In Europe and across the globe, academic freedom -- and its close relative, institutional autonomy -- find themselves increasingly under pressure. For the European University Association, it is essential to support universities as central actors in the protection and promotion of academic freedom. In this position paper, EUA offers concrete and…

South African education has become used to dealing with an array of new policy and strategy initiatives. Often these policies and strategies appear on the scene only to disappear into the sand later on. When President Ramaphosa announced the Thuma mina initiative in February 2018, educationists would have been tempted to ask questions about the…

The concluding commentary summarizes the contributions to the special issue, identifies a number of transversal themes and specifies their empirical and theoretical contributions. The interplay between international, European and domestic influences on national policy changes and university adaptation is highlighted. This is used as the basis for…

This issue of the "European Journal of Education" examines a crucially important, though largely overlooked, area in educational design research: architecting and building physical educational environments. Effective policymaking in school design necessitates the negotiated, shared and timely input of key educational stakeholders,…

In this response article, I draw on critical realist perspectives to engage with the argument put forward in Bengtsson's study, which sees agency as an ontological necessity for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) policy engagement. Bengtsson supports a notion of the logic of contingent action over the logic of power as dominance,…

Although there has been a great deal of debate about the effectiveness of charter schools in the research literature, there has been surprisingly little attention paid to English language learners (ELLs) in charter schools. Moreover, the charter school research has predominantly focused on whether or not charter schools are effective rather than…

I consider Liam Gearon's critique of what he calls the politicisation and securitisation of religious education, focusing on his criticisms of a European research project, the Religion in Education: a Contribution to Dialogue or a Factor of Conflict in Transforming Societies of European Countries? (REDCo) project funded by the European Commission…

The promise of the new underpins much educational reform discourse, from utopian strands and grand gestures to more formulaic rhetoric found in declarations of new policies for new times. Informed by genealogical and feminist approaches, this essay introduces some conceptual frameworks for analysing such expressions of hopefulness and newness in…

Since 1994, education policy documents in South Africa have prioritised the goal of equity in education, understood as increased access to programmes, more equitable staff and student profiles, and curricula that are more responsive to the needs of all students. The challenge of effecting the goal of equity at levels of teaching and learning in…

This paper offers a commentary upon a number of recent documents from different countries concerned with the reform of school science education. It identifies and considers in turn four issues drawn from the documents: the way in which science is defined; the reference to science as a whole rather than as discrete disciplines; the nature of…

Religious Education (RE) is an entitlement for all pupils in state-funded schools in England and Wales. The parental right of withdrawal is rarely invoked. Given the multi-faith nature of British society, inter-faith RE is normative in most (non-religious) Community Schools, and is a significant feature of many Faith Schools. Although RE is…

Current federal policies have changed leadership practices in schools and ushered in an era of public accountability for the educational performance of all students, including students who have disabilities. In this discussion, a former special education director reflects on changes in professional practice and comments on the administration of…

In order to address some of the key underlying issues currently distorting dominant approaches to schooling it is necessary to acknowledge and engage with our broad intellectual and cultural responsibilities currently shunned by contemporary policy. Philosophy has a key role to play here, in terms of both deconstruction and recommendation. Drawing…

In this paper, the authors analyze the existing higher education policies in the Russian Federation and discuss the implications of current reforms for the future of the higher education sector and those involved in it. The authors' analytical framework was based on the work of Olssen, Codd, and O'Neill (2004), outlining the major tenets of the…

After five years of experience with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), and with reauthorization looming, it is time to draw some conclusions about how the act has actually unfolded--and how it ought to be changed. A new book from the AEI Press by Frederick M. Hess and Chester E. Finn Jr., "No Remedy Left Behind: Lessons from A Half-Decade…