Emerging Methods and Paradigms in Scholarship and Education Research

Emerging Methods and Paradigms in Scholarship and Education Research
Author: Ling, Lorraine
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2019-08-30
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1799810038

There is a renaissance in the use of the term “scholarship,” as it is being used to define areas of academic endeavour, describe academic work and achievements, and measure the quality of higher education. Although all academicians are required to engage in scholarship, it is difficult to navigate as there is a misunderstanding of this concept as new methods and approaches emerge. Emerging Methods and Paradigms in Scholarship and Education Research is an essential academic book that is designed to explain the areas of scholarship and their contemporary relationship to key components of academic work: research, teaching, service, and engagement. The chapter authors explore conceptions of scholarship, paradigms, and methods that fit a variety of contexts and needs. Highlighting a wide range of approaches from scientific realism and neo-positivism to interpretative, transformative, and pragmatic educational strategies and policy, this book is ideal for researchers, teachers, educational leaders, academicians, educational policymakers, and quality assurance agencies.

Understanding Higher Education

Understanding Higher Education
Author: Chrissie Bowie
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2021-08-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1928502229

Drawing on the South African case, this book looks at shifts in higher education around the world in the last two decades. In South Africa, calls for transformation have been heard in the university since the last days of apartheid. Similar claims for quality higher education to be made available to all have been made across the African continent. In spite of this, inequalities remain and many would argue that these have been exacerbated during the Covid pandemic. Understanding Higher Education responds to these calls by arguing for a social account of teaching and learning by contesting dominant understandings of students as decontextualised learners premised on the idea that the university is a meritocracy. This book tackles the issue of teaching and learning by looking both within and beyond the classroom. It looks at how higher education policies emerged from the notion of the knowledge economy in the newly democratic South Africa, and how national qualification frameworks and other processes brought the country more closely into conversation with the global order. The effects of this on staffing and curriculum structures are considered alongside a proposition for alternative ways of understanding the role of higher education in society.

Comparative Education

Comparative Education
Author: Carlos Alberto Torres
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages: 427
Release: 2007-09-16
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0742574504

Comparative Education: The Dialectic of the Global and the Local, Third Edition brings together many of the outstanding scholars in the field of comparative and international education to provide new perspectives on the dynamic interplay of global, national, and local forces as they shape the functioning and outcomes of education systems in specific contexts. Various chapters in the book call for a rethinking of the nation-state as the basic unit for analyzing school-society relations; provide new ways of conceptualizing equality of educational opportunity and outcomes; call attention to the need to study social movements in relation to educational reform; emphasize the value of feminist, postcolonial, and culturally sensitive perspectives to comparative inquiry into the limitations as well as potential of education systems to contribute to individual development and social change; and provide detailed critical accounts of how various international financial and technical assistance agencies shape educational policy and practice in specific regions of the world.

Understanding Influence

Understanding Influence
Author: Thomas Waldman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2016-02-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317004868

The overarching objective of this book is to analyse the manner in which statebuilding-oriented research has and can influence policies in fragile, post-conflict environments. Large-scale, externally-assisted statebuilding is a relatively new and distinct foreign policy domain having risen to the forefront of the international agenda as the negative consequences of state weakness have been repeatedly revealed in the form of entrenched poverty, regional instability and serious threats to international security. Despite the increasing volume of research on statebuilding, the use and uptake of findings by those involved in policymaking remains largely under-examined. As such, the main themes running through the book relate to issues of research influence, use and uptake into policy. It grapples with problems associated with decision-making dynamics, knowledge management and the policy process and draws on concepts and analytical models developed within the public policy and research utilisation literature. This book will be of great interest to researchers, knowledge managers and policymakers working in the fields of post-war reconstruction, statebuilding, fragile states, stabilisation, conflict and development.

Museums and Education

Museums and Education
Author: Eilean Hooper-Greenhill
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2007-12-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 113418168X

At the beginning of the 21st century museums are challenged on a number of fronts. The prioritisation of learning in museums in the context of demands for social justice and cultural democracy combined with cultural policy based on economic rationalism forces museums to review their educational purposes, redesign their pedagogies and account for their performance. The need to theorise learning and culture for a cultural theory of learning is very pressing. If culture acts as a process of signification, a means of producing meaning that shapes worldviews, learning in museums and other cultural organisations is potentially dynamic and profound, producing self-identities. How is this complexity to be ‘measured’? What can this ‘measurement’ reveal about the character of museum-based learning? The calibration of culture is an international phenomenon, and the measurement of the outcomes and impact of learning in museums in England has provided a detailed case study. Three national evaluation studies were carried out between 2003 and 2006 based on the conceptual framework of Generic Learning Outcomes. Using this revealing data Museums and Education reveals the power of museum pedagogy and as it does, questions are raised about traditional museum culture and the potential and challenge for museum futures is suggested.

The Implementation of Teacher Evaluation for Professional Development in Primary Education in Taiwan

The Implementation of Teacher Evaluation for Professional Development in Primary Education in Taiwan
Author: Chao-Wen Liu
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2011-02-14
Genre:
ISBN: 1599423804

Teacher evaluation is an activity of assessing teachers' performance. It is equivalent to teacher appraisal/teacher performance management in England. This study explores the complexities of implementing Teacher Evaluation in primary schools in Taiwan. It concentrates principally on the development of Teacher Evaluation in Taiwan in the light of international research, especially that relating to the English context. The philosophical perspective with which this study is most closely aligned is constructivism. In particular, using qualitative methods of documentary analysis and interviews, it explores the nature of Teacher Evaluation and the meaning held by implementers. Government publications, including books, journals and other documentation from public institutions were examined to trace the development of Teacher Evaluation in Taiwan, and how it might be influenced by globalisation. Interviews were carried out with 3 head teachers and 7 teachers from 3 primary schools in Taiwan and 3 officers from different levels of official organisations. A Recommended Model of Teacher Evaluation was synthesised from the review of international research. Using the Recommended Model of Teacher Evaluation to evaluate the implementation of Teacher Evaluation for Professional Development in Taiwan, the effectiveness of the project was demonstrated. However, by looking at the empirical data, some limitations were observed, including deficiencies in the administrative system, teachers' heavy workload, the reluctance of teachers to accept changes, and insufficient knowledge of the relevant policy. Other obstacles were noted, including inadequately trained evaluators, the lack of a mechanism for professional dialogue, and the incoherence of the educational policy. This study shows that most teachers agree with the measures in the Teacher Evaluation for Professional Development implemented by the Ministry of Education, although some supplementary measures need to be established in a more sophisticated manner before it can be implemented fully. Finally, this study further proposes suggestions for a Teacher Evaluation model based on the Recommended Model of Teacher Evaluation, the implementation of the current Teacher Evaluation for Professional Development, and ideal models mentioned by the interviewees.

Methods and Paradigms in Education Research

Methods and Paradigms in Education Research
Author: Ling, Lorraine
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2016-10-31
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1522517391

The tools used in data collection have the ability to influence the ways information is perceived and generated. Analyzing research processes is a concept that can be overlooked, though is as important as the information itself. Methods and Paradigms in Education Research addresses the innovative formulaic approaches taken in research to challenge their effectiveness. Featuring coverage on selection, forms, and analytical procedures of data, this publication is essential for researchers, students, and academicians seeking current information on understanding research methodology.