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In 2011, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education issued a policy on the internationalisation of schooling. The policy assumes that being 'international' has become necessary in order to maintain economic competitiveness in a globalising world. It was published in two languages: Mandarin, the official language in Taiwan, and English, presupposed as a lingua franca. Treating 'policy as discourse', the article analyses internationalism and its performativity through the publication and specific textual construction of this policy. The analysis considers the layout, target readerships, conceptual translation, and spatial representation and construction of 'Chineseness' in the two policy texts. This attempt at internationalisation is related to the very specific historical and geopolitical conditions of Taiwan and its liminal position in the globe. The significance of the article rests in expanding ideas of 'translation' in education policy studies and in the analysis of the specific geopolitics of East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study presents a bibliometric network analysis of the two most recent schools reforms in Norway. Two research questions have been pursued: First, do the government-appointed expert commission use (in Green Papers) the same type of knowledge as 'evidence' for their reviews and recommendations as the Ministry of Education and Research (as reflected in the White Papers)? How has the use of 'evidence' changed over the two reform periods? Second, which body of knowledge amassed by the expert commission has the Ministry of Education and Science actually used for policy formulation? The network analysis shows (i) distinct changes in reference patterns over the two reform periods (e.g., average number of references more than doubled and references to international texts increased significantly), and (ii) an unexpectedly low usage of the 'evidence' presented by the expert commissions. The Ministry of Education and Research only draws on 9.5 percent of the references presented by the expert commissions. Strikingly, almost all of the adopted references are from a commissioned report that locally adapted and translated OECD's Definitions and Selections of Competencies project. The authors suggest 'studying up' and paying more attention to how scientific 'evidence' is actually used, translated, and edited at the political level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the Berlin Abitur examination in the twentieth century and its written documentation in files. By the late nineteenth century, the Abitur examination was fully established in Prussia and with it a graduation certificate that was obligatory for university entrance. Thus, the Abitur examination was part of the modern state entitlement system and an instrument to establish the state education monopoly. Thereafter, in every secondary school a new file was compiled for each class that took the exam every year. The resulting records provide a unique insight into the history of examination procedures. This article seeks to discuss the question of the Abitur files being simply products of bureaucratisation and rationalisation of examination practices at secondary schools, and the extent to which there was a ritualisation of the examination on paper. The building processes of the Abitur examination files in the twentieth century are reconstructed on the basis of a representative school archive located in Berlin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing mathematical connections for pupils continues to be at the forefront of educational policies worldwide. One strategy suggested to support the connections pupils make is the idea of developing "coherence". Research regarding coherence has increased within mathematics education, however, the term is used widely. It therefore becomes necessary for coherence to be further conceptualised. In this systematic scoping review, five databases were searched for literature on the topic of coherence in school-based mathematics education. A total of 11,587 pieces of literature were extracted. Following further screening, 35 papers were reviewed. The findings suggest that there is limited consensus regarding the conceptualisation of coherence, leading to fragmented perceptions across the literature. This paper presents a framework for coherence based on the TIMSS curriculum model to support international comparisons of coherence and provide clarity for mathematics education researchers and school colleagues when considering which aspect of coherence they are addressing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether enough highly qualified STEM workers are being educated and trained in the UK is an important question. The answer has implications not only for educators, employers and policymakers but also for individuals who are currently engaged in, or are considering entering, education or training in this area. Set against a policy backdrop that prioritises students studying more science for longer, this paper considers long-term patterns of participation in STEM education – from school science through to graduate entry into the highly skilled STEM labour market. Using a unique dataset that extends across seven decades and comprises many hundreds of thousands of students, the paper finds that patterns of participation in most STEM subjects have varied little over the period considered; suggesting that efforts to increase the numbers of students studying science in school has had limited impact on the throughput of students who study STEM, including the pure sciences, at university level and, subsequently, on the number of graduates who would be available to undertake highly skilled work in areas for which degree-level skills are a pre-requisite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the diaspora Chinese community in Limerick – an Irish county town in the southwest of the Republic of Ireland – and examines how Chinese parents have responded to the education policy shift resulting from the 2017 Irish foreign language strategy, which added Chinese to the official educational curriculum. A semi-structured group interview was conducted with four Chinese-speaking parents. Analysis of the data revealed that identity preservation and maintaining bonds with extended family are the predominant expressed reasons for parents to cultivate their children's Chinese proficiency. English and Irish are prioritized over Chinese. Though the parents hold positive attitudes towards the inclusion of Chinese as a school subject in Ireland, they are disempowered from taking advantage of participating in the implementation of this national language shift due to a lack of access to social, cultural, and economic capital. Analysed through a Bourdieuian lens, the findings further expose the limitations or constraints placed on family language policy and the discrepancy between macro- and micro-level language policies. The paper is intended to shed light on education, social justice, and equality, bridging the gap between micro-level family language practices and macro-level language policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qatar's transition from a hydrocarbon-based to a knowledge-based economy spurred the development of Education City, which houses several International Branch Campuses and one home-grown university, Hamad bin Khalifa University. Through the case study of EC, this paper seeks to improve our understanding of higher education policy borrowing and the complex process of indigenisation. Using secondary data from prior studies, it offers a discussion on the key stages and challenges in Qatar's effort to indigenise higher education and outlines areas for further research. This paper uses Phillips and Ochs four-stage Model of Policy Borrowing in Education, as a guiding conceptual model. The paper is constructed as follows: first, a discussion on international branch campuses in Education City; second, outlining the conceptual model; third, a discussion on Education City through the conceptual model; and finally, the case of the home-grown university, Hamad bin Khalifa University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term tertiary education has gained prominence in recent policy debates in the UK [Morgan (2023). “Labour ‘would review whole landscape’ of tertiary education.” Times Higher Education, 28 November. