World's Education Journal by CISC

Experience with Applied Behavior Analysis for children with autism in Ghana

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Prevalence rates for autism have been rising across the globe. The rise in autism diagnoses has also increased the need for evidence-based and effective interventions. Behavioral interventions based on applied behavior analysis (ABA) are an effective, evidence-based intervention for individuals with autism. For maximized benefit, ABA interventions have to be accepted by caregivers of children with autism and implemented by trained practitioners. As such, many studies have investigated caregiver and practitioner perspectives regarding ABA interventions. However, there are very few similar studies conducted in Sub-Saharan African countries, such as Ghana. Given Ghana's unique cultural context, where traditional beliefs often attribute autism to spiritual causes, understanding the perceptions of caregivers and practitioners toward ABA interventions is critical for the implementation of ABA interventions. The current qualitative study interviewed six caregivers and 13 practitioners to understand their perspectives on ABA interventions in Ghana, using a phenomenological approach. Results indicated that both caregivers and practitioners trusted ABA interventions to be effective, but both parties also acknowledged challenges related to the high cost. The findings highlight the need for a support system to alleviate caregiver financial burden, empower practitioners, and address barriers to the widespread dissemination of ABA in Ghana.

Fostering skills development and inclusivity for transition program students and Philippine school stakeholders

Rose Marie Jane Rementina — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Despite limited access to special education services in the Philippines, an urban public elementary school offers a transition program to support learners with special needs in preparing for post-school opportunities. However, the program requires further enhancement to address instructional gaps for transition-aged students, which currently limit their skill development. Moreover, opportunities for collaboration and engagement between the general and disability communities remain limited. By establishing a café simulation facility in the school, complemented by on-the-job training with partner businesses, the transition program students showed improvements in their social, daily living, pre-vocational, and employability skills. It also created opportunities for regular interaction within the school community. Lastly, the disability inclusion workshop series conducted among parents, teachers, and students led to increased disability sensitivity and awareness, suggesting that a localized approach can promote inclusive mindsets and supportive practices at home and in school for learners with special needs.

Teachers' AI education programs: Comparative study of US and South Korea

Seeun Jeon — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

This study compares K–12 AI education programs for teachers in the U.S. and South Korea using qualitative content analysis on ten documents (2020–2025) across macro, meso, and micro levels. Both countries stress AI ethics and literacy for digital citizenship and workforce readiness. Key differences emerge from contrasting educational systems: South Korea's centralized system offers structured, curriculum-aligned guidance and tool-specific training, while the decentralized U.S. system provides broader frameworks for local adaptation and shareholder involvement. Instructionally, U.S. materials frame teachers as facilitators, whereas South Korean programs position them as learners developing practical competencies. The study highlights how sociopolitical contexts shape teacher AI education and suggests combining structured guidance with local flexibility to support teachers' AI literacy.

Reading the air: School ethos and teacher identity in Japan

Kae Takaoka — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

This paper explores the concept of tacit knowledge in Japanese education by examining the traditional cultural practice known as reading the air. Three key elements that constitute this tacit way of knowing, as well as a type of traditional community as its potential birthplace, are introduced to illuminate the foundational epistemological perspectives that sustain this practice. The paper explores self‑sacrificing teacher image as part of the school ethos and examines the role of the teacher community both as a gatekeeper of this knowledge and as a foundation that reinforces the notion of what is given. The paradoxical nature of teachers’ worldviews, caught between individual concerns and established practices, is illustrated through examples of contemporary teacher identity and the custom of long working hours. By linking the challenges teachers face, this paper highlights the need to critically examine how these cultural logics perpetuate teacher overwork and hinder systemic change despite policy interventions. Finally, it emphasizes the significance of examining teachers’ tacit knowledge arguing implicit yet impactful dimensions of the teachers’ knowledge system may be overlooked to understand the fundamental challenges for teachers in the contemporary era of globalization.

