Education

This book comprehensively explores the teacher development policy in China from multiple dimensions. It examines the leading value of 'Four Good Teachers', teacher salary management policy, teacher evaluation policy, teachers’ professional title appointment policy, teachers’ ethic policy in China’s education system, 'County management and school recruitment' policy in teacher management, teachers’ honor recognition policy, and teachers’ qualification management and policy in China. This book not only shares in-depth understanding to epitomize teacher development policies in China contextually, but also provides specific suggestions to address various challenges of teacher development policies both nationally and locally.

This book contributes to the understanding of regional and global perspectives on the development and challenges the higher education sector in sub-Saharan Africa faces in the era of globalization. It focuses on the critical aspects of the higher education sector in the Global South, with a particular emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa. It brings together empirical, theoretical and philosophical perspectives from researchers in some of the leading universities in sub-Saharan Africa. The book highlights the higher education sector’s stages of growth and development and the contemporary challenges it faces in aligning its goals and capacity globally, and maintaining its image and public identity locally. This book covers neoliberal educational reforms, leadership and governance, pedagogy, technology, the global knowledge economy, and digital advancement. It delves into how the nature and practice of learning, teaching, research, and community engagement as core functions of higher education are re-oriented to contribute to societal transformation in Africa. Further, the book discusses the implications of contemporary issues in higher education: internationalization, employability, leadership and management, and accountability and autonomy in teaching, research, and community engagement.

This book explores how stories can be used as ‘data’ that prefigure and make possible the numerous permutations of life that comprise existence, and examines how stories can be reconfigured to transform that existence into something 'other'. It uses varied theoretical and critical frameworks such as autoethnography and posthumanism with which to explore the stories shared that go ‘beyond cause and effect’. 

This book looks to engage with storying and storytelling as inquiry in non-Western ‘worlds’, and looks to make ‘storying’, ‘restor(y)ing’, and ‘stories’ written by non-Western educators the locus of attention. By doing so, it seeks to illustrate what distinctive ways of storying and storytelling can look like in worlds other than those that follow a Western ethico-onto-epistemological worldview. It provides a way to articulate thought that may be commonly omitted in teacher education around the world, and looks at ‘truth’ as situated rather than as totality, localrather than global, with stories used to problematize subject/object positionings within those same stories. 

This book aims to reflect the digital transformation of Chinese education toward smart education comprehensively and accurately. It is the first systematic summary of the progress of smart education in China. The book believes that smart education is a new education form in the digital era and is essentially distinct from education forms in the industrial era. This new education form is innovative in five dimensions.

First is the new core concept. Smart education is not only a concrete action concerning people’s well-being, but also a vital strategy concerning national plans. Through technology empowerment and data drive, it empowers educational reform in all aspects, systematically constructs a new relationship between education and society, provides suitable education for each learner, and makes the aptitude-based teaching that we have been dreaming of for thousands of years a reality. For the first time in history, smart education helps to reach the full alignment between individual development and societal development.

Second is the new system structure. Smart education will break through the boundaries of school education, drive the diversified combination of various education types, resources, and elements, promote the collaboration of school, family, and society in education, and build a high-quality, individualized lifelong learning system that is available for anyone anywhere anytime.

Third is the new teaching paradigm. Smart education will integrate physical, social, and digital spaces to create new learning scenarios and promote human–technology integration, and cultivate cross-grade, cross-class, and cross-discipline learning communities across time and space to organically combine large-scale education with individualized cultivation.

Fourth is the new educational content. Smart education will focus on developing all-round education, establishing digital knowledge graphs based on systematic logics of knowledge points, and innovating content presentation methods to make learning a wonderful experience and help learners develop higher-order thinking skills, comprehensive innovation capability, and lifelong learning ability.

Fifth is the new education governance. With data governance at the core and digital intelligence technology as the driver, smart education will boost the holistic reengineering of education administration and business processes and enhance the modernization of the education governance system and governance capacity.

This book is intended for teachers, education administrators, education policymakers, education researchers, and parents concerned about education innovation and development, as well as people from all walks of life who have aspirations for the education industry. It can also serve as a reference for international organizations and education research institutions of all countriesto promote the joint exploration of the development path of smart education and create a better future for the world’s mutual development through educational reform.

