Research suggests that individuals may make choices about the information they consume that are influenced by what they already believe. In this study, I investigate this process in a particularly contentious policy arena: charter schools. What kinds of information are important to people as they evaluate charter school policy? Are their choices…

In recent years, political theory has benefited from a neo-republican perspective that brought to the fore the conception of a 'republican democracy' which assumes a robust public sphere, civic involvement, and vigilance, as well as a neo-Roman conception of liberty understood as the absence of arbitrary power. Neo-republicanism, however, has not…

This study uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) texts on teacher quality and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) framework. Specifically, it explores the forewords of documents written by OECD leaders, which we believe are charged with meanings related to…

The Finnish educational system is well known for its excellent learning results, highly trained teachers and egalitarian values. However, when the political leanings of the government change, its policies are usually altered as well. In this policy report we give an account of the recent changes and current trends in Finnish education policy. We…

This article explores the passage and failure of the 1973 Illinois Resource Equalizer formula which was designed to reduce disparities in school finance by breaking the connection between local wealth and school revenue. It argues that two sets of goals drove passage of the new law--equity and local property tax relief--and they came into conflict…

The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which teacher engagement in partisan politics in Bangladesh higher education institutions have influenced their teaching as well as the learning of their students. The study also examined the teachers' perceptions of the benefits and challenges arising from their engagement in partisan politics.…

What we understand about the world is determined by what the world is, who we are, and how we conduct our inquiries. Action research privileges the question "why are things as they are?" This article explores how neoliberalism, with its key principle that competition is the defining characteristic of human relations, reshapes our work as…

The article will discuss some central relations between political authoritarianism and right-wing education in the interwar period. Then it is asked why these concepts and powers are renewed in today' s politics and education. And in the end it shows what research gaps exist and how the articles of this special issue could fill them.

Bernard Stiegler is known as a leading philosopher of technics. He has developed an original interpretation of technics as an externalized epiphylogenetic memory that (1) remembers in the place of the human being, who appears therefore as a forgetful being and (2) is collective and constitutes a technological community, that is different from any…

This article includes three essays to explore how U.S. universities engage in practices that terrorize, threaten, and betray women of color in academia. Drawing from personal narratives to illuminate the psychoanalytical argument, this essay bridges together both storytelling, actual events, and deeper racial psychoanalysis and critical emotion…

This paper examines the tensions between education policy's attachment to notions such as excellence and inclusion and its investments in managerial tropes of competition, continuous quality improvement, standards and accountability that are at odds with and which undermine its attachments. In order to explore these tensions, I draw on the…

The Arab-Israeli education system is a separate but not autonomous system serving Israel's inhabitants whose first language is Arabic. These include the Muslim and Bedouin majority communities and smaller Christian, Druze and others, whose children attend schools in which the curriculum is determined by a Zionist perspective, taught in Arabic.…

Drawing upon interviews with key actors involved in the development of and support for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in the United States, this article shows how a potentially controversial reform came to be actively supported by senior educators. We utilize Kingdon's (2003, "Agendas, alternatives, and public policies,"…

As a result of the frustration with the dominant "What Works" paradigm of large-scale research-based improvement, practitioners, researchers, foundations, and policymakers are increasingly embracing a set of ideas and practices that can be collectively labeled continuous improvement (CI) methods. This chapter provides a comparative…

Higher education systems are changing due to trends of funding pressures, increasing social demands and growing numbers of students. Even though teaching and research are still considered as the pivotal functions of universities, other activities such as technology transfer, lifelong learning or social engagement have broadened the scope of their…