Weblog

As should now be widely and duly noted, the late Peter F. Drucker’s prescient analysis and forewarning of a decade ago (see, for example, "The Future That Has Already Happened," in Harvard Business Review, Sept-Oct 1997, pp. 4-6) regarding declining fertility rates in Western nations and their future socio-economic development and global competitiveness set the stage for the scenarios that are transpiring within many countries (to include their administrative units) vis-à-vis the phenomenon of migration, both in-migration and immigration. From 1970 to 2004, the fertility rate per woman (15 to 49 years of age) in OECD countries fell from 2.75 children to 1.6 children (Evolution of Fertility in the OECD, 1970 - 2004, Demography Matters, April 13, 2007, http://demographymatters.blogspot.com/2007/04/evolution-of-fertility-in-oecd-1970.html). Differences are made by “Anglosaxon [sic] countries,” “continental Europe,” “southern Europe,” and “Eastern Europe,” but fertility rates range from “lowest-low” to “near replacement levels.” Drucker later noted perhaps only partly in jest (The Chief Executive, June 2000, http://www.chiefexecutive.net/round/156/156sym.htm, p.4): “The official forecast for Italy is that by the end of this century there will be no Italians.” Drucker added the key point that can be generalized across these same countries today: Fertility rates would fall even lower were it not for the fact that “immigrants still have large families.”

Perhaps the hypothesis Drucker made in 2000—that the U.S. (and other English-speaking countries) has an advantage over other developed countries as it has the “tradition of assimilating immigrants,” where others do not (p.4)—suffers from having the most precarious status. Spain’s immigration policy has been a virtual open one that embraces immigrants from around the globe, precisely because it understands its fertility rate figures and employment facts. Immigrants to Spain from Morocco (576,344), Romania (524,995), Ecuador (421,384), the U.K (314,098), and Colombia (258,726), comprise the largest immigrant groups, who, with Bolivian immigrants, make up slightly more than 50 per cent of all immigration to Spain. Immigrants now comprise 10 per cent of the total Spanish population of 45 million; however, during the one year period from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006, the native Spanish population grew by 70,000, whereas the immigrant population in Spain grew by 338,000 in that same period (ABC, Tuesday, June 12, 2007, Madrid, Spain). And, in the past six years, Spain has added 4 million people to its population, although its “native” population grew by 2.2 per cent while its “immigrant” population by 227 per cent (ABC, p4). Immigration is responsible for 80 per cent of Spain’s population growth (ABC, p4). Undocumented immigration is listed as in the “hundreds of thousands” (ABC, p1). To Spain’s already low and imbalanced population demographics must be added the “permanent population loss of the nation’s youth.” From May 1996 to January 1, 2007, there has been a decline of 1,495,360 (16%) citizens younger than 20 years of age (ABC, p.27).

Immigration through legal means, regardless of the socioeconomic status of the immigrant, is the key strategy that Spain has taken and continues to espouse, as “the presence of foreigners, whether as active employees or retired residents, is very positive for the economy and society…Census data cannot be ignored in a realistic analysis of Spanish society whose capacity to maintain a reasonable demographic growth depends decidedly on its foreign-origin population.” (ABC, p.4; all translations are the author’s).

Workers, youth, and investors are obviously important variables in our “developed” countries as their ever-deflating native population figures spiral downwards (China is in the same predicament due to its one-child policy, compounded, now, by Über-modeling of Western/Global-style development). In the U.S., it is, above all, the Hispanic and Asian groups, immigrant and native, that are contributing to the U.S. population growth. The U.S. problem relative to immigration is multifold-fold: (1) its persistent alarmist jeremiads relative to immigrants, and Hispanics in particular, whether immigrant or native to the U.S.; (2) its nativist, lift-yourself-by-your-bootstraps approach to schooling and residency (the proposed policy, for example, of “you must speak English,” as opposed to, say, institutional commitment to provide contexts, classrooms, teachers, and methods by which immigrants will learn particular levels and types of English within appropriate lengths of time); and (3) its dogged misperception that immigrants (and natives who are Hispanic or otherwise considered “different” by such outdated categories as race, ethnicity, etc.) are detrimental to the U.S. unless they become “assimilated.” Research (e.g., Immigration Survey, NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School, Harvard University, 2004; Five Immigrant Myths Explained, American Immigration Lawyers Association, 2005))report, among other findings, positive and widespread acquisition of English, and important, positive data on immigration attitudes by non-immigrants.

