A new college-grant program slipped into a pending federal budget bill could ultimately influence course offerings at high schools across the country and has stirred a debate about creeping federal authority over curricula. The legislation would create a $3.7 billion annual program of grants aimed at students from low-income families who have…

In order to earnestly carry out the spirit of Comrade Jiang Zemin's February 1, 2000, "Conversations on Issues in Education" and his important speech at the Party Central Committee's Ideological and Political Work Conference; further strengthen and improve primary and secondary school (including vocational secondary school) moral…

The higher education system in Serbia today is undergoing serious change, like other aspects of the country's social, political and economic life. Aligned with other neighboring countries that have emerged after the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, Serbia, as well, is on the road to European integration. The process of transition necessitated…

In this article, the author discusses viewpoints on civic education reforms postulated in "Where Did Social Studies Go Wrong?," a book published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. The book begins with a legitimate concern about the need to educate youth to care about political life; a noble mission, dating at least to the Greeks.…

In 1994, Congress reauthorized Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and passed the Goals 2000: Education America Act. Together, these two laws were supposed to support the development and implementation of standards-based, systemic reform initiatives in the states. Despite these high hopes, Goals 2000 and Title I faced a number of…

This article analyzes and discusses how Spanish education has evolved and departed from traditions, involving a complex array of cultural, historical, and political factors. Cultural and linguistic diversity have been significant factors in slowing the central state's progress toward its modern goals and ideology. During the past 25 years the…

For American public schools, the interplay between religion and public policy has been rather volatile, thanks to both state and federal constitutions mandating an ever shifting degree of separation between church and state, yet permitting free religious expression. Some of the most intense political disputes in the past 40 years have involved…

This article discusses the existing relationships between politics and society at the start of the twenty-first century in Latin America, a region that is characterized by its heterogeneity, and that is addressed as a homogenous whole. Politics are treated as an extension of democracy, the changing role of institutions, the weakness of political…

This article attempts to offer a general panorama of some issues related to political representation of women in Latin America. Specifically, it analyzes the advances made in the representation of women in politics during the 1990s. It offers a descriptive analysis of national cases in Latin America from an institutional focus. In spite of the…

We are concerned with the ways in which social constructions of age can contribute to reducing or exacerbating the vulnerability of young people, and for this reason we refer to the issue as one of "the politics of innocence". The focus of this paper is on gender, youth and HIV prevention/AIDS awareness in the context of South Africa and…

In recent years, South African higher education institutions (HEIs) have experienced unprecedented change. Radical restructuring has taken place across the country with almost all HEIs affected. This paper argues that while such radical reform initiatives were in fact necessary for the advancement of higher education in South Africa, it also had…

In this article I am proposing a post-structuralist treatment of some concepts central to a pedagogical agenda. These are concepts of territorial implications, such as democracy, nationality, patriotism and the foreign, concepts closely linked to The Enlightenment and to education. I am proposing this because these might be the times, for…

This colloquium discusses recent trends where early childhood education and care has shifted from being a community service to that of big business. Years of neo-liberal reform have created market conditions favourable for large corporations to provide childcare within Australia. This situation raises some issues and concerns, particularly in…

This article offers a reading of the current state of the field of teacher education, identifying current reforms, emerging trends, and new underlying premises. The author argues that a "new teacher education" has been emerging with three closely coupled pieces: It is constructed as a public policy problem, based on research and evidence, and…

This paper explores recent changes in Peruvian national education policy and the effects these have had on indigenous populations. Situating Peruvian education reforms within a context of international multicultural development, the paper traces the history of reforms as implemented by national and international actors in varying degrees and…