Contemporary Educational Issues Research Articles

Geography education, grey literature and the geographical canon

Geography's disciplinary canon may appear a ‘top-down’ enterprise, focused on the formal educational spaces of the academy and the sole or joint authored monograph. This paper argues for a supplementary critical examination of the most widely encountered form of geographical education, school geography, and an associated ‘counter-canon’ of grey publishing literature to which geographers, educators, and geography educators have contributed. The paper suggests that such material serves to simultaneously disrupt and enliven narratives of the subject's identity and its canonicity.This paper's empirical focus is the school teacher initiated, geography and education journal, Contemporary Issues in Geography and Education (1983 – 1991), a literary endeavour of critical vibrancy informing the dissenting activities of geographers across schools and higher education during the time.

The Importance of Ethics in the Teaching Profession

Speaking about the profession of teacher, it is necessary to consider contemporary global ethical issues in education and educational research. There is an opportunity for students to develop a critical stance towards some of the most pressing ethical issues in education and educational research in contemporary societies. In a school context and with the support of school polices, programs and practices, ethical education helps students to develop for example in depth knowledge and awareness of their own and other cultures.

Collaborative Writing as an Exercise of Poetic Resistance in Teacher Education

Over the last decade we have strived through a collaborative writing project to open a polyvocal and layered conversation on critical contemporary issues in teacher education, even as our program faced its demise. Our writing inquiries began as a critical thinking-through of the qualities of lived experiences as instructors within an innovative and now defunct teacher education program. The context for our work was a radically construed approach to teacher education that—in its language, form, and curriculum—challenged prevailing norms of practice. In our collaborative writing we confront the difficult work of teacher education, addressing specific challenges, complex demands, and forms of resistance that are prevalent in faculties of education everywhere. Such challenges include how we narrate alternative visions of teacher education, attend to issues of ethics and recognition, deal with the complexities of learning professional practice and take into account the larger, historical project of teacher education. As a provocative example of self-study research, our collaborative method of inquiry illustrates the richness and productivity of collaborative, poetic, practice-based research, oriented to critical issues in teacher education. The intentional effort to make our work public and politically provocative represents a deliberate attempt by the authors to reveal the importance of these critical conversations. We intend our conversations and thinking-through about practices in teacher education to remain open-ended and responsive to a plurality of thought and experience. Collaborative writing serves for us as a kind of resistance, reclaiming, re-storying, and historical accounting through encounters with others.

Collaborative Writing as an Exercise of Poetic Resistance in Teacher Education

Over the last decade we have strived through a collaborative writing project to open a polyvocal and layered conversation on critical contemporary issues in teacher education, even as our program faced its demise. Our writing inquiries began as a critical thinking-through of the qualities of lived experiences as instructors within an innovative and now defunct teacher education program. The context for our work was a radically construed approach to teacher education that—in its language, form, and curriculum—challenged prevailing norms of practice. In our collaborative writing we confront the difficult work of teacher education, addressing specific challenges, complex demands, and forms of resistance that are prevalent in faculties of education everywhere. Such challenges include how we narrate alternative visions of teacher education, attend to issues of ethics and recognition, deal with the complexities of learning professional practice and take into account the larger, historical project of teacher education. As a provocative example of self-study research, our collaborative method of inquiry illustrates the richness and productivity of poetic, practice-based research, oriented to critical issues in teacher education. The intentional effort to make our work public and politically provocative is an attempt by the authors to reveal the importance of these critical conversations in advancing our work. Specifically, what makes such conversations important includes questions about how we should enact our responsibilities for teacher education and also how we give account for enacting those responsibilities. We intend our conversations and thinking-through about practices in teacher education to remain open-ended and responsive to a plurality of thought and experience. Collaborative writing serves for us as a kind of resistance, reclaiming, re-storying, and historical accounting through encounters with others.

Book Review: First in the World: Community Colleges and America’s Future by Brown, J. N.

