Archive for the 'Headline' Category

Academic Service-learning Across Disciplines

Published on January 31, 2012 in Book, Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Academic Service-learning Across Disciplines: Models, Outcomes, and Assessment edited by Jonathan H. Westover is now available as part of The Learner series.

While service-learning is not a new phenomenon, the popularity and usage of this “civically-engaged” experiential learning pedagogy has increased in educational settings in recent years. As we live in an increasingly hyper-competitive and interconnected globalized world, where consumers and citizens are demanding greater levels of corporate social responsibility and civic engagement from organizational leaders within their local community, service-learning is being utilized more and more to provide meaningful community service opportunities that simultaneously teach civic responsibility and encourage life-long civic engagement, while also providing opportunities for significant real-life, hands-on learning of important skills and vital social understanding for students.

This edited collection provides a comprehensive introduction to service-learning, its outcomes, and approaches to effective assessment of service-learning activities by presenting a wide range of cross-disciplinary research in an organized, clear, and accessible manner. It will be informative to both K-12 and higher education teaching professionals, administrators, students, and community leaders seeking to understand proven practices and methods for effective Service-Learning implementation across academic disciplines.

Dr. Jonathan H. Westover is Director of Academic Service Learning and Assistant Professor of Management at Utah Valley University, specializing in international human resource management, organizational behavior, and adult learning. He received a Master’s of Public Administration with an emphasis in Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. His ongoing research examines adult learning, social entrepreneurship, and issues of globalization, labor transformation, work-quality characteristics, and the determinants of job satisfaction cross-nationally.

Discursivity, International Students and Representation

Published on September 13, 2011 in Book, Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Discursivity, International Students and Representation: Walking through Different Worlds by Margaret Kumar is now available as part of The Learner series.

Discursivity, international students and representation: Walking through different worlds is a text that will help academics, support services staff and administrative personnel who are involved in the teaching and learning practices of international students. The question it answers is: what constitutes an international student? In relation to this it looks at strategies for internationalising the curriculum at a micro level. It also offers a new approach towards understanding the multiple subject positions of international students whilst at the same time providing an analysis of the ways in which students are identified through various forms of labelling.

Margaret Kumar PhD. currently works as the Higher Degrees by Research, Language and Learning Advisor at Deakin University. Previously she worked as an Academic and Language Skills Advisor for undergraduate, coursework postgraduate and higher degree by research international students at the University of Melbourne and Deakin University. Through her work, Margaret has presented challenging perspectives on how teaching and learning practices for international students could be mediated. She has presented dialogic models on how international students from postcolonial backgrounds are represented.

Call for Journal Editor

Published on August 31, 2011 in Headline, Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments

The International Journal of Learning seeks an editor, or team of editors, for a one-year term. This is an opportunity to make a significant contribution to what we believe is one of the leading journals in its field, the journal’s associated conference and, more broadly, the knowledge-community which the journal and conference seek to serve.

The roles of the editor are to:

write an introduction for the Journal volume which would be included in the first issue for the year, and possibly on the website, the newsletter and other appropriate places or for the purposes of marketing and promotion.
collate papers addressing a theme of the editor’s choosing into a book, to be launched at the conference at the completion of the editor’s term. The chapters may be drawn from submissions to the journal during this or recent years, and other material as considered appropriate.
actively solicit manuscripts for the Journal from well-known and notable members of the community—these would could be refereed if the author wished, or regarded as ‘invited papers’.
assist the Commissioning Editor with suggestions of supplementary peer reviewers for specific papers (and this will never be burdensome – note that the Commissioning Editor of the Journal finalizes a majority of the peer reviewer requirements based on thematic matching and ‘mutual obligation’ principles in which all author requested to review up to three other papers).
promote the journal throughout their network and other associated networks.
maintain regular communications with the community via periodical blog posts to the community website (which feeds automatically to our email newsletter, Facebook and Twitter).

The editor will be offered a complimentary electronic subscription to the Journal, free copies of the book which they edit, an electronic subscription to the book series as well as complimentary registrations to attend the conferences at the beginning and end of their term.

Qualifications

The Editor of the Journal must possess the following attributes:

They will have successfully obtained higher degree, and have academic teaching and scholarly research experience in an area related to the subject matter of the Journal.
They will have published in this or other comparable scholarly journals.

Applicants are asked to send:

a cover letter outlining their interest and relevant experience, and the ways in which you would propose to enhance the profile of the journal
a curriculum vitae
a special theme outline: a title with paragraph explanation.

Please send applications and supporting documentation to journals@thelearner.com

The deadline for applications is 26 September 2011.

Announcing Plenary Speaker Professor Mokubung Nkomo for the 2011 Learning Conference

Published on June 14, 2011 in Conference and Headline. 0 Comments

We are pleased to welcome Professor Mokubung Nkomo to the 2011 Learning Conference as one of our plenary speakers.

Currently Mokubung Nkomo is currently Extraodinary Professor in the Department of Education Management and Policy Studies and director of the Centre for Diversity and Social Cohesion at the University of Pretoria. He obtained his Masters and PhD degrees at the University of Massachusetts in 1973 and 1983, respectively. He taught at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte (1983-1995) and director of the South Africa Partnership Program at the New School for Social Research (1995-1998). In 1998 he was appointed Executive Director of Group: Education and Training, at the Human Sciences Research Council. In August 1999 he was appointed President of the HSRC for a period of one year. In 1984 his first book was published under the title, Student Culture in Black South African Universities; in 1990 he edited a volume titled, Pedagogy of Domination. Recent co-edited works include Reflections on School Desegregation (2004); Within the Realm of Possibility: From Disadvantage to Development at the University of the North and the University of Fort Hare (2006); Cooperating for Science (2007); and Thinking Diversity, Building Cohesion (2009). Over the last twenty years he has served as a consulting editor on several journal editorial boards including the International Journal of Asian and African Studies, South African Journal of Higher Education, Perspective in Education, African Education Review, the CHE Triennial Review, and the Bulletin on Interracial Books for Children (a periodical published by the Council on Interracial Books for Children, New York City).

