The study reported on in this paper is set in the context of a national programme of professional development for primary teachers in the Republic of Ireland which has been in operation since 1999 and finished in 2008. The paper explores the acquisition and interpretation by teachers of the elements of the reform. The authors consider the extent…

The first part of the paper outlines and discusses the nature of work-based learning (WBL) and WBL programmes, and the overall direction of government strategy towards WBL programmes in Higher Education (HE) in England, with particular reference to postgraduate programmes, policy documents, and the WBL literature. Drawing upon case study research,…

This article analyses the unique challenges and needs of moral and citizenship education in post-war Peruvian society. It assumes the explanation of the roots, the facts and the enduring negative consequences of violence as described in the final report of the Comision de la Verdad y Reconciliacion (CVR) [Truth and Reconciliation Commission]…

In this paper we argue that although the United States and South Africa have produced qualitatively different national frames about the necessity for racial integration in education, certain practices converge in both nations at the school level that thwart integrationist goals. Drawing on sociologist Jeannie Oakes and colleagues' idea of schools…

Gender equity is one of the foundational principles of the national Department of Education, but there is not a shared understanding of its meaning. Based on interviews conducted in 2008 with officials in the Department of Education, we argue that there are two basic approaches to gender equity. The first, which we term "gender blind",…

The literature on school commercialism, despite a number of successes in battling advertising and marketing in schools, has often seemed to only scratch the surface of corporatization of K-12 education. While condemning corporations who seek to sell brand-name products to kids in schools is a relatively straightforward matter, critiquing corporate…

This paper presents a new analysis of segregation between schools in terms of pupils living in poverty, for all secondary schools in England from 1996 to 2005. This shows that the clustering of similar pupils in specific schools increased noticeably from 1996 to 2001, but then settled at a level still below that of 1989 when official records…

In this paper, we focus on the efforts of educators at nine different research sites within the United States, funded by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), to develop and implement innovative, interdisciplinary curriculum on the relationship of the environment and human health. The NIEHS correctly…

Although the global call for environmental education is persistent, on a local or regional level, this call can be confronted by educational policies that drive environmental education out of the curriculum. This paper reports on a qualitative case study of the factors contributing to the sustainability of three teacher-driven integrated…

Despite the growing popularity of interdistrict choice plans over the past decade, the policy assumptions underlying their adoption have been subjected to very little empirical research. This study situates school choice within one metropolitan region, Denver, and examines the ways in which choice patterns relate to existing patterns of…

This article uses qualitative case study methodology to examine why the racial composition of magnet schools in Nashville, Tennessee, has shifted to predominantly African American in the aftermath of unitary status. The article compares the policy contexts and parents' reasons for choosing magnet schools at two points in time--under court order…

Adult education and lifelong learning together form one of the priorities for development in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The important historical and social context in which the professional development of adult educators has been taking place in the Baltic States since they regained their independence in the 1990s is the changes that occurred…

In an era of curricular accountability where everything from reading and math scores to body fat are events to be assembled, scrutinized, and standardized, the health-conscious school plays an ever-important role in community and the nation (or so we are told). This qualitative study analyzes interviews with school leaders in their role in…

Drawing on the insights of critical disability studies, this article addresses anxieties frequently articulated by academic staff around the implementation of the United Kingdom's Disability Discrimination Act: how to accommodate the needs of students with "hidden" impairments. Following the social model of disability, it argues that…

This article sets out to analyze the educational problems facing the Batwa community of Burundi. After explaining the marginal nature of that community in the Burundian context, the article highlights the Batwa's exclusion from school education, from the colonial era to the present. The article attempts to show that, despite governmental adopted…