Academic literature on the topic 'Urban schools Victoria Curricula'

The first half of the twelfth century was, by any account, a remarkable time in the intellectual history of the medieval West. During this period the development and expansion of schools located in urban centers took place at an accelerating pace. Within these schools, masters forged new tools for organizing, analyzing, and presenting materials for their students. Not only was the rich harvest gleaned from the writings of authorities from past centuries subjected to a more organized sifting and evaluation; the results of contemporary intellectual debate were incorporated into texts that made their way into the curricula of the schools. One can see the effects of this sifting, organizing, discussing, and presenting in a wide variety of works from the half-century: the theological sententiae from the “school” of Anselm of Laon and William of Champeaux, the accessus ad auctores literature in the arts curriculum, the Sic et non of Abelard, collections of canon law, and glossed Bibles and biblical commentaries. Although the contents of these works are quite diverse, in general they were produced within a common cultural situation: the medieval school.

Urban morphological curricula in recently redesigned programmes in all 33 schools of architecture in Spain are examined. In an international context a comparative study is made of different courses using data available on university websites. Urban morphology is present in most compulsory urban studies modules, but these modules are rarely seen as relevant to architectural programmes and only a very few are fully dedicated to the study of urban form. The weak state of urban morphological curricula in Spanish architectural programmes is revealed. Change is urgently needed to provide future professionals with better knowledge and tools for research and practice.

AbstractThe Saltwatch environmental education program aims to increase awareness and understanding of salinity and thereby to stimulate remedial and preventative action. An evaluation of the program in Victoria in 1995 revealed its wide use across school curricula, and subsequent practical environmental action in 53% of schools. Participation in Saltwatch and subsequent environmental activities were more restricted in community groups. The paper concludes with a discussion of Saltwatch's success and possible improvements.

Although home–school collaborations are important for inclusive education, most studies have identified the problems experienced by parents whose children have additional special needs. The aim of this study was to present the views of Australian parents, with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, regarding what they considered to be the enablers for inclusion, within the context of their experiences of a program of support in inclusive schools (a Victorian State Government initiative called the Inclusion Support Program). Four focus group interviews were conducted, within a phenomenological, qualitative paradigm, with 14 mothers, in rural and urban primary and secondary public schools. Parents identified various innovations including the provision of a safe space, structured school and free time, flexibility around timetable, curriculum and staffing and the provision of socially attractive activities. Another theme was the potential for schools to be a ‘catalyst point’ to bring together parents, teachers and community agencies. The importance of eliciting parental expertise is highlighted here.

This article undertakes an analysis of current urban planning programs at universities with a focus on sub-Saharan English-speaking African (SSA) and South East Asian countries (SEA) as comparison cases. The aim is to identify, as an important part of sustainability, the existence and share of climate change and disaster related courses in the curricula, and to understand to what extent these topics are already integrated into current urban planning programs at the university level and thus shape the knowledge and skills of future urban planners. The local academic and professional environments in which the programs are based are taken into account by a review of the historical development of the programs. The analysis in mid-2020 took only those universities and programs into account that have curricula and course titles available online. The data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The second part of the research deals with the discussion of how these courses can be best integrated into the existing curricula and thus serve the adequate education of urban planners by providing some concrete ideas.

Chicago's magnet schools were one of the nation's earliest experiments in choice-driven school desegregation, originating among civil rights advocates and academic education experts in the 1960s and appearing at specific sites in Chicago's urban landscape during the 1970s. The specific concerns that motivated the creation of magnet schools during the civil rights era—desegregating schools and arresting white flight—were decisively wedded to notions of parental choice, academic selectivity, and urban revitalization. While magnet schools enacted innovative curricula in self-consciously multicultural spaces, their scarcity, combined with their function as a spur to middle-class urbanism, ratified new regimes of inequality in urban education. This article frames magnet schools’ engineered success as a necessary prehistory for the rise of educational choice-and-accountability reforms later in the twentieth century.

