This article is an analysis of the social and political implications of changes in school assessment practices. It is based on two interview surveys carried out by the Swedish National Agency for Schools. These surveys, commissioned by the Swedish government, sought answers to questions raised about the consequences of a criterion-referenced…

The frequent turnover of school board members in the US represents a concern for many educational practitioners who worry about the discontinuity of leadership, leading to negative impacts on students and staff. School board member turnover is also a key variable in studies of democratic theories of public school governance. Using descriptive and…

Three key contributions of Iris Young to democratic political theory, and three challenges that have arisen in response to Young's theory, are examined here in relation to education. First, Young has argued that oppression and domination, not distributive inequality, ought to guide discussions about justice. Second, eliminating oppression requires…

This paper analyses an extensive corpus of texts from the German media and existing studies of German perspectives on Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia in order to demonstrate that there are two idealised culture cognitive models (ICCMs) that function as overarching categories for Europe: the ICCM west (the members of the European…

In the early 1990s, states began establishing standards in academic subjects backed by test-based accountability systems to see that the standards were met. Incentives were implemented for schools and students based on pupil test scores. These early accountability systems paved the way for passage of landmark federal legislation, the No Child Left…

After having been in or affiliated with the law enforcement field for over a decade, teaching adults throughout much of that time, the author finds it difficult to think of himself in a strange new role. He will be moving out of state with his family to begin his doctoral studies in the field of adult education. What will he learn as he takes this…

Pakistan is an underdeveloped country, full of socio-economic problems where a few oppress and exploit many. One of the most significant reasons, in this context, is the high illiteracy rate in the country. However, can high literacy rates guarantee peace, prosperity, and justice in any society? Clearly, not. There are several countries where the…

This article explores the politics surrounding the education of pregnant/mothering students. Utilizing Title IX, which guarantees the rights of pregnant/mothering students to an education equal to her peers, as an analytical lens, the author specifically identifies how absences in knowledge, research, and practice about the education of…

Recent work on distributed leadership extends an ongoing critique of conventional "heroic" leader portrayals. This article examines work in this area seeking implications for democratic school governance. With material from case studies of two Texas schools, it considers frameworks presented by Spillane, Halverson, and Diamond and by…

This article explores how districts negotiate the conflict that emerges as they attempt to de-legitimize inequity by prompting institutional and organizational-level changes that create equitable access and outcomes for all children. To this end, this article highlights the contentious nature of this pursuit as well as the intended and unintended…

This article examines the ideological dimensions of educational psychology and psychometrics as they relate to the validation of the "intelligence" of the privileged and the "deficiency" of the marginalized. In this critique a critical psychology emerges that takes seriously the lifeworld experiences of culturally and…

The educational discourse chronicling the experiences of African American educators continues to be limited, while the anthropological and sociological literature appears to be more inclusive. Educational literature in regards to African American educators since 1966 continues to focus on how African American educators maintain the status quo and…

This article deals with central issues in the field of sociology and politics of education after the publication of the outcomes of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study for Germany. These outcomes serve to remind us of the old debate on politics of education in the 1960s. The main topic since then remains the reproduction…

This study examined superintendents' perceptions of current performance evaluation practices and their preferences for those practices. Specifically, 1,125 superintendents across the nation received a questionnaire exploring evaluation effectiveness and results-based procedures. Findings indicate practices are neither uniformly effective nor…

Agricultural and environmental higher education has changed greatly over the past four decades. This article provides a personal review of the factors influencing this change. Economics, social attitudes and developments in technology and in theories of learning have all affected both what and how students need to learn. This is illustrated with…