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For decades, there has been a well-coordinated effort to unmake public education in Canada and around the globe. Neoliberal reformers have undermined public education through increased privatization, marketization, and managerialism. Government austerity measures have shaped policy that falsely necessitates, validates, and legitimizes the privatization of public education. All of these forces that fuel the neoliberal reform movement diminish the collective aims, benefits, and responsibility of/for public education. Instead, the movement encourages systems that ration education. The moves to emulate business models in education systems exacerbate inequities and run counter to the purpose of public education. Indeed, attempts to marketize, commodify, privatize, and dismantle public education are well-organized and coordinated. Yet, in Canada, provincial and territorial fragmentation has veiled the well-organized rhetoric and tactics of neoliberal education reforms. As a result, community and political responses have often been confined within borders. The reformers have been centrally organized, but the resistance has not. Recognizing that provincial and territorial borders can act as barriers to collective advocacy, this special issue is intended to share activities, research, and writing from across Canada about the tactics and impacts of privatization, to recognize the efforts being made to organize a collective response to privatization efforts, and to encourage national conversations beyond borders.

The article explores the relationship between education policy change and policy transfer, focusing on Georgia's School Board of Trustees. It analyzes how Western practices have been implemented in the education policies of post-Soviet countries. To achieve this, the article utilizes instrumental case studies and in-depth interviews. It views policy transfer as a tool of education policy change while integrating it with an advocacy coalition framework. The study indicates that advocacy coalitions transform into transfer networks, and their approach is to replicate or emulate foreign experiences. The article also poses new research questions, enabling researchers to build on and scrutinize the proposed assumptions and concentrate on post-Soviet education policy transformation.

This qualitative study explores intersections between U.S. language policies (federal and state-level) and instructional practice in early childhood settings for multilingual learners (MLs). We draw on the theoretical framework of culturally sustaining pedagogy to engage in a critical content analysis of U.S. federal and state-level policy from three states. In the cross-analysis of policy and pedagogy, we also examine data from ML teachers' instructional artifacts, open-ended surveys, and semi-structured interviews. The findings provide insight into how educators draw on culturally sustaining and asset-based approaches to teaching MLs. Additionally, findings demonstrate how ML teachers negotiate policies that prioritize English language and academic achievement and those focused on teaching discrete language skills (i.e., phonological awareness and phonics) by continually centering children's linguistic and cultural repertoires. Participants in this study advocated for linguistic pluralism in their instruction and as leaders in their schools and communities. The study further illustrates how policies mandate specific aspects of instruction and leave linguistically inclusive pedagogies to individual educators. This tension can be beneficial for educators' freedom in interpreting and navigating the policy in their classroom but can also create disparities for young learners and their literacy opportunities. The significance implies a need for revisiting early childhood ML teachers' role in creating policy that fosters linguistic and cultural inclusion in language and literacy teaching.

This essay analyzes the rhetorical framing tactics of a group of disability activists to understand how they use key words, topic shifts, and other framing maneuvers to amplify marginalized voices in public debates. Focusing on a town hall meeting and a legislator update meeting between activists and lawmakers, the author uses "stasis" theory to analyze how these maneuvers (1) create gateways for marginalized voices to enter the discussion and (2) anchor deliberations around topics of importance to the disabled community. This suggests a more complex role for framing in face-to-face deliberative contexts than studies of framing strategies in written texts have traditionally considered. I argue that a multidimensional view of framing uniting consideration of word choice with attention to interactive dynamics is necessary to appreciate how framing maneuvers can not only shape the content of debates but amplify the voices of people excluded by the tacit rules of democratic deliberation.

This comparative case study examines two out-of-system education programs created by Black community organizers during the 2020-2021 school year. Applying a unique framework based on the Black radical imagination, I examine how the communities experienced these programs and the potential of the programs to shape advocacy and local policy reforms. This critical policy analysis expands our understating of how racially minoritized communities build political power in education systems and offers educators, policymakers, and researchers guidance for advancing racially just policy change at the local level.

Professional legislative advocacy is a pathway to improve the field of education as it may lead to policy changes that impact schools and the profession directly. Higher education faculty have the opportunity to infuse in their students the skills and confidence to become advocates for their respective disciplines. In this study on an approach to teaching, we developed a training intervention to teach and build school counseling trainees' confidence for engaging in professional legislative advocacy and evaluated its effectiveness in an initial study. Compared to pretest scores, the participants had significant gains in knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to professional legislative advocacy after the training intervention. Their posttest scores were also higher than a sample of school counselor trainees who did not participate in the training. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggested research directions.

