scholarly journals Thinking and Acting Across Ponds: Glocalized Intersections of Trepidation, Neoliberalism, and Possibilities for 21st Century Teacher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner ◽  
Renee P. Desmarchelier ◽  
David Gerlach ◽  
Peter Wiens ◽  
P.G. Schrader ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
The United States ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Cheap Labor ◽  
Democratic Dialogue ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Successful Education ◽  
And Training

This article draws upon the cross-continental experiences of teacher educators in Australia, Germany, and the United States to contextualize and connect localized experiences in each country in the education and training of teachers as glocal phenomena. Through a glocal lens, the paper suggests that the dynamics working against the successful education and training of teachers are multifaceted, locally significant, and globally consistent. Two relevant areas are considered, resonating in both the local contexts of the authors and in their global reach, connectivity, and consistency: 1) internal university resistance and fighting over funding, status, and role and 2) over-reliance on market economies that depend on cheap labor fueled by nationalism, neoliberalism, and xenophobia. The authors address issues related to enrollment, reduction, and accreditation within university-based teacher education and training programs as particular areas of common complexity before yielding to discussion of the effects of those concerns situated within neoliberalism and neo-nationalism. The glocalized analysis and critical approach taken by the authors serve as foils to combat the negative scenario that encapsulates the education and training of teachers. Finally, questions are framed to help readers join in the broader discussion in their particularcontexts, extending the capacity for democratic dialogue.

scholarly journals Transformation of Assessment of the Pre-Service Life Sciences Teachers: Issues of Curriculum Development in Education and Training in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 44-60
Author(s):  
Mamsi Ethel Khuzwayo ◽  
Kwanele Booi
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Current Case ◽  
Minimum Requirement ◽  
Qualified Teacher ◽  
Assessment Techniques ◽  
And Training

The Department of Higher Education intends to transform the traditional education theories and practices in the education and training of teachers for the twenty-first century. The attributes of a competent and qualified teacher underpin the envisaged changes in the curriculum to aptly prepare teachers. However, the realizations of the intentions of the department appear to be in vain. Accordingly, the current case studies conducted through qualitative procedures aimed to investigate how teacher educators adhere to the proposals of the Minimum Requirement of Teacher Education Qualifications (MRTEQ). The data gathered through the analysis, of course, guides intended to search for the link between the Life Science curriculum content knowledge and the plan to assess the competences promulgated by the South African Qualification Authority (SAQA). The findings pointed out that the course guide indicated learning outcomes, critical outcomes, and course and module outcomes; however, the assessment criteria were not aligned to the learning outcomes, module outcomes, and assessment techniques or tools. Therefore, the study recommends that academics in teacher education should explore and reflect on the models that could explicitly measure the performance of competencies (foundational, practical, and reflexive) authentically and reliably.

scholarly journals The Value of Competence-based Assessment in Pre-service Teacher Training

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 320-340
Author(s):  
Mamsi Ethel Khuzwayo
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Qualification ◽  
And Performance ◽  
And Training

Given the focus on developing an alternative approach toward improving the quality of teacher education and training in South Africa, teacher educators and curriculum developers face increasing responsibility to implement competence-based assessment in initial teacher education and training. This exploratory examination of the scaffolding assessment of foundational, practical, and reflexive competences conducted through a case study intended to gather data on the experiences, views, and performance of a sample of 42 students in the third-year level of a teacher qualification program. The analytic rubrics with performance descriptors and the rating scale of outstanding, excellent, good, satisfactory, and weak were instruments for gathering quantitative data. The second source of data was face-to-face verbal comments and the diagnostic evaluation conducted by the participants in a focus group on their performance under the codes feedback, feed forward, and feed up in the templates. The analysis of quantitative data presented in the pie chart highlighted different levels of proficiency achieved by participants in foundational, practical, and reflexive competences. The data summarized in the bar chart point to the improvement attained by participants in the focus group. Findings proved that scaffolding assessment into phases allows learners to: regulate their attainment of higher levels of proficiency; work independently; and develop a piece of comprehensive and integrated knowledge, set of skills, and abilities. This study revealed that competence-based assessment is perceived by students to be both an accurate way of gauging their performance and a vital part of the learning process itself.

scholarly journals Domestic and International Perspectives on Financing Adult Education and Training

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 389-390
Author(s):  
Abigail Helsinger ◽  
Oksana Dikhtyar ◽  
Phyllis Cummins ◽  
Nytasia Hicks
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Adult Education ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Low Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Technological Advancement ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
And Training