Enlightened training and education—not nativist, monocultural, monolingual tirades and transmission, which have never worked for any of the poor, as a group, in the U.S., much less those who are from other cultural or language groups—should clearly be at the forefront of the nation’s priorities. Drucker knew this and spread the word, as have U.S. economists, educators, and other professionals. As the U.S. educational competitiveness continues to fall farther behind that of other countries, we won’t be able to say “Who knew?”

John Dewey (Nationalizing Education 1916, quoted in Gordon 1964:140) understood and underscored this fundamental principle of national identity and community in his speech to the National Education Association of the United States:
"Such terms as Irish-American or Hebrew-American or German-American are false terms because they seem to assume something which is already in existence called America, to which the other factor may be externally hitched on. The fact is, the genuine American, the typical American, is himself a hyphenated character. This does not mean that he is part American and that some foreign ingredient is then added. It means that, as I have said, he is international and interracial in his make-up. He is not American plus Pole or German. But the American is himself Pole-German-English-French-Spanish-Italian-Greek-Irish-Scandavian-Bohemian-Jew and so on. The point is to see to it that the hyphen connects instead of separates. And this means at least that our public schools shall teach each factor to respect every other, and shall take pains to enlighten all as to the great past contributions of every strain in our composite make-up. I wish our teaching of American history in the schools would take more account of the great waves of migration by which our land for over three centuries has been continuously built up, and made every pupil conscious of the rich breadth of our national make-up. When every pupil recognizes all the factors which have gone into our being, he will continue to prize and reverence that coming from his own past, but he will think of it as honored in being simply one factor informing a whole, nobler and finer than itself."

Some fifty years later, Milton Gordon (Assimilation in American Life 1964: 72-73), summarizing the general scholarly perspective relative to American core culture, wrote:
"If there is anything in American life which can be described as an over-all American culture which serves as a reference point for immigrants and their children, it can best be described, it seems to us, as the middle-class cultural patterns of, largely, white Protestant, Anglo-Saxon origins, leaving aside for the moment the question of minor reciprocal influences on this culture exercised by the cultures of later entry into the United States, and ignoring also, for this purpose, the distinction between the upper-middle class and the lower-middle class cultural worlds."

In sum, from its ideological roots to its post mid-20th century practice, the United States prized a specific monolithic cultural image and character associated with a particular group. Moreover, through laws and practice, this dominant soi-disant core culture controlled and restricted access—to greater or lesser degrees—by other cultural groups in the U.S. to the institutions that served to mold its own members. This contradictory model of culture—universally inclusive and pluralistic in rhetoric, selectively particularistic and monocultural in fact—within a self-designated democratic context from its inception set the stage and tone for major struggles by members of the excluded groups (and supported to differing degrees by members of the dominant culture group) to match U.S. practice with its rhetoric.*

Historically, U.S. schools—to include teachers, administrators, curricula and materials—have aided in the institutionalization of maintaining and transmitting this cultural fiction alive across generations, and continue to do even in the present. Call it the Reproduction of Naïveté. Internalized values and attitudes, of course, serve to prompt patterned actions on a mass level without question—in spite of moral or intellectual arguments, or empirical evidence, to the contrary. My next series of blog postings will provide further detail on this phenomenon and its effects.

* There are, of course, professional writers at major institutes—such as Thomas Sowell and Dinesh D’Souza, both at the Hoover Institute of War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University—who are non-white (Sowell is African American) or who could be perceived as non-white (D’Souza is Asian Indian), and who are fervently conservative and ardently anti-multicultural education. See, for example, Sowell’s columns at Citizens for a Constitutional Republic http://www.citizensforaconstitutionalrepublic.com/Thomas_Sowell.html, and D’Souza’s daily blog and writings at http://www.dineshdsouza.com/.

