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Widespread neoliberal approaches to education consider schools increasingly accountable for self-management and 'client' recruitment, encapsulating economic ideologies that assume privatisation is essential for social progress. With an ever-shifting landscape of market-driven policies and the increasing growth of private education settings, more research is needed to cast light on emerging or under-researched aspects of autonomous schools. Located within a U.S. state that has strict constraints on tax subsidies for religious K-12 education, this paper investigates how an extensive form of decentralisation corresponds with schools' discipline and ethical environment. It analyses teacher interviews and web documents from faith-based, autonomous schools in a state that has devolved power and authority for decision-making to parents and other independent 'agents', having a distanced relationship with its nonstate 'actors'. The paper follows Foucault's use of the metaphor of the panopticon and adopts his power analysis to examine the nature of parental control and its influence on disciplinary and ethical practices. Evidence suggests that these autonomous schools are driven by a 'mini-public' ideology that constrains educators' autonomy and generates particular disciplinary norms; entangling ethical, educational, and social ramifications, including teacher resistance and teacher demoralisation. Implications for policy are discussed in this context of control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to contribute to the sociological analysis of power through the study of the structuration and retrieval of information on the internet. The main argument of the paper is that, paradoxically, in an age when the availability of information has increased exponentially, there is a risk that diversity in the use of sources for the construction of knowledge becomes more restricted than in the past and that information search moves towards greater objectification and centralisation. Knowledge management systems increasingly shape the ways in which we think about the questions we ask and how we try to answer them, which raises fundamental and largely neglected questions for education policy. The paper illustrates these trends with particular reference to the use of Google and Google Scholar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notions of lifelong learning and a learning society have been an important policy driver in the European Union at both the Commission and national government levels for a number of years. Overall, these policies aim to promote the twin goals of competitiveness in international markets and social cohesion within the still-expanding borders of the Union itself. To date, however, the impact of this emphasis on lifelong learning has been relatively slight. This article argues that this is in part because the policy process in relation to the development of a learning society is based on a view of governance and power that is open to reasoned dispute, and is, therefore, bound to disappoint in relation to its espoused goals. It is suggested that, rather than implementation being the main 'problem' of policy, the policy context inevitably generates many recontextualizations and renegotiations of meanings according to the situations and the actors involved, thereby undermining the notion of 'implementation' as a technical-rational process. It is argued that the complex negotiations enacted at local level reveal and are fashioned by tensions between the membership resources available to actors. This emphasizes complexity, diversity, and difference in policy processes, bringing to the fore a communicative and distributed approach to policy rather than one that is technical and centralizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent critiques have drawn important attention to the depoliticized consensus and empty promises embedded in network discourses of educational policy. While acceding this critique, this discussion argues that some forms of network analysis - specifically those adopting actor-network theory (ANT) approaches - actually offer useful theoretical resources for policy studies. Drawing from ANT-inspired studies of policy processes associated with educational standards, the article shows the ambivalences and contradictions as well as the possibilities that can be illuminated by ANT analysis of standards as networks. The discussion outlines the diverse network conceptions, considerations, and sensibilities afforded by the ANT approaches. Then, it shows four phenomena that have been highlighted by ANT studies of educational standards: ordering (and rupturing) practice through 'immutable mobiles,' local universality, tensions among networks of prescription and networks of negotiation, and different co-existing ontological forms of the same standards. The conclusion suggests some starting points, drawing from these ANT-inspired network analyses, for examining the policy processes associated with educational standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We build upon and examine critically the framework for analysing accountability set forth in the World Bank's World Development Report 2004 (WDR04) through a review of selected literature studying accountability-focused reforms in three Latin American countries - Brazil, Colombia and Chile. We examine the successes and pitfalls of the three accountability-related reforms (which also involve some type of decentralization) in fostering institutional environments in which the key actors involved in provision are held responsible for fulfilling their roles in providing education services. We apply the WDR04 framework in our analysis of the process of implementation and impact of different types of accountability-focused reforms in the three countries. The framework was conceptualized by analysing case studies such as ours for a broad range of sectors, and now has widening influence in the policy-making community, thus justifying a critical assessment. We discuss common challenges impeding implementation of the reforms, most notably political and technical challenges and discuss how well the framework and report capture and emphasize such challenges. In studying the impact of the reforms, we find that their effects are generally more positive in less poor communities and discuss the need for a strong central state to monitor and address such issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is a review essay of three books, which address one of the most fascinating themes of education: the circulation of knowledge about education (and education policy). The first book "National differences, global similarities: world culture and the future of schooling" is aimed at analysing global trends in schooling; the second book "Educational restructuring: international perspectives on traveling policies" focuses on similar issues from a different perspective, and the third book "The United Nations and education: multilateralism, development and globalisation" contributes to this theme by addressing the complexity of educational space through a very detailed analysis of the work of the four United Nations (UN) agencies in education UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP, and the World Bank.