An analysis of the proposed changes to Nebraska's school finance formula and school structure shows that many of Nebraska's rural schools could suffer from imposition of a "small by choice" factor. Research has consistently shown that smaller schools have some advantages over their larger counterparts. The 2005 session of the Nebraska…

The governments of nearly all countries are major providers of primary and secondary education to their citizens. In some countries, however, public schools coexist with private schools, while in others the government is the sole provider of education. In this study, we ask why different societies make different choices regarding the mix of…

This article combines a statistical analysis with qualitative research to investigate the dynamics of collective violence in one of its most recurrent forms--the food riot. Using an original dataset collected by the authors on 289 food riot episodes occurring in Argentina in December 2001, the article argues for the need to dissect the local,…

In this article, the authors trace the possible political potential of their post-modernist, feminist approach to life story research with people with the label of "learning difficulties." As a self-advocate with an ally, they define tagging along with each other as discovery science. The authors reflect on how they openly and critically write…

In this article, the authors discuss the technologies of normalization and self in relation to ethics and the problematization of extrinsic research ethics. They argue that institutional review boards (IRBs) and other similar institutional mechanisms promote extrinsic forms of ethics that are exemplified through institutionalized structures such…

This essay attempts to affectively politicize the visual art educator to the global condition of water in the larger context of designer capitalism. The ethical concerns of "designer water" are raised within the broader agenda of ecosophy as inspired by Giles Deleuze and by the last great essay by Felix Guattari. The essay takes an aesthetic line…

The return of devolved government to Northern Ireland promises, in the words of one leading unionist, "a battle a day". In this article, the author writes that education will be one of the main battlegrounds. The existing system is under strain, and three main forces are currently at work that will transform the landscape: (1) Reform of…

An analysis of English/language arts standards development in Wisconsin and Minnesota in the late 1990s and early 2000s shows a process of compromise between neoliberal and neoconservative factions involved in promoting and writing standards, with the voices of educators conspicuously absent. Interpretive and critical discourse analyses of…

On September 8, 2001, Semra Sexer--wife of Turkish Republic president Ahmet Sezer and a retired teacher--started the Support Campaign for National Education (2003, 2004, 2005). This campaign aimed at finding problems in national education and offering solutions. Assessment meetings about the campaign were held on May 5-6, 2003, in Istanbul;…

In August 2001, the author relates his first encounter with Sayed Rahmatullah Hashimi when he visited the "Wall Street Journal." Sayed Rahmatullah Hashimi was then the ambassador at large and the deputy foreign minister for the Taliban regime of Afghanistan. Ten years before, in 1993, Rahmatullah Hashimi's people tried to blow up the…

President Bush has one ace in his hand when it comes to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB): Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. Spellings, who has been working on education issues for Bush since the 1990s and his days as a Texas governor, is the person who from the very beginning has had to make NCLB work. She was a key architect of the…

This article reports on lessons about climate change which pose many challenges for science teachers. The natural world today offers a broad--and dire--catalog of scientific phenomena for teachers wanting to craft classroom lessons on the topic of climate change. As public concern about global warming increases, teachers are carving out a larger…

This study explores the use and presentation of information and research on education by the news media. Using content analysis, this study compares four types of think tanks--contract research, academic, advocacy, and mixed academic and advocacy--and shows how the news media represented each one as a source of research, facts, and figures on…

This article explores literacy education, especially the kinds practiced and promoted by organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as a form of neocolonialism. Although researchers in other educational contexts have examined how schooling and education operate as a form…

A critical race analysis could provide both Aboriginal students and their university student advisors with knowledge to understand and potentially challenge the effects and processes of racialization that have historically, legally, and politically divided Aboriginal communities and families. Coalition and alliances can be made within and across…