The formative power of children's literature is both great and suspicious. As a resource of socialization, the construction and experience of children's literature can be seen as modes of disciplinary coercion such as Michel Foucault has anatomized. "Harry Potter", as a "craze" phenomenon, has attracted particular…

What would a professional development experience rooted in the philosophy, principles, and practices of restorative justice look and feel like? This article describes how such a professional development project was designed to implement restorative justice principles and practices into schools in a proactive, relational and sustainable manner by…

This article explores the rationale for the 2011-2013 review of the National Curriculum in England, a rationale informed by the work of an Expert Panel chaired by the author. The focus is on the fundamental principles that determine the nature and content of the curriculum. The approach adopted by the review is contrasted with that adopted when…

Related with the teaching profession and the Tool Box of the Language teacher, we dedicate this study to the debate on the issue of--To have or not to have a Learning and Instruction English language Methodology. The paper is a synthesis of the preoccupations of the English language teaching profession with the space created by the disappearance…

In this commentary, the author discusses the critique by Max Weber and his views on bureaucratisation of education. The modern school, said Max Weber (1864-1920) over a hundred years ago, has as its educational ideal the bureaucrat and no longer the cultivated elite of older times. The shift to modernity and to its characteristic institution, the…

When considering a topic as broad as research in environmental education it seems worthwhile, at the onset, to make some basic distinctions: (1) establishing research priorities is not simply an empirical question; and (2) a much more challenging task is to more clearly understand the nature of the questions to which we seek answers. How do we go…

This textual content analysis set out to determine the extent to which the theories, principles, and guidelines in 4 standard books of instructional design and technology were also addressed in 4 popular books on web design. The standard books on instructional design and the popular books on web design were chosen by experts in the fields. The…

The Association for Middle Level Education advocates for instruction that incorporates active learning and multiple learning approaches in middle grades classrooms. The aim of this qualitative study was to examine middle level teachers who are able to implement active learning and multiple learning approaches within the standardized testing and…

This article examines the composing practices of two members of a social sorority who use visual images on the media of Tumblr and YouTube to teach potential new members about the kind of sorority experience they will have. From interviews with these composers and analyses of the artifacts they create, I distill three composing principles used to…

This paper reviews developments in policy on early childhood education and care--early years--under the Coalition Government in England. Three factors came to define the Coalition's performance and record in this area: ambivalence about the rationales for the two areas of early education and childcare; a disconnect between early years and other…

The article explores Rabindranath Tagore's ideas on child education, focusing on Tagore's notion of the child, method and nonmethod in education, a deep understanding of education in relation to the child's surroundings, and the ways in which Tagore envisaged the relationship between the child and the teacher--the "guru-shishya"…

Educational agencies are going through a difficult transition, with important consequences in terms of de-legitimacy of the social mandate historically assigned to the school. The reason for this widespread unease can be traced to the fact that today we live in a complex system. This paper arises within this problematic framework with the intent…

In this article, we examine quality teachers through teacher leadership development. Using Singapore as an illustrative case, we describe the redefinition of the teaching profession to include deliberate structures and multiple pathways designed to nurture teacher leaders, and the role of teacher leaders in supporting education reform. We go on to…

Research suggests that cooperative interactions are associated with enhanced cognitive and affective outcomes. This paper describes eight principles that can be used to promote such interactions among students working in online environments. The principles derive from a well-established approach to education, known variously as cooperative…

Gender mainstreaming emerged in the 1990s to challenge normative social and political structures and practices by integrating gender into all levels of thinking and decision making. Training is central to processes of gender mainstreaming because it aims to provide the knowledge, awareness, resources, and skills needed to transform hegemonic…