Educational collaborative networks (ECNs), as instruments for achieving educational goals through the integration of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), have become frequent elements of public education worldwide. Despite their contribution of additional resources to the education enterprise, the roles of philanthropic foundations in ECNs are…

Global learning facilitators from civil society organizations (CSOs) design and enrich educational processes in formal and non-formal educational settings. They need to be empowered through adequate training opportunities in global learning (GL) contexts. The project Facilitating Global Learning--Key Competences from Members of European CSOs (FGL)…

In this article I examine how foundations use the concept of education and how they try to shape its definition and implementation. In accordance with Steven Lukes' notion, I argue that changes in social fields are mainly triggered by normative and semantic shifts. By drawing on techniques of discourse analysis, I explore the use of discursive…

Since the nineties, the principle of sustainable development has increasingly been adopted by policy makers and civil society in Germany and, of course, in many countries of the world. With the acceptance of this principle, the significance of education for sustainable development (ESD) has also been recognised. Increased awareness of the problems…

In this explorative qualitative study the effect of political decentralization on vocational school leadership is investigated. Through conducting structural interviews with 15 school principals in the states of Bremen and Lower Saxony in Germany, the study was able to conclude that political decentralization entails the creation of elected bodies…

Created in 1945 as a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was given, among other mandates, the task of reconstructing education systems devastated during the Second World War. UNESCO, in turn, and after some debate about an engagement in Germany, founded the…

Modern societies aim to solve the global challenges of the 21st century with sustainable solutions such as resource efficiency, use of renewable energy sources and recycling. Engineers are called upon to create the cutting edge technological solutions that can help to address these challenges. In developed as well as in developing countries,…

Following September 11, 2001, the number of international students coming to the United States dropped for the first time in over 30 years. While enrollments have rebounded, the U.S. image has declined in the Muslim world and elsewhere. To improve global attitudes toward America, the U.S. government funds higher education for international…

A collection of eight papers from seven foreign countries and the United States, this technical report of the "Creativity of the School" workshop held in Portugal in 1972 presents statements of existing positions on educational innovation in eight countries. Among the topics discussed are reform in French-speaking Belgian schools,…

This publication is aimed at assisting countries as they respond to the problem of organizing a continuing process of change in the schools. The seven case studies contributed to this volume illustrate ways of balancing organizational processes and the free initiative of individual schools and teachers, within the varying traditions of each…

From time to time, and particularly within the last few decades, a large number of educators and intelligent critics of education from other countries have visited and studied American schools, usually for the purpose of gaining such information and ideas as would be helpful to them in the improvement of the schools of their country. Many of…