Research shows that professional learning can have a powerful effect on teacher skills and knowledge, and on how well students learn. To be effective, however, professional learning for teachers needs to be conducted in the ways that it is in many high achieving countries--continuously, collaboratively, and with a focus on teaching specific…

Worldwide teachers are faced with the task of continuously facilitating and implementing educational reform that has been designed without their participation. This exclusion of the key agents, who must mediate between the change agenda and actual change in the classroom, from the planning and decision-making processes, is detrimental to…

In Japan, not attending public school is stigmatized, and alternative education is in its infancy. Reviews free spaces, which are not schools, but places for traumatized students to recover; home schooling networks; government-approved independent alternative schools; alternative after-school programs; and innovative programs within the system.…

Discusses school reform in Japan, examining issues of school organization and regulation, curriculum development, and parent-teacher-student relationships and participation from two perspectives: human rights and global education. The relevant issues are explored under five dimensions: student self-government, interpersonal relationships, student…

American schools might improve their performance by emulating certain successful businesses that, while distinctly American, have much in common with Japanese corporations. William Ouchi attributes Japanese business success to worker involvement; the typical Japanese corporation, he asserts, unifies its employees around a corporate philosophy…