ECD policies are influenced by the contexts in which they develop. Those contexts include historical, cultural, social, economic and diverse conceptual dimensions operating at international, regional, country and local levels. These forces impact on policy development as well as on policy implementation. This article briefly situates ECD policy…

This article provides an opportunity to look at issues related to capacity building--how the concept has evolved and how it is currently being applied--and a review of the components of effective capacity building in working with individuals and organizations. This is followed by a description of capacity-building projects undertaken by ECDVU…

The main idea this article develops is the conceptual chaos, methodological tensions and epistemological conflicts that are being experienced in the field of environmental education as a result of the uncertainty generated by some institutions and international organisms. The authors' perspective starts from the idea that too many expectations…

This article explores the nature of the author's classroom practice and provides insights about how he constructed and delivered classroom curriculum for the electrical apprenticeship classroom. In this article, the author defines classroom curriculum as the planned and guided learning experiences that take place in a classroom setting with…

Since 1995, the author has been the university music educator responsible to a professional development partnership. Over an 8-year span, she has collected narratives of experience from approximately 100 pre-service music teachers, following, to some extent, the research model of Connelly and Clandinin. In developing their notion of "personal…

This article is based on the authors' experiences and understandings of a schools-university partnership between eight secondary schools and the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. The focus of the partnership is the development of useful practice-based research within, across and between the schools and the university. The authors…

Objective: Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has introduced new work-hour guidelines for residents in ACGME accredited programs that were implemented in July 2003. The new ACGME policies impact several practices in various psychiatry residency programs across the U.S., even though psychiatry has not been at the forefront…

Recent policy developments are changing the work of local education authorities (LEAs) in Wales requiring them to play a broader role in the community and a significant role in raising educational achievement. LEAs are obligated to set out their improvement targets in institutional plans and are called to account by external inspection, which…

Most developing countries have embarked upon the implementation of new models in the teaching and learning arenas, and South Africa is no exception. Because the economic empowerment of a nation depends on the success of its educational strategies, the introduction and development of outcomes-based education (OBE) at all levels of education in…

South African Academic Development (AD) emerged as a liberatory educational and social movement in the 1980s. AD (often called educational development) has burgeoned as an international phenomenon, but with a focus on quality rather than on liberation. South African AD now seems to be struggling to construct its post-apartheid identity, if one…

This article reports on a study of teachers in New South Wales (Australia) and their practices surrounding outcomes assessment and reporting, which took place in 2003 and 2004 as a follow-up to a major study in 1995. The study explored whether the main focus of a teacher's work involves planning, teaching, assessing, rewarding and sharing in their…

This paper uses three examples of educational innovation emerging in the contemporary context of market-liberal reform as a focus for exploring the patterns and possibilities of civic formation. The first part of the paper contextualises contemporary civic formation within the long historic struggle between capitalism and democracy, highlighting…

During a time of reform and accountability, school districts are closely monitoring teachers' instructional decisions, practices, and classroom environments. In this paper, we apply neocolonial theory to describe the experiences of elementary grade teachers in one California school district who are required to follow a scripted basal reading…

How do international speakers of English assert their identities as legitimate teachers of English given the privileged position of the native speaker? To answer this question, we present case studies of two students from Taiwan in their first year of study in a 2-year master of arts in TESOL (MATESOL) program. The data included interviews after…

After ten years of a democratic education system in South Africa , the demographic realities should be better understood in educational planning. The fragmented nature of the pre-democratic education system has led to undesirable perceptions about quality education and has subsequently influenced the demographic imperatives present in the South…