From colonial medium to local agency: Historical insights for Malawi’s K-12 language of instruction policy

Livinia Kaunda — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

English version

This paper interrogates and analyzes English-based instruction in public schools, especially lower elementary classes in Malawi—a former British colony—as a demonstration of imperialism and epistemecide. Using a review of literature, the author argues that this English-based instruction policy, even in lower elementary classes—that is, grades 1 to 4—is counterproductive to the educational outcomes for students since English is a minority language in the country. Framed within historical accounts of educational resistance from marginalized and disenfranchised groups, the paper draws insights from such groups to argue that code-switching from English to Chichewa pedagogy enacted by Malawian teachers is a form of epistemological liberation that warrants endorsement. Ultimately, the author proposes a policy modification that sees lower elementary classes being taught using Indigenous languages or household languages and English being demoted to a regular subject or course.

Chichewa version

Pepalali likufufuza ndikusanthula maphunziro omwe amachitika pogwiritsa ntchito Chingelezi m'masukulu a boma, makamaka m'makalasi oyambilira a pulayimale ku Malawi—dziko lomwe kale linali pansi pa ulamuliro wa atsamunda la Britain—ngati umboni wa utsogoleri wa chitsamunda komanso kuchepsa kwa nzeru zachikhalidwe. Pogwiritsa ntchito kafukufuku wa mabuku olemba kale, wolemba pepalali akutsutsa kuti ndondomeko iyi yophunzitsa m’Chingelezi ngakhale m’makalasi oyambilira—kuyambira sitandade 1 mpaka 4—imakhala yotsutsana ndi zotsatira zomwe zikuyembekezeka m’maphunziro, chifukwa Chingelezi ndi chilankhulo cha ochepa kwambiri m’dziko muno. Pepalali likutenga nzeru kuchokera ku mbiri zakale zomwe zidaonetsa kuti ndi kotheka kusintha njira yakaphunzitsidwe ndi kupeza njira yoti ana a sukulu azithandizikira. Pomaliza, wolemba akupempha kuti ndondomeko yophunzitsira ana m’ma kalasi a sitandade 1 mpaka 4 isinthe. Ana aziphunzitsidwa mu zilankhulo zakwawo, kapena zilankhulo zomwe zimagwiritsidwa ntchito m’mabanja mwakwawo, ndipo Chingelezi chikhale chabe ngati imodzi mwa ma kalasi omwe ana amaphunzira.

Ngano as a method: Reclaiming African indigenous epistemologies in research

Enet Mukurazita — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Ngano is a traditional Shona storytelling practice used as an Indigenous research method in African culture, seeking to bring back African ways of knowing often overlooked by Western research that focuses on individualism, data collection, and written records. Ngano relies on relational validity, meaning that truth and meaning are created together through social connections and group participation, and is built on three main principles: storytelling as a way to pass down history and knowledge, relational knowledge utilizing cultural practices to build trust, and oral and embodied practice valuing songs, gestures, and emotions as valid information sources. These ideas are put into practice through Rungano Rwako (individual storytelling) and Gungano (group gatherings), which makes participants into Sarungano, or keepers of knowledge. Guided by Ubuntu ethics, Ngano offers a decolonial, relational, and people-focused way to do research.

Critical internationalization in Chinese universities

Qianzi Cong — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

English Version

The internationalization of Chinese universities has evolved through many stages since Chinese modernization: through “‘being late’ and ‘catching up’, and paradoxes between ‘fast and slow’ paces”(Xu, 2023, p.375). At the same time, the internationalization of Chinese universities has been heavily influenced by the internationalization of US higher education (Qiu & Sun, 2025). In this paper, I intend to challenge the normative narrative of US internationalization and aim to shed light on the critical and post-structural lens of internationalization that has been practiced and planned in the current internationalization of Chinese universities. I first explored the evolution of rationales of US internationalization of higher education. I then use both critical and post-structural epistemological lenses to challenge and look for alternatives to internationalization. Moreover, I will examine how critical and post-structural epistemological thinking is reflected in the internationalization of Chinese higher education. Furthermore, I will show how potential methodological approaches are situated in both epistemologies. Lastly, I will explore how my positionality reflects my knowledge production process in this study.

