As one of the most important sites in and through which state agendas are articulated and disseminated, schools and teachers play critical roles in the implementation of state-driven policies and initiatives targeted at children and young people. This is especially pertinent in the current educational landscape where schools and teachers are…

Tasmania Tomorrow was highly politicised, and Tasmanian post-secondary education policy became a central issue in the 2010 state elections. The purpose of this paper was to analyse the dynamics of Tasmanian post-secondary education policy, and determine what education policy analysts can learn from this episode in Tasmanian education history.…

Educational analysts need new ways to engage with policy processes in a networked world of complex transnational connections. In this discussion, Tara Fenwick and Richard Edwards argue for a greater focus on materiality in educational policy as a way to trace the heterogeneous interactions and precarious linkages that enact policy as complex…

In this paper, we focus on some of the ways in which schools are both productive of and constituted by sets of "discursive practices, events and texts" that contribute to the process of policy enactment. As Colebatch (2002: 2) says, "policy involves the creation of order--that is, shared understandings about how the various participants will act…

In this article, the author explores the neoliberal impacts on higher education in Bangladesh, how market-driven policies might limit the education of arts, humanities and social sciences, and whether or not this phenomenon may have consequences for the future of democracy in the country. First, the author focuses on the privatisation of higher…

Parent involvement is acknowledged as a crucial aspect of the education of students with special needs. However, the discourse of parent involvement represents parent involvement in limited ways, thereby controlling how and the extent to which parents can be involved in the education of their children. In this article, critical discourse analysis…

While the landscape of postsecondary education in Alberta continues to expand and diversify, there seems to be very little written about the organization of postsecondary education in the province over the past 15 to 20 years (Wimmer & Schmaus, 2010). This paper provides an analysis of postsecondary education in Alberta over the past 15 to 20…

The right to food is widely accepted by nations, with the notable exception of the United States (US) and four other countries. The US government deals with domestic food insecurity through an array of needs-based food assistance programs instead of rights-based approaches; and administration officials have resisted the right to food for several…

Discussions of forest certification have tended to characterize certification systems as a prime example of the hollowing out of the state and a shift from government to governance. The continued contention that certification is a product of a retreating state has implications for how we understand democratic participation and fails to pay…

Regions as well as their identities and borders are social and discursive constructs that are produced and removed in contested, historically contingent and context-bound processes of institutionalization and deinstitutionalization. This article studies the deinstitutionalization of regions in the context of municipality amalgamations and the…

Early in 2011, the Government initiated a consultation on the potential sale of the Public Forest Estate in England. This proposal leads to vociferous negative public reaction and the consultation was withdrawn and an Independent Panel established. This paper reviews the arguments as to the options and appropriate institutional arrangements for…

Several states, including Arizona, have enacted English-only legislation, within the past decade, impacting the schooling of students who are identified as English language learner (ELLS). As a result, ELLS in Arizona are assigned to a prescriptive program--apart from their fluent English-speaking peers--for 4 h a day, during a time "not…

In this paper, I develop a critique of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)-based lifelong learning policy discourse with a particular focus on "key competencies" (KCs) and its equity implications for school curricular policies. First, I review the discussion of KCs in the writings by the OECD-affiliated…

Nationally, state funding to higher education has significantly decreased. Ironically, the trend of state divestment in higher education coincides with federal and state policies geared toward increasing degree completion rates. Through an analysis of qualitative data gathered at California higher education institutions, this paper highlights how…

The higher education sub-sector of the entire education system is very important and plays pivotal role in all walks of life. Quality in the universities cannot be orchestrated without charismatic and effective administration doubled with management decision-making techniques. The study was aimed at evaluating the management techniques used in…