This article proposes the Kingdon-Khan Model (KKM) as an extension of John Kingdon's Multiple Streams Model (MSM) of agenda setting. While the MSM is comprehensively used to explain how issues reach policymakers' agendas, it underrepresents the influence of media, public opinion, and social movements on agenda setting. To address this limitation,…

While public consultation is a signature process of democratic policy formulation, many governments manoeuvre to refract citizen's opinions or conduct it perfunctorily. Using the case of a medium of instruction policy in Hong Kong, this article unveils the strategies that the state and citizens employ to put their opinion through to the final…

This paper explores the 'media mentalities' about teachers and their work in the Australian print media. The notion of media mentalities draws on the theoretical concepts of discourse, mentalities, and mediatisation. This refers to the constructed realities and forms of thought in media coverage that circulate particular accounts. These are linked…

In any society there is a link between social-intellectual (ideological) views and discursive structures in media. Therefore, it is possible to discover this relationship by clarifying appropriate discursive remedies in text analysis and eventually determining how it is and its application. Some journalists are very skillful in literature, their…

Recent decades have witnessed a proliferation of nationally organized school reform interest groups like StudentsFirst. While historically active at the state and federal levels, these organizations are increasingly involving themselves in local school board elections by recruiting candidates, making donations, and offering policy advice. However,…

In this first 2014 issue of "Voices in Urban Education," Oona Chatterjee, the Annenberg Institute's associate director for New York City organizing, interviews Pedro Noguera, the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University, a noted researcher and national commentator on topics such as urban school reform, conditions that…

Decision makers are pressed to involve the public in priority setting. However, public input is only one form of evidence. So, how can information from the public be combined with other knowledge? The authors qualitatively analysed articles that explicitly address this question. We identified the other forms of information that tend to be used in…

This article examines how emotional reactions to political events shape public opinion. We analyze political discussions in which people voluntarily engage online to approximate the public agenda: Online discussions offer a natural approach to the salience of political issues and the means to analyze emotional reactions as political events take…

For increasing numbers of Americans, a crucial facet of the American Dream appears to be at risk. A solid majority consider a college degree an indispensable ticket to the middle class. At the same time, even more people believe college is financially out-of-reach for many qualified students. This is the message from new public opinion research by…

This article discusses the involvement of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) in transnational education policy-making, with particular reference to the global initiative Education for All (EFA). EFA is a policy process carried out by international governmental organisations (IGOs) with the main aim to achieve basic education for…

As higher education seeks to become more socially responsive, the public agenda is one form that has taken root in explicating the relation of higher education to society. In this paper, we critically analyze two different instantiations of the public agenda for higher education, placing them against the backdrop of what Michael Apple (2006a)…

In the wake of China's harsh suppression of antigovernment protests in Tibet--among other human-rights abuses throughout its territory--world leaders have faced mounting pressure to boycott the opening ceremonies of the approaching Olympic Games in Beijing. The boycott has also become a hot topic on the presidential-campaign trail. John McCain and…

Setting the Direction for Special Education in Alberta is a major Alberta Education project designed to create a new framework that will help students with special needs receive the education necessary to be successful. Phase 1 of the project reviewed the effectiveness of the current approach and then focused on defining a vision and principles…

Education issues are poised to break through the din of presidential politics and economic anxiety in more than a dozen states next month, as voters confront ballot questions and constitutional amendments involving K-12 policy and school finance. High on the list are gambling referendums in six states--Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Maryland,…

"Sound-Bite Saboteurs" examines the emergence of a multifaceted, multimedia culture that encourages the use of sound bites to silence one's opponents at the expense of democratic deliberation and debate. No simple partisan phenomenon or mere attempt to "spin" a particular issue, sound-bite sabotage is, the authors argue, a…