This article aims to present some tensions embedded in the Italian educational reform, arising both from the enactment of neo-liberal policies and the possibilities of democratic development opened up by the introduction of schools' site-based management and decentralisation. The article uses discourses as heuristic devices and presents two case…

This article presents a way in which the innovative Nature Therapy conceptual framework coupled with creative therapeutic methods can help children develop resilience and support their coping with uncertainty and stress. It refers to the Safe Place programme that took place in 110 Israeli kindergartens, helping over 6000 children after the Second…

The various ways natural resource agencies and programs are structured and how that impacts leadership style and products is an important concept for students to understand. Leadership style and organizational structure determine visions, missions, goals and objectives that set the tone for organizations. This exercise demonstrates organizational…

In today's accountability climate, regional accrediting bodies are requiring colleges and universities to develop and sustain a culture of evidence-based decision making and improvement. But two-thirds of college presidents in a 2011 "Inside Higher Ed" survey said their institutions are not particularly strong at using data for making decisions.…

Whether planning, design, and construction (PDC) of buildings should be part of facilities management, with its traditional operations and maintenance functions, or separated from it, has been a divisive question on many campuses for a long time. Now, although it is not happening everywhere, facilities managers at a number of institutions, public…

Economic downturn. Budget constraints. Cost of attendance. Campus infrastructure needs. Building to compete. For many colleges and universities, these phrases have become all too familiar over the last five years. With today's economic challenges, educational institutions are finding themselves in constrained financial positions. They are…

Limiting access to some methods of suicide, a strategy known as means restriction, is gaining support among mental-health researchers. Some suicides can be prevented, the logic goes, if it is more challenging for an impulsive individual to harm himself. But on most campuses, that strategy has not taken hold. Instead, counseling and education tend…

Americans have been trying to redesign the American high school since it was first invented. One of the latest approaches--funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation--is to find inventive high school designs that work well in one location and can be replicated in others. The authors of this book followed a design team from Big Picture…

An action-research account of a successful improvement to practice presented for assessment within a taught MA in education was given a fail grade. The student's challenge to this decision led the university assessor to re-evaluate and change his own practice in assessment in much the same way as the student had in the original report. The…

The article studies parent-practitioner interaction in Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC). It focuses on a new kind of collaboration practice and studies meetings at which parents and practitioners draw up an individual educational plan for the child. The functions of laughter in connection with the description of the child in these…

Over the past several years, Hong Kong has made a determined effort to raise its profile by positioning its universities to compete globally for students, scholars, and research projects. In the process, it is refashioning its higher-education system from the British three-year model into a four-year system aligned with those of the United States…

The "Bennett Belle." The words conjure an image that is genteel, old-fashioned--hats and gloves, brown-skinned women in flowing white dresses beaming as they take that final walk to graduation. The Bennett College for Women campus certainly reinforces the image, with its broad, tree-shaded lawns and quadrangle and its historic buildings--fully 15…

Michael J. O'Connor, the physical-plant director at Appalachian State University, is watching his staff shrink bit by bit. When people leave, he's not rehiring. There is one exception to his staffing plan, however. Despite the economic duress, he is conducting a national search for a sustainability director. The university has ambitious…

The project described in this article was an attempt to uncover the principles of financial sustainability for online programs and to align these with a guide to managing online programs. An initial team of experienced online educators developed draft principles, which were then reviewed by an external consultant and revised; the revised…

This field report is the third in a series produced by the Center on Innovations in Learning's League of Innovators. The series describes, discusses, and analyzes policies and practices that enable personalization in education. Issues of the series will present either issue briefs or, like this one, field reports on lessons learned by…