Agricultural education programs are experiencing pressure to change from a variety of educational and societal influences. This pressure is not new to agricultural education programs. The evolution of vocational agriculture from 1945 to 1963 provides a historical example of vocational education change as a result of social influences. Rural…

A study of comments posted on the Internet shows that middle-class Russians are frustrated with the quality of education available to their children. They are also concerned about corruption, the attitude of officials they deal with, and the way in which changes in education are introduced, seemingly without concern for the consequences for…

China has adopted an unbalanced policy for economic development to improve its domestic economy and international competitiveness for more than three decades. During this process, rural education has undergone a series of reforms. With reference to compulsory education, this article argues that rural education in China is a pragmatic instrument…

Urbanization is an issue of universal concern today distinctly affecting the supply, content, and orientation of education. Based on a field study in a city in East China, the article argues that rural-urban migration in the process of urbanization created private sectors in education enterprises that were in sync with the urban community…

This article discusses some of the issues that surround the internationalization of higher education as a way to open discussion about the construction of an alternative cosmopolitical vision of the university, necessary if the university is to fulfill any historic tasks concerning the creation of globally aware citizens. The authors indicate that…

Background: Singapore is experiencing great demographic change. These demographic trends show fewer young people and declining birth rates, greater longevity for ageing generations and an increase in the number of non-Singaporean residents. Statistics also show that more than half of the total population increase in the last decades was…

A major transformation of Chinese higher education (HE) has taken place over the past decade--China has reshaped its higher education sector from elite to mass education with the number of graduates having quadrupled to three million a year over six years. China is exceptional among lower income countries in using tertiary education as a…

A focus on rurality has been largely absent from much contemporary educational policy discussion. At best, rural education is a peripheral concern just as rural areas are increasingly considered marginal to the development of a globalized, networked, fast capitalism. In Canada rural, coastal, northern, and single-industry communities that were…

This essay addressed the question of to what extent does school segregation and school desegregation policy shape residential segregation. Census data, ethnic segregation, voluntary self-segregation, and attitude surveys are discussed in the residential segregation section. The Wolf and Lebeaux study is critically appraised in reference to school…

The teacher supply and demand problem is considered along three dimensions: (1) the aggregate balance between supply and demand, and the balance in different education specialties and different areas of the country; (2) the composition of the teacher work force, its age, and level of training; and (3) the apparent quality of the work force and the…

Mexico is experiencing major reform in adult education. At the same time, Mexico has been the largest producer of immigrants into the United States in the last 50 years. At the beginning of the century, non-English-speaking immigrants were only required to learn enough English to perform their jobs. As the Mexican-American community grew, it…

The author introduces William Barton Rogers, conceptual founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who pursued two interrelated careers in nineteenth-century America: one centered on his activities in science and the other on his higher educational reform efforts. This essay explores one theme in Rogers' scientific and educational…

Findings of a study to establish the determinants and effects of urban to rural population migration patterns in Osceola County, Michigan, where a 27.6% increase (4,090 people) occurred during the 1970's, illustrate typical effects of population migration turnaround on nonmetropolitan schools. The study revealed that school facilities were…

The population of immigrants to the United States is both growing and changing, and entering an economy in transition. A recent study focused on their impact on access to higher education and on the institutions themselves, including efficiency of operation and campus diversity. Unresolved issues include need for English language skills, student…

Recent international trends that may affect postsecondary education in the United States in the twenty-first century include governmental change and dislocation, rapid enrollment expansion, and processes of geographic integration. Implications for colleges and universities include greater student mobility, more distance learning, and opportunities…