Contemporary Education System Research Articles

Violence and Incoherence Parenting Patterns - Potential Risk Factor in Distorting the Child's View on Reality

We consider that we should pay attention to the roles played by the contemporary educational systems, the characteristics of the environment, the cultural models, traditions, the level of culture, the social conditions, the structure of the family, and also to the ways of perceiving or adapting of those that choose to provide, as parents, models worthy of being followed by the future social actors. Personal achievement involves the interpenetration of the individuality with the sociality, depending on the social context, the requirements, criteria and standards of value which it imposes. The educative styles generate desirable attitudes and values for the future adult or, on the contrary, contestable attitudes, because the primordial model acts as a law for the moral consciousness of the child.

Individual agency in contemporary academic life: The lived experience of internationalising the university curriculum in an increasingly competitive global marketplace

This article has two aims. First it highlights and affirms what is already known about the disposition of several western nation states towards a global education marketplace (Singh and Doherty, 2004), the effects of globalisation upon the individual agency of university academics in education and performative education cultures (Ball, 2006, 2009; Grek, 2009; Lingard, 2010; Lingard and Rawolle, 2009, 2010). In particular, the article's context concerns the concepts of student recruitment and retention within an international programme of study in a major university in Australia. Second, the article provides an analysis of a small amount of data to show that attempts by one university academic working within this programme of study, to change and enhance the pedagogical value of the curriculum for students so that the university retains students, has to occur within an overarching and evaluative strategy measured in recruitment performance indicators expressed as numbers. This occurs to the detriment of a pedagogical and evaluative strategy that enhances the broader social agendas relating to the social and political significance of higher education qualifications. In stark terms, the article shows that evaluative measures adopted by this university quantify the university's growth in international reputation for research, ideas and the recruitment of educational experience, without seeming to quantify and qualify what that experience actually is. In the view of one university academic, performance (Garrick, 2006, 2010) through the provision of quality education programmes in contemporary education systems seems simply a matter of saying that you have performed.

Dimensions of school-based violence to and by children: an overview of recent literature

School violence, defined in a variety of ways, is a common feature of contemporary education systems. While there is little empirical evidence to indicate either a significant increase (or decrease) in the phenomenon, it is accurate to recognise that it is a concern which has been the focus of continued attention by politicians, administrators, teachers and parents in most countries. This paper provides a summary of recent literature on the issue. It scopes in particular the core issues of causation, incidence and impact, resilience and intervention/response strategies; in doing so, it draws upon an ecosystemic model of analysis.

ETHNOPEDAGOGICAL APPROACH TO PREVENTION OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION OF YOUTH

Ethnopedagogical approach to prevention of social exclusion of youth implies research and using popular upbringing as a socio-historical phenomenon in structuring contemporary educational system. Popular pedagogy cannot be completely renewed, which is not necessary, so it should be merged with contemporary pedagogical thought. In addition to that, basic attributes of popular pedagogy offer approaches, methods and procedures for solving problems within the actual crisis of upbringing and education. Those attributes stem from virtues that are educational aims of all peoples such as: love for parents, love for work, health, intelligence, sociability (humanity), kindliness, honour, chastity (honesty), loyalty and fairness, contempt for laziness, treating the elderly with respect, which is achieved through interconnection of upbringing, self-education and correction. The significance of ethnopedagogical cognitions for building the system for prevention of social exclusion of youth is seen in applying multigenerational pedagogical experiences from human development in terms of personality and sociability. Keywords: ethnopedagogy, popular pedagogy, educational system, prevention, social exclusion

Digital Textiles: An Investigation into Technology Utilisation, Teaching and Significance of Educator Creative Practice

This paper examines the utilisation of digital design and output technologies from the textile educator perspective. Educator approaches to working with digital technologies in own creative practices are described, as are variations in involvement with teaching digital technologies. Connections between educator approaches to digital technology utilisation in creative and teaching practices are highlighted. The impact of educator engagement in creative practice is discussed, given the continually evolving nature of digital technology and factors existent in the contemporary higher education system, which can be counterproductive to educator creative practice. Conclusions are made with regards to different approaches to digital technology utilisation and significance of educator engagement in creative practice activity. The methodology used to undertake the research disseminated through this paper include self case study, survey and case study methods. The paper focuses on textile design higher education in the United Kingdom, printed textiles and surface pattern design; however, the content is intended to be insightful to others who are operating outside of this context.

