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This study examines the little-studied phenomenon of teacher mentoring for global consciousness. It reviews the relationship between secondary school teachers participating in an international service-learning (ISL) project in Nicaragua and an NGO, Canadian Youth Abroad (CYA). CYA facilitates short, but intensive, ISL experiences. The teachers work for a publicly funded Catholic district school board in Ontario, Canada. Teachers who travel to Nicaragua with the students are mentored and accompanied by more experienced peers - "veteran" CYA/ISL teacher-participants. The mentoring process seeks to impart the CYA’s particular transformative values to the new teacher-participants and through them, to their students. These values challenge the dominant charitable "help the poor" model of North-South engagement. The teacher-mentors follow CYA's Freirian pedagogical model that stresses the value of solidarity between Canadian and Nicaraguan participants.

Scant research evidence is available about the day-to-day workings of research assistantships or the educational possibilities they provide for research assistants and their academic supervisors. This case study documents the equitable, educative, and ethical nature of one research assistantship at a Canadian university. Data sources include audio recordings and transcripts from 24 research meetings, along with field notes and textual documents gathered over 8 months as the research assistant and academic supervisor designed, conducted, and presented an interview-based study. Evidence shows the academic supervisor supported the research assistant as she learned research skills and developed confidence as a researcher. The case study provides a potential model of an equitable, educative, and ethical research assistantship for the consideration of other research assistants and academic supervisors. Il existe peu de données de recherche portant sur les activités quotidiennes qu’impliquent les assistanats à la recherche ou sur les possibilités éducatives qu’ils offrent aux assistants à la recherche et à leurs superviseurs académiques. Cette étude de cas évoque la nature équitable, éducative et éthique d’un assistanat à la recherche dans une université canadienne. Les sources de données comprennent des enregistrements et des transcriptions audio de 24 réunions de recherche, des notes d’observation sur le terrain et des textes recueillis au cours de 8 mois pendant lesquels l’assistante à la recherche et le superviseur académique ont conçu, entrepris et présenté une étude reposant sur les entrevues. Des données probantes indiquent que le superviseur a appuyé l’assistante à la recherche pendant qu’elle acquérait des compétences de recherche et prenait confiance en elle comme chercheuse. Cette étude de cas constitue un modèle potentiel d’assistanat à la recherche équitable, éducatif et éthique que pourraient examiner d’autres assistants à la recherche et superviseurs académiques., Alberta Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 59 No. 1 (2013): Spring

MEd (Comparative and International Education), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus Countries globally are grappling with challenges such as food insecurity, poverty, inequality, economic growth, and climate change. The emergence of Covid-19 has exacerbated the aforesaid challenges and revealed the true nature of inequality in developing countries such as South Africa and Brazil. Now, more than ever, citizens globally require a type of education instilling knowledge, skills, behaviours and values that will enable them to take actions towards sustainable development. In other words, education for sustainable development (ESD) is necessary if the world is to mitigate current environmental, economic and social challenges. Higher educational institutions (HEIs) play a pivotal role in the quest for sustainable development, as these institutions develop future leaders, policymakers, business owners, and community leaders. The curriculum, research, extension activities and strategic planning of HEIs should be geared towards ESD, which has the potential to create a humane and fair world. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the effectiveness of HEIs in South Africa and Brazil in implementing ESD. In order to address the research objectives of this study, qualitative document analysis, following the principles of grounded theory, was employed, grounded in a postmodern research paradigm. The purpose of this study was distinctive, as scholarly literature is calling for more studies on the implementation of ESD in HEIs and in developing countries. In addition, the limited available research focuses on the environmental dimension of sustainability and sustainability in primary and secondary education, whereas less attention is devoted to higher education. This study addressed the latter. The findings reveal that South African and Brazilian HEIs have made considerable progress towards the implementation of ESD in their mission and vision statements, research, and extension activities. However, for improved implementation, ESD should be better inserted into the curricula and teaching practices of South African and Brazilian HEIs. In addition, there is an urgent need to provide training for educators and prospective teachers on sustainability-related pedagogical knowledge and competencies. The findings lead to the conclusion that the effective implementation of ESD will require a holistic approach of HEIs. This means that sustainability principles, knowledge and actions are clear in all academic activities and practices. Support from HEIs’ leaders is imperative in this regard. Masters

