The geographic studies of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944) offered an understanding of human activities on Earth's surface that differed from the geographic theories and practices of his Euro-American predecessors and Japanese contemporaries. With his rejection of geographic determinism and its imperialist/colonial orientation he sought to…

As literacy leaders, we know that printed words carry great meaning and power. Today, there is a widespread belief that advocacy over government concerns or policies can be adequately achieved using social media. While a well-timed and phrased social media post can supplement advocacy efforts, advocacy must be driven by deeds even more than words.…

This article describes how one local teachers' union branch has developed an active and imaginative campaign as it has challenged both national education policy and also the very specific attacks on schools in the community. By connecting local and national issues, and by linking struggles on pay and pensions to wider questions of policy, the…

Montclair Cares About Schools (MCAS) is a citizen-activist group in Montclair, New Jersey, that used Facebook, emails, and online petitions to inform and organize citizens on local educational policy issues. Emerging in response to a new superintendent's plans to reshape Montclair schools with new teacher evaluations, administrative hires, and…

This essay examines the relationship between research and policy and, more specifically, how researchers might relate to policy work. Given the current international policy focus on climate change, green growth and sustainability in general, it argues for strengthening and widening policy research in the areas of Environmental Education (EE),…

Although the role of education in addressing the challenges of climate change is increasingly recognized, the education sector remains underutilized as a strategic resource to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Education stakeholders in many countries have yet to develop a coherent framework for climate change education (CCE). This article…

This paper describes and analyses the work of a large scale improvement project in England in order to find more effective ways of fostering equity within education systems. The project involved an approach based on an analysis of local context, and used processes of networking and collaboration in order to make better use of available expertise.…

The authors challenge educators to speculate on how to address local issues in a world that is increasingly diverse and global. This Research and Policy section emphasizes the seemingly paradoxical importance of both local and global literacy, illuminating the tension between the preservation of local literacy and a global standardization of…

The aim of this article is to analyse the circulation of discourse in the global educational field and its relation to local-specific education policies and practices. The first section examines the logic of networks and relates it to the specificities of the networks of interaction that, it is argued, constitute "global policy spaces"…

America is on the precipice of ruining its foundation for success. The movement toward a centralized education system through federal mandates and common curriculum and testing is threatening the very system that has contributed to America's success and that holds the potential for its future success: that is a decentralized, diverse, largely…

Scholars have recently explored the relationship between local democracy and education from two distinct perspectives. The first views local democracy as inherently good and offers suggestions for deepening the practice of democracy. The second perspective questions the merits of local democratic control of schools. Contributors to this…

The Centre for Applied Language Research at the University of Southampton is one of two research centres within the discipline of Modern Languages. Established in 2004, CALR now has more than 50 members, predominantly faculty members working in the School of Humanities/Modern Languages, as well as growing number of postgraduate researchers. The…

What the author has learned, wandering around in the mists and fogs of the lowlands along the Potomac, is that nothing happens in Congress until there is a will, a consensus, and not just in the leadership, but in the rank and file of both parties that an issue needs to be addressed in a particular way. The problem needs to be explicated until it…

The structural reforms of the education system in France (1959, 1963, and 1975) were part both of a global process of democratisation of education launched after the Second World War and of a larger modernisation project in which knowledge producers (experts, scholars and consultants) played a crucial role. Instead of a national approach or a…

Compares the national policy developments in two countries, Australia and South Africa, and investigates the emerging tensions in quality policy processes in these countries. Reports that a number of similarities and differences were evident. States that notions of quality and quality policies are dependent on localized contexts. Includes…