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The purpose of this research were 1) to synthesize the structure of product design management of small and medium industries in Thailand to the international market education, and 2) to verify the consistency of the relationship between marketing demand and corporate strategy, research and development, innovation and technology and design goals. This research is quantitative and qualitative research. The sample group for quantitative research was 500 small and medium business entrepreneurs, 9 key informants divided into 4 groups: business people, government organization group, academic group, and designer data analysis uses a structured analysis. The analysis of the developed structural models was found that the evaluation criteria were consistent with the empirical data. The relative chi-squared probability was 0.306, the relative chi-squared probability was 1.042, the consistency index was 0.957, and the mean square of the estimation of the error was 0.009.

Purpose: The aim of this research is to investigate youth understandings of citizenship against the dual backgrounds of inclusive citizenship education and exclusionary discourse in the public sphere. Design / methodology / approach: The topic was explored through group interviews with 10th grade students, while the emergent theme of material or sensory tokens as indicators of belonging was analysed through an adapted discursive-material knot framework. Findings: The analysis shows that exclusionary citizenship discourses visible in public debate impact youth's understanding of citizenship, and that youth use material or sensory tokens, such as skin colour, clothing, and audible language to justify or challenge citizenship belonging. Research limitations / implications: The research demonstrates youth engagement with citizenship discourse within the public sphere and their sense-making of citizen stereotypes and prejudices. However, more research is needed in order to further explore the issue within different contexts. Practical implications: As previous research has indicated, a clear vocabulary is needed in order to effectively address racialised prejudice in citizenship education. These findings indicate that addressing the material or sensory tokens inherent in such exclusionary discourse may be a useful starting point.

A sample of political expressions that have been common in Arab media since the Arab Spring in 2011 was collected from TV newscasts, online news websites and social media pages. Analysis of their structure, denotative and connotative meanings revealed the following features: (i) Use of lexical hybrids ([foreign characters omitted]; (ii) revival of ancient Islamic expressions [foreign characters omitted]); (iii) use of blends ([foreign characters omitted]); (iv) few borrowings (BRICS); (v) use of new acronyms (ISIS) with verbs, nouns and agents derived from them ([foreign characters omitted]); and (vi) phonological and lexical substitutions in names of political and religious personalities that the users oppose ("Kerdogan for Erdogan"; [foreign characters omitted] for "Hezbollah"). Semantically, Arab Spring political terms refer to types of governments, places (towns), minority groups, religious sects, names of militia groups, weapons and military tactics, revolution squares that were not widely used before. They are also characterized by their non-literal use, i.e., use of loaded expressions, dysphemisms, and slurs that express disparagement, derogation, criticism, and disrespect towards those they oppose and towards the social and political situations in [foreign characters omitted]. Translation and interpreting instructors need to integrate emerging political terms commonly used in the media in political and media translation courses. Students majoring in translation and interpreting need to be familiar with new political terms and should be able to translate them from Arabic to English and vice versa. Students need to keep their own lists of new terms used in the media together with their equivalents in English or Arabic. They need to use Google Translate with caution as Google Translate usually gives incorrect word order in compounds. It also gives equivalents that do not match source terms in part of speech and in the type of derivative.

In this paper, we sought to analyze if the internet and social networks usage could be impacting the constitution of an assertive political culture among young people in South Brazil. We hypothesize that although these new socialized agents are widespread among the young, apathy and disinterest in politics remain. To test our hypothesis, we analyzed data from a survey conducted with secondary school students from Porto Alegre in 2015 and 2019 for values related to democracy, feelings about politics, responsiveness, and political efficacy. Results confirm that the political culture of the young remains apathetic, but those socialized by new agents seem to be closer to developing an assertive type of political culture.

Politeness strategies are of significant importance to maintain the face of the addressee. Senders of formal congratulatory letters seek to create a positive image in the minds of their addresses by performing particular illocutionary acts and face-saving acts (FSAs) in the form of written texts. To the best knowledge of the researcher, this topic received little attention from linguistic researchers, especially on the pragma-stylistic level. The importance of this study arises from the fact that congratulatory formal letters are an effective tool in the successful performance of foreign relations and thus deserve investigation. The current study investigates the pragma-stylistic aspects of illocutionary acts and FSA Politeness Strategies in some selected English and Arabic formal congratulatory letters written by English and Arabic officials. Findings reveal that assertive constitutes the highest frequency in English data, while expressive occurs more in Arabic. Besides, the FSA politeness strategy (Use appropriate forms of address) includes most of the total frequency in both English and Arabic data, which still it appeared more in English. Additionally, (Exaggerate interest, sympathy with H) comes next in Arabic, while (Be optimistic) appeared more in English. In addition, results show that exaggeration (Hyperbole) is the prevalent stylistic device used in Arabic. Arabic officials usually exaggerate the glorification of people in authoritative positions, while English high officials tend to be more moderate. The findings will be helpful in cross-cultural comparative studies and other related fields.

