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Purpose: This study introduces a policy with great strategic significance and far-reaching impact by analyzing the background, measures, and future development trends of teacher evaluation reform in China. Design/Approach/Methods: This study primarily conducts a policy text analysis of the section on teacher evaluation of the "Overall Plan for Deepening the Reform of Educational Evaluation in the New Era". Findings: The "Overall Plan for Deepening the Reform of Educational Evaluation in the New Era" was drafted to enhance the quality of Chinese teachers and address many problems in teacher evaluation. It comprised four sections: teachers' professional ethics, teaching effectiveness, evaluation models and methods, and honorary titles. The policy has distinctive features such as the high status and authority of the issuing body, a holistic and systematic nature, and an orientation toward practical issues. This article proposes three major policy foresights: promoting implementation through the force of political trends, giving schools autonomy in teacher evaluations, and implementing progressive reforms. Originality/Value: This study conducted a specialist analysis of the policy in combination with the real scenario and institutional environment of Chinese teacher evaluation, which could encourage international peers to better understand Chinese teacher evaluation policies and promote policy learning and dissemination internationally.

The importance of enhancing social and emotional skills in educational settings has gained prominence, with many countries and organizations embracing the Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) framework to equip individuals with the tools needed for shaping a self-identity, emotional regulation, goal achievement, empathy, nurturing relationships, and responsible decision-making and overall well-being. In this paper, we aim to connect the globally acknowledged Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning SEL framework with international policies that underscore the importance of social and emotional skills in the school context. To accomplish this goal, we first provide a brief overview of the key components of the SEL framework. Subsequently, we explore two significant educational policies within the European context. The first policy is the World Health Organization Health Promoting Schools initiative. We present its objectives, a WHO-affiliated program example, the promoted and assessed competencies of students, and its results, connecting its framework with the CASEL SEL approach. The second focus is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Study on Social and Emotional Skills, describing its developmental process and the assessment framework. Finally, we describe the alignment of SEL with these European educational policies and illustrate their role in advancing and improving the evaluation of SEL initiatives in educational environments.

We compare the institutional standards and expectations for English language arts (ELA) educators from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the leading professional organization in this field, and the state of Georgia. By conducting a critical policy analysis of documents from NCTE and the Georgia Department of Education (GADoE) we sought to understand the tension between standards set for training English education students in institutions of higher education and the standards those teachers would be required to use in Georgia K-12 schools. We analyze these documents through Cooper et al.'s (2004) policy analysis framework, which questions the normative, structural, constituent, and technical dimensions of policy development. We found that the ideological beliefs and values embedded in the policies and documents from NCTE and GADoE have developed divergent sets of expectations for ELA teachers in Georgia, particularly around how teachers respond to oppression in our society; how we understand the overall purpose of ELA instruction; and the scope of responsibilities for educators. We end by presenting implications for educators working among these two sets of policies, in recognizing where these expectations may overlap as well as diverge.

This study explored how 14 higher education and student affairs (HESA) professionals navigated institutional policy vacuums to address interpersonal racial conflict between students. Grounded in perspectives of policy vacuums, findings revealed that HESA professionals learned about racial conflict by referring to their own personal, professional, and academic training. Additionally, they employed strategies that were often self-generated and informal to address racial conflict. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings, specifically highlighting that relying on HESA professionals' dispositions is an insufficient way to address racial conflict and that more institutional support is necessary to train racially responsive HESA professionals.

Antiblackness is a persistent feature of American society with continued implications for the experiences, outcomes, and well-being of Black communities. In the wake of widespread protests against antiblack police brutality and heightened awareness of racial injustices in 2020, federal, state, and local political actors swiftly began a concerted effort to maintain the illusion of racial progress within the United States. These efforts, which we identify as manifestations of what Carol Anderson (2016) describes as White rage, have taken the form of educational censorship policies that have been successfully enacted in at least 18 states. This study interrogates the policy development process of two such censorship policies in Texas and North Dakota. Drawing on Black critical theory and insights from critical policy analysis, we demonstrate the ways that antiblackness was made legible in the policy development process and conclude with recommendations for combatting the further spread of antiblack educational censorship.