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/labour-would-review-whole-landscape-tertiary-education]. This paper presents findings from a review of the use of the term in academic and policy papers in the UK over the last 80 years. The analysis reveals the role of international organisations in defining this term initially as a synonym for post-compulsory education before using it as a statistical measure which became a normative guide for many member states. More recently, the term tertiary education has been used as a descriptor of systems of educational governance and by the World Bank for specific systems of organisation. Using these definitions as a guide, the review demonstrates differences in government policy in the four nations of the United Kingdom: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Here there is evidence of periodic and partial policy change, but little sustained full engagement with this agenda. The review suggests that if future tertiary education policy initiatives are introduced they should cover all potential learners once they have left the compulsory phase of education and should be advanced by regional bodies with involvement from learners, employers and community representatives allocating funds from a single tertiary education budget. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into the intricacies of fostering bottom-up educational initiatives aimed at addressing power imbalances in societies marked by intractable conflicts. Focusing on the establishment of a Palestinian-Jewish integrated bilingual education program in Israel, the study examines archival materials and stakeholder interviews to uncover the divergent motivations of politicians, educators, and administrators. It highlights the multifaceted nature of NGO-government negotiations, emphasizing the entanglement of contexts and the presence of internal conflicts within each entity. By exploring the ideological and operational challenges faced at different administrative levels, from national ministries to local municipalities, the paper provides a nuanced understanding of the support mechanisms for integrated bilingual schools. Findings call for an in-depth examination of these complex dynamics and their broader implications for educational policy and practice in conflict-affected settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid debates about CRT in education, this paper critically analyses laws that have reportedly sought to expand ‘education on racism, bias, the contributions of specific racial or ethnic groups to U.S. history, or related topics’ with the hypothesis that there would be little evidence of anti-racist ideology in policies pertaining to curriculum. The research design thus leans on King and Chandler’s (2016) distinction between non-racist and antiracist stances, as well as Andreotti et al’.s (2015) social cartography that maps out ‘soft-reform’ and ‘radical reform’ spaces, to achieve a latent content analysis of 14 pieces of legislation across 13 states since 2020 to identify and analyse the ideological characteristics of these pieces of legislation. Only four of the 14 documents from four different states contain a significant anti-racist ideological leaning; the others express a liberal multicultural ideological position that celebrates difference and recognizes contributions, but does not examine systemic racism. Thus, among states that are legislating more ethnic studies, the vast majority do not legislate anti-racist positions. This paper concludes that there is little evidence of anti-racist ideas being legislated into primary and secondary education in the United States, and that most curricular reforms toe a non-critical ideological line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates Gibraltar in a state of linguistic transition. This transition is feared by many to culminate in the loss of Llanito among younger generations. Llanito is a local variety made up of code-switched Gibraltar-Spanish, Gibraltar-English, Genoese, culturally specific words, and loanwords from other Mediterranean varieties. To evaluate the scope of this loss, this paper presents interviews with Gibraltarian politicians, as elected representatives who can influence the language situation, and grandparents who have contributed to the generational replenishment of Llanito. Llanito reflects Gibraltar's culture of hybridity, and this paper interrogates why Llanito is in decline among younger generations. Gibraltar has the ability to transform this situation: educational policy, community effort, and oral and written preservation of Llanito can help to maintain Llanito and save its linguistic loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ideological discourses of Central Asia have been subject to much research. However, the use and the role of ideological discourses in framing internationalization of education policy has been largely overlooked. While much has been studied on how and why internationalization of higher education (HE) became indispensable part of tertiary sector, the cases where internationalization of HE is confronted by a government ideology agenda has largely remained outside of scholarly attention. This pioneering research offers analysis on ideology-based resistance to internationalization of education in authoritarian regimes. The paper argues that it is the framing of internationalization as a threat to national ideologies and a national model of education that confronts HE internationalization in some authoritarian political orders. The paper uses the case of post-Soviet Uzbekistan that promoted national ideologies as the basis of its education model. To support its argument, the paper analyses the official discourses of former President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan (1991–2016) and the statements of government officials on the country's national education model. It also analyses the interviews held with staff of HE institutions in Tashkent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve education performance at home, countries cross nationally policy-borrow from jurisdictions ranked highly in international league tables. This paper examines a practical example of one such instance of policy borrowing, Teaching for Mastery (TfM). Over a six year period, interviews were conducted with teachers working in primary schools in the East Midlands region of England. The focus of these interviews was to explore informants' experiences of enacting TfM and their analysis of the UK government's motives for undertaking this borrowing. Applying Baudrillard's ideas around hyperreality and image to these data indicated two key themes: 1) TfM discourses masked crucial aspects of the original policy, with the result that 2) TfM became non-relational to the original and thus hyperreal. The paper suggests strategies that might mitigate against policy becoming hyperreal and concludes that government must carefully