This paper investigates how education legislation in Denmark, Norway and Sweden define democracy, especially in relation to a complex society with diverse linguistic, religious and cultural practices. What tasks are assigned to educators through education policy documents pertaining to democratic values? The analysis points out that the designated…

Karl Jaspers argued that academics must be prepared to accept, perhaps even to welcome, the fact that most students "will learn next to nothing" from a university education. In this paper I shall argue that, while Jaspers' model is unpersuasive as an ideal and inaccurate as a description, there is an uncomfortable truth lurking behind his…

Recent state and national policy has both reflected and helped to further an image of localities as parochial, reactionary, ineffective, and appropriately marginalized in the enterprise of school reform. Growing state and national roles (on one hand) and growing market and private sector inroads (on another) have the potential to undermine…

High school band teacher, Mr. Alex Smith, received a request from the Republican presidential campaign for the marching band to perform at an upcoming local rally at which both the presidential and vice-presidential candidates would appear. With support from the principal and superintendent, Mr. Smith moved forward with plans for a Monday…

The article discusses a case study that stems from actual events, targets the issue of ethics in schools, and is applicable for use in a variety of educational leadership courses. The article examines the issues related to ethical responsibilities and high-stakes testing in public schools. The administration must decide what actions to take…

This paper concerns the response to the sex education film "Growing Up", made in 1971 by Dr Martin Cole, which used a combination of animation and live action to offer a frank and uncompromising account of sexual reproduction. As part of this, both male and female masturbation and an unsimulated act of male-female coitus featured in the…

This article examines the decolonization of schooling in an Arhuaco community in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region of Colombia. Interweaving ethnographic description with accounts of key events that took place between 1915 and 2006, I trace the community's struggle to develop an Indigenous school capable of appropriating Western forms of…

Within the context of neoliberal globalization, portrayals of "literacy" and "knowledge" are increasingly emphasized for their instrumental value for individuals and markets. At the same time, locally situated movements have emerged to challenge, resist, and transform these representations. This article examines a grassroots…

In this article, the author argues that European education policies and rhetoric are imbued with orthodoxy of agency and models of empowered, entrepreneurial actors, striving to surpass the limits of national boundaries. Free circulation of citizens has progressively underpinned a new construction of "the European", who is…

President Bush's National Security Language Initiative focuses narrowly on gearing language education to security and military needs. English educators should work with their counterparts in foreign language departments to promote a broader view, one that encourages study of the multiple language groups that currently exist within the United…

The English Academies programme has become one of the most controversial aspects of the New Labour strategy for education and public sector reform. And in many ways, given the significance of the programme, that controversy is understandable and appropriate. This is particularly so because, as the author argues here, Academies are indicative of…

In the history of Brazilian education, it is only since the 1980s, during the redemocratization of Brazil, that proposals for public education in a socialist perspective have been presented. The past two decades have been marked by a growing interest in Gramscian thought, mainly in the educational field, making possible the elaboration of…

The broad context for this article is the 1998 publication of the National Department of Education's (DoE) Gender Equity Task Team Report. Following its publication, the DoE established a Directorate for Gender Equity and each province set up a department to deal with gender issues headed by a gender focal person. Despite these efforts, it is…

This article contextualises "Education in Pakistan, a White Paper" (2007), an influential education policy paper in Pakistan. The focus is on the ways the White Paper constructs its own contexts as a complement to the policy solutions proffered. Here we recognise Seddon's point about the discursive work of policy in constructing context.…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the relative importance of the motives and sub-motives which influence a highly educated individual's decision to move across global boundaries. Design/methodology/approach: The approach takes a multi-dimensional perspective of mobility, resulting in the development of a range of motives for self-initiated…