Two years ago the state officially chose to adopt the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as Idaho's new Core Standards in mathematics and English language arts. For Idaho's students these standards are not only higher but also comparable with those in any other country in the world. These new standards will bring significant changes for Idaho…

This essay examines one of the most intractable pedagogical problems of the Marxian revolutionary tradition: who will educate the educator and how ought the learning process to proceed. The solutions of Marx, Lenin and Habermas are critically examined towards the clarification of the emancipatory learning process. This learning process has three…

The aim of this paper is to identify key challenges facing Japan's higher education since the early 1990s and their impacts on major research themes. In this paper key challenges include those resulting from the decline in the 18-year population, the cultivation of high-quality university graduates, the incorporation of national universities, the…

Finnish school teachers are unlike their colleagues in many countries, for their ethos and skills have traditionally formed the basis for a profession which has been very loyal to the state and to the changing educational ideologies of the government. Critical historical periods of wars and social revolutions have, however, produced--to a small…

This paper endorses Dick Selleck and Geoffrey Sherington's view that public policy-making is characterised by both fluidity and contestability. In April 1988, the report of a Taskforce headed by Brian Picot recommended major reforms in New Zealand's public education system. Even today, however, there is controversy regarding the major influences…

The purpose of this article is to examine recent changes in the geography national curriculum in South Korea through the lenses of three curriculum components that often find themselves in competition--subject content, educational processes and national/social purposes. In recent years, the prevailing national and social aims outlined for the…

This article contextualizes recent developments around issues of language and the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in terms of the classic distinction between literates and non-literates in the Great Divide debate. Using a social practices perspective to frame the issues, the authors argue that the CCSS reiterate the debate, and reflect an…

Most authorities on educational planning and change recognize that each situation is somewhat unique and that in complex organizations, like universities, a blend of approaches is necessary. Following the premise of the need for universities to approach planning from multiple perspectives, the purpose of this paper is to briefly explore the unique…

This monograph reflects this fact from an interdisciplinary point of view (among the authors are special pedagogues, social pedagogues, doctors, psychologists, philosophers, pedagogues, legislation specialists) and from an international perspective (the team of authors consists of experts from the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Poland,…

This paper deals with some of the problems that the Politics of Education has to face both as a subject and as a government action. Based above all on the literature appeared in specialized journals during the last five years, our attention is firstly focused on the concern for using an active methodology in the teaching of this subject which…

This article maps some of the ways in which neoliberalism, pedagogy, and curriculum are closely interconnected. Looking at the Spanish curriculum reform during the first Socialist administration in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it explicitly identifies child-centered pedagogies as an important tool in articulating the neoliberal agenda in…

This author explains why he believes that teacher education is under attack. The same forces that are seeking to dismantle teachers' unions and de-professionalize teaching have their sights set on university-based teacher education programs. After all, logic decrees that if teachers are to blame for educational inequality--as corporate education…

Egypt witnessed an unexpected uprising on 25 January 2011. People took to the streets demanding their rights to freedom, equity and a better economy, and in only 18 days managed to oust President Mubarak, who had held power for 30 years. The transition period is still ongoing with an unfolding of events creating turbulence in the political, social…

The collection and dissemination of data on human and nonhuman organisms has become a central feature of 21st-century biology and has been endorsed by funding agencies in the United States and Europe as crucial to translating biological research into therapeutic and agricultural innovation. Large molecular data sets, often referred to as "big…

This study examines one of the most notable manifestations of Japanese education's incorporation into the global education restructuring movement: the 2007 reintroduction of national academic achievement testing ("zenkoku gakuryoku gakushuu joukyou chousa"). In so doing, I aim to untangle the complex intermingling of national and global…