Human trafficking severely endangers vulnerable individuals from around the globe. Schools play an important role to educate students the potential harms of human trafficking and should become more intentional in providing support services for children who fall victim to human trafficking. The purpose of this study was to examine how preventive curricula on human trafficking can be successfully implemented in schools because of the direct connection to teaching for social justice. Under the theoretical guise of teaching for social justice, researchers reviewed current literature trends on implementing social justice curricula and current models for teaching about human trafficking. Following the qualitative research case study method, interview data, classroom observation, interval recording, and reflexive notes were collected and analyzed for salient themes to emerge. Findings from this study support the notion that anti–human trafficking curriculum can be implemented in public school settings and yield high engagement among students.

AbstractIn the past few years, excessive efforts have been made to increase the city’s attractiveness and its international positioning. Also studies on the so-called city destination branding are on the rise. Theorists, as Ramirez (2001), Marzano and Scott (2009), among many others, are discussing different aspects of this complex process. Many approaches and strategies are dealing with the positioning of urban environments and city destinations, trying to provide at least some partial answers about achieving this objective. With proper marketing and branding, cities can do a lot to attract tourists and visitors. For successful city marketing and branding and for the successful long-term positioning of the destination in general, it is necessary to involve the key stakeholders and collaborate with as many as possible despite the fact that the branding of a city destination (or any destination for that matter) is a complex process. It is significant that all the stakeholders, who are always carriers of different interests, are invited to collaborate in the planning of the tourism development and tourism development strategies, from the government, the private sector, schools etc. It is also important to involve the citizens, who can provide a valuable opinion about the environment they live in – what they like about their environment, what suggestion would they give to tourists about gastronomy, attractions, shops, events, etc. It is significant that citizens are proud of their urban environment, that they know their own environment, and that they have the motivation for the involvement in the process of improvement of their home environment (through projects, discussions, etc.). It is impossible to create attractive urban environments or cities if residents do not have a positive opinion about the place they live in. That is why it is essential for the education institutions at all levels, but especially for the institutions at the primary levels to educate children, toddlers, pupils, students, about the importance of urban environment development and create a positive learning environment, where children are able to develop as residents with a great understanding of the potential of the environment they live in. The paper explores the importance of raising awareness of the urban environment in primary schools from the theoretical, analytical and practical point of views. In the paper, we will examine whether primary schools in the city of Maribor, Slovenia educate children about their urban environment, if they are creating positive learning environments, where children can develop into proud citizens aware of the significance of the urban environment and its consequences for the quality of their lives. Further on, the curricula in chosen primary schools in Maribor is going to be analyzed. With the survey, we will try to identify the degree of children’s awareness of their surrounding urban environment, the information they receive about their environment, and their attitude towards it. And finally, what is most important, we will try to show the extreme significance of the learning environment and the curricula for raising the awareness of the environment and growing into responsible adults who will also act responsibly towards their urban environments.

Direct assessments of instructional practice (e.g., classroom observations) are necessary to identify and eliminate opportunity gaps in students’ learning of mathematics. This study examined 114 middle school mathematics classrooms in four instructionally focused urban districts. Results from the Instructional Quality Assessment identified high percentages of lessons featuring cognitively challenging tasks, but declines in cognitive challenge during implementation and discussions. Overall instructional quality exceeded results from studies with nationally representative samples and paralleled results of studies of instructionally focused urban middle schools. Significant differences existed between districts, favoring the district with veteran teachers, long-term use of Standards-based curricula, and professional development initiatives.

AbstractConcern exists over the extent to which environmental education is being addressed in Australian primary school curricula. This is especially so since the release of the nationally developed Statements and Profiles in eight key areas of learning because no documents specifically relating to environmental education were produced. This paper reports the results of a study in which a survey based on outcomes relevant to environmental education, as drawn from curriculum documents in use in the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria, was completed by a sample of primary teachers from both states. Results indicated that, in most schools, outcomes relevant to environmental education were being given significant attention. However, the extent to which different outcomes were addressed varied widely, as did the extent to which individual schools addressed outcomes over the years kindergarten/preparatory to year 6 (K/P-6). Implications for teacher education drawn from the findings are discussed.

