National Education Department Research Articles

Research and Publications Output: A Survey of the Psychology Department at UNISA

This study explored factors influencing the production of research and publications by members of the Psychology Department of the University of South Africa. With regard to external factors, it was found that lack of a culture of research and lack of recognition for research and publication in the Department tended to inhibit research. But support offered by the University in terms of recess leave, funding and library resources were sources of encouragement and motivation. Interpersonal factors, such as contact with other academics and students, and publication were also motivating. Internal personal factors, such as self-discipline, enthusiasm and interest, were not as frequently mentioned as external factors. It was recommended that a departmental research committee with a participative approach and clear duties be established to address the needs of staff members. Given the National Department of Education's call for increased research output it follows that academic departments will have to adapt to the proposed funding shift by assessing and strenghtening their existing research capacitites.

Policy Trends and Structural Divergence in Educational Governance: The case of the French national ministry and US Department of Education

The world market, information technologies and the increasing influence of both supra- and sub-national organisations defined the latter part of the century. In the 1980s, many conservative governments responded to these new realities and pressures through neo-liberal market-focused policies, while centre-left governments in the last decade have sought to reconcile these ideas with the traditional Welfare State, a goal which has been labelled the 'Third Way'. The implications of these changes and ideologies for the governance of education have only begun to be explored. The aim of this article is to analyse in comparative perspective how the education ministry in France and the Department of Education in the USA are mediating their role against pressures for policy convergence. While it is evident that there is a significant degree of 'policy convergence' in terms of discourse and objectives between the two countries studied, this article seeks to understand if there is also a similarity in terms of processes and outcomes.

Teacher Learning and Student Learning in TESOL

educational systems at national and local levels (e.g., in Brazil [Ministry of Education and Culture, 1996]; in Italy [Lopriore. 1998]; in South Africa [National Department of Education, 1996]; in the United States [National Commission on Teaching for America's Future, 1997]). The argument, which is grounded in common sense and in research, is that because teachers are central mediators in what and how students learn in

A Problem Solving Strategy for Gifted Learners in South Africa

Many educators and parents in South Africa are concerned about the provision of appropriate educational opportunities for gifted learners. A policy of mainstream education for all learners, including gifted learners, has been accepted by the national Department of Education. In this article a strategy of problem solving in the teaching and learning of gifted learners is explored as a possible way of differentiating the curriculum in order to optimise learning for gifted learners. The TASC (Teaching Actively in a Social Context Model) and Renzulli's Enrichment Triad Model in which learners are required to solve authentic problems are cited as valuable teaching-learning programmes in this regard.

Introduction Hal Draper: A Biographical Sketch

AbstractHal Draper was born in Brooklyn in 1914, to East European Jewish immigrant parents. In 1932 he became active in the Student League for Industrial Democracy and the Socialist Party youth section, the Young People's Socialist League (YPSL). A leader of the Student Strikes Against War, he became an associate editor of Socialist Appeal in 1934. In 1937, the socialist youth, led by Draper and Ernest Erber, voted to support the Fourth International after Trotsky's followers entered the Socialist Party (SP). Draper opposed the subsequent split in the SP, which Trotsky and James P. Cannon deliberately provoked, but left with the Trotskyists and became the national secretary of the Socialist Workers’ Party's youth group, a member of its first National Executive, and the secretary of the party's National Education Department. Irving Howe, a YPSL comrade, later recalled his admiration. Draper was, ‘genuinely learned in Marxism, with a mind that marched from one theorem to another as if God were clearing his way’, a youth leader who ‘would speak for us with a razored lucidity’ in debate with the Stalinists. Draper was part of the minority when the SWP split in 1940 over two issues, the ‘Russian question’ and the ‘bureaucratic conservatism’ of James P. Cannon's internal party regime. Draper became a founder member of the Workers’ Party (WP) , led by Max Shachtman, which developed an analysis of the Soviet Union as neither a ‘workers’ state’ nor state capitalist but a new form of exploiting class society, bureaucratic collectivism. The WP refused to ‘defend the Soviet Union’ and developed a distinctive democratic revolutionary Marxism, summed up by the slogan, ‘Neither Washington nor Moscow but the Third Camp of Independent Socialism!’. And, in reaction to Cannon's monolithic conception of the party, the WP developed a highly democratic internal political culture marked by ‘an atmosphere of genuine tolerance’ unceasing internal debate carried in the public press, and untrammelled rights for minorities.

Musical Pluralism in Java: Three Local Traditions

tudents of in Indonesia, and in other heterogenous countries whose boundaries were formed during era of European colonial domination, often face questions concerning Conscious efforts have been made during twentienth century to mold an Indonesian national culture. But in a country of many thousands of islands, with over 250 distinct ethno-linguistic groups, culture presents formidable problems. 1 Some Indonesian intellectuals feel it necessary to restrain impulses of diverse local cultures in interests of nation as a whole. Others disagree. Umar Kayam has earned a reputation as a champion of Indonesian national embracing plurality rather than effacing it. He asks whether it is possible to forge a homogenous national culture, given such plurality, or whether, instead, the very condition of plurality might not be Indonesia's dynamic force, which is favorable for building a new sort of solidarity. (Umar Kayam 1981:17)2 That solidarity may be taking shape, but in arts it is a gradual process. It would be hard to overestimate aesthetic gulf separating musical traditions in Indonesia today. A Minangkabau woman I talked with while travelling in West Sumatra in 1979 was openly shocked that I was in Indonesia primarily to study Javanese gamelan music. Her own music at least had a clear tune, like western classical music, she said. But Javanese music? All murky-ornamentation without substance. At national university-level conservatory (Akademi Seni Karawitan Indonesia) in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra, one finds, in addition to various local instruments old and new, a complete central Javanese gamelan. The director, Bustanul Arifin, said he found little value in Javanese music and did not encourage his students to study it. The gamelan now sits covered with dust, touched only to be moved out of way for performances of Sumatran traditions. Arifin smiled as he told me that his institution was presented with gamelan because most highly placed men in national department of education and were Javanese. To them, a conservatory of traditional arts anywhere in Indonesia should have a Javanese gamelan.3 In 1979. I attended a festival held at Taman Ismael Marzuki Art Center in Jakarta of high school level conservatories from widely scattered

The Unique Function of Education in American Democracy. By The Educational Policies Commission, Alexander J. Stoddard, Chairman. (Washington: National Education Association and Department of Superintendence. 1937. Pp. 129.)

The Unique Function of Education in American Democracy. By The Educational Policies Commission, Alexander J. Stoddard, Chairman. (Washington: National Education Association and Department of Superintendence. 1937. Pp. 129.)

Thirteenth Yearbook. National Education Department of Elementary School Principals

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsThirteenth Yearbook. National Education Department of Elementary School PrincipalsHannah LogasaHannah Logasa Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Library Quarterly Volume 5, Number 2Apr., 1935 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/613671 Views: 1Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.