This interdisciplinary research explores the complex interplay between democratic erosion and migration crises, recognising their profound implications for social cohesion. With universities serving as bastions of knowledge and inclusion, their role in addressing these challenges is paramount. By implementing targeted programs and initiatives,…

School Improvement Plans (SIPs) have been shown to be generally of poor quality and written more as acts of compliance than efforts at genuine reform. This raises the question: if SIPs are ineffective at improving schools, what is their larger purpose? In this conceptual paper, we argue that SIPs are discursive sites where schools can signal their…

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…

The work of teachers, as representative of a significant area of social policy, occupies many column inches in newspapers internationally every year. This paper takes a close, systematic look at the education coverage of one national Australian newspaper, over a 30-year period from 1993 to 2022. Focusing on representations of school teachers in…

This study aims to explore reimagined accountability through collective efforts initiated by school leaders and to challenge the fixed notion of accountability prescribed by policy scripts. Drawing on studies highlighting humanizing leadership and the metaphors of "agora" and "bazaar," I investigate how school leaders…

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…

Assuming Australian training markets represent successful policy implementation facilitates an exploration of the implications for their future evolution by querying what is sold in these markets. A Foucauldian discourse analysis of relevant documentation suggests that training markets overwhelmingly provide products and/or services. Further…

This paper focuses on contemporary tensions and contradictions in current Norwegian educational policy discourse. Based on critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Norwegian governmental white papers our analysis reveals that contemporary Norwegian policy formulation is torn between an egalitarian and a selection discourse about how to tackle…

Human diversity in education, particularly in higher education, has several positive effects on students' intellectual and social experiences as well as it has quite a number of challenges. Globally, numerous empirical studies have been conducted on the opportunities and challenges of human diversity in higher education institutions (HEIs).…

The rapid advancement of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) models, particularly ChatGPT, has sparked widespread discussion among educators and researchers regarding their potential implications for education. This study presents a comprehensive taxonomy of GenAI in academia and education, encompassing a wide range of applications,…

Education is frequently described through the use of the metaphor of 'delivery'. This occurs in policy documents, in curriculum and in school-level materials. As a figure of speech, this metaphor has become naturalised in education discourse. This article shares internationally relevant findings from a small Australian study that uses qualitative…

Amid concerns of a global learning crisis, foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) has become a recent focus area for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). For instance, in 2021, India launched one of the world's largest initiatives to achieve universal foundational literacy by 2026-27. Given that the term "foundational literacy"…

This paper uses critical policy analysis to investigate how the concept of equity has been co-opted to promote a neoliberal agenda in education reforms in Manitoba. Early provincial reform documents contained a narrow definition of equity focused primarily on closing achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. These reform…

This paper critically examines articulations of relationality present in education policy texts that shape particular discursive representations of relationality between students, teachers and curriculum. The policy texts of Australian state and territory education departments are considered as a set of discursive statements to illustrate how…

Lifelong learning has for decades been considered a 'holy grail' that can help resolve societal problems and boost the economy. The current hegemonic discourse surrounding lifelong learning has included economic objectives since at least the 1980s; however, this has not always been the case. At least three different conceptual generations have…