Purpose: In the domain of shadow education (private supplementary tutoring), Denmark and China may be placed at opposite ends of a spectrum. Denmark has a recently emerged, small, and high-cost sector that mostly serves low achievers, while China has a more industrialized sector with a long history and economies of scale. The paper juxtaposes the…

In this article, we analyse some of the mechanisms that neoliberal ideology is using to penetrate the educational system. The educational reforms being introduced throughout much of the world, following the guidelines of clearly neoliberal international economic organisations, are inserting this logic into current education systems. The latest…

The article seeks to formulate a comparative framework that explains the uneven development of schooling in Cyprus and Singapore during the British colonial rule. It specifically focuses on the moment of transition to independence and on the role played by ideas and the interaction of ideas in the evolution of social institutions. The overall…

The neoliberal agenda promotes education as a route toward success in university and career. However, a neoliberal economy requires large numbers of workers willing to accept low-paying, dead-end jobs. The students most likely to take these jobs are those who have struggled with literacy and so schools must, in Bourdieu's terms, re/produce,…

Particularly after the Danish political system changed to parliamentarism in 1901, a growing interest in, and expanded meaning of, culture as a pedagogical category developed in relation to state schooling, on the road to a comprehensive school system for "the whole population". This article elaborates on the role played by theological…

This review essay of "Producing Success: The Culture of Personal Advancement in an American High School" by Peter Demerath focuses on the theory of cultural dysfunction. It places the book within a theoretical tradition of social reproduction and status attainment using other ethnographies by Varenne and McDermott, Lareau, and Howard. It argues…

Education is an important aspect of human resource development. Imparting of education leads to the improvement of understanding, perception, attitude and efficiency of working population. Education has been considered as a lever to raise one's position in the society as well as a tool to fight against poverty and ignorance. Since the independence…

There was only one Karl Marx, but there have been a multitude of Marxisms. This concise, introductory book by internationally renowned scholar Jean Anyon centers on the ideas of Marx that have been used in education studies as a guide to theory, analysis, research, and practice. "Marx and Education" begins with a brief overview of basic Marxist…

According to this author, "unchecked capitalism is destroying the nation's public schools, and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is the final nail in their coffin." He argues that, marching under the banner of "accountability," right-wing, pro-business forces are willfully undermining the democratic right of all children to a free,…

School Reform in a Global Society is about how a silent, wealthy upper class in the United States waited until the end of the Twentieth Century to transform America into something it once was during the Age of the Robber Barons. Known today as neoliberals, this nostalgic elite, craving the return of the unregulated capitalism of the nineteenth…

Among the communities of critical race theorists and its detractors in education, there is an apparent rift as to what theoretical construct best contributes to the social justice project in education. Conferences and meetings have served as quasi-battle grounds for theorists, activists and scholars to go back and forth about what theoretical…