Early childhood care and development has increasingly become a part of the global development agenda. Fueled by a threefold rationale, rooted in development psychology, social economy, and human rights, the arguments for investing in early childhood care and development are virtually unassailable. However, this rationale is somehow at odds with…

This report puts forward practical actions to address economic and social disparities across the United Kingdom (UK). It sets out the evidence of the impact universities are making across three main themes, outlines the potential to go further, and makes recommendations for how the government can work with universities to maximise their…

Over the past decades, Public Administration (PA) education programmes in Europe shifted their focus from a predominantly law-oriented approach to a more multidisciplinary, social science and managerial one. This paper deals with the tenacity of traditional, law-oriented PA education programmes that can be found in a limited, but not…

Conferences addressing emerging commonalities in the information professions were being held as far back as the early 1980s. At that time, there appeared to be two differing thoughts on the future of the information professions: one that saw the increasing diversification, the other favouring the professions' convergence. Nearly thirty-five years…

This article sets out to identify and discuss the changes that have taken place in Finnish teacher education during the last 40 years (1974-2014). A brief history of teacher education in Finland is presented, followed by the goals and aims of current research-based teacher education in Finland. Finally, the major changes in Finnish teacher…

The paper aimed to explore the self assessment practices in higher education in Bangladesh with special reference to Department of Business Administration of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. For self assessment purpose the researchers have collected opinion from students, alumni, employer and faculty members on eight areas. In…

The ability to purposefully access, reflect, and use evidence from educational research (Educational Research Literacy) is expected of future professionals in educational practice. Based on the presented conceptual framework, a test instrument was developed to assess the different competency aspects: Information Literacy, Statistical Literacy, and…

This case study explores the United Kingdom's (UK's) approach to improving low-performing schools and presents lessons learned that could be applied in other countries. The study: (1) Gives an overview of the overall structure of UK schools; (2) Provides a context for the country's school-improvement efforts; (3) Reviews the different types of…

Vocational education and training (VET) has returned to the list of policy priorities for education in Africa after an absence of a quarter of a century, yet there has been no new research that overturns the existing orthodox position that such provision, whether during or after schooling, is inefficient and ineffective. This paper addresses this…

Education is often seen as the key agency in international development and poverty reduction. Frequently the emphasis is on the economic and social role of education in development. This book, on the other hand, is unusual in explicitly examining the political role of education in development. In particular, it sets out the theories, evidence and…

A growing number of countries are introducing qualification frameworks (QFs) following a common definition of outcomes, level descriptors, and a set of occupational or knowledge fields. Botswana has been no exception to this trend. The passing of the Vocational Training Act (1998) led to the creation of the Botswana National Vocational…

Education is an area that is highly devolved in the UK, and the fact that all four constituent countries have pursued very different policies in the recent past provides a good testing ground to undertake a comparative review of the merits or otherwise of the education reforms that have taken place. There is, of course, an important policy context…

This paper provides evidence on the sources of differences in inequality in educational scores and their evolution over time in four European countries. Using Programme for International Student Assessment data from the 2000 and the 2006 waves, the paper shows that inequality decreased in Germany and Spain (two "decentralised" schooling…

High stakes testing in Australia was introduced in 2008 by way of the National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). Currently, every year all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are assessed on the same days using national tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions (Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation) and Numeracy. In 2010 the…

The Secretary of State for Education's recent announcement of an English Baccalaureate at 16+ has opened up a debate about the nature of general education in the English upper secondary system. Drawing on evidence from national and local studies, we argue that it is important to see general education in England, not only in terms of the…