Parents and Teachers’ Involvement in Designing Educational Programmes within the Albanian Curricula of Pre-university Education: Their Perceptions in this Context

The purpose of this study is to analyse the legislative measures and their implementation regarding the participation of children, parents and teachers in creating an educational program in pre-university education system, as a need for better involvement in school of all the actors, as well as the need for the children’s wellbeing. In addition, the study aims to bring parents’ and teachers’ views on the obstacles they face when they try to collaborate and participate in school life and in designing an educational program. Qualitative methods are used to achieve the aim of this study. The data were collected through document analysis (legislation, strategies, and regulations) for analysing how the law addresses participation of children, parents and teachers’ in school and through semi-structured interviews with parents and teachers from two primary schools so that they can state their perceptions on participation in school life. Each of them was posed 12 different interview questions. After evaluating the responses, some important issues were identified. The participation of children, parents and teachers in Albanian education system has changed in recent years, even promoted as a key that leads to success. However, because of the monist system, where such participation was neither legally recognised nor culturally accepted, this trinomial collaboration has not been easily introduced and integrated in the Albanian educational system. However, parents do not feel very involved in school life, or appreciated when they try to get involved, even though it is legally admitted the need for the collaboration between family and school. They neither take part in the approval of the curricula of the educational institution, nor in the selection of school textbooks as provided by the law. Research has shown that schools as bureaucratic and conservative institutions need to have clear written policies to encourage the participation of the parents and children when drafting an education program. However, when teachers were asked about parents’ participation in school, they said that in many cases parents neglect the collaboration with the school and appear usually when there are problems or troubles, while the participation of children in creating an educational program is still lagging behind.

Globalization and Higher Education: the Polish Perspective

The impact of the process of globalization on higher education institutions and policies is profound, but also diverse, depending on the specific location on the global arena (Marginson & Van der Wende, 2007; Ball, 2012). This paper focuses on relations between globalization and higher education from the perspective of Poland. It analyses various concepts of globalization and economic and socio-cultural aspects of globalization that seem to considerably affect higher education institutions. Then, the major effects of globalization on higher education in Poland are discussed, and some implications for Polish higher education institutions are presented in order to help them better cope with rapid global changes and meet international standards.

Special political missions and their role in a preventive diplomacy: opportunities and challenges

Today’s diplomacy is an ambiguous phenomenon which involves many diverse tools and actions undertaken by national and international actors. Diplomacy is undoubtedly one of a key element of international peace and security as it enables disputes and conflicts to be prevented . There is a host of measures and instruments that can be exercised at any stage of a crisis, among which are special political missions. This paper is an attempt to discuss the nature and role of a special political mission in preventive actions. The main attention is paid to the missions established by the United Nations and by the European Union. The considerations resulted in listing strengths of the special political missions and in identifying the challenges that should be faced in order to increase an effectiveness of the missions.

Institutions and Economic Development on the Example of OECD Countries

The problem of economic development has been the subject of discussion in economic theory for hundreds of years. It is one of the most important issues in economics. To this day, it is crucial to specify the factors and conditions of this phenomenon. The purpose of this article is to identify the direction and strength of the relationship between the quality of the institutional environment and the level of economic development. The soft modelling method and analysis of the literature were applied to identify this relationship. Selected research methods allowed for the positive verification of the adopted hypothesis- institutional environment has a significant, positive impact on shaping economic development dynamics.

The Role of Institutions in the Technology Transfer Process with Particular Focus on Technology Parks in Poland

This article addresses the issue of technology transfer in the context of institutional conditions of this process with particular focus on intermediary institutions, such as technology parks. The study presents the role of institutions in the effective process of technology transfer. The research conducted by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development and the Association of Organizers of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centres in Poland was used.

Differing Interpretations of Janusz Korczak’s Legacy in Schools that take Inspiration from His Work: A Study in Four Schools in the UK and Canada

