Rooted in an international political economy theoretical framework, this book provides unique insights into the global forces and local responses that are shaping education systems in Central America and the Latin Caribbean (CALC). The book covers all Spanish-speaking countries of the CALC region and examines the effects of macro-economic pressures, geopolitical intervention, neo-colonial relationships, global pandemics, transnational gang networks, and the influence of international organizations. Chapters analyse the challenges and opportunities these global forces present to education systems in the region as well as highlighting the local efforts to address, mitigate, and counteract them. In doing so, the book illuminates how education can contribute to either maintaining or challenging inequalities and exclusion in the face of pressures from the global to local levels.
This landmark volume represents the work of the National Latino/a Education Research Agenda Project (NLERAP)-an initiative focused on school reform and educational research with and for Latino communities. NLERAP's goal is to bring together various constituencies within the broad Latino community who are concerned with public education to articulate a Latino perspective on research-based school reform, and to use research as a guide to improving the public school systems that serve Latino students and to maximizing their opportunities to participate fully and equally in all social, economic, and political contexts of society. Latino Education: An Agenda for Community Action Research conceptualizes and illustrates the theoretical framework for the NLERAP agenda and its projects. This framework is grounded in three overlapping areas of scholarship and activism, which are reflected within the chapters in this volume: critical studies, illuminating and analyzing the status of people of color in the United States; Latino/a educational research, capturing the sociohistorical, cultural, and political schooling experiences of U.S. Latino/a communities; and participatory action research, exemplifying a liberation-oriented methodology for truly transformative education. The volume includes both descriptive educational research and critical analyses of previous research and educational agendas related to Latino/a communities in the United States. According to current U.S. Census data, Latinos now comprise the largest minority group in the total U.S. population. Historically, reflecting larger sociohistorical and economic inequalities in U.S. society, the Latino community has not been well served by U.S. public school systems. More attention to the Latino students' educational issues is needed to redress this problem, especially given the tremendous population increase and projected growth of Latino communities in the U.S. Latino Education: An Agenda for Community Action Research is a major contribution toward this goal.
This edited collection provides a comprehensive and locally situated understanding of English language teaching from the perspective of dedicated and experienced language professionals and researchers in Costa Rica. The book uses a series of reflective sections that interconnect theory and practice in a non-English-dominant context in order to inform and transform pedagogical practices. The chapters depict a wide-ranging image of English language teaching and learning in the region, encouraging in-service teachers, TESOL specialists, and ELT scholars to critically reassess, rethink, and relearn teaching and learning as more than a political decision in an educational curriculum. Ultimately promoting the practice as dynamic, ever-changing, and culturally situated, the book will be highly relevant to researchers, academics, scholars, and faculty in the fields of teacher education, educational research, EFL, and modern foreign languages.
Teacher induction is becoming increasingly important focus of education policy developed to help beginning teachers develop professionally and stay in teaching work force as a way to meet the needs of global economy and social transformation for teaching quality and student learning in many countries. Policy borrowing is a common practice in teacher induction across different countries, Such a policy borrowing allow policymakers in particular countries to access different options and choices in their policy development instead of trial and error. However, it is often done without a careful policy analysis as its base, especially, the analysis that focuses on the problems the borrowed policy intends to solve, social, political, and educational contexts in which it develops, explicit and implicit conceptual assumptions underlying it, its implementation and associated challenges, and its intended and unintended impacts. Without such an analysis as its base, the implementations of policy borrowed from other countries can causes unnecessary financial, human resource, and emotional costs in its context, even if the policy prove to be successful in the other place. This book serves for such needs of policy analysis in the field of teacher induction. It starts with the book editor’s overview of the book and its intention. Then, there are 16 chapters each is written by a distinguished scholar or a policy analyst from a particular country that analyzes the focuses, contexts, assumptions, implementation, challenges, and consequences of a specific teacher induction policy developed in their home country and then raise important research questions emerging from their analysis. The book is expected to attract readers including scholars, policy makers, practitioners, and graduate students in different countries who have interests in teacher induction research, policy, and practice.
This book discusses the perspectives and practices of teacher education programs in order to shed new light on the national priorities, policies, curriculum inputs, delivery mechanisms, challenges and future trends in 20 selected countries. It examines and compares the complexity of teacher education in international contexts, providing insights into educational change and reform in emerging democracies. Further, it includes cases from various countries that reflect how the profession is moving forward. In order to deepen readers’ understanding of teacher training and the challenges posed by globalization, the book concludes with a discussion of theoretical perspectives applied to teacher education, and with recommendations for new directions. Given its scope, the book is an essential read for teacher educators, students, and researchers working in the field of education.