Abstract Adult education and training (AET) over the life-course is necessary to participate in economic, social, and political activities in the time of globalization and technological advancement. However, little research has been done to identify mechanisms to fund AET opportunities among middle-aged and older adults from a comparative international perspective. Our study aimed to identify strategies to finance AET opportunities for middle-aged and older adults through an international lens, to help identify barriers and facilitators in effort to best support adult learners regardless of education background or socioeconomic characteristics. We carried out a descriptive qualitative study to facilitate an in-depth understanding of funding mechanisms available to adult learners in the selected countries, from the perspective of adult education and policy experts. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 61 international adult education experts from government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and education institutions. Our informants represented 10 countries including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Data included at least one in-depth phone or web-based qualitative interview per informant in addition to information gathered from written materials (e.g., peer-reviewed publications and organizational reports). We identified three financing options that arose as themes: government-sponsored funding; employer-sponsored funding; and self-funding. We found that government-sponsored funding is especially important for low-skilled, low-income older adults for whom employer-sponsored or self-funding is not available. Our results have implications for lifelong AET policy changes, such as adaptations of successful AET funding programs across global communities.

scholarly journals From the Court to the Classroom: Judges’ Work in International Judicial Education

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby S. Goldbach
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Skills Training ◽  
The United States ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Judicial Education ◽  
And Training ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
The Way

49 Cornell International Law Journal 618 (2016).This Article explores international judicial education and training, which are commonly associated with rule of law initiatives and development projects. Judicial education programs address everything from leadership competencies and substantive review of human rights legislation to client service and communication, skills training on docket management software, and alternative dispute resolution. Over the last twenty years, judicial education in support of the rule of law has become big business both in the United States and internationally. The World Bank alone spends approximately U.S. $24 million per year for funded projects primarily attending to improving court performance. And yet, the specifics of judicial education remains unknown in terms of its place in the industry of rule of law initiatives, the number of judges who act as educators, and the mechanisms that secure their participation. This Article focuses on the judges’ experiences; in particular, the judges of the Supreme Court of Israel who were instrumental in establishing the International Organization of Judicial Training.Lawyers, development practitioners, justice experts, and government officials participate in training judges. Less well known is the extent to which judges themselves interact internationally as learners, educators, and directors of training institutes. While much scholarly attention has been paid to finding a global juristocracy in constitutional law, scholars have overlooked the role that judges play in the transnational movement of ideas about court structure, legal procedure, case management, and court administration. Similarly, scholarship examines the way legal norms circulate, the source of institutional change, and the way “transnational legal processes” increase the role of courts within national legal systems. There is little scholarly attention, however, to judges as actors in these transnational processes. This Article situates judicial education and training within the context of judicial functions as an example of judicial involvement in non-caserelated law reform. This Article challenges the instrumental connection between judicial education and the rule of law, arguing that international judicial education became a solution at the same time that the problem— a rule of law deficit— was being identified. This Article also explores whether international judicial education can stand as an instantiation of a global judicial dialogue. Judges have immersed themselves in foreign relations. They are, however, less strategic in pushing their ideological agenda than literature about judges and politics would suggest. This Article argues that judges experience politics as a series of partial connections, which resemble most legal actors’ engagement with the personal and the political.

scholarly journals Talking About Sustainability in Teacher Preparation in Finland and the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-87
Author(s):  
Susan Wiksten
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Us ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Specific Culture ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Scientific Phenomena

This article reports on empirical research findings from a case study of teacher education in Finland and the United States. A sociological perspective was deployed for investigating how the concept of sustainability was addressed in two teacher education programs. One of the programs was located in Finland and the other in the US. The study was carried out in 2015 and 2016. Seventeen semi-structured, open-ended, audio-recorded interviews form the core of the research materials. A thematic analysis of interviews was conducted for identifying articulations related to sustainability in subject-matter specialized teacher preparation. Findings from this study contribute to research on teacher preparation. Notably, by articulating how context-specific culture and social norms contribute to local models of teacher education. Findings from this study indicate that teacher training practices in Finland have encouraged students to articulate sustainability in relation to critical thinking, whereas in the US, sustainability has been articulated in relation to social justice. The key point supported by the evidence is that sustainability was by teachers and teacher educators conceptualized as being about the popularization of knowledge about ecology and biodiversity. The kind of communication that was by teachers and teacher educators described as effective for popularizing knowledge about scientific phenomena were forms of teaching that expanded on content-specific knowledge by connecting it to ethical and civic frameworks of the societies in which students live.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document