What teachers need to know about the struggle for self-determination (conscientization) and self-regulation: adults with disabilities speak about their education experiences

The purpose of this paper is to help teachers better understand the struggles that people with disabilities experience in attaining their educational goals and to encourage the development of teaching and learning strategies that help to respect and facilitate the struggle itself. The authors share the generative themes that emerged using a critical pedagogy approach (dialogic interviews) to elicit the voices of adults with disabilities speaking about their public school experiences. In discussing the implications for teachers, the authors show the intersections of educational psychology's concept self-regulation and critical pedagogy's concept conscientization and special education’ s concept self-determination. Why the ‘struggle’ itself is important (from the perspectives provided by conscientization, self-regulation, and self determination) is discussed.The major question is whether or not teachers can structure the awareness process that results in learners becoming aware enough to verbalize, “I have difficulties”. What do teachers do to stimulate the metacognitive thinking processes that makes it possible for students with disabilities to think, “I can monitor myself!”? How can teachers capture the power of the conscientization experience that leads students with disabilities to experience the generative will power “to use the powers that I have to make a difference in my life's situation?” How do adults with disabilities come to these kinds of awareness and how can teachers help facilitate the awareness?     

The evolution of special education in Malaysia

This article traces the evolution of special education in Malaysia across four chronological stages: before and during the early colonial period (before 1900), pre‐independence (1900–1957), post‐independence (1957–1990) and modern Malaysia (1990 to the present), through document analysis. By placing current issues and trends within a historical perspective, we can provide a context for understanding current practices in relation to shifts in policy paradigms. The effects of policy changes throughout the years are discussed in the context of issues facing special education today. Identifiable areas of improvements are organised into eight themes: (1) provision of education for students with special needs and the degree to which they are inclusive; (2) encouragement of diversity within highly structured education systems; (3) the importance of funding; (4) restructuring pre‐service teacher preparation; (5) multidisciplinary support and collaboration; (6) programme outcomes; (7) provision of related services; and (8) epidemiological data.     

Language adaptations: Award-winning children’s literature in basal textbook readers

One frequent complaint about basal readers is that, when they adapt high-quality literature, they make pointless simplifications that significantly detract from the value of the original stories. This article reports a study of adaptations of award-winning stories for three grade levels. The results suggest strongly that, at least during the past fifteen years, these complaints are unjustified. Jacqueline C. Comas is assistant professor of education at the University of Florida in Gainesville where she teaches courses in language arts and children's literature. She is a former classroom teacher, has served as a reading consultant, a reading/language arts supervisor, and has worked with textbook adoption committees for the improvement of instructional materials since the late 1970s.     

Latent scrutiny: personal archives as perpetual mementos of the official gaze

This article examines the significance, in the lives of those who experienced out-of-home care as children, of the archived records of their institutionalisation. The affective ramifications of accessing the records as adults are discussed, with especial focus on the records’ capacity to revive past suffering. Drawing on the work of Bruner (Crit Inq Autumn 1–21,1991, Consumption and everyday life, Sage, London, 1997) and MacIntyre (After virtue: a study in moral theory, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, 1981), a ‘narrative’ model of the self is utilised to account for the negative effect of systemic flaws in the records’ original composition. Such flaws, it is argued, have the potential to disrupt the individual’s sense of self. Both the authors, who experienced out-of-home care as children, present their own experiences of accessing the records, as case studies. The records’ manifold inaccuracies and inadequacies are interpreted in the light of prevailing welfare practices, in particular a highly damaging judgemental paradigm of gendered and moralistic assumptions of the inferior character of those in care. The authors conclude by arguing that research into the archives should involve the direct participation, as ‘insider researchers’, of those who experienced the matters contained in the records. Such participation is essential if the process of revealing and interpreting the archives is to maintain the dignity of the records’ subject individuals, and ensure the integrity of the research.     

Learning Experience and Socio-Cultural Influences on Female Engineering Students’ Perspectives on Engineering Courses and Careers

As developed and developing countries move towards greater technological development in the 21st century, the need for engineers has increased substantially. Japan is facing the dilemma of insufficient engineers; therefore, the country has to rely on foreign workers. This problem may be resolved if there is a continuous effort to increase the number of women engineers, who currently represent only 1%–2% of engineers in Japan. In this study, the satisfaction level of the learning experience of Japanese female engineering students was measured to determine its relationship with the students’ intention to choose engineering as their profession. Socio-cultural influences on the respondents’ intentions to pursue careers in the field were also studied. The findings revealed that learning experience was directly related to female students’ intention to pursue their career in engineering whereas socio-cultural values of a society have strong influences on students’ motivation to pursue careers in engineering in general. Additionally, some strategies are proposed to attract young girls to pursue engineering courses, as well as for current female engineering students to continue their studies and choose professions in the field as their career.     

THE ARTS AND THE AGING ADVOCACY MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES: A HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE

Attention is directed to a human development movement begun in earnest in the early 1970s to put older Americans in touch with their creative selves. This article traces steps taken in this national effort and suggests issues and policies to be addressed if educational opportunities in the arts are to increase for older adults.     

International students and the neoliberal marketplace of higher education: the lived experiences of graduate students from sub-Saharan countries in Africa of a U.S. university’s internationalization policy

Higher Education - Prior to the pandemic, approxiately 42,000 students from countries in sub-Saharan countries in Africa enrolled in U.S. universities (IIE 2021). Despite this strong and growing...