Discusses the history of distance education and provides historical background on the development of the Open Learning Institute in British Columbia. Topics addressed include the environment of British Columbia; expansion of higher education; political influences; and educational influences, including the role of Simon Fraser University. (Contains…

This case study of historical research on the topic of higher education focuses on the history of postsecondary distance education in an industrialized nation. The social history of the Open Learning Institute (OLI) of British Columbia is used to analyze how a new higher education institution establishes itself in its community, the consequences…

Progressive education, open education, and whole language can be seen as part of a larger "progressive tradition" in American education. All three of these educational movements are "child centered," challenge the rigidity of traditional school organizations, view the nature of knowledge and the purpose of schools differently…

Adult education should be a resource-kit, refreshment, retrainer, revitalizing agent upon which citizens may call. For some, it will have instrumental purposes for individual improvement like new jobs or social change through community action. University adult education has the role of influencing the realization of creative human potential. (MLW)

Mary Leue started the Free School, an independent, alternative elementary school in inner-city Albany (New York), based on open democratic education dedicated to the authentic lives of children. Other accomplishments include a community-investment organization, a magazine of alternative education, a magazine for empowering families, and a…

This study reveals that John Dewey and his theory of education had an influence on the beginning of progressive education in Eretz Israel in the first and second decades of this century, even before it had influenced the kibbutz educational system--the communal way of life, and other schools in the Jewish labor movement in Israel. This influence…

An overview of the history of nontraditional programs within the American higher education system discusses the energy and spirit provided by such programs and relates them to the basic principles of American culture (importance of individuality, respect for diversity, and belief in equality). During the development of American culture, the five…

This paper focuses on the ongoing development of an inservice teacher education program for teachers in Albania following the downfall in the early 1990s of a repressive totalitarian regime. The Kualida project's name is an acronym based on the Albanian words for training, distance, and teachers and is very close in sound to the Albanian…

This paper explores how a set of curriculum reforms in the United States and England over the past 20 years may be interrelated, according to conclusions drawn from ethnographic investigation and informed by historical reflections. The discussion centers upon the case of informal, open, or progressive education, which has enjoyed a 40 plus--year…

This book investigates teaching practices before, during, and after reform impulses in the 20th century aimed at changing what teachers routinely do. Patterns of stability and change over a 90-year period are developed from evidence from a wide variety of sources, including classroom photographs, textbooks and tests used, student recollections,…

This second edition updates material in the first edition for another decade to 1990 and responds to criticisms of findings in the first edition. This book investigates teaching practices before, during, and after 20th-century reform efforts aimed at changing what teachers routinely do. Patterns of stability and change over a 100-year period are…

Danish "efterskoles" are "continuation schools" following elementary school--residential schools that allow students aged 14-16 to defer going to high school while they make choices about their educational future. Efterskoles are based on the principles of N.F.S. Grundtvig, who started folk high schools in about 1850 to educate…

This document traces Australian training and literacy policy developments from 1974 to 1998. The document begins with a brief discussion of the global political, educational, social, and economic trends that have affected Australia's training and literacy policies. Discussed next are major events of the four policy "epochs" in…

This document reviews the 10-year history of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), which is an intergovernmental organization that was created by Commonwealth of Nations heads of government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge, resources, and technologies. The following are among the topics…

An historical account of the creation and development of the UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE) is presented. Written in honor of the 50th anniversary of UIE, this institutional history begins with a series of seven prefaces and memoir essays about the organization written by UIE administrators, board members and researchers. Two chapters detail…