While the fresh debate on education's autonomy continues in this special issue as in other forums and venues, new layers of complexity on this theme continue to emerge, just as further nuances are revealed in the course of discussion. Following this welcomed growth in the discussion, and in the spirit of characterizing autonomy--and therefore also…

Curriculum, as an expression of legitimate knowledge, should be seen as something political rather than technical, that is, as the result of complex power relations and struggles among identifiable stakeholder groups. In Shanghai, curricular reform, which traditionally assumes the crucial task of cultivating responsible citizens, has sought to…

Any enthusiast of classical liberal education will be much dismayed at the current state of education in America, both in K-12 schools and our colleges and universities. In this article, the author highlights how critics of American education have neglected the issues of procedure and pedagogy--the "hows" of schooling--and he argues that…

The Alt-Right are an online racist group where multiple characters from the "intellectual dark web" or White identitarian right come together; trolls, incels, men's rights activists, and ironic gamers intersect with right populist movements, Neo-romantic reactionaries, and Christian nationalists. Not limited to a hidden far-right…

Focusing on education policy and politics in Israel, this essay examines how ethnic segregation is established and sheds light on the latest curricular developments that place a heavy emphasis on Jewish identity. The first part of the paper underscores the rising influence of the radical right in Israel and it's political theology. The second part…

Catholic schools in the United States continue to struggle with declining enrollment just as the wider American Church continues to struggle with rampant disaffiliation. While some Catholic educators have generated creative solutions to keep their schools afloat, the long-term viability of U.S. Catholic education will require understanding the…

Internationally, STEM has become a slogan for organizing new discourses and practices in science education. In the form of a three-act play, we argue that STEM as social engineering orients and organizes school science education curriculum development in directions of scientific innovation and engineering that reinforce and legitimize a neoliberal…

After the junta came to power in May 2014, the military government started exercising their nation-centric hegemony through the educational policies and curriculum planning. Contemporary curriculum reform is employed as a mechanism for maintaining the status quo of elites group who have held privileged positions among the Thais. Looking through…

In this article I first discuss how in Singapore the concept of meritocracy captures both elitist and egalitarian aspirations, and the ways in which its education policies have for a long time vacillated between these conflicting dimensions. I then argue that critical studies of meritocracy need to go beyond an understanding of the term as an…

The paper identifies three tools that support the administrative instrument of a state-based curriculum commission: compartmentalization, licensing, and segmentation. These tools channel the state's curriculum-making towards forms of symbolic rather than regulatory action. The state curriculum becomes a framework for the ideological governance of…

The early 21st century has seen a period of extreme turbulence in education at all levels in the UK. Although education policy was administrated on a territorial basis before 1999, the 1998-1999 devolution settlement has amplified the complexity of education policy and practice across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Through a…

Critical literacy approaches to English teaching have existed in Australia for more than two decades. Despite this, they continue to be criticised by the media, especially during times of perceived "literacy crisis" and curriculum review. In addition, teachers and academics continue to explore their worth and meaning for English teaching…

The foundation of the first international schools of the modern era well over a century ago, and their burgeoning growth over recent years, provides the context in this book for a series of personal perspectives written by some of those who have been involved centrally in their development. As the schools themselves have increased not only in…

This article uses curriculum-making frameworks to analyse and reconstruct the Chinese curriculum-making model and unpack the dynamics, complexity and constraints of China's curriculum reform since the early 1990s. It argues that curriculum reform is China's main human capital development strategy for coping with the challenges of the 21st century,…

It is the contention of this paper that schools are currently sandwiched between demands of the economy on one side and increasingly fundamentalist communities on the other; that schools need some degree of autonomy from each; that the greatest challenge of the century is how we can live together despite our differences; and that the only way of…