Increasing attention to climate change and the current global economic crisis has underscored the need for approaches to education that equip and empower people of all ages to deal with uncertain environmental, economic and political futures. A range of educational and research initiatives already exist which could support this aim, however,…

This article critically examines how Asian countries have responded to the global economic crisis which started in late 2008, with particular reference to explore what major coping strategies have been adopted by these Asian governments to continue educational development. This comparative study highlights the significant role of the state in…

This article captures educational development from the perspective of those living on the social margins in South Africa, whose collective-individual priorities resulted in education for the community. The data were fugitive, in the minds of people for the most part, a small sample of key informants being selected by deliberate decision for…

On paper, CONFINTEA VI, the United Nations world conference on adult education that took place in Brazil in December, was just as important as the climate change conference in Copenhagen that took place the following week. As a UN conference it attracted delegations from 162 countries, many headed up by ministers. In total, about 2,000 people…

At the end of the 30th volume of IJED and in the year that the journal published its 1000th paper, it is appropriate to look back at the journal's development. In doing so, this article will discuss a series of important issues regarding the future of the field of international education and development and how it engages with development studies.…

Newbattle Abbey College, Scotland's only adult residential college, was founded in the 1930s by Philip Kerr, 11th Marquis of Lothian. This paper traces the debates concerning the college and the rationale for adult residential education until the 1950s, focusing on the difficulties that Newbattle faced in establishing itself as a central part of…

The relationship between education and state formation in the United States differed from that in other countries in ways that have yet to be adequately accounted for in comparative and theoretical literatures. Specifically, in the northern United States, very high levels of mass school attendance and funding were achieved prior to and outside…

The study reported in this article focused on the scholastic life of John Nelson Darby and his contributions to the Bible college movement. Darby continues to exert a great influence on Christianity, particularly conservative evangelical Christianity. This research provides a discussion of the forces that conspired to shape the direction of…

In their dealings with educators in the Southern Cape region of South Africa, the researchers observed among them a degree of negativity and pessimism about the implementation of the Further Education and Training (FET) policy and curriculum during 2006. Exploratory discussions supported the surmise that a gap existed between policy formulation…

This paper provides evidence on the sources of differences in inequality in educational scores and their evolution over time in four European countries. Using Programme for International Student Assessment data from the 2000 and the 2006 waves, the paper shows that inequality decreased in Germany and Spain (two "decentralised" schooling…

This paper presents a vertical case study of the history of universalizing education in postcolonial Sierra Leone from the early 1950s to 1990 to highlight how there has never been a universal conception of universal education. In order to unite a nation behind a universal ideal of schooling, education needed to be adapted to different…

Chinese vocational education is currently in its most optimal development period in history. This article discusses several challenges of different dimensions faced by vocational education in China as it develops, such as scale versus quality, development goals, a lifelong vocational education system, and creating model institutions; and puts…

Over the last decades, the issue of digital divide has received particular attention from international bodies and researchers in Western countries. One of the main reasons for this growing interest is related to the implications that digital inequalities have for social development and particularly for education. Despite the relevance of the…

Education is an area that is highly devolved in the UK, and the fact that all four constituent countries have pursued very different policies in the recent past provides a good testing ground to undertake a comparative review of the merits or otherwise of the education reforms that have taken place. There is, of course, an important policy context…

Learning is a lifelong process. Many countries in the world, basically the European and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, have adopted it as an important vehicle for human development. They have also made it a policy agenda for meeting the human capital need for twenty first century for economic prosperity.…