Global Education Review (Mercy College, New York)
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Teaching Our Own Babies: Teachers\u27 Life Journeys into Community-Based Initial Education in Indigenous Oaxaca, Mexico
Get PDFIn an era when U.S. and Mexican teachers are valued more for their academic achievements than their community-based knowledge and local/ethnic identity (e.g. Teach for America, or its off-shoot, Teach for Mexico), this study provides initial results of a one-year (2011-2012) intensive professional development experience (called a diplomado) for 35 indigenous teachers of Initial Education who are “teaching their own babies” in marginalized communities of Oaxaca, Mexico, as documented in portfolios of written and photographic evidence produced by the teachers as their final diplomado product. The goal was to enrich these local teachers\u27 background knowledge and equip them with research skills to investigate and honor the communal practices, governance, and perspectives (known as comunalidad) of the rural indigenous communities where they teach, in order to generate an authentic, community-based approach to Initial Education for pregnant mothers, babies and toddlers up to 3 years old – a ground-breaking alternative to the Mexican government’s homogeneous Initial Education approach.  Early findings indicate that these Oaxacan indigenous teachers faced a complex of internal and external challenges in this radical, regenerative work: they are young, female, mostly novice teachers, they lack professional preparation, and they have confronted racism throughout their own lives, especially and intensely in Mexican public schools.  In the process of documenting communal life and early childhood socialization practices in rural communities where they teach, they confronted their own (often uneasy) biculturalism and bilingualism.  “Communalizing” early education in indigenous Oaxaca involves reconstructing and revitalizing the indigenous identities and language use of children and teachers alike.  Preparing these local indigenous teachers to “teach their own babies” is a challenging but invaluable and achievable task
Haunted by Math: The Impact of Policy and Practice on Students with Math Learning Disabilities in the Transition to Post-Secondary Education in Mumbai, India
Get PDFOnly six states in India currently identify learning disabilities as a category of disability.  This article highlights the challenges students with math learning disabilities face in their transition from secondary school to higher secondary education and Bachelor of Commerce degree programs in the state of Maharashtra. While the current educational policy aims to help students with learning disabilities participate in the general education curriculum and pass the 10th standard secondary exam, the implementation of curricular modifications has repercussions in post-secondary settings when students lack the math content knowledge for a required math course in their Bachelor’s degree program. This qualitative study highlights the transitional experiences of secondary and post-secondary individuals with math learning disabilities in Mumbai through interviews with students, college administrators, and lecturers; and a document review of Maharashtra’s special education policies. The results suggest that current special education policies and college practices in Mumbai do not prepare students with math learning disabilities with the math knowledge that they need to succeed in post-secondary mathematics courses. Current higher secondary and post-secondary interventions in Mumbai are reviewed and implications for policy and practice for all levels of education are discussed
Rocket to Creativity: A Field Experience in Problem-Based and Project-Based Learning
Get PDFThe purpose of this article is to examine the impact of a field experience in problem-based (PBL) and project-based learning (PjBL) on pre-service and in-service teachersΓÇÖ conceptions of experiential learning. ┬áIn our study, participants had been enrolled in a hybrid class that included an online component in which they learned about PBL and PjBL and an experiential component in which they facilitated PBL and PjBL with children in grades 1-9 during a one-week field experience on a university campus. ┬áThe goal of the field experience is for teachers to change their practice from didactic to inquiry and to promote critical and creative thinking in their students. ┬áWe used a case study method that involved data derived from six different sources: online structured interviews, follow-up telephone interviews, discussion board posts, reflections, course feedback, and observations.┬á The main theme that emerged from the data analysis was the critical role the field experience played in applying theory to practice.┬á Sub-themes included understanding the process of implementing PBL and PjBL, mastering the logistics of PBL and PjBL, becoming facilitators, and collaborating with partners.┬á Results showed that the field experience gave the teachers the ΓÇ£courageΓÇ¥ to experiment with a student-centered methodology.┬
Practical Funding Strategies for Scholars and Professionals
Get PDFBook Review of: “Grant Writing” by Rekha S. Rajan and Daniel R. Toma
"Thinking as someone else" - Using Avatars in teacher education and the challenge to think and act as someone else.
Get PDFThis article discusses an alternative learning project that has been conducted in an online course at a teacher education program from Fall 2012 to Fall 2015. As part of the course, students have to create avatars and think and act as their avatars when faced with educational issues. The project strives to overcome challenges that teacher education programs have to take into account when preparing students to become teachers. A qualitative research study has been conducted in order to find out more about the studentsΓÇÖ thinking and learning in this innovative approach of the online class. Results of the study and the implications for the project will be discussed
Open Educational Resources: American Ideals, Global Questions
Get PDFEducational relations between societies and cultures that begin with benevolent intentions can come to be seen as threats to national autonomy and local preferences. Indeed, side by side with the growth since the first years of this century of Open Educational Resources (OER) there has been worry about their impact on global educational development. Evaluation and research have lagged behind the steady expansion of access to online resources, leaving estimates of the value of digital innovation to the enthusiasm of OER providers and technology minded educational reformers. The advent of the ΓÇ£Massive Open Online CourseΓÇ¥ (or MOOC) has exacerbated the problem, with attention moving toward a form of OER reflecting the enthusiasm of leading institutions in industrialized nations. The American led movement on behalf of the MOOC requires new questions about the motives, impact, and future of OER. This essay accounts for the history of OER, culminating in the MOOC, including how the latter in particular is an expression of American pedagogical and institutional interests representing belief in the transformative educational powers of the latest communications technologies. Criticism of OER and MOOCs can reflect organizational, operational, and ideological considerations. But it should recognize what they offer when there are few other opportunities for formal learning, and as research demonstrates their uses and impact
Cultural Awareness and Global Citizenship
Get PDFReview of the book ΓÇ£Keys to SuccessΓÇ¥ by Carol Carter and Sarah Lyman Kravit
The Quest for Educational Excellence
Get PDFA review of the book“The Global Fourth Way: The Quest for Educational Excellence.” By Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2012. ISBN: 978-1412987868  Individual chapters in The Global Fourth Way center on examples of high performance in Finland, Singapore, Alberta (Canada), Ontario (Canada), England, and California (US). Each captures the essence of educational models, practices, and issues in the region at large, before focusing on specific cases that support key values in their proposal. For example, in “Chapter Five – Alberta: Innovation wit
