The field of education technology (edtech) has emerged as a complex, multimillion-dollar industry, with various hubs in the USA leading the boom. This exploratory article uses a networks perspective to reveal the power dynamics of investor firms in edtech. The analysis examines the current top venture capitalists and their edtech companies, based…

While TVET literature focuses on the potential role of the sector in socio-economic development, seldom is attention given to how socio-economic conditions and policies affect the development of the sector. This paper endeavours to contribute to filling this gap. It argues that examining the factors that influence access, equity and outcomes of…

This paper falls into three parts: a description of the current French educational system and the groups influencing it; presentation of the more pressing educational problems of the 1980s; and a draft of developmental modifications likely to occur if liberals or, alternatively, socialists win political power in the early 1980s. (Author/SJL)

In analyzing the political economy influencing Canadian schooling and psychology, the author finds that Canadian teachers and psychologists have abdicated their leadership role to those, both foreign and domestic, who know less than they do about Canadian educational needs, but who seem to have greater power and prestige. (SJL)

Continuing an earlier historical review of educational needs assessment (ENA) in the United States, this article considers certain criticisms of ENA in light of basic assumptions about the process; the relationship between ENA theories and practices; and their impact on schools and students. ENA's role in educational planning and renewal is also…

Pepi Leistyna's book "Presence of Mind" discusses how schools of education deter teachers from understanding the world's complex political, historical, social, and economic realities. Educators must develop what C. Wright Mills called the "sociological imagination." Developing critical consciousness and varied, multicultural…

Multiculturalism has become a major framework for analyzing intergroup relations in the United States, but the meanings of the term have become less and less clear. The 26 essays in this collection map the terrain of multiculturalism in its varied dimensions and discuss its future. The scholars represented, link the complex cultural questions of…

Reductions in resources and increases in external demands place schools under pressure that can be relieved to some extent by organizational changes. When resources are sufficient, these changes may take the form of technical rationality--that is, decisions concerning policy and practices are made on the basis of neutral, measurable data rather…

Explains how land conditions and local land ownership patterns have contributed to the educational change that left a rural, primarily African-American town in North Carolina without its own school. The town's history, largely interpreted by one elderly African-American man, shows how economic structures have evolved over the past century. (SLD)

Educational attainments are seen as the link between the status attainments of one generation and those of the next. Most of the apparent opportunity inequalities are thought to reside in those processes leading to the social origins - educational attainment relationships -- that is, in families, in schools, or in both. The present investigation…

This paper reviews the principal literature on schools and communities to find evidence that schools perform community-shaping functions. Section I discusses problems in the field of educational research that have led observers to neglect the school-neighborhood relationship. Sociological, anthropological, and political studies of communities that…

Explores the intersection of geography and politics in U.S. public policy development and connects this to several of the National Geography Standards. Discusses contemporary issues including economic interdependence, the impact of migration, resource competition, cultural values, and environmental issues. Offers suggested student activities. (MJP)