Brown, J. N. (2012). First in the World: Community Colleges and America's Future. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 152 pp. $49.95 (hardback). ISBN 978-1-4422-0997-8. $48.99 (eBook). ISBN 978-1-4422-0999-2.J. Noah Brown, CEO of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), has a monumental task as he aims to identify and define the key issues that he suggests have the power to benefit or threaten the long-term health and vigor of community (p. 8). His intent in the book is to identify salient public policy issues and articulate how community colleges can be reimagined to support the long-term health of the community college and the nation. The primary intended audiences for Brown's book are academics, higher education practitioners, and association leaders. His book is structured according to five issues: leading with accountability, citizen governance, resource and scarcity, completion matters, and leadership imperatives. Brown guides readers through these five issues with relative ease, exploring the issues from economic, social, and political contexts.Brown's discussion of the five issues begins with accountability, where he argues that community college leaders should not follow but rather lead the accountability movement. The book identifies many inherent challenges associated with the accountability movement for community colleges such as the dominant use of success metrics that are more appropriate for 4-year colleges and universities, and the diverse characteristics, attributes, and behaviors of community college students that often impede students' degree progress and success.In his chapters on citizen governance and leadership imperatives, Brown's role as a former community college trustee and current leader of the ACCT is most recognizable as he outlines the purposes and functions of community college Board of Trustees (BOT) and the desired characteristics and attributes of community college leaders. Not only do these chapters include useful descriptions of BOT responsibilities and leadership styles, Brown also provides practical guidance on how effective boards should operate and the appropriate roles and priorities of community college leaders.Two chapters address two of the most salient contemporary public policy issues in higher education: resources (i.e., finance) and college completion. Brown frames the resources chapter based on the idea of scarcity and outlines the ways community colleges increasingly rely on limited alternative resources (e.g., earmarks and National Science Foundation funding, outsourcing services, entrepreneurial activities, philanthropic contributions) in a climate of diminishing state and local funding. He argues that to ensure sustained and increased public investment in community colleges, BOT and institutional leaders must be the loudest advocates for community colleges and reinforce, champion, and assert the value of community colleges in local communities and the states. The fifth chapter addresses the ubiquitous public policy issue of college completion, and Brown identifies the conflict between the college completion movement and community colleges' open access purpose. He cautions that community college leaders must balance the contradictory goals of open access and college success and offers several practical suggestions to achieve this balance.Brown concludes the book by arguing that history should inform future decisions and actions of policy makers and community college leaders. Brown reminds readers that the growth and success of community colleges and the higher education system are the result of deliberate investments and bold thinking. Historic national investments in higher education such as the G.I. Bill in 1944, the National Defense Education Act in 1958, and the Higher Education Act in 1965 illustrate this type of public investment and bold thinking that has sustained community colleges and advanced American higher education to its first in the world status. …

Reclaiming the Idea of the University as a Possible Solution to Today’s Crisis

Higher education has always been associated in one way or another with crisis. One could even argue that the university has always faced one type of crisis or another. The one debated the most is the economic crisis; however, there are many debates focusing on other types of crisis. Furthermore, all major reforms in the history of higher education (from Humboldt’s reform in 19th century Prussia to the views promoted by Y Gasset against the background of the Spanish revolution, or even the Bologna Process) have arisen as a result of a crisis. Today, the global economic crisis has yet again highlighted the fact that the idea of the university, the very foundation on which it was built, is no longer present when addressing contemporary issues in higher education. Our paper argues that there is an imperative need to reclaim and reconsider the idea of the university, as this could provide a possible solution to today’s crisis in higher education. Furthermore, we will attempt to show the reasons why this should occur, as well as the manner in which it could be achieved. The focus today is on too many minute, detailed aspects of higher education institutions, which are managed, evaluated, quality assured, ranked, assessed and so forth, while the global perspective on the university has been lost/ignored. Today’s crisis could be used as an opportunity to reassess and re-establish a relevant idea for today’s university.

In search of ‘time-tested truths’: historical perspectives on educational administration

This article has a dual purpose. The first is to pay tribute to the work of Richard Selleck and Geoffrey Sherington; the second to argue that historians of education can make substantial contributions to current and future educational policy and practice by identifying what Ravitch has called ‘time-tested truths’. The nature and purpose of historical study are examined with particular reference to education and to making maps of the past. Examples are provided of the application of historical perspectives to contemporary education issues in 1985 and 1996. The final section draws upon an analysis by leading historians in the USA of the failures of school reform, and a research project into the establishment, nature and likely fate of the Department for Education and Employment in the UK. The basic conclusion is that the development of the field of educational administration requires both specialist historical studies and those informed by a broader understanding of educational and human perspectives.

