School-community partnerships play an essential role in successful schools, often providing supports and resources to meet staff, family, and student needs that go beyond what is typically available through school. Reciprocally, community partners benefit from their relationships with schools, including learning about schools' inclusive culture.…

There have been current controversial discussions concerning the performance of private primary schools versus public primary schools in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination (K.C.P.E.). Lately, the private primary schools appear to be performing better than public primary schools. For example; in the 2003 K.C.P.E. results, more than 31% of…

The evolution of the Internet, trends in mobile device usage, and changes in the perceptions of city leaders and residents have gradually transformed cities into smart cities. Through a literature review, survey analysis, and focus group interview, this study explored the educational vision and consensus in developing Smart Hsinchu, and analyzed…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Education Demographic and Geographic Estimates (EDGE) program develops geographic data to help policymakers, program administrators, and the public understand relationships between educational institutions and the communities they serve. One of the commonly used geographic data items is the NCES…

Taking an interpretive approach to evidence-based policy, this article illustrates the rhetorical and situated uses of evidence in two case studies of local cultural policy. Broadly defined as policy-relevant knowledge, evidence is selectively used by council officers in the development, delivery, and evaluation of arts programmes at two…

This article analyses and critically discusses how context is relevant when constructing and upholding an equivalent education for all within the neo-liberal educational regime of marketisation and accountability. At the centre of the article is a study of national school inspection reports in four municipalities in Sweden, exploring performance…

Sweden uses municipally run pupil referral units (PRUs) for students displaying emotional behavioural difficulties (EBD). This study investigates one Swedish municipality where transfers of students to PRUs were related to school practices favouring either inclusion or exclusion. A purposeful sampling procedure was used to select three elementary…

New public management (NPM) reforms have typically undermined teachers' autonomy, values, and status in society. This article questions whether such reforms automatically have these outcomes or whether and how possibilities for local adjustment of such reforms may prevent negative outcomes. Drawing on empirical case studies from two Danish…

Drawing on the analytic concept of imaginary, this study investigates policy hybridisation in the Finnish early childhood education. Specifically, it illuminates how the interplay between different imaginaries enabled the neoliberal imaginary to oust the social-democratic imaginary through a tripartite process in a case of local productivity…

The notion of Child Friendly Cities (CFCs) was first developed during the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (HABITAT II), held in Istanbul in 1996. The concept is based on four general principles of the United Nations "Convention on the rights of the child": (1) fair treatment of every child, regardless of ethnicity,…

Cork and Limerick have conducted Lifelong Learning Festivals, Cork for ten years and Limerick for the past three years. This paper reviews aspects of this experience and considers the question of whether successful Lifelong Learning Festivals can be seen as a pathway to building sustainable learning cities. Discussed in the context of an…

Dominating strands within the research literature on second homes explain social conflicts between rural hosting and visiting second home populations by describing their differing perspectives on rural development. Such presentations suggest that locals are likely to welcome new developments in order to enhance the economic viability of their…

This paper seeks to explore creative practice in an Australian country town, and in so doing, to unsettle market-orientated interpretations of creativity that privilege the urban. Instead of focusing on creative practice as a means to develop industries, we focus on how creativity is a means to establish a cooperative gallery space that helps to…

This paper analyses the relationship between Norwegian school reform implementation and the use of special education. After the introduction of the national reform programme called the "Kunnskapsloftet" ("Knowledge promotion") in 2006, the use of special education has increased dramatically in Norway. As part of the national…

This paper focuses on the dual dependencies apparent at the intersection of the media society and the audit society by empirically exploring and discussing the relationship between Swedish local newspaper coverage and school inspection activities. The research questions pertain to the Inspectorate's media strategy, how inspection is represented…