(2014). The School's Democratic Mission and Conflict Resolution: Voices of Swedish Educators. Curriculum Inquiry, v44 n4 p531-552 Sep. Swedish educational policy mandates have given schools a double mission: the development of content-based knowledge as well as the promotion of democratic values and competencies. While detailed learning outcomes are specified for content domains, the democratic mission is imprecisely described and unsupported by practical measures. This leaves interpretation and effective implementation up to schools and individual educators. One way in which this mission can be clarified is by examining how conflict resolution practices intersect with, and may contribute to, democratic citizenship education. This article presents findings from interviews with 10 Swedish educators regarding their interpretations of the democratic mission. Although every participant affirmed in general terms that there was an important relationship between the school's democratic mission and their practices of conflict management, no participant believed that he or she possessed the specific knowledge, skills,… [Direct]
(2016). SEL Update: 2010-2011 through 2014-2015. Publication 14.138RB. Online Submission This supplemental report provides information from the full report (published separately) that describes campus effects of AISD's Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) program from the year prior to SEL implementation (i.e., 2010-2011 when available) through 2014-2015. Analyses also examine which SEL outcome measures were related to SEL implementation ratings. A separate executive summary report also was published. [For the full report, see ED626960. For the executive summary, see ED626961.]… [PDF]
(2019). Global Framework on Transferable Skills. UNICEF "The Global Framework on Transferable Skills" has been developed to support UNICEF in delivering on the results of its "Strategic Plan 2018-2021" and "Every Child Learns: UNICEF Education Strategy 2019-2030," and provides a shared vision of work on skills development across UNICEF. The Framework guides UNICEF country offices, policymakers, programmers and educators to embed transferable skills within different education and learning systems, resulting in the systematic development of a breadth of transferable skills, at scale, across the life course and through multiple learning pathways: formal, non-formal and community based. [For "UNICEF Strategic Plan, 2018-2021," see ED608930. For "Every Child Learns: UNICEF Education Strategy 2019-2030," see ED599626.]… [PDF]
(2017). Justice-Sensitive Education: The Implications of Transitional Justice Mechanisms for Teaching and Learning. Comparative Education, v53 n3 p333-350. This article introduces the notion of "justice-sensitive education"–derived from the ideals and practices of transitional justice (TJ) in countries emerging from conflict. It describes three mechanisms for this: structural reforms (relating to inequity and division); curriculum change (the treatment of history, human rights and citizenship) and institutional culture (critical thinking and democratic, participatory pedagogy). A case study of Sri Lanka provides fresh illustrations of actual or potential work in these three areas. There appear five challenges to a justice-sensitive education: the wider context of schooling; willingness of educators to confront the past; barriers to introducing the critical thinking required for new norms and values to take root; programming and planning; and difficulties in measuring the impact of TJ measures in education. Yet however imperfect, TJ mechanisms indicate a society that wants to learn from past mistakes and show that some form of… [Direct]
(2017). Immigration and Emigration: Canadian and Mexican Youth Making Sense of a Globalized Conflict. Curriculum Inquiry, v47 n1 p36-49. This paper discusses findings from focus groups with youth located in underprivileged surroundings in one large multicultural city in Canada and in a moderately large city in Mexico, examining their understandings and lived experiences of migration-related conflicts. Canadian participants framed these conflicts as a problem of racist attitudes towards immigrants in an otherwise welcoming city. Mexican youth understood emigration as a questionable individual dream to overcome precarious economic conditions, bringing about violence to those travelling and family fractures for those who stay. We identify tensions between these dominant narratives about mobility and conflict–usually also present in intended curriculum–and students' first-hand, every day experiences with migration in each setting. We point out to youths' contrasting imaginaries of citizenship–sense of agency and identity positions–with regards to migration in each setting, showing the limited opportunities they have… [Direct]
