Formal School System Research Articles

Education for all (EFA) and the ‘African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS)’: The case of the Chewa people of Zambia

This research is an investigation of whether 'African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS)' can enhance the achievement of Education for All (EFA) with particular reference to the Chewa people of Zambia. The study raises challenges that many countries have experienced in their effort to achieve EFA. Among the Chewa people of Zambia, quality, relevance and credibility of the education are some of the reasons affecting the provision of education to all. This research has argued that formal schooling education, in its current form may not be the right vehicle to deliver EFA goals. The research has proposed alternative forms of knowledge that could be hybridized with the formal schooling education to address some of the challenges identified. The research has tried to re-appropriate some Chewa AIKS to theorize curriculum and pedagogy reforms that could enhance the achievement of the EFA goals. I have used qualitative research methodology in the study. The respondents in this study were drawn from two areas of community of practice i.e. the Chewa traditional chiefs and elders as perceived custodians of the Chewa AIKS and the educationists, as implementers of education programs and policy and curriculum designers. Key issues identified by this research include the following: that a replacement of the formal schooling education by the AIKS is not an answer to the current challenges facing the provision of meaningful education to all; that through consultations, and co-ordination by all stakeholders and research in AIKS and formal schooling education, either system would shed off elements perceived as barriers to EFA; and be hybridized to complement each other to enhance the achievement of EFA goals; that the formal schooling education should not be considered to be superior to informal and non-formal education systems, but that all are critical components in this quest. Theories and frameworks of hybridization of forms of knowledge/education have been considered in this research. I have argued that hybridizing AIKS with the formal schooling system will only become significant if an economic value is added to the AIKS through some mechanisms put in place. The practical skills embedded in AIKS could foster career building, entrepreneurship and apprenticeship if linked to the money economy of employment and wealth creation. I have argued that there may be need to establish opportunities for AIKS holders to be accredited within the National Qualification Framework and policy framework on AIKS be enacted to regulate and protect IK, and guide the hybridization process. The study highlights three main frameworks on the hybridization of the AIKS and the formal schooling curriculum: (1) Mainstreaming/ Incorporation/ Integration/ infusion of the AIKS into the formal school curriculum. (2) Establishing IK as a core subject with a structure similar to those of other core subjects in the curriculum. (3) Teaching AIKS as a component of the seven official Zambian languages that are taught in schools.

Practices of the Regular School System that Exclude Almajirai from the Benefits of Basic Education

Declarations made at Jomtien, Dakar and in the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) have committed nations of the world to universalizing access to quality basic education for all. It is against this background that this paper examines the difficulties pupils of Qur'anic schools (almajirai) may face as attempts are made to fit them into the existing structures of regular schools. Presently, Qur'anic schools are quite inadequate in meeting the basic education needs of a growing child. Their flexibility to local conditions, low cost and religious value have attracted a large number of school-age children to them. To expand the benefits of modern education to these children, the Education for All (EFA) and Universal Basic Education (UBE) campaigns are experimenting with various strategies to integrate these schools into the UBE. In its contribution to this arrangement, this paper highlights elements of the current structure of the formal school system that are incongruous with the demographics of Qur'anic schools and their clients. These areas of mismatch need to be addressed so that whatever arrangement is made for the “Almajirai” does not compound existing practices that exclude them from basic education.

Integrating African Indigenous Knowledge in Kenya’s Formal Education System: The Potential for Sustainable Development

The current paradigm shift toward promoting education for sustainable development gravitates toward alternative approaches to school curricula in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is argued that solutions to problems that currently plague the continent and with reference to the Kenyan context must proceed from understanding of local capacities such as the role of indigenous knowledge in promoting sustainable development. This can be achieved by integrating indigenous knowledge into the formal education system to address some of the knowledge deficiencies for development that is currently formulated from the western perspective. This approach challenges the dominance of western knowledge in Kenya’s school system that makes education disembodied from context. The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning of indigenous knowledge, provide rationale for valuing indigenous knowledge in formal school system, examine the government’s efforts to indigenise curricula, and dilemmas to integrating indigenous knowledge in formal education with implications to teacher education programs.