In 2015, Pakistan committed to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4's provision of quality education for all. Target 4.7 of this Goal acknowledges that delivering quality education means ensuring that students develop a set of attributes characterised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in terms of global citizenship, and by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development using the nomenclature of global competence. There is ongoing debate regarding the agendas of the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; however, from a pragmatic perspective, both are already influencing domestic education policies. This article explores the extent to which this is the case in Punjab, Pakistan. A deductive thematic analysis of relevant education policies was undertaken to identify language reflective of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Programme of International Student Assessment Global Competence Framework. The analysis, based on meta themes identified by Vaccari and Gardinier, revealed the inclusion of language from these international agendas, as well as the reflections of local culture. Although this research was specific to Punjab, the findings may provide insights into how countries are adopting and/or contextualising these international agendas.

Reparations policies that seek to make amends for a harm incurred face exigent challenges. In this article we focus on what makes reparations successful and what policy components are necessary, if not sufficient, for success. To study the success of reparations policy design we employ a case study approach. Our analysis investigates the motivation, design, implementation, and impact of past policies to understand what has been successful or unsuccessful within each component of the policy in each historical case. Ultimately, our discussion identifies patterns in the creation and execution of reparations policy that offer important considerations for policies that would provide reparations to Black Americans.

This paper uses critical policy analysis to investigate how the concept of equity has been co-opted to promote a neoliberal agenda in education reforms in Manitoba. Early provincial reform documents contained a narrow definition of equity focused primarily on closing achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. These reform documents were rejected by the public, in part due to concerns about equity. The Manitoba Education Action Plan was introduced in 2022, which more explicitly focused on achieving equity as part of the education reform process. However, the framing of equity in the Action Plan was narrow, emphasizing individualism rather than a more systemic pursuit of equity. While some recommended actions in the Action Plan have promoted a more inclusive and culturally responsive education system, other actions have advanced a neoliberal agenda focused on work-readiness and accountability, while actions to remove barriers to education have been undertaken with limited urgency.

Current education policy in Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa is the country's indigenous Maori name) requires schools and teachers to engage with parents and the school community to enhance student educational experience and achievement. The broad wording in these policy statements allows schools and teachers to tailor their parental engagement practice to specific community contexts. There is, however, little attention given to the built space of the school itself as an aspect of the material context within which parental engagement occurs. This article draws on a case study analysis of a single, bounded primary school in Aotearoa New Zealand, to examine how the school's built environment influences parental engagement. It involves the analysis of plans and other school artifacts, semi-structured interview transcripts of staff and parents, and the mental maps of parents. The findings reveal that multiple meanings are read from built space, with staff at risk of underestimating those readings and their agency to author new stories that better support parental engagement.

Universities across the globe are considering how to effect meaningful change in their higher education (HE) delivery in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and shifting student learning preferences. This paper reports on a descriptive case- study of whole-of-institution curriculum reform at one regional Australian university, where more traditional 13-week semesters have been replaced with a 6-week immersive block model known as the Southern Cross Model. Based on a synthesis of literature in best practice HE pedagogy and principles, the case study draws on both a review of policy and staff interviews (N = 5) to outline the key changes necessary for successful HE transformation. Analysis revealed themes related to the vital roles of leadership, capacity building, monitoring the transition, staff adoption, and adequate technical systems in implementing a radical, multifaceted institutional transformation. Implications for practice at institutions considering reforming their curriculum model are also discussed. The findings from this case study indicate that an institutional transformation to an immersive block model requires both a considered change in institutional policy and process, as well as the appropriate resourcing of roles, governance committees, technical solutions, and, importantly, communities of practice.

Academic resilience is crucial in today's crisis-prone society. This qualitative study explored the factors that shaped academic resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen the global literature on resilience and post-pandemic policy and practice in education. This study adopted a multiple-case study design, with the application of replication logic and data collection via semistructured interviews. The case studies featured interviews with three academically resilient students in Phuket and nine relevant informants, including parents, homeroom teachers, and local stakeholders. These interviews covered various factors surrounding personal qualities, families, peer groups, schools and teachers, communities and cultures, and the pandemic. Through thematic analysis, seven overarching themes emerged from the data: (1) achievement-oriented characteristics, (2) high aspirations, (3) COVID-19-driven adaptability, (4) self-directed learning in the use of online resources, (5) healthy family functioning, (6) role models, and (7) social support in the context of a giving culture.

