The New York Performance Standards Consortium includes urban public high schools that have successfully used a performance-based assessment option. Instead of exit exams, student assessments are based on specific performance-based assessment tasks. These schools have shown that it is possible to use qualitative data to make substantive decisions…

The article concerns itself with the struggles that are prompted by the question, "What is my position as a teacher who whilst wanting to pursue emancipatory practices nevertheless is fearful of finding herself supporting and perpetuating normalizing structures?" An extract drawn from a journal entry serves as a base on which a series of…

After the reestablishment of independence in 1991, Latvia implemented large-scale educational reforms that enabled the transformation of the educational system from Soviet ideology to a democratic society. The critical thinking approach has been purposefully put into practice in the educational system of Latvia since 1998, as it was regarded as an…

In this essay, the author first addresses the theme of disciplined somatic training and its relationship to self-awareness and transformation. Her attention is focused specifically on the chapter on Ludwig Wittgenstein, in which Richard Shusterman presents and then elaborates upon the philosopher's connections between conscious bodily feelings and…

This paper critiques learning-support policy for mathematics in Irish primary schools. The key policy question addressed is how equitable the development of the learning-support service has been in addressing low achievement in mathematics in designated schools compared to non-designated schools. The core argument developed is that there is a link…

While collaborative action research is an empowering approach to developing academic practice, it also presents a number of challenges regarding the purpose, nature and consequences of academic development. This research note raises questions and issues concerning how action research exposes new academics to the conflicts and tensions of the…

This paper discusses the way career guidance is conceived across Europe as a policy instrument that can facilitate social inclusion. It locates current articulations of career guidance within the broader social-market aspirations of the European Union, providing an account of several reviews and analyses of the field that have been carried out at…

This paper analyses the relationship between education, meritocracy and redistribution. It first questions the meritocratic ideal highlighting how it relates to normative expectations that do not hold fully neither in their logic nor in practice. It then complements the literature on persistent inequalities by focusing on the opportunities for…

During the past 10 to 15 years there has been a renewed interest in the place of religion, religious education and religious schools in different parts of the world. This began in the USA and Europe with the development of private Christian schools. It was later followed by the resurgence of religious schools in the former parts of the Soviet…

This article attempts to illustrate the significance of the geographical dimension of certain connections between Christianity and education in Europe. It does so by initially introducing the nature of the three components of the triangle with special reference to theory. Taking the fundamental geographical issue of scale, the discussion proceeds…

This article summarises the policies relating to families, children and education which were presented to the electorate by the three main parties in their manifestos, together with the policies listed in the Coalition's "Programme for Government". The author concludes with a few observations on the future of state education in England.

This article reviews the development of Private Finance Initiative schemes in the United Kingdom, and reflects on how profitable opportunities for private financiers and construction companies were created at the expense of the public sector. (Contains 72 notes.)

In 2008, the UK Labour government unveiled plans to abolish the Learning and Skills Council and transfer funding for the education and training of 16-19-year-olds in England to local authorities (LAs). The transfer of 16-19 funding complements the responsibilities that LAs have already acquired in relation to the raising of the education and…

Three different "logics"--that of the internal strategies of the institutions, the economic pressures of the socialist market economy and the political policies of the state drive the development of a university. The dynamic interaction and coexistence of the three logics has determined the transformation models of teacher-education or…

This article talks about a meeting on "Higher Education in Recessionary Times" on March 24, 2010, which was hosted by the Society for Higher Education Research Policy Network. Although the meeting did take place in the context of an expected General Election, and on budget day, there was a general sense on the day that whoever won the…