Of all Tony Blair's education policies during his decade as prime minister, one of the most controversial was his plan to create a network of academies--effectively, private schools funded by the taxpayer. This piece explores the origins of the policy and recounts the widespread concerns and criticisms with which it has been beset.

The author traces the history of the campaign to stop Islington Green School being closed and turned into an academy specialising in business and financial services. Although the campaign, after a number of successes now looks as if it might fail in its immediate objective, the author argues that the battle was still worth fighting because of the…

The social work literature is replete with studies evaluating social workers' direct practice interventions, but strikingly few have assessed how well social workers are faring in the political arena. This study tests a major theoretical model, the civic voluntarism model, developed to explain why some citizens become involved in politics, whereas…

In his article, Steven Klees claims that certain economic policies have been a failure in general and specifically in education. He has it backwards. His characterisation of the economics profession has not been true since the 1960s. Nobel Prizes to Simon, Akerlof, Spence and Stiglitz illustrate a flowering of ideas in fields of behaviourial and…

Supporters of bilingual education are hoping that the election of Barack Obama as president will lead to a thaw in attitudes toward what they consider a proven educational method that has been ignored--or worse--by the Bush administration. Advocates are encouraged by the endorsement of bilingual education by President-elect Obama in the recent…

Australia's system of school funding is notoriously complex and difficult to understand. This article shines some light on this issue by describing clearly the processes of school funding that currently exist in Australia. It describes the steps taken by federal and state governments to provide over $30 billion each year to government and…

The failure of the Association for Education in Citizenship to gain official support for the secular and pedagogically progressive forms of education for citizenship that its founder members endorsed has previously been explained by the political impotence of the association's founder members and the professional conservatism of the educational…

Critics charge that social studies education often fails at the most rudimentary level because there is a tendency to "play it safe" by focusing on general abstractions while avoiding discussion of specific--and often times controversial--topics. In this article, the author argues that one way in which social studies teachers can overcome such…

Democrats in Congress say they are prepared to resist President Bush's level-funding budget proposal for education until the next president--who they hope will be more inclined to raise spending--takes office. That means the outcome of this year's budget showdown could hinge on the November election, not on a compromise between the White House and…

Like many other colleges and universities, Hofstra University now requires each department to create a "mission statement." Then, on the basis of this statement, a set of more specific curricular goals and objectives have to be created and, finally, a set of quantitative, behavioral criteria by which to assess the department's efforts. This new…

This paper attempts to describe some problems of the new Japanese law school system. As a result of the conflict between the ideals and realities of law schools, many institutions are now facing crises in their existence. This conflict originates in the various tactics being employed to protect vested interests, for instance, in sustaining the…

Critical literacy continues to be a concept which is widely misused, mis-applied and misunderstood. Social commentators and politicians in particular use it to create unease about the way schools teach reading. However, a brief review of curriculum documents from six Australian State Education Departments demonstrates that in the private world of…

This article discusses Michael Apple's contribution to the sociology of education and education policy analysis and the politics of education. It focuses on ways of "reading" Apple as an intellectual and an activist and looks at the trajectory of his work over a long and illustrious career.

This article explores the linkage between the idea of a knowledge society and effects of internationalisation in education policy-making. The fact that the idea of a knowledge society is widely shared is brought together with an explanation of increasing dynamics in education politics. The central argument is that the idea of a knowledge society…

The present article integrates and expands on the special section contributions of K. O. Cokley (2007); J. E. Helms (2007); J. E. Trimble (2007); S. M. Quintana (2007); and J. S. Phinney and A. D. Ong (2007). The authors of the present article begin with a note on politics and ideology in writings on racial identity development and review general…