The terms diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice have become ubiquitous in schools, institutions, and professional organizations. Yet the extent to which the ideals behind these words are realities in today's world language classrooms is less clear. Are our world language classrooms equitable and accessible to diverse learners, particularly given the new social, emotional, and academic needs of students in our post-pandemic society? In this article, we seek to engage leaders and educators, both within and beyond NECTFL, to think critically about policies and practices in their schools, districts, communities, and states. Using two composite vignettes, broad understandings from recent literature, and findings from a recent study that examined the perspectives of world language educators, we describe and interpret key issues that currently impact world language programs, teachers, classes, and students. These issues include a lack of access to world language study related to students' race, socioeconomic status, and disability; world language teacher shortages; and a need for a more culturally relevant, engaging world language curriculum. The article concludes with recommendations to actualize language educators' support for diversity, equity, and inclusion specific to world language education contexts.

Rural critical policy analysis (RCPA) goes beyond questions about whether a policy will "work" in a particular place, to examine the impact of policies on rural places. RCPA recognizes that policies represent the allocation of values--and that policy analysis cannot be separated from views of right and wrong. RCPA asks us to consider policies from a position of advocating for people who have often been disenfranchised or disempowered by policy. This means recognizing two things about rural policy--(1) that for centuries, policies have positioned places as in service to urban places--a perspective that assumes that rural places exist to provide urban centers with resources that can be harvested or mined (food, forests, energy, recreation opportunities) and; (2) accompanying this metrocentric belief is often an assumption that rural places are deficit or deficient--lacking in resources, out of step with the "modern" world, and unable to care for themselves. Devon Brenner examines RCPA which moves beyond what works and, instead, asks for whom while examining geographies alongside race, class, gender, and other demographics.

This paper discusses the emergence of an opt-out movement in Israel led by parent associations at local and national levels. The protest targeted the use of a national standardized test, the Meitzav. Analyzing media coverage of this movement and informed by the theoretical arguments of the Advocacy Coalition Framework, the study suggests that by forming a coalition with the Teachers' Union, parents proclaimed their right to a role in education policymaking in a highly centralized system. The coalition was successful in that it influenced the Ministry of Education to postpone the tests and form a special committee to reevaluate the national assessment policy. The Israeli case enhances our understanding of opt-out movements in different educational and institutional contexts.

The construct of moral injury is usually utilized to understand cases in which individuals perform or witness actions they consider morally wrong. In this paper, we suggest the construct of "moral trap", which entails circumstances in which teachers face pressure to act but are unable to simultaneously meet the demands of care, justice, and truthfulness because of "systemic conditions." Using grounded theory, we present the analysis of ten semi-structured interviews with teachers from four U.S. states. We found three different types of entrapment: teachers attempting to enact and/or advocate for social justice, attempting to care for their families, and attempting to care for their professional identities. Implications for teacher education include a need to prepare teachers for navigating multiple moral demands and for coordinating with other teachers to advocate for social change. Implications for policy include a need to provide greater wrap-around supports for educational equity.

Over the past decade, the OECD has gradually shifted its governing mechanism from promoting 'best practices' based on comparative data on pupils' cognitive skills to actively advocating for individual and collective well-being as an "alternative" and "ideal future." This article focuses on the OECD's use of 'techno-scientific fictive scripts' as a strategy to promote happiness and well-being as solutions to anticipated crises, despite their conceptual ambiguity and token usage. It analyses how the OECD's recent 'Future of Education' projects have sought to steer its audience towards shared concerns and expectations of the future, while simultaneously asserting its technical expertise in future studies methodologies. It argues that by returning from endorsing data-driven policies to making futuristic claims using future studies methodologies, the OECD endeavours to redefine itself as both a pathfinder and a problem solver, simultaneously blending its human capital imperatives with technological inevitability in its vision of the future.

Purpose: In the last 5 years, many states have introduced science of reading (SOR) reforms that require increased attention to foundational skills instruction in grades K-3. The fast spread of these policies raises questions about the mechanisms that facilitated their rapid adoption. The purpose of this article is to examine how SOR discourses obscured or legitimated agendas of various policy actors involved in promoting literacy reforms. Research Methods/Approach: Grounded in anthropology of policy, this study examines interactions between legislators, policy makers, and policy advocates in Tennessee. Data sources include video recordings of legislative sessions, policy artifacts, reports, media articles, and interviews. Findings: The study documents how the focus on the "science of reading" disguises pursuits of conservative think tanks and major philanthropies in promoting curriculum reforms. Intermediary organizations' advocacy for particular instructional materials and consulting services aligned with Common Core State Standards, even in the states that moved away from them, paves the way for greater standardization, centralization, and expansion of private sector involvement in educational services. Implications: Positioned in the wider sociopolitical context of neoliberal education reforms, SOR advocacy becomes a performance that obscures privatizers' efforts to use literacy legislation as a mechanism for securing a market share for their products and services.

