With the promulgation of the South African Schools Act of 1996, public education in South Africa was decentralised and communities were made responsible for school governance. This placed the responsibility on school governing bodies (SGBs) to take all measures within their means to supplement state funding for the acquisition of adequate human…

This study aims to analyze how selected student and school factors may affect teacher job satisfaction, in addition to teacher factors, through multilevel regression and commonality analysis of U.S. data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013. In the overall model of teacher job satisfaction, the factors of low achievers,…

Schools that support teachers and other members of the school community in taking initiative and exercising leadership over their work look and feel different from schools where decision-making and influence are more centralized. A growing body of research, backed by the experience of teachers and school leaders across the country, supports the…

Drawing upon Aihwa Ong's concept of 'neoliberalism as exception', this paper explores how the education authority in Shanghai capitalises on neoliberal knowledge, techniques and logics to address local challenges. Through the creation of 'new high-quality schools' that is accompanied by a new assessment system, the authority hopes to persuade…

A governmentality ethnographic approach is adopted to examine the everyday making of school in Buenos Aires slums. By addressing events at the intersection of the life of school and of the neighborhood, in this article we problematize schooling -- how it is put together and the tensions that beset it on a daily basis. The notion of the self-made…

Academic freedom, a deep-rooted right in the Swiss Constitution, is endangered. Private sponsorship agreements, secretly negotiated between university leaders and big companies, become increasingly vital for universities in Switzerland. Swiss authorities are pushing this development: not only are they taking austerity measures, but also rewarding…

University music education is a recent phenomenon in Nigeria. The founding of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, with autonomy to grant degrees for courses in nearly all fields of study, enabled it to initiate music degree along the lines of the Euro-American university music education in 1961. This article, relying on historical analysis with…

Based on the work of the European University Association (EUA) Learning & Teaching Initiative and the outcomes of the 1st European Learning & Teaching Forum, this paper underlines the importance of learning and teaching (L&T) as a core mission and responsibility of universities. Student learning needs and success must remain at the…

This well-researched volume explores how the Black freedom struggle and the anti-Vietnam War movement dovetailed with faculty and student activism in the South to undermine the traditional role of higher education and bring about social change. It uses the battles between students, faculty, presidents, trustees, elected officials, and funding…

Over the past 25 years, a small but growing number of school districts have implemented weighted student funding (WSF) systems as a way to increase school-level autonomy and more equitably distribute resources among schools. In these districts, which are predominantly large urban school systems, education leaders have implemented policies that…

International comparative data on student performance has led McKinsey&Company, among others, to suggest that education systems will inexorably converge in their developmental trajectories with principals and schools enjoying more autonomy. This article challenges these assumptions through referencing Singapore where schools and professionals…

This paper presents interview data from research conducted in two public high schools in the state of Queensland, Australia. The research was concerned with exploring issues of equity and diversity. Both schools had recently converted to "independent" status within a new state policy reform--the Independent Public Schools initiative.…

In partnership with the National Charter School Resource Center (NCSRC), the National Association for Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) has been conducting authorizer assessments over the past six years. However, the correlation between high-quality authorization practices and charter school impact has largely been unexplored. This report uses a…

Social demand for higher education has more than doubled in the past 20 years. However, only one-third of all countries' higher education systems are enrolling more than 50% of the traditional age cohort. Despite major advancements in achieving higher levels of access and participation, inequalities and inequities in higher education persist and…

Access to higher education has become a key policy issue in most European countries in since the last half of the last century. We trace the historical development of the ways in which governments in two countries within the region, Norway and Poland, have attempted to steer developments. Three access waves or phases are identified and…