This article examines the highly disputed policy nexus around what on the surface appears to be the helpful field of vocational education and training. Despite the promises of vocational education and training to deliver individual labour market success and global competitiveness, the reality is that it serves to residualise unacceptably large…

At the heart of most performance management systems is a reward program. However, even when we are doing everything else right, rewards can go wrong. Here, we explore five ways that external incentives can damage performance, from destroying altruistic behavior to distracting people from the task. Fortunately, most of these downfalls are…

I draw upon Eileen Schell's notions of "maternal pedagogy" and an "ethic of care" to analyze archival material from the National Education Association and Educational Testing Service pilot "lay reader" programs of the 1950s and 1960s. I argue that there are striking similarities between the material and social circumstances of these postwar lay…

This article analyzes the development of the Egyptian workers' movement in the face of the 25 January Revolution through the notion of dialectical pedagogy. This Gramscian concept is extended by a Vygotskyan analysis of the reciprocal learning processes, which stimulate a proletarian activity system to overcome its economic-corporate predicament.…

Education is for anarchism, and what can very broadly be termed "autonomism"--that is, the many different schools of non-Leninist Marxism--of paramount importance in creating a society worthy of humanity, but this is not a simple formula of countering the dominant mode of institutional indoctrination known as schooling with libertarian…

A common theme within the literature on higher education is the congested nature of the graduate labour market. Researchers have highlighted the lengths to which many students now go, in response to this congestion, to "distinguish themselves" from other graduates: paying increased attention to university status; engaging in a range of…

Around the world we hear considerable talk about creating world-class schools. Usually the term refers to schools whose students get very high scores on the international comparisons of student achievement such as PISA or TIMSS. The practice of restricting the meaning of exemplary schools to the narrow criterion of achievement scores is usually…

The training of professional cadres for the economy as it transitions to innovative development must take account of the current state of the labor market as well as tendencies in workers' labor mobility. These tendencies reflect the degree of concentration and reproduction of labor potential in various forms of economic activity, and define…

Previous studies on school dropout in Cambodia often used data from subjects after they already dropped out or statistics from education-related institutions. Using data from children in two rural provinces before they dropped out, this study examines four main factors in order to identify their influence on primary school dropout in Cambodia.…

This article presents the basic tenets of Holland's (1997) theory of vocational personalities and work environments and discusses its use by employment counselors in service occupations. The authors describe Holland's 6 personality types and research on the theory, as well as formal and informal assessment and counseling strategies within the…

For more than 30 years the United States has unsuccessfully struggled to reform its often maligned and massively abused immigration policies. Matters went awry following the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965. There were unexpected consequences. Intended to remove the overtly discriminatory features of the "national origins"…

Focusing on new demands posed by social and economic change, and applying a pattern-based approach, this study examined constellations of increasing labor market uncertainties (understood as threat) and increasing job-related learning tasks (understood as positive challenge). We investigated whether and how the groups of working individuals behind…

Coherence of national education and training systems is increasingly tabled in European policy debates. Leaning on literature about the emergence and consolidation of national education systems, this article explores the rationale for VET reforms in Norway and Spain by scrutinising attempts to strengthen the coherence of their VET systems.…

This article considers the construct of "teacher resilience" from critical discourse and labour process perspectives in order to cast new light on what has been traditionally viewed from a psychological perspective. In this respect, the construct of resilience is placed in the broad political landscape of teachers' work and the labour…

The Financial Crisis of 2008 has forced countries around the globe to reevaluate their monetary and fiscal strategies for stimulating growth within their respective economies. The economic connectivity among countries has been magnified by the recent financial crisis. However, with nations at different stages in their development, the economic…