Adaptive leadership requires that practitioners push the boundaries of current policies and systems to provide optimal services to children and families. This process includes self-reflection, strategic positioning, building relationships with advocates, inspiring service providers and policymakers, and creating a shared vision. This article…

The role of the state as regulator combined with policies on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that go beyond legal requirements to establishing programmes that promote development and good international business practice is an emerging new paradigm. In this paper, the example of a state-owned company, Statkraft A.S. of Norway, and its recent…

Herein, we address the reformation of Ontario early learning. Over the next 3 years, all 4- and 5-year-olds in Ontario (Canada) will be able to attend full-day early learning with child care, before and after school provided by the Government of Ontario Ministry of Education. The benefits of such a change are both academic and societal and are…

A case study of centralized provincial testing in Alberta (Canada) shows that teachers can retain their assessment skills and responsibility, and so do not necessarily undergo "deskilling" in the implementation of centralized testing. The teachers appear to have undergone an ideological proletarianization, with considerable technical…

Examines the American prototype of proper balance between family and state in terms of their responsibility for the cultivation of potential in children, and contrasts it with an alternative European model. Proposes an agenda of comparative research that explores the relationship between state and kinship systems and the direct or indirect impact…

Socialization is generally considered the process of making individuals "fit" for living in society. To understand the specific social role of the media, their particular place among agencies of socialization, and the real possibilities of a democratization of mass communication, the question should be inverted to ask, "Who makes…

Interviews with representatives from nine states (Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Ohio [Canton City Schools only], Oregon, Rhode Island, and West Virginia) and two nations (Australia and the United Kingdom) provided a context for the development of a certificate of basic or foundational skills as an indicator of an adult's…