NEUROSCIENCE, WORLD WIDE WEB AND READING CURRICULUM

Neuroscience has proved a malleable nature of our brain. The way of thinking is changing lifelong and not only in early childhood. New media as television, video games, and the Internet change students’ cognitive skills. New visual-spatial skills, such as iconic representation and spatial visualization are developed. But parallel to these changes new weaknesses occur. Those are in higher-order cognitive processes, as abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection, inductive problem solving, critical thinking, and imagination (Greefield, 2009). Those are the reasons why reading curriculum in contemporary educational system should focus on two groups of aims: deep online reading and linear literature reading. By deep reading is meant the sophisticated processes that propel comprehension and that include inferential and deductive reasoning, analogical skills, critical analysis, reflection, and insight. By linear literature reading is meant primarily reading of fiction, which develops the imagination, inductive analysis, critical and abstract thinking Key words: cognitive skills, linear reading, neuroscience, reading curriculum, reflexive reading of fiction, World Wide Web.

Introduction—World-class basic education

Borrowing educational institutions and ideas from the past and from other contemporary education systems is a significant part of the educational history of many nations. Many of the current nations continue to probe the past for pleasure or insights, while some nations seek to erase much of their educational past. Further, an increasing number of contemporary governments and educational leaders actively seek to improve or redesign their educational programmes by borrowing current educational ideas, programmes, and institutions from other countries. This Introduction recognizes the legitimacy of multiple definitions of the term “world-class” but limits discussion to basic education. Thus, the focus here is on pre-university schooling. Attention will be given to the measurement of quality as an integral component of world-class education, approaches to its planning, and discussions of relevant contemporary issues and trends.

Introduction—Opening educational systems to cultural diversity: International and comparative perspectives

Contemporary educational systems that welcome all young children regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, etc. first emerged in Europe during the 19th century and then became shared by most contemporary societies. Despite some initial ambivalence, schooling is becoming globalized (Akkari and Payet 2010). On the one hand, these changes reflect at least a partial realization of a centuries-old dream of education as the formation of rational and equal citizens. On the other hand, schools have been conceptualized from the perspective of a national identity based on one culture and language. The school has never been a culturally neutral place. The work of teachers in the classroom is organized around a cultural basis for instruction and learning, in which they explicitly and implicitly transmit a large amount of cultural information. In situations where teachers and students share a common culture and language, few cultural barriers to education exist. When teachers and students come from different backgrounds, however, the school curriculum and teaching practices may exclude some students and fail to support them in their learning. Racism and issues of power are omnipresent. Educational systems are inextricably linked with the development and lived experiences of students’ cultural identities. Given this background, we see the need for further critical reflections on the status of cultural diversity in education systems. While this thinking is hardly new (Banks et al. 1986; Berque 1985), it has been confined mostly within national spaces. This special issue broadens our thinking on cultural diversity within educational systems to an international and comparative perspective using illustrations of educational innovations circulating

Educational myth: Persistence, resistances, breaks and connections. The secret of telematic art

As Malinowsky states, myth is closely related to rite, presenting the social and moral values that rite asserts in each cyclical repetition. Rite marks the threshold between the sacred and profane, allowing access to myth as an art form, as a narrative expression both of the sacred – in the extension of meaning Emile Durkheim introduced with the term ‘collective consciousness’ – and of the ‘collective unconscious’ as Jung defined it. If it is true that the rite of passage to the adult world, the initiation rite, is one of the most archaic rites in aiming to protect society against the risk of cultural innovation inherent in the younger generations, then it is legitimate to ask what our new myths are regarding education. When technology accelerates the mechanisms eroding collective memory, which rites renew educational myths in everyday practice? When technology dematerializes the devices on which rite and its inherent techniques of control are based, what new forms does mythological narration assume? What roles do new media play in creating a direct channel between the collective consciousness and individual experience, between the nervous system and our environment, enveloping individuals in the telematic embrace Roy Ascott described in 2003, and which not only explains the concept of the Global Village that Marshall McLuhan introduced in 1966, but also delineates the space – time of students in contemporary learning processes? Reading the contemporary educational system through the lens of myth and rite, where new technologies play a central role, allows us to follow a path that traces the progressive impact of media on cognitive processes from the initial emergence of the concept ‘collective consciousness’ onwards, and that offers one of the most interesting interpretations of the ‘open school’ experience in Derrick de Kerkhove’s concept of ‘connective intelligence’ (analysed in my Ph.D. thesis). But myth also allows us to observe those cracks, breaks and discontinuities that mark the places in which contemporary knowledge is created, which is why we find Nietzsche (who dedicated much of his work to myth), Michel Foucault and Ivan Illich at the centre of International Debate on Education for the last decade due to their critical approach to institutions.

