School superintendents from throughout Colorado were asked to participate in a study by completing a confidential questionnaire regarding their perspectives on an array of issues and concerns related to their professional duties and responsibilities. The survey was developed over several months and included focus groups with superintendents held…

This document presents the proceedings of the 27th Annual Research Forum held June 29, 2023, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following fifteen action research papers: (1) The Effects of Real-World Mathematics Activities on High School Students' Attitudes (Alexa Altizer); (2) An Investigation of the…

This paper examines my effort to document the experiences of a Bhutanese refugee community in a mid-western city of the United States. In particular, the essay looks at housing experiences the community encountered and my efforts to translate the events through photographs. The essay also explores how oppression operates in relation to refugee…

This paper explores the representation of magic and madness in Justine Larbalestier's "Magic or Madness" trilogy (2005-2007). Throughout the series, magic is constructed as an abject and disabling force that threatens to disable magic-wielders, either through madness or death. Despite being represented as a ubiquitous force, the…

This paper extends the conversation started by Patti Lather in her forum response to "Neoliberal ideology, global capitalism, and science education: engaging the question of subjectivity", in terms of engaging the thought of Jacques Ranciere. Ranciere can offer (science) educators a more definitive example of (possible) emancipatory political…

This paper problematizes the interplay between curriculum textbooks and national identity constructions. Drawing on data from Bangladesh's school-textbooks, and students' and teachers' perspectives, the study identifies factors shaping Bangladesh's national identity in the textbook discourses and discusses students' experiences of these in an…

Studies about the learning value of group presentations in ESL and EFL have become increasingly common, particularly in relation to spoken fluency. However, few studies have explored their impact on students' intelligible pronunciation. In a Vietnamese context, recent changes in teaching and learning strategies set by the government have shifted…

This article explores the impact of funding cuts to the Further Education colleges in Scotland. The reduction in the number of students in the colleges has been hugely politically controversial. The research utilised the Infact database on the Scottish Funding Council's website and also a literature review. The research found there had been a…

Taking complexity as an epistemic starting point, this article enhances understanding of dynamics in higher education. It also reviews the relevant literature on path dependency, complexity research, and studies of political change and contingency. These ideas are further developed with reference to the political situation and political…

This essay is a reply to James Carpenter's "Thomas Jefferson and the Ideology of Democratic Schooling." In it, I argue that there is an apophatic strain in the essay that calls into question the motivation for the undertaking.

Current times are witnessing multiple challenges in the economic, political and social domain, which modern citizens and professionals are required to address with an enterprising mindset. Young people have not been left intact by the spirit of new capitalism. In the face of ongoing educational changes on a European level, being a student…

The interview, which took place on the eve of the 2012 American presidential election, coincides with the publication of three major works by or about Hilary Putnam. It begins and ends with the topic of science, drawing attention to science's profound importance but also to its contemporary forms of distortion. It explores Putnam's…

In this paper, I explore the role of knowledge in the curriculum through a discussion of John Dewey's transactional theory of knowing. I do so against the background of recent calls to bring knowledge back into the discussion about the curriculum in which pragmatism has been depicted as a problematic form of relativism that should have no…

Most studies of the relationship between education and economic development focus on the line of causation running from the former to the latter. The present paper studies how the pattern of Irish development has influenced the structure of the Irish education system. The first section sets out the economic context of late industrialisation within…

Whereas the previous government, regarding education primarily as a means to an end, showed little interest in questions of curriculum content, Gove's counter-revolution involves the enforcement of a deeply authoritarian politics of knowledge. An adequate response to such cultural and curricular conservatism needs to expose the falsity of Gove's…