that debate over the loyalty provisions fractured a partnership between progressives who favored general aid to education and conservatives who supported short‐term investment for defense purposes. Although debates over the NDEA loyalty requirements seem specific to the Cold War, a close examination of the arguments illuminates their alignment with long‐standing ideological conflicts over legitimacy of federal aid to higher education.     

Learning from all? The World Bank,aid agencies and the construction of hegemony in education for development

This paper explores the nature and quality of the participation that characterises the Bank's consultations with external actors and examines the extent to which the Bank is responsive to such feedback when it comes to defining its policy preferences and strategies in the education domain. It draws on a case study of the participatory process that was organised around the definition of the last World Bank Education Strategy (WBES2020) and focuses on the participation of three European aid agencies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Department for International Development of the UK. This paper acknowledges that a significant effort was made to promote the inclusiveness and transparency of the participatory process, yet it concludes that the conditions for promoting quality participation and substantive policy change were not provided. Furthermore, the way international aid agencies produce and use knowledge limits their role and influence in the context of the Bank's consultations. Hence, by not contesting the Bank's policy ideas substantially, the agencies contribute inadvertently to reproducing the Bank's predominance in the education for development field.     

Evaluating professional development for blended learning in higher education: a synthesis of qualitative evidence

Education and Information Technologies - Successful implementation of blended learning initiatives requires careful planning and consideration of multidimensional factors. Focusing on evaluation...     

Complexity Science and Education: Reconceptualizing the Teacher’s Role in Learning

This writing is structured around the question, "What is teaching?" Drawing on complexity science, we first seek to demonstrate the tremendously conflicted character of contemporary discussions of teaching. Then we offer two examples of teaching that we use to illustrate the assertion that what teaching is can never be reduced to or understood in terms of what the teacher does or intends. Rather, teaching must be understood in terms of its complex contributions to new, as-yet-unimaginable collective possibilities.     

A failure to obtain magnetic discrimination in the pigeon

Six pigeons were trained on a multiple-concurrent schedule. During both multiple-schedule components, two response keys were available. In Component 1, responses to the left key were reinforced on a variable-interval 45-sec schedule, whereas responses to the right key were not reinforced. In Component 2, these contingencies were reversed. Following each reinforcer, the component next presented was chosen randomly with equal probability. The two components were differentially signaled by presentation of various stimuli during Component 1. Over the course of the experiment, these stimuli were various intensities of light, a noise, and various fluctuating and static magnetic fields. While subjects showed good discrimination of the light and noise stimuli, no stimulus control using the magnetic fields was obtained.     

Behavioral assessment of communication competency and the prediction of cross-cultural adaptation

This study explores the relationship between interpersonal and social behaviors and patterns of success and failure in cross-cultural adaptation. Seven interpersonal communication skills often mentioned as being important to cross-cultural adaptation were studied: empathy, respect, role behavior flexibility, orientation to knowledge, interaction posture, interaction management and tolerance for ambiguity. For each dimension, behavioral observation indices were developed. Following a week-long predeparture training program, behavioral assessments were made on these dimensions for each person in a group of technical advisors and spouses assigned to two-year postings in Kenya. One year later, an in-the-field follow up study was conducted to assess shock dynamics, psychological adjustment, and vocational and interactional effectiveness of these individuals. Comparisons of pre and post-test measures indicated that each of the focal dimensions predicted patterns of success and failure in adaptation with varying degrees of adequacy. These results and implications for further research, and cross-cultural training and selection, are explored in the final section of the article.     

Developing ‘Home-Grown’ Talent: Pacific Island Rugby Labour and the Victorian Rugby Union

The last 20 years has seen a great increase in Pacific Islander migration to Australia and also a subsequent rise in the number of Australians from Pacific island backgrounds. Perhaps one of the most visible spheres where this migratory phenomenon can be witnessed is in the massive over-representation of Pacific Islanders in both rugby codes. This paper examines the effects of professionalisation and the Super Rugby expansion into a ‘non-rugby’ state and subsequent efforts of the Victorian Rugby Union (VRU) to develop ‘home-grown’ talent, namely through its Pacific Island Programme. Whilst a minority sport in Australian Rules football centric Melbourne, rugby has grown considerably over the past decade, primarily because of the influx of players, especially junior ones, from Pacific Island backgrounds. The VRU has recognised this by developing a variety of rugby programmes focusing on the outer suburbs of Melbourne (away from its traditional base in the private schools) in response to the settling patterns of Pacific Islanders and their involvement in the game. This paper considers how such focus on Pacific Islander talent facilitates pathways to elite and professional rugby opportunities and thus contributes to the creation of the rugby labour migrant.     

‘I’m busy (and competitive)!’ Antecedents of knowledge sharing under pressure

This study considers the dilemma faced by employees every time a colleague requests knowledge: should they share their knowledge? We use adaptive cost theory and self-efficacy theory to examine how individual characteristics (i.e., self-efficacy and trait competitiveness) and situational perceptions (i.e., ‘busyness’ and perceived competition) affect knowledge sharing behaviours. A study was conducted with 403 students who completed a problem-solving exercise and who were permitted (but not required) to respond to requests for knowledge from people who were doing the same activity. Our results suggest that people who perceive significant time pressure are less likely to share knowledge. Trait competitiveness predicted perceived competition. This and low task self-efficacy created a sense of time pressure, which in turn led to people feeling ‘too busy’ to share their knowledge when it was requested. Perceived competition was not directly related to knowledge sharing. Implications for research and practitioners are discussed.