Excellence, Reform and Equity in Education: An International Perspective. Occasional Papers Series, Number 13.

The five papers presented in this monograph deal with the implications of the criticisms of education and the calls for excellence now evident in a number of industrialized nations. While the issues discussed vary, there is a common concern to understand how current changes in educational policy may affect educational practice. "Women, Educational Reform, and the Process of Change" (Rosemary Deem) considers some of the attempts that have been made in Britain to reduce the amount of sexism in education, to offer better and fairer educational routes and experiences for girls, and to decrease gender inequalities within schools. "In/Forming Schooling: Space/Time/Textuality in Cumpulsory State Provided 'Mass' Schooling Systems" (Phillip Corrigan) raises questions against certain dominant forms of theorizing, investigating, and explaining schooling. "The Political Economy of Text Publishing" (Michael Apple) analyzes the production of curricular materials from the perspective of cultural commodities production and consumption. "Parents, Children, and the State" (Miriam E. David) argues that the New Right government in Britain, much like that of the United States, is subtly constructing public economic, social, and educational policies that will radically alter the place of family in the socio-economic system. "Public Education and the Discourse of Crisis, Power, and Vision" (Henry Giroux) argues that public education in the United States faces a dual crisis: a neo-conservative threat to all public spheres and a failure of radical educational discourse to either illuminate the nature of the existing failures of American education or to provide a theoretical discourse for educational reform. (LP)