(2006). Just Do It: Literacies, Everyday Learning and the Irrelevance of Pedagogy. Studies in the Education of Adults, v38 n2 p125-140 Aut. This paper introduces the significant body of research on everyday literacies that has developed over the last 20 years and links it with the concerns of those working in the field of lifelong learning. It starts by briefly introducing debates about adult informal learning. It goes on to discuss ethnographic and interview studies of everyday learning and literacies, using both print and electronic media. It presents some of the new insights and orthodoxies from this research and discusses the challenges it poses to formal pedagogies. The paper goes on to identify some key issues that still need to be resolved, looking at the strengths and limitations of both informal and formal learning opportunities for literacy. For example, everyday networks have both strengths and limitations for learning; local knowledge resources are flexible but unevenly spread. The paper closes by looking at the implications of this work for the organisation of literacy learning opportunities for adults…. [Direct]
(2006). Troubling Images of Teaching in No Child Left Behind. Harvard Educational Review, v73 n4 p668-697 Win. This article offers a critique of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) related to the implications for teachers in educational improvement. Through an analysis of the NCLB legislation and accompanying policy tools that support it, the authors explore three images or central common conceptions symbolic of basic attitudes and orientations about teachers and teaching that are explicit or implicit in NCLB: images of knowledge, images of teachers and teaching, and images of teacher learning. The authors argue that NCLB leaves teachers void of agency and oversimplifies the process of teacher learning and practice. Furthermore, NCLB undermines the broader democratic mission of education, narrows curriculum, and exercises both technical and moralistic control over teachers and teaching. They conclude by sketching a richer framework for teaching that embraces its myriad complexities and acknowledges teachers' agency, activism, and leadership in generating local knowledge. (Contains 4 notes.)… [Direct]
(2004). Why We Need More Aboriginal Adults Working with Aboriginal Students. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, v29 n1 Article 2 Jun. The culturally shaped communicative context of classrooms has been documented to be an important influence on social and educational outcomes for Indigenous students. There is increasing evidence that it may be a critical factor in the outcomes of Indigenous students with conductive hearing loss (CHL) during their school years. This article describes research that explores social and educational disadvantage associated with conductive hearing loss in two remote schools with wholly Indigenous class groups taught in English by non-indigenous teachers…. [PDF]
(2005). The Development of an Indigenous Knowledge Program in a New Zealand Maori-Language Immersion School. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, v36 n1 p57-72 Mar. In 1985, Te Wharekura o Rakaumangamanga initiated a Maori-language immersion program for children ages 5 through 18. In recent years, a program based on Waikato-Tainui tribal epistemology has been incorporated into the language immersion program. This article describes the community context and the language immersion and tribal knowledge programs. We consider the relationship of these programs to individual and tribal self-determination and to theories of minority achievement, particularly the work of John Ogbu…. [Direct]
(2005). Providing a Culturally Responsive Environment for Gifted Maori Learners. International Education Journal, v6 n2 p150-155 May. Despite the multi-categorical concept of giftedness having widespread acceptance throughout the world, cultural giftedness does not appear to be widely recognised or provided for. This paper examines what cultural giftedness means for Maori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) and describes how a culturally responsive learning environment can contribute to identifying and providing for gifted Maori students. While the paper focuses on gifted Maori learners, the underlying principles are relevant to gifted students from any ethnic minority group. Readers will be challenged to reflect on and share how they recognise and provide for cultural giftedness in their particular area of involvement…. [PDF] [Direct]
(2003). Reconciling Culture and Democracy. Academic Questions, v16 n3 p76-83 Jun. Those who study and propose policy for dealing with the non-Western world are advised to balance their urge to modernize with an appreciation for indigenous social and cultural differences. Equilibrium is important, writes Stanley Kurd, yet the leftists who dominate social sciences have largely abandoned such an appreciation, as have traditionalists who now elevate world democratization over a more particular cultural perspective…. [Direct]
(2008). Academic Medicine Meets Traditional African Healing. Chronicle of Higher Education, v54 n37 pA21 May. Cyril Naidoo, who directs the department of family medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, conducts workshops to traditional healers on how to help patients with AIDS and HIV. In Dr. Naidoo's workshop, the group discusses how to counsel patients about HIV and AIDS, how to refer them for testing, and then how to follow up with HIV-positive patients to ensure that they receive proper care and that the healers' own herbal remedies do not clash with the clinics' powerful and often toxic anti-retro-viral drugs. The healers have been learning about ideas that are alien to the way that they practice medicine: the existence of germs and viruses, the contribution of sexual practices to HIV's spread, and the ways in which viral loads and immune-system cell counts can be used to measure the progress of the disease. This article reports how the threat of HIV and AIDS has caused doctors like Cyril Naidoo and traditional healers to work together to stem… [Direct]
(2005). Land Grant: International Partnerships Bring Benefits Home. Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education, v16 n4 p24-26 Sum. When students from Haskell Indian Nations University set foot in Siberia, they anticipated a new experience. They did not expect something comfortably familiar. Haskell's Dan Wildcat (Euchee member of Creek Nation) explains it was "like being at home" when they first encountered the indigenous people in the Altai region of the former Soviet Union. "Our traditions, customs, and habits were in their eyes."…
