(2008). The Affects of Language Assessment Policies in Speech-Language Pathology on the Educational Experiences of Indigenous Students. Current Issues in Language Planning, v9 n3 p299-316 Aug. The role and significance of speech-language pathology (SLP) is not often considered in studies of language planning. SLP has tended to be considered more as an issue for health policy than for language policy. However, the health focus of SLP does interact with language planning especially in education where SLP assessments have implications for language-in-education planning in local contexts and in the development of literacy programmes and educational interventions in schools. It is in the case of assessment in educational contexts in which the concerns of SLP and language planning come closest together. This paper will discuss the implementation of language assessment policies within one rural Aboriginal community school in Australia. These policies have had the effect of medicalising non-standard language systems and increasing existing power imbalances between the Aboriginal people and the non-Aboriginal education system. This has resulted in significant detrimental impacts… [Direct]
(2008). A Case for Early Childhood Development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Working Papers in Early Childhood Development, No. 51. Bernard van Leer Foundation (NJ1) Issues connected with children's welfare and child development are appearing on national and international agendas with greater prominence and frequency. However, the international image of children is becoming increasingly homogeneous and Western-derived, with an associated erosion of the diversity of child contexts. This essay explores the reasons behind such a reduction in diversity, factors that are often considered to be a necessary part of progress. The authors conduct an overview of relevant critiques in the literature of early childhood development (ECD). The paper focuses on international ECD since the UN adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 and presents a review of key ECD developments in Africa since the early 1970s. Culture, context, and diversity are central concerns that have led to the development of several different critical streams of work within early childhood care and education during the 1990s. The authors describe some of these… [PDF]
(2000). Finding the Indigenous in Indigenous Studies. Indigenous Nations Studies Journal, v1 n1 p61-70 Spr. Every component of traditional indigenous life is influenced by the natural world, but indigenous studies programs exclude the natural sciences. To wrest indigenous studies programs from the Eurocentric worldview of the typical American university, the natural sciences should be incorporated into what must necessarily be an integrated, interdisciplinary curriculum. (Contains 33 references.) (TD)…
(2007). Fraught Literacy: Competing Desires for Connection and Separation in the Writings of American Missionary Women in Nineteenth-Century Hawai'i. College English, v69 n5 p443-469 May. In this article, the author begins by discussing relevant research in nineteenth-century women's literacy on intimacy and community building. The author then describes how missionary women stationed in Hawai'i maintained some rhetorical expression and autonomous meaning making through the letters they wrote home to the States, the letters they wrote to each other, and entries in their diaries. The author discusses how these expressions of rhetorical power were compromised by ideological functions, such as concepts of "republican motherhood" and "true womanhood," which served both to broaden and to constrain women's access to literacy and discursive roles. The author analyzes specific records of literacy work, where one can observe the dynamic she has described and witness some of its formative effects. These records constitute three different, primary facets of the broader missionary project, each of which she takes up in its own section: (1) the literate… [Direct]
(2001). Integrating Western and Aboriginal Sciences: Cross-Cultural Science Teaching. Research in Science Education, v31 n3 p337-55. Addresses issues of social power and privilege experienced by Aboriginal students in science classrooms. Presents a rationale for a cross-cultural science education dedicated to all students making personal meaning out of their science classes. (Author/MM)…
(2009). The Economic and Fiscal Costs of Failing to Reform K-12 Education in Georgia. School Choice Issues in the State. Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice This study documents the public costs of high school dropouts in Georgia, and examines how policies that increase school choice, such as the recently-enacted tuition tax credit scholarship program will provide large public benefits by increasing public school graduation rates. The study calculates the annual cost of Georgia dropouts caused by reduced tax revenue, as well as increased Medicaid, public assistance and incarceration costs, and documents the employment impacts that dropouts have on the Georgia economy. It then examines how competition from private schools already raises public school graduation rates, and calculates the dollar value of the public benefits that result from Georgia's increased public school graduation rates generated by a modest school choice program. Key findings include: (1) Georgia residents who were born in the state are twice as likely to be high school dropouts and one-half less likely to have a college degree as residents who have moved to Georgia… [PDF]
(2008). A Collaborative Approach to Literacy: Inner-City Preschool Children, Families and the School Community. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, v33 n3 p27-33 Sep. Makin and Jones Diaz (2002) suggest that young children's early literacy is most strongly supported when early childhood educators, children's families, and the wider community develop shared understandings about literacy–what counts, what is valued and validated, and whose voices are heard and whose voices are silent. Researchers such as Haas Dyson (1993), Kress (1997), and Stein (2003) argue that young children's literacy experiences comprise much more than developing the conventional processes of written language, but also include their use of a range of multiple semiotic symbol systems. This article will explore young children's constructions of literacy, and reveal the important role family members (e.g. parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents) and school staff (e.g. teachers, Elders, speech and language pathologists) play in mediating young children's literacy learning and development…. [Direct]
