This article critically considers the importance of educators asking, 'who are the children we teach?' before attending to questions of purpose, curriculum and pedagogy. Through examining the relationships between identities, place and time-space, the article contributes to wider debates about how geography can enhance our knowledge of educational…

This paper critically considers the notion of educational policy transfer by addressing the roles of significant actors, based on an analysis of educational reforms made during the Soviet and US military occupation in the two Koreas. Using evidence from the Korean cases, the paper challenges the state-centric, linear, and static views of…

Rousseau's political philosophy presents the great legislator as a civic educator who must over time transform naturally self-loving egoists into citizens animated by a general will without destroying freedom. This is an educational process which is "denaturing" but which aims to produce autonomous adults who can ultimately say to their teacher…

This paper offers an assessment of two 12th-century theories of education, Hugh of St Victor's "Didascalicon" and John of Salisbury's "Metalogicon", maintaining that their works both draw on traditional Christian teachings and respond to contemporary pedagogical interests in systematising knowledge and integrating classical learning. The two works…

This paper provides a media analysis of three interrelated sets of newspaper articles dealing with youth, schooling and violence. Understanding the media as a dominant and powerful cultural text that creates the realities it describes, the paper takes a critical view of the 'standpoint' of recent media representations of the Cronulla (Sydney,…

Essay-based examinations form a cornerstone of the public assessment system in the UK, but comparatively little research has been conducted into the processes involved in designing, answering and appraising essay-based questions/responses. This study explores the idea of examination validity through a qualitative review of these processes, based…

The author reviews education in the context of social power and then examines the relationship between education and politics in England. (Author/RM)

Drawing on examples from England and Russia, the author discusses three issues involving politics and education: 1) what proportion of society's resources are to be allocated to education, 2) how and by whom shall this allocation be determined, and 3) should control be centralized or decentralized once resources are allocated. (Author/RM)

This article discusses the relationship between politics and education in the light of the recent reform of local government in England. Three topics are examined: 1) efficiency and the size of the local education authorities; 2) party politics in local government; and 3) local administration of education vs. administration by a central…

This article is concerned with the founding purposes and justification of natural science in the statutory school curriculum. It offers a critique of the strand of argument and the proposals for reform which have developed after the report "Beyond 2000" focused on a particular usage of the term "scientific literacy". Two lines of argument are…

New Labour has placed inclusion at the centre of its educational agenda. Its policies have been characterised by an attempt to include disabled children, together with others identified as having "special educational needs", within the ordinary school system and the shifting of responsibility for meeting their needs to teachers in the…

This article deals with the assumptions and implications of the Malaysian policy for "learning from Japan". The article explores the ways in which this policy has effectively been operated in drawing a new geography of "Asia", dislodging colonial legacies in the region and countering the consolidation of other regional blocs.…

The author discusses education as an example of the new services facilitated by the centralized modern state. The author's goal is to help us understand more clearly the benefits and disadvantages of such an extension of political activity. The political impact on educational policy in England is briefly discussed. (Author/RM)

Why U.S. bilingual education programs have failed to gain legitimacy is examined. A brief discussion of bilingual education in Wales supports the argument that the legitimacy of bilingual teaching within the education system itself and support from local parents and teachers are more important for its survival than public support. (RM)

The fusion of politics and education, both necessary and dangerous, constitutes difficulty and honor for educators when providing equality of opportunity and training of responsible citizens. (ND)