MEd (Curriculum Studies), North-West University,Potchefstroom Campus Vocational education is specific education, which has the main purpose of preparing one for employment in a recognised occupation. Since education is considered the key to effective development strategies, vocational education must be the master key that can alleviate poverty, promote peace, conserve the environment, improve the quality of life for all and help achieve sustainable development. This dissertation is premised on examining vocational education at post-school level in India, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates with a view to developing guidelines for vocational education in South Africa. The study sought to explore positive transferable characteristics and features of vocational education programmes in each of the countries, which could be adopted by similar institutions in South Africa. The need to provide competencies necessary for employment, economic, technological and national development has renewed the demand for improvement and reform in vocational education systems to make them adaptable to market conditions. The study worked within a qualitative research paradigm to explore, analyse and compare key vocational education features in India, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Document analysis was employed as a research tool for data collection to evaluate vocational education trends, such as funding mechanisms, governance, curriculum and stakeholder participation in the countries under study. Similarities and differences in vocational education policies were also identified in India, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. The study revealed that vocational education policies and philosophy in all the countries covered by the study were similar, but differed in implementation. The study discloses that vocational education systems in some countries have failed to provide the much-needed competencies required by the job market. A need has been identified for South Africa to investigate possible strategies for leading curriculum change at post-high school level. The findings of the study indicated that a vocational education college curriculum in the South African college reform was imminent. Such a reform has the potential of contributing to the improvement of employment and productivity in various ways. The findings also emphasised the crucial need for managerial strategies to prepare for current and future vocational education curriculum challenges. The study has the potential of providing insight for researchers and policymakers, particularly in South Africa, regarding the policies, experiences and implementation of vocational education in other countries, which, in turn, can be adopted as a basis for ongoing vocational education reforms. Gaps, silences and positive aspects of the analysed key features were revealed for improvement and consolidation to meet international requirements. Vocational education practitioners reflected that products of vocational education institutions lacked the skills, knowledge and abilities required by employers. Limited funding, inexperienced staff, minimum links with the industry and a poor public perception of vocational education are some of the challenges seen to be negatively affecting vocational education. Masters

As the most influential figure in the classroom, a good teacher has long been the object of research. His/her most important characteristics can be analysed from more than one point of view. The objective of this study was to apply Korthagen’s model of levels of change in exploring the most important characteristics of a good teacher from the perspective of students, teachers and parents, and possible differences depending on elementary and high school and teachers’ experience. There were 384 participants: 158 students, 78 teachers, and 148 parents. The most desirable characteristics from all three perspectives were fairness, patience and teaching skills. Some differences were found between elementary and high school students and teachers. The listed characteristics fit Korthagen’s model mostly in the levels of mission and competencies.

Notwithstanding the fact that adult education is accepted as an equal subsystem in all European countries, it is still characterised by a distinct level of differentiation in the approach and offer, and by a pronouncedly disorganised legislation, which may be seen in the heterogeneity of competences and qualifications expected from adult educators. To be able to professionally respond to the requirements and necessities of contemporary society, adult educators must continuously develop subject-professional, pedagogical- teaching and andragogical competences. Today, the majority of adult educators in Croatia do not have the basic andragogical knowledge and skills because of, among other things, insufficient opportunities for such an education. Starting from this assumption, in the first part of the paper we have described the impact of European policies for adult education on the national strategic and regulatory documents. The central part of the paper is dedicated to an overview of initial and continuing professional education of adult educators in Croatia. The final part of the paper consists of recommendations for the professionalisation of the adult education system.