consider its motives for engaging in the borrowing process from the outset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article offers a historical inquiry into behaviorism and its impact on standard of judgement concerning education policies. Drawing from Aldous Huxley’s reservation towards behaviorism as a scientific movement that naturalizes the role of control in human affairs, the paper maps the impact of behaviorism on economics of education. By tracing the influence of behaviorism in both rational (human capital theory) and quasi-rational (behavioral insight) economics, we draw attention to the activity of knowledge-making that describes and prescribes agency. The paper demonstrates how policy instruments and outcomes are intimately linked to assumptions about personhood, and in the case of behavioral insight, they contribute to the scope of decision-making entrusted to government and business. Utilizing a genealogical approach, the paper invites ethical reflections on the long-term implications of behavioral economics in light of automation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly pervasive digital technologies in societies are placing complex demands on the development of young people's digital citizenship and digital competence. Social science education and teacher education (TE) play important, but poorly understood, roles in this development. Through reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, this paper explores 15 Swedish teacher educators' (TEDs) views of teaching for digital citizenship, particularly social science TE's role. We also consider organisational and personal conditions that may influence TEDs' views of professional digital competence (PDC) for such teaching. Their views are examined through a postdigital lens, with a focus on democratic implications in evolving socio-technical environments. The results indicate that TEDs acknowledge the importance of social science TE in teaching for digital citizenship, but find maintaining responsiveness to societal changes challenging. Challenges are also posed by the multidisciplinary character of social science education, including how personal trajectories shape TEDs' views of their dual-didactic task of teaching to teach for digital citizenship. This paper contributes knowledge of how TEDs, as 'street-level bureaucrats' in social science TE, navigate between written and performed education policy in teaching for digital citizenship, with specific attention to the dynamic character of PDC in social science education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this special issue, we explore the opportunities and challenges of using Generative AI (GenAI), in particular, text generators in higher education learning and teaching. As GenAI has become increasingly popular with many staff and students, this special issue provides an overview of the current state of the field and offers insights into future research. This introduction paper consists of four parts. It begins by providing an overview of AI and Generative AI, identifying the gap and framing the special issue relating to the gaps. The second part explores the opportunities and challenges of GenAI in higher education, as identified in the literature. The third part provides an overview of the papers included in the special issue. The final part is the self-reflection of the lead author. The special issue aims to serve as a valuable resource for higher education stakeholders, such as students, practitioners, researchers and managers. We hope this collection will help advance knowledge and future research, encourage innovation and inform evidence-based policy and practices in the field of Generative AI in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, the emphasis on school reforms is increasing, and school leaders play a key role in realising reform initiatives for school development and change. Often, the formation of partnerships between researchers and practitioners for school improvement is promoted to facilitate professional development and enhance student learning. However, limited attention has been directed towards the underlying ideas, values and beliefs in government-initiated strategies for partnership in the policy context of educational reform. This paper examines how partnerships between schools and higher education institutions are conceptualised and legitimised in Norwegian reform policy documents. We analyse three government white papers, each coupled with an executive partnership strategy document. The analysis applies a discourse analytical approach to policy as text and transmission. Our findings show a shift in the official national discourse on partnerships in education, underscoring new tensions regarding the power to define focus areas in the local reform work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parallel support is a Greek type of special education provision aiming at providing additional support to students identified with special educational needs and/or disability in mainstream classrooms. Drawing from quantitative data for the school-year 2018–2019 this paper presents findings on certain characteristics of primary and pre-primary teachers who work in parallel support including gender, educational qualifications, teaching experience and further certifications in braille and/or sign language. In so doing, the paper analyses several shortcomings regarding the staffing of parallel support, especially in relation to teachers' qualifications and teaching experience. Additionally, it reports data on the recruitment procedures of teachers revealing significant delays in the hiring of teachers who work in parallel support. Finally, the paper discusses how the current educational policy creates structural barriers that hinder the educational inclusion of students with special educational needs and/or disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have shown how school professionals deal with large quantities of student test data and accountability policies in different ways. However, the subtle ways in which school leaders and teachers use their time, their power and their talk when dealing with external policy demands in daily practice is understudied. Using data from interviews with formal school leaders and video observations of leadership teams and teaching teams, this paper investigates how school leaders and teachers deal with external testing policy demands in a fairly new policy context of national testing in Norway. The study aims to explore micro-political aspects of the issue, by applying a theoretical framework on leadership, micro-policy actors and ideas about time. The paper contributes to the field of education policy and reform by introducing the role that time plays in micro-politics in general and how time issues contribute to the shaping of stakeholders' understanding of and relationship to external policy demands. Findings surrounding middle leaders as crucial in the micro-policy construction of time and space, suggesting a need for research aimed at understanding school leaders' and teachers' sharing experiences of time and the care for the collective self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to extend discussion on teachers' leadership within International Baccalaureate schools in Poland. Background for the discussions on leadership in Polish context of education is the term Homo Sovieticus [in English: Soviet Man], a notion associated with sarcastic and critical reference to an average conformist person living in the Soviet Union or in other countries of the Eastern Bloc in Europe, a spineless person who lacks any 'bottom up' initiative. In the paper, it is claimed that teachers' limited