Prior studies have documented the pattern of decreased state funding for higher education in periods of economic contraction (i.e., the balance wheel phenomenon). This qualitative case study examines how policymakers in California and Texas made decisions about funding higher education at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when policymakers faced…

It is widely recognised that academic freedom and university autonomy in Turkey are currently under pressure. Many scholars have produced articles discussing the Turkish predicament, linking it to the recent authoritarian and populist turn of the country. This paper offers a different interpretation, arguing how academic freedom and institutional…

Hong Kong experienced a period of significant social unrest, marked by protests, from June 2019 to February 2020. Media coverage was pervasive. In July 2020, children aged from 5 to 6 years attending kindergartens in areas both directly and less directly impacted by the protests were asked to draw and talk about what had taken place during the…

The term "life-related," a significant characteristic of new political textbook(s) in China's new curriculum reform at senior high school level, means that the textbook(s) should be based on the learners' life experiences and designed to enhance learning in daily life. There has been little relevant research about student perspectives on…

This case study examined how research has been used in the federal higher education rulemaking process, through which the U.S. Department of Education implements programs under the Higher Education Act. Findings indicate that in this high-conflict policymaking process, politics infuses various forms of research use to create several overlapping…

This paper provides an overview of the Reading Wars as a site of discursive struggle. Using a digital sociological account of online events associated with the 2018 Phonics Debate hosted by the Australian Centre for Educational Research and the think tank the Centre for Independent Studies, this paper works to illuminate and challenge contemporary…

The organization and management of universities have changed radically in recent years and has been the subject of various studies. One line of research that receives little attention, however, is the study of the leadership of university presidents as relevant actors in the academic and administrative management of universities and in the…

Private supplementary tutoring (PST) is a phenomenon growing throughout the world. Looking at regions such as East Asia where it is already vast and comparing with regions where it remains modest but is rising, some authors have argued that countries must act quickly to discourage negative societal implications which arise when PST grows. One…

Against the backdrop of the May 68 Movement throughout France and the Great Cultural Revolution sweeping China, the avant-garde of "Tel Quel" pinned their hopes of fighting against academic institutionalization in France on ''China's university revolution." "Tel Quel" avant-garde once believed that China's "open-door…

Teaching students to think about white settlers' and racialized non-black people's complicity in settler colonial violence can still be an instance of settler-centric pedagogy underlined by the trope of the 'dying Indian'. Through reflecting on my teaching of a well-circulated article by a racialized scholar, I discuss how, despite my intentions,…

This article gives a historical-philosophical overview of three generations of pragmatist thinking centered around the question of democracy. It serves as an introduction and contextualization to the papers that develop a third generation pragmatic point of view in the remainder of the special issue. The perspective is from one American-trained…

This article outlines Labour ideals and values, and demonstrates the tensions between egalitarian and meritocratic imperatives for the reform agendas Labour governments pursued in office and the educational settlements reached. It challenges 'common sense' interpretations of elites and elite education and fixed 'ability' thinking, and promotes the…

In this paper, I argue that the critical capacity of the intersectional perspective is enhanced when it is articulated with the materialist perspective that involves a particular type of practice. This practice read social processes as part of a complex whole structure with tensions, ambiguities, and contradictions. It intervenes conceiving theory…

The paper examines the unending crises in higher education in Zimbabwe by situating the discussion in neoliberal theories and literature. Authoritarian classic neoliberalism, neopatrimonial neoliberalism, and kleptocratic neoliberalism are the three neoliberal strains utilized to interpret and discuss views from Southern African academics,…

Many school leaders responded to the controversies over critical race theory with denial. That approach can backfire, according to Emily Hodge, Francesca López, and Joshua Rosenberg. They suggest proactive messaging, which can help prevent leaders from falling into the trap of reactively defending their practices and letting the direction of the…