Ethical Issues in Technology-Mediated Education

Contemporary system of education has been strongly revolutionised as a result of the current trends of facilitating learning and improving performance through creation, usage, and management of appropriate technological processes and resources. Manipulating technology in a way to use information correctly and realize information flow effectively has become a necessity. However, such necessity has been beclouded by variety of ethical issues that range from privacy, accuracy, accessibility to question of intellectual property rights. It is such ethical problems that this paper will address by analysing the impact of technology-mediated education on the transmission of socio-cultural and academic values. It also raises the issue of whether technology-mediated educational settings are conducive for academic freedom or do they undermine it?

THE EDUCATION SYSTEM OF EGYPT: CONTEXTS, FRAMES AND STRUCTURES

The research describes contemporary educational system existing in the Arab Republic of Egypt against a background of its history, economical, social and demographical situation, and its legislative foundations. Egypt’s educational traditions come from colonial times and Islamic sources. The contemporary Egyptian educational system consists of three levels: primary, sec-ondary and tertiary education. It is compatible with the European system of education and alt-hough it still needs some improvement, it is constantly developing. Apart from governmental educational institutions, there is a private sector of schooling as well. Besides state and non-state schools, there are other forms of supplementary education, e.g. adult or non-formal education directed at children remaining beyond any official schooling system etc. The data is also presented in the form of graphs included herewith. Key words: Egypt, educational system, schools.

Lifelong Learning in the Environment of Cultural Institution and its Value

The paper sets a task to stress the potential of Culture Education in the process of Lifelong Learning. Some of the educational activities of cultural institutions will be presented. The text also pays attention to specific functions of culture in human life and Culture Education will be introduced as a specific field that has an unexceptionable position in contemporary educational system as well as a long tradition, although its potential has rather been neglected so far.

The Role Played by Literature in the Inter-Cultural Educational Process. Educational Extensions of the Contemporary Feminine Diaries

Viewed by the specialised critique as texts displaying covert, non-intentional literariness, always rooted in the near-by reality due to the over-ruling and persuasive feminine conscience, the diaries written by women guide the young generation spiritual formation by means of their patterns pointing out intellectual openness and tolerance. Actually, the didactical and methodological resources of the Romanian contemporary educational system can never satisfy the intercultural openings implied by the rational drive for European integration. As they ask for the awareness of the multiple roots relating them to the multicultural, pluri- identitary and democratic world, the didactic strategies used in high-school curricula when coping with the feminine diaries represent the ideal, balanced solution for the equation didactics – the contemporary context. From this point of view, the analysis focusing the feminine diarist writing has two major key-elements: the approach on the feminine cultural activity, which has been ignored too long now, imperatively asking for a moral and intellectual re-reading and the relation established between the diary and the contemporary Postmodern quest for the intimate, self-confessing narratives recovering the real world rather than for fiction itself.

Multilingualism in Education: A Poststructuralist Critique

Discussions of multilingualism in education, as exemplified by the articles in this issue, can be critically reevaluated using perspectives available from poststructuralism. These perspectives focus on the potential ambiguity of language and language practices. This, in turn, encourages us to question simple notions of the relationship of learners to the languages they speak, especially the “mother tongue,” to see the individual's relation to language as a relation to power, and to recognize the polyvalent role of language tests in the context of multilingual education as, on the one hand, enforcing the relations of power in language and, on the other, disrupting them. The article focuses on the extent to which these themes are acknowledged in the articles in this issue, exploring the impact of the contrasting contexts represented, and presents examples of other discussions, especially in colonial and postcolonial contexts, that reflect alternative views of multilingualism in education. These include Derrida's reflections on his own language socialization as a colonial subject in Algeria during the time of the Vichy regime and studies of the role of language in contemporary education systems in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Effects of Personality and Information Technology on Plagiarism: An Iranian Perspective

Information technology has played a remarkably important role in developing the contemporary educational system. It not only provides easy access to enormous stores of information but also increases students' scientific efficiency. However, the availability of this technology has also led to increased plagiarism. This study attempted to explore how access to Internet technology contributes to plagiarism problems from the perspective of university students in Iran. A qualitative method to semistructured interviews with 20 students suggested important themes: uncertainty avoidance, tendency to use shortcuts to progress, symbolic certification, social learning and modeling of faculty members as mentors, and plagiarism in the name of justice. Survey data from 180 university students suggest that the personality characteristic of conscientiousness had a negative effect on using information technology to commit plagiarism.

