Because of the political reforms demanded by his political philosophy, Jefferson was always focused on instantiating a "system" of education to edify all persons according to their needs and to prevent those governing at every level from lusting after power and fame instead of governing in pursuance of the interests of the general…

In the United States, bilingual education continues to provoke fierce debate. It seems that nearly everyone--from educators to policymakers to parents with school-age children to those without children--has a strong opinion on whether children with little fluency in English should be taught academic content in their home language as they learn…

Elective Home Education is a legal, minority approach to the compulsory education of children. I review the potential contribution of the historical analysis of "domestic pedagogies", presented in this Special Issue, for home education practice in the UK. By drawing on narratives of a period at the cusp of the perceived normalcy of…

Educational development has changed in many ways over the last 40?years and the International Consortium for Educational Development has highlighted the sheer variety of practices by bringing together educational developers from countries where activities differ markedly. These reflections identify the wide range of foci of attention that are…

This paper reviews the long attempt to transform teacher education in Thailand. Although a brief summary of educational systems and models of teacher preparation from 1892 to 1973 has been provided, the prime focus of the paper is on presenting changes in teacher education from 1974 to the present day, against the backdrop of key political and…

Like many who entered the teaching profession in the 1970s, the author entered a profession that was in transition. Over the more than 30 years she spent in the classroom, the author has had a front row seat during this evolution. It has been a roller coaster ride at times, but she believes our schools will emerge stronger for it. Who we teach,…

Distance education in the present Russian Federation and former Soviet Union has a long tradition that prevails to this day. The majority of students in Russia are enrolled in distance learning programs. The numbers indicate the existence of a well-established system for distance education, of which little is known in Western literature. A review…

During the twentieth-century, American engineers harnessed the atom, sent men to the moon, and literally reshaped the world. They re-routed rivers to create giant hydroelectric dams, created a massive and interconnected highway system, and designed skyscrapers, jets, computers, and the internet. As a modern profession, engineering boasted strong…

Based on over twenty years of empirical and intellectual work about knowledge production in the field of educational administration, I examine the origins and development of the canon, methodologies and knowledge workers in England. I focus on the field as being primarily concerned with professional activity and how and why this was established…

For at least a half century, education reformers have quipped that 120th Street in New York City, the street that separates Teachers College from the rest of Columbia University, "is the widest street in the world." Underlying this quip is the belief that Columbia's liberal arts faculty members regularly dismiss the child-centered educational…

The Chinese have been using standardized testing for centuries. Ancient Greeks have tried it for centuries since 5th and 4th BC. There is no evidence that they have become successful in educating their children through an imperial or elitist system. The impact of standardizing the education on a nation is significant. This is not only true for not…

Development education and global learning, whilst being part of the landscape of education in England for over thirty years, have to date not had a high profile. What the terms mean, and their value and contribution to educational goals, have been described and defined in only a handful of publications. The introduction of the Global Learning…

This article aims to review the historical development of continuing professional development programmes (CPDPs) for teachers, as well as the policies and objectives of such programmes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) from the inception of these programmes until now. Styles of CPDPs that the Education Training Centres (ETCs) offer are…

New Zealand has an internationally unique approach to early childhood education, which includes a bicultural early childhood curriculum, a robust infrastructure of organisation and management overseen by the New Zealand Ministry of Education, and a growing reputation for innovation in early childhood teaching and learning. This paper examines how…

In Uganda, the implementation of universal primary education (UPE) in 1997 and universal secondary education (USE) in 2005 have led educational policy makers, teachers, parents, and students to seek creative solutions to the problem of ensuring educational quality as schools incorporate 4 million more students. Some Ugandans worry about…