This article examines the power dynamics underpinning performance management at a selected South African university. It specifically employs Michel Foucault's (1977) ideas on Governmentality to interpret the envisioning of performance management in this context at the level of Policy. The study employed a qualitative research methodology to address the questions at hand. Data were generated from one primary source: a discourse analysis of the Performance Management Policy (2013) at a selected university in South Africa. Using Michel Foucault's (1991) theories on governmentality, a discourse analysis of Performance Management Policy documents was conducted with the goal of critically interrogating the kinds of new academic subjectivities being created in South African higher education. The findings show that the Policy on Performance Management at the university in question works towards creating academic subjects which conform with the university's expectations and are consistently self- regulated. Findings also show that management of academics is constantly controlled and regulated by a powerful matrix of governance, comprising the university and the wider global community. This paper recommends that performance management discourses should take into stronger cognizance the matter of academic freedom and autonomy. We further recommend that Policy developers and management teams at universities be conscious of the complex forces of power that shape academic identities so that their policies move away from oppressive discourses. We argue that there is much we can learn from governmentality theory if we hope to build more just and equitable societies going forward.

States and districts share an obligation to provide Multilingual Learners (MLLs) with access to high quality language programs that are proven to be effective in minimizing opportunity gaps between MLLs and non-MLLs. This article reviews how local education agencies (LEAs) allocated their state-issued funding to improve MLL language programs and increase student outcomes. Findings reveal that of the total state-issued MLL funding, LEAs used 88.7% on teacher salaries and benefits, 5.1% on teacher professional development, 4.9% on language program implementation, 0% on language program evaluation, and a small percentage of funding remained unspecified. Collectively, these findings indicate that LEAs did not adhere to the state's funding policies, nor did the state follow their own policies to regulate the LEAs' expenditures. We close with a discussion on how the state can improve their function as an organizational leader and serve as a model for other stakeholders in the shared obligation of the education of MLLs.

New technologies could facilitate new ways of cheating. This emerging scenario places academic integrity policy in higher education institutions as critical. Academic integrity scholars have designed conceptual frameworks to analyze academic integrity policy. The body of the literature on academic integrity policy analysis includes studies developed in North America, Europe, and Australia. However, insight into several regions of the world is lacking. This pioneering study in the Chilean context analyzes documents addressing academic integrity at forty-three accredited universities. Using a qualitative research design, we framed this policy analysis in the five core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy: access, approach, responsibility, detail, and support. The findings revealed challenges with accessing documents online, a strong presence of legal language that might not be understandable to all students, and a scarcity of information about review cycles. The punitive approach was prevalent, with a significant focus on students' conduct. Signs of collaboration and mechanisms for promoting academic integrity cultures were nearly absent. The documents primarily targeted students and the roles of other stakeholders concentrated on the enforcement of sanctions and misconduct investigations. The analysis also showed the use of general definitions to describe academic integrity breaches, inconsistency across the system in defining plagiarism and a lack of guidance to address contract cheating and unauthorized use of generative artificial intelligence. The findings also highlighted the unavailability of institutional support to teach, learn, and research with integrity or references to research-based practices. We propose twelve practical recommendations for policymakers and academic integrity advocates.

In Ontario, Canada, principals' work is guided by competencies outlined in the Ontario Leadership Framework which reflect the leadership skills and behaviours needed to successfully lead schools, improve student achievement and well-being. The problem is that this document largely ignores equity and anti-oppressive leadership behaviours. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), created an addendum to this document, introducing the notion of equity as a leadership competency. Other documents of this nature have emerged in multiple systems in Ontario in response to the increasing need to provide guidance to principals about how to engage equity work. The challenge is the gap between the competencies on the page and the actions taken in schools. There is little guidance around how to make these competencies actionable. This paper engages a discourse analysis of the TDSB's equity as a leadership competency document resulting in the creation of a model for equitable action. A focus on action-oriented language used in each competency revealed three overarching themes: development of self, building, connecting, and creating, and accountability. The model is intended to be used as a decision-making tool to help leaders ask the right questions and guide their thinking towards equitable action and the disruption of the status quo. Critical Race Theory and notions of critical hope inform this work to ensure that the model is well positioned to guide leaders towards actionable and transformative change.