INTERNATIONAL EVENT RESEARCH CONFERENCE AND EDUCATION SYMPOSIUM

The Australian Centre for Event Management (ACEM), University of Technology, Sydney, in association with The Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Research, Victoria University, is conducting the 4th International Event Research Conference and 2nd Education Symposium from the 11th - 13th July 2007 in Melbourne. This event is designed with the needs of both practitioners and researchers in mind, and draws on both groups in its selection of speakers, panelists and workshop presenters. The theme of The Event Research Conference is Re- Eventing the City: Events as Catalysts for Change. This theme reflects the potential events have to impact upon the cities in which they take place in a variety of ways. The Symposium Theme is Event Management Education and Training: Pathways, Practices and Issues. Event management education has evolved rapidly over the past few years, moving from short how-to programs to diploma, degree and masters courses. The Symposium seeks to address a range of matters associated with this rapid transition and to contrast the Australian experience with that of selected overseas countries. Further details about the event can be accessed on www.acem.uts.edu.au. Register on line at http://www.business.uts.edu.au/acem/event.html.
Contact James Callander, Research Officer, Centre for Hospitality and Tourism Research, Victoria University for further information on the Conference and Symposium.

CONFERENCE ON LITERACY, CITIZENSHIP AND SUSTAINABLE EDUCATION

The Fifth International Literacy Conference (LITCON) 2007: "Literacy and Citizenship: Pathways to Sustainable Education" will be held from the 25 - 27 July 2007 at the Bayview Hotel, Georgetown Penang, Malaysia. The conference will allow for policy makers, administrators, parents, learners, community activists, teachers and other practitioners to interact, network, share findings and explore ideas and resources. For further information, please contact Prof. Ambigapathy Pandian ambiga@usm.my or litcon2007@yahoo.com

CONFERENCE FOR THE ASSOCIATION FOR EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE AND EQUITY

The Annual Fall Conference for the Association for Educational Excellence and Equity will be held at the Congress Plaza Hotel & Convention Center in Chicago, IL. from October 25 – 27, 2007. This conference will address a range of critically important themes relating to education today. Main speakers will include some of the world's leading thinkers in the field of education, such as Dr. Michael Apple, Dr. Joe Kincheloe, and Dr. Shirley Steinberg. Numerous paper, colloquium and workshop presentations by researchers and practitioners will also be featured during the conference. For more information access our webpage at www.excellenceandequity.com

ONLINE CONVERSATIONS

Please join us in the online conversations at: http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/diary. We encourage entries from a range of topics. Perhaps there is a special topic of interest to you and your colleagues in academia, the public schools or the like. Recent entries address a range of topics from educational leadership to ethics in research. Your comments are welcomed as well.

Learning Community comments on the above and news items to the Newsletter Editor at ernieoneil@gmail.com or eoneil@aed.org are strongly encouraged. Since the newsletter is scheduled to be completed by the final week of each month, early entries are suggested. However, every effort will be made to include those timely news items that arrive anytime before the final week of the month. We look forward to hearing from you. Best regards,

Ernie O'Neil
Newsletter Editor
Learning Community

http://www.Learning-Conference.com

The 14th International Conference on Learning

Venue: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Date: 26-29 June 2007

This is a conference for any person with an interest in, and concern for, education at any of its levels and in any of its forms, from early childhood, to schools, to higher education and lifelong learning — and in any of its sites, from home to school to university to workplace.

The conference will be opened by GraÁa Machel, a renowned international advocate for women and children’s rights and the wife of former South African President, Nelson Mandela.

Main speakers will include some of the world's leading thinkers in the field of education, as well as numerous paper, colloquium and workshop presentations by researchers and practitioners.

Main speakers include:

GraÁa Machel: President of the Foundation for Community Development, a not for profit organisation founded in 1994. FDC makes grants to civil society organisations to strengthen communities, facilitate social and economic justice and assist in the reconstruction and development of post war Mozambique.

Mrs. Machel has gained international recognition for her achievements. Her many awards include the Laureate of Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger from the Hunger Project in 1992 and the Nansen Medal in recognition of her contribution to the welfare of refugee children in 1995. She has received the Inter Press Service’s (IPS) International Achievement Award for her work on behalf of children internationally, the Africare Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award and the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe, amongst others.

Suresh Canagarajah: Teaches postcolonial literature, Great Works in Literature, ESL, and composition at the City University of New York.