An estimated 19% of students enrolled in postsecondary education in the US have a disability. However, students with disabilities often face barriers, including accessibility challenges, that result in lower attendance and graduation rates. It is therefore critical that universities take action to ensure campuses are fully inclusive and accessible. Using the Design Thinking Model, a workshop was conducted at a large Southeastern University to bring together a diverse group of stakeholders (n = 32) to brainstorm innovative solutions to accessibility challenges. Four potential solutions were generated that aimed to improve campus infrastructure, the mobile map application, and general advocacy of people with disabilities, and to establish a task force to ensure that addressing accessibility concerns remains a long-term priority. After the workshop, participants reported having greater knowledge of accessibility policies, awareness of accessibility issues on campus, and an increased ability to address accessibility issues when they arise. Participants without disabilities also reported being more likely to notice accessibility challenges on campus and felt more confident talking to individuals with disabilities. Workshops that leverage the Design Thinking Model show promise in generating solutions that could tackle accessibility challenges on postsecondary campuses and increase knowledge of university policies and procedures related to accessibility.

This paper uses critical archival analysis, paired with textual analysis of grant descriptions, to understand how nine foundations -- all with endowments derived from the student loan industry -- have motivated their college completion work and the relationship between these commitments and grantmaking over time (2000-2019). Mobilizing concepts of theorization and racialized change work (RCW) to analyze the relationship between funders' deployed racial frames and their theory of change, this paper offers three primary contributions: 1) A methodological approach to analyzing philanthropic or intermediary-led reform campaigns (e.g. the college completion agenda) as a form of theorization -- a core mechanism of institutional change and diffusion -- inclusive of funders' racial projects; 2) Insights on the qualitative, causal pathway by which one foundation created organization-specific interest convergence that facilitated engagement in RCW, and 3) Evidence demonstrating how race-evasive theorizations, even if efficacious mechanisms for change, fail to deinstitutionalize a core mechanism of racialization: investment in deficit-minded, individual-level projects. These insights speak not only to the material differences between race-evasive and race-conscious theorizations, but also organizational pathways toward durable race-conscious commitments in higher education.

This article is part of a case study of U.S. federal leadership in special education from the perspective of those who served in the roles of Assistant Secretaries of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services and Directors of the Office of Special Education Programs or their equivalents in the former U.S. Office of Education and later U.S. Department of Education. This case study covers the time period from the George W. Bush administration and lasting through the first 4 years of President Barack Obama's administration (2000-2012). During this time, government intervention in education reached its zenith with the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2001 and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. The participants detailed their (a) career and appointment, (b) vision for educating students with disabilities, (c) theory of change, (d) politics and financial constraints, (e) advocacy, and (f) views of the past, present, and future.

In this series, we highlighted the importance of addressing the mental health needs of students with disabilities. The purpose of this final article in the series is to briefly summarize each article's recommendations for addressing children's mental health needs and to provide a compelling rationale for adopting those recommended practices. The rationale is introduced through a series of "why" questions, and those questions are then answered in sections addressing professional ethics and advocacy ethics. By focusing on practices, policies, and professional standards related to mental health among students with disabilities, school professionals adopt vital roles, responsibilities, and opportunities to assure access to school-based metal health supports.

Controversy is intensifying with the rapid spread of charter schools and their domination of the education reform agenda. As charter enrolment increases in the USA, inequities in education worsen. This article contributes to the debate on contemporary education policy by critically examining charter issues from the US literature and stakeholder data. We add insights to research on charter controversy from public discourse and stakeholder groups. Our narrative animates pros and cons in the charter debate through stakeholders' eyes, in effect contributing voices from the field. A case study of a public charter school in Virginia provides a revealing prism for understanding charter schools. Content analysis was performed on data from nine interviews held during the pandemic with founding members (parents, etc.). As found, the charter narrative of success and struggle around public perception, racial equity, segregation, funding, approval, effectiveness, and accreditation was a school story. Charter policy effects on social groups--parents, teachers, community members, and leaders--in their association with the charter's evolution were identifiable. The conflicting views resonate with polarising tensions nationwide. Regarding international implications of the analysis, the move to privatise and reform public education through independent schools with autonomy continues to impact European countries.

