(2017). The Future of Music Education in Kenya: Implementation of Curriculum and Instructional Teaching Strategies. Journal of Education and Practice, v8 n6 p171-180. This paper is an evaluation of the parameters of the concept of music curriculum that examines principles underlying the teaching and learning of music. The paper also discusses the practical nature of music education and the need for experiential learning. Music educators worldwide advocate for methods that allow for discovery learning and hence nurture creativity. Findings of other studies in this paper reveal a state of apathy toward music in Kenya and majority of teachers are handicapped in handling music in general. These studies also reveal a weakness in methodologies of teaching music and under-utilization of available resources in music teaching. In all cases, it is conceptualized that music is dismally performed due to the perennial challenges in the curriculum implementation. The study is a focus on Nairobi County, Kenya where secondary schools both private and public teaching and learning music were involved. A descriptive survey was conducted on both groups. Purposive… [PDF]
(2017). What Was out of the Frame? A Dialogic Look at Youth Media Production in a Cultural Diversity and Educational Context in Chile. Learning, Media and Technology, v42 n1 p112-125. This article accounts for an experience of digital storytelling workshops with indigenous adolescents in Chile, and proposes a theoretical and methodological approach to analyze digital creations with a dialogic and ethnographic point of view. Based on this, it discusses the possibilities of digital media production as a strategy for the self-expression of children and adolescents, particularly immersed in unequal and ethnically diverse educational contexts. The specific case of two Mapuche girls reveals complex ways of organizing and positioning their voices, where "girl power" and "post-girl power" discourses are relevant, but not so their ethnicity. The results show that television, with its main audiovisual genres, styles and stereotypes, appears clearly on the teenagers' creations, while the absence of Mapuche signs along the creation process and also into the digital stories seems to be related with two important features of the Chilean educational system:… [Direct]
(2017). Education in Canada: Key Results from the 2016 Census. Statistics Canada The report presents the data from the 2016 Census on the education of Canadians. In 2016, 22.4% of the Canadian population aged 25 to 64 had a college diploma as the highest educational qualification, compared with an estimated 8% among Organization for Economic Cooperation Development countries overall. In 2016, 40.7% of young women aged 25 to 34 had a bachelor's degree or higher, up from 32.8% in 2006. Young men have responded to job opportunities and earnings incentives by moving into the skilled trades sector. The proportion of young men with an apprenticeship certificate increased from 4.9% in 2006 to 7.8% in 2016. First Nations people, M√©tis and Inuit all made gains in postsecondary education at every level. In 2016, 10.9% of Aboriginal people overall aged 25 to 64 had a bachelor's degree or higher, up from 7.7% in 2006. The proportion of Aboriginal people with a college diploma rose from 18.7% in 2006 to 23.0% in 2016. In 2016, gains in education were also evident among… [PDF]
(2012). Pre-Service Teachers' Pedagogical Relationships and Experiences of Embedding Indigenous Australian Knowledge in Teaching Practicum. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, v42 n5 p703-723. This paper argues from the standpoint that embedding Indigenous knowledge and perspectives in Australian curricula occurs within a space of tension, "the cultural interface", in negotiation and contestation with other dominant knowledge systems. In this interface, Indigenous knowledge is in a state of constancy and flux, invisible and simultaneously pronounced depending on the teaching and learning contexts. More often than not, Indigenous knowledge competes for validity and is vexed by questions of racial and cultural authenticity and, therefore, struggles to be located centrally in educational systems, curricula and pedagogies. Interrogating normative western notions of what constitutes authentic or legitimate knowledge is critical to teaching Indigenous studies and embedding Indigenous knowledge. The inclusion (and exclusion) of Indigenous knowledge at the interface is central to developing curriculum that allows teachers to test and prod and create new knowledge and… [Direct]
(2014). Cuba's "Yes, I Can" Mass Adult Literacy Campaign Model in Timor-Leste and Aboriginal Australia: A Comparative Study. International Review of Education, v60 n4 p559-580 Sep. In the field of international adult education, mass literacy campaigns enjoyed wide support in the 20th century, when they were seen as a way to increase the participation of previously marginalised and excluded populations in national development. Cuba's 1961 campaign achieved iconic status, but was only one of many successful campaigns in Latin America, Africa and Asia. In the 1990s, while mass literacy campaigns continued in many countries, scholarly interest in them declined under the influence of World Bank empirical critiques of their effectiveness and increasing postmodern scepticism towards the socialist "grand narrative" of liberation which underpinned some of the more famous examples. Recently, the mass campaign model has gained new impetus through Cuba's international literacy missions, which use an approach known by its Spanish name, "Yo, S√≠ Puedo" [Yes, I Can]. This paper reports on the deployment of this model in two very different settings, one… [Direct]
