The PISA project has steadily increased its influence on the educational discourse and educational policies in the now 70 participating countries. The educational debate has become global, and the race to improve PISA-rankings has become high priority in many countries. For governments the PISA-test is a high-stake test. Governments are blamed for…

In March, the author invited the three leading presidential contenders--Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barack Obama--to submit essays about their educational platforms. Obama submitted an essay while McCain did not. Due to seemingly lack of response from the candidates, the author concluded that no one is sure what to do at the national level,…

Adult education has often been on the margin of university offerings in Australia and elsewhere, sometimes regarded as "non-core" business or at least as a financial drain on the institution. At the University of Sydney, however, adult education has managed to survive in one form or other for over 140 years, currently through the Centre…

Two days prior to the federal election on June 28, 2004, the "Lethbridge Herald" ran an article in which the renowned Cree leader and former Member of Parliament Elijah Harper (Churchill electoral district in Manitoba, 1993-97) publicly implored First Nations people in Canada to participate in the forthcoming vote. Citing the recent…

If policy is the most significant gatekeeping element for access to and development of community goods and services, and if music educators have historically lived at the margins of policy, then who procures access for the field? How are visions for musical and educational development articulated and what are the resulting implications? This…

The author contends that too much political advertising is a form of public relations "spin" in which the truth is sacrificed and the political process damaged as a result. The goal of much of this advertising too frequently focuses on transmitting "disinformation" that, while perhaps not technically a lie, is intended not to inform the public but…

The Improbable Theatre Company (ITC) was created by and for theatre artists with disabilities. Based on interviews of members from the company, we discuss tensions between the disability movement and arts professionals, the correlation between arts and politics within the disabled community, autonomy, advocacy, and control. We examine the…

Although, in recent years there have been several advances in critical applied linguistics which have attempted to problematize the ideological underpinnings of language practices, there have in parallel been resistances mounted on the part of traditional applied linguistics that adamantly oppose any form of coming to terms with the political and…

As more countries align their curricular frameworks with play-based and experiential pedagogies, this paper provides a critical insight into the benefits and challenges that arise in practice when a play-based approach to learning and teaching becomes a political directive in Northern Ireland primary schools. Drawing on socio-constructivist and…

This is a look at the political games within games that are enmeshed in a high-profile, heavily funded, politically charged collaborative focused on preparing new school leaders between a large prestigious university and a circle of school leaders and policymakers. This case specifically considers how power and money corrupt the original vision…

This study explores factors which have a negative impact, on the role of the School Management Team (SMT) that serves as the fulcrum of the curriculum management process. The SMT is compelled to execute its responsibilities in an efficient and effective manner thus keeping a delicate balance between the often-conflicting pressures from parents,…

Morpho-syntactic features of Modern Standard Arabic mix intricately with those of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic in ordinary speech. I study the lexical, phonological and syntactic features of verb phrase morphemes and constituents in different tenses, aspects, moods. A corpus of over 3000 phrases was collected from religious, political/economic and…

In recent years, debates over school reform have increasingly focused on the role of teacher unions in the changing landscape of American K-12 education. On one hand, critics argue that these unions, using their powerful grip on education politics and policy to great effect, bear primary responsibility for blocking states' efforts to put into…

The authors' goals in this study are to use both the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and state accountability test score data to (1) provide a detailed description of the magnitude and trends of state-level academic achievement gaps among cohorts of students entering school in the 1990s and 2000s; (2) investigate the extent to…

"Occupy Education" is motivated by the sustainability crisis and energized by the drive for social justice that inspired the Occupy movement. Situated within the struggle for sustainability taking place amid looming resource shortages, climate change, economic instability, and ecological breakdown, the book is a timely contribution to community…