In this article the author reflects on three key processes--depoliticisation, demoralisation and depersonalisation--which have been evident during recent decades in his experience of education. He argues that he does this from the standpoint of someone who had a working commitment to pastoral care and personal-social education, but for whom such…

Thanet suffers from severe deprivation, mainly driven by socio-economic factors. Efforts to remediate this through economic regeneration plans have largely been unsuccessful, while a combination of selective and denominational education creates and maintains a gradient of disadvantage that mainly impacts upon already-deprived young people. Some of…

In school districts across the nation, voters elect fellow citizens to their local school boards and charge them with the core tasks of district management--hiring administrators, writing budgets, negotiating teacher contracts, and determining standards and curriculum among them. Whatever the task, the basic purpose of all school board activities…

The failure to ensure that all of the nation's classrooms are staffed with qualified teachers is one of the most widely discussed, but least understood, problems facing elementary and secondary schools. In recent years, dozens of reports and reform initiatives have sought to solve this problem. Unfortunately, the array of recent efforts do not…

This article presents the author's response to four thoughtful reviews of his article. These reviews include: (1) Steve Heyneman and Kathryn Anderson's (2008) review: "A Quarter Century of Getting It Right in Education"; (2) Annie Vinokur's (2008) review; (3) Suzanne Bergeron's (2008) review; and (4) Jerrold Kachur's review and the extensive…

This article discusses the impact of second-wave feminism on educational research with a focus on developments in the USA. It expands on the themes raised in the other articles in this issue of "Discourse" by considering the political nature of feminist educational research questions beginning in the 1970s and continuing to the contemporary world.…

This article reports on the eroding power of state school boards in the U.S. as lawmakers and governors are seeking to expand their authority over K-12 education and, in some cases, reverse education policy set in motion by elected or appointed panels. This year alone, state boards in Florida, Ohio, and Vermont are targets of legislation that…

This article studies the foundations of laic moral education in Spain. Some aspects of laic moral education can also be found in other nations, including the emergence of the laic man or the need for an educating State; other aspects of laic moral education, however, are peculiar to the Spanish case, such as the influence of Krausoinstitutionism…

On 10 October 1925 a ceremony was planned for the scenic fields behind the former tribal school in Oneida, Wisconsin. The event was expected to accomplish a number of goals: it would assert political authority by a group of Oneidas, establish traditional leadership of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy locally, and affirm the Wisconsin…

The tension surrounding Barnard College's determination of whether to grant tenure to anthropologist Nadia Abu El-Haj was resolved this fall. Barnard reached a positive decision. The affair, however, leaves a number of important issues open. At the center of this controversy stands Abu El-Haj's first book, "Facts on the Ground: Archaeological…

An attorney specializing in school law reviews the Supreme Court Justice nomination process as it related to the nomination of Judge Robert Bork. (MD)

The author, a major candidate for the presidency, presents his views on issues related to the quality of life for individuals with disabilities and their families. (SBH)

The author presents his political stand regarding education, vocational rehabilitation, health care, employment, housing, and transportation for the disabled and their families. (SBH)

This qualitative study examined South Korean teenagers' views on North Korea and possible reunification. In-depth interviews conducted with fourteen (14) South Korean high school students reported that these teenagers were torn about whether or not they should support reunification. While students acknowledged the lack of dialogue and discussion…