The importance of information in economic and political processes is widely recognised by modern theories. This information, coupled with the advancements in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has changed the way in which markets and societies work. The availability of the Internet and other advanced forms of media have made…

President Bush's proposals on such topics as toughening accreditation standards and limiting the use of human embryonic stem cells in research may not have made him popular in academe over his two terms. This article reports that the president's willingness to spend federal money on many of colleges' top priorities might improve the perception of…

The author explores the ethical and pedagogical dimensions of teaching politically charged subjects or in politically charged contexts. The author notes the ways in which faculty have failed to engage well in difficult dialogues, often attaching attacks on scholarly and teaching competence to what are really accounts of political difference. The…

In this article, inclusive education is analysed from the perspective of the interlinked, dynamic relationship between international neo-liberal movements and national policies and practices. The aim is to explore the significance of "competence" in recent Norwegian reforms and the changing position attributed to inclusion. The analysis…

Stemming from my article entitled, "Teachers and the Policy Reform Agenda: What is Policy?," this article refers to the changing landscape of educational policy analysis. Policy influences the nature of teaching and learning and if teachers are to re-centre teachers' voices and combat the neo-liberal agenda underpinning public education, they must…

This paper presents the Committee on Education and the Workforce's hearing examining the adverse impact extensive federal regulations and reporting requirements have on teachers, administrators and students in elementary and secondary schools. Too many schools and school districts are overwhelmed by unnecessary paperwork requirements. Currently,…

"Rethinking Popular Culture and Media" is a provocative collection of articles that begins with the idea that the "popular" in classrooms and in the everyday lives of teachers and students is fundamentally political. This anthology includes outstanding articles by elementary and secondary public school teachers, scholars, and activists who…

Whether referred to as "pay-for-performance" (PFP) or "merit pay," attempting to tie educators' compensation to their performance in the classroom and students' performance on high-stakes tests has been a key component of many educator compensation reform efforts in the last five years. This issue looks at PFP systems broadly…

Recently, two separate studies--one by Alan Ginsburg, a former director of Policy and Program Studies in the U.S. Department of Education, the other by a committee constituted by the National Research Council (NRC)--have sought to discredit the work of Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of schools for the District of Columbia. According to Ginsburg,…

Discussions on history teaching in Turkey indicate that the previous versions of the history curriculum and the pedagogy of history in the country bear many problems and deficiencies. The problems of Turkish history curriculum mainly arise from the perspectives it takes and the selection of its content. Since 2003, there have been extensive…

The purpose of this article is to identify some key areas of the Australian curriculum that remain sites of struggle and contestation. We propose that there remain a number of contentious points in relation to the national curriculum. These points relate variously to the content and form of the curricular documents; assumptions about knowledge,…

The author's career in professional education is intertwined with the history of language arts education in the United States and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The author joined NCTE in the 1960s, though she was already teaching for about 10 years with a well-developed constructivist perspective on teaching and learning.…

The article focuses on the similarities and differences in using new public management (NPM) administrative arrangements in educational policy as they have been presented in the educational reform process carried out this millennium by two governments in Norway: the Centre-Conservative government and the current Red-Green coalition government.…

This paper will examine how Japanese education policy was articulated discursively from 1996 to 2010 in the semi-annual speeches of prime ministers to the Diet. It will identify three distinct discourses within these policy statements: a progressive discourse emphasizing the rights of individuals; a neo-liberal discourse of social independence and…

A central aspiration of the "Britishness" agenda in UK politics is to promote community through the teaching of British values in schools. The agenda's justification depends in part on the suppositions that harmony arising from agreement on certain values is a necessary condition of social health and that conflict arising from pluralism…