(2015). Researching Possible Futures to Guide Leaders towards More Effective Tertiary Education. Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, v19 n2 p8-24. This research aimed to inform institutional leaders by producing and disseminating a system wide view of what tertiary education might look like in Aotearoa New Zealand, five years into the future. The researchers were responding to a challenge in a speech at the DEANZ 2010 conference by a highly respected national leader (Dr. Peter Coolbear). The outcome became known as the DEANZ2016 scenario set. Using JISC scenario planning methodologies, including interviews of 16 national and international education leaders, the scenario set was developed on an X axis depicting the tension between facing the academy vs facing New Zealand employers, professions and iwi, and a Y axis depicting the tension between standardized education vs customization to personalise learning. Each of the four quadrants aimed to expose and contrast potential future scenarios. These were entitled: "Articulation," "The "Supermarket"," "Quality Branded Consortia," and… [PDF]
(2015). Integrating "Ubunifu," Informal Science, and Community Innovations in Science Classrooms in East Africa. Cultural Studies of Science Education, v10 n4 p865-889 Dec. This study examines the relationship between informal science and indigenous innovations in local communities in which students matured. The discussion considers methods for bridging the gap that exists between parents' understanding of informal science ("Ubunifu") and what students learn in secondary schools in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. In an effort to reconcile the difference between students' lived experiences and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) taught in classrooms, this study presents an experiential iSPACES instructional model as an example of curriculum integration in science classrooms. The culmination is presentation of lessons learned from history, including Africa's unique contributions to science, theory, and indigenous innovations, in the hope that these lessons can spur the development of new instructional practices, standards, curriculum materials, professional and community development, and dialogue among nations…. [Direct]
(2019). Relational Positionality and a Learning Disposition: Shifting the Conversation. International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives, v18 n2 p11-25. In the complex and diverse region of Oceania, researchers often work across more than one cultural understanding. Thus, a researcher's position with regard to their research requires careful ongoing negotiation because position, when understood through relationality, is fluid. Negotiating position requires acute reflexivity of the researcher but also offers opportunities for ongoing development and agency. In this article, we use the literature of relational positionality and autoethnographic methodology to discuss two researchers' deliberate re-positioning in relation to their field of education, focusing on deliberate self-change and the application of new conceptual learning. The context is Pasifika education, a space which sits between different knowledge systems as the education of Pacific-origin people in Aotearoa New Zealand. The article demonstrates how storying can support new understandings which, in turn, can help negotiate positionality. The argument draws on data from a… [PDF]
(2019). Advancing Reciprocity in Cross-Cultural Leadership Coaching. Journal of Leadership Education, v18 n4 p178-187 Oct. Leadership coaching is a method of learning and development. This brief describes a leadership practice that was effective in navigating culture when it became a relevant factor in maintaining a reciprocal leadership learning and development partnership. Using a community-based inquiry method, we utilized and examined leadership coaching practice as it attempted to support cross-cultural leadership learning and development that was running alongside an international development project in Kenya. Readers will gain a better understanding of a cross-cultural leadership coaching practice…. [Direct]
(2016). Teacher Ethics: The Link between Quality Teaching and Multi-Ethnic and Multiracial Education. Athens Journal of Education, v3 n4 p331-344 Nov. Many current economic and social challenges lead to waves of migrating people. The countries where migrants seek refuge can be ethnically homogeneous and monolingual such as Greece, or more frequently, ethnically diverse with local Indigenous populations which have been subjugated and marginalized, such as the US or Australia. In either context, a significant corollary of migration is the absorption of children into the local educational system. Migrant children, much like the local Indigenous marginalized children of the host countries, have language barriers and different customs from those of the host country. Cultural mismatches between the culture of the child and that of its teacher have been empirically shown to result in a range of negative outcomes for the child, including behavioural infractions, low academic outcomes and dropping out of school. This research illustrates findings from the second phase of an extended study. The study aim was to identify what constitutes… [PDF]
