This paper asks whether the integrated training provision currently offered through the different Spanish Second Chance Programmes (SCPs) constitutes a valid response to the educational needs and deficits known to exist among those young people who do not satisfactorily complete the Compulsory Secondary Education stage (ESO). The objectives of the…

Purpose: This paper aims to explain the distinction between educational standards and learning outcomes and to indicate the problems that potentially arise when a learning outcomes approach is applied to a qualification meta-framework like the European Qualification Framework, or indeed to national qualification frameworks.…

The Supreme Court first affirmed the importance of academic freedom in 1957. Yet in subsequent cases, First Amendment precedent has displaced the concept of academic freedom to resolve disputes among competing interests on public campuses, primarily in favor of institutions. This paper draws on the concepts of path dependence and policy space to…

This article describes and reflects on a novel course developed at China Agricultural University to introduce Community-Based Natural Resource Management at the postgraduate level. This course, part of a larger educational renewal initiative addressing the current reform of China's higher education system, was developed through a participatory…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine and compare the school excellence model (SEM) approach adopted by Singapore and the school-based management (SBM) approach adopted by Hong Kong. It discusses the implications of such a strategy and the challenges that both Singapore and Hong Kong schools face in navigating a new paradigm of managerialism while…

Direct provision of public services can alter the balance of resources across income groups. We focus on the issues arising when taking account of the impact of publicly provided education services across the income distribution. We combine OECD information on spending per student in particular levels of the education system with micro data from…

Skill/competency approaches to workplace-based policy seek to assess and train for discrete individual competencies with the goal of increasing employability and productivity. These approaches have become increasingly prominent across a range of advanced capitalist countries. A substantial critique has emerged over this same period regarding…

Across the OECD, countries, regions and higher education institutions (HEIs) are discovering each other. More and more partnerships are being established based on a growing appreciation of shared interests. This paper explores the drivers behind such engagement, from both HEI and regional development perspectives, the barriers to effective working…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the remnants of desegregation curricular reforms in a small urban district. This study documents the affects of various policies that were implemented to create equity and equality in urban, multi-racial and socio-economically diverse classrooms. These reforms were created due to a court desegregation order…

Access to initial teacher education (ITE) across the United Kingdom continues to be significantly determined by selective entry requirements, based on prior academic qualifications. While a number of alternative routes to teacher education exist, several barriers to participation in higher education, including teacher education, still exist.…

Asserts that ideology is a central concept in educational policy. Argues for a rehabilitation of ideology from a purely pejorative concept to a more nuanced theory of ideology as a product of discourse. Avoiding a reductive definition of ideology provides educators with a nuanced perspective that makes language central to a critical understanding…

Summarizes some of the facets of plural models of justice and considers three implications for policy: Plural models enlarge the agenda of evaluation; tensions within and between different facets of justice need to be acknowledged; and plural models entail collapse of the distinction between evaluation and action. Argues that the latter two…

Home economists have a legitimate role in shaping public policy. Much has been said about how to influence the policy development process; this extends to the realm of analyzing policy that has already been developed. (JOW)

In this article, the author discusses Deliberative Polling as the most credible and practical method of public consultation. As compared with self-selected forums or samples of convenience, it employs scientific random samples. As compared with the snapshots of an inattentive public often offered by conventional polls, it assesses informed public…

The impact of English on the Chinese mainland from multidimensional perspectives: historical, educational and political is critically discussed. Historically, English education has witnessed its inception, ups and downs, and the present boom. The recent expansion of English education is functionally and economically oriented at both individual and…