This edited book focuses on the interconnections of STEM and Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) in higher education and offers novel approaches to reintegrating them. It paradoxically informs readers of how HSS got relegated to the periphery in the capitalist-driven higher education market and the pressing need to re-organise higher education to meet the demands of competencies in the same education industry. The contributors, including eminent scholars from academia and industry, decision-makers, and researchers, bring nuanced perspectives on integrating HSS into STEM through the global north and south lens. The book is divided into seven parts providing a comprehensive understanding of the critical position of STEM, its interaction with HSS, some exemplars to elucidate holistic education, the importance of HSS in industry, and the roadmap facilitating the organic integration across disciplines. It provides an in-depth analysis of the difficulties HSS faces in science and technical higher education and offers creative solutions to these difficulties, a plausible roadmap for teachers and educational planners wishing to incorporate HSS into STEM higher education. The book stresses the importance of integrating the social sciences and humanities to foster innovation and success in STEM education. It is a must-read for those dedicated to integrating and advancing HSS in STEM higher education, such as educational policymakers, institutional leaders, higher education managers, and educational policy and management researchers.

This book provides an evidence-based response to how ‘classroom-readiness’ translates into the preparation of future teachers of science. It juxtaposes contemporary understanding of programming and practices in initial teacher education in an Australian context against international narratives. Through this, this book shifts the understanding of primary science education from a deficit model to one that critically examines, challenges and contest what is happening in this space, and why. It proposes problems of practice in primary science teacher education and then draws on these provocations to provide insights into possible solutions.

This open access book presents insights on the resiliency strategies of at-risk vocational education and training (VET) students in the field of learning, employment and social integration, in the Baltic countries and Norway. It investigates the ways in which vocational education and training (VET) can enhance the social inclusion of young people at-risk, both in terms of combating school dropout rates, and promoting transitions between various (social) learning contexts, such as school-work transition. Book presents the findings of the analysis of available statistical data disclosing the capacities and potential of the VET systems and providers to empower vulnerable learners in the project partner countries. In the context of VET, this book examines the situations of at-risk young people as they experience, and understand themselves, in it, and explores innovative solutions to address their challenges in collaboration between themselves, their teachers, and other community actors and stakeholders. Finally, it analyses and discusses the innovative pedagogical interventions used in empowering at-risk VET students as implemented in the research project 'EmpowerVET', on the basis of the Educational Learning Lab model developed by researchers from the University of Tallinn School of Educational Sciences.

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of ancient Chinese educational thought, spanning from its origins to its evolution across millennia. At its core, the book argues that ancient Chinese education was deeply rooted in societal, political, and cultural contexts, with a distinct focus on ethical cultivation, secular utility, and social harmony. It traces the development of educational ideas through key historical periods, from the early emphasis on the "Six Arts" (rites, music, archery, chariotry, writing, arithmetic) in the Western Zhou Dynasty to the foundational roles of Confucius (advocating "education for all without discrimination") and Xue Ji (On Education, the world’s first monograph on education). It further examines the thoughts of major schools—Confucianism, Mohism, Legalism, and Taoism—and their debates on morality, governance, and human nature. Key themes include the primacy of moral education (over utilitarianism), the political function of education in maintaining social order, and pedagogical methods like heuristic teaching and individualized instruction. The book also highlights unique features such as the integration of family and state in educational goals, respect for teachers, and the interplay between education and institutions like the Imperial Examination. This volume is a landmark resource for global readers seeking to understand the intellectual foundations of Chinese education.

This book provides a forward-looking and comprehensive examination of AI’s transformative impact on higher education. It explores the integration of AI in teaching, learning, and assessment with fresh insights into generative AI, artificial general intelligence (AGI), and their emerging roles in reshaping universities globally. Supported by case studies from 30 leading universities and empirical data from international surveys and interviews, the book stands apart by combining AI development trends with practical applications and ethical considerations.

