Recent work on distributed leadership extends an ongoing critique of conventional "heroic" leader portrayals. This article examines work in this area seeking implications for democratic school governance. With material from case studies of two Texas schools, it considers frameworks presented by Spillane, Halverson, and Diamond and by…

This article explores how districts negotiate the conflict that emerges as they attempt to de-legitimize inequity by prompting institutional and organizational-level changes that create equitable access and outcomes for all children. To this end, this article highlights the contentious nature of this pursuit as well as the intended and unintended…

This article examines the ideological dimensions of educational psychology and psychometrics as they relate to the validation of the "intelligence" of the privileged and the "deficiency" of the marginalized. In this critique a critical psychology emerges that takes seriously the lifeworld experiences of culturally and…

The educational discourse chronicling the experiences of African American educators continues to be limited, while the anthropological and sociological literature appears to be more inclusive. Educational literature in regards to African American educators since 1966 continues to focus on how African American educators maintain the status quo and…

This article deals with central issues in the field of sociology and politics of education after the publication of the outcomes of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study for Germany. These outcomes serve to remind us of the old debate on politics of education in the 1960s. The main topic since then remains the reproduction…

This study examined superintendents' perceptions of current performance evaluation practices and their preferences for those practices. Specifically, 1,125 superintendents across the nation received a questionnaire exploring evaluation effectiveness and results-based procedures. Findings indicate practices are neither uniformly effective nor…

Agricultural and environmental higher education has changed greatly over the past four decades. This article provides a personal review of the factors influencing this change. Economics, social attitudes and developments in technology and in theories of learning have all affected both what and how students need to learn. This is illustrated with…

Borrowing the title of Raymond Williams' famous study, the following reflections--sometimes collective and sometimes individual--are based on a series of "Keywords", specifically: "fear" "community" and "creativity". By reflecting on the meanings these words have for us today, we attempt to capture their…

Statistics indicate a "one-party" American university, yet Russell K. Nieli discerns the faint but hopeful stirrings of a movement to redress the ideological imbalance in the professoriate. Here and there, across the country, architects are creating new, or revamping existing, departments and curricula to embrace the best elements of the American…

For emerging democracies civic education issues have special meaning. Often these issues play a vital role in the process of nation building and democratic consolidation, which makes the interplay between the school system and the socio-political environment particularly important. Estonia, which inherited from the half-century Soviet occupation a…

In October 2002, the multiple and single subject credential programs at a large urban Los Angeles Basin California State University campus, were approved as Early Adopters of the SB 2042 Professional Teacher Preparation Program. These programs resulted from a complex and multi-faceted process of change supported and influenced by reform…

In this paper, the author looks back over some 43 years of involvement in language teaching and examines the progress educators have made as a profession. He also considers their present situation, given a Federal Government, which, at least until this year, has seemed antipathetic to languages education, and State and Territory Governments which,…

The Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training on May 2005 commissioned the Australian Council for Educational Research to investigate and report on models and implementation arrangements for an Australian Certificate of Education. There are ten different certificates currently available across the six states and two territories of…

Special education as a percentage of total enrollment has risen significantly across the nation, increasing from 8% of the school-age population in 1975-76 to 12% in 2001-02. These growing numbers have garnered increased public attention and have raised questions as to whether the type of special education funding formula used by states may be…

As Taiwan's state apparatus began to democratise, the question arose as to how teachers' practices might inform the wider process of contextual changes, i.e. societal, economic and political changes. This article explores this issue through an examination of how teachers seek to alter the relations of authority by arguing for independent teacher…