Religious Diversity and Teacher Education: Experiences and Perspectives of Muslim Women as Teacher Candidates in Pre-service Programs

This qualitative research project explores the insights of Muslim women as teacher candidates completing pre-service programs in Ontario. Ontario schools cater to students from many ethnic, cultural and religious groups, including a sizable Muslim population. Muslims make up 4.6% of Ontario’s population with the highest concentration of Muslims in the GTA (Statistics Canada, 2011). The Muslim population in Ontario is of a significant enough number that, in a post 9/11 world, it has prompted discussion of how to integrate Muslim populations in Canada. In this research, I explore how Islamophobic sentiment is experienced in Ontario-based teacher education programs. I use Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Race Feminism (CRF) to analyse and deconstruct experiences of female Muslim teacher candidates in pre-service programs. I discuss how Muslims are a racialized group that experience racism as discussed by critical race literature; however, there is a marked difference between how Muslim men and women experience gendered Islamophobia. By using in-depth research-based interviews, I explore how Muslim women perceived diversity, education, accommodations and Islamophobia in pre-service programs. This study adds to the current literature on critical race theory and anti-racist practices in education. Furthermore, this study adds to the voice of Muslim women in the discussion of diversity and inclusivity in educational institutions.

Exploring the Current State of Grades 4 to 8 Science Education in Ontario

This study sought to explore the current state of Grades 4 to 8 science education in Ontario from the perspective of Junior/Intermediate (J/I) teachers. The study’s methodology was a sequential 2-phased mixed methods explanatory design denoted as QUAN (qual)  qual. Data were collected from an online survey and follow-up interviews. J/I teachers (N = 219) from 48 school boards in Ontario completed a survey that collected both quantitative and qualitative data. Interviewees were selected from the survey participant population (n = 6) to represent a range of teaching strategies, attitudes toward teaching science, and years of experience. Survey and interview questions inquired about teacher attitudes toward teaching science, academic and professional experiences, teaching strategies, support resources, and instructional time allotments. Quantitative data analyses involved the descriptive statistics and chi-square tests. Qualitative data was coded inductively and deductively. Academic background in science was found to significantly influence teachers’ reported level of capability to teach science. The undergraduate degrees held by J/I science teachers were found to significantly influence their reported levels of capability to teach science. Participants identified a lack of time allocated for science instruction and inadequate equipment and facilities as major limitations on science instruction. Science in schools was reported to be of a “second-tiered” value to language and mathematics. Implications of this study include improving undergraduate and preservice experiences of elementary teachers by supporting their science content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge.

Narrative in the music of Jay Chou : a case study of music, globalization and semantics

La version intégrale de ce mémoire est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU).

Human Resources Development in Higher Education in Kerala

The study is entitled “HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN KERALA”. The concept “Human Resource Development” is of high value in business and industry and has been used and applied since years. In industry and business the 'human' element is considred as a resource and hence its development and protection is very essential and inevitable. Of all the factors of production, human resource is the only factor having rational faculty and therefore, it must be handled with utmost care. Right recruitment, right training and right induction followed by faultless monitoring and welfare measures are but decisive factors in business and industry. Altogether there is a constant attention up on human factor there. But this is not a practice at all in education. So far there has not been any such measure of care and close watch and performance analysis of human resource on education front. This may be the main reason for lack of accountability in the sphere of education. The present study reveals the importance of introducing HRD practices in higher educational institutions in Kerala. In order to promise human capital formation through education, it is basic requirement. The higher educational institutions must follow the method of industry and commerce because education can be treated as an industry in service sector. There also we can follow the methods of right recruitment, right training and promotion, delegation, performance analysis and accountability checking of human resource. HRD is a powerful idea of transformation of human being into highly productive and contributing factor The HRD of students is the sum total of HRD of teachers. Reminding the primordial usage 'Yatha Raja Thadha Praja’ the quality of faculty resembles in students. The quality of administrative staff in colleges also affects the quality of higher education. Hence, it is high time to introduce the managerial method of HRD with all its paraphernalia in higher educational institutions so as to assure proper human capital formation in higher education in India.