For too long, the middle grades have been racked by a mistaken narrative that this age group is simply too difficult, or that it's a time in life when one must simply endure rather than thrive. The Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) rejects that narrative. It is time for a unified policy agenda in support of the middle grades. This Policy Agenda reflects a future-focused set of recommendations that will move our education system toward one in which all students can thrive and positioning all students for success in later life. Accomplishing these aims will provide federal recognition for the middle grades as a distinct educational phase, support a diverse, professional workforce equipped to meet the unique developmental needs of this age group, advance promising, research-based practices that could be replicated across the country, and open new opportunities for middle schoolers to explore their future possibilities when it matters most. Finally, it will address the acute, ongoing mental health crisis, providing students essential supports and resources. [This article was written by The Association for Middle Level Education.]

This research looked at the growing space that Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is gaining in educational policy worldwide, and at the role Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) played in GCE agenda setting and policy implementation. Based on a comparative policy analysis carried out in 10 European countries, the political agency of NGOs was explored, underlining opportunities, tensions, and challenges, especially in their contribution to national strategies to integrate GCE into national educational systems.

The research on education philanthropy typically characterizes foundations as practicing either "traditional" or "strategic" philanthropy. These labels are used to indicate divergent ways of thinking about the impact of grants and approaches to grantmaking between the two models. Drawing on a theoretical framework informed by institutional theory of sociology, I analyze data from interviews with officers at foundations characterized as traditional or strategic to identify areas of convergence between different kinds of funders. I find that while differences remain, a third ecosystem model of philanthropy is emerging across the sector that balances the demand for grantmaking driven by measurable outcomes with the reality of the institutional field in which grantees operate and projects are implemented.

Environmental education (EE) is an integrated component of the South African Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document. Pro-EE civil society organisations are actively involved in the implementation of EE policies in schools. The roles played by civil society organisations contribute to the trajectory of practical environmental programmes. This study adopted an interpretive paradigm, a qualitative approach, and a phenomenological design anchored on Bronfenbrenner's philosophical view of human development. One Pro-EE civil society organisation and two respondents were purposefully sampled. Semi-structured interviews and documents were tools employed to collect qualitative data and results were analysed thematically. The study revealed that Pro-EE civil society organisations play a pivotal role which includes; equipping learners to live sustainably, teachers' professional development, and policy formulation. The study recommended that the South School Act be amended to make EE policy mandatory. The department of basic education (DBE) should provide sufficient resources to Pro-EE civil society organisations to expand Eco-Schools project-based initiatives in schools regardless of the geographical location.

Organizations advocating for federal, state, and local level support for adult education have long relied on the power of individual story to influence both public perception and public policy. They have developed training programs, provided advocacy toolkits, and organized visits with policy makers in order to promote and sustain awareness of the benefits of adult education for the lives of individuals and the fabric of the community as a whole. At the same time, decision makers across the political spectrum have increasingly come to rely on research to inform the process known as evidence-based policymaking. How can the adult education field "prioritize rigorous research findings" that inform evidence-based policymaking, while also taking advantage of the persuasive power of the "anecdotes" that those affected by the policies can provide? This paper identifies two strategies that researchers can employ to reconcile the two and proposes three areas of current interest where those strategies might be used to good effect.

When education initiatives set out to help those who have been "historically disadvantaged or historically marginalized," they perfectly describe students with disabilities. Yet too often, these students have been excluded from conversations about equity in education. Congress opened public school doors for millions of children with disabilities through the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. This law, now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), not only guarantees the rights of students with disabilities to attend a public school but also promises a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. Yet 46 years later, families and advocates are still fighting for its full implementation and enforcement. There is much progress to celebrate over the past 50 years, but the United States and its schools have far to go before equity is a reality for all students. In this article, Karla Phillips-Krivickas asserts that what began as an exercise in civil rights compliance decades ago must transform into a genuine commitment to prepare students of all abilities for college and careers. Deliberate, strategic leadership from state education leaders can ensure that the needs of students with disabilities are taken into account on every issue and in every policy decision.

We used Manna's theory on borrowing strength to examine the influence of local and national idea champions seeking to broaden the participation of K-12 students in computer science. Concepts from Manna's model were applied to analyze interview data gathered from idea champions at the national and local levels. We identified examples of borrowing strength that not only highlighted the importance of individual policy entrepreneurs but also elevated the importance of community building. We introduce the concept of building strength to highlight how idea champions strategically supported capacity-building activities at a different level in the federal system prior to borrowing strength.