leadership in a centrally steered system of teacher training in Poland, demonstrates features of leadership developed according to the Homo Sovieticus model of the citizen. Strong emphasis onto leadership within international culture do not let Homo Sovieticus features and behaviors to develop. In this understanding, international schools with strong emphasis on leadership in Polish post-soviet educational landscape creates path of evolution from stereotypical perception of teachers as passive 'Homo Sovieticus' to leader within school curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While we know that professionalization improves outcomes for teachers, education policy has effectively deprofessionalized teachers, especially those who serve immigrant English Learners. Based on a three-year case study, this paper explores how teachers in an immigrant-serving school exercised autonomy and authority over their instruction and professional development. Drawing on staff interviews and observations of teacher meetings, this paper further describes how these professional conditions positioned teachers to better serve their student population. Our study also revealed the underlying conditions that made teacher autonomy possible, including the negotiation of external policy and a robust model of shared decision-making. By providing rich descriptions of teacher work, this paper moves beyond abstractions of professionalization and toward a concrete set of practices that other schools can employ to reprofessionalize teachers. Moreover, we argue that reprofessionalizing teachers can better equip teachers to create learning opportunities that are responsive to students' needs. In so doing, the paper speaks to the potential short-sightedness of policies that further undermine teacher autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author conducted sampling and statistical analysis of papers on education policy research collected by the China National Knowledge Infrastructure in the period from the years 2004–2013. Under the current state of education policy research in China, the number of papers correlates positively with the year; the papers are concentrated in education journals; the researchers are primarily associated with institutions of higher education; and the studies cover a broad range of topics, while emphasizing the practice of education policy. The development trends of education policy research in China include a general rising trend for research on education policy; in the future, researchers from institutions of higher education will continue to be a dominant force in education policy research, and the authors’ regional distribution will continue to be imbalanced; education policy research will focus more on educational equity and improved quality, and studies of foreign education policies will continue to be a topic of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2010, government policy in England has positioned further education almost exclusively as employment-orientated training for school leavers whilst also imposing severe budget cuts. During this period, values-based pedagogies that foreground social justice for students, many of whom come from low-income households, have been undermined. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, there is evidence that the mental health and well-being of further education students has suffered but little is known about the pandemic's effects on teachers.This paper presents analysis of primary research data drawn from interviews with a small sample of further education teachers and managers in the English West Midlands about their mental health and well-being during the pandemic. The paper frames the research data by acknowledging that both mental health nursing and further education teaching are currently riven by contradictions with an epistemological basis anchored in meritocratic and neoliberal policy. Using Lefebvrian theory, our analysis suggests that for further education staff, the pandemic has sharpened the tensions experienced in an already precarious professional role. Key findings were that the further education funding regime drove a 'business as usual' management attitude during the pandemic, and an intensification of work and the erosion of pedagogical practice negatively affected staff's mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School climate policies have, broadly speaking, been analysed in terms of their effectiveness against violence in schools, or from critical perspectives that question the normative nature of their discursive ‘truths’. In this paper I propose a complementary approach, inspired by Norbert Elias’s processual sociology to address the long-term and unintended directions that school climate policies and laws have taken. Drawing on historical secondary sources from the nineteenth century up the present I demonstrate the spurts of civilizing tendencies that have brought about greater sensitivity to dialogue-based approaches to conflict in schools. I propose that although these policy turns do not occur outside power relations and specific interests (what Elias calls power ratios), the complexity of how they have developed over time cannot be reduced to disciplining or regulatory governance. In this regard, figurational perspectives have a lot to contribute to analyses of school climate specifically, and education policies in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia first documented national goals for primary and secondary education in 1989 with the Hobart Declaration on Schooling. Since then, Australia's goals for the education of children have been updated in three subsequent National Education Declarations. Each of the Declarations includes specific goals for Indigenous Australian students, as well as goals for students to learn about Indigenous Australian peoples and cultures. Arranged into four thematic sections covering each Declaration, this paper traces colonial representation of Indigenous Australians in these policy documents. Each section discusses the socio-political factors that influenced education policy at the time each Declaration was written, and the socio-political priorities of Indigenous peoples in the same period. We argue that the evolution of representations of Indigenous peoples in education policy is evidence of the continued resistance of Indigenous peoples to colonial dominance in education policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following calls to 'bewilder' (Snaza 2013) the pioneers of early education, this article positions Montessori pedagogy as a 'desire path' that acts as resistance to normative policy-driven pathways in early childhood education and care. Desire paths are alternative tracks made aside from officially established walking routes. In this paper I think with the metaphor of pathways and desire paths positioning an educator's choice to practice Montessori pedagogy as an approach which wanders outside of mainstream qualifications and education. To do this, I take fragments of a professional life story that chart the agentic nature of choosing Montessori pedagogy as a way to problematise how walking that desire line challenges, and defies normative pathways. I also propose a re-reading of Montessori's pedagogy, not as pioneering but as nomadic, and suggest that social desire paths enable Montessori education to be viewed as multiple, situated, alternative tracks to prescribed pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising inflation and slow growth globally have led to governments focussing on value for money, and in the sphere of higher education policy that is often translated into graduate outcomes. In England, the