Human Resources Development in Higher Education in Kerala

The study is entitled “HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN KERALA”. The concept “Human Resource Development” is of high value in business and industry and has been used and applied since years. In industry and business the ‘human’ element is considred as a resource and hence its development and protection is very essential and inevitable. Of all the factors of production, human resource is the only factor having rational faculty and therefore, it must be handled with utmost care. Right recruitment, right training and right induction followed by faultless monitoring and welfare measures are but decisive factors in business and industiy. Altogether there is a constant attention up on human factor there. But this is not a practice at all in education. So far there has not been any such measure of care and close watch and performance analysis of human resource on education front. This may be the main reason for lack of accountability in the sphere of education. The present study reveals the importance of introducing HRD practices in higher educational institutions in Kerala. In order to promise human capital formation through education, it is basic requirement. The higher educational institutions must follow the method of industry and commerce because education can be treated as an industry in service sector. There also we can follow the methods of right recruitment, right training and promotion, delegation, performance analysis and accountability checking of human resource. HRD is a powerful idea of transformation of human being into highly productive and contributing factor The HRD of students is the sum total of HRD of teachers. Reminding the primordial usage ‘Yatha Raja Thadha Praja’ the quality of faculty resembles in students. The quality of administrative staff in colleges also affects the quality of higher education. Hence, it is high time to introduce the managerial method of HRD with all its paraphernalia in higher educational institutions so as to assure proper human capital formation in higher education in India.

Higher Education Sector in India: Issues and Imperatives

The 21st century is marked by a paradigm shift in education that has resulted both in threats and opportunities. It has brought new challenges and an opportunity for higher education. Higher education in India is undergoing rapid changes. The challenges ahead are multifaceted and multidimensional. Though the data show a massive growth in the number of students' enrollment in colleges/universities, holistic view reveals that still only a meager of the total population has access to higher education. Globalization and privatization are imposing new challenges but the nations are still entangled in solving the basic problems of accessibility to higher education for all. In the wake of the transition from elitist to mass education, universities worldwide are under pressure to enhance access and equity, on the one hand, and to maintain high standards of quality and excellence, on the other. Today the notion of equity not only implies greater access to higher education, but also opportunities for progress. In recent debates on higher education, the notions of equity and access go beyond minority to diversity. Affirmative action, too, has become raceexclusive and gender-neutral.1

Political Education in Plural Societies: Using the Anti-Bias Approach to Challenge Oppression in Bombay and Berlin

This study addresses the effectivity of the Anti-Bias approach and training methodology as a pedagogical political strategy to challenge oppression among student groups in the cities of Bombay and Berlin. The Anti-Bias trainings conducted within the framework of this study also become the medium through which the perpetuation of oppressive structures by students within and outside the school is investigated. Empirical data from predominantly qualitative investigations in four secondary schools, two each in Bombay and Berlin, is studied and analysed on the basis of theoretical understandings of prejudice, discrimination and identity. This study builds on insights offered by previous research on prejudices and evaluations of anti-bias and diversity interventions, where the lack of sufficient research and thorough evaluations testing impact has been identified (Levy Paluck, 2006). The theoretical framework suggests that prejudices and discriminatory practices are learnt and performed by individuals over the years by way of pre-existing discourses, and that behaviour and practices can be unlearnt through a multi-step process. It proposes that the discursive practices of students contribute to the constitution of their viable selves and in the constitution of ‘others’. Drawing on this framework, the study demonstrates how student-subjects in Bombay and Berlin perpetuate oppressive discourses by performing their identities and performing identities onto ‘others’. Such performative constitution opens up the agency of the individual, disclosing the shifting and dynamic nature of identities. The Anti-Bias approach is posited as an alternative to oppressive discourses and a vehicle that encourages and assists the agency of individuals. The theoretical framework, which brings together a psychological approach to prejudice, a structural approach to discrimination and a poststructural approach to identity, facilitates the analysis of the perpetuation of dominant discourses by the students, as well as how they negotiate their way through familiar norms and discourses. Group discussions and interviews a year after the respective trainings serve to evaluate the agency of the students and the extent to which the training impacted on their perceptions, attitudes and behavioural practices. The study reveals the recurrence of the themes race, religion, gender and sexuality in the representational practices of the students groups in Berlin and Bombay. It demonstrates how students in this study not only perform, but also negotiate and resist oppressive structures. Of particular importance is the role of the school: When schools offer no spaces for discussion, debate and action on contemporary social issues, learning can neither be put into practice nor take on a positive, transformative form. In such cases, agency and resistance is limited and interventionist actions yield little. This study reports the potential of the Anti-Bias approach and training as a tool of political education and action in education. It demonstrates that a single training can initiate change but sustaining change requires long-term strategies and on-going actions. Taking a poststructural perspective, it makes concrete suggestions to adapt and alter the Anti-Bias approach and the implementation of Anti-Bias trainings.

Beyond the mincer equation: the internal rate of return to higher education in Colombia

In order to present an estimation of the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) to higher education in Colombia we take advantage of the methodological approach provided by Heckman, Lochner and Todd (2005). Trying to overcome the criticism that surrounds interpretations of the education coefficient of Mincer equations as being the rate of return to investments in education we develop a more structured approach of estimation, which controls for selection bias, includes more accurate measures of labor income and the role of education costs and income taxes. Our results implied a lower rate of return than the ones found in the Colombian literature and show that the Internal Rate of Return for higher education in Colombia lies somewhere between 0.074 and 0.128. The results vary according to the year analyzed and individual’s gender. This last result reinforces considerations regarding gender discrimination in the Colombian labor market.

