There is an urgent need to build a movement for adult education in the United States. Tens of thousands more classes are needed to enable democratic participation in the economy and society. This dramatic expansion of adult education and literacy should be aimed at the development of critical consciousness and civic participation of over ninety…

Against the backdrop of growing conflicts in Israeli society and concerns about its democratic character, the current curriculum guidelines and official textbook for civic education in Israel were set to offer a more inclusive civic education that would stress ideas such as pluralistic and democratic citizenship. However, this curriculum does not…

Handheld devices are being used increasingly in schools and higher education. Many researchers assume that the use of these devices will exert considerable impact on educational practices. However, to date, it appears that such use has not been sustainable and transferable. The impact of educational uses of handheld devices does not yet seem…

Fifty years after John Tracy Ellis challenged the quality and character of Catholic intellectual life, much work remains to be done. This essay explores Ellis's original assertions and places them in an overarching historical context that involves Flannery O'Connor and Thomas Merton.

Working in tandem with the powerful National Education Association's KEYS initiative (Keys to Excellence in Your Schools), this second edition focuses on how to change a school's organizational structure and culture to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Each chapter, revised and updated to address continuous improvement and narrowing…

Contemporary learning--learning in an online world articulates national priorities, strategic directions and requirements to achieve the national vision of all schools confidently using information and communication technologies (ICT) in their everyday practices. This paper highlights issues in the development and application of school-based and…

How do adult learners make the connection between ethical thinking and ethical action--between what they believe and how they act? This article explores implications for religious education for social justice based on a case study of transformative learning theory, Freirean pedagogy, and popular education principles. (Contains 8 footnotes.)

This presidential address by Richard Bates, President of the Australian Teacher Education Association, discusses teacher-education reform in Australia, particularly in the context of public education. Bates contends that in 2006 there are two sets of interests that are particularly dangerous to education: (1) those who see education simply as a…

The question posed by the "Canadian Journal of Environmental Education" volume 11, "where is the place for religion in environmental education?" is rephrased in this essay to become, "where is the place for a religious view of the order of nature in environmental education?" Relying on the writings of Seyyed Hossein…

In November, 2005, an article entitled "No train no gain" (Thorp, 2005) quietly appeared in "The Australian." In the closing paragraphs of the article, the President of the Australian Computer Society placed the blame for the falling number of students enrolling in IT courses at university on how IT is taught in our schools.…

While the term "learner-centered" is invoked in many curriculum standards documents, packaged curriculum materials, mission statements and criticisms of educational practice, there is little agreement on its meaning. Shallow understandings and conflicting practices abound. And rarely do the meanings ascribed to the term take into account the…

This paper discusses the contributions history can make to educational administration and how history needs to be conceptualised as a humanities discipline to serve this purpose, including two aspects of the field of particular relevance to educational administration and leadership, biography and comparative studies. The value of history is…

Teacher beliefs are mediated and lived in the dialectic of teacher education and teacher practice. We reframe this dialectic of "teacher" preparation as "faculty" preparation, as many faculty are not prepared for the rigors of teaching, and most are not trained in the ethics of their profession. We propose a critical model of faculty development…

There has been a great deal of discussion about the need for interdisciplinary, applied research to service the needs of the knowledge economy and to solve the broader complex theoretical problems of the twenty-first century. This is known as "Mode 2" knowledge production. Yet, university research higher degree programs continue to be…

This article draws on research among very experienced secondary teachers in New Zealand to show that a prolonged period of neo-liberal education policies can have a lasting effect on teachers' memories of their own radical past. Despite the existence in the 1970s and 1980s of an emerging consensus among secondary teachers that the traditional…