He was a Visiting Fellow at Yale University’s Southern African Research Program (1989-1990), and in 1992 he was a Fullbright Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand. He was chairperson of the South African Qualifications Authority (1999-2004) and a trustee of the Center for Higher Education Transformation (2000-2003). In 2009 he was appointed to the UNESCO National Commission for South Africa and in 2009 served as a member of the Ministerial Committee on Transformation and Discrimination in South African Higher Education Institutions.

For more information about our plenary speakers, please visit our website.

Announcing Plenary Speaker Dr. A. Rechad Sayfoo for the 2011 Learning Conference

Published on May 17, 2011 in Conference and Headline. 0 Comments

We are pleased to welcome Dr. A. Rechad Sayfoo to the 2011 Learning Conference as one of our plenary speakers.

Dr A. Rechad Sayfoo is currently Professor; Regional Director and Coordinator and Graduate Research Supervisor of the Universidad Azteca, de Chalco (Mexico) for the East Africa region. He is also Manager and Director of Studies of the Vocational Training Institute (VTI) Mauritius. He further serves at the Board of Governors at the University of Technology Mauritius. Dr Sayfoo has a lecturing experience of more than 20 years. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering; Master of Business Administration and a Doctor of Philosophy [PhD] in vocational and technical education. He has introduced many technical courses and international examinations in Mauritius since 1975 and is at present acting as Regional Coordinator for the Institute of Commercial Management (ICM) and the Confederation of Tourism and Hospitality (UK) for Mauritius.

For more information about our plenary speakers, please visit our website.

Announcing Plenary Speaker Santally Mohammad Issack for the 2011 Learning Conference

Published on May 17, 2011 in Conference and Headline. 0 Comments

We are please to welcome Santally Mohammad Issack to the 2011 Learning Conference as one of our plenary speakers.

Mr. Santally Mohammad Issack is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Technology and currently in charge of the Virtual Centre for Innovative Learning Technologies (VCILT) of the University of Mauritius. His area of research is educational technology. He has particular interests in personalisation of web-based learning and the instructional integration of Open Educational Resources in online courses. He was the team leader for the Mauritian Team on the SIDECAP project, an ACP-EU funded project on distributed education, led by the Open University of the UK. He has a number of publications in the educational technology field and is among the early pioneers of online learning in Mauritius. He has also been involved in a number of consultancy projects in e-Learning at the International level for the SADC, COMESA, the Hamdan Bin Mohamed e-University of Dubai and the Seychelles. After being awarded the outstanding young person in 2006 in Mauritius, he led the VCILT to be a finalist in the World Innovation Summit for Education Awards in 2009 and contributed to the VCILT in 2011 to receive the Commonwealth of Learning Award of excellence in the development of distance education materials.

For more information about our plenary speakers, please visit our website.

Announcing Plenary Speaker Tejanand Dewoo for 2011 Learning Conference

Published on May 17, 2011 in Conference and Headline. 0 Comments

We are pleased to welcome Tejanand Dewoo to the 2011 Learning Conference as one of our plenary speakers.

Mr. Tejanand Dewoo (also known as Shekar) is currently High School Principal at Le Bocage International School, Mount Ory, Mauritus. He holds a BSc Hon Maths (University of Delhi), Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (MIE), Principal Training Certificate for International Schools, PTC (Imperial College, London), MSc Human Resource Studies (UOM) and MA in Educational Management (University of Bath, UK). He is further a workshop leader for IB- International Baccalaureate, examiner; former Mayor of Curepipe and chairman of Agricultural Marketing Board, represented the LBIS in various international forums and has run many educational workshops.

For more information about our plenary speakers, please visit our website.

Greek Ethnic Schools in Australia in the Late 1990s: Selected Case Studies

Published on September 1, 2010 in Book, Headline and Newsletter. 2 Comments

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Greek Ethnic Schools in Australia in the Late 1990s: Selected Case Studies by Eugenia Arvanitis is now available from The Learner imprint.

This book is a detailed illustration of the broader socio-historical and educational milieu of the Greek ethnic schools in Australia in the late 1990s. It presents ethnic schools’ efforts to maintain and develop the Greek language and cultural heritage as well as to support Greek-Australian identity amongst second and third generation Greek-Australians. The detailed school profiles (case studies) presented in this book constitute part of a Ph.D. thesis (Arvanitis 2000) and provide a pedagogical framework of practice in dealing with diverse learning environments and diverse learner populations.

The need to refocus on the profile of ethnic schools has become apparent due to the profound impact of globalisation on education and, in particular, on ethnic schooling, which has forced educational agencies to reposition themselves. The new complexities of knowledge economy demand new thinking and contemporary skills and attributes as well as the capacity to deal with cultural diversity. Greek part-time ethnic schools, a remarkable marker of ethnicity in themselves, have played a pivotal role in the transmission and promotion of Greek culture and language. They have, at the same time, enhanced learners’ global/diasporic consciousness and sense of identity by urging them to reflect on bicultural learning communities of meaning, memory and belonging. Finally, they have recognised the diversity of voices, narratives and aspirations both within their own cultural group as well as that of their host community and Greece thus engaging in a powerful context of triangular relationships.

Overall Greek ethnic schools have promoted multicultural community building by strengthening different senses of belonging and consciousness in the context of Australian multicultural society. They act as dynamic learning organisations and agents of socio-cultural change, thus helping us reflect upon the complexities of contemporary societies and offering new conceptual frameworks to interpret culture and identity.