Is it possible for principals/heads to be effective educational leaders? In this study, we compared the work of principals/heads in two policy contexts. In Policy Context 1, standards for student performance were common and well-established, and authority was devolved to the school level for reshaping the school to meet those standards. In…

In many European countries, external as well as internal social, economic and political changes have brought about a marked need for professional training of managerial staff in education. This article is one in a series that springs out of a British Council sponsored conference held in the Czech Republic in 2003, organized jointly by the…

This article focuses on the impact of several competing discourses on higher education (HE) policy formulation in South Africa in the post apartheid period. It argues that there has never been a strong consensus in the HE community regarding the content of a new policy framework. In particular, the analysis focuses on the limits imposed by the…

Prior to 1994, the education system of South Africa was characterized by a hierarchical and bureaucratic style of management as well as a situation where white schools were the key beneficiaries of resources and black schools massively disadvantaged. In 1996 a national task team made strategic proposals for education management capacity, including…

Evaluating schools has become a contentious issue in many countries. There seems to be a broad and growing consensus that some form of evaluation can on the one hand play a significant role in school improvement efforts, and on the other is also required to provide a reasonable level of public accountability appropriate in democratic societies.…

Education Action Zones (EAZs) have formed one of the key elements of government policy in trying to drive up standards and disseminate best practice. However, the initiative has been subject to a sustained critique and questions have remained as to the efficacy of such networks of schools. This article offers a brief report on an evaluative study…

In 1867, Canada was established as a federal state in which each province "may exclusively make Laws in relation to Education" while the federal government may "make Laws for the Peace, Order, and good Government of Canada, in relation to all matters....[including] Indians and lands reserved for Indians." Thus two separate…

This paper explores the landscape of training and development in the Republic of Ireland, a country with an impressive economic record in recent years. Both the Irish economic context and business context are explored. The national system for training and development and the surrounding policy and strategy context are set down. Survey data are…

This paper explores how neo-liberal education policy change and urban renewal in inner Sydney and London has interacted with "raced" and classed educational identities. I draw on two examples of policy change, the "Building the Future" policy development in the inner city area of Sydney and the "Excellence in Cities"…

This article outlines BPRS funded investigations into my own school's and other establishments' practices and processes within data analysis, needs identification and tracking of children's academic progress. It describes the evaluation of my school's then current practices and policies and the use of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews…

In policy research a frequent aim is to estimate treatment effects separately by subgroups. This endeavor becomes a methodological challenge when the subgroups are defined by post-treatment, rather than pre-treatment, variables because if analyses are performed in the same way as with pre-treatment variables, causal interpretations are no longer…

The world is increasingly characterised by profound income, health and social inequalities (Appadurai, 2000). In recent decades development initiatives aimed at reducing these inequalities have been situated in a context of increasing globalisation with a dominant neo-liberal economic orthodoxy. This paper argues that neo-liberal globalisation…

Policy initiatives in inter-group education evolved in Northern Ireland and Israel at around the same time. In each jurisdiction, the emphasis is on improving relations between protagonist groups in ethnically divided societies. Central to this objective and at the core of integrated education (Northern Ireland) and bilingual/bi-national education…

This paper reports the findings of a case study aimed at investigating the forces influencing curriculum policy in one Catholic school in Western Australia (WA). The student-outcomes' focused Curriculum Framework was released in 1998 and is mandated to be implemented in all WA schools by 2004. This has made non-government schools answerable to the…

Is academic freedom an issue in British universities? It should be because there is no legal protection guaranteeing academic freedom. Individuals have some direct statutory references but nothing of substance that actually provides a definitive statement. There are a variety of statutory provisions dealing with what may appear to be aspects of…