The Pedagogical Congresses of Portuguese Secondary Teaching : the participation of female teachers (1927-1928)

This paper was written within the context of the research project “The development of teacher’ associative organizations and unionism (1889-1990)” funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Foundation for Science and Technology). Five important congresses about secondary education were organized in Portugal between 1927 and 1931. These congresses served to claim the rights of teachers and the consolidation of the class, as well as to promote the discussion of scientific and pedagogical problems. In these congresses, the presence of female teachers was residual. However, the few teachers who participated had a significant contribution to the definition of secondary education during the following decades. Among other issues, it contributed to the discussion of female education and to analyze the importance of Biology and Physical Education in high schools. This paper presents the analysis of the minutes of the 1927s and 1928s Congresses. This analysis allowed the assessment of the important role played by a group of teachers to define, at the end of the first third of the 20th century, the future guidelines of Portuguese secondary education. It also reported that these teachers were pioneers who opened the way for the increasing number of teachers in secondary education during the 20th century.

Language, education and ethnicity: whose rights will prevail in an age of globalisation?

Education and ethnicity cannot be discussed without taking language into account. This paper will argue that any discussion of ethnic minorities cannot ignore the question of language, nor can any discussion of human rights ignore the question of language rights. Unfortunately, in today's globalised world, governments and minorities are faced with conflicting pressures: on the one hand, for the development and use of education in a global/international language; on the other for the use and development of mother tongue, local or indigenous languages in education. Language complexity and ethnic plurality were largely brought about as a result of the creation of nation-states, which were spread around the world as a result of European colonialism. European languages and formal education systems were used as a means of political and economic control. The legacy that was left by the colonial powers has complicated ethnic relations and has frequently led to conflict. While there is now greater recognition of the importance of language both for economic and educational development, as well as for human rights, the forces of globalisation are leading towards uniformity in the languages used, in culture and even in education. They are working against the development of language rights for smaller groups. We are witnessing a sharp decline in the number of languages spoken. Only those languages which are numerically, economically and politically strong are likely to survive. As a result many linguistic and ethnic groups are in danger of being further marginalised. This paper will illustrate this thesis both historically and from several contemporary societies, showing how certain policies have exacerbated ethnic conflict while others are seeking to promote harmony and reconciliation. Why this should be so will be explored. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Issues in language and development in multilingual settings: a case-study of knowledge exchange and teacher education in South Africa

The quality of a country’s human-resource base can be said to determine its level of success in social and economic development. This study focuses on some␣of the major human-resource development issues that surround the implementation of South Africa’s policy of multilingualism in education. It begins by discussing the relationship between knowledge, language, and human-resource, social and economic development within the global cultural economy. It then considers the situation in South Africa and, in particular, the implications of that country’s colonial and neo-colonial past for attempts to implement the new policy. Drawing on the linguistic-diversity-in-education debate in the United Kingdom of the past three decades, it assesses the first phase of an in-service teacher-education programme that was carried out at the Project for Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA) based at the University of Cape Town. The authors identify key short- and long-term issues related to knowledge exchange in education in multilingual societies, especially concerning the use of African languages as mediums for teaching and learning.

Changes in music tempo entrain movement related brain activity

The neural mechanisms of music listening and appreciation are not yet completely understood. Based on the apparent relationship between the beats per minute (tempo) of music and the desire to move (for example feet tapping) induced while listening to that music it is hypothesised that musical tempo may evoke movement related activity in the brain. Participants are instructed to listen, without moving, to a large range of musical pieces spanning a range of styles and tempos during an electroencephalogram (EEG) experiment. Event-related desynchronisation (ERD) in the EEG is observed to correlate significantly with the variance of the tempo of the musical stimuli. This suggests that the dynamics of the beat of the music may induce movement related brain activity in the motor cortex. Furthermore, significant correlations are observed between EEG activity in the alpha band over the motor cortex and the bandpower of the music in the same frequency band over time. This relationship is observed to correlate with the strength of the ERD, suggesting entrainment of motor cortical activity relates to increased ERD strength

Language ideologies and Schooled Education in Rural Tanzania : The Case of Karagwe

In this article I argue that language policies for education have effects on pupils’ educational possibilities. With the case of Karagwe district in Tanzania I have found that the case of “Swahili only” in primary school education favours the small minority of the children that live in a context where Swahili is used. This leads to inequality in pupils’ chances in education and to a low level of achievement of academic content in schools. This also promote the developing and use of safety strategies among teachers and pupils that hide failure and prevent pupils’ learning.