Chemists and "the public": IUPAC's role in achieving mutual understanding (IUPAC Technical Report)

Abstract This report informs IUPAC's efforts to enhance the public understanding of and appreciation for chemistry by evaluating IUPAC's mandate, strengths, and weaknesses, and providing insights from a substantial review of the relevant science communication literature. It summarizes the recommendations of an IUPAC project whose overall goal is to provide a framework that will bring the same level of intellectual rigor to IUPAC's science communication activities as to its scientific activities. This implies that careful attention must be paid to the terminology used to describe these activities, to clear articulation of goals and motives for public understanding of chemistry initiatives, and to inclusion of rigorous evaluations of outcomes from the outset in the design of projects on the public understanding of chemistry. Informed by our analysis of best practices for science communication, this report provides the following conclusions and recommendations: 1. IUPAC has an important role to play in enhancing public understanding of chemistry. 2. Public understanding of chemistry activities aimed at supporting teachers and students within the formal school system are more effective than those aimed at the general public. 3. IUPAC's primary targeted public should be IUPAC chemists and educators, and IUPAC's most important role is to help them understand and work with a variety of other publics. 4. It is proposed that IUPAC's niche be to focus on activities that indirectly enhance public understanding, such as: (a) Helping scientists identify and understand their publics. (b) Influencing international organizations. (c) Supporting science education systems, particularly in countries in transition. (d) Supporting scientists and educators by communicating relevant findings from IUPAC projects, conferences, and activities at an appropriate level. (e) Supporting national chemical societies and other organizations. 5. Recommendations are presented for steps to be undertaken by IUPAC to implement these recommendations and to develop a clearer strategy for public understanding of chemistry initiatives and activities.

Sustainable development education in Scottish schools: the Sleeping Beauty syndrome

This paper reviews and discusses the development of Sustainable Development Education (SDE) policy within the context of the Scottish formal school system. The focus is on the progress, and lack thereof, of implementation of SDE in schools in the light of some of the key curriculum documents and associated political decisions and advisory reports. The period of the review dates from 1993, which saw the publication of a report that was regarded as the seminal document for the development of environmental education in Scotland, to 2007 and the Scottish Executive's proposals for SDE in the light of curriculum reform for schools for the 21st century. The paper employs, loosely, the metaphor of the Sleeping Beauty to tell the story of SDE in Scotland in three parts: the story's three phases of emergence, obscurity and re‐emergence might serve as a useful metaphor, here.

Developing functional literate citizens in South Western Nigeria

This paper examines strategies of developing functional literate citizens in Western Nigeria because it is believed that the problems of unemployment in the area are caused by the non-functional literacy programmes that have been on for long. The aim of the study is to promote the teaching of functional literacy to adults and those who are out of the formal school system so that they can effectively tackle their unemployment situation and then solve their socio-economic problems. Key words: Functional literacy, basic literacy, unemployment, literacy development, western region and gainful employment.

Reform of Higher Education and the Return of ‘Heroic’ Leadership: The Case of Denmark