Hilary Janks: Taught at Wits since 1977 and was instrumental in the establishment of Applied English Language Studies, now in the Wits School of Education. She also has an adjunct Professorship at the University of South Australia.

Crain Soudien: Professor in, and currently the Director of, the School of Education at the University of Cape Town.

Jonathan D. Jansen: Dean of Education at the University of Pretoria and as Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

Mary Kalantzis: Dean of the College of Education and Professor of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois Urbana Campaign.

Bill Cope: Research Professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA and Director of Common Ground Publishing.

Lizanne DeStefano: Professor of Educational Psychology, Associate Dean for Research, and Director of the Bureau of Educational Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Emilia Potenza: Curator and Education Manager at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg.

Salim Vally: Senior Researcher/Lecturer at the Education Policy Unit, School of Education, University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES AND EXTRAS

Conference Dinner

The conference dinner will be held at moyo Melrose Arch on the evening of Wednesday 27th June, and the $AU75 price includes beverages during dinner with local entertainment.

Venue Location: moyo Melrose Arch, Shop 5 The High Street, Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, South Africa

Map to Venue: moyo Melrose Arch http://www.moyo.co.za/melrose_map.html

moyo - a loose translation of the Swahili word for soul...
moyo world: an intricate fusion of African flavors, textures, sights, sounds and smells, creating the greatest feeling of all: expectation.

Conference Tours
The 2007 Learning Conference organisers are offering five pre- and post-conference tours on Monday 25th and Saturday 30th of June, at times noted below.
Tour 1: Siyaya Soweto (9am to 1pm) $AU80
Tour 2: Apartheid Museum (2pm to 5pm) $AU60

Victory
Market Theatre - Laager Theatre
Tuesday, June 26th
$AU12.00
Celebrated South African writer Athol Fugard continues his love affair with the Karoo in his latest play, Victory, starting soon at the Market Theatre.
In Victory he examines the realities of a world robbed of hope, existing at the mercy of senseless violence and drug abuse. In this dark and insightful drama, three characters investigate the unfulfilled promises laid down by the wealthy and white, and the subsequent desperation and disappointment experienced by South Africa's youth.
The Baxter Theatre Centre's resident director, Lara Foot Newton, directs this evocative tale of profound honesty and realism with a cast of three led by veteran actor Cobus Rossouw, together with Ameera Patel and Wayne van Rooyen. Award-winners Jaco Bouwer is responsible for design and Mannie Manim for lighting.

Ghoema
Market Theatre - Main Theatre
Tuesday, June 26th
$AU15.00
GHOEMA, the multi-award winning musical revue that celebrates and explores our musical heritage, will be performed at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. Nominated for seven Fleur du Cap awards in six categories in 2006, this dynamic show scooped three awards for Best Costume and Prop Design, Best Lighting Design and Best Set Design. At the 2007 Naledi Awards in Johannesburg, GHOEMA received a further three awards, for Best Choreography, Best Musical Direction and Best Musical Production. It is the most recent and also the last creation by two icons in the South African music industry, David Kramer and Taliep Petersen whose work (District Six, Fairyland, Crooners, Poison, Klop Klop and Kat And The Kings) has been performed to audiences locally and abroad, since the late 1980's. Taliep, who was in the audience nightly during GHOEMA'S very brief run in Johannesburg last year, was murdered in December 2006 and this return season will be performed in his memory.

Delving deep into early South African history at the Cape, GHOEMA explores the roots of slave music as far back as the heyday of the mighty Dutch East Indian Company, which had an enormous influence on the lives of all people under its rule. The slaves that the Company brought to the Cape from countries as far away as Indonesia, India, Madagascar, East Africa and Java had an enormous impact on the settlement at the Cape. They influenced a cross-pollination of lifestyles, music, language and culture between themselves, the indigenous people, the Dutch and other European settlers.

