Preconceived expectations for one's behavior drive how people interact with their communities. Messaging via pop culture is a common source for citizens to learn about one community engagement tool: compulsory volunteering. Compulsory volunteering, like court-ordered community service and school-based volunteering, provides an opportunity to learn…

In this paper, we show that the election of a new school board member causes home values in their neighborhood to rise. This increase is identified using narrowly-decided contests and is driven by non-Democratic members, whose neighborhoods appreciate about 4% on average relative to those of losing candidates. We find that student test scores in…

This study examined English teaching and learning (Grade 8 level) in Qawmi Madrasa schools, which are not recognized by the Bangladeshi government's Education Department. The study investigated the improvements needed in Qawmi Madrasas English teaching programs to enable students to secure public university admission and Bangladeshi civil service…

This study sought to expand Greenleaf's (1970) "feeling that one wants to serve" to examine public service motivation and professional commitment in an education context. The participants of this study were graduate education students enrolled in three East Coast universities. The sample was stratified into three groups based on their…

In recent years, visual records have come to be seen as important sources of information in the study of education and its history. However, most of the images used in this way simply provide a glimpse--though admittedly a precise one--of only one moment in the educational process. Graphic verisimilitude is not only to be found in these images; it…

This article examines illustrative cases of partnerships from a government-funded programme of experimental projects in England designed to test out the potential of senior business managers to provide leadership across a group of schools. The article places the programme within the context of international public service reforms and, more…

Backers of the common-core academic standards have worked for years to secure the support of a diverse collection of elected officials, academic scholars, and school employees. Now they're ramping up efforts to court a different and potentially critically important audience: parents. A number of national organizations are churning out written and…

Purpose: The paper seeks to apply the theory of the democratic deficit to school-based management with an emphasis on Australia. This theory was developed to examine managerial restructuring of the Australian Public Service in the 1990s. Given similarities between the use of managerial practices in the public service and government schools, the…

Using annual cross-sectional data from Monitoring the Future, the present study examined trends in high school seniors' current and anticipated civic participation and beliefs over a 30-year period. We examined overall trends and patterns based on youths' post-high school educational plans. Findings point to declines in recent cohorts' involvement…

This article is based on a study of the changing meanings and experiences of citizenship and participation for young people in transition from primary to secondary school. One of the primary concerns of the study is to better understand how different professional practices impact upon young people's uptake of participation and adoption of civic…

How can schools secure volunteers to help fix up the building and grounds? There isn't much research on how to secure volunteers to participate in school clean-ups and fix-ups, but some key ideas can be found in anecdotal examples from many communities around the nation. The first recommendation is that securing volunteers is easier when the…

This paper explores the emotional aspects of participation within social welfare contexts. The focus is on individual professionals, such as social workers and children's rights workers and their articulation, management and negotiation of the emotional when working with children and young people. The institutions of welfare are also shown to be…

This article features two documents which can serve as a starting point for a lesson on public service while students debate the amount of pay that public servants should receive. These are: (1) the printed draft of the Constitution showing George Washington's handwritten corrections that eliminated state payments and included the phrase "to be…

In this article, the author reflects on key events and issues with which he has been involved for 50 years. First, he gives a brief account of the Schools Council--what it meant in terms of the limited role of government in governing education, and in terms of the role of teachers as curriculum thinkers, not deliverers. Its demise in the 1980s…

Independent schools have significantly increased their public purpose commitments over the past decade. Their initiatives carry them beyond community service to broader school engagement with their communities. Articles in this magazine by Al Adams and others, the creation of school organizations that serve the broader community, and the growth of…