Does context still matter? The dialectics of comparative education

This introductory article serves as a hermeneutical tool for interpreting the subsequent articles in this special issue, which explores the nature and roles of comparative education in the 21st century within the context of a changing world order and the growing prominence of comparative education in the Asia-Pacific region. A review of the evolution of different genres of comparative educations reveals the importance of contextual considerations as a constant ritornello (a refrain or instrumental interlude) in comparative education research. Reflections on comparative education in dialectical perspectives in this article provide new impetus and enlightenment on contemporary issues in education and society. Seeing comparative education as a dialectic process enhances the openness of comparative education to challenge the status quo perception of issues, and provides a compare-and-contrast perspective to identify polemic interpretations, such as empirical epistemology which can be viewed as a subjectivity that rejects the transcendental sources of knowledge. Dynamic secularism can be a friend of, and coexist with, religion as it ironically provides more opportunities for more religions to co-exist harmoniously under secularism than many countries that adopt a national religion. The dialectics of comparative education opens up a new role for comparative education to accommodate polemic perspectives to co-exist and to recognize the equal importance of universality and particularity.

Preschool teacher competence viewed from the perspective of students in early childhood teacher education

This paper examines contemporary issues in early childhood teacher education in Sweden. The aim of the study was to explore dimensions of the construct of preschool teachers’ competence as reported by 810 students enrolled in early childhood teacher education at 15 Swedish universities. The results showed that students’ definitions of preschool teacher competence were composed of six different dimensions: a general pedagogical competence, specific content competence, distinct teacher competence, play competence, competence of child perspective, and collaborative and social competence. In general, there were quite large variations in how students perceived the concept of preschool teacher competence and the extent to which they believed they developed these competences during the course of their education. The different dimensions of preschool teacher competence are discussed in relation to the content of the early childhood teacher education in Sweden, the curriculum for the preschool and the concept of professionalism in Early Childhood Education and Care.

Special Topic: Educational Theory and Practice

In the previous issue of the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education (JVME), Drs. Regina Schoenfeld-Tacher and Henry Baker introduced a new Special Topic focused on Educational Theory and Practice. The quality and broad relevance of the manuscripts submitted in response to their invitation to authors was impressive, and the number of submissions substantially exceeded the space available. With the continued assistance of Dr. Schoenfeld-Tacher, this issue continues that Special Topic with articles that are again noteworthy not only for quality but also for the significance of the contemporary educational issues that they address. The initiation of this Special Topic was yet another example of the exemplary leadership and guidance provided to the JVME by Dr. Henry Baker during his long tenure as Editor-in-Chief. I am indebted to him, to the JVME Editorial Board, and to the many JVME reviewers for maintaining a high standard of quality over the years. I also thank the Board of Directors of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) for their intellectual, philosophical, and, critically, financial support of the JVME. Finally, the University of Toronto Press continues to be a superb publishing partner for the JVME, and I am highly appreciative of the professionalism, expertise, and creativity of its staff. Academic veterinary medicine, and the profession of veterinary medicine at large, faces many pressing challenges as well as equally striking opportunities. As the premier, peer-refereed journal focused on innovation and advances in the broad field of veterinary medical education, the JVME is a critical resource at a pivotal time. The JVME is extraordinarily well positioned and equipped to provide the new knowledge in education that is so greatly needed, but also to serve as a venue for an informed and critical assessment of key issues that face academic veterinary medicine, now and in the future. It is my privilege to serve as Editor-in-Chief, and I look forward to working with a remarkable team to carry on the tradition of the JVME. It begs the obvious to say that we share a common goal of making the JVME highly successful, as can be defined by many conventional publishing metrics. However, our goal must be much broader than success alone. Albert Einstein is famously quoted for his cautionary statement ‘‘Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.’’ Applied to a journal rather than an individual, that statement encapsulates my personal goal for the JVME, a goal I know that you share. It is a pleasure and honor for me to work with you toward the attainment of that goal.

