In the December 2008 special issue of the "Oxford Review of Education" John Furlong focused upon Tony Blair's modernisation of the teaching profession and associated attempts to harness teacher professionalism to a broader reform agenda. This article responds to Furlong's contribution through an examination of the evidence base used to…

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s teacher preparation for the schools sector in the United Kingdom was subject to a series of reforms and innovations including the establishment of new institutional arrangements to oversee the sector, namely the Teacher Training Agency (TTA--now the Training and Development Agency, TDA). Since 2002 the arrangements…

Northwest Missouri State University nearly became the first public university to deliver all of its textbooks electronically. Last year the institution's president, Dean L. Hubbard, bought a Kindle, Amazon's e-book reading device, and liked it so much that he wanted to give every incoming student one. The university already runs an unusual…

The increase in European divorce rates over the past decades was accompanied by several changes in divorce laws. Yet for European countries, research on the effects of divorce law on the divorce rate is scarce. Most of the existing studies are based on data from North America and provide numerous, but inconsistent, results. We use fixed-effects…

New Orleans is known as a unique city. It is the birthplace of jazz, delicious food, and a "gumbo" of warm friendly people. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore, leaving death and destruction in her wake. New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin recognized that rebuilding the city of New Orleans would be a daunting task; one that he…

President Obama's 2010 budget proposals include exciting news for those concerned with increasing educational opportunities. The urgency of the economic crisis and the clear commitment of the administration and Congress to make college more affordable provide the perfect opportunity for those in higher education to update their approach to…

The supra-national level has become increasingly important in educational policy formulation. This paper describes and compares two settings in which growth in these supra-national policies is evident--in Europe and in Africa. Key themes arising in policy documents in each context are examined. A distinction is drawn in analysis between themes…

Few studies have researched career guidance and information policies, particularly at the regional and local level. This article analyses Sweden's national governance of career guidance in schools from 1950 to 2007, and governance at the local level in today's highly decentralised Swedish educational system. The analysis is based on national…

The use of race-sensitive criteria in admissions continues to be controversial, and critics have leveled three basic charges against it. For one, opponents say the practice constitutes reverse discrimination, lowering the chance of admission for better-qualified white students. They also contend that it creates a mismatch between the skills of…

This article looks at the introduction of the diplomas as part of the 14-19 reforms in England. It questions whether they can survive the low initial take-up from students, the lack of interest from key parts of the schools sector, and the confusing messages about what sort of qualification they are meant to be. It also asks whether the diplomas…

Climate change, rising energy costs, and other dilemmas raise the prospect for major change in energy-ecology-society relations. Two prominent proposals for change include: a nuclear power renaissance; and mega-scale renewable energy development. Both suggest that modern society will receive a rising stream of less CO2-rich kilowatt-hours, so that…

During the past several years, much discussion has focused on developing America's future scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians (STEM) in order to remain viable and competitive in a growing global economy. In retrospect, America has had a long-standing involvement with STEM issues that dates back to the establishment of West…

In this article the researcher sets out to investigate the development of lifelong learning policy in Hong Kong. The policy analysis is focused specifically on the Hong Kong Government's policy for Hong Kong to be a Regional Education Hub. Qualitative data was gathered using questionnaire surveys of leading local and overseas lifelong learning…

This paper reports a study of the effectiveness of the mandatory mother-tongue education policy in post-colonial Hong Kong. Special attention has been placed on students' academic achievement before and after the policy implementation in 1998 in order to find out if students learn better through their mother tongue without sacrificing their…

Not surprisingly, the members of the Ad Hoc Committee on School Administration--a committee established by the North Carolina State Board of Education for the purpose of revising standards for principals in North Carolina--perceived that the 2006 North Carolina Standards for School Executives would have an impact on both university preparation…