The primary purpose of this study was to compare academic achievement and behavioral characteristics of students enrolled in the Career Exploratory Middle School (CEMS), an alternative middle school, with the academic achievement and behavioral characteristics of students in a project called Building and Supplementing Instruction in the Core Skills (BASICS), a dropout prevention program within traditional middle schools. The independent· variable was CEMS. The dependent variables were SRA composite scores, absences, days tardy, grade point average and office referrals. Project BASICS was used as a comparison group. Another purpose of this study was to determine whether or not CEMS and Project BASICS had any effect on selected academic and behavioral criteria. A total of 120 subjects were analyzed from two groups. Each group consisted of 60 randomly selected students. An ex post facto research design was used. Descriptive analyses included mean, media, mode, range, variance and standard deviations. Analysis of covariance was used to determine significant relationships. T-tests were used to compare the performance within both comparison groups. A p<.05 level of significance was used. Based on the Pearson Correlation Coefficient there appears to be a highly positive relationship between student performance in 1986-87 and in 1987-88 for all behavioral variables. The t-test for Grade Point Average (GPA) indicated that the sample means were almost identical within each individual group. All other variables indicated significant within-group improvement. The results suggested that there were no significant differences between the Career Exploratory Middle Schools (CEMS) and project BASICS with regard to Science Research Association (SRA) composite scores, absences, days tardy, GPA and office referrals. This study is designed to compare the effectiveness of two strategies used to reduce the number of dropout-prone middle school students.
Ed. D.

Thesis ( M.A. (African languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2013
The study discovered that above mentioned situation has hardly changed English in the in the school under review is fill medium of instruction of the majority of learners,power of Afrikaans. A major recommendation of the study is that African languages should be introduced as medium of infraction for African language speakers in all former model school

