This paper is a case study of the emergence of an evaluation culture in the public sector and particularly in education in Ireland over the past three decades. It suggests that the emergence of this culture was strongly influenced by external factors, particularly the European Union (EU), and to a lesser but significant degree, the Organisation…

The aim of this paper is to articulate a new "post-liberal" paradigm for religious education in Britain. As criticisms of British religious education have mounted over the last few decades, it is becoming increasingly obvious that familiar inherited ways of conceptualising the nature and practice of religious education in schools are…

Education has become a central issue in West Papua. During the Suharto regime, the Indonesian government paid little attention to educational investment in the province which led to poor educational infrastructure and a shortage of teachers. As a result, the quality of human resources in the province is poor. Since 2001, the adoption of the…

Norwegian official development assistance to education has been profoundly shaped by the political and ideological attitudes of successive national governments. Yet successive coalition governments of highly-contrastive kinds can alike be seen to have been strongly influenced by the policy content, language and underlying assumptions of World Bank…

This manuscript seeks to share the continuous improvement endeavors by the College of Education faculty and administration at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte from initial preparation and planning through their successful national and state accreditation achieved in November 2005. Beginning with the unit's revision of their conceptual…

Research in Israel has shown a high level of non-democratic, and even anti-democratic, attitudes among Israeli high-school students. Similar findings in the adult population indicate that this is not a "childhood disorder" that evaporates with age, but something which could pose a threat to Israel's young and fragile democracy. The…

The American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC) Plus 50 Initiative is a three-year initiative launched in June 2008 and funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. It was created to support a pilot group of two-year institutions to develop or expand campus programs that engage plus 50 learners. The initiative focuses on three types of…

Based on a survey of rural school districts in Western China, this essay explores the effects of fiscal centralisation on the relationship between local governance and school district management, most particularly on how managerial power is distributed in the rural education sector. The essay also examines some of the possible effects that changes…

In this paper, we investigate the gender gap in education in rural northwest China. We first discuss parental perceptions of abilities and appropriate roles for girls and boys; parental concerns about old-age support; and parental perceptions of different labor market outcomes for girls' and boys' education. We then investigate gender disparities…

From its inception, Penn State has played a role in Pennsylvania's economy. As a land-grant university, it has functioned as a change agent, transferring research and knowledge to increase farm yields, encouraging business and "the mechanic arts," and transmitting technology to the general population. While the university still does…

The paper aims to explore the relationship between globalization and education through an investigation of educational policy development in the specific context of the Asia Pacific. The paper's primary focus is on data collected from the World Bank, OECD, IMF and UNESCO to look primarily at three interrelated trends in education: increasing…

The purpose of this paper is to explore another facet of visual literacy--technical visual communication (TVC)--and to discuss how this new perspective can further strengthen visual literacy as a discipline. Unlike visual literacy, which looks to a desirable state of affairs, TVC addresses the nature of actual visual communication. Both visual…

A recent initiative by the Education Department of Western Australia is seeking to extend the use of telematics (audiographic teleconferencing) for delivery of educational services to gifted and talented students in rural and remote areas. The aim of the project is to extend and apply innovative approaches to teaching via audiographics, and to…

Reassessment of the role of the superintendent largely has been excluded from the educational reform movement of the 1980s. This paper contends that superintendents must utilize a new "leaderly" model of active instructional leadership in superintending to improve the education of students. The paper is a tool for those working to…

Since the introduction of child-centered thinking in educational research, discussion has continued on whether the purpose of public schools is to teach students predetermined, set subject matter or to allow them more control over their education. Traditionalists have asserted that scientific methodology must be used to develop learning…