Carving the Information Literacy Niche Within Graduate Employability

A teacher fellow project at De Montfort University explored the context and practicalities of developing a Graduate Skills Licence (Information Literacy) in answer to the current higher education drive for graduate employability. Research revealed the hidden complexities behind the development of an originally simple notion. It provided scope to create a research informed self-evaluation grid of information literacy skills. It highlighted the need for a multi-agency approach, forging new connections to achieve employability. Practice at other institutions is considered. Librarians have both a key role and a new opportunity to place themselves at the heart of contemporary higher education issues.

Not Just a “Fleck” on the Epistemic Landscape: A Reappraisal of Ludwik Fleck’s Views of the Nature of Scientific Progress and Change in Relation to Contemporary Educational and Social Issues

In contrast to Thomas Kuhn, the work of Ludwik Fleck, a Polish-born physician, microbiologist, and epistemologist, is conspicuously absent from the science education literature. His originally obscure monograph first published in German in 1935, Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact, anticipates a number of views explicated by contemporary philosophers of science, cognitive psychologists, and learning theorists, and Fleck’s main thesis is, is many respects, strikingly similar to the oft-cited thesis developed later by Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Fleck’s work is perhaps the best example of the social influence on scientific commitment and thinking and is one of the first works to suggest different scales or varieties of change in science. At the same time as Fleck’s work gains recognition, momentum, and force in philosophical circles, some educators are calling for a critical appraisal of Kuhn’s impact on science education. This climate provides an ideal opportunity to assess (or perhaps in some cases reassess) the value of Fleck’s work in a science education context. The primary aim of this article, therefore, is to introduce educators in general, and science educators in particular, to the main ideas developed by Fleck in his Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact. Throughout this article, Fleck’s ideas are compared and contrasted to those of Thomas Kuhn—arguably one of the most popular referents in nature of science studies over the past decade. As will be discussed, many of the ideas developed by Fleck anticipate central issues and perspectives in philosophy, epistemology, sociology, education, and cognitive psychology.

Public Health: Back to the Future

Public Health: Back to the Future

Critical issues in contemporary education: Prolegomena

Abstract This paper summarizes the problematic aspects of a globalized neoliberal culture in education. Linking to the particular studies of this monothematic volume it discusses the consequences of the globalization of a testing culture in schools, the issues of developing civic literacy in the context of current education practice and the issues of forming a historic consciousness in present schools relating to the existing social discourse. Language teaching, currently dominated by the concept of language literacy or the concept of language education resulting from English language teaching seems to be significant. This paper reveals various ways in which the educational section is being contaminated by neoliberal transformations to point out their culturally devastating consequences in a critical way. The goal of this paper is to articulate the mechanism by which neoliberalism is infiltrating education in the form of discursive and physical “colonizing”.

Forest Management, Engineering, and Operations / Global Competency and Issues in Contemporary Education

Abstract 31Maps depicting spatial variation in wood properties are important for forest product industries as they aid decision making regarding raw material procurement, can assist in product categorization and help improve utilization. Loblolly pine is an important commercial species grown throughout the southern Unites States of America (USA). Wood Quality Consortium (WQC)—a joint collaboration between the University of Georgia, USDA Forest Service and industries—was established in 1999 with the objective of characterizing wood property variation of plantation grown loblolly pine. Data on wood specific gravity (SG), modulus of elasticity (MOE) and modulus of rupture (MOR) collected by the WQC was utilized in this study. Maps showing spatial variation in SG at different stand ages and SG, MOE and MOR at different heights within a tree were developed using appropriate spatial prediction methods (kriging). The geographical variation of these wood properties across southeastern USA was demonstrated here.