Office for Students (OfS) has created the progression metric which for full-time, first degree and UK domiciled students requires courses to have 60% of graduates with positive outcomes 15 months after graduation. This paper utilises simulations to evaluate the likelihood that the OfS’s approach will fail to identify courses below the threshold (false positives) and incorrectly identify courses at or above the threshold (false negatives). The simulation adapts the levels of positive outcomes within the population (20-90%), sample size (40–1000), percentage sampled (30-90%) and crucially confidence intervals applied (90%, 95% and 99%) to identify courses below threshold. The three main findings are: the choice of 90% CI minimises the likelihood of false positives compared to 95% or 99% CIs; second, larger samples are essential to reduce likelihood of false positives; and third, preferring the 95% confidence interval instead of 99% for taking regulatory action will result in more courses incorrectly identified as below threshold. Governments that choose a statistical approach to regulate educational standards, like the application of confidence intervals to identify provision below quality standards, should utilise simulations to check the likelihood of false positives and false negatives since failure to do so could lead to both: (a) courses below standard not being identified and (b) regulatory action taken incorrectly against provision at or above standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2021 the Chinese Government unexpectedly released what has become known colloquially as the 'Double-Reduction' policy. The policy decreed the reduction of homework pressure on students and greater control of private tutorial companies. In this paper, we set out to understand why the Chinese central government launched the 'Double-Reduction' policy in mid−2021 by using narratives to analyse the three most circulated explanations for the policy and its timing. We use data from a range of formal and informal policy texts. The three narratives, including one policy narrative dominant in the official discourse and two alternative ones, constructed the causal stories about the policy's rationale from multiple perspectives. The combination of multiple perspectives and a narrative approach helps reveal the policy event's complexity and lays a foundation for researchers interested in tracking the development trajectory of this new policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work education is at a crossroads with the release of the 2022 Educational Policy Administration Standards (EPAS, 2022), which emphasize anti-racist practice. To teach anti-racist social work one must be prepared to use anti-racist pedagogical practices and be supported to do so institutionally. Freire (2020) proposes that education be a tool of liberation through the use of dialogue and attention to power dynamics. To this end, instructional making about the use of dialogue can help create liberatory classrooms. The concept of dialogic pedagogy (Alexander, 2018; Alexander, 2020) is used in education to support the development of language and critical thinking in students. Although it has yet to be applied extensively to higher education and the social work classroom, dialogic pedagogy has clear connections to social work and the potential to better prepare students for anti-racist practice. In a dialogic classroom, language between students and instructors is carefully attended to based on the following principles; purpose, cumulation, support, collectivity, deliberation, and reciprocality (Alexander, 2018; Alexander, 2020). This paper describes and endorses dialogic pedagogy as a framework to support anti-racist social work pedagogy and discusses the implementation of this framework in terms of faculty support and training. Understanding the framework of dialogic pedagogy can support faculty with more critical use of dialogue in classrooms; ultimately supporting anti-racist practice. Using a dialogic framework can support those responsible for training faculty in better preparing faculty for antiracist pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work of teachers, as representative of a significant area of social policy, occupies many column inches in newspapers internationally every year. This paper takes a close, systematic look at the education coverage of one national Australian newspaper, over a 30-year period from 1993 to 2022. Focusing on representations of school teachers in the Australian Financial Review (AFR), one of two Australian national daily newspapers, it presents a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of over 1,300 articles, using the conceptual lens of “news values” to take a close look at the ideas about teachers and their work in which the AFR has invested over the past 30 years. The analysis shows that while the focus was once on issues to do with remuneration, industrial action and school funding, that the educational purview of the AFR has broadened over the past 15 years to take in a more expansive view, both reflecting and reinforcing the expansion of the privatisation of education in Australia over this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the year 2000, most parents have emigrated en masse due to a deepening socio-political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe, leaving their school-going children in the country. This paper assesses the experiences and challenges faced by these Left-Behind Learners (LBL), and ascertain the challenges faced by teachers in meeting the needs of these learners through inclusive education. The study followed a qualitative research approach with data collected at two high schools in Harare using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The results of the study indicate that LBL faced numerous challenges: excessive household chores, lack of help from guardians, inadequate representation at school meetings, and non-payment of school expenses. Teachers in the sample were not aware of the vulnerability of LBL, and were inadequately equipped to deal with this 'new' vulnerability. The study recommends the crafting of an inclusive education policy for the country so that new vulnerabilities are holistically dealt with, and that teachers be trained in inclusive education methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, research comparing education systems across countries and jurisdictions is valuable and can elicit nuanced insights into how particular systems operate. This paper's interest lies in considering the scope and content of research comparing education systems across the four UK nations (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales). This study sought to determine the coverage of UK cross-national comparative education research ('home international' research) between 2000 and 2022. We chose this time period as 1999 marks the devolution of education policy to each UK nation. We aimed to investigate what educational issues had been discussed in the literature and identify any gaps in the content covered by the research. An exploratory, high-level review of 'home international' education research was conducted, based on the review of abstracts. We searched several research databases using a variety of keyword combinations to identify relevant literature published since 2000. Our search identified 53 studies that met our selection criteria. Using a meta-synthesis approach, we coded the content of each abstract to build a picture of the range and thematic coverage of research involving comparisons between at least two of the four UK nations. The analysis of abstracts identified that, over the last two