Western-based Education Research Articles

Stoking the Fires of Pre-service Educators through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ways of Learning

Great emphasis has been placed on embedding Indigenous knowledges and perspectives in western-based education systems and pedagogical practices. This study discusses the results of a four-month program for pre-service teachers that targeted best-practice Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pedagogy. The program challenged existing notions of western-based teaching and learning through innovative approaches to the design of learning. Specifically, the program has been underpinned by the 8 Ways Aboriginal Pedagogical Framework which focuses on interconnected learning experiences which have been developed through Aboriginal systems, protocols, values and processes. The program embedded authentic practices aimed at empowering pre-service teachers. The research design explored four dimensions of empowerment relating to embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives: knowledge, understanding, perceptions and attitudes. Quantitative survey data was gathered pre and post program and paired samples t-tests were conducted and found all four dimensions of empowerment improved significantly following the program (p < 0.05). The results of this study demonstrate the effectiveness of teaching, learning and assessing through the lens of the 8 Ways Aboriginal Pedagogical framework to increase teacher agency to become more culturally responsive educators.

CONCEPTUALIZING PERCEIVED BENEFITS AND STUDENT ENROLMENT INTENTION

Innumerable research has been done on perceived benefits in transnational higher education, such as Desire, career aspirations, and Diverse Program Options, and how these facts could affect Student Enrollment Intentions. The concept of factors persuading students to select a TNHE program has always discussed several other factors such as Facilitating Conditions, Institutional Reputation, Perceived Price Value, Convenience, and so on. However, this study discovers the relationship between Perceived Benefits and Student Enrollment Intention with three dimensions in place, such as Desire for a western-based education, Diverse program options, and Career Prospects and the author would conduct a much more extensive literature review with a combination of statistical analysis that discusses the relationship. It was also identified with the literature support that Educational Aspirations mediate between Career Prospects and Student Enrollment Intention for which a thorough statistical backing would be discussed in this chapter. Since it is easy to understand by internal and external stakeholders and has theoretical, literary, and statistical support, the study "Perceived Benefits and Student Enrolment Intention Framework" is topical and pertinent. The framework guides those wishing to develop curricular and pedagogical initiatives to increase student enrollments in TNHE.

Melalui Nilai Kepemimpinan Spiritual Membentuk Epistimologi Pendidikan Islam

Islamic education is currently experiencing problems regarding quality and negative cycles. Many studies show that leadership is an influencing factor in an effort to change the negative cycle into a positive one, schools that do not yet have good quality can be turned into quality schools in this case also require support from within Islamic education. In this article, we will discuss spiritual leadership and its significance in improving the quality of education which is currently in decline. In the descriptive analysis method, this article argues that the stagnant education system is partly due to the concept of a purely Western-based education that offers spiritual leadership as an alternative.

Melalui Nilai Kepemimpinan Spiritual Membentuk Epistimologi Pendidikan Islam

Islamic education is currently experiencing problems regarding quality and negative cycles. Many studies show that leadership is an influencing factor in an effort to change the negative cycle into a positive one, schools that do not yet have good quality can be turned into quality schools in this case also require support from within Islamic education. In this article, we will discuss spiritual leadership and its significance in improving the quality of education which is currently in decline. In the descriptive analysis method, this article argues that the stagnant education system is partly due to the concept of a purely Western-based education that offers spiritual leadership as an alternative.

Reflexivity in International Contexts: Implications for U.S. Doctoral Students International Research Preparation

Aim/Purpose: Learning to conduct research, including considerations for concepts such as reflexivity, is a key component of doctoral student preparation in higher education. Yet limited attention is given to doctoral student training for conducting international research, particularly in understanding researcher reflexivity within international contexts. Background: Incorporating reflexive practices in one’s scholarship is of particular importance because international research often includes U.S.-based researchers working with cultural groups and contexts that are very different from them. Thus, we examined the following: how do novice U.S. trained researchers understand the role of their reflexivity in qualitative international research? Methodology: We utilized qualitative inquiry to answer the study’s research question. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 participants representing 11 higher education doctoral programs in the United States. Contribution: This study provides insight on how U.S. doctoral students reflect on their researcher reflexivity as emerging international researchers utilizing three types of reflexivity as outlined by the conceptual perspectives that frame this study: introspection, social critique, and discursive deconstruction Findings: Most participants believed that self-reflection is a critical component of reflexivity in international research. Several participants demonstrated an awareness of the privilege and power they bring to their international research based on their identities as Western-trained researchers. Participants utilized different forms of self-reflection when collecting, analyzing, and interpreting their data in order to ensure that the voices of their participants were appropriately represented in their research Recommendations for Practitioners: Our recommendations for graduate preparation programs include helping doctoral students to understand reflexivity as both a research concept and an applied practice in international context. Recommendation for Researchers: We recommend that novice researchers learn how to incorporate reflexive practices when conducting research because as emerging scholars they can have a better sense of how who they are and how they think about research influences their research activities. Impact on Society: Implications from this study affect Western-based education programs that seek to internationalize curriculum and research priorities. Future Research: In terms of next steps, we recommend research that explores how faculty train doctoral students to participate in the global contexts of educational research.