Background: It is widely recognised that policymakers use research deemed relevant, yet little is understood about ways to enhance perceived relevance of research evidence. Observing policymakers' access of research online provides a pragmatic way to investigate predictors of relevance. Aims and objectives: This study investigates a range of relevance indicators including committee assignments, public statements, issue prevalence, or the policymaker's name or district. Methods: In a series of four rapid-cycle randomised control trials (RCTs), the present work systematically explores science communication strategies by studying indicators of perceived relevance. State legislators, state staffers, and federal staffers were emailed fact sheets on issues of COVID (Trial 1, N = 3403), exploitation (Trial 2, N = 6846), police violence (Trial 3, N = 3488), and domestic violence (Trial 4, N = 3888). Findings: Across these trials, personalising the subject line to the legislator's name or district and targeting recipients based on committee assignment consistently improved engagement. Mentions of subject matter in public statements was inconsistently associated, and state-level prevalence of the issue was largely not associated with email engagement behaviour. Discussion and conclusions: Together, these results indicate a benefit of targeting legislators based on committee assignments and of personalising the subject line with legislator information. This work further operationalises practical indicators of personal relevance and demonstrates a novel method of how to test science communication strategies among policymakers. Building enduring capacity for testing science communication will improve tactics to cut through the noise during times of political crisis.

This study aimed at establishing the impact of extra lessons on the political field in Zimbabwean urban day high-density secondary schools. It was guided by the interpretivist perspective based on the interpretation of interactions and social meaning that teachers, learners, parents, and school inspectors assigned to the role of extra lessons on the political environment. The study was qualitative and thus aimed at reporting detailed views of informants. The multiple case study method was used as the focus was on three high-density high schools in Chegutu town. The researcher adopted the multi-technique approach to generate data, thus interviews and focus group discussions were used. Data saturation was arrived at after the involvement of 23 participants. These consisted of 8 teachers, 6 learners, 6 parents and 3 school inspectors. Findings from the study show that political expedience was one reason why extra lessons had been carried out with the blessing of some political players. From the academic outlook, politicians in favour of the extra lessons capitalised on them to gain continued existence in the political arena. While the political elite benefitted in the short term, through political expedience, in the long run, they stood to lose political support as this could also lead to civil disorder when many youths passed examinations but found no formal employment. Extra lessons made teachers generate extra income and created informal employment in many private colleges. This translated into low political tensions which were usually sparked by poor teacher incentives and high unemployment. Extra lessons paved the way for some meeting point among and between the different stakeholders and politicians still were guaranteed their votes regardless of whether they were for or against the extra lessons. Since there is evidence that most stakeholders were in favour of the extra lessons, it is prudent these lessons should continue to be carried out. Extra lessons also created informal employment in private colleges, and this has translated into low political tensions as teachers get some extra incentives, at the same time lowering the high unemployment of qualified teachers.

The article presents the results of research on information literacy (IL) of employees of selected state administration offices, those in which the concept of improving the quality of work, named "good governance", has been implemented. The first aim of the study was to determine the components of IL necessary for state administration employees and the deficiencies occurring in this respect. Another goal was to develop research methods and techniques which would be useful to achieve the first aim and to identify challenges of this study. The research was conducted in two stages. The first of them, carried out at the Lublin Provincial Office in Poland, was aimed at determining the information needs of individual official positions, identifying the IL essential for officials and the shortcomings in this regard. At this stage, the following research methods have been used: analysis of cards describing individual job positions in the office, the method of mapping knowledge in the office and the method of focused group interview. The second stage of the research was carried out in five provincial offices. This time, the main goal was to check whether the questionnaires developed by Polish researchers to study the information culture (the system of human attitudes towards information) of various social groups could be effectively used to study the IL of officials. It was assumed that the information culture of staff determined their ability to undertake information activities, including untypical ones, expected from them in line with the concept of "good governance". The conclusion reached was that IL of employees was underestimated in the current practice of state administration. A set of components of the information skills useful for working in various office job positions have been developed. It was reported that the information culture of the studied group was characterised by an optimistic perception of their own skills and their professional usefulness. Studies have shown that obtaining conclusive results indicating the level of specific information skills in the office environment is often not possible for reasons beyond the control of a researcher. Traditional IL testing methods are assumed to fail there. This is due to the Dunning-Kruger effect (Kruger & Dunning, 1999), as well as constraints imposed by the way offices function and decisions of the management of the office. It seems that achieving more precise results requires establishing close cooperation with the management of an examined group. Undertaking such research is necessary in the context of implementing the concept of "good governance" and a model of one of the methodologies has been presented in the article.

