Schools develop mission statements in part to communicate their purposes of schooling to internal and external audiences. The goal of this study is to employ text analytic techniques to analyze school mission statements. Focusing on Arizona and New Jersey's schools, we seek to understand: 1) what themes (topics) emerge from their mission…

The aim of this study is to investigate what characterizes the discourse on the role of the outdoor environment in young children's learning in educational policy documents in Iceland. Policy documents, laws and regulations, national curriculum guides for pre- and compulsory school levels, and documents from municipalities were analyzed. A…

This essay reviews six competing positions on U.S. school reform: a speech from Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan; Diane Ravitch's "The Death and Life of the Great American School System"; Frederick Hess's "The Same Thing Over and Over"; Charles Payne's "So Much Reform, So Little Change"; Anthony Byrk and others' "Organizing School for…

This investigation provides a base-line measurement of the inspirational and pragmatic rhetoric in declarations of institutional vision at tribal community colleges. By comparing it to nontribal community colleges, this content analysis reveals the current state of utility of the mission and vision statements of tribal community colleges, their…

This study examines the usage and contexts of "wellbeing" in New Zealand's curriculum, a formal statement of education policy enacted by a democratically elected government. The analysis is guided by a current model of student wellbeing rooted in seven, interdependent domains: "Having," "Being," "Relating,"…

The purpose of the study reported herein was to identify the important aspects of statistical knowledge that students in the middle school grades in United States are expected to learn as well as what the teachers are expected to teach. A systematic study of 49 states standards and one set of national standards was used to identify these important…

Teachers constantly question their own practice. Often, their questions remain unexplored. Collegial observation provides one way to see teaching differently and understand the tensions involved in incorporating new theoretical understandings into practice. Gebhard (1999) argues that conversations preceding and following such observations are…

This paper presents the research design, rationale, and the results of a historical document-based research project to answer the following two-part question: How do popular and dominant political, social, and economic forces affect the creation and delivery of American history curriculum in public schools between 1890 and 1920 and how is this…

Ontario, Canada's new character education policy is analyzed to determine how it supports and undermines critical democratic commitments to diversity, dialogue, equity, critical mindedness, and social justice. While policies are always open to interpretation, recent reform policies requiring evidence of continual improvement in students' academic…

While there is clear evidence that using classroom assessment for learning can improve learning significantly, research has demonstrated that it is particularly challenging for secondary teachers to change their practices in an assessment for learning direction. Many factors have been suggested as inhibiting change in these schools. Some studies…

The purpose of the 1990 apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education entitled "Ex Corde Ecclesiae" (From the Heart of the Church) is to emphasize the dual relationship Catholic institutions have to the academic community as well as the Church. The concepts of Catholicism and university are not to be experienced as polarizing…

Whether and to what extent a college or university vision is embraced, transformed into action, and dispersed to the campus community by academic advisors is largely dependent on the rhetoric of the vision statement. Through a content analysis of a nation-wide sample of vision and mission statements from NACADA-membership institutions, we isolated…

A college or university's general approach to students and student support services, as reflected in its institutional vision, can serve to advocate the adoption of one type of advising structure, approach, and delivery system over another. A content analysis of a nationwide sample of institutional vision statements from NACADA-membership colleges…

This paper deals with the way the vision of including children with special educational needs into their home school, constituted for instance in UNESCO's "The Salamanca Statement and Framework on Special Needs Education", has merged with other contemporary discourses (ideas and practices) in Icelandic education. In particular, the paper…

Over the past decade, many government and policy documents have highlighted with greater urgency the need for lifelong learning. What do present mission statements of Canadian universities have to say regarding lifelong learning? In researching this question we analyzed the institutional mission statements of 58 Canadian universities to identify…