This paper discusses the managerialist approach to developing and implementing systems for flexible delivery of educational systems in the Australian university sector. Rapid advances in communication technologies have enabled the education sector to provide greater flexibility and diversity in the traditional areas of mixed delivery and distance…

This article draws from poststructuralist, feminist and identity-based political foundations of queer theory to construct a conceptual lens which complements other critical, anti-oppression frameworks. It reveals some of the internal struggles in the field of queer studies, describes the social context for issues related to sexuality in North…

This article employs organizational life cycle, organizational learning stages and group development stages literature to examine my experiences at the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) during its establishment phase. Support was found, and other foci suggested, for this literature. As well, future issues to be faced by the NCSL were…

The National College for School Leadership was set up in November 2000. In its short life it has become seen, in Tony Bush's words as "a major influence, arguably the major influence, on school leadership, management and administration in England and beyond" (Bush 2004: 243). Expanding on Gronn (2003) who argues that bodies like the NCSL…

Between 1940 and 1960, the British Government became increasingly concerned with the welfare of students coming to Britain from the dependent territories of the Commonwealth. The reasons were political, cultural, and economic. This essay traces the transition of official attitudes, from modest promotion to active policy. With the coming "end…

This article focuses on the government's higher education policy trajectory during the post apartheid period. The central argument of the article is that government policy ought to be examined in the light of a struggle over aligning the higher education policy discourse with the government's chosen macro development path. Policy activity has to…

The knowledge economy is a dominant force in today's world, and innovation policy and national systems of innovation are central to it. In this article, we draw on different sociological and economic theories of risk to engage critically with innovation policy and national systems of innovation. Beck's understanding of a risk society, Schumpeter's…

In Dutch primary schools, Islamic religious education is presented in three ways. First, in public schools, parents may ask the municipality to create a facility for religious education (to be given by a local imam, for example) on school premises. Municipalities may also subsidize the teacher's salary. Islamic religious education (up to three…

On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) into law. Surrounded by smiling members of the Democratic and Republican leadership, the President declared, "as of this hour, America's schools will be on a new path of reform, and a new path of results". NCLB brought sweeping changes to the…

The number of students who change schools in the course of a year or a few years is astounding. And mobility rates keep climbing. Chicago Public Schools, which have long struggled with high mobility, report that 23% of students who entered first grade in 1999 had changed schools by the end of the year. Four years after entering first grade, more…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the most current revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 notwithstanding, the more than 100 page long Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the most comprehensive, expensive, and litigated federal statute impacting on public education in the United States. Enacted…

Change is a feature of life in all communities and results in heightened demands being made of individuals and organizations alike. In the school setting administrators and classroom teachers have to respond to a great variety of demands that change has brought. Accountability, in various guises, is one area where changes in societal attitudes…

This article discusses how the media and schools are used as disciplinary apparatuses to resist and work against globalisation in Singapore. Aihwa Ong calls the deployment of state ideological apparatuses, such as the media and schools, acts of "reassemblage", when technocrats resort to assemble institutions, diverse Government practice…

The introduction of citizenship education to schools in England (and Wales) in 2002 has generated interest and concern among religious educationalists, some of whom welcome the opportunities this new educational territory opens up for religious education and some of whom suspect it augurs religious education's demise. This article reports findings…

Historically public schools and public school teachers have been obvious targets for attacks by conservative critics. However, during the post World War II red scare, the rapid emergence of anti-communist sentiment and super-patriotic zeal dramatically increased their vulnerability. In many respects the arch conservatism of the 1950s has obvious…