The central argument of this essay is that critical literacy with a rationalistic bent may not enable us to cope with ethical dilemmas in our responsiveness to human sufferings. I argue that critical literacy education would benefit from turning to the recent scholarship on affect/emotion studies. I draw upon the works of Sara Ahmed--one of the…

Art Ellison is longtime advocate for adult education, having managed numerous advocacy campaigns over the past forty years on the state and national levels. Prior to his employment in 1980 as the NH State Director of Adult Education he worked for many years as a high school teacher and as a community organizer. In this article, Ellison offers some…

For 50 years, American education policy has often danced to the tune of labor realities. "Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association" is a case that awaits hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court that could dramatically change this picture. The case, if decided for the plaintiffs, could end the practice of "agency" fees--money…

The aim of this paper is to consider the ways in which Arendt's writings on totalitarianism act as a warning sign for political and miseducational circumstances in the USA. Because the term totalitarianism has been used imprudently (largely in the mass media) to express repressive conditions in so-called models of democracy, this paper seeks to…

The distinction between facts and moral values is highly desirable: science and politics should keep to their own territories. Traditionally speaking, science can be seen as an ivory tower, which attempts to do its job in isolation of external influences. Politics does not mandate methods of scientific research or standards of justification;…

Research on policy borrowing is a well-established research area of comparative education. Over the past 20 years or so it gained prominence among globalization scholars. Of great interest is not so much the question of which reforms "travel" internationally, and which ones are homebound, but rather why traveling reforms resonate in a…

Community colleges have been in existence for over 100 years in the United States. They began by offering the first two years of undergraduate education for students in local communities. Over the decades they evolved into comprehensive institutions of higher education with a multi-faceted mission. Today, in an era of accountability and mistrust…

This article uses the theoretical framework of intersectionality to analyze a partially failed school reform measure in Hamburg, Germany and the political conflict over it between 2008 and 2010. The analysis focuses on "the extent to which" and the "mechanisms by which" the interests of marginalized members of the proreform…

This article draws out the materialist import of the turn towards universal design in learning. Bringing Brian Massumi's recent work on play together with disability studies, it identifies design as integral to the embodied dynamics of classrooms. Contrasting neo-Darwinist presumptions with materialist insights by thinkers like Tim Ingold, the…

The University of California, the nation's first multicampus system, is unique in its central organizing principle, known as the oneuniversity idea. Its premise is simple: that a large and decentralized system of campuses, which share the same mission but differ in size, interests, aspirations, and stage of development, can nevertheless be…

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore how institutional culture impacts women's political leadership efficacy development. By utilizing a constructivist design and a methodology rooted in feminine inquiry that included an interview and document (photo) analysis, a group of traditionally aged (18--24 year old) college women…

Over the past century, missionary educators, nation-state and academic planners, and literacy development workers have used alphabets for political ends for traditionally marginalized languages, and Native peoples have contested such planning with other alphabet proposals. Yet literacy work now often overlooks that there are multiple alphabets…

Environmental and sustainability programmes in higher education have gained traction over the last several decades. More-than-disciplinary epistemologies and innovative pedagogies promise transformational learning to grapple with contemporary environmental challenges. Environmental programmes thus have implicit messages of social change.…

The structure of the Australian national curriculum encompasses engagement with "intercultural education". Significantly, the context from which the curriculum was developed was heavily influenced by a multiculturalist ideology in which notions of cohesion and harmony were dominant. Therefore, those working with the curriculum need to…

The public/private distinction is central to higher education but there is no consensus on "public." In neo-classical economic theory, Samuelson distinguishes non-market goods (public) that cannot be produced for profit, from market-based activity (private). This provides a basis for identifying the minimum necessary public expenditure,…