In order to shed light on the possibilities for using sport as a vehicle for the realization of social goods--understood as sport having a wider social role--this paper scrutinizes Norwegian sport clubs. The study is guided by the concept of convention, which refers to individuals' cognitive structures, and to social structure. Three sport clubs…

The author reports on the issue of bullying that rose on state legislative agendas this year, with 21 states passing anti-bullying laws--some of which expanded schools' responsibilities to keep a check on any harassment that goes on among students. States set out to write clear definitions of bullying and to regulate school policies and…

Recent debates within UK rural studies have stressed the shifting interplay of economic, social, political and cultural forces, with a concomitant blurring as to what constitutes rural living, rural spaces and even rural occupations. This article situates the rural school within this social, cultural and political landscape and attends to the…

The case for conversion to academy status is being made in a number of arenas, not least on the Department for Education website. As a matter of balance, school governors considering conversion need to take into account a range of factors. How does this fundamental shift in the ownership of schools fit into a discernible historical pattern?…

At least one-third of the 72 million children currently missing out on primary education are estimated to be disabled. With just five years remaining to achieve the Millennium Development and Education for All (EFA) goals, global efforts to ensure all children complete a full cycle of primary education by 2015 will fail if bilateral and…

This article analyzes Vinicius de Moraes's "Patria minha" (1948) within the historical context of his first diplomatic post abroad. "Patria minha" was written while Moraes was stationed in Los Angeles as a Consul de Segunda Classe (Ministerio, "Moraes" 385). Moraes's poetic interpretations of Brazil often originated…

This case, set in the high plateau of the Texas Panhandle, covers the years 1998-2004. The focus is on voting rights. The Amarillo board members, like board members in most Texas districts, were elected at large. Faced with a voting rights lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the League of United Latin American…

In North American universities, pop culture increasingly appears in the German Studies classroom to "spice up" the curriculum. But what is conveyed and taught and how is it inserted into the curriculum and into the US cultural context? This article explores three examples of popular culture in the German Studies classroom:…

This paper provides an account and a critique of the rise of the contemporary policy as numbers phenomenon and considers its effects on policy and for educational research. Policy as numbers is located within the literatures on numbers in politics and the statistics/state relationship and, while recognising the longevity of the latter…

Policy debate about whether to maintain public subsidies for higher education has stimulated reconsideration of the public mission of higher education institutions, especially those that provide student places conferring private benefits. If the work of higher education institutions is defined simply as the aggregation of private interests, this…

As charter schools multiply, public school teachers and administrators need to understand the policy landscape in which charters are skimming money from their traditional local public schools, making scarce resources even scarcer. In this essay, the author discusses a related phenomenon that is part of some school reform plans--the reconstitution…

The objective of this article is to critically examine a school reform effort that has taken hold in New York City over the past seven years. A largely privately funded venture, the New Century Schools Initiative (NCSI), opened hundreds of new small high schools in poor urban communities in New York City starting in 2002. The theory behind opening…

This essay looks at the representation of disability in the recent Spanish film "Yo, tambien" through the lens of disability studies, understood as a political project. The film's portrayal of a character who is, like the actor who plays him, Europe's first university graduate with Down syndrome, is unique. Moreover, "Yo,…

This paper compares four short- and medium-term strategies available to public higher education to balance budgets in the face of major cutbacks in public funding. These strategies include: capping enrolments, changing the enrolment mix, raising prices and increasing enrolments without raising prices. The paper assesses the likely effects of these…

This paper grabs hold of the "assessment tiger" by considering the history of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) "Arts Report Cards" for the visual arts, which were constructed and have been administered four times within thirty-five years. Two purposes of the NAEP have persisted since its founding: (1)…