Teachers' unions around the country have shifted into high gear in the countdown to the presidential election next week, and nowhere is the fervor more evident than in the battleground states. In Florida, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, affiliates of the National Education Association and the…

At the end of a presidential campaign in which education received some attention but never emerged as a top-tier issue, analysts were trying to look beyond the week's election to the K-12 issues awaiting the next president and gauge where they might fit as a new administration prepares to grapple with a global economic crisis. While education…

This article talks about a course at Texas A&M University at College Station that teaches students how to detect spin in political blogs. In the new course, "Communication and Political Blogging," students are analyzing blogs from the far right of the political spectrum all the way to the far left. They are also writing their own…

Facing difficulties in the implementation of its "standards" agenda, the English government has recently introduced a set of policy strategies and initiatives which seek to promote enjoyment, innovation and creativity in education. One such initiative is Creative Partnerships (CP). Funded predominantly from the Arts portfolio, CP brings…

Past research has established socioeconomic status as a major determinant of political participation. This explanation has been challenged by sociologists such as Giddens and Beck, who claim that politics in late modernity has become influenced by social class and family tradition to a "lesser" degree than politics in the traditional…

"Tough Liberal," a book penned by the author of this article, traces the life of Albert Shanker (1928-1997) chronologically from birth to death. Shanker was the longtime head of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) in New York City (1964-1986) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) nationally (1974-1997). "Tough Liberal" recounts the…

In this article, the author criticizes the current Bush administration's handling of educational concerns and also his fellow educators. Using two stories, the author explains how the kind of humanity he used to see practiced by teachers is no longer observed today. He relates how he hears a great deal about No Child Left Behind and curricular…

As President Bush nears the end of his tenure, his administration is putting its final stamp on the No Child Left Behind Act and trying to lay the groundwork for the law's future. This article reports on the latest effort of President Bush's administration that will allow as many as 10 states to create alternative interventions for schools that…

Organized opposition from A to Z symbolizes both the breadth and the core values of organized opposition groups that have emerged across the nation in recent years. Technological advances have expanded the reach and impact of oppositional messages. Anti-public school websites, group e-mail, the mushrooming blogosphere and web-based marketing…

The Bush administration has called off internal deliberations over a bailout plan for student-loan companies after concluding it did not have the authority to act on its own. Instead, it endorsed a Congressional proposal that would allow the education secretary to purchase loans from private lenders. The decision leaves Congress facing a ticking…

In this article, the author recommends that we consider how inquiry can facilitate the search for a deep politic. Using an epistemology that shifts between education and aesthetics, the search for a deep politic is based on our human potential to interrogate and (re)imagine everyday politics. By doing so, the author argues, it is possible to see…

Advocacy is not optional for libraries. Libraries need advocacy because so much of what goes on in them is invisible to the public eye. If the public thinks that circulating books is all that librarians do and all that they have to do, then how can they expect them to be impressed by the influence within the school community? If those people are…

This paper brings a critical focus to difference and the creative arts in education with specific attention to art as a site of knowledge in New Zealand conditions. The 1990s and early 2000s are marked by a paucity of critically engaged literature on the arts in education and a conspicuous absence of discussions on the politics of difference.…

Lawmakers are hailing a long-awaited measure to renew the federal Head Start preschool program as an example of the kind of legislation that can emerge from bipartisan consensus and compromise. The bill, approved overwhelmingly by both the House and the Senate on Nov. 14, seeks to address concerns about mismanagement in some local Head Start…

In educational policy research, the orientation has shifted from a macro focus on central authorities to incorporating a micro focus on the multiple (often contradictory) policy practices within individual institutions. However, this new focus has not gone uncontested, and debate has revolved around the relevance of modernist conceptualizations of…