The student as consumer has emerged as a common motif and point of contestation in educational philosophy over the past two decades, as part of the critique of the neoliberal educational reform agenda that followed Lyotard's (1984) mapping of the postmodern condition. In addition, the consumer-orientated student has assumed a problematic presence…

Education is a social institution through which a society's children are taught basic knowledge, skills, and cultural norms. Social change can often lead to transformation within the social organization of a society, as it can affect not only people but also social institutions. Social change occurs when people call for change to meet human needs.…

This chapter explores the ways in which identities and positions of dominance or subordination in a societal system of power and privilege affect the way in which leadership is enacted.

Using a theoretical-critical and historical approach, this paper analyses the implications of the Cold War in national curricula and educational reforms of the second half of the 20th century with emphasis on the 21st century. The context of the time after the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War is shown, as well as the social and…

This historical-themed critical paper utilises writings by John Dewey to review how constructions of social democracy might benefit conceptions of contemporary physical education. The review focuses on Dewey's early ethics writings which considered that society functioned best when collective moral purposes merged with individual freedoms in a…

This paper examines how transformations in political economy and digital technology point toward potential post-neoliberal futures. Outlining the contours of a crisis of neoliberal hegemony, the authors explore how technological developments have contributed to political economic dynamics of market failure and oligarchic capture, resulting in new…

Marian Falski's "Reading Primer" (Elementarz) was the first textbook to be published in Warsaw in 1945 by the newly established State School Publishing House (Panstwowe Zaklady Wydawnictw Szkolnych). It was officially approved by the Ministry of Education and by the Censorship Office, but nevertheless had an interim character, unlike…

The following article is written from the perspective of disability studies (Glodkowska, Pagowska 2017) and concentrates on cultural ableism as a dominant pattern present in Poland during the Iron Curtain (1945-1989). The authors are of the opinion that the conditions of forced functioning of the Polish society behind the Iron Curtain generated…

Marx developed a sophisticated theory of labour under capitalism's expanding reproduction but wrote little specifically on immaterial labour. This paper reflects on how to build from Marx's writings a more comprehensive theory of immaterial labour. Integral to this theorisation is bringing in young Marx's writings on alienation and human nature,…

There are lines of demarcation between the political left and right, and also within the left, as regards central matters of education policy and how the purpose and value of education may be understood. This article details and distinguishes what is at stake, in particular between a revolutionary Marxist left and other currents, as regards a…

This paper explores power bases and power tensions among education bureaux, inspection offices, and schools in China. The six bases of social power were applied as the analytical framework to scrutinize 13 policy documents and eight interviews with inspectors. The study uncovered three types of power tensions: education bureau's informational…

This research explores the interrelations of higher education and welfare state models in the USSR of the 1960-1980s and Russia of the 2000-2020s. We first address the extent to which the provision of higher education aligns with the key imperatives of welfare redistribution: eligibility, state-market balance, and equality. Second, we schematize…

In this article, the author outlines some of the defensive weapons with which schools fight to hold their institutional authority over knowledge in a changing educational landscape. If schools are gripped by a crisis of epistemic authority, what are their strategies of shoring up their jurisdiction? To explore this question, the author turns to…

Early childhood scholars in New Zealand have long lamented a rising dominance of neoliberalism. Correspondingly they suggest that there has been a lessening of socialist ideals and principles of Te Ao Maori after years of a right-wing government. With the 'refresh' of New Zealand's national early childhood curriculum, "Te Whariki" under…

On October 16, 2017, over 12,000 faculty, librarians, and counsellors in 24 independent postsecondary colleges in Ontario, Canada went on strike for the fourth time since they organized in 1971 as members of the Civil Service Association of Ontario and won their first collective agreement the next year. Begun as an apolitical, self-consciously…