Education & Pedagogy

This paper examines whether the results of the earnings equation developed in the over-education/required education/under-education (ORU) literature are sensitive to whether the usual or reference levels of education are measured using the Realized Matches or Worker Self-Assessment methods. The analyses are conducted for all male native-born and immigrant workers in the US, by level of skill, and by occupation. While point estimates differ, particularly when earnings equations are estimated for the smaller samples of sub-groups of the workforce, the general findings are robust to this measurement issue. Thus, the answers provided to the typical research questions in the ORU literature on the productivity of schooling are independent of the measure of the usual or reference level of education used in the analyses. (Contains 9 tables and 2 figures.)

I reflect on studies by Rodriguez and Carlone, Haun-Frank, and Kimmel to emphasize the ways in which they excavate silences in the science education literature related to linguistic and cultural diversity and situating the problem of reform in teachers rather than contextual factors, such as traditional schooling discourses and forces that serve to marginalize science. I propose that the current push for top-down reform and accountability diminishes opportunities for receptivity, learning with and from students in order to transform teachers' practices and promote equity in science education. I discuss tensions of agency and passivity in science education reform and argue that attention to authentic caring constitutes another silence in the science education literature. I conclude that the current policy context positions teachers and science education researchers as tempered radicals struggling against opp(reg)ressive reforms and that there is a need for more studies to excavate these and other silences.

The purpose of this article is to extend the growing counternarrative in education research concerning the negative consequences of school desegregation and its implications for urban education, educational leadership, and policy reform in the post-Civil Rights Era. Guided by qualitative and historical research methods, this article presents the perspectives of eight retired Black school superintendents concerning the goal of integration during the civil rights movement and its disintegration in contemporary urban contexts. Findings reveal that despite desegregation efforts, schools and school systems have never truly integrated and now face a 21st-century brand of educational inequality, what I describe in this article as "vestiges of desegregation," which further undermine the educational opportunities and experiences of those students school desegregation efforts were arguably intended to serve.

The study explores the intersection between cyberinfrastructure and models of teacher education and professional development in Singapore. A case study explores how a pre-service and an in-service workshop in a virtual environment support efforts to understand and enlist constructivist pedagogies for classroom learning and to foster continuous teacher learning. The study involves a survey of participants' concerns and perceived challenges in light of prior experiences, to understand potential similarities and differences between current and future teachers. The results indicate complementary experiences between in-service and pre-service participants. Results also indicate the need for further inquiry into using virtual environments to support integrated models of professional development and teacher education. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

Reading teacher education, as is true with much of higher education, is plagued with pressures of providing "here and now" answers to very complex, entangled issues. The reading methods course becomes the site of many of these pressures, despite considerable insights provided by scholars such as Kumaravadivelu (2001) that "methods" may be more of the problem than the solution. In this article, we explore an emergent conceptualization of the reading teacher educator as "customer service provider" and discuss how this approach threatens reading teacher education. We voice our concerns that the pressure on reading teacher educators to deliver content in the "customer service" model denies preservice teachers access to critical pedagogies. (Contains 1 footnote.)

The purpose of this study was to conduct a survey of special education and general education teachers' mathematical skill and perception of competence. The participants (n=206) were current (n-32) or future (n=174) elementary (K-6) and middle level (4-8) general and special education teachers enrolled in two major state universities in the Southern United States. The participants completed surveys of K-6 mathematics content and reported their perceived level of teaching competence. Findings indicate no differences in mathematics skills by certification area, but significant differences exist by grade level and perceived level of competence in teaching mathematics. The results have implications for teacher preparation. (Contains 1 table.)

This prospective study was designed to investigate the influence of high students' perceived teacher autonomy support in mandatory physical education on their intention and actual enrollment in elective physical education. Participants included 545 ninth-grade students enrolled in three suburban high schools in a major midwestern metropolitan area. A series of hypothesized models related to autonomy support within the Theory of Planned Behavior were tested. Structural equation modeling results demonstrated that perceived autonomy support provided by teachers in mandatory physical education could predict elective physical education enrollment indirectly via the mediation of attitudes and intention in the Theory of Planned Behavior. Providing support for students' autonomy in physical education may hold potential promise for enhancing their future physical activity engagement. (Contains 1 table and 4 figures.)

This chapter examines how the previously distinct worlds of early childhood education (ECE) and K-12 public school education are being drawn together through the recent and rapid advances of prekindergarten programming in the United States. Tensions around teaching philosophies, teacher qualifications, and financing are presented to illustrate the complexities involved in bridging the ECE and K-12 worlds. Common theories from the Politics of Education, including Policy Innovation Diffusion Theory, Institutional Theory, and Micropolitics are used to further understand current trends and issues around prekindergarten implementation, as well as to identify areas for future investigation. Despite the inherent tensions, prekindergarten has the potential to serve as a bridge between these two historically distinct systems, resulting in a better overall education system for young children. (Contains 8 notes and 1 table.)