This paper focuses on contemporary tensions and contradictions in current Norwegian educational policy discourse. Based on critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Norwegian governmental white papers our analysis reveals that contemporary Norwegian policy formulation is torn between an egalitarian and a selection discourse about how to tackle educational inequality in the Norwegian comprehensive school system. The egalitarian discourse is characterised by principles like inclusion, equity and recognising diversity in the education system with a stated aim to balance educational outcomes. The selection discourse advertises greater selection, competition, and outcome control in the light of international competition and calls for better correspondence between schooling, higher education, and labour market needs. Paradoxically, both discourses are advertising themselves as proper solutions for tackling and reducing educational inequality in Norway. Taking indications of growing social inequality in Norway into consideration we conclude that growing importance of selection and competition arguments in contemporary Norwegian educational policy have increased dissonance and inconsistency in discourse and have started to overpower egalitarian values. We conclude that this will, against egalitarian creed and rhetorical claim in Norwegian educational policy, rather foster than reduce educational inequality.

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) in education necessitates a shared understanding of its intended purpose and societal implications. This paper underscores the significance of "societal perspectives" in AI and education, often overshadowed by "technological aspects." At the same time, policy guidelines for the integration of AI technology within educational systems are playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of education. What we as society "imagine" AI and education to be, will in some shape or form lead the development of suggested fixes. The aim is to aid the understanding of why and how visions of learning and education are framed in relation to developments in Educational Technology (EdTech) and their introduction in education. It thereby contributes to the ongoing discussion on the integration of AI in education and its potential societal impacts.

Education reform efforts stemming from the Programme in International Student Achievement have strengthened in recent years, particularly in response to the growth of global references societies -- high achieving educational jurisdictions such as Finland, Hong Kong-China, and more recently Estonia and Singapore. Despite political rhetoric, evidence-based policy development associated with this international benchmark measure is rarely, if ever, a neutral enterprise that is guided by the best available evidence. Indeed, political discourse and policy framing surrounding PISA often results in the selective use of results to justify contested policy reforms. Brief cases from Japan, Sweden, and Canada illustrate how national policies have been adopted that are not grounded, and may even run counter, to research findings. The discussion examines the politicization of PISA and its symbolic role in adding legitimacy to education reform agendas. Collectively, the analysis offers an alternative perspective to the popular notion that PISA guides evidence-based decision-making.

Recent efforts prohibiting race-related diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have informed localized public pushback narrating anti-equity campaigns. Emerging research and media accounts have largely focused on adults engaged with or against these efforts, with less attention on youth and their perceptions of these campaigns. To center youth voice, we analyzed 224 student newspaper articles published in Carmel, Indiana and Loudoun County, Virginia--two sites replete with localized contestations of equity reform. Using narrative policy analysis and approaches to counter-narratives, findings demonstrate youths' roles as engaged policy actors as student journalists highlighted forms of political engagement and action in their local contexts. We include recommendations for school leaders and policymakers to promote youth voice and engagement in education governance.

Research on firearm purchaser licensing laws has found population level reductions in firearm-related mortality. Limited research has been conducted specifically examining the impact of these laws among adolescents and emerging adults. We obtained death data from the National Center for Health Statistics from 1990 to 2019. We generated state-year rates of homicide and suicide, stratified by firearm involvement, for decedents aged 15 to 24. We stratified by race and ethnicity (white, Black, and Hispanic) to assess for differential policy effects. We used stacked difference-in-difference and augmented synthetic control modeling to estimate law repeal or adoption. Repeal of firearm purchaser licensing laws was associated with significantly higher rates of firearm homicide and suicide among those age 15 to 24. The adoption of these laws was associated with significantly lower rates of firearm homicide and suicide among this group. These laws are a promising supply-side intervention to reduce firearm mortality among those with elevated violence vulnerability.

