To meet the intentions of the New Zealand Curriculum 2007 teachers must critically reflect on their role and their idea of what defines "best practice" for teaching and learning in the twenty-first century. The teacher's role has changed considerably over time. There is now, more than ever, a need for much greater transparency,…

This groundbreaking volume considers the ultimate fate of the comprehensive high school as individuals enter the twenty-first century. Contributors consider whether the question of the high school's seeming demise is exaggerated and why it is experiencing the many problems that it does. Essays focus on the United States, the United Kingdom,…

There is agreement that teaching practices should be responsive to the cultural identities of their students, but less clarity regarding both the specifics of culturally responsive pedagogies and effective strategies for implementing them in classrooms across the curriculum. A mixed-methods research approach evaluated the impact of teacher…

The work presented here is a large-scale evaluation of a theory-driven school reform project in New Zealand, which focuses on improving the educational achievement of Maori students in public secondary schools. The project's conceptual underpinnings are based on Kaupapa Maori research, culturally responsive teaching, student voice, and…

Previous research in the area of resistance has inadequately described opposition to change within-school reform initiatives with a social justice orientation. A lack of attention to, and agreement on, the nature and causes of resistance may explain why so many equity-minded educational reforms fail to be sustained. This article highlights various…

Through an exploration of two experimental schools, Oruaiti (1950s) and Discovery 1 (2000s), we aim to understand the socio-political contexts that create spaces for experimentation and examine their impact on mainstream schooling. Caught between competing, often contradictory, discourses such experiments struggle between the…

Offers a brief overview of school restructuring, describing the levels at which it can occur, fundamental shifts required, and three lessons learned from school restructuring in New Zealand. (SR)

Aims to stimulate interest in comparative education policy analysis by critiquing a paper by Stephen Lawton. Such comparative analysis is important in understanding neoliberal education reforms, but more work is needed to provide adequate categories for analysis. Lawton's categories, reformulated here as efficiency, managing and provider capture,…

Mild rejoinder to Gordon and Pearce in same issue argues that purpose of original "Why Restructure?" paper was rather modest. Seven overlapping categories do not constitute a theory but beginnings of one based on scientific-observation methods. Original categories may be applied to any social system for which reasonable boundaries and…

Interviews with members of three school boards in New Zealand highlight their reactions to the impact of educational restructuring, which included goals of social equity and cultural inclusiveness. Many members thought that standards were high and they supported equity policies. (SK)

Proposes a vision for schooling in the third millennium, based on two previous works and an upcoming book "Beyond the Self-Managing School." Analyzes the reform of school education by critiquing the development of self-managing schools. Identifies three "tracks" in the reengineering of public education for a knowledge society…

During 1988 and 1989, a university education lecturer in New Zealand organized and directed a 2-year professional development program (the School Leaders Project) for 67 secondary school principals and assistants. Although the program's organization, content, and delivery initially facilitated participants' professional development, the…

School-based management refers to a form of educational administration in which the school becomes the primary unit for decision-making. The book is structured into five parts. In part 1, international developments in school-based decision-making and management are documented and analyzed. Described are developments in Australia, Canada, France,…

Tasmania's history of reforms in state education administration were inspired yet pragmatic responses to social, political, and economic crises. A progressive devolution of managerial responsibility to schools and colleges between 1982 and 1989 resulted in little movement of governance powers. Hughes's state corporate managerialism has not proved…

Thanks to direct governmental intervention, the role of New Zealand princip1als has changed dramatically as to structural positioning, career path, and professional expectations. Implementation processes engaged principals in new national and local schooling aims and a new political climate for school administration. Principals' responsibility for…