In her teaching, research, and community activities in Canada, the author has repeatedly confronted questions regarding equality, diversity, and power. In this article, the author discusses diversity and equal opportunity to achieve excellence in education. Reflecting on these issues should help everyone to understand the complexities involved in…

With the passage of the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act the British system of higher education formally moved from a binary to a unitary structure. However, ever since successive governments have argued for a diversified model of higher education within which institutions should pursue contrasting goals. This article offers an interpretation…

In this article, the author talks about the report "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future," which provides a blueprint of what higher education ought "not" to do. The document was produced by the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), an organization with a long history not only of demanding the advancement of…

In the early 1970s the first large cohorts of Chicano PhD scholars entered academia, often hired into faculty positions at newly created Chicano departments or centers. The academic identities of the first Chicano PhD scholars were firmly grounded in "Chicanismo," a term which emphasizes ethnic nationalism, political and economic equity, and…

This article brackets assumptions embedded in the framing of this special issue on "problematizing methodological simplicity in qualitative research" in a effort to understand why policymakers put pressure on all types of researchers, including those who use qualitative methods, to provide relatively simple, even somewhat mechanistic portrayals of…

The traditional way of introducing comparative politics to freshmen, which is through the study of institutions, is contrasted with an alternative approach. An everyday-politics approach compares the daily struggles of global youth--how they cope in times of peace and war, and with issues of wealth and poverty, identity, education and employment,…

The alarming stories from adjunct faculty, who now comprise a majority of higher-education teachers nationally, share troubling commonalities. The frustrations are financial, personal, and professional. In decades past, most adjunct faculty worked full-time outside of academe and taught an occasional course based on a particular expertise or…

Eight years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq and a few months after the withdrawal of the military forces from the country, Iraq's universities, devastated by years of dictatorship, sanctions, and war, are still struggling to recover. The security situation has improved since the deadly, dark days of 2006 and 2007, when the country teetered on the…

Starting in the 1970s, Brazil developed a very complex system of quantitative assessments of education at all levels, making extensive use of statistical information and tests, in an effort to improve and maintain the quality of its education. However, with some exceptions, particularly at the graduate level, Brazilian education standards remain…

Local rural communities and individuals are increasingly disarmed by the socially transforming processes of post modern times including the globalisation of rural production systems and trade. There is a new climate "in the bush" that is imbued with a deep suspicion that globalisation processes will continue to threaten the…

This article focuses on the intersections among language, literacy, and culture, and what these intersections have meant for the author personally, and what they can mean for students who have been marginalized, neglected, or made invisible by traditional understandings of the role of education. Although not linked conceptually in the past, the…

Service learning is an academic discipline that provides students with "hands-on" opportunities for developing skills in real-world, community-based projects that serve and benefit community members. This dissertation reflects an action-oriented process for improving the quality of the Service Learning Program at City University of…

The "Assisted Places Scheme" was introduced in 1980 by the Conservative Government to provide a "ladder of opportunity" for academically able students from poor homes. Over the next 17 years, more than 75,000 pupils received means-tested assistance from public funds to attend the most selective and prestigious private schools…

The aim of this article is to expand the dialogue about how contemporary scholarship on the intersections between youth, literacy, and popular culture might inform literacy teacher education. Specifically, this article is designed to (a) orient literacy teacher educators who may be somewhat unfamiliar with this particular line of scholarship to a…

Recent Finnish policies have encouraged Finnish higher education institutions to develop a market-oriented approach to international higher education by implementing fee-based educational programmes for students from outside the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). From the Finnish government's perspective, higher education is…