Can a teachers' union successfully be both a hardball-playing defender of its rights and a collaborative force for the common good? It is both a question of philosophy and, increasingly, one of policy direction for the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), whose biennial convention in Detroit showed delegates grappling with the tension between…

After WWII, the economic prospects of the Philippines, then the second-largest economy in Asia, were viewed positively, but by the mid-1970s it had become Asia's developmental puzzle for its failure to sustain economic growth. In contrast during the same period, regional neighbours, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore, achieved previously…

It has long been lamented that Americans do not comprehend conservative and liberal ideologies and the associated policy preferences for each perspective (and the reasoning behind the associations). This research seeks to contribute to the teaching of conservatism and liberalism by creating a heuristic outlining six general characteristics for…

While many states are handling evolution better today than in the past, anti-evolution pressures continue to threaten state science standards. In April 2012, for example, Tennessee passed a law that enables teachers to bring anti-evolution materials into the classroom without being challenged by administrators. This law is similar to the Science…

Drawing on interviews with 33 young people between the ages of 14 to 17 attending three English schools we examine their experiences of a personalised education system. The policy climate in England has for some time been one of intense and persistent reforms. The Labour Party took office in 1997 and advanced "personalised learning" as a…

In this article, I reflect on the politics, practices and possibilities of the open educational resources (OER). OER raise important implications for current and potential students, for postsecondary education institutions, and for those currently teaching in higher education. The key questions raised by OER centre on the role of teaching in…

This paper brings to the forefront students' views on one of the most significant aspects of educational reform in the 14-19 phase in England, specifically qualifications, examinations and assessment reform. In this respect, the paper foregrounds students as "policy actors", they are significant players in the mediation of national…

This paper, which was given as the Dudley Allen Sargent lecture at the 2012 conference of the National Association for Kinesiology and Physical Education in Higher Education, discusses the politics of physical education. It examines how both national politics and local/campus politics affect the discipline. Drawing from the history of national…

Whether political and/or religious academic bias exists is a question with important ramifications for the educational institutions. Those arguing for the presence of such bias contend that political conservatives and the highly religious in academia are marginalized and face discrimination. The question of academic bias tends to be cast in a…

This article explores relationship as foundational to multicultural praxis and theory. The question of who arrives in the encounter will be examined through the concept of identity politics. In their text Commonwealth Hardt and Negri state that "It is inevitable that identity should become the primary vehicle for struggle within and against the…

In this paper, I reflect on three questions arising from my recent research on student equity in higher education and gender in education. These questions relate to the goals, focus and politics of student equity research in the context of a changing higher education landscape in Australia. The paper concludes with an argument for student equity…

When considering the relevance of contemporary learning theories to health education and promotion work in schools, it is necessary to inspect the kinds of discourses used therein for how they understand and thereby constitute people and their worlds. For instance, contemporary educational practices, teaching and learning included, are dominated…

In Malaysia, the national government has seen fit to steer higher education policy in a direction that is in the "national interest". This notion of "national interest" is best exemplified by the changing relationship between the State, higher education institutions and the market. Since the late 1960s, we saw the gradual but…

Over thirty ago, Maxine Greene published a collection of essays with the title, "Landscapes of Learning," more than thirty years earlier. In that text, she argued that the title illuminated the ways people formed perspectives that shaped their attitudes and behaviors. In her text, Greene described how people had to be grounded in their…

The rise in the influence of and spending by educational philanthropists and foundations over the past two decades, especially in the area of market-based reforms, such as charter schools, vouchers, and merit pay, is evident across the United States. Largely due to philanthropic investments, relatively new educational intermediary organizations…