The new spatial politics of (re)bordering and (re)ordering the state-education-citizen relation

One outcome of more than three decades of social and political transformation around the world, the result of processes broadly referred to as globalisation, has been the emergence of a complex (and at first glance, contradictory) conceptual language in the social sciences that has sought to grasp hold of these developments. Throughout the 1990s, theorists began to emphasise a world in motion, deploying concepts like “liquid modernity” (Zygmunt Bauman) to signal rapid and profound changes at work in the social structures, relations, and spatialities of societies (Neil Brenner) that were reconfiguring state-citizen relations (Saskia Sassen). Recently, however, researchers have concentrated on the study of borders and containers as a corrective to the preoccupation with mobility, arguing it is not possible to imagine a world which is only borderless and de-territorialised, because the basic ordering of social groups and societies requires categories and compartments. This paper focuses attention on processes of bordering and ordering in contemporary education systems, suggesting that comparative educators – whose main intellectual project is to understand how (different) education processes are re/produced within and across time, space and societies – would get much greater purchase on transformations currently under way.

Gibbons straddles the Mozambican public education system: Critical literacy challenges and moral dilemmas in Mozambican new curriculum

While the concept of literacies has been heavily contested in the last two decades in Africa, the monumental studies on the concept have emphasised micro climate settings of classrooms and insignificant attention has been devoted to examining the connections between classroom practices and national policy imperatives. We therefore attempt to contextualise a particular genre of literacy (critical literacy) within the realm of a national education system policy. We marshal critical literacy and position it against the Mozambican educational landscape to unravel the extent to which the national curriculum captures and informs this genre of literacy. The social pressures on the contemporary education systems, rapid technological advancement and the need for socially relevant knowledge have necessitated educational systems to revisit the genres of literacies they offer, and specifically, to foreground critical literacy. Drawing on Gibbons' mode 2 knowledge production systems that emphasises practical application of knowledge in the contexts of its production, we examine the extent to which the current knowledge production systems and the new curriculum in Mozambique reflects critical literacy practices that foster self-critical, responsible learners who contribute significantly to the society. Drawing on Mozambique's policy statements, education system, and academic literature in the field, we argue that the educational landscape and new curriculum in particular have not only undermined possibilities for Mozambican learners to become self-critical, but have compromised the quality of education against regional and international standards.

The impact of school management trainings and principals' attitude on students' learning outcomes

School management trainings play an important role towards school effectiveness. The contemporary education systems place a high value on school management trainings for attaining improved learning outcomes. The purpose of this study is in two folds: firstly, to assess the effects of management trainings on student learning outcomes and secondly, to ascertain the extent to which principals’ attitudes mediate the relationship of school management trainings and student learning outcomes. The pertinent data was collected from 170 principals, 340 teachers as well as 850 students. The findings of the study reveal that school management trainings equip principals with desired school management skills which enable them to manage respective schools effectively. The study also statistically found significant effects of such trainings on principals’ attitude. Trained principals showed conscious commitment towards motivation and satisfaction of their teachers as well as students. Trained principals mobilize their resources for improving school environment, providing attractive study settings, ensuring adequate community involvement, and developing their teaching faculty professionally. The conclusion of the study points out towards the overall improvement in students’ learning outcomes. Key words: School management trainings, school effectiveness, student learning outcomes, and principals’ attitudes.

The Effect of Ignoring Classroom-Level Variance in Estimating the Generalizability of School Mean Scores

Contemporary educational accountability systems, including state-level systems prescribed under No Child Left Behind as well as those envisioned under the “Race to the Top” comprehensive assessment competition, rely on school-level summaries of student test scores. The precision of these score summaries is almost always evaluated using models that ignore the classroom-level clustering of students within schools. This paper reports balanced and unbalanced generalizability analyses investigating the consequences of ignoring variation at the level of classrooms within schools when analyzing the reliability of such school-level accountability measures. Results show that the reliability of school means cannot be determined accurately when classroom-level effects are ignored. Failure to take between-classroom variance into account biases generalizability (G) coefficient estimates downward and standard errors (SEs) upward if classroom-level effects are regarded as fixed, and biases G-coefficient estimates upward and SEs downward if they are regarded as random. These biases become more severe as the difference between the school-level intraclass correlation (ICC) and the class-level ICC increases. School-accountability systems should be designed so that classroom (or teacher) level variation can be taken into consideration when quantifying the precision of school rankings, and statistical models for school mean score reliability should incorporate this information.

Review Article: Comparative Political Science and the Study of Education

The study of education has long been a neglected subject in political science. Recently, however, scholarly interest in the field has been increasing rapidly. This review essay introduces the general readership to this burgeoning literature with a particular focus on work in comparative public policy and political economy. Particular topics discussed are the historical and political foundations of contemporary education systems, the political and institutional determinants of education policies, the internationalization and Europeanization of education, the political economy of skill formation in varieties of capitalism and the effects of education policies. The article also introduces scholarship in related disciplines such as economics, sociology and comparative education sciences, and points out avenues for future interdisciplinary dialogue between political science and these disciplines.