(2013). Designing Student Citizenship: Internationalised Education in Transformative Disciplines. International Journal of Art & Design Education, v32 n2 p215-225 Jun. Design is a transformative, socially engaged practice and design education must provide a platform from which that practice can grow. Education plays a vital role in preparing design students to move beyond a purely reactive state to one in which they are actively engaged in shaping the world around them. Such a shift is built upon the provision of a holistic education that invites interaction with the concepts of democracy, engagement and empathy at the global scale. At a time when our graduates need to be prepared for global citizenship and design without borders, higher education has moved sharply toward discipline specific training and job preparation and away from liberal education and the development of critical thinking abilities. The internationalisation of education in design disciplines is reliant upon the formation of deep connections that are an embedded part of a student's larger academic career, rather than an isolated opportunity. Rather than focus on… [Direct]
(2015). Assessing a Broad Teaching Approach: The Impact of Combining Active Learning Methods on Student Performance in Undergraduate Peace and Conflict Studies. Journal of Political Science Education, v11 n2 p204-220. Teaching introductory International Relations (IR) and peace and conflict studies can be challenging, as undergraduate teaching frequently involves large student groups that limit student activity to listening and taking notes. According to pedagogic research, this is not the optimal structure for learning. Rather, although a teacher can pass on information, the student must actively create one's own understanding, something that is not done through the traditional "Sage on the Stage" style of pedagogy. This article assesses this assumption by examining the impact of active learning on student learning outcomes and argues that a multiple teaching methods approach is able to meet the varying learning preferences of the broader student group and thus improves actual and self-perceived student performance. In a 3-year project, different approaches were introduced during the first semester, including smaller seminar groups, simulations, the use of film, and practitioner… [Direct]
(2016). A Place for "Fundamental (British) Values" in Teacher Education in Northern Ireland?. Journal of Education for Teaching: International Research and Pedagogy, v42 n3 p354-368. This paper examines the distinctive locus of teacher education in Northern Ireland (NI) in respect of Fundamental British Values (FBV). It is written from the perspective of teacher education tutors in a PGCE programme that explicitly subscribes to pursuing the Shared Future agenda as outlined by NI Government policy in 2005. First, it establishes the inappropriateness of pursuing an FBV agenda in NI where the historical and contemporary context has been characterised by division expressed through opposing British and Irish identities; and, emerging from conflict where future political progress requires greater accommodation between these two often hostile positions. Second, using data from a previous Teaching and Learning Research Programme study (2005) on Values in Teacher Education as an indicator of student teacher social and political attitudes, it draws on later NI census (2011) and Life and Times Survey data (2005 and 2008) to identify the challenges and opportunities facing… [Direct]
(2016). Five Ways the Sustainable Development Goals Are Better than the Millennium Development Goals and Why Every Educationalist Should Care. Management in Education, v30 n3 p102-104 Jul. For 15 years the millennium development goals (MDGs) were a guiding force for many issues affecting the lives of children and young people around the world. Agreed by UN member states in 2001, the eight MDGs were designed as a framework around which states were expected to develop policy priorities and shape their overseas aid spending plans. The goals provided a focus for donors, international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around an overarching ambition to reduce global poverty and its worst effects. Over this time, through a combination of economic growth, more targeted development spending, technical progress and improved cooperation, life certainly has improved for millions of children. Tremendous progress has been made in reducing preventable child deaths, getting more girls and boys into school, reducing extreme poverty and ensuring more people have access to safe water and nutritious food. However, although astonishing improvements have been made on… [Direct]
(2014). Reconciliation through Dialogical Nostalgia in Post-Conflict Societies: A Curriculum to Intersect. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, v44 n1 p117-135. The curriculum has been proposed as a powerful means with the potential to initiate social transformation. It reflects the dominant social, economical and political discourses and for this reason it seems reasonable to situate reconciliatory discourses in relation to the curriculum. Whilst curriculum scholars mostly agree that we need to seek new directions and ways of understanding curriculum, there is little consensus about the direction the field should take. Two particular issues that this article addresses are the tendency of curriculum practitioners to tackle social issues at a symptomatic level instead of considering the roots of the problems, and the over-emphasis on the political dimension with little or no attention given to the ethical dimensions of the curriculum. In an attempt to develop new ways of understanding curriculum and enabling social change, I explore nostalgia as a way to stimulate dialogue over competing narratives. To facilitate this exploration, I draw on… [Direct]
