President Barack Obama recently issued a call for increased hands-on learning in U.S. schools in an address at the National Academy of Sciences. Obama concluded that the future of the United States depends on one's ability to encourage young people to "create, and build, and invent." In this article, the author discusses National Lab Day (NLD)…

Since its inception in Texas a baker's dozen years ago, educators look forward with every new legislative session to another round of discussion about the "top 10 percent rule," which guarantees admission to the state's public universities for these talented high school graduates. Originally passed as a way to increase enrollment of…

Colonization of public education--the process by which schools are overwhelmed and penetrated by non-educational imperatives--is usually believed to be caused by capitalism and the hegemonic ideological structures it produces. In this paper I argue that in the case of the United States an additional mechanism produces strong colonizing effects:…

Beginning in 1997, a series of Ohio Supreme Court decisions ruled that Ohio's school foundation-based funding system was unconstitutional. Despite judicially mandated reform directives, little change was made until recently when Ohio adopted a modified Evidence-Based Model (EBM) into its statutory funding scheme. Ohio's EBM is intended to remedy…

Contemporary educational evaluation policy and practice can be challenged by applying critical theory and hermeneutics perspectives in evaluation and by asking whose interests are being served through evaluation. Using educational evaluation in Sweden as the context, the author argues for an explanation-oriented evaluation approach that assumes…

Starting in 2000, the state began to set up interior-region Xinjiang senior middle school classes (the Xinjiang Class) in developed cities in China's interior ("neidi"). Cross-cultural adaptation is a very important issue for students from Xinjiang if they are to study and live in China's interior regions. Based on the perspective of…

Instrumental to the successful running of the Xinjiang Classes are its teachers, many of whom are Han Chinese. This article explores the important roles teachers of the Xinjiang Class play in the lives of Xinjiang Class students inside and outside of the classroom. From homesickness, to hygiene, to scholastic endeavors, Han teacher-mothers…

The UK's coalition government wants to build a "Big Society." The Prime Minister says "we are all in this together" and building it is the responsibility of every citizen as well as every government department. The broad vision is welcome, but everything depends on how the vision is translated into policy and practice. The…

Accountability is one of the most advocated and controversial topics in US education. Since the early 2000s, the federal government has produced a vibrant discourse on accountability, which emphasizes quality, efficiency, and equal opportunity in education. As part of the larger phenomenon of new managerialism, the dominant forms of accountability…

With reference to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, this article shows how the Chinese state continues to be a key actor in defining citizenship and citizenship education by promoting nationalism and nation-specific elements of citizenship education while linking its people to an increasingly interconnected world. In particular, this study examines…

In the elections of 2006 and 2008, progressive and liberal groups in the United States broke through key bulwarks of the Right to capture some of the highest hills on the political landscape. Although progressives and liberals now control key positions, the Right still holds wide swaths of terrain and still exercises considerable power in shaping…

This paper highlights critical shortcomings in the approach to apprenticeship in England and argues that the proposed Apprenticeship Framework is unlikely to fulfil its stated aims of enhancing quality and quantity. The key weaknesses identified are a clear definition of what constitutes an apprenticeship framework, an educational component,…

This analysis, based on focus groups and a national survey, assesses scientists' subscription to the Mertonian norms of science and associated counternorms. It also supports extension of these norms to governance (as opposed to administration), as a norm of decision-making, and quality (as opposed to quantity), as an evaluative norm. (Contains 1…

Following a report by a Parliamentary Committee, the Higher Education Funding Council for England is consulting the sector about a strengthened national quality assurance system, with an enhanced role for information about quality and a closer focus on academic standards. This article provides a critical review of the main proposals.

Background/Context: In 1958, Hannah Arendt wrote "The Crisis in Education," arguing that schools should not be used for political purposes and should instead introduce children to what she calls "the world." The world, for Arendt, comprises the artifacts, ideas, values, and interactions that connect people together. In that same year, she…