decades, UK 'home international' research has tended to include comparisons of all four nations, coverage of multiple educational phases and a focus on national education policy reviews. Furthermore, we pinpointed a number of gaps in coverage that might not have been anticipated (e.g. relatively little cross-national research focusing on assessment). This high-level review uncovers the landscape of recent 'home international' research, allowing us to view issues that are driving the cross-national research agenda in the UK and recognise implications relevant to education systems that may resonate with jurisdictions beyond these four UK nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As American colleges and universities become more diverse, expanding our vision and working around what it means to be a legacy, especially at Predominately White Institutions, will be essential. This paper examines Black families' experiences at Churchill, a small liberal arts PWI in the Northeast. With the aid of Yosso's community cultural wealth and Bourdieu's notions of cultural and social capital, it examines how parents' experiences at Churchill and exposing their child to Churchill shaped and informed their child's decision to attend their parent's alma mater and the passing of social and cultural capital between the generations. Findings suggest that while navigational and familial capital passes between generations, Black cultural capital does not pass smoothly and impacts their child's experience at Churchill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive education in Ireland has made major advances in the past two decades, with an increasing number of students with special educational needs (SEN) attending mainstream schools. This paper is part of a bigger study which examines the Special Education Teacher Allocation Model (SETAM) (Circular 0013/2017 Department of Education and Skills 2017) as the current model to support inclusion in practice in Irish primary schools. Guided by a constructivist paradigm, a mixed-methods approach was adopted to reveal the workings of the SETAM, in the Context of Practice. This paper presents the findings from the first phase of data collection; a national, online survey. Findings show that greater teacher autonomy to identify students' needs and allocate support, under this model, was welcomed by participants. However, limited continuous professional development sees some teachers feeling underprepared to identify such needs. More collaborative and inclusive practice is evident since the introduction of the SETAM, with increased use of in-class support for students with SEN. These findings may inform key stakeholders in inclusive education policy and practice, at a national and international level, by unveiling areas of success and potential for improvement, as recognised by Irish teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the ways through which new philanthropy in education is being enacted in Portugal, focusing on one of its significant imaginaries: social inclusion. We analyse EPIS (Entrepreneurs for Social Inclusion), a top association dedicated to corporate philanthropy with a growing presence in the education system. Drawing on Popkewitz's concept of fabrication, it examines EPIS' programmes and deliverables as technologies that constitute social inclusion as an object of policy, knowledge and practice, targeting students (transforming 'at-risk' students into entrepreneurs), teachers and schools (transforming their cultures to become performance-oriented), and the relationship between State and non-State actors (fostering the State's adoption of a rule-following role, dependent on knowledge generated by non-State actors). This paper suggests that new philanthropies' social inclusion imaginary enacts a system of reason that promulgates results-oriented and evidence-based approaches to educational policy and knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I argue that power promised to England's teachers by the 2010 'Importance of Teaching' white paper has rather played out as a reformulation of methods of policymaking to more indirect modes of government control. I trace the growth of government control in English schools, promised front-line power in 2010 and a rise in non-statutory guidance after this point. Taking an actor–network theory approach to ethnographic data I then describe how a school takes up one such non-statutory educational initiative – 'Maths Mastery'. Focusing on early stages of the school's adoption of the initiative, I trace associations of actors which problematize existing practices for the teaching of maths and how the initiative is imbued with authority in relation to these. I argue that the ways in which certain actors – statutory education policy and government funding – associate with the 'optional' initiative reveals a 'back door' control of teacher agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intercultural education in Australia has been positioned in Statebased official curriculum and education policy as developing understanding between diverse cultural groups. However, cultivating such understanding far more complex in practice than policy and curriculum directives can capture. In Australia, eruptions of intercultural tensions has an ongoing and complex history. This paper examines the challenges for teachers' intercultural practice in one Australian public school setting. Reporting on a single-site ethnography drawing on Lefebvre's production of space. I conceptualise teachers' intercultural work as a praxis of difference, this paper problematises the way intercultural education is often taken up in tokenistic ways and advocates for reimagining intercultural education as a challenge of practice. I argue that an examination of the conditions that produce complex relations between diverse cultural groups in particular spaces is a productive starting point for developing intercultural understanding as a rational praxis of difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts with the increasing discussions on juridification in education. Concerning theorizing on such processes, we examine the poor implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD (2008) in the school sector of Germany. The paper considers the reasons for this failed endeavor by analyzing the complex, multilevel relations between policy and law in different national and historical contexts. With this, aspects of juridification as a process in education policy can be illuminated. In this regard, we suggest crucial aspects regarding juridification in public education: a focus on regulative failures in juridification processes, juridification's contexts, the mandate for putting it into action, the allocation of resources, and finally, its objective and subjective rights dimensions, i.e. how an individual can claim rights within the machinery of public education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few notions seem to capture the imagination of education policymakers today as completely as digitalization and leadership. Through these two, schools are believed to become transformed, and in turn, these transformed schools will transform people and society. This paper critically analyzes a Swedish official digital policy instrument that materializes digitalized school leadership practice. The policy instrument is made available as a 'helpful tool' by a Swedish official education agency. The paper scrutinizes the policy knowledge process set to work within the instrument by the agency. Particularly, how the instrument may influence people to come to know and change schools, and how responsibility and risk of digitalization in schools