Recently a number of studies have focused on states' adoptions of postsecondary-specific policies. Cutting across much of this research is the presence and influence of interstate diffusion of policy adoptions, a phenomenon for which support is scant. This paper seeks to address this through broadening the categorization of policies beyond…

The medium of instruction (MOI) has been a contested issue in multilingual polities globally, as English medium of instruction (EMI) has seen unprecedented growth, threatening the use and sometimes very survival of local/indigenous and even national languages. While the struggles to address related issues have been well researched, how and why…

Teachers and students are the main stakeholders of educational policies in the states; hence, the higher order policies, rules, and regulations must be in alignment with their rights, values, ideologies, needs, competencies, and peculiarities of each region and district. In such a case, the classroom practice will be improved and more promising…

The introduction of assessment orientated policy in 2016 marks a significant change in Scottish education as it will establish standardised national testing. Teachers in Gaelic medium education are well placed to offer insights as they have had considerable autonomy regarding assessment and this paper is the first to consider the impact of this…

Racial equity is a high priority in Oregon, which along with many other states has enacted reforms in the past decade to improve racial equity in school discipline practices. One common approach has been to focus on reducing the use of exclusionary discipline, which removes students from classroom instruction. In 2015 the Oregon legislature…

Institutional engagement with digital literacies at the University of Brighton has been promoted through the creation of a Digital Literacies Framework (DLF) aimed at academic staff. The DLF consists of 38 literacies divided into four categories that align to the following key areas of academic work: (1) Learning and teaching; (2) Research; (3)…

While education systems in Africa share common backgrounds historically (educationally, socially, politically, economically and culturally), they are deep variations in the approaches and contexts resulting in many questions than answers. The purpose of this study was to interrogate the current tertiary education curriculum, provide a rationale…

In 2014, the Australian Federal Government attempted to de-regulate higher education fees so as to allow universities to set their own tuition fees. The associated public debate offer critical insights into how the identity of a student as a "customer" of higher education is understood and deployed when developing higher education…

This paper provides a detailed account of the Queensland education system's engagement with reforming curriculum, pedagogies and assessment. In so doing, it responds to the University College London's Institute of Education report on "high-performing" jurisdictions, of which Queensland, Australia, was identified as one. In this report,…

In this paper, we present a case study of a philanthropic literacy initiative, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, a book-gifting scheme for under 5s, and consider the impact of the scheme on literacy policy in the English city where it was introduced. We bring four lenses to bear on the case study. First, we analyse the operation of the scheme in…

In Australia, education think tanks have become increasingly influential in policy circles through "reports" to government, and in public debate through the mainstream media. Invariably think-tanks draw on educational research to lend authority and legitimacy to their work. This is desirable if the research deepens understandings about…

On the one hand, the relevance of this problem is primarily determined by a growing gap of rural territorial entities in socioeconomic development, and on the other hand, due to their significance in such prominent aspects for the country as food security, maintaining the existing land, industrial, ecological, demographic and human potential. The…

Pupil well-being has been an important topic in educational research for some time. Differences between schools in their influence on the well-being of their pupils are attributed to the policy-making capacities of the school. Little is known about schools' policy-making capacities with regard to pupil well-being, and the impact of school culture…

This paper evaluates Michigan's recently implemented job-embedded professional development policy using criteria of relevance, focus, goal orientation and social scope. The authors assert that while Michigan's policy does address all four criteria detailing effective professional development, there are limitations in the policy that may impact the…

Over the last decade and a half, during a period defined in the public consciousness by political partisanship, the legislative and executive branches have quietly forged a bipartisan consensus around the need to build evidence of effectiveness that would ensure high rates of return on investment for the nation's social programs. The establishment…