Among pioneering European countries who started to establish a formal higher education quality assurance system in the 1980s, the Netherlands adopted one based on peer review and quality enhancement, which was replaced in 2003 by an accountability-oriented accreditation system under the substantial influence of the Bologna Process. Recently, the…

Higher education (HE) is a global enterprise. Its success (or failure) is integral to and a powerful indicator of the knowledge-producing and talent-attracting capacity of nations. But, the landscape in which HE operates today has become extremely complex; there are many more demands and many constituencies, each with an impact on and a voice in…

In this article, the author examines the ways in which a classroom quality metric framed the teaching and learning experiences of teachers and children in three Head Start classrooms. Using comic subjectivity theory, the author critically analyzes the ways in which the high-stakes classroom quality measure used in Head Start settings directed her…

This study attempted to compare the management practices in public and private universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, Pakistan. The comparison is based on availability of written rules and regulations, distribution of tasks, availability of managers, access to officers, time management, work load, staff promotion procedure and appraisal system.…

This paper examines the implications of the neoliberal reforms of higher education in Zambia for the professional lives faculty at the University of Zambia (UNZA). It draws on interviews with junior faculty--in their positions for less than 10 years--to argue that their conception of academic identity illustrates the problem of the "ontology…

Education, Big Data, and student privacy are a combustible mix. The improvement of education and the protection of student privacy are key societal values. Big Data and Learning Analytics offer the promise of unlocking insights to improving education through large-scale empirical analysis of data generated from student information and student…

This article examines evidence of teachers' work and learning in one school setting in the northern regions of Queensland, Australia, revealing how globalized performative practices that circulate around the collection and use of data in schooling settings are both confirmed and contested. Drawing upon the literature on the nature of…

This paper explores a three-year Creative Professional Development programme for teachers which encourages them to develop their skills as writers and illustrators in order to bring creative and original ideas about writing and illustrating into their classroom practice. The implicit message within such a programme is that without it, teachers,…

The purpose of this study is to critically evaluate value-added accountability measures currently enacted in the United States at the federal and state levels to assess teacher preparation programme (TPP) effectiveness. We draw on Newton and Shaw's framework for the evaluation of testing policy to evaluate the technical quality and social…

It is a matter of concern when large, federally funded programs are evaluated using designs that produce misleading information. In this article, we discuss problems associated with an evaluation design that was adopted by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to document the performance of a major early…

This article considers the professional work, identity and recruitment of head teachers (HTs) in Wales. Drawing on the sociology of professions, the article illustrates how intensive educational policy reform post-2011 has restricted HTs' professional agency and re-orientated the head teacher role towards organisational professionalism. Drawing on…

Although coaching holds great promise for professional development, instructional coaches are often asked to take on responsibilities that are not focused on improving instruction. The authors discuss a quantitative study of four school districts and a qualitative analysis of a single district that, together, reveal how hiring practices and school…

Teacher education programs in Australia increasingly comply with new and narrowing accountabilities so that they can be approved by diverse regulatory authorities and accredited. This is an auto-biographical narrative study which draws upon the memories of a teacher educator who contrasts her experience of learning to teach in the early 1980s with…

Each day, thousands of policymakers across the country--from district superintendents and statewide elected officials to local school board members and the U.S. secretary of education--with pressing challenges facing the American education system. In 2018 alone, more than 1,400 new state statutes were enacted related to education policy. As…

University personnel offering online doctoral degrees struggle to address high attrition of students in the dissertation phase; these students can feel isolated, disconnected, and unmotivated. The purpose of this study was to explore ways online doctoral students in the dissertation phase used social networking sites (SNS) to overcome isolation…