The rise of right-wing populism, embodied in the figure of Donald Trump, has been characterized by conspiracy theories, "fake news," and other forms of mis- and disinformation in what has been described as a "post-truth" era. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this problem, and national conflicts around appropriate content, methods, and modes of schooling often involved disinformation circulated in school board meetings and other local contexts during the 2021-2022 school year. In this study, we adopt a critical literacy lens and take up the tools of discourse analysis to examine the rhetoric of post-truth, conspiracy-oriented groups opposed to public health mandates, critical race theory (CRT), and social emotional learning (SEL) in public schools. Our discourse analysis of Purple for Parents Indiana (P4PI), a local advocacy group, suggests that P4PI and similar groups are engaging in "cosmetic criticality," a project superficially resembling critical literacy that poses a unique challenge to public education--a challenge literacy scholars and teacher educators must confront.

In this transcendental phenomenological study and related data analysis (Creswell & Poth, 2018; Moustakas, 1994), authors explored school counselor educators' perceptions regarding recent changes in the profession. Through six focus groups, participants (n = 29) shared their experience, resulting in four themes: (a) range of reactions to changes in the field; (b) school counseling is less valued in the counseling profession; (c) inconsistent school counselor educator identity; (d) ardent advocacy. Authors discuss implications for school counselor preparation, identity, policy, and advocacy within an ecological framework and the need for additional national and international research.

The 50th anniversary of the Marland Report provides an opportunity to reflect on its impact on the field of gifted education. A critical question is how the Marland Report addressed the need for equity, especially since the Marland federal definition made no explicit mention of culturally, linguistically, or economically different gifted students. This article presents a review of (a) the history leading to the Marland Report, (b) the report's content concerning equity in gifted education, and (c) the activity that resulted directly from the Marland legislation through the National/State Leadership Training Institute on the Gifted and the Talented, including national conferences and two teacher institutes about "culturally different" gifted students between 1973 and 1981. Implications include the consequences of neglecting the unique contributions the National/State Leadership Training Institute on the Gifted and the Talented made to the field and a suggested agenda for moving forward that includes long-desired changes and new directions.

Neoliberal tenets have colored the past half-century of education reform, marked by top-down accountability, market competition, and regimented learning aims. Federal drift and post-pandemic recovery, along with economic uncertainty, will blur policy priorities going forward. Less noticed, local networks of pro-equity activists have come to challenge urban bureaucracies, while advancing fairness, diverse forms of schooling, respectful and rigorous social relations inside schools. This paper examines the case of Los Angeles, where a coalition of Black and Latina leaders, civil rights attorneys, social-justice nonprofits, and pedagogical reformers succeeded to progressively fund schools, extend college-prep courses, and decriminalize discipline. Student achievement, in turn, climbed steadily upward for nearly two decades, 2002 to 2019. This pluralist network of advocates carved-out a third civic terrain, challenging corporate elites and traditional labor leaders. Rooted in humanist ideals, these colorful activists countered the individualistic and competitive values of neoliberal advocates, while motivating lasting institutional change.

Recognizing the need for scientific fidelity and balanced representation in the evidence that informs public policy, this study investigates technical and issue bias in 43 policy briefs and state handbooks that provided information about the use of Student Learning Objectives to evaluate teachers' performance. The author uses multiple qualitative methods to categorize the contributors to the focal documents, identify the evidence they drew upon, and determine how they represented the information to their targeted audiences. The study reinforces the findings of prior research by documenting the outsized impact of advocacy groups in a policy-related evidence base. The results make an important addition to the scholarly literature by cataloging an array of technical assistance providers that translated and disseminated evidence to decision makers and spotlighting the various ways biased information appeared in the publications. Throughout, the study reinforces how incentives and timing shape evidence production and use in policymaking.

In France as in other European countries, access to education for immigrants beyond compulsory schooling is selectively achieved, through a triage implemented by education administrations. Support organizations are increasingly solicited on this matter. Considering the twofold policy role of non-profits which both act as advocates and providers, this paper sheds light on the reciprocal relationship between the way activists manage enrollment in education and the way this issue is framed in the public sphere. Indeed, militants play a gatekeeping role and can discretely negotiate the access to school at the margins of the official institution. Nevertheless, because this struggle for education is individualized and silent, this issue is not likely to become a public and visible cause, around which a political reaction from public authorities could be claimed. Hence, while they largely counteract the infringement of the right to education, the actions of activists paradoxically participate in making it socially acceptable. That is why, beyond the case of immigrant education, the analysis eventually provides an empirical understanding of the social conditions of the construction of education public problems.