We investigate the impact of attending a free school in England -- that is, a new start-up school that enjoys considerable autonomy while remaining in the state sector. We analyse the effects of two secondary free schools with different teaching philosophies: one follows a 'no excuse' paradigm, while the other one adopts a 'classical liberal',…

Critical pedagogues advocate a constructivist approach to learning emphasising the self-directed construction of knowledge from the learners' experiences while also expecting students to develop an explicit critique of the social order. However, the use of a constructivist approach for the pursuit of explicit ideological goals leaves educators…

Our descriptive survey assesses the possible alternative educational opportunities for female students deprived of formal education in Afghanistan. Our sample comprised 94 female participants, with 36 (38.3%) being high school students, 32 (34%) being high school graduates, and 26 (27.7%) being university students. Based on the results, the great…

The opponents and proponents of the alternative school movement are equally vociferous in enunciating their positions which leave all of us somewhat confused. Just what is the situation? In this article, Gerald Brunetti, an assistant professor of English education at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, describes the Southeast Alternatives…

This paper reports the experiences of staff, parents, governors and students at a secondary free school in the West Midlands of England in relation to the inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN). The paper is based on a qualitative research project carried out at a school that opened in 2015, with the explicit aim of examining…

'Alternative education' encompasses a diversity of schooling types and organizations. "International Perspectives on Alternative Education" explores alternative forms of schooling from the position of academics, policy workers, and those working and studying in such schools across the world. The first-hand accounts by those working and…

Free schools are all-ability schools, funded by the government, and can be set up by groups such as charities, universities, teachers or parents. Free schools came into being as part of the Academies Act 2010 and the Education Act 2011 and have the same legal status as academies. The first free schools opened in September 2011 and by the end of…

This article examines the pattern of placement of students with significant special educational needs at Statement and School Action Plus levels in English secondary schools, comparing sponsored and converter academies, maintained schools and the newly created free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges for 2013 and 2014. The…

This article is a critical poststructuralist analysis of Conservative led free school policy in England focussing on claims made by the New Schools Network and in the 2010 White Paper that free school provision promotes social justice. The article presents an empirical study of an alternative provision free school as a lens through which these…

This paper explores how "social democratic" Sweden initiated and implemented choice reforms that attracted the interest of "liberal" England. By studying how English media framed and portrayed the Swedish free school "export" from 2008 to 2014, this paper aims to describe and discuss how a market-oriented policy idea,…

This paper considers the pupil intakes to Academies in England, and their attainment, based on a re-analysis of figures from the Annual Schools Census 1989-2012, the Department for Education School Performance Tables 2004-2012 and the National Pupil Database. It looks at the national picture, and the situation for Local Education Authorities, and…

In Sweden, and in most other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, post-16 education is a general requirement to succeed in adult life. By the late 2000s, after about two decades of policies for student choice and publicly funded free schools, students' results in the Programme for International Student…

This paper presents the results of an analysis of the admissions criteria used by the first two waves of secondary Free Schools in England. The type of criteria and their ranked order is explored and their potential impact on the school composition is considered. The findings demonstrate the diversity of criteria being used by this new type of…

Previous literature indicates that educational aspirations are an important predictor of achievement at school and beyond. This paper examines the factors that are associated with high educational aspirations. It also looks at the relationship between aspirations and achievement at the General Certificate of Secondary Education in a deprived area…