Scholars of political economy have raised the question of whether recent populist movements around the world signal the decline of neoliberal hegemony. What would such a decline mean for education policy, an arena that has been dominated by a neoliberal common sense for several decades? This study investigates the policy discourse of former U.S. President Donald Trump's Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, in order to assess the extent to which it aligns with the neoliberal common sense or draws upon discourses of populism that have been gaining traction in the last few years. Using methods of corpus linguistics, I engage in a critical discourse analysis of 59 of DeVos's public speeches delivered between 2017 and 2019 in comparison with a reference corpus of speeches delivered by DeVos's predecessors in the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. The findings, informed by Ernesto Laclau's theory of populism as political logic and discourse, suggest that DeVos deploys several features of populist discourse even as she advocates policies that are characteristically neoliberal. I consider the implications of this discourse for education policy in the US.

This paper shows how a significant, but short-lived, episode in Scotland's educational history--the rise and decline of Socialist Sunday Schools (SSSs) in the first half of the twentieth century--provoked controversial debates about issues that continue to have relevance today. The first half of the paper explains the origins of SSSs, their links to adult political groups, the form and content of their meetings, and publications designed to advance their agenda. It also describes the criticisms they received from religious leaders and Conservative politicians, on the grounds that they undermined faith and preached revolution. This leads into the second part, which considers whether SSSs might be regarded as agencies of indoctrination, promoting a version of citizenship that sought to subvert existing institutions and disrupt the social order. It is argued that complete neutrality in educational systems is not possible and that a study of the SSS movement has considerable potential as an educational resource, particularly for teachers of history, politics and social studies.

At a press conference in Japan, an L2-Japanese reporter questioned an L1-Japanese politician. Although the press conference was conducted in Japanese, the politician code-switched to English during their exchange. The reporter challenged the politician's code-switching; a confrontational exchange ensued. The reporter's reaction depicts the code-switching as linguistic microaggression. Linguistic microaggressions are verbal comments focused on language use itself which intentionally or unintentionally discriminate. I analyze two data sets: the press conference data and an interview with the reporter, and a survey conducted with over 300 L2-Japanese speakers in Japan. Microanalysis of the press conference reveals linguistic microaggression and a struggle for speaker legitimacy. Qualitative thematic analysis of survey data examines L2-Japanese speakers' reactions to unwanted code-switching. Together, analysis of these data sets shows how 1) linguistic microaggression can be resisted while asserting one's own speaker legitimacy, and 2) L2-Japanese speakers can react strongly to unwanted code-switching. Few studies examine unwanted code-switching. I argue that the code-switching examined here was linguistic microaggression and was perceived as a threat to L2 speaker legitimacy. Findings contribute to research that critically examines L2 speakers' struggles in Japan and have implications for understanding L2 speaker legitimacy.

Background: Despite the known need for empirical research-to-policy studies, little is known about the factors and conditions needed to support meaningful evidence use or how to intervene to promote quality evidence use. Aims and objectives: To study research-policy processes empirically and descriptively, we conducted an ethnography that focused on the impact of the Research-to-Policy Collaboration (RPC) on legislator and researcher evidence use or policy engagement, including whether and how researchers and policymakers created and sustained meaningful relationships. Methods: The ethnography included participant observation as well as pre- and post- semi-structured interviews from policymakers (n=17), researchers (n=23), and RPC staff (n=5). The team attended relevant events as well as observed the formal and informal ways research is used in policymaking. Findings: In the paper, we describe how 1) legislative priorities were identified; 2) networks were established and maintained; 3) trainings evolved over time; 4) relationships between RPC staff, congressional staff, and researchers were facilitated; and 5) RPC followed up with policymakers and researchers. Discussion and conclusions: We 1) describe the experiences of participants and whether involvement in the intervention changed attitudes or behaviours about evidence use in policy; 2) describe the RPC process in practice, and how it was implemented and evolved over time; and 3) better understand the conditions supporting evidence use in policymaking. We conclude with the value of the RPC as a resource to fill a niche within the evidence and policy space, as well as suggestions for future research-to-policy programmes and practices.

This study aims to describe the policies adopted by the Aceh government in implementing peace education in the secondary schools. It used the qualitative descriptive method with a case study design, whereby 17 participants consists of officials of education bureau and teachers of civic and religious education were involved in the study. The data was collected by in-depth interview and documentary study. The data was analyzed using Creswell's spiral data analysis. The study found that, firstly, the Aceh government focused more on implementing Islamic-based education in accordance with the national standards, and had not considered the normative and sociological chances to make a policy that regulated the implemention of peace education in the schools. Secondly, the Aceh peace agreement used the concept of human rights in regulating the education in Aceh, and therefore, the Law on Governing Aceh did explicitly regulate Aceh educational reform for peacebuilding. This had resulted in unanimous understanding and implementation of peace education at the secondary schools. Thus, there is a need for educational system reform in respect to peace-related education curriculum in the region. Finally, this study suggested for future research that focused on the regional government's authority in reforming and restructuring regional educational system that incorporated peace education as long-term peacebuilding vis-à-vis the central government.