The purpose of this paper is to present how a selection of current school leaders in two countries, other than Poland, the country in which he lived, perceive the legacy of Janusz Korczak. These two countries are the United Kingdom and Canada. Its role is to present these interpretations for debate and discussion among other school leaders and practitioners, who claim inspiration from him worldwide. We have not suggested that there is a correct or incorrect way to interpret Korczak, rather we are simply interested in how current practitioners perceive his work. The first part of this article is a brief summary of key aspects from the life and works of Janusz Korczak that have entered educational conversation within the United Kingdom and the wider Anglophone world. This has often been through writings by and for teachers or books written for schools, rather than academic texts or even Korczak’s original works. Key aspects of his life story presented here are: those years leading the orphanage ‘Dom Sierot’, and most especially the final months of his life in the Warsaw ghetto, and the last recorded events of his life, including his refusal to go to Theresienstadt and his ultimate death in Treblinka. We also present in this section, because of an expectation that schools may have engaged with these, his views on how societal structures being designed by adults disadvantage children; and his valuing of children’s voices, as well as his views on the problematic nature of authority. This paper is a discussion of four linked case studies. Participants for this study were four school leaders, two from the UK and two from Canada. The schools they lead are schools that in public facing aspects of their schools, such as school webpages or public vision statements, refer explicitly to the influence of Janusz Korczak. The method of data collection used within this study was unstructured interviews with school leaders. Through this process we discovered that there are commonalities in how his legacy has been perceived. These included, for all, intertwining his life and work and in doing so presenting him as a role model to children and teachers. Other aspects of his influence focused on student voice, the breaking down of hierarchy and the enabling of creativity.

Initial Teacher Education in Hungary: Issues, Policies, Practices

Initial teacher education has gone through some radical changes in the past two decades: the two-cycled, Bologna-type system was introduced in 2006, but a few years later, in 2013 it was restored to the so-called undivided system. In resonance with international trends and national processes and developments, these reforms resulted in the appearance of some new elements in teacher education such as the mentoring system or the use of portfolios, while some other existing components with longer traditions (e.g. the pillar of practice schools) have gained even more importance. This paper aims to summarize and reflect on these changes and elements of initial teacher education through a critical pair of lenses, focusing on teacher preparation for lower and upper secondary education (ISCED levels 2 and 3) by contextualizing teacher education and revealing the challenges and progressive elements.

Measuring Instructor Self-Efficacy when Migrating Face-to-Face Courses Online

This study measures instructors’ online teaching self-efficacy with an aim to capture their immediate and initial perception of migrating their teaching online and identify potential instructional needs and support. The authors sent a survey to all instructors in our institution four days prior to the first day of classes in spring 2020 and received 73 responses (60% response rate). The number of years of experience with online tools was low (88%). Instructors reported high confidence in their ability to teach online (82%); realization of the effort to create quality online experiences (90%); belief that teaching online would be different (90%); recognition of having to modify their assessment (77%); ability of adjusting teaching efficiently with unexpected events (82%); knowledge of where to seek teaching and technology guidance (86% & 89%); and confidence in developing a similar rapport with students (71%). Respondents were split in their beliefs about offering similar active learning opportunities. This study supplements research on instructors’ perception of online teaching as a well-planned and intentional event, offering implications over the immediate and long-term support to be offered to instructors regarding migrating courses online both in times of crisis and when such opportunities arise.

The Project of the Research Master’s Degree Program in the Education Sphere

The focus of the project undertaken is to comprehend, what is the research magistracy in education in the twenty-first century. Since the 1990s, when the master’s level of training first appeared in the Russian education system, a search was made for its place and role in the system of training highly qualified personnel for the education system. The central problem of the current stage of the master education development is a triple conjunction: understanding the relationship between research and educational activities; the reflection of the contexts, conditions and limitations of research activity in the field of education; and the creation of new research programs based on humanitarian discourses in the second half of the twentieth century. The conceptual foundations of the project were built in connection with the ideas of T. Kuhn’s “scientific paradigms” and I. Lakatos’s “research programs”, which made it possible to establish a correspondence between different educational values and the type of research practices; the field approach of P. Bourdieu, which allows the models and resources of research activity to be structured; and structural psychoanalysis by J. Lacan, which provides a new look at research activity. As a result of the article, a generalized image of the developed master’s program “Interdisciplinary Studies in Education” is formulated.

Sharing Practice in an International Context – a Critique of the Benefits of International Exchanges for Trainee Teachers

This reflective article is based on the experiences of two years of teacher training students from the University of Northampton and the Pedagogical University of Weingarten. This article looks more closely at the benefits that international exchange experiences have afforded the trainee teachers involved and how challenges to the process have been addressed. This reflection reveals the value of international exchanges in challenging perceptions and assumptions and how the thinking of the trainee teachers changed following the exchange. This study employs a qualitative approach drawing upon the reflections and experiences of the participants through written and spoken data. The findings reveal trainee teachers developed skills specific to teaching and in particular teaching languages, and they also demonstrated an increased awareness of non teaching specific skills such as problem solving and intercultural sensitivity. The reflections offer insight into how trainee teachers, use, interpret and subsequently act upon the experiences offered in an international exchange.