Planned educational change occurs regularly throughout the world. With the enormous political change the 1994 elections brought to South Africa, a complete change in education policies was called for. The new Curriculum 2005 (C2005; Department of Education, RSA, [1997]) embraced new teaching and learning approaches such as outcomes-based education…

To get some notion of how deeply scholars have been affected by Hurricane Katrina, one might look to someone like Dr. Erma Lawson, a medical sociologist from the University of North Texas. Lawson, who has coordinated the assistance efforts for the Association of Black Sociologists, has not hesitated to call on colleagues, graduate students, civil…

When Peter Meyer moved to Hudson, New York and placed his child in the local school system, he was shocked at the abysmal quality of education there. He was even more surprised to learn that there was very little movement for reform. He joined the school board with the hopes of enacting new policies, but found instead that it was an ineffecient…

In April 2003 the Colorado legislature created a school voucher program that has the potential to become one of the largest in the nation. Initially limiting the number of children eligible for vouchers to only 1% of the student population in each of the 11 low-performing school districts targeted by the legislation, or about 3,400 students…

Dual superintendency is a popular tack in rural America for the preservation of proud communities. The job is not for someone who wants to coast. There are two budgets to develop and monitor, two school boards, two sets of priorities. Keeping everyone in two school districts satisfied is more than a full-time occupation. Other school communities…

This chapter traces the legal, legislative, and political history of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Focusing attention on the various related educational reform movements, it discusses the federal role in education policy in the context of its influence on ESEA and the legislation's related amendments. Also, the authors examine…

Recent reform initiatives, especially the No Child Left Behind Act, tend to rely on a variety of highly debatable assumptions that fail to reflect the diversity of today's classrooms and also place pressure on educators in a manner we characterize as accountability by assumption. Such reform initiatives have become so political, complex, and…

Reflecting on the current debate on how to teach about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, this article examines Thomas B. Fordham Institute's Terrorists, Despots, and Democracy: What Our Children Need to Know, one of the several publications produced by the Fordham Institute that…

This article considers the current political climate within further education, and considers the reality and risk arising from policy rhetoric. Discussion considers economic morals, qualifying for citizenship and the purpose of education linked to a learning society. Questions are raised in relation to what is learning and achievement within…

In response to Cochran-Smith and Lytle's (1998) call for Other ways of researching and thinking about educational research and the recent call by the US Secretary of Education to reform "teacher-training" programs (Schoicet 2002), this article presents a research study focusing on a reform effort in teacher education. The study moved…

Back in November, voters in the North East of England overwhelmingly rejected the move towards an elected regional assembly. The scale of the defeat (three to one) of a Government-backed scheme was a rude awakening for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the range of regional agencies created since 1997. After all, it was felt that the…

Although doctoral education in the United States is highly regarded and commands international respect, it is now under close scrutiny from a number of perspectives. Those who aspire to the doctorate (the students) and those who prepare doctorates (the faculty) have often offered their opinion on the quality of their experience and suggested…

This paper investigates the role of the lifelong learning discourse in actual governmentality. Starting with a description of the origins of lifelong learning in the discussions about alternative education in the 1960s and 1970s, the current adoption of lifelong learning by the European Union is used to show its critical components. Along with the…

The one aspect of education that impacts all levels and persons involved is that of governance. Governance is defined as the setting of policies. More specifically, it occurs when one is involved in the establishing or changing of operating policies, i.e., rules by which institutions make decisions. Internally, governance includes local boards of…

This article examines the legal instruments and educational politics affecting deaf persons' educational rights in Spain. We present a historical view of deaf education in Spain before and after the Congress of Milan (1880) and then introduce educational legislation and practices in recent decades. At present, Spanish legislation is moving toward…