Norway has a longstanding tradition of prohibiting formal grading in primary education. This paper traces a century of restrictive grading policies and their associated discourses. Using Bacchi's (2009) "What's the Problem Represented to be" framework, we present an analysis of the policy documents that have underpinned Norwegian…

In this article we describe and reflect on a large-scale regional adult literacy initiative in the north-eastern Brazilian state of Bahia, Todos pela Alfabetização (Everyone for Literacy), known locally as TOPA, was active between 2007 and 2014. In Brazil 7% of the adult population (11 million people), are illiterate; in the state of Bahia the…

Elementary literacy education policy continues to centre intensified use of standardised testing in the early elementary grades across the United States. The increase of datafication in schooling works to establish a surveillance system in schools. Including analysis through the lenses of Foucauldian disciplinary power and critical whiteness…

The present study explores the relationship between school principals' beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge with their practices concerning the education of students with disabilities, shedding light on their pivotal role in fostering inclusive education. Data were obtained through a validated questionnaire tailored for the Greek educational context,…

This article explores factors in children's lifeworlds that influence academic success, focussing on schooling structures and policies in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. It provides context on early childhood education sectors in each location, highlighting formal learning experiences prior to primary school. By examining diverse educational…

This portraiture-informed study by Taeyeon Kim challenges the dominant discourse of accountability, which often focuses on high-stakes policies at the expense of relational aspects of accountability in schools. Building on working theories of accountability, humanizing leadership, and paradox theory, Kim theorizes the "human side of…

This paper delves into the effects of public investment on primary school enrollment in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across three decades, from 1990 to 2020. Autoregressive distributed lag models are employed to evaluate their long-term relationship for the whole sample and four distinct sub-samples while also probing the potential…

This study investigates the relation between exposure to neighborhood violence and student performance, focusing on the spatial effects of crime. Using São Paulo city (Brazil) as case study, we applied multilevel and simultaneous equations models combined with a spatial approach. If the effects of crime can be felt across the city, reducing this…

Medium of instruction (MOI) policy often takes form in diverse and creative ways. In the primary schools of the Aran Valley, Spain, Aranese (a variant of the minoritized language Occitan) is the official MOI, in coexistence with the other official languages of the region: Catalan and Castilian Spanish. In such cases of language revitalization,…

In the Republic of Ireland, primary school teaching is a very attractive profession with pay being above the OECD average (Heinz and Keane 2018; Hennessey and Lynch 2017). This paper investigates how the Department of Education Inspectorate and the Teaching Council of Ireland position primary school teacher professionalism. The paper presents the…

State policymakers have worked hard to increase prekindergarten enrollment and ease young children's transition to kindergarten, and with good reason. There is abundant evidence that attending a formal preschool program such as state pre-K or Head Start boosts students' academic and social competencies significantly and meaningfully, regardless of…

The goal of a Comprehensive K-3 Reading Policy is to ensure all students read on grade level by the end of 3rd grade. A comprehensive policy ensures early identification of struggling readers and establishes intensive reading intervention for K-3 students who need more support to become successful readers. The policy focuses on demonstrated…

A plethora of scholars investigate how policies spread globally. This paper establishes an analytical framework to structure empirical macro-quantitative research on global education policy spread and enable this analysis to be more comprehensive. Different theories and concepts of drivers for education policy are structured into three distinct…

This book synthesises research on very early language learning in pre-primary organised instruction settings such as kindergarten, nursery or afternoon classes. Using a framework of ecological development, it investigates the nested systems in which very young learners operate, the other agents involved in each of these systems and the influence…

Public policies targeting individuals based on need often impose disproportionate burden on communities that lack the resources to implement these policies effectively. In an elementary school setting, I examine whether community-level interventions focusing on similar needs and providing resources to build capacity in these communities could…