For many years now, those of us engaged with outdoor education curriculum work in Australia have been debating questions which orbit around the issue of defining outdoor education. We claim to be doing so in order to clarify what we are pursuing educationally, our purpose, not only for ourselves but for others, so that we can legitimately stake…

This article compares and contrasts the use of mental testing and the formation of educational streaming in Denmark and Ontario during the interwar years. In this sense, the article adds nuances to the meaning of internationalism as well as contributing to our knowledge about how ideas of testing practices circulated among countries and…

The scope and breadth of the field of comparative and international education is vast. In fact, there are few, if any, limitations on theme, method, or data in the field of comparative and international education. Every context or combination of contexts are available for comparative education scholars to scrutinise. The scope of this field brings…

Imposing the policy lessons from higher-performing countries may involve the complex interplays of socio-cultural and institutional contexts. This article attempts to observe Taiwan's progress in higher education from an explicit cultural perspective. It locates Taiwan among the rising group of higher education systems in East Asia. The study…

Comparative and international education intersects with international relations, international development and modernization, and domestic political, cultural, and economic concerns. Therefore, the history of comparative and international education must be understood in a larger historical context. This article engages the current debate on the…

This paper explores the continued cultural consecration of narrow forms of knowledge and literate practice in senior Australian English curricula. Despite the prevalence of Personal Growth approaches to English throughout Australia in the latter decades of the Twentieth century, the analysis of curricula reveals a contradiction between stated…

In this paper, we aim to outline what foundations can offer in terms of understanding education and educational practice, and thus for providing a basis for teachers' professional knowledge. We look critically at the struggle foundation disciplines often experience with coherence and integration in terms of both their relation to each other and to…

Educational pioneers believed that the early childhood curriculum was inappropriate for most of the children. It needed to be modified to meet each child's maturing needs, abilities, and interests. The pioneers advocated that education should be more hands-on and assist children to function successfully in society. They recommended the initiation…

This article charts some of the historical paths that have helped bring forth, in late-modern societies, what I call scientised educational discourses and practices. Though the project of forming the 'scientific man' can be traced back to the nineteenth century, it is argued that the nature of the project changed once it became aligned with the…

The term open education has recently been used to refer to topics such as Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Historically its roots lie in civil approaches to education and open universities, but this research is rarely referenced or acknowledged in current interpretations. In this article the antecedents of…

This Forum article addresses some of the issues raised in the article by Ying-Syuan Huang and Anila Asghar's paper entitled: "Science education reform in Confucian learning cultures: teachers' perspectives on policy and practice in Taiwan." An attempt is made to highlight the need for a more nuanced approach in considering the Confucian…

Barrie Brennan's thesis entitled "Continuing Professional Education in Australia. A Tale of Missed Opportunities" offers a history of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in the Australian context. This paper arose from Brennan's research for his thesis and is focused on issues that arose from the introduction of Australia's…

Metaphor is a critical tool for thought. Lying at the heart of every systematic body of knowledge are three root metaphors--mechanism, organism, and mind. Historically, schools of philosophy--realism, naturalism, and idealism--have grown up around these metaphors. The root metaphors and their corresponding philosophies provide the paradigms…

This chapter provides an overview of community colleges in mainland China, addressing briefly the recent history of community college development, defining these institutions, detailing various models with examples, and discussing challenges faced by these institutions and recommendations for future development.

This essay provides a concise historical overview of US Latino/a literature from the 1960s into the twenty-first century. By tracing the evolution from its origins in small presses to major publishing houses in the United States, this literary tradition shifts from its regional and local portrayals of the Latino experience in the United States to…