This study explores the production, dissemination, and reception of the discourse of educational excellence and internationalisation in Japan's Designated National University Corporation System. The study frames the policy initiative within the longstanding goals of the Japanese government and demonstrates how the work of Michel Foucault helps…

Controversy surrounding the teaching of secular education (SE) has fomented recurrent conflicts between liberal states and religious enclave communities (ECs). The current study explored Haredi (Jewish ultra-Orthodox) community-based activism aiming to promote SE in New York Hasidic schools for boys. It sheds light on how Haredi activists'…

Colleges and universities and members of their communities--administrators, faculty, and students--are caught in the crosshairs of sharply divided sociopolitical debates. Issues at home and abroad have polarized campuses, reflective of national division. With activism alive and well on campuses across the nation, and very much the focus of public…

This paper contributes to research on lifelong learning (LL) by examining discourses of multilateral organisations through the lens of 'progressive neoliberalism', in which contradictory ideologies of social justice movements and capitalism are hybridised (Fraser 2017). LL has been interpreted as a means of upskilling to remain competitive in the…

Describing various demographic characteristics of disadvantaged students, the programs they study and their employment outcomes is a significant area of research interest in the vocational education and training (VET) sector. This article offers a preliminary exploration of how groups are problematised and the consequent influence on VET research…

Despite the widespread concern regarding young people's wellbeing, the interaction between gender and mental health appears to be generally overlooked within education and is more commonly focused on concern about rising figures of female mental health. The absence of discussions around gender is surprising, given the ongoing debate regarding the…

The influence of curriculum and policy documents on the decision-making of educators is of particular interest in the field of early childhood. Reports of competing pedagogical approaches with a 'push-down' of curriculum alongside advocacy for play-based pedagogies raise questions as to the potential of curriculum and policy documents to create…

With the rise of neoliberal reforms and efforts to privatize education, there is a growing need to examine how actors and groups from the public and private sectors influence educational policy change together. In this article, we advance a critical approach to understanding the changing discursive space of educational politics by following…

Policies in education ensure that educators and educational leaders are receiving and implementing equitable and adequate educational services and opportunities to all students. Some of these policies are proactive and others are reactive. In 2018, Judge Singleton decided in the "Yazzie-Martinez v. NM" (2018) court case the State of NM…

Diversity and inclusion are well regarded as beneficial and advantageous for communities, organizations, institutions, and societies. Equity or fairness is commonly understood as necessary for democracy. Public perception about what institutions can and should be doing to advance diversity, equity and inclusion, (DEI), continues to change as…

Advocacy coalitions have the potential to be a vehicle for community-based education reform in urban school systems, where state legislatures have increasingly adopted top-down policies such as state takeover and accountability systems. Yet, coalitions are influenced by and create their own informal and formal power structures that can include or…

In this paper, we make initial advances towards building an argument for the inclusion of Critical Literacy Awareness within the new Early Career Framework in England. Using illustrative examples from recent research projects, we argue that post-2010 education policy has discursively divided practitioners, structuring relationships between…

Focusing on the potential of progressive movements at the local level to expand conceptions of justice, this article examines discourses within curriculum reform efforts by focusing on public testimonies in a successful campaign for the adoption of an Ethnic Studies resolution. Findings from observations and content analysis of public school board…

This article explores how teachers were discursively positioned in England following the formation of the Coalition government in 2010, using a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of 363 speeches produced by government ministers. Findings show that young teachers were privileged in post-2010 government discourse, constructed as valued and…

Racialized narratives of academic ability, perpetuated by ahistorical interpretations of student performance data, have led to educational policies focusing on short-term solutions, instead of the ongoing legacies of racism and settler colonialism. The aim of this paper is to show how the racially defined achievement gap operates within the…