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to investigate and describe the current state of Afrikaans FAL teaching in selected Gr 4 – 6 classes in Western Cape urban schools. This was done by presenting an overview of the literature relevant to FAL teaching and FAL curricula as well as the results from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with Gr 4 – 6 teachers. This study does not offer a quick-fix solution to the problems in the Afrikaans FAL classrooms, but the researcher believes that the findings will highlight the daily challenges Afrikaans FAL teachers have to face and that all role players will become actively involved in improving the state of Afrikaans FAL teaching in the Western Cape. The relevance of this study lies in the national drive towards the promotion of multilingualism among the general population and especially in education. Feedback from student teachers returning from practice teaching indicated that not enough time is allocated by schools for the instruction of Afrikaans FAL; greatly differing methodologies as well as teaching and learning materials are being used in Afrikaans FAL classes; and learner and teacher Afrikaans proficiency varies from class to class. A theoretical framework for language teaching and learning, a literature study pertaining to first additional language teaching nationally and internationally, and an analysis of South African FAL curricula support the research. Constructivism, social constructivism and teacher knowledge were identified as the underpinning theories for language teaching and learning. The literature study provides an overview of all the major methodologies relevant to FAL teaching and the researcher concluded that there is no single method or approach that will ensure effective FAL teaching, but that teachers should implement an eclectic approach to achieve the best results. This study used a mixed methods approach to generate empirical data; 125 questionnaires, completed by Grade 4 – 6 Afrikaans FAL teachers, provided the quantitative data. For the qualitative strand of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 Afrikaans FAL teachers. The data of these interviews were used as triangulation, to confirm or disconfirm and elaborate on the results of the questionnaires. One of the major factors impacting negatively on the teaching and learning of Afrikaans FAL is the negative attitude towards Afrikaans among many learners and their parents. Teachers are not equipped with teaching strategies and techniques to manage these negative attitudes. The results show that many teachers still follow a teacher-centred approach to teaching, which is an indication that learners are not given enough opportunities to develop their communicative competence through interaction with others. Another factor affecting Afrikaans FAL teaching negatively is that not all schools implement the prescriptions of the various language policies and curricula as they should. The study also investigated the use of appropriate and relevant learning and teaching support materials (LTSM) in the FAL classroom. The results showed that most teachers still mainly use the textbook as teaching resource. There is a dire need for appropriate Afrikaans LTSM for FAL. The expectation is that, in the age of technology we find ourselves in today, learners’ interest will be stimulated through the use of technological teaching aids. Teachers should therefore have access to, and use, a variety of media and technological teaching aids and be able to integrate them effectively into their language teaching. The findings of the study revealed teachers are caught up in traditional language teaching methods and strategies which do not contribute to the enhancement of learners’ proficiency in the target language. The study also closely examined the different types of knowledge that a language teacher should have. The results showed that the teachers’ knowledge of the curriculum, language policies, language teaching and learning theories as well as methodologies is extremely limited. Therefore a new method or approach is needed, which is why this study recommends that the HEIs and the WCED ensure that initial teacher training programmes and in-service training workshops are upgraded and adapted in order to prepare the teachers adequately to implement the prescribed curriculum using appropriate methodologies and strategies.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie was om die huidige stand van Afrikaans Eerste Addisionele Taal (EAT) onderrig in gekose Gr 4 – 6 klasse in Wes-Kaapse stedelike skole te ondersoek en beskryf. Dit is gedoen by wyse van die aanbieding van ’n oorsig van die betrokke literatuur oor EAT-onderrig en EAT-kurrikula, asook die resultate van vraelyste en semigestruktureerde onderhoude met Gr 4 – 6-onderwysers. Hierdie studie bied nie ’n kitsoplossing vir die probleme in die Afrikaans EAT klaskamers nie, maar die navorser glo dat die bevindinge die uitdagings wat Afrikaans EAT-onderwysers daagliks trotseer, sal beklemtoon en dat alle rolspelers aktief betrokke sal raak om die stand van Afrikaans EAT onderrig in die Wes-Kaap te verbeter. Die toepaslikheid van hierdie studie is gesetel in die nasionale klem op die bevordering van meertaligheid onder die algemene pupliek en veral in die onderwys. Studente terugvoer na die praktiese onderwys dui daarop dat nie genoeg tyd aan die onderrig van Afrkaans EAT in skole bewillig word nie en dat daar ‘n groot verskeidenheid onderrigmetodes en onderrig- en leerhulpmiddels in Afrikaans EAT-klasse aangewend word. Leerders en onderwysers se vaardigheid in Afrikaans wissel ook van klas tot klas. Die navorsing is ondersteun deur ‘n teoretiese raamwerk van taalonderrig en –leer, ‘n literatuurstudie van eerste addisionele taalonderrig, nasionaal sowel as internasionaal, asook ‘n analise van Suid-Afrikaanse EAT-kurrikula. Konstruktivisme. sosio-konstruktivisme en onderwyser kennis is geïdentifiseer as die teoretiese begronding vir taalonderrig en –leer. Die literatuurstudie gee ‘n oorsig van al die belangrike en relevante EAT-metodieke. Die navorser het tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat nie een enkele metode of benadering effektiewe EAT-onderrig kan verseker nie, maar dat onderwysers ‘n eklektiese benadering behoort te volg om die beste resultate te verseker. Hierdie studie het ‘n gemengde navorsingsbenadering gevolg ten einde empiriese data te genereer. Die kwantatiewe data is ingesamel by wyse van talle vraelyste wat deur Gr 4 – 6 Afrikaans EAT-onderwysers voltooi is. Semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude is met 17 Afrikaans EAT-onderwysers gevoer ten einde die kwalitatiewe data in te samel. Die data van hierdie onderhoude is gebruik as tri-angulasie om die resultate van die vraelyste te bevestig of te weerspreek. Een van die belangrikste faktore wat die onderrig en leer van Afrikaans EAT negatief beïnvloed, is baie leerders en ouers se negatiewe houding teenoor Afrikaans. Onderwysers is nie toegerus met die nodige onderrigstrategieë en –tegnieke om hierdie negatiewe houdings aan te spreek nie. Die resultate wys daarop dat baie onderwysers steeds ’n onderwyser-gerigte benadering volg wat daartoe lei dat die leerders nie genoegsame geleentheide kry om hulle kommunikatiewe vaardighede by wyse van interaksie met ander te ontwikkel nie. ‘n Ander faktor wat Afrikaans EAT-onderrig negatief beïnvloed, is die feit dat nie alle skole die voorskrifte van die verskillende taalbeleide en kurrikula implementeer soos van hulle verwag word nie. Hierdie studie het ook die gebruik van gepaste en relevante onderrig- en leerondersteuningsmateriaal in die EAT-klaskamer ondersoek. Die resultate het daarop gedui dat die meeste onderwysers nog steeds die handboek as belangrikste onderrighulpmiddel gebruik. Daar bestaan ‘n geweldige behoefte na gepaste Afrikaanse onderrig- en leermateriaal vir EAT. In die tegnologiese era waarin ons ons bevind, bestaan die verwagting dat leerders se belangstelling gestimuleer sal word deur die gebruik van tegnologiese onderrigmateriaal. Onderwysers behoort dus toegang te hê tot en ‘n wye verskeidenheid media en tegnologiese onderrigmateriaal te kan gebruik en in staat wees om dit suksesvol te integreer in hulle taalonderrig. Die bevindinge van hierdie studie het gewys dat onderwysers vasgevang is in tradisionele taalonderrigmetodes en –strategieë wat nie bydra tot die ontwikkeling van die leerders se vaardigheid in die teikentaal nie. Die verskillende soorte kennis waaroor ‘n taalonderwyser behoort te beskik is ook onder die vergrootglas geplaas. Die resultate het getoon dat die onderwysers se kennis van die kurrikulum, taalbeleid, taalonderrig en –leerteorieë en metodieke uiters beperk is. Daar is dus ‘n behoefte aan ‘n nuwe metode of benadering en daarom beveel hierdie studie aan dat onderwyseropleidingsprogramme en indiensopleidingswerkswinkels opgegradeer en aangepas word deur die Hoëronderwysinstellings en die WKOD om te verseker dat onderwysers voldoende voorberei word om gepaste metodieke en strategieë toe te pas in die implementering van die voorgeskrewe kurrikula.