Studies have shown how digital communications impact administrators' work, but few have looked at the reputational risks to school administrators incurred through social media and digital communications. This Alberta case study looks at risk through Kasperson et. al's (1988) social amplification of risk framework for an exclusion room controversy. Twitter responses are analyzed and interpreted over a longitudinal, 5-year period. Despite school administrators' perceptions that risk might be generated on social media from community-led, grass-roots sources, traditional figures and agencies such as provincial news media and politicians appear more influential than school administrators, teachers, or parents in the Twitterverse. Implications are drawn for educational administrative behaviour and policy.

This essay gives a broad overview of a team-taught course on Alexander Hamilton that merges discourses in music theory and political science. Authors describe pedagogical approaches to teaching both the musical "Hamilton" to non-musician students and Hamilton's history and politics to students not majoring in these fields. Contrasting challenges and outcomes of the seminar's first (2017) offering with its second (2020), authors consider the scope and implications of cultural intelligence and scholarly interdisciplinarity, maintaining that courses team-taught by instructors of different disciplines make connections across disciplines more explicit for students and enhance the transdisciplinary nature of the honors experience. Pre-course assessments are included, and future directions for team-teaching are discussed.

All children have the right to a safe and nurturing environment that promotes their holistic development. Accessibility is an important gateway to inclusive education where all children including disadvantaged children such as indigenous children, special needs children and children at risk are given equal access to quality early childhood care and education (ECCE). In ensuring inclusive accessibility to ECCE, many countries including Malaysia have instituted policies in relation to the provision of childcare and preschool education. These policies are expected to make a significant difference to the way practitioners work to achieve the best outcomes. This paper reports on a research study to examine the impact of the existing policies on the accessibility to quality ECCE in Malaysia. As part of a larger research project, this study employs a qualitative methodology that used a purposive sampling method. 54 participants were involved consisting government official and leaders of non-government agencies related to ECCE in Malaysia. A team of researchers conducted individual interviews and focus group interviews for the participants who consented to the research. Data collected were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis method involving three cycles of rigorous analytic coding and review processes. The findings of this study indicated the participants are aware of the accessibility related policies they are directly dealing with, and the major themes expressed were inter-agency cooperation to achieve enrolment target; questioning the status quo of the existing procedures; and challenges in providing support services for children with special needs; and inclusion of children with disabilities. The challenges to accessibility are mostly related to disadvantaged children and weakness in the governance and gaps of implementation. Policy reviews need to be systematized into programme planning to ensure high quality ECCE services are accessible to all children in Malaysia.

This study aims to reveal the investigating the distance education process according to the demographic characteristics for the staff of the notary and the notaries in Turkey. In this research survey method is used. The sample group consists of 317 notary and notary employees who responded voluntarily to the scale in the distance education platform. Demographic information form and distance education satisfaction scale were used as data collection tools. In the analysis, ANOVA, T-Test, Mann Whitney-U, Kruskal-Wallis and Pearson Correlation were performed in accordance with sub-problems. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that the satisfaction of the participants was between the sub-factors and the general satisfaction between the middle and high level. All factors were found to have a high positive and significant relationship between general satisfaction and each other. The satisfaction of the participants showed a significant difference according to age, but did not show a significant difference according to gender, task type, duration of work in the profession, number of notary employees, educational level and participating in distance education previously. As a result of the research, planning the gamification, measurement and evaluation and certificate programs that the participants would provide more interaction on the platform were considered important. The contents of education were found to be effective on satisfaction.

This research seeks to evaluate the degree of inclusion of the gender perspective and the promotion of education in and for equality in the historical narratives of students in Chilean Secondary Education (n = 105). The study focuses on the analysis of the discursive-narrative mechanisms employed by the students and, in particular, of their representations of gender relations. To this end, the place given to men and women in past and present societies is analysed in the narratives generated by the students (n = 780). A mixed methodology is applied, combining quantitative (descriptive and inferential) and qualitative analyses of the manifest content. The results obtained report the persistence of stereotypical, exclusionary and androcentric perspectives, evidenced in hegemonic gender attributions and in the maintenance of the sex/gender system. These data confirm the need to implement specific teacher training programmes aimed at the acquisition of critical competences and the effective inclusion of the gender perspective in history education.

