Beth Blue Swadener

Kagendo Mutua

International scholars share their experiences with the challenges inherent in representing indigenous cultures and decolonizing cross-cultural research.

Critical Personal Narratives

Decolonizing Research in Cross-Cultural Contexts

Cynthia S Sunal

This edited volume explores various issues pertaining to the education of children with disabilities in Africa, the Caribbean and Middle East. As a group, persons with disabilities have been subjected to social, cultural and educational exclusions of various forms and for various socially-scripted reasons. In education, for instance, individuals with disabilities have been altogether excluded from educational participation in many parts of the developing world or they have been excluded from pursuing meaningfully beneficial higher levels of education in developed countries like the United States. One of the social responses/remedies to the widely-acknowledged exclusionary practices experienced by learners with disabilities has been the widespread implementation of inclusive practices in the education of individuals with disabilities across countries, in the west and the developing regions of the world. A distinctive marker of difference in the way inclusive practices have been enacted in western countries versus those in the developing world has primarily stemmed from the fact that majority of western countries operate under funded mandates that also regulate the provision of education to persons with disabilities. While the ideal of inclusion has been highly desirable, many of countries in the developing world have floundered in their implementation due to lack sound legislative framework to guide implementation coupled with socio-cultural factors related to negative perceptions of disabilities and limited funding sources. Chapters in this volume explore inclusive education from a variety of perspectives.

Advances in Special Education Research and Praxis in Selected Countries of Africa, Caribbean and the Middle East

An Historic Overview

Research on Education in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East

Oluseyi Matthew Odebiyi

Public education has expanded to serve large populations across the regions of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Many nations in these regions are moving into a phase of public education in which a variety of factors are being identified as influencing the quality of public education and its ability to serve all children and adolescents. It has become evident that ethnic background, gender, religious affiliation, and ability/disability are important factors in who is served and how well the individual is served. The chapters in this volume, Book 8, of Research on Education in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East document and describe the status, success, and limitations of public education’s efforts at transformation. They provide points from which further research and practice might occur.

Transforming Public Education in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East

Cynthia Szymanski Sunal

The Enterprise of Education is Book IV of the research series, Research on Education in Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East. This book examines the implications of rapid political, sociocultural, and economic change for the enterprise of education within particular countries in the regions of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East—all of which have cultural ties. It provides a space for a critical dialogue about the impact of global issues on the enterprise of education in specific locales or regions within a specific country. Finally, the book identifies trends in the enterprise of education that are occurring across the regions. The Enterprise of Education draws from recent research, summarizing, interpreting, and making connections to address issues/questions that are central to the enterprise of education today in these three world regions. Among the specific questions/issues that are considered include the following: How is the enterprise of education addressing and including the needs of all children including those who are squatters, new immigrants, have special education needs, and who are voiceless in their society? What social structures in these regions mitigate against student learning, especially particular groups of students? What research methodologies enable us to investigate the enterprise of education in these world regions? What role does the learning environment play in schools? Who creates curriculum, and for what purposes? Which issues are found to a greater or lesser extent in education in other world regions? What role do parents play, in economic and social support of schools? How can teachers best be prepared for effective teaching?

The Enterprise of Education

In this Third Volume of the series, Research on Education in Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East, the volume continues with the previously established overarching purpose of publishing chapters that are based upon research conducted in those regions by scholars, many of whom are indigenous to the regions they write about and are, therefore, able to provide cultural insights about relevant issues, as well as nonindigenous scholars who have conducted their studies in countries within the regions or about those regions. This mixture of indigenous scholarship offering emic perspectives and outside scholarship offering etic perspectives continues to be a relative strength and uniqueness of this book series. In addition, several chapters in the current volume constitute collaborations between the authors etic and emic to the contexts about which they write. This bifocality in the gaze cast upon issues covered in this book series has been well received by readers of earlier volumes of the series.

Crosscurrents and Crosscutting Themes

As the demand for education at all levels has increased, so have the models of meeting these increased demands for education. As in many other parts of the world, public education has expanded to serve large populations across the regions of Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Many nations in these regions have instituted mandates, policies, and frameworks intended to simultaneously increase access to public education opportunities as well as improve the quality of education provided and to address a wide populace. Because the increase in educational demand has occurred at all levels, these efforts often address various levels of education from early childhood through primary schooling, junior secondary and secondary schooling and into tertiary education. Efforts also have been made to increase participation in education by marginalized and/or special populations. The range of efforts is large with some focusing on involving migrants/immigrants/refugees in primary education while others aim at opening up choices at the university level. Recently, nations in the region have recognized the possibilities of digital learning (online learning) as cell phones and other widely used portable wireless devices have made it possible to sell the idea that one can learn from anywhere at any time. This widespread access to technology has made it possible for governments as well as private entities to expand learning opportunities even to populations previously unreached or to address difficult to reach sectors of the population. At the same time, the population itself has not only increased in numbers but in diversity. Maintaining quality through digital and other means of quick expansion of educational opportunities continues to be challenging if not problematic. Effects of Government Mandates and Policies on Public Education in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East is Book IX of the series, Research on Education in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Chapters document, describe and/or raise critical issues and/or questions resulting from government policies, mandates and frameworks intended to make available public education to an ever-growing populace while at the same time being mindful of improving quality of education being availed to an increasingly diverse populace.

Effects of Government Mandates and Policies on Public Education in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East

This is Book V in the series, Research on Education in Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East. The series strives to encourage the presentation of evidence based investigations using data collected on site from the three world regions it considers. A strong focus is on data specific to a nation or to a region within a nation, as we recognize that nations are diverse, often encompassing regions with unique cultural and geographic characteristics. The data are rooted in the voices of individuals and communities. Such evidential data are analyzed and interpreted within the context of the complex human and natural environments from which they are derived. Chapters in the books within the series describe investigations that are part of an effort to continue the publication of an annual compilation of research studies in the three world regions upon which the series focuses. The series, therefore, indicates that the need to develop modern, self-sufficient, independent, and post-colonial societies is being balanced with the need to strengthen cultural values and identities within these three world regions. Book V in the series focuses on how the educational challenges found in these three world regions are addressed. The chapters specifically examine related recent research, identify useful investigative methodologies, identify accomplishments in meeting challenges, and consider unresolved challenges. The overarching questions presented below were derived from an analysis of the questions, methods, and conclusions presented in the studies appearing in this book. These overarching questions described here reflect the connections between educational issues that emerged in the 20thcentury and issues identified in the 21st century.

Research from the Field

Undertaking Educational Challenges in the 21st Century

"Proceedings of the Second International Curriculum Conference sponsored by the Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum (CSMC), held May 2-4, 2008 at The Field Museum and on the campus of the University of Chicago"--Pref.

Kagendo Mutua

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