The global spread of the neoliberal paradigm has propelled a recent worldwide trend of educational decentralization/centralization policies. Such policies constitute a contradictory ensemble that has shifted authority and accountability across national, provincial or state, municipal, and school levels. They have also been marked by contestation over the extent to which curricula are nationally standardized or locally defined. Education reform in Brazil in this regard has been shaped by a confluence of neoliberal and critical theoretical currents: enhance the nation’s economic competitiveness in the global market and redress pressing societal issues. Using Basil Bernstein’s concepts of classification and framing together with critical educational scholars’ conceptualizations of knowledge and knowledge in the official and enacted curriculum as conceptual and theoretical frameworks, this comparative ethnographic case study examines the nexus between curriculum, knowledge, and pedagogy in municipal schools in Brazil’s Northeast. In doing so it addresses gaps in comparative educational research on curriculum knowledge along with how educational decentralization/centralization policies are implemented in practice. The central thesis is that municipal school curricula knowledge dynamics—the classification and framing of knowledge in the official curriculum and the relation of such with what knowledge is legitimized in classrooms, how such is transmitted and analyzed, and why—in Brazil’s Northeast encompass a multilevel web of contradictions. This web spans incongruent ideologies, opposing elements of autonomy and accountability, conflicting pedagogical principles and practices, and a chasm between curriculum ideals and urban periphery municipal school realities.

M.Ed. (Educational Linguistics)
This study focuses on the reading proficiency in English of black students who are attending an academic support school. From observations made on the difficulties experienced by many students in successfully completing reading tasks in the classroom., it appeared that many of these students were not proficient readers. As reading is a multi-dimensional research phenomenon, various dimensions of reading, which include bottom-up proficiency, top-down proficiency, metacognition, and affective and socio-cultural factors, have been investigated. While reading proficiency is the focus of the study, the relationship between reading and language proficiency as well as the influence of the sociocultural and educational background of the student on his reading have also been investigated. The research design for investigating the problem included a review of literature on the various reading models and on reading pedagogy, as well as on the relationship between language proficiency and reading proficiency. Literature on the influence of a disadvantaged sociocultural and educational background on reading proficiency was also reviewed. From these readings it was evident that reading is a complex process, the nature of which is still being investigated by reading theorists. Furthermore, the literature reviewed seemed to indicate that there is a relationship between language proficiency and reading proficiency, as well as a relationship between the sociocultural and educational background of the student and reading proficiency. The literature review was followed by a micro-genetic investigation of the research problem by a full participant researcher. Data were collected from nine students and processed. The findings indicate that most of the students are not proficient readers even though their bottom-up proficiency is adequate. Furthermore, it was found that a relationship between language proficiency and between sociocultural status and educational disadvantage and reading proficiency, does appear to exist. To conclude the investigation, suggestions for teacher training in reading pedagogy and for the teaching of reading in secondary schools to English Second Language readers were made. Finally, a model for reading pedagogy, which includes various aspects of the reading process, was devised.

