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Many academicians, politicians, and educators strongly believe that knowledge, organized in school curricula and transmitted through school systems, contributes to the economic strength of nations. How valid is this claim?
Political actors within the modern state--in both the West and the Third World--argue that more schooling can provide remedies for a variety of economic and social ills. But what is the state's actual efficacy in sparking demands for, and constructing effective forms of, mass schooling? Is the state really an effective agent relative to educational demands originating from other institutions: competing economic interests, the family, and the school institution itself? Under what institutional conditions does school expansion spur economic growth and change? Since the 1960s, institutional and economic theorists have advanced responses to these important issues from three theoretical perspectives: functionalist human capital, class conflict, and world institution frameworks. This volume reviews historical work on these critical issues, conducted over the past two decades in the United States, Europe, and the Third World. Review chapters are complemented by reports of new findings--authored by a novel array of international economists, sociologists, and political analysts pulled together for this unusual initiative. Following a review chapter on the state's role in boosting mass schooling and economic change, Part 1 focuses on the historical origins of literacy and schooling. Part 2 reports original work on national economic effects of school expansion, drawing on experiences from both industrialized and developing economies. Part 3 turns to the issue of how central states attempt to craft the supply of, and manipulate popular demand for, schooling. Practical implications are discussed throughout. Top researchers have gathered an abundance of evidence, providing a rich reference volume for scholars and social policy makers alike.
The Routledge International Companion to Education addresses the key issues underpinning the rethinking and restructuring of education at the beginning of the new millennium. The volume contains over fifty major contributions exploring a wide range of issues, including: * philosophy of education * the economics and resourcing of education * testing and assessment: current issues and future prospects * standards * multiculturalism * anti-racism * computers in classrooms * mother tongue education * civics and moral education. Each chapter gives a contemporary account of developments in the field, and looks to the future and the directions that new activity and inquiry are likely to take. All the chapters are written from an international perspective.
This edited volume is a state-of-the-art comparison of primary science education across six East-Asian regions; namely, the People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea, Republic of China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, and Singapore. While news of educational policies, classroom teaching, assessment, and other educational innovations here often surface in the international media, this book brings together for the first time relevant information regarding educational systems and strategies in primary science in East Asia. Above all, it is a readable yet comprehensive survey—readers would have an accurate sense of what has been accomplished, what has not worked so well, and what remains to be done. Invited experts in comparative education research and/or science education also provide commentary by discussing common themes across the six regions. These types of critical synoptic reviews add much value by enabling readers to understand broad commonalities and help synthesize what must surely be a bewildering amount of very interesting albeit confusing body of facts, issues, and policies. Education in East Asia holds many lessons (both positive and negative) to offer to the rest of the world to which this volume is a timely contribution to the literature.
This Reader brings together a wide range of material to present an international perspective on topical issues in science education today. In order to identify what themes should be addressed in the book, thirty-eight science educators from around the world responded to the question: 'What issues are currently important in science education in your country?' The outcome is this lively and authoritative Reader, which features topics as varied as: globalisation assessment pupil's views on science education environmental education teaching approaches teacher development multimedia and ICT constructivism. With a specially written introduction from the editor, providing a much-needed context to the current education climate, students of science education will find this Reader an important route map to further reading and understanding.
This wide-ranging handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the field of education as viewed from a sociological perspective. Experts in the area present theoretical and empirical research on major educational issues and analyze the social processes that govern schooling, and the role of schools in and their impact on contemporary society. A major reference work for social scientists who want an overview of the field, graduate students, and educators.
Putting Sociology to Work; Chapter 4 Gender, Race, and Class: Attempts to Achieve Equality of Educational Opportunity; Gender and Equality of Educational Opportunity; Class, Race, and Attempts to Rectify Inequalities in Educational Opportunity; Integration Attempts; Educational Experience of Selected Minorities in the United States; Improving Schools for Minority Students; Summary; Putting Sociology to Work; Chapter 5 The School as an Organization; The Social System of the School; Goals of the School System; The School as an Organization.
This book contributes to critical thinking about globalization and educational knowledge and, at the same time, opens our spirits to the theoretical opportunities and educational enrichment that the globalization era offers.
First published in 1992, this book presents unique quantitative data on the content coverage of primary education in a large number of countries since 1920. It demonstrates that these curricular outlines tend to be surprisingly similar across very disparate countries, and suggests the world processes that produced this result. Specifically, the study shows that the contemporary primary curriculum dates from changes in the late nineteenth century; that there has been a general shift towards a ‘social studies’ subject; that instruction in mathematics and sciences has tended to expand; that there have been substantial increases in foreign language instruction (and changes in the languages taught); and that instruction in the arts and physical education come to the standard world education model much later than other subjects. This work will be of particular interest to those studying primary curriculum, international education and the sociology of education.