The paper aimed to clarify the Buddhist instruction care for planning Thai elderly to have well-being in the sociocultural settings concerning the elderly development project in Thailand. The objectives of this study were: 1) to clarify the management policy of the elderly development within the upper northeastern locale; 2) to discover conceivable thoughts of instruction care standards for the elderly through the principles of Buddhism, and 3) to create guidelines of Buddhist learning administration for planning the development of elderly well-being. The research methodology regarded the interpretive paradigm while the management of Buddhist learning was interpreted through participant observation, interviewing, focus-group discussion, and documentary investigation. The content analysis was performed to critically study the obtained data. In this research, there were 60 participants, including monks, elderly, government officials, community leaders, local philosophers, and villagers in Khon Kaen and Roi-et provinces. The findings indicate the Thai government policy provided the direction and budget allocation for developing the quality of life, welfare, and health of the elderly and also preparing younger generations to enter the elderly age. According to the document analysis and focus group discussion, it suggested the possible ideas of education care principles for the elderly through the Buddhist principles, particularly Bhavana 4. It also found that many projects have been organized for taking care of the elderly in collaboration with government agencies and communities. Those projects have been allocated budgets by the Thai government. The study suggested that Buddhist doctrine Bhavana 4 consisting of 1) physical development, 2) moral development, 3) mental development, and 4) intellectual development should be provided as the core content of the elderly's education care essentially affecting to the elderly life quality. The study indicates that the guidelines for Buddhist learning management for preparing elderly well-being, allowing the elderly to access the Bhavana 4 as it trains them to be endowed with Tisikkha including moral discipline, mindfulness, and wisdom. Then, they could follow the Noble Eightfold Path that orients them to develop their well-being in Thailand's socio-cultural context.

Children's policies at the local level stimulate initiatives in the municipalities to encourage child participation. In this article, we focus on the local political sphere as a space for the promotion of child participation and citizenship through digital mediation. It is in this immediate environment where the rights of children and adolescents are exercised and promoted. The study aims to analyse the contributions perceived by municipal leaders (elected officials and technical figures) of the digital environment and the uses they make of it to promote children's participation in the municipality. This study is part of a national project that includes as collaborating entities the International Association of Educating Cities (IACE) and Child Friendly Cities (CAIUnicef). 279 subjects (191 technical figures and 88 elected officials) from 179 Spanish municipalities associated members of IACE and/or CAI. Data were collected in 2020. Two ad hoc designed questionnaires were applied. Two of the most significant results of the study are: (a) the finding of the variable that establishes differences between those technical figures that mediate children's participation with technological environments and those that do not; (b) the use made of the digital environment as an interactive space for informational purposes. It concludes on the need to rethink the digital environment as a participatory area and increasing the use of technology in support of children's citizenship.

The Queen Elizabeth II recently made her fifth public speech on COVID-19 since taking office. Through the use of systemic functional linguistics to analyze her speech text, this article mainly analyzes the text from the perspective of the concept of function and finds this speech text involves only four processes: material process, metal process, relational process and verbal process. This article discusses the political, economic and cultural characteristics of the UK's response to COVID-19. In addition, this paper compares China and the UK, and discusses the different measures taken in the face of the epidemic and the underlying cultural background. This study found out that the Queen's speech is mainly aimed at expressing gratitude to those working on the front lines of the fight against the epidemic and encouraging people to respond to the call of the British government and face the epidemic positively. The analysis of speech with the transitivity can enrich and update the study contents of transitivity.

China's impressive growth over the last three decades warrants the need to re-evaluate the position and positioning of English in the country's educational system. For long, English has been taught and learned compulsorily alongside Chinese and maths in primary and secondary schools in the mainland of China. It was not until recent years that the legitimacy of English as a core subject started to be questioned, and calls for alternative solutions began to emerge. For a better understanding of the changing role of English in China's compulsory education and its influence on stakeholders and policymakers, this article investigates the public reaction to a recent controversial proposal to remove English as a core subject from the national curriculum. Drawing from social media comments, autoethnographic reflections, and existing research, the study presents major opinions and attitudes that feature complex sentiments and ambivalences intersected by concerns about equity and balance.

Social workers are ethically bound to engage in political action. Serving in elected office is one influential way they can fulfill this responsibility. The purpose of this study was to identify ways social work education and professional organizations can support elected office as a social work career trajectory. Nine political social workers who held or campaigned for elected office in a Midwestern state were interviewed. Thematic analysis was used to identify and conceptualize four themes: politically focused coursework, government and legislative field placements, professional organization support, and peer support. Examples of existing supports are provided, followed by practical recommendations to increase support of elected office as a career trajectory at the program and organization level.