Denmark is experiencing a comprehensive package of educational reform aimed at enabling that country to recalibrate itself to the demands of the so-called 'global knowledge economy'. In relation to the higher education sector, a new system of university governance is being implemented where boards are appointed (ultimately) by the State and comprised of a majority of members external to the institution. To further shape (if not direct) the work of universities, the new University Law requires that institutions prepare a 'development contract' with the Ministry, and that this is used as a framework within which universities direct their activities. To facilitate this process a new conception of leadership is invoked. Whilst university leaders ('rektors' in the Danish context) were previously elected by the academic staff of the institution, the new arrangements require that they be appointed by the board which looks to the rector to 'run' the institution and fulfil the demands of the development contract on their behalf. The study reported here utilises ethnographic method to explore such issues at a time of unprecedented change in Denmark. Notions of the leader as 'hero' - common in contemporary universities despite the general shift in the business world to notions of transformational and distributed leadership - appear not only difficult to eradicate but positively emboldened by the current reform movement. The paper explores different understandings of leadership, both in the literature and 'in action' via the perspectives of university leaders and decision-makers in the Danish case, before considering whether the current reforms make necessary such models of control and if the scope of action of such leaders is seriously curtailed by contemporary education policy. Key words: Leadership, University Reform, Education Policy Introduction '...we appear to be programmed towards seeking out single causes or sources to order complexity.. .observing a flock of birds in flight makes us assume straight away that the bird out in front is the leader who sets the flight path.. .yet no such thing happens.' (Lakomski 2005:16) The Danish University Law of 2003 (MVTI 2003) represents both a continuation of a process of change in Danish higher education as well as a clear departure from existing practice and tradition. On the one hand, the reform continues a process of opening up universities to their constituencies, streamlining management and funding processes and improving the connections between education and employment. In other respects, though, the Law represents a violent departure from Danish custom; imposing from above new hierarchies and power relations and removing from universities themselves the obligation of self-governance from amongst the faculty (see Krejsler 2006 for an elaborated discussion of the changing discursive space of Danish universities). The overall policy script for these changes is the partially understood challenge of the so-called 'knowledge economy'. Universities are being identified, along with the formal schooling system, as key contributors to Denmark's future economic prospects. Educational programmes are being shaped to better meet the needs of the labour market and research provision is presently being rationalised to create 'economies of scale' that will enable fewer but larger Danish institutions to compete 'globally'. Research is also under pressure to become more commercially-oriented both in terms of formal agreements to share and transfer knowledge, and more generally in terms of disseminating findings to the public. This latter demand will play an increasingly significant role in researchers' own administration of what counts as 'relevant' and thus legitimate. The 2003 Law is a central element in this overall policy framework. Here, university governance and management have been subject to a radical overhaul. Decisionmaking processes have been reformed via the establishment of new boards comprising a majority of members from beyond the university itself. …

Connections with the land

This article focuses on an Inuit elders' ‘land-skills training course’ to explore its meanings regarding the concept of connection with the land, with particular reference to transmitting knowledge. While it is said that Inuit have close relationships with nature, their present attempts to ‘bond’ young people with the land have not been extensively examined. The study revealed a dilemma in contemporary Inuit society concerning what they should know and how they should be, at a time when traditional modes of knowledge transmission among extended family members were not functioning well. The course rationale was to guide young people to ‘be and become an Inuk’, the core of this being establishing a connection to the land. The formal school system was perceived as not delivering what community members considered to be important. A proper relationship with the land is directly linked to sustainability, and the land-skills course was the Inuit's response to questions about a sustainable future.

The education and training of employees in 12 counties in China

Developing competence in the workforce for a changing economy is a challenge to a nation’s education system. This study examines what education and training systems have been made available to the workforce. For this study, in 1998, 31,736 employees were surveyed from 401 firms in 12 counties across China: four in two eastern provinces, four in two central provinces and four in two western provinces. The analysis found that, in addition to hiring graduates from the state‐managed formal school system, employers assumed responsibility for providing on‐the‐job training and delivering job skills to their employees. At the same time, employees also paid to receive education and training offered by institutions outside of their firm to develop skills to meet their own needs. The study also found that the provision of education varied among the three regions according to the level of economic development in those areas.

Adult consumer education across Europe – redressing the market or reaching the vulnerable consumer

Consumer education is an important EU and United Nations priority. In most countries’ formal education systems, it is not a single discipline in its own right, but a cross‐curricular subject involving many areas of the school curriculum. Adult consumers are expected to be critical and informed consumers but may not know how to acquire the appropriate skills. The formal school system in many countries has failed to deliver these skills and values and adults need consumer education through both formal and informal means. With increasingly varied societies consumer education will help to produce active socially responsible citizens and citizenship is an essential element of the delivery of consumer education to adults. It is particularly important that consumer education should reach the vulnerable groups in society. Increasing globalisation and business power necessitate ethical and sustainable business practices; an informed, educated and empowered consumer will strengthen the market place to the benefit of both consumers and business.Unlike school education, adult education across Europe is fragmented with a mixture of formal education, including training for vocational qualifications, continuing and community education, and informal education, an essential contributor to life‐long learning delivered through media, women's groups, consumer groups and many other large and small organisations.The issues have been addressed by the EU Socrates supported CEA (Consumer Education for Adults) project which has 10 partners from 7 European countries drawn from non‐government organisations, teacher training and adult education institutions, universities and research institutes. The project has produced a training manual for adult consumer education, a training module, piloted in Vienna, which includes a handbook of teaching materials and a video, and has initiated a dialogue between consumers, consumer educators, business and producers.

