Peace Education: Exploring Some Philosophical Foundations

Peace education has been recognized as an important aspect of social education for the past three decades. The critical literature as well as official documents, however, have given little attention to its philosophical foundations. This essay explores these foundations in the ethics of (1) virtue, (2) consequentialism, (3) aesthetics, (4) conservative politics and (5) care. Each of these alone composes a significant element of peace education, although ultimately its solid basis can only be established through an integrative approach encouraging a culture of peace. The more complete development and articulation of the philosophical rationale of peace education is yet to be accomplished and remains a task for the future.     

Principles and practices of literacy development for deaf learners: a historical overview

Since the very beginning of formal approaches to deaf education, the development of literacy has been a priority issue. The history of educational initiatives in this area is entwined with the history of prevailing attitudes and practices toward the impact of deafness on the development of deaf children more generally. In particular, arguments about whether a visual input (reading) can take the place of a diminished auditory input and whether educators should accommodate or seek to ameliorate the effects of the special linguistic characteristics of deaf learner-readers have resulted in a wide variety of practices and perspectives. These varied practices and perspectives continue to have impacts on current educational debate and practice. This article provides a brief historical overview of these educational endeavors, noting the enduring questions and issues that remain for the field to address.     

Fostering wise judgement: professional decisions in development programmes for early career engineers

This paper reviews literature that explores the role of judgement in professional practice. It discusses how workplace decisions, work activities and reflection on these activities may contribute to the development of wise judgements, or ‘wisdom’, and how workplaces can leverage these activities for induction and transition to work programmes. This review of the literature is prompted by survey results inviting engineering graduates and professionals to identify the capabilities they believe are most significant to success in the engineering workplace. The requirement for sound professional judgement resonates in participant responses. The paper summarises views of expertise, the relationship between experience and the development of professional judgement and the broader contribution of expansive and participatory learning environments to developing professional judgement. It concludes that the organisation of work and job design can facilitate the articulation of new engineers to professional practice, and that organisational learning programmes can leverage workplace activities to foster wise judgement in graduate engineers.     

Differences between residential and non-residential fathers on sexual socialisation of African American youth

This study investigated differences between residential and non-residential fathers on topics discussed during father–child sex communication and factors associated with child sexual socialisation. Young people (N = 159, 53% female) provided self-reports using computer surveys on the role of their fathers on father–child sex communication, general communication, parental monitoring, father social support and topics discussed during father–child sex communication. The analysis revealed differences in topics discussed between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers. Independent group t-tests revealed significant differences between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers on social support and parental monitoring for sons and parental monitoring for daughters. Sons and daughters with residential fathers had higher scores on these variables. Discriminant function analyses, chi-square tests and hierarchical linear regression analyses were carried out to determine whether there were meaningful distinctions between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers. The analysis revealed social support and parental monitoring provided the most meaningful distinction between young people with residential vs. non-residential fathers. These results highlight the importance of non-residential fathers in the sexual socialisation of their young people through parent–child sex communication. Discussion focuses on the need for development of interventions to promote the inclusion of non-residential fathers in the sexual socialisation of African American youth.     

Asking students their opinions of the learning environment: an empirical analysis of elementary classroom climate

There is currently a lack of research into classroom climate as perceived by the students themselves. This article presents a new classroom climate evaluation instrument which is designed to gauge student perceptions of their own level of engagement in academic activities, their relationships with peers, and the level of support they feel from their teachers. The Classroom Climate Index was pilot tested with a group of 105 elementary students aged 8–12. The pilot data were factor analysed, and the instrument was refined accordingly. Following the pilot test, the refined instrument was next administered to a larger sample of 2340 elementary students. Data from the comprehensive study were subjected to factor and reliability analyses, the results of which support the use of the Classroom Climate Index in measuring student engagement, supportive teacher behaviour, and collegial support from the student perspective.     

The Reciprocal Relationship Between Technology and Psychology

This article describes the design and implementation of the year 2 curriculum and student learning experiences in the Michigan State University Master of Arts in Educational Technology program. We discuss the ways that this second set of courses builds on the first year of the program that students encounter, and also describe the theoretical impetus and design-based implications for learning how to teach with technology in effective and creative ways. Students in this group usually come in with some prior knowledge of educational theory, as well as some experience of working with classroom technologies. We intentionally build upon this prior knowledge, to take it to the next level of a more sophisticated TPACK-oriented understanding of learning in technology-driven contexts. Our year 2 courses move classical educational psychology theories of learning, along with educational research issues, squarely into the modern context of educational technology and teacher leadership. Our curriculum design focuses centrally on making meaningful experiences for teachers around technology, and helping them develop the knowledge and skills to create such experiences for their students. Our goal is to develop teachers who see themselves as flexible designers of learning experiences through the creative re-purposing of existing technologies.     

From mountaintop to corporate ladder – what new professionals really really want in a capstone experience!

Capstone subjects are increasingly used in Universities worldwide to complete the undergraduate program experience and to transition graduates into the workplace. As such, capstones fulfil a large role consolidating one experience and traversing the gap to another. Yet, little is known or understood about their design, their implementation or evaluation. In this study we investigate the final-year experience from the student's perspective. We surveyed graduates from five Business Schools in Australia to identify perceptions of their final-year experience. Findings indicate that the transition experience of the student to professional is unique. In their liminal or intermediate state between student and professional they recognise the value of process skills, in particular the development of generic business skills related to application and the importance of opportunities for experiencing the application of theory in practice. The findings add a new understanding to the current literature which has not previously acknowledged the insight of the transitioning professional.     

Beyond the difference: from the margins to inclusion

In recent years mounting evidence reveals that many children, for different reasons, do not receive equal opportunities for learning, and therefore are marginalised. However, despite the fact that many education systems have attempted to solve this problem and respond to the contemporary needs of all children by deploying a variety of policies for inclusive education, and despite the improvements already achieved, the phenomenon of marginalisation still persists as a difficult problem still awaiting a solution. The paper attempts to deconstruct the term ‘difference’ from a post‐modern point of view, and also considers it genealogically from a philosophical perspective. The purpose is to improve teaching practice in order for teachers to provide equal opportunities in learning for all students. Naturally, the acceptance of ‘difference’ stimulates thinking and expands the parameters of free will. It will therefore be considered that while broad margins (or the marginal) persist, the possibility of difference will also continue to prevail and thus require sustained liberalism in education.     

Preparing,Facilitating, Assessing: A Reflection on Digital Humanities Consultations

Abstract

A key component of the Digital Humanities Librarian’s work, the consultation, involves the skills of listening, questioning, parsing, and planning aided by an understanding of the broader digital humanities landscape, project requirements, and the campus environment. Productive consultations provide researchers the direction they need to get their projects started or advanced to the next stage, often resulting in sustained, collaborative engagement that makes assessing the impact of this work challenging.