Since the 1970s, using his world-systems analysis, Immanuel Wallerstein has developed a wide-ranging framework for the social sciences, with potential applications for comparative educational research. In this paper we outline key aspects of Wallerstein's theorising, and then analyse the uptake, understandings, and applications of his analysis in the field of comparative and international education, through a case study of the "Comparative Education Review" (CER) journal from 1980 to 2008. This paper examines how, and how widely, his analysis has been adopted and interpreted. Our analysis highlights significant and--given the broader emphasis in comparative education on questions of education and development--surprising absences in the application of this approach. We conclude by arguing for the use and development of three critical features of his analysis in comparative work, as relevant and timely interventions in the field.

The present study examined the multivariate relationship between job satisfaction and burnout, experienced by Greek physical education school-based teachers. The sample consisted of 175 physical education teachers, from primary and secondary education. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach and Jackson, 1986) and the Employee Satisfaction Inventory (Koustelios and Bagiatis, 1997) used to assess burnout and job satisfaction respectively. Canonical correlation analysis revealed a negative multivariate relationship between the two constructs (r[subscript c] = 0.61). Canonical loadings indicate that job satisfaction is primarily affected by "job itself" followed by "supervision" and "working conditions", whereas burnout is affected by "personal accomplishment" and "emotional exhaustion". Intrinsic aspects of job satisfaction seemed to correlate stronger to burnout than the extrinsic. (Contains 1 table.)

Higher education administrators believe that revenues are linked to college rankings and act accordingly, particularly those at research universities. Although rankings are clearly influential for many schools and colleges, this fundamental assumption has yet to be tested empirically. Drawing on data from multiple resource providers in higher education, we find that the influence of rankings depends on constituencies' placement in the higher education field. Resource providers who are vulnerable to the status hierarchy of higher education--college administrators, faculty, alumni, and out-of-state students--are significantly influenced by rankings. Those on the periphery of the organizational field, such as foundations and industry, are largely unaffected. Although rankings are designed largely for stakeholders outside of higher education, their strongest influence is on those within the higher education field.

This article focuses on a Sport Education project in Korea that has explored pedagogical issues during teachers' initial and developing implementation of Sport Education. Drawing on data gathered between 2004 and 2005 in collaboration with teachers in a middle school in Korea, the article presents a detailed analysis of developments in one case study school. It provides qualitative insights into the teacher role of facilitator of learning in the context of introducing students to new roles and pedagogical relationships in Sport Education. The curriculum and pedagogical development is identified as underpinned by a strong commitment to professional learning and sustained partnership between researchers and teachers. (Contains 1 table and 4 notes.)

Microblogging is one of the latest Web 2.0 technologies. The key elements are online communication using 140 characters and the fact that it involves "following" anyone. There has been a great deal of excitement about this in recent months. This paper reports on a research study that was carried out on the use of a microblogging platform for process-oriented learning in Higher Education. Students of the University of Applied Sciences of Upper Austria used the tool throughout their course. All postings were carefully tracked, examined and analyzed in order to explore the possibilities offered by microblogging in education. It can be concluded that microblogging should be seen as a completely new form of communication that can support informal learning beyond classrooms. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

This paper explores the effects on social inequality in Germany of ongoing changes to the employment system and, thus, vocational education. Results based on an examination of the literature indicate that students from increasingly middle-class backgrounds with higher levels of general, rather than vocational, educational attainment are winning the competition for ever-fewer apprenticeships. Progress for women in education is accompanied by relative declines in men's performance on high school exit examinations and does not translate into success in the employment system. Employers are abandoning the corporate-state organization of vocational education. The paper concludes that school degrees are increasingly important for later career opportunities. As a result, the educational system is increasingly stratified, contributing to social inequality in Germany.

We live in a global age, and our schools and teachers must prepare today's students to take their places as global citizens. Such education requires an awareness of the world, its people, and its conditions. Some of the ways we may achieve such awareness include infusing a global perspective into the curriculum, sending students overseas, or bringing foreign educators to our schools. This article concentrates on the extent to which teacher education programs support, advocate, and broadcast one such opportunity for increased global awareness--overseas student teaching. It also examines whether state laws prohibit such experience, and the degree to which our states are open to foreign teachers. Through survey of states and content analysis of websites of 409 NCATE accredited institutions, conclusions are drawn regarding institutional commitment to internationalization in teacher education. (Contains 1 table.)