In Their Own Voices: First Nations Students Identify Some Cultural Mediators of Their Learning in the Formal School System.

Theories of cognition argue that children develop thinking, communication, learning, and motivational styles consistent with the culture into which they are socialized. Cultural socialization, therefore, influences how students learn, particularly how students mediate, negotiate, and respond to curriculum materials, instructional strategies, learning tasks, and communication patterns in the classroom. But what specific aspects of culture influence the learning of a particular group of students? The author set out to answer this question in relation to First Nations students by conducting research among First Nations students in a Winnipeg high school. Five culturally relevant themes were identified that provide insights into the development of appropriate instruction for preservice teachers for the enhancement of cross-cultural communication, the design and implementation of assessment strategies, and the creation of effective instructional materials. These are traditional Aboriginal approaches to learning, patterns of oral interaction, concepts of self, curriculum relevance, and the educator's interpersonal style.

In Their Own Voices: First Nations Students Identify Some Cultural Mediators of Their Learning in the Formal School System

Theories of cognition argue that children develop thinking, communication, learning, and motivational styles consistent with the culture into which they are socialized. Cultural socialization, therefore, influences how students learn, particularly how students mediate, negotiate, and respond to curriculum materials, instructional strategies, learning tasks, and communication patterns in the classroom. But what specific aspects of culture influence the learning of a particular group of students? The author set out to answer this question in relation to First Nations students by conducting research among First Nations students in a Winnipeg high school. Five culturally relevant themes were identified that provide insights into the development of appropriate instruction for preservice teachers for the enhancement of cross-cultural communication, the design and implementation of assessment strategies, and the creation of effective instructional materials. These are traditional Aboriginal approaches to learning, patterns of oral interaction, concepts of self, curriculum relevance, and the educator's interpersonal style.

Grooming for success? The impact of adolescent society on early intergenerational social mobility

The attainment of initial status in adult society involves a series of transfers between distinct systems of adolescent stratification. The social and cultural resources of the childhood family may be converted into status within informal adolescent society and within the formal school system. In turn, family resources and status accrued during adolescence influence educational attainment and income in early adulthood. In this article, the outlines of these processes are specified in a structural model and tested in a nationally representative 12-year follow-up sample of high school sophomores in the United States. The findings in general support the validity of the model for White, Black, and Hispanic males and females.

Problems of Working Women in the Rural Informal Sector of Punjab (Pakistan)

The informal sector plays a significant role in Pakistan’s economy as well as in other developing countries. The role of the informal sector in solving the unemployment problem of Third World countries has become the focus of a conceptual and empirical debate in recent years. Most of the research takes a favourable view of this sector and suggests that it should be used as a policy instrument for the solution of the most pressing problems of developing countries, such as unemployment, poverty, income inequalities, etc. Before proceeding further, we will define the informal sector and differentiate it from the formal sector. There are various definitions, but the one given in an ILO report (1972) is generally considered the best. According to this report, informal sector activities are ways of doing things characterised by a heterogeneous array of economic activities with relative ease of entry, reliance on indigenous resources; temporary or variable structure and family ownership of enterprises, small scale of operation, labour intensive and adapted technology, skills acquired outside the formal school system, not depending on formal financial institutions for its credit needs; unregulated and unregistered units, and not observing fixed hours/days of operation.