Democracy is not only a system of government, but also an overarching way of living together. It is through the social structures we live in and the resulting social relations, behaviors, and norms emanating from those structures, that we learn how to live together, democratically or otherwise. Adult education can promote the learning of democracy by helping people develop social structures that are democratic in form and function. Drawing on examples from Europe and the U.S., this article presents two such structures: (1) the system of voluntary associations in Germany; and (2) sociocracy as a form of democratic institutional governance. This article discusses how these structures can promote processes through which participants practice living democratically. Six principles for adult civic learning are thus derived: Inclusivity, Horizontal Relationships, Polycentricity, Confluence of Expert and Amateur, Interdependence between Specific Situations and Larger Contexts, and the Reciprocal Nature of Civic Learning and Solidarity.

This account of practice describes how elected representatives, politically appointed managers and career officers of the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council have adopted action learning as a way of learning how to transform their institution, an important aspect of which has been to find locally situated ways of establishing and consolidating the approach. The article provides pen portraits to illustrate what has been learned and achieved so far and in conclusion draws attention to the importance of shifting the balance of learning and challenge from a focus on individuals towards a collective effort which tackles deep rooted organisational problems.

This paper contributes to the debate on the varieties of national manifestations of the public good(s) in higher education. Drawing on a set of 33 semi-structured interviews (with politicians, university managers and faculty), it addresses the three following research questions: How do the actors in the field define the public good(s)? To what extent does the global public good play a role in their views? What are the specificities of the national system that shape understandings of the public dimension of higher education in Poland? The three definitions of the public good are proposed. The findings are discussed alongside the following four themes: higher education as a public good, higher education and the state, tuition fees, and the global public good.

Tennessee passed voucher-style Education Savings Account (ESA) legislation in 2019. We analyze the roll call vote in the Tennessee House to better understand the role of constituent, legislator, and special interest influences on support for school choice. This is accomplished using a binary probit model with legislator vote as the dependent variable. We find that legislator voting behavior in this context is most significantly determined by party affiliation and the presence of campaign funding from the Tennessee Education Association (TEA) rather than the demographic characteristics of their constituents.

Public K-12 education in the United States is distinctively a local affair: school districts are governed by local boards of education, composed of lay members typically elected in non-partisan elections. These boards have decision-making power over hundreds of billions of public dollars and oversee complex agencies that, in addition to preparing a community's children for the future, can be the biggest employer in town. Yet very little is known about what factors influence a board's governance and impact, including the professional backgrounds of elected members. Educators serving on school boards could be influenced not only by expertise but also allegiance to union priorities. That could theoretically influence collective bargaining, which is one of the major responsibilities of a school board. Union allegiance could shift bargaining agreements toward union goals, such as increasing teacher salaries or limiting charter-school growth, which may not necessarily benefit students. This article investigate these possibilities in California. State election rules randomize the order of candidates' names on the ballot, which allows the authors to estimate the causal effects of an educator serving on a school board. By looking at randomized ballot order, candidate filings, election records, and school district data, the authors provide the first evidence on how the composition of local school boards affects district resource allocation and student performance.

Florida's governor and legislature have mounted a multipronged assault on the intellectual autonomy of Florida's public colleges and universities. Florida is not alone, and Governor DeSantis' political success is already a model for other red-state governors to follow. Higher education leaders must find compelling ways to argue that the pursuit of knowledge must not be subordinated to the dictates of church or state; additionally, they should note that poor stewardship of public institutions is not only destructive of democracy but may also pose challenges for the continued accreditation of institutions of higher education.

Competition among parties is a central feature of democratic politics, but extreme partisanship can undermine democratic practices and institutions. We report the results of a formative curricular intervention involving reflective discussions designed to avoid hyper-partisanship in a training program for anyone--including university students--with political aspirations. The opportunity was provided by an annual Institute for Future Legislators at the University of British Columbia. The program offered weekend boot camps, followed by a parliamentary simulation held in the chambers of the provincial legislature. Data were collected from questionnaires and facilitated reflective discussions. Thematic content analysis of transcriptions of these discussions showed that they enabled participants to gain detachment from their parties, even as their appreciation grew for the complex balancing acts that partisan politicians must continuously perform.

Education is central to creating well-informed citizens capable of participating in social and political life. However, civic education in some liberal democratic societies has often focused on teaching students the mechanics and structure of party politics, overlooking many of the public virtues that help to sustain democratic life. In this article we examine one such virtue, i.e., civility, and its role in party politics. We focus especially on partisan 'civility as politeness,' which entails the norms of politeness and etiquette that regulate partisans' speech and behaviour during electoral campaigns and within legislatures. We analyse partisan civility as politeness and explore its connection with two other dimensions of partisan civility, i.e., 'moral civility' and 'justificatory civility.' We conclude by developing recommendations on how to advance civility in party politics by creating well-informed citizens and politicians who recognize the importance of civility in democratic life.

