Cosmopolitan concern for the whole world is often treated as oppositional to particular collectivities, to corresponding sensibilities and to the obligations that follow from them. Tensions revolve around demands made upon the self (depending on the emphasis on the local or the global) and infuse educational discourse accordingly. Culturalism…

This article provides an initial look at Race to the Top as it relates to professional development for arts educators. Topics include the philosophy of Race to the Top education reform, data informed professional development, performance pay, and how these changes may affect arts educators.

This paper explores the foundational principles of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as an integrative teaching strategy designed deliberately to cross discipline boundaries in order to make meaningful and lasting connections. The authors suggest that while PBL has in recent times has largely manifested towards a method of inquiry within a single…

Music helps to bring out the best in young people. It nourishes self-esteem and keeps them engaged. The starting point for any good school program is the teacher, whether that program teaches English, math, science, history, arts--or music. So why is it that, at the elementary level, we have so many generalist classroom teachers--with no…

The present study discusses the concepts of "education" and "training," while also highlighting the paradigm wars of the positivistic and naturalistic views, beginning with the age of ancient philosophies and continuing to the latest era of postmodernism. Additionally, language education is examined considering the linguistic…

In Malaysia the training of primary school teachers is solely carried out by teacher training institutes which offer the Bachelor of Teaching with Honors (Primary education) program and was first launched in 2007. This program prepares primary school teachers specializing in various subjects or major and is carried out in 27 teacher training…

Freire wrote that reading one's world is a necessary precursor to writing it, or conscienzation. The present dissertation, expanding on Kellner's concept of multiple literacies (1998; 2002a; 2005b; 2006a; 2008), explores what it means to read and write one's world in the context of globalization. Given the arrival of a new imaginary, with its…

The number of children (ages 3-21) in the United States designated as having a specific learning disability is over seven (7) million. Providing the programs, services and funding necessary to deliver appropriate programs and services to this special population is a challenge in virtually all school districts across the country. The role of school…

New theories and theory-based methodological approaches have found their way into Comparative Education--just as into Comparative Social Science more generally--in increasing number in the recent past. The essays of this volume express and critically discuss quite a range of these positions such as, inter alia, the theory of self-organizing social…

"The Dialectics of African Education and Western Discourses" addresses how continental Africans who have worked or are currently working in the Canadian academy address their dual legacy of African and Euro-American knowledge paradigms. Reflecting a range of approaches to hegemonic Euro-American paradigms that can be summarized as…

10 Great Curricula is a collection of stories written by educators who have come to understand curricula differently as a result of their engagement with a graduate course and its instructor. The book represents the best of what can be found in teaching and learning, in general, and in the quest for meaningful ways to understand curricula in…

For almost two decades, there has been growing interest in what design-based research (DBR) can contribute to both educational practice and theory. Since its introduction into the literature, this orientation to educational research has repeatedly been likened to aeronautical engineering as a way to clarify its nature and argue its potential. This…

Family-centred practice has been included in the Victoria, Australia Early Years Learning and Development Framework as a key practice principle for professionals working across all early years programs in that state. While this model of partnership for engaging and collaborating with families has long been used in the early intervention sector,…

Having an appreciation for the subject, their students and what the subject can offer their students has both cognitive and emotional dimensions for teachers. This paper uses empirical data to explore the efficacy of a Deweyan inspired framework called "Aesthetic Understanding" to scrutinise relationships between teacher knowledge, identity and…

As creativity is likely to become a crucial aspect of living in the future, it is important for educators to teach students to think creatively when solving constantly evolving and increasingly complex problems. Supported by the idea that creativity can be taught and learnt, elements of creativity are now embedded in secondary school education.…