During post-conflict reconstruction, various roles are bestowed on teachers to manage the effects of violence such as peace educator, conflict resolution expert, counsellor and so on. However, there are no empirical studies that examine what teachers actually do when faced with the challenges of post-conflict schooling. More importantly, most policies often neglect the fact that teachers are not necessarily neutral in conflict. Whilst being professionals, many are also political and social beings that come from the community they serve. Surely the tension between their personal beliefs and professional practice has some impact on how teachers deal with the effects of conflict. This research investigates how teachers, who maintain a reflexive relationship with their community, feel about transforming their role to manage the effects of ethnic conflict. The case of Kenya offers a suitable context in which to research this particular phenomenon because of its continuous association with conflict, consequent corrosion in ethnic relations, and increasing ethnic segregation in education systems. Employing a case study strategy, data was collected using semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The sample size consisted of twenty head teachers and seventy teachers and counsellors from government secondary schools in Nakuru and Kericho. Analysis of the data suggests that ethnic tensions have seeped into schools affecting not only peer relationships but also teacher-student interactions. These tensions and fears continue to impair teachers from actively participating in schools and assuming the role of managing the effects of the conflict. Aside from this, various other factors in their classroots realities shape the manner in which they deal with the effects of the conflict. Some of these factors include external support, professional capacity, their purpose and motivation as well as the school culture. This research concludes that teachers require adequate support and guidance from their head teacher in order to conceptualise their role in relation to managing the effects of violence. While the focus of external institutions is on relaying concepts of ‘peace’ and ‘conflict resolution’ to the students, there is merit in taking a more gradual approach and equipping teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge to teach these concepts. Moreover, teachers too require space to confront their own biases and prejudices towards other groups in order to assume these new roles. Finally, the creation of support networks is essential during post-conflict reconstruction as it ensures that teachers and students are provided with the necessary guidance, knowledge, and assistance in the absence of support from the state.

<p>The present study explores the relationship between the ‘knowledge-enabling environment’ and the demand for training using a sample of 18 small private companies providing educational and consultancy services in Sweden. In this way, the dissertation is an exploration of the ways Swedish knowledge-intensive companies manage their knowledge. The 18 companies have participated in a European program for developing employee competence, financed by the European Social Fund. As part of this European-financed program companies have evaluated their business activity and determined their training needs in order to remain competitive. The 18 companies, thus, provide a rare opportunity to explore aspects of the demand for training in small enterprises. </p><p>Knowledge is understood here as both the structure and the content of mental schemas. It is embodied in individuals; it differs from information and data; and it can be tacit or explicit. When looking at organizational processes for managing knowledge, it is important to consider formal organized activities for learning, but also informal learning activities, which constitute the main source for tacit knowledge as well as the conditions in place for knowledge creation, what is here called the ‘knowledge-enabling environment’. It is argued that through knowledge management, companies are indeed implementing strategies for the promotion of lifelong learning.</p><p>Each company in the sample is rather unique in their ‘knowledge-enabling environment’. The exploration of the demand for training shows that the selected companies invest only less than half their perceived training needs. In both sectors the working-environment characteristics that according to the theories reviewed, should promote learning, do not necessarily foster a higher demand for learning, with the exception of information technology. Finally, Also interesting is that employees demand more training if their engagement in informal learning is low.</p>

The quality of educational attainment measures lies at the heart of many cross-national micro-sociological research projects and international education statistics. This study aims at validating cross-nationally comparable measures of educational attainment, among which are the International Standard Classification of Education 1997 (ISCED 97), the CASMIN education scheme and years of education. Following a conceptual discussion of what educational attainment means, the most common ways of measuring educational attainment cross-nationally as well as previous evaluations thereof are reviewed. Then, the implementation of ISCED 97 in cross-national surveys is examined by looking at both the resulting educational attainment distributions in three European surveys as well as the data generation and harmonisation processes. Finally, a number of cross-national measures of educational attainment are compared with country-specific measures with respect to their information content by firstly examining the dispersion of educational attainment, and secondly the predictive power when explaining two core social stratification outcomes, occupational status and social class attainment, by educational attainment. The main results of the study are that the measurement of educational attainment in cross-national surveys is affected by a number of avoidable weaknesses which adversely affect the validity of claims based on analyses of these data: 1. Countries and surveys are inconsistent in the way they measure educational attainment and apply ISCED 97 to national data; and 2. actual years of education and the one-digit version of ISCED 97 distort measures of association to differing degrees in different countries. Both make cross-national comparisons using these measures highly problematic. Therefore, some amendments to the implementation of ISCED 97 in cross-national surveys and coding for statistical analyses are proposed. As part of the latter, an alternative simplification of ISCED 97, optimised for European survey research, is developed and validated. Moreover, suggestions for data collection procedures are made to improve the measurement of educational attainment nationally and cross-nationally.