This book includes detailed discussions on AI's ethical challenges, including privacy, academic integrity, and the widening digital divide, all paired with real-world examples. A unique feature of the book is its in-depth exploration of AI talent development, outlining national strategies and institutional approaches that equip students with both AI literacy and advanced skills, establishing a new standard for cultivating future leaders in the AI era.

With strategic policy recommendations, this book provides a roadmap for higher education institutions to navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape. It highlights actionable frameworks for ensuring equitable access to technology, strengthening data security, and addressing biases in AI systems. Academics, policymakers, and education leaders will benefit from its forward-thinking approach to integrating AI while maintaining humanistic and ethical values in education. Designed for professionals in education and education policy, this book also serves as an essential guide for other readers looking to harness the power of AI in shaping the future of learning and teaching.

This book examines connections between policy contexts, school experiences and everyday activities of children growing up in the global city of Singapore. In particular, it explores how Singapore children’s everyday experiences inside and outside of school shape their orientations towards educational success. Alongside an analysis of school life and educational policies, it also considers children’s out-of-school activities, including leisure, homework, and enrichment activities, and connections between these and their school-based activities. The book draws on empirical data from Primary 4 classes in two Singapore schools in the form of student-completed surveys, classroom ethnographies, student responses to a learning dialogues activity, and a re-enactment of one child's out-of-school life, as well as curriculum and policy analysis. It provides readers with an in-depth understanding of Singapore Primary 4 children’s experiences inside and outside of school, including the structure of timetables and pedagogical approaches encountered in school lessons, children’s enjoyment of activities inside and outside of school, children’s engagement and wellbeing at school, and the impact of Singapore’s educational policies on children’s learning experiences. Moving beyond a simplistic focus on Singapore children’s academic performance in international high-stakes testing, the book offers a comprehensive exploration of their lives inside and outside of school. This holistic approach is unique in the Singapore context and contributes to a greater understanding of children’s everyday lives in the city.

This book addresses how longitudinal research approaches are used to understand young people’s lives. It elucidates how youth researchers use longitudinal approaches, and how longitudinal research can help us to both understand and shape the field of youth sociology. Chapters discuss the creation of knowledge about youth and how longitudinal research shapes the field of youth sociology and shed light on key tensions and emerging debates in longitudinal youth research ranging from research design to data collection, analysis, and use. It considers longitudinal studies using a broad range of methods, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, retrospective methods, and creative and participatory methods. This collection offers insights from longitudinal youth scholars conducting research in Argentina, Lithuania, Australia, Estonia, Canada, the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Finland and India. These researchers reflect on the future of longitudinal youth research, addressing emerging and prospective issues. This book provides a concise survey of key established and emerging areas of concern in longitudinal research and of the relationship between these areas and the field of youth studies more specifically.

This book focuses on the traumatic experiences within and through music that individuals and collectives face, while considering ways in which they (re)engage with their traumas in educational settings. The chapters delve into the physical, psychological, philosophical, sociological, and political aspects, as they relate to the reciprocal influences of trauma on musical practices and education. 

Readers are immersed in topics related to societal violence, physical injuries, grief, separation, loss, death, and ways of working through these in educational and artistic situations. In the introductory chapter, the co-editors draw attention to theoretical matters related to trauma through narrative inquiry in music education. The first section of the book, Separation Revisited, brings together notions of separation, focusing on how loss is emotionally and physically manifested when death, grief, and bodily injury are experienced. In the second section, (Re)Engaging with Lostand Found, readers are encouraged to imagine new possibilities considering trauma and loss in educational and musical spaces. These pieces offer deliberate ruminations moving the discourse toward (re)engagement in and through music education and artistic contexts. The co-editors conclude the book by drawing attention to narrative inquiry’s double-edged nature in stories of trauma and how the retelling of lost and found narratives offers a way to imagine lives otherwise—lives not smothered by grief and horror—through the conceivable reliving of unfathomable stories of experience.

This book emerges from the 7th International Conference on Narrative Inquiry in Music Education (NIME7), October 2020, co-hosted by Brock University, Faculty of Education and the University of Toronto, Faculty of Music, Ontario, Canada.