seems to first be transferred to, and then between, people in schools. The paper is concluded by a discussion of how (a) three knowledge phases interact in the knowledge process of the instrument, (b) the technical – rather than social – solution that digitalized school leadership practice is found to be, and (c) implications for digitalization in schools as a social, cultural and historical phenomenon of interest to research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper presents a counter-narrative to the long-held belief that Physical Education (PE) is impermeable to change. Transforming and enacting curriculum is incredibly challenging and sometimes impossible but if teachers have particular resources available to them over time, this makes 'radical reform more, rather than less likely' [Kirk, D. 2009. Physical Education Futures. London: Routledge]. Purpose: This paper addresses the on-going and pervasive issue of sustainable curriculum transformation and enactment in PE. More specifically, the purpose of this research is to examine the source, nature and purpose of resources that made curriculum transformation and enactment possible in one school. Data collection and analysis: As part of an exemplary case study, 7 Secondary PE teachers and one Principal from an Australian Secondary school engaged in the process of curriculum transformation and enactment. Data consisted of semi-structured individuals (3) and paired interviews (6) and field notes. We drew upon the notion of 'contextual dimensions' and 'activity layers' to support the analysis. Findings suggest that the teachers were supported by resources that spanned different contextual dimensions (situated, material, external contexts and professional culture) and layers of activity. The most valued resources identified by the teachers were (i) structural and networked support; (ii) sustained leadership; (iii) a clear vision for PE in their school; (iv) professional learning; (v) time. Conclusion: The findings suggest that while changes in policy do not necessarily prompt change in practice, particular kinds of policy are necessary if the change is to be viewed as possible and worthwhile by teachers. In this study, a layered policy landscape acted as a catalyst for the teachers to reimagine what PE could look like in their school. Moving from vision to action, it was the interplay of resources across the contextual dimensions and activity layers that the teachers drew on to support curriculum transformation and enactment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, the OECD-PISA's Governing Board approved the addition of a set of global competence measures to its Programme of Student Assessment. In our paper, we explore whether and how there are discursive shifts between the two framing papers (2016/2018) and what the outcomes are for policy-shaping. To this end, we employ Network Text Analysis to map shifting semantic configurations. We show that (i) the concept of 'global competence' is radically redefined through the simplification and polarisation of the semantic universe surrounding it, (ii) that the concept 'global' becomes a shifting signifier which enables the establishment of an equivalence between the two studied documents, and that (iii) in this process, concepts such as 'culture' are now erased in the 2018 text. Our findings show the dramatic change of approach between the two documents reinforces a narrative that is familiar to the OECD around knowledge economy proxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the reasons children and young people leave school early in Merauke, Papua, and advances education policy initiatives to address these causes. Indonesia has a policy of 12 years of compulsory schooling, but many in Papua leave school early. The Indonesian government considers that children mainly leave school early for economic reasons, and addresses the problem through its social welfare programmes, as well as 'supply- side' factors such as the number of schools. This paper uses mainly ethnographic data, especially life histories collected from 22 young people and adults who left school early, to argue that besides economic reasons, the on-again- off-again history of schooling, the extremely problematic nature of that schooling, as well as socio-cultural causes such as the stigmatisation of the local Marind people, self-stigmatisation and cultural discontinuity, combine to push children to leave school early. Multiple initiatives are suggested to improve the quality of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to common assumptions, the vast majority of the world's refugees reside in neighbouring countries in the Global South. This paper explores the complex interaction of global vocational education policies with the local realities of five communities within the under-researched yet highly relevant refugee context of India, across three major cities. It examines whether the stated policy purpose of VET addresses the practical requirements and aspirations of refugees. Drawing on interviews, focus groups, and participatory drawing with 66 respondents from Afghan, Rohingya, Somali, Chin, and Tibetan communities, and staff members from refugee organisations, this paper argues for a move away from the unidimensional goal of economic self-reliance for refugees. By bridging the capabilities approach with intersectionality, the paper calls attention to, and draws policy suggestions for, increment and diversification of VET opportunities to address multiple facets of refugees' lives, and their inclusion in national VET institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy cycles are initiated via a variety of context-bound causal drivers. In situations where systemic reform is desired, agenda-setting is vital to this process. This paper examines ‘The National Discussion on Scottish Education’, which was a sequence of stakeholder engagements promoted as a listening exercise to enable policy agenda-setting for a period of education reform. By considering key elements of the context of education reform in Scotland, the design of the stakeholder engagement process, the published outcome of the process, and by reflecting on the purposes underpinning these, this paper examines the conceptual bases upon which the National Discussion and the Vision Statement that arose from it were founded. The intention to create a vision that was both consensual and compelling was challenging to realise in practice. However, the focus on communitarian values evinced through the Vision Statement offers a helpful orientation for future policymaking and professional practice in education, suggesting the important interrelationship between vision and values for agenda-setting in policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the duality between global perspectives and local realities that have influenced the design of the school architecture by examining and comparing state school projects in two geographically distant countries: Chile and Portugal. The proposals and experiences of the "Society for the Construction of Educational Facilities" (1937–1987) in Chile and the "Board of Constructions for Technical and Secondary Education" (1934–1969) in Portugal are analysed. Established in the 1930s, these centralised bodies managed, organised, and controlled state school building projects in such a way as to achieve uniformity in design, creating architectural identities that embodied both the educational values and the representative character of the State. These bodies were influenced by similar global circumstances, and their activities were guided by the recommendations issued by intergovernmental organisations of the time. Such a