(2015). National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Strategy 2015. Education Council Despite determined effort much more needs to be done to close the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education outcomes. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the first Australians with the oldest continuing cultures in human history. Governments across Australia affirm the right of Aboriginal and Torres Islander people to maintain languages and cultures and acknowledge their deep cultural associations with the land and water. This strategy will guide the education of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people from birth through to further education and employment pathways…. [PDF]
(2015). "Latin" and "Anglo" America Geographic Regions Do Not Exist. Geography Teacher, v12 n3 p132-137. The regional divisions termed as "Latin America" versus "Anglo-America" used by many geographers do not fully reflect the cultural and political trends in the world today. "Latin" is a term that was coined by the French Emperor Napoleon the III in order to justify Mexico's being ruled by Maximillian, and later picked up by political movements in different countries in an endeavor by political powers to cement the rule of a class of people of European origin over native and Afro-descendent peoples. The basis of this was the dominance of the Spanish and Portuguese languages (romance languages–also called "Latin" languages together with French, Italian, Romanian, etc.) in many countries. The intent of this review article is directed mostly to geography educators at grades K-12 and college geography professors and is an attempt at explaining why the terms "Latin" and "Anglo" Americas are not the best when applied to the… [Direct]
(2015). Being Mindful, Heartful, and Ecological in Early Years Care and Education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, v16 n1 p32-41 Mar. We have been in the postmodern turn for some time in early years care and education. As a result, much has been said and written about what policies, theories, and practices we no longer wish to see govern us. However, alternative ways of being in the world with young children still are reticent to take hold. Proposed here is a turn "East," a turn "inward," and a return to our "roots" for wisdom to guide, inspire, and challenge us. Moment to moment living and "being with self," others, and the Earth in deep humility, compassion, and empathy is explored as a pedagogical alternative to the "doing ways" of conventional early childhood practice…. [Direct]
(2015). Building Capacity through Action Research Curricula Reviews. Higher Education Research and Development, v34 n2 p324-337. In Australia, graduates of Master of Public Health (MPH) programmes are expected to achieve a set of core competencies, including a subset that is specifically related to Indigenous health. This paper reports on the methods utilised in a project which was designed using action research to strengthen Indigenous public health curricula within MPH programmes at Australian universities. This aim is achieved through the use of three interlinked "action-reflection" cycles, involving individual Indigenous public health academics who, through their membership in a scholarly network, have undertaken a series of curriculum reviews, which have in turn influenced organisational change in universities. The project results demonstrated how action research can successfully strengthen Indigenous public health curricula…. [Direct]
(2015). Teacher Identity through Autobiographical Reflections of Preservice Teachers' Wider Field Experience. Australian Association for Research in Education, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) (Freemantle, Western Australia, Nov 29-Dec 3, 2015). Preservice teachers enrolled in teacher education programs are required to engage in reflective practice to develop understanding of the teaching profession and to develop a personal teacher identity. Reflective practices are particularly useful during rural and remote Supervised Professional Experiences (SPE). Preservice teachers also reflect on Wider Field Experiences (WFE) which provide them with additional experiences that extend their professional learning. This study examines the value of shared autobiographical reflections of a group of preservice teachers as they completed Wider Field Experience (WFE) in an Aboriginal community school in a rural area. Preservice teachers indicated that the WFE had an impact on their professional learning and contributed to developing a positive understanding of teaching Aboriginal students. However, it was the opportunity to participate in shared autobiographical reflections on the WFE that contributed significantly to their teacher identity,… [PDF]