Misinterpretations and caricatures of Critical Race Theory (CRT) abound in popular media and in higher education scholarship. Given the confusion surrounding what CRT is and is not, I write this conceptual essay as an invitation to engage seriously with CRT's legal foundations. I offer four guideposts to aid scholars in engaging the legal roots of…

The history of educational policy-making in Aotearoa New Zealand is also a history in myth-making. Myths about Maori in education are deeply embedded in educational and social thought, because they have their origins in the first political interactions between Maori and Pakeha. These interactions were motivated by contradicting forces--Maori…

Twenty-five years ago, the author contributed a historical review of evidence on the foreign language (FL) learning problems of low-achieving and learning disabled (LD) students. Educators had proposed a new disability, FL learning disability, and developed policies permitting LD students to substitute courses or waive the FL requirement. The…

There has been an intense focus on the '21st century skills' and on universities developing graduate attributes through teaching, learning and innovative curricula. One example is resilience, frequently cited as desirable, especially during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. Resilience gained momentum across a number of fields, such as development…

The government's policy of helping pupils and students 'catch up' with 'lost learning' misconceives learning, and endorses pedagogical approaches based on this misconception. Whether or not to learn lies with the learner, so teaching is more properly understood as an act of faith in people rather than of delivery to them. Such a view has…

There are worries about the quality of scientific research, the validity of the knowledge it produces and the integrity of academics. What is lacking in the debate is what scientists have to say and what they do to create and safeguard what they see as 'good science'. Using Dutch academia as a case, we show that the academics' understandings of…

A new Fordham Institute report argues that post-pandemic enrollment declines will inevitably force districts to make the controversial decision to close some schools. The report then offers policymakers twin criteria of substantial declines in enrollment and chronic low performance as indicators of which schools should be closed first, and it…

For a century, America's early childhood policy has been premised on a myth. This falsehood--which dictates that child care and education are somehow separate and distinct--not only suboptimizes the most important window into all human development, but costs American taxpayers an untold fortune. It's time to think differently. Written in plain yet…

Zombies are defined as ideas or persistent myths that should have died out but have not. Special education's biggest zombie is that only full inclusion brings about true social justice and the most effective education for students with disabilities. Three examples of specific zombies about full inclusion are presented. First, that full inclusion…

Assessment accommodations are used globally in higher education systems to ensure that students with disabilities can participate fairly in assessment. Even though assessment accommodations are supposed to promote access, not success, they are commonly portrayed as potentially being "cheating" in that they provide certain students with…

Adults' beliefs and knowledge about the state of the U.S. education system drive decisions about policy, funding, program adoption, student participation in programs, and the selection of decision makers to elected positions. Amie Rapaport and Anna Rosefsky Saavedra share national survey data showing that U.S. adults have little knowledge about…

Epistemicide occurs when one knowledge is exalted at the expense of local or indigenous knowledge systems leading to the demise of such knowledge systems. In this article, I focus on how some conceptions and ways of incorporating indigenous knowledge systems seem to be entangled in the same misnomer to which they owe their existence (i.e. a…

This book analyses educational theory in order to offer an alternative view of the history of education in modernity. It provides a new understanding of education as a phenomenon that draws on powerful lines of thinking, but also makes a significant departure from the conventional wisdom of both education policy and education studies. These…

A recent report from the Progressive Policy Institute examines the impact of charter schools on the achievement of students who remain enrolled in traditional district schools. It is centered around a graph that depicts a strong positive relationship between the percentage of students enrolled in charter schools and decreases in the achievement…

The Department for Education (DfE) in England seeks to determine the actions of educationists in both the public and private sectors through the use of targeted instructive documents and white papers where broader policy intention is presented. Since 2010, as we will show, there has been a shift in the nature of such papers towards justification…