(2008). The Changing Landscape of Education in Africa: Quality, Equality and Democracy. Symposium Books It is 40 years since Coombs (1967) first drew attention to the World Education Crisis, and specifically problems in the educational systems of countries in the developing world. Today, many of these problems remain, and are most visible in the educational systems of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. A large number of children remain out of school and for those who do enrol, less than half complete the primary education cycle. More worrying is the fact that those who do complete primary schooling leave with unacceptably low levels of knowledge and skills. The problems of access to education, and the quality of learning opportunities and learning outcomes are unevenly spread between rural and urban areas, better- and worse-off constituencies, and between boys and girls. This raises questions about the nature of the state and its commitment to equality and equity for all. The chapters in this volume argue that quality, equity and democratic accountability are inseparable objectives in… [Direct]
(2008). Place (Material, Metaphorical, Symbolic) in Education History: The Townsville College of Advanced Education Library Resource Centre, 1974-1981. History of Education, v37 n1 p141-162 Jan. Place is material, conceptual and symbolic. Physically, the Library at Townsville College of Advanced Education was central, visible and distinctive. Internally, it provided a dramatically different environment from other college buildings. It functioned as the (metaphorical) "hub" of the external studies programme and, when the college was under threat, it formed a symbolic rallying point. (Contains 7 figures.)… [Direct]
(2001). Indigenous Healing Legacies. Winds of Change, v16 n4 p76-80 Aut. On a tour of Cuba, Native scholars from North and South America reconnected with the "extinct" Taino people and shared their knowledge of traditional healing herbs. Western science is just beginning to validate the tremendous knowledge base that indigenous healers have developed–most indigenous medicinal knowledge is useful for finding new treatments for diseases. (TD)…
(1969). Utilizing Languages of Minority Groups in a Bilingual Experiment in the Amazonian Jungle of Peru. Community Develop J, 4, 3, 117-122, 69 Jul. …
(1994). Garden of Wisdom. Earthwatch, v13 n4 p8-9 Jul-Aug. Describes the work of Pacho Piaguaju, a Siona Indian and one of the last authentic native shamans of the Colombian Amazon. He has set for himself the task of preserving his people's knowledge of medicinal plants, partly through the education of Colombian schoolchildren. (LZ)…
(2007). Cultural Diversity in Outdoor Education. Pathways: The Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education, v20 n1 p15-18 Aut. At first glance Sioux Lookout is a typical northern Ontario town, situated within an intricate lake and river system, socially focused on year-round outdoor activities, and enveloped by kilometres and more kilometres of undomesticated Canadian Shield landscape. One might think this would be an ideal spot for outdoor education, just as these authors did when they moved here only a couple of years ago. In fact, they specifically envisioned building a not-for-profit business that would fill the need for alternative professional training and youth programming through the use of outdoor experiences. However, as young people ready to bring atypical forms of outdoor education to the culture of Sioux Lookout, the authors were unaware of how the atypical culture of Sioux Lookout would instead expose the need for change in their outdoor education programming. Self-proclaimed as the "Hub of the North," Sioux Lookout is one of the major towns that services over 40 First Nations… [PDF]
(2007). Improving Student Outcomes in Higher Education: New Zealand Teachers' Views on Teaching Students from Diverse Backgrounds. Teaching in Higher Education, v12 n5-6 p655-668 Oct. The research literature on student retention is voluminous and longstanding. However, a unified theory of retention remains elusive; instead a variety of explanations and approaches have been developed. This article uses two discourses, "integration" and "adaptation," to make sense of the findings from a survey of teachers who taught students enrolled for the first time in seven tertiary institutions in New Zealand. While the article reports results from the survey, it focuses particularly on how tertiary teachers understand diversity; whether and how they accommodate diversity in their teaching. It offers some critical reflections on these teachers' views about diversity. [This project was funded by the Teaching and Learning Research Institute.]… [Direct]
(2007). Reviewing Policy: Freire, Critical Education, and the Environmental Crisis. Educational Policy, v21 n3 p457-470. The publication and distribution of "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" (Freire, 1974) was a landmark event in the field of education. Since its original publication and subsequent translation into many languages, Freire has influenced millions of people worldwide as the corpus of his work has been disseminated during the past 30-plus years. For better or worse, such widespread distribution of Freire's work has meant that his words and ideas have been reinterpreted within settings that are radically different from his original context of Brazil in the early 1960s, and thus it has often been misunderstood, misapplied, and naively maligned by many (Freire & Macedo, 1995). Although occasionally raising interesting questions, "Rethinking Freire: Globalization and the Environmental Crisis" (Bowers & Apffel-Marglin, 2005) represents a collection that runs the risk of adding to such decontextualized and maligned interpretations of Freire. In this essay, the authors… [Direct]