Opportunities for a democratic pedagogy: a comparative study of South African and Swedish teachers' attitudes to inclusive education

This paper is based upon the collaboration between two research groups from Stockholm University and the University of South Africa. The main objective is to compare attitudes between South African (SA) and Swedish teachers regarding inclusive education (IE). IE in this paper is examined as a distinct part of the Swedish welfare system. The method used can be characterised as a combined, quantitative and qualitative research design with a purposive sampling. A similar adapted questionnaire was distributed in the two countries. The Swedish teachers in our data are more pro‐inclusion and more hesitating to accommodate learners with barriers in special schools. However, both the Swedish and the SA teachers in the study are hesitating towards the feasibility to implement IE practically. A team approach is concluded to be an adequate pedagogy for supporting IE both in South Africa and Sweden.     

Land of misfit toys: Mothers’ perceptions of educational environments for their children with Down syndrome

Inclusive education is defined as educating students with disabilities in general education programmes with their non‐disabled peers. In order to create a successful learning environment for all children, general and special educators must be responsive to all students’ needs. Although inclusive education practices were developed over 15 years ago, some educators may be unwilling or unprepared to employ this model. A total of 546 teachers from 54 schools in southern New Jersey in the United States completed surveys to determine whether they displayed the dispositions, knowledge and skills necessary to implement inclusive education. Results of the surveys were analysed to determine whether significant differences in attitude and skill levels exist between special and general educators and the impact of their years of teaching on their readiness for inclusion. The analysis yielded an agreement that children with disabilities profit from interactions with non‐disabled peers. Although special educators appear more knowledgeable of inclusive practices, they are more likely to see the benefit of a segregated environment. Teachers with greater than seven years of experience voiced the continued need for administrative support, planning time and professional development opportunities.     

Teaching Clinical Social Work in Spanish: Cultural Competency in Mental Health

We have developed a new graduate elective in the MSW degree program called Evaluación e Intervención en Español (Assessment and Intervention in Spanish). This class, taught entirely in Spanish, is designed to train Spanish-speaking MSW students in culturally and linguistically competent clinical practice with Hispanic clients. In this case study, we summarize the course.     

(Be)Coming, (Be)Longing: Ways in which international students talk about themselves

This paper looks at the power of discourses to speak subjects into being, particularly the power that academic and other discourses have had to develop subject positions for international students and the ways in which students have accepted and rejected these ways of talking about them. The paper contrasts these ways of speaking with what the students say about themselves as international students. Of particular interest are the ways the students place themselves in storylines of strength and agency, with the contradictory storyline of being confused and wanting to belong spoken at the same time. They also express a desire for reciprocal dialogue within the university and for universities to recognize that many realities and knowledges exist and are valuable.     

对高师《世界地理》课程的看法

《世界地理》是研究某一地理区域地理环境综合特征的一门课程,是最能体现地理学综合性特征的课程之一。在研究区域地理环境综合特征时,需要运用各部门地理学的研究成果,对相互作用相互影响的各地理要素进行综合研究。《世界地理》与各部门地理学纵横交织,共同构建起地理科学的知识体系。目前,《世界地理》的教材建设还没有引起有关方面足够的重视。2004年出版的《世界地理》教材还需要不断补充完善,一些印刷性错误尤其应当及时更正。这对促进《世界地理》教学水平的不断提高是很有必要的。     

Prototypes,metaphors, metonymies and imaginative rationality in high school mathematics

The growing recognition that imagination, far from being a peripheral adjunct plays a central role in reasoning has important implications for the teaching and learning of mathematics. This paper has two main parts. In the first part, examples from high school case studies are used to illustrate prototypical mathematical images and the use of imagery in metaphoric and metonymic ways in mathematics. In the second part, pattern imagery and other types of imagery are discussed as central components in a model of mathematical reasoning. It is suggested that different forms of imagery may be used in ways that make abstraction and generalization possible in mathematics. The more abstract forms are idiosyncratically constructed by individuals. However, it is suggested that the activity of the imagination in the model presented here is central to meaning-making, and that the process makes shared meanings possible. Some social consequences for mathematics classrooms are explored briefly.This paper is a modified version of a presentation at the Fifth International Conference on Theory of Mathematics Education, Paderno del Grappa, Italy, June 20–27, 1991. The research described was undertaken for a PhD at the University of Cambridge, England, and was supported in part by grants from The Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, the Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, and the Overseas Research Student Fund of the United Kingdom. The author wishes to thank several anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier draft.