This article examines the policy construction of leadership at all levels in Scottish education. In the current reforms 'leadership at all levels' is being used to mobilise support around changes to the role of the headteacher and of the local authorities (LAs) to bring about greater system alignment. From a critical policy analysis six themes are…

Background: Supported Employment has been advocated for by successive governments and policymakers alike as the "best" approach to employment inclusion for people with an intellectual disability who are in receipt of social care. Yet only 5.2% of this demographic are in any form of work and these numbers have been persistently stagnant…

This paper is motivated by the idea that the study of the interplay of research and policy related to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in specific national contexts can contribute to global conversations about the relationships between education research and policy-making. It is written by two individuals who have been involved in…

European Union policies emphasise the importance of entrepreneurship and self-employment to maintain economic growth, a solution influenced by the USA and research from schools of business. There are expectations of higher education graduates that they are innovative, will start businesses and will employ others. However, transferring a solution…

This work analyzes the current situation of engineering education in India, especially technical universities characterized by low-quality infrastructure, inflexible curricula, and poor teaching resources including faculty, usually resulting in low student learning and very low graduate placement rates, and identifies the root causes of these…

Large-scale learning assessments can be used to generate performance and contextual data on student learning outcomes. The UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO) has conducted a qualitative study to explore both how and why learning assessment data are used in six sub-Saharan African countries. This Information Sheet…

In this piece the author provides a critical response to the new 'Looking at Our School' quality framework in Ireland and illustrates how policy overlooks critical scholarship. The author questions the claim that the updated policy reflects recent thinking and developments, and critiques the policy's stance on notions of both distributed…

Math and science are for everyone. But unfortunately, many students, and especially Black and Latino students, don't receive that message or the resources needed to make it a reality. Even early on, many students are told they are not a "math person," or a "science person;" as such, Black and Latino students have long been…

In 2003 an executive order was issued banning industrially produced trans-fatty acids above a low level in food items in Denmark. To date, only a few other countries have followed Denmark's example. The way health consequences of trans fats were translated by the different actors enabled the creation of alliances between researchers, politicians,…

Background: Indonesia's growth and prosperity as a lower-middle-income country hinges on the ability of policymakers to develop effective public policies based on evidence. Yet Indonesia's policy and regulatory environment does not support the production of high-quality evidence and its use in policymaking. Key points for discussion: This article…

Policy debates about charter schools are often dominated by polarizing emotional narratives. However scholarly attention on narratives in education policy, and especially narratives about charter schools in local contexts, has been limited. The recently developed Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) approach offers guidelines to systematically study…

Prominent developments in English PE and school sport (PESS) policy across the period of Conservative-led governments since 2010 have not been empirically or comprehensively researched. In addressing this shortcoming, this study was uniquely underpinned by punctuated equilibrium theory in order to respond to long-standing difficulties of…

The purpose of the current paper was to trace the practical contribution of empirical papers appeared in the field's major journals. More specifically, the review posed two questions: (1) what kinds of practical messages are provided in the field's empirical works? (2) Who are the practitioners that EA field researchers address in their practical…

This article conceptualises the relationship between exam board insider research and the policy-making context in which they operate. Exam board researchers are constrained by commercial and political interests in disclosing their knowledge. and face pressures in disseminating research, but also find themselves working in contexts where calls to…

State boards of education can advocate to include current teachers as members. Whether it is through a voting member, nonvoting member, or teacher advisory committee, direct educator voice is critical in state board decision making. Most state boards do have former teachers as voting members, and they add a wealth of classroom knowledge to their…