Literature within the field of Comparative Education often cautions against the transfer of foreign policies from one context to another. Despite this warning, Ontario’s public education system is said to have been based on an eclectic mix of foreign examples: teacher training institutes replicating Prussian Seminaries, school financing and the role of the chief superintendent and board of education as in the states of Massachusetts and New York, and using the Irish curriculum. This study conceptualises the manner in which these foreign elements became part of the 1846 school law and the reaction of stakeholders in and outside of government. The period covered by this study, 1844 – 1876, corresponds to Egerton Ryerson’s time as Chief Superintendent of education in Ontario. Extensive archival research of incoming and outgoing correspondence from the department of education, district council meeting minutes, newspapers, and local superintendent, inspector and trustee reports revealed contrasting opinions. On the one hand, sources indicated favourable results: increased pupil attendance, number of facilities and money raised to fund schools. There is also evidence that many foreign educationalists not only requested resources from Ontario’s board but aspired to emulate features of the province’s reformed education system in their own nations. This study’s finding of a ‘reverse cross-national attraction’ is a new contribution to Canadian historical studies. However, many resented features of the school bill. Critics called the superintendent and board’s method of organisation ‘Prussian despotism’ in Canadian schools; others argued the injustice of property tax to fund free schools and the cost burden of importing Irish textbooks. An original conceptual framework has been produced to review the manner in which Ryerson defended the new bill and the internalisation of these foreign policies and practices. This framework may serve as an analytical device for those engaged in researching educational policy borrowing.

The purpose of this study was to identify current practices in study abroad offices and to investigate factors that may impact the number of minority students that participate in study abroad programs. The predictors, commitment to study abroad, proportion of staff and student workers, and awareness were selected for this current exploratory study are a result of the literature review. The other selected variables: endowment, financial aid and SAT/ACT scores are predictors typically used in higher education. This exploratory research focused on the policies, procedures, and strategies implemented allowing us to comprehensively describe the activities and efforts study abroad personnel employ in American higher education. We used as our population the Carnegie 101 public doctoral/research extensive universities that serve undergraduates. The researcher implemented the Study Abroad Office Survey to collect the data. The researcher conducted multiple regression analyses to examine whether the proportion of all students studying abroad is influenced by endowment, percent of a university's students receiving financial aid, university's commitment to internationalization and study abroad, the SAT/ACT scores, and the proportion of staff. The results of the regression reveals that the proportion of staff was highly significant Analysis of the standardized regression coefficient and associated p value reveals (β=.5 18, t=5.233, p The researcher conducted independent samples t tests to address the awareness factor. Results indicate that there is a significant difference in the proportion of the undergraduate student population studying abroad when presentations by study abroad office faculty/staff at student club meetings are implemented as a recruitment activity (t = is 2.595, 70 df, p = .012).Employing systems theory, the researcher recommends that higher education administrators should consider embedding internationalization in the curriculum by finding ways of making an international experience a more routine part of attending a twenty-first century university. The researcher further recommends continued lobbying efforts regarding the fate of the Abraham Lincoln Fellowship legislation.

"There are four international organizations whose contributions may be utilized to advantage by the UNESCO. They are (1) The Institute of International Education, (2) The World Federation of Education Associations, (3) the International Bureau of Education, and (4) The New Education Fellowship. It is the purpose of this paper to present something of the work of these organizations for the period of time between World War I and World War II as a basis for understanding what the UNESCO has to build on"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "A Paper." / "March, 1947." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of the Florida State College for Women in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts under Plan II." / Advisor: Nita K. Pyburn, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references.

Um dos maiores desafios que se interpõem à educação neste início de século é encontrar as bases para promover uma educação de qualidade para todos. Entretanto, definir qualidade e os caminhos para alcançá-la não tem se mostrado tarefa simples nem consensual. Entre as diversas propostas, surge a ideia da educação para o desenvolvimento de competências, que tem encontrado eco entre teóricos de todo o mundo e, mais recentemente, também entre pesquisadores e autoridades brasileiras. Como se verificou no Brasil e em diversas outras localidades, apesar da rápida incorporação do conceito de competências nos mecanismos de regulação educacional nacionais, a maioria das discussões sobre as competências permanece focada sobre a esfera da educação escolar, negligenciando o imenso universo de práticas educativas concebidas em contextos não-formais e que podem revelar-se estimuladores privilegiados de determinadas competências, entre as quais as competências relacionadas ao convívio social. A presente proposta tem como intuito, pois, revigorar o debate sobre as possibilidades educativas encontradas também fora da escola a partir da perspectiva de competências e de contribuir, assim, para a expansão desse debate para além dos limites da educação escolar. Para tal, queremos revisar o estado da arte e o histórico da evolução do conceito de competências até contextualizá-lo no âmbito das práticas de educação não-formal, amparados, sobretudo, nos referenciais da Pedagogia Social, que se propõem a estudar esse universo educacional em específico. / One of the greatest challenges faced by education at the beginning of this century is finding a basis to promote quality education for all. Nonetheless, defining quality and the main ways to achieve it has neither been a simple nor a consensual task. Amongst the various proposals surfaces the idea of education for the development of competences, which has resonated with scholars all over the world and more recently, also with Brazilian researchers and authorities. As can be observed in Brazil and various other countries, despite the quick introduction of the concept of competencies into the national educational regulations, the great majority of discussions about the concept remain focused on the school environment. Such a focus neglects the immense universe of educational practices conceived in less formal contexts that can, in fact, turn out to be privileged means to encourage certain competences, such as those related to social coexistence. The current proposal intends to shed some light on the debate about the educational possibilities found out-of-school from a competences approach perspective. Hence, we intend to contribute to widening the debate beyond the boundaries of school education. In this sense, we will review and the historical background of competences and contextualize the concept within the framework of non-formal education, based on the theoretical framework of Social Pedagogy, aimed to study this educational universe specifically.

