Recent policy developments in England, particularly since 2021, have resulted in increased regulation and marketisation of Initial Teacher Training (ITT)/Initial Teacher Education (ITE). Although the origins of these developments go back much further than 2021, the current context in which ITE operates in England is, arguably, both challenging and…

This article examines the factors contributing to the suppression of free speech in Palestine, with a focus on the West Bank. We argue that anti-democratic politics and restricted public discourse in both public and academic spheres are mutually reinforced by the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian Authority. Despite education's potential as a…

This essay imagines how the "quasi-philosophy" of Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) might function as a fulcrum for overturning the legacy of "standard" thinking and writing now profuse within the Educacene, or rather, the epoch of globalized educational standardization. This essay will consider how Jarry's pataphysics or "science…

On the 9th of May 2020 "The Lancet," the leading medical journal, published an editorial referring to the current situation of the pandemic in Brazil, which is short of being disastrous, and describing Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, as the biggest threat to Brazil -- we would add to the world. In this paper, we enquire the…

The focus of this article is on the impacts of COVID-19 related manifestations of post-truth in educational settings in Australia. Within this context, there has been a reorientation of how wellbeing and academic achievement within schools reflect on broader trends within the general public, at local, state and national scales. Individual and…

This paper considers critical reflection as a pedagogical strategy in UK higher education at a moment of an amplification of populist, reactionary discourses. It draws on written reflections of foundation-level students in a case study cohort and offers insights into their lived learning experiences and perceptions of the value of reflection. This…

Educational institutions have an important role in the achievement of the United Nations' sixteenth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies. In Scotland, all teachers must meet Professional Standards, at the heart of which is a set of goods that include sustainability, democracy, equality, human rights,…

This historiography of Hungarian higher education focuses on the evolution of academic freedom and institutional autonomy at Hungarian institutions of higher education. Through an exploration of trends in higher education policy, structure, and funding, the evolution of institutional autonomy and academic freedom provided a framework for…

Contemporary Conservative education policy may seem to be hastily formulated and executed, but, it is arguably founded on deeply held ideological beliefs. By briefly examining the history of the British Conservative party and its complex formation and disparate ideological traditions, including the broader conservative diaspora, four key…

This article explains why there are so few world-class universities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region today. It first summarises the systemic exogenous economic, political and social problems facing all countries in the region, and the impact of these on the development of their higher education sectors in recent times. Then, with…

The flight of human capital is a phenomenon that has been of concern to academics and development practitioners for decades. Unfortunately, there is no systematic record of the number of skilled professionals that many African countries have continued to lose to the developed world. Termed the "brain drain", it represents the loss of…

Twenty-five years ago, American sociologist Robert Neelly Bellah (Bellah, et al., 1986: 303) critiqued the growing isolation of intellectuals within universities and called for a return to "social science as public philosophy." Little seems to have changed. My thirty-seven year experience at the University of Alberta suggests that…

This article provides an analysis of the rise of 'scientific management' and 'social efficiency' theories in the early 1900s, traces their impact on the structure and administration of education systems, and critically analyses their contribution to the emergence of a new orthodoxy--outcomes-based education (OBE) approaches to school curriculum…

Anti-intellectualism and political illiteracy are sweeping across the American media and cultural landscape, giving rise to discourses that are unabashedly nativist, racist, and reactionary. Populist sentiments drive the rabid individualism and anti-government rhetoric of right-wing groups such as the Tea Party movement. Underlying these…

The article deals with the impact of Lebensphilosophie on Danish RE in the elementary and lower secondary school--an impact which is subjected to a critical analysis with special attention given to anti-intellectualism, criticism of reason and criticism of modernity as well as the romantic view of the child. The thesis of this article is that…