Education policies are typically anchored in official texts that provide a foundation for their enactment in schools. What are the implications of an "invisible" policy not anchored in any official text due to political motives? This study explores the enactment of an invisible education policy that regulates religious enclave schools.…

Governance has various structures, and involves complex decision-making. In contrast to the Western governance systems, China has the dual Party-state governance system for managing different levels of governmental agencies. Under the design of such a system, the system of Chinese Communist Party Schools (CCPS) has specific missions and agendas to…

The term "equity" is commonly used in education discourse as a goal of educational improvement efforts. Yet, the term can be conceptualized in many ways, and equity conceptions are rarely interrogated in policy studies (Bulkley, 2013; Jencks, 1988; Levinson et al., 2022). Still, equity conceptions reflect an underlying ideology and…

This article reports on a case study investigating the micro-politics of policy enactment in a school in England. The case is sited in the literacy policy of a primary school in challenging circumstances as it joins a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT). Data gathering consisted of interviews with the school headteacher, assistant headteacher, and literacy…

The paper compares the institutional development of skills formation in Lithuania and Ukraine by focusing on the implications of the post-communist transition and Europeanization and exploring the role of policy transfer. The research follows the theoretical approach of historical institutionalism and skills formation ecosystems. Despite similar…

Background/Context: Considered one of the most influential educators in Brazil's history, Anísio Teixeira is one of the renowned Latin American students who came to Teachers College (TC). Teixeira was a prominent reformer and educator known for advocating free, public, and secular education accessible to all children. His work as an educator and…

In the U.S. education system, students of color experience multiple forms of marginalization at the intersection of markers of difference. These injustices manifest in multiple forms, such as higher rates of inappropriate referrals to special education, misidentification, conferring stigmatizing labels, and subsequently placing students of color…

Using a qualitative historical research approach, this paper examines the contextual influences, including the formulation motive and their possible impact on policy implementation, of the South African (SA) e-Education White Paper 7 (WP7). A critical discourse analysis (CDA) was conducted on the policy and data was collected through…

This article analyzes the messages and strategies of a sample of education interest groups, and assesses their interpretations of the political context to understand how the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) lost both political and public support during the crucial period of 2013-2014. Based on interviews with representatives of 19 interest…

The higher education policy implementation landscape has substantially shaped postsecondary education opportunities for undocumented youth, who are already negatively affected by discriminatory public policies, and institutional agents, who are often unprepared to address their needs. Guided by Bressers's contextual interaction theory that…

Neoliberal theories--whether the new public management, principal-agent theory, or performance management--have provided the rationale for sweeping reforms in the governance and operation of higher education. This paper expands our understanding of neoliberal theory and practice by examining a leading neoliberal reform: performance-based funding…

At what point will educational actors recognize the limitations and utilize the possibilities of policy implementation processes to actualize long overdue reform measures for students--particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds? Previous literature has attended to ways schooling processes replicate persistent historical, social,…

This article employs event history analysis to explore the factors that were associated with the rapid uptake of teacher evaluation reform. We investigate three hypotheses for this rapid adoption: (a) downward diffusion from the federal government through Race to the Top (RTTT), (b) upward diffusion from large school district policies, and (c) the…

This is a comprehensive, detailed account of the complex state of Universal Preschool (UPK) in the United States. As discussions regarding access, equity, and the societal value of early childhood education enter into the public forum, this book offers critical perspectives for next steps. The authors join the synergy of wonder to the practicality…

This qualitative study examines the roles, practices, challenges and demands of school counselors (known as guidance counsellors) in Barbados. A focused ethnographic approach is used to provide a comprehensive and nuanced view of five school counselors' experiences. Using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to code and analyze the data…