(2007). The Hegemony of English as a Global Language: Reclaiming Local Knowledge and Culture in China. Convergence, v40 n1-2 p117-132. English has become the dominant global language of communication, business, aviation, entertainment, diplomacy and the internet. Governments as well as some scholars appear to be accepting such a spread of English uncritically. However, we argue that the increasing dominance of the English language is contributing to neocolonialism by empowering the already powerful and leaving the disadvantaged further behind, an issue that needs attention. Specifically, we discuss how English as a dominant language worldwide is forcing an unfamiliar pedagogical and social culture on to its learners, along the way socio-psychologically, linguistically and politically putting them in danger of losing their first languages, cultures and identities, and contributing to the devaluation of local knowledge and cultures. Drawing on the work of critical theorists who have drawn our attention to the close relationship between language and power, we show how the global spread of English is not only a product… [Direct]
(2007). Child Health Issues in New Zealand: An Overview. Journal of School Nursing, v23 n3 p151-157. International travel can provide the unique opportunity to experience other cultures. For nurses, it can also provide a window through which different health care structures and services can be viewed. Many similarities and differences can be found between the country visited and the United States in terms of health issues, nursing education, roles, and responsibilities. This article explores a number of ways health services are provided to school-age children in New Zealand. Nearly 20% of New Zealand's population are native Maori people. Not only is cultural sensitivity in health service delivery a priority, but the Maori people are guaranteed participation in health care decisions by law. School nurses in the United States can benefit from examining the models of care used by New Zealand nurses for managing the health care needs of school-age children. (Contains 4 figures.)… [Direct]
(2007). Keeping the Local Local: Recalibrating the Status of Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in Education. Science Education, v91 n6 p926-947 Nov. The debate on the status of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in science curricula is currently centered on a juxtaposition of two incompatible frameworks: multiculturalism and universalism. The aim of this paper is to establish a framework that overcomes this opposition between multiculturalism and universalism in science education, so that they become but one-sided expressions of an integrated unit. To be able to do so, we abandon the concept of \truth.\ Instead, we adopt a contemporary epistemology that (a) entails both the cultural and material aspects of human, intersubjective reality; (b) concerns the usefulness of knowledge; and (c) highlights the dynamic, heterogeneous, and plural nature of products of human being and understanding. Drawing on narratives of scientists and aboriginal people explaining a comparable natural phenomenon (a salmon run), we show that both TEK and scientific knowledge, though simultaneously available, are incommensurable and irreducible to each… [Direct]
(2011). Guide to U.S. Department of Education Programs. Fiscal Year 2011. US Department of Education This paper provides an overview of U.S. Department of Education programs authorized and funded under federal law. It includes information as well on the laboratories, centers, and other facilities funded by the Department that provide important resources for education. Each entry, which gives a brief overview of a program or resource, is listed initially by a broad topical heading. The Guide is organized alphabetically according to these topical headings, and then alphabetically by program title within each heading. The program title as well as any commonly or formerly used names for the program come next, followed by the name of the principal office that administers the program. A unique identifier, either a number based on the CFDA (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance) or an assigned ED number follows. After the CFDA or ED number, information is provided about the entities that are eligible to apply to programs. Next comes information on any current competitions, including… [PDF]
(2007). Teaching for Equity? What Teachers Say about Their Work in Aboriginal Communities. Education Canada, v47 n4 p64-66, 68 Fall. Policies to ensure education equity and programs to foster educational advancement among Aboriginal people have been in place for several years in most Canadian jurisdictions. Despite of the successes brought about by these policies, questions about just how much has been accomplished, and how best to secure desired results, remain matters of extensive debate and much skepticism on the part of many groups, including major Aboriginal organizations. Teachers occupy a pivotal role in this scenario. Their roles are framed in both specific terms and broader pedagogical expectations within curricular mandates, while their professional associations have also embraced Aboriginal action plans and initiatives. In this article, the author presents the findings of a study that investigated teachers' work in Aboriginal communities. Teachers in twenty-seven jurisdictions in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were surveyed to gain insight into their perspectives on experiences and current teaching… [Direct]
(1988). Indigenous Knowledge and Learning. Papers Presented in the Workshop on Indigenous Knowledge and Skills and the Ways They Are Acquired (Cha'am, Thailand, March 2-5, 1988). This proceedings documents an international workshop that focused on the research linking indigenous knowledge and indigenous learning with rural intervention programs. Research into indigenous knowledge and indigenous learning could lead to an improvement in rural intervention programs by building upon the knowledge and skills indigenous to rural communities. Individual presentations were on the following topics: (1) indigenous technological knowledge (ITK) in Malaysia relating to agriculture, fishing, forest resource exploitation, architecture, handicrafts, and indigenous medicine; (2) indigenous knowledge in Thailand and the need for ITK research and a close liaison between development workers, researchers, and politicians to safeguard relevance and applicability of research results; (3) the state of research on indigenous knowledge and indigenous learning in the Philippines; (4) research on indigenous knowledge and skills in Indonesia; (5) methodology of research on indigenous… [PDF]
(2004). Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Scholars Can Take Over the Research Process. Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education, v16 n2 p14-15 Win. The article discusses efforts made by native scholars across the U.S. to decolonizing research methodologies. It states that for many years, educators and students at tribal colleges and universities (TCL's) have recognized contributions of community-based scholars and their efforts to preserve and revitalize their cultural traditions and ways of living. Indigenous scholars have learned that such research is sacred work and is essential to their survival. Research also serves the sovereignty and sustainability goals of tribal nations. Author Linda Tuhiwai Smith, a Maori scholar, has published a book \Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous People\ that validates the significance of community-based research and discusses problems that indigenous researchers experienced with Western research…. [Direct]