Education & Pedagogy

The wage and job satisfaction impacts for over-educated workers have been well-documented; yet little attention has been paid to the consequences for firms. In this paper we examine over-education from the perspective of the workplace. Using linked employer-employee data for the United Kingdom, we derive the standard worker-level penalties on wages and job satisfaction. We then show how over-education rates across workplaces adversely influence workplace pay and workplace labor relations. For individual workers who may be at-risk of over-education, we also distinguish between workforce composition effects and workplace labor practices, such as hiring. The effect of over-education on job satisfaction is particularly strong and its effects are evident at the workplace level. Our results suggest that investigations of over-education at the level of the firm are a promising area of inquiry. (Contains 6 tables.)

A key determinant of the new relationship between students and universities in Australia is the changing nature of higher education funding arrangements and the shift towards "user-pays". In 2007, the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) completed a commissioned national study, "Australian University Student Finances 2006: Final Report of a National Survey of Students in Public Universities." Drawing on the project report, this article discusses selected findings relating to student expectations and engagement to present a worrying picture of financial duress and involvement in paid work and examines the possible effects on the quality of higher education. (Contains 3 tables.)

There is little discussion in Germany on governance of further education. This is surprising for two reasons--first, that the process of German unification should have sparked such a debate, and second, because it was expected that the current international discussions about governance would also reach a scholarly debate on further education. A potential cause for the absent debate on governance might lie in the lack of adequate models to help grasp the diversity of actors, structures, and processes in the field of further education. Against this background and in the context of governance theories in the social sciences, the present article develops a framework model for multilevel analyses of governance of further education. The proposed model might prove stimulating for further research in a synchronic or diachronic perspective as well as in national or international comparisons. (Contains 1 figure and 2 notes.)

In this paper I reflect on the experience of working with Taiwanese art educators. The data I revisit comes from participation in four art education conferences between 1995 and 2001, a three-month period of residence at Changhua University of Education teaching a master's programme, three intensive summer programmes organised for Taiwanese art teachers in London and doctoral supervision. In these reflections I consider what these experiences have taught me about multicultural art education and pedagogy in Taiwan, their key characteristic and some East-West differences. I conclude that multicultural art education reform in Taiwan is distinctive in the way it engages both with homeland studies and global visual culture. The absence of national sovereignty means that Taiwanese art teachers are ideally placed to experiment with post-modern developments in art curriculum practice. (Contains 13 notes.)

In this article, the author expands our definition of "comprehensive sexuality education," broadening the discourse to something more ideal than what current rhetoric seems to suggest, and in the process presents the rationale for real comprehensive sexuality education. Current definitions of comprehensive sexuality education focus on prevention of teen pregnancy and transmission of STDs and HIV, as well as protection from abuse and information about puberty. We talk about education "that works," referring to those programs that have been proven by research, while knowing that research has focused only on prevention programs. Nobody has "proven" a broader, more comprehensive, positive sexuality education through peer-reviewed research. Yet we do know, from research about how people learn, from research on youth development programs, from all the wisdom of all the counselors and therapists and educators who have worked with youth, what really works.

This article presents an interview with Don Knezek, CEO of International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Knezek is a leader in coupling technology and creativity to transform education. His experience and impact span local to global levels--ranging from district-wide, classroom-based innovation and far-reaching, multi-state projects to national initiatives and global consulting. He recently directed the National Center for Preparing Tomorrows Teachers and currently serves as co-chair of the Educational Technology Advisory Committee to the Texas State Board of Education as well as co-director for ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) Project. And, extending his expertise beyond national boundaries, Knezek works with education ministries around the world--supporting transformative, technology-enhanced teaching and learning at home and abroad. In this interview, Knezek talks about distance education, mobile technologies, and what ISTE engages in.

Internationalization of higher education in East Africa raises various questions related to its magnitude and intensity, its capacity to address issues of access, equity and regional research and developmental needs. Internationalization and regionalization as processes in higher education can synergize each other but can also limit the success of the other depending on their focus. In East Africa, internationalization has mainly involved new forms of provision of higher education and not necessarily relevant content. At the same time, regional approaches in the context of wider Pan-African concerns on the implications of internationalization in the continent are at play. This paper gives an overview of the two processes. A discussion of the challenges that internationalization of higher education has to regional quality assurance and knowledge production in east Africa is presented.

Mobile computing devices are increasingly finding a place in universities, putting the pressure on teacher education to consider how best to incorporate the use of these technologies. At the same time there is pressure from the requirement for teacher education students to develop skills and experience in using digital technologies to support their teaching in schools. In response to these pressures the School of Education at Edith Cowan University has involved students in two exploratory projects over the past two years concerned with the use of laptop computers. This paper reports on the implementation and results of these projects. While generally the outcomes were positive it is not clear that this is the preferred solution when considering the range of digital device options available. (Contains 3 tables and 5 figures.)