This article reports research on the implementation of the Malaysia Education Blueprint, 2013-2025, drawing on 49 extended interviews with senior policy makers at federal, state and district levels, and school principals, informed by a systematic review of international and Malaysian literature. The findings show that the reforms are poorly understood by officials and school leaders, leading to partial and unenthusiastic enactment. The paper concludes that such ambitious reforms need to be acceptable, to ensure "ownership" of the reform agenda, and feasible, to avoid disenchantment by officials, school leaders and teachers.

Building on a historiography that is in full expansion, we are focusing our attention on the sociogenesis of "educational internationalism", by studying the way in which agents and organisations which claim to belong to this movement have executed their commitments and reconfigured them over the decades. After having studied the groups which work within the International Bureau of Education (IBE) -- which aims to build peace through science and education -- here we are examining the way in which its director, Jean Piaget, shaped the implements and the operating methods of the IBE, and represented it on different international stages. The well-endowed archives that were analysed have prompted us to suggest that he is revealed as a diplomat of "educational internationalism"; while the IBE became the first intergovernmental agency (1929), it started working with UNESCO from 1946 before it became fully integrated in 1969. In particular, this article shows how, within the intergovernmental context of the IBE, this learned man adapted the concepts of teamwork and self-government that he had theorised. We are interested to see which diplomatic tools Piaget put to use in order to tackle the unavoidable contradictions that he came up against. How was one to preserve a strict neutrality and scientific objectivity, conditions of an educational internationalism which claims to be universalist, in the arenas where it is governmental and institutional delegates in struggle that debate, moreover on topics such as school -- viewed as a space where national identities are fashioned?

This article presents an in-depth case analysis of Norwegian teacher training, exploring the intricate dynamics between global blueprints, national problem constructions and local realities. As Norwegian educational policy has aligned itself with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's recommendations, the study uncovers a loose coupling between educational policy, university and university college teacher training and school teaching practices. Starting from a neo-institutional perspective, our research utilised white papers and qualitative interviews with 65 stakeholders involved in teacher training. The findings reveal a complex relationship between policy and practice, with a tendency to overemphasise problems and understate the strengths of Norwegian teacher training. A document analysis and three empirical examples illustrate how this misalignment has contributed to misunderstandings regarding teachers' competences and challenges in the field. The study also reflects on the global influences that shape domestic policy and the implications of focusing on international educational rankings. By shedding light on these nuanced connections, the article offers critical insights that recognises both the global trends and local specificities of the Norwegian educational system.

This paper explores how Japan employed language education to justify Japanese imperial surveillance practices by examining the depiction of policemen and military police officers in Japanese language textbooks used by Korean primary students during the colonial period under Japanese rule. The analysis of the Japanese language textbooks used during this period uncovered the colonial educational goals and ideologies presented to Korean students, the ideal colonial citizens desired by the ruling system, and colonial aims furthered. This study investigates the ideologies presented in the textbooks using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Visual Image Analysis (VIA) by analyzing eight textbooks that were used in Japan and Korea. Both images and texts relating to Japanese government officials in the textbooks for Koreans from the colonial era are analyzed. The study reveals that the textbooks positioned Korean students to accept and integrate Japanese ideologies and attempted to indoctrinate Koreans into believing that the Japanese government officials were kind and cooperative, while also maximizing their authority over the colonized in their portrayal. The portrayal of government officials in the textbooks further reinforced this by showing the colonized having to display good behavior to authority figures, while not conveying any negative images of the government officials.

Activist research that conducts social investigation and analysis can be the key first step in organising at the grassroots and movement building. This paper critically analyses two research reports titled 'The Foreign Exchange of Hate' (Sabrang/Coalition against Genocide 2002) and 'In Bad Faith' (Awaaz South Asia Watch 2004) produced by progressive activists situated in progressive mobilisations in the North American and British South Asian diasporas. This research was amongst the earliest to systematically investigate and expose the transnational networks and activities of Hindu nationalism. Drawing on the scholarship of Aziz Choudry, I discuss key influences, goals, impacts and costs of these activist research projects. The analysis offer situated insights into the relationship between activist research and movement-building in the context of collective resistance to Hindu nationalism in Eurocentric, liberal multicultural societies.

