Policies on social promotion and retention, although formulated to regulate academic success and failure in the field of K-12 education, have become burdensome and are now considered damaging to the public education system. The various stakeholders in education, including students, teachers, education policy makers, parents, and employers are all undermined by the pass or fail mentality of the current system. As failure continues to mean that a student is either retained or promoted without the necessary mastery of skills and knowledge deemed age appropriate, all of these stakeholders pay a price or absorb a cost that can hardly be made up. Because of these costs, a more comprehensive probe on current policies is needed to either throw away ineffective ones or improve on viable ones.

The purpose of this cross-cultural study is to investigate elementary teachers’ beliefs and inter-cultural perspectives in classroom management (instructional environment and behavior management) for students in public schools of the U.S. and Korea. The results supported that the two groups of teachers showed similar beliefs in instructional management styles, but demonstrated significant differences in student management styles. Overall, the Korean and the U.S. participating teachers tended to have slightly more teacher-directed instructional management style, but more Korean teachers believed in teacher-directed student management styles than the U.S. teachers. U.S. classrooms had higher numbers of students with problem behaviors than Korean teachers estimated in their classrooms. A majority of Korean elementary teachers used negative methods, like punishment, as behavior management strategies while U.S. teachers used more preventative and pre-corrective strategies.

The present study examined emotional well-being as a mediator between parental attachment (mother and father) and student alienation. A total of 227 high school students from the city of Ankara completed the self-report measures of parental attachment, positive and negative affect, and alienation. Using structural equation modeling, a model was examined in which emotional well-being mediated the link between parental attachment and alienation feeling of students. Results from structural equation modeling analyses indicated that emotional well-being fully mediated the relationship between attachment to parents (both mother and father) and student alienation. These findings suggested that parental attachment has an effect to reduce feeling of alienation by promoting high  level of emotional well-being.

The scholar-practitioner leader operates reflexively in the boundaries between theory and practice, striving to create exemplars of democracy and social justice within schools while simultaneously meeting modern accountability demands. This article outlines a theoretical underpinning for scholar- practitioner leadership and provides means of operationalizing it in context.

The worldwide spread of English, especially through the tenets and assumptions of the mainstream English language teaching (ELT) has had ideological, socio-cultural and political implications in the field of education. Reviewing these tenets and assumptions, this paper attempts to reveal this growing industry through publicizing the spread of Center-created methods, materials, curriculum and expertise as well as legitimizing only the Center’s linguistic and cultural norms, introduces itself not only as a merely educational and value-free trend, but hides its biased exclusive and hegemonic nature. Then, to reveal its hidden nature and functions, it attempts to introduce and problematize some important assumptions of ELT taken for granted. Finally, through some practical and defensible suggestions, the rationale for applying critical pedagogy or in Canagarajah’s (1999) words, “the third way” as a panacea to breaking the dependency on the mainstream Center-based pedagogy as an exclusive tradition in Periphery countries is introduced and discussed.

John Dewey, the well-known figure in progressive education, visited Turkey in 1924. Through his visit, Turkey was introduced to progressive education. Although his visit was short, the reports he prepared influenced the shape of the Turkish education system. After Dewey’s visit, many foreign educators were invited to Turkey, particularly through the end of the 1950s. Among these, a large number came from the U.S. The aim of this study is to analyze the reports of American specialists who came to Turkey and conducted research on the Turkish education system from the perspective of progressive education principles. In this study, reports prepared by Dewey (1924),  Beryl  Parker (1934), the committee under the presidency of E. Walter Kemmerer (1933–1934), W. Dickerman (1951) John Rufi (1951), R. J. Maaske (1953), and M. Costat (1955) have been analyzed. Since the reports of American educators are primary information sources, published as a book by the Ministry of National Education, this study is a qualitative, historical research/historical case study. The technique of document review was used in the analysis of the reports. The research found that American educators included the principles of progressive education in their reports, and principles of progressive education cited in Dewey’s report were mentioned repeatedly in subsequent reports. We conclude that these reports were highly effective for introducing and establishing progressive  education in Turkey.

In terms of the number of students served and the overall quality of special education services provided, it is clear that special education has, from its early beginnings in the late seventeenth century, advanced at various rates in the different countries of the world. Data from the United States Department of Education (2007) indicates that 12% of the school age population (6-17 year olds) in the nation are children with disabilities in special education. Kenya’s population of students with disabilities in the schools now stands a little over 221,995 (Ministry of Education, 2008) in a country where 25% of the estimated 3.2 million people with disabilities are school age children. This paper provides a comparative overview of the role of government policy in the progress of special education in both the United States of America and in Kenya with the aim of emphasizing the role of comprehensive policy, follow-through, oversight, and accountability to achieve targeted results in the field of special education in Kenya.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the results of current school uniform policies according to views of stakeholders. Descriptive case study method was used for this study to understand the concerns of the stakeholders about school uniforms. Data was collected through interviews with stakeholders and also reviewing the documents in TOKI Elementary and Middle School. Collected data was analyzed and evaluated to see the impacts of the school uniform on academic achievement, discipline, economical, safety, functionality, personality and self-expression. As a result of the study, almost all students support the free clothes policy in schools but most of the parents, teachers and school administrators support school uniform. Finally, parents’ voting should be repeated every year. In addition, dress codes should be determined by school administration and parent-teacher association by taking ideas of parents, students and concerning cultural features of school neighborhood.

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the creative drama method on pre-service elementary teachers’ achievement in art education courses and interest in art. The study made use of the experimental pattern with pre- and post-test control groups. Data were collected, analyzed, and interpreted according to the mixed method including both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Before and after the study, both groups were administered the Art Education Achievement Test and the Information Form on the Interest towards Art. Participants in the study and control groups were requested to keep diaries about their emotions, thoughts, and achievements after the art education class every week. Following the study, 12 participants were interviewed individually and a  focus group interview was conducted with 6 participants. The study concluded that the creative drama method improved the participants' levels of interest in art and their achievements in the art education course.

This study mainly aimed to determine the perceptions and definitions of the secondary education students receiving education in three different secondary education institutions located in the central district of Çanakkale Province in the 2012-2013 academic year regarding the concept of “village” through metaphors. Another aim of the study was revealing the misconceptions of the students regarding the concept of “village”. According to the research results, the students produced 56 valid metaphors in regard to the concept of “village”. These metaphors were evaluated through division into 13 different conceptual categories based on their common features. According to these conceptual categories, the concept of village was firstly divided into two groups in the minds of children: 1.  Good/ Positive; 2. Bad / Negative. 278 students (122 females and 156 males) participated in the study.

This paper examines whether the intensity and amount of bullying and/or being bullied among secondary education students vary significantly according to gender, school type and class levels. The scanning method was used in the research. The research sample consisted of 213 students, 96 female and 117 male, who were enrolled in secondary education in the Fatsa district of Ordu province during the first semester of the 2013-14 school year. No significant gender differences were identified with regard to either bullying or being bullied. In terms of school type, it was found that students in trade vocational high schools exhibited bullying acts more than students in other high school types, while students in industrial vocational high schools were bullied more than students in other high school types. Additionally, it was found that bullying and being bullied were both more prevalent among students in the 12th class than among students in other class levels.