In the U.S., state politicians directly influence legislation and budget decisions that can substantially affect public education spending and students. Does the political party of elected officials matter for these outcomes? We use a regression discontinuity design to analyze close house and gubernatorial elections from 1982 to 2016 and find that…

The COVID-19 crisis has put the question of the political uses of science back at the centre of public debates. In the last few years, the focus on using scientific knowledge in parliamentary technology assessment (PTA) institutions has predominantly been to the advantage of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In contrast, our…

Pursuant to California Education Code Section 84362, each community college district is required to allocate at least 50% of its annual education expenses, as defined by law, to the salaries and benefits of classroom instructors. This requirement ensures a significant portion of educational expenditures directly supports classroom instruction. The…

Civics courses have a great significance -- they are supposed to train new cohorts of citizens to engage in multiple public roles in (democratic) society. How it is done depends on a multitude of factors, and teachers' performance and program contents are among the most important. In post-authoritarian order like Poland, civic contents of…

In January 2024, the Danish Data Protection Agency issued a landmark ruling, challenging the integration of Chromebook laptops in Danish public schools under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This article presents a study of the Chromebook case to explore the entanglement of commercial tech infrastructures and welfare state…

In Myanmar, the pandemic had a heavy impact on the national universities of teacher education, almost stopping all classes for a year. The army launched a coup in February 2021, exacerbating the situation. Those who engaged in the civil disobedience movement eventually decided to establish an alternative online university of teacher education…

This article presents key insights about diversifying the educator workforce as interpreted by Eric Duncan of the Education Trust. Duncan discusses five key themes: (1) the importance of a diverse educator workforce, (2) opportunities for and impediments to improvement, (3) Ohio's efforts, (4) collaboration and mentorship, and (5) sustainability.…

This joint Cedefop-ETF policy brief provides an overview of vocational education and training (VET) policy developments from 2021 to 2025 in the EU-27, Norway, Iceland and five candidate countries (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Türkiye). It highlights countries' activities to advance EU priorities in making national VET systems…

This paper offers a unique comparative study on primary and secondary education in opposition-held and regime-held Syrian schools since the beginning of the conflict in 2011. Doing so, it seeks to investigate whether and how education upholds visions of peace and conflict in the country. Building on schoolbook content analysis, semi-structured…

Over the past decade, Democrats and Republicans have grown increasingly polarized in their views of American higher education. Republicans in particular have become far more critical of the political and social views of faculty. In this paper, we thus investigate whether the commonly held belief of a politically liberal professoriate is true for…

This article explores introduced tenure bans, meaning state-level legislation proposing eliminating tenure protections within all or part of a public higher education system. We describe such bills 2012-2022 and explore state-level political, economic, social, and higher education conditions associated with introducing a tenure ban. Tenure bans…

State takeovers of school districts--a form of political centralization that shifts decision-making power from locally elected leaders to the state--have increased over time, often with the purported goal of improving district financial condition. Takeover has affected millions of students since the first takeover in 1988 and has been more common…

Multilingual learners in the United States are often segregated for parts of the school day in ways that limit their learning opportunities. Given a resurgence in monolingual and anti-immigrant language policy, the role of educators in promoting multilingual learner integration is increasingly important. We draw from four qualitative studies…

In recent years, state policies banning "divisive concepts" have proliferated as part of a coordinated effort to undermine racial justice by framing critical discussions of race as "indoctrination" and imposing ideological restrictions on curriculum and pedagogy. Using critical policy discourse analysis informed by a critical…

State takeover of school boards is a controversial policy choice aimed at reforming "underperforming" districts. It includes the limiting or complete removal of powers of an elected school board. However, this policy intervention is overwhelmingly implemented in school districts serving predominantly Black communities. Despite extensive…