Orientação: Maria Eduarda Margarido Pires ; co-orientação: Maria das Graças Andrade Ataíde de Almeida
Esta investigação se volta para compreender como se manifestam e são vivenciadas as dificuldades dos docentes nas suas práticas pedagógicas na escola do campo e as concepções dos docentes acerca dos sujeitos aprendentes da escola do campo em contraponto à prática pedagógica desenvolvida nas escolas da cidade. Para além desta questão norteadora, esta pesquisa pretende oferecer reflexões para alguns questionamentos: Quais as vivências e as dificuldades dos docentes na sua prática pedagógica da escola do campo? Quais as dificuldades encontradas pelos docentes no desenvolvimento curricular, nomeadamente na contextualização nas condições de aprendizagens dos sujeitos aprendentes? Como os professores se relacionam com a metodologia utilizada na escola do campo? Como trabalhar com os elementos curriculares que norteiam os métodos e práticas educacionais da educação do campo? As categorias teóricas eleitas que deram suporte à investigação empírica foram: cultura da escola; escola do campo; currículo e prática pedagógica. A tentativa de não reconhecer os conhecimentos populares para transformarem em conhecimento científico dando subjetividade a esses saberes, e a proposta de formação que articule princípios filosóficos, epistemológicos e políticos em prol de uma educação comprometida com os anseios populares. A fala da maioria dos profissionais da educação aqui entrevistados, reflete a concepção atual de educação como princípio do desenvolvimento e não só resultado das provas, mas também as relações com a realidade e identidade do sujeito aprendente.
This research turns to understand the difficulties of teachers in their pedagogical practices in rural schools, as well as to understand their conceptions about the learners as subjects in rural schools, opposed to the pedagogical practice developed in urban schools. In addition to this main question, this research intended to offer reflections to some questions: which are the difficulties of teachers in their pedagogical practices in a rural school? What are the difficulties found by them regarding the curriculum development, particularly in the contextualization of the conditions of learning for the learners? How teachers relate to the methodology employed in a rural school? How to work with curricular elements that guide the educational methods and practices in the rural education? The theoretical categories selected to give support to the empirical research were: school culture; rural school; curriculum and pedagogical practice. There is a tendency to not recognize popular knowledge as a tool to be transformed into scientific knowledge, which would add subjectivity to the different kinds of knowledge. There is also the need for a training proposal that articulates philosophical, epistemological and political principles in favor of an educational formation committed with popular aspirations. The speech of most education professionals interviewed reflects the current concept of education as a principle of development, and not only a result of the application of tests, which can give support to the relations with reality and identity of the learner.

AbstractBased on a long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this study applies the cultural-ecological theory to understand reasons for making and maintaining a segregated school in a Romanian town, and those community forces which track and maintain Roma children there. As findings indicate, creating and sustaining such an institution reflects the flipsides of Romanian national policies, which due to the financing strategies and centralized curricula—involuntarily—block the chances to provide quality education to marginal groups. Tracking and staying of Roma children into such schools is a result of their parents’ ambivalent experiences with formal economic activities and formal education. Experiences with work and schooling shared by this urban group of Roma reveal that parents have clear expectations towards school: transmission of practical knowledge, good treatment and isolation of the school problems from family life, which not always can be fulfilled by the educational units.

