Purpose: Using a large-scale school improvement program in Sweden as a case, this article aims to explore the state governance of a large-scale school improvement program in Sweden and how officials at the state agency level made sense of the reform ideas and operationalized them in policy actions. Design/methodology/approach: Data were integrated…

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…

This paper investigates the factors that limit ICT-integrated teaching in Ethiopian secondary schools. Following Actor-Network Theory, the relationship between teachers and ICT materials is interpreted as a sociomaterial network in which the material and the human dimensions are intertwined. Qualitative data was collected via interviews carried…

The question 'What the hell is quality?' has been subject to heated discussions since Pirsig posed it in 1974 in Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. To this day no conclusive answer has been formulated. And yet, the notion of higher education quality is here to stay. This dissertation investigates how people Dutch higher education 'make'…

In recent years, the school environment has witnessed an increase in the array of crises that are affecting communities, students, and staff. Providing adequate school safety policies and practices has never been such a central focus for federal and local politicians, school leaders, and community members. The importance of addressing school…

Based on an in-depth case study, this book reveals how politicians, as policy makers, conceptualise, develop and initiate large-scale education system reform and why it matters for whole system school improvement. Governments all over the world are spending increasing time, money and effort on improving school systems but the evidence suggests…

This paper delves into the intricacies of fostering bottom-up educational initiatives aimed at addressing power imbalances in societies marked by intractable conflicts. Focusing on the establishment of a Palestinian-Jewish integrated bilingual education program in Israel, the study examines archival materials and stakeholder interviews to uncover…

This study explores the internationalization of higher education in China, employing a qualitative methodology to examine Chinese universities' strategies to foster global excellence and prepare graduates for success in a globally interconnected environment. The research incorporated diverse perspectives, including those of government officials,…

Sri Lanka's early achievements in education and literacy became well known among the international development community in the middle of the last century and were often used to benchmark progress elsewhere. "Development, Education and Learning in Sri Lanka" presents an illuminating narrative of changing education fortunes and…

This paper presents an analytical framework of the configuration of the action space in the governance structure of Chinese universities from the perspectives of formal and informal structures and gives concrete explanations of the factors in the analytical framework based on data from interviews with party committee general secretaries and…

The purpose of the study reported on here was to introduce the perceptions of senior academic administrators in the Northern Cyprus Ministry of Education on the structure of the current education system as a whole. In order to carry out this case study, the views of 14 senior academic administrators were obtained through semi-structured…

The study examined the strategies used by teacher educators in their teaching practices and gender integration in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The nature of the engagement of educational leaders and administrators in supporting teaching, learning and mainstreaming gender issues in teaching was also examined. A total of 165 sampled respondents were…

This paper discusses how the political interplay between English-in-society and English-in-education policy in the Global South(s) facilitates what I term 'English as a subtle technology of policy distraction' in postcolonial spheres that were colonised by languages other than English. 'English as a subtle technology of policy distraction' is…

Social Network Analysis has been posited as a useful technique to determine if leadership development programs are an effective intervention in developing social ties and enhancing connectivity among leaders in an organization. Evaluations can examine the extent to which the leadership development programs create and catalyze peer networks. This…

The role of the state has always been a salient feature of higher education governance in Confucian societies. This is despite that their modern higher education systems have been built upon Western experiences. This article examines the role of the state in invigorating universities in Taiwan in their quest for world-class status. It interrogates…