The implementation of equity-oriented reforms is never simply a technical matter: it involves directly engaging with the norms and politics responsible for reproducing inequitable opportunities and outcomes, and with efforts to promote educational justice. To date, there has been little research on how leaders in science education navigate the…

What happens to public opinion when prominent partisan officials intervene in education policy debates? We analyzed the results of 18 survey experiments conducted between 2009 and 2021 with nationally representative samples of U.S. adults. Each experiment explored the effect of an endorsement of a specific education policy by a high-profile…

Much educational utopianism revolves around the "real versus blueprint utopia" dichotomy and the prescriptive normativity that utopian education involves. In this paper, I suggest that the "real and blueprint" distinction should not be dichotomized and that a richer set of normativities, apart from prescription, should operate…

Commitments to inclusive education have been articulated in policy across the UK, in the context of increasingly inclusive rhetoric in education policy globally over recent years. This paper uses a critical policy analysis approach to understand the framing of inclusion within national legislation, policy documents and associated key resources…

Books for and in schools are commodities. They form a central part of the political economy of publishing. They are also, profoundly, sites of cultural and ideological conflict. While always there, there are periods when these economic and ideological conflicts are even more powerful. This is just such a time. This reality asks us to also examine…

Alternative education schools are a relatively recent phenomenon in the Palestinian-Arab society in Israel. They have been established in response to the growing dissatisfaction with the education provided by the state in mainstream schools. While previous research has sufficiently detailed their characteristics, there is little research on the…

Public service reforms often provoke political backlash. Can they also yield political benefits for the politicians who champion them? We study a Wisconsin law that weakened teachers' unions and liberalized pay, prompting mass protests. Exploiting its staggered implementation across school districts, we find that the reform cut union revenues,…

Coaches develop and use a complex system of strategies to gain access to teachers' classrooms for coaching. In the process, coaches confront micropolitical forces within the school organization that shape access, either enhancing or impeding coaches' chances of being viewed as a trusted and valued partner in teacher learning. In this qualitative…

Despite a long history of local control of schools, educational issues have become increasingly contested at higher levels of government as battles are fought in state and federal venues and along partisan lines. In light of this change as well as recent battles over school responses to COVID-19 and schools' roles in combating systemic racism, we…

In this essay, place-based education is discussed within a social theoretical context. In particular, place-based education in social studies is advanced as a panacea for the depoliticization of the U.S. populace at "the end of history." The argument is twofold. First, it suggests politicizing potential in place-based social studies…

It is our contention that we are in a crisis of curriculum that can be seen from calls to defund public education to the reduction of children to scores on annual assessments. We also point to a crisis in studies of curriculum that the critical tools necessary to consider and critique curricular practices have been intentionally removed from…

This study takes up Paul Gilroy's recent call to take seriously the political problem of fascism in the contemporary conjuncture as an educational problem. Specifically, the study will begin with analytic work to identify a set of guideposts that delineate the political logics of fascism. It will then examine the still under-developed theoretical…

Critical pedagogy emphasizes the inseparability of politics and education (Freire, 2012; hooks, 1994). However, many strands of critical pedagogy are focused on ideological critique of elements of Modernity such as racism, sexism, colonialism, extractivism, and domination which are treated as unintended errors or ancillary conditions. That is,…

In an earlier essay in the Reviewing Policy section of this journal, I examined many of the major arguments for social justice teacher unionism. This combines both more traditional union concerns over wages, working conditions, professional autonomy, and respect with a much more concerted focus by unions on social justice issues in schools,…

This interdisciplinary research explores the complex interplay between democratic erosion and migration crises, recognising their profound implications for social cohesion. With universities serving as bastions of knowledge and inclusion, their role in addressing these challenges is paramount. By implementing targeted programs and initiatives,…