(2016). A Conceptual Framework to Analyse the Multiscalar Politics of Education for Sustainable Peacebuilding. Comparative Education, v52 n4 p516-537. A critical and more nuanced understanding of the multifaceted relationship between projects of peacebuilding and educational provision is starting to develop. Drawing on an epistemological and ontological anchor of critical realism, and a methodology informed by the application of cultural political economy analysis and the strategic relational approach to understanding educational discourses, processes and outcomes, we illustrate how the "many faces" of education in conflict-affected situations can be better theorised and conceptually represented. In doing so, we link goals of peacebuilding to those of social justice, and reinvigorate the notion of education playing a transformative rather than a restorative role in conflict-affected contexts. Making such ideas concrete, we provide examples of how such an analytical framework can be employed to understand the multi-faceted relationship between education and projects of social transformation in conflict-affected… [Direct]
(2015). Perceptions of Geography Students in the USA and Egypt on Global Issues. Intercultural Education, v26 n5 p377-396. The study aimed to compare the perceptions of Egyptian and US students on global issues. The authors developed a survey of global issues and administered it to sample of 321 Geography students in the USA and Egypt. The survey tapped five issues: global citizenship, cultural diversity, global conflicts, nuclear arms race, and global warming. The results showed that there were significant differences in Egyptian and US students' perception of each of the global issues…. [Direct]
(2017). Fund Education, Shape the Future: Case for Investment. Replenishment 2020. Global Partnership for Education The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is the only multilateral partnership and fund dedicated exclusively to education in the world's poorest countries. The partnership includes developing country partners, donor countries, multilateral agencies, civil society, teachers, philanthropic foundations and the private sector. GPE brings together and amplifies the skills and mobilizes the resources of many to help developing countries to deliver results in education. GPE works to expand inclusive and equitable quality learning by helping low- and lower middle-income countries build stronger education systems. These are the goals of the 5-year strategic plan, GPE 2020. It includes a comprehensive results framework with 37 indicators, disaggregated by gender. The indicators also track comparative progress in countries affected by fragility and conflict. The results framework enables, for the first time, mutual accountability for all partners working in education. This document presents… [PDF]
(2017). Literacy Instruction for Conflict Analysis and Response of Compassion. AERA Online Paper Repository, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (San Antonio, TX, Apr 27-May 1, 2017). This interpretive research was at the intersection of language acquisition, literacy development, and social education. The multisite study of literacy instruction that addressed compassion as a conflict response involved qualitative analyses of data gathered from lesson artifacts, observations, interviews of the participating teachers, and survey of student's self-reported learning. The participants were multilingual teachers and students in three borderland schools of the USA. Their social construction of compassion evident in literacy lessons revealed their diverse notions of harm. Variable identification by the students of harm situations highlighted the need for increased conflict analysis that includes multiple perspectives. The findings underscore the validity of harm analysis as curriculum for all students, rather than as a response to conflict some students experience…. [Direct]
(2013). "A Prostitution Alike of Matter and Spirit": Anti-War Discourses in Children's Literature and Childhood Culture before and during World War I. Children's Literature in Education, v44 n2 p120-139 Jun. Histories of the First World War have regularly implicated children's literature in boys' eagerness to enlist in the first two years of that conflict. While undoubtedly the majority of children's books, comics and magazines did espouse nationalistic, jingoistic and martial attitudes, there were alternative stories and environments. Looking at the publications, organisations and educational establishments that opposed the war and resisted the Germanophobia that began to dominate public discourse at the start of the twentieth century casts new light on some of the challenges and dilemmas facing a proportion of boys as they decided whether or not to join up. Additionally, the fact that there were alternative discourses is a reminder that not all readers would have responded in the same way to the same texts. Three areas are considered: children's stories and pamphlets produced by Quakers and peace societies; left-wing publications, especially those associated with Socialist Sunday… [Direct]