30 Sep 2014
Training without a Soul By Claudio de Moura Castro
By Claudio de Moura Castro, Positivo, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Brazil shared the traditional disdain of Iberian countries towards working with one`s hands. SENAI had a decisive role in reversing prejudice and creating a well-prepared labor force. Being a private agency, run by industrialists and funded by a levy on industrial payroll, it had what it... Read More
24 Sep 2014
Back to the 'Vocational Education' Drawing Board: Do we Need Some Serious Re-visioning? By Salim Akoojee
By Salim Akoojee, South Africa and Hong Kong. An August 2014 article in the Economist referred to the vocational sector as being the ‘detritus of an industrial era rather than the handmaiden of a new economy’. Citing the ‘twin curses of low status and limited innovation’, the Economist cites the McKinsey report in which students... Read More
22 Sep 2014
The Post-2015 EFA Agenda: UNESCO and the New Global Education Network By Maren Elfert
By Maren Elfert, University of British Columbia. The run-up to the next round of Education for All (EFA) and development goals lends itself to a reflection about the political-economic underpinnings of the discussion about the future of EFA. The report of the high-level panel of eminent persons on the post-2015 development agenda emphasizes the role... Read More
10 Sep 2014
Beyond Armed Conflict and Emergency: the Role of Education and Training in Tackling Urban Violence By Jovana Carapic and Luisa Phebo
By Jovana Carapic, and Luisa Phebo, Conflict, Violence, Education and Training (CVET) Programme, NORRAG. Urban spaces are going to be the locus of future armed conflict and organized violence. The signs are inescapable. One reason for this is that the nature of armed conflict is changing. Traditionally conceptualized as conflict between or within states, the... Read More
08 Sep 2014
Lessons From Chengdu (2): The Political Economy of Learning Metrics By Trey Menefee
By Trey Menefee , Hong Kong Institute of Education I argued in my previous NORRAG blog post, Lessons From Chengdu: The Case For ‘Open-Source’ Learning Metric Methods, that easily accessible non-proprietary learning metric methodologies would be a valuable asset to the international education community. What I argue here is that metrics themselves are not the... Read More
04 Sep 2014
Lessons From Chengdu: The Case For ‘Open-Source’ Learning Metric Methods By Trey Menefee
By Trey Menefee, Hong Kong Institute of Education. A few years ago I tried to learn a research technique called Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) that is used to understand complex adaptive systems. The learning curve for ABM was high because it required researchers to learn how to code. This learning curve was made a little less... Read More
26 Aug 2014
The Post-2015 Agenda: Examining the Youth Perspective and their Partnership Potential By Nayantara Naik
By Nayantara Naik, Freelance International Education Consultant, New York, New York. At sixteen, I attended a National Student Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. Arriving at the program, I was skeptical. How could anyone teach leadership? Over the course of 10 days, I embarked on what was one of the most challenging journeys of my life.... Read More
14 Aug 2014
The Challenges of Implementing Assessment to Improve Learning – the Latest Report from the Learning Metrics Task Force By Rukmini Banerji
By Rukmini Banerji, Pratham and Learning Metrics Task Force. As is common on hot summer afternoons in villages in India, a man lay resting on a string cot under the mango tree. It was a Sunday. His three sons were playing nearby. The father knew that there was a survey of children and education going... Read More
04 Aug 2014
Rebalancing Progress in Education: How to Deliver on Improvements in Access and Quality? By Leni Wild, ODI
By Leni Wild, ODI. Rather than a sole focus on financing education and the debate over how much money is needed, Leni Wild suggests we shift our focus to building effective systems and political leadership that can deliver. July began with new commitments to financing for education in developing countries, with the replenishment of the Global Partnership for... Read More
31 Jul 2014
From Government to Governance: Reflections on Global Education Governance and the Global South by Barbara Trudell
By Barbara Trudell, SIL Africa. Government is a funny thing. Sometimes it stands as the defender and protector of the vulnerable, and sometimes it is the perpetrator of all manner of injustices. We expect marvels from the state, and at the same time we find all kinds of ways to belittle it. Where education is... Read More