This article presents an interview by Gary E. Miller, executive director emeritus of Penn State World Campus, the online distance education campus of The Pennsylvania State University, with Karen Cator, director of the Office of Educational Technology in the United States Department of Education. She brings to the position a mix of corporate and…

The purpose of health education is to positively influence the health behavior of individuals and communities, as well as living and working conditions that affect health. The goal of a Healthy Lifestyles course that is offered to undergraduate students enrolled in a university general education program (e.g., liberal arts education, core…

This study explored the active involvement of school and community members investing in leadership dynamics for change, especially considering the increasingly globalized world and the importance of preparing globally minded citizens. To explore how educators and leaders work to foster dynamic learning experiences in a highly mobile global…

The idea that professional practices such as education should be based upon or at least be informed by evidence continues to capture the imagination of many politicians, policy makers, practitioners and researchers. There is growing evidence of the influence of this line of thought. At the same time there is a growing body of work that has raised…

In 2002, approximately two thirds of school teachers in the Canadian province of Alberta went on strike. Drawing on media, government and union documents, this case study reveals some contours of the political economy of labor relations in education that are normally hidden from view. Among these features are that the state can react to worker…

This paper is concerned with the teacher educator who is aspiring to be inclusive. It considers the obligations which arise within Higher Education Institutions and the extent to which these contribute to a loss of civic engagement and a lack of capacity to pursue inclusion, social justice and equity. The paper argues that this need not be the…

Since the late 1990s the Chinese government has implemented two key policies for the development of higher education. The first was launching Project 985, with the purpose of seeking excellence through creating internationally competitive universities. The second was a radical move to a mass system of higher education. In this context, China's top…

When exploring the supervision of indigenous doctoral students, a focus on teaching and learning hides as much as it reveals. Explicit descriptions from students of helpful teaching and learning practices mostly highlight everyday Western academic culture in action and do not illuminate the ways in which indigenous identities impact on, or are…

President Barack Obama recently issued a call for increased hands-on learning in U.S. schools in an address at the National Academy of Sciences. Obama concluded that the future of the United States depends on one's ability to encourage young people to "create, and build, and invent." In this article, the author discusses National Lab Day (NLD)…

Since its inception in Texas a baker's dozen years ago, educators look forward with every new legislative session to another round of discussion about the "top 10 percent rule," which guarantees admission to the state's public universities for these talented high school graduates. Originally passed as a way to increase enrollment of…

Colonization of public education--the process by which schools are overwhelmed and penetrated by non-educational imperatives--is usually believed to be caused by capitalism and the hegemonic ideological structures it produces. In this paper I argue that in the case of the United States an additional mechanism produces strong colonizing effects:…

Beginning in 1997, a series of Ohio Supreme Court decisions ruled that Ohio's school foundation-based funding system was unconstitutional. Despite judicially mandated reform directives, little change was made until recently when Ohio adopted a modified Evidence-Based Model (EBM) into its statutory funding scheme. Ohio's EBM is intended to remedy…

Contemporary educational evaluation policy and practice can be challenged by applying critical theory and hermeneutics perspectives in evaluation and by asking whose interests are being served through evaluation. Using educational evaluation in Sweden as the context, the author argues for an explanation-oriented evaluation approach that assumes…

Starting in 2000, the state began to set up interior-region Xinjiang senior middle school classes (the Xinjiang Class) in developed cities in China's interior ("neidi"). Cross-cultural adaptation is a very important issue for students from Xinjiang if they are to study and live in China's interior regions. Based on the perspective of…

Instrumental to the successful running of the Xinjiang Classes are its teachers, many of whom are Han Chinese. This article explores the important roles teachers of the Xinjiang Class play in the lives of Xinjiang Class students inside and outside of the classroom. From homesickness, to hygiene, to scholastic endeavors, Han teacher-mothers…