Earnings and education in Argentina: an analysis of the 1985 Buenos Aires Household Survey

For some reason, Argentina has been absent from the rich literature on the relationship between earnings and education. The paper repairs this by using the 1985 Buenos Aires Household Survey containing 4500 employed individuals. Two types of analyses are performed: first, earnings differences are “explained” by a set of individual human capital characteristics. Second, returns to investment in education are estimated for different levels and types of schooling. The results obtained for Argentina are compared to those in other countries and are interpreted in terms of priority educational investments geared towards efficiency and social equity.     

An education for sustainable development self-efficacy scale for primary pre-service teachers: construction and validation

A scale was developed to assess primary school Teachers’ Self-Efficacy on Education for Sustainable Development (TSESESD). It includes four domains of competences: values and ethics, systems thinking, emotions and feelings, and actions. The scale development is consistent with key principles of educational and social psychology research. Nine hundred twenty-four (924) primary education student teachers and 88 in-service primary teachers participated in the study. Findings demonstrated that TSESESD has good psychometric properties, strong validity and reliability scores, adequate internal consistency (Cronbach α?=?0.97), and satisfactory mean inter-correlation of items within domains (M?=?0.78). TSESESD is considered a reliable instrument for teacher preparation programs aiming to develop primary school teachers’ self-efficacy in ESD.     

Are teachers overpaid? Some evidence from Brazil

This paper uses data from the 1980 Brazilian Census to investigate the issue of whether teachers are overpaid. Earnings standardization for human capital and other worker characteristics shows that primary school teachers in Brazil are not overpaid relative to those in other occupations, whereas the evidence for secondary school teachers is mixed. The overall lesson is caution regarding hasty recommendations that teachers' salaries should be cut in order to achieve budgetary savings.     

Evidence for a shift in the choice criterion of rats in a 12-arm radial maze

Rats were trained in a standard 12-arm radial maze task. Following training, each trial consisted of a sequence of 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 choices, followed by a 15-min delay, which then was followed by a choice between a single arm and a response manipulandum mounted in the center of the maze. An arm visit was reinforced if the arm had not been visited prior to the delay, whereas a manipulandum response was reinforced if the arm had been visited. It was found that rats are relatively more likely to reject arms by responding to the manipulandum following a delay occurring late in the choice sequence. This indicates that the choice criterion used by rats in the radial maze becomes more strict as the choice sequence progresses. Such a process provides an alternative explanation for some of the data recently reported by Cook, Brown, and Riley (1985).     

Human Rights Education and Training for Professionals

Although human rights education (HRE) has a long history, it has only recently begun to realize its transformative potential. A critical catalyst in this process is the emerging global ethos of accountability. Within this context, HRE can play a crucial role in the construction of a universal culture of human rights, inspired by a shared commitment to a humane order and a belief that human beings have both the capacity and the responsibility to make a difference. In such an effort, the training of professionals is vital, especially of those professionals who can influence public debate on accountability and governance. Innovative HRE initiatives, characterized by a commitment to experiential learning and to international and regional cooperation among state and non-state actors, constitute a step in the right direction.     

The Role of Department Head in Australian Universities: Tasks and Stresses

This study of the academic department head in Australian universities continues the discussion explored in the article entitled, “The Role of Department Head in Australian Universities: Changes and Challenges” published in the April edition of HERD, 16(1), 1997. The current article examines the role in terms of the departmental‐specific stress factors of administrative relationships, role ambiguity, administrative tasks, academic roles, and perceived expectations. Four discrete roles of the department head are also examined, namely: leader; manager; scholar; and academic staff developer. Findings indicate a job where the major chair stressors include administrative demands, as well as balancing the needs of scholarship with the everyday responsibilities of chairing a university department. An examination of the tasks chairs perform indicates that the leadership and academic staff development roles take precedence, followed by scholarship and management imperatives. Implications of the findings for the present and future role of the academic department chair are discussed.     

School climate: perceptual differences between students,parents, and school staff

Research suggests that school climate can have a great impact on student, teacher, and school outcomes. However, it is often assessed as a summary measure, without taking into account multiple perspectives (student, teacher, parent) or examining subdimensions within the broader construct. In this study, we assessed school climate from the perspective of students, staff, and parents within a large, urban school district using multilevel modeling techniques to examine within- and between-school variance. After adjusting for school-level demographic characteristics, students reported worse perceptions of safety and connectedness compared to both parent and staff ratings (all p < 0.05). Parents gave the lowest ratings of parental involvement, and staff gave the lowest ratings of academic emphasis (ps < 0.05). Findings demonstrate the importance of considering the type of informant when evaluating climate ratings within a school. Understanding how perceptions differ between informants can inform interventions to improve perceptions and prevent adverse outcomes.     

Pupils,Recipe Knowledge,Curriculum and the Cultural Production of Class,Ethnicity and Patriarchy: a critique of one teacher's practices

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to further elaborate processes of teacher socialisation and to explore their implications for a critical theory of schooling. Employing a radical humanist paradigm (Burrell & Morgan, 1981), and in delimited fashion, it attempts to elucidate multi‐dimensional processes of chalkfacial negotiation— in a school where the pupils’ ‘parent culture’ is Jewish, bourgeoise and patriarchal; and the teacher is a non‐Jewish, home economist. As such, the paper is a study of a non‐'unidirectional’ intercultural classroom where the ‘parent society’ is not officially fenced out of the school’ unlike, for example, the Cherokee (Dumont & Wax, 1969) or the working class. As a critical case, despite and because of its anthropological strangeness, it hopefully metaphorically illumines processes that all teachers, especially ‘cleanworkers’, experience.