Chinese Version

自中国开启现代化进程以来，中国高校的国际化历经了多个演进阶段：从“起步较晚”到“奋起直追”，再到在“快”与“慢”的节奏之间所呈现出的冲突（Xu, 2023, p.375）。与此同时，中国高校的国际化进程也深受美国高等教育国际化模式的影响（Qiu & Sun, 2025）。本文旨在对美国高等教育国际化所构建的规范性叙事发起挑战，并致力于揭示当前中国高校国际化实践与规划中所蕴含的批判性与后结构主义视角。首先，我探讨了美国高等教育国际化背后理据的演变历程。随后，我将运用批判性与后结构主义这两种认识论视角，对既有的国际化模式进行审视与挑战，并探寻其替代性方案。此外，我将探索批判性与后结构主义的认识论思维是如何体现在中国高等教育的国际化实践之中的。另外，我将阐述潜在的方法论进路是如何置身于这两种认识论之中的。最后，我将探讨我的主体位置性如何反映了我在本研究中的知识生产过程。

Bridging the silence: LGBT/queer Asian/American collegians and the politics of belonging on and off campus, 1970s-1990s

Akira Sawata — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

English Version

The histories of LGBT/Queer and Asian/American student movements in U.S. higher education have largely been written separately, resulting in a shadowing of the history of queer Asian/American students' experiences. This paper addresses this missing history through a historiographical review of scholarly literature and published autobiographies from the 1970s to the 1990s. The analysis reveals several key patterns of experience for these students: (1) a double marginalization within both queer and Asian/American campus organizations; (2) a corresponding reliance on off-campus groups for a sense of belonging; (3) the strategic fragmentation of identity as a means of survival; and (4) the eventual emergence of dedicated queer Asian/American student groups in the 1990s, which faced their own internal tensions over purpose and identity. By bridging this historiographical silence, this study not only recovers unheard voices from the past but also offers critical insights for contemporary efforts to build genuinely inclusive university environments for students with intersecting identities.

Japanese [日本語要旨] Version

米国高等教育とその内部における学生運動における歴史研究は、LGBT／クィア学生と、アジア系アメリカ人学生とを別々に切り離して蓄積されてきた。このようなシングル・イシュー型の歴史記述は、LGBT／クィアのアジア系アメリカ人学生の存在を後景化する。本稿は、人種民族的構造とシス異性愛的規範の交差点に立つ、このような学生たちに係る1970-1990年代の「沈黙させられた歴史」に焦点を当てることで、交差的な歴史の掘り起こしに取り組む。本稿の分析からはLGBT／クィアのアジア系アメリカ人学生の歴史に関する４点の重要な知見が得られた。第一に、LGBT／クィア学生組織とアジア系アメリカ人学生組織の両方への障壁という二重の周縁化経験である。第二に、二重障壁を理由とした、学外組織への居場所の追求という経験である。第三に、生存戦略としてのアイデンティティの断片化というストラテジーである。第四に、1990年代の複合的アイデンティティに基づく学生組織登場と、その内部における目的やアイデンティティにまつわる緊張関係である。交差性のただなかに置かれた歴史記述の沈黙に橋をかけることで、本レビュー研究は、耳を傾けられてこなかった過去の声を聞くのみならず、現代の大学環境をインターセクショナルでインクルーシブなものにするための示唆を提供する。

The convergence of epistemologies: International scholars and the discourse of international scholarship

Vongrathayuth Hingphith, Qianzi Cong, Baiwen Peng — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

The inaugural volume of the World’s Education Journal by CEHD International Student Community (WEJC) is grounded in the metaphor of a river, where multiple epistemological currents converge without erasing their origins. Drawing on the metaphor of a river, this volume brings together scholars whose intellectual trajectories converge across disciplines, geographies, and epistemological traditions. Like rivers entering from different points, contributors engage shared currents of inquiry while remaining grounded in distinct cultural, historical, and scholarly lineages. Situated within a critique of Western-centric knowledge production systems and academic capitalism, the editorial piece interrogates how epistemological commodification enables institutions to benefit from global intellectual labor while retaining ownership and authority over knowledge. This issue centers on the intellectual contributions of international students as cross-cultural and cross-epistemological knowledge producers. Acknowledging international scholar status as both temporary and structurally essential to contemporary higher education, the three editors—each affiliated with CIDE and identifying as international scholars—position this journal itself as a co-created project born from shared precarity, mobility, and scholarly collaboration.