The devolution of control over education policy in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao of the southern Philippines has led, in recent years, to efforts to Islamise education in the region, a trend reflective of similar efforts in other Southeast Asian Muslim countries but often seen as worrisome by secular observers concerned about the…

This essay responds to the question of what it might mean to educate "world teachers" for cosmopolitan classrooms and schools through an examination of an ethnographic play entitled "Satellite Kids". The author begins with the idea that teachers need to develop or build up "intercultural capital", that is, knowledge and dispositions that will help…

In this discursive and wide-ranging paper I want to do two things: first, to interrogate the conditions that led to, and continue to wreak havoc as a result of, the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), and that underpin current policy approaches to teacher education in Australia and other western countries; and second, to move in the direction of…

In Claire Kramsch's (2004) response to work by Mary Louise Pratt (2002) on multilingualism, identity and language in the U.S., she proposed that the four points made by Pratt be extended to the following: (1) Monolingualism is a handicap, but so is the assumption that one language = one culture = adherence to one cultural community; (2) Heritage…

In this article, the author provides a brief response to Claire Kramsch's paper. While the author agrees in many ways with her arguments, he also wants to point to a potential contradiction between two positions: On the one hand, Kramsch suggests that in promoting foreign language learning language educators run the danger of essentialising the…

This article presents the author's response to Alastair Pennycook and Azirah Hashim. In this article, the author contends that learning a foreign language should not lock learners in an imagined homogeneous target culture, despite the efforts of textbooks to reinforce stereotypes and some learners' desire to identify with an essentialised Other.…

In this paper I suggest that as educators we need to understand that the spaces and cultures our students inhabit are to be found not so much in predefinitions of cultural background or in studies of classrooms as cultural spaces as in the transcultural flows with which our students engage. Thus, my argument is not only that, as Singh and Doherty…

In the course of exploring critiques of globalisation, this essay will focus on two postures--each with its range of arguments--that have emerged as alternatives to globalisation, namely, the delinking position and the subverting position. The first argues for standing "outside" of globalisation and its educational cultures and apparatuses. It…

How much is hegemony and how much is self-determination in the higher education systems in Southeast Asia? This paper argues that while the question of centre and periphery is still relevant to the analysis of international university systems, the analytical frameworks from which it has arisen may lose viability in the long term. Southeast Asian…

This paper argues that we are currently experiencing a debilitating overload of political interference and media hyperbole in respect of teaching and teacher education, and that much of this blitzkrieg amounts to a "political spectacle" and blatant neo-liberal ideology dressed up as rational analysis. The politics of disparagement being unleashed…

This paper examines teachers' perceptions of their professionalism under conditions of educational reforms in government primary schools in Karachi, Pakistan. Conceiving teacher professionalism in terms of four dimensions (teacher efficacy, teacher practice, teacher leadership and teacher collaboration) it reports a quantitative survey research…

Models of learning to teach recognize the important relationship between university and school settings. The roles that educators in each setting play in the development of effective beginning teachers are not discrete. Rather they complement and support one another. Building upon existing literature, and utilizing recent data, this paper…

In the context of escalating criticism of university-based teacher education across the world, a clear need exists for informed defence of the field and the profession as well as critical evaluation of both teacher education and schooling. This paper takes up the issue of the 'outcomes question' in this regard, arguing the case for a strong focus…

Cooperative education, in the form or practicums, forms an essential part of teacher training and is the means by which academic content or professional knowledge gains value. A more holistic approach to teacher education would include cooperative education. Research into cooperative education likewise needs to be developed via a holistic approach…

Examines the implementation of the New Zealand Qualifications Framework, with emphasis on the relationship between educational institutions and industry partner organizations. Argues that government policy must consider the differing skills of industry and education and not create an imbalance in power that inhibits effective implementation of…