In this article, we explore inconsistencies in the implementation of outdoor learning across Australian early years' education. The benefits of outdoor learning justify regular employment of this pedagogical approach in both early childhood education and primary school settings. Early childhood education services provide daily outdoor learning opportunities as required by Australian national policy documents. However, Australian primary schools are not subject to such requirements and teachers often face challenges regarding outdoor learning, thus regular implementation in primary classes can be a low priority. As children in the year before school and the first year of school have similar learning and developmental needs, we argue that the benefits of outdoor learning should be available to all children across the early years. We also recommend regular outdoor learning in the first year of schooling to promote continuity as children transition from early childhood education to primary schools.

This paper examines the "Double Reduction" policy issued by the Chinese government in 2021 by using a Critical Discourse Problematization Framework (CDPF) that combines Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and what's the problem represented to be (WPR) approach. The study points out that the changing discourse of equality and equity in China is crucial for understanding the assumptions and presuppositions that lie behind and shape the "Double Reduction" policy. The analysis of the policy text conveys that the government views the privatization of education in China as being responsible for the lowered quality of public education, the competitive learning environment, and financial and mental pressure on families and parents. However, this study reveals the silent part of the "Double Reduction" policy through the WPR approach, which demonstrates that privatization of education is not the root cause of educational inequality/injustice in China. The work of this critical policy analysis aims to better understand the dilemma of education in China and provide insights to the policymakers, educators, and related stakeholders from the perspective of changing policy discourse.

Academic freedom constitutes an integral part of traditional university values that ensure the proper functioning of universities in pursuing truth and inculcating civic values. In a globalized world where Higher Education (HE) policy is the result of the interaction of local, national, and international levels, the positions of international organizations on questions of academic freedoms deem significant. Within global discourses on HE, literature contrasts the World Bank's human capitalist to UNESCO's humanistic approach. Through Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of both organizations' documents, the paper presented a genealogical analysis of academic freedom that challenged the existence of static, opposite, and binary positions. Transformations, ruptures, juxtapositions as well as gaps, limits, and exclusions were detected within and across International Organizations' discourses. Juxtaposition of economic and humanistic rationales as well as academic freedom protection and neoliberal policy interventions have muted discursive conflicts and inherent contradictions. The failure of UNESCO to address contemporary threats to academic freedom emerged from the appearance of neoliberal transnational governmentality as an inevitable social regularity that delimits what can be said and cannot be said about academic freedom. Through coercive funding schemes and technologies of differentiation, surveillance, and monitoring, the WB created the space for such transnational governmentality, and placed faculty members under its gaze resulting in undermining academic freedoms and de-professionalization of academics.

Globally, the issue of research impact has grown as governments articulate policies around research as a contributor to economic and societal development, often through an econometric justification. This has triggered much discussion amongst humanities scholars in public formally-reasoned peer-reviewed texts that are rarely empirically-based. This Denmark-based empirical study used an individual biographical and historical structural framework to explore how humanities academics in face-to-face semi-formal interactive interviews viewed this issue. The results highlighted a nuanced understanding of what we call the humanities-impact landscape, with three potential interactions falling along a continuum suggesting further inquiry is warranted. The study contributes a rich tapestry of the interwoven individual and structural elements at play when academics articulate how they locate themselves within the landscape, ones that might not be seen in more conceptual arguments.

With the rise of accountability measures in education, many policymakers have also argued the need to record, assess, and certify students' holistic development. However, using China as a case, we caution how a policy-driven reform on the assessment of holistic development might fall into the pitfall of performativity. Borrowing from Ball's (Ball, Journal of Education Policy 18:215-228, 2003) seminal work on policy technologies, we investigate the ways in which management cultures, market logic, and performance indicators have figured in China's assessment policies on students' holistic development. Using the findings as a base, we further discuss and problematize how these policies could have rendered students "managed," "marketized," and "performative," influencing what it means to become a "holistic" student.