The aim of this paper was to evaluate gender differences in the language used in United Nations (UN) General Assembly debates by one male and one female representative each from India, China, the USA, and Indonesia. The critical discourse analysis (CDA) framework of van Dijk (2015) was used along with the 25 discursive devices in this framework. The data on frequencies of variables were analysed statistically. No significant differences were observed between positive comments about oneself, negative comments about others, length of speech (in words), and the various devices by the gender of the speaker at the 0.05 level of significance. However, gender differences in terms of higher levels for males than for females were observed for populism (t(6)= 2.354, p= 0.057), norm expression (t(6)= 2.171, p= 0.073), and positive comments about oneself (t(6)= 2.224, p= 0.068). The correlation coefficients were significant between genders for positive-self, norm expression, and national self-glorification only. These results could be attributed to the small size of four male and four female speeches, leading to high values of standard error, which reflects the significance of differences. Also, there could be overlapping and mixing of gender characteristics in connection with different contexts and occasions due to emergent identities. These political identities were created in particular situations or contexts, and it was not clear how much they could be a result of female or male politicians' styles. This explanation by Sivric and Jurcic (2014) seems to be valid for this research as well. Small samples could be a limitation of this study. However, many other works used even smaller samples. The generalisability of these findings needs to be tested using other similar studies.

This paper addresses peace education focusing on how place-based experiences and collective memories stimulate local mobilisation for refugees fleeing from war. The Arctic Migration Route, located above 69th degree north, became an alternative to dangerous boat trips on the Mediterranean Sea, for people seeking safety and protection in the fall of 2015. During a few months, over 5,500 people from 35 nations, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran came to a municipality in north Norway with 10,000 inhabitants. The paper demonstrates how global conflicts far away, have important local consequences across borders and huge distances. Interviews with local authorities, teachers, voluntary workers constitute the main empirical material. By combining theories of place-based experiences and collective memories with phenomenology of practice, geographical location, collective and cultural memories across generations, are analysed as important driving forces for the local mobilization to help refugees. This approach opens for a wider perspective on learning, showing how climate, culture and history have important role as material and sociocultural education in this arctic border region in the north of Norway. Based on empirical data from a small local school, the paper will document how a local community can find solutions to globally produced problems.

This article examines how Chinese language textbooks, produced for ethnic Koreans by ethnic Koreans in China, portray environmental issues in China. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Visual Image Analysis (VIA) are used to investigate what environmental content is integrated and what ideologies these textbooks construct. Chinese language textbooks published in 2012 and 2022 were chosen as they are the most recently published versions for primary school students of Korean ethnic background. The analytical findings show that the textbooks defer responsibility for environmental problems to the global community rather than portraying them as China's problem and responsibility to solve. The causes and nature of these problems are simplified--only dumping and deforestation are addressed. It is found that the textbooks analyzed in this paper serve the interests of the owners of domestic and multinational companies and of the government officials and agents who collaborate with them, while ignoring the needs of the citizens and students who are suffering the effects of serious pollution. Thus, educators using these textbooks should strongly consider introducing more real and specific Chinese pollution data to raise awareness of the reality of global environmental problems, and introduce critical perspectives, in order to develop environmentally-aware students.

The study was conducted on adult women who would run for village head. Because education is provided through adult learning in taking decisions and accompanied by spiritual guidance, adult educations were also required to increase college services to enter the community. The question researches were how women as candidate village head can make decision to become a village head and how to implemented spiritual guidance counselling for politic (SGCP) among adult women education toward political decision making. With one subject, mix method for single subject design of this research, found strengthening woman as adult education more strong to make decision and become a winner as head viillage. Spiritual guidance counselling for politic (SGCP) was a construct of educational psychology for woman in preparing and facing politic. The aim of SGCP became a first SGCP provided by the candidate of village head as one of the representative candidates reinforce the woman in decision making to be the contestant of woman head the village. The second prepare, the woman as the woman representative and face the risk of candidacy after successfully being a village head or not. Being the contestant of woman's representation needs such four things as gender, people, financial, prays, spiritual.

Election campaigns are constantly regarded as a persuasive campaign to convince the nation to vote for the leader of a country. Being said such, this study investigates the discourse of twitter of two political premiers in Asia: Former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Tun Razak (henceforth, Najib) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi (henceforth, Modi), in the aspects of discursive strategies and speech acts during election campaigns. The discourse of Najib and Modi are selected due to their active participation on Twitter throughout election campaigns. The data were collected over 3 months throughout the national elections of both the countries, which were from February to April 2013 in Malaysia and January to March 2014 in India. This qualitative study employs Wodak's discursive strategies to analyze the lexical choices utilized in the election tweets and Searle's speech act taxonomy to analyze the speech acts used. The presence of two major speech acts was highlighted during the elections: commissives and directives. These two speech acts collaborated under the hood of discursive strategies of predication and perspectivation that empowered Najib and Modi to establish a strong contact with citizens while creating a sense of integrity and oneness. This study is significant as it creates political and language awareness to citizens by denoting how political figures establish power through mutual consent with citizens using Twitter. Furthermore, this study enlightens citizens on how the 140-character tool can influence the political decision-making of a community.