A Multicultural Global Culture: Not a Question of When, But How: Some Roads to Cultural Integration for Peace

The paper compares multilingual and multicultural competence and identifies a number of similarities. One of them is the capacity of children to learn languages and cultures, provided the competence comes from significant others like friends rather than through a formal school system. Two parents may well raise their children in two languages and two cultures, but one parent is advised not to switch. The author's own family biography, and Hawai'i, are used as examples. Better passive knowledge of other languages and cultures than none at all; and general softening of cultures is more peace productive than one global culture.

Integration of Environmental Education in Social Science Curricula at the Secondary School Level in Nigeria: problems and prospects

Summary Nigeria is one of the developing world countries that are committing themselves to the importance of environmental education (EE) as a means of improving the environment, which has suffered from considerable pollution and degradation. As part of the strategies’ for raising the level of awareness and engendering attitudes amongst the population through the formal school system, the Federal government has designed curricula with strong EE elements for a brand new subject called citizenship education to be introduced at the primary and secondary levels. As a response to this situation, this paper examines the existing elements in and the various approaches to integrating EE in social science with reference to Nigeria. This is followed by an analysis of the constraints and the support systems which are likely to be helpful to EE at the secondary school level. Some measures and guidelines that could enhance the effective integration of EE at the secondary school, if practised, are suggested.

Education and Industrialization: The Korean Nexus in Human Resources Development

This paper reviews the role of education and human resource development in the process of modern Korean economic growth. It also attempts to analyze the problems the Korean society now faces and thereby present a future direction. In this effort, the paper attempts to examine the process of Korean industrialization and its relation to educational development over the last few decades. The paper then tackles some problems faced by the national human resources development system, focusing on the formal school system. The paper concludes with an exploration of some policy tasks for education with respect to human resource development in Korea.

Japan's Juken Industry

Research Article| May 01 1992 Japan's Juken Industry Tuvia Blumenthal Tuvia Blumenthal Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Asian Survey (1992) 32 (5): 448–460. https://doi.org/10.2307/2644976 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Tuvia Blumenthal; Japan's Juken Industry. Asian Survey 1 May 1992; 32 (5): 448–460. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2644976 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAsian Survey Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1992 The Regents of the University of California Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

150 years on: English in the Nigerian school system-past, present, and future

This article examines the place of English in the Nigerian education system. It sees the introduction of English as a product of evangelical expediency, in which missionaries passed the language baton to colonial administrators until English became the official language of the country. It is noted that even after political independence from the colonial masters, English still occupies pride of place in Nigeria, especially in the formal school system. The fact that Nigeria is a multilingual country with as many as 450 languages is discussed; and the implications of and reactions to the constitutional and National Policy on Education emphasis on three major Nigerian languages are examined. I suggest that in spite of the inchoate, half-hearted attention being given to indigenous languages in the school system nowadays, the prospects for English in the school system and in Nigerian society are still very bright. But to survive, English must submit itself to some modifications, adapting to the Nigerian linguistic environment.

Feminist Perspectives on Peace Education

Two books by Birgit Brock-Utne, Educating for Peace and Feminist Perspectives on Peace and Peace Education, convey the picture of their author, an internationally known activist in women's work for peace. Peace is defined not only as absence of violence, but as equality of rights as well. The author provides plenty of facts about the disadvantageous living conditions and position of women, and classifies this information into categories of violence. A feminist perspective on peace education means concentrating on women's possibilities to influence the socialization process of (their) children. The author's personal contribution consists of analysing a wealt of research results from the viewpoint of gender-specific socialization. Starting from the view that boys are educated for war and girls for peace, the author develops a view of socialization that would promote peace. The discussion of socialization concentrates on its influence on personality traits of youngsters, but the growth process itself is not really analysed. Seen from the author's feminist perspective, the formal school system is unfit for peace education, functioning to maintain the existing (male) power structure of society. Conceptual extrapolation from individual traits to the relationships between nations and national states is characteristic of many views presented by the author. In the final pages of the second monograph, the author states that in order to promote peace, changes should be made simultaneously at the micro-, meso-and macrolevels of society. If this is taken seriously, then the role of the formal school system cannot be overlooked.