In 2012, Florida adopted the Academically Challenging Curriculum to Enhance Learning (ACCEL) statute establishing minimum requirements for local education agencies to provide access to accelerated learning options for eligible K-12 public school students. This study examined Florida public school district acceleration policies for elementary students one decade after the enactment of the statute. We analyzed Student Progression Plans, school board policies, and district websites to explore the status of acceleration policy in the state, compare the accessibility of acceleration information across districts, and identify policy elements that support equity and those that create potential barriers for elementary students with advanced learning needs who could benefit from acceleration. The findings of this study indicated several areas for improvement, including the accessibility of acceleration information, the service options available to K-5 students, the protocols districts use, criteria for decision-making, and the implementation of acceleration. In addition, we discuss implications for school districts developing or revising acceleration policies and several avenues for future research. The preregistration and open-access materials for this study are available at https://osf.io/yc3xd/.

The research reported in this article explored the implementation of Trilingual Education Policy in Kazakhstan. The authors explain the challenges stakeholders came across while taking on the reforms in the language-in-education policy. In this context, the scholars describe four main challenges, such as the simultaneous implementation of several reforms, teachers training, a lack of an English environment, and different language origins. The topic is important, as the issue has been raised for almost two decades. Despite the two decades of meticulous deliberation and piloting of the system, it has not been fully implemented yet. During the research, a systematic literature review method was adopted. The authors used Google Scholar, ERIC, Web of Science, and Scopus databases as well as the official websites of the Government of Kazakhstan and Media resources. This review was conducted using Russian, English, and Kazakh databases.

In this study, I explore the discourse surrounding parental rights in U.S. public schools, with Virginia as a focal point. Analyzing two sets of model policies regarding the treatment of transgender students--one established under a Democratic governor and another implemented following the election of a Republican candidate championing parental rights--this research employs qualitative content analysis to gain insight into the contemporary parental rights movement in educational settings. Five key themes emerged: 1. Reliance on expert opinions; 2. Variation in depth and breadth of information within policies; 3. Transgender student inclusion in policies; 4. Student and parent focus imbalance; and 5. Adherence to legal intent. The findings indicate a shift in emphasis from addressing gender identity concerns to prioritizing parental rights, with ramifications for the broader political landscape. This research enriches the ongoing dialogue on the role of parents in education and the consequences of the conservative parental rights movement for educational policy.

This comparative case study explored the discourses in Ohio's Seal of Biliteracy (SoBL) policy and promotional materials, and the perceptions of stakeholders regarding its value and benefits in an urban, suburban, and rural district. In doing so, this study aimed to analyze the discourses adopted in the SoBL policy and promotional texts at the state level, and the perceptions of the stakeholders regarding its value and benefits. The findings revealed the dominance of globalized human capital (GHC) discourses in not only policy and promotional texts, but also in interviews. By adopting GHC discourses, both the promotional materials and the stakeholder interviews emphasized the marketability benefits of the SoBL, with little emphasis on linguistically minoritized students' home/heritage language maintenance as set forth in the original SoBL policy in California. The findings have implications for policy arbiters to ensure equitable and accessible policy implementation.

Over the last few decades, both New Zealand and the intergovernmental organisation of UNESCO have widely spread the rhetoric of safety through a broad range of educational issues. This notion, in vogue since the neoliberal turn, has raised little opposition in educational debates. In this article, we use a Foucauldian lens to analyse the assumptions that underlie the discourses of safety of UNESCO and the New Zealand's education policy, and to what extent they align or differ. The findings show a general alignment between the safety discourses of UNESCO and the New Zealand Ministry of Education, and three main assumptions were identified that frame the problem, the solution and those responsible for solving safety issues in education. In the texts analysed, safety operates as a neoliberal mechanism to manage student behaviour and individualise social risk in the guise of altruism.

Globalisation has driven the pursuit of more active citizenship forms. Many governments see educational policies as critical to preparing young citizens with the necessary skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours to thrive in a changing global context. However, what active citizenship education is and means varies across countries. Little is known about how active citizenship is conceptualised in educational policies in Singapore and the kinds of citizens these policies and programmes aim to nurture. This article draws on an analysis of 20 Singapore policy texts, such as political speeches, press releases, and curriculum documents, to examine the kind of Singaporean citizens the Singapore government seeks to nurture. We argue that globalisation provides a critical context for local conceptualisations of citizenship, but the active Singapore citizen is not an individualistic nor a universal neoliberal citizen subject. In line with Asian conceptions of citizenship, which posit that 'good' people make good citizens, active citizenship in Singapore has a prevailing focus on 'good' character and an active citizen who prioritises the well-being of the collective, yet caught in a paradoxical pursuit of a neoliberal citizen.