Chinese one-child families in the age of migration: middle-class transnational mobility, ageing parents, and the changing role of filial piety

One-child transnational families are the product of the “one-child” policy, access to foreign travel, and the rise of a middle class that could afford overseas education for the only child. One result was the possibility of the only child, following its Western-based education, settling (semi)permanently in the host country. This situation raises the issue of how the only child balances the opportunities in the West with the filial responsibilities to ageing parents back in China. Recognising the diversity of family forms, this study highlights the “human story” of ageing and intergenerational relations in families split between China and the UK. Drawing on 40 interviews, which included one-child migrants in the UK and some of their parents in China, this article explores the views of both generations. The findings indicate that international migration and increased family affluence did not lead to the erosion of filial piety. However, the practice and perception of filial piety among these families underwent a complex transition. Distance and borders posed future significant barriers for parental long-term care. One-child migrants tended to compensate for the lack of material/practical care by providing long-distance emotional care for their parents. Both generations expressed ambivalence towards this new transnational family contract. Instead of focusing on the practical outcomes, this article argues for the importance of examining how the members of transnational families perceive their filial behaviour. This focus brings out the less visible changing dynamics of intergenerational care in the context of modernisation and globalisation.

Learning in Foreign Cultures: Self-Reports Learning Effectiveness Across Different Instructional Techniques

Substantial numbers of Chinese mainland students are enrolled in overseas Western-based business courses but aredislocated from their home cultures. Business education curriculum and course designers need to understand howthese students are best trained in western style education programs. Four-hundred students in Singaporean businesstraining programs provided differential ratings of perceived learning effectiveness, plus dislocation measures offamiliarity, comfort and ease of knowledge transfer for each of ten commonly used instructional strategies previouslyinvestigated by Rodrigues, four of which he termed “active” and six “passive”. In terms of perceived learningeffectiveness alone, Mainland Chinese students reported clear differences. In order of decreasing effectiveness, theyreported lectures by instructors, case-studies, group projects, videos, guest speakers, classroom presentations,individual research projects, classroom discussions, computerized learning and lastly, reading textbooks. The studypresents strategies and practices for facilitating effective learning for mainland Chinese students in western basededucation – choice of instructional techniques and mixtures, attention to students’ cultural dislocation, comfort,familiarity, and ease of knowledge transfer.

Expatriate Managers in China: Defining What it is to be “Effective”

The concept of managerial effectiveness is examined as it relates to a group of expatriate managers across China. Interview studies were conducted with the managers about their perceptions of effectiveness in general, their own managerial effectiveness, and the effectiveness of Chinese managers in China. The expatriates' definitions of effectiveness were consistent with Western theories of effectiveness, while their assessment of their own managerial effectiveness in China and that of their Chinese counterparts tended to consider the substantial influence of traditional Confucian and contemporary Chinese cultural norms. The expatriates stressed the need to maintain relationship harmony in organizational contexts in order to achieve managerial effectiveness in China. The expatriates also expressed how the focus on relationships rather than regulations, processes, contracts, and strictly adhered-to business plans was in contrast to their Western-based education. The study suggests a need for Western-based management education to incorporate Confucian-influenced management theories of effectiveness in order to prepare managers for the cultural realities of managing in China.

Islamic versus Western Conceptions of Education: Reflections on Egypt.

Creating an education system based on Islamic principles while also meeting the demands of a modern, technological world is a daunting, perhaps impossible task. This paper examines the contradictions between Islamic education theory and the Western-based education systems found in most Islamically oriented countries. Egypt is used as a case study to illustrate the complex and delicate balance policy makers must achieve in meeting the needs of economic development while also affirming their countries' Islamic cultural heritage.

The Hidden Half: A History of Native American Women's Education

In this article, Deirdre Almeida presents an overview of Native American education since the Europeans' arrival in the Americas, with a focus on its effect on Native American women in the United States from 1878 to the present. Until recently the history of Native American women has only been touched upon, but over the past decade, Native American women scholars have emerged to present their perspectives on the influence of both traditional learning and formal Western-based educational programs on Native women. Almeida examines the educational experiences of Native American women resulting from U.S. government policies, focusing in particular on the off-reservation boarding school program of 1878–1928. Throughout her study, Almeida demonstrates how education was, and still is, connected to the political power of Native American women. Traditional learning has been the means by which Native American women have established and maintained their voices and empowered themselves through gender roles. However, Western-based education, under government control, has been used as an instrument to destroy the traditional power of Native American women, through the shifting of these roles. The voices of the Native American women presented in this study illustrate their resistance to the breakdown of traditional political standing and the use of education to reclaim and protect it.