This article problematises Bush & Saltarelli's call for a new and comprehensive peace building education which empowers children through demonstrating that alternatives to conflict exist, that they have choices and the capacity to change their own and their society's situation. It does so by exploring the various possibilities for empowerment…

Many social movement researchers question the usefulness of political opportunity as a concept. However, others argue that it can be refined by disaggregating different opportunities for actors and outcomes to understand the underlying mechanisms that influence each. This research extends this analysis by asking "political opportunity for…

This article reviews the research literature on political impacts linked to adult literacy. Despite the enormous importance of literacy, few studies exist on their interconnection. The majority of quantitative studies indicate higher levels of political participation by former adult literacy program participants compared to their non-participant…

This article examines the ideological import of (a) a selection of internationally distributed ELT textbooks to find out whether a recurrent ideological pattern could be observed and (b) the ELT books used in Iranian high schools to see if the ideological import of these books was different from that of the internationally distributed ELT…

This study examines the impact of a country's security unrest on student retention. It draws on the key factors that influence retention worldwide, adopts Bourdieu's notion of cultural capital and also brings in concepts related to terrorism and security unrest traditionally absent from theories on student retention. Based on a case study carried…

This article explores the concept of academic freedom and whether it is under threat in US and UK higher education. How is "academic freedom" protected by the law in each country? What are the threats to "academic freedom"--from government micro-management of universities, from commercial sponsors of university research, from…

Since 1992, the assessment of the quality of the teaching and learning process in the United Kingdom has generated considerable political controversy. This article traces the evolution of the quality regime to the present day, which appears to signify that the contemporary arrangements are underwritten by a measure of political consensus and an…

In its late colonial history and early years as an independent nation, Australia practised a policy of ruthless exclusion of immigrants on the basis of race by means of a language test: the notorious Dictation Test. In the 50 years following World War II, Australia adopted policies encouraging immigration with bipartisan political support.…

This article studies major structural changes in both the urban context and the internal objectives of universities in Europe. While they enjoy expanded student demand and an elevated role in their city-region economy as significant creators and repositories of knowledge, they simultaneously confront a funding gap in accommodating these higher…

This article describes and analyzes efforts to use collaborative asynchronous discussion forums in a three semester online education program for NGO leaders and managers in Slovakia. Slovakia, as a country with autocratic styles of teacher-centered education, presents strong barriers to the implementation of collaborative learning activities. The…

This paper presents the teaching and learning experiences of a Chinese literacy teacher in narrative form. The participant's story is presented in his own voice, as constructed from interview transcripts. Challenges and struggles faced by the participant include limited professional autonomy in a hierarchal school system, awareness of conflict…

Little research has examined public diplomacy as a comparative education issue, particularly regarding social-psychological, economic and political fears or personal and national insecurities. This paper discusses American public diplomacy as a mostly Cold War strategy adapted to post-9/11 national security interests, fears and desires. It further…

Despite unquestionably good intentions on the part of most people who call themselves intercultural educators, most intercultural education practice supports, rather than challenges, dominant hegemony, prevailing social hierarchies, and inequitable distributions of power and privilege. In this essay I describe a philosophy of decolonizing…

This paper explores the cultural and economic strategies of educated but un/under-employed young Muslim men aged between 20 and 34 in a village in western Uttar Pradesh, north India. Drawing on Connell's gender theory, the paper demonstrates how economic and political forces shape Muslim young men's strategies. The paper distinguishes between…

The research investigated the factors which underlie the perceptions and usage of alternative assessment procedures among EFL teachers in Israel. The research was conducted within the framework of an earlier model by Hargreaves and colleagues comprising four perspectives--technological, cultural, political and postmodern--to account for teachers'…