The paper examined and analysed the extent globalisation and its dimensions impinged Ghana's tertiary education policy landscape in global and national historical and contemporary perspectives. Historical and contemporary policy documents and articles, that help to understand how globalisation and its antecedents have interwoven and permeated the dynamics underpinning Ghana's tertiary education policy, were used as conduits for the analysis. Within the context of structural adjustment and democratisation juggernauts triggered by the West, neoliberal reforms were initiated in the early 1990s. They were characterised by the liberalisation of the sector for the establishment of private tertiary education institutions, creation of buffer agencies to ensure effective stakeholder control in policy and quality assurance of those institutions, initiating laissez-faire financial reforms and incorporating non-governmental financial responsibility. Nonetheless, they concomitantly spurred the tertiary education institutions to drift towards entrepreneurialism and innovation through activities such as research, fee policies and collaborations with vital stakeholders. Although the reforms were geared towards market, the Ghanaian system of tertiary education remains a quasi-market system with substantial governmental control.

In 2021, Illinois became the first state in the United States to require that K-12 students learn about Asian American history. Illinois achieved this when lawmakers passed House Bill 376 (H.B. 376), colloquially known as the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act. H.B. 376 received praise for being the first legislation of its kind, and its passage inspired similar bills in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Given the bill's influence, it is imperative to consider its language and utility. This critical policy analysis specifically investigates lawmakers' employment of the term "Asian American." The analysis ultimately argues that H.B. 376 is a necessary first step in breaking centuries of silence and dislocation for Asian Americans; however, the bill advances a social definition--or sociopolitical understanding--of "Asian American" that is potentially harmful.

This article argues that special and inclusive education policies in Nepal have been influenced by neoliberal policy reforms. The study employs discourse analysis as a theoretical perspective to analyse the effects of market-based schooling practices on students with disabilities in Nepal. The findings of this study are informed to some extent by the outcomes of the doctoral research project (Thapaliya, 2018). Data was collected through policies and documents. A selection of key education policies and documents between 1990 to 2020 were examined and analysed. One core theme and five sub-themes were identified from the data analysis. Disability as a resource management issue was a main theme. (i) Managing resources; (ii) resource allocation criteria; (iii) professional experts deciding resource funds; (iv) competing for limited resources; and (v) competition and school choice were sub-themes. The available evidence signals that the marketisation model of education does not assist students with disabilities adequately. The findings of this study reveal that the current policy and practice signal changes in government structure rather than working to fulfil these commitments in the everyday practice of students with disabilities. The limitations of the study and recommendations of this research are also discussed.

In its pursuit of global university rankings, Indonesia introduced a series of higher education policies, one in 2014 to grant autonomy to a select group of universities, and another in 2017 to tie financial and promotional incentives to scientific publications for all researchers. To examine scientific productivity surrounding these policies, we use bibliometric data from Scopus spanning three decades from 1990 to 2020. We investigate the patterns of publication and collaboration and analyze them across journal quartiles, academic fields, and researcher cohorts. Our findings reveal that publications increased dramatically for both autonomous and non-autonomous higher education institutions after 2014. Single-university authorship was common practice and skewed publication quality towards Q3 and Q4 journals, while co-authorships with foreign organizations pulled the shift towards Q1 journals consistently across all fields. New researchers starting in 2014 published fewer Q1 and more Q3 and Q4 publications than the earlier cohort. We highlight policy implications on the need for a balance between publication quantity and quality and call on Indonesian policymakers to introduce holistic higher education reforms rather than introducing reforms that focus on the performance of the university for ranking purposes.