<p>The overall aim of this study is to describe and analyse some of the consequences of market forces and decentralisation in the educational systems of Sweden and England.</p><p>Since the 1980s, many countries have restructured their educational systems and introduced decentralisation and market forces. The reasons have sometimes been the same and sometimes they have differed, but demands for better school performance and the need for economic cuttings in the public sector, including schooling, are two of the most common reasons. This study will describe the development towards market forces and decentralisation in some countries in the western world in general, and, in particular Sweden and England. </p><p>The thesis makes a general overview of research on these issues in different countries and focuses on certain key concepts. Interviews and document analyses are the principal methods used, and case studies have been conducted in seven secondary schools in one Swedish municipality, and in ten schools in an English county. Interviews were made with 20 school leaders in the Swedish municipality and 20 in the English community in order to study their opinions on market solutions like competition and choice of school, as well as decentralisation and local management of schools.</p><p>The findings indicate that the educational systems of Sweden and England differ in many aspects, even if both can be described as decentralised. While the Swedish system gives the schools a high degree of autonomy, whereby the school leaders are responsible for almost everything in the daily running of the school, the English system includes more aspects of centralism, and provides less local decision making. The findings also indicate that the school leaders in Swedish municipalities are more satisfied with both decentralisation and market forces in schooling than their English colleagues. Several plausible interpretations could be made of the interview answers from the school leaders, but it seems that the higher degree of decentralisation in the Swedish educational system is perhaps the most important factor in this case. </p><p>Finally, the findings also indicate that the school leaders see positive aspects of choice and competition in schooling, like increased quality and better efficiency, as well as negative aspects, primarily the risk of segregation due to free school choice.</p>

The present study explores the relationship between the ‘knowledge-enabling environment’ and the demand for training using a sample of 18 small private companies providing educational and consultancy services in Sweden. In this way, the dissertation is an exploration of the ways Swedish knowledge-intensive companies manage their knowledge. The 18 companies have participated in a European program for developing employee competence, financed by the European Social Fund. As part of this European-financed program companies have evaluated their business activity and determined their training needs in order to remain competitive. The 18 companies, thus, provide a rare opportunity to explore aspects of the demand for training in small enterprises. Knowledge is understood here as both the structure and the content of mental schemas. It is embodied in individuals; it differs from information and data; and it can be tacit or explicit. When looking at organizational processes for managing knowledge, it is important to consider formal organized activities for learning, but also informal learning activities, which constitute the main source for tacit knowledge as well as the conditions in place for knowledge creation, what is here called the ‘knowledge-enabling environment’. It is argued that through knowledge management, companies are indeed implementing strategies for the promotion of lifelong learning. Each company in the sample is rather unique in their ‘knowledge-enabling environment’. The exploration of the demand for training shows that the selected companies invest only less than half their perceived training needs. In both sectors the working-environment characteristics that according to the theories reviewed, should promote learning, do not necessarily foster a higher demand for learning, with the exception of information technology. Finally, Also interesting is that employees demand more training if their engagement in informal learning is low.

The overall aim of this study is to describe and analyse some of the consequences of market forces and decentralisation in the educational systems of Sweden and England. Since the 1980s, many countries have restructured their educational systems and introduced decentralisation and market forces. The reasons have sometimes been the same and sometimes they have differed, but demands for better school performance and the need for economic cuttings in the public sector, including schooling, are two of the most common reasons. This study will describe the development towards market forces and decentralisation in some countries in the western world in general, and, in particular Sweden and England. The thesis makes a general overview of research on these issues in different countries and focuses on certain key concepts. Interviews and document analyses are the principal methods used, and case studies have been conducted in seven secondary schools in one Swedish municipality, and in ten schools in an English county. Interviews were made with 20 school leaders in the Swedish municipality and 20 in the English community in order to study their opinions on market solutions like competition and choice of school, as well as decentralisation and local management of schools. The findings indicate that the educational systems of Sweden and England differ in many aspects, even if both can be described as decentralised. While the Swedish system gives the schools a high degree of autonomy, whereby the school leaders are responsible for almost everything in the daily running of the school, the English system includes more aspects of centralism, and provides less local decision making. The findings also indicate that the school leaders in Swedish municipalities are more satisfied with both decentralisation and market forces in schooling than their English colleagues. Several plausible interpretations could be made of the interview answers from the school leaders, but it seems that the higher degree of decentralisation in the Swedish educational system is perhaps the most important factor in this case. Finally, the findings also indicate that the school leaders see positive aspects of choice and competition in schooling, like increased quality and better efficiency, as well as negative aspects, primarily the risk of segregation due to free school choice.