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The inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in typical educational settings has only recently gained momentum in Greece, responding to the recommendations of the international conventions. Reform of special education legislation spotlights the inclusion of children with autism in mainstream schools. The principal goal is to accept the diversity and heterogeneity of all students. This paper presents the educational policy for children with ASD in Greece and comments on teachers' perceptions of inclusion. School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse impact on children's lives and created a new environment with different demands for educational inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government has acknowledged that in order to turn Chinese universities into world class institutions, it will have to grant them a greater degree of autonomy. However, the reforms that have been introduced to achieve this goal run counter to a long tradition of central government oversight. The question now presenting itself is how much actual control government has devolved to universities. The qualitative evidence presented in this paper, obtained through interviews with university presidents and Party secretaries, not only confirms that, as one might expect, Chinese universities continue to operate "in the shadow of hierarchy," but also and more importantly that formal efforts to devolve authority are being rendered ineffective by informal pressures and control mechanisms. Discussion reflects on the state of play in Chinese public administration studies, and urges public policy researchers examining devolution in China to account for both formal reforms and everyday "lived experiences." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concept of 'epistemic corruption' and applies it to current debates about the negative effects of education on the epistemic character of students. Epistemic corruption occurs when an agent comes to develop or exercise one or more epistemic vices due their interaction with a social environment. The phenomenon of epistemic corruption is especially important given modern enthusiasm, among virtue epistemologists and others, for the claim that education should aim to enhance the epistemic character of students by cultivating their epistemic virtues. After presenting a working account of the concept of epistemic corruption, three case studies are offered that document epistemically corrupting educational practices and policies. I conclude that study of the forms, practices, and effects of epistemic corruption should be an important dimension of virtue and vice epistemology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent media accounts suggest certain faith-based interest groups are increasingly pressuring provincial governments across Canada to ensure their views on education policy are acted upon. This paper offers a qualitative assessment of the policy influence possessed by faithbased groups active on the education file in Alberta and the factors responsible for this level of influence. Overall, such influence is not directly attributable to the group's size or resources nor can it be explained by the assumption that Alberta is overrun with religious citizens demanding socially conservative policies. Rather, the explanation is found in a more nuanced appreciation of the self-interested electoral calculations made by the long-governing Progressive Conservative party, on the one hand, as well as well as the party's long-running commitment to "school choice" on the other. This sentiment is intimately related to both the province's populist political culture as well as a broader ideological convergence around the principle of "free choice" in general, and the benefits of marketization in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I reflect on transformation in South African education policy, post-1994. The new curriculum for schools was underpinned by the democratic values of the constitution and was a time of renewal for music education. However, over time as the original curriculum documents were revised, the focus of promoting indigenous traditions was abandoned and replaced by an overtly Western approach to music education. It is against this background that I also reflect on the transformation that occurred as a result of a continuing professional development programme that arose from a need to improve curriculum implementation in the arts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is concerned with the development of national primary education regimes in Europe, North America, Latin America, Oceania, and Japan between 1870 and 1939. We examine why school systems varied between countries and over time, concentrating on three institutional dimensions: centralization, secularization, and subsidization. There were two paths to centralization: through liberal and social democratic governments in democracies, or through fascist and conservative parties in autocracies. We find that the secularization of public school systems can be explained by path-dependent state-church relationships (countries with established national churches were less likely to have secularized education systems) but also by partisan politics. Finally, we find that the provision of public funding to private providers of education, especially to private religious schools, can be seen as a solution to religious conflict, since such institutions were most common in countries where Catholicism was a significant but not entirely dominant religion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines changes between 1992 and 2010 in Japanese junior high school history textbooks’ representations of imperial Japan's colonialism and aggression in Asia, using documentary study and interviews with actors in the textbook production process. Following a trend to increase textbook material on Japan's wartime aggression in the mid-1990s, after 2000 publishers approached this topic in contrasting ways, some expanding and some reducing their coverage, with dramatically varying results in terms of market share. Publishers’ decisions on content were related to their market position and to changes in local textbook adoption procedures that have increased the decision-making power of appointed boards of education at the expense of teachers. Increased market share since 2000 is associated primarily with a progressive pedagogy in tune with recent curriculum reforms. The recent spotlight on textbook adoption has exposed weaknesses in the system, such as inadequate representation of the local community and insufficient guarantee of teachers’ expert input in the adoption process. With the introduction of new textbook approval criteria requiring their conformity with the patriotic emphases of the revised Fundamental Law on Education of 2006, the content of future textbooks will clearly be strongly influenced by both approval and adoption processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract. The regionalization of public policy is one of the most remarkable transformations European states have undergone since the 1970s. Through an examination of this particular development, the article explores theories of interregional competition in two very different cases: education policy in France, a decentralized unitary state where regional governments are entrusted with limited policy competences in this field, and Germany, a federal state where regions have exclusive responsibility over secondary education. The paper shows that, in both cases, interregional competition lends itself neither to a race to the bottom nor a race to the top, but rather to a race to the middle. Regional governments aim, in fact, to demonstrate that they adopt similar policies to other regions so as to avoid being blamed by both the electorate and the central state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the 1990s, efforts were launched in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in the Russian Federation to support the revival of Sakha (Yakut) language education. This interdisciplinary study examines the evolution of school-based Sakha language education in the city of Yakutsk over a 25-year period beginning with the launching of the first reforms in the 1990s. Language education reform in the capital city has been shaped by a dynamic interplay between federal, regional, and local factors. Grassroots social and cultural activism continues to play a key role in school-based language revitalization in Yakutsk, influencing how policies have been received and implemented at the local level. Local community stakeholders are working together to counteract federal education policies, which direct school resources away from minority language education. This case study shows that the Sakha (Yakut) language revival has taken root in the capital city, and it provides important evidence that civic activism continues to develop in urban areas of the republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution looks into nationalization and education in European borderlands in the early post-World War II period. Belonging to Belgium and Poland, respectively, in the interwar years, the Eupen–St. Vith–Malmedy and the East-Upper Silesia regions came under German rule during World War II. Returned to the Belgian and Polish nation-states once the war was over, the regions experienced a pronounced upheaval in the population profile as a result of population transfers and reorientations in education curricula. The aim of these measures was to guarantee the national reliability of borderland inhabitants, with a special role being designated for teachers, who were perceived as crucial in the raising of children as national citizens imbued with certain core values. This contribution compares the methods employed by the authorities in selecting educational personnel for their borderlands, the nationalizing role teachers were to play and the way teachers gave meaning to their professional practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]