Over the last three quarters of a century, international guidelines and regulations have undergone significant changes in how children are problematised as participants in biomedical research. While early guidelines enacted children as vulnerable subjects with diminished autonomy and in need of special protection, beginning in the early 2000s, international regulatory frameworks defined the paediatric population as vulnerable due to unaddressed public health needs. More recently, ethical recommendations have promoted the active engagement of minors as research partners. In this paper, I adopt a post-structuralist approach to policy analysis to examine deep-seated assumptions and presuppositions underlying the changes in the problematisation of children as biomedical research participants over time. While biomedical research ethics focuses on the autonomy and vulnerability of minors, ethical guidelines are situated in specific sociocultural contexts, shaped, among other things, by contingent public health needs and changing conceptions of the value of research and science for society. In the process, I demonstrate the challenge of moving away from an approach that in taking adults as the model overshadows the complexity of children's lived experiences as well as their personal, cultural, and social lives. The lack of acknowledgement of this complexity makes children vulnerable to epistemic injustice, which is particularly crucial to address in public involvement initiatives.

We employ a policy assemblage, mobilities, and mutations framework to analyze the geographies that constitute and reflect educational policy circulation at the regional or supranational level in trans-regional regimes and/or quasi-federal polities such as the European Union (EU) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Recognizing that policies are mobile in a fragmentary fashion as they are re/dis/assembled in specific ways, places, and purposes, we move beyond methodological nationalism and pay attention to the make-up of policies as they are in motion and the places they affect. In other words, using the trans-regional and/or quasifederal level, we juxtapose the tensions between policy as fixed, territorial, or place-specific against the dynamic, regional, and relational policy elements. Methodologically, we use a comparative federalist lens to trace and examine the distillation, translation, and mobilization of education policy across and between quasi-federal polities. In this sense, epistemologically, we further explicate the manner in which such policy instruments move across the various interconnected units and sites composing these federal-type entities, while (re)territorializing and deterritorializing what we construe as complex educational assemblages. We show that contra to the extant literature, in Europe/EU and the Caribbean/CARICOM, movement, and mobility involves the connectivity between policymaking sites, and policies arrive at their destination in the same form as they appeared elsewhere, allowing for forms of discursive isomorphism.

This contribution takes up and discusses topology as a relational approach to better understand and empirically trace policy mobilities in federal education systems. While topology echoes other relational approaches in its simultaneous focus on ongoing change and the "making" of stabilized forms (e.g., policy scales), it also brings attention to facets of policy mobility research that other approaches have, at least so far, considered to a much lesser extent. Such facets include the systematic integration of a "temporal dimension" (e.g., rhythms of scale- or policy-making) as well as the consideration of "digital/data space-times." Equally, topology reminds us that policy itself is increasingly becoming "topological"--that is to say, policy-making is increasingly ruled by movement spaces, logics of connectedness, and capacities for change, instead of formal authority, position, or transmission. Integrating these different dimensions into a heuristic framework, we illuminate what we see differently when applying a topological lens to policy mobility analysis in federal education systems, using the example of German education policies since the 2000s, particularly transformations induced by the ongoing pandemic, as a case study.

Global policy mobilities have been studied predominantly at the national level of education, but their implications and effects at the subnational level have been disregarded. This paper analyzes Proyectá tu Futuro, the first social impact bond (SIB) for education and employability implemented in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since 2010, SIBs have become a booming type of policy, rapidly traveling and being adopted across countries and policy spheres. SIBs aim to align the incentives of the private sector--the third sector--and the public sector to obtain results while improving public-policy efficiency. However, often it is policy entrepreneurs' agendas and not results or efficiency goals that trigger SIBs' adoption. In this study, we analyze the diffusion of SIBs as policy mobilities and the processes of adoption and translation in the context of Buenos Aires. To this end, we draw on an analysis of policy documents, existing legal frameworks, and interviews with key actors. Our findings point to the role of "glocal" policy entrepreneurs as key agents for the adoption and translation of SIBs, as well as their capacity to advance their own agendas in the context of global policy mobilities in federal education systems.

School choice policies have become a prominent feature of K-12 education in recent decades, reflecting the broader institutionalization of market-based political ideology in education. In this qualitative multiple case study, we draw on framing theory and interviews with 57 state-level education policy actors to explore the nature of the continued debate over school choice in five U.S. states. We find five patterns of framing choice as beneficial, centering around five purported goals-- quality, equity, liberty, plurality, and innovation--along with critiques of these frames. Our findings illustrate that despite the contested nature of these policies, the broad appeal and flexibility of "choice"' helps to explain its durability.