Global Competency and Issues in Contemporary Education / Agroforestry

Abstract 34We performed a five year integrated research, extension and education project aimed at strengthening global competence of students and faculty through collaboration in forestry. We sought to improve our students' ability to cooperate, increase their understanding of global dynamics of forestry markets and enhance their knowledge of various approaches to forest management and conservation with Chile as the focus. The project had four key components: (1) facilitate faculty and student involvement in Chile through Spanish language training, a website, and visits by Chilean faculty; (2) support NC State faculty and student research and study in Chile through travel grants and study tours; (3) build on faculty sabbaticals in Chile by funding student research assistants; and (4) disseminate information from Chile through multiple channels to both the university and professional communities. The faculty exchange visits; graduate student research; and participation of NCSU students, faculty and staff in the study tours to Chile had substantial effects when the participants returned to the US and disseminated information about their experiences through both formal and informal mechanisms. Both students and faculty at NCSU are more aware of forestry research, policy and management in Chile. Faculty at NCSU and Chilean universities Universidad de Concepción and Universidad de Austral have established a strong basis for collaboration and are continuing to work together on funding proposals, research, and papers. Students who participated in the study tours learned about both the culture and forestry in Chile, including similarities, differences, and lessons for the US. This presentation will describe the activities, outcomes and ongoing impacts of the project.

Pre-service teachers’ attempts at debating contemporary issues in science education: A case study from Botswana

This paper constitutes an attempt to explore trends, issues and challenges that emerge when three different cohorts of pre-service teachers debate contemporary issues in science education at the University of Botswana. Apart from the author's experience of teaching the course, the impetus for this study also comes from a growing interest in the contemporary literature in the need for teachers who, in the context of globalization and knowledge economy, are ‘self-reforming’ through continually addressing the key issues of their profession. Unfortunately, the current situation is such that this burden of interrogation falls heaviest on teachers, despite their lack of skills in undertaking the task. The study suggests that pre-service teachers were generally reluctant to debate issues outside the realms of their experiences; instead, they made ‘parallel contributions’ that generally lacked critical reflection and thorough analysis. This makes it a challenge to assess whether the pre-service teachers have developed the requisite conceptual clarity and skills for handling contemporary issues. However, further research needs to focus on their learning strategies to help to unravel the mystique behind these ‘parallel contributions’ – this may help us to understand the strategies adopted by pre-service teachers, and also what they make of our instructional methods.

Early Childhood Teacher Education: Historical Themes and Contemporary Issues

Over the past decade, many states have increased their investment in prekindergarten (pre-K) school programs that serve 3- and 4-year-old children. This increase has raised questions about what constitutes a well-qualified early childhood teacher. Similar questions were raised in the late part of the nineteenth century when states began investing in kindergarten, then a new and unique idea on the educational landscape. This article situates contemporary issues in early childhood teacher education within the historical context of the kindergarten movement in the U.S. Focus is given to the following themes: (a) the relationship between legitimization via degree program and maintaining a unique early childhood identity, and (b) the relationship between evolving “best practices” discourses and the nature of early childhood teaching. The ways in which heightened awareness of historical themes in early childhood teacher education can inform contemporary early childhood teacher education are explored.

Mobilizing Culture, Language, and Educational Practices

In commemorating the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision, this lecture also honors the Mendez v. Westminster case of 1946, a successful challenge to the segregated schooling of Mexican and Mexican American students in California. The author summarizes the Mendez case, its relation to Brown, and its sociocultural aspects, including educational conditions at the time, the collective and intercultural agency of the participants, and the process by which the Méndez family successfully brought the case to fruition. With this case as backdrop, the author then addresses contemporary educational issues and presents educational innovations that, much like Brown and Mendez, seek to mobilize the social, cultural, and linguistic processes of diverse communities as the most important resources for producing positive educational change.

Contemporary issues in dental education in Australia

Australia has witnessed a proliferation of dental workforce training opportunities over the last 15 years, including dentists, dental therapists, dental hygienists and prosthetists. The reasons for this have not been examined critically. Universities have welcomed the opportunities to increase the student base but do not seem to have examined the advisability of continued expansion or its impact on the delivery and costs of health services. Nor have they enquired expressly whether they have any responsibility in these matters. Public health benefits should constitute a significant element of curriculum design. There seems to have been a general acceptance of the premise that more is necessarily better. Ironically, these developments have occurred in the face of significant recurrent cost increments and serious academic staff shortages. The schools have responded with alterations to curriculum content. Student cohort composition, course structures, educational focus, postgraduate training and research have been affected. The primary purpose of this review is to highlight the issues which currently drive workforce training and curriculum content and to suggest that some current practices should be re-examined as a starting point for setting defined common objectives within the Australian dental educational spectrum. Salient issues which require examination include course standards and accreditation, workforce mix, dental health demands, public service obligations and staffing profiles.