This book critiques dominant discourses and debates pertaining to cultural identity, set against the current backdrop of growing social stratification and unequal access to quality education. It addresses current discourses concerning globalisation, ideologies and the state, as well as approaches to constructing national, ethnic and religious…

This edited volume presents innovative current research in the field of Science Education. The chapter's deal with a wide variety of topics and research approaches, conducted in a range of contexts and settings. Together they make a strong contribution to knowledge on science teaching and learning. The book consists of selected presentations from…

New tools and technologies are being developed to cater to the e-learning triangle of content, technology, and services. These developments (in technology, needs of students, emergence of new modes of education like MOOCs or flipped classrooms, etc.) have resulted in a change in the approach to teaching. "Innovative Applications of Online…

Developments in the education field are affected by numerous, and often conflicting, social, cultural, and economic factors. With the increasing corporatization of education, teaching and learning paradigms are continuously altered. "Deconstructing the Education-Industrial Complex in the Digital Age" is an authoritative reference source…

This book defends the role of public education against its critics and throws light on such current issues as privatization, voucher systems, the role of public intellectuals, critical literacy, and educational reform. The volume offers a renewed vision of public schools as the locus of public knowledge and political democracy. Chapters include:…

Before there can be an understanding of politics, policy, and action in education, there must be an understanding of the value systems of policymakers. Policymakers, in their talk, in their choices of symbols and metaphors, in their choices of strategies for dealing with conflict, reveal their own needs, their role orientations, their group…

There is widespread consensus worldwide that improving the performance of education systems is necessary to advance socioeconomic development, reduce inequality, enhance economic competitiveness of nations, and possibly fortify governmental institutions. This paper explores the political conditions that may enhance or hinder the adoption of…

Focusing on the states of California and New York, this book highlights the political aspects of educational policy, the configurations of power and how they play out with respect to history-social studies curriculum policy. The volume examines the politics of multicultural curriculum policymaking in these two states within the context of the…

Using 56 school districts that experienced enrollment declines, this study describes the variables in superintendent succession amidst declining enrollments and locates the strongest predictors of succession. (JW)

Literature on the hidden curriculum suggests an essential meaning behind either "unintended consequences" or "latent functions" of formal curricula, but this claim is largely unfounded. Four major perspectives underpin studies in this area: functionalism, Marxism, humanitarianism, and existentialism. This paper demonstrates how…

Seven school superintendents in the state of Washington with varying levels of exposure to Iannacone and Lutz's dissatisfaction theory of democracy as well as varying degrees of experience with electoral conflict in their careers were interviewed to determine the level of their understanding of the theory, their acceptance of it, their ability to…

Identifying the assumptions of the dominant, functionalist paradigm in considerations of educational administration as inadequate, this study proposes an alternative paradigm: a politics of schooling that can both describe administration and organization and contribute to the development of leadership as praxis. Criteria for an adequate theory of…

In this book, eight contributors examine issues related to the likely effects of the decentralization of school governance on educational practice. Two major themes emerge in the book. The first (chapters 1 through 4) is that governance reforms in education may have little to do with what actually happens in schools, but have much to do with…

Traces the complex history of higher grade schools in Great Britain during the late nineteenth century, concentrating on Sir John Gorst's intervention in these schools' affairs in 1900 and the subsequent abolition of their school boards. Gorst's actions significantly curtailed the educational and social activities of lower middle and working class…

This working paper focuses on the educational planner as a bureaucratic actor. To explain planner influence or lack of influence in the policymaking process, practitioners need to explore the micropolitics of organizations and understand individual, organizational, and situational forces demanding their engagement. Planners need an engaged…