Please note, more extensive biographical notes of main speakers can be viewed online at http://l07.cgpublisher.com/main_speakers.html

Program details available at: http://l07.cgpublisher.com/program.html

Explore the Conference Activities and Extras: http://l07.cgpublisher.com/extra_options.html

Presentations which have been accepted for inclusion in the conference program can be viewed at http://l07.cgpublisher.com/session_descriptions.html

Further details can be found on the conference website at: http://learningconference.com/

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LEARNING
(www.Learning-Journal.com)

Complimentary Journal Subscription

As part of your Learning Conference registration fee you are provided with a complimentary personal subscription to all papers published in the International Journal of Learning. The duration of this access period is from the time you register for the conference until one year after the end date of the conference. To view articles, login at www.Learning-Journal.com with your CGPublisher username and password. You will then be able to download the articles in PDF format to your computer. If you have lost or forgotten your login details select ‘Forgot your login’ to request a new password.

Information on library subscriptions can be found at: www.Learning-Journal.com.

WINNER OF INTERNATIONAL PRIZE ANNOUNCED

The Impact of Race and Socioeconomic Status on Post-Secondary Achievement
Ms. Carlene M. Buchanan
http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.1031.

INTERNATIONAL PRIZE – LIST OF RUNNERS UP

Understanding Student Expectations in Developing Environmental Science Courses
Dr. Raylene Cooke
Dr Kelly Miller
Dr. John White
http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.1127

Learning Technologies for Enhancing Student Understanding of Mathematics
Dr. Nancy Drickey
http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.1082

Enhancing the Learning Needs of Large Classes with Online Self Assessment Tasks (SATs)
Dr Jyothi Thalluri
Ms Dale Wache
Dr Jennifer J Hiscock
http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.1020

Authentic Learning as a Mechanism for Learner Centredness: Authentic Learning as a Mechanism for Learner Centredness
Dr Steven Newmaster
Carole Ann Lacroix
Chris Roosenboom
http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.1098

Pedagogical Aspects of Scientific Instruments: A Study of Greek 6th Grade Primary School Students
Ioannis L. Parkosidis
Prof. Constantine D. Skordoulis
http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.906

Teaching Oral Speech: The Case of Direct Speech in Oral Narratives: Evidence from Teaching Modern Greek Conversational Material
Argiris Archakis
Sofia Lampropoulou
http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.1090

Using Inductive Teaching Methods in the Classroom
Dr. Marie E. Lassmann
http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.896

When Art Meets Science: An Action Research Approach to Improving Professional Dance Teaching and Learning Using Scientific Methods
Emma Redding
Ms Eleanor Quested
http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.1124

Action Research in the Online Environment: An Examination of Practice among Graduate Students
Dr. Dorothy Valcarcel Craig
Kathryn Boudreau Patten
http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.1113

Indigenous Leadership: Discourse and Representation
Ms Annette Duffy
http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.1122

LEARNING JOURNAL Volume 14 (2007)

Paper submissions are open for Volume 14 of the Journal. Submission guidelines can be found at http://l07.cgpublisher.com/publish.html. You will first need to submit a conference proposal, please see details at http://l07.cgpublisher.com/proposal_entry_intro

Pre-conference refereeing is well underway and many authors have already received their referee results. There are still a small number of papers requiring reports. If you are requested to referee please submit your report by the requested due date in order to assist in finalizing pre-conference double-blind refereeing. We appreciate the participation of all requested referees.

If you would like to referee papers please email cg-support@commongroundpublishing.com and provide a short resume and research interests and, if we have any appropriate papers, we will contact you. Referees will be credited as Associate Editors for the volume of the Journal in which they have contributed (although, of course, the particular papers they refereed will not be identified).

Paper submissions are open for one-way blind refereeing. Presenters attending the conference may prefer to submit their paper after the conference presentation to include any feedback resulting from their session. The due date for submissions is 29 July 2007.

Learning Symposium 2007

For those attending the upcoming e-Learning Symposium to be held 9-11 December 2007 paper submissions are now open. The deadline for double-blind pre-conference refereeing paper submission is 9 September 2007.

Submission guidelines can be found at http://ls7.cgpublisher.com/publish.html
You will first need to submit a conference proposal, please see details at http://ls7.cgpublisher.com/proposal_entry_intro. Once you receive notification that your proposal has been accepted you will be able to upload your full paper for refereeing.

LEARNING JOURNAL Volume 13 (2006)

There are now 11 published issues available at www.Learning-Journal.com.

Papers resulting from the eLearning Symposium held 3-5 December 2006 will form issue number 12, Volume 13. Authors will be notified once their paper has been published.