Within the broad theoretical context provided by debates on the South African education reforms and the civic engagement agenda in higher education, this article focuses on service learning in higher education and portrays complex relationships between the service-learning office and different existing structures within and outside the University of Technology. The article argues that such a web of relationships could create confusion in terms of locating and managing service-learning in the university. The article demonstrates the interviewees' confusion with regard to an ideal location for service learning in a merged University of Technology, stimulates discussion and calls for guidance and sustainable partnerships between the university and government departments that are responsible for community development. (Contains 1 figure.)

Curriculum reform in environmental and science education now taking place in Ghana focuses on the community and ecosystems as the context of education. In Ghana, students conduct science investigations that include games, word searches, crossword puzzles, case studies, role play, debates, projects, and ecological profiles. This curriculum reflects an acknowledgement of the effect of conserving and protecting Ghanaian intergenerational knowledge and skills concerning the natural systems, including those of preserving ceremonies, personal expectations, narratives, beliefs, and values. The authors highlight these efforts to counter notions that Ghanaian education is still developing and to contrast the ideologies of seemingly developed educational landscapes in the United States. The authors argue that educational reform in the United States could benefit from an understanding of environmental and science education in seemingly developing nations.

Portuguese internationalisation policies essentially intend to promote an attitude favouring participation in internationalisation activities. However, as higher education institutions are autonomous, those policies aim at creating opportunities for development and management of these activities instead of imposing them. In this article we attempt to analyse Portuguese HEI responses to internationalisation. After reviewing briefly the recent changes in national and EU policies aiming at promotion of higher education internationalisation, we present the results of six organisational case studies, conducted with the goal of obtaining an answer to the question: how are Portuguese higher education institutions facing the internationalisation challenge? Based on the internationalisation profiles of the six institutions selected, we identify which factors foster and which factors impede the development of international activities at the organisational level in the Portuguese higher education system. Simultaneously we analyse the rationale explaining the different patterns of international activity between and within institutions.

This article is a collaborative self-study of our development as beginning teacher educators over the course of an academic year. A focus of our self-study was our shared interest in the role of theory and of practice in teacher education programs. Theodore taught a philosophy of education course and Shawn taught a practicum supervision course. Both authors share autobiographical excerpts of their teaching contexts and the problems of practice that they encountered. Our analysis suggests that the dichotomy between theory and practice is unhelpful and unproductive for both teacher candidates and teacher educators. Theory and practice are densely interwoven aspects of teaching that can be tacitly separated by coursework in teacher education. We advocate a pedagogy of teacher education that explores the radical middle between theory and practice.

Since the 1980s, a series of reforms that aimed to reconstruct the relationships among the government, the university, and the student (consumer) have been initiated in the systems of higher education. In varying degrees, these systems of higher education were affected by market forces. Given this, the relationship between the state and higher education has also been changed significantly. The purpose of this paper is to view recent changes in higher education in the historic context of globalization. It attempts to trace the source of these changes and to depict, against a new background, the new role of the state vis-a-vis higher education. It also seeks to illuminate the rationale behind the changing role of the state. By using the experiences of selected countries as illustrations, this paper will discuss the salient features of the state's role change in various contexts.

This paper outlines briefly some of the factors and forces that have led to the multiplicity of approaches to and the dis-integration of the objectives of environmental education. It traces the evolution of the understanding of the concept of action competence, and of its application in environmental education research and practice in Portugal. The comprehensiveness of action competence allows and requires that environmental education integrate separate and sometimes opposed approaches: knowledge, in the form of know-that, about the environment and about society; knowledge, in the form of know-how, of how to act, individually and collectively, to bring about change; and the will to act, will-to, based on affections and values that impel and sustain action. (Contains 4 notes.)

Kant's deontological ethics, along with Aristotle's virtue ethics and Mill's utilitarian ethics, is often identified as one of the three primary moral options between which individuals can choose. Given the importance of Kant's moral philosophy, it is surprising and disappointing how little has been written on his important contributions to moral education. Kant argues for a catechistic approach to moral education. By memorising a series of moral questions and answers, an individual learns the basic principles of morality in the same way that Martin Luther believed an individual should learn the tenets of Christianity. The difficulty, however, is that this approach appears to violate a central tenet of Kantian morality: virtuous acts must be performed out of respect for the moral law itself, not due to habituation. This paper demonstrates Kant's significant contribution to moral education by showing how a catechistic moral education establishes the foundation necessary for autonomous action.