This article questions the existing understanding of how global university rankings work to coordinate higher education policy. Rankings are often analyzed as accelerators of reform processes while their differences are overlooked. We suggest studying the particular encounters between rankers and national policy contexts as occasions for friction…

Federal funds are one resource that state leaders can use to establish and/or supplement programming designed to diversify the teacher workforce. Though several federal funding streams can be used for this purpose, state and district leaders have a great opportunity to leverage COVID-relief funds to expand their diversity efforts. The primary…

Despite the expansive literature on higher education performance-based funding (PBF) policies, there is an oversaturation of quantitative studies focused on measuring metric performance at the statewide level. These studies have largely found that PBF fails to meet its goal of improving graduation rates and has unintended consequences for…

Previous research focusing on major philanthropic foundations suggests that these actors have collectively converged around a set of jurisdictional challengers promoting market-based education reforms. Using correspondence analysis, network analysis, and geographic information science, this article empirically tests whether this convergence has…

This chapter describes how to establish social media guidelines and policies for colleges and universities effectively, based upon a field study of postsecondary education institutions representing 10 different countries. To further community interactions and social media involvement, this chapter will outline effective practical approaches for…

This paper presents a new heuristic device for the analysis of educational policy. Through an examination of the Evaluative State and the work of Brian Fay, the paper considers the way in which educational policy is subject to rational and linear forms of policy action and implementation. To counter this, positioning theory is deployed to consider…

It is from historical perspectives on more than 40 years of environment related education theories, practices, and policies that we revisit what might otherwise become a tired conversation about environmental education and sustainable development. Our contemporary critical analysis of Stefan Bengtsson's research about policy making leads us to…

This paper explores the signification of evidence-based policy as a new policy-making paradigm in Australia through a cross-case comparison of the role of evidence in two key areas: child protection and illicit drug policy. Although evidence makes certain courses of action appear valid and credible, quality evidence is not necessarily the critical…

In this work a meta-policy on health promotion is analysed, through content analysis of documents and interviews to stakeholders, with the aim of understanding the use of evidence and the knowledge conversion process in a multi-actor policy trajectory. We study the different sources of evidence and their interaction. Among our results, we describe…

An innovative investigative approach (STAVE), combining elements of research, engagement and brokerage, was used to uncover policy assumptions and daily experiences related to energy use practices. Exploratory work within three policymaker institutions and eight reconvened focus groups were carried out in three different European countries…

This article explores policy enactment processes in relation to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4), particularly its emphasis upon ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education. Specifically, as part of SDG4 in Laos, the research reveals how medium-of-instruction policy was enacted in relation to ethnic minorities,…

The media discourse on student loans plays a significant role in the way that policy actors conceptualize challenges and potential solutions related to student debt. This study examines the racialized language in student loan news articles published in eight major news outlets between 2006 and 2021. We found that 18% of articles use any racialized…

The research reported in this article contributes new understandings of systemic change by studying the form of system redesign known in England as "academisation." The data illuminate tensions within the neoliberal policy complex that are surfaced in a single secondary school. Although several studies have described academy conversions…

This study explores how involving education leaders in the process of research can enhance the practical value of research for them. This paper describes: (1) a design process used for engaging US state science leaders in participatory research; and (2) shifts in understanding that state leaders reported based on their participation. The authors…

The article proposes the need for the decolonising of the inclusive education movement in Southern African educational contexts. It draws on the authors' own research and reflexive engagement over the last five years on inclusive education policy formulation and implementation in selected Southern African contexts, namely, Botswana, Namibia, South…