By the end of the twentieth century, there was concern about the low levels of achievement in many English schools -- particularly those in London -- and this acted as a catalyst for change, a key remedial initiative being London Challenge. While there is much to celebrate about the improvements that have been made over almost two decades, the…

This article analyses the progresses and challenges in education in Latin America since the Salamanca World Conference on Special Needs Education. The main advances have been in the access to education of a greater number of students derived from a higher public expenditure. The challenges that still exist can be summed up through insufficient…

After four decades of anti-intrusion policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) against the English language, the time has come to evaluate their success rates and to study the status of this language in Iran. This study has thus investigated the status of the English language in Iran on two levels: one concerning the state's policies and…

Over the past quarter century, charter schools have evolved from a fringe educational philosophy to a prominent academic option for American school children and their families. While the history and political positioning of charter schools have been well documented, the tenet of choice continues to be central in the debate regarding the merit of…

This article exemplifies the politicisation of religious education that has polarised the Turkish Cypriot community and explores a possible approach to religious education for primary schools in north Cyprus. In the light of the long-standing debate, this study has a particular focus on the mandatory religious instruction in public primary schools…

Historically there has been a relative dearth of social science research into civic education--even in political science, a discipline that had civic education as one of its founding objectives. This is partly due to the mistaken impression that civics instruction has no effect on civic and political participation, a conclusion that was once…

The purpose of this paper is to problematize the place of religious authority in politics and education. Specifically, this essay highlights the role of religious authority in establishing a moral order that values compliance and conformity at the expense of liberty and critique. In doing so, the essay reflects on Israeli politics and Islamic…

How does racism persist and even worsen on college campuses amidst pro-diversity university efforts? From interviewing college students and interrogating university materials, this article argues that public universities' heightened revenue-generating functions inspire them to sell diversity as an attractive quality, divorced from its association…

Community engagement has evolved as a respected field and now occupies a seat at the academic table. In the past, this work had often been relegated to the institutional fringes of higher education, its practitioners marginalized, and the work often portrayed as service, not scholarly. Today, higher education community engagement is a dynamic and…

Intergovernmental regional cooperation is one of the defining characteristics of political Europe. This article investigates it in the area of higher education and research. Specifically it explores what types of intergovernmental regional alliances exist and to what extent their member countries coordinate their higher education and research…

Rising opposition to the Common Core Standards (CCS) has undermined implementation throughout the country. Yet there has been no scholarly analysis of the predictors of CCS opposition in the populace. This analysis uses poll data from a statewide poll of California voters to explore the demographic and policy predictors of CCS opposition. We find…

In this article Henry Giroux discusses corporate school reform movement and its detrimental impact on the public school system such as the closure of public schools in cities such as, Philadelphia, Chicago and New York to make way for charter schools. Giroux argues that corporate school reform is not simply obsessed with measurements that degrade…

In response to contemporary concerns, and using neglected primary sources, this article explores the professionalisation of teachers of Religious Education (RI/RE) in non-denominational, state-maintained schools in England. It does so from the launch of "Religion in Education" (1934) and the Institute for Christian Education at Home and…

Biesta identifies three functions that educational systems perform: qualification, socialization, and subjectification. Subjectification involves ways of being whereby individuals exercise their capacity to remain independent from the existing orders by challenging their uncontested insertion into these orders. For Biesta, becoming a subject…

In this article I ask myself the following question: Rather than try to escape the seemingly awful choice "between" the private and the public, "between" the particular and universal, or "between" justice and freedom, I ask if I simply have the option to enact democracy and see "what follows?" To reach that…