In the UK, further education (FE) colleges play a key role in providing literacy programmes. This article draws upon our research in FE, with a focus on literacy, learning and identity, to explore how different learners are positioned differently depending on the value of the literacy practices they bring with them from home. Indeed, it is…

Curriculum has traditionally been regarded as a rather technical matter best left to disciplinary specialists, educationalists, textbook writers and designers of assessment tests and examinations. More recently, however, the debate on curriculum has gradually moved beyond the technical realm to become also a subject of policy discussion on what…

This paper examines the challenges facing research on nurture groups and on the wider field of nurture in education. A four-level model is proposed based on severity of need, ranging from universal applications in nurturing schools and communities, through to addressing the needs of children and young people whose needs are so great that a nurture…

Americans seem to agree that social studies education is important for citizens in a democracy, but they have disagreed vociferously about what constitutes the social studies, who should teach it, what methods are most effective, and if different students need different curriculum or instruction. This history of conflict is called the "social…

Education for transformation and social justice calls for critical, reflective, imaginative and independent thinkers with enquiring minds and a strong sense of curiosity--the ends and means of what Jonathan Jansen calls a "pedagogy to disrupt" and Gert Biesta a "pedagogy of interruption". For this reason, I introduced an…

Social capital is frequently offered up as a variable to explain such educational outcomes as academic attainment, drop-out rates and cognitive development. Yet, despite its popularity amongst social scientists, social capital theory remains the object of some scepticism, particularly in respect of its explanatory ambitions. I provide an account…

This article examines the emergence and persistence of curriculum differentiation in the comprehensive high school. We argue that curriculum differentiation has roots in Plato's Republic, where it is proposed that education (and later work, especially the work of ruling) should be distributed on the basis of ability. The concept of…

This article examines the intersecting logics of human capital and national security underpinning the corporate school reform movement in the United States. Taking a 2012 policy report by the Council on Foreign Relations as an entry point, it suggests that these logics are incoherent not only on their own narrow instrumental terms, but also more…

Martha Nussbaum argues that the aims of higher education ought to include the development in pupils of the capacity to contribute to the cultivation of humanity as intelligent, global citizens. For Nussbaum, "training" in this capacity is distinctly "philosophical" and she proposes that, to achieve this, teacher-pupil…

Diane Ravitch has emerged as one of the most powerful forces for real education reform. She is a tireless crusader against the baseless claims that drive current educational policy and a clear-eyed visionary of what needs to be done. While at one time she left the educational community and then returned (both of which she addresses in this…

This article examines the role of physical education in the process of moral education, and argues that physical education is a necessary prerequisite for the possibility of human virtue. This discussion is divided into four parts. First, I examine the nature of morality and moral decision-making. Drawing on the moral theories presented by Plato,…

There has been an ongoing tendency, taking place in the Scandinavian countries from the late 1970s onwards, to expand the repertoires and resources of music as an educational matter, an academic field, as well as an area for support and funding from cultural authorities, organisations and institutions. Here, popular music, jazz, folk music and…

Drawing on insights from literary critic and theorist Kenneth Burke, this rhetorical analysis of "Preparing Teachers" (2010), a publication of the National Research Council, reveals then critiques' key assumptions that are shaping policies and current reform efforts in teacher education, including changes in U.S. teacher…

Faculty members traditionally develop a teaching philosophy statement (TPS) as part of the job application process, for tenure reviews, or to encourage reflection. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach--to develop the TPS with students as the primary target audience, distribute it to students at the beginning of a course, and collect…

Education has long been a central issue for creativity research, and the integration of creativity and education has remained a goal and controversy. In spite of over sixty years of trying to bring creativity into education, education is often criticized for not teaching creative thinking, while also criticized from other quarters for not meeting…