The fiascoes that seem to accompany the annual publication of examination results in England, the subsequent inquiries instituted to ensure they "never happen again" and the Secretary of State's decision, reversed six months later because of fears about possible EU legal challenges, to "end competition between exam boards"…

Talk of the rise of a global war for talent and emergence of a new global meritocracy has spread from the literature on human resource management to shape nation-state discourse on managed migration and immigration reform. This article examines the implications that the global war for talent have for education policy. Given that this talent war is…

The literature on school commercialism, despite a number of successes in battling advertising and marketing in schools, has often seemed to only scratch the surface of corporatization of K-12 education. While condemning corporations who seek to sell brand-name products to kids in schools is a relatively straightforward matter, critiquing corporate…

The ascendancy of neoliberalism and the associated discourses of '[new public management', during the 1980s and 1990s has produced a fundamental shift in the way universities and other institutions of higher education have defined and justified their institutional existence. The traditional professional culture of open intellectual enquiry and…

During the 1980s, policies were introduced to reform the British education system along market principles. A heightened sociological interest in educational policy has generated several empirical investigations and critical analyses of these policies' effects at ground level. These analyses contain difficulties and inconsistencies that must be…

Explores the financial and administrative autonomy granted to selected colleges in Punjab, Pakistan. Analyzes the rationale and organizational structure of the privatization scheme. Describes a pilot study of two autonomous colleges, focusing on participants' reactions to implementation problems. Autonomy is not working as intended, and negative…

Examines international origins, national intentions, and local interpretations and actions of the recent education decentralization movement in Argentina, focusing on three provinces. Discusses the international policy environment in which privatization, deregulation, and decentralization have flourished. Both material capacities and symbolic…

In Australia, education is expected to serve national and international market economies and is being steered by market forces within and beyond education. Recent forms of education markets raise social-justice issues inadequately treated in literature. Markets operate according to profit motive and are not premised on equality or fairness…

Discusses implications of major reforms in secondary school zoning in New Zealand, highlighting freedom and equity considerations. Zoning's primary aim has changed from balancing out different schools' declared needs to emphasizing parents' rights. The new zoning provisions involve both a strong role for freedom and a weak role for equity. (72…

Critiques use of postmodernism in educational sociology. Analyzes the foundations of postmodern thought, differentiating among its aesthetic, philosophical, and sociological aspects. Examines contributions of Nietzsche and other nineteenth-century romantic conservatives. Postmodern educational thought misreads global educational trends and…

Whereas the shift toward pluralism, choice, deregulation, and parent empowerment reflects the market ideology's advance into education in other industrialized countries, the force driving the German movement is loss of political legitimization and the conflict-ridden state of educational policy. Past strategies for securing legitimization…

Current preoccupations with "enterprise culture" in schooling deflect attention from crucial problems such as deindustrialization and the changing nature of work, creation of meaningful work opportunities, social justice, and moral and social regeneration. Enterprise culture draws upon a social pathology and seeks simple solutions…

This essay reviews the history of school commercialization in the USA and the forms that it has taken over time, with particular attention paid to research measuring the scope and variety of commercialization trends in US public schools. The implications of commercialization activities such as those that promote the consumption of nutritionally…

Discusses new Australian education policies, highlighting emerging educational forms and ways that education, markets, and new technologies are commingling in postmodern world. In commodifying the curriculum, "Captains of Educational Consciousness" and their corporate allies do not acknowledge postmodernity's downside: environmental…

Discusses globalization effects on national policy in Taiwan, focusing on how the higher education sector has transformed itself under the global tide of marketization and decentralization. Although globalization trends are clear, the nation-state is still a powerful actor in shaping national development and resolving global-national tensions.…