Global Education Review (Mercy College, New York)
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Reading Humanitarian Heroes for Global Citizenship Education? Curriculum Critique of a Novel Study on Craig Kielburger’s Free the Children
Full text linkLiterature classrooms hold great potential to educate students for critical global citizenship through serious engagement with marginalized stories that test or subvert mainstream knowledges and structures, including the familiar humanitarian framework that dominates Western thinking about the Global South. Unfortunately, much existing literary curriculum in the Global North often does just the opposite. Instead, Western-oriented texts and safe, traditional reading practices contribute to a form of global citizenship that perpetuates Western hegemony and limits expressions of citizenship to benevolent actions. This is especially the case where global citizenship curriculum is developed by NGOs and humanitarian organizations, such as Me to We, a popular social enterprise with increasing influence over education in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.
Using the frameworks of critical global citizenship education, Slaughter’s (2006) theory of humanitarian reading, and Stone-Mediatore’s (2003) notion of reading for enlarged thought, this paper will undertake a close reading of the unit materials for Free the Children, a unit developed by Me to We, which aspires to educate for global citizenship. Unit activities problematically appropriate the voices and viewpoints of child laborers in South Asia by establishing dichotomies between readers and the populations that Me to We aspires to help. This unit provides a means by which to examine the effectiveness of reading a memoir by an exemplary humanitarian, particularly when unit activities are framed by an organization with a particular humanitarian agenda
Is fathers’ involvement in young children’s development and learning in the early years important? Experiences from the caregivers in Tanzania
Full text linkThere has been an increased interest among researchers and policy makers on fathers’ involvement and its implications on children’s wellbeing and learning. Existing empirical evidences from developed countries have documented fathers’ essential role that successfully improve children’s development and learning. However, there is dearth of evidence from developing countries especially from sub-Sahara African contexts. This study was designed to establish Tanzanian experiences particularly Kimamba village in Kilosa district on fathers’ involvement in children’s development and schooling dimensions. Descriptive exploratory study design guided collection and analysis of data of the rural context. A total of 23 fathers were recruited for focus group interviews. The analysis of data revealed that fathers had good understanding on their roles and involvement in child rearing and learning for mastering social and economic welfare of their children, families and larger population. Fathers indicate that their involvement have significant contribution on children’s development across schooling periods and later in life. Their responses range from preparing home environment and crafting home-based timetable for the child to adhere when at home after school hours. The study concludes that, in a context with limited educational resources, parenting education is important for both fathers and mothers. This may ultimately lead to closer parental involvement and collaboration in child rearing and caring. It is therefore recommends that Social Welfare Officers in collaboration with the District Education Officers and teachers should organise and run sensitization programmes to improve fathers’ involvement on children’s development and learnin
Promoting Intercultural Competence in Professional Spaces: Education Abroad Experiences in England for Social Studies Pre-Service Teachers
Full text linkThis article presents a qualitative case study of U.S. social studies pre-service teachers (PSTs) interning in England. We explore how these experiences influence their teaching and their orientation towards culture and cultural difference, and how the structure of education abroad programs are designed to support growth in cultural competence and orientations towards teaching history. Participants are enrolled in a teacher education program that affords social studies PSTs an opportunity to study abroad in England post-student teaching. For this study the developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (DMIS) provided the conceptual frame to explore intercultural competence as it presents a continuum of ethnocentric to ethnorelative perspectives (Hammer & Bennett, 2003). Using this conceptual framework, data were collected from 32 social studies PSTs representing three annual cohorts who participated in the education abroad program from 2015-2017. Data from weekly student journals were captured and qualitatively analyzed. Participants wrote journal entries prior to departure, while abroad, and upon reentry to the United States in response to instructor generated prompts. Three broad themes emerged across the data: (1) living and interning in English society challenged facets of PSTs’ cultural identity and professional practices, (2) PSTs more critically examined their orientation towards social studies education as a discipline, and (3) PSTs expanded their awareness of broader educational issues and concerns. Implications offer insight to how education abroad programs impact pre-service social studies teachers’ pedagogical practices
Addressing Misperceptions of Underprepared Students: A Case Study at a Public American University
Full text linkThis study examines faculty/staff perceptions of underprepared students as well as the experiences of these students in the college setting. Understanding that this crucial population has poor retention, we sought to understand who they were and how the faculty/staff felt about them in an effort to better serve them. While most students surveyed believed their professors wanted them to succeed and were interested in their learning, they also offered insight into areas where faculty could further assist their progress. Faculty/staff revealed both positive and negative feelings about underprepared students, often acknowledging feelings of helplessness when working with them. Through data analysis of surveys from both populations, we identified key areas of focus on which to build a professional development model. By bridging gaps in faculty/staff understanding through a faculty networking approach, we are working together to become more student-ready in addressing student needs wherever they fall, thus promoting student success and retention