Effective professional development holds the power to transform teaching practices that invigorate teachers and increase student engagement. Arizona Classrooms of Tomorrow Today (AZCOTT) was one such experience. Eighteen elementary teachers completed a yearlong, rigorous, sixty-hour workshop experience that focused on integrating technology in content area instruction. Participants integrated technology effectively, began to develop leadership skills, and experienced changes in attitude, beliefs, knowledge, and skills as technology influenced existing curricula.

This chapter examines how schools that establish rich and sustaining partnerships with local communities enhance opportunities for urban environmental education. It considers “socioecological refrains” that incorporate stewardship, pedagogy, interrelationships, and heritage and highlight the role played by schools in shaping sustainable cities through urban environmental education. These refrains promote a connectedness to place through the use of the local environment to stimulate learning, the development of curricula and pedagogies that embrace the development of sustainable cities, and the establishment of links with the community to foster relationships, stewardship, and resiliency. Case studies from Canada, Australia, China, and Spain are presented to illustrate these refrains and to show initiatives at work such as green schools. The chapter demonstrates that urban schools can use local environments to serve as stimulus, context, and content for teaching and learning about sustainability.

At a large, urban university, the clinically based preparation of undergraduate elementary education teacher candidates has been transformed. Following the Blue Ribbon Panel Report (NCATE, 2010), faculty created a more intense, integrated, and rigorous clinical experience for teacher candidates, which required more engagement, monitoring, and collaboration among methods faculty and PDS PK-6 schools, while immersing the candidates in a more realistic setting. This chapter describes how (a) methods curricula were reconfigured to include integrated clinical assignments, (b) opportunities were created for candidates to experience extended time in clinical classrooms, (c) university faculty liaisons were present at each PDS clinical school to provide on-site support, feedback, seminar instruction, accountability, and increased communication between the university and the school, (d) new evaluation instruments were implemented to gather and report teacher candidate knowledge, skills, and dispositions, and (e) technology was utilized, allowing teacher candidates opportunity to present and reflect on experiences.

Chapter 4 charts the most contested phase of Black educational activism in the North as support for Black-controlled schools expanded alongside the Black Power movement, concurrent with the growth of court-ordered school desegregation across the urban North. “Community-control” activists, like those in New York City and Newark, New Jersey, saw separation as a rational response to what they viewed as the dismal failure of school integration. They called for community control over administration, curriculum, pedagogy, and hiring in majority Black schools and called for desegregation plans to be halted. Student activists demanded Black history courses, fairer discipline and dress code policies, and more respect for Black culture. Not everyone agreed with this renewed vision of autonomous Black institution-building, especially an older generation of civil rights warriors. Although briefly appealing, community control and Afrocentric curricula did not successfully equalize public education and receded in the early 1970s.

At a large, urban university, the clinically based preparation of undergraduate elementary education teacher candidates has been transformed. Following the Blue Ribbon Panel Report (NCATE, 2010), faculty created a more intense, integrated, and rigorous clinical experience for teacher candidates, which required more engagement, monitoring, and collaboration among methods faculty and PDS PK-6 schools, while immersing the candidates in a more realistic setting. This chapter describes how (a) methods curricula were reconfigured to include integrated clinical assignments, (b) opportunities were created for candidates to experience extended time in clinical classrooms, (c) university faculty liaisons were present at each PDS clinical school to provide on-site support, feedback, seminar instruction, accountability, and increased communication between the university and the school, (d) new evaluation instruments were implemented to gather and report teacher candidate knowledge, skills, and dispositions, and (e) technology was utilized, allowing teacher candidates opportunity to present and reflect on experiences.