situation brought their projects closer together in terms of their functional, aesthetic, technical-constructive characteristics. After examining and identifying the international influences which brought them closer in terms of the educational meanings and values associated with school architecture, the paper identifies the local circumstances that guided the design and construction processes of schools in both countries, bringing fresh geographical insights to school architecture discussion. At the same time, possible global readings of strategies, influences and results are explored, enabling us to understand school architecture as part of a nation's cultural values and as a material expression of the social model of modernity, which will continue to meet the challenges that schools face in twenty-first-century society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government's White Paper, Learning to Succeed: a new framework for post-16 learning, is here evaluated. The considerable strengths of the proposals – replacement of the TECs with Learning and Skills Councils, the adoption of social partnership in the membership of the new Councils, the substantial increase in resource and a large number of specific measures – are briefly welcomed. A number of serious reservations are then discussed in detail – for example, the absence of a model of change, the over-riding concern to meet the skill needs of business, the overreliance on human capital theory and the continued dependence on exhortation as a means of increasing employers' investment in training. Findings from The Learning Society Programme are then used to question some of the central assumptions underlying the official model of progress. It is argued that endless technocratic reforms are more likely to foster conformity, compliance and control rather than emancipation, empowerment and the enhancement of learning. Finally, it is concluded that the government is rightly pursuing radical, structural reform but is failing to recognize the potential of lifelong learning as a major lever on such change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politics and pragmatics are central and inseparable features of curriculum reform. In a federated system like Australia, many individuals and organisations are invested in reform at the national and jurisdictional level. This paper focuses on the policy work and roles of key actors positioned at the interface of national and state-based curriculum development, and at the juncture of curriculum policy and pedagogic practice. These were individuals formally identified as 'curriculum leaders' in the enactment of the Australian Curriculum in Health and Physical Education (ACHPE). The paper centres on data collected from eight (n = 8) curriculum leaders via semi-structured interviews. All were prospectively influential figures in shaping the path of the ACHPE. Our research explored the nature of their enactment work and how they were variously positioned and positioned themselves in relation to key ACHPE discourses. Analysis uses the policy actor/policy work framework as a starting point for deeper, Foucauldian informed analysis which provides insights into the complex nature of curriculum leadership by considering the additional (in)formal work and roles of these high-ranking policy actors. Data and discussion extends understanding of curriculum enactment as a process that spans policy networks and reveals the nuanced nature of curriculum leadership associated with curriculum reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Errors that occasionally manifest in examination papers and other educational assessment instruments can threaten reliability and validity. For example, a multiple choice question could have two correct response options, or a geography question containing an inaccurate map could be unanswerable. In this paper we explore this oft-neglected element of fairness. We adopt the theoretical position that assessment instrument errors stem from different types of human failure, which in turn stem from system-level failure. We then explore how the term 'error' is used in conceptually different ways, potentially engendering confusion in academic discourse. We analysed error incident records from an international assessment organisation to develop a taxonomy of assessment instrument error types. Our taxonomy covers errors that manifest in assessments in all school subjects. We used it to develop an approach to process analysis for any system of checks applied during the later stages of instrument construction. This facilitates subsequent evaluation of the psychological causes of failure. The taxonomy and process analysis approach have applications in analysing types and rates of errors in different educational assessment instruments, in systemically comparing the demands and efficacies of alternative construction processes, and as structural and communication tools in qualitative research on error culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on findings of a study that examined challenges to innovation and the greening of economies identified by businesses, TVET institutions, and other organisations with the aim to formulate options for strategic actions to increase 'sustainable competitiveness' of Hong Kong SAR, China as measured by The Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index (GSCI). This article focuses on Hong Kong but refers to Denmark (one of the Nordic countries participated in the study) as it scores much higher than China on the GSCI. The assumption of this study is that Denmark's experience can help formulate policies and the strategic actions required for building sustainable development (SD) solutions for economic green growth through innovation and skills development in Hong Kong. The study used a qualitative methodology. Data was collected through desk-top research and interviews with stakeholders from both settings. The results identified a clear distinction between innovation and greening in terms of education and skills, the business sectors involved, support modalities (policies), investment, as well as culture in both Denmark and Hong Kong SAR. Despite the very different approaches to innovation and variations in both industry structure and the environment for training and skills development, the challenges to industry and their implications for TVET in terms of greening and innovation were found to be very similar in the two contexts. Thus, contrary to the study's assumptions, this article discusses the similar policy responses to these 'green' challenges for both contexts, as well as recommended policy goals and strategic actions with implications for TVET that can support green innovation in both settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'governance' is one of the most widely applied concepts in education policy and research. Yet its meaning has changed over space and time both analytically and normatively. This history is a complicated one marked by both shifts and continuations in the politics of language and the development of unique intellectual histories and conceptual and empirical turns in the field of education. In this paper we systematically delineate the different meanings ascribed to governance within education with a focus on its polyvalence as a political project, empirical object and research analytic. Specifically, we highlight the various complementarities and tensions flowing from this rich and evolving language. We conclude by calling for more education researchers to reflect on this complicated history and attendant language as part of their framings and interpretations of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]