Exploring Paternal Involvement from Greek, Greek - Cypriot and Turkish Fathers’ and Mothers’ Perspectives: Cross-National Differences and Similarities
Full text linkAlthough European fatherhood is “in the process of reconstruction and transformation” (O’Brien 2004, as cited in Lero, Ashbourne and Whitehead 2006, 5) and there is a need to create a clear picture about paternal involvement, few studies have explored perceptions on the actual father involvement as well as the factors predicting and relating to father involvement, especially in Southeastern European countries. The present study aims at exploring the role of the father and the types of paternal involvement in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey both from mother’s and fathers’ perspectives. Research results revealed statistically significant differences in terms of the role of the father and the parental styles adopted in a country level and in the way fathers are involved in a parent level. Further, results confirm the hypothesis that father involvement is a multidimensional concept since statistically significant correlations were revealed among scales and subscales
Family Literacy Provides an Effective Response to the U.N. SDGs and Peacebuilding Architecture
Full text linkThis article is grounded in: 1) forty years of successful family literacy initiatives academia; 2) a meta-analysis of these initiatives that has identified connections between the U.N. Peacebuilding Architecture and the global impact of family literacy on peacebuilding and the SDGs. The concept of “family literacy” originates in my 1970s research and is supported by four decades of peer-reviewed family literacy research. The concept is grounded in the recognition that the family is the originating and only organizing principle that all people share, and that all other divisions are secondary
Reimagining Primary Teacher Preparation in Moçambique: Literacy Mentoring in Hybrid Spaces as a Transformative Practice
Full text linkIn this article, we describe our collaborative work with the Moçambique Ministry of Education in re-imagining primary literacy teacher preparation through an initiative that promotes closer personal (literacy focused) relationships between preservice teachers (formandos) and primary-aged students during the formando’s preparation program. Our work seeks to disrupt traditional notions of Moçambique teacher preparation, which are mostly didactic and disconnected from community-based interactions with children. We are working to move toward ideologies that recognize and draw on children’s cultural and linguistic resources. Our collaboratively designed literacy methodologies call for building personal relationships, engaging in responsive teaching, promoting translanguaging, encouraging children to take the lead in their own literacies, and drawing on community resources in our work with formandos. This report will focus on a description of the literacy mentoring program we are enacting and the results of a feasibility study at the Instituto de Formação de Professores de Chitima. We will summarize the mentoring program and the findings from research, discuss our successes and challenges and the ways in which this initiative has the potential to reframe the current mode for academic coursework in primary teacher preparation, and our next steps in Moçambique. This collaborative model stands to inform a re-imagining of teacher preparation that is situated locally and grounded in practice
Transformation of Instructional Practice through Aesthetic Experiences
Full text linkThis longitudinal ethnographic study involved a professional development project, Project Partnerships Achieve Literacy (Project PAL) in South Africa, with eight rural foundation phase teachers who taught Reception (kindergarten) through grade three (R-3). This Project was designed to support teachers in an under-resourced school as they learned strategic approaches to literacy teaching and learning with the aim to improve the reading achievement of their children. Located in aesthetics theory, researchers engaged teachers in aesthetic experiences, or experiences that were infused with the arts (art, drama, video, music, reader’s theater), children’s literature, and technology. Research questions were as follows: What can be learned from an aesthetic approach to professional development? What does engagement look like in aesthetic experiences in professional development? Do aesthetic experiences resonate with teachers and inform their instruction? Three findings emerged from an constant comparative analysis of classroom observations, interviews, teacher artifacts, researcher debriefs, video and audio recordings: 1) Feelings and the arts were significant in what and how teachers learned in professional development workshops; 2) Aesthetic experiences led to critical and democratic talk around professional development and issues of social importance; and 3) Aesthetic experiences informed teachers’ in and out of classroom practice. Findings from this study suggest that professional development holds significant promise when it is sustained, imaginative, and relatable, and positions teachers to think differently about themselves as learners and teachers through aesthetic experiences. We suggest that drawing only from cognitive approaches and one-shot single-session professional development does not deeply address the qualities, feelings, emotions, and embodied responses that comprise the aesthetic experience in professional development, and argue for a deeper understanding of professional development, one in which aesthetic learning and experiences are central to teacher learning
Study Abroad in Teacher Education
Full text linkIntroduction to Special Themed Issue: Study Abroad in Teacher Educatio
Father Involvement with Children with Developmental Delays
Full text linkChildren with developmental delays (DD) pose unique caregiving challenges, given their developmental problems and risks for behavior problems (Baker, McIntyre, Blacher, Crnic, Edelbrock, & Low, 2003). Most of the studies involving caregivers of children with DD have highlighted the role of mothers, with very few studies focusing specifically on fathers. Studies on father involvement in home and school settings provide a theoretical rationale for increasing father involvement to support positive outcomes in children with DD. Synthesizing research on father involvement can further contribute to and shape legislation that ensures equitable access to education for young children with disabilities (i.e., the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). This paper summarizes findings from a systematic literature review of father involvement across home and school settings in families of preschool-aged children with or at risk for DD