In John Tabita’s essay "Doing Things Right versus Doing the Right Things," he discusses two different approaches in the business management world: tactical thinking and strategic thinking. This opens up an interesting debate between creating the vision and implementing the vision. He offers a fair argument for both approaches. They are beneficial to tackling a problem and fundamental to success in business. Yet there is a critical tension between a tactical thinker who tends to "do things right" and a strategic thinker who is inclined to "do the right things." "If you do something 'right,' but it is the wrong thing to do, your efforts will be futile. Conversely, if you do the 'right thing,' but you do it wrong, you will also fail miserably" (Tabita 2011, n.p.). How can we apply this inquiry to architectural pedagogy? The current model of architectural program curricula is based on the tactical approach, predominantly skill-based design education. Therefore, the measure of success in architectural pedagogy of NAAB-accredited programs tends to be solutions for tackling a design problem. While the tactical thinking process is needed and essential, how can we implement the strategic thinking process into our current architecture curricula to promote the idea of "Doing the Right Things"? The research paper is rooted in an upper-division special topics course, Data-Driven Research Methods, and will showcase two projects. The first, Spatial Network Analysis for Oklahoma City Streetcar, is focused on the infrastructure of the streetcar and its effects on the urban environment. The second project, Interactive Podium, uses embedded computing technology to create a visual platform for interaction between users. By developing diverse perspectives of the research process, the architecture curricula can nurture an effective decision-making process and proactively seek the "right things."

Involving local communities in school management is seen to be crucial to improving the quality of education in state schools in developing countries; yet school-based management committees remain dormant in most such contexts. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with a rich network of community-supported Islamic and Quranic schools in the state of Kano in northern Nigeria—a sub-Saharan African region with very low education indicators, low economic growth, and political and social instability—this paper shows how making school curricula responsive to local value systems and economic opportunities is key to building a strong sense of community ownership of schools. Under community-based school management committees, control over more substantive educational issues—such as the content of school curricula and the nature of aspirations and concepts of a good life that it promotes among the students—remains firmly in the hands of the government education authorities, who on occasion also draw on examples from other countries and expertise offered by international development agencies when considering what should be covered. The paper shows that, as in the case of the urban areas, rural communities or those in less-developed urban centres lose trust in state schools when the low quality of education provided results in a failure to secure formal-sector employment. But the problem is compounded in these communities, because while state schools fail to deliver on the promise of formal-sector employment, the curriculum does promote a concept of a good life that is strongly associated with formal-sector employment and urban living, which remains out of reach for most; it also promotes liberal values, which in the local communities' perception are associated with Western societies and challenge traditional values and authority structures. The outcomes of such state schooling, in the experience of rural communities, are frustrated young people, unhappy with the prospect of taking up traditional jobs, and disrespectful of parents and of traditional authority structures. The case of community support for Islamic and Quranic schools in northern Nigeria thus highlights the need to consider the production of localised curricula and to adjust concepts of a good life to local contexts and economic opportunities, as opposed to adopting a standardised national curriculum which promotes aspirations that are out of reach.

Involving local communities in school management is seen to be crucial to improving the quality of education in state schools in developing countries; yet school-based management committees remain dormant in most such contexts. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with a rich network of community-supported Islamic and Quranic schools in the state of Kano in northern Nigeria—a sub-Saharan African region with very low education indicators, low economic growth, and political and social instability—this paper shows how making school curricula responsive to local value systems and economic opportunities is key to building a strong sense of community ownership of schools. Under community-based school management committees, control over more substantive educational issues—such as the content of school curricula and the nature of aspirations and concepts of a good life that it promotes among the students—remains firmly in the hands of the government education authorities, who on occasion also draw on examples from other countries and expertise offered by international development agencies when considering what should be covered. The paper shows that, as in the case of the urban areas, rural communities or those in less-developed urban centres lose trust in state schools when the low quality of education provided results in a failure to secure formal-sector employment. But the problem is compounded in these communities, because while state schools fail to deliver on the promise of formal-sector employment, the curriculum does promote a concept of a good life that is strongly associated with formal-sector employment and urban living, which remains out of reach for most; it also promotes liberal values, which in the local communities' perception are associated with Western societies and challenge traditional values and authority structures. The outcomes of such state schooling, in the experience of rural communities, are frustrated young people, unhappy with the prospect of taking up traditional jobs, and disrespectful of parents and of traditional authority structures. The case of community support for Islamic and Quranic schools in northern Nigeria thus highlights the need to consider the production of localised curricula and to adjust concepts of a good